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A new Hungarian referendum or something else?
Perhaps the faithful readers remember that a few days ago I mentioned a caller to György Bolgár’s KlubRádió program who came up with a brilliant idea from the point of view of the governing coalition: if the Fidesz refuses to vote for the prime minister’s seven points aiming at making Hungarian political life cleaner and more transparent, then he personally is ready to propose a referendum on the question. Bolgár liked the idea. So did I. I predicted that if such a referendum took place, Gyurcsány "would be the hero of the day" because the overwhelming majority of the electorate is sick and tired of the current situation. Sick and tired that parliamentary members don’t have to show receipts for their expenses, sick and tired that parties spend ten to fifteen times more money on campaigns than is allowed by law and no one knows where this money comes from, sick and tired of some members having a second job and not doing either well because they are physically incapable of fulfilling all their obligations. After all, the day has only twenty-four hours.
Of course, there are many objections, especially from those who are also mayors. Losing one of their jobs would mean losing money and influence. Their numbers are pretty high and roughly equally divided between the government parties and the opposition. The MSZP members were not at all happy. One of them, József Karsai, also mayor of Battonya, a small town close to the Romanian border, got himself into such a state that a physician had to be called! The SZDSZ was less emotional, but the proposal that being a member of parliament is a full time job bothers them too: after all, a university professor should be able to give lectures while serving as member of parliament. (I don’t know why. I can’t imagine, for example, that Tibor Navracsics can properly prepare his weekly lectures at the law faculty of the University of Budapest [ELTE].)
The media loved the rebellion in the MSZP ranks. One could already hear that Gyurcsány would be ousted by the revolting caucus because a certain parliamentary member–known for his often irresponsible statements–said that there is no such thing as an irreplacable man in politics. Of course, the honorable member is right in theory, but at this moment I can’t think of anyone in the MSZP who could possibly stand a chance of leading the party to victory in 2010 except Ferenc Gyurcsány. If the MSZP wants to commit political suicide, they can follow those who once already led them down the garden path when they insisted on Katalin Szili’s candidacy for the presidency.
However, over the weekend newer information began to reach the public that, after all, the intra-party rebellion is not so serious. Only the mayor of Battonya, whose blood pressure did not respond well when he heard that he might have to give up one job or the other (and perhaps there might even be problems with his very substantial agrarian business), remained a public voice against parliamentary reform. And even he, when I saw him on Saturday on television, was in a less belligerent mood than at the meeting of the MSZP caucus a couple of days before. Perhaps the MSZP lawmakers rethought the party’s situation, the electorate’s very low opinion of politics and politicians in general, the latest scandals, and changed their minds. If they don’t want to go down to defeat (and maybe lose both jobs instead of just one), it may be time to follow the prime minister. By Sunday evening, Gyurcsány apparently had his people behind him. They might not like the situation, but they don’t have a choice.
Gyurcsány, as opposed to former prime ministers, makes a speech in parliament every Monday, and every week he has some surprise. This Monday was no different. In a very eloquent speech he announced that if those proposals that need a two-thirds majority to pass are not supported by the Fidesz, the government will make a "meta-proposal"–to hold a referendum on the questions. In one of Orbán’s "constructive opposition" moves, when Gyurcsány speaks the Fidesz and the Christian Democrats walk out. Only the two leaders–Tibor Navracsics and Zsolt Semjén–remain in the chamber because they are supposed to respond to what the prime minister had to say. I must say poor Navracsics was in agony today. It was not easy to say something that would be both appropriate and acceptable to the Hungarian public that does want these reforms. He muttered that the ministers and undersecretaries should also make public their financial situation. But most of the ministers and undersecretaries are also members of parliament and thus their financial situation is already known. Moreover, I doubt that the few who are not parliamentary members would oppose submitting yearly financial statements.
Although I heard only part of Gyurcsány’s speech, he is (especially when the situation is serious and the business on hand is urgent) capable of giving brilliant speeches. This was one of those. First of all, he usually speaks without notes. He holds a piece of paper in his hands but never looks down. I heard him talk about his preparation for his speeches. Everything is in his head. He apparently sorts out his thoughts, walks up and down in his study, and that’s that. There are some people who are just born orators. I have met a few like him and they are impressive.
The question is whether Gyurcsány is really serious about this referendum or whether he is just using the threat of a referendum to achieve his aims in parliament. I suspect the latter. Whatever, it is a brilliant move. | <urn:uuid:d72d9924-79a8-475f-b7e0-7e73166bb392> | http://hungarianspectrum.org/2007/10/08/new-referendum/ | en | 0.980386 | 0.032461 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Monday, August 16, 2010
Hummin' Along
We made good progress on the spinning wheel yesterday, and even got it to the point of taking up some test string! In the photo below, you can see the flyer we constructed. It's made out of maple for strength instead of the birch plywood we used for the other parts. The arms are just dowels glued and hammered into holes in the flyer.
After this photo, I bent a piece of brass rod into shape for a delta flyer. Dad drilled some pilot holes and I hammered it home. It looks and works quite a bit like this Majacraft flyer, which was my inspiration. I didn't want to have to thread an orifice hole if I didn't have to.
I realized yesterday that while working with my dad on a project, we move through several "stages".
Stage 1: Data Dump
This is where my dad unloads all the ideas he's had whizzing around in his head since the last time we worked together. I basically sit there and try to sift through what he's describing to see if any of it is actually usable. He often comes up with 3 or 4 different ways to do something. This stage can take up to the first hour of our time together and by the end, I'm itching to get something done.
Stage 2: Get Movin'
We're finally done talking and ready to get down to business. We've decided what tasks we're going to tackle and actually start hauling out equipment, tools and materials.
Stage 2.5
Move everything back into the garage because it's going to rain.
Stage 3: The Lull
At this point, we've gotten a few tasks completed and have usually come across a speed bump in either design or fabrication. Dad wanders off into the bowels of the garage, his mind whirling with possible solutions. I begin to wonder who, in fact, is building this wheel. After a while, I realize that there are other things to work on and try to make myself useful. It's about this time that my Dad returns from his expedition with the initial problem solved.
Stage 4: Dismay
We may have solved a problem in the previous stage, but another setback can quickly lead to stage 4. It's also usually about this time that we start getting tired, likely dehydrated and definitely hungry. I don't want to work on the project any more that day and think we'll never get it done. My brain can't process what needs to be done or how to fix the problem we've encountered. Luckily, this stage mostly affects just me and not my Dad.
Stage 5: Hope
With my Dad pulling me through stage 4, we manage to plow through problems and make some tangible progress. Perhaps even, as happened yesterday, one of us is struck with inspiration that makes things a lot easier. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am excited again by the project. Unfortunately, this is also about the time I need to leave or am too tired to keep going.
The inspiration that lifted our (my) spirits at the end of the day yesterday was to affix the treadle to the front side of the wheel instead of going under the wheel and attaching it from the back. [If you're facing the spinning wheel, the drive wheel is mounted on the backside of the upright.] This simplified several things about the design and also helped to balance the drive wheel. We also were able to jury rig a quick treadle assembly and I could see what the finished wheel will look like.
For next time, to help move us through stages more quickly, I think I'll compile a list of what still needs to be done and come up with a plan of attack. Our disorganization is a big hindrance in moving forward with building this wheel. If I at least have an idea of what needs to be done in my head, I can keep my Dad on track too.
blog comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:e991006e-794a-42ce-a0ce-fa87d51c2288> | http://knitswithballs.blogspot.com/2010/08/hummin-along.html | en | 0.977505 | 0.030393 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
What to do when they say ‘no’
Doesn’t it just tear you up when someone says ‘no’ to you?
You’re hungry for clients, you know that you can serve, you have an incredible transformation to offer, and you take time to share what you do with a prospective client.
And then you get ‘No, thanks.’
How do you handle that?
Even if you KNOW that ‘no’ is just part of the process, and you know that you have to get ‘no’ to get to ‘yes’… the ‘no’ can hurt.
I’ve put together this powerful short video to help you handle the ‘no.’ | <urn:uuid:a44f3958-47ff-4c3c-af03-393f37389a35> | http://makeyoursuccessreal.com/what-to-do-when-they-say-no/ | en | 0.911682 | 0.026314 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
We initially started out to create a machine that created bent, breadboardable wires. We later pivoted to a wire bending machine. The mechanical system of our project has two main subsystems: wire feeder and wire bender.
Sprint 1
October 25 2015
Sprint Goal: Create a working, integrated prototype that can cut and feed wire.
For the first sprint our group focused on getting a prototype of two of our core mechanical systems for the breadboardable wire project working with motor control: the cutting mechanism and the feeding mechanism.
The first sprint was spent ideating around how we would prototype our cutting and feeding mechanisms. Our final goal at that point was a cutting mechanism that could be controlled. By controlling how much the mechanism cuts and combining it with reverse feeding control we would also allow our project to both strip and cut wire. For a prototype we adapted a manual wire stripper that was controlled by a stepper motor that adjusted the amount the stripper was closed by pulling a wire connecting the handles.
We modeled our feeding mechanism after industrial feeding mechanisms. Wire is fitted between two wheels: one which was connected to a stepper motor with high torque and the other was free to rotate. Both the feeding and cutting mechanisms ran into issues during testing due to the imprecise tolerances on the wheels(the wire wouldn't fit) and issues with the torque provided by the motors. The torque was insufficient to push the wire through at a consistent and reasonable pace.
Sprint 2
November 8 2015
Sprint Goal: Create a working, integrated wire feeding system.
TIn this sprint we machined an improved version of our previous wire feeding prototype, moving from an imprecise 3-D printed model to a precise, machined metal wire feeder. The wire is pulled between two wheels: one fixed to a high torque stepper motor with and the other, an adjustable bearing that guides the wire. While testing our feeding system we discovered that our new motors had enough torque but required a high amount of pressure between the two wheels to have enough grip to pull the wire through. Over the course of this sprint, we learned that 3d printing is not the optimal material for the final system and began to move away from printing major components of the design. 3d printing is convenient for prototyping but insufficient for production.
Sprint 3
November 10 2015
Sprint Goal: Create a working integrated product with the wire feeding and bending system.
For the third sprint our group focused on getting a working wire feeding system and bending system with basic controls. In particular, we primarily worked on first designing our bending system and then developing a prototype. Due to time constraints we ended up creating a 3D printed mount for our bending mechanism rather than machining. The bending mechanism was designed to work by applying a pressure against the wire via a roller wheel driven by a stepper motor. The wire was guided to the bending mechanism via brass guide tubes in order to maintain straightness of the wire and to keep the wire from jumping the bearing.
We found that the precision of the device was lacking. This may have been due to excessive friction within the system due to not being fed straight into the brass tube. Consequently, we are looking at solutions that range from minimizing the degrees of freedom of the wire to looking at the accuracy of the software feed.
Sprint 4
December 1 2015
Sprint Goal: Create our MVP by integrating software systems, refining mechanical systems, and moving electrical systems to protoboard
For the fourth sprint, we worked primarily on refining the current structure into a more precise and aesthetic design. We machined parts that were previously 3D-printed such as the bending mechanism mount and the bending mechanism itself to be composed of metal. Furthermore, in order to reduce friction within the system, we moved to creating a funnel for wire to feed through in lieu of previous brass guide tubes. We also designed a laser-cut MDF box to store electronic hardware for aesthetic purposes.
We found that 3D-printed material was not nearly strong enough for the bending mechanism. Our bending motor exerts a significant amount of torque to bend the magnet wire, which the 3-D were not able to support satisfactorily. As a result, looking forward to future projects, we would plan with the awareness that PLA 3D-printed parts are non-ideal for surviving mechanical stresses.
Final CAD Diagrams
December 15 2015
Side View Top View
Future Improvements
Some future improvements that could be made include: bi-directional bending capability, extra axes for bending, and improving the precision of the device. The bi-directional bending could be done by implementing a solenoid to control the height of the bending post, allowing the post to travel under the wire and bend from both sides. Extra axes could be implemented by allowing rotation of the bender and creation of 3 dimensional wire figures. Precision could be improved by mounting introducing a straightening system to ensure the wire in place and straight while being bent. | <urn:uuid:37b033f8-f0fd-49fe-bfaf-aa66b0b42bd5> | http://poe.olin.edu/2015/cutbendstrip/hardware.html | en | 0.954214 | 0.050329 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Saturday, November 25, 2006
concentrate on sex
Didn't he know that words carry colors and sounds into the flesh?
Anais Nin wrote what was eventually published as Delta of Venus for $1 a page. The pages were purchased by a wealthy patron never known to Nin. She was repeatedly chastised by the patron for being too poetic and directed to "leave out the poetry and descriptions of anything but sex. Concentrate on sex." These seem fairly simpl requests and some that undoubtedly could be and are met by women writing today. But, for Nin, it was impossible to separate sex from poetry, from emotion, from art. The sex she writes about is at times savage, unequal, and base, but never detached. There is always emotional presence, consciousness, desire, enjoyment, and fulfillment. The perspective is also undeniably female. She creates a uniquely female sexual/sensual voice that is at once at odds with even modern gender sensibilities and extremely comforting. Considering the nature of the project, the merit in these stories lies in Nin's expression, despite her patron's instructions and perhaps against her own attempts at supression, of the emotional and psychological life behind sex and intimacy for women.
She was raised on a pedestal of poetry so that her falling into the final embrace might seem more of a miracle.
You and I exist together in all delirious countries of the sexual world. You draw me into the marvelous. Your smile keeps a mesmeric flow.
She was a magnetic center for the world of women who considered themselves condemned by their vice.
Her cravings were vague, poetic.
Women were not as tolerant as men towards women who made themselves small and weak by calculation, thinking to inspire active love. | <urn:uuid:b87d00d2-cbda-416c-b5ae-80bee2129e50> | http://roseandhoney.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html | en | 0.985325 | 0.020358 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
22 December 2007
The Great Candy Debate
Yesterday marked what seems like the eleventy-millionth time I've had to address the issue of too much candy with Avery. I can't remember when it started . . maybe around Halloween . . but the kid is OBSESSED with candy. We made a 2-piece of candy per day rule in order to try to "be fair", but that just caused her to hide extra candy under her bed and eat it at will when she was up in her room. Then, just as that stash ran down December rolled around and the Advent Trees went up. These, if you're not familiar, are quilted trees with a piece of candy tied on for each day in December before Christmas. It's a tradition we had when we were kids growing up and that I don't remember ever being the highlight of our day the way they are with my girls. But what do I know?
Anyway, I'm not even sure how it came up but yesterday Ave let it slip that she had some candy hidden under her bed. I was busy keeping Lily away from the presents under the tree at the time, so it almost slipped past me completely, but when I realized what she'd said I kind of flipped out a little bit. Apparently her teacher had sent her home with a little bag full of candy after school today and she didn't want to give it up. I can understand that, but she knows about the 2-piece per day rule, and she knows how I feel about her hiding things from us. Was I wrong to be upset? I have been telling Avery for almost a month now that her obsession with candy and sweets is disturbing to me, and that after the Advent Tree was finished there wasn't going to be any candy kept in the house. Her dental work is already costing us a fortune and I don't in any way think that saying "no" to candy is unreasonable.
The fight comes from Mandi, who thinks that being too strict about it is going to lead to eating disorders and rebellious eating habits when Ave gets to be old enough to choose and pay for her own meals. Simply, zero candy = resentment = I'll get you back some day = obsessed about food = bulemia = anorexia nervosa = 83 pounds at 18 years old = heroin addict who purges 4 times a day in the McDonalds parking lot. I personally have a hard time going down that slippery slope. I think kids need to be told the ancient word every now and then and get over the idea that they're entitled to have whatever the hell they want. The ancient word? NO! We don't allow weapons . . is she going to become a serial killer to spite us? We don't allow skanky (read: typical) clothes . . will she become a stripper? I really don't think so. We are the parents, you are the child, you need to live with the fact that the rules aren't always going to be liked. Am I really far off base? I feel like by not punishing her for the deceit by tightening the restrictions we're giving her the green light to circumvent the guidelines in the future. Mandi says "I'd rather not fight about food because I don't want it to be an issue." I say candy is not food. I've tried to stop fighting with Ave about her choice to not eat whatever meals are put in front of her. I concede that it's her problem if she's hungry, we try to offer healthy snacks, and I make sure her lunches are big and full of things I know she'll eat. So I feel like on the subject of junk, like candy, I'm being reasonable to have "strict" restrictions. Or is it really possible that something like this can cause lead to lashing out and rebelling down the road? I'd like some honest comments and feedback about this. I can handle being wrong about it, but I'm going to have to be convinced.
21 December 2007
I Am A Celebrity!
That's right, mark it down on your calendar, today's the day my true celebrity status was realized! We went to Avery's school around 11:30, planning just to have lunch with her on this the last day before Christmas break (ughhh). We got to the classroom a minute or two before they came out, dropped the teacher's gift off and followed the line into the Cafetorium (come on, you can figure it out). So as we walk in I'm immediately mobbed by a throng of adoring second graders, every one of them screaming and looking all googley-eyed as I walked through the room. Mandi was thrown out of the way and almost hit her head on a wayward trash can, and Lily got trampled and had to go to the nurse's office. Avery, meanwhile, was trying to run interference and restore order to the scene, very deliberately lining up the adoring masses and quickly setting up an impromptu autograph table near the front of the room. A large contingent of teachers came by to . . . aww, who am I kidding, nobody's buying this anymore. Sorry, that was a fun little fantasy to play out.
The real story is that 2 or 3 of Avery's teammates from The Green Dragons came over from across the room when they saw us to say hello, and Mandi was giving me a hard time about being such a celebrity among the 7 year olds. I told her I'd gladly take that until my career as a well-known blogger-slash-birdwatcher took off, at which time I'd have to eschew my elementary school fans for a little older crowd. I'll let you know when that starts happening . .
20 December 2007
Recipes, etc.
Hello everyone, sorry for the long layoff. Christmas shopping, as I'm sure you all know, is extraordinarily time consuming, especially when you're male and are essentially clueless when it comes to the subject. I'm a very good list maker and checker-offer, but writing an item on a list does not equate to being able to find it in a mad house, er, mall at Christmas time. So it's not that there hasn't been anything interesting to post about, just that the 27 hour day hasn't been invented yet.
On the bright side, Mandi did the meal plan for the last two weeks (and usurped my grocery store trip Tuesday . . grrr), and she picked out some really good new recipes for us to try. I spent this afternoon adding a few of them to the Recipe List , so if you're struggling for meal ideas maybe give them a try. My favorite of the bunch was undoubtedly the Farfalle with Sausage, Cannellini Beans, and Kale. It was the first time I'd ever cooked with kale, and it definitely didn't disappoint. The Beef, Black Bean, and Chorizo Chili was also very good, although we replaced the chorizo with turkey-Andouille sausage. The result was not quite as spicy as it would have been, but certainly spicy enough and a lot lower in fat. Win-win there, and it made enough to freeze leftovers.
As for Phillip (a.k.a. "The Cat"), still no sign of him. He has not surfaced in either of the local Vet's offices or at the county animal shelter, but he also hasn't been scratching at the back door. I had hoped that the big increase in the number of birds in the back yard would lure him back, but so far it hasn't. At over 10 days missing, I'm certainly beyond any expectation (although not hope) that he'll ever be back. The last time he was out of the house he showed up at the back door after an hour, belly full of grass and more than ready to find a warm blanket or piece of upholstered furniture to curl up on. He'll certainly have his pick if he decides to return.
And in the last (and most exciting) piece of news from the last few days . . . drumroll please . . drumroll . . WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!! We sent the last payment out Tuesday for my student loans, leaving our mortgage as the only debt we have left. We have spent the last 4 or 5 years "Living like no one else", so that someday we might be able to "Live like no one else". Our lifestyle of frugality and sacrifice has paid dividends this week, and it's an awesome feeling. To everyone who's heard me talk about it at one point or another, I urge you to get started RIGHT NOW! The feeling of freedom you'll feel when your money finally starts working for you (instead of you working for your money) is incredible! Imagine yourself, much like Mel Gibson did in Braveheart, screaming FREEDOM! at the top of your lungs as you send in that last payment, and you'll start to understand the feeling it created for us. Good luck if you get on board, it's a great New Year's resolution (even though I am against the general notion of resolutions). But that's a different post . . | <urn:uuid:54ad87c0-1f01-4080-a16f-59b9508dfd85> | http://stayathomedadsguide.blogspot.com/2007_12_16_archive.html | en | 0.985747 | 0.036878 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Morgan Stanley profit falls on compensation costs, tax provision
Monday, July 20, 2015 - 19:37
[NEW YORK] Morgan Stanley reported an 8.5 per cent fall in quarterly profit, hurt by a rise in compensation costs and as the sixth-largest US bank by assets set aside more money to cover taxes.
Morgan Stanley, the last big US bank to report second-quarter earnings, said its net income from continuing operations applicable to the company fell to US$1.67 billion, or 85 cents per share, from US$1.82 billion, or 92 cents per share, a year earlier.
The bank's profit in the year-earlier quarter was boosted by a one-time tax benefit of US$609 million.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 74 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters. It was not immediately clear if the reported figures were comparable.
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Consolidated net revenue rose 13 per cent to US$9.74 billion, with wealth management revenue increasing 4.7 per cent to US$3.88 billion.
Morgan Stanley is focusing on stable businesses such as wealth management and backing away from volatile businesses such as bond trading as a way to free up capital and comply with stricter regulations.
Powered by GET.comGetCom | <urn:uuid:38706685-ab47-4dc4-93e7-e62423992cd8> | http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/banking-finance/morgan-stanley-profit-falls-on-compensation-costs-tax-provision | en | 0.952869 | 0.020611 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Once there was a lake...
The site of the Colosseum is in fact a depression among the hills of Rome: the Palatine on its south-western side, the Velia on the western side, the last slopes of the Esquiline hill, also called Colle Oppio (now a park) on the northern side and the Celio on the Eastern side. The Velia, however, has disappeared: during the thirties, the hill – which was in fact a ridge between the Colle Oppio and the Palatine – was razed to the ground in order to build the modern Via dei Fori Imperiali, the road that connects Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum cutting through the forums of old Rome. Mussolini demanded a straight road from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum, and that was the end of the Velia.
The valley collected the waters, which created a marsh or a lake, depending on the season. The small lake was fed by the waters of the Rio Labicano, a stream flowing down the Labicana valley, more or less along modern day Via Labicana. The stream can still be seen underground when visiting the Basilica of St. Clemente in Via di San Giovanni. There you can descend about 30 feet under modern ground level and walk on the cobblestones of old Roman alleys, enter shops and houses, visit a Mithraic temple and listen to the soothing sound of running water. The stream is still there and the water runs clear and fast, enclosed inside a conduct built in the 19th century in order to drain the underground of the church.
During the times of the Roman Republic the site was reclaimed, a drain was built to carry the waters towards the Circus Maximus and the area was densely populated with houses and temples. After two-thirds of the city were destroyed by the great fire in 64 AD, emperor Nero (right) used this land as a site for his new palace, the Domus Aurea (Golden House), which occupied an enormous area in the centre of the city. Many people, rich and poor alike, were dispossessed of their properties for Nero to build a house that he described as "worthy of a human being". It is difficult for us mere mortals to understand the magnitude of the Domus Aurea: there were so many buildings that Nero never managed to visit all the rooms in his mansion.
In the depression of the former lake Nero had an enormous rectangular pond built, surrounded by a portico with columns. The ex lake thus became part of a huge park provided with all sorts of amenities, including the most luxurious mansions, fake fishing villages, animals, water sources and fountains. In the entrance of his palace Nero also placed a colossal bronze statue of himself (120 feet high, work of Zenodorus), whose face was later modified many times to represent different emperors.
After the death of Nero in 68 AD, and after a period of turmoil, Vespasian came to power. The new emperor established a new dynasty, the Flavians, and wanted to gain popularity with the Roman citizens, showing that the times of tyranny and despotism were over: He made a point of giving back the area of Nero’s Domus Aurea to the Romans. The amphitheatre then – a public building donated by the emperor to the Roman citizens – stood on the former site of Nero’s mansion as a splendid symbol of the new political order.
The official name of the amphitheatre was "Caesar's Amphitheatre", but Romans called the Colosseum "the arena", or "cavea". Dio Cassius calls it "hunting theatre", but is a translation from the Greek. Colagrossi writes that Calpurnius called it "Ovum", the egg.
The name Colosseum dates back to the XI century, and it is origin is uncertain. The most popular version is that the name comes from a colossal statue of Nero, called indeed Colossus Neronis, that at first was in the Domus Aurea. The statue was one of the most visible (and arrogant) features of Nero's residence: a 36 meter (120 ft) bronze statue of Nero placed just outside the entrance. This monstrosity was built in imitation of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus was later dedicated by Vespasian to the Sun God - after replacing its face - and then affixed with the heads of several emperors, until Hadrian moved it near the amphitheatre.
The transfer of the statue in itself seems to have been an admirable feat. Discussion among the experts is still open, though, because some have argued that 1) there is no substantial evidence of the presence of the statue near the amphitheatre; 2) the name Colosseum appears only from the XI century, when the statue had long disappeared.
Another theory maintains that the name might have come from the Collis Iseum, a nearby hill where a temple dedicated to Isis once stood. And according to another curious theory, it might even be the corruption of Colis eum? ("do you worship him?"), a question that was part of a satanic rite. Legend has it that, up to the late Renaissance age, the Colosseum used to be a chosen site for performing pagan and black magic rituals at night-time.
logowhitesm.jpg (1572 byte)
LKraatz collism.jpg (20127 byte)
The valley of the Colosseum
Granet, Il Palatinosm.jpg (13773 byte)
The area of the Palatine Hill in a XIX century painting by Granet
nero2sm.jpg (12916 byte)
The emperor Nero
A reconstruction of the pond of the Domus Aurea
vespa2sm.jpg (11012 byte)
Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) | <urn:uuid:5b117d8b-0480-4fa7-9b3b-c4f541d56b97> | http://www.the-colosseum.net/architecture/lacus_en.htm | en | 0.962337 | 0.049071 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Encodings for SQL Databases
From: Peck, Jon (peck@spss.com)
Date: Mon Aug 07 2000 - 10:53:13 EDT
Most of the major databases now support Unicode at some level, but what is
the best way to encode SQL statements for various database access apis? Is
utf-8 expected/accepted? The context in which I am asking this question is
an application that exports various SQL rules for modeling purposes. These
might go to a file, or they might be passed to a database directly by the
calling application. Relevant platforms include Windows and all the major
Thanks for any advice you can provide.
-Kim Peck
| <urn:uuid:50381b72-1188-4628-a98b-7f97b59be3b1> | http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML023/1300.html | en | 0.842889 | 0.113317 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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wikiHow to Become MLG Worthy in Halo 3
Community Q&A
Halo seems like a hard game to get really good at, and it is, but you can become as good as the pros with some simple steps.
1. 1
Become good at the Battle Rifle. The Battle Rifle is the most powerful weapon in the game if used efficiently, despite what other people say. Mastering the Battle Rifle brings you much closer to become a pro.Four shots, with the fourth ending in a head shot is a kill. in MLG settings damage is at 110%, so you only need 11 out of the 12 bullets in the burst to kill.
2. 2
Learn to use all of the weapons. Even though the Battle Rifle is the best weapon in the game, there are more weapons that you must be decent at to become a pro. Examples are Sniper\Beam Rifle, Mauler, Plasma Pistol, and the Covenant Carbine.
3. 3
Use Grenades efficiently. You have to learn the trajectory, power, and efficiency of both of the grenades. Trying to kill someone with a "frag" grenade at close range will not help you one bit. Chuck grenades into rooms that your enemies are in to lower there health so you will have more of a chance on beating them.
4. 4
Learn to take out multiple foes. The Hardest part of being a pro during a match is being double teamed. Throwing at grenade in between the assailants will make them run in different directions because it is highly unlikely if a grenade is throw that they will run in the same direction. The point is to try to scatter the assailants or you might not have much of a chance. Or you could try to put as many shots on them as you can and call them out so your teammates can help you.
5. 5
Use unpredictable weapons! The Plasma Pistol, and the Covenant Carbine are both very good weapons. The Plasma rifle an take out shields very quickly, the Plasma Pistol takes out shields (and overshields) with its charged shot, it also can stop a vehicle completely like a Ghost or a Warthog or even a Mongoose!(Although there are no vehicles in MLG) The Covenant Carbine is more ammo efficient but not quite as strong as the Battle Rifle.
6. 6
Enable Look Sensitivity, this is a key role in Halo 3. Look Sensitivity allows you to turn at different speeds, be able to shoot more accurately and comfortably on the setting right for you, and overall be a better player. Try "3", the default to start out with and go up one notch every 5 matches or so. 90% of the pros use 3-5 sensitivity, but some use higher or lower.
7. 7
Use the Melee! One of the most important and useful functions in Halo would be the melee. You are not becoming a pro any faster by trying to hit someone 2 feet (0.6 m) away from you. An especially good combo to use with the melee is the Plasma Pistol (drains their shields) then punch them out. You can also shoot your opponent two times with the Battle Rifle, then beat them down for the kill.
8. 8
Trickery. This is a very "fun" and deadly tactic to implement into your gaming. One example would be sneaking up on a guy in a confines space and throw a grenade in front of them. Their obvious reaction would be to back away from it and go straight towards you. Another example is to run away from an assailant, turn a corner just to have another guy there to kill him as soon as he walks in.
9. 9
Sticking. This is a very effective strategy, by sticking someone, first, they're going to die no matter what and if your shields are down just stick the attacker.
10. 10
Jacking Vehicles. Jacking or Skyjacking vehicles is a perfect way to take out large vehicles that are obliterating everyone on the map. if you skyjack a Banshee you have now become a powerful player, you can kill everyone so easily. Using or jacking vehicles is the best way to win a match and rank up!(Although there are NO vehicles in MLG)
11. 11
Communicate!: Of course all the weapons in Halo 3 are deadly, but the most potent thing in a team's arsenal is communication. If a teammate is in trouble, or one teammate notices the whole team bunched together and you are holding a rocket launcher, communication can be very helpful there.
12. 12
Use Crosshair Placement! Using Crosshair Placement is the art of simply learning to aim by looking at where the crosshair is at by the enemy (i.e. You are in a BR Battle with someone and you don't think just shoot. With crosshair placement, you analyze where to put your crosshair and when it should go there.
13. 13
Strategies! Learn strategies for different maps and game types, E.G Construct, King of the Kill. When a bottom hill comes up, you should have one person in Close Purple, Sword, In the Hill and either up Top Gold or Open purple. It is important to remember that there are lots of different strategies for different things, Camo strat, OS Strat etc.
14. 14
Dirty Weapons! A common misconception on Halo 3 is how weapons are "dirtied," meaning that their spawns are delayed. I'll first start this by saying that no, standing where they spawn will not delay them, and letting them hit the ground before you pick them up does not mean they will not be delayed.
15. 15
This applies to both rockets and sniper. The weapons need to stay completely still for 2 seconds in order to prevent them from being delayed. What this means is:
16. 16
- If you catch rockets or sniper and stay still for 2 seconds, they will not be delayed.
17. 17
- If you stand on the respawn of the weapon, look at the clock for 2 seconds after they hit the ground, they will not be delayed when you pick them up.
18. 18
- If you catch the rockets or sniper and keep running, when you stand still for 2 seconds is exactly when the weapon respawn timer will begin again.
19. 19
- If you have a sniper rifle (say, the 12:27 one) and "catch" the ammo from the 9:55 one that will not dirty it at all.
20. 20
- If you dirty the weapon off of spawn, when you die is when the clock will start for the respawn of that weapon.
21. 21
For example, say I catch the rockets off of spawn at 11:56 and run until 11:32 then stand still until 11:30, the rockets will respawn at 8:30 instead of the normal time. The rockets will also be delayed the rest of the game, therefore the spawn times would be 8:30, 5:28, 2:26, and so on, unless someone dirties them more. Same thing would apply with the sniper.
Community Q&A
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200 characters left
• Practice on Xbox Live. That is where all the pros got their skills. Xbox live is good for practice, but its nothing compared to LAN. On Live, finishing headshots often don't register, but with LAN all of the connection issues go away and it almost becomes a completely different game.
• Never give up!
• Beat Campaign mode if you are just starting out, it will improve your abilities.
• Set your crouch behavior to "Toggle Crouch." In the game press start, game controls, crouch behavior.
• Don't stand out in the open.
• Try to avoid the Heavy weaponry. If you use it too much it will start to become natural to you to use the heavies. Unless you are ONLY going to use them against vehicles, don't even touch them.
• If you have a mauler crouch behind a hidden corner where people walk past and shoot them and quickly after shooting beat them down it will be an instant kill.
• If you do become good, tryout for a clan. It is better to be in a clan because you can get so much more experience.
• It might take a while to acquire the skills mentioned. Practice, practice, practice.
• If you do get really good, don't brag! It will make people dislike you.
Article Info
Categories: Halo 3
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 43,108 times.
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EU funds 3D-printed 'smoothfood' for care homes
• 11 Apr 2014
The European Union is funding a project to develop 3D-printed "smoothfood" for people in care homes who suffer from problems related to mastication and swallowing.
The project, called PERFORMANCE, is hoping to build on the success of German company Biozoon, which first created the smoothfood concept in 2010 and has since seen it be adopted in over 1,000 care homes across Germany.
For people who have trouble masticating or swallowing, meal times often become such a chore that loss of appetite and subsequently malnutrition can be a huge problem, as they start to dread rather than look forward to their next meals. Smoothfood has proven an effective solution to this, as it not only makes food easier to eat, but keeps it palatable and varied.
A smoothfood meal consists of deconstructing elements of a dish and then reconstructing them in a form that makes them both safe and easy to chew and swallow. Biozoon does this by cooking, pureeing and straining food, before mixing it with a solidifying agent and moulding it into the shape that would resemble its original form.
EU/Katharina Jaeger
"The look and taste of the end product matches the original food item," says Mathias Kück, PERFORMANCE project coordinator. "But the texture is soft and gel-like. It dissolves easily in the mouth so that it is safe to eat for people with mastication or swallowing problems."
Using Biozoon's original concept, the project has brought on board 10 private partners and four research institutions in order to develop a 3D-printing process that can construct food items layer by layer, along with a new solidifying agent to hold them together.
The EU has invested nearly €3 million (roughly £2.5m) in the project with the hope of improving quality of life for frail and elderly people living in care facilities. Specific focus will be put on adapting the meals to suit the taste, dietary requirements and nutritional needs of individuals. The naturalistic taste and appearance of the dishes is designed to make sure that people who struggle to eat retain an interest in food, rather than being discouraged by being fed blended-up meals, which are often seen as a solution to mastication problems.
As blended dishes take less time, effort and money to prepare, care homes have sometimes been unwilling to adopt the smoothfood concept, says Kuck. "This is why PERFORMANCE wants to bring the smoothfood concept to the next level and industrialise it. Only then can we cut costs and also make it available for home care." | <urn:uuid:06937a19-7098-4f10-95f7-30e5f0bd2078> | http://www.wired.co.uk/article/eu-3d-printed-food | en | 0.967393 | 0.039473 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
What is the origin of aggressive behavior?
Essay by Trent_in_ChinaHigh School, 11th gradeB+, January 2007
download word file, 4 pages 3.0
Downloaded 70 times
When evaluating aggression as a behavior we have to consider a person's intentions as well as the outcome. Elliot Aronson defined aggression as 'behavior aimed at causing harm or pain'. The act of aggression can be seen to be expressed in two different ways depending on where it is assumed to originate from. Those who believe aggression is learned behavior typically emphasize behavior in defining aggression, aggression must result in harm. Those who believe aggression as innate drive typically emphasize intentions in defining aggression, which may be expressed symbolically. Aggression is mostly viewed as behavior which causes intentional harm to another person.
The biological approach looks at the behavior of aggression as the result of heredity. Aggression originates from innate characteristics of human beings, not the from the environment around them. The mapping of the human brain to identify areas responsible for specific areas of behavior is evidence for the biological perspective on aggression.
Based on this idea of localization function, researchers have sought after areas of the brain with control aggressive behavior such as the hypothalamus and the amygdale. However the theory goes beyond research because much of this argument has been based on animal studies. Pain causing aggression is also seen as a possible biological solution to aggression. Stimuli which cause pain will often trigger aggressive behavior. Also seen that aversive stimuli can also trigger aggression in people. Studies of gender differences in aggression have also been suggestive of a biological mechanism, men are usually more aggressive then women because of the role of hormones. If aggression does have an innate foundation such as proposals by studies in gender, it is likely that it is the product of evolution. Lornez supported this idea, he believed that many human characteristics were based on inherited mechanism. Aggression to Lorenz served... | <urn:uuid:996a20a7-0ecb-46ed-a56e-399dc3b34fc4> | http://www.writework.com/essay/origin-aggressive-behavior | en | 0.965272 | 0.809515 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Home > Commentary > Commentary: Are rising interest rates a reason to be bullish?
Commentary: Are rising interest rates a reason to be bullish?
Some Bulls believe rising interest rates are a bullish indicator of strengthening underlying economy. I would contend that is no longer true for two reasons:
1) I think this market is driven by Central Bank liquidity (QE), not the underlying economy. Loans aren’t being made. There is very little worldwide growth. And yet, both stocks and bonds have climbed dramatically over the last 4 years. Why? Because the system has been flooded with money that has nowhere better to go (Corporations are doing buybacks rather than investing in Cap-Ex spending – a very bad sign, consumer lending remains very tepid, etc). In a “normal” paradigm, as he describes, a strengthening economy means stocks go up (more growth, more inflation) and bonds go down (less desire for safety of a fixed return). This paradigm has basically been broken for the last four years, as both stocks AND bonds have risen on a tide of liquidity.
The warning shot that was fired yesterday (and has been hinted at for a few weeks now) is a scenario where liquidity drains from the system and everything goes down in tandem. Stocks, bonds, gold. Never should all three be going down together. They are opposite ideas. If two are bad, the other should be good. For all to be falling hard says that liquidity is coming out, period. It’s not strategy, it’s not the economy, it’s a need by market participants to raise cash.
2) My view is that the economic paradigm upon which capital markets are formed has been deformed by Central Bank intervention:
“History tells us that the Market actually rises more than 80% of the time when interest rates are rising. Why? Because, if the Fed is raising interest rates, it usually is because the economy is improving.”
This quote was from a different commentary, and gives the correct textbook answer for what rising interest rates should indicate about an economy, and what he describes is how capital markets have generally functioned through history. It is how they are designed to work in theory. BUT that scenario presumes an interest rate that is sensitive to market forces. Ours is not. The Fed sets it, basically at their whim. The idea is that greater demand for debt means borrowers are willing to pay more in interest, which makes sense in a textbook (or real life, where the market and not a Central Bank sets the rate). However, our Fed sets the Effective Fed Funds Rate where it sees fit, regardless of whether demand is robust or slack (see: Greenspan 1998 rate cut). Market forces don’t drive down the rate due to lack of demand, nor does robust demand drive rates up. The Fed responds to its perception of those forces by adjusting accordingly, but the direct correlation that exists in textbooks is not the reality. What this has done, I believe, over time, is warp the credit market. By offering ever-cheaper credit in the hopes of spurring growth and maintaining asset prices, the Fed has allowed a massive misallocation of capital by never allowing “bad” assets to get fully flushed out of the system.
Incidentally, note what’s happened since 1980.
Recessions have hit with steadily lower and lower interest rates. And now the Fed is zero-bound. The Fed doesn’t have much room to raise rates before hitting what would be a trendline of resistance (2.5 or so). There is no lower they can go. If the best we can get is a piddling 2% growth with interest rates at ZERO for four years… why would higher rates help?
Some make the case that households have improved their balance sheet (see the chart below), but that depends on how the graph was calculated (and I don’t know). Mean or median? If it was simply total national income / total national consumer debt (the mean, typically used for “average”), remember that the top 1% of the population brings in 20% of the national income. So their incredibly low debt service ratio would significantly skew the national average, making it look much healthier than it is for the median household.
But that’s all fundamental stuff, and probably has very little to do with the market in the short term.
As for the charts, yesterday’s ugliness in stocks didn’t break support on enough charts to say there’s a clear breakdown in stocks per say. Another 1% down today would do the trick. But emerging markets are a mess, generally. EEM is sitting on at the “neckline” on a 4 year head-and-shoulders. Copper is also very ugly looking, and continues to flash warning signs. Junk/corporate bonds have broken down decisively. That’s another warning. But yesterday’s action in itself did not constitute a technical breakdown in the major stock indexes.
The chart that has most clearly triggered action is TLT, which broke down from a two-year head and shoulders. Rates look likely to push higher in the mid-term, which should be bullish for stocks. But if the last month is any indication, it is NOT. When bonds and stocks are going down in tandem (as they are doing again today, with violence), I consider it evidence that liquidity, not the economy, that is driving the market.
That how I see it, anyway.
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Collegiate English Midterm pt. 2 8th grade
grammar section
Transitive Verb
A designated verb that needs a direct object
Ex/ the dog LOOKED faithfully at the dog
DO->transitive verb->how/who/where/etc
Intransitive Verb
A verb that does not need a direct object
Direct Object
The main subject-
Ex/ the DOG sighed, then walked bact to the doghouse
Indirect Object
The second most important object
Ex/ the dog sighed at his OWNER then walked bact to the doghouse
A word used before a noun
(anywhere a mouse can go)
the mouse went INTO the box.
Predicate Word
One of the 2 parts of the sentence, the word that has the tense
i LIKE food
Action Verb
Some verb that you can do
ex/ Johnny JUMPED
Linking Verb
the verb that keeps the sentence going
ex/ Johnny IS singing
Object of Preposition
The object where the preposition is | <urn:uuid:1e1b57b1-d8dc-4a6d-b5f8-f2d2fb5f5755> | https://quizlet.com/3628524/collegiate-english-midterm-pt-2-8th-grade-flash-cards/ | en | 0.874229 | 0.595648 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Team presentation
Parietal gives a free access to its tools through the scikit learn (machine learning), medInria (medical imaging) and nipy (functional neuroimaging) softwares.
Research themes
• Describe and understand more deeply brain architecture by making a more systematical use of anatomical and functional informations provided by different MRI modalities. The aim of this axis is to provide neuroscientists with optimized means of localizing anatomical and unctional features in their data, by using new geometric and statistical strategies. This may clarify the understanding of brain structure and function.
• Understand the common features within a subject population, and then also variability, which consists in different amounts of activity, different structural organization and positions across subjects. Part of this variability may be linked to genetic features, which deserves particular investigation. Therefore, Parietal develops and enhances the statistical tools which are used to analyse multi-subject data.
• Understand the mechanisms of brain activity in some experimental contexts of interest. A particular way to deal with this is to use decoding tools, which extract some parameters that characterize the state, the activity or the perception of a subject from the acquired functional MRI data. PARIETAL also develops some classification and inverse problem tools to perform this decoding more optimally.
Comments are closed | <urn:uuid:e541fa6a-aa83-4b69-b609-21fb3194d980> | https://team.inria.fr/parietal/ | en | 0.933538 | 0.02078 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my name, picture or home page?
To change your display name, click on it at the top of the user list on the right-hand side of the chat.
• Enter the name you would like to use (using your real full name is not recommended).
You can add your own personal avatar where it says "Picture" after having clicked on your name.
• To add your own image, simply upload the image to an image hosting website. Imgur is one of these, and seems to work well throughout different browsers.
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To create your own chat box, click here. To create your own chat group, click here. (See Groups article for differences between the two).
Can I delete my group?
You can't delete a group that you have made. The most you are able to do is reset it, make it members only and change the password. If you leave it inactive for 90 days or longer, it will be available for purchase by other users. If you have a chatbox embedded on a website that you own, you can remove the box from your site by erasing the HTML code.
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Check the promoted groups on the xat.com home page. Visit http://xat.com/groups or click on the group chat tab. For official chats, check here.
Is there anything I'm missing out on?
What are xats/days?
xats are xat.com's official currency. To buy, click the "get xats" link on the smilie line. Days are how long you're subscribed, which allows for smilies in your avatar, glitter effects, and lets you use powers. For more info see xats guide.
What are powers?
Powers give you special abilities in the chat. These include blocking private chats from people you don't know, making your "pawn" different colors, or even allowing for more smilies and hugs. For more info see Powers.
Note: You need days to use powers.
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Read Safety for more information on how to stay safe online.
What do the colors on the visitors and friends list mean?
For a full list of the pawn colors, you can refer to the Users Guide.
Note: Some of these pawn colors are Powers, and need to be purchased. You can purchase these powers by going here.
What are those hats on some users' pawns, and how do I get them?
You can get a hat by buying Hat, one of xat's Powers. To buy Hat or other powers, click here. You can use many different kinds of hats.
For example:
• For a baseball cap, type (hat#t) in your name. To change the color, add # then the color code after it. For example, to make a blue baseball cap, you need the Blue power and type (hat#t#b). For a purple baseball cap, type (hat#t#800080) or (hat#t#rrb). You don't need color powers to use hex color codes such as #800080.
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• For a small egg on the left side of your pawn, type (hat#e). If you don't have Allpowers, the egg will be black by default. If you do have allpowers, it will be golden. You can change the color to whatever color you want, similar to the other hats.
Note: If you have Allpowers enabled and your pawn has the golden egg, you can not color it unless you disable allpowers.
• If you type (hat#g), you will have a black gift on the left side of your pawn. You can change the color to whatever color you choose to, similar to the other hats.
Note: You can only use this hat if you have received at least one gift! If you have not received at least one gift, (hat#g) is turned into an egg instead of the usual gift.
How many friends should I add?
You can add as many friends as you like but there is no point in adding everyone you ever see, only people that you will want to talk to again. The more friends you have added, the harder it becomes to find the ones you really want to talk to.
Can I erase my entire friends list at once?
Unfortunately, you can't erase your entire friends list at one time; you need to unfriend each user one by one. If you don't mind making a new account, you can do that and erase your entire friends list. If you want to make a new account, right click on a chat and click settings, then click the folder icon. Select "Deny" to delete the content stored on your computer by xat, and click close. Then, refresh the page, and you will have a new ID. You can then register this new ID to make a new account. Return to the storage setting and select "Allow" to ensure xat can keep you logged in on your new account.
How do I retrieve the password to my xat account?
Go to the xat login page and click on "Lost password" near the top.
How do I retrieve the password to my xat group?
Click on the "Edit" button at the bottom right of the page, and enter your email in the second box on the next page. Your password will be emailed to the email you created the group with.
What is $tealth mode?
$tealth, or stealth, is when owners or main owners put $ (dollar sign) in front of their name. This makes them look like a guest (pawn is green, and it doesn't say "Owner" or "Main Owner"). The owner in $tealth still has the ability to use all actions without revealing their rank. This is ideal for chatting with suspected rule breakers and seeing how they react to users who aren't mods/owners.
Note that mods or owners can click your name and see that you can't be kicked/banned etc. and know that you're an owner in disguise.
What if I'm locked out?
If you are locked out because of Account Locking, make a Ticket to have this resolved.
What do the buttons on the user list mean?
These are known as "pools" around the xat community. Pools appear when your chat has 60 or more users, to prevent too many users in one chat at once.
• You can also get pools on your chat group by purchasing and assigning Banpool and Rankpool powers to it.
Why doesn't nameglow / hat / bump Power work?
Please be sure you're typing it in lowercase. (GLOW) won't work for Nameglow, (Hat#t) won't work for Hat, and (BUMP) won't work for Bump.
What if somebody is breaking terms?
If a user is breaking terms, click their picture and click inappropriate at the top. If a chat broke terms, click Inappropriate at the bottom right. Do not report users or groups without a valid reason!
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Demonstration of getting a new ID.
To reset your ID, right click the chat box and click "Settings...". After that, click the folder icon and set the option to "Deny" storage. Refresh the page and right click the chat again. Follow the steps above but this time set the option to "Allow" storage and you will have a new ID. This also removes the alternative user profiles at the top of the user dialog when you click your name.
What does "promoting" do?
Promoting your chat puts it on the xat.com homepage, as well as "Widgets" and Group lists. It attracts a lot of users towards your group.
• Note: Please abide by promotion guidelines! See Promotion for more information.
To promote your group, see http://xat.com/web_gear/chat/promotion.php.
What if the chat name I want is taken?
If the chat is inactive for 90 days or more, you may purchase it here.
The price of a given chat group is affected by 2 factors:
Generally, the price is higher for more common words as the chat name.
The longer a chat has been inactive, the less it costs to acquire it.
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Registered names are typically 10 characters minimum (18 max) to allow you to be creative. If you want a shorter name, go to xat.com/name.
What are the official chats?
Check out Chats article for more information about official chats.
How can I get help with something else?
Visit http://xat.com/help for live help. If you are a paid user, you can open a ticket at http://xat.com/ticket.
Any notable anniversary celebrations on xat?
• Launching of xat chats - 17th of September
• xatech - 20th of September
• Trade chat - 17th of January
• Ajuda chat - 28th of May | <urn:uuid:c67dc8c9-11d7-4c82-b7d5-2c7edb4760dc> | https://util.xat.com/wiki/index.php?title=Faq | en | 0.902589 | 0.042503 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Under the counter-ionizer
Due to the visible, disturbing hoses, many who want to buy a water ionizer prefer a well-designed brand with an under the counter model, in which the actual device will disappear under the sink. In an under the counter ionizer the active water is drawn from a separate tap with a remote control over an ordinary outlet and the acidic water flows just as neatly into the sink without anything hanging in the sink.
Under the counter water ionizers have to contend with the following design specific problem: From the upper tap usually alkaline water runs from the top, acidic water from the bottom. If the water being tapped stopped, both types of water would stay in the ascending pipe, whilst all of the activated water, in good tabletop ionizers, is drained through the acidic water hose. So far, only 1 producer of under counter water ionizers has achieved to create a fully automatic self-cleaning system. This was required by us since 2013 . Therefore, I can currently only recommend the sophisticated AquaVolta® EOS Revelation II
The best way is to send us in advance a photo of the proposed ionizer installation via email or WhatsApp: +491792166231. So far, we have found a solution for every kitchen.
Philosophy of electro-activated water | Presentation | Dubai office
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Lindsay Lohan’s New Hobby Is Pole Dancing
Hey, whatever works.
1. The controversial star discussed her favorite hobby on her show Lindsay.
Lindsay / OWN
2. “It’s actually a really good workout. It’s really empowering for women to get to know your body and yourself.”
Lindsay / OWN
3. “I like doing that kind of workout and I sweat more doing that than I do doing yoga, or getting on a treadmill, or anything else.”
Lindsay / OWN
4. Why does the light bulb have to be red?
Lindsay / OWN
5. Also, what’s this chair for?
Lindsay / OWN
6. Guess she was inspired after she played a stripper in I Know Who Killed Me.
I Know Who Killed Me / youtube.com
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Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have been proving grounds for unmanned air vehicle technology, but they have also highlighted the value of manned fighters to provide support for forces engaging irregular opponents. At the same time, such conflicts have been characterized by weak or nonexistent challenges to airpower, so the most expensive attributes of a fighter that enable it to survive against high-end threats are not needed. The result has been efforts to expand the use of less costly ...
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February 5, 2003
I no longer live in Mendocino. Although the webcam is very reliable, inevitably something does happen. The webcam has been operating since 1998 and since 1999 it's been inside Gallery Bookshop. It became quite popular and is featured on the Gallery Bookshop web page. They didn't want to see it go, but I really couldn't be responsible for it anymore, virtually or physically. Some exchange of hardware, reconfiguring of software, switching to their server, and now it's all theirs. I'm no longer hosting the pictures on my site, so if you want see the Mendocino Bay Webcam, please visit Gallery Bookshop. If their webpage is not set up, here's a link to the current image. Please give them a chance to set the date and time, and keep checking their home page. They have the ability to display archived images, visiting their website will reveal all and you will hardly know the difference once they get their web page edited to display the pictures. Thanks for looking!
Bob Blick | <urn:uuid:b94d39ce-005e-4f75-a488-ffbf37455964> | http://bobblick.com/weekend/baycam/baycam.html | en | 0.973776 | 0.078121 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Monday, January 16, 2006
DVD Review: Evil Breed-The Legend of Samhain
Damn the makers of this movie, damn them I tell you! First off, Jenna Jameson is only in the movie for about 2 minutes flat, she's never seen in the outfit she has on on the cover, the other "star" that gets headliner props is Richard Grieco and he's in it for about 1 minute. However those aren't that bad because they make up about 3 of the worst minutes in acting history! Next, you have Ginger Lynn Allen trying to talk with an Irish accent and it's utterly ridiculous. The characters in this movie have you begging for them to die. Oh yeah, the ending is idiotic too. This movie should have never been released, the DVD's used to make them could have been saved for something more worthwhile, like Hellraiser 17 or something. The plot follows a group of students that take a trip to Ireland to learn about the ancient Druids and they become the main course for a group of inbred monsters. At least there's justice in the world! There's supposed to be an unrated version out there somewhere that has a lot more gore in it, but unless it was made with a different cast and and a different director, forget about it! 0 out of *****. Sorry folks, pornstars and horror just don't mix.
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Puppy Hell: The Horrors of Puppy Mills
Puppy Hell: The Horrors of Puppy Mills
The term "puppy love" conjures images of teen couples passing notes in the school hallway. All is warm and fuzzy. The term "puppy dog eyes" brings to mind big, droopy, please-love- me peepers reflecting innocence and loyalty. Both of these colloquialisms are made all the more appealing by virtue of one simple word: "puppy." Not only have we come to love the sweet little creatures themselves, but - let's face it - we love the word. Puppy.
Perhaps it is this image of gentleness coupled with the jovial cadence of a word we love that has served to mask one of society's most disgusting realities. For those not in the know, the phrase "puppy mill" might conjure nothing more than an animated, cartoonesque conveyor belt, spewing out tail-wagging baby dogs. From an I Love Lucy bon-bon factory environment right into the arms of loving families. For many, little more thought is given to the idea of "puppy mill" as place of dog origin than is given to the idea of "stork" as baby origin. Perhaps if we replaced "puppy mill" with a more apt phrase-"torture chamber"-we'd finally be able to stand up and say: "Okay, now I get it." Maybe then our cocktail-party chatter would be less about the dog-du-jour and more about the responsible adoption of, and lifetime commitment to, the dog-de-la-vie.
What is a puppy mill?
Let's start by getting that quaint old tune out of our heads and stop asking, "How much is that doggie in the window?" Instead, we should be asking, "Where did that doggie in the window come from?" And more specifically, "If I purchase that doggie in the window, what is my money supporting?" Because, quite simply, if the window in which that doggie sits is one belonging to a pet store, more than likely, that doggie came from a puppy mill. In a 2004 article in The Province, BC SPCA senior animal-protection officer Eileen Drever explained: "It's a fact that reputable breeders will not allow their puppies
to be sold through pet stores."
As defined by Canada's National Companion Animal Coalition, a "puppy mill" is a high-volume, substandard dog breeding operation which sells purebred or mixed-breed dogs. Facilities that mass-produce puppies and put profit above welfare, puppy mills create living conditions for their dogs that are deplorable at best.
Picture, if you will, a warehouse. Imagine, within this warehouse, row after row and shelf after shelf of inventory stuffed into cramped, makeshift cages. The "inventory" in each box is half a dozen or more puppies, frequently hungry, sickly, and covered in the feces of the "inventory" shelved above them. And above them.
But wait. Those conditions are the Club Med of the mill. However neglected these puppies are, their stay will likely be short, given that some mills sell up to 150 puppies a week. The suffering is not so temporary for the lifers. The "breeding stock" animals are imprisoned in overcrowded, filthy cages and repetitively bred-even inbred-until they simply no longer can, often without ever experiencing the luxury of leaving their cages. Minimal vet care, poor-quality food, and small living quarters make up the sub substandard conditions in which countless mothers give birth to hundreds of thousands of puppies yearly.
While a reputable breeder will work with one or two breeds in order to fully understand and care for her puppies, a puppy mill operator may crank out up to seventy different breeds. When the mandate is to produce as many puppies as you can, as fast as you can, and as cheaply as you can, puppy mill dogs are reduced to the status of widgets. According to Stephanie Shain, director of the Stop Puppy Mills Campaign for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS): "Legally, if an individual treated their pet the way dogs in puppy mills are treated, they could be charged with cruelty or neglect. But these mills are viewed as ‘agriculture' and too often, the agencies responsible for overseeing them treat them like they are raising corn, not pets."
In 2000, a particularly horrendous case uncovered in Quebec infuriated the nation. The mill was littered with piles of dead, partially eaten dogs, in corners, behind the barn, and even hanging from rafters. Starving adult dogs were found eating their newborn puppies.
So, what is a puppy mill? A puppy mill is the rude, ugly, hateful cousin of the companion-pet world. The cousin who runs the risk of tarnishing the reputation of every member of the family, even the well-meaning ones. The cousin whose branch you wish you could chop from the family tree.
The dogs in our own backyards
Perhaps the biggest barrier that stands between North Americans and puppy mill reality is our distorted perception of self. The Canadian and American public blithely believes that puppy mills couldn't possibly be as bad as "they" say. Because, we're civilized, right?
As civilized as the man who stuffed five young Rottweiler puppies into a birdcage and left them there. Naturally, but tragically, these puppies continued to grow and, eventually, too large to be extracted from the cage, had to be euthanized through its bars. This didn't happen in some far-off Third World country but in our own, tidy North American backyard.
What can be done to punish millers like this one? The first stumbling block in bringing operators to justice is that they actually have to be found, and this is not an industry that works in plain view. In Canada, animal welfare laws differ from province to province. While the law allows for penalties as severe as a $60,000 fine and two years in prison, such sentences are rarely handed down. As Pierre Barnoti, executive director of the SPCA in Quebec explains, in his twelve years with the organization, he has never seen a puppy mill operator serve so much as one day of time.
Barnoti has become an oft-heard and respected voice in the fight for the eradication of puppy mills. He is quick to point out the irony that, at 136 years old, Quebec's SPCA is the oldest in Canada, yet, up until only months ago, it was the only province with no animal welfare act in place. A mere nine animal welfare inspectors struggle to oversee a geographic area approximately six times the size of France. As such, it is a haven for puppy millers, supplying more dogs to North American pet stores than any other province
or state.
South of the border, Shain estimates that there are easily over 5,000 mills in operation. While some local shelters and governmental agencies do investigate puppy mill conditions and intervene to rescue the animals, in many cases, it's unclear whether the shelter has the legal authority to step in. Even when they can take action, the magnitude of the situation is often so overwhelming that solving it becomes a monumental task. When a shelter intervenes, they suddenly find themselves with dozens of animals in need of care, housing, and food. A rescue of as few as fifty dogs can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately, puppy mills are more than slipping through cracks. They are plummeting through craters.
The burden is ours
How could something like this not only continue but thrive as a profitable industry?
The answer is simple: Because of us-consumers who walk into pet stores empty handed, and walk out with a new designer dog. Or who see an ad in the paper and hours later pick up a puppy. Who surf the net and-wowed by irresistible photos-order up a dog as if it were a book or bouquet of flowers. In our obsession with having a "purebred" and having it quickly, we feed the industry. Pet stores cater to impulsive buyers seeking convenient transactions.
On the other hand, reputable breeders and shelters care where their puppies go. Alison Brownlie recently became the mom of Taz, a Border Collie-cross rescued from the Vancouver-based That'll Do Border Collie Rescue. Describing the screening she underwent before adopting Taz, she says: "The application process was incredibly thorough. Once my application was approved, a volunteer came to do a home check. Only after these two filters did I even get to meet him! Then, I had to wait another 24 hours before the adoption would be confirmed. The objective of the shelter is: No snap decisions! This isn't about a new stuffed toy, this about a possible 15-year friendship."
Breed-specific rescue groups like the one that sheltered Taz exist continent-wide to help match up potential owners with dogs that need homes. In addition, it is a little-known fact that a quarter of all the dogs in shelters are purebreds, so even if you want a purebred, there is no need to buy the dog of your dreams from a pet store when countless are sitting unloved in shelters.
The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) estimates that American pet stores alone sell between 300,000 and 400,000 puppies a year. If you estimate something in the range of $500 paid per pet store puppy, that's an astounding amount of money directly supporting the puppy mill system. No wonder puppy mill operators look at dogs not as "man's best friend" but as "man's best cash cow." And the cash is ours. As Shain says: "Puppy mill operators count on people to be so overwhelmed by the cuteness that they just can't leave the little bundle behind. But people must understand when they take the puppy home, they've opened up a space for the next one to fill." Put bluntly: "There is one really easy way to stop puppy mills. And that is not to buy the puppies."
Ignorance is not bliss. We can longer wince at cocktail parties: "Oh no, I can't hear about it." We must hear about it. We must turn our backs on anyone who cannot tell us where that doggie in the window came from. We must be able to say: "Okay, now I get it."
When it comes to putting the innocence back in the word "puppy," the burden is entirely ours. ■
Mary-Jo Dionne is a Vancouver-based writer. Her six-pound terrier Cowboy is a testament to the fact that you really can find small dogs at a shelter, while her dog Nelly, adopted as a puppy from a Border Collie rescue group via PetFinder.com, is a testament to the fact that you really can find the breed you want at a shelter.
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Comments (2)
I could not agree with you more!! You have stated so much about how I feel with regards to pets stores and puppy mills. Puppy Mills Need to be shut down!!!! The latest thing here in Kingston, Ontario is to sign a petition that will stop the sale of puppies in pet stores, which means they will only be able to sell shelter dogs. Of course I signed. I can only hope this works and that it is a step in the right direction for saving so many adoptable dogs. I have watched videos on puppy mills and what happens to these animals is unspeakable.The dogs are piled on top of each other, crate by crate, 3 to 4 stories high, their feces falling down level after level. Then when they don't sell them all , they end up in a pound (high kill shelter) and then they get the heartstick (which is illegal) They get gassed (which is illegal) They pile puppy upon puppy into a big barrel so each one smothers the others.(which is illegal) I watched these on a US site, I pray to God that this is not also happening in Canada. The public really needs to know what is happening in these mills. I also feel that a major task force needs to be formed to investigate and combat these puppy mills. All it takes, is to go on the net and do a search and you will find a puppy mill. I can give you a potential puppy mill right now... go to www.littlepuppiesonline.com Check out how many dogs they are breeding (I counted 20 different breeds) Now tell me they are not a puppy mill. They have a great family photo. is it real? Check out their whole story and tell me if you believe it. I DON'T. FOR THE PETS, Dawn O'Donoghue
Mon, 07/16/2012 - 21:23
I hope so, Nancy but I'm gonna leave that to Linds and Brent to answer I haven't heard the final word. I think his house tnniairg is job #1 these days, and the success on that front is going to determine wedding attendance likelihood ;)
Sun, 03/03/2013 - 01:45
Dog of the Week!
Meet: Bubbles | <urn:uuid:f9059381-86af-4d41-b4c3-831db1632dd1> | http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/puppy-hell-horrors-puppy-mills/269 | en | 0.963022 | 0.036477 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Pasta! Pasta!
The first year I was living in Louisiana ALL I cooked was pasta. Granted it was my first time not living at home AND not having access to my college dinner hall. I loved pasta so I would cook pasta ALL THE TIME. I would literally boil the noodles on Sunday and heat up bottled sauce. The I would eat leftovers Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. (Of course then I would change it up for my Frozen Thursday.)
After a while I did start getting creative and adding whatever I had in the apartment into the jarred pasta sauce, which is normally Classico brand sauce. Which normally comprises of adding capers and olives. Here's a look at my recent creation using Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce.
with Classico's Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce
I love Pasta
After about a year of eating this way I started to get tired of only making pasta, and pretty much started cooking it all together. I do occasionally make pasta still, but don't want to eat the same thing ALL week long, which posses a problem. What to do with the leftovers?
