timber dick's funeral arrangements

tomicah asked that i make sure that this is posted somewhere clearly so that people who would like to attend can. it is a very very sad day.

Funeral services for Timber will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at 610 Coors St. in Lakewood on Tuesday, April 15 at 10 a.m.

(from the denver post)

Timber Dick, a Colorado inventor and the son of Colorado's first female lieutenant governor, Nancy Dick, died late Thursday afternoon.

Dick, 52, was critically injured two weeks ago after the front wheel of his Dodge Caravan locked, and the vehicle slid off Interstate 70 and tumbled down a 240-foot slope. The vehicle erupted in flames, and he was burned on more than 60 percent of his body.

Dick's wife, Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick, said she was grateful for the time she was able to spend with her husband. "I really felt we shared a lifetime of joy and productivity and service," she said today at a news conference. "I really don't believe in death; I believe in life. I'm looking forward to a new kind of relationship with him"

His eldest son, Tomicah Tillemann-Dick said his father made "incredible contributions" during his lifetime, affecting "thousands of lives."

Dick, who headed recruiting for the University of Denver's School of Engineering and Computer Science, was slated to receive an award from NASA at a ceremony later this month in New York.

Dick was an inventor whose company, Tendix Development, won a transportation-design award earlier this year in a contest sponsored by a NASA publication. The space agency praised him for an engine he designed.

timber and zen

He unsuccessfully ran for Denver City Council in 2003.

His mother, Nancy, served from 1979 to 1986 as lieutenant governor.

Tomicah Tillemann-Dick praised the doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital's burn unit who fought to save his father. "They brought him back from the brink so many times," said Tillemann-Dick.

Dr. Gordon Lindberg, director of the hospital's burn unit, said everyone in the unit felt the loss.

"No matter how many years you spend doing it, we feel each loss every single time," said Lindberg."We knew he had suffered what would be a lethal injury. At best, his survival was put at one percent. It didn't stop us from doing everything we could to take care of him because people who have injuries like him, do go home," he said.


Lindberg said doctors originally believed Timber Dick had not suffered any burns to his lungs, but after the third and fourth day, it became apparent that his lungs had been burned.

"We had trouble getting him to breathe. One by one, his organs began to fail, and there was nothing we could do. Even the most heroic of gestures would not have saved him."

But Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick said that before her husband died, they spent wonderful moments talking about their lives together.

"We communicated about a lot of things — about all the births of our children. Our first baby was born on the way to the hospital in a car. And Timber delivered him with two dogs in the car, and it was quite dramatic, crazy and wonderful," she said. annette with zen at after the press confernce

"We also talked about his inventions, including a car-seat stroller. It was wonderful. Then we talked about the ultra high-efficiency engine that he has been working on. We talked about the gifts of love and service, the nights that we spent together in helping host in homeless shelters," she said.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 610 Coors St., in Lakewood. In addition to his wife and son, Dick is survived by 10 other children.

news9 story
rocky mountain news
7 news story
san mateo daily journal

this kinda crazy

i took this test, because kristoff did. here are my scores... i am not really sure what it all means. probably something like...kristoff is WAY more racist than me.

Game Over
Your Score: 210
Average reaction time:
Black Armed:660.76ms
Black Unarmed:827.2ms
White Armed:595.08ms
White Unarmed:798.12ms

April 6, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Our Racist, Sexist Selves

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

To my horror, I turn out to be a racist.

The University of Chicago offers an on-line psychological test in which you encounter a series of 100 black or white men, holding either guns or cellphones. You’re supposed to shoot the gunmen and holster your gun for the others.

I shot armed blacks in an average of 0.679 seconds, while I waited slightly longer — .694 seconds — to shoot armed whites. Conversely, I holstered my gun more quickly when encountering unarmed whites than unarmed blacks.

Take the test yourself and you’ll probably find that you show bias as well. Most whites and many blacks are more quick to shoot blacks, no matter how egalitarian they profess to be.

Harvard has a similar battery of psychological tests online. These “implicit attitude tests” very cleverly show that a stunningly large proportion of people who honestly believe themselves to be egalitarian unconsciously associate good with white and bad with black.

The unconscious is playing a political role this year, for the evidence is overwhelming that most Americans have unconscious biases both against blacks and against women in executive roles.

