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My Top Ten Turkies of 2001 - Jack Foley
GIVEN the amount of disappointments released on unsuspecting movie-goers during the course of the year, it was fairly easy to pick out which ones sucked the most. It is during moments like the ones contained below that the joy of being a critic is sorely tested. In the case of Dude, Where's My Car, it can be excruciatingly painful!!!
Fortunately, I managed to avoid seeing some of the biggest stinkers of the year - such as Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, or Scary Movie 2, but 2001 wasn't without its dull and disappointing moments, most notably in the case of some of the bigger blockbusters - step forward, Messrs Bruckheimer and Bay!
So here, without further ado, is my selection - starting from 10. Let us know what you think...
Title: The Mummy Returns (12)
Why? A cynical attempt to cash in on the success of the original - it worked, but was soulless.
Dumbest scene: John Hannah fighting - and winning.
Title: Zoolander (12)
Why? A one-joke catwalk comedy which was the model of imperfection. A huge disappointment.
Dumbest scene: Anything involving the film's central baddie, Mugatu.
Title: Nowhere To Hide (15)
Why? Director Lee Myung-Se goes for style over content and succeeds. The effect is numbing.
Dumbest scene: Detective Woo has yet another fight while interrogating a suspect.
Title: Legally Blonde (12)
Why? Clueless goes to law school and tries to be cool. It felt like a long prison stretch.
Dumbest scene: The winning of the court case, so cheesy it hurt.
Title: Vertical Limit (12)
Why? Cheap thrills atop a snowy mountain become buried under an avalanche of cliche.
Dumbest scene: Scott Glenn finally finds his long-lost, dead wife.
Title: Dracula 2001 (15)
Why? Wes Craven presents a toothless re-working of the vampire legend which was a pain in the neck.
Dumbest scene: The plane sequence as dracula is re-born.
Title: Driven (PG)
Why? Rocky translates to the race track and crashes as a result. Driven it may be named, drivel it is.
Dumbest scene: The groan-inducing finale. Have you guessed what it is yet?
Title: John Carpenter's The Ghosts of Mars (15)
Why? Former horror-master Carpenter reaches his lowest point. Total crap.
Dumbest scene: 'If we set off the nuclear bomb, what will happen?'
Title: Pearl Harbor (12)
Why? Technically superb but a film which showed scant regard for history.
Dumbest scene: 'And then all this happened'
Title: Dude, Where's My Car? (12)
Why? Dude, where's my brain, more like... this sucked big time, bro!
Dumbest moment: The whole film | <urn:uuid:f3e17c20-d680-4c41-9f78-2185afd04cba> | http://www.indielondon.co.uk/film/top_ten_worst_rob.html | en | 0.921518 | 0.885609 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Robocop reboot trailer hits the InterWeb
Could this movie be the one that polarizes young and old geek culture?
If you scan Internet comment boards enough, you'll likely know that next year will bring a reboot of the classic 1987 movie "Robocop". Updated with the latest movie-magic technology, this Robocop is clearly aimed at the younger generation of science-fiction and movie fans who either weren't around for the original movie, or those who may have only seen it on VHS or DVD.
The first trailer for the film has hit YouTube, check it out:
As a fan of the original (I was 19 when it first came out), the announcement of a remake hit me hard. Remakes aren't supposed to be done of films you remember seeing in the movie theater when you were young - they're supposed to be done of old films that your parents went to. I think a lot of the anger about the remake/reboot is based on people who are realizing now that they're the old ones.
Going into seeing this trailer, I wanted to hate the movie, but I have to admit it seems interesting. The original movie was very cynical about the nature of the media, corporations and violence - it looks like some of that will still be there, but the new film seems to have added an interesting piece missing from the original. In the first one, the officer who becomes Robocop had his memory erased, and his family didn't know that he was still alive. In the new one, it looks like the family knows about this, and so does Robocop. The family dynamic here could be played up more than it was in the original.
With high-caliber stars in the new film (Morgan Freeman, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman and Jackie Earle Haley), I'm wiling to keep a more open mind about the movie than I did before. I don't think that this reboot, unlike the one they did for "Total Recall" a few years ago, will do as poorly. But maybe that's just me being mellower in my advancing years.
ITWorld DealPost: The best in tech deals and discounts. | <urn:uuid:8b53fc64-37c5-4e9f-93b2-1292d7d54857> | http://www.itworld.com/article/2833212/personal-technology/robocop-reboot-trailer-hits-the-interweb.html | en | 0.976652 | 0.051007 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
- Debian (
- - What's up with Kernel Annoying bugs while compiling... (
marquisor 10-09-2010 07:49 PM
What's up with Kernel Annoying bugs while compiling...
hello, this is my x-th attempt to compile the kernel on debian lenny.
after solving the damn LGUEST issue, now i got an --append-to-version=-foobar issue?!
damn... much time wasted, again.
after make menuconfig and make-kpkg clean i start compiling with
fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-cpupmopt kernel_image kernel_headers
error log:
< ... snip ...>
H16TOFW firmware/edgeport/down.fw
H16TOFW firmware/edgeport/down2.fw
IHEX firmware/edgeport/down3.bin
IHEX2FW firmware/keyspan_pda/keyspan_pda.fw
IHEX2FW firmware/keyspan_pda/xircom_pgs.fw
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/hppm78/linux-'
test ! -e scripts/package/builddeb || mv -f scripts/package/builddeb scripts/package/builddeb.kpkg-dist
test ! -e scripts/package/Makefile || test -f scripts/package/Makefile.kpkg-dist || (mv -f scripts/package/Makefile scripts/package/Makefile.kpkg-dist && (echo "# Dummy file "; echo "help:") > scripts/package/Makefile)
COLUMNS=150 dpkg -l 'gcc*' perl dpkg 'libc6*' binutils make dpkg-dev |\
uname -a >> debian/buildinfo
echo using the compiler: >> debian/buildinfo
grep LINUX_COMPILER include/linux/compile.h | \
sed -e 's/.*LINUX_COMPILER "//' -e 's/"$//' >> debian/buildinfo
grep: include/linux/compile.h: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
echo applied kernel patches: >> debian/buildinfo
echo done > debian/stamp/build/kernel
/usr/bin/make -f ./debian/rules debian/stamp/binary/pre-linux-image-
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/hppm78/linux-'
====== making target debian/stamp/install/linux-image- [new prereqs: ]======
This is kernel package version 11.015.
echo "The UTS Release version in include/linux/version.h"; echo " \"\" "; echo "does not match current version:"; echo " \"\" "; echo "Please correct this."; exit 2
The UTS Release version in include/linux/version.h
does not match current version:
Please correct this.
make[1]: *** [debian/stamp/install/linux-image-] Fehler 2
make: *** [kernel_image] Fehler 2
so where's the fault? just one/some modules not supporting a custom version title adding? wherefore is this option then?
are there more annoying bugs? maybe before the last 10 modules or static would be "NICE!" .... :( after 3hrs of compiling.
EDIT: since this is debian specific and i used make -j5 etc. for # of jobs in other distros, is there an option on make-kpkg for that? && any chance for resuming?
AlucardZero 10-09-2010 08:04 PM
Don't know about your main question, but
CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=5 fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd ...
don't 'make clean'.
Edit: did some search for your main question.
Upgrade your kernel-package package.
marquisor 10-09-2010 08:57 PM
thx, now stable and testing/unstable get a new meaning
seems i now have to manually keep different sources.lists ....
thx for the info on using more cpus. resume would work if i could fix the error. any idea?
EDIT: well with new kernel-package from testing 12.036 it's resuming now... will give a notice later if all goes well. :S
| <urn:uuid:67520449-d6ce-4502-a94b-9396688377bb> | http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/whats-up-with-kernel-2-6-35-7-annoying-bugs-while-compiling-837152-print/ | en | 0.674968 | 0.03311 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Can 'Sunken City' rise to the top? The New Orleans web comedy wraps its first season
'Sunken City' explicitly brands itself as a Crescent City product (its tag: 'A comedy web series. Made in New Orleans.').
The first season of the local web series "Sunken City" comes to an end Monday (March 31), when the ninth and final episode will be released. Reception has, overall, been kind: The series has earned positive press, thousands of followers on social media, and very respectable YouTube view counts.
The sitcom isn't the first show to be set in the Crescent City, but the series' goal is ambitious: to be a TV comedy about New Orleans, in the way "Portlandia" is about the Pacific Northwest, or how "Parks and Recreation" spoofs typical Middle America.
Ambitious is one descriptor; foolhardy might be another, as New Orleanians don't tend to cotton to anyone who tries to speak for the city. "Sunken City" explicitly brands itself as a Crescent City product (its tag: "A comedy web series. Made in New Orleans.").
"Sunken City" broadly set forth character arcs in its June 2013 pilot: Uptowners Beau and Birdie Jackson, whom NOLA Twitter likely would describe as "NOLier than thou," set out on a hopeless quest to ride the king's float in Rex. Clueless, style-over-substance entrepreneurs DJW and Curry sought to nail down a viable business plan. And as for Spooky Tours' codependent couple, Warlock and Ann, of course they were doomed: how can you have any faith at all in characters who sleep in those ridiculous wigs?
The first eight episodes of "Sunken City" add up to more than 90 minutes. The most fetching story line of season one is the slow dissolution of Warlock and Ann's marriage. In the pilot, Ann is practically inaudible, a fumbling, silent assistant who combs her husband's wig and applies his theatrical makeup. Throughout the series, she secretly starts spending time with the aptly named dessert blogger NOLA Sweet Boy, while whipping up some tasty treats of her own. The final shot of episode eight shows Warlock waking alone, with Ann's wig left hanging on her bedpost. Despite Warlock's obsession with mystery, the true point of interest in the relationship is Ann: Where is she? What does she want? And, really, what does she look like without that wig?
Beau Jackson already has been humbled -- the identity of Rex was revealed in episode seven -- so his story line appears to be mostly resolved. His wife, Birdie, is in the midst of opening her T-shirt boutique on Magazine Street. While the Fleur de Linda scenes have offered some good laughs, particularly showcasing extras Colleen Allerton and Andy Ledford, the arc doesn't have strong enough stakes to anchor the character.
DJW and Curry are still comically unbelievable as successful businesspeople, but some smart ensemble work by the "Trep team" grounds the story. DJW and Curry are easily the series' most unlikeable characters, but they're not popular among their peers, either.
The creators of "Sunken City" are currently seeking a distributor for season two. The star they're reaching for probably looks a lot like "Broad City," Comedy Central's hit darling former web series.
Where the dreamers of "Sunken City" are clearly doomed, the makers of the series are, generally, smooth and savvy. While privately viewing a rough cut of the series, I was asked my opinion on a "quick 4 o'clock social" (an update for fans on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). The team doesn't just follow the golden rules for self-promotion on social media; they evince a strong dedication to branding. DJW and Curry may waste their LaunchPad experience by debating between "an hour of inspiration or a pizza break," but the "Sunken City" team is always on the grind.
Web series are a new enough medium that the format invites its own questions. How long should an episode be? How many secondary characters do you need to enrich a world, and how many primary characters are too many?
And that's before we get to the biggest concern: Is this show funny to people who live in New Orleans? Is it funny enough that people who live elsewhere will also enjoy it?
Check out the first season of "Sunken City," and come back Monday (March 31) to share your review. | <urn:uuid:a954e881-edc9-4884-b434-96a58e0709f4> | http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2014/03/sunken_city_new_orleans_web_co_1.html | en | 0.959518 | 0.018498 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
UNTIL this season, Pete Carril and Michael Jordan had always been on different basketball planets -- one the longtime Princeton coach in the Ivy League, the other the National Basketball Association's one and only. But when the Bulls were in Sacramento not long ago, the Kings' assistant coach met Air for the first time.
''I was honored by that,'' the 66-year-old Carril said. ''At my age, you'd think I'd be past those things.''
The Bulls were coming off the court at the morning shoot-around in the Arco Arena when Coach Phil Jackson introduced them.
''Michael shook my hand,'' Carril recalled, ''and told me, 'Welcome to the N.B.A.' ''
As Carril remembered, that was about the extent of their brief conversation that day.
''Michael's not going to spend much time,'' he said, ''with a no-account assistant.''
Pete Carril wasn't putting Michael Jordan down; he was, as usual, putting himself down. But a few days later, this self-styled no-account assistant was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., for having guided Princeton to 514 victories and 13 Ivy League championships in his 29 seasons as coach. He tried to play that down too.
''I've got gout,'' he said. ''My leg's going to hurt whether I'm in the Hall of Fame or not.''
But quietly, he was impressed with knowing that he would be bronzed in the Hall of Fame.
''In there with Red Auerbach and Red Holzman, with Dean Smith and Bob Knight,'' he said. ''Not a bad group to be in.''
Yet now he's a Kings assistant on Coach Garry St. Jean's staff, a Hall of Fame assistant.
''Being an assistant doesn't bother me at all,'' he said. ''As I said at the time, I'd had enough. The aggravation and the pain in your stomach and the headaches that you get when you see things that are done wrong or when you lose or all those problems you have as a head coach, I'd had enough.''
One of his Princeton players, Geoff Petrie, now the Kings' vice president for basketball operations, hired Carril shortly after his last hurrah at Princeton, a 43-41 upset of defending champion U.C.L.A. in the first round of last year's National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.
The Tigers won with a layup off a bounce pass in the final seconds on what they call a center-forward back door.
Without Carril, this season's Tigers are 21-3 under Coach Bill Carmody, and have another Ivy League title for an automatic berth in the N.C.A.A. tournament.
''Pete calls every 10 days or so,'' Carmody said. ''When he was in New York for the Hall of Fame announcement, he stopped by and looked at our tapes.''
Watching tapes is what Carril does with the Kings, who play the Nets tonight at the Meadowlands.
''In the pro game, it's all basketball, the tapes, the practices and the games, traveling,'' he said. ''The only thing that bothers me about the pro game and our team is that I think we can improve our sense of efficiency, our precision, some 20 or 30 percent. It could've won five or six more games for us. But from what I've heard, that's pretty normal in the N.B.A.''
He has mostly tutored the Kings' younger players, but he has also worked with their best player, Mitch Richmond.
''I'd toss some things at him, nothing big,'' Carril said. ''He had a reputation as a two-bounce dribbler. I thought he could dribble better than what he thought. He tried it. He's passing the ball better.''
For a coach, strategy isn't that much different in the N.B.A. than in college or high school.
''More than 40 years ago when I started coaching, I'd say to a young kid, 'Let's get a good shot at the basket,' '' he said. ''Here it is, I'm still saying the same thing, 'Let's get a good shot at the basket.' It doesn't make any difference.''
But to Carril, there is a ''difference'' that separates Michael Jordan from everybody else.
''The fact that he's totally fundamentally sound is obscured by the fact that he can jump high and run,'' he said. ''If he couldn't jump, he wouldn't be as spectacular, but he'd still be a great player. He throws the right pass all the time. He can dribble with the best of 'em. And when he guards you, he might make you give up the game.''
Who would know better than a no-account assistant who's in the Hall of Fame.
Photo: Pete Carril (Associated Press) | <urn:uuid:28a85124-82c8-4975-b7f7-18a91d77eda3> | http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/25/sports/the-kings-hall-of-fame-no-account.html | en | 0.975381 | 0.035092 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Super Flexible File Synchronizer is a fast, and (as its name suggests) highly configurable file synchronisation and backup tool.
And so while the program allows you to specify both local and remote folders to synchronise, with support for FTP, FTPS, SFTP/SSH, WebDAV, SSL, HTTP, and Amazon S3 web storage, that's just the start.
You can also choose the copying direction.
There are three possible synch types. Standard copying copies new, missing or modified files from one folder to another, but doesn't delete anything; SmartTracking is used for two-way synchronisation, and can detect and deal with deleted and conflicting files; and Exact Mirror simply duplicates the contents of one of your folder, in the other.
You're also able to add Include and Exclude filters to define exactly which files will be synchronised.
And a powerful scheduler can run your sync job at a specific time, when your PC starts, when it shuts down, or in real time.
The whole process then runs very speedily, thanks to its delta copying technology. This means it only copies the changed portions of files, potentially saving a great deal of bandwidth.
There's versioning support, which allows you to keep multiple older versions of each file in the backup. Or course there are several file naming schemes available to support this, and you can choose the one that works best for you.
And these are only the initial features. Switch the program to Advanced Mode and you'll find even more possibilities on offer.
Please note, the price we're quoting here is for the full Professional Edition. If you can do without some of the more advanced features, like real-time synchronisation, then the Standard Edition may be sufficient, and it's cheaper at $39.90. Follow the Buy link for details.
It's not cheap, but then Super Flexible File Synchronizer is one of the best backup tools around | <urn:uuid:5809da74-4504-4261-91f4-e1793eb4faa6> | http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/download/backup-recovery/super-flexible-file-synchronizer-555-3214355/ | en | 0.917153 | 0.021373 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
EARLY IN OUR RELATIONSHIP my girlfriend and I went on a travel-writing trip together. I took pictures of her all along the way; across tables in restaurants we couldn't otherwise afford, alongside medieval casements, that sort of thing. She was delighted by the photos, despite my lack of skill with the camera. She said that she had always disliked pictures of herself, except for the few taken by her adoring children. Hence the maxim: You can't take a wonderful picture of something unless you love it.
That tidy little concept comes to mind when I see the unloved, unfocused food at Piattino.
First, some quick background. Piattino was formerly the Mediterranean-Iranian restaurant Shiraz Grill. Two years ago, Nostrana spin-off Oven and Shaker moved in next door to Shiraz. Oven and Shaker made so much money, Shiraz decided to become Italian too, taking cues from its neighbor's menu and décor. That's fine, right? Lots of Portland restaurants look like each other!
No. In an interview recently, John Gorham (Toro Bravo, the Tasty restaurants) told me that he doesn't like his cooks to prepare one of his dishes until the cook loves it, until they "get" what's great about it. The care comes through in the food; what's special about it is featured to its best effect. When I receive a dish at Piattino—say, the wood-fire-roasted half hen with peperonata, parsley, and fennel pollen ($12)—my signals go haywire, then quiet. The bird's skin is more black-gray than appetizingly charred, the peperonata is limp and bland, and the whole assembly sits in a cast-iron pan in a pure black ring of the creosote of god knows what, having sat under a broiler for god knows how long. No one who loves roasted hen sends out a dish that dull and ugly. It's nothing to share with people.
Lamb pappardelle ($13) features decent housemade pasta, but the ragu is watery and tastes like it's been run through the dishwasher—the meat seems to have had all its flavor boiled out while being used for stock. Potato gnocchi with "rustic" pork and tomato ragu ($12) were waterlogged and gluey, because gnocchi are very hard to make well unless you are fairly devoted to them. The best pasta, lasagnette with kale pesto, gorgonzola, and black garlic ($12), was flavorful and tender—but why did it come to the table in an awkward little cast-iron pan?
Pizzas are inconsistent, and on the small side. On one night the crust of a Calabrian (mushroom, salumi, pepperoni, chiles, buffalo mozzarella, $14) had good chew and decent seasoning, but half the cornicione was pure black. What chef sends that out? Another night, the crust of the Della Terra (wild mushrooms, braised leeks, taleggio, truffle oil, $15) was nothing more than crisp, bland flatbread.
Roasted cauliflower ($8) was limp and warm, and had none of the personality of a wood fire on it. Most serviceable as food was a cast-iron mini-pan of tender house meatballs ($12), with a rich smoked marinara and competently fried polenta cubes. Over the course of $200 in food and drinks, though, the only thing I'd get again is the pear and goat cheesecake ($8), a gigantic wedge whose gentle tang and smooth body ate nicely with a smattering of crunchy granola and tart-sweet balsamic reduction.
Service is attentive, though everybody always seems fairly new, and nobody knows who's doing what. Dishes are checked on, but by many people, and at disconcerting times. I noticed on each visit that our waiter made our cocktails ($8-9), which were without fail wildly imbalanced, and typically based on problematic recipes. The Caribbean Romance (light rum, amaretto, orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine) might succeed in expert hands, but this drink had more in common with Children's Tylenol.
At the end of the day, Piattino feels like a tourist trap. The owner swans from table to table, laughing as he charmingly suggests that you buy something more than what you have—every joke feeling like an undisguised upsell. He swoops in on diners, beaming, offering leading questions about how much you like the food—and people who are too nice, are also too intimidated to tell him that their $8 cocktails taste like frat-house potshots, that their $12 black kale salad was one chewy, julienned leaf. Perhaps he wouldn't have to sell the food so hard if he'd just go back in the kitchen and pay some attention to it. | <urn:uuid:afccdc31-70a0-4bdf-b944-a678ba423977> | http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/beauty-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/Content?oid=11256767&show=comments | en | 0.97149 | 0.333816 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Jumbo Loans vs. Conforming Loans
July 7, 2011 No Comments »
Jumbo Loans vs. Conforming Loans
Today we’ll look at another common mortgage match-up: “Jumbo loans vs. conforming loans.”
If you currently have a mortgage, or have been shopping for a mortgage, you’ve probably heard plenty about both jumbo loans and conforming loans.
So what’s the difference between the two, you ask? And does it matter?
Conforming Loans Meet Fannie and Freddie’s Guidelines
Well, for starters, a conforming loan is a mortgage that meets the underwriting guidelines (credit, income, assets requirements) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed pair that buy and securitize mortgages on the secondary market.
Additionally, the loan amount must be at or below the conforming loan limit (set by the FHFA) to be considered conforming.
This limit was as high as $729,750 in the highest-cost regions of the United States, but on October 1, 2011 it dropped to a maximum of $625,500, and the traditional conforming loan limit is a much lower $417,000.
Confused yet? You should be, considering the conforming loan limit has been messed with a lot ever since the mortgage crisis unfolded.
So there are several ways a mortgage can earn the distinction of non-conforming. And if it is, Fannie and Freddie won’t want anything to do with it, and it will need to be held on the originating bank’s books, or securitized with private capital.
Mortgage Rates Are Cheaper for Conforming Loans
As a result, mortgage rates are generally lowest for loans at or below the traditional $417,000 loan limit, while loan amounts between $417,001 and $625,500, known in some circles as conforming jumbo loans, will be slightly higher.
For outright jumbo loans, you’re looking at even higher mortgage rates, depending on the type of loan and the issuing lender’s risk appetite.
This all has to do with risk – because conforming loans are guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie (who are government-owned), there’s more demand for them on the secondary mortgage market. After all, they’re essentially guaranteed by the government.
As a result, interest rates will be lower because more buyers means banks can fetch a higher price for their mortgages, and thus offer a lower yield, which corresponds with a lower mortgage rate for Joe Consumer.
Jumbo Loans Tend to Be Priced Higher
Then are are jumbo loans, which are mortgages that exceed the conforming loan limit, as I mentioned above. That’s pretty much the only determining factor.
Because they don’t adhere to Fannie and Freddie’s standards, they don’t come with that sought-after government guarantee.
And so mortgage rates on jumbo loans will be higher – how much higher depends on the market. If investor demand for jumbos is strong, the rate spread may be narrow, and vice versa.
Historically, the spread has only been a quarter to a half percentage point, but it widened to as much as two percentage points during the height of the financial crisis, seeing that nobody wanted to touch anything without an implied government guarantee.
Currently, the spread between conforming and jumbo loans is less than half a percentage point. But it’s not just higher mortgage rates you have to worry about with a jumbo loan.
Getting a Jumbo Loan Can Be More Difficult
Qualifying for a jumbo loan is also much more difficult than qualifying for a conforming loan, as fewer banks and mortgage lenders offer them. With a smaller number of banks vying for your loan, you will likely be greeted with both a higher interest rate and more financing restrictions.
For example, you’ll likely need to come up with a larger down payment (we’re talking 20 percent and higher) while maintaining an excellent credit score. Plenty of assets are usually a requirement as well.
[What credit score do I need to get a mortgage?]
Your loan program choices may also be more limited when seeking a jumbo, though both fixed-rate and ARM options are generally available.
However, these drawbacks explain why most homebuyers attempt to avoid jumbo loan territory, either by putting down more cash at closing or going with a combo loan, thereby keeping the first mortgage below the conforming limit.
In any case, be sure to shop around with a large numbers of lenders to ensure you explore all your options, whether your loan is conforming, jumbo, or somewhere in between.
Leave A Response | <urn:uuid:b096a834-ed1e-4aaf-8d3e-eaf57440a642> | http://www.thetruthaboutmortgage.com/jumbo-loan-vs-conforming-loan/ | en | 0.957707 | 0.077675 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
What is eczema?
Eczema is a word that means irritated skin. Doctors don't really know why some kids and adults get eczema, and others don't. They think it might happen for a bunch of reasons:
• Family: If your mom, dad, brothers, or sisters have eczema, you might get it too.
• Asthma and allergies: If you have asthma (a disease that can make it hard to breathe) or allergies (when your immune system tries to protect you from normal things that aren't hurting you), you're more likely to get eczema.
• Where you live: Eczema is more common in cities, polluted areas and in the northern part of the world.
When you have eczema, it means your immune system is working too hard. Your immune system usually is good, because it tries to protect you from bad stuff like infections and diseases. For some reason, when you have eczema, your immune system kind of goes crazy. So that makes your skin overreact to something and get all itchy and rashy. Weird, huh?
If you have eczema, you might not itch all the time. It's sort of like eczema goes to sleep. Certain things wake it up and make you start itching. These things are called triggers and you should try to avoid them if you can, especially if you've noticed that they make your skin itchy.
Common triggers are:
• Animal dander and saliva (when a pet licks you).
• Scratchy clothes (such as wool).
• Sweating a lot.
• Soaps.
• Household cleaning products.
• Fruit juices.
• Dust.
• A cough, cold, or the flu.
Next: Different kinds of eczema. | <urn:uuid:83296e7c-20d6-403c-87f5-da4aea337d27> | https://www.aad.org/public/kids/skin/eczema/what-is-eczema | en | 0.950076 | 0.988387 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Alternative title: rugger
Rugby, rugby [Credit: © Lutz Bongarts/Getty Images]rugby© Lutz Bongarts/Getty Imagesfootball game played with an oval ball by two teams of 15 players (in rugby union play) or 13 players (in rugby league play). Both rugby union and rugby league have their origins in the style of football played at Rugby School in England. According to the sport’s lore, in 1823 William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, defied the conventions of the day (that the ball may only be kicked forward) to pick up the ball and run with it in a game, thus creating the distinct handling game of rugby football. This “historical” basis of the game was well established by the early 1900s, about the same time that foundation myths were invented for baseball and Australian rules football. While it is known that Webb Ellis was a student at Rugby School at the time, there is no direct evidence of the actual event’s having taken place, though it was cited by the Old Rugbeian Society in an 1897 report on the origins of the game. Nevertheless, Rugby School, whose name has been given to the sport, was pivotal in the development of rugby football, and the first rules of the game that became rugby union football were established there in 1845.
Rugby is now a popular sport in many countries of the world, with clubs and national teams found in places as diverse as Japan, Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, Uruguay, and Spain. Rugby among women is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. At the turn of the 21st century, the International Rugby Board (IRB; founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board), headquartered in Dublin, boasted more than 100 affiliated national unions, though at the top level the sport was still dominated by the traditional rugby powers of Australia, England, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales.
Different forms of football have existed for centuries. (For more on the development of football sports, see football.) In Britain, football games may have been played as early as the time of Roman occupation in the 1st century bce. During the 14th and 15th centuries ce, Shrove Tuesday football matches became annual traditions in local communities, and many of these games continued well into the 19th century. These localized versions of folk football (a violent sport distinctive for its large teams and lack of rules) gradually found favour within the English public (independent) schools, where they were modified and adapted into one of two forms: a dribbling game, played primarily with the feet, that was promoted at Eton and Harrow, and a handling game favoured by Rugby, Marlborough, and Cheltenham.
Game playing, particularly football, was encouraged at Rugby School by influential headmaster Thomas Arnold (1828–42), and many boys educated at this time were instrumental in the expansion of the game. Rugby football soon became one of the most significant sports in the promotion of English and, later, British imperial manliness. The game’s virtues were promoted by books such as Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days (1857). The cult of manliness that resulted centred on the public schools and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where boys were sent to learn how to become young gentlemen. Part of the schoolboy’s training was a commitment to arduous physical activity, and, by the late 19th century, rugby and cricket had become the leading sports that developed the “civilized” manly behaviour of the elite. It was believed that rugby football instilled in the “muscular Christian” gentleman the values of unselfishness, fearlessness, teamwork, and self-control. Graduates of these public schools and of Oxford and Cambridge formed the first football clubs, which led to the institutionalization of rugby.
Once they had left school, many young men wanted to continue playing the game of their youth, and the early annual matches between alumni and current senior students were not enough to satisfy these players. Football clubs were formed in the mid-19th century, with one of the very first rugby clubs appearing at Blackheath in 1858. Rugby enthusiasm also spread rapidly to Ireland and Scotland, with a club founded at the University of Dublin in 1854 and the formation by the Old Boys of Edinburgh of the Edinburgh Academicals Rugby Football Club in 1858. In 1863 the tradition of club matches began in England with Blackheath playing Richmond.
Representatives of several leading football clubs met in 1863 to try to devise a common set of rules for football. Disputes arose over handling the ball and “hacking,” the term given to the tactics of tripping an opponent and kicking his shins. Both handling and hacking were allowed under rugby’s rules but disallowed in other forms of football. Led by F.W. Campbell of Blackheath, the rugby men refused to budge over hacking, calling those against the practice “unmanly.” Though Campbell’s group was in the minority, it refused to agree to the rules established for the new Football Association (FA) even though many elements of rugby rules were included in early compromises. Ultimately, rugby was left outside the FA. Despite the initial reluctance to abandon hacking, rugby clubs began to abolish the practice during the late 1860s. Blackheath banned it in 1865, and Richmond supported a similar prohibition in 1866.
Rugby received bad publicity after a Richmond player was killed in a practice match in 1871, prompting leading clubs to respond to Richmond and Blackheath’s call for an organizational meeting. Thus, in 1871 members of leading rugby clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU), which became the governing body for the sport. By this time, hacking had largely disappeared from club rugby, though it remained a part of the game’s “character building” qualities at Rugby School. As a result of its continued adherence to the practice, Rugby School did not join the RFU until 1890.
The growth of the game
Rugby rapidly spread from its elitist origins in England, Scotland, and Ireland to middle- and working-class men in the north of England and in Wales and to the British colonies in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. It also spread to North America, where it was transformed into a new style of football.
Northern Hemisphere
Unlike association football (soccer), which embraced player payments and league play in the 1880s, the RFU staunchly resisted professionalism, cup competitions, and leagues, though international rugby between England and Scotland began immediately. As soon as the six Scottish clubs heard of the formation of the RFU, they issued a challenge to it for a match to be held in Scotland on March 27, 1871. The match was played in front of 4,000 spectators, with each side scoring a try, though only Scotland could convert the try with a goal (see below Play of the game). Ireland began playing England in 1875 and Scotland in 1877. The three national teams formed what became known as the “Home Nations.” Significantly, club rugby matches remained ad hoc in England until the latter decades of the 20th century, and, as a result, international matches took on a special meaning.
Northern England and the split
In the north of England, rugby was organized somewhat differently from in the south. Teams became the focus of civic pride, and league and cup competitions quickly arose in Yorkshire. The game spread throughout Yorkshire to Cumbria and parts of Lancashire, and many working-class men were playing by the mid-1880s. Northern clubs campaigned for “broken time” payments for their working-class players who lost time from work in order to play. Matters came to a head at an 1893 general meeting of the RFU, where the legalization of broken time payments was soundly defeated by southern clubs, which controlled a majority of the votes. On August 29, 1895, in the town of Huddersfield in Yorkshire, 22 of the leading clubs in the north of England resigned from the RFU and created the Northern Rugby Football Union, which became the Rugby Football League in 1922. The majority of northern clubs joined the Northern Union, but it failed in efforts to expand its influence farther afield within Britain.
In Wales rugby clubs were established as town clubs in both large communities and small mining towns during the 1870s and ’80s. Many early players had some experience of the game in the north of England and took their interest with them to Wales. By the early 1880s rugby had become a vital part of working-class culture in south Wales, which distinguished the game there from its upper-class association in other parts of the British Isles. Wales had high levels of immigration in the late 19th century, and rugby emerged at this time as a focal point of a new modern Welsh nationalism. As a result, the Welsh Rugby Union formed in 1881, and Wales soon entered the Home Championship, competing with England, Ireland, and Scotland. Wales won its first title in 1893. Unlike England, a more competitive system arose in Wales, with a South Wales Challenge Cup being contested between 1878 and 1897 and an unofficial league system appearing by the 1930s. As the only team to defeat the powerful New Zealand team on its first tour of the British Isles, in 1905, Wales cemented its place as a dominant rugby power.
Rugby remained central to modern Welsh identity, particularly in the period between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s, when players such as Gareth Edwards, Barry John, Phil Bennett, Gerald Davies, J.P.R. Williams, and others kept Wales at the top of Northern Hemisphere rugby. During the 1980s many coal mines were closed, which led to the deterioration of mining valley communities that had been the cradle of Welsh rugby for a century. Since that time Wales has struggled to regain its position as a leading rugby nation.
Rugby union football spread more slowly outside the British Empire, though it was played in France as early as 1870. There were 20 or more French clubs by 1892, mostly in and around Paris. Soon the game diffused to southwestern cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, and Perpignon, where it became the most popular team sport. France joined the British Home Championship in 1910 to create the Five Nations Championship. In France the game was governed by the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques, a multisports group, from 1887 and by the French Rugby Federation from 1920.
French attitudes toward professionalism were much more relaxed than in the British Isles, which led the Home Nations unions to sever relations with France in 1932, though they were restored in 1945. France broke with the traditional British practice in rugby union of holding series of “friendly” matches rather than formal league competitions and in 1892 formed a national club championship. In 1978 France was finally admitted to the IRB, joining England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Following the inharmonious split with the Home Nations in 1932 over questions of professionalism, France embraced rugby league, known there as jeu à treize (“game of thirteen”). In 1934 the French rugby league federation (Ligue Française de Rugby à XIII) was formed. Like rugby union, the league game in France is largely confined to the southern part of the country. During World War II, rugby league play was outlawed in France by the Vichy government, but the sport made a comeback in the postwar era.
In the 1920s rugby also gained a foothold in Italy, particularly in the northwestern part of the country. The Italian Rugby Federation was founded in 1928. In the 1980s clubs supported by large companies began to organize payment of players in their club competition, and leading international players such as Naas Botha of South Africa, David Campese of Australia, and John Kirwin of New Zealand played rugby union in Italy. Italian rugby advanced significantly by the 1990s, and in 2000 Italy joined the Five Nations competition, which was then renamed Six Nations.
Canada and the United States
Rugby rules appeared in North America before the 1870s and were used in a famous game between McGill University of Montreal and Harvard University of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1874. In 1876 representatives of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia universities formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, which, in general, agreed with the RFU’s 1871 rules. Rugby rules were soon modified in the United States and later in Canada, however, to create the distinct codes of gridiron football played in North America. Although gridiron football had largely supplanted both association football and rugby in the United States by late in the 19th century, rugby enjoyed a revival from 1905 on the Pacific Coast after gridiron football was banned there in the aftermath of a public furor over violence and player deaths and injuries. Rugby remained popular there after the gridiron sport was restored to its preeminent position. West Coast players largely made up the national rugby teams that won at the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, after which rugby was dropped as an Olympic sport. Rugby also retained a foothold in British Columbia in Canada. Into the 21st century a large proportion of players on the U.S. and Canadian national teams came from the West Coast region.
Southern Hemisphere
It was in the Southern Hemisphere that rugby assumed new levels of cultural meaning and innovation. In New Zealand and South Africa, the sport became an integral part of national identity and at times a flash point for social and political issues.
rugby [Credit: Nigel Marple/Getty Images]rugbyNigel Marple/Getty ImagesIn Australia the game was closely associated with the eastern coastal region. The Southern Rugby Football Union was formed in Sydney in 1874. Only five clubs played in Sydney at that time, but by 1900, 79 clubs existed, with a senior and four junior competitions. The Metropolitan Rugby Union, later the New South Wales Rugby Union (NSWRU), was founded in 1897 to administer league competitions in Sydney and devised a district system that led to increased spectator interest. By the 1880s matches between teams representing New South Wales and New Zealand began, as rugby in Australia remained largely confined to the big east coast cities of Sydney and Brisbane. The national Australian Rugby Union was not formed until 1949. In other parts of Australia, Australian rules football had already established itself as the dominant sport.
The issue of payment to players appeared in Australia by the early 1900s, centring in particular on compensation for injured footballers. Alex Burdon, a barber by trade, injured his shoulder in July 1907; however, the NSWRU refused to pay compensation. At the same time, a professional team of New Zealand rugby players, known as the All Golds, prepared to travel to England to play against Northern Union clubs. The tour inspired Sydney clubs and players to form the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) on August 8, 1907. The NSWRL adopted the rules of the Northern Union and organized an Australian team to play against the All Golds before they left for England. In 1908 a rugby league competition began in Sydney with working-class clubs leaving rugby union to play by the new rules. The first Australian rugby league players toured Britain in 1908–09, followed by another tour of Britain in 1911–12, thus establishing international links between Northern and Southern Hemisphere breakaway groups. The main centres of rugby league in Australia are Sydney and Brisbane, though it is widely played in cities and towns throughout the country and has a larger following than has rugby union.
New Zealand
rugby [Credit: © Chris McGrath/Getty Images]rugby© Chris McGrath/Getty ImagesIn New Zealand the first rugby match was played at Nelson in 1870. However, rugby spread slowly owing to problems of distance and sparse population, and while regional unions appeared throughout the country by the mid-1880s, a national union, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), was not founded until 1892. A New Zealand “Natives” tour (1888–89) of Australia and the British Isles was organized by an entrepreneur keen to exploit British perceptions of the “exotic” Maori population of New Zealand. A team made up mostly of Maori players toured Britain, winning 49 of its 74 matches, including many matches against clubs in the north of England that largely consisted of working-class players and that had become the best club teams in the country. In 1902 the Ranfurly Shield was presented by Earl Ranfurly, the governor of New Zealand, to serve as a trophy for a challenge competition between provincial rugby teams. The shield remains one of the most prized trophies in New Zealand’s domestic competition. In 1903 New Zealand played a truly national Australian team for the first time. New Zealand’s national team, known as the All Blacks for their black uniforms, defeated a visiting British national team in 1904, and on the All Blacks first tour of Britain, France, and North America the following year, they posted a stunning 34–1 record. Success in international rugby supported by strong domestic teams formed the backbone of New Zealand rugby and cemented its place as the country’s top sport.
Indeed, there are few countries whose national identity is as tied to a single sport as New Zealand’s is to rugby. Pride in the country, its history, and its culture commingle in New Zealanders’ rabid support for the All Blacks, who enact a ritual before each match that is the embodiment of this national spirit; the haka, borrowed from the country’s indigenous Maori culture, is a traditional war dance and chant that inspires the All Blacks while issuing a challenge to their opponents to do battle.
South Africa
A form of rugby football was played in South Africa in 1862, and the game was first played in Cape Town in 1875. British regiments helped found a club at King William’s Town in 1878. The expanding population that followed the Kimberley diamond discovery spread the game into that region (1883–86), and rugby was being played in the Johannesburg and Pretoria areas by 1888. The Western Province formed a union in 1883; the South African Rugby Football Board was established in 1889. South Africa too has leagues for clubs and a national competition between provincial teams for the Currie Cup, first given in 1891 by Sir Donald Currie.
From the 1930s through the ’60s, the South Africa national rugby union team could make arguable claims to being unofficial world champions. After 1960, however, the issue of apartheid, under which South Africa sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination against nonwhites, began to infringe on the team’s reputation and on international rugby. Black South Africans were excluded from playing in the whites-only rugby competitions run by the South African Rugby Board and were forced to play in separate competitions over the course of the 20th century. Pivotal to the success of South African rugby, as well as to its continued segregation, was the controversial Danie Craven, a legendary player who also served as coach of the national team and president of the Rugby Board.
As a core cultural activity of white South Africans, rugby became the target of protests by black South Africans and international antiapartheid protesters, who called for boycotts of both South Africa and its national rugby team. Significant protests first emerged in New Zealand in 1959–60 when the NZRFU did not select Maori players for the 1960 tour of South Africa in order to comply with apartheid restrictions. New Zealand postponed a planned visit to South Africa in 1967 because South Africa still would not accept Maoris as part of New Zealand’s national team. The tour was rescheduled for 1970 after South African authorities permitted Maoris to tour as “honorary whites.” By this time South Africa had been expelled from the Olympic movement, and the focus on South African rugby intensified. In response to disquiet among black Commonwealth countries, the New Zealand government canceled a planned 1973 tour by South Africa, in order to save the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. In 1976, 23 African countries boycotted the Montreal Olympics in protest against New Zealand’s presence because the All Blacks had played against South Africa that year even after the June 16 massacre of black protesters, many of them children, in Soweto.
The most-dramatic events surrounding rugby occurred in 1981 during the South African tour of New Zealand. The second match of the tour was canceled when protesters occupied the field. Flour “bombs” were dropped from a plane during the final Test match, and police barricades went up throughout the country as the tour progressed. In 1985 the New Zealand courts stopped a proposed tour of South Africa at the last minute, and in 1986 a “rebel” tour of New Zealanders went there. During the 1980s, however, South Africa became progressively isolated as the sports boycott took effect. Notably, it was excluded from the first two Rugby World Cups in 1987 and 1991.
The dismantling of apartheid began in 1991, and South Africa was again accepted by the international sports community. The country hosted the rugby union World Cup in 1995 and won the championship with a nearly all-white team, which, with the open support of then president Nelson Mandela, unified the country in a brief moment of transracial national identification.
Other countries
Other countries where rugby has developed to a high level include Argentina and the Pacific Island nations of Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. Rugby was introduced to Argentina in the 1870s, and by the turn of the 20th century four clubs based in Buenos Aires had formed the River Plate Rugby Football Union. The Argentine national team, known as the Pumas, has a reputation for being particularly physical in the scrum. Although rugby did not reach the Pacific Island countries of Samoa and Tonga until the 1920s, it had been played in Fiji since the 1880s. In 1924 Fiji and Samoa (then Western Samoa) met in the region’s first Test match. All three countries continue to focus on their individual national teams, but in the early 21st century they also began to play together periodically as a single team representing the Pacific Islands.
The modern era
In the latter part of the 20th century, both rugby union and rugby league were affected by the growing influence of commercialism and television. The development (and success) of World Cup competitions was a particular spur to the enormous growth of rugby football in the decades leading into the 21st century.
The first Rugby World Cup competition organized by the IRB was held in 1987 in New Zealand and Australia and was a popular and financial success. It was staged four years after a failed attempt to launch a global “rebel” (that is, outside the control of the IRB) professional championship. Rugby union thus embarked upon a road toward professionalism and new levels of commercialism that eventually led to the full professionalization of the sport in 1995. The 1991 World Cup, held in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France and won by Australia, had confirmed its place as a major international sporting festival. By 1995 the chairman of the Rugby World Cup could claim that the event was the fourth largest international televised sporting event as the tournament reached an estimated 124 countries and 2.7 billion viewers.
Just prior to the 1995 cup, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia Rugby, Inc. (SANZAR), was formed to develop what it called “the perfect rugby product,” including the Super Rugby provincial competition and the Tri-Nations international series. SANZAR then sold exclusive global television rights to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for $555 million over 10 years.
In rugby league, television became crucial to the wider promotion of the game. In the late 1980s and ’90s the premier rugby league competition in Australia expanded from Sydney to include teams from other parts of Australia and then a team from New Zealand. In 1980 the State of Origin competition between New South Wales and Queensland began, and it soon became one of the most-watched sporting events in Australia. In England this model was followed through the creation of the Wars of the Roses series between Yorkshire and Lancashire.
In 1995 a revolution took place in rugby league as the News Corporation tried to buy global rights to the game in an effort to secure the rugby league product for Murdoch’s pay television services in Australia. The end result was a much-needed cash infusion of £100 million into the game in England, though at the cost of creating a controversial “Super League” there and the development of a rival “Super League” competition in Australia that ran during the 1996 season. While compromise was reached in Australia, the game suffered significant damage as spectators turned away from rugby league in disgust, with some preferring to watch rugby union or Australian football.
With professionalization of rugby union in 1995 and the now relatively free movement of players between sports, it appears that a rapprochement between union and league might be possible. Several people have devised compromise rules that seek to create uniform rules for both codes, but these have been resisted thus far.
Despite professionalization, at grassroots levels rugby retains a strong social and cultural atmosphere where play on the field is only a part of the experience. Rugby players are notorious for heavy drinking and singing sessions, particularly when on tour. Moreover, in rugby-playing countries, success on the field often translates into success in professional life, as rugby clubs and associations form the basis for strong local, national, and international social networks. To adherents rugby union is known as “the game they play in heaven,” while rugby league, with similar club-based cultures, is called “the greatest game” by its followers.
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It was amazing how different the field could seem when night fell.
He would catch sight of a shadowy shape out of the corner of his eye and jump to attention, sure that it was monster which had escaped from one of the caves, only to discover that it was only a stump that he'd seen every day since he'd come to live on the farm when he went to investigate. Or he would trip over a rock that he would swear hadn't been there when it was light out, since he had gone through the unturned areas of the land with a hammer weeks ago to get rid of any large stones. Worst, at one point he pulled up what he thought was a weed only to realize that he'd misjudged his position and had just torn up one of his half-grown carrots.