Now that I'm living with the boy, the leftover noodles aren't a problem itself. The problem really is the leftover sauce since the boy doesn't eat most tomato based sauces (he'll normally have his with pesto or Alfredo). So I've come up with creative ways to use up the sauce.
The first is really just an egg fried on top of tomato sauce. I do still add the capers and olives, and normally a little graded parmesan cheese as its frying. As simple as it seems I actually found this in a cookbook. It was published by the magazine Real Simple in a section called "No-Shop Meals." It's a great cookbook with sections on "No-Cook Meals" and "Shortcut" meals among others.
My version of shakshuka
You can't tell, but this egg actually had a double yolk!
A few months after first making this dish I went to Israel. Turns out they have something similar that is pretty mainstream. They call it Shakshouka there, and while they normally use actual tomatoes instead of tomato sauce it winds up being almost the same.
Shakshouka in Jaffa, Israel
Of course the other option I have to change up leftovers a bit is also from the same Real Simple cookbook, in the same "no-shop meals" section. They called this one "Crisped Leftover Pasta," which is really just fried pasta. Of course its fried along with the sauce (and if you're me capers and olives). And actually is what I'm planning on making for dinner tonight!
So I'm curious what creative solutions you have to use up your leftovers? Do you have any good "No-Shop Meals"?
P.S. I'm thinking it will be Kris or Danny going home on AI tonight. I'm hoping its Danny over Kris, but I guess we'll have to wait and see!
P.P.P. Daily Goods is giving away a bunch of Indian spice mixes!
1. I made pasta all the time my first year of college! In hindsight, it's probably why I gained 20 poundss. Haha.
I usually eat the leftovers in this house for lunch or dinner the next day. Eric doesn't eat leftovers very often, probably why, when I got home from being away for 2 weeks there was a bunch of rotten food in the fridge :S
2. I do love some Macaroni Grill. I'm all about some fetticini alfredo
3. Thanks for dropping by my blog!!
I do an italian meatloaf that is covered in spaghetti sauce. If I do the meatloaf and pasta in the same week, I use an entire bottle of sauce. :-)
4. I don't really have a problem with leftovers: we're 3 in my house, so there are usually 2 servings left which will usually go to John and I for our lunch since we cooked.
5. I make pasta all time. It's so easy and delicious! I'm a big fan of just throwing some spaghetti together after work. Recently though, I've started experimenting with other sauces. I found a recipe in my Joy of Cooking for a plain white sauce that can be spiced up any way you like! I'm trying to get a few new default sauce recipes under my belt, to shake things up. | <urn:uuid:7fe7d9c2-8613-43cd-bd69-b00c2699f54b> | http://shoshanahg.blogspot.com/2009/05/pasta-pasta.html | en | 0.973252 | 0.025806 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
31 July 2012
Hungary: still too many Jews there, it seems
It is not a secret that during the period between 1941 and 1945 Hungarians have done their considerable best to eliminate their Jewish population.
Two-thirds of Hungarian Jewry was destroyed between 1941 and 1945. More than half a million people fell victim to the labour service, the deportations organised by German Nazis and their Hungarian henchmen, the brutality of the Hungarian authorities, the death marches, the gassings in Auschwitz, the mass executions, and the terrible circumstances of the concentration camps. Hungarian Jews were murdered on the Ukrainian snow-fields, on the streets of Budapest, in the countryside ghettos, behind the barbed wires of German concentration camps, in the gas chambers of Birkenau, and on the country roads. Every tenth victim of the Holocaust and every third victim of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp, were Hungarian.
The mass murder wasn't solely a result of Nazi domination. The Hungarian fascists were quite active themselves in preparations for the slaughter.
Starting in 1938, Hungary under Miklós Horthy passed a series of anti-Jewish measures in emulation of Germany's Nürnberg Laws.
Jewish Holocaust survivors remember the Nyilas (Arrow Cross) Party quite well. The Nyilas' Jew-hate was so overpowering that they continued slaughtering the remaining Jews even when the end was nearing and Soviet troops were closing in...
You would think that with estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Jews out of almost 800,000 before the WWII, Hungarians would be content to forget their Jew-hate and concentrate on creating some kind of a new future in the free world to which they are now officially belonging. But no, you are apparently wrong to think so.
Hungarian political scene is leaning more and more to the Fascist positions espoused by Arrow Cross once. And a certain Ms Krisztina Morvai, a subject of a spoof on Simply Jews some three years ago, one of the leaders of openly neo-fascist Jobbik, is aiming to become a president of Hungary. No less and no more (for now). And here is another symptom* of the wide-spread malady:
The photo and the following text come from a Hungarian blogger, with my thanks. My friend, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, agreed to translate it for this blog post. So here we go.
This poster is not coming from a Polish movie from seventies. It was located at Teréz square in Őrmezőn neighborhood of Budapest. But everyone who will see it shall immediately understand that posters of this kind will soon spread in all parts of metropolis, covering walls and penetrating many brains to start acting there vigorously.
From the uniform that the young man in the poster wears it may seem that he is a member of Sturmabteilung (SA), also that the ideas of Arrow Cross' members are not alien to him.
The poster, in spite of the Hungarian laws and regulations, proclaims and proudly displays that it is Nazi and antisemitic. It also intends to be the Balaam's donkey, but we already know this, of course.
The matter is that the antisemitic posters appeared in the city that once was considered as an all-European capital city that deserved a more relaxed fate. In the posters you can see a big man dressed in Arrow Cross uniform with a sword in his right hand, holding in his left hand a hook with a Jewish banker hanging from it. The poster is inciting the Hungarian citizens with time on their hands to "join the struggle".
What are the goals of this struggle and what are its details? The answers already don't interest anyone. The contents of the poster are quite enough by themselves. One can assume that this war will start with a military organization and parades, followed by antisemitic acts, pogroms and rapes. The said recipe didn't change from the times of ancient Alexandria. Only we are living here and now.
Even the majority of the citizens with right wing views object to things like these. They too don't like revolutions, coups, murders and economic hardships that usually accompany actions of this kind. Even more they don't like the waves of bankruptcies that will follow.
People who spread these posters are, apparently, great "patriots" and are very calculative men. The fate of the country, e.g. its delivery from financial bankruptcy, depends currently on the decision of IMF. As the things look now, it seems that the decision will not be a positive one. Instead of trying to improve their country image and strengthen it to receive the required assistance, a momentary snapshot of the nation's life, as it reflects in the posters that appeared in Budapest, could totally destroy the creaking and falling apart cart of the Orban's cabinet.
The Covenant of Blood seeks to take over the control, even at the price of losing the country. In normal places it is called treason.
It is preferable not to describe the feeling of a Jewish observer of the poster. But these crazies don't really know whom they hate so much and whom they want to fight. The opinion accepted today in the Hungarian ultra-right circles is that there are two to three million Jews in the country. Oi - in reality there isn't even a fifth or sixth of that number, and only a few among them are practicing their religion, most live the full life in the community.
Relax. As we know them [the neo-Nazis], they will declare that a lot of people are Jewish, and it wouldn't matter that they are not.
To start with, sourcing: The source of the picture is the Hungarian newspaper Népszava - according to the blogger. This should dispel (for a while, at least) the doubts about veracity of the story.
The veracity is only strengthened by the translated above post itself. An objective reader can easily deduce that the author of the post is not overly concerned by the fate of the Jews. The main theme of his article is the possible internal political turmoil in Hungary and its impact on the ailing economy, as a result of IMF unwillingness to assist the Hungarian government in its financial dire straits.
(*) The text under the picture in the poster says: "Join the struggle"
More info (including some doubts about legitimacy of the story) from Elder of Ziyon. And from CFCA.
peterthehungarian said...
For the sake of fairness let's add that these actions of the Hungarian fascists are proudly supported by the European Court of Human Rights. You know the freedom of expression...
Anyway what do you except from the local Nazis if the local mainstream considers the Hizb'allah a legitimate political entity.
Dick Stanley said...
You know, I know people who are from Hungary, but I never met anyone who was living there now. Is it a popular place? Something tells me that it isn't. Big surprise.
SnoopyTheGoon said...
I wouldn't argue against freedom of expression. To give you one argument for it: would you rather not know about the Hungarian neo-Nazis? I always prefer things in the open.
SnoopyTheGoon said...
Hungary is very popular as a tourist destination. Budapest is a beautiful city, been thee in 2000.
Sara said...
I don't know anything about Hungary but I am very concerned about this attitude growing, even in this country.
SnoopyTheGoon said...
For some reason when the economy starts to go south, people start looking for scapegoats... and who handier than the J... Zionists, I mean. | <urn:uuid:f0d2792e-87f3-4b9d-9fb4-d61f58ecbf1d> | http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/2012/07/hungary-still-too-many-jews-there-it.html | en | 0.966147 | 0.073063 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Executive Director, Sustainable Tahoe | <urn:uuid:3ab5a0ea-a816-4963-96c6-16415cdc0c43> | http://tahoeexpo.com/geotourism/ | en | 0.896818 | 0.037741 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Saturday, March 2, 2013
The Dirty, Little Secret of Second Life
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
Alfred Hitchcock
Now let’s talk about this for a bit.
Is drama good or bad for SL?
please click here.
Anonymous said...
Drama in SL? I've seen plenty, and not just the occasional griefers. Three weeks into my avatar's life I met a man. We clicked immediately. Adored each other. Then the drama started. He was a womaniser. I hated it. He refused to be "caged", I hated what I saw as him cheating on me. To be fair, he wan't cheating, he was totally honest about it. We fought like cat and dog. Had breakups and make ups galore. But guess what. Six years on we're still together, and just before Christmas he made me his SL partner. Is that drama or what?
webspelunker said...
Many thanks for sharing your story!
I wish you and your partner much happiness together in SL!
Please let me know if both or either of you would like to meet for an interview.
Happy New Year!
Anonymous said...
I wont co-operate w someone who wants to start drama with me in SL. I have ended partnerships, relationships because of drama, usually in the form of jealousy, control issues, lies. The biggest drama was a relationship w a "man in his late 20s..." who turned out to be a 19 yr old girl! And guess what, she cant believe I broke up w her! Actually, gender wasnt the issue-it was all her LIES!
Shadowz Greymoon said...
Drama is just a part of life. you either deal with it, or you try your best to ignore it. Either way, you can't fully get away from drama, if you did that, you wouldn't have emotions. For me it depends on the drama that I want to be involved in, not dragged into. So yeah, Drama is and can be good, and is and can be bad too. Just shrug your shoulders, so F*ck it, and move on. That's what I do.
Han Held said...
Drama is an empty catch-phrase at this point. It means so many things it literally means nothing anymore.
When people say there's drama in a platform, they mean conflict, they mean emotional attachment. They mean that people care enough to stand up for something. Looked at that way, without drama there would be interest; it would just be a dull and sterile enviroment.
You can't have emotional attachment without eventually running into some sort of conflict -some sort of "drama". So in that sense, "drama" is a necessary part of any community -because without it, who cares?
Thanks for a thought-provoking article! | <urn:uuid:4a5a8285-dfcc-4328-875a-54be91987956> | http://webspelunker.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-dirty-little-secret-of-second-life.html | en | 0.944724 | 0.113628 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
2009-10-31 49 9
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Mosbach, in a field, 200m into Hessen!
thepiguy and Victoria took the train to Aschaffenburg and made it a whole 2km before running into tire troubles (whoever invented the presta valve should be shot.) They continued on their way and got to the geohash without being run down by any of the traffic. True to thepiguy's nature they took the newly discovered bike path along the river back to the train station. | <urn:uuid:349a3282-f1a9-441f-8e51-5709d82134c7> | http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/2009-10-31_49_9 | en | 0.910139 | 0.019361 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
English version
speculate in Business basics topic
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishspeculatespec‧u‧late /ˈspekjəleɪt/ ●○○ verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]GUESS to guess about the possible causes or effects of something, without knowing all the facts or details She refused to speculate.speculate on/about (why/what etc) Jones refused to speculate about what might happen.speculate that Some analysts speculated that jobs will be lost.2 [intransitive]BFBB to buy goods, property, shares in a company etc, hoping that you will make a large profit when you sell themspeculate in/on He speculated in stocks.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
speculateWe don't know why the prehistoric stone circles were built. We can only speculate.Party insiders had speculated about competition between Symington and Woods to lead the delegation.People have been speculating about interstellar flight for years.Wall Street had speculated earlier this week that Kodak would unload the unprofitable unit.Terry speculated heavily in mining shares and lost a lot of money.Builders and developers themselves may also speculate in land in this way.Her father made his money speculating on the New York Stock Exchange.Edward began to speculate on what life would be like if he were single again.He speculated that the people down south in San Diego just don't know who Bob Farner is.Edouard, who had had plenty of time to speculate, was still surprised by her arrival.speculate thatScientists speculate that a giant asteroid hit Earth millions of years ago.Some experts speculate that a Perot candidacy would hurt the Dole-Kemp ticket more than Clinton in November.But he and some other scientists speculate that microbes may once have dwelled in Martian bodies of water.At another he speculates that none of them knew much about news or editing.Expert witnesses speculated that the number of cases of leprosy in the country was between 500 and 2,500.Some speculated that this may have been a product of trying to create a hypertext and converting that into text.It is possible to speculate that this system might enter a region of chaotic behavior in vivo.speculate in/onPolice would not speculate on a motive, except to say that Avanesian had a long-running dispute with his wife.Builders and developers themselves may also speculate in land in this way.They speculated on Luke's future standing in the community after he was discharged from hospital.But he also speculated on much wider issues.That is their secret, and will remain so; it behoves us not to pry, only to speculate in passing.In the absence of systematic research on these questions one can only speculate on the likely consequences of changes in employment practices.Without much else to do, they speculate on when and with whom she will lose her virginity.We can speculate on why great things are often accomplished in dull or tacky surroundings. | <urn:uuid:ee7f70fc-f602-4d31-a814-da6a90e32aae> | http://www.ldoceonline.com/Business%20basics-topic/speculate | en | 0.963636 | 0.029348 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
August 27, 2008
Forget Heathrow, Expand Newcastle
THE recent report by the Policy Exchange, which suggested that regeneration money spent in the North was largely wasted, and people should be encouraged to move South instead, predictably caused a furore in this area.
I am not going to add to this.
Plenty of other people have sounded off. What I am going to do is take the argument on.
We need to engage with the arguments put forward, rather than simply denounce them. The report is actually about cities, and argues that it looks at "what is possible and what is not, about what works and what does not". That is a sentiment with which I would certainly agree.
The second part of the report, which has been less well publicised, states: "We propose that the Government should roll up current regeneration funding streams and allocate the money to local authorities according to a simple formula based on the inverse of their average income levels." (In other words the worst off would get most.) Sounds attractive. An area like the one where I live would do well. But let us think it through a bit.
The problem with the North East, and other areas which used to rely on industry, is the lack of diverse career opportunities, particularly in the knowledge and media based industries. Traditionally, London has always been a financial centre and that is not likely to change, but other industries such as advertising, film making, and IT-linked industries do not have to locate in any part of the country, and these industries provide interesting career opportunities, particularly for the young. So how do we get them to come here?
The North East has excellent schools and universities, but the problem is many of the graduates leave for the South because of the lack of career opportunities here.
London is near Europe, where most of our markets are. The North East is not very big and we need to link with other places where people are. Most people in business and industry agree that if we are to improve our prospects we need to improve our transport links, both to the rest of the United Kingdom and to Europe.
So, forget about the third runway at Heathrow, and expand Newcastle and Teesside airports. Much of the present traffic into Heathrow is connecting flights with other parts of the country, and if there were more direct flights to regional airports there would be less need for these.
Better rail links would also reduce the need for internal flights. It would benefit the environment and the only losers would be BAA's shops.
We need to look seriously at the possibility of a new high speed line to the North East if the present one is overloaded. These are things that national governments have to do, not individual councils.
So why should people in the South support such ideas, if they mean spending more money away from London? Most of them think the city is already overcrowded, with a transport system that finds it hard to cope. There is vigorous opposition to plans to build new "eco-towns" near London, and what countryside is left round London is strongly defended.
The proposed third runway at Heathrow is unpopular too.
People might actually welcome schemes to promote development outside the South East to relieve the pressure on it. Have the authors of the reports actually asked people in the areas round London as well as Oxford and Cambridge what they think of the proposals to expand these cities?
I am very proud of what councils in the North East have done to regenerate the area and make it a better place to live. A cash bonanza for local councils might sound attractive, but it is not going to solve our problems. Better transport links would and help the South East too.
David Taylor-Gooby is a Labour councillor in Peterlee, County Durham
The problem with areas that used to rely on industry is the lack of diverse career opportunities.
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6'10" Stanley Player Stands above rest
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Whether it's sitting in study hall, marching in band practice or on the basketball court, Evan Anderson sticks out.
It probably helps that he wears a size 18 shoe and stands 6 feet 10 inches tall.
"I've always been a head taller than everyone else," Anderson says.
Division 1 universities are taking notice and contacting him about playing basketball at their school.
"I went to Wisconsin and took a tour of the Kohl Center and went down to Marquette and talked to the coaches there," Anderson adds.
All of this before he's even played a game of high school basketball.
Evan's only 14 and is just in eighth grade, meaning there still is a chance he could grow more.
"I hope so," he says smiling.
Evan wasn't a basketball fan until his elementary school coach got him out on the court.
Even then, he didn't think he was any different than anyone else.
"I just thought I was just another player who scored more than everyone else," he says.
But his high school coach and social studies teacher sees his ability and has already been given the nickname, 'Iceberg'.
"He's just scratched the tip of the iceberg of what he can do. He's got a world of potential," Stanley-Boyd High School basketball coach Brian Rogers says.
Most people would think someone 6'10" would have tall parents, but Evan stands a foot taller than his father.
"He's always looking up at me," Anderson adds.
Not too many stores carry the 6'10" line, so clothes shopping is a little tough.
"I like wearing shorts because in pants there aren't many so if you find them you have to buy them. No matter how ugly they are," he says.
And the shoes?
Evan balances school with his travelling AAU team and still maintains a "B" average and his humility.
"He knows there's a lot of people watching him and he doesn't let it affect him," Rogers says.
Next year Evan hopes to play on the school's varsity team with his brother Jon. A 6'1" senior guard.
"It presents a lot of interesting opportunities," Rogers adds.
Evan's first dunk came last year and he didn't take long to make it count. One shattering a backboard in the gym.
"All my friends got their cell phones out and started taking pictures," Anderson says.
Evan will probably get used to more cameras as he makes his way through high school, but for now he's learning how to march in the middle school band.
But Evan and his coaches prefer his marching down the court and dunking on opponents. | <urn:uuid:9b98fb24-14b1-4f19-bde3-08ecb4d525fe> | http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/2841976.html | en | 0.991234 | 0.117425 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
How Do I Choose the Best Ultrasonic Tester?
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• Last Modified Date: 22 March 2017
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An ultrasonic tester, also known as a hardness tester, is used to check how hard or thick something is by touching the probe to a surface; this also can reveal internal flaws. If you are running the probe over the surface of a wall or part, the number of readings per second may be significant in ensuring the device displays the correct thickness measurement. Ultrasonic tester units are sometimes used on parts that are too delicate for more invasive testing methods, so the strength of the waves may be important. Some tester units have a minimum and maximum range, which can be important when dealing with very thin or thick materials. To help work with the thickness measurements, a universal serial bus (USB) port may be helpful in downloading readings to a computer.
If you have a large area to measure for thickness, then one way to accurately measure that area is to run the probe section of the ultrasonic tester over the area's surface. To ensure the measurement is accurate when quickly sweeping over the surface, the number of maximum measurements per second may be important. For example, if the number of measurements per second is two, then you may have to move very slowly for truly accurate readings; a device with 10 or more readings per second will allow you to move quicker.
One common reason for using an ultrasonic tester is to measure the thickness of very delicate parts. To ensure that parts maintain their integrity, it may be good to check the strength of the waves from the device. Softer waves are usually better for this purpose, though they may not work as well on thicker surfaces. The wave strength is usually displayed as pressure force.
Most ultrasonic tester units have a minimum and maximum thickness that they can measure. For example, if the maximum thickness for a device is 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) but the surface you want to measure is thicker than that, then you most likely will not receive accurate results. The minimum thickness measurement is typically 0.04 inch (1 millimeter), but some specialty devices may be made for thinner surfaces.
An ultrasonic tester is normally capable of storing thickness measurements, but the numbers may not be very effective in the tester unit. If the tester has a USB port, then it should be able to transfer the measurements to a computer, where they can be plugged into programs. This is not necessary for common operations and may only be useful for extensive measurements, though it also may help if the area has varying thicknesses.
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Gabbi 1.29.0
Gabbi is a python-based testing tool that can be used to declaratively test HTTP APIs using a YAML-based format.
Gabbi 1.29.0 has just been released. Since it has been some time since the last posting about gabbi here are some updates on how things have changed in the past few months.
For a brief summary of everything since 1.0, you can see the Release Notes.
urllib3 instead of httplib2
The inner workings of gabbi is a series of HTTP requests. In the earliest versions these were performed by the httplib2 library. I've always loved the essential simplicity of httplib2 but of late it has not received much maintenance.
Meanwhile requests and its lower level library urllib3 have become the defacto HTTP client tools for Python.
So now gabbi uses that.
Support for pytest
Gabbi was born in the OpenStack world. There the massive continuous integration system is firmly devoted to testrepository and subunit. To avoid complexity and delays, gabbi was originally built to be aligned with those tools. This meant taking on something of a classic Python unitest form.
And not working with pytest.
I've always loved the essential simplicity of pytest... I wanted to be sure to be get gabbi working with it, especially since gabbi is based on something I did in TiddlyWeb several years ago using what are called "yield tests" in pytest. In version 1.17.0 of gabbi support for pytest was released.
...but of late is has lost some of that simplicity.
When pytest 3.0 was released, yield tests were deprecated. Running gabbi tests from pytest would spew a bunch of warnings about how they would stop working in 4.0. In version 1.29.0 a new way of doing things that avoids the warnings has been released.
It's still not properly the canonical pytest-way, but with luck we'll get there eventually.
Content Handlers
From the outset, gabbi was designed to support testing of JSON-based APIs. JSONPath support has been built in from the start. With the advent of Content Handlers it is now easy to add extensions to gabbi to manage and evaluate request and response bodies in different formats.
Content Handlers are an interface to load and dump a specific content-type and perform tests against the data.
gabbihtml provides an (incomplete) example. It has two main features:
• structured information represented in the data test key can be loaded and sent as an application/x-www-form-urlencoded string
• HTML response bodies can be parsed to a DOM and evaluted using a css-selector style syntax.
The test file may be illuminating.
Updates to gabbi-run
gabbi-run provides a command line tool to run gabbi tests against any running web server. There have been several changes to make it more effective:
• It can now accept a list of filenames as command line arguments, instead of only taking data from stdin.
• Files loaded with <@ are pathnames relative to the directory of the currently loaded file (or the current working directory if reading from stdin). In the past, files were only in the current directory.
• There's now a --verbose flag which will cause all tests in a session to output more information about the requests being made.
The above changes achieve most of the goals set out in Planning Gabbi 2.0 so why isn't there a 2.0? Because all the changes have been made in backwards compatible way. A gabbi YAML file created in the early days will still work.
There are still quite a number of things to do to make gabbi excellent. Some of those things are listed on the ideas page in the wiki. Most changes are related to cleaning up the structure of the code to:
• make it less tied to unittest
• do pytest dynamic test generation in a way that is more aligned with modern pytest techniques
• separate concerns so the code is more composable and comprehensible
If you have suggestions, questions, or want to help, leave a comment here, make an issue, or join us in #gabbi on freenode IRC.
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3 OS X issues that are bugging the everlivingcrap out of me....
Discussion in 'macOS' started by Draddy, May 14, 2008.
1. Draddy macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2007
seriously... why do these problems exist? these are stupid freaking problems to have.
just incase you were wondering... I have a 3 week old fresh install of OS X 10.5 on my computer with the latest updates.
1st and MOST annoying. within 5 minutes of starting up (from a shutdown state) All of my upper right hand options are greyed out..... airport, bluetooth, date, everything. what in the world!? the only way to fix this is to shutdown and do a PMU reset, and then within 5 minutes, they grey out again. ( and NEVER come back.)
2nd and 2nd most annoying: the battery popup warning will not go away.. (the reserved power thing) no matter how many times you click "okay" it makes a chime and stays there...
3rd and 3rd most annoying: (might be related to the one above) my sleep FInally has been working reliably... if I close the lid... it does go to sleep (didn't used to) but now, at the end of my battery life (with the clock saying about 4 minutes left) the computer just cuts power..... no warning, no sleep, no dark screen no nothing... at 4-6 minutes left, my computer just cuts power.
In addition to that one, if I only have 5% left at night, and I don't plug it up, when I wake up (with the 3% drain every 12 hours or whatever it is) the computer is turned off... not in sleep mode.
so basically it's really easy to loose whatever project I was working on. Neither of these result in the grey loading screen it used to when it stored the contents on the memory on the drive before sleeping. (oh and it still takes 3 minutes for the computer to go to sleep when I close the lid... so it is writing to the disk still.
I would really appreciate some troubleshooting help if you guys don't mind.
Attached Files:
2. JNB macrumors 604
Oct 7, 2004
In a Hell predominately of my own making
If you're still under warranty, get thee to an Apple Store (or Authorized equivalent). #1 & #2 sound like they should be looked at by the mothership.
As for #3, why do you run the battery down so far (sounds like repeatedly)? Just plug the dem thing in. Deep-cycling/conditioning the battery doesn't need to be done very often. I run from the mains a good 90% of the time. I condition it about every three months or so, and rarely get below 65% any other time. My year-old MB's battery now has a greater capacity than the day I bought it, by a fair margin.
3. Consultant macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
1: sounds like you have a hardware problem
2: Hardware problem? Perhaps you killed your battery?
3: unlikely to lose any work, due to the "Safe Sleep" feature on recent Macs. (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302477) All recent Macs save contents of memory to the harddrive when sleeping, and restored when powered on.
4. err404 macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2007
Some of number 3 is normal. Sleep is not the same as off. A charge is still pulled from the battery to maintain minimal functions like monitoring the USB ports and keeping the RAM charged. I lose 5-10% of my battery life while in sleep overnight. This is really very good compared to many other notebook brands and on a full change it should happily stay asleep for days on end with an instant on when you return.
However everything else you mention is abnormal. My MBP (of the same generation) goes to sleep and wakes up in seconds. It never writes back to the HDD just to go to sleep with a normal charge.
Do you see the same results on both battery power and when plugged in?
Have you done a battery calibration?
You could consider reinstalling OS X and applying all of the apple updates. Before installing any 3rd party software, see if you have the same issues.
(I hate to recommend this, but it can provide conclusive information as to whether you have a HW or SW problem)
5. Draddy thread starter macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2007
Thanks for all the responses!
I agree about taking it to the apple store... but this would be the 4th time I've had something fixed (the last being a hard drive replacement). I do still have applecare, I should take it in, I just am tired of getting my computer fixed.
Well, I don't feel I'm using my computer inappropriately... I feel like I should be able to run my battery out safely.
I mean, I use it as a laptop, if I'm sitting on the couch using it, I'm not watching the meter, I just wait till it tells me to plug it up.
My battery may be in bad shape, 66% health, 570 cycles ... but that wouldn't effect little things like the warning stick.
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough... I was trying to say that "Safe Sleep" is no longer working. It doesn't save, when I open the lid it acts as if the computer is shut down.. when I hit the power button, it starts up from a shut down state, not the safe sleep mode.
Thanks for the tips, I understand the normal drainage of battery, the problem is that safe sleep does not function... it just cuts power when the battery drains out.
Good tip on the reinstall... unfortunately I'm on a 3 week old fresh install on a new harddrive.
they're such weird problems that don't seem that big, but this is just the top 3 of many problems that are just incredibly annoying, and really shouldn't be happening.
6. err404 macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2007
They are odd problems, but most of it sounds battery related. Your MBP may have trouble predicting the remaining life in a dieing battery, leading to sudden loss of power. My first MBP battery died an early death and Applecare took care of me. I called them I and they cross shipped a new one, so I was never without my laptop and I didn't have to travel to a store.
However, like the tires on a car, the battery is a consumable part and may have had a natural death. With that many cycles Apple may not help you for free, but getting a fresh battery would be a good idea regardless of being out of your pocket or thiers.
BTW - You mention using your laptop on the couch. This may or may not apply, but I used to use my laptop on the arm of my couch which lead to the bottom of my laptop getting much warmer then if it were on a flat table. This situation could lead to a shortened battery life.
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How to Keep Investment Costs Low (and Returns High)
Photo courtesy of ansik
“In investing, you get what you don’t pay for”
-John Bogle
Do you want to know what the single best predictor of future investment returns is?
It’s not past performance. It’s not the investor’s skill, or experience, or education. It’s not future interest rates, or what the Fed is doing, or anything like that.
It’s cost.
Keeping your investment costs low gives you the best chance for better investment returns. Pure and simple.
And this is great news! Because while there are about a million parts of the investment process that you have no power over (what the markets are doing, inflation, interest rates, etc.), cost is something that YOU can directly control. You can easily make choices that lower the cost of your investments and improve your returns in the process.
But if you want to keep your investment costs low, you need to know what to look for. Here’s a primer to help you get started.
How do we know that costs matter?
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of looking at the cost of your investments, let’s take a step back and ask why we should care so much about costs in the first place.
To start, it’s simply logical that every dollar you pay to make an investment is a dollar that isn’t earning you returns from that investment. If you have $10 to invest but it costs be $1 to do it, you’ve only invested $9. Over time that can make a big difference (as we’ll see below).
But we don’t have to rely just on logic. Morningstar has actually done the research and found costs to be the single best predictor of future mutual fund performance, even better than their own star rating system that’s made them so famous.
And since most of us will be investing in mutual funds (since stock-picking almost never works), I’ll focus the conversation here on the types of costs most commonly associated with mutual funds and what you can do to minimize them.
You can use a site like Morningstar or Yahoo Finance to research a specific mutual fund for any of the things I’m going to talk about here. If you’re investing within a 401(k), you should ask your company for a list of funds and the fees associated with each, as they may be different than what you find online.
Expense ratio
Every mutual fund will have something called an expense ratio, which is a percentage of your money that’s taken out of your investment every single year to pay the costs of running the fund. It handles things like paying the managers who run the fund, administrative costs, and the like.
As an example, let’s say a mutual fund has an expense ratio of 1% and you have $10,000 invested in that fund. That means that 1% of your investment is taken out of your account every year, which with a $10,000 investment would come to a $100 charge.
Even a seemingly small difference in the expense ratio between funds can add up to a HUGE difference over time. Here’s an example showing just how much it matters:
expense ratio comparison
In both cases, the investor is contributing $10,000 per year and getting an 8% return over 30 years. But when the expense ratio is 0.2% vs. 1% (only a 0.8% difference!), the end result is $166,553 more for the lower-cost fund. I don’t know about you, but that kind of money would make a difference in my life.
There are lots of great mutual funds (mostly index funds) with expense ratios right around 0.20%, and sometimes even less. If it were me, I’d have to have a REALLY good reason to pay much more than that (and honestly it’s hard to think of what that reason might be).
12b-1 fees
The 12b-1 fee is also expressed as a percentage and is typically already included in the fund’s expense ratio. But when you look at a mutual fund’s information you’ll see it displayed separately from the expense ratio because it’s not really a cost of running the fund. It’s a cost of promoting the fund, primarily paid to financial institutions who sell the fund. In other words, it’s essentially a commission.
While the existence of a 12b-1 fee shouldn’t automatically send you running, it’s a cost that should likely be avoided if possible. It doesn’t serve to help you (why should you care if the salesman gets a commission?), and it does take money out of your pocket year after year. And there are plenty of great funds that don’t include these fees.
A load is a commission paid to the person who sells you the mutual fund. The most common is called a sales load, or front-end load, and it’s a percent of your purchase amount each time you buy some of the fund.
As an example, a mutual fund might have a 5% sales load, in which case $50 out of every $1,000 you invested would be paid to a salesman instead of your account.
Just like with the expense ratio, we can look at two different funds, one with no sales load and one with a 5% sales load, and see how the end result looks after 30 years of investing $10,000 per year (in monthly contributions of $833) with an 8% return:
sales load comparison
Not quite as dramatic as the expense ratio, but $62,554 is still a significant amount for a fee that can easily be avoided and provides no benefit to you.
There are also back-end loads, sometimes called a contingent deferred sales load (who makes up these names?). This works the same way except that the charge is applied whenever you decide to sell your shares of the mutual fund.
There is plenty of evidence that you should NEVER purchase a mutual fund that includes any kind of load. They typically perform worse than similar mutual funds that don’t have a load, even BEFORE you factor in the extra cost. So that extra cost is essentially just money that the salesman is asking you to throw away.
Transaction Costs
Transaction costs are the least transparent of all. These are the various costs incurred by the mutual fund whenever it makes trades.
Note that this is different than when YOU make trades. The mutual fund itself will buy and sell stocks or bonds or whatever it invests in, and those transactions have a cost. Different studies have found these costs to be anywhere from 0.1-2% per year, which can be a huge drag on your returns.
There’s no real good way to understand a fund’s transaction costs, but the best way I know is to look at what’s called turnover. Turnover measures the percent of the mutual fund’s holdings that change in a given year. A turnover rate of 100% means that the fund changes all of its holdings during a given year.
A higher turnover means the fund is making more trades, which means it’s more likely to have higher transaction costs.
As a point of reference, a good index fund like Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Fund (VTSMX) will have a turnover rate in the low single digits. That kind of low turnover can do a lot to keep costs low.
If you’re investing within a retirement account like a 401(k), IRA or 403(b), then you don’t have to worry about this part of the conversation. Those types of accounts have tax preferences that make these points moot.
But if you have any money in a regular old brokerage account, taxes can be another hidden cost that can really hurt your returns.
When a mutual fund makes a trade, there may be tax consequences. Interest earned from a mutual fund’s bonds is taxable. Dividends earned from a mutual fund’s stocks are taxable. All of these things will be treated differently based on the specific mutual fund and the specific investor, but it’s worth paying attention to because the more you pay in taxes, the less you’re able to use for yourself.
One simple but imprecise way to estimate the tax cost of a fund is to again look at turnover. In general, funds with a higher turnover will have a higher tax cost (though this is subject to some debate).
If you want to get more precise, the Morningstar has a measurement called the “tax cost ratio” that can help you determine how tax-efficient a given fund is. You can search for a fund and then look at the fund’s “Tax” tab to see its tax cost ratio displayed as a percentage in the same way that the expense ratio is displayed. A higher number here indicates that you should expect to pay more in taxes.
Investment costs are one thing worth worrying about
The bad news is that there are lots of potential costs out there to watch out for.
But the good news is that you have the ability to directly influence the amount you spend on your investments, and that decision has a direct impact on your end result. It’s something that both matters AND is in your control. That’s actually pretty rare in investing.
Let me also say that cost is not the only thing you should worry about. There may be a fund that costs slight more but fits better in your personal investment plan, and that might be reason enough to choose it. Costs shouldn’t be the be all and end all.
But costs do matter. A lot. And if you can choose good investments at a low cost, you’re setting yourself up for a long run of good results.
• John S @ Frugal Rules March 20, 2014
Good post Matt! The expense ratio is the first thing I look at when investing in a fund. Sure, it might not mean a whole lot “now”, but your investing perspective needs to be longer than short term and that difference, as you said, is real money at the end of 5,10, 20 years and so forth. Thanks for pointing out the 12b-1 fee as well, I hate those as I could care less if they get a commission and the last thing I want is to be dinged for it.
• Andrew March 20, 2014
I think a lot people look at an expense ratio of 1% and think it’s low. What they don’t realize is what you showed up there…that it makes a big difference in the long run. Costs matter! And mutual funds with loads…No!….Just say NO!
• Jacob @ iHeartBudgets March 21, 2014
Just figured this out last year when i broke up with Edward Jones. Front loaded 5.75% and over 1% E/R, moving to Vanguard with no front load and like a 0.17% E/R. Also, my gains are better.
Yeah, I was getting screwed.
• Matt @ momanddadmoney March 22, 2014
Hey, you figured it out young. But yeah, the fees at places like Edward Jones are crazy.
• MoneySmartGuides March 24, 2014
Nice explanation of fees. There is no reason to pay high fund fees. As you mentioned, paying a higher fee has zero relation to higher performance. In fact, it is usually the opposite because any gains over the market you might earn are going to be wiped away by that huge fee you are paying.
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MKT 498 Week 4 DQ 1
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Find the wavefunction for a 1 dimensional wave packet
1. May 16, 2008 #1
I'm teaching myself quantum mechanics (so this isn't homework). I came across the following question:
[tex]\Phi(p) = A\Theta\left[\frac{\hbar}{d}-|p-p_{0}|\right][/tex]
I have to find the constant of normalization, [itex]\psi(x)[/itex], and the coordinate space wave function [itex]\psi(x,t)[/itex] in the limit [itex]\frac{h/d}{p_{0}} << 1[/itex].
I started by finding [itex]A[/itex]:
[tex]\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{|\Phi(p)|^2}{2\pi\hbar}dp = 1[/tex]
This gives [itex]A = \sqrt{\pi d}[/itex].
[tex]\psi(x) = \frac{1}{2\pi\hbar}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}dp'\Phi(p')e^{-ip'x/\hbar}[/tex]
which gives
[tex]\psi(x) = \sqrt{\frac{d}{\pi}}e^{ip_{0}x/\hbar}\frac{\sin(x/d)}{x}[/tex]
(There may be an algebraic error here..)
My problem is: how do I find [itex]\psi(x,t)[/itex]? I am not sure how to proceed here.
2. jcsd
3. May 17, 2008 #2
4. May 18, 2008 #3
Got it.
[tex]\Phi(p,t) = \Phi(p)e^{-\frac{p^{2}t}{2m\hbar}}[/tex]
[tex]\psi(x,t) = \int \Phi(p,t)e^{-ipx/\hbar}dp[/tex]
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Friday, February 17, 2017
"The Age Factor"
When I was young and I turned my nose up at the provided split pea soup – it tasted fuzzy on my tongue to me – my mother devised a compromising strategy to induce me to dip my spoon into that unpalatable concoction. She’d say,
“Eat your age.”
It worked well when I was six. Less so when I was twenty-one. I had to refill my bowl to accommodate the quota.
You see, that’s the “funny part” – an original strategy outliving its appropriateness. Which conveys my borderless mind – naturally – to George Burns and Gracie Allen. That’s “naturally” if you are me.
Starting in vaudeville, the husband-and-wife team of George Burns and Gracie Allen proceeded to radio and subsequently to television where their popular sitcom The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show ran successfully for eight seasons (1950-1958.)
Performing a “double act” George played the reasonable “straight man” to Gracie’s irrepressible “dizzy dame”, her signature stock in trade, an idiosyncratic mindset of “illogical logic.”
GRACIE: “You know, George, my teenaged nephew has three feet.”
GEORGE: “You say your teenaged nephew has three feet?”
GRACIE: “That’s right. I got a letter from his mother the other day. She says that her son’s grown another foot.”
(You can’t do that kind of humor anymore. Well, you can, but now the “illogically logical” one is Matt LeBlanc.)
Anyway, during a troubling trough in their generally flourishing careers, George, the show biz mastermind of the operation, pinpointed the team’s debilitating malady, observing,
“Our material is too ‘young’ for us.”
Which turned out to be correct. The frothy “boy-girl” frivolity they had begun with ill suited the longtime married couple with maturing children they had eventually become. A stylistic reimagining was undertaken and the bump in the road became clear sailing. (Forgiving the “land to water” combination.)
Which reminds me of a Burns and Allen story unrelated to our theme but worth reprising nonetheless.
The spotlighted personage herein is the beleaguered Burns and Allen show’s editor.
Consistent with the fashion of the day, the Burns and Allen “half-hour” was shot like a short movie, employing a single camera and no live studio audience. (The “single camera” technique involves re-filming every scene from various angles, each episode taking two or three days to fully complete. That’s why there was no studio audience. They’d have to bring multiple rations and a change of underwear to take part.)
Adding an innovative wrinkle to the proceedings, George Burns had the “Final Cut” of the episode screened before a live studio audience, to insure actual laughs for the accompanying soundtrack rather than, as was traditional back then, besmirching their filmette with artificial “canned laughter” from a machine. Burns instructed the editor to leave room in the assembled footage for those laughs.
The question for the editor became how much room was he expected to leave?
Oy. (Meaning “What a predicament!”)
If the editor left insufficient “air” after a punchline later enthusiastically received by the studio audience, the big laugh could spill over, covering the dialogue of the following setup, thereby imperiling the un-teed-up punchline to come.
On the other hand, a joke that fell flat with the studio audience where the editor had predicted a longer laugh resulted in an incongruously gaping “hole”, which the editor, at additional time and company expense, would have to return to the Editing Room to correct.
Unless the editor timed those “laugh spaces” perfectly, Boss Man George Burns was definitely not going to be happy.
Imagine being that editor, trying to gauge the inherent funniness of each joke in order to leave the precisely-calibrated “room” for a laugh that had not yet materialized.
“Henry, hand me the bottle!”
Anyway, back to our story.
As an experienced showman, George Burns understood that to maximally succeed – or least not maximally fall on your face – the “act” you present to the public must be evolvingly “age appropriate.” Triggering the question…
Is mine?
I agree with George Burns’s assessment. With the passage of time, the once “precocious” will inevitably become “puerile”, the avant garde, miscalculatingly icky. (Think: Amy Schumer at 85. “I’ve had sex every guy in the ‘Home.’ Or was it the same guy and I couldn’t remember?” Ew.) (Immediately regretting the example.)
So what about me?
I have retained a binder containing copies of two years’ worth of weekly columns I composed for a now defunct daily newspaper, The Toronto Telegram. I have read many of them over. I believe I even published one or more of them in this venue. I was twenty-three to twenty-five then. And you know what?
Those columns are not all that different from I am doing today.
My second outing in the series was entitled, “Can A Dwarf Become President of the United States?”, exploring the parameters of electoral acceptability? Change “dwarf” to “megalomaniacal vulgarian” and I am plowing similar terrain… except the answer was “No” then and “Yes” today. (Meaning what, that times changed and I haven’t?)
I am arguably technically superior now, but we’re not talking about “technically.” Stylistically, there is a recognizable fingerprint. I write the same way, mixing small words and big words and words I made up. My “way of looking at things” is identical. My sense of humor rings a familiar bell. I tell ya, I could have pretended that old column was from today and easily executed the subterfuge. Rereading it for blogal consideration, I recall thinking, “I wrote this when?
I have not changed that much. (You should see what I am wearing right now. I look like I’m ready to go to camp.) Does that mean I am out of sync with my elderliness and I need to belatedly catch up? What I am doing feels contemporarily compatible to me. Is it possible I am embarrassingly in the dark?
Maybe it’s time to make an adjustment. Maybe I should start “writing my age.”
The thing is,
What exactly is “seventy-two” supposed to sound like?
YEKIMI said...
Age 72 sounds: cough, cough. Harumph. Get off my lawn! Where's my Metamucil? Dammit, PBS canceled the Lawrence Welk reruns!
Wendy M. Grossman said...
I don't know what 72 is supposed to sound like (I'll tell you in 9 years), but when you get to 86, the "86 and Holding" blog should provide a useful role model:
That's a really interesting story about Burns.
JED said...
Earl said, "What exactly is “seventy-two” supposed to sound like?"
I think it's like the answer to, "What's the sound of one hand clapping?" Do you really have to categorize it or describe it? It's just the sound of one hand clapping.
Even people who don't act their age, like Jerry Lewis or Dick Clark (when he was around), do have a unique voice - whether you like or not. It can get you a big audience in France or on New Year's Eve. | <urn:uuid:5d8d410d-3665-49b6-88ee-f8aaa4780e58> | http://earlpomerantz.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-age-factor.html?showComment=1487335718356 | en | 0.946838 | 0.033227 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
September 3, 2012
Marvelous in My Monday #3
Hello my Lovelies!
I trust that you're all feeling marvelous today!
I too am feeling quite Marvelous in my Monday today!
Here's why:
Megan Campbell's Be The Change: 30 Day Mind, Body, and Soul Challenge..a challenge that started Sept 1, 2012 and runs for 30 days.
When I first read about this 30 Day Challenge several months ago via Facebook and email messages, I knew deep in my heart that it was something I wanted to be a part of. Even though I knew this, it wasn't actually until the very last minute (final registration day) that I finally declared to myself "Yes! I CAN do this!"
Have you ever wondered how to make a sustainable difference in your health, your life, your world? Well, this challenge is definitely showing me how!
Entering Day #3 with a Heart of Gratitude
I truly believe that there is nothing that contributes better to a person’s overall long-term health and happiness more than cultivating the heart with gratitude. When we have a grateful heart, we can easily accentuate our radiant beauty, attractiveness, happiness, and inner health. Our lives become more blessed, more beautiful, more marvelous, more harmonious, more righteous, more perfect than we can ever imagine or open our eyes to!
But to begin to see all of this, we have to start being grateful for what we can already see.
A Challenge to Myself:
For the remainder of this 30 Day Challenge, I will randomly select a few tasks - or Random Act of Kindness from the following list:
-Write a note of appreciation to your mailman
-Compliment a stranger sincerely
-Write a thank you note to someone
-Look for something around you that can be fixed, picked up, or attended to (put shopping carts back, pick up trash laying around, pick up something that has fallen over, etc)
-Give a lottery ticket/gift card/free coffee to a stranger
-Send a handmade card or a letter to someone you care for
-Write a note to management or someone who has treated you nice while doing their job (waiter, clerk, sales person., etc)
-When you go somewhere or do something, ask someone around you if you can pick up, drop off or do something for them while you're at it
-Cut coupons and leave them at the register for others
-Cut an article out of the newspaper that would interest a friend and mail it to them.
-Leave "Have a nice day" stickers/notes somewhere
-Put together a writing kit (stationery, envelopes, stamps, pen, etc) and give to someone
-Comment on someone's webpage that you really like.
-Send a card to someone in the military overseas
-Start a conversation up with someone that you don't know
-Leave something cheery or nice for all your neighbors, co-workers, or a stranger (spring bag of seeds, fun post its, fun office supplies, flowers, random gift)
-Put change in a row of vending machines
-Visit a nursing home. Spend time visiting with someone who doesn't get visitors
-Put something you no longer need for free on Kijiji or craigslist
-Leave something for someone at an area where it most might be used, (book in reading area, umbrella near door on rainy day, bag of seeds near bird feeding area)
-Leave a book you have already finished somewhere for someone else to read.
-Drop off a toy or game at a hospital
-Drop off a toy or game at a homeless shelter.
-At post office leave some extra stamps for someone.
-Find a nice picture you have taken with a friend and send it to them with a note.
-Open the phone book, pick a name, and send them something anonymously (movie tickets, thank you card, you are appreciated card, book, etc.)
-Take flowers to a hospital and give them to someone who hasn't had any visitors.
-Send/Bring something special to someone who recently had a baby (diapers, clothes, toys, gift for mom)
-Bring cake, pie, chocolate, flowers, plant, etc to a neighbor or senior citizen
-Send someone a small gift anonymously
-Make a CD and give to a friend or family member
-Donate your time (if you offer a service for a living, or a product, or seminar, or class, or whatever it is that you do) as a gift to someone.
-Invite someone who is usually alone out for dinner.
-Share a comic strip or something funny with someone.
-Leave a chocolate or other treat for someone.
-Write a note, send a e-greeting "just to say hello" to someone who might need a pick me up
-Visit a hospital. Bring smiles, treats and friendly conversation for patients.
-Send a thank you note or something cheerful to someone who may need an extra smile
-Put coins in a parking meter that expired/will soon expire
-Send a gift or write a thank-you note to someone who has made a difference in your life.
-Drop off a plant, flowers, or treats at a public service organization.
-Send someone an animated greeting card by email.
-Bring a teddy bear to police department or children's treatment center to give to a traumatized child
-Drop coins in an area where children play, where they can easily find them.
-Make/Write your favorite recipe and give it to someone
-Buy a copy of your favorite book and give it to someone
-Make a point of introducing yourself to someone you see all of the time but never say hello to.
-Send someone an anonymous scratch card, lottery ticket, theater ticket, gift voucher, a funny card, chocolate, or whatever you feel they would enjoy
-Send someone a $5, $10 or $20 gift card.
-Offer to baby sit for someone.
-Donate clothes
-Put change in a charitable change box
-Bring cookies or snacks to someone/an establishment
-Tape some change to a payphone with a card saying it is for whoever needs it
-Write anonymous, loving post-its for strangers to find.
If the task is a viable option which I can successfully complete as a Random Act of Kindness both time wise and financially, then it will be completed and crossed off the list.
Please feel free to leave a comment with your idea for a Random Act of Kindness.
I am open to any and all suggestions that are presented to me :)
Keep being marvelous...always!
xo Maria
1. These are such beautiful ideas! I can't think of any other ones right now, but I can't wait to do some of these myself. : )
1. hey, Thanks so much! It may not seem like a whole lot, but even just choosing to do one or two of these things seems to make a whole world of a difference :)
| <urn:uuid:7ab4f941-3116-4f6a-a2a5-16d6607a1181> | http://littlemisscornucopia.blogspot.com/2012/09/marvelous-in-my-monday.html | en | 0.947102 | 0.277972 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Supervision by Status Update
I hate to read too much into something, but I think I may have discovered an unintended consequence of the Age of Social Media: people who report to you now want to report to you every little thing.
I hasten to add: no one reports to me. The only people whose vocational success I am entrusted with are interns, who work for free, and I am currently internless. So my research pool could not be smaller. But I do observe stuff, both firsthand and secondhand, and it seems to me from what I've observed that people raised on social media tend to give people who, um, weren't so raised updates on the progress of a project in extraordinary detail.
"Just wanted to let you know I wrote that email."
"Just wanted to let you know I finished that filing."
"Just wanted to let you know I got back from my break."
It's really quite conscientious, I guess, but it's also sort of like micromanagement in reverse--"micro-managedment" or "micromanage me!" maybe. I don't know what protocol or even etiquette demands in such a situation: "Roger that"? "Well done"? "Okey-dokey"? I actually think no response is expected; I think there's simply now a new expectation that no task is completed until its completion has been shared.
It strikes me that this is how an early adopter of social media might organize her day: chronicling and reporting every action is the regimen Twitter is notorious for. Older and less networking-savvy folks find this to be obnoxious and a sign of immature self-involvement. I've never subscribed to that opinion and was as early an adopter of these media as I could be, which may be a signal of my own immaturity and self-involvement but I prefer to think is evidence that I got the inherent logic of it: a world that has barreled relentlessly into a culture of atomized individualism--human rocks and islands who have no need of anyone (no, old people, that's not at all obnoxious or self-involved)--has unmet needs for a shared life. We post our thoughts and feelings and actions not because we are so satisfied with ourselves (well, sometimes that's why we post them) but because we can't be sure of what's going on in and through us until they've been at least put in the way of other human beings to affirm or dispute. "I think, therefore I am" has, as a first cause for the Modern Age, shown its limitations: our thinking cannot be independently verified, and so it is in fact the least reliable indicator that we exist.
In place of Rene Descartes' dictum has stepped the tribal African notion of ubuntu, characterized by John Mbiti as " "I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am." I reviewed a book about ubuntu here a few years ago, and I've also encountered it in other reading, particularly that of Desmond Tutu and other writing about the South African experience. Its impact on the world, it seems to me, reaches far beyond people's familiarity with the term. We are, I'm happy to speculate, more influenced by non-European cultures than we realize; in some ways ubuntu has transcended its long-officially segregated conceptual location to completely overhaul how we understand ourselves and, more prosaically, how we report to our supervisors.
I'm all for it, although it strikes me as a bit inefficient to have to hear and acknowledge every little thing that every coworker is doing at any given moment. It makes me sort of want to start a new social media platform just to outsource the whole process: call it DoneList, maybe, or Get Out of My Space.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Read with Ears to Hear: My Review of Richard Rohr's Falling Upward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have never not been preoccupied by aging and death. My friends have observed that about me and exploit it for comedic effect; my younger friends like to tell me what grade they or their parents were in when I passed through some key rite of passage; my older friends like to remind me that I haven't been a kid for a long time and that there is a fiber-rich diet in my future. They laugh when they see me stress out over such comments, but I'll get the last laugh, I think: the younger ones will eventually themselves be old; the older ones will eventually be dead.
The passage of time is certainly fascinating to me, but it's made more profound and troubling by its association with questions of vocation. "What do I want to be when I grow up?" is a question that plagued me for a long time but that has long since been replaced with "What am I doing with my life?" or, worse, "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?" In the face of such weighty questions, a simple vision for aging and calling is undeniably attractive. I found such a simple vision in Richard Rohr's Falling Upward.
I saw Rohr speak on this topic at the 2011 inaugural Wild Goose Festival and was immediately won over to his take on it. The basic premise is this: we spend the first half of our life building the container into which we will pour the product of the second half of our life. Our first half is preoccupied with externals--status, yes, but also personal rules and priorities, a vision for how life should be. In the second half we turn our eyes from such externals and start to note both what they've done and failed to do for us, what they've allowed us to do in life and what our preoccupation with them has cost us and those we love. The first half is the search for identity; the second half is the search for serenity.
That is probably oversimplifying things, but Rohr's premise is alarmingly simple. There are two distinct calls placed on us in life; the first is provisional, preparing us for the second. The transition from one call to the next is often precipitated by crisis, but more generally by a sense that the first call is completed, or incomplete: it cannot fulfill a life in and of itself.
The notion of "falling" enters in at this transitional moment. We experience the death of a loved one, or the collapse of a profession that we had come to define ourselves by, or the end of a relationship that we thought was forever. Or we start to notice that the things we have invested so heavily in for so long are simply not returning their investment; they don't prop us up so much as trap us inside themselves. We feel ourselves in free fall, all the while hearing a whisper to some higher aspiration. We are being beckoned beyond ourselves; we are, it turns out, falling up.
This transition calls for wisdom and humility and resolve. "The human ego prefers anything," Rohr writes, "just about anything, to falling or changing or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo, even when it is not working. It attaches to past and present, and fears the future." Rohr suggests that most people actually never enter into the second half of life; rather than fall upward they grasp tightly to some artificial anchor to the present--they make an idol of their kids or their spouse or their job or their car--and drown out the divine whisper with TV and music and corporate worship and even their own inner diatribes against the status quo. People who reject the second call don't become the elders that ground a culture and give it a future; they just become old--wrinkly, crotchety, useless. They have neglected or even rejected the search for their true self, the self beyond the reputation that they've often carefully cultivated. They never ceased being the persona they created to occupy the space they found themselves in, and so never die to themselves only to be resurrected into what their community needs, their God demands and they themselves have always wanted to be. "Your stage mask is not bad, evil, or necessarily egocentric; it is just not 'true,'" Rohr writes. "It is manufactured and sustained unconsciously by your mind; but it can and will die, as all fictions must die."
That's the thing: we should outlive our fictional selves. The world needs us to, because in order to run well it can't itself be bothered by these deeper truths. We need ourselves to, because we will search in vain for the ultimate meaning of our lives without the perspective of the second call. The people we love need us to, because the grace God invests in us is dispensed best and perhaps only out of this second half of life. "The classic spiritual journey always begins elitist and ends egalitarian." In other words, only our elders (in the truest sense of that word) can give us what we need for our own spiritual journeys, and they can only do it by forsaking their own impulses toward elitism. The truest elders among us, like Desmond Tutu or the Dalai Lama, are sometimes the most childlike.
The book wasn't perfect. For as much as Rohr avers that not everyone achieves their second calling (in fact most don't), it often comes across as an inevitability, which will reinforce in some old (but not elder) readers their automatic moral and spiritual superiority over people who are younger than they are. The old, crotchety people I know don't need any such reinforcement, and so I'd be reluctant to put this book in front of them. Rohr also implies that Christian doctrine is the enemy of the second call, that the codes of conduct and the attitude of exclusivity that attends to most organized religion (not just his own religion, although he minces no words about the state of contemporary Christianity) is helpful for the immature but to the person on the second journey seems silly. He may well be right, but his argument feels a little thin (and self-serving), and will be a bridge too far for many readers.
Bottom line: this book, like any book that aspires to call someone from one developmental stage to the next, should be read mainly by those with ears to hear. And those folks should read it more than once. So, probably, should those who read it without ears to hear; the second or third time might be the charm.
View all my reviews
Thursday, August 16, 2012
A Quick Thought on Hopelessness
Being, as I am, a bit of an Eeyore personality, I find that the undaunted cheeriness of some of my friends can be occasionally grating. I'm reminded of R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People," a fizzy jangle from a band generally more comfortable in the shadows. When the book of the world is finally written, R.E.M. will be remembered ironically for "Shiny, Happy People" and remembered gratefully for its more somber, empathetic "Everybody Hurts." Mark my words.
Anyway, today I read a line from someone who suggested that if you are hopeless, it's generally your own fault. You have turned your eyes from the Giver of every good gift; you have turned instead to ephemeral idols and found that they cannot bear the weight of idolatrous need. You are hopeless, and you need to stop it.
I found that line of thought annoying. Mainly because I'm not sure that such a thing as hopelessness actually exists.
Oh, I've felt hopeless, believe me. Any Eeyore worth his stuffing has. But feeling hopeless and being hopeless are two different things. Hope is, in fact, a thing--not a thing possessed by us but a thing visited on us. "Hope is the thing with feathers," Emily Dickinson wrote,
That perches in the soul. . . .
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Hope is self-sufficient; it has no need of us for it to endure. Moreover, hope is a gift, a promise of God: "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him" (Psalm 62:5). Hope is present where God is present, and God is everywhere present.
We treat hope as a responsibility when it's a gift. And so we see people who feel hopeless, we see circumstances that appear hopeless, and we pass judgment and declare them as such. And then we wash our hands and get on with our day. In doing so we fail--we sin against--those who have lost sight of hope.
Why does God provide us with hope? "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). We are to pour out the hope that we carry by God's grace; we are not meant to hold on to it but to lavish it. Love, the apostle Paul tells us, "always hopes" (1 Corinthians 13:7). And love is our responsibility to our neighbor, the second great commandment that is like the first.
Hopeless, in our current climate, is a term we assign to people or circumstances that we're no longer willing to deal with. We've forsaken the challenge to love our neighbor as ourselves and so to hope on their behalf, to share our hope liberally with them. To call another person or circumstance hopeless is in fact to call ourselves hopeless--or, more to the point, to call ourselves pitiless, merciless, useless.
Sorry. I guess I'm a little cranky today.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Why So Serious? Batman Versus the Avengers
I've now seen Batman: The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man three times each, which means The Avengers officially still holds my heart. If I had to rank the three films, I'd say The Avengers is my favorite, The Amazing Spider-Man (while still enjoyable) is my least favorite, and Batman is somewhere in the middle.
I'm not entirely surprised by this, since I've been a geek for The Avengers for roughly thirty years. But maybe I should be surprised. Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is entirely unique in the catalog of superhero films; it's the only set of films that's had a fighting chance at winning Oscars for acting or directing. (Heath Ledger, for example, won best supporting actor for his portrayal of the Joker.) Superhero films are in a class all by themselves, judged by their own peculiar merits, but among superhero films the Batman trilogy is in a class all by itself. And yet this year I prefer The Avengers, which, for as much as I like it, is pretty standard comic book fare.
I find myself wondering, What if? What if Batman had been released first? It's possible that, as much as Batman Begins was hailed as a "game changer" at the time of its release in 2005, resetting the bar for what a superhero film should be, The Avengers was this year's game changer, and The Dark Knight Rises suffered in our estimation as a result.
I've written elsewhere about what might be called the "sine wave of silliness" in Batman storytelling. To wit: Stories about Batman are either serious or silly, and they trend toward the one or the other for long periods of time until the pendulum swings back. The 1960s Batman TV show was unabashedly campy, and it defined the character for the better part of a decade. Then the serious side of Batman came back with a vengeance, until Saturday morning cartoons demanded a kinder, gentler and smileyer Bruce Wayne--until Frank Miller envisioned a dystopian future when a retired Dark Knight Returns. And then, George Clooney put on the tights for Joel Schumacher's homage to 1960s camp in 1997's Batman & Robin, killing a film franchise that under Tim Burton's watch had effectively reconciled Batman's silly and serious sides.
And then, in 2005, Batman Begins made us take superheroes seriously. The film was dark and sober, penetrating and poignant. Everything since then, from Superman Returns to Ghost Rider, has been judged by it. Only Batman: The Dark Knight eclipsed it, with Heath Ledger creating a portrait of the Joker that is still haunting.
Just because nothing compares to Batman films, however, doesn't mean that we won't drop good money on other superheroes. Iron Man benefited from our good faith, presenting us with a lesser-known character portrayed by an actor whose career had stalled. Robert Downey Jr. delivered a comically care-free and cool performance, a billionaire playboy whose superpowers are not natural but manufactured,--a less heroic but more relatable alternative to Batman's uber-serious, mopey Bruce Wayne.
The success of Iron Man set into motion the release of The Avengers, which retained Downey's cavalier and larger-than-life attitude, and extrapolated it out into a team/community setting. The Avengers was the culmination of five films showcasing four characters (six, if you include the cameo by Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye in Thor and Samuel L. Jackson's appearance in Iron Man and Captain America). Over the course of those films (all of which, with the exception of the first Iron Man, were released in between the final two films in the Batman trilogy), our expectations have been changed: we've come to ask of our superhero films--with Heath Ledger's disturbing Joker, ironically enough--"Why so serious?"
If Batman: The Dark Knight Rises had come out in April, we would have thought of The Avengers quite differently come May. But in some respects the die had already been cast: whereas Batman is a trilogy, The Avengers has been, in a manner of speaking, a quintilogy. Five against three in the battle between serious and silly: the odds favor silly.
Fair warning, Batman fans: your next Bruce Wayne, I predict, will look much less like Christian Bale and much more like Adam West.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
NOTHING LEFT OUT! My Review of R. Crumb's Book of Genesis Illustrated
The Book of Genesis IllustratedThe Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My Year of Overdue Books continues with The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, a legend in underground/indie comics from the late 1960s and 1970s, who has long been fascinated by Jewish history and heritage, and who thus took on this 2009 book as something of a passion project. I was a bit dubious, frankly. I don't remember the circumstance, but someone in the media contacted me about it before its release--likely because of my 2004 book Comic Book Character, which made me an expert in the eyes of some (though surely not in the eyes of God or R. Crumb). I looked through some of the frames that had been pre-released to the public, including the opening frame, in which an impossibly white old man with a timelessly flowing beard held the gestating universe in his hands. I thought--and tried to communicate to the media as respectfully and professionally as possible--Give me a break.
Then I got the book for Christmas from my mother-in-law, who is very generous and attentive to the kinds of things that I might like. I received it with a thank-you, then took it to my office, where I work as an editor for a religious publisher. I thought my coworkers would get a kick out of it; they did--the entire academic editorial staff (a systematic theologian, a philosopher, a historical theologian and a biblical scholar) flipped through it for what seemed like hours while I tried to get work done. Then a visiting author saw it on my shelf and borrowed it, returning it about a month later with nothing but praise for it. Two years later I decided, Maybe I should finally read this thing.
First off, it's not for everyone. My comic book book offers a brief orientation guide for new readers of the genre; you can get an excerpt here. But if you've not read a lot of comic books, the progression from frame to frame, from text box to text box, might seem a bit intimidating at first. With the advent of reading online, of course, such reading is less alien now, but even so you might be further thrown by Crumb's graphic style and text treatment--thick, heavy lines that feel positively antique, which would seem appropriate given the text if the text weren't peppered so generously with exclamation points, the punctuation of late modernity. As much as this is the sacred text of Scripture (NOTHING LEFT OUT!), it is also unabashedly a work of R. Crumb.
