usa – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Energy Conservation

“Start with energy conservation. Jimmy Carter tried to get us headed in that direction more than 30 years ago. He was right then, and the policy is right today. Retrofit old buildings, offer tax credits for energy conserving investments, start installing simple switches and existing thermostats and watch the nation’s energy use start to go down.

Then actually invest in mass transit, and not in highway construction. If you want to change our policy of importing oil from our adversaries, then do something about it: instead of sending more money to build more highways, send money to reinforce transit. Build light rail lines; require cities to introduce higher density zoning; where ever and when ever possible favor transit over the car.

Offer tax credits for wind and solar investments. And look for smart, small, innovative energy entrepreneurs who need support to bring their technologies to market. Take my friend Eddie Sturman, for example. (Go to his web site, www.sturmanindustries.com to find out more) Eddie’s mastery of energy and technology earned him high honors from NASA for what he did to help America’s space program. Now he has existing technology that will produce huge efficiencies for every type of engine that runs today, from engines that power autos to engines that produce heat and electricity.

But when Eddie applied for federal support to help commercialize his technology, he was stonewalled, the money went to the big automakers. It was more of a jobs expenditure than an alternative energy one.

Other than that, the way to a smart, rational, future-focused energy policy is the same way we’ve known for at least 30 years. Simple, efficient steps that save energy and shift our reliance from non-renewable to renewable fuels. It’s not a miracle. It’s common sense.”

4
MAR

electricity, energy, usa

Stella Awards

It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they’re named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember: she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right?

That’s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S.

Here are the Stellas for the past year:

7th
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

6th
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.

5th
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count ’em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

4th
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor’s beagle – even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

3rd
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

2nd
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000….oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

WINNER
This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motorhome. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Have a nice weekend!

27
FEB

awards, usa

Ron Paul

Take careful note of this for the future – and remember I was very early to tell you to watch out for Barack Obama. From National Post via Ed my son.

“A year ago, American conservatives were dreading the onset of a new era of liberalism. Barack Obama was inaugurated as President and the media declared conservatism dead for at least the next eight years. Today, conservatives are re-energized and some even predict a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate, in November’s mid-term elections.

Excitement and hope were palpable at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual confab of American right-wing activists which took place last weekend. But renewed optimism wasn’t the biggest story coming out of conference, it was the surprise victory of Representative Ron Paul in the annual CPAC straw poll of presidential contenders. Paul, the perennial outsider, garnered 31% of the votes, defeating names like former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (22%), Sarah Palin (7%) and Newt Gingrich (4%).

Leaving aside the unscientific nature of the poll (only 24% of the record 10,000 attendees voted, and nearly half the delegates were under the age of 25), this result cannot be ignored and could be a portent for where the conservative movement is heading. Ron Paul is the unlikeliest of political stars. A doctor by training, he is a reserved, soft-spoken septuagenarian with ill-fitting suits and no particular charisma. Yet he has become a folk hero to legions of young, tattooed libertarians who advocate legalizing drugs, as well as to increasing numbers of conventional conservatives.

The reason? Paul is capturing the conservative zeitgeist. Known as “Dr. No” in Congress because he votes against everything, including awarding citizens the Presidential Medal of Freedom because he believes it to be an unauthorized use of public funds. Paul has become the vehicle through which devout libertarians believe they can become part of the mainstream.

Conservative activists may despise President Obama and his radical agenda, but they are almost as peeved with Republicans, who have shown over their time in power an inability to cut spending and reduce the size of government. Paul has become the standard-bearer of discontent with the Bush era’s “big-government conservatism.” One of his long-time hobby horses is shutting down the Federal Reserve and returning to the gold standard. To move that idea forward, Paul has introduced legislation that would require the Federal Reserve to be audited; the bill enjoys substantial support from Republicans and Democrats, with a staggering 313 co-sponsors. Passing such a law would have been considered total lunacy two years ago. Today, largely due to the Fed’s culpability in fuelling the 2008 financial crisis, the bill could become law.

Paul also wants to disentangle the U.S. from foreign involvement, including removing all troops from foreign soil and pulling out of the UN and NATO. The divide in the conservative movement over foreign policy is as pronounced as it’s ever been, with some openly questioning not only the 2003 Iraq war but the American presence overseas in general. Paul is attracting these people’s interest.

