Notes on Education

Education is an essential part of life, and it is the foundation of a successful and fulfilling life. Education is the key to unlocking the potential of individuals and society, and it is the foundation for a prosperous and equitable society. Education is the most powerful tool for social and economic progress, and it is the foundation for a better future.

Education has the power to transform lives, to empower individuals, and to create a better world. Education can help to reduce inequality and poverty, to foster economic growth, and to create a more equitable society. Education is the key to unlocking the potential of individuals and society, and it is the foundation for a prosperous and equitable society.

Education is more than just acquiring knowledge. It is also about developing skills, values, and attitudes that will help individuals to live a successful and fulfilling life. Education helps to develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and the ability to work with others. Education also helps to cultivate creativity, confidence, and resilience.

Education is essential for the development of a strong and vibrant economy. An educated workforce is more productive and more capable of innovating and creating new products and services. An educated workforce is also more likely to be employed and to have higher wages. Education is essential for the development of a strong and vibrant economy.

Education is also important for the development of a healthy and safe society. Education enables individuals to understand the importance of health and safety, and to take steps to ensure their own safety and the safety of others. Education also helps to promote social cohesion and to reduce social exclusion.

Education is essential for the development of a just and equitable society. Education enables individuals to understand their rights and responsibilities and to take action to ensure justice and equity. Education also helps to promote equality and to reduce discrimination.

In conclusion, education is essential for the development of a successful and fulfilling life, a strong and vibrant economy, a healthy and safe society, and a just and equitable society. Education is the key to unlocking the potential of individuals and society, and it is the foundation for a prosperous and equitable society.

Dogs

By Cameron Barber

Intro

This book is all about dogs and you will learn what they eat, their color and so much more. I hope you have a great time reading this book. 

Types of Dogs

There are so many types of dogs I cannot name them all right now but here are some I know Poodles, Newfoundland’s, Black Lab, Corgi, Saint Bernard, and a Newfie Doodle. 

Food 

All dogs need food toAll dogs need food to live. All dogs eat different food. Some dogs eat meat and other dogs eat veggies. Also dogs love their  treats here are some treats that they like: bacon, pumpkin and cheese.

Color 

Dogs can be so many different colors. They can be different shades of Brown, Black, Blonde, Gray, and they can also be caramel. They can also be crazy colors like Blue, Pink, and Purple. But you have to dye their hair because they are not born like that. 

Lifesavers 

Some dogs can be trained to save people and help people. Dogs can be trained to help blind people or sick people in a hospital. Also dogs can be trained to save people in need like if someone is stuck under Some dogs can be trained to save people and help people. Dogs can be trained to help blind people or sick people in a hospital. Also dogs can be trained to save people in need like if someone is stuck under something and the person trying to find them can’t find the person that is stuck the dog can sniff them out. 

About the author  

Cameron is 10 years old. She has a mom, a dad, and a sister. She also has a dog. Her dog’s name is Penny. She is a mini Newfie Doodle and her color is caramel. And they currently live in Hudson, Massachusetts. 

 

Quaratine Continues

We are all still wearing masks, when we go out in public. We are only going to the store to get food and esentials. Over the last few weeks, we have been to Shaw’s and Target.

A few weeks ago, we did a driveway visit to Lee and Jen’s. We all sat in the driveway about 8 feet apart – no hugging, kissing, or touching.

On May 31st, we went to dinner at there house. Lee smoked some ribs on the smoker. The meal was great and the company was even better. At the end of the afternoon, Jen told the girls to give us a hug goodbye. That was awesome!

Charlize’s Birthday 05/20/2020

Quarantine 2020

Today is May, 13, 2020. The home quarantine started 6 or 8 weeks ago. At first, sick people were asked to quarantine at home to avoid infecting others. But very quickly the number of people with the virus rose to a very large number. The avoid the spread of the virus, all none essential people were asked to stay at home.

Now we have been inside for some time. For my wife and I the home quarantine has now been that bad, we are retired and didn’t go out alot anyway. For the first 5 weeks, my wife did not go out and I went out only for food. All of our doctor’s appointments were canceled. Now we are seeing doctor’s via Televisits. ( I think that’s a new word).

School was canceled of the remainder of the year. Our grand-children started using the computer educational programs to continue their learning – this is working well. They using on-line programs to continue their dancing lessons – I’m sure this is not working as well. They have had virtual visits from teachers and will begin attending virtual classes a couple of twice a week. Note that they are in grades 2 and k.

