This really disturbed me

Questions Follow Acid Attack on British Women in Zanzibar

I know that it the United States can be just as dangerous as anywhere else (for one thing, there's all those guns), but when I read about crimes such as this in faraway lands, I shudder. When I was young I considered going into the Peace Corps, seeing the world while helping others. Various things kept me from taking that road. Today, I seriously doubt I would do it for a host of reasons (mainly my health), but also because to be a Western woman in many of these areas is to be a target. As a woman and as an American, I would not feel safe, especially in Muslim areas, no matter how respectably I dressed or how well I acted. I would be out of my comfort zone, afraid to make an innocent mistake. So yes, while there are beautiful places I would love to visit, there are many that I find simply too dangerous to risk. I'm not sure whether that's giving into fear or merely being prudent. And of course this was a rare event in Zanzibar. But I think if I ever do go out of country, I'll be very careful to research my destination and make myself as safe as possible in my choices. Unfortunately, that is no guarantee. Those girls did everything they were advised to, did nothing overt to indicate that they were Jewish, for example, and generally did the right things. Yet they suffered terribly for the crime of being Western women strolling through the streets. It's a shame.

Please use your seat belt--it could save your life

I came across a post that had embedded this advertisement where the writer was lamenting the death--in just a weekend--of nine people in his home state who died because they weren't wearing safety belts in car crashes. I found the video rather moving, and thought I'd share it here. It was cleverly done and the imagery is simple yet memorable. You can be embrace life on Facebook, too. Okay, time to get ready for work. Have a great day, and buckle up!



All material © 2010 Sarah Alexander/Daniel Cox/Sussex Safer Roads Partnership

Eldritch horrors aside, sometimes ordinary things in this world are just as frightening

Sometimes something happens to make you pause and think about how important the people around you are, how wonderful life is, and yet how dangerous the world can be. Someone I know came very close to being killed by thugs during an attempted robbery early this morning. He's mostly okay, but the thought of him hurt--or possibly killed--makes my blood run cold.

I think as a general rule most of us try to ignore the fact that there are bad people in the world who do horrible things. But when someone close to you--or you yourself--experience it first hand, then that changes everything. It isn't some theoretical scenario or some blurb on the evening news. It seems more real.

We can't hide from theoretical dangers, however, or give up living life out of fear. But we can take precautions. I often have taken the bus in that very neighbourhood late at night. That's not going to happen anymore. I'm also considering getting some pepper spray from Gall's. They have some for $35 that are small, fit on a keychain, top of the line, and refillable. I know it doesn't always work to deter those who would harm you, but it might save my life someday. That's worth a little money. Fortunately there's a store here in Lexington, so I don't even have to have it delivered by mail.

Give me fictional tentacled horrors; I can deal with them. But ordinary people who care nothing about their fellow men and exploit and hurt them due their own greed are harder to deal with. I do believe they deserve a special circle of Hell, or at least have their livers eaten away each day by an eagle.

Have any scholars died from ladders at the Bodleian in 400 years?

Just wondering.

After 400 years, health and safety bans stepladders from historic Oxford library… but nobody can reach the books

Stepladders have been banned from part of Oxford University's historic Bodleian library - because of health and safety fears.

The ruling by officials means that students cannot use items on the higher shelves of the Duke Humfrey reading room.

However, the university is standing its ground and refusing to move the books from their 'original historic location' on the room's balcony.

As a result of the stalemate, students have to travel to libraries as far away as London to view other copies.

What's the main thing they teach you in library school? The point of a library is to provide access to information. What's the point of having pretty historical books without anyone being able to read them? Even a collector or book hoarder savours each book he or she owns and reads them on occasion. But in this case they have become mere decoration, no better than when shallow people buy old books they never read to make their house look more intellectual, which is a shame. Sure, the ladders aren't necessarily the best of solutions, but they've worked well for this long, haven't they?

Thanks to Steven of Library Stuff for this gem.

Always good to know the Air Force is on top of things

Well, except that whole live-warheads-over-your-hometown thing. Well, and I still wonder about Project Blue Book.

Wannabe Bond Villains' Last Line Of Defense

But what happens to the maintenance crew? Do they get trapped inside? Really, though, in defence spending terms, $10 million to secure the 450 Minuteman III silos is well worth it in my opinion, having spent a couple of years living in the midst of missile silos (I think ours were Titan II's, in Kansas) and another 10 or so on Air Force bases (read, Ground Zero for nuclear conflicts [a child of the Nuclear Age and Cold War, I didn't so much worry about surviving a nuclear war until I moved to Kentucky]).

But check into the plug if you plan on having a secret underground base from which to achieve world domination.

I know my fear of flying is illogical

and stories such as this should alleviate it; but they don't.

Century after first fatality, safety is in the air: Beyond ‘experimental stage,’ flying is by far the safest way to travel

It contains some interesting history in the matter of Orville Wright's doomed 1908 flight that claimed the world's first aeroplane crash fatality, passenger Lt Thomas Selfridge, as well as some statistics on the comparative safety of flying.