It is very unlikely Ron Paul will win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, if he even runs, which is not a given. But Paul and his followers will still have an enduring impact on Republican politics in the coming years. Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting and lobbying for limited government, is gaining influence among younger activists and providing a strong base of support to congressional candidates who support Paul’s brand of libertarian politics. If Paul himself doesn’t run, another candidate in sync with his views could step up to the plate and do very well.

It has become clear over the past year that despite the naysaying, America is still a centre-right country. It has a President trying to impose on it a left-wing agenda. The people are recoiling. One need only look at the recent election results in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia to understand this. Democrats are on the run, and American conservatives can hardly wait until November.”

26
FEB

Economy, politics, usa

Embrace Africa

We’ve always much admired Peace Corps volunteers and I was therefore delighted to come across this blog from ‘Sarah’ a volunteer somewhere near Lusaka who on her blog ‘EmbraceAfrica‘ says this: ‘My name is Sarah and I was born and raised in Michigan. I graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 2008 with Bachelor of Science in Interior Design and a Minor in Graphic Communication. During my time at EMU I was actively involved in His House Christian Fellowship, American Society of Interior Designers, and I balanced a few jobs as well.’

Actually I found Sarah through Twitter and you can follow her at @pcjzambia – I loved this particular story! So different to what might happen in other countries!

“One day a few weeks ago, my tire got a flat on my bike ride home. I had a repair kit, but the glue was finished, so someone helped me do a temporary zam-patch. Well, it turns out that the nozzle was “completely buggard” and a few kilometers later I couldn’t even add tire pressure. As daylight was escaping me I was praying that a car would pass by and pick me up since I was about halfway home, but this was a Saturday afternoon and not as many vehicles travel.

Within less than five minutes of me contemplating my dilemma, a gentleman stops to help me. He knew who I was and lives in a village about 6k past my site. While he was helping me one of the girls in my extended family in the village and another person from my village passed by. Together they coordinated that I would ride home on the back of one bike, my bike on another, and my bag on the third bike. No vehicles did pass for the rest of the day, and I don’t think I would have been able to walk the 7k home before dark, so my needs were met by some gracious friends.”

Big up Sara! Keep up the good work!

8
FEB

Africa, blog, education, Lusaka, travel, Twitter, usa, volunteers, Zambia

James Cameron – New Age Entrepreneur

You can always count on the Staff Blog at Fresh Inc for some business wisdom. Check this:

“With Avatar recently becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, Hollywood is looking to learn what it can from the mystical blue people of the Na’vi. Entrepreneurs, however, might want to look at the film’s director, James Cameron, for some business advice.

Finance blog, BloggingStocks, has an interesting post about the business lessons entrepreneurs can learn from James Cameron. In their words, “Cameron is a New Age entrepreneur–that is, combining creativity, unconventional wisdom, over-the-top optimism and good business sense.” They advise entrepreneurs to find a way to charge a premium. By making a 3D film, Cameron was able to charge 30 percent more than a regular movie ticket.

It also took Cameron 10 years to make the film, which BloggingStocks says proves that “while some entrepreneurs can make a quick fortune, this is rare. Instead, building real value takes time.”

5
FEB

art, entertainment, entrepreneurship, innovation, management, usa

Meagan Hawley

Yesterday on Twitter and on Facebook I mentioned our shock about and prayers for Meagan Hawley, from Namwianga Mission. Meagan has been a frequent Guest at Chanters Lodge in the past few years – a lively, lovely vivacious girl doing an amazing job at the mission. This is what the Gregersens, also great friends of Chanters Lodge, wrote on their blog:

“Meagan Hawley, our dear friend and co-worker here at Namwianga, is on her way back to the US for medical treatment. She has been having symptoms which lead her doctors to suspect serious health problems. On Saturday, a specialist at OU looked at photos of her lymph nodes and tonsils and said she needs a biopsy immediately to diagnose or rule out lymphoma. She will have surgery in Oklahoma City on Monday or Tuesday. Meagan had just 12 hours notice to get ready to leave Namwianga, making it very difficult for her to say her goodbyes and pack for the trip while she processed this frightening news.

Meagan has devoted the last three years of her life to caring for the orphans here at Namwianga. Most recently she has been in charge of Marjorie’s House, a facility to care for babies who have health problems or compromised immune systems. Words cannot express the impact she has had on all of us who know her and especially on the little ones who rely on her tender care.

