General Eric Shinseki

This January, President Obama appointed retired General Eric Shinseki as the head of Veterans' Affairs. Why is this important?

After a long and illustrious career in the Army Gen. Shinseki, a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a wounded veteran, testified before congress in February 2003. In his testimony Gen. Shinseki made it clear that he did not agree with the Bush administration on the number of troops required in Iraq; he stated that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed. He also talked about ethnic and tribal clashes that would complicate matters further. After this, Gen. Shinseki's credibility was all but destroyed and he was later pressured to 'retire'.

Read more:
Times Topics from the NYT
A Second Act for General Shinseki
New Strategy Vindicates Ex-Army Chief Shinseki
Pentagon Contradicts General On Iraq Occupation Force's Size
Short, 2-minute, C-Span Video on U-Tube of Gen. Shinseki's congressional testimony

Is Trick-or-Treating really safe? What about razorblades and poisoned candy?

Evil strangers handing out poisoned Halloween candy is an urban legend. One of the first reported cases occurred in 1970 in Detroit, Michigan. Kevin Toston (age 5) got into his uncle’s heroine and died of an overdose four days later. His family sprinkled heroine into the Halloween candy in an attempt to protect the uncle. One of the most famous cases of poisoned Halloween candy occurred in Houston, Texas in 1974. Timothy Mark O’Bryan’s father gave him a cyanide laced pixie stick after taking out a large life insurance policy on Timothy (age 8). O’Bryan’s father also gave cyanide laced pixie sticks to his daughter as well as three other children (who did not eat their pixies sticks). For more information on additional “poisoned Halloween candy” read Halloween Poisonings (Snopes.com).

Razorblades and pins in Halloween candy have happened but most alleged cases have been exposed as hoaxes so these are very rare occurrences (Pins and Needles).

How do I email a cell phone number?

All mobile phones have an automatic email account associated with them. The tricky part is knowing the "@..." extension. Simply enter the 10-digit cell phone number and then the "@..." extension. Below is a list of the extensions for the most common cell phone providers:

AT&T: 10-digit cell phone number@txt.att.net

Cingular:10-digit cell phone number@txt.att.net

MetroPCS: 10-digit cell phone number@mymetropcs.com

Nextel: 10-digit cell phone number@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint: 10-digit cell phone number@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile: 10-digit cell phone number@tmomail.net

Verizon: 10-digit cell phone number@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile: 10-digit cell phone number@vmobl.com


For example if your cell phone number is 222-333-4444 and your provider is verizon then your cell's email address is 2223334444@vtext.com

How to Dry Wet or Water Damaged Photos

I was able to attend a disaster and emergency planning workshop this week and learned how to dry photos that have gotten wet. It is really a very simple process that Randy Silverman, the Preservation Librarian of the University of Utah Marriott Library, has developed and I want to share.

First thing to consider is what got the photos wet. If it was water was there any sewage in it?

Mostly likely you will need to rise the photo in clean water and if the water or wet material is very dirty a series of rinses maybe necessary.

In the unlikely event that only clean water got on the photo, you can skip the rinsing step.

Then place a sheet of plastic over the table or workspace to protect it from water damage.

Layer the objects in the order below:
3-5 lbs. weight
Board
20 pt. blotter
Hollytex, Pelon, or non-fusible interfacing
Photograph
20 pt. blotter paper
Board
Plastic sheet to protect the table/work surface
Table/work surface

As the water is drawn from the photo the blotter paper may need to be changed, check by touch to see how saturated the blotter paper has become.

Can Stress Turn My Hair Gray?

The answer is simply, "No."

However, according to Laurence Meyer, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology at the University of Utah, stress can accelerate the rate of hair loss making gray hairs more obvious and thus, giving the false impression of stress turning a person gray.

Shape Magazine. (May 2008). Volume 27 (9). Retrieved using EBSCO’s Health Source – Consumer Edition database.

Where is my tax return?

It’s early May and you still have not received your tax return. To find out the status go to the IRS’ website.

In the left-sidebar, under the Online Services heading click on the,
,link.

This will redirect you to another page with more information, click on the, Where's My Refund?, link to be directed to the online request form.

Or you can click the links in this post to take you directly to the different pages.

Also, if you have received an email from someone claiming to be the IRS, do NOT respond. This is a phishing scam. Please forward all these emails to phishing@irs.gov. To read more about this go this IRS webpage, How to Report and Identify Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites.

Concerned about the economy?

People have so many questions today about what is happening with the economy and how to best weather this recession. The government documents librarian, Jason Phillips, with the Mississippi State University has put together this great website to help answer some of those questions: http://guides.library.msstate.edu/content.php?pid=38283&sid=281174