So I entered this book dubious, but I came out of it a true believer. Crumb is as reverent as someone who takes his content to be mythology could be, and his reverence carries over even into the earthiest parts of the book of Genesis--which is, as it happens, quite earthy. There's lots of sex, graphically depicted; a fair bit of murder, graphically depicted; and a variety of other images you may never have allowed yourself to imagine, graphically depicted. (The world outside of Noah's ark is a stark case in point.) Crumb drives home a point that pastors sometimes make with a wink: the Bible is a grown-up book. The jacket for The Book of Genesis Illustrated says it straightforwardly: "ADULT SUPERVISION RECOMMENDED FOR MINORS.
So yeah, it's graphic. It's also reverent and insightful. Genesis has a lot of sex and violence, but it also has a lot of genealogies--begetting and begetting and begetting. Crumb's approach to that is remarkably human; sections of Scripture I often skip over in this case I read with pleasure, as Crumb presented distinct human beings with their loved ones in their element. The various altars of remembrance built throughout Genesis are made more real, more meaningful, by seeing not only what they may have looked like but how they may have been built (Jacob's pillar in Genesis 31 is an image that has stuck with me.) The tensions between people who are blood related but sworn enemies (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers) are palpable, and consequently whatever resolution takes place between them is greatly satisfying.
Crumb has done his research; his text notes are worth reading, although I give Genesis more authority than he does. For me Genesis is a sacred text, the first account of God interacting with human beings, establishing his posture toward the world he created, which involves love and frustration and self-sacrifice and redemptive action. For Crumb it is the earliest artifact of the Jewish people, an identity marker that explains much and little at the same time. For Crumb, Genesis is what it is; I suppose it is for me as well. Whatever that is, The Book of Genesis Illustrated was a delight to read and worth the wait.
View all my reviews
Saturday, August 04, 2012
A little Barbra Streisand to lighten our moods and light our paths:
Hegemonies light the corners of my mind . . .
Scattered pictures of the power we're now denied
Power we used on one another for the way we were.
Can it be that it all was so simple then,
Or has time rewritten every line . . .
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me: would we? Could we?
Hegemony may be useful. And yet
What's embarrassing to remember we may choose to forget.
It's self-righteousness we remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were.
Or, if you prefer, from the Who:
| <urn:uuid:4a389098-323f-4ba7-bcde-604a3bab0611> | http://loud-time.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html | en | 0.970504 | 0.018233 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
D is for Dilly Dallying
Dear Miss Esmé,
You are a dilly dallier.
Not only do you have to stop and smell the roses on your way anywhere, you have to pet a ladybug, build a nest for a bird, and wait for a tree to bud, flower, leaf, and lose its leaves again before you get a move on it.
No matter how much we sing the Months of the Year and the Days of the Week and work on clock exercises, you’ve not a clue in the world about time.
Last week on a stay-at-home day, we let you stay in your jammies the whole day at your request. Come 7pm, well after breakfast, lunch, and an entire day of fun and learning, you were ready to get dressed for the day and go to Cyndi’s (day care). When we told you it was rather time to get ready for bed, you were shocked and dismayed. Not a clue, I tell you!
You are teaching this mamma LOTS of patience.
You are also teaching me to appreciate and learn from the world around me.
Consider how the daffy-down-dillies grow. They don’t toil or spin, yet no princess is dressed more beautifully than one of these. How much more will your Father adorn you!
I love you, my amazing, beautiful, clever, dilly-dallying baby girl!
Your Mom | <urn:uuid:92b279f1-97f7-40de-b018-80e6d0a0bd3c> | http://moziesme.blogspot.com/2012/04/d-is-for-dilly-dallying.html | en | 0.941278 | 0.086714 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Background and history
Nordic Iron Ore is a mining and exploration company formed in 2008 with the main aim of resuming mining operations in Blötberget and Håksberg and conduct exploration of the possible intermediate expansion potential of the Cäsman field, together forming Ludvika Mines, in southern Dalarna. Nordic Iron Ore’s establishment and expansion plan is justified by a strong demand for steel with favourable iron ore prices and the economies of scale resulting from the company being the first player ever to integrate the major iron ore deposits in the Ludvika region.
Nordic Iron Ore’s exploration permits and two mining concessions are located in historical mining land in the Västerbergslagen region, where iron ore mining dates back to the 1500s. At Blötberget, Bergverks AB Vulcanus and thereafter Stora Kopparberg Bergslags AB mined iron ore until 1979 when the mine was decommissioned due to the lack of profitability as a result of the low price of iron ore at that time. Before the closure, the mine at Blötberget produced about 300,000 tonnes of iron ore products annually, and at the time of the closure, according to the means of calculating at that time, there were 5 million tonnes of ”measured ore” with 43 percent iron and 20 million tonnes of ”probable ore” with 43 percent iron. Iron ore was mined until 1979 at the Håksberg field. The annual production was around 250,000 tonnes of iron ore products, and at the time of closure, according to the then method of calculation, there were 14.5 million tonnes of ”measured ore” with 36 percent iron and 22 million tonnes of ”probable ore” with 36 percent iron.
Remaining in the area from the active period are significant iron mineralisations linked by extensive drift systems as well as other infrastructure such as shafts and inclined trackways. Also of central importance is the proximity to a functioning railway network with connections to three different shipping ports: Gävle, Oxelösund and Uddevalla/Lysekil.
In order to harness the potential of Ludvika mines, Nordic Iron Ore has carried out geological, technical and environmental studies since its formation in 2008. The Company also conducted new magnetic measurements of the Väsman deposits that supplemented those made by the Ställberg companies during the 1950s and 1960s, and conducted drill programs in the Väsman field and Blötberget. The company has also obtained mining concessions and an enviromental permit för Blötberget and Håksberg and applied for mining concession for Väsman.
In light of the above, Nordic Iron Ore has established a solid platform for continued development and growth.
Ludvika – a historically industrial centre
The urban area of Ludvika has about 14,000 inhabitants and its history started around the year 1550 when Gustav Vasa built the Ludvika ironworks. This was Sweden’s first works for bar iron forging under Crown management. In 1726 the works were sold to the Cedercreutz family. The Roth family, who were the works’ last owners, expanded the works with a sawmill and a hydro power plant. Ludvika became a town in 1919, and the following year saw the closure of the Ludvika works.
The iron business developed and as early as the 1600s the villages of Gravendal and Strömsdal began an operation for processing iron. The villages contributed to Swedish iron exports in 1700s. For a long time Ludvika was the municipality with the greatest concentration of mines in Sweden.
The advent of industrialisation in the 1800s eventually led to the formation of the Elektriska Aktiebolaget Magnet company in Ludvika in 1900. The company was later renamed to ASEA. Ludvika was connected to the railway network in 1873.
Technological developments during the 1900s progressed quickly. The then ASEA became ABB and its activities in Ludvika and the whole world became more and more high-tech and internationally recognised. | <urn:uuid:c8b3cdff-7828-42ca-b105-85dd64c8bb6b> | http://nordicironore.se/en/about-us/background-and-history/ | en | 0.955212 | 0.042803 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
I’m not saying it has happened, but it could. I always say a little prayer when I get on a plane with predetermined seating. When flying with Southwest and their open seating, holding out till a goodly number of the other passengers have boarded gives me the luxury of choosing next to whom I sit. It’s a pretty simple strategy.
Recently I have been fairly lucky. I have had the fortuity to sit next to a few interesting and quite cute girls. This hinges on my other theory. It states that, should the plane start to plummet to the earth, it would be best to have a pleasant final moment. It seems fair. When presented with my own mortality, and not given the option to share some sort of tender moment, I’ll take whatever beauty I can get.
I guess what I’m saying is that, if I am going to leave this world tomorrow, I don’t want my last vision of existence to be some beefy dude.
I’ve heard a few stories like this recently. Some kid racks up an unreasonably large amount of charges on some game or site through micro-transactions, and his parents (reasonably) freak out. In this latest case, it was a teenager, but that doesn’t really change anything.
What little I know about legal type things is that minors are pretty much not obligated to any contract they sign. I know there are some exceptions, but I don’t think “fake goods purchased on the Internet” makes the list. Given that, and given that Facebook would not lose much by just refunding the money and deleting whatever fake currency is left and any fake goods that were purchased with it, I really have to wonder how they let it get to the point of a lawsuit.
Maybe something good will come out of it. By the time my theoretical future children start stealing my credit card, hopefully Facebook’s point system will have a few more fail-safes built into it. That way when they blow $20,000 to buy a fake car and fill it with fake gas to virtually drive to the fake movies every day, I won’t be held responsible. | <urn:uuid:9dd0b5a8-819b-43af-ba69-91d6e82f3964> | http://smashingavatar.com/2012/04/23/proper-arrangements/ | en | 0.975484 | 0.193588 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The theater has a triangular marquee with the name of the theater on the front and an attraction board on each side. Underneath are two ticket booths with two ticket windows each.
Grant Smith, 21 June 2005
Water Garden Theatres
Spanish 8 Theatres
790 Expressway Lane
Spanish Fork, Utah 84660
When Jon Traisault and Ray Bori designed the Spanish 8 Theatres, they wanted to create a family-oriented facility that would give the members of the community the features they wanted. In addition to low prices, digital sound systems, and automated projectors, the theater has child-sized toilets in the restrooms and sculptures of children by Springville artist Gary Price.[1]
The $3 million theater complex opened on 19 November 1997 and has three sizes of auditoriums, with the smallest seating about 100. Love seats have a folding arm rest so they can be used a regular seats as well. The theater has a $82,000 computer system that sells advance tickets over the phone. When patrons arrive at the theater they swipe the credit card used to make the purchase and their tickets print out.[1]
The Spanish 8 Theatres lost 30% of its business when the Stadium Cinemas opened in nearby Payson in May 2000. In April 2002 the Spanish 8 Theatres filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Traisault and Bori turned down an offer to sell the theater for almost half of its value because they were determined to work through the bankruptcy and make the theater profitable. In November 2002 one of their creditors, Stearns Banks, filed a lawsuit asking the court to change the theater's bankruptcy to Chapter 7, which would force the owners to sell the property.[2]
Imagination Theatres managed the Spanish 8 Theatres from some point until May 2003, when the theater became part of the new CinemaStar Theatres chain. In November 2005, CinemaStar Theatres became Red Carpet Cinemas.
1. “New theater complex caters to kids”, Deseret News, 10 December 1997, Page B1
2. “Bank sues Spanish Fork movie theater over bankruptcy”, Daily Herald, 27 November 2002 | <urn:uuid:ff366b28-39da-42f7-9881-ce5325b02a6b> | http://utahtheaters.info/TheaterMain.asp?ID=44 | en | 0.956216 | 0.018201 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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At the Brink of Civilisation
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posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 05:19 PM
theres a saying which comes to mind in this topic "there are no perfect people, just perfect intentions." you have the most noble of intentions and a well researched and presented intention at that. But people arent perfect, this will ultimately fail. If it this could happen i would support it without question but people are greedy, people will steal and eventually people will destroy it.
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 06:31 PM
reply to post by METACOMET
hi, i haven't read all of these(as i to am very tired,little sleep,also i apologize for the lack of punctuation etc)however i do totally agree,we must unite now,wake as many up as we can do whatever we can to help others see that if we have a general way of trying to help others & if we pass that on then maybe we can make a difference,governments are meant to work for the people & i for one think its about time to say that all the people have had enough of the way they act.i feel that as i said in another thread its time we stood up,got everyone who has ever felt a little the same way,after all surely we have a great tool,the net, we can use to contact people all over the world in a similar way that nations united about them going to war with the anti war marches,i know we weren't able to stop the greedy fools but now so much more info has come to light,surely then if we arranged a global coordinated NON violent peaceful plea
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 06:51 PM
reply to post by The_Modulus
The fact that goods and services for pieces of colored paper, wage war on each other using an invisible deity as justification for acts which contradict the respect for life which we purport to evidence to me that we are far from the enlightened beings of the universe.
We are ruled and live within PARADIGMS and BELIEF systems which are couched in terms like DEBT PROFIT LOSS INTEREST.
We are ruled by mythical concepts which few if any take the time to EVALUATE and consider the rationale behind. We are deluded if we believe that which we see around us is the pinnacle of or even on the pathway to become an ENDURING CIVILIZATION. Don't get me wrong..I don't have any better ideas at the moment...I have a dream of a world without war and without want..and yet I have not the faintest idea of how we go about transforming a nationstate to reflect and respect the simple ideals with respect to that goal...and so we have the world we see around us which will in very real terms continue to devolve to war or wars by proxy in relentless pursuit of PROFIT at any cost. The Requiem for the human race might as well read..HERE LAYS HUMANITY..LOST IN PURSUIT OF PROFITABILITY
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 06:54 PM
I'll give the TL
R answer on this. I read the OP post, but not he replies past the first few.
Thoughts: I'm sure thisis aimed at 'America should rebuild the world!" um.. no, we have enough problems here, we should fix them FIRST, then worry aboutother people, if it suits us.
Yes, suits us. as in, what's in it for us?Want us to wipe ou tyour debt? ok, we want your uranium. on demand. and now.
want us to build you whole towns to live in? ok, fine we want x money back monthly in rent. no money, we repo the house.
Want water, power, etc? sure, but we get a kill switch. you act aggressively toward us, don't deliver on your end of the deals or aid our enemies, your country goes dark.
You want us to help you? you get france, england, germany australia, china, etc to match our funds and we all share the burden, and all give you the same rules. you want a hand out? we will make sure you will never bite the hand that feeds you, period. don't like it? thats ok, we can spend our money wisely elsewhere.
see, the problem is, people want free money, and they still want to mismanage everything and run their place back into the ground. well, thats not a good investment on our end.
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 07:15 PM
You are obviously on the right track...these thoughts you have are NOT Utopian, they are relative and have been put into action before on THIS planet let alone are the thoughts into action of evolved cultures throughout the cosmos. The real holdback here as our world in run today is that the spiritually lacking and culturally adolescent are running things...there are too many "childish" idealogies in the collective minds of far too many that are proving how inadequate they are as far as a long term evolution of a one world people, even now as we speak....
As long as fear and the illusion of lack prevails and is promoted, there will be far too many talking heads chattering daily on all forms of media that can "prove" to you why being narciscistic, greedy, unwilling to change and most importantly HATEFUL toward ANYONE that appears "weak" or different, then your proposition will continue to "appear" to be Utopian when in actuallity it could and should be a mandate for we all...
They'll tell you LOVE has nothing to do with anything except getting it on sexually which at its lowest common denominator is merely biological...incidently exactly what they want, a world without any love in it is EASY to manage with wars, hate, politically incorrect politics, religious and cultural bigotry and selfishness...problem is that a universal peace and love doesnt appear to make enough money in the current setting although in the long run it would prove immensely profitable as well as prove a coming of age on our part as a people. Besides, how much is enough anyway? Evidently there's no ceiling as evident by current threat of global depression based on what besides greed and misuse of resources. (what you describe are acts of unselfish and collective love...a VERY BAD "four letter word" against the current operational backdrop)
I have my own suspicions that we are being observed on several levels as to how we are going to grow up as a global species/culture and there will be a test to follow (there actually always is)...My response to your observations is that for now each one of us who does care find a way to do something that will make impact since all actions count equally in the grand design and even if you dont get a spotlight, know that what you do for the good of another you do for the greater good of us all as well as yourself since "we" are all part of "one".
If this post get's through the filtering system (cant imagine why it wouldnt but tells me a lot about ATS if it doesnt) then I tell you to continue to think/act/work for the things you put forth...find those of like mind and do what you can collectively, in the grand design it all counts whether you get "recognized" for your efforts or not. In ways that cant be discussed here it will count and make a difference!
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 08:32 PM
Originally posted by Epinephrine
Why should I care about billions of people around the world who have nothing worthwhile to contribute to society? I think it's about as crazy to get into an uproar about how we have to protect the mentally retarded just because "they're people too". Well, yes, they are people. But they are less competent, less intelligent, and less worthwhile people. Resources should be funneled or seized by the most intelligent and functional members of society, not to the scum at the bottom of the barrel.
Let them fend for and care for themselves without outside assistance as the developed countries they've grown dependent on do and maybe they'll start to take care of themselves. Otherwise, you're just going to produce a nation of beggars who waste food simply by eating it to continue their own unproductive existences.
Edit: "Harmonic shifts, evolved societies, etc" are just hippy wet dreams where the power of emotions trumps logic and reality, creating an instant global utopia. There is no rational basis for such ideas, nor should anyone ever attempt to argue such ideas without discrediting the views he or she argues for.
[edit on 18-10-2008 by Epinephrine]
"Less worthwhile people" ?????? I think a man is defined by how he views and treats others less fortunate than himself. By lifting another up, we ourselves rise above the rest. Your callousness disappoints me but I think I understand it. Sadly, the society we live in encourages this attitude. It truly is the rare and extraordinary person that can overcome it. This is not to say that I am against prosperity, but what I am against is blind greed.
Good luck in life, my friend, I truly hope you never need your fellow mans help.
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 09:35 PM
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 10:36 PM
NB! This message has been sent around to 100.000's on ABOVETOPSECRET.COM, FACEBOOK, MYSPACE ++
This makes me sick to the stomach and very, very sad...
I havn't researched all of these facts and numbers, but I know this shows the big picture.
1/3 of the world live in slums, $5 billion dollars spent on the war in Iraq every month.
It's all a big pyramid game, where we, the middle class consumers are holding the whole f...... delicate cardhouse together.
All we have to do is educate ouselves, unite and TAKE ACTION! I'll get to that later...
It's not good enough having small peacefull demonstrations in the hundreds, where the police actually outnumber the demonstraters... WITH WEAPONS! The police/military THINK they are doing the right thing, as they have been brainwashed (by their superiors, who have also been brainwashed by their superiors and so on all the way to the top of the pyramid) into thinking they are doing the right thing.
When we reach numbers of 3.000 30.000, 300.000 or 3.000.000. demonstraters, THEN the police men will say to themselves: "We are on
the wrong side", and they will be unbrainwashed. INSTANTLY!
Stop buying and changing out our Pc's, TV's, the newest gadgets and silly shoes with lights on for our kids.
(We have the technology to make 1 of each of these items, which will last our whole lives: TV, car, washing machine, cooker, fridge etc. But no, everything is made to not last. AND WE ACCEPT IT. THEY HAVE MADE US WEAK! And what happened to the mini disk that they changed out with cd's. They didn't break. So they make cd's that need changing out every few years.
By doing this we are DIRECTLY helping the rich to get richer and the poor, poorer. We are also helping the elites achieve their agenda, as they own a lot of this planet
If we don't start acting NOW, I KNOW WE will be at the bottom of the pyramid much sooner than most people think.
Who's gonna help US then?? NO ONE!
I can tell you who's NOT going to help all of these poor souls around the world dropping like flies, 'cause of wars and starvation,
OUR GOVERNMENTS, the ones representing YOU and ME, (haha!) or the rich elites who have so much money it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to manage to spend it all in several lifetimes...
So who's left on this beautiful planet that have the power to stop this madness? YOU and ME, no one else.
Sounds scary, huh? Well it's gonna be MUCH scarier in the near future if we don't take action.
WE HAVE THE POWER, but we don't have control of our power.
Why, because we've given our power away by being manipulated, a bit by bit over years and decades.
And it's accelarating like mad nowadays. They are going for the kill.
They've got all the money they need, and now they're coming for our pensions and saving money.
Not to gain more money, but to make us weak thus easier to control, making it harder for us to fight back.
They look at us as their property, tools, soldiers, taxpayers etc.
Not being able to see this, one must be in denial, uninformed/disinformed, a "coincidence theorist" or hypnotized by the propoganda and lies that's been jammed down our throats by the TV since we came out of our mums bellies.
The media decides what's "appropriate" for us to see, and they protect the elites. (The poloticians are there to make us think we are in control, to make us satisfied, when they actually serve the capatalists/elites.)
The TV decides how often we laugh a day, (comedies), how "informed" we get ("news" haha), how much excitement we experience (action films/thrillers), how often we get scared (horror films), and how many marriages/partnerships goes to hell by showing how normal it is to f.... your secretary, your neighbour, your best friends wife! (Many movies and TV series).
All news around the world comes from Reuters, Reuters is owned and controlled by these elites??
The media is the democracies central nervous system.
There are hundreds of millions of people around the world, freedom fighters, fighting the corrupt system whos goal is to enslave the entire population. This is NOT enough yet, but the awakening is accelerating.
These freedomfighters are referred to as "conspiracy theorists", a word probably invented by our corrupt governments, media and ignorant people who don't do their own research, but blindly trust what the media feed them.
Freedom fighters are todays heroes fighting for our rights, the ones that got burnt as witches a couple of hundred years ago. Without them, we would all be slaves along time ago. They hold the balance. And if they are NOT the heroes, I ask who are the heroes?? Because I can tell you this much, it's not fun at all fighting tyrrany. It's stressful, scary, depressing and not something we like doing. Why we do it? BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!
I started this fight for freedom after I invested all my money in property development.
To make a long story short, I got ripped off, tricked and lost all of my money.
However I learnt alot about how greedy these rich sosiopaths are.
The man who ripped me off was good for nok250.000.000 or ca. £25.000.000. After ripping me off he is now good for nok257.000.000 or
What amazed me most when I was in in this buisness for 3 years, was this: I got to know all these rich bigshots in my hometown, Bergen Norway, and they are all the same. (At least 90%). They walk over bodies to earn an extra buck, and feel no guilt.
Now just imaine how the richest elites in this world of, soon, people think. Sleep on that... These guys are board of money, centuries ago. They are also bored of massive amounts of power. Now they want 100% control. It's in human nature, we allways want more. There are millions of excamles of this: Practically every rich person in the world's job is to maximize his profits every single day, "everyone" knows this, it's common knowledge. I've experienced this, I was actually like this myself when I was a poker pro. Maximize my profits, minimize my losses. Use any trick in the book. The whole elite poker community were like that, we were called the "sharks", and we used to call the bad players "fish." Only difference is that poker players are nice guys... mostly
They hold the bluffing and manipulating to the poker table, don't use it in "real life"... mostly
Also everyone plays by the same rules and have equal winning chances. The elites play by their own rules against opponents that DON'T EVEN know any game is being played. And cheating... Ethics does not exist for these guys.
On the official, mainstream ranking list over the richest in the world, Warren Buffet, has most money with about $60 bill in 2007. The Rockefeller family has spread their wealth between them to avoid publicity on the ranking list and are good for $11 trillion. The Rothschild family have about $100 trillion. (Numbers vary here, I've read 4-500 trillion. Hard to value his wealth apparantly)
The average Joe will not experience "mingling" or doing buisness with very rich people like this in a whole lifetime; as they are too far down in the money/power pyramid.
They only hear every now and then on the news of similar cases. They would be shocked if they new how often things like this occur.
Not just in buisnesses like this, but all buisnesses, politics, bank scandals etc.
The money I invested in property development, I earned from poker. I started playing poker with nickels and dimes at an early age, and when the internetpoker came, I tested my skills there. I bacame the most winning poker player in Norway several years in a row.
I was ranked as one of the top 5 in the world.
Anyway, after going bankrupt and finding out how corrupt the rich elites in my hometown (and the rest of the world) were, I started doing research on the internet to find out what else I didn't know about this world.
When one does research, one must be very (healthy) sceptical, have an open mind, go very very deep into subjects and NEVER trust only one source as there is alot of disinformation on the internet. Do research on the researchers to find out who one can trust, and delivers credible information.
It's all about information, and since there is so much information available, it's amazing how much truth one can find.
Poker is all about information too, so this I found easy. Since there is so much bluffing, manipulating, deception from our governments and media, I read them like an open book. They are using small stakes poker strategy on the populations, these strategies don't work on high stakes poker players. You can't bluff a bluffer.
I've allways asked questions my whole life. Questions like: Why are we not helping all the starving people around the world, why are there so many religions, why don't we get parachutes on planes and a system where every passenger can be saved, (it MUST be possible), why are there not enough teachers, policemen in Norway and why are they underpaid in the richest country in the world, (order out of chaos) why are there so many people saying that fluoride, aspartame, vacsines etc. are VERY dangerous for us and the media don't even mention it.
I mean come on! We have to open our eyes, seek and thee shall find, is so true!
Why did Jesus, Gahndi, JFK, Malcom X, Martin Luther King etc. get murdered??
Why are all the good guys fighting for YOUR and MY rights getting killed, while all the rich people, who don't give a f.... about you and me being adored and worshiped???
Another big mystery to me is this: The average Joe's admit that politicians lie all the time, and the media is corrupt.
BUT when someone like me, a "conspiracy theorist" (conspiracy realist!) tells the average Joe that the elites, bankiers of the world have a plan, called The New World Order, to centralize all power globally to one bank, one army, one currency, microchip everyone on the entire planet and make us slaves. And there is enormous ammounts of evidence. Then I hear: "Hehe, Chris has gone mad. He thinks someones taking over the world." Saying this without doing a minute of research. Einstein said, "contemplation without investigation, is the worst sort of ignorance". We are in a information age, things are different now than only a few years ago. More truth is being available to the average Joe, information that was rare before. There is a lot og disinfo also, so one has to "seperate the noise from the music." This usually isn't hard, just takes more research, taking longer time.
I am so tired of this fight against tyrrany, frustrated seeing how easy it could be overcome. There are only a few people controlling the whole world. However they have many good people serving them, unknowingly. They manipulate good people to do bad things.
The best excample of this is soldiers fighting wars for them, being killed for wars THAT HAVE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH PROTECTING OUR COUNTRIES. Nothing is more profitable than wars. That's why we fight wars. They are all based on false flag operations. LET THEM FIGHT THEIR OWN WARS, THE COWARDS!
I am sad of seeing my girlfriend crying because it's so hard to get people to unite, pass on emails, losing many friends because they can't handle the truth, are lazy, don't think we can win this fight. WE CAN!
This is the first time in history that practically everyone can find out we are being manipulated to fight wars for our "masters" based on lies. Lies like 11th.Sept.
It's all about information and numbers. When enough people know the truth, then the shadow governments can't work in the shadows any more. They HAVE to work in the shadows, as their agenda don't work once exposed to the sunlight... Thet use us against us.
Enough people knowing the truth is only the first step. The second step is SHOWING what we stand for.
A few thousand years ago, a couple of dictators were having a chat: One of them said: "Maybe we should mark all our slaves, so we easier can identify them." The wiser dictator answered: "No, then the slaves will know how many they are, rebell and win..."
We are The "slaves". We must mark ourselves. If we hang up sheets on our houses, windows, garages, posts in the streets saying for instance: STOP THE NEW WORLD ORDER or NO TO FASCISM. Then we show what we stand for. Then policemen, soldiers, government officials will see what's going on and understand that they are being manipulated into working for the wrong side. Document the sheets with messages on by filming, photos and get it on youtube. It will be much easier and less embaracing if we all do it at the same time. Unite on this one. Imagine and visualize when, at least, thousands of people start these projects, sending videos, pictures onto youtube, posting raports via email, facebook, abovetopsecret etc. It will be MUCH easier if we all do it at the same time. And easier for the "troops" behind to follow. Like the shheep following the bell.
We must maximize our use of communicating on the internet, while we still have the internet. This is our best tool, and we shouldn't take it for granted. Having internet now is like a dream, it will be gone/censored like in China soon.
People who believe, in some degree, but don't pass on emails, like this one, don't do it mainly for one reason. They are scared of being ridiculed by uninformed, ignorant people. DON'T LOOK FOR EXCUSES, JUST DO IT! FOR OUR CHILDREN! Say I held a gun to your head, demanding you to do it!
The uninformed, ignorant people will stay ignorant until they are microchipped and smell burnt flesh. Not communicating serves the elites, not the patriots who are fighting for freedom. Freedom fighters or conspiracy theorists are todays witches, the ones that got burned at stakes a few hundred years ago.
The elites agenda is to have 1 government, 1 bank, 1 currency 1 millitary. There will be no middle class, only masters and servants/slaves. We've all been tricked, deal with it as best you can. It's happened all through history, it happens all over the world as we speak. Now it's happening to us. If you are scared and uncertain, show this email to the smartest/wisest person you know, (SWALLOW YOU PRIDE, VERY IMPORTANT) make him/her study this information thoroghly/carefully and take their advice.
If you don't act and investigate on this, you are not telling the truth when you say you'll do anything for your kids and loved ones. This must not get sweaped under the carpet.
There are millions of groups all around the world fighting this fight, many powerful people too. Problem is, we are divided. We must unite.
"You can snap 1 arrow easy, try snapping a few million"
A bit of info bellow...
Ps. I'm sorry for scaring anyone, but only the truth will set us free. I'm just the messenger.
"The truth hurts"
ILLUMINATI: (The elites)
Evelyn De Rothschild on BBC talking on the finance crises:
Internet blogger:
'That's a common elitist rhetorical trap. First they lie and deceive for centuries, literally. They make up a false reality which you are actually born into. They literally condition people from birth by the power they have to make the media do largely what they want. And then, when individuals who are already fubared by society make mystakes, there they come to say it was all our fault, and imply that we are dumb and they have all the solutions.
He can play father figure all he wants, to my dieing breath I will know it was him and his like that engineered, out of unfair social leverage, this whole situation and I will know that their solutions is nothing but self serving powergrabbing. The more power they have the more they will trample mankind down, till there is literally nothing left but them and a dumbed down serveant class.
If they have their own way their very selfishness will make sure they atrophiate into a class of babbling morons incapable to even get off their horses properly by themselves, served by a class of monkey like serveant subhumans, within 10 generations.
This elite superclass represents the total decadence of mankind.'
-Maybe he is so power hungry and evil, because his mother gave him a female name.
Chris S
This is a conspiracy REALITY, not theory.
The New World Order is just a mad conspiracy theory, huh?
Aaron Russo talks to Alex Jones about Rockefeller and The New World Order:
Rockefellers opening speech, Bilderberg conference in Baden-Baden, Germany, in June 1991:
Presidents warn about NWO:
Glenn Beck, talkshow hoast talks about NWO in mainstream media, Oct. 2008:
Alex Jones, radio hoast on NWO:
David Icke is a British writer and public speaker on NWO:
Canadian Connie Fagal, leader of the Canadian Action Party on NWO:
Alex Jones, 'The Global Elite are making their move':
Bill Hicks, American comedian: 'Go back to bed America, your government is in control...'
George Carlin: 'It's called the American dream 'cause you have to be asleep to beleive it'
There are many around the world working against The New World Order, and have been for a looong time.
Indigenous Native American Prophecy (Elders Speak part 1)
Maybe this guy's got some good advice...
Chris S.
'To heal a situation, it must first be exposed. Once exposed, it can be healed'
'For å helbrede en situasjon, må den først frem i lyset. Når eksponert, kan den helbredes'
[edit on 18-10-2008 by CrushNWOorletourkids]
posted on Oct, 18 2008 @ 10:45 PM
Originally posted by DisgustedOne
[edit on 19-10-2008 by Epinephrine]
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 01:11 AM
reply to post by Epinephrine
Formulation of logical thoughts are not without some form of emotional influence, even the cold eyes of the devil himself is driven by desire. The denial of emotional influence itself is a fear, kind of ironic. The delusion or fear of not being able to successfully view objective reality comes from the 'realization' that emotion is distracting, of course it can be, but without the stabilizing effect of emotion, one really can't 'handle the truth', fear of change follows from lack of or instability of emotional processes, self criticism becomes the criteria for the self to keep 'grounded', otherwise will fall into the trap of anxiety (emotional chaos).
Logic has levels. Tell me, would you want an individual in position of great power and awesome intellect with similar viewpoints to yours, to consider you considerably below average in intelligence to the 500 million allowed to exist in a one world government society, therefore you face the same fate as those facing mass depopulation? Wouldn't you feel a rush of emotional triumph? Anger?
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 01:48 AM
reply to post by Epinephrine
that is a eugenicist, ie fascist, theory
eugenism is an easy way to make people accept deep social conditionning of themselves and mass killing/exclusion of others that are just different.
absolutely every human has the potential to achieve absolute consciousness and eternal bliss.
to the condition that he's not involved in a day by day survival race nor extremely conditioned to believe that the world can only be the way he is told it is.
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 03:53 AM
i don't think building them homes like american homes is the solution, primarily because their culture is different and what they consider to be home is also different. i'd be more inclined to think that a nicer version of what they already have in their communities would be better. like if it's a hut with a thatched roof, create a leak proof thatched roof ...also that seems invasive as well. if they have a village well, give them their own well. part of the issue here is impressing our way of life on people who have already established a way of life. and our synthetic everything could make these people really sick.
[edit on 19-10-2008 by undo]
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 06:09 AM
reply to post by Epinephrine
Epinephrine is a "fight or flight" hormone, and plays a central role in the short-term stress reaction. It is released from the adrenal glands when danger threatens or in an emergency. Such triggers may be threatening, exciting, or environmental stressor conditions such as high noise levels, or bright light and high ambient temperature
That was from wikipedia. Your nickname alone suggests you are not a rational individual and are posting on fear based mental mechanics. Sorry but I will have to discard all you say, because you are illogical and quite frankly hatefull and stupid. To say the rest of the world, who has not had the good fortune of being born in a developed country (or ill fortune in some points of view...) is dumber than you are, especially after you've spewed such unhumain drivel, would be laughable if it were not so sad. Sorry, but people like you disgust me, and all I can say is grow up and assume your humanity.
[edit on 19-10-2008 by Zepherian]
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 06:16 AM
reply to post by The_Modulus
Excellent thread. Good to see people are waking up to possibility. I'll just add a few things:
1) The cost of energy could be dilluted if we focus on letting people generate their own electricity. This would also break the energy monopoly and reduce the sociopathic elites ability to wage war and tax people injustly to almost nothing. Energy independence should be part of a plan for new earth.
2) The cost of education could be reduced greatly if we focus on just teaching them the basic read and write skills and then give them computer based homeschooling techniques.
3) If every human being were given 5000m2 for subsistance farming the entire population would only occupy 4-5% of the entire landmass. The overpopulation meme is wrong. It has been disseminated in the interest of the parasites at the top of the social pyramid as a control mechanism. Granted, some sort of self restraint would be needed, or we would need a second planet. Then again, mars is just over there... And so is venus. There is no limit to what humanity could achieve with just a change of mindset. But my point is this planet could easily sustain 20 billion of us, and were we to accept a little crowding we could probably triple that and still have room for the rain forrests. The Sahara alone irrigated is 10% of the landmass, or enough space to feed 10-12 billion people. We have the technology to suck moisture out of air already...
Again, excelent thread.
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 07:12 AM
reply to post by CrushNWOorletourkids
The wealth of a Rothschild is the ruin of nations
I hope that email does indeed get sent around so that people are aware of how the world really works. I have no doubt that this global awareness we are walking into will change everything, probably for the better. But untill then we have the elite trying desperately to retain control, by all means necessary. We still have troubled times to get through, but humanity's spirit is a very hard thing to crush, although we do tend to be a bit gullible
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 09:16 AM
reply to post by Moegli
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 09:25 AM
Originally posted by ::.mika.::
reply to post by Epinephrine
that is a eugenicist, ie fascist, theory
Eugenics significantly predates fascism and it's principles of removing undesirable traits from the gene pool and selectively breeding for desirable traits has a long history of success in agriculture since ancient times. While most animals are bred for docility and food output, breeding humans for health and intelligence would only be beneficial for the human species.
absolutely every human has the potential to achieve absolute consciousness and eternal bliss..
There is absolutely no evidence to support this. Furthermore, it sounds like a delusion created by meditative practices, which are proven to raise serotonin levels. Elevated serotonin levels cause feelings of interconnectedness, deep empathy, peace, and bliss. There is no more reason to believe a serotonin delusion than there is to believe the delusions caused by excessive levels of dopamine(which causes megalomania, hypersexuality, and paranoia) or any other chemical of the brain.
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 09:37 AM
Originally posted by Zepherian
reply to post by Epinephrine
[edit on 19-10-2008 by Zepherian]
Yes, surely a person who takes pride in being able to observe and influence several of his neurotransmitter levels, hormone levels, and general brain/organ arousal would never choose a hormone as his screen name on a site known for fear-filled and irrational posts.
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 09:51 AM
Epinephrine: You are one missguided although clearly well read individual imo, and I will attempt to show you the other viewpoint, one which is closer to reality, although sadly I still have to discard most of what you claim:
1) Emotions: The emotional makeup of an individual is key to his successfull function in society, to building relationships. Not only that but it is key to rational thought. If you think about it you chose an idea because you like the idea of that idea being right. Emotional motivation is the key to human endeavour, in all situations. I could go on and talk about somatic markers and the actual science behind that, but I'll just leave a reference: Read António Damásio, he is a portuguese scientist who resides in the US and is one of the leaders in the study of how emotions fit into the human thought process and he has at least 3 books out on the subject, two of which I have read and found enlightening.
You are wrong about the sociopaths and criminals, they are not devoid of emotions, just disfunctional in how they translate emotion into action. Sadism is the result of a messed up emotional profile, and sometimes it's the result of physical damage to the frontal lobe, for example.
2) Regarding the chemicals: they are one level of a fractal reality. You assume because you can identify part of the process you see the whole process, but there is plenty of indication and a lot of scientific experimentation, that shows further possibility. Regarding Serotonin et all I suspect you are confusing the key with the doorway here, and as such are being intelectually lazy, assuming you know it all, when the reality is, imo, that you do not. I encourage you to think of the possibility of you, and everyone around you, having more dimensions, physically, to their organism than presently accepted by science. The smokescreen of religion may come from a deeper hidden fire.
3) The way you see yourself is not how others see you, and to me your screen name has a delicious undertone of irony
View this post as an opportunity to enhance yourself, not as my ego trying to dropkick your ego, I've been stupid plenty of times in my life and often have I been corrected and I still have a ways to go to get to wherever I'm going.
posted on Oct, 19 2008 @ 09:53 AM
I'm actually torn on Eugenics, there is absolutely no reason why scienitist can't impregnate sorrogates with fetuses of super human. People cleanse of physical defect, designed with increase brain capacity, increase physical capacity. Additionally, there is no reason why, they people when grown, can't be used to create more babies even more advanced. Yes, I do think that this would create a 2 class society, but eventually the lower class be interbreed with he higher to raise them up. Especially if the characters that you are looking to express are dominate. Anyway, I agree with it.
On all the rest that people have talked about. I will respectfully say that I will agree to disagree. The only way your ideas of change can occur is with power, your ideas and concept by design is without it, and thus doomed to failure.
Do I think we could feed everyone, yes, do I think it will happen, never. As I said before man is corrupt, and thus you must work within that corruption to achieve the desired result, that is what the NWO has been doing for a very long time, will continue to do, and will continue to achieve. There power is in utilizing our weaknesses. Weaknesses that nobody wants to be pointed out.
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log in | <urn:uuid:cfc8e04b-2735-48e2-ba4b-3bfeabbe946c> | http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread402675/pg3 | en | 0.95868 | 0.10701 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Ferguson: Stopping Messi practically impossible
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has warned Chelsea - if they didn't need any more pointers - that they face an almost-impossible task in attempting to negate the threat of Lionel Messi in the Champions League semi-finals.
Guus Hiddink's side travel to the Nou Camp on Tuesday night for their first-leg encounter with Pep Guardiola'a la Liga high-fliers without suspended left-back Ashley Cole, meaning right-sided defender Jose Bosingwa will be tasked with trying to stop 'The Flea' in his tracks.
However, Ferguson - whose United side will face the winners of the tie in the final should they emerge victorious from their last four clash with Arsenal - believes achieving it for the entire 90-minutes is practically impossible if the diminutive Argentine is on form.
"Trying to stop players like Messi is quite a challenge," he said in the May issue of The Technician, the UEFA newsletter for coaches.
"There are always moments in a game when he drives at you with the ball and you say: 'Oh no, here we go again.' "All the great players, like Lionel Messi, have an element of courage that elevates them above everyone else - this is apart from their outstanding ability."
Plus! Ruud Gullit on Weekend Wonders and Chelsea on Talentspotter
| <urn:uuid:14c06e66-7ea2-4c56-82be-225a2ad03e12> | http://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/ferguson-stopping-messi-practically-impossible | en | 0.868071 | 0.061007 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Interdisciplinary Life Science - PULSe Great research is a matter of choice
Disease-Related Kinase Activity
Molecular Signaling and Cancer Biology
Description of Disease-related Kinase
Activity: Cells sense, interpret, and respond to their environment through a process known as signal transduction. A major mechanism that propels signal transduction is the phosphorylation of biomolecules by a class of enzymes known as kinases. Under normal circumstances, kinases strictly control important cellular processes such as apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. When control over kinase activity is lost, these processes malfunction and often result in disease. Therefore, identifying, or profiling, aberrant kinase activity helps us understand the underlying mechanisms that drive diseases and exposes therapeutic targets for drug development.
There are many biological and technological avenues of research that revolve around characterizing kinase activity. Some labs in the field focus primarily on cancer, as mutations to kinase encoding genes often lead to uncontrolled cell proliferation or reduce the cell’s capacity to undergo apoptosis. Kinases are also implicated in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease by promoting neuronal cell death that results in cognitive degeneration. Students that pursue kinase-related research may focus on discovering new biological roles for these enzymes, develop new technologies to improve activity detection, or synthesize small molecule inhibitors that target specific kinases. A variety of techniques are used to solve these problems, including traditional molecular biology, mass spectrometry, state-of-the-art imaging, and organic synthesis. Graduates from kinase laboratories may go on to work in the pharmaceutical industry, academia, or in non-research oriented fields such as medical writing.
The peptide-biosensor
The peptide-biosensor labeled with a fluorophore (red) is seen here being internalized by HEK293 cells (blue). This provides evidence that phosphorylation detected by the biosensor occurs within live cells.
Placzek EA, Plebanek MP, Lipchik AM, Kidd SR, Parker LL. A peptide biosensor for detecting intracellular Abl kinase activity using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Anal Biochem. 2010 Feb 1;397(1):73-8.
Summary: This article comes from Dr. Laurie Parker’s lab in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. It introduces the lab’s peptide-biosensor concept, and demonstrates a working example with Abl kinase. The biosensor is used in an engineered cell line that expresses an inducible form of Abl kinase, and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry is used to detect the reporter module of the peptide-biosensor.
Parker lab’s peptide-based biosensor for detecting Abl kinase activity in live cells
This image outlines the design of the Parker lab’s peptide-based biosensor for detecting Abl kinase activity in live cells. It contains amino acid sequences that give the sensor functions that include cell penetration (transduction), protein targeting, and kinase activity reporting.
Paris LL, Hu J, Galan J, Ong SS, Martin VA, Ma H, Tao WA, Harrison ML, Geahlen RL. Regulation of Syk by phosphorylation on serine in the linker insert. J Biol Chem. 2010 Dec 17;285(51):39844-54.
Summary: This study was a collaborative project between the labs of Dr. Robert Geahlen, Dr. Marietta Harrison, and Dr. Andy Tao, who all participate in the Cancer Biology and Molecular Signaling training group. In this work they describe the role phosphorylation plays in a linker region of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk). Using genetically altered B-cells, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and kinase activation assays, they show that phosphorylation of a specific serine residue in the linker region of Syk significantly affects Syk’s kinase activity.
Iliuk A, Martinez JS, Hall MC, Tao WA. Phosphorylation assay based on multifunctionalized soluble nanopolymer. Anal Chem. 2011 Apr 1;83(7):2767-74.
Here, Dr. Andy Tao and Dr. Mark Hall present a new detection method for the phosphorylation of proteins. It is based on a nanopolymer that is functionalized with a titanium trivalent cations, which allows the nanopolymer to complex phosphoproteins, and a biotin affinity tag that allows the efficient capture of the protein-nanopolymer conjugate. Using an ELISA style setup, the researchers are able to quantitatively detect protein phosphorylation from cell lysates.
Abl kinase activity
Abl kinase activity detected by the reporter module of the peptide is attentuated by treatment with the Abl kinase inhibitor, imatinib mesylate (IM), indicating that the biosensor can specifically detect Abl kinase activity.
| <urn:uuid:7dae488e-a5d5-4356-891a-d50b58f0a0cc> | http://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/pulse/academics/hottopic/kinase.html | en | 0.885229 | 0.020074 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Huge RV parts & accessories store!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Seriously stupid RV trick
We have a new nomination for our Stupid RV Trick of the Year. It's crazy: we think we have seen the all-time Stupid RV Trick and then along comes another one like this that proves that there is virtually no limit to creative stupidity.
There is a bit of off-color language here, so turn off your sound if you just want to see the stupid trick without commentary.
1. I saw this before...the driver broke his jaw and fractured his back doing stupid things like this.
2. What is the attraction?
Oh, I see, a concussion.
3. This is your brain on alcohol...
4. Another candidate for the Darwin Awards. This guy was just a hair away from thinning out the gene pool for stupidity.
5. How drunk was he or was he doing it on a bet? Either way, dumb stupid.
| <urn:uuid:5d3432e8-c122-41ef-8e3e-7b7535592065> | http://www.rvvideos.com/2009/11/seriously-stupid-rv-trick.html | en | 0.978183 | 0.625295 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Stick with Xbox 360 if you don't have an internet connection, says Microsoft
Microsoft's Don Mattrick tells players without online access to stick with Xbox 360
Microsoft Executive Don Mattrick has advised gamers who don't have internet access to stick with the Xbox 360 console
Microsoft's had a tough couple of days at E3. Not only has the software giant caused massive consternation with the high retail pricing of the Xbox One, but it's received a right royal kicking after Sony announced the PS4 has no DRM, requires no internet connection and is 80 quid cheaper than the competition.
For a lot of gamers, a huge sticking point has been the requirement to go online with the Xbox One at least once a day in order to play games with.
Players have pointed to the fact that if they live in areas that don't have great internet access, this policy could present problems for them. Well, Microsoft Executive, Don Mattrick has a solution for them: stick with your last gen console.
In an interview with Spike TV at the E3 expo, Mattrick said: "Fortunately, we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity. It's called Xbox 360. If you have zero access to the internet, that is an offline device."
"Seriously, when I read the blogs and thought about who's really the most impacted there was a person who said, 'Hey I'm on a nuclear sub'. And I don't even know what it means to be on a nuclear sub, but I've got to imagine it's not easy to get an internet connection," he added. "But hey, I can empathise. If I was on a sub, I'd be disappointed."
Mattrick's statement seems to clarify that, at least at present, Microsoft has no plans to budge on its online policy. Come this November we'll find out whether that and the PS4's lower retail price may be the silver bullets Sony needs to win the first battle in the upcoming console war... | <urn:uuid:84ab7c8a-a0f8-48bd-8dd4-07df9cae690a> | http://www.t3.com/news/stick-with-xbox-360-if-you-dont-have-an-internet-connection-says-microsoft | en | 0.97269 | 0.144186 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The Ganesh Particle, under the correct electrical impulse levels, was observed being liberated from the crystalline rock.
It is currently believed that the Ganesh Particle is a densecollection of electromagnetic waves, containing information,
and floating in a river of less dense electromagnetism
‘Doctrine of Convergent Time-Lines’
Project Preserve Destiny
How do you ask a man to be the last man to die ?
Choice war:
War of Choice
War by Choice
“war of our choosing” to protect the homeland
against evil doers because, well just because.
The Ganesh Particle – discovered by Dr. Dan Burisch
and outlined in the Lotus Protocol.
This mysterious particle is supposed to be the key to opening up the most powerful force in creation which is the ‘seed of life’ itself, and has the ability to heal damaged cells.
These misguided ones fail to understand some of the most basic laws of the universe:
… part of a natural system which has been put in place by whatever god that one would want to deign as being the creator of the universe, as part of a natural system and not to be controllable by humankind.
The incredible story of Dr. Daniel Burisch who reveals his alleged participation
in experiments with human and alien genetics
From the moment that Dan theorized its existence, the Ganesh Particle generated a great deal of interest from our ‘black project’ government and military organizations.
This thus raises religious issues such as the ‘Seed of Life’, ‘Kerubim’ (angelic protectors), ‘Book of Genesis’, etc.
This self-fulfilling process has the unfortunate effect of mesmerizing national security strategists into believing the latest spin put to them by their ‘strategists’ or ‘corporate consultants’ who constantly dream up new technological responses to the latest threat scenario, and how this can be done without precipitating the very threat being prepared for.
Thus grows the military-industrial complex, a powerful hydra that secretly consumes billions of dollars as effortlessly as former Tyco executives ratchet up ‘necessary’ corporate expenses such as $6,000 shower curtains.
Dan Burisch has also worked with one extraterrestrial biological entity, a ‘Gray’ he called J-Rod, with whom he had a close working relationship with at Area 51. This J-Rod essentially performed a ‘mind-meld’ with him where he downloaded much valuable information on the genesis of life.
The group of friendly extraterrestrials from the Galactic Federation or other interplanetary associations never participated in the secret agreements reached between governments and Gray extraterrestrials.
Essentially, we would have something akin to a Marxist-Leninist ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ or Platonic ‘Council of Guardians’, that would be filled by the ranks of the elite controllers to guard us against ‘reactionary’ or ‘unfriendly’ extraterrestrials and their ‘human assets’ wanting to destabilize humanity and enslave us.
Policy decisions were taken.
Mistakes were made.
Lives were lost.
Damage was done.
We regret the inconvenience to planetary
awareness, there were lapses in comprehension,
there were ethical compromises.
The result is regrettable.
The data observed was based on good
intelligence by analysts of the highest caliber,
it was the one bureaucratic reason
we all could agree upon. | <urn:uuid:a08b062e-169e-4a93-8bcb-b3f0337e958d> | https://outofthisworldx.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/the-ganesh-god-particle-and-the-shiva-stargates/ | en | 0.949791 | 0.041686 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Arusha to Dombivli
Arusha (Arusha) to Dombivli (Maharashtra) distance is 4709 km and you can get there by flight + flight + flight + car in just over 8 hours and 59 minutes with fares starting from ₹ 65352. The weather at Dombivli is varying from "nice" to "hotter than nice".
Travel Guide | <urn:uuid:e496cd4f-6019-4ca5-ae6b-7e95716f49b6> | https://www.ixigo.com/how-to-reach-go-from/arusha-to-dombivli | en | 0.899113 | 0.780331 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Kid of the Day
Name: Evan Marquis Gilbert
Age: 10 months
Hometown: Harlem, Ga.
Parents: Candance Davis and Marquis Gilbert
What makes him special: "Evan is one of my great grandchildren. He is so sweet. He is crawling everywhere, all through the house, but when you tell him granny is here, he stops and looks around and holds those little arms up. I could just hug him to death, he is a sweetheart ," said his great grandmother, Mary T. Sanders. | <urn:uuid:0d08d8ba-9a40-4f3d-a0b8-143e5b70976c> | http://chronicle.augusta.com/metro/2008-11-23/kid-day | en | 0.979546 | 0.055984 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Taxes: Price of Civilization or Tribute to Leviathan?
By Lant Pritchett and Yamini Aiyar
2 September 2015
There are two dominant narratives about taxation. One is taxes are the “price we pay for a civilized society” (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.). In this view taxes are not a necessary evil (as in the pairing of “death and taxes” as inevitable) but a positive good: more taxes buy more “civilization.” The other view is that taxes are “tribute to Leviathan”—a pure involuntary extraction from those engaged in economic production to those who control coercive power producing no reciprocal benefit. In this view taxes are a bane of the civilized. We consider the question of taxes as price versus tribute for contemporary India and make three points. First, most discussions of government budgets focus on allocations across sectors and activities, focusing on the accounting cost of services provided. But if the accounting cost exceeds the economic cost (the minimum at which the good or service could have been provided), then the difference can be considered “tribute.” Second, to the extent that government engages in activities which would not have otherwise been carried out at all but which citizens value, the “price of civilization” is maximized. In contrast, when government budgets produce private goods at such low quality they are valued at zero by many, then those taxpayers consider this tribute. Third, the structure of social spending between “insurance”-like programs which benefit all individuals at various states or stages of life, and sharply targeted transfer programs determines whether most taxpayers consider taxes to fund these expenditures a price or tribute. The notion of a “compulsory purchase” versus “tax” helps elucidate this difference, and sharp targeting is seen as raising the price to any given individual of a given degree of individual benefit. Taken together we argue India needs more taxes as price of civilization but less taxes as tribute, which currently dominate. There is currently a sharp contradiction between the needs for greater revenue mobilization for India to continue its progress and provide the increasingly sophisticated “civilization” demanded with higher productivity and incomes, and the perception of the “middle class” that most taxes are tribute. This contradiction is created by a costly and yet ineffective state the solution to which can neither be a weaker state on the one hand nor more tribute paid to dysfunction on the other, but rather a better state. | <urn:uuid:4dc57a6f-97e0-4290-9d06-0cee334f9d36> | http://cprindia.org/research/papers/taxes-price-civilization-or-tribute-leviathan | en | 0.942291 | 0.197126 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
We enjoyed the countless emails we received yesterday informing us that "Around The Horn" host Tony Reali — an affable fellow whom we imagine being ultra intense about rec league softball, for some reason — yelled out "don't take my Deadspin away from me" at the end of the program yesterday. (Shockingly, we didn't watch the show. Really!) But we actually enjoyed more Jay Mariotti's rant that led to the comment. Basically, Mariotti was saying that athletes blogging from the Olympic Village next year is a terrible thing because, apparently, the mere act of blogging will turn them into vampires out to suck the soul of an unsuspecting populace.
Jay, we've been over this with you before, but let's do it again ... slowly. Blogs themselves are not inherently negative creations; they are simply a new — not all that new, actually — medium for communication. The reason you think they're negative is because you only read what blogs say about you. And that's always negative. Why is that always negative? Because they're talking about you. Because you're Jay Mariotti, and there is nothing positive to say about you. (OK: We kind of like your eye shadow. That's positive!) If there were another medium as easy for people to communicate as blogs, it would be used to say negative things about you as well. It's not a problem with the medium, Jay; it's just you.
But there we go, just making Jay more famous again.
You Need Jay Mariotti On That Wall [Deadspin]
(We're pretty certain this video's gonna be taken down by noon, by the way.) | <urn:uuid:ed83252d-5298-4f9d-89e6-e6f6828ae8df> | http://deadspin.com/235302/jay-mariotti-cant-figure-out-why-everyones-so-negative?tag=tony-reali | en | 0.97294 | 0.372827 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Friday, August 30, 2013
Don't let me keep you
from fucking the world over,
but Seamus Heaney has died.
Just some old poet
guy with a funny accent
who wrote about stuff
in peoples hearts and minds.
Not serious things like
gassing and bombing
and killing, I know.
Some old guy
who looked between
and saw what was there
and reported back
so that we could ignore it
and buy another TV.
I think that it's
worth noting that he
bought Beowulf
back to life
and wrote of turnip snedding
in relation to life
but that's just me,
what do I know, poetically
Things I learnt from him, mainly,
though he was the man
and I am a boy.
going on a bit.
He was a good guy.
You have to get back
to your work, eh.
Site Meter | <urn:uuid:18df8575-d1e3-40b9-82a6-45b7b453518c> | http://lightofpassage.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html | en | 0.96989 | 0.058055 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Brain anatomy pioneers considered the source of human emotions and studied limbic structures.
Hyperlinked Menu:
An Arrow Indicates Your Location
Part 1.
Brain Anatomy
Brain Structure and Neurons
DNA, the Brain, and Human Behavior
Human Brain Development
Brain Anatomy Diagram
Broca's Limbic Lobe, Papez's Circuit, and MacLean's Limbic System
Brain Evolution—The Triune Brain Theory
Brain Anatomy—Early Structures and Systems
Subcortical Brain Structures, Stress, Emotions, and Mental Illness
The Brain's Two Hemispheres
The Brain's Cerebral Cortex (Neocortex)
Part 2:
and Emotional Systems
Brain Neurotransmitters—an Introduction
Brain Neurotransmitters and Illness
The Brain's SEEKING System
Attention, Learning, and Memory: The VIGILANCE System
Rage: an Innate Brain System
Fear: an Innate Brain system
PANIC/LOSS: an Innate Brain System
PLAY: an Innate Brain System
The MATING System, the Brain, and Gender Determination
CARE: an Innate Brain System Important to Motherhood
Part 3:
Innate Behavior, Grooming, OCD, and Tourette Syndrome
Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Trichotillomania, and Skin Picking
OCD and Tourette Syndrome: Causes and Symptoms
OCD, Dopamine, and the Nucleus Accumbens
OCD Treatments Including Antipsychotic Medications
Dopamine neurons in the brain.
Broca's Limbic Lobe, Papez's Circuit, and MacLean's Limbic System
Human brain section revealing both cortex and nuclei including limbic system structures and basal ganglia. The scientists we discuss in this section were all intrigued with the strangely-shaped assemblage of brain structures lying beneath the neocortex that we humans share with all other mammals. What has historically been called the limbic system, this "animal brain," as Thomas B. Czerner calls it in What Makes You Tick? The Brain in Plain English (2001), "orchestrates your emotive, instinctual behavior. In this head versus heart dilemmas you are forever debating, this is the voice of your heart. The genuine smile originates here. So does the mania and the depression of bipolar disease; the uncontrollable, ritualized behavior and fixed ideas of obsessive compulsive disorder; and the desperate, suicidal impulses of major depression."
Pierre Paul Broca names the limbic lobe:
Pierre Paul Broca, French physician, surgeon, and neuroanatomist. Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880) was a French physician, surgeon, and neuroanatomist who coined the term limbic lobe. Limbic is derived from limbus which means generally an edge, border, or hem. I learned why Broca used the term limbic lobe when reading Andrew Lautin's book, The Limbic Brain (2001). Lautin cites W.J.H. Nauta's book, Fundamental Neuroanatomy, wherein Nauta provides an elegant description of what Broca discovered when he examined the differentiation between deeply recessed cortical tissue and underlying, subcortical nuclei: "…the edge is clearly arrayed in a way suggesting the strategy of a seamstress who finishes off the hem of a garment by folding its material several times and even placing over its end an extra piece of fabric before stitching it all together."
C. Judson Herrick differentiates the lateral and medial parts of the cortex:
In his book, The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (1996), Joseph LeDoux explains that anatomist C. Judson Herrick (1868-1960) pointed out a distinction between the lateral and medial parts of the cortex. LeDoux writes: "Imagine the brain as a hot dog bun, with the two halves of the bun being the two cerebral hemispheres. The brownish, toasted part of the bun that we can see from the outside is like the lateral part of the cerebral cortex." This part of the cortex, which we now refer to in evolutionary terms as the neocortex, includes sensory and motor areas and produces rational thought and language. LeDoux goes on to say: "Now, imagine prying the bun apart down the seam in the middle, pulling the two hemibuns away from each other. The white, untoasted part of the hemibuns down the middle is like the medial part of the cortex. This part, according to Herrick, is evolutionarily older and is involved in more primitive functions than the newer cortex, known as the neocortex …." LeDoux notes that "Herrick's medial cortex had earlier been called le grand lobe limbique by the great French anatomist Paul Pierre Broca."
The "nose brain" or rhinencephalon:
The olfactory bulbs location on the base of the brain as illustrated by Gray's Anatomy. Because of connections to the olfactory bulbs, early anatomists referred to the medial cortex, or the limbic lobe, region of the brain as the rhinencephalon, a term that means "nose brain." In the Gray's Anatomy image to the right (image links to source), which depicts an upside-down view of the base of the human brain, I have circled one of the olfactory bulbs in red. You can see how it interdigitates with deeply recessed cortex.
Scientists have come to understand that in addition to olfaction, neural circuitry in this region is responsible for, as Jaak Panksepp puts it in Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions (1998), "emotional and motivational impulses." Panksepp explains that "animals seek out food with the exquisitely sensitive chemodetectors of their nose, and it seems that exploratory and appetitive motivational tendencies (which allow animals to anticipate positive events in the world) emerge from neural systems that encourage the use of the olfactory system." That evolution has elaborated on the existing olfactory system to create motivational systems is an evolutionary concept called exaptation. In mammals, the olfactory system has also evolved as a means to identify friend from foe. Panksepp notes that "rats get acquainted through mutual investigation, especially of the ano-genital region (as do dogs). If animals already know each other well, they spend considerably less time investigating each other than if they are strangers."
In his video course, Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality, 2nd edition, Robert M. Sapolsky explains that the limbic brain was historically called the rhinencephalon, meaning "nose-brain," because it was studied first in laboratory rats. Scientists realized that what rats smell governs their emotions and behavior. In rats, olfaction and emotion are completely entwined. It is by smell that a rat identifies and attacks an intruder entering the nest. "Find the neurons that are olfactory receptors and you are one synapse away from the limbic system," Sapolsky says.
James W. Papez's proposed mechanism of emotion:
James W. Papez, an American neuroanatomist from Cornell University. In 1937, James W. Papez (1883-1958), an American neuroanatomist at Cornell University, published a paper titled "A Proposed Mechanism of Emotion" in Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. Papez delineated the neural circuitry that he believed might mediate emotions. In Affective Neuroscience, Panksepp explains that even though Papez "did not clearly specify which emotion(s) he was concerned with, anatomically he was quite specific. He based much of his reasoning on early brain ablation experiments and the study of a brain disease that induces rage, namely rabies, which is known to damage the hippocampus."
LeDoux explains that Papez "was a great synthesizer and put together Herrick's idea about the evolutionary distinction between the medial and lateral cortex with two other kinds of findings—observations about the consequences of brain damage in the medial cortex in humans and research on the role of the hypothalamus [a subcortical nucleic structure] in the control of emotional reactions in animals. The outcome was a theory that explained the subjective experience of emotion in terms of the flow of information through a circle of anatomical connections from the hypothalamus to the medial cortex and back to the hypothalamus. This is now known as the Papez circuit."
In The Limbic Brain, Lautin provides a comprehensive and scholarly account of the early anatomists' scientific progress. In reviewing the book for the American Journal of Psychiatry (2003), Johannes Pantel provides a succinct account of Papez's contribution, explaining that Papez "proposed that a circulatory consortium of neural components and their connections participate in concert harmoniously to elaborate emotional awareness." Pantel goes on to say, "Although the main elements of Papez's circuit largely conformed to Broca's great limbic lobe, Broca's early speculations regarding an emotive function for this structure did not contribute in any direct way to the development of Papez's concept. Rather, Papez was influenced by new data derived from brain transection and stimulation experiments, developments in comparative neuroanatomy, clinical observations, and an evolving neuroanatomical philosophy (postulating reciprocating cortical to subcortical circuits as central processes elaborating consciousness)."
LeDoux notes that almost all of the anatomical paths which Papez proposed do exist. Ledoux writes: "Unfortunately, at least for the Papez theory of emotion, this circuit appears to have little involvement in emotion."
The rhinencephalon overall, however, proved to do much more than distinguish smells. So although his circuitry was off the mark, Papez was correct in theorizing that the rhinencephalon was involved in producing emotion. LeDoux explains, "as Papez and Herrick had argued, the evolutionarily older areas of the medial cortex, the so-called rhinencephalon, are intimately connected with the hypothalamus [which regulates the autonomic nervous system including the fight-or-flight response]. That the rhinencephalon was not just a smell brain in higher mammals was evident from the fact that dolphins and porpoises, which have no sense of smell, have highly elaborate rhinencephalic regions, and that in humans the olfactory sense is of comparatively less importance but certain areas of the rhinencephalon (especially the hippocampus and cingulate regions) reach their greatest development."
In a footnote, Panksepp explains that Paul D. MacLean gave new life to Papez's theory when in 1949 MacLean published "Psychosomatic disease and the 'visceral brain': Recent developments bearing on the Papez theory of emotion." The preceding link will initiate a download of MacLean's entire article.