Please pray for Meagan, for her family, and for those of us here at Namwianga who need her back soon. “

We’ll do that and hope for her speedy recovery

2
FEB

Africa, Chanters, charities, friends, guests, health, usa, Zambia

Liberty Hotel Helps Haiti

I liked this in HotelInteractive from Caryn Eve Murray

When southern Haiti was torn apart by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, Rachel Moniz immediately felt shockwaves more than 1,500 miles away at the small, privately owned Liberty Hotel in Boston’s Beacon Hill district. “I asked for a list of employees who have relatives in Haiti, who have any ties to Haiti, to make sure we got aid to their families,” said Moniz, the hotel’s general manager. The hotel handed each affected employee $300 that same day to go toward their families, then donated an additional $500 to the Red Cross for Haitian relief.

But the Liberty didn’t stop there: On February 4, the hotel’s hour-long weekly fashion show, Fashionably Late, will dress itself as an earthquake-relief fundraiser featuring the styles of a local avant-garde Haitian-American designer. “We will pay for everything, including the models, and donate a portion of our bar proceeds from that night,” said Moniz. “We’re also developing a package for people who want to stay in the hotel that night and … we will donate proceeds from that to the global disaster relief organization Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team, “ she said.

Then, on March, 13, the fundraising will continue with a wellness theme, offering an evening of yoga, live entertainment and a silent auction. Moniz said the Liberty Hotel is also trying to pull together a celebrity fundraiser in the next two weeks to bring in yet more relief dollars. The scope of the effort is unprecedented for the Liberty, a 300-room renovated former jail on the bank of the Charles River, she said. “We help different causes and are immersed in any action where we can provide relief, but to be so direct and explicit about one cause, this is actually a first for us.”

26
JAN

charities, hotels, usa

Fort Hood

I follow @TravelSavvyKayt on Twitter. She writes hilariously about her travels with her son Chet – that’s them in the picture. Yesterday she twittered that she’d been asked to write a piece for the Washington Post about the awful shootings at Fort Hood, Texas and I found it particularly poignant. Here’s what she wrote.

KAYT SUKEL

Freelance writer and military spouse living in Bedesbach, Germany

As details about the shootings streamed across the Web, I noticed how the nature of the messages changed over time. Initially, some military friends lamented that they no longer felt safe on Army posts. But once Maj. Nidal Hasan was identified as the lone gunman, many focused on his name, rank and faith. The fear that had been so palpable diminished. Few of the messages were explicit — one simply said, “A single shooter and a Muslim?!” But their meaning was clear — that Hasan’s Islamic faith explained what had previously been an unfathomable act of violence. No longer could his actions be attributed to his experiences in the military or some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. I don’t believe most of my fellow military spouses are bigots or hate-mongers. On the contrary, most are the biggest-hearted people I’ve ever known. But I think some need to believe that an incident like this has to be about something Muslim, Jordanian, terrorist — pick your label — something foreign to touch us where we are supposed to feel most safe. The alternative — that this war, or even the idea of this war, might make our cherished ones desperate and nearly unrecognizable, that the Army that vows to protect us while our soldiers are away may not be able to keep that promise, that we need to worry about our soldiers even when they are not deployed to combat zones — is too much to bear. The ideas are disheartening, yet as a military spouse, I can’t deny that I understand it.

8
NOV

Twitter, usa

Activities – Kijubi.com

There are so many different activities available for visitors staying at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, to a certain extent depending on the time of year – right now the most popular are white water rafting (pictured above), visits to Livingstone Island and the Sunset Cruise. We spend a lot of time trying to guide Guests in the right direction in terms of what they’d like to do. For this reason the following article in the New York Times caught my attention:

“You picked the place, found the perfect hotel, and secured your flights. Now what are you actually going to do on your vacation? Kijubi.com, a new vacation activity site that went live today, hopes to answer that question for you. The site, which is meant to sound like “Could You Be” — as in, “Kijubi surfing?” — allows travelers to easily search and book more than 70 categories of experiences from sea kayaking to skydiving to theme parks, by theme, activity or location. A recent search for activities in Newport Beach, for example, shot back a list of 109 options including surfing lessons, whale watching, theme park tickets, horseback riding and paintball.

