Plight of the Polar Bears

A polar bear mom and her cub (photo courtesy of Just Being Myself).

I was reading about the plight of Polar bears and their struggle to survive from hunting, oil drilling and the global ice melting. There was a signing by the International Agreement on Conservation of the Polar bears and was agreed upon by five nations to help the polar bears. Right now the polar bear is not considered an endangered species but a threatened species.

Polar bears hunt in large areas, they hunt on land as well as the ice, they are migrating animals which makes them go long ways. Any change in the polar bears environment effects all of them. Other animals are also effected by changes but they don't have to hunt on ice flows that are melting right under their feet.

We all love bears, real or stuffed and the thought of melting snow falling into a den right on top of the mom and her cubs and suffocating them. Think of a polar bear swimming miles in search of land or a flow of ice and finds neither, he usually drowns. I also read that in the past few decades over a million square miles of sea ice is gone, this is six time the size of California. There are about four to five hundred Polar bears in captivity and about 2,000 to 3,000 in the wild. There is a law that obligates our government to declare them endangered so the Polar bear can be protected, I hope they get a move on before it is too late.

Over The Top Award

I wish to thank my friend Merle for bestowing this award upon me. There are 35 questions that need a one word answer.Merle, has a wonderful and delightful blog called Merle Third Try, she is from Australia.

Here are the rules: You have to answer these questions with one word answers and than pass it on to three other bloggers.

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Your hair? Silver.
3. Your mother? Deceased
4. Your father? Deceased
5. Your favorite food? Chicken
6. Your dream last night? None
7. Your favorite drink? Squirt
8. Your dream / goal? Health
9. What room are you in? Mine
10. Your hobby? Blogging
11. Your fear? Snakes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something you aren't? clever
15. Muffins? Apple
16. Wish list item? health
17. Where did you grow up? Ohio
18. Last thing you did? ate
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? On
21. Your pets? none
22. Your friends? precious
23. Your life? content
24. Your mood? cheerful
25. Missing someone? yes
26. Vehicle? Toyota
27. Something you're not wearing? Coat
28. Your favorite store? Meijer
29. Your favorite color? Lavender
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Yesterday
32. Your best friend? Stella
33. One place that I go over and over? Walgreens
34. One person who e mails me regularly? Doug
35. Favorite place to eat? Home

I would like to pass this on to three blogging friends of mine, they have wonderful blogs.

Linda== Over The Fence.
Judy== Living On The Other Side Of The Hill
Kay==Musings

Feral Children?

I was watching a program on TV this last Sarurday and was amazed, it was about Feral Children. Feral children are human kids that have not had contact with others, they are wild acting and when found and brought into contact with humans do not know how to act. Here is a list of 10 Modern Cases of Feral Children.

Some believe this to be true and others are skeptic, whether true or not there are a lot of stories linked to these children. A lot of older stories believe that some children ran away and others believe that the animals kidnapped the children. I created a link above that is very interesting to read. You may judge for yourselt if this be true or a myth.

Modern Day Marcus Welby

I was wondering why doctors don't make house calls anymore. I found this great article that explains why some do and the reason house calls stopped in the 1970s. This is a great article about the reasons why it is coming back.

Some still think this is a era that has gone, but I found out that it is very much alive and kicking. I was reading in the Journal of American Medical Association, while I was waiting in my doctors office and it stated house calls to Medicare patients rose about 40 percent from 1998 to 2004. According to U.S. Census that about 12 percent of the population is 65 and over.

Still most people visit the doctor at his office.Technology has a lot to do with the doctors keeping track of their patients,in this day of computers you can email information back and forth. I think the reason doctors do not do more advertising because their office would be empty. We all know that the insurance companies and Medicare are the boss when it comes to saying what is up with your medical care, this means they can say who they pay and what they will pay.

I can remember when we were kids and the doctor came to the house, I even was given a complete exam and if you had mumps, measles or chicken pocks they put a quarantined sign on your house. I am glad the doctors are finally reviving this old practice.

New Header Design for Old Digger

Hi everyone, this is Doug Cloud—son of Old Digger. My mom thought it was time for something different so she asked me to make a new header for her blog. The idea for this design came from a photo of an old specimen card by Tony Worrall.

I found this card while Googling around for old letterheads. I sometimes like to challenge myself to see if I can recreate one of this antique beauties. Here is my own design of Tony's card. I made the ornate shapes in Illustrator and then finished the design in Photoshop.

Tony was kind enough to give his permission so I could use parts of the Moorbrook Mill design to make my mom's new header. I added a few extra details, tweaked some things, and had to resize the design to fit on the blog, but overall it turned out pretty good.

I would like to extend a special offer to all the nice ladies that visit Old Digger and brighten up my mom's day with your wonderful comments. If there are any of you who need help with your blogs or would like your very own header design just let me know.

Special rates are only for subscribers to Old Digger so if you're interested then just mention that you're a subscriber when you fill out my design inquiry form.

Thank you.

Re-Branding of a Product

Have you ever went into the grocery store to look for a product you always buy and you can't seem to find it. Why, it is because the manufacturing company has re-packaged it, that is they changed the labels. My son wrote about this and I am going to borrow some of his blog.

Brand loyalty is a phrase that carries a lot of clout. The reason for this is that people are visually driven creatures. The image surrounding a company's brand distinguishes them from the competitor's in a memorable and positive manner. A brand needs more than identity; it needs personality, just like a person without any unique characteristics, a brand with no personality can easily be passed over. A strong symbol or company logo can also help to generate brand loyalty by making it quickly identifiable.

The recent re-branding of the Tropicana orange juice product packaging is a prime example of what not to do. In my opinion it was totally unnecessary and obviously I'm not the only one that feels this way.

This is true about a different look to a product because I was looking for my favorite Jello and could not find it, to discover it had a new package label, I liked the old package, it had jello stars on it. Has this happened to you?

A Need For Prayers & Help

7.0 maganitude diaster hits Haiti, hundreds of thousands of people feared dead in Haiti after a major earthquake hit the impoverished Caribbean nation.Thousands are trapped under rubble from the quake, bodies lay dead on their streets.

The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemispheres poorest nation a day after the quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people.

The quake brought down buildings great and small, hospitals, schools and the main prisons collapsed. Haiti's leaders struggled to comprehend the extent of the catastrophe, the worst earthquake to hit the country in 200 year.

I could go on and on about this disaster but I am sure we all are hearing it on TV. Let us pray for this nation in its darkest hour, God bless them and help them in their sorrow, no one can imagine their grief.

My Moment in Time

The other day while out shopping, I turned down a street I have not traveled in over fifty years. I don't know what made me do this, probably a nagging thought I had when ever I was in this part of town, but never did it.

I was looking for a home that I lived in for a little over two years, with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin (their son). It was a lovable home and we all tolerated each other and this was because we loved and respected each other, they have since passed away including my cousin.

I was working, had a car and was young and care-free. I could come home from work to a nice supper, a beautiful smile from my Aunt and Uncle, I did pay them rent every week. We laughed, joked and shared one another s day at the supper table.

I suppose you could call this my "Golden Years", the care-free days of youth. I loved my job at Universal Camshaft Company, which has long since gone out of business, this also pains my heart every time I pass it. Wondering how many old friends are still around, you know how it is, people move on, lose touch, how sad that sounds. All these people, I once shared my space in time with, most have passed on.

I could not believe my eyes, gone, it was as if my moment in time at this home had vanished, not a brick or piece of wood remained, no one had bothered to build a new home in its place. My heart sank, I could not go on and yes I cried for all those moments we had shared, I was looking at nothing. It was as if someone had erased this time of my life. I drove on with a heavy heart, but no one can erase my mind of those wonderful years I spent here.

Honoring The Homless

It 's easy to oppose the idea of being homeless. But few people go out of their way to understand just how devastating the experience of being without a home can be. Homelessness reached crisis proportion in 2009. The need for community homeless shelter is greater than ever, in the past year, the number of families and individuals at shelters have quadrupled.

December 21st is the longest day of the year and the coldest day of the year. So it is an appropriate day to honor and mourn those who died in the past year without a home. As communities gather to remember and honor those who died, let us resolve to do whatever it takes to ensure that such memorials do not need to become an annual event, for many, this will be the only memorial service they receive. Many die on the streets, in cars, in shelters with no family or loved one to mourn for them, how very very sad.

Prince William of England, spent one freezing night "rough sleeping" on the streets in London. His goal? To actively understand the plight of young homeless people in his community. The organization that provides services to the homeless youth, wanted to put William to the test and invited him to sleep on the street. To their surprise, on December 15th he slept in a cardboard box next to Blackfriar's Bridge in the middle of December, no less. I admire him for this effort. After one night William said he could not imagine what it must be like to sleep rough on London's streets night every night.

Cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hyannis, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. are among the 130 communities across the country that will have planned a memoral event. Some communities will process through the streets. Others will host candlelight vigils . Some will take advantage of this opportunity to collrct donations, like winter hats, gloves and scarves, for people who are still living on the streets.

Even if there isn't a homless memorial event happening in your community, I urge you to do something on January 21st in honor of a homeless person who died this year. Resolve to volunteer in 2010 in honor of the 6-month-old baby girl who died of sudden infant death syndrome. A Minneapolis homeless shelter was the only home she ever knew.

Take 15 minutes to educate yourself about the real causes of homeless in memory of Michael Palm, who was stabbed to death in his car where he'd been living while working as a cab driver.

Make a gift to your local shelter in memory of Tyrone Hicks, who moved to Minneapolis "with bullets still stuck in his body" to escape violence in Chicago. Most importantly, as we memorialize those who died in cars, on streets and in shelters, let us all think about what it will take to prevent homeless deaths in 2010.

Thank you friends for reading this, it has become a global disaster. I can't imagine sleeping on the streets all year round, especially in freezing weather. Trying to maintain a family without knowing where you are going to lay your head, not to mention having no food. May God lay his hands upon the land and let us come up with a solution. God Bless America. I just had to post this, it seems to be on the news constantly and in the papers. I am asking all my friends to say a prayer for the homeless.