Click on this link to access information about the book sale.
https://stevenspoint.news/
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
The Flying Spaghetti Monster Has Spoken!
Remember the re-scheduled spaghetti dinner benefit for the Kollocks on Tues, April 16, from 4:30 to 7:30 pm at the Point of Discovery School at 1900 W Zinda Dr in Stevens Point. Please help support this family.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
The Book Sale is Coming
The SPARTA Spring Book Sale is right around the corner. You can find us on the first floor of the Central Wisconsin Children's Museum Building, 1100 Main St., Stevens Point.
Times are:
Wednesday, May 1 -noon - 7pm
Thursday, May 2 - 9am - 7pm
Friday, May 3 - 9am - 7pm
Saturday, May 4 - 9am - 2pm
If you can work a shift, contact Nancy Mezyk.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Our Latest Good Deed is Done
Sandy Williams, at far right, executive director of the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum, demonstrates the recently installed Automatic Door Operator donated by the Stevens Point Area Retired Teachers’ Association (SPARTA) from profits of a recent book sale. The north entrance off the city parking lot is now handicapped accessible to the Museum and businesses on the first floor. SPARTA book committee members pictured, from left, are Janeen Kwarciany, Janet Swiston, Nancy Kemmeter with Maya Kemmeter, Mary Marks, Nancy Mezyk, Charlene Laurent, and Santha Bickford, president of SPARTA. The next SPARTA book sale is Wednesday, May 1, to Saturday, May 4.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Paid Your Taxes Yet?
https://itep.org/notadime/
60 Companies Avoiding All Federal Income Taxes in 2018
U.S. Income and Federal Tax figures in millions of dollars.
Company | U.S. Income | Federal Tax | Effective Tax Rate | Industry |
---|---|---|---|---|
Activision Blizzard | $447 | $-228 | -51% | Computers, office equip, software, data |
AECOM Technology | $238 | $-122 | -51% | Engineering & construction |
Alaska Air Group | $576 | $-5 | -1% | Transportation |
Amazon.com | $10,835 | $-129 | -1% | Retail & wholesale trade |
Ameren | $1,035 | $-10 | -1% | Utilities, gas and electric |
American Electric Power | $1,943 | $-32 | -2% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Aramark | $315 | $-48 | -15% | Miscellaneous services |
Arrow Electronics | $167 | $-12 | -7% | Retail & wholesale trade |
Arthur Gallagher | $322 | — | — | Financial |
Atmos Energy | $600 | $-10 | -2% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Avis Budget Group | $78 | $-7 | -9% | Motor vehicles and parts |
Celanese | $480 | $-142 | -30% | Chemicals |
Chevron | $4,547 | $-181 | -4% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
Cliffs Natural Resources | $565 | $-1 | 0% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
CMS Energy | $774 | $-67 | -9% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Deere | $2,152 | $-268 | -12% | Industrial machinery |
Delta Air Lines | $5,073 | $-187 | -4% | Transportation |
Devon Energy | $1,297 | $-14 | -1% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
Dominion Resources | $3,021 | $-45 | -1% | Utilities, gas and electric |
DTE Energy | $1,215 | $-17 | -1% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Duke Energy | $3,029 | $-647 | -21% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Eli Lilly | $598 | $-54 | -9% | Pharmaceuticals & medical products |
EOG Resources | $4,067 | $-304 | -7% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
FirstEnergy | $1,495 | $-16 | -1% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Gannett | $7 | $-11 | -164% | Publishing, printing |
General Motors | $4,320 | $-104 | -2% | Motor vehicles and parts |
Goodyear Tire & Rubber | $440 | $-15 | -3% | Motor vehicles and parts |
Halliburton | $1,082 | $-19 | -2% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
Honeywell International | $2,830 | $-21 | -1% | Industrial machinery |
International Business Machines | $500 | $-342 | -68% | Computers, office equip, software, data |
JetBlue Airways | $219 | $-60 | -27% | Transportation |
Kinder Morgan | $1,784 | $-22 | -1% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
MDU Resources | $314 | $-16 | -5% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
MGM Resorts International | $648 | $-12 | -2% | Miscellaneous services |
Molson Coors | $1,325 | $-23 | -2% | Food & beverages & tobacco |
Netflix | $856 | $-22 | -3% | Retail & wholesale trade |
Occidental Petroleum | $3,379 | $-23 | -1% | Oil, gas & pipelines |