Paul D. MacLean's defines a limbic system:
According to Panksepp in Affective Neuroscience, Paul D. MacLean coined the concept of the limbic system in a 1952 publication: "Some psychiatric implications of physiological studies on frontotemporal portion of limbic system (visceral brain)" (Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol. 4:407-418). In addition to those structures that early anatomists referred to as the rhinencephalon, Panksepp explains that MacLean "identified the medial surfaces of the telencephalic hemispheres (including cingulate, frontal and temporal lobe areas—especially the amygdala) and interconnections with septal, hypothalamic, and central-medial brain stem areas as part of the neural landscape that constituted the 'emotional brain.'"
LeDoux notes MacLean's early ideas, from MacLean's 1949 publication, about the emotional brain.
Maclean suggested that, "although, in the ascension to higher forms, the rhinencephalon yields more and more control over the animal's movements to the neocortex, its persistent, strong connections with lower autonomic centers suggests that it continues to dominate in the realm of visceral activity." While the neocortex "holds sway over the body musculature and subserves the functions of the intellect," the visceral brain is the region involved in "ordering the affective behavior of the animal in such basic drives as obtaining and assimilating food, fleeing from or orally disposing of an enemy, reproducing, and so forth."
I should note here that the term limbic system is outdated since, as it turns out, limbic structures do not function as a discrete system. Moreover, there is not one but several emotional systems in the brain. We discuss these systems—mediating seeking, rage, fear, panic/loss, play, mating, and care behaviors—in Part 2 of Also, the medial cortex (or limbic lobe) and subcortical limbic structures lying beneath the medial cortex intricately connect to both higher and lower brain structures—affecting both cognitive and emotional processing in the brain. Emotion-producing neurocircuits involving limbic-brain structures, however, as well as older structures that we mammals share with reptiles, can sometimes gain a controlling influence over our human behavior under certain circumstances. This is, I think, the basic reason that obsessions and compulsions occur. Lower-order influence may also account for some violent impulses.
We will discuss specifics regarding the medial cortex and subcortical brain structures—which I refer to as the limbic brain—later in Part 1 of, beginning on a page titled Subcortical Brain Structures, Stress, Emotions, and Mental Illness. In Part 2 of, we discuss emotional systems including the RAGE system, which produces violent impulses. We will discuss the role of subcortical brain structures in generating obsessions and compulsions in detail in Part 3 of
We can be certain that without limbic-brain structures, our emotions as we know them would cease to exist. These structures not only make us mammalian, they make us human. It is then so much more ironic that, as MacLean told the New York Times, "the greatest language barrier lies between man and his animal brains; the neural machinery does not exist for intercommunication in verbal terms."
To continue exploring in an orderly fashion, link to Brain Evolution—The Triune Brain Theory. Or, you may Explore the Site Outline.
| <urn:uuid:11c32db2-f995-4627-975d-1e55bfdafd1c> | http://mybrainnotes.com/brain-maclean-broca.html | en | 0.919588 | 0.080554 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Grinds My Gears
What Grinds My Gears: Cauliflower Ear Discrimination
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone and are not necessarily shared by
I am sick and tired of the discrimination against those Americans who deal with the destruction of the underlying cartilage of the pinnae. That is right; I am speaking about “Cauliflower Ear”. It is bad enough that I have to read how it is a “deformity” in medical journals, watch people do double-takes at the state of fellow competitors’ ears, and listen to terrible jokes in even worse movies (looking at you Couture in The Expendables). I mean go to Google and start typing Randy Couture and the top search is “ear”!!!! Now it seems that even our glorious overlord of technology, Apple, has decided to shove us aside.
Members Login Below.
Not a Prime Member? Join NOW! | <urn:uuid:7527de86-2596-4b62-9186-3fe136029c0c> | http://news.theopenmat.com/wrestling-news-wire/grinds-gears-cauliflower-ear-discrimination/60230 | en | 0.93929 | 0.036185 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Winter festivities
UNLIKE other Hindu festivals that change date every year Makar Sankranti is nearly always celebrated on the 14th of January. It marks the transition of the Sun from the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius to Capricorn during the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. In Tamil Nadu, Sankranti heralds the harvest festival of Pongal. On Pongal, sticks of sugarcane are offered to the Sun god seeking happiness in life. In Karnataka, pieces of sugarcane are exchanged. This exchange is symbolic of the sweetness that they hope to have in all their dealings with each other. | <urn:uuid:b9de63c3-c11d-4e24-839c-a8ef55d3b4ab> | http://oneindiaonepeople.com/winter-festivities/ | en | 0.94538 | 0.019385 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Mini Review: Elizabeth, The Princess Bride by Barry Denenberg
Release Date: April 2003
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 151
Received: Library
Stars: 3
Goodreads Page
Ok, so this book is really two books in one. The first book is the actual story part told in diary format. This part is ok, but pretty uneventful.
Basically, she meets a prince and gets married to him. The whole thing was all, "And then they lived happily ever after" *sigh* *release the doves* Which was nice and all, but in a totally bland way.
And that's it. Seriously.
Sure there's historical tid-bits and little details and considering I knew nothing about this Elizabeth (or, Sisi, as she was more commonly called), I did learn some things. SOME. Meaning, not much, but a little. But, considering the whole book is only about 101 pages long, that's not too surprising.
So that other book? That's what makes up the other 50 pages of the 151 total pages. THIS is where things get awesome, starting with the opening line that was a total 180 from where the story left off.
Remember the happily ever after vibe of the diary part? Yeah, the epilogue/historical notes was all like, "SIIIIIKKKEEE!!!!" And then awesomeness ensued. Or, horrible stuff. Or, well, it was awesomely horrific in a staring-at-a-train-wreak kind of way. Because HO-LE-COW Sisi's story has it all: madness, unrequited love (times two), murder, suicides, more murder, revolution, war, and evil step-mothers.
Of course, 50 pages only whet my appetite and I spent the next hour or so after finishing the book scouring the internet for more information about this royal family.
Bottom line
The story itself was ok if bland, but given how quick it was to read, I don't regret the time I spent with it. Points to the book for introducing me to a historical figure I might otherwise not have known about. Though more points to Google for actually teaching me about her.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Mini Review: Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl
Release Date: October 2010
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 368
Received: Library
Stars: 3.5
Goodreads Page
I'm starting to think I don't really love Queen Victoria books. Michaela MacColl's vapid, demanding, and DULL interpretation of Victoria did nothing to change my feelings.
Thankfully, Victoria wasn't the main character (though her frequent page-time knocked off my stars). Liza is the main character, and I liked this riches to rags girl a whole lot more.
Liza doesn't spend much time dwelling on her parents' deaths. I mean, sure, she mentions it and it affects her, as it should, but she doesn't mope. She recognizes the suckiness of her changed situation (from wealthy girl to orphaned maid servant) but she's wonderfully pragmatic about the whole thing and quickly learns how to play her cards to improve her lot. A thousand points to Liza for being the go-getter I wanted to read about.
Fans of Susan Dennard's scrappy Daniel Sheridan will probably swoon for Liza's scrappy paramour Will (bonus points for the name Will!). Their slow burn romance and subtle scheming (with the help of a charming street urchin) was the highlight of the book for me.
As for the history, I'd categorize this somewhere between heavy, super-detailed Historical fiction and the more backdrop-style historical fiction-lite. There's plenty to learn, with many of the big historical players making an appearance. While it definitely feels old-timey historical, Prisoners in the Palace doesn't bombard the reader with Details.
Bottom line
Prisoners in the Palace was a quick, light, fun book with mostly-likable characters and a plot that kept me entertained. Chapters are super short, making it a breeze to fly through, though I kept getting hung up on the third-person narrative voice (this book SO felt like it was written for first person!).
Victoria soured things for me, which is not necessarily any fault of the author but did affect my enjoyment of the book nevertheless. Everything else was all totally enjoyable, but none went above "very good" and definitely not into "OHMYGOSHLOVE" territory.
Looking for another book like this?
You might like:
Click on the pictures to go to my reviews/Goodreads
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Series Review: Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey
Marie Antoinette trilogy
Release Date: 2011-2013
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages: 453, 400, and 413
Received: Library (1 & 2), ARC from the publisher (3)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Becoming Marie Antoinette
I used the title of the first book here because it's a fantastic description of what Juliet Grey does with her treatment of Marie Antoinette: her narrative truly becomes Antoinette.
After the first book, which follows Antoinette from about age 11 through to when she was crowned queen, I didn't entirely feel a connection. I learned a whole lot of stuff I didn't know (how often do we get to read about her early childhood before moving to France?), but I didn't feel like I truly knew her yet.
Part of this is because she's pretty young in the first book, and when she finally gets to France, she's bombarded with so much intrigue, etiquette, rules, and stuff that she's almost like a deer caught in the headlights (and understandably so!)
Then I read the second book Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow (from when she's crowned queen to the Storming of the Bastille) quickly followed by the third Confessions of Marie Antoinette (from the beginning of the French Revolution to her death) and suddenly I knew her, and I loved her.
A large span of time is covered and Marie Antoinette grows considerably throughout the trilogy. She changes from an innocent child raised in the relatively relaxed Austrian court, to a kind girl preyed upon and manipulated by the court vipers while dauphine, to a deeply lonely queen desperately seeking happiness, to a woman wise beyond her years and somehow, remarkably, still characterized by warmth and forgiveness.
Marie Antoinette is not a woman like Cleopatra or Elizabeth I. She doesn't wield all that much power and so her direct mark on history is seemingly small (keyword, seemingly). Her greatness does not come from acts of political acumen or martial bravery.
And maybe that's why I love her so much. She's just a woman, and the things she feels, the way she copes, and the hurts she bears strike a chord that make her total kindred spirit material. I may admire Cleopatra, but it's Marie Antoinette who'd get my sleepover party invite.
And I'll just say, as the biggest understatement ever, the Marie Antoinette of popular understanding as a
cotton-headed spendtrift, coddled, oblivious and uncaring to the suffering of her people couldn't be further from the truth.
Seriously. Every time I read about her I want to cry at the injustice of her reputation compared to who she actually was.
History lessons
I read historical fiction because I want to learn both about the people and the historical context that surrounds them. To that end, I cannot rave enough about Juliet Grey's trilogy.
Where do I even begin? Well researched and filled with historical details, Juliet Grey's trilogy transported me so completely that I felt as if I were there living alongside Marie Antoinette. Everything was explored in great detail from fashion to hygiene, etiquette to tradition, food to political events, alliances, and scandals.
But these facts weren't presented as dry, endless little details dropped in without context or purpose. Juliet Grey's presentation of Marie Antoinette's world built upon itself, connecting dots and underscoring how something as seemingly insignificant as a fashion choice could have widespread political ramifications, not just in the immediate, but decades later.
Likewise, her intimate portrait of Antoinette as a person cast a human light on the revolution and the events leading up to it. In understanding Marie Antoinette's life—her personality, experiences, and relationships—I have a much clearer understanding of how the French Revolution came to pass.
Boredom levels
I was never bored while reading this series. Intrigued, delighted, saddened, excited, swooning, frustrated, enraged, and sobbing, yes, but never bored.
But, I love Historical Fiction, complete with a bold, capital H. I don't want historical fiction lite. I want the details piled on high, just so long as I have a sympathetic, human lead to follow.
Readers looking for historical fiction light on the details will probably be bored stiff. There are a TON of details.
That said, young adult or adult readers looking to learn more about Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution who want lots of historical detail will LOVE Juliet Grey's trilogy.
Bottom line
I adore this series. Juliet Grey is right up there with C. W. Gortner as among my top absolute favorite historical fiction authors. She's an autobuy author and I can't recommend this series enough.
I've read a bunch of books about Marie Antoinette, but Juliet Grey's trilogy is by far the best, most intimate, alive, and accurate fictional portrayal (even better than Carolyn Meyer's The Bad Queen, which I love and made me sob, though it takes some historical liberties).
Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key
Do you have any questions about the Marie Antoinette series that I haven't addressed?
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Friday, October 18, 2013
Mini Review: Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 336
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Oh man, I was SO looking forward to this book! There's ghosts and a murder mystery all wrapped up in historical fantasy setting, what could go wrong?
Apparently a bland main character. And a meh romance. And a mushy historical setting (it's early 1900s WWI era but felt more like post-war 1950s Dragnet). But mostly a bland main character. Who did NOTHING with her cool ghost seeing powers (and you know how much I dislike characters who squander their nifty powers).
Delia was nice but I seriously need something more than that to keep my attention. She was just so bland. And to make matters worse her love interest is super in love with her and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he saw in her.
But oh boy did he see a lot in her. Half the book is told through his third person perspective (alternating with Delia's even more distant first person chapters) and he spends about half of that time telling us how swell he thinks Delia is and how he's totally forgetting about his dead wife and kid after a DECADE of paralyzing mourning.
Which brings me to a personal pet peeve: the dead wife. Maybe I'm just jealous to a fault or overly possessive or I never adequately learned how to share my toys, but I don't like it when my leading lady needs to share the romantic spotlight with the specter of a dead wife. So, personal points off for that.
(And, because Delia can see ghosts, lucky her, she gets to see his dead wife hovering around him. Talk about a swoon killer!)
Although, speaking of talking, Delia's ghosts can't talk to her. Or she can't hear them? I'm not really sure how that worked, but either way it was a contrived mystery stretcher because the girl could have whipped out a ouija board or scribbled down an alphabet or something in order to communicate with her irritatingly ever-present-but-useless ghost that kept following her around.
I mean, if I had a ghost following me, I'd figure out a way to chat. Especially if she was trying to tell me the identity of her killer. A killer who, I might add, just happens to be after Delia now. So, yeah, it was a little frustrating to watch her do absolutely nothing inventive to try to Nancy Drew herself out of this potentially bad situation.
But, whatever. The rest of the characters were better than Delia and I enjoyed following them around. I liked Gabe's sections a lot better. He's a sexy cop who is a protective family man and made me swoon (albeit a milder swoon because I really wasn't into this romance).
The mystery was also engaging, though it was the kind where the reader has not chance at all of figuring out whodunit because there's just too much information we aren't privy to until it's already revealed. That's not my favorite kind (I like to be able to guess) but this one kept me on my toes enough and definitely delivered in the gore factor, so I was into it.
Bottom line
It was ok. I didn't really click with Delia and the ghost part seemed more gimmicky than an actual asset that would advance the plot. I read it to the end and I did like it, but I feel no need to own this book.
So why three stars and not less? Mostly because it's not a BAD book. It's a nice story. If you're looking for something mild and lite to pass the time between hangover-inducing books, Delia's Shadow is a nice choice.
I'd say it could appeal to cozy mystery fans because of the sappy character dramas, but the gore was a little more vivid than I'm used to seeing in lite cozy mysteries. (There was also a totally needless death that just annoys me). It's fine for YA readers even though the main characters are adults.
This is a standalone.
Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key
Do you have any questions about Delia's Shadow that I haven't addressed?
Feel free to ask in the comments!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Book Review: Inhuman by Kat Falls
#1 in the Fetch series
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 384
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
From Goodreads:
Lane is a character I can get behind
About that love triangle
So, plot
Bottom line
Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key
Do you have any questions about Inhuman that I haven't addressed?
Feel free to ask in the comments!
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Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Mini Review: Ward Against Darkness by Melanie Card
#2 in the Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer series
Release Date: August 27, 2013
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Pages: 352
Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Page
This is a review of a sequel, but you can read it without any spoilers for book one. Mostly because I don't remember a whole lot of what happened in book one.
So, the bad thing about reading books in a series as they come out is that I forget a lot of what happened in the previous book. This is made triply worse when it takes not just one year, but TWO years for the next installment to come out.
By the time Ward Against Darkness decided to make an appearance, I had already forgotten pretty much everything about Ward Against Death. My memory consisted of:
1. The two main characters were likable opposites in a wary truce with simmering romantic tension (which I liked a lot)
2. They shared a scene in some underground hideout that was filled with swoony tension (yep, this is one of the few scenes I remember somewhat clearly)
3. They're on the run. A lot.
4. Something big and magical happened at the end and it concerns Ward and power and stuff
Aaaand, that's about it.
Ward Against Darkness picks up immediately where things left off in Ward Against Death, but I'm basing this more on context clues than actual memory. Context clues told me I was dumped into something where I should have known exactly what was going on, but memory said, "Nope, I've got nothing for you."
Luckily, I didn't really need my memory. I'm sure it would have helped shed some light on a few details or hints here and there, but overall Ward Against Darkness was totally enjoyable even with my foggy memory.
There's no questing or trekking or running or any of those things I like that happened in the first book, but that was ok. Instead, Ward and Celia find themselves in the position of reluctant "guests" in the home of a seriously creepy evil magic guy who is holding a competition to see who will be his apprentice in villainy.
Ward, being magically inclined, is of course entered (against his will) in this competition and the stakes keep getting raised as Ward and Celia find themselves going from one Oh Crap situation to another. There really isn't a dull moment.
There were all sorts of fun things that kept my interest and made me remember why I enjoyed the first book enough to obsessively check Melanie Card's Goodreads page for two years hoping for this sequel to release already. I wasn't let down.
What sort of fun things? Fake identities, double crosses, murders, untrustworthy alliances, tragic histories, creepy creatures, intriguing villains, inventive magical systems, and an ever growing tension that made me fly through the pages with a white-knuckled grip.
Also? Romance! Kind of. More like romantic tension, because this is a slow burn romance where both sides are clearly over the hate and mistrust part of their feelings now, but neither party realizes the other doesn't still harbor those feelings.
My favorite feature about their romantic feelings is that, while Ward and Celia are total opposites, each character sees value in the other and admires them for their strengths. They make a badass team.
Bottom line
I seriously hope I don't have to wait another two years for the next book. But, if I do, I know I'll wait and read it as soon as it releases. This isn't a series that I'm going to forget about or lose interest in. If anything, my interest grew the longer I had to wait and reading Ward Against Darkness only solidified my commitment to Ward and Celia's story.
On a totally unrelated note, are these covers for real? Can we step it up with the covers, please? This series is a hard sell with covers like that.
Love the punny titles though!
Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key
Do you have any questions about Ward Against Darkness that I haven't addressed?
Feel free to ask in the comments
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Friday, October 4, 2013
Mini Review: Elizabeth (Royal Diaries) by Kathryn Lasky
Part of the Royal Diaries series
Release Date: June 1999
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 240
Received: Library
Stars: 3
Goodreads Page
I would have liked this book a whole lot more if I knew nothing about Elizabeth I (Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII's daughter). Unfortunately, I have read a bunch of books about her and that made me knock off stars (YA readers, try Cate of the Lost Colony, adult readers try The Queen's Handmaiden).
Kathryn Lasky's Elizabeth is downright bubbly at times. She's chipper and cheerful and that's so NOT Elizabeth.
I know this is supposed to be a book about the young Elizabeth, but Elizabeth is noteworthy for being shrewd, calculating, and cautious even when she was young. Some tiny hints of these personality traits are sort of somewhat shown, but I think I was reading more into them because of what I know about Elizabeth.
But, this book isn't entirely without merit. Elizabeth might be off, but there were lots of little details thrown in that kept my interest and even taught me some new things. The basic plot progression also gives a nice overview of Elizabeth's early life. It's for these facts alone that I'm very glad I picked up Elizabeth's Royal Diaries installment.
Except, yeah, this is a diary book, and I don't love that format. I was frustrated by how many times Elizabeth talked about her diary—where she's going to hide it, how she's sorry she neglected it, oh my, someone almost discovered it, and so on. I really don't care about that stuff, especially since none of it is based on historical truth.
Bottom line
This is a good book for a younger reader newly interested in Elizabeth. Think, younger to middle grade readers. Her characterization may be historically off base, but she is approachable for younger readers and that might be a good thing.
Older readers already familiar with Elizabeth and looking for even more might still find something in this book. Given how short the book is (240 pages of diary-style, large font, short chapters writing), I'd say give it a shot.
On a side note, isn't that 2010 reprint cover (green dress) so much nicer than the original? (blue dress)
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Washburn, Tennessee Ghost Sightings
Tennessee > Washburn
Not everything in Washburn, Tennessee is as it appears; when the shadows of the night float in the undead appear. Night is undeparted time around
here. Folks who have never stayed overnight in this city will say to you it's all just superstition, but only some of the dwellers of Washburn are breathing.
Rutledge 6 miles away: I saw a soldier of the civil war, a confederate one, right outside the courthouse in broad daylight. Naturally I thought he was dressed in costume for some kind of civil war historical even or festiva...
New_Tazewell 7 miles away: The railroad crossing by the lumber yard is haunted by a Union soldier. I have seen him on two occasions. I do admit I was a bit scared of him, me being a southerner and all and him being a Yankee but...
New_Tazewell 7 miles away: The cave and a sink hole, blue hollow. Used by Confederate and Union forces. There's a ghost in the cave....
Tazewell 7 miles away: Others have heard a train at night but no train is there. Green and red lights flash from mysterious locations that float above the railroad but cannot be caught. Screams heard but no one there as you...
Tazewell 7 miles away: I live right by the woods and I often hear voices from the woods. They sound like Native Americans. It doesn't sound like English. It sounds like many people. Women and children and men. Maybe somethi...
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Monday 27 March 2017
Cyril Farrell: Why the GAA must stop betraying its identity
Cyril Farrell
WITH friends like the GAA's fixture makers, who needs enemies? Fixing the NHL finals for 5.0 and 7.0 tomorrow has done hurling a disgraceful disservice.
Those responsible have also betrayed the GAA's identity by hiding away a prize asset. Don't get me wrong. I love all sports, including rugby (my interest started as a kid when my late father brought me to watch Ireland and Connacht) and was delighted to see Croke Park opened up five years ago.
It's great to see Irish rugby going well but has the GAA reached a stage where times of their own league finals -- the second most important competitions -- are to be decided by other sports?
The idiocy of the evening throw-ins tomorrow is clear. The Munster rugby game will run from 3.15 to around 4.55, yet Clare-Wexford starts at 5.0. Those who watch the rugby at home will hardly get to Thurles in five minutes and, as for Cork and Galway fans, can you see them dashing to the hurling game after 5.0?
What the GAA are saying is that people who want to attend the hurling games and watch the rugby on TV should go to a pub in Thurles before heading up to Semple. In effect, the GAA are promoting rugby, Sky and the pubs.
Sunday afternoon is prime GAA time so the league finals should have been played at 2.0 and 4.0, same as with the football last Sunday. If people want to stay in a pub (and remember many don't have Sky Sports at home) that's their choice but those whose first love is hurling should have their games at the usual time.
Instead, they're facing long journeys home late at night. Worse than that, changing the time makes a statement that the GAA don't regard it's own league finals as important enough to run on a Sunday afternoon because they're up against rugby.
Sporting ecumenicism is all very fine but the line has to be drawn somewhere. We had a situation on Good Friday where the law was changed to facilitate people who wanted to combine rugby with drink. It seemed to go unnoticed that the IRFU are major stakeholders in the Magners League, yet a game was fixed for one of the two days in the year when pubs are closed. Were they asleep when the fixture was made?
A few weeks earlier, the FAI fixed an international soccer game for London when Croke Park was available. Where was the national interest at a time of recession? How much criticism did the FAI get for their unpatriotic behaviour? Sod all!
It's time the GAA reasserted its identity and instead of cowering under the challenge of televised rugby they should have played the league finals tomorrow afternoon, marketed them relentlessly in conjunction with sponsors, Allianz, who must be bemused by how craven Croke Park has become.
Instead, the GAA has downgraded its own games, the punishment for which will be small crowds in Thurles. Small, that is, by comparison to what there would be if the games were played earlier. Come on, Croke Park, start asserting yourself on behalf of the games you're entrusted to preserve and promote.
Cork's rise a sight for sore eyes
THOSE who do travel to Thurles tomorrow will be rewarded with two excellent contests. For what it's worth, I think it will be a Munster double with Cork and Clare taking the Division 1 and 2 titles.
Cork and Galway (with the exception of the aberration against Tipperary) have been very impressive so far but you'd have to say that Cork's rate of progress has been the most significant aspect of the league.
In fairness, it has been more a question of getting back to the heights we expect of them than anything else but it's a welcome sight after the rows and ructions which undermined them in recent seasons.
Hurling needs all its top counties going well which makes the current Limerick row all the more depressing.
Cork's use of 'twin towers', Michael Cussen and Aisake O hAilpin in attack is very interesting in that it's a departure from the style they used throughout most of the last decade but if this pair click, it could be very effective, not just tomorrow but also in the championship.
Galway too have a mixture of the experienced and the new with the latter wing represented by Donal Barry, David Burke and Aidan Harte. In many ways, Galway need to win this final more than Cork, especially after having a bad experience in Thurles against Waterford last year. It's important for them to put down a marker, but there's a finer balance to the Cork team, which could make the crucial difference.
As for the Division 2 final, I have a slight fancy for Clare but, on the wider issue, I think both of them should be in Division 1. I can't see how it serves hurling to have counties like Offaly, Clare, Wexford and Limerick in Division 2 in successive seasons. If Wexford lose tomorrow, it means they will be in Division 2 for a third successive year in 2011.
The argument that if they were good enough, they would be in Division 1 is not valid. Just because you're not quite strong enough to be in the top eight doesn't mean you shouldn't get a chance to play the leading counties. Running hurling on the same basis as football simply doesn't work.
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Encryption - the IDEA Algorithm
If you're like most people these days, you're in and out of your vehicle on a daily or even hourly basis. Exactly how good of a driver are you, though? After an extensive study of a variety of road collisions, smashups, and related vehicular disasters, results showed that a shocking 93% of automobile accidents are partially or wholly caused by human error. The causes ranged a great deal overall: alcohol consumption was naturally high up on the list, along with distracted driving and simple lack of attention to the road and traffic. Amusingly enough, the RAC recently conducted a related survey of the driving population and found that the vast majority of British drivers consider themselves to be better overall than drivers from any other nation, and generally not at fault in accidents.
What does this mean to the average driver? Well, for starters, the driving population surrounding you daily on the roads and avenues of your commute are the most likely cause of a dangerous smashup, and they are overwhelmingly convinced that they should not be held responsible for any accidents that may occur. In other words, it's a bit of a jungle out there. This glimpse into the mind of your swerving, honking, following-too-close, passing-too-aggressively peers should serve as fair warning: insurance is absolutely mandatory! Not only is it required by law (the Road and Traffic Act of 1988 requires drivers, by law, to possess basic automotive liability insurance or at the very least deposit with the Accountant General of the Supreme Court, a less efficient and far more costly route,) but it is practically required these days due to the sheer number of accidents and the amount of damage they can cause. For a good number of drivers on the road, affordable full-coverage insurance just may not be affordable enough, but that's no reason to give up entirely. Instead, a short term insurance solution can keep you on the road and safe from fiscal harm.
Short term insurance (get details from here), as the name implies, is a low-cost, very short insurance policy with a wide variety of practical applications. Whether you're switching providers and concerned about a gap in insurance coverage or planning a holiday that will require a rotating shift of different drivers to make your destination on time, this simple and effective insurance can keep you free from harm and get you back on the road quickly. As many short term insurers offer pay-as-you-go plans, your flexibility is easily preserved. Need to insure a visiting relative who'll be borrowing the family car? Not a problem with a short term plan. Similarly, a driver who has encountered insurance difficulties and is hunting for a new provider will find a short term plan to function perfectly as a stop-gap measure. Consider a quote today, as prices are beginning to drop. Before you set out, remember the studies: they're out there, they're oblivious, and they may ram you next!
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Posts by fkjac
A man walks down the street with a lot of old cans tied to a string. Annoyed by the noise, a police officer goes up to him and asks: "What are you doing?" The man replies: "I am scaring lions away!" The police officer says: "You do know that there are no lions in this country, right?" The man replies: "Of course there aren't, I am scaring them away!" Any of the games would be cool.
This lives up to its name completely! But if I might ask, why 16 GB of RAM in every machine? Is it just for the spirit of EXCESSIVE INSANITY?
My vote goes to cpachris's BBBB. Red and Black super cool, but the BBBB just has so much potential! Not to mention the sweet, sweet hardware...
Free awesome keyboard, and you say it comes with awesome OCN branding too? You can count me in for sure!
The fact that they are projecting it to any surface. Look how the plants and stuff are included, and that it ALIGNS with the picture. Normally corners and such would result in massive distortion.
How about they just made the video like this and then released it as H.264 or whatever at whatever resolution is popular at the time. Then every 5 years or so they could update it to the new resolution. With streaming services becoming more and more widespread it shouldn't cost the consumers extra either.
It is entirely possible theoretically, but I don't think you would be able to run it locally at this point in time. (Unless, of course, you are by coincidence using some kind of server cluster as your home computer ) The only limits I can see would be processing power and the man hours it would take to create 300.000 NPCs with different traits but that problem could be helped by implementing some sort of "person generator" that could generate some personalities randomly....
The ones with -P at the end have a pivoting stand so you can use them in portrait mode.I believe the D Blade ones have built-in speakers, but I am not sure if it is the D or the Blade that denotes that.
In. Thanks for sharing this with the community!
I don't understand most of what you are saying, but I get the idea. I think. This sounds really cool, and seems to be fairly low priced (?) for something like this. If you can you should definitely patent this system, I know that I would be first (or probably more like 100th ) in line! Good luck!
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While researching something else, we came across this photo of Evan Longoria and 9 of his groupies. Does anybody else think that one of the groupies looks like a certain all-time home run king (or maybe Cliff Floyd)?
• Jeff Niemann finished fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. *golf clap* [Rays Report]
• Yes folks. We don’t think Carl Crawford is “pissed beyond belief” at the Rays for picking up his option. And the reason is apparently because Tampa (sic) is only “third best” and everybody (not just Rays fans) has an “inferiority complex against New York.” Keep in mind, this is the third post that site has written defending their original story claiming CC is “livid” and wants out of St. Pete. [NY Baseball Digest]
• (Scroll down to 12:46pm on this link) Scoop Jackson, the same guy that thinks BJ Upton is a great role model for inner-city kids because he is lazy, made a bunch of “jokes” about how different teams are incorporating technology into the game experience. On the Rays: “In an effort to appeal to the local elderly community, the Tampa Bay Rays will provide free on-site technical support for their fans. This support will consist largely of demonstrating what a computer really is to those confused souls who keep screaming at the toaster to “log on.””…Get it? It’s because all Rays fans are 95 years old. Boy that joke never gets old. Ha! [ESPN]
• The Ghost of Midnight Graham thinks Kerry Wood and the Rays are a perfect match. [The Ghost of Midnight Graham]
1. Charles says:
About Kerry Wood - I'm not sure what kind of prospects this guy thinks the Indians are going to get for an injury-riddled one year rental coming off a year in which his walk rate doubled who makes $10.5 million. He thinks it's a match made in heaven - I think it's exactly the type of trade the Rays should totally avoid.
2. Jack says:
I think your "all-time home run king" is Cliff Floyd...
3. Rumpy says:
Does Scoop Jackson's upper lip bother anyone else besides me? Man I get the heebie-geebies when he talks!
4. Rayhawk says:
"Hi boys, Im the Floozy-um Chic-um Girl to the left of LONGO. I just want people to look at me and my PERKY surgically altered breasts. When I lie down and they stand straight up, oh you silly boys of course that's the way they should be, they're natural.....um, MOL....xxxooo"
• cubfanraysaddict says:
You look like a manlier shawn riggans in drag with a couple of bowling balls strapped on.
P.S. Can you get me the girl in yellows phone number
5. Dirtbag Fan says:
As far as AL ROY goes; what a joke.
I cast my vote for the BBA award last month, but before doing so I compared stats among the popular candidates and Andrus had the most pedestrian stats of the entire bunch.
And why no love for Nolan Reimold who was much better statistically than Andrus?
Andrus was a media darling and got all the looks because he plays SS, but come on voters take 10 mins and do research before blindly following what the shmucks on cable TV tell you to do.
I also compared Porcello and Niemann's stats side-by-side and Niemann's numbers were slightly better, so I'm not sure why Porcello got all the love.
BTW: both the BBA (of which I'm a part) and the BBWAA voted Bailey as their R.O.Y.
6. KillaTapes says:
I think the Scoop link has been taken down?
7. Gus says:
As to CC, I do think he has to be disappointed in the whole situation (even if the NY report may be sketchy). Guy gives his whole career to building something, gave away a couple of years of free agency that ended up being slightly below market and now that they have acheived something as a franchise, it is the Des Jennings 24-7 show, see you later CC.
I think management should offer an extension they can live with -- $10M a year for a couple of years, whatever, and CC has the full right to accept or hit the highway and see what he can get from NY or Houston or LA. I almost think the Rays are banking on him getting hurt next season; obviously, signing him now is signing him at an all time high, performance wise. CC knows that as well, and that is probably why he's bummed that they aren't at least trying to extend him. More than Pena or Longo (or certainly Upton), CC is the franchise. That warrants some recognition.
• John says:
What makes you think they aren't trying to extend him? Because they picked up his option? How does that prevent them from working on an extension?
That's the biggest whole in the Silva thing, as far as I'm concerned. Picking up the option has nothing to do with whether or not any negotiations are going on.
• Gus says:
While you are correct they could be trying to extend him, I don't think there has been any evidence that they've made an offer or that CC has rejected it, either. I think for PR purposes, if/when the Rays make him an offer, it will be made public and they'll make CC look like the bad guy for turning it down.
It just seems to me that so long as they swear by the $60M payroll limit (which I've questioned as being dubious many times in the comments here), it goes without saying that you aren't going to be tying up 25% of your payroll in one player. You are basically the Marlins, where guys go to play to get contracts somewhere else.
8. Don says:
NOTE: Evan with "9" of his groupies!....and fans wonder why Longo looks so worn out in day games.......like 15 min of sleep last night!....give me a break!...I remember those days with "1" groupie....
That poor worn out..... dirty rat!!!
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Startin' with Scuba Back to ScubaDiverInfo]]]> en 2016-08-02T23:34:16+00:00 Diving the North Carolina coast The waters off the coast of North Carolina are known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. That's because when the warm Gulf Stream meets the cold Labrador currents, things can get quite rough. That primarily goes for North Carolina's Outer Banks, that thin strip of sandy dunes that can be as far as 30 miles away from the mainland. South of that, starting at Cape Lookout, is a less rugged and mostly south-facing 85-mile stretch known as the Crystal Coast where, according to tourist brochures, the waters can be as warm and clear as in the Caribbean.
Having fond memories of summer vacations spent on the Outer Banks decades ago, we made the 530 mile trek from East Tennessee to Morehead City for a couple of days of diving with the folks of the Olympus Dive Center, which is located on the peninsula facing Bogue Sound. The company began as a boat charter business over 40 years ago, the dive shop itself was built a few years later, and their primary dive boat, the 65-foot Olympus, has been serving divers for 30 years.
Like most well-established dive shops, Olympus is an interesting place. There's an eclectic mix of ScubaPro and other dive gear, useful accessories, spare and repair parts, bags, cameras, lights, clothing and also numerous fascinating mementos from decades of exploration under the seas. The shop's founder, the late Captain George Purifoy, is credited with having discovered and identified several major wrecks, most notably the USS Schurz, a 295 foot World War I cruiser that sank in 1918, and the German submarine U-352 that went down in 1942 after mistakenly taking on a US Coast Guard cutter and getting the short end of the deal (read Coast Guard sinking of U-352).
Needless to say we wanted to dive the U-352 as, given the notoriety of the Nazi wreck, we assume most divers new to the area probably would. We put our gear on the spacious dive deck of the Olympus, set up what could be done ahead of time, and then retired to our home for this trip, the Island Inn across the Atlantic Beach Bridge over Bogue Sound. Alarms were set for 5AM as divers were expected at the dock by 6AM sharp.
We had brought our own tanks and they were still filled with 33% Nitrox from a prior trip, too "hot" for the 120 to 130 feet of the deeper wrecks we planned to dive. We had that toned down to 30%, good for a maximum depth of 124 feet when observing a PPO (partial pressure oxygen) of 1.4 atmospheres.
The Olympus left port around 7:30AM, after every diver had collected a numbered "boarding pass" and given it to 1st Mate Bud Daniels so he could do his roll calls after every dive — a clever solution of keeping track of divers and making sure they're all present and accounted for after a dive.
This is when we began learning the realities of North Carolina diving. Unlike in most parts of the world where there's a set schedule of dive sites every day, or where divers can request a site, off the coast of North Carolina it all depends on the conditions. No matter what the weather forecast says or what the skies look like, the situation out on the open sea may be different, and it can change at the drop of a hat. So the Captain, in constant communication with other boats and various services, decides when and where to go.
How can it be so difficult to figure out what conditions to expect? That's because the Eastern continental shelf is relatively shallow and one has to travel pretty far out on the open sea to reach depths of 120 to 130 feet where most of the interesting historic wrecks lie. That means 30 to 40 mile boat trips right to the border of the gulf stream where currents and ever-changing temperatures mean anything can happen.
For us, the initial word was that it was 50/50 on whether we could make it to the deep sites. Once past Beaufort Inlet, where the incoming swells mean it's always rocky, the seas were not too bad and after half an hour or so the Captain announced we'd be headed for the wreck of the Aeolus, a 410-foot tanker sunk in 1988 as part of the state's artificial reef program. The Aeolus now rests in about 110 feet of water, maybe 30 miles out. That was good news to us because the U-352 sits in the same direction, just another five miles farther out to sea. So we hoped to see the submarine on the second dive.
It was not to be. A bit later, with the seas getting rougher, the Olympus made a hard turn to the right and word came from the bridge that the deep dive program had to be aborted due to unsafe conditions. Instead, we were now heading for shallower waters closer to shore.
We ended up diving the "inshore" wreck of the 330-foot freighter Indra, also sunk under the artificial reef program in 1992. Depth here was 65 feet, which made for a short descent and much longer dive time. Visibility at the wreck was maybe 45 feet, not tremendous and definitely not the 80-100 feet listed for the month of July and 100+ feet for August.
It was a pleasant dive in 81 degree water and also my first opportunity to experience the "Carolina Rig," which consists of weighted hanglines dropped off the middle and rear of the boat with a horizontal line at 15 feet between them, and a rope down to the anchor line in the front. That makes it easy to find the line down to the wreck, and also helps the 15-foot safety stop at the end of the dive and then heading to the back of the boat and to the ladder.
The second dive was to two tug boats — the James J. Francesconi and the smaller Tramp — that had recently (May 2016) been sunk near the Indra. Visibility was less, but still good enough to enjoy the dive and going to both tugs. What made this dive special were massive schools of small fish literally enveloping the wreck in ever-changing speed and formations. What made them stop and start was never obvious as they didn't seem to be afraid of divers. It was totally fascinating to watch them.
The weather forecast didn't look bad for the next day and so we had high hopes to make it to the U-352 after all. Our hearts sank when we saw divers who had arrived at the dock before us take a wait-and-see approach rather than preparing their gear on the boat. And sure enough, the Captain called us together and announced that conditions were rough again, and the most we could hope for was a trip to the shallower inshore sites.
After some more deliberations, the Olympus did indeed take off. The swells at the inlet were quite large and rocked the sizable boat. Once out on the open ocean it calmed down some, but we still saw whitecaps and hit the occasional large swell. The presence of whitecaps is usually our own indicator that it's too rough to dive. Not so much underwater, but getting back on the boat with the ladder slamming up and down. Half an hour into the trip the Captain called it off. Too dangerous. And that was that for us. On the way back through Beaufort Inlet, we saw a large sport fishing yacht almost flip over backward, so big were the swells.
Our experience pretty much summarized the predicament of North Carolina diving. Trips to the deeper wrecks are long, which makes them quite expensive. The water is warmer farther out and the visibility likely better, but you truly never know if you can actually make it out there. On a good day it may be two great days of diving to where you wanted to go. On bad days you don't get to leave the dock at all. In between it's a maybe, and you don't know what to expect.
That makes planning dives difficult. Nitrox fills cost twice as much as air, and it's really wasted on shallow sites. Planning what gear to take with is difficult as well. We're usually testing cameras on every dive, and depth determines filters, lights and the type of camera we want to take with. Hotel accommodations are expensive, and staying without being able to dive quickly drives up the cost per dive.
While cancelled or aborted trips are frustrating for divers, it's much worse for charter operators who have to deal with disappointed customers. And they never know whether a fully booked boat will result in actual pay or not. The double whammy of environmental conditions and — in the absence of reefs or walls or many other interesting sites — being limited to the relatively small number of suitable ship wrecks makes diving the coastal waters of North Carolina an uncertain proposition.
I certainly don't regret the trip. I love long drives, we had great company in our friends Tom and Donna, the boat rides themselves were wonderful even without diving, the Olympus dive operation was great, and we got to experience not only the ever-changing and often dramatic North Carolina coastal weather and skies, but also managed some beach combing and sight-seeing. Fort Macon alone is worth a trip.
conradb212 2016-08-02T23:34:16+00:00
Diving South Florida May 2016 Sunday, May 8, 2016 — It's been almost two years since we went diving. The culprit was a combination of taking a breather after all those many dive trips that led to the publication of my book (Becoming a Scuba Diver), an increase in workload, and then preparation and execution of our move from California to Tennessee. We had postponed diving again and again. But that was about to change.
Our friends Tom and Donna own a timeshare in Pompano Beach, Florida and invited us to come along for a week. Pompano Beach, just north of Fort Lauderdale, is within driving distance of our home in East Tennessee, and so we gladly accepted. We were to drive down, convoy style. Our friends in their mighty Diesel-powered Ford F350, we in the Prius.
Prior to departure we spent days going through our dive gear, some of which we first had to find in various parts of our new home where still not everything is where it should be after the move. We found things that didn't work. The battery in my Uwatec Galileo Sol dive computer needed to be replaced, and the battery of the wireless transmitter screwed onto my regulator was dead, too. The transmitter takes one of those button batteries, not the popular CR2062, but the less common CR2045. Fortunately, the local Walgreen's had one of those, and replacing it was easy.
I always suffer from logistics anxiety before a dive trip. Do I have everything? How do we get to the boat? What will the dive operation do and what do I need to do? What do I need to bring? Where can I stow my gear? Can I leave things at the dive shop, or do I have to take it back to where we stay? What temperatures can we expect, and which wet suit should I bring? And so on. These questions are always on my mind before a trip.
We got up at 3AM on Saturday, left at 4:30, and the 820 mile trip from East Tennessee to South Florida, though long, was pleasant. I had forgotten just how green and hilly northern Georgia is, and how much I enjoy long rides in a car where one can talk, relax, stop wherever one wants, and always has enough legroom.
I hate toll roads and mercifully Tennessee and Georgia don't have any. Florida does, though, but there's SunPass, an RFID-based electronic payment system. Interestingly, one can get the RFID sticker in a vending machine next to candy bars and salted snacks, and then easily activate it on a smartphone or tablet.
Once in Florida and all checked in and settled in our home for the week, the dive shop, Pompano Dive Center, turned out to be right next to a marina with their dive boats. I got answers to all my logistics worries, as I almost always do.
The marina was at an intracoastal waterway parallel to the beach. That meant motoring past gorgeous waterfront homes for a mile or so, under bridges and past boat yards before the captain could take the boat, the Sea Siren, out onto the open water.
The first dive of the week was to the wreck of the Captain Dan, a 175-foot tender that was sunk as an artificial reef a quarter of a century ago. Opposite me sat five divers with rebreathers, which seemed incredibly complex to me. The idea of a rebreather is so simple: instead of wasting all this air by just breathing it out into the water as one does with open circuit scuba, rebreather divers are on closed circuit, where exhaled air is scrubbed of carbon dioxide, the inert nitrogen reused, and only as much oxygen added as is needed. But that's a complex mechanism, with sensors and systems and checks and balances.
We had brought our own tanks, but I had never actually dived with the particular combination of suit and tank (5-mil wetsuit, 100 cubic foot steel tank) and so didn't know exactly how much weight I needed in the pockets of my BC. I probably didn't need any but decided on 8 pounds. We arrived at the wreck site, the boat tied off, and it was time to jump in. At 80 degrees, the water was warm enough to feel nice and pleasant.
After having stored my dive gear for two years and then moved it across the continent in a hot POD container before having it sit in a hot garage for another few months, I first had to shake an uneasiness about everything still working as it should. After all, scuba gear is life support equipment where failure is not an option.
I've never liked anchor line descents, which is how it's usually done when you go visit a deep wreck. If you don't use a line and just float down you may actually miss the wreck, especially in current and poor visibility. But hanging on to a line that disappears in the distance is disconcerting to me.
This time I was glad that there was a line, because my completely dry wetsuit was too buoyant to let me descend easily even with eight pounds of weight in my pockets. Once down to 20 feet or so descending became easier.
There was no current and the visibility was reasonable. The wreck came into view, sitting on a sandy bottom. It was encrusted with all sorts of marine growth, and though it was pretty deep, the feel of this dive was considerably less intimidating than diving the wreck of the Yukon in San Diego at roughly the same depth. That's because the Yukon is usually in near dark, and the Pacific water is cold. The gloom of the Yukon prohibits even the thought of entering the wreck, whereas the warmer water and greater light almost invited exploring the insides of the Captain Dan.
The wreck sat in sand at a depth of 110 feet. We touched bottom, then swam around the ship, and I quickly became more comfortable with my gear and being underwater again. Exploring was cut short, though, because even with 32% Nitrox in our tanks, bottom time at that depth is limited. Even with a slow ascent and the mandatory deco stop at 15 feet, it was a fairly brief 40 minute dive.
The second dive was at a similar nearby wreck, the 160 foot tender RSB-1. Normally diving starts with the deepest dive of the day and then proceeds to shallower ones, but the RSB-1 sat at 120 feet, so we had two fairly challenging dives right off the bat. Visibility at the bottom was quite good on this dive, probably 60 feet or even more, which meant we were in for a treat.
Seeing a coral-encrusted wreck that has been down for decades in good light and clear water is quite an experience. The difference between seeing a lot of a wreck and groping around in the near dark is vast. Unfortunately, even with Nitrox, exploring at 100+ feet meant that remaining bottom time quickly reached the single digits on our dive computers. and so this dive was over far too soon as well.
Speaking of dive computers, I nearly lost mine on this dive. At a depth over over 100 feet its wristband broke apart and it was only by coincidence that I happened to look at it just as it let go. It would not have tumbled into unrecoverable depth as I was hovering close to the sandy bottom when it happened, but I probably still would not have found it had it fallen off unnoticed. I always wear a backup computer, and so I could have safely completed the dive with the backup, but losing an expensive dive computer definitely is no fun. And the wristbands of expensive dive computers should not simply break.
Back on the boat it felt great to have reacquainted ourselves with diving again. And having ready access to a good dive shop came in handy, too, for the broken wristband of the computer. They didn't have a replacement in stock, but took one from a new computer and put it on mine.
Monday, May 9, 2016: Current — Normally dive boats go out on two tank routes, but sometimes it's three. And that's what we were going to have on our second day of diving off Pomano Beach, a three tank dive with an onboard barbecue. That meant having a grill and a lot of tanks on the boat, but there were only eight divers and so we could spread out.
The sea was rougher than the day before and it was windy, so we were in for a bumpy ride, and a long one, too. All in all, between intracoastal and open water travel, it took a good hour until the Sea Siren slowed down for its first destination of the day. The MV Castor is a 258-feet ship that was sunk in 2001 after she had been seized by the US Coast Guard for transporting illegal drugs. Apparently, a good number of the scuttled ships off the coast of South Florida are former drug runners.
Once a dive boat arrives at a wreck location, which thanks to GPS coordinates and depth sounders is far easier than it used to be, the first thing is to tie off the line that goes from a permanent buoy to the wreck. If there is a permanent buoy, which isn't always the case. Then dive masters first must go down to the wreck to attach a line. The other reason for dive masters to go in first is to report on the conditions. Everyone hopes to hear that the visibility is good and there is no current.
Alas, no such luck on that dive. The current was very strong, abating just a bit down by the wreck. That meant jumping in the water and instantly grabbing the line, or else one might get washed away. We did that, Carol and I, and began the ascent down the anchor line. The current was so strong that we had to hold on with both hands, pulling ourselves down hand over hand. Between the current, holding on to cameras, and clearing ears (which can be more difficult in strong current) it was slow going.
After what seemed like an eternity, the big wreck came into view and visibility turned quick good. The current lessened a bit, but not enough to make letting go of the line seem like a good idea. I chanced it anyway, dropping down to the sandy bottom at 115 feet in the hope of finding calmer waters there. That didn't happen and what one then does in such situations is hunting for spots with less current in and around the wreck. I found some places but still had to fight current, which makes diving that much harder.
It would have been great to explore this whole very interesting wreck, the midsection of which had mostly collapsed. There was lots of life and much to explore. A big attraction here were the goliath groupers that had taken up residence in and around the wreck. They hung around, fearlessly eyeing us divers and being quite inquisitive. One seemed particularly interested in my bright orange ScubaPro Seawing Nova fins.
And then there are the colors that no one expects and which only reveal themselves in the beam of a dive light or a flash.
Since this again was a deep wreck, we had very limited bottom time before heading back to the anchor line for our way up. Finding the anchor line again is always a bit of a harrowing experience for me. Without the line ascent is difficult and disorienting in waters, and one might surface well away from the boat. I did locate the line and the current up was even stronger than on the way down. I was exhausted by the time I surfaced.
The buoy was now in front of the bucking Sea Siren and not in the back where the ladder is. I couldn't see a line around the boat and didn't want to let go of the buoy, but knew I couldn't stay where I was. The catch line, of course, was behind the boat with the current and I should have known that. By the time I climbed up the ladder I was panting and exhausted and felt quite sick.
I ended up passing on the second and third dive, feeling too queasy to get up. I even missed the barbecue. I don't know if I was seasick, but I felt miserable enough to wish I were in our room in bed without all the rocking. It was an unpleasant two or three hours until the feeling finally passed. During that time I felt like I never wanted to dive again. I also wondered what had happened to me, as everyone else seemed unaffected.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016: Rough Waters — We expected our week in Pompano Beach to be nice, easy diving, the sort of a tune-up we needed to reacquaint ourselves with diving. So far that hadn't been the case. Anchor line dives to deepwater wrecks, long rocky boat rides and strong current didn't qualify as easy. And so on the morning of our third day my stomach still felt a bit queasy. But there was another gorgeous sunrise and on the agenda was the Tracey a comparatively shallow (70 feet) wreck not too far away from our location.
But Neptune didn't cooperate. As soon as we exited the intracoastal waterway and hit the open ocean the water was rough. The boat bounced and plowed through increasingly tall swells, with spray flying all over and things coming loose all over the boat. The usual 2-foot waves became four, five and probably even six footers, with whitecaps all over. Our fairly substantial 46-foot dive boat rocked enough to make getting off for diving seem hazardous, and getting back on the boat even more so.
The conditions hadn't improved when we arrived at our destination, and Carol and I decided to skip the dive. In dive certification class, instructors are fond pointing out that there are old divers and there are bold divers, but there aren't any old, bold divers. The risk of getting hurt in such rough conditions seemed more than we were willing to accept. With the back and front of the boat rising and then dropping six feet or more, the chance of getting hit by the boat or the loose ladder felt simply too large.
The rest of the guests on board did do the dive, I felt a bit like a wuss, and we breathed a sigh of relief when everyone was safely back on board.
Conditions didn't improve and we didn't do the second dive either. This was a drift dive with each group of divers taking along a dive flag and reel. Thirty minutes or so after the first divers had jumped in, people began popping up here and there in the ocean, with the crew looking out for them and motoring over to pick them up. I thought each diver should probably deploy a safety sausage.
I did feel quite bad over skipping two more dives, making it four in a row, more than I had ever missed before in one stretch. But it simply seemed the right thing to do.
Later in the day we drove down to Hollywood where we visited the largest dive shop I had ever seen in my life. Then it was dinner and drinks at Margaritaville. The drinks were good, but the whole Margaritaville experience didn't quite live up to expectations.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016: Back in the drink! — If you get thrown off a horse, they say, get right back up in the saddle. That sounded like good advice after having missed those dives. I did not want to get in the habit of bowing out of dives for minor reasons.
So I hoped that all would go well the next time out. And it did. The water looked much calmer from the balcony of our place, and once in the boat and on open water, the waves were indeed much smaller. The day's dives started with the 170-foot Sea Emperor, which despite its impressive name is really a hopper barge. She was sunk with 1,600 tons of concrete drainage culverts on board, a good part of which ended up laying next to the barge because she flipped over as she went down.
There wasn't much current going down and the visibility was quite good. The spilled culverts made for a great habitat for all sorts of life and exploring it was interesting. And the wreck's depth at 75 feet meant a longer dive.
Despite the barge being upside down, it was easy to get inside and dive in and between the compartments, many of them teeming with fish. Every chamber had access to the open water, so there was plenty of light and no chance to get lost.
While current is a challenge when visiting wrecks it's also what makes drift dives possible. There the idea is to have the current take you along for a ride. It's a great way to relax and just watch the scenery go by. We had been told that the South Florida reefs were modest and nothing worth writing home about, but that turned out to be quite wrong.
The reef area at about 60 feet that we drifted over for an hour was interesting and quite impressive. We saw hundreds of barrel sponges and all sorts of life in an endless variety of slopes and ridges with the occasional overhang. There weren't walls or the kind of massive coral heads like you see, for example, in Roatan, but it was better and larger than the reefs in many other dive areas with a much greater reputation for good reef diving than Pompano Beach.
The barrel sponges weren't quite as large as we've seen elsewhere, but what they lacked in size they made up in numbers. Spiny lobsters found holes to live in and defend, as did a good number of moray eels. We didn't see too many lion fish, which is a good thing for the native critter population. A green turtle didn't mind our visit and let us get close for some pictures and video.
Even after a good many dives in my life, I am still amazed how conditions affect everything. Rough sea can be nauseating and even keep you from diving. The sun adds light underwater and makes you feel warmer, whereas an overcast day can make dives feel cold and gloomy. Current can be a total pain as getting down to and back up from an anchor line dive becomes all about getting there and back again instead of enjoying the actual dive. Waves can make getting back on the boat stressful and even dangerous. Being able to spread out on a boat is so much more comfortable than a sold-out trip. Then there are the ears and sinuses that may or may not cooperate no matter how much experience you have equalizing the pressure in your ears. And masks that may or may not fog up. Being cold can ruin even a great dive because it becomes all about the cold and somehow staying as warm as possible.
A few words about the importance of the right tanks. One of the benefits of driving is that we could bring along our own tanks, two steel 100s for me and two steel 80s for Carol. That's different from the ubiquitous aluminum 80 tanks used by almost all resorts, liveaboards, and dive operations. Steel is less buoyant than aluminum and therefore requires carrying less weight. I also liked having the 100 cubic foot steel tank because, despite being the same external size as an aluminum 80, the extra 25% of air means one is hardly ever low on standard dives.
Thursday, May 12, 2016: Wrecks aplenty — While San Diego's "Wreck Alley" is famous for its ship wreck diving, in terms of the sheer numbers it is dwarfed by what's available off Pompano Beach and neighboring communities in Florida. There are literally dozens of wrecks laying off the coast here. They range in length between under 100 feet all the way to over 400 (the Lowrance), and sit in waters as shallow as a few dozen feet all the way to 250+ feet for technical diving. Most, but not all, were sunk as artificial reefs, and at that they succeeded admirably.
And while the waters off San Diego are perennially cold, the South Florida seas are warm and pleasant. We saw 78-82 degrees in early May. Current can be an issue, as can be visibility, but overall, if there's a wreck alley, South Florida certainly has a strong claim.
While few divers will list Pompano Beach as one of their preferred diving locations, that's just because the diving here is comparatively little known. We had expected some easy, shallow diving to brush up skills. Instead, our first two dives were to 110+ foot wrecks, one right after the other. The next day another big, deep wreck with current so strong that it ranked among the top ten most challenging dives in my 350 grand total. So this is serious, interesting diving here.
But to get back to our adventures, this day started off with a dive down to the wreck of the 215-foot Dutch freighter Rodeo-25, sunk in 1990 and sitting in 130 feet of water on a sandy bottom. There was no current going down or back up, and 100-foot visibility made for an awesome dive. It's always great to see large parts of a wreck and not just what's right before your nose. Light and visibility help to convey a sense of the true size of a wreck.
Here, again, we ran smack into the limitation of allowable bottom time. The dive shop had thoughtfully filled our tanks with just 29% Nitrox instead of 32%, thus increasing maximum depth from 111 feet to 126 feet, just enough for me to touch the sand next to the wreck. Swimming around the wreck still meant to be at a depth of 100 feet, quickly munching up remaining bottom time. The rear part of the wreck with the bridge and masts was much taller and made for a shallower dive level, but since the anchor line was attached to the lower bow all divers had to return there. I stayed fairly high on my return from the masts to the bow and anchor line, and still got down to just one minute of no-decompression time on my computer. Most others had certainly gone into deco time.
Given the depth of this first dive, we made the second dive a nice, pleasant drift over the reef, with lobsters, lion fish, morays, a scorpion fish and tons of other colorful life.
The rest of the day was quite eventful. We had dinner with old acquaintances, a couple that we had met a few years ago on a liveaboard trip around Turks and Caicos. And our friends found, much to their dismay, that the battery of their truck was dead. That normally just requires a jump, but if the keys to the truck are inside the vehicle and its keypad lock has no power, it's a different matter altogether. Especially when it's a 7-liter diesel in a parking garage. The cause was obvious: an ice chest had remained connected and drained both batteries of the big vehicle. All attempts to get into the vehicle to at least pop the hood failed. But googling revealed a way to restore power and thus open the truck. And AllState roadside assistance arrived in the form of a dude with a Rastaman do in a Volkswagen. He got the job of jumping the big diesel done with two booster batteries helping the Volkswagen.
Friday, May 13, 2016: Four on the floor, and a hammer — Generally it takes a few days to become familiar with a dive operation. That's what happened to us on this South Florida adventure with the great folks at the Pompano Dive Center. Once we had become friends with all of them and knew how it all worked, who does what, and what goes where, it was already the last day of diving for the trip. But what a last day it turned out to be.
Our friends had left that morning to spend a day with family on their way back home, and we were the only divers on board. Just us, the captain, and two divemasters. So the crew outnumbered us. That can't be very profitable for a charter operation, and it showed again that apparently few divers know how great the diving in the Pompano Beach area is.
The water was all but flat, the sun was out, and we started the day with a return to the Captain Dan. Going back to a wreck for a more leisurely examination is always a treat. The conditions weren't the greatest but we got to do some of the penetrations we had skipped on the earlier dive. After a quarter of a century down there, the Dan is still almost completely intact, but covered with all sorts of small growth and it looks a bit muddy. If there's enough light or one uses a flash, though, colors pop up and the old wreck beautifully comes to life.
When the Pompano Beach dive boats don't go out with divers, they are engaged in a shark tagging project. Apparently that's a government funded attempt at learning more about the types, presence, and migration paths of sharks in the area. Personally I had a hard time imagining how the same dive boats we used also served as platforms to hook sharks, get them onboard, examine and tag them, and then let them go again.
After the deep Captain Dan, we decided on a leisurely drift dive to cap the morning. The current almost always runs south to north off the Florida coast, and since the wreck was south of the inlet the dive boat uses to get home to its port, the drift dive was on the way. They called this particular one "Razzle Dazzle," and it certainly lived up to its name. On that dive especially.
That's because just minutes into the dive along the 60 foot deep reef I looked to my left and found myself right next to a Hammerhead shark. That is definitely not a common occurrence, and certainly not on a drift dive near Pompano Beach, South Florida. Hammers usually swim in schools and they are shy, hardly ever getting close to divers. This one was alone and was no more than a few feet away from me.
The whole encounter lasted no more than a few seconds from when I first saw the sizable Hammer (it was larger than it looks in the picture below, due to perspective) and when it disappeared again behind me. Had I been surprised this way by a barking dog or a larger wild animal on land, I'd have experienced the familiar rush of adrenaline that instantly puts the human body on alert and in code orange condition. Yet, I felt none of that other than a "wow, this is so cool!" sensation.
Carol was right next to me and when I alerted her to the shark had the presence of mind to quickly raise her GoPro and takes pictures. Amazingly, she managed to capture a great shot. That served as proof that it had actually happened. She later said she was surprised about my calm reaction, as Hammerheads apparently can be pretty nasty.
In a way, however, it was no different from dives off West Caicos in the Caribbean where we'd been surrounded by reef sharks: a sense of wonder and excitement of seeing those magnificent creatures. Somehow fear never entered the mind. Maybe it's because unlike on land where you can instantly plan defensive or evasive action, in the water what you can do is so very limited that all a human diver can do is watch.
This was supposed to be our last dive of the trip, but Carol talked me into signing up for the afternoon dives as well. Only three had signed up for that and the boat needed a minimum of four to go, so it seemed the right thing to do, especially since we had missed those dives earlier in the week.
Of our fellow divers on that last trip out to sea were a father/daughter team with the girl being in her teens and on her very first dive after certification in a lake. Thinking back of my own first actual dive, going out on a dive boat for a 45 minute ride on the open ocean and then dive a 80-foot wreck down an anchor line seemed quite a challenge.
The wreck of the Tracey sat on sand at 70-80 feet in mediocre visibility, but it certainly was a treat. Under a large metal canopy were many thousands of fish. They love that kind of setting. There was also ample penetration and we explored some of that.
The sand around the Tracey was also favored by stingrays. We spotted one who let us get quite close before he took off, whirling up sand in the process.
Then I discovered markers away from the wreck and decided to follow those, as there were two other wrecks nearby. It was perhaps a 200 foot swim until another wreck suddenly loomed before us, likely the 95 foot long Jay Scutti, and so we got two wrecks in one. And an encounter with a giant grouper to boot.
There was not enough time to explore the wreck of the Jay Scutti as the third diver that had come along on my exploration was on a smaller tank and his air was getting low. So we returned to the Tracey and went up the line.
And, oh, before we departed for the second wreck, we saw the young lady diver happily swimming around the wreck! Good for her! She did just fine, too, on the drift dive that followed, having decent air consumption and apparently no fear. Her arms and legs were busy, as is almost always the case with new divers, but that'll change. She did not notice that a nurse shark made an appearance behind her. We told her later and she regretted not having seen it.
Saturday, May 14, 2016: Drive home: No lines, no hassles, no TSA — All dive trips begin and end with, well, the trip. This time that meant packing the car and then a long 830 mile drive each way. That took 13 hours from door to door. Which was actually more than most of the international dive trips we've done.
But I was reminded again how driving has so many advantages. While cramming gear and necessities into whatever the airlines allow is always a huge hassle,you simply put into the car whatever you think you may need. On this trip back home we had four big scuba tanks, two large scuba gear bags, clothing and toiletries, towels, food, camera bags, and assorted odds and ends. Far, far more than one could ever take on a plane.
And it's economical. The Prius needed just one fuel stop for the 830 miles to get from home to our destination. It used a grand total of 17 gallons of gasoline, which at an average of just over $2/gallon cost just $34 one way. Plus a great lunch at Joe's barbecue somewhere in the southern part of Georgia.
There is also no ridiculously expensive airport parking, no standing in long lines, no TSA hassles, no waiting for the plane, no boarding, no tiny rock-hard seats, no endless delays, no rush to the baggage claim, no long line at immigration, no hassles at customs, no hustlers, no surly gate agents, no cab or bus to the final destination. And when you're there, you have a car to go places, anytime, anywhere.
Right now I don't feel I ever want to set foot in an airplane again. Or have my luggage and my body searched one more time.
conradb212 2016-05-20T13:28:04+00:00
Saba and St. Kitts, May 30 to June 7, 2014 It was a deal we couldn't resist, and after the unfavorable weather condition we had encountered on the same itinerary in 2010, we had intended to go back and do this trip over anyway. Saba and St. Kitts in the Leeward islands of the outer Caribbean, onboard Explorer Ventures' Caribbean Explorer II. Only this time we'd do the trip in reverse order, start in Saint Maarten and leave from St. Kitts.