He wished that he could leave the work he needed to do until the next day when he could see, but he just couldn't bring himself to. It didn't matter that the crops probably wouldn't be any worse for the wear if he left them unwatered for one day, that the weeds wouldn't choke their roots overnight, that the sweet potatoes which needed to be harvested wouldn't rot on the vine in under twelve hours. The farm, the field, were his duty, and the only thing in the world that he had to hang onto with his entire past a mystery to him. He'd let himself be lazy during the day, which meant that he needed to work twice as hard at night to try getting done before it was past midnight.
He was watering his carrots when a quiet voice behind him said, "Wasn't today the Harvest Festival?"
He whirled around, doing his best to hold his watering can like a weapon, but relaxed when he saw Sharron standing on the bridge leading into the wilderness. No wonder he hadn't heard anything; she moved as silently as the ghost the rumors said she was.
"It was," he replied, setting the can on the ground beside him and dusting the dirt of his hands. "I didn't see you at the celebration."
"I prefer to stay by the ruins." She approached him, her eyes flickered down to the watering can, then to the other tools he had leaning against the fence near him. When they returned to him he thought that he saw the faintest trace of curiosity in her usually expressionless face, although it could have been a trick of the moonlight. "I didn't think that anyone worked on the day of the festival."
"I didn't either, which is why I'm paying for it now." he said, with a small laugh.
"That isn't what I mean." In one graceful movement she knelt by his feet and reached out to touch the freshly watered soil, not seeming to care at all that the front of her white dress was being ground into the dirt. "I'm certain that none of the villagers are struggling to complete the work that they would have done today before it gets too late."
"Ah, well," he rubbed the back of his head, trying to think of a way to explain his feelings. "The villagers... none of them are farmers. I mean, Camus has his buffamoos and Neumann has his kokehohos, but monsters will mostly take care of themselves. The crops depend entirely on me. I can't just push that responsibility aside, especially not on a day that's supposed to be all about showing how grateful we are to the world for providing for us."
She looked up at him, and her face was as blank as a mask. "You respect our planet."
"Well, yeah," he said, not really sure how to respond to that statement. Wasn't that true of everyone? It was the whole reason they'd all gathered together that day, after all. He bent down beside her, and reached out to gently stroke a leaf with his fingertip. "I didn't know anything about the world when I first came here back at the beginning of the spring. I mean, I still don't really. But I've seen the way the crops respond when you care for them, and how they cling so hard to life even when the weather isn't on their side. Even the weeds want to flourish more than anything else. It's all amazing, don't you think?"
She stared at him silently for so long that he began feeling the urge to squirm under her gaze. He had no idea what she was searching for in his eyes, but she didn't seem displeased with whatever she found there when she finally broke eye contact with a small nod and rose to her feet. "It's time for me to return to the inn," she said, already starting to walk away. But she paused again with her back to him when her feet hit the path to the village. "I'll tell you this, since you know so little about the world: the people in the village may say that the festival is a time for respecting the harvest, but what they mean is that they want an excuse for a celebration. They are kinder to our world than the people in many places that I've been, but I don't know if there are any among them who truly care about it. Not as you do."
He blinked after her as she started to walk away, then suddenly his wits came back to him and he called after her, "Sharron, wait a minute!" He reached out to carefully remove one of his sweet potatoes from its vine, then shoved himself to his feet and trotted over to her. "This is for you," he said, pushing the potato into her hand. When she held it up to look at it he grinned and said, "You're supposed to give crops to your friends today, right?"
"Friends?" she repeated, and for a moment he wondered if that had been the wrong thing to say. He knew that she tried to keep distance between herself and the people in the villages. Then her lips curved into the slightest hint of a smile. "Then thank you, Raguna. For the potato, and... for what it means."
He only wasted a moment watching her walk silently away, the sweet potato still held in her hand, before turning back to his field. It was the day of the festival, after all, and the harvest wouldn't wait. | <urn:uuid:634a8fb3-e607-45ac-ba47-002746728648> | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4312956/1/Festival-Night | en | 0.994895 | 0.272157 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Through the wind whistling and the sleet pounding on the cobblestones, the old priest made his way to where the place where Caryl was lying exhausted after the hours of childbirth. Two bundles were next to her on the bed, and her husband was bent close to her, a proud smile on his face as he looked at his new son and daughter. The babies' older siblings, two girls and a boy were sleeping in the corner of the room. None of the little ones stirred as the old priest entered, his boots making a wet slapping noise on the stone floor.
Caryl smiled as he held her little ones in each arm and looked at them solemnly. He did the family great honor by coming to see her new twins. Her smiled faded as the look in his eyes grew more and more distant and his voice came out in the deep tones of one in a trance. The old priest was known for his prophecies, and especially for their veracity. The children's father stood with a glint in his eyes as he listened carefully for the words of the man who had been known to speak doom on the lives of many.
"Though both will grow up in strength and wisdom, and there will be no noticeable difference in their greatness. The brown-eyed one will fall on the field of battle, but the blue-eyed one will save this people and their land."
He left without another word as their mother began to cry softly, but not loudly enough to wake any of her sleeping children. | <urn:uuid:769ef8d0-efad-40b3-9b1b-0f8b590de6c7> | https://www.fictionpress.com/s/1866037/1/Aelyn-s-story | en | 0.993402 | 0.034409 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Chapter Five: The Eleventh Hour
A boy sat at the top of the stairwell, unable to believe what he had just heard. Had his ears betrayed him? Or had what he thought had happened actually come to pass? Either way, Michael realized that someone had some explaining to do and for once, that someone was not his best friend. He slumped down and let his head fall to the more comfortable position of resting on his arms as he tried to ignore whispers from his parents that were coming from downstairs.
When he finally could not handle things anymore, he jumped up. This merited the attention of both his parents, as Jon exchanged nervous glances with his wife. He was just starting up the stairs when Michael turned and bolted in the direction of the school room, grabbing a blue and grey stuffed animal as he passed by the room he and Andy shared. Andy, who was still patiently working on transposing music, paid his older brother little or no attention.
The door to the school room would have slammed shut had Jon not arrived in time to prevent that from happening. As he glanced down at his son, he saw the face and body of a livid teenager. Michael's normally pale cheeks were red and his eyes narrowed in anger. One hand was clenched into a fist at his side and the other was holding the stuffed manta ray by one of its pectoral fins.
"Michael, please," Mr. Liu held one of his hands up in the air in a placating gesture. Ironically enough, this was the same stance that Michael often assumed when mediating arguments between Scott and Samantha Adams. "Just listen to me."
Michael hardly moved a muscle. For nearly five minutes, he stood there, rarely blinking and barely breathing. There was a tension mounting in the air, but Michael outwardly appeared immune to it. Silence prevailed for that period of time until he finally spoke. "Why was he here?" His voice was perfectly calm, but serious and almost deadly.
Jon drew in a sharp breath of air. "Please, Michael," he began. "Let's both go downstairs, have some tea and I'll answer your questions, okay?" He sent up a silent prayer that Michael would oblige. The boy considered for a brief moment, but nodded and followed his father out of the schoolroom, still holding the poor manta ray in one hand.
Once Jon had poured both himself and Michael tea, he sat down on the couch. Michael was sitting in the chair that Sharpe had occupied only moments before, wrapped up in a flannel blanket that rested on the back. He showed little interest in the cup of tea; instead it sat on a coaster on the coffee table in the center of the living room.
Jon sighed. He knew he would have to take the initiative; if Michael did, accusations would follow. He could see into his son's eyes that the boy was a simmering combination of angry, hurt, upset, confused and frustrated. This was a dangerous combination in almost any human, but especially someone who kept so many of his emotions typically hidden. "Mr. Sharpe decided to come by to make sure you and Sam arrived home safely." At this statement made by his father, Michael arched an eyebrow. So Sharpe had been following them earlier. "He wanted to catch up on old times for awhile, so that's what we were doing. We went to high school together."
Michael leaned back, clearly unimpressed. "He mentioned that," he replied in a non-committal voice. "Several times, in fact." There was a short pause and Michael's fingers ran along the seam of the blanket. "Why was he here? I know Mom gave him dinner." Although the Liu family was gracious to their guests, Michael hadn't expected his mother to feed Mr. Sharpe dinner.
Mr. Liu frowned slightly. "Just how much did you hear?" He took a sip of his tea and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together.
Michael shrugged. "Enough to know what happened." His voice was level and calculating as he spoke, as if he was testing to see how his father would react before he said anything else. "After so long, I thought you or Mom would've realized that I often pretend to sleep."
Jon's glance fell to the ground suddenly. "Michael, please tell me exactly how much you heard." His voice was level as he matched that of his son, but there was a deep pleading undertone within his emotional signature that betrayed him. He was very uneasy of what would happen next and this frightened him.
Michael hardly wished to respond and he kept fiddling with the blanket in his hands. "I know that Mr. Sharpe gave you something that he intended for me to have. And yes, I heard almost everything." An eyebrow quirked upwards as Jon's face paled slightly.
Jon, who was still almost white, pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Michael. It was slightly wrinkled along the corners, but Michael ripped it open and removed the piece of paper inside. It was a handwritten note and probably the handwriting of a teenager, he guessed, and transcribed onto spiral-bound notebook paper.
[[Michael, if you're reading this, please don't shoot the messenger. He's only doing it on my request and that's it. If you want to send a reply, please trust him to get it to me. But that's not what I was going to talk about anyways. I really wanted to you to know that Sharpe's a good guy and I'd like to invite you to visit me sometime. Maybe pick up a game of chess? He mentioned that you play... so do I! Or just hang out... or whatever. It doesn't really matter to me.
I wish I knew how to say this to you, but you've really been a good friend to me. All the times we've talked and Sharpe's told me that you really do care about your friends. I've never heard him say that about anyone else, except probably your dad. He's a good guy, too, I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hunch he knows more than he says he does.
Which is why I'm actually writing to you. He really has a soft spot for some of his students and I'd like to ask you a favor. Has he told you anything about a guy called Kiyoshi Sato? I know they used to know each other. I asked Sharpe last time, but he wouldn't say anything more. Weird, huh? That and his family are the only things he never talks about.
You probably won't trust me on this. Sharpe told me to put proof in the envelope. Silly guy. But there's the camp pic of you, the twins and red-head down at the archery range. The flash that he thought was lightening was my camera. Sorry 'bout that... and thanks.
I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Signed, The Black Rook]]
Michael read the letter once and then again. One of his hands held the picture. Surely enough, the photograph clearly showed Scott and Nate arguing in the background. Sam was preparing to shoot the arrow and Michael had been standing next to the two cousins, deciding whether or not to watch them argue or to step in and play peacekeeper.
"Michael," Mr. Liu's voice was clear. "Mr. Sharpe was very insistent that you had that. In fact, he was sure you needed it. I don't know why; you'd have to ask him." He glanced down at his son. Michael's face was carefully crafted into that same stoic expression he had nearly mastered that revealed almost none of his feelings. The only sound coming from the living room was the soft chime that signalled that it was 10:30 PM. Upon hearing the chime, Michael jumped up. "What's–" Mr. Liu started to ask, but Michael cut him off before he could say anything.
"I... I need to go somewhere." Michael threw the blanket back down on the chair. Because he had not actually gone to bed yet, he was still wearing the same clothing he wore at school: a blue turtleneck and slacks. He slipped on his tennis shoes that were lying on the floor next to the front door over the socks he wore. He also grabed his long trench coat and shoved the letter and picture into a pocket. He shut the door before his father could stop him and he was gone.
"Who is it?" A voice called from inside and a girl opened up the door just a crack. The girl was easily a few years older than Michael was and she sported a casual purple sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers. Her long brown hair was pulled back loosely into a braid. "Oh, hi Michael! I... uhm, didn't expect you here so late, but please, come in." She smiled and moved to the side, allowing Michael entrance to the house.
Michael followed Jennie into the living room. The house was remarkably like his own in so many ways. Plush blue carpet covered the floor of the room in which they stood and a few chairs and the couch had been arranged around the room in roughly an elliptical shape. Jennie took a seat, but Michael remained on his feet, far too uneasy to sit down and stay still.
"Michael, you okay?" Jennie glanced over at him. "I've never seen you out this late." Even at church functions, Michael had been well-known amongst his peers for getting home at a reasonable hour.
Michael shrugged. "I need to talk to Mr. Sharpe," he stated after a moment. His voice was shaky; he was still pacing back and forth along the carpet. He clasped his hands behind his back and stopped for a moment.
Jennie placed her hands on her left knee. "Okay... let me know why you need to see my brother," she replied, her voice equally as apprehensive as Michael's had been. She was not concerned that Sharpe would be asleep; it was still early enough that the thought passed through her mind. She was well-aware of the fact that her older brother stayed awake far into the night on a regular basis.
Michael's hands came unclasped. "He... he said something to me and I wanted to ask him what it meant." There was a short pause. "It's Latin and I need to ask him about the translation."
Jennie opened her mouth slightly. "Let me call him and see what he says," she answered. "While you're waiting, we made cookies this afternoon if you want some." She spent part of her time working at Riverdale High and many of her afternoons were spent volunteering at the community center with kids who had special needs. Fridays were usually devoted to fun projects, like cooking. Apparently more cookies had been made than they were able to eat or take home.
"No thanks," Michael shook his head. Between dinner and the odd things that had happened that day, he was hardly hungry anymore. After a moment, Jennie grabbed the telephone and took it into the other room. Michael drew his lips into a tight frown. Very few things were running through his mind and the only main thing was concerning Mr. Sharpe. Nearly five minutes later, Jennie emerged from the kitchen.
"My brother agreed to let you come over," Jennie smiled, holding the phone loosely in her right hand. "I'd walk you over myself, but Mom and Dad want me home." She wrote and address on a piece of paper and sketched out a quick street diagram. "This is what he told me to do, so here. I trust your ability to follow directions is better than Scott's?" She smiled slightly and handed the paper to Michael.
Michael nodded. Scott was the kind of person who would get lost giving instructions from his house to school, despite the fact that it was only three streets away and the trio had been going to Riverdale for over two years. Michael glanced down at the paper. The address read 313 B Janus Avenue. With a split second thought, Michael knew exactly where that apartment complex was located; it was only a short distance from Riverdale High. In fact, Tyler Martin had used to live in the same complex with his mom and younger sister Emily until they had moved just a few months before.
As he walked down Chestnut Avenue, the wind whipped around his body, blowing his coat in all directions. The boy pulled in closer into his body as he kept putting one foot in front of the other. His dark eyes blinked a couple of times as he made his way down the street. It would be a long walk; that much he was certain of.
While he was walking, he contemplated the letter he had received. He was certain he knew the person who had sent it. Perhaps it had been someone from Sola Scriptura, the summer Bible camp that he, the twins, their cousin Nate, Tyler Martin, Marie Wilson and Kiran Shasthri had all attended the summer before their sophomore year. It had been a wonderful time. Michael had made some close friends that summer, like Nate Winters and Hideaki Sato and Kiran Shasthri, who had later stayed with the Liu family for a semester as an exchange student. All the teenagers spent time not only in worship, but also intense Bible study. The smaller group that Michael had been in had studied Job. As memories of Sola flooded his mind, he smiled; maybe the walk did not feel so long after all.
The apartments on Janus Avenue were not far from Riverdale High. Michael kept walking along as he realized that it made sense for Sharpe to live there if, as he said, he did not own a car. It would take Michael approximately five minutes to walk from the apartments to Riverdale; he assumed it would take Sharpe slightly less than that based on the fact that the chemistry teacher had much longer legs than he. The teenager entered the apartment complex and wandered around for a few moments. It was a nice feeling to walk around in peace... the lonely atmosphere contrasted with his home, which was ever bustling with people.
After about ten minutes of walking, he came to realize that the A apartments were on the first floor and the B apartments were on the second. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair, eyes darting around into the distance. He came upon the apartment marked 313A and his glance shifted upwards to the heavens. For just a moment, he marveled at the majesty of all that was happening. Despite the foul weather, the night sky was absolutely amazing: he could see the small flecks of light that were really stars, all of them many light years away. Though he couldn't find any of the constellations, he knew that the closest star other than the sun was approximately four light years away. A gentle smile touched his lips; the heavens had not yet seemed this close to him since he and a small group of friends had gone star gazing at Sola.
["Isn't that amazing?" One of the teenagers marveled as he looked up at the night sky. The moon was only a small sliver that night. "Hey Michael, look up there. The Big Dipper... or Ursa Major as Dad calls it."
"Hmm?" Michael arched an eyebrow towards the other boy. He had been counting specks of light for the past few minutes. "What did you say again?"
Hideaki smiled. "The only vacation Dad took me on was camping and we spent lots of time watching stars." His dark eyes lit up and he held his hands out to get them warmed up by the fire that was barely smoldering. "They're so far away... Alpha Centauri's the closest and we can't even see it here."]
Michael cherished that memory – like all the others – that he received from Sola and he smiled. It gave him both the strength and courage to climb the stairs to Sharpe's apartment. His hand hesitated when he reached to knock on the door. He couldn't follow through. As much as he was curious about what Sharpe had said to him and how he got the letter, the sensible part of Michael's mind urged him to give up right then.
He would have left had the door not opened right at that moment. "Mr. Liu, I presume." Long fingers opened the door from the inside as the cold voice spoke. So many times had Michael heard this voice; to him it sounded both caustic and slippery, like one of the alkaline bases they used in the chemistry lab. "Come in. We have been expecting you."
Light streamed from the inside of the small apartment as Michael blinked a few times. He could hardly believe he was in the apartment complex, much less that he was entering the room. The man ushered him inside quickly and firmly shut the door, not allowing the wind to enter or to exert chaos upon the sparsely decorated room. Michael followed Mr. Sharpe inside and removed his tennis shoes, setting them beside the door. As he looked around, he took in every detail he could. The walls were a light grey and the thinning carpet was dark green.
"Sit." Sharpe motioned towards a computer office chair. There was a grey striped cat sitting in the seat. As Michael began to sit, the cat lazily jumped down and pranced across the carpet and into the kitchen. "Nernst is hardly used to anyone being here." Sharpe followed the cat across the room and allowed his long legs to carry him towards the dining room with little effort. "As am I." He grabbed two ceramic mugs and brought them to the living room, offering one to Michael, who gladly accepted.
Michael swished the contents of the mug around and smelled the liquid. It was a smell he would recognize almost anywhere and it belonged to Jennie and Mandie's apple cider. Every Sunday during the cold weather, Jennie would make it for the kids in the youth group at church. He silently gave thanks for something familiar around here; the whole day had just been too odd for him. The boy was pensive for a moment as he saw, waiting for the steaming liquid to cool. Apparently the contents of Sharpe's mug were less hot because the chemistry teacher was able to drink. There was an awkward silence that built up inside the room. Michael was contemplating how the day had begun by walking out of homerooms and letting the door slam behind him. The series of events that followed had led to this: being out of his house after curfew hours and sitting in the apartment of the very teacher he had been determined to hate earlier that day.
"When my sister called, she said that you had a question that you needed to ask me," Sharpe's voice had the slightest hint of a drawl, which Michael had never noticed before. The middle-aged man set his half-emptied mug down on the small table near his own chair.
Michael nodded. "Who's Kiyoshi Sato and what does he have to do with me?" Michael's eyes narrowed. This was a good question to begin with and he was well-aware of the fact that Sharpe was probably going to avoid fully answering his question; he had overheard just enough of the conversation before.
Sharpe folded his hands and took a deep breath. The ambient lighting, though dim, still seemed bright on his eyes. He resolved to fix that, but it would have to wait until later. "Kiyoshi Sato was a classmate of mine when we were in high school," Sharpe began. He chose his words carefully; now was neither the time nor the place to speak more than was necessary. "He and Emiko Takahashi's father were close friends. They happened to be in the same year that I was and both delighted in giving a certain amount of grief to their classmates." Sharpe's angular nose wrinkled ever-so-slightly at the very tip. "Your father and your aunt were both acquainted with him. Why do you care to know?" Sharpe arched an eyebrow, choosing to ignore Nernst, who had pranced back into the living room and was now rubbing up against Michael's leg.
Michael shrugged and his glance dropped to the cat. "It's just something I was thinking about., that's all." Michael was lying through his teeth and he knew it. He was also aware that Sharpe probably knew this, but he didn't care. "Could I pet him?" He glanced down at Nernst, suddenly changing the subject.
Sharpe frowned slightly. "If he lets you, then you may pet him." He watched as Michael bent down and Nernst jumped into the youth's lap. The man took a long sip and set the mug back down. "That is not everything you were going to say, was it?"
Michael shook his head. "Is Mr. Sato still alive?" He stopped paying attention to the striped feline long enough to ask the question. After remembering the crumpled paper in his jacket pocket, he resolved to inquire about the contents of that later.
"No," Sharpe let out a sigh. "He died sixteen years ago as a direct result of a decision he made." Sharpe's voice was about half an octave lower than it normally was.
[Sharpe was silent as he moved through the alley way. It was a dark and cloudy day in the middle of March, much like what one would expect to find in Seattle, not the sunny Bay Area in California. He had nothing better to do; there were no assignments due for any of the classes the college junior was taking. Even Dr. Shasthri – a difficult professor if he'd ever encountered one – had not assigned homework for the advanced thermodynamics class she taught.
This may have not been the best idea he had, but the twenty-one-year-old decided to duck into an abandoned alleyway. He hardly had reason for doing this, except that a police car was about half a block from where he stood; he did not want more of a headache than he already had from the sirens and flashing lights of emergency vehicles. In the shadows, he saw something that would make his headache much worse: Kiyoshi Sato. Sato's narrow features had grown even narrower in the past year and a half since Sharpe had seen him last.
He heard a cry coming from the basket that Sato held under one arm and he gasped aloud, barely reaching his hand up in time to muffle the sound. It was the cry of a small child. He'd heard it once before, many years ago when he was in the hospital for his own surgery, but he'd paid little attention then.
"What're you doing here, coward?" Sato's scathing voice addressed Sharpe. "I know you're here, so y'might as well show yourself." Sato set the basket down on the ground next to an old trash bin and turned around, looking for Sharpe to appear.
Sharpe decided to step out from the shadows. "Ah, Sato," his voice was sickly sardonic as he answered Sato's accusations. "And who is the coward this time? Impregnating a girl three years younger than you? Running away so you don't have to face her parents? Taking one of the children with you?" He paused for a moment, pointing a long stick at the ratty basket and the torn blanket that draped over its edges. "And who was the true coward before? Bullying someone who's half your size? Insisting that the fight is five-to-one? Now, if I were you, I'd put that knife down on the ground. Oh yes, I know you've got a knife in your pocket…" Sharpe nodded towards the front right pocket of Sato's jeans.
Sato seethed though his clenched teeth. "You…" he hissed. This was followed by a string of expletives. "I don't have time for this!" He removed the knife from the pocket of his jeans, opened it up and thought for a moment, debating at whether to lunge at Sharpe or to slit his own throat open. He decided on the latter. He brought the knife up to his own carotid artery. Sharpe stood frozen, unable to do anything. Instead of going through with his plans, Sato used his knife to slice the side of his neck. He screamed out in pain and fell to the ground.
Sharpe hurried over and held his – former – enemy in his arms. "Here," he said, holding up a vial to Sato's mouth. "It'll work faster… and not be as painful." The contents of the vial were poisonous, but it would allow Sato to die without so much pain. After all, that was what he obviously wanted. Sharpe knew Sato was a coward; what about the infant? However, Sato's breathing stopped just before he swallowed the substance.
As soon as he had realized what happened, Sharpe wove his way around the trash cans to reach the infant. He immediately noticed an envelope in the basket. Opening it up, his dark eyes skimmed the contents.
[Attention: J. Victor Sharpe
If I am to die here and today, please take the child into your care. His name is Hideaki.
K. Sato]
The date and a signature were placed on the side of the note and Sharpe frowned, his lips drawing themselves into a thin line. As carefully as he could, he picked up the basket. The young child inside was about a year old and looked almost exactly like his father did. Sharpe knew he couldn't bear to look at the youth every day for the rest of his life. It would bring back too many memories of being teased and pushed down into the mud day after day. Even if the boy stayed with the Altons – Sharpe was sure Josiah and Sherry would take him in – the memories were still too strong.
He shook his head. He would have to take the boy into a foster care center instead. With that choice being made, he set off towards home, carrying the basket under his arm.]
"Yet that holds little concern for either of us now, Mr. Liu," Sharpe's voice had reverted back to its typically cold tone. "And tomorrow, things will be made clearer." An eyebrow arched upwards as his hands clasped the warm mug.
Michael glared at the older man defiantly for several moments. Down the hall, the clock ticked and Nernst rubbed his head against the side of the chair. "Alright..." Getting Sharpe to answer his inquiries about this Kiyoshi Sato was clearly not working, so he decided to take another route. "You went to high school with Emiko Takahashi's father, didn't you?" This question was merely one of curiosity; earlier Sharpe had mentioned Takahashi being a bully.
Sharpe set the mug down on the table that was at the left side of his chair without regard to use a coaster of any sorts. "We were both on the interscholastic chess team." Absently, Sharpe reached into his pocket and pulled out an old chess piece. It was carved from a wood that looked that almost black in the dimmed lighting of the room and judging by the general shape and the cross on the top of it, Michael assumed it was a king. After a moment of twiddling it in his thin fingers, Sharpe placed the piece back into the pocket of his pants. Maybe it had been too long since he played a game of chess... that is, played and lost a good game. "If you had been listening to what I said earlier, you would have been able to deduce that." He glanced over at Michael, observing the Asian boy with a dark glance. "I know you are brighter than people–" The last bit of Sharpe's sentence was cut off by the ring of the doorbell.
"Excuse me for a moment." Sharpe pushed himself into a standing position with quite a bit more effort than Michael would have expected for someone with his scrawny stature. Soundlessly mouthing words, he made his way towards the door, limping ever so slightly. The Asian boy noted the anomaly. He had never seen Sharpe limp before or if he had, Michael had never actively noticed it before.
As Sharpe opened up the door, his normally darker skin paled to the color of light parchment. A woman in her early fifties stood outside the door, wearing an oversized travel coat. From the inside of the apartment, Michael could see that her skin was dark and the only remarkable aspect of her appearance – other than the fact that she looked somehow familiar – was a blue and purple cloth wrapped loosely around her head, neck and shoulders. | <urn:uuid:e21d4acf-f2b9-4f5b-a883-1bdb68ebdd61> | https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2627187/5/Snapshots-Through-Time | en | 0.993479 | 0.116646 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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I have a tablet here that appears to be a NuPad / HAIPAD M701.
My Tablet
I have downloaded a .RAR with FWDN. When I run FWDN the "Area Map" always shows "Unknown".
I have tried this on both a Windows 7 x64 and a Windows XP x32 machine.
I have run the VTC driver installer on XP (it doesn't work on x64).
What does it mean when Area Map says Unknown, and how do I fix it?
FWDN is blank
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Nice iPad-like exterior :) . – James Poulson Aug 24 '12 at 0:49
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I found the answer I was needing in this video:
I was holding down the wrong side of the rocker switch when booting, ending up in "recovery" mode.
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Your Answer
| <urn:uuid:42be21d6-d14a-4d56-8851-09f080d349b6> | http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/3166/why-wont-fwdn-see-my-cheap-chinese-tablet/3205 | en | 0.915447 | 0.637729 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Final Approach
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PASADENA, Calif: After a lull of more than 20 years, NASA is poised to resume exploration of the Red Planet as the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft prepares for a July 4 touchdown. Making a whimsical entry, the half-ton lander will approach the surface at 1pm EST at about 55 miles per hour, whereupon a bubble pack will absorb the brunt of the impact, sending the lander bouncing like a basketball up to the height of a four-story building until it settles safely on the planet surface. A small rover named Sojourner (24.5 inches long by 18.7 inches wide) will then emerge to study the planet's geological characteristics. Pathfinder will land at the dry mouth of an ancient channel called Ares Vallis. The site was picked for its relatively flat surface and the variety of rock and soil samples it may present. While the mission has ambitious scientific objectives, a more crucial goal is to show the system can do the job faster, better and cheaper than the pricey missions of the past. And if it has an amusing way of making an entrance, can't hurt. | <urn:uuid:12c02106-c841-4fed-8af7-ebd9208a380d> | http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,8406,00.html | en | 0.93063 | 0.028295 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Pac-12 poll: To wait or not on naming QB?
USC coach Steve Sarkisian named Cody Kessler his starting quarterback this week, though he noted that Kessler will have to continue to defend the position against competition from redshirt freshman Max Browne during fall camp.
It wasn't a big surprise. After all, Kessler was the 2013 starter and acquitted himself fairly well, particularly over the second half of the season with Clay Helton calling plays instead of deposed coach Lane Kiffin.
Still, Sarkisian is following in the philosophical footsteps of his mentor, Pete Carroll, who believed it was best to name a starting quarterback by the end of spring practices.
As we've noted a few times, Carroll called this "anointing." He believed that by anointing a starting quarterback in the spring, that allowed the QB to carry authority into the offseason. Teammates would recognize the crown on his head, as they might not if two or more candidates officially remained on even footing.
The anointing ended intrigue. It ended media speculation players would read. It ended an offseason rivalry that might split players into bailiwicks, based on personal preferences both on and off the field.
So Sarkisian has his way of doing it.
Then there's most other coaches. They prefer keeping their cards close to their chests. They like the intrigue. They like the prolonged competition. They want to measure offseason work and mental toughness. Who gets better from April to August? Who seems to take control of the locker room or huddle on his own, without the anointing from a coach?
So we have the two true QB competitions in the Pac-12 this spring: Arizona and Washington, where neither Rich Rodriguez nor Chris Petersen is likely to give us a firm idea of their starter until perhaps as late as the week before the season opener.
Of course, there's not 100 percent purity of approach here. If Kessler hadn't outplayed Browne, Sarkisian almost certainly wouldn't have made an announcement. And if Rodriguez or Petersen were sitting on an Andrew Luck-type talent right now, they probably would go ahead and pull the trigger and announce him as the No. 1 guy.
Fact is, the present consensus is neither Arizona nor Washington has any clear pecking order. The Wildcats have four guys who didn't separate themselves this spring, and the Huskies still have to see where the suspended Cyler Miles, the 2013 backup, fits into their plans.
Yet there is a clear philosophical difference here.
So what do you think? Is it better to anoint a starting QB after spring practices in order to give him a leadership role over the summer, or is it better to wait as long as possible to foster uncertainty and, therefore, continued competition? | <urn:uuid:9acc20dc-53c7-43a7-9d1f-f6c81e86cfe6> | http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/colleges/usc/post/_/id/17017/pac-12-poll-to-wait-or-not-on-naming-qb | en | 0.980054 | 0.023847 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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david bowie realism _ truepenny
Divine is dead! (and better looking)
I need cmpriest's Time Warp icon for this.
I was *very* into RHPS for quite a while in the '80s when I was in graduate school. Never actually played Magenta on stage, but dressed as her a lot of the time. And got the nickname. And knew all the lines and responses. Took all the props. It was a big part of my life. Even after I graduated, once or twice a year, I'd get a bunch of people and we'd go; it was still playing at the same theater for many years.
Fast forward to 2005. One of my college roommates that I'm still close to has a teen-age son, who is REALLY into RHPS, and she is very tired of trying to stay up that late. I offer to take him, especially since the theater it's now playing at is closer to my house. It's the first time I've been to it at a theater in years. The responses are different, and far more are just yelling "f**k you" at the screen. I manage to get us to our respective homes afterwards, and even go once or twice more. But I realize 2:30am just doesn't work for me anymore, and thank goodness, friend's son has moved on to a different phase, in the fashion of teens everywhere. My days of the late night double feature picture show are, alas, over. | <urn:uuid:c3b9cb03-056f-4b69-ad68-7f6902aa3953> | http://matociquala.livejournal.com/1905595.html?thread=39222459 | en | 0.980196 | 0.049695 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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There are about 1,600 GTK and GTK+ questions and about 9,400 Qt and Qt4 questions on StackOverflow at the moment. I find this odd.
I was under the impression that GTK was more widely deployed because
• it's C, not C++, and
• it had a popular jump-start because Qt was originally perceived to be less free.
I was also under the impression that Qt has much clearer, more complete and concise documentation.
I would have thought this would lead to a relatively large volume of questions from GTK newbies. The parsimonious explanation is that GTK is massively less popular among newbies. Or is some hidden factor skewing the numbers?
If there's truth to this conjecture then perhaps GTK will be generally legacy code a generation from now? (Assuming Qt survives Nokia's decline.)
Stack Overflow is becoming the go-to place for technical Q&A. Is it becoming an indicator of future technology trends?
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closed as off topic by Sathya, Time Traveling Bobby, Cody Gray, Ian Ringrose, Jon Seigel Jul 19 '11 at 17:07
No, of course not.
The only thing this proves is that more people who use Qt ask/answer questions on Stack Overflow than do people who use GTK. It doesn't prove that no one uses GTK anymore or that Qt is more popular.
This is as silly as the people who ask "Why are there so many questions about C# on Stack Overflow?", and then go on to attribute it to either a Microsoft-led conspiracy or the fact that since people have so many questions about C# that it must be harder to use than any other language. It should really go without saying that both are quite obviously wrong.
This is basically nonsense to my ears, too. First off, we don't really know what "a generation" is when it comes to technology, much less programming languages. Second, as you mention, GTK will still have important applications, like for applications programmed in C (rather than C++, as required by Qt). Third, the designator of "legacy code" is basically worthless. Who decides when something is "legacy"? Is it the people who are still working on those projects and wish they weren't? Is it the people who are pushing the latest and greatest technology that replaces it? Is it someone on the Internet with a popular blog?
There's no brightline for when to ascribe "legacy" status to a particular technology, and doing so doesn't make much sense, either. If GTK still works for you, keep using it. If it doesn't, it might be time to investigate alternative solutions. Drawing conclusions like this "a generation" in the future isn't particularly worthwhile anyway, as there's no reason to suspect that another company won't release the next greatest GUI framework for C++ that overtakes Qt and renders it "obsolete" or "legacy" or whatever.
share|improve this answer
Attributing an abundance of C# questions to a Microsoft conspiracy is dumb, and attributing it to difficulty is naive. Granted. Point is, there is some cause. Aren't you curious? Also, irrespective of cause, you might still be able to make some claim about C# trends based on it, no? – spraff Jul 19 '11 at 12:13
@spraff: Not at all. You seem to have missed the point of my answer. The cause is that there are more people who use C# that ask questions on Stack Overflow. It's not an indicator of anything more broad or more insidious than that. So there's nothing to be "curious" of. And I certainly don't think that it says anything about C# trends, other than there are as many people using it as have asked questions about it on SO. That tells you something about C#, but it doesn't tell you anything useful about the alternatives. – Cody Gray Jul 19 '11 at 12:15
A hospital ward fills up with head injuries, do you say "it's because more people with head injuries go to hospitals", or you you get curious about what caused the spate of head injuries in the first place? Rain implies clouds. This is a legitimate line of inquiry. Why so hostile? – spraff Jul 19 '11 at 12:19
@spraff: It may be a legitimate inquiry (although I disagree with that as well--I don't think it's very productive), but your data is misleading. As I mentioned before, you can probably accurately conclude that there are more Qt programmers that ask questions on Stack Overflow than there are GTK programmers. But that doesn't say anything about the programming community at large, and reasoning that it does is fallacious. If this question is legitimate, what do you think about all the others I've linked about C#, etc.? I fail to see how it's any different. – Cody Gray Jul 19 '11 at 12:27
@spraff, it may just be that "that hospital gets more people with head injuries then other hospital, therefore the people with head injuries get answers quicker there, therefore more poeple with head injuries choose the given hospital". – Ian Ringrose Jul 19 '11 at 14:15
It might very well say something about the programming community at large. Of course it might not but it's not an unreasonable possibility that StackOverflow is a representative sample of what programmers use! You are excluding a world of possibilities. It's like Atheism. – spraff Jul 19 '11 at 14:18
@Ian Yeah that could explain it, which is the question "why more head injuries" needs to control for hospital selection before comparing for leg injuries. You can dismiss my original conjecture if another comparably-popular general-purpose Q&A site in which the numbers for GTK and Qt are reversed. – spraff Jul 19 '11 at 14:24
@Spraff The answer to your question is that there is no readily available answer. The difficulty in anyone here answering your question, is that there could be as many answers as there are members of Meta. It's also hard to gauge anything by the raw numbers, though. Using your hospital analogy, if an entire town got food poisoning and filled up its 3 hospitals, epidemiologists from the world over aren't going to flock there to predict that food poisoning will be overtaking us all. – jonsca Jul 19 '11 at 14:50
@Spraff, or there may just be a good mailing list or news group (or even printed book) that GTK programer learned to use a long time before StackOverflow come along. – Ian Ringrose Jul 19 '11 at 15:41
Or the GTK questions might be split up amongst numerous other tags for each of the various GTK bindings, or the questions might not have GTK-related tags at all because the person just tagged them with the applicable language and forgot/didn't think to include tags for their GUI system. Or GTK users might not know about Stack Overflow yet because it isn't popular in their circles and there aren't any well-known GTK bloggers linking to it. Or GTK users might all be so smart that they don't have to ask any questions. Or dozens of other possibilities. – Cody Gray Jul 19 '11 at 15:46
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged . | <urn:uuid:dff7aae7-2645-4389-9dd7-8870475817c9> | http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/98995/why-are-there-loads-of-qt-but-few-gtk-questions | en | 0.960428 | 0.891012 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Michael Wise will have it made at Goldman Sachs
A very wise move. Michael Wise is leaving Morgan Stanley after thirteen years to run Goldman's financial institutions group. And that's not all. Goldman is making him a partner as well. A partner! That is more or less like being a capo in the mafia. Well done, Mr Wise!
I just hope he can cope with the culture shock. Morgan Stanley only employs twenty financial shamans at most. I would be very surprised if the bank had more than thirty. But Goldman is literally crawling with shamans and mystics. They're coming out of the woodwork. What will a square like Mr Wise make of it all?
And I'm not being disparaging, calling him a square. There are worse things you can be, just ask Keith Busby. We can't all be wild financial hipsters like myself, and a few of you. Yes, I know what some of you get up to. And you have my full support. It's the way of the future. | <urn:uuid:116e586c-7422-479e-85db-61d6ddbba786> | http://moneyistheway.blogspot.com/2010/08/michael-wise-will-have-it-made-at.html | en | 0.972205 | 0.098888 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Main Page
Gaia is a earth sized planet surrounded by four magical stars; each star holds power over one of four elements: Fire, Earth, Air and Water. These stars maintain a perfect magical union protecting the planet from a fifth star, Sora. A obsidian mass that sucks all life from anything not protected.
Due to the strong influence of these stars a percentage of Gaia are born with or acquire magical gifts, these people are referred to as Star Touched. Though the influence and affects of the Stars varies depending on the part of Gaia a Star Touched comes from, these beings are all capable of tremendous power.
It is because of this potential that many of the Star touched embark on a pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage of the Stars.
Visiting a number of locations that are full of power. YOU are one of these pilgrims.
Each page contains common known knowledge, locations may not contain specific information until after you have visited them.
The Universe
• Main Page
Pilgrimage of the Stars Ldmfiel | <urn:uuid:5714986d-77a5-4b50-80ab-424301f6c5d4> | http://pilgrimage-of-the-stars.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page | en | 0.92431 | 0.185012 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Duplicating solid parts with resin
This method uses a silicone rubber mold and resin.
Hints and Tips
Making The Silicone Rubber Mold:
1. Shown below is me starting to make the first half of the mold the wrong way. Follow along and I'll show you later why it goes so badly. You can see the original Fokker D-VIII cowl from the WW9 kit, a mold box, and a balsa jig to hold the cowl suspended in the box.
2. Here you can see the cowl suspended and ready for me to pour in the rubber. This is where we can first start to imagine what might go wrong. As the level of the liquid rubber rises in the mold box any cavities in the face of the cowl will have air trapped in them, and any air bubbles trapped in the rubber will rise up and get trapped against the cowl face.
3. The liquid rubber is mixed 1:1 and poured into the box. Pour slowly so that a thin stream of rubber exits the mixing cup, busting any air pockets too large to fit into the thin stream. As the level of the rubber rose I carefully adjusted the cowl to be level with the rubber. Keep in mind, this is not a good idea and this rubber mold will turn out poorly.
4. After 4 hours remove the rig and cut a few triangle shaped holes into the rubber to aid in alignment of the mold halves. Now coat the rubber mold surface with a rubber-to-rubber release agent. Try not to get any on the plastic as the bottle cautions that it could damage it. Don't worry about a mold release on the plastic part, the rubber pretty much only sticks to its self, it won't even stick well to the porous balsa box.
5. Not much to see here. Pour in enough rubber to cover the part and have a good 1/4" or more of rubber thickness. Firmly tap the box on the table to help free air bubbles trapped in the rubber. At this point I have used about 6 fl. oz. of rubber which comes out to about $6. Your mold is the most expensive part of the process but can be used over and over.
6. Shown below are the complete mold halves and the original cowl that was used as a pattern. The mold half on the right is perfect but the one of the left has three issues relating to air pockets. See the next picture where I try to patch up the mold.
7. First off, notice the little pieces of dowel. As the rubber level came up the air in these recesses in the cowl had no way to escape. Also notice the dark blue patch where an air bubble got trapped, the hole is filled with Klean Klay. The last problem cannot be fixed, the bottom of the mold is lined with dozens of tiny air bubbles that actually stick out into the mold cavity and result in pock marks all over the resin part.
Casting The Resin Part:
1. Look at the picture below and you'll see what happened. The Klean Klay did an ok job of filling the hole but the dowels came loose and made a big mess of everything. Also, you can't see them, but there are lots of little divots all over the face from the tiny air bubbles I talked about earlier.
2. To remake the bad mold half I made a new balsa box around the good mold half. Then with the pattern sitting on the good mold half I poured a new half for the front of the cowl. I don't have a picture for this so the previous description will have to suffice. So how do we make the front half of the mold correctly if we don't already have half of the mold? Since I haven't done this yet I can only surmise that I would have to place the cowl face up in the bottom of a balsa box and pour in rubber. When cured I would pretty much have to rebuild the box and put the cowl and first half of the mold into the bottom of the box and pour the other half. If and when I duplicate another part using a rubber mold then I will update this guide.
3. Up until this point I have been using what Micro-Mark calls the "squash" method. This is a simple process of pouring the resin into the concave mold half then pressing the convex mold half onto the other half. The excess resin runs out the sides along with the air. In theory this works, but I found that I was still trapping air bubbles. After this I changed to a more traditional method as shown below. First I cut two channels from the cavity in the mold to the outside edge of the mold. One at the top of the part to let out the air, and another off to the side a little for pouring in the resin. Now reinforce the side of the mold halves with wood and secure with rubber bands. Slowly trickle in the resin, allowing air to escape out the other channel. When the resin has filled that part and backed up into the channels gently tap the mold to help dislodge any trapped air. Now wait for one hour then demold.
4. The best way to learn something is to make mistakes, the second best way (or is it the best way?) is to learn from someone else's mistakes. In the picture below the two cowls on the right were made with the "squash" method. Notice air pockets around the engine cylinders or even in the face of the cowl near the hole for the prop (I cut these out, they are not a casting error). The cowls on the left were made by pouring the resin in. Notice that these cowls are air free except for the recessed circles near the hole for the prop thrust bushing. It is not as noticeable on the of two, but all four cowls have some sort of air in one of these recesses.
5. To remove the air from those circular recesses I drilled a hole from the top of the recess and out the back of the mold. You don't want to go out the front of the mold or you'd have a fun time cleaning off the sprue. In the picture below you see the original part, the rubber mold with added air vents, and two cowls made since adding these vents. The cowl on the left came out perfect, but the one on the right managed to get an air pocket right at the top. I think it got there when some resin leaked out of the bottom of the mold and I failed to maintain a properly level of resin in the sprue lines to compensate. The cowl on the right is not perfect, but a dab of putty and you'd never know it was there. But for the purposes of perfection, only the cowl on the left passes muster.
6. Trim off the sprues and any seams from the mold and install on your airplane. I found the the original cowl was 5.9 grams and the resin one is 6.2 grams, an increase of 5%. The resin parts are not quite as stiff as the original plastic part (though they are less brittle), but should still be stiff enough even for rubber powered flight. If you need serious hardness then CR-900 resin may fit the bill.
7. Shown below is the original cowl and an exact duplicate.
8. I have not described the use of a rubber-to-resin mold release as it didn't seem to be necessary. However, use it if you have detail that could be easily damaged (like the cylinder cooling fins) or to help extend the life of the mold by easing the demolding process.
Go Back | <urn:uuid:f686062d-aaa0-4e3d-aefd-759c211ea14c> | http://swm1.com/models/resin_casting_with_rubber_mold.html | en | 0.951257 | 0.038577 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is recognized as one of the world's greatest cricket players and is referred to as "The Little Master" of cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar Biography
Born in Mumbai (the former Bombay), India on April 24, 1973, Sachin Tendulkar grew up in a middle-class family. He started his cricketing career at Sharadashram Vidyamandir School, and after showing immediate talent as a batsman, was groomed for international competition.
During his debut first-class match as a player for Bombay, Tendulkar scored a century (100 runs in a match); at age 15, he became the youngest player to ever accomplish this. In his first few matches as a player for India, Tendulkar was unremarkable, scoring handfuls of runs, but failing to make an outstanding mark.
It was during a tour of Australia in 1991 and 1992 that Tendulkar made his mark, dominating games and emerging as India's best batsman. At a game in Perth during the tour, Tendulkar scored 114 runs during one of his most famous innings. His legend grew as he played impressively against other cricket stalwarts in the West Indies, South Africa and Pakistan.