Owens Corning | $405 | $-10 | -2% | Miscellaneous manufacturing |
Penske Automotive Group | $393 | $-16 | -4% | Motor vehicles and parts |
Performance Food Group | $192 | $-9 | -4% | Retail & wholesale trade |
Pioneer Natural Resources | $1,249 | — | — | Oil, gas & pipelines |
Pitney Bowes | $125 | $-50 | -40% | Computers, office equip, software, data |
PPL | $1,110 | $-19 | -2% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Principal Financial | $1,641 | $-49 | -3% | Financial |
Prudential Financial | $1,440 | $-346 | -24% | Financial |
Public Service Enterprise Group | $1,772 | $-97 | -5% | Utilities, gas and electric |
PulteGroup | $1,340 | $-44 | -3% | Miscellaneous manufacturing |
Realogy | $199 | $-13 | -7% | Miscellaneous services |
Rockwell Collins | $719 | $-16 | -2% | Aerospace & defense |
Ryder System | $350 | $-23 | -7% | Transportation |
Salesforce.com | $800 | — | — | Computers, office equip, software, data |
SpartanNash | $40 | $-2 | -4% | Retail & wholesale trade |
SPX | $66 | $-5 | -8% | Industrial machinery |
Tech Data | $203 | $-10 | -5% | Retail & wholesale trade |
TOTAL, THESE COMPANIES | $79,025 | $-4 | -5% | |
Trinity Industries | $138 | $-19 | -14% | Miscellaneous manufacturing |
UGI | $550 | $-3 | 0% | Utilities, gas and electric |
United States Steel | $432 | $-40 | -9% | Metals & metal products |
Whirlpool | $717 | $-70 | -10% | Electronics, electrical equipment |
Wisconsin Energy | $1,139 | $-218 | -19% | Utilities, gas and electric |
Xcel Energy | $1,434 | $-34 | -2% | Utilities, gas and electric |
What Those DNA Tests Really Show
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferraff/2019/04/09/genetic-astrology-when-ancient-dna-meets-ancestry-testing/#544b604b6c69
Jennifer Raff makes these points:
- Your DNA is not a good snapshot of your whole family tree more than a few generations back. You have many more genealogical ancestors than you have genetic ancestors.
- Any given individual in the past (including all of the ancient people referenced in the Primeval DNA test) is extremely unlikely to have passed along their DNA to anyone, including you.
- Any person in the distant past—be they anonymous peasant or famous monarch—who passed on their DNA into present times might be your ancestor, but he or she will also likely be the ancestor of everyone else in the world. In other words, as geneticist Dr. Adam Rutherford explained in his post on the subject for The Guardian, “we are all special, which means none of us are.”
The BIG Picture
There can be only be one?
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2019/04/11/there-can-be-only-one/
This image illustrates hominin history over 4 million years, highlighting a recent discovery in the Philippines. Is anyone else as horrified by it as I am?

It illustrates 8 species of Homo in the last million years. The fossil record is spotty, so there are probably more…and the record prior to a million years ago is going to be even weaker, and the number of species is going to be even less representative of reality. Our family was a wonderful flowering bush of diversity, and now its been pared down to a single twig, us.
That’s an illustration of failure. We should be worried, especially since we’re actively exterminating even our distant cousins, taking an axe to the whole family tree. We’re working towards only supporting one primate type on the entire planet, which seems a little selfish and short-sighted.
--Pharyngula
Click on graphic to enlarge.
George Who?
During a guided tour of Mount Vernon last April with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump learned that Washington was one of the major real-estate speculators of his era. So, he couldn’t understand why America’s first president didn’t name his historic Virginia compound or any of the other property he acquired after himself.
“If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said, according to three sources briefed on the exchange. "You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you"...
If Trump was impressed with Washington’s real estate instincts, he was less taken by Mount Vernon itself, which the first president personally expanded from a modest one-and-a-half story home into an 11,000 square foot mansion. The rooms, Trump said, were too small, the staircases too narrow, and he even spotted some unevenness in the floorboards, according to four sources briefed on his comments. He could have built the place better, he said, and for less money.
-Digby, Hullaballoo
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
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