Thursday February 1, 2007 7:50 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:05 Sunset 17:25 Hours of daylight: 9:20

A. Morning Musings

7:50 am It is -14 C at the moment with a high of -14 C forecast.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Sextuplet Parents Take BC to Court Over Baby Seizures

Last month a Jehovah Witness BC couple gave birth to sextuplets. All of the babies were 15 weeks premature and weighed less than 2.2 pounds. Their religion forbids blood transfusions. Two died shortly after and three of the remaining babies have been taken into the temporary care of the government and given blood transfusions. The parents are now taking their case to the courts to prevent any further transfusions. This is a classic situation involving the rights of individuals and the obligations of the government to protect the lives of children. The lawyer for the parents says that the parents were not given adequate warning that the transfusions were about to occur. I think that there is enough precedent in situations such as this to find that the government acted within the law. I see both sides of the argument, but when it comes to making a choice I agree with the current law even though I usually find that I tend to agree with the rights of the individual. It can be argued, quite rightly, that this is a case of the rights of the newborns versus the rights of the parents.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Push for National School System

A high level report has found "bewildering" inconsistencies across the states and territories. The Howard government is recommending that a national system replace the state systems. This is a classic case of federal versus state rights and had parallels with the Canadian story, but on a different level. Both the approach for a national system and the current approach which is to work within the state systems and try to reduce areas of substantial discrepancy have merit. Once again, this is politics and an issue of power, rather than rational choice.

My weight is up 1 to 190. I am not surprised. Yesterday was too many calories intake. It is genuinely difficult when one has two meals outside - one in a pub. Life is good - one should still be able to enjoy it. Still, I am on track for my first week: down 2 pounds with 3 days to spare.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at noon

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Exercise	1 hr
Model Trains	Continue assembly of coaling tower	1 hr
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt	1 hr
Technology	Digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings	1 hr
	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2005	1 hr
Literature	Begin reading "The Big Why" by Michael Winter	1 hr
Later
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Begin reading "iPhoto"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Purchase DCC system
History	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10

C. Actual/Note

4:20 PM It is too cold for an hour-long walk (-10 C) so I gave the exercise routine a go. I am obviously going to have to approach this cautiously - not too much or too quickly. I still found some of the exercises too difficult to do properly, and I am spending some nice rest time between exercises reading the instructions and trying to get all four limbs coordinated. It will be very satisfying when I finally get to the level where I can do them all properly and smoothly.

7:10 PM Here are 3 photos taken this afternoon:

life on the screen

This doesn't seem like a recipe so much as a very fine meal. The recipe consists of a jar of Patak's Tikka Masala sauce combined with sauteed chicken breast pieces and a left over red and green pepper. Served over rice. Very easy to prepare, and delicious. Enhanced with a Wolf Blass Pinot Noir. Now to settle back and watch the hockey game.

D. Reflection