No.
239 December 2002
AMERICA’S GHOSTS
In 1976 the U. S. Travel
Service issued The Supernatural, Haunt Houses and Legendary Ghosts (C
47.12/2:10) U. S. Travel Service Traveler’s Guide to Special Attractions No.
10. The Supernatural guide
identifies the residence of authentic American ghosts residing
in Washington,
D.C.
and seven States. It
lists the 10 voodoo sites and
museums in (New Orleans) Louisiana
and 10 ghosts
residents in Virginia. The information for
each of the 29 haunted houses identifies
the cite and briefly describes the ghost(s)or legend(s) as to who, what, and
when. The Name and address of each
site is provided along with the visitors’ hours for tours and any entrance
fee. The hours and fees information for each site will need updating but all the
legends information about the
ghosts, cemeteries, haunted houses, and voodoo museum should provide still
provide some interesting reading. Considering the fact that this information was
compiled almost forty years ago, some of the information may be outdated, but
the ghosts should still be around (so to speak). Currently, the Navy has some
information out about the
Bermuda
Triangle http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq8-1.htm,
which is a current and well known supernatural topic.
EVERY DAY
IS A
HOLIDAY
Every day of the year is a holiday, somewhere in the world, in one or
more countries. Pick a day (or days) during any month, go the Department of
State web page Local Holidays
(International) http://foia.state.gov/MMS/holidays/holidays_start.asp
which is a segmented A to Z listing of all the countries.
There is a link to each country with its calendar of holidays and a click
of the mouse will lead to a list of the holidays. The holidays, religious,
business, and political, celebrated by each country
are listed, January 1 through December 31. The website provides a list of
the holidays for each of the countries in a “printable version”at http://foia.state.gov/MMS/holidays/print_all_holidays.asp
and download or print the
entire list. This would be a good
source for some research about how the
United States
compares to other
countries in terms of the number and reason(s) for having holidays.
I wonder how many countries celebrate a holiday for which we have nothing
comparable and how many holidays do we celebrate that are not found in the list
of any other country? However, I am
sure the dedicated researcher could find 365 holidays. I wonder if “leap
year” day would qualify for a 366 day leap year calendar?
Just in case the research does not show a “Leap year” holiday on one
of the country lists, maybe it could be proposed as a piece of federal
legislation.
CONGRESS,
SENATORS/REPRESENTATIVES: FAMOUS AND THE INFAMOUS
Davey Crockett, Brent Spence, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Barry Goldwater, 1st
black man, 1st woman, 1st black woman were all Senators or
Representatives known for their
service and positive contributions to the American legislative process. There
are many federal office buildings, Post Office buildings, and bridges who bear
the name of a person who is/was, such as the Brent Spence Bridge (Covington,
KY/Cincinnati, Ohio). Who were they,
when did they serve, how many terms of office?
Historically, the biographies of Congressional
Senators and Representatives were published in as House/Senate Documents Biographical
Directory of the
United States Congress 1774 -
1989, and
with the last edition published as Senate Document No. 100-14 in
1989. Currently, a computer and internet access can find some biographical
information about a U.S. Congressional Senator or Representative by just going
to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 - Present
at http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp
. This is a Congressional search
engine which provide access to any
biographical and
congressional service information on any individual by (minimally) typing in the
individual’s last name.
A special volume of interest is Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989
was issued in 1990 by the U. S. House of Representatives as House
Document No. 101-117, (Y 1.1/7:101-117) as Serial Set No. 13947 ( Y
1.1/2:13947). The House also issued Women in Congress, 1917-1990, in 1991
as House Document No. 101-238, (Y 1.1/7:101-238) and as Serial Set No. 14004 (Y
1.1/2:SERIAL 14004).
RURAL AREAS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE Since
about 80 percent of the American
people are city dwellers (occupying about 20 percent of the land area), view of
rural areas of the United States
with an urban
perspective. In the
United States
there are 3142
counties and county equivalents (as of 1992) and as of 2000, there are
urban areas. According to the
Center for the Study of Rural America (Center), about 20 percent of America’s population live in
the 2,305 counties outside the metropolitan areas. Also, as of the Census 2000
revision of the criteria and definition of Urban Area. The criteria of Urban
areas has changed and as currently defined an area must have a minimum
population density but does not have to contain a city.
In viewing the 1970 to 2000 population changes
of urban areas, traditional statisticians “looks
backwards” from 2000 to 1970, at the changes in counties.
On the other hand, the Center will “look foreword” at the counties,
using viewing from the 1970 to the
2000 data using the 1970 concept of
the non-metropolitan county. The Center will achieve a different view of the
counties changes and growth from 1970 to 2000. Rural areas (counties) have been
viewed backward, 2000 to 1970 and now these
rural areas (counties) can be viewed with a forward perspective. The forward
perspective is necessary to formulate America’s rural policy for
change and growth. This “new”
forward view of rural
America
is found in The New
Power of Regions, A Policy Focus for Rural America. This Conference
publication was issued in December 2002 by
the Federal Reserve Bank of
Kansas City, Center and is found
its website (http://www.kc.frb.org/PUBLICAT/PowerofRegions/Powerof%20Regionsmain.htm
). Andrew M. Isserman’s Defining
Regions for Rural America (pages 35-54) presents the new forward socio-economic
view of rural
America
which moves up from
the county, beyond the State, to the Regional level. Rural America
is presented in terms
of geographical regions.