At first glance, it may seem that Barack Obama would face a stronger impediment than Hillary Clinton. Experiments have shown that the brain categorizes people by race in less than 100 milliseconds (one-tenth of a second), about 50 milliseconds before determining sex. And evolutionary psychologists believe we’re hard-wired to be suspicious of people outside our own group, to save our ancestors from blithely greeting enemy tribes of cave men. In contrast, there’s no hard-wired hostility toward women, though men may have a hard-wired desire to control and impregnate them.

Yet racism may also be easier to override than sexism. For example, one experiment found it easy for whites to admire African-American doctors; they just mentally categorized them as “doctors” rather than as “blacks.” Meanwhile, whites categorize black doctors whom they dislike as “blacks.”

In another experiment, researchers put blacks and whites in sports jerseys as if they belonged to two basketball teams. People looking at the photos logged the players in their memories more by team than by race, recalling a player’s jersey color but not necessarily his or her race. But only very rarely did people forget whether a player was male or female.

“We can make categorization by race go away, but we could never make gender categorization go away,” said John Tooby, a scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who ran the experiment. Looking at the challenges that black and female candidates face in overcoming unconscious bias, he added, “Based on the underlying psychology and anthropology, I think it’s more difficult for a woman, though not impossible.”

Alice Eagly, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, agrees: “In general, gender trumps race. ... Race may be easier to overcome.”

The challenge for women competing in politics or business is less misogyny than unconscious sexism: Americans don’t hate women, but they do frequently stereotype them as warm and friendly, creating a mismatch with the stereotype we hold of leaders as tough and strong. So voters (women as well as men, though a bit less so) may feel that a female candidate is not the right person for the job because of biases they’re not even aware of.

“I don’t have to be conscious of this,” said Nilanjana Dasgupta, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “All I think is that this person isn’t a good fit for a tough leadership job.”

Women now hold 55 percent of top jobs at American foundations but are still vastly underrepresented among political and corporate leaders — and one factor may be that those are seen as jobs requiring particular toughness. Our unconscious may feel more of a mismatch when a woman competes to be president or a C.E.O. than when she aims to lead a foundation or a university.

Women face a related challenge: Those viewed as tough and strong are also typically perceived as cold and unfeminine. Many experiments have found that women have trouble being perceived as both nice and competent.

“Clinton runs the risk of being seen as particularly cold, particularly uncaring, because she doesn’t fit the mold,” said Joshua Correll, a psychologist at the University of Chicago. “It probably is something a man doesn’t deal with.”

But biases are not immutable. Research subjects who were asked to think of a strong woman then showed less implicit bias about men and women. And students exposed to a large number of female professors also experienced a reduction in gender stereotypes.

So maybe the impact of this presidential contest won’t be measured just in national policies, but also in progress in the deepest recesses of our own minds.

kitchen and compost

so this weekend betsy, jennie, and holly helped me destroy my kitchen and get my composter set up. i can't even begin to tell you how sore i am today. holly is complaining about the same thing. there are muscles in my forearm that i forgot all about, they are killing me. i am going to the sauna soon to soothe these hurty muscles. but i am very pleased with all that we got done, and i can't say thank you enough to jennie, betsy, and holly! but i will say it again . . . THANQQQQQQ!!!!!!!!

this is video of betsy getting the stupid wall down. we really worked and worked to get this stuff out.






i have wanted these pillars gone since day one and now they are.

the exuberant triumph over the pillar
betsy has a story to add about the other pillar.
i am hoping she will be a guest blogger and share it.



you know how people are always talking about how hard it must of been for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel. i have an all new appreciation of how hard that must of been.

for most of the day holly worked outside getting the composter dug under the deck.
while i tore the the ceiling out of the kitchen (i need to go back and get photos).
holly dug a HUGE hole for this composter and seriously did such a great job.
she says she loves digging holes, so i think i am going to hire her for all my hole diggin needs.
i think she thinks she is part of the american portrait here...

this photos is for heather. i am going to get you measurements tomorrow. promise.

now, for those of you interested in what the new kitchen is going to look like. the photos below are the cabinets i am going to have installed in the kitchen. i will have bamboo butcher block counter tops with just a bit of a icestone counter in a blue (seen to your right)

i am going over to the house now and will take a photo of the kitchen with all the destruction and post it later...

timber dick's accident

i have been wanting to write about this since sunday, but not really sure how. i am glad that i don't have to really.