Getting there means a long trip from California. This time we took a shuttle flight to Los Angeles, a red-eye to Newark, and then it was another four-plus hour stretch to St. Maarten. Packing for a liveaboard dive trip is always a challenge because it's hard to anticipate what you'll need and what should be left behind. Having been on the same boat before made it somewhat easier. One doesn't need much clothing on a liveaboard. There is no dressing up for dinners or nights on the town. But if you forget something, there's little shopping to cover omissions.
I wasn't sure what wetsuit to bring. Last time we did this trip was in late summer, with water temperatures a steady 86 degrees. That meant even a 3mil wetsuit was too much and we did many dives in just bathing suits. This time the boat company predicted around 80 degrees, and divers know the big difference just six degrees can make. So I brought along my 5mil wetsuit. It's bulkier and I might get hot, but that's better than feeling cold and clammy on dives.
Saturday, June 1, 2014 Saint Maarten — We arrived at the modern St. Maarten airport shortly before noon on Saturday. The customs official determined that, contrary to the way we had filled out the forms, we weren’t actually going to stay in St. Maarten and it was a transfer. Still, immigration was quick, we got our luggage, and found a cab driver with a Caribbean Explorer sign waiting for us outside the airport. The taxi ride to the marina was longer than expected, winding through little towns and up and down the mountainous island which is half Dutch Saint Maarten and half French St. Martin. For that we were charged ten dollars per person and I gave the friendly cabby another five.
The Caribbean Explorer II was moored in Bobby's Marina and we were greeted by some of the crew. We couldn't board yet because the rooms weren’t quite ready, and so we decided to explore St. Maarten for an hour or two, until the 3pm boarding time. It was cloudy, hot, and stiflingly humid. We meandered around the boardwalk with its palm trees, made our way through the narrow little alleys with their endless souvenir shops and stands with insistingly peddling locals. That was in stark contrast to tourists perusing Cartier fashions and Rolex watches in luxurious designer stores. St. Maarten felt a bit seedier than we remembered, but maybe it was the lack of sleep and the heat and humidity. We should have had a drink and some local fare in one of the many tropical looking bars. But, unable to make a decision, we went with Subway sandwiches instead and ate them outdoors in the heat.
We were back at the boat around three, set up our dive gear, and got acquainted with the staff. This time we had stateroom #3 on the main deck, which was far more convenient than the downstairs cabin in the front of the boat we had had on our first trip on the CEX II. Our new accommodations had a queen bed at the bottom and a twin bunk on top of it. There was large storage under the bed and we could also use the upper bunk to store more of our stuff. The room was a bit smaller than the cabin we'd had on the lower deck, but it was nice enough. There was a sink in the cabin, and we had a separate shower with a toilet. There was only one power outlet, though, and so I was glad we had brought a 7-port USB charger and an outlet multiplier. Unlike on our prior trip, the A/C definitely wasn't a problem this time and the cabin was, and stayed, almost icy cold. Last time it had been humid and too warm.
It is always interesting to meet the crew. This time it consisted of just five. There was the charming and very personable purser/divemaster Maria who had worked on the Honduran island of Utila and also on liveaboards; divemaster Martin, a young man from Belgium; engineer Charles, a friendly and helpful ex-Navy man; cook Jane and captain Ian, both of whom had been on the boat last time. A crew of five is marginal and apparently a couple of staffers had canceled or were unaccounted for. As it turned out, the skeleton crew worked hard and never missed a beat. Purser Maria also was divemaster and waitstaff, Ian helped with serving, while engineer Charles helped on the dive deck, and Martin was divemaster and managed the dive deck. It can be done with five staff for 17 guests, but it cannot be easy.
We’d barely finished settling in (and received an explanation of the room emergency and safety systems by engineer Charles) when it was already time for dinner. Cook Jane prepared deliciously tasty steaks on the barbecue on the upper deck, accompanied by asparagus, cauliflower, potatoes and salad. For dessert there was vanilla ice cream with rum cake and fruit. You never go hungry on a liveaboard, and the food is good and plenty. You never go thirsty either. The CEX II has a well stocked bar with all sorts of liquor, red and white wine, plenty of beer, and also a soda dispenser system. In addition, of course, to juices, numerous teas, milk and water.
After dinner, Captain Ian introduced the crew and did an overview of the ship and its operation. At 8pm the boat left St. Maarten for the island of Saba. The captain had warned of a rough crossing, but it wasn't all that bad. Carol and I went to bed at 8:30 and slept great all through the night.
Sunday, June 2, 2014 Saba — I woke up around six o'clock on Sunday morning, and saw the boat was anchored close to the almost vertical rock wall of Saba. There was a slight breeze, the temperature was pleasant, and actually welcome after the rather cold cabin. I went upstair, got coffee from the boat’s new machine that upon pushing a button dispenses excellent coffee and even espresso. Breakfast began at 7, with eggs and sausage to order, and there were also bagels, rolls, cereals, yogurts, juices, and more.
At 7:45 the captain did a general briefing on the rules of diving on the CEX II. 130 feet maximum depth for those on air, 110 feet for those on nitrox (which was the majority of the guests). Maximum dive time 70 minutes, no gloves, no touching, always diving with a buddy. No need to change tanks after every dive; the crew fills them with the air whips installed on the dive deck. There is a dive briefing before every dive, and we’d be alerted to it by the blowing of the conch (which sounds like a fog horn).
Then divemaster Martin blew the conch and did the first dive briefing of the trip. The first dive was at Ladder Labyrinth a brief distance off the rocky slope of the island. The water seemed rather clear — a huge difference from our last trip where we had to descend the anchor line through 30 feet of murk. We jumped in the water and clearly saw the bottom from the surface.
The water temperature was a nice 81 degrees. I was the only one on the boat who wore a 5mil wetsuit and wondered if perhaps that was too much, but at least on this first dive it felt just about right. I had started with 14 pounds of weight, and that did not seem quite enough, especially towards the end of the dive. For some reason I always need more weight than one would expect. Right underneath the boat there were a few large tarpon that seemed totally undisturbed by us divers.
The dive itself was very nice. We saw an attractive mix of coral heads, coral islands, and coral fingers through which we meandered at depths ranging from 40 to 80 feet. I had a brand-new mask and, despite extensive cleaning beforehand, it remained fogged up during the entire dive, impairing vision. I should have known better. We saw a pair of goofy-looking and very tame large puffers, a few tiny juvenile spotted drums, and the usual assembly of Caribbean aquatic life, though nothing exceptional. It turned out to be an 80-foot one-hour dive.
The Caribbean Explorer II has two weights hanging off its stern at 15 feet. These can be used to hold on during the mandatory three-minute safety stops. I did that, and was treated to a nice ride as the boat drifted around its mooring line.
Getting back on the boat means grabbing one of the two very sturdy ladders onto the lower dive deck, handing the waiting divemaster fins and camera, negotiating the few steps first onto the dive platform and then the dive deck, giving the captain your maximum depth and remaining air pressure, then taking off the gear. Particularly nice are the two warm shower heads on the dive deck. There's nothing like a hot shower after a dive, to get the salt off and warm up. And since you work up an appetite when diving, Jane had baked banana bread which made for a tasty snack between dives.
I noticed that, while last time we hadn't seen another boat the whole trip, this time there were several smaller sail boats anchored along the coast of Saba.
The second dive was again at the Ladder Labyrinth dive site. In her briefing, divemaster Maria told us of the presence of hot sand underwater, thanks to Saba’s volcanic origin.
Once in the water, she set a nice slow pace, there was plenty of sun, great visibility, and a balmy 82 degrees. We mostly stayed shallow, leisurely diving around all those gorgeous coral heads. Maria showed us the strips of warm sand that you could tell by their orange color. The sand isn’t really hot, but nice and warm. It’s a very nice dive site, and so close to the shore that I wished we could have approached the rock face of the island.
At home, breakfast and snacks would leave me plenty filled up till dinner, but when diving you’re always really looking forward to lunch. Steak meatballs, salad, a tasty curry soup, and tortellini and other pasta really hit the spot.
For the third dive the captain moved the boat a short distance to the “tent” sites, so named after a tent-like formation on top of the rocks on the surface. For this dive, the mooring line was anchored on top of an underwater wall, but the CEX II was floating over deep water, and so we had to descend along the mooring line.
Despite having added two pounds of weight, I still had a hard time getting down, and once I was, my Canon G15 camera acted up. That aggravated me to an extent where I missed enjoying part of the dive. The wall reminded of the Roatan walls, with beautiful barrel sponges and lots of the bright yellow sponges that are my favorites. We even saw a reef shark in the distance. At the end of the Tent Wall site the wall gives way to the Tent Reef site, and so we turned around and swam back on top of the wall. Unfortunately now against a rather strong current that necessitated ascending along the mooring line again. My ears acted up a bit, too, probably going back to the problem descending.
On the boat, a bowl full of warm chicken taquito flutes awaited us and made me forget the hassle with the camera.
Then it was time for the fourth dive of the day. Torrens Point had been a bust on our last visit. Visibility had been virtually nil and we hadn’t see anything and quickly came back up. This time the site was gorgeous. The area is 30-45 feet of mixed sand, coral heads, coral fingers, with lots of life of all sorts. We did see a number of conch and other shells that some irresponsible divers had harvested and discarded, quite illegally as we were diving in Saba’s marine park. We took pictures of the heinous crime, both stills and video. Other than that, it was a pleasant leisurely dive with nice light, though it was getting darkish towards the end of the dive. I had taken along a GoPro 3 with dual LiquidImage lights and BackScatter filters, and experimented with the 30 to 50 feet filter.
For dinner, Jane served spinach-filled chicken breasts, sweet potatos, broccoli and salad, and then topped it off with a date-cake and vanilla ice cream.
We skipped the night dive, though it probably would have been wonderful in clear water at Torrens Point. A school of very large tarpons were circling the ship, attracted by the light.
Gazing at the scenery from the upper deck and marveling at the good fortune of being on that wonderful boat in that wonderful place of the world, I mentally contemplated a few observations:
Last time we'd been hot all week and never wore any long shirt or shammy or anything warm. This time, with somewhat cooler weather and the strong A/C in the rooms, there was almost a rush to the ship's store where they sold hoodies and chammyz. So always be prepared. You simply never know beforehand what you’ll encounter temperaturewise
Second, while the much smaller cameras we use today aren't anywhere near as bulky as older gear, they come with so many cables, batteries, chargers, filters and other add-ons and gizmos that it quickly becomes overwhelming. With one camera it's okay, but with multiple ones it can become a nightmare to find and organize everything. What seems like manageable neatly spread out on the living room floor becomes a flood of things to keep track of on a boat.
Third, things that you'd never think would break will. Like my toothbrush. It snapped straight in half. That never happened to me before. Then again, I also had a pair of reader glasses fall apart during a major presentation I gave a few years ago in Stockholm. Another thing that unexpectedly broke was the band of my Uwatec SOL dive computer. I didn't expect that either.
And, of course, I did forget something -- the charger for my Nikon AW110 camera.
I also learned a new trick. To get the wetsuit on more easily, wet your arms and then put some soap or shampoo on them. That way they slither right in, well almost. Fortunately, the CEX II had a soap dispenser right on the dive deck.
Mooring lines often have all sorts of growth on them, especially if they've been in the water for a long time. Touching them is never a good idea, but it cannot be avoided in poor diving conditions. So even if gloves are not allowed, I'd insist on wearing a thin pair to keep fingers and hands from getting stung and infected. Just take them off once you've reached bottom.
Monday, June 3, 2014 Saba — I woke up Monday morning at 6am (which was just 3AM California time!), seeing the island of Saba through our cabin window. I had slept great, as always on a boat. I had some coffee, perused the massive rock face of Saba, and took pictures of the old custom house and the stairs leading up to it. There’d been a time when this was the only way to enter Saba, and anything that was brought ashore had to go up those steps and needed clearing at the custom house. We’d learn more about that later.
Our two morning dives at Tedran Wall, a site we hadn’t been before. Tedran stands for Ted and Randy, the divers who had discovered the site. It was a fairly deep drop to the top of the wall at 70 feet and so most of us went down the mooring line the first time. The wall itself was spectacular, with dramatic scenery in very clear water. We saw very little damage, large sponges and tons of other vegetation, including a great deal of that spindly black growth that was very pretty. I thought it was coral, but probably not. Above the wall were steeply sloping chutes that in some areas extended into the wall. There were large, beautiful sand dollars, Carol saw rays, and the only bad thing was that the dive was so deep that we ran a bit short on air (not Carol, of course, she surfaced with half her tank), and so started ascend the line at 35 minutes or so.
The second dive at Tedran was not quite as clear and current began to build. So instead of cruising along the wall we stayed on top of the reef and explored all the sand chutes and coral heads.
Between dives, Jane surprised us with delicious fluffy meringue coconut cookies. There was enough time to enjoy them as there are fairly long intervals between the dives on the CEX II, long enough to take off the suit, dry off and recover.
Two things happened that morning. One of the divers had a pony bottle since he dove solo, and the bottle and regulator attached to it apparently came loose and fell off into the abyss when he jumped in. The pony bottle was the ship's and neither Maria who made a recovery attempt, nor anyone else on the second dive at the site found it.
Another diver, 73-year-old Maurice who dove air, disregarded his computer's deco order and so the computer locked up on him. He was not allowed to dive for 24 hours, until the computer said it was okay.
For lunch we had chicken Fajitas with giant tortillas (and yes, I am reporting on all meals to present a picture of what the culinary experience is on a diveboat like the CEX II). The captain informed us that he'd take the boat up to Diamond Rock to see what the conditions were for diving. He also told the story of the Saba Custom House perched high up in the rocks, with 300 steps steeply leading up to it, with most of the steps still there and visible from the boat. Until the 1950s, Ian said, this was the only way to get on Saba (which seems almost unlikely) and whatever goods and materials were brought to Saba had to go up those stairs for examination, registration and duty. I'd love to get on land and hike up those steps.
The first afternoon dive was indeed at Diamond Rock as the conditions turned out to be good. Diamond Rock, one of Saba's signature dives, is a twin volcanic spire emerging from flat sand at 75 feet, and rises above the surface by maybe another 75 feet. The boat moored close by the rock and the water was clear enough to just jump in and slowly descend towards the base of the spire. Once there, we began a one-turn clockwise rotation, encountering strong current in some spots and almost nothing in others. The view was spectacular, with gorgeous, large growth everywhere, myriad of aquarium fish doing their thing, and wonderfully clear water. We should have stayed in one of the calm spots as there was enough to see for hours.
During the dive I kept hearing an unusual noise. It turned out that my tank valve was bubbling pretty badly, so much so that Carol was concerned about my air (and when I later looked at it on video it looked quite scary). It didn't go down alarmingly fast, though, and so I just kept a close eye on it. Unfortunately, the current was very strong right at the spot where we were supposed to head back for the boat, and so there was no staying and taking in the wondrous sights. The swim back through essentially blue water was hard, with current strong enough to make me pant.
Since, for us, all dives were work dives where we evaluated underwater camera gear and equipment, Carol had taken along a LiquidImage EGO and I a GoPro Hero3 mounted on an orange stick with Backscatter’s “deep” filter.
Carol and I skipped the second Diamond Rock dive and napped instead. I uploaded video and we examined the rather disappointing results. Underwater video and photography are never trivial.
Dinner was barbecue night with ribs!
One of the great things about liveaboards is that there aren't any bugs. These can thoroughly spoil any land-based vacation as we found out repeatedly in Roatan, Cozumel, Florida and other places. This time, however, Captain Ian warned of a “bug hour” where tiny non-biting but very pesky insects descend upon the ship — sometimes in great quantities — then die off an hour or two later. We didn't experience this last time we were on the CEX II, but as is the lights were dimmed and the plastic windows of the upper deck closed. The bugs arrived indeed, but it was no big deal.
I decided to finally do another night dive. I didn't really want to, but I felt I'd probably regret it later if I didn't do at least one night dive. I rarely feel comfortable on night dives and so didn't know what to expect. I took along three lights, the two Liquid Image torches on a base and pistol grip, and a backup light. Since Carol didn't come with, I followed dive master Maria closely.
It turned out to be a very nice experience. Slowly floating around the shallow (30-45 feet) coral reef with our lights was kind of a magical experience. I was nice and warm, thanks to the 5mil wetsuit at 82 degrees, and we saw all sorts of creatures that usually hide during the day. That included two nurse sharks and numerous spiny lobsters that were out of their daytime hiding holes. We had been warned that there was a chance there'd be sea wasps upon our return. If the boat spotted any, they'd lower a red light for us as a warning. We'd then have to use the octopus to blow up some air to make them go away for our ascent. Fortunately, there weren't any. And by the time I got back up on the boat, the bugs had all died off.
Another wonderful boat thing: hot chocolate, Baileys and Kahlua awaited us. After drying off and changing into regular clothes, Carol and I resorted upstairs for some popcorn and conversation with Jane. Jane’s from England, has always been a world traveler, and took up the nomadic Caribbean life a decade or so ago.
Tuesday, June 4, 2014 Saba — Woke up at 6AM again on Tuesday morning, to the same balmy temperatures and somewhat hazy ski — not cloudy, not overcast, just somewhat hazy. It was not as bad as that sounds because the relative lack of light in the morning was because the sun hides behind the massive bulk of Saba.
As I enjoyed a cup of coffee upstairs, the boat moved away from its mooring close to the island to a dive site about a mile away from shore. That's where Third Encounter is, a ledge at 90 feet or so, and beyond that the abyss. A shortish swim away from that is the Eye of the Needle, a skinny spire that rises up to within 90 feet of the surface, but which isn't visible from the ledge even under the best conditions. This is a Saba signature dive, but one that I ended up not making. I like deep dives, but on nitrox and having to swim to and from a peak that tops out at 90 feet below the surface means very little bottom time and lots of descending and ascending in the blue, neither of which appeals to me.
I did feel a bit like a wuss as everyone else, except Maurice whose dive computer was still locked, did go. A brave group we had, and that was not surprising as on this trip, there really weren't any inexperienced or marginal divers. So I concentrated on taking pictures of the boat and divers entering the water. Carol, as always, was the only one doing a forward roll.
As it turned out, the divers reported excellent visibility and no current, so that the dive had been terrific. Carol went down to 110 feet and still brought back 1,600 psi on a 43 minute dive. She said you could almost see the spire from the ledge and that it had been marvelous. Oh well. Next time.
We then did two dives at Tent Reef. The site is a large area that includes everything from gorgeous shallow reeftops, to endless meandering swims between all the coralheads, to wall-like structures, to large expanses of garden eel sand. Part is luscious, colorful and undisturbed. Other parts are covered with silt. I wondered why the large difference between the silted and the clear areas. My air consumption was considerably better after the crew replaced the bubbling valve stem insert on my tank. No more bubbles.
For lunch, cook Jane had prepared chicken and shrimp patties, burger style, with chips, salads, and condiments.
We cut the second Tent Reef dive a bit short in order to board the dinghy that brought us to shore for a tour of the island of Saba. That required two trips. All nine of us then piled into the same old microbus taxi driven by the same cab driver, Garvin, we’d had last time.
The road-that-could-not-be-built (according to a Dutch engineer back in the 1950s or so, supposedly) was fun, we saw the church again where a proper Dutch school marm prepared children for a religious ceremony.
We visited the embroidery shop and bought a little piece of embroidery and some local liquor. Saba, supposedly, was once known as the Island of Women as the men were always away fishing. To pass the time they took up embroidery and developed it into an art form that lives on today.
The van then took us up higher into the hills from where we could look down onto one of the small towns nestled into the valley. When viewed from the sea, it looks like Saba isn't inhabited at all. Wild goats are seemingly everywhere.
We then visited a glass shop with some wonderful artwork, then on to a place where we could overlook the airport with its impossibly short runway that stops at the cliff.
The cab then dropped most of us off to descend the old step trail down to the small town of Windwardside where we got drinks and shopped some more. The trail was steep, made of cement and stone and a bit on the slippery slide. It ran through lush tropical forest, thankfully devoid of insects. Good thing I had put on my sneakers. In town Carol shopped for some items, I bought some Pineapple Fantas in the little supermarket, and the others had beers at a bar.
Overall, it felt like Saba had gone downhill a bit since we’d been there in 2010. I had expected the opposite as Saba was now no longer part of the Netherland Antilles but a direct part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but the island seems severely cash starved. The famed red roofs of Saba are as eye-catching as ever (though they're really just corrugated metal), but a lot of construction is unfinished or in need of maintenance. It often looks as if there had been an economic boom once the roads were completed in the 1950s and 1960s, but that not much has happened since. Which, of course, may be a good thing.
Upon return to the boat, which gave me a chance to shoot some pictures of the CEX II from the water as we approached, dinner was served, and it was another meal one would simply not expect on a relatively small dive boat: tender, tasty sirloin or fillet with mushroom sauce, rice, peas, carrots, and salad. For dessert there were hot brownies with ice cream. Then it was time for the three-hour passage to the island of St. Kitts, and taking assessment of our work so far
Our camera testing, we had to realize, had been dismal. We forgot the charger for one of them (the Nikon AW110), the Canon G15 had weird controls and white balance and is way off as often as on target, the two GoPro 3s produced very disappointing video even with filters, way, way worse than what one of the guests (Penny) managed with her Hero3+. I wondered if the newer GoPro Hero 3+ had a fundamentally better white balance than the older Hero 3.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014 St. Kitts — The crossing on Tuesday evening from Saba to St. Kitts took the expected three hours and went very smoothly. We went to sleep early, like 8:30 or so, and woke up Wednesday morning at St. Kitts, to a somewhat hazy sky (Garvin the cabbie had said the haziness was dust from the Sahara). Still, the island of St. Kitts looked lush and, unlike what one sees of Saba from the sea, St. Kitts shows quite a bevy of development, with lots of housing, many churches, roads, etc.
Our first dive was at “Paradise Reef” which — even this time — perhaps doesn't quite deserve its name. The site starts at a sandy slight slope at perhaps 40 feet with many small coral islands, then drops via large coral fingers down to another sandy area at 85 to 100 feet. The coral is often overgrown with some green leafy, meshy stuff that’s not very attractive. We saw a large lion fish, many fish traps (since St. Kitts is not a marine park), a couple of anchors and old timbers and ropes from St. Kitts vast maritime history, a few small southern stingrays, and plenty of little reef fish, plus a couple of large barracudas.
Carol's thumb had become all swollen from contact with fire coral from the mooring line at Tent Wall in Saba. My fingers ached a bit, too, from contact with those lines. It’s best to bring gloves whenever using those lines!
For lunch we had three different kinds of pizza, mango and melon, salad, and assorted beans.
I asked Maria why the good ship CEX II appeared to be listing to the right by perhaps four degrees and she said there were many theories about that. Four years ago I did not note any list. Carol said the captain had attributed it to a ballast distribution issue that needed fine-tuning.
The afternoon dives were close-by, at “Anchors Away.” Captain Ian said that was because when the English and French were battling it out, whoever was in the boats (the English and the French battled often) would yell "anchors away" when they saw the other party getting the cannons ready at Brimstone Fort. I am not sure if that was indeed the case, or if it was another of the captain’s straight-faced stories.
As is, the drop to “Anchors Away” was fairly large to the top of the reef, and from there it goes down to 75 or 80 through coral fingers until another large sand area. We didn't have much sun, so the site wasn't as attractive as it could be, but it also seemed a bit beaten up and covered with the mesh algae. There was considerable surge back and forth, and it seemed like most of the dive we were fighting against current, which became frustrating.
I did see two large lionfish, a reef shark, and perhaps the largest lobster I had ever seen, right on the reef top under the boat.
Back on the CEX II we found cheese and crackers as a snack, and, as usual, there was ample time to change batteries and upload video and pictures. Carol skipped the forth dive of the day, but I decided to go. On this second dive to Anchors Away we had much less current and surge and it turned out to be a nice, leisurely dive. I really like dive master Maria's pace.
Highlight of this dive was a standoff between a large lobster almost all the way out of its hole and three large lionfish facing the lobster. The lobster batted at them with his long antennae, and it wasn't quite sure what was going on. One does not usually see multiple lionfish in the open. But the lobster looked like much too large a prey for the lionfish.
Once back on the boat, we were treated to a gorgeous scenery with dramatic clouds on the horizon and you could see not only the northern end of St. Kitts but also the island of Statia, and even Saba, in the distance.
This evening those who ate seafood (which was everyone except Carol and myself) were treated to freshly caught fish that a fisherman from St. Kitts brought to the boat and cooked on the grill. I still often wonder how divers can eat fish (or catch lobsters) because watching those fish brings us so much pleasure and it seems inconceivable to eat them.
After dinner I went to the front of the boat where there were no lights and it was peaceful and dark. I wasn’t alone, though; there was Mike, who is 38, used to work for Lehman Brothers, and went to Japan for a long weekend last New Year's. He told me all about it. From the island we heard very loud preaching and music that went on for hours.
Thursday, June 5, 2014 St. Kitts — On Thursday morning there were dramatic clouds over the island of St. Kitts, and also over neighboring Statia in the distance. It rained a bit on and off, and the effect of it all was just wonderful.
For diving, the captain moved the boat halfway up St. Kitts to an area called Old Road Bay where supposedly the first Europeans landed and settled. It received its name from one of the first roads built along the coastline. In more recent history the area had had quite a bit of fishing activity and there were many fish traps at the bottom, making diving inadvisable. There captain said there are far fewer traps now as the locals apparently moved them elsewhere.
To dive this site, we dropped to a sandy area at about 50 or 55 feet, from where we meandered through and above coral islands and sandy areas. The reefs were pristine, with just a bit of the green mesh algae. We saw a surprising number of morays, many of them free-swimming. There were also very tame large puffers that just sat there when we photographed them, and if we came too close they just slowly swam away. We had hoped to see some frogfish, but didn't find any.
The boat needed to drop the anchor at Old Road Bay as there were no mooring lines. That means it swings around its anchor, making it difficult to locate its presence in low visibility. On the first dive we had clear water at the bottom and the boat was easy to find. We did the second dive at the same spot, but in much murkier conditions. We saw a giant turtle and, at the end — finally — a frog fish, and the boat was much harder to find in the reduced visibility. I had no idea where it was, but divemaster Maria listened for the sound of its engines and located it right away.
By and large, though, conditions play a far larger part in how much one enjoys a dive site than anything else. An unexceptional site in perfect conditions can be far more fulfilling to dive than a great site in bad conditions. You could also argue that ocean dive sites tend to be much the same in different parts of the world. The local fauna and sea life may change and vary a bit, but overall it's hard to differentiate between, say, a nice reef in Roatan from one off Providenciales, from one off St. Kitts or Saba. Same for walls. What sets them apart is the condition, variety, and the visibility and weather. Walls are different from the flat top of coral heads, of course, but what matters almost more is the depth. Closer to the surface there is more light, more sun, more color than down deeper. It's nice to occasionally go deep, but much of the attractive scenery is in shallower water. For that reason I prefer shallow reefs.
For lunch there was — surprise — another excellent meal: chicken kebabs, hummus, pita bread, feta cheese salad, peanut sauce, asparagus salad, and wild rice.
In the afternoon we dove the wreck of the Corinthian. We had visited it twice in 2010 and those had been enjoyable dives with very good visibility. I love wrecks and had looked forward to seeing the Corinthian again. Unfortunately, once we jumped in it was immediately clear that the conditions were nowhere near as good this time. The water was murky and we had to go down the mooring line. Once the wreck came into view it cleared up some, but the water still looked like we were in a snow storm. I began shooting video of the wreck, or so I thought, as the GoPro had somehow set itself to photography instead of video and I had wasted half a pass around the wreck. I tried again but by now the divemaster was already heading away from the wreck and disappearing in the snow storm. That's when I noticed that the LCD screen of the camera had gone out, with just a faint red light showing. I tried to turn it off but it did not respond at all and just kept recording.
We negotiated the spread-out dive site, with swims through meadows of seagrass and somewhat silty slopes. We saw part of a sunken barge located a ways away from the Corinthian, then a sunken crane and, up on top of a sand chute a big bulldozer or crane, then made our way back through seagrass to the wreck, and then back up to the surface.
Given the water conditions we skipped the 4th dive. It would have been nice to return to the wreck of the River Taw where four years ago, in very poor visibility, I had lost the group and then had waited for them on what turned out the wrong mooring line. I had looked forward to the chance of seeing that wreck again in good visibility, but sometimes conditions just don't cooperate.
So I used the time to go over all of our cameras, changing batteries, uploading pictures, testing settings, and so on. Overall, none of the cameras had performed very well for us at all on this trip and I was reminded once again just how tricky underwater imaging can be.
For dinner we had truly exceptional pork loin, potatoes au gratin, corn, brussels sprouts, salad, and — as a big surprise — both a birthday cake for Carol and an anniversary cake for us! That was sweet and totally unexpected. I also received a congratulatory certificate for my 300th dive!
Captain Ian then informed us of what was going to happen for the rest of the week. Like us, the captain seemed to have a much better time than on the 2010 trip with its challenging weather and water conditions. He was relaxed, funny, and his dry wit and genuine concern for passengers having a great time was obvious. I can only imagine the load that must rest on a captain's shoulders.
For this night the boat was moored in what the crew called the “bedroom bay” where, for the first time on the trip, we didn't have any rocking at all.
Friday, June 6, 2014 St. Kitts — Friday morning we woke up after a mediocre night’s sleep. One of the passengers had mistaken the toilet bordering our state room for a phone booth in the night and proceeded to have a long, loud argument with some unfortunate party. I wish people would leave their cellphones behind on trips like this.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another dive because drying dive gear takes so long and with today’s pesky airline luggage regulations you can’t risk packing any extra water weight. But the weather was nice, the water looked clear, and I had good memories of the Monkey Shoals site between the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis where we were now moored. So I dove without the wetsuit, wearing just a t-shirt and a bathing suit. To compensate for the now missing buoyancy of the wetsuit I had dropped eight of the 16 pounds of weight I usually carried, and it turned out to be a delightful dive. Despite the lack of insulation I wasn't cold at all in the 80 degree water. The sun was shining brightly through the clear water onto the nice coral gardens and we saw a large southern stingray and also a flying guinard.
Should we go on the second morning dive as well, given that our plane left early the next day? Though our Uwatec dive computers showed just nine hours of no-fly time we decided to skip the last dive, with heavy hearts, to be closer to the generally recommended 24 hour no-fly rule. That also gave us extra time to take our dive gears on the upper deck for drying.
Jane's final lunch of the trip included cold cuts, cheese quiches, breaded fried shrimp, several cheeses, boiled eggs, and a variety of salads. During our meal, the Captain moved the boat from Monkey Shoals to the port at Basseterre where a giant cruise ship was also docked. I watched the challenge of properly approaching a crowded dock on a 110-foot liveaboard, slow down and turn, then align the boat with the dock and get close enough for having it fastened with three ropes. I can only imagine how difficult this is with a cruise ship.
In the afternoon we went on a ($30/person) tour of St. Kitts in Percy's blue Mitsubishi minivan. We knew Percy from our last trip. The man knows seemingly everyone on the island and always had a friendly question, an inquiry, or a kind word for everyone wherever we slowed down or stopped.
The tour took us through the center of Basseterre to its outskirts and the small settlements outside of town, past the St. Kitts Veterinary University, and some impressive churches from the era where the island had been divided into parishes.
Cane sugar had been big business on St. Kitts, bringing fortune and riches to the island, but it was a cyclical business in the best of time, and one requiring high investment and reliance on a large labor force that at times consisted of indentured labor from Europe, other times on slave labor, and then, once slavery was abolished, on the work of those who had been freed.
We visited a former sugar plantation that now houses, besides the partially rebuilt remnants of the sugar processing plant, also a famous Batik shop that we had not been able to visit last time because it was closed. This time it wasn't and they had nice things indeed. We bought several items, then had drinks at the attached outdoor bar and perused the most impressive rain forest surrounding and engulfing the property.
The forest, supposedly, had not been there during the sugar plantation era and had all sprung up in the last 100 years after the sugar plantation had long since closed down. I thought the massive lusciousness of the forest was interesting as I had read that the forest had been cut down to make room for sugar cane and had never properly grown back.
Then it was on to Brimstone fortress where, on the way up, we encountered herds of the little Velvet monkeys St. Kitts is famous for. They are small and very cute, and also quite shy. According to Percy, there are more monkeys on the island than people, though I am not quite sure how they ever counted the monkeys.
The fort itself was as impressive as I remembered (albeit perhaps in somewhat worse repair than it was four years ago) and an incredible architectural feat, given its location and engineering resources available at the time it was built. There were also a good number of exhibits explaining history, as well as customs and conditions at the time. I wish we'd had more time to take it all in.
Overall, the entire island of St. Kitts is a fascinating place with as much history or more than any other island in the Caribbeans. The island has awesome natural beauty and seems near paradise, a fact perhaps a bit lost on some of today's population.
Driving back to the ship through the crowded streets of Basseterre was tiring, and once we arrived I no longer had any desire to go out and have dinner at a local restaurant. So Carol went and I stayed behind, first having a nice conversation with Jane the cook, then taking a hot shower and packing up the remainder of our gear and belongings.
Saturday, June 6, 2014 St. Kitts to Sacramento — The wakeup call came early at 5AM for our 7:40AM flight at the airport right outside of Basseterre. The trip was over much too soon and I missed the Caribbean Explorer II and our new friends onboard as soon as we stepped into Percy’s cab. It’d been great to experience this itinerary under weather conditions vastly better than we’d had four years prior. And I can't even begin to describe how impressed we were with the crew, which was not only supremely competent, but made us feel welcome, appreciated, and well cared for.
One bad thing about even the most wonderful dive trip is the travel involved. Getting there and getting back used to be half the fun, but not anymore. Not with airlines seemingly determined to make flying as uncomfortable and inconvenient as possible, and piling on ever more fees and extra charges. We flew back from St. Kitts to Miami where we had two hours between flights and needed every minute of it to make it through cumbersome immigrations, then on to Charlotte, way out of the way, and then a long final leg to Sacramento. By the time we were home we’d been up 22 hours, cranky, exhausted, and swearing we’d never, ever fly again.
But, of course, we will. And the airlines know it and will be ready with even more fees, even harder seats, and even less service and more inconvenience. And we’ll grin and bear it. Because we know that once we’re there we’ll have a great time.
conradb212 2014-07-15T22:19:40+00:00
After the book It's been forever since my last entry, and it seems like forever since my last dive.
After several years of averaging 40 to 50 dives a year, last year was dismal. It began well enough with a nice week in Florida where we visited all of our old haunts and favorite places. A week in Cancun in early summer proved a bust as it rained almost constantly and I only got four dives in. We did go up to Lake Tahoe in the Fall for a nice dive, and then had plans to spend a week on Roatan in December. That never happened, mostly because airline booking and pricing has reached new levels of insanity.
But mostly it has to do with finishing my book on scuba. Working on "Becoming a Scuba Diver -- From Pool to Sharks: Journey and Reflections of the First 250 Dives" had been a constant presence in my life and I was always eager to add another experience, reflect on another aspect of diving, and report on the latest dive trip.
Learning how to convert all those blog entries and notes into a cohesive book via Amazon's CreateSpace was an experience in itself. Proof-reading was just as tricky as I remember from the years when my job was publishing magazines. Then there was doing the cover, finding the right font, picking a physical size for the book, and laying it all out. Good thing I remembered how to use Quark XPress. At the end it was 365 pages, a pretty sizable book. Getting the first actual, printed proof copy of the book in the mail felt great. Then there was another proofing and editing pass, and it was done.
One of the wonderful things about modern self-publishing is that you don't have to shop your manuscript around to publishers, competing with numerous other authors for their interest. And you don't need to commit to printing so and so many books that may or may not sell. That was always a problem with publishing magazines. We never knew how many of the thousands and thousands of magazines we had printed would actually sell in bookstore and on newsstands.
So the book was done and though I knew better I thought now I could just sit back and wait for sales to roll in. People interested in scuba would find it on Amazon and buy it. Sadly, not so. A few books sold, but really just a token few. That was disappointing. But without marketing a products, that's the way it is. I had planned on notifying as many dive shops as I could in the hope that they would stock and sell the book, as most dive shops do. And I needed to do a proper press release, send out review copies, try to get media coverage and book reviews.
But somehow I didn't do any of that. It was as if I had expended all the creative energy in writing the book and bringing it to print. I had nothing left after that, not even taking the easy extra couple of steps of making it available in Kindle format. Months went by, and it's easy to forget how the CreateSpace process works if you're not at it every day, and so on and so on.
The other weird thing was that after the book was done and I had received a box of copies to give to friends and family, there was this odd sense of being done with the project. I still wanted to go dive, but the urgency seemed lessened as writing about places, dives, and gear was lessened. The book was done.
If you're really into something it tends to take over your life. Knowing all the ins and outs of a hobby, sport, passion comes natural. It's only afterwards that you realize how complex and involved it all was, and how easily one forgets, and how difficult it is to get back in.
So that's why there haven't been any new entries in this blog. We haven't gone diving. I'm frustrated over having let the finished book sit so long without publicizing it properly. And I am also frustrated ver not having gone diving in over eight months.
But the wait is over now. In a couple of days Carol and I will be leaving for the island of St. Maarten, where we'll board the Caribbean Explorer Explorer II for a week of diving off Saba and St. Kitts. We did that almost four years ago, albeit the other way around, starting in St. Kitts and ending up in St. Maarten. It'd been in the aftermath of a big storm and the water had been stirred up and not very pleasant. This time, I hope, conditions will be much better.
conradb212 2014-05-29T14:49:28+00:00
Is Lake Tahoe still clear? On August 6th, the 7th anniversary of my PADI Open Water Certification, Carol and I finally went up to Lake Tahoe for a dive again. Over the years I have reported on the ins and outs of high altitude diving in great detail, and so I won't go into that again.
One thought did come up, though, as we prepared for the always lovely trek up on Highway 50 into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Since high altitude diving is all about pressure ratios, and the problem is that those ratios are larger at higher altitude than they would be at any given equivalent depth when diving at sea level, why acclimate to the altitude before diving? Would it not make more sense to get into the water as quickly as possible so that one's tissues hadn't had a chance to fully off-gas yet, thus keeping the pressure ratios lower? That one goes into the same general category of mental play as the question whether diving right after flying doesn't really constitute a high altitude dive, since air planes are pressurized to the equivalent of about 7,000 feet of altitude, and after a long flight the body will have off-gassed to that pressure.
Anyway, up at Tahoe it was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday mid-morning. The parking lots and side of the road around Emerald Bay and other lookouts were jam-packed, D.L.Bliss State Park was full, and we were concerned Meeks Bay might be full as well. We got lucky, though. It wasn't. Not quite anyway. So we paid seven bucks to the Ranger at the park's entry, then even found a parking spot close to the beach area.
Whereas we're usually pretty much alone there during a weekday, the wonderful beach at Meeks Bay was quite crowded, with plenty of families, kayaks, colorful umbrellas and picnics. A woman had apparently just returned from a dive and so we asked her about the conditions. Pleasant, she said, 63 degrees at shallow depths, more on the surface. Turns out she had her two young kids diving with her. They weren't even ten, and happily prepared for the family's upcoming three-week vacation in Australia, with diving the Great Barrier Reef on the agenda.
Carol and I geared up, expecting the water to be quite cold at depth. We both donned our 7mil wet suits, once again bemoaning the fact that we still hadn't ordered our DUI dry suits (cost!), and I put on my 5-mil shorty with integrated hood on top of that. That's a lot of neoprene. We both used Nitrox; I had one of our big high-pressure Steel-100s, Carol her favorite Steel-80.
Using the right amount of weight is always an issue. I keep detailed records in my dive log book about the type of gear and amount of weight for every dive, and apparently I had used a full 22 pounds last time I dove fresh water with a steel tank with the 7+5-mil wetsuit combo. I figured I was more experienced now, and decided to go with 18. Carol, who did not have an additional shorty, used 12.
As we stepped into the water I marveled, as I do every time I step into Lake Tahoe, how very clean and clear the water is. There's simply none of the gunk, debris, trash, algae that's almost everywhere else.
The simple logistics of putting on fins, gloves, and mask while standing in a lake are amazingly complicated when wearing all that gear. It's definitely good to have a buddy to steady yourself on, and who holds your stuff while you get ready. And why there does not appear to be a single pair of dive gloves on the planet that goes on easy is beyond me.
Finally we were all done. I felt like a submarine with all the gear, the double layer of neoprene, and the built-in hood. Now it was time to see if I had enough weight to go down. I did.
Once under, the water did look the Tahoe trademark blue rather than the green you encounter in most freshwater lakes and venues, but the visibility was disappointingly low. From many earlier Tahoe dives I remembered being able to see far into the distance. Not this time. There also weren't nearly as many crawdads as we had seen a couple of years ago.
An annoying part of diving with lots of neoprene is that you need a lot of weight to initially go down. But then the neoprene gets compressed, and especially so when you wear two layers, and you start sinking like a stone and need to compensate with bursts of air into your BC. So while the 18 pounds of weight had seemed barely enough to go down, at a depth of just 15 or 20 feet, I needed plenty of air in my BC to get more or less neutral buoyancy. That syndrome, by the way, is exaggerated at Tahoe's high altitude where the neoprene starts out more expanded than it'd be at sea level.
Meeks stays fairly flat for a good while, and so we had a chance to acclimate underwater (our last dives were a coupe of months past) at 20 feet. Then the big rocks begin and there's a fairly steep slop down. At the drop-off we encountered the schools of silvery fish that had thrilled me seven years ago on my first dive at Tahoe. Then we went down along the slope. The water temperature, which had been 68 at the surface and about 63 in the shallow part, stayed in the low 60s down to about 45 feet, then it rapidly dropped. At 77 feet it was in the mid-50s and we leveled off there. It was still quite bright, but the visibility just wasn't good enough to get that wonderful sense of flying and being able to see into the distance. I thought the visibility was no more than 35 feet or so, though after the dive, Carol said she'd been able to clearly see the surface even at 75. A clarity chart recently published by the local Sacramento newspaper seemed to back her up:
According to the chart, clarity this year is up to 75.3 feet, measured by how far down a white plate can be seen from the surface. 75 feet would be better than any prior time I dove Tahoe, but it simply didn't feel that way. Also, and I may be wrong there, but the big rocks and boulders seemed slimier and more covered in silt than before. That may or may not be so.
The dive, though, was still great. A full 64 minutes during which we sort of drifted off south a bit and then had to work our way back along the shallower shoreline to the beach. I had started with about 3,400 psi, and still had 1,550 at the end of the dive. Carol ended up with roughly the same in her smaller 80-cuft tank.
Recovering after a dive is one of my favorite things. You bask in the afterglow of another wonderful underwater experience, enjoy a soda and a snack, putz with the gear, and talk about the dive. Then we packed up all the wet stuff, dried off and changed (a bit of a challenge even in a fairly large SUV), and drove into South Lake Tahoe for a lunch at a place that Carol had loved on a prior visit, but that this time misfired on most cylinders.
On the way back we made a detour to the absolutely gorgeous Echo Lake nestled in the Sierras.
conradb212 2013-08-10T15:47:10+00:00
When it rains on a dive trip... Dive trips are expensive and you want to get in as much precious diving as possible. You can't wait to get the next 10 or 20 dives under your belt. But when you get there.... it rains.
Getting rained out is one of the worst things that can happen to divers. There they are, all equipped to spend hours underwater, and then they can't go because of rain. The rain obviously doesn't bother divers, but the stormy weather that is responsible for the rain often makes the water too rough for dive boats to go out, or it churns up the seas so much that visibility goes down the drain. Or there's thunder and lightning.
Overall I've been fairly lucky with rain in my diving career, but there have been times where the weather curtailed diving for us. When we went on a liveaboard to dive the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Saba, we missed a hurricane that had gone through, but the waters had been so churned up as to destroy the wonderful visibility those islands are famous for. Other times we dodged tropical storms by a few miles or a couple of days and still got our diving in.
Then came the trip to Cancun where we met good friends for a week of diving and swimming with whale sharks off Isla Mujeres. The signs had been ominous from the start. The airlines' infuriating scheduling and pricing made it impossible to get a simple flight from Northern California to Cancun without staying over somewhere or paying half a fortune for the privilege of paying extra for bags, getting nickeled and dimed with fees, hassled by the TSA, and then squeezed into ever tinier, harder seats on the plane. Then our favorite resort had no rooms. But after spending several more hours online and on the phone it finally all fell into place. Remember when travel agents did all that for people?
We arrived in Cancun in the midst of a tropical downpour. Looking out the window of the plane when landing, the marker light posts along the runways were all half underwater. Our luggage was totally soaked when it finally appeared on the baggage carousel. What hadn't been soaked yet became so while waiting for the transfer van to the hotel. Cars were stuck in the water on and off the Kukulkan Boulevard that connects the airport with the hotel zone, and half the hotel zone seemed flooded. The Cancun PD’s Dodge Charger patrol cars were few and far between and unable to help traffic move along. After a fairly anxious hour we finally arrived at the wonderful Riu Palace Las Americas, and they had even held our room. Our friends from Tennessee had also just gotten to the hotel, after having spent a full four hours getting to the hotel from the airport.
It did not look good for diving. I managed to get my iPad connected via the hotel's (superior) WiFi and hooked up with Jorge from Scorpio Divers through which we had arranged all of our diving and whale shark boat trips. Jorge was cheerful on iMessage, but not optimistic. Tuesday would probably be the earliest for diving. The waters were all churned up, the port closed, and no one would be able to go out. He'd be in touch Sunday by 6PM.
Sunday morning the rain seemed to have subsided, but it was overcast and windy. We all met for breakfast and caught up with old friends. Some then went shopping, others hit the pool or hot tub or the bars. Not the worst way of spending a day waiting for the weather to turn. We could have been stuck in a small motel room and not the lavish resort we had splurged for. And unlike in places where you pay for diving whether you went or not, here we only paid for actual dives.
Later, we had a wonderful dinner in the Italian specialty restaurant at the resort. It was one of those rare occasions where everything falls into place just right. It also made me realize again what a great deal these all-inclusive resorts are. If you take advantage of everything they offer, they are a downright bargain compared to paying for a hotel and then paying again for every drink, every meal, and every snack.
But when Jorge messaged back as promised, things didn't look any better. There would likely be no diving until midweek. He brought up the possibility of diving cenotes though. Cenotes are the famous underwater cavern caves of the Yucatan. We had not planned for that because not all in our group were divers comfortable enough to dive cenotes, and we didn't bring the gear for caverns either. While the water temperature in Cancun is normally 80 to 82 degrees this time of the year, the cenotes are more like 75 and require a full wetsuit and dive lights. And while you can dive the land-based cenotes when it's raining and rough out on the sea, the water is too cold for the thin wetsuits we had brought, and having the sun illuminate the cenotes through holes from above is a big part of their attraction. In addition, the cenotes are a good distance south of Cancun, and the roads there might have been flooded, and they require a professional guide for every four divers. That makes it quite expensive, even more so than the whale shark boat trips. I polled our group and they were not up for it.
Monday morning we woke to pouring rain. It didn't keep some hearty souls from hitting the bar built right into one of the large pools, but other than that we were pretty much confined to the hotel. After having breakfast together, the women of our group embarked on a stretching exercise hour. I went upstairs to our room to read and answer email, catch up on the news, and everything else one ought not to do while on a relaxing trip (I often regret that even the remotest resorts now have WiFi everywhere; no one goes to the lobbies and clubhouses anymore now that people can browse in their rooms).
We found that some of the specialty restaurants of the resorts were actually open for lunch as well, without reservations, and so we had one of the best lunch meals ever. Another experience we'd have missed had we gone on our usual diving daytrips. There's always a bright side to everything. In the afternoon the rain lessened to a light drizzle and that meant we could use the pool and hot tub. But soon the sky looked very ominous again and a massive rain front rolled in. Fortunately, getting soaked while still in the pool isn't so bad.
We congregated for dinner in the resort's steakhouse, which was actually outdoors. For twenty minutes or so the sky cleared up enough to take pictures of some great dusk imagery with dramatic clouds and light effects.
Tuesday morning was dark and gray again, with pouring rain. The updated forecast was for a full three inches. Out of the windows we saw flooding everywhere. Walking down the hallways for breakfast, we saw drips and wet spots where the water was finding ways in. Staff was busy drying things and putting towels on the floor, but you had to be careful not to slip on all that marble. Much joking went on during breakfast, about liking pina coladas and walking in the rain and such. But it was very clear that there'd be no diving or whale shark excursions. We heard that they had even closed part of the hotel zone to traffic.
So we donned bathing suits and dive booths and cameras, and ventured out to see the extent of the flooding. It was kind of depressing. The storm drains of the small shopping area right opposite the hotel was unable to handle the water and a whole row of little stores got flooded. There was plenty of dirt and slush to clean up, and it didn’t smell very good. Whoever designed that shopping area had probably envisioned a vibrant, lively commercial community certain to prosper right across the street from the hotels. It didn't. The shops facing the street hang in there, just barely. The ones on the backside, in what was meant to be a casual little shopping alley, didn't. It’s largely abandoned, and a shocking contrast to all the glitz and luxury across the street.
We took pictures, walked down the street for a block or two, then returned along the beach that showed considerable damage from this and prior storms. It was not a very pretty sight.
After another rather pleasant afternoon of hot-tubbing, drinks, and swimming both on the beach and in the pool, came Jorge’s daily status update. Yes, we'd be all set for the next day!
Carol and I had dinner at the resort's Japanese restaurant, got the dive gear ready, took in a show, and went to sleep, ready for diving.
But it wasn't meant to be. I spent half the night in the bathroom with an upset stomach and knew that I was not going to dive Wednesday morning, no matter what. I needn't have agonized. More rain, angry clouds, steel-gray sky, and an early call from Dennis saying that diving was off, again.
I took some meds, felt much better after a while, and it became another nice day at the resort. I had breakfast, took pictures, lounged in a comfy chair, read amidst the lush tropical setting, did a bit of work, then swam in the ocean, sunbathed on the beach, chatted with friends, had a couple of drinks, and messaged back and forth with Jorge who by now had lost four day’s worth of income from our group. In the afternoon I saw a dive boat go out. When it returned I asked the divemaster about visibility and where they'd been. Chitales, a dive site about a third of the way to Isla Mujeres, and the viz had been 20 feet, maybe.
Jorge wondered how the boat had gotten out, said viz would be much better at other sites, and that it was a definite go on Thursday. I asked if we could do four dives. We definitely could, he said.
Dennis, in the meantime, grew more depressed. Not so much about the lost diving opportunities, but about the whale sharks. He really, really wanted to see them. So they went to Senior Frog for some drinks to ease the pain.
Thursday morning the weather looked pretty good, then it closed up and began raining, then it looked better again. I messaged Jorge who, as always, responded almost instantly. Diving was on, go, go go. That was good news, but then it began raining so hard that I messaged back to see if diving was indeed on. It was. Jorge even sent a picture from their dock, where the sky did look noticeably brighter.
The morning dives were supposed to be to a fairly deep wreck quite a ways off the beach, and not all of our group were up for that. So despite all the days of waiting for dive weather, it was just six determined souls that got picked up at 8:30 in front of the hotel. Flooding was still evident everywhere, but it was going to be just a short ride to our virtual dive operation.
Or so I thought. But the van passed the dive shop and continued on and on, way past the hotel zone and even past where we usually board for the whale shark tours north of Cancun. Apparently the virtual dive operation had changed venues.
When we finally arrived, it was a nice enough place right on the beach, and I finally met Jorge, the man behind the operation. He was younger than I had thought (and I probably much older than he had thought). It wasn't raining now, but the water looked pretty rough. There would be no wreck dive, Jorge said, it was too far out and too dangerous. Instead we'd dive the shallow reefs off Isla Mujeres. I wondered why he hadn't said so earlier as we'd then have brought more people. The dive boat’s name was “Taurus.” It had twin Yamaha outboards and was large enough to offer ample room for divers and their gear. It was also covered, providing shelter from sun and spray.
Even with this fast boat, the four or file mile ride over to Islas Mujeres took a good while and the water was rough. There was no rain, but it was clear the seas hadn't settled down just yet. Our diving finally started at a shallow reef in 30 foot water. At 79 degrees, it was a bit colder than you’d normally get here this time of the year. The sun peeked out between the clouds every now and then, lighting up the shallow reefs in gorgeous color. But for the most part, it was fairly dark and the visibility was no more than perhaps 30 feet.
Arnulfo, our personable and friendly dive master, located a scorpion fish and actually had it sitting on his hands before he gingerly released the colorful but rather poisonous critter.
When we came up it wasn’t easy for some in the group to get back on the boat on a small ladder with all the waves. Two of our sextet fell victim to various degrees of sea sickness, so just four of us did the second dive on the same small reefs and coral heads, often with large, colorful schools of fish.
Back on top, the water hadn’t calmed down, and by the time we were back at the dock, several on board looked quite green. Some had had enough and returned to the hotel, replaced by two others from our group who joined us for the afternoon dives.
Jorge provided tasty sandwiches from a place next door, then it was back across the bay to Isla Mujeres where we were to see the famous MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte) with its underwater statues. The water was rough again, and a couple of brand-new divers who had joined our group for the ride with their own dive master first got sick, then one of them freaked out on the anchor line.
Dive master Arnulfo did a great job locating the statues which are placed fairly far apart, but the visibility was still marginal and the water fairly cold, and so our two newcomers passed on the second dive, the one with all the majority of the statues, and really the one most wanted to see. One of the new divers was still seasick and so the remaining two of us promised to return as soon as we had seen all the statues so those on board the rocking boat didn't have to suffer all that much longer. The dive was nice, the DM guided us to all the statues, patiently waited until we were done with each, and the sole problem was that the cheap replacement battery in my camera lasted all of ten minutes. The same had happened with the backup battery in another camera I had taken on the previous dive, so no more cheap batteries from China for me!
Back onboard there were was complaint about the choppy water. And, truth be told, after the ride back across the bay it felt good to be on solid ground after four long, rocky boat rides and four hours underwater.
But would we get to see the whale sharks on Friday? Jorge texted that we were on, and early Friday morning messaged again on the affirmative. The weather looked halfway decent, and so eight of us boarded the pickup bus at 7:20 and made it to the whale shark marina where we met our old friend Marta who organizes the whale shark tours. We had enough people to have our own boat, almost, and not wanting to waste space, another couple joined us.
It was partly sunny and quite choppy even before we reached the northern tip of Isla Mujeres. Once past that, the big swells rolled in and it got worse. The girl who had joined us on the boat quickly got seasick and stayed that way pretty much for the rest of the trip.
Normally it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to reach the whale shark feeding grounds out on the open ocean to the north-east of Isla Mujeres. You know you’re close to where the sharks are when you see an accumulation of boats in the distance, and as soon as you are there it's into the water and seeing the sharks. Not this time. The boat kept looking, everyone was looking, but to no avail. There were some false alarms where boats congregated, and one time we even saw a number of giant mantas. Unfortunately, the sick couple got to go in the water first, with the girl forgetting to take her snorkel into her mouth. By the time those two had been returned to the boat, the mantas were gone.
We looked for hours, getting farther and farther away from land, which meant a long way back. A very long one, and a rocky one. We made a pit stop at the northern tip of Islas Mujeres with its wonderful beach, but no one was in the mood for snorkeling.
Back at the whale shark marina, a bunch of boorish Austrian tourists loudly complained to Marta. The sea was too rough, the ride not comfortable enough, the weather not good enough, the boat unsafe, the captain rude, and they wanted their money back. I gave Marta a hug. It was not her fault that for once no one found the sharks, not even the planes that circled above. The sharks are wild animals and unpredictable. Yes, it was disappointing that we did not see them, but it still had been a thrilling ride on the high seas. You win some, you lose some. No need to become abusive and unreasonable. Those people work very hard, and if the weather is bad, they get nothing.
Back at the hotel we washed the salt and grime off, and then gathered for a farewell party with wine and cheese and crackers, party decoration and a few games with prizes. The girls all posed around the pool in groups, and then we moved on to dinner in the Fusion French restaurant for another haute cuisine dining event.
All in all, I got in just four dives, and that was two or three more than most in our group. And we didn't see the whale sharks we had been raving about to our friends for years. And the weather had been bad all week, with flooding and leaks and slippery floors and broken plans. But it could have been much worse. We could have been stranded in a roadside motel with nothing to do and nowhere to go. So staying at that great all-inclusive resort certainly paid off and saved the day and the week. This time we got our money's worth. And being with good friends made it that much easier, and much better.
conradb212 2013-06-12T14:24:48+00:00
A few days of diving in Florida, and logistics At long last we went back to Florida for a week the end of January 2013. Three years ago we did "a dive trip for less" and wrote about how you can fly to and dive in Northern Florida in all sorts of great places while spending less than half as much as you would for a week in the Caribbean.
This time, I had watched airfares from Sacramento to Orlando for months and finally scored tickets just over $200 plus the usual fees and taxes via Delta and a brief stop at Minneapolis. We left at 6:45 AM and got to Florida midafternoon.
One thing that's different about a week of meandering from dive spot to dive spot is logistics. When you fly somewhere and stay at a resort or liveaboard, you get to park your gear and be done with it. Not so when you move from place to place.
We always bring our own dive gear, and that means a big bag with all the dive stuff: fins, boots, mask, BC, wetsuit, snorkel, meshbag, and assorted stuff like compass, bandanna, socks, and whatever clothes we take with. Then there's a carry-on with all the photo gear, the computers, batteries and accessories. That's already a lot of stuff.
Then you need a car. I usually book a compact or economy car and hope we'll get something appropriate as the car rental companies often let you trade up at no extra cost or for just a little. So this time, looking at all the gear we had taken with, I realized that a small compact probably wouldn't do, even for just two people. That's because in addition to all the gear, we also usually pick up a big plastic bucket to put the wet stuff in after diving. Fortunately, Budget had a Ford Escape for just a few dollars more (like 8 a day). An unplanned expense, but definitely worth it! It's essential to keep this in mind, or else a trip can become a big frustration.
We took a small car GPS along and found it to be worthless. Even relatively new GPS systems will whine about their maps being outdated, and would we please update them by going on their website? Well, we can't while on the road, and the updates usually cost almost as much as a new GPS. Fortunately, as long as there's a signal, the iPad is far superior to most dedicated GPS systems anyway.
We stopped at a Walmart and bought the plastic bucket for the gear and a couple of bargain towels. And some snacks. Then checked in and nested at the very nice Crystal River Best Western.
On Thursday morning we first had our free breakfast at the Best Western where we saw our friend and Hotel Manager Frances who apparently had been at DEMA and seen me. It was nice catching up with her. Then we headed over to Manatee Tours USA, which is owned by our friends Charlie Slider and Terry Devich.
Charlie took us and three others to the Three Sisters area where a good number of manatees hung out in the roped-off sanctuary at the entrance to Three Sisters. The water was reasonably clear, though whirled up by too many people and too many manatee boats. The water level was also much lower than I had ever seen it, and when I tried to go up the channel to the Three Sisters basin, the current from it was so strong as to make swimming upstream impossible.
So I walked (without fins), but this time, Three Sisters was a let-down. The water level was so low that even swimming was barely possible. And whereas the area had looked like this wondrous archaic place when I saw it for the first time over six years ago, now it looked all different. Fish and Wildlife, which now apparently owns the land, had removed a large number of trees and only left a thin veneer around the basin standing. Then they put in a wooden walkway around the basin that looks intrusive and seems totally unnecessary. I didn't see a single person on it. I was later told that Fish and Wildlife, without consulting with any of the locals, had removed all vegetation that they consider "not native" and had also removed a lot of the rocks from the channel, with the result that the water now rushes in and out much too quickly. What a shame.
I was disappointed enough to consider passing on an invitation to go see the manatees again in the afternoon. Fortunately, I didn't as by now the tide had come in, making everything look better, though the beauty of Three Sisters is definitely and permanently marred. With the higher water level, lots of manatees were now in the The Sisters basin, hanging out, and eager to play. Lots of fun. But it's definitely a good idea to research the tide situation before booking.
After that we got tanks and weights at nearby Birds Underwater, with much thanks to the ever-helpful Bill Ostreich, owner of Birds. By that time it was almost dark and we headed up to Cedar Key where we'd booked a couple of nights at the charming historic Island Hotel. It's supposedly haunted, with different ghosts favoring different rooms. Ms. Bessie, a former owner and mayor of Cedar Key, was supposed to have on occasion haunted our truly wonderful room #129 with a big wide King size bed with corner posts, but she must have had the night off. After a good dinner at the Hotel's acclaimed restaurant, we quickly fell asleep. No hair drier, and the shower needed getting acquainted with. Perhaps it was haunted.
A visit to Manatee Springs State Park near Chiefland was scheduled for Friday. That's where the Catfish Hotel sink is, and the adjacent basin that empties into the Suwannee River. It was a leisurely one hour drive guided by Apple's much maligned mapping program that has always worked great for me. At the park you need to check in at the Ranger's station, pay $6 per car, fill out a form, and deposit your scuba certification card. Six bucks! What a great bargain.
We started with a quick tour through this really wonderful park. The sink's water level was fairly low, perhaps three or four feet lower than at our prior visits, and it was covered in a green layer of duckweed, as always.
But before diving we walked down the raised wooden path along the river and to its mouth and saw a group of eight manatees. Then it was time to suit up and brave the descent into the murky looking green pond which, under a thin layer of duckweed, was the magical, wondrous underwater world I remembered it to be. The sun shone through some clear areas on the surface and illuminated the green cover like a giant lens. The effect was fantastic.
At the bottom of the sink under massive rock overhangs it was darker and I wish I could have brought along a light, but open water divers aren't allowed to take one with so they aren't tempted to go exploring the caves without proper training. At some point a group of three cave divers emerged from the dark, worked on their gear, dropped a tank each at the bottom of the sink at the cave entrance, then disappeared into the dark cave section that connects the sink with the basin a few hundred feet away. Carol and I surfaced, totally covered in duckweed. I couldn't stop laughing as we slung duck weed at each other. The stuff gets everywhere.
After a surface interval we walked over to the basin and did some more photography and testing with the GoPro cameras and filters we had brought along. I hung close by the cave exit where the spring blasted at me full force. I saw a flashlight and then some debris came flying out of the cave. But no diver emerged for a good ten more minutes. I began getting worried that he might have gotten stuck. But then the light appeared again, more debris, and then the caver. He was okay.
Here I need to relate a frustrating matter of diving logistics. Our 2013 Ford Escape rental had one of those giant FOBs that is, of course, not waterproof. The car did have keyless entry, but we did not have a code for it. The card with the code was supposed to be in the glove compartment, but it wasn't. So how do you go diving with a non-waterproof FOB?
Above: Once upon a time, all you needed to unlock and start a car was a metal key (left: 1969 Mercedes Benz), then came "fobs" (word origin unknown) to make it impossible to start or even "hot-wire" the car even with a key (2nd from left: 2004 Acura). Then increasingly expensive (and not waterproof) fobs replaced keys entirely (3rd from left: 2012 Prius), or became bulky contraptions with both key and electronics (right: 2011 Audi).
Carol suggested we stick it in one of those waterproof plastic boxes you hang around your neck when on boats and such, so that you have your room key and some money with you. Well, I did not trust those cheap plastic boxes with the FOB. Car rental companies charge a fortune if a FOB is lost or damaged. We also had one of those diver plastic drybags with multiple sealing lips. That looked like it might work, but I quickly saw that the water pressure would push in all the FOB's buttons, possibly crushing them or damaging the FOB with the keys remaining depressed for the duration of the dive. What if we put the drybag into the plastic box? Didn't fit.
I posed the question to other divers there. Some had older vehicles that still had real keys. One suggested to just put the key under the fender or hide it in some other place. I considered that, but then dismissed it because it didn't feel safe. I wondered whether the people who design cars ever consider that car owners might want to go swim, dive, kajak or go other places where a fragile, expensive electronic FOB will break.
