Published: June 25, 2008 05:12 pm      

Czarnik included in documentary

Bluefield, Virginia’s Ann Czarnik, M.D. will be featured in ABC’s documentary “Hopkins.” The series will begin on June 26 at 10 p.m. EDT. According to the ABC News, “The six-part series takes an intimate look at the men and women who call The John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore their home. According to sources, Dr. Czarnik will be in the last five segments. She is an emergency medicine resident at Johns Hopkins. After receiving her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia, Dr. Czarnik worked in clinical research at Virginia Commonwealth University and at the University of Virginia.

Ann Czarnik is a graduate of Graham High School and is the daughter of Teresa Paine of Bluefield Virginia and Tom Czarnik, a Princeton attorney. She is also the granddaughter of Dr. and Mrs. Albert J. Paine of Bluefield. The G-Men and the Bluefields are proud of this young lady.

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The West Virginia Division of Highways recently paved a segment of WV 102 between Nemours and Yards in Mercer County. A portion of the shoulder area on the 18-foot wide roadway was widened to improve safety on that section. The $222,000 contract was performed by West Virginia Paving, Inc.

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Who elects the president? The Electoral College. As part of the U.S. Electoral College, West Virginia, along with Florida and Michigan electors, will cast ballots on Dec. 15 at a meeting in their respective states. West Virginia’s five electors are not bound by law to cast their vote for a specific candidate for president of the United States. The Virginia statute is advisory and the Commonwealth’s 13 electors “shall be expected to vote for the nominees.”

“In Virginia both the Republican and Democratic parties select a slate of electors among their respective membership — one for each congressional district and two at large. Whichever candidate wins the state’s popular vote, his or her party’s electors officially cast their ballots during a meeting Dec. 15.”

Hopefully, electors will cast their ballots in line with the choices made by the popular vote of the American people. In West Virginia the party of the winner of the popular vote will appoint five electors. It will be our duty to support the president they elect.

Is it a good system? I believe it is because it is above the squandering of many inept and corrupt election officials that permeate much of our country. They will not have lost ballot boxes, stuffed ballot boxes, inaccurate voting machines, hanging chads and the other problems we have associated with electing the single most important leader of our nation and the free world.

But there remains the “Faithless elector” — one who does not cast his or her vote for the person they have pledged to elect. Thus far the “faithless elector” has never changed the outcome of a presidential election.

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While many are blaming OPEC for the high prices, others are blaming oil companies, oil executives, Congress, Bush, Cheney, Democrats, Republicans, commodities traders, speculators, oil refining capability, the U.S. auto industry, drivers, and the minimum wage attendant at the pumps. The only one that isn’t responsible for part of the problem is the gas pump attendant and he receives the abuse.

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At one time there were many “Gasworks” in Europe and in North American communities. Deriving gas from coal is not a new idea, in fact is an old process. In the late 19th century, synthetic gas produced from coal helped turn Paris into the City of Lights and lit up London’s streets. The emergence of other energy sources including natural gas rendered many of these facilities obsolete and impractical. However there are new technologies that may be able to revive coal gasification. The Canadians are seriously looking into the revival of gasification. The process uses steam and controlled amounts of air and oxygen to break pulverized coal into its basic constituents.

The 1944 edition of “The Book of Knowledge” includes a section on coal gasification technology. Gasworks contained a number of hollow tubes called retorts where a fire is built below them. The hot fire mixed with air or air with steam is forced through the retorts which are charged with bituminous coal and through a relatively simple process coal is broken up into its basic parts and gas is extracted from the coal. The gas was then rid of tar, ammonia, other things, eventually purified, and then piped into homes and factories for use. While some people are spouting off that there is no such thing as gasification of coal, perhaps they simply are not old enough to remember or were never around the gas works that were in many parts of the country before WW II.

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There you have it, a few words on politics and items of interest to the area. I wish you more blue skies today.

Wilson Butt, a Bluefield resident, is a retired Department of Highways official.