as you know, i have fRamily here in dc. tomicah, sarah, kimber, dave and the brood that comes along with them are at the core of that fRamily. they have literally had the most hellish year i have heard of. their grandfather died much too quickly after a short bout with cancer, sarah had to spend some time in the hospital after having little thomas (and part of that time was scary), tomicah fell down the stairs, dave fell off the porch, and the list goes on. it is a ton. if you don't know them, these people are the most sane, together, pleasant people you will ever meet. kindness is second nature to them. i have never had friends who serve so many with out expectation. they are a huge blessing in my life. i spent wonderful easters, a christmas, and loads of other wonderful times with the whole tillemann-dick family. i really do feel so lucky to have such wonderful, kind, loving friends who are fRamily.

early sunday morning i got a call from kimber asking for some help taking something to church. she didn't sound good. we talked. she told me the story (or the little bits and pieces of it that she knew then). later we saw the whole family. it is really hard to see people you love hurt like that.

anyway, here is the story of their father's nightmarish car accident and the brave souls who literally provided him with the chance to live. thank-you scott and andrew!!!


Passersby lauded for life-saving actions
By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 04/03/2008 08:49:54 PM MDT

Timber Dick's wife is counting her blessings and praying for one more stroke of good fortune while her husband clings to life in a burn ward.
Dick, 52, was burned over 60 percent of his body when a front wheel on his Dodge Caravan locked and the vehicle slid off Interstate 70. It hit a guard rail, burst into flames and tumbled 240 feet down a slope Saturday.

Timber Dick was driving on Interstate 70 on Saturday when the front wheel on his Dodge Caravan locked. The minivan slid off the highway, tumbled 240 feet down a slope and burst into flames. (Special to the Post | Scott Boylan)

"Timber climbed out from the flames and dragged himself, crawling and flaming from that vehicle ... It would have been so much easier to just die," said Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick, at a press conference today to thank the good Samaritans who put out the flames devouring his body.



Dick is alive, she says, because Andrew Rosenberg had a fire extinguisher in his vehicle when he and Scott Boylan stopped to help Dick.

Andrew Rosenberg, left, and Scott Boylan saved Timber Dick's life. (THE DENVER POST | HELEN H. RICHARDSON)

Boylan, Newsradio 850 KOA traffic reporter, and Rosenberg were returning from a day of taking pictures and four-wheeling in the mountains when they saw Dick's minivan careen down the hill and come to rest on the frontage road.

Dick was ablaze, and flames were licking at the dry grass around him, Rosenberg said.
"He was engulfed when I got up to him. I am convinced that we couldn't have put it out with jackets," Rosenberg said.

He was able to block out the shock of the calamity as he helped put out the flames, Boylan added.

"You are not thinking about the fire and the smell and the explosions and everything that is going on — you just don't pay any heed of that."

Others also stopped and helped to redirect and put out the grass fires that threatened to add smoke inhalation to the damage that Dick suffered.

Dick is an inventor whose company, Tendix Development, won a transportation-design award earlier this year in contest sponsored by a NASA publication. He unsuccessfully ran for Denver City Council in 2003. His mother was Colorado's first female lieutenant governor, Nancy Dick, who served from 1979 to 1986.

Dick has already lived through the initial 72hours that is so crucial to a burn victim's chances of survival, said Gordon Lindberg, director of the University of Colorado Hospital's burn unit.

From left: Glorianna Tillemann-Dick, 14, is comforted by her sister, Kimber Cook, while Zenith, 12, hugs his mother Annette Tillemann-Dick after the press conference. (THE DENVER POST | HELEN H. RICHARDSON)
you just don't want to see photos like this of your friends in the newspaper!!!

He is in a medically induced coma to spare him the severe pain of his burns and the repeated surgeries that will be required to heal him. He will remain in that state for more than a month, and there is no guarantee that he won't contract an infection that could kill him before he wakes.

His wife, who sobbed often as she spoke, is waiting and praying.

"Every time I feel discouraged I think of these miracles and gifts we have had already. I am really focusing on what incredible things have happened."

A fund has been set up to help the family cover medical expenses.
Donations are being accepted for the Timber Dick Catastrophe Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank in the Denver area. The School of Engineering and Computer Science also is accepting donations through Executive Assistant Donna Kolosky in Room 228, Boettcher East.

For questions about donating, call Chase Squires at 303-871-2660.

Timber Dick and Annette Tilleman-Dick have a large family. (Special to the Post - Tilleman-Dick Family)

another article:


Timber Dick, 52, is a director of the School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Denver and president of the company Tendix Development. (teabelly note: this is the iris engine that i have mentioned here before that won the NASA award and can end out dependence on foriegn oil)

He's recovering at the University of Colorado Hospital with burns on much of his body from the crash, which happened on Saturday on Interstate 70 in the mountains near Highway 40. His car tumbled off a hill next to the interstate and then landed on a frontage road and exploded in flames.

On Thursday, Dick's family publicly thanked good samaritans Scott Boylan and Andrew Rosenberg, who they credit with saving him.

Boylan, a traffic reporter for KOA radio, was four wheeling with Rosenberg when the two saw Dick's minivan come rolling down the embankment. Timber was able to crawl out of the passenger window of his burning car and Boylan and Rosenberg helped him, almost without thinking.

"It's amazing because the brain, at least mine did, almost completely shut off, and you just know you have to take over. You have to do something. You're not thinking about the horrific wounds and the fire and the smell of the explosions and all those things that are going on," Boylan said.

The two men wound up using a fire extinguisher to put out the fire that had engulfed Dick's body.

"I am convinced that we couldn't have put out (the fire) with jackets," Rosenberg said.

"We cannot express adequate thanks for the gift you have given us," Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick told the men before a group of reporters at the University of Colorado Hospital.

"To Scott and Andrew and unnamed others who stopped their cars on Highway 40, who risked their own life to bravely battle flames and fumes and debris in an effort to protect my husband, our children and I extend our eternal appreciation."

Dick faces several surgeries over the next few months. Gordon Lindberg, director of the hospital's burn unit, said he's hopeful he will survive. Dick is currently in a medically induced coma.

About Timber Dick

Tendix Development lists the following details about Timber Dick on its Web site:

Timber Dick is the President of the Tendix Development. He is also the managing member of the Tillemann-Dick Family LLC. Timber serves as a director of the University of Denver's School of Engineering and Computer Science, with responsibilities for the mechanical and molecular-scale engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science departments.

As an entrepreneurial manager, Timber founded, funded, and managed Safeline Products through six years of 35% compounded growth before he sold the company. He holds numerous patents in diverse fields, including consumer markets, the chemical industry, law enforcement and transportation. Earlier in his career, Timber worked for Mercedes' subsidiary, MBB Transit, where he was the leading sales executive of mass transit equipment.

His research on engine efficiency enhancement began at Yale, where he received his first patent while a college student. The design, for a more energy-efficient bicycle drive system, was subsequently licensed by the Huffy Corporation, a leading bicycle manufacturer. At Yale, Timber earned a BA and an MA, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Over the course of his career, Timber has designed and evaluated dozens of innovative engine designs. The IRIS incorporates more than 30 years of his focused research and design effort.



video of press conference not a fun way to see friends on TV

Carter hints at Obama backing

The Nigerian paper This Day reports that the former president all but came out for Obama, speaking to reporters in that country:

We are very interested in the primaries. Don’t forget that Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town, which is home to 625 people, is for Obama, my children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama. As a superdelegate, I would not disclose who I am rooting for but I leave you to make that guess.

He was in Abuja, the paper reports, for the Carter Center awards for guinea worm eradication.

richardson responds

i have been ashamed by the way the clinton team has handled bill richardson's endorsement. i have found carville to be dirty and mean (no surprise) and president clinton to be kinda out of control. i was happy to see that richardson responded.

i really think all of this points to the fact that the clinton's use a divide and conquer approach and i really think that is the last thing our country needs!

also, i am really glad that the wapo published this because i am getting so sick of the nyt's sidebar with hillary "talking about healthcare". it has been there for weeks and at this point it is really over kill. even when the obama race speech happened, there she was in her same pink suit talking about health care. yeah we know you can go on and on and on and on about it. enough!



Loyalty to My Country

By Bill Richardson
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; 10:29 AM

My recent endorsement of Barack Obama for president has been the subject of much discussion and consternation -- particularly among supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Led by political commentator James Carville, who makes a living by being confrontational and provocative, Clinton supporters have speculated about events surrounding this endorsement and engaged in personal attacks and insults.

While I certainly will not stoop to the low level of Mr. Carville, I feel compelled to defend myself against character assassination and baseless allegations.

Carville has made it very clear that this is a personal attack -- driven by his own sense of what constitutes loyalty. It is this kind of political venom that I anticipated from certain Clinton supporters and I campaigned against in my own run for president.

I repeatedly urged Democrats to stop attacking each other personally and even offered a DNC resolution calling for a positive campaign based on the issues. I was evenhanded in my efforts. In fact, my intervention in a debate during a particularly heated exchange was seen by numerous commentators as an attempt to defend Sen. Clinton against the barbs of Sens. Obama and John Edwards.

As I have pointed out many times, and most pointedly when I endorsed Sen. Obama, the campaign has been too negative, and we Democrats need to calm the rhetoric and personal attacks so we can come together as a party to defeat the Republicans.

More than anything, to repair the damage done at home and abroad, we must unite as a country. I endorsed Sen. Obama because I believe he has the judgment, temperament and background to bridge our divisions as a nation and make America strong at home and respected in the world again.

This was a difficult, even painful, decision. My affection and respect for the Clintons run deep. I do indeed owe President Clinton for the extraordinary opportunities he gave me to serve him and this country. And nobody worked harder for him or served him more loyally, during some very difficult times, than I did.

Carville and others say that I owe President Clinton's wife my endorsement because he gave me two jobs. Would someone who worked for Carville then owe his wife, Mary Matalin, similar loyalty in her professional pursuits? Do the people now attacking me recall that I ran for president, albeit unsuccessfully, against Sen. Clinton? Was that also an act of disloyalty?

And while I was truly torn for weeks about this decision, and seriously contemplated endorsing Sen. Clinton, I never told anyone, including President Clinton, that I would do so. Those who say I did are misinformed or worse.

As for Mr. Carville's assertions that I did not return President Clinton's calls: I was on vacation in Antigua with my wife for a week and did not receive notice of any calls from the president. I, of course, called Sen. Clinton prior to my endorsement of Sen. Obama. It was a difficult and heated discussion, the details of which I will not share here.

I do not believe that the truth will keep Carville and others from attacking me. I can only say that we need to move on from the politics of personal insult and attacks. That era, personified by Carville and his ilk, has passed and I believe we must end the rancor and partisanship that has mired Washington in gridlock. In my view, Sen. Obama represents our best hope of replacing division with unity. That is why, out of loyalty to my country, I endorse him for president.

The writer is governor of New Mexico and a former Democratic candidate for president.

dc parking meter fee moratorium

did yall see this? i just parked at a meter that was broken and went online to report it so that i wouldn't get ticketed and i found this...

Parking Meter Fee Moratorium Section 18-2426: Parking Meter Fee Moratorium You may park at a meter without payment all day Saturday and weekdays between 6:30 pm and 7 am. You must move your car after three hours on Saturday, or you can be cited for overtime parking. Section 18-2427: Streets Exempt from the Parking Meter Fee Moratorium The Mayor has determined that certain streets should be exempt from the moratorium. You must pay to park during the hours posted on the meter. The exempt streets are: Georgetown Area Street Name From To K St, NW 29th St, NW 37th St, NW 37th St, NW K St, NW Whitehaven Pkwy, NW Whitehaven Pkwy, NW 37th St, NW Wisconsin Ave, NW Wisconsin Ave, NW Whitehaven Pkwy, NW S St, NW S St, NW Wisconsin Ave, NW 32nd St, NW 32nd St, NW S St, NW R St, NW R St, NW 32nd St, NW 28th St, NW 28th St, NW R St, NW Q St, NW Q St, NW 28th St, NW 26th St, NW 26th St, NW Q St, NW Rock Creek Pkwy, NW Rock Creek Pkwy, NW 26th St, NW K St, NW Convention Center/MCI Area Street Name From To Indiana Ave, NW 5th St, NW 6th St, NW 6th St, NW Indiana Ave, NW Pennsylvania Ave, NW Pennsylvania Ave, NW 6th St, NW 9th St, NW 9th St, NW Pennsylvania Ave, NW K St, NW K St, NW 9th St, NW Massachusetts Ave, NW Massachusetts Ave, NW 7th St, NW 5th St, NW 5th S

t, NW Massachusetts Ave, NW Indiana Ave, NW