We eventually found a solution. We put the FOB into a camera housing and took it with. The camera housing won't break or leak. But this also meant taking a housing on the dive, without the benefit of having the camera for which there was now no more room. And a housing designed to be more or less neutrally buoyant with a camera inside becomes an underwater helium balloon with just a key FOB inside. We tried other methods on this trip, too. Twice we asked the office at a dive site if they'd keep the key for us, and once we rented a locker.
Saturday was reserved for returns to Blue Grotto and Devil's Den near Williston, a leisurely one hour ride mostly on a totally straight road from Cedar Key. The last time we had been to Blue Grotto in June of 2009 we had the dive site all to ourselves. Not this time. When we arrived at 10:15 or so, there already were a good number of divers there, mostly classes. We caught up with owner Ed Paradiso, who is a great guy. He said he'd fill our tanks in two minutes. Two minutes. And that is exactly what he did. They weren't even warm. And there I thought filing tanks is always a lengthy affair.
Despite the number of divers in the water, visibility was quite good. Not like it was when we had the grotto for ourselves, but more than good enough. There wasn't as much sun, and so the cavern itself looked quite dark at first. Carol and I soon left the brightly lit cavern part behind and descended down the slope into the cavelike darkness, all the way to the bottom at about 100 feet. The way back up had a totally different feel to it as now we saw the glimmer of blue high above us. That is how Blue Grotto got its name.
We then cruised around in the main chamber of the cavern, enjoying the clear water and watching all the divers do their thing. At times someone whirled up a big cloud of silt and it was easy to see how the visibility could go from great to bad in an instant. In the end it'd been a very enjoyable 55 minute dive. On the way out, Ed again provided superior service with another 2-minute tank fill.
Devil's Den is practically across the street from Blue Grotto. A short stretch on the highway, then a ways down a dirt road and there it is. Devil's Den. It looked exactly as I remembered it, and it wasn't even crowded. Manager Rowena was still there, as helpful and witty as ever.
Carol and I got back into our wet and clammy gear, though the wonderfully sunny and pleasant weather made it easier, and it was hard to believe that this was the end of January. Amazingly, we didn't encounter any bugs either. Mosquitos and other insect pests are virtually a given in Florida, but not this time. Not in Crystal River, not in Cedar Key, not at Manatee Springs, and not at Blue Grotto and Devil's Den either.
Descending the narrow stairs through the rock down into the cavern and then diving it reminded me again just what an incredible place Devil's Den is. It's also one of the greatest optical illusions ever; from above, the truly crystal clear water looks about five feet deep, if that, and it seems unlikely that this would be a satisfying place for diving. But delve underneath the surface and it's a totally different view. It's much deeper than it looks, and it feels much deeper than it actually is. That's because the wonderfully contoured limestone rock has so many nooks and crannies and swim-throughs that it absolutely feels like you're cavediving. And since Devil's Den is round and multi-layered, you can dive for a long time without ever seeing anything twice.
It's hard to believe that a cavern that is really only between 45 and 50 feet deep can feel this vast, mysterious and at times intimidating, but it does. In Blue Grotto, at 45 feet you're still in the bright, friendly main area full of light. In Devil's Den, descending between rocks to that depth feels like you're deep in a cave system, and the several closed-off areas that disappear into darkness only add to that feeling. The official word is always that those areas quickly peter out and don't go far, but it certainly feels different and I wouldn't be surprised if cave extended from Devil's Den for significant distances. As is, it's not clear where the cavern's clear spring water comes from and where it goes to. There is no discernible flow.
We also found a little red devil perched on top of a limestone outcropping. Perfect. We had not seen him before.
Two other things make Devil's Den special. One is the sunlight that streams down through the narrow, round opening of the cavern and illuminates the limestone in a wondrous dance of rays of light, also lighting up the wooden structure in the center. The other is the total absence of algae and almost total absence of silt. Instead, there's a bit of sand and if that gets whirled up by a careless fin, it quickly settles down again. This means Devil's Den is almost guaranteed to have fantastic visibility.
As usual, we had along a bunch of underwater camera equipment for testing. We're pretty good at it, but even after all these years of testing gear underwater, problems continue to catch us unawares. A camera ran out of space on its storage card and it turns out that it had quietly set itself to record at a much higher resolution than it had been set to. Batteries kept dying well before they should have. Housings fogged up without any physical reason, sometimes even with moisture munchers. Menus and operation turned out to be more cryptic than expected once underwater. Devices that are said to be waterproof weren't. Tools needed to assemble, adjust or take apart gear were missing. Scheduled shots and scenes either weren't possible or were forgotten.The list of what can go wrong is endless.
Sunday we went back to Rainbow River. We stayed at the Dinner Bell Motel (which doesn't actually have a restaurant) in Dunnellen, which was just fine. Grabbed a burger at a restaurant next door, prepped batteries and cameras, and woke up to .... a lot of fog. So much that we didn't leave the motel til 10:30 AM or so, then had breakfast at McDonald's, got a couple of things at the local Walmart, and only headed for K.P. Hole park when the sun finally burned through the fog almost noon.
It cost US$5 per person to enter the meticulously maintained park, which is well worth it. We asked for Bret, the captain who was going to take us upriver in bis boat. Bret charged $10 per person for the service, also well worth it. We geared up and boarded the riverboat where we also found Bill, the prior owner. He'd ferried us upriver before. Soon we were up a few twists and bends and it was time to hit the water.
The Rainbow River originates not far from where we were dropped off in a spring. The water is about as clear as it gets in rivers. Depth varies from just three or four feet down to perhaps 25 feet. There is lush seagrass and all sorts of vegetation. The bottom is either sand or lime rock. The current varies, too, from almost none to quite a rush. The dive is mostly a drift dive, and one where you never know what's past the next river grass meadow. While the current generally shows the way, it's hard to figure out where you are in the river, but since it's so shallow you can just pop up and take a look around. Since there are boats on the river, divers need a dive flag. Carol used the Liquid Image HD324 video mask to tape the dive and so the task of handling the flag fell to me. With all the up and down there was a lot of paying our line and reeling it back in.
We ended up being underwater for over two hours, and the tanks still had plenty of air. You don't use a lot when your dive is this shallow. After the dive we enjoyed ice cream, sodas, and taking in the gorgeous vista of the river, all quiet and serene and beautiful, with Spanish Moss hanging off the trees. Another wonderful day. Then it was time to pack up the dive gear in our rental car and head back to the Best Western in Crystal River.
Om Monday morning, very bright and early we headed for Bird's for another Manatee tour, this time with the very personable Rhonda. It was still dark when we arrived at Bird's at 6:15 AM, and still quite dark when we left the dock after filling out releases, watching the mandatory Fish and Wildlife video and picked out wetsuits at 7. By the time we reached Three Sisters it was light, the water was clear and there were no other boats, so arriving early was a good thing.
There was some flow out the channel to Three Sisters, but the water was still deep and swimming upstream was possible. Once in the Three Sisters basin, there were a lot of manatees to the right side of the basin. One, named Chester, was very playful and a real ham. The water was a pleasant 73 degrees Fahrenheit or so, and the 3-mil wetsuit I got at Bird's worked just fine. I didn't use fins and didn't need any.
Back on the boat I felt cold enough to change back into my dry clothes, and didn't go back into the water at Jurassic Spring, which emanates from a 25-foot sink in front of a canal wall. Overall another pleasant experience with manatees, more good pics and video footage, and a chance to catch up with Bird, Chris and the rest of the gang.
And that was that. A few days away from the office grind, reacquainting ourselves with some of our favorite haunts, some glorious diving, and a good bunch of work with the cameras.
conradb212 2013-04-04T22:08:01+00:00
The Treasure Hunter, and how one thing leads to another This isn't totally scuba-related, but it's close enough. And it's another interesting example how one thing can lead to another and then to another. Like when I went to the local One Dollar store to pick up a couple of things and there found this interesting looking book that turned out to be about underwater archaeology. Which then led me to search for several more books on underwater archaeology that I ended up buying on Amazon from who turned out to be the first woman to visit the Titanic. And which also led me to go on eBay to buy a piece of antique Vietnamese porcelain that had rested at the bottom of the ocean for 600 years and was the subject of the story of the book from the One Dollar store.
I am not quite sure yet where a more recent experience may lead, but so far it's been an interesting chain of events also. So I am in Roatan at CoCo View resort, listening to resident expert Doc Radawski's most interesting lecture on Roatan's history, politics and general dynamics. That included a chapter on treasure hunting, which is always a fascinating subject. It wasn't quite clear to what extent Doc had been involved in such endeavors, but he did mention a book on a real life treasure hunter by the name of Howard Jennings. Jennings, with fellow adventurer Robin Moore, had looked for treasure on Roatan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Doc had apparently met the man and described him as one of the most obnoxious characters ever.
Well, thanks to the miracles of modern technology I managed to locate a used copy of the book ("The Treasure Hunter") on my iPad on Amazon while still listening to Doc's lecture, and ordered it on the spot. It cost me ten cents plus US$3.99 shipping. The book was waiting for me when I got back to the States and our home in California and it turned out to be interesting reading.
"The Treasure Hunter" isn't about diving (though Jennings does some of that in one of his adventures) and it's also not exclusively about Roatan, though several chapters deal with Roatan and Jennings apparently even lived at Port Royal for a couple or three years, together with a female companion (of which Jennings was quite fond). The book turned out to be a thoroughly entertaining read with the writing alternating between author Robin Moore and Jennings himself, a Texan, World War II bomber pilot, German POW. The events described took place during the 1960s and it all reads like a mix between Indiana Jones (Jennings claimed to be a geologist) and early James Bond (there are quite a few fights). The style is 60-ish, too, with lots of drinking, womanizing and the kind of worldly colonial gentleman style that now looks quaint and very much politically incorrect.
Jennings' adventures include searching for treasure and gold not only on Roatan, but the Honduran mainland, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Use of metal detector technology, plenty of research and preparation, a cocky, winning can-do attitude, wide-ranging contacts, world-class persuasion skills, and often a good dose of luck enabled Jennings to retrieve and take across borders a good deal of loot in an era where no one could have dreamed of the search and scanner technologies used in airports today.
The book was so entertaining that I went back on Amazon to see if there were other writings by or about the intrepid Howard Jennings. Nada. But there was something else that caught my eye: "Roatan Odyssey" by Anne Jennings Brown. Huh? Well, Jennings Brown apparently was Howard's wife who built a house with him on Roatan, at Port Royal. And it was published in 2007, 35 years after "The Treasure Hunter." "But plans so neatly made in the UK begin to fall apart as soon as they land and it becomes clear that Anne's funds are tied up by Howard, whose intentions are not what they first seemed," it says on the website.
Interesting, and I had to read it. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, and while "The Treasure Hunter" cost me just ten cents, the cheapest used copy of Jennings Brown's book was US$44.52. Fortunately, a much more reasonably priced Kindle version was available, and that is now sitting on my iPad.
And I read Anne's book. It painted, predictably, a very different story, one that while following the same general path, presented facts rather differently. Yes, the treasure hunter was charming, endearing, winning and fascinating, but he had a dark side, a very dark one. And I had not known that he died in a fiery plane crash only a few years after his book had been published.
Anne's book details many of the trials and tribulations she'd had with the suave but flawed treasure hunter, but that was only half the book. The other half was of her life in the house they had built at Fort Fredrick in Port Royal. She had returned there after Howard had been deported from Roatan, all by herself, and reading what it'd been like for her, in the early and mid-1970s, was a total treat. Both an informative one and also one that was a bit different as it involved a good deal of supernatural matters. Overall, a ton of wonderful historic information of how Roatan used to be some 40 years ago.
I just had to let Anne, now 80, know how much I appreciated her book, and I did through her website. Surprisingly, she quickly responded with a brief note, though sadly not to a note with a couple of follow-up questions.
But books lead to books and so that wasn't the end. Howard Jennings had closed "The Treasure Hunter" with a number of very practical recommendations on exploring, and also a discussion of other treasures out there. The biggest of them all, he said, was the mystery of Oak Island off Nova Scotia, and so I had to buy "The Secret Treasure of Oak Island" by D'Arcy O'Connor. Very interesting reading of a 200+ year quest to figure out what lies at the bottom of a possibly huge, yet vexingly booby-trapped supposed treasure.
And, of course, I also had to get "Historical Geography of the Bay Islands, Honduras" by William V. Davidson. That one was published back in 1973, and Anne Jennings Brown had mentioned it in her book as a great source of dwellings and locales on Roatan. While the title of the 1973-published work is a bit dry, that's because it was really based on the author's doctoral dissertation and turned out to be a great and broadly informative account of the Bay Island's history and status, with an emphasis on Roatan as the chain's largest island.
While reading those books I googled for maps and other sources, of which I eventually found quite a few (Google ain't what it used to be as a serious search tool). Davidson's book alone contains hundreds of references, and it all brought back memories of my distant academic past where even seemingly well-defined areas of study quickly mushroomed into massive projects. That won't happen here, and I am not interested in treasure, but it it's a nice example of how one thing enjoyingly leads to another and another.
conradb212 2012-12-29T20:39:50+00:00
Virtual dive operations What is a virtual dive operation? Essentially an entity that doesn't really have a dive shop, doesn't have a dive boat, doesn't fill its own tanks, and may even "rent" some of its staff. Such an operation usually has at its center a talented organizer who has what it takes to arrange for all the necessary resources, make all the required connections, and just pull it all together.
The are different degrees of virtualism. Some virtual dive operations do have their own physical locale where they have dive gear, store tanks, and even sell some dive related items. But they may still "rent" dive masters, have their tanks filled elsewhere, and rely on arrangements for dive boats or space on dive boats.
I thought about all this after our (positive) experiences with a virtual dive shop in Cancun, Mexico. Scorpio Divers is a primary example of a virtual dive operation. When I first read about them at Scuba Board, there was much praise for them, but also much discussion about whether they were an actual shop. Some said yes, they did have their own boat and dive shop, others said not.
It's quite possible that virtual dive shops change, morph and evolve over time, with resources being added or subtracted. An operation may decide to actually go to have its own boat or rent actual office space. It's all quite fluid, depends on opportunity, dreams, individual drive, and the fabric of those who all participate. In a way, virtual dive operations are social networks.
How does a virtual dive operation work? It depends, of course, on having all the pieces in place. Without having everything required to create the appearance, and offer the services, of a real dive operations, there can be no business. But even the best organization cannot exist without customers, and that is where clever marketing comes in. The reason why we ever chose Scorpio Divers was because they were seemingly everywhere. They have a website, an actual email address, they are on Twitter, on Facebook, have an Apple iMessage number, a BlackBerry number and, of course, phone numbers. So they can be reached in a number of ways.
But even that is not enough for success. All to often, emails go unanswered, phone calls are difficult to make, and so on. Scorpio stood out by being ultra-responsive. When I sent them an email, within a very short time I get one back, with answers to everything I asked.
So what are the pros and cons of virtual dive operations for divers?
The pros are that virtual operations can be quicker, more flexible, and less expensive than conventional brick and mortar operations. We paid 20% less with a virtual operation than with the dive shop located at the resort (which really was a semi-virtual shop as well as they did not have their own boats, air or piers), and that included pick-up and drop-off at the hotel.
The cons are that instead of just walking over to your local shop, you have to wait to be picked up and brought back, the boat rides to dive sites can be considerably longer, and virtual operations live and die by how well the organization is run.
conradb212 2012-09-18T21:19:52+00:00
Bad air I've often read about bad air, but had never experienced it myself. What does bad air mean? Simply that the air in your tank is somehow contaminated. At worst, it contains carbon monoxide from the exhaust of a compressor. That can be deadly and you can't even taste carbon monoxide. Jacques Cousteau described one such incident at a dive at the Fontaine des Vaucluses that nearly turned fatal. Most of the time, bad air isn't as serious, but it can still affect your dive majorly.
We were on a dive boat in fairly calm weather, did a nice shallow dive where we saw rays, morays, large schools of grunts, thousands of them, a couple of lion fish, very large sponges, and even a reef shark. But on the way back up I began feeling nauseous, which very rarely happens to me. The nausea continued on the boat, and the diesel fumes there and rocking in fairly choppy water didn't help. I also felt cold in my 3-mil wetsuit, though the water had been a nice 82 degrees and the air was warm as well. I wondered if I should do the second dive, still having a funny taste in my mouth and feeling nauseous. We had already paid for the two dives, though, and it seemed a waste not to go.
So I went. It was another nice, shallow dive with plenty to see. Coral heads, lots of color, the swarms of grunts, some nice swim-throughs, very pleasant all, and still 82 degree water. Problem was, I couldn't enjoy anything because of increasing nausea. Instead of looking, enjoying the scenery, exploring and using my camera, the dive became an exercise in not getting more nauseous and keeping things under control. I did not panic, but the thought occurred to me that throwing up would be unpleasant under water and I had never done it. They say to do it right through the regulator and you'd be fine, but I didn't want to find out. So it was all quite frustrating. I had looked forward to diving so much, to the wonderful weightless experience of floating through clear, warm water, and now this.
Eventually I got back up, and up onto the boat without losing it, but it'd been miserable. Then I found out that everyone else also complained of the funny taste of the air, the after taste it left in the mouth, and feeling off. It apparently affected me most, but even the dive master agreed it felt off. The boat captain said he'd relate it to the dive boat operator. I have no idea if he was actually going to, but I would not want another dive like that.
What caused the bad air? I don't know. Most likely some oil or other substance getting into the compressor.
Unfortunately, the next day the air wasn't any better. Three breaths out of a regulator and we felt like inhaling oil-laden fumes from some old garage. Even the dive master agreed that this wasn't good. But the boat was already underway and we had paid for the dives, so it was grin and bar it.
Which sort of worked out for me insofar as I didn't get sick, just slightly nauseated. Carol, however, looked grim and out of it throughout the dive, went up early and was in a truly foul mood when I got back to the boat. She's had almost 3,000 dives and swore she'd never encountered air this bad. She seemed ready to stop diving during that trip altogether, and she felt sick for hours. And the next day.
I took it up again with the dive master who very much agreed but said that, regretfully, it was out of his hands and he could only do so much, but could we please take it up with his boss. Which we did. The boss was a nice and very friendly man who also very much agreed that this was unacceptable, but could we please submit something in writing so that he could take it up with the shop which actually did the air fills. Which I did. And we said that, regretfully, we could not come back until this was resolved. To my way of thinking, to have or have not two well-paying customers ought to be somewhat of an incentive.
But what could they really do? If the compressor system was this fouled up, even changing whatever part caused it would still not solve the problem because by now all their tanks would be coated with the noxious stuff inside. So short of cleaning all of them, which we didn't think they would (or could) do overnight, nothing will fix the bad air.
Not a good situation.
We never did hear back from the dive operator, and so we didn't go back. As coincidence would have it, though, a couple of days later we attended a presentation of a photographer friend of ours at the local convention center. And, low and behold, he introduced us to the owner of the dive operation that actually filled the tanks. He was friendly and forthcoming, acknowledged that they probably had a problem with a filter, that they needed to clean all the tanks, and he thanked us for bringing this to his attention. And it would be fixed soon. Good, but that didn't help us gain enough confidence to go back to them.
And we never heard back for him or our dive operator either, though they knew how to reach us. So perhaps they fixed the bad air, and perhaps they didn’t. We took our business elsewhere.
If you're ever on a dive trip and you're questioning the quality of the air while already underwater, one way of testing is clearing your mask and you'll sense the odor through your nose. Also note that the filter in the first stage of your regulator is designed to capture contaminants. Check for discoloration or smells after the dive.
conradb212 2012-08-25T15:03:46+00:00
Exploring the Sea of Cortez onboard the Rocio Del Mar From July 7 to 14, 2012, we were onboard the live-aboard vessel Rocio Del Mar for a week of diving the Midriff islands of the Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California. These islands are about 40% down the gulf to the southern tip of Baja California. The Rocio is a rather new ship, only a few years old, 110 feet long, and especially built for dive trips.
We arrived in Phoenix via USAir to sweltering heat, called the shuttle company that was going to bring us to the Mexican port town of Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), grabbed a sandwich at Starbucks, and then boarded the shuttle, a spacious air-conditioned 10 passenger van. The ride from Phoenix to Rocky Point is about 2/3 in the US and 1/3 in Mexico. It is actually a rather scenic drive through desertlike terrain with millions of cacti. There are several border patrol checkpoints on the US side of the border, but with only cars headed for Phoenix being checked. We stopped at a refueling plaza for a Subway sandwich.
Passing the border into Mexico was a non-event. We didn't even have to show our passports. The ride to Rocky Point took about four hours all in all, and we arrived about 5:30pm. There is great access to the port area where we saw the Rocio Del Mar right away.
It's an impressive ship and leaves a good first impression. Whereas the Solmar V is sleek and has a pub-like elegance, the Rocio Del Mar looks and feels almost more like a building than a ship. Boarding is always a hectic affair, what with figuring out what is where, and then getting the dive gear set up. On most live-aboard and dive boats I have been on, there is bench seating where divers can prep and don their gear. The Rocio, on the other hand, has stand-up dive stations. That struck me as unusual at first, but I’d quickly learn that getting into your gear from a standing position is actually a lot easier.
The rooms are, for live-aboard standards, very large. Our upper deck room had a double bed, a bunch bed on top of it (with very ample headroom), a chest of drawers, large windows, and superb air conditioning (that can, however, only be regulated via adjusting the vents). It measured perhaps 8 x 8 feet and at least seven feet high. Our bathroom had a decent shower, a nice sink, a window, a mirror, and a toilet. The were dispensers for soap and shampoo. As on many boats, you're supposed to put toilet paper in a waste paper basket next to the toilet, and not into the toilet itself. That sounds a bit gross, but works much better than I expected.
The mattresses were on the thin side, sort of like sofa cushions, but not uncomfortable. According to management, they will be replaced with thicker memory foam mattresses. We had two foam pillows for our double bed. We also found more than adequate power outlets. That's always a big plus if you bring along a lot of cameras and electronics.
The dining room was downstairs in the hull; a relatively compact room with three large tables and bench seating that tended to get loud during meals.
The top deck of the Rocio provided an absolutely panoramic view. The was no roof to provide shade, but the feeling to be on top of everything, in the middle of the ocean, was amazing. We found lounging chairs, a barbecue grill, one of the two inflatables, a crane, and all sorts of gear, without it being cluttered.
After our first dinner, one of the dive masters, Mayo, did a briefing on the ship, safety measures, schedules, and he also introduced the crew. He first explained everything in Spanish and English, but it turned out that the Hispanic guests spoke and understand English much better than the Anglos understood Spanish, and so it was mostly English the whole trip.
Given that the two ships mostly do the same itineraries, it is interesting how different the Rocio Del Mar is from the Solmar V. If the Solmar had a nationality, it'd be British, with all of its stained glass and mahogany and brass. The Rocio is all Mexican; comfy and colorful and with much larger rooms. Some of the corridors and passages were narrow, as were some of the stairs, but that’s the case on most ships. The decor used a good deal of wood.
The guests, by and large, were an older crowd, and almost all very experienced world-traveling divers. Among them were a free diver with her son, a travel videographer, a couple who owns a dive shop in upstate New York, two retired university professors, a French woman with a Ph.D. in Astronomy who now teaches math on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, three Mexicans into photography, a mathematician, a Microsoft techie, etc. Most had many hundreds to several thousands of dives. My 250 ranked third or fourth from the bottom.
Sunday, July 8....
I woke up around 6:30am after a rather restful night where I only occasionally became aware of the motion of the boat. I went outside and found that we were not moving, and no land was in sight. I took the opportunity to do some photography, and then had breakfast where our hostess and co-owner of the Rocio Del Mar, Dora, informed us that at 3:00am there had been some rather intense vibration underneath the boat. Initially they suspected that one of the props had gotten entangled in a fishing net. That didn't turn out to be the case. Instead, one oft the drive shafts had gotten out of balance and then broke. The prop wasn’t lost and there was no danger, but the boat's top speed was now seven knots instead of ten, and the shaft could not be fixed other than in dry dock.
Our options were to return to Puerto Penasco, or to continue on one propeller, have a modified itinerary, and then conclude the trip somewhere on Baja, from where we'd be transported back to Phoenix via bus, a seven hour trip or so. Since everyone was already here and the trip underway, it made more sense to continue and then put the boat on dry dock for the necessary repairs.
So we went on at a leisurely pace that gave us ample opportunity to relax, organize, familiarize ourselves with the layout of the Rocio, and for us also do some of the product photography there usually never seems enough time for.
At 11am was a briefing on the dive operations in the salon where we learned about the general diving conditions in the Sea of Cortez. Tides can make a large difference here in current, water temperature, and visibility. Temperatures can be as low as the high 60s, then be in the low 80s on the next dive. There can also be large thermoclines. All the diving on this itinerary would be off the two inflatables. There would be no drift diving, and everyone must stay with the group as drifting off and doing safety stops in current can get you far away. Diver put on their gear before entering the inflatable and enter the water via back roll. For every dive there is a record sheet where everyone lists starting and ending pressure, and Nitrox users also their percentage and MOD. Depth limit for air users was 130 feet.
Each diver would be issued a walkie talkie GPS device that clips onto the BC. It has a green button for talk with the inflatable captains, an orange one for talk with any other boat in the area, and a coved red one to reach the coast guard in case of true emergency. The devices have a coordinate readout that is broadcast in emergencies. The LCD readout is quite small and I could not read it without my reading glasses. It struck me as a design that could use some improvements.
Due to the slower pace, we had a chance to talk with Dora Sandoval about the boat. She and her husband, who is the captain of the Rocio, did start from scratch, building the boat practically themselves, with the help of a small crew of workmen. They started in 2006, did the first trips in 2008, and Dora related a number of interesting stories and anecdotes about the whole process. I mean, how many people built a live-aboard from scratch?
At long last we arrived at Angel Island about five o'clock on Sunday. The vistas there are just breathtaking, with different color rock in dramatic shapes, spires and cones peeking out of the water, interesting beach and tide pool areas where you can see the impact of the tides in the Sea of Cortez, and no signs of civilization at all. Beautiful.
The first dive site was La Muela, a craggly spire poking out of the water near the Island. It actually looked a bit like a smaller version of Roca Partida in the Socorro Islands. Divers were split into two groups for the inflatable rides. We geared up and realized the advantage of having the tanks and BCs parked higher up, so that we could just walk up to the gear and put it on, without then having to get up from a sitting position. Getting onto the inflatable with all the gear on was surprisingly easy. The ride to the site was just a couple of minutes, and then we were off to our first dive, entering backwards.
The water wasn't particularly clear, but fairly warm. We tested buoyancy, waited until everyone was in the water, then descended and made for the base of the rock. There wasn't any current, but we couldn't really see enough to stay together as a group. What was unique here was the billions of krill in the water that made it just like swimming through a living soup. This was primarily a macro site and dive master Mayo pointed out a number of interesting critters, including seahorses and numerous nudibranchs. I also saw a small ray. There was quite a bit of life, but the krill made things hard to see. It still became a 63 minute dive with a max depth of 60 feet.
We emerged almost right next to the inflatable, took off fins, then weight pockets, then handed up the BC. The ride back to the Rocio was picturesque, and the subsequent easy stroll between Angel Island's coast and rocks in the dusk almost achingly beautiful. Just gorgeous and almost worth the trip alone.
A few hardy souls made the night dive. The boat was surrounded by thousands of needle fish that at times jumped out of the water and even on the dive deck. Carol and I went on the front deck to watch the stars for a while. It's just amazing how well you can see the Milky Way when there is no light from civilization.
Monday, July 9...
The next morning we woke up to a spectacular view through our cabin window. There was the triangular La Vela ("The Sail") formation, a sugar cone like rock perhaps 100 feet tall. There are thousands of birds on it and it is white from guano. That doesn't sound very appetizing, but it looks dazzling and very attractive. At the bottom sat dozens of sea lions.
It was just a very short inflatable drive close to the rock. We went in backwards again, then dropped almost to the bottom of the rock, which slopes down underwater at perhaps a 45 degree angle in a series of walls. The visibility wasn't great, but cleared up as we got deeper. At 90 feet it was quite good if you stayed close to the rock. I shot video using my home-made GoPro rig with its pistol grip and two Liquid Image lights. It worked great.
We saw hundreds of Spanish Shawls and other nudibranchs and also a few small rays. As we got higher, the sea lions began buzzing us, showing off and doing their thing. It wasn't clear enough to really see them play, they just came and went. Nice dive overall, and certainly a very picturesque setting. There was lush vegetation and it was sort of a mix between what you see in the Pacific (urchins, sea stars, nudibranchs, kelpish plants) and in the Caribbean (sea fans, sponges, angel and damsel fish, etc.).
After breakfast we got ready for the second morning dive, this one again at the La Vela site. The sun was out, it was hot, the water almost flat, and the sea lions were barking up a storm. This time the inflatable took us behind the rock so that we had a better chance to go with the current, or stay out of it. For photography I took my trusty Canon G10 and Carol had the GoPro 3D setup with its two big Bonica lights. I initially had a problem going down due to sinus pains. After acclimating a bit and staying above the group, things cleared up and I could descend.
Visibility was passable this time and the group stayed close to dive master Mayo. There was lots to see, mostly on the macro side, but also many rays. We heard sea lions barking throughout the dive, but didn't see them until we had ascended from 80 to perhaps 30 feet or so. Seems like the sea lions like the shallower waters. After that, a good number darted in and out.
This dive lasted an hour. After the inflatable picked us all up, we circled around the La Vela rock and watched a big make sea lion asserting his authority, barking at pups, reining in females who had climbed up too high on the rocks (they are amazingly adept at climbing rock!), and chasing one away. Back at the Rocio Del Mar, a big pelican leisurely sat on one of the pangas and couldn't be shooed away.
After lunch, the inflatable took those who wanted to explore the island over to the beach. There are not many places as pristine as this that you can set foot on.
The first afternoon dive was still at Angel Island at a site named LoLo's Cove. It's in front of a rocky cliff that then drops down to 70 feet and more, but also has an attractive shallow reef with large boulders, tunnel swim-throughs, lots of vegetation, and veritable storms of krill, so much that you can hardly see through it. I again had a hard time going down due to sinus pain above my right eye. It took almost ten minutes to go below 20 feet. Then it was okay. Unfortunately, the first half hour of what would be a very nice dive was in near pea soup. A shallow reef towards the end was more pleasant, with more sun and a bit more visibility.
After the dive, the Rocio’s crew served fruit and chicken wings in the upstairs lounge. We had already come to greatly appreciated the unique layout of the Rocio Del Mar where divers can lounge either outside in a comfy porch/terrace style settings or inside where it is cool and there's a fridge always filled with soft drinks, water and beer.
For another treat, photographer Javier Sandoval organized a boat ride for his students to a sea lion colony and some sunset shooting. Those who went spoke of a wonderful experience.
As far as water temperature went, the first four dives mid June at Angel Island saw from 74 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit at the bottom. We had drastic thermoclines and temperature changes where one spot felt warm like bath water, the next downright chilly. Air temperatures were quite high, in the 90s, and putting on a wetsuit instantly made you work up a good sweat in the heat and humidity. But in the water I was glad I brought my 5-mil wetsuit.
Tuesday, July 10....
This was whale shark day! During the night, the Rocio had moved to a new location in Bahia de los Angeles, a large cove at Baja California. When we woke up, it looked like we were totally surrounded by land, but that was an optical illusion. After breakfast we left the Rocio in snorkel gear on one of our inflatables and a panga run by a local operator who specializes on whale sharks. It was a cloudy, which cut down on the heat, and the water was absolutely flat. We searched for whale sharks for perhaps 15 minutes, then found four or five, including a young one.
Most of us wore a wetsuit or skin and were ready to jump in whenever a whale shark was near. It was an incredible experience to be face to face with whale sharks, and being able to swim with them for minutes at a time. The boat operators adeptly put us in good positions and told us where to go. We had several cameras in the water and and also shot 3D video. The water was warm and calm enough to just hang and wait for either the boat to pick us up or for a whale shark to arrive. We did not want to leave after the allotted three hours were up and convinced the captains to let us go back into the water a few extra times.
No sooner did we get in dry clothes back on the Rocio than a veritable stampede of hundreds of small bottlenose dolphins swam alongside and in front of the Rocio, jumping and pouncing and playing. What a stunning sight!
The afternoon dive was at a bay along Baja at a dive site named El Pescador, one of Dora's favorites. The water looked a bit green, but there was enough sun to light up the very nice reef top and then broad sand chutes with little rays, goofy puffers and then impressive rock formations and valleys full of life. It got quite dark at around 70 feet and the current was strong around some of the cliffs, but this was a very nice dive. Again, I was surprised at the mix between Caribbean and Pacific features. The water was about 77 degrees.
Later in the afternoon we saw a number of large pilot whales and some one of the inflatables went out to see them up close (they disappeared). We were also on the lookout for the sperm whales that often make an appearance in this part of the Sea of Cortez, but saw none. We again skipped the night dive; for me there just isn't that much appeal diving a place I don't know where it is murky to boot.
Wednesday, July 11...
The next morning we woke up as the Rocio Del Mar arrived at the small island of Salsipuedes. The name, I am told, translates into "leave if you can!” and Salsipuedes is indeed a low, barren place nowhere near as attractive as Angel Island and the others we had seen.
Our first before-breakfast dive was at a site called Los Cuervos near a virtually submerged pinnacle that peeks out of the water by a mere foot or so. There's a second, larger one close-by, and the idea is to seek places where there is little or none of the current that usually whips around such peaks in the water. We all dropped off the inflatable together so that if there was drift, the usual two groups would not drift apart. We descended into what turned out to be rather murky water with visibility of no more than five or ten feet. Once we reached the pinnacle we dropped down alongside it to about 90 feet where it was almost totally dark. My GoPro setup's two video lights sure came in handy.
The scenery down there was surprisingly lush, again with that unique mix of Caribbean and Pacific features. We slowly worked our way up the rock which turned out to have numerous cuts and walls and little canyons to swim to, around, through and into. As we got higher, we encountered schools of large and colorful angel fish. With good light and visibility, this would be a terrific dive site. The temperature at Salsipuedes was a decent 77 degrees, just about right for the 5mils.
The surface intervals on the Rocio were always long, long enough to take your wetsuit off and relax. That's because of their unique schedule of having continental breakfast items at 6am, then the first dive at 7:30, then real breakfast, then the second morning dive at 11:00 or so, lunch at noon, the first afternoon dive at 2:30, the second at 5:30pm or so.
Not being much of a fan of murky water, I sat out the second morning dive to another emerged pinnacle dive site named El Caballo, still part of the Salsipuedes island. Carol said the viz was not good, there was much current and choppiness, but she greatly enjoyed the dive nonetheless.
After lunch we were treated to a fascinating lecture on free-diving by Marie Terese Solomons, a free diving instructor in La Paz.
Afternoon dive was a dive site called "El Lavadero," still at Salsipuedes. This one was again near a rock face, but offered shallow diving, which came in handy because we needed to test the waterproof cameras on real dives. Also along came 14-year-old Zef, MT's son. Mayo was teaching him adventures in diving and so he got to enjoy his fourth ever scuba dive in a challenging site off an island in the Sea of Cortez. Quite a bit more dramatic than my fourth dive in Folsom Lake.
Thursday, July 12.....
During the night the Rocio had moved to the tiny, but rather impressive guano island of San Pedro Martir. The weather was nice, the sea fairly flat with a bit of wind, and there were hundreds of those goofy booby birds with their duck feet. They sat on the boat, bopped each other off, and clumsily flew around the Rocio again and again. On the rock face of the island, which is still mostly guano despite a history of mining it for fertilizer, you can still see terraces of stone used by the guano miners.
Diving bright and early at the El Arroyo site, it was immediately clear that we had warmer water and much better visibility here. The site was close to the island and we could almost see the bottom from the boat. We descended first to a shallow area, then moved down towards and over a wall. The drop was fantastic, vertical, full of life and colors, and seemed to drop into the abyss. We went down to 80, 90, 100, 110 and I leveled off at 114 since I used Nitrox. Some of the air divers went down to what looked like well past the 130s and stayed well below us for a while. All of a sudden one guy shot upward, with the dive master in pursuit, finally stopping him. Apparently, the guy has experienced some narcosis and kept pushing the inflator button instead of dropping air as he came up.
We saw a moray, the first on this trip, and some cute blennies emerging from their holes in the sand. We also saw Marie Terese free diving to impressive depths, and a large male sea lion defending his turf. The water was a nice 82 degrees and I wished all dives were like that.
The second dive was again at El Arroyo, but closer to the sea lion colony. The water was not quite as clear as in the morning and we stayed on a rocky slope at 30 to 50 feet, which made the site suitable for testing some of our waterproof cameras. Dive master Mayo encircled an area with his line, indicating to look there for sea horses. We did, but found none. Instead we got many visits from sea lions, generally one at a time, doing underwater acrobatics. Towards the end of the dive we encountered a large male sea lion who elegantly cruised by like a submarine, blowing bubbles and draw a line we must not cross. We didn't.
Lunch was a very tasty chicken soup with hominy (which I loved and Carol hated), and Tostitas with beef. I would have loved to go back diving one more time at San Pedro Martis, but the ship then went looking for sperm whales. Several hours looking for them proved futile and so the Rocio Del Mar returned to San Pedro Martir for a dusk dive.
That one, Ravijunco, started at 6:30, close to a rock and a sea lion colony and quickly became a dusk dive. Carol and I both had dual lights and GoPros. A big male sea lion cruised by somewhat menacingly, and dive master Mayo decided to move on. We wound our way through a reef-like seascape, encountering substantial surge. There were the dense clouds of krill, schools of small fish, moray eels in their holes, and a good number of octopus. By the end of the one hour dive it was nearly dark, so I got to do a night dive after all.
For dinner, the crew had fired up the grill on the top deck, ran mariachi music, and so we ate excellent Beef Fajitas in the warm breeze.
Friday, July 13...
We woke up to choppy seas and an overcast sky off San Pedro Martir. Got started with coffee, changed batteries in cameras, and got ready for the 7:30 dive. A small Mexican fisher boat with some half dozen fishermen came by and asked if they could have some water and tortillas. The boat gave them what they needed. Must be a hard existence to be out here for some marginal fish and absolutely no amenities. Apparently fishing is still allowed in this part of the Sea of Cortez.
The dive site was called Chayo's Cove, named after a tall, impressive cavern in the rock at about 30 feet. Inside the cavern was a cave like extension that then exited back into the cavern at another point. Marie Terese used her mermaid monofin this time and we got some good footage of her free-diving with it. She even went into the cavern and through the cave passages. Sea Lions came down and swam around us and also in and through the cave. One time, as I went around a bend, a sea lion came in from the other direction, startling bot of us. He stopped cold in his tracks, turned around and dashed off. On a second dive at Chayo's Cove, we gradually dropped to almost 110 feet along an interesting slope with lots of rock, sea fans, and little critters. Seals came and visited even at depth, as did free-diver MT at 85 feet. On the way down and then up we encountered a massive 10 degree thermocline with shimmering water separating the layers. At the bottom it was 76 or 77, on top as much as 86.
I skipped the final afternoon dive and instead collected my dive gear and laid it out on the top deck to dry (wouldn't want to get docked by the airlines for being 1.5 pounds overweight!). Time flew and soon it was time for the final dinner of the trip, and then settling our accounts with Dora. After that, some of the photographers onboard showed the week's best shots in the lounge. They did some incredible work. Then we packed, set the alarm to 4am, and were out like lights.
Saturday, July 14...
The knocks on the door coincided with the iPhone's wake-up tune. Getting up at 4am was brutal, with the sky still dark. Somehow we made it to the dining room, had some coffee and a bit of breakfast, then took one last pass through our belongings to see if everything was accounted for. We were quite a ways from shore, and so the luggage went on one inflatable, us folks on another. The pier at Kino was tall and so we had to grab an iron ladder to get off the inflatable in a bit of rough water. We made it. Then we separated into different groups, some going back to Puerto Penasco, some to Phoenix, and some to some other place. The van service was waiting, we took one last look at the Rocio Del Mar floating far in the distance on the water, said our goodbyes, then boarded the vehicles and settled for a long seven hour ride through the Mexican countryside back into the US and Phoenix.
It was a nice ride with interesting sights, a couple of checkpoints, including one in a storm where we had to take all the bags out of the trailer and through an x-ray machine. Along the way we encountered some rather impatient Mexican drivers, colorfully decorated shops and businesses, numerous of those deadly speed bumps Latin American nations love to put on their roads, and finally the US border where re-entry was no big deal.
Time had flown by and we couldn’t believe our wondrous adventure onboard the Rocio Del Mar was over. We’re ready to go back!
conradb212 2012-07-16T01:34:28+00:00
It's been much too long A few days ago I filled out the required forms for an upcoming live aboard trip and came to the question of how many dives I've had in the past three months. Ummm... none. And none this year either. My last dives go back to last December, half a year ago, when we went back to Roatan. Sure, in February we meant to dive the Georgia Aquarium again, and in May we wanted to dive Folsom Lake. And perhaps a weekend trip on one of the Channel Islands boats. And participate in the annual cleanup dive at Natomas. But I didn't. There always was something that kept me. Not good.
I did, however, spend an inordinate amount of time editing and revising and polishing my upcoming book on scuba. I've written and published about 2,000 articles, but never a book. So that's new to me and I want to make sure I got it right.
But now I can finally look forward to more diving. Next week I'll be on the good ship Rocia Del Mar for a week exploring the Sea of Cortez Midriff Islands. I've heard a lot of good things about the Rocia Del Mar, and now will have a chance to see for myself. I don't really know what to expect from the Sea of Cortez. It's not quite the Pacific Ocean, though it's really part of it, separated just by the massive peninsula of Baja California. So between being more sheltered than the open ocean and being a good bit farther south than the waters off California, will it be a lot warmer, clearer and more colorful? I'll find out.
In the meantime, I can't wait to blow bubbles again!
conradb212 2012-06-29T16:43:17+00:00
Battery frustrations Time to vent. Batteries are a major source of frustration.
On a recent dive trip we had with us eight cameras and six flash or light systems. All had their own individual batteries, sometimes up to eight of them. Each has its special way of charging. Some need to be plugged in via a USB cable, which means that you cannot use the camera while a battery is charging, even if you have multiple batteries. Others have separate chargers that are never labelled so keeping them apart can be a challenge. I am not sure why even major camera companies do not always clearly mark their own chargers. As is, I usually create a label for each as soon as I get them.
Having all the proper batteries and chargers, however, is just the beginning. If you have video lights that use eight AA rechargeables each, that's already 16 batteries, and it's almost certain that one or the other will be bad. Nothing more fun than figuring out which of 16 batteries is bad. Normally, I also like to carry a spare set with me so that I can simply exchange a spent set with a freshly recharged one. So that'd be 32 batteries for one camera's video lights alone. No can do.
Other batteries are just no good. They either don't charge properly, are they are simply crap. Most cameras, even expensive ones, come with only one battery when any serious user needs at least two. Well, the branded ones are often unreasonably expensive and users are driven to seeking cheaper replacements, of which there are many on eBay. Sometimes what you find on eBay is just as good or better than the branded products (like replacement batteries I bought for my Canon G10). Other times they are useless and crap out at the most inopportune time (like five minutes into a dive).
Some cameras have properly sized batteries, others do not. Older photographers still remember the days when a SLR battery ran the camera for years. Younger ones may still remember the early days of digital cameras where batteries often lasted just a few dozen pictures. Today, a properly sized battery should be good for hundreds if pictures, or hours of video since most cameras now include video. No modern camera, and certainly not those used for diving, should have undersized batteries. And yet, I've had dedicated underwater cameras whose batteries did not even last through two dives.
Then there's the debate over standard batteries, like AAs or AAAs, versus specially designed batteries. The argument for standard ones is that you can get them anywhere. But they are also usually larger and heavier. The argument for dedicated ones is that they are designed for a device, saving space. But they usually are overpriced and hard to find.
As is, despite dealing with batteries every day in my work, on this dive trip I had at least half a dozen incidences where I could either not use a camera for a dive because one of its batteries failed, or a battery expired while still on the dive.
I realize that providing power to the flood of portable electronics we carry and use is not easy. Most manufacturers probably think long and hard about what type and kind of batteries to use. But some simply need to think a bit longer and harder. It's not impossible to minimize the battery hassle by thinking things through and then coming up with a solution that is reasonable. 16 batteries for a set of video lights is not reasonable. Not labeling chargers is not reasonable. And using batteries that barely last through a single dive is not reasonable.
conradb212 2011-12-11T19:38:39+00:00
Whale sharks in the wild Whale sharks are filter feeders and the largest living fish in the ocean. They can be over 40 feet in length, weigh almost 40 tons, and go back some 60 million years. They pose no danger to divers, and they can be observed as they are slow swimmers. And I wanted to see them.
After a good deal of cursing the airlines for their ever more infuriating pricing and scheduling practices we did come across a reasonable deal: eight days at the Riu Palace Las Americas hotel and resort in Cancun. Now Cancun is not exactly known for diving, but it is close to Isla Mujeres, which is where the whale sharks are, at least through about mid-September. Perusing the discussion website yielded a gamut of opinions, but it did seem that Cancun dive sites had lots of fish, and there are plenty of outfits that take you diving and on whale shark tours.
The name Scorpio Divers popped up often, but after reading hundreds of posts we were still not clear how hotel pick-up and drop-off worked in Cancun scuba diving, what with all the gear, being wet, etc. In addition, I do like to have a home base on the premises where we can leave our gear. So after I found that the Riu had a PADI 5-Star shop on location and you could book dives in advance for a discount, that seemed the reasonable approach.
That left the whale shark tour, and after all the praise they had gotten, I did send the Scorpio Diver guys an email and inquired about their tours. Much to their credit, Jorge, one of Scorpio's principals, responded virtually right away, answered all my questions, and the price seemed right. And they would pick us up at the hotel and drop us off there. So we struck a deal for a door-to-door whale shark tour for the third day of our trip.
We agonized over what to bring along, then made sure we were at the front of the hotel five minutes before the pickup window. A van picked us up and brought us to a terminal at Puerto Juarez a bit north of Cancun on the mainland where a good number of people either had prepaid or had one sort of voucher or confirmation or other. There was a briefing where we learned that Cancun was one of only two places in the world where whale sharks come to the surface. And that boats cannot be longer than 33 feet, and that there are only so and so many licenses. Martha of Caribbean Connection, the outfit that actually seemed to own or at least control the boats, cautioned that the plankton the whale sharks eat moves with weather and storms. There is a vast area on the open ocean where the whale sharks could be, so it might take a while to find them.
Eventually we were assigned to one of the boats that held 10 people, had a sun cover, and two big Mercury outboard engines. The water was calm and only got a bit rougher after we passed Isla Mujeres. The ride was perhaps an hour until in the distance we spied a number of similar boats, all assembled in a fairly small area. When we got there it was obvious that we had hit the whale shark jackpot. There were several dozens and perhaps over a hundred, and snorkelers from perhaps 40 boats. The way it worked was that two snorkelers per boat were supposed to be in the water at the same time along with a guide.
It was all quite overwhelming. The whale sharks surfaced to scoop up food, then swam just under the surface. Carol and I got in in our wetsuits, and so were not required to wear a life jacket. We were the only ones on the boat who had brought our own equipment. Just as we were ready to go in Carol's snorkel broke and she had to use one from the boat.
In the water, watching the whale sharks was a bit like a manatee encounter in Crystal River, only the whale sharks move faster, they are much bigger, and this was in the open ocean. Whale sharks do not shy away from people, but also do not seem to have the curiosity in people that mantas have. It was stunning and amazing to be right on top or alongside one of those huge creatures.
The two snorkelers at a time rule first seemed a nuisance, but it worked out fine as some got in less than others. The seas were a little choppy and four of the ten people on our boat got seasick. I had taken a precautionary Bonine before the trip and was fine. I felt bad for those affected, but it also meant that Carol and I had more snorkel time.
We were the last boat leaving for the ride back. Interestingly, we saw numerous yellow butterflies on the water, many miles from shore. Where were they going?
We stopped by the northern tip of Isla Mujeres for some relaxing snorkeling in a shallow reef, then stopped for half an hour on a beach nearby with perhaps the whitest sand and bluest water I have ever seen. In fact, much of the water between Mujeres and the mainland seems that way, just all bright blue-green due to the white sand at the bottom and nothing else.
At the pier, our return transportation was fairly well arranged, and we were back at the Riu around 3:30. Later in the day I received an email from Jorge at Scorpio, asking how it'd gone, and said he'd seen me boarding with my diver crocs. I did wear diver crocs. Amazing. The experience had been such that Carol and I both wanted to go back. Jorge was glad to comply, with an extra discount for repeat customers.
So on the last day of the trip we went back to the whale sharks. This time we knew the drill, which always makes things easier. There were fewer people and the staff actually recognized us and was absolutely thrilled to have us back, going as far as announcing it to the assembly of waiting customers.
Fewer people meant less confusion over who went where, and so we found ourselves on the boat much quicker. On the way we posed for a group picture with a local dressed up in what seemed Mayan warrior gear, then boarded the vessel, which was of a different design and newer than the one we had been on prior. This one even had a toilet on board, and that always comes in handy.
The weather was perfect, the water all flat, even past Isla Mujeres, and so the roughly one hour ride was pleasant for all onboard. No sea sickness this time. When the whale shark boats appeared on the horizon, it was quickly apparent that they were much more spread out and there were fewer, perhaps 25 versus 40+ on Monday. This first concerned me, but it turned out to be a good thing.
This time we did not to bring our own gear except our masks and snorkels. This meant a much smaller gear bag with just the essentials: cameras, wetsuit pants and tops, bio-degradable sunscreen, towels, whatever money we needed, and that was that. The boat had fins that fit quite well, and they actually worked well enough that I am considering adding a pair of full-foot fins to my gear.
Not having to wear a life vest is a big advantage as the bulk of the vest slows you down when swimming and also makes it difficult to put your head underwater. You're much better off with a wetsuit. Even though I had just thin wetsuit pants and a black long-sleeved Liquid Image shirt, that provided still enough buoyancy in the salty water to keep me afloat and comfortable.
Though there were fewer whale sharks and we sometimes had to look and wait for one or two, this meant fewer snorkelers swimming with the animals. At times we had a whale shark all to ourselves, making for an entirely different experience than being in the midst of a thrashing group of snorkelers with fins swirling up the water and making it hard to see anything.
The water was so flat and clear and the sun so bright that we truly could not have wished for better conditions. The whale sharks appeared mostly solo but sometimes in pairs. We also saw a baby calmly scooping up food and apparently unperturbed that a parent was not close-by. Baby is relative here as it was still a good 12 feet long.
Whale sharks are calm and placid creatures. They move at a slow and fairly predictable pace and are not given to sudden changes or erratic movement. For the most part they idle along at a pace that made it possible for snorkelers to keep up with them for a while. If you finned hard you could actually catch up or pass one, seeing its head and mouth. The sharks stayed fairly shallow the entire time, maybe five or six feet at the most. For feeding they slightly angled their body so that their mouth was higher and often at the surface.
Whale sharks move by winding themselves through the water, powered by slow sideways movement of their large tail fin. They have massive gills and all have what at first sight looks like the same appearance: gray with lighter color dots. Their eyes are very small for creatures this size, and they sit just ahead of what appears to be ears, which you first mistake for eyes. Unlike sharks that almost always bear marks and scars, most of the whale sharks we saw were in pristine condition without any scars or blemishes.
Whale sharks don't seem to be either drawn to nor afraid of humans. They don't shy away, but also don't barrel into a snorkeler in their path. They seem able to control their path and bodies so that even when they are close, there is never any contact. In that way they are very much like fish that are almost impossible to touch.
With wetsuits on and as videotaping divers, the captain gave us permission to be in the water whenever and for as long as we wanted when he easily could have insisted on the strict two snorkelers rule. This gave Carol the opportunity to stay in the water the entire two hours we were there, and me the freedom to jump in and get back on the boat however I wanted.
We had an interesting combination of people on the boat. There were four young German women, a Dutch couple, a Hispanic couple, a lady from Oklahoma, and us. The Dutch woman said she was only afraid of three things in life: spiders, fish larger than herself, and being in a deep ocean. Despite that, she managed to go in and be thrilled, as did the woman from Oklahoma who was new to snorkeling and the ocean. The German girls were absolutely beside themselves over the experience, and Carol and I were blown away all over again as well.
This time we, having learned from our mistakes the first time, only took one camera at a time. We had also adjusted our camera settings and the result was much better pictures and video. It is still not easy as the whale sharks do not pose, but we got some great footage.
All too soon we went back, stopped at the reef at the north side of Isla Mujeres, but not the white sand beach, and then back to port. We then got to talk to Martha who gave us some background info. We learned that they are in contact with the Georgia Aquarium and actually will visit there. It's a small community of people in love with whale sharks, and they all seem to know each other.
conradb212 2011-09-05T02:23:31+00:00
Diving the Revillagigedos (Socorro): Mantas! Difficult to pronounce for Anglosaxon tongues, the Revillagigedos are a remote group of islands about 250 miles west of the Pacific coast of Mexico. Exclusively reached via liveaboard vessel from the port of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico, the islands are not a group as much as four random peaks of rock poking through the surface of nowhere more or less in the same general vicinity.
After a 24 hour passage at sea (that can be rough), San Benedicto comes into view, a 4-square mile island that is about as volcanic as it gets, with the last massive eruption just over 50 years ago. From there it’s either a 35 mile run to Socorro—with a land area of about 50 square miles the largest island of the group and the one that gives the Revillagigedos its more popular name, Socorro Islands—or an 85 mile ride to Roca Partida, which is not really an island at all, but just a small rock. The distance between Socorro and Roca Partida is about 70 miles, concluding the triangle. There is a fourth island, Clarion, another hundred miles beyond, and not usually on the itinerary of anyone. With the exception of the Mexican Navy that keeps a small garrison on Socorro and an even smaller outpost on Clarion, the islands are uninhabited.
Among divers, Socorro is famous as a remote destination where one can see sharks and, more importantly, giant manta rays. These islands are not for those who seek lush shallow reefs teeming with colorful tropical fish (though color certainly isn’t absent). The volcanic underwater scenery around the Socorro islands is starker and darker, the water is colder, the currents stronger, just what the big fish like. This is what we signed up for when we booked our trip on the Solmar V, a 112-foot live-aboard vessel based in Cabo San Lucas.
I still didn’t know what to expect. From what I had heard, read and Googled, everyone agrees on the sharks and manta rays and the great food on the Solmar V. Everyone agrees that it is a great experience, but other than that, opinions range from wonderful and pleasant to intimidating and only for the advanced.
The green and white Solmar V made a grand first impression, as did the captain who greeted us in a white uniform. Inside, the Solmar is all wood and brass and the look and feel of the main deck is like that of an elegant pub. It reminded me of a more compact version of what you see in old luxurious river paddle boats such as the Delta King or Queen. Seating is in booths or small club-like bar tables for two. Lighting in the ceiling looks like brass portholes and some are colorful stained glass.
We had been warned both by Solmar literature and trip reviews that the rooms were small, and that is certainly true. Compared to them, the cabins we had on the Caribbean Explorer II was very large and the one we had had on the Turks and Caicos Explorer was huge. On the Solmar, our #304 had stacked beds with the bottom not wide enough for the two of us, and the top requiring a good deal of agility and a lack of any claustrophobic tendencies as headroom is virtually non-existent. There is one very small cabinet, a tiny sink, a few cubbies, a few outlets, and nothing more. These rooms are essentially bunks, without any chairs or desk space. Bathroom and shower are combined into one, so you can sit on the toilet while taking a shower.
The Solmar V left port around 4pm to some spectacular landscape with massive rocks, an arch, cliffs, spires, with waves pounding at them. Right outside the port we also passed a humongous cruise ship, the “Carnival Splendor,” that dwarfed to Solmar and seemed entirely out of place and proportion. It reminded me of the huge difference between hose floating cities and diving off a live-aboard. Then we were on the open sea and things instantly got pretty rocky, though it was a sunny day. The Solmar pitches and rolls quite a bit, and spray washes over the bow so that it is not advisable to hang outside while underway.
Then it was time for a briefing. The highlight here is the Pacific Giant Manta. There would be five full days of diving, plus one checkout dive the first day. Maximum depth at any site is 130 feet. Do not touch or chase anything. Any dives from the Panga are max 50 minutes, any dives from the Solmar are 60 minutes max. Nitrox mix is 32% for Socorro and San Benedicto, 28% for Roca Partida so that divers can to down to 130 feet. The only animals that like chasing are dolphins, and they are also the only exception to no-touch rule, but only when they invite us. With hammerheads and other sharks, stay as still as you can so they don't scatter. If you stay still they may come closer. If we were to encounter whale sharks, be careful and get out of the way as their touch can be very strong. They often make passes and then come back.
After an almost 24 hour ride, the island of San Benedicto came into view, and what a view it is. Stark, yet varied, with massive rock formations, visible layers, and probably a geologist's dream. The volcano part is all light gray and textured in a very unique way. What on Google Earth looked like a forested part of the island that had escaped the volcanic eruption is, in fact, just black lava. As we got closer to the island, pods of dolphins followed us, jumping out of the water and racing around the bow of the Solmar. The weather, unfortunately, was overcast and breezy.
The water wasn't nearly as warm as expected, perhaps in the high 60s. We worked our way down the anchor line, then followed the divemaster around for our check-out at the El Fondeadero dive site, which is three coral blocks sitting on sloping sand.
Dive site the next morning was El Boiler, a terraced seamount with three levels, the highest of which goes to 20 feet within the surface. There was very strong current and we had to hang on to the anchor line for dear life. Once down the viz was quite decent, though still no more than perhaps 75 feet. Our group of seven began a clockwise pass around the structure, at times against strong current and surge. Two or three dolphin swooped in, then quickly disappeared. The water was warmer than on the first dive, with warm and cold currents. As for depth, we were mostly in the 80s. We didn't see anything extraordinary, and definitely no mantas. Getting back on the boat was a bit tricky due to the waves.
The third dive was a hit. We had moved to another San Benedicto location, called Cape Fear. The current was fierce on the way down the anchor line, and at the bottom as well. First I thought we'd have to go right back up. But then we clawed ourselves over some cliffs and coral, and it was fairly clear that we would not end up at the anchor line for the way back. The pangas would pick us up. The reef was very nice and visibility had improved to very good.
Then we saw the first giant manta. It lazily flew by, then came back for a second pass. We ascended to get a better look and perhaps see more of it, but the creature had vanished. We settled for the safety stop when another manta appeared. And then another. They hung around, glided, flew, turned, twirled, sometimes almost at the surface. Everyone was in awe and so we watched the spectacle for another 20 minutes until we ran low on air.
With an ear ache, I skipped the first dive the following morning by what was now Socorro, dive site Cabo Pearce. Socorro is a much larger island than San Benedicto, and there was a spectacular sunrise. I did snorkel, though, in very clear water, watching the divers’ bubbles. Wearing just long swim pants and a long-sleaved top, I didn’t get cold though I was in the water for almost an hour.
I did the second dive at Cabo Pearce though there was current. Down the anchor line we went, then along some nice reefs. The water was much warmer here, mid 70s. Towards the end of the dive, giant mantas showed up, and it was a near perfect situation, with the mantas coasting around us in shallow, brightly lit water. They came very close, almost touching us. There is an awesomeness factor here that you cannot find anywhere else. According to one of the dive masters, Socorro Cabo Pearce has been the best manta place as of late.
Back on the boat, we motored over to the Mexican base where a boat with six or eight Mexican Navy personnel boarded us, machine guns and all. The crew said they simply came to check us in. They were served soft drinks, checked for half an hour or so, then left. We’re told the personnel there stays for a month, then serves somewhere on the mainland before they return.
After dinner the Solmar V began the eight or nine hour trip to Roca Partida where all diving will be off the pangas. We'll be using Nitrox 28 there because the dives will be as deep as 130 feet. The trip was very rocky and it took us a long time to get to sleep with the Solmar heaving and rolling. In those conditions, it often feels like you are are awake when, in fact, you are not. At some point the boat dropped anchor and we were there. I slept through it.
When my alarm went off at 6:30am, the sun had just come up over the endless horizon. I looked for Roca Partida, and there it was, smaller than I expected, and certainly not a hundred meters high as some sources claimed. More like 15 meters or 50 feet. The two peaks are joined and the upper three quarters are all white from the guano. The lowest part shows how far up the waves wash.
The sea was fairly calm, but with large slow swells. All diving at Roca Partida is off the pangas. It is quite a bit of logistics to get 11 BCs with tanks and weights and fins, as well as 11 divers in each of the pangas. Our panga driver, Geronimo, was a real pro, friendly, funny and competent.
Being at Roca Partida gives you this sense of really and truly being away from civilization, and it is. Some 300 plus miles out in the ocean, just a small rock, and far away from any shipping lane.
We got in the panga after listening to the dive briefing, headed towards the rocks, and then, on the count of three, all plunged into the water backward. It was fairly clear and so we followed the dive master (Erick) towards the rock which looks very much larger and more impressive underwater than above. It is just sheer cliff plunging down to a bottom at 220 feet or so. First we encountered a lot of current, then a terrific place with tons of fish including sharks above us and below us and around us.
I would have loved to hang around there, but our dive master, using long freediver fins, was moving on and we breathed hard to keep up with him. On the other side of the rock was clear water (though nowhere near as clear as I had expected), and there were those ledges where white tip sharks laid. In one they rested together with a big moray, all in one place. Again I wanted to stay and take it all in, but the DM urged us on and we came to another calm place with sharks of all kinds. Unfortunately we didn’t stay there either and the group was led into blue water where there were no more sharks, albeit a lot of small fish. So there we then hung for another 15 minutes, away from Roca Partida, away from all the sharks. None too happy over all the rush, I reentered the panga after a 44 minute dive, with a max depth of 95 feet. Two more dives hinted at the potential of this site, but this time the conditions just weren't very good.
We had a smooth ride back to Socorro and I slept so soundly that I didn't even hear the anchor. Awoke to a nice day at Socorro where we anchored at Cabo Pearce. The good news here was that the water temperature was an acceptable 75 degrees and that the current was fairly mild. Visibility however was mixed. We went down the anchor line to the 40 foot top of the reef, then Carol and I decided, somewhat wary of long blue water power swims, to go by ourselves and explore the reef. It is rocky and volcanic mostly, with lots of trumpet fish, angels, and a good number of urchins and sea cucumber like creatures. I dove off a spectacular wall to score another 100 foot dive, is time on Nitrox 32 again.
All divers used nitrox on this trip, meaning I almost never had to worry about bottom time. The average depth on Solmar dives is fairly deep, and I can only imagine the limitations of air diving. It just makes no sense to miss parts of good dives having to go shallow (which here often means into blue water with nothing in sight).
I skipped the final panga ride at Socorro, which was at Roca O'Neil, a small island/rock off the northern I think tip of Socorro. Apparently they had tank and o-ring problems that delayed things, and there wasn't much to see. I spent the time on the top deck, enjoying the vista and reading a book.
This morning we awoke to the breathtaking vista of San Benedicto, with the sun lazily coming up and burning through the haze. The dive site was El Canon, a horseshoe canon with a number of reefs. The idea here is to hang on to a reef or rock at the edge of the deep water and then have the animals swim by you.
The boobie birds here are very tame. You can actually make them sit on your hand or arm. They have a hard time landing on the boat when it is moving and seem to appreciate a bit of help. They had flat, webbed feet and sort of grab hold of your hand, then just sit there and hang, not even pooping much.
With El Canon not offering much, the captain moved up to Cabo Fear. And that turned out to be the trip's best dives. The water was fairly warm, there was little current, and the visibility was quite good. As soon as we'd descended the anchor line the Mantas arrived, mesmerizing everyone with their majesty and effortless gliding. We followed the mantas who circled above us, and soon found ourselves in 100 feet of water! They tend to lead you, or rather, you tend to follow. Seeing a manta appear and then glide by is certainly unique. At times there were three or four gliding by, circling us, looping together, and very obviously eying us. Common wisdom has it that e mantas like the tickle of divers' air bubbles, but I did not find that to be true. In fact, they seemed to avoid the bubbles, carefully gliding around them.