We facetime with Lee, Jen, Cameron, & Charlize a couple of times a week and text the girls 3 or 4 times per week. Last week we had a driveway visit, where we sat in chairs about 8 feet apart and talked for about half an hour.

We will get thru this. It’s not like we are asked to fight a war like our who were in WWII or any other war.

Bye for Now – More to come on the virus…

Covid-19 Data (05/09/2020)

According to the Mass Department of Health, the following facts are for Massachuetts only as of May 9th:

  • Total Tests – 376,537
  • Total Cases – 76,743 – that’s 19%
  • Total Deaths – 4,808 – that’s 1.2%
  • New Tests Today – 10,514
  • New Cases Today – 1,410 – that’s 13%
  • New Deaths Today – 138 – that’s 1.3%

Twins born on Onset Island

Ralph Staples, – age 81

On July 14, 1933 twins were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Staples on Onset Island unexpectedly. Ralph W. Staples (2 ½ lbs.) and Russell E. Staples. (3 lbs.). The babies were delivered by an aunt of the babies and it was over 3 hours before a doctor from the mainland was brought to the island to see the twins. Russell died a day or two later on the island. Ralph was wrapped in handkerchiefs and fed by an eye dropper. He was transported to the family home in Stoughton in a model T Ford.

The Staples cottage washed away during the 1938 hurricane. (The cottage washed across the bay in one piece and it broke up when it hit the ground at the Onset Mariner.) What was left of the cottage was taken by Ralph Staples to Stoughton where the materials were used to build a barn. The government did not allow the cottages that were washed away to be rebuilt. As far as I know, the only part of the Staples cottage that remained on the island was a set of cement steps. Ralph E. Staples was brother of Myrtle Mosman. Myrtle and Nahum Mosman owed a larger cottage on Onset Island for many years. So, consequently, I am the only living native of Onset Island, which I am very proud of. I would very much like to return to the island someday and search to see if the cement steps are still there. I remember, fondly, of spending many summers fishing in Nahum Mosman’s rowboat and catching many flounder. I also remember walking the waterfront on the island and picking up oysters with my grandmother. We would open them and eat them raw. (This is a good memory for me). I also remember as a very young child that we would go to the canal side of the island to watch the New York Boat come out of the canal. It was all lit up with many rows of lights. (It is still clear in my memory, what a sight). I am going to be 74 years old on July 14, 2007. It is my hope that someday I might return to the place of my birth. I also have a book called Onset Island. It has a map of the island and a page dedicated to my birth on the island.

I am married to Lillian H. (Jennison) Staples for over 47 years. We have two wonderful daughters and 5 wonderful grandchildren. Our oldest grandchild just graduated from Attleboro High School and is going to The University of Connecticut to become a doctor to work with children. (Bio-Medicine). She wants to someday work at the Children’s Hospital with children with prosthetics.

Our oldest daughter, Susan is a math professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth Texas. She has one daughter and one son. Susan comes north for a month during the summer months. We spend a lot of the time that she is here at our cottage in Northwood, New Hampshire.

Our other daughter, Carol is a Physical Therapist and lives in Attleboro, Massachusetts. She has three daughters.

I worked for many years as a printer at the Christian Science Monitor in Boston where I now receive a pension from. I have been retired over 10 years and have been active in Freemasonry in Massachusetts for over 40 years. I have been secretary of Blue Hill Lodge in Canton for over 11 years.

One of my treasures is the baby book that my mother kept the records of my birth on Onset Island in. It is small, but she wrote in it mostly every day during the first few years of my life. (I was a very sickly baby), but now I am sorry to say that I have grown from my 2 ½ pounds at birth to over 250 pounds at the age of 74!

I have wondered for years if it would be possible to someday go to the island and meet some of the current residents. (That would require being met on the mainland and rowed across). I have always wondered if the residents of the island today actually knew that a baby was born on Onset Island. I came across the Onset Island website and am sending this note to some of the names that were on the list on that site. If this interests any of you, please drop me an e-mail or give me a call.

Sincerely, Ralph W. Staples

And please check out some of these links:

Census of Marine Life

I just learned about Census of Marine Life. I used to love watching Jacques Cousteau and the Calypso on their sea explorations. I still love to watch the similar programs on PBS, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the Science Channel, and others. I never understood what all that discovered information was used for – It always seemed a little bit of a waste.\r\n\r\nNow researchers in more than 80 nations have undertaken a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world”s first comprehensive Census of Marine Life will be released in 2010.

Scientists estimated that about 230,000 species of marine animals have been described in museums of natural history and other repositories. Since the Census began in 2000, researchers have added more than 5600 species to the lists. They aim to add many thousands more by 2010. The database of the Census already includes 16 million records.

