UPLIFTING: The 2013 Inauguration Ceremony

It's Worth Remembering:
Change Happens, Both Ways

2013 Inauguration Ceremony

 

How About It, Middletown? Shall we Pay Unhoused Individuals to Help Keep our City Clean?

What do you think? 
Shall we Pay Unhoused Individuals to
Help Keep Middletown Clean?

A certain city initiative (in Portland, Oregon) has taken a different approach to homelessness by paying unhoused individuals to clean streets and public spaces. 

Rather than focusing solely on emergency aid, the program offers structured work, income, and daily purpose, addressing both material and psychological needs.

Participants report increased self-worth and stability, while communities benefit from cleaner neighborhoods and stronger social connection.

Remarkably, around 70 percent of participants later transitioned into permanent housing, suggesting that opportunity can be as powerful as assistance.

This model reframes homelessness as a solvable human condition rather than a permanent label, showing how dignity, trust, and inclusion can restore momentum where survival alone once dominated. #fblifestyle  

_________

From Facebook Post: Saving Grace, Saving Tax Payers' Dollars, Keeping Neighborhoods & Streets Clean (alt. title).  Multiple comments for this post state that Portland, OR, is the city, as shown in local news & online.

A note from AI for younger readers who might not have read the pertinent chapter in their history books: 
During the Great Depression, WPA* workers built massive amounts of public infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, parks, airports, post offices, and recreational facilities like swimming pools and playgrounds, while also employing artists, writers, and musicians on cultural projects. These labor-intensive projects created millions of jobs, constructing everything from city halls and dams to community centers and trails, leaving a lasting physical legacy still with us across the nation today.

______________

Also from AI: *WPA refers to the Works Progress Administration, a US New Deal agency during the Great Depression that employed millions of people to take part in public works jobs. WPA was a lifeline for some, and a path to a new life or a new career for others. 

Relief in 4 Minutes for Chronic Hip Pain

 

Relief in 4 Minutes
for Chronic Hip Pain

*Snake Hips Tucker
(1920s-30s dancer)

Worth a Try: Exercise
for Easing Hip & Leg Pain

If you're of a certain age and have spent much of your working life at a desk, chances are you'll eventually experience tight hips, with symptoms of tightness or pain, a change in your gait (the way you walk) or both. And frustration because you don't know know how this happened or how to fix it.

Resolution for hip & leg pain may be less complicated than you think. My recent discovery and practice of targeted exercise videos on youtube (Silver Sneakers & others) has resulted in an apparent complete recovery from what seemed on its way to debilitating pain in legs and hips. I also have an inclination to spread the good word of something that might help.** 

Try these exercises, click to view: 
4-Min Stretch Routine for Hip Mobility  

Lower Body Workout for Active Exercisers**

About Tight Hips (from Healthline.com) What does it mean to have tight hips? A feeling of tightness across the hips comes from tension around the hip flexors. The hip flexors are a group of muscles around the top of the thighs that connect the upper leg to the hip. These muscles allow you to bend at the waist and raise your leg. (Some of the main hip flexors are the Iliopsoas, rectus femoris, tensor fasciae latae, sartorius.)

Many people have tight hips, including both people who spend several hours a day sitting as well as regular gym-goers and professional athletes. Some people are more prone to tightness in that area of their body, too. Tight hips may put you at increased risk for injury due to the increased demands on tissues that aren’t moving properly. Before going to a physical therapist or doctor for treatment, try some of these exercises and see how you respond. Practice slowly and carefully at first, and see your doctor if you feel a need for reassurance.

More advanced stretches**
7 Stretches to loosen up tight hips

 *If you've found relief with these moves, look to youtube.com for additional Silver Sneakers' exercise routines for hips, back, legs, etc. If your insurance plan offers Silver Sneakers, take a look & see if you can log in to get started at silversneakers.com.

*Snake Hips Tucker
(1920s-30s dancer)

The IEEE Spectrum: Excellent Source for News of Current Technical Innovation

The IEEE* Spectrum:

Sample Article
CES 2026:

The First Solid-State Vehicle May Be a Motorcycle

Verge Motorcycles and Donut Lab say

they’ll beat BYD to market.

Lawrence Ulrich

09 Jan 2026

5 min read

Lawrence Ulrich is an award-winning auto writer and former chief auto critic at The New York Times and The Detroit Free Press.

​

The solid-state battery pack of the Verge Motorcycles TS Pro stores either 20.2 or 33.3 kilowatt hours, depending on the model.

 Donut Lab

Link: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ces-2026-solid-state-batteries?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=hero&utm_campaign=hero-2026-01-12&utm_content=hero6

In a global race to get solid-state batteries on the road, few would bet on two tiny companies in Estonia, known for their innovative hubless, in-wheel electric motors and motorcycles. Yet these upstarts have apparently done what Tesla, BYD and other EV-and-battery titans have been unable to do.

To be fair, building a relative handful of batteries for a low-volume motorcycle is a whole different ballgame from, say, Toyota having to validate and stand behind thousands or millions of car batteries under warranty. Nevertheless, Verge Motorcycles and its tech spin-off, Donut Lab, are claiming a checkered flag at CES 2026 in Las Vegas: The Verge TS Pro motorcycle will begin shipping with Donut Lab’s solid-state batteries in the first quarter of this year, founders of the two companies told IEEE Spectrum. All other Verge bikes will follow with their own solid-state packs, to be built in Finland, just across the Gulf of Finland from Estonia.

Short riding range and frequent, lengthy . . . (continued) 

*From Wikipedia, link below: 

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) charitable professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and related disciplines. Today, it is a global network of more than 486,000 engineering and STEM professionals . . . 

Wikipedia: IEEE

ZOOM Genealogy Club - Saturday, January 24, 2026

 

John Grenham

Date:    Saturday, January 24, 2026

Time:    1:30 PM

Host:    Godfrey Memorial Library

Topic:   Mapping Ireland's Records

John Grenham, straight from Dublin, will tell us about using his website johngrenham.com for Mapping Ireland's Records.  If you've never heard John speak or visited his website, you're in for a treat.

John has extensive background in Irish genealogy, having worked for and with the Irish Times and the Dublin City Library among other prestigious organizations. With the help of his son Eoin, he now runs his own website which acts as an excellent jumping off point for Irish genealogical research. He also wrote THE book on Irish genealogy, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors. He has that lovely Irish lilt and a wonderfully wry sense of humor.  You’ll enjoy his presentation. We're thrilled that he'll be joining us.

Here is his description of his presentation:

The talk explores ways in which visualising the locations of households of particular surnames in Catholic records, valuations, census records and records of births, marriages and deaths can help with genealogy and local history, providing vivid examples of just how local some names are and how impossibly widespread others can be. All the records covered are free online and form part the basis of almost all nineteenth-century Irish research.

In addition, some of the focus will be on maps of the geographic areas used to collect the records. The talk will give some of the technical background involved in creating the maps, but will mostly focus on their use and on how they shed light on Irish surnames and Irish families.

A 33% discount on a year's subscription to www.johngrenham.com will be available for three days after the talk.  

Please register by 4:00 PM Friday, January 23. The invite will be sent out on that Friday.

Godfrey Premium members can register for free at the following email: zoomregistration@godfrey.org  If you are not a Godfrey Premium member and want to attend the presentation, you can pay $10 via PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/us/home) with the payment sent to Godfrey Memorial Library. Then register using the above email.