Saturday February 10, 2007 7:20 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:51 Sunset 17:40 Hours of daylight: 9:49

A. Morning Musings

7:20 am It is - 19 C at the moment with a high of -9 C forecast. There is "fog depositing ice" at the moment.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: B.C. Child Dies of Influenza

The child was between 5 and 9 years old. No further details will be provided out of respect and confidentiality for the family. Most flu deaths are by the elderly so this is unusual. The health authorities say that in a typical year about 4,000 people die due to the flu, and in a bad year six to eight thousand may die, but this year the flu season has been late to arrive. Far more startling to me than the death of the child were the figures for a typical year. I had no idea they were that high!

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Seasprite Program Headed for the Scrap Heap

There has been a decade of problems with these helicopters. The article says that the taxpayer will face loses of more than $1 billion dollars. The amount of money that countries spend on military equipment is large, although a billion dollars does not seem like a lot to me when one puts it into a 10 year expense project. This is another example where I wish I had access to some additional figures that would give me a sense of proportion - what are a few other military expenses over the same period, and what are a few other expenses such as health, education, or highways?

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at

B. Plan

Immediate
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "The Tale of the Heike"	1 hr
History	Begin reading "Maya"	1 hr
Later
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	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
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	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
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
	Become proficient with cell phone
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

C. Actual/Note

D. Reflection