REGIONS - THE
NEW RURAL PERSPECTIVE The Center for
the Study of Rural America (Center) is proposing the “Regional Concept” to
get a current and accurate view of the America’s rural counties.
The Resource Regions concept comes from the USDA Economic Research Service(ERS).
The Harmony between agriculture and the environment:
ERS
U.S. farm resource
regions ( http://www.ers.usda.gov/Emphases/Harmony/issues/resourceregions/resourceregions.htm
) is one of
Research
Emphases (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Emphases/
), in its coverage of Rural America. ERS
research has shown the old Farm
Production Regions, which followed State boundries to be
outdated. The ERS has created a set of Farm Resource Regions. The new
view of rural counties and county clusters centers around the
climate, soil, water, and topography which sustain the crops,
livestock, farms, and agricultural industry and products characteristic
to each group of counties. The county-based view does not stop at or show state
boundries creates nine new Farm
Resources Regions. The nine regions, each of
which has a unique name,
shape, and size, together cover all
the coterminous
United States. The Appalachia Region
was the rationale for the use of the Region concept.
Created by Congress in 1965,
the Appalachia Region is a rural
county-based, socio-economic cultural area covering several states along the
eastern
United States.
The new ERS Farm Resource Regions, as rural county-based Regions provide
urban America
and the Center for the
Study of Rural America with a new perspective of farms, farmers, and
Rural America.
NAMES OF FARM REGIONS Within the wealth of information about Rural America
in the Economic Research Service are the names of the Farm Resources Regions.
To learn the new names and
recognize them as they are included in the media news, take a look at the USDA Farm
Resource Regions, Agricultural Information Bulletin Number 760 issued in
September 2000 Iowa. This is a 6 page color
brochure in a two-sheet pdf
file at http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aib760/aib-760.pdf
. This version of the ERS
publication is a colored coded map of each of the Regions.
POVERTY IN RURAL AMERICA Reading the newpaper
and listening to the radio and television news media most every day will provide
examples of the poor and people in poverty in one or more of our major cities.
The unemployed single parent, people who are house poor, since they have a house
but low wages, and other individuals in similar financial straits
reflect the urban poor and poverty. But
what are the scenario of the rural poor? How what makes the “rural poor”
poor? How is rural poverty measured?
The impact of the new Rural
Regionialism on the farmer and the farm household is discussed at
http://landview.census.gov/hhes/poverty/povmeas/papers/measpov.html
.
CONTININE As found in the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention's second biomonitoring report Second National Report
on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/ )
Continine is the name of a toxic substance found in body of the smoker and the
body of the nonsmoking person exposed to secondhand smoke. "Continine is a
'metabolite' -or breakdown product- of nicotine and the level of cotinine in
one's body reflects the amount of one’s exposure to tobacco smoke. Now there
is a chemical explanation of why secondhand tobacco smoke has been a health
hazard for nonsmokers since the American colonists started smoking. It would be
interesting to know if forensic analysis of skeletal remains would reveal
continine in our nonsmoking ancesters. Currently, biomonitoring reveals the
continine content of the American people. The Second Report shows that
there were levels of continine found in the blood samples of nonsmokers in the
United States . The levels of continine in nonsmokers have gone down by more
than 70% since the 1990s. However, the levels in adolescents and children were
more than twice the levels measured in adults. The Center for Disease Prevention
and Control's Continine Fact Sheet at
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/contininefactsheet.htm
provides more information about continine, the full report, its results by
category, a list of the chemicals monitored, and other sites about tobacco, and
related respiratory diseases
NEW
AGRICULTUAL OUTLOOK/TECHNOLOGY/COMMODITIES The Federal Reserve Bank of
Atlanta’s Center for the Study of Rural America presents a case study of how
rural America, specifically, Iowa can exemplify some of the latest industrial
and agricultural developments. There
are new plant-derived bioactive molecules which come from pharmaceutical/nutrceutical
plants such as marigold flowers and rosemary plants.
These are found in Centrum multivitamins, and FloraGLO brand lutein
products. Phyto-phactories
are the manufacturing plants in Iowa
which turn these
plants into
America’s health products.
These phyto-phactories are part of an agricultural economy based on dollars per
gram, rather than dollars per bushel. Iowa
and a few other states
are first locations for
existing “phyto-phactories," nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical plants, and
biopharming operations. The Plant
Sciences Institute at Iowa
State
University
exemplifies
public and academic institutions
participating in these agricultural innovations and the new outlook on farming, agriculture, and rural
America.
“Plants as Phyto-Phactories: Connecting the Iowa Value Chain” by John
A. Greaves (pages 59-69) (http://www.kc.frb.org/PUBLICAT/PowerofRegions/RC02_Greaves.pdf)
and “Biopharming in the Midwest: The Role of Public Institutions” by
Stephen H. Howell (pages 77-82) in The New Power of Regions, A Policy Focus
for Rural America, by The Center for the Study of Rural America (
http://www.kc.frb.org/PUBLICAT/PowerofRegions/RC02_Howell.pdf) was issued in December 2002 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
(http://www.kc.frb.org/PUBLICAT/PowerofRegions/Powerof%20Regionsmain.htm
). Greaves and Howell provide
insights into new agricultural technologies and products, and into the roles
played by private and universities in this new outlook on Rural America.
Back
to Philip’s Page
July 14, 2003
http://www.nku.edu/~yannarella/news0212.html