“The online travel agencies do a terrific job of getting you to your destination but don’t address what to do when you get there,” said Brian Fried, Kijubi’s chief executive. “No one comes home and says, ‘Man, I had a great rental car experience.’ They say ‘I went shark diving.’”

But the site, which currently lists about 250 vendors and roughly 1,000 activities, still has a long way to go to fill this niche. Only a few states, including California, Florida, and Nevada, are listed and many of the activities are obvious, like rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park. Videos, user ratings and reviews are still to come. “We think we’ve just scratched the surface of reaching a critical mass of recreation vendors,” said Mr. Fried. Other destinations, he said, will include Hawaii, Colorado, and New York.”

Let’s hope Africa, Zambia and Livingstone soon feature on their site too! Or maybe someone needs to start a site like this for Southern Africa?

22
SEP

accommodation, activities, Africa, Chanters, livingstone, rafting, usa, victoriafalls, Zambia

Boom Time For Gary, Indiana?

This piece from Caryn Eve Murray in HotelInteractive will interest all Michael Jackson fans:

Gary, Indiana counts its Majestic Star Casino & Hotel, its SouthShore RailCats baseball team and even the nearby Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore among the biggest drawing cards in this struggling former steel town. But nothing, perhaps, could be bigger in Gary these days than one modest house in the heart of the city: The childhood home of Michael Jackson, whose sudden death last week after cardiac arrest turned the small frame structure, within hours, into a towering magnet for a gathering of the grief-stricken Jackson faithful. They arrived there mostly from homes only a short traveling distance away – far removed by hundreds of miles from the California mansion where their idol had fallen.

But if local officials have their way, many more hundreds, if not thousands, may soon want to go the distance to get to Gary. They see Jackson’s family home, and the two nearby schools the Jackson siblings attended – Garnett Elementary School and Roosevelt High School – as the epicenter of a collection of Jackson attractions paying homage to a beloved native son. The idea is nothing new, but this sudden and sad turn of events may give it a new impetus to grow. “Gary is the hometown where it all started,” said Curt Brantingham, public relations manager of the Indiana Office of Tourism. “Any tourism there would have to be something compelling to draw people, not just once but multiple times, something of such interest that it would have a wide appeal.”

But with Gary lacking the glamour and notoriety of Jackson’s high-profile Neverland Ranch in California, Brantingham said, “it is hard to speculate.” It is, however, not so hard for Gary’s Mayor Rudy Clay and members of the Gary Indiana Chamber of Commerce, who have lived for quite some time with the as-yet unrealized possibilities of honoring Jackson through a variety of appropriate attractions, even years before the pop star’s untimely death at the age of 50. Over the years, there has been talk of a museum, a monument – and a performing arts center, with the Jackson family involved in these discussions, even with previous administrations, said Lalosa Burns, Clay’s press secretary.

“We have thousands of hotel rooms in the immediate vicinity,” she said, most notably in Merrillville. “If people do make this an attraction and come and stay we can accommodate them and we would be happy to help.” The city’s location just southeast of Chicago makes it easy enough to get to, with access to Chicago’s airports and its proximity to Interstate 80 and 94. “This is the most traveled highway in the country, so we get a bit of traffic through here anyway,” said Chuck Hughes, executive director of Gary’s Chamber of Commerce.

Other than a beautiful lakefront, “we don’t have the greatest tourist attractions for people,” said Hughes. Still, there is potential, he said. “Invariably when people come, for whatever reason they come, they all ask and want to see Michael Jackson’s boyhood home. “Everybody is still in shock,” said Hughes. “We want to pay tribute. We know that he is gone. I would imagine in Gary and all over the world the wheels are turning in people’s heads, public officials, everyone wants to do something.”

Certainly the idea of a museum, incorporating Jackson’s personal and musical history, remains strong, as does a performing arts center, he said. But whether it gets off the drawing board in Gary, or elsewhere, is still unknown. Hughes, who served Gary as a councilman-at-large for many years, remembers when it almost seemed a brick-and-mortar possibility, even 10 or 15 years ago. “The project would have been so huge. But that was prior to all his problems,” he said. Had those troubles never surfaced, he said, “who knows what would have transpired?

5
JUL

accommodation, hotels, music, tourism, usa

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