Today's Crossword -- April 30th

Despite a small typo in my clues, yesterday's crossword puzzle was well received. Here's another one. I look forward to your feedback! Leave comments if you need additional hints!

My first crossword puzzle

As some of you know, I've gotten interested in writing crossword puzzles. It's fun and very challenging. I've been practicing by building small chunks.

To push myself forward, I have resolved to write and publish a little crossword each day relating to some current events.

Here's the first one. Please give it a try and let me know how I can do better. If you can't figure out an answer, let me know and I will give you some hints.

I hope that you enjoy!

Words that end in ak and ek

I'm almost getting scared to post these after only two days. You are all so much wordier than I am. Honestly, you people have to be using dictionaries. There's no way you know all those words.

I've now considered words that end in ak and ek. I've come up with only two so far:
trek and flak.

Please tell me what obvious ones I've missed this time!

Words that end in if, rf, and lf

There are plenty of words that end with the letter f. Thief, chief, beef, reef, just to name a few. There are far fewer words that end in if, rf and lf. Here are a few that I thought of during a meeting today:

snarf, shelf, elf, self, barf, NERF, calf, alf, smurf, half, turf, surf, coif, and waif.

Again, without using a dictionary, can you help me add some more?

Double Letter Combinations

Today I was thinking about common consecutive letters in crossword words. I divided the letters into two categories: common and uncommon.

Common consecutive letters:
bb, dd, ee, ff, gg, ll, mm, nn, oo, pp, rr, ss, tt, vv (?), zz.

Uncommon consecutive letters:
aa, cc, hh, ii, jj, kk, qq, uu, ww, xx, yy.

Here are a few good crossword examples I thought of that use some of those uncommon consecutive letters:
aardvark, AARP, AAMCO, MAACO, hajj, Exxon, Hawaii, R(N)ikki.

What are some other ones? Don't use a dictionary -- that's cheating.

Apple Supplier's Suicide Trail

I am an Apple fanboy. I've gone to Apple developer conferences, use their products, wear their tshirts and enjoy lengthy conversations about their design principles, new products, and Steve Jobs wardrobe.

I've been reading some recent news reports that describe a very sad situation in China where one of Apple's suppliers, Foxconn, has been the scene of several employee suicides. Apple has confirmed that one person committed suicide after Foxconn management accused the employee of losing a prototype of Apple's next generation iPhone (1). There is no way to lay the blame for that entirely on Apple. In fact, the pressure likely came from a Foxconn manager who wanted to protect their business relationship with Apple -- a relationship that surely would have soured had the lost prototype found its way into the wild.

Apple has investigated Foxconn's labor practices within the past few years. They concluded the most recent investigation in 2006 and found little out of the ordinary. In fact, they found that most people make more than minimum wage and none make less (2). Despite this exonerating report, some child labor proponents and human trafficking watchdogs suggest that an increase in suicides suggest that forced labor may be present at Foxconn (3).

I don't know what all this means. Apple says that they expect all their suppliers to treat employees with respect and dignity. I hope that they continue to keep a close eye on Foxconn and make changes if necessary. 

Tribute to the Miners

I am so incredibly sad for the miners that lost their lives and those that are still missing after the explosion in West Virginia. I am also sad for those coal miners that have lost their lives throughout the history of the industry. I know little or nothing about the trade, but it seems incredibly perilous and thankless. Yet a vast majority of our economy depends upon it.

A fitting tribute is due to those miners. We should ensure that none of their family or friends die in a coal mine ever again. This cannot be done by simply adding rules and regulations for coal mine operators. Those have turned out to be completely ineffective. Nor can this be done by telling the residents to find different local employment outside the mine. That is simply impossible. The townspeople are essentially indentured servants of the mining company. Without that mine, there would be no other way to earn a living. When the choice is between working at a dangerous underground mine to provide for yourself and your family and not being able to support your loved ones, it's not much a choice, is it?

The only way to make sure that no more people die in coal mining accidents is to stop coal mining entirely. Replace coal mines with facilities dedicated to production of energy by alternative means. For instance, try a solar panel installation, a wind farm or a nuclear reactor. Unfortunately, two of those three types of alternate energy production techniques require access to a particular climate. Death Valley is well suited to solar energy production. The East and West coasts are particularly well suited to the production of wind energy.

For many of the areas traditionally associated with coal mining, that leaves nuclear reactors as the only viable option. There is a stigma associated with nuclear energy production and I can't argue with that. The site of those barrels looming on the horizon is very intimidating. However, it's very safe. As of 2006, "[n]o one has died of a radiation-related accident in the history of the U.S. civilian nuclear reactor program." Groups like Greenpeace, formerly opposed to nuclear energy, have reversed their opinion and now think that Nuclear energy is the only way to solve climate change. 1

Saving future generations for working in harsh, unsafe conditions seems like a fitting tribute for those who lost their lives in West Virginia.

Miley Cyrus Birthday Cake

This weekend I helped celebrate the birthday of the director of non-profit I work with on Sunday evenings. The director, a male, was delighted to see this cake with a candle for each of the years he's lived -- 37. To reinforce the hilarity, the birthday boy is a semi professional rugby player who is currently sporting a cut above his eye suffered during a recent match. He wore the headset microphone the entire evening. Of course. 

Shelter Worker Responsibility

Shelter Worker Fired for Selling Drugs to Resident

Working in a homeless shelter is like working in a school. Both require that you deal with vulnerable populations on a regular basis and exercise an incredible amount of discipline in doing so. It is my experience that teachers and homeless shelter employees wield significant power over their students or residents. This power, unfortunately, is not always appropriately used. The times when this happens in schools are relatively well publicized. The times when it happens in homeless shelters are not.

Why is that? It could be that we value our youth more than we value our impoverished. Our youth represent the future and hope and the homeless represent failure? I absolutely agree with the former and vehemently disagree with the latter, but that's for another time.

The real issue is that situations of homeless shelter employees abusing their power and breaking the rules must be dealt with appropriately. Without this, the shelter system will become useless.


As it stands now, the shelter system is only marginally useful. Many homeless people would prefer to sleep on the streets (in even the harshest conditions) than use a shelter because they simply don't feel safe. They are worried that other residents will steal their things or physically harm them. If you add to that a fear of the shelter employees, all utility of the shelters will be lost.