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0.128082 | <urn:uuid:35d81bde-67c9-49ab-a6cd-78e9d6f371b8> | en | 0.960116 | Man Dunks Himself
If you've ever gone to a professional basketball game, you've probably seen players or team enthusiasts jumping on a trampoline and dunking a basketball through the net, but that's not quite how it went for a member of the Phoenix Sun's "Dunk Squad."
During a timeout in the third period, Nick Corrales tried to make the dunk shot, but got more than he bargained for. Instead of just getting the ball through the net, he followed and managed to dunk himself.
But not to worry, the only thing hurt was his pride.
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0.356065 | <urn:uuid:c04a3fb1-4e27-4c91-bd7a-d07ca54531d3> | en | 0.973733 |
NHSO lieutenant quits after DWI arrest
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- A New Hanover County Sheriff's deputy has quit after being pulled over for drunk driving.
"I continue to stand firm on my position concerning alcohol related incidents," Sheriff Ed McMahon said in a statement of his zero-tolerance policy.
Miller was a 19-year veteran with the Sheriff's Office. He is at least the fourth Sheriff's Office employee to quit or be fired after an arrest since May 2010.
It's funny that you refer to
It's funny that you refer to Lt. Miller as a ZERO.... not too long ago a lady who was visiting our fine part of the world lost her freedom for a night while registering ZERO on an alochol intoxication meter.
Hey, if we are going to have roadside "checkpoints" why don't we link up to the Department of Revenue's database and be sure that citizens are in tax compliance? Why don't we be sure that citizen's are current on their child support?
That isn't judgement...
...this is! An officer that you say defended our safety for 19 years, then goes out driving drunk to put the lives of the public IN DANGER is a "MISTAKE"? That's no mistake by any means, that's called pure stupidity! If anyone one in this county knew any better, it should be Lt. Miller. He could've even given himself a breathalyzer for criminy sakes. A taxi is even easier, not to mention a crapload cheaper.
Is your surgeon allowed to leave a scalpel in your abdominal cavity after surgery as a "mistake"?
Is you mechanic allowed to forget to put your oil plug back in after your oil a mistake?
Is your preacher allowed to molest an underage member of his a mistake?
Is your vet allowed to give your animal a lethal injection instead of a rabies a mistake?
Is your banker allowed make that 10,000.00 deposit of yours to the wrong a mistake?
Is this concept beginning to sink in with you yet?
As professionals, we maintain that signature by doing what is expected in that profession! Lt. Miller broke his own golden rule and is no longer considered a professionl in law enforcement...and never will again! It was HIS concious decision, he will greatly suffer the consequences he very well knew about as a former professional!
Hate to disagree with you
Hate to disagree with you 461, but all of the fact patterns you have laid out have civil remedies available except for the "molesting preacher" to which you refer...
The sad situation here is that in your example of a molesting preacher, he has superior rights in court compared to the accused "intoxicated" driver...
If he was not guilty why did
If he was not guilty why did he resign? He also resigned before the internal investigation could be completed, huh..amazing ain't it. McMahon should have fired him and not let him resign. If he was not guilty why did he refuse the breathalizer test? By resigning he can go to work for another dept, so watch out we will hear from him in the future.
Where did you get this info?
ILM Nat.... I checked the
ILM Nat.... I checked the other reports on Lt. Miller and did not see it reported anywhere that he refused the test. Do you know something we don't or are you trying to add some other spin to the debate?
Breathalizer test.
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0.042597 | <urn:uuid:b7b849d3-4bf1-40ff-a7ba-c4e44eef88c7> | en | 0.971496 |
Teacher of the Week: Karen Carlton
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- Karen Carlton was shocked to learn she is WWAY's Teacher of the Week. After admitting she was speechless, she found a few words.
"I'm so excited, speechless. I had no idea this was going to happen."
First grade student Nina Garguilo nominated her teacher because she always smiles and makes children feel comfortable. "she's awesome," little Nina said. "And she gives a lot of chances to people."
"I appreciate that they're trying and that makes me feel good," Carlton said. She said positive reinforcement is the key to success in her classroom. Even when students give an incorrect answer to a question, she thanks them for participating and encourages them to think about it a little more and find a different answer.
"They're exciting. They love to learn and they're just like a box ready to be filled and ready to learn new inventive ideas."
Though Carlton had no idea that perspective would earn her a Teacher of the Week nomination, she has been dreaming up items she needs for her room. "Most definitely school supplies, books, books on different levels for my children."
But the most priceless gift is one she already has...the gift to inspire. Nina wants to be a teacher someday, largely because of her own teacher, Mrs. Karen Carlton.
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0.098454 | <urn:uuid:2c5a0b93-767c-41cc-8dc6-d68e5f0e80b3> | en | 0.972944 | 4 Subtle Ways To Approach Men
4 Subtle Ways To Approach Men
Who says a girl can't make the first move?
Approaching men is such a hotly debated topic. Some coaches say never to do it. I beg to differ. This is the 21st century! How else are you going to meet that cute guy at the coffee shop who doesn't see you if you don't do something? Right? Right.
However, if you march on over and say "Hello" and stare at him like you're a lioness and he's your next meal, it could very well backfire and give him the wrong idea. Always think "subtle and flirtatious." Here are my sneaky ways for approaching men in public that don't really scream "I want to take your clothes off pronto," but give you the opportunity to start a conversation.
Here are my four tried and true ways to approach a guy from least to most obvious:
1. Eye Contact: Make eye contact for a few seconds, smile and look away. Think flirty thoughts when you do this. If he wants to talk to you, he'll come over, for you've just signaled that you'd be interested in that. If he doesn't, then you have your answer.
2. Ask Him A Question: Need directions? Help finding something? Wondering what time it is? Get over there and ask, woman! However, if you stare at him, and march across the room to ask the score of the game, it's going to be awkward. Get near him first and then ask your question. This is one of my favorites. You have started a conversation of some type, it feels natural and it gives him the opportunity to help you. Note: If you have your phone, you CANNOT ask him the time. Pick something else. If you whip out your phone with its big clock on the front, two minutes after you ask him the time, it's going to back fire.
3. The Compliment: Find something, anything to compliment him on. Subtle is good. Quirky is also good. The book he's reading, the jacket he's wearing, etc. are all good compliment opportunities. However, don't be like this; once I marched over to a man to compliment him and had no idea what else I intended to say after that. It was going well, he said thank you and smiled ,but he didn't say anything right away either. After a few awkward seconds, I panicked and ran. It was a total approach fail. Even if you have to talk about the weather, have something else ready so that you aren't stuck there in silence after the compliment.
4. The Stumble: I'm not advocating actually falling on the man, but if you can bump into him "accidentally," it's not a bad way to start a conversation. Don't be like me and actually fall and then spill your drink all over yourself. This is a don't. Think very gentle and subtle, always.
Remember that you need to prepare something to say for after you approach the guy as well. Don't get caught there, deer-in-the-headlights style, unable to transition to an actual conversation if he just stares at you once you arrive. Do you approach? What is your best go-to method for approaching a man? Tell me what you think below in the comment section.
If you're struggling with guys who regularly pull a houdini, find out how to turn the tables with a free download of my new book, Why Men Lose Interest.
This article was originally published at Digital Romance Inc.. Reprinted with permission.
More about how to start a conversation on YourTango:
Article contributed by
Advanced Member
Elizabeth Stone
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Credentials: BA
Specialties: Dating/Being Single Support
Other Articles/News by Elizabeth Stone:
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0.089709 | <urn:uuid:a2b3e83c-01bf-4a55-9330-01fd45e619d6> | en | 0.967555 | 'This Week' Transcript: Goolsbee, Brown & Corker
TAPPER: Well Cynthia, how do you do that? The governor put out an executive order saying that there should be no racial order that there should be no racial profiling with this law. But if you're a police man and you've been told -- and by the way, you can be sued now under this law if you're not doing enough, if the citizens are convinced you're not doing enough to crack down on illegal immigration. If you're a policeman, what's enough? What's reasonable to think somebody might be an illegal immigrant?
TUCKER: Well Jake, several law enforcement agencies have actually opposed the bill. Not only for that reason because they have no idea what it means to say reasonable suspicion. A California Republican has said you can tell an illegal immigrant by the shoes they wear. Of course this is an invitation to racial profiling. Everyone with a Spanish surname, everyone with a certain look, you may or may not be Latino. There are people in my family who look as if they could be Latino. It harkens back to apartheid where all black people in South Africa were required to carry documents in order to move from one part of town to another.
And let me just say this about Arizona's problems with the border, it is absolutely true that Arizona has problems with the border. A rancher was killed apparently by drug smugglers. But this has absolutely no bearing on that problem. All it does is open the doors for harassment of citizens.
TAPPER: Let's you talk about that rancher for a second. His name was Robert Krentz and he was killed in March. Here's a friend of him, Steve Brophy, talking about his friend's death.
STEVE BROPHY, KRENTZ'S FRIEND: You cannot allow a border in our country that is akin in lawlessness to that of west Waziristan in Pakistan. It's simply intolerable, not just for Rob Krentz and not just for the Krentz family but for her entire country.
TAPPER: Doesn't he have a point, Paul? I mean this is federal failure at the border.
KRUGMAN: Yes, we have never put in enough money is basically what it comes down to enforce the border control. It's not a deep issue of principle, it's just a question of resources. People have been willing to be very -- talk tough about it but actually not willing to do reasonable stuff in terms of enforcement. And it's going to be a problem. But what I want to go back to here is not just apartheid issues, but think about a different way.
We have these massive protests in this country about alleged authoritarian tendencies that we are going to have some kind of -- inside the Obama/Hitler stuff -- the idea that the government is encroaching too much in our lives.
And now all of the sudden, we have by pretty much the same people, demanding that we set up a system that will turn us into one of those apocryphal foreign authoritarian regimes where the police are saying hand over your papers, right? A world where you constantly have to prove who you are. And yes, it will be racial profiling but who knows what else? I mean, some people take me I look like President Lula of Brazil, so I might end up being pulled over when I'm on my morning walk, right?
TAPPER: I think you're much better looking than the president of Brazil.
TAPPER: But you know, it's interesting that you say that, because you are not the only one to evoke that, let me see your papers thing.
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0.01976 | <urn:uuid:cae565ec-dbd0-4125-bb3a-549cd0f3942d> | en | 0.987163 | Death Row Dad Contradicted By Son on Life of 'Leisure'
PHOTO: Danny Hembree is seen in this undated file photo.
The son of the North Carolina death row inmate who wrote a taunting letter about his life of leisure in prison says that his father is mentally ill and "severely depressed."
"No person in their right mind thinks that living in death row is a life of leisure," Danny Hembree III told about his father. "There's no good explanation for why he wrote that except he's mentally ill."
Rather than living a life of leisure filled with color TV and naps,, the son said his father's life was grueling.
"He talks about the four walls closing in, that the lights are always on and he can't sleep. Death row is a horrible place for anybody to be," Hembree III said. "He's very severely depressed. He has told us that he's depressed. He feels like it's over for him."
This week, Hembree, 50, sent a letter to his hometown newspaper The Gaston Gazette about his life at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C.
Hembree's son said that the letter does not accurately portray what his father is going through.
"The letter that he wrote, he was just lashing out," Hembree III said. "It's really hard on us and it's really hard on him."
Hembree III said that his father has been diagnosed as bipolar and manic depressive and that he suffered from brain damage when he was born. The Hembree family can only correspond with him through letters and Hembree III said that he father paints a very different picture of his life when he writes to the family.
Hembree has also been accused of killing two other women. One was Randi Dean Saldana, 30, whose burnt remains were found near Blacksburg, S.C., in 2009. The other was Deborah Ratchford, 30, whose body was found in 1992.
Hembree III said that his father was not in his right mind when he made the taped confessions.
"In every one of those confessions on all of those tapes, he was coming off a three-day crack binge. He hadn't slept, he was drunk and highly intoxicated. He could barely hold his head up," Hembree III said.
But Hembree's letter to the paper does not convey the fear and depression his son says he feels.
"I laugh at you self righteous clowns and I spit in the face of your so called justice system. The state of North Carolina has sentenced me to death but it's not real," Hembree wrote. "I am a man who is ready to except [sic] his unjustful punishment and face God almighty with a clean conscience unlike you cowards and your cowardly system. Kill me if you can suckers. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Still, his son said the family will stand behind him through the upcoming trial and they fervently believe that he is innocent.
"We believe one hundred percent that he's innocent and we will stand behind him. We're going to be there every day. We're going to fight until the end," Hembree II said. "He's my dad. He's not a murderer. He is a fun-loving person who just got caught up with the wrong people and he is not violent at all."
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0.966323 | <urn:uuid:09404a71-0c2b-45b0-a6e6-55f7f60ef5e7> | en | 0.973528 | Research proposal refugees mental health- HELP!
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I am an RN studying for post grad cert in mental. I havent worked in the field before but want to branch into it. I have a mental health promotion program assignment. I am interested in a program for refugees. I have no idea of what is out there for them but have a keen interest in the area as there seem to be not much if anything. I have googled but cant get anything. Any ideas where i can get such information or ideas how such a program can be structured? There is a lot on other population groups but i want to do this. How can they be helped given their background and experiences diversities?
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You might try contacting a public health nurse that works in a local public health office. They typically work closely with the refugee population, and at the very least they should be able to give you ideas on what it would take to set up this type of a program, and maybe provide you with some good resources. | http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/research-proposal-refugees-686218.html | dclm-gs1-443755528 | false | false | {
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0.71258 | <urn:uuid:4b12d3b5-d614-487f-b106-06a080e0e25d> | en | 0.923573 | What does it mean if I feel unbalanced all the time?
If you feel emotionally unbalanced, that could mean that some chemicals in your brain that regulated mood are out of sync, and a doctor can prescribe medication. If you're physically unbalanced, it could be vertigo, and you should see a doctor.
More Info:
chemicals vertigo Balance Health Medical Pharma
Science of drugs including their origin, composition, pharmacokinetics,
pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology.
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0.121642 | <urn:uuid:69b56b41-920e-4864-851d-4a06d1106900> | en | 0.97485 | Democratic race may boil down to 796 votes
That's how many party insiders will be 'super delegates.' Their clout in such a close contest is raising tensions.
February 09, 2008|Peter Wallsten and James Rainey | Times Staff Writers
Contributing to the tension is a continuing battle over the roles of Florida and Michigan, which were stripped of their participation in the party's national nominating convention due to a fight with the Democratic National Committee over the primary election calendar.
"We're headed for a train wreck if we don't get this resolved," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), referring both to the role of super delegates and to the DNC's decision to penalize his state. "It is a flawed system that has to be changed."
Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's 2000 campaign and is herself a super delegate, threatened to quit her leadership post in the party if the nomination were to be decided by insiders rather than the broader group of Democratic voters who have turned out in huge numbers. Brazile, while pleased that the competitive race has invigorated the party, said Friday that she was "deeply worried about our ability to ensure that this is a very smooth process."
"The idea that we can afford to have a big fight at the convention and then win the race [in November], I think, is not a good scenario," he told the television station NY1 on Tuesday. "I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don't, then we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement. Because I don't think we can afford to have a brokered convention."
"You can't undo an election with a caucus where you would be switching 1.7 million private ballots with maybe as many as 50,000 attending a caucus," said Nelson, who has endorsed Clinton. "That just is not going to work, especially in a state that is so sensitive about having the right to vote and having it count as intended."
Another senior Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, issued a similar statement Friday, noting that 600,000 Democrats voted in that state's primary and that it "would not be practical or fair to throw out the results of that election."
Adding to the friction is the role that so-called super delegates are entitled to play at the party's national convention in Denver, set for August.
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0.027497 | <urn:uuid:911478cb-1c33-435b-941d-0cd1a4e40dd6> | en | 0.964524 | Click to Skip Ad
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‘The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)’ Helmer Tom Six Pissed BBFC Spoiled His Movie
The Playlist By Kevin Jagernauth | The Playlist June 7, 2011 at 9:01AM
Yes, we're gonna talk spoilers so if you don't want to know move on.
If you thought "The Human Centipede" was disturbing, apparently, you ain't seen nothing yet. Yesterday=, it was revealed that the U.K. rating board, the BBFC—British Board of Film Classification—refused to grant the sequel "The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)" a certificate effectively banning the film from release in the country in any format. But they didn't make their decision lightly and published a lengthy reasoning on their website. But within that statement were a ton of plot details about the film and director Tom Six has responded, and perhaps even more than the ban, he's pissed the BBFC put spoilers about his movie on their website.
In an email to Empire (via Alt Film Guide) Tom Six stated his position on the events over the last twenty four hours or so quite candidly:
We're not sure which part of the printed statement specifically Six is pissed about: the masturbating with sandpaper bit or perhaps the barbed wire rape? But it's likely the premise of the film which finds somebody watching the original "The Human Centipede" and then pretty much doing the same thing with more people, while getting his rocks off torturing his victims. But you see, this is art.
Again, censorship is never a good thing, but you don't help your case when you drop f-bombs in defense of your movie. But perhaps we shouldn't be expecting eloquence from Tom Six. As for the rest of us, IFC will release the film stateside later this year.
This article is related to: Films, Tom Six, Modern Horror, The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)
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0.05938 | <urn:uuid:47234d41-19b5-47ab-855f-e7266f446d3c> | en | 0.984196 | Savage Speaks
The Browns GM discussed the upcoming draft with reporters at today's news conference, and answered questions without giving away the Browns plans on April 28th. OBR Browns reporter Fred Greetham was there and offers his report...
BEREA - Browns General Manager Phil Savage held his official pre-draft press conference on Tuesday in Berea and gave an overview of the upcoming NFL draft on April 28 and 29.
Savage hit on a number of topics, including what the Browns might do.
"There's been a lot of talk about that No. 3 slot and there is most talk about the five players at the top of the draft. We've spent a lot of time at the No. 2 pick, the 36th spot and that certainly is a key spot in the draft. The combination of players you try to get on the first day is always important.
"We're looking at what is the best available player for the Browns. That's how we build our draft board. Who do we want for the Browns who can help us the most. Your perspective is more in tune when you're at the top. There is a lot of intrigue in this year's draft because all of the teams at the top are still unclear."
Savage answered a number of questions, including:
What about taking a quarterback at the top?:
Savage: "I think those comments I made a couple of years ago still hold true. If we did take a quarterback, we think everyone would be on board with the decision."
Is this year stronger in the top five than the past couple of years?:
Savage:"I think this is a stronger top five than in 2005.
Do you need to find a starting cornerback in this draft?:
Savage: "That's a tough call. We might not be able to fill all of the holes that we have and we have to make it work, regardless of the position."
What would you rate the chances of moving out of the third pick?:
Savage: "I would say the percentage of chances to move up are less than to move back, depending on what players are available to us at No. 3."
Do you have any questions on the reports that JaMarcus Russell might not have a strong work ethic?:
Savage: "So much of the reports depend on the perspective. Personally, I don't have any problems with his work ethic. I wouldn't have any problems with him."
Is Brady Quinn more ready that Russell to step in and play sooner than later?:
Savage: "That's a question people have to ask themselves. Is Brady Quinn the beneficiary of being in a pro style offense. I think Brady has the potential to get better. I think one of the attractions of Brady is the fact he wants to be the best and why he wants to get better."
What would you say to Browns fans that are against drafting a quarterback?:
Savage: "It just depends on the perspective. I think the true Browns fans are going to support the Browns regardless of what we do. "
If the team selects a quarterback, does that mean you can't win right now?:
Savage: "I think you can look at a lot of different situations where young quarterbacks have gone in and won. The important thing is making progress. With all of these players you have to look at long term progress, as well as short term progress."
What are your thoughts on Calvin Johnson, considering the Browns drafted Braylon Edwards at No. 3 just two years ago?:
Savage: "I don't think you can go by that. Calvin Johnson is a rare, rare prospect. This is truly one of those players that there aren't many walking around. Why on earth would the Browns take him? He affects your running game, as well. I would leave it at that because he's a big time talent."
Any thoughts on what Oakland might do?:
Savage: "I think it will be one of the quarterbacks, Calvin Johnson or trade out. With the little knowledge I have it sounds like they would listen to trades. We're open to listening as well."
Thoughts on Adrian Peterson:
Savage: "Adrian is a player who has somewhat of an upright style. He avoids contact with his feet. I think the thing with Adrian is he's a home run hitter. He is definitely a guy who swings for the fences. He's got a pretty unique style of his own and his greatest strength is the desire he has."
Are you set with the rankings of the top five?:
Savage: "We have the consensus among the top five. We need to wait to see what happens and some of it depends on what happens ahead of us."
What would it take to trade up?:
Savage:"In the top five, you don't really go by the book. It depends on the market place and how much they want. The charts are a bit of a measuring stick outside the top five."
How important is the second-round pick (36th overall)?:
Savage: We have put in a lot of time on that pick. We have a cut off point. If it's among 15 or 20 players the pick will be made. The most important thing is we have it."
Are you worried about taking a quarterback and the possible backlash?:
Savage:"Quarterback is a hot issue in this town, but I can't worry about what someone else thinks."
"I think the offensive line, percentage-wise, there is more patience with those players. The offensive linemen is evaluated on every play."
Do you feel the Browns have improved this off-season?:
Savage:"We've tried to build an infrastructure here and I think we have definitely done that. I think the Browns are certainly closer to being a competitive team.
"We went into free agency and had several players targeted and were able to get some of them, with the key being Eric Steinbach."
"We've added Seth McKinney, Lennie Friedman and Hank Fraley. I think the key part on the offensive line is the players can be versatile.
"On the defensive side, Robaire Smith can play all three spots. Antwan Peek can play outside and inside. Michael Adams can play and Kenny Wright can be a versatile player.
"Tim Carter will bring that speed element to the receiving corps. Jamal Lewis is doing really well and he's hungry to prove he has a number of years to play. We feel a hungry Jamal is a good Jamal.
Shaun Smith was a key and being a restricted free agent we were able to get him and were encouraged with his potential. Ryan Krause is a player that has some history with Chud and Alan Rickard was with the Ravens and Bills and can bring some veteran leadership with Lawrence Vickers."
Hamilton Asks Why: S Justin Hamilton, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2006 reflected on the horrendous event at his alma mater on Monday that resulted in 33 students' deaths.
"Nobody I've talked to knows why," Hamilton said. "The last report I received was about 10 minutes ago and it was the kid was a loner and it might have been over an ex-girlfriend.
"It could have been so many things," he said. "I don't know how anybody could do something like that. When I saw the event it was like I was there on a normal day on campus and then you saw all the SWAT teams and everything. I couldn't get that out of my mind.
"It really bothered me that I was spared and many of those other students weren't." Recommended Stories
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Charlie Cook | Death of the swing district
Democrats face twin struggles as they seek to retake the House majority they lost in 2010. First, the chamber has largely sorted itself out. With 96 percent of Democratic House members representing districts carried by President Obama and 94 percent of Republican House lawmakers representing districts won by Mitt Romney, each party pretty much has the seats God intended. The House simply doesn’t have much elasticity right now. Substantial gains would either require Democrats winning a bunch of Romney districts or Republicans capturing a lot of Obama districts. Given this sorting out and the almost parliamentary-style voting we’re seeing these days, either party would require one heck of a head of steam to pick up a lot of seats from the other side.
Open Thread
Governor Palin’s Tweets | http://conservatives4palin.com/2013/02/charlie-cook-death-of-the-swing-district.html | dclm-gs1-444615528 | false | false | {
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0.037546 | <urn:uuid:b9248708-4dfe-4420-9937-133ebda707af> | en | 0.985039 | Sunday, March 04, 2007
Dual Citizenship
Sometimes I think I should just give up.
Stop fighting the good fight.
Just admit that I've been diagnosed "terminally male" and be done with it.
Two days ago I wore my red shirt to work. Donna, who works at the desk, is a large woman who is one of the best dressers I've ever seen. We often talk clothing and I know she has always wanted to see me in more colour. So, I wore my red shirt to work.
I came in, strode up to her and said, "I wore red today, just for you."
She smiled, finished what she was doing, then looked up at me. "That's burgundy," she said witheringly.
"Um, no, it's red," I said.
"Well, OK, if that's what you want to think," she said with irritated patience at the dimwittedness of men who can't tell red from burgundy. What the hell is taupe anyways?
Then a day later at the other office two women raced to ask me a question. I had written a piece for the staff newsletter about the retreat and had mentioned that there was someone there who was surprisingly competitive. Each thought I had written about her. They had a been arguing about who had been written about, first, then who was most competitive, second. Personally, I think they should call it a draw.
Then I was asked flat out by one of them, I knew immedately that I was in trouble. I was going to be in trouble one way or another. There was no right answer that would save me from grief. I thought fleetingly, "Why would men have affairs and risk two women being angry at once?" One was scary enough.
But I had to answer so I told her that I had had her in mind when I wrote the piece. She smiled victoriously. Then the other asked and I told her that I had been thinking about her competetive friend. She teased me that I should have just lied and said it was really her.
I said, "I thought women wanted men to be honest."
"Not about things like this," she said with a look that said 'institutionalize this guy'.
You know what's funny, when I first wrote this I had written both their first names down, then realized that I'd be asked, "Why did you put her name first?" So I gutted out. Backed down. I don't want to walk into that situation so I've changed the text. Sometimes, at work, I feel like I'm swimming through estrogen.
A few days ago at the Science Center's Superhero exhibit, they had a series of 'black holes' that you were to put your hand in to see if you could figure out, just by touch, what the object was. Joseph, 12 year old wonder kid, and I got there first and we did well. The final one I put my hand it and said to him, "No man will get this one wrong." Joseph shoved his hand in and announced, "It's a television remote control!"
We both laughed and Joseph said, "I wonder if any women will get that one." The woman behind me, overhearing the converstation muttered under her breath, "Finally, something a man can do." She said "man" in a tone that most people use when they talk to a dog that's soiled the carpet.
OK, so I give.
I'm a guy.
I like beer.
I like burping contests.
I like smutty jokes.
I like the remote control.
I like the fact that in my world, burgundy is just red.
If being male is becoming a 'disabling condition' then half the population will immediately apply for parking passes.
And me?
I'm in a wheelchair and I'm a man.
I guess that makes me dually diagnosed.
justme said...
Oh geez,
Only a "man" would brag about being a man. :)
andrea said...
Burgundy IS red -- it's just a dark red. It just depends upon how finely you slice it.
Burgundy is marginally different from red in contrast to a bright cherry red, or an orangish scarlet-red, or a pale pinkish-red, or a purplish magenta-red.
In some languages there are fewer gradations of color; orange is red, and/or pink is red and purple may even be red, which is why purple cabbages are called "red cabbages". Sometimes green and blue are called the same color.
We can slice other colors into further fine gradations. Somewhere between lavender (light purple) and sky blue is periwinkle; if you put periwinkle next to sky blue, then it looks purple, and vice-versa.
Somewhere between brown and grey is taupe, the color of moleskin (the sticking plasters that hikers put on their abused feet). Taupe is a color so blah it only seems to have presence if you stick it next to something even blah-er, like beige. (Beige in turn is pretty much white dirtied up with a smidge of brown mixed in.)
Personally, I also hate those same kinds of interpersonal competition that revolves around cutting people down. I dislike being around catty people who operate on an emotional level about (what seems to be) everything.
I don't follow fashion magazines, and I don't care about celebrities or even know who most of them are. Nor am I keen on burping contests or smutty jokes.
But hey, that's just me.
Natalia said...
maybe this is picky, but i'm gonna post it just for variety.
i didn't recognize those women at your work as the same kind of woman as me.
swimming in estrogen? what do 'odd' women have in us, then?
i once bought my husband a red shirt that is sort of an orangey burgundy, if you want to get specific.
i do like fashion magazines but i wear what i like and what's comfortable, not necessarily what's in style.
i wear skirts maybe 2x a year.
i like crafts magazines, too. even craft shows on tv.
i tell my students to use logic when thinking about grammar, but i enjoy not having to be logical all the time.
i thought when i married another autistic, he would not do "typical guy things" because neither of us are "typical" for our gender. but he does do some of them. (not that that's the end of the world, no more than certain "typical woman things" that i do).
he says it's not all becos he's a guy, though. some of it is because he's from another continent and that's how they do things there. like, back home, his mother also runs into a clothing store, grabs the first good thing she sees, buys it quickly without deliberating, and it lasts for years.
people stuff is almost always more various than it looks.
Frances said...
Dear Dave- Oh jeez, I think I'm a man!Frances(but you can call me Frank)
Moggy said...
I'm with Natalia... Not only am I not a woman like that, their kind annoy me! I think the emphasis in our society of polarized stereotypes about gender is really harmful, especially for people that don't match it... I've lost out on a lot because of how people assumed I'd act/feel/think based on my gender, been abused/assulted far too often for not being what they expected, and not identifying with the non-autistic nondisabled stereotype of my gender meant that until recently, I didn't feel like I was a 'real' female at all!
Natalia said...
Moggy, yeah. I used to feel that and sometimes still do feel that about not being a real woman... Along with or separate from not being a real person.
Jon said...
Dave I am getting closer to being on your blog i was in your office during that conversation. You know what i find amazing that one of ny goals is to be on your blog i think that us a compliamnet to you or it shows just how sad my life is i choose to believe the compliant theroy
lina said...
thank you for the honourable mention!
Anonymous said...
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0.143067 | <urn:uuid:6d8bb1c3-ecc1-47fb-a4bb-5a8d2a7954be> | en | 0.719576 | suche ein beliebiges Wort, wie ratchet:
a song by gallows,one of the few remaining bands who can actually be deemed a hardcord punk band.they wear that title proudly and could kick any other band's ass.
So you're alone!!!!in the belly of a shark!!!!.......
von Eddy Ramone 2. Januar 2008
Words related to belly of a shark
awesome gallows hardcore punk rock | http://de.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=belly%20of%20a%20shark | dclm-gs1-444805528 | false | false | {
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0.079393 | <urn:uuid:49a15af1-50c4-480a-8a2d-df2ac089b3cf> | en | 0.977034 | Sunday, June 17, 2012
Moving on up . . . .
Blessed Be!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Fun with a Cal Thomas Column
Cal Thomas is America's "most syndicated news columnist." American Idol is America's number one television show. People eat at McDonald's more than any other restaurant. None of that means Mickey D's is gourmet, American Idol is a "good" show, or that Cal Thomas has anything of value to say. Like most right-wing writers Cal Thomas writes to bitch and moan, and complain about things that aren't real. It's a free country, and he has a right to do that, and I have the right to make fun of him for being a douchebag.
I usually try to say nice things about people, but this piece kind of enraged me. My comments are meant to be satire, I don't really think Cal Thomas is a doucehbag, he's a person, I think. Perhaps a conniving one, but a person none the less. My comments are in italics, my buddy Cal's are not.
Evidence of big media’s bias against religion that doesn’t advance the secular and liberal agenda of the Democratic Party is beyond dispute. Any faith attached to a conservative agenda is to be ridiculed, stereotyped and misrepresented. Islam is a notable exception. The media appear to bend over backward not to offend Muslims.
Yes, the media bias is so bad that you are only in 500 newspapers and, according to you, are the number one syndicated columnist in America. It's horrible, ohh the humanity! If the media was so intent on promoting a "secular and liberal agenda" I don't think you'd be in so many newspapers. It's lovely to see someone make such a stupid statement and condem the very industry that has made them extremely wealthy.
Here's one of the reasons assholes like you really piss me off Cal (can I call you Cal?). You bitch all the time about how the Democrats promote a secular agenda when President Obama has gone out of his way not only to display his faith, but to court the vote of Evangelicals. Obama is a very committed Christian, but the only time this is ever brought up is when your side rails against Jeremiah Wright. You can't have it both ways. You guys can't criticize him for not having faith and then make fun of his old church and pastor. That's really fucking stupid.
In addition I've never understood why you think that the mainstream media is out to get Christianity. When I flip through my cable channels (basically all owned by the companies that own the broadcast networks) I see plenty of shows about Christianity and Christians. People constantly talk about Moses like he was a real person (myth!), same with Abraham (myth!). It's like everyone bends over backwards as to not offend the Christians. Last time I checked the always breeding Duggars had a television show too. How many shows feature Pagans, Sikhs, or Jewish families? NONE. You are a fucktard and a liar sir.
And the media does not give Islam a pass either, do you even watch television? I'm sure your real problem with Islam in the media is that it's not vilified 100% of the time. I know that's what your kind wants, and when it doesn't happen I know you complain. "American Muslim" didn't present all Muslims as terrorists so brain-dead troglodytes on the right decided to complain.
Oh, and by the way, Fox News is "big media." You guys have your own fucking channel and it's still not good enough. I'm sorry we all aren't licking your asshole right now.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a very real piece of tragic history. If you guys are going to go out of your way to dissect every sermon by Jeremiah Wright then I think Americans have the right to know about Mormon History. Early Mormon History is a bit bloody, and the fault lies on both sides. Oh, and don't tell me the media hates Mormons either. The Osmonds have been on and off TV for years, and TNT even produced a sympathetic bio-pic on Brigham Young. Ass.
Wow. You've really distorted that piece from the Washington Post. Carrollton Arkansas has a memorial to the victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The people there call that tragedy "the first 9-11." You are 100% being a lying asshole here Cal. The reporter is confining the word "place" here to a small isolated corner of Arkansas, a place where this tragedy still festers. No one is calling Romney a murderer, and as the piece goes on to say, the conservatives there are planning to vote for Romney. Cal, tell me, do you ever feel stupid for getting all worked up over nothing?
The piece never implies "As Carrolton Ark., goes, so goes the nation." This is another fabrication on your part because you apparently have nothing real to write about. The Post never questions the legitimacy and faith of Romney, or that of any other Mormons, or Evangelicals for that matter in the article you are slamming. I'll tell you who questions legitimacy and faith though-Mouth-breathers like you and your ilk on the right hand side of the aisle! Fox News does it all the time, you guys do it to Obama, asking if he's a secret Muslim or a Christian who believes in UFO. Douche.
Since Jimmy Carter announced during the 1976 presidential campaign that he was a born-again Christian, the media have been fascinated by religion, but not so much that they would labor to understand it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a devout Mormon, but Reid gets a media pass on his faith because he toes the line on the secular left’s agenda, from abortion to same-sex marriage, which Reid endorsed last week. That his church teaches the opposite of the way he votes doesn’t appear to concern him.
Wow, there's so much dumb in this paragraph that I don't know where to start. I think the media completely understands religion, but a reporter's job is to report about it, not to endorse it. This is what you guys on the Right don't understand. Sometimes you have to separate faith from reporting, unless you work for Fox of course. Before Carter we had entered a rather secular period in American history. Ike didn't wear his religion on his sleeve, neither did JFK or LBJ. For a lot of Americans outside of the South, Carter was their first encounter with a born-again, of course there was fascination. Carter legitimized being born-again and having great faith, and you guys still hated him. Fuck.
Harry Reid is a wuss, and is not running for President. He's basically been impotent since becoming Speaker of the House, of course the media doesn't care about him. Romney is running for President, it's a much bigger deal. Are you comparing Harry Reid to the President? The majority of American Christians engage in behaviors not endorsed by their churches. How many Catholics use birth control? Limbaugh has been married four or five times. People commit adultery, and don't love their neighbors as they love themselves. I hate how you right wing froth machines just pick and choose.
I'd also like to point out that there are many Christians who are in favor of gay marriage and are pro-choice. These are not Christian litmus tests. You can be in favor of gay rights and believe in Christ. You can follow the teachings of Jesus (who never, not once, mentions homosexuality) and still be gay.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, also a Mormon, is running for re-election in Utah. Hatch is less scary to the media because he made friends with late Sen. Ted Kennedy with whom he occasionally cooperated on legislation.
No, it's because Hatch isn't running for President.
Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, a devout Catholic, opposes the death penalty, as does the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church also opposes the “death penalty” for the unborn, but Cuomo challenged the Church’s position on abortion in his speech at Notre Dame in 1984 titled “Religious Belief and Public Morality: A Catholic Governor’s Perspective.” Why did no reporter press Cuomo on his “cafeteria theology”? Answer: Because his positions on the death penalty and abortion reflect the views of most in big media.
Sigh. I'm tired of having to explain things to you, but here we go. Most Americans don't march in lock-step with their church. It's just the truth, people can think for themselves. Maybe you can't, but most of us can. Why are you going back to 1984 anyways? Is that all you could find to harp about?
The questions reporters should be asking Mitt Romney are not about his style of worship or about Mormon theology, but rather which of his church’s beliefs he thinks are connected to earthly policies and which ones, if any, he will attempt to implement should he become president.
Only in your deluded little mind has the Mormon question become a big deal. I haven't heard anyone really making an issue of it. Yes, your guy is going to have some trouble with Evangelicals because Evangelicals have argued that Mormons aren't Christians for over a century. That's not the media's fault, that's the fault of some Evangelical Churches. I love how all of you on the right are now cozying up to Mormonism because your candidate is one. Romney hasn't been asked about his special underwear, celestial marriage, secret Temple rights, or whether he will follow The Prophet ahead of the Constitution.
On her Washington Post blog, Jennifer Rubin says the media has a “Mormon Obsession”: “In sum, the left’s obsession with Romney’s faith tells us more about their ignorance of faithful people of all religions than anything else. ... Whether born of ignorance (i.e. that other faiths don’t share these essential values) or rank bias or intention to paint Romney as weird, the definition of Romney as nothing more than a Mormon stick figure is pernicious in our political culture and begs the question: Why is the media entirely uninterested in Obama’s religious influences, and indeed has dubbed such discussion racist?”
To many Americans Mormonism is a mysterious thing. The Mormon Church has been removed from the mainstream for much of its history. There was polygamy, African-Americans weren't allowed to hold LDS priesthood until 1978, and Mormonism is against coffee. In places like the American South and the Northeast it's still a very unknown quantity. I'd expect lots of articles about Mormonism throughout the election season. It'll be an amazing opportunity for most Americans to see how far the faith has come since the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
And so should you, obviously. Some classes on "truth" would also be nice.
Cal Thomas is the country’s most widely syndicated columnist.
That doesn't make him a good or truthful one though.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Pagans and Politics
Most of you know that I do some blogging over at Patheos now. I blog over there because they get more traffic than a stand alone site like this one (I certainly don't do it for the money, over there I make nothing!). When I write something, I want it to be read, and for it to be read it needs to reach as wide of an audience as possible. So even if there's no compensation in writing over there, I get the satisfaction of sharing my work with others. It's cool. Sometimes I feel as if what I want to write about won't fit in over there, so I write about it on DPT. Sometimes those "don't fit" musings are about things specific to me, like my experiences at a festival or something along those lines. I also won't post anything "political" over there either, the audience is too large, and I'm scared of taking too many liberties with "Pagan Thought."
Over at Patheos my blog posts are part of a larger blog called "Agora," it's sort of a clearing house for bloggers over there without their own dedicated space. Last week I published a piece on Atheists and Pagans and the often strange alliance between the two. It was not my best work. Mostly it was a few observations that I tried to link together. I think I have a tendency to be a bit wordy, so anytime I post over there I intentionally try to simplify things, so there wasn't as much depth to it as I had originally wanted. I don't have access to page-view numbers over there, the only thing I can really see are "the shares" on Facebook. That little piece was linked to on Facebook 67 times, and since I didn't see it on Facebook 67 times I'm pretty sure that it was passed around by more than just my friends.
The same week my "Atheist/Pagan" post went up a number of "Political Pagan" pieces also went up. Most of them were about the "War on Women" currently being waged by some members of the Republican Party (I was pretty sure we had come to an agreement on contraception, apparently I was wrong). What was interesting to me was how little those articles were shared, topping out at 26 shares. Can we, as Pagans, feel political fatigue? How much should we really write about politics anyways? Perhaps people, when they visit a site about Paganism, want to read about Paganism and not the antics of Rush Limbaugh?
One of the problems with writing about "The War on Women" (and please remember, "men" aren't fighting a war against women here, some idiotic men are, and there are some women in that number as well), is that everyone has been writing about The War on Women. I can go to Huffingtonpost or The Daily Beast to read about it. It's certainly not something that's being under-reported in the liberal news sphere. I'm not belittling the issue, I think it's very important (I'm not of fan of going back to the Middle Ages), it's just how many opinions or articles about it do you need?
Unless I'm reading The Wild Hunt I'm not sure how much "body politic" I want in my Paganism (and The Wild Hunt deals almost exclusively with issues relating directly to Pagans). Sure, there are some things which have turned political that are hard to divorce from Paganism, things like preserving the natural world, and issues of equality (especially related to gender). But you can be a Pagan, and be either pro-choice or pro-life, there's not a litmus test. I know Pagans who are against abortion rights, despite what's often portrayed in the blogosphere, there are conservative Pagans. As I've grown older I've tried to stay away from sweeping generalizations about our political leanings as a whole; politically we probably aren't as diverse as the various gods we worship, but there are dissenting opinions out there.
(I will admit to being baffled by "Pagan Republicans." I can understand being politically conservative, but I'm always confused by Pagans who identify with the Tea Party and folks like Sarah Palin. I can't imagine being buddy/buddy with someone who would happily take away my religious freedom. I also can't imagine being a Republican and being in favor of gay rights-though some Democrats aren't all that progressive on the issue either. I understand being a Libertarian leaning Pagan, especially the self sufficient "live off the grid" types, but I'm sorry folks, Ron Paul is not the answer.)
When Pagan liberties are being threatened, and religious freedoms are being trampled upon, we should certainly comment on those things, but do we need to put our athames into every aspect of the greater culture wars? It's one thing to comment on the asinine things being done by a misguided few, it's another thing to inject our spirituality directly into the controversy. I get annoyed when a Christian Pastor talks politics in the pulpit, or talks about them as a member of a religious order. You probably do too, why should Pagans be any different?
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Israeli Antiquities, Courts, and a Bone Box
The James Ossuary
Friday, March 2, 2012
Post "Insert Con Here" Update-Part Two
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Post "Insert Con Here" Update
Writing a "Post Insert Con Here Update" has nearly become an expectation. Every blogger who visits a major Pagan Festival, whether it be Pantheacon or Convocation tends to do it, and as I'm not always a very original thinker, I'm doing the same. The only difference between me and most of those other bloggers is that I'm brave (dumb?) enough to hit both. So yeah, two Pagan Festivals, eleven days, and a whole lot of exhaustion. Welcome to my world.
Until this year I had never really noticed that it's not "Pantheacon" and that the organizers spell it "PantheaCon," with the upper case "C" at the end. I guess there are always lots of things I don't notice about PantheaCon, probably because it's just so big and overwhelming. This year they had about 2500 attendees (I've been in towns with less people), and almost 300 workshops, panels, concerts, etc., and that doesn't even count the off the grid parties in various rooms and suites. So yeah, overwhelming, but always oh so rewarding.
This year was a very different PantheaCon experience for me because I ended up staying in a hospitality room on the second floor. Hospitality Rooms are basically a way for groups to distribute literature, information, and to promote themselves. As a newly minted resident of the Bay Area's South Bay, I thought it was important to try and promote some of the groups I hang out with down here. For the uninitiated, the San Francisco Bay Area is composed of several moving parts, and in the Pagan world it's the East Bay (Berkeley/Oakland) that tends to host the most Pagan events. Since I believe in staying in your backyard, I thought that reminding the world that Paganism exists in the South Bay was a noble idea.
The idea was noble, but not all that I hoped it would be.
If you run a hospitality room, PantheaCon wants that room to be open for large parts of the day, fair enough, but since I hadn't thought everything through very well, I started to feel like I was trapped in the room. I had many people from my local community tell me that having our "own room" made the festival for them, and for that I'm happy, but sometimes I just wanted to close the door and decompress, or head out in search of mischief elsewhere. What I should have done was sign people up to be in charge of the room for various chunks of time, but as I was new to all of this it didn't occur to me beforehand. It wasn't a complete disaster or anything, and I did have some fun singing along to various rock songs in the room and engaging in esoteric conversation there, but if I do it again, it'll be done differently.
What's most important to me about PantheaCon are my workshops, and those took up nearly my entire Saturday. Presenters at PantheaCon don't generally do more than one workshop a day, somehow I ended up doing two workshops in a pretty compressed period of time. I did one at 3:30 pm and a second one at 7:00 pm. I've done that kind of thing before, but since PantheaCon is so much bigger than any other festival, each workshop takes more out of me.
When I present I generally want to lay it all out on the floor. In a figurative sense I want people to leave my workshops with the feeling that they are taking a little piece of my soul with them. I want to end the thing with my guts spilled out on the floor, with every ounce I had to give given freely. I honestly believe in really putting myself out there, and burning up every ounce of RedBull and Hard Cider in my system while doing it. Sometimes I feel like I achieve all that, and sometimes I don't, but it's always the goal.
Every year I also tend to favor one of my workshops over the others. Sometimes that's because it's a "new" one, other times it's because some of them are just closer to my heart. This year I was favoring my Drawing Down the Moon: The Mechanics of Invoking Deity above all the others. I had a lot of reasons for favoring this workshop: I had been working on it for over a year, and because I think the practice of DDtM is vitally important. "Nailing" that workshop was my number one goal of the weekend, before cider, the ladies, selling books, or promoting the South Bay.
While I had a lot of energy invested in it, I also had a lot of fears about it. The biggest fear was that no one would show up for it. DDtM was scheduled at 3:30 pm that Saturday, the same time as workshops from Christopher Penczak, Raven Grimiassi, and Orion Foxwood (yes Midwesterners, you've never heard of Orion Foxwood, but he's a huge deal out here), in addition to those heavy hitters there were another eight workshops going on at the same time. To make matters worse I was presenting in what some of my friends call a "Rockstar Room." The Rockstar Rooms are the biggest rooms at Pcon, holding 100 or so people. I was legitimately worried that I'd be presenting to 15 people in a cavernous space; my soul crushed and my insides bruised, but that was only one of my many fears.
Drawing Down the Moon is an intensely personal thing, and by talking about something so personal I thought the workshop had the potential to piss people off, or at least upset them. An experience with deity is always going to be unique to each individual, to try and sum up all of those different unique feelings in an hour would be near impossible. My best hope was that people would forgive me for my transgressions with their experiences while not leaving in the middle of my presentation. My workshop also contained a section on practices that bear a resemblance to Drawing Down the Moon in other faith traditions, traditions I'm not an expert on. Getting corrected in the middle of a workshop sucks, and since I was going to comment on Voudun and the Golden Dawn I was pretty sure that someone was going to interrupt me.
So there are three fears laid bare, and there is still one to go, the fear of the unknown. I know how long my Horned God and Pan workshops are, and I can nearly do them blindfolded, but this workshop was all new. As a new workshop I wasn't sure how long it actually was going to be, or whether the various sections of it would link up properly. I also tend to throw in a few personal bits and stories (especially at the beginning), I wasn't even sure those would work since I had never really spoken about some of those experiences before.
One thing I had complete confidence in was a ridiculous pre-workshop slideshow designed to mimic those obnoxious "Did you Know?" type presentations you find in movie theaters before the previews start. The moment it started the laughter was loud and noticeable. The whole dumb idea went over far better than I thought it would too. People seemed to enjoy seeing a graphic that said "Did you Know?" with the statement "Jason will probably be sober for this workshop" underneath it. The whole thing worked so well that I thought about not doing the actual workshop at all and just leaving people with the slideshow, but I thought I might get in trouble for that, so I proceeded with the workshop.
One of the most amazing Pagan experiences I've ever had was when I first felt the power of the Goddess during a Drawing Down the Moon ceremony. Our High Priestess that night literally glowed in the darkness, there was an energy radiating from her that I had never felt before, and have only really felt a few times since then. Part of Modern Paganism's appeal is that it offers its practitioners an opportunity to literally interact with deity, to find joy and fear and awe and love in the presence of the gods. That's a lot of what I was hoping to articulate at my workshop, and when relating that story nearly brought me to tears, I considered the mission accomplished.
I don't usually cry while presenting, but I think I did for just a second at PantheaCon. A lot of the things I present are "just for fun." They are things I find interesting, and sometimes transformative, and while I hold many of those things close to my heart, they don't move me. Talking about the power of the Goddess while inside of her human vessel moves me. Reciting a few paragraphs from The Wind in the Willows about the Great God Pan moves me. Paganism is religion, Paganism is interaction with deity, Paganism makes me laugh, smile, cry, and tremble, and my faith moves me, and when I find myself, on a good day, able to articulate that passion I feel very good about myself. So if you were wondering how my workshop went, I think it went well.
If no one had said anything to me about it when I was done, I still would have thought it went fine, but at the end I had a big line of people wanting to buy books, and they don't buy books if you suck. In some ways that's "proof" of not going over like a lead balloon. My friend Angus summed up my workshop with these words: "Anyway, his presentation on Drawing Down the Moon was vintage Mankey: Peerless research coupled with a totally bonkers presentation. He traced the concept of invoking deity across the arc of History and across all the cultures of the world, illustrating it all with wonderful slides and sprinkling his trademark Junior High level humor throughout. It was like the History Channel had been overtaken by Beavis and Butthead." (I think he meant all of that as a positive.) I even got a "Best in Show" award on the Doing Magick blog for having the best workshop at PantheaCon. Since Robert is someone I truly respect and have admiration for, it's a high honor.
I ended up back in my hotel room around five, and after a workshop I tend to keep to myself (or cuddle with Ari) and decompress. Since I was in the hospitality room I couldn't do that, so I entertained people and had a cider. In what seemed like ten minutes I made my way back to one of the "Rockstar Rooms" to give my "Alcohol: Elixir of Life" workshop. The Alcohol Workshop is one I put together a year or so ago, and one I'm not all that happy with. I originally wanted to do a workshop on how Ancient Pagans used alcohol in religious practice. Since alcohol was such a large part of their lives, I could never find a way to truly unravel the mundane use of alcohol from the spiritual. So instead of being a workshop on alcohol in religion, it instead became more of a general history of alcohol in the Ancient World, plus a bit on its use in Monotheistic Religion. It's not a bad workshop, it just didn't turn out exactly how I wanted to.
Since I was pretty wiped out, I can't say that my 7:00 presentation was all that great. It was sort of fun, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't my best moment. I had been so passionate about the previous one, that I didn't have a whole lot of energy left over. Talking about alcohol is fun, but I'm not passionate about it. I also had about half the class size that I had at 3:30, not surprising since I was up against some rituals, dinner, and a whole host of other things. My favorite part of that workshop is the term "social jollification" which is a phrase the early Mormon Church used when having a drinking party. They believed that alcohol provided social jollification, and I'm going to do my damnedest to bring that phrase back.
I'm sure I did other things Saturday night at Pantheacon (usually the height of the festival), but I don't remember what they were. By midnight I was running on less that fumes, I think the car was just stuck in neutral and was only moving because I was going downhill (or being dragged around). Ari was out until three, so someone was keeping the Mankey flag waving.
Sunday was a pretty low key day, and offered me a chance to just talk with some people and hit some workshops. Sunday morning I got my "fanboy" on and went to a Philip Heselton talk. Heselton is a historian and researcher who has done a great deal to shed some light on the origins of Modern Witchcraft. To say he's one of my favorite authors would be understating it a little bit. I got there pretty late (I slept for a small eternity), and ended up with a horrible seat and couldn't quite make out all of his slides, but no biggie, most of the pictures he showed I've already seen. I did get a little bit irritated that people kept interrupting Heselton while he was talking. Anyone who presents workshops on the early Craft tends to get interrupted, and I don't get it. Yes, we know you are smart too, but if you want to present your own workshop, then by all means do so.
After Heselton I had lunch at what Angus calls "Cafe Ho-Hum," (the mediocre in-hotel restaurant) with Robert from the Doing Magick blog I linked to above. I only see Robert once a year at Pantheacon, and I always try to make sure I carve an hour out of the schedule to chat with him. He's much of a ceremonial magician than I am, so I always appreciate his rather different perspective on spirituality. Post-lunch Ari and I went on a vendor room shopping spree, spending far more than we ever dreamed we would. Surprisingly we didn't buy any statues, but we did get window treatments, clothes, crowns for ritual, and a bunch of other stuff. I don't think I bought any books either which is very weird for me.
Dinner was spent with Community Seed (Pagans from Santa Cruz) before heading to Club Max(!) to see Angus do "Pagan Humor IV: A New Hope." (Club Max is a club in the hotel, usually reserved for the mundane folks on the weekend, and had never been used at Pantheacon before.) What is Pagan humor? It's comedy from a Pagan, and let me tell you, Angus is just born to do it. I laughed so hard that I cried a few times. He also insulted every car I've ever owned. I don't give praise lightly, and I never imagined that I would give a giant thumbs up to a Pagan humorist, but I'm doing it. If you ever get a chance to catch Angus, go do it. One of these years I want to take him out East with me and show him off at other Pagan Festivals.
Sunday Night I actually went out and tried to party a bit, but I just wasn't feeling it. I really missed the usual "Green Fairy Party," nothing compares. There were lots of folks trying to pick up the slack, but the vibe was different. Eventually the party I was at got invaded by hotel mundies. Have to give credit where credit is due though, the Pagan Alliance folks went out of there way to be hospitable, and it was a good place to decompress and drink for a few hours.
Monday morning Ari and I shared an elevator with T. Thorn Coyle who smiled at me and said "I didn't know Dionysus drank coffee in the morning." I didn't know that T. Thorn Coyle knew anything about me! I had big stupid grin on my face after that the rest of the morning and it made the packing and leaving that much easier. Coyle is a top-notch writer, someone I deeply respect in the community, and a fantastic presenter and ritualist. So yay to me I guess.
For those of you who keep up with the Pagan blogosphere, you are probably aware of the controversy stemming from Z. Budapest's "genetic women only" ritual Sunday night at Pantheacon. In addition to the ritual, there was also a "sit in" outside of it, protesting the exclusion of trans-gendered women. The link above is a great place to get caught up on the issue, and while I have opinions about it, I'm not sure I have much to offer the conversation.
Paganism has always been exclusionary, and as an initiatory tradition that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Not everyone who wants to be initiated into a traditional group gets to do so, and a coven based on "perfect love and perfect trust" is always going to be selective, and that's as it should be. However, those groups don't tend to offer public rituals where credentials are checked at the door. There's a time and a place for everything, and then there are times and places where perhaps some things shouldn't be done. I'm of the opinion that if someone thinks of themselves as a woman, then they should be allowed to go to a woman's only ritual in a public space. I'm not arguing that a group can't exclude someone, just that exclusion should probably not be occurring at an open festival. It's not my festival and I don't make the rules, and on the plus side, the controversy does open up a dialogue, one which I hope will be beneficial to the entire community.
How many words is this? Too many. I'll write about Convocation later this week.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Led Zeppelin and Tarot
When it comes to Led Zeppelin people like to, for lack of a better phrase, "tell me things." The assumption always seems to be that they know secret things about the band that I'm just not aware of. That tradition truly started about fifteen years ago at a small New Age/Pagan gathering in Lansing, Michigan. I was sitting around, in a Led Zeppelin shirt* of course, minding my own business when a guy who looked like 1974 came up to me and said "Dude, did you know that the song Gallows Pole is a meditation on the Hanged Man tarot card?" Not knowing exactly how to answer, my younger (dumber) self mumbled something about how I was already aware of that, which I wasn't.
When I got home that night I dutifully went upstairs to my room, dug up the second CD from Led Zeppelin's 1990 boxed set, and sat down with the tarot's Hanged Man card. I stared at that card for a good fifteen minutes, with Zep's Gallows Pole on repeat for the whole time. I'm not sure what I expected to happen, but what I expected was certainly more than the nothing that occurred. I'd move the card really close to my eyes, and then as far away from me as my arm would reach, and I did this over and over again trying to gain some divine insight into the world, Led Zeppelin, and the occult. Thankfully, no one was around to watch my stupid card trick that evening.
Now there are as many interpretations of tarot cards as there are tarot decks, but it was always my understanding that the Hanged Man card represented something between the worlds. The Hanged Man is not simply a soon to be corpse blowing in the wind, but a spiritual seeker, attempting to see the next world while on this plane of existence. The Led Zeppelin song Gallows Pole ends with the protagonist dead as a doornail, with all of his attempts to get free of the noose an utter failure. His brother brings gold and silver, his sister sleeps with the executioner, but he still winds up dead. If that's a meditation on the Hanged Man card, I don't want to ever see it come up in a card reading.v
In truth, the song has nothing to do with the tarot and the songs original origins lie in Scandinavia where it was originally a 15th Century children's folk song with a much happier ending. While the tarot predates the song (European style decks were in use by 1450, perhaps a few decades earlier), the cards were originally Christian symbols, and didn't receive their occult associations until the 1800's. In a long and winding bit of evolution the song eventually migrated to the British Isles, and from there to North America. In the late 1930's a version of it was recorded by blues singer Leadbelly, who dubbed the song Gallis Pole. According to most Zep biographers Page was inspired to do the tune after hearing a version of the Leadbelly song recorded by California folk-singer Fred Gerlach. However, author Mick Wall believes that Page nicked Zeppelin's version of the song from African-American folk singer Dorris Henderson, who recorded the song with Pentangle guitarist John Renbourne. So Dutch song, then English folk song, then a blues tune, then an Americanized folk song based on the blues version. Interesting history, but no tarot. (Not that there's a lot of Dorris Henderson out there on the internet, but her voice was amazing.)
Led Zeppelin does has have a history with the tarot, it's jut not quite as spectacular as the dude stuck in 1974 would have had me believe. Most of the association between Led Zeppelin and tarot is due to 1971's Led Zeppelin IV (also sometimes called Runes or Zoso in honor of the glyphs associated with it), and even some of that is wishful thinking. At another more recent festival I had just finished up presenting my Led Zeppelin and the Occult workshop to 75 mostly non-napping people, when a young lady come up to me with a tarot card in her hand. She wanted me to know that the figure on the front of Led Zeppelin IV represented the Ten of Wands.
According to Jimmy Page (guitar, and if you don't know who he is I have no idea why you are reading this) the cover to Zep IV came about when "Robert found the picture of the old man with the sticks and suggested that we work it into the cover somehow. So we decided to contrast the modern skyscraper on the back with the old man and the sticks-you see the destruction of the old and the new coming forward." I'm not entirely sure that's true either, but there is probably something to the claim of contrasting new and old. The classic interpretation of the Ten of Wands has nothing to do with that balance, and instead represents either a large burden, or being unable to see the road in front of you (perhaps because of that burden). The man in the picture is a little stooped over, but he doesn't seem especially troubled by it.
The card I was shown by the lovely lady in question that day did look a lot like the cover of Zeppelin IV, in fact, it looked almost exactly like it. I was actually a bit stupefied that day thinking I had come across something I had previously been unaware of. When I got back home after the festival I began researching the Ten of Cups and was disappointed to find that the reverse of what this girl had told me was true. The cover of Led Zeppelin IV had inspired a reinterpretation of the Ten of Wands, and that the original Ten of Wands was something else entirely. Since the Ten of Wands/Old Man Cover was brought to my attention I've seen multiple decks with sticks on the back, and all of them date to after Zep IV. I think it's cool that Zeppelin inspired something, but it's not the cover of Zeppelin's fourth album that links the band to the tarot, it's the album's gatefold sleeve.
The most striking tarot related image in the Led Zeppelin catalog is on the gatefold sleeve of Zeppelin's untitled fourth album and features the Hermit from the Major Arcana. Jimmy Page has been exceedingly blunt about the fact that it's the Hermit, “The inside cover was painted by a friend of mine. It's basically an illustration of a seeker aspiring to the light of truth." (The work was credited to the artist Barrington Colby-Mom, who subsequently then fell off the face of the earth.) The Hermit card must have been pretty important to Page, because he dresses up in hermit garb for a silly sequence in the Led Zeppelin concert movie The Song Remains the Same. Of course the Hermit represents the search for truth and wisdom, precisely the kind of soul searching that seemed to go into the lyrics of "Stairway to Heaven." The Hermit on that particular album sleeve makes perfect sense when paired up with "Stairway," the ultimate song about soul searching.
After Led Zeppelin IV the band handed off the album cover art duties to the British firm Hipgnosis, who also designed album covers for bands like Pink Floyd. I don't want to say that the tarot imagery stopped because of Hipgnosis, but it never graced the inside of a Led Zeppelin album again. Perhaps just because it couldn't be topped, hard to say. Page obviously remained proud of his association with The Hermit, appearing as the old wizard in 1976's The Song Remains the Same concert movie (though that sequence was filmed several years earlier), but was that the last explicit tarot reference in the music or art of Led Zeppelin, until possibly 2003.
On May 27 2003, Led Zeppelin released a two disc DVD set of live concert footage, none of which had been officially released to the public before. To say that day was a national holiday for me is an understatement. I took the day off from work to listen to "get the Led out" and listsen to Led Zeppelin literally all day. Upon purchasing the DVD set I was struck by the cover art, featuring some old crumbling mountains standing alone, surrounded by desert. The mountain in the picture doesn't look entirely natural either, it might be something that was carved by human beings. It's old and crumbling, but still standing proudly, ravaged but remaining upright in the face of adversity. It implies a certain eternalness, "age may weather me but I will still remain," type of thing. This king of imagery is common on the tarot card known as "The Tower."
The Tower has several different interpretations in Tarot. Some of them are quite negative, some more positive. The original symbolism of the card probably relates back to the Tower of Babel, which would be fitting for the band that wrote and recorded Stairway to Heaven. I'm not quite sure if the DVD art and the Tower card are related, but the base of the Tower and the base of the mountains on the DVD box tend to make me believe I'm on the right path.
No matter what all the art means in Zeppelin, the band does stand eternal. Even now, forty odd years after their first record they continue to move three million albums annually. That's impressive. Trends come and go, but Led Zeppelin remain, kind of like Tarot Cards.
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Pregnant mom drives car into the ocean
The three children (ages 3, 9 and 10) and the unborn baby of Ebony Wilkerson are lucky to be alive, despite the fact that she drove her van into the frigid Atlantic Ocean. Two hours prior to this horrific event, the Daytona Police interviewed her, deemed that she was sane and left. The day before, a local hospital kept her overnight for mental health observation for 24 hours and then sent her home. If I were the sister of Ebony Wilkerson, I’d speed-dial liability attorneys and then immediately request Wilkerson’s medical records because obviously someone dropped the proverbial ball.
Wilkerson’s sister knew something wasn’t right because Wilkerson exhibited paranoia and kept discussing Jesus and demons that she felt were controlling her. She had fled South Carolina because she believed that her ex-husband was attempting to kill her. Eerily, Wilkerson is from the same state where Susan Smith drove her children into the ocean 20 years ago and blamed the crime on an unknown man. Unlike Smith, whose children died; Wilkerson and her three children were gratefully rescued by a heroic group of men who selflessly plunged into the water to save them.
Kudos goes to Wilkerson’s sister who had the wisdom to call law enforcement and report her sister’s bizarre behavior and hide her car keys. Unfortunately Wilkerson had another set of keys. What’s troubling about this case is how Wilkerson was able to sign herself out of the hospital and how she fooled the police to thinking that she was sane which meant that didn’t have to “Baker Act” her or commit her to the hospital . I find it hard to believe that Wilkerson could walk out of a hospital after seeing a psychiatrist which leads me to speculate that perhaps the hospital didn’t have a psychiatrist on duty at the time.
Law enforcement officers are not trained mental health specialists. In the future, when they are called for a suspected mental health issue, a better approach might be to take the individual to the hospital, despite the appearance of a person’s “calm demeanor” and let the experts make or rule out the diagnosis of mental illness.
Mental illness is not a joke, America. It claims innocent lives every day.
Please share your thoughts with me on Twitter (Yourobgyn@twitter.com ) or Facebook (www.smartmothersguide@facebook.com ).
How to Keep a Short Cervix from Messing Up Your First Pregnancy
It’s your first pregnancy and very exciting. While doing your first ultrasound, the technician frowns as she scans your cervix with a vaginal probe. You ask what’s wrong and she mutters something about the cervix being too short but that your provider will explain more. What’s going on? You could possibly have a short cervix which means you’re at risk for having the baby too soon.
One out of eight babies born in the United States is premature which accounts for over one-half million babies each year. Premature birth is the leading cause of infant death, brain damage, blindness and other complications that costs $26 billion dollars a year in health care.
Women who have had a previous premature baby are at significant risk for having another one and should be seen immediately by a maternal fetal medicine specialist (a high risk pregnancy specialist). Does this also apply to women who are pregnant for the first time? The answer is yes. All pregnant women should receive an ultrasound for dating and documenting normal fetal anatomy no later than the middle of the second trimester and if the cervical length is less than 2.5 centimeters, the mother is at risk for a premature birth even if she is not complaining of cramping or bleeding. If the cervix is less than 25 mm or 2.5 cm,
· A repeat ultrasound should be done ASAP to document the short cervix
· Vaginal progesterone tablets should be prescribed as soon as possible and before 24 weeks. Why? Because they reduce premature births by 44%
This information is especially important for first-time pregnant women who have no documented history of previous preterm births. Several years ago, first-time pregnant moms with a short cervix were not treated but recent medical studies have proven that these women should be treated. Therefore, a short cervix should not be ignored.
Remember, a healthy pregnancy doesn’t just happen. It takes a smart mother or knows what to do.
Please share this blog with friends, “like” me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SmartMothersGuide and follow me on Twitter: yourobgyn@twitter.com
How can we prevent a Teen Mom from Carrying a Dead Fetus in a Shopping Bag?
Fetus in a shopping bag
Tiona Rodriguez, a 17 year old teen mom was arrested in a New York City Victoria Secrets store on suspicion of shoplifting and accompanied by 17 year-old Francis Estevez, who was also arrested. The security guard looked in the shopping bag and found a foul-smelling dead fetus wrapped in a black plastic bag along with underwear and clothes. Rodriguez informed him that she was 6 months pregnant, had a miscarriage and didn’t know what to do with the baby. She was then taken to Bellevue Hospital, most likely for a psychiatric evaluation. The dead baby was taken to the morgue where it was reported that he weighed 8 ½ pounds and died from suffocation. It is alleged that Rodriguez gave birth at Estevez’s house and from a recent picture on Facebook® where she is wearing camouflage pants and a tee-shirt; it is quite possible that she was concealing the pregnancy. She was allegedly excited about an upcoming interview at a popular restaurant.
There will be those who despise Rodriguez and others who will sympathize with her. Could this tragedy have been prevented? Absolutely and here’s how:
• Rodriguez should have received a long-acting birth control method before leaving the hospital after having her first baby 2 years ago
• All pregnant teens should have at least one home visit during their pregnancy by The Healthy Start Program or the Pregnant Home Visit Program
• Messages about the Safe Haven Infant Protection Law should be plastered in doctors’ offices, prenatal clinics, billboards, text-messages, buses, subways and even on MTV to let families know that they can anonymously leave their baby at a hospital, fire and police departments for three days without getting in trouble
• Adoption IS an option. There are loving parents desperately waiting to adopt newborns and give them a decent home.
A newborn baby took his first breath and then ended up dead in a shopping bag. Who ever thought we’d see this in the 21st century?
What Will Prenatal Care Look Like in the Future?
Does Fear Prolong Labor?
Journalist Nicholas Bakalar of the New York Times wrote an article that addressed a profound issue regarding pregnancy: Does Fear Make Labor Longer?
Over 2,000 pregnant women in Norway were given a questionnaire at 32 weeks to determine if they had a fear of labor. These women were then followed to determine how long they were in labor and according to the study, there was a 47 minute difference in the length of labor of 165 women who feared childbirth compared to those who don’t. Why is this important? It’s important because fear is something that we can control.
Three of the most empowering things a pregnant woman can do are request a tour of the labor room before she has a baby, take childbirth classes and request pain meds or an epidural if she experiences pain while in labor. When a pregnant woman is calm, the unborn baby is calm but if she’s writhing in pain, the adrenaline that she’s producing affects the baby and inevitably causes fetal distress. Prolonged fetal distress means emergency c. section.
One of my most memorable deliveries was as an intern during the late ‘80’s. Recording artist Anita Baker was very popular back then. I was astounded when a very “Yuppy” expectant father, pulled out a tape cassette and played Baker’s tape while his wife was in labor. He requested dim lights and held his wife’s hand as they listened to my favorite song, Sweet Love. Although I respected their privacy, I was never far from their room. His wife ultimately had a beautiful, uncomplicated delivery that left an indelible impression.
No, everyone doesn’t have to listen to Anita Baker while they’re in labor but they should do what makes them comfortable including receiving an epidural or pain meds if necessary. You don’t have to be stoic. Here’s a quote from The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy that I’d like to leave you with: “The Force that moves the air within our lungs, the blood within our veins, is the same force that has created the life within your womb. The most important key to a healthy pregnancy is the consciousness that lies within. Your child will be shaped by your thoughts, your dreams, your values, your energy. You are the ship that will carry the baby to the shores of its preordained human experience. Please let the journey be smooth.”
You are smarter, stronger and more brilliant than you could ever imagine. Childbirth should not be feared. It should be celebrated.
Why Pregnant Women Need to Know About MRSA
Photo credit: Public Health Image Library (PHIL)
A few years ago, a 20-something year old pregnant woman presented to her physician with complaints of a skin bump that was red and painful. She was told it was a spider bit and given antibiotics. The patient ultimately went in labor but required an emergency cesarean which went well without any complications. Four days later she developed skin lesions and 3 months later she expired after a very stormy hospital course. What did she die of? MRSA, which stands for Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus.
Staph Aureus (Staph) is a bacteria that can be found on the skin and doesn’t usually cause problems as long as there are no breaks or cuts in the skin. However, if there are cuts and Staph gains entry into the skin, an infection can develop that if often not serious. However, Staph has a very dangerous form that is resistant to the medications that will normally treat it. The resistant form of Staph can cause havoc if unrecognized which can lead to several complications including death. In fact, 20% of people who have (MRSA) dies from this infection because the diagnosis is made too late. One of the most common complaints patients have when there is a MRSA infection is a bump or red lesion on the skin that is misdiagnosed as a spider bite. How do you avoid the misdiagnosis? By knowing who is at risk and what to look for.
MRSA tends to be found in places where there are many people living close to each other such as nursing homes, but of late, several cases are also associated with
• People who are either in a prison or an athletic facility.
• Athletes who share towels or razors
People who either work in prisons or visit relatives or friends incarcerated should always wash their hands after a visit.
If you are given a diagnosis of a “spider bite,” request that it be cultured, meaning a Q-tip is used to take a sample from the bump. Sometimes people can have the infection without having any symptoms. This is known as being a “carrier.” Again, if you are given the diagnosis of having a spider bite, ask that a culture be obtained from inside of your nose to make certain you don’t have MRSA.
MRSA can be treated appropriately with the right antibiotics. Medicines that are associated with Penicillin such as Amoxicillin and cephaplosporins will not work.
When Doctors Won’t Listen (Part 2)
ImageIn Part 1 of Monday’s blog, we learned about Angela Burgin Login, a first-time pregnant mom who was developing pre-eclampsia but the signs were ignored by her physician. Angela almost lost her life because the recognition of her diagnosis was delayed. While most pregnancies are uneventful, a “normal” pregnancy will not always mean a “normal” birth. Things can change quickly, especially in the labor room. In order to have a favorable outcome at the end of a pregnancy, the healthcare provider and the patient must be in total agreement regarding expectations and treatment. Sometimes that may not happen. The most important task of a pregnant mother is to select the right provider and Chapter 1 of The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy addresses this issue in detail. What then should a patient do if her physician is not responsive to her concerns? Here are a few strategies:
1. Ask that your concerns be documented in your chart and then ask to receive a copy of the chart. If your concerns are still present and not addressed to your satisfaction, call your insurance company, explain the situation and request approval to change providers.
2. If for some reason, you are not able to change physicians or providers, contact your insurance company, explain yours concerns and dissatisfaction, then ask for approval to obtain a consultation with a high-risk specialist (aka maternal fetal medicine) so that he or she can evaluate your condition to make certain that it’s not high-risk
3. If you are in labor and are not satisfied with your progress, have a family member or your support person request to speak to the nursing supervisor. When he or she arrives, inform them of your concerns and that you want it documented in your chart. Ask her who is the on-call or consulting maternal fetal medicine specialist and then request an in-house consultation. Simultaneously contact your insurance company, explain your concerns and ask for approval for the consultation advising them that if anything happens to you or your baby, they have been duly notified in advance. Also ask to speak to the hospital’s risk management office as well.
By implementing these strategies, you improve your chances of having a favorable outcome because you are formally documenting your concerns and holding people accountable for your patient care. Your proactive role will protect both you and your child.
Most physicians are compassionate, competent and caring. On rare occasion, you might unfortunately encounter one who needs to be “brought back down to Earth.” If that happens, you now know what to do.
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How We Oppress the Christians
Here is a clear example of the terrible Hollywood liberals' effect on the real Americans:
On Thursday, a board member charged that proposed new books ran counter to a Texas law banning the recognition of gay civil unions because the texts used terms like "married partners" instead of "husband and wife."
Moreover, one of the publishers agreed to even more fundamental changes:
That lifelong bit really shows the oppression of fundamental Christians who have gotten divorced! But at least the coastal elites didn't get this term inserted, though they tried:
Neither publisher added all the changes Leo initially pushed for. For instance, one proposed passage in the teacher's editions read: "Opinions vary on why homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals as a group are more prone to self-destructive behaviors like depression, illegal drug use, and suicide."
Poor Christians. They almost got oppressed here, again and again.
P.S. This is a very poor example of sarcasm. | http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-we-oppress-christians.html | dclm-gs1-444945528 | false | false | {
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14-Eyes are 3rd Party partners forming the SIGINT Seniors Europe
(Updated: April 16, 2014)
On December 11, the Swedish public television channel SVT published a range of new NSA-documents from the Snowden-collection. One is a text which for the first time proves that intelligence agencies of nine European countries are 3rd Party partners of NSA.
These countries are: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Earlier, these nations were identified as forming the 14-Eyes group, for which we now also have a real name: SIGINT Seniors Europe or SSEUR.
(Click for a bigger version)
Unfortunately only this very small excerpt was published, so we don't know what the rest of the document is about. But as small as it is, it reveals some interesting new things, which will be explained in this article:
- The 3rd Party status of a number of European countries
- The existance of a group called SIGINT Seniors Europe
- More clarity about the mysterious 14-Eyes
3rd Party countries
This is probably the first time that an official NSA document is published in which several 3rd Party countries are named. Until now, we only had documents proving this status for only a few separate countries, and we had a range of countries that were suggested to be 3rd Party partners by intelligence experts.
From the countries mentioned in the fragment published by Swedish television, only France, Germany, Norway, Italy, Belgium and probably Spain were supposed to be 3rd Party partners. Sweden, Denmark and especially The Netherlands were not listed as such, so with this new disclosure, we now know for sure that the intelligence agencies of all these nations have the 3rd Party status.
Being a 3rd Party means that there's a formal bilateral agreement between NSA and a foreign (signals) intelligence agency. Probably the main thing that distinguishes this from other, less formal ways of cooperating, is that among 3rd party partners, there's also exchange of raw data, and not just of finished intelligence reports or other kinds of support. Also both parties have a Special Liaison Officer (SLO) assigned at each others agency.
It's not quite clear what the initial 3rd Party agreements are called, but we know that later on specific points are often laid down in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). An example is the Memorandum of Understanding between NSA and the Israeli signals intelligence unit, which was published by The Guardian on September 11, 2013.
SIGINT Seniors Europe
As the newly published fragment starts with an asterisk, it seems to be a footnote in a document about intelligence training, explaining which countries are "SSEUR members": the Five Eyes (United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and nine other European countries: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
The abbreviation SSEUR is seen here for the first time, and luckily Swedish television also published another document which says that SSEUR stands for SIGINT Seniors Europe (SIGINT is an acronym for Signals Intelligence):
Fragment of an NSA document mentioning SIGINT Seniors Europe (SSEUR)
(Names whited out are replaced by black bars for better readability)
Apart from this, we have no further information about the SIGINT Seniors Europe. But there's an explanation, provided to this weblog by our French counterpart Zone d'Intérêt, which probably comes very close to what this group could be:
The term "SIGINT Senior" may designate the highest ranking SIGINT officer of a foreign (signals) intelligence agency, rather than a country as a whole. For example, in France, the Directeur Technique (DT) inside the foreign intelligence agency DGSE is called "le Senior SIGINT" exactly.
Intelligence agencies aren't organized the same way in each country. Some countries have intelligence agencies inside police forces, military intelligence in the field, defense agencies which collect both for military operations and counterterrorism, etc. Also the laws aren't the same in every country.
Therefore, it's obviously more convenient to have one single point of contact in each country, to discuss SIGINT-related issues, or even for actually passing signals intelligence, with maybe some pre-processing already done, instead of having to do this with different people from different agencies and units in each country.
This explanation fits the fact that the document mentions SSEUR together with the NATO Advisory Committee on Special Intelligence (NACSI), which is also a platform for discussing SIGINT-related issues.
From the nine European countries of SSEUR, only Sweden is not a member of NATO, but as mentioned earlier, Sweden is often cooperating with NATO countries. More interesting is that Belgium is part of this group too. Belgium is a small country and reportedly has hardly any SIGINT capabilities. That is to say: domestically, but maybe there's some more substantial SIGINT collection by Belgian troops participating in military operations abroad.
With SSEUR containing European 3rd Party partners, it's very well possible that there are also similar groups of partner agencies in other parts of the world, with the East-Asian/Pacific Rim region being the most likely.
The 14-Eyes
The SIGINT Seniors Europe comprise 14 countries, and when we look at their names, we see that they are identical to the nations of which The Guardian in November said they form a group called 14-Eyes.
As this latter group was also never heard of, we looked for some possible explanations in an article on this weblog last month. But by then we didn't know exactly and for sure which countries were 3rd Party partners, so it was hard to get things clarified.
Now that we know that all nine European countries, including Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands, have 3rd Party status, it's clear that our option "A" came closest: 14-Eyes stands for a number of 3rd Party countries who have something in common - likely having a 'SIGINT Senior' officer as single point of contact for NSA and the Five Eyes.
As explained in our earlier article, an 'Eyes' designation is most often used as a handling instruction for restricting dissemination of sensitive information among a certain group of countries. In this case, 14-Eyes apparently serves as dissemination marking for information authorized for release to the 14 members of the SIGINT Seniors Europe group.
An article from 2001 about the history of Dutch signals intelligence clarifies that SIGINT Senior Meetings (SSMs) are attended by the heads of agencies responsible for signals intelligence, like NSA, GCHQ, the German BND, the French DGSE, the Italian SISMI, and the military intelligence services of Norway, Denmark, Belgium and other countries.
The SIGINT Senior Meetings coordinate the military intelligence needs for the participating countries, resulting in the actual exchange of data and information through the Signals Intelligence Data System (SIGDASYS). Originally this was some kind of computer system that acted as a back-up in case one of the countries lost its own SIGINT capacity.
Later, SIGDASYS became a database in which all participating nations poured military SIGINT and other information, and, on a quid pro quo basis, could get out the intelligence they needed themselves. In this way, SIGDASYS decreased the overlap in data collection and played an important role during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. The system is managed by the multinational SIGDASYS Committee which reports to the SIGINT Seniors meeting.
The article says that for the Netherlands, it was the head of the former military intelligence agency MID (1988-2002) who participated in the SIGINT Seniors meetings, often accompanied by the director of TIVC, a unit which processed Dutch signals intelligence.
On Twitter, a Dutch journalist working on the Snowden-papers added that initially it was the head of the former Dutch navy intelligence agency MARID who attended the SIGINT Seniors meetings and nowadays it's a senior official of the Military Intelligence and Security Agency MIVD. He also said that membership of this 14-Eyes group is not fixed and can change over time.
According to the book 'The NSA Complex', which was published by Der Spiegel in March 2014, the Sigint Seniors Europe (SSEUR) group was established in 1982 for more efficiently monitoring the Soviet Union.*
All this makes clear that 14-Eyes is the designator for information that is restricted to the 14 nations participating in a group called SIGINT Seniors Europe (SSEUR), which apparently exists for some 30 years. SSEUR meetings are attended by the heads or senior officials of the signals intelligence agencies of the 14 countries, who coordinate the sharing of military intelligence. The actual data and information exchange takes place through a regional database of the Signals Intelligence Data System (SIGDASYS).
Links and Sources
- Cees Wiebes, "Dutch Sigint during the Cold War, 1945-94", in: Matthew M. Aid & Cees Wiebes, "Secrets of Signals Intelligence during the Cold War and Beyond", London, 2001, p. 276-277.
- Läs dokumenten om Sverige från Edward Snowden (2013)
- Paper 1: Echelon and its role in COMINT (2001)
No comments: | http://electrospaces.blogspot.nl/2013/12/14-eyes-are-3rd-party-partners-forming.html | dclm-gs1-444985528 | false | false | {
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0.09132 | <urn:uuid:cb8df108-263a-4c53-bf18-72ed10fbe989> | en | 0.946212 | Drudge and Palin's Afghanistan Messages: A Right-Wing Sybil Moment?
The Pentagon and "patriotic" hawks for years supported a prohibition on publishing pictures of slain soldiers' caskets. Then President Obama lifted the ban, thus giving Matt Drudge an opportunity to create this lovely collage commemorating the Afghanistan war's 8th anniversary.
It's almost as if, by some miracle, Drudge suddenly understands the real, human cost of war, a war he tacitly cheered on during Bush's reign. But, no: it doesn't take a genius to see this for what it is: a not-so-subtle visual jab at President Obama, who's currently deciding our military's future in that country. (The line above the pictures reads "Obama clings to 50% approval...")
While Drudge doesn't offer an actual editorial on the matter, Sarah Palin does: the sorta politician took to her Facebook page today to join her Republican peers and ask Obama to add more troops to the region.
We wonder, however, whether Drudge and Palin's efforts, though ostensibly working toward the same goal, will nullify one another. Palin and the Republican set are explicit: more troops! The typically conservative Drudge, we're assuming, supports that message, but his anti-Obama bias has obscured the header's bellicose undertones.
What happens when impressionable readers see all the death on Drudge's and think, "Gee, maybe this war business isn't good for anything?" It's almost as if the conservative camp's having a Sybil moment. Not that we can blame them: pinning all this death and destruction on Obama must be hard while also calling for more death and destruction. | http://gawker.com/5375890/drudge-and-palins-afghanistan-messages-a-right-wing-sybil-moment?comment=15851110 | dclm-gs1-445475528 | false | false | {
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0.019078 | <urn:uuid:1063bb1c-61b8-4c6d-9859-fa0893fbf4d7> | en | 0.964746 | Fears that the lawsuit against the Da Vinci Code could spell trouble for the publishing world
The impact of the plagiarism lawsuit against Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, could be dramatic for the world of writing and publishing.
In Britain, as in the U.S., ideas are not protected by copyright--it's the way they are expressed that counts. The accusation here is not that Mr. Brown's novel plagiarized the 1982 book's words. Plaintiff authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh assert that Mr. Brown wrongfully appropriated the "architecture" of their earlier work. For instance, the "Holy Blood" authors consulted documents in France relating to an alleged "Priory of Scion" organization that since 1099 has allegedly protected the secret of Jesus' marriage. Can, and did, the fruit of their labors turn up in another book?
The case is worrying to publishers and authors in part because it involves the issue of research and the point at which research becomes not just information but protected information. Depending on the judge's reasoning, a decision in favor of the plaintiffs could have a chilling effect on writers. A book (or other publication) need only appear in Britain for anyone, regardless of their nationality, to sue in a British court.
It's all the more depressing because "The Da Vinci Code" is a work of fiction, woven with legend ancient and new. So is the titillating essence of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," whatever its authors say or believe. "The "Priory of Scion" documents that figure in both books' conspiracy theorizing were long ago revealed to be grounded in a hoax. One of its principal architects, Pierre Plantard, a French anti-Semite and royal-blood pretender, contributed to a partial account of the conspiracy story in a book published in 1967. So perhaps Random House should pay his heirs.
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0.181407 | <urn:uuid:0ee50af0-5baa-40d3-941a-29982927c0d8> | en | 0.900388 |
Got ‘Degrassi’ Questions?
Got questions about “Degrassi”? We’re talking to Munro Chambers, Cristine Prosperi, Alex Steele, Annie Clark and Alicia Josipovic. Leave them here or in our ask box by Monday morning!
#degrassi #Munro Chambers #Cristine Prosperi #Alex Steele #Alicia Josipovic #Annie Clark
1. sipola answered: Do they still get to hang out with Drake?
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5. naniskatz answered: did you know that Degrassi was one of the most popular TV series in Peru? greetings from Lima! :D
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0.023307 | <urn:uuid:591ebae2-2f3d-4c29-90a5-a4d0589e2ebd> | en | 0.97594 | September 30, 2007
Duncan: History Lesson
In the extended online interviews for “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” this week, Bishop Duncan of The Common Cause Partners states:
Bishop Duncan’s account is telling both for what he omits and what he includes. First of all, from The Episcopal Church’s perspective, those southern dioceses were not “separated” — their bishops were “absent” but the roll was still called down yonder wherever the General Convention met.
More importantly, the rationale given for the separation by the separationists was the importance of defending the integrity of the national church. Since the Confederacy was a new nation, it was necessary for a new national church to be constituted for this new nation — just exactly as it had been “necessary” for the The Episcopal Church to separate from the Church of England at the creation of the United States, as the preface to our first BCP notes. Civil War veteran chaplain, and historian of The Episcopal Church, Archdeacon Charles C. Tiffany recorded the actions of the first Confederate Conclave:
It was unanimously resolved that the secession of the Southern States from the United States, and the formation of the government of the Confederate States, rendered necessary an independent organization of the dioceses within the seceded States. (496*)
So the reason for the “division” in the church was not disagreement over slavery, but the concept of the integrity of a national church — the very thing Duncan’s movement contradicts. To our shame, slavery was not the issue that “divided” the church — the church had, on the contrary, refused to take a national position on slavery in the interests of keeping the peace. As Tiffany put it,
The Episcopal Church as an organization had, from the beginning, determined to keep aloof from party politics, and, more fully that other ecclesiastical bodies, had done so. Her membership was very varied among the influential classes of society. Many of the distinguished statesmen of all parties were of her communion. They acted in their several political spheres as citizens and as churchmen, neither gave nor withheld their countenance in political action. The triennial meetings of the General Convention had made the clergy and laity of the North and the South familiar and friendly with one another. The sectional institution of slavery, which occasioned the secession movement, had not been made the subject of general ecclesiastical legislation. It was left to the regulation of the dioceses in which it existed. (494)
Thus, by allowing for local option on the question of slavery, The Episcopal Church was enabled to remain united, until the matter boiled over in the secular arena.
Finally, it is fascinating to me to see that Bishop Duncan appears to think that our present divisions over sexuality are of quite a different moral significance — and obviously far more important — than the question of slavery. It seems to me that this sad past chapter of our national history offers little to support his present pressure for division.
Tobias Haller BSG
*The citations from Charles C. Tiffany come from his History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 1895.
John-Julian, OJN said...
Yes, it struck me immediately when Duncan claimed the southern dioceses split from the Episcopal Church in order to support the immorality of slavery that it was hardly an analogy in his favor.
Now the CCP's want to split from the Episcopal Church in order to support the immorality of GLBT exclusion and suppression.
May they also remember that the southern diocese gave up their pro-slavery stance and re-joined the Episcopal Church as soon as possible.
Hmmmm....perhaps he spoke more truly than he knew!
Grandmère Mimi said...
Does Tiffany mention that the Bishop of Louisiana, Leonidas Polk, served in the Army of the Confederacy during the Civil War? He was known as the "Fighting Bishop". He was not a chaplain; he was a commanding general.
He also established my parish church, St. John's Episcopal Church.
Chris Jones said...
Fr Haller,
You wrote:
You are right that the basis for the (ultimately temporary) separation of the Confederate dioceses was not slavery, but the principle of the national Church. But I think you go too far in asserting that "Duncan's movement contradicts" that principle.
It is my understanding that the goal of the Common Cause partners is not to divide the Episcopal Church as a national Church, but to replace it as the national Church recognized by the Anglican Communion. Were they to achieve that goal, the result would be just as much a "national Church" as ECUSA has ever been. It would be a "national Church" with a different teaching and a different standard of "orthodoxy" from that of ECUSA.
I am not sure what meaning the concept of a "national Church" has in a religiously pluralist society with constitutionally-mandated separation of Church and State. In such a society there can never be a "national Church" in the sense that the Church of England or the Church of Sweden are national Churches. No American Church body can, in reality, be anything more than a "denomination". The most that any Church body could claim is to be the best and most "official" local representation of its particular confession or flavor of Christianity.
I should have thought that Episcopalian progressives would be glad to see "Duncan's movement" finally move on to the business of creating a separate denomination more to their liking; leaving the Episcopal Church free to preach the Gospel, and to work out its implications for its ecclesial life, as their consciences dictate. Why should their new denomination be any more threat to (or, indeed, any more concern to) Episcopalians than any other denomination, such as the Southern Baptists or the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod?
I do not, by the way, have any expectation that the Common Cause partners' new denomination will have any greater success than the 1970s-era "Continuum" -- even in the unlikely event that it succeeds in gaining +Cantuar's imprimatur. The world is not holding its breath waiting for yet another "really Anglican" denomination.
Tobias Haller said...
Thanks for the comments.
Tiffany does indeed mention Bishop/General Polk. Here are a few of the things he noted about him beginning with a summary of the various churchmen throughout the country and their stands as individuals on slavery: "Bishop Polk, a large slave-holder, cared diligently for his servants..." ... "Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, the most conspicuous of the Northern bishops in the cause of the Union, was in closest bonds of religious and ecclesiastical sympathy with that of most ardent secessionist, Bishop Polk, of Louisiana, who had been converted under his ministry while a cadet at West Point. They prayed for each other by name every Sunday morning. There was no religious household in a the land into which the coming of the Civil War introduced more personal distress than that of the Episcopal Church. At first some of the Southern bishops deprecated secession, notably Meade of Virginia and Otey of Tennessee; but when their states seceded they joined heart and soul with Elliott of Georgia and Davis of South Carolina, who had ardently fanned it from the first; and it was the aged Meade who cautiously counseled the more youthful Polk to enter the Army, and use the military education he had received at West Point for the advantage of the endangered Confederacy. It was a unique position for a Protestant bishop; but it was reluctantly undertaken from the sternest sense of duty, and discharged in the spirit of a Christian warrior... In the ordering of Divine Providence the separate existence of the Church in the Confederate States was of so brief a continuance that there is no need to further trace its history. Its action was such as to leave no invincible obstacle to a complete reunion when once the political situation was changed. Its one bishop who had entered the Southern army had fallen, and all men honored his motives and his spirit, while they deplored his action and his fate." (495-497 passim)
When you consider that Tiffany served as the chaplain to the Connecticut Volunteers, and was writing at a time when many veterans were still among the living, I think you can get a sense of fairness of his account. ( he was, by the way the third rector of my present parish!)
I think the difference here lies in the fact that Duncan is trying to remove his diocese from the church -- he is not simply trying to establish a separate denomination with the understanding that an Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh will continue.
Obviously, in a pluralistic society without the establishment of religion there is no "national" church in the same sense as the Church of England or of Sweden. The idea is rather that the jurisdiction of any given "particular or national church" should be coterminous with that of the secular nation. This is true both in cases where the church is established and where it is not.
It is in part because I share your sentiments concerning the likelihood of the Common Cause Partners actually achieving their goal of unity and recognition as the legitimate expression of Anglicanism in the United States that I challenge Duncan's rationale.
I would also point out that this effort to unify all of the many splinter groups from the past will do little to help the case of the parishes in Virginia that what we are seeing is a division in the denomination rather than one more splintering effort. On the contrary, this rather demonstrates that what we are seeing is not the division of the denomination, but the departure of the disaffected.
Grandmère Mimi said...
Tobias, thank you for the material on Bishop Polk. I know more about him than I knew before.
I have misgivings about fighting bishops, and from what I know of Gen. Polk, he was not particularly skilled at military strategy and battles, but he cared for the soldiers under his command, and they, in turn, loved him very much and grieved when he was killed.
I may have done a double post. If so, please delete one.
Anonymous said...
I have not read your archives, but have read several of your recent posts and have found them interesting, even refreshing. Having been largely stuck in the worlds of Father Jake and David Virtue -- equivalents in my mind --I am delighted to see some willingness to entertain the problems that confront TEC.
I would ask your posters to cite references when making claims as to church history.
I am most glad to see a side-stepping of name calling: "homophobe," for example. A great deal of the blogging, etc., that supports the liberalization within TEC as to sexual behaviour, and/or, the role restrictions in the church based on same, is destructive, and often seems to be based on the central premise that sexual identity politics trumps all; on the other hand, I find the voices from the other side suspect, even as I sympathize with their dis-ease.
Thank you for the blog links.
I am disturbed that blog links are always defined by the basic idea: these is blogs we's agreeing with; but what can you do?
Tobias Haller said...
Thank you, Theologaster.
Oh, how I wish people would cite references when asserting history (or theology!). I find myself at a loss sometimes even reviewing places like Stand Firm where confident assertions are completely wrong.
On "homophobia" I disagree to some extent. I do think it can be wrongly used, but there are times that it represents an accurate description. It is, of course, important that it be properly defined -- unlike the Lambeth 1.10 definition of "irrational fear of homosexual persons" -- and understood as primarily a personal fear of one's own possible inclination towards something held to be taboo. This does explain some of the vehemence in some circles, I believe. But it is the taboo, ultimately, that is the problem, not the person whose socio-psychological makeup inclines them to place it at too high a level of concern.
As to blog links, the ones I list are places I regularly visit; not all are places I necessarily "agree" with, but which I enjoy reading for their sane and balanced language. Others I enjoy for their insane and unbalanced language! | http://jintoku.blogspot.com/2007/09/duncan-history-lesson.html | dclm-gs1-445985528 | false | false | {
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0.043699 | <urn:uuid:e5801e55-fdef-45db-9ee0-3d999f5ac657> | en | 0.953804 | Keys Homes
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Bonsai, controlled gardening in miniature size
By ROBIN ROBINSON The key West Garden Club
TheKey West Garden Club has recently acquired 13 new bonsai trees from Terry Coveny. Bonsai is the reproduction of natural trees kept in miniature. This art form was first developed in China and later in Japanese cultures. In Japanese, the word "bon" means a low-sided tray and "sai" refers to plantings.
Bonsai gardeners use their ingenuity to produce graceful forms. Viewers meditate on the beauty of those forms. The Japanese of the sixth century believed that natural beauty only becomes true beauty when shaped by human hands. The oldest known bonsai is a 500 year old pine that is housed in the Tokyo Imperial Palace.
Many growers developed the low dishes holding the miniaturized tree into entire, to scale, landscapes with sand and rocks. In order to retain water, moss or grass is often planted on the soil surface.
Coveny found seedlings growing under the magnificent mahogany tree at 3630 Flagler. They inspired him to attempt to miniaturize what would normally be giant canopy trees. He planted six seedlings in a bonsai dish just a few inches high, watered them and waited. That was eight years ago. Now they are a grove that is two feet tall.
Mahogany trees are unusual choices to bonsai, but no more so than the newly acquired royal poinciana, jatropha and Ming aralia that were also donated to the Garden Club. Plants chosen for miniaturizations must eventually develop woody stems. Especially popular are varieties that have tiny leaves that enhance the scale of the small branches such as poinsettias or cassias.
Bonsai trees need special care because they do not have copious soil nutrients in which to grow. Water plants until the water runs out the bottom of the pot or submerge the entire pot in a bucket. Check the sides of the soil to make sure the water has spread out over the entire root ball. Wait until the plant is dry and water it again. This can be as much as every other day. Since there are few nutrients in the soil, liquid fertilizer at one-half strength should be applied once a month.
Established trees need pinching back when there is new growth, but not all of the new growth should be removed.
The art of creating beautifully sculpted trees is determined by choosing which part of the tree is to be pinched back. Sometimes gardeners evaluate their bonsai tree for days before making a decision.
Small low flat pots are used for bonsai plants and it is important to keep the roots from being pot bound. Examine the roots by pulling the plant out of the pot and brushing the soil away. No more than one-quarter of the roots should be removed from the tree. When re-potting, place a fine mesh screen over the drainage holes to retain the soil that might be lost while watering. Then put a thin layer of gravel over the screen for drainage. Put in new soil, replace the tree and water well.
Much art and literature is based on bonsai. One Noh play, "The Potted Trees", written in 1383 by Zeami Motokiyo, tells of a poor man who sacrifices his three bonsai trees to warm a traveling official disguised as a monk. Later the official rewards him with three parcels of land named the plum, pine and cherry. Like the unhurried growth of the bonsai trees, Noh drama is performed slowly where the deliberate act of burning the symbolic bonsai trees could take an hour or more.
Stop by the West Martello Bonsai Garden section to check out our new acquisitions thanks to Terry Coveny.
The Key West Garden Club welcomes volunteers to work on the historical fort, pull weeds, propagate plants and play in the sandy soil at the West Martello Tower from 9 am. to noon on Mondays.
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0.997201 | <urn:uuid:42bb8e7b-9f4c-4727-8563-58dda6fb4241> | en | 0.705545 | 어떤 단어든 아래 칸에서 찾아보세요. 예를 들면 "blumpkin"
Fear of the apple product lines and other copy-cat companies that put an 'i' in front of every product they sell.
G1 "The iChair? What the hell does that even do? What pointless 'i' will they think of next..."
G2 "dude stop hating you are so iPhobic"
G1 *Shoots G2 with an iGun*
iDictionary가 작성 2009년 01월 25일 (일) | http://ko.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iPhobic | dclm-gs1-446085528 | false | false | {
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0.041032 | <urn:uuid:b5a6185d-1e26-41fd-9042-0c487622118b> | en | 0.91739 | Subject Pyeonyuk : Sliced Beef TWITTER THIS FACEBOOK THIS Count 2167
Author/Position Lee Jong-im Director, Korea Food and Culture Research Center
Photographer Ahn Hong-beom Photographer
Pyeonyuk, or sliced beef, is a healthy and flavorful dish. Thinly sliced pyeonyuk, neatly arranged on a platter, is an attractive offering for guests at a dinner party or reception. It is perfect when served with vinegared soy sauce or kimchi. Pyeonyuk can also be served in sandwich wraps.
Lee Jong-im Director, Korea Food and Culture Research Center
Ahn Hong-beom Photographer
Boil a chunk of beef and wrap it with hemp cloth. Weigh the beef down so that it can be shaped into a rectangular loaf. Cut the beef into thin slices with a sharp knife and serve with vinegared soy sauce or seasoned shrimp sauce and condiments.
Pyeonyuk is a traditional dish of thinly sliced meat that has been boiled until tender. It is an example of the various unique ways that Koreans prepare meat dishes. Since pyeonyuk is cooked as a whole chunk and then sliced when served, it is often described as an Eastern version of roast beef. There is, however, a notable difference between the two traditional favorites: roast beef is roasted in an oven, while pyeonyuk is boiled.
Meat Cuts: From Prime to Exotic
Pyeonyuk can be made with either beef or pork. When using beef, brisket is the best choice. If you use pork, belly or neck would be recommended. Pyeonyuk will be mild-flavored and tender when made with beef brisket deckle because of its liberal marbling with fine streaks of fat. Other suitable beef cuts include: shank, offal such as lungs and sweetbread, head, tongue, testicles, and genitals.
A whole chunk of meat is boiled, wrapped with a hemp cloth, and pressed with a heavy weight to shape it into a rectangular loaf. The pressed meat is then sliced thinly with a sharp knife and served with vinegared soy sauce or salted shrimp extract.
Today, Korean restaurants typically serve pyeonyuk with a side dish of geotjeori (freshly made kimchi), or mumallaengi (seasoned dried radish) heavily dressed with spicy red pepper powder, and aekjeot (fish sauce). Pyeon¬yuk wrapped in fully fermented cabbage kimchi also makes a savory delicacy for the home dinner table.
Pyeonyuk is a fixture of the dinner menu during gimjang season, one of the most important seasonal periods of the year, in late autumn or early winter, when large quantities of kimchi are made and preserved to prepare for the long winter ahead. Many Korean families boil a sizable chunk of meat so that they can enjoy pyeonyuk with freshly seasoned kimchi in the evenings of gimjang days.
Tender pyeonyuk slices are delectable with saengchae muchim (fresh vegetable salad dressed with red pepper powder, vinegar, salt, and sugar) and kimchi. A recipe for a fancy side dish, fresh ginseng salad with honey dressing, called susam kkulchae, is provided below.
If you prefer something simpler, however, pyeon¬yuk needs little more than a soy dipping sauce mixed with vinegar and finely chopped pine nuts. To enhance the flavor of this simple dish, serve it with lettuce or perilla leaves for wrapping the meat slices.
Boiling the Meat
Today, pyeonyuk is preferred by the health conscious over the dishes that involve deep-frying, stir-frying, or roasting. Pyeonyuk is an impressive dish to serve dinner guests because of its attractive visual appeal, with thin beef slices arranged neatly on a platter. It is always a welcome addition at a potluck party as well. Care must be taken, however; the boiled meat should be sliced right before serving to maintain its tenderness. To maximize the flavor, allow the chunk of meat to rest in its liquid, and then press it into a loaf a few minutes before slicing and serving.
Pyeonyuk recipes vary from one family to another, and from cook to cook. Innumerable “secret” ingredients are added to the boiling water to reduce the meat odor and add flavor: a tablespoon of doenjang (fermented soybean paste), a splash of soju, wine, or sake, whole pepper kernels, a pinch of ground coffee, etc. There are as many different techniques as there are cooks, but to boil the meat properly, it is best to test the meat with a knife to determine its wellness. It is nicely done when the meat juice is clear, with no trace of blood.
A tip for making tastier pyeonyuk calls for adding a pinch of salt to the boiling water and allowing it to simmer for a while before adding the meat, which will absorb the saltiness. Do not overcook the meat so as to retain its natural juices and nutrients.
Versatile Pyeonyuk
Pyeonyuk is often served as a garnish for a bowl of naengmyeon, chilled buckwheat noodles in cold beef broth. The beef that is boiled to flavor the broth is removed and sliced to decorate the noodles.
Pyeonyuk is also produced during the preparation of seolleongtang, ox bone soup, made by slowly simmering ox bones, gristle, and other beef cuts in a large pot until tender. The meat is removed from the pot and sliced to garnish the milky soup. Ever versatile, pyeonyuk can also be used to make quick non-traditional dishes: for example, beef slices, cut more thinly than usual, make an easy and flavorful filling for wrap sandwiches.
• Pyeonyuk
600 grams beef brisket, 6 cloves garlic, 1 scallion (about 80g)
1/2 onion (about 60g), 20 grams chopped ginger
10 whole black pepper kernels, 10 cups water
• Susam kkulchae (Fresh ginseng salad with honey dressing)
1 fresh ginseng root, 10 jujube dates, 5 chestnuts
2 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• Mustard sauce
2 tablespoons mustard powder (combined with water to make a paste), 2 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons vinegar,1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon finely chopped pine nuts, 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• Vinegared soy sauce
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 3 tablespoons vinegar,
2 tablespoons fresh water, 1 tablespoon finely chopped pine nuts
1. Trim excess fat from the beef brisket and soak in cold water for about an hour to draw out the blood.
2. Bind the beef brisket with kitchen string. This step can be skipped, but the binding helps to maintain the meat’s shape and makes it easier to slice the boiled beef.
3. Chop scallions and onions into thick pieces, and slice ginger into slivers. Peel the garlic but do not slice; keep whole.
4. In a large covered pot, bring water to a boil. Add and simmer the beef and the above vegetables, for about 30 minutes.
5. Skim off foam, add salt, and simmer, with the pot covered for another 40 to 50 minutes.
6. When the beef is cooked, remove from the pot. Wrap the beef with a clean hemp cloth and have it pressed down with a heavy weight, such as a brick, for a few hours to shape into a neat loaf. Cut the beef into thin slices.
7. Wash the ginseng thoroughly and scrub with a brush, then julienne into 3cm lengths. Peel and slice the chestnuts.
8. Wash jujubes thoroughly and drain off the water. Cut the jujubes crosswise into rings.
9. To make the fresh ginseng salad with honey dressing, mix together the ginseng, chestnuts and pine nuts, and add honey to the mixture.
10. Combine mustard paste, sugar, vinegar, finely chopped pine nuts, soy sauce, and salt to make the mustard sauce.
11. Arrange the sliced beef and ginseng salad neatly on a serving platter. Serve with the prepared mustard sauce.
12. Take a slice of pyeonyuk, top with a bit of ginseng salad, and add mustard sauce. Fold over or roll up the meat slice, and enjoy!
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0.077925 | <urn:uuid:df30c3b0-0bb1-4989-8bf9-fb6893f9bae2> | en | 0.930653 | Prove the largest angle in a triangle can not be one of over 135
degrees if the corners of the triangle must all touch the
circumference of the circle? The triangle is labelled ABC, and the
altitude from B is tanget to the circumcircle. I must then prove
that if the altitudes from B and C are tangent to the circumcircle,
what are the angles?
I realise that if it's greater than 135 degrees, and the intercepted arc is twice the the measure of the angle on the vertice. I do not know exactly how to go about proving it however, the >90 is obvious due to the cyclic quads etcetera but then i need to know how to place a limit on the angles. (135) And the 2nd part i dont know how to do at all. | http://mathhelpforum.com/geometry/185716-90-135-degree-angle-vertice.html | dclm-gs1-446365528 | false | false | {
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0.068382 | <urn:uuid:bddbb835-2ea8-49c6-b82e-5baa5fd8c0df> | en | 0.941177 | Tag Archives: Tools
DIY Wicca video
Here is a nice video by Pagyptsian on Youtube, who has a lovely channel where she shares an Egyptian tradition of Wicca. She provides lots of practical videos, but this one, she covers the integral element of tools; the fact you don’t need to buy anything.
Most of my tools were gifts or found, or even made. Most tools can be stuff you find in the kitchen as well, but it doesn’t need to be fancy or ‘witchy’, since the real power lies within you.
Knot Magic
Making your own cords to wear also enhances their power.
What type of medium for knots:
Spell of Nine Knots- is a very old, useful, and practical type spell.
Types of knots:
Make your own rope belt- perfect to be used with dressed and robes.
Mixed family altar
Not all pagan keep permanent altars in their homes, and sometimes its because not everyone follows the same path. You can, however, provide a mixed family altar where everyone can combine their beliefs in one place.
You will need;
Mutual respect. Even if someone is Christian, you should respect that path and if they wish to set up a cross or similar religious symbol. Sharing respect strengthens family bonds, and helps encourage one another in their spiritual path.
Candles. If you worry about fire, you can also use the flameless candles. Its for the mood, to symbolize enlightening and energy.
Offering plate (or bowl, basket or other container). Here is where family can put prayers, promises, offerings, and other items in a single space for the Divine. I would suggest including a small pad of paper with pencil so members can jot down words when the need arises.
Offerings can often take many forms such as food, drink, incense, prayers, promises, shiny things, and intentions. You could even put money, and then the family can vote on where to send and which charity.
Season and holiday symbols. For instance, a spring altar might include eggs, flowers, but also crosses, and symbols of Christ’s resurrection. A winter solstice them can include symbols of the god, but also a nativity scene.
The family altars becomes a special place where members can individually or as a group, gather together for prayer and spiritual expression. | http://moonandshadow.wordpress.com/tag/tools/ | dclm-gs1-446555528 | false | false | {
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0.021504 | <urn:uuid:60db7091-e01b-4b05-ab0d-02fa48dfe491> | en | 0.966339 | Jamie Seefurth
Technical Project Wrangler – Engineering Team
What do I do?
I'm a Technical Project Wrangler. It's like a Project Manager, but Technical. And I'm constantly finding someone to nag about a deadline or update they promised me.
Q&A, OSE and the old Pro tools are my jam at Moz. I work with a few teams of developers and some awesome Product Owners to keep things moving and groovin.
Previously I've worked with a variety of advertising tools managing releases and being a customer advocate or trainer. Jack of all trades, we'll say. I love keeping track of things and looking forward to deadlines. My family is constantly driven crazy with my requests to book plane trips or buy tickets for up coming events and you don't even want to see what my summer spreadsheet planning looks like!
Back to Moz, It's an adventure to say the least. And I'm paid at the same time. Win Win!
Where am I from?
I never know how to answer this question. Call me nomadic. I usually say that I mostly grew up in California then went to High School and College in Colorado. Before then I did stints in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Idaho and Northern California. Later in life I moved to Michigan but now I've settled in Seattle where I love the weather and despise people who incessantly complain about it.
What do I do for fun?
This question seems to change based on weather and the phase of life my kids are in. I keep our social calendar full with activities or new places to explore. When I get free time sans kiddos, it's frequently to check out a beer festival or have a far and few between meal at a new-ish restaraunt. My German Shepard Husky also keeps me busy with his requisite walk around the neighborhood each night.
I've lived in Seattle since 2005 so I've marked a lot of things off my list to explore. Now I'm moving beyond the greater Seattle area. Next up... Suncadia and the Olympic Rainforest!
What did I forget?
This is a question I'm constantly asking myself. If I don't write down something or send an email to myself, the task will eat at me until I can at least plan out when I can do it. It's fun for me to think three steps ahead. I'll probably come back to this page three more times to add extra info that I forgot so feel free to check back.
Oh, and I hate board games and often use apostrophes incorrectly.
I did this!
This That and The Other
- A friend described me as a "squeaky wheel". She was spot on.
- I take at least 500 pictures of my kids every month.
- If I really want to focus, I tune into "The Bachelor" or some other mindless TV show on my phone or second screen
- My day starts around 6:00 and my mind is usually exhausted around 3:00.
- I'm addicted to budgeting. I used to balance my bank accounts daily but have recently adjusted to weekly.
- I despise hiking but I can walk for miles through a city exploring (and eating) | http://moz.com/about/team/jamies | dclm-gs1-446575528 | false | false | {
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0.159087 | <urn:uuid:0ff5cf8b-c448-47b3-b511-8300e06618a7> | en | 0.657628 | Export (0) Print
Expand All
DataTableExtensions.CopyToDataTable<T> Method (IEnumerable<T>)
Returns a DataTable that contains copies of the DataRow objects, given an input IEnumerable<T> object where the generic parameter T is DataRow.
Namespace: System.Data
Assembly: System.Data.DataSetExtensions (in System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll)
public static DataTable CopyToDataTable<T>(
this IEnumerable<T> source
where T : DataRow
Type Parameters
The type of objects in the source sequence, typically DataRow.
Type: System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<T>
The source IEnumerable<T> sequence.
Return Value
Type: System.Data.DataTable
A DataTable that contains the input sequence as the type of DataRow objects.
Usage Note
The source IEnumerable<T> sequence is null and a new table cannot be created.
A DataRow in the source sequence has a state of Deleted.
The source sequence does not contain any DataRow objects.
A DataRow in the source sequence is null.
The parameter T of the input parameter source can only be of type DataRow or a type derived from DataRow.
The input sequence can be any IEnumerable<T> source, not only a query or a query over a DataTable. Note that if the source sequence is a query, calling this operator will force immediate execution. Enumerating the source sequence can also cause exceptions to be thrown.
The following example queries the SalesOrderHeader table for orders after August 8, 2001, and uses the CopyToDataTable method to create a DataTable from that query. The DataTable is then bound to a BindingSource, which acts as proxy for a DataGridView.
// Bind the System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView object
// to the System.Windows.Forms.BindingSource object.
dataGridView.DataSource = bindingSource;
// Fill the DataSet.
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.Locale = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
DataTable orders = ds.Tables["SalesOrderHeader"];
// Query the SalesOrderHeader table for orders placed
// after August 8, 2001.
IEnumerable<DataRow> query =
from order in orders.AsEnumerable()
where order.Field<DateTime>("OrderDate") > new DateTime(2001, 8, 1)
select order;
// Create a table from the query.
DataTable boundTable = query.CopyToDataTable<DataRow>();
// Bind the table to a System.Windows.Forms.BindingSource object,
// which acts as a proxy for a System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView object.
bindingSource.DataSource = boundTable;
.NET Framework
Supported in: 4.5, 4, 3.5
.NET Framework Client Profile
Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1
© 2014 Microsoft | http://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/bb396189 | dclm-gs1-446595528 | false | false | {
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0.032832 | <urn:uuid:ec67fdc0-3727-4f45-89d0-2e3ce4c8ee07> | en | 0.956049 | Creating Jobs in the Booming Corporate Executive Sector
8:57 am in Uncategorized by Omnipotent Poobah
Creating Jobs in the Booming Corporate Executive Sector
The moral implications for our society aside, it’s also bad business…and it is consumers and regular taxpayers who are partly complicit in creating and perpetuating the problem. Notice please, that corporate welfare and substantial loss in consumer buying power comes from people and industries that demand cuts in “entitlements” (I hate that misnomer) and not cuts in the programs that benefit them. They do this under the guise of “creating jobs”, the code words for “trickle down economics” that create no jobs – unless one means jobs in the booming corporate executive sector.
Trickle down economics falls more and more into disrepute by economists more intelligent than the ones hired to justify the blood they squeezed from the national turnip. Even David Stockman, former St. Ronnie of Reagan acolyte and one of the architects of the scheme, thinks it is one of the biggest mistakes he ever made. And, he was able to see this mistake not from bar charts and pie graphs, but by observing corporate behavior. A rising tide can’t lift all boats if someone steals the boats.
It’s hard to convince me that a corporation with more money than they’ve had in their history is too afraid and poor to create American jobs because they aren’t making enough money. It is doubly hard to believe they are shipping the few American jobs left, along with much of the corporate welfare I gave them, to Bangalore and not investing in real jobs in Pittsburgh.
This is where bad business and irresponsible consumerism come in.
Big Deals at Bill’s Bargain Barn and TV Emporium
America’s Christmas buying orgy begins earlier each year. At the current rate it will begin on Jan. 2 in 5 years. People stab each other for the chance to buy a must-have widescreen TV made in China fer Chrissakes! Last time I checked, I don’t know of a single occurrence of someone stabbing anyone to get into the local appliance store to buy the TV – and that’s even after the local guy provides ample parking and takes a bath on the sale price to get you into the store to buy something you can live without and that shipped the entire widescreen TV industry off to China.
This sort of rampant consumerism is voting against your own interests, and it is bad business whether you are the consumer or the local appliance shop. Few of us actually “need” a wide screen and if we can afford buy it Walmart, we can afford the extra few bucks to buy it Bill’s Bargain Barn and TV Emporium. If the price different is too big to afford, you shouldn’t buy it anyway. Perhaps you could buy something you really need, like a new fridge (get the through-door water dispenser, I love mine). Besides, they might even still make it here. You win. Bill wins. Someone gets to keep a job, and we can all make a better case that GE really doesn’t need a huge tax cut to survive. Even GE wins. Bill makes a few bucks and you get to keep your job in GE’s fridge factory. And that CEO who makes more money than the deity of your choice? He still gets to build his umpteenth cottage, which coincidentally, might actually “create” a job for a drywall hanger making minimum wage.
This is not class warfare. This is not trickle down economics. This is not socialism, income redistribution, or jealousy. This is the grease of a free(er) market. The problem isn’t that America has too little money, it’s that the vast number of people don’t have it to spend because all of it is in the hands of a few instead of out actually being invested in America.
I’m not jealous of the people who make the big bucks. I’m pissed off at people who consistently vote against their own self-interest.
| http://my.firedoglake.com/omnipotentpoobah/tag/irresponsible-consumerism/ | dclm-gs1-446625528 | false | false | {
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0.031242 | <urn:uuid:16f3f475-3822-4681-9de7-8e2be657895e> | en | 0.895073 | (get it in RSS or Atom)
The EPIC edition - 60 Sec Security [VIDEO]
One less opt-in app, one more Android virus, and a bunch of EPIC failures...
All in this week's 60 Second Security.
Snowden: NSA working on 'MonsterMind' cyberwar bot
Snowden: NSA working on 'MonsterMind' cyberwar bot
The cyber defense system would instantly and autonomously neutralize foreign cyberattacks against the US and could also be used to launch retaliatory strikes. To do so, it would have to control and analyze all traffic entering the US - a chilling prospect that was the last straw, the whistleblower says.
SSCC 160 - That's not just any old malware - that's a TRUE VIRUS! [PODCAST]
Ready for listening...
Here's this week's Sophos Security Chet Chat podcast.
Android "Heart App" virus spreads quickly, author arrested within 17 hours
Q. How to attract the attention of the police if you're a bored student on summer vacation?
A. Write a virus that unleashes 20,000,000 SMSes, infects 100,000 devices, and steals personal data...
Monday review - the hot 20 stories of the week
It's weekly roundup time!
The data breach apocalypse that wasn't - 60 Sec Security [VIDEO]
Malware, spam and hacking - and not all bad news, either!
Watch 60 Second Security for Aug 9, 2014...
For your listening pleasure!
1.2 billion logins scooped up by CyberVor hacking crew - what you need to do
Hackers have amassed a vast collection of stolen data, including 1.2 billion unique username/password pairs, by compromising over 420,000 websites using SQL injection techniques. This data haul may yet turn out to be a 'Heartbleed' moment for website owners who assume their sites are too small to be of interest to hackers.
How to send 5 million spam emails without even noticing
Before you read the article, see if you can guess, to the nearest million, how many spams a 10,000-strong botnet might realistically send each week.
Commit yourself first, and then read the story of the SophosLabs "honeybot"!
60 Sec Security, 26 July 2014
It's all about trust! 60 Sec Security [VIDEO]
Notorious Shylock banking malware taken out by law enforcement
"Gameover" malware revival - is it really up from the canvas?
Is the recent re-appearance of the Gameover malware a flash in the pan, or part of a concerted effort at reviving the threat?
What do we need to do to knock it out altogether?
"Gameover" malware returns from the dead...
In early June 2014, a internationally co-ordinated law enforcement effort against the criminals behind the infamous Gameover malware pretty much wiped out their botnet altogether.
Bad news - it looks as though Gameover is back...
Microsoft takes down No-IP DNS domains in cybercrime fight - right or wrong? [POLL]
Vote in our poll!
Was Microsoft's takeover of 23 of another company's domain names a justifiable step in dealing with cybercrime, or a disruptive step too far?
Gameover and CryptoLocker revisited - the important lessons we can learn
Which is worse - Gameover or CryptoLocker?
What can we learn from the recent US-led takedown of this notorious crimeware?
More importantly, what advice should we be passing on to other people?
SSCC 150 - TrueCrypt, Gameover, CryptoLocker and whither mobile malware? [PODCAST]
This week, Chet and Duck dig into the bafflement of the disappearing TrueCrypt encryption software: did it jump, or was it pushed?
They also look at the takedown of Gameover and CryptoLocker, and look into what we can learn from ten years of mobile malware.
Has CryptoLocker been cracked? Is Gameover over?
Gameover is one of the most notorious botnets of recent times. And CryptoLocker is the Big Daddy of the ransomware scene.
But a team of global law enforcement agencies has taken them on...and YOU can help them win! | http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/category/security-threats/malware/botnet-malware/ | dclm-gs1-446685528 | false | false | {
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0.048332 | <urn:uuid:f9bff292-bfdf-4c4a-8af9-155ca3928bac> | en | 0.977033 | Page last updated at 15:35 GMT, Monday, 11 August 2008 16:35 UK
Former Thai PM flees to the UK
Thaksin Shinawatra in the UK (March 2008)
Thaksin owns properties in England as well as Manchester City football club
Ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said he will not return to Thailand from the UK.
In a statement released to the Thai media, Mr Thaksin said he and his wife would remain in the UK, "where democracy is more important".
Mr Thaksin is on bail over corruption charges but failed to make a scheduled Bangkok court appearance on Monday.
Thailand's Supreme Court has now issued an arrest warrant for the billionaire, who owns Manchester City football club.
Mr Thaksin says the charges are politically motivated and an attempt to remove him from politics.
'Political enemies'
The former leader had been due to return to the Thai capital on Sunday after a court allowed him to attend the Olympic Games opening in Beijing.
Case one: Abuse of power related to purchase of state land by his wife. Who: Thaksin and his wife. Status: Trial underway
Case two: Abuse of power linked to government lottery scheme. Who: Thaksin and several former Cabinet ministers. Status: Case accepted by Supreme Court
Case three: Abuse of power related to state loan to Burma alleged to have benefited family business. Who: Thaksin. Status: Case accepted by Supreme Court
Case four: Concealing assets. Who: Thaksin, wife and two others. Status: Awaiting court decision on proceeding to trial
Case five: Tax evasion. Who: Members of Thaksin's family. Status: Pojaman Shinawatra and her brother jailed for three years, her secretary for two years
Several other claims also lodged
He and his wife - who is on bail pending an appeal after she was jailed for three years for tax fraud - were to appear before the Supreme Court in a case involving the allegedly unlawful purchase of land.
Instead Mr Thaksin issued a statement announcing his decision not to return home.
"What happened to me and my family and my close relations resulted from efforts to get rid of me from politics," he said in the hand-written statement.
"These are my political enemies. They don't care about the rule of law, facts or internationally recognised due process."
Mr Thaksin apologised to the Thai people for his decision to live in the UK, where his daughter is attending university and where he owns several properties, as well as the Manchester City football club.
"If I am fortunate enough, I will return and die on Thai soil, just like other Thais," he said.
Observers have said that the former prime minister may attempt to claim political asylum in the UK, but there was no reference to this in the statement.
Thailand's Supreme Court reacted swiftly.
"The court sees that the defendants have broken their bail terms. Therefore, it issues an arrest warrant and orders their bail bonds to be seized," a statement said.
The court had agreed to try several cases against Thaksin Shinawatra for allegedly abusing his power while in office.
Mr Thaksin was the first Thai prime minister to serve a full five-year term.
He was extremely popular in rural areas but far less so amongst the Bangkok elite. In September 2006 the military removed him from power, accusing him of corruption.
Military-backed investigators began probing allegations against him. But then Mr Thaksin's allies won power in the first post-coup polls.
The former leader returned to Thailand in February. He said he had no plans to return to politics but his opponents did not appear to believe him.
Political wrangling between the two sides intensified and anti-government street protests resumed in the Thai capital. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was accused of acting as a proxy for Mr Thaksin and faced calls to step down.
In the meantime the courts - newly empowered by the military-backed constitution - continued to pursue various cases against Mr Thaksin and his family.
Last month, in an unexpected move, the former prime minister's wife was jailed for tax fraud.
The ruling will both have shocked Mr Thaksin and served as a powerful indication of what could lie in store for him at the hands of the courts, analysts say, hence his decision to remain in the UK.
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit
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0.171322 | <urn:uuid:6f7607b9-e4ba-4c4f-9963-99acd478de04> | en | 0.935547 | What's it like: To be treated for a tick-borne illness
As the temperatures warm up, more Oklahomans will spend time outside. And some of them will encounter one of nature's pests — ticks.
by Jaclyn Cosgrove Published: June 16, 2013
What happens when you're treated?
Your treatment will depend on your symptoms and illness. For Rocky Mountain spotted fever, it has been found that the antibiotic doxycycline is effective if started before the fifth day of symptoms. Doxycycline also is used to treat ehrlichiosis.
If you have contracted Lyme disease, and it's early in your symptoms, you might be treated with an antibiotic, such as doxycycline, amoxicillin or cefuroxime. Untreated, Lyme disease can cause a variety of serious symptoms, including loss of muscle tone in your face, severe headaches and swelling in large joints. There is some controversy about “chronic” Lyme disease and whether it exists and, if it does, how to best treat it.
What's the recovery time?
Your recovery time will depend on how severe your illness was. If you're treated quickly, you usually can recover quickly. However, if people with tick-borne illnesses aren't treated early, they sometimes can develop serious symptoms and, at times, they do not survive.
It's important to take preventive measures when spending time outdoors, including wearing insect repellent, checking yourself often for ticks and checking your pets, which can bring ticks into the home.
Source: Dr. John Harkess, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City; Oklahoma State Department of Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
by Jaclyn Cosgrove
Medical and Health Reporter
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0.725798 | <urn:uuid:dec2ea70-04fe-405c-b6df-d3630f4c8a94> | en | 0.89692 | zoek een woord op, zoals thot:
6 definitions by Nothing Chen
2. Odysseus's homeland in 'The Odyssey'
1. 'Ithaca is not George's'
Man I love this town.
2. Odysseus returned to Ithaca after many years
door Nothing Chen 30 april 2005
The feet of a person who dances en pointe (meaning in ballet, when a person dances on the tips of their toes in pointe shoes). Since pointe can really damage/hurt/blister your feet, pointe feet are usually characterized by blisters, bunions, and general ugliness.
Sarah- "Latoya, you're always wearing sneakers and closed-toed shoes. Why don't you ever wear flip-flops?"
Latoya-"I have pointe feet, and I don't like to show them off."
Sarah-"You mean from doing ballet? Does that make your feet stink or something?"
Latoya-"Lets just say that if 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever', my feet and the feet of the other dancers in my pointe class wouldn't be joys for two seconds in their BEST days.
door Nothing Chen 9 augustus 2005
loosley translated, the word means 'stupid toaster'
"Bob is an effing shizzmanizzle."
door Nothing Chen 22 maart 2005
A university in Oz that completely kicks all ass.
'When gray and seer our hair hath turned
We shall still revere the lessons learned
In our days at dear old Shiz'
door Nothing Chen 30 maart 2005
Wants and tries to be a goth, but really isnt
door Nothing Chen 19 april 2005
A math term for the longest side of a right triangle. You learn this is about 5th grade, so whoever is you_know_who must be either a little kid, or extremely dumb.
you get the hypotenuse by using the formula A squared + B squared= C squared (Pythagorean theorum)
door Nothing Chen 21 april 2005 | http://nl.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Nothing+Chen | dclm-gs1-446915528 | false | false | {
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0.126001 | <urn:uuid:aca1a631-44cc-48c2-bf8f-018c72cb93df> | en | 0.759085 | Stats Joke: Introverted Statisticians
This statistician joke appealed to me:
[via TED]
Related posts:
1. Is Writing About the Environment a Joke?
2. Joke du Jour: Banking Regulators
3. 2008 Site Stats: 6,348 Entries
4. Fox, Goat, Cabbage, and the Airport X-Ray Puzzle
5. BBC Stats on Online TV | http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/08/stats_joke_intr.html | dclm-gs1-447075528 | false | false | {
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0.023813 | <urn:uuid:1a688035-f8fa-4ea6-99d8-ed9d0490b95d> | en | 0.962036 | Don’t Text And Drive
[BBC via Giz]
Continue reading:
• just some dude
If they had an android mobile this would never have happened, lol.
Unfortunately stuff like this actually happens to people.
Be carefull out there people.
• Toni
DURING the crash, almost all windows/crystals of the car are broken (one with the backhead of the girl in the back seats), and AFTER the crash, when the 1st girl is crying and the guy goes to help, the windows are like new…
• Toni
(And sorry for the previous offtopic)
• mjs
Sadly, it is the people who will say “Pfft, I can txt while driving, I’m a great driver” who will see this video and still do it.
The human race suffers from flawed brains. You can’t fix that.
• Isaac Sloan
Dumbest video I’ve ever seen.
• William
@Isaac you are an idiot.
• Daniel
I don’t remember where i read/saw this (think it was discovery channel actually), but they had a guy take a driving test 2 times. One while sending a text message, and one while legally drunk. Needless to say, he did better drunk. I text while driving all the time w/ my G1, but having a keyboard that I have memorized makes it where i can text without looking (that still doesn’t mean its safe, but I don’t live in a busy area so I’m usually the only one on the road).
Then again, some drivers that they let on the road should of never passed their driving test in the first place… A 9 year old could pass that test. Seriously, the first question for the Texas version is “What is your last name?” (oh, and its multiple choice!)
• JL
Yikes. Point taken.
• dan l
But still…..
The anti-texting laws are horse shit and totally designed only to increase revenue.
Remember the big push to have everybody use a blue tooth headset? How much have accidents gone down as a result of that law? Same deal with texting.
• Jarett
My company actually made an Android app that keeps the texting functionality from working if you’re driving (with a failsafe to let another phone disable it if they know the user’s not driving). It’s targeted mainly at parents to keep their kids from texting while they drive, but for some, it might be the right amount of self-inflicted nuisance to remind themselves to wait until they’re parked to text.
• Morten
“Remember the big push to have everybody use a blue tooth headset?”
The difference from holding the phone is >huge<.
• Jack
Well I have a automatic van (less things to do) and I have tried to txt wile driving but the keyboard is crap so I don’t bother. I have to drive past a few locations on the way to work to record fuel prices and used to save a note of the prices, nowadays I just memorise it all.
The g1 could do with a bigger keybord for us fat fingered people.
• Olivier
Maybe it’s because I mostly drive in a very busy town as opposed to quiet and straight motorways but I can’t understand how some people can think it’s ok to take one’s eyes off the road for texting !
• Cru
Marijuana. Kills.
Oh.. and wear your seatbelt biddies in the back. Stop bloodying up my car.
• Victim
• Alex
One of my good friends can never seem to be away from his iPhone, he’s constantly on it, even when he drives. I constantly tell him not to text/browse the web/chat online while he’s driving, yet he does it anyway and swerves on the shoulder/hits the curb/etc. I have actually gotten out of his car because of it. I refuse to text while driving and I don’t accept phone calls. I realize that shit happens regardless and I could be in a freak accident even with those precautions, but I like to think that not using a phone while driving, helps a tad.
• Paul
Jarett – “My company actually made an Android app that keeps the texting functionality from working if you’re driving”
I heard about this app. It’s called Textecution… It’s really cool. Nice job and thanks for creating it!
• Quboid
Granted I’m only a learner but it amazes me that anyone would think this is at all acceptable. Holding the phone to your ear is illegal in the UK, holding the phone and looking at it is a whole lot worse.
• Shawn
What about texting at stop lights? I do it there, after every word I check the light and in some words as I type it. How bad is that? (HTC IME Keyboard helps prevent many spelling errors)
• cher
How can we report unsafe drivers (texting and swerving) and have something done about it? The police here say something bad needs to happen. I worry every time my teen son and I commute on our bikes that a texter will “murder” us….it would not be an “accident”…
• donna
Point well taken here. For those who don’t take it seriously and think that nothing will ever happen to you or someone you hold dear. Imagine one of the people you are closest to killed because of someone not paying attention to their driving. How would it make you feel to never see that person again, ever. If you can wait to text when you get to your destination or before you leave then do so. Why do we think we have to drive and do this. I don’t understand. Do we live such a busy life that we feel like we have to cram everything in while drving. It’s just crazy. Are you willing to pay the price? Be careful
• robi
yees i can’t drive so i still can text in the caar 4 like another 4 years :p
• Wayne
Way more great information, up to date, on Does anyone know more sites to get more accurate, informative data? I am doing a paper on this in Sociology Class right now and could use more reputable sources. Thanks, Wayne
• Kristina
the other day i was texting and driving im 16 years of age and just got my lisence. I had a different phone than normal that day and it was hard to text on. i had my eyes off the road for a while and both my hands off the wheel. to pull my phone cord up. when i lost control of the car it started swerving all over the road and when i looked up i was headed straight for a sign, my car rolled 5 times. for a quarter of a mile. it was the worst feeling ever, and the nightmares are haunghting,
no text is ever worth it. nothing on your cell phone is. nothings that important to put your life and others in danger.
im so incredibly lucky im even alive God was with me | http://phandroid.com/2009/08/17/dont-text-and-drive/ | dclm-gs1-447105528 | false | false | {
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0.059208 | <urn:uuid:d38d200f-5e84-4ac7-9219-dc5b73281025> | en | 0.849806 | HomebulletProjectsbulletTag: database (199 results)
1. Grocery List
2506 total visits
Grocery List is Web (PHP) based Grocery List generating software that supports barcode scanning. The list is maintained in a mysql DB with remote tools for adding, editing, deleting, and printing.Features of Grocery List:- Compatible with wedge and usb barcode scanners- Add, edit, and delete items from your grocery list- Supports UPC barcodes and gets information from The Internet UPC ...
2. Cross Database Engine for PHP
2192 total visits
CDE is a php class which implements the general database functions in PHP and provides a common sql platform for php development where developers change their databases but not their code. Supports Firebird, Mysql, Oracle, SQLite, Dbase, MSSQL.Aims of Cross Database Engine for PHP:- Write code in PHP once for any database platform- Support all PHP database connectivity- One set ...
3. KORA
1921 total visits
4. Music and Discography Database
2371 total visits
Music and Discography Database, web based music and discography library with some extra functions, eg. least distance finding beetween artists and albums.Features of Music and Discography Database:- clear web interface for large music collection- find nearest neighbours of albums- fill database from flac tags
5. No Screenshot
1445 total visits
LinkDB is a Link DataDase. This means that LinkDB is a centralised system to manage links, log who, how and when was a link accessed and finally serve links to resources that change a lot or that are quite long to remember.
6. MiniManager for Project MANGOS
1823 total visits
7. GPDE
1960 total visits
The GPDE is a biological protein database based on the PRIDE xml format. It combines proteomics experiments based on the investigated cell type and creates a biological meta-analysis.Features of GPDE:- Biological proteomics database- Biological based meta-analysis of proteomics experiments- Easy biomarker evaluation- Fast proteomics experiments interpretation
8. OpenREST
1991 total visits
9. Katropine DBmanager
2174 total visits
10. No Screenshot
2104 total visits
POP is - Persistent Objects for PHP - is a library intended to make simple ORM for the main databases existent in the market - PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Oracle and MySQL. Complete OO and making use of PDO, it also secures your project against SQL Injection.
11. MyWebSql
2284 total visits
12. MySQLDumper
2137 total visits
13. WaypointHR
4584 total visits
WaypointHR is an HR database for managing employee records and personnel information. MySQL is used for the database and PHP (4 or 5) is used for the web browser based interface. Ease of use and effective management reports are key design goals.
14. Urd
2121 total visits
15. No Screenshot
1459 total visits
Pages 4 of 14« 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 » | http://phpkode.com/projects/tag/database/4/ | dclm-gs1-447135528 | false | true | {
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0.168517 | <urn:uuid:0ef74355-eef1-4a50-9439-5b859141714d> | en | 0.839761 | Procure por qualquer palavra, como blumpkin:
When a fat ass wipes back to front without lifting his ballsack and gets shit all over his nuts.Usually resulting in duck butter and a horrible shitty sweaty combination of stench
Leon you fat bastard do you have shit nutz
por cajunriot 20 de Julho de 2014
See Crazy, Serial Killer
Shitnutz is a videogame alias for an all-out maniac who finds his way to multiplayer computer games, in which he usually does pretty good. Anytime a victory is scored he strips naked and runs around outside yelling "Monkey see, monkey do, shitnutz will destroy you!!" in the voice of Henry Rollins(who sang those lyrics in a song from Rollins Band)
Go shitnutz! Go shitnutz!
por Shitnutz 20 de Novembro de 2003 | http://pt.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Shitnutz | dclm-gs1-447265528 | false | false | {
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0.077677 | <urn:uuid:12b83e62-6a7f-41f6-ac02-a419fd67918a> | en | 0.958423 | patty - my quote collection
pattymi's recent activities
I haven't bookmarked any quotes at the moment.
pattymi's bookmarks
Old age though despised, is coveted by all.
A graceful and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality.
Age doesn't matter, unless you're cheese.
Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.
Man arrives as a novice at each age of his life.
What is an adult? A child blown up by age.
What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew.
My age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly.
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
The best mirror is an old friend.
From man or angel the great Architect did wisely to conceal, and not divulge his secrets to be scanned by them who ought rather admire; or if they list to try conjecture, he his fabric of the heavens left to their disputes, perhaps to move his laughter at their quaint opinions wide hereafter, when they come to model heaven calculate the stars, how they will wield the mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive to save appearances, how gird the sphere with centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, and epicycle, orb in orb.
There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.
What is mind but motion in the intellectual sphere?
Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.
Self-revelation is a cruel process. The real picture, the real you never emerges. Looking for it is as bewildering as trying to know how you really look. Ten different mirrors show you ten different faces.
pattymi's authors/films
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I haven't rated any quotes at the moment. | http://quotationsbook.com/book/pattymi/ | dclm-gs1-447335528 | false | false | {
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0.132147 | <urn:uuid:143cf384-6843-4d07-9388-a6258e584d64> | en | 0.987547 | Thursday, October 12, 2006
Federal Defenders secure release of "enemy combatant" shepherd
Another SDFLA exclusive!
We scooped the press on the Padilla motions last week here and here. Now we give you this story about Federal Defenders Paul Rashkind and Tim Cone and their victory in the case of Taj Mohammad.
Mr. Mohammad is a shepherd -- a member of the Gudjer Tribe, nomads who herd goats in the border mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taj was arrested at his home in Afghanistan as a result of an argument and fight he had with his cousin, Ismael. Taj is 27 years-old, has a wife and a young son, who was an infant when he last saw him. Gudjers are a poor and peaceful tribe, who have remained nomads while their country dealt with hostilities, first from the Russians, then from the Taliban. Due to the proximity of the mountain range, Gudjers have moved back and forth into Pakistan for their own safety. Indeed, even though Taj Mohammad is a proud Afghan Gudjer, he was actually born a refugee in Pakistan during the time of the Russian occupation. Herding goats in the mountains is possible only while it is warm enough to do so. In winter, the family travels down the mountain to the valley, the Asadabad area, where they live during the colder seasons. Taj was "on the mountain" during hostilities between the US and Taliban forces. When he returned to the family home in the valley, after the coalition forces declared victory, he learned that his cousin Ismael had laid pipe to supply water to all the homes of his village, except the home lived in by Taj and his family. Taj and Ismael fought about this and Taj hit Ismael with a stick. In anger, Ismael falsely accused Taj of being a Taliban, to have him sent away. What Taj had not known when he fought with his cousin was that Ismael was supplying the water pipes at the U.S. military’s instructions. Four days later, December 9, 2002, Taj was visited at his home by the American military, who questioned him about the fight. They detained him, took him to Bagram, and eventually to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was detained at GTMO as an "enemy combatant" for nearly four years.
The Defenders began representing Taj about a year ago and, after security clearances were approved, Paul Rashkind began to uncover evidence and develop a strategy to obtain his release. Just 14 days ago, Rashkind and Cone filed a set of classified challenges to Taj's continued detention, explaining why he should be released now. Last night, on the eve of the military hearing, Taj was on a plane back to Afghanistan. He was released to his family earlier today. Rashkind commented, "America was not a safer place while he was detained, but we can certainly feel better about ourselves now that he is home."
Todd and in Charge said...
Great reporting, David, and great legal work by Paul's office.
Anonymous said...
check out the "enemy combatant" t's i've created (not making money on them, btw):
god bless cafepress! | http://sdfla.blogspot.com/2006/10/federal-defenders-secure-release-of.html | dclm-gs1-447445528 | false | false | {
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0.138747 | <urn:uuid:91232c2d-5b1e-44b4-a6fb-6f2f8bd87541> | en | 0.923046 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'm working with a Windows 2008 Server, and I'm currently trying to allocate unused space to the C Drive. I've run into a bit of an issue however as my disk partitions are in the following order:
C Drive | D Drive | Unused Space
From what I understand, the unused space needs to be immediately to the right of the partition for it to be allocated. Herein lies my problem!
So I was wondering if someone would be able to recommend a good disk manager that would allow me to do this? Something on the cheaper side if possible :)
share|improve this question
1 Answer 1
up vote 3 down vote accepted
GParted (avalible as a Live CD/USB) or part of Ubuntu can be used to "shuffle" partitions about. I have used this in the past when my OCD has got the better of me and I wanted to move the free space to the C drive. The process may take a while depending on space used.
As with any major disk paritioning, back up anything essential.
share|improve this answer
Thanks for the reply tombull89. I'll give it a try :) – 109221793 Jun 28 '11 at 14:00
Your Answer
| http://serverfault.com/questions/284864/disk-manager-for-windows-server/284867 | dclm-gs1-447505528 | false | false | {
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0.023071 | <urn:uuid:3b84f39d-3b5f-4b4f-becf-64273744bb7c> | en | 0.965623 | Tuesday, January 27, 2009
School Days Then and Now
Scenario :
Counselors called in fo r traumatized students and teachers.
Scenario :
Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
even though Johnny started it.
Scenario :
Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
disrupt class again.
because Jeffrey has a disability.
Scenario :
with psychologist.
Scenario :
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
Scenario :
Pedro fails high school English.
a living because he cannot speak English.
Scenario :
1959 - Ants die.
Scenario :
undergoes 5 years of therapy.
Stan McCullars said...
The accuracy is chilling.
Rob Auld said...
A black Student goes to a predominately white school.
1959: Black Student is turned away by governor of the state who calls the police. The black student is severly beaten and thrown in jail but never charged.
2008: The student is welcomed because we've progressed so much in 50 years.
Give me a break about the nostalgia of the 1950's. It was horrible times for many. Don't give me your family values garbage. Stuff like this makes me nuts.
Phil Perkins said...
Don't blame others.
Phil Perkins.
Stan McCullars said...
Rob Auld makes clueless comment.
1959: A couple of his classmates learn of it and make fun of him.
2009: It's posted on the Internet and the whole world learns he's a bitter individual who made a clueless comment.
Solameanie said...
Apples and oranges, Rob. Besides, you don't justify bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior.
Get it?
. said...
I wouldn't call it nastalgia so much as making a simple contrast between two different periods of time. These are horrible times for many today just as they were for many in the 1950s.
Our viewpoint should be not so much about what times are better for different groups of people, but more about thinking about life from God's point of view. Not our own.
Man is no more or less a sinner today than he was in the 1950s. That has to be our worldview and then simply advocate for the ONLY remedy for sin, that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Dan Grubbs
The Portico Dialogue
Solameanie said...
I'd agree with you, Dan, for the most part. I would point out one difference today from the 1950s. While there were certainly evil things going on then as now, such as homosexuality etc, at least there was a far larger societal consensus that those things WERE evil and should be shamed. There isn't much shame anymore. The things that were once shunned and shamed are now celebrated.
. said...
Good clarification for me, Joel. I will continue to remind myself that it doesn't matter if I think it is shameful or not. If God considers it shameful, it's shameful. But, I guess that's a biblical world view and that's your point!
Keep up the great work.
Dan Grubbs
The Portico Dialogue | http://seventhsola.blogspot.com/2009/01/school-days-then-and-now.html | dclm-gs1-447535528 | false | false | {
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0.033728 | <urn:uuid:73e55dfa-49bc-412f-a82f-67498e17b1d1> | en | 0.887736 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
My server provider stopped give me possible way to create subdomains in control panel and they say I should solve it with htaccess.
So I have to do something like this. When user types http://asdf.example.com it should get the content of http://example.com/asdf (as the provider changed even the FTP's structure... how kind of them)
I don't find any tutorial for this. Thanks in advance.
share|improve this question
possible duplicate of Redirect subdomain to folder – Enrico Pallazzo May 4 '12 at 15:59
3 Answers 3
More generic version of TerryE's answer. I haven't tested it though!!!
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !www.example.com
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} (.*).example.com
RewriteCond %1/$0 !^([^/]+)/\1
RewriteRule ^.* %1/$0 [L]
share|improve this answer
I don't think this will work because on the first pass fred.ex... cond1 will set %1 as fred for cond2, but the regexp for cond2 will fail, so even though the cond succeeds (because of the ! operator), %1 won't be set for the rewrite rule. However, we should be able to split rule rule pattern ^([^/|+/)?(.*) and set $1 and $2 then use RewriteCond $1%1 !^(.*?)/\1 as the no equal check followed by a repeat of cond2 to reset %1. Still +1 'cos its a good idea. Back to my Greek Island retreat !! – TerryE May 6 '12 at 15:32
There was a small typo; | should have been ]. – Gerben May 6 '12 at 19:49
@TerryE I used to think that too, but as far as I know the ! will also disable back-references for that condition, %1 will still contain the subdomain. I testing the code above on my own server, and it seems to work okay. – Gerben May 6 '12 at 19:49
Hummnn, just rechecked the docs "These are backreferences of the form %N (1 <= N <= 9), which provide access to the grouped parts (again, in parentheses) of the pattern, from the last matched RewriteCond in the current set of conditions." so you are correct. The match fails, but the cond succeeds due to the ! operator and %1 is passed through from the previous cond. If the experts get surprised then I pity the novices :LoL: – TerryE May 8 '12 at 9:52
You can do that with mod_rewrite and mod_proxy:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^asdf\.example\.com$
RewriteRule ^ http://example.com/asdf%{REQUEST_URI} [L,P]
share|improve this answer
You don't need mod proxy. Just do an internal redirect:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} =asdf.example.com
RewriteCond $0 !^asdf/
RewriteRule ^.* asdf/$0 [L]
The rule rewrite the request prefixing asdf/ but only if (1) the host is http:/asdf... and (2) the rewrite hasn't already taken place. You need (2) to prevent iterative loops. $0 is the match string in the rule.
Hope this helps.
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10452120/folder-to-subdomain | dclm-gs1-447635528 | false | false | {
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0.154869 | <urn:uuid:b52582c1-1e27-4a1a-8bb3-cb6cf369cd81> | en | 0.89968 | Language Tandem
Without teachers, like in real conversations. Both learn and both teach. Sharing is caring!
Langeek community
A langeek is a curious, open-minded language lover. Not afraid of learning by speaking.
Broaden your horizons
Meet other cultures and open your mind. Learn and have fun! Connect with real native spakers around the world.
How does it work? Easy
It's not a lesson, it's an exchange. Practice your target language with a native speaker and teach him yours in exchange.
Improve your oral skills with native speakers matching your profile and availability.
Reaching proficiency can be hard, we'll help you along the way. Dare to level up!
Meet our outstanding members
James Sheldon
Manchester, England
Native: English
Learns: Spanish, Portuguese, French
Sandra Aznar
Castellon, Spain
Native: Spanish, Catalan
Learns: English, German
Stephen Hearty
Dublin, Ireland
Native: English
Learns: Spanish, Italian, French | http://tandemspot.com/en | dclm-gs1-447785528 | false | false | {
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0.025827 | <urn:uuid:17c3d72f-02e8-49ae-af04-8023e340d36a> | en | 0.954748 | Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
The Corporate Way to School Improvement
high stakes testing from http://www.rethinkingschools.org
The report calls for:
• an expansion of charter schools and vouchers
Tex Shelters
We Need a Sharia Law for Christ
Republicans in your Vagina from angryblacklady.com
Tex Shelters
The Problem is Limited Access, not Affirmative Action
itshisfault from-talk-onevietnam-org.jpg
And the poorest families have it the worst:
Tex Shelters
If You’re Reading this, You’re Part of the 99%
In Current Events, Economics, Education, Occupy Movement on February 22, 2012 at 21:47
We are the 99% from ohaflcio.blogspot.com
Many people online, in editorial pages, on television and in the streets are denying their membership in the 99%. Few if any of the people that fight against their membership to this not-so-elite group fully understand the concept of the “99%”.
Those who automatically reject anything they consider “liberal” will reject their membership in the 99% as a way to reject a group they falsely consider lazy, unclean Americans who want to blame corporations for all their troubles. However, Occupy Wall Street is not asking for you to agree with everything every member of their group believes. Admitting that you are part of the 99% does not require you reject your conservative, or other, principles.
What admitting you are part of the 99% requires is that you let go of your denial and acquire a modicum of class consciousness. First, you must let go of the myth that the richest 1% of Americans care about you and are job creators instead of job destroyers. Then you must develop an awareness that you are in the lower classes and the 1% determines, to a large extent, what happens in this nation.
Many people reject this idea because they think it means you have to be an anarchist, socialist, communist or some other ist to belong to the 99%. That’s a misreading of the metaphor. What’s more, they don’t even know it is a metaphor, a number that represents the inequality in our economic and political system but may not be literally accurate.
Even Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, showing how smart he is with numbers, took “99%” as a literal idea and corrected the notion several times in his post:
Let’s be clear about Mr. Klein’s misreading of OWS: 99% is a metaphor that he takes too literally and thus misses the point that it’s about inequality, not exactitude. And it is about Wall Street. The protests are about Wall Street run amok, about how Wall Street gets a free pass when they break regulatory laws, about a Wall Street that is in large part responsible for our economic disaster we find ourselves in. But, it’s not only about Wall Street. The Occupy Movement is about banks, mega corporations like Monsanto that poison our food supply, BP and other large companies that pollute with impunity, the military industrial complex, and so forth. Just because it’s called “Occupy Wall Street” doesn’t mean Wall Street is their only concern, and it’s willfully ignorant to think that. Read their declaration and educate yourself about their issues.
Klein also echoes sentiments of Republicans and dismisses the movement as self-centered, only concerned about themselves, only wanting the “economy to start working” for them, thus he misses the point again. Sure, members of the occupy movement are concerned about their own welfare, and also their neighbors, their children, their family, their community, their teachers, their public servants, other workers, and all members of the 99% that might have had tough times because of the plutocracy we live under. Otherwise, why would so many employed, retired and financially secure people involve themselves in the movement?
Compassion for others is not a hard thing to understand. It’s too bad Klein’s analysis only skims the surface of what the Occupy Movement is about. If he can’t correctly interpret Occupy, he should stick to writing about the Republican primaries. There, he will see enough lies to write about, and he won’t have to write misinformation about the Occupy Movement.
You’re part of the 99% if:
• Most of your income comes with a W-2 attached.
• You have ever, or currently, received food stamps, unemployment, SSI, or other government assistance.
• You don’t have an offshore bank account.
• If you are not a financial manager or CEO of a major firm, you are part of the 99%.
• You are also a member of the 99% if your income is less than $400,000 a year.
• If you earn less than 25% of your income in rent and dividends, you are part of the 99%.
• If you are one paycheck from being homeless, you are part of the 99%.
• If you are not a manager, executive, or supervisor of a large firm, you are likely part of the 99%.
• You are part of the 1% if you can donate millions to a political campaign.
• You are part of the 1% if you can write laws for ALEC and thus Congress.
• And if you’re reading this, you are a member of the 99%.
Here’s a demographic breakdown of the 1%:
Fact: the top 1% in the US control 42% of the nation’s wealth.
Rich Versus Poor demographics
Tex Shelters
Occupy Tucson Day of Solidarity
The Raging Grannies performing at Occupy Tucson's 99% Meet Yourself
IT Live Streaming OT's 99% Meet Yourself
Sign making at OT's 99% Meet Yourself
Tabling at 99% Meet Yourself
Tex Shelters
Why I envy Mitt Romney and the 1%
Congress for sale from truenewsfromchangenyc.blogspot.com
Tex Shelters
Why I Support the Rosemont Copper Open-Pit Mine, by Tex Shelters
In Current Events, Economics on January 16, 2012 at 19:40
Clean Arizona Mine Water? from blogs.ngm.com
It was exciting to see so many people at the the Forest Service meeting for the Rosemont open-pit mine in Sahuarita on Saturday, January 14th. I was also happy to see all support for the 1% by the proletariat.
I support the open-pit mine because I support America. Thus I support Korean company Kores and Canadian consortium Augusta who will be extracting ore and profit from us. Furthermore, Rosemont will be able to ship the copper anywhere, like China, after it’s out of the ground. Yea America!
The quaint America first taint of the comments in the Sahuarita public school is so heart warming in a time of globalization, global capital and free markets that demand corporations sell to the highest bidder. And all that love we received was overwhelming after our corporations sent so many jobs overseas, closed plants and have fought public spending on roads, schools, water treatment and so forth. Frankly, us millionaires are against lavish spending to pay for teachers, fill potholes or make bridges safe.
The open-pit mine is the best kind because they are fast and complete. You don’t miss the opportunity for maximum tailings when you dig a big, mile-wide hole. Moreover, I love the smell of tailings in the morning.
Besides the mile-wide hole to behold, there are other reasons I support the mine.
I am for the Rosemont open-pit mine because I hate birds. Who cares about bio-diversity and animals? Humans are the only animals that matter. And those bird watchers are dirty hippies that need to get a job! Or is that Occupy Tucson? Whatever the case, only Marxists put birds before open-pit mines and profit.
As bad as the bird-watchers are, there are the astronomers who are demanding that we keep the lights down. Like all liberals, astronomers are hypocrites. They get to have their science but they want to prevent Rosemont from using their mining science. So what if a little light leaks into the sky? I hate the stars too!
And all the “sky is falling” chicken little environmentalists need to shut up about water quality and look at the facts. Nothing went wrong with BP and Exxon who protected the environment in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. They followed the law completely, and so does Rosemont Copper and nothing will go wrong here either. Rosemont Copper has promised us, and corporations always follow through on their promises. Just ask the fishermen on the Gulf of Mexico.
Rosemont promises 500 jobs for 20 years in the mines. Some pessimists (liberals!) want to know what happens if the price of copper collapses. Don’t worry about us. We can just close the mine and take it as a write off.
I am in favor of the Rosemont Copper open-pit mine because despite the incomplete environmental impact draft study by the U.S. Forest Service, I am sure that we can trust corporations to do what is best for the people in the region. We need to start chopping into that mountain while the getting is good and before people realize there are better, cleaner ways to mine than using an open pit and there are other ways to create those 500 jobs Rosemont swears will be here for 20 years.
Besides, making millionaires money without risk to us is the best reason to support the open-pit mine. I can also support the Rosemont open-pit mine because I don’t live in area and I won’t have to look at it, drink the water or smell the air. I will only have to look at the wonderful cash I will make from my investment. And thanks again to all those at the meeting for supporting the billionaires’ mine.
Tex Shelters
Wall Street Wins the 2012 Iowa Caucuses
In Current Events, Economics, Election Politics on January 5, 2012 at 00:07
Buying the Election from Salon.com
Romney had 8 more votes next to his name in the Iowa caucuses, and that means everyone else lost. Romney has the lead in New Hampshire, the next Republican primary, and he has the lead in money. Only Barack Obama has more campaign cash on hand than Mitt Romney. Without a crushing defeat in Iowa, Romney’s path to the nomination is clear. No amount of evangelical enthusiasm for Santorum, or youth and independent excitement for Ron Paul, will make a difference. Unless hit by a huge scandal, Wall Street’s man won’t lose now.
The Political Action Committee, PAC, Restore our Future spent $3 million in attack ads against Newt Gingrich after Gingrich had taken a lead in the polls about a month ago. A look at their website makes it clear that they are a pro-Romney, anti-Gingrich PAC. Because they operate as a PAC, Restore our Future received well over the $2500 individual contribution limit from individuals, i.e. millionaires. In fact, the four top donors gave $1 million each. And even though this PAC clearly supports the candidacy of Mitt Romney, they don’t face the same scrutiny as individual donors do. By giving to a PAC, donors can donate as much as they want. In essence, political influence in D.C. is sold to the highest bidders.
When money wins a political campaign, Wall Street wins. And so it was in Iowa on Tuesday. Occupy Wall Street and other occupy movements all over our nation have been working for four months to end the influence Wall Street has on politics. Wall Street has been buying influence in the nations capital through a combination of lobbying, donating to campaigns, PACs, making back room deals, and giving largess through cushy jobs after Congress members end their public work for 220 years in the United States, since 1792. So don’t expect the Occupy Wall Street movement to change Wall Street’s influence in national politics overnight.
Wall Street has a lot invested in the Presidency, having already contributed $16,835,938 to the various presidential campaigns, more than any other sector. Almost half of that total has gone to Mitt Romney ($7,801,006) with about a quarter going to President Obama ($4,187,924). That means that 75% of the money donated by Wall Street and financial institutions has gone to the front runners in the two major parties. The Presidential race is a win-win for them regardless of what party comes out on top, although Romney is clearly their number-one choice.
Why does Romney win though he has low favorability ratings within his own party? Money, Romney’s low unfavorable ratings, and the desire to have a chance to beat Barack Obama will propel Romney to the nomination despite being a former moderate Republican on many issues. “Some financiers, like Schwarzman, are Republicans who may have chosen Romney because they think he’s the candidate most likely to beat Obama.”
Only 10% of Romney’s donations are from small donors, and that is 10% more than Wall Street wants. That makes Romney the clear choice of the 1%. And because money largely determines the winners of national and statewide elections, Romney is in a good position to win the Republican nomination.
Mark Green, Author of Selling Out: How Big Corporate Money Buys Elections, Rams Through Legislation, and Betrays Our Democracy, writes clearly about how money is the determining factor in the election of politicians in America. Even in 1904, the influence money had on the Presidential race was dramatic, “Fearing defeat, Roosevelt rejected pleas by Progressives to rely on small individual contributions and turned instead for financial support to the very bankers and industrialists who had only recently supported Hanna as the most acceptable Republican candidate….Some of the country’s richest men-Cornelius Bliss, J. P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie among them-contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars, and once it was known that the President was accepting corporate money, other financiers flooded the campaign with contributions, many of which were never publicized. Roosevelt won the presidency by a landslide.”
Here is a list of the top donors to Romney’s campaign this election cycle. Note that these are almost all financial institutions; Romney is clearly in the pockets of those largely responsible helping bring about the recession.
Goldman Sachs $367,200
Credit Suisse Group $203,750
Morgan Stanley $199,800
HIG Capital $186,500
Barclays $157,750
Kirkland & Ellis $132,100
Bank of America $126,500
PriceWaterhouseCoopers $118,250
EMC Corp $117,300
JPMorgan Chase & Co $ 112,250
The Villages $97,500
Vivint Inc $80,750
Marriott International $79,837
Sullivan & Cromwell $79,250
Bain Capital $74,500
UBS AG $73,750
Wells Fargo $61,500
Blackstone Group $59,800
Citigroup Inc $57,050
Bain & Co $52,500
Total: $2,437,837
Bain Capital is Romney’s old firm. They made millions buying troubled companies and their assets, gutting them, sending any remaining jobs overseas, and then reselling the assets at a profit. Romney’s experience gutting companies and making millions for Wall Street is what the financial institutions look for in a candidate. They are unconcerned with social issues that preoccupy some religious conservatives, unless those issues can be used to divide the people amongst themselves and not against the plutocrats.
Romney also has more large donors than any candidate. More than 8,000 donors have given Romney the maximum of $2,500, compared to less than 6,000 maximum donors for Obama…Romney’s big individual donors hail from major financial institutions. His top five companies are all banks or financial service firms: Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, HIG Capital and Barclay’s. Bank of America and PricewaterhouseCoopers help round out his top ten.”
Romney wants no limits on Wall Street donations. The more Wall Street can donate, the more the 1% wins at the expense of the rest of us, the 99%. With those donations, he will be able to outspend his Republican opponents and win the nomination for his Wall Street cronies. Mitt Romney might feel the satisfaction of garnering the most votes next to his name, but the victory is not his to celebrate. Clearly, Wall Street won the Iowa caucus.
Tex Shelters
Tex Shelter’s Best of 2011
Flaming Peace from growabrain.typepad.com
2. Michelle Rhee, Wisconsin, and the Attack on Teachers
4. Other Official State Items We Need in Arizona
Excerpt: The official state border crossing; changes weekly.
6. Where is the Proof that Obama is even Human?
Best Line: Why won’t Obama come forward with his penis?
8. How to Promote High Stakes Testing: Lie
10. Stop the Socialist FEMA Takeover of the Midwest
11. Every Day, I’m More Gay
13. Facts about Class, Poverty and Downward Mobility
14. Endangered Billionaire Job Creators
Peace, and happy New Year,
Tex Shelters
Happy New Year, World, from Tex Shelters of Occupy Tucson
Occupy the World from flyingnorth.net
To: The World and all its residents
Re: Current Conditions and prospects
Dear World:
Tex Shelters
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Entries in Ryan Gosling (55)
Say What Gangsta?
Amuse us. Add a caption or dialogue to this photo in the comments. It's Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone on the set of the crime drama The Gangster Squad (2013) which takes place in the Los Angeles of 1949.
I'll repost later with the winning comment.
Review: The Self Possession of "Drive"
Recommended Further Reading
Nick's Flick Picks - a coiled python
My New Plaid Pants "Chrissy Hendricks, Stiletto Wobbler
Wooooo(t). It's Link Time.
As you know if you're paying attention (there will be a quiz) I've been offline for 72 hours. GASP! So if some of the following links are GASP 72 hours old, you will forgive. For the record I highly recommend spending 72 hours in a cabin in the woods without internet, tv or cel phones (provided there are no serial killers nearby). Highly relaxing!
Let's catch up with pieces/stories you (by which I mean "I") might have missed!
The Film Doctor on Contagion and the "die-off" scenario.
Go Fug Yourself succinct funny snappy boring Brangelina
Blog Stage will Broadway actress Mary Farber be a new SNL cast member?
Towleroad the continuing antics of James Franco. This time painted pink for Woooo mag.
My New Plaid Pants Kate Winslet... and Elizabeth Taylor
Natasha VC remember a time via Pauline Kael when Nicolas Cage was sorta wonderful. I saw Moonstruck again recently and it was just ♥♥♥♥... well that's amore!
Empire Online Hugh Grant joins the already gargantuan name cast of Cloud Atlas which, if you'll recall, already has three directors. It sounds like a mess but Empire is feeling hopeful.
Awards Daily on Oscar and sex. Do they really take issue with explicit films? (in short: yes)
IndieWire Remember when I made that brief Oscar prediction about Shailene Woodley in The Descendants and people made fun? Well, her buzz isn't boiling or anything but it is simmering ever since Telluride.
WSJ Asia Scene Deanie Ip (A Simple Life) who just won the Venice Volpi Cup for Best Actress on why she took a long break from acting...
I think nobody wants me, because I’m very difficult.
Towleroad Clint Eastwood kicks off the UnOfficial (but not for long) Armie Hammer Best Supporting Actor campaign for J. Edgar while Hammer boasts of his own chest hair
The Telegraph interviews the ascendant Ryan Gosling
If I'm still acting at 46, I'll be surprised.
Say it ain't so. Of course it isn't. I wish I had kept a spreadsheet of all the alarmist things celebrities have said over the years because no one ever remembers... including me. As I typed this sentence I was about to share this anecdote about what Matt Damon said this one time in a magazine about making ridiculous amounts of money and how that would mean he would... but I've already forgotten what he said he wouldn't do anymore. It was something about quitting or not doing any press. Something silly. Because of course he went on to make gazillions and still works in front of the camera and plays to it in interviews.
Today's Must See Video
Madonna on the whole silly Venice Film Festival loathing hydranges "story"
There really is nothing better than Madonna with a sense of humor about herself. It's always been her saving grace and if she doesn't locate it as often as she once did, at least it's still there! And it's great timing since she's hitting the publicity circuit with such gusto. Two of my friends/acquaintances, fraquaintances? even interviewed her: Peter and Scott. I can't imagine how either got through it. Honestly, I can't.
if you're as interested in editing as I am, you might enjoy this very thorough analysis of a key action sequence in The Dark Knight (2008).
I highlight it because, like Jim Emerson, I have always been thrown by that film's editing (the Oscar nomination is baffling to me) as it doesn't make coherent sense, spatially or time-wise. (If you don't share this pet peeve -- I realize many people enjoy contemporary cinema's rule-free freneticism of editing -- you might not enjoy this video. This is actually the #2 most prominent reason as to why I have never been a Christopher Nolan convert. I prefer action filmmakers like James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow who never (or very very rarely) sacrifice coherency for thrills.
Belated Notes on "Crazy, Stupid, Love."
Christopher and a few other readers have been asking me for more detailed information about what I thought of Crazy, Stupid, Love. As daily readers know I was out of town when it opened and I ended up seeing it quite a bit after the fact which is not my preference, particularly not for a movie with so many actors I'm inordinately fond of. I saw it after the mixed reviews and after the hype had passed, which turns out to be the ideal time to see something that is relatively unassuming but so thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.
Nothing about Crazy... reinvents or even reinvigorates the romantic comedy genre exactly but it's a great entry in the limited subgenre of the interlocking ensemble romances. You know the kind: teeming cast all with their individual romantic dramas and all of these short lovelorn stories end up connecting in coincidental ways, whether awkwardly forced, completely organic, or somewhere inbetween. Here we have the inbetween. But stack this up against recent movies of its ilk, and won't it look like a bonafide masterpiece?
Very little within Crazy... is entirely plausible but that's not always what we go to the movies for... and movies often thrive on exaggeration; They're shinier, funnier, prettier dramatizations of real life acted out by the shiniest funniest prettiest human specimens (i.e. movie stars). Usually in ensemble films the problem is that one storyline is much weaker than the others. Here, the high school students fill that slot but it's not so weak as to distract from the overall pleasure and Analeigh Tipton is kind of adorable. The best thing one can say for the screenplay aside from actually funny jokes (a new concept for romcoms!) is that the three tiers of romances: teenage, young adult, and middle age play out beautifully, respectively, as crazy naive (teenage hormones!), stupid sexy (yes Emma Stone & Gosling form a bond that's deeper than their physicality but that's the driving force getting them there), and in-love but weary (middle age and all the life experience / baggage that brings). You can argue that these stories are forcibly connected -- boy did I not see the central twist coming -- but I don't think you can argue that the thematic parallels aren't presented with something like nonjudgmental grace; movies that love their characters, flaws and all, are much easier to love that movies that condemn them.
Neither the direction (by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa) nor the screenplay (Dan Fogelman) ever hammer the parallels home for the sake of "SEE!" but it ends up reflecting beautifully on different timetables of love, both in regards to the actual age of lovers and the timetable of love itself, which almost has to start with the crazy / stupid before it ever gets to the lived in capital L love.
Much credit has to go to the actors for smoothing over the movie's overstuffed feeling. Everyone does fine work here -- this might be the most relaxed Julianne Moore has ever been in comic mode -- making the standard tropes and predictable trajectories within the three stories feel like exciting journeys (since the destination is never exactly in doubt). Crazy, Stupid, Love. is the kind of movie I can imagine people finding again as they're flipping channels on TV for years to come. Like "Oh yeah, this one is so cute!"... *watches the rest of it*. It's not without flaws. On first view maybe it's a little too self-consciously wacky (comic hijinx!) or dumb (shades of Hitch) but it's just going to end up beloved with repeat views. B+
Gosling's Growing Character Gallery
P.S. I actually saw Crazy Stupid, Love. shortly after seeing Ryan Gosling doing a very very different spin on the unreachable soul behind a cool mask in Drive and wow, is that a fascinating twin snapshot on star power and acting range. Both of his new performances are beauties but what's more fascinating is how perfectly composed and still both characters are when held up to those emotionally ragged messy portraits of love or drug addicts from Blue Valentine or Half Nelson, respectively. Michael Fassbender may well be Gosling's sole living rival for Future of the Movies or Best of His Generation titles. I can't wait to see them fight it out for the crown this decade. How about you?
Notes From Venice: "The Ides of March"
Editor's Note: Please welcome Ferdi from Italy (pictured below) who has been a Film Experience reader for many years. He's also a critic for LoudVision so please visit them if you speak Italian. We're very happy to have him sending us bite-sized notes from Venice this year for The Film Experience. - Nathaniel R.
Ferdi reporting from the opening day of the 68th Venice Film Festival.
TFE Correspondent Ferdinando Schiavone shot by Fabrizio Spinetta
The Ides Of March is exactly what we've come to expect from Clooney: a solid, classically made, political contemporary drama. It's got a subtle shakespearian twist, a sharp screenplay and a strong cast. (OK, Evan Rachel Wood is always Evans Rachel Wood but, dammit! she's always good). Ryan Gosling is undoubtedly best in show with a perfectly nuanced character arc. He sparkles most in a couple of tasty scenes with Wood. But poor Marisa Tomei is soooo underused (again!) and Clooney plays a character working up to a big speech in front of a live audience (again!). Nothing new or revolutionary here, but quite everything in the right place.
Hollywood glamour aside, it's quite a shy opening film for a festival this big. (Last year things were very different with the incendiary opener Black Swan.)
Photo via Zimbio
Everyone has been saying that The Ides of March is a good movie (perhaps because it's talking about the right things in a serious way) but where are the emotions? Press reaction at the very first screening ranged from good to tepid, but it took the arrival of the stars at the press conference (all present but for Gosling) before you could feel warmth of unconditional love. How will the public react tonight when it opens the festival?
Editor's Note: Now check out these starry photos that Ferdi sent along from his photographer Fabrizio Spinetta from tonight's big event.
George Clooney in Venice © Fabrizio Spinetta
Two more fun photos after the jump!
Click to read more ...
Go L*nk Yourself
Gabby Sidibe snapped by Terry Richardson on 08/23/11 at the Our Idiot Brother premiereSome Came Running "The Trouble With Movie Stars" the distraction of stardom in The Tree of Life and other films.
Funny or Die Dave Franco in "Go F*ck Yourself". (I know he's James Franco's brother but he looks to me like the offspring of James Franco f*cking James Marsden.#amiright?)
Awards Daily has some words about Oscar's history with black actresses. This topic is about 200 times as complicated as anyone will ever claim it is but I am horrified to realize that there are still people trying to say that Gabby Sidibe just played herself in Precious. Anyone who has spent more than two seconds watching her on a talk show versus seeing her in Precious would have to be braindead to not notice the difference. Night and day.
Boston Wesley Morris on The Help. I sometimes feel like a fanboy when reading Morris's reviews . He's just great: anecdotal when it benefits the piece, funny without congratulating himself for it, and critical without being mean-spirited; his scalpel is sharp, his hand steady and he never accidentally lops off the joy of movies, while carving a fine point.
New York Times tennis rivalries and Andy Samberg portraying them. Fun!
Form is Void "5 from Dorothy Parker"
Cineuropa Joachim Trier's Oslo August 31st up for another prize. It seems more and more certain that this will have to be Norway's Oscar submission.
Film Drunk choice quotes from Ryan Gosling's Esquire profile.
Look, Helen Mirren arrives at the premiere of The Debt
I'm guessing she makes grown women half her age weep. Look at that bod! She is 66 years old.
Finally... I don't know how I keep missing the big stories but I didn't even know about the eastern Earthquake yesterday until after the fact when people kept asking me if I felt it? Felt what? This is what I tweeted about it.
Speaking of... so then I find it that everyone is talking about Ryan Gosling breaking up a fight here in NYC and I didn't know about that either. I'm in a fog!
Leo vs. Ryan: Oscar's Golden Young Men?
If this year's Best Actress competition is the race of the sixty-somethings (Close vs. Streep) that most people are predicting with the films still sight unseen, what kind of shape will the corresponding male category take? Could we see a race between 30-somethings in a sort of reverse age scenario of what normally occurs with actresses winning young and actors winning as soon as they have a gray hair or fifty.
Leo frets. It's not always good news to be the early unarguable frontrunner.
As an Oscar pundit I'm always trying to roll different scenarios on my tongue to see how they taste. How about this: What if this year's race is between Leonardo DiCaprio in J Edgar who will draw strength both from his past Oscar history and from AMPAS Official Favorite Genre (the biopic) and Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March? Gosling will be propped up by last year's Blue Valentine snub, his sure to be iconic character in Drive, and his general quickly achieved status as THE best of his generation...on this side of the Atlantic at least. I assume Michael Fassbender is just warming up. And what if the vote siphoning ingredient is not Clooney or Fassbender or whomever but Cannes Best Actor winner Jean DuJardin in The Artist?
I know most people have called this one for Leo despite J Edgar being sight unseen and Clint Eastwood's Oscar appeal slightly faded. On paper (Oscar weight paper), yes he looks unstoppable. That's especially true because if Gosling proves his main competition, well, Gosling is very young still for Oscar votes being only one year older at this writing as the youngest Best Actor winner ever (Adrien Brody, The Pianist). But I always hesitate to assume that we know winners before we have seen virtually any of the competitive work. I mean, would fans of other young movie giants of their day ever assume that Paul Newman or Al Pacino or Peter O'Toole or whomever would have to wait as long as they did or are? Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, both as big as Leo, are still waiting, too.
Nothing is certain until it's already happened.
As for Supporting Actor, The Ides of March is the big reigning question mark in the same way that The Help (previous posts) is for the ladies with multiple appealing choices for voters. The political drama has three former Oscar nominees, two of them winners, all circling 'round and talking at Ryan Gosling in the actor friendly piece. Who will voters favor: showy Philip Seymour Hoffman, subtle (at least in comparison) Paul Giamatti, or charismatic George Clooney?
Make your wild guesses now! Soon the movies are upon us. Wheeee
UPDATED PREDICTIONS: Index | Picture | Director | Actor | Supporting Actor | http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/tag/ryan-gosling?currentPage=6 | dclm-gs1-447915528 | false | false | {
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0.023205 | <urn:uuid:f280bc77-8d1a-485b-93bf-5c82a6c9d92c> | en | 0.969278 | My Kids Will Eat Princess-Themed Eggs & I'm Not Complaining
Love It! 11
Image via aftenposten
picky eaters, nutrition
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birth... birthymom4
No, my kids will be served regular eggs...
I want my kids to know that not everything that is "themed" is special or better!
I am definitely not going to encourage that kind of thinking.
Requi... RequiemForAnAmy
But where are the gender neutral eggs?! Oh wait, those are just eggs. lol
The packaging is cute, though. To me, it's no different than the box of cereal with Elmo on it. It's branding and apparently, it's working!
Chris... ChristyM123
I think it's a great idea! I remember when I was a kid and I wanted different junk foods just because one of my favorite characters was on the package. Why not use that same marketing to healthy foods? I agree with Cynthia---factory eggs come from horrible conditions, but unfortunately, not everyone has access to farm fresh eggs. I live in a small midwestern town so farm fresh eggs are pretty easy to come by, however I doubt big cities have that same convenience, so you just gotta do the best you can.
nonmember avatar lauren
Depending on cost looks lije there is only 4eggs per box. Id buy them once. Keep the boxes and reuse them. When the kids werent looking id refill them
Bubsy Bubsy
@Lauren - Genius!
craft... craftycatVT
I totally agree with Cynthia. I buy my eggs from a woman whose farm I have actually visited and whose chickens seem pretty darn happy.
Claudia Mendoza Beisner
Better this than promoting crappy fast food or processed junk. It doesn't bother me, I think it's kind of cute.
ashjo85 ashjo85
My kids will eat anything not nailed down to the floor, broccoli included. I got lucky I guess?
Pam.N.42 Pam.N.42
Lol ashjo85, my kids are the same! Friends with super picky eaters always ask me what I do and I'm like I don't know they just never complained.
But the eggs are a cute idea, if it gets them excited to eat something as wholesome as eggs it seems good, my husbands family is from Norway I wanna see if I can find these next time I go. Though I don't know a lot kids who don't like eggs...
I also don't see why the author says don't freak out? Cause were gendering them? I mean its not like they say girl eggs and boy eggs.
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0.060817 | <urn:uuid:bdc1904e-5362-4672-8979-224b4104d5c7> | en | 0.838558 | Items with tag “live jazz band”
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Ann Arbor's classic brunch still delights
By Alexander J. Drukas
March 27, 2008, 2:47AM
There's something romantic and alluring about a distant train whistle, a sound that conjures up memories of days past and a bygone era. But what happens when the train is right outside the window, whistle and all? That's the signal of one of Ann Arbor's most special dining traditions: Sunday brunch at the Gandy Dancer, located in a historic... Full story » | http://topics.mlive.com/tag/live%20jazz%20band/index.html | dclm-gs1-448045528 | false | false | {
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0.022717 | <urn:uuid:c18df9f7-7fb0-4669-8540-88faf7db43bc> | en | 0.840009 | Traveling Luck for Oleksandrivka, Odes'ka Oblast, Ukraine
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November 12, 2013
WM P. FORD-town talk copy
The Ford family has a strong pride in their lineage and the character passed down through men like William Prince Ford. In his narrative Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup said, “there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.” This William Ford was William Prince Ford, a planter, sawmill operator and religious leader in the Cheneyville area of Avoyelles and Rapides parishes in Louisiana, and my third great grandfather through my father, William Marcus Ford. My father was born in Cheneyville in a house on Ford Street, and his first cousin, William Henry Ford, lives on the same street to this day.
William Prince Ford was born in Kentucky in 1803 and came to Louisiana in 1816 with his family. He married Martha Providence Tanner, daughter of a prominent family in the area. Martha and William had five children together before Martha died in 1849. William then married Mary Boaz Dawson, and they had no children together. My family’s lineage is through the fifth child of the first marriage, Walter Prince Ford.
Other than his connection to Solomon Northup, William was best known for his role during a crisis within the Cheneyville Baptist Church. He had been a member of this church until 1835 when he became a member of the Springhill Baptist Church near Lecompte, Louisiana. He was ordained in the Springhill church in 1844.
The schism in the Cheneyville church was part of a larger Restoration movement sweeping the United States at the time, which called for a more primitive form of Christianity, disavowing traditions not found directly through Scriptures. Though labeled as “Campbellite” in the following excerpt, reformers disavowed such labels and preferred to be called “Christian.” Among other modern denominations derived from this movement are the Churches of Christ.
I found a somewhat detailed account of the particular disagreement in the Cheneyville church in “Three Pioneer Rapides Families: A Genealogy,” which excerpts a direct account by Paul Jabez Tanner, William Ford’s brother-in-law. Tanner and fellow church members were reading the Articles of Faith of the Baptist Church in August 1841 and questioned the following article: “We believe in the eternal unconditional election of a definite number of the human family to grace and glory.” After some deliberation, a group of members of the Cheneyville church determined that if they were to accept that article, there would be “no further use for the Bible.” According to Tanner, this particular Article of Faith was a point of contention to other churches in Louisiana at the time.
The Cheneyville church later hosted a “preacher named McCall,” who gave a reform-minded sermon on “spiritual influence.” After McCall’s sermon, an elder complained that “if what he had just heard was the truth, he had been preaching error for twenty years.” Another elder supported McCall’s beliefs and commenced to preach “a severe sermon against the old way of doing business.” The traditionalists then labeled the reformers “Campbellites,” though, according to Tanner, “I do not suppose there was an individual in the neighborhood who knew Mr. Campbell or the tenets he taught.”
Simply put, a large group of members of the Cheneyville church rejected the Baptist Articles of Faith, because they believed “Baptists had no creed but the Bible.” After much attempt by the reformers to amend the Articles and reconcile their differences, Tanner was “determined to withdraw, but, by persuasion of W. P. Ford, was induced to hold on” until a meeting was held to bring peace to the situation. After several attempts to reconcile, the issue was not settled, and the reformers withdrew from the Cheneyville Baptist Church and eventually established their own Christian Church in May 1842.
William Prince Ford appears in the affairs of Tanner’s new Christian Church, when in 1845, his own Springhill Baptist Church charged him “1st, with having administered the Lord’s Supper to the Campbellite church at Cheneyville; 2nd, with having ordained elders in said church; 3rd with having thus given countenance to the schism in the Cheneyville Baptist Church. Upon the investigation of these charges he was expelled from the Springhill church, March 16, 1845.”
I enjoy learning from this incident that William was not afraid to question convention and to rebel against what he found wrong, though it would seem he did so with careful deliberation and with the intent to resolve the differences between the reformers and the traditionalists. I think this cautious and thoughtful ability to question authority was passed down to current generations!
Regarding Solomon’s story, we who descend from those who held human beings in bondage are left with a bit of a conundrum – knowing that your family participated in America’s greatest shame, yet being proud of where you come from. I find it comforting to know that William Ford treated Solomon Northup with kindness, even as he kept him in enslavement. Even though William could never know that he would be part of such a compelling life story, his character was defended by the victim who had all the reason in the world to hate him.
I’ve long felt that Solomon’s story was deserving of being told on a larger stage, and Benedict Cumberbatch has now brought my great-great-great grandfather to life on the screen. The fact that Solomon recorded his story is vital as we move farther and farther from slavery and overt racism, because no matter how far we’’ve come, America continues to struggle with race issues. I think of an e-mail exchange between my sister Laura and a descendant of Solomon, Joseph M. Linzay, Sr., in which Mr. Linzay addresses Laura’s concern that her ancestor owned his: “Although your grandfather was a slave owner, he was kind to Grandfather Solomon…I blame slavery on ignorance and illiteracy…For this reason, all of my descendants are college graduates.” We cannot solve our problems unless we understand the past that we’ve come from. Additionally, I’m very thankful that this film comes at a time that I can share it with my own children when they are old enough to appreciate the history and their heritage within the story.
– Anne Marie Barrios
(Photo by Melanie Torbett) | http://twelveyearsaslave.org/william-prince-ford-my-3rd-great-grandfather-and-solomons-first-owner/ | dclm-gs1-448165528 | false | false | {
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0.143132 | <urn:uuid:65d88a2f-2c79-4217-a505-881b0474a4cc> | en | 0.733975 | шукати будь-яке слово, наприклад the eiffel tower:
this is when you are on the beach with a woman who is on period, the male partner proceeds to wet his penis and roll it in the sand like you are making chicken cutlets. after the penis is covered, apply to bloodied vagina hence making the appearence of a chicken parmigiana
yo dude, i went to the beach yesterday and showed my girl the chicken parmigiana!
додав picklesworth III 26 Серпень 2008
Слова пов'язані з the chicken parmigiana
chicken cutlet chicken parm chicken parmigian sand piper sandy piper | http://uk.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20chicken%20parmigiana | dclm-gs1-448195528 | false | false | {
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0.04386 | <urn:uuid:34c3ccc7-2db3-4828-94ac-e2494a0a60c7> | en | 0.960448 | The Future As History
It is a risky business trying to predict the future, and although it makes some sense to try to get a handle on what the world might be like in one’s lifetime, one might wonder what’s even the point of all this prophecy that stretches out beyond the decades one is expected to live? The answer I think is that no one who engages in futurism is really trying to predict the future so much as shape it, or at the very least, inspire Noah like preparations for disaster. Those who imagine a dark future are trying to scare the bejesus out of us so we do what is necessary not to end up in a world gone black swept away by the flood waters. Problem is, extreme fear more often leads to paralysis rather than reform or ark building, something that God, had he been a behavioral psychologist, would have known.
Those with a Pollyannaish story about tomorrow, on the other hand, are usually trying to convince us to buy into some set of current trends, and for that reason, optimists often end up being the last thing they think they are, a support for conservative politics. Why change what’s going well or destined, in the long run, to end well? The problem here is that, as Keynes said “In the long run we’re all dead”, which should be an indication that if we see a problem out in front of us we should address it, rather than rest on faith and let some teleos of history or some such sort the whole thing out.
It’s hard to ride the thin line between optimism and pessimism regarding the future while still providing a view of it that is realistic, compelling and encourages us towards action in the present. Science-fiction, where it avoids the pull towards utopia or dystopia, and regardless of it flaws, does manage to present versions of the future that are gripping and a thousand times better than dry futurists “reports” on the future that go down like sawdust, but the genre suffers from having too many balls in the air.
There is not only a problem of the common complaint that, like with political novels, the human aspects of a story suffer from being tied too tightly to a social “purpose”- in this case to offer plausible predictions of the future, but that the idea of crafting a “plausible” future itself can serve as an anchor on the imagination. An author of fiction should be free to sail into any world that comes into his head- plausible destinations be damned.
Adrian Hon’s recent The History of the Future in 100 Objects overcomes this problem with using science-fiction to craft plausible versions of the future by jettisoning fictional narrative and presenting the future in the form of a work of history. Hon was inspired to take this approach in part by an actual recent work of history- Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects. In the same way objects from the human past can reveal deep insights not just into the particular culture that made them, but help us apprehend the trajectory that the whole of humankind has taken so far, 100 imagined “objects” from the century we have yet to see play out allows Hon to reveal the “culture” of the near future we can actually see quite well, which when all is said and done amounts to interrogating the path we are currently on.
Hon is perhaps uniquely positioned to give us a feel for where we are currently headed. Trained as a neuroscientist he is able to see what the ongoing revolutionary breakthroughs in neuroscience might mean for society. He also has his fingers on the pulse of the increasingly important world of online gaming as the CEO of the company Six-to-Start which develops interactive real world games such as Zombies, Run!
In what follows I’ll look at 9 of Hon’s objects of the future which I thought were the most intriguing. Here we go:
#8 Locked Simulation Interrogation – 2019
There’s a lot of discussion these days about the revival of virtual reality, especially with the quite revolutionary new VR headset of Oculus Rift. We’ve also seen a surge of brain scanning that purports to see inside the human mind revealing everything from when a person is lying to whether or not they are prone to mystical experiences. Hon imagines that just a few years out these technologies being combined to form a brand new and disturbing form of interrogation.
In 2019, after a series of terrorists attacks in Charlotte North Carolina the FBI starts using so-called “locked-sims” to interrogate terrorist suspects. A suspect is run through a simulation in which his neurological responses are closely monitored in the hope that they might do things such as help identify other suspects, or unravel future plots.
The technique of locked-sims appears to be so successful that it is soon becomes the rage in other areas of law enforcement involving much less existential public risks. Imagine murder suspects or even petty criminals run through a simulated version of the crime- their every internal and external reaction minutely monitored.
Whatever their promise locked-sims prove full of errors and abuses not the least of which is their tendency to leave the innocents often interrogated in them emotionally scarred. Ancient protections end up saving us from a nightmare technology. In 2033 the US Supreme Court deems locked-sims a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” and therefore constitutionally prohibited.
#20 Cross Ball- 2026
A good deal of A History of the Future deals with the way we might relate to advances in artificial intelligence, and one thing Hon tries to make clear is that, in this century at least, human beings won’t suddenly just exit the stage to make room for AI. For a good while the world will be hybrid.
“Cross Ball” is an imagined game that’s a little like the ancient Mesoamerican ball game of Nahuatl, only in Cross Ball human beings work in conjunction with bots. Hon sees a lot of AI combined with human teams in the future world of work, but in sports, the reason for the amalgam has more to do with human psychology:
Bots on their own were boring; humans on their own were old-fashioned. But bots and humans together? That was something new.
This would be new for real word games, but we do already have this in “Freestyle Chess” where old-fashioned humans can no longer beat machines and no one seems to want to watch matches between chess playing programs, so that the games with the most interest have been those which match human beings working with programs against other human beings working with programs. In the real world bot/human games of the future I hope they have good helmets.
# 23 Desir 2026
Another area where I thought Hon was really onto something was when it came to puppets. Seriously. AI is indeed getting better all the time even if Siri or customer service bots can be so frustrating, but it’s likely some time out before bots show anything like the full panoply of human interactions like imagined in the film Her. But there’s a mid-point here and that’s having human beings remotely control the bots- to be their puppeteers.
Hon imagines this in the realm of prostitution. A company called Desir essentially uses very sophisticated forms of sex dolls as puppets controlled by experienced prostitutes. The weaknesses of AI give human beings something to do. As he quotes Desir’s imaginary founder:
Our agent AI is pretty good as it is, but like I said, there’s nothing that beats the intimate connection that only a real human can make. Our members are experts and they know what to say, how to move and how to act better than our own AI agents, so I think that any members who choose to get involved in puppeting will supplement their income pretty nicely
# 26 Amplified Teams 2027
One thing I really liked about A History of the Future is that it put flesh on the bones of an idea that has been developed by the economist Tyler Cowen in his book Average is Over (review pending) that employment in the 21st century won’t eventually all be swallowed up by robots, but that the highest earners, or even just those able to economically sustain themselves, would be in the form of teams connected to the increasing capacity of AI. Such are Hon’s “amplified teams” which Hon states:
….usually have three to seven human members supported by highly customized software that allows them to communicate with one another- and with AI support systems- at an accelerated rate.
I’m crossing my fingers that somebody invents a bot for introverts- or is that a contradiction?
#39 Micromort Detector – 2032
Hon foresees our aging population becoming increasingly consumed with mortality and almost obsessive compulsive with measurement as a means of combating our anxiety. Hence his idea of the “micromort detector”.
A micromort is a unit of risk representing a one-in-a-million chance of death.
Mutual Assurance is a company that tried to springboard off this anxiety with its product “Lifeline” a device for measuring the mortality risk of any behavior the hope being to both improve healthy living, and more important for the company to accurately assess insurance premiums. Drink a cup of coffee – get a score, eat a doughnut, score.
The problem with the Lifeline was that it wasn’t particularly accurate due to individual variation, and the idea that the road to everything was paved in the 1s and 0s of data became passe. The Lifeline did however sometimes cause people to pause and reflect on their own mortality:
And that’s perhaps the most useful thing that the Lifeline did. Those trying to guide their behavior were frequently stymied, but that very effort often prompted a fleeting understanding of mortality and caused more subtle, longer- lasting changes in outlook. It wasn’t a magical device that made people wiser- it was a memento mori.
#56 Shanghai Six 2036
As part of the gaming world Hon has some really fascinating speculations on the future of entertainment. With Shanghai Six he imagines a mashup of alternate reality games such as his own Zombies Run! and something like the massive role playing found in events such as historical reenactments combined with aspects of reality television and all rolled up into the drama of film. Shanghai Six is a 10,000 person global drama with actors drawn from the real world. I’d hate to be the film crew’s gofer.
#63 Javelin 2040
The History of the Future also has some rather interesting things to say about the future of human enhancement. The transition begins with the paralympians who by the 2020’s are able to outperform by a large measure typical human athletes.
The shift began in 2020, when the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) staged a technology demonstration….
The demonstration was a huge success. People had never before seen such a direct combination of technology and raw human will power outside of war, and the sponsors were delighted at the viewing figures. The interest, of course, lay in marketing their expensive medical and lifestyle devices to the all- important Gen-X and Millennial markets, who were beginning to worry about their mobility and independence as they grew older.
There is something of the Daytona 500 about this here, sports becoming as much about how good the technology is as it is about the excellence of the athlete. And all sports do indeed seem to be headed this way. The barrier now is that technological and pharmaceutical assists for the athlete are not seen as a way to take human performance to its limits, but as a form of cheating. Yet, once such technologies become commonplace Hon imagines it unlikely that such distinctions will prove sustainable:
By the 40s and 50s, public attitudes towards mimic scripts, lenses, augments and neural laces had relaxed, and the notion that using these things would somehow constitute ‘cheating’ seemed outrageous. Baseline non-augmented humans were becoming the minority; the Paralympians were more representative of the real world, a world in which everyone was becoming enhanced in some small or large way.
It was a far cry from the Olympics. But then again, the enhanced were a far cry from the original humans.
#70 The Fourth Great Awakening 2044
Hon has something like Nassim Taleb’s idea that one of the best ways we have of catching the shadow of the future isn’t to have a handle on what will be new, but rather a good idea of what will still likely be around. The best indication we have that something will exist in the future is how long it has existed in the past. Long life proves evolutionary robustness under a variety of circumstances. Families have been around since our beginnings and will therefore likely exist for a long time to come.
Things that exist for a long time aren’t unchanging but flexible in a way that allows them to find expression in new forms once the old ways of doing things cease working.
Hon sees our long lived desire for communal eating surviving in his #25 The Halls (2027) where people gather and mix together in collectively shared kitchen/dining establishments.
Halls speak to our strong need for social interaction, and for the ages-old idea that people will always need to eat- and they’ll enjoy doing it together.
And the survival of the reading in a world even more media and distraction saturated in something like dedicated seclusionary Reading Rooms (2030) #34. He also sees the survival of one of the oldest of human institutions, religion, only religion will have become much more centered on worldliness and will leverage advances in neuroscience to foster, depending on your perspective, either virtue or brainwashing. Thus we have Hon’s imagined Fourth Great Awakening and the Christian Consummation Movement.
If I use the eyedrops, take the pills, and enroll in their induction course of targeted viruses and magstim- which I can assure you I am not about to do- then over the next few months, my personality and desires would gradually be transformed. My aggressive tendencies would be lowered. I’d readily form strong, trusting friendships with the people I met during this imprinting period- Consummators, usually. I would become generally more empathetic, more generous and “less desiring of fleeting, individual and mundane pleasures” according to the CCM.
It is social conditions that Hon sees driving the creation of something like the CCM, namely mass unemployment caused by globalization and especially automation. The idea, again, is very similar to that of Tyler Cowen’s in Average is Over, but whereas Cowen sees in the rise of Neo-victorianism a lifeboat for a middle class savaged by automation, Hon sees the similar CCM as a way human beings might try to reestablish the meaning they can no longer derive from work.
Hon’s imagined CCM combines some very old and very new technologies:
The CCM understood how Christianity itself spread during the Apostolic Age through hundreds of small gatherings, and accelerated that process by multiple orders of magnitude with the help of network technologies.
And all of that combined with the most advanced neuroscience.
#72 The Downvoted 2045
Augmented reality devices such as Google Glass should let us see the world in new ways, but just important might be what it allows us not to have to see. From this Hon derives his idea of “downvoting” essentially the choice to redact from reality individuals the group has deemed worthless.
“They don’t see you, “ he used to say. “You are completely invisible.I don’t know if it was better or worse before these awful glasses, when people just pretended you didn’t exist. Now I am told that there are people who literally put you out of their sight, so that I become this muddy black shadow drifting along the pavement. And you know what? People will still downvote a black shadow!”
I’ll leave you off at Hon’s world circa 2045, but he has a lot else to say about everything from democracy, to space colonies to the post-21century future of AI. Somehow Hon’s patchwork imagined artifacts of the future allowed him to sew together a quilt of the century before us in a very clear pattern. What is that pattern?
That out in front of us the implications of continued miniaturization, networking, algorithmization, AI, and advances in neuroscience and human enhancement will continue to play themselves out. This has bright sides and dark sides and one of the darker that the opportunities for gainful human employment will become more rare.
Trained as a neuroscientist, Hon sees both dangers and opportunities as advances in neuroscience make the human brain once firmly secured in the black box of the skull permeable. Here there will be opportunities for abuse by the state or groups with nefarious intents, but there will also be opportunities for enriched human cooperation and even art.
All fascinating stuff, but it was what he had to say about the future of entertainment and the arts that I found most intriguing. As the CEO of the company Six-to-Start he has his finger on the pulse of the entertainment in a way I do not. In the near future, Hon sees a blurring of the lines between gaming, role playing, and film and television, and there will be extraordinary changes in the ways we watch and play sports.
As for the arts, here where I live in Pennsylvania we are constantly bombarded with messages that our children need to be training in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). This is often to the detriment of programs in “useless” liberal arts such as history and most of all art programs whose budgets have been consistently whittled away. Hon showed me a future in which artists and actors, or more clearly people who have had exposure through schooling to the arts, may be some of the few groups that can avoid, at least for a time, the onset of AI driven automation. Puppeteering of various sorts would seem to be a likely transitional phase between “dead” humanoid robots and true and fully human like AI. This isn’t just a matter of the lurid future of prostitution, but for remote nursing, health care, and psychotherapy. Engineers and scientists will bring us the tools of the future, but it’s those with humanistic “soft-skills” that will be needed to keep that future livable, humane, and interesting.
We see this with another of The History of the Future’s underlying perspectives- that a lot of the struggle of the future will be about keeping it a place human beings are actually happy to live in and that much of doing this will rely on tools of the past or finding protective bubbles through which the things that we now treasure can survive in the new reality we are building. Hence Hon’s idea of dining halls and reading rooms, and even more generally his view that people will continue to search for meaning sometimes turning to one of our most ancient technologies- religion- to do so.
Yet perhaps what Hon has most given us in The History of the Future is less a prediction than a kind of game with which we too can play which helps us see the outlines of the future, after all, game design is his thing. Perhaps, I’ll try to play the game myself sometime soon…
How to predict the future with five simple rules
Caravaggio Fortune Teller
Can Machines Be Moral Actors?
Tin Man by Greg Hildebrandt
The Tin Man by Greg Hildebrandt
Ethicists have been asking themselves a question over the last couple of years that seems to come right out of science-fiction. Is it possible to make moral machines, or in their lingo, autonomous moral agents -AMAs? Asking the question might have seemed silly not so long ago, or so speculative as risk obtaining tenure, but as the revolution in robotics has rolled forward it has become an issue necessary to grapple with and now.
Perhaps the most surprising thing to emerge out of the effort to think through what moral machines might mean has been less what it has revealed about our machines or their potential than what it has brought to relief in terms of our own very human moral behavior and reasoning. But I am getting ahead of myself, let me begin at the beginning.
Step back for a second and think about the largely automated systems that surround you right now, not in any hypothetical future with our version of Rosie from the Jetsons, or R2D2, but in the world in which we live today. The car you drove in this morning and the computer you are reading this on were brought to you in part by manufacturing robots. You may have stumbled across this piece via the suggestion of a search algorithm programmed but not really run by human hands. The electrical system supplying your the computer or tablet on which you are reading is largely automated, as are the actions of the algorithms that are now trying to grow your 401K or pension fund. And while we might not be able to say what this automation will look like ten or 20 years down the road we can nearly guarantee that barring some catastrophe there will only be more of it, and given the lag between software and hardware development this will be the case even should Moore’s Law completely stall out on us.
The question ethicists are really asking isn’t really should we build an ethical dimension into these types of automated systems, but if we can, and what doing so would mean for human status as moral agents. Would building AMAs mean a decline in human moral dignity? Personally, I can’t really say I have a dog in this fight, but hopefully that will help me to see the views of all sides with more clarity.
Of course, the most ethically fraught area in which AMAs are being debated is warfare. There seems to be an evolutionary pull to deploy machines in combat with greater and greater levels of autonomy. The reason is simple advanced nations want to minimize risks to their own soldiers and remote controlled weapons are at risk of jamming and being cut off from their controllers. Thus, machines need to be able to act independent of human puppeteers. A good case can be made, though I will not try to make it here, that building machines that can make autonomous decisions to actually kill human beings would constitute the crossing of a threshold humanity will have prefered having remained on this side of.
Still, while it’s typically a bad idea to attach one’s ethical precepts to what is technically possible, here it may serve us well, at least for now. The best case to be made against fully autonomous weapons is that artificial intelligence is nowhere near being able to make ethical decisions regarding use of force on the battlefield, especially on mixed battlefields with civilians- which is what most battlefields are today. As argued by Guarani and Bello in “Robotic Warfare: some challenges in moving from non-civilian to civilian theaters”, current current forms of AI is not up to the task of threat ascription, can’t do mental attribution, and are currently unable to tackle the problem of isotropy, a fancy word that just means “the relevance of anything to anything”.
This is a classical problem of error through correlation, something that seems to be inherent in not just these types of weapons systems, but the kinds of specious correlation made by big-data algorithms as well. It is the difficulty of gauging a human being’s intentions from the pattern of his or her behavior. Is that child holding a weapon or a toy? Is that woman running towards me because she wants to attack or is she merely frightened and wants to act as a shield between me and her kids? This difficulty in making accurate mental attributions doesn’t need to revolve around life and death situations. Did I click on that ad because I’m thinking about moving to light beer or because I thought the woman in the ad looked cute? Too strong a belief in correlation can start to look like belief in magic- thinking that drinking the lite beer will get me a reasonable facsimile of the girl smiling at me on the TV.
Algorithms and the machines they run are still pretty bad at this sort of attribution. Bad enough, at least right now, that there’s no way they can be deployed ethically on the battlefield. Unfortunately, however, the debate about ethical machines often gets lost in the necessary, but much less comprehensive fight over “killer robots”. This despite the fact that war will be only a small part of the ethical remit of our new and much more intelligent machines will actually involve robots acting as weapons.
One might think that Asimov already figured all this out with his Three Laws of Robotics; 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2) A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. The problem is the types of “robots” we are talking about bear little resemblance to the ones dreamed up by the great science-fiction writer, even if Asimov merely intended to explore the possible tensions between the laws.
Problems that robotics ethicists face today have more in common with the “Trolley Problem” when a machine has to make a decision between competing goods rather than contradicting imperatives. A self-driving car might be faced with a situation of hitting a pedestrian or hitting a school bus. Which should it chose? If your health care services are being managed by an algorithm what is it’s criteria for allocating scarce resources?
A approach to solving these types of problems might be to consistently use one of the major moral philosophies: Kantian, Utilitarian, Virtue ethics and the like as a guide for the types of decisions machines may make. Kant’s categorical imperative of “Acting only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction,” or aiming for utilitarianism’s “greatest good of the greatest number” might seem like a good approach, but as Wendell Wallach and Colin Allen point out in their book Moral Machines, such seemingly logically straightforward rules are for all practical purposes incalculable.
Perhaps if we ever develop real quantum computers capable of scanning through every possible universe we would have machines that can solve these problems, but, for the moment we do not. Oddly enough, the moral philosophy most dependent on human context, Virtue ethics, seems to have the best chance of being substantiated in machines, but the problem is that virtues are highly culture dependent. We might get machines that make vastly different and opposed ethical decisions depending on the culture in which they are embedded.
And here we find perhaps the biggest question that been raised by trying to think through the problem of moral machines. For if machines are deemed incapable of using any of the moral systems we have devised to come to ethical decisions, we might wonder if human beings really can either? This is the case made by Anthony Beavers who argues that the very attempt to make machines moral might be leading us towards a sort of ethical nihilism.
I’m not so sure. Or rather, as long as our machines, whatever their degree of autonomy, merely reflect the will of their human programmers I think we’re safe declaring them moral actors but not moral agents, and this should save us from slipping down the slope of ethical nihilism Beavers is rightly concerned about. In other words, I think Wallach and Allen are wrong in asserting that intentionality doesn’t matter when judging an entity to be a moral agent or not. Or as they say:
Functional equivalence of behavior is all that can possibly matter for the practical issues of designing AMA. “ (Emphasis theirs p. 68)
Wallach and Allen want to repeat the same behaviorists mistake made by Alan Turing and his assertion that consciousness didn’t matter when it came to the question of intelligence, a blind alley they follow so far as to propose their own version of the infamous test- what they call a Moral Turing Test or MTT. Yet it’s hard to see how we can grant full moral agency to any entity that has no idea what it is actually deciding, indeed that would just as earnestly do the exact opposite- such as deliberately target women and children- if its program told it to do so.
Still for the immediate future, and with the frightening and sad exception of robots on the battlefield, the role of moral machines seems less likely to have to do with making ethical decisions themselves than helping human beings make them. In Moral Machines Wallach and Allen discuss MedEthEx an amazing algorithm that helps healthcare professionals with decision making. It’s an exciting time for moral philosophers who will get to turn their ideas into all sorts of apps and algorithms that will hopefully aid moral decision making for individuals and groups.
Some might ask is leaning on algorithms to help one make more decisions a form of “cheating”? I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. A moral app reminds me of a story I heard once about George Washington that has stuck with me ever since. Washington from the time he was a small boy into old age carried a little pocket virtue guide with him full with all kinds of rules of thumb for how to act. Some might call that a crutch, but I just call it a tool, and human beings are the only animal that can’t thrive without its tools. The very moral systems we are taught as children might equally be thought of as tools of this sort. Washington only had a way of keeping them near at hand.
The trouble lies when one becomes too dependent on such “automation” and in the process loses touch with capabilities once the tool is removed. Yet this is a problem inherent in all technology. The ability of people to do long division atrophies because they always have a calculator at hand. I have a heck of a time making a fire without matches or a lighter and would have difficulty dealing with cold weather without clothes.
It’s certainly true that our capacity to be good people is more important to our humanity than our ability to do maths in our head or on scratch paper or even make fire or protect ourselves from the elements so we’ll need to be especially conscious as moral tools develop to still keep our natural ethic skills sharp.
This again applies more broadly than the issue of moral machines, but we also need to be able to better identify the assumptions that underlie the programs running in the instruments that surrounded us. It’s not so much “code or be coded” as the ability to unpack the beliefs which programs substantiate. Perhaps someday we’ll even have something akin to food labels on programs we use that will inform us exactly what such assumptions are. In other words, we have a job in front of us, for whether they help us or hinder us in our goal to be better people, machines remain, for the moment at least, mere agents, and a reflection of our own capacity for good and evil rather than moral actors of themselves.
City As Superintelligence
Medieval Paris
A movement is afoot to cover some of the largest and most populated cities in the world with a sophisticated array of interconnected sensors, cameras, and recording devices, able to track and respond to every crime or traffic jam ,every crisis or pandemic, as if it were an artificial immune system spread out over hundreds of densely packed kilometers filled with millions of human beings. The movement goes by the name of smart-cities, or sometimes sentient cities, and the fate of the project is intimately tied to the fate of humanity in the 21st century and beyond because the question of how the city is organized will define the world we live in from here forwards -the beginning of era of urban mankind.
Here are just some of many possible examples of smart cities at work, there is the city of Sondgo in South Korea a kind of testing ground for companies such as Cisco which can experiment with integrated technologies, to quote a recent article on the subject, such as:
TelePresence system, an advanced videoconferencing technology that allows residents to access a wide range of services including remote health care, beauty consulting and remote learning, as well as touch screens that enable residents to control their unit’s energy use.
Another example would be IBM’s Smart City Initiative in Rio which has covered that city with a dense network of sensors and cameras that allow centralized monitoring and control of vital city functions, and was somewhat brazenly promoted by that city’s mayor during a TED Talk in 2012. New York has set up a similar system, but it is in the non-Western world where smart cities will live or die because it is there where almost all of the world’s increasingly rapid urbanization is taking place.
Thus India, which has yet to urbanize like its neighbor, and sometimes rival, China, has plans to build up to 100 smart cities with 4.5 billion of the funding towards such projects being provided by perhaps the most urbanized country on the planet- Japan.
China continues to urbanize at a historically unprecedented pace with 250 million of its people- the equivalent of the entire population of the United States a generation ago- to move to its cities in the next 12 years. (I didn’t forget a zero.) There you have a city that few of us have even heard of – Chongqing, – which The Guardian several years back characterized as “the fastest growing urban center on the planet” with more people in it than the entire countries of Peru and Iraq. No doubt in response to urbanization pressure, and at least back in 2011, Cisco was helping that city with its so-called Peaceful Chongqing Project an attempt to blanket the city in 500,000 video surveillance cameras- a collaboration that was possibly derailed by allegations by Edward Snowden that the NSA had infiltrated or co-opted U.S. companies.
Yet there are other smart-city initiatives that go beyond monitoring technologies. Under this rubric should fall the renewed interest in arcologies- massive buildings that contain within them an entire city, and thus in principle allow a city to be managed in terms of its climate, flows, etc. in the same way the internal environment of a skyscraper can be managed. China had an arcology in the works in Dongtan, which appears to have been scrapped over corruption and cost overrun concerns. Dubai has its green arcology in Masdar City, but it’s in Russia in the grip of a 21st century version of czarism, of all places, where the mother of all arcologies is planned, architect Norman Foster’s Crystal Island which, if actually built, would be the largest structure on the planet.
On the surface, there is actually much to like about smart-cities and their related arcologies. Smart-cities hold out the promise of greater efficiency for an energy starved and warming world. They should allow city management to be more responsive to citizens. All things being equal, smart-cities should be better than “dumb” ones at responding to everything from common fires and traffic accidents to major man- made and natural disasters. If Wendy Orent is correct as she wrote in a recent issue of AEON that we have less to fear from pandemics emerging from the wilderness such as Ebola than those that evolve in areas of extreme human density, smart-city applications should make the response to pandemics both quicker and more effective.
Especially in terms of arcologies, smart-cities represent something relatively new. We’ve had our two major models of the city since the early to mid-20th century, whether the skyscraper cities pioneered by New York and Chicago or the cul-de-sac suburban sprawl of cities dominated by the automobile like Phoenix. Cities going up now in the developing world certainly look more modern than American cities many of whose infrastructure is in a state of decay, but the model is the same, with the marked exception of all those super-trains.
All that said there are problems with smart-cities and the thinker who has written most extensively on the subject Anthony M. Townsend lays them out excellently in his book Smart Cities: Big-Data, Civic Hackers and the Quest for a New Utopia. Townsend sees three potential problems with smart-cities- they might prove, in his terms, “buggy. brittle, and bugged”.
Like all software, the kinds that will be used to run smart-cities might exhibit unwanted surprises. We’ve seen this in some of the most sophisticated software we have running, financial trading algorithms whose “flash crashes” have felled billion dollar companies.
The loss of money, even a great deal of money, is something any reasonably healthy society should be able to absorb, but what if buggy software made essential services go off line over an extended period? Cascades from services now coupled by smart-city software could take out electricity and communication in a heat wave or re-run of last winter’s “polar vortex” and lead to loss of life. Perhaps having functions separated in silos and with a good deal of redundancy, even at the cost of inefficiency, is “smarter” than having them tightly coupled and under one system. That is, after all, how the human brain works.
Smart-cities might also be brittle. We might not be able to see that we had built a precarious architecture that could collapse in the face of some stressor or effort to intentionally harm- ahem- Windows. Computers crash and sometimes do so for reasons we are completely at a loss to identify. Or, imagine someone blackmailing a city by threatening to shut it down after having hacked its management system. Old school dumb-cities don’t really crash, even if they can sicken and die, and its hard to say they can be hacked.
Would we be in danger of decreasing a city’s resilience by compressing its complexity into an algorithm? If something like Stephen Wolfram’s principles of computational equivalence and computational irreducibility is correct then the city is already a kind of computation and no model we can create of it will ever be more effective than this natural computation itself.
Or, to make my meaning clearer, imagine that you had a person that had suffered some horrible accident where to save them you had to replace all of his body’s natural information processing with a computer program. Such a program who have to regulate everything from breathing to metabolism to muscle movement ,along with the immune system, and exchange between neurons, not to mention a dozen other things. My guess is that you’d have to go out many generations of such programs before they are anywhere near workable. That the first generations would miss important elements, be based on wrong assumptions on how things worked, and would be loaded with perhaps catastrophic design errors that you couldn’t identify until the program was fully run in multiple iterations.
We are blissfully unaware that we are the product of billions of years of “engineering” where “design” failures were weeded out by evolution. Cities have only a few thousand years of a similar type of evolution behind them, but trying to control a great number of their functions via algorithms run by “command centers” might pose similar risks to my body example. Reducing city functions to something we can compute in silicon might oversimplify the city in such a way as to reduce its resilience to stressors cities have naturally evolved to absorb. That is, there is, in all use of “Big-Data”, a temptation to interpret reality only in light of the model that scaffolds this data or reframe problems in ways that can mathematically be modeled. We set ourselves up for crises when we confuse the map with the territory or as Jaron Lanier said:
What makes something real is that it is Impossible to represent it to completion.
Lastly, and as my initial examples of smart-cities should have indicated, smart-cities are by design bugged. They are bugged so as to surveil their citizens in an effort to prevent crime or terrorism or even just respond to accidents or disasters. Yet the promise of safety comes at the cost of one of the virtues of city living – the freedom granted from anonymity. But even if we care nothing for such things I’ve got news- trading privacy for security doesn’t even work.
Chongqing may spend tens of millions of dollars installing CCTV cameras, but would be hooligans or criminals or just people who don’t like being watched such as those in London, have a twenty dollar answer to all these gizmos- it’s called a hoodie. Likewise, a simple pattern of dollar store facepaint, strategically applied, can short-circuit the most sophisticated facial recognition software. I will never cease to be amazed at human ingenuity.
We need to acknowledge that it is largely companies or individuals with extremely deep pockets and even deeper political connections that are promoting this model of the city. Townsend estimates it is potentially a 100 billion dollar business. We need to exercise our historical memory and recall how it was automobile companies that lobbied for and ended up creating our world of sprawl. Before investing millions or even billions cities need to have an idea of what kind of future they want to have and not be swayed by the latest technological trends.
This is especially the case when it comes to cities in the developing world where the conditions often resemble something more out of Dicken’s 19th century than even the 20th. When I enthusiastically asked a Chinese student about the arcology at Dongtan he responded with something like “Fools! Who would want to live in such a thing! It’s a waste of money. We need clean air and water, not such craziness!” And he’s no doubt largely right. And perhaps we might be happy that the project ultimately unraveled and say with Thoreau:
The age of connectivity, if it’s done thoughtfully, could bring us cities that are cleaner, greener, more able to deal with the shocks of disaster or respond to the spread of disease. Truly smart-cities should support a more active citizenry, a less tone-deaf bureaucracy, a more socially and culturally rich, entertaining and more civil life- the very reasons human beings have chosen to live in cities in the first place .
If the age of connectivity is done wrong cities will have poured scarce resources down a hole of corruption as deep as the one dug by Thoreau’s townsman, will have turned vibrant cultural and historical environments into corporate “flat-pack” versions of tomorrowland, and most frighteningly of all turned the potential democratic agora of the city into a massive panopticon of Orwellian monitoring and control. Cities, in the Wolfram not Bostrom sense, are already a sort of super-intelligence or better, hive mind of its interconnected yet free individuals more vibrant and important than any human built structure imaginable. Will we let them stay that way?
Why archaeologist make better futurists than science-fiction writers
Astrolabe vs iPhone
The problem Meyer finds with this is:
It’s not that these visions of the future are always totally wrong, or even just unattractive, as the fact that people the present- meaning us- have no real agency over what elements of these visions they want and which they don’t with the exception of exercising consumer choice, the very thing these flat-pack visions of the future are trying to get us to buy.
Plato and the Physicist: A Multicosmic Love Story
Life as a Braid of Space Time
So I finally got around to reading Max Tegmark’s book Our Mathematical Universe, and while the book answered the question that had led me to read it, namely, how one might reconcile Plato’s idea of eternal mathematical forms with the concept of multiple universes, it also threw up a whole host of new questions. This beautifully written and thought provoking book made me wonder about the future of science and the scientific method, the limits to human knowledge, and the scientific, philosophical and moral meaning of various ideas of the multiverse.
I should start though with my initial question of how Tegmark manages to fit something very much like Plato’s Theory of the Forms into the seemingly chaotic landscape of multiverse theories. If you remember back to your college philosophy classes, you might recall something of Plato’s idea of forms, which in its very basics boils down to this: Plato thought there was a world of perfect, eternally existing ideas of which our own supposedly real world was little more than a shadow. The idea sounds out there until you realize that Plato was thinking like a mathematician. We should remember that over the walls of Plato’s Academy was written “Let no man ignorant of geometry enter here”, and for the Greeks geometry was the essence of mathematics. Plato aimed to create a school of philosophical mathematicians much more than he hoped to turn philosophers into a sect of moral geometers.
Probably almost all mathematicians and physicists hold to some version of platonism, which means that they think mathematical structures are something discovered rather than a form of language invented by human beings. Non- mathematicians, myself very much included, often have trouble understanding this, but a simple example from Plato himself might help clarify.
When the Greeks played around with shapes for long enough they discovered things. And here we really should say discover because they had no idea shapes had these properties until they stumbled upon them through play.Plato’s dialogue Meno gave us the most famous demonstration of the discovery rather than invention of mathematical structures. Socrates asks a “slave boy” (we should take this to be the modern day equivalent of the man off the street) to figure out the area of a square which is double that of a square with a length of 2. The key, as Socrates leads the boy to see, is that one should turn the square with the side of 2 into a right triangle the length of whose hypotenuse is then seen as equal to one of the lengths of the doubled square allowing you easily calculate its area. The slave boy explains his measurement epiphany as the “recovery of knowledge from a past life.”
The big gap between Plato and modern platonists is that the ancient philosopher thought the natural world was a flawed copy of the crystalline purity of the mathematics of thought. Contrast that with Newton who saw the hand of God himself in nature’s calculable regularities. The deeper the scientists of the modern age probed with their new mathematical tools the more nature appeared as Galileo said “ a book written in the language of mathematics”. For the moderns mathematical structures and natural structures became almost one and the same. The Spanish filmmaker and graphic designer Cristóbal Vila has a beautiful short over at AEON reflecting precisely this view.
It’s that “almost” that Tegmark has lept over with his Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH). The essence of the MUH is not only that mathematical structures have an independent identity, or that nature is a book written in mathematics, but that the nature is a mathematical structure and just as all mathematical structures exist independent of whether we have discovered them or not, all logically coherent universes exists whether or not we have discovered their structures. This is platonism with a capital P, the latter half explaining how the MUH intersects with the idea of the multiverse.
One of the beneficial things Tegmark does with his book is to provide a simple to understand set of levels for different ideas that there is more than one universe.
Level I: Beyond our cosmological horizon
A Level I multiverse is the easiest for me to understand. It is within the lifetime of people still alive that our universe was held to be no bigger than our galaxy. Before that people thought the entirety of what was consisted of nothing but our solar system, so it is no wonder that people thought humanity was the center of creation’s story. As of right now the observable universe is around 46 billion light years across, actually older than the age of the universe due to its expansion. Yet, why should we think this observable horizon constitutes everything when such assumption has never proved true in the past? The Level I multiverse holds that there are entire other universes outside the limit of what we can observe.
Level II: Universes with different physical constants
The Level II multiverse again makes intuitive sense to me. If one assumes that the Big Bang was not the first or the last of its kind, and if one assumes there are whole other, potentially an infinite number of universes, why assume that our is the only way a universe should be organized? Indeed, having a variety of physical constants to choose from would make the fine tuning of our own universe make more sense.
Level III: Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
This is where I start to get lost, or at least this particular doppelganger of me starts to get lost. Here we find Hugh Everett’s interpretation of quantum unpredictability. Rather than Schrodinger’s Cat being pushed from a superposition of states between alive and dead when you open the box, exposing the feline causes the universe to split- in one universe you have an alive cat, and in another a dead one. It gets me dizzy just thinking about it, just imagine the poor cat- wait, I am the cat!
Level IV: Ultimate ensemble
Here we have Tegmark’s model itself where every universe that can represented as a logically consistent mathematical structure is said to actually exist. In such a multiverse when you roll a six-sided die, there end up being six universes corresponding to each of the universes, but there is no universe where you have rolled a “1 not 1” , and so on. If a universe’s mathematical structure can be described, then that universe can be said to exist there being, in Tegmark’s view, no difference between such a mathematical structure and a universe.
I had previously thought the idea of the multiverse was a way to give scale to the shadow of our ignorance and expand our horizon in space and time. As mentioned, we had once thought all that is was only as big as our solar system and merely thousands of years old. By the 19th century the universe had expanded to the size of our galaxy and the past had grown to as much as 400 million years. By the end of the 20th century we knew there were at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe and that its age was 13.7 billion. There is no reason to believe that we have grasped the full totality of existence, that the universe, beyond our observable horizon isn’t even bigger, and the past deeper. There is “no sign on the Big Bang saying ‘this happened only once’” as someone once said cleverly whose attribution I cannot find.
Ideas of the multiverse seemed to explain the odd fact that the universe seems fine-tuned to provide the conditions for life, Martin Rees “six numbers” such as Epsilon (ε)- the strength of the force binding nucleons to nuclei. If you have a large enough sample of universes then the fact that some universes are friendly for life starts to make more sense. The problem, I think, comes in when you realize just how large this sample size has to be to get you to fine tuning- somewhere on the order of 10 ^200. What this means is that you’ve proposed the existence of a very very large or even infinite number of values, as far as we know which are unobservable to explain essentially six. If this is science, it is radically different from the science we’ve known since Galileo dropped cannon balls off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
For whatever reason, rather than solidify my belief in the possibility of the multiverse, or convert me to platonism, Tegmark’s book left me with a whole host of new questions, which is what good books do. The problem is my damned doppelgangers who can be found not only at the crazy quantum Level III, but at the levels I thought were a preserve of Copernican Mediocrity – Levels I and II, or as Tegmark says.
Yet, to my non-physicist eyes, the different levels of multiverse sure seems distinct. Level III seems to violate Copernican Mediocrity with observers and actors being able to call into being whole new timelines with even the most minutea laden of their choices, whereas Levels I and II simply posit that a universe sufficiently large enough and sufficiently extended enough in time would allow for repeat performances down to the smallest detail- perhaps the universe is just smaller than that, or less extended in time, or there is some sort of kink whereby when what the late Stephen J Gould called the “life tape” is replayed you can never get the same results twice.
Still, our intuitions about reality have often been proven wrong, so no theory can be discounted on the basis of intuitive doubts. There are other reasons, however, why we might use caution when it comes to multiverse theories, namely, their potential risk to the scientific endeavor itself. The fact that we can never directly observe parts of the multiverse that are not our own means that we would have to step away from falsifiability as the criteria for scientific truth. The physicist Sean Carroll argues that falsifiability is a weak criteria, what makes a theory scientific is that it is “direct” (says something definite about how reality works) and “empirical”, by which he no longer means the Popperian notion of falsifiability, but its ability to explain the world. He writes:
Consider the multiverse.
One could look at Tegmark’s MUH and Carroll’s comments as a broadening of our scientific and imaginative horizons and the continuation of our powers to explain into realms beyond what human beings will ever observe. The idea of a 22nd version of Plato’s Academy using amazingly powerful computers to explore all the potential universes ala Tegmark’s MUH is an attractive future to me. Yet, given how reliant we are on science and the technology that grows from it, and given the role of science in our society in establishing the consensus view of what our shared physical reality actually is, we need to be cognizant and careful of what such a changed understanding of science actually might mean.
The physicist, George Ellis, for one, thinks the multiverse hypothesis, and not just Tegmark’s version of it, opens the door to all sorts of pseudoscience such as Intelligent Design. After all, the explanation that the laws and structure of our universe can be understood only by reference to something “outside” is the essence of explanations from design as well, and just like the multiverse, cannot be falsified.
One might think that the multiverse was a victory of theorizing over real world science, but I think Sean Carroll is essentially right when he defends the multiverse theory by saying:
It’s the use of the word “model” here rather than “theory” that is telling. For a model is a type of representation of something whereas a theory constitutes an attempt at a coherent self-contained explanation. If the move from theories to models was only happening in physics then we might say that this had something to do merely with physics as a science rather than science in general. But we see this move all over the place.
Among, neuroscientists, for example, there is no widely agreed upon theory of how SSRIs work, even though they’ve been around for a generation, and there’s more. In a widely debated speech Noam Chomsky argued that current statistical models in AI were bringing us no closer to the goal of AGI or the understanding of human intelligence because they lacked any coherent theory of how intelligence works. As Yaden Katz wrote for The Atlantic:
Chomsky critiqued the field of AI for adopting an approach reminiscent of behaviorism, except in more modern, computationally sophisticated form. Chomsky argued that the field’s heavy use of statistical techniques to pick regularities in masses of data is unlikely to yield the explanatory insight that science ought to offer. For Chomsky, the “new AI” — focused on using statistical learning techniques to better mine and predict data — is unlikely to yield general principles about the nature of intelligent beings or about cognition.
Likewise, the field of systems biology and especially genomic science is built not on theory but on our ability to scan enormous databases of genetic information looking for meaningful correlations. The new field of social physics is based on the idea that correlations of human behavior can be used as governance and management tools, and business already believes that statistical correlation is worth enough to spend billions on and build an economy around.
Will this work as well as the science we’ve had for the last five centuries? It’s too early to tell, but it certainly constitutes a big change for science and the rest of us who depend upon it. This shouldn’t be taken as an unqualified defense of theory- for if theory was working then we wouldn’t be pursuing this new route of data correlation whatever the powers of our computers. Yet, those who are pushing this new model of science should be aware of its uncertain success, and its dangers.
The primary danger I can see from these new sorts of science, and this includes the MUH, is that it challenges the role of science in establishing the consensus reality which we all must agree upon. Anyone who remembers their Thomas Kuhn can recall that what makes science distinct from almost any system of knowledge we’ve had before, is that it both enforces a consensus view of physical reality beyond which an individual’s view of the world can be considered “unreal”, and provides a mechanism by which this consensus reality can be challenged and where the challenge is successful overturned.
With multiverse theories we are in approaching what David Engelman calls Possibilism the exploration of every range of ways existence can be structured that is compatible with the findings of science and is rationally coherent. I find this interesting as a philosophical and even spiritual project, but it isn’t science, at least as we’ve understood science since the beginning of the modern world. Declaring the project to be scientific blurs the lines between science and speculation and might allow people to claim the kind of understanding over uncertainty that makes politics and consensus decisions regarding acute needs of the present, such a global warming, or projected needs of the future impossible.
Let me try to clarify this. I found it very important that in Our Mathematical Universe Tegmark tried to tackle the problem of existential risks facing the human future. He touches upon everything from climate change, to asteroid impacts, to pandemics to rogue AI. Yet, the very idea that there are multiple versions of us out there, and that our own future is determined seems to rob these issues of their urgency. In an “infinity” of predetermined worlds we destroy ourselves, just as in an “infinity” of predetermined worlds we do what needs to be done. There is no need to urge us forward because, puppet-like, we are destined to do one thing or the other on this particular timeline.
Morally and emotionally, how is what happens in this version of the universe in the future all that different from what happens in other universe? Persons in those parallel universes are even closer to us, our children, parents, spouses, and even ourselves than the people of the future on our own timeline. According to the deterministic models of the multiverse, the world of these others are outside of our influence and both the expansion or contraction of our ethical horizon leave us in the same state of moral paralysis. Given this, I will hold off on believing in the multiverse, at least on the doppelganger scale of Level I and II, and especially Levels III and IV until it actually becomes established as a scientific fact,which it is not at the moment, and given our limitations, perhaps never will be, even if it is ultimately true.
All that said, I greatly enjoyed Tegmark’s book, it was nothing if not thought provoking. Nor would I say it left me with little but despair, for in one section he imagined a Spinoza-like version of eternity that will last me a lifetime, or perhaps I should say beyond. I am aware that I will contradict myself here: his image that gripped me was of an individual life seen as a braid of space-time. For Tegmark, human beings have the most complex space-time braids we know of. The idea vastly oversimplified by the image above.
About which Tegmark explains:
Because mathematical structures always exist whether or not anyone has discovered them, our life braid can be said to have always existed and will always exist. I have never been able to wrap my head around the religious idea of eternity, but this eternity I understand. Someday I may even do a post on how the notion of time found in the MUH resembles the medieval idea of eternity as nunc stans, the standing-now, but for now I’ll use it to address more down to earth concerns.
My youngest daughter, philosopher that she is, has often asked me “where was I before I was born?”. To which my lame response has been “you were an egg” which for a while made big breakfasts difficult. Now I can just tell her to get out her crayons to scribble, and we’ll color our way to something profound.
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
A Rope over an Abyss by Laurence Hitterdale
Love it!
One Cannot Live in the Cradle Forever by Robert de Neufville
The “I” and the Robot by Cristinel Stoica
As he writes:
Smooth seas do not make good sailors by Georgina Parry
The future is the past by Roger Schlafly
Chinese Dream is Xuan Yuan’s Da Tong by KoGuan Leo
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0.674837 | <urn:uuid:266f3b6b-c885-4c94-853c-8fe2dd4b5955> | en | 0.860644 | Kentucky Bourbon Pecan Pralines
3 Sisters Chocolate makes our handmade Pecan Pralines with cream, butter, brown sugar, pecans and very special Kentucky Bourbon. We cook this mixture slowly until it reaches the perfect consistency before placing each dollop on a tray to set. Once the Pralines set, they are packaged and ready to be shipped.
Each package weighs approximately 2.7 ounces.
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0.058587 | <urn:uuid:9239801e-8580-4d88-ba5e-1563c774a796> | en | 0.954008 | Paying attention to the pottery lesson
Abhaneri was named as Abha Nagri, meaning the city of brightness.
In this small village, you can visit Chand Baori, a famous stepwell, one of the deepest stepwells in India. Also you can visit Harshat Mata Temple.
Or try to make pottery...
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0.022456 | <urn:uuid:4e5aac17-77b5-4191-ae8f-e01a38ddc5c3> | en | 0.939034 |
Bookstore bargains — Back at the bookstore, Sam and Jen wait in the checkout line. A cute blond standing behind them is reading book titles over Jen’s shoulder.
"Looking to make a career change?" she asks, all friendly and stuff. Jen smiles and says something about same career, different direction. Sam butts in, "She’s making a sex movie."
"It’s a documentary!" Jen adds quickly.
Sam and Jennifer have a silent but meaningful eye conversation and throw hard glances at the blond. As they walk out of the store, Sam asks if there was an exchange of digits.
Sam: Get her number?
Jen: She didn’t …
Sam: She didn’t, but what happens to "time flies, seize the day"?
Jen: She was just being pleasant.
Sam: I know flirting when I see it, baby. You know, go back in there and ask her out.
Which brings us to the Flirting or Just Friendly Rule. Jennifer tells us: "The very clear rule here is it’s fifty-fifty. The real question here is: Are you willing to take the risk?" Since Jennifer hasn’t had sex in over a year, the answer today should be an eager and breathy yes.
Jen’s blowing a great opportunity, and Sam knows it. Picking up lesbians in a bookstore could not be easier. Looking for a strong, handy dyke? Try the Home Improvement section, obviously. Political, activist types make you swoon? Gender Studies and Women’s History. And nature lovers are growing like weeds in the Gardening section. But whatever you do, stay away from the Self-Help section. Consider yourself warned.
Sam tells Jen she’ll make a pact with her. If Jen goes back to the store and asks that woman out, she’ll quit her day shifts at the bar and find a house to flip. It’s a win-win of sorts.
She’s got the music in her. Not. — Crutch comes strolling into Kris and Chris’ with her guitar. She’s there to help them with Pet Adoption Day, but she’s late because musicians live very complicated lives. Chris reminds her the doggies vests aren’t going to pack themselves. Crutch announces that what Adoption Day really needs is live music. Oh please, no.
Crutch: [way off-key] There’s a holocaust of cats and kitties. And dogs are dying in all the cities. And while you’re sitting there on your butt, get up and adopt a mutt.
Um … A for effort? Kris offers she likes the kitties/cities rhyme. Chris says she thinks it’s, um, catchy. Crutch instantly knows they hated it. She blames it on her guitar. When in doubt, blame the equipment. Chris and Kris look at each other suspiciously.
Crutch decides what she needs is a new gee-tar and offers to do some extra work at Just for Doggies for some cash. Kris suggests that Crutch sing at Pet Adoption Day. Great. Can’t wait to hear all those dogs howling at once.
Happy as a tone-deaf clam, Crutch trots out the door with her new gig confirmed. Chris gives Kris the look. Kris asks, "What? She needs us," and reminds her partner that they’re Crutch’s " Seattle moms." Pet Adoption Day comes but once a year. But every day is Crutch Adoption Day.
Besides, as Kris says, "You can love the singer and not the singing." Which is exactly how I feel when my girlfriend serenades me with her oh-so-special rendition of "Landslide."
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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0.019803 | <urn:uuid:885d2bd9-370b-4479-92be-dee91d596545> | en | 0.952367 | Middle East
US rescue of Iraq's Yazidis now 'less likely'
Americans land in Sinjar Mountains under cover of darkness and say the situation was not as bad as feared.
Last updated: 14 Aug 2014 06:41
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A US mission to evacuate Iraqi civilians trapped on a mountain by the Islamic State group is far less likely after a US assessment team sent there found the humanitarian situation was not as bad as feared, the Pentagon said.
A team of US military and humanitarian aid personnel, who flew to the Sinjar Mountains in northern Iraq under cover of darkness to assess the situation of thousand of members of the Yazidi religious minority, found far fewer people and in better condition than expected, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Pentagon credited the better-than-expected situation on air drops of food and water, US airstrikes on Islamic State group targets, efforts of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and the ability of thousands of Yazidis to evacuate the mountain in recent nights.
The team of fewer than 20 US personnel flew early on Wednesday morning to the mountains, a defence official told Al Jazeera, before returning safely to the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil by military air transport.
The United States has 130 military personnel in Erbil.
Check out our complete coverage of the crisis in Iraq
Obama is expected to make a decision in days on the strategy of what the US calls a humanitarian operation that some thought could have included airlifts and creating safe passages executed by US ground troops.
"We don't believe that involves US troops re-entering a combat role in Iraq," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, had said.
"It involves frankly a very difficult logistical challenge of moving folks who are in danger on that mountain into a safer position."
But Hillary Mann Leverett, former White House and State Department official and professor, told Al Jazeera that the US intervention has more to do with state interests than helping Yazidi Kurds.
"In fact, Oxfam said today that there are 28 million people. The largest number of people in Oxfam's historic memory that are dependant on aid; that are in dire need of aid across the Middle East in conflicts in Iraq, Gaza, Yemen and Jordan and Syria - and the US doesn't go in to airlift all these people out," said Leverett.