Then it was time for the last dive on this trip, again at Cabo Fear. We settled in a nice, leisurely pace. The Mantas were the again from the start, and so we had a most enjoyable 45 minutes with them. Certainly a great conclusion.
The final morning was a bit bittersweet. It was in some way good to be in port again, with firm land just a few feet away, but no one wanted the trip to end. From here, we'd soon disperse into the seven countries we'd come from to spend these unforgettable nine days (Canada, US, Portugal, Poland, England, France and the Philippines).
conradb212 2011-06-25T20:07:17+00:00 | <urn:uuid:7e047294-6164-4492-a273-cd930a7e9ba4> | http://www.scubadiverinfo.com/mt/starting/index.rdf | en | 0.981487 | 0.028553 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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5 Realistic Scenarios Sparking the End of the World
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end of the world
Our recent article discussing the market for underground bunkers got us thinking about end of the world scenarios.
The people wanting the protection afforded by former nuclear missile silos and the like are worried about potential catastrophes such as economic meltdown, solar flares, super volcanoes, mega earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear war and asteroid hits. All of them sound ominous enough, but how many of them are realistic, and how many more threats are there?
The first scenario mentioned isn’t really something that could bring about the end of the world. Economic meltdown would sure make things uncomfortable for a whole lot of people, but end the world? Nah, it will more likely end up improving the world!
Solar Flares are another event that gets the doomsday preppers juices flowing. While the potential for solar flares to cause massive disruption to the power grid is already well known (1), such an event is hardly likely to bring about the end of the world.
Scientists believe there is a strong chance of a major solar flare occurring before the end of 2020 (2), so we might not have too long to wait to find out for ourselves.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis
A mega earthquake, also known as a “megathrust earthquake” has the potential to destroy infrastructure and life on a huge scale, but once again the potential for a massive earthquake bringing about the end of the world is pretty much zero.
Megathrust earthquakes occur when one tectonic plate is forced underneath another, releasing vast amounts of energy. This is what happened off the coast of Japan on March 11th 2011, when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck 43 miles from shore.
Because the quake occurred under the sea, huge tsunami waves measuring up to 133ft raced toward land and devastated much of north-eastern Japan. Over 15,800 people were killed and nearly 3,000 are still classed as missing.
The tsunami also caused 3 reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to go into meltdown, but still the damage was confined to the region and did not affect the rest of the world to any great extent.
Another tsunami in 2004 caused unprecedented loss of life and devastation. The “Boxing Day” tsunami off the coast of Indonesia killed over 230,000 people and was triggered after an undersea magnitude 9.3 megathrust earthquake.
While the destruction was horrific, the affect was once again confined to the region in which the quake occurred, though this time 14 countries were affected by the deadly tsunami.
end of the world
The Supervolcano Threat
The scenarios we’ve looked at so far are certainly worrying, more so should they happen anywhere close to where we live, but the capability for them to result in the end of the world are negligible.
A supervolcano eruption on the other hand could be a different story altogether.
A supervolcano is categorized as a high-magnitude, high intensity volcano, capable of erupting anywhere between hundreds to thousands of cubic miles of magma, ash and rock into the atmosphere.
By comparison, the Mount St. Helens eruption of 1980, which killed 57 people, ejected less than one cubic mile of ash into the atmosphere (3).
The Yellowstone Supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park has the potential to be a civilization killer, when – not if – it next erupts.
These so-called Extinction Level Events (ELE’s) are very rare. They have to be, we wouldn’t be here writing about them otherwise!
The last Yellowstone super eruption happened about 600,000 years ago, and some scientists believe a supervolcano, not an asteroid impact, is responsible for killing the dinosaurs (4).
A Yellowstone super-eruption would have catastrophic consequences for the United States and a dire outlook for the rest of the world. The initial explosion would kill 87,000 people instantly, with vast amounts of ash and rock being catapulted into the atmosphere and into the Jetstream.
The earth would be plunged into darkness and the world’s food supply would be drastically affected. The world would most certainly be changed as a result of a supervolcano erupting, but the chances of the human race surviving are still relatively high – albeit in a reduced capacity to that of today.
Despite this grim outlook, there’s no need to panic just yet. The next super eruption could be well over 100,000 years away.
end of the world predictions
The Asteroid Impact
Already mentioned above in relation to what killed the dinosaurs, an asteroid impact is next on our list of potential Earth destroyers.
Many scientists believe the dinosaurs became extinct after a massive 10km wide asteroid collided with the Earth at what is now the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico about 65 million years ago (5).
There is a lot of evidence supporting this theory, not least of which is the Chicxulub crater itself at the site of impact. More than 110 miles in diameter, the crater is proof that something massive must have collided with the Earth in order to leave behind such an enormous crater.
Other evidence such as the “KT Boundary”, a thin layer of rock found all over the world in exposed areas is estimated to be 65 million years old and contains large amounts of iridium – a rare substance here on Earth. This layer sits on top of a layer of “spherules”, tiny balls of vaporized rock which were created in the huge explosion when the asteroid hit.
If such an event were to happen again, it’s a pretty safe bet that most of humanity would be wiped out. Maybe not all immediately, but with the after-affects being felt for hundreds and maybe thousands of years, our civilization would be toast.
end of the world predictions
Is Nuclear War a Threat Anymore?
From that cheery thought, let’s turn our attention to another scenario that used to sit high on the list of potential killers; all out nuclear war.
Gone are the days when East and West faced up to each other with thousands of nuclear warheads, with only the threat of mutually assured destruction (MAD) preventing that fateful touch of a button. Or are they?
The United States has 8000 nuclear missiles in their arsenal, with over 2000 of them active and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Not to be outdone, Russia has over 10000 at their disposal, with 1800 missiles active and ready to launch (6).
Add the nuclear arsenals of the UK, China, France, India, Pakistan and Israel to the mix, then we see the threat of all-out nuclear war hasn’t disappeared at all. It is still there, still a danger and still a potential human catastrophe just waiting to happen.
One just has to hope that MAD will continue to keep the madness at bay. A nuclear winter is not the kind to be snuggling up in front of the fire with happy thoughts about playing in the snow with the children…
With super volcanoes, asteroid hits and nuclear war currently the front runners in the race to see what could end life on earth first, what other potential threats to our very existence might we face?
end of the world
The Dreaded Super-Virus and Extra-Terrestrials
Films such as “I am Legend”, “Outbreak” and “Contagion” have made popular the idea that the human race could be wiped out by an as-yet undiscovered super virus.
The thought is a scary one, but we need not worry just yet. While some viruses are deadly and certainly reason to be afraid of catching them, not one single virus has a 100% mortality rate (so far!).
In order for us to become extinct, an ELE virus would have to kill everyone it came into contact with. It would have to do it quickly too. A virus in the wild usually undergoes several mutations and given enough time, scientists are likely to come up with an antidote to the bug.
No end of the world scenario would be complete without an appearance by the evil extra-terrestrials. The threat of alien annihilation has been extremely popular in fiction ever since the War of the World’s radio broadcast in 1938, but just how realistic is a threat from outer space?
No evidence exists to suggest alien invasion is something we should be preparing for. On the contrary, if an alien civilization had the technology to travel the vast distances needed in order to reach our corner of the galaxy, you can be pretty sure they would have the technology to render us obsolete without us ever knowing what hit us.
If I were a psychotic ET hell-bent on destroying humanity, I would probably do it by burning off all of the air in the atmosphere, or steering an asteroid or two in our direction. One thing is for sure, they wouldn’t need to mount an invasion force to land on Earth and subjugate us beneath their intergalactic boots, à la Independence Day.
What would be the point? It’s not necessary and it certainly isn’t an efficient use of time or resources.
If we do have extra-terrestrial neighbours then, it’s probably best to hope that if they do come and pay us a visit, it’s only for a social call. If it isn’t, well, we would never know anyway. It will all be over in a flash!
References & Image Credits:
(4) CNN Blogs
(5) BBC
(7) National Geographic
Originally published on
• Another great article loved the alien stuff.
• You might like to add nanotechnology and so called “grey mass” of self-replicators.
― Christopher Hitchens
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What it means to be “Held”
This song popped into my head around 2am recently, while having a conversation with a very close friend. Anxiety over major life decisions, demons of past mistakes and sorrows, and constant “come to Jesus” moments with oneself can sometimes morph into lack of sleep. During this conversation I was asked, why would being “held” make it different?
To elaborate, I had insinuated that having someone next to me, in the middle of the night when the demons are at their worst, could and would suddenly calm that anxiety and fear that I was so desperately trying to escape. So why did I think being “held” would have such a difference? It was a simple question, with what seemed like a very simple answer, why sure wouldn’t anyone feel less fear if someone else was next to them during the bad times, just feeling that human presence tends to make a huge difference, to pretty much anyone. Why else do husbands hold the hands of their wives painfully giving birth, or a cancer patient hold the hand of a loved one while getting their chemo treatments?
Sure I could have fired back the simple answer of “human presence tends to calm fears and pain.”
However my immediate response was not that, I immediately thought of this song, even though I hadn’t heard it in quite some time. Being “Held” has such a bigger meaning, and this song portrays that beautifully.
“Who told us, we’d be rescued? What has changed and why should be be saved, from nightmares? To us who have died to live?”
I’m touched over and over by the power in those words, how can anyone miss the meaning to that kind of being held? To us who have died to live, such a morbid thought, or is it?
Anyone who’s lost a very, very dear loved one knows that a piece of them dies with that person, and the demons you deal with in the aftermath stay with you for years, for forever… This is “how it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life, and you survive.” The word torn is huge, when you think of something being torn, you think of it being ripped apart, how accurate an adjective for the description of the demons that haunt someone who’s survived the loss of a loved one.
Why are those demons worse at night? Again in the words of the song “This hand is bitterness, we want to taste it, let the hatred numb our sorrow.”
The demons of hatred and bitterness are not ones easily defeated, and they somehow grow 10 feet taller over you in the shadows of darkness. Without the presence of another human being, maybe even at times with the presence of another human being we are faced with loneliness and emptiness that was left with that piece of us that died to live.
The clinching question is then, Will that simple presence of having someone else hold you simply rescue you from the nightmares? Maybe for a few minutes, but ultimately, this is what it means to be Held:
“This is what it is to be loved, and to know, that the promise was, when everything fell, we’d be held.”
When everything fell, we’d be held….what is the real interpretation of that? Faith. Plain, simple, period, the end.
I’m becoming devoted to making it count, for the sake of the future man that I have been blessed to raise. I want him to grow up knowing the feeling of being “Held.” Not by me, not physically at least. But to be Held by the greater power of a Faith that will not let you fail, no matter what falls apart. Because that’s just it, no matter who you are, or what you have, things will fall apart, you will lose someone, but if you can believe in the Faith that you will be “Held” through those times, you can find the strength inside of yourself to survive those times, to rise above them.
Yes being physically “held” is something that cannot be replaced, it’s born in us, it’s why infants are placed immediately on the chest and in the arms of their mothers after being born. But as that infant grows, changes into an adult themselves, should they not also be reminded that even when those arms aren’t there, because they might not always be, that they will still be “held?”
That is what I want my son to grow up knowing, that “hope is born out of suffering” that no matter where I am, or what path his life leads him down, that he will always be “held” by having Faith.
That’s making it count in my book.
Why does it sometimes take us just oh so long to be so grateful for what we have, and just be content with that?
I found this song while I was pregnant with my precious Jack, and haven’t really listened to it since, but it popped up on my iPod tonight and my breath was taken away yet again. “You came from Heaven,” “the beating heart inside of me,” the words that inspire me about this go on.
Hearing this, while watching my son Jack silently play and talk to his cars on the living room floor moved me to tears. It was not so long ago that he was just a beating heart inside of me, and now he’s a precious little man who can call to me when he’s hurt, or excited or sad. He’s going to slowly grow into a man at my fingertips, and how quickly am I to take for granted how each and every moment I have with him is just not enough, because forever with him would not be long enough.
You see, my life didn’t count before him, I aimlessly wondered for years until out of the blue I was suddenly blessed with this life that I so little deserved, and out of the worst circumstances… Who assumes there life will be found, and complete because of a one night stand? Probably not many. Mine was. Out of a terrible deed I got the most beautiful gift. No one can ever tell me that an unwholesome act can’t be redeemed. Mine was. I now have the most beautiful, smart, energetic, entertaining, precious gift anyone could ever ask for.
That beating heart inside of me that grew out of what I thought was a bad decision, is now the entire reason that I intend to make my life count every day. Because in the words of the bridge of this song, they completely describe how I want my son to grow up seeing and experiencing the world, and without my guidance, my presence, my happiness, and my devotion to making life count, he may miss it all. Here are the words that now inspire me to be a better mother, and should inspire us all:
“I hope your tears are few and fast, I hope your dreams come true and last, I hope you find that love goes on and on and on and on, I hope you wish on every star, I hope you never fall to far, I hope this world can see how wonderful you are…” | <urn:uuid:f6174150-2c7e-4380-8a57-f6e47e20a263> | https://ambermakingitcount.wordpress.com/ | en | 0.975827 | 0.352505 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
FOSS Education/Research using FOSS
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FOSS Education
Traditionally, academic research is carried out in an open manner where the publication of research findings is preceded by a peer review process.All of the assumptions, calculations and experiments that lead to the results are scrutinized before the findings are accepted by journals for publication. The researchers do not usually acquire ownership of their findings and discoveries and they are expected to publish these.
Computer software is often used not only in Computer Science and ICT research but also in research in many other fields. "However, scientists rarely make their software available to other scientists for scrutiny-and even if they did, they often used closed-source programs in which the underlying source code is protected by copyright and trade secrecy claims. But this practice strikes at the heart of science, namely, the notion of verifiability. To be accepted as valid, all calculations and assumptions that go into a given scientific assumption must be open to public scrutiny. Yet closed-source software makes such scrutiny impossible."[1]
In contrast, the open philosophy of FOSS is entirely consistent with the process of academic research since the source code of the software is also available for examination. Researchers should use FOSS as a tool in their work as far as possible. Bryan Pfaffenberger goes further to argue that "It's not enough for scientists to use open-source software; they must also use an open-source operating system."[2]
As mentioned earlier, Free/Open Source programming languages, database systems, spreadsheet software and other applications that can be used for computations and data analysis in research are available. More specialized FOSS is also available. Some important examples are presented here:
Many research papers in physics and mathematics are written using LaTeX.
Numerical Math[edit]
Numerical algorithms are applied to compute approximate solutions for problems where exact solutions are unknown or difficult to obtain. The output of numerical algorithms usually consists of many numbers, that represent variables of interest at different points in time or space.
Numerical values, that somehow belong together, are usually represented as arrays. Matrices and vectors from linear algebra and tensors can be conveniently expressed as arrays. Nearly all numerical algorithms are therefore written in terms of arrays.
Array Manipulation and Prototyping of Algorithms[edit]
Numerical algorithms are frequently developed with easy-to-learn, interpreted programming languages. These languages feature built-in array and matrix objects. They come with a big variety of subroutines for numerical computing, the creation of high quality graphics, and file input-output. Their ease of use results in a high development speed, that compensates their relatively slow speed of execution.
Missing: short capabilities
The interpreted languages mentioned here, are themselves 20 - 100 times slower than compiled languages (C, C++, Fortran). However the numerical subroutines are written in a compiled language and execute fast. Therefore from a certain matrix size on, the speed penalty of the interpreted languages becomes less pronounced. Time critical parts of an algorithm can also be written in a compiled language, which is reasonably easy. The speed comparisons here [1], [2] show a 5 - 10 times speed penalty, for a simple finite difference algorithm. The test here [3] compares the performance of linear algebra routines.
Matlab - Proprietary and Wide Spread[edit]
The standard in this field is the proprietary language Matlab. The language is specialized for array manipulation. The documentation is good and very extensive; it is also available online [4].
Matlab is proprietary software. It is sold as a base package and many separate toolboxes, that cost extra. Pricing information (commercial license, one user, country USA, November 2007): 1900$ for the base language, toolboxes range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. There are academic discounts.
For a longer discussion of the language itself: look at the almost identical Octave language.
Scilab is a special purpose language for matrix manipulation. The syntax is similar to the Matlab language but not identical. It comes with a very large collection of packages to solve problems from many scientific disciplines.
Since version 5, Scilab is free software, distributed under the CeCILL license. [5] [6]
Someone with knowledge of Scilab: Please expand this section!
Octave is a free clone of the proprietary Matlab language. It is a special purpose language for array manipulation, and the syntax is very well suited for the task. The language has operators for both elementwise and linear algebra operations. It is also easy to learn. Octave is only the core of Matlab, toolboxes are separate projects and many do not yet exist. The most common algorithms however do exist.
The documentation is fairly good. There exists a tutorial [7].
It is very easy to write extension modules for Octave in C++, C and Fortran. (Easier than for Python.) Octave comes with a C++ library for matrix manipulation, that is also used internally [8].
Octave has no (only obscure) object orientation. So organizing big projects is difficult.
Because Octave is a special purpose language it is very difficult to do something which is outside of Octave's domain. A frequently encountered problem is reading odd file formats. Octave has no good string processing facilities nor an XML reader. Graphical user interfaces would have to be written in a different language.
Octave does not come with an IDE, but many editors can do syntax coloring for the (identical) Matlab language. There is also an Emacs mode for Octave[9], which is very powerful; but only useful for people who like the, rather special, Emacs[10] editor.
Numpy, Scipy, Matplotlib[edit]
Numpy, Scipy and Matplotlib are libraries for the Python programming language. Together they give Python the capabilities of a numerical prototyping language.
• Numpy provides the array object and all basic array and matrix functionality.
• Scipy is a collection of scientific algorithms (many from Netlib) with a Python wrapper.
• Matplotlib provides 2D (and very simple 3D) plotting capabilities.
Python[11] is an object-oriented, general purpose, programming language. Nevertheless Python is very easy to learn, and Python programs are easy to understand. It has a large standard library.
R supports a wide variety of statistical and numerical techniques. It is also highly extensible through the use of packages, which are user-submitted libraries for specific functions or specific areas of study. Due to its S heritage, R has stronger object-oriented programming facilities than most statistical computing languages. Extending R is also eased by its permissive lexical scoping rules.
Although R is mostly used by statisticians and other practitioners requiring an environment for statistical computation and software development, it can also be used as a general matrix calculation toolbox with comparable benchmark results to GNU Octave and its proprietary counterpart, MATLAB (version < 7).
GNU Scientific Library[edit]
GNU Scientific Library
Object-Oriented Numerics[edit]
Object-Oriented Numerics
Symbolic Math (Computer Algebra Systems)[edit]
Symbolic math is formula manipulation, like you would do with pen and paper. (At least from an engineer's perspective.) Computer algebra systems (CAS) can for example: simplify expressions, derive, integrate, or solve systems of equations.
Maple, Mathematica - Proprietary[edit]
Wellknown proprietary packages are Maple and Mathematica. Both packages are very comprehensive, but useful for a general public. They both have good graphical user interfaces. They are very expensive, but there are student discounts.
Maxima is a powerful CAS and can compete with Maple and Mathematica. It lacks however a good graphical front end.
Graphical frontends:
• [12] List of mathematical software from the Maxima people.
• [13] Very big list of symbolical math software on Wikipedia
Bioinformatics, in general, is the use of computers to handle biological information. It is the use of computers to characterize the molecular components of living things (computational molecular biology).The most prominent achievement of bioinformatics is the Human Genome Project, an attempt to map the complete set of human genes. A tremendous amount of data needs to be handled in molecular biology and this is clearly possible only with the aid of computers and software.
FOSS features prominently in bioinformatics. Ewan [3] argues that "open source makes sense because it follows good and well-known scientific principles. Traditionally, scientific practice has involved openly sharing and discussing results, and providing enough information to allow third-party confirmation of results. Clearly open source software fits well into this model."The second reason for using FOSS is that the "actual data matters much more than the tools used to process it." Sharing the software used to conduct research reduces duplication of effort to develop the software.
The Bioinformatics Organization, Inc. ( ) was founded in 1999 to facilitate worldwide communications and collaborations in bioinformatics research and to provide free and open access to methods and materials in such work. Its website hosts extensive resources, including software and databases, and provides a forum for activities that facilitate the development of such resources
High-end Computing[edit]
GNU/Linux and FOSS have been used in projects to provide affordable high-end computing capabilities. This is done by combining the processing power of multiple low-cost servers and workstations into a system that can deliver supercomputer power. According to Cook, " The reason these systems are so effective is that there are a great many very big, very complicated problems that naturally break down into a bunch of iterations of the same, much simpler, problem. That describes everything from forecasting the weather to doing computer animation."[4]
Beowulf is the name of the architecture used for building a massively parallel system constructed out of commercially available PCs. The computers used for building the system can be 486 systems, Pentium systems and Alpha computers; the computers need not be homogeneous. Even old PCs that would otherwise be discarded can be used to build such a system. In Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, the Stone SuperComputer was built using a combination of old PCs connected together using a standard Ethernet network and was used to solve a mapping problem.[5] The system has a theoretical peak performance of 1.2 gigaflops (FLOPS stands for floating point operations per second. It is used as an approximate measure of computing speed. A gigaflops is one billion FLOPS).
Another example is the supercomputer launched by the State University of New York, which consists of over 2,000 computers running GNU/Linux to conduct drug research to combat cancer, Alzheimer 's disease and AIDS.
1. Pfaffenberger, B., "Linux in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Minds, Social Justice", Linux Journal, March 02 2000; available from .
3. Stewart,B.,"Ewan Birney's Keynote: A Case for Open Source Bioinformatics",O'Reilly Network, 2002; available from
4. Cook, R.,"Supercomputers on the cheap", April 2000; available from .
5. Hargrove,W.W.,Hoffman, F. M. and Sterling,T., "The Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer", Scientific,August 16, 2001; available from | <urn:uuid:d6b810ed-28de-4da2-9c2d-dfe6c67bbfbb> | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Education/Research_using_FOSS | en | 0.917651 | 0.143339 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Latest commit bd1efaf Feb 26, 2016 Boris Yonchev committed with lcobucci DDC-2780 - Fixed issue with IS NULL on join aliases
Running the Doctrine 2 Testsuite
Setting up a PHPUnit Configuration XML
Testing Lock-Support
The Lock support in Doctrine 2 is tested using Gearman, which allows to run concurrent tasks in parallel. Install Gearman with PHP as follows:
1. Go to and download the latest Gearman Server
2. Compile it and then call ldconfig
3. Start it up "gearmand -vvvv"
4. Install pecl/gearman by calling "gearman-beta"
You can then go into tests/ and start up two workers:
php Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Locking/LockAgentWorker.php
Then run the locking test-suite:
phpunit --configuration <myconfig.xml> Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Locking/GearmanLockTest.php
This can run considerable time, because it is using sleep() to test for the timing ranges of locks. | <urn:uuid:800d0c29-fcb7-44a6-9fb7-08064019a1c4> | https://github.com/doctrine/doctrine2/tree/master/tests | en | 0.768322 | 0.026496 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
KKR and Citigroup form off-balance-sheet vehicle
Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by ASusilovic, Oct 2, 2007.
1. Source : http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2007/10/02/7750/while-citi-teams-up-with-kkr/
KKR and Citigroup are understood to have agreed to form an off-balance-sheet vehicle with about $5bn of equity and $10bn of debt to buy impaired loans, which could include some from Citiâs investment bank. The joint venture brings together the private equity firm responsible for some of the biggest leveraged buyouts in the run-up to the credit crunch and the bank that agreed to finance many of those deals. The vehicle could allow Citi to sell some leveraged buyout debt, which it has underwritten but is struggling to syndicate, as well as other troubled loans.
Off-balance ? Seems cleaning team is in action... :D
2. The people doing the cleaning had better be wearing bio-hazard clothing. The eventual accounting problem with this will be what are the loans really worth?
3. Banksâ willingness to lend (i.e. supply of credit) is set to take a hit as a result of the recent turbulence in financial markets. Critically, the shutdown of asset-backed commercial paper markets has meant that the SIVs set up by the banks to offload loans from their balance sheets have lost their primary source of funding. Banks, facing the prospect of either opening huge credit lines to their SIVs or worse still bringing them back onto the balance sheet, have hoarded liquidity.
On top of this, with demand for asset-backed securities highly diminished, banks have been unable to securitise their recent loans, eating into their capital and preventing them from generating the huge fees that such securitisation brings. In this way, with the prospect that such SIVs will have to be brought back onto the balance sheet and also unsure of their exposure to losses on some ABSs, banks will be unable to originate loans even if policy rates start coming down.
4. Well, I think so, too. With 5,2 % global growth rate, I should not care. But couple of days ago, I read a research paper putting seriously into question my assumption :
The data out of Euroland has been rather poor of late â the latest was
a plunge in the regionâs purchasing managersâ diffusion index to 54.5 in
September from 57.4 in August, which was the steepest decline since
October/01. The worldâs second largest economy, Japan, just came off a negative
second quarter GDP print. Canada just reported a sharp 0.8% slide in July retail
sales â the second decline in a row. The Mexican Finance Ministry just cut its
2007 GDP growth projection to 3% from 3.3%. When you add Americaâs NAFTA
and G-7 trading partners, where growth is now slowing, they represent 60% of US
exports. The BRICs may still be booming, but they account for less than 10% of
US exports and only about 1% of US GDP, for that matter. So, the view out there
that a BRICs boom will be enough to offset a slowing in US consumer spending
and a sustained turndown in the housing market â which represent 75% of US
GDP â seems to hopelessly optimistic. The numbers just arenât there. | <urn:uuid:9e054be8-75d6-491b-be69-de3ebbe6a93e> | https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/kkr-and-citigroup-form-off-balance-sheet-vehicle.105541/ | en | 0.966141 | 0.035519 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Full text of "Sri Sai Baba`S:Charters And Sayings"
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along the line of making money or whatever it is.
Everything is made to subserve that end, and I think
we ought to be just as earnest along cftir lines; but
somehow people do not find that so^easy as the other.
It should be easier, because that is the real feeling of
the ego, there is no question about that. It is only
that the ego gets so clouded, so hidden behind the
personality. So let us say: <( How can each circum-
stance be used for the work ? " That must always be
the first consideration, not: " What do I feel ? Do
I like or dislike that person ? " That is not the point.
What can be best done to serve the work^, that should
be the one idea.
It was said here in the beginning that if love is
strong enough in a man it makes him acquire all
other qualities. New you know how that works. It
makes people act according to their power to acty
which, of course, varies very much. Take one of the
very best and most useful examples, mother-love. Let
us see how that operates among aC savage race. The
mother-savage does not k6ow mucn1. She is very ignor-
ant, but at least she is prepared to defend her child, to
fight for him, and even if necessary to sacrifice her own
life in his defence. The civilised mother among
ourselves would do just the same thing, in the same
circumstances; but these circumstances do not as a
rule arise. Now and again they do. You hear of
a mother losing her life in saving her baby from a
burning house, or more often sacrificing her life in | <urn:uuid:798e7f26-b748-4d54-8469-c468a2b84cc4> | http://archive.org/stream/SriSaiBabasChartersAndSayings/TXT/00000522.txt | en | 0.962464 | 0.021454 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Monday, November 21, 2011
..I run..Sometimes I hide..sometimes I'm scared of you...but all...oh wait no. This post wasn't supposed to be Britney Spears lyrics. It's almost impossible for me to start off a sentence with sometimes and NOT sing those lyrics.
Sometimes..I just want to say all the weird and often less-than-nice things that pop into my head. Obviously, I'm not going to otherwise no one would like me and everyone would hate me and I would have to go eat worms. But really.. If other people can make ridiculous status updates on facebook about the most personal details of their lives or the out-there idears they have..why can't I just blurt out my humble opinions? Hmm? And by blurt out, I mean comment on their post and add a lot of exclamation points.
I've run into this problem on Pinterest lately where I want to make a pinboard of all the ugly and dumb things I see on Pinterest. But then someone is going to follow that board and think that I like those things unless they look at the board name, which come on, how often do any of us do that. So yeah.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Halloween was just a couple days ago and of course Ben and I joined our friends the Hamms and carved pumpkins and watched scary(mostly silly) movies and had tons of fun! Melissa posted all about our adventures and put pictures up too! Check out their blog here!
Hope everyone had an excellent Halloween! | <urn:uuid:5c4f7b88-8090-4f80-9be9-4786584d452b> | http://benandkelsiebeth.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html | en | 0.971276 | 0.027418 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Bill Totten's Weblog
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Cuba's Cure
Why is Cuba exporting its health care miracle to the world's poor?
by Sarah van Gelder
YES! Magazine Summer 2007 Issue: Latin America Rising
Cubans say they offer health care to the world's poor because they have big hearts. But what do they get in return?
They live longer than almost anyone in Latin America. Far fewer babies die. Almost everyone has been vaccinated, and such scourges of the poor as parasites, TB, malaria, even HIV/AIDS are rare or non-existent. Anyone can see a doctor, at low cost, right in the neighborhood.
The story of Cuba's health care ambitions is largely hidden from the people of the United States, where politics left over from the Cold War maintain an embargo on information and understanding. But it is increasingly well-known in the poorest communities of Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa where Cuban and Cuban-trained doctors are practicing.
In the words of Dr Paul Farmer, Cuba is showing that "you can introduce the notion of a right to health care and wipe out the diseases of poverty".
Health Care for All Cubans
Many elements of the health care system Cuba is exporting around the world are common-sense practices. Everyone has access to doctors, nurses, specialists, and medications. There is a doctor and nurse team in every neighborhood, although somewhat fewer now, with 29,000 medical professionals serving out of the country - a fact that is causing some complaints. If someone doesn't like their neighborhood doctor, they can choose another one.
House calls are routine, in part because it's the responsibility of the doctor and nurse team to understand you and your health issues in the context of your family, home, and neighborhood. This is key to the system. By catching diseases and health hazards before they get big, the Cuban medical system can spend a little on prevention rather than a lot later on to cure diseases, stop outbreaks, or cope with long-term disabilities. When a health hazard like dengue fever or malaria is identified, there is a coordinated nationwide effort to eradicate it. Cubans no longer suffer from diphtheria, rubella, polio, or measles and they have the lowest AIDS rate in the Americas, and the highest rate of treatment and control of hypertension.
For health issues beyond the capacity of the neighborhood doctor, polyclinics provide specialists, outpatient operations, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and labs. Those who need inpatient treatment can go to hospitals; at the end of their stay, their neighborhood medical team helps make the transition home. Doctors at all levels are trained to administer acupuncture, herbal cures, or other complementary practices that Cuban labs have found effective. And Cuban researchers develop their own vaccinations and treatments when medications aren't available due to the blockade, or when they don't exist.
Exporting Health Care
For decades, Cuba has sent doctors abroad and trained international students at its medical schools. But things ramped up beginning in 1998 when Hurricanes George and Mitch hammered Central America and the Caribbean. As they had often done, Cuban doctors rushed to the disaster zone to help those suffering the aftermath. But when it was time to go home, it was clear to the Cuban teams that the medical needs extended far beyond emergency care. So Cuba made a commitment to post doctors in several of these countries and to train local people in medicine so they could pick up where the Cuban doctors left off. ELAM, the Havana-based Latin American School of Medicine, was born, and with it the offer of 10,000 scholarships for free medical training.
Today the program has grown to 22,000 students from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the United States who attend ELAM and 28 other medical schools across Cuba. The students represent dozens of ethnic groups, 51 percent are women, and they come from more than thirty countries. What they have in common is that they would otherwise be unable to get a medical education. When a slum dweller in Port au Prince, a young indigenous person from Bolivia, the son or daughter of a farmer in Honduras, or a street vendor in the Gambia wants to become a doctor, they turn to Cuba. In some cases, Venezuela pays the bill. But most of the time, Cuba covers tuition, living expenses, books, and medical care. In return, the students agree that, upon completion of their studies, they will return to their own under-served communities to practice medicine.
The curriculum at ELAM begins, for most students, with up to a year of "bridging" courses, allowing them to catch up on basic math, science, and Spanish skills. The students are treated for the ailments many bring with them.
At the end of their training, which can take up to eight years, most students return home for residencies. Although they all make a verbal commitment to serve the poor, a few students quietly admit that they don't see this as a permanent commitment.
One challenge of the Cuban approach is making sure their investment in medical education benefits those who need it most. Doctors from poor areas routinely move to wealthier areas or out of the country altogether. Cuba trains doctors in an ethic of serving the poor. They learn to see medical care as a right, not as a commodity, and to see their own role as one of service. Stories of Cuban doctors who practice abroad suggest these lessons stick. They are known for taking money out of their own pockets to buy medicine for patients who can't afford to fill a prescription, and for touching and even embracing patients.
Cuba plans with the help of Venezuela to take their medical training to a massive scale and graduate 100,000 doctors over the next fifteen years, according to Dr Juan Ceballos, advisor to the vice minister of public health. To do so, Cuba has been building new medical schools around the country and abroad, at a rapid clip.
But the scale of the effort required to address current and projected needs for doctors requires breaking out of the box. The new approach is medical schools without walls. Students meet their teachers in clinics and hospitals, in Cuba and abroad, practicing alongside their mentors. Videotaped lectures and training software mean students can study anywhere there are Cuban doctors. The lower training costs make possible a scale of medical education that could end the scarcity of doctors.
US Students in Cuba
Recently, Cuba extended the offer of free medical training to students from the United States. It started when Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi got curious after he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus repeatedly encountered Cuban or Cuban-trained doctors in poor communities around the world.
They visited Cuba in May 2000, and during a conversation with Fidel Castro, Thompson brought up the lack of medical access for his poor, rural constituents. "He [Castro] was very familiar with the unemployment rates, health conditions, and infant mortality rates in my district, and that surprised me", Thompson said. Castro offered scholarships for low-income Americans under the same terms as the other international students - they have to agree to go back and serve their communities.
Today, about ninety young people from poor parts of the United States have joined the ranks of international students studying medicine in Cuba.
The offer of medical training is just one way Cuba has reached out to the United States. Immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 1,500 Cuban doctors volunteered to come to the Gulf Coast. They waited with packed bags and medical supplies, and a ship ready to provide backup support. Permission from the US government never arrived.
"Our government played politics with the lives of people when they needed help the most", said Representative Thompson. "And that's unfortunate".
When an earthquake struck Pakistan shortly afterwards, though, that country's government warmly welcomed the Cuban medical professionals. And 2,300 came, bringing 32 field hospitals to remote, frigid regions of the Himalayas. There, they set broken bones, treated ailments, and performed operations for a total of 1.7 million patients.
The disaster assistance is part of Cuba's medical aid mission that has extended from Peru to Indonesia, and even included caring for 17,000 children sickened by the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine.
It isn't only in times of disaster that Cuban health care workers get involved. Some 29,000 Cuban health professionals are now practicing in 69 countries - mostly in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. In Venezuela, about 20,000 of them have enabled President Hugo Cha'vez to make good on his promise to provide health care to the poor. In the shantytowns around Caracas and the banks of the Amazon, those who organize themselves and find a place for a doctor to practice and live can request a Cuban doctor.
As in Cuba, these doctors and nurses live where they serve, and become part of the community. They are available for emergencies, and they introduce preventative health practices.
Some are tempted to use their time abroad as an opportunity to leave Cuba. In August, the US Department of Homeland Security announced a new policy that makes it easier for Cuban medical professionals to come to the US. But the vast majority remain on the job and eventually return to Cuba.
Investing in Peace
How do the Cuban people feel about using their country's resources for international medical missions? Those I asked responded with some version of this: We Cubans have big hearts. We are proud that we can share what we have with the world's poor.
Nearly everyone in Cuba knows someone who has served on a medical mission. These doctors encounter maladies that have been eradicated from Cuba. They expand their understanding of medicine and of the suffering associated with poverty and powerlessness, and they bring home the pride that goes with making a difference.
And pride is a potent antidote to the dissatisfaction that can result from the economic hardships that continue fifty years into Cuba's revolution.
From the government's perspective, their investment in medical internationalism is covered, in part, by ALBA, the new trade agreement among Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba. ALBA, an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, puts human needs ahead of economic growth, so it isn't surprising that Cuba's health care offerings fall within the agreement, as does Venezuelan oil, Bolivian natural gas, and so on. But Cuba also offers help to countries outside of ALBA.
"All we ask for in return is solidarity", Dr Ceballos says.
"Solidarity" has real-world implications. Before Cuba sent doctors to Pakistan, relations between the two countries were not great, Ceballos says. But now the relationship is "magnificent". The same is true of Guatemala and El Salvador. "Although they are conservative governments, they have become more flexible in their relationship with Cuba", he says.
Those investments in health care missions "are resources that prevent confrontation with other nations", Ceballos explains. "The solidarity with Cuba has restrained aggressions of all kinds". And in a statement that acknowledges Cuba's vulnerabilities on the global stage, Ceballos puts it this way: "It's infinitely better to invest in peace than to invest in war".
Imagine, then, that this idea took hold. Even more revolutionary than the right to health care for all is the idea that an investment in health - or in clean water, adequate food or housing - could be more powerful, more effective at building security than bombers and aircraft carriers.
Sarah van Gelder, executive editor of YES!, was in Cuba (legally) in December 2006 visiting medical schools, clinics, and hospitals. Her travel was supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies, and MEDICC provided program consulting.
Salud! Cuba's Global Health Mission
The film Salud! follows Cuban doctors to Honduras, Venezuela, the Gambia, and other poor countries where they offer medical care and training. The ninety-minute documentary also tells of the thousands of international medical students studying in Cuba, and what it means to their communities when they return. Visit: or read about Salud! at .
MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba), distributes Salud! and supports international medical students and graduates trained in Cuba who are returning to under-served areas to practice medicine. MEDICC publishes MEDICC Review, a peer-reviewed journal on Cuban medical and public health, and Cuba Health Reports, an online news service, and assists US health professionals exploring the Cuban public health experience.
A vaccine with proven effectiveness against Meningitis B was developed in Cuba in the 1980s. Since then, 55 million doses have been administered in Cuba and other countries. But not in the US, where outbreaks still kill children. Dr Robert Fortner, MD, wanted to find out why. His findings are at:
Bill Totten
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<< Home | <urn:uuid:6401fde6-3666-41cd-b87f-ca9e70ebedca> | http://billtotten.blogspot.com/2007/06/cubas-cure.html | en | 0.964754 | 0.084799 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Monday, December 1, 2008
Advent Calendar for Little Bibliophiles
One of the things I like about my parish is that every so often they'll permit Catholic booksellers to display their wares outside the church for people to browse through after Mass. This makes Catholic Bibliophagist very happy because no matter how many mail order catalogs she receives in the mail, there is nothing like flipping through an actual copy of a book to help her decide whether or not to buy it. (This is especially true for children's books. Sometimes a nicely illustrated picture book is spoiled by a really lame rhyming text.)
Here is a picture of an Advent calendar which I bought for my grandchildren who already show signs of becoming bibliophibians. Inside are twenty-four tiny books (1.5 " x 1.5" -- Ooo, so cute!), one for each day before Christmas starting on December 1st. Each features a Bible story, prayer or song and has a gold cord attached so that they can also serve as Christmas tree ornaments.
I didn't want to rip the shrink wrap off before mailing it, so I haven't actually read the text. (Please don't let it be lame!) But it's got an imprimatur, so there's a sporting chance that at least the content will be okay.
Sherwood said...
One nice thing about kids is that they have the capacity to be forgiving of lame texts if they like the rest of the content. My guess is, unless they are budding H.L. Menckens, tiny Advent Books will be a big hit.
mrsdarwin said...
Menckens they are not. We will report on text when the small phibians open their treat this evening.
mrsdarwin said...
Each book is a small bit of the salvation story. Dec. 1 was creation; last night was the Fall. They're very cute and the calendar has sweet illustrations. | <urn:uuid:9b8ec9d0-3736-45be-9c4d-69137a682868> | http://catholicbibliophagist.blogspot.com/2008/12/advent-calendar-for-little-bibliophiles.html | en | 0.964269 | 0.024527 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Thursday, November 27, 2014
National Security: Not Really
Let's just hit the highlight graf from this essay:
...The short, and painful, answer is that Snowden was far from the first bad apple to have “beaten” the [Intelligence Community]’s security clearance system, and he surely won’t be the last. Like so many things across the Federal government, and particularly the Department of Defense (DoD), a great deal of once-critical missions have been outsourced since the 1990’s, leading to gross incompetence and corruption by for-profit companies. (Outsourcing is a fully bipartisan boondoggle that nobody inside the Beltway wants to look into very deeply, since so many cash in on it, one way or the other.) In Snowden’s case, the firm that handled the collection of data for his clearances, USIS, stands accused of fraud on a truly massive scale, having simply faked 665,000 background investigations between 2008 and 2012. It’s little wonder that Snowden’s clearances were handled poorly....
The essay's summary: it's not "if", it's "when." And it's not just outsourcing contractors; it's "influential people" in Gummint (read: politicians) whose ne'er-do-well relatives and/or big-donor's chilluns who are placed in Intel and kept there, regardless of warning signs or conclusive evidence that they should be shot at dawn.
Think a (R) Congress will fix it? | <urn:uuid:f4767ea1-f2e9-48af-ae03-4be6b5791698> | http://dad29.blogspot.com/2014/11/national-security-not-really.html | en | 0.955806 | 0.088916 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Israel Doesn't Need a President
The end of Shimon Peres's term in July would be an excellent opportunity to abolish the Israeli presidency. It's a largely ceremonial position that costs taxpayers a lot of money. Sure, almost all parliamentary democracies have a separate head of state, either a monarch (e.g., the UK and the Netherlands) or a president (e.g., Ireland and Italy), but just because it's a common practice doesn't mean every country has to follow the same model.
If it were up to me, I would have a three-member presidency. The prime minister, speaker of the Knesset, and the Chief Justice, the heads of the three branches of government, would be co-Heads of State. Some presidential duties would be shared by all three, like signing bills into law, while other duties would be divided between them. The prime minister would be in charge of the more executive aspects of the presidency, such as signing the credentials of Israeli diplomats and receiving the credentials of foreign ambassadors. The speaker of the Knesset would officially appoint the prime minister, comptroller and other positions elected by parliament. The Chief Justice could be in charge of pardons and commutations.
Of course, none of this will happen. Politicians like the idea of the presidency too much. Some of them dream of being elected to the position. For even more of them, having another office they have the power to elect, especially when it is the most prestigious one in the country, makes them feel all the more important.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Roger Cohen Sees the Real Goals of BDS
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Roger Cohen says what I've been saying all along about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement:
"I do not trust the B.D.S. movement. Its stated aim is to end the occupation, secure “full equality” for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and fight for the right of return of all Palestinian refugees. The first objective is essential to Israel’s future. The second is laudable. The third, combined with the second, equals the end of Israel as a Jewish state. This is the hidden agenda of B.D.S., its unacceptable subterfuge: beguile, disguise and suffocate." | <urn:uuid:35ee7782-a41c-41c5-8a70-8c0a691b8499> | http://es1982.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html | en | 0.96817 | 0.207553 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Fast FactsEssential FactsInteresting Facts
Deforestation Is Large Scale Tree Removal
Highest Deforestation Countries in World
Highest Deforestation Countries in World
Deforestation occurs when forest or trees are removed and land is re-appropriated for non-forest use. For example, if a developer decides to build a hotel and needs to chop down part of a forest for the land, he has practiced deforestation. In the past, forests have been cleared for many reasons, including farming and home building.
Clear Cutting Is a Contested Practice
Clear cutting is when part of a forest is cut down, generally to help certain wildlife prosper or to support a certain type of ecosystem. It is sometimes seen as controversial because while opponents see it as different from deforestation, those who practice it do not.
Deforestation Can Result in Fuel, Timber and Land
Deforestation facts show that trees are sometimes cut down to be made into fuel or to be used as timber. Sometimes deforestation occurs so that land can be used as a pasture or a farm. In urban and suburban areas, trees may be removed to allow for more housing and shopping centers.
Lack of Conservation Can Lead to Deforestation
When governments don’t actively create and enforce laws to curb deforestation, it can go unchecked as people attempt to make money by developing land or selling timber for building or fuel. Some governments take an active role in curbing deforestation by enforcing limits and protecting forests and green spaces.
Deforestation Affects Animals and Land
Deforestation Affects Animals
Deforestation Affects Animals
Deforestation negatively affects ecosystems and the environment. Deforestation facts indicate that not only are trees a great source of oxygen, but they are also home to many creatures. The destruction of forests can lead to land erosion and destroys habitats.
Deforestation Has Been Used as a War Tactic
Agent Orange
Agent Orange
Agent Orange is a defoliant and herbicide that has been used in at least two wars. The British first used Agent Orange to clear trees so insurgents couldn’t hide behind them. They also killed crops to decrease their enemies’ food supply. The United States, who helped develop and test different herbicides and defoliants with the British, later used Agent Orange in Vietnam.
More Than Half the World’s Animal and Plant Species Live in Forests
Tropical forests are home to more than half of all plant and land animal species. Scientists have long wondered why the rainforests have allowed for so much biodiversity. Jaguars, monkeys, platypi and tigers all call the rainforest home. They are joined by numerous other mammals, insects, reptiles, birds and amphibians that have all adapted to their unique habitats.
Agriculture Is the Biggest Cause of Deforestation
Causes of Tropical Deforestation
Causes of Tropical Deforestation
According to deforestation facts, most deforestation is due to agriculture. According to the United Nations, subsistence farming and commercial agriculture is responsible for 80% of deforestation worldwide. In order to curb the destruction of these forests, a different way to appropriate farmland must be found.
Deforestation Can Affect the Atmosphere
When we think of trees, we don’t always consider the atmosphere. However, deforestation contributes to global warming. Trees not only expel oxygen, but they take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Trees that are harvested release some of their carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global climate change.
Deforestation Reduces Water in the Atmosphere
Effects of Deforestation
Effects of Deforestation
It may be surprising to hear, but deforestation also affects the water cycle. Trees take up water from the ground through their roots. This water works up through the trunk and the leaves and is released into the atmosphere. The destruction of forests results in drier climates because the trees no longer pull the groundwater up out of the soil, leaving the soil and the atmosphere drier.
Deforestation Can Lead to Landslides and Flooding
Because of the way deforestation affects the water cycle, it can also impact the future growth of trees. Deforestation facts show that drier soil will not be as kind to new plants. It will erode more easily and be more prone to flooding and landslides. With fewer forests, the land does not retain moisture in the same way.
Destruction of Rainforests Leads to Less Biodiversity
The rainforest biome contains approximately 80% of the world’s known biodiversity. Numerous species call it home, and many of these can only be found within its leafy shelter. Unfortunately, due to high levels of deforestation more of these species face the possibility of extinction.
Chocolate, Bananas, Coffee and Sugarcane Were Originally Forest Plants
Forests have provided some well known staples that we now cultivate and farm. Chocolate, bananas, coffee and sugarcane all originally grew naturally in forests. Now they are generally grown on farms. Imagine if deforestation had destroyed these plants that have now become staples in our diets!
The Rate of Deforestation Is Contested
Deforestation Rate by Country
Deforestation Rate by Country
Deforestation facts show that scientists don’t agree on the extent of tropical deforestation. Some believe that up to 20% of the world’s rainforests were destroyed between 1960 and 1990. Others believe humans have destroyed more than half of the world’s rainforests within 50 years. If we continue at that rate, there may not be any rainforests at all by some point in the 21st century.
Amur Leopard, Elephant, Orangutans and Giant Panda Hurt by Deforestation
Deforestation in Asia has led to less biodiversity and shrinking habitats for some beautiful creatures. The Amur leopard, the Asian elephant, orangutans, and giant pandas, among others, have all been endangered by losing their homes. Conservation efforts are in place to help these species get back on track, but the outlook is not always hopeful.
Chimps, Gorillas and Rhinos Endangered in Africa Due to Deforestation
Chimps Endangered in Africa
Chimps Endangered in Africa
The destruction of African forests has altered the climate and landscape of several countries on the continent. It has also inexorably altered the lives of many mammals. Chimpanzees, gorillas and rhinos have not just lost the trees they called home or used for shelter, but have also lost the luscious plants and soil that accompanied them.
Deforestation Facts – Facts about Deforestation Summary
Deforestation FactsDeforestation is the removal of trees in order to repurpose land. Agriculture accounts for up to 80% of deforestation as forests are cleared in order to provide pasture for grazing animals or to plant other crops. Deforestation destroys the water cycle and can lead to drier land. It increases the possibility of landslides and flooding and destroys the habits of many animals and plants. Deforestation has led to many species being placed on the endangered animals list, including pandas, gorillas, orangutans, Asian elephants, and rhinos. Reforestation, sustainable forests, and forest conservation are possible solutions to this environmental dilemma. | <urn:uuid:1aa0d32d-577d-44e6-83c9-a52281ddc19a> | http://facts.net/deforestation/ | en | 0.934188 | 0.075264 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Vegan Fajita Rice Bowl
This Vegan Fajita Rice Bowl, has delicious and colorful sauteed veggies served with cilantro brown rice and protein-packed soy curls.
Vegan Fajita Rice Bowl
Preparing veggie fajita rice bowl is one of my favorite ways of enjoying Mexican food at home. It’s easy to prepare and very delicious. It is also one of those dishes that meat eaters enjoy! This version of delicious vegan fajita bowl recipe uses Soy Curls™instead of chicken. Soy curls are delicious and they are the perfect meat alternative. They are one of the healthiest on the market as well.
Soy Curls are made from whole soybeans which include all the fiber, unlike most meat alternative products on the market that are made from isolated soy protein or just many obscure ingredients, many of which are hard to pronounce. Soy curls have a texture that is similar to chicken, making it one of the best and most natural chicken alternative that I have prepared. They are also gluten-free.
I don’t prepare them often because it is not as mainstream. I recently bought a pack at a vegan restaurant while we were away in Tampa, I was so excited because I hadn’t seen it since I moved here from Ohio almost a year ago.
Soy curls can be bought directly from this company or online. You can use it as a substitute for chicken, after rehydrating it in warm water. I also include a homemade fajita seasoning mix recipe, which has none of the dangerous additives found in commercial brands.
I enjoyed it served with cilantro brown rice, and lots of veggies including bell peppers, avocados, and tomatoes. You can substitute your favorite veggies.
Vegan Fajita Rice Bowl
For: 4 people
Cilantro Brown Rice
1. Rinse rice using a fine mesh strainer,
2. Place rice in a medium pot with water, garlic and salt.
3. Bring to boil, cover pot and reduce heat to low. Meanwhile, prepare Veggie Fajita.
4. Cook for about 45- 50 minutes, may need to add extra water.
5. Fluff with fork and stir in lime juice and cilantro
Veggie Fajita
1. To prepare soy curls, preheat oven 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place soy curls in a medium bowl with warm water. Soak for 10 minutes
3. Drain soy curls using a fine mesh strainer, squeezing out excess liquid. Discard liquid.
4. Transfer soy curls to a bowl and add oregano, onion powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika,yeast flakes, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.
5. Spread Soy Curls on a greased parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and set aside.
8. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high. Add onion and bell peppers. Cook until onions are soft, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a dish.
9. To serve, divide rice, soy curls, sauteed veggies, avocados, tomatoes, and place into the bowls. Garnish with cilantro.
Recipe notes
Vegan Fajita Rice Bowl
Butternut Squash Coconut Curry
Previous Recipe Butternut Squash Coconut Curry
Pumpkin Stuffed Shells
Next Recipe Pumpkin Stuffed Shells
1. Amy Katz from Veggies Save The Day
What a great recipe! I LOVE soy curls! I always have at least a few bags of them in my kitchen.
Please Tell Me What You Think of This Recipe
| <urn:uuid:e7c62257-a674-4802-9076-fc122e1eb14e> | http://healthiersteps.com/recipe/vegan-fajita-rice-bowl/ | en | 0.924651 | 0.085487 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
(redirected from investigators)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia.
Related to investigators: private investigator, private detective, Investigator's Brochure
References in classic literature ?
What is the particular point upon which I, as an original investigator, have challenged our lecturer's accuracy?
Taciturn as he was, the investigator succeeded at last in extracting a scrap of information from him, by dint of ordering beer and talking to him persistently and minutely on the subject of motor cars.
That," continued the investigator, "is where he was clever again.
That investigator, peering into the lighted room, had just seen the Colonel, after a pace or two, proceed to take his coat off.
found, by the modern investigator with his optical instruments and
Toomey, an insurance solicitor by birth and an investigator by profession, went inside to analyse the scream.
All the time his trained faculties of an excellent investigator, who scorns no chance of information, followed the self-satisfied, disjointed loquacity of the constable. | <urn:uuid:d0d9cd91-bc91-416c-8f6d-34fe54f1c151> | http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/investigators | en | 0.954395 | 0.024756 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Writing a New Port
The Mido port API allows you to write new ports to do practically anything.
A new port type can be defined by subclassing one of the base classes and overriding one or more methods. Here’s an example:
from mido.ports import BaseOutput
class PrintPort(BaseOutput):
def _send(message):
>>> port = PrintPort()
>>> port.send(msg)
note_on channel=0 note=0 velocity=64 time=0
_send() will be called by send(), and is responsible for actually sending the message somewhere (or in this case print it out).
Overridable Methods
There are four overridable methods (all of them default to doing nothing):
``_open(self, **kwargs)``
Should do whatever is necessary to initialize the port (for example opening a MIDI device.)
Called by __init__(). The name attribute is already set when _open() is called, but you will get the rest of the keyword arguments.
If your port takes a different set of arguments or has other special needs, you can override __init__() instead.
Should clean up whatever resources the port has allocated (such as closing a MIDI device).
Called by close() if the port is not already closed.
_send(self, message)
(Output ports only.)
Should send the message (or do whatever else that makes sense).
Called by send() if the port is open and the message is a Mido message. (You don’t need any type checking here.)
Raise IOError if something goes wrong.
_receive(self, block=True)
(Input ports only.)
Should return a message if there is one available.
If block=True it should block until a message is available and then return it.
If block=False it should return a message or None if there is no message yet. If you return None the enclosing pending() method will check self._messages and return one from there.
Prior to 1.2.0 ``_receive() would put messages in self._messages (usually via the parser) and rely on receive() to return them to the user.
Since this was not thread safe the API was changed in 1.2.0 to allow the _receive() to return a message. The old behavior is still supported, so old code will work as before.
Raise IOError if something goes wrong.
Each method corresponds to the public method of the same name, and will be called by that method. The outer method will take care of many things, so the inner method only needs to do the very minimum. The outer method also provides the doc string, so you don’t have to worry about that.
The base classes are BaseInput, BaseOutput and BaseIOPort (which is a subclass of the other two.)
The calls to _receive() and _send() will are protected by a lock, left.lock. As a result all send and receive will be thread safe.
If your _receive() function actually blocks instead of letting the parent class handle it poll() will not work. The two functions are protected by the same lock, so when receive() blocks it will also block other threads calling poll(). In this case you need to implement your own locking.
If you want to implement your own thread safety you can set the _locking attribute in your class:
class MyInput(ports.BaseInput):
_locking = False
An example of this is mido.backends.rtmidi where the callback is used to feed an internal queue that receive() reads from.
An full example of a device port for the imaginary MIDI library fjopp:
import fjopp
from mido.ports import BaseIOPort
# This defines an I/O port.
class FjoppPort(BaseIOPort):
def _open(self, **kwargs):
self._device = fjopp.open_device(self.name)
def _close(self):
def _send(self, message):
def _receive(self, block=True):
while True:
data = self.device.read()
if data:
If fjopp supports blocking read, you can do this to actually block on the device instead of letting receive() and friends poll and wait for you:
def _receive(self, block=True):
if block:
# Actually block on the device.
# (``read_blocking()`` will always return some data.)
while not ``self._messages``:
data = self._device.read_blocking()
# Non-blocking read like above.
while True:
data = self.device.read()
if data:
This can be used for any kind of port that wants to block on a pipe, an socket or another input source. Note that Mido will still use polling and waiting when receiving from multiple ports (for example in a MultiPort).
If you want separate input and output classes, but the _open() and _close() methods have a lot in common, you can implement this using a mix-in.
Sometimes it’s useful to know inside the methods whether the port supports input or output. The way to do this is to check for the methods `send() and receive(), for example:
def _open(self, **kwargs):
if hasattr(self, 'send'):
# This is an output port.
if hasattr(self, 'receive'):
# This is an input port.
if hasattr(self, 'send') and hasattr(self, 'receive'):
# This is an I/O port.
A port has some attributes that can be useful inside your methods.
The name of the port. The value is device specific and does not have to be unique. It can have any value, but must be a string or None.
This is set by __init__().
True if the port is closed. You don’t have to worry about this inside your methods.
This is a collections.deque of messages that have been read and are ready to be received. This is a shortcut to _parser.messages.
_device_type (Optional.)
If this attribute exists, it’s a string which will be used in __repr__(). If it doesn’t exist, the class name will be used instead. | <urn:uuid:7e43f01e-6d84-4ff4-9c37-05c0f792dcb6> | http://mido.readthedocs.io/en/latest/implementing_ports.html | en | 0.829701 | 0.233565 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
It was more than a decade ago when scientists published the draft human genome sequence, an inventory of all the genes in humans, under the Human Genome project. However, an equivalent map for the human proteome with direct measurements of proteins and peptides did not exist so far.
The proteome project that involved cataloguing the proteins was led by Akhilesh Pandey and co-workers at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in the US and Harsha Gowda and his team at the Institute of Bioinformatics (IOB) here. Over 70 scientists - most of them Indians - were involved in the study.
The team made the most unexpected finding that 193 novel proteins that they found actually came from those regions of the DNA - the so-called non-coding regions - that are not supposed to code for proteins, suggesting that the human genome is more complex than previously thought.
In all, the team identified proteins encoded by 17,294 genes, accounting for approximately 84 percent of the total annotated protein-coding genes in humans.
"To our knowledge it is the largest coverage of the human proteome reported so far," Pandey said in an email interview.
In what should be a matter of great honour for Indian science, the proteome project has been featured on the cover page of the May 29 issue of the prestigious "Nature" journal.
"This project is a fifty-fifty partnership (of scientists of the two countries)," with funding from agencies of both governments Pandey said.
Studying proteins is far more technically challenging than studying genes. And a mere list of existing proteins would not be very helpful without accompanying information about where in the body those proteins are found.
Pandey compared the human body to a huge library where each protein is a book. So far, scientists did not have a catalogue that gives the titles of the available books and where to find them.
"We think we now have a good first draft of that comprehensive catalogue," Pandey said.
The research team accomplished this by taking samples of 30 human tissues, extracting their proteins and using enzymes to cut them into smaller pieces, called peptides. They then ran the peptides through a series of instruments designed to deduce their identity and measure their relative abundance.
This human proteome catalogue that has been prepared is now available as an interactive web-based resource in the internet. Pandey said it will complement available human genome and other data to accelerate biomedical research in health and disease.
"Although India did not participate in the human genome project, completion of a human proteome map by this team puts India at the forefront of the international efforts to characterize the human proteome," IOB's Gowda said in a statement.
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Monday, December 04, 2006
Scribe 12/4
Today in class we had a great fishbowl on Act III in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. I took notes in the class, and I'll just post those, they do tend to jump around, but it is the order that the conversation took, so hopefully the help.
Hamlet Act III Fishbowl
- Lit Crit, "Hamlet most famous play in English language"
Avenge father's death
- Moral integrity? What moral lessons in Act 3?
- P 125 line 159 Since we're married we should be loyal to each other
- Claudius can't pray, he doesn't mean it
- P. 149 line 243-44 own up to actions, clean conscience won't bother you
- "Words without thoughts never to heaven go" No meaning behind words, not actually repenting, not accepting that did something wrong
- Claudius knows its wrong, but isn't sorry
- Hamlet preparing to kill King; is this moral?
- P 162, puts sword away, because it is morally wrong? Not revenge unless it equals sin, if caught in prayer he will go to heaven, wants him to go to Purgatory or Hell?
- Hamlet is working to destroy the respect of Claudius
- Hamlet wants Horatio to watch Claudius, because he knows he bias. Doesn't act immediately against Claudius, to make sure he really did it.
- Hamlet committing sin, no matter what
- Catholics believe that you must repent as you sin, if not repentant before death, get stuck in Purgatory
- Wants to catch Claudius sinning to expose Claudius, and to feel less guilty than if killing him praying
- Hamlet believes that God is allowing him to kill people, particularly Claudius, but says God lets him kill Polonius
- P 179 Hamlet's father is no longer wearing armor What does the ghost want to tell or show Hamlet?
- Hamlet might just be actually crazy at this point, only imagining his father, especially because no one else can see or hear the ghost
- Father no longer is prepared for battle, and trusts that Hamlet will take care of Claudius
- Ghost tells Claudius to be nice to mother
- Seems like ghost would show himself to mother, to reveal that Hamlet is on his side and to get her on Hamlet's side
- P 59 ghost criticizes Gertrude for falling in love over gifts and wit, calls it incest
- Ghost is Hamlets sub-conscience, comes out to call out Hamlet's wrongs, forces him to stick to the task
- Ghost wants Gertrude to come to remorse without him showing himself to her, to know she did something wrong not told she did something wrong
- Ghost wants Hamlet to be on the right path
- Why does ghost want heaven to judge Gertrude but not Claudius, wants him killed
- Ghost wants son to do well on earth
- King Hamlet thinking of Denmark
- Kings put in power by God, GodJrants Hamlet jr. to take the throne, so won't judge him until that time
- King Hamlet notices Fortinbras is just building armies
- Is Claudius sorry for what he did, or sorry because he was caught
- The stabbing of Julius Caesar by Brutus is similar to Hamlet's stabbing of Polonius (Polonius played Caesar in the play and was stabbed by Brutus)
- Polonius was a jerk to Hamledoesn't so Hamlet doesn't really care if he kills him
- Polonius innocent?
- Would Hamlet have same reaction had he killed Rosencrantz or Guildenstern?
- Hamlet so obsessed with his task of killing Claudius, wouldn't mind if he killed anyone
- Compares sin of killing Polonius with Gertrude's sin of marrying her husband's brother
- Embarrassed with the killing, but turns it against mother to say basically say that she cannot change the subject or get away with what she did.
- Hamlet compares Polonius a rat, lowers his level of respect and honor
- Hamlet a Tragic Hero?
- Doesn't do anything to help people, only cares about his task, only with what he is supposed to do
- Hamlet is not driven enough to be a Tragic Hero, he always second guesses what he does
- "Blindly running into the unknown." (Matt Weber).
- Hamlet starts out second guessing, but eventually becomes more bold and driven, taking actions blindly, such as killing Polonius
Also don't forget, those who didn't write the Canterbury Tales paper need to finish the book early and write their thesis. Show Smith your thesis so she can approve it, and the paper is due on Friday, December 15th
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012
When Im feeling defeated by Diabetes, the voices in my head seem to explode into a constant whirlwind of chatter. I end up unable to focus, totally scatter brained!! Drained. Overwhelmed. Feeling hopeless and helpless. Every hour leaves me looking at the clock, wondering what Maddison’s blood sugar is doing now. Is it time to check? Its been two hours since breakfast, we better get that 2hr PP number... OH, now its been 3 hours since she ate last, we better check again! So much for Diabetes being a non-issue these days. Did I really say that awhile back?
The chatter is endless. As soon as my eyes open to start the day, the questioning begins...
"Will today’s blood sugars fall into place? Did I make the right changes for today? Will today be the day I end up angry and in tears with frustration taking over? What the hell am I doing wrong? What am I missing? I ask myself over and over again why I feel the need to blame myself for every shitty blood sugar. I try and tell myself it isnt me....I am not a failure like Diabetes wants me to believe! I wonder to myself why I can't just find peace with the numbers and feel that I’m doing everything I possibly can to get these high blood sugars down. I’m playing by the “rules” and doing everything I can, so WTF is going on!!??"
