Saturday April 28, 2007 6:55 am Lethbridge Sunrise 6:15 Sunset 20:43 Hours of daylight: 14:28

A. Morning Musings

6:55 am It is +9 C with a high forecast of +20 C. But the wind is supposed to rise to 70 kmh by this afternoon.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: French Woman Abducted In Afghanistan Freed, Say Taliban

One of two French aid workers abducted earlier this month has been freed. I think that such kidnappings might decrease if the media did not make such a story out of them.

Canadian Headline: CFIA ON Border Lookout For Plastics Chemical That Could Enter Food Chain

Canada's food inspectors have issued border lookouts for vegetable proteins coming from China to prevent melamine — a chemical used to make plastics — from contaminating the human food chain, CBC News has learned. Inspectors will seize wheat gluten, soy proteins, corn glutens and rice proteins from China — ingredients already found to contain melamine and other contaminants in hundreds of pet-food products. Fair enough, but since there are no regulations requiring that the country of origin appear on the products, I am not sure how they will implement this.

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Labor Ends 25-year Opposition To New Uranium Mines

Kevin Rudd, the new Labor leader, has indicated that Australia should develop such mines to help other countries who may need the uranium as a source of power.

My weight is down 1 to 180 . Excellent!! I have achieved my original goal of getting back to 180. I will now quit providing daily updates on my progress.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 3:20 PM

B. Actual/Notes

7:50 am I am not sure about today's activities. The wind is forecast to pick up as the day progresses, so birding appears iffy. At the moment slowly drinking an early morning coffee seems like a good idea.

11:20 am We are back from a disappointing birding walk into the coulee. The wind really picked up while we were out and the last hour was relatively upleasant. We did see American White Pelicans at the weir on the Oldman river for the first time this year. We also saw the regulars (Canada Geese, Black-billed Magpies, European Starlings, American Robins, Northern Flickers) as well as a couple of Black-capped Chickadees and a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle).

3:20 PM Here are two more photos showing the beginning of the spring activity of the May tree in our backyard.

9:00 PM I have completed reading book 5 of "The Brothers Karamazov". The next step is to make some notes on these 7 chapters.

C. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman	1 hr
Literature	Read & make notes for book 5 of "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	1 hr
Birds	Update database to include 2007 Mexico trip	1 hr
Later
Technology	Convert LPs to MP3 format
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade
	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
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
Birds	Create notebook pages birding in Mexico
History	Begin reading "Maya"
	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
	Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer
Literature	New York Times easy crossword puzzles
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
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.

D. Reflection