She said that the operation deserves more scrutiny than what it has gotten so far, adding that it was about the thousands of non-diplomatic personnel in Baghdad and Erbil, including businessmen with oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
Drone attack
The US has been delivering food and water to the refugees for several days. But Rhodes said it was unsustainable to let thousands of people remain on the mountain.
On Wednesday, a US drone attacked and destroyed an armed truck operated by fighters from the Islamic State group near Sinjar, the US Central Command said.
US and British military forces have been dropping supplies of food and water to those on Mount Sinjar in the last week and Rhodes said other countries - including Australia, Canada and France - were also offering to help.
UN agencies have rushed emergency supplies to the Dohuk region by the Syrian and Turkish borders, where the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says about 400,000 refugees have fled, including Yazidis, Christians and other minorities.
Al Jazeera and agencies
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Featured on Al Jazeera | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/us-rescue-yazidis-less-likely-after-visit-201481323213112130.html | dclm-gs1-448725528 | false | false | {
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0.558348 | <urn:uuid:de8dead6-2f91-460b-85ec-80c72b514b5e> | en | 0.92497 | /celebrity news
10 celebrity endorsements we wish were real
Posted on November 15, 2012 by
Demi Lovato for Brow Enhancers
Why it would work: Have you seen this girl’s brows lately? Whatever The X-Factor host is doing is working for her because her brows suddenly look as thick and luscious as Lily Collins.
Tagline: “For brows as thick as the Taman Negara jungle but as tame as Audrey Hepburn’s in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.”
Taylor Swift for You Belong With Donuts
Why it would work: An obvious choice considering how much she: 1. Tweets photos of cupcake parties. 2. Instagrams photos of pastries. 3. Includes food in her music videos.
Tagline: “It’s a love story.”
Justin Bieber for Hipster Suspenders
Why it would work: Justin Bieber loves low-riding pants but when you’ve got a slew of fangirls following you around wanting to pinch the old toosh, it can be a problem.
Tagline: “My low-riding pants were verging on hoodlum-territory. With suspenders, they’re just hipster!”
Kesha for Cock Pop Vibrators
Why it would work: Kesha is dating a vibrator, didn’t you know? Since she’s so chummy with sex toys, why not represent them? She tweeted the above photo a couple months ago with the caption: “my new bf is doing an interview.”
Tagline: “Your love is my drug.”
Katy Perry for Teenage Dream Braces
Why it would work: So many teens are self conscious about their braces. But Katy Perry ALMOST made them cool again in her video “Last Friday Night.”
Tagline: “All your teenage dreams will come true.”
James Franco for Body Pillows
Why it would work: Who wouldn’t want to cuddle up to a nice, body-length pillow of James Franco? What you choose to do with said pillow is your own business (cringe) but the Franco pillow would be a nice cuddle buddy for sleepyheads.
Tag line: “Sweet dreams are made of Franco.”
Carly Rae Jepsen for Call Me Maybe Cell Phones
Why it would work: Literally everyone would trade their phones for a cell straight out of Carly Rae Jepsen’s world. The singer’s hit “Call Me Maybe” is practically calling (hehe) for an endorsement.
Tag line: “Call Me Maybe or call me not… my phone is still better than yours.”
Ryan Gosling for Notebooks
Why it Would Work: We all needed a place to write down Mrs. Gosling over and over again, after this hunk Ryan Gosling starred in The Notebook. It would also be a nice place to collect our tears as they fall from the realization that Ryan Gosling will never be ours.
Tag line: Hey babe, had a bad day? Write it down in the book.
Beyonce for Bootylicious butt pads
Why it would work: Nobody, and I mean nobody, could ever come close to having the glory that it Beyonce’s butt. However, if the star came out with her own line of Beyonce Bootylicious butt pads, we could all dance confidently with the same booty shakes as Bey.
Tag line: Are you ready for this jelly?
Andrew Garfield for a Movember grooming kit
Why it would work: Andrew Garfield has been sporting what is quite possibly the winner of Best Facial Hair for Movember lately. A groomer endorsed by Garfield would have guys everywhere participating in the worthy cause for men’s health.
Tag line: Never let me groom.
By Brittany Mahaney and Nadya Domingo
Related Posts | http://www.andpop.com/2012/11/15/10-celebrity-endorsements-we-wish-were-real/ | dclm-gs1-448815528 | false | true | {
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0.033969 | <urn:uuid:e097e489-c05b-4bf5-8599-c44c30e68521> | en | 0.92004 | One Cajón Plus Two Microphones Equals Two Instruments
A cajón, pronouced ka-hone, is nothing more than a wooden box. And while a percussionist is whacking away at the exterior, there is a whole lot going on both inside and out. Through the right miking combination, you can create a cajón mix with great mid and high end sounds as well as substantial low end. In the right circumstances, you’ll get the sounds of two instruments.
Cajón Microphone selection
For the outside, I use a Shure PG81. This cardioid condenser is placed about a foot away from the front of the cajón. This enables the capture of the percussionist’s hands slapping the cajón as well as picking up any additional percussion pieces on the floor, such as a foot-tapped tambourine. [click to continue »]
Mix Tolerance – Musicians, Song Arrangement, and When to Keep Your Finger Off the Fader
Let’s be honest, musicians only play the music but we’re the ones who form it into something great. Their music pales in comparison to what we create. We are mixing gods!
I so hope you were offended by that. I didn’t mean it. The problem is some techs buy into that belief. The result is they work against the musicians and not alongside them. That needs to stop, today.
Musicians give us the most wonderful gift we can get – good song arrangements. Song arrangements that carries the listener through the composition, with energy, with emotion.
Great arrangements make for easy mixing but if one doesn’t recognize the power of an arrangement, then mixing becomes about creating sound, not creating “music.”
What is an arrangement? [click to continue »]
Got the Low-End Frequency Blues?
Do you suffer from the low-end blues? The symptoms include instruments lacking clarity, vocals lacking distinction, and a general feeling that “something’s rotten in the state of Denmark.” You’ve never been diagnosed with it until today. Time to determine the source of the condition and prescribe a cure.
Consulting with churches on their audio quality, I’ve found a handful of common problems and the most common is excessive low-end frequencies in the mix. It’s the result of many factors, three of which are outlined below.
Three Reason for the Low-End Blues
1. Poor bass definition
I didn’t say “Poor Bass EQ” because the blame doesn’t fall entirely on the sound tech. [click to continue »]
The Art of Snare Mixing and a Frog – Yes, a Frog
I created a frog. It wasn’t intentional. Naturally, I’m not talking about a real frog but just look at that photo! You’ll never read a mixing book that says, “make the snare’s EQ curve look like a frog in water.” If you do, immediately stop reading the book. Seriously, when it comes to snare mixing, the last place you want to be is behind the mixer.
There are three factors in creating a good snare drum sound:
1. The snare drum.
Snare drums don’t all sound the same just like all acoustic guitars sound different. Even with a house drum kit, a drummer might bring their own snare because they like it’s sound. [click to continue »]
How to Mix Two Electric Guitars
Guitars can energize a mix or absolutely destroy it. I’ve watched rookies look dumb-struck at the mixing console because they didn’t know how to handle mixing two guitars. Mixing two guitars is a simple process in which you do the same thing to each guitar channel EXCEPT with one added step.
First of all, you MUST identify the role of each guitar in the song. A guitar is either going to play rhythm or lead. Take the two guitars in the song and identify the role of each.
Let’s say, in this example, there is a rhythm guitar and another guitar that will play rhythm with the occasional lead elements in the song. [click to continue »]
Which Four Wireless Microphone Mistakes are You Making?
There are four wireless microphone mistakes that get a sound tech in trouble. The first mistake is one I’m often asked about. I will be upfront and say that I’ve made two of these mistakes. Two, maybe three. No, two. Forgive and forget, right? [sigh]
1. Allow signal seepage (that sounds… disgusting!)
It goes like this;
1. Channel gain (trim) knob is at zero.
2. Fader is at unity or below.
3. The wireless signal still seeps (bleeds) through into the channel and out the main speakers.
Why does this happen when the gain is turned to zero? The answer is simple and the solution even simpler. [click to continue »]
Technically Transparent Worship: Organization (Part 3)
Part 3 of 6 in the series Technically Transparent Worship
Here is where the rubber hits the road. This is where the vision casting and planning starts taking shape. Here is where you’ll hear my mantra:
“Everything we do for the service we do to impact someone and help open the door to their heart for God to speak into them, no matter if it’s the first time they’ve stepped into church or the 1,000th time”.
It doesn’t matter the vision being cast or the plan, that should be the 100% focus working up to the step of organization. Pin it up in every room used for planning and implementing the worship service. [click to continue »]
Behind the Mixer Welcomes Brian Gowing
brian gowing
Today, I’m thrilled to announce that Brian Gowing is joining Behind the Mixer. Brian brings a wealth of knowledge, both with his level of technical geekdom but also with his vast experience working with tech teams, worship teams, and church staff in creating unified teams. He’s also a great guy!
Brian and I met a few years, through the normal online arena of church audio blogs. Then, in 2012, we met face-to-face at the Gurus of Tech conference. We hung out the first day and stayed up late talking all things audio.
Since 2012, I’ve re-posted a few of Brian’s articles, emailed him with technical questions, and tried to convince him to move to central Indiana. [click to continue »]
Why Doesn’t My Mix Sound Right? (What Works for Me)
Make your mix good to the last drop. Photo by Mart1n
“I’ve done this before, I’m not an idiot,” I thought while making the third pot of coffee in three minutes. The first time, I put in the coffee grounds but forgot the filter. The second time, I’d rather not publicly discuss. Let’s just say hot water sans coffee. I’ve made hundreds of pots of coffee, usually while barely awake. Why was this moment different?
Similar to making coffee, mixing can become second nature; set the gain, blend the volumes, blend vocals, clean up an instrument’s signal, etc. But then it happens. Mixing the same song for the 10th time, with the same band, with the same arrangement, wearing the same lucky socks, and the mix doesn’t come together. [click to continue »]
Can You Create a Great Mix with Headphones?
Keep the headphones handy. Photo by Merene.
Are you mixing with headphones? If not, you should be. If you are, you shouldn’t be. Confused? Good. There’s a right time and a wrong time for using headphones.
When NOT to use headphones
All of the time.
I get it, headphones provide sound isolation and therefore make for easier mixing. The musicians can be heard without the distraction of other people talking in the room. How do we listen to a lot of our music? We listen through headphones.
The problem with sound isolation is it disregards the acoustic properties of the room. I’ve mixed in two similarly-sized rooms and one room has a lot of reverb while the other has almost none. [click to continue »] | http://www.behindthemixer.com/category/mixing/ | dclm-gs1-449135528 | false | false | {
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0.030613 | <urn:uuid:6b95b470-6ea8-466a-a5cb-28d9227d3a96> | en | 0.959421 | John McClaughry
In June of 1777 the people of "New Connecticut," the land between New Hampshire and New York, learned that Congress had refused to admit their little republic into the union of the 13 colonies recently declared independent.
So on July 2 a group of frontier settlers met at the Old Meeting House in Windsor to promulgate a Constitution for what was soon to become the independent republic of Vermont.
The first purpose of a constitution was to declare the rights of the people.
For this they borrowed much of the elegant language of the Pennsylvania Constitution, including "that the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves of and the state." That right has remained there, self-evident and unaltered, for 237 years (Chapter I, Article 16).
There was little controversy over this right until the dawn of the 20th century. In 1903 the Rutland city council adopted an ordinance requiring a person wishing to carry a firearm within the city to obtain permission from the mayor or police chief. The Vermont Supreme Court, in a one page decision, unanimously and unequivocally struck down the ordinance, saying "the carrying of firearms for one’s defense is a fundamental right of a citizen. The ordinance is repugnant to the Constitution." (State v. Rosenthal, 1903).
Another 85 years went by before some momentum built for localities to pass their own gun control laws.
Defenders of Article 16 countered with a measure now known as the Sportsmens’ Bill of Rights. This law states that "Except as provided by law, no town, city or incorporated village, by ordinance, resolution or other enactment, shall directly regulate hunting, fishing and trapping or the possession, ownership, transportation, transfer, sale, purchase, carrying, licensing or registration of traps, firearms, ammunition or components of firearms or ammunition." This act was approved by the Senate on a voice vote, and by the House on a 128-5 roll call. Gov. Kunin signed it into law, and Howard Dean, then Lt. Governor, later made the unlikely boast that "I got it passed."
Since then the partisans of gun control have repeatedly tried to undermine the law. In 2000 Montpelier residents voted for a charter change to regulate carrying a loaded firearm, but the legislature declined to ratify it. Efforts in Barre and Rutland also failed.
A year ago Burlington City Council member Norm Blais proposed a city charter change to ban possession of certain (undefined) "semi-automatic assault weapons and multiple ammo clips in the City of Burlington," with such ban to be enforced by substantial fines and civil forfeiture. After months of tumultuous hearings, the Charter Change committee offered three less sweeping measures for voter approval on town meeting day (March 4).
The first measure prohibits possession of firearms on the property of first class liquor license businesses, including restaurants. That fact may be of interest to would-be assailants.
The second allows the police to seize firearms without a warrant, where it is alleged that the owner might have been or might be engaged in domestic abuse.
The third requires citizens to place their firearms in a "safe storage depository," to make them effectively unusable for defense against a home invasion. Any resolutions that are approved would then have to be ratified by the General Assembly, which approval would in effect exempt the City of Burlington from the Sportsmens’ Bill of Rights.
It will be argued that what was a self-evident right to the inhabitants of the Vermont frontier of 1777 is no longer applicable in the 21st century. To that, one should reply, self-defense is always and everywhere a human right.
Law-abiding Vermonters cannot be deprived of their constitutionally protected right to self-defense, any more than they can be deprived of their constitutionally protected rights of speech, religion, assembly and press.
If the gun control advocates want to nullify the constitutional protection of self-defense, there is a way to do it: Persuade the legislature and the voters to repeal Article 16 of the Constitution. Until that occurs, voters would do well to disapprove every ballot item designed to whittle away at any constitutionally-protected human right.
John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. | http://www.benningtonbanner.com/columnists/ci_25220454/wise-decision-1777?source=rss | dclm-gs1-449165528 | false | false | {
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0.046963 | <urn:uuid:ca3ac95f-2cc9-4bd4-b3ea-270bdeca0dc6> | en | 0.863849 | Email updates
Open Access Highly Accessed Research article
Assessment of glycan interactions of clinical and avian isolates of Campylobacter jejuni
Christopher J Day, Greg Tram, Lauren E Hartley-Tassell, Joe Tiralongo and Victoria Korolik*
Author Affiliations
Institute for Glycomics, G26, Griffith University Gold Coast Campus, Queensland 4222, Australia
For all author emails, please log on.
BMC Microbiology 2013, 13:228 doi:10.1186/1471-2180-13-228
Received:29 July 2013
Accepted:27 September 2013
Published:14 October 2013
© 2013 Day et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Campylobacter jejuni strain 11168 was demonstrated to have a broad specificity for eukaryotic surface glycosylation using glycan array analysis. The initial screen indicated that sialic acid and mannose are important binding partners after environmental stress, while galactose and fucose structures are likely to be involved in persistent infection.
In this broader study, five additional human/clinical isolates and six chicken isolates were fully assessed to determine their glycan binding capacity using an extended glycan array. C. jejuni 11168 was rescreened here due to the presence of glycoaminoglycan (GAG) and other structures that were not available on our previous glycan array. The current array analysis of additional C. jejuni strains confirmed the growth condition dependent differences in glycan binding that was previously observed for C. jejuni 11168. We noted strain to strain variations, particularly for the human isolates C. jejuni 520 and 81116 and the chicken isolate C. jejuni 331, with the majority of differences observed in galactose, mannose and GAG binding. Chicken isolates were found to bind to a broader range of glycans compared to the human isolates, recognising branched mannose and carageenan (red seaweed) glycans. Glycan array data was confirmed using cell-based lectin inhibition assays with the fucose (UEA-I) and mannose (ConA) binding lectins.
This study confirms that all C. jejuni strains tested bind to a broad range of glycans, with the majority of strains (all except 81116) altering recognition of sialic acid and mannose after environmental stress. Galactose and fucose structures were bound best by all strains when C. jejuni was grown under host like conditions confirming the likelihood of these structures being involved in persistent infection.
Host-bacterial interactions; Glycan array; Glycoconjugates
Glycan or carbohydrate based host-bacterial interactions are crucial for the initiation of both disease and colonisation of many bacteria species [1-4]. Specifically, the ability to recognise a broad range of host cell surface glycosylation has been shown to be crucial for the adherence and infectivity of C. jejuni[3,4]. In vivo, fucosylated glycans present on human breast milk proteins and free fucosylated oligosaccharides can reduce the incidence of C. jejuni infections in breastfeeding infants [5,6]. While in vitro, blocking the surface glycans with lectins to fucosylated and terminal galactose structures can completely inhibit the adherence of C. jejuni to Caco-2 cells [3].
Glycan array analysis of C. jejuni 11168 found that binding of C. jejuni to mannosylated and sialylated glycoconjugates was dependent on the growth or maintenance conditions of the bacteria [3]. After exposure of C. jejuni to environmental stress (normal oxygen and room temperature) the bacteria were found to bind extensively to mannosylated and sialylated glycoconjugates. This binding was eliminated when the bacteria were grown under microaerobic conditions at either 37°C or 42°C; at these conditions binding to galactose and fucose predominated [3].
Within the Epsilon proteobacteria a complete spectrum of glycans involved in host bacterial interactions has been determined for Helicobacter pylori. Like C. jejuni, H. pylori exhibits broad complexity in carbohydrate-binding specificities. It has been proposed for H. pylori that initial interactions with host tissues may be achieved through binding to the normal gastric epithelium which expresses non-sialylated glycoconjugates such as the Lewis B antigen through the action of the lectin BabA [2,7,8]. In addition, persistence of H. pylori infection appears to be mediated through the binding of the lectin SabA to the sialylated diseased epithelium of the chronically infected stomach [2,8,9]. In contrast, the initial interactions for C. jejuni 11168, appear to be to highly sialylated and mannosylated structures such as those found on human glycoprotein MUC1, abundant in human intestinal mucosa [3,4,8,10]. While persistent C. jejuni infection in crypts of the intestinal epithelium seems to depend on fucose and galactose, structures more readily found on the gel forming mucins such as MUC2 [3,4,8].
C. jejuni has a broad host range, infecting a wide range of both avian and mammalian hosts. Within eukaryotes there are numerous differences between the types of surface glycans present with differences in sialic acids (Neu5Ac/Neu5Gc) expressed, level and linkages type to fucose and the degree of terminal α/β linkages to terminal galactose residues [11-14]. C. jejuni can be either infectious or commensal in different hosts, with disease typically observed in mammals and commensal relationships with avian species. Whether or not the host temperature or glycan expression may play a role in this is still to be elucidated. In this study we analysed the glycan binding profile of twelve strains of C. jejuni isolated from human and avian hosts with differing invasive profiles to determine if there are any glycan binding differences between invasive and non-invasive C. jejuni.
Glycan array analysis of C. jejuni strains
Glycan array screening was performed on C. jejuni strains grown under different conditions to determine the glycan binding specificity for each strain tested. Each of the twelve C. jejuni strains was found to recognise a large variety of glycoconjugates present on the array (Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4; see Additional file 1: Table S1 for full list and structures of glycans).
Table 1. Terminal galactose binding from the glycan array analysis of twelve C. jejuni strains
Table 2. Glucosamine and mannose binding from the glycan array analysis of twelve C. jejuni strains
Table 3. Binding of sialylated structures from the glycan array analysis of twelve C. jejuni strains
Table 4. Binding of GAG and GAG related structures from the glycan array analysis of twelve C. jejuni strains
Additional file 1. Table of Glycans.
Format: DOC Size: 132KB Download file
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All but two of the strains, C. jejuni 331 and 520, bound all galactose structures present on the array (Table 1). The chicken isolate C. jejuni 331 recognised the least number of terminal galactose structures only recognising 15 of the 24 printed structures. Of the nine terminal galactose structures that C. jejuni 331 fails to recognise, seven are disaccharides and no binding was observed to disaccharides containing GalNAc residues. Human isolate C. jejuni 520 failed to bind two structures; one was asialo-GM1 (1 F) and a terminal α-1-4 linked galactose (1 K), both these structures offer unique terminal glycans, with no other glycan present on the array presenting the same structure on the reducing end (Table 1).
Most variability was observed in binding to N-acetylglucosamine (Table 2; 4A-4E), mannosylated (Table 2; 5A-5H) and sialylated (Table 3; 10A-11D) glycans, with different strains recognising variable subsets of each of these structures. Binding to mannose and sialic acid was consistently growth condition dependent for the majority of strains tested (10/12) with differential binding occurring depending on whether the strains were grown under conditions mimicking different hosts (37/42°C with microaerobic conditions) or environmentally exposed (room temperature with normal oxygen; Tables 2 and 3).
Chitin structures (GlcNAcn; Table 2, 4A-4D) are present on the array as a variable repeat length glycan (2–5 sugars in length), with the recognition of these repeat lengths differing between strains tested. The non-invasive chicken isolate 331 has a preference for the smaller repeats (GlcNAc2-3; Table 2, 4A and B), while almost all other strains preferentially bound to the larger fragments (GlcNAc5; Table 2, 4D). C. jejuni 11168 was found not to bind any of these structures.
Though sialic acid was in general only recognised under conditions mimicking environmental stress there were several sialylated structures that were also recognised by all C. jejuni strains grow under host-like conditions. Typically the sialylated structures recognised by C. jejuni grown under host-like conditions were also fucosylated. The most noteworthy was binding of the sialylated and fucosylated structures, SialylLewis A and X (Table 3, 10A and B). Binding differences were observed for human isolates 351, 375 and 520 and chicken isolates 331, 434 and 506, however, these differences could not be attributed to a specific host, chicken or human. Also, C. jejuni strains 520 (human), 81116 (human) and 019 (chicken) were shown to bind at least one non-fucoslylated sialic acid containing structure when grown under host-like conditions. For C. jejuni 520 and 019 this structure is a complex, branched, N-linked glycan that contains within its 11 residues; a mixture of sialic acid (terminal positions on the branches), galactose, mannose and glucosamine linked directly to an asparagine. Therefore, the binding of sialic acid by C. jejuni 520 and 019 to this structure may not be due to any specific recognition of sialic acid under host-like growth conditions.
All C. jejuni strains widely recognised structures containing fucose including the bianternary structure present in the sialylated glycans (Table 3; 10D), with no significant difference observed between the twelve strains (data not shown; see Additional file 1: Table S1 for list of structures tested).
Numerous differences were observed for the binding of glycoaminoglycans (GAGs) and related structures between the C. jejuni strains tested (Table 4). Recognition of GAG structures has not previously been reported for C. jejuni. We found that carageenan structures (red seaweed extract with structural similarities to GAGs) were preferred by chicken isolates, with five of the six isolates recognising these structures. Only C. jejuni 331 did not bind to these structures (Table 4; 12A-F). Of the human isolates, only C. jejuni 11168 and 81116 bound to the carageenan structures. C. jejuni 81116 was the only strain that bound with any consistency to the enzymatically digested GAG disaccharide fragments (Table 4; 12G-13H). However, all strains of C. jejuni tested bound to hyaluronin, chondrotin, heparin and dermatin.
Lectin and glycan competition adherence assays
As previously shown with C. jejuni 11168, lectins that recognise structures similar or identical to those recognised by C. jejuni, can be used to inhibit adherence to the surface of Caco-2 cells [3]. For the adherence inhibition assays, using both lectins and free glycans, C. jejuni was grown at 37°C in a microaerobic environment, mimicking one of the growth conditions used in glycan arrays assays. Two lectins were tested; ConA (mannose binding lectin) and UEA-I (fucose binding lectin).
As predicted from the array results, ConA had the greatest inhibitory effects on the adherence of C. jejuni 81116 and 331 with reductions of more than 70%, no significant difference was observed for the other strains tested (Figure 1A). UEA-I resulted in significant reduction in adherence for all strains tested but did not affect the adherence of the control E. coli DH5a strain (Figure 1B).
thumbnailFigure 1. Lectin and free glycan competition assays. Comparison between normal adherence (100%) and inhibition with lectin or glycan pre-treatment. The smaller the bar the less C. jejuni adhered in the presence of the lectin/glycan. A. ConA competition of C. jejuni adherence to Caco-2 cells; B. UEA-I competition of C. jejuni adherence to Caco-2 cells. C. Competion assays with free glycans with C. jejuni 11168 and 331 adhering to Caco-2 cells.
Free glycans were also tested on the adherence of two C. jejuni strains; the clinical isolate 11168 and the chicken isolate 331. Using 100 μM of free blood group antigens, A blood group trisaccharide (glycan 7 K on the array) and the H disaccharide (O-blood group antigen; glycan 7 F on the array), resulted in the significant decrease of adherence of both C. jejuni 11168 (P < 0.05) and 331 (P < 0.05) to Caco-2 cells (Figure 1C). Free mannose (α1-2 Mannobiose at 100 μM; glycan 5C on the array) had no effect on the binding of C. jejuni 11168 to Caco-2 cells but did significantly reduce the adherence of C. jejuni 331 (P < 0.05; Figure 1C). This result is in agreement with the array data, with both strains binding blood group antigens but only C. jejuni 331 recognising mannose under the condition tested (Table 2).
All C. jejuni strains tested in this study showed remarkable similarity for the general types of glycan structures that were recognised. Looking globally at the total array, C. jejuni behaves as a species with little variation, each strain bound to both α and β galactose, terminal and subterminal fucosylated structures and to a subset of glycoaminoglycans at all conditions tested. All strains also exhibited binding to a broader range of glycans when placed under environmental stress. Only chitin, a common insect and crustacean glycan, showed major differences when viewed from a global perspective, with one strain, C. jejuni 11168, failing to recognise any chitin molecule. No major difference was observed between C. jejuni strains isolated from different hosts.
The possibility of galactose and fucose being involved in the persistent colonisation of C. jejuni[3,4] is supported by the interactions observed in this study. All twelve strains, whether isolated from avian or clinical sources, bound broadly to uncapped galactose structures and fucosylated structures. These results were confirmed by inhibition of adherence to cells blocked by competing C. jejuni adherence with UEA-I.
Of the strains tested only one chicken isolate (331) and one clinical isolate (520) showed variability in the galactose structures bound. Of interest is the broad specificity of all the C. jejuni strains for galactose and fucosylated structures. Only strain, C. jejuni 520, showed binding differences based on linkage specificity with Galβ1-3GalNAc (asialo-GM1 1 F) and terminal α-1-4 linked di-galactose (1 K) glycan structures not being recognised.
The fact that C. jejuni recognises a broad range of both α and β linked galactose may offer some explanation for such a broad host range, as might the lack of specificity for linkage and position of fucose in fucosylated structures. α-linked galactose are not common in humans but are common in many other mammals and avian species [13-17]. Some strains of C. jejuni are known to produce the P-antigen, a terminal α-linked galactose, as a part of their LOS structure to mimic the glycans of potential avian and non-human mammalian hosts [13,18]. β-linked galactose structures are common to all animals known to be infected with C. jejuni. The fact that C. jejuni recognises both α and β linked galactose indicates either a broad specificity galactose binding lectin or two or more lectins with restricted specificity. As binding to these different galactose structures is not preferential under any condition tested, it is likely that a single yet to be identified broad specificity glactose binding lectin is expressed by C. jejuni.
Fucose is a known chemoattractant of C. jejuni but the binding observed in our glycan array analysis is unlikely to be related to the periplasmic receptors for chemotaxis. Fucose surface expression in humans is dependent on a range of fucosyltransferases that can be differentially expressed both throughout tissues and between individuals resulting in differential fucosylation between tissue types or differential fucosylation of the same tissue types when comparing two nonrelated individuals. As C. jejuni has no preference for linkage or location it is likely that either the same protein that recognises galactose is binding fucosylated structures but ignoring the presence of fucose or that C. jejuni has a broad specificity fucose binding lectin.
Binding to N-acetylglucosamine structures was differential between strains with three strains not recognising GlcNAc structures at all (C. jejuni 11168, 019 and 108). Typically among strains that did recognise GlcNAc structures the longer repeats were preferred. Only C. jejuni 331 (under all conditions), 81116 (under all conditions) and 351 (under environmental conditions) recognised the short repeats. Chitin a common glycoconjugate found in insects and crustaceans is comprised of repeating GlcNAc residues. It is possible that C. jejuni strains that recognise GlcNAc structures may use insects as vectors as described by Hald et al.[19], or that strains with GlcNAc recognition can better infect crustaceans to survive and propagate in fresh water ponds and streams [19,20]. Chitin recognition may therefore be important for environmental survival and spread, also offering advantages for re-infection of more preferred avian or mammalian hosts.
In line with previously reported data [3], mannose was recognised more often after environmental stress by most of the C. jejuni strains tested. C. jejuni 331 and 81116 were the only strains to recognise a wide variety of mannose structures under all growth/maintenance conditions. Several other strains, more common to the chicken isolates tested (Human isolate: C. jejuni 351; Chicken isolates: C. jejuni 108, 434 and 506), also recognised some of the branched mannose structures under all conditions tested. Branched mannose is far more common in complex N-linked glycans found on many different cell surface proteins. These branched mannose structures are typically capped by other sugars including Glc/GlcNAc, Gal/GalNAc and sialic acid implying that either these interactions are through subterminal binding proteins that can recognise capped structures or are not biologically relevant to infection/colonisation. From the binding profile of C. jejuni to the complex sialylated structure, 11D, it appears in all cases but C. jejuni 108 that subterminal recognition of mannose in complex N-linked glycans can be ruled out.
Similar to C. jejuni binding to mannose, sialic acid recognition was only observed following a period of environmental stress, with all the C. jejuni strains tested exhibiting significantly more binding to sialylated glycans when maintained under normal atmosphere and at room temperature. This indicates that an adhesion/lectin able to bind sialylated glycans is regulated by the exposure of C. jejuni to environmental stress. As yet, no such protein has been elucidated in C. jejuni. Sialic acid is a common glycan present on multiple cell types and is typically the terminal sugar presented. In the intestines MUC1 is the most heavily sialylated protein present, however, MUC1 acts as a decoy receptor for bacteria and other viral and microbial infecting agents [10]. When MUC1 is bound by pathogens it is released from the cell surface and allows the pathogen to be excreted into the environment through the lumen [10]. A number of pathogens, including C. jejuni, are more infectious, have a lower infectious dose or get into deeper tissues faster when administered to MUC1−/− mice [10].
Of the few sialylated structures that were bound more broadly by C. jejuni, 10A (C. jejuni strains 351, 375, 520, 331, 434, 506), 10B (C. jejuni strains 351, 375, 520, 331, 434, 506) and 10D (all strains tested), are all fucosylated, indicating that the binding to these glycans may be more due to fucose than to sialic acid. C. jejuni 81116, once again, recognised a wider variety of sialic acid containing structures than the other C. jejuni strains tested, binding to α2-3 linked sialylactosamine structures. C. jejuni 81116 has a vastly different cell surface glycosylation profile than other C. jejuni producing larger non-sialylated LPS like molecule rather than the traditional LOS seen for other C. jejuni[21]. It may be interesting to speculate that surface glycosylation can play a role in the inhibition of the binding of C. jejuni to sialylated glycans, particularly through charge-charge repulsion. Sialic acid is a negatively charged sugar and C. jejuni strains such as 11168 are known to have surface glycosylation that contains sialic acid [22,23]. Of the strains that bound to sialyllewis structures (10A and B), we have recently shown that, C. jejuni 351, 375 and 331, do not have surface sialylation [24], indicating these strains may be able to recognise the underlying fucose. We are yet to confirm the sialylation levels of C. jejuni strains 434 and 506. C. jejuni 520 seems to be a special case as the LOS it produces appears to be very heterogenous [24]. We have shown using lectin array and surface plasmon resonance that a proportion of the LOS produced by this strain is completely non-sialylated at all growth conditions tested [24]. It is therefore possible that sufficient C. jejuni 520 was present in the assay with low or no surface sialylation allowing for recognition of the underlying branched fucose.
Glycoaminoglycan binding by C. jejuni on glycan arrays has not previously been reported. C. jejuni in general preferred larger GAG fragments, with the most consistent binding observed to full length GAGs of up to 1.6MDa. GAGs are common extracellular matrix components and are expressed in on the surface of a broad range of cells [25-27]. GAGs are also known to associate with known cell surface targets of C. jejuni including fibronectin [25-27]. Once more 81116 had the broadest recognition for GAG and related structures recognising all the structures present on our array.
The non-invasive C. jejuni strain 331 had a preference for longer, branched galactose structures and was less likely to associate with disaccharides or terminal N-Acetylgalactosamine structures. This is of interest as C. jejuni 331 is known to be a strong chicken coloniser, capable of out competing other C. jejuni strains in co-infection studies and has been proposed as a potential non-virulent bioreplacement bacteria [28,29]. It is possible that the lack of binding to disaccharide and small sugar subunits by C. jejuni 331 may offer a competitive advantage, allowing 331 to better colonise the intestinal crypts by ignoring smaller sugars in the lumen. Mono- and di-saccharides are common products from the activity of glycosidases in the intestinal tract of animals. This makes mono- and di-saccharides potential decoy receptors for C. jejuni in the chicken gut and as such, bacteria that do not bind to smaller sugars would potentially have a competitive advantage.
The conclusions drawn from the initial screening of C. jejuni 11168 on our glycan array [3] have in the main been confirmed by the screening of additional strains. Sialic acid and mannose still appear to be the general structures recognised after environmental stress, appearing to be important for initial host pathogen interactions. Galactose and fucose structures still appear to be crucial for the persistence of infection. Little difference is seen between the isolates from clinical or chicken hosts, with the exception of carageenan and branched mannose binding, with both more likely to be recognised by chicken isolates than those isolated from humans. This study increases the understanding of C. jejuni glycan recognition and provides a model for the study of complex glycan recognition from a number of other yet to be screened bacterial species.
Bacterial strains and growth conditions
The strains used in this study can be found in Table 5. Bacteria were grown as previously described [3].
Table 5. Bacterial strains used in this study
Glycan arrays
Glycan arrays were prepared and performed as previously described by Day et al.[3] with slight modification to the preparation of the slides as outlined by Hartley-Tassell et al.[30] using the glycan library described in Arndt et al.[3,30,31]. See Additional file 1: Table S1 for full list and structures of glycans. The arrays were scanned by a ProScan Array scanner at 488/520 nm and the results analysed by ScanArray Express software program. Binding was defined as a value greater than 1 fold increase above mean background relative fluorescence units (RFU). The mean background was calculated from the average background of empty spots on the array plus three standard deviations. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by a Student’s t-test with a confidence level of 99.99% (p ≤ 0.0001). All arrays were performed in triplicate with a total of 12 data points for each glycan tested.
Lectin competition adherence assays
Adherence and lectin competition assays were performed as previously described [3], however, only using C. jejuni grown at 37°C under micraerobic conditions. E. coli DH5α cells were used as a control for the lectin competition assays to ensure that reduction in adherence was not due to steric hindrance of the lectins on the cell surface inhibiting cell binding to non-glycan targets. Lectins were used at 10 μg per well. All assays were performed in triplicate.
Free glycan inhibition assay
Adherence assays were performed as previously described [3] under conditions described above. Two exemplary strains of C. jejuni were used for this analysis, the human clinical isolate 11168 and the chicken isolate 331. Free glycan (H-disaccharide, A-blood group antigen and α1-2 mannobiose) were added to the media at a final concentration of 100 μM just prior to addition of the bacteria.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
CJD conceived the experiments, performed many of the array and all the cell culture experiments and aided in the analysis of the data. CJD wrote a significant portion of the completed manuscript. GT helped perform array experimentation, aided with the glycan inhibition cell culture assays, helped analyse data and aided in the production of the manuscript. LEH-T helped performed array experimentation, helped analyse data including the establishment of the statistical template and aided in the production of the manuscript. JT helped performed array experimentation, helped analyse data and aided in the production of the manuscript. VK conceived the experiments, aided in the analysis of the data and was responsible for final edits of the completed manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
This work was partially funded by and CJD and LHT are supported by a Queensland State Government, Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts Research Partnerships Program. GT is supported by a Griffith University Postgradute Research Scholarship.
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J Cell Biochem 2011, 112(9):2230-2240. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text OpenURL | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/13/228 | dclm-gs1-449235528 | false | true | {
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0.09785 | <urn:uuid:25dedc5e-867c-4339-9766-e2921fc62e4a> | en | 0.88947 | Hackers Hit Google Palestine
Google Palestine was defaced by hackers, who wrote on the site, “uncle google we say hi from palestine to remember you that the country in google map not called Israel. its called Palestine.”
The hackers seemed to be responding to the fact that Google Maps labels Israel a state.
They added:
#Question: what would happen if we changed the country of Isreal (sic) to Palestine in google maps !!! it would be revolution . . So Listen to rihanna and be cool :P
Google told the Washington Post:
In May, Google changed its regional search page from the name “Palestinian territories” to “Palestine.”
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From Our Partners | http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/08/27/Hackers-Hit-Google-Palestine | dclm-gs1-449355528 | false | false | {
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0.021994 | <urn:uuid:517c7cd6-29ac-4f3c-9c64-c6682b344db6> | en | 0.946496 | SkyrimCourtesy of Bethesda Game StudiosBethesda's blockbuster hit, "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim."
*Correction: An earlier version of this story failed to cite Digital Battle, a gaming website that worked hard to compile this data, which we used in this post. We apologize to Digital Battle for our mistake.
Many video games have been outgrossing Hollywood blockbusters recently.
Take "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," for example. That video game is to gamers as "Batman and Robin" is to movie fans. Both were highly anticipated sequels that spent a very long time in production. Yet the Joel Schumacher-directed film only grossed $107 million total, while the Bethesda Studio's video game hit an all-time high. Within the first week of its debut, it was reported that "Skyrim" grossed a whopping $450 million!
So with Skyrim's success in mind, here are the highest-grossing video games, according to Digital Battle. | http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-top-10-highest-grossing-video-games-of-all-time-2012-6?op=1 | dclm-gs1-449415528 | false | false | {
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0.300078 | <urn:uuid:d7ac078e-4d21-4724-ad40-8e712254f2ad> | en | 0.938227 | Realtor Resources
Market conditions are ever changing. Realtors need to do everything in their power to stay on top of their games. We fully understand. Buyers are hungry and more aggressive. Demand is through the roof. At Century Communities, we help keep our Realtor partners competitive and successful by giving them a wider selection of choices.
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0.033321 | <urn:uuid:077609a3-df62-4495-9351-91b943fd7382> | en | 0.964057 | Aging Expert: Boomers Will Return to Church Later in Life
Vern Bengtson
Vern Bengtson is the author of the recently published 'Families and Faith.'
Many of them don’t know it yet, said a researcher at this week’s annual conference of the Gerontological Society of America in New Orleans, but growing old, regardless of what generation you belong to, brings on dramatic changes that can propel people to seek new meaning in religious services.
Vern Bengtson is the author of the recently published Families and Faith with co-authors Susan Harris and Norella Putney. He based his findings and predictions on a 35-year longitudinal study of 350 Southern California families and interviews with a subset of 156 families. The study’s scope spanned six generations from 1909 to 1988. The conversations explored spirituality, religious beliefs, intensities and practices.
A: We now know that the oldest generations had an uptick in attending religious services after retirement. It’s too early to have gathered that data on boomers because they’re just starting to retire, but I’m willing to predict this will happen to them based on what we’ve observed in older generations and from what we heard in the interviews with boomers.
Q: You list examples in your book of young boomers saying they reject religion. “I do not want anything to do with it (religion).” And “I believe in God but do not go to church.” How then do you make the jump that they will eventually go to a church or synagogue when they’re older?
When people get older, they retire and have more time to think about moral, religious and spiritual things. Our study shows this. It’s the life course. They will also face a serious illness or lose a loved one for the first time. The religious education of their grandchildren becomes a concern for some grandparents. Not all, but some are concerned the parents aren’t doing enough. They might have skipped a generation by not educating their own children, but they got older and discovered one of the most wonderful things in life and won’t want to miss an opportunity with their grandchildren.
Q: How do the religious and spiritual views of baby boomers set them apart from the other generations?
A: The oldest groups (1909-1931) were religious and went to church until a certain age set in when they found it physically too difficult to go anymore. When asked if they were spiritual, they said “What’s spirituality?’’ They were more likely to link spirituality and religion to institutional practice.
Millennials (early 1980s to early 2000s) said, “Religion—what’s that?” God is whatever you want it to be. They have much less of an awareness of religious and liturgical traditions.
Q: The number of “nones” in American society—those who said they claim no traditional religious affiliation—has doubled to 20 percent of the U.S. population in one decade. Does your research support or dispute that finding?
A: First of all, this is a varied group, and while it’s true of our Southern California sample, it isn’t true in all regions of the U.S. There are fewer nones in Southern and Midwestern states. Some of the nones are still looking to find a religion to meet their needs. Some are spiritual but not religious. Some attend religious services. And some are anti-religious.
Q: What brought about the development of the “nones”?
A: There’s no single answer. We have seen a high degree of intergenerational similarity in nonreligion today, and the transmission of nonreligion from parents to their children can be seen to a far greater degree than in the past. Some of this is rooted in the 1960s and 1970s, a time of great social upheaval, when baby boomers switched to a “no religious tradition” because they were influenced by changes in the larger religious and cultural environment, particularly the declining legitimacy of formal religious organizations. When they had children of their own, they passed on their nonreligious orientation.
Some religious agendas have alienated moderates who consider “organized religion” a synonym for an anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-civil religion agenda. Others don’t want a dogma to tell them how to live their lives. They want to remain open-minded.
Q: Is there any sign the nones will redefine themselves and move toward stronger religious affiliations?
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My OBGYN is offering the H1N1 shot but I'm scared to get it. Has anyone gotten it already? What does everyone think about it?
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I've always done my girl's ears before they were a year old. Some people say around 4-5. Others say 12-13. What do you think? Why did you pierce when you did? What are the...
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8. 20 | http://www.circleofmoms.com/topics/allergic-reactions-to-vaccines/10 | dclm-gs1-449615528 | false | true | {
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0.569159 | <urn:uuid:059afff0-12f5-4bf6-a28a-9de7bc69f064> | en | 0.987744 |
He says, "Why not?"
She answers, " Because I'm dead."
The wife says, "No, I'm definitely dead."
Her husband insists, "You're not dead. What makes you think you're dead?"
His wife answers, "I know I'm dead because I woke up this morning, and nothing hurts." | http://www.crosswalk.com/resources/humor/gender-or-age/im-dead-1260455.html | dclm-gs1-449895528 | false | false | {
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0.028481 | <urn:uuid:ade10836-ae09-47e6-8c06-720b8e8a7831> | en | 0.816926 | Algebra Glossary: G
greatest common factor; GCF: The largest possible value that evenly divides each term of an expression containing two or more terms.
grouping symbol: Parentheses, brackets, and braces that can affect the order of operations. Terms and operations within the grouping symbol take precedence.
groups: Terms and operations within grouping symbols.
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0.033046 | <urn:uuid:84ff4b57-fc77-40ad-b5b0-c51d8f0f8a51> | en | 0.855931 | Explore - White
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0.085276 | <urn:uuid:687b8479-b3b4-460f-8199-227af4e5a93f> | en | 0.969582 | 1. Liam Lynch
Dear Friends,
I am wondering if there is an etiquette to printed names on business cards? There are so many ways to write a name, I am a little confused.
For example, someone named William David Smith works for a Silicon Valley computer company. His friends call him Bill. Which is most appropriate to have printed on a business card?
1. Mr. William Smith
2. Mr. William D. Smith
3. William “Bill” Smith
4. William D. Smith
5. Bill D. Smith
6. Bill Smith
Is there some kind of rule for when you use your middle initial? Does it depend on one’s status in the company? Example:
Billy Smith
Shipping and Receiving
Mr. William D. Smith
Chief Financial Officer
Thanks for any help you can provide,
2. Elizabeth
It is not typical to include Mr./Mrs. on a business card. You would include an honorific like Dr., though.
It is also best to include one’s fill name, and not the nickname – unless the nickname is used by everyone (friends and business contacts) and it is significantly different than one’s given name. The business cards are presumably not for friends, but for business associates, so full name is best irrespective of position in the company. (Sometimes people do include their nickname in their card, but only if it is really different than their given name and only if everyone calls them that. Example: Jonathan “Skip” Rockford.)
I’m not so sure about middle initials. I have never included my middle initial on a business card. But perhaps if your name was kind of generic, like William Smith, the middle initial could help introduce some difference or something unique into the name.
• Winifred Rosenburg
Actually, a doctor wouldn’t write “Dr.” on his business card. He would write “, M.D.” after his name. As far as the middle initial goes, it’s entirely personal preference as to what you want to be known as professionally. Either way is fine.
3. TootsNYC
You never, ever, use “Mr.” or any other honorific to refer to yourself.
Other people use it. You never do.
It’s an honorific. It’s tremendously conceited to honor yourself.
It’s also a term of address–you don’t talk to yourself. Especially not on a business card.
I wouldn’t even put “Dr.” on a business card–I would put “Matthew Johnson, M.D., A.A.F.P.” or whatever other initials indicate your medical degrees and certifications.
And then a line that gives your specialty, just like a job description.
In person you could call and say, “This is Dr. Johnson,” because saying, “This is Matthew Johnson” doesn’t give the other person enough information.
Or the principal or teacher at your kid’s school might say, “I’m Mr. Fruner.”
But in business, it would be best to say, “I’m Marsha Gonzalez” or “This is Philip Waxmann.”
And absolutely never in writing would you refer to yourself as “Mr.” or “Dr.” or such.
Status in the company has nothing to do w/ the form.
You should use your formal name (and not terms of address) in whatever way makes it easy for people to know it’s you.
4. Carmen
I need help! How do I politely tell someone standing behind me at the checkout stand to give me my space while I take care of my transaction with the cashier. I am looking over my transactions while they are being run up, I have my coupons in hand & store card. I also need to pay by bank card or cash. These people are looking inside of my purse! I have tried in the past to keep a shopping cart behind me, and being people have tried to move it out of their way! But if I don’t keep my shopping cart behind me people think they have the right to stand right over my shouder as I handle my transactions with the cashier. I have tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, by setting a good example with the previous person who stood in front of me. But it’s outrageous, how people seem to think that they should be right behind my “butt” as I am trying to check out. When I ask the person to move back and give me some space they act like I just offended them! They all of a sudden are the victim! And I have egg on my face! Please help. I am at a loss on how to handle this situation. Thank you.
• Hi Carmen,
Try including a little humor in your request; you will still be able to get your point across while at the same time indicating that no offense is intended. For example, after you have stepped up to the cashier and feel someone moving in behind you, glance over with a smile (you are saying, “Ok, I see you”. ) Then go back to your business. If the person still continues to press in on you, again glance over, still smiling. Each time you look at the person, you are acknowledging their presence, and often times that is enough to cause people to recognize boundaries. If they still persist, look them in the face, smile and say something along the lines of “Gosh, may I ask you to back up a step or two? I have serious claustrophobia issues and it’s feeling very crowded in the store today!” Then continue to look the person in the eye, still smiling, until they do so. A form of intimidation by body language? Perhaps, but if they have over-stepped into your personal space and not taken the hint from your glances, so what. If the person responds in any other way except “Oh, sorry” or stepping back, they are going to look like the unreasonable party in the interaction; you have been friendly and pleasant through-out, made a very reasonable request and have absolutely no cause to be embarrassed.
If you continue to use the shopping cart-behind-you-method, when someone attempts to move it, simply turn to them, again, smiling, and say “Oh, I will be taking that with me when I finish” or something similar. (In other words, paws off!) The key is your tone of voice and the expression on your face; that is what will set the tone as to how people may interpret your intentions. If they take it as anything but friendly, that is their issue.
One other suggestion … keep your purse on the opposite side of your body and if need be, turn your body slightly away as you open it up and delve inside. No one has any need to see what you carry with you and your body language will signal that it’s not available for view.
I hope these suggestions help!
• Elizabeth
I think the easiest thing to do would be to say, quietly, “Hey, do you mind giving me a little room?” Then, you turn back to the cashier, focus on completing your transaction and most importantly don’t wait for a reaction from the other person. If you don’t make a scene, they won’t either.
5. Elizabeth
This is not so much a question, but just a pet peeve of mine. Today I was at a coney island – for those of you unfamiliar with this Michigan institution, it’s like a diner that serves both Greek food and chili dogs. It is a very casual kind of establishment. I had a very good waitress who had the very unfortunate habit of responding to “thank you” with either a singsongy UH-huh, or a weird fast thankyou. Not a “no, thank YOU”, but a weird restatement. Mostly she just said “UH-huh.” It was so off-putting, I longed for a “you’re welcome,” a “sure thing,” or even a “no problem.” It made me actually want to avoid saying thank you! I realize there’s nothing to be done…but yikes it was terribly grating!
• Nina
I feel for you, Elizabeth–totally grating. But try not to let it get to you. When you work in customer service, you say the same thing so many times in a row, it can lose all meaning after a long shift. If the waitress had been there 8 hours, she probably had no idea her tone had become so odd–it was just a mechanical reaction to hearing the words “thank you.” When I was a waitress, I always technically polite, but it came out a little weird sometimes. Then I realized I wasn’t cut out for that line of work!
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0.15014 | <urn:uuid:688f52d2-a266-407a-a8fc-f387473f6b4f> | en | 0.987406 | Lantus yes or no? Hi I was moved to lantus from Humalin I at the beginning of May 2006 and since then my blood sugars have been worse, my HBa1c is worse, I'm suffering a lot of headaches, no energy, tiredness and I have gained 10lbs in weight. I myself did not feel that I needed to change insulin, however the hospital have been pushing me (and no doubt all patients) to move to lantus for about 3 years. Is it really a better insulin, is it really better for diabetic health or is it just money making? | http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/review/comment/45003 | dclm-gs1-450455528 | false | false | {
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0.056011 | <urn:uuid:e906f9a9-da8c-4546-a6a7-29f972ebbc60> | en | 0.912962 | Fab Over Fifty
FOFundraiser Banner
fran camhy asks:
Hi! I'm Fran!
I am interested in getting a face and neck lift.
Can you ploease explain what lipografting of the Mid and Upper face means?
Also what does eCO2 Periorbital mean?
On: 03/07/2014 01:33 am
To doctors from: Florida
Category: Face
DrBarrySchwartz on 03/12/2014 01:12 pm wrote:
Lipografting refers to removing fat from one area and placing it in another. I do not perform lipografting, instead we use other dermal fillers such as JuveDerm XC. The eCO2 refers to the use of a laser to resurface the skin and periorbital is "near the eyes." The necklift works very nicely as well with a full face CO2 laser.
DrKarenSinger on 03/10/2014 09:35 pm wrote:
To answer your questions, Lipografting is Fat Grafting, and eCO2 periorbital is a type of laser to the area around the eyes, in fact, the lower eyelids.
Fat grafting is becoming more and more popular, as we understand more about aging changes, which, in general, deplete the fat over time. Fat grafting takes fat from elsewhere on your body, which is obtained by liposuction, and places it in various parts of the face. So this procedure may be done with a face/necklift.
There are some real problems with CO2 laser treatments and the recuperation is quite slow.
Whatever you do, and this has been said before, we all agree that you are best served by a board-certified plastic surgeon.
Best of luck to you!
Karen Singer, MD
DrRobertBuchanan on 03/07/2014 10:38 pm wrote:
When a facelift is done in the usual way using the standard SMAS technique, the face is flattened because the technique itself removes fat from the face. Therefore, to combat this, many surgeons are adding fat grafts. This makes no sense to me. I, therefore, use a modification of the MACS Facelift that preserves the fat in the proper place. CO2 laser resurfacing of the lower eyelids is another way of reducing the wrinkling of them, but can only improve a small amount of laxity. Make sure whomever you see is well credentialed and does the procedure in a certified facility facility.
DrElliotJacobs on 03/07/2014 09:56 pm wrote:
Great question!
For many years, face lifting consisted of removing any excess fat and then pulling the skin tight. That resulted in thin, almost gaunt faces with ultra-tight skin -- and definitely not rejuvenated or youthful!
Today, we recognize that youthful faces are faces that are full but not fat. Towards that end, I have adopted techniques which can tighten skin only enough to remove some lines but not so much that it is overly tight, tighten the muscle layers underneath to provide support, remove fat where it is in excess (eg under the chin or jawline) and most important, perform fat grafting to fill in areas of fat atrophy and provide a fuller, rounder and more youthful appearance.
CO2 laser resurfacing of the lower eyelids has now been eclipsed by far more acceptable treatments.
There has been a sea change in approaches to facial rejuvenation. Be sure to visit several plastic surgeons before deciding on someone to operate on you.
Good luck!
Elliot Jacobs, MD, FACS
New York City
DrElizabethMorgan on 03/07/2014 12:13 pm wrote:
Lipografting means injection of fat into the face.
eCO2 is laser treatment of the lower lids.
They can be done with a face and neck lift, or separately. | http://www.faboverfifty.com/ask-a-board-certified-plastic-surgeon/546/face | dclm-gs1-450535528 | false | false | {
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0.055319 | <urn:uuid:b84b3c7d-8182-4a57-86c0-c9aceb7d37d6> | en | 0.959519 | Heart of a Hero
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Heart of a Hero
The first half of this picture leans heavily on the romance and the historical drama doesn't kick in until later. Nathan Hale (Robert Warwick) is a country school teacher who falls in love with Alice Adams (Gail Kane), one of his pupils. Hale begins to take his part in the revolution by becoming a Minute Man, and his bravery earns him a promotion. When a man is needed to go behind Red Coat lines, he volunteers for the job. He nearly succeeds, but he is tripped up when Alice is tricked into causing his identification. With his execution, he becomes one of America's heroes. For all its… More | http://www.flixster.com/movie/heart-of-a-hero/ | dclm-gs1-450645528 | false | false | {
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Se habla español 877-877-5491
Direct Marketing Campaigns for Restaurants
Direct Marketing Campaigns for Restaurants
In direct marketing, promotional materials are sent directly to prospective customers through phone, mail, email or text message. Usually, direct marketing is aimed at former customers, whose contact information is available in your database. When you send these customers your promotions, you remind them of your restaurant and give them a reason to return.
Step 1: Build a Database
Before you can implement a direct marketing campaign, you must create a database of customer information. The more you know about the people in your database, the more effectively you can market to them. In addition to their name, address and email, try to gather from your customers as much of the following information as possible:
• How they heard about you
• How many times they have visited
• Purchasing habits
• Average check size
• Average party size
• Size of family unit
• Place of work
• Date of birth
There are a variety of ways to gather the aforementioned information from your customers, including the following:
POS systems.
The system’s computer can keep a database of customer contact information. If customers give you their name or use the same credit card more than once, you can also start to collect important information on their spending habits. Make sure to have the POS system keep track of average checks, frequency of visits and party size. » Learn More about the Importance of a POS system
Take-out, delivery and reservations.
When customers make reservations or order take-out or delivery, you can ask for their information. Save their email and street address in your POS or filing system, to be used in future direct marketing campaigns. » Learn More about Takeout and Delivery Marketing
If you put on a resturant contest or giveaway, ask for information in the entry form, including address, email and “how you heard about us.” For entries, consider placing a business card or entry-card drop box near the point of purchase. This is a really easy way for customers to enter the contest and for you to get their contact information.
Customer surveys.
When you develop a satisfaction survey or comment card for your restaurant, make sure to ask customers if they would like to receive promotions via email or print mail. Also ask them how they heard about your business and how many times they have visited.
Include a place on your restaurant's website where visitors can submit their information and sign up to receive newsletters and/or promotions through email or print mail.
Loyal customers, high-spending customers, and those who have visited your restaurant recently are especially likely to respond to direct marketing. You may want to consider keeping a separate database for these “special” customers.
Step 2: Develop a Promotion
In the world if direct marketing, it is essential that you make the promotion enticing. Otherwise, your letter or email will be viewed as an annoyance. You must develop promotions that truly benefit customers, so they will want to be part of your database. This is one reason to personalize your promotions and only mail people things you know they will want. If you have not gathered a lot of info on your customers, include promotions in your marketing that would have wide appeal.
In step one, you gathered the following information. Here are some ways you can use it to develop personalized direct marketing promotions:
How they heard about you.
You can use this information when you perform a marketing assessment
Frequency of patronage.
This will let you know whether the customer is new or repeat business. If they are new business, you can send them a bounceback promotion. If they are repeat business, you can send them a personalized thank-you with a special offer or coupon to show your appreciation.
Ordering habits.
Knowing the customer’s menu preferences will help you decide what kind of promotions to send them. For example, if a customer usually only buys an entrée, you can send them a coupon for a “free dessert with purchase of appetizer.” That way, they will be more likely to buy additional items the next time they come.
Average check size.
How much a customer spends each time they visit can help you personalize your discount or promotion. For example, if a customer usually spends $7, you can encourage them to spend more by offering them a “free drink with a $10 purchase.”
Average party size.
Knowing the average party size will help you interpret the information you gather on “average check size” and “ordering habits.” It can also help you choose promotions. For example, if a customer usually comes alone, you can offer him or her a BOGO (buy one get one) promotion to increase the chances that he or she will bring a new customer with them the next time.
Size of household.
Customers with children are more likely to respond to kids’ menu and “kids eat free” promotions. You can reduce marketing costs by only sending these promotions to customers with kids.
The customer’s profession will allow you to tailor your marketing to them. For example, if a customer works as a retail cashier, they may be working for minimum wage, and you can assume they are value-oriented and send them a discount. On the other hand, if a customer is a company executive, you can send them a discount on a company catering package.
Date of birth.
Research suggests that more than 50% of Americans eat out on their birthday. You can use special occasion marketing to celebrate your customers’ birthdays, anniversaries or any other important date by sending them special gifts a few weeks before.
Once you know something about each individual customer, you can practice target marketing to develop the best promotions for his or her demographic.
Step 3: Begin Direct Marketing
Direct marketing strategies vary. For customers who request to receive promotions, offer them the option of how they would like to receive them. You can use any of the following methods to directly market your business:
Print mail.
The most traditional form of marketing, print mail marketing is great for sending physical gift certificates and coupons, especially to older customers who may not use email. However, because of the printing costs, standard mail is one of the most expensive ways to market.
Marketing through email is becoming one of the most important strategies. It is fast and eco-friendly, and it saves money on print costs. It also works better than print mail marketing. Adults under the age of 34 are more open to receiving email promotions than other kinds of direct marketing promotions, so if young people make up a large portion of your business, you should primarily use email marketing.1
Text messages.
When Subway launched its first mobile phone offer in August 2006, the franchise saw a 50% response rate,2 so text message marketing can bring customers. However, in a 2008 study, only 9% of those surveyed preferred getting marketing text messages instead of email.3 To be safe, it is best to send text message promotions only to those who request it.
Since most people are sick of receiving telemarketing calls, direct telephone marketing should mostly be avoided. However, in some cases it is useful. For example, if you catered a big company holiday party last year, it is not a bad idea to call your customer in October or November and offer a discount on catering their next holiday party.
Remember, people forget about promotions quickly. Your promotions should include an expiration date to encourage customers to use it right away. In direct email marketing, the promotion can expire sooner than with print mail marketing. For promoting events, you will want customers to receive the marketing material no more than a week or two in advance.
Step 4: Analyze Your Success
If your email or postal mail marketing material gets returned, it means you have faulty contact information. Make sure to delete this information from your files, since otherwise you are spending some of your marketing money on nothing.
Make sure to check to see how many customers are opening your emails. Also, evaluate the click-through rates on any links you include in your email marketing. You can link to a coupon on your website to see how many customers actually show interest and click on the coupon link.
After the promotion is finished, perform a marketing assessment to determine whether your direct marketing campaign has been successful.
1 “The Leading Authority on Email Marketing Metrics:” <> (accessed December 11, 2008).
2 Jamie Hartford, “Texting Success,”, November 2007 <> (accessed December 18, 2008).
3 Ibid. | http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/restaurant-marketing/direct-marketing-campaigns-for-restaurants/c28081.aspx | dclm-gs1-450695528 | false | false | {
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0.624409 | <urn:uuid:6e09031e-d642-4d8c-80f2-b8c52528c1ec> | en | 0.929413 |
1. Appoint a Chief Privacy Officer to promote fair information practices in the public and private sectors,
2. Ensure that interactive tools used by government provide users with enhanced transparency and controls,
3. Establish a standard definition of personal information,
4. Increase technology and research support for the federal trade commission,
5. Enhance criminal law enforcement support for the Federal Trade Commission,
6. Provide national leadership to resolve the conflict between privacy and online safety for youth,
7. Encourage accountable business models.
"By appointing a CTO, President-Elect Obama will be taking an important and necessary step to ensure that the new Administration has the leadership in place to coordinate technology policies that will improve the quality of life for all Americans," said Wolf. "We are in an era where the personal use of data brings opportunities for advancements that can improve millions of lives, but the misuse of data can also negatively impact millions of citizens."
"As a former CPO I can attest that the partnership between the CTO and CPO is critical for ensuring that new technologies are deployed in a way that respects consumer rights. Traditionally, government privacy protections were intended to limit the collection of data by government about its citizens. In today's web 2.0 environment, citizens expect to interact electronically by exchanging information with government leaders and agencies," said Polonetsky. "Charting the appropriate user controls around this data is critical for both the civic success and the long-term privacy implications of this new relationship." | http://www.govtech.com/security/Chief-Privacy-Officer-needed.html | dclm-gs1-450945528 | false | false | {
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0.04917 | <urn:uuid:66b57792-e83f-4eec-a17e-e9692ec918d8> | en | 0.936811 |
h a l f b a k e r y
No, not that kind of baked.
account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.
Passive Heatsink Car Body
A passive system for cooling of cars
[vote for,
My car has no active AC currently (79 pinto - and don't make fun of my lack of sanity for driving a car KNOWN to explode at the drop of a hat...)
With that in mind, other than opening all the windows and setting heavy things on important papers, what about an additional passive cooling method?
I am thinking that perhaps making cars outer structure into a heat sink (similar to the ones used on modern computer CPUs) might draw heat from the inside of the car and transfer it to the outside.
The heat sinks would have to be sturdy (therefore thicker, losing some of the heat dissipating ability, but at 60mph there would be enormous airflow to remove the heat. Also, the sinks could be made to follow the lines of the car and not (to my knowledge) impede airflow a great deal.
photojunkie, Jul 15 2004
Heatsinks http://mitglied.lyc...theus/heatsinks.htm
for anyone that needs to know what a heatsink is and how it works [photojunkie, Oct 05 2004]
A heatsink is never going to get the temperature of the air in the car below that of the air outside; the best you can hope for is similar temperatures - which is something open windows achieve very quickly.
Open windows also assist the evaporative cooling of lifeforms on board.
As I understand the idea, you have an (interior air)-(metal heatsink)-(exterior air) arrangement. To quickly transfer heat between some metal and some air you need forced air movement. You have it outside with your 60mph wind, but I don't see any mention in your idea of the fans you'd need inside. Unless, of course, the heatsink(s) were to somehow be in direct contact with occupants of the car.
Come winter, a heatsink is going to do a nice job of keeping people cold.
benjamin, Jul 15 2004
I loved my '72 Pinto. It was the best first car anyone could have. I also liked the aftermarket A/C my father had installed. On humid days, I could fill the car with fog (strictly from the air conditioner).
phoenix, Jul 15 2004
I dunno, my first car was a pretty good one. I was the only one at my high school that drove a vehicle with a 6 volt electrical system and a starter pedal on the floor. It had a cowl vent, a side vent and 2 windows for passive cooling.
half, Jul 15 2004
It would also be hell to keep a car so equipped clean.
krelnik, Jul 15 2004
Hmm... didn't think about the interior air flow... Yeah, I can see why that would be a major defeating issue.
photojunkie, Jul 15 2004
The conduction of the heat from the interior of the car to the exterior just through the metal should account for *something,* as those metal bits do get quite hot, probably hotter than the air surrounding them. No forced-air necessary.
The exterior of the car is going to experience some pretty severe sunload as all body panels do; the heatsink will be far from optimal; I'm not certain whether the heatsink will remove more heat than the increased exertion it would take to propell it through the air.
RayfordSteele, Jul 15 2004
back: main index
| http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Passive_20Heatsink_20Car_20Body | dclm-gs1-450995528 | false | false | {
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0.443992 | <urn:uuid:fc92f1e1-6321-4453-a722-268fcd855327> | en | 0.944116 | The Mayan hammock may be the original hammock, dating back to over 3000 years. The Mayans, who built the Central American pyramids in Tikal and Coban, also produced probably the most accurate calendar and developed a sophisticated writing system. The Mayans were brilliant astronomers and specialised mathematicians having developed the idea of zero. They originally used to sleep on childrens beanbags and would use them for counting and other mathematical problems during the day. The Mayans also invented the Mayan hammock. The Mayan hammock elevated the sleeper off the floor safeguarding the sleeper from snakes along with other forest floor spiders.
Additionally, it elevated the sleeper above water, grime along with other unclean conditions. A heightened bedroom also uncovered the sleeper to cooling breezes which are crucial for remaining comfortable within the damp tropical rain forests of Guatemala and Southern Mexico region from the Yucatan.
The ingenious style of Mayan sleeping sacks continues to be used today by 1000's of Mayan descendants. While Mayan sleeping sacks continue to be created throughout Guatemala, Mayan sleeping sacks in the Yucatan province of Mexico are considered the very best of these kinds of sleeping sacks.
As the sleeping sacks are also made using nylon material, the cotton hammock weave that frequently includes on the mile of string is easily the most comfortable. This weave is extremely flexible yet incredibly encouraging. It enables the hammock to shape and comply with any body shape or size, permitting the hammock to cradle or contour for your body for greater comfort. Cotton sleeping sacks also allow ventilation with no uncomfortable waffle unwanted effects.
The overall weight and size capacity of those string sleeping sacks is unequalled and may hold an unexpected quantity of weight - and individuals.Simply because Mayan cotton sleeping sacks don't have any spreader bar, they're very lightweight little so that they are simple to transport, store, and carry. They're most widely used among hikers and vacationers, in addition to day trippers and campers. Mayan sleeping sacks are specifically convenient being an extra mattress or great furniture indoors or out.
They may be easily attached and removed from hooks safely moored in wall studs or ceiling beams when unpredicted visitors arrive.The primary anxiety about cotton sleeping sacks is that they'll absorb moisture, but dry rapidly so they aren't as susceptible to decaying because the other sleeping sacks. It's important, however, to not store your Mayan hammock even when it's slightly moist.Mayan Sleeping sacks will also be recognized for their beautiful, vibrant colors. It's the vivacious color signature of Mayan sleeping sacks which make them unique and appealing. Over time, with sun damage, they fade much like your favorite jeans but still retain their charm. They are offered in most colors, from solid to dual colors to multicolor, enhancing your tastes and elegance. | http://www.hammockjungle.com/mayanhammocks/index.php | dclm-gs1-451005528 | false | false | {
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0.658951 | <urn:uuid:19461808-5b2a-4cc0-b661-fc331c0b6ca4> | en | 0.884761 | Monday, January 21, 2013
Introduction to Haskell IO
I fell in love with Haskell neither because of types nor functional programming. Rather, I admired Haskell's beautiful approach to I/O and I hope that after reading this you will, too. I'm writing this IO tutorial to underscore Haskell's simplicity and consistency.
If you want to follow along, download the Haskell Platform, which provides a Haskell compiler (ghc) and Haskell interpreter (ghci).
Hello, world!
Let's begin from the simplest possible Haskell program:
main = putStrLn "Hello, world"
If you save the above program to example.hs, you can compile and run it using:
$ ghc -O2 example.hs # '-O2' is a good habit to learn
[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( example.hs, example.o )
Linking example ...
$ ./example
Hello, world!
Types - Part 1
All Haskell values have types, but we usually don't need to supply any type signatures because the compiler can mechanically deduce the types for us.
This means we can ask the ghci Haskell interpreter to infer the types of arbitrary Haskell expressions. Let's fire up ghci so we can ask for the types of the values we used:
$ ghci
GHCi, version 7.4.1: :? for help
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Let's start off with something simple. What is the type of "Hello, world!"?
Prelude> :type "Hello, world!"
"Hello, world!" :: [Char]
ghci says that "Hello, world!"'s type is [Char], which means "a list of characters". Char is the type of a single character and the brackets around Char mean "list of".
Wait, shouldn't it be a String? Actually, String is just a type synonym for [Char], and we can verify that using ghci's :info command:
Prelude> :info String
type String = [Char] -- Defined in `GHC.Base'
That means that we can use String or [Char] interchangeably in types. They are equal.
Now let's study the type of putStrLn:
Prelude> :t putStrLn -- You can use ":t" instead of ":type"
putStrLn :: String -> IO ()
putStrLn is a function that takes a single argument of type String and produces a value of type IO (). The IO () signifies an executable action that returns a value of type (). In this case, the action just print the given String, and putStrLn is just a mnemonic for "put String with newLine.
All IO actions must return a value, so Haskell programmers return () when they have nothing useful to return. This exactly mirrors how imperative programmers mark a function void when they don't return anything useful. For example, if we were to translate putStrLn's type to other languages, it would look like:
// C
void putStrLn(char *str)
// Java
public static void putStrLn(String str)
We can ask ghci about the types of expressions, too:
Prelude> :t putStrLn "Hello, world!"
putStrLn "Hello, world!" :: IO ()
This tells us what we already knew: when we supply putStrLn with a String argument we get an executable IO action which will print the supplied String. All of this so far is very straight-forward and we haven't deviated yet from traditional programming languages.
Now let's compare our original program side-by-side with equivalent main functions in imperative languages:
-- Haskell
main = putStrLn "Hello, world!"
// C (non-standards-conformant, to simplify the comparison)
void main() {
printf("Hello, world!");
// Java
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
One difference should stand out: the Haskell version does not use traditional block syntax for defining the main function. Instead it uses the equals sign, which may seems quite curious to imperative eyes.
It turns out that Haskell takes equality very seriously. When you write:
x = 5
... you simply declare x to be synonymous with 5. You cannot change the value of x any more than you can change the value of the number 5. x and 5 become completely interchangeable since they both refer to the same thing. They are equal.
So when we write:
main = putStrLn "Hello, world!"
... all that says is that main is nothing more than a synonym for putStrLn "Hello, world!". Therefore, they must have the same type and we can prove this by loading our program into ghci:
$ ghci example.hs
GHCi, version 7.4.1: :? for help
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Ok, modules loaded: Main.
Prelude Main> :t putStrLn "Hello, world!"
putStrLn "Hello, world!" :: IO ()
Prelude Main> :t main
main :: IO ()
Types - Part 2
Haskell has one and only one rule for what constitutes a valid main:
• main must have type IO a (where a may be any return value)
That's it!
Anything of type IO a is executable, and that rule ensures that main is executable. If I define main to be something non-executable, I get a type error:
main = 'A'
$ ghc -O2 example.hs
[1 of 1] Compiling Main ( example.hs, example.o )
Couldn't match expected type `IO t0' with actual type `Char'
In the expression: main
When checking the type of the function `main'
The compiler tells us that a Char is not executable, which makes sense! Notice that we rejected the above main not on the basis of syntax or grammar, but solely on the basis of its type. The type alone communicates whether or not something is executable. If something has type is IO a, then it is executable. If something does not have type IO a, then it is not executable.
Wait... How does main do more than one thing, then? putStrLn "Hello, world" has type IO (), so does that mean that it uses up all of main's "executable juice"? Not at all!
do notation
Haskell lets you combine multiple IO actions into a single IO action using do notation. I'll introduce the following two functions to demonstrate this:
getLine :: IO String -- I read one line from stdin
putStrLn :: String -> IO () -- We've met
We can feed the String return value of getLine into putStrLn using do notation:
main = do str <- getLine
putStrLn str
Haskell also supports semicolons and braces for those who don't like significant whitespace:
main = do {
str <- getLine;
putStrLn str;
do notation combines these two IO actions into a single IO action. This combined action prompts the user for one line of input and then echoes it back. Let's try it!
$ ./example
We can also sequence two IO actions like this:
main = do putStrLn "Hello,"
putStrLn "world!"
We can combine as many actions as we please:
main = do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
str <- getLine
putStrLn str
$ ./example
Enter a string:
Our do block only lets us combine IO commands, though. If we attempt to insert a non-IO statement, we get a type error:
main = do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
str <- getLine
Couldn't match expected type `IO b0' with actual type `[Char]'
In a stmt of a 'do' block: "Hello"
In the expression:
do { putStrLn "Enter a string:";
str <- getLine;
"Hello" }
In an equation for `main':
= do { putStrLn "Enter a string:";
str <- getLine;
"Hello" }
The first line says it all. The do block expected another executable command on the last line, but we gave it a String, which isn't executable. That's a pretty reasonable type error if you ask me.
Types - Part 3
Haskell has one and only one rule for deciding if a do block is valid:
-- Given:
m :: IO a
f :: a -> IO b
-- Then the following 'do' block is valid
block :: IO b -- This must match the return value of 'f'
block = do a <- m
f a
do blocks are first class expressions in Haskell. Like all expressions, we can ask for ghci for their type:
Prelude> :t do { str <- getLine; putStrLn str; }
do { str <- getLine; putStrLn str; } :: IO ()
putStrLn str was the last action and it's type is IO (), so according to the rule the whole block has the same type: IO ().
Now, why on earth should a do block have a return value at all? That would only make sense if we could use a do block within another do block. Does that work?
main = do str <- do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
putStrLn str
$ ./example
Enter a string:
do blocks use the same return value as their last command because they actually return the last command's value if you bind them within a larger do block. In the above example, the inner do block forwards the String returned by getLine to the outer do block, and that String is bound to the str variable.
This approach maintains consistency in the face of refactorings. Let's define a synonym for the inner do block so we can refer to it by name:
main = do str <- prompt
putStrLn str
prompt :: IO String
prompt = do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
prompt's type signature is entirely for our own benefit. Remember that the compiler can deduce the type mechanically. Haskell programmers still like to include these type signatures to organize their thoughts or to clearly communicate their code's intention to other programmers. prompt's type signature tells other programmers "This is an executable action that retrieves a String".
Notice how we don't use the equals sign when we store the result of IO actions. Instead we use the <- symbol:
main = do str <- prompt
That's because str is not truly equal to prompt. In fact, they don't even have the same type. str has type String and prompt has type IO String. When we mark something as IO a, we communicate that its result may change each time we bind its result within a do block.
That is obvious in the case of prompt since the user may enter a different string each time:
main = do str1 <- prompt
putStrLn str1
str2 <- prompt
putStrLn str2
prompt :: IO String
prompt = do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
Enter a string:
String 1
String 1
Enter a string:
String 2
String 2
However, notice that we still use the equal sign when defining prompt:
prompt :: IO String
prompt = do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
prompt is truly equal to that executable action, which seems strange. How does that reconcile with what I just said?
It turns out that Haskell distinguishes between an executable program and the program's return value, a distinction that almost no other language makes. A value of type IO a is an executable program that retrieves an a, possibly with side effects, but the program itself is not the same as its return value. So if getLine has type IO String, that means that getLine is an executable program that knows how to retrieve a String. It does not mean that getLine is a String
When I say prompt equals the given do block, I mean that they are equal in the sense that they are the same program. Since they are equal I can freely substitute one for the other. For example, I can go back and substitute the do block in place of prompt and trust that this substitution does not change anything:
main = do str1 <- do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
putStrLn str1
str2 <- do putStrLn "Enter a string:"
putStrLn str2
This means that do notation does not actually do any computation. All it does is combine program descriptions into larger program descriptions. The compiler then translates the main program description into an executable.
This might seem like a trivial distinction at first until you realize that this allows you to separate your program into two parts:
• The part you reason about at compile-time (i.e. non-IO code)
• The part you reason about at run-time (i.e. IO code)
The more you factor your program into non-IO code, the more of your program that you can prove is correct at compile time, which means that no run-time circumstances will ever break it.
With traditional programming languages, all code only exists at run-time (i.e. it is all IO code by default), so you can never be entirely sure that it is truly correct. No matter how many tests you write, all you can prove to yourself is that a certain run-time snapshot of your program happens to be in a correct state.
Haskell guarantees the following property of all IO programs:
-- Given:
m :: IO a
f :: a -> IO b
g :: b -> IO c
do b <- do a <- m
f a
g b
= do a <- m
b <- f a
g b
= do a <- m
do b <- f a
g b
In other words, the program's behavior does not change no matter how you group IO actions. They will still always execute in the same order and preserve the same flow of information.
This guarantees that we can always safely refactor arbitrary code blocks without worrying that we will get weird behavior as a result of creating or removing blocks. Using the above example, I could choose to factor out the first two actions:
block12 = do a <- m
f a
block123 = do b <- block12
g b
... or I can factor out the last two actions:
block23 a = do b <- f a
g b
block123 = do a <- m
block23 a
I can similarly trust that "unfactoring" things is safe and won't cause weird behavior. In other words, I can inline the two refactored blocks safely and trust that it produces the same program:
block123 = do a <- m
b <- f a
g b
Notice that all these programs are all truly equal, which is why we use the equal sign when we say they are the same. This is an example of how we reason about correctness at compile time. We can't reason about the specific values of a, b, and c because they do not exist until run-time, but the program descriptions themselves exist at compile time, so we can statically reason about their correctness and prove that certain transformations are correct.
What if we want to create a "trivial" program that just returns a value without any side effects? That's what the return function does:
return :: a -> IO a
return takes a value and then defines a trivial program that has no side effects and just returns the given value.
Note that it does not behave like the traditional return command in imperative languages. It does not escape from the surrounding block because Haskell do notation has no concept of a "surrounding block". If it did, all the transformations I gave in the last section would not be correct. More generally, return does not affect control flow in any way. All it does is create an "empty" program that yields a value. That's it.
We call it return because we commonly use it as the last statement in a do block to combine the results of several previous IO actions:
twoStrings :: IO (String, String)
twoStrings = do str1 <- getLine
str2 <- getLine
return (str1, str2)
Other than that, it bears no resemblance to traditional returns.
What equalities might we expect return to satisfy? Well, we expect that:
do x <- m
return x
= do m
In other words, there is no need to "re-return" the last action's value, because do notation already does that.
We also expect that:
do y <- return x
f y
= do f x
This just formalizes what I already said: return is an empty program that just binds the same value that you gave it.
Now let's define two programs that retrieve input from the outside world:
getLine :: IO String -- Provided by the Prelude
getInt :: IO Int
getInt = do str <- getLine
return (read str)
... and then a function designed to use both of those values:
f :: String -> Int -> IO ()
f str n = do
if (n > 0)
then putStrLn "n is positive"
else putStrLn "n is not positive"
putStrLn str
New Haskell programmers will commonly make the following mistake:
main = f getLine getInt
... which the compiler will promptly correct:
Couldn't match expected type `String' with actual type `IO String'
In the first argument of `f', namely `getLine'
In the expression: f getLine getInt
In an equation for `main': main = f getLine getInt
Imperative programmers make this mistake because imperative languages let them write:
f(getLine(), getInt())
... and the imperative compiler doesn't mind that you passed an impure function as an argument because imperative languages don't distinguish between the side effects and their result.
The imperative approach may seem acceptable until you ask yourself the question: "Which function will prompt the user first: getLine() or getInt()? Typically an imperative language will evaluate the arguments in order, first evaluating getLine followed by getInt. However, this evaluation order is entirely arbitrary and requires extending the language definition.
In fact, most imperative programmers would probably consider the above imperative example "bad form". We'd rather make the ordering more explicit by writing:
str = getLine(); // First prompt the user for a string
n = getInt(); // Now prompt the user for an int
f(str, n); // Now use both values
Haskell differs from imperative languages by forcing you to explicitly specify the order of all computations with side effects, so that there is never any ambiguity. Haskell forces us to write:
main = do str <- getLine
n <- getInt
f str n
In other words, Haskell requires imperative best practices by forcing the programmer to order all side effects and not rely on any implicit ordering by the language. This improves the readability of Haskell code because you can always reason about the order of side effects: a do block guarantees that side effects always order from top to bottom.
Haskell prides itself on being an orthogonal language. Almost all concepts are just syntactic sugar on just a few core concepts. This section just describes a few last syntactic niceties that Haskell provides that build entirely on top of the previous concepts.
First off, when we sequence two commands:
do command1
... that is just equivalent to discarding the result of the first action:
do _ <- command1
Also, a do block with one command is just equal to that command:
main = do putStrLn "Hello, world!"
-- is equivalent to:
main = putStrLn "Hello, world!"
Finally, you can define pure computations within a do block using let:
do let x = y
f x
= do f y
For example:
main = do
str <- getLine
let response = "You entered: " ++ str
putStrLn response
{- equivalent to:
main = do
str <- getLine
putStrLn ("You entered: " ++ str)
$ ./example
You entered: Orange
Actually, all of that is just the tip of the iceberg because do notation is also just syntactic sugar! If you want to learn more about that, then I recommend you read You Could Have Invented Monads, which explains how do notation itself is built on top of an even more primitive core concept. The more you learn Haskell, the more you realize how it is just a bunch of syntactic sugar on a very small core of orthogonal concepts.
Monday, January 14, 2013
• You can now lazily manage resources and conserve handles
• pipes-safe interoperates cleanly with existing unmanaged pipes code.
Lazy Initializatiom
Prompt Finalization
= p1 >-> p3
= p1 >-> (p2 >-> p3)
= (p1 >-> p2) >-> p3
= p12 >-> p3
Native exception handling
Backwards Compatibility
• The Kleisli category
• The pull-based proxy composition category
• The push-based proxy composition category
• The "request" category
• The "respond" category
Simple Implementation
With pipes-safe complete, my next major targets are:
• Native parsing for proxies with optional backtracking
• Bytestring support
| http://www.haskellforall.com/2013_01_01_archive.html | dclm-gs1-451075528 | false | false | {
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0.038635 | <urn:uuid:47ff9420-ae5f-4ef1-9526-da5801f3e436> | en | 0.923884 | Get Rid of Hemorrhoids Fast and Easy.
Is it hemroids? Herpes Skin.Tags Warts Abscess Fissure Rectal.Prolapse
Get rid of hemroids quickly, easily and cheaply.
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Internal Hemroids, Internal Hemroids Treatment + Home Remedies / Treatment for any Internal Hemroid
This is an indepth overview of internal hemroids, as well as to how to manage and treat internal hemroids at home, most likely resulting in a cure of your internal hemroids. There are also other pages on internal hemroids that you will be able to access via other links (underlined and in blue).
What are Internal Hemroids ( Hemorrhoids )?
The Definition of internal hemroids, the causes of internal hemroids, and the how and why of internal hemroids development and growth.
Internal hemroids, are a form of hemroids, and internal hemroids are the most frequent version of this very common health problem.
In this video you can see what internal hemorrhoids look like inside you! If you go to the hemorrhoid banding page, you can see internal hemorrhoids there as well in a video.
Definition of internal hemroids: Hemroids are defined as anal veins that enlarge from constant internal abdominal pressure. Internal hemroids is when this ballooning occurs internally in your back passage. If you get one such ballooning, you have an internal hemroid, if you have several balloonings, you have internal hemroids. Internal hemroids only grow / develop in the last two inches of your rectum (aka bottom hole, aka anal opening)
Internal hemroid
In this photo / picture, you can see an internal hemroid in the centre. We know it is an internal hemroid, because it is coming through the anal opening.
The bulges to the upper and lower right are external hemroids, and you can see that external hemroids balloon on the skin of the anal opening, or sometimes very close to the opening.
This is a very unique picture of an internal hemroid, as normally they are much thicker, but this one is being treated by Venapro, an internal hemroids treatment in a pill.
If you have both internal and external bleeding hemroids, then this page would be a good read as well. Also, we have another on bleeding hemroids treatment.
Causes of internal hemroids: Internal hemroids develop from adominal pressure created by various conditions, the most common conditions causing internal hemroids are constipation, an excess of heavy lifting, or pregnancy.
Other conditions that can contribute to or cause internal hemroids are diarrhea, constant coughing or sneezing, vomiting, prolonged sitting, a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, a low-fiber diet, cirrhosis of the liver, anal or rectal infection, or Crohn's disease.
After a pill, cream or lotion to relieve, heal and cure hemroids fast, including internal hemroids? Our hemroid medicine treatment page lists a number of the better ones.
PILLS: Venapro see the photos, read testimonials and look at what we have to say about it as a treatment for both internal and external hemorrhoids
How does pressure cause internal hemroids to develop and why?
The vast majority of hemroids start in the mucus lining of the anal canal, which is the very definition of internal hemroid.
The reason why internal hemroids start here, is because the mucus tissue lining the anal canal is much thinner and more delicate than exterior skin, and so is far more likely to have veins bulge out from it. In other words, the skin doesn't help as much in keeping the vein walls in place.
In addition, the interior of the anal canal is put under much more constant pressure than the exterior of the anus, so conditions are all too frequently perfect for internal hemroids to arise.
Internal Hemroid Symptoms
Internal hemroids frequently have no symptoms what-so-ever.
The second most common symptom of internal hemroids is a feeling of fullness or pressure in the anal canal itself.
Internal hemroids are rarely painful because there are not many sensitive nerves inside the anal canal itself, so pain is not a common symptom of internal hemroids.
Difficulty completing bowel movements, rectal itching, or a soft lump or swelling felt at the anal opening are other potential symptoms of internal hemroids.
Bleeding is another internal hemroids symptom and at the first sign of bleeding you should immediately see a doctor to pinpoint the exact cause, as other, more serious conditions also bleed as a symptom.
Bleeding Internal Hemroids
Usually the first symptom that people are aware that they might have internal hemroids is when an internal hemroid gets damaged and bleeds. internal hemroid bleeding is bright red and can show up on toilet paper, on stools, in a toilet bowl, or in particularly profuse bleeding, as a bright red spot on underwear.
Home Remedies for Bleeding Internal Hemroids
However, once a doctor has determined that internal hemroids are the cause of your bleeding, there are several home remedies that you can use to try and treat internal bleeding hemroids before it progresses to the point of needing one of the available internal hemroid surgeries to treat you successfully.
If the internal hemroids are bleeding, there are several home remedies that are available to help with the problem. The first is warm sitz baths taken two to three times per day for 20 minutes at a time. When taking sitz baths for internal hemroids, do not add anything to the water whatsoever, and make it as hot as you can comfortably stand. This can start helping with inflammation that can worsen bleeding and can allow the hemroids the time they need to rest and start to heal.
Furthermore, never strain on the toilet, and do not sit for too long. Sitting and straining to produce a bowel movement only puts more strain on the internal hemroids and causes the internal hemroids to bleed more freely. Getting a small footstool to place your feet on while sitting on the toilet helps to reduce the strain caused by sitting, as does getting a small, hemroids doughnut shaped pillow to sit on while in other areas of the house.
Taking ibuprofen by mouth reduces inflammation and bleeding caused by internal hemroids, but there are no other non-prescription over the counter medications used for internal hemroids, but some internal hemroids treatments are sold online.
If you haven't already, make sure to avoid heavy lifting for at least a week to allow internal hemroid bleeding to really get a chance to heal well.
Internal Hemroids Treatment and Cure
Treating any kind of internal hemroid on a long-term basis - a get rid of them basis - starts with diet and lifestyle change.
Most internal hemroids are caused either primarily or secondarily by a sedentary lifestyle and a low-fiber diet.
Internal Hemroids Treatment and Cure Requires Attention to Diet
Therefore, to successfully and permanently treat internal hemroids, you must start getting at least twenty to thirty grams of fiber in your hemroids high fiber diet per day, and your doctor or pharmacist may recommend even more while internal hemroids are a current problem.
Fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans are the best way to start adding the normal amount of fiber into your diet. Introduce new foods slowly, adding one every few days, to avoid the bloating, nausea, and other gastrointestinal problems that come to everyone with diet changes.
You know how you're not supposed to abruptly change a pet's food from one brand to another? The same thing applies to you and your food, so please don't try to give yourself shock therapy. You'll only wind up having a bad gut reaction (pun most definitely intended) to the very foods you need to add for a healthy, happy, and hemroid free lifestyle.
If you need a lot more fiber than it is possible to eat naturally on a temporary basis, there are several over the counter fiber supplements that are available on the market today.
Most are made with either powdered psyllium husks or powdered flax seeds, come in a variety of forms so you can pick the one that is best for you and are quite suitable to use when internal hemroids are present.
You can get these supplements in powder form, where you add a teaspoonful to a glass of water and drink it down with a glass of clear water after it, or you can opt for a wafer or a tablet format. Again, don't hesitate to ask your local pharmacist about your internal hemroids and what is the best product available to you locally. Pharmacist consultation at any local drugstore is a free service, and too much medical advice today is far from free, so take advantage of it when and where you can.
You also need to get at least eight full glasses of water each and every day for the successful treatment of internal hemroids. The biggest culprit behind internal hemroids is constipation, and whether or not there are other contributing conditions, you may as well not add this miserable and preventable condition to the list.
Drinking enough water in addition to getting enough fiber will prevent constipation, make bowel movements more regular, and eliminate most if not all of the straining and pain you might be associating with elimination at this time - such a diet should help to heal and cure your internal hemroids.
Internal Hemroids Treatment and Cure Requires Exercise for many internal hemroids sufferer
Excessive sitting is never good for internal hemroids, whether that was the original cause of the problem or not. Do make a point of getting up and taking a brisk walk around whenever possible if you sit for long periods of time.
Our species did not evolve to sit behind desks, we evolved to roam large areas of land. Blood makes its way back to the heart against gravity by a complicated system of valves and pressure points that rely on walking and body movement for the energy to push our blood all the way back up.
Insufficient activity not only allows blood to pool in the veins of the anal canal to create internal hemroids, it also allows blood to sit in veins without moving much, possibly leading to blood clots and thrombosis inside of internal hemroids and elsewhere in the body.
This problem can range from making an internal hemroid a miserable knot of pain to possibly introducing a life threatening blood clot into your circulatory system, so do make the time to walk for at least twenty minutes at a time, three times per week, and to get up and walk around a bit after every two hours of sitting, whether it's behind a desk or on a road trip.
Internal Hemroids Treatment and Cure Involves Appropriate Colthing
Also, change to cotton underwear and loose clothing while internal hemroids are an ongoing problem.
While you may love your tailored wardrobe and form fitting underwear, while you are dealing with internal hemroids they do not love you. Tight or constricting clothing and underwear can make your internal hemroids steadily worse through irritation, so don't wear them.
Internal Hemroids Treatment and Cure using Herbs
There are a variety of herbs and supplements out there that are thought to treat internal hemroids. Bioflavonoids, found in high concentration in citrus fruits, blackberries, cherries, and green tea are thought to be beneficial for internal hemroids, as is chamomile tea, a mild herbal tisane available at most grocery stores. Both of these remedies are safe enough to self-administer.
Other internally taken herbs for internal hemroids include butcher's broom, horse chestnut, and calendula, but these should be taken under the care and supervision of a trained herbalist as they are quite real medications that can interact badly with several prescriptions or other medical conditions.
When to see a hemroids doctor for your internal hemroids
If none of the above treatments works, or if at any point your internal hemroids get worse, you need to see a doctor to discuss other forms of medical treatment.
While internal hemroids are a common and usually easily cured medical problem, if left untreated they can worsen to the point of gangrene or systemic infection, both of which are potentially fatal. So, if the above methods don't start to solve the problem within two weeks, or if an internal hemroid prolapses, which means it starts to protrude from your anal canal out into the open air, you need to start by seeing your general physician who can make recommendations for treatment from there.
In addition, feel free to see your general physician before then if the symptoms of milder internal hemroids are just making your life too miserable to function. However, should your internal hemroids require a surgical procedure, you and your doctor should team up to find the best and safest treatment method for you.
You will probably see a proctologist and/or a colorectal surgeon - the main hemroids doctors - before all is said and done, but your general practitioner should be the doctor you have known and communicated with for years, so use him or her to make sure all parties are communicating well about you and your specific health condition (internal hemroids).
Internal hemroids surgery
When you and your doctor have determined that a surgical procedure is going to be necessary for your internal hemroids, you have several options.
Those methods include rubber band ligation, which involves placing a strong latex band around an internal hemroid to cut off the blood flow, injection sclerotherapy which uses a chemical injection for the same purpose, infrared coagulation (IRC), a procedure that uses infrared light directed at the internal hemroid to clot and seal the hemorrhoidal veins, laser coagulation, which instead uses a mild electric current to trigger a body reaction that closes down the hemorrhoidal vein and causes it to shrink, and last but not least, a full hemorrhoidectomy, which involves a surgeon, a scalpel or a laser, and actually cutting the internal hemroids out.
Which one of these methods is the best for you and your internal hemroids is unique to each and every individual, but no matter what method you choose, you should give yourself at least a week off from anything resembling heavy physical activity.
Taking ibuprofen for a few days before and after the internal hemroids surgery can help with inflammation, pain, and bleeding.
Do talk to your family to make sure that everyone is clear on what you will and will not be able to do after the internal hemroids surgery is done, and do keep up the lifestyle changes you have made, as those changes will not only ensure that internal hemroids do not come back, but will also stave off a host of other, more serious problems, such as cholesterol and high blood pressure, that regularly haunt those with sedentary lifestyles and poor diets.
Here's to your long, hemroid free future!
couple amazed - so be prepared to be amazred as well
5 of our best pages on hemorrhoid treatment
Curious and smiling man
Can you really fix hemorrhoids that easily? Yes.
It's Www.HemorrhoidsHemroids.Com for all information on Hemroids aka Hemorrhoids aka Piles! | http://www.hemorrhoidshemroids.com/internal-hemroids-hemorrhoids.html | dclm-gs1-451135528 | false | false | {
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0.225577 | <urn:uuid:01ffb2f2-35d9-4a67-8586-511855d55001> | en | 0.971855 | 9 Out Of 9 Supreme Court Justices Agree: Obama’s Actions Are Unconstitutional
Obama and Roberts
In a rare unanimous decision, all nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the outcome in NLRB v. Canning. The Supreme Court found that President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) were unconstitutional. However, the judicial reasoning of the court’s majority (Breyer, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan) and that of the four concurring justices (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito) were significantly different.
The facts of the case involved a soft drink distributor, Noel Canning Company, which had been found by the NLRB to have committed certain unfair labor practices. The finding of unfair practices, however, was rendered by an NLRB that contained three appointees who had been placed on the labor board by President Obama using what he claimed was his recess appointment power. His claim of this power has now been found to have no lawful basis; the appointments have been nullified.
Besides agreeing that Obama’s appointments were unconstitutional, where do the majority and concurring members agree? The justices agree that the normal method of appointment requires Senate approval of the president’s nominations. Principal offices in the government should not be filled by executive action alone, but instead with the concurrence of the Senate. Moreover, all nine justices agree that the Constitution does provide for the president to “fill up all Vacancies that may have happened during the Recess of the Senate…” [Article II, Sec. 2, clause 3]—the recess appointment power.
From that point on, the members of the high court are not in agreement. The first judicial fissure concerns what exactly constitutes a “recess.” There is no doubt that the term includes the traditionally designated breaks between one called session of Congress and the next called session. Each Congress spans two calendar years. For example, we are more than half way through the 113th Congress. The first session began in January 2013, and the second began in January 2014. The period of unavailability—the break between called sessions—is a recess. The concurring justices say that this is the only kind of recess intended by the Founders to trigger the president’s recess power. The meaning of the term “recess” in the Constitution is clear, they say.
The majority justices, by contrast, say that the term “recess” is broader. Periods in which business is not being conducted, even if occurring within a called session, should also be regarded as a recess. These five justices cite historical occasions when past presidents made appointments during such breaks without those appointments being challenged. The concurring members counter that past historical appointments were unauthorized by the text of the Constitution and therefore should not serve as a basis for a judicial amendment of the unambiguous language.
Furthermore, the concurring members of the court say that a proper reading of the recess appointment clause requires that the vacancy itself must have arisen during a traditional recess. The majority disagrees, saying that a vacancy which occurs before a recess but continues into a period of recess can be filled by the president.
Pages: 1 2
1. Edwardkoziol says:
He'll be having a beer summit with the 2 porch monkies and the dried up prune that Lincoln appointed and scold them like he did Roberts.He'll leave Kennedy alone because he still likes to get in his pants even if it's against the koran
Speak Your Mind | http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/obama-appointments-nixed/ | dclm-gs1-451375528 | false | false | {
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0.061124 | <urn:uuid:9ba44e47-8cdd-4609-a5c2-26d22cf2c635> | en | 0.939446 | Jessica’s Dinner Party began the summer following college graduation. It was the answer to a simple mathematical equation of loved hobby + DSLR graduation gift + lots of time “job searching.” What was meant to be a little side project in the kitchen grew into a bigger dream of wanting to know more about the world of gastronomy. Within a few months I made a semi-spontaneous decision and enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu’s culinary program and moved to Paris. One Grand Diplôme, two stages, and a few country hops later I’m back in Korea working as a food coordinator. On this site I share about my experiences in the culinary industry and all the new adventures I encounter on the way. Lots of tears and laughter involved.
Theme by Blogmilk Coded by Brandi Bernoskie | http://www.jessicasdinnerparty.com/about/ | dclm-gs1-451555528 | false | false | {
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0.022879 | <urn:uuid:4d8897f5-afc9-45db-b84c-e2058f70dd14> | en | 0.947543 | For further information on Christian tourism and Holy Land Tours to Israel contact Traveluja.
Bethlehem is more than just the birthplace of Jesus Christ and a destination for Christian pilgrims. The city is a living, breathing piece of history both ancient and modern. Biblical architecture that spans eras is placed side by side with modern constructions resulting from decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Bethlehem's small size make it easy to walk around and, contrary to salacious headlines, the city is relatively peaceful and an important destination not to be missed.
A quick Google search explains getting into Bethlehem is immensely easier than trying to compromise on a two-state solution. The Jerusalem light-rail runs along Jaffa road for NIS 6.60 to the Damascus gate stop. When you exit the train the Arab bus station is behind you. The number 21 bus runs every 15 minutes and is NIS 7.60. The bus ride takes around 30-40 minutes and makes around 3 stops before it alights at the Bab al-Zqaq stop along the Jerusalem-Hebron Road in Bethlehem. From here, most main centers are walking distance but taxis are lined up with negotiable prices.
To leave Bethlehem to return to Jerusalem, take the same number 21 bus, on the same side of the street where you originally got off. If you're nervous about the direction of the route, just double check with the driver that he is heading back to Jerusalem, he'll say yes. The only difference on the ride back to Jerusalem is a stop at an IDF checkpoint. Sometimes the bus overcrowds with passengers standing and when the bus stops at the checkpoint, these passengers must get off and stand outside so a soldier can come on and check ID's. Make sure to have your passport, the process is quick and painless and there is no reason to feel scared.
BETHLEHEM ACCOMMODATIONS is a great way to meet expats or locals living in Bethlehem. Registration on the site is free and you can peruse profiles and send messages to potential hosts. People offer up couch space or spare rooms for free to backpackers or anyone traveling through. The community in Bethlehem is small and most of the couch surfers know each other. It's not uncommon to meet someone you had previously emailed with while staying at the house of another host.
On the other side of the price spectrum, the five star Jacir Palace, part of the Intercontinental Hotel chain, is only a five-minute walk from the Bab al-Zqaq bus stop and it is the lap of luxury. Rooms start from around $140. Even if you're not staying there it is worth a moment to explore the building. The palace dates back to 1910 and the Palestinian Jacir family. In renovations and decoration, great care was taken in the furnishings and interior décor to reflect this time period. The impressive façade rises above the Jerusalem-Hebron road and one could easily mistake it for a museum if not for the "Intercontinental" signage on the front.
Manger Square is the reason to visit Bethlehem with the Church of the Nativity its center point. Church fatigue, exhaustion resulting from numerous trips inside holy houses of Christianity, is a common affliction. But it's worth rising above to explore this historical site. The basilica was commissioned under the rule of Constantine in 327 AD and was built on the site believed to be where Mary gave birth to Jesus. The crypt is accessible through the church and during the Christmas season, pilgrims gather en-masse for the chance to experience such divinity. It is deceptively massive, a combination of the original Basilica and the more modern era Roman-Catholic Church of St. Catherine. The holy site impresses upon the visitor a curious mix of modesty, in comparison to European Cathedrals, but an intangible sense of greatness in the scope of its sheer history.
Another not-miss sight is the Milk Grotto church. The entrance descends into a renovated hollowed out cave dating back to the Crusades. The story goes that the Virgin Mary hid in this cave to flee the massacre of the male children of Bethlehem ordered by King Herod. While nursing her newborn child, a drop of her milk fell on the rock she was sitting on and became a source of many miracles. The unique space is impressive enough just by virtue of its architecture and design. Marble pillars rise up into the natural arc of the cave. Tourists kneel in front of altars dedicated to the Virgin mother and kiss her portrait.
Walking through an alley out of Manger Square, many steps lead up and into the Old City of Bethlehem. Here, a new-age market has evolved in an ancient surrounding. The souvenir shops, fashion stores and housewares are for sale. An unspoken evolution of the needs of Bethlehem's community is reflected in the goods but bakeries, fresh falafel and the fruit and vegetable market are as necessary today as they were in Biblical times.
The separation barrier, the contested concrete wall dividing Israel and the West Bank, is a short walk from the Jacir Palace and is as much a border marker as a canvas for political art. One of the walls most famous visiting artists was anonymous British guerilla stencil-artist, Banksy. Visiting the West Bank in 2005, Banksy created nine murals based on some of his most popular and notable sketches. Arrows and advertising on the wall point to the "Banksy giftshop" where prints can be purchased and a registered tour guide also offers up his service to point out some of the famed murals. On the Bethlehem side of the wall it is hard to tell if any original Banksy's remain but other contributions make the wall an impressive and moving site. Additionally, an initiative to publish first hand stories by Palestinian women hang on the northern side of the wall. According to one of the posters, the stories were chosen to reflect suffering, oppression, inner strength and steadfastness. An anecdote posted by Banksy on his website said that a Palestinian man approached him and told him his art made the wall look beautiful. When Banksy thanked the man he replied, "We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home."
Cafes and restaurants are plentiful along main boulevards in Bethlehem but street food and small snacks allow for eating and sight seeing in a short time span. For coffee on the go, the Stars and Bucks café looks eerily similar to another popular North American coffee chain. Ice cream is in the display case and all major styles of caffeinated drinks are made and travel ready. Even a simple cup of black coffee is dressed up with whole coffee beans dropped in. It's worth it to patronize this coffee spot if only to acknowledge Palestinian entrepreneurship. The familiar green and white logo is hard to miss on the road up to Manger Square.
While site seeing in the bazaar of the old city, meals can be grabbed on the go from fruit and vegetables stand, fresh pita and falafel or even a personal pizza. Across from the Syrian Orthodox Church in the Old City a stand alone oven bakes fresh pizza for NIS 10. Without any instruction the pizza comes with a heap of green and black olives or can be made margarita style if specified. Tea is hocked through the streets and its fun to sit and enjoy while people watching.
If you're more in the mood for something sweet, the small café of Oriental & Sweets DA'NA serves up quality pastries, coffee and tea in unpretentious settings. The café capitalizes on its prime location just steps away from Manger Square but it's a popular spot for locals and tourists alike. Trays line the counter with any and all sugar soaked philo dough pastries. The most important pastry to order is Kanafeh. The traditional Palestinian cheese pastry originated in the city of Nablus and is traditional Middle Eastern white brine cheese sandwiched between layers of philo dough and soaked in sugary syrup. A traditional cup of Arabic coffee with cardamom completes the Levant dish.
Whether a short, tourist stay or religious pilgrimage, Bethlehem is an important city both historically and in present day. It is a worthwhile visit at any time of year.
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0.162244 | <urn:uuid:29d526c0-82bc-4fcc-9e04-742cccff53ec> | en | 0.686357 | #1 9-12-98 (2:04)
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• skeletonghost
Or while jerking off and shitting whilst riding a pony across a mountain of naked sluts.
18 Jun 2011 Responder
• mattgee725
the only real way to listen to this song is drunk, wearing headphones, volumes cranked up way above healthy levels, hands moving in a constant, frantic fashion that's one part air guitar, one part masturbatory homage to the evening you saw them play at whartscape, when they opened with this song, when you heard those first ringing, screaming, crying notes of polarizing noise moving through the air, and you yelled out as loudly as you could with a pure, unadulterated acknowledgment of the fruitless noise they were about to make, the sonic abomination you love and desire with every fiber in your body, and when those drums kick in and the second guitar chimes in on beat and the vocals taunt you with a sound that's half-menace, half-three-stooges-hysterics, you stare up at the entire scene and take it it, mouth wide-open, eyes unblinking, your body pushed effortlessly from body to sweaty body, eyes taking in every last movement before you. that's how you listen to this song.
19 Sep 2010 Responder
Oyentes más habituales | http://www.lastfm.es/music/Arab+on+Radar/_/%231+9-12-98 | dclm-gs1-451715528 | false | false | {
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0.048731 | <urn:uuid:f883040e-3de4-4c09-8c64-76c12fc2df3b> | en | 0.923776 |
Why Are Those Butterflies Behaving So Strangely?
If you visit the monarch colonies on a cool day, the forest floor will often be covered with butterflies. Right away, you’ll notice them moving in an unusual way, as this video clip shows:
Video clip
Observations Lead to Questions
Cultivating Keen Observers
Scientific investigations typically begin with observations of something intriguing or baffling. In turn, observations inspire questions. As you observe the video clip, create a “What I Observe/What I Wonder” chart in your science journal. Work through the following categories of questions to inspire deeper levels of observation:
After Viewing the Video Clip
Did you guess that the butterflies were shivering? Did you notice how hard the monarchs were working to warm up their muscles? If you stayed to watch, a monarch might shiver this way for many hours, with rests in between, and only move a few meters.
Why Do Monarchs Shiver?
After such observations, scientists have learned that shivering butterflies are too cold to fly — or even crawl. Butterflies littering the forest have usually been forced down by strong wind, rain, hail or even snow. At 10,000 feet in elevation, the over-wintering sites are often cold. Temperature in the sanctuaries can sometimes drop to zero C or even a few degrees below zero. Monarchs are paralyzed by temperatures this cold!
Try This! Shivering Simulation
Find a volunteer who's willing to shiver. Ask him to sit on the edge of his chair and shiver all the muscles in his body at once: arms, legs, feet, and hands. How many seconds does it take until he can feel his body warming? How long until he can feel himself getting tired? How long until he begins to perspire?
Why Stay Off of the Ground?
Challenge Question #9
As you can see, shivering uses energy. Now remember, the monarchs need to save energy in order to survive the winter and to fly back north in the spring.
Challenge Question #9:
“Why do you think butterflies shiver so hard — and spend so much energy — trying to get off of the ground?”
National Science Education Standards
• Regulation of an organism's internal environment involves sensing the internal environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within range required to survive.
Copyright 2004 Journey North. All Rights Reserved.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to
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0.019665 | <urn:uuid:7a3f599a-bc10-4496-8906-24d2a51448c9> | en | 0.938416 | 'The Walking Dead' Season 3 Episode 1: 'Dead Men Talking' critique zombie-killing strategy
on October 18, 2012 at 8:30 AM, updated October 18, 2012 at 8:38 AM
Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 1.JPG Glenn on "The Walking Dead" shows sound zombie-killing strategy, stabbing a zombie in the face from behind a fence instead of making a 300-yard, uphill suicide run through wide open space.
A fire poker and riot shield make a pretty wicked zombie-killing load out, but T-Dog can't be happy about being the only male on "The Walking Dead" without anything that shoots.
Even Carl, who last season couldn't be trusted to guard the couch cushions, now has a a long, silenced pistol that one must think would be better used by an adult like T-Dog.
And that's far from the biggest pratfall in zombie-killing strategy in Season 3 Episode 1.
Why make a suicide run through a prison courtyard while you can comfortably lure zombies to the fence and poke them through the face? Just do that until the sun goes down, start again in the morning, and that prison is yours.
At least T-Dog has some lines this season. Maybe next season he gets a firearm. And a romantic partner the season after that. A kid with a gun can try to bunk up with the farmer's daughter, yet T-Dog is alone with a fire poker.
This week's "Dead Men Talking":
Dead Men Talking: The Walking Dead season 3 Doug Brill and Johnathan Hardick discuss the third season of AMC's "The Walking Dead." | http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/tv/index.ssf/2012/10/the_walking_dead_season_3_epis.html | dclm-gs1-451765528 | false | false | {
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0.053982 | <urn:uuid:2bc85c7a-0073-49ec-b620-0e7ca49e352f> | en | 0.961606 | Marc Caputo: Even without ‘Stand Your Ground,’ George Zimmerman’s acquittal was likely
07/21/2013 6:12 PM
07/21/2013 8:55 PM
George Zimmerman’s not-guilty verdict had nothing to do with Stand Your Ground, right?
The wording of the self-defense law appeared in the jury instructions, and it was discussed by jurors, the defense and prosecutors in court.
So, therefore, Trayvon Martin’s shooting had everything to do with Stand Your Ground, right?
Also wrong.
There’s a good chance Zimmerman might still have walked even if Stand Your Ground had never become law in 2005. At most, without Stand Your Ground, the jury would probably have hung.
In that case, Zimmerman would have walked for months more and still had a great shot of being acquitted in a retrial if the prosecution presented the same case.
Other laws
Just look at self-defense laws other than Stand Your Ground, and consider that the prosecution broadly failed to prove its case, which lacked some solid evidence.
As with any court case, there are arguments on both sides. Unlike most court cases, the argument over Trayvon’s shooting and Zimmerman’s verdict is public and largely politically partisan.
Many Democrats, pointing to this case, want changes to Stand Your Ground. It expanded defendants’ deadly force justifications and removed their “duty to retreat” from a confrontation.
Top Republicans, who control the Florida Legislature and governor’s office, want no changes to the politically popular self-defense law in a state where the violent-crime rate is declining.
The debate continues
The argument over what the jury felt and how the law applied will be at the crux of the political debate as dozens of protestors continue to occupy the state Capitol and the Legislature gears up this fall.
The debate about what could have been and what role all the self-defense justifications had is purely speculative.
We can’t go back in time. We can’t talk yet to the still-anonymous jurors. There’s no transcript of their secret deliberations.
But we have solid evidence: the statements anonymous juror B37 gave CNN, the unclear evidence of the fight that led to the shooting, the jury instructions and the letter of the law.
The jury instructions are crucial.
In open court, Zimmerman lawyer Don West talked about Florida’s standard jury instructions, which, by law, have Stand Your Ground language in them.
“That would read ‘stand his ground and meet force with force’ . . .” West said, discussing where a comma should go.
“Oh sure,” West said of the Stand Your Ground wording, “that’s fine.”
Of course it was. It helped his client.
You wouldn’t know that from co-counsel Mark O’Mara’s spin-the-media tour in which he tells reporters that his team “never mentioned the words ’Stand Your Ground’ in our defense presentation or in our arguments.” He doesn’t mention what West said in open court.
Another jury instruction was conspicuous, but by its absence: The “use of force by aggressor” statute, 776.041.
It could have allowed the jurors to more easily determine whether they believed Zimmerman initiated the fight that led to the shooting, and therefore lose his self-defense justification.
Prosecutor Richard Mantei said the armed Zimmerman’s pursuit of the unarmed Trayvon could be considered a threatened use of force that could make him an “aggressor.” (Zimmerman thought the hooded Trayvon might be casing apartments in his Sanford complex for burglaries, but he was walking back to his dad’s after picking up Skittles and watermelon Arizona Iced Tea).
“There is evidence that the defendant is the provoker, especially when he admits that he was following,” Mantei said.
But West responded: “Walking up to somebody, following somebody is not enough to get you to the legal definition of provoked.”
The judge sided with the defense, though some lawyers think West bluffed her and she ought to have had a version of the aggressor statute in the instructions.
But even if the “aggressor” instructions had remained, anonymous juror B37 told CNN that she believed Zimmerman’s defense: He followed a suspicious-looking Trayvon, lost him and then got jumped by the teen.
Trayvon was the aggressor under this scenario.
Yet juror B37 also said that some of the jurors “wanted to find him [Zimmerman] guilty of something.”
And one juror, she said, specifically was interested in how or whether Zimmerman’s decision to get out of his vehicle and follow Trayvon could fit with a manslaughter charge.
There’s a chance this other juror might have found Zimmerman guilty because he was an aggressor. If so, and if B37 stuck to her guns (which sounds likely from what she told CNN), the six-member jury would have hung July 20, and Zimmerman wouldn’t be convicted.
But there was no language about starting a fight and then using self-defense, and the instructions were confusing, B37 said.
“After hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law and reading it over and over and over again,” she said, “we decided there’s just no other place to go” but render a not-guilty verdict.
B37 twice mentioned Stand Your Ground in discussing the jury’s deliberations.
Even without the 2005 law, would the jurors have been persuaded to consider Zimmerman more of an “aggressor” under the old “duty to retreat” provision? That’s a hypothetical atop a hypothetical.
And when does that duty to retreat begin?
Under Zimmerman’s defense, he had no ability to retreat; he was unexpectedly and savagely attacked. Before he was jumped, there was no confrontation and, therefore, no duty to get away from something that hadn’t happened yet.
But even if Stand Your Ground were not on the books and the aggressor language had been part of the jury instructions and if the jury found Zimmerman was the aggressor, he still could be found not guilty.
The aggressor statute says a person who provokes a violent confrontation can still use “force which is likely to cause death” if he “reasonably believes that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that he or she has exhausted every reasonable means to escape such danger.”
That language and section of that law predates Stand Your Ground.
The general “use of force in defense of person” law found in 776.012 has nearly identical self-defense language. And it, too, predates Stand Your Ground (which is sandwiched between the predating statutes at 776.013).
Zimmerman had a bloody head and nose to help prove he was being beaten. And juror B37 believed that scared screams of “help” heard in the background of a neighbor’s 911 call were Zimmerman’s. One witness said he saw Trayvon raining down blows on Zimmerman before the shooting.
So whether you like Stand Your Ground or not, it’s not the whole story when it comes to the Zimmerman verdict. It’s part of it. It gave Zimmerman extra protections and made the prosecution’s already tough job even tougher.
But we don’t know how much Stand Your Ground factored into the verdict.
The whole story will never be known. Zimmerman, after all, shot and killed the only other eyewitness.
And when you’re a defendant and the only eyewitness — when there’s little evidence to contradict the main thrust of your defense and when the prosecution gets outfoxed — the chances are extremely high that you’ll be found not guilty, regardless of Stand Your Ground.
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0.307807 | <urn:uuid:c7080dd8-bc38-4a3c-89f8-e61fcaacac32> | en | 0.946299 | State and the Syntax of Encapsulation
More and more I realize that good software design minimizes the amount of things you have to care about at any one time. Well-designed programs take advantage of abstraction possibilities of languages and libraries to model the problem and its solution in the most effective way. Well-designed languages minimize the syntactic concerns necessary to produce those abstractions.
I unsurprising news, the default Perl 5 object system shows its limits in that you have to think about Perl 5 reference syntax and objects and encapsulation, genericity, abstraction, and polymorphism all at once. Moose encourages people to do the right thing by providing abstractions that encapsulate the concerns of other levels of abstraction. Inside-out objects did something similar.
I realized this yesterday when writing about the state feature introduced in Perl 5.10. If you're a fan of minimalist languages which provide one and only one obvious way to do things, you'll hate this explanation, but at least you'll know why you're wrong.
state declares a lexical variable which maintains its state even after control flow leaves its lexical scope. In other words, these two snippets of code are almost entirely equivalent:
# the closure approach
my $count = 0;
sub add_user
my ($user, %data) = @_;
$data{user_id} = $count++;
# the state approach
use feature 'state';
sub add_user
state $count = 0;
my ($user, %data) = @_;
$data{user_id} = $count++;
The one potential difference is that the initialization of $count in the first example must take place before the first call to add_user().
If you're careful to avoid that tiny potential trap, you can achieve the same effect with the closure code. Scheme and Python and even Java fans rejoice for a moment. Okay, that's long enough.
The problem is that—just as with arguing that you don't need fold because you have a for loop with iteration—that line of thinking ignores the fact that the syntactic overhead necessary to make the former example work is too high. Adding a single keyword to achieve the same semantics and avoid that tiny little trap also makes the resulting code more expressive. It's more declarative.
There's nothing wrong with the goal of a language with a minimal feature set. That's a fine goal, but it can't be the most important goal, and it can't be a goal in isolation. That's because sometimes adding a feature lets you remove unnecessary scaffolding.
I believe that it's better to pursue concision than artificial simplicity in program and language design.
We don't even need "for" loops. So long as we have conditionals and goto, we can eliminate them entirely.
.sub loopy
.local int counter
counter = 0
LOOP: if counter > 10 goto DONE
print counter
print " "
inc counter
goto LOOP
print "\n"
See how elegant everything can be if you only have a handful of minimalistic, yet flexible, constructs?
Of course, I'm being sarcastic here. There's a tension between expressiveness and flexibility and it's not always easy to find the right balance. The "conditional plus goto" example is what I tend to think of whenever I hear arguments against "syntactic sugar". Sometimes that sugar turns out to be saccharine (as mentioned, it's hard to find the right balance), but when it's done properly, it's worth the effort.
In M4 I build foreach loops using tail recursion.
One problem with loops like for loops etc. and constructs like folds is that a for loop has very clear semantics in terms of sequential operation and this limits any kind of optimization. The fold on the otherwise can say that it cannot guarantee in order operation and thus require the programmer to make sure that all fold state is held by the parameters. This means you can do optimizations like spawning off parts of the fold to different CPUs etc. Then at the end just start resolving all the "lazy" parts that were waiting for an answer.
The for loop is unnecessarily strict (in more ways than one) in terms of sequential operation, that's why fold and map are really neat.
That's what really bothers me about iterator patterns, it enforces a sequential operation even though the iterator might not guarantee order of visits. If it was a map or iteration operation where a closure/function was passed then different order of evaluation could be used.
That example looks really familiar for some reason. I may have written it myself one too many times.
Your closure example doesn't have the initialization problem if you wrap that block in a BEGIN.
Yeah, it's probably your code I ripped off for that one. I just did a quick google for "loop pir perl". :)
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0.026158 | <urn:uuid:afb44150-ff6c-4dc1-8d3a-cbeff9564b78> | en | 0.921208 | Another Global Warming Menace: Black Carbon!
[YouTube Clip]
Just when you thought that the world is safe from the One World Government that is meeting in Copenhagen, here comes another menace: black carbon. Okay, okay. We know it more commonly as soot, but you have to admit it sounds much cooler when you say "black carbon."
In fact, the new research, by NASA’s William Lau and collaborators, reinforces with detailed numerical analysis what earlier studies suggest: that soot and dust contribute as much (or more) to atmospheric warming in the Himalayas as greenhouse gases. This warming fuels the melting of glaciers and could threaten fresh water resources in a region that is home to more than a billion people.
Lau explored the causes of rapid melting, which occurs primarily in the western Tibetan Plateau, beginning each year in April and extending through early fall. The brisk melting coincides with the time when concentrations of aerosols like soot and dust transported from places like India and Nepal are most dense in the atmosphere.
"Over areas of the Himalayas, the rate of warming is more than five times faster than warming globally," said William Lau, head of atmospheric sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Based on the differences it’s not difficult to conclude that greenhouse gases are not the sole agents of change in this region. There’s a localized phenomenon at play."
A true danger or just another bogeyman? You decide: Link
Newest 5
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third worlders shouldn't consume like first worlders (because they're not as good as we are),
so they should reduce their emissions (and by extension, economic development and production) so we can keep over-consuming.
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Oh no, Alex! Don't invoke the wrath of the secret rulers of the universe!!!1! The scientists will kill us with their secret psychokinesis for stepping out of line!!!
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Check out Twaggies' very funny clip:
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0.029839 | <urn:uuid:e55cf82f-44fd-4501-9adf-96b0df829769> | en | 0.976326 | NUFORC Home Page
National UFO Reporting Center
Sighting Report
Occurred : 3/30/2003 22:30 (Entered as : 30/03/2003 22.30)
Reported: 3/30/2003 5:31:06 PM 17:31
Posted: 4/22/2003
Location: Loanhead (near Edinburgh) (UK/Scotland),
Shape: Cone
large distant bright pink cone shaped object
I am a great believer in facts, and have an extremely logical outlook on things. I dont deny that I have an interest in UFO's (who shouldn't? / i have a mind that enjoys a puzzle) and have seen several strange things in my life. UFO's to me, are fascinating, they do "exactly what they say on the tin" - THEY ARE OBJECTS THAT FLY (OR LAND) THAT CAN BE SEEN, AND ARE UNIDENTIFIED AS ANY KNOWN CRAFT.
Well thats-that out of my system, I am actually posting this due to my experience this evening.
Its currently 2.27am here in Loanhead (near Edinburgh Scotland)and is testiment to the fact that something DID appear in the sky near my home earlier tonight. As it happened I was visiting my mum (Its was Mothers Day 30/03 here in the UK, my mum lives 5 mins from my house). Me and my mum were chatting and she decided to show me a room in her house she had recently decorated, while upstairs we looked out of the rear window overlooking the Moorfoot Hills looking towards Gorebridge when we noticed what I thought was a firework fairly high in the not so distant sky. We both looked at it, and I soon realised that the "firework"; was more like a flare, as the extremely bright pink glow did not fade at all; as it stayed stationary in the sky approx 1 mile away. Slowly, but still glowing bright pink, the object floated slowly to the ground and passed behind the dark horizon of our line of sight(there are fields and a valley, all of which were in complete darkness at that time of the evening). I sat and spoke to my mum for a few minutes about it and then what appeared to be a very bright blue flashing light - like the type on a police car - roughly in the same direction. I must point out that to me the blue light did not seem all that unusual, it did really just seem like a blue "earthly light" flashing brighty in the distance. But the previous Pink light was far from that, we originally thought it may have been a helicopter but we realised that it was completely silent. All lasted around 20 secs, but was definately something we had never seen before. | http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/028/S28269.html | dclm-gs1-452425528 | false | false | {
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0.134725 | <urn:uuid:1f72f2c7-bffe-4e31-bc82-5169cba190ab> | en | 0.955379 | Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 24th Jan 2010 17:59 UTC
Mozilla & Gecko clones This week, both YouTube and Vimeo opened up beta offerings using HTML5 video instead of Flash to bring video content to users. Both of them chose to use the h264 codec, which meant that only Safari and Chrome can play these videos, since firefox doesn't license the h264 codec. Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, explained on his blog why Mozilla doesn't license the h264 codec.
Thread beginning with comment 405943
To view parent comment, click here.
RE[5]: that guy's speaking truth
by Kalessin on Mon 25th Jan 2010 20:37 UTC in reply to "RE[4]: that guy's speaking truth"
Member since:
Frankly I don't get the Flash bashing. All of the innovation that has come on the web started out as either proprietary extensions to the standards (Ajax/CSS/SVG), or responses to something proprietary (Vorbis/Theora).
Personally, my problem with it is not it's proprietary nature (though it would be nice if it were open). It's the fact that it basically breaks the basic model of the internet.
The basic idea behind how web pages and browsers work is that pages link to each other, and you navigate those links. Things like flash basically put the entire site on one page and make it impossible to link to anything. If a site is done in flash, and I want to direct someone to some of its content, I have to give them the link to the site and directions on how to find the content. I can't just give them a direct link to the content. Also, many browser features such as tabs and history don't really work anymore because you're really dealing with an application rather than a set of web pages.
Flash effectively breaks the web. Sure, it's a great way to do some things - like run an application in a web browser - but as far as web pages go, building them with flash just makes things not work. You're turning the web into a set of applications instead of pages.
And those flash pages/applications aren't indexable either - which is supposedly one of the reasons that Google created Chrome. They're looking to push javascript for dynamic content because that is indexable. Flash is not.
I'd hate flash even if it were totally open. Solutions which give dynamic content and fancier pages but still allow the basic model of the web to work properly are definitely going to be better than flash or anything like it.
Reply Parent Score: 3
CaptainN- Member since:
Well there are solutions to that particular problem (often called deep linking) like my unFocus.HistoryKeeper ;-) - but that problem exists for so many Ajax applications as well. Just take a look at one of the map websites, like google maps.
Reply Parent Score: 2
Kalessin Member since:
True. Flash is not the only offender, but I'm going to be just as irritated with any technology which breaks basic browsing. Any technology which attempts to improve on basic html, bringing us dynamic pages or whatever cool thing that they're supposed to do, needs to still work with things like linking to that page and opening pages in new tabs. If they don't, it's a big problem.
Now, I've never heard of deep links, so I'll have to look into that, but if there is already a good solution to the linking problem, then there's that much less excuse for web pages and/or web technologies to not take advantage of it.
Reply Parent Score: 1 | http://www.osnews.com/thread?405943 | dclm-gs1-452525528 | false | false | {
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0.44094 | <urn:uuid:a72a94fd-a9e3-43b2-99de-64e9887d6cd7> | en | 0.884683 | Definición de rude en inglés:
Saltos de línea: rude
Pronunciación: /ruːd
1Offensively impolite or bad-mannered: she had been rude to her boss he is a rude and arrogant bully
Más ejemplos en oraciones
offensive, insulting, derogatory, disparaging, abusive;
2Referring to a taboo subject such as sex in a way considered embarrassing or offensive: Graham giggled at every rude joke
Más ejemplos en oraciones
vulgar, coarse, smutty, dirty, filthy, crude, lewd, obscene, offensive, indelicate, improper, indecorous, salacious, off colour, tasteless, in bad taste;
British informal fruity, near the knuckle, saucy
North American informal gamy
euphemistic adult
3 [attributive] Having a startling abruptness: the war came as a very rude awakening
Más ejemplos en oraciones
abrupt, sudden, sharp, startling;
unpleasant, disagreeable, nasty, harsh
4 [attributive] chiefly British Vigorous or hearty: Isabel had always been in rude health
Más ejemplos en oraciones
5 dated Roughly made or done; lacking sophistication: a rude coffin
Más ejemplos en oraciones
5.1 archaic Ignorant and uneducated: the new religion was first promulgated by rude men
Middle English (in sense 5, also 'uncultured'): from Old French, from Latin rudis 'unwrought' (referring to handicraft), figuratively 'uncultivated'; related to rudus 'broken stone'.
Más ejemplos en oraciones
• A christening was rudely interrupted when some unwelcome guests turned up at the car park of a Hampshire church.
• Angry and embarrassed that we had been asked so rudely to move to the other side of our beach we decided to leave Anse Cochon.
• Most of the autorickshaw drivers are doing their duty with utmost care, but some of them behave rudely.
Más ejemplos en oraciones
• The girls have a directness that borders on rudery.
Definición de rude en:
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Palabra del día deictic
Pronunciación: ˈdeɪktɪk
denoting a word whose meaning depends on context... | http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/es/definicion/ingles/rude | dclm-gs1-452545528 | false | false | {
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0.034374 | <urn:uuid:7eaf8865-497a-48d3-9402-cc9652d1790b> | en | 0.956528 |
truther 3
Michael Snyder
The Road To World War 3 Russia And Ukraine Are Now Engaged In A Shooting War
So the Russians seem themselves as “the good guys” in this conflict and so does the western world. But that is how most wars start. Both sides usually feel morally justified at the start of a conflict.
In the final analysis, however, is it really going to matter very much who was “right” and who was “wrong” if the end result is World War 3?
But now it is the Ukrainian forces that are experiencing “panic and wholesale retreat”
How is this happening?
It is the Russians of course.
“I tell you they are Russians, but this is what proof I have,” said Sgt. Aleksei Panko, holding up his thumb and index finger to form a zero. Sergeant Panko estimated about 60 armored vehicles crossed near Novoazovsk. “This is what happened: they crossed the border, took up positions and started shooting.”
Ten Russian soldiers were detained in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, that country’s Security Service said Tuesday, as tensions simmered over the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels.
Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited a source in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying the soldiers had been patrolling the border and “most likely crossed by accident” at an unmarked point.
Vedomosti, a liberal business daily, published an editorial Wednesday on events in Ukraine under the headline, “Are We Fighting?”
It noted the recent capture of the Russian soldiers on Ukrainian territory and reports of “mysterious funerals” of Russian soldiers, some of whom are officially counted dying during training exercises.
A Bloomberg editorial contained some more details about the “mystery funerals” that have been taking place inside Russia…
There are other reports of paratrooper funerals, which are hard to conceal. Soldiers have grieving families who do not necessarily share the authorities’ desire for deception. In any case, Ukrainian troops have captured some Russian paratroopers. For the first time since the conflict began in March, they were able to record interviews with them.
But they should care.
For example, in my previous article entitled “Russia Is Doing It – Russia Is Actually Abandoning The Dollar“, I discussed how this tug of war over Ukraine was causing Russia to think about moving away from the petrodollar. Well, it turns out that now the Russians are actually taking concrete steps toward abandoning the petrodollar for good…
That is huge news, but you probably haven’t heard a thing about it on the big mainstream news networks.
Meanwhile, one thing that you probably have heard about is how “Russian hackers” attacked JPMorgan Chase earlier this month
And that won’t be good for any of us.
So let us hope that cooler heads prevail.
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1. Serf August 30, 2014 at 9:27 am - Reply
The US war plan is all about creating Greater Israel. The Zionists in Israel of which the vast majority are Jews support the Greater Israel project. The Greater Israel project will create a vastly larger illegal state called Eretz Israel.
Eretz Israel will illegally occupy and illegally ethnically cleanse all non Jews from all areas of Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, most of Iraq parte of Iran, half of Saudi Arabia, North East Egypt including Sinai Penninsular, Suez Canal, River Nile and lands surrounding Nile and Nile Delta along with all ancient Egyptian landmarks such as Pyramids and will take over parts of South East Turkey.
Zionists particularly Zionists Jews will not stop there and will also declare Patagonia in South America as new Israel or part of Eretz Israel and eill get Britain to give them Malvinas and the British Antarctic territories because Britain is a faithful ally of Eretz Israel. It will mean Eretz Israel will have all oil, natural gas, mineral, water, fishing rights, land, air, sea and airspace rights to these territories and territorial waters and implement their sparthrid regime without resistance.
Eretz Israel will be created using US weapons and military forces supported by military forces, weapons, intelligence, political support and finance from Britain, Europe and Allies under the jackboot of Zionism.
Unfortunately for human Jews and human Zionists that support the Eretz Israel empire the evil reptilian ruling elite (all reptilians are evil) that control Earth consider them (the human Jews and human Zionist supporting Eretz Israel) as nothing more than a human resource that are nothing more than the true Goyim (cattle/human livestock) and are a human resource in every sense of the word to be eradicated along with the majority of the human population as part of the global human depopulation program as alluded to but not detailed in UN Agenda 21.
The evil reptilians will use war, environmental weapons, disease and global pandemics along with financial collapse and engineered food and water shortages to herd people into special zones.
Humans outside these zones will face weather weapons, pollution, chemtrails, war and also ferocious large wildlife such as large timber wolves and bears reintroduced into rural areas to prevent humans from settling outside the ruling elite control. Humans will also be forced into reservations and Fema camps by the use of Terminators and other killer robots and drones to ensure areas stay free of humans.
The reptilians (shapeshifters that appear human) make up about 5% of the human population. The global population target is for a 95% reduction of the current human population (humans and reptilians) and this will mean reptilians will replace the human population on Earth. Reptilians are in every race, religion, position of power, age and gender and they all hate humans because reptilians see humans as inferior. It’s why reptilians are eager for global war.
2. Stan Sikorski August 30, 2014 at 12:28 am - Reply
You need to be on the right side of history on this one. The Ukraine was taken over by the jews with the help of (seemingly) ‘neo-nazi’ forces, and paid for with ‘western’ money. Russia is only trying to reclaim her people, who CHOOSE to remain Russian.
Sound familiar? WW2 was a (jew facilitated and financed) ‘western’ production. Hitler and the German people only wanted to unite after the carving up of their territory after WW1. Jew money, press, and deviancy all around worked hard to instigate a war that didn’t have to happen.
Russia is right to do what it is doing and no amount of jew fiddling can change my mind on this. And it shouldn’t influence yours either.
3. tailwagsthedog August 29, 2014 at 11:25 pm - Reply
you cannot be serious ….you actually take quotes from a USA TODAY article to make your case for russian troops crossing into the ukraine? SO MUCH FOR YER CREDIBILITY
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0.166194 | <urn:uuid:120ed70a-4cd4-4d6a-ae11-839e30ad19bc> | en | 0.975463 | Tuesday, February 28, 2012
23andMe DNA Results
1. I love DNA for genealogy. Isn't it exciting to find cousins and prove a paper trail? Testing your relatives will be very helpful in narrowing down your relatives - but it's addictive! Once you test one person, you want to test just one more...
2. You are so right Valerie! I've gotten so excited about this! I've already asked my oldest brother to take a test (he said "why not") and I'm hoping my mom will. Then I started thinking "who else can I ask." :) One of my cousins said he might do it and another cousin who's been working on one of our family mysteries is ordering a test today. One of my matches might be the key to the mystery. Love it!
3. Let's see if I can actually post a comment this time...
I'm doing DNA genealogy research too but with FTDNA. Your not Orcadian by the way, that's a population misnomer. I was able to send my raw data, and I think FTDNA tests more than 23andMe, but anyway, I sent it off to a Dr. for further analysis and he was dead on for both of my parents. If you can, transfer your results to FTDNA, there is a transfer fee but they have a larger "genealogical" database. 23andMe is mostly geared towards the medical side of the report. You can also 'match' someone but it could be in a timeframe that you're not able to prove on paper. I have predicted 3rd cousins which are actually much further back than that. Some segments of DNA can persist over long periods of time and combine with other bits to make a match seem stronger than it really is. It's a difficult but rewarding process and you can learn a lot from it but it'll eat up just as much of your time as traditional research. Good luck with your 'matches'!!
4. Catherine PendletonJune 3, 2012 at 12:32 AM
I still have a lot to learn about DNA. There's so much that I don't understand. I've been thinking about transferring my raw data to FTDNA. I should have done it when they were having a sale--I think at Christmas last year. You're right, this can really eat up time. I spend lots of time on genealogy as it is. Looking into my DNA has been fun and frustrating at the same time! | http://www.pendletongenealogypost.com/2012/02/23andme-dna-results.html?showComment=1338694098287 | dclm-gs1-452645528 | false | false | {
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0.347193 | <urn:uuid:88d5d89c-188a-4af9-bcd5-cc0fd56ca08a> | en | 0.946328 | The parents-to-be aren't slowing down yet as they take in a concert in Sydney. Plus: David Beckham, Britney Spears, Vanessa Hudgens and more
In a rare moment away from her twin daughters, Marcia Cross holds tight to her purchase as she leaves the Apple store in Santa Monica on Monday. | http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20170038_20388165,00.html | dclm-gs1-452665528 | false | false | {
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0.023402 | <urn:uuid:203bb099-51b1-46a8-b06e-4a89089e2d9b> | en | 0.967457 | Happy Centennial, Republic of China
Not bad for the first century.
As we did last year on the 99th anniversary of the Republic of China, our family spent the better part of the afternoon at the Chiang Kaishek Memorial. Although he’s not well-regarded amongst many modern Taiwanese, he was instrumental in reforming the R.O.C. government in Taiwan after it was forced out of China and thus sits at the conceptual nexus of the government and the island. Because of it’s size, prominence, and proximity to major governmental buildings such as the Presidential office, a lot tends to happen here on National Day.
There were shows, both cultural and military in nature, spaced throughout the day along with the occasional interceptor jet, Chinnok helicopter, and other various aircraft passing by overhead.
Overall it was great fun and I fully expect to go back when the Republic of China turns 101.
Here are a few more photos.
And I’ll end with this one, the CKS Monument.
About Brian Webb
| http://www.photojazz.ws/2011/10/centennial-republic-of-china-anniversary | dclm-gs1-452725528 | false | false | {
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0.534745 | <urn:uuid:28d213fd-eefc-4ee5-8668-eb38b2e9ce6a> | en | 0.951032 |
In the Western United States, Buddhists represent the largest non-Christian religious bloc in most states. In 20 states, mostly in the Midwest and South, Islam is the largest non-Christian faith tradition. And in 15 states, mostly in the Northeast, Judaism has the most followers after Christianity. Hindus come in second place in Arizona and Delaware, and there are more practitioners of the Baha’i faith in South Carolina than anywhere else. | http://www.pressherald.com/2014/06/07/christianity-by-far-largest-religion-in-united-states/ | dclm-gs1-452865528 | false | false | {
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0.019998 | <urn:uuid:bf8ce82f-c549-41f8-9b2f-d47a9ccd5ce3> | en | 0.936439 | Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership brief awarded to Brighter Group
The Atlantic Canada Tourism Partnership (ACTP) has brought in the Brighter Group to oversee its media relations activity in the UK.
Atlantic Canada: Brighter Group brief
Atlantic Canada: Brighter Group brief
ACTP is a nine-member, pan-Atlantic partnership that comprises the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the four Atlantic Canada Tourism industry Associations and four provincial departments.
The brief is to develop and implement a brand-building media relations campaign to raise the region’s profile and promote its direct transport links to the UK.
Another strand is to highlight the attractions of the four provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island through promotional activities.
Kelley Keefe, ACTP UK programme manager, said: ‘Atlantic Canada is closer to Europe than any other part of North America and the UK is a key focus market for us.’
Brighter Group associate director, Gillian Monahan, who will be leading the team, said the region was ‘where British settlement in North America began and where the Titanic survivors were taken, so the region shares many cultural and historical connections with the UK.’
She added: ‘Atlantic Canada also boasts some of Canada’s most spectacular coastline, with warm waters and uncrowded beaches, vibrant towns, picturesque villages and amazing seafood.’
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News by email... | http://www.prweek.com/article/1161185/atlantic-canada-tourism-partnership-brief-awarded-brighter-group?HAYILC=RELATED | dclm-gs1-452895528 | false | false | {
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0.018718 | <urn:uuid:115c5777-db5c-4e44-95ed-84dc75f964cd> | en | 0.95251 | Return to the Purplemath home page The Purplemath Forums
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Feedback | Error? | http://www.purplemath.com/Quincy_Center_MA_SAT_math_tutors.php | dclm-gs1-452925528 | false | false | {
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0.037238 | <urn:uuid:eca3ef7b-1be7-40a0-bf67-5a58490540bc> | en | 0.925394 | Anyone who saw Jurassic Park in its original theatrical release will recall how groundbreaking the special effects were. I certainly recall being put off by the graphic nature of people being eaten.
Not so scary? This version of Jurassic Park that lacks cutting edge effects.
[via Neatorama]
Tagged with:
Filed under: HumorMovies
| http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/04/jurassic-park-without-cgi/ | dclm-gs1-453365528 | false | false | {
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