The Census has evolved a strategy of 14 field projects to touch the major habitats and groups of species in the global ocean. Eleven field projects address habitats. Three field projects look globally at animals that either traverse the seas or appear globally distributed: the top predators such as tuna and the plankton and the microbes. The projects employ a mix of technologies such as: acoustics, cameras, tagging, and genetics, as well as some actual capture of animals.

This is a list of the Census Projects:

  • Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) in Information Systems A web-based provider of global geo-referenced information.
  • Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project (POST) in Human Edges A program to develop and promote the application of new electronic tagging technologyalmon.
  • Census of Coral Reefs (CReefs) in Human Edges An international cooperative effort to increase, improve, and unify coral reef ecosystem information.
  • Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA) in Human Edges An international collaborative effort to inventory and monitor biodiversity in depths of less than 20 meters.
  • Gulf of Maine Area Program (GoMA) in Human Edges A project documenting patterns of biodiversity and related processes in the Gulf of Maine.
  • Continental Margin Ecosystems (COMARGE) in Hidden Boundaries An integrated effort to document and explain biodiversity patterns on gradient-dominated continental margins.
  • Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar) in Hidden Boundaries A deep-sea project documenting species diversity of abyssal plains.
  • Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystem Project (MAR-ECO) in Central Waters An international exploratory study of the waters around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
  • Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) in Central Waters A program using electronic tagging technologies to study migration patterns of large open-ocean animals.
  • Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) in Central Waters The Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) is a global, taxonomically comprehensive biodiversity assessment of animal plankton, including ~6,800 described species in fifteen phyla.
  • Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) in Active Geology A global study of seamount ecosystems, to determine their role.
  • Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems (ChEss) in Active Geology A global study of the biogeography of deep-water chemosynthetic ecosystems and the processes that drive them.
  • Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) in Ice Oceans The Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) will survey the cold Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.
  • Arctic Ocean Diversity (ArcOD) in Ice Oceans An international collaborative effort to inventory biodiversity in the Arctic sea.
  • International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM) in Microbes Building a cyber infrastructure to index and organize what is known about microbes, the world”s smallest organisms, which account for 90 percent of biomass in oceans.
  • Future of Marine Animal Populations (FMAP) in Oceans Past and Future FMAP attempts to describe and synthesize globally changing patterns of species abundance, distribution, and diversity, and to model the effects of fishing, climate change and other key variables on those patterns.
  • History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) in Oceans Past and Future An interdisciplinary research program using historical and environmental archives to analyze marine population data before and after human impacts on the ocean became significant.

And please check out some of these links:

Introduction to Onset Island

My memories of Onset Island in Onset, Ma cover about 50 years from about 1960 to 2010. I will only touch briefly on the history of OnsetIsland and OnsetVillage. I will cover those histories in a future document. I will, instead, attempt to introduce you to a unique world only known to a small subset of the population – Onset Islanders.

Onset Island

Onset Island is located in the area of Massachusetts called Cape Cod. The 12 acre island sits in OnsetBay, off the village of Onset. Fifty plus summer cottages are now located on the island. The island was first used by the local natives as a summer camp and a place to harvest shell fish. I will discuss the history on OnsetIsland in another document.

Onset Village

Whether you call it Pine Point, Old Pine, Onkowam, Pine Neck, or Onset, OnsetVillage is rich in history. Onset really started to flourish in 1848 when trains arrived from Boston to carry industrial goods to market, and thus introducing Bostonians to Onset. Cottages were built, hotels constructed; and as the tourist population grew, the tourists arrived daily by train, sailboat, and steamers. Onset was once a major terminus for the old side wheeler steamboat ferries. The route included New Bedford, Woods Hole, Martha”s Vineyard, and Nantucket. OnsetVillage was known as Pine Point, bought by the Spiritualists in the late 1800’s. It was not until they named their Association the Onset bay Grove Association that Pine Point begins to be thought of as Onset.

The Barber Family Cottage

The Barber Family Cottage sits on the site of one of the three earliest houses on OnsetIsland, owned by Mr. Perkins from about 1900 to 1938. Ed and Ellie Fanning owned the site from 1938 to 1954. The house was lost in the 1938 hurricane. Mr. Fanning rebuilt and enjoyed many happy years. The cottage and a grandchild were lost in the 1954 hurricane. My dad, Mal Barber, purchased the site in 1956. He and his buddies built our cottage and the Barber Family has enjoyed many wonderful years since.

I was born in 1953 and my first visit was in 1955 – we rented a cottage for a one-week vacation. I’m not sure that I recall much before the 1960’s. We would spend every summer weekend and 3 weeks in August on the island. We would head for the island around 3:00pm every Friday evening and stay until Sunday afternoon. I now know that in the 1960’s and 1970’s the trip took us 2-3 hours, while today it takes about 1 hr 15 minutes from Everett to Onset.

During the 1950’s and 1960’s, my friends and I enjoyed the unique adventures on being on an island. We could play in the sand and water. We could hunt for shellfish – quahogs, clams, scallops, oysters, and mussels. One of the points was covered with mussels and nobody seemed to eat them. At high tide we would go to the beach and swim. At low tide, we would go to the lagoon and play in the shallows trying (but never catching) tiny fish and laughing all the while. I learned to use a motor boat, sail, swim, dive, water ski, and play hard & safe on the water.

During the early 1970’s, I worked on the island with Tommy Richards. We raised cottages, put on additions, did general repairs, replaced windows, painted, and shingled. I stayed on the island in our cottage by myself during the week and my family joined me on the weekends. I continued to enjoy the water, sun, and sand. I would sometimes work an 8-hour day and water ski during my lunch-hour – wow. These are things that I remember about Onset Island. I promise to share more about this wonderful place.

And please check out some of these links:

If I am Greener does it really help?

Sometimes when I think about the Earth, saving the Earth, Global Warming, stopping Global Warming, Recycling, Energy, and all of the options and factor, it can be quite scary. I think that I am a regular person and regular people don”t want to think about these things. To be honest, most people think that they can”t change the out-come. Many are willing to fight to the end. But most have bigger, more immediate problems, like paying their bills or feeding their family or getting medical care. Now, let”s say that I want to put one hour per week into being a good Earth citizen, what do I do? Do I work on saving the Earth, stopping Global Warming, saving Energy (in my house or around the neighborhood, or around town, or around the world) or what? What groups do I join? Again, most people, who do get involved, must put their time and effort into one cause and one group. So, let me give you my opinion. I suggest that everyone to do the following:

  • recycling of their own trash
  • support (with campaigning, money, or your vote) leaders who will work for the Environment
  • educate yourself on the issues, the problems, and the possible solutions
  • pick a group and join them.

Please note that there are some things that we can not stop. The earth will get warmer and the sea will rise. And later the earth will get colder and the sea will drop. No matter how much we pollute the ocean and fresh water, they will recover. We may control how quickly and to what degree we pollute the Earth, but we are and will continue to do so. Will man-kind survive the warming and cooling and polluting of the Earth – I can not say. Let’s build a list of things to do to help save Energy:

  • Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth – save 200 gallons per month.
  • Turn off the lights when leaving a room.
  • Walk or bike instead of driving.
  • Take short showers.
  • Drink tap water instead of bottled water.
  • Remove unnecessary items from your car to reduce weight.
  • Regularly replace the filter on your HVAC system.
  • Use cold water to wash clothes.
  • Install a programmable thermostat in your home.
  • Unplug Unused Electronics – save 25% of the electricity used
  • Recycle
  • Look For The ENERGY STAR
  • Use Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) – save 75%
  • Fix Leaky faucets – save 3,000 gallons of water each year
  • Buy Recycled
  • Enable low-power sleep modes and turn off computers and monitors at night
  • Properly Dispose of Hazardous
  • Buy Fresh, Local, Food

And please check out some of these links: 

Recycling in a Poor Economy

Just like other companies, the recycle companies are also hit by the poor economy. Once a company picks up the recyclables, they own them. These companies make their money by selling this material and in this economy their prices are also down and maybe they sell some of their material at a loss. We still need to recycle and we need to keep pressure on our towns and neighbors to continue to recycle. Recycling is good – even the profit is not. Recycle is Good Business.

Most people know that recycling plays an important role in managing the garbage generated in homes and businesses, and that it reduces the need for landfills and incinerators. But recycling is far more than a local waste management strategy; it is also an important strategy for reducing the environmental impacts of industrial production. Supplying industry with recycled materials, rather than virgin resources extracted from forests and mines, is environmentally preferable because it saves energy, reduces emissions of greenhouse gases and other dangerous air and water pollutants, and because it conserves scarce natural resources. In 2004, some states recycling programs supplies industry with over 4.7 million tons of scrap commodities like metals, paper, glass, plastics, wood, organics, and other materials.

Recycling is a growth industry with many kinds of business opportunities, from collection and processing to manufacturing to inventing new technologies. New businesses in anywhere will create jobs for more area and improve our economy. .

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