In 1997, he scored 1,000 test runs for the first time in his career and earned a Cricketer of the Year Award. He would regain the award in 1999, 2001 and 2002, cultivating his status as the country's best cricketer with his impressive batting, inning after inning.
Since his international debut in 1989, Tendulkar has amassed some impressive statistics, including the fourth-highest test cricket run tally, the highest batting average for a player with over 8,500 test runs, and the most runs and centuries in one-day international matches.
Always putting on his greatest performances during the most highly touted matches, Tendulkar (nicknamed "The Little Master") is an undisputed superstar. His consistent dominance has made him as revered in India as Michael Jordan is in the U.S. -- if not more. Though his flamboyant style during matches has slowed somewhat with time, this down-to-earth athlete continues to be the game's biggest draw. | <urn:uuid:c6e3bfc0-605a-4a01-a28b-d4ba80ee97ac> | http://www.askmen.com/celebs/men/celeb_profiles_sports/7_sachin_tendulkar.html | en | 0.987596 | 0.018303 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
GALAXY QUEST (1999)
[Get the Poster]
Tim Allen
Sigourney Weaver
Alan Rickman
Tony Shalhoub
Sam Rockwell
Daryl Mitchell
Enrico Colantoni
Robin Sachs
Patrick Breen
Dean Parisot
Time: 102 mins.
Rating: PG
Genre: Science Fiction/Comedy
BOTTOM LINE: This may not be the funniest movie ever made, but it gets the job done, which is more than one can say about most comedies these days. It takes a premise that could've been terribly hokey and stupid and turns it into a hilarious sci-fi adventure. I was a little worried when I heard Tim Allen would be the lead, but he is wonderful as the washed-up, arrogant TV captain who is forced to reconnect with his own humanity by actually saving the universe. Of course, the rest of his crew – played splendidly by Weaver (in a great comic twist on her ALIEN persona), Rickman, Shalhoub and Mitchell – think he's finally gone off the deep end until they are beamed aboard "their spaceship" and forced to function as their TV characters in the real world.
Everyone steps up to the plate because, well, death is actually a real possibility, finally giving them all a chance to make the difference they so desperately sought on Earth. They run into the requisite sci-fi troubles, which given the fact that they're actors plodding along without a script and not heroes they pretended to be, gives these scenes a fresh twist of excitement and hilarity. What really elevates this from being B-movie trash, besides the cast and ingenious story idea, are the special effects. Clearly, a lot of thought and money went into the look and feel of the sets and characters and it makes a big difference. Not just for the sci-fi geeks, this is a comedy everyone can enjoy. Not laugh out loud funny, but clever and well-executed.
"Did you guys ever WATCH the show?"
| <urn:uuid:792dc5e4-e0e8-44e6-8045-fb14d7e6ec4f> | http://www.crazy4cinema.com/Review/FilmsG/f_galaxy_quest.html | en | 0.953786 | 0.033745 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
About 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Lubyanka Square, not far from the Kremlin. They were met by a huge contingent of riot police officers, who quickly began making arrests.
Udaltsov was seized by the riot police moments after he arrived, about 3 p.m., and hustled into a police van.
"I am not violating any laws," he shouted as he was taken away. "Russia will be free."
Navalny, by contrast, arrived surrounded by a large scrum of photographers and worked the crowd like a politician, shaking hands with supporters. He seemed buoyant and carefree and said, "OK, let's stand here awhile." The mob around him seemed to forestall his arrest, but not for long. He was detained about an hour after his arrival.
The crowd was a fraction of the size of previous rallies this year.
The inability of the opposition leaders and the authorities to agree on the terms for a protest permit also suggested that each side's resolve might be hardening. | <urn:uuid:6d6029a7-d75d-4ff7-8de1-3bd692215892> | http://www.dailycamera.com/nation-world-news/ci_22201988/entertainment/classicalmusic | en | 0.979663 | 0.053537 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
thumbnail Hello,
Spurs' summer signing from Hoffenheim does not believe victory over the Gunners will guarantee Champions League qualification, but praised 'outstanding' team-mate Gareth Bale
Gylfi Sigurdsson insists Sunday’s north London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal will not decide who finishes in the top four.
Both clubs are vying for Champions League qualification, with Spurs’ Monday night victory over West Ham propelling them to third place in the league table and maintaining their four point advantage over the Gunners.
But Spurs’ Icelandic midfielder insists that victory over Arsene Wenger’s side will not guarantee a top four finish, and has warned against complacency.
"It is going to be a massive game for us," the 23-year-old told reporters.
Gareth Bale struck a last-minute winner against the Hammers, having opened the scoring in the first half, and Sigurdsson believes the best is yet to come from the Welsh winger.
"Probably Cristiano [Ronaldo], [Lionel] Messi and Gareth are up there, they are all outstanding players and Gareth showed it again at the end that he can do something special," he added.
"I hope he can continue developing over the next few years and do something amazing.
"He still has a few years to go to reach his peak because he is still young and you probably hit your peak when you are 27." | <urn:uuid:ee07ee04-f458-454f-8015-f91ceb040a69> | http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2013/02/27/3785663/sigurdsson-plays-down-importance-of-arsenal-derby?ICID=AR_HL_1 | en | 0.964722 | 0.021641 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The power, and danger, of visualizations
I was then able to turn this data into two dimensions and plot it to show how the voting patterns of the senators differed. This led to the plot below:
senate polarization
From the above plot, it appears that the Massachusetts and New Jersey senators are very extreme in their voting patterns. Both Juan Carlos Borrás and Fr. pointed out in the comments that this was due to the coding of the votes. Massachusetts and New Jersey had senators who were changed mid-term, causing their votes to be coded as a 3. Since nobody else had votes coded as a 3, this caused them to appear like they had very different voting patterns, when in fact, they just were not there.
I had known of the 3-coding initially, but opted to keep the data “as-is.” The more I think about it, the more I realize that this could be used to spin a false narrative. I easily could say “democrats tend to be very extreme in their voting, just look at John Kerry!”, or “Massachusetts is the most radical state in the country!” based on the above chart. Of course, neither of these statements are strictly true, but the chart above, which is based on accurate data, could be used to tell such a story.
If we reconstruct the chart without any senators who were switched mid-term, we can tell a very different story.
Our new story
updated senate polarization
The above plot is an updated version, and tells our new story. As we can see, the new story shares a lot of similarities with the old story – we still see that Collins and Murkowski are close to the center ideologically, and we still see that there is a clear ideological dividing line between the parties.
A key difference is that both dimensions are meaningful now. The x dimension is telling us how far the parties are from each other, and the y dimension is telling us how much variation there is within each party. We still see solid voting clusters around party leadership, but we also see senators such as Paul and Heitkamp who vote significantly differently from their own parties (but not in a way that moves them in the ideological direction of the other party).
Looking at the “most extreme” senators again gives us all Republicans, which makes sense, as they are the party out of power, and are thus the farthest from the “average” view.
What lessons can we learn?
Any data visualization can be manipulated, sometimes unconsciously, to weave a certain tale. Often, this tale can be backed up with data. This brings us to the major trap of visualizations. They can simplify data to the point where it is comprehensible. Coupling the power of a machine to rapidly scan large amounts of data and the power of a human to recognize patterns can lead to powerful insights. But unless it is clearly spelled out how the visualization came to be, and we think clearly about it, we risk something being oversimplified, often to the point where the meaning that is conveyed is different from the actual meaning of the data. By simplifying, we remove understanding.
This problem can be addressed in two broad ways, I think. One is to publish the source data and methodology for creating the visualization. In my case, this coupled with some smart readers led to a good catch. The second is to directly allow the viewer to manipulate the visualization in a data-driven way. This would allow a viewer to draw their own conclusions, without the preformatted data being given to them. D3.js and shiny allow this, and I would like to play around with them to see if it is feasible to make visualizations in this way.
If you have any other ideas for balancing simplification and understanding, please let me know. | <urn:uuid:20c2630c-e263-4231-a2ce-a49d6f58c1f3> | http://www.vikparuchuri.com/blog/the-danger-and-power-of-visualizations/ | en | 0.970042 | 0.298122 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Aim higher, reach further.
Arkansas Woos Bielema
Bret Bielema ENLARGE
Bret Bielema Getty Images
Explaining Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema's reported departure for Arkansas recalls the old yarn about why people rob banks—because that's where the money is.
Bielema, 42, could have spent the rest of his career at Wisconsin. He's led the Badgers to a third straight Rose Bowl and headed one of the top teams in the Big Ten, an illustrious conference that isn't supposed to be anyone's steppingstone. Arkansas, is a middle-rung at best program in the Southeastern Conference and a total mess, coming off former coach Bobby Petrino's sex scandal and a 4-8 season.
But the SEC is also college football's jet-set neighborhood, with four of the top eight highest-paid coaches in the country, according to the most recent USA Today survey, including the reigning king, Alabama coach Nick Saban, who makes a guaranteed $5.5 million per year. Bielema was earning $2.6 million at Wisconsin, a state where public employee pay has become a political lightning rod. Presumably, he won't be taking a pay cut.
Rory McIlroy ENLARGE
Rory McIlroy Getty Images
A Cap to Rory's Big Year
The PGA Tour announced Tuesday that its members voted Rory McIlroy the player of the year. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland became the youngest to win the honor since Tiger Woods in 1997. McIlroy was as much a shoo-in as Woods was, although the Tour doesn't reveal the vote count. McIlroy, ranked No. 1 in the world, won the PGA Championship by eight strokes and three other tournaments, including two of the four FedEx FDX 0.06 % Cup Playoff events. He finished atop the money list, with $8 million, and took the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average.
"Over the past 18 months," McIlroy said, "I sort of felt like I went to the next level or the next phase of my career." Last week McIlroy won in Dubai to take the European Tour's money title, making him the second European, after Luke Donald last year, to finish first on both tours.
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Popular on WSJ | <urn:uuid:da4a17be-07c9-455a-817b-bb344e611fd0> | http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323901604578159460347886102 | en | 0.965807 | 0.02605 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Does Casual Sex Screw Up Emotional Intimacy?
Does Casual Sex Screw Up Emotional Intimacy?
The experts are buzzing about the kids and their sloppy sex morals again. What does it all mean? published an article a few days ago titled, "Sex Without Intimacy: No Dating, No Relationships" and as the headline suggests, it's another one of these "think pieces" where we're all supposed to analyze whether or not stable, long-term, monogamous relationships are on the way out due to our degenerate bed-hopping. Sex Prevents ED
In our opinion, a whole bunch of nothing. Sure, we may rack up more sexual partners than our parents, but people generally still want to fall in love and get married. Sure, it might be at an older age, but even the article admits that this has a lot to do with higher education and career aspirations. Not casual sex.
Their theory is that women and their newfounded sexual liberation might be stunting a man's capacity for intimacy. Ultimately, social researchers wonder if women morphing into sexual men turns us into a society of horny dudes.
It is, however, possible that the sex before love, love before sex might get reversed. Afterall, in some circles waiting too long to seal the deal is reason for dismissal—it takes all types, and everyone has their own unique idea of "the right time." Date Discussion DOs and DON’Ts
The most interesting thing culled from this article, however, was a rundown on how dating has evolved. Traditionally women would court suitors "under the watchful eye of a chaperon" at their place. Going out on traditional dinner dates first became popular with the poor at the turn of the century, when their homes were "not suitable for entertaining."
The article also pinpoints American sluttery originating in the 1960s and 70s when college dorms became co-ed. Sprinkle in alcohol, free love and 18-year-old hormones and viola—we as a culture haven't been the same since.
Explore YourTango | <urn:uuid:6f3e4fea-f45d-4ee2-a60d-fcb6e15d7f7e> | http://www.yourtango.com/200923664/does-casual-sex-screw-emotional-intimacy | en | 0.959354 | 0.271241 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Medical tourism
Singapore and surroundings
Singapore and surroundings (Photo credit: The Shifted Librarian)
Tonight on ABC World News, there was a short report on how difficult it is to find out in advance what a procedure will cost. Advocates of the current system frequently tell us to shop around. With insurance company restrictions and the unwillingness of hospitals to be forthcoming, comparison shopping is usually impossible. Tonight’s example was a routine appendectomy with a total cost of $50,000+. The insurer paid $30,000+ leaving the patient with a bill of approximately $23,000. When the surgery can be postponed for a few days or a few weeks, I would suggest considering medical tourism. That is flying first class to Thailand or Singapore or India where there are US standard medical facilities that charge a fraction of US prices. I have had expensive knee surgery and eye surgery here in the US and I was well insured as a hospital employee. I am still paying on old debts, and I would certainly consider medical tourism in the future.
One thought on “Medical tourism
1. Pingback: Medical tourism | Bell Book Candle « Recover in Paradise
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How to share Windows Azure VM RDP access with others in case you needed
If you find a situation, where you will have to share the RDP access with someone else, in this case you can do the following to share your VM Access:
1. Go to Windows Azure Management Portal and in the Remote Access toolbar please select “Configure”.
2. Now change the user name and password (This way you can keep your original and personal password with you and this will become temporary password for time being)
3. After it, please select the “Connect” option from Remote Access Toolbar and when you were asked to save the .RDP file…
4. Please save the RDP access file on your local machine and finally, zip this .RDP file and share with anyone and pass your temporary credentials by email or verbally or whatever you found secure for you.
5. Once the other person work is completed in your virtual machine, please follow the above step #2 and generate new username and password to disable temporary credentials.
Comments (5)
1. Shai says:
Can you allow 2-3 different users to have access this machine at the same time (its Windows 2008 server after all)?
2. Avkash Chauhan says:
RDP Access Configuration from VS201 allows you to create and share only one user access per Role. You are also not allowed to run terminal server kind of application in VM Role as well.
3. Tal Ben-Shalom says:
Hi Avkash,
What about the certificate?
Does RDP available without certificates?
4. Priglet says:
Hello Avkash,
Is there something specific about the Remote connexion on Azure VM using MAC OSX ?
5. Avkash Chauhan says:
Hi Tal Ben Shalom!!
In RDP scenario, the certificate is used to encrypt your password so that is a must for any Role base RDP connection in Windows Azure.
Hi Priglet!!
Actually I did spend good amount of time to verify why RDP does not work on Mac OSX. The Remote Connection Application for Mac is not updated to handle the RDP scenario which are used by Windows Azure RDP connection. Last i checked about RDP application on Mac, it seems there is no progress for any decision so far to get it working for Windows Azure yet.
I was told in past (I haven't verified yet but will do soon) that FreeRDP client could possibly make connection to Windows Azure from Mac OSX so if you can give that a try, let me know.
Thank you so much!! | <urn:uuid:f0facc5e-7cfc-47b6-8202-8d175d98cb4d> | https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/avkashchauhan/2011/05/29/how-to-share-windows-azure-vm-rdp-access-with-others-in-case-you-needed/ | en | 0.911636 | 0.022684 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Submission + - Storing items in a sealed chest for 25 years (accet87.net) 3
accet87 writes: "We are celebrating the Silver Jubilee of our graduation next month and have come up with an idea where we will build an air-tight chest in which each of us will deposit something and will open the chest only on our Golden Jubilee, i,e, after another 25 years. I want to understand what kind of items can be safely stored for 25 years and what kind of precautions are required to be taken. I am sure things like paper, non ferrous metallic objects, wood etc will hold good.
What about data storage elecronically? I dont think CD/DVD etc will be usable. Even if the data is retained, reading it in 2037 may be a challenge."
GNU is Not Unix
Submission + - Gaming PCs: Making Do vs. Buying New (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: "Before plunking down the cash for an Alienware x51 gaming PC, Peter Smith set up (mostly) old hardware in the living room to give PC gaming on the TV a whirl. That experiment was satisfying enough that he did end up buying the X51. His one gripe: 'The X51 uses Nvidia's Optimus technology,' which makes sense for a laptop running on batteries but on the X51 'it just seemed...messy.'"
Submission + - Treading the Fuzzy Line of Game Cloning and Theft (arstechnica.com)
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tagNovels and NovellasSylvia's Mother Ch. 28
Sylvia's Mother Ch. 28
byD.C. Roi©
Daylight pouring through the bedroom windows awakened Jason the next morning and, once again he had the delightful experience of learning that Karen was still in bed with him. She was lying on her side, facing away from him. Gently, he eased the covers down, exposing the entire lovely expanse of her back. Then, keeping his touch feather-light, he began stroking her silken skin, trailing his fingers from her shoulders all the way down to her wonderfully formed buttocks. It wasn't long before she murmured softly and stirred. When she did, he slid over, pressed himself against her, and felt his erection nudging into the cleft between her buttocks.
"Good morning," he whispered as he slid his hand down onto her chest and lovingly cupped one of her breasts.
"Good...morning, my darling," Karen replied.
Jason squeezed her breast softly, then he rotated his palm over her nipple. Karen murmured with delight and her nipple quickly extended against his palm. And, while he continued to caress her breast, the movement of her hips began to grow more urgent. Before long, she was purring with delight and her buttocks were caressing his erection, which grew harder and harder as her body moved sinuously against it.
"Oh, darling, this is such a wonderful way to wake up," she murmured. "I wish we could do it every morning."
"So do I," Jason thought ruefully. He continued to caress and stroke her for a while, then he reached down and hooked one of her slim legs over his. Doing so opened her vagina to his caresses. He slid his hand down over her belly, through her pubic hair, and found the engorged bud of her clit. She gasped when he took the tiny finger of flesh between his thumb and forefinger and began caressing it. It was as if he was jerking her off. She shuddered again and the movement of her hips increased in intensity. He could feel the juices of excitement begin to ooze from her and also could feel the tip of his swollen penis, which protruded from between her legs. He abandoned her clit and pressed the tip of his penis between her labia, then began moving his hips, which caused it to rub against her slit.
"Oh, darling, please, take me! Oh, God, Jason, please take me!" Karen groaned.
Jason repositioned himself slightly and the next time he shoved his hips forward, he experienced the sublime thrill of having her tight, wet, channel grasp his erection as it slowly infiltrated it's way into her.
"Oh, darling, I need you so desperately!" Karen murmured, as their bodies began the age-old motions of lovemaking.
Thrills raced through Jason's body from the point of their joining and he returned his hands to her breasts and caressed them while he slid his erection in and out of her need-slick opening. Her hands covered his and pressed them against her breasts while she rocked her hips, making his swollen penis lash her insides.
Their passion grew explosively. Jason driving into her and began to alternate between massaging her breasts and teasing her clit. She tightened the leg that was behind his, pulling him tighter against her.
After a surprisingly short time, Karen began uttering wails of pleasure. Her hips began jerking and her hands flailed, looking for something to grab, as a powerful orgasm shook her. "Oh, darling! Oh, darling, yes!" she cried, "Uh-huh! Uh-huh! Uh-huh! Uhh!"
Groaning with delight, Jason felt his orgasm begin and felt his body powerfully pumping his fluids into her.
Their frantic joining continued for a while but, finally, Sylvia's mother sagged onto the bed and her leg, which was still over his, relaxed. Jason's softening penis cock slid out of her, but remained trapped between her buttocks.
Jason leaned forward and kissed her on her neck, which was a bit sweaty from their exertions. "Now that we're awake," he said, "What are we going to do today?"
"Would you like to have another picnic at the pool?" Karen asked. Her hands covered his, which were still holding her breasts, and squeezed them.
"That would be neat," Jason replied. "We gonna go skinny-dipping again?"
Karen chuckled. "What do you think?" she asked. She pulled his hands from her breasts and rolled around so she was facing him, then she planted a gentle kiss on his lips. "There," she said after the kiss ended. "I need my morning kiss. Especially because after today..." She stopped in mid-sentence, raised her hand, and stroked his cheek with her fingers. "Don't look so sad, my darling. I know my talking about that upsets you, but we really do need to face the facts. This will likely be the last time we'll wake up in each other's arms for some time."
"I know," Jason said glumly. "God, I hate it that we have to go home tomorrow. I really do."
"I don't like it any better than you do, my darling," Karen said softly. "But we do have to." She kissed him again, then sat up in the bed. "I think I'm going to get a shower and get dressed before the girls get up," she said. "Breakfast will be ready when you come down."
"OK," Jason said. He lay there and watched her as she slipped into her clothes, without underwear, then left his room. He flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "Damn, why does this week have to be over?" he thought sadly. "I...I'm probably never going to see her again after tomorrow." As he lay there, he felt tears welling up in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. "How am I ever going to be happy without her?" he wondered as he cried softly.
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Templates linked to Tutorials
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Templates linked to Tutorials
I've just linked basic tutorials to the different kinds of templates to help people understand how to use them. Let me know if:
a) you can find the links on the template pages
b) if the tutorials are helpful for the given templates
c) if there are any assets that you think need a tutorial
Hello, Marina!!!
Great idea link to templates!!! I've already post in tutorial request but I'd a tutorial of glitters.
I'll continue seeing your tutorial and the assets and if I find another one I'll tell you.
So far I love the tutorials!
Hope I'l have soon more time to try them all out | <urn:uuid:8da9c9ab-df0f-4dbc-b656-b43183d64ad9> | https://www.pixelscrapper.com/comment/1316 | en | 0.840943 | 0.026144 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Maldives' carbon neutral plan is not greenwash, just imperfect progress
Proposals to cut emissions in the Maldives don't include aviation, but European emissions trading will help offset tourist CO2
The low-lying islands of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean would be flooded if oceans rose by two metres, the country's president, Mohamed Nasheed, has warned. Photograph: Chad Ehlers/Getty Images
Mark Lynas's book Six Degrees strongly affects those who read it. It is a powerful but quietly voiced assessment of how the world will change as temperatures rise. The people of the Maldives, only too aware that their low-lying coral atolls are likely to disappear before the end of the century, are particularly interested in climate change and Lynas's book has been widely read in government circles in the capital Malé.
Last month the Maldives asked him for a plan to make the country "carbon-neutral". After a few days' work, he and I sent an outline scheme to the government in time for the president to make an announcement at the London premiere of Franny Armstrong's The Age of Stupid, a powerful film about climate change.
In our draft plan we showed how energy from wind and the sun could produce enough electricity to cover current needs and provide a surplus for future growth. A power station burning coconut husks will provide backup on those relatively rare occasions when the wind and sun aren't enough. Batteries will provide short-term storage on remote islands. Petrol can be largely replaced by ethanol made from Brazilian sugar cane.
Ambitiously, we said that the Republic of Maldives could set a target of going carbon-neutral within a decade or so. But we haven't proposed a way of avoiding the use of aviation fuel. So are we guilty of greenwash, like so many of the companies that brashly proclaim carbon neutrality on their website and in their sustainability reports?
Yes, in one sense we are. More than 500,000 people take long-distance flights to the Maldives, adding over a million tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere every year. Our plan does not reduce the consumption of aviation fuel by a single litre. By setting out the steps to enable the Maldives to brand itself as a carbon-neutral destination, we could be accused of actually encouraging long-distance holidays. Eager travel agents will seize on the Maldives' plan and use it to persuade wavering customers that their air travel has no ecological side effects.
Our defence is that the emissions from air travel to the Maldives will be offset by the purchase of European emissions permits. Every European power station, many large factories and other major polluters have been granted rights to emit a certain amount of CO2. If a company wants to emit more than its allowance it has to buy certificates from other polluters who have permits to spare. The Maldives will become part of this scheme.
In effect we are admitting that air travel to the Maldives is a major source of pollution, just as if the country was a German power station or a Dutch cement works. Because the Maldives is a voluntary participant in the European scheme, it will not have any free emissions allowances. The total number of permits in the system will not rise as a result of the new entrant.
The Maldives' plan to buy allowances covering all the emissions from international flights to and from Malé therefore means that the emissions of other European polluters will have to decrease by an equal amount. This isn't a perfect solution, but it seems the best way of ensuring a flight to the Maldives doesn't add a single kilogramme to overall world emissions.
Nevertheless, many people believe that buying emissions permits is a poor compromise. They point out that the European scheme has set lax limits on the total amount of CO2 emitted by the continent's major carbon polluters. This is one of the reasons why the current price of permits is so low. However, the whole point of our scheme is that it will tighten the market, making emissions just a little bit more costly for all the major polluters across Europe.
Until the aviation industry develops sustainable biofuels, the only possible alternative to offsetting is to restrict the total number of flights to and from the Maldives. This would cripple the tourist industry and reduce the incomes of most of the inhabitants of the islands.
No scheme that places a large part of the burden of climate change mitigation on to the poorer half of the world can be appropriate. Although no one is completely happy with offsetting, even through the European emissions trading scheme, we believe it can be an effective way of helping the Maldives become carbon neutral. | <urn:uuid:22ce3a94-9eca-4780-bab7-5c874ad57600> | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/cif-green/2009/mar/26/maldives-carbon-neutral-greenwash | en | 0.950438 | 0.4227 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
December 28, 2005
The Rapture.
Writing that last post made me think about about the song "I Pray We'll Be Ready," by the Chicago Mass Choir, which made me stop on one of the religious channels on satellite radio that I normally dial past. I haven't given much thought to the notion of the Rapture, though I'm well aware that there are a lot of books milking its melodramatic possibilities. But the singing was so excellent that I kept listening to the many verses. In one, a husband wakes up one morning and finds his beloved wife gone. That got me wondering about the wife. How is she supposed to enjoy bliss? Oh, I guess Bob wasn't good enough...
Meade said...
Where she's going, she'll find a better husband - someone who puts down the newspaper and listens, really listens, to her when she needs to talk to him about the kids or the in-laws or what she learned on Oprah that day.
Her new husband won't run off to golf with his buddies while letting her attend the church of her choice all by herself Sunday after Sunday.
He'll be washed in the blood of the lamb and she'll forget all about that stupid sinning schlub, Bob.
elliot said...
I was in a church service once where they said that you wouldn't miss your sinning husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father, etc... because being in the presence of God's love would make any other love you ever felt irrelevant.
They also mentioned that once you ascended to Heaven the suffering of your unsaved loved ones in hell would seem deserved.
Just another reason why I don't belong to any organized religion.
Robert said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
My Boaz's Ruth said...
In case you are being serious. There is no marriage in heaven. Matthew 22:23-28. There was a lady who had been married multiple times and they wanted to know which would be her husband in heaven.
"28 [Sadduccees] Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Ann Althouse said...
Ruth: Thanks. The Rapture theorizing I heard in that song contained a lot of material about trying to keep families together in the afterworld. It was basically trying to get people to behave better now and to pressure their loved ones to do the same.
I've always worried about the presentation of the afterworld that has people reunited with their families. Not everyone has a family and of those who do, some have bad families. It's not very fair! And those who haven't found a love match in life, they must remain the same forever? Any concrete depiction of the afterlife presents so many problems that it is much better to leave it vague, as Jesus seems to have done there -- although that's left us wondering what angels do with all the time they've got on their hands.
Speaking of angels, I once read a scientific description of how large angel wings would actually need to be if an angel were subject to Earth's gravity. Artistic depictions of angels are far off, according to this analysis.
BrianOfAtlanta said...
Ann, you're just as well off not trying to apply too much analytical thought to the Rapture. For something so central to the faith of many Christians, it has a very thin to nonexistent scriptural basis. It does make for interesting storylines, though.
OddD said...
Angels, unburdened by sin, are infinitely lighter than humans. (That's why you can fit so many of them on the head of a pin.)
Sigivald said...
Elliot: Well, according to Lewis (whose views on this I've found most compelling, even as an atheist), "hell" is no more than separation-from-God (if such an everlasting state can be spoken of in such terms as "no more than"), not burning-sulphur-and-being-poked-with-a-pitchfork-by-little-guys-with-horns.
Further, "damnation" or "salvation" are described as the extension into infinity (given immortality of the soul) of the habits of personality and faith while alive; the saved were already on the right track, and are perfected over time. The damned were going bad, and time just finishes the work of corruption started during their lives. (I'm led to believe this is roughly the actual doctrine of the Catholic church on such matters, but I'm too lazy to look it up).
So, thus, from that point of view (but not the cartoonish one too-commonly held), what you were told makes sense. Being in God's immanent presence would tend to make the absence of any specific person less important, and if their separation from God is the product of their own personality grown over time, it might in fact seem not so much just as literally unavoidable. (Someone, after all, who retreats into himself rather than toward God can hardly be expected to be orbiting the Throne for all eternity, can he?)
I've found that while Christianity often doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of the rest of the world, if you bother to track down the underlying theology it is at least self-consistent, and that the common ideas of what the theology says are often utterly wrong. (Which is unsurprising, since it's, well, un-worldly.)
Really, I find it fascinating, even as a non-believer.
Michael Farris said...
Despite a try or two in my younger days I finally decided I just don't have the capacity for religious faith.
The question about what you'll think in heaven about your loved ones in hell is just a contributing factor, though an important one. Somehow just not thinking about them at all gives no comfort and seems extraordinarily non-Christian to my agnostic self.
jinnmabe said...
In the context of that song you mentioned, some Christians believe that the Rapture-thing takes the sinners, not the righteous, so, in that case, it's Bob who's wondering, "Oh, I guess Shelia wasn't good enough."
Alvin Miller said...
Your jaw will drop! | <urn:uuid:a7234fa6-c7bf-40bb-962f-9b40259cc6d8> | http://althouse.blogspot.com/2005/12/rapture.html?showComment=1135797780000 | en | 0.979934 | 0.061353 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Everyone knows the Konami code and to smash it into every website ever, right? But maybe you didn't know that you can stumble into the Tardis on Google Maps.
Well, Alltime10s is here to get you up to speed. You're probably aware of a lot of these, especially the gaming-related ones we like to post like the Atari breakout, but hopefully a few are new to you.
And here's a written breakdown, all taken from Alltime10s' video above, in case you're into that kind of thing:
10. Google Maps: By searching "Police Telephone Box" in Google Maps you'll be able to see the Tardis from Doctor Who on a street in London. You can even take a tour inside.
9. IMDB: As a reference to the famous quote in the film "This Is Spinal Tap," its IMDB page has the review rating of 11 rather than 10.
8. Wikipedia: The "Easter egg (media)" page explains what an easter egg is. You can also see a bunch of them by clicking on the hedgehog in the accompanying picture.
7. Buzzfeed: When you enter the legendary Konami cheat code, Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, on Buzzfeed the page gets taken over by a Canadian popstar.
6. Vogue & GQ: Enter the Konami cheat code on the websites for Vogue & GQ and you get a very fashionable dinosaur.
5. YouTube: YouTube goes all Jedi when you search "Use the force Luke." You can also try "Beam me up Scotty."
4. Google Images: By typing "Atari Breakout" into Google images you can play the legendary 80s arcade game.
3. Black Acre Brewing: When entering the website for Black Acre Brewing, you're asked if you are the legal age to drink. If you select "I am under 21," you're greeted with...a surprise.
2. Hema: Dutch retailers Hema have a joke product page on their website. Hit the cup & watch what happens.
1. YouTube: On YouTube, click on the right-hand side of a video while it's playing and type "1980." You are challenged to defend the video from a missile attack.
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For a boolean algebra B, let d(B) be the least cardinality of a dense subset of B. Let A be a (non-regular) subalgebra of a boolean algebra B. Is it possible that d(A) > d(B)? What if d(B) = $\aleph_0$?
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up vote 6 down vote accepted
Yes, it is possible.
Let $\mathbb{B}$ be any complete Boolean algebra with density $\aleph_0$. For example, we could use the power set Boolean algebra $\mathbb{B}=P(\mathbb{N})$, which has density $\aleph_0$ in light of the singleton sets, since every nonempty set contains a singleton.
Meanwhile, the Balcar-Franek theorem asserts that every infinite complete Boolean algebra $\mathbb{B}$ contains a free subalgebra of the same size. Thus, $\mathbb{B}$ contains a free subalgebra $\mathbb{A}$ on $2^{\aleph_0}$ many generators, obtained from strongly independent sets, as the linked article explains. Since $\mathbb{A}$ is free on $2^{\aleph_0}$ generators, it must have density $2^{\aleph_0}$.
So this is an example, for which $d(\mathbb{B})=\aleph_0$ and $d(\mathbb{A})=2^{\aleph_0}$.
The same reasoning establishes:
Theorem. Every infinite complete Boolean algebra of size $\kappa$ contains a subalgebra with density $\kappa$.
Proof. The Balcar-Franek theorem provides a free subalgebra of size $\kappa$, and by mapping the generators to atoms in another Boolean algebra, it is easy to see that such an subalgebra must have density $\kappa$. QED
Since there are numerous complete Boolean algebras with density smaller than their size, the theorem can be used to build numerous examples.
Addendum. In the context of forcing, it is natural to consider the case of complete Boolean algebras, for every forcing notion corresponds with a complete Boolean algebra $\mathbb{B}$, and the intermediate models of the forcing extension arise exactly from complete subalgebras of $\mathbb{B}$. A Boolean algebra $\mathbb{B}$ is complete if every subset of it has a least upper bound (and this implies one may take infinitary meets and joins). The density of the completion of a Boolean algebra (or a poset) is the same as the original density. A subalgebra $\mathbb{A}\subset\mathbb{B}$ is a complete subalgebra if infinitary meets and joins for subsets of $\mathbb{A}$, as computed in $\mathbb{B}$, exist in $\mathbb{A}$. In this setting, the density cannot go up:
Theorem. If $\mathbb{A}\subset\mathbb{B}$ is a complete subalgebra of a complete Boolean algebra $\mathbb{B}$, then $d(\mathbb{A})\leq d(\mathbb{B})$.
Proof. Suppose $D\subset \mathbb{B}$ is dense. For each $d\in D$, let $a_d$ be the meet of all the elements of $\mathbb{A}$ above $d$. This is an element of $\mathbb{A}$, and the set of all such $a_d$ is dense in $\mathbb{A}$, since for any $a\in \mathbb{A}$ there is an element $d\in D$ below $a$, and so $a_d\leq a$. Thus, we have produced a dense subset of $\mathbb{A}$ of size at most $|D|$, as desired. QED
Thus, when forcing, the relevant subalgebras arising from intermediate forcing extensions do respect the density.
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Here is a construction that I think will work:
Take $B$ to be the Boolean algebra $P(\omega )$ with the usual operations. This has a countable dense subset. Now let $IC$ denote the collection of infinite subsets of $\omega$ with infinite complements. We will construct a family $A$ consisting of $\aleph _1$ sets, all of which are in $IC$, and such that $A$ is closed under complements, unions, and intersections; so after we throw in the nullset and total set, $A$ will be a subalgebra of $B$. It will also follow from our construction that $A$ cannot have a countable dense subset.
So here's the construction: we build $A$ inductively, in $\omega _1 $ countable stages $ (S _ \alpha ) _{ \alpha \in \omega _1 } $ which are cumulative. At each successor stage, we will add in a single new set to the previous stage, then close up under complements, unions, and intersections. So in fact there will be countably many new sets added at each successor stage. At limit stages we take the union of all previous stages. Note that each stage is closed under Boolean operations.
So we just have to say which new set $X$ we throw in at each successor stage $S_{\alpha + 1} $. We need to be sure that when we add in this new set and close up under Boolean operations, all the sets we get are still in $IC$. For this it suffices that for every $Y \in S_{\alpha}$, we have $X \cup Y \in IC$ and $X \cap Y \in IC$. In other words, $X$ and $\omega \setminus X$ must both have infinite intersection with every set in $S_{\alpha}$. And since by induction hypothesis every set in $S_{\alpha}$ is in $IC$, and there are only countably many of them, we can make our set $X$ by a routine diagonalization: for instance, we could line up pairs $(Y, n)$ for $Y \in S_{\alpha}$, $n \in \omega$ so that the pairs have ordertype $\omega$, and then go through them one by one, building initial segments of $X$ and $\omega \setminus X$ as we go to make sure that at the step $(Y, n)$, $X$ and $\omega \setminus X$ each have at least $n$ elements of $Y$ in them.
This completes the construction of $A$. Note that $A$ cannot have a countable dense subset, since any countable subset of $A$ shows up at some stage $S_{\alpha}$, and then at the next stage we added in a set which is not contained in any $Y \in S_{\alpha}$.
EDIT: A SECOND CONSTRUCTION. Here is another construction, which yields $2^{\aleph _0 }$ independent subsets of $\omega$. (Thanks to Joel for the hint about trees!) We will make a continuum-sized bunch of independent reals (subsets of $\omega$), by building their initial segments in $\omega$ many stages. The idea is that we are working our way up a binary tree, level by level, and so every level is finite; and at each such level, we ensure that no nontrivial Boolean relations can hold between two reals whose initial segments at that level are different. More precisely:
We represent subsets of $\omega$ as sequences of 0's and 1's, where $n$ is in the subset iff the $n$-th spot in the sequence is 1. So when we build finite initial segments of these sequences, we can specify some natural numbers to definitely be in the subset, and also specify some natural numbers to definitely NOT be in the subset. So: Start by making two different finite initial segments of reals, such that no nontrivial Boolean relations can hold between reals with those initial segments. (By 'nontrivial Boolean relation' I mean: nontrivial equation with Boolean connectives, where the only elements we have names for are the nullset, the total set, and the reals bearing the relation in question.) Since there are only finitely many possible nontrivial Boolean relations among a finite set of elements, and any particular relation can be forced to not hold by extending the initial segments in an appropriate way, we can get two different initial segments such that any two reals with these respective initial segments are already forced to not satisfy any nontrivial Boolean relations with each other. Next we fork each of these initial segments off into two longer initial segments; so now we have four initial segments, and we consider all possible nontrivial Boolean relations which could hold among these four elements. As before, extend the four segments until all such relations are forced to be false. Continue splitting segments into two, and forcing all finitely many possible Boolean relations to be false, $\omega$ many times. Then we will have a perfect binary tree of independent reals.
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Very nice. What you seem to be building are strongly independent sets, so that your subalgebra will be free. Perhaps you can rearrange your construction (as a tree?) to get $2^{\aleph_0}$ many independent sets? – Joel David Hamkins Aug 8 '11 at 21:17
Very good, thanks! If we want to start with an atomless algebra, then I think we can take $B$ to be the boolean completion of Cohen forcing, then fix an infinite maximal antichain in it, and use that in place of ω above. Then build the $\aleph_1$ independent elements using your same procedure, taking sums of the chosen subsets of the antichain. – Monroe Eskew Aug 8 '11 at 22:45
The process of building the new set at successor stages can also be described as taking a set which is Cohen-generic over a countable collection of dense sets $D_{(Y,n)}$, defined by the same criterion used to build $X$ by initial segments. Therefore, assuming MA, the same argument can be used to get $2^{\aleph_0}$ independent sets. – Monroe Eskew Aug 9 '11 at 5:27
Yes, building a tree works to get $2^{\aleph _0 }$ independent sets! But I ended up using a somewhat different construction; it's posted under my original answer. This construction will not, however, generalize to other cardinals; it essentially uses the fact that $w$ is strongly inaccessible. A small formatting question: how can I make a horizontal line, or something to split the above answer into two parts? I tried the usual LaTeX command but it didn't seem to work... (sorry if this is inappropriate for a comment post!) – Andy Voellmer Aug 9 '11 at 7:00
Andy, your construction is reminiscent of the following folklore construction: add a Cohen real and use its binary digits to label the nodes of the tree $2^{\lt\omega}$. It follows that any finitely many branches through this tree are mutually generic Cohen reals, since any partial labeling can be extended so as to meet any of the relevant dense sets. (Thus, adding one Cohen real creates a continuum-sized family of finitely-mutually generic Cohen reals in the extension.) The idea adapts to your argument, since countably many dense sets ensure independence, so the whole construction is in V. – Joel David Hamkins Aug 9 '11 at 16:27
Your Answer
| <urn:uuid:23b2ca85-4e38-4c9e-b5b6-195d5f6eab61> | http://mathoverflow.net/questions/72368/density-of-boolean-algebras/72378 | en | 0.901414 | 0.152335 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Shine by Lauren Myracle
This book isn't a superfast paced mystery. The setting of Black Creek is slowly brought to life as are the characters. Because of this, their language and attitudes felt real. Everyone is struggling with poverty and often the accompanying problems of abuse and violence. To complicate things, Black Creek is also awash in meth which brings a whole different layer of paranoia and distrust.
This was recently nominated for the Rosie Award and I couldn't put it down. Consider checking this out if you like realistic fiction. Amid the violence, the sometimes harsh language and the ugliness of the crumbling town were bright spots of beauty and hope. | <urn:uuid:329a2d84-f635-422f-8a36-b4f323aa54f7> | http://monroe.lib.in.us/blogs/love-reading/shine-lauren-myracle?page=6 | en | 0.982915 | 0.065819 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
vendredi 29 juillet 2016
All paths imply movement. However, there is no need for movement once it is clear that you are the destination itself.
Wu Hsin
‘Harun Farocki. Empathy’ | Exhibition
Fundació Antoni Tàpies museum, Barcelona
Thee Temple strives to end personal laziness and to
engender discipline. To focus thee
Will on one's true desires. In thee belief, gathered
from experience, that this maximizes
and makes happen all those things that one wants in
every area of L-if-E.
Explore daily your deepest desires, fantasies and
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Then decide totry and do it.
Thee mere visualization of that true goal, your true
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Clean out thee trappings and debris ov compromise, ov
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YOUR circumstances. Be clear in admitting your REAL
desires. Discard all irrelevancies. Ask yourself, who
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your SELF internally, thee external aspects ov your
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Skeptics will say that they simply don't believe this
Psychic PROCESS works. But it does.
Maurizio Cattelan
To be free from the obsession with “what’s next?” is all the instruction necessary. You are waiting for the arrival of something that is already present. This is a trap with no exits other than directly seeing the construction of the trap.
Wu Hsin
China 1944
Cecil Beaton
Diary of a Mad Old Man
jeudi 28 juillet 2016
Max Weber / The Eye Moment
from Cubist Poems (1914)
Brett Walker
Franklin Price Knott, 1915
mercredi 27 juillet 2016
1970’s New York City punk scene
there was a group of girls called the Revenge Girls
They ran a shop called Revenge
Debbie Revenge
Whatever will happen will happen.
Just be clear: whatever happens doesn’t happen by you
as much as it happens through you.
Practices are ineffective in dissipating the illusion
because all practices take place within the illusion.
Thinking that you can remove your confusion
is symptomatic of the confusion.
Empty yourself of all ideas, all beliefs, and all concepts.
Then, make yourself full with emptiness and
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Wu Hsin
mardi 26 juillet 2016
Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben.
1904, Nr. 38. Illustrationen von F. A. v. Kaulbach. Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
If I could tell you what it meant,
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Isadora Duncan
Photo by Edward Steichen, of Isadora Duncan standing at the portal of the Parthenon, c.1920
Ron Asheton
The Stooges, 1970
391, n°19, 1924, Paris. “Journal de l’instantanéisme”
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Ray Metzker
lundi 25 juillet 2016
Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington
Genpei Akasegawa
Milla Jovovich
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Help we don't need
Oliver North
Posted: Sep 28, 2001 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that made Sept. 11, 2001 the bloodiest day of terrorism in American history, President George W. Bush has met with the leaders of almost every civilized nation that can offer substantive help in prosecuting a worldwide campaign against terrorists. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan apparently feels slighted and has invited us to seek his help, instead. It's help we don't need. Just days before terrorists hijacked four airliners and killed more than 6,500 Americans and hundreds of other nationals, Kofi's merry minions gathered in Durban, South Africa, to pillory the United States and Israel at their so-called World Conference Against Racism. Now, this same self-described "world diplomat" is waging a major public relations campaign aimed at allowing the U.N. to lead a global response to the threat posed by international terrorism. In an opinion piece published by The New York Times on Sept. 21, Annan baldly stated that Sept. 11 was "an attack on all humanity, and all humanity has a stake in defeating the forces behind it." He then boldly suggested that when it comes to responding to the attack and deterring future acts of terrorism, "the United Nations is uniquely positioned to advance this effort." If the pain we feel wasn't so great and if the danger we face wasn't so serious, Annan's proposal would be laughable. Unfortunately, that hasn't prevented some from embracing the Annan proposal as a way out of prior commitments made to President Bush to join the United States in dealing forcefully with terrorists and their supporters. On Sept. 24, while President Bush was in the White House Rose Garden describing new financial and economic weapons for shutting off funding for terror, Annan was in New York presiding over a scaled-down convocation of the U.N. General Assembly. He used the occasion to urge that all countries cement "the ties among nations and not subject them to new strains," and reiterated that "United Nations conventions already provide a legal framework for ... extradition and prosecution of offenders and the suppression of money laundering." The "SG," as his staff lovingly refers to him, was no sooner finished with his diatribe undermining U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, than Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov rose to urge that the U.N. lead any global action against terrorism "as an indispensable instrument for maintaining international peace" and preventing "an erosion of international law." Hogwash. Apparently, Annan and Ivanov think we should set aside the U.N.'s lack of concern when terrorists attacked the USS Cole in October 2000, killing 17 and wounding 39. Evidently, they want us to ignore the UN's deafening silence after the June 1996 terrorist bombing of the Khubar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 and wounded more than 500. And perhaps they think we have forgotten the U.N.'s muted response when a terrorist killed two and wounded three others at the CIA Headquarters in January 1993. But then, those who died then were just Americans serving their country. Now, in one sanguinary day of carnage, terrorists have killed people from 63 nations and, in Afghanistan, the Taliban have threatened to execute any U.N. relief worker who uses a computer or communications equipment. Suddenly, Kofi and his cronies want the U.N. to take the lead and grant "global legitimacy" to the struggle against "the unspeakable horror" of terrorism. It would be a terrible mistake. Not only does the United Nations have an abysmal record of expressing "righteous outrage" when it comes to Americans dying at the hands of terrorists, but the U.N. itself has contributed to the problem for decades. The 59 "camps" administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, have long been used as recruiting centers for terrorists. The Islamic Jihad Organization, Abu Nidal, Hammas, Hizballah and al Qaeda have all had free reign in these training grounds for decades. Elsewhere around the world, though it gets scant attention, the U.N. record is, if anything, worse. In Italy, a military prosecutor is investigating accusations that U.N. "Peacekeepers" from Denmark and Slovakia have been purchasing Ethiopian and Eritrean child prostitutes. In Cambodia, "Commander" Kofi's 15,000 U.N. troops are reportedly responsible for $500 million in prostitution. In Somalia, the U.N.'s planetary paladins are said to be complicit in the torture and deaths of hundreds. And in Bosnia, where United Nations troops disregarded the cry of "murder" while thousands perished in Srebrenica in July 1995, there are fresh charges of U.N. official complicity in the drug trade. This is the United Nations that Kofi Annan wants to "lead the fight against terrorism." By its record, the U.N. has earned the right to be ignored. Kofi's plea should fall on deaf ears in Washington. | <urn:uuid:4b46b405-2332-4c2a-9284-ef1edd275aae> | http://townhall.com/columnists/olivernorth/2001/09/28/help_we_dont_need | en | 0.960546 | 0.020511 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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The Road to Totalitarianism is Paved with Good Intentions
• chrispy
The comments to the article are actually pretty heartening. They seem to be 100% against the author. I was pleasantly surprised by that.
• Ted Rado
The whole comcept of the American way is that the problems caused by individual liberty are more than offset by the benefits. We put up with each others' behavior so that we can in turn do what we please. At regular intervals, someone comes along with the argument that a strong government will avoid the mistakes and make all our (correct) decisions for us. Thus is born dictatorship. Often, this is born out of a screwed up world, such as happened in in Germany, Italy, Portugal, etc. after WW One. As our geniuses in DC demonstrate daily, the idea that the USG can do better than individual citizens is a joke.
One outcome of our current screwed up government situation is the proliferation of groups that want to foist their views off on the rest of us. We have seen this movie many times before. As Warren points out, are we prepared to accept the other guy's dictatorship, or just our own? Best not to go down that path in the first place.
Mayor Blumberg should take a long walk off a short pier or change his name to Benito or Adolph. I would think that the mayor of a large city has more pressing things to worry about than what beverages I drink. Lighten up, man!!
• Andrew_M_Garland
Mr. Figliola's first point: "Winston Smith would easily trade the sadistic totalitarian government of "1984" for a ban on sugary drinks in 16-ounce cups."
That is a winning argument. Figliola: [in essence] The drink ban is not nearly as bad as torture and brainwashing, so what is your objection again?
Now I understand why laws by Liberals/Progressives/Marxists are so awful. They must say to each other, "This law is not nearly as bad as torture and brainwashing", so what is the problem?
• MingoV
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC,
It's easy to create a crisis when you are free to change definitions. Up until the 1980s that standard method for assessing weight was to use the Metropolitan Life weight and height tables. These tables used sex, height, body frame (small, medium, large), and age brackets to establish normal, underweight, overweight, and obese categories.
That method was too complex for government public health workers and epidemiologists, so they adopted the body mass index (BMI) that was NEVER intended to be used for classifying thinness or obesity. It was designed to help clinicians and clinical pharmacologists calculate drug dosages. However, public health types established BMI ranges for underweight, normal, overweight, and obese. The ranges sucked: muscular people were categorized as overweight, fat people with little muscle mass (common among elderly) were categorized as normal, and some overweight people were classified as obese.
Not content with that fiasco, in the late 1990s the government modified the BMI ranges. The CDC adopted those ranges a few years later, and voila! The prevalence of obesity jumped by over 10%. Michael Jordan was categorized as obese. Most athletes were categorized as overweight. But, the goal of worsening our obesity "epidemic" was achieved. The CDC can focus on obesity instead of on the continuing problems of sexually transmitted diseases, communicable disease spread in hospitals and nursing homes, increasingly common multi-drug resistant microorganisms, etc.
• gregnullet
The author sounds like some chunky guy trying to psych himself into losing 30 lbs. So I read his article because I need to lose 20. But found no guidance. His economic argument about the $147 billion is rebutted by the economic value of the agriculture and food service industries. Speaking strictly economically, it's better to lose a few from the herd than to cut back on sales. They spend their income just the same - on wheelchairs and oxygen tanks instead of bicycles and park passes - so who cares.
He talks about giving people better choices, but they've had those all along. And the analogy to cigarettes is just silly. I don't care if you smoke as long as you're downwind. Watching you eat a quart of ice cream doesn't bother me. It's kind of amusing.
And that's the real point. They're trying to make it a moral issue. Pfft.
• Rick Caird
On Coyoteblog, yes. But, I am quite certain the comments at the NYT would be running the other way.
• wintercow20
I love the Trojan Horse, because it requires totalitarians to admit that what they are doing is not actually scientific. I am pretty sure that if people become obese enough, they will die early enough in life so that aggregate "social" health care costs from people being really obese are lower than if they were healthier. The same goes for smoking. Ask someone about this and ask why, according to the theory that "we all pay for their health" we should not perhaps subsidize sodas and cigarettes and the answer will be, "because it's bad for THEM" and implied is that "I just don't like it." No science there.
You'll see folks try to rescue themselves by appealing to some macro insight about obese people being less productive. And of course once we walk down that path, that opens the door to force Coyote back to Exxon and to quit his life as a Park Manager because we would have "higher productivity" with him in that professsion. We'd be forced to take fewer vacations. We'd ban most people from studying the Humanities on someone else's dime. And so it goes. If you have a claim on my productivity, I shouldn't even be permitted to comment on Coyote's site, for I could be turning some of my kitchen utensils into steel lumps for export (using backyard suburban Rochester wind to power the operation of course).
• Not Sure
The problem with this test is that for the people who want to run your life (and everyone else's) who would answer "No, I'm not happy with it", the solution is never to limit the power of the government to dictate how people live. The solution for these people runs more along the lines of finding a way to insure that only their guys are ever in a position to dictate those decisions.
• SamWah
Much like Not Sure, I believe these people are convinced that they can hang on to this power.
• Gil
I believe the BMI test is a guide not a hard and fast test. Hence is someone has little muscle mass and is classed as obese after a BMI calculation then they're in trouble and may need to undergo further testing. On the other hand, how many muscle heads who are "obese" via the BMI test aren't "juicing"?
• Settin it str8
This is the problem with a one size fits all. LeBron James. 6'8", 250. Per BMI "guidelines", he is overweight with a score of 27.5. Obese is 30 or higher. However, if he was 165, he's on the low end of "normal". 6'8", 165??? Total hogwash.
• Daublin
There's a parallel to the laws around marijuana. A lot of the momentum against marijuana came from a culture war on Latinos. As best as I can tell, much of the momentum for laws on sugary drinks has to do with a culture war on "fatties".
That is, nobody wants such laws for themselves. They want to punish other people.
• Joshua Vanderberg
Exactly, when creating a totalitarian state, you'd better eviscerate the opposition (either politically or in actuality) and amend your constitution to make sure that only your party, or dictator, has access to the reins of power.
• obloodyhell
Yeah, sure it ends with that.
Jacksonville City/County (same thing) Commission considers telling people how to tie up their dogs:
• obloodyhell
Or... HORROR OF HORRORS!! ... not focus on doing ANYTHING, thus saving money.
• obloodyhell
}}} Mayor Blumberg should take a long walk off a short pier or change his name to Benito or Adolph.
Herr Diktator Bloomberg needs to eat a lead salad to solve his problems. >:-/
• obloodyhell
Except it's a crap shoot as to who it is has the reins after the game of musical power plays is over and done.
Since the winner is, almost tautologically, usually the most unscrupulous, unprincipled son of a bitch playing the game -- it's pretty much ALWAYS a very bad game to allow the government to play.
• HenryBowman419
H.G. Wells was a devout Socialist, so it comes as no surprise that he would favor top-down rule. Democracy, after all, is quite messy: it's much cleaner to permit the smart and learned folks to run things.
• Gil
I repeat: how many can naturally add huge amounts of muscle mass? Chances they're taking something and their overloading their body so it's not surprising such men drop dead in their forties and fifties.
• Orion Henderson
I am a bit of meat head and my BM I is 26.3. "Overweight". You would describe me as muscular and I am waaayy to cheap to juice. I know lots of people who are similar to me. You absolutely do not need to juice to have enough muscle mass to be overweight according to BMI. Carry on./
• marque2
I wonder how much of the pot story is just myth. The story I heard, is that Pot was made illegal because people thought smoking pot would lead white women to mate with black men from Jazz clubs.
Now it is a Latino thing? What do Latinos have to do with pot? Anyway most of the pot heads I have ever seen are lily white.
In the 1980's the black community was all in arms about Crack and fought to get really serious laws against it. Then a few years later, the same leaders were upset that so many black people were in jail for crack violations that seemed disproportionately strong when compared to other drugs - and of course that turned into other drugs "White people use." That falls in the can't win territory. There is some truth about the other people, but this shows that folks will do it to themselves as well.
• nehemiah
I think he and Jefferson would be surprised we kept it together as long as we did.
• mesaeconoguy
Modern leftists are totalitarian neofascists.
• bigmaq1980
As with all things the government puts in place, it grows beyond its original intent and becomes a permanent force against the governed. Give an inch, they take a mile.
With Bloombutt, there consistently appears to be the attitude that he is the smart guy and everyone else is stupid. Therefore, he needs to enact laws to make others do what he thinks is good for essence, a form of benevolent paternal dictatorship.
This is the same guy who got the laws changed so he could run a third term, because he was needed "for the crisis". Wonder if he would have thought highly of Giuliani had he done something similar after 9/11?
He is one bad apple!
• Harry
The progressive conceit is to assume experts, especially with big computers, can manage every problem. I should add that usually the solutions they propose invariably involve cosmic amounts of other people's money.
• norse
Well, obesity *is* a real problem. And I am certain that if we used the templates for the enormously successful wars on drugs and terror, we could win this major battle in no time. Deport fatties to Guantanamo, seize their assets, use drones to hunt them down and blow the pack leaders into bits. America will be a very different place.
On a related note: Why the hell is everyone so hell-bent on regulating other peoples lives for them? I mean, there's this freedom thing I heard about, sounded kind of interesting, if somewhat utopic. | <urn:uuid:b53e2e39-822b-4a4a-98ed-bd34cc0a66e9> | http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2013/04/the-road-to-totalitarianism-is-paved-with-good-intentions.html | en | 0.97058 | 0.299181 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Suddenly the Twins find themselves asking the same question our country has confronted for the past few years:
When does a recession become a depression?
Since the beginning of June, the Twins are 13-18. They've become a middle-rung American League team benefitting from alignment in a weak division.
They are poor on the road. During a long weekend at Target Field, they lost three out of four to a Tampa Bay team that made the Twins look unathletic by comparison. Most frightening, a bullpen that had overachieved most of the season is showing signs of wear.
About a year ago, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer argued that the Twins' front office would have to prove it could make midseason upgrades if Mauer was going to re-sign with the team, and if Morneau was going to want to stay with the team.
I would argue that this year's team needs Cliff Lee at the top of rotation, if not to win the division, then to have a chance to win its first playoff series since 2002.
I would argue that this year's bullpen needs a B-12 shot in the form of a trade, or a contribution from within the organization.
Strangely, Morneau didn't agree, or at least didn't admit that he might agree. A year after challenging his front office to upgrade the roster, Morneau offered a more mature and cautious assessment of his team.
"I don't think so," he said when asked if his team needed a jolt. "I was just thinking about it a little while ago. Sometimes you look around and say, 'Man, if we had this guy in our lineup, if we had that guy in our lineup,' but we have all the guys in our lineup that we need.
"You're not going to trade to take someone out of our lineup."
How about the pitching staff?
"What we have is definitely good enough," he said. "We have guys who have been there before and have succeeded before. You look at Blackie [Nick Blackburn], he's pitched a lot of big games for us, must-win games for us, and he can get back to that point.
"We believe that. You look at a guy like [Kevin] Slowey, it's the same thing. He has the stuff and he's capable of doing well. You just look at Pavano, the way he goes about his business and attacks the strike zone, and Frankie [Liriano] can be lights out.
"We're just looking for that consistency from everyone, and we have the players to do that."
Morneau has learned that begging for a trade is a direct insult to current teammates.
"You always want to get better,'' he said. "But if somebody new comes in, that means someone you've been playing with for a long time goes out. For me, I've got caught up in that stuff in the past, and if you're asking for this and that and it doesn't happen, what do you say to the guys who are still here?
"It's not a good situation."
The lineup reorchestration, with Michael Cuddyer playing third and Jim Thome continuing his climb up the home run list, has distracted us from what matters most about this team: The young righthanded starters -- Scott Baker, Slowey and Blackburn -- have been horrid on the road, and the patchwork bullpen belatedly looks like it misses Joe Nathan, Pat Neshek and Glen Perkins.
On the day Morneau made his fourth All-Star team, he was unwilling to blame the pitching staff. "We're not getting the big hits as consistently as we need to," he said. "We're not putting teams away when we're ahead. Like [Saturday], we could have made that a 7-1 game instead of 4-1, and then they're out of it. Kind of like they did to us [Sunday], they get that double that puts them up by six. We've been missing those hits.''
The Twins actually aren't failing in the clutch so much as they are hitting into too many double plays, an inherent flaw of a team of station-to-station sluggers.
I asked Morneau if he's as confident in this team in the midst of this slump as he was in April. "Yeah, definitely," he said. "Cuddy had a pretty good April, and he's done everything this team has asked, playing right field and third and even first, but he's a guy who hit 30 home runs last year. He's a guy who is capable of doing that. He'll tell you that offensively he hasn't done as well as he would have liked.
"And Koob [Jason Kubel] got off to a slow start, and this is my lowest RBI total heading into a break since '05. We're not scoring as many runs as we need to."
I admire Morneau for refusing to beg for a trade. I just hope his front office doesn't listen to him.
| <urn:uuid:446e0706-53aa-40cf-8355-37f7523bde66> | http://www.startribune.com/trade-needed-even-if-not-demanded-by-players/97779739/?c=y&page=all&prepage=1 | en | 0.989179 | 0.020506 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Top ten tech items to grab this shopping weekend
Posted by Morgan Sims
Once you're actually at the store, though, you're going to be overwhelmed by the amount of tech items that each store has. Here are the top tech items that you should make every effort to grab on Black Friday.
Macbook Air
Apple's new Macbook Air has the same design, but the graphics card has been improved. The battery has also received a huge improvement, lasting an astounding 12 hours. This device received a solid four-star rating (and four and a half from users) in the Black Friday Gift Guide from CNET.
Seiki 4K TV
The future of television technology is here — and it's at a 4K resolution. This 4K TV will run you about $1,300 and displays at a 3840 x 2160 resolution. The price is astounding because other similar 4K TVs on the market have cost about $5,000. There's a reason why it's so cheap, though — there's no sort of Internet connectivity or 3D, which could be a major downside. It comes with a special HDMI cable, so your older ones won't work.
Despite the lack of Internet connectivity and 3D, it's a solid television and one that'll last you for a long time. And you could always hook up an HDMI-compatible laptop or a Chromecast device if you really want the connectivity.
Playstation 4
Sony is back with a vengeance this holiday season, and this time with a brand new console — the Playstation 4. Boasting a comparatively low $399.99 price tag and a stellar line-up of games, this system is sure to make most people's holiday wish list. If you haven't pre-ordered one, you may be out of luck. It launches on November 15th, so hopefully stores will have a second shipment just in time for Black Friday.
Samsung Galaxy S4
The S4 is the latest in the Galaxy line of phones for Samsung. It allows you to add sound to your pictures, make air gestures, and features smart pause, which pauses videos for you when you look away from your phone. It runs on Android 4.2.2, which you can then upgrade to Android 4.3, and contains a quad-core processor, so there's no slow performance here. You can grab it in whatever size you feel like because you can expand the memory later, thanks to the microSD storage slot.
iPad Air
The iPad Air is brand new this holiday season and is already proving to be a huge hit with consumers, thanks to how thin and fast it is. The performance has been greatly increased, and even though it doesn't have a retina display, everything still looks great. The cameras have both been improved, so your Facetime calls will be much clearer. There's no option to upgrade the storage space, so be sure that the model that you buy has the amount of memory that you think you'll need.
Google Chromecast
Google's Chromecast device should be on everyone's wishlist for multiple reasons, the most important being that it's only $35. With Chromecast, you can wirelessly stream content from PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones over Wi-Fi to your HDTV. As long as your friends have the Chromecast password, they'll be able to stream their content to your TV. It's perfect if you don't have a device capable of displaying content on your TV.
Razer Blade
Even though there's already a laptop on this list, the Razer Blade should definitely be mentioned. It's actually thinner than the Macbook Air. This laptop is dedicated to gaming, so rather than just doing tasks, you'll be able to download and play games on the go. They're not cheap by any means, but they're worth every penny you pay.
This Black Friday, there are a ton of tech items that you should grab. Instead of grabbing a bit of everything, be aware of what you should grab. These tech items are a few of the best rated items this year. When you head out on Black Friday, what are you going to be looking for? What tech items made your list? | <urn:uuid:c165cc89-3387-486e-9a32-fee2591ee808> | http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-features/82110-top-ten-tech-items-to-grab-this-shopping-weekend | en | 0.954966 | 0.033517 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Late bloomer
October 23, 2005
At 43, Steve Carell is just becoming a fixture on the comedy radar. The star of the American remake of The Office and the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin spoke with Oliver Burkeman.
Seventeen. That's Steve Carell's answer to the first question I ask him - the question he knows I'm going to ask, and that he has prepared for, because you can't take the lead role in a big Hollywood comedy called The 40-Year-Old Virgin and imagine people won't ask it. "Well, 17's what I'm going to say, whether it's true or not, because it sounds about right for a guy," he clarifies.
"Go into your mid or late-20s, and there's something seemingly wrong. Go much younger than 17, and it could be a bit creepy. Seventeen sounds kinda cool."
Carell is so eager to co-operate with this line of inquiry, so instantly enthusiastic, that it makes you wonder whether it might not be a good idea to begin all future interviews with this question, the when-did-you-lose-your-virginity icebreaker.
That particular milestone, assuming he's telling the truth, may be a distant memory now for Carell, who is 43. But The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which currently tops the Australian box-office charts, marks another milestone - and one that may prove only slightly less significant. Until now, Carell has been best known for stealing scenes as a minor character in other people's movies: in the Jim Carrey vehicle Bruce Almighty, in the Will Ferrell film Anchorman (as the perfectly named American weathercaster Brick Tamland), and in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. He also took the lead role in the US remake of The Office, which testified to a certain nerve. Everyone down the pub may think they can do Ricky Gervais better than Ricky Gervais can, but they don't have to do it on primetime NBC.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin, though, belongs in a different category. A massive publicity campaign, unambiguously aimed at establishing Carell as the Next Big Comedy Thing, has plastered his beaming face on so many billboards that it seems to be freaking him out. "It is a little creepy, a bit disconcerting, driving around Los Angeles and seeing your face everywhere you go," he says, eyes widening in a characteristic, cartoonish expression of surprise.
Carell started out at Chicago's famous Second City improvisational theatre group, the alma mater of John Belushi and Bill Murray - a place that "gave you complete freedom to fail, night after night after night, so you could take chances", Carell says. "It's only once you're locked in, and told that something needs to be a certain way - that's when inspiration starts to dry up."
He achieved prominence as a pathologically self-absorbed television reporter on the satirical news program The Daily Show, presenting, among other things, a stirring segment titled Steve Carell Salutes Steve Carell.
As Michael Scott, the David Brent equivalent in the remade Office, he puts paid to the idea that only the foolish would seek to fill Gervais' shoes. ("Let me ask you, is there a term besides 'Mexican' that you prefer?" Scott memorably asks one employee in the episode called Diversity Day. "Something less offensive?")
Commercially, The 40-Year-Old Virgin is clearly part of this upward trajectory, though it's a difficult film to like. Carell plays Andy Stitzer, a sweet-natured electronics store employee who lives alone with his Star Wars posters, his computer games and his vintage action figures, preserved in their plastic boxes because they're worth more that way. His virginity is a secret until a late-night poker game with his office buddies (Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogan), at which talk turns to previous sexual escapades. Anecdote follows anecdote, each raunchier than the last, until Stitzer abruptly describes a woman's breast as feeling "like a bag of sand", whereupon silence falls, and he is rumbled. The rest of the movie, predictably, concerns his colleagues' campaign to get him laid.
The problem lies in the fundamental mean-spiritedness of the premise - there's nothing funnier than a 40-year-old virgin! - and the clunky psychologising. Stitzer plays a stereotypical loser (he channels his energies into painting miniature figurines and - get this - wears a bike helmet!), while Rudd, Malco and Rogan each stand for alternatives he must avoid in his interactions with women: one is inconsolably heartbroken, one's a compulsive cheater and one's just a general slob. The presence of Catherine Keener, as the subject of Stitzer's yearnings, just about rescues things, as the presence of Keener in anything tends to do.
Carell, who co-wrote the movie and dreamed up the character, denies the idea that it is remotely mean-spirited. "I describe it as a love story masquerading as a sex comedy," he says. "We've hung this very sweet story on a raunchy framework."
And as for clunky psychology, far from it: Universal Pictures compiled stacks of academic studies on older virgins for the writing team to read. "They gave us all these case studies about men and women who, for one reason or another, had not lost their virginity, and more often than not, they were not unlike this character: just everyday folks who'd had bad experiences, or who had decided it was too late, and had given up on the whole notion."
The character of Stitzer was not intended to be a loser. "These weren't necessarily people who were weird or strange, just people who'd missed the boat. We didn't want to paint a picture of this guy as defective in any way, or abnormal. He's just a guy, who has a secret, and who essentially needs to grow up and learn about himself."
Virginity, of course, is a significant political issue in the United States, where thousands of members of the Christian-inspired abstinence movement expend a lot of energy on not having sex. The movie caused murmurs of protest in such quarters, but they seem likely to be quelled. "I think there was a knee-jerk response," Carell says. "You'll get on the internet and read things about virgins - virgin groups up in arms about this, thinking it's making fun of them, saying it's terrible. But that's before they've seen it. I think once they see it, they'll realise there's no agenda at all."
Indeed, as one US reviewer pointed out, the film - which is subject to the interpretation that if you save yourself for years, you'll eventually find bliss - could almost be used in an abstinence campaign itself. "My 80-year-old parents went to see it last Friday and they loved it," Carell adds, a little defensively.
The film is also noteworthy for a spectacularly hard-to-watch chest-waxing scene, a teaser of which you've no doubt seen on the TV ads. Well, that's really Carell's chest hair and it's really getting waxed. "There was no need to do it, other than that I thought it might make the crew laugh," Carell concedes. "And for the other guys (on screen) . . . there would have been no way of recapturing their natural responses had it not been real."
The woman doing the waxing was an actor who listed waxing skills on her CV. "She had a lot of the skills to do that," he says. "I wouldn't say she had all of them. But you'd be amazed. In Los Angeles, you put out a casting call for an actress-slash-waxing-technician, and you'll get hundreds of people saying yes."
The result looks authentically painful; the blood, Carell says, was real, too. Whatever you make of him, let it not be said of the Next Big Comedy Thing that he does not suffer for his art.
- Guardian
Subscribe to The Age and save up to 35%* | <urn:uuid:db993599-0a19-465d-a5a3-5be118926389> | http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/late-bloomer/2005/10/20/1129775895125.html | en | 0.977222 | 0.111954 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Latest in Portable audio
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Microsoft, MTV team up on music service
Marc Perton
mtvBill Gates wants his MTV. Microsoft announced today that it will be teaming up with the music channel to create a new online music service, which will be integrated into an upcoming version of the Windows Media Player. Rather than leverage any equity that the MTV (or even MSN) brand might offer, the new service will also mark the launch of a new brand, undoubtedly created to prove how hip and happening Microsoft and the M really are: Urge. (Hey, at least it beats "the iTunes Music Store.") We're not sure what this means for Microsoft's deal with Real Networks to promote Real's Rhapsody service, though we suspect that the fact that Microsoft paid Real $300 million as part of that deal might help soften any blow Real might feel from being urged, er, edged aside.
From around the web | <urn:uuid:b4cb1454-70f2-493c-8b44-85487b986a7a> | https://www.engadget.com/2005/12/13/microsoft-mtv-team-up-on-music-service/ | en | 0.943153 | 0.022584 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
This is no smoking gun, nor Iranian bomb
Seven years ago Condoleezza Rice said "there will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon, but "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud". Now the focus is on Iran, not Iraq. Iran's nuclear projects are in the news again. According to the Times last week, alleged "confidential intelligence documents" show Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. The notes, the newspaper claims, describe "a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion". President Ahmadinejad yesterday denounced the documents as more American forgeries. But even if we take them as genuine, is this a real "smoking gun" – and what do the documents show anyway?
In my opinion they should be read recognising the long Iranian interest in the physics of nuclear fusion. Jim Callaghan, then British foreign secretary, visited Iran in March 1976. The shah told him that he was particularly interested in the UK's fusion programme and "if any opportunity arose whereby Iran could come in on the programme, they would be happy to do so". That interest has continued for more than 30 years. In 1993 Iran agreed with China to co-operate in the study of fusion and there is an continuing programme of work in Tehran.
Nuclear fusion is the mechanism whereby the sun shines and sustains life on earth. Nuclear reactors and atomic bombs rely on fission; hydrogen bombs rely on fusion. There are as yet no fusion reactors that produce energy because, even after 50 years of trying, more energy is needed to produce fusion than is obtained from the output. Nevertheless, industrialised countries persist in research in this field. At present the joint EU-US-Japan-China-India-Korea-Russia Iter project is building a fusion reactor prototype at Cadarache in France. Research in this area is allowed by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
The "intelligence documents" published by the Times describe a four-year project, so if the Iranians were to build a neutron initiator for a nuclear weapon it is not being treated as a matter of urgency. By contrast, the Manhattan Project scientists arrived at Los Alamos in early 1943, and the Trinity test occurred in July 1945.
Then the documents state that "policy is to develop co-operation with research and university centres in order to carry out the projects outside of the centre" and that samples are to be produced "by mutual co-operation … [then presented] to other research centres for marketing purposes". It is unlikely that nuclear weapon projects would be distributed among several universities, or weapon parts marketed to research centres.
The documents call for two physicists with PhDs and two with masters degrees to carry out the work. That doesn't sound like a top priority national programme. That sounds more like a university research project.
Then there is uranium deuteride, or UD3. According to the Times: "Critically, while other neutron sources have possible civilian uses, UD3 has only one application – to be the metaphorical match that lights a nuclear bomb." That is a surprising statement. In fact the document's only mention of UD3 states that it would prefer not to use it but to replace uranium with titanium. That gives a clue about what the Iranians are doing.
Titanium deuteride is used to store deuterium gas so that the gas can be generated when it is heated. It seems to me, therefore, that the function of UD3 is to generate deuterium gas so that it can be used in a plasma focus neutron generator. The neutron generator could then produce isotopes for use by other laboratories, hence the reference to market samples. UD3 is not known to be used as a neutron initiator in nuclear weapons: it was not used as an initiator in American, British or Soviet weapons when those weapons were developed.
So why the emphasis on UD3 as a initiator for a weapon? First, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced Pakistani scientist who stole centrifuge designs from the Dutch uranium enrichment plant at Almelo and began Pakistan's weapon project, claimed that UD3 was used as an initiator by Pakistan. Second, Chinese physicists reported they had imploded UD3 using chemical explosives and thus obtained a beam of neutrons. So the argument is that China now uses UD3 as an initiator, passed the design to Pakistan, which in turn passed it to Iran.
This is possible, but not demonstrated by the documents. A neutron initiator for a weapon needs precise timing: this is difficult using implosion by chemical explosives. Khan is a highly unreliable source. The document does not discuss obtaining neutrons by implosion: it discusses using pulsed neutrons presumably obtained using oscillating magnetic fields.
Perhaps I am wrong. Both fusion and fission physics involve processes which can be used either in military or civil applications. But I have read nothing in the documents published by the Times to be able to conclude that they are describing an initiator for a nuclear weapon. | <urn:uuid:ad175551-5855-489d-91de-3a36f90b8a8c> | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/22/no-iran-nuclear-bomb-trigger?view=mobile | en | 0.944565 | 0.062651 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
DAVID ENDERSRelatives of prisoners outside Camp Bucca, Iraq, summer 2008
Special thanks to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, which provided a grant to assist David Enders’s work.
It may seem hard to imagine a place where people incarcerated by the US military have fewer rights than they do in Guantánamo Bay.
Welcome to Iraq.
It is just after 4 am, and hundreds of Iraqis are lining up to visit their relatives outside Camp Bucca, which in August held about 18,000 detainees. Near the Kuwaiti border, Bucca shimmers in the predawn of the southern Iraqi desert, a beacon of light in a country where electricity is on for no more than twelve hours a day. It is the US military’s largest detention center in Iraq. The total number of those officially in US custody in Iraq has fluctuated between a low of 7,200 and more than 26,000 since 2005.
The three hotels in Zubair, one of the closest towns to Bucca, are always full. “We don’t have tourism here,” says Jabbar Mubarak, the clerk at the Tower of Babil, Zubair’s largest hotel. “Everyone who comes to our hotel comes to visit their sons.” The lobby swarms with families, some of whom have driven more than ten hours. Despite major offensives in the past year against the Mahdi Army, Iraq’s largest Shiite militia, about 80 percent of those in custody here are Sunni and hail from the central and northern parts of the country.
One of the biggest complaints is that the vast majority of detainees have not been charged with any crime. “Why don’t the US forces charge him if he has done something? Then at least we would know how long he will be here,” said Hadia Khalaf, whose son Qusay was arrested in September 2007. “He was our provider,” she said, reflecting the plight of many families who rely on extended family and charity to survive.
Since 2003 approximately 96,000 Iraqis have been officially detained by the US military, with 100,000 more having been temporarily detained but never sent to a theater-level internment facility like Bucca. The other theater-level facility currently open is Camp Cropper at Baghdad Airport, which serves as the system’s in- and out-processing center and holds about 3,000 detainees, including roughly 300 juveniles.
The legal basis for detentions stems from a single line of a 2004 UN Security Council resolution, which has been renewed every year since by agreement between the US and Iraqi governments. This resolution, which gives the legal justification for continued US military occupation, allows “internment where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are negotiating a status of forces agreement between the two governments that they hope to reach by the end of the year, when the current UN mandate expires. A key issue at stake is detentions, part of a broader area of contention between the two governments over the rights that US troops should have to operate unilaterally in Iraq. The Iraqi government has demanded that the US military no longer be allowed to detain Iraqis without its approval. The State Department and White House have been largely mum about the discussions, while Maliki’s office has regularly leaked parts of the agreement and says that the final sticking points are whether US troops will continue to be immune from prosecution under Iraqi law and the extent to which the US military will have to coordinate with and receive approval from the Iraqi government before launching operations.
On the issue of detentions, Joseph Logan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa section, thinks an amnesty might be the answer. “If you don’t have the evidence to transfer someone to the Iraqi system, it’s probably the case that their outright release should be considered,” Logan said. “It does seem they’ve been expediting the process of clearing some people out, and that’s praiseworthy. But that doesn’t deal with the underlying legal problem–that these people can’t challenge their detention and don’t have counsel.”
What constitutes an “imperative” security threat is left up to those in charge of reviewing detainee cases. “The idea is not to tie the hands of the ground troops,” said Capt. Dylan Imperato, a military lawyer at Cropper. Logan thinks this is left purposely vague. “The US is on the one hand claiming broad powers of detention, and at the same time is claiming the conflict is not a war or occupation,” he said. “You can’t have it both ways. If you want these completely unchecked powers of detention, you have to occupy the country again”–that is, revert to the legal status before the 2004 UN resolution.
Detainees receive an initial review of their case before being sent to Cropper, but they are not allowed to attend it. The reviews are conducted by a panel of three US military officers. Detainees are allowed to attend later reviews, but at no point are they given access to a lawyer.
“The level to convict at a criminal court would be a higher level to reach than to determine whether or not they’re an imperative security threat,” said Imperato. “We don’t limit [the review boards] in any major way. We give them broad discretion to make that determination.” Imperato said there are many considerations for determining whether a detainee will be held for another six months or recommended for release. “You’re not determining guilt or innocence, and you’re not strictly looking at the conduct that got them into [detention] in the first place. You’re looking at what their plans are when they get out,” Imperato said. “Does he have something to go back to? A family, a job? Something that would make him less susceptible to Al Qaeda or any other group?”
Detention can be extended indefinitely. According to a military spokeswoman, about 10 percent of those held have been in detention since 2005 or earlier, 20 percent since 2006, 50 percent since 2007 and 20 percent were detained this year. The numbers are dropping, with an average of forty-five detainees being released and thirty being entered into the system each day.
Detention operations have been a rocky road. Torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004 received the most coverage, but thousands of prisoners living in leaky tents outside the prison’s “hard site” complained of lack of medical care, indifferent and at times hostile treatment from guards, inedible food and extreme weather, including flooding. American troops even admitted at the time that they believed more than 80 percent of those detained were innocent of wrongdoing. Recently released Iraqis, as well as Iraqi officials, say that this statistic is probably still true.
Torture also certainly continued past 2004. On a visit to Abu Ghraib in March 2005 (it has since been closed), I saw a detainee who had been strapped to a chair and left in the pouring rain. Only after reading former interrogator Tony Lagouranis’s book Fear Up Harsh did I learn this was a tactic used to induce hypothermia. At the time the guards told me the prisoner had been restrained because he refused to stop throwing feces at his captors.
The system has come a long way. In general, the released detainees I spoke with said food was good and that treatment was far better than what one could expect in Iraqi government-run prisons. None of the prisoners I interviewed spoke of the vocational programs as highly as US spokespersons did, but they did say that some were available. None complained of abuse during detentions or interrogations once in Cropper or Bucca, though some said they had been beaten and roughly interrogated before being put into the theater-level system.
“The first three days they didn’t give me any food,” said Samir Mohamed, who was arrested in 2007 while driving between Damascus and Baghdad. He said he was blindfolded for three days while he was interrogated and beaten. “They put cigarettes out on me,” he said. One US soldier I spoke to who requested anonymity said the CIA maintained an off-the-books “black site” at Camp Anaconda near Balad as recently as mid-2007. I have not been able to confirm this independently.
Some detainees, including one who believed he had been arrested by US Special Forces, said they waited more than two weeks before being entered into the theater-level system, a violation of the military’s rules. And Mohamed, the detainee who said he was beaten, said he went eight months without a hearing, before suddenly being released.
But if the treatment once incarcerated is generally better than in the past, the intelligence that puts Iraqis there does not seem to be. “I was working as a guard at a gas station,” said Jassim, who was arrested in August 2007, during the surge in Baghdad. “There were eight of us working as guards, and they lined us up and said, ‘We’ll take the first four.'” The US military has admitted that the surge led to a surge in detainees as well, as a result of increased raids, which strained an already overcrowded system and elicited fresh reports of arbitrary detentions.
The number of troops and contractors tasked to detention operations has grown considerably and now totals approximately 10,000, according to one spokesman. The increased manpower has allowed cases to be reviewed every six months, and the military says 330 days is the average length of detention. Nonetheless, inmates said the situation inside the prisons, which US officials recently admitted had included incarcerated insurgents running their own courts, can range from boring to dangerous, although the US military claims insurgents are no longer meting out their own justice.
The first time Abu Wissam, 58, was arrested by US troops was in a roundup in December 2003. He was arrested again in September 2007. He has spent most of the latest detention in Bucca’s Camp 26, which is known as a takfiri camp, since takfiris–Sunni Muslim extremists who consider Shiites to be heretics and non-Muslims–have been allowed to run it. “Sometimes they wanted to punish a prisoner,” Abu Wissam said. “They would put someone in the camp and tell the takfiris, ‘This guy worked with the police.’ The takfiris hate anyone who works with the Iraqi government or the Sahwa or the police.”
“The Sahwa people were scared to sleep inside,” Abu Wissam said, referring to the movement of former Sunni resistance fighters who have made a marriage of convenience with the US military since late 2006 to battle Al Qaeda. He and other prisoners I interviewed said interrogations mostly focused on general questions. For Abu Wissam it was things such as “did you fight against Israel?” during the 1973 war–apparently considered a mark of suspicion by US interrogators but something that a member of the Iraqi army would have been shot for refusing to do. Abu Wissam said he was given a paper to sign, admitting guilt to a list of charges that included murder, attacking US troops, kidnapping and sectarian cleansing. In July the US military admitted that Islamic extremists had been running courts inside Bucca for years and even carrying out killings inside the prisons.
Abu Wissam also said the takfiri camp received fewer services than other camps, and that medical treatment could be restricted based on the camp’s color-coded designation–red when there were disturbances, orange when things were calmer. “If someone was sick, we had to put his bed next to the door of the camp and leave him there so that the American soldiers would see he was sick and needed medical treatment.” Abu Wissam said he complained about the treatment, especially the fact that all prisoners suffered because of the actions of some. “I asked the American officer, ‘Why do you treat all of us like takfiris?’ and he said, ‘You killed our friends. You are all takfiris.'”
If that exchange suggests collective punishment of prisoners, the review process shouts it. Detainee review hearings at Camp Cropper are held in a sparsely furnished trailer. An Iraqi flag hangs on the wall, no doubt an unintended irony. Prisoners swear on a Koran before three US officers, who read a list of accusations.
In one hearing I observed in early August, the defendant had been rounded up with relatives after a weapons cache was found nearby. The military strongly believed the young man’s father was an insurgent, but the officers thought it was more than likely the accused had been picked up simply because he happened to be there. Regardless, it had been enough to hold him for at least four months.
“I just want to go back to school,” the young man told the officers when given a chance to speak. “I have missed a year because of this.”
“You’re still young,” one of the officers replied. “You’ll have time to catch up.”
Before being dismissed, and despite the fact that the three officers said they believed the young man had nothing to do with the weapons found near his house, he was still given a speech that appeared to be standard. “It’s your responsibility to report [suspicious activity] to the government or the police,” one of the officers told the young man.
Though Captain Imperato insisted the purpose of the hearings is not to determine guilt, at another hearing I attended the officers asked the detainees if they had been responsible for the alleged crimes and, during a third hearing, whether the detainee was a member of the Mahdi Army or knew anyone who was.
“I don’t think that there is a law that covers what we’re trying to do–that is, to detain people indefinitely. There have been terrorist acts throughout history, so this war is never going to end,” said retired Adm. John Hutson, a military law expert. “The 250 guys at Guantánamo can have habeas corpus, but the thousands of detainees elsewhere don’t have any rights. I think we have focused like lasers on Guantánamo because it’s iconic and it’s ninety miles off our shore. But you can’t make legal, diplomatic or moral distinctions based on the locale of the detainee. We’ve worried about Guantánamo, but there are more detainees elsewhere. Whatever rules we come up with have to apply across the board.”
But a discussion with retired Col. Janis Karpinski, who was first tasked with detention operations in Iraq, indicates that the system has in many ways stayed mostly the same since 2003. (It was Karpinski, then a brigadier general, who was in charge of the military police brigade that ran Abu Ghraib when the torture photos were released in 2004. She was charged with dereliction of duty and demoted to colonel; Karpinski claims the abuses that took place under her nominal command were carried out under orders from officers reporting to a different chain of command.) The military is still trying to reconcile international law with a conflict that the US government refuses to acknowledge is either a war or an occupation.
“There has never been a situation, a war, nation-building anywhere, where military police units were called to run a country’s prison operation,” Karpinski said. “Why? Because they call in United Nations forces once an area has been cleared.”
Bucca was originally slated to be shut down in late 2003, Karpinski said, before Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and his staff, who were responsible for setting up Camp X-Ray at Guantánamo, took over from Karpinski. Karpinski said Miller told her he would “Gitmo-ize” the system, after which Abu Ghraib and then Cropper became the main center for interrogations.
“Bucca is holding this massive population of Iraqis who were hauled in and are security detainees that have no intelligence value. When you determine that they have no further intel value, you transfer them to Bucca,” Karpinski said.
When Miller visited Iraq in 2003 in anticipation of taking over detention operations, Karpinski asked his top lawyer, Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, what the release policy was at Guantánamo. “I asked her specifically about release procedures for the prisoners at Gitmo,” Karpinski said. “Thinking, naïvely, we might be able to learn something from their procedures. Beaver looked at me like I was crazy and arrogantly said, ‘Release, ma’am? There is no release plan for our prisoners. Most, if not all of them, will spend every last day of their lives at Gitmo.'”
Outside Bucca, as the sun comes up, Ali, 12, reads a letter he has written to his father. “Dear Daddy, How are you? I hope you are doing well. I miss you so very much and I miss you taking me in your arms. Dear Daddy, we are all doing well, thank God! I pray that God gives me and Mommy and my sister Nour the patience to survive while you are absent. I asked God to help you and all the detainees with you to be released. Dear Daddy, you can rely on God, then on me, to take care of the house and the family. I cry every day, every day thinking of you. I pray for you because you are oppressed. I ask God to release you from your misery, Inshallah!”
Around him, other families, almost all women, wave pictures of the incarcerated. One woman has five sons inside; another has a brother who has been in US prisons since 2004. Another says this is her twelfth visit to Bucca. All say that the trip is a financial strain. One says that without her husband to support her, she has been reduced to begging. Others complain that their children are depressed and failing in school.
“Most of the visits we spend crying,” says Shaimaa Jumaa. “It’s not just that they keep them locked up and we don’t know what they’re charged with. It’s that they are separated from their families.” | <urn:uuid:8ea88793-10f6-40b1-9e57-fa5ae15cad1a> | https://www.thenation.com/article/camp-bucca-iraqs-guantaacutenamo-bay/ | en | 0.981099 | 0.031952 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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ubuntu-bug really, really seems to want me to ask this as a question on rather than reporting it as a bug. So I am.
My machine (for which ubuntu-bug has not attached any details for you, but two salient details are that it's an nv graphics card and 2 x 1920 x 1200 heads) takes roughly a half second to change window focus when I move the mouse to a new window. This is very long, enough that I have to think to wait. A reasonable goal in human interface design would be under a tenth of a second.
It's worth noting that I am using sloppy focus mode (focus follows mouse-enter events).
I'm not quite sure how to phrase this as a question, unless the question is "what's the right way to report this as a bug?" or maybe "any suggestions how to tune compiz, and how can we make it so ubuntu users don't have to tune compiz?".
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So to get to sloppy focus you opened ccsm, got to "general options", to "Focus & Raise Behaviour", unmarked "Click to Focus" and marked "Auto Raise"? What did you enter for "Auto Raise Delay"? – xubuntix May 10 '12 at 6:25
I have FFM set from before things got complicated (i.e., from metacity days). But running ccsm, I see that auto-raise is unset. Indeed, I don't want it to auto-raise, so this is good. While auto-raise delay is (suspiciously) 500, setting it to 10 doesn't change the focus delay. – jma May 10 '12 at 7:14
I'm having the same problem – Sevenearths Jun 12 '12 at 11:55
Just ran the first suggestion and the delay, has all but gone. down from half a second to about a tenth of a second. I changed the setting from 500 to 1 – SimplySimon Jul 4 '13 at 7:57
That bug is already created at
including a rather exhaustive discussion.
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| <urn:uuid:c0140204-bba5-4f2e-af86-a417930aa5d1> | http://askubuntu.com/questions/134790/proposed-bug-compiz-delay-in-changing-window-focus | en | 0.954079 | 0.028561 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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I just installed 64-bit Google Earth from .deb file downloaded from the official site. Now when I open Google Earth it looks all weird. Here's a screenshot: Google Earth.
How to get it right?
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This worked for me:… – user72829 Jun 23 '12 at 21:59
up vote 5 down vote accepted
Install ttf-mscorefonts-installer, then logout and in again - see e.g. (found by searching for "googleearth natty fonts").
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| <urn:uuid:76510881-7a80-45fb-a3b3-fcfeba8abcdf> | http://askubuntu.com/questions/40156/weird-looking-google-earth | en | 0.872152 | 0.796797 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Odissi is the native dance form of Orissa. Read further to know about Odissi classical dance of India.
Odissi Dance Form
Based on Natya Shastra, Odissi is regarded as one of the oldest surviving dance forms of India, with well preserved archaeological evidence. It has originated from Orissa and its history can be traced back to the 2nd century BC. The dance form has been extensively depicted in the sculptures of Brahmeswara temple and Sun Temple at Konark. Kelucharan Mohapatra, an erstwhile Goti Pua, is the greatest exponent and guru of Odissi. Some of the other exponents of this dance form are Indrani Rehman, Sonal Mansingh, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Protima Gauri Bedi, Madhavi Mudgal, Guru Mayadhar Raut, Guru Deva Prasad Das and Guru Durga Charan Das.
The form of Odissi that exists today is the result of a long process of renovation from various dance traditions of Orissa, which includes the Maharis, the Goti puas and the Bhandanritya traditions. Maharis were the counterparts of the Devadasis of the South, who danced in temples. Goti puas were men, who dressed as female dancers and danced like the Maharis. These artistes were not allowed to dance in temples after reaching adulthood. After 17th century, the popularity of Odissi declined largely, because dancers came to be considered as shameless creatures. Thus, there was no one ready to learn the dance form.
With the passing time and the modernization of the thinking of the Indian society, Odissi was brought back to the attention of the public and started gaining back the lost popularity. Kalicharan Pattanayaka is accredited with the revival of Odissi. He presented the Odissi artists to perform on stage and motivated others to follow the suit. In the 1950s, the entire dance form was revitalized by Abhinaya Chandrika, by taking assistance from the sculpted dance poses that already existed in temples.
Theme & Performance
Odissi is similar to Bharatnatyam in terms of the mudras and expressions used in the performance. The 'Tribhang' or the division of the body into three parts, including head, bust and torso, is one of the highlighting features of Odissi. The performances are replete with lores of the eighth incarnation of Vishnu and his avatar of Lord Krishna. It is a soft dance backed by soothing lyrics. Through the performance, the Odissi artist personifies the ambience of Orissa and the philosophy of its most popular deity - Lord Jagannath.
Apart from the depiction of Lord Jagannath, the artist also narrates the stories of Lord Krishna, through his/her performance that includes mudras and rasas. The verses of the Sanskrit play Geet Govinda are also incorporated into the performance, in order to depict the love and devotion to God. Dashavataar, the depiction of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, is a popular performance of Odissi. The Odissi dancers use their head, bust and torso in soft flowing movements to express specific moods and emotions. | <urn:uuid:078d6307-607d-4cf2-867e-5d0be1939da2> | http://dances.iloveindia.com/classical-dances/odissi.html | en | 0.951099 | 0.019528 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Imagine a world in which tiny cameras in your smartphone or laptop spy on your facial expressions, letting website designers know, moment by moment, where they are hitting—or missing—the mark. Where retailers track the brainwaves of shoppers, using the data to craft more alluring aisles. Where advertisers monitor the eye movements and sweat rates of viewers to help them select which commercial to air in that coveted Super Bowl spot.
No need to imagine.
In the brave (and arguably creepy ) world of neuromarketing, each of these scenarios is already playing out in real life. Armed with high-tech biometric and neurological tools and a blossoming body of research on how purchasing decisions are subconsciously made, more companies—from food giants Cargill and Frito-Lay to market research leaders Symphony IRI and Nielsen—are mining deep into the minds of potential consumers.
"There is absolutely no doubt that a major part of our decision-making process is subconscious; but until recently, our brains were like a black box," says Roger Dooley, a marketing consultant and founder of the blog "With the strides in neuroscience in the last 10 years, we now have the tools to see what is going on inside. It is going to transform the field of market research."
Although not many companies within the natural, organic and healthy products market are yet embracing neuromarketing tools, this could change soon, as marketers strive to better understand what really drives consumer shopping preferences and behaviors.
Designing the perfect label
When the fledgling California Olive Ranch set out to design the bottle for its new, fresh, extra-virgin olive oil, it bypassed surveys and focus groups and opted instead to probe consumers' gray matter.
electroencephalography (EEG) sensorsTwelve men and twelve women filed into the bustling San Francisco offices of NeuroFocus Inc., where they were fitted with a swimming-cap like device loaded with 64 electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, before having a seat in a comfy living room in front of a giant screen.
As images of labels flashed on the screen, the sensors fired 2,000 times per second, measuring electrical activity in the brain and the corresponding levels of the subjects' attention, emotional response, and memory, as specialized cameras tracked the people's eye movements.
According to the results, the consumers' brains preferred a clutter-free, natural image, showing the product itself (the olive), slightly off-center to the left. That's precisely the label consumers see today on the new California Olive Ranch bottle.
So, why didn't the company just ask consumers what they thought?
"Because people have very poor introspection into their own feelings," says A.K. Pradeep, a fiery and verbose India-born engineer who founded NeuroFocus in 2005.
Research shows that people have a hard time articulating what they felt in that split-second when they saw a label on a screen, or tasted a new energy bar. Furthermore, the mere act of trying to synthesize that feeling into words can change the way they feel about it. Throw in a few loudmouth volunteers who dominate a focus group and sway others to see things their way and the data can get even more fuzzy. Meanwhile, Pradeep says, people from some cultures tend to be more docile and want to please the interviewer (they all tasted great!) while others tend to be more outspoken and hyper-critical.
"Neuromarketing frees you from the linguistic, social and socioeconomic biases that plague surveys and focus groups," Pradeep says.
The company also offers a service called the "Total Consumer Experience," in which test subjects look at a package, break it open and taste the contents—their EEG cap tracking brain activity throughout the entire process. Because the results are purer, Pradeep argues, a test group can be as small as one-tenth the size of a conventional focus group.
Such research may sound like science fiction, but the CEOs of companies large and small are beginning to buy it. Recent NeuroFocus clients include Frito-Lay (which used NeuroFocus technology to help the company craft potato chip bags and ads with more appeal to women), Microsoft, Campbell Soup, The Neilsen Company, and New Scientist Magazine (which tested brain waves when choosing a recent cover).
Pradeep says the company has doubled its revenue every year of its operations.
"Focus groups are a stone-age tool," he says. "Measuring things directly at the brain takes us many steps closer to the truth."
It's written all over your face
According to Dan Hill, the same could be said about research that measures facial expressions.
Hill's company, Sensory Logic, videotapes focus group participants and examines the movement of 43 muscles in their faces—all with the goal of deciphering which of seven emotions the subjects are experiencing.
Sensory Logic has been conducting such research since 1998, but it's only been in the past few years that the marketing world has begun to embrace the power of facial coding. What's driving the growing interest? Two factors are the proliferation of webcams and a lengthy discussion of the research in Malcolm Gladwell's best-seller Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.
Hill argues that, while brain-wave measurements are good at tracking what you are paying attention to, they tend to fall short on deciphering why.
"I can have an intense, emotional reaction to Khadafi, but it doesn't mean I want to buy something from him," Hill says.
Thus far, all tests conducted by Sensory Logic have been done with the consent of those tested, and Hill (a former regulatory analyst for consumer affairs) vows to keep it that way within his own company. But he concedes that such technology could be used in a more subversive manner by less-savory marketers.
"With all the things that cameras are in today, I believe this will become ubiquitous," says Hill. "I can see a day when there will be billboards that will be able to read your facial expressions and adjust the nature of the advertising based on your reaction, or where you could go to a site's home page and they could sense whether you were in a flipped-out versus blessed-out mood and send you toward appropriate advertising."
It doesn't end there.
On April 15, a new company called Affectiva—born out of an MIT lab studying how to better understand the emotions of autistic children—launched a new USB-compatible wrist band that measures emotional arousal (essentially the "the fight or flight" response) via changes in the skin. By pairing this with largely automated, computer-analyzed facial recognition software, a marketer can analyze every brow furrow, scowl, or sweaty palm (or rather wrist) of viewers hundreds of miles away.
"The consumer has the opportunity to communicate more than ever before if something annoys them or they like it, if they are frustrated or if something is making their life better," says Rosalind Picard, PhD, founder of the Affective Computing Research Group at MIT and co-founder of Affectiva. "By communicating that more accurately, they should end up with better products and services."
Shortfalls and darksides
Harvard Neurologist Edison Miyawaki, MD, travels the country talking to business groups about the very real neurological basis for purchasing decisions. But when it comes to things like EEG for market research, he considers himself a "skeptic." Sure, such tools may be able to measure the activity in your brain at the time you first spot that organic granola box, but it doesn't take into consideration your memory of the last time you ate granola, or the article you just read about its health benefits, or your overall mood when you walked in the store.
"You can't judge all time by looking at one spot in time," he says. "This is not the holy grail."
As Jeff Hilton, co-founder of Integrated Marketing Group (IMG), which specializes in health, lifestyle and natural products, notes, these techniques have been around for years and at best have achieved only limited penetration. "Natural product industry research budgets, limited as they are, are much better spent using more traditional research techniques," he says.
Others are opposed to neuromarketing on more ethical grounds. At least one consumer watchdog group, the Center for Digital Democracy, has vocally opposed the proliferation of such research programs, as "new forms of subliminal persuasion."
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) was so concerned about the burgeoning field that it recently launched the Neurostandards Collaboration Project to scrutinize the science (or lack thereof) behind these technologies and to develop standards.
And of course, the looming, largely unanswered question: Will neuromarketing help companies sell more products?
Concerns aside, companies are beginning to eat up neuromarketing.
Before launching the multi-million dollar media campaign for its natural sweetener, Truvia, Cargill enlisted the help of neuromarketing company EmSense, which provides an EEG/biometric combo device. In March, business consultancy firm Symphony IRI added EmSense technology to its offerings.
"It will never be a replacement" for survey work and one-on-one discussions, says Larry Levin, executive vice president for consumer insights for Symphony IRI. "But alone, they don't show you second by second how their heart and bran and sweat glands are reacting as someone walks down the aisle. To be honest, we are pretty enthralled." | <urn:uuid:6d9d2d0d-c691-4619-8b3d-c26cf6b9fcaf> | http://deliciousliving.com/print/marketing/inside-brave-new-world-neuromarketing?page=4 | en | 0.957189 | 0.058194 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Shore Fishery Leases Processing Steps for Setnet Lease Applications
• New lease and Amendment applicants do all 13 steps.
• Renewal applicants do only step 13.
1. Stake site(s) between May 2 and October 15. Please provide photographic evidence of each site(s). A staking example can be found on our website. Get a staking example (PDF).
2. Submit application and $100.00 non-refundable filing fee within 30 days of staking site(s) AND between June 1 and October 15. Get Shore Fishery Lease Application (PDF)
3. DNR reviews the application, and then prepares the public notice which appears on our shore fishery website, DNR public notice site, and at local post offices. DNR also attempts to contact other interested parties in the immediate area (ie private landowners, other set net lease holders, traditional unleased setnetters, etc if we are aware of them.
4. The 45 day public notice period begins the first day it appears on DNR web sites.
5. If no protests are received, then DNR sends applicant a shore fishery plat preparation packet. Get Shore Fishery Plat Instructions (PDF)
6. Applicant’s surveyor or draftsperson prepares the plat, then sends a preliminary plat to DNR within 90 days or request a 150-day extension, by notarized affidavit (11 AAC 64.260(f)).
7. Applicant submits the $150.00 plat review fee to DNR within 90 days.
8. DNR reviews the preliminary plat and returns it to the applicant’s draftsperson for corrections.
9. Applicant’s draftsperson makes final corrections and returns it to DNR, if all corrections are made the Mylar gets sent to the applicant to sign and date; the applicant sends the Mylar to DNR.
10. DNR reviews the Mylar to make sure all corrections have been made.
11. DNR prepares the lease document and mails to applicant for signature.
12. The applicant signs two original copies of the lease document in front of a notary or postmaster and returns BOTH to DNR with the $300.00 rental for the first year (no rent payment is required for a lease amendment if the rent payment is current; lease extensions also require a $100 extension fee).
Total cost for lease issuance will vary somewhat depending on the amount charged by the drafts-person or surveyor approximately $700 - 20,000+. The total amount paid to DNR is $550 ($100 application fee, $150 plat review fee, $300 first year's rental). The yearly rent after issuance is $300.
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Back Into The Gaping Maw Of Coachella
By Father John Misty; photo by Emma Garr on April 11, 2013
Back Into The Gaping Maw Of Coachella
Historically, festivals have been a way for a culture to collectively throw off the shackles of their mores, taboos and any other number of social institutions that contribute to a functional and safe civilization. In this vacuum of order, sexual hedonism; chemical experimentation; gluttony; drunkenness; and excess become commonplace and sanctioned expressions of participation.
Modern music festivals are perhaps the most dubious example of this type of Dionysian collective celebration, with their Gestapo-style security, rigid scheduling, mandatory proof of identification, insurance concerns and adherence to the profit model. Our consumer masters have deemed fit, however, to unload “free swag” onto us to demonstrate their willingness, as corporate “citizens,” to join in on the fun and throw proverbial caution to the wind.
All in all, a pretty bleak state of affairs, but your mind is still a magical motherfucker, even if you’ve fried it with a steady diet of reality television and social networking news feeds about the Mayan calendar.
My antidote to being lulled into the semi-narcoleptic and docile state, ideal for consuming, that your masters wish to induce in the fully immersive commercial (FIC) that is the modern music festival is to retreat into the mind. This is the same exercise that served as the impetus for almost all of the existential music and philosophy we use as a cornerstone for modern “individuality.”
Here I have outlined some steps.
We all know that water is important; heck, some people (Communists) believe that our bodies are made up of as much as 75 percent water! How does it all fit in there? Anyway, what people tend to forget is that Brexers (the scientific name of the tiny maladaptive phantoms that live in our bloodstream and are responsible for depressive thoughts, occasional increases in foot motor skills, etc.) can only be drowned. Bear this in mind out there in the hot sun. Some branches of Brexer theology propose that the Sun is something of an interventionist deity, who, if appeased through ritual and understanding, steals water from our bodies on their behalf.
Ladies, be sure to wear fringed Indian boots, huge sunglasses, a big floppy hat and plenty of bohemian bric-a-brac while you tell as many strangers as you can about the very real threat of Brexers and their animistic, fringe Solar-cult sensibilities. If people seem resistant to your advice, bear in mind they are probably on ecstasy and that simply by screaming, “Drown your Brexers!” repeatedly, there is an excellent likelihood of saving their lives.
Rock bands in America are sleeper hegemony agents for a brand of Satanism that was thought to have been eradicated nearly a millennia ago. Many of the messages most common in current American indie and “Skrillex” music are engineered to prepare the malleable mind of the listener for what is referred to in modern times as “Branding.” Some of the lyrical phrases most often-used for this purpose include:
- “You make it so easy”
- “But now you’ve changed”
- “Help me to make it”
- “I told you I would stay”
- “Look into my eyes”
- “I don’t understand”
Repeatedly listening to messages of this nature eventually leads to a state of mind that is frail, sentimental, prone to victimization and ripe for the possession of demonic forces from antiquity. Be sure to include ear plugs in your knapsack, or borrow a robotic helmet from any number of the performers on-site. Be mindful, however, not to interrupt them while they are checking their email onstage.
No one understands you, your capital for friendship is mostly concerned with things outside of your control, the oil is running out, technology is isolating us all, America is a super-power in name only, money will always taint your values, no one really listens outside of their vested interest in being perceived as someone who listens and the speakers of truth will always die too early, so it’s important to remember to set aside time each day, even at a music festival, for a little “me-time.”
Here are some suggestions:
- Try going to the margarita booth by yourself at 4 p.m. and seeing how much you can drink.
- Ask five (5) of your friends to tell a story about an embarrassing episode from your past,
but make them tell it as if you weren’t standing there. Then go stare at a car.
- Listen to some music you enjoy.
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I was reading Baby Rudin for Real Analysis and wanted to explore Topology a little deeper. I bought George Simmons' Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis and found myself liking it. I am having some problems every once in a while with prerequisites.
How much Set theory do I need to learn before diving into the aforementioned book?
Also, the book is divided into 3 parts : Topology, Operators and Algebras of Operators.
Till where can I trot with a good understanding of SV Calculus?
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I suspect you need no more than what you might learn in a first semester of real analysis. – mixedmath Jun 25 '12 at 21:30
To start general topology you won't need much set theory at all, but once you get deep enough, it's basically the same as advanced set theory... – Zhen Lin Jun 25 '12 at 21:30
@ZhenLin, I don't know anything beyond Unions, Intersections, Venn diagrams and a few basic theorems. Sufficient? – Real_Analysis Jun 25 '12 at 21:31
From my experiences with the Simmons book, which I thought it was a wonderful introduction to the subject(s) - you don't need any prerequisites in set theory at all, as he covers all the set theory he needs in the first few sections of the book. Just stick with Simmons for now, and don't bother with any other books. – Old John Jun 25 '12 at 21:37
You should need essentially no set theory to start in on topology. Your current knowledge seems fine. – KReiser Jun 25 '12 at 21:45
up vote 4 down vote accepted
Simmons' book has a brief introduction to set theory at the beginning. If you can get through it without any trouble, you probably have a strong enough background in set theory. In the worst case, there may be a couple of things that you will get stuck at. If that happens, you can go try to figure it out on your own, and if that fails go back to a reference for set theory. This should be pretty infrequent.
The best thing to do is to try to read the book (and understand every line of every proof, not just skimming over it). If you get stuck, find a way to get past it. If you find yourself frequently getting stuck, figure out what it is you're weak on, and go study that before you go back to the book.
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My recommendation would be: carry Simmons book with you wherever you go, read it, master it, solve every problem in the exercises he gives (the are mostly very good) - and when you get really stuck, ask for help on math.stackexchange ... – Old John Jun 25 '12 at 21:47
I assume that in the book you are asking about the preliminaries included by author would be sufficient.
One thing which I consider useful is Zorn's lemma, which is in the first chapter of Simmons' book. But even if you choose different text, you will bump into using Zorn's lemma a few times.
Other than that, the only thing that I can think of are ordinals and transfinite induction. But they are perhaps less important. Many of the books that are intended as the first course in general topology don't include them. (For instance, Willard includes these two topics.)
However, I don't think you should worry too much about preliminaries. You can always get back to some topic, if you find at some point in the book, that you need to know something from set theory (or any other area).
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Snails Traveled on Birds Across Panama Canal, Study Says
Researchers found that at least two snails made the journey from one side of the North American continent to the other in the last million years.
Read the full article in the New York Times…
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Friday, September 09, 2011
7 Coyotes Killed in Broomfield Following Attacks
State wildlife officials have killed seven coyotes in Broomfield in the past two weeks following attacks on children.
The Boulder Daily Camera Saturday reports a total of nine coyotes have been killed since July. State Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill says wildlife officers will stop patrols and return if there are more reports of aggressive coyotes.
Recent attacks include boys ages 6 and 2 being bitten in separate incidents in July and August. Both were on walks with their father. A mother was able to scare away a coyote that threatened her 4-year-old boy who was playing in the front yard.
Broomfield officials are also trimming tall grass from along trails to remove hiding places and shooting coyotes with paintball guns to make them wary of human contact.
- Predator Xtreme
I'm assuming this is Colorado. And shooting them paintballs to make them wary of human contact? How about a 22-250 or a 12 gauge shotgun? That'll damn sure make the survivors wary of human contact.
Fuck, Colorado starting to sound like Kalifornia.
drjim said...
Would that 12 ga be loaded with 00 buck, or a 1 oz slug....?
wirecutter said...
OO or 4 buck, but there's a load and choke on the market called Ded Coyote. Heavier than lead and groups incredibly tight.
Anonymous said...
Yes, it is Colorado. Broomfield is near Denver. Democrat environs. :(
unclescott said...
most real Coloradoans agree...lead poisoning is the best remedy for coyotes and other vermin...we do have pockets of nancys in the big cities and Aspen, Boulder, and Telluride...guess we need a season on them
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I have a bunch of dirty hard-shell pants and jackets. Are these safe to put in the washer and dryer? If not, how should I clean them?
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Do the pants and jackets have care tags on the inseam? – mendota Jan 24 '12 at 20:59
Don't use fabric conditioner – Qwerky Jan 27 '12 at 10:51
up vote 12 down vote accepted
When washing rain coats and fleeces I use Nikwax tech wash and reproofer (millets link), on the bottle these say reconmended for Goretex so I assume it's the same. In general with waterproof clothing do not use normal washing powders as these remove the waterproof coating.
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Nikwax Techwash is the best. Additionally don't ruin your expensive jacket by putting it in the dryer, the heating elements can actually melt the stitching and cause pre-mature failure of your jacket. I have had some foul weather gear for almost 10 years by being careful, and not using the dryer. Just air dry them. Follow up with a good hydrophobic spray-on coating to keep the water beading up well after to give the coat to your kids. – Dangeranger Jan 26 '12 at 2:47
@Dangeranger: I can't remember the brand, but one reproofer I used actually recommended tumble drying. I consulted my local shop and some friends and they confirmed that for reproofing Gore-Tex can be dried in a tumble drier (However, only with the right reproofer). The results were good and the jacket still works. – Henrik Hansen Mar 12 '12 at 7:25
@HenrikHansen I have seen this recommendation sometimes as well. My advice is what I do with my own gear because from my experience many driers have poor heat control. Many a $400 shell has been damaged by an old appliance, so I advocate caution. – Dangeranger Mar 26 '12 at 3:58
All Gore-Tex products come with care instruction, these should be followed, obviously.
It's important to understand how these membranes work, I feel. Many Gore-tex and similar products consist of 3 layers,
• the first layer (inside the jacket) is designed to protect the Gore tex fabric.
• The second layer is the actual Gore tex itself
• The outer layer consists of a chemically treated layer.
Goretex layer
The Gore tex itself is a physical barrier. It consists of a fabric barrier that's full of microscopic holes. These holes allow water vapour out of the fabric but are so small they prevent liquid water from entering the fabric, for this to work effectivly the inside of the layer must be warmer than the outside.
Ware and tear will eventually make these holes larger, thus preventing them from working effectively. The outer layers are designed to prevent this. I had a gore tex jacket for around 10 years and never looked after it too well, this layer still worked.
Fabric softeners, etc. can bloke these tiny holes, which is why they're not recommended.
Outer layer
The most important part of this layer is the chemical treatment of it (DWR). This treatment basically produces lots of microscopic "spikes". The idea of these spikes is that it holds the water on the outside of the fabric above the Goretex layer. This is what produces the beading effect. This prevents the holes from getting blocked and also stops the layer from getting cooled (thus stopping the inside from being warmer than the outside and slowing down the breathability of the fabric).
Eventually these "spikes" wear down. Imagine a nail getting filled down (by other fabrics, etc.) but at a microscopic level....
Heating the fabric (in a tumble drier) will allow the chemicals to "reform". A rep once actually said to me that regular tumble drying can actually improve the performance of the fabric!!
Eventually the chemical layer will wear off completly. It's at this point that you need to re-apply using spray's, etc. In my experience a spray is the best, the wash in ones don't seem to work too well.
The most important thing is the tumble drying. Line drying won't produce the heat required to rebind the chemical layers
Inner layer
This is the most simple layer. It's main job is to protect the goretex layer and provide a physical barrier between the goretex and the inner (non goretex) layers.
You shouldn't really get the DWR on this layer, it's job is to allow the moisture though to the Gortex. This is the main reason why I don't like "wash-in" treatments as the DWR is applied indiscriminately, with a spray you can apply it to the outer only, where it should be
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I trust Arc'teryx's Product Care Information. There's a video to take you through the whole process.
And you actually DO want to use the dryer because the heat reactivates the durable water repellant (DWR). DWR is the actual substance/layer that does the water repelling.
You can also follow the instructions recommended on the actual GoreTex site: Washing Instructions.
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100% right on the drying thing. A gore tex rep told me this! – Liam Dec 17 '13 at 22:17
-1 Please paraphrase information from the links in case they go dead some time. – Paul Paulsen May 22 '14 at 7:49
As long as you are washing with a front-loader, then putting in your water-proofs and washing on a low temperature with reproofer (instructions should be on the bottle) will get your get clean and waterproof.
Top-loaders batter the hell out of your clothes, and can damage the waterproofing.
Also - do not but them in a dryer... hang them out (you probably want to do this over a bath if you can't do it outside)
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Gore tex recommend tumble drying. It's an important part of the binding of the chemical barrier. I bet the beading doesn't last long once you've *hung them out"? – Liam Dec 17 '13 at 22:24
Interesting... just be sure that it is a warm and gentle dry, though. – HorusKol Dec 17 '13 at 23:41
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Friday, July 14, 2006
Sweden's suicide note
Fjordman at Gates of Vienna says he has confirmed from independent sources that Jens Orback, Democracy Minister (!) in the Swedish government, said during a radio debate: “We must be open and tolerant towards Islam and Muslims because when we become a minority, they will be so towards us.”
Let's hit rewind and play that again.
In other words, a government minister takes it as foreordained that Swedes will become a minority in Sweden, and Muslims the majority. To him, it's just a fact of life. It's not as if the indigenous population could do anything about it, or should want to do anything about it.
Orback pins his hope on a Muslim majority being open and tolerant, just like they are in … in … help him out here.
It's one more ominous confirmation that much of "old Europe" is sick unto death. It doesn't want to preserve its national identities, its ethnic majorities, its traditional cultures, its system of government (except for the welfare state). God is dead; tolerance is God. If Sweden is to become part of Dar Al-Islam, well, who are Swedes to say that their way of life is better? It might cause offense.
Better to simply write the suicide note and make sure that the beneficiary is clearly spelled out in the will.
Can this really be happening — a modern nation welcoming with smiley-face-button idiocy the replacement of its ethnic majority by another with utterly different and (sorry, Mr. Orback) supremely intolerant values? History is full of examples of one culture (oddly enough, often Muslim) conquering another by cannon and blade, but I cannot think of any precedent for a country just rolling over for an invasion it could easily put a stop to.
But it's going down, and not in Sweden alone. Several European countries are already clocked, kaput, buggered. Because they have adopted the dhimmi mind, it's only a matter of a little time before the latest Muslim invasion succeeds where the previous ones were resisted and overcome.
Here's how the state of play looks:
Sweden: No more needs to be said.
Norway: The same as Sweden.
Spain: Waffling, but not prepared to put up a serious struggle.
France: The issue will probably be decided by a civil war.
Germany: Apparently starting to find its backbone, but resistance hindered by deeply entrenched left-wing ideology.
Britain: It'll be a closely run thing (as Wellington described Waterloo). Given the dhimmi mentality prevalent today, I think the U.K. will be a Muslim country within 20 years. Needless to say, I hope I'm wrong, but the country looks to be past the point of no return unless its homestyle Muslim terrorists do something unbelievably stupid like exploding a nuclear device in London.
The rest of Europe, I'd say, has at least a decent chance to avoid the catastrophe of becoming Muslim theocratic states under sharia law. The former Soviet satellite countries, especially, know what living under tyranny is like.
DontDrinkTheTaqiyyah said...
Your July 12th and July 14th entries -- "Britain's dying nationhood" and "Sweden's suicide note"-- cogent, well done, and well said. Keep on keepin' on, good sir.
PS -- WCMWYNH / Where's Charles Martel When You Need Him?
Today's inquiring minds simply want to know.
Roscoe said...
Why does everybody always write as if it's only Europe that has a population-replacement problem? Europe is still 90% European, whereas the U.S. is down to about 68% European and falling fast, and our last two presidents have acted as pom-pom girls for the ethnic cleansing of America. Objectively, if numbers mean anything, Europe is still far better off than we are.
I realize that, for the moment, our immigrants are less hostile than their immigrants; but that can change in a hurry. The first generations of Mahometan immigrants to Europe were hailed as hard-working, religious, family-values people. Strangely familiar.
Viking said...
Problem is, we white people of Europe do not want to overpopulate the world, we are getting better, we don't get many children, the muslims are, big time, a woman getting 8 children is not weird for them, so they will grow fast, just look at my land the Netherlands, in 1970 we had zero muslims, now we have almost 1 million of them ! and now that they are so big it will go even faster !
Anonymous said...
Stuck on fucking stupid.
Mental illness in its political form.
Rick Darby said...
Roscoe: I certainly didn't mean to imply that ethnicity replacement is only a European issue. It's something the United States needs to face up to as well. I didn't discuss that in the blog posting because I try to keep my posts reasonably short and didn't want to diffuse the focus of "Sweden's Suicide Note."
Your point is well taken.
Anonymous said...
Socialism does not work and never has worked -- because the one thing it must do in order to function at all is destroy the idea of the individual and subsume him into a Group. Once one is simply a cog in a machine, the answer to every problem is a shrug and "What can you do?" or a loud scream for more "funding" or "affordable" this and that from the magic money pot in the middle of the room.
I moved to Canada, which has exactly the same problems as Sweden, to find out for myself why socialism fails every time, and this is why: because it turns the country into a death cult and eventually everyone drinks the kool-aid.
Anonymous said...
Well in canada there is no rational economic basis for immigration all they do is vote liberal because they champion free benefits for them.
Sad for sweeden and canada too. We have 1/2 million muslims but europeans will be in the minority in 20-40 years. They just won't all be muslims ruling us.
You are on severe drugs if you think these people will be tolerant.
Anonymous said...
Great link, but I'm a little appalled by the fact that you imply that all of Europe is sick.
The attitude this guy expressed was the attitude of the elite and of the welfare-statists. There are plenty of "old" Europeans who are sick of immigration, too. They may be a minority, but they are not a tiny minority.
"Political correctness is a mental illness."
David said...
Truly unbeleivable.
I like your adjective - "smiley face button stupidity". Might have to palgiarize tha one day!
Jon said...
Let's get a few things straight:
a) Population decline is a GOOD thing. If we don't get the global population down then no country has a future, regardless of its ideology.
b) While it would be really nice and fair if all national populations declined at the same rate, it's not going to happen. Inevitably some will get smaller faster.
c) Given b), it's also a good thing if population can be redistributed so that people move from where there are too many of them to where there are - economically speaking - not enough.
d) The decision to have fewer (or no) children is usually a rational decision based on a careful evaluation of what the future holds. Millions of Europeans believe that they and their loved ones will be better off and happier if they have small families than if they have large ones. Are you prepared to tell them they're all wrong? Because if so, you had better have some compelling evidence.
e) I'd rather trust my country's future to hard-working enterprising immigrants than the advocates of - well, what, exactly? Letting Sweden go back to the wilderness? Armed resistance to immigration? Multiple births enforced by law? A Berlin Wall around every state? National rulers selected by race rather than elections? Just what, exactly, is the rational humanitarian alternative to redistributing people to where they're needed, and allowing them to vote when they get there? Nobody here has come up with a more sensible option yet.
Hnoss said...
@ Roscoe.
Ah. Get the fuck out of U.S instead of whining. We europeans had nothing to do there in the first place. Europeans there were immigrants in the beginning too as well as muslims and others are today. U.S has always been, from the day we started to colonize it till today, a multicultural place. Don't feel like Europeans in U.S can complain coz it's not their original place to live at. Some europeans in U.S complain too much when they once stole the place too.
U.S is the land of multiculturalism. The end.
Rick Darby said...
How can you say, first, that population decline is a good thing (which I agree with), and then say that nations with lower fecundity must open themselves to vast migrations from Third World, overpopulating countries? Why must the more responsible nations accept the human product of those whose people breed irresponsibly, thereby guaranteeing that places like Mexico and sub-Saharan Africa will have absolutely no incentive for demographic reform?
Also, you are ignoring the crime, poverty, drain on social services, and language and cultural clashes that result from mass migration of Third World populations into First World countries.
For a brilliant overview of the realities of "population redistribution," see "Stupidity Without Borders -- An Alliance of Utopias," linked to in the blogroll to the right.
hnoss: I'd be glad to reply if I could figure out what the hell you're saying.
Anonymous said...
Wow, what a bunch of racist losers seem to gather here. "Often Muslim"? You are forgetting that wherever the white man goes, he has brought genocide, disease, death and starvation -- he has destroyed in huge numbers, endlessly, and we are expected to think Muslims *are* intolerant? Fuck no. Muslims are the ones who kept races living where they were living. Dumbass.
Jim said...
I don't believe Rick said anything about population decline in his original post. The dearth of babies born to ethnic Europeans is a deliberate choice based on a shift in values, i.e., preferring careers and material goods to families. These values aren’t necessarily my own, but neither should they be welcomed as an opportunity by self-loathing white Leftists or the Business Right to consign their own peoples to the ash heap of history. The positive consequence of lower birth rates is less pressure on the local environment and the opportunity for a nation to preserve its landscape, natural heritage and quality of life.
Your answer as to why the positive consequences of this trend need to be undermined by mass immigration is hardly compelling. Even if European and Western countries were to act as safety valves for overpopulation in other parts of the world, How long could this continue until the same effects are experienced in these "underpopulated" countries? Throughout the United States, one can see the effects of population growth in overcrowded schools, strained social service and health care budgets, and the social costs of an increasingly polyglot society. Vast areas of the countryside --- some of it replete with history --- are being decimated to make way for endless tract housing. This demand continues unabated at a time when both white and black Americans’ birth rates were leveling off.
Yes, a case can be made (a poor one) that a human tsunami can save Greece’s pension system, staff German retirement homes or --- most lame of all --- “enrich” England’s presumably deficient cultural heritage. The consequence of this, of course, is that while Greece, Germany, and England will continue, the Greeks, the Germans, and the English will not.
Even these considerations --- many of which can merely be measured in dollars, pounds, euros and kronor --- pale in comparison to the quintessential point: the survival of the historic national communities of Europe. If they are to survive, they will need to prevail upon their “leaders” to close the floodgates. The straw man you paint of immigration restriction requiring the construction of a “Berlin Wall” underscores the weakness of your argument. The governments of Europe could simply revert to historical precedent, i.e., reenact the immigration policies they had before the 1960s and 70s.
In some cases, they lack the will to do this. In others, they deliberately seek the dissolution of their own people. The guilt once central to the continent’s old faith (Christianity) has to be replaced with something, after all, in the new, Godless society. So the self-emasculated, secular clergy in Stockholm demand we don the hair shirts and swing the flagella for the sin of being white. How ironic it is that the finger-wagging EU technocrats can imprison their citizens for the elementary observation that differences exist between races while ascribing evil as the sole possession of Europeans. Persson’s government and its counterparts throughout Europe and the Anglosphere tyrannize their own people in much the same way Dostoevsky’s ‘Grand Inquisitor’ ruled Seville. They are installed in their stately buildings with the moral elevation of their ignorant charges as their holy prerogative.
Regarding Mr./Ms. ‘hnoss:’ Has anyone ever taught you the rules of civil discourse? It’s hard to find an argument in your incoherent screed, but you seem to characterize the Europeans that arrived in the New World as “immigrants.” This is very misleading. When those footholds were established on the eastern seaboard of what later became the United States, there was nothing here to emigrate to: no government, no relatives, no welfare system, no social agencies, no shelter. After a hazardous voyage of several months, they arrived in a wilderness, with nothing but their tools and the clothes on their backs. I would call them “settlers” in every sense of the word.
In time, other Europeans, often the subjects of rival sovereigns in the Old World, joined them. What brought these multiple nationalities together into a coherent whole was a shared culture, a common religion (within parameters) and, perhaps most importantly, a common face. To be sure, the people of African heritage contributed to that American culture, as did the Native Americans (who, by the way, are estimated to have numbered only three to 3 ½ million throughout the future continental US when the Europeans arrived). From its founding through the 1960s, however, America could hardly be characterized as the ‘multiculture’ the modern Left and their new buddies at the Chamber of Commerce would like us to believe. I would really encourage you to scratch a little below the surface to find answers rather than just regurgitating what is ladled out to you by the mass media and government ideologues.
As to ‘Anonymous,’ well, what can I say? Even a bastard usually has a name. You have obviously seen your share of Hollywood’s output, and attended Western schools, where self-deprecation is the stock in trade.
Meanwhile, the people of Mongolia are permitted --- nay, encouraged --- to celebrate their most notable of notables. Far from any sense of collective “guilt” for the vast swath of death and destruction perpetrated by Mr. Genghis Khan, there will be yearlong festivals and a folk/rock concert produced about the great man. Though he did inflict violence against people of ethnicities other than his own, it would be safe to say that we shall never see Mongolia’s leaders deliberately inundate their country with foreigners for their people’s own moral improvement. Just a few thoughts…
Honza Prchal said...
Maybe if more of Europe took the time to assimilate it's imigrants, more Osama Mohammed al-Taibas would become as English as Michael Portillo or as German as Jan novak or as Czech as Michael Strossmayer. Unfortunately, Europe's "tolerant" brand of multi-culturalism is so very "tolerant" taht it does nto even dare suggest assimilation and, therefore, cannot effectively pass on the human capital needed to continue as modern societies that produce great wealth and cultural and scientific inovation. Immigrants came to those countries to participate in those processes, but Eurocrats feed the immigrants' children in a toxic stew of resentment and an unearned sense of superiority that makes it very difficult for them to participate in it, but ruins them for normal life in traditional societies "back home".
That's not "tolerant" and enlightened, but rather cruel and ultimately self-threatening.
Anonymous said...
We have similar problems fast approaching in Australia. Whilst we do not have the number of Muslim immigrants as the larger European centres, we DO have the left-wing push for the Anglo/European Australians to lay down and cop it. We have large sectors of Muslim population within the suburbs of Sydney who make absolutely no effort to assimilate into our culture in any way. By this I mean they do not take on Australian values, they do not participate in the workforce and they do not discipline their young people. We have many instances of young women being pressured into marriage at inappropriately young age. These are young teenage girls who have been born and raised in Australia and should be able to take advantage of the freedoms and opportunities that our society offers but NO they are dragged back into the medieval ways of their ancestors and they do it on OUR soil. All the while our left-wing leaners defend these people's right to adhere to their own customs and cultures. When will European, British and other Anglo Saxon communities realise that all cultures are NOT equal. There is no benefit to these cultures in importing hatreds, prejudices and intolerance from the third world.
modifiedcontent said...
Roscoe and Hnoss, you are both confusing the issue. This isn't about immigrants. This is about islam!
Immigrants still overwhelmingly come to the US to become Americans. Europe is far worse off. It's relinquishing its culture to hostile muslim immigrants.
Funny how David Duke/white power types and leftist multiculturalists both idealize Europe...
modifiedcontent said...
Anonymous said...
"Fuck no. Muslims are the ones who kept races living where they were living. Dumbass."
1.5 million Armenian Christians would disagree
fulldroolcup said...
Anonymous seems to forget something elementary: the same white people he sneers at for their "crimes" the those who invented most of what makes Western civilization western, in the technological sense. Anonymous can scarcely take a breath without relying on that technology. Neither can most Muslims.
But what has the Muslim world invented for the benefit of mankind? Squat. Their oil would be worthless were it not for the uses we make of it.
The obsession with destroying huge airplanes reflects the self-hatred Muslims have over the realization that their civilization is utterly backward. No Muslim country can make such a sophisticated device, because Islam does not encourage inventiveness, and cares not a whit for improving the general welfare. It only cares about propagating itself. The greater the Muslim world's reliance on all the things they cannot make for themselves, the more driven they are to reassert the "purity" of Islam and the need to destroy the societies that they cannot emulate.
Perhaps Anonymous should spend a month or two in a Muslim society, as I have, and report on his findings. All the better if he is a she..........
Jonathan said...
Pretty good analysis. However, I have a couple of points:
1. America is much more "Europeanized" than the 68% number suggests. First, Hispanics are of European descent, generally. Blacks, although clearly not European, are generally not just assimilated, but are one of the pillars of American culture. Culturally, we are much more european than Europe, in a 19th century sense.
2. American minorities are mostly Christian, and don't present an ideological alternative to American culture at large.
3. America has a very strong assimilation ethic, unlike Europe.
4. Population decline is always bad. People who are worried about population and environmental sustainability have never taken I-8 to San Diego.
5. The death of the West is a bad thing. No other culture compares to ours in any measure that is worthwhile. And Islamic culture is a particularly benighted thing. Unfortunately, we have lost the ability to viscerally propound that point, and so people like Anonymous go unchallenged, and their folly becomes common currency.
6. I hope that people like Jon die childless, unable to pass their nihlistic worldview on. One doesn't need to tell the selfish secularists of the world that they are wrong. They are proving it daily with their suicide. But how does one reason with people who have no wish to live?
7. Thankfully, the meek will inherit the earth.
God Bless,
Jonathan, Tucson USA
Anonymous said...
"History is full of examples of one culture (oddly enough, often Muslim)"
You mean "Christian", don't you? I'm sure that's what you mean. Christians have been responsible for more genocidal actions then any other group in the world.
And lest you forget (or your readers), it was Christians who decimated the Aztecs, the American Indians and rampaged during the Inquisition, just to name a very few of the billions they have killed.
jomama said...
If the Swedes are going to do
anything about that now, they'll have
to learn to breed like rabbits.
Two chances that'll happen: slim and none.
Anonymous said...
It's true that we Americans of European ancestory were once immigrents too. I think the first thing we did after getting a foothold was kill the natives. The fact that we were once immigrants too is a pretty lame argument for ignoring mass immigration.
Razvan Nation said...
The problem with immigrants is that they only come to a country because of financial motivations and rarely because of oppression in their native country. They have no allegiance to the adoptive country and they only care about their paychecks. While the financial motivation works for US and Canada, it does not work with Europe. The US/Canada were built on these financial principles of prosperity. In Europe you are expected to fit in, to learn the language, the customs, the country's history, to cheer for the country's soccer team etc. If you don't make an effort to fit in you are regarded as an outsider. US, Canada, Australia is multi cultural while European countries not really.
Anonymous said...
In a nut shell Islam is about world dommination! this is a short and brief view of how the muslims intend to attain their agenda of islamification of the whole world and what is their motivation.Let me start by saying that most of us are ill informed about islam being a religion of peace and most of the muslims we know are the peace lovinging moderate silent majority, and the religion of is hijacked by radical elements .Well it is not so. We will have to agree that the religion of the world have some point of time undergone this changes mentioned above,but none of the religions advocates the death for not sharing the same faith,whatever excess and volience which was caused by the people of other faith were purely political and not religious, although some amount of religious intolerance is there in all the mentioned religions even today .BUT IN CASE OF ISLAM ,IT IS INTOLRANCE WHICH IS THE RELIGION,IT IS A BLUE PRINT FOR MASS MURDER IN A INDUSTRIAL SCALE WHICH TRANCENDS PLACE AND TIME,(meaning the project which was started almost 1400years ago is not complete until the world would be completely converted Islam)THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE TO STOP, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER ,OR ALL OF US HAVE CONVERT TO ISLAM THERE IS NO THIRD OPTION BECAUSE- The muslims ummah propgates expnasion of islam by all means ,First and fore most by the sword ,it is the duty of all the muslims to kill the non muslims it written. the koran state that there is no other god other than Allah and Mohammed is only true porphet,any one who beg's to differ is a infidel and kafir so should be beheaded at once.It is said to them donot to be friend kaffir(the non muslims)! strike them when you get the chance..Any peace treaty with the muslims is invalid, as the koran say make peace treaty with the infedals, in the dead of the night go out kill them all . Every muslim no matter how he or she is educated in western value 's DO NOT FOLLOW MULTICULTURE ethics it is evident in the way they dress, they live.It is a mere obligation that muslims pretend that they follows the law of the land(this is allowed in islam-Taqiyya-to be decitfull to confuse the nonbeliver) when they are minority!.If they become tha majority the rules of engagment diffrent,Remember(jessiya the slave tax which give's the non beliver right to live in muslim dominated country,persecution are many in islam yet it called the universal brother hood-) & who ever disagrees has to be beheaded.Polygamy is rampant in islam have any one every wondred why? the point is women in islam are sub-human without any rigths on their own ,they are only useful to reproduce their own, It is because polygamy leads to a lot of children .They breed like rabbits,And without a single short being fired one fine day in the near future (may be in another 50-75 years) the muslims will over run Europe by sheer numbers,this also a method of jihad, Might sound LIke conspiracy theory,?Here comes answer as the muslims immigrant from pakistan,libya,morroco and the north afircan belt,middle east & sub continent come to Europe with the cloths on their backs and empty pockets & their peace full brotherhood they slowly change demograph of europe, as of now.,(More than 53 million Muslims live in Europe -- 14 million of them in the European Union and growing.) in Europe. A Europe which dose not belive in any thing now(GOD, FAMILY VALUES,IDEOLOGY or,IDENTY). ,because of their hypocriscy, of being politically correct or because,widely held libral secular views or simply lack of will to act,The european's way of life as we know it now will cease to exist. thank to our Muslim appeasing politicians who are only intrested in there votes because of their growing numbers,so they could hold on to power,These hypocrites look the other way when EUROPEAN WOMEN ARE GANGE RAPED,AND HUMILIATED , by these peace loving Muslims,Muslims aim is ISLAMIFICATION OF the whole world,but one step at a time. This is what happened in Egypt almost 1300 yrs ago,after conquering the arabian peninsular by war ,the Muslims went on to conqure mighty egypt which was then a super power,which was a very advanced cosmopolitan culture,Rich in science,astonomy,mathematics and medical science(remember the LIBARY OF ALEXANDRIA a center of higher knowledge-no more) like that of present day Europe, the culture which we admire so much and fascinated,is now confined to the pages of histoy thanks to peace full islam and his prophet.The muslims from the arab heart land populated Egypt ,the native's of this once ancient land became a minorty in their own land, Enslaved & Persecuted and heavily taxed and they vanished without a trace in less than 100 years .And yes the koran advocates this to be a form of jihad.......................ethnic cleansing i would say!...can we still claim islam to a religion of peace!.i see europe going the same way ...........not far behind is America .it not to late................sit up and smell the coffee!.let us still not say that Islam is time the World ( the people, politicians& media) strat acting today tomorrow migth be too late for who ever who is not a muslim
Anonymous said...
I've got some bad news for Jens Orback. You are sadly dreaming if you believe that. When/if you become a minority, you will receive no such treatment from Islam and Muslims, I swear. | <urn:uuid:c0e7f302-d643-4934-9407-b30d12b5cf69> | http://reflight.blogspot.com/2006/07/swedens-suicide-note.html?showComment=1167506220000 | en | 0.963343 | 0.3978 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
On beaches and at pools around the world, children and adults of all ages wear simple shoes that consist of a thin rubber sole with a y-shaped strap that goes across the top of the foot and between the first (“big") and second toes. Yes, we're talking about flip-flops!
All you need to do to figure out why we call them "flip-flops" is to walk around in a pair of them for just a little while. Because of how they're made, the rubber soles slap against the bottom of your feet as you walk, making a flip-flop, flip-flop sound. The name “flip-flop" is thus an example of onomatopoeia.
Onomatopoeia means a word or a thing's name comes from the sound that it makes. Other examples of onomatopoeia include moo, buzz, quack, zip, and beep. Say each of these words. Can you hear how the word sounds like what it describes?
Not everyone around the world calls them "flip-flops," though. In New Zealand, they're called "jandals" (short for Japanese sandals). They're "thongs" in Australia and "plakkies" in South Africa. Even some areas of the United States have special names for them, such as "zories" on the East Coast, "clam diggers" in Texas, and "slippers" in Hawaii.
Although the name “flip-flops" originated in America in the 1950s, flip-flops go way, way back in time. Experts believe flip-flops have been around for at least 6,000 years. Ancient Egyptian murals on tombs and temples show flip-flops were worn around 4,000 B.C.
In Japan, flip-flops are called zori. They are traditionally worn by Japanese children when learning to walk. People believe flip-flops first appeared in America after World War II, when returning soldiers brought zori back from Japan as souvenirs. Flip-flops then became even more popular after soldiers returned from the Korean War in the 1950s.
Although flip-flops began as just a summer shoe popular with surfers and those spending time near the water, today they're as common as tennis shoes and blue jeans. Modern stores carry a wide variety of styles, and flip-flops are as common at the mall as they are at the pool or the beach.
Although many people find flip-flops quite comfortable, foot doctors will warn you not to wear them too often or for extended periods of time. Flip-flops do not provide ankle support. In addition, their overall lack of foot support has been linked to several different foot-related problems, such as overpronation and tendonitis.
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Aug Sept 2016
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The Advocate
Ann Hampton
Callaway: Out at Last
Ann Hampton
Callaway: Out at Last
She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens
You know you can finish the rest (although the middle part is
tricky, so do what everyone does and hum it or make up your own
words). Of course, that's the theme from the TV show
The Nanny,
starring Fran Drescher. But did you know the woman who wrote
and sang that song has recorded close to a dozen albums, has
written songs performed and recorded by Barbra Streisand, Patti
LuPone and Carole King, and received a Tony nomination for her
role in the Broadway musical
Her name is Ann Hampton
Callaway, and although she has just released a new album called
At Last,
there is something else she is ready to share with the public
for the first time -- her gay sexuality. all these years you are finally at a place where you
are comfortable discussing your sexuality. How did that come
Ann Hampton Callaway:
I've discussed my sexuality with my friends and peers, but I've
never discussed my personal life with the press. I had partners
who weren't comfortable with me being "officially"
out. However, for me, I feel like I'm depriving myself and
friends of just being who I am and embracing the life I've led
and all the pain I've endured.
Was there any significance to coming out at this point in
I'm not only a singer but also a citizen. We have made great
strides in electing Barack Obama, a thoughtful and intelligent
man with a great vision for our country, but we still have
Proposition 8 staring us in the face. Even though we've made
great advances, there is a lot more work to be done, and I want
to be a part of that. It will take all of us to step forward
now and say who we really are. Maybe by me coming out people
will say, "I love Ann Hampton Callaway." It may
change their face as to who gay people are.
What do you think is the future of Proposition 8?
It may be a semantic problem that people have with the word
Some call marriage an act of God, and in all of the very narrow
interpretations of the Bible or whatever their religious book
is, if they take these passages so literally, then they're
never going to accept gay marriage. How do you get people to
see that everyone is a human being and has the right to
celebrate, honor, and sanctify the relationship they have with
someone they have chosen to share their life with?
You have a new CD out called "At Last." Tell me about
It's a collection of love songs for adults, and I say that with
a little wink in my eye. It's the most unbridled and personal
collection of songs that I've recorded to date. I was trying to
capture this moment in my life of finding my great love and
reaching a sense of peace about all the different steps and
missteps it took for me to come to this place. It's a
celebration and embracing all of the hell and gorgeousness of
the emotions and experiences that love puts all of us
ANN Hampton Callaway AT LAST COVER xLARGE (publicity) | ADVOCATE.COM
Have you found fulfillment in love?
I have. I've had moments in my life where I thought I had found
"the one," but being in the two-year relationship
that I'm in now is a revelation for me. I'm finally with
someone who is the perfect match for me. I feel like the
Goldilocks of love. You know, where she sat down in one chair
and it was too hard. Then she sat in another and it was too
soft. Finally, she sat in a chair that was just right. That's
how I feel about my partner. She's full of love, intelligence,
and life.
Earlier this month Etta James said Beyoncé was
going to get "her ass whipped" for singing "At Last,"
the song she made famous, for one of Obama's inaugural balls.
Are you nervous that James is going to come after you next?
What I've noticed about other singers singing "At
Last" is they always copy Etta James's arrangement, and I
What is so hard about finding your own arrangement and
interpretation? Why do you have to copy this great rendition of
a song that's already been done beautifully by the person who
dreamed of it?
My suspicion is if [James] is mad, it's because
[Beyoncé] didn't find her own interpretation. Shame on
Beyoncé if that is, in fact, the case.
Can you tell me about the TV show you have been working on
for PBS called
Singer's Spotlight With Ann Hampton Callaway
It's a television talk-variety show celebrating America's great
interpreters of song. We've done two pilots that aired in
Chicago, and they were beautifully received by the press. We
are in the midst of raising the remaining $2
million to finish the first season, but with this
economy, we are at a standstill. We need a show like this for
Americans -- especially young people who don't know about our
great singers and songs. I know young gay boys who don't know
who Liza Minnelli is. It's inexcusable that people aren't
Your show is different from
American Idol
in that there is an element of connecting and learning about
the history of the songs performed. What are your thoughts on
American Idol
I have a love-hate relationship with the show. I love that
Americans are so interested in singers. However, I often think
the emphasis is on the appearance and the gimmick of the
sexiness as opposed to how to really interpret a song and how
to reach into your soul and do something that is original to
you. I think it's turning into a formula, and any time you turn
something into a formula you take the life out of it. It's like
taking a Xerox of a song instead of the real song.
Ann Hampton Callaway x100 (publicity) | ADVOCATE.COM
You have written a few songs for Barbra Streisand, including
"I Dreamed of You," the song she sang to James Brolin on
their wedding day. Do you ever just pick up the phone and say,
"Hey, Babs, it's me?"
I've had many wonderful conversations with Barbra over the
years on the phone and in person. But no matter how wonderful
our times have been, I still feel in a state of awe over her.
She's not one of those people you just take off your shoes with
and get all cozy. She's Barbra Streisand! Your heart always
beats faster when you're in the same room. It's like finding
out that Santa Claus is a real person.
And while we are talking about a diva, are you a diva?
I am, but I say it as a joke. I am possibly one of the easiest
people to work with. I know how to comb my own hair, and I
don't ask people to take out the green M&Ms. I do love
hearing those diva stories, though.
You will turn 51 in May. What is the greatest thing about
getting older?
Learning that not everyone is going to love you. If you spend
your life waiting for the moment when everyone is going to love
you, then you're going to miss out on half of your life. You
don't care as much about pleasing people; you care more about
being your true self.
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Jen Reviews a Vegetarian: Create Great-Tasting Dishes Through The Seasons
Title: Vegetarian: Create Great-Tasting Dishes Through The Seasons
Authors: Ting Morris, Carla Bardi, Rachel Lane
Published: Reader's Digest, 2010
How I Got It: Purchased myself
I've been a vegetarian since I was eight years old. My mom said that one day I came home from school and announced that I wasn't going to eat meat anymore. She thought it was just a phase and eventually I'd grow out of it. I guess it's been a pretty long phase since I'm twenty-four and I still don't eat meat.
Since being a vegetarian cuts out an entire food group I've had to learn to be creative when going out to eat. During the summer most people love going to cookouts. I hate them. I always eat before I go and stash granola bars in my purse. Why? Hot dogs and hamburgers galore. Not veggie friendly. I usually munch on chips and hog the veggie tray. Oh yeah, and eat most of the cookies.
I'm always on the lookout for a good vegetarian cookbook. The verdict: I'm still looking. Cookbooks are fairly personal. Everyone's taste-buds are different and it can be hit or miss. This particular cookbook was a miss for me. There's just too many dishes that I wouldn't try. Things like Dandelion and Garden Flowers with Quail Eggs or Cauliflower and Pea Samosas. But some of the recipes don't sound too bad, like Corn Fritters, Pumpkin Fritters or Spinach Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce. Cookbooks are so subjective.
Even though not all of the recipes in this book appeal to my palate there were still a few things that I loved:
• The gorgeous pictures of the food. The presentation is excellent.
• Every recipe has a picture of the finished meal.
• Simple recipes. All of the ingredients and directions fit on one page. (Side note: I hate complicated recipes)
• Font size, it's fairly large in this cookbook so no squinting while you're preparing a recipe.
Do you have a favorite cookbook? If you want to try something new where do you usually go to find a new recipe?
1. I'm trying to find a cookbook with some good vegetarian recipes despite me not being a vegetarian. I just want to cut out a little meat out of my diet.
I hate when cookbooks have redonkulous recipes that you would never reallyyy cook or ever find the ingredients for it. lol.
I might have to browse this one at B&N to see if it has enough recipes I'd eat to actually buy it.
2. Wow, the dandelion flowers one does sound pretty bizarre. Anyway just wanted to say, yay for being vegetarian! I totally know what you mean about cookouts, it's always awkward for me at barbecues because all the food is so not vegetarian-friendly (either that or they have vegetarian hotdogs or whatever that they want to cook on the same grill as the meat, and I'm picky about that).
3. Oooh pumpkin fritters and spinach gnocchi! Sound delicious! For good vegetarian food, you should check out Moosewood Restaurant's cookbooks. They have a bunch of them with lots of different types of food. (And if you ever find yourself in Ithaca, NY, the restaurant itself is fantastic!)
4. i've been vegetarian for about five years now and you're right, it does teach you to be creative when you're eating, or cooking. it wasn't until i stopped eating meat that i got brave enough to begin experimenting in the kitchen and actually learned to cook.
have you tried mark bittman's vegetarian cookbook? it's by far the best i've ever found, and is sort of my cooking bible. the best thing about it is that he includes variations on each recipe and really stresses that recipes should be adjusted and played with to suit your tastes.
-- ellen
5. Thanks for the review - I'm always on the lookout for veggie cookbooks! :)
6. I promise I'm not just link-dropping here (just ask Jamie), but I have a book blog and just started doing some vegetarian posts, also hoping to find great cookbooks. Check it out here ( and I hope the information I provide is useful to you.
7. Jamie: There are some really good recipes in the book but the majority of recipes are things that I'd never try (but I'm also a super picky eater).
danya: Yay! Someone who understands! :) I've never been to a cookout where they also had veggie burgers/hot dogs, but I wouldn't want it cooked right next to the meat.
Natanya: I will definitely browse through the Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks next time I'm in a bookstore! Thanks!
ellen: I've never tried Mark Bittman's cookbook but I just added it to my list of cookbooks to try! Thanks so much!
Leanna: Glad to help!
literarywife: Thanks for the link! I'm glad to know that there are others out there looking for amazing vegetarian cookbooks!
8. I am SO excited about this book! My husband is a newly minted vegetarian, so I am on the lookout for great veggie cookbooks! XO
9. Hey, hey....I'm giving away the arc of DIVERGENT I won on Veronica's blog if you're still interested! The book is awesome!
Related Posts with Thumbnails | <urn:uuid:1ee6683a-67c3-4259-b3d9-752fea151b81> | http://www.brokeandbookish.com/2011/02/jen-reviews-vegetarian-create-great.html | en | 0.961608 | 0.032863 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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ON her 16th birthday, Malala Yousufzai made her country proud once again. The composure, poise and maturity of Malala on display at the United Nations were truly a sight to behold. Leave aside her age, the fact that she had been shot in the head less than a year ago infused the moment with a great deal of poignancy. As ever, though, Malala sought to move the subject away from herself. “Malala Day is not my day. Today is the day of every woman, every boy and every girl who have raised their voice for their rights,” the young activist said. Malala is truly the pride of Pakistan. And yet, even as perhaps the sole beacon of hope in this country where hope and inspiration are all too difficult to find, Malala’s speech, and her mission, will perhaps not gain the kind of attention and sustained coverage it deserves.
The reason why Malala has not reached the iconic status inside Pakistan that she deserves is dis-piritingly familiar: at age 16, Malala has the kind of clarity and sense of purpose that a divided Pakistani society simply does not. And therein lies the central challenge to putting Pakistan on the road to a stable and secure future. How exactly and who exactly will provide the leadership to drag society from its state of confusion towards coalescing against some clear and coherent principles? In particular, how will Pakistan inch towards a zero-tolerance policy towards non-state actors, the very forces that tried to kill Malala and have killed many thousands of Pakistanis over the years?
The answer to those questions is much murkier. The obvious candidates are the political leadership and the army high command. But it is difficult to know if they can ever truly be brought on the same page given the long and treacherous history of institutional tensions in Pakistan. Unhappily, while the urge is to suggest that they must somehow provide the leadership the country deserves, there is little historical evidence, nationally or even internationally, to suggest that will necessarily be the case. In the absence of that clarity, however, Pakistan’s drift towards extremism, militancy and terrorism and a declining state seems to be a near certainty. The only unknown there is the timeline: will it happen sooner than later or will a slow-motion downward spiral play out? The trend, though, can be checked and reversed even. Whether cataclysmic events act as the trigger or statesmanship prevails before that, the slide towards chaos is only inevitable if Pakistan and Pakistanis let it become so.
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Comments (4) Closed
Jul 14, 2013 02:31pm
She has more sense than the entire political and religious "elite" put together and more courage than the entire nation.
Jul 14, 2013 07:56pm
Malala inspired us to do more for education. We need to translate her mission for education for all children who are out of school.
Let us all pledge to educate atleast 5 children
Jul 15, 2013 12:05am
Entires world's focus was/is on Malala. That makes it more important what Malala wears during such meetings. I beleive she should avoid wearing duppata or hed scarf during such event so that no legitimacy is given to an ideology which has bring such a state for females in Pak and Afghanistan, The head scarf symbolizes the ideology which has discrominated between believers/nonbelievers and Male and females.
Jul 15, 2013 03:48am
She is the daughter of the nation, but the nation is blind and deaf. If some how TTP spokesman had been given coverage to justify attacking her, I think more people from the educated class of Pakistan might have come up supporting him with pride. This is our mental state as a nation. | <urn:uuid:fda7c55b-4ab3-45fc-b76e-864d404caef9> | http://www.dawn.com/news/1028924/courage-and-clarity-malalas-un-speech | en | 0.960254 | 0.03846 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Katrina's "Nigga," Three Years Later
09/24/2008 05:12 am ET | Updated May 25, 2011
Three years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the homes of hundreds thousands of Louisianans, too many residents are still unable to afford to rebuild their homes or find an affordable place to rent, according to a new housing report by the national research and advocacy group PolicyLink.
"The new report, "A Long Way Home: The State of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008," shows that while some progress has been made during the past year, thousands of residents who want to return home are facing a critical rental housing shortage, inadequate rebuilding grants and a recovery plagued by red tape and ever-changing rules.
-Wall Street Journal MarketWatch, 8/21/08
If the history of the Katrina recovery were written today, it would be a tragedy. Far too little progress has been made despite the remarkable effort and ingenuity of the people of the region who are fighting to restore their homes and their lives.
- Raymond C. Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America
A version of the following appeared in Archipelago magazine less than one year after Hurricane Katrina. Three years after Katrina, it still holds true:
It was more than obvious. Large portions of New Orleans would never be rebuilt. Soon after Katrina, a reporter and I agreed on this. Too many of the people in the most devastated areas were poor. Too many were black. And, in the context of American history, those are hereditary crimes with recurrent sentences.
"You're nothing if you're poor and black," my New Orleans-reared mother used to say. Clawing her way to a comfortable middle-class with her Louisana-bred husband, this was her desperate way of goading me into non-acceptance--non-acceptance of the 60s and 70s status quo of the all-black school, the segregated neighborhood, the "comfort zone" of black life as it stood back then. It was her warning that, at worst, the majority has contempt for you, and at best, is simply indifferent to you, and your sufferings or hardships. 'You're on your own,' she was saying. 'There is no country behind you, no countrymen support you, no government promotes your interest.'
You're on your own.
Throughout history, blacks got the slops. Slaves ate what was left after the white folks took the best. Blacks were allowed to live only where white folks didn't want to. Thus, black neighborhoods are often the most vulnerable to natural, and man made disaster. When I lived in the then middle-class Ponchartrain Park area of New Orleans, the streets regularly flooded during the summer heavy rains. Six inches of water for children to play in. It receded an hour or so later. To me, it was just one of many freakish novelties that marked this place malevolent, foreign, as somehow antithetical to my well-being. Though young, I found its climate insufferable, its insects primordial, its flora sinister, its racism pernicious.
New Orleans seemed a place where I could never have the best. It seemed a place where folks like me were limited to what the white folks let us have. My antipathy was so strong it has lasted for decades. Once I had a choice in the matter, I never returned to New Orleans. Instead of "home"--the place that made my mother and father and all of my relatives what they were--New Orleans was a threat--a negative object lesson in acceptance. With large black swaths of the city largely decimated, it's now much easier to articulate why.
Black New Orleanians rightly take a lot of pride in having built communities from the shards and pieces they were allowed in this deep south former slave port. The community ties date back generations, with family homes and land regarded reverentially. In many cases, it was the only thing of value people had. Holding onto it was everything.
That's why the prospect of losing homes and land is so devastating in New Orleans' poor black communities. It was the only thing so many had. They had sacrificed, fought, scraped and struggled for generations to own, and now... it's gone. It's particularly galling that it's gone because of incompetence, indifference and inaction. But that's what my mother warned me about. It's the warning of which black New Orleanians, and black Americans in general, take too little heed.
Pride in accomplishment is natural, but don't dare ignore that the accomplishment is built on a foundation of impoverishment and limits imposed from without. Yes, blacks built a community, but we built in a disaster zone--because that's the only place in New Orleans where we were allowed to build.
The Brown University professor of sociology John R. Logan found that damaged areas of New Orleans were 75% black. Undamaged areas were 46% black. Yes, blacks lived in the most dangerous, flood-prone areas. According the The Boston Globe, the Logan study "found that if New Orleans' returning population was limited to the neighborhoods undamaged by Katrina, about half the white population would not return and 80% of its black population would not."
History dictated that 80% of New Orleans black population rely on a government of the majority to protect them from looming disaster. Predictably, the federal government shirked that responsibility. Prior to Katrina, the Bush administration was warned that a devastating hurricane striking New Orleans was among the most likely US disaster scenarios. However, subsequent to that warning, the administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44%. According to the Washington Post, "...President Bush's lofty promises to rebuild the Gulf Coast have been frustrated by bureaucratic failures and competing priorities..."
From the federal government, Louisiana will get 6.2 billion dollars to help an estimated 200,000 homeowners. Mississippi will receive 5 billion to help an estimated 50,000. And that is for New Orleans homeowners--the comparatively affluent ones. The contempt tinged with hatred for the black and poorest was brutally crystallized in a statement from Rep. Richard H. Baker, 10-term Republican from Baton Rouge. " We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans," he was overheard telling lobbyists, "We couldn't do it, but God did."
"You're on your own," my New Orleans-reared mother insisted.
Pride is a strange thing. American descendants of African slaves were forced on penalty of death to accept little more than scraps throughout most of this nation's history. When we, through dint of sheer creativity, work and will turned those scraps into homes and communities, we took great pride in the accomplishment. However, it is at our peril that we don't realize that the accomplishments are built, quite literally, on shaky ground--that the pride must be tempered with practicality. There are aspects of the past that we cannot "recover" or "rehabilitate." Through will, work and pride, we cannot elevate low-lying land and stop the winds from blowing. And now we know that we cannot expect governments of the majority to care enough to preserve our past, or value our pride, or our history.
The fact that we were denied our rights to live securely is a point of pain. That we built communities from that denial is a point of pride. With Katrina, the painful root of that pride emerged; and it devastated so many of us.
How many orchids can you grow in fetid soil? We've managed many: Music, art, literature, forms of speech and worship so powerful that they've seduced the majority into imitation. But there are limits. We cannot cling desperately to lands earmarked for destruction by no less than nature--just because we were forced to do so in the past.
The cast of the film "Crash" appeared on a recent Oprah Winfrey show. The discussion turned to the word "nigger." Winfrey said she found the word irredeemable. Some of the black male cast members differed. Some noted the distinction between the word "nigger" and the term "nigga," the latter, they claimed, being a non-racist endearment.
For centuries, whites used "nigger" to humiliate and utterly dehumanize us. It suggested we were less than dogs in the speakers' minds. We weren't people. We were "niggers." Disposable. Utilities. Property. Owned. Chattel. Since slavery, it has been used as a reminder--to insist that we're still less than human. The word still stinks of violence. You hear it, and you're ready to fight or flee. It's the inevitable soundtrack to a hate crime.
Hundreds of years ago, blacks so internalized the hatred and dehumanization under which we lived that we began calling each other "nigger." I remember hearing my father and his friends... "That nigger don't know a goddamned thing about..." "That nigger is so rich he doesn't know what to do with his money." They might be discussing someone they loathed, or someone they admired, but either way, "nigger" could be attached. The use of the word suggested a brotherhood--a brotherhood of the despised. It suggested acceptance into the class of the accursed. I never understood the use of the word; I never used it. I was raised in mainly white environments. Only rarely lived in all-black ones. I was never part of a large community of blacks for a long time and never felt myself someone worthy of reference--through brotherhood or hatred--as "nigger." That may be my loss. It may be my gain. But to me, the insistence that the word has been neutered because blacks use it with each other is absurd. It still seems the tag of a community of the accursed. That you accept that status, even speak of it with pride, does not elevate it. "Nigga," is "nigger." That white boys now use it with each other is just another piece of noble savage wannabe-ism--insiders toying with outsider poses, safe in the knowledge they will never suffer its consequences. With "nigga," again we desperately take the scraps we were given--ignoring the historical hatred from which they sprung--and try to mold them into a source of pride. We took the low-lying land in New Orleans--forced to ignore the historical hatred from which access sprung--and fashioned from it a source of pride--for a while, until history, as it will when your pride lets you forget it, snatched the last word.
-Cain Burdeau, Associated Press, 8/23/08 | <urn:uuid:cfdb7042-9cdc-4a50-bf50-6fc6a2ad98b3> | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonce-gaiter/katrina-land-niggas-three_b_121023.html | en | 0.975593 | 0.058836 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Overconfidence pays
From Thinking, Fast and Slow:
Experts who acknowledge the full extent of their ignorance may expect to be replaced by more confident competitors who are better able to gain the trust of clients.
I believe Hanlon’s razor applies here: ignorance is a better explanation than dishonesty. I imagine most overconfident predictions are sincere. Unfortunately, sincere ignorance is often rewarded.
Related posts:
14 thoughts on “Overconfidence pays
1. I think it is a bit like overclocking your CPU. The benefits are obvious and it is often quite safe. However, go too far and you’ll crash. Crashing could mean being exposed. It could also mean falling prey to depression.
2. In science, there are huge incentives to be overconfident. You’re only rewarded for publishing, not for being correct. There’s no penalty for being wrong. If you discover your own error, you get another paper. If someone else discovers you were wrong and writes about it, you get a citation!
Politics is even worse. If you can confidently tell people what they want to hear, you’ll go far.
3. As damning as Kahneman’s perspective is (e.g. with stock brokers, and then there’s John’s additional examples), there are huge legitimate advantages to being overconfident in many fields, especially where criteria for success are ambiguous or truly unknown. Many areas of engineering and business come to mind, where if one had full understanding of the particulars of the specific domain at hand, the rational course of action would be to find another domain. Ignorance leads to overconfidence there, and usually to failure, but often enough to incredible success if the gradually humbled can find a way to struggle out of the mess she’s jumped into blindly.
4. Chas: I’d say that there are often legitimate advantages to being decisive but not to being overconfident. Sometimes it’s better to carry out mediocre decision quickly and with gusto than to spend time looking for a better decision. Emergency medicine and military combat come to mind. But you can be honest and rational about it.
5. Chas,
A Civil Engineer, say, gives the client confidence in the project being funded not by by challenge avoidance, self delusion etc. He or she tells the client these are the foreseeable risks in costs, politics, regulation, safety, ground, weather, skill shortages, inflation, unknown unknowns etc. This is how probable the risks are, and these are the contingency methods I will use should they arise. There is no chance to get the project right second time around. The Civil Engineer has no certainty of which risk will actually occur but the client is quietly given full confidence that should they any arise they will be fully planned for and covered. That is how an honest professional works as opposed to a snake oil salesperson.
Someone not able to foresee such risks and manage them to a successful outcome is soon shown the door.
6. Robert: Unlike many experts, civil engineers actually know what they’re doing. They deal with measurable quantities and physical laws, and they have centuries of experience to draw from. Unlike, for example, management consultants.
7. Robert: Of course, there are tons of domains where ignorant overconfidence spells certain doom (mortgage-backed security analysis comes to mind). I think we’re in violent agreement due to the ‘engineer’ nomenclature; software and product design of all sorts (both physical and ephemeral) sometimes benefits greatly from ignorant overconfidence that can provide the cover one needs to carry on with a task that otherwise would be cast aside.
John: An example that comes to mind is Paypal. I don’t know if you know its backstory (Founders at Work has a great interview that covers it), but if the founders knew what they were actually building (ostensibly the most sophisticated fraud-detection system to that date, rather than a payments processor), they probably would have passed. It’s the unknown unknowns that can get you into trouble, because you can’t be honest or rational about them; all you can do is carry on, and believe you’ll be able to handle them.
I’m afraid I’ve hijacked the discussion at this point… :-/
8. Chas: Maybe that’s an example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. If the Paypal founders only knew that they were in for a lot of hard work, maybe they would have backed out. But if they knew they were building the highly successful company that Paypal has become, presumably they’d glad to do it.
9. John,
Civil Engineers are no different from Management Consultants in that they can draw on the past for some information. But MCs have a little black book of “proven solutions” that are applied ready or not to “problems”, fictitious or not. Clients essentially pay them to write reports to support decisions already made, but to take the blame if things go wrong. No client would ever trust an MC to actually implement any decisions or to run an actual business. However, confident they appear they are not trusted. The one who will not get hired is the one who is so confident he thinks he can actually solve the companies problems better than the CEO can.
A Civil Engineer employed to build the NASA launch station had little to draw on; neither has the Engineer who has to propose flood protection to New York, say, with unknown future rises in sea levels. The political, economic, legal, skills, finance and regulatory situation changes during a long project can only be guessed at.
Who would you employ for something vital?
10. Robert: You may be even more cynical about management consultants than I am. 😉
The civil engineer hired to build a NASA launch system has Newton’s laws, and finite element software to apply those laws to complex situations. And he has experience from analogous projects. A launch pad isn’t entirely different from more common structures like bridges and towers.
The engineer hired to propose flood protection for New York has meteorological history to draw on. The most terrifying predictions of climate change don’t predict completely unprecedented weather, or even dramatic change over the course of decades. Nobody expects New York to face challenges over the next 50 years that the Netherlands haven’t faced for centuries.
11. John,
No one is doing anything from ground zero.
Yes you have the FE software but what you have not got is 100% confidence that the data input is right, nor quite what the answers might mean for novel structures. Black boxes make validity judgements far harder than working things out simply from basics. The welter of junk science coming out daily from the misuse of black box statistics packages also shows that. It is not unknown for USA Engineers to make basic errors of imputing data in feet for buildings that are to be built overseas in metres – real spans on site are 3 times bigger than their models.
The point I am making is that real experts can candidly express unknowns in terms of risk management and contingency. Bluffers cannot. Clients can be reassured by the former. A bluffer just says everything will be OK – trust me – ignorance is bliss. The war in Iraq seemingly started on that basis and got worse and worse without any contingencies made when the population drifted into total anarchy.
The engineer for New York has not got the future meteorological data over the next 100 years or so. Polar ice melts are expected to raise sea level by 30 to 90 feet, super depressions raise the sea level during the storms by another few feet. Weather events are predicted to get more severe and frequent – one event therefore is far more likely to be extreme. Netherlands cannot cope with that. It could not cope in 1953 with relatively tiny surges. If NYC is not concerned it ought to be.
12. Daniel,
The IPCC forecasts are from computer models which predict rises only 50% of what has actually happened to date. NSF have funded research to look at t over 1000 inland fossil beaches which actually occurred in the Pliocene era when CO2 levels were last at the same levels we now expect. These beaches have a height above current sea level of 38 to 295 feet. Depending on the rate of CO2 etc growth they now expect sea level rises of 12 to 18 feet this century, then accelerating level rises next Century on.
Any multi $B expenditure that falls short of full protection based on these huge ranges in available data would tend to indicate “Overconfidence does not Pay”. But NYC might really want to believe the scamster who says he is certain it will only be something less than 1 foot, with a 20 year personal guarantee written from the Cayman islands.
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FOSS Debates, Part 2: Standard Deviations
By Katherine Noyes
Mar 13, 2009 4:00 AM PT
This is the second installment in a three-part series. Part 1 outlines the discussions that surround the evolution of the Linux kernel. Part 2 takes a look at the current state of opinions on the standardization process.
FOSS Debates, Part 2: Standard Deviations
When Microsoft won its bid to make Office Open XML an international standard last year, it was a pivotal moment for many in the FOSS community and beyond.
The process had been a highly contentious one, with protests from nations and corporations around the globe, and the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO's) final decision was met with considerable shock, disbelief and even outrage on the part of some.
Cynicism on the topic persists to this day, and debates can still be heard on the question of whether the standardization process is fundamentally broken. At the heart of it all lies one central question: Have standards become nothing more than a way to achieve vendor lock-in, or does openness still stand a fighting chance?
'That All Looked Nasty'
"I stay away from standards bodies," Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, told LinuxInsider. "That seems to be a whole rat's nest of backstabbing and politics, and I really don't want to have anything to do with it."
As for the OOXML case, "anybody involved with that must have been crazy," he added. "That all just looked nasty."
Such standards are not even the ones that end up being most important, Torvalds asserted.
'Life Just Isn't Long Enough'
"I'm personally of the fairly strong opinion that the standards that tend to really matter are the so-called de facto standards which may have been ratified, but were done so after the fact, rather than up front," Torvalds explained. "The original POSIX.1 standard comes to mind -- it turned out to be a pretty good and successful one, but largely because it mostly codified existing practice, rather than try to make up a new one."
Regarding the intersection between openness and standards, "openness in itself ends up fostering standards, rather than necessarily the other way around," he said.
Torvalds doesn't spend too much time worrying about the question, however: "My job is to do the best dang technology I can -- or rather, to smooth the way so that others can," he explained. "I simply cannot be bothered to worry about standards bodies and vendor politics, etc. Life just isn't long enough."
True Standards vs. 'Marauding' Impostors
A true standard is "open, not subject to heavy-handed litigation, widely used -- voluntarily, easy to use and adaptable," Elbert Hannah, coauthor of the O'Reilly book, Learning the vi and Vim Editors, told LinuxInsider.
Current examples -- at least in practice, if not strictly speaking -- include MP3, TCP/IP, vi/vim for editing, and POSIX, he agreed.
On the other hand, some examples of "non-standards marauding as standards" include Word, Windows, DOS, Intel chips and generic HD DVD, Hannah asserted. "The above are examples of things everyone uses, but were not widely adopted on merit but instead by leverage of powerful marketing presence," he explained. "They are not necessarily good or bad -- they just never got to be voted on."
'This Does Not a Standard Make'
It's not required that standards be free of owners, "but it is absolute that if someone owns a standard they don't have absolute power and control -- i.e., they can't dictate how the universe uses the standard," he stressed. "DARPA has been good with this; others haven't."
Today, standards "seem to be more about locking in vendors with customers, Microsoft's OOXML debacle being a good example," Hannah asserted. "Microsoft claimed interest in an open and unified standard for documents, but under the covers, their idea of a standard skews heavily towards their software and platform.
"This does not a standard make," he said.
"I like the original model: Find a need, solve it, and let it be widely adopted," Hannah concluded. "It's important that for this to be 'real,' it has to be without undue influence from any interested third party. Unfortunately, today powerful vendors push suspect 'standards' to the detriment of open and friendly technology."
'Codifying Corruption'
Indeed, while "the wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them, the problem with standards is that they can be mandated," Martin Espinoza, a blogger on Slashdot, told LinuxInsider.
It's important to remember, however, that "Office documents were the de facto standard before there actually was one," Espinoza pointed out. "What the ISO is doing is codifying corruption. By and large, the citizenry does not care about very large lies. Comparatively small lies like this one are uninteresting."
In any case, Microsoft may have won the battle, but it lost the war, Montreal consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack told LinuxInsider.
"I'm sure that they thought they would have a new standard that they were light-years ahead of the competition in supporting," Mack explained. "The reality is that didn't happen."
'Not Since the Inquisition'
Instead, "OOXML got changed during the standards process so now there are no known products on the market that support it" -- including Microsoft's own Office 2008, he noted.
This, of course, "is on top of all the bad will they generated by trying to stack committees in their favor and attacking dissenting voices with a fervor not seen since the inquisition," he added.
For the moment, at least, "the standards process hinders openness," Mack asserted. "Unfortunately, standards have become a tactical weapon that corporations use to their advantage. We saw the results of that thinking with the OOXML push by Microsoft and when Rambus co-opted a standards process so that the standards required use of their patents."
'They Might Find Themselves Irrelevant'
Looking ahead, standards organizations "need to sit down and admit there is a problem, and then decide if they want to help or hinder industry progress," Mack said.
"I'm hoping the ISO recovers from this," he added. "They have been publicly humiliated by the debacle but refuse to admit anything went wrong. Monty Python's 'Black Knight' imitation would actually be amusing if the stakes weren't so high."
The group must not only "rethink their fast-track process," but also "they need to create a standard for how member countries select representatives," he concluded. Otherwise, "they may very well find themselves rendered irrelevant and pushed aside by people who need standards to actually foster interoperability."
FOSS Debates, Part 1: Kernel Truths
FOSS Debates, Part 3: Mission Control
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Would you drive a Tesla?
I already do, and I love it!
Yes -- if the price were lower.
No -- I wouldn't trust its Autopilot.
I'd drive an electric car but not a Tesla.
I'm not yet sold on electric vehicles. | <urn:uuid:9ee5b455-f7a2-403e-9bc0-1f1efefc2b5c> | http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/66486.html | en | 0.961757 | 0.042192 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
I was up in the morning with the TV blarin'
brush my teeth sittin' watchin' the news
All the beaches were closed the ocean was a Red Sea
but there was no one there to part it in two
There was no fresh salad because there's hypos in the cabbage
Staten Island disappeared at noon
And they say the midwest is in great distress
and NASA blew up the moon
The ozone layer has no ozone anymore
and you're gonna leave me for the guy next door
I'm Sick of You
They arrested the Mayor for an illegal favor
sold the Empire State to Japan
And Oliver North married William Secord
and gave birth to a little Teheran
And the Ayatollah bought a nuclear warhead
if he dies he wants to go out in style
And there's nothing to eat that don't carry the stink
of some human waste dumped in the Nile
Well one thing is certainly true
no one here knows what to do
I'm Sick of You
The radio said there were 400 dead
in some small town in Arkansas
Some whacked out trucker
drove into a nuclear reactor
and killed everybody he saw
Now he's on Morton Downey
and he's glowing and shining
doctors say this is a medical advance
They say the bad makes the good
and there's something to be learned
in every human experience
Well I know one thing that really is true
This here's a zoo and the keeper ain't you
And I'm sick of it, I'm Sick of You
They ordained the Trumps
and then he got the mumps
and died being treated at Mt. Sinai
And my best friend Bill
died from a poison pill
some wired doctor prescribed for stress
My arms and legs are shrunk
the food all has lumps
They discovered some animal no one's ever seen
It was an inside trader eating a rubber tire
after running over Rudy Giuliani
They say the President's dead
but no one can find his head
It's been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it
he has seemed so fit
and I'm Sick of it
Correct | Mail | Print | Vote
Sick Of You Lyrics
Lou Reed – Sick Of You Lyrics
Sick Of You lyrics © SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
Lyrics term of use | <urn:uuid:de01db2f-5755-4536-ab54-bcfc328740c8> | http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lou+reed/sick+of+you_20085226.html | en | 0.94739 | 0.069616 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
A: Yes, learn more on our Special Events page.
What are the benefits and eligibility surrounding the IDNYC Card Program?
A: The Museum of the City of New York is offering all IDNYC card holders a free Individual membership for one year. Click here to learn more about the program. To redeem your membership, complete this online form, and visit us within 30 days of registering to activate your complimentary membership. The City Museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Please be sure to bring your valid IDNYC card with you to confirm your membership.
A: Terms of Use can be found here.
Which Museum affiliates receive free admission?
What is the City Museum's I'm a "Neighbor" program?
Are baby strollers or backpacks permitted in the Museum?
A: All bags are subject to inspection. Visitors may check these items in the self-check lockers on the ground floor. You may be required to store oversized items, like large strollers; if so, the Museum’s staff will direct you to a separate storage area. The Museum will not hold or store luggage. Single strollers are permitted in the galleries subject to the discretion of gallery guards.
Is there a coatroom / coat check?
Is photography permitted in the Museum?
Is there WiFi in the Museum?
Are visitors permitted to sketch in the Museum?
Is there a place to eat in the Museum?
Is the Museum accessible to wheelchairs and the disabled?
A: The City Museum strives to accommodate visitors of all abilities. Ramp access is available on 104th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues. All exhibition videos are open captioned. Sign language interpretation and specialized descriptive tours are available upon advanced request. Please email for more information.
What if my question isn’t answered here?
| <urn:uuid:8b468358-6644-4013-ae22-a42a8d8c283d> | http://www.mcny.org/exhibitions-by-date/2014-02-24?q=visit/faqs | en | 0.928702 | 0.033216 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
We go to sleep each night and wake up in the morning to a new day with new opportunities - a day filled with the power and freedom to choose. The minute we wake up, we can choose to get out of bed and make the most of our day or press the snooze button, roll over, pull the blankets over our head, and feel dread about the day ahead. This is nobody's choice but ours. Generally, the way we start our day influences how we feel for the rest of the day.
Let's look at 5 ways we can start our day off on a positive note:
1. When you wake up in the morning, take a few minutes to check-in (go within). Take a few deep breaths and find something that you're grateful for (your children, partner, your health, the warm bed you are in, nature outside your window). Take this time to be thankful for all that you have in your life instead of wasting your energy on thinking about what you don't have.
2. Instead of pouncing straight out of bed, spend 5 to 10 minutes (or however long it takes) meditating. Simply observe your breath. Breathe in for a count of 4 to 5, allowing your belly and chest to expand, and breathe out also for a count of 4 to 5 allowing everything to drop away. Notice how your breath enters your body, notice how your breath leaves your body, and notice the little pause between each breath. This will allow you to create a sense of peace within and it will also help get you into a good head space before your feet touch the ground.
3. Take a few moments while in the shower and/or while eating breakfast just to be present. Feel the water on your skin, taste the different flavours in your food. It feels good and it's an amazing way to consciously set your energy and intention towards your day.
4. Before breakfast have large glass of water with half a lemon squeezed into it and you may even like to add some ginger or cayenne pepper. This will assist with digestion and is effective in body cleansing and detoxification - it will help get things moving. Follow this with a nutritious breakfast to kick-start your metabolism and fuel your body to face the day ahead. You have just had maybe ten to twelve hours of fasting - your body needs sustenance and is ready to be refuelled, so skipping breakfast is a big no, no!
5. Get clear about your intentions for the day. For example you can intend to have a productive day. You can intend to have quality time with your family and friends with no distractions. You can intend to have a fun and brilliant day. You can intend to have a calm and peaceful day. You can intend to learn something new or be helpful to someone. Whatever it is just be clear about what it is you want your day to be. In order to create, manifest, and attract it, you must first align your heart, mind, and spirit with your intention. In other words, you truly need to feel it!
Many people don't understand the power of thoughts, because they live every day on autopilot, doing most things out of habit, and therefore they create their reality unconsciously, as if they’re wearing a blindfold. But whether we’re aware of it or not, we create our reality with our thoughts and behaviour - and this means we have the power to choose to be a conscious, mindful creator and change our reality to what we really want it to be. Remember, you choose your thoughts, you choose your behavior, you choose the outcome. And every choice you make determines how you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Now, let me ask you this: How do you start your day? Is it with gratification and happiness—or doom and gloom? A day is easily ruined if started by holding onto negativity and resentment. So when you wake tomorrow, ask yourself, do I want to think and act like I did yesterday, or do I choose to be a new me today?
Watch now
How Food Affects Your Brain: Dr. Drew Ramsey | <urn:uuid:2ac1806d-6ba0-4b22-b0b2-a767d2a3a084> | http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-6106/5-Positive-Ways-to-Start-Your-Day.html | en | 0.944678 | 0.187119 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Meet Steve Bridge
For most observers, the main focus of their attention is what goes on on the field. But for any professional sports team, success is built from much more than just the events on the field. There is a ton of work behind-the-scenes to ensure that everything goes smoothly, especially when travelling on the road.
The man who organizes the details for the 'Caps is team administrator Steve Bridge, a.k.a. "The Man". Check out this video to get a better idea of his hard work: | <urn:uuid:6df54d23-75ae-4a7a-9a2d-1bb15a566495> | http://www.whitecapsfc.com/post/2012/09/07/meet-steve-bridge?quicktabs_mls_standings_quicktabs=eastern&quicktabs_club_news_qt=1 | en | 0.956423 | 0.156879 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Greater Ranges
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Greater Ranges comprise the high mountain ranges of Asia:
The UIAA gives a broader definition of the Greater Ranges than the traditional one. With the increasing popularity of global travel and adventure sports, this definition is now somewhat more popular than the original. In addition to the ranges listed above, the ranges also comprise:
All of these ranges have peaks over 4,800 metres (15,750 ft), and most have peaks over 6,000 metres (19,690 ft). The Greater Ranges contain all of the world's peaks higher than 7,000 metres (22,970 ft).[1]
The term was popular amongst alpinists in the Victorian period and was used to distinguished the high peaks of Asia from the European Alps. | <urn:uuid:34db70c6-05a3-436e-8cbd-6a4fb4e28cce> | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Ranges | en | 0.923233 | 0.037284 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Mises Daily Articles
Home | Mises Library | That Quiz!
That Quiz!
Tags Austrian Economics Overview
12/29/2008Jeffrey A. Tucker
Economists are everywhere in the media these days, arguing with each other and pronouncing on what precisely needs to be done to fix our economic problems. The majority say that the government needs to spend and inflate like crazy, while others say that this will not only fail to fix the problem but will prolong the downturn.
The opinions of economists are not random. They can be classified into schools of thought, and to schools within schools. It's too bad that the radio and television announcers can't just say this before the economist ever opens his mouth.
"Now we have a word from Professor Jones, who was trained according to the Keynesian tradition, and advocates Keynesian-style policies as dictated by a Keynesian model."
Or, "Now we turn to Professor Smith, who adheres to a Marxian paradigm that regards capitalism as a moral outrage that is destined to collapse according to the implacable laws of history."
Or, "Professor Walker is a Chicago-school economist who generally appreciates markets but believes in monetary intervention based on a positivist understanding of economic method."
But of course the economists themselves do not want to be so classified. They would rather be seen as objective scientists — and anyone who disagrees with them to be guilty of fallacy or to be inadequately familiar with empirical reality.
As for the news reporters themselves, they are famously ignorant of economics and profoundly intimidated by the subject in general.
This is one reason why the Mises Institute put together a quiz that contrasts the Austrian School position with other schools of thought. It is a test to see precisely where you stand, what issues divide the schools of thought, and how theoretical differences manifest themselves in political differences.
There are three criticisms that have been offered of the quiz.
First, it is said that we are wrong to so strictly classify schools of thought. There are only good economics and bad economics. Of the latter statement, we can agree. But even though economists no longer believe in classifying themselves — everyone claims to be eclectic these days — the divisions into systematic categories are still with us, as the response to the present crisis illustrates.
People can look at the same set of facts and interpret them differently, and the differences boil down to deeper assumptions about how the world works. For example, what can one make of the current downturn? Is it some foul wind that has blown our way, like a natural disaster? Or is it a welcome response to a previous distortion that had to be corrected and should be allowed to correct itself?
What the quiz does is highlight these differences so that we can make sense of what people are saying.
Second, people say that it is too hard. Well, the response to that is that economics is hard, or rather challenging. It deals with serious material that goes beyond intuition. Proof of that is that its insights are too often detached from other disciplines such as philosophy and history that actually require economic understanding to be truly complete.
Its difficulty underscores that economics requires careful thinking and study. It isn't enough to merely study the ancients or read the historians. Economics has much to teach everyone, and it takes more than a few seconds to absorb its main insights.
In any case, economics is unavoidable. It does no good to deny that it matters, as many people do. We all live and breath economics everyday. Nor should economics be left to specialists. It is a field of knowledge that is within the competence of everyone. No one should fear it, or fear speaking on the subject.
Third, people complain that quiz too seamlessly integrates pure theory with policy, moving from theoretical understanding to political implication too rapidly, whereas it should defer to the Austrian insistence that theory is value free and can be discerned and defended apart from libertarian ideas.
This is a valid criticism, and true as far as it goes. But the purpose of the quiz is to highlight the difference between the Austrian School (not just theory) and the other schools of thought (Marxist/institutionalist, Keynesian/neoclassical, Chicago/RatEx) and these schools do not regard their theory and policy as separate.
In order to make the contrast more vibrant and clear, it becomes necessary to set aside the distinction between value-free theory and its political implications, because whatever the case in a world of pure thought, economics does in fact have political implications.
So on both these grounds, the current structure is defensible. That said, there is always and everywhere room for improvement!
Let's say you aspire to get a 100% on the quiz. There is no better time than now to start to study economics. I'm really hip on Faustino Ballvé's Essentials of Economics as an excellent starting place for the serious student. For the advanced student, there is a new indispensable tool: Human Action and its historic-first Study Guide.
Without economic knowledge, the world as it works will forever remain a strange and mysterious place.
Follow Mises Institute | <urn:uuid:e0c1f453-4bbc-4c9c-abe0-ee2b71766836> | https://mises.org/library/quiz | en | 0.962211 | 0.214931 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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The Role of a Woman
by Yogi Bhajan from I Am A Woman
This is the science I am going to teach you; it has never been taught before. The most important thing in your life is your electromagnetic field and its frequency. For that you cannot look at anybody but yourself.
The most important role of a woman (in relationship) is when the male needs the female energy. It will always happen suddenly and it will always be a shock for you. “Aaaah, I was searching for you.” “What happened? I was in the house.” “No,no,no I was going to go out. Oh, I forgot; come on, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Have you seen those scenes? Out of the blue, he jumps up out of the chair, “Hey, I want to throw a party for you.” You think the guy is crazy. It happens once in a while in life, not all the time, but it happens to every male. Your flow of metabolism changes all the time. They are the most freaky creatures on the planet Earth. Oh, I mean human beings. I remember as a Yogi and I remember as a human being, and I understand the difference because I remember when I was going through all these changes. I have totally studied it, and what the scriptures say is absolutely right. In the morning, the man will paint a beautiful garden of roses; in the evening when he comes home, he is as a dead soldier. When you deal with a man, you deal with a most unpredictable character. Now, with the entire unpredictability of the human being that is a male, to give him a life of happiness and ground him, a woman has to be constant, continuous and dependable; these things a man wants. No male, whether a king or a beggar can continue with an uncontinuous woman.
I would like to explain to you this problem; because to begin with, every male is uncontinuous. Now, the uncontinuous needs a continuous. When an uncontinuous gets in stride with another uncontinious, there is a clash. If your male is outgoing, you should be outgoing and not feel tired. If you go out and you’re having fun and come back at 11:30, if he feels dead tired and wants a cup of tea, he will expect you to make it for him. You will ask why? Because he is highly insensitive. Do you know what he feels, subconsciously? He feels that you are the only energy; so how can you be tired. When you tell him, “I am tired,” he will be dead before that. “Oh my God, you are tired. Honey, what happened to you?” I have seen some men even freak out. They go into a fit. I am only telling you certain things that scriptures and sages have written for more than 5,000 years before us. All the study has already been done. We are not going to discover something new, but simply I am going to tell you what it is so that you may know and understand. When a male and a female are in relationship, he thinks you are the spirit. This is the only thing you forget.
Men do not love a dumb woman. Neither do men love a depressed woman. You can lean on a man, but not with a depressed mood. When you lean on a man, he feels the energy and he feels the fulfillment that for once in his human life he is doing something. Men are very dedicated. It is basically in the habit of the male to lean on the woman. When you make him feel great, and you lean on him, that does not mean he thinks of you as dumb, weak and frustrated. No, instead he accepts you as a capacity in which he can do something. When you make him do something, he feels very loving, very grateful, very cozy towards you.
It is required of the woman to deal with a man in direct, straight communication. It takes about three months of this habit to take to the style. No claim, no blame – that is the art of a woman. The science of the woman is” always keep the spirit going. The art of a woman is: never claim anything and you will never get blamed for anything. If you want to live rich and be taken care of, do not claim anything.
If a man relates to a woman, he cannot see her as ugly, because nobody can feel the flow of bad things. It isn’t in the nature of a man. Would you like your garden to not be tip-top? Would you like your living room to not be ok? It is the nature of the male that if he is allowed to play the game, he will be your caretaker. The only mess in the situation is when you demand it. When you demand it, he gets confused. You know why? He is not intelligent enough to know what to give. He only knows what to take. The trend of his natural flow is take, take, take, take, take and your flow is give, give, give. So use every taking and blend it to the form of giving. Give him a bad time, give him a good time, give him good food, give him good advice, give him a good joke, whatever you want to give him; just put it in such a way that it looks like giving, not taking.
What is a woman? Woman is the flowing river of spirit. On its banks dwells a male, a man. It is the flow of that river, that spirit, that woman is clean, healthy and constant, the dweller shall not leave the dwelling. That dwelling will turn itself into a city, a town, a capitol. | <urn:uuid:bed344dd-754d-4302-b103-b1be90db678e> | https://ru.3ho.org/3ho-lifestyle/authentic-relationships/role-woman | en | 0.979278 | 0.11469 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Hey, Answerman!
by Brian Hanson, Apr 23rd 2010
Hey gang! Time for another Hey, Answerman!
Just a quick plug before we begin, though: do you like uncomfortably offensive sketch comedy? Would you like to see me perform some offensive sketch comedy? Are you around somewhere in Southern Arizona to see me and my friends make horrible jokes to each other for about an hour? Then come on down and check out Grendel's Mom! I even wrote a few sketches myself, and there will be singing and laughter and joy to be had by all.
But with that out of the way, I do believe I have some questions to take care of first:
With all these E-Readers like Kindle and the iPad coming out I was wondering why more manga companies aren't releasing some of their titles on them? It might be the technology is too new and they want to wait and see if it'll actually catch on but it seems like it would be a really good idea. This way they could let readers at official copies of out of print mangas or test out new manga. After all I imagine it would be a lot cheaper since they wouldn't have to mess around with books, ink, and printers. We'll probably just have to wait and see though.
Indeed, it seems like a good idea - and it seems as though there's really not much to lose, monetarily, just to try it out - but as always there's a whole industry that's almost allergic to the concept of change that needs to be dealt with.
Honestly, if there's any one particular industry that's been entirely too stubborn to see the light of day in our entirely digital 21st century, it's the publishing industry. And that's especially true for the Japanese manga industry; these are guys who're in charge of companies that haven't even considered changing the way they do business for decades and decades. Convincing the technophobic Japanese publishers that manga on E-Readers would be a solid investment is, in and of itself, a difficult task.
And then there's everything else - the demographical breakdown of the people who own E-Readers (most of the market research indicates that the audience who're buying E-Readers and iPads tend to be older - much older than your average teenaged manga enthusiast), your standard-issue piracy concerns, plus the sheer fact that nobody's really done something like that for comics yet. Marvel seems to be hedging their bets on the concept of digital readers for their various stable of new and older comic books, so it's worth it to see how well that plan shakes out for them before any other major comic and manga publishers take a stab at it.
It's not all gloom and doom, though. Obviously the concept of publishing manga on a Kindle or an iPad is something that just about every US manga publisher is considering; but currently, the market is still too new and unproven. I'm sure we'll see a few experiments by brave publishers like Yen Press, but I doubt we'll be seeing any sort of mass E-Reader adoption for the manga industry for quite some time.
I am currently 35 years old and I still enjoy anime and the occasional manga. No big deal, right? My question has to do with other forms of anime/manga fandom; more specifically conventions. A few years back a few friends and I attended a local con (we are about the same age) and, well, we felt pretty uncomfortable. There were a lot of fans and of course most of them were in their mid-to-late teens or early twenties, and a good many of them looked at us like we were some sort of "pedos". To clarify, we were not in cos-play, we did not have cameras, and we tried very hard not to stare too much at any of the fans who were in cos-play. But I still got the feeling that we were kind of interlopers. Is it time to give up going to cons, or should I just say the heck with it and do what I want?
Well, I guess outside of that particularly awkward exchange, my question to you, sir, would be this:
Did you still have fun at the con?
Were there other activities aside from cosplay and such that you found to be worth your time?
If you answered "yes" to the above two questions, then yes - screw what those lousy kids think! It's a big nerd party, so go out and have fun. Don't worry about the hazy stares from the younger kids, because they are lame and nobody likes them.
On the other hand, if you're one of those people who attend conventions strictly for the social atmosphere, well then... yeah, it's probably time to hang up your Convention badge-holder and leave it for the next generation of fans. Zac and Justin and I always make fun of Anime Expo every year for being "Teenage Party Weekend," which it absolutely is, by no means does that mean we don't enjoy ourselves when we're there. (Well, at least when they're not being swamped by massive amounts of work or whatever.) There are still panels to attend, screenings to be watched, goodies to be bought, and a plethora of other things to do aside from nervously shuffle around the glares of kids dressed up in matching Kingdom Hearts costumes.
I can see this being a bigger deal at the local cons, though, where there obviously aren't going to be as many panels, the dealer's room is going to be a lot smaller, and the screenings will be much less interesting. The local cons exist primarily as a social melting pot of local nerdery, so if at any point you feel relatively out-of-sorts, I'd say it's probably time to skip it.
Nonetheless, the ball's in your court here, man. I myself can't see myself attending any local conventions for that very reason - I'm not much for cosplay myself and as a 26-year old guy I'm already a little bit over the median anime-fan age - but I can still think of a few things I might like or other ways I could amuse myself while I'm there. It's a difficult call to make, because conventions are entirely what you get out of them, and if all you got out of the local cons recently is a feeling of awkward shame, then I'd say it's high-time you let them go. If not, then screw it and have fun.
I know you get a lot of "When is X getting licensed" questions, but usually they're about Beyblade, not something like Nodame Cantabile. What do you think are the factors keeping Nodame from being licensed? Are the they same that caused it to take forever for Honey and Clover to be licensed?
I just wanted to clarify: no, I have never received an email asking about the licensing status of Beyblade. (Besides, it's already licensed! Not that I, uh, know that much about Beyblade. Seriously.) Digimon? Yes. Many a Digimon licensing question. Not so much the Beyblade.
I tend to ignore the relatively direct "WHEN WILL THIS SHOW BE LICENSED?????" questions because, honestly, there's no clear and correct answer that I can give. It's not like I'm calling Funimation every week just to run down a list of titles to see what's been licensed and what hasn't. And even then, Funimation wouldn't tell me what shows were being licensed until they were ready to tell the rest of the internet.. And for the older shows that linger in obscurity, destined to live a sad and lonely import-only life, who knows? Again, I'm not calling all the R1 anime companies every week to ask them repeatedly why they passed on Legend of Galactic Heroes.
Sadly, Nodame Cantabile falls into the Legend of Galactic Heroes realm of misbegotten anime licenses - it's a very good show that's based on an excellent manga. A manga that has, sadly, hardly made a dent as far as sales go. The show is paced rather gently, is character focused, and doesn't have titillatingly un-clothed men and women cavorting about and absolutely no physical violence to speak of. Sadly, time and time again, studies have shown that mature, intelligent dramas centered around real characters is not what sells on anime DVD shelves in America. Any company attempting to sell Nodame Cantabile would be assuming a huge risk, and sadly our economy is not exactly conducive towards such risks.
Luckily, though, at least the manga's still on sale here, so if anything might change their minds about Nodame Cantabile, it'd be manga sales. So spread the word and try to sell some Nodame Cantabile volumes, champ; cold hard cash speaks the loudest in this market, and Nodame's quiet piano solo just doesn't have the volume to drown out all the noise so far.
hi so i want to uncensored for Isshoni H Shiyotsu, Kangoku Senkan, In Warau Kangofu Counseling, Milk Junkies Sisters, Mizugi Kanojo ~The Animation~ Fit, Oodeo ShijyuuhatteSaimin Jutsu -2nd Version, Seifuku Shojo, Saimin Ryougoku Gakuen, Shimaizuma 3 The Animation, Soukou ki Onna Iris, Space Pirate Sara, Stringendo & Accelerendo Ultimatum Sera, Stringendo ~MY BLOW JOBER, Taimanin Asagi, Tsuma Shibori , Accelerando Datenshi-tachi no Sasayaki, Bakunyuu Maid Kari theses are censored so i want to uncensored, if you can not change it then can you contact in japan company to make uncensored.
I am not your personal hentai uncensoring device. Here is a video that will make you never want to even acknowledge the fact that you have genitals ever again:
Here we go with the Answerfans! Last week I flipped around the question I get asked most often here at ANN:
To begin, Serry needs to dry those teary eyes:
I've always wanted to voice acting but I didn't want to get pulled into little kid story time shows. When I 'discovered' anime in high school it was like all my prayers were being answered. I stared practicing different voices with my sub DVDs and did a few workshops. Then reality set in and I realized that it is hard work that really doesn't pay well unless your like Vic Mignogna doing a roll in every big anime that comes out. Let's face it those are scarce so the chances of getting them aren't good. I ended up with a nine to five but there are still the days when I wish I hadn't quit. Now I'm all sad! I'm going to go cry into my Mokona plushie!
Ronny, meanwhile, has his doubts:
I don't think I would like to work in the anime industry; as far as I can tell it's a choice between being overworked (artists, producers) or underpaid (actors, musicians), or frequently both. Either one would mess with my own enjoyment of the medium. Not living in Japan or knowing much Japanese beyond the usual otaku smatter would probably also not help...
Giascle will be makin' cartoons here in 'merica:
I'm going to study animation at the School of Visual Arts this fall, so I can learn how to better make cartoons. Not anime, just good old 'Murican cartoons.
I love anime, and actually watch it more than the cartoons on TV (if only for the convenience of not having to base my schedule around when it airs). I draw "anime style" almost too often, and if I had my own TV show, you can be assured there would be references to obscure Japanese shows of which the average viewer would likely never hear. However, my actual animations are all in a strange style that's about as Western as they come. Simple, goofy designs are just more fun to draw than anatomically correct characters, day in and day out; I couldn't imagine being an animator at a Japanese studio where all the shows look more or less the same. I'm not even going to get started on wages, racism, and all the other potential problems everyone should know by now.
I'm not sure what is so enticing to some people about working on an anime. You will not become famous for drawing the scene where Toyota-kun blinks and goes through his three mouth movements. As with any other career in the entertainment industry, you will not be allowed to direct your own work the second you step into the office; it's going to take at least a decade of hard work, and of course you have to be creative and talented enough to outshine everyone else trying to accomplish the same exact thing. And it's not like Japanese studios are the only ones that draw in that style, if that's the issue. Just look at Avatar or The Boondocks: not anime, but certainly close enough that any stranger on the bus will ask if you're watching one of them funny Chinese cartoons.
It really comes down to, "do you want to be successful at what you do?" If you do, stick to where your dreams might actually come true. The grass is pretty green right here.
Karen's references the popular 1997 film "Titanic":
Would I like to pursue a career in the Anime Industry? --In Short: Do I find it bewildering that people would sign up to take a ride on the Titanic fully knowing it's going to sink?
Ok, maybe that was a *bit* too harsh, but especially from hearing about the Industry currently in the latest ANNCast, until someone 'fixes' the industry, I don't see how this would be even possible. And I'm not just talking about the even more far fetched dream of making Anime all the way over in Japan (Being an in-betweener working paycheck to paycheck sounds like fun to me, wahoo!), it's just that working in the Anime Industry alone is not a realistic dream. Even, or especially here in the U.S., you can't just sail on voice acting alone, or being a singer that sings the Openings and Endings for your favorite shows. You are most likely going to be doing voice overs for commercials and singing various other ditties which may be less than ideal to your average hopeful fan. But hey, if it's someone's dream, then I say go for it. It's just going to be a long and rocky path getting there and afterwards..and during. For me personally, however, I have always been intrigued by the marketing and advertising strategies used by anime companies, specifically for R1 releases. The decisions on the packaging, design of said packaging, advertisements: ANN skin? Video clips available free? Website ads? And how so? All this and more has always interested me. I hold a sort of respect for the people who are in this specific niche of marketing and advertising because I feel Anime is such a hard thing to sell and make a profit with, and that besides improving the actual content for the shows, I feel that advertising is a key way to jump start the Anime Industry in Japan, as well as here in the States. I can see the hard work (and sometimes failed attempts) at trying to present a show in an unique and interesting way to the consumer, and I respect and admire that a lot, and it would be something that I would like to try my hand at too. So I suppose in the end, I am one of those people who would gladly hop on the Titanic fully knowing it's future demise-- if only to have a personal hand in trying to prevent it running into that pesky Iceberg, and of course to run this metaphor into the ground, decorate the ship in fun attractive colors (Marketing!) so the rescue ship (Consumer) sees the ship (Product, Industry?) and saves the people or something like that.
Lucy's edict frightens me:
For the longest time, I wanted to be a voice actress in the anime industry. I wanted to become my favorite characters in the English dubs and make dubs more popular here in the States. As I've said before in one of these AnswerFan thingymajigs, a good voice actor/actress can make or break an anime. And a new voice would be nice too.
But then I realized that to save the industry, the scripts had to be as similar as possible when switched over from Japanese to English. That is part of the reason dubs fail. So I wanted to be a writer.
Then I wanted to be a producer to get money for better advertising to make anime/manga more popular and allow each and every single shot to be put into the dubs (not get cut).
Then I wanted to do a global take-over of everything anime/manga related so I could regulate absolutely everything from A to Z.
Obviously, having me in the industry could result in some serious Nazi-like action taking place. I'm sure that I'd be able to save my beloved anime and manga; positive, actually. But I'm also sure that, one day, someone else will try (and fail) to overthrow my regime because they actually enjoy some of the ridiculously stupid stuff like Buuga-tan (haha, go Anime News Nina! They've got it on the nose *chuckle*)
But some little part of me still wants to simply voice my favorite characters. A very small part, it is true, but who can forget their childhood dreams? When I take over, I'll be sure to do that. And let your Answerman column live...if you play by my rules, of course. ^_^
You have been warned.
J reminds me of how much I perversely enjoy Ichiro Itano, even though he is one of the individuals responsible for Angel Cop:
I want to be a fan. And maybe more.
I think the anime industry is a large and complex thing that any of us can be a part of. The industry goes beyond just producing anime--the organizers, producers, the animation studios and its employees, the musicians, the designers, the voice actors, the sound director, the writers, the publishers, the TV stations, the lawyers and bankers, and the marketing and ad folks. It includes the press, sponsors, conventions, people who hire animation studios (for example, Otakon has hired Madhouse to make shorts for their convention before), and ultimately, the fans. After all without the fans and their money, how can the industry exist? Without the press to let the fans know what is happening, how can the industry communicate with the fans? How can the industry figure out what the fans like and want to buy more of? Without sponsors investing on anime up front, how will the money to make anime come in the first place?
I think all of that is important. An inbetweener who is hired to draw some frames is exchangeable; anyone with the requisite skill (and it's not much for inbetweening) can do the job. But there are only so many people on earth who is willing to trade their time and money for some crappy moe anime on DVD, and it isn't like it make sense to hire them into existence. In other words, you can't really force people to become fans. They are harder to replace than an inbetweener, an animator. But yet the fans are also generally not well-respected, why is that?
To finally answer the question about how I want to break into the industry and why fans are not respected, I want to just link to Ichiro Itano's story about working on Macross Plus. I want to be someone like him; not as a master animator, but someone who puts his life on the line for his passion. I think if you have that, it doesn't matter if you are a writer, producer, director, animator, or just an otaku. It's how I want to break into this industry, as a fan or as whatever it takes to do it.
Ian Strope, wordsmith:
Among my various projects in different stages of production. I've got a 5 part tv show sci-fi idea.Once it's done I will try to pitch to just about anybody. Since I enjoy anime among other shows I freely admit that what I'm working on is heavily influenced (RE: stealing) from anime and other media (there is a scene I want to do in the 4th part of the show where a former assassin is using her sword to cut carrots like April in the first TMNT movie).
In the end I would like to be writing. For me all the watching of shows good, decent, bad, is "research" for characters, environments, themes, etc. I would have no problem working on a US cartoon like Samurai Jack (though that's really all about animators, in a good way ... and cancelled, in a bad way) or doing a live action show or in helping to make some cool anime. I just hate when an anime is well made but lacking in story elements or based on a manga or book series that goes on further. I hate the lack of closure in that stuff. I wouldn't mind finding a way to write something that had a beginning a middle and an end so I could enjoy watching it in my dying years when my memory is shot.
And finally, Candice has a surprisingly candid answer:
In all seriousness i really do want to be involved in the anime industry, but not as an artist, author, producer, what have you....I want to be an accountant for the industry. i would just love to tell them how they are spending their money right or wrong; how to analyze the merchandise sales; and possibly how to budget their accounts so they wont spend too much on a product, having to overprice it in order to make a profit. Cause oh mai zombie jeebus~ them things get expensive yo.
So all of you want to be accountant voice actor writer-producers and animators! Cool!
On a different note, here's the question I need you all to answer for next week:
Believe it or not, I'm genuinely curious what you think.
Welcome to Hey, Answerfans!
We do have a few simple ground rules to start with.
Things To Do:
* Be coherent.
* Be thoughtful.
* Be passionate.
Things Not To Do:
* Be unnecessarily rude or use a lot of foul language.
* Go off-topic.
That's all I've got for now! I'm going to go pass out from a lack of sleep and get ready to embarrass myself in the name of tasteless comedy, but I'll be back next week for sure. Just keep sending me stuff at answerman(at)animenewsnetwork.com, and I'll see you later!
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30 Brooksville, United States
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My self-summary
Now about me.
I'm a generally nice man, always try to treat people with respect. I'm honest to the core, smart, funny, and just an all around cool guy. most people who get to know me tend to like me.
I'm always there when I'm needed, very trustworthy and a great friend.
I'm very laid back most of the time, I hate drama and refuse to be a part of it. I'm just a very calm, collected person pretty much 100% of the time.
I'm not looking to "get in your pants" and i hate guys who abuse women in any way, whether it be verbal or physical.
i have a facebook, the email is search for me
I am Honest, Caring, and Funny.
Oh and I don't do drugs of any kind.
What I’m doing with my life
I'm currently in my first year of college for web design, and doing very well in my classes
I’m really good at
I'm usually good at most things i try, i adapt well to new things. i'm open to try anything and go anywere atleast once.
The first things people usually notice about me
i have no idea... but really, you can't judge people by appearance. you have to try and get to know them before you make judgments.
Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food
I'd have to go with anything written by John Grisham. i'm a horror movie fan, but generally i just like movies of all sorts. i'm very eclectic when it comes to music, basically if it sounds good i get listen to it regardless of what genre it is. i love Italian food,Chinese, i'm pretty much open to try new food's.
The six things I could never do without
friend's, family, love, respect, honesty, and fun
I spend a lot of time thinking about
my mind is always on, i have 5 things on my mind at any given moment.
On a typical Friday night I am
Depends on the night, but I will say I wouldn't mind going out more often
The most private thing I’m willing to admit
I once stole a 2 dollar turtle statue from Bealls... I was young and stupid.
You should message me if
your interested in getting to know me, either as a friend or whatever. if your tired of jerks who take you for granted, and treat you like dirt, I'm a refreshing change of pace ;) | <urn:uuid:fd40a4ef-b7cc-4f3f-8e67-55984c63a8db> | https://www.okcupid.com/profile/BigManBigHeart?cf=profile_similar | en | 0.954777 | 0.020691 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Five Steps to Teach Your Children Money Management
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Five Steps to Teach Your Children Money Management
MP3 Audio (15.41 MB)
My son Danny is 16 now, but I still vividly remember a particular shopping trip with him when he was 7. We were in the electronics aisle at a discount department store. I had my back to him for a few moments while I tried to figure out which camera battery I needed. When I turned around, I saw Danny plopping a 12-inch television into our shopping cart.
“I'm going to buy this,” he announced.
“We don't have the money for that,” I quickly replied, and then picked up the TV to put it back on the shelf.
Immediately Danny hollered, “But Mommy, I have the money!” Then he opened his billfold to show me his wad of handmade $1, $5 and $10 bills.
Earlier that day, Danny, who has always been quite an artist, had used some of the currency in my wallet as models to meticulously draw copies of the bills on white construction paper. He then colored his bills with green and black pencils and cut them out. They looked surprisingly like the real thing.
I had assumed he was going to use his homemade currency to play “store” with his younger brother. But on this shopping trip, I realized that was not the case at all. Danny thought the way you “made” money was literally by drawing your own.
Time for a talk about money
The whole thing really took me by surprise. I would have never thought Danny had those kinds of misconceptions about money. It made me realize it was time to have some talks with him about money—how it's earned, how to use it wisely, and why it's important to be good stewards of what God has given us.
What about you? Do you talk to your kids—teens and younger children alike—about money matters?
We're told in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 Deuteronomy 6:6-7 6 And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: 7 And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
American King James Version×
The Bible has a lot to say regarding how we should be using our money. It follows, then, that we should be passing these financial principles on to our children and teaching them at least the basics of personal money management.
The current worldwide economic downturn adds even more urgency to doing so. “Kids know we're facing tough times, but they don't always understand how we got there,” states Karen Varcoe, Ph.D., consumer economics specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension. She believes the vast majority of parents are not talking with their children about money management. Instead, kids are getting their “lesson” in personal finances by simply watching their parents.
Dr. Varcoe continues: “What they're seeing is most everything being purchased with a credit card or check. They don't see cash very often. This can give them the false impression that the family has an endless supply of money. And indeed, when we use credit cards instead of cash, we generally spend more than we should.”
This kind of overspending not only sets the wrong example for kids, she says, but was certainly one of the root causes of the present global economic crisis. It's also the reason so many people found themselves in dire financial predicaments this past year when the U.S. economy nose-dived.
“You need to be telling your kids how to save money and spend it wisely, and why it's important to not misuse credit, so that their future financial stability isn't in serious risk, as is the case with so many people today,” she urges.
This teaching can begin as early as age 3 or 4, or whenever your child begins asking about money. Your lessons will be very basic for preschoolers, perhaps just explaining that you have to work hard for your money and that it doesn't “grow on trees.” As your children grow and mature, you can gradually get into more in-depth instruction.
What if your kids are teens and you've never talked with them about money management before? “It's never too late to have these kinds of conversations,” Dr. Varcoe says, “but the sooner you do, the better.”
Here are some suggestions to get you started:
1. Provide children an income to manage.
Children cannot learn money management unless they first have some money of their own to manage. You could provide that through some kind of allowance or through payment for certain tasks. “If your children are spending your money, they're not going to think twice about spending it. But if they're spending their own money, they're going to make much better purchasing decisions,” says Erica Sandberg, a San Francisco-based family money management consultant.
She suggests you provide this income at fixed and regular intervals, such as on a weekly or biweekly basis. Make it a large enough amount that your children can afford a couple of inexpensive items at the dollar store, but not so much that they're able to buy a new video game without saving up for it.
How old should your child be for you to start providing such regular income? While preschoolers can start to be educated about what money is, children are not develop-mentally ready to learn how to manage it until they reach age 6 or 7, according to money coach Janet Bodnar, author of Raising Money Smart Kids (2005).
She believes that is the best age to institute a small income. “Not only are children more mature, but they're also learning about money in school,” she says. “So they'll know that a $1 bill equals four quarters, and that their $3 allowance will buy a small tub of popcorn, for example.”
To prevent children from developing an “entitlement mentality,” parents can make allowances conditional—meaning kids get their allowances only if they have made their beds daily, kept their room clean or done other routine chores. Many parents, however, take the approach that children should do routine chores without pay as part of their responsibilities as family members.
Either way, you may also want to give your children opportunities to earn an allowance or additional money by doing household tasks other than their regular chores—such as raking leaves, shoveling snow, washing the car, weeding the garden, cleaning out the basement, washing windows, etc.
This will teach your children to link having money with work. In addition to helping instill a valuable work ethic, chances are they're then going to be more careful about how they spend that money because they know how hard they worked to receive it.
2. Show them how to budget.
Once your children have a regular income, you can begin to teach them to live on a budget. Ideally, set aside some time when you can sit down with your kids and have a focused discussion about budgeting without any interruptions.
Start by explaining that a budget is a plan for how you are going to use your money. Help your kids understand that budgeting is not just sound advice from secular financial advisers, but that the Bible actually points to the necessity of budgeting. You could turn to Proverbs 16:9 Proverbs 16:9A man’s heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps.
American King James Version×
; 21:5; 24:3-4; 27:23-24 and Luke 14:28-30 Luke 14:28-30 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sits not down first, and counts the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
American King James Version×
for some good overview scriptures.
Talk with your children about why it's important to live within your means, tithe and save a regular portion of your income. Discuss the downside of overspending, borrowing and getting into debt.
Read Leviticus 27:30 Leviticus 27:30And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy to the LORD.
American King James Version×
and Malachi 3:8-10 Malachi 3:8-10 8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10 Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, said the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
American King James Version×
to your children to show them that God expects us to tithe (see the Q&A on page 29). Use Proverbs 21:20 Proverbs 21:20There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spends it up.
American King James Version×
and 30:24-25 as a starting point for talking about why we need to save some of our income. Read Proverbs 22:7 Proverbs 22:7The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
American King James Version×
, 26-27 when discussing the problems of getting into debt. When you go over these verses with your children, explain what they mean in everyday terms and how we can apply these principles in our lives today.
If you have a budget yourself (and hopefully you do!), show it to your kids, whether it's on your computer or in a ledger book. Help them see what you have in terms of monthly income, what bills need to be paid each month and what will be left over for discretionary spending. This will give your children a more concrete understanding of what it means to budget.
After you've explained some of the basics about budgeting, help them devise their own budgets. First, come up with a figure for how much income they normally have each month through allowances or earned money from household or part-time jobs. Then, help them figure out what percentages of their income should go to various categories—tithes, charitable donations and gifts, spending money, short-term savings, long-term or college savings, etc.
Other than tithes, the percentages for the other budgetary categories are variable. Savings should definitely be a high priority though. Shirley Anderson-Porisch, a financial adviser with the University of Minnesota Extension, encourages kids to save at least 50 percent of their money. That could be divided up between short and long-term savings.
“When children save their money, they learn the discipline of self-control and delayed gratification—vital lessons in today's economic climate,” she says.
If you have young children, what works well is to give them a jar for each of their budgetary categories. That is a system that Eva Miller has adopted for her 8 and 10-year-old children. When they receive money, they distribute it into each of the jars, according to the designated percentages.
“Once they put money in their tithe or college savings jars, that's where the money stays—until it reaches $20 and then the tithes will go to our church, and the college money will be deposited into their savings accounts at the bank,” she said. “They also have jars for short-term savings, and they'll use that to save up for things like a new game, and 'fun money,' which is what they use for everyday expenses like buying a candy bar at the grocery store.”
If you have preteens or teens, you can set up their budgets on the computer or get them their own ledger book. Have them record their expenditures each month, and keep a running total of how much they've spent in each budgetary category. This will help them see on an ongoing basis if they are spending too much.
3. Use everyday opportunities to teach your kids about money.
Life brings countless opportunities to teach our children about money. Consider, for example, the story mentioned at the start of this article. That situation was the perfect way to begin a discussion with my son about money. While we were still at the store that day, I took Danny aside and spent a few minutes explaining to him how my husband and I obtained our money and that we didn't have an unlimited supply. (I also explained what it meant to counterfeit money!)
You will probably have your own “teachable moments” that you can turn into money-management lessons. If your child notices you paying your restaurant bill with a credit card, that is the ideal time to explain how credit cards work—that it's in effect a loan that must be paid back within a month to avoid interest charges. Preferably you already have the money to set aside as repayment so that it's just a matter of shifting funds and not borrowing what you don't have.
When your credit card statement arrives in the mail, show it to your kids. Let them see how interest is computed and compiled, and explain why it's important to not rack up credit card balances that can't be paid off immediately, so as not to waste money paying interest.
If your children are with you when you withdraw money from an ATM or write a check at a store, that's an opportunity to explain how checking accounts work. If your children are with you on trips to the supermarket, talk about your purchases as you shop and what makes something a “good buy.”
If you're watching television with your kids and a commercial makes an outrageous claim, use this moment to talk about how to evaluate advertising. If you get “too-good-to-be-true” offers in the mail, that's the time to talk with your children about scams and that “you don't get something for nothing.”
These kinds of teachable moments are effective, because they are real-life examples. Your children can see for themselves how a financial principle you are trying to teach them can be applied in everyday life. That makes your lesson seem much more pertinent.
4. Learn to say “No” to your child's “wants.”
Children are usually quite adept at pleading with their parents for toys, electronic gadgets, designer clothes or other nonessential items. When they do, it's not always easy to tell them no. Most parents don't want to be the bad guy, nor do they want to deprive their kids of things others have. Still, Sandberg says, “You shouldn't cave into your kids' every whim—even if you can afford to buy them what they want, but especially if you can't.”
Learning that you don't get to fulfill all your wants is an important life lesson. “Children need to experience some disappointments, because that's part of life,” says Michael Gutter, Ph.D., family financial management specialist at the University of Florida. He suggests you explain to your child that there are things you would like to buy, too, but can't afford. “That way he knows he's not singled out; he's not the only one not getting what he wants.”
Even if you can afford to buy these kinds of items for your children, you should still be very selective about how many of their requests you grant. “If you overindulge your children, they're not going to know what it's like to have to work hard and save up for things they want,” Sandberg says.
One way to respond to pleas for nonessential purchases is to tell your child he or she cannot have the item now, but could request to have it as a gift for some special occasion. Or, if you have teens or preteens who are old enough to pay for a lot of their “wants” themselves, you can encourage them to either save money from their allowance or do extra household chores to earn the money.
If it's a matter of your teen wanting to spend more for a “need” than you think is reasonable—e.g., he wants the $100 skateboard shoes when you've only budgeted for a $50 pair of sneakers—you could tell him you're willing to pay the amount you had earmarked in your budget, but require him to come up with the difference. “This will help curb feelings of entitlement,” Dr. Gutter says, “and make your teen personally responsible for achieving his desires.”
5. Watch your own example.
It was mentioned at the outset, but it's worth repeating: Your children learn a lot about money just by observing you. They watch what you do at the supermarket, department store, bank, mall, etc., and tend to mimic your financial attitudes, values and behavior. Depending on what you're doing, they could be learning some very good lessons or some that are not so good.
Luke 6:40 Luke 6:40The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.
American King James Version×
declares, “Everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (NASB). If you shop to entertain yourself or make a lot of impulse purchases, your children are probably going to see that as normal behavior and do the same.
On the other hand, if you always go to the grocery store with a shopping list or only make major purchases after you've saved up for them, your kids are likely to adopt those practices.
You need to model good monetary habits. “If you set the wrong example, any talks you've had with your children about money management will fall on deaf ears,” says Anderson-Porisch. Your children aren't going to be careful with their money if you're careless with yours—even if you tell them to do otherwise.
That's not to say that talking with your children about personal finances isn't important. As has been stated throughout this article, it most certainly is. Your children need instruction and guidance from you about how to budget, save and shop wisely. But it's your example —your showing them that you're carefully managing your own money—that helps them see that these steps are more than just an academic exercise and that they really do matter.
Clearly, you may need to change some of your own spending habits so that you are modeling the right behavior. But with today's economy as uncertain as it is, that's something you should be doing anyway. Now is the time to cut out unnecessary purchases, pay off credit card debt and build up your savings—for the sake of your family's financial well-being.
The fact that your children are watching your example makes these steps even more vital. They are learning lifelong money habits from you—both in terms of what you say and do. They're looking to you to show them how they should manage their own household finances someday. It's up to us, as parents, to make sure our children are developing good money habits. GN
You might also be interested in... | <urn:uuid:417c617c-aca0-42b6-8880-07ec0771ecee> | https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/five-steps-to-teach-your-children-money-management | en | 0.970305 | 0.153058 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Spica star meaning
Nejoblíbenější videa
Spica star meaning
Spica is a whirling double star | Brightest Stars | EarthSky
Spica is a binary star, with two stars larger and hotter than the sun, telescopically indistinguishable from a single point of light.
earthsky.org rightest-stars/speed-on-to-spica-the-15th-brightest-star
Spica - definition of Spica by The Free Dictionary
Meaning of Spica. Pronunciation of Spica. Translations of Spica. Spica synonyms, Spica antonyms. Information about Spica in the free online English dictionary and encyclopedia.
Germanic Astronomy
. bearing an ear of grain in her hand. The ear of grain refers to the star Spica with the same meaning. In Völundarkvida Spica represents the golden ring made from Volund, stolen from Nidud and brought as a gift to Bodvild.
Skyscript: Star Lore of the Constellations - Virgo the Maiden
Influences involving promotion through benefits associated with such matters are strongly evidenced within the meaning of particular stars, especially in the case of the main star, Spica, the 14th brightest star in the sky.
David Reneke | Space...News | Star Names...
Star Names and Their Meanings - Origins and Translations of Major Stars Find the Meaning of Star Names - Sanja GjeneroWhat does Polaris mean? Find translations of the names of many of the major stars.
Říjen 2011 « Archiv
nikki zeno mahi mahi white chili m v atchison engineering jerry mulberger birdwatching taman negara national park malaysia mercinaries... . Blog.cz - Stačí otevřít a budeš v obraze. . double hip spica . bubble tip brittle star .
The Sun passes Spica in the fall, rendering the star a harvest symbol that is reflected in its name, from Latin meaning "ear of wheat," the name actually going back to much more ancient times.
Spica - definition and meaning
Spica: A spectroscopic binary star, 245 light-years from Earth, one of the brightest stars in the sky and the brightest star in the constellation Virgo.
Earth Archives | Name A Star Live
Near Saturn is the bright star Spica, which is the brightest star in the Name A Star Live constellation Virgo. Spica is about 260 light-years from Earth, meaning the light you see from Spica was generated in the year 1752!
Váš nejoblíbenější film?(Stránka 1)- Pokec - Baskytara.com
Stránka 1) - Pokec - Baskytara.com - Vítejte do světa basové kytary. Life of Brian: Sebevrazedne komando byla spica. Jenom ten napad! Taky sem si tu scenu musel poustet asi 5x po sobe! | <urn:uuid:eedc62ea-d985-4cd8-82ee-2ffbf1cbe130> | http://eele.mipik.cz/spica-star-meaning/ | en | 0.676514 | 0.062184 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Endeavor Gets Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher
It's a story as old as Hollywood itself: An attractive actor who's done everything he can to get himself into the spotlight just can't get the roles he wants. Is it because his acting isn't quite up to par? Of course not... It's because his agent sucks!
Everyone's favorite actor/producer/restaurateur Ashton Kutcher has announced he is leaving Endeavor, the agency he's been with for a decade, and for the cozier confines of the CAA Death Star. Known for their ability to revive careers, CAA may have an uphill battle with an actor whose only successful role was also his first (as lovable dimwit Michael Kelso on That '70s Show).
Luckily for the agency, they stand to take a percentage of the TV shows Kutcher will develop as a producer with his company Katalyst (which have so far included some surprisingly good series, like Punk'd, Beauty and the Geek, Miss Guided and Pop Fiction). Unfortunately, his new agents at CAA will not get a cut from the ridonkulously popular clubs and restaurants Ashton holds a stake in with the Dolce Group. Nor will they get to have sex with Demi Moore. | <urn:uuid:ce16d354-858d-48d9-9f1a-bf27f4913f47> | http://gawker.com/377544/endeavor-gets-punkd-by-ashton-kutcher | en | 0.985922 | 0.028686 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
HC Deb 20 January 1995 vol 252 c736W
Mr. Malcolm Bruce
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is his estimate of the total costs to date of preparations for privatising the British Rail system; and what is his estimate of such costs over each of the next four years, including any cost of regulation.
Mr. Watts
Total costs of rail privatisation to date of the Department, the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising, and the Office of the Rail Regulator, are £48 million.
The costs of BR and Railtrack are primarily a matter for the industries themselves. However, we understand that their total costs to date are around £160 million.
Forward plans of expenditure by the Department, Opraf, and Orr for 1995–96 to 1997–98 will be published in the Transport Report 1995. Projected expenditure by BR and Railtrack is a matter for them. | <urn:uuid:cc5c1a40-c8ca-41e1-90ef-867fa117e865> | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1995/jan/20/rail-privatisation | en | 0.96909 | 0.229893 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
What do they do if no one wants to buy or sell a stock?
Published: 06-16-2009
Views: 15,505
Financial Advisor David John Marotta explains what happens when no one wants to buy or sell stock in a company.
David John Marotta
Videos in this Series | <urn:uuid:d12d58df-394e-43a3-82e8-74589033b93e> | http://monkeysee.com/what-do-they-do-if-no-one-wants-to-buy-or-sell-a-stock/ | en | 0.934192 | 0.985908 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Satellites cause Global Warming!
John Mashey points me to this site, which claims that microwaves from satellites are causing global warming!
Satellite antennas transmit UHF and higher microwaves frequencies all over the planet. Because orbiting Satellites are in the vacuum of space, the microwave transmissions are scattered through our atmosphere at an accelerated rate. The Earth is a rotating electromagnetic field containing a dielectric material called water. Sending oscillating microwaves from an antenna inside a vacuum through an electromagnetic field through a dielectric material, such as water, creates radio frequency heating (also called RF heating) at the molecular level. Since our atmosphere is made of water and the Earth is covered with water and ice, Microwaves absorb into our atmosphere, oceans, and ice caps. Here we will learn briefly about Global Warming, how satellites work, the principles behind the microwave oven, and how the satellites are causing Global RF Heating. During the last 15 years the earth has rapidly increased in temperature and a great portion of the polar ice caps have melted away. This fact has caused great alarm all over the world. Scientists have been puzzled about how the temperature is increasing. One global warming theory is the “Green house Gas” theory. These gases are emitted from fossil fuel burning vehicles and block longwave radiation from leaving the earth causing global warming. Because longwave radiation reflects from solid surfaces, the earths water could not be warming for this reason. The fish the polar bears eat are leaving due to rising water temperature. “Greenhouse gasses” DO NOT raise water temperature. It was not until SPUTNIK was launched and the “Space Race” began did Global Warming become an issue. Since “Sputnik” in 1957, there have been thousands of satellites launched into outer space. These Satellites orbit Earth in “Polar” and “Geo Stationary” orbits. Global Warming history completely coincides with the history of artificial satellites and the use of microwave frequencies from outer space.
I hope it’s obvious that satellites can’t be putting out enough to energy to have any effect, but in case it’s not, Mashey did a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the flux
According to UCS Active Satellite database, they know of 873 active satellites, for which those whose total power is known average ~3,200W (that’s W, not KW). The biggest was 18,000W.
To be generous, let us assume there are 1,000 satellites averaging 5,000W. That yields 5MW total, i.e., about 5 big (but not biggest) windmills.
Suppose they were all orbiting about 6500km from the center of the Earth (i.e., Very Low Earth Orbits :-)), and all the power was being radiated at the Earth (it isn’t).
The surface of a 6500km sphere is about 530M sq km (= 4πr²) which means the incoming energy would be 5MW/(530M km²), or ≈ 1W /km², or about a millionth of a Watt/m².
The IPCC AR4 (Figure SPM.2) gives Total net anthropogenic forcing as 1.6 W/m² [0.6 to 2.4].
So, I’m afraid James is only off by a factor of ≈million.
Actually, it’s worse than that, because the satellites generate their energy with solar cells which are much less than 100% efficient at turning solar energy into microwaves. So they reduce the solar flux by more than the amount that they increase the microwave flux and produce, on net, a tiny negative forcing (of the same order of magnitude to the positive forcing Mashey calculated above).
1. #1 6EQUJ5
June 16, 2008
Microwave bands used in near-Earth and deep-space communications were selected for the transparency of the Earth’s atmosphere to them.
You can verify this at least for S band in your kitchen microwave. While some liquids and solids will be heated quickly, the air itself will not.
2. #2 NoAstronomer
June 16, 2008
Though the reduction in solar flux will only apply to those few satellites directly between the earth and the sun. The others are using sunlight that would not have hit the earth in the first place.
3. #3 JThompson
June 16, 2008
At this point I have to wonder if there’s absolutely anything on the planet or in orbit around it that there isn’t a conspiracy theory or bizarre idea about.
What’s really disturbing about stuff like this isn’t that one person was insane enough to think of it. It’s that lots of people will be ignorant enough to believe it.
It is kinda fun to point out the alternate whackjob theories to these people just to watch their faces.
“Satellites don’t cause global warming, “chemtrails” do! They control your thoughts, too!”
Sorta like countering ‘evidence’ for goblins with “No, those are pixies.”
4. #4 Harold Pierce Jr
June 16, 2008
What do you guys know about HAARP?
5. #5 Brian D
June 16, 2008
And right on cue:
Harold Pierce Jr: What do you guys know about HAARP?
HAARP is another example of this very same type of claim, except with the added benefit of having government conspiracy theories attached to it *before* you look at climate.
6. #6 Gray Gaffer
June 16, 2008
The HAARP nuttery is currently laying the blame for the earthquake in China on HAARP. Search HAARP on You-tube for current claims. Weather modification is another claim.
HAARP feeds 3.6MW HF into an antenna farm of 180 antennae spread over 35 acres. For brief burst. Most of the time the antennae are in listen mode monitoring various aspects of what is going on in the ionosphere. The peak is about 1/5000 of what the sun hits the ionosphere with in the same interval. Somehow they think ‘billions’ of either W or MW are being radiated. Pointing them to a picture of a small town 5MW substation as a indication of what a HAARP antenna needs to handle (assuming they actually meant GW) by way of comparison has zero effect on their rant. They obviously have chosen to ignore Junior High math+science. Or the education system is far worse than I have imagined.
btw, here is the HAARP home page:
for those interested. First hit Googling ‘HAARP’.
7. #7 Gray Gaffer
June 16, 2008
typo: my envelope calculations show 1/500 vs insolation. Still small.
8. #8 bigTom
June 16, 2008
It’s good to know that if the sun were to turn off (don’t talk about stellar evolution, this is fairy land here), that we need only add a few more satellites to keep the earth from freezing.
9. #9 Ken
June 16, 2008
This one is good for a laugh – it’s probably not going to be taken seriously except by those for whom AGW doesn’t exist, can’t happen, happenning but it doesn’t matter, is caused by changes in the Solar cycle, is a socialist conspiracy etc. I find this more of a real concern, coming as it does from a site that has pretentions of being open minded and serious about truth. The “open mindedness” is, I suppose, demonstrated by having the “balance” of a second article that puts the case for AGW. A critique of both of these articles by people with in depth knowledge of the subject would be welcome.
10. #10 Dano
June 16, 2008
Was this gosh-let’s-find-anything-to-get-all-nutter-about site launched on April 1?
11. #11 z
June 16, 2008
**ANYTHING** but CO2. **ANYTHING**!
12. #12 bi -- IJI
June 16, 2008
Ken, there’s a critique of the first article in comments on RealClimate (though I can’t remember where it is; you’ll need to search).
Me, my main beef is that the graph captioned
> Figure 4. The Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES-SPM-5) A2 projection from Figure 1 […]
is made up, but Patrick Frank gives the impression that it came from the SRES SPM.
13. #13 Eli Rabett
June 16, 2008
Eli sees your microwave from satellites warm the Earth and raises you with one Joel Kauffman who combines AIDS denial with climate change denialism from the bottom up
Either Warmers or Skeptics may accept that primordial ionizing radiation from within warms the Earth.
with a strong whiff of LaRouchianism and two, not one journal which give JPANDS the odor of respectability.
It’s a big and ugly net out there.
14. #14 Barton Paul Levenson
June 17, 2008
Eli quotes some crackpot:
Well, there is radioactive decay which is technically “ionizing radiation” going on in the Earth, and it does generate a big fraction of the geothermal flux. But the magnitude of the geothermal flux averages about 0.087 watts per square meter (Lodders and Fegley 1998), whereas the amount of sunlight absorbed by the climate system is 237 watts per square meter. Divide A by B to see why no scientist worries about geothermal heating of the climate system.
15. #15 Marion Delgado
June 17, 2008
The modern definition of skeptic has basically degenerated to a combination of Randite crap and shallow scientism. It’s a word that flags avoidable content for me.
16. #16 John Mashey
June 17, 2008
re: #13
Well, Eli’s entry probably beats mine overall, although I will say that Kauffmann collects many of the usual bad arguments in one paper, in some sense a useful service, but not as far as I can tell inventing a truly new bad argument.
Hence, my entry should be in a category of “uniquely new bad arguments.”
However, I must admit, in a head-to-head comparison, anyone who quotes (Hitler, 1933) in a climate paper is difficult to beat [NOT Godwin’s, a factual reference to his paper.]
17. #17 z
June 17, 2008
satellites shmatellites. if you look at the data, global warming is tightly correlated with the increasing incidence of home microwave ovens. the mechanism seems obvious.
18. #18 WotWot
June 18, 2008
Nah, it’s the rize of rok music concertz wot dun it. All them elektramignutic wavaradiants from those ginormous speeker stax.
You decide.
19. #19 Marion Delgado
August 7, 2008
Harold Pierce Jr.:
I know a great deal about HAARP (and HIPAS and EISCAT).
I’ve been to the HAARP site as early as people were allowed to be, read its EIS, been debriefed by the scientists and the military liaison there, talked to some of the people raising concerns (Nick Begich and some associates), researched the work of people like Bernard Eastlund and Patrick Flanagan and the history of the HAAR project itself.
I also looked over HIPAS and its EIS, and I wrote one long article on HAARP for the daily paper in Fairbanks and did two radio news reports in Alaska on it. Since I studied physics as an undergraduate, when I was briefed by the HAARP scientists I wasn’t in the dark about how the active antennas, the cookers, worked (they’re, of course, the only issue about HAARP that’s interesting) in relation to the ionosphere.
When US Sen. Ted Stevens (yes, that one) was promoting HAARP he said things like “we can use supercomputers to get energy from the aurora!” So it’s not just health or environuts that take Eastlund seriously.
It had military tie-ins probably just in case, but also because that’s how a lot of things get built in Alaska, which only became very American in WW II when the Japanese invaded parts of it, and still has an enormous relative military presence.
At any rate, yes, Deltoid has HAARP knowledge covered.
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Photo Details
Handwritten on photo:
"Smily Parker"
Smily located in the 1920 US Census in Sacramento, CA. He was born in 1905 to James S. and Bessie Parker. He had siblings Donna and Mildred Parker.
Photo found in an antique store. I am not related to the folks in the photo.
at Boysen Photography, 318 J. Street, Sacramento, CA USA
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Notes on Characters from Lord of the Flies
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Lord of the Flies Major Characters
Jack Merridew: Even at the onset, Jack appears to be an ominous figure; the lead singer in the school choir, he holds a certain power over the other choirboys as they walk towards the beach to follow the first sound of the conch. He does allow them to rest despite the heat and fatigue of wearing full black uniform gowns and caps while they walk in two parallel lines toward the conch. Only when Simon faints does he show sympathy. Described as 'tall, thin, and bony...his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was...freckled, and ugly without silliness' (Chapter 1 pg. 19). It is Jack who leads the boys' turn to savagery, or at least gives it a certain order. He is Ralph's chief nemesis; it is he who has brought with him a knife and who gradually becomes obsessed with hunting and killing the pigs on the island. It is these behaviors which later lead to the murders of Simon, Piggy and nearly that of Ralph had grown-ups not come to the boys' rescue at the very last moment.
Piggy: Considered to be the intellectual of the group, he is grossly overweight (leading to the nickname 'Piggy') and he wears coke-bottle glasses, without which he cannot see. He initially discovers the conch sitting at the bottom of the lagoon and suggests that Ralph use it to call everyone. He is always left to babysit the littluns when the boys go off on adventures, told by Ralph that he "isn't good for this sort of thing." Obviously made fun of in school, he often feels left out and isolated early on in the story although increasingly as Jack and Ralph drift apart, Piggy's voice of reason and insight come to fill the gap, and he and Ralph become good friends. Even though he is ridiculed, his glasses are still crucial to the boys' survival: both for keeping the signal fire lit (for Ralph) and for roasting the meat they have hunted (for Jack). As a result, he becomes an object stuck between these two forces. Later, blinded when his glasses are stolen, he is slain when Roger drops a rock on him from above. After landing on the beach below, Piggy's dead body, true to his name, "twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." (Chapter 11 pg. 165).
Ralph: His body described as 'golden', it is Ralph who establishes a mock-democratic government for the group in order for them to be rescued, and to maintain peace and order. But due to the opposition of Jack, Ralph's chief goals of maintaining a signal fire to alert passing ships of their presence, building the shelters and holding assemblies end up in the dust as nearly all of the boys, over time, join Jack's 'tribe', whose chief focus is to hunt, kill and eat the wild pigs of the island. Ralph is the one boy at the close of the novel who is not a hunter. Having been pursued ruthlessly by Jack and his tribe, Ralph begins weeping on the beach before his grown-up rescuers. The naval officer shows disapproval at the destructive state of things on the island, which Ralph laments that he had done everything he could do to be a good leader.
Roger: He is a sullen figure, one of the original members of Jack's choir. It is he who begins throwing rocks at the littluns as they build sand castles on the beach, watching their reactions intently. Later he drops the boulder at Castle Rock, killing Piggy. Roger accompanies Ralph and Jack when climbing up to the mountain where the beast lives. He rams a stick 'right up [the] ass' of a sow, killing her in a vulgar manner then pretends to be the beast in their hunting ritual the night that Simon is killed. In the tribe, he has become the center of much wickedness, becoming the torturer of Samneric. He is assigned the duty of making 'a stick sharpened at both ends', on which, it is assumed, they'll put Ralph's head.
Sam and Eric (Samneric): These two twins are described as one entity, one brother often finishing the other's sentence. They are frightened off of the mountain when attending to the signal fire, mistaking a dead pilot to be the beast. Later, Ralph has an odd dream that they are fighting one another, wrestling. Having resisted joining Jack's tribe, they are finally seized, tied up and tortured, forced to serve Jack. Samneric betray Ralph's trust and tell Jack where his hiding place is, which the hunters soon run to attack.
Simon: A curious figure and originally a member of the choir, the only one who resists becoming a hunter. The other boys think that he is 'batty'. Simon always comes to the boys' aid whenever someone needs his help, such as when he picks up Piggy's glasses for him, offers meat to Piggy when Jack refuses to give him any, gives the hungry littluns fruit to eat which they could not reach and gives words of comfort to the worried Ralph. Simon is martyr-like in his selflessness. As he goes to notify the others that there is no beast on the mountain, he is killed, as the others mistake him for the beast. Very much a Jesus figure, he is murdered by the very ones he had wanted to help.
Lord of the Flies: This is the name given to the inner beast, to which only Simon ever actually speaks. As Simon's waits for the beast's arrival near the bloody sow's head on the stake (buzzing with flies), The Lord of the Flies speaks to him, warning him not to get in its way or else he shall be killed by the boys. The Lord of the Flies name comes from the sow's head and the countless flies buzzing about it, which soon move from the sow's head to swarm around the head of Simon as the Lord of the Flies tells him, "I'm a part of you." In biblical texts, the Lord of the Flies is the title of Beelzebub (a direct translation of his name), a demon of Hell and cohort of Satan.
Auntie: Though never appearing in person, Piggy refers to her constantly in conversation, especially early on. Auntie is a prominent adult figure in his life and Piggy recalls and clings to things she had told him such as not running on account of his asthma. She kept a candy store and gave Piggy as many sweets as he wanted to eat. However, as the children's link to the world of grown-ups is increasingly severed, her name is mentioned less and less.
Bill: One of the choirboys. Bill is a follower of Jack who later becomes a hunter.
Henry: A littlun who, with Percival and Johnny, is attacked with rocks by Roger and Maurice while they are building sand castles near the beach. He is the oldest of the three littluns.
Johnny: He is the first of the boys to reach the beach on the first day, answering the conch's call. He is a 'littlun' aged about six years, Johnny is subject to torment by Roger and Maurice later on in the book while building sand castles.
Littluns: This is the general term used to describe the smaller boys, who far outnumber the 'biguns'. Though an ever-present element of the boys' society, due to their young ages they are hardly mentioned as taking part in the events of the island. It is for them Ralph shows concern for building the shelters, because at night the littluns 'talk and scream.' Concern for them gradually is forgotten as later, Jack jokingly says instead of hunting a pig, ''Use a littlun,'...' (Chapter 7 pg. 104). When the group has split up, in hearing Piggy's words that 'a few littluns' were left with them, Ralph replies, ''They don't count.'' By the close of the book their existence is hardly acknowledged at all.
Maurice: Similar to the hostile Roger but less cruel, Maurice is very much a follower. Originally a choirboy as well, he takes part with Roger in throwing rocks at the littluns while building their sand castles. He remains loyal to Jack, going with him when the split occurs from Ralph's 'society'. Only at one point does he invoke the name of his parents, when, fearing the beast during the assembly, he recalls that his ''Daddy said they haven't found all the animals in the sea yet.'' (Chapter 5 pg. 79)
Mulberry Birthmark Boy: A littlun, he is the first to invoke the name of the "beast" and spread fear among the boys. After the first signal fire on the mountain is not contained and burns wildly across the island, he is not seen again. Though it is never actually stated, it is assumed that he has died in the fire.
Percival Wemys Madison: This littlun would always give a full introduction of himself: 'Percival Wemys Madison. The Vicarage. Harcourt St. Anthony, Hants, telephone....' complete with address. He is one of the three attacked by rocks thrown by Roger and Maurice when building sand castles. By the end, when finally rescued by the grown-ups all he can say is 'I'm-- I'm--' before realizing he has forgotten his civilized identity.
Phil: A littlun who speaks about fears of the beast at night. It is discovered that he, sleep-walking in the forest, mistook Simon to be the beast, which calms the boys' for a short while.
Ralph's Dad: Ralph speaks of him much in the beginning, mirroring Piggy's talk of 'Auntie.' As his father is a Navy man, Ralph believes his dad will come to the rescue when he 'gets leave' from the service. In the end, Naval officers do finally come to the boys' rescue (though it is not said if Ralph's father is among them).
Robert: He is another choirboy and another follower to Jack. It is he who is set to guard the entrance to Castle Rock when Jack begins to establish his tribe. He is later replaced by Roger when Ralph, Piggy and Samneric come to Castle Rock.
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If the resolve to stick to your New Year diet is already crumbling, Gastric Mind Band therapy could be the answer, say hypnotherapists Martin and Marion Shirran. They explain how the technique helps re-establish a normal relationship with food through using a 'mental pause button'.
By Lisa Salmon
The key to losing weight is simple, right? Consume fewer calories - or burn more calories than you consume.
Sounds easy on paper but, as anyone who's ever struggled with their weight will agree, in reality it's not quite that straightforward! Especially when things like cravings, force of habit and emotional eating come into play...
And this is the thinking behind Gastric Mind Band (GMB), a weight-loss approach which has been gaining popularity over the past couple of years.
Rather than a real gastric band around your stomach, or indeed your mind, GMB is a therapy which aims to help people re-establish normal eating patterns, through techniques including self-hypnosis and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).
Devised by husband-and-wife hypnotherapists team Martin and Marion Shirran, who've also written a Gastric Mind Band book, it eschews calorie-counting and food deprivation in favour of tactics such as a mental 'pause button', self-hypnosis and visualisation, and recognising the difference between hunger, craving and desire to change eating habits for life.
Marion, 45, explains: "The idea is to help people address their relationship with food and make positive changes.
"It's not a diet or a temporary quick fix, and there's no list of forbidden foods that people shouldn't eat ever again, because when you deprive people of a food it makes them desire it more.
"It's about being in control of what you're eating, and making sure you're eating for the right reasons - when you're hungry, rather than when you're bored, stressed, angry or emotional.
"It's a permanent solution, because once people have changed the way they think about food they can continue with it for the rest of their lives."
And the Shirrans haven't just devised a therapy without trying it themselves - Martin, 60, weighed 17st 11lbs before starting GMB, and now weighs 13st 5lbs.
Here's an outline of the key principles to GMB...
:: Mental pause buttons An important part of GMB therapy, mental 'pause buttons' are used to freeze time before people put 'dodgy food' in their mouths.
"It's to get people to stop and think about the consequences," explains Marion. "They stop for a few seconds and visualise themselves going ahead and eating the bar of chocolate or whatever, and then they fast-forward to a few minutes later and remind themselves how they'll feel if they give in to that craving. Then they come back to the present and see themselves in the alternative scenario of recognising that they don't need to eat that food, and fast-forwarding to how good they'll feel about themselves for having resisted the temptation."
:: Self-hypnosis The Shirrans stress that self-hypnosis, involving deep relaxation, visualisation, and reinforcement of the positive changes you're trying to make, is key.
It involves choosing up to three 'positive thoughts', like reminding yourself how bad you feel about overeating. Then self-hypnosis is achieved by slowly counting down, deep-breathing, releasing muscle tension and picturing yourself in a place where you feel at ease, like a beach or in the countryside.
Once deeply relaxed, you envisage your 'positive thoughts' as they'd be in a year's time if you don't change your eating habits, and also as they'd be if you did make positive changes. Finally, there's a new set of 'positive thoughts', with the long-term rewards of being slim and healthy outweighing the instant gratification from bad eating habits.
:: Low frustration tolerance The Shirrans say they want to encourage people to identify the 'dodgy food choices' they make, pointing out that people who have 'Low Frustration Tolerance' (LFT) to a particular item, be that food, cigarettes, alcohol or gambling, will experience cravings which they respond to immediately.
People need to recognise their personal LFT triggers, and understand that stress and boredom can play a part. Once identified, the aim is to use the 'pause button' to exercise control over the craving.
"People have an instant knee-jerk reaction to cravings for certain foods, but all they need to do is pause and walk away and resist, and it'll turn into a passing thought," promises Marion.
:: Hunger, desire or craving?
Also important is the need to understand the difference between hunger, desire and craving.
Hunger is a real physical sensation that can only be experienced if you haven't eaten for a few hours, whereas desire is just wanting to eat something because you like the look of it. Craving is usually for something specific, like chocolate or cake.
When you want something to eat, use the 'pause button' and ask yourself if you really are hungry, or is it a craving or desire? A craving or desire should pass quickly after using your 'pause button', and true hunger can be satisfied by making a sensible and healthy food choice.
:: What's your motivation?
As well as the obvious - looking better and feeling healthier - there may be other, deeper, motivations to weight loss, such as wanting to buy things from a 'normal' clothes shop, or being a better role model for your children.
The Shirrans suggest such driving forces are written down somewhere that can be accessed easily, so if you're ever tempted to eat something you don't need, you can read your motivational list and remind yourself of why it's best to avoid the food.
"It's like making a commitment - almost a legally-binding document with yourself. It really works," says Marion.
:: Mindful eating To get the most out of food, the Shirrans recommend people eat slowly, and enjoy the taste, texture, smell and appearance of what they're eating. And they insist that eating healthy food slowly tastes a lot better than eating unhealthy food slowly.
"It doesn't mean you have to eat healthily 100% of the time - nobody's perfect," says Marion. "It's about getting the balance right and enjoying everything in moderation."
:: It worked for me Katie Drew, 32, started GMB when she weighed 16st 11lb. She now weighs 9st 9lb, having lost 7st 2lb in less than a year.
Drew had tried a number of diets in the past, but either didn't lose much or lost weight then piled it all back on.
"I really wanted to try something sustainable, addressing bad eating habits, rather than providing a short-term 'sticking plaster' approach. That hasn't worked for me before," she says.
She lost almost 2st after four weeks of GMB, and then shed an average 1.5lbs a week before reaching her target.
"It was really easy - no willpower was needed at all," Drew says. "You can eat whatever food you like - as long as you're eating when you're hungry and stop when you're full. You don't feel deprived and you definitely don't feel like you've broken a diet."
She says using the 'pause button' helped her most, as it enabled her to recognise when she was about to make a bad decision and consider the consequences.
"I feel a lot more in control now. The process taught me to identify areas where I had a 'Low Frustration Tolerance' - where I was being irrational. I then used the 'pause button' to stop and consider the consequences of my actions. I realise exactly why I was overweight now - my mind was overruling signs of feeling full.
"The impact on my health has been a real positive incentive - and it's a great feeling to be able to shop in 'normal' clothes shops too."
:: Gastric Mind Band by Martin and Marion Shirran is published by Hay House, priced £12.99. Available now | <urn:uuid:d5963b50-4d44-4a8a-b054-f3527a2e5244> | http://www.droitwichadvertiser.co.uk/adxtra/10171183.Join_the_Mind_Band/ | en | 0.970163 | 0.732511 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
4.2.3 Calendar Parsing
The calendar parsing module can be invoked as (use-modules (combine_scm parse)).
The most useful function in the module is parse-date. It takes as arguments a date string and an output format. The date string is parsed as well as possible in descending order of preference for format in case of ambiguity. The function returns the date triplet (or other such representation) suggested by the format string.
The supported format strings are the words in the function names of the form calendar-xxxx-from-absolute that would take the place of the xxxx. See section Calendar Functions, for more information.
The parsing of the date string depends on the setting of a couple of variables. Look inside the file ‘parse.scm’ for details. The list parse-date-expected-order lists the order in which the parser should look for the year, month, and day in case of ambiguity. The list parse-date-method-preference give more general format preferences, such as 8-digit, delimited, or a word for the month and the expected incoming calendar.
Here are a few examples of passing a date and putting it out in some formats:
guile> (use-modules (combine_scm parse))
guile> (parse-date "27 September 2003" "gregorian")
(9 27 2003)
guile> (parse-date "27 September 2003" "julian")
(9 14 2003)
The 13 day difference in the calendars is the reason that the Orthodox Christmas is 2 weeks after the Roman Catholic Christmas.
guile> (parse-date "27 September 2003" "hebrew")
(7 1 5764)
Note that the Hebrew date is Rosh HaShannah, the first day of the year 5764. The reason that the month is listed as 7 rather than 1 is inherited from the Emacs calendar implementation. Using the month list in calendar-hebrew-month-name-array-common-year or calendar-hebrew-month-name-array-leap-year correctly gives "Tishri", but since the extra month (in years that have it) comes mid-year, the programming choice that I carried forward was to cycle the months around so that the extra month would come at the end of the list.
guile> (parse-date "27 September 2003" "islamic")
(7 30 1424)
guile> (parse-date "27 September 2003" "iso")
(39 6 2003)
This is the 6th day (Saturday) of week 39 of the year.
guile> (parse-date "27 September 2003" "mayan-long-count")
(12 19 10 11 7)
I won’t get into the detail, but the five numbers reflect the date in the Mayan calendar as currently understood.
Generally, I’d recommend using the more specific functions if you are sure of the date format you expect. For comparing dates, I would further recommend comparing the absolute day count rather than any more formatted format.
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Friday 29 July 2016
Coln O'Rourke: Clubs need a Roosevelt to help beat great debt burden
The GAA should attempt to write off some of the loans that are crippling clubs, says Colm O'Rourke
Published 27/02/2011 | 05:00
T his week there has been some comment on the steps being taken by the Thomas Davis club in Tallaght to tackle a serious debt problem. It is only the tip of the iceberg. There are stories like this in every county, and there are county boards who are in major financial difficulty as well. Much of this money was borrowed in the middle of the last decade when Ireland was a different place to what it is now.
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What has happened since is that the debt burden has become crushing, revenues to all clubs and counties have fallen, at best a little, but more generally a lot so furnishing repayments to banks has become an intolerable strain on bodies whose purpose is to supply games, not act as financial gurus.
If the law of the jungle prevailed in these situations, the trustees of the various clubs could be held responsible or the property could be seized and the asset used to generate the loan could be sold off. It would make for an interesting auction somewhere in the country if the banks seized the local pitch and put it up to the highest bidder.
There are not too many auctioneers who would take that one on. Anyway a pitch in a rural area is only worth farming prices and there are few farmers who would want to be tinged for a lifetime by getting into such murky waters. In towns and cities, it is not a whole lot different -- these lands are zoned amenity so they are worth nothing. Of course what has happened to Thomas Davis is that they are now severely penalised for doing the work of the local authority. It is the responsibility of the urban body to provide facilities for sport for the young population as is done in every other European country. Historically, the GAA has stepped in to do the job when others failed and have been left with it and the resultant financial headaches.
This is the same story in every town in the country; the brilliant investment in social capital is now keeping a lot of GAA administrators awake at night as they wonder what they have got their clubs into. They should not worry in the least. Any organisation which puts faith in young people and tries to improve things for them as previous generations have done has nothing to apologise for.
Laid out on a blank sheet the future for many clubs looks quite bleak. Projections made at the height of the 'boom' must be consigned to history. Falling revenues from sponsorship, membership, bar takings and all other club fundraising activity is merely a fact of life and is not coming back any day soon. Much worse is the fact that a lot of young people who facilities were provided for have left the country and won't be back for a while either.
Of course we can all complain that the banks were in a hurry to put the umbrella up when the sun was shining and took it down immediately when the rains came. Socrates is not needed for that assessment. It was ever so and there is not much point in getting hung up on that. In fact, I feel sorry for people who work in banks; they are under a lot of pressure too and many of them are active in clubs which are in financial trouble so it is not a pleasant job for them either.
Against this background the attitude of anything being possible which was the currency of five years ago has been replaced by anger, frustration and cynicism. It is like the USA of the thirties when the great depression struck. They had Roosevelt who gave hope and helped plot a way forward. Hopefully a new Government led by Enda Kenny can give people back some expectation that the future can be brighter. Certainly Kenny and other potential cabinet members like Jimmy Deenihan know as much about the problems of clubs as anyone in the country. They also know the value of a healthy GAA.
They have seen what working together for the common good can achieve, even if All-Ireland winning captain Deenihan at corner-back today would probably have three yellow cards before the parade is over! Yet with Kerry he exemplified a lack of self-interest or ego in order to help the team prevail. It is a bigger team now but the same principles prevail.
In the situation we find ourselves in there are plenty of ways for the GAA to help themselves. One of the not-so-nice aspects of the current crisis is the amount of people who write article after article full of bile and vitriol about recent events but offer no alternative. That is a very easy option and only brings out the worst in some individuals.
Most people understand the situation very well and want someone to plot a way forward, however difficult, but one which is credible and gives hope.
In the case of the GAA, this is a time of self-help, the same attribute which has created the magnificent facilities of today. It is a time
for county boards, provincial councils and the central authority in Croke Park to come together and get an accurate picture of the scale of indebtedness facing clubs all over the country.
After that there should be meetings with the financial institutions involved to work out a deal. These meetings would not take long as most of the money borrowed is either with Bank of Ireland or AIB. The task should be to get a write-down of part of the overall capital debt which is being carried by clubs and counties. Everyone would benefit pro rata.
It would mean the likes of Thomas Davis and hundreds of others are not being isolated in dealing with their bank. Would it not be ironic if these banks which are largely controlled by the state, which is the people, would spend billions bailing out the naked self-interest of others, while the one organisation that has always stood for everything positive has to pick up the complete tab for trying to do nothing more than improve their own communities?
It would be obscene for this to happen. Now is an opportunity for some leadership in the GAA to take on the banks and get the same deal as developers are getting, not interest moratoriums or rescheduling, but a write-off on some of the hundreds of millions of capital debt owed around the country. This would create enormous goodwill among the rank and file and would renew spirit in clubs who feel weighed down by this anxiety. Let's hope there is a Roosevelt in the GAA.
Sunday Indo Sport
Read More | <urn:uuid:8ab0167f-5f9a-43e0-a47d-4474b911887b> | http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/colm-orourke/coln-orourke-clubs-need-a-roosevelt-to-help-beat-great-debt-burden-26708750.html | en | 0.981026 | 0.033758 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Publish or Perish
What’s the origin of this phrase? Our patrons want to know, but the origin has been lost to the ages! F. A. Hetzel has this to say about "publish or perish":
Although no one seems to recall who coined the phrase Publish or Perish to describe the assertion that a university or even college teacher will not be promoted within the system of American higher education unless he conducts original research and proves his capabilities by publishing, the words have provided scholars and their publishers with an unparalleled opportunity to defend the faith. [pp. 101-102]
Hetzel, F.A. (1973). Publish or perish, and the competent manuscript.
Scholarly publishing, 4(2), 101-109. | <urn:uuid:f14aa548-db49-465e-80f9-801f540b53e1> | http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/puborperFARQ.html | en | 0.955455 | 0.184425 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
1. National
Starbucks hit by tax protests
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1. Laura Kuenssberg
No business wants a reputation for avoiding tax
It just could be that we are reaching something of a tipping point where the reputational cost to a business starts to look as if it might be more damaging than the financial cost. Gaining a reputation for avoiding tax, whether legal or not, is not something any business wants to have.
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Man Almost Died After Losing Health Insurance Due to Obamacare, Has $100K in Hospital Bills
National Steven Ertelt Mar 11, 2014 | 4:10PM Oklahoma City, OK
The pro-life movement raised the alarm during the health care debate that adopting Obamacare would lead to rationing of health care in a way that could cost patients their very lives. That’s just what happened to Lenny Hubbs.
Hubbs lost his health insurance due to Obamacare and is now facing over $100,000 in medical bills that his insurance plan would otherwise have paid.
lennyhubbsFrom a Washington Free Beacon report and video from a local news station:
Lenny Hubbs, a “healthy man,” as his wife describes him, is a self-employed contractor who was previously on his wife’s health insurance plan. Her employer announced that his employees would no longer be allowed to pay for their spouses’ premiums.
They could not afford to purchase health insurance. Lenny’s wife told KXII-TX that “good” health insurance would have cost them $500 a month. They do not qualify for Medicaid.
Hubbs became sick about two weeks ago. Doctors told him his lungs were filling with blood and diagnosed him with Pneumonia.
He visited two hospitals to seek treatment. The Hubbs allege that he did not receive proper treatment at either hospital because they were uninsured. He had to have part of his lung removed and now are stuck with upwards of $100,000 in hospital bills. | <urn:uuid:7f7f1a44-6322-4578-900d-5047fdc1349a> | http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/11/man-almost-died-after-losing-health-insurance-due-to-obamacare-has-100k-in-hospital-bills/ | en | 0.990611 | 0.077563 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
It's set on Wall Street, 2008, hours before everything goes to hell. Stanley Tucci is a longtime, high-level guy at an unnamed firm who's let go, given six months severance and shown the door by security moments later. His firing is one of many in the office and the higher-ups call it a "bloodbath," not realizing that it's really only a light blood-shower compared to what's coming next.
On his way out Tucci hands his work files to Zachary Quinto -- a former rocket scientist chasing a better paycheck in the financial sector -- and tells him to try to make sense of the project's secret doomsday information. And since the real global economic meltdown already happened, you already know what those files are about: the firm's assets are in trouble and the only solution is to run the whole thing into the ground, cheat everybody out of their investments and skulk away with big bonuses. Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker and Demi Moore are all in on the plan, while Quinto stands back and wonders aloud, stupidly, given the sharks he's swimming with, if it's morally correct that people should be making crazy amounts of money for all this.
It's a tightly enclosed movie. All the better to make the characters (and you) feel trapped like rats. Everything happens in awful looking offices and the grim, locked-in atmosphere suggests a terse, tough-minded stage play transferred to the screen. Meanwhile, every icy move in the brutal game is committed by charcoal-hearted characters who've been so stripped of whatever personalities they might have arrived with at their first day on the job, that a running joke in the film -- the same one originally used in both the book and film versions of the gory '80s satire American Psycho, by the way -- is the inability of executives to remember each others' names. They actually make Patrick Bateman seem like the better man to hang out with: he might be a cannibalistic serial killer but at least he's got a hobby besides fraud and theft.
So no, there's nobody here to root for except Kevin Spacey. That's right, Kevin Spacey is the nice guy in this movie and even he's part of the problem. And, honestly, while this is a high quality film, well-directed, well-acted and mostly lacking annoying hindsight preaching, it's kind of tough to muster enthusiasm for viewing a fictionalized, micro-level, salt-in-the-wound account of the disaster that drove the world into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Worse, as repellent as the players here are (sample dialogue: "What is 'right' can take on multiple interpretations.") they can't come close to the real thing. You want to see some genuinely scary, infuriating monsters with liquid nitrogen in their veins? Men still roaming the streets in search of more fresh kill? Check out the documentary Inside Job. That's terror.
Dave's recent reviews
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Tech Tip:The World of Music Publishing
By Dale Kawashima
Music Publishing is the owning of song copyrights. If you write a song, you are automatically considered the legal owner of that creation, and therefore, you are also the publisher.You will eventually have to file your song with the United States Register of Copyrights to protect your rights, but you are legally deemed the owner/publisher as soon as you create the song.
You can write and publish hundreds of songs, but from a business standpoint, the value of publishing only becomes meaningful when your songs earn royalties. The main sources of publishing income come from record sales, broadcast performances (radio & TV), licensing for films, TV & commercials, and from sheet music.
If you have the industry contacts to effectively promote your songs and generate income, you may elect to remain your own publisher. However, many songwriters welcome the opportunity to work with an established publishing company to further promote their music.
Publishing Deals
Usually, your writing skills must be developed to an advanced level whereby the publisher believes that he/she can either secure a record deal for you as an artist or place your songs with other artists to be recorded on their albums. If a publisher believes that you are at that level (or have tremendous potential), then you will most likely be offered a publishing deal.
These days, most offers would be for a co-publishing deal, where you would assign half (50%) of your publishing rights to the publisher, and empower the publisher to collect all royalties earned from your songs (including your writer's share of the royalties from your songs). When your advance has been fully recouped, the publisher would pay you 75% of all additional royalties collected (your writer's share, which is 50% of the overall gross, plus your remaining half of the publisher share, which is 25% of the gross), and the publisher would keep the remaining 25% share of the gross.
Got it? I know it gets a bit complicated, but the bottom line is that you receive a nice advance from the publisher and eventually still keep 75% of the profits. There is one exception: If you are a country songwriter without any kind of track record, you may have to give up 100% of your publisher's share to sign a deal and get an advance. Why? I'm not quite sure, but country music is still extremely song-oriented, and a good publisher has the clout to place your song with a major artist, thereby launching your career.
Publishing Advances
A publisher will usually offer you a one-year deal with an option to renew your contract for up to two more years. If you are an unsigned artist, you might receive an advance of between $10,000-$40,000 for what is called a Publishing Development Deal. The publisher is advancing you money so that you can record high-quality demos (for your own CD, perhaps), buy some new equipment and maybe pay some living expenses so you can concentrate on getting your record deal.
However, many artists/bands elect to hold off on making a publishing deal until they first secure a record deal. The reason is that, as a signed artist, you can command a much higher advance. Publishers are willing to pay a premium for an act that is already signed and supported by a major label. Many signed bands can secure an advance of at least $100,000 for their first album, and "buzz bands" can attract as much as $200,000 or more. Great money, if you can get it!
If you are a songwriter who is not an artist, or, without a proven track record, the advance is usually in the $20,000-$30,000 range unless you have songs already placed with established acts and are willing to include those songs in your deal. Then, the advance could be more lucrative because the publisher now sees potential royalties from which to recoup.
Responsibilities of Publishers
Publishers will copyright your songs and collect your royalties on a worldwide basis. But beyond that, there are no guarantees. Publishers will attempt to shop you for a record deal, pitch your material to other artists and place your songs in films and TV shows. However, your chances for success are mainly up to you. Publishers will tell you all of the great things they can do for your career, but they are only salespeople, and as such, only as good as the music they're selling. If a writer delivers great, commercially-viable music, the publisher will work his butt off and everyone wins.
Dale Kawashima recently launched an independent A&R/Management company and is representing several new bands. He was previously an A&R exec with Mercury Records and before that, President of Michael Jackson's ATV Music. He is also a member of the TAXI A&R staff.
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Aunt Jen's Sweater by Sandi's Angels
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Styleforum › Forums › Men's Style › Classic Menswear › Conditioning the lining of the shoes?
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Conditioning the lining of the shoes? - Page 2
post #16 of 19
I'll remove the laces and just condition the vamp around the laces. I figured that this portion of the shoe is more exposed to the elements and not to your sweat vapors. Otherwise, I think moisturizing the inside of the shoe increases the risk of mildewing or athlete's foot.
post #17 of 19
Let me just add a little more to my take on this issue. I don't think that care of shoe linings is necessary or desirable every time we polish our shoes. However--as I now consider this more--once in a while still seems like a good idea--maybe once a year. By treating the lining leather with a conditioner, you are not introducing the kind of moisture that is problematic--water and perspiration. In other words, not all moisture is bad. If leather conditioner had the same ill effects as water and salt water, then applying it to the outer leather would cause problems too, but, of course, it doesn't. Moisturizing the lining leather is simply keeping it supple so that it never cracks or develops fissures from having dried out. If you apply a light coat of conditioner once in a while, rub it in really thoroughly, and lastly wipe off all moist residue, you will have lining leather that's dry to the touch and will remain that way, but that, in addition, has been kept supple and new-looking. I have had the linings of old shoes get dried out and a little tatty-looking from lack of care. Since this isn't visible when the shoes are worn, and since it would never keep one from being able to wear the shoes, we overlook it. Nonetheless, this kind of care certainly can't hurt. To those who say, in effect, "I can't be bothered" or "it's overkill," I would say "fine," but that's a different argument than one concerning maintenance advantages. Everyone is free to treat his possessions as he likes, and if it's too much trouble, don't do it. With very expensive shoes in particular, however, I'm concerned about giving them the very best care I can.
Oh, just as an aside: lee_44106, the reason we use shoe trees is not to keep the insides dry. It is to maintain the shape of the shoes between wearings and prevent them from curling and taking on misshapen form. The issue of whether or not shoe trees actually absorb any moisture has been exhaustively debated several times on this forum and AAAC, and the consensus that has emerged is that they really don't. If they did, I'm sure that Edward Green, Vass, John Lobb, et al., would provide unfinished more-absorbent cedar (or another softwood) trees, but they don't; instead they provide varnished (often hardwood) trees that couldn't possibly absorb any moisture.
post #18 of 19
Thread Starter
I know that it seems an overshot, but the rationale behind was that, even if lining should be a natural soft leather, we really do not know for how long it had been left to dry (the time between the moment in which the shoe was produced and the time when you start wearing it), and also the fact that it takes a lot of salty moisture (sweat). As I said, it felt like going crazy when I've started the post, but then I thought that one of the things that a good shoemaker will do in the process of re-crafting a pair of shoes is to change the sock, alongside with the outer-sole and welt, so it is seen as a fragile thing.
And polishing the visible part of the sole it is not crazy (in fact, treating the sole once per year with grease), it is maintenance! The sole, if it is leather needs some nourishment, as the rest of the shoe. I am not glazing the sole, just clean it after, and once in a time, grease it. It's just airing your suits!
post #19 of 19
As a professional bespoke shoemaker, I think that conditioning the linings is probably not a good idea because it will make the leather smooth and shiny and you will run the risk of your heel pulling out of the shoe. Also, the lining has the function of absorbing the sweat from your feet, which is then evaporated away when you let the shoes rest for 24 hours after wearing. this would be impeded by effectively polishing the lining.
Hope that helps
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In a sense of the word that has become increasingly common in metropolitan Turkish culture, the adjective/ sometime noun defines a type of person, usually a male, who wears flashy, fake-branded yet stylish clothes, supports a highly stylized quasi-emo fauxhawk, dances Tecktonik and hangs out on curbsides and concrete urban parks. The song 'I'm In Miami, Bitch' is most often associated with the Turkish Apache.
Ooh, that song Alors On Dance brings out the apache in my heart. I can't keep my arms from moving wildly, in and out and around my head!
by felireze July 03, 2010
Top Definition
1. American indian tribe from what is now modern-day Arizona.
2. Nickname for the United States Army's AH-64 attack helicopter.
3. Popular, free web server.
The Apache attack helicopter has seen action in Operation Just Cause, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
by Deej July 22, 2004
A Native American group from the Southwestern USA. They have different tribes such as, the Chiricahua, Mezcalero and Jicarilla. The Navajo were once an Apache tribe, till they broke away and became a distinct, separate group. Apaches were fierce warriors that were respected and hated by their enemies. Apaches still live in the Southwest and many still speak their languages and practice their traditions, but they aren't "wild Indians" living in the bush,lol. That's just in old John Wayne movies.
The Apache are part of the colorful, rich, Southwest history.
by JD February 12, 2005
A popular, free webserver that runs the majority of websites.
Microsoft only dreams of creating some as good as apache.
by Sam September 30, 2003
From the Sugar Hill Gang: Jump on it!
He told me he really liked the girl but couldn't find the balls to talk to her. I simply replied: "Apache!"
by D.J.M. April 10, 2006
A popular, free, and open-source webserver with massive supporting community and used by the vast majority of websites in the world.
Much more desirable when compared to IIS, due to it's vastly better security history and better dependability.
That website is down. Oh, wait, it's running on IIS.
by Snuffkin February 04, 2005
The act of titty-fucking a girl from the top down, so the testes hit her mouth and she starts yelling like an apache (imagine the hand-slapping-mouth indian holler, with the testes instead of the hand).
"Damn dude, I could hear him giving her the apache so hard that smoke signals started pouring out from under the door!"
by Billy E. April 24, 2007
Free Daily Email
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Glenn Morton (
Sat, 06 Apr 1996 11:10:58
Allan Harvey writes:
>Glenn Morton writes:
>>Davis Young writes:
>>"2. The failure of literalism and concordism suggests
>>tht the Bible may not be expected to provide precise
>>'information' or 'data' about the physical structure and
>>history of the planet or cosmos."
>>Davis A. Young, Scripture in the Hands of Geologists,
>>Part Two," Westminster Theological Journal, 49, 1987,p.
>>This does not sound to me like the Bible is meant to be
>>taken as part of the single reality I live in. Early
>>Genesis, according to Young, does not describe the
>>history of this cosmos in which I find myself. So of what
>>value is the early part of Genesis?
>Without putting myself in Davis Young's mind, I don't
>think Glenn's interpretation of the quoted paragraph is
>quite fair. Young is not saying early Genesis does not
>describe the history of the cosmos. He is just saying that
>it does not describe it with scientific detail and
>precision. Which is a far cry from saying that it is
>unreliable as a source of truth or contrary to science.
>As others have said, there is one truth, but different
>(not contradictory, but complimentary) angles of looking
> at that truth. If a child asks me how he came to be, I
>could answer "God made you." and quote
>the part of Psalm 139 about God knitting us in our
> mother's womb. Or I could talk about egg and sperm and
>DNA and embryonic biology. Both angles
>have their place, and neither one is false. Sometimes I
> feel like those who try so hard to make Genesis adopt the
>scientific angle would look at the
>"knitting" metaphor in Psalm 139 and try to find what
> aspect of embryology corresponded to a cross-stitch.
>A blessed Easter to everyone ...
I would not want to be viewed as mis-interpreting Young's
statements. And I know that Young has said that he does
not hold to a non-historical Genesis. But it is difficult
not to come to that conclusion when one reads the other
statements in that article.
Young write:
"I suggest that we will be on the right track if we
stop treating Genesis 1 and the flood story as scientific
and historical reports. We can forever avoid falling into
the perpetual conflicts between Genesis and geology if we
follow those evangelical scholars who stress that Genesis
is divinely inspired ancient near eastern literature
written within a specific historical context that entailed
well-defined thought patterns, literary forms, symbols and
images."~Davis A. Young, Scripture in the Hands of
Geologists, Part Two," Westminster Theological Journal, 49,
1987, p. 303
If the report is not a historical report then it is a
non-historical report.
Young writes:
"The fundamental - and understandable - assumption
(one that I made previously) behind the search for 'data'
or 'information' by both literalists and concordists
through the centuries is that Moses wrote strictly as a
'sacred historian.' Thus the creation and flood stories
(as well as related wisdom literature texts) have
been read as if they were reports providing detailed
information with quasi-photographic, journalistic accuracy
and precision. And it has been assumed that these events
can potentially be recognized, identified, and
reconstructed from the effects they left behind by using
the tools of geological, cosmological, biological, and
anthropological investigations. Such historical
reconstruction has been thought to be essentially no
different from efforts to reconstruct the historical events
of the Roman Empire or Hitler's Third Reich from extant
documents and monuments. The failure of literalism and
concordism suggests that we may have been mistaken in such
attempts."~Davis A. Young, Scripture in the Hands
of Geologists, Part Two," Westminster Theological Journal,
49, 1987, p. 294
In this quote Young says that the events can not be
recognized and identified. If you can't recognize and
identify a historical event, then there is always a
question as to whether or not it occurred. If I say that
the Romans invented television in 220 B.C. you would ask
for evidence to that effect. A drawing of a TV on a
Pompeian wall, a TV set from a Pompeiian home, written
reports in Tacitus and Plutarch. Lacking these you would
say that since I can not identify and recognize the
"effects they left behind by the tools of " scientific
investigation, they didn't happen.
Another one. Speaking of concordism and literalism, he
"It is doubtful that, after centuries of failure,
either strategy is going to be effective in the future. I
suggest that evangelicals give up the attempt to identify
the role of the great deep in terrestrial history, to work
out a geophysics of the flood, to settle disputes between
theistic evolutionists and progressive creationists about
the origin and development of life from studies of the word
'kind' or from the arrangement of differing life-forms
on days three, five, and six, or to work out the sequence
of geological events from biblical data. If evangelicals
are to achieve an appropriate understanding of the
relationship between biblical texts and scientific
activity, then literalism and concordism should be
abandoned and new approaches developed."~Davis
Westminster Theological Journal, 49, 1987, p. 293
Caesars Gallic Wars, concords with what we know of the
ancient world. Because of this agreement, we beleive that
it is a true account of the campaign. An event which can
not be identified, or the science worked out, is an event
which NEVER happened.
In the early 80's a suggestion was made that an asteroid
struck the earth 65 million years ago. Scientists were
able to find the crater, find the tsunami deposits etc and
now science and that theory concord. We beleive it
actually happened. Young is not saying that the account
lacks detail, Young is saying that the account can not be
made to concord with actual history.
Another one.
"I suggest that we will be well served if commentators
recognize that concordism has not solved our problem of
relating Genesis and geology any more than literalism.
Commentators should not try to show correlations between
Genesis 1 and geology and should perhaps develop exegeses
that are consistent with the historical-cultural-
theological setting of ancient Israel in which Genesis was
written."~Davis A. Young, Scripture in the Hands of
Geologists, Part Two," Westminster Theological Journal, 49,
1987, p. 291
If the data had not correlated with the existence of
neutrons, we would not believe in neutrons. If the science
does not match the view of a flood, then we can not
conclude that it was a historical event.
But if a concordist like me is to advocate concordism, then
it is incumbent upon him to provide an explanation which
actually concords. Young writes:
"In these recent efforts, the flood received scant
attention; the focus has been on the interpretation of
Genesis 1. My Creation and the Flood was the only one of
these works to deal with the flood. Only the final chapter
was devoted to the flood, and the intent of that chapter
was to criticize the global diluvialism of scientific
creationism rather than to make positive proposals. The
only widely publicized contemprary flood theories available
to evangelicals are those of scientific creationism. Small
wonder that on the issue of the flood evangelicals are so
attracted to that voice; it is virtually the only one
speaking among us!"~Davis A. Young, Scripture in the Hands
of Geologists, Part Two," Westminster Theological Journal,
49, 1987, p. 288.
The model for the flood I presented was not criticized on
Talk Origins which is probably the most hostile place I
could have posted it! In fact I got some rather kind
comments from some of the people who are normally very
hostile to anything like what I am attempting. I am trying
to give Christianity another voice on the issues of the
flood to counter the geological druck that ICR is
Foundation,Fall and Flood | <urn:uuid:5ec62e30-68dd-42fa-8295-a72c7c2e58cf> | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/asa/199604/0088.html | en | 0.93811 | 0.024676 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |