Wow!! December 1st tomorrow, the year has almost ended and we soon turn the calendar on a new year. This seemed like a good time to compile a couple of the odds and ends I have come across the last few weeks and pass them along. Just clearing out the files in preparation for a new year.
We have heard the stories of adopted children going off to find a long lost parent. Some of these stories will appear in the local news and others we may know in person. I
imagine some of those reunions can be quite touching, though we would never hear about the sad reunions as a human interest story. Technology, of course, has added a couple of new twists to that scenario and I saw an amazing story in the New York Times on November 20th which drove the point home. Someone has started a website where the offspring of anonymous sperm donors can find each other. Some of these technically “half” siblings want a chance to get to meet and share stories.
Here’s a quote from the article: “Deb Bash, the mother of a 7-year-old, exchanges e-mail messages often with eight other mothers who have a total of 12 children from the same donor, and she has created a baby book for her son with all their pictures. The siblings, Ms. Bash said, have given her son a way to feel connected to the otherwise abstract concept of a genetic father.”
You can find one of the donor sites at: http://www.donorsiblingregistry.com/
Amazing stuff and what happens when these “half” siblings want a say in the funeral arrangements? Could get interesting!
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From the November 28, 2005 edition of Newsweek (you’ll find Darwin on the cover), a story about how some college professors have begun providing PODCAST versions of their lectures on the school website. In most cases, they delay the posting of the recording for as much as a month to keep some incentive in place for students to still show up to the live lecture, but not always.
Obviously this does not work for labs or other in depth or interactive class experiences but for the old core curriculum, large lecture hall classes, many students find this far more helpful and convenient since they can listen to the lecture many times and easily rewind and review the material with their iPod and listen at times they find far more convenient.
I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating. Some of our potential consumers will come looking for these kinds of resources before you know it. We need to start preparing now. Once Apple Computer and all the rest saturate the youth market with these gadgets, they will find ways to sell them to the “geezer” market as well (everyone likes to listen to music after all). Once that happens, watch out people will one day start calling up asking for the podcast version of Mrs. Sullivan’s service from last week and they will be very disappointed if you’re not ready to deliver.
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NOTE!!!! Since the beginning of November then New York Times alone has run over 30 articles about bird flu. Stop sitting on the fence with this and get preparing. Talk with your state association office and find out what’s going on and keep pressing. We need LOTS of good answers in the months and years ahead and always keep in mind the big time think tank people HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO BURY 10 million dead in a matter of weeks. Right now they think we will cremate these bodies!!! The government needs our input. We as funeral directors have plenty of valuable information to give as long as we persist and find the right people to talk with.
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