Chatter, chatter, chatter.
Changes, changes. Every week Im STILL making insulin changes for Maddison, only to see a day or two of improvement. We might see some in range numbers here and there, but blood sugars slowly creep up as the week moves on. How can that possibly happen when you increase, increase, increase doses? It seems the more insulin I give, the more insulin Diabetes demands! Maddison's insulin doses are DOUBLED from what they were back in February, and every week its still going higher and higher! Im increasing EVERYTHING every 2-4 days!! Is this unheard of? We are stuck in the 200's a large part of the mornings after breakfast (ratio was 1:12 and is now 1:8) with only some relief from highs here and there. C-R-A-Z-Y!!!! Sometimes we get a good morning but a high afternoon, sometimes she sits perfect all night and then the next day is C-R-A-Z-Y!!!
I’m feeling defeated, all the way to the depths of my soul. Entirely. Completely.
The last time I didn’t have to log numbers and make near constant changes was back in February. FEBRUARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maddison has grown 2 inches and gained 5lbs, WITH a two shoe size increase over the last several months....but I don’t care. I don’t want to use that as an “excuse” for these shitty numbers. I don’t want to just say Diabetes can "win" because she is growing so much and the insulin need/resistance has set in approaching the teen years. I don’t want to wait for things to “settle” and I don’t want to admit that sometimes Diabetes just IS this way. I dont. I cant.
The chatter is getting louder and louder inside my SWELLY brain.
The chatter is chanting....”ask the Endo for help Kelly, maybe you need to swallow your pride and admit that sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes.” You don’t have to do this alone Kelly....they are there to help you!"
Just when I was about to ask the Endo for help figuring out these numbers last week I made a change that brought 2 glorious days of perfect numbers! I was all proud and refreshed, feeling confident and so much relief that I was sure Diabetes would never drag me down again!!
But then the bad site came on Saturday.
Of course.
A 382 blood sugar overnight with high ketones. Maddi’s numbers have been back to “bad” ever since. WHY does that happen!!??
Even through most rough patches of fighting lows or highs the chatter in my brain usually stays optimistic, and my inner cheerleader comes out. “You are doing GREAT Kelly, you have done everything JUST right!” You are an amazing Pancreas, you always give 110%. You will get there, keep at it, don’t give up, you are checking every two hours and making such progress! You are an awesome Mom, You have fought, fought, fought! The Endo would be impressed! Its JUST a number Kelly, keep kicking those numbers down! Time will tell, tomorrow will be a better day! This isn’t going to last forever! She is a TWEEN Kelly, you knew these days would come! It will be ok, it will be ok, it will be ok....You are on it! You’ve got this! It isn’t YOU Kelly, it is the Diabetes! You ARE capable! She is a growing child, she will be fine! Keep smiling, you are stronger than you know! Remember, one day at a time. Last week was so much better than the week before, you are sooo close! Don’t back off, stay aggressive! "If people only knew what *I/we* put into managing Diabetes every-single-day they would think we are Super woman! "Take a step back and just watch, you are always trying your best!"
Most days I love that inner cheerleader, she keeps me sane.
But then one day I just can't take another high number on that meter screen!
Some days Im mentally EXHAUSTED.
This is when the mean and angry chatter begins to chant inside my FRUSTRATED mind..."I can’t do this myself, but how the fuck can the Endo help? This is some crazy shit! They don’t see what I see, they cant have any good suggestions. They don’t see the all the variables I have to consider each and every day, all the ENDO sees are numbers without details! They think they know everything! They think Im clueless! They think Im the worst parent. They don’t see Maddison’s mood that can influence blood sugars, they don’t see the stress on any given day, the food, the activity, the site on day 4, the insulin effectiveness decline on day 3, the different nutritional balance of foods, the wrong carb count, that STUPID class party with 150c of pure sugary shit! How do THEY know what I need to do? How do they know the bizzillion things Ive tried!!?? Ive been doing this for 6 yrs, Im pretty sure Im the expert! Forget them, they dont live this life! IM TIRED!! Screw you stupid alarm clock! I cant do this anymore, Im gonna go postal! I think I need to hide. I think I need that whole bottle of wine. Where is that bridge anyway? Wipe that stupid smile off your face lady at Starbucks, why are you always so friggin happy anyway? Sun, sun, go away. I need to hide today. I must be an idiot. 400? Why do I keep fucking this up? Damn it, what am I? The worst mother in the world? Am I retarded? Im useless as a Diabetes Mom. Im too fucking tired to understand any of this shit that’s going on. All these damn numbers don’t make any sense. What did I do to deserve this torture? Am I a horrible person? WHY do we lead this life? What kind of sick joke is this?" Im so irritable and angry with everything, I dont even like myself!
And THAT my friends, is the censored version of the angry chatter in my mind.
Often, the chatter of blame sets in...."Maddison must be sneaking food, there is just no way these numbers can be right. It must be bad insulin. There must be an air bubble in the tubing. Her long shower with the pump off every night has got to be screwing up her basal dose. It’s a bad site. Shit, it must be a whole bad box of sites! It’s the changing weather, damn its hot outside! Its stress at school. Is she being bullied? Im a sucky carb counter. She must have cancer or some crazy disease making Diabetes freak out!! OMG!!! I think the pump is broken. I guess we have to change her site every two days instead of three? Her arms must have scar tissue. Her butt is too chubby. Her stomach site kinked the cannula. Nope, I must just be clueless. HORMONES!! Its just the hormones! Damn you hormones. It must be me. I really am a total failure to my child.....Is this for real?"
Chatter, chatter, chatter. Diabetes is more of a mental drain than anything. These voices inside my head just won't quit until I get these numbers down. I dont do it to myself. Diabetes INVADES!!! Diabetes invades my mind, my heart, and my soul during these chaotic times. It just does. This isnt chatter I can just turn off, because this is my child!! My child that I am supposed to keep HEALTHY from this fucked up disease...
Every morning I wake up optimistic, certain that any changes I made the night before will surely bring resolve to this blood sugar chaos....I stay optimistic, because I HAVE TO. Today, I'm hanging on the edge, these numbers are just as high as yesterday. How can that possibly be?
Chatter, chatter, chatter. I'm so tired of the chatter!!!!
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PGA Tour Confidential Extra: USGA, R&A ban anchored putting stroke
Thursday November 29th, 2012
Webb Simpson is one of three major champions in the past two years to win while using an anchored putting stroke.
Fred Vuich / SI
The editorial staff of the SI Golf Group convened a special edition of its weekly e-mail roundtable to discuss the USGA and R&A's decision to ban the anchored putting stroke beginning in 2016.
D-Day For The Belly
Ryan Reiterman, senior producer, Well, the day has finally come. The USGA and the R&A proposed a rule change to ban anchored putting strokes. What do you think of the decision?
Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: I'm torn. I don't like the look of the really long broom handles, and anchoring seems like a definite advantage, but I can't imagine it's a good thing to be making the game any harder for the average player.
Mark Godich, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: It sounds like a cop-out to me. What took them so long?
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I think they are making the right move. Yes, they should have done it 20 years ago. Yes, Ernie Els and Co. brought the issue into focus. But it is never too late to do the right thing. The essence of golf is to hit a ball with a club you hold in your hands.
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I have increasing antipathy for the USGA and R&A and their decision-making. They take on non-issues (grooves, anchoring) yet for their championships need to build 700-yard par-5s and desecrate the Old Course because they refuse to address the golf ball. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. I'm no longer buying what they're selling.
Gary Van Sickle, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: I'm with Alan. If I'm the PGA Tour, I take control of my profession and become my own rules-maker. As for the USGA, seven strikes and you're out. (My actual strike count may be off!)
Jim Herre, managing editor, SI Golf Group: I have personally witnessed a lousy putter, a 10 handicap, become a good to very good putter by going to a broomhandle. Overall, his game and attitude were transformed in a positive way. He will be crushed by this.
Van Sickle: Orville Moody, one of the worst putters ever, ranked No. 1 in senior tour putting stats the first year he went to a long-shafted putter. (This stat courtesy of Mr. Brandel Chamblee.) That should've been a red flag for the USGA back in mid-80s.
Charlie Hanger, executive editor, I think it's silly for a bunch of reasons. Anchored putting is still a skill, there's no data to prove that this is an easier way to putt, it's based on a "tradition" of swinging the club freely that seems to me to be kind of made up. I mean, people have been swinging putters in all sorts of crazy ways for a long time, so trying to define what is and isn't kosher seems a little pointless. Ultimately, though, I think it's much ado about nothing. The pros who have to change will survive, and weekend hackers can keep doing it as long as everyone in their foursome approves.
Stephanie Wei, contributor, SI Golf+: It's about time. What really caught their attention was instructors pushing belly/long putters on junior golfers. The fear is that this trend will continue and will become the way kids learn how to putt. I spoke with Ross Fisher about it at Q-school yesterday, and he said: "I plainly think it's cheating. I don't think you should be able to anchor the club." He feared a day when long putters were the putter of choice for kids. "You wedge it in your belly or use a broomstick, and it takes the nerves out."
Van Sickle: A classic cop-out. They're banning it because it's getting too popular. And because they don't like the way it looks. They admit they have no evidence to indicate whether it's a competitive advantage … because there isn't any.
Bamberger: The data issue if meaningless if you believe, as the USGA and R&A do, that the essence of the game is to hit the ball with a club held in your hands. If a soccer player wanted to advance the ball with his hands, that would change the game fundamentally, even though the foot is more effective. They're getting down to the essence of the game.
Hanger: Show me where that "essence" is written and I'll buy your argument. The essence of the game to me is to hit the ball and make it go in the hole. Anchored or not, you have to hit the ball with the putter and make it go in the hole.
Bamberger: Look at every golf photo from Old Tom's day to Arnold's heyday. They are holding the club with their hands.
Van Sickle: If it's not a stroke now, then it wasn't a stroke in 1985 when Charlie Owens popularized it or in 2000 when Paul Azinger invented the belly putter. Some players have invested a decade in this putting style. It's not fair to them. Remember, the USGA approved all of these putters at one point knowing full well how they would be used.
Bamberger: No question, they fouled this up, but it's better to correct it now than live with it forever. On the list of real issues in the game, it's not on the list.
Cameron Morfit, senior writer, Golf Magazine: I agree that the USGA has been asleep at the switch, but I don't agree that means they should just cave on everything.
Van Sickle: Funny how metal woods, the biggest game-changer in the history of golf, didn't get banned.
Wei: This isn't about equipment. This is about whether anchoring the putter is considered a "swing" or a "stroke." To paraphrase Mike Davis, for 600 years the game has been about picking up the club with two hands and making a swing away from your body.
Mike Walker, senior editor, Golf Magazine: There's no question that this is about three of the last five major winners using belly putters. Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson have argued that the anchored putter makes it easier to overcome your nerves on Sunday when you're in the hunt, and they're in a position to know. The effect of recreational golf is negligible since so few recreational players use these putters.
Godich: It shows how far Tiger has fallen. Would the Tiger of old be voicing such concerns? And based on the way he played on the weekends of majors, maybe he should have given the belly putter a shot.
Bamberger: Tiger's support of the ban gave the USGA confidence.
Godich: Sure, but I find it funny that you didn't hear Tiger complaining when he was kicking everybody's ass.
Van Sickle: Anchored putting was dead as soon as Webb Simpson won a USGA event with it and Ernie Els out-yipped Adam Scott to win the British Open. The traditionalists hate the way it looks. "That's not golf" was Mike Davis's only real argument. Once upon a time, sand wedges weren't golf either. Neither were 330-yard drives.
Godich: Never mind the 330-yard drive. How about the 200-yard 7-iron?
Morfit: Fundamentally, I agree with Davis. The funny thing is that even some of the belly boys like Ernie Els agree with him, too.
Hanger: Ernie used to agree with him, but he's changed his tune of late. Long putters are not unfair pieces of equipment that help you cheat at golf, like a slice-proof driver or some other gimmick. It's a technique. Tim Clark was on Golf Channel today saying he's choked plenty of long putts with the long putter, and that's the thing - if it was a cure-all for nerves, everyone would be doing it.
Van Sickle: There is no competitive advantage or everyone would use it. Sixty-degree wedges were an advantage. Metal woods were an advantage. Hybrids were an advantage. When a club is better, everyone flocks to it. Anchored putting remains a distinct minority. But hey, if it helps kill interest in playing golf, by all means, let's ban it.
Bamberger: It can be useful for some and not for others. It's a technique they are changing, not equipment. I can't imagine anybody NOT being drawn to golf because you cannot anchor.
Hanger: I agree with that. I don't think this will affect participation at all.
Herre: Interesting that the PGA of America seems to be against the ruling on the grounds that it might hurt participation.
Jeff Ritter, senior producer, Until they present stats proving that anchored putting really does create an unfair advantage, I don't see the harm in an anchored stroke. No matter what technique you use, putting is still really tough.
Wei: I think it's a definite advantage under pressure on fast greens with short putts. Steve Flesch, who won three of his four PGA Tour victories with a belly putter, said he wasn't strongly for or against the ban, but his next remark was telling: "It will be hard to fight the nerves again for those players [who currently use the belly or broomstick putters]. There's a reason they're using those putters. I'm a case in point. I only go to it because I'm shaking like a leaf with the short putter."
David Dusek, deputy editor, So we don't really know that using an anchored putter helps you to make more putts, but pros like Fisher, Flesch, Tiger and Tom Watson speak as if they know it definitely does. If the USGA and the R&A came out with evidence that showed anchoring the putter improved performance, I would have no problem with the ban. But as Gary noted, there is no data to support that theory.
Wei: Having the putter touching three points of contact is going to be steadier than just two. Basic physics.
Godich: Bringing in that third point of contact can have the opposite effect as well.
Wei: I think the date when it's supposed to take effect - Jan. 1, 2016 - is silly. If they're going to ban it, do it for 2013 or at least 2014. Now that it's been deemed illegal, It'll be weird for players who continue to anchor. Won't some guys feel like it's against the spirit/integrity of the game?
Shipnuck: Another issue is what this means to specific players. Two of the brightest young stars in the game are Keegan and Webb. This is going to affect their careers. Maybe only a little, maybe massively, but it's going to be fascinating to follow.
Reiterman: Don't forget Adam Scott.
Godich: Scott won before he went to the broomstick. He'll win again.
Reiterman: Sure, but he wasn't a regular contender in majors. Now he is, and that's what matters. Not where you rank on Strokes Gained-Putting.
Godich: I'll say it: Adam Scott wins a major with a 34-inch putter, further debunking the myth about long wands.
Wei: Keegan has a pretty smooth-looking stroke, so I think he'll be OK, but Webb's stroke is jabby with a belly, so I can't imagine what it looks like with a short putter.
Reiterman: A hypothetical question: Say it's 2016, and it's the day after the anchored putting stroke has been banned. You're playing your regular money game with your buddies, and on the first green one of your buddies anchors his putter to his stomach. What do you say?
Van Sickle: Double or nothing?
Ritter: I would respond by teeing up my new, 2015 anti-slice golf ball, slathering my clubfaces with Crisco and saying "game on." I'm kidding, but the thing is, I have a lot of friends who play, and none of them use a long or anchored putter. I would love to see stats on how many recreational players anchor their putters, but I'd bet the number is miniscule.
Hanger: I would allow it until the buddy had a 5-footer to win the match, and then I'd remember the rule. In casual games with no money on the line, I'd have no problem with any putting method.
Godich: To hell with that, Charlie! I'm waiting until after he makes the five-footer, then reminding him that's he's been DQ'd for using an illegal technique.
Reiterman: James Bond used a similar strategy in Goldfinger. Nice.
Wei: I'd tell the friend to go for it. I couldn't care less if Joe Golfer wants to use an anchored putter in my weekly game. Let's be real - how many amateurs abide strictly to the rules of the game? Whatever makes golf more enjoyable (and faster) is fine for me.
Shipnuck: It's like those non-conforming balls that supposedly fly 400 yards. It'd be tacky to use them against your friends. If you're playing for money, a rule is a rule, no matter how misguided.
Dusek: "Bet you miss." Then I'd pull my 34-inch putter out of the bag and walk to my ball. The kind of guys I play with are more into having fun than listening to Mike Davis.
Van Sickle: One part I don't like about the ruling, which hasn't been mentioned, is having to determine if your opponent is anchoring his putter. Let's say he's using a long putter up to his chest. His hand is close to his chest. His shirt or jacket is puffy. Is it anchored? Is it touching his chest? Or just the billowing shirt? Do I have to go over there with a ruler and figure this crap out? I'm trying to play golf, not run an investigation. This is the hazard of making a rule about how to use a club, instead of a rule about whether a club is legal.
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Category: San Diego
The Career of Brian Bonar
There are a lot of people who think they know how to manage a company’s finances. Brian Bonar has done a great job of managing his business over the past few years. Anytime there was an issue, he always had a plan for how to deal with it.
Anyone who is looking to take the next step with their finances can do so if they know the right techniques. Brian Bonar is from a growing area of the country in San Diego. With all of the experience in his career, he is a great example of the impact that one person can make.
Brian Bonar
Working with numbers is something that does not sound appealing to many people. However, Brian Bonar has always been someone who loves to work with numbers. In a business, making a profit is the ultimate goal. During his time in corporate America, he was able to add value to a lot of companies that he worked for. Read more: Brian Bonar – and Brian Bonar – Executive Bio, Compensation History, and Contacts
This is a perfect example of the impact that one person can make on an industry. He knows how to manage investments and debt payments for the maximum benefit of the company that he works for.
Managing Debt
One of the most complicated aspects of personal finance is managing debt payments. There are a lot of people who struggle in this area, especially if the debt becomes too large. In fact, some companies have gone out of business because their debt payments have become too high.
Brian Bonar knows that getting too leveraged is a bad thing for business. The issue is that a lot of companies cannot grow without financing. If you are a business owner, this is something that you should take into account when running your company. Brian Bonar was always careful to manage the debt of his company. This is one of the biggest reasons why he is a leading financial expert in the field.
Future Changes
In the future, Brian Bonar plans on taking his expertise to the next level. There are few people who have his knowledge in the world of finance. Because of this, a lot of companies want to know his insight into how they can do better financially.
With the economy showing signs of stalling, a lot of people are having to deal with declining sales in their business. Now is not the time to go out and borrow a bunch of money in order to enhance growth. Brian Bonar says that anyone who is trying to grow their business that way is in for a major issue down the road. Over time,e he has done a great job of managing the finances of his business for the best. | <urn:uuid:aa1fd5f9-1587-433f-93a4-508a1dc5818b> | https://dockoftherays.com/index.php/category/san-diego/ | en | 0.986527 | 0.023929 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Developer description
WordWiggle is a competitive local multiplayer word game for three or four players. Every round, each player takes a turn to answer the question WordWiggle asks, and creates the best sentence they can with their word cards in 20 seconds!
After each round is over, each player takes a turn to select their favourite of the four; and at the end of the game, the player with the most votes is crowned the winner!
Last updated 30 Jun 2014 | <urn:uuid:06fa4445-1950-44d1-818a-2a16250d8dda> | https://feedmyapp.com/app/wordwiggle/ | en | 0.957174 | 0.062241 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Bill Text: MA H59 | 2013-2014 | 188th General Court | Introduced
Bill Title: Providing retiree healthcare benefits reform
Spectrum: Unknown
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-09-29 - Accompanied a study order, see H4500 [H59 Detail]
Download: Massachusetts-2013-H59-Introduced.pdf | <urn:uuid:2cd0587a-010b-4c0f-9c9a-ada67d74c573> | https://legiscan.com/MA/text/H59/id/743059 | en | 0.793621 | 0.745385 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Thursday, June 02, 2016
People v. Castillolopez (Cal. Supreme Ct. - June 2, 2016)
It's so, so nice to live in a state that has an incredibly smart state supreme court.
As it happens, I was at oral argument in the California Supreme Court last week, and was incredibly -- incredibly -- impressed with the questions from the bench. The justices got to the central issues so quickly, and so cogently. That's great to see, and it's also what every advocate should hope for.
I've also taken to live-streaming the oral arguments in the background whenever I've got little better to do at the office. An academic's version of multi-tasking, so well known to the teenage generation (and their crappy music). I find myself impelled to turn it down sometimes when one of the advocates is especially dull or raspy or overly aggressive, but never have I felt that way about the justices. To see the California Supreme Court at work is truly great. I may not -- and surely don't -- agree with every decision that tribunal renders. But I profoundly respect the intellectual heft that's behind the opinions. And the questions at oral argument, to tell the truth, might be even better (at times, anyway) than the final written work product.
Now, you might be thinking that, with such an introduction, I'm going to slam the thing. Not true. I really, really like this one. Couldn't have written it better -- or even half as good -- myself. It's fairly short, at 14 double-spaced pages, and yet despite its brevity, is incredibly comprehensive. It's the type of opinion that I absolutely love. Incredibly well done.
Justice Kruger writes the opinion, and it's unanimous. It's so good that it's hard to see how anyone could disagree with the opinion. At least after reading it. The actual issue isn't self-evident: Does an your typical open Swiss Army Knife count as a "dirk or dagger" when the statute says that such a knife qualifies "only if the blade of the knife is exposed and locked into position." Like your regular Swiss Army Knife, the knife here was open, and didn't have a separate "lock", but the spring on the knife nonetheless held the blade in the open position -- though you could push the blade back without manipulating anything other than the blade on the knife. Does that count as "locked"?
The California Supreme Court says no. Justice Kruger goes through the various iterations of the statute at length. Which highlight, in part, not only its history, but also how much time is sometimes wasted on tinkering with statutory definitions that simply don't work. I thought the background here was interesting (even if not providing much insight into the actual resolution of the question presented):
"Penal Code section 21310 makes it a criminal offense to carry "concealed upon the person any dirk or dagger." The origins of the statute can be traced to 1917, when the Legislature enacted a statute that prohibited possessing several types of dangerous weapons "commonly associated with criminal activity," including "a blackjack, slungshot, billy, . . . metal knuckles, [or] bomb," and carrying "a dirk or a dagger." In 1923, the law was changed to prohibit carrying a dirk or dagger only if it was "concealed upon his person."
Neither of these statutes defined the terms "dirk" or "dagger." Courts accordingly construed these terms in accordance with their dictionary definitions: "Dirk and dagger are used synonymously and consist of any straight stabbing weapon, as a dirk, stiletto, etc. (Century Dict.) They may consist of any weapon fitted primarily for stabbing. The word dagger is a generic term covering the dirk, stiletto, poniard, etc."
"Whether a folding knife or pocketknife qualified as a dirk or dagger under the statute, as the courts understood it, depended on whether the blade "locked" into place. [Cites]
In 1993, the Legislature undertook the first of several efforts to supply a definition of ―dirk or dagger.‖ In its initial effort, the Legislature defined "dirk" or "dagger" to mean "a knife or other instrument with or without a handguard that is primarily designed, constructed, or altered to be a stabbing instrument designed to inflict great bodily injury or death." (Pen. Code, § 12020, subd. (c)(24), as added by Stats. 1993, ch. 357, § 1, p. 2155.) But this definition "ultimately proved too narrow and too difficult of proof. Prosecutors complained that ‗since we can never show that the primary purpose of a butcher knife, hunting knife, survival knife, ice pick, etc., is to cause death or great bodily injury by stabbing, we cannot obtain convictions under the statute, even when the person was carrying the concealed instrument for potential use as a weapon." (Rubalcava, supra, 23 Cal.4th at p. 337 (conc. opn. of Werdegar, J.).)
In 1995, the Legislature amended the reference to a knife or other instrument that is '"primarily designed, constructed, or altered to be a stabbing instrument" with a broader reference to a knife or other instrument that is "capable of ready use as a stabbing weapon." (Pen. Code, § 12020, subd. (c)(24) as amended by Stats. 1995, ch. 128, § 2, p. 504.) The Legislative Counsel recognized that this change "would expand the scope of existing crimes"‖ (Legis. Counsel‘s Dig., Assem. Bill No. 1222 (1995-1996 Reg. Sess.) 5 Stats. 1995, Summary Dig., p. 35.) But this change, too, raised concerns — this time that the definition was too broad, rather than too narrow, particularly as applied to folding knives and pocketknives. In response to those concerns, the Legislature amended the statute in 1997 to provide that a folding knife or pocketknife would qualify as a dirk or dagger "capable of ready use as a stabbing weapon" only if the blade of the knife was "exposed and locked into position."
So there you have it. So many amendments. So many attempts to get it right. And yet, a century later, we're still debating what the terms mean.
Ultimately, Justice Kruger says that an open pocketknife isn't "locked" when its simply held open by regular force that can be overcome merely by pushing the blade. And that seems very much right to me. Justice Kruger does an outstanding job of very intelligently dissecting the various arguments to the contrary -- nonfrivolous arguments, to be sure, but ultimately meritless. Justice Kruger says that "when the Legislature referred to blades "locked into position," it intended to refer to knives with blades rendered immobile, as by operation of a locking mechanism, rather than knives with blades that could be collapsed simply by folding the blade back into the handle." Otherwise pretty much any knife would qualify as "locked into position", since something -- some force -- holds the blade open in every pocketknife, lest the thing fold up while you're using it. So let's make the statute both make sense as well as comply with our traditional understanding of various knives and their composition.
A beautiful opinion. Fantastic to read. Another great product of an outstanding court. | <urn:uuid:587b0af4-2acf-442f-b10b-7a580347b901> | http://calapp.blogspot.com/2016/06/people-v-castillolopez-cal-supreme-ct.html | en | 0.950344 | 0.031162 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
French Cookery
French cookery has undergone many changes through the centuries to become what it is today. The Middle Ages were the time of lavish banquets with food heavily laden with spiced seasonings. Under such chefs as Francois Pierre la Varenne and Marie-Antoine Careme, spices were used less often and replaced by herbs. What we know as French cuisine today was the haute cuisine developed by Georges Auguste Escoffier in the 20th century. During this time the traditional dishes of the rural areas of France began to gain popularity.
While many regions of France have their own specialty dishes, there are many dishes that are common to the country as a whole. There are many varieties of French bread depending on their thickness. A baguette is a long roll that you slice in small sections, while the pain pilane is a thick-crusted circular loaf.
Cog au vin is a well known French dish in which chicken is cooked in wine, lardon, mushrooms and garlic. The wine of choice for this recipe is often brandy and button mushrooms are used. Lardons are strips of salt pork par boiled to remove the excess fat. They are then lightly fried to render out the fat. When making this dish, you fry the chicken in the fat, using additional oil if needed. Diced carrots, onions, minced garlic and celery are added to the pan, along with a full bottle or two of wine. Cover the mixture and allow it to simmer.
Crepes are very thin pancakes made from wheat flour. These are popular all over France and throughout the world. The main ingredients in this dish are flour, eggs, milk, butter with a pinch of salt added to the mixture. Sweet crepes have sugar added and savoury crepes are unsweetened and made with buckwheat flour.
Boeuf Bourguignon comes from the Burgundy region of France. This dish is a pot roast cooked in red wine and flavored with garlic, salt, onions and mushrooms. Escargots are snails that are removed from their shells, cooked and placed back in the shells for serving with butter and sauce.
Fresh fruit and vegetables grown in France are the main ingredients used in French cookery. Meats are widely eaten and spices and herbs are widely used. | <urn:uuid:c93f072d-946e-4216-b6bc-79bc17fe29da> | http://cookexpress.com/French_Cookery.htm | en | 0.976301 | 0.085914 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Community Health Nursing Quiz-IV
Public Health
This page was last updated on September 8, 2013
1. Period of maximum infectivity in mumps is during
A. incubation period
B. onset of swelling
C. after swelling appears
D. prodromal period
Answer Key
2. Shick test is done in:
A. meningitis
B. diphtheria
C. pertussis
D. polimyelitis
Answer Key
3. Recommended site of administration of DPT in infants is
A. gluteal
B. deltoid
C. lateral aspect of thigh
D. forearm
Answer Key
4. . Major epidemics of influenza A occur at intervals of:
A. 1 year
B. 2-3 years
C. 10-15 years
D. 20-25 years
Answer Key
5. The vaccine usually given to pilgrims to the Middle East is:
B. influenza
C. yellow fever
d. meningitis
Answer Key
6. Measles vaccine is given under the National Immunization Programme:
A. 6 weeks
B. 6 months
C. 9 Months
D. 18 months
Answer Key
7. Modifiable risk factors in case of Hypertension include all, EXCEPT:
A. Age
B. Obesity
C. Salt intake
D. Alcohol intake
Answer Key
8. Saturated fatty acids are all, EXCEPT:
A. Lauric
B. Palmitic
C. Stearic
D. Oleic
Answer Key
9. Infections primarily of animals that can be transmitted through milk is all, EXCEPT:
A. Tuberculosis
B. Brucellosis
C. Q fever
D. Malaria
Answer Key
10. The diseases notifiable to the WHO under the International Regulation Act are all except:
A. Cholera
B. Plague
C. Yellow Fever
D. Diphtheria
Answer Key
11. Quickening means:
A. Hearing of the fetal heart sound
B. Sudden cessation of Menstruation
C. The movement of the feuts in the uterus felt by the mother
D. Nausa and vomiting in the morning
Answer Key
12. Discolouration of teeth is caused by a kind of antibiotics called:
A. Streptomycin
B. Neomycin
C. Tetracycline
D. Penicillin
Answer Key
1. B 2. B 3. B 4. D 5. C
6. C 7.A 8. D 9. D 10. D
11. D 12. C
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Rabu, 03 Juni 2009
Simple Stories
David Lynch's new project, Interview Project, is assumingly as simple as it gets: travel across the US. Interview people.
Here is the first episode.
First impressions? It's... nice. Potentially fascinating. Not quite yet. For the moment, it's too early to say.
This might seem like something very unfocused, as if it lacked a form, a formula, a format to support it. Compare this first episode to Kieślowski's (amazing, amazing) Talking Heads (1980):
Kieślowski has a format and sticks to it.
Seen from this perspective, Lynch's project might appear as amateurish.
But then, it goes so well with the spirit of our times, with the thirst for simple, everyday stories...
After all, we can still feel quite a heavy dose of humanist ideals and pathos in Kieślowski's approach. Even the way he films his subjects is dramatic, often painting-like.
Lynch has this capacity too, as we know so well. Yet he chooses a very different approach, different texture. Different proximity.
One small, hardly noticeable element is similar in the two projects: the music. It is heavy, dramatic, as if contradicting the simplicity of the protagonists.
Is it nostalgia for the great narratives?
Oh, and one more thing. We can only get that far asking constantly the most basic questions. After a while, I get tired. I want more. The essential stops being essential. It becomes annoyingly abstract, unaccessible. That's one reason to go beyond the existential questions, and one reason to ask other questions. One way of dealing with this is moving away from the person-as-biography to the person-as-projection. Take the famous work by Sophie Calle called Blind, where she asked people who were born blind about what is their image of beauty.
The pathos is still quite present. Yet the projection, the sensibility of the imagination, makes us... dance with empathy.
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The Natural History of AIDS
This article was written in June 2000
and posted during the Internet Discussion
of the South African Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel
Coincidentally, AIDS appeared in distant and various areas of the Earth during the second half of the 20th century, at a moment when the immune systems of humans, as well as other bodily systems, were already saturated with exposures to a great variety of stressor agents (1-3). In AIDS the immune system is devastated, it is collapsed. All other bodily systems are also suffer the consequences of the exposure to stressors.
The capabilities and possibilities of the immune system are neither infallible nor infinite. They have limits. AIDS is the maximum state of deterioration that the human immune system can reach. If the pathogenic process of AIDS is not stopped, eventually it will kill the person (4-7).
Currently, everybody’s immune system is being challenged by the worldwide increment in immunological stressor agents of chemical, physical, biological, mental, and nutritional origin. However, the diversity and intensity of these risks or etiologic factors for AIDS vary from person to person, from group at risk to group at risk, from country to country, and from continent to continent. This is the principal reason why the frequency of AIDS is not homogeneous in all places and countries (1-3).
If immunological stressors continue to increase in number and strength and if they spread to new social groups, as will probably happen, the number of people at risk for AIDS will rise. Obviously, this is influenced by the diversity, quality and quantity of the stressors, route of exposure, duration and dose, as well as by individual and group susceptibilities (1-3).
The most important risk factor for AIDS in developed countries is the new epidemic of drugs abuse (Duesberg 92; Duesberg & Rasnick 98). The most important risk factor for AIDS in underdeveloped countries is poverty, with all its consequences: malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, infections, parasites, and lack of hope for a better life, all of which have reached unprecedentedly high levels in the last few decades (4-7).
Immunological stressors, also known as "co-factors", are the real risk, etiologic or causal factors for AIDS (4-7). Multiple, repeated, and chronic exposure to immunological stressors of chemical, physical, biological, mental, and nutritional origin are the risk factors for reacting positively on the tests for HIV and for developing AIDS (8-13).
Immunological stressors can weaken the immune system, predisposing the individual to AIDS, i.e., stressors can constitute predisposing factors. In a person with a debilitated immune system the exposure to more immunological stressors can determine the beginning of the disease, i.e., starting factors. And in a person already sick, the continuation of exposures to stressors keeps or worsens the sickness status¾ keeping/worsening factors¾ which eventually brings death (5,7).
Table #1 shows the distribution of the etiologic factors for AIDS within developed and underdeveloped countries.
The primary predisposing factors for AIDS in developed countries are chemical in origin, such as recreational drugs (cocaine, heroine, marijuana, alkyl nitrites, met amphetamines), the chemicals polluting the air, water, and soil, the chemicals used in food preservation, and pharmaceutical medications (14-18). Secondary predisposing factors are biological stressors such as semen through anal intercourses (8,9,19), and blood and derivatives in hemophiliacs and other patients treated with transfusions (20,21). Mental stressors are the third group of factors that can weaken the immune system in these countries (22-25). Anxiety, depression, and periods of panic, secondary to social conditions such as prostitution, drug-addiction, the knowledge of being "HIV-positive", hemophilia, homophobia, AIDS-phobia, lack of hope for a better life, are the main mental stressors (22-25). Then come the physical pollutants such as noise, electromagnetic fields, along with ionizing and non-ionizing radiations (26). The excess of fats as well as diets lacking in certain nutritional needs may constitute a fifth group of AIDS predisposing factors in developed countries (27,28).
In underdeveloped countries, by contrast, the most important factor debilitating the immune system is the lack of nutritional needs, which starts in fetal life (29) and accompanies people throughout their lives (30). Secondary factors are biological stressors such as infections and parasitosis due to poor sanitation conditions (biological pollution) (31). Further factors are social and mental stressors brought on through a lack of hope for a better life, a hopelessness which also weakens immune systems in these countries (22-25). A fourth level of stressors would be chemical stressors, but in the poorer countries drugs from the conventional pharmacopoeia (antibiotics and anti-parasites) contribute more than recreational drugs (14). Industrial chemical and physical pollution can also be predisposing factors to AIDS, principally for people living in the large cities of the underdeveloped countries (32).
The more common etiologic factors that permit AIDS to start (starting factors) in developed countries are again the recreational drugs (15-18). Pharmacological medicines such as AZT and other chemicals from environmental pollution can also often be the switch which starts AIDS (15,16,33). The immunodepressive effects of semen, blood and derivatives can also act as starting factors (19-21). Certain infections such as viral hepatitis, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, syphilis, and gonorrhoea can act as starting factors in people with already weakened immune systems (31). The same can happen with an acute crisis of anxiety, depression or panic in debilitated individuals (22-25). The mere fact of knowing oneself to be "HIV-positive" is a strong immunological stressor (22-25). Less frequently in industrialized countries, the exposure to physical and nutritional stressors can turn an asymptomatic state¾ "HIV-positive" ¾ into a symptomatic disease (28,34).
The most frequent starting factor for AIDS in underdeveloped countries is a new infection or parasitosis in a previously malnourished and debilitated host (31,35,36). A specific nutritional deficiency can also be a starting factor (28,34). Also, a mental stressor (22-25), and, less frequently, a chemical such as alcohol or a physical stressor can be the one that switches on the disease (14-16).
In both type of countries, the factors that maintain the disease status, or can worsen the course of AIDS, are the persistence of the predisposing and starting factors, the presence of infections, tumors, and metabolic diseases, as well as anti-infective, anti-tumoral, and anti-retroviral therapies with potential immunotoxic and immunodepressive properties. Interestingly, there are three vicious circles during the course of AIDS:
immunodeficiency = infections = more immunodeficiency
immunodeficiency = neoplasias = more immunodeficiency
immunodeficiency = metabolic diseases = more immunodeficiency
It should be emphasized that the etiologic factors for AIDS, for people living in the expanding impoverished areas of the big cities in developed countries¾ "thirdworldization"¾ are very similar to those of underdeveloped countries (1-3).
It is also important to point out that malnutrition in underdeveloped countries and the use of street drugs in developed ones during pregnancy are etiologic factors for children born with AIDS (13,15,16).
Therefore, the etiologic factors for reacting positively on the tests for HIV and for developing AIDS apply to all persons developing the syndrome, everywhere: to drug addicted gay men; IV drug users; non IV drug users and alcoholics; prostitutes; babies born to drug users or malnourished mothers; hemophiliacs; people with strong AIDS-phobia; African, Asian, Caribbean, and similar people; African-Americans and Hispanics in the USA; as well as to those people getting AIDS from occupational exposures to immunological stressors and to those who develop AIDS secondary to the prescription of anti-retrovirals.
In Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and similar communities, malnutrition and other conditions due to poverty, also known as "tropical diseases", have important roles as predisposing, starting, and continuing factors for reacting positively on the tests for HIV and for developing AIDS (4,7,8,13).
The mechanisms by which malnutrition, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, malaria, trypanosomiasis, schystosomiasis, leishmaniasis, systemic mycosis, as well as other infections and parasites weaken, destroy, and collapse the immune system are well known. These mechanisms should be emphasized in any attempt to understand the current occurrence of the AIDS epidemic in the poorest areas of the underdeveloped countries (31,35-39).
To understand this issue and its full magnitude, it is necessary to comprehend that never before were the poor so poor and so sick as they are now. Recently, the levels of malnutrition, infections, and parasites have reached very alarming levels (40-41).
A new risk factor for AIDS, created during the AIDS pandemic, is the belief itself that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
The mere knowledge of being or simply the feeling of being "HIV-positive" is a strong condition that can act by itself as a predisposing, starting, or continuing factor for AIDS.
The issue of mental stress as an immunodepressive agent has been addressed many times in relation to the onset, course, and prognosis of AIDS (22-25).
In order to stop the AIDS epidemic it is absolutely necessary to first end the "HIV/AIDS hysteria." Both in the individual and in the community: the feeling of being infected with the virus that causes AIDS blocks the participation of the brain and mind in the healing process.
Another terrible consequence of the "HIV/AIDS hysteria" is the feeling of rejection toward sexual life, a feeling already experienced by many. Since it is believed that one can get AIDS from having sex even with husbands or wives, the logical conclusion is that sexual intercourse is something dangerous. This misleading information ought to be stopped immediately. It is important to defend the right of people to normal sexual life.
It should be pointed out that in addition to the broad spread of environmental pollution in recent decades, people who react positively on the tests for HIV or who develop AIDS are being challenged by many other immunological stressors or oxidizing agents prior to the onset of the syndrome (8-13).
Following is a proposal for the distribution of exposures to immunological stressors¾ the risk or etiologic factors for AIDS¾ within the different groups of people at risk to react positively on the tests for HIV and to develop AIDS (1-3).
1. Drug addicted gay men:
1. IV drug users:
1. Non-IV Drug users and alcoholics:
1. Prostitutes:
1. Babies born to drug abuser mothers:
1. Babies born to malnourished mothers:
1. Hemophiliacs:
1. AIDS-phobic people:
9. African Asian, the Caribbean, and similar communities:
10. African-Americans and Hispanics in USA:
11. Occupational-related Risk Group:
12. Iatrogenic group:
Being that AIDS is the same condition everywhere, it may have a common natural history in all people suffering from it. What changes from patient to patient and from country to country is the type and dose of the etiologic factors, which are in this case the immunological stressors (1,2,4-6,8). Therefore, as happens with any other human condition caused by external agents, when doing a diagnostic analysis of AIDS, the etiologic factors should be searched and graded for each individual, group of people, country, and group of countries.
Graph #1 shows my proposal for the natural history of AIDS.
Light, moderate, or severe acquired immunodeficiency [8] is a consequence of immunogenic [6] and immunotoxic [7] degenerative effects upon immune cells and immune metabolic reactions from multiple, repeated, and chronic exposures to immunological stressors [1,2,3,4,5]. During the course of a severe acquired immunodeficiency, like the one that occurs in AIDS, all three main functions of the immune system become deficient: defense [9], homeostasis [10], and surveillance [11].
Certain infectious agents [12] find in the weakening of the defense functions [9] a unique opportunity to grow, generating a variety of opportunistic infections [15]. The deficiency in the homeostasis functions [10] is responsible for the diversity of metabolic diseases [16] seen in AIDS patients. The deficiency of the surveillance functions [11], together with the presence of specific carcinogenic agents [13], and other factors involved in the carcinogenesis process, are responsible for the occurrence of neoplasias [17]. Obviously, the simultaneous appearance of life-threatening infectious, metabolic, and neoplasic diseases depends besides the type and dose of the immunological stressors and on the physiological status [14] of the individual, given by many variables such as age, gender, personality, nutrition, pregnancy, lactation, detoxification status, responsiveness of tissues, and genetics.
If the exposure to immunological stressors is not stopped, and/or if the patient is medicated with anti-infective, anti-tumoral, and anti-retroviral therapies [18,19] a greater stage of immunodeficiency comes, with an increment in metabolic alterations and nutritional needs [20]. This brings the patient into a stage of severe malnutrition and generalized metabolic disturbances [21], with an increasing hazard of death [22].
The reactivity on the tests for HIV that occurs beginning in the earlier stages of the natural history of AIDS¾ stages without clinical manifestations¾ may be part of the stress response of the individual to multiple, repeated and chronic exposure to immunological stressor or oxidizing agents (8-13).
1. Giraldo RA. AIDS and Stressors I: Worldwide Rise of Immunological Stressors. Toxicology Letters Supplement 1/78. 1995: s34.
2. Giraldo RA. AIDS and Stressors I: Worldwide Rise of Immunological Stressors. In: AIDS and Stressors, Medellín: Impresos Begón, 1997: 23-56.
3. Giraldo RA. El Alarmante incremento mundial de Agentes Estresantes Inmunologicos. In: Ahumaca C. tet al. Relaciones Internacionales, Politica Social y Salud: Desafios en la Era de la Globalizacion. Bogotá: Fundación Cultural Javeriana, 1998: 49-73.
4. Giraldo RA. AIDS and Stressors II: A Proposal for the Pathogenesis of AIDS. Toxicology Letters Supplement 1/78. 1995: s34.
5. Giraldo RA. AIDS and Stressors III: A Proposal for the Natural History of AIDS. Toxicology Letters Supplement 1/78. 1995: s35.
6. Giraldo RA. AIDS and Stressors II: A Proposal for the Pathogenesis of AIDS. Stressors. In: AIDS and Stressors, Medellín: Impresos Begón, 1997: 57-96.
7. Giraldo RA. AIDS and Stressors III: A Proposal for the Natural History of AIDS. In: AIDS and Stressors, Medellín: Impresos Begón, 1997: 97-131.
8. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E. Reappraisal of AIDS – Is the Oxidation Induced by the Risk Factors the Primary Cause? Medical Hypothesis 1988; 25: 151-162.
9. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E. Looking Back on the Oxidative Stress Theory of AIDS. Continuum (London) 1998/9; 5(5): 30-35.
10. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E et al. Oxidative Stress, HIV and AIDS. Res Immunol 1992; 143: 145-148.
11. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E et al. Is a Positive Western blot Proof of HIV Infection? Bio/Technology 1993; 11: 696-707.
12. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E et al. The Isolation of HIV: Has it Really Been Achieved? The Case Against. Continuum (London) September/October 1996; 4(3): s1-s24.
13. Giraldo RA et al Is it Rational to Treat and Prevent AIDS with Toxic Antiretroviral Drugs in Pregnant Women, Infants, Children, and Anybody Else? The Answer is Negative. Continuum (London) 1999; 5(6): 38-52.
14. Descotes J. Immunotoxicology of Drugs and Chemicals. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1988.
15. Duesberg PH. AIDs Acquired by Drug Consumption and other Noncontagious Risk Factors. Pharmac Ther 1992: 201-277.
16. Duesberg PH, Rasnick D. The AIDS Dilema. Drug Diseases Blamed on a Passenger Virus. Genetica 1998; 104: 85-132.
17. Specter S. Bendinelli M Friedman H. Drugs of Abuse, Immunity and AIDS. New York: Plenum Press; 1993: 300.
18. Friedman H et al. Drugs of Abuse, Immunity and Infection. New York: Plenum Press; 1995: 350.
19. Root-Bernstein RS, Hobbs de Witt S. Semen Alloantigen and Lymphocytotoxic Antibodies in AIDS and ICL. Genetica 1995; 95: 133-156.
20. Duesberg PH. Foreign-Protein-Mediated Immunodeficiency in Hemophiliacs with & without HIV. Genetica 1995; 95: 51-70.
21. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E et al. Factor VIII, HIV and AIDs in Hemophiliacs: An Analysis of their relationship. Genetica 1995; 95: 25-50.
22. Kemeny ME. Psychoneuroimmunology in HIV Infection. In: Zegan LS & Coates TJ. Psychiatric Manifestations of HIV Disease. The Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Philadelphia: Saunders Co. 1994: 55-68.
23. Glaser R, Kiecolt-Glaser JK. Handbook of Human Stress and Immunity. San Diego: Academic Press, 1994.
24. Kiecolt-Glasser JK & Glaser R. Psychological Influences in Immunity. Implications for AIDS. Amer Psychologist 1988; 43: 892-898.
25. Schneiderman N, et al. Psychoneuroimmunology and HIV/AIDS. In:Schedlowski M & Tewes U. Psychoneuroimmunology. New York: Kluwer Acadamec /Plenum Publishers. 1999: 487-508.
26. Gold. JM. The Enemy Within. The cost of living near nuclear reactors. Breast Cancer, AIDS, Low Birthweights, and other Radiation-induced Immune Deficienciy defects. New York: Four Walls Wight Windows; 1996: 346.
27. Chandra RK. Nutrition and Immunity: Lesons from the Past and New Insights into the Future. Amer J Clin Nutr 1991; 53: 1087-1101.
28. Hickson JF. Diet and Nutrition for Optimal Immune Function. In: Bahl SM, Hickson JF. Nutitional Care for HIV-Positive Persons: A Manual for Individuals and Their Caregivers. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1995: 1-36.
29. Chandra RK. Fetal Malnutrition and Postnatal Immunodeficiency. Am J Dis Chil 1975; 125: 450-455.
30. Chandra RK. Interactions Between Early Nutrition and the Immune System. In: Barker DJL & Whelan J. The Childhood Environment and Adult Disease. Siba Foundation Symposium 156. London: Wiley; 1991: 77-88.
31. Cunningham MW, Fujinami RS. Effects ob Microbes on the Immune System. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000: 662.
32. Fischbein A, Tarcher AB. Disorders of the Immune System. In: Tarcher AB. Principles and Prectice of Environmental Medicine. New York: Plenum Medical Book, 1992: 389-411.
33. Lauritsen J. Poison by Prescription: the AZT Story. New York: Asklepios, 1990.
34. Chandra RK. Nutrition, Immunity and Infection.: Present Knowledge and Future Directions. Lancet 1983; 1: 688-691.
35. Ware RE, Kline MW. Immunodeficiency Secondary to Infectious Diseases. In: Rich HH, et al. Clinical Immunology: Principles & Practice. St. Louis: Mosby; 1996: 808-826.
36. Nusseinzweig RS. Parasitic Disease as a Cause of Immunossuppression. NEJM 1982; 306: 423-424.
37. Jain VK & Chandra RK. Does Nutritional Deficiency Predispose to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome? Nutr Res 1984; 4: 537-542.
38. Lamoureaux G et al. Is Prior Mycobacterial Infection a Common Predisposing Factor to AIDS in Haitians and Africans? Ann Inst Pasteur/Immunol 1987; 138: 521-529.
39. Cates W Jr. The "Other STD’s" Do They Really Matter? JAMA 1988; 259: 3606-36-08.
40. World Health. Reaching out to the poorest. World Health: Magazine of the World Health Organization. 1994; 47: 1-31.
41. World Bank. Confronting AIDS: Public Priorities in a Global Epidemic. A World Bank Policy Research Report. 1999: 365.
Roberto A. Giraldo | <urn:uuid:b5b4e066-425e-43c3-8097-4d19dd2b545b> | http://robertogiraldo.com/eng/papers/TheNaturalHistoryOfAids.html | en | 0.872088 | 0.071668 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Synyster Graves
Spoilers: The Last Exorcism
by on Mar.16, 2012, under Spoiler Alert!
** Disclaimer: This rant includes spoilers so I strongly suggest that if you do actually want to watch this film and attempt to enjoy it by all means but you should probably stop reading this article. This is not designed to ruin everyone else’s enjoyment, but stops them wasting hours of their lives on films I perceived to being a bit poo. While I may not discuss the entire plot, there will be elements whereby any attempt to create a facade by the film will be shattered. You have been warned! **
Under the pretence of an informative documentary, The Last Exorcism is first person camera film documenting the events of Reverend Cotton Marcus, a preacher who has lost his faith and aims to expose the scam of exorcisms and the order by exposing the scam of exorcisms with the documentary. He answers a letter to a farmer, who claims his daughter is possessed by the devil.
Why It’s Crap
While I’m totally not a fan of shaky camera films like Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, this film did also give me a bit of motion sickness when I’m watching. The beginning half an hour is sheer boredom, although I can appreciate them trying to set the scene, but all the background crap was just irritating.
The whole process of trying to disprove exorcisms as pomp and circumstance is interesting, especially when you see all the sleight of hand tricks to create the illusion of demonic possession, a bit like watching the Masked Magician. He sets up the room with like gas producing crucifixes, a whole host of “demon” sounds and miniature hydraulics to make furniture and pictures move. While it looks like being an elaborate magic trick, it’s all in vain as the gril, Nell, is in fact possessed by something, as she continues to act strange after the staged exorcism takes place. They take her to hospital much to her father’s objection and is completely opposed to her having any kind of psychological examination, rousing Cotton’s suspicions that Nell is being sexually and physically abused by her father. They follow them back to the farm where the brother Caleb has a lacerated face and Nell is chained to a bed. What the fuck?
Anyways the father is then accused of incest, pretty much like everyone else in the deep south, Nell is actually pregnant, the father whips out the obligatory shotgun like any stereotypical hick and Cotton attempts another exorcism (of course he’s a phony therefore can’t actually do proper exorcisms) which brings out the demon to reveal itself as Abalam. This is possibly the only part which was ok as the poor girl contorts and twists her body as proof of possession, claiming her pregnancy was brought about from a night spent with some local lad called Logan.
Rev. Marcus: idiot
This is the point where the film just descends into complete crap. Any sane person would have got the hell out of there once they phoned the local preacher for help. While driving away they notice the inconsistency with the Pastor’s story when they meet Logan and find out he’s gay. Normally, the film should have ended there as any sane person would have gone home. But these survival impaired idiots go back to save the girl rather than phone the police. They enter the house to find a host of cliche satanic symbols painted in blood like pentagrams and other sumerian scribbles only to find a bonfire out the back where they see a congregation of people being led by the Pastor in full red cloak performing some kind of Satanic ritual. Nell who is chained to a table delivers an inhuman foetus which looked more like a jelly baby of which they throw into the fire claiming Abalam will be manifested, full with really rubbish demon sounds again. Cotton regains his faith and legs it forward brandishing a crucifix like a royal cock and the sound and camera people are chased down and dismembered by the hick locals.
This film took way too long to get going as it was more like a shit documentary on Channel 4 which you would just turn over through lack of interest. The cover of the DVD (right) is misleading as we didn’t see the possessed girl climbing upside down on the ceiling at any point. By the time something happens, the people are too fucking stupid to do anything pragmatic and end up just being fodder. The ending is complete crap and the numerous times the protagonists should have just left and gone home instead of this ridiculous meddling just adds to my frustration of sitting through a pointless film. I would urge you to not waste your time seeing this rubbish. The camera work is shonky and induces motion sickness, the characters are all irritating and get no empathy whatsoever, so when their inevitable demise occurred, I wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
Leave a Reply | <urn:uuid:ce5e88e6-9ea7-4613-9348-66c4f99e7953> | http://synystergraves.com/movies/spoilers/the-last-exorcism/ | en | 0.961244 | 0.14306 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Meet the Animals: How They Live & Die
Primate Experimentation: Israel's Complicity
Destined to live their lives confined in small cages, Rhesus monkeys are assigned to a very broad range of research projects. Exploited at universities, commercial labs, and military facilities, they have little hope of ever reaching their natural lifespan of about 30 years. More often, they will be killed before they are 10, when they succumb to psychosis induced by years of confinement and abuse in repetitive experiments. There are tens of thousands of captive-bred Rhesus monkeys imprisoned in vivisection institutions.
Primates are the most closely related to humans of all species, with whom they share 99% of their DNA. They are used in research on experimental surgery, intelligence, and organ transplantation, as well as for studies on numerous specific diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, and cancer. Many modern researchers mistrust this outdated and questionable medical model, especially because newer non-animal investigative tools (like sophisticated computer modeling) are universally available. | <urn:uuid:6098bd13-0e5e-4a1b-8032-54ef06fa05da> | http://www.chai.org.il/en/compassion/reality/reality_primates.htm | en | 0.903672 | 0.094708 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Helpful Health Benefits of Mushrooms: Vitamin D
By Anne Bliss, "A Dose of Delicious Sunshine,"January/February 2014
Learn how mushrooms boost your levels of vitamin D naturally, which can benefit your mood, heart and more.
Mushrooms do more than top pizza: they’re a valuable source of a vitamin we all need, especially during these short winter days. That’s because the sun is our main source of vitamin D. You will find the vitamin in a few fortified foods, like milk and OJ. And it’s naturally in mushrooms and certain wild-caught fish, such as salmon and mackerel, but there aren’t many D-rich foods. As a result, 80 percent of the U.S. population has seasonal vitamin D deficiency, says Michael Holick, Ph.D., M.D., who heads the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University’s School of Medicine. Healthy D levels keep muscles and bones strong, reduce chronic inflammation and stave off high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression and even daytime sleepiness.
Mushrooms—like our skin—make D when exposed to sunlight. That’s why wild mushrooms are high in the vitamin. Commercial mushrooms are typically grown in the dark, but some growers have started exposing them to UV light. (UV-exposed mushrooms have some mention of vitamin D on the label.) You can fortify your own fungi by sunning mushrooms on a windowsill (chop them for maximum surface exposure). One cup (about 3 ounces) of sliced white button mushrooms exposed for an hour between noon and 2 p.m. will end up with approximately 400 IU of vitamin D, according to Holick, who is developing an app to help people make their own D-rich mushrooms (
Happily, a recent study co-authored by Holick found that eating light-treated mushrooms maintains desirable D levels just as well as supplements or sunshine. That makes these tasty fungi a great—and the only natural and vegan—food source of D.
The daily recommended value for vitamin D is 600 IU/day for most adults, but some experts consider that too low and suggest 1,500 IU/day or more.
The numbers below show the amount of vitamin D contained in 1 cup of chopped raw mushrooms of various varieties.
Morel = 136 IU
Wild Maitake = 786 IU
Portobello = 9 IU, conventional; 384 IU, commercial-light exposed
White Button = 5 IU, conventional; 400 IU, commercial-light exposed
Editor’s Note: If you want to sun mushrooms on a windowsill to increase their vitamin D, the window must be open. Vitamin D cannot be made from sunlight that has passed through glass.
Pictured Recipe: Garlic-Rosemary Mushrooms | <urn:uuid:d71ea788-48b5-4c10-8982-a91326d361ca> | http://www.eatingwell.com/print/280820?page=show | en | 0.92038 | 0.040051 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?
Does it have any pictures?
Imagine, if you will, a terrible alternative reality where video games don't exist. How did that happen? Er... maybe people continued to believe that video games might break their television sets. Who knows. Point is, if parallel dimensions do exist, one of them looks like this.
So we've come up with the following slides to illustrate exactly how the world of books would look if it had evolved the same way that video games have. Turn the page (we mean click to the next slide) and we'll get started...
Old books must be finished in one sitting
The first books didn't come with bookmarks or page numbers, so the reader was forced to start the entire book again from the beginning whenever they picked it up. Obviously this was fine for short stories like Pac-Man (enlarge the image above to read an excerpt), but began to grate when longer adventure books started being released.
Page numbers were introduced first, before bookmarks were finally included with the sale of each new book. Some books came with more than one bookmark, allowing the reader to have several read-throughs on the go at the same time, or share their books with their friends. However, such luxuries wouldn't last for long...
Piracy is combatted in ever more clever ways
Early books were either just lent, sold or copied in photocopiers. But, naturally, book companies wanted to stop that happening because it meant they only saw money from the first sale.
Without ever finding a happy compromise, the situation veers from suiting the pirates back to throttling legitimate readers until finally Microword announces a new book format 'Xbook One' that requires the reader to physically post their copy of the book back to the publisher every day so they can just check it's a real one. Wailing, gnashing of teeth... you can probably guess the rest.
'Play, Create, Share' is just blank notepads
Media Molecule manage to make the idea of notepads fun again to much critical acclaim, although cynics say that the paper is too floaty, although they accept it can be fun when four people are drawing on it all at the same time.
EA's SimCity series even adds in some coloured elements to the paper, allowing you to plan your city around blue bits (water) and green bits (land), although it comes with pencils that don't work, and sometimes people open their SimCity book to discover everything they drew the day before has since vanished for no obvious reason.
Books based on movies are almost universally awful
Licensed books are almost all awful, save for some standout titles like GoldenEye. After this watershed moment for the book industry, the Bond license subsequently becomes something of a poisoned chalice, with otherwise excellent authors given the license by their publishers, only to find themselves out of a publishing deal mere months later.
Bizarrely, many movie-licensed books feature very strange descriptions of the lead characters. For example, the character of Dylan Sanders in the Charlie's Angels book adaptation is described as having 'a face that looked like a melted plastic doll, framed with hair of pure puke-sick' which made it difficult for readers to enjoy the rest of the book's banal 'action'.
LAN parties are book clubs
Books have terrific multiplayer modes. Everyone starts at the same time, and then the first one to the end of each chapter is the winner. Griefers are those who pull out other players' bookmarks while they're taking a break, or the ones who call out important plot points as they find them. Fortunately, such miscreants can be booted from the lobby. Literally.
Asynchronous multiplayer is a traditional bookclub, where everyone reads a book in their own time (Psychonauts is a favourite starting point), then meet up to discuss how they found it. Riveting!
Readers petition authors for different endings
Not since Sherlock Holmes met his untimely demise at the hands of Moriarty has the book-loving world seen such an uproar. Even in a 'choose your own adventure' title like Mass Effect 3, there was not one single final page that was deemed good enough by the community. So they lobbied for better. And they got it.
Before the inevitable 'Book of the Year Edition' bound all the endings under one cover, extra pages were released by BioWare, adding new options to the final chapter's path choices. It still wasn't quite what everyone wanted, but it was such a lot of hassle, the petitions eventually fizzled out. Mostly because everyone agreed that Mass Effect 2 was a better read anyway.
'Unlock All' DLC sends you the synopsis
Unsurprisingly, 'unlock all' packs for book versions of video games cause just as much outcry as gaming versions do in our world. Some argue that the content is the sole reason you bought the book and that if you're just going to immediately unlock everything it has to offer, you're missing out on a major part of the experience.
Others say it's a good idea and that they don't have time to read through every book they buy, so they're happy to pay that little bit more and get to the best content as quickly as possible. However, the content isn't always worth the combined price. For instance, the 'Unlock All' DLC for the hardback (snigger) version of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 simply says: 'To confirm: You never see any nipples'.
TV news reporters haven't read any books
Especially not the ones they're making sensationalist headlines about. They bring on panels of experts to discuss the effect that books are having on young and impressionable minds, even going so far as to suggest there may be a link between reading books and killing people. After all, Hitler even wrote a book and look what happened there.
All stock images of books are totally out of date, either showing the Mario paperback series, the Penguin Classic 'Space Invaders' or the Dead Sea Scrolls.
'Mobile' books gain massive popularity
Mobile books start to take off around 1998. Of course, they're novelties at first and the resolution of the printed words isn't very high. One of the first mobile books to really gain traction with the mass market is a simple story about a snake who eats things. Despite its simplicity and repetitive plot, people read it over and over.
As page resolution at these small sizes increases, mobile reading gains popularity until mobile books are essentially just smaller versions of big books, at which point everyone kinda wishes they were still as simple and fun as Snake. Sequels and spin-offs of Snake are written, but none seem able to recapture the magic of the original.
Nintendo releases a dual book book
Nintendo, ever looking to push the technological envelope in directions nobody expected, shocks the book community by unveiling its new twin-book book. The revolutionary new design allows readers to read four pages at once.
The lower of the two books features pages that can be drawn on. The follow-up features pop-up books for the higher of the two tomes. But then people say that might hurt children's eyes (presumably by popping out too violently), so eventually they bring out one big book, the pages of which can be drawn on but doesn't feature any pop-up mechanisms. People start pointing out how it's looking more and more like a regular book. Nintendo leaves the publishing business shortly afterwards.
Cheat sites are... weird
The most popular and awesome site on the internet is BookRadar.com, which offers amazing features about what would happen if books had waned in popularity and something weird like video games had taken off instead.
Cheats and walkthroughs are mostly just shortcut guides directing readers to the pages with the juiciest bits on them. The sweariest swear-words, the hottest rude bits... and, of course, the best references to other books. People who are not hardcore book readers are amazed at why anyone actually bothers to make this sort of thing.
Read any good games recently?
Books are great, but we like games more. Otherwise we'd be called 'BookRadar.com'. Don't click that, by the way, it isn't an actual site. Although we did stumble upon a HorseRadar.com recently. Not that we go searching for horses very often...
And if you're looking for more, check out If video game hardware was dug up in a thousand years and Video game characters' school report cards.
We recommend | <urn:uuid:263b4964-ab38-4f6f-803e-d6f9e93e5071> | http://www.gamesradar.com/if-video-games-didnt-exist-and-we-all-read-books-instead/?comments=2 | en | 0.969223 | 0.422073 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Patently Apple brings another interesting Apple proposal to our attention -- this one involving using the iPhone camera to detect swipes backward, forward, and the accelerometer to detect pause or play for things like Voice Mail without having to move the iPhone away from your ear. But that's not all:
Consider the following example of navigating the display screen. If the user wishes to scroll down on a webpage or text document, then the user would simply move their finger across the camera lens in an upward direction (i.e., towards the top of the screen 200). This would be consistent with moving the page "up" so as to bring a bottom portion of the page into view. To move the page down (and thereby bring a top portion of the page into view), the reverse needs to occur, i.e., the user needs to swipe across the lens in a downward direction. Note that navigation on the display screen (using a finger swipe across the camera lens) need not be limited to straight up and down, but rather could be performed in other or additional directions (e.g. left and right). Now that Apple is introducing "iBook" – think of flipping the page of a book using this method so that you don't even have to move your hands from the iPhone or future camera based iPad.
So now we've heard of case gestures, bevel gestures, and camera gestures... Of course Apple patents tons of stuff we haven't and may never see in real products, but are any of these starting to interest you?
[Patently Apple via MacRumors] | <urn:uuid:0de42336-9089-405b-9496-be60048021ae> | http://www.imore.com/swipe-pause-play-iphone-camera-gestures-apple-patent-watch | en | 0.923199 | 0.075812 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |