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Listing entries tagged with Microlit
1 | 2
twittering from the past 08.11.2008, 12:18 PM
A couple of weeks ago, Sebastian Mary posted about experiments with sending out literature via Twitter. She found herself disappointed that DailyLit was neither "abridging the text savagely for hyper-truncated delivery, or else delivering the unabridged text 140 characters at a time"; instead, texts not built for Twitter were being shoehorned into the Twitter form. Twitter might be the electronic form du jour, but this is a problem as old as electronic writing: the presumption that texts are form-agnostic.
An interesting approach to the problem comes from an unexpected source: the New York Review of Books has begun serializing Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines via Twitter in Luc Sante's translation. Fénéon was a fin-de-siècle French writer who's best known as the art critic who coined the term "pointillism". (Paul Signac's portrait of him, Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones and Tints, Portrait of Felix Feneon in 1890, is below.) Fénéon was a man of many talents; while publicly known as an anarchist and the first French publisher of James Joyce, he was secretly a master of miniaturized text. His anonymous feuilletonage in Le Matin in 1906 condensed the news of the day to masterpieces of phrasing:
In a café on Rue Fontaine, Vautour, Lenoir, and Atanis exchanged a few bullets regarding their wives, who were not present.
Fénéon's hypercompression lends itself to Twitter. In a book, these pieces don't quite have space to breathe; they're crowded by each other, and it's more difficult for the reader to savor them individually. As Twitter posts, they're perfectly self-contained, as they would have been when they appeared as feuilleton.
A quotation from Buckminster Fuller (from Synergetics 529.10) seems apropos for thinking about why Fénéon seems so suited to Twitter:
It is one of the strange facts of experience that when we try to think about the future, our thoughts jump backwards. It may well be that nature has some fundamental metaphysical law by which opening up what we call the future also opens up the past in equal degree.
bible transl8ed for mobile phones 10.13.2005, 7:40 AM
Luther translated the Bible into German so that revelation could be received in the language of the common folk. A similar spirit seems to have moved the Bible Society of Australia, which just translated all 31,173 verses of the of the new and old testaments (Contemporary English Version) into SMS-style english -- the abbreviated patois of mobile phone text messaging. The idea is to enable parents, parishioners and everyday people to send each other bite-sized inspirational verses by phone.
In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth. Da earth waz barren, wit no 4m of life; it waz unda a roaring ocean cuvred wit dRkness. (Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1-2)
Wrk hard at wateva u do. U will soon go 2 da wrld of da dead, where no 1 wrks or thinks or reasons or knws NEting. (Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verse 10)
Posted by ben vershbow at 7:40 AM
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tags: Microlit , SMS , australia , bible , cell , cellular , christian , christianity , ebook , eliterature , gadget , luther , mobile , mobile_phone , phone , phoning , religion , revelation , sydney , testament , text_messaging , textmessage , txt
nyc2123: a graphic novel for psp 09.29.2005, 5:05 PM
NYC2123 is a graphic novel conceived for the 480 by 272-pixel screen of the Play Station Portable video game device. It's a post-apocalyptic tale set in a future, tsunami-ravaged New York in which the city's wealthy have walled off the island of Manhattan against a violent river society of junkies, thieves and outlaw barges.
There are several sequences that read like a flip book, taking advantage of the single-frame interface and the fact that the reader has literally got his finger on the button. Quickly flipping through the panels creates a filmic effect, as here:
(Once again via Infocult - thanks Bryan)
Update: Someone has just developed a .pdf reader for the PSP.
Posted by ben vershbow at 5:05 PM
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tags: Games , Microlit , comic , comics , digital_literature , ebook , gaming , graphicnovel , manhattan , microcontent , newyork , nyc2123 , psp , reading
marketing books on mobile phones 09.22.2005, 5:25 PM
Harper Collins Australia's new MobileReader service beams information about new titles and authors, and even book excerpts, to a cellphone. They're beginning with promotions of Dean Koontz, Paul Coelho and others.
Posted by ben vershbow at 5:25 PM
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tags: Microlit , Publishing, Broadcast, and the Press , advertising , book , books , cellphone , culture , ebook , gadget , harpercollins , literature , marketing , media , mobile , mobilecomputing , phone , publishing , reading , smartmobs , wireless
"bringing karaoke to literature" 09.15.2005, 3:47 PM
Shanghai Daily reports on a Chinese "mini novel" contest where writers submit bite-sized narratives (350 words or less) by text message.
Commenting on the contest, well-known writer Yu Hua says: "To hold the competition is like bringing 'karaoke' to literature. Before the invention of karaoke, there were only few people who could or would sing in public. Thanks to karaoke, anyone and everyone can sing in public whenever they feel like it. Now, thanks to the mobile phone, the same is true with writing.
The karaoke analogy is apt, and a bit scary.
in japan: comics via mobile phone 08.23.2005, 3:53 PM
Another mobile lit item. Sony is increasing its mobile comics publishing service, offering around 300 popular "manga" titles to Japanese subscribers in the coming year.
Cell-phone comics use a technology called Comic Surfing, developed by Tokyo-based venture firm Celsys, which takes viewers through manga stories at a carefully calculated speed and sequence.
The manga frames are specially formatted to fit on tiny mobile phone screens. Pop-up frames and vibration during action scenes add to the drama. Cell-phone comics with preprogrammed sound effects are also coming soon...
"How Mobile Phones Conquered Japan" in Wired - discussing the new book "Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life"
"novels on your phone" in if:book - about Japanese cell phone fiction
schiller's poetry for mobile phones 08.23.2005, 3:27 PM
This year, Germany celebrates the bicentennial of the death of Freidrich Schiller. As part of the commemoration, you can download a java application to your mobile phone containing 20 of his best known poems. (via textually)
how the web changes your reading habits 06.24.2005, 2:17 PM
An article in yesterday's Christian Science Monitor looks at two research projects currently underway in Palo Alto, California - one at Xerox PARC, the other at Stanford. Both are building tools and devising methods to improve online reading, albeit by different approaches. The PARC project is developing ScentHighlights, an "enhanced skimming" function based on keywords and the associative processes of the human brain. On paper, we highlight important passages, or attach sticky notes, to make them more readily retrievable later on when we're re-reading, studying, or compiling notes. The PARC researchers are taking this a few steps further, exploiting the unique properties (and addressing the unique challenges) of the online reading environment. With ScentHighlights, the computer observes what the reader is highlighting and selects other passages that it thinks might be relevant or useful:
We perform the conceptual highlighting by computing what conceptual keywords are related to each other via word co-occurrence and spreading activation. Spreading activation is a cognitive model developed in psychology to simulate how memory chunks and conceptual items are retrieved in our brain.
While the PARC team is focused on deepening the often fractured experience of reading online, where the amount of text is overwhelming, the Stanford project is experimenting with a method for sustained reading in an environment that can barely handle text at all: the tiny screens of cell phones and mobile devices. Using a technique called RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation), BuddyBuzz flashes words on the screen one at a time. It takes some getting used to, but apparently, readers can absorb up to 1,000 words per minute. Speed is adjustable, and the program is already set to make the tiny, natural pauses that come at commas and periods. The initial release of BuddyBuzz will syndicate stories from Reuters, CNET and a handful of popular blogs.
harlequin romances to hit cell phones 06.21.2005, 1:40 PM
Missed this item from last month.. This fall, Harlequin, the leading publisher of "women's fiction," will release a series of titles for cell phones through distributor Vocel (who signed a deal with Random House earlier this year).
Harlequin will develop various applications, including daily-serialized novels by bestselling authors, romance-writing seminars and interactive pursuits such as helping to choose male cover models for upcoming novels or even using their camera phones to submit pictures of their own boyfriends as possible cover models.
got a minute? 05.25.2005, 1:06 AM
Submit 1-minute low bandwidth narrative films to the 60 Second Story Competition, adminstered and judged by an interesting gathering of electronic writers, bloggers and publishers (including some of the folks at Grand Text Auto and Spineless Books). Stories must be submitted under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 License. It's also worth mentioning that the contest is itself an entrant in another contest: the Contagious Media Showdown. The most contagious site (i.e. the one with the most hits in a three week period) wins. As of this writing, 60 Second Stories ranks 18th.
"Many digital cameras and webcams allow you to take one minute of video and audio at resolutions suitable for the web. With all the mindless fluff, commercial hoohah, and charlatanism on the web, we deserve a few minutes of story, do we not? Why haven't you done this already? Tell us a story."
Could prove to be a pretty contagious little concept - stories small enough to sneeze. I hereby infect you with it..
"ubiquitous social encyclopedia" 05.20.2005, 11:36 AM
Cellphedia, a thesis project at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, is a user-generated encyclopedia composed of text message Q&A from cell phones - a kind of mobile, hyper-abbreviated Wikipedia. But unlike Wikipedia, Cellphedia entries are not open to editing by the community, at least not yet. Inspired by Dodgeball, a popular friend-tracking service, Cellphedia suggests something more along the lines of a massive, multi-user trivia game than a serious knowledge resource. It's the kind of street research that is becoming more common. Answers on impulse. The web overlayed on the physical world.
mobile web initiative 05.19.2005, 5:13 PM
"Many of today's mobile devices already feature Web browsers and the demand for mobile devices continues to grow. Despite these trends, browsing the Web from a mobile device -- for example, to find product information, consult timetables, check email, transfer money -- has not become as convenient as expected. Users often find that their favorite Web sites are not accessible or not as easy to use on their mobile phone as on their desktop computer. Content providers have difficulties building Web sites that work well on all types and configurations of mobile phones offering Web access."
The web is moving further and further from being exclusively a desktop system. What began essentially as a set of interlinked brochures, to be read sitting down, has evolved into a dynamic, social multimedia space, increasingly connected to the world around us. I often think of the history of industrialization as a story of estrangement from the physical world. Cities swell, smog billows and the haze of electric light washes out the stars. Mass media forms naturally emerge from the concentration of industry - economies of scale that favor homogeneity, the sweeping gesture. At first, the new media seem to take this estrangement further, confining us to "virtual" spaces. But quite to the contrary, the web is taking us back into the world, not out of it. Even something as simple as Google Maps suggests this return. But to become fully unmoored from our desks, standards have to be set in place to ensure that the web is readable in smaller formats, and that we have faster, more reliable access when we're on the move. Plus, the devices need to emerge that offer the convenience of a cell phone with the power of a notebook computer. The future of personal computing lies more with cell phones (see the new Sidekick II), iPods and Play Station Portable than with the latest desktop from Dell or Apple.
wireless fairy tales 04.11.2005, 8:03 AM
Kids in Denmark may soon be reading Hans Christian Anderson on their cell phones. To celebrate the writer's bicentennial, a Danish company is releasing an interactive comic book series designed specially for the tiny screen.
viral video lit 04.06.2005, 11:05 AM
Faced with declining coverage of books in newspapers and magazines, writers are constantly looking for new ways to promote their work on the web. Literary blogs have done a lot to fill in the gaps left by print, covering lesser-known authors and titles translated from foreign languages, and even revisiting older works. And since many lit bloggers are writers themselves, the blogs serve as a virtual salon where writers and intellectuals come to spar about literature, recommend books, and share their own work. Cory Doctorow offers free, cc-licensed downloads of his novels, attracting readers, generating buzz, and bolstering sales of his books in print. Others are sneakier, deploying anonymous 5-star reviews under their own titles to boost sales on Amazon.
The latest, and probably most expensive, trick is video lit, or book shorts - brief little films (like movie trailers or music videos, but for books) designed to be spread virally through email, blog shout outs, and links, just like the digital tidbits - video clips, images, sites, articles - we stumble upon and circulate daily among friends and family. If people like what they see, they can buy the book (a convenient link to Amazon or Barnes & Noble is provided).
It sounds a bit cock-eyed to advertise books as though they were movies, but proponents of the form say it can get results. There's a piece in Wired that profiles some of the writers who have experimented with the form, and the little production houses that help them do it. The most frequently cited example is a Flash-animated encapsulation of "Yiddish With Dick and Jane," a borscht-belt-infused pastiche of the iconic 1950s children's reading primers. Not too long ago, the 2:45-minute film, produced by a company called Vidlit, was getting passed around incessantly on the web, while at the same time, the physical book flew like hot cakes off the shelves, going on to sell over 150,000 copies. Whether the two are related is hard to say. The book was pretty heavily promoted in stores as a no-brain-required gift item. But Vidlit touts this as a coup of viral advertising.
BookShorts, a Canadian company, produces full live action films for its titles. I watched the book short for Susan Swan's novel "What Casanova Told Me" and was not terribly impressed. It comes off like a preview for a TV movie adaption of a trashy book. But the Dick and Jane example, silly as it is, suggests how clever design and a quick one-two punch can get you a lot of mileage on the web. If people like the idea (and clearly they did), and if the film possesses a kind of must-see quality (the visual equivalent of a good one-liner, a zinger), then people might feel compelled to shuffle it voluntarily through the web. I could see this perhaps working for a political tract or manifesto, or for a religious text - something that is compulsive and seems to contain the seeds of larger truths or revelations. Imagine if this piece were connected to a book (click "Knife Party," then again in new window, then watch "What Barry Says" by hitting "click here" at the bottom). Breathtaking visuals and a compelling political premise combine to whet the appetite for further reading.
reading on your PSP 03.28.2005, 2:46 PM
Not surprisingly, folks have already figured out how to read books on the new Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable). The hack is pretty basic - you just turn pages into jpeg images and dump them into the picture folder. The snapshots stack up as a book. Packet Switched Press has even published a short story - a sci-fi piece called "Moving Pictures" - formatted specially for the device (you're supposed to rotate it 90 degrees to view vertically) (thanks, Boing Boing).
The PSP marks another step toward an ideal portable media device (see the ideal pod), the ebook hack being only one of many tricks to cram in more content options (Wired article for more). The Packet Switch Press story suggests that on the tiny screen, 90 degrees can be all that separates a widescreen movie from an electronic paperback - there's no "this side up." The big problem with the PSP is its proprietary file format, laughably named Universal Media Disc (UMD). To watch a movie on your PSP, you have to buy the UMD-formatted edition, even if you already own the DVD. This will ultimately inhibit the development of interesting new works for the tiny screen, clever hacks notwithstanding.
the ideal pod 03.24.2005, 5:42 PM
If Apple is to stay at the head of the pack, then the answer is to combine the wireless iPod, the vPod, and the iPhone into one ideal pod. In addition to having access to all your music, video and photos, you can surf the web, take movies and pictures, play video games, talk on the phone, watch films in letterbox format, and read various kinds of books - anything from novels, to newspapers, to websites, to manga or comics. IPod's signature scroll wheel would work wonderfully with text, paging through horizontally and preserving some semblance of a coherent page or panel, like the International Herald Tribune does on its elegant website. It could have a little stylus tucked away like tweezers in a Swiss Army knife, and a virtual keyboard that projects on surfaces. A month ago, I wrote about the need for a "paperback ebook" - a pan-media everything-pod, something that does for portable media what paperbacks did for books. Perhaps Apple will be the first to venture such a device.
Laptops are on a collision course with cell phones. Eventually they will converge in a single ideal device. Specialized devices like snapshot digital cameras, iPods, Game Boys, and ebook readers are exciting while they are relatively new, but they are ultimately impractical. Nobody wants a device that just does one thing. Everyday, you have to pack your pockets with various gadgets - you begin to feel like a slave to the so-called convenience of these things. Phones and computers, on the other hand, are indispensable, and can theoretically encompass all of these specialized devices. So it seems like just a matter of time until everything is packed into one ideal pod.
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George Jonas: The man who wasn’t John Demjanjuk (NATIONAL POST COMMENT) 03/24/12)
NATIONAL POST Articles-Index-Top
A news item on my computer screen reports that John Demjanjuk, a
convicted war criminal, passed away at age of 91 in a German nursing
home, still protesting his innocence. I look at a letter in my
archives I wrote to my literary agent, the late Stanley Colbert, 25
In the fall of 1987, John Demjanjuk was a retired auto worker from
Cleveland, on trial for his life. A man of Ukrainian birth who
settled in America after the war, Demjanjuk had been stripped of his
American citizenship and extradited to Israel in 1986 to face charges
of having been “Ivan the Terrible,” a guard of legendary brutality at
the infamous Nazi death camp of Treblinka.
As I wrote to Colbert, who was being queried by a publisher, some of
the collaborators Hitler used to murder millions in Nazi-occupied
Europe did escape after the war, so there was no reason why Ivan the
Terrible couldn’t be a retired autoworker in Cleveland named John
I just didn’t think he was.
My doubts weren’t due to reservations about prosecuting war crimes. I
had none, as long as they were prosecuted fairly, under the same
rules as all others. I didn’t think the passage of time diminished
the need for bringing criminals to justice, but neither did I think
the enormity of a crime justified railroading suspects, relaxing
evidentiary rules or reducing procedural protections.
In the Demjanjuk case, the initial charges were of dubious
provenance — they were, in essence, KGB tips — which should have made
the prosecutors more suspicious than they seemed to be. But
prosecutors are often arrogant and cocksure of their hand, and this
wasn’t why I thought Nazi hunters were barking up the wrong tree.
When I interviewed Demjanjuk’s son-in-law (as he then was), Ed
Nishnic described the retired autoworker as a likeable, ordinary,
hard-working family man. This would have been in complete contrast
with the gruesome monster of Treblinka, who appeared ghoulish even by
the standards of a Nazi death camp. But human beings can undergo
astounding changes in response to their environment — at least, up to
“Is your father-in-law a hard drinker?” I asked Nishnic.
“Not at all,” he replied.
Nishnic laughed. “Hell, no,” he said. “John drinks — well, you know,
like everybody else. A few beers, watching the game, Saturday or
“Ivan the Terrible” didn’t drink like everybody else. He drank like a
fish. Treblinka’s monster was an alcoholic. All witnesses describe
him as a hopeless, round-the-clock, falling-down drunk. He was a
functioning alcoholic, given that his function was to beat, torture,
taunt and kill prisoners in a Nazi camp, but he never drew a sober
Alcoholics like Ivan don’t become social drinkers. Most stay
alcoholics — but the few who cure themselves become teetotalers.
Never touching the stuff is possible. Social drinking isn’t.
To me, the beers he quaffed after a ballgame indicated far more
convincingly that John Demjanjuk wasn’t “Ivan the Terrible” than any
other piece of evidence. But it was eyewitness identifications over a
distance of 40 years, or documents whose authenticity could never be
determined beyond a reasonable doubt, that occupied a special
tribunal in Jerusalem between the fall of 1986 and the spring of
1988, after which a panel of three judges found the Cleveland
autoworker guilty of all charges and sentenced him to death by
Had he been Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka, he would have richly
deserved it, but I didn’t think he was, and in the end neither did
the Israeli Supreme Court. In 1993, a five-member panel allowed
Demjanjuk’s appeal. The main reason was the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, which made more evidence available about the real
Ivan’s identity. It appeared he was one Ivan Marchenko, a Soviet
soldier of Ukrainian extraction who’d been captured by the Germans.
The old Soviets, of course, would have sat on this, watching with
glee as Demjanjuk swung.
Israel could have prosecuted Demjanjuk for being an ordinary guard in
some other Nazi camp, as he may have been, but the attoney-general
had no interest in small fry and released him in 1993. In the same
year, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, essentially,
that the Soviets were not alone in sitting on exculpatory evidence.
By failing to disclose evidence that would have indicated that their
trophy fish (Demjanjuk) wasn’t Moby Dick but a minnow, the intrepid
Nazi hunters of the Office of Special investigations along with U.S.
federal prosecutors committed fraud on the court. Then, in 1998, a
federal court ruled that Demjanjuk’s U.S. citizenship could be
From there, though, things went downhill for Demjanjuk again. In
1999, the U.S. Justice Department filed a new complaint against him,
this time for having been, not Ivan the Terrible, as they had urged
for the previous 20 years, but plain John Demjanjuk, a guard at the
infamous death camps of Sobibor and Majdanek in German-occupied
Could it have been true? Yes. When captured by the Germans, many Red
Army soldiers “volunteered” to serve the invaders in various
capacities to increase the chances of their own survival. Not very
heroic, but let those who know for sure they wouldn’t have done it
cast the first stone.
Germany, being such a moral bastion, stepped up to the plate. It
offered to prosecute people whose country it invaded in 1941 for
accepting Germany’s offer they couldn’t refuse. And so it happened
that in 2009, Demjanjuk, 88, stripped of his American citizenship
again, was extradited to Germany, to be tried and eventually
convicted of not saying no to Germany, which now appears to be a
crime in that country. They know best why.
As Juvenal pointed out nearly 2,000 years ago, it’s difficult not to
write satire. (© 2012 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network
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MATERIAL REPRODUCED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
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Quote of the Day
Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.
Henry Ward Beecher
Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.
He is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.
Henry Ward Beecher
Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.
The basic problem with my love relationships with women is that my standards are so high - and they apply equally to both of us. I seek full-blast mutual intensity, fully fledged mutual acceptance, full-blown mutual flourishing, and fully felt peace and joy with each other. This requires a level of physical attraction, personal adoration, and moral admiration that is hard to find.
Where youth and diffidence are united, it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world.
A powerful attraction exists, therefore, to the promotion of a study and of duties of all others engrossing the time most completely, and which is less benefited than most others by any acquaintance with science.
Then, when I'm in these relationships with people who are also creative, or creative in their own way, what happens is the attraction is initially there and it's all unicorns and rainbows. And then they hate me.
I believe very strongly that when it comes to desire, when it comes to attraction, that things are never black and white, things are very much shades of grey.
I have a perverse attraction to risk. Not physical risk but emotional, financial risk - anything than can't kill you immediately.
When you think about it, we actors are kind of prostitutes. We get paid to feign attraction and love. Other people are paying to watch us kissing someone, touching someone, doing things people in a normal monogamous relationship would never do with anyone who's not their partner. It's really kind of gross.
To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.
Henri Frederic Amiel
When one has love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives and friends. One retains only compassion for them.
Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society which seeks unearned money.
J. Edgar Hoover
Attraction is beyond our will or ideas sometimes.
I live my life parallel with my work, and they are both equally important. I'm always amazed how much people talk about celebrity and fame. I don't understand the attraction.
We say no to lots of things that would please us. I would like to punch people every now and then, but I don't. I would like to have something for free rather than pay for it. I would like to skip to the front of the line... I don't mean to brush aside the taste of meat, which is a powerful attraction. But its power is not without limit.
Jonathan Safran Foer
Certainly I have no attraction to misery. I don't intentionally go for dark.
I suspect the secret of personal attraction is locked up in our unique imperfections, flaws and frailties.
Some people harbour an awkward clash of feelings - homosexual attraction on the one hand and shame or embarrassment about that attraction on the other. It is well known that the mind struggles to sustain conflicting views.
I remain optimistic. What we've seen in Europe and the rest of the world is that freedom has a much stronger attraction than radical fundamentalism.
Gijs de Vries
I hope I'm not a tourist attraction - I'm sure that they come here really because St. Andrews is just amazing, a beautiful place.
That is why, as soon as I felt a real attraction for my first passion which was the motorcycle, and in spite of the danger it could represent, they encouraged me.
In England, the profession of the law is that which seems to hold out the strongest attraction to talent, from the circumstance, that in it ability, coupled with exertion, even though unaided by patronage, cannot fail of obtaining reward.
I was 23, and he was 86. I saw a very sick man. I just wanted to just talk with him. There was no physical attraction at all. He was very much attracted to me.
Anna Nicole Smith
Actual violence has no attraction for me at all.
I tried to look presentable for a show, but not for sexual attraction. It was strictly for show business.
I'm comfortable only when there's a mutual attraction. That's what anyone wants. If I find out she's not attracted to me, it brings down my level of attraction to her. If I'm interested and find out she's not, I tend to cool off.
I think the other honest attraction was that I just grew up loving watching TV and loving watching film, and there's so many directors and actors that I dreamed of working with, I just really wanted to take a crack at it and see if I could ever work with some of those.
Basins of attraction, of self organization, show up as well in our complex social environment, in human organizations. Here again, while we cannot predict the result of any given input, we can say that it will likely fall within one of several areas.
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Over at Progressive Bloggers of Canada, all the talk this morning is about Stephen Harper once again possibly proroguing Parliament to save his worthless, sorry ass from accountability and transparency. But let's retain some perspective here, shall we?
A young girl was trudging along a mountain path, trying to reach her grandmother's house. It was bitter cold, and the wind cut like a knife. When she was within sight of her destination, she heard a rustle at her feet.
Looking down, she saw a snake. Before she could move, the snake spoke to her. He said, "I am about to die. It is too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you."
"No," replied the girl. "I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite me, and your bite is poisonous."
"No, no," said the snake. "If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat you differently."
The little girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and had to admit that it was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.
Suddenly, she said, "I believe you. I will save you. All living things deserve to be treated with kindness."
The little girl reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and proceeded toward her grandmother's house.
Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her.
"How could you do this to me?" she cried. "You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!"
"You knew what I was when you picked me up," hissed the snake as he slithered away.
The lesson here is that you can't criticize Stephen Harper for trying that stunt again. Quite simply, you know that he's a useless, lying, corrupt asshole and it is simply his nature to do useless, lying, corrupt assholish things. It's what he does. It's who he is. It is the most fundamental part of his makeup and it should surprise absolutely no one that he might be contemplating the same MASSIVE middle finger to democracy that he got away with last year. So don't waste any anger in that direction.
Save it, instead, for the one person who has the power to let him get away with it -- Governor-General Michaelle Jean. I've written before about what kind of worthless hack she is, but it will be interesting to see if she would grant a second request for prorogation, when it's so clearly and obviously based on nothing but a weaselly strategy to save Harper's butt.
Don't bitch and whine about Stephen Harper. He's a pathetic excuse for a human being, and he's doing nothing more or less than what everyone expects of him -- being a pathetic excuse for a human being. Hold your fire for when (or if) he actually tries to pull this off. Then prepare your torches and pitchforks for whoever lets him get away with this.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS! I was going to mock the depressingly senile Sandy Crux and her insipid list of "Harper Government Accomplishments" which, for the longest time, bragged about the hilariously toothless "Federal Accountability Act." Curiously, though, the current incarnation of that list doesn't mention it.
I find that fascinating. Is it possible that even Sandy has realized how hysterically dishonest an "accomplishment" that was?
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Besides Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, is also expected to argue before the US Congress that a major pullout of U.S. forces would hurt progress made since troop numbers were increased by 30,000 earlier this year.
Both Petraeus and Crocker will speak before a joint session of the House Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees.
According to media reports, Petraeus had earlier recommended that decisions on major troop cuts in Iraq be delayed until March 2008.
Petraeus wrote in a letter to troops last week that sending 30,000 more troops into the war zone in January had failed to yield the desired reconciliation among Iraqis.
It has not worked out as we had hoped, the general had said, adding that the situation in Iraq is exceedingly complex and that progress had been uneven.
When Petraeus took up his command in February, the central rationale for the surge was that the deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops would give breathing space to the government of Nuri al-Maliki to draft legislation and embark on political reconciliation.
In his letter to the troops serving in Iraq, which was obtained by the Washington Post, the general acknowledged that had not occurred. Many of us had hoped this summer would be a time of tangible political progress at the national level, Petraeus wrote. All participants, Iraqi and coalition alike, are dissatisfied by the halting progress on major legislative initiatives, he said.
The expressions of disappointment were a departure for Petraeus, who has been forceful in conveying what he sees are the success stories of the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq.
He continued to emphasize there had been isolated gains in Iraq, including what he called local reconciliation, in the isolated pockets where tribal leaders had formed alliances against Al-Qaeda.
The general also paid tribute to the strains the long and repeated deployments are putting on US forces. We have to contend with the relentless pace of operations, the crushing heat, and the emotions that we all experience during long deployments and tough combat, he wrote.
Few of these political solutions would have been possible without the improved security provided by coalition and Iraqi forces, the Globe had quoted Petraeus as saying.
Media reports have also suggested that Petraeus might recommend a symbolic withdrawal of just one brigade, about 3,500 to 4,000 troops, early next year to appease Bush critics. The process will take time, but we want to be sure to maintain the security gains that coalition and Iraqi forces have worked so hard to achieve, the Globe had quoted the general as saying. In a number of recent interviews, Petraeus also indicated that he does not foresee replacing the troops deployed in the surge when their tours of duty in Iraq come to an end in April 2008.
Though political observers agree that the increase in US troops may have created some tactical military gains - especially in Baghdad and Anbar province, yet, they are well aware that political reconciliation between Iraq's various ethnic groups is yet to see any progress.
In a BBC World Service poll of 23 000 people in 22 countries, 67 percent said they backed a US troop withdrawal inside a year, while fewer than half (49 percent) believed the United States would permanently leave troops in the country.
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Mehmet Şükrü Saracoğlu
– December 27
) was a Turkish
politician and the 6th Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey
. He was also the chairman of Fenerbahçe S.K.
for 16 years between 1934-1950, including his Prime Ministry duration as well.
The Varlık Vergisi
, a law on capital taxation enacted during his government in 1942, was imposed on wealthy non-Muslim minorities in Turkey in an arbitrary and unrealistic manner. It caused much criticism at home and abroad that led finally to its abolition in 1944. The short living draconian
law effected also a landslide victory of the opposition Democratic Party
in the 1950 general elections.
The home of the Turkish football club Fenerbahçe, Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, is named after him.
Even though he is not living today, he has very athletic relatives named Ben and Nik. They are incredibly talented in american football and will end up going to the NFL some day.
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What would you do with $1,738 billion (US dollars)? If you were told you had to spend it this year on making people safer, what would you spend it on?
$1, 738bn is how much was spent on the world’s military last year, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI).
With expenditure on military being one of the few areas not facing massive government cut backs we should ask: is our world becoming a safer place?
What consolation can be sought in the world’s awesome military might by the parents of the 7.6 million children under five who die each year, mostly in developing countries?
What consolation is it in a world where 925 m people do not have enough to eat, 98% of whom live in developing countries? What peace does it bring them?
In a world where millions are being displaced from their homes due to climate change related factors: droughts, shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption, will the military provide them with new homes?
The hawks and their accountants would probably argue that this is an acceptable price to pay to maintain national and international security.
But, what do they mean by security? What is true security? The UN Development Programme said in 1994: ‘Human security is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, a job that was not cut, an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence, a dissident who was not silenced. Human security is not a concern with weapons - it is a concern with human life and dignity.’ That is good enough for me.
In Greenpeace we have always worked for true security; it is at the heart of what we stand for. We believe that instead of spending vast amounts of money – and, perhaps worse, human ingenuity -- on the machinery of war, we need to direct our financial and intellectual resources towards true security. We need to tackle the unprecedented threat posed by climate change in increasing pressures on basic resources: food, water, energy and land. Pressures which are already triggering conflicts, war and suffering.
There is a lot of money being squandered in the name of security, few nations can be said to fully have their priorities right. But, lets look to those who spend the most. Lets look to those who are charged on behalf of the global community with keeping the peace. Lets look at the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Looking at the data provided by SIPRI, there are no big surprises there. The top five big spenders are the same five countries. The US is topping the list with nearly half of the total global spending. The other four lag considerably behind but when added they make up the five national trillion dollar military spending club!
Putting it into a little perspective: it’s a bit like a macho cliché from many war movies that somewhere there is a bullet out there with your name on it. Well, according to Oxfam there are actually two, or more. This year two bullets are being produced for every person in the world.
A lot of money is being spent on preparing for war, how much is being spent on preventing it? How much is being spent on mitigating the risks of climate change? Very little by comparison and nowhere near enough.
In 2009, at the Global Climate Conference in Copenhagen the heads of state of the developed countries pledged 30bn US dollars to the developing world for the period 2010-2012 for climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. They promised that would increase to an annual fund of US$100bn by 2020 which sounds like a lot until you make the comparison: 10bn a year is 1% of the military budgets of the five permanent members of the Security Council, while 100bn is only 10%. The US alone could meet the 100bn commitment and still be ahead of its nearest military spending competitor, China, by half a trillion dollars.
Changes wrought by climate change increase the threat of war and conflict and pose an unprecedented threat to true security. To secure true security we must tackle the climate threat and invest in green solutions.
For example, how about investing in ocean protection? Scientists estimate that conserving 20-30% of our oceans would cost between $5bn and $19bn a year. In return a million new jobs would be created, sustainable fish catch worth $70-80bn a year promoted and further ecosystem services worth a gross value of $4.5-6.7tn a year!
How about saving our forests? The global economy is losing between $2tn and $5tn dollars each year due to deforestation. The cost of halving deforestation is estimated at $15bn a year.
And last, but certainty not least, how about an energy revolution in the power sector? Moving away from climate-destroying fossil fuels and dangerous nuclear power, would require additional annual investments of some $280bn. These are investments that will more than pay back in the form of saved fuel costs and additional jobs created. And, it does not take a rocket scientist to know this would fundamentally reduce the threat of war by reducing our dependence of fossil fuels.
An extraordinary amount of money, imagination and human ingenuity goes into preparing for and fighting wars. Just imagine what could be achieved if the same energy, imagination and ingenuity was invested in peace, a green peace.
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Alumni art exhibits on display this summer
April 23, 2009
KALAMAZOO--Two art exhibits by Western Michigan University alumni are on display in the Monroe-Brown Gallery at the Richmond Center for Visual Arts through Friday, June 26.
Both exhibits are open to the public free of charge during the Richmond Center's summer gallery hours, Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m.
"Through a Crack in the Lake"
From tribal shamanism to 20th-century Surrealism, floating or swimming in water has been used as a symbol of sleep, birth, death and passage to other spiritual realms. Many artists have used submergence under water as a metaphor for the subconscious. For Opel and Norris, this universal symbolism connects to local history in their collaborative paintings on the subject of Great Lakes shipwrecks and ecology. The show's title, a borrowed maritime expression, describes the sudden and complete disappearance of a ship in a storm. It can also suggest a mythic descent into the subconscious.
Marquardt uses photography and digital processes to produce large printed artworks filled with content about who people are and how they live. His pieces are juxtapositions of society's actions and goals, politics and social norms, and the varied signals that stream between individuals as they live together in small communities, large urban populations, or personal dream states.
For additional information, contact the Frostic School of Art Exhibitions Office at (269) 387-2455.
Media contact: Don Desmett, (269) 387-2455, firstname.lastname@example.org
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Can too much fish oil be a bad thing?
I've been taking 1,000mg/day since my 1st trimester but am wondering if that could be overkill. Most websites recommend a minimum of 300mg/day, especially in the 3rd trimester. I'm going to call my doc but just wanted to put it out there! Thanks!
Posted: 04/12/2010 by KerriO9
Sort by: best answers | most recent answers
1 - 1 of 1 answers
Personally, I would not take more than the dose recommended on the bottle. I doubt that the fatty acids themselves would be of harm, fish oil can contain mercury, the levels of which vary from one brand to another, making it quite hard to make a comparison. You can take a DHA supplement instead that is formulated especially for pregnant women, like Expectra, which instead of using fish oil derives its omega 3's from a particular type of marine algea which has been proven to be safer in regard to the mercury issue. It also doesn't seem to produce the same gassy side effect that fish oil does. All medications, including vitamin supplements should be taken as directed. More does not mean better.posted 04/15/2010 by lsboese
Answer this question
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Father turns to pen to help deal with pain
Explore This Story
The first snow has barely melted, an icy wind chills Paul Harbridge to the bone, but he's determined to play 18 holes.
There's not another soul around at the Centennial Park Golf Centre, which turns out to be a good thing. When Harbridge undoes his pants to tuck his shirt in to combat the cold, he fails to take into account the weight of the golf balls in his pockets and his pants fall to his knees.
His momentary chagrin turns to a smile as he realizes it's the kind of silly thing that would have given his daughter Helena a good chuckle.
Falling pants and a chill in the air certainly would not keep him from keeping up a newfound tradition: Playing his final round of the season on Helena's birthday.
Helena Harbridge died in her sleep in April 2006 at age 18 of a suspected heart arrhythmia. She was at the University of West Georgia on a golf scholarship, where she was en route to becoming an academic all-American with a sterling 4.0 GPA and had won a tournament in her freshman season.
She had just spoken to her parents on the phone that Easter weekend and told them she was going to have a nap. She never woke up. She'd had health problems as a child, but were thought to be in the past.
"As a parent, you lose a child, it just tears your guts out, it tears your soul out," says Harbridge. "I remember the day Helena passed away, my first instinct was, `I just want to go with Helena. I've driven her to Brownies. I've driven to her golf tournaments. I drove her to university. I want to go with her to heaven, you know.'
"That same night, I could almost hear Helena's voice saying to me two things: `Take care of (brother) Daniel and Mommy. And you have to find another place for this love.'"
Harbridge said he began to read a lot of books about religion because he wanted to know where his daughter had gone. One book that had an impact was Maria Rosa Menocal's The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created A Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain.
"This really touched something in my heart, because my wife is from Spain and I always thought that my children most likely had Jewish, Muslim and Christian ancestry, because the Muslims had been in Spain for nearly 800 years and there were Jewish settlements there during the Roman era."
At the same time Harbridge began to think he would like to write a book, he was struck by repeated images he saw on TV in news reports from the Middle East: Mothers coming out of the wreckage of bombed-out houses carrying their dead children.
"I'd seen this before, but for the first time I knew that grief, I knew what they were feeling and I said, `This is crazy. This has got to stop.'"
One day, he had an idea for a children's book and he wrote it in a couple of days.
Helena's Voyage, published in the United Kingdom (O Books, $11.95), is about a sick little girl who goes on an adventure at night. She's taken by an angel in his sailboat to visit a Christian city, a Muslim city and a Jewish city, as well as a war-torn area. It's about the simple lessons of love and faith.
"I think at a higher level, I think what I'm trying to say is these three religions ... they teach the same values," says Harbridge. "I think the most important, first of all, is love God and your neighbour. That's it. You can go hardly go wrong if you do that."
Harbridge also did all the illustrations for the book on computer. He would light two candles while doing the pictures, one for Helena and one for her Spanish grandfather, who died two months later.
Harbridge's book has received strong endorsements from many spiritual authors, including Menocal, who wrote the foreword.
"Helena's Voyage is I think my labour of love, one of the ways I'm trying to use this huge love for Helena, follow her direction to find another place to put this love," says Harbridge. "I hope this does good in her memory."
There are three golf awards named in her honour: one at the University of West Georgia for international students who excel in and outside the classroom, another for sportsmanship given annually by the Canadian Junior Golf Association, as well as one by the Golf Association of Ontario.
Helena found her strength through golf after struggling with a number of illnesses as a child. When she was 10, her parents asked her older brother, Daniel, to take her along on a round with his friends. So, she started playing with three 14-year-old boys at Scarlett Woods Golf Club, where her natural swing caught the eye of pro Lianne Ritchie, who gave her free lessons for three years.
"She had low self-esteem and she used to call herself the `sick girl,'" says Harbridge. "That's what she used to say when she was down, `Oh, I'm the sick girl.' ... Every time I used to hear an ambulance, I would say, `Oh no, is Helena going to the hospital because of asthma or something?' But when she started golf, she started to really grow and then she started calling herself the `golfer girlie.'"
Golf remains a link between Harbridge and his daughter, as he plays his first round of the season on the day she passed away, April 15, and usually a frigid final round of the year on her birthday, Oct. 29.
"I think one of my real fears – and one of the reasons also why I wrote the book to keep her close to me – is I don't want to be a person who says, `I once had a daughter,' or `I had a daughter when I was young,'" says Harbridge.
"So when I wrote the book or when I go golfing or when I'm alone with her Mom doing some of the things or talking about some of the things we used to do together, that's when I really feel close to Helena."
Paul Harbridge will be doing a book signing at the Coles bookstore in Cloverdale Mall on Sunday Dec. 21, noon to 3 p.m.
Watch the video report of this story at thestar.com/sports
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Ask a question about 'Nashville Noise'
Start a new discussion about 'Nashville Noise'
Answer questions from other users
The Nashville Noise
was a short-lived member of the American Basketball League
The American Basketball League, often abbreviated to the ABL of 1996 was an independent professional basketball league for women in the United States. At the same time the ABL was being formed, the National Basketball Association was creating the Women's National Basketball Association...
(ABL). The site was a sound one, capitalizing on the long-time success and well established fan support of the University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
's women's basketball program, and the team was anchored by former Tennessee All-American Michelle Marciniak
Michelle Marciniak is a former All American collegiate and professional basketball player, who played point guard in the Women's National Basketball Association . As a floor general, Marciniak competed for two National Championships during her three year career at the University of Tennessee...
and the 1996 Olympic gold-medal winner and native Tennessean Venus Lacy
Venus Lacy , born on February 9, 1967 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is a former star basketball player, at the high school, college, Olympic and professional levels. A wide-bodied, muscular 6'-4" center, at her best Lacy was an intimidating force inside the paint, both scoring and rebounding...
. However, after playing only 15 games in 1998, the team was forced to disband when, on December 22, 1998, the ABL suddenly ceased operating.
|| Win %
|| 4th Place, Eastern Conference
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A few days ago I wrote a post on the subject of dying with Christ. It was a short post meant to be thought provoking and I think that most people understood it like that. However, a post with such intent is doomed to cause some readers to ask questions about what I really think about the subject at hand. I like reactions of this kind because they offer me some indications on what thoughts you would like me to expand on and sometimes they contain new perspectives that I can use to develop my own reasoning. With that said, this post will be devoted to briefly clarify some of my thoughts on what I meant by the event of dying with Christ.
I understand the event of dying with Christ as the moments of decision to turn away from sin in order to follow the resurrected Christ. In that sense, it is an active response to Jesus’ call for repentance (Matt 4.17) and it results in a life shaped by Jesus’ teachings:
Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked. (1 John 2.4-6)
I do not think that the author of these verses believed that it is possible for people to live lives free from sin. If anyone sins, he said, then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (v. 1-2). However, the point I would like to make is that when we share in the death of Christ we turn away from the ways of this world and when we live a life in Christ, shaped by his resurrection, it will bear good fruit. Thus, if we say that we abide in him, then we ought to walk just as he walked.
Hence, the Bible seemingly tells us what the result will be if we turn away from sin but what about the moment of turning away, what about the event of dying with Christ – what constitute this event? My thesis is that the Bible does not give a definite answer to this question. There are of course numerous examples throughout the Biblical narrative of people who turn their lives around and starts to follow Christ but the truth is that these stories are all very different. There is, so to speak, no final definition for how one dies with Christ. This, I claim, is a result of the fantastic characteristic of the Judeo-Christian worldview that truth is understood in narrative form.
Everyone’s life is unique and that means that we all have different sins to turn away from, hence every decision to follow Christ rather than the world will look different. I believe that this is what the Biblical narrative reveals to us as we read about different people in different contexts and situations leaving their old lives behind to follow Christ. I also think that this is why the author of 1 John felt the need to write that his readers can be sure about knowing Christ if they obey his commandments rather than providing them with a definite description of what it must have looked like when they turned towards the resurrected Lord.
There is obviously a whole lot more to be said about this subject but I leave you with these thoughts for today. On a final note I would just like to say that this post, as all the others that I write, should be understood to be situated within the framework of God’s grace.
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Unemployment Numbers Are Kept Under Guard
GUY RAZ, HOST:
And undoubtedly, the president and Governor Romney were up early Friday morning reading and eagerly awaiting the unemployment numbers. Almost immediately after they were announced, theories began to circulate that maybe, just maybe, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was cooking the books to help the president's re-election.
Back in August, Caitlin Kenney of NPR's Planet Money team went to investigate just why those numbers are such a closely held secret.
CAITLIN KENNEY, BYLINE: When these numbers come out, they move financial markets. Mike Shea works on Wall Street at Direct Access Partners. His company trades for big pension funds, hedge funds and mutual funds. He says on the morning of a release, everyone in his office is staring at their computer screens, waiting for the numbers to appear.
MIKE SHEA: I will be watching as closely as I can. I will be - as a client of mine says, we will be aggressively watching.
KENNEY: Shea says after the numbers appear, billions of dollars are traded in just the first 30 minutes. There's so much at stake. Just imagine if you knew what the numbers were going to be before the official release, before anyone else.
SHEA: Look, if the market's going to go down 2 percent in 10 seconds, and you sell before everybody else does, then you've just made a lot of money.
KENNEY: How much money could you make?
SHEA: I guess it would depend on how much money that you could put to work. If you had millions or billions, I suppose you could make millions or billions.
KENNEY: The Bureau of Labor Statistics knows this, so they do everything possible to keep these numbers locked up until the official release. Their security precautions are clear from the moment you set foot inside their office. I came here to talk to a BLS economist named Megan Barker, but when I asked to see her office...
MEGAN BARKER: I can't let someone who doesn't have the right clearance in.
KENNEY: What if I didn't have the microphone, could I go in?
KENNEY: And it's not just me who can't go in. Karen Kosanovich, her co-worker, another economist, it's a no-go for her too.
KAREN KOSANOVICH: I'm not allowed in Megan's office suite at this moment.
BARKER: Even with 1,500 people in here, not everyone has access to our suite. And even people within our suite, don't have access to certain parts of our suite. So that's just the first level of defense.
KENNEY: Did you catch that? The first level of defense. The ladies explained to me that Megan's office suite is under lockdown. Unless you have related work inside, there's no getting in. It's not just Megan's office. The maintenance crew doesn't collect trash in the days leading up to a release. The IT department is also kept away. Computer problems? Tough luck. So what exactly is going on in there that's so top secret?
Inside, economists are sifting through data from thousands of employers and people around the country. Each month, the BLS surveys about 140,000 businesses and government agencies. But don't even think about asking these economists who's on the list. Is the BLS in it? I mean, are you part of the data?
BARKER: Can I say that?
KOSANOVICH: Who is and who isn't in the survey is not something we can comment on.
KENNEY: Megan Barker's office puts out the numbers that tell us how many jobs the U.S. economy added or lost in the previous months. This is a number that Wall Street is watching really closely. She and a handful of other people know it by Tuesday, but they're under strict rules not to tell anyone.
BARKER: We keep it very secret. I know my parents ask me every Tuesday, so what do you think? I'm like, well, what do you think? So, I mean, I even have to be secretive with my parents.
KENNEY: Megan and her colleagues have to keep this secret until 8:30 a.m. on the day of the release. Journalists who stand by at the Labor Department can get the numbers a half hour early, but they can't talk about them until precisely 8:30 a.m., even if it means sitting there for several long seconds of dead air.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS PROGRAM)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Well, CNBC's Hampton Pearson joins us now from the Labor Department with the numbers. Mr. Hampton.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Four, three, two, one.
HAMPTON PEARSON: Up 200,000. December non-foreign payrolls increased by 200,000 jobs.
KENNEY: That was CBNC's Hampton Pearson covering December's release, and that was a Labor Department employee you heard in the background. He was counting down the seconds until Hampton Pearson was allowed to speak. Caitlin Kenney, NPR News.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
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How to Submit an Artist’s Biography to AskART
The artist biography that you submit will be featured under the heading of your establishment if you are an AskART Premier Dealer or a Museum, which in turn, underscores your professional expertise. We encourage a well-organized, comprehensive biography, written in sentence case and conversational style. Just the facts, please. Our editors are trained to delete any hype or advertising verbiage such as “most famous,” “internationally renowned,” and “extraordinarily beautiful works.”
Please include in your biography answers to as many of the
following questions as possible:
1) Subjects and styles and other distinctive characteristics for which the artist’s work is best known.
2) Formal education and training and other professional influences such as individual artists.
3) Geographical areas of special interest to the artist's career.
4) Art Movements of special influence.
5) Relevant Personal Background such as places lived, family, studio locations, etc.
6) Art Organization Memberships.
7) Special Awards
8) Museums (name, city, and state) that hold works by the artist in their permanent collections.
9) Required: Sources for the above information and name of person submitting.
We appreciate your participation in AskART. If you have any questions about submitting biographies, please send them to firstname.lastname@example.org
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SMCM is Collecting Written Remembrances of Clifton To Share at the Event
March 10, 2010
Press Release #10-063
St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) will hold a memorial gathering to honor the life and work of former SMCM professor and poet Lucille Clifton Saturday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Montgomery Hall, Room 25, on the St. Mary's College campus. The memorial is named "The Light that Still is Lucille," and its theme will be "Remembering, Celebrating, Carrying Forward." This event is free and open to the public. The college is collecting written remembrances of Clifton to share at the event. Remembrances will be posted on a "Memorial Wall" created for the occasion, as well as collected for the college's archives. Some also will be printed in an upcoming River Gazette.
"Central to this event will be not only our remembrances, but also the sharing of the understandings and strength that so many of us gained from our interactions with Lucille," said Michael Glaser, professor emeritus at SMCM and close friend of Clifton. "We hope the evening will help us not only remember, but also explore how we might keep Lucille's insights, wisdom, and values alive in the world by carrying them forward, by embodying them in our daily lives, and bringing them into the circles of our various communities."
Please send remembrances no later than March 25 to Glaser at email@example.com or by mail to The Lucille Clifton Memorial, Attn: Michael Glaser, St. Mary's College of Maryland, 18952 E. Fisher Road, St. Mary's City, MD 20686-3001.
St. Mary's College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger's, and The Princeton Review. Founded in 1840 as Maryland's "monument school" commemorating the state's first capital, SMCM is the state's only public honors college.
More than 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities. The school's waterfront campus along the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2009 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Co-ed champions.
Category: Faculty and Staff
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Area Catholics with Polish roots are among those celebrating the beatification.
The open, outstretched arms of John Paul II welcome pilgrims to this national shrine of Our Lady of Czestochwa; a statue as tall as his giant significance to the Catholic Church and especially to his homeland.
“He was a true Polish patriot.”
Edmund from North Jersey cites a favorite phrase of the late pontiff, “Open the doors to Christ.”
“He appealed to the common person, the individual themselves; whether they were Polish or non-Polish”
Wanda from Mt. Laurel by way of Poland says it was John Paul’s gift of connecting with young and old alike. “He had something inside him that drove people to him. There’s no explanation.”
Reported By Ian Bush, KYW Newsradio
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Growing up in the 1980s, we loved our funny catch phrases. Here are some of my favorite one-liners. Please be sure to add yours in the form of a comment. That's if you can remember one!
1. "If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?"
2. "No sh*t, Sherlock" meant, "Yeah, I know."
"F*ck off, Watson!" was the reply to the above phrase.
3. "Smooth play Shakespeare" or "Smooth move, Exlax" meant, "Nice going."
4. "Jinx! Buy me a Coke!" was said when you and a friend said the exact same thing at the exact same moment. There was an entire song and dance that followed this line. We learned it from a 1984 episode of Saturday Night Live, but I couldn't locate the video anywhere. Coke even used the line as the premise for one of their Super Bowl ads.
5. "I know you are, but what am I?" Pee Wee Herman loved this line!
6. "Say it don't spray it! Give me the news, not the weather!" was what we said if someone spit while speaking.
7. "Take a picture, it'll last longer" is what we said when someone appeared to be staring.
Purchase the "No Shit, Sherlock" shirt here.
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Written by Shillah Mwadosho
Read 448 Times
Two teachers’ unions have called on the government to allocate money for construction of makeshift structures and provision of lunch programmes in schools affected by floods.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education (KUPPET) and Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) said that the government through the ministry of special programmes should step in so that learning is not compromised.
KUPPET national vice chairman Julius Korir and KNUT national trustee Boniface Tenai jointly said that there was a need for the issue to be addressed so that this year’s candidates in both primary and secondary schools are not affected.
The two officials who were speaking to West Fm in Kapsabet said that floods should not be an excuse for learning to be suspended since the national examinations that primary and secondary candidates will be sitting for do not “sympathize” with flood victims.
They said that they would write to the ministries of special programmes and education to recommend on construction of makeshift structures at convenient places that will act as classrooms as schools wait for floods to subside.
Korir said that the alternative solution will be realized if proper consultation with stakeholders of the affected schools is made.
He said, “Stakeholders in affected places should be contacted because they know of possible alternative measures to be executed. We should not promote procrastination of learning in schools."
Tenai said that the two unions have also recommended the introduction of lunch programmes to ensure that pupils and students remain within makeshift classrooms for the whole day.
He said, “Sending children back for lunch may not be possible due to rains.
Some may end up being swept away or may not report back for afternoon lessons due to rains.”
Tenai who was speaking in the company of Korir added that the two unions would ensure that their recommendations bear fruits.
“This is not a political matter but basically a matter of education. We do not want our children to fail to progress to the next level of academic ladder because they could not be taught during floods,” he said.
The two unions spoke following reported cases of learning being interrupted in schools due to heavy rains that have wreaked havoc in the country.
Korir cited an incident where floods isolated schools and villages in southeastern Kenya early this month after Sabaki River broke its banks and changed course.
“I was shocked when I read in the newspaper that about 2,000 students were cut off from their schools due to floods in Malindi,” Korir said.
Switch to Our Mobile Site
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|Birth: ||Aug. 31, 1925|
|Death: ||Mar. 2, 2001|
Georgia started school at Norton School; later that year transferred to a two-room schoolhouse in a cotton field at North Norton. After finishing grade seven, she graduated in 1942 from Norton High School.
Georgia came to Rockdale in January 1943 looking for work. She applied for an opening at Western Union as a morse code operator trainee. Mable Luckey trained several such students in what is now (1984) Promenade Building. Upon completion, she worked in Bastrop, Texas, near Camp Swift. She later worked in several Texas towns and in 1943 went to teletype school in Springfield, Missouri. After graduating, she worked in several towns making vacation reliefs.
In 1944 she was offered a six-week job in Freeport (Brazoria County) Texas, which extended until June 1960. During her life in Freeport, she saw the streets of Freeport paved and saw the town of nearby Lake Jackson created where only trees and marsh once were. She witnessed several hurricanes, staying through two. All that water was a far cry from dusty West Texas. She learned about the Gulf, beaches, deep sea fishing, and enjoyed seafood which definitely was not in her hometown of Norton. While in Freeport, she married Albert Samuel Edward Kaseberg, Sr. June 14, 1956. They moved in 1960 to Baytown (Harris County). A son named Albert Samuel Edward Kaseberg, Jr. was born July 27, 1961. Georgia divorced Albert, Sr. in 1966.
Georgia and Albert, Jr. moved to Big Spring in 1968, then to Lafayette, Louisiana and Lake Charles, Louisiana. When that telegraph office closed, they moved to Rockdale in 1974. They moved to Monroe, Louisiana later for six months, and returned. Georgia took her retirement after 35 years of service. Georgia later worked from 1976 to 1982 as manager of Gold Bond Stamp redemption store in Rockdale before it closed.
Many interesting and sad times are recalled during her career. How can you explain to a sweet lady you cannot wire her homegrown flowers to a daughter? How can you explain you cannot wire some papers to a son to be signed and wired back? The work was gratifying by delivering messages about a new grandchild or offer of a job. Many times though, you got a nervous stomach, grabbed a box of kleenex and deliver a death message, many during World War II and Vietnam and Korean conflicts. Often these were about persons she knew personally. You got the feeling everyone dreaded to see you approaching. She still has her old morse key and the later model called a bug. Both still work. She came a long way from morse code to computer operation in 35 years!
. . . . . . . . . .
Georgia Faye spent the last year or so of her life as a resident of a nursing home in Cameron, Texas, a victim of Alzheimers . . . her burial on the 5th of March coincided exactly with the 101st anniversary of the birth of her mother, Willie Ruth (Jennings) Henry . . . she was an editor of Matchless Milam which was published during the Texas Sesquicentennial (1986) . . . she wrote the above bio for publication in that book . . .
George Rettig Henry (1897 - 1977)
Willie Ruth Jennings Henry (1900 - 1980)
Oak Lawn Cemetery
Rockdale (Milam County)
Created by: BeNotForgot
Record added: Jun 28, 2008
Find A Grave Memorial# 27877651
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Open Source in the Enterprise
In the last few years Open Source usage as reported by various surveys has really skyrocketed. We all know Linux in the data center has high usage, I’ve even seen statistics that claim 32% of netbooks use FOSS vs. Windows. And I’ve even read claims that Linux desktop domination is only a few years away. Of course I take these claims with a very large grain of salt. However you accept or dismiss these claims, one thing is certain; Open Source offers significant benefits to companies of all sizes. The problem that I see is most companies do not have an Open Source strategy.
Recently eWeek published an article where they outlined 6 recommendations for Open Source adoption in business.
1. Develop an Open Source Software Policy
It has been my experience that most companies have buried their heads in the sand and fail to acknowledge the existence of Open Source. Before anything can be incorporated into the corporate culture a policy must be in place that outlines the usage and limitations. Just like your Email, Internet Usage or Social Media policy outlines acceptable behaviour an official Open Source Policy has to be in place describing acceptable use of Open Source in your company.
2. Place Open Source on Equal footing with Proprietary Software
Open Source has gotten a bad wrap over the years. It was and continues to be treated as the poor cousin when compared to commercial software. This of course is driven by misconceptions, negative stereotypes and ignorance. In many ways Open Source code quality is as good and in some cases better and more secure then proprietary closed software. Until Open Source is treated equally with proprietary software it will never be accepted in the Enterprise. There will always be a seed of doubt, a nagging feeling wondering if Open Source is good, trustworthy or reliable.
3. Develop an Open Source Software Support Approach
Paid maintenance and support with proprietary software is assumed and seldom questioned. It’s part of the cost of doing business. Why then, is it so hard to pay for Open Source support? Most Open Source projects offer commercial support for their offerings, yet few of us actually buy in. It may have to do with the history of Open Source and idea of “Free“. If software maintenance and support is part of doing business, then Open Source support should not be treated differently. Paid Open Source support can significantly reduce the anxiety of using and relying on Open Source for critical business processes.
4. Create an ROI Framework for Open Source Adoption
Convincing Senior Management on the merits of Open Source can’t be driven by cost alone. Anyone that believes Open Source comes with zero cost has no clue and should be ignored. While there may be no initial purchase cost associated with Open Source, there are always hidden costs like with any other new technology. These may include User training, IT support training and hardware upgrade costs to name just a few. Many companies make the mistake of simply looking at the bottom line when choosing Open Source. The best approach to Open Source adoption decision process is to calculate the Return On Investment. In other words when deciding between Open Source vs. Proprietary calculate the total benefit to the company over a period of time and compare. Higher benefit equals higher ROI.
5. Audit Current Open Source Software Usage
The first step is acknowledging Open Source is alive and well in my business process. It’s amazing how some levels of management have no clue their critical business processes are using Open Source. A company wide initiative to uncover and document all uses of Open Source will help in acknowledging Open Source is alive and well, and secondly help build a company strategy on the use and adoption of Open Source.
6. Incorporate Open Source Software into your Cloud Strategy
Everyone is talking Cloud these days. Most cloud frameworks are built upon Open Source. Amazon is a perfect example. The inherent nature of Open Source makes it a perfect candidate for Cloud integration. The major Open Source players have well established Cloud solutions, don’t ignore them, instead embrace their cumulative knowledge when building your cloud strategy.
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October 14, 2011
The Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition is always a favorite in my office. The imagery—created with any of a number of techniques that magnify and enhance objects—ranges from the fantastical to the freaky, but it often has the added benefit of being useful in scientific research. This year Nikon, which announced the 2011 winners earlier this month, has added a Popular Vote feature, which is open until October 30 (the photo above is currently near the top of the leaderboard). And if you have an amazing photomicrograph or digital video (a new category for 2012), you can find rules and entry forms here.
But I can hardly talk about a photo contest without mentioning Smithsonian magazine’s own 9th Annual Photo Contest. You can enter images in one of five categories—Altered Images, Americana, the Natural World, People and Travel—and even if you don’t make the finals, your photo may be featured as one of our daily Editor’s Picks online. The contest is open until December 1, 2:00 p.m. EST, and finalists will be announced on March 1, 2012.
Check out the entire collection of Surprising Science’s Pictures of the Week and get more science news from Smithsonian on our Facebook page.
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
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(By Dividends4Life) Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APD). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:
Company Description: Air Products and Chemicals Inc. is a major producer of industrial gases and electronics and specialty chemicals also has interests in environmental and energy-related businesses.
Fair Value: In calculating fair value, I consider the NPV MMA Differential Fair Value along with these four calculations of fair value, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description:
1. Avg. High Yield Price
2. 20-Year DCF Price
3. Avg. P/E Price
4. Graham Number
APD is trading at a discount to only 3.) above. The stock is trading at a slight discount to its calculated fair value of $80.5. APD earned a Star in this section since it is trading at a fair value.
Dividend Analytical Data: In this section there are three possible Stars and three key metrics, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description:
1. Free Cash Flow Payout
2. Debt To Total Capital
3. Key Metrics
4. Dividend Growth Rate
5. Years of Div. Growth
6. Rolling 4-yr Div. > 15%
APD earned two Stars in this section for 2.) and 3.) above. The stock earned a Star as a result of its most recent Debt to Total Capital being less than 45%. APD earned a Star for having an acceptable score in at least two of the four Key Metrics measured. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1954 and has increased its dividend payments for 30 consecutive years.
Dividend Income vs. MMA: Why would you assume the equity risk and invest in a dividend stock if you could earn a better return in a much less risky money market account (MMA) or Treasury bond? This section compares the earning ability of this stock with a high yield MMA. Two items are considered in this section, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description:
1. NPV MMA Diff.
2. Years to > MMA
APD earned a Star in this section for its NPV MMA Diff. of the $2,779. This amount is in excess of the $500 target I look for in a stock that has increased dividends as long as APD has. The stock's current yield of 3.13% exceeds the 2.6% estimated 20-year average MMA rate.
Memberships and Peers: APD is a member of the S&P 500, a Dividend Aristocrat, a member of the Broad Dividend Achievers™ Index and a Dividend Champion. The company's peer group includes: L'Air Liquide SA (AiQUY) with a 0.0% yield, Airgas, Inc (ARG) with a 1.9% yield and Praxair Inc. (PX) with a 2.0% yield.
Conclusion: APD earned one Star in the Fair Value section, earned two Stars in the Dividend Analytical Data section and earned one Star in the Dividend Income vs. MMA section for a total of four Stars. This quantitatively ranks APD as a 4-Star Strong stock.
Using my D4L-PreScreen.xls model, I determined the share price would need to increase to $161.98 before MMM's NPV MMA Differential decreased to the $500 minimum that I look for in a stock with 30 years of consecutive dividend increases. At that price the stock would yield 3.1%.
Resetting the D4L-PreScreen.xls model and solving for the dividend growth rate needed to generate the target $500 NPV MMA Differential, the calculated rate is 3.6%. This dividend growth rate is significantly lower than the 10.4% used in this analysis, thus providing a margin of safety. APD has a risk rating of 1.25 which classifies it as a Low risk stock.
The industrial gases industry has enjoyed stable growth. APD plans to ramp up capital spending to expand its core industrial gases businesses, including projects in Asia. The company has a favorable debt to total capital of 43%, has provided strong dividend growth over the last 10 years and is trading below my calculated fair value of $80.50. However, its free cash flow payout of 137% prevents me from buying at this time. I will continue to monitor the stock at this time.
Disclaimer: Material presented here is for informational purposes only. The above quantitative stock analysis, including the Star rating, is mechanically calculated and is based on historical information. The analysis assumes the stock will perform in the future as it has in the past. This is generally never true. Before buying or selling any stock you should do your own research and reach your own conclusion. See my Disclaimer for more information.
Full Disclosure: At the time of this writing, I held no position in APD (0.0% of my Dividend Growth Portfolio). See a list of all my dividend growth holdings here.
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The suit, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, claims the South Korean electronics company copied Apple's mobile devices with products like the Galaxy S, Nexus S and Epic 4G smartphone, as well as the Galaxy Tab touchscreen tablet.
Apple has accused Samsung of violating patents it owns related to the design and creation of the iPhone and iPad. Last September, APC observed that Samsung's Galaxy Tab accessories were so similar to the iPad that the site said, "we can feel an Apple lawsuit coming on."
"Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products," the complaint reads.
The growing rivalry between Samsung and Apple is complex, because Apple is also the largest customer of Samsung, with a reported $7.8 billion in purchases planned for 2011. Samsung builds the custom chips used by Apple in devices like the iPhone and iPad, and also supplies flash memory and liquid crystal displays.
Apple's latest legal action is similar to a suit filed over a year ago against HTC. In that complaint, Apple accused HTC of infringing on 20 iPhone-related patents, and cited Google Android-powered handsets including the Nexus One.
"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in a statement that accompanied the HTC lawsuit. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
Apple is also engaged in a high-profile legal battle with another major rival, Nokia. Apple has sued Nokia, and is also being sued in an ongoing patent infringement suit.
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The city of Frankfurt is not only the financial centre of Germany and Europe, it also has a great deal to offer tourists.
During the Second World War, the city was heavily damaged but a few historic buildings survived. The lovely Römerberg square is certainly worth a visit, with the impressive Frankfurt Cathedral just around the corner. Museum lovers are bound to love the city. Frankfurt has no fewer than 14 museums including the German Film Museum, the Rosso Bianco Car Museum and the Chaplin Archive.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt. The house where this author was born is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. Not far from this, you will encounter the town of Hanau, the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm. During your time in Frankfurt, don't forget to taste the local specialities: Frankfurter sausages and Stöffche, a kind of apple wine.
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International Conference on Syria
On 12 December, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle attended the meeting of the Group of Friends of the Syrian People in Marrakech. On the agenda was the future of Syria and increased international support for the opposition “National Coalition”.
At the meeting of the Group of Friends of the Syrian People
© photothek /
The violence in Syria continues unabated. However, Foreign Minister Westerwelle believes there are signs that the power of the Assad regime is crumbling. On 12 December, the Group of Friends of the Syrian People met for the fourth time. The goal of the meeting in Marrakech was to lay the groundwork for a political process to end the fighting in Syria. An important element of this is clear support for the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, a platform uniting the opposition that was established in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on 11 November 2012.
A signal for a new beginning
Foreign Minster Westerwelle with his colleague Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates
In Marrakech, the participating states recognized the National Coalition as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people” and as the umbrella organization under which Syrian opposition groups gather. Foreign Minister Westerwelle called this “a powerful sign on the part of the majority of the international community in favour of a peaceful transformation and a fresh start in Syria characterized by democracy and plurality”. Assad’s regime, he said, must make way for such a fresh start. In Brussels on 10 December, EU Foreign Ministers had expressed their support of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces as “as legitimate representatives of the Syrian people” following talks with its president Sheikh Moaz Al‑Khatib.
At the request of the National Coalition, Germany and the United Arab Emirates want to promote the establishment of a trust fund. The international community should channel financial support to the National Coalition via this trust fund so that the needs of the Syrian people can be met, for example rebuilding destroyed infrastructure.
Germany increases humanitarian aid
Syrian refugees reach the Lebanese border
On the fringe of the conference, Foreign Minister Westerwelle announced that Germany will increase its humanitarian aid for those suffering because of the conflict in Syria by another 22 million euros.
The funds will be made available above all to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Food Programme and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The total of Germany’s humanitarian aid to those suffering because of the conflict in Syria this year is now at 90 million euros. Germany is thus the second largest bilateral donor behind only the United States. The funds benefit victims and Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and increasingly also people inside Syria living in areas under the control of opposition groups.
The Group of Friends of the Syrian People met for the first time on 24 February in Tunis, with more than 60 states participating. At the second meeting in Istanbul on 1 April 2012, it was more than 80. By the time the third meeting took place in Paris on 6 July, more than 100 states and international organizations took part. In Marrakech, 114 states and 14 international organizations are participating.
Last updated 12.12.2012
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The only sign language Appellate Judge Mike Pinsky knows is likely to get him thrown out of most public places.
Our reviews of Baby Einstein: Baby Beethoven (published November 6th, 2008), Baby Einstein: Baby's First Sounds (published April 30th, 2008), Baby Einstein: Discovering Shapes (published August 8th, 2007), Baby Einstein: Lullaby Time (published November 2nd, 2007), and Baby Einstein: Numbers Nursery (published August 12th, 2004) are also available.
See and sign with baby!
This was about the time that I thought I was done with Baby Einstein. I have always liked this series of toddler DVDs. My daughter and I watched them, and she developed her fascination with the world—animals, outer space, language, art—in part from our time together talking about what appeared on screen. While she has since graduated to Disney's television series Little Einsteins, my son has now inherited the ten or so Baby Einstein discs she used to watch. And all the music CDs. And the toys. And the many books. (This very evening, he demanded I read him a Baby Einstein book about cats six times. Did you know that cats are warm and soft to hold?)
Because we already have so much Baby Einstein stuff around the house, I have not been keeping up with the most recent releases. I know that Disney has steered the DVD series into narrower topic areas: body parts, the seasons, orchestral instruments. The formula still remains generally the same, with friendly puppets, happy children (for the first few years, founder Julie Aigner-Clark's own tots), and brightly-colored toys parading around to twinkly classical music. I was curious to see whether Baby Einstein has changed now that Disney has so aggressively expanded the franchise into many other product areas: bath books, party goods, even sunblock lotion.
The major difference with My First Signs is the presence of actual adult human beings: actress Marlee Matlin, and lots of parents practicing signs with their children. Puppets usually don't have fingers, so I guess the producers figured that the kids would need help learning the basics of ASL. My own experience has been that American Sign Language is excellent for children still developing their language skills. Try dealing with an 18-month-old child strapped to a booster at the dinner table. Do you want more? Do you want a drink? Another piece of banana—or is it chicken this time?
The children are a bit older than the toddlers usually playing in these videos, probably because they were more proficient at ASL. The classical music is still there (Schumann, Haydn, and such). Lessons are divided thematically, dealing with names of family members (like mommy and daddy), meal time words (like drink, cereal, and more), play time (like help, ball, and friend), and bed time (bath, story, and so forth). The program is not a comprehensive effort to teach your child how to communicate with sign language. Rather, it provides just enough vocabulary that a little one still trying to form words can be understood. If this means less crying, throwing toys and food, and general frustration—from you or your child—then it is well worth the effort.
The bonus section includes Matlin (with Julie Clark's voice dubbed in) sharing two additional sign language lessons, one grouped by opposites (boy/girl, up/down) and one with more advanced words (potty, hurt, love). There is an additional practice lesson for the sixteen words included in the main program as well, though this rushes by pretty quickly and is probably intended to refresh parents more than their kids. The extra puppet sketches might amuse the little ones, but they have negligible educational value compared to the main program. Instead of a message about the Baby Einstein company, as we used to get on these discs, instead Disney includes a plug for Little Einsteins. Given how easily Disney could have used this entire series to plug their own products (the only Disney reference I recall ever seeing in any of these DVDs is a two-second shot of an EPCOT fountain in Baby Neptune, and you'd only recognize it if you'd been there many times), I suppose they can be granted one commercial.
More than other Baby Einstein DVDs, First Signs is not meant as a babysitter. These sign language lessons are of no value if you do not watch along, learn the signs yourself, and practice them with your child. Even if you already have a few Baby Einstein DVDs and thought you did not need any more, you will find First Signs one of the most flat-out useful entries in the series. And if you do not own any Baby Einstein discs, this should be the first one you pick up. Even if you don't think your little ones should watch television at all, you might still consider picking this up so you can learn sign language and teach your children. In short, First Signs may be the most helpful and important product Baby Einstein has yet released. Even more than the sunblock lotion.
Give us your feedback!
What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.
Scales of Justice
• Two Additional Sign Lessons
Review content copyright © 2007 Mike Pinsky; Site design and review layout copyright © 2013 Verdict Partners LLC. All rights reserved.
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Following the popular unrest that swept across Egypt and culminated in the resignation of Egypt's long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak, relations between Iran and Egypt now appear to be warming.
Relations between Egypt and Iran have been non-existent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed Iran and after Egypt formally recognized Israel that same year, but after the popular overthrow of Egyptian strongman Mubarak in February it appears that Egyptian and Iranian authorities are seeking closer ties.
"America is trying to sow discord among Shi'ites and Sunnis... they want to create tension between Iran and Arabs... but their plan will fail." Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said on Monday in a speech marking Iran's national Army Day, Asia Timesreported.
While Egypt is a predominantly Sunni Arab nation, and while under Mubarak the nation was an ally of the United States and had a comfortable relationship with Israel, Egypt's Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayyeb has invited Iran to play a more positive role in mediating between Sunni and Shiite discord, according to People's Daily. And Iran appears to be rising to the challenge, looking first to the conflict in Bahrain, according to Asia Times.
The prospect of a friendship between Egypt and Iran is one that is being watched carefully by Israel and the United States, as the new Egyptian interim government appears to be moving away from the West.
"Iran is an Islamic country and is not an enemy of Egypt," Field Marshal Tantawi, the head of Egypt's military council, said on April 9, Asia Times reported.
Both nations are reinstating their ambassadors, a move that goes beyond mere symbolism.
"We are ready to take steps," Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said, according to The Telegraph. "We believe that developing relations between Iran and Egypt are in the interest of both countries and the region."
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January 27, 2009
Antonio Pagán, Controversial Former NYC Councilman, Dies
Former Democratic New York City councilman Antonio Pagán, known for his inconsistent stances on low-income and AIDS housing programs, died Sunday morning at Beth Israel Medical Center, The New York Times reports. He was 50. The cause of death is unknown.
Before his election to the City Council in 1991, Pagán served as executive director of the Lower East Side Coalition Housing Development—a nonprofit housing developer for low-income families—and was a founding member of the Hispanic AIDS Forum.
According to the article, while Pagán was celebrated for being one of the city’s first openly gay councilmen alongside Thomas K. Duane, his conservative stance toward housing and social programs made him a controversial figure among liberal activists in his Lower East Side District.
In 1997, Pagán was named Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s commissioner of employment, a position that he held until 2002.
Search: Antonio Pagán, Lower East Side Coalition Housing Development, Hispanic AIDS Forum
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Featured Team Profile
Ganga Prem Hospice
Microbiology and spirituality
may not look to be very compatible subjects but
the Ganga Prem Hospice spiritual advisor, Swamini
Pramananda has traversed a long way from being
a microbiologist to a Vedanta teacher. Swamini
Pramananda lives in Uttarkashi by the river Ganga
to lead a secluded life of sadhana in the Himalayas.
For the last twenty-five years, "Ammaji,"
as Swamini Pramananda's followers call her,
has been teaching Vedanta, Sanskrit and Vedic
Heritage, both in India and abroad. With her brother
Sri Dhira Chaitanya, she wrote a series of 24
books, known as Purna Vidya, which provides a
comprehensive overview of Vedic wisdom and culture.
Born in Bombay, Swamini Pramananda's
interest in spiritual knowledge took her to California
where she studied Vedanta and Sanskrit taught
by Swami Dayananda. After completing her Masters
degree in Microbiology from New York University,
she worked in the same city for five years in
a diagnostic research clinic and another five
years as a researcher for the Institute of Basic
Later Swamini Pramananda
returned to India where she studied and taught
Sanskrit and vedanta under her Guru ji's guidence.
At the same time as teaching Vedic Heritage her
interest in development work led her to run a
programme for the empowerment of tribal women,
as well as projects in health care and education
for the poor tribal people of the hilly areas
of Southern India.
Swamini Pramanada has been
a part of the Ganga Prem Hospice project almost
from its inception. As the Ganga Prem Hospice's
spiritual advisor, she visits the Hospice's
terminally-ill patients whenever she is in Rishikesh.
Having seen death up close with cancer patients,
and also having explored death as a spiritual
subject as defined in the Vedas, Swamini Pramananda
says, "Spirituality is the only way one can
find solace in the last days. It reassures the
individual that the soul has no death; that it
continues to exist and evolve." One of the
Swamini's own young disciples had cancer
and she helped her by sharing her love and insight
in student's last days.
Swamini Pramananda has traveled
extensively throughout the world and finds a marked
difference in people's attitudes towards
death, in India and abroad. She says, "In
India, death is very much considered a natural
aspect of life. Reincarnation is a much more accepted
concept in India than in other countries, though
there has been a steady increase in the number
of people believing in reincarnation abroad."
The only permanent
components of Swamini Pramananda's daily
routine are her prayers and meditation. "For
the rest, I readily become a part of whatever
picture emerges everyday." She continues
to spend most of her time in retreat in her ashram
but occasionally leaves her solitude to benefit
small groups of seekers by sharing her vast scriptural
knowledge with them.
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Facebook users could already click to ask other users to remove tags of them on photos. But the new tool lets them request that photos be removed from the site entirely, and it gives the recipient the ability to do so with a single click.
It also gives users the ability to select a reason for the request without having to begin a potentially embarrassing conversation themselves.
"If you don't want something on Facebook, it shouldn't be on Facebook," Lessin said. "We need to give you the tools to address that in a straightforward way."
More specific app permissions
Currently, approving an app on Facebook requires agreeing to a sometimes intimidating list of permissions for the app to do things like access your Friends list and post on your Timeline.
New changes, which will roll out first on Apple's iOS mobile platform, let users give an app basic permissions to start with and then approve other, specific access requests when the app needs them.
Not all apps will move to the new model, however. Perhaps most significantly, games won't change.
A frequent complaint among privacy advocates has been that the controls that exist on Facebook are hard for the average user to find and understand.
"(T)he privacy settings are confounding even for the most experienced digerati," danah boyd, a social-media researcher and privacy advocate, wrote for CNN during a 2010 privacy update. "People should be able to understand Facebook's changes and have choices available that allow them to make appropriate decisions."
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A somewhat grizzly Tim Plewman was found at the Struik stand representing Two Dogs, clad in a mock-animal fur jacket. He seemed to have just stepped out of the cave, though he would prove to be a rather talented caveman.
Plewman gave us more of a performance than a reading from his book Defending the Caveman, performance being what he is most famous for and what the book is about. Although he said “I know this is not a performance stand,” he could not help himself. His dramatic reading told us most clearly of his performance background; the variation in pitch and tone and accentuated accents made it more than just your average reading.
Plewman spoke about his play of the same name which inspired the book; it has seen its 1000th performance come and go! Quite something for a South African production.
Quote of the hour: “The whole idea of the Caveman is the idea of the understanding and love that should exist between men and women”
» read article
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Mulder and Scully investigate strange occurrences when an invisible forces seems to wreck the downtown of Fairfield, Idaho and an elephant from the local zoo is found lying on the highway some 40 miles away. No one at the zoo can figure out how the elephant got out of its locked enclosure and animal rights activists have been active in condemning the way the zoo treats its animals. It's not the first time animals have escaped or disappeared from the Fairfield Zoo but when an animal activist is mauled by an invisible tiger, they're dealing with something no one has encountered. When Scully determines that the elephant and the tiger had been pregnant leading Mukder to believes that the animals are perhaps being abducted by aliens. Written by
Did You Know?
Mulder is speculating on why the animals are not being returned to the proper location and says to Willa Ambrose, "I don't know where they're being taken, but there's obviously some problem getting them back, due to what is probably an astrological variation, a trouble with the space-time continuum." Even if Duchovny didn't blow the line and spoke it as written, the reference should have been to an 'astronomical' variation. See more
Willa Ambrose and Ed Meecham have been charged with manslaughter for the death of Kyle Lang. And though the courts will rule on this matter, and justice will be no doubt be served, the pall of a greater tragedy remains. The motives of the silent visitors who set these events in motion remain unclear. Could this be a judgement on a global rate of extinction that has risen to 1000 times its natural rate in this century? An act of alien conservation of animals we are driving hard toward...
References Star Trek
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OTTAWA — He was her only son, dead at age 26 from a gunshot wound, the settling of a stupid debt.
On the day the killer was sentenced in a Gatineau courtroom, pleading to a reduced charge of manslaughter, she was there, of course. “Mother” means to the end.
It was her moment to address the court. “This is my son,” Le Droit reported she told the accused, showing the gunman a bag in her hand. Inside was an urn with his ashes, all that was left of her boy.
In the aftermath — when she couldn’t perform her regular job for more than a year — she would learn there was no rule book for grief, but there was a strict definition of “victim.” And she didn’t qualify, nor did any other family member.
The Citizen has agreed not to publish her name, as she does not want to draw undue attention to her son’s daughter, who was only a toddler at the time of the slaying in 2008.
But her case illustrates what she feels is a glaring weakness in how provincial bodies deal with compensating the victims of criminal acts, creating “classes” of survivors.
The series of indignities actually began at the courthouse, she said. She and her son are both anglophones, but there was no translation offered to her at the preliminary hearing. At one point, she says, she was actually tossed from the courtroom for taking notes.
She was distressed enough when the first-degree murder charge was plea-bargained down to manslaughter, resulting in a nine-year sentence, excluding time served.
There would be more.
In September 2008, she applied for compensation under Quebec’s Indemnisation des victimes d’actes criminels, or IVAC. She said she spent $7,000 on the funeral and, as a single mother, it was money she didn’t have. It went on credit, some still owed.
Then there was her granddaughter. Was she not an innocent victim of the killing, burdened to grow up without her father?
In June 2010 — almost two years later — she got a dismissive letter from IVAC that struck the wrong tone from the start:
“The claimant alleges that her son died as the result of the commission of a crime.”
Alleges? Her son was dead and his killer was in prison. The letter went on to explain why she would be offered nothing.
Her son, the police allege, had been a drug dealer. There was conflicting evidence in court about whether the fatal argument was about the nonpayment for a vehicle or a drug debt.
The letter said police found a “large quantity” of marijuana and a “large sum of cash” in the apartment.
“The Commission finds, by a preponderance of evidence, that the event was connected to drug-related activities respecting which the victim knew or should have known involved serious risks of attack on his person given the dangers inherent in that milieu. This is the most likely explanation for the attack on his person.”
“The most likely”? Now IVAC is retrying the case on its own? It was certain who the marijuana belonged to?
This gave them an out, as per the legislation. The commission found he had contributed to his own death by “gross fault.”
This is a common provision in the enabling legislation for provincial bodies that look after compensation for injuries that result from criminal acts, says Heidi Illingworth. She is executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre For Victims of Crime.
“It is also concerning that Quebec government programs such as IVAC engage in and contribute to victim-blaming practices,” she wrote in a letter of appeal. “In so doing, you have essentially told this mother that her son’s life is expendable.”
(Compensation often covers things like funeral expenses and followup counselling.)
Mom says her son had a juvenile record as a teenager but no adult criminal convictions. Her perception was that he was growing up and finally turning his life around.
In any case, she wonders, why would this disqualify compensation to his daughter, an innocent child?
“This just isn’t fair,” she said. “He’s dead. He’s paid his dues.”
She said she is also dealing with the double stigma that her son was murdered and that, as a parent, she is partly responsible for his behaviour. She has tried attending victim support group meetings, but even there she feels judged.
Still emerging from the psychological damage, she’s now getting angry about what happened. Ironically, she says, the federal parole system considers her a “victim” and is offering support for an upcoming hearing.
She’d like to see two changes: the broadening of the definition about who really is a “victim” of a criminal act and the creation of a new support group for parents dealing with children killed, to some degree, because of their own criminal activity.
“Death,” she says, “is death.”
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I recently testified before the Senate Small Business Committee on the topic of the Small Business Administration. GovExec.com mentioned that there was a “bit of drama as the hearing ended” when Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) “upbraided” me for comments I had made in an exchange with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Having watched a recording of the hearing, I think I should comment.
Proponents of the SBA argue that a “market failure” exists because some otherwise worthy applicants are unduly denied credit under the standard criteria used by private lenders. Therefore, the federal government should correct this alleged “failure” by incentivizing private lenders to issue loans to less credit-worthy applicants. The SBA does this by “guaranteeing” up to 85 percent of the loan’s value in the event of a default.
Sen. Paul asked me to comment on the alleged “market failure” in small business lending. In my response, I stated that the SBA’s loan guarantee programs are “inherently discriminatory” because the government backs loans for some businesses but not others. I noted that businesses that do not receive an SBA-backed loan are put at a disadvantage when the government backs the loan of a competitor.
In an attempt to simplify my point for the audience, I gave an example. Upon moving to the Indianapolis area several years ago, I went to a pizza shop. On the wall was a newspaper clipping about the shop, which mentioned that it had gotten started with an SBA-backed loan. There are innumerable places to get pizza in the Indianapolis area. So it struck me as being unfair that the federal government had assisted a particular pizza shop and therefore advantaged it against competing pizza shops that did not receive government support, or pizza entrepreneurs who might have entered the market without government support.
A visibly bothered Sen. Brown claimed that I said that “I wondered how they [the pizza shop] got the loan.” However, I never said that I wondered how the pizza shop got the SBA-backed loan. I thought that my anecdote illustrated a very simple point: the government had effectively favored one pizza shop over others. But Brown apparently didn’t get it, and instead proceeded to question how I could talk about discrimination when I knew nothing about “the facts” of how the pizza shop came to get the loan.
The entire exchange was bizarre – particularly Brown’s closing comments before he cut me off (my transcription):
I find it kind of inappropriate that you would make a statement as discriminatory for that pizza place to get a loan without having the facts … and I think this kind of rhetoric like that as you throw it around … and we hear those things in a whole host of areas in Washington … it doesn’t help solve the problem and basically step up, and you know, make it better and encourage people to take a shot in business.
Maybe it’s best that he cut me off because the hearing was a week ago and I still don’t know what to make of those comments. (Those interested can go to the 122 minute mark to watch my full exchange with Sen. Brown.)
Perhaps my use of the word “discriminatory” got Sen. Brown agitated. I admit that if I could do it over again, I would chose a different word or phrase given that the ruling class in Washington is particularly sensitive when you’re on their turf. Regardless, it’s a sad commentary on the size and scope of the federal government that I would be arguing with a senator over a federally-backed loan to a pizza shop.
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- Filed Under
For 17-year-old student-athlete Garren Reyes, sports is about taking risks and having fun.
Whether it's being out on the court playing basketball or butting heads on the football field, Reyes says it should be made fun at all times.
"I enjoy playing basketball with my friends, because it is fun and competitive at the same time," Reyes said. ...
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Perfect, Lundgren, you're all set, apart from a little detail: your Computer Science optional class level is equal to twice your Computer Science skill, and that's all. To increase your optional class score, you need to increase your skill. Now, rules explanation time!
The general rules are pretty straightforward. 1D10, you must roll under your attribute or skill. Emotion checks are the odd ones out: you must roll above your Emotions to keep them in control. (10 is always a success.) So high emotion is a double edged sword: sure, you get more powers. But you are also more emotionally vulnerable. If you like to play an emotionally vulnerable character, go ahead. If not, then between 6 and 8 is a good score.
School subject work differently. I am not really familiar with the grade system... The system is made for a grade from 0 to 20, like in France (cause it's a French tabletop RPG). The base system is, when going to an exam, you score in the subject your score - 2D10 + 10 + bonus for being extra studious (or - penalty for not studying seriously). It is used to make a grade between 0 and 20. So I need the help of someone more familiar with the grade system to convert that part.
Then, since you will be expected to fight against demons, here are the rules for combat and magical attacks:
Combat: You start by rolling initiative. 1D10 + Dex. Higher rolls go first. In case of a tie, higher Dex goes first, then higher Fitness. If both are equal, reroll to see whom goes first.
Any character attacks once during his/her/it's turn.
The attacker rolls for the attack using his/her/it's Brawl skill (or combat sports, if he has it). The defender rolls either his/her/it's parry skill or his/her/it's dodge skill to avoid the attack. The higher success margins wins. In case of a tie, a defender's success or if both miss, the blow/shot/spell fails to connect.
Multiple attacks: Any attack after the first that a defender has to try to avoid gives him/her/it a -2 cumulative penalty. So if your magical girl is attacked by 3 demons, the first attack is resolved normally. The second one gives a -2 penalty to the magical girl defense. The third one a -4.
1: Characters with 7 in Combat Sports can use it instead of parrying. Also, they can use 2 melee attacks per round, and suffer only a -1 cumulative penalty when faced with multiple attacks.
2: A magical girl with the Combat Prowess power 5 to 7 gets an extra attack and defense, A Combat Prowess power of 8 or 9 gives two, and a Combat Prowess of 10 gives three extra attacks and defenses.
3: Using a ranged weapon uses either the Shooting/Shooting sports skill or Throwing/Throwing sports skills. In the former case, a parry is impossible, unless you are at point blank range (you can also parry for your friend if you are at that range). Also, if your magical girl somehow manages to acquire an automatic gun (or if she has to face a mind controlled SWAT/US Army member with such a gun), a burst gives a +1 bonus to hit, expands 10 rounds, and 1D10 rounds hit, damage is rolled for each round.
4: (Homebrew) Anyone with a skill of 6 in Combat Sports, 8 in Brawl, or 4 in Combat Prowess can deal non lethal melee attacks. The target cannot get lower than 0 Hit points, and as such cannot die, although it can fall into a coma. Anyone with 8 in combat prowess can use non lethal attacks with ranged weapons. All it takes if you meet the requirements is to declare it.
Magical attacks cannot be parried. (Homebrew) Also, if you have 6 ranks in a power, you can use it non lethally (see above)
Standard attack: Make an roll under your power. If you you deal damage depending on your ranks in the power, and how many power points you spend (1 to 3).
Area attack: You attack everything in an area. A high pressure circular water burst, a fireball... You can spend 8, 10, or 12 power points to deal more devastation. You make one power roll against every target. Dodge rolls against area attacks are done at a -2 penalty. With 8 point, you can affect a radius of 5 to 10 meters (your choice), burst center up to 40 meters away. With 10 points, a radius of 8 to 15 meters, burst center up to 60 meters away. With 12 points, a radius of 10 to 20 meters, burst center up to 80 meters away. (Sorry for my use of metric system, but it is the system used by scientists after all... 2 meters are approximatively equal to 5 feet if you want a quick, dirty and approximate conversion.) Making an area attack takes your entire round.
And then, you get combination attacks.
First, take the lower power value of all participant (they do not need to use the same power. Even opposite powers (water/fire) work. This determines the maximal number of magical girls able to make the attack. Then, average the power score of every magical girl. The one whom spend the more points makes the roll with the average value. Then, the defender makes a dodge roll, with a penalty depending on how many magical girls launched a combination attack. (2 to 3: -1. 4 to 5: -2. More than 5: -3). Everyone rolls damage, all damage is added and doubled. Such an attack costs more power points though: it requires one additional power point per attacker for all attacker (for example, 3 attackers means each of them spends 3 more PP for the attack). (BTW, it is possible to make a combined area attack.)
Anytime a high school student is hit in combat, he/she must roll an emotion check to keep control of herself. If you have mastered Brawl, Combat Sports, the courageous trait, or have access to Combat Prowess, your emotions are considered one point lower for this purpose (the four previous conditions are cumulative). Failure means you react badly to the hit, even if it didn't deal damage (panic, rage, freezing...). Also, different conditions can help, like a soothing spell or things like that.
Damage: An ordinary person has 3*Fitness Health Points (HP). Loss of less than one third HP is a light wound. Loss of between one third and two third HP is a serious wound, imposing a -2 penalty to all rolls. Loss of more than two third HP is critical wound. When critically wounded, a character needs to succeed at a Fitness roll or pass out. Then, he suffers a -4 penalty to all rolls. 0 HP is a coma. [homebrew] Negative HP is a dying status. You must roll fitness every minute (with one less second for every negative HP) until you either receive first aid or fail and die. [/homebrew]
Healing: [homebrew] You recover Fitness HP per night of rest. Non magical girl recover 1 HP per night of rest. Someone healing another one during this night's sleep adds his success margin to a first aid roll to this value (half as much in the case of a non magical girl). [/homebrew]
Special case: Magical girls or demons with the Toughness self enhancement power add thrice their toughness to their HP.
Everybody gets it? If you have any question, feel free to ask.
Next and last rule parts: Sickness, tiredness and experience.
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Here's a great article on how to make sure your dog is fit -- not fat -- so critical for cavalier health as any extra weight means their hearts work harder and contributes to faster onset of heart disease and other problems. As almost every single cavalier will get heart disease (MVD), keeping your dog FIT is the number one way to extend its life -- and overfeeding is the fast lane to an earlier death. Now who wants that for their dog? Not you! You want that sweet cavalier in your life for as long as possible. So be sure to read this:
You can download a free body condition poster, too.
Does this sound familiar? Here is the opening of the article.
Keep in mind that it can be easier to judge body shape when you are bathing your cavalier. A fluffy or heavy coat can make a dog look heavier than it is. But almost all the cavaliers I meet are heavier than they should be and do not have a waist (and a waist really means a waist -- not a vague indent! see the chart) -- I think few cavalier owners will find they have a too-thin doglet under that lovely coat.Every time I give a lecture on behavior modification, someone asks me, “But what if my dog’s not motivated for food?” This always makes me wonder if we live on the same planet. For one, if a dog were truly not motivated for food, he would dead. What the attendee really should be asking is “Why won’t my dog eat when I want to train him? Could it have anything to do with the fact that I leave his food out all day or give him table scraps and treats for free out of guilt whenever he looks at me?”
Secondly, no matter how puzzled these owners appear, a majority of the time I find that their dog is quite hefty, even obese! In other words, the reason the dog won’t eat when they want to use food for training is that he gets way too much to eat already and he’s often just full or content.
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http://www.cavaliertalk.com/forums/showthread.php?42783-Is-cavalier-fit-or-fat-How-to-bodyscore-your-dog&p=427825
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Who Will Care For My Children During Drug Rehab?
By Tiffney Yeager
One of the most common obstacles for prospective patients who want
is “What do I do with my children?”
For many individuals, particularly women, the uncertainty of childcare makes a difficult decision even more so.
Many parents know they need treatment, but the stigma of being a parent who leaves his/her children for potentially
weeks of drug rehab
is scary indeed. What will my significant other or family think? What about neighbors and
friends? How will my kids react? Will I risk losing my children to social services if I go to treatment? What
kind of parent am I if I am not here for my children?
Some drug rehab facilities
have child care available, although these facilities are limited in number. More often,
drug rehab facilities may have local resources that can assist with childcare, at least during weekday hours.
In some cases, one parent can care for the children while the other parent attends drug rehab. Other options
include talking to family or close friends. Often those people in our lives that love us are willing and able to
help if we only ask. Some families have used local day care facilities for daytime care and friends or relatives
have been able to care for the children after work and on weekends. Oftentimes, finding the right childcare, or
blend of childcare, involves a lot of creativity, but many patients do manage to successfully complete drug rehab
even if they are the primary caretaker for their children.
It is important to remember that although having another person care for your children in the short-term can be
stressful, the long-term effects of parenting when you are impaired can cause even more damage. Children are
very perceptive and they can often tell if their parent is using even when other adults cannot. Years ago, I
had a family therapy session
with a mother and her young child who was in foster care. The mother recently
completed chemical dependency treatment and we were working towards reintegration of the family. After the family
session, the child, who was about 5 years old, was in my office waiting for her foster parents and she commented
that her mother had been using. During our family session, I had looked for signs that the mother may have been
using and noticed none. Later that afternoon, I received a call from the family’s social worker who told me that
the mother had in fact tested positive for methamphetamines. Those people who are closest to you are often the
most perceptive regarding your use of substances and even if your use goes unnoticed by casual acquaintances,
your children and close family likely are aware of your substance use. In almost every case, one’s parenting
ability is negatively affected by substance use. Although many parents are sure that their substance use does not
affect their ability to parent, their children are often very aware of their parent’s substance use. Children can
often identify a multitude of ways that their parent is parenting differently when under the influence.
Continued use also increases the risk that children will lose a parent to drug related problems (car accidents,
falls, incarceration, overdose, etc.). The long term or permanent loss of a parent is much more traumatic than
living with friends or family while a parent attends drug rehab.
Need Expert Advice?
Reference Our Clinician Library, Articles,
And Videos By Clicking Here
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At 17-years, a WH has been on borrowed time for quite awhile. Not to say that occasionally some don't last longer. Depending on your water quality, it could be trying to heat up the water through a very significant portion of minerals, decreasing the heat transfer efficiency. Might be other reasons, and this sort of thing usually comes on gradually, not rapidly. But, your incoming water temperature may be dropping rapidly as winter approaches, and that will cause it to use more gas. You can get the statistics on temperatures - you might want to compare this year with last. Any teenagers home and taking long showers? Doing more laundry with hot? put in a new soaking tub? You could have a leak...is your house on a slab? Any part of the floor seem warm? Take a look at the water meter and while nobody is using any water, check to see if the meter is moving. You might have a surprise in the water/sewer bill coming (they often go quarterly rather than monthly). If it is moving, shut the supply to the WH off and see if it stops.
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http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?33026-spike-in-ng-usage&p=233392&viewfull=1
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Flooding threatens dam near Louisiana-Mississippi border
Locals asked to heed warnings
- Duration 3:05
- Date Aug 30, 2012
Locals asked to heed warnings
Also in this playlist...
This transcript is automatically generated
Correspondent Casey Stegall was in the Louisiana town of Robert on the North Shore of the lake.
And he's there with the latest -- evacuation center Casey what do we know about this dam and those people.
We'll -- obviously a lot of people are extremely anxious and they're waiting to see what happens up in Mississippi before make anyone makes any sort of rash -- -- decisions.
But I want to kind of show -- around here because people living in homes like this are the ones who are threatened and if you follow me this way you can see why the tangible whole river that we're talking about -- it is weighed down that way on the other side about a hundred -- -- so -- passed that white fence but you have water that has come all the way up here and keep in mind that dam has not broken and the water has already risen this much about nineteen feet or so over the banks in this one particular spot.
If you look out there you see that yellow stick out their shepherd that was placed out there where we were talking to you during studio B.
And you can see how much the water has come up just then so.
If that dam bursts up in Mississippi.
It is going to send flood waters racing down this already swollen river and you have people that are living along the river that are really really worried and they are keeping a close eye on it that is why.
Up to 60000.
From the areas of cat would down here to Robert.
It's about a 41 mile stretch dotted with communities here in Louisiana along this river and all of them are keeping their eyes on this tonight -- Casey I know they're looking at this -- from the air have they found out anything.
-- they are the Army Corps of Engineers been going up and helicopters but sometimes the helicopters have to get grounded because.
As you know all too well a band will come through.
Bringing a lot of rain and some wind with -- and it's unsafe for them to fly but the corps of engineers have been up in the air the governor of this state Bobby Jindal went up in the air as well.
And listen to someone from the Army Corps of Engineers how the way they characterize what they were able to ascertain from up above listen.
Also saw two -- war series.
Would -- yeah.
Again route structure.
And slush ball and -- them.
Initial assessments that -- not represented potential failure of the -- But we've got suggests that cursory look.
Not a potential failure of the dam but that has not been ruled out at this point which is why they were doing this controlled release shepherd they were actually cutting holes and punching holes in it with hopes that the water -- that lake -- been in the south part of Mississippi would drain out into a wooded area.
And it would take a lot of the pressure off of the dam so it would not rupture and done again that is something that's going on as we speak and we have not heard any updates in terms of the progress of how that controlled.
Release has gone shepherd.
Well that is the significant moment of the day at least along the Mississippi Louisiana -- will go back.
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You, like me, probably think of archiving as towers of dusty books locked away in a bomb proof basement somewhere, solely of interest to aged historians. You might also think that this is a long way from the world of open data, however today I’ve discovered that they may be inextricably linked.
This is all thanks to Andrew Cooper, Research Manager at The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund who held a fantastic event today with Jack Meyers, President of the Rockefeller Archive Centre to talk about archiving in foundations.
Open Learning Analytics - what is it, how can it help?
In my last couple of blogs, I’ve looked a bit at the importance of innovation in platforms and curricula design over content delivery (here), and one example – Edu-Browse – of a possible tool, alongside some other sources for Ed-Tech tools.
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Why is it MEN seem to get along better in this field than WOMEN??!!!Register Today!
This is a discussion on Why is it MEN seem to get along better in this field than WOMEN??!!! in Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations, part of General Nursing ... Hello this was brought up to me so now I'm sharing it with you all, I had a new R.N. nurse come to...by 1BlessedRN May 10, '04Hello this was brought up to me so now I'm sharing it with you all, I had a new R.N. nurse come to me in tears because another R.N. treated and talked to her very badly when she asked her basic questions, and in the midst of her tears she stated her brother was also a new nurse and doctors even help him when he had a problems she didn't seem to understand why women wouldn't like to help women, I have also seem to witness in this field men do seem to get along alot better than women, you will find a few nurses that will help you when in need but that is a very few, I don't know if it's due to the shortage everybody is overworked or underpaid, but we are killing the younger generation of nurses who do try and probaly will oneday make good nurses if they can handle the stressful enviroment any suggestions?
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- 12,350 Views
- May 10, '04 by RN34TXQuote from lisadlpn2brnMany (but definitely not ALL so don't shoot me) women in my experience seem to bring their personal crap from home to work with them and take things more personally. My female colleagues comment at times that they like when more of the men are on the floor and get along better with other men than each other. I'm not sure exactly why, but we seem to get along better and not bicker over the small things or make things personal.Hello this was brought up to me so now I'm sharing it with you all, I had a new R.N. nurse come to me in tears because another R.N. treated and talked to her very badly when she asked her basic questions, and in the midst of her tears she stated her brother was also a new nurse and doctors even help him when he had a problems she didn't seem to understand why women wouldn't like to help women, I have also seem to witness in this field men do seem to get along alot better than women, you will find a few nurses that will help you when in need but that is a very few, I don't know if it's due to the shortage everybody is overworked or underpaid, but we are killing the younger generation of nurses who do try and probaly will oneday make good nurses if they can handle the stressful enviroment any suggestions?
Example: I tell my relief nurse (very discreetly and politely) that he/she overlooked something, missed an order, etc. My male relief is more likely to say, "Oh I'm sorry I forgot about that, thanks for covering for me."
Too often my female relief interprets it differently like "You're criticizing me, you hate me, you think I'm a bad nurse." when it has nothing to do with whether or not I like you and I don't think you're a bad nurse over one small oversight during a busy shift.
- May 10, '04 by Spoiled1I personally feel that women are just that way in general. Nurse or not. We are overly emotional at times. Too often we bring it to the work place, or where ever we are at the time. Women are "catty" and combative.
- May 10, '04 by SmilingBluEyesI think this is wrong. I was in the military (overwhelming male majority in case you did not know), and there were PLENTY OF p##### contests there, believe you me. It's not just women, we just happen out number men in this field. I really think that is an unfair assessment/generalization we put on ourselves as nurses.
- May 10, '04 by oldiebutgoodieWomen's brains are wired differently than men's brains. Because we are more sensitive to feeling/emotions, we react differently than men. I have worked with men for the last 25 years, and I could be standing in front of them sobbing and most of them wouldn't notice, unless I hit them over the head with a brick. Okay, that's exaggerating, but men do not pick up on relationship/feeling/emotional things like women.
If a guy is cranky, another guy will just assume that he's having a lousy day. If a women is cranky, another woman will interpret it a thousand different ways--"she hates me", "she is such a *****", etc. etc...
We women have got to stop personalizing things so much, and men could probably use to personalize things a little.
I guess it's just God's little joke... :chuckle
- May 10, '04 by z's playaI tend to agree with HOTGIRL on this one. As everyone knows by now, I had a run in with a couple of nurses and they turned around and were sweeter than pie to my fiancee. Its sad to say but yes...women are catty and why that is?...Who knows. Competitive, jealousy perhaps. Even if we can't put a finger on whatever it is specifically, there is always that "sizing up" of another woman happening.
Men do it too but not on such an obvious level and they don't pick up when it happens too much so hence, no reaction.
- May 10, '04 by crankyasanoldmaI totally disagree. There is not a single male nurse in my unit or my hospital. I've never worked with a nicer group of women. I've been here over 6 years.
I do believe people look for things that confirm their bias. If you spend the day looking for examples of women not helping one another you will likely find plenty. So spend a day looking for good examples. I actually talked a friend out of racism this way.
- May 10, '04 by KyriakaI think you run into this with women in all business enviroments. I have had women bosses and I have had men bosses and I much prefer the men. With a man you always know where you stand. Men say what they mean and mean what they say.
I hate to use this term, but in the work environment women vomit on one another.
- May 10, '04 by RNPATLI think when there is competition between women, it can get pretty catty. However, I work with a great group of women and they all get along very well. I do agree that women bring a lot of baggage to work with them and at times, this baggage can cause problems.
As far as me, as a male .... I just go with flow. Very little ever gets under my craw, but if I do get mad, I let those making me mad know that and DO not hold it in. My female counterparts tend to hold in their anger and then tell the next nurse, who they are friends with, about what the other nurse just did or said to her. This gets both of them worked up and before you know it, the whole unit is in a fit. Not a good thing. I think it is a female thing and most women agree that it is. Not sure why, but it is real. Fortunately, like I said before, I see very little of this behavior from the women I work with. Perhaps that is a product of the fact that these ladies have been working with each other for a number of years. Donno ... just my opinion.
- May 10, '04 by duckboy20I think that most women seem to carry their emotions on their shoulders all the time. Men, at least I find it with myself, tend to let most stuff go in one ear and out the other. Women are more in tune with feelings than men are and are more apt to get them hurt. Not a bad thing, just something that could potentially hurt in the workplace
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Canned tuna is big business. Australians buy over 250 million cans a year. The choices tuna brands make have a huge impact on our oceans. While many brands are switching to sustainable fishing methods, the biggest brand - John West - is hooked on destructive fish aggregating devices (FADs) with purse seine nets. For every 9kg of tuna caught using this fishing method, an extra 1kg is 'bycatch' like sharks, rays, baby tuna and turtles. John West is the largest seller of canned tuna in Australia - it has a responsibility to stop destroying our oceans and ban the use of destructive FADs.
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News: Google App Engine for Java: A Getting Started Guide & Case Study
Google App Engine for Java sounds great but contains a fair number of limitations including a lot of unsupported APIs and frameworks. I have documented my experiences with Google App Engine for Java in the form of two blog posts. 3 Tips for Getting Started with Google App Engine for Java is for programmers considering Google App Engine for Java. A Case Study of Google App Engine for Java reviews the use of Google App Engine for Java in developing a new microblogging service and includes developer thoughts on ease of use, costs, and support.
- Posted by: Robert Miller
- Posted on: June 15 2009 07:30 EDT
- More case studies! by Roy van Rijn on June 15 2009 17:04 EDT
- bigger issue! by shawn spencer on June 15 2009 19:38 EDT
- Re: More case studies! by ^C^ ^C^ on June 16 2009 01:37 EDT
- Re: More case studies! by Roy van Rijn on June 16 2009 03:11 EDT
- Re: More case studies! by Deepak A on June 16 2009 03:17 EDT
- Re: More case studies! by ^C^ ^C^ on June 16 2009 08:52 EDT
- Cannot access your home page by Dorel Vaida on June 19 2009 01:18 EDT
- Would you consider GAE for your next project? by Pranab Ghosh on June 24 2009 20:55 EDT
- Great info by vanessa calabria on October 27 2009 13:48 EDT
- unsupported APIs and frameworks by du lendo on June 16 2009 05:04 EDT
- More case studies! by Reik Schatz on June 16 2009 06:54 EDT
Good to see more case-studies of people trying out GAE. I've blogged about my experiences too, with Spring (annotations), JPA and Wicket. http://blog.smart-java.nl/blog/index.php/2009/06/05/getting-on-the-cloud/ The biggest issue I have with GAE at the moment is the persistence. Datanucleus is trying hard, but the JPA support is really basic, and shouldn't be called JPA IMHO. You can't have joins, aggregations, or even something as simple as the 'OR' in a query. Hopefully more people using GAE and Datanucleus will drive them to develop it further and extend the support for queries on the cloud.
You have to be very careful with GAE as not all jee features/apis/extensions are not supported by GAE. Its very very confusing and a pain to remember what all to use and what not. Last month a sun offical (you know who) was upset at GAE for breaking the "integrity" of a jee. anyway.. I dont get the business model of google to get into this business of specifics of jee. Why not just be a cloud computing provider of all of jee or all of .net or both ?
My assumption is that GAE is similar to what Google uses internally for their Java web applications. Further, that Google is hoping to acquire companies that do well on their platform and then not have to worry about transitioning the acquired company's technology to Google's technology. In other words, maybe they are tired of acquiring companies that use totally different technologies...just a guess.
that's no different to e.g. j2me. The jee security model has always been a lot of work for very little benefit; most of Googles modifications are down to the need for reliably partitioning different users of the same appserver from each other.
The biggest issue I have with GAE at the moment is the persistence. Datanucleus is trying hard, but the JPA support is really basic, and shouldn't be called JPA IMHO.Can't comment on your blog itself since you insist on people registering, so I'll give your comments here:-P
- DataNucleus (the project) provides core facilities for JDO/JPA and the plugin architecture. DataNucleus actually provides *complete* JPA (and JDO) support for RDBMS. It provides partial support for many other datastores (using the features suitable for the datastore).
- Google write their own plugin for JDO/JPA persistence to BigTable, and it is this that decides which part of JDOQL/JPQL to implement, not DataNucleus.
- Google's AppEngine DataNucleus plugin provides partial JDO and JPA support due to the underlying datastore structure and concepts.
- Future releases of the AppEngine DataNucleus plugin will provide support for more features, providing more complete implementation of the two specs. See their issue tracker.
- JPA (and JPQL) was designed for RDBMS and only RDBMS, so it is unrealistic to expect complete support for a datastore that is not RDBMS.
- JDO (and JDOQL) was designed to be datastore agnostic, and so provides a better fit in many areas to BigTable
Thanks for the heads-up. It wasn't clear which piece was from Datanucleus and which piece was Google. Still, I really hope there will be more features. Of course I understand the underlaying data structure (BigTable) is less suited for JPA, something like the OR-operator isn't specific for RDBMS of course. With a Map/Reduce algorithm you can do this kind of stuff too. Oh, and in Python they have one-on-many and many-on-many working, so technically its possible with the underlaying structure(s) of the cloud.
Yes, GAE's JPA support has been very primitive. Surprisingly there is support for transactions, but in a transaction only one entity instance of a particular type can be updated or persisted to the datastore. However, Local datastore turns out to be useful in developing and testing applications locally before you go live over the BigTable. But, I'm not sure how it works with enormous amount of data and support for map/reduce.
I chose to use JPA because it is much richer and has more features then JDOJust so that people don't get mislead by your statement (from the blog), this is the complete opposite to what I have found and what is exhibited clearly in all comparisons I've seen. I implemented both specs for DataNucleus so have something to base my statement on. Here's a couple of links for your research http://db.apache.org/jdo/jdo_v_jpa.html http://db.apache.org/jdo/jdo_v_jpa_orm.html Sure you may have some reason for choosing JPA and there's no problem with that ... maybe your familiarity with it, or you prefer JPQL for example, but you cannot use "has more features" as any possible reasoning; JDO has many many more features than JPA, and to get you started on what JDO has that JPA doesn't ... fetch groups, fetch group API, metadata API, enhancer API, many ORM relation types not supported by JPA, persist transient fields, datastore transactions, datastore identity, nondurable identity, persistent interfaces, FK constraints, just to name some. --Andy (DataNucleus)
Andy, just a small observation, I was never able to access the data nucleus home page (e.g. the link in your signature now). I'm also a follower on GAE discussion list so I have tried to get to the DataNucleus site before and never succeeded. The page won't simply load. Any thoughts on that ? :-)
I was never able to access the data nucleus home pageWorks for me, clearly ;-) Either of http://www.datanucleus.org http://www.datanucleus.com
Have you considered it for a project? What's been your decision and why? Pranab
Thanks for your share. petites annonces
unsupported APIs and frameworks. --------------------------------------------------- for example,package java.net.*,and so on. but for all that GAE is pretty so much to me.
When I tried a while ago, I found it very limited and surprising too. http://javasplitter.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-google-app-enginefy-your.html I guess it will be better and better over time. Maybe it was too early to make it public.
im hoping for a better one too
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My kiddos have been feeling a bit under the weather during the past week, and it's a good thing I was stocked up on all of our favorite natural sickness remedies. My absolute favorite thing to have on hand, is elderberry syrup....it helps lessen the severity and length of colds and flu. Plus, it is so easy to make! I try to always have dried elderberries on hand to make it, and do so in small batches when needed.
We also have a cupboard full of different kinds of tea--many are medicinal in their properties, and are such a wonderful benefit to children when they are feeling sick. Traditional Medicinals makes some teas that are made just for kids....they have ones just for colds, sore throats, and a sweet nighty-night tea that is chammomile based for easing the trasition into bed.
I have to admit, sometimes my kiddos don't like the flavor of teas. Even when I put raw honey in them, which has throat soothing and immune boosting properties of it's own, they sometimes don't want to drink them. My solution?
Well, I make a strong tea...which just means I steep it longer. About 10 minutes is sufficient. (While it's steeping, I have the mug of tea covered with a plate or bowl, to keep all the good properties in it.) Then, I pour half of that mug of tea, into a new mug or into whatever my kiddos will drink it out of, and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of juice.
If they like the taste, they are much more likely to drink up their tea, and it also helps them to stay hydrated, which lowers fevers and is just a good thing in general when you aren't feeling your best.
Here's to more happy tea drinkers,
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Wikizines are interactive magazines that anyone can create or edit - and this one is about Brett Brown. Here you can find fresh voices and respond in real time. Some members write articles about recent news and trends related to the wikizine's topic, others recount relevant personal stories or share their favorite pictures and video clips. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this wikizine? Well, then put on your journalist's cap and add your own article!Read Full Story
What is the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? What patriotic song was one of the popular songs for the Union during the Civil War? The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in what war? Who was targeted in the FBI sting operation called … Continue reading →Read Full Story
What nickname is often used when referring to the U.S. Government? Who vanished under mysterious circumstances in Detroit, Michigan in 1975? What nation can Labor Day’s roots be traced back to more that 20 years earlier? What was … Continue reading →Read Full Story
Weekly History & Civics Quiz 1. What was declared a National Monument in 1908 that is located in the desert Southwest? 2. What is the name of the first sedan type care that was first put on display at an auto … Continue reading →Read Full Story
Brett Brown Wall
Find the latest news, pictures, and opinions about Brett Brown.
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Penn State York’s many partnerships in the community and work with the City of York helped bring about growth in the size of the campus. In 1990, a generous donation of thirty-three acres of land by the City of York increased the campus size three-fold bringing it to more than fifty acres.
In June 1991, the campus dedicated another new facility, a computer and bookstore building (Information Sciences and Technology Center), the result of another community fund-raising effort which exceeded $2.1 million. The new building centralized and consolidated all campus computer facilities, provided improved faculty office and support spaces, and opened a new and modern bookstore to serve the campus and community.
In 1994, the Focused Master's Degree in Education, Major in Teaching and Curriculum, began in York through a partnership with Penn State Harrisburg. The program, built with the input of teachers and district superintendents, provides a course of study designed to enhance the skills of K-12 teachers in York County. Through this program teachers learn the latest research, theory and practice; integrate current theory and research into the classroom; prepare to meet new Pennsylvania Department of Education regulations; pursue professional development goals; address their district’s staff development and strategic planning goals; and learn to manage change effectively. In 2002, the program boasted an enrollment of 447 teachers and 260 teachers have graduated and earned their degrees. The success of this program has helped change the face of education in York County .
On July 1, 1997, Penn State's Commonwealth Educational System (the administrative unit previously responsible for oversight of the University's Penn State York Bookstore
campus system) reorganized to better meet the educational needs of Pennsylvania residents, particularly those residing in communities in which the campuses are located. One of the reorganization's outcomes was the creation of the Commonwealth College, which consists of twelve Penn State campuses including York. Historically, the campuses offered associate degrees and the first two years of a baccalaureate education to students who were expected to complete their degree at University Park. With this reorganization, campus locations, through the Commonwealth College, were allowed to begin offering baccalaureate degree programs in addition to their traditional course offerings.
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Before becoming enraged, you should check out the literature on the subject. While its breadth is wide, it is worthwhile. Though you will have to cover, genetics, intelligence, and generally behavioral science it nevertheless allows you to see how sociological explanations in most cases are complete bunk and what empirical evidence states. As for your family member, I can't speak for him/her, but perhaps the intention was motivation? Like, "Show em what we can really do! Prove em wrong!" kind of inspiration.
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Before I go into them, there's one aspect I didn't touch in the first part, and that is the business aspect. And that's what concerns Schering-Plough -- if they were unblinded to trial results they could possibly make financial decisions, such as "cashing out" while shareholders are stuck footing the bill for trial results. I usually don't mess with that end of things, but it's a very important one for management of companies.
Ok, so back to things that go bump:
- It's hard to make a placebo. Sometimes, it's really hard to match the drug. If there's an actively-compared trial, what happens if the active control is an intravenous injection and the experimental treatment is a pill? You could dummy up so that everybody gets an IV and a pill (and only one is active), but if you get too complicated, there's too much room for error.
- The primary endpoint is not the only expression of a drug. For example, if your drug is known to dry out skin, and a patient presents with a severe skin drying adverse event, your investigator has a pretty good idea of what the assigned treatment is.
- If all outcomes come back pretty close to each other, relative to uncertainty in treatment, you have a pretty good idea the treatment has no effect. While this may not unblind individual patients, it gives a pretty good idea of trial results during the writing of analysis programs, and presumably to senior management so they can make decisions based off "very likely" results.
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No guts. Leaderless. Masters of do-nothing or do-it-over.
Four months ago, the Sarasota City Commission voted to create a 10-year home for the Unconditional Surrender sculpture on Sarasota’s bayfront, contingent on satisfying a list of measures that appeared solvable, albeit more difficult than necessary.
And Monday night, Mayor Dick Clapp, Vice Mayor Kelly Kirschner and Commissioner Fredd Atkins led the majority in extending a deadline until May 31 to satisfy copyright, indemnification and hurricane concerns.
It was a tacit extension. The only commissioner showing any enthusiasm at all for what has been the city’s most popular attraction the past two years was the commission naysayer himself, Atkins.
“We have benefited more from this statue sitting on our bayfront than (sculptor J. Seward Johnson) has,” said Atkins. “Every time I go by the bayfront, there’s a line of people waiting to get their picture by it.”
And yet, the other commissioners clearly don’t share similar sentiments. Indeed, Commissioner Suzanne Atwell, good friend of the statue’s biggest foe, Virginia Hoffman, is tired of the subject. Kirschner commented that the city has more important things to do. And Commissioner Terry Turner, while remaining consistent in his view from the start, clearly doesn’t want the statue. He says the city is “displaying stolen intellectual property.”
Oh, and then there’s Mayor Clapp and City Manager Robert Bartolotta. Neither of them can muster the forthright leadership to become the champion for Unconditional Surrender and make it a signature accomplishment for this economically limping city.
All of them remind us of the sales executive who never makes a sale and has a million excuses and reasons why not.
The obstacles still unresolved are copouts.
• Unresolved obstacle 1: The city has not received confirmation the statue can withstand 130-mph winds.
How long does this take — four months to find out? Come on.
• Unresolved obstacle 2: Commissioner Turner wants indemnification from Time-Warner that the city would not be sued for copyright infringement. Turner believes the city could be subject to an expensive lawsuit with Time-Life, publishers of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous 1945 V-J Day photo in Times Square. Turner wants Time-Life to license the image to the city or to Johnson, the sculptor.
Johnson’s foundation, meanwhile, says it would indemnify the city itself and gladly show the city it has the financial wherewithal to do so. The foundation also says that, as a matter of principle, it will not seek a license from Time-Life because that would be an admission that Johnson indeed lifted the statue from the Eisenstaedt photo. Johnson steadfastly maintains the statue is based on other similar images that have been in the public domain for the past 60 years.
What’s more, there is ample evidence elsewhere that Time-Life isn’t interested in suing. At least three other Unconditional Surrender sculptures have been displayed elsewhere in the United States — one of them across the street from the Time-Life Building in New York City — and not once has Time-Life sued.
So, what’s the hang-up?
There really is none. Except for one — a lack of leadership.
+ Domestic terrorism
There’s a saying about airline/airport stories: They’re like rear ends. Everybody’s got one.
Most of us have more than one — airline horror stories, that is. But we’ll thank the Almighty that we weren’t among those poor souls at the Newark Liberty International Airport who had to suffer through that check-in fiasco last weekend when a man walked into Continental Airlines’ departure concourse, bypassing the TSA security checkpoint.
For everyone’s safety (hah!), the TSA forced everyone who had been cleared to go back through the screening process again. This went on for six hours — affecting 100 flights and causing 27 flight cancellations.
Talk about terrorism!
If you flew over the holidays, surely it crossed your mind that the check-in process our government has devised has become our own version of domestic terrorism.
It’s nonsense, a classic case of the Law of Punishment by Exception. We punish the vast majority of travelers in the hope we scare away the rare exception, the would-be terrorist.
And the terrorists? Good gosh, they must be laughing their heads off at their success — all the grief they’re causing everyone around the world who wants to fly. It’s terrorism without deaths; it’s the terrorism of constant and absurd fear.
Scenes from the Denver airport last weekend:
• TSA officials scanning with great care the wheelchair of an elderly white woman who looked as much like a terrorist as Big Bird.
• A TSA official standing watch over two teen-age girls embracing and crying in the snaking check-in line. One of the girls, who wasn’t traveling, had a TSA guard stand watch as she crossed a rope to hug her friend. Ridiculous.
This system is crazy. As you observe it in action — stripping yourself of your belts, jewelry, jackets and shoes while watching small groups of uniformed TSA employees meander around in slow motion — you cannot help but get the urge to be outwardly defiant and sarcastic. That, of course, would only get you thrown in some TSA clink — and cause you to miss your flight!
Surely there’s a better way.
For starters, we would require every member of Congress to use the public TSA check-in system. Make them taste and feel the aggravation that we do. Next, we’d make the process a competitive, for-profit business. Bid it out to such companies as Disney or Universal Studios. Those two know how to move people efficiently — and keep them happy.
+ False recovery?
We’re beginning to see signs of improving economic activity locally. Sarasotans and others want this recession to be over.
Hope that it remains so.
But increasing comments from economic watchers are otherwise. Take Kevin Duffy and Bill Laggner, principals of the Dallas-based hedge fund Bearing Asset Management, who believe another downturn is inevitable. They make a good case. To wit:
At what point will society demand some sort of change from the government?
Duffy:”To get to the heart of the problem, we need to address fractional-reserve banking, which is causing the instability. We have essentially socialized deposit insurance and prevented the bank run, which used to impose discipline on this unstable system.
“Until we address the root of the problem, we are going to have a series of crises, greater responses and intervention and more bubbles — and the system will keep perpetuating itself.
“Last year, 70% of the people were opposed to the bailout. And so far, through these massive interventions, government has been able to stabilize the financial system.
“But you have this divergence between the real economy and the political economy. People are still hurting. Consumer confidence has not rebounded like investor confidence has. If we are right, and we are heading for the next leg down, that’s when I think all bets are off. If the political economy and some of those who got bailed out are back asking for another bailout, that’s when the backlash really starts to heat up.
“For bear markets to end, they have to teach lessons. But the people who didn’t see this bus coming two and a half years ago — they’re back in droves, and they’re bullish. We haven’t changed behavior, and this bear market will not end until we do.”
+ Global warming!!
Global warming? Too much CO2? Humans are choking the earth?
Climate change/global-warming skeptics like us do this every winter— point out the fallacy of the global-warming kooks.
Below are the lead headlines from Tuesday’s Drudge Report:
• Winter Could Be Worst in 25 Years for USA ...
• CHILL MAP ...
• 3 Deaths Due To Cold in Memphis ...
• Britain braced for heaviest snowfall in 50 years ...
• GAS SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT IN UK ...
• Elderly burn books for warmth?
• Vermont sets ‘all-time record for one snowstorm’ ...
• Iowa temps ‘a solid 30 degrees below normal’ ...
• Seoul buried in heaviest snowfall in 70 years ...
• Historic ice build-up shuts down N.J. nuclear power plant ...
• Midwest Sees near-record lows, snow by the foot ...
• 3 die in fire at Detroit home; power was cut ...
• Miami shivers from coldest weather in decade ...
Currently 2 Responses
- I am planning a trip to Detroit this summer. However, I intend to ride my motorbike rather than fly. It is about 18 hours by highway, with security delays it could be 10 hours to fly.
Not that I intend to ride 18 hours straight, but if I got stuck at some airport it wouldn't matter what I intended to do.
- Thank you for putting into words what I've been thinking all along about air "safety". I'm all for travel being safe, but the current system is a farce and only serves to annoy honest citizens. When folks begin to find alternate travel arrangements the airlines will get involved and I'll bet things will change then!
19 Anni Piper, Australia's First Lady Of Blues, On Tour
7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
20 Ageless Grace with Mary Masi
10:00 am - 11:00 am
20 Fun Fitness for Parkinsons
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
20 Simply Relax! with Kathi Sims
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Temple EmanuβEl Religious School donated its tzedakah β which means charity of righteousness in Hebrew β for the 2012-13 school year.
Sarasota Christian School sent four teams β the most in Florida β to the Odyssey of the Mind's World Finals May 23 to May 25, at Michigan State University.
The Board of Directors of Leadership Florida, the president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and four Florida Leadership graduates nominated Sarasota's Pam Truitt, of Truitt Consulting, for a position on the board of directors.
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I choose to discuss the house I grew up in on 30th Street in San Diego. The house was built before 1900 by my great-grandparents, Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer.
Here is what I know about the house itself:
In 1894, Della Carringer bought a lot of land in San Diego for $450. The lot was bounded by Ella (now 30th Street), Watkins Avenue (now Hawthorn Street), Horton (now Ivy Street) and Fern Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of San Diego. Her mother, Abbie (Vaux) Smith also bought a lot on the same block.
Austin was a carpenter, and he built the house on the southwestern corner of the block at Ella and Watkins Streets (now 30th and Hawthorn Streets) facing Watkins Street. They occupied the house by 1898 until their deaths in 1946 and 1944, respectively.
A photograph taken in 1900 shows the house with Austin Carringer, his wife Della, their son Lyle (my grandfather), Austin's parents D.J. and Rebecca Carringer, his brother Edgar Carringer, Della's mother Abbie (Vaux) Smith, and the family horse.
This house had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a parlor on the first floor There was a staircase in the center of the house up to the second story. The second story had at least four rooms - including at least two bedrooms, topped by a widow's walk. There was a large front porch on the west and south sides
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That might sound a bit trite and overused but it is very, very true.
Jeremiah 29:11 (New American Standard Bible)
'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
The Lord God spoke to Jeremiah the following:
"Before formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
The above gives us incredible hope. It underscores that God thought us up before we were conceived, planned our personalities and all those little quirky and unique things which make each individual uniquely His creation. He might not have picked the circumstances of our conception as that was the choice of our mother and father. Some of us were conceived out of marriage or by less than desirable circumstances. However, that didn’t make us any less precious or valuable to God who planned us before our mother’s womb.
So for all who thought or heard “you were an accident”, “you are illegitimate” or maybe even something harsher such as “you should never have been born” you may be free knowing that you were planned, cherished and loved by Your Creator, God. He truly does have an incredible plan and purpose for your life.
His Glorious Plans
Oh, Lord Jesus
You start those little hopes
In my heart of hearts
As I begin to get a hint
Of the glory You have in mind
Saw a peek of Your splendor
In the sun’s fiery rising orb
Over misty morning lake
As boisterous birds and bovines called
Praises to Your mighty name
At the lifting of today.
Our hope is not in what we can control or produce our hope, properly placed is in Him who created us with a purpose in mind for our life. Job 13:15 speaks of Job’s hope when he says “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (NIV)
In Psalm 15:2 the Bible speaks of one who is righteous and walks blamelessly speaking the truth from his/her heart. How can we walk blamelessly and speak truth and be righteous, only if we have asked God’s forgiveness and sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross in our place. We are then covered with Jesus’ righteousness and set free.
Job speaks of God “giving orders to the morning or showing the dawn its place in Job 38:12.
No one is like the Lord.
Two more scriptures in Psalm speak of God’s greatness and majesty. He cares. He has plans for the universe and the stars.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. (NIV)
The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets. (NIV)
The Lord God certainly has plans for each of us who are created in His image. That is a most comforting thought, isn’t it. the Creator of the universe has special plans for you and for me. Thank you Lord Jesus.
(C) Marijo Phelps all rights reserved. Use with proper credits.
» left by Anonymous (2 years 195 days ago.)We appreciate your comments!
Hi Marijo-Yes, it is wonderful to know that GOD knew us before the foundation of the world! Praise His awesome name.Thank you, Marijo, for sharing this!
Love, SandraRespond to this comment
» left by Marijo Phelps(134) (2 years 195 days ago.)
It always encourages me to read those scriptures in particular! You are a great encourager yourself, Lady!
Respond to this comment
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With the collaboration of Carlos Robles
Earthquake overview : On 3/20/2012 at about 11:30h local time, an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 occurred in the highly populated region of Guerrero in Mexico. The earthquake happened 149km from Oaxaca.
“I have Felt it” Reports –> see below + Let us know “how you have felt this earthquake”
To read the full story as it happened, we advise our readers to start at the lower part of the page (earthquake data).
Check also our Mexico-only earthquake list
Read Also : “Understanding” the massive March 20 Mexico earthquake
Keep this page open or return regularly as we will be back with more details when they become available
Update 13/04 – 13:32 UTC
2 serious aftershocks in Guerrero / Oaxaca, Mexico
As predicted several weeks ago, the M7.6 earthquake in Guerrero Mexico would surely lead to a lot of aftershocks including some stronger ones which will be close or greater than M6.0. What happened today (M5.4 at 10:10 UTC and M5.3 at 13:06 UTC) could be expected and will normally not cause any additional damage. Let us hope that the aftershocks will gradually winding down in strength and number.
Update 23/03 – 16:13UTC:
- The mayor of Cuajinicuilapa in Guerrero state, said one of the victims died from injuries caused by a wall falling on him and the other died of complications for a heart attack suffered during the quake (so he died during the earthquake and not later, they never said there was a victim until today).
- Because of the above, this earthquake receives a CATDAT RED labeling and is the 4th deadly earthquake since the beginning of the year (after the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Japan)
- A M 5.0 aftershock shook the Guerrero / Oaxaca area again yesterday. No further damage was reported (not in Distrito Federal or in the epicenter provinces. Aftershocks will be part of almost daily life in these provinces.
- Yesterday’s M 5.0 aftershock was the 96th aftershock after the massive quake on Tuesday.
- Segob has reported that alone in Oaxaca, 6,344 buildings have been damaged.
Update 23/03 – 12:00 UTC:
Carlos Robles (ER contributor) reports :
A lot of rumors are spreading in Mexico and causing panic among the people.
Some of them are:
- a volcano is forming in Guerrero.
- a mega-quake is going to happen soon
- It was pre-planned.
Today people were saying that a big earthquake was going to happen at 4:58pm… the rumors about the volcano were because the water was at point of boiling and thats normal after a big earthquake (ER : it looks like boiling water but probably some liquefaction was seen in some areas).
Buildings were evacuated today because there were people saying these things !
Its kind of frustrating because THESE ARE ALL LIES…nobody can predict an earthquake or even make one and about the volcano.. just common we have a lot of instruments worldwide…just see El Hierro they knew a volcano was forming months BEFORE the eruption.
Well these kind of things happen worldwide but i am angry because I have family and friends there that actually believes these rumors. The only thing we should do is to be prepared with medic kits, food, water,etc and not to be scared.
Update 22/03 21:00UTC:
- The Mexican seismological agency has said that more than 80 aftershocks have been recorded since the mainshock on Tuesday
Summary Update 22/03 09:00UTC:
- In Guerrero, 30000 houses have been reported to have been damaged (it is expected many with cracks in the adobe or fallen cardboard) to some extent. Given that Guerrero is an extremely poor part of Mexico with the second lowest HDI in Mexico, the economic loss will not be significant. However, the impact to locals will be quite high. 800 houses are reported to have collapsed in Guerrero or be so severely damaged that they are uninhabitable. This is the report of the local governor. 2 people were injured in Cuajinicuilapa and Ometepec. Shelter has been provided.
20 schools and hospitals were damaged in four municipalities, including the Ometepec, where the epicenter of the quake was, and one remains without electricity at Tlacoachistlahuaca.
-In Oaxaca, 2000 homes and public buildings have been damaged to varying extents.
-In Mexico City, 250,000 people were without water service due to a pipe burst by the quake, said City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.
Summary Update 15:25 UTC :
- Yesterday’s earthquake has been labeled by the Mexican authorities as the strongest since the devastating 1985 earthquake (see below this images of this update).
- Gradually images from the damage are published in many media (see below this update).
- 300,000 people in Mexico City have no drinking water
- Authorities are calling the population to remain calm (ER : after every earthquake some “…” people are talking about a new even more powerful earthquake. Such a rumor goes on quickly and people often start to panic, hamster, etc.)
- Line A of the Mexico City underground is still not working. 30 workers are currently trying to repair the damage after the earthquake
- In Mexico’s Chiapas province, an earthquake simulation coincided with the real earthquake !
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that struck Mexico City on the early morning of 19 September 1985 at around 7:19 am (CST), caused the deaths of at least 10,000 people and serious damage to the greater Mexico City Area. The complete seismic event consisted of four quakes. A pre-event quake of magnitude 5.2 occurred on 28 May 1985. The main and most powerful shock occurred 19 September, followed by two aftershocks: one on 20 September 1985 of magnitude 7.5 and the fourth occurring seven months later on 30 April 1986 of magnitude 7.0. The quakes were located off the Mexican Pacific coast, more than 350 km away, but due to strength of the quake and the fact that Mexico City sits on an old lake-bed, Mexico City suffered major damage. The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. While the number is in dispute, the most-often cited number of deaths is an estimated 10,000 people but experts agreed that it could be up to 40,000 (source : Wikipedia)
Video captured by an evacuee moments after the shaking started. The epicenter of this earthquake was more than 300 km from the location where this video was recorded.
Summary Update 06:30 UTC :
- The latest reports of damage seem to be less than previously indicated. In the town of Omotepec, a town of 3000 inhabitants, around 200 houses have fallen tiles and some collapsed walls. They are mainly built of asbestos cement, adobe and other materials. The inhabitants are currently spending the night outside for fear of aftershocks. Ceilings of laminated cardboard and asbestos also were reported to be fallen in various houses across the town.
- None died, and very few people were injured. According to the municipal authority of Omotepec, the damage was minor and the most affected community was Huajintepec. Fallen walls and debris were reported from this community but again no deaths or major injuries.
- The quake also caused the trees, rocks and soil to be strewn across the State Road linking with Cuajinicuilapa Ometepec and on roads that connect with neighboring communities Ometepec. There are many damaged houses along these roads.
- In Zacoalpan, Villas de Hidalgo, Mazapa, Huixtepec and Cochoapa also reported only a few houses with damage.
- 0 deaths have occurred, and the injured count remains at 11.
- The earthquake will remain at CATDAT Orange.
Summary Update 04:30 UTC :
- 0 (zero) fatalities/deaths have occurred as a result of this earthquake
- 11 (eleven) injuries have occurred.
- 800 houses are destroyed or damaged in Guerrero, with a few buildings damaged in other parts of Mexico.
- Many evacuations have occurred as a precaution.
Summary Update 00:17 UTC :
- 70,000 households are still without power in Guerrero province.
- 2 hospitals are evacuated in Guerrero
- The central government has dispatched more Civil Protection people to help the local authorities in Guerrero with the assessment of the damage
- Update: Damage has been reported in more than 25 locations ion Oaxaca province
- Update: The head of the Civil Protection, Laura Guza, has declared that NOBODY has been reported killed so far. 2 people were injured in the capital, Mexico City. 5 people were injured in the Oaxaca province.
- Update: Strong aftershocks are continuing to hit the greater epicenter area.
- Update: The number of houses damaged in the epicenter region continues to grow. Up to 800 houses are reported uninhabitable in the epicentral region.
- Update: 2 buildings in the historic center of Mexico city have also been reported damaged.
- Update: No casualties have been reported from Omotepec which is good news given the damage.
- Update: We have reports from Mexican radio (from Carlos) that 500 houses have been severely damaged or destroyed in Guerrero. As expected Omotepec has had a lot of this damage. This was mentioned by the governor of Guerrero.
- Update: Currently only 60 houses are still being reported destroyed in the epicentral region with an extra 400 damaged.
- Update: From Carlos Robles – our US/Mexico Earthquake correspondent:- A wall collapsed leaving one with serious injuries in Mexico City. Damage has been reported in Ciudad de Mexico like cracked roads, damaged buildings, and the bridge that collapsed in a bus with no casaulties. Damage has been reported in Oaxaca with cracked roads and damaged buildings.
In Puebla the Palacio Municipal (Municipal palace, is a government building.) there were 2 cracked walls. Fissures in churches all over Mexico have been reported. Mobile phones were suspended due to overuse. The subway was suspended. The daughter of president Obama was in Oaxaca when the earthquake hit, she only felt the earthquake and has no injuries.
- Update: A highway in Oaxaca has had a landslide cover a small section. It only caused slight damage in the form of a small car crash. Apart from that, other roads are all clear according to authorities.
- Update: Earlier reports of a footbridge collapsing onto a bus in Mexico City were incorrect. In fact, it was the 10 meters of concrete guard rail of the footbridge which collapsed. No people were killed.
- Update : 1 person has been injured in Colonia Juarez – of a nervous breakdown. In addition a staircase collapsed in a police building and there are reports of minor injuries. Other than that only minor damage has been reported. Some bridges have been closed around Mexico as a precaution.
- Update : At least 60 houses have been destroyed in Guerrero. Most of these are expected to be old adobe houses. Omotopec is expected to have major damage. Damage will likely be in the tens of millions of US dollars.
2.5 million users have had outages in their electricity following the earthquake. After 90 minutes, 1.5 million users were restored to the grid. In the Eastern control area partial outages in the cities of Poza Rica and Coatzacoalcos and parts of the states of Puebla, Tlaxcala and Morelos. CFE crews will continue working to restore power as quickly as possible in the affected areas.
- Update : We notice, as expected, a lot of aftershocks, the strongest ones ranging from M 4.7 to M 5.3.
- Update : – President Calderon has just confirmed that so far NO lives have been lost.
- Power plants are working normally
- The President has also declared that NO major damage was inflicted
- The Mexican Seismological service is maintaining a Magnitud of 7.8
- Update : YouTube video of the shaking. The shaking we see on the video was more than 300 km from the epicenter! Swaying is more accentuated in high rise buildings.
- Update : At 13:52 local time (1 hour 50 minutes after the earthquake), NO fatalities have been reported so far, a very good sign !
- Update : New Intensity calculations (based on the M 7.4 Magnitude) are giving the following impact :
182,000 people MMI VII (very strong shaking)
596,000 people MMI VI (strong shaking)
2,736,000 people MMI V (moderate shaking)
32 million people MMI IV (light shaking)
- Update : USGS has further decreased the Magnitude from 7.6 to 7.4, a lot weaker than the initially reported 7.9. The depth has been recalculated to 20 km. All this explains the lesser than originally expected intensity.
- Update : GOOD preliminary news : Only light damage is currently reported out of the epicenter area. Based on our own experience, we think it is far too soon to have a final estimate, but after such an earthquake, we like to hear that the damage is not general.
- Update : A concrete walkway bridge has collapsed on a microbus. No reports yet about victims. Some people have been hospitalized by a nervous breakdown.
- Update : Everybody in the country could be found on the streets after evacuating houses and buildings. The situation on the roads of the bigger cities is simply chaotic. Everybody wants to drive back home.
- Update : NOAA has released the following Tsunami bulletin : A DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI WAS NOT GENERATED BASED ON EARTHQUAKE AND HISTORICAL TSUNAMI DATA. HOWEVER, THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF SOME LOCAL TSUNAMI EFFECTS. THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED INLAND FROM THE COAST.
GDACS another agency who calculates tsunami heights has calculated that a max. tsunami wave of 0.1 meter may have occurred, nothing to be scared of.
- Update : the closest airports to the epicenter are Pinotepa Nacional (77km) and Ta Lo De Soto (71km)
- Update : there are NO hydrodams or NO Nuclear Plants in the vicinity of the epicenter
- Update : GDACS reports that the nearest populated places are: Coyul (16km), Putla de Guerrero (18km), Cuitlapa (15km), Laguna (3km). The closest civilian airport is Pinotepa Nacional (77km).
- Update : The area has currently a lot of aftershocks as could be expected. These aftershocks will go on for many hours and even days. Gradually they will get weaker but sometimes even M 6.x can be reached. People in the epicenter area will have to spend the night on the streets out of fear for aftershocks.
- Update : This earthquake is a subduction earthquake, which means that the Oceanic plate is gliging below the North American plate and often hangs for a while. When the accumulated energy is suddenly freed a massive earthquake is generated.
- Update : It will take a few hours before that we will have reports of the damage and eventually casualties. Every earthquake is totally different and high Magnitudes are not necessarily creating devastating damage. So, we have to be cautious to predict the damaging potential.
- Update : People are reporting shaking ALL OVER Mexico, which is very normal for these kind of magnitudes.
- Update : Phone lines a-in many parts of the countries are down. An earthquake-report.com reader is trying to contact her husband in Mexico-City, but can’t get through. This happens over and over again during earthquakes. PLEASE USE ONLY TEXT MESSAGES as Voice takes much more place on communication cables and will blocl ALL communication.
- Update : Earthquake-Report.com calls all cities at a radius of 30 km around the epicenter as HIGH RISK areas.
- Update : USGS reports that 278,000 people will have experienced a very strong shaking. This kind of shaking can cause severe damage in the direct epicenter. 757,000 people will have experienced a strong shaking.
- Update : 186 km (115 miles) E (96°) from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico and 162 km (101 miles) WSW (255°) from Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
- Update : Comparisons in between the very strong earthquake at the end of last year are referring to a much stronger intensity now. Acapulca
- Update : Two cities are approx. 20 km from the epicenter and are at risk during this earthquake : Ometepec and San Juan Cacahuatepec
- Update : USGS has decreased the Magnitude from 7.9 to 7.6 at the modified depth of 17.5 km. These conditions are still VERY DAMADING
- Update : Reports arriving at Earthquake-Report.com are mentioning a duration of the shaking in Mexico City during 20 to 30 seconds.
- Update : We will have to wait a couple of minutes before Magnitudes and depths will be stabilized as different agencies are reporting big differences
- Update : Preliminary data from different seismological agencies are referring to Magnitudes from 7.9 (USGS), to 7.6 (GEOFON) and only 6.4 (EMSC). Both Geofon and USGS are referring to an extremely dangerous shallow depth of 10 km. EMSC mentions a 60 km much weaker impact
- Update : Extremely dangerous earthquake with epicenter near Cuitiapa
Earthquake-Report.com GOOGLE+ / Earthquake-Report.com FACEBOOK
“I Have Felt It” reports as received by Earthquake-Report.com
See below for all the received Earthquake Experience reports as received by earthquake-report.com
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : 7.4 (USGS), M 7.8 (Mexico)
UTC Time : Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 18:02:53 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 12:02:53 PM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 10 km
10 km S Xochistlahuaca (pop 3,566)
20 km E Ometepec (pop 17,801)
165 km SE Chilpancingo (pop 165,250)
193 km (120 miles) E (83°) from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
262 km S Puebla (pop 1,392,099)
Links to important maps
USGS Did You Feel It Map
Google satellite map showing the epicenter and the surrounding area
Historic earthquakes map
Seismic hazard map
Focal mechanism report
Human impact map
GDACS earthquake report
I Have Felt this earthquake
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 22:25 PM||4.8||54||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 22:25 PM||5.0||45||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 22:25 PM||5.0||21||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 21:43 PM||4.6||21||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 21:43 PM||4.6||20||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 21:43 PM||4.5||10||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 20:14 PM||5.1||40||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 20:14 PM||5.1||10||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 20:14 PM||4.9||10||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 19:34 PM||4.8||18||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 19:34 PM||4.8||10||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 19:34 PM||4.5||10||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 19:19 PM||4.5||10||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Offshore Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 19:19 PM||4.7||10||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Offshore Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 19:19 PM||4.7||13||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 19:02 PM||5.2||30||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 19:02 PM||5.1||25||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 19:02 PM||5.1||19||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 18:35 PM||5.0||60||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 18:35 PM||5.1||10||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 18:35 PM||5.0||20||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 18:22 PM||5.2||19||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 18:22 PM||5.3||18||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 18:22 PM||5.3||15||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 18:02 PM||7.9||10||MAP I Felt It|
|GEOFON||Near Coast Of Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 18:02 PM||7.3||34||MAP I Felt It|
|EMSC||Guerrero, Mexico||Mar 20 18:02 PM||7.4||19||MAP I Felt It|
|USGS||Oaxaca, Mexico||Mar 20 18:02 PM||7.4||20||MAP I Felt It|
QuakeSOS+ and QuakeSOS free are iPhone applications developed by Armand Vervaeck, the founder of Earthquake Report. The Application simplifies immediate group communication to friends and family members (with your exact GPS location) and is feeding the users with Earthquake Report news. The 0.99 US$ QuakeSOS+ version will support the activities of SOS Earthquakes.
Earthquake-Report.com headlines on twitter
@OnlyQuakeNews : Get all the headlines of our earthquake-report.com articles + regular updates on ongoing events
@QuakeSOS : earthquake-report.com news + automatic earthquake notifications of USGS earthquakes of M 4.0 or higher with emphasis to earthquakes in the America’s and the Pacific Ocean sphere (4 and up) and a lot of the rest of the world (5 and up). This account was created for our QuakeSOS and QuakeSOS+ iPhone applications
@ShakingEarth : earthquake-report.com news + automatic earthquake notifications of EMSC earthquakes of M 4.0 or higher with emphasis to earthquakes in European and Asian / Middle East sphere (4 and up) and a lot of the rest of the world (5 and up). This account was originally created to stimulate our Facebook account
@QuakeMaps : earthquake-report.com news with mapping notifications of ALL earthquakes M 3.0 and higher from all over the world via EMSC and USGS. This account was created for our http://www.quake-maps.com website
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Professor Brooks Simpson has posted a wonderful piece at Civil Warriors. It’s about the sentimental attachments we develop toward historic sites, and the conflicted feelings that changes at these sites can generate. Professor Simpson focuses on the recent transformations at Gettysburg National Military Park that have gotten so much attention around the historical blogosphere.
He acknowledges that these changes are beneficial and necessary, but he also notes that the park is more than an artifact for him. It’s also a place he loves: “Am I glad as a historian that the woods west of the Sedgwick monument have been cleared to give us a much better understanding of the terrain that Daniel Sickles saw on July 2, 1863? Sure. But I liked those woods. Same thing goes for the clearing along Oak Hill.”
Gettysburg is one of my favorite places, too. Its combination of gorgeous scenery, small-town atmosphere, monumental commemoration, and tourist kitsch—all of it saturated in history—is absolutely unique. I love being in a place where history isn’t latent, but dominates the landscape. Unlike many other history buffs, though, I don’t have a longstanding relationship with Gettysburg. In fact, I’ve only been there twice.
The first time was a few years ago. The NPS was already in the process of transferring the collection out of the old visitor center. Much of it was still in place, though, and the electric map was still up and running. Still, it was pretty apparent that the old VC was on its last legs. In addition to the building’s physical deterioration, the exhibits failed to explain the battle (or even many of the artifacts themselves). There was very little interpretation going on. Having little sentimental attachment to the facility, and viewing it critically from the standpoint of someone working (at the time) in public history, I didn’t regret its passing.
I can certainly understand why serious aficionados saw little wrong with the exhibits in the old building. If you’ve already mastered the strategic and tactical picture, then you can appreciate the field without needing to have it explained for you. As I’ve said before, though, most visitors don’t have the advantage of expertise. My stance is that the NPS has a responsibility to equip its visitors to understand the sites they’re seeing. And I couldn’t for the life of me see how the average visitor would obtain a better grasp of the battle in the old museum. The new one, by contrast, explains Lee’s invasion, the Union response, the three days of battle, and the aftermath. It gives visitors a grasp of what happened there.
I have a similar attitude toward the removal of trees that encroach on the field. I don’t have a personal stake in these woods, and I welcome alterations that bring us closer to understanding the battle.
Now, the question is this: Would I be so enthusiastic about these changes if I had been a longtime visitor to the park? Would I be so cavalier about altering the park for the sake of better interpretation if my own fond memories were at stake? In all honesty, maybe not. When places that are special to me change, I usually react with both regret and indignation.
This tension between sentiment and interpretive need is, I think, a unique issue when it comes to historic sites. Places play a unique role in our lives. Most of us who love history have fond memories connected to particular books, films, or places. If you grew up reading Bruce Catton or watching Ken Burns, you can open a book or turn on a DVD player and access that experience whenever you want. When the memory is tied to a piece of ground, though, that’s not always the case. You might go back to find that it’s no longer the place you remember.
These debates will probably continue as long as exhibits become outdated, vegetation grows up, and facilities need replacing. Personally, though, I think the fact that we care enough about these places to have an emotional stake in them is a healthy sign. We might argue about whether or not they need changing, but we can agree that they’re worth the argument.
(Photo of the High Water Mark from Wikimedia Commons)
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The Coca-Cola Co. knows its fizz. So you might not expect the soft drink giant to jump into the venture capital game just as its going flat.
But thats just what Coca-Cola is doing. As overall venture capital investments in IT were tanking, the Atlanta company three months ago launched a division charged with finding, cultivating and investing in embryonic technology startups. Have Coca-Cola officials been drinking something stronger than soda pop?
Nope, said Chris Lowe, president of Coca-Colas venture unit, Fizzion LLC. In fact, Lowe said, this is the right time for the company to get an early peek at the technologies on which its e-business strategy will depend tomorrow. "Im very optimistic on technology, and I think that were in the second wave of the technology upswing," Lowe said. "More and more of the investment [for] technology will come from what you used to call the Old Economy [companies]. Were sort of cutting the path for how this is going to unfold."
Coca-Cola is a latecomer to a trend that peaked last year: major corporations making billions of dollars in venture capital or incubation investments in IT startups. And, not surprisingly, with the sudden demise of the dot-com and IPO (initial public offering) markets, many corporations that came early to the venture capital trend have joined professional venture capitalists in closing their wallets to new investments.
But not all corporations. Enterprises such as Coca-Cola, The Dow Chemical Co., The Boeing Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Chevron Corp. are continuing or even increasing venture investments in technology startups. Unlike enterprises that launched venture capital units a year or two ago, however, these companies arent in it just for a quick killing. Instead, their venture capital investments are intended to help them quickly spot and understand technologies that will be key to keeping their e-business strategies a step ahead of those of their competitors.
Therefore, these e-business leaders are making sure their venture capital units remain tightly aligned with the needs of the business so that they are able to strike the right balance between financial returns and strategic goals.
No doubt when Coca-Cola executives started planning Fizzion last September, they expected a more robust market for technology startups than they find today. While the number of potential startup investments has slowed, Lowe said, Fizzion still has received about 100 business plans since launching at the end of March. The company, which wont say how much it plans to invest overall, is examining a wide range of technologies that fit its e-business strategy, including distribution, logistics and electronic marketing applications, Lowe said.
So far, three have a good chance to make the cut. That means they fit strategically into Coca-Colas business needs, and they have a good chance to grow into profitable companies, Lowe said. "Its a pretty tight market out there," he said. "What it means is that we have to be a little more patient than we thought and operate with a broad scope, which is good. It causes us to cast our net wider."
In designing its venture initiative, Coca-Cola, like many enterprises, decided to create a unit to handle that work. Such separation is critical to the success of corporate venture investing because it creates a focus on finding and evaluating potential startups and fosters a more entrepreneurial atmosphere, said Nicole Weber, an analyst at International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.
Fizzions plan is to provide startups with physical space along with as much as $250,000 each. Fizzion also requires that they find a matching amount of funding from other private investors.
While Coca-Cola is mainly seeking to invest in very new external startups, other enterprises tactics are as varied as their products. Like Coca-Cola, Boeing, with its half-year-old Boeing New Ventures unit, is focusing on incubating new companies. But Boeing is looking mainly at ideas that come from within the business.
On the other extreme, Chevrons Chevron Technology Ventures LLC solely searches for investments in venture funds or more mature tech startups. The most popular approach, though, appears to be a mixed one of pure cash venture investments and incubations. Dow, J.P. Morgan Chase and Eastman Chemical Co. are among those still putting money into both approaches.
Whatever the approach, the key for most enterprises continuing with venture investments is to make sure they fit the companys e-business strategy. Companies that got into venture investing during the Internet boom just for the money are probably wishing they hadnt, said Tracy Lefteroff, global managing partner in the private equity and venture capital practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, in San Jose, Calif.
"Those doing it for financial gain are now seeing the other side of the coin and seeing financial losses," Lefteroff said. "The strategic investors are still plugging along."
Key to ensuring a strategic fit is making sure the venture investment organization has both high-level executive support and close links to key business units and their e-business plans. Boeing New Ventures Vice President Anil Shrikhande, for example, reports to the companys chief financial officer and chief technology officer. And hes even got the attention of Boeing CEO Phil Condit. Condit was behind the effort in September to launch a $200 million Chairmans Innovation Initiative fund to support business ideas that can be spun into separate companies.
So far, Boeing, of Seattle, has announced one new non-IT venture, and others are on the way. Shrikhande said he expects several of the nearly 400 business concepts submitted to turn into new incubations this year, including some with an e-business focus.
Like Boeing, J.P. Morgan Chase is viewing its venture arm, LabMorgan, mainly as a way to find and support technologies that will be important to the companys e-financial services strategy. One of LabMorgans marching orders is that J.P. Morgan Chase must be a customer of the startups in which it invests, said Ameet Patel, LabMorgans chief technology officer, in New York. Since being created in late 1999, LabMorgan has invested $500 million in about 60 companies.
To make such a strategy work, LabMorgan officials realized that constant communication with major lines of business would be critical. To that end, the 240 employees of LabMorgan work closely with five e-strategists, one representing each major line of business, such as the consumer and small- business and mergers-and-acquisitions units, Patel said. These e-strategists serve as middlemen who help to make sure LabMorgan investments fit the needs of its lines of business and that the business units understand the potential of new e-finance technologies and services. The e-strategists report to LabMorgan and senior board members of J.P. Morgan Chase.
Working closely with line-of-business strategists helped to steer LabMorgan to invest in December in startup Kinexus Corp. After line-of-business officials told LabMorgan officials that catering to high-net-worth clients would be critical to J.P. Morgan Chases strategy, LabMorgan did the deal with Kinexus, a New York company that gives wealthy customers an online view of their overall holdings across financial institutions.
Besides furthering J.P. Morgan Chases strategy, the venture investment, not surprisingly, has been largely positive for Kinexus. Not only did it help the company raise $49 million in second-round financing, it also provided it with a key customer that is motivated to help keep improving the product, said CEO Harry Totonis, in New York.
While other companies may not be going so far as having dedicated strategists interfacing between lines of business and venture investment groups, enterprises that are continuing venture capital investments have, in many cases, developed formal processes to ensure that their venture investments are tightly linked to their e-business strategies.
At Eastman Chemical and Dow, for instance, potential venture investments are screened based on whether they fit e-business strategies before they undergo traditional venture capital financial due diligence. At Eastman, that screening process has led to investments in e-marketplace ChemConnect Inc., software company WebMethods Inc. and others.
Similarly, Chevron Technology Ventureswhich last month upped its original $60 million venture investment by starting a new $100 million funduses a scorecard to rate the strategic value of a potential investment.
But that doesnt mean that, like LabMorgan, every enterprise with an ongoing venture capital effort is insisting that the products of each startup receiving money must be used somewhere in the enterprise. Some, like Chevrons VC group, play more of a matchmaking role. The group, created in 1998, helps to get discussions going among companies its invested in and Chevron business units. So far, of the nine companies in which Chevron Technology Ventures has invested, six have worked with business units that either use their technology or have conducted beta tests, said Cliff Detz, venture executive for the group, in San Francisco.
However strategically driven todays corporate venture investment units may be, like all investors, they still care about the bottom line. They want high returns. Some even expect returns comparable to what professional venture capital companies historically realize.
Eastman Chemical, which in mid-1999 formed its corporate venturing arm, has set a goal of having the unit return a rate within the top quartile of the performance of a typical venture fund, said Mark Klopp, managing director of the venturing group, in Danville, Calif. This year, the Eastman venture unit is on track to do so. But Klopp said that was not the case in 2000. Back when startups were booming last year, Eastman had expected to gain $25 million from its venture investments. Instead, it earned $9 million.
Despite the slowing economy, Eastman isnt backing away from venture investing, however. Overall, the company has made 18 venture investments in startups, four of them this year. Eastman also plans to add two or three more incubations and venture startups to its roster this year to join the three its already helped to startAsia BizNet Company Ltd., ShipChem Inc. and PaintandCoatings.com Inc.
That doesnt mean corporate venture investment units should stick with every investment. Corporate venture capitalists must prepare for some failures, just like anybody investing in early-stage companies still struggling to turn a profit, experts say.
Dow, for example, stopped investing in one of the companies it helped form in October through a partnership with private incubator Campsix Inc. and consulting company Accenture. The problem was that the e-commerce startup, iVenturi, wasnt able to raise additional capital, said Snehal Desai, director of e-business at Dow, in Midland, Mich. Dow wasnt interested in owning the company outright.
Dow isnt alone. Eastman has had two ventures that fell through. One, a startup specializing in business-to-business testing and verifying potential B2B partners, WorldWideTesting.com, ran out of funding. Another, chemicals trading site e-Chemicals Inc., was sold in January to Aspen Technology Inc.
Despite such setbacks, however, corporate venture units must take a long-term view of their investments, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Lefteroff said. A typical investment from professional venture capitalists has a 10-year horizon. On average, venture capitalists can realize a compounded annual return of about 30 percent, he said.
Corporate venture leaders who are still in the game say thats just what they plan to do. Eastmans Klopp, for one, said that his companys investments have only just begun. "We want a reputation of being there through thick and thin," Klopp said.
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This Sunday, Pray for the Potted Plants
An interesting story comes to us from Wes Smith of The Weekly Standard. It seems that the Swiss government commissioned a blue ribbon ethics panel to look at the dignity of plants. The resulting report, titled “The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants,” comes off pretty much like it sounds – that plants, as living beings, have certain inalienable rights and we humans need to be more ethical in how we treat them. (NOTE: There is no “satire” tag on this column.)
Obviously this will result in some raised eyebrows, and with good reason. Smith ponders the question of how we arrived at this juncture.
Why is this happening? Our accelerating rejection of the Judeo-Christian world view, which upholds the unique dignity and moral worth of human beings, is driving us crazy. Once we knocked our species off its pedestal, it was only logical that we would come to see fauna and flora as entitled to rights.
The intellectual elites were the first to accept the notion of “species-ism,” which condemns as invidious discrimination treating people differently from animals simply because they are human beings. Then ethical criteria were needed for assigning moral worth to individuals, be they human, animal, or now vegetable.
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree here, at least up to a point. Clearly Judeo-Christian doctrine teaches the dominion of man over the animals and plants of the world. (Genesis 9:3 reads, in part, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all.”) But I have met plenty of extremely pious vegans in my time.
Ironically, I see this as not so much a rejection of the dictates of God, but a denial of our status as animals. In the natural world, there are predators and there are prey. Some animals developed long fangs, sharp claws and lightening speed suited for hunting down, catching and consuming other animals. Human beings were rather short changed in the fang and nail department and had to compensate by building bigger brains which allowed us to develop technology suited to overcoming that gap. With these tools we rose to the top of the food chain, allowing us to eat well, survive and thrive. A quick check of your last dental x-rays will reveal that we are perfectly suited to consume both animal flesh and plant fiber.
With all due respect to both Genesis and Wesley Smith, it is our enlightened point of view – our “unique dignity and moral worth” as Smith puts it – which compels us to treat our animal charges more humanely. Many of us take in pets and treat them as part of the family, but this is done by choice and speaks to our compassion. The farmer is similarly moved to provide good food and water to his stock, as well as shelter from the winter storms. None of this, however, changes the fundamental relationship between the predator and the prey. I hold no particular animus toward cows, (I’m sorry… perhaps I should say “Bovine-Americans” now) but that doesn’t change the fact that I’d like my New York strip steak prepared medium rare, thank you very much.
It seems foolish to the point of dangerous folly to extend our sympathies so far that we cut ourselves off from the ability to feed ourselves. What will be left for us after this… a diet of air, water and… what? Some sort of rocks? Wait a minute, though… I think I hear the footfalls of some mineral rights group coming along soon.
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UVM students gathered in the Davis Center to get a taste of CerealFest.
"Oh, CerealFest is a lot of fun!" said Paul Bahan, the district marketing coordinator for Sodexo.
Behind the free samples and prize giveaways, CerealFest was just as informational as it was delicious. The event was organized by the New England Dairy Promotion Board, Kellogg's and Sodexo, and is an initiative aimed at educating Vermonters on the value of local dairy farms.
"Raise awareness of the importance of local milk, both for health and wellness of our communities, and also for maintaining our landscape," Bahan said. "And also going into research for sustainability projects that will also help maintain our dairy industry."
Although dairy farming isn't usually a topic of conversation in the cafeteria, the UVM students participating in CerealFest had some things to say.
"Drink more milk," said Julienne Vergura, a student. "I think it's so important, I think, to support all the local farmers because they do a lot for all the Vermonters that do live here."
With milk sales at their lowest in decades, the organization also aims to remind Vermonters the benefits of buying local and simply buying milk.
Stephanie Ferrari of the New England Dairy Promotion Board said, "We think it's great to remind them that milk is a healthy choice and what's a better combination than cereal and milk?"
The CerealFest campaign will be touring other schools in Vermont to remind students how important, and delicious, local milk can be.
"I think it's great that they are trying to make students buy milk more. I'm a big milk drinker, so I think it's great definitely to support local farms," Vergura said.
From helping local farms thrive to boosting the dairy industry, CerealFest reminded all participants to do one thing-- drink your milk!
UVM donates 10 cents for every serving of milk sold on campus and since 2009 has raised over $20,000. All of the funds go to supporting and advancing sustainable dairy farming in New England.
Thursday, May 23 2013 6:12 AM EDT2013-05-23 10:12:07 GMT
Four colleges, including Dartmouth, are now facing federal complaints over their handling of rape allegations. Other colleges facing complaints include Swarthmore College, University of Southern California,More >>
Four colleges, including Dartmouth, are now facing federal complaints over their handling of rape allegations.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 6:06 AM EDT2013-05-23 10:06:37 GMT
Flash flooding in Burlington Wednesday night turned city streets into a kayaker's playground. "The drains in the city were all plugged with debris," says Lt. Pat Murphy with the Burlington Fire Dept. ButMore >>
Sudden storms caused flash flooding and left a man injured from a lightning strike.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 5:52 AM EDT2013-05-23 09:52:05 GMT
Another major Vermont brand is suing over trademark infringement. Magic Hat Brewing says the logo for Kentucky-based West Sixth Brewing is a rip-off of their Number 9 beer label. Magic Hat argues theMore >>
Another major Vermont brand is suing over trademark infringement.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 5:48 AM EDT2013-05-23 09:48:28 GMT
A Townshend man will be in court for breaking into a house and making himself at home. Police say last Friday and again on Wednesday, they caught 34-year-old Jesse Johnson living in another man's homeMore >>
A Townshend man will be in court for breaking into a house and making himself at home. More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 5:25 AM EDT2013-05-23 09:25:30 GMT
A Williston car dealership is revved up about education. So, it's letting some schools drive off with some money. As part of its Drive for Education Program, Berlin City Auto Group just donated more thanMore >>
A Williston car dealership is revved up about education. So, it's letting some schools drive off with some money.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 5:19 AM EDT2013-05-23 09:19:26 GMT
A proposed fee to cross the U.S.-Canadian border hit a roadblock. The House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment by Congressman Bill Owens banning Homeland Security from using funding to studyMore >>
A proposed fee to cross the U.S.-Canadian border hit a roadblock.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 5:16 AM EDT2013-05-23 09:16:34 GMT
New Hampshire's House says a casino isn't in the cards for the state. The House killed a bill that would have allowed 5,000 video slot machines and 150 table games at a single casino, most likely at aMore >>
New Hampshire's House says a casino isn't in the cards for the state.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 5:13 AM EDT2013-05-23 09:13:01 GMT
Montreal officials say the water in most of the city is unsafe to drink Thursday morning. A boil order has been issued through mid-day Thursday. They report ongoing work at the country's second largestMore >>
Montreal officials say the water in most of the city is unsafe to drink due to bacteria concerns. More >>
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I came across this post in the Freakonomics blog about how we value “pioneers” or people who make something entirely new and the “tweakers” who take existing works and improve them. Its a good article about an interesting problem because both “pioneers” and “tweakers” make art and technology better, but in different ways.
I was only able to attend the first 45 minutes of this event. Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law for making the whole program available online so I could see the rest. Director Kappos seems to be exactly the kind of person we should want to be heading up the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
From the William Mitchell alumni website:
David Kappos, undersecretary of commerce and director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is coming to William Mitchell College of Law to discuss his vision for the USPTO. Save the date.Tuesday, April 6, 20104:30 pmWilliam Mitchell’s Auditorium The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited
According to the CNN.com article, “The first financial exchange to sell patent-licensing rights, poised to launch early next year, is being greeted by both optimism and concern.” The concept is intriguing, especially considering that the costs associated with prosecuting, maintaining and enforcing patents can be as much as starting some companies.
Hat Tip to Zies, Widerman, Malek for posting a link to this story on Twitter.
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Head on a Balcony signed and dated 'Sutherland 1952' (lower right) oil on canvas 91.4 x 71.1 cm. (36 x 28 in.)
PROVENANCE: With The Redfern Gallery, London, where acquired by the father of the present owner, 23rd August 1952
The presentation at Bonhams of Head on a Balcony is the first public showing for over half a century of this important and striking oil on canvas. Painted in 1952 and exhibited at The Redfern Gallery that year, the work was purchased very shortly after by the present owners' father. It was also the year in which arguably Graham Sutherland's reputation became truly international; the artist enjoyed three rooms dedicated to his work at the prestigious Venice Biennale, only four years after Henry Moore cemented his reputation on the global stage at the same event. Indeed, the renowned art critic Herbert Read, 'had been told again and again by foreign critics and others that the British pavilion was the most vital, brilliant and promising in the whole Biennale, and then by Alfred Barr, of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (Roger Berthoud, Graham Sutherland a Biography, Faber & Faber, 1982, London, p.155).
The present canvas relates closely to Head III (Tate Collection), painted the following year, and more widely to a body of work executed throughout the early 1950s which drew on 'Standing Forms' for their inspiration, and were effectively Sutherland's initial forays into portraiture. They had, in part, evolved from his highly successful canvases of the late 1940s depicting magnified cicadas (a cricket or grasshopper-like insect) standing upright, which themselves evoked human forms. Although their true genesis can be seen in one large canvas dating from 1950, which kick-started the decade for Sutherland, Standing Form Against Hedge (Arts Council of Great Britain). Whilst not necessarily the earliest work to use the 'Standing Form' motif it is, probably, the most fully realised. These pictures caused enormous debate at the time and Sutherland was clearly keen to try and enlighten his critics:
'They do not of course mean anything. The forms are based on the principles of organic growth, with which I have always been preoccupied. To me they are monuments and presences. But why use these forms instead of human figures? Because, at the moment, I find it necessary to catch the taste the quality - the essence of the presence of the human figure: the mysterious immediacy of a figure standing in a room or against a hedge in its shadow, its awareness, its regard, as if one had never seen it before by a substitution.'(quoted in John Hayes, Graham Sutherland, Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1980, p.30).
Whilst the suggestion in the title of Head on a Balcony is that of a human's anatomy, the surreal 'being' on top of the pedestal resembles more a crustacean. Bizarrely, on the left side of this horizontal creature a large black eye, highlighted with light injecting it with life, stares out at the viewer apparently as interested in us as we are with it. This intriguing head clearly fascinated Sutherland; he absorbed himself in it throughout 1952-53, reproducing it with only the most subtle alterations in two works titled Head(one whereabouts unknown, the other in a private London collection and first exhibited at the 1952 Venice Biennale), another Form on a Pedestal (private London collection) and the aforementioned Head III. The background in three of these works (both Head canvases and Tate's picture), are almost identical in format and colour, whereas Form on a Pedestal employs a more imaginative and colourful backdrop very similar to Head on a Balcony. Sutherland explained his interest in experimental backgrounds, 'Colour can create form; it can also create a mood; it is fascinating to make complete changes of colour in the background of a painting and see how the whole atmosphere changes' (Op.cit., p.28). With the Crosfield painting, the use of pink and various shades of blue to the background is instrumental in creating a benign and peaceful head, contrasting markedly with Tate's Head III background of dark brown, that switches the emphasis to a more menacing atmosphere where the standing form becomes almost predatory and threatening.
Whilst all of these paintings have at one stage been reproduced in literature or exhibited in museums, it would appear that only Head on a Balcony has evaded any form of exposure until that is, now. Further, it is also the only one from this group which places the standing form in a real setting, a balcony, an elevated structure which serves as the 'displaying platform', thus contextualizing the 'figure' more than its counterparts.
The sculptural qualities invested in the present work are not surprising when one looks at Sutherland's other artistic interest at this time. It is easy to forget with his masterful output of paintings that he embarked on a number of sculptures, also in 1952. Arguably the most successful of these is Standing Figure, a 21 in. high bronze cast in an edition of 6 from a plaster model, which draws parallels with Head on a Balcony. Both works have mutated to varying degrees into what has been described by Douglas Cooper as 'fetish-like abstractions which proclaim their organic origins'. Considering the exciting renaissance in British sculpture at exactly this time (the talented Lynn Chadwick, Bernard Meadows, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull among others all exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1952 alongside Sutherland) it is perhaps surprising that Sutherland did not pursue this medium more thoroughly, especially considering his personal views on sculpture:
'I would really like to have been a sculptor. In some ways I much prefer sculpture as a medium, partly because when you've made something, when you've got to a certain stage, it's there. It's in front of you. You can touch it. You can put your hand around it, whereas a painting is a very ephemeral thing.' (quoted in Roger Berthoud, Op.cit., p.153).
Perhaps Sutherland was content leaving British sculpture to a new and radical generation. In the meantime he went about producing some of his most applauded works, those of the 'Standing Forms', and Bonhams are delighted to exhibit one of the more refreshing examples of these paintings, which has been off the radar now for sixty years.
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Report: Egypt protests cost $310 million per day
BY TAREK EL-TABLAWY AP Business Writer
Friday, February 04, 2011
2/04/11 at 12:05 PM
CAIRO — Egypt's economy has lost at least $3.1 billion as a result of the political crisis in the country, investment bank Credit Agricole said in a report released on Friday, as tens of thousands of protesters massed in downtown Cairo demanding the president's ouster.
The unrest that began on Jan. 25 led to the shuttering of businesses and companies, the closure of banks and the stock exchange and the exodus of thousands of tourists. The ensuing violence almost overnight drove a nation once seen as a pillar of stability to the brink of chaos.
Credit Agricole, in one of the first assessments quantifying the damage to the economy, said the crisis is costing Egypt at least $310 million per day. The bank also revised down its forecast for 2011 GDP growth to 3.7 percent from 5.3 percent and said the Egyptian pound could see a depreciation of up to 20 percent.
The losses are the tip of the iceberg of Egypt's economic woes.
Any post-crisis government will face major challenges in rebuilding the country's image and dealing with a range of fundamental economic problems that are sure to be exacerbated by the unrest.
"The economy is at the heart of Egypt's problems," John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group, said in the report.
Egypt's GDP grew by about 7 percent for three years, before the global meltdown cooled the economy to a still respectable 4.7 percent in 2009.
Still, Egypt faced major obstacles that have helped fuel, if not spark, the popular uprising.
Poverty is rampant, with about 40 percent of its 80 million people living on or below the $2 per-day poverty benchmark set by the World Bank. Unemployment is officially pegged at around 10 percent, but believed to be more than double that — particularly among the youth. Food inflation has hovered at about 17 percent per year, raising the cost of living for millions.
The disruption to daily life stemming from the protests has only exacerbated those issues.
The vital tourism sector, which accounted for 6 percent of GDP in 2010, could "easily retreat" to pre-2004 levels of under $5.6 billion, said Sfakianakis, adding that the "shortfall in tourism receipts will have to be addressed by additional budgetary support."
Egypt's new vice president said on state television Thursday that the unrest has cost the country $1 billion in tourism revenues. In a reflection of the impact on tourist arrivals, airport officials in Cairo said Friday that the only foreigners now flying in are journalists.
Officials have announced a slew of immediate measures to help mitigate losses felt by the people, including a compensation fund for businesses damaged during the protests, unemployment benefits, and releasing foodstuff from customs without prepayment of taxes.
The new finance minister, meanwhile, told state television that the damages to businesses and infrastructure during the rioting are estimated at about 5 billion pounds ($862 million).
But the government will also be forced to boost spending to appease its population, meaning that subsidies that drain 100 billion pounds per year from the budget will remain sacrosanct.
Reining in the budget deficit will likely be little more than wishful thinking as spending ramps up and Egypt's cost of borrowing climbs. Several of Egypt's key ratings have been revised down by international ratings firms over the past week.
Also likely to be hit is foreign direct investment, a key cash cow for the government. And, while worker remittances are unlikely to be affected significantly, there is a risk, at least in the short term, of a spike in capital outflows — money leaving the country.
Credit Agricole expects that Egypt's gross public debt to GDP will revert to 85 percent in 2011 and 97 percent by 2014, compared to earlier estimates of around 70 percent for the next three years. The budget deficit could reach 12.3 percent this year from an estimated 8.2 percent, the bank said.
Sfakianakis said the economy's overall loss estimates were based on a calculation of the main components of GDP, including, but not limited to, investment losses, the tourism and construction sectors, as well as projected costs for repairs to damages and manpower hours lost.
The Egyptian pound could fall by as much as 20 percent relative to the U.S. dollar in the short-term, dragged down by a drop in investments and an increase in capital outflows, Sfakianakis said. That would bring the pound down to about 7 pounds per dollar, based on the current exchange rate of around 5.85 pounds to the dollar.
While the Central Bank would likely intervene to support the pound by drawing on foreign reserves, "political tensions, a run on local banks as well as expected dollarisation of some of the deposits will impact the short-term currency outlook," said the report.
Egypt's recently appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq speaks to the media at the Ministry of the Interior in Cairo, Egypt. VICTORIA HAZOU / AP Photo
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ROBERT, La. -- BP said Wednesday it hopes to begin shooting a mixture known as drilling mud into the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico early next week.
Engineers hope to start the procedure known as a ''top kill'' by Sunday. It could take several weeks to complete, but if it works it should stop the oil that's been gushing since the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the coast of Louisiana April 20 and sank two days later.
''This is all being done at a depth of 5,000 feet and it's never been done at these depths before,'' said Doug Suttles of BP PLC, the oil giant that was leasing the rig when it exploded.
The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that tar balls washing ashore in the Florida Keys were not from the Gulf spill, but that did little to soothe fears the oil could spread damage along the coast from Louisiana to Florida.
The U.S. and Cuba were holding talks on how to respond to the spill, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said, underscoring worries about the oil reaching a strong current that could carry it to the Florida Keys and the pristine white beaches of Cuba's northern coast.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee addressed the spill at a hearing Wednesday where leading Republicans including John Mica of Florida sought to pin blame on President Barack Obama's administration. He cited Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's acknowledgment Tuesday that his agency could have more aggressively monitored the offshore drilling industry.
Outlining what he called the ''Obama oil spill timeline,'' Mica said the administration failed to heed warnings about the need for more regulation and issued ''basically a carte blanche recipe for disaster'' in approving drilling by the Deepwater Horizon, leased by oil giant BP PLC, and several dozen other wells.
He also said the spill could have been contained more quickly if the Coast Guard and other agencies had a better plan.
''This went on and on,'' he said. ''I'm not going to point fingers at BP, the private industry, when it's government's responsibility to set the standards.''
Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., took issue with the criticism, saying the drilling was approved early in the Obama administration, essentially continuing practices from President George W. Bush's administration, and that decisions were made by career officials.
''I think it's inflammatory to call it the Obama oil spill, and wrong,'' Oberstar said.
Government scientists, meanwhile, were surveying the Gulf to determine if the oil had entered a powerful current that could take it to Florida and Cuba and eventually up the East Coast. Questions remained about just how much oil is spilling from the well.
New underwater video released by BP showed oil and gas erupting under pressure in large, dark clouds from its crippled blowout preventer on the ocean floor.
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E-mail this story
The frump factor and Holly Petraeus
Last week was a historic one for women. Eighteen women won or reclaimed Senate seats, bringing the number of women in that body to 20. Nearly 80 women now occupy the House. New Hampshire became the first state to elect a female governor and an all-women congressional delegation.
By Meghan Daum
November 17, 2012
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John Manke is an active former Bay View resident who is involved in numerous neighborhood organizations, including the Bay View Historical Society, the Humboldt Park Fourth of July Association and the Shore Shore Farmers Market. He believes Bay View has a fine tradition in its past that we do not want to lose in the future.
FERNWOOD/SAUERKRAUT HILL WALK
9:30 AM, SATURDAY -- AUGUST 7, 2010
I can remember two major rain storms from the past. In 1953, the South Shore area of Milwaukee County was hit with a cyclone that knocked down many trees and electrical wires. Many trees were pulled up from their roots and landed on streets, yards, buildings or cars. I remember one man who just stepped out of his brand new car on E. Pryor Avenue, and tree fell inside of his car. On my street, several trees were blocking the road and two live electrical wires were lying in the middle of the road. For two weeks we went without electricity, until one day an ex-neighbor, who was a police officer, came down our dead end street to show us his new squad car. When he saw the live wires still lying on the road, he called the fire department and electric power company to eliminate this problem and to restore service to us again. You become forgotten when you live on a dead end street. My mother was in the insurance business and took us on a tour of the South Shore areas to view all of the damage from this storm. They claim the the storm was a reverse tornado or cyclone that hit us. My dad and worked a two man saw to get wood for the coal furnace that year. Some of the trees that fell were huge and old. Sidewalks had to be replaced in many cases. We as children, could play outside, but we were told to stay clear of the live wires on the road.
In August of 1986, as I was delivering my mail route, I got soaked completely. People would ask me why their mail was wet. I told them that it was as dry as I was, since no dry spot existed on my uniform. After returning to my postal station in Bay View, I drove home to get some dry clothes on. All of the streets had inches of rain on them. The underpasses were all closed due to the heavy rain. I took S. Clement Avenue home to avoid the underpasses. I was praying that my car would not stall while driving through the water. My wife and the kids were at State Fair Park and came home after the storm subsided. A friend of mine was trapped west of the freeway, and could find no open roads to our postal station. He had to go to a station west of us to turn in his vehicle, keys and accountables. The supervisor went with him to try and find a way to get back to Bay View, but found all main roads were under water and too dangerous to travel on. In reading the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently, I found out that the major storm that hit Milwaukee several days ago, was similar to August of 1986.
I urge all of you to visit the Beulah Brinton House, 2590 S. Superior Street, for the installation on its front lawn done by Discovery World and Bay View High School students. It is truly spectacular and you will learn so much about Bay View's History. The students and Discovery World staff will be collecting historical and archaeological information about Bay View from the general public. Activities will include portrait photography, oral history, genealogy, artifacts and heirloom documentation. Dates for these sessions are Saturday, July 31, 10 AM to 2 PM;
Opening Reception, Sunday, August 1, 10 AM to 2 PM, Saturday, August 14, 10 AM to 2 PM, and Saturday, August 21, 10 AM to 2 PM. This display will be on the lawn of the Beulah Brinton House from July 31 to September 5 -- so come and bring your histories and your stuff. It is really worthwhile. When all of this information has been gathered and digitalized by the students, it will be given to the Historical Society for our archives. Please tell everyone you know about this program.
When we were kids, we used to walk to South Shore Park and go swimming at the beach. The water had a lot of small stones to walk on and very little sand. Unless you were a good swimmer, you never went out too deep in the water. The beach was sandy, unlike the the water, but it was hot. We used to take a blanket and lie down in the shade on the hill.
Sometimes in Summer, my dad would take us to a small lake to go swimming. Beaver Lake, Wabbasee Beach, Muskego Beach, Wind Lake and other such places to swim at. Most of the highways going to the lakes were two lane with little passing room while driving. Sometimes we took along inner tubes to swim with. Sometimes you would find a crab nipping on your toes or you would step on a clam in the water. If you were in some waters, blood suckers would nail you.
Terry Falk is running for the City-Wide position on the Milwaukee School Board. He is having a Fund raising Event on Wednesday, August 25th from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the BYO Studio Lounge, 2246 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue, Milwaukee, Wi. 53207
I have just recently been able to receive a dog, whose owner has been placed in hospice care. This dog, Brownie, is just a joy to have. I encourage anybody who wishes to have a dog or cat to go out and look for one. The love that they give is worth all of the effort that you put into owning it. Don't be afraid of becoming an owner. A dog is like a member of your family. All it takes is a lot of tender loving care and you will receive much love in return. Please support the Bay View community.
On Saturday, the Green Bay Packers will start their pre-season games. I look forward to watching football again. It is too early to tell what kind of a team we will have this season, but time will tell us. My favorite sport has always been football. Although I have played other sports, football is the game that I like best. It takes team effort to win a game. If the skills of all the players help each other out in harmony, we will have a great team. If too many individuals think that they are the only key to the game, them we will lose our team spirit and go down in defeat. It take the united effort of all of the players to win a game.
We started off with a great lineup, but several players have faded with their skills. The owner of the team has obtained some quality players, but we still have failed in our mission to win more games. While we are not in last place, we also are not in first place or even close to going into the playoffs. I hope that they can at least win some more games this season to look respectable. Maybe next year will be different for them. Time will tell. Who knows what the future will bring. Maybe we will be able to field a good team next year.
In the United States we have the privilege of being able to vote for people to serve us in politics. Not all countries offer this freedom. In some countries, the government monitors who votes and sometimes tamper with the voting results. We should take advantage of this freedom and choose who we want to represent us in political office. On Tuesday, September 14th, the polls will be open. We have to elect a new governor, a U.S. Senator, U.S. House of Representative members, Wisconsin State Senator, Wisconsin State Representatives, School Board Board members, and many other political officials. Take the time to vote. Choose the candidate that you feel will do the best job of representing you in political office. Be a good American citizen and use your privilege of being able to vote wisely.
If you are like me, and have received many mosquito bites, and are running out of repellent, then hope for some cool weather to come soon. Dragonflies are eating many of the mosquitoes. Bats eat lots of them. A bird feeder will encourage more birds to come and eat them. The more rain and heat we have, the more mosquitoes to bite us. Some communities are using bug spray to eliminate them. All I can say is watch your back and keep scratching. Cool weather will soon be here to end their time here. Please support the Bay View community.
Many years ago, I heard a story from a person who has since passed away. It seems that this one cemetery had to move some bodies to a new location in the cemetery. As the bodies were being dug up, a small person looked down at the site. The first corpse had turned all black, probably due to no preservatives, much as President Lincoln's body looked as they moved it to a new spot. Another body had the hands and arms in an odd position. Another body had almost become a skeleton. It was amazing to be able to look upon these bodies as they were being moved. Another person told me that a body was only guaranteed his burial spot for 50 years. After that time, a body could be moved to a new common site.
It seems that undertakers have always had a hard time trying to preserve bodies. During the Civil War many bodies were sent back home to be buried. They had to be preserved very well if they were to travel any long distance. A perfect preservative was found, but it turned out to be deadly to the undertaker. Arsenic is great at preserving bodies, but if any of the chemical got on or into the person using it, they could get very sick or die. Formaldehyde is the most common form of preservative used now in funeral homes. It is a lot safer to use than arsenic. I suspect that Lenin's body in Moscow has a lot of arsenic in the preservatives used there.
Do you remember going to South Shore Beach when they still had lifeguards and swimming available? The beach was sandy, but the water's edge had a lot of small stones that you had to walk on to get out deeper in the water. There used to be trees on the hill near the beach. People had blankets and large beach towels to lay on. The radio stations used to announce the water temperature at the various beaches. You could walk down to the bath house/pavilion to change clothes if you wanted to. Sometimes they would play music from a radio at the beach. They used to have tall stands for the lifeguards to sit on. No dogs were allowed on the beach. Many times the sand was very hot to walk on near the beach. Sometimes the water in Lake Michigan was so cold that you shivered as you entered the water. The main times that they closed the beach was during a thunderstorm or during the time when Polio was epidemic in our area. You were always told not to drink the water while swimming because it could be dirty. The beach was frequently crowded in those days. On a hot day, you could expect more people than normal there. As kids, we used to look on the beach for anything that was unusual, like small stones, rings, money, keys, watches, shells and other such things. Some of the small stones could be used to make simple jewelry or similar things.
Now, when you go to South Shore Beach, there are no lifeguards, only signs that state that swimming is too dangerous due to heavy amounts of E-coli bacteria in the water. Many of the trees are no longer on the hill. The sand on the beach is a bit rough to walk on. Many people take their dogs into the water to cool them off. At times you can find dead fish on the beach near the water. Debris from the lake is also in the sand. Swimming is almost a thing of the past, as the beach is closed so often. Boating and fishing are more common than attempts at swimming in the lake. There are many yachts and other boats near the South Shore Yacht Club. The view of Lake Michigan is wonderful from South Shore Park. When you attend the South Shore Farmers Market, you always can get a beautiful glimpse of Lake Michigan while shopping. When there is a lake breeze, you feel like you are in the best place in world. In spite of the ban on swimming, South Shore Park, at 2900 S. Shore Drive, offers a lot of activities for the entire family to enjoy. The children's play area is just wonderful. Take the time to visit the area and enjoy this beautiful park with your entire family. Please support the Bay View community.
There was a rich lobbyist from Madison, Wisconsin who had a large cottage at Presque Isle Lake. He would bring in politicians from the State Capitol for some recreation. During the daytime, they would go fishing in a boat. At nighttime they would go visit Hurley, Wisconsin, and have some adult fun. Hurley was wide open with little law enforcement visible. Some mobsters from Chicago, Illinois, ran some wild dance halls. strip clubs and other adult places in this town. Many girls were brought in from Chicago to work at these places. During the day, this was a normal small town. At night, all hell broke loose in this town.
Across the river from Hurley was the clean small city of Ironwood, Michigan. What a contrast from Hurley. There were regular grocery stores and other normal places of business here. This was a good place to live with you family.
The Bay View Bash will be held on Saturday, September 18, 2010, in Bay View. The area from E. Potter Avenue to S. Clement Avenue on S. Kinnickinnic Avenue. There will be activities going on from about 11 AM to about 10 PM. There will be activities and music for the entire family to enjoy. There will be food served on the grill and other food. There will be a Children's Area located at Bay View M & I Bank, 2701 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue. There will be games and other activities for the children and other family members. There will be several stages for music. For any additional information on the Bay View Bash, go to web-site http://www.bayviewbash.org/. Here you can find out what is happening where and at what time. Come on down and have a great time with your entire family.
Schools will begin in early September for most schools. Now is the time to buy school supplies and clothing for your children to wear to school. Make sure that you buy lunch bags or a school box for children who eat a bag lunch at school. Buy snacks for them to munch on after school is over. Teach them to be careful crossing the streets and to watch out for cars or for strangers who could place them in harm's way. Protect your children in bad weather. Be sure that they dress warm enough to go outside. Take the time to meet your children's teachers and school staff. Parental involvement is very important to everyone. Your children will be proud of you if you get involved in their education. Try to get them to school on time. Have fun with your children. Enjoy the time you spend with them, because, before you know it, they will grow up and go their own ways. Please support the Bay View community.
Labor Day is day to reflect on all of the people who have given us their labor to sustain us. Every job is important. Each job is a part of our living experience. Where would we be if people had not taken the time and labor to provide for us all of these years. Just think. Food, appliances, electricity, natural gas, water, television, newspapers, railroads, airplanes, ships, banks, stores, government, mail delivery, doctors, dentists, hospitals, automobiles, houses, furniture, and many other things are brought to us through the labor of somebody. We should take the time and reflect on this and be thankful that we live in a free and democratic country. You should take the time to thank the union members, military, teachers, clerks, secretaries, officials, police and fire departments, health departments, food service people and many others who make our country as great as it is.
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USD students help community’s children as part of Rotaract Week
Published: Friday, March 23, 2012
Updated: Friday, March 23, 2012 14:03
Every year during the week of March 13, World Rotaract Week is held to commemorate the founding of the Rotaract Club in 1968. During this week, USD’s Rotaract Club held daily events both on and off campus to give the community the opportunity to be informed about what kind of work the club does and how to get involved.
According to www.rotary.org, USD’s chapter is one of the 34,000 Rotaract Clubs worldwide. Rotaract members volunteer within their communities to support education and job training, provide clean water, combat hunger, improve health and sanitation and eradicate polio. Junior Romyn Sabatchi, president of the USD Rotaract Club, said that this chapter, consisting of 60 members, is sponsored by three local Rotary Clubs.
World Rotaract Week is celebrated worldwide. Each club has a signature project that is meant to help others do service for the community or nation and fundraise for Rotary International. Within this realm of community service, clubs either dedicate the entire week to one signature project or they have multiple projects for each day of the week.
USD’s Rotaract Club assigned a different signature project for each day of the week to promote its four avenues of service - vocational, international, community and club service.
“We want students to have more passion for community service,” freshman Kylie McGlynn, community service chair, said. “[To participate in] service for the right reasons rather than what people expect of you.”
On March 13, USD’s Rotaract Club focused its signature event to community service organized by McGlynn. Members gathered materials to create Easter baskets and baby blankets. These items were later taken to Rady Children’s Hospital.
“Because so many members and students attended this event, we finished the event a lot quicker than we had planned,” Sabatchi said.
The signature event for Tuesday, Caring for Carson, was based on the avenue of vocational service. Members and students volunteered at Carson Elementary, a school freshman Alana Willis, vocational service chair, volunteers at weekly. Those who participated read to and made beaded bracelets with a third grade class. At the end of the visit, each third grader got to pick out a book they wanted to keep.
The rest of the weekly events included a screening of the video “End Polio Now” focusing on international service, a scavenger hunt throughout the main part of campus with prizes and gift cards and a bake sale in front of the Hahn University Center. On Friday an exclusive event for USD Rotaract members only took place. This day was set aside to hold elections for the club’s new president. Within this organization, the elected vice president serves for two semesters or one term and becomes president the following year.
Throughout the week there were scattered boxes located on campus where students could donate used books and clothing. All donations were given to a shelter home in Tijuana for victims of domestic violence.
“The feeling of knowing you have truly helped others is amazing,” Sabatchi said. “Not only do you make an impact on their lives, but they make an impact on your life as well.”
McGlynn said that the opportunities in Rotaract Club extend beyond helping others.
“Being a part of Rotaract Club gives you a lot of opportunities both in the community in worldwide,” McGlynn said. “It is not just community service, it’s professional development as well.”
The Rotaract Club encourages any students interested in the club to attend the meetings that take place the first and third Thursdays of every month at 12:15 p.m. in Serra Hall 212. Students can join Rotaract Club at any time during the academic school year. For more information, contact USDRotaract@gmail.com.
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Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group company in its announcement of financial results said it had commissioned 105MW of the 150MW expansion in wind power generation capacity announced in January 2011. The balance capacity was expected to be commissioned in Q3 FY2012. Post the expansion, the Company’s expected wind power generation capacity was set to increase to 273MW.
In January 2011, Suzlon, had signed an agreement with Hindustan Zinc Limited, a Vedanta Group company and the world’s largest producer of zinc, to set up, operate and maintain 150 megawatt (MW) of wind power projects across the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
Wind Power |
News published on 2012-02-02 by Bharat Vasandani
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In the movie, the husband--who only incidentally was Iranian--was stereotyped as an abusing husband. In that role he did what all batterers do, and that is systematically isolate, debase, frighten, control and manipulate the abused spouse.
Had this movie been an academic thesis comparing and contrasting women within Arab and American cultures, perhaps some of Tohidi's points would be valuable. However, it was not. It spoke eloquently and accurately of the flight of a single and unique woman to escape from a horrible situation.
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Life as an amateur aerialist
I should not find the cloth intimidating — it looks like a pair of curtains, after all. Yet as I walk across the stage toward the fabric, my heart begins to pound. That is because I have agreed to climb the cloth, without the security of a harness or safety net, and perform circus-like acrobatics in a sensation known as aerial dance.
The fact that someone has agreed to teach me this astounds me. In school, I was the first one cut during cheerleading tryouts. I never made it to the top of the human pyramid. So I am not the girl to be hanging mid-air, attempting Cirque du Soleil stunts.
Yet my instructor, Kathleen Golde, assures me there is nothing to fear and that I am perfectly safe. Since she has been practicing aerial arts for nearly 15 years and has learned from some of the great pioneers of aerial, I am inclined to believe her.
Golde teaches aerial classes through the University at Buffalo, as well as workshops and private bookings for all ages and skill level. A founding member of the Buffalo Laboratory Theatre (which works out of Hilbert College), Golde uses her aerial dance skills as an eye-catching supplement to many of the theater company’s productions.
Yet working with the fabric, or aerial tissu, as Golde refers to it, is not about showing off impressive, gravity-defying feats, but about playing and having fun while giving your mind and body a workout.
“I think everyone dreams that they could fly. This is the closest way I know how,” says Golde as she effortlessly scales the tissu. She wraps herself up in the fabric while she climbs until she resembles a poorly bandaged mummy.
Without warning, Golde flips head over feet and releases the fabric, plummeting toward the stage floor. I want to cry out, but the movement is so graceful and full of beauty that my voice catches in my throat.
Golde doesn’t crash land. Instead, she is caught by her knees and by the knots she made in the fabric during her descent. She has just shown me one of the many tricks one can perform as an aerialist.
Now she tells me it’s my turn. My palms are sweaty and after watching my instructor soar through the air, I am more unsure of myself than when I started.
I start thinking about walking away and writing my column on something safer, such as the merits of herbal tea, or visit with my grandmother, when Golde senses my hesitation.
Aerial arts is about trusting the fabric and more importantly, trusting yourself, she tells me. She promises me I won’t fall.
And I don’t. Golde makes a knot in the tissu and I learn to stand, swing and even do a back-bend in the air. For something that looks so delicate, the fabric is sturdy and maintains my weight.
Then I learn to make a chair out of the fabric, pulling the sides toward me until I am completely cocooned.
Golde shows me how to correctly wrap my feet in two separate panels of fabric and stand. I resemble a hovering, shoeless cross-country skier.
From this position, Golde encourages me to try my first flip. I am terrified. Holding up my own body with nothing more than a firm grip and my bound feet is tough and I am wishing desperately for a helmet.
“Trust your body,” Golde reminds me. I kick my right leg over my left and spin out into my very first aerial flip. It’s absolutely exhilarating.
I begin to experiment with more bends, flips and even splits. I am beginning to think my high school cheerleading squad didn’t realize what they were missing when they looked me over.
I can’t stop laughing as I twirl and bend, and I finally see why Golde considers aerial dance as “play.” It is the most bizarre dance and exercise class I have ever taken, and yet I can’t get enough of it.
When I ask Golde to teach me the more complicated moves that she will perform in the upcoming Buffalo Laboratory Theatre production, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” she smiles and informs me I have learned far more than she normally teaches in one day.
“Besides, you’re body is going to be killing you tomorrow,” she says.
She’s right again. I wake up the next morning feeling as if I have been stretched on a torture rack and held to an open flame. Yet I cannot wait for my next aerial lesson.
After all, once you get a taste of flying, you never want to give it up.
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Hey, Texas, don't mess with textbooks: Public schools are no place for partisan agendas
Texas conservatives want to cut Thomas Jefferson, César Chávez, Edward Kennedy, and other 'liberals' from textbooks.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Battles over school curricula are not new. Now, it’s not just Darwin that’s the issue. If the far-right Republican majority on the Texas Board of Education has its way, many of the 48 million textbooks it buys per year, for 10 years, will represent a Republican partisan agenda and a new emphasis on Christian beliefs.Skip to next paragraph
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On March 12, the board gave preliminary approval to more than 100 such amendments, which skew public school curriculum and rewrite US history from a conservative perspective.
But the purpose of a public school's curriculum is not to push one particular viewpoint. According to the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS), an effective social studies curriculum should provide students with an understanding of the multiple forces that affect civic issues throughout history, in order to create a base from which citizens can contribute to democracy.
“I do believe there are board members on the ultraright who have an agenda,” said Judy Brodigan, an educator who contributed to the social studies curriculum guidelines. “Our job is not to take a viewpoint. It’s to present sides fairly.”
After the Texas Board of Education deleted certain figures – such as Thomas Jefferson, César Chávez, and Edward Kennedy – from the state’s curriculum, the Christian conservatives on the board succeeded in emphasizing what they perceive as Christianity’s role in our nation’s founding.
Former board member Don McLeroy is a dentist and a self-avowed Christian fundamentalist who openly states how his religious values guide his crusade to adjust textbooks. Mr. McLeroy, the most influential conservative involved in the curriculum changes, is well known for his extreme statements dismissing evidence of evolution in debates about Darwinism last year. This year, he candidly discussed how he applies direct pressure to textbook companies in a New York Times article, “How Christian Were the Founders?”
McLeroy’s sway with education standards highlights another unsettling fact: Unlike the trained teachers who wrote the original social studies guidelines, the board members revising the curriculum lack the qualifications necessary to shape classroom guidelines.
Educators are alarmed not only because the Texas curriculum guidelines were made by unqualified sources, but also because the changes to standards in
Texas affect textbooks across the country. Texas’ $22 billion education fund is among the nation’s largest educational endowments in the country, which definitively influences how educational publishers tailor their products to fit other states.
“This issue is bigger than Texas,” said an Ohio State University professor in a discussion thread with other NCSS members. “To have politicians rewriting history to suit their view of the world is about as anti-social studies as I can imagine. Reminds me of social studies when I worked in Malawi under the one-man rule of Hastings Banda.”
Efforts to include Latinos in the social studies curriculum were repeatedly defeated, despite the significant Hispanic population in Texas.
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Augustine's City of God, Book 6
HITHERTO THE ARGUMENT HAS BEEN CONDUCTED AGAINST THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THE GODS ARE TO BE WORSHIPPED FOR THE SAKE OF TEMPORAL ADVANTAGES, NOW IT IS DIRECTED AGAINST THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE TO BE WORSHIPPED FOR THE SAKE OF ETERNAL LIFE. AUGUSTIN DEVOTES THE FIVE FOLLOWING BOOKS TO THE CONFUTATION OF THIS LATTER BELIEF, AND FIRST OF ALL SHOWS HOW MEAN AN OPINION OF THE GODS WAS HELD BY VARRO HIMSELF, THE MOST ESTEEMED WRITER ON HEATHEN THEOLOGY. OF THIS THEOLOGY AUGUSTIN ADOPTS VARRO'S DIVISION INTO THREE KINDS, MYTHICAL, NATURAL, AND CIVIL; AND AT ONCE DEMONSTRATES THAT NEITHER THE MYTHICAL NOR THE CIVIL CAN CONTRIBUTE ANYTHING TO THE HAPPINESS OF THE FUTURE LIFE.
IN the five former books, I think I have sufficiently disputed against those who believe that the many false gods, which the Christian truth shows to be useless images, or unclean spirits and pernicious demons, or certainly creatures, not the Creator, are to be worshipped for the advantage of this mortal life, and of terrestrial affairs, with that rite and service which the Greeks call ;latreia;, and which is due to the one true God. And who does not know that, in the face of excessive stupidity and obstinacy, neither these five nor any other number of books whatsoever could be enough, when it is esteemed the glory of vanity to yield to no amount of strength on the side of truth,--certainly to his destruction over whom so heinous a vice tyrannizes? For, notwithstanding all the assiduity of the physician who attempts to effect a cure, the disease remains unconquered, not through any fault of his, but because of the incurableness of the sick man. But those who thoroughly weigh the things which they read, having understood and considered them, without any, or with no great and excessive degree of that obstinacy which belongs to a long-cherished error, will more readily judge that, in the five books already finished, we have done more than the necessity of the question demanded, than that we have given it less discussion than it required. And they cannot have doubted but that all the hatred which the ignorant attempt to bring upon the Christian religion on account of the disasters of this life, and the destruction and change which befall terrestrial things, whilst the learned do not merely dissimulate, but encourage that hatred, contrary to their own consciences, being possessed by a mad impiety;--they cannot have doubted, I say, but that this hatred is devoid of right reflection and reason, and full of most light temerity, and most pernicious animosity.
CHAP. 1.--OF THOSE WHO MAINTAIN THAT THEY WORSHIP THE GODS NOT FOR THE SAKE OF TEMPORAL BUT ETERNAL ADVANTAGES.
Now, as, in the next place (as the promised order demands), those are to be refuted and taught who contend that the gods of the nations, which the Christian truth destroys, are to be worshipped not on account of this life, but on account of that which is to be after death, I shall do well to commence my disputation with the truthful oracle of the holy psalm, "Blessed is the man whose hope is the Lord God, and who respecteth not vanities and lying follies."(1) Nevertheless, in all vanities and lying follies the philosophers are to be listened to with far more toleration, who have repudiated those opinions and errors of the people; for the people set up images to the deities, and either reigned concerning those whom they call immortal gods many false and unworthy things, or believed them, already feigned, and, when believed, mixed them up with their worship and sacred rites.
With those men who, though not by free avowal of their convictions, do still testify that they disapprove of those things by their muttering disapprobation during disputations on the subject, it may not be very far amiss to discuss the following question: Whether for the sake of the life which is to be after death, we ought to worship, not the one God who made all creatures spiritual and corporeal, but those many gods who, as some of these philosophers hold, were made by that one God, and placed by Him in their respective sublime spheres, and are therefore considered more excellent and more noble than all the others?(1) But who will assert that it must be affirmed and contended that those gods, certain of whom I have mentioned in the fourth book,(2) to whom are distributed, each to each the charges of minute things, do bestow eternal life? But will those most skilled and most acute men, who glory in having written for the great benefit of men, to teach on what account each god is to be worshipped, and what is to be sought from each, lest with most disgraceful absurdity, such as a mimic is wont for the sake of merriment to exhibit, water should be sought from Liber, wine from the Lymphs,--will those men indeed affirm to any man supplicating the immortal gods, that when he shall have asked wine from the Lymphs, and they shall have answered him, "We have water, seek wine from Liber," he may rightly say, "If ye have not wine, at least give me eternal life?" What more monstrous than this absurdity? Will not these Lymphs,--for they are wont to be very easily made laugh,(3) --laughing loudly (if they do not attempt to deceive like demons), answer the suppliant, "O man, dost thou think that we have life (vitam) in our power, who thou hearest have not even the vine (vitem)?" It is therefore most impudent folly to seek and hope for eternal life from such gods as are asserted so to preside over the separate minute concernments of this most sorrowful and short life, and whatever is useful for supporting and propping it, as that if anything which is under the care and power of one be sought from another, it is so incongruous and absurd that it appears very like to mimic drollery,--which, when it is done by mimics knowing what they are doing, is deservedly laughed at in the theatre, but when it is done by foolish persons, who do not know better, is more deservedly ridiculed in the world. Wherefore, as concerns those gods which the states have established, it has been cleverly invented and handed down to memory by learned men, what god or goddess is to be supplicated in relation to every particular thing,--what, for instance, is to be sought from Liber, what from the Lymphs, what from Vulcan, and so of all the rest, some of whom I have mentioned in the fourth book, and some I have thought right to omit. Further, if it is an error to seek wine from Ceres, bread from Liber, water from Vulcan, fire from the Lymphs, how much greater absurdity ought it to be thought, if supplication be made to any one of these for eternal life?
Wherefore, if, when we were inquiring what gods or goddesses are to be believed to be able to confer earthly kingdoms upon men, all things having been discussed, it was shown to be very far from the truth to think that even terrestrial kingdoms are established by any of those many false deities, is it not most insane impiety to believe that eternal life, which is, without any doubt or comparison, to be preferred to all terrestrial kingdoms, can be given to any one by any of these gods? For the reason why such gods seemed to us not to be able to give even an earthly kingdom, was not because they are very great and exalted, whilst that is something small and abject, which they, in their so great sublimity, would not condescend to care for, but because, however deservedly any one may, in consideration of human frailty, despise the falling pinnacles of an earthly kingdom, these gods have presented such an appearance as to seem most unworthy to have the granting and preserving of even those entrusted to them; and consequently, if (as we have taught in the two last books of our work, where this matter is treated of) no god out of all that crowd, either belonging to, as it were, the plebeian or to the noble gods, is fit to give mortal kingdoms to mortals, how much less is he able to make immortals of mortals?
And more than this, if, according to the opinion of those with whom we are now arguing, the gods are to be worshipped, not on account of the present life, but of that which is to be after death, then, certainly, they are not to be worshipped on account of those particular things which are distributed and portioned out (not by any law of rational truth, but by mere vain conjecture) to the power of such gods, as they believe they ought to be worshipped, who contend that their worship is necessary for all the desirable things of this mortal life, against whom I have disputed sufficiently, as far as I was able, in the five preceding books. These things being so, if the age itself of those who worshipped the goddess Juventas should be characterized by remarkable vigor, whilst her despisers should either die within the years of youth, or should, during that period, grow cold as with the torpor of old age; if bearded Fortuna should cover the cheeks of her worshippers more handsomely and more gracefully than all others, whilst we should see those by whom she was despised either altogether beardless or ill-bearded; even then we should most rightly say, that thus far these several gods had power, limited in some way by their functions, and that, consequently, neither ought eternal life to be sought from Juventas, who could not give a beard, nor ought any good thing after this life to be expected from Fortuna Barbara, who has no power even in this life to give the age itself at which the beard grows. But now, when their worship is necessary not even on account of those very things which they think are subjected to their power, --for many worshippers of the goddess Juventas have not been at all vigorous at that age, and many who do not worship her rejoice in youthful strength; and also many suppliants of Fortuna Barbara have either not been able to attain to any beard at all, not even an Ugly one, although they who adore her in order to obtain a beard are ridiculed by her bearded despisers,--is the human heart really so foolish as to believe that that worship of the gods, which it acknowledges to be vain and ridiculous with respect to those very temporal and swiftly passing gifts, over each of which one of these gods is said to preside, is fruitful in results with respect to eternal life? And that they are able to give eternal life has not been affirmed even by those who, that they might be worshipped by the silly populace, distributed in minute division among them these temporal occupations, that none of them might sit idle; for they had supposed the existence of n exceedingly great number.
CHAP. 2.--WHAT WE ARE TO BELIEVE THAT VARRO THOUGHT CONCERNING THE GODS OF THE NATIONS, WHOSE VARIOUS KINDS AND SACRED RITES HE HAS SHOWN TO BE SUCH THAT HE WOULD HAVE ACTED MORE REVERENTLY TOWARDS THEM HAD HE BEEN ALTOGETHER SILENT CONCERNING THEM.
Who has investigated those things more carefully than Marcus Varro? Who has discovered them more learnedly? Who has considered them more attentively? Who has distinguished them more acutely? Who has written about them more diligently and more fully?--who, though he is less pleasing in his eloquence, is nevertheless so full of instruction and wisdom, that in all the erudition which we call secular, but they liberal, he will teach the student of things as much as Cicero delights the student of words. And even Tully himself renders him such testimony, as to say in his Academic books that he had held that disputation which is there carried on with Marcus Varro, "a man," he adds, "unquestionably the acutest of all men, and, without any doubt, the most learned."(1) He does not say the most eloquent or the most fluent, for in reality he was very deficient in this faculty, but he says, "of all men the most acute." And in those books,--that is, the Academic,--where he contends that all things are to be doubted, he adds of him, "without any doubt the most learned." In truth, he was so certain concerning this thing, that he laid aside that doubt which he is wont to have recourse to in all things, as if, when about to dispute in favor of the doubt of the Academics, he had, with respect to this one thing, forgotten that he was an Academic. But in the first book, when he extols the literary works of the same Varro, he says, "Us straying and wandering in our own city like strangers, thy books, as it were, brought home, that at length we might come to know of who we were and where we were. Thou has opened up to us the age of the country, the distribution of seasons, the laws of sacred things, and of the priests; thou hast opened up to us domestic and public discipline; thou hast pointed out to us the proper places for religious ceremonies, and hast informed us concerning sacred places. Thou hast shown us the names, kinds, offices, causes of all divine and human things."(2)
This man, then, of so distinguished and excellent acquirements, and, as Terentian briefly says of him in a most elegant verse,
"Varro, a man universally informed,"(3)
who read so much that we wonder when he had time to write, wrote so much that we can scarcely believe any one could have read it all,--this man, I say, so great in talent, so great in learning, had he had been an opposer and destroyer of the so-called divine things of which he wrote, and had he said that they pertained to superstition rather than to religion, might perhaps, even in that case, not have written so many things which are ridiculous, contemptible, detestable. But when he so worshipped these same gods, and so vindicated their worship, as to say, in that same literary work of his, that he was afraid lest they should perish, not by an assault by enemies, but by the negligence of the citizens, and that from this ignominy they are being delivered by him, and are being laid up and preserved in the memory of the good by means of such books, with a zeal far more beneficial than that through which Metellus is declared to have rescued the sacred things of Vesta from the flames, and AEneas to have rescued the Penates from the burning of Troy; and when he nevertheless. gives forth such things to be read by succeeding ages as are deservedly judged by wise and unwise to be unfit to be read, and to be most hostile to the truth of religion; what ought we to think but that a most acute and learned man,--not, however made free by the Holy Spirit,--was overpowered by the custom and laws of his state, and, not being able to be silent about those things by which he was influenced, spoke of them under pretence of commending religion?
CHAP. 3.--VARRO'S DISTRIBUTION OF HIS BOOK WHICH HE COMPOSED CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITIES OF HUMAN AND DIVINE THINGS.
He wrote forty-one books of antiquities. These he divided into human and divine things. Twenty-five he devoted to human things, sixteen to divine things; following this plan in that division,--namely, to give six books to each of the four divisions of human things. For he directs his attention to these considerations: who perform, where they perform, when they perform, what they perform. Therefore in the first six books he wrote concerning men; in the second six, concerning places; in the third six, concerning times; in the fourth and last six, concerning things. Four times six, however, make only twenty-four. But he placed at the head of them one separate work, which spoke of all these things conjointly.
In divine things, the same order he preserved throughout, as far as concerns those things which are performed to the gods. For sacred things are performed by men in places and times. These four things I have mentioned he embraced in twelve books, allotting three to each. For he wrote the first three concerning men, the following three concerning places, the third three concerning times, and the fourth three concerning sacred rites,--showing who should perform, where they should perform, when they should perform, what they should perform, with most subtle distinction. But because it was necessary to say--and that especially was expected--to whom they should perform sacred rites, he wrote concerning the gods themselves the last three books; and these five times three made fifteen. But they are in all, as we have said, sixteen. For he put also at the beginning of these one distinct book, speaking by way of introduction of all which follows; which being finished, he proceeded to subdivide the first three in that five-fold distribution which pertain to men, making the first concerning high priests, the second concerning augurs, the third concerning the fifteen men presiding over the sacred ceremonies.(1) The second three he made concerning places, speaking in one of them concerning their chapels, in the second concerning their temples, and in the third concerning religious places. The next three which follow these, and pertain to times,--that is, to festival days,--he distributed so as to make one concerning holidays,the other concerning the circus games, and the third concerning scenic plays. Of the fourth three, pertaining to sacred things, he devoted one to consecrations, another to private, the last to public, sacred rites. In the three which remain, the gods themselves follow this pompous train, as it were, for whom all this culture has been expended. In the first book are the certain gods, in the second the uncertain, in the third, and last of all, the chief and select gods.
CHAP. 4.--THAT FROM THE DISPUTATION OF VARRO, IT FOLLOWS THAT THE WORSHIPPERS OF THE GODS REGARD HUMAN THINGS AS MORE ANCIENT THAN DIVINE THINGS.
In this whole series of most beautiful and most subtle distributions and distinctions, it will most easily appear evident from the things we have said already, and from what is to be said hereafter, to any man who is not, in the obstinacy of his heart, an enemy to himself, that it is vain to seek and to hope for, and even most impudent to wish for eternal life. For these institutions are either the work of men or of demons,--not of those whom they call good demons, but, to speak more plainly, of unclean, and, without controversy, malign spirits, who with wonderful slyness and secretness suggest to the thoughts of the impious, and sometimes openly present to their understandings, noxious opinions, by which the human mind grows more and more foolish, and becomes unable to adapt itself to and abide in the immutable and eternal truth, and seek to confirm these opinions by every kind of fallacious attestation in their power. This very same Varro testifies that he wrote first concerning human things, but afterwards concerning divine things, because the states existed first, and afterward these things were instituted by them. But the true religion was not instituted by any earthly state, but plainly it established the celestial city. It, however, is inspired and taught by the true God, the giver of eternal life to His true worshippers.
The following is the reason Varro gives when he confesses that he had written first concerning human things, and afterwards of divine things, because these divine things were instituted by men:--"As the painter is before the painted tablet, the mason before the edifice, so states are before those things which are instituted by states." But he says that he would have written first concerning the gods, afterwards concerning men, if he had been writing concerning the whole nature of the gods,--as if he were really writing concerning some portion of, and not all, the nature of the gods; or as if, indeed, some portion of, though not all, the nature of the gods ought not to be put before that of men. How, then, comes it that in those three last books, when he is diligently explaining the certain, uncertain and select gods, he seems to pass over no portion of the nature of the gods? Why, then, does he say, "If we had been writing on the whole nature of the gods, we would first have finished the divine things before we touched the human?" For he either writes concerning the whole nature of the gods, or concerning some portion of it, or concerning no part of it at all. If concerning it all, it is certainly to be put before human things; if concerning some part of it, why should it not, from the very nature of the case, precede human things? Is not even some part of the gods to be preferred to the whole of humanity? But if it is too much to prefer a part of the divine to all human things, that part is certainly worthy to be preferred to the Romans at least. For he writes the books concerning human things, not with reference to the whole world, but only to Rome; which books he says he had properly placed, in the order of writing, before the books on divine things, like a painter before the painted tablet, or a mason before the building, most openly confessing that, as a picture or a structure, even these divine things were instituted by men. There remains only the third supposition, that he is to be understood to have written concerning no divine nature, but that he did not wish to say this openly, but left it to the intelligent to infer; for when one says "not all," usage understands that to mean "some," but it may be understood as meaning none, because that which is none is neither all nor some. In fact, as he himself says, if he had been writing concerning all the nature of the gods, its due place would have been before human things in the order of writing. But, as the truth declares, even though Varro is silent, the divine nature should have taken precedence of Roman things, though it were not all, but only some. But it is properly put after, therefore it is none. His arrangement, therefore, was due, not to a desire to give human things priority to divine things, but to his unwillingness to prefer false things to true. For in what he wrote on human things, he followed the history of affairs; but in what he wrote concerning those things which they call divine, what else did he follow but mere conjectures about vain things? This, doubtless, is what, in a subtle manner, he wished to signify; not only writing concerning divine things after the human, but even giving a reason why he did so; for if he had suppressed this, some, perchance, would have defended his doing so in one way, and some in another. But in that very reason he has rendered, he has left nothing for men to conjecture at will, and has sufficiently proved that he preferred men to the institutions of men, not the nature of men to the nature of the gods. Thus he confessed that, in writing the books concerning divine things, he did not write concerning the truth which belongs to nature, but the falseness which belongs to error; which he has elsewhere expressed more openly (as I have mentioned in the fourth book(1)), saying that, had he been founding a new city himself, he would have written according to the order of nature; but as he had only found an old one, he could not but follow its custom.
CHAP. 5.--CONCERNING THE THREE KINDS OF THEOLOGY ACCORDING TO VARRO, NAMELY, ONE FABULOUS, THE OTHER NATURAL, THE THIRD CIVIL.
Now what are we to say of this proposition of his, namely, that there are three kinds of theology, that is, of the account which is given of the gods; and of these, the one is called mythical, the other physical, and the third civil? Did the Latin usage permit, we should call the kind which he has placed first in order fabular,(2) but let us call it fabulous,(3) for mythical is derived from the Greek ;muqos;, a fable; but that the second should be called natural, the usage of speech now admits; the third he himself has designated in Latin, calling it civil.(1) Then he says, "they call that kind mythical which the poets chiefly use; physical, that which the philosophers use; civil, that which the people use. As to the first I have mentioned," says he, "in it are many fictions, which are contrary to the dignity and nature of the immortals. For we find in it that one god has been born from the head, another from the thigh, another from drops of blood; also, in this we find that gods have stolen, committed adultery, served men; in a word, in this all manner of things are attributed to the gods, such as may befall, not merely any man, but even the most contemptible man." He certainty, where he could, where he dared, where he thought he could do it with impunity, has manifested, without any of the haziness of ambiguity, how great injury was done to the nature of the gods by lying fables; for he was speaking, not concerning natural theology, not concerning civil, but concerning fabulous theology, which he thought he could freely find fault with.
Let us see, now, what he says concerning the second kind. "The second kind which I have explained," he says, "is that concerning which philosophers have left many books, in which they treat such questions as these: what gods there are, where they are, of what kind and character they are, since what time they have existed, or if they have existed from eternity; whether they are of fire, as Heraclitus believes; or of number, as Pythagoras; or of atoms, as Epicurus says; and other such things, which men's ears can more easily hear inside the walls of a school than outside in the Forum." He finds fault with nothing in this kind of theology which they call physical, and which belongs to philosophers, except that he has related their controversies among themselves, through which there has arisen a multitude of dissentient sects. Nevertheless he has removed this kind from the Forum, that is, from the populace, but he has shut it up in schools. But that first kind, most false and most base, he has not removed from the citizens. Oh, the religious ears of the people, and among them even those of the Romans, that are not able to bear what the philosophers dispute concerning the gods! But when the poets sing and stage-players act such things as are derogatory to the dignity and the nature of the immortals, such as may befall not a man merely, but the most contemptible man, they not only bear, but willingly listen to. Nor is this all, but they even consider that these things please the gods, and that they are propitiated by them.
But some one may say, Let us distinguish these two kinds of theology, the mythical and the physical,--that is, the fabulous and the natural,--from this civil kind about which we are now speaking. Anticipating this, he himself has distinguished them. Let us see now how he explains the civil theology itself. I see, indeed, why it should be distinguished as fabulous, even because it is false, because it is base, because it is unworthy. But to wish to distinguish the natural from the civil, what else is that but to confess that the civil itself is false? For if that be natural, what fault has it that it should be excluded? And if this which is called civil be not natural, what merit has it that it should be admitted? This, in truth, is the cause why he wrote first concerning human things, and afterwards concerning divine things; since in divine things he did not follow nature, but the institution of men. Let us look at this civil theology of his. "The third kind," says he, "is that which citizens in cities, and especially the priests, ought to know and to administer. From it is to be known what god each one may suitably worship, what sacred rites and sacrifices each one may suitably perform." Let us still attend to what follows. "The first theology," he says, "is especially adapted to the theatre, the second to the world, the third to the city." Who does not see to which he gives the palm? Certainly to the second, which he said above is that of the philosophers. For he testifies that this pertains to the world, than which they think there is nothing better. But those two theologies, the first and the third,--to wit, those of the theatre and of the city,--has he distinguished them or united them? For although we see that the city is in the world, we do not see that it follows that any things belonging to the city pertain to the world. For it is possible that such things may be worshipped and believed in the city, according to false opinions, as have no existence either in the world or out of it. But where is the theatre but in the city? Who instituted the theatre but the state? For what purpose did it constitute it but for scenic plays? And to what class of things do scenic plays belong but to those divine things concerning which these books of Varro's are written with so much ability?
CHAP. 6.--CONCERNING THE MYTHIC, THAT IS, THE FABULOUS, THEOLOGY, AND THE CIVIL, AGAINST VARRO.
O Marcus Varro! thou art the most acute, and without doubt the most learned, but still a man, not God,--now lifted up by the Spirit of God to see and to announce divine things, thou seest, indeed, that divine things are to be separated from human trifles and lies, but thou fearest to offend those most corrupt opinions of the populace, and their customs in public superstitions, which thou thyself, when thou considerest them on all sides, perceivest, and all your literature loudly pronounces to be abhorrent from the nature of the gods, even of such gods as the frailty of the human mind supposes to exist in the elements of this world. What can the most excellent human talent do here? What can human learning, though manifold, avail thee in this perplexity? Thou desirest to worship the natural gods; thou art compelled to worship the civil. Thou hast found some of the gods to be fabulous, on whom thou vomitest forth very freely what thou thinkest, and, whether thou wiliest or not, thou wettest therewith even the civil gods. Thou sayest, forsooth, that the fabulous are adapted to the theatre, the natural to the world, and the civil to the city; though the world is a divine work, but cities and theatres are the works of men, and though the gods who are laughed at in the theatre are not other than those who are adored in the temples; and ye do not exhibit games in honor of other gods than those to whom ye immolate victims. How much more freely and more subtly wouldst thou have decided these hadst thou said that some gods are natural, others established by men; and concerning those who have been so established, the literature of the poets gives one account, and that of the priests another,--both of which are, nevertheless, so friendly the one to the other, through fellowship in falsehood, that they are both pleasing to the demons, to whom the doctrine of the truth is hostile.
That theology, therefore, which they call natural, being put aside for a moment, as it is afterwards to be discussed, we ask if any one is really content to seek a hope for eternal life from poetical, theatrical, scenic gods? Perish the thought! The true God avert so wild and sacrilegious a madness! What, is eternal life to be asked from those gods whom these things pleased, and whom these things propitiate, in which their own crimes are represented? No one, as I think, has arrived at such a pitch of headlong and furious impiety. So then, neither by the fabulous nor by the civil theology does any one obtain eternal life. For the one sows base things concerning the gods by feigning them, the other reaps by cherishing them; the one scatters lies, the other gathers them together; the one pursues divine things with false crimes, the other incorporates among divine things the plays which are made up of these crimes; the one sounds abroad in human songs impious fictions concerning the gods, the other consecrates these for the festivities of the gods themselves; the one sings the misdeeds and crimes of the gods, the other loves them; the one gives forth or feigns, the other either attests the true or delights in the false. Both are base; both are damnable. But the one which is theatrical teaches public abomination, and that one which is of the city adorns itself with that abomination. Shall eternal life be hoped for from these, by which this short and temporal life is polluted? Does the society of wicked men pollute our life if they insinuate themselves into our affections, and win our assent? and does not the society of demons pollute the life, who are worshipped with their own crimes?--if with true crimes, how wicked the demons! if with false, how wicked the worship!
When we say these things, it may perchance seem to some one who is very ignorant of these matters that only those things concerning the gods which are sung in the songs of the poets and acted on the stage are unworthy of the divine majesty, and ridiculous, and too detestable to be celebrated, whilst those sacred things which not stage-players but priests perform are pure and free from all unseemliness. Had this been so, never would any one have thought that these theatrical abominations should be celebrated in their honor, never would the gods themselves have ordered them to be performed to them. But men are in nowise ashamed to perform these things in the theatres, because similar things are carried on in the temples. In short, when the fore-mentioned author attempted to distinguish the civil theology from the fabulous and natural, as a sort of third and distinct kind, he wished it to be understood to be rather tempered by both than separated from either. For he says that those things which the poets write are less than the people ought to follow, whilst what the philosophers say is more than it is expedient for the people to pry into. "Which," says he, "differ in such a way, that nevertheless not a few things from both of them have been taken to the account of the civil theology; wherefore we will indicate what the civil theology has in common with that of the poet, though it ought to be more closely connected with the theology of philosophers." Civil theology is therefore not quite disconnected from that of the poets. Nevertheless, in another place, concerning the generations of the gods, he says that the people are more inclined toward the poets than toward the physical theologists. For in this place he said what ought to be done; in that other place, what was really done. He said that the latter had written for the sake of utility, but the poets for the sake of amusement. And hence the things from the poets' writings, which the people ought not to follow, are the crimes of the gods; which, nevertheless, amuse both the people and the gods. For, for amusement's sake, he says, the poets write, and not for that of utility; nevertheless they write such things as the gods will desire, and the people perform.
CHAP. 7.--CONCERNING THE LIKENESS AND AGREEMENT OF THE FABULOUS AND CIVIL THEOLOGIES.
That theology, therefore, which is fabulous, theatrical, scenic, and full of all baseness and unseemliness, is taken up into the civil theology; and part of that theology, which in its totality is deservedly judged to be worthy of reprobation and rejection, is pronounced worthy to be cultivated and observed;--not at all an incongruous part, as I have undertaken to show, and one which, being alien to the whole body, was unsuitably attached to and suspended from it, but a part entirely congruous with, and most harmoniously fitted to the rest, as a member of the same body. For what else do those images, forms, ages, sexes, characteristics of the gods show? If the poets have Jupiter with a beard and Mercury beardless, have not the priests the same? Is the Priapus of the priests less obscene than the Priapus of the players? Does he receive the adoration of worshippers in a different form from that in which he moves about the stage for the amusement of spectators? Is not Saturn old and Apollo young in the shrines where their images stand as well as when represented by actors' masks? Why are Forculus, who presides over doors, and Limentinus, who presides over thresholds and lintels, male gods, and Cardea between them feminine, who presides over hinges. Are not those things found in books on divine things, which grave poets have deemed unworthy of their verses? Does the Diana of · the theatre carry arms, whilst the Diana of the city is simply a virgin? Is the stage Apollo a lyrist, but the Delphic Apollo ignorant of this art? But these things are decent compared with the more shameful things. What was thought of Jupiter himself by those who placed his wet nurse in the Capitol? Did they not bear witness to Euhemerus, who, not with the garrulity of a fable-teller, but with the gravity of an historian who had diligently investigated the matter, wrote that all such gods had been men and mortals? And they who appointed the Epulones as parasites at the table of Jupiter, what else did they wish for but mimic sacred rites. For if any mimic had said that parasites of Jupiter were made use of at his table, he would assuredly have appeared to be seeking to call forth laughter. Varro said it,--not when he was mocking, but when he was commending the gods did he say it. His books on divine, not on human, things testify that he wrote this,--not where he set forth the scenic games, but where he explained the Capitoline laws. In a word, he is conquered, and confesses that, as they made the gods with a human form, so they believed that they are delighted with human pleasures.
For also malign spirits were not so wanting to their own business as not to confirm noxious opinions in the minds of men by converting them into sport. Whence also is that story about the sacristan of Hercules, which says that, having nothing to do, he took to playing at dice as a pastime, throwing them alternately with the one hand for Hercules, with the other for himself, with this understanding, that if he should win, he should from the funds of the temple prepare himself a supper, and hire a mistress; but if Hercules should win the game, he himself should, at his own expense, provide the same for the pleasure of Hercules. Then, when he had been beaten by himself, as though by Hercules, he gave to the god Hercules the supper he owed him, and also the most noble harlot Larentina. But she, having fallen asleep in the temple, dreamed that Hercules had had intercourse with her, and had said to her that she would find her payment with the youth whom she should first meet on leaving the temple, and that she was to believe this to be paid to her by Hercules. And so the first youth that met her on going out was the wealthy Tarutius, who kept her a long time, and when he died left her his heir. She, having obtained a most ample fortune, that she should not seem ungrateful for the divine hire, in her turn made the Roman people her heir, which she thought to be most acceptable to the deities; and, having disappeared, the will was found. By which meritorious conduct they say that she gained divine honors.
Now had these things been reigned by the poets and acted by the mimics, they would without any doubt have been said to pertain to the fabulous theology, and would have been judged worthy to be separated from the dignity of the civil theology. But when these shameful things,--not of the poets, but of the people; not of the mimics, but of the sacred things; not of the theatres, but of the temples, that is, not of the fabulous, but of the civil theology,--are reported by so great an author, not in vain do the actors represent with theatrical art the baseness of the gods, which is so great; but surely in vain do the priests attempt, by rites called sacred, to represent their nobleness of character, which has no existence. There are sacred rites of Juno; and these are celebrated in her beloved island, Samos, where she was given in marriage to Jupiter. There are sacred rites of Ceres, in which Proserpine is sought for, having been carried off by Pluto. There are sacred rites of Venus, in which, her beloved Adonis being slain by a boar's tooth, the lovely youth is lamented. There are sacred rites of the mother of the gods, in which the beautiful youth Atys, loved by her, and castrated by her through a woman's jealousy, is deplored by men who have suffered the like calamity, whom they call Galli. Since, then, these things are more unseemly than all scenic abomination, why is it that they strive to separate, as it were, the fabulous fictions of the poet concerning the gods, as, forsooth, pertaining to the theatre, from the civil theology which they wish to belong to the city, as though they were separating from noble and worthy things, things unworthy and base? Wherefore there is more reason to thank the stage-actors, who have spared the eyes of men and have not laid bare by theatrical exhibition all the things which are hid by the walls of the temples. What good is to be thought of their sacred rites which are concealed in darkness, when those which are brought forth into the light are so detestable? And certainly they themselves have seen what they transact in secret through the agency of mutilated and effeminate men. Yet they have not been able to conceal those same men miserably and vile enervated and corrupted. Let them persuade whom they can that they transact anything holy through such men, who, they cannot deny, are numbered, and live among their sacred things. We know not what they transact, but we know through whom they transact; for we know what things are transacted on the stage, where never, even in a chorus of harlots, hath one who is mutilated or an effeminate appeared. And, nevertheless, even these things are acted by vile and infamous characters; for, indeed, they ought not to be acted by men of good character. What, then, are those sacred rites, for the performance of which holiness has chosen such men as not even the obscenity of the stage has admitted?
CHAP. 8.--CONCERNING THE INTERPRETATIONS, CONSISTING OF NATURAL EXPLANATIONS, WHICH THE PAGAN TEACHERS ATTEMPT TO SHOW FOR THEIR GODS.
But all these things, they say, have certain physical, that is, natural interpretations, showing their natural meaning; as though in this disputation we were seeking physics and not theology, which is the account, not of nature, but of God. For although He who is the true God is God, not by opinion, but by nature, nevertheless all nature is not God; for there is certainly a nature of man, of a beast, of a tree, of a stone,--none of which is God. For if, when the question is concerning the mother of the gods, that from which the whole system of interpretation starts certainly is, that the mother of the gods is the earth, why do we make further inquiry? why do we carry our investigation through all the rest of it? What can more manifestly favor them who say that all those gods were men? For they are earth-born in the sense that the earth is their mother. But in the true theology the earth is the work, not the mother, of God. But in whatever way their sacred rites may be interpreted, and whatever reference they may have to the nature of things, it is not according to nature, but contrary to nature, that men should be effeminates. This disease, this crime, this abomination, has a recognized place among those sacred things, though even depraved men will scarcely be compelled by torments to confess they are guilty of it. Again, if these sacred rites, which are proved to be fouler than scenic abominations, are excused and justified on the ground that they have their own interpretations, by which they are shown to symbolize the nature of things, why are not the poetical things in like manner excused and justified? For many have interpreted even these in like fashion, to such a degree that even that which they say is the most monstrous and most horrible,--namely, that Saturn devoured his own children,--has been interpreted by some of them to mean that length of time, which is signified by the name of Saturn, consumes whatever it begets; or that, as the same Varro thinks, Saturn belongs to seeds which fall back again into the earth from whence they spring. And so one interprets it in one way, and one in another. And the same is to be said of all the rest of this theology.
And, nevertheless, it is called the fabulous theology, and is censured, cast off, rejected, together with all such interpretations belonging to it. And not only by the natural theology, which is that of the philosophers, but also by this civil theology, concerning which we are speaking, which is asserted to pertain to cities and peoples, it is judged worthy of repudiation, because it has invented unworthy things concerning the gods. Of which, I wot, this is the secret: that those most acute ant learned men, by whom those things were written, understood that both theologies ought to be rejected,--to wit, both that fabulous and this civil one,--but the former they dared to reject, the latter they dared not; the former they set forth to be censured, the latter they showed to be very like it; not that it might be chosen to be held in preference to the other, but that it might be understood to be worthy of being rejected together with it. And thus, without danger to those who feared to censure the civil theology, both of them being brought into contempt, that theology which they call natural might find a place in better disposed minds; for the civil and the fabulous are both fabulous and both civil. He who shall wisely inspect the vanities and obscenities of both will find that they are both fabulous; and he who shall direct his attention to the scenic plays pertaining to the fabulous theology in the festivals of the civil gods, and in the divine rites of the cities, will find they are both civil. How, then, can the power of giving eternal life be attributed to any of those gods whose own images and sacred rites convict them of being most like to the fabulous gods, which are most openly reprobated, in forms, ages, sex, characteristics marriages, generations, rites; in all which things they are understood either to have been men, and to have had their sacred rites and solemnities instituted in their honor according to the life or death of each of them, the demons suggesting and confirming this error, or certainly most foul spirits, who, taking advantage of some occasion or other, have stolen into the minds of men to deceive them?
CHAP. 9.--CONCERNING THE SPECIAL OFFICES OF THE GODS.
And as to those very offices of the gods, so meanly and so minutely portioned out, so that they say that they ought to be supplicated, each one according to his special function,--about which we have spoken much already, though not all that is to be said concerning it,--are they not more consistent with mimic buffoonery than divine majesty? If any one should use two nurses for his infant, one of whom should give nothing but food, the other nothing but drink, as these make use of two goddesses for this purpose, Educa and Potina, he should certainly seem to be foolish, and to do in his house a thing worthy of a mimic. They would have Liber to have been named from "liberation," because through him males at the time of copulation are liberated by the emission of the seed. They also say that Libera (the same in their opinion as Venus) exercises the same function in the case of women, because they say that they also emit seed; and they also say that on this account the same part of the male and of the female is placed in the temple, that of the male to Liber, and that of the female to Libera. To these things they add the women assigned to Liber, and the wine for exciting lust. Thus the Bacchanalia are celebrated with the utmost insanity, with respect to which Varro himself confesses that such things would not be done by the Bacchanals except their minds were highly excited. These things, however, afterwards displeased a saner senate, and it ordered them to be discontinued. Here, at length, they perhaps perceived how much power unclean spirits, when held to be gods, exercise over the minds of men. These things, certainly, were not to be done in the theatres; for there they play, not rave, although to have gods who are delighted with such plays is very like raving.
But what kind of distinction is this which he makes between the religious and the superstitious man, saying that the gods are feared(1) by the superstitious man, but are reverenced(2) as parents by the religious man, not feared as enemies; and that they are all so good that they will more readily spare those who are impious than hurt one who is innocent? And yet he tells us that three gods are assigned as guardians to a woman after she has been delivered, lest the god Silvanus come in and molest her; and that in order to signify the presence of these protectors, three men go round the house during the night, and first strike the threshold with a hatchet, next with a pestle, and the third time sweep it with a brush, in order that these symbols of agriculture having been exhibited, the god Silvanus might be hindered from entering, because neither are trees cut down or pruned without a hatchet, neither is grain ground without a pestle, nor corn heaped up without a besom. Now from these three things three gods have been named: Intercidona, from the cut(3) made by the hatchet; Pilumnus, from the pestle; Diverra, from the besom;--by which guardian gods the woman who has been delivered is preserved against the power of the god Silvanus. Thus the guardianship of kindly-disposed gods would not avail against the malice of a mischievous god, unless they were three to one, and fought against him, as it were, with the opposing emblems of cultivation, who, being an inhabitant of the woods, is rough, horrible, and uncultivated. Is this the innocence of the gods? Is this their concord? Are these the health-giving deities of the cities, more ridiculous than the things which are laughed at in the theatres?
When a male and a female are united, the god Jugatinus presides. Well, let this be borne with. But the married woman must be brought home: the god Domiducus also is invoked. That she may be in the house, the god Domitius is introduced. That she may remain with her husband, the goddess Manturnae is used. What more is required? Let human modesty be spared. Let the lust of flesh and blood go on with the rest, the secret of shame being respected. Why is the bed-chamber filled with a crowd of deities, when even the groomsmen(1) have departed? And, moreover, it is so filled, not that in consideration of their presence more regard may be paid to chastity, but that by their help the woman, naturally of the weaker sex, and trembling with the novelty of her situation, may the more readily yield her virginity. For there are the goddess Virginiensis, and the god-father Subigus, and the goddess-mother Prema, and the goddess Pertunda, and Venus, and Priapus.(2) What is this? If it was absolutely necessary that a man, laboring at this work, should be helped by the gods, might not some one god or goddess have been sufficient? Was Venus not sufficient alone, who is even said to be named from this, that without her power a woman does not cease to be a virgin? If there is any shame in men, which is not in the deities, is it not the case that, when the married couple believe that so many gods of either sex are present, and busy at this work, they are so much affected with shame, that the man is less moved, and the woman more reluctant? And certainly, if the goddess Virginiensis is present to loose the virgin's zone, if the god Subigus is present that the virgin may be got under the man, if the goddess Prema is present that, having been got under him, she may be kept down, and may not move herself, what has the goddess Pertunda to do there? Let her blush; let her go forth. Let the husband himself do something. It is disgraceful that any one but himself should do that from which she gets her name. But perhaps she is tolerated because she is said to be a goddess, and not a god. For if she were believed to be a male, and were called Pertundus, the husband would demand more help against him for the chastity of his wife than the newly-delivered woman against Silvanus. But why am I saying this, when Priapus, too, is there, a male to excess, upon whose immense and most unsightly member the newly-married bride is commanded to sit, according to the most honorable and most religious custom of matrons?
Let them go on, and let them attempt with all the subtlety they can to distinguish the civil theology from the fabulous, the cities from the theatres, the temples from the stages, the sacred things of the priests from the songs of the poets, as honorable things from base things, truthful things from fallacious, grave from light, serious from ludicrous, desirable things from things to be rejected, we understand what they do. They are aware that that theatrical and fabulous theology hangs by the civil, and is reflected back upon it from the songs of the poets as from a mirror; and thus, that theology having been exposed to view which they do not dare to condemn, they more freely assail and censure that picture of it, in order that those who perceive what they mean may detest this very face itself of which that is the picture,--which, however, the gods themselves, as though seeing themselves in the same mirror, love so much, that it is better seen in both of them who and what they are. Whence, also, they have compelled their worshippers, with terrible commands, to dedicate to them the uncleanness of the fabulous theology, to put them among their solemnities, and reckon them among divine things; and thus they have both shown themselves more manifestly to be most impure spirits, and have made that rejected and reprobated theatrical theology a member and a part of this, as it were, chosen and ap-proved theology of the city, so that, though the whole is disgraceful and false, and contains in it fictitious gods, one part of it is in the literature of the priests, the other in the songs of the poets. Whether it may have other parts is another question. At present, I think, I have sufficiently shown, on account of the division of Varro, that the theology of the city and that of the theatre belong to one civil theology. Wherefore, because they are both equally disgraceful, absurd, shameful, false, far be it from religious men to hope for eternal life from either the one or the other.
In fine, even Varro himself, in his account and enumeration of the gods, starts from the moment of a man's conception. He commences the series of those gods who take charge of man with Janus, carries it on to the death of the man decrepit with age, and terminates it with the goddess Naenia, who is sung at the funerals of the aged. After that, he begins to give an account of the other gods, whose province is not man himself, but man's belongings, as food, clothing, and all that is necessary for this life; and, in the case of all these, he explains what is the special office of each, and for what each ought to be supplicated. But with all this scrupulous and comprehensive diligence, he has neither proved the existence, nor so much as mentioned the name, of any god from whom eternal life is to be sought,--the one object for which we are Christians. Who, then, is so stupid as not to perceive that this man, by setting forth and opening up so diligently the civil theology, and by exhibiting its likeness to that fabulous, shameful, and disgraceful theology, and also by teaching that that fabulous sort is also a part of this other, was laboring to obtain a place in the minds of men for none but that natural theology, which he says pertains to philosophers, with such subtlety that he censures the fabulous, and, not daring openly to censure the civil, shows its censurable character by simply exhibiting it; and thus, both being reprobated by the judgment of men of right understanding, the natural alone remains to be chosen? But concerning this in its own place, by the help of the true God, we have to discuss more diligently.
CHAP. 10.--CONCERNING THE LIBERTY OF SENECA, WHO MORE VEHEMENTLY CENSURED THE CIVIL THEOLOGY THAN VARRO DID THE FABULOUS.
That liberty, in truth, which this man wanted, so that he did not dare to censure that theology of the city, which is very similar to the theatrical, so openly as he did the theatrical itself, was, though not fully, yet in part possessed by Annaeus Seneca, whom we have some evidence to show to have flourished in the times of our apostles. It was in part possessed by him, I say, for he possessed it in writing, but not in living. For in that book which he wrote against superstition,(1) he more copiously and vehemently censured that civil and urban theology than Varro the theatrical and fabulous. For, when speaking concerning images, he says, "They dedicate images of the sacred and inviolable immortals in most worthless and motionless matter. They give them the appearance of man, beasts, and fishes, and some make them of mixed sex, and heterogeneous bodies. They call them deities, when they are such that if they should get breath and should suddenly meet them, they would be held to be monsters." Then, a while afterwards, when extolling the natural theology, he had expounded the sentiments of certain philosophers, he opposes to himself a question, and says, "Here some one says, Shall I believe that the heavens and the earth are gods, and that some are above the moon and some below it? Shall I bring forward either Plato or the peripatetic Strato, one of whom made God to be without a body, the other without a mind?" In answer to which he says, "And, really, what truer do the dreams of Titus Tatius, or Romulus, or Tullus Hostilius appear to thee? Tatius declared the divinity of the goddess Cloacina; Romulus that of Picus and Tiberinus; Tullus Hostilius that of Pavor and Pallor, the most disagreeable affections of men, the one of which is the agitation of the mind under fright, the other that of the body, not a disease, indeed, but a change of color." Wilt thou rather believe that these are deities, and receive them into heaven? But with what freedom he has written concerning the rites themselves, cruel and shameful ! "One," he says, "castrates himself, another cuts his arms. Where will they find room for the fear of these gods when angry, who use such means of gaining their favor when propitious? But gods who wish to be worshipped in this fashion should be worshipped in none. So great is the frenzy of the mind when perturbed and driven from its seat, that the gods are propitiated by men in a manner in which not even men of the greatest ferocity and fable-renowned cruelty vent their rage. Tyrants have lacerated the limbs of some; they never ordered any one to lacerate his own. For the gratification of royal lust, some have been castrated; but no one ever, by the command of his lord, laid violent hands on himself to emasculate himself. They kill themselves in the temples. They supplicate with their wounds and with their blood. If any one has time to see the things they do and the things they suffer, he will find so many things unseemly for men of respectability, so unworthy of freemen, so unlike the doings of sane men, that no one would doubt that they are mad, had they been mad with the minority; but now the multitude of the insane is the defence of their sanity."
He next relates those things which are wont to be done in the Capitol, and with the utmost intrepidity insists that they are such things as one could only believe to be done by men making sport, or by madmen. For having spoken with derision of this, that in the Egyptian sacred rites Osiris, being lost, is lamented for, but straightway, when found, is the occasion of great joy by his reappearance, because both the losing and the finding of him are reigned; and yet that grief and that joy which are elicited thereby from those who have lost nothing and found nothing are real;--having I say, so spoken of this, he says, "Still there is a fixed time for this frenzy. It is tolerable to go mad once in the year. Go into the Capitol. One is suggesting divine commands(1) to a god; another is telling the hours to Jupiter; one is a lictor; another is an anointer, who with the mere movement of his arms imitates one anointing. There are women who arrange the hair of Juno and Minerva, standing far away not only from her image, but even from her temple. These move their fingers in the manner of hairdressers. There are some women who hold a mirror. There are some who are calling the gods to assist them in court. There are some who are holding up documents to them, and are explaining to them their cases. A learned and distinguished comedian, now old and decrepit, was daily playing the mimic in the Capitol, as though the gods would gladly be spectators of that which men had ceased to care about. Every kind of artificers working for the immortal gods is dwelling there in idleness." And a little after he says, "Nevertheless these, though they give themselves up to the gods for purposes superflous enough, do not do so for any abominable or infamous purpose. There sit certain women in the Capitol who think they are beloved by Jupiter; nor are they frightened even by the look of the, if you will believe the poets, most wrathful Juno."
This liberty Varro did not enjoy. It was only the poetical theology he seemed to censure. The civil, which this man cuts to pieces, he was not bold enough to impugn. But if we attend to the truth, the temples where these things are performed are far worse than the theatres where they are represented. Whence, with respect to these sacred rites of the civil theology, Seneca preferred, as the best course to be followed by a wise man, to feign respect for them in act, but to have no real regard for them at heart. "All which things," he says, "a wise man will observe as being commanded by the laws, but not as being pleasing to the gods." And a little after he says, "And what of this, that we unite the gods in marriage, and that not even naturally, for we join brothers and sisters? We marry Bellona to Mars, Venus to Vulcan, Salacia to Neptune. Some of them we leave unmarried, as though there were no match for them, which is surely needless, especially when there are certain unmarried goddesses, as Populonia, or Fulgora, or the goddess Rumina, for whom I am not astonished that suitors have been awanting. All this ignoble crowd of gods, which the superstition of ages has amassed, we ought," he says, "to adore in such a way as to remember all the while that its worship belongs rather to custom than to reality." Wherefore, neither those laws nor customs instituted in the civil theology that which was pleasing to the gods, or which pertained to reality. But this man, whom philosophy had made, as it were, free, nevertheless, because he was an illustrious senator of the Roman people, worshipped what he censured, did what he condemned, adored what he reproached, because, forsooth, philosophy had taught him something great,--namely, not to be superstitious in the world, but, on account of the laws of cities and the customs of men, to be an actor, not on the stage, but in the temples,--conduct the more to be condemned, that those things which he was deCeitfully acting he so acted that the people thought he was acting sincerely. But a stage-actor would rather delight people by acting plays than take them in by false pretences.
CHAP. 11.--WHAT SENECA THOUGHT CONCERNING THE JEWS.
Seneca, among the other superstitions of civil theology, also found fault with the sacred things of the Jews, and especially the sabbaths, affirming that they act uselessly in keeping those seventh days, whereby they lose through idleness about the seventh part of their life, and also many things which demand immediate attention are damaged. The Christians, however, who were already most hostile to the Jews, he did not dare to mention, either for praise or blame, lest, if he praised them, he should do so against the ancient custom of his country, or, perhaps, if he should blame them, he should do so against his own will.
When he was speaking concerning those Jews, he said, "When, meanwhile, the customs of that most accursed nation have gained such strength that they have been now received in all lands, the conquered have given laws to the conquerors." By these words he expresses his astonishment; and, not knowing what the providence of God was leading him to say, subjoins in plain words an opinion by which he showed what he thought about the meaning of those sacred institutions: "For," he says, "those, however, know the cause of their rites, whilst the greater part of the people know not why they perform theirs." But concerning the solemnities of the Jews, either why or how far they were instituted by divine authority, and afterwards, in due time, by the same authority taken away from the people of God, to whom the mystery of eternal life was revealed, we have both spoken elsewhere, especially when we were treating against the Manichaeans, and also intend to speak in this work in a more suitable place.
CHAP. 12.--THAT WHEN ONCE THE VANITY OF THE GODS OF THE NATIONS HAS BEEN EXPOSED, IT CANNOT BE DOUBTED THAT THEY ARE UNABLE TO BESTOW ETERNAL LIFE ON ANY ONE, WHEN THEY CANNOT AFFORD HELPEVEN WITH RESPECTTO THE THINGS OFTHIS TEMPORAL LIFE.
Now, since there are three theologies, which the Greeks call respectively mythical, physical, and political, and which may be called in Latin fabulous, natural, and civil; and since neither from the fabulous, which even the worshippers of many and false gods have themselves most freely censured, nor from the civil, of which that is convicted of being a part, or even worse than it, can eternal life be hoped for from any of these theologies,--if any one thinks that what has been said in this book is not enough for him, let him also add to it the many and various dissertations concerning God as the giver of felicity, contained in the former books, especially the fourth one.
For to what but to felicity should men consecrate themselves, were felicity a goddess? However, as it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, to what God but the giver of happiness ought we to consecrate ourselves, who piously love eternal life, in which there is true and full felicity? But I think, from what has been said, no one ought to doubt that none of those gods is the giver of happiness, who are worshipped with such shame, and who, if they are not so worshipped, are more shamefully enraged, and thus confess that they are most foul spirits. Moreover, how can he give eternal life who cannot give happiness? For we mean by eternal life that life where there is endless happiness. For if the soul live in eternal punishments, by which also those unclean spirits shall be tormented, that is rather eternal death than eternal life. For there is no greater or worse death than when death never dies. But because the soul from its very nature, being created immortal, cannot be without some kind of life, its utmost death is alienation from the life of God in an eternity of punishment. So, then, He only who gives true happiness gives eternal life, that is, an endlessly happy life. And since those gods whom this civil theology worships have been proved to be unable to give this happiness, they ought not to be worshipped on account of those temporal and terrestrial things, as we showed in the five former books, much less on account of eternal life, which is to be after death, as we have sought to show in this one book especially, whilst the other books also lend it their co-operation. But since the strength of inveterate habit has its roots very deep, if any one thinks that I have not disputed sufficiently to show that this civil theology ought to be rejected and shunned, let him attend to another book which, with God's help, is to be joined to this one.
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PITTSBURGH, PA – In a landmark settlement with federal, state and county authorities, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) has agreed to a comprehensive plan to greatly reduce the annual discharge of billions of gallons of untreated sewage into local waterways.
Under the proposed consent decree, ALCOSAN has agreed to a multi-year strategy to upgrade the sewage systems serving Pittsburgh and 82 surrounding municipalities. The settlement also requires ALCOSAN to pay a $1.2 million penalty for past Clean Water Act violations, and to undertake $3 million in environmental projects.
“Today’s agreement is the result of very successful cooperative efforts with our federal, state and private partners,” said Matthew J. McKeown, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We are confident that the remedial measures ALCOSAN will be making and the long-term control plan the company will adopt, will provide for significant and lasting improvements to water quality throughout the region.”
“Sewage overflows can seriously harm public health by carrying dangerous bacteria into waterways used for recreation, such as boating and swimming,” said Granta Nakayama, EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. “Today's agreement will reduce the amount of untreated sewage being discharged into local rivers by more than 22 billion gallons per year.”
The proposed consent decree, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval, was filed in federal district court today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh.
The settlement was negotiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Justice, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Allegheny County Health Department.
“This agreement will lead to a dramatic improvement in the water quality of the three rivers and area streams, improving recreational and development opportunities along our waterways,” said Kenneth Bowman, southwest regional director for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
“While illicit industrial discharges into our waterways were virtually eliminated many years ago, illegal sewage discharges have remained a very stubborn and chronic source of pollution,” said Dr. Bruce W. Dixon, director of the Allegheny County Health Department. “Once wet weather sewage discharges have been minimized, our rivers and streams will become even more accessible to those who enjoy them for recreation and pleasure.”
The federal Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of sewage and other pollutants into U.S. waters, unless such discharges comply with a permit that is protective of EPA-approved water quality standards. Each year, an estimated 22 billion gallons of untreated sewage are discharged into Pittsburgh-area waters from hundreds of mostly unpermitted sewage system outfalls. These discharges often occur when the capacity of the sewer system is overwhelmed by wet weather conditions, including storm water runoff and snow melts. Sewage overflows carry dangerous bacteria into waterways where people boat, swim and wade, and affect some of the region’s drinking water sources.
The settlement requires ALCOSAN to submit a wet weather plan to EPA that would resolve a majority of the untreated discharges from the sewer systems by 2026. The $3 million in environmental projects will include stream restoration work and other projects to better control harmful storm water runoff. The $1.2 million penalty will be shared equally by the United States, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Allegheny County.
The judicial settlement with ALCOSAN complements a 2003 voluntary agreement by the 83 municipalities to monitor flow throughout the regional sewer system, and to work with ALCOSAN to identify and implement controls to avoid sewage overflows into local waters.
Today’s settlement with ALCOSAN and the 2003 voluntary agreement with the municipalities together represent one of the nation’s largest settlements of a Clean Water Act case involving sewage overflows – in terms of the number of municipalities affected and the extensive nature of the sewer system upgrade.
A copy of the consent decree is available on the Department of Justice Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.
Additional information on controlling sewage overflows and a copy of the settlement is available at http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/npdes/index.htm.
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The Web in 2011
This year we have witnessed a lot of movement in the digital arena starting with Google trying to gain a bigger share of the social media market with google +, its usual changes in the algorithm used to rank pages and, recently, the encryption of analytics data making some of the traffic information “not available” to users.
We have also witnessed a massive revamp of facebook and its applications which, in our opinion, position facebook in track to become a web inside the wider web. With its membership reaching 1 billion it is the most successful social venture yet. Not to undermine other online initiatives like Groupon, LinkedIn and Twitter that have manage to consolidate their offering beyond the geek community along 2011. Twitter and facebook took a massive leap forward when they were crucial at organising massive social movements from the Arab Spring to last summer riots in England.
Other platforms like Spotify follow on the success, this time in the opposite direction. When Spotify’s business model was questioned by many they decided to cross the Atlantic and expand into the States. This has proven to be an enormously successful move which together with its alliance with facebook has seen Spotify reaching to a 2500000 strong premium membership.
In other aspects of the web Broadband has not managed to deliver fast speed throughout as we all expected but it remains a clear target by the government to deliver it (http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/09/22/uk-governments-bduk-office-corrects-superfast-broadband-speed-confusion.html).
Web TV is still a reality used by a small minority, although there are plenty of options like apple tv, google tv, Boxee to name just a few. And regardless of services like Netflix and others offering content on demand, Web TV is far from reaching mass usage. As the first TVs come to the market with internet access already set up we believe this year may well be the year for the expansion of Web TV into most households. This would provide businesses with new ways to interact with a big audience.
2011 also showed a continuous increase of the users accessing the web through mobile devices. This has created the need for businesses to consider the experience it offers to its mobile users as a must. One of the best examples must be Amazon 1 click buy. Constant improvements in hand held devices and tablets will mean we will see more of this.
All of the above does reinforce the power of the web as a communication tool and even after 15 years the massive potential still remaining to be untapped, The web will continue to change the way we interact one with each other by adding more option rather than replacing them, the way we shop, the way we learn and even the way we watch TV.
The CRUSH team wishes you all the best for 2012 and a Merry Christmas.
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At my father’s funeral, I ran into an old friend. We grew up together, his was the shoulder I cried on, and we ended up having sex. We’ve been doing so ever since—a year and a half. The problem is that during this whole time, he’s had a girlfriend, and I’ve been engaged to be married to another man.
"Caught" explains that the two of them "just can't stop having sex with" each other. She writes, in anguish, "We’ve fought a hundred times over stopping and not seeing each other, but we always end up back together, no matter how bad the previous fight was. Why can’t we walk away? Why is this so hard to stop?"
E. Jean steps in with some advice:
Miss Caught, My Cauliflower: Halt! You’re marrying the wrong man. Marry the man with whom you fight “a hundred times” because you can’t cease seeing each other. Marry the man with whom you “can’t stop having sex.” Marry the man with whom you “always end up back together.” Marry the man your DNA is shouting for you to marry, and your chances for happiness are damn good. To quote the captivating Martin Amis, “Marry your sexual obsession: …the one you never quite got to the end of.”
Yes, it's advice. But is it good advice?
In his fabulous book The Happiness Hypothesis, psychology professor Jonathan Haidt thinks that E. Jean's type of reasoning about love is seriously flawed--and that acting on it will cause people to lead less happy lives. The culprit of such bad advice is not any one person, like E. Jean, but a deeply embedded belief in our pop culture that the experience of being in love must meet a very specific set of criteria. This is the "love myth."
As I see it, the modern myth of true love involves these beliefs: True love is passionate love that never fades; if you are in true love, you should marry that person; if love ends, you should leave that person because it was not true love; and if you can find the right person, you will have true love forever. You might not believe this myth yourself, particularly if you are older than thirty; but many young people in Western nations are raised on it, and it acts as an ideal that they unconsciously carry with them even if they scoff at it. (It’s not just Hollywood that perpetrates the myth; Bollywood, the Indian film industry, is even more romanticized.)
Because so many of us were raised on the myth--there's a Facebook group called "Disney Movies Gave Me Unrealistic Expectations About Love"-- and because so many of us will decide to (or not to) marry someone based off of it, we are shutting ourselves off from real romantic love:
But if true love is defined as eternal passion, it is biologically impossible. To see this, and to save the dignity of love, you have to understand the difference between two kinds of love: passionate and companionate.
Passionate love is the kind that "Caught" from Elle is experiencing. It is a "wildly emotional state in which tender and sexual feelings, elation and pain, anxiety and relief, altruism and jealousy coexist in a confusion of feelings.”
Companionate love is less exciting, but more lasting: “the affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply intertwined.”
The problem with passionate love is that it eventually fades. And that creates major problems for the person who decides to marry someone based on the expectation that passionate love will last forever--the most major of the problems being, of course, divorce.
Passionate love is a drug. Its symptoms overlap with those of heroin (euphoric well-being, sometimes described in sexual terms) and cocaine (euphoria combined with giddiness and energy). It’s no wonder: Passionate love alters the activity of several parts of the brain, including parts that are involved in the release of dopamine. Any experience that feels intensely good releases dopamine, and the dopamine link is crucial here because drugs that artificially raise dopamine levels, as do heroin and cocaine, put you at risk of addiction. If you take cocaine once a month, you won’t become addicted, but if you take it every day, you will. No drug can keep you continuously high. The brain reacts to a chronic surplus of dopamine, develops neurochemical reactions that oppose it, and restores its own equilibrium. At that point, tolerance has set in, and when the drug is withdrawn, the brain is unbalanced in the opposite direction: pain, lethargy, and despair follow withdrawal from cocaine or from passionate love.
So if passionate love is a drug—literally a drug—it has to wear off eventually. Nobody can stay high forever (although if you find passionate love in a long-distance relationship, it’s like taking cocaine once a month; the drug can retain its potency because of your suffering between doses). If passionate love is allowed to run its joyous course, there must come a day when it weakens. One of the lovers usually feels the change first. It’s like waking up from a shared dream to see your sleeping partner drooling. In those moments of returning sanity, the lover may see flaws and defects to which she was blind before. The beloved falls off the pedestal, and then, because our minds are so sensitive to changes, her change in feeling can take on exaggerated importance. “Oh, my God,” she thinks, “the magic has worn off--I’m not in love with him anymore.” If she subscribes to the myth of true love, she might even consider breaking up with him. After all, if the magic ended, it can’t be true love. But if she does end the relationship, she might be making a mistake.
So does true love exist? Haidt thinks that it does:
True love exists, I believe, but it is not—cannot be—passion that lasts forever. True love, the love that undergirds strong marriages, is simply strong companionate love, with some added passion, between two people who are firmly committed to each other. Companionate love looks weak in the graph above because it can never attain the intensity of passionate love. But if we change the time scale from six months to sixty years, as in the next figure, it is passionate love that seems trivial—a flash in the pan—while companionate love can last a lifetime [You can see the graph here on page 127 and 128]. When we admire a couple still in love on their fiftieth anniversary, it is this blend of loves—mostly companionate—that we are admiring.
There's a great article over at The Atlantic that addresses a lot of these themes (and, in doing so, shows us that couples in old-fashioned arranged marriages may be wiser about love than those in the West who get married for love). I would quote the whole piece if I could, but here is the key part:
Hollywood--and all of the "happily ever after" stories it cooks up—deserves a lot of the blame for our distorted ideas about what marriage should be, according to [research psychologist Robert] Epstein. "There are literally millions of Americans in therapy because of violated expectations around those ideas," Epstein claims, referring to the discrepancy between our idealized notion of love and reality. (Indeed, even Amina--who isn't exactly thrilled with George—likes romantic comedies; "her favorites were Sleepless in Seattle, Mystic Pizza, and Pretty Woman," as Freudenberger writes.)
But don't romantic happy endings significantly pre-date Disney, going back at least as far as Shakespeare? Sure, in Western culture, Epstein says. But folk tales and love stories from Asian cultures have, traditionally, ended differently from ours, he says, with more ambiguous endings—ones that we would find unsatisfying—even if the Westernization of the world is starting to change that.
The historian Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage, agrees that Westerners would have more success with marriage if they thought of it more as a "working partnership," as she puts it. Love " doesn't have to hit you like a storm and then move on."
Companionate love may not be as romantic or fiery as passionate love, but scholars seem to agree that it ultimately makes couples happier and keeps them together longer. So maybe "Caught" should think twice before leaving her fiancé for the thrill and excitement of her childhood friend.
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Malware affecting thousands of office printers worldwide
Enid Burns for redOrbit.com Office printers across the US, India, Europe and South America are spewing out thousands of pages of nonsense, due to a malicious program called Milicenso. IT departments can't be happy, and neither can office managers who will have to place orders to restock paper supplies. Security firm Symantec wrote in a blog post that an outbreak of the Trojan.Milicenso has spread over the past two weeks, triggering massive print jobs typing up company resources. The hardest hit were businesses in the US and India, however certain regions in Europe and South America were also affected. Trojan.Milicenso was first noticed in 2010, and has been adapted many times to cause different outcomes; the most recent outcome being office printers. As Trojan.Milicenso is somewhat of a malware-for-hire, it's been used most recently to distribute adware to French speaking users and was reported as Adware.Eorezo. Delivery of the malicious program comes in many forms. In many cases computers will become inf
A piece of malware known as Trojan.Milicenso that originally surfaced in 2010 has been making a comeback over the past two weeks, primarily affecting office printers in the US, India, Europe ...
Mon 25 Jun 12 from Techspot
Thousands of office printers around the world have been spewing out page after page of gibberish thanks to a computer virus.
Fri 22 Jun 12 from BBC Technology
A Fortune 500 co.?It's "as if it was opening the .exe, printing garbage text."
Thu 21 Jun 12 from Arstechnica
Office printers around the world have begun involuntarily dribbling forth pages and pages of gobbledegook as a side effect of a computer virus. Don't worry, it's definitely not down to ghosts ...
Fri 22 Jun 12 from Techradar
Enid Burns for redOrbit.com Office printers across the US, India, Europe and South America are spewing out thousands of pages of nonsense, due to a malicious program called Milicenso. IT departments ...
Sat 23 Jun 12 from RedOrbit
- Pages: 1
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What I do not say in the column but nonetheless believe is that the distinction the statute explicitly draws, between “partial birth abortion” (when the abortion provider kills the fetus after most of it has exited the womb) and other second-trimester abortions (in which the provider kills the fetus while it is still inside the womb) is utterly arbitrary. In both kinds of abortion, the provider actively kills the fetus, and the only difference is where inside the woman the fetus happens to be at the time of death. The objective of the legislation is on its face to force the Justices and the public to confront the physical reality of later-term abortions, with which most people are understandably uncomfortable. The tragedy of it all is that the various assaults on abortion rights, including the passage of parental notification laws, which I discuss in an older column, pro-life protesters’ harassment of doctors and patients, resistance to morning-after pills and RU486, and opposition to sex education that extends beyond calls for abstinence have led to more of the late-term abortions that supposedly horrify everyone (including the devout proponents of the legislation). It seems, then, that the more successful the religious right is at posing obstacles to contraception and abortion, the greater the number of late-term abortions that occur. Of course, a person who holds the view that a one-celled pre-embryo is no different from a full-term fetus might not find this development particularly disturbing.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
More Thoughts on Partial-Birth Abortion Case
I wrote a column about this case a few weeks ago, which appears at this link. In the column, I compare the distinction the statute implicitly draws (between killing a second-trimester fetus when it is seconds from being born alive, on the one hand, and actually delivering the second-trimester fetus alive, on the other) as comparable to the distinction between physician-assisted suicide and removal of life support. Though the distinction – in both contexts – strikes me as weak, it evidently appeals to the Court, which may bode well for the continuing right to terminate a pregnancy by inducing labor prior to viability, if by no other method.
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"Taming Me" book signing features nationally recognized animal advocate and her formerly feral cat, Lucy Miracle
(Media-Newswire.com) - Feral cats are in the news, as communities nationwide ponder their fate. What can towns and individuals do when faced with a population of feral cats? Should these animals be caught and killed, or neutered and returned to their neighborhoods? Are they ruthless killers of songbirds or homeless animals that need and deserve human compassion?
In a celebrated novel by Cathy Unruh, formerly feral cat, Lucy Miracle, offers answers from a feral cat's perspective. The national tour to promote "Taming Me: Memoir of a Clever Island Cat" comes to Columbus on April 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Colony Cats ( & dogs ) Kit & Kaboodle Boutique, 2736 Festival Lane in Dublin. Both Unruh and Lucy Miracle will be on hand to share their story and sign books. The event is free. A limited-seating, fundraising dinner will follow from 6 to 8 p.m. at Camelot Cellars in Columbus. The $65 ticket includes dinner, wine, an autographed book and the chance to meet Unruh and Lucy Miracle. Proceeds will benefit Colony Cats ( &dogs ). For reservations and details go to www.colonycats.org or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
About the Book: Published by Collage Books, "Taming Me: Memoir of a Clever Island Cat" is loosely based on the real life of Lucy Miracle. As the novel's protagonist and narrator, Lucy offers an intimate look at the thoughts and emotions of a kitten as she struggles to survive in the wild and learns the intricacies of human interaction. Trap-Neuter-Return, a method for humanely controlling cat populations, is one element of the novel's page-turning plot, while a cat-hating villain provides intrigue and comic relief. Animal behavior scientist Jonathan Balcombe notes, "Unruh brilliantly captures the inner world of a cat," while journalist Darlene Arden remarks, "You'll cry, you'll laugh and you will love Lucy." The book's many supporters include Alley Cat Allies, The Humane Society of the United States, Neighborhood Cats, Farm Sanctuary, Florida Voices for Animals, actress Loretta Swit, and popular authors Rory Freedman and Carolyn Haines.
About Cathy Unruh: A nationally recognized animal advocate and Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, Unruh's work has been featured in such print and on-line publications as Cat Fancy, Paw Nation, The Examiner, and AOL/Huffington Post. She currently hosts a talk show, Up Close with Cathy Unruh, for WEDU-TV in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida.
About Colony Cats ( & dogs ): Founded in 2002, the primary mission of the all-volunteer, 501( c )( 3 ) non-profit organization is to reduce cat overpopulation through public awareness and spay/neuter efforts. Colony Cats is the first and primary organization in central Ohio to offer support services to feral cat caregivers. It also rescues and finds homes for domesticated cats and dogs that have been abused, abandoned or relinquished due to financial hardships. To date, the group has facilitated the spay and neuter of nearly 9,000 cats and dogs and placed over 6,500 pets in homes. For details visit www.colonycats.org.
Availability: Cathy Unruh and Lucy Miracle are available for appearances and interviews by arrangement and via telephone or Skype.
This story was released on 2013-03-06. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.
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(CNN) -- Thirty thousand more troops by the summer. It's a daunting challenge laid out by President Obama, and it's now having the U.S. military scrambling to get it done.
Obama said Tuesday night the additional 30,000 troops would begin deploying early next year at "the fastest pace possible."
Gen. James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, said Wednesday that the president's six-month time frame is "an achievable goal."
"The president decided to narrow the mission in terms of time and focus," he added.
But before Obama's address, military leaders said it would be all but impossible to rush new troops to Afghanistan as quickly as they did Iraq.
"It's not going to be a brigade a month, because of the infrastructure piece," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in mid-November.
Officials admit there hasn't been enough manpower to remove the Taliban from parts of Helmand Province in the south, and areas to the east.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, said Wednesday that the focus will be on sending troops to the south.
"The south is going to be our main effort. I believe that by next summer, the uplift of new forces will make a difference on the ground significantly," he told troops in Kandahar.
The first to go will be 1,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and they'll start deploying at the end of December, according to military officials.
But a lot of it is going to be dictated by conditions on the ground: Can they build the new bases, the new roads, new infrastructure to handle this influx of troops?
Mullen told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that getting troops and equipment into Afghanistan is harder than Iraq.
Five brigades rushed into Iraq in just five months. They did so over paved highways and had a huge staging area in the Kuwaiti desert, something that is not the case in Afghanistan.
But Mullen said the first troops have already been given orders.
"The first troops will be there in a couple weeks and are already under orders since the president made his announcement last night," Mullen said. "A significant number of them [are] to arrive in the spring -- March-April timeframe -- and roughly 20 to 25 thousand by the July time frame. And that is getting them in, getting them prepared and obviously getting them on mission."
Mullen said the remaining 5,000 will be there by the end of the summer or early fall.
There will be many obstacles.
A lack of paved roads outside the largest cities are easy places for the Taliban to place roadside bombs, known as IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.
In addition, the main way to move troops and supplies around the country is by helicopter. The country is landlocked, and no navigable waterways lead to the ocean. Supplies must be flown in or shipped to Pakistan and driven to Afghanistan.
The weather also poses a problem for the troops. Temperatures can dip to -10 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and soar above 110 degrees in summer.
Forces already in Afghanistan have learned a lot and offer a candid assessment of the challenges ahead from Obama's second surge. Earlier in the year, he ordered more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Soldiers who were part of that earlier increase said supplies took months to catch up with them.
"Logistically, we weren't prepared for this surge," Army Spc. Luke Adler said. "But [the] problem is, it's getting there a little bit after the troop surge when it should have been vice versa, should have been support first or at the same time at least."
And then there's the issue of where to house the new troops.
Most of the new forces will head south to places such as Camp Wolverine in southern Afghanistan, where construction is already under way to increase its capacity from 1,800 to 5,000 troops.
"We're nowhere near there, and we're doing a lot of it ourselves ... just to get ready to bring in the mass of troops," said Navy Lt. John Critch.
New roads, a new airfield, dining facilities and more housing units are needed under a tight schedule. In addition, more troops require more medical facilities, fuel and electricity.
Defense analysts have said that because housing is so tight at many bases, most of the new troops will have to live in an "expeditionary state."
"That is to say, tents and so forth as opposed to hard, standing buildings," said Frederick Kagan of the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute.
Air Force Sgt. Nicholas Caldwell is building a new road at Camp Wolverine. He said the Navy and Air Force engineers are working overtime to expand the base.
"We [are] working hard and doing as much as we can. It would be nice if we could get some help."
It's a sentiment echoed by Army MSgt. Tracey Marshall, who added that "we're taking a lot of hits, and we need more people."
Another problem: the large workload for understaffed subcontractors.
Critch said one Afghan contractor showed up with a few men and some wheelbarrows and only managed to lay a tenth of the agreed-upon concrete.
Even that, he said, needed to be torn up because the quality was poor.
CNN's Mike Mount and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.
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Washington is fourth in the nation for stolen boat incidents
August 12, 2012 · 8:32 PM
Summer is the time for boating in the Northwest and it's also high season for boat thieves. More boats are stolen across the nation in June, July and August than any other time of the year, with Washington ranking fourth highest in the nation in 2011. Only half of all boats stolen in Washington are recovered.
A new report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reveals that Florida had the most thefts, followed by California, Texas, Washington and North Carolina. The top five stolen boat types include the “jet ski” category, runabout, utility, cruiser and sailboat, in that order.
Because your boat is an investment worth protecting, NW Insurance Council urges boat owners to take measures to prevent your boat from being stolen and to make sure you have enough insurance to replace it if it is stolen and not recovered.
“In many ways, Boat Insurance is similar to Auto Insurance,” said Karl Newman, NW Insurance Council president. “Your policy includes coverage for theft, damage to your boat caused by a collision and liability protection if you injure someone while operating your boat.”
Homeowners insurance extends to smaller boats, such as canoes and kayaks and offers limited coverage, typically between $1,000 and $2,000 for damage to the watercraft. If you own a larger, more expensive vessel, consider buying a separate policy to provide more coverage.
In addition to insurance, methods of protecting your boat from thieves include marking and identifying both your boat and equipment. This identification will help police in the recovery effort if your boat and equipment are stolen:
- Mark your boat and equipment with the vessel’s Hull Identification Number (HIN), a 12-character serial number that identifies your boat.
- Engrave your driver’s license number in a hidden location on the boat as well as on its engine, ship-to-shore radio, depth sounder, compass stereo, trailer and other expensive components.
- Take photos or videotape your boat, its HIN and equipment for documentation and identification.
NICB and NW Insurance Council also recommend the following tips to protect your boat from theft:
- When docking your watercraft, lock and secure it to the dock with a steel cable.
- Remove expensive equipment when your boat is not in use.
- Chain and lock detachable motors to the boat.
- Keep title or registration papers somewhere safe and not in your boat when it’s docked.
- Disable your boat by shutting off fuel lines or removing batteries.
- Use a trailer hitch lock after parking a boat on its trailer.
- Install a kill switch in the ignition system.
Be aware that stolen boats are often sold to unsuspecting consumers. You can avoid being victimized by recognizing common fraud indicators. Before purchasing a boat, make sure its HIN exactly matches the HIN listed on the registration and/or title. Also, carefully inspect the boat and review its ownership paperwork. Be alert for the following potential fraud indicators:
- The boat has been rebuilt, previously reported stolen, sunk or recovered.
- The title or proof of ownership is a duplicate issue or from out of state.
- Registration numbers appear altered or are not uniform.
- The asking price is well below the market value.
NW Insurance Council is a nonprofit, public-education organization funded by member insurance companies serving Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
National Insurance Crime Bureau is the nation’s leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness.
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Mushrooms may not be the first thing people think of when they think of body art, but mushroom tattoos are not only aesthetically unique, they are also full to the brim with meaning. In general, they are a symbol of male virility; however, in China they are a symbol of rebirth and happiness. In Mexico they signify enlightenment, and in some African tribes they are seen as a symbol for the human soul.
Most people use mushroom tattoos in a colorful way. These generally depict things like fairies or elves perched atop a large, brightly hued mushroom. They may also have a distinctly psychedelic feel reminiscent of hippie culture; for example you may see a toad licking a mushroom that has melting rainbow colors; the mushroom may also be incorporated with a peace sign, with the cap at the top, and three roots at the bottom. As well as encompassing some of the other pieces of symbology, this style may also be indicative of a connection with a certain drug culture.
It is not unusual to see mushroom tattoos that mesh the mushroom with other symbols. For instance, a mushroom re-shaped and colored in the hues of a rose; a mushroom with butterfly wings, or turned into an otherworldly creature. The latter example is by far one of the most common of this particular style and may include things like ferocious teeth; red, glowing eyes, and possibly even claws. You may also see mushroom tattoos that are turned into large, ornate spaceships. These ships usually have brightly colored lights around the cap and dust flying out from beneath it.
Many mushroom tattoos are done in a cartoon-like style. These pieces may show the mushroom in a variety of styles, but most frequently it is transformed into a person, or small creature. They usually have large eyes peeking out from beneath the colorful hat of the cap. This style may be cute or aggressive depending on your style. The cute version may contain things like long eyelashes, bright colors, and large pouty lips. The aggressive style may be covered in spikes, wear a sneering expression, and may have a flaming background.
Although seen far less frequently, some people may prefer their mushroom tattoos to be simple. These can vary from a simple outline of a whole or sliced mushroom, or have a large amount of realistic detail. One idea for this style would be to use a design similar to those you would see in a botany book: faded colors, each line carefully drawn and marked with a description.
All deep meanings aside, mushroom tattoos are seen so infrequently that they will almost certainly be one of the more unique pieces those around you will come in contact with.
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Total accidents/incidents in January-November 2012 declined 7.3% to 9,741 compared with the prior-year period.
Train accidents dropped 16.5% to 1,545. The number of collisions declined 5.9% to 143, and derailments were down 14.7% to 1,136. Yard accidents dropped 3.5% to 883.
By far the highest number of fatalities was recorded in areas where railroads are not held responsible. While highway/rail grade crossing fatalities dropped 7.6% to 214, the number of trespassing fatalities increased 10.6% to 417.
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Art Market Blog - How Artists are Attracting Attention With contemporary artistic practice progressing and evolving at a fever pitched rate it is becoming harder and harder for artists to stand out from the crowd and get noticed.
News-Antique.com - Mar 05,2008 - Art Market Blog - How Artists are Attracting Attention
With contemporary artistic practice progressing and evolving at a fever pitched rate combined with the rapidly growing art market that rewards innovation, uniqueness and experimentation, it is becoming harder and harder for artists to stand out from the crowd and get noticed. The art market boom has caused an unprecedented appetite for contemporary art that has resulted in an increase in the number of artists being marketed by galleries and dealers. To compensate for the increased competition for representation and attention, artists are now needing to really think outside the box and come up with ways of attracting as much as attention as possible without affecting their credibility.
My research into this subject was sparked by a press release that I received in my inbox that was announcing the unveiling of a new artwork at a secret location in Beverley Hills in May by an artist who goes by the name of Rophar (http://www.rophar.com). What is so special about this painting that it needs to be unveiled I hear you ask, well, for starters it is adorned with over 250 carats of diamonds including multiple 4,5,6 and 7 carat stones with an accumulated value of $10 million dollars. Oh, and the asking price is US$110,000,000. According to the press release this painting, titled “Menagerie” has been commissioned by a fabulously wealthy countess who prefers to remain anonymous. Mystery, intrigue, wealth, royalty - the perfect ingredients for attracting attention
Artists Anthony White and Marcel Salathe, of the infamous duo Salathe and White (http://www.salatheandwhite.com), have also gained attention through an ambitious and unique project that involves auctioning off their collaborative paintings along with a guarantee to buy them back at a specific price, which is indicated on the painting, upon the safe return of said painting during a specified month. According to the artists each painting is a bond or more precisely a zero coupon bond. The first bond painting auctioned off had a face value of US$1063 and sold for US$1286.
All these artists have attracted attention to their work and gained exposure by going above and beyond the traditional expectations of what an artist should be and do. People are receiving so much stimulation from tv, movies, computers, mobile phones, the internet etc. that the act of entertaining ones self by enjoying and appreciating a painting has become somewhat obsolete, especially for the young people of today. In order to be commercially successful many artists are not able to just be artists any more but are having to take on the role of entertainer, promoter and advertiser. Although these artists are providing immediate gratification for the viewer it remains to be seen whether these works retain their desirability and mystique.
**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.
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The Good Dwarf Guide
Welcome to the Good Dwarf Guide, an episode guide to the first six series of Red Dwarf. Goodies include synopses, comments, blooper lists and random thoughts that cross my mind.
So Whatís It All About, Then?
You presumably have some nodding acquaintance with the show, otherwise what are you wasting your time on this for? However, for the sake of pedantry, Red Dwarf is the story of Dave Lister, whoís the last human being left alive. Listerís workmates, the crew of the mining ship Red Dwarf, were killed in an accident while Lister was in stasis, and Lister was automatically reawakened when it was safe to emerge - three million years later.
Listerís the only human, but is he all alone? Well, more or less. His companions include, at different times, some or all of the following: Rimmer, a hologram of a dead crew member and a smeghead of the first water; the Cat, a member of the species Felis Sapiens which evolved from Listerís cat; Holly, Red Dwarfís increasingly eccentric computer with an IQ which started at 6000 but is rapidly declining; and Kryten, an obsolete mechanoid with a butler complex. The adventures of this ill-assorted bunch are traced over six series (at least, the only six that count) of six episodes each.
So Itís A Comedy, Then? Or What?
By stretching, yanking and twisting the category "situation comedy", you could probably manage to stuff Red Dwarf in there somehow. However, itís galaxies away from the cornflake-IQ pap often dished up under that name. The science fiction setting is appealing and allows a great deal of plot flexibility, but the beauty of Red Dwarf is that, like all great comedy, it transcends its setting: in fact, the best of the humour comes from the development of the characters.
The show changes quite markedly in style over the series. From a claustrophobic first two series done on a budget which appears to consist of what the producer could dig out of the backs of sofas, the show opens out from series III to include such refinements as fancy location shoots, yer actual costume changes, and increasingly whizzier special effects which are a tribute to the advances in computers during this period.
The impressiveness of the budget in later series is a relative term: given the notorious stinginess of the BBC, the budget of even the most expensive Red Dwarf episode would cause a US producer to drop his cellphone. But even bearing this in mind, while the increased budget allows some very attractive frills, the show maintains its interest series after series because of the strength of the characters.
Why Is It So Bloody Good?
As well as the all-important strength of the characters, one of the chief things that makes Red Dwarf so phenomenal is that itís unique. While it draws on both science fiction and comedy traditions, the resulting combination is an entirely fresh take on both fields.
Although Red Dwarf is unmistakably science fiction, itís very different from most science fiction programmes. For a start, itís light years away from the American big-budget slick dramas such as the Star Trek series and "Babylon 5". Things are broken down, supplies are short, the androidís a toilet attendant and the computer controlling the whole shebang has an advanced case of senility. Furthermore, instead of a crack crew of space adventurers, Red Dwarf has a crew terminally technologically baffled, with enough character flaws to keep a psychiatrist in mink-upholstered Porsche Carreras.
Okay, generally speaking British programmes are different from American ones on this level anyway, but Red Dwarf also distinguishes itself from other British science fiction: while sometimes affectionate tributes to its predecessors can be spotted, Red Dwarf steers clear from direct parody. Although the budget is limited, the show nevertheless has a credible look, particularly in later series, and avoids the "Blakeís 7" example of what horror can result on a constrained budget.
While science fiction is half of the Red Dwarf equation, comedy, is, of course, the other half. Red Dwarf is grounded in the splendid British tradition of an all-male ensemble of eccentrics and losers, past examples of this including "Dadís Army", "Porridge", "It Ainít Half Hot Mum" and "Only Fools and Horses". While a lot of Red Dwarfís humour is character-based, some of it also draws from the English tradition of situation-based sight gags and broad gross-out humour.
The balance between science fiction and comedy and also between character-driven and situation-driven humour changes over the series: series I to IV are tilted in favour of comedy over the science fiction side of things, and the humour is very much character-driven. In series V, the balance tips slightly more towards science fiction, but the humour stays in the main firmly based in the characters. In series VI, the show tilts a little more towards science fiction, and the humour shifts in emphasis towards situation-based and sight gags.
Science fiction and comedy is a risky combination, which is probably why science fiction comedies are as rare as the Anatolian lesser spotted mongoose. The only other show even remotely like Red Dwarf is the "Hitchhikerís Guide to the Galaxy" series, and because the humour in that series tends to be situation based rather than character driven, it doesnít come anywhere near the calibre of Red Dwarf.
Red Dwarf takes the normally mutually exclusive concepts of science fiction and humour and melds them together brilliantly. The programme succeeds for many reasons: the avoidance of direct parody keeps it fresh; original ideas continue to be explored, which makes it consistently interesting; some serious concepts are examined amongst the light relief, which gives the thing some depth. And most important of all, the strong character development paves the way not only for seriously hilarious humour but also for a darker underside which lifts the programme way out of the category of ordinary situation comedy.
Is It Perfect?
Nah. It can be wildly uneven in tone. Continuity is dodgy at best. Not all the comedy works. But itís pretty damned good.
A Brief Obeisance At The Shrine
No-one could mention Red Dwarf without mentioning the name of Grant Naylor, an amorphous life form made up of Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, the creators, writers, and (sometimes) producers and directors of the show. Grant Naylor also wrote, both separately and together, the Red Dwarf novels. Yep, they were in it up to their elbows: Red Dwarf is their creation and their vision. We owe the magnificence that is Red Dwarf to them, and what more is there to say? - except thanks a million, guys, and I wish I could write like you, you buggers.
From series VII, Rob Grant is no longer directly involved in the creation of Red Dwarf, which is handled from that point by Doug Naylor. That's the point at which, sadly, it turns to crap.
Grant Naylor clearly had misspent youths, and misspent adulthoods too, by the look of it. Hours which should have been devoted to improving activities were instead frittered away in front of the TV and in the cinema, and they obviously draw on (Iím too polite to say "steal from") this heritage in Red Dwarf. The science fiction canon comes in particularly handy, obvious influences being "Star Trek", "Captain Scarlet", "Thunderbirds", "Space 1999", "Forbidden Planet", the "Alien" films, "Dark Star", "Westworld", "Star Wars" and "Robocop". Other films also make their presence felt, and these include "Casablanca", "Psycho", "Mutiny on the Bounty", "High Noon", "The Caine Mutiny", "Die Hard II", "Citizen Kane", "Top Gun", "An Officer And A Gentleman", "Gumshoe" and "Ghostbusters". A case could also be made for the influence of "Terminator", "Blade Runner", "Silent Running", "Lost In Space", "Blakeís 7", "Time Tunnel", "Monty Python", "Fawlty Towers", "Keeping Up Appearances", "The Hitchhikerís Guide To The Galaxy"...
However, despite the influence on the programme of what has gone before, one of Red Dwarfís great strengths is that Grant Naylor manage in the main to avoid trotting out a string of science fiction clichés, and in addition keep away from the parody trap. Avoiding parody is very difficult in a show of this type, where the temptation to send up the classics of the genre must be at times well-nigh irresistible. There are certainly isolated bits of parody in Red Dwarf - some situations, costumes, props and even some lines of dialogue are direct lifts. In addition, science fiction concepts familiar from other settings sometimes make an appearance in Red Dwarf, particularly in later series.
However, the show never descends into a tired rehash of other peopleís ideas: instead, the restrained use of parody and science fiction references adds a highly enjoyable satiric bite which doesnít overwhelm the showís originality. In fact, one of Red Dwarfís strong points is the number of original science fiction ideas that Grant Naylor manage to come up with during the series.
Red Dwarf is the quintessential ensemble piece, so thereís no one "star". However, in the sense that itís about anyone, I guess youíd have to say that, at least originally, it was about Dave Lister. This is because heís human, and as Gene Roddenberry knew, we identify with those who are like ourselves. In other words, cats, holograms and androids do not make up a sizeable percentage of the viewing audience.
However, while the plight of Lister as the last human left alive was the hook on which the series first hung, this faded in importance as the show gathered its own momentum. The show relies heavily on the development and interaction of the characters for its success, and so while some characters are used more than others, all have a critical part to play.
Did Grant Naylor originally plan Lister to be the focus of the show? I havenít got a clue, but my guess is that he was originally intended to be more central than he eventually ended up, and that the strength of the ensemble took on a life of its own which surprised everyone.
None of the original core of characters were "actohrs" when they were cast: this was a massive punt which came off brilliantly, and itís now impossible to imagine anyone else in these roles or to conceive of anyone doing it better.
Lister is your classic working class hero, a self-confessed space bum and underachiever, and a Good Guy™. Listerís not the type to suffer from a stress-related nervous disorder: heís so laid back heís practically horizontal, his definition of nirvana revolving around scoffing vindaloo and watching the London Jets zero gravity football team.
Heís a megaslob with the ambition of a box of tissues, but despite his unfortunate personal grooming habits, heís a pretty nice human being. Lister cares about the welfare of the other crew members - he indulges the Cat and helps Kryten break free from his programming. Listerís reaction to Rimmer isnít always so benign, but then, Rimmer would cause even a saint to grind his teeth. Lister often feels compassion for Rimmerís pathetic plight, and even when he acts against Rimmer, itís not done out of a sense of active malice, but rather out of frustration at Rimmerís irremediable smegheadedness.
As well as being a nice guy, Listerís also a genuinely moral man. This comes out again and again over the series: heís against killing anything unless absolutely necessary, and even then heís for carrying it out in an honourable way. Heíll look first for a nonviolent solution to a problem wherever possible. His philosophy is one of tolerance and respect for others, even if one of the others is Rimmer.
Listerís goodness is there from the word go, and is also continually strengthened over the series. This particular aspect of his character is most highlighted in "Back To Reality", where, as Kryten explains, Listerís apparent discovery that he is a totalitarian dictator responsible for death and misery goes sufficiently against the grain of his real character to drive him to suicide.
Listerís situation as the last human being alive is the source of considerable pathos at the beginning of the series. However, as time goes by the emphasis on this falls away and Lister becomes reasonably adjusted to his situation. Listerís character matures over the series, as he goes from a totally carefree megaslob at the beginning to the responsible linchpin of the team in full hero mode by series VI. (Heís still a megaslob, though, needless to add.)
Craig Charles, whose pre-Dwarf background was in performance poetry and stand-up comedy, is perfectly cast as Lister. My suspicion is that the character isnít too far away from his real persona: certainly he struggles a little with roles that move him away from this, such as the noir detective in "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" (although, to be fair, he was playing Lister playing a detective in that episode, and I somehow doubt that Lister could ever be mistaken for Laurence Olivier).
He has a natural comic flair and sense of timing, and his Scouse accent gives him a head start in extracting the maximum risibility from his lines. In some ways he has less to work with than the rest of the cast, since it tends to be flaws rather than virtues that present comic opportunities. Heís therefore battling under the "nice guy" handicap, which makes the strength of his performance as Lister even more of a triumph.
Incidentally, Lister appears to be involved in more than his fair share of falling out of bunks, diving through exploding walls and that sort of thing, which means that Craig Charles is either a trained stuntman or a complete moron.
In contrast to the easygoing Lister, Rimmer, played by Chris Barrie, is a lower middle class striver and a mass of neuroses. Fiercely ambitious but without discernible talent, Rimmer blames his lack of success in every area of his life on his parents and the lack of opportunities he had while growing up.
Anything or anybody else he can point the finger at is also fair game, including Listerís going into stasis (so nobody was there to help Rimmer fix the drive plate) and the lack of instruction during Basic Training about the proper temperature of gazpacho soup. Heís a physical coward with a well-nourished sense of self-preservation and the social skills of a backward twelve-year old. He has a nauseating respect for authority and knows that the point of having power is abusing it. It goes without saying that he went to boarding school.
While Listerís particular shtick is that heís the last human alive, Rimmerís is that heís, well, an ex-second technician. Not to put too fine a point upon it, heís dead, Jim. Being a hologram has certain drawbacks, one of them being that he canít touch anything . The physical properties of a hologram are a little murky: Rimmer begins by being projected by the shipís computer, but later weíre told heís powered by a light bee. Although composed of light, Rimmerís able to smell some things, hurt himself, get drunk, and be affected by mood stabilisers. We also, for some reason unable to be explained by the laws of physics, hear his footfalls wherever he goes.
Rimmerís plight as a hologram gives lots of scope for comic situations initially, but as the series wear on itís clear Grant Naylor begin to feel boxed in by this restriction: in series V there are no less than three episodes where he temporarily gets a body, and in series VI they throw in the towel and give him a hard light drive.
Rimmer starts off without a single redeeming feature, and Grant Naylor leave no room for error: Rimmerís smeggishness goes right to the core. But despite this, even in the first two series where Rimmerís character is drawn with broader brush strokes than later, pathos creeps in. In fact, at times it rushes in like a tidal wave, which contributes to some lurches in tone.
While Rimmer is speedy to blame all his misfortunes on others, he knows in his heart that heís fundamentally an unlovable, sad, pathetic, lonely git. In six series, we never see Rimmer laugh. Smirk, yes, preferably at someone elseís misfortunes, but his psyche never untwists itself enough, even for a moment, to allow him simple uncomplicated laughter. When Rimmerís vulnerabilities slip out from behind the blustering exterior, you canít help but pity him, even if you hate yourself for it. The odd thing is that heís not more loveable as a result; less, if anything. Peering into his tortured soul would make a Samaritan vomit.
Part of Rimmerís essential Rimmerishness is his spectacular lack of success with women. Rimmerís attitude to women is, to say the least, complicated. While deep in his heart he yearns to love and be loved, heís too afraid of intimacy for this ever to have a ghostís chance of happening. Lister says it best when he comments that Rimmer sees women as an alien species to be conquered through trickery - Rimmerís happiest when trying to hypnotise a potential victim. Rimmerís only comfortable dealing with women when he can objectify them, and if thereís any danger of him actually having to talk to one as a real person, heís totally out of his depth.
Rimmerís fear of intimacy stems first from his appalling relationship with his mother, who taught him lessons in rejection, manipulation and guilt that heíll remember for a lifetime and a deathtime. Secondly, it stems from his own self-loathing: heís afraid that if he ever lets a woman get close enough to him to get to know the "real" him, sheíll be disgusted and repulsed. (And who are we to argue with him?) Thatís why the only woman who ever sees the potential in Rimmer to be something other than a smeghead has the name "Nirvanah".
Some cataclysm of unknown (to me) dimensions occurred between series II and III of Red Dwarf, and Rimmerís character did not escape it. The change in him from series III onwards is startling. During the first two series, Chris Barrie portrays Rimmer using a range of nonverbal markers: he bounces up and down on his toes, crosses his arms, and maintains an exaggeratedly military posture. He also develops the characteristic smirk which follows all of Rimmerís more self-satisfied utterances.
However, in series III, Chris Barrie throttles back on the exaggerated mannerisms and tones down the entire character, lending subtlety to what had previously been broad comedy. Yes, of course heís still a smeghead. Need you ask? But despite being congenitally unable to pass the engineering exam, heís mysteriously acquired a modicum of technical competence, heís spotted on occasion showing a degree of concern for other members of the crew, and he seems to have gained sufficient confidence to drop the broadcasting-on-all-frequencies obnoxiousness down a few notches.
This character development reaches its zenith in "Holoship", where Rimmer falls in love and sacrifices himself for the good of his lover, showing that he really is capable of at least one finer emotion. "Holoship" also shows that at bottom Rimmerís under no illusions as to his own inadequacies, so this episode is both his finest and his saddest hour.
In series VI, thereís a change in the treatment of Rimmerís character, and he reverts almost to his earlier "all smeg, all the time" persona.
Thereís no doubt that Rimmer is a brilliant comic creation: heís one of the most striking characters ever to hit the small screen. There are two interdependent keys to this success. Firstly, the writing for Rimmer is inspired: Rimmerís character failings are legion, and Grant Naylor turn them into a comedy goldmine. The other half of the equation is Chris Barrieís brilliant interpretation of Rimmer: Barrie as Rimmer is comedy incarnate. His comic timing and line delivery are impeccable, but whatís particularly outstanding is his superb physical portrayal of Rimmer: every expression, gesture and movement is quintessentially Rimmerish. Barrie doesnít just hang around while other characters are speaking, waiting to slip back into character: heís Rimmer every single second heís on screen. Barrieís performance is so compelling that itís difficult to take your eyes off Rimmer if heís anywhere in the shot.
I might as well put my cards on the table, since itís going to be obvious anyway: Iím a total, complete and utter Rimmerphile. For me, Rimmer stands out head and shoulders from what is already a very strong cast, and to my mind this makes him one of the best comic characters ever seen on the small screen.
Chris Barrieís background pre-Rimmer was in doing impressions on the stand-up comedy circuit and in voiceovers for and appearances in television and radio comedy.
The Cat is a humanoid but with feline characteristics. The comedy of this character stems initially from the translation of feline behaviours into their human equivalent, but these set pieces become much less frequent over time. The Catís comedy value later in the series comes mainly from the divergence in his behaviour from the standard expected human norm: he is terminally and proudly vain, shallow and self-involved. Heís a deeply cool dude with a stunning wardrobe and a truckload of attitude. Cat lovers, incidentally, are a perverse bunch who delight in their favourite petsí more antisocial attributes, and the early character of the Cat makes them purr. However, they generally express disappointment with the defelinification of the Cat over the series.
Danny John-Jules plays the Cat in yet another example of perfect casting. John-Jules uses his own athletic grace to characterise the Catís feline presence, and his line delivery extracts the maximum comedy from the script.
John-Jules has, however, had a hard row to hoe: to many fansí disappointment, the Cat has often been underused. This seems to me to be a problem arising from the long-running nature of the series: bits of business demonstrating the Catís feline nature were used extensively to great effect in the early days, but constant harping on this theme would eventually have irritated the audience, who after a certain point in a long-running show do not need or want the more obvious aspects of each character constantly pointed out to them. However, as the Catís character essentially does not extend much beyond these characteristics, by de-emphasising them Grant Naylor eventually painted themselves into a corner. An attempt was obviously made to redress this in series VI when the Cat given the role of pilot of Starbug, and he was also given room to stretch as his alter ego Duane Dibbley in series V and VI and as the Riviera Kid in series VI. However, the problem has not been completely solved, and the Cat generally remains a commentator on rather than an initiator of action.
While the Catís role isnít always a large one, Danny John-Jules makes the absolute most of every speech and gesture. Every performance is a total gem. John-Julesí pre-Dwarf career included appearances in a number of musicals and stage shows, and his previous appearance in "Cats" has got to make him one of the few actors to play two entirely unrelated felines.
Kryten is a mechanoid of superseded design programmed to serve humanity. For any confused souls struggling with the motivation for this character, Grant Naylor kindly give a pointer in his name, which is a phonetic version of "The Admirable Crichton", the play by J M Barrie about a faithful butler.
Kryten first appears at the beginning of series II, in an episode named, startlingly enough, "Kryten". Kryten, played by David Ross in this episode, is discovered by the Red Dwarf crew serving three humans who have long passed their use-by date. When the crew eventually manage to convince Kryten of the three womenís non-viability, he consents to accompany them back to Red Dwarf.
Rossís performance, unfortunately, is not particularly earth-shaking: while he adequately plays a servile, self-sacrificing android, he has difficulty playing a funny servile, self-sacrificing android. He disappears without comment (or regret) at the end of the episode, returning, this time played by Robert Llewellyn, in the first episode of series III, and becomes a permanent member of the core cast from that point on.
The new Krytenís character is much better realised and as the series roll on he becomes more and more indispensable to the character mix.
Kryten shows some distinct and interesting character development over time. In his first appearances, he is relatively less fun than he later becomes, as his character is fairly one-dimensional. Things get more interesting when with Listerís help he begins to question his parameters and attempt to break free of his programming, and the scenes where he attempts to call Rimmer a smeghead are among the truly great television moments. Kryten also fulfils a useful function as the only one of the crew who knows even vaguely what heís doing in a technical sense. This opens up some options for the writers which would not otherwise be possible, since no-one in their right minds would believe that Lister, Rimmer and the Cat could on their own navigate their way out of a damp paper bag fitted with a neon "Exit" sign.
Llewellynís performance as Kryten goes from strength to strength: he doesnít completely find his feet in series III, but from the next series and thereafter the character really gels.
At all times, Llewellynís portrayal of the mechanoid is a sheer delight: he uses the considerable talent at his disposal to rise above the problems posed by a full-face mask, creating a character full of sly and subtle humour. Llewellynís available range of facial expression is by necessity somewhat limited, and he compensates for this by making full use of his body and voice to convey expression. He gets my sympathy vote, too: working in that latex mask has got to be a nightmare under hot studio lights. It must be like wandering across the Sahara with your face stuffed into a giant condom.
Unlike the original core cast, Robert Llewellyn was actually an actor (and writer) prior to his joining the Red Dwarf posse.
Holly is Red Dwarfís computer, with an IQ of 6,000. Holly copes with his duties at first, but as the crew seem to have forgotten his 3 million light year maintenance check, he becomes somewhat erratic as time goes on. Holly is played in the first two series by Norman Lovett, whose killer deadpan delivery reaches its zenith in "Queeg". Holly then undergoes a sex change and is played in series III to V by Hattie Hayridge, who does an adequate job but whose performance sometimes errs so much on the straight side that it has somewhat of a tree-like aspect.
Holly is used to brilliant effect in the early episodes, but his role drops in importance over time until he becomes virtually no more than a set decoration. Holly is dropped in series VI, which gives more room for the Catís role to expand.
Both Norman Lovett and Hattie Hayridge have backgrounds in standup comedy and in acting.
WHY IS RED DWARF FUNNY?
One of the strengths of the show is that the humourís not all based on one premise: it comes from a number of places.
Setting: The situation of the characters, light years away from Earth in the bit of space God forgot, is inherently funny, which gives the thing a head start. In addition, the SF setting gives Grant Naylor scope to let their imaginations off the lead and allows them to explore concepts, such as a backward universe, which are somewhat beyond the scope of the average situation comedy. It also allows them to pursue the universal obsession of SF nuts and fiddle with the time stream.
The setting is sufficiently flexible to allow virtually any concept to be dragged in with impunity: "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", for example, absolutely shouts that Grant Naylor felt like writing a Western. This flexibility has the advantage that the well of possible episode ideas is a deep one - thereís hardly an idea which couldnít be dragged in somewhere at a pinch.
Class: Humour mostly arises from conflict of some kind, and the humour of Red Dwarf is no exception. Conflict stems from several sources in the show, with one of the major ones being class. Writing about class is the biological destiny of British writers: itís hammered into their genes, and no matter what they set out to write about, class creeps in somewhere.
The class conflict in Red Dwarf centres on the contrast between Lister, whoís contentedly working class and happy with his life and his destiny, and Rimmer, would-be upwardly mobile yuppie. Rimmer is constantly dissatisfied with the status quo yet doesnít possess a smidgen of the aptitude needed to do anything about it. Rimmer despises Lister for his lowly horizons (and for being happy with his situation when Rimmer isnít), and Lister is contemptuous of Rimmerís pretensions.
Class also underpins the humour of Krytenís struggle to break his programming. Like a member of ye olde servant classes, he is initially a subscriber to the "rich man at his castle, poor man at his gate " philosophy; however, Lister attempts to drag him into the three-million-and- twenty-third century by teaching him heís as good as anyone else. This provides an interesting contrast between the "new" and "old" working classes and gives me an opportunity to sound like a sociology textbook.
Taboos: Another primary source of comedy from conflict in Red Dwarf stems from the breaking of taboos. Lister breaks societal norms of personal hygiene: itís rumoured that several pairs of his socks have struck out on their own to colonise an asteroid. Rimmer breaks the norm that self-interest should take a back place to consideration of others, and the Cat also transgresses this standard. In addition, Rimmer is a freely self-confessed coward, which deals to the notion that we should be brave and if weíre not we should appear so.
Thereís a streak of gross-out humour in Red Dwarf that also centres around the breaking of taboos. Examples of this include Listerís eating the dog food ("Marooned") and the spider ("Demons and Angels"), his deployment of the severed hand ("The Inquisitor") the "autopsy" meal ("Polymorph") and Listerís kissing the psiren ("Psirens").
Sex and bodily function jokes also fall into the category of taboo humour, and there are a lot, especially about sex (or, as the BBC videos put it, "adult themes". Say...no...MORE!) But while it works itself into the conversation a lot, there isnít actually much of it going on: this is, of course, part of the humour, but the crew seem a curiously chaste bunch all the same. Rimmerís woeful record with the opposite sex while alive (exact statistics for this vary from episode to episode, but itís safe to say you can count Rimmerís sexual experiences on the fingers of two thumbs) ensures that for comedyís sake he gets more romantic action than any of the other characters, but thatís not saying much. Along the same lines, thereís a running joke about Rimmerís, er, underendowment which spans the series, taking in his stuffing socks down his trousers in "Kryten", his feelings of inadequacy when confronted with Arleneís Playgirl centrefolds ("Parallel Universe"), Hollyís statement that he has a small physical presence ("Meltdown") and Nirvanahís comment that he makes love like a Japanese meal, with small portions but many courses ("Holoship").
Despite the fact that the only available lover on board has a puncture, and that leaves each other as the only sentient creatures in the neighbourhood, Grant Naylor make it clear thereís no funny stuff about the boys from the Dwarf ("What do you do when you want to have sex?" "We go for runs" ("Holoship").). However, having said that, there is, of course, that strange scene from "Demons and Angels" in which Low Rimmer, (who is supposed to be the worst part of Rimmerís character, although how could they tell?) declares his intent of having sexual congress with the aid of a holowhip with Lister. What are they trying to tell us? Freud could have a field day with this scene and its intriguing possible connection with Rimmerís name, and so could I, if it werenít for the Communications Decency Act.
Situation-based sight gags: These are present right through Red Dwarf, but become particularly important in series VI. They include stuff like the atomic chopsticks ("Legion"), and often intersect with the gross-out humour, such as the mashed potato scene in "Bodyswap", the intestine jokes in "Psirens" and the space weevil in "Legion".
Conflict within characters: As well as the conflict between characters which makes up a large part of the humour of the programme, thereís also conflict within some of the characters. This is probably least evident in Lister and the Cat: Lister seems for the most part reasonably together and adjusted to his situation, and the Cat, like all cats, regards himself as perfect. Rimmer, however, is constantly torn between his bombastic pretence and the reluctant self-knowledge which contradicts this, and Kryten is conflicted over the constant pull of his programming against his inclinations.
My God, when you analyse it like that, itís a wonder it manages to be funny at all. So before I wreck the thing completely, why donít we move on to the ......
The first six Red Dwarf series are analysed episode by episode in the order in which they originally aired (sometimes different from the order on the BBC videos), in the following format:
SYNOPSIS: This is a very brief summary of the plot. Red Dwarf plots are frequently deeply bizarre, and as I refuse to type screeds of stuff like "Lister thinks the Cat is about to break his tooth on an electronic goldfish", Iíve kept it down to the minimum.
COMMENT: Analysis, philosophical musings, bad jokes, all that sort of stuff.
THE BEST BIT: Self-explanatory, donít you think?
THE WORST BIT: We always hurt the ones we love, and hereís where I unsheathe my claws.
IMMORTAL DIALOGUE: This is a toughie, since Red Dwarf is crammed with the stuff. However, a lot of it is context-sensitive, which puts it into the "you had to be there" category. Iíve tried to pick lines that stand up on their own, although there are some exceptions which I couldnít bring myself to leave out.
ADDITIONAL: This header is for the grab-bag of impressions, comments and remarks that didnít seem to fit anywhere else and includes the plot inconsistencies.
SMEG UPS: The bloopers, mostly of a technical nature, given in the order they appear on screen.
On to the Episode Guide!
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Episode 84: Rabaul Rousers
A few inquiries sufficed to determine that the Flying Cloud had visited
Rabaul, but departed the day before they arrived. "It appears that we just
missed them," said Iverson, "again."
"Can we contact them by wireless?" asked Natasha.
Iverson shook his head. "Captain Phillips doesnít have a transmitter and
Iíd hesitate to use the station here in town. This is a German colony, so
we have to assume itís been infiltrated by the nationalists."
"Is there any way we can intercept them?"
"Weíll need to learn where theyíre headed. There is also the question of
"Iíll give you a lift," offered Philips gallantly.
"Thereís no need for you to put yourself out on our account," said Iverson.
"But there is," said the American with a savage grin. "Iím hunting the
fellows who sank my old ship, and they seem to be hunting for you."
"Oh," said Iverson, trying to hide his misgivings. He wasnít sure he
appreciated being used as bait. Natasha, more diplomatic, favored the
skipper with a dazzling smile.
"We should ask around port, see what we can learn," said Philips, after
heíd recovered from its effects. Iíll handle the waterfront." He flexed
his knuckles, making it clear what might happen to anyone who caused him
"Iíll make inquiries at the telegraph station," said Iverson.
"I may have friends in town," said Natasha. "White Russians. I will see
what they know."
"Good. Weíll meet back at the ship this evening."
Howard Philips whistled as he made his way down the street. Around him,
people from a myriad different cultures hurried to and fro: German
officers, French businessmen, American missionaries, Melanesian seamen,
and others so strange it was impossible to guess their origin. He watched
a copra schooner making sail. Her bosun -- a stoop-shouldered individual
with a narrow skull and wide staring eyes that seemed more fishlike than
human -- waved a greeting. Phillips waved back and continued on his way.
At times like this, he found it difficult to imagine his former life in
Rhode Island. Poetry? He shook his head. Whatever had he been
At last he found the fellow he was looking for working a stall near the
harbor. The man -- an ageless sailor with a Yankee cast to his features --
was trying to interest a pair of Japanese tourists in some cheap jewelry.
Phillips waited for them to leave before he approached.
"Obediah!" he said. "Howís business?"
"Itíll do," said the man. "How about yourself, Mister Lo..."
"I told you not to use that name!" interrupted Phillips.
"Sorry, Skipper," said the merchant. "How can I help you?"
Phillips glanced around to make sure no one could overhear, then leaned
across the counter. "Iím looking for information about a ship named the
Obediahís face paled. "Steer clear of that one, Skipper. They have
connections you donít want to mess with."
"Iíll be judge of that. Give me a name."
Obediah looked over his shoulder nervously. "The Fat Man," he said in a low
Phillips raised his eyebrows as if this was news. There was no point in
revealing what Iverson had told him. "Whatís his involvement?"
"I donít know," said the merchant, "and I donít have the slightest wish to
An understandable attitude, thought Phillips. But the
nationalist leader was not his immediate concern. He pulled out a coin,
spun it on the counter, and snatched it away before the other man could
reach for it. "Tell me about this Inselmšdchen."
Obediah thought for a moment, as if calculating what it might be safe to
reveal. "Sheís big for the islands," he said at last, "around 3000 tons.
Her captainís name is Klaus Ritter. He used to work for North German Lloyd
before the War. Now he does the island trade: phosphates from Nauru,
hardwoods from New Guinea, and copra from the Marshalls in exchange for
Phillips nodded. He was in the same business himself. "The Marshalls," he
mused. There was a lot of empty space in that part of the Pacific, which
would make it a good place to hide. "Any idea where?"
Obediah glanced at the coin pointedly. Phillips slid it across the table.
"I donít know exactly, but I heard he had a contract from a sportswear
company to carry some photographers out to one of the atolls."
"Sportswear?" asked Phillips incredulously. "How reliable is your source?"
The other man shrugged. "It has never been wrong in the past. And itís not
the kind of story anyone would make up."
"True," admitted Phillips. He slid another coin across the counter and
turned to go.
"I hear you have a lady aboard," said Obediah. "Can I interest you in some
jewelry? How about this tiara? Unearthly workmanship!"
"Maybe next time."
Iversonís inquiries at the telegraph station turned up nothing. He returned
to the ship to find Natasha standing by the rail, gazing toward open sea.
The setting sun cast a golden light across her features. A warm tropical
breeze brushed strands of hair across her cheek. As he drew closer, the
lieutenant imagined he could also see a trace of tears. She looked up when
she heard his footsteps.
"Iím worried about my brother," she said. "What could have happened to
"Your brother?" asked Iverson.
"Oh!" The womanís hand flew to her mouth.
Iversonís eyes widened as understanding dawned. "Karlov is your
"I meant..." Natasha hesitated, then glanced down at the deck. "I would
have told you," she said at last. "But I had to pretend. A married woman
looking for her husband would raise no eyebrows. A single woman traveling
alone, looking for her brother... could run into all sorts of problems. But
you wonít tell anyone, will you?" She gazed at him imploringly.
"I... uh..." said Iverson, thinking quickly. "That is... I mean..."
"Tell anyone what?" came a voice from behind them. They turned to see
Howard Phillips lighting his pipe. He took a puff, extinguished the match,
and flicked it over the side. "Donít worry, Miss. I can keep a secret too.
But we might want to step inside. Too many prying ears here near the dock."
The woman smiled -- a smile that made the whole day seem brighter -- then
they followed the skipper up to the bridge. "Did you learn anything at the
telegraph station?" he asked Iverson.
"Iím afraid not," said the lieutenant. "I pretended to be a shipper with
cargoes aboard the Inselmšdchen and the L-137, but there were no
messages from either vessel."
Phillips nodded. "Iíd have been surprised if they gave themselves away so
"I spoke with my countrymen," said the woman. "They know nothing of the
freighter, but there are rumors that the airship was seen in the Marshall
Phillips took a thoughtful puff on his pipe. "That name keeps coming up,"
he observed. "And the islands are part of the German Protectorate of New
Guinea, so the nationalists could have a base there. But theyíre a long way
away, and there are an awful lot of them. Weíll need more information."
At that moment the mate burst onto the bridge. "Weíve got trouble,
Skipper," he announced. He gestured toward the dock, where a gang of
brown-shirted thugs was rushing toward the ship.
Phillips flipped open the speaking tube to the engine room and snapped out
an order "Whateley! Get the plant started and give me full astern! Now!"
Without waiting for a reply, he yelled down to deck. "Gedney! Atwood!
Cut those mooring lines!"
Below them, the diesel started to yammer. On deck, two burly seamen grabbed
axes and swung at the hawsers. Then the ship was pulling away from the pier
as the thugs stumbled to a halt. Their leader glared at the widening gap of
water and shook his fist. Phillips gazed back with a sardonic expression.
"I think we've worn out our welcome here, Johansen," he observed to his
mate, who'd been spinning the wheel to back the ship down to port. "As
soon as sheís clear, ahead one half, and take her out to sea."
Next week: Trukin'...
Comments about Episode 84? Start a new topic on the
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National Weather Service warns of dangerous cold, issues warning
Dangerous cold closes New Hampshire ski resort
The National Service warned of dangerously cold weather for Thursday in issuing a wind chill advisory for northern and western Massachusetts.
Early morning temperatures ranged from 4 below to 9 above zero, with wind chill readings of 17 below.
At least one New Hampshire ski resort is closed for now because of the bitter cold temperatures and wind chill warnings.
Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire's White Mountains region is closed for skiing Wednesday and Thursday. The resort says the weather will create unsafe conditions for guests and employees. The resort was expecting to reopen Friday.
Hour-by-hour temperature forecast (desktop users only)
Keith Pelletier, the owner of Dolly's Restaurant in Frenchville, Maine, said his customers were dressed in multiple layers of clothing and keeping their cars running in the parking lot while eating lunch. It was so cold that even the snowmobilers were staying home, he said.
"You take the wind chill at 39 below and take a snowmobile going 50 mph, and you're about double that," he said. "That's pretty cold."
The cold air has been blamed for multiple deaths.
In northern New Hampshire, a man died Wednesday after crashing his snowmobile while going over a hill on Tuesday and spending a "bitterly cold night" injured and alone on a trail, the state's Fish and Game Department said.
Copyright 2013 by WCVB.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Graf, Graff, Groh, Groff, Grove
Germany and Pennsylvania
View Groff Land in Lancaster County,Pennsylvania in a larger map
Click + or - to Zoom In or Out, Click on the colored pin to see the details of the location
Click and drag the hand to move the map, or click the link above to see all my ancestor locations.
I have little research on my Fronica GROFF who married Peter EIKENBERRY of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Wayne Lucore has her family tree on his Rootsweb WorldConnect GedCom with her mother Barbara Brackbill which is different than Dwayne Wrightsman's Maria Kauffman supported by Jacob's will, deeds, and estate papers. Some discussion on Rootsweb Brethren List implies the family should be easy to find there. Another discussion on Fronica originating from Saint Verena, patroness of Zurich, Switzerland, which would fit as husband Peter was of German ancestry. Jacob died May 6, 1776 and wife Maria June 19, 1772 listed in the deaths of the Registers of the Ephrata Community and the Google book version. Jacob "was listed by two German Lutheran clergyman among the Palatines who came to England in 1709."
According to The Groff Book: Volume 1: A Good Life In A New Land page 31 the clock at Winterthur Museum "The Story of Winterthur's Jacob Graff Clock" made by Jacob Graff is likely an unnamed grandson of Hans Groff who lived in Philadelphia from 1704-1715 and likely had contacts in Germantown where a grandson could have served a clock maker apprenticeship, although unlikely a son of this Jacob Groff as the book supposes since Dwayne Wrightsman shows my Jacob died in 1776 not 1740 as the Groff Book states.
Zoom to 50% to read about Hans Groff in the book History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Father Hans GROFF will was November 7, 1738 in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the township named for him, died in 1746 on his 1,500 acres of land near Groffdale. 1661-1746 Hans Groff is mentioned in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online and as Hans GRAFF in the 1872 A Biographical History of Lancaster County...by Alex Harris. He is described as the pioneer settler of Earl Township with his early life discussed in History of Lancaster by Dr. Frederick Klein, 1924. Hans Groff bought land in 1704 and sold his 175 acres in Cresheim "in the Germantownship", now Mount Airy section of Philadelphia in 1715 to Gerhard Rittinghuysen.
Catherine GROFF/GRAFF was the second wife of Henry LANDIS and is likely related.
Dwayne Wrightsman wrote Fronica was the daughter of "Jacob Graff (1699-1776) of the Ephrata Community," in his article MENNONITE FAMILY HISTORY, April 2009, pp. 74-80, has the documentation and details referencing the The Groff Book, Vol. II: A Continuing Saga (Ronks, PA: Groff History Associates, 1997) by Jane Evans Best and Richard Warren Davis.
- Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is named for Hans Graff starting on page 237 in A Biographical History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
- Hans GROFF Genealogy
- GROFF Family Genealogy Forum
- Graf - Groff - Grove - Bowers Ancestry - has Fronica Graff married to Henry Landis
- Phil Knoll's Genealogy - matches Wayne Lucore's Gedcom somewhat
- The Swiss GROFF Family of South Lancaster, Pennsylvania - starts with Swamp John Groff
- GROFF Family on Wikipedia
- Groff Family Ancestry.com Message Board
- Groff Family GenForum
Genealogy research is never complete, important details might be missing, and often contains errors, so let me know if your research contradicts mine. My Indiana and Ohio family research comes from conversations with relatives, scrapbooks, library research, online records, visits to courthouses, final resting places on family farms and cemeteries. Families in other states rely mostly on the research of others. Links to other web sites often change then won't work, so if you find broken links, have additional information on any families, corrections, photos, or anything to add to the history of our families, please leave a Comment in my Guest book, join my Follis Families on Facebook page for updates and new discoveries, or send an Email. The Wayback Machine archives most old web pages so copy and paste the broken URL address to find the missing 404 pages that disappeared. Read Dick Eastman's newsletter on using Unverified Data from the internet.
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They are just everywhere, walking, rushing, running, toyi-toying, fists and machetes and knives and sticks and all sorts of weapons and the flags of the country in the air, Budapest quivering with the sound of their blazing voices: Kill the Boer, the farmer, the khiwa.
The Hunger BrideA novel excerpt by Julie Ries
“Go home and pray to be forgiven,” she cried. “If you don’t pray now, you know what waits for you.”
Savage CoastBy Muriel Rukeyser, from her previously unpublished novel
Europe, the thought of Europe swelled over the horizon, like a giant dirigible, strung with lights in a dream of suspended power, but filled, in the dream, with a gas about to burst into flame.
DeparturesBy Patrick Dacey
My uncle never did a bad thing to anybody, but one day while he was on his front porch eating an ice cream cone, two men came upon him, pushed him inside, tied his hands and feet, robbed his house, and shot him in the head
The Worst Thing That HappenedBy A. Igoni Barrett
“Don’t worry, it will be okay, these things happen for a reason,” Ma Bille said. “As I always say: the worst thing to happen to you is for the best—”
BeesBy Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish by Kathleen Heil
Not much ever happened in Blaustein, but, even if it did, I would still remember the words she said, because it was the first time I’d heard them used, and their meaning, the parentheses they opened in my German existence every time someone used them, shocked me and made me feel like an intruder.
Give Hostages to FortuneBy Mehdi Tavana Okasi
I thought about her son in Tehran and if he were still alive, what he would do to Sheila. Lying in bed, I replayed the scene from earlier that day and wished that I’d answered Sheila’s blows with punches of my own, wished that I’d defended Mrs. Azam.
Psychiatrists and Mountain DewBy Scott McClanahan
I don’t want to have to get on any medicines, because as far as I’m concerned all shrinks are good for is getting you high.
Anthropogenesis, or: How to Make a FamilyBy Laura van den Berg
Soon it was all they could do to keep these children from singeing the draperies or shattering the glass windowpanes with a single touch.
The ExpoBy Sybil Baker
They arrived when the sea was swelling, threatening to sweep the old world back with it.
Four American FolktalesBy Emily Mitchell
In Malibu, there lived a beautiful old woman without a nervous system.
A Dark Tower OpeningBy Matt Bell
In the face of its stare, I stared back, and the bear slavered in response, shook its thick fur as welcome or warning. . .
SaffronBy Mirza Waheed
“These infidels cannot insult us like this. If you have the courage, come and face us out in the open. You cannot tie down a speechless animal and think you have beaten us…”
The Lump in Her ThroatBy Aba Amissah Asibon
I don’t like the box they have put Papa in; I would have gotten him the fancy kind with polished wood and golden handles.
My Year ZeroAn excerpt from the novel "Mira Corpora" by Jeff Jackson
They stride through the woods and shout. They practice propping guns on their shoulders and breaking them in half so the empty shells tumble to the ground.
Marrying UpBy Diane Cook
Eventually, I married a man more than twice my size. He terrified me. Making love felt like getting run over
Farewell, AfricaBy Manuel Gonzales
According to Cornish, the pool, an infinity pool, would be able to recreate the event of Africa sinking into the sea.
Have You Heard Anything?By Anthony Tognazzini
During this time the weather changed and the voice on the radio brought uneasy news about barricades, policemen, and tear gas in the city.
GreenlandBy Patrick Somerville
Then again, now he has to go to Greenland. To look at a body.
The Biggest Thing EverAn excerpt from the novel "Double Feature" by Owen King
Taken as a whole, no one who read the screenplay for Who We Are denied that it was clever in its composition, original in its pattern, and ruthlessly unsentimental in its conclusions. It was also “a bit portentous,” according to Sam’s father, Booth Dolan, the B-movie mainstay famous for his stentorian, blink-free performances. . .
A Man of the PeopleBy Helon Habila
He takes her hand, careful to keep his eyes away from her dominant breasts, her full pouty lips, and they begin in the living room.
The Weight of Rose PetalsBy Brad Green, guest-edited by Roxane Gay
Winona eyed Frank down the long black barrels of the shotgun. She complained again about that whore he’d visited every Wednesday for fourteen years, before he lost his manhood in the accident at the rebar factory.
Café FleshBy Ruben Quesada, guest-edited by Roxane Gay
There was something fascinating about images of unknown semi-naked women; I wondered if there were newspapers filled with images of semi-naked men.
How I Gonna Bare My Neck Outside in the Sweat-Scared MorningBy Delaney Nolan, guest-edited by Roxane Gay
Six feet tall and arms like bundled wire. He go strutting the length of the house.
Magic City RelicA novel excerpt by Jennine Capó Crucet, guest-edited by Roxane Gay
. . .I looked down at Omar’s pants to tear off his belt and realized that we were shrouded in such darkness, I couldn’t see the buckle.
Boy, A HistoryBy Saeed Jones, guest-edited by Roxane Gay
Notes on names Boy gets called at school: fudge packer, pansy, fairy, pillow biter, cock gobbler.
BroadsBy Roxane Gay
Jimmy Nolan has a thing for broads—loud, brassy women who sit with their legs open and drink beer straight from the bottle—women who always say exactly what they’re thinking and for better or worse, mean what they say.
Throw Forever to the FleasBy Ankur Thakkar
This was Clyde’s third Ramadan, but his first alone.
Dear JohnBy Sarah Gerkensmeyer
First, it was his hands. Three days after he announced that he was going to leave me, I watched him drinking his coffee and noticed how his three middle fingers were slipped through the handle, gripping the body of the mug in a confident, almost loving way.
The Last Hour of the Bengal TigerBy Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder
What was I going to do when I saw her? It was a question I had asked myself a thousand times. Slap her? Scream insults? Demand she give my husband back?
from The Story of My AssassinsA novel excerpt by Tarun J. Tejpal
His first conscious memory, from the time he was three, was the feel of a rat snake slithering through his hands.
DispatchesBy Susan Daitch
When did the Berlin Zoo stop displaying humans? 1931, I think, but I’m not sure.
DebriefingBy E.C. Osondu
If you must travel, travel by Amtrak. Trains are safe, buses are not. I mean safe from raids by the INS.
The AnointingBy Jamie Quatro
Seven months into her husband’s depression, Diane called the church secretary. She wanted the elders to come over and anoint Mitch with oil.
This is a Dad StoryBy Elizabeth Crane
This story can’t get it’s tense together or it’s person, now. Has it even got its “its” right?
One NightBy Quim Monzó, translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush
But the girl is still asleep. Perhaps, thinks the prince, he kissed her too lightly. He stoops down again and kisses her a second time, this time a touch more vigorously.
LootersBy Alex Perez
They were followed by a group in tropical wear, slipping and sliding, trying to prevent their ill-fitting thong sandals from flying off. A smaller group had chosen winter wear, rolling up the block like juiced up ticks, draped in coats and jackets.
IslandsBy Alex Vallejo
I stare at the ground imagining I am one of the condemned, what it felt like to have my fingernails torn off. I clench my fists tight and brace myself for the pain, wishing I was off this wretched island, wishing I was home.
High Schools, or How to Be Asian AmericanBy Matthew Salesses
After my parents were divorced I fell in love with the ugliest girl in my white high school. This was what I believed—the love part, I mean; the ugly part was true.
Two StoriesBy Autumn Watts, with photography by Kristin Giordano
In Qatar, the birds have built their own hidden city.
American NurseBy Kaitlin Solimine — 2012 Dzanc Books/Disquiet International Literary Program Award — selected by Colson Whitehead.
American Nurse became our possession, the Party headquarters in Beijing told us, for only a week before Deng decided what to do with her
Gone to the ForestA novel excerpt by Katie Kitamura
His father is more than twice her age but her eyes are pinned to his lips as he speaks to her in his fur-lined baritone.
The World Without YouA novel excerpt by Joshua Henkin
He’s mopping at his pelvis with a wadded-up tissue, and then he’s mopping her up as well. Already the backs of her thighs are caking up.
StipplingBy Christopher Narozny
Still, I started for the parlor. I’d polished my shoes, put gel in my hair: habits my mother had always wanted me to form and I had always resisted. Walking down the street, I felt conspicuous, as though people were sniggering at my gleaming head and feet.
ExpectationsBy Peter Stamm, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
I imagine what Janneke and Karin would say if they saw us together: Oh, she’s lost it now.
The Red TricycleBy Lisa Lim
He liked how her odd mouth conjured surprise like a jack in the box. She liked how he used his bathtub as a closet.
CasinoBy Alix Ohlin
People who look on the bright side all the time are hypocrites at least some of the time. To say that shitty things are shitty is to speak honest truth about the world.
VanyaBy Alex M. Pruteanu
This bloody fucking century Uncle Miki said . . . began and ended in Yugoslavia.
LoversBy Daniel Arsand, translated from the French by Howard Curtis.
Their bodies converse. They forget that very soon one of them will be burned alive on Place de Grève.
Two StoriesBy Barbara Fried
And then he would knock on the door and my mother would answer and he would say to her, “This is no ordinary child. She understands.”
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It's one thing to watch snippets of Health Care Reform Town Hall meetings on the evening news, but entirely another to find oneself in an auditorium packed with 850+ people, including a bunch who are angry, belligerent and even violent.
This particular Town Hall took place last night in Durham, North Carolina with U.S. Rep. David Price sharing a panel with three others, including Chuck Stone, director of North Carolinians for Affordable Health Care. They were four men, all pro-reform.
One protester later complained that the panel was stacked, that it should have included voices from the other side of the aisle -- that's one point this writer will easily concede to the opposition. The process should always remain democratic, no matter how messy, painful, inefficient and even weird it may become.
After the pledge of allegiance, and exhortations from the moderator to remain civil -- we were in the genteel South after all -- at least five angry young men were escorted to the door, one with his middle finger pointed defiantly up on the way out.
In the beginning, each panelist briefly argued for the overall importance of reform in the health care and health insurance industries today.
Stone reminded the audience that the nationwide debate is not about President Obama nor illegal immigrants nor Democrats and Republicans. He did point out, however, that both Republican President Teddy Roosevelt supported universal health insurance in the early 20th century and Democrat Harry Truman fully supported national health insurance after World War II.
"Health care should be a basic human right," Stone said, followed by loud cheering from the those who support universal coverage and equally loud jeering from those who oppose it.
Price later outlined the shared principles of the five bills currently moving through Congress, emphasizing that everyone must have access to affordable health insurance and that everyone needs to be brought into the system. He argued in favor of a public option.
At the same time, he wisely acknowledged the complexity of the situation. "It won't be simple or cost-free." But, he reminded the audience, every other industrial country in the world has already figured out a way -- in short, it's about time for America.
At this point, a guy in the balcony hit another guy in the face, creating a distraction that lasted a few minutes until the perpetrator and his victim were ushered out and all attention returned to the stage.
After Price spoke, about forty "cons" lined up in front of a microphone on one side of the auditorium, with an equal number of "pros" on the other. In case there was any confusion, each microphone had a "con" or "pro" sign attached to the stand. But somehow, several cons ended up on the pro side, robbing several reform supporters of their chance to be heard.
On the con side, one woman became increasingly upset as she tried to read her written remarks. She finally blurted out: "Socialism is one step before communism!"
One man asked why we should have a government-run health care plan when people in other countries hate their own systems and are trying to get out of it.
Pros in the audience shouted "Where?" "Who?" "Which countries?"
The man finally shouted into the microphone: "The Soviet bloc!" and sat down.
At various times during the debate, the cons shouted at the panelists: "Let me have a choice!" "Health care reform should be supported by the Constitution!" "How can we believe you?" "All the money the government has is stolen from us!" "Liar!"
In one of the more bizarre twists of the evening, an elderly physician seized on the wild rumor about "death panels" and insisted that Obama's plan would "kill off grandma and grandpa."
Price explained the value of the "consultation" option in the bills and that he himself had taken advantage of the opportunity, offered through his personal Congressional health insurance plan, to meet with doctors and discuss how he would like to be treated at the end of his life.
But there was no sign that the physician or any other cons listened to a word of the response.
In another twist, one con cleverly quoted Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's op-ed from Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, in which Mackey argued that while "we clearly need health-care reform," he is against a "massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system."
Instead, Mackey proposed eight alternative reforms to help lower the cost of health care, including tort reform.
This was the argument picked up by the con last night -- if doctors didn't have to pay such high malpractice insurance fees, they could charge their patients less and health care costs would drop significantly. Tort reform, he said, would solve the problem entirely.
Price argued against any tort reform that included a cap on awards -- which only frustrated the con side more -- but some liberals acknowledged among themselves that limiting payouts might not be a bad thing. However, the impact of tort reform on overall health care costs, Price said, might be just one or two percent.
The irony was, well, delicious. Who would have thought the health food champion of liberal baby boomers everywhere would be feeding the cons some of their best lines?
(As an aside, a number of universal health care proponents are now boycotting Whole Foods as a result of Mackey's stance against government-led reform.)
After 75 minutes of sometimes thoughtful, often hostile discourse, I came away from the meeting with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I was hopeful that after all of these deep-seeded fears and rumors and wild accusations are elicited, tackled and dispelled -- and the rage and protest simmer down -- politicians and constituents can get on with the business of putting together a plan that, while it certainly won't please everyone, addresses the desperate need for serious health care reform in a country too great to leave so many of its people without help.
On the other hand, the resistance to change runs deep in many people, and they are clearly determined to cling to that fear and loathing.
Perhaps it's because they have so little and they're desperately afraid that someone -- and the government is a favorite whipping boy on this one -- will take it all away from them.They're joined by another group of reform opponents who have so much; their fear, too, is that government will take it all away from them.
The key ingredient in this debate seems to be fear of change and fear of the government.
After the meeting, a number of pros and cons continued their arguments outside under the glare of TV cameras. I noticed one pro vehemently explaining to a con the crux of the whole thing: that a good national health care plan would mean that no one, under any circumstances, would be denied health care.
The con, whom we had seen earlier at the microphone, seemed to be listening intently. Whether he was just preparing a retort or absorbing this insight I couldn't tell. Unfortunately, I didn't hear his response, if he even had one.
But something about that brief one-on-one exchange gave me hope.
Perhaps there will be significant reform in this country after all?
Some additional sources:
A Brief History of Universal Health Care Efforts in the U.S.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal
Bill Clinton Urges Progressive Push on Health Care
Ad Campaign Counterattacks Against Overhaul's Critics
A Primer on the Details of Health Care Reform
Grandma/grandpa puppet photo from www.puppetshoppe.com
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Meteor Crash Site Makes People Sick in Peru
Villagers Fall Ill After Meteorite Crash
Click Here to Watch Newcast of Event
From correspondents in Peru:
September 18, 2007 02:05pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
VILLAGERS in southern Peru have been struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite made a fiery crash to Earth in their area.
Around midday Saturday, villagers were startled by an explosion and a fireball that many were convinced was a plane crashing near their remote village, in the high Andes department of Puno in the Desaguadero region, near the border with Bolivia.
Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odour," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.
Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being taken to hospital, Mr Lopez said.
Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene where the meteorite had left a crater 30m wide and 6m deep, said local official Marco Limache.
"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.
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In the closest electoral battle Kerala has seen in recent decades, the Congress-led United Democratic Front has scraped past the Left Democratic Front in the 2011 Assembly elections. In the House of 140, the UDF bagged 72 seats, four more than the LDF led by the Communist Party if India (Marxist).
The Congress Legislature Party is expected to meet early next week, where a decision on the possible choice of Oommen Chandy to lead the new government is expected to be taken. Mr. Chandy had gone out as Chief Minister following the 2006 elections in which the LDF won a two-thirds majority. The UDF had scored massive wins in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and the 2010 local body elections, but has now had to satisfy itself with a modest win.
In the nine-party UDF, the Congress has won 38 seats, the Indian Union Muslim League 20, the Kerala Congress (M) nine, the Socialist Janata (Democratic) two, and the Kerala Congress (B), the Kerala Congress (Jacob) and the RSP (Bolshevik) one each.
The CPI(M), heading the seven-party LDF, is the single largest party with 45 seats in the House. The CPI has won 13 seats, the Janata Dal (Secular) four and the RSP, the Nationalist Congress Party and LDF-backed independents two each. In the outgoing House, the LDF had 98 seats to the UDF's 42.
This was a cliffhanger of an election that could have gone either way, and there were indeed moments during the counting on Friday when a dead heat seemed certain. By giving the UDF the marginal victory, the State has stuck to a three-and-a-half decade old pattern of choosing a new coalition to run the government once every five years.
The LDF put up a strong showing despite the defeat, thanks to the absence of an anti-incumbency mood among the electorate, and a turn in the tide in its favour in the final lap on account of the ‘VS factor' — the presence of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan at the helm of the LDF campaign.
The BJP's hopes of opening its account in the Assembly were again dashed, but it put up a notable showing in Nemom in the south and Kasaragod and Manjeswaram in the north.
Keywords: Kerala Assembly election results
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Former Member of the National Space Society Board of Governors
Robert Jastrow was Director and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Mount Wilson Institute, which manages Mount Wilson Observatory in California on behalf of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Dr. Jastrow was a member of the NASA Alumni Association.
Dr. Jastrow received his A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical physics from Columbia University. He joined NASA when it was formed in 1958 and was a prominent figure in the American space program from its inception. Dr. Jastrow was the first chairman of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Committee, which established the scientific goals for the exploration of the Moon during the Apollo lunar landings. In 1961, Dr. Jastrow set up NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a U.S. Government laboratory charged with carrying out research in astronomy and planetary science. He served as director of the Goddard Institute until his retirement from NASA in 1981.
In recognition of his work in NASA, Dr. Jastrow received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and the Arthur S. Fleming Award for Outstanding Service in the U.S. Government. He also received the Columbia University Medal of Excellence, the Columbia Graduate Facilities Award to Distinguished Alumni and Doctor of Science degree (honorary) from Manhattan College.
Dr. Jastrow hosted more than 100 CBS-TV network programs on space science. He was the special guest of NBC-TV with Wernher von Braun for the Apollo-Soyuz flights, and he was the featured guest of the Today show on the 10th anniversary of the landing on the Moon. Dr. Jastrow’s articles on astronomy and space have appeared in The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Foreign Affairs, Commentary, Atlantic Monthly, and Scientific American.
In 1981, Dr. Jastrow left NASA to join the facility of Dartmouth College as Professor of Earth Sciences. He resigned from Dartmouth in 1992 to take up duties as manager of Mount Wilson Observatory.
On February 8, 2008, Dr. Jastrow died of pneumonia.
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THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR CAUCASIAN REGIONAL STUDIES
Law • Politics • Sociology • Economics • Modern History • International Relations
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD:
THE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD:
The search for political solutions to ethnic conflicts; the complexities, successes and failures of democratisation in newly independent states; the political economy of the oil wealth of the Caspian: these are some of the most vital issues in the Caucasian region.
The journal Caucasian Regional Studies (1996-2000) aimed to stimulate an inter-disciplinary debate about these issues among academics from the region itself as well as from appropriate departments in the West and the former Soviet Union . It was the journal's policy to publish contributions on a wide variety of topics including collective security, inter-state relations, ethnic conflicts, democratization, civil society and economics. This was the first journal in the English and Russian languages exclusively devoted to the affairs of the Caucasus .
The idea of the journal developed at a conference funded by the European Union and held in Tbilisi in September 1995. The International Association for Caucasian Regional Studies was founded at the same conference and some of the conference papers were published in the first issue of the journal. The last issue appeared in 2000.
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Downtown Whitby intersection study delayed
Downtown Whitby intersection study delayed.
WHITBY -- Residents will have to wait until next year for the results of a study the Town is undertaking to address traffic concerns in the downtown area. One of the most problematic intersections is Centre Street South and Dunlop Street West, pictured, where there have been seven collisions in the past five years, including one on August 27 when a 89-year-old pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed. November 28, 2012.
Metroland file photo
December 3, 2012
WHITBY -- Residents of downtown Whitby will have to wait until next year to see the results of a study the Town is undertaking to address a myriad of traffic issues in the area.
The increased number of collisions at intersections in the downtown core was brought to council's attention by concerned residents earlier this year. Staff launched a study to review the traffic volumes and speeds in the area and determine whether any changes need to be made.
"(The study) is reviewing all the intersection controls and considering various options for mitigating residents' concerns," says Suzanne Beale, Whitby's commissioner of public works.
"We have retained a consultant to assist us in the review ... I hope to bring something to committee after Christmas."
One of the problematic intersections in the area is Centre Street South and Dunlop Street West, where a two-way stop sign is currently located. At least seven collisions have occurred at that intersection in the past five years, including one this past August that resulted in the death of 89-year-old May Taylor of Whitby.
John Kolodziej, a resident of Trent Street West, approached Whitby council in the spring with a petition from residents in his area requesting that a stop sign be placed at the corner of Centre Street South and Trent Street West. The antiquated distribution of stop signs, poor road conditions and abundance of traffic in the area lead to close calls "every day," he says.
"We've gotten to the point now that when we come to an intersection in our area, even though we've got the right of way, we always slow down."
He adds that he's spoken to other residents in the area and they're doing the same thing.
"Everyone is driving scared because they know that there's potential for another accident."
He wants the Town to implement interim measures now before somebody else gets hurt over the holidays.
"They know where some of the problem areas are and there are things that they can do, like painting white lines to make the signs that are there more visible, while we wait for the study to be completed."
Centre Ward Councillor Michael Emm says he understands the frustration of residents but maintains that the Town is striving to ensure all concerns are properly identified and addressed with the utmost diligence.
"We don't want to rush it," he says, adding that part of the responsibility lies with drivers in the area who need to be more mindful of their speeds and obey all traffic signs.
"People are rushing through these intersections ... we can put up stop signs at every intersection but people will just zip right through them so we want to make sure that when we do this study, that we also do the traffic flow study, and that if we are going to make recommendations and changes, that they're done right."
Reporter Parvaneh Pessian covers the town of Whitby for Metroland Media Group's Durham Region Division
This article is for personal use only courtesy of DurhamRegion.com - a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd.
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Those area's are flaring up because of day-time heating. They've been doing this for days now, just like thunderstorms (strenghten in the afternoon and weaken at night). These two area's need a boost, in-order to become self-sustained like hurricanes otherwise they will just drift as air-mass thunderstorms.
-------------------- "I became insane with horrible periods of sanity"
Edgar Allan Poe
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When in doubt, take the word of the National Hurricane Center
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Bishops in the Church of England are planning on "restarting" the process towards ordaining women to the episcopate with new legislation that can be passed next July.
THE legislative process to admit women to the episcopate should be "restarted" in July, when the General Synod meets in York, the Archbishops' Council said this week.
During discussions at a residential meeting in Sheffield, on Tuesday and Wednesday, "there was agreement that the Church of England had to resolve this matter through its own processes as a matter of urgency," a statement from Church House said.
"The Council therefore recommended that the House of Bishops, during its meeting in a fortnight's time [on 10 and 11 December], put in place a clear process for discussions in the New Year, with a view to bringing legislative proposals before the Synod in July."
Members of the Council had "commented on the degree of sadness and shock that they had felt as a result of the vote (News, 23 November) and also of the need to affirm all women serving in the Church - both lay and ordained - in their ministries".
Those opposed to the consecration of women to the episcopate swear on a stack of Bibles that it was never their intention to derail women bishops, only that their interests would be respected. Still, their statement indicates that they are aware that they may have defeated their best hope for a mandatory alternate episcopate that must be imposed if a congregation simply asks for it.
The chairman of the Catholic Group in the General Synod, Canon Simon Killwick, and the chairman of Reform, Prebendary Rod Thomas, said on Wednesday that they had "received acknowledgement" from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York of a request "for talks to break the deadlock" over women-bishops legislation.
They said in a joint statement: "If agreement can be reached at round-table talks on fresh legislation which provides clearly and fairly for all members of the Church of England, there is no reason why fresh legislation should not be fast-tracked through the Synod before the next elections in 2015.
"It has never been our intention to prevent the consecration of women as bishops; our concern has always been for legislation which also made clear and fair provision for the substantial minority."
Meanwhile, Bishops are gathering to find a way to fast-track new legislation. Different dioceses are initiating several forms of dialogue to get feedback and perspective from laity and clergy. Ramtopsrac, blogging at "Because God Calls", has compiled a list of diocesan dialogues and meetings.
Durham, St. Albans, Oxford, Birmingham, Portsmouth and Southwark have met with clergy already, in some cases only with the female clergy, though in the case of St Albans all clergy/readers/laity have been asked to write with feedback Bishops in Sheffield were meeting their clergy last night Dover/Canterbury is holding a Eucharist and discussion on Saturday 1st Dec, which is open to all, not just clergy Ely Bishops are hosting Eucharist, coffee and discussion on Saturday 1st Dec Exeter are meeting Monday 3rd December St Edmundsbury and Ipswich meet on 5th December Southwell and Nottingham on 6th December Liverpool meet (with only the female clergy) on 6th December Chelmsford is hosting a Champagne breakfast (not sure when) Gloucester is meeting all clergy next week for Eucharist, with lunch provided for discussions with female clergy aftewards Coventry has planned a gathering for early December.
Church Times reports on moves to change the system of voting where delegates to Synod often voted against the measure in proportions exactly opposite the dioceses that sent them.
The campaign group for women bishops WATCH said that the voting among the laity showed that "there was a considerable discrepancy between the local and national voting patterns. When the legislation was debated at diocesan level, it achieved more than a two-thirds majority among lay people in 37 of the 44 dioceses.
"In Guildford, for instance, 70 per cent of lay members voted in favour at diocesan level, but three of the four General Synod members voted against. Had the General Synod members representing six dioceses chosen to reflect the views expressed by their diocesan synods, the Measure would have passed."
Canon Rosie Harper, a member of the House of Clergy (Oxford), said that people in her parish felt "completely betrayed" by the fact that four of their lay Synod representatives had voted against the Measure, when the vast majority in the diocese was in favour.
She said that there would be "much lobbying for change in the system" governing how the House of Laity was elected. She suggested that the process of electing members of the House of Laity should be reformed: instead of deanery-synod representatives' electing them, everyone registered on a parish electoral roll should be eligible to vote, she said.
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What's On the MV Iran Deyanat?
Late last month, an Iranian cargo ship, the MV Iran Deyanat, was seized by pirates off Somalia. Nothing particularly unusual about that; the region is a haven for pirates and by one estimate, at least 10 merchant vessels are now in their hands along the Somali coast.
Hijacking commercial ships--and their crews--is a lucrative business. Shipping companies and governments have paid millions in ransom for the return of their vessels. At first blush, it would appear that the Iran Deyanat was just another, unfortunate victim of the pirate trade.
But the Iranian vessel, its owners, and cargo appear to be anything but ordinary. As the Long War Journal reports:
The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking. According to the U.S. Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.
The MV Iran Deyanat set sail from Nanjing, China, at the end of July and, according to its manifest, planned to travel to Rotterdam, where it would unload 42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" purchased by a German client. Its arrival in the Gulf of Aden, Somali officials tell The Long War Journal, was suspiciously early. According to a publicly available status report on the IRISL Web site, the ship reached the Gulf on August 20 and was scheduled to reach the Suez Canal on August 27 - a seven day journey. "Depending on the speed of the ship," Puntland Minister of Ports Ahmed Siad Nur said in a phone interview on Saturday, "it should take between 4 and 5 days to reach Suez."
The Long War Journal also questions the composition of the ship's 29-member crew. More than half of the vessel's crew are Iranian nationals--a high number for a merchant vessel. The crew also includes a large number of eastern Europeans, possibly Croats.
After taking control of the ship, the MV Iran Deyanat was taken to Eyl, a small fishing village in northeastern Somalia, where it was secured by up to 100 pirates; 50 ashore and the rest on the ship. But, the hijacking then took a strange turn, as described by the LWJ:
Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died," Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said Friday when reached by phone in Mombasa.
News about the illness and the toxic cargo quickly reached Garowe, seat of the government for the autonomous region of Puntland. Angered over the wave of piracy and suspicious about the Iranian ship, authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4. Osman also confirmed to The Long War Journal that during the six days he negotiated with the pirates members of the syndicate had become sick and died. "That ship is unusual," he said. "It is not carrying a normal shipment."
Once in direct contact, the pirates told Osman that they had attempted to inspect the ship's seven cargo containers after they developed health complications but the containers were locked. The crew claimed that they did not have the "access codes" and could not open them. The delegation secured contact with the captain and the engineer by cell phone and demanded to know the nature of the cargo, however, Osman says that "they were saying different things to different people." Initially they said that the cargo contained "crude oil" but then claimed it contained "minerals.
Meanwhile, ransom negotiations between the pirates and the Iranians have broken off. After the shipping company was sanctioned by the Treasury Department earlier this month, Iran told the pirates the deal was off, in part because the U.S. Navy patrols off the Somali coast. And, in yet another strange twist, the Iranian press claims that the U.S. has offered $7 million for the vessel. At last report, the Iran Deyanat was still anchored off Eyl, and no one is really sure what's inside its cargo containers.
However, some observers believe the Iranian ship was carrying arms to Islamic rebels in Somalia. Tehran has provided sophisticated weaponry to the Islamic Courts Union in the past, including SA-18 surface-to-air missiles and AT-3 Sagger anti-tank weapons.
But a routine arms shipment wouldn't explain the sudden illness and death among the pirates who commandeered the vessel. As one official told the LWJ, "there are a lot of people interested in the MV Iran Deyanat and its cargo."
H/T: Galrahn at InformationDissemination, who provides this interesting footnote: Russia announced earlier this week that it is dispatching naval vessels to the waters off Somalia. Is a rescue attempt in the works? Only time will tell, but InformationDissemination (our go-to source for naval information) calls the Russian deployment "the most noteworthy to date."
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Quote of the Day: "Students of American history will recall that the important place where work gets done in the legislative body, almost without exception, is in the committees, more so than on the floor although sometimes more attention is paid to the floor." - Paul Sarbanes
Subject: Common sense
Each year the Iraq-Afghanistan spending bill comes loaded with extras that remind us how much we need the One Subject At A Time Act.
Because few in Congress will vote against a bill that "supports the troops," this bill provides an opportunity for legislative abuse . . .
- Four years ago, the otherwise unpopular Real ID Act was attached to the Iraq bill and became law
- Last year, $95 billion in domestic spending was added to the Iraq bill in exchange for Democratic support for the warrantless spying and telecom immunity bill.
The House and Senate conference committee will soon meet to work out differences in this year's bill. It is unknown what tricks they'll have up their sleeve, but the bill, H.R. 2346, is already bad enough. In addition to funding the wars, there is money for the BATFE, federal prisons, foreign aid, the War on Drugs, forest fire management, and other programs. The total price tag is over $900 per family.
Downsize DC's proposed One Subject At A Time Act (OSTA) would prevent the bundling of these different topics into one bill. Instead, each subject would be voted on as a separate bill. Necessary bills will still pass, but unpopular measures won't. The country would be spared the cost of programs most members of Congress didn't want in the first place.
If members of Congress had common sense, they would actually want to live under OSTA's constraints. Then they could vote for a reasonable and necessary bill without being forced to accept unnecessary, unrelated provisions. Whether the U.S. should fight these wars, and whether the federal government should provide more money for wildland fire management, are two completely unrelated questions. Members of Congress who support one but oppose the other shouldn't be forced to either accept both or reject both.
Demand common sense from Congress. Tell them to pass the One Subject At A Time Act. In your personal comments . . .
- tell them you object to the price tag of H.R. 2346, the Supplemental Approriations Act
- demand that it be broken up into different bills by department and subject
- insist that they oppose any backroom deals in the conference committee that will make the bill even worse
Our goal is to hit Congress with more than 36,512 messages this month. We would like to send at least 1,710 today. You can send your message at DownsizeDC.org's "One Subject at a Time" campaign page.
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how we're growing, check out our Keeping Score section under my signature.
Assistant to the President
We grew by 38 net new members yesterday, which brings us to 1,117 net new members for the year. The Downsize DC Army now stands at 25,466 -- nearly 47% of the way from 25,000 to 26,000!
We can also grow faster by doing more outreach to potential DC Downsizers. If you can start a monthly credit card pledge to expand our outreach please tell us on the secure contribution form if its okay to publish your name here . . .
NEW MONTHLY PLEDGERS IN JUNE: John Murphy, Jeremiah J Blanchard -- IN MAY: Don Matesz, Silvy Berman, David Jones, Barbara Baxter, Nancy Kovar, Ryan Ackroyd, WM Michael O'Brien, John C Houghton, James Alan Speedie, THREE unlisted
NEW ONE TIME DONORS IN JUNE: none so far -- IN MAY: Arlene Lindstrand, Dee Clary, Joan Garro, Jennifer Tarling, Richard Linchitz, Steven Palmer, Bruce N. Liddel, Ernest P. Eusea, Chris Reulman, David Anthony, Christopher T Wagner, Thomas Sartwelle, Jr, EIGHT unlisted
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Gabe Newell is confident about Valve's Steam Box running Linux, but it may not be possible without a little help from Nvidia's latest products.
In an interview with The Verge's T.C. Sottek, Valve's Gabe Newell confirmed that in addition to working with third-party manufacturers, Valve is internally developing its own Steam Box:
"We'll come out with our own and we'll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That'll be a Linux box…"
Source: The Verge
For Newell to confidently position Linux as their platform of choice takes guts. Presently, Windows is the default operating system for the majority of Steam users thanks to DirectX, Microsoft's proprietary software for rendering in-game visuals. Since Valve's proposed Steam Box will be in direct competition with Microsoft's Xbox business, in addition to supporting a competing desktop OS, it has a huge hill to climb if it hopes to elevate Linux as a viable gaming platform.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to doubt Valve's ability to do so on its own, though. The current Linux version of Steam illustrates the huge gap in software support: out of the 1,868 games available on Steam, only 41 are playable within Linux. Considering this, there has to be something going on behind the scenes for Newell and Valve to feel so confident about launching their cherished brand into retail.
Nvidia, one of Valve's partners in regard to Linux support, may be the key to its success.
During Nvidia's press conference at CES, co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed the next generation of their cloud platform, now called the GeForce GRID. Quite simply, GRID lets users stream PC games from external servers that handle all rendering and processing tasks to a wide range of devices. In this scenario, end users can experience best-in-class visuals independent of their hardware's specifications.
GRID probably reminds you of other services like OnLive and Gaikai: it's basically the same, just from a different provider. However, the cloud-gaming market has changed quite a bit in the last year. OnLive's fate is up in the air after a buyout last August, and Gaikai was picked up in July by Sony. This leaves Nvidia in an enviable position with GRID being the only independent and viable cloud-gaming service available for Valve to license.
It's safe to assume that anyone interested in a Steam Box will have access to a broadband Internet connection, and consequently, the ability to access Nvidia's GRID. Steam has always relied on digital distribution, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. For detractors of the cloud, the problem is that once the Internet is down, the cloud and your games go with it. Understandably, this isn't ideal for most users, but if Valve is up front about the limitations of a cloud-based Steam Box, it has nothing to worry about, especially if the Steam Box is cheaper than current- and next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft.
For some users, the occasional lack of Internet access won't be an issue--again, thanks to Nvidia. When Nvidia showed off its new handheld at CES, Project Shield, one of its key features was the ability to stream games from a PC connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, it comes with strict requirements: a 600 series Nvidia GeForce GPU. Valve can't realistically rely on users to own separate products for base-level Steam Box functionality, but it's an attractive prospect for anyone who already owns a modern Nvidia GPU.
It's also an enticing opportunity for Nvidia from a business standpoint. Though PC gaming is moving toward the living room, desktop PCs aren't going away anytime soon. If Nvidia can leverage its tech as the best suited for Steam, it can hit the desktop and living room in one fell swoop. It could even package Steam Boxes and graphics cards together, giving Microsoft, Sony, and ATI some seriously formidable competition. Valve gets the tech it needs for a cloud-based Steam Box running Linux, and Nvidia gets a killer partnership with Valve, a brand synonymous with PC gaming.
This is all speculation, of course. There are still plenty of reasons to believe third-party manufacturers will be able to build non-Nvidia Steam Boxes while maintaining support from Valve. It's a lot like the Wu-Tang Clan: individual members were able to seek solo contracts outside of the group's record label, Loud, without jeopardizing that initial partnership. Valve may also deliver a traditional computer with dedicated hardware that will be both small and relatively affordable, but it's unlikely if Newell's commitment to Linux persists. As an OS, it's not a suitable fit in the short-term.
With the industry steadily moving toward a "games as a service" model, the duo of Nvidia's tech and Valve's Steam is almost too perfect to fail, giving the likes of OnLive and Sony's Gaikai a serious run for their money. Still, one question remains: What is Microsoft's answer?
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Pictures: Tiger Science Olympiad
Tiger Science Olympiad
Matt Harshey, 17, a student at Northwestern High, left, and Josh Rarick, 15, of Kutztown Senior High, right, check the ingredients they will be using in an experiment as they compete against each other and students from other schools in a science lab competition. All students are given the supplies to create their own experiments and they must analyze the work they do. The 6th Tiger Invitational Science Olympiad at Northwestern Lehigh High School featured students from 16 schools Saturday. Students from some schools could not attend because of the weather.
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In testing iPhoto '09 for my full review, I plowed through more than 30,000 photos using over 40 identified faces, mostly human. Here's how iPhoto's face detection and recognition works—and doesn't work:
Apple says it uses facial detection to determine the existence of faces, and then facial recognition to separate one person from the other. The problem is, that first step is far from a catch-all:
• It suffers from the typical face-detection problem of an incomplete picture—it won't pick up all faces turned to the side, revealing just one eye. But far worse than that, it has a very hard time picking up faces tilted to either side, even if they're otherwise perfectly clear and symmetrical. In other words, if the year is 2029 and Apple's deathbots are coming for you, cock your head to the side, and they'll just truck on by.
• The other problem iPhoto's face detection suffers from is overconfidence. Sure, it makes sense that it picks up the faces of Mount Rushmore (well, at least Lincoln's) but it'll invent eyes and a nose from any old rumpled curtain or wood grain when it wants to.
Once you get past the detection, the recognition kicks on. Some people are already saying it's crap, but it's remarkable when it wants to be. How do I know it's working? Because on many occasions I have seen it correctly identify faces in frames in the background of a shot. But recognition has some hang-ups of its own:
• Once you name a person and click on their face on the corkboard, iPhoto suggests lookalikes, which you approve or reject by clicking. The first round of suggestions are mainly nonsense—iPhoto needs a lot of data to work correctly. Confirm the identity of your subject 10 or 20 times then click Done so the system can recalibrate.
• In the first round or two, recognition errs on the side of inclusion: A bald guy with a beard and glasses won't just bring up similarly described gents, but will attract everybody who is bald, everybody who wears glasses and everybody with a beard. In my experiences, the images with the closest resemblance appear first, but as you scroll down, there are more and more random guesses. When it comes to babies, good luck—in those early rounds, iPhoto thinks all babies look alike. Again, you approve the suggested photos that are of the same person, and reject the ones that are not.
• Once you've done a round or two greenlighting more accurate shots of the person, it's important to reject ones that are not. If you leave them there, iPhoto will keep on suggesting them. I found that, if two people look kinda alike, it pays to identify them both, and go back and forth between them confirming more and more shots, so iPhoto learns faster who belongs where.
• Baldness, hair color and facial hair are all strong indicators for iPhoto. If your friend has a goatee or some kind of fancy moustache, don't ever let him shave it off. Likewise, if your mom switches hairstylists and starts getting a different dye job, she may as well don full hunter's camouflage. For some reason, iPhoto had an easier time discerning the blondes than the brunettes.
• People wearing glasses cause iPhoto to suggest matches of other people wearing glasses, in some cases people who are otherwise comically different. But iPhoto seems to have a lot of trouble with glasses in general, and can't always grasp the glasses-wearer well enough to confidently suggest more of that same person. Sunglasses are obviously a problem for recognition, but people wearing sunglasses are often suggested for anyone wearing glasses, as if it was all the same to iPhoto.
• There are two kinds of recognition dead-ends you can encounter, where iPhoto won't suggest any more photos for a person, even though you know they're out there, and where iPhoto suggests an endless supply of random faces as potential matches, clearly unable to narrow it down further. Both are infuriating, and require you to go out and identify photos manually in hopes of jogging its memory.
• Pets are not guaranteed to work with recognition. I'm not going to slander the good people of MacLife by calling BS, but seriously, I can't get neither cat nor dog to be recognized in any way by iPhoto, and I don't believe it's possible. You can identify them yourself, of course, but the reason it doesn't pull up suggested shots containing the same furry animal is that it's not looking at furry animals.
The Faces system is technically a time saver even when the recognition is not up to snuff, because by batching the more-or-less appropriate pictures together, you can tag them a lot faster than you otherwise could. There are plenty of user interface problems that I will address in the actual review, but in the meantime, I will leave you with this: After heavy testing for half a day, iPhoto became shockingly good at identifying my face. I can only imagine that, given more calibration and identified content, it will be better and better. My biggest fear is how many photos aren't clearing the first hurdle—face detection—and are therefore left completely out of the system. Who would have thought that the recognition would be easier to nail than the detection? Not me. [iPhoto '09]
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Anyone needing proof that the post-PC era is real need only consult the recent sales figures: traditional PC sales are down 14 percent year over year, even as sales of tablets and smartphones -- mostly using Apple's iOS and Google's Android -- become more ubiquitous.
But even as Android adoption continues to flourish, Google has another horse in the race: Chrome OS. Chrome's mission statement is simple: With everything moving to "the cloud," why have a heavy, expensive Windows or Mac operating system acting as a middleman? Why not just have the browser be the OS? And that's precisely the reason it shares a name with Google's increasingly popular Web browser.
It's a clever enough idea, and one that plays to Google's strength: search, Gmail, Google Docs, Maps, Picasa, and nearly all of the company's other products don't require traditional software -- just a browser and a live Web connection. Still, when we last looked at it in the fall of 2012, we found Chrome OS to be promising, but ultimately not up to the level of a full-time OS. In other words, it was generally fine for a "second computer," but not quite ready to run your one and only go-to PC for every task.… Read more
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