Why You Never Truly Leave High School

This is a long but fascinating look at how we spend our adolescent years has an unusually strong effect on whom we become.

“If you’re interested in making sure kids learn a lot in school, yes, intervening in early childhood is the time to do it,” says Laurence Steinberg, a developmental psychologist at Temple University and perhaps the country’s foremost researcher on adolescence. “But if you’re interested in how people become who they are, so much is going on in the adolescent years.”

via Why You Never Truly Leave High School — New York Magazine.

How Doctors Die

Here’s something to think about when putting your end-of-life affairs in order.

It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

via Zócalo Public Square :: How Doctors Die.

Reggie Gemeille charged again with murder

Wedjunald “Reggie” Gemeille


Reggie Gemeille was charged again yesterday with first-degree murder, this time in Sunday’s death of Angel D. Irby, 29. From Raleigh Police’s Facebook page:

On Sunday, at approximately 10:15 a.m., Raleigh Police Department officers conducted a check-on-welfare at 201-20 Loft Lane. Upon arrival, the officers located a deceased female, Angel D. Irby, 29. Irby, who resided at the call address, was located inside the apartment.

A suspect, Wedjunald Gemeille (DOB 8/28/91), is in custody and has been charged with murder in connection with the death of Irby. Gemeille has been transported to the Wake County Jail.

The suspect and victim were known to one another, and the crime was not a random act.

The investigation is continuing.

Here’s Gemeille’s inmate record at Wake County jail.
 Curiously, I can’t find any record of him being tried in the 2010 death. It would be nice to know how he once again slipped through the cracks, this time in the hands of the criminal justice system.

Looks like Gemeille was arrested on Nov 24th, 2012 [PDF] for assault inflicting serious injury (m), assault on a female, disorderly conduct, and reckless driving – wanton disregard. The address of the altercation was also 201 Loft Ln. I wonder if Irby was the victim in that case, too.

Bike lanes or parking places?

The family and I had a very active day yesterday, taking advantage of the balmy (if cloudy) 75 degree weather. First I met my brother for a run around Shelley Lake. After that, the family and I did some biking along the Crabtree Creek Greenway. After a quick lunch, we took some of the kids’ friends with us to Buffalo Road Aquatic Center for a swim. I call it a triathlon, though Kelly insists that it’s not.

There is a sewer line replacement project taking place along the greenway and, as a result, we had to detour onto Anderson Drive to get around the construction. Upon reaching Anderson Drive, I was dismayed to see there were no sidewalks but a bike lane instead. That would’ve been fine but there were a number of cars parked along the street, sending my family and me out into traffic to get around them.
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Another doomsday threat dies out

Looks like the killer asteroid Aphohis won’t become a killer any time soon. New data shows it passing Earth in 2036 (2068 may be another matter).

Radar observations made during this week’s close encounter with the asteroid Apophis have ruled out the risk of a catastrophic cosmic collision in 2036, NASA says. Experts say it’ll be much farther away at that time than it is right now.

The crucial readings came on Wednesday when the space rock, which is thought to measure at least 885 feet (270 meters wide), approached within 9 million miles (14.5 million kilometers) of Earth. NASA is monitoring Apophis with its 230-foot (70-meter) Goldstone radio dish in California. Optical readings also have come in from the Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico and the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii.

The bottom line? "We have effectively ruled out the possibility of an Earth impact by Apophis in 2036," Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said today in the all-clear news release. “The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future.”

via Another doomsday threat dies out: Asteroid Apophis won't hit us in 2036 – Cosmic Log.

Highlights of 2012: Herndon High School reunion

Ever since Kelly and I attended our 20th high school reunion I’d been looking forward to attending another one at our 25th year. With no one else willing to make it happen, I decided to organize it.

This time around we had Facebook to help track down classmates. Using nothing else but Facebook’s search tools and event functionality, I picked homecoming weekend for our reunion and let the Facebook group know.
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Highlights of 2012: Neighborhood happenings

It was a year full of interesting happenings around the neighborhood.

The year started off with a bang (fortunately not literally) when I helped catch a burglar as he was breaking into a neighbor’s car. Unlike other suspects I’d seen who were up to no good, I got no subpoena for this incident because a police officer witnessed it, too. If only an officer was always just around the corner whenever a crime occurred it would make things so much easier.

A few months later I was surprised to see a number of police cars entering my neighborhood. My neighbors became the victim of a mid-day breakin, with the thieves having enough time to neatly stack their booty behind the home before the cops rolled up. Fortunately for everyone but the hapless crooks, the cops blocked the getaway car in the driveway, which provided not only a wealth of fingerprints but a curious parade of passersby, all unusually interested in a crime that hadn’t been publicized. The perps were caught a few weeks later, their getaway car having belonged to someone they knew.
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Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life

I first got an inkling of just how big of a problem fundraising is for Congressional members when I went to the Veterans Campaign seminar a few years ago. A large portion of the training emphasized the need to raise funds. The underlying message was that one would never be a good politician unless one were also a good fundraiser. It was an eye-opening introduction to the real world of a Congressional representative.

The question is what to do about it? Implement four-year terms for House members? Public financing? How does America wrestle its representation back from those who have bought and paid for it?

The amount of time that members of Congress in both parties spend fundraising is widely known to take up an obscene portion of a typical day — whether it’s "call time" spent on the phone with potential donors, or in person at fundraisers in Washington or back home. Seeing it spelled out in black and white, however, can be a jarring experience for a new member, as related by some who attended the November orientation.

via Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life.

Highlights of 2012: Jupiter the Cat

Jupiter the cat


This past year was a notable one for the way the feral cat that occasionally appeared on our doorstep wound his way into our lives. Jupiter the cat not only came back to us after I put him through the traumatic process of getting fixed, he basically adopted the whole family!

I bought a heated pad to keep him warm in the cold and put out food and water for him. He has taken to spending long stretches parked in the lap of whomever sits in the rocking chair, purring up a puddle of drool in the process.
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