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0.020199 | <urn:uuid:d5fab00c-9854-4886-a2c3-11ffdc8f79b1> | en | 0.962367 | Against Self-Organization
Life on earth is doomed, according to the biologist Peter Ward in his new book The Medea Hypothesis. This book is meant to be polemical and provocative; I lack the knowledge to evaluate its particular scientific claims. But just as a thought experiment, it is bracing.
Ward’s book is a critique of the quite popular Gaia Hypothesis, originally developed by James Lovelock, which claims that the Earth as a whole, with all its biomass, constitutes an emergent order, a self-organizing system, that maintains the whole planet — its climate, the chemical constitution of the atmosphere and the seas, etc. — in a state that is favorable to the continued flourishing of life. Essentially the Gaia Hypothesis sees the world as a system in homeostatic equilibrium — in much the same ways that individual cells or organisms are self-maintaining, homeostatic systems. Gaia is cybernetically, or autopoietically, self-regulating system: continual feedback, among organisms and their environments, keeps the air temperature, the salinity of the sea, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, etc., within the limits that are necessary for the continued flourishing of life.
Ward’s Medea Hypothesis directly contests all these claims. According to Ward, the ecosphere is not homeostatic or self-regulating; to the contrary, it is continually being driven by positive feedback mechanisms to unsustainable extremes. Most of the mass extinction events in the fossil record, Ward says, were caused by out-of-control life processes — rather than by an external interruption of such processes, such as the giant meteor hit which supposedly led to the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic. The great Permian extinction, for instance — the most catastrophic of which we have knowledge, in which 90% of all species, and 99% of all living beings, were destroyed — was caused by “blooms of sulfur bacteria in the seas,” which flourished due to greenhouse heating and poisoned the oceans and the atmospheres with increased concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, which is extremely toxic.
More generally, Ward claims that life processes have destabilizing effects, rather than homeostatic ones, upon the very environment that they rely upon for survival. This is largely because of the Malthusian basis of natural selection. Traits that give any organism a selective advantage over its rivals will spread through the gene pool, unless and until they overwhelm the environment and reach the limits of its carrying capacity. An organism that is too successful will ultimately suffer a crash from overpopulation, depletion of resources, and so on. The success of sulfur bacteria means the poisoning of all other organisms; or, to give another example, the rise of photosynthetic organisms 2 billion years ago poisoned and killed the then-dominant anaerobic microbes that had composed the overwhelming majority of life-forms up to that time.
Now, biologists in recent years have given careful attention to the evolution of cooperation and altruism as means of averting these dangers. For instance, in an environment of cooperating organisms, a cheater will outperform the cooperators, and through natural selection will eventually drive them into extinction, thus leading to an environment of cheaters who no longer have access to the benefits for all of cooperation. But this prospect can be averted, and altruism can be maintained within a group, if the cooperators evolve mechanisms to detect, and punish or otherwise discipline, the cheaters. Scenarios like this have led to something of a revival of the once-discredited notion of “group selection” (a group all of whose members benefit from cooperation will be able to outperform a group dominated by cheaters).
Be that as it may, Ward does not see any evidence that cooperation or altruism can evolve on a meta-, or planetary, level. He argues, counter-intuitively but with impressive statistical analyses, that in fact the total biomass, as well as the diversity of species, has been in decline ever since the Cambrian explosion. And he suggests that life on Earth is doomed to extinction long before the heating and expansion of the sun make the Earth too hot to live on. The depletion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to the extinction of all plant life, the decline of atmospheric oxygen, the consequent extinction of all animal life, and finally the evaporation and loss to outer space of the oceans, could happen as little as 100 million to 500 million years from now — a span far less than the 1.5 billion or 2 billion years we have before the sun roasts the planet to a cinder. The Earth will end up much like either Venus or Mars — both of which initially had conditions that were favorable to the origin and sustenance of life, but no longer do (in this regard, it would be quite interesting if we were to discover, as has often been hypothesized, that Mars once did have life but no longer does).
Now, even 100 million years from now seems too far off in the future for us to worry about today. And, as Ward points out, our current problems — for the next century or so — have to do with too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, even if ultimately the Earth will die from too little. Nonetheless (and regardless of whether or not the book’s arguments stand up in their scientific details, which is something, as I already said, that I am unable to judge), Ward’s replacement of Gaia (the good mother Earth) with Medea (the ultimate bad mother, who murdered her own children) makes an important point. In critiquing the Gaia Hypothesis, it is really questioning our contemporary faith in self-organizing processes and systems.
But the most significant and influential thinker of self-organisation in the past century was undoubtedly Friedrich Hayek, the intellectual progenitor of neoliberalism. For Hayek, any attempt at social or economic planning was doomed to failure, due to the inherent limitations of human knowledge, and the consequent prevalence of unintended consequences. In contrast, and inspired by both cybernetics and biology, Hayek claimed that the “free market” was an ideal mechanism for coordinating all the disparate bits of knowledge that existed dispersed throughout society, and negotiating it towards an optimal outcome. Self-organization, operating impersonally and beyond the ken of any particular human agent, could accomplish what no degree of planning or willful human rationality ever could. For Hayek, even the slightest degree of social solidarity or collective planning was already setting us on “the road to serfdom.” And if individuals suffer as a result of the unavoidable inequities of the self-organizing marketplace, well that is just too bad – it is the price we have to pay for freedom and progress.
Hayek provided the rationale for the massive deregulation, and empowerment of the financial sector, of the last thirty years — and for which we are currently paying the price. But I have yet to see any account that fully comes to terms with the degree that Hayek’s polemical argument about the superiority and greater rationality of emergent self-organization, as opposed to conscious will and planning have become the very substance of what we today, in Europe and North America at least, accept as “common sense.” Were the anti-WTO protestors in Seattle a decade ago, for instance, aware that their grounding assumptions were as deeply Hayekian as those of any broker for Goldman Sachs?
I don’t have much in the way of positive ideas about how to think differently. I just want to suggest that it is high time to question our basic, almost automatic, assumptions about the virtues of self-organization. This doesn’t mean returning to an old-fashioned rationalism or voluntarism, and it doesn’t mean ignoring the fact that our actions always tend to propagate through complex networks, and therefore to have massive unintended consequences. But we need to give up the moralistic conviction that somehow self-organized outcomes are superior to ones arrived at by other means. We need to give up our superstitious reverence for results that seem to happen “by themselves,” or to arrive “from below” rather than “from above.” (Aren’t there other directions to work and think in, besides “below” and “above”?).
Whitehead says that every event in the universe, from the tiniest interaction of subatomic particles up to the most complex human action, involves a certain moment of decision. There are no grounds or guidelines for this decision; and we cannot characterize decision in “voluntaristic” terms, because any conscious act of will is a remote consequence of decision in Whitehead’s sense, rather than its cause. Decisions are singular and unrepeatable; they cannot be generalized into rules. But all this also means that we cannot say that decision simply “emerges” out of a chaotic background, or pops out thanks to the movement from one “basin of attraction” to another. No self-organizing system can obviate the need for such a decision, or dictate what it will be. And decision always implies novelty or difference — in this way it is absolutely incompatible with notions of autopoiesis, homeostasis, or Spinoza’s conatus. What we need is an aesthetics of decision, instead of our current metaphysics of emergence.
36 Responses to “Against Self-Organization”
1. Gordon Potter says:
Interesting analysis. I think no mater how we slice it humans are condemned to a perspective of meaning making and parochialism. The faith is ever present but also disavowed by the deeply faithful. Zizek captures this in a nice way with his discussion of belief and atheism. We believe but often there is deep fear that what we actually believe is actual and will be externalized by our very act of belief. For example global warming. The prospect is too daunting for us to even accept it. Thus there is an implicit disavowal of what we come to know as the fact of global warming. I suspect some human coping mechanism intervenes. Thus explaining the persistent belief in self organization.
I am deeply fascinated by your concept of “aesthetics of decision”. What would that mean on a practical level? Also you mention Whitehead’s view that every event is a “decision”. I find this interesting but isn’t this mostly just an attempt to interject will into the world, albeit in perhaps a more deterministic mode. To me it seems intuitive to say almost the opposite. That every event is an action, a result, an outcome. This is not to imply a strictly deterministic chain of causality. But rather an appreciation of the already alreadyness of things. It seems to me to put things in terms of decision is to open the door too far for a god or mysterious force that wills existence ex nihilo.
I think I find more comforting the fact that the universe is an arbitrary and continual process that has no concern for my immediate care or existence. In return I owe the universe nothing. This is freedom. It may not allow thriving, but a niche can sometimes be carved out.
2. Rory O'Connor says:
Hello Dr Shaviro; the impression I get is that Lovelock does NOT think that humans are separate and apart from nature, quite the opposite. As with the other theory, it’s because we’re the kind of parts of nature that we are, that the problems are happening. The novelist John Banville, who’s interested in Lovelock, goes along with your line of thought, calling humans “simply the most successful virus that’s gone around the world”. I am ignorant of the Whitehead stuff, and haven’t got enough time right now, though I’ll read more closely soon. But Lovelock is certainly doubtful about “voluntaristic” action on the grounds we’re part of nature.
Like Gordon Potter, I certainly thought of Zizek in connnection with all this. Also of George Orwell’s comment, “No Christian believes in God the way he believes in Australia”.
3. Kirby Olson says:
I suppose a lot of Christians think that
a. the world is coming to an end, so they don’t have to care
b. God will take care of things, etc.
Lutheran surrealists believe that this is an animalistic world, and that Two Kingdoms theory means that we are fallen, and thus, only a faction, divided into many other factions (Madison’s Letter #10 in The Federalist Papers derives from this viewpoint).
So you basically need at least two parties (self-organizing against the other party), to block any real dumb ideas from organizing into a one-party system (like that of N. Korea to the left, or Henry VIII’s regime to the right).
Animals organize as well as they can, I suspect, which is not very well. At least the bigger stuff like elephants and alligators aren’t going to be a problem, except in very local circumstances. Can bacteria really strategize, and attain a conscious monopoly as the dominant life force? I need to read more there — I got the feeling you were arguing that they could take over the way the machines do in Terminator.
The biologist John Lilly had a drug-induced dream in the early eighties that the machines would join together to destroy all life that had saline content because it gummed up their gears.
Bacteria kind of need us the way we need China, and China needs us? It’s hard to think in the macro-level at such a leap into the rhizomatic associations of bacteria and mammalian life, but I suppose it’s similar to the cheap labor provided by corporate communism, whose products are in turn valued by the citizens of corporate capitalism, since it turns out to be the same thing, finally.
4. Kirby Olson says:
That is, parts of the Capitalistic Rhizome.
5. Kirby Olson says:
I thought about the title of the book last evening and wondered how well-chosen it is. If life self-destructs — according to the title, and the brief description of the book — then this title is inaccurate.
Medea DOESN’T self-destruct. She destroys her children in order to destroy Jason’s good mood about marrying a princess. She also destroys the princess by giving her a wonderful wedding outfit that has been laced in toxics.
But she doesn’t destroy herself at all. To the contrary, she assures her own survival by contracting with the leader of another city-state to take her in after the triple-murder, which he is then bound by oath to do in spite of her atrocities.
It therefore doesn’t seem to be a particularly apt choice, which makes me think that the writer is a bozo.
The thesis would be better amplified if recourse was made to sailing into Schopenhauer’s harbor — his vision of the ID — which in turn ends up as the Freudian ID (Schopenhauer was big at the time) — would be a closer parallel.
I suppose the author wanted to find an unpleasant female to contrast with Gaia. But there are many problems with his choice of Medea.
He should choose a goddess, so that the structural parallel remains intact, and he should choose a goddess who destroys herself through over-reaching (the urge to consume more and more and more). I’d go back through Schopenhauer and rely on him more.
Schopenhauer is such a tight, lovely writer, too. He wouldn’t have made such basic mistakes. The World as Will and Idea — I wish I could come up with the exact goddess that should replace Medea in the title — ERis doesn’t quite fit, — Aprhodite doesn’t quite fit.
Perhaps Hecate, but she doesn’t quite fit, either.
Aphrodite comes closest. She seems to be nice on the surface, but is eventually all-consuming, and destroys all those aligned with her. Maybe her.
6. Yusef says:
I don’t think the idea of self organization, understood as a homeostatic mechanism for perfect self preservation, is an accurate description of Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis or that the Gaia hypothesis supports a laissez-faire ecological approach and outlook.
Earth as Gaia does give a picture of the earth as an organism, as a living body. But what I want to know is how such a picture would lead anyone to believe earth-as-body wouldn’t require delicate and nearly constant care. Every living body does. My body does. If I exposed it to danger, it could become injured. It could be destroyed. I could die. Earth as Gaia could easily die. As I recall, Lovelock gave quite a few examples of exactly how earth as gaia could be so mistreated it would die.
7. Nate says:
hi Steve,
I can’t speak to the eco-stuff but in terms of politics, I disagree with some of this pretty strongly. I think “The anarchist left puts its faith in self-organizing movements of dissidence and protest, with the (non-)goal being a spontaneously self-organized cooperative society.” is a reductive straw man. Some anarchists do indeed believe that, but not all do and in my experience with people involved in anarchist organizations this is definitely not the only view. I realize that organized anarchists are not all and not the most visible anarchists, but I think your claim there is overly broad to the point of distortion.
I also think “self-organizing” movements is a really vague concept. In general I think your using an overly broad idea of self-organization here. I can see how there may be homology between (claims about) ecological systems and social systems and political organization, but I’m not convinced that the homology reveals more than it hides. For one thing, the specificity of what and how (and when the term is appropriate, who) is self-organized gets lost. Getting back to self-organized movements – as opposed to what? Movements organized by someone else? If so, who? And that someone else is organized how, by whom? (As in, is this someone else self-organized? If not, then we have an infinite regress. If so, then you don’t get away from self-organization but just repeat in another location the problem you pose.)
I think the claim that the anti-WTO protesters were “deeply Hayekian” can only be made by offering a pretty vacuous concept of self-organization, and I don’t see how that claim has any use in formulating alternative political directions. As far as I can tell from the Hayek comparison the only alternative might be some state centered approach to politics. There’s at least as much argument against that approach as there are arguments against the range of approaches that “the anti-WTO protestors” stands in for here – arguably the political efforts of the labor movement in the US are one good example of why a state focused approach isn’t a good idea.
I also don’t think Whitehead vs Spinoza is much use for these questions – that’s the wrong register, in my opinion. Lenin vs the left communists is a more productive avenue in my opinio, or Makhno vs Malatesta or Luxemburg and Kautsky and so on – problems of organization and movement building in their specificity under capitalism and the capititalist state (also vague, but less so).
All those critical remarks aside, I think you’re totally right about this – “We need to give up our superstitious reverence for results that seem to happen “by themselvesâ€.” Essentially the issue is that of sponaneism vs voluntarism. As much as voluntarism is problematic it is much less so than spontaneism, particularly in the present. I do think though that if you looked more at actually existing organizations on the left you might find a broader array of perspectives, even among the spontaneist fetishists of self-organization that do exist.
take care,
8. [...] The giant ungrounding constructs display a madness of reason (what Kant missed, Lacan pointed out and Schelling embraced) in which the dangerousness of the speculative thought process bores into the planet or a thought which lets nature dig through itself (its own grounding – exposing itself to its own anti-equilibrium (here we could take a look at The Medea Hypothesis which Steven Shaviro discusses here). [...]
9. You make many striking and insightful points, and right now I’m not running on full batteries, so to speak (wiped out after a day of sightseeing in Kyoto), so I will limit myself to a rather broad and abstract observation. The contemporary “faith” in complexity arises from the reliance upon mediation, that there are stages, feedbacks, interrelationships between us and whatever is out there (markets, the web, the state, etc.). It seems to me that this reliance serves also as a kind of last bastion of liberal individualism – the belief that there is a kind of space, limited though it may be, where our actions have effects, where we can pursue our intentions and achieve our objectives. It is thanks to this space that the world assumes the consistency we identify with a working market, with the hopes expressed in a political protest, the flow of information, etc.
But there are a couple of hypotheses which express the other of this standpoint, in addition to your call for an aesthetic of decision. The first one is that political revolutions (whether left or right) tend to erode their foundations in the direction of emergence, which is not so much its positive achievement as symptomatic of the impotence of politics itself. John Gray argues that the major legacy of Thatcher’s revolution was to destroy conservatism as a political force in the UK. Similarly, the Chinese cultural revolution paves the way for the acquisitive bourgeois subject promoted by the party since the Deng years.
The second hypothesis is that the impotence of politics is more apparent than real. I know this sounds reductive, but this generally means, in my view, Locke in good times, Hobbes in bad ones. The movement from Hobbes to Locke was largely what happened through the American revolution and European imperialism. The movement from Locke to Hobbes, on the other hand, usually passes through some totalitarian stage – Hitler, Stalin – which has the effect of chastening and focusing people’s expectations. Recently, I heard a talk about peak oil in which the Orwellian scenario was the best-case scenario, because it at least preserved some form of rule of law. It also struck me as optimistic, because a totalitarian surveillance society requires a state that can consistently post budget surpluses. The alternative to 1984 (good) was Mad Max (bad) and The Road (ugly).
10. Ted says:
Interesting post, and I wonder to what extent the modern interest in/preoccupation with self-organizing systems is a function of what Thomas Haskell has called the “recession of causality.” I’ve blogged here about the topic.
One clarification: Hayek, in his early work, at least (i.e., The Road to Serfdom), is not opposed to some types of planning/organization/ state intervention. He is, however, against centralized, monopolistic planning placed in the hands of a select few. This is a common misconception about his work propagated by both the left and the right.
11. Kirby Olson says:
Didn’t understand the Paik presentation unless it’s Hegelian: everything always becomes its opposite. So we should try for totalitarianism, in order to get democracy?
12. Kirby Olson says:
Aristotle does say in Politics that when you let democracy in, there’s a tendency for it to become a totalitarianism of the weak, since there’s more of them. Is that part of what was meant?
13. Kirby, I suppose my reflections can be regarded as Hegelian, though I would rather call them “Smerdyakovian,” as in the character from Brothers Karamazov, the one who actually puts into practice what others theorize, but with catastrophic results. He exemplifies the following response from the intellectuals, “that’s not what I meant at all!”
Thus, we will not get democracy from trying for totalitarianism, unless we’re being led by Bokonon from Cat’s Cradle. But there are certain crises in which totalitarianism appears wholly necessary – for a truly green politics, an incredibly invasive regime of regulation, even at the personal level, of energy use would be in order.
14. Christian van Balen says:
“aesthetics of decision” = badiou
15. Kirby Olson says:
Peter, thanks for the interesting response! I just mowed the lawn (very unecological, but the town demands five inches or less!), and feel like I have a lobotomy.
All activism creates the kinds of catastrophic results you mention, I think, because activist usually only understand one or two sentences of the theorists, and then apply the theory lopsidedly, and with way too much enthusiasm. What are you going to do?
16. Kirby Olson says:
What I mean by the last bit is that theorists generally don’t DO anything, while activists generally do NOT think, or if they do, theorists can only say, call THAT thinking?
From the turd who shot George Tiller, to the moronic Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution, you see what activists are — they work on a tiny trace of information, and almost invariably go too far.
But theorists on the other hand never do anything, or do it less well than the activists. Even the better theorists who actually do try to get something done (Trotsky) are no match for the theoretical simpletons who know how to get stuff done (Stalin).
It’s always going to be like that. At least Dostoevsky found some comedy in it. In the Devils, he also writes about that. Maybe it’s his big topic.
17. schluehk says:
Sounds like a libertarian strawman to me created to defeat the enemies or freedom or something like this.
18. Kirby Olson says:
Schluehk, I couldn’t tell if it was just an observation, or a militant suggestion. I thought it was just an observation. That, in order to work, it’s going to require way too much nanny-state. The original post seems to be suggesting nanny-statism, too, though. That self-organization won’t work. Is that the implication? I couldn’t figure out what was being prescribed, or if anything was prescribed, either in the opening post, or in Paik’s phrase.
I think first we need a decent description of the problem before we attempt any prescription. And I think the best description of the natural world’s current state is Lomberg’s The Environmental Skeptic.
He argues that we now have more tree cover than ever, the water quality is better, that global warming is a bunch of lies (Greenland had massive farming until the 10th century’s Little Ice Age kicked in), and he offers many dry analyses of the Sky Is Falling leftism that attempts to whip everybody into panic. The left, since Hitler and Stalin, have always used panic mode to create order.
Kim Jong-Il still uses it, as does Mugabe, and many others. And meanwhile, they try to stop all discussion from outsiders.
But people like Lomberg still slip through, and become the standard reference. He’s a statistician (Danish) and belongs to Greenpeace, but he thinks everything that’s being said is a lie, kind of like the feminazi rape rates of the 70s in which women were being raped at 90% rates, to whip everyone into a frenzy.
Lots of academics attempt that kind of thing, but it just makes all credibility of any data or arguments emerging out of academia look doubtful, and probably, a priori, with an agenda of increasing the state’s control of the personal realm.
19. Yusef says:
“(Greenland had massive farming until the 10th century’s Little Ice Age kicked in), ”
No one disputes the effect of climate change on the failure of Norse settlements in Greenland–this was a factor. What was also a factor was the settlers’ stubborn reliance on agricultural practices unsustainable in Greenland, their unwillingness to adapt these practices, even as they became less and less useful to them. When the Norse settlements finally died out through starvation and exposure, the Inuits in the area were thriving–if the Norse people had learned from the Inuits,been willing to adapt, at the very least they would not have died the horrible, sad deaths they did.
You say, “water quality is better.” I wonder–better from when? Where better? Better now in the US than the US in the 70’s–maybe. Better now in the US than when european settlers began arriving in large numbers in the 17th and 18th centuries?–undoubtedly not. Better now in China than in China in the 70’s?–undoubtedly not.
“water quality is better”–perhaps you mean treatment of drinking water is better. Have you considered ocean water quality? Do you think that’s better? Is ocean aquatic life thriving right now? Why isn’t there a Maine fishing industry anymore? Is the fishery of George’s Bank depleted because it was over-regulated by enviro-Totalitarians?
Either we have environmental problems or we do not. If we do not, give me some examples of pristine environments anywhere in the world. Give me some examples of where on earth there is no environmental degradation. Without these examples you might give me, I can only think of ecosystem after ecosystem stressed to a critical or near-critical level.
If there are environmental problems, why wouldn’t we begin to think of finding ways to adapt? (ie, ways to solve these problems.) Why would pro-active adaptive thinking be so quickly judged to be what you call “nanny-statism”? What are your examples of successful management of an ecosystem by the methods of what we are calling “self-organization”? Can you actually name any? Does “self-organization” have such a successful track record that we might rely on it for managing the biosphere?
20. Yusef says:
But I can think of many examples of activism which have resulted in great success–in progress. In the context of this conversation, I think of the successes of fish and game management. Without any regulation, whole populations of game animals were eliminated. For example, in the late 19th Century-early 20th Century, there were no longer white-tailed deer in Pennsylvania. Now of course, white-tailed deer are numerous in Pennsylvania. One could say, “it’s better now.” Yes, it is better now, but it’s better now because of activism, because of regulation. Because of intervention by the state government of Pennsylvania. What seems important to me is that the benefit of this regulation, the return of white-tailed deer in sufficient numbers for hunting, was hailed by all, even though all suffered some restriction on their behavior–this nonsense about any regulation of any kind being “nanny-statism” and Totalitarian didn’t get much of a hearing until…What? I don’t know what happened to our collective intelligence, but it’s taken some kind of hit, I guess.
21. schluehk says:
The original post seems to be suggesting nanny-statism, too, though. That self-organization won’t work. Is that the implication?
Self-organization has no meaning by itself. One has to specify a system and the constraints in which self-organization shall be sustainable. A market economy that produces crashes on a regular base is no less self-organizing than one which maintains soft economic cycles if one loosens the constraints and defines no outset.
About state nanny-ism. We know about the effect of state nanny-ism when it becomes too oppressive: black markets and pervasive corruption. I wouldn’t wonder if even North Korea ruled by a militarist, state socialist regime will turn out to have a flowering black market, slave workers and an army that is totally corrupt. So why not assume that the co-organization of public and economical life with private and state actors is sustainable only in a small habitable zone? Of course there is no clear concept of the latter either but the surveillance state is rather none just as a society that splinters into an undefinable number of fundamentalist sects ( or corporations ) that all do their own thing and call their anti-social attitude “freedom”.
BTW the impression that the current nanny-state is some sort of inverted socialism, making huge debts used to preserve the gains of the riches who in turn will make economical investments is a perverse order that shall re- or deregulated in the years to come. This is my opinion.
22. Kirby Olson says:
Lomberg was writing about the mountainous areas of America (have you read The Environmental Skeptic?). For instance, in the Catskill Mountains where I live the mountains were clear-cut in the late 1800s for small farming. The remains of the small farms are still here in the stone walls. But now farming in this area is impossible to sustain, and the trees have grown back as a result. There were 20,000 farms here about 50 years ago, but we’re now down to about 2,000. Farming creates a lot of run-off, esp. in the pesticides used. The farmers now make better prices if they work organically — and the run-off isn’t as bad.
In a museum of public works in Baltimore near Poe’s old house there was a whole exhibition about plumbing in the 19th century. The same pipes were used for shitting and drinking. It was a catastrophe. So we now treat the water, and so, when it goes back into the streams from our sewerage facilities it’s actually cleaner than when it was first taken into the stream to help process the poop. And the poop is pressed clean, and treated, until it doesn’t even stink, and then neatly laid into landfills where it acts as fertilizer. Everything is a lot neater and cleaner than the batty nineteenth century, much less the eighteenth, which had leathery wings, if you ask me, it was so bats.
The oceans are getting fished out, I suppose. There are now so many more people, living longer, because of the advances in hygiene, and the advances in medicine. So things are cleaner for people, and now there’s more of them. The peoples of the bloated and now destroyed Spanish colonial regimes from Puerto Rico and Mexico and the Philippines are fleeing Catholic areas to get into Protestant areas, and the same thing is happening as Islamic people flee their lands and stream into Catholic and Protestant countries.
Marxist countries have largely collapsed — Marxism never had any idea what nature was, Marx didn’t — romantic bimbo with bugs in his beard. He seemed to think growth was sustainable in his beard. The communists in the USSR drained the ARAL sea and turned it into a mud puddle — from 100 millions of tons of fish it went down to no fish. Now it’s coming back but ever so slowly.
The notion of stewardship, perhaps, can be combined with some notion of the self-organizing of nature (the notions of Adam Smith), and perhaps intertwine with some Darwinian and Dionysian, and other ideas.
There are more deer in these parts now. Everybody hits one once or twice a year, and it keeps the collision specialists rather busy. Full-employment, at least in that sector.
23. Yusef says:
“The oceans are getting fished out, I suppose. There are now so many more people, living longer, because of the advances in hygiene, and the advances in medicine. So things are cleaner for people, and now there’s more of them. ”
Except that I can, against the common background of a worldwide human population increase, compare different fisheries managed (or not managed) using different techniques and see very different results in terms of commercial fish production. Those fisheries which have been managed with stringent regulation are thriving. Those fisheries where fishing was unrestricted have been plundered and more or less destroyed.
There’s virtually no downside to the regulation and management of the Alaskan salmon fishery–everyone, from the consumer of the salmon to the fisherman to the cannery owner or operator has a benefit from it though every participant accepts a limitation imposed upon their behavior.
One of the practices which hurt the salmon fishery was the dumping of cannery waste back into the ocean, which fouled the bottom of the ocean and killed fish or the food of fish. Now, cannery waste is utilized as fertilizer which gives another revenue stream to the cannery as well as increasing agricultural production wherever the fertilizer is used. Canneries liked the convenience of just dumping the waste, but with a little regulatory nudging were persuaded to change and I doubt they’d ever willingly revert back.
Nevertheless, we have to suffer through hearing people describe any regulatory regime as only resulting in economic catastrophe. I could stand hearing SOME regulatory regimes being described as bad, as indeed SOME regulatory regimes are bad. We could have expected to have better and better regulatory regimes as our knowledge of what was being regulated was improved scientifically–this I admit. But that’s not the way we went. We treated regulatory regimes as if they’d failed us utterly; we adopted magical thinking of “self-organization” with its pseudo-scientific ring to cover over our failure to carefully look at what worked and how with what didn’t.
24. Kirby Olson says:
Fair enough — some regulation of industry with government playing the watchdog role is fine. I think
1. this isn’t “activism” though — as I see activism as individual initiative to spur others into action (Greenpeace, for example, or Earth First! or the kids who let out fur-bearing animals into the cold in a mindless effort to save them, and it results in them all dying off in the weeds
2. if government becomes the industry (as is now happening to Chrysler) who will play watchdog? This is what has happened in N. Korea. Checks and balances are gone. In Adam Smith you had industry and the “invisible hand” but the “invisible hand” could get slapped by regulatory commissions when it got too greedy or got “out of hand”
But I agree that there should be different agencies and that they should keep a sharp eye on one another.
That we still have at least two parties is a good thing, but I’d like to see even more, as in European countries (Finland has at least twenty functioning parties, and they are always at one another’s throat, which I think is a good thing).
These two parties are like McDonald’s and Burger king. Not too different, evne if one of them offers a Vegetarian BK at 2.29 made out of God knows what.
No one who actually works in those places and knows what goes into it probably ever eats the food. Same thing for the potato farmers of Idaho. They would never eat commercially grown Montesano potatoes filled with ook. In Russia the people won’t eat food grown in Russia. They know better. They buy everything they can from Finland.
Probably no one can self-regulate. They need someone from another competing and hostile agency to regulate them.
REv. Moon owns almost the entire Sushi industry. He threatens to off regulators if they declare his factories unhygienic. In that respect, he’s a lot like Kim Jong-Il.
But I do agree that regulation by government agencies of private industry is a decent idea.
But I don’t have any idea if that’s what the original post was about, do you?
25. Yusef says:
I think that is what the original post is about–it’s a critique of “faith” (in a strong sense of that word as sort of a blind, unthinking confidence in some thing or idea) of self-organization, of people or a society or the world or the life world trusted to take care of itself more or less automatically and reflexively, without the necessity of decisions being made of what’s to be done.
If you do think, “some regulation of industry with government playing the watchdog role is fine”, then I see you in agreement with the original post and with me because with this being true, then for us it becomes a matter of all of us making decisions (even though these could be very difficult to make, with disagreements arising between us on specific cases,) about when we would use regulation and how best for the government to be organized by us to play its watchdog role.
26. Kirby Olson says:
Yes, I am then in agreement, and I do think it should be the government playing the watchdog role.
We have various regulatory agencies, which I think should play that role.
Too often it’s vigilante groups without governmental authorization who play that role. I’m against all of those, from the jerk who shot abortion doctor George Tiller, to the clods who destroy farms by releasing minks.
I think Greenpeace should limit itself to speech, and not do illegal actions.
Activists are too often wicked in their pursuit of justice. Government on the other hand — frmo the police who catch the bad people, to various other regulatory groups, are on the other hand, fairly good (although of course they too need regulatory oversight, and must not have a free hand to kill and maim those they go after).
The great difference between western democracies and the corrupt third world is apparently entirely a matter of better legal regulations from ownership of private property (no one owns it in Haiti except the very rich since it requires so much legal work that no one else can afford it according to De Soto).
Law and order, then. We agree.
Which is good, I think.
One of the problems with Dostoevsky’s vigilantes is that they too often take matters into their own hands. This happens in the Devils, and in Crime and Punishment, and other stories. They aren’t appointed to do what they do.
Something similar has happened in Islam in which self-appointed terrorists go after westerners, and blow them to smithereens (busses in Cairo, head chop of journalists, World Trade Center towers).
Self-regulation doesn’t work. Other people have to regulate us, from umps to judges.
Self-regulation is a God-awful thing.
Even in writing you need referees to guarantee that something is ok (university presses hire outside referees).
In the wild west of the internet a certain lawlessness prevails. thank you for the civil exchange!
27. jhanson says:
it appears to me that the main difference between the approach of lovelock and peter ward concerns the value of time
ward uses the broad geological timeframe while lovelock is keeping pretty close to now
over time the earth will change as it will and we may or may not have an accurate sense of how that happens…ice-ages – extinctions – massive die-offs…while all supported with scientific evidence sort of fade into the horizon of speculation…quite likely things like this happened but how well can we know about them?
whereas lovelock looks at phenomena of the now
killing the whales tends to leave mass populations of krill to grow and die off without being reduced naturally by whales so the die-offs produce high amount of corbon dioxide in the ocean which become weather systems…this can be observed…i think it fair to say that scientific observations of mass clearcutting of the rain forests has measurable effect in local weather patterns…and in a broader sense weather systems further from the fact
rachel carson was able to actually observe and describe the effect of chemical pesticideds and herbicides
the use of the water from the colorado river results in but a trickle into the sea and in the area around the delta there which was once quite lush with vegitation is now desolate…and fish and bird populations are effected
i think that’s all lovelock is trying to say
the other thing is we tend to base our world view on the global community idea even now…we are given over by the media to know and understand the effects of war in far away places on our lives…the treatment of tibetans is disturbing to buddhists in american or even simply the empathetic
the medea hypothesis seems to posit the notion: no matter what we do in the long run we are phuqqqed
lovelock seems to be saying: hey let’s treat the planet like it is a living organism…very complex…but at some level everything is tied into everything else…maybe that’s simply attractive because it seems to include sentiment that is both scientific and religious
tielhard de chardin sj (the divine milieux) conceived of the mind of humankind the collective desire for knowledge and wisdom all moving toward a common point the omega point through what he termed the nuos-sphere…he was rather optimistic that this was a good thing and it corresponds with christian eschatology…maybe he had something there
i too enjoyed your dialectical overview of this hypothesis
28. apnea says:
Shorter Kirby Olson:
“Hey, once I drop the name-calling and actually listen to people, I find they’re making sense.
Even leftists !”
29. Kirby Olson says:
Is Jean Bethke Elshtain considered a leftist? She makes a LOT of sense to me.
Communism makes no sense: it offers a dictatorial proletariat overseen by a party that isn’t elected by the proletariat that is in turn run by an actual dictator who forms a one-party state in perpetuity that is supposed to wither away a la N. Korea, or Myanmar.
It is structurally unsound.
Give me Madison and checks and balances,
Give me factions ala Hamilton (letter ten of the Federalist Papers)
Give me some sense of reality!
Vietnam today is NOT FREE, China is NOT FREE.
You can harvest the organs of anyone you want if you are a party member in China, and no one can say a peep.
Leftists are too often naive. I do however try to be nice to them. Because I am trying to understand their illness.
Minimally you need an independent judiciary, different competing institutions, etc. It’s crazy to want MArxism.
I don’t think you can just let communist assholes organize.
If you do, it always ends up like the mafia. That’s self-organization for you. Vladmir Putin or Vladimir Lenin, Tony Soprano or — Kim Jong-Il, or only too happy to organize the world around their personal whims.
30. kirby olson says:
Steve Shaviro’s latest book is on the new offerings in philosophy table at Book Culture up by Columbia University, along with Zizek’s crazy new book on Christianity (geez, it would be nice if that guy would read at least a PRIMER about Christianity, he doesn’t get ANYTHING right), and is also on the newbies table at Labyrinth Books at Princeton. Just thought I’d let you all know. As I go around NYC and environs, I see Steve’s book all over the place.
31. [...] Against Self-OrganizationSteven Shaviro on the Medea hypothesis(tags:eco geo peopleiknow ) [...]
32. [...] Deleuzian-Whiteheadian process philosopher and media/lit crit Steven Shaviro shares a thoughtful review of a new book by paleontologist Peter Ward which argues that self-organizing systems aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. [...]
33. Troy Camplin says:
You are right to point out that self-organizaing systems are not inherently good. They are just the best structures for communicating lots of very complex information most effectively. Which is the definition of an economy.
I do find it strange that you think the U.S. economy in the last 30 years resembles in any way, shape, or form a Hayekian ideal. Kaynesian deficit spending to keep the economy “strong” have dominated since WWII. The current financial crisis was caused in no small part to a Keynesian approach to interest rates — with the Fed keeping them artificially low (something distinctly anti-Hayekian), creating false signals in the economy. I see no evidence of deregulation, only regulatory reforms that have helped some companies at the expense of others. Crony capitalism isn’t Hayekian catallaxy.
34. [...] Steven, “Against Self-Organization,” The Pinocchio Theory, 26 May 2009 Eco World Content From Across The Internet. [...]
35. [...] Heuristics / Ontology: _M.R. James and the Quantum Vampire, China Mieville. Collapse IV, 2008 _Against self organization by Steven Shaviro _Alien Phenomenology, Ian Bogost, 2012 _Intentional Objects for Non-Humans by Graham Harman, 2008 [...]
Leave a Reply | http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=756&cpage=1 | dclm-gs1-453405528 | false | true | {
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0.184614 | <urn:uuid:5f449170-7a37-4f68-b531-237f56296162> | en | 0.934114 | Neuroscience Explores Why Humans Feel Empathy for Robots | Science | Smithsonian
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Neuroscience Explores Why Humans Feel Empathy for Robots
Brain scans show that the neurological patterns linked with pangs of empathy for humans also occur when we see a robot treated harshly
Brain scans show that the neurological patterns linked with pangs of empathy for humans also occur when we see a robot like WALL-E treated harshly. Image via Flickr user Rob Boudon
If, while watching WALL-E, your heart broke just a little bit when you saw the title character desperately travel across outer space in search of true love, it doesn’t mean you’re crazy. Sure, WALL-E is a robot. But its cute, anthropomorphized look and all too human desire to end its loneliness made us subconsciously forget that it is not human.
The ability to forget that key point wasn’t just a matter of clever storytelling. New research shows that, at least in a small sample of people tested, the same neural patterns that occur when we feel empathy for a human onscreen are present in our brains when we see a robot onscreen.
A robot is shaken and beat up during the videos viewed as part of the experiment. Image via Rosenthal-von der Pütten et al
The results suggest that the reason we feel empathy for robots like WALL-E is that, when we see them treated a certain manner, it triggers the same sort of neural activity as seeing a human treated that way. In a sense, our mind interprets the robot to be human-like in a way that it doesn’t for, say, a rock. On the other hand, one possible explanation for why, despite this pattern, they still arouse less empathy than humans when being treated harshly is that we interpret them as something slightly less than human—something more like a pet.
Of course, this explanation comes with an important caveat: correlation vs. causation. We don’t know for sure that these neurological patterns cause empathy, per se, just that they reliably occur at the same time. (Further, we can’t say for sure that this effect is unique to robots—stuffed animals and dolls might engender the same feelings of empathy.)
Even if the patterns only correlate with empathy, though, they could be an effective objective measure of how much empathy people feel when observing various types of robots—and research into that area has practical implications that go far beyond Hollywood. One of the main areas, the scientists say, is in the engineering of robots that engage with humans on a frequent and long-term basis.
In one previous long-term study, two out of six elderly participants appeared to develop emotional attachments with a companion robot—giving it a name, speaking to it and at times even smiling at it—while the other four did not. Further exploring our empathy for robots and figuring out just which of their characteristics (whether physical, such as having a human-like face, or behavioral, such as smiling or walking on two legs) lead more people to feel for them could help engineers design robotic devices that elicit more empathy over the long-term—and devices that people can readily connect with on an emotional level might make more effective rehab coaches and home companions over the long-term.
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comments powered by Disqus | http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/neuroscience-explores-why-humans-feel-empathy-for-robots-38883609/ | dclm-gs1-453525528 | false | false | {
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0.024146 | <urn:uuid:a80620e5-be6d-454e-ac17-ae9a80a3d4e5> | en | 0.956137 | Shadows, Magic, and a tortus
Hi all, the following article is being wrote since I realised I never covered one of the first things before you decide which heroes you want to play. I am thanking MajestyDirtyBear for making me realise. So this first article will cover the initial three pets, or ‘the almighty three’ as I see them, since they give so much diversity in game play from a very early stage without grinding for the food to level them.
My personal choice has many ups and downs, from the very start as baby razer, you have a simple skill into the shadows (into the shadows) this skill will allow for the user to go invisible for 1.5 seconds. There is a lot you can do in 1.5 seconds, since your hero goes invisible all incoming attacks will automatically miss this can be useful to dodge even skills and items (for example Hexbane, pyrostaff etc), and note AoE effects still work on you. The first two upgrades into Razer Child are very fast in comparison to the rest, which shortens the cooldown of razer’s into the shadows, and adds carnivorous (Carnivorous), a skill that gives a form lifesteal effect (your next attack on a hero heals you for up to 64 health, 24 second cooldown) which is good for sustain in the laning phase. From this point I would say you have two choices, keep upgrading or look into new pets. When you come to the option of lifesteal vs attack speed in level 6,7, and 9, I recommend the lifesteal of vamperism (vamperism). Lifesteal pure form is very rare in the game, and attack speed is cheap in comparison, there are no basic items that gives lifesteal, but for 835 coins/gold you can get almost double the first upgrade of Savagery (Savagery).
Mystik is a very useful pet, he gives magic characters a real set up of burst with constant mana flow from his active ability and a passive dealing true damage. The skill with Mystik is the “mana flow” as I put it before, inspiration (Inspiration), at the start it gives 95 mana with a 3 minute cooldown, this is useful, on characters like ray and even bastion I find myself running out of mana a lot of the time. This skill falls off late game since that mana will only give you one more skill on a lot of heroes. His passive come level 3 gives you true damage, Dive Bomb (Dive Bomb), dive bomb allows for a lot of sustain early game and what I consider real damage with up to 64 pure damage every 24 seconds when a skill lands on a hero. Again you hit level 3 with this pet you have two options again if you picked this starter pet here in my view, upgrade or move on. If you upgrade, same as before I would take Magic Vamp over Magic damage. There are next to no items that give magic vamperism at this point, where as magic damage scales off power.
Tortus is a troll pet in my view, in earlier levels at least. His active ability, Rejuvenate (Rejuvenate), it heals the user 200 health over time with a 240 second cooldown. Now, this kind of active is useful for every character but there is a reason I referred to it as troll, if you are dived under tower, this ability will give you the potential to live the dive and possibly get a kill from the tower. So he’s hit level 3 and you have the option, but you also have yet another sustain ability, Harden (Harden), basically all harden does is give you a shield, early game the shield blocks nearly two attacks, on a hero like Bastion or Hale which can allow for substantial harassment in the early game giving you and your team an advantage except against someone else with sustain. Now where does this leave us, is it worth upgrading past level 3 in my view, and what skills I think you should take come level 6,7 and 9. The passives of more health or more mana regen are easy enough to cover in items, so in my view there is no point to continuing maxing this pet, unless you’re in a team and are doing an harassment based role in your team.
Thank you for reading, I will be releasing a new guide for Rook tomorrow, since he appears as the most popular of characters for people with Razer when they start out, guess it is a thing of the myst. Also if you have any questions feel free to comment here and on the reddit post, I will reply when I see them. | http://www.strifehq.com/shadows-magic-and-a-tortus/ | dclm-gs1-453695528 | false | false | {
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0.062654 | <urn:uuid:bc09002a-0477-43f1-bfcc-ea7be3fd87d7> | en | 0.962029 | On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin made a funny about the GOP’s (relatively speaking) decent showing among voters right now: “Republicans have tried something new: they made a budget deal and they’re not shutting [down] the government.” After saying this, Holtz-Eakin initially kept a straight face. His bottom lip quivered. Laughter ensued.
No, seriously.
Republicans made a budget deal and didn’t shut down the government.
Hear, hear.
The public craves, now as ever, two things: stability and widely shared prosperity. Promising the latter is fine; actually providing it is best. Denying the former is fatal.
Dave Weigel reports at Slate:
One of the bullet points that convinced most House Republicans to back [the budget] bill was “hey, let’s shut up about everything except Obamacare.” (I’m paraphrasing.)
If true, Republicans are grossly miscalculating.
Yet again.
The truth is, polling on Obamacare is not starkly different than it was two years ago. And recall that, in October, during the shutdown, the needle moved toward approval of Obamacare not because it was working well (obviously), but because Republicans shut down the government over it.
The numbers on Obamacare fell to earth again largely because of the “If you like your plan, you can keep it” imbroglio. In other words, Obamacare suffers most when people feel like it’s going to disrupt their lives. Hence the seeming paradox that’s not really a paradox: the law itself is unpopular, and so is the idea of repealing it.
Disruption is the common denominator.
A wise party would learn from this. A wise party would not be salivating over the next opportunity to destabilize the government, spook markets, and upset stability-craving voters. A wise party would seek to either constructively improve or offer a serious alternative to the law, or else take the public’s hint and simply keep its head down and do its job.
But wisdom is in short supply.
And we’re probably still looking at a clown show. | http://www.theamericanconservative.com/were-probably-at-peak-republican/ | dclm-gs1-453835528 | false | false | {
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0.315338 | <urn:uuid:7a448457-ea34-4e17-9118-44870c835141> | en | 0.955301 | Are the Suburbs Where the American Dream Goes to Die?
By Matthew O'Brien
Wikimedia Commons
As usual, the elephant in the room here is race. So let's address it: the researchers found that the larger the black population, the lower upward mobility. But on closer inspection, this has something to do with population density too. I went back to the Census data, and looked at the same ten cities Krugman did, but this time I compared their population-density ratios and the percent of their population that's black. There isn't nearly a perfect relationship -- look at Boston or Dallas or Houston -- but there is a relationship.
Now, it's not that suburbs outside the South and Rust Belt are some kind of integrated utopia -- far, far from it -- but rather that density changes things. Well-off whites who work in the city and live close by have an interest in paying for the kind of public goods, like mass transit, that benefit everybody. Well-off whites who live far away don't. Atlanta, of course, is the prototypical case here: going back to the 1970s, it's under-invested in public transit, because car-driving suburbanites haven't wanted to pay for something they think only poor blacks would use (to come, they fear, to their lily-white cul-de-sacs). Even last year, a compromise bill that would have increased the sales tax by 1 percentage points for 10 years to pay for expanded roads and railways in the always-congested city got voted down. This malign neglect of infrastructure keeps low-income people from living near or commuting to better jobs -- and that's not a a race issue. Indeed, the researchers also found that whites and blacks in Atlanta both have a hard time moving up. In other words, racial polarization might spur sprawl, which makes cities less likely to invest in their infrastructure -- and underfunded infrastructure hurts low-income people of all races.
Of course, the story of mass transit isn't just a story about race. There's plenty else going on. Sprawl happens in the Sun Belt, because it can. There's more land. And coastal cities are denser, because they have to be -- though even then, they don't always build better infrastructure. Just look at Los Angeles. But for whatever the reason, upward mobility has a local flavor. And that means part of the solution will too. As Reihan Salam argues, loosening zoning restrictions and building out public transit would let cities become denser and more livable. Both, of course, die a thousand NIMBY deaths in a thousand different cities.
There's an old vision of the American Dream that is obsolete, and has been for quite awhile. That's Thomas Jefferson's idea of a nation of self-sufficient farmers -- an agrarian republic. Over time, as people left the countryside for the cities during the Industrial Revolutions, this vision morphed: it became a nostalgia for (and even snobbery of) small towns. It's a vision that Republicans still cling to. Remember when Sarah Palin talked about "real America"? Or when Republicans warned that high-speed rail and bike lanes were some kind of socialist plot? It's a vision of America at odds with the American Dream today.
It turns out the best place to pursue happiness -- and a career -- is in the city.
This article available online at: | http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2013/07/are-the-suburbs-where-the-american-dream-goes-to-die/278014/ | dclm-gs1-453845528 | false | false | {
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0.037699 | <urn:uuid:6a5b413d-dde4-490b-947f-f242c59cea10> | en | 0.964465 | Duty on long-haul flights and funding for wind energy do not satisfy green campaigners
Airline passenger duty (APD) on flights to destinations such as Thailand, South Africa and the Seychelles will increase by 25% from next year and by will rise by half from that in 2010.
Alistair Darling said the move would benefit the environment, but his decision to have a more draconian flight tax and to give only a small boost to a low-carbon economy angered the green movement.
The APD is presently levied at £10 on an economy-class flight to European destinations and £40 for long-haul flights.
The chancellor has introduced four new bands with a starting level of £11 on tickets for destinations within 2,000 miles of London; £45 for flights of up to 4,000 miles; £50 for 4,000-6,000 miles and £55 for flights over 6,000. The changes do not come into effect until next November.
The duty will rise again the following year so by 2010-11, the tax on the lowest band will be £12; band B will be £60; a band C flight to Bangkok or Johannesburg will be £75, and the top band will be £85.
"I have decided to reform APD into a four-band system ensuring that those who travel further and have a larger environmental impact meet that cost," Darling explained.
His decision to drop a previously proposed airline duty worried airlines but delighted the Airport Operators Association, which said it had "won the battle". The World Development Movement argued that the end of a possible airline duty was "bad news for the UK taxpayer, the environment and the world's poor".
The government did give a significant boost to the wind power industry by extending the Renewables Obligation (RO) of financial support until 2037.
Darling also brought forward what he said was more than £500m worth of spending to be used on insulating homes and other energy-efficiency initiatives.
But there was no wider green New Deal, whereby large amounts of public money would be poured into creating a low-carbon future, as had been called for by environmentalists.
The chancellor said the RO, which legally requires electricity suppliers in Britain to source a growing percentage of their power from green sources, would run for a further 10 years to 2037. This would ensure "investors can plan with confidence for the future", he said.
The British Wind Energy Association said it was "really encouraging" and would stimulate those companies looking at plans to build expensive projects far out in the North Sea. "Under the old regime, many companies were worried that the current RO was going to run out half way through their schemes," said a spokesman.
Darling also said that £535m of capital spending to promote government environmental objectives would be brought forward to sustain 350,000 jobs in the low-carbon sector. About £100m of new money would be spent on helping 60,000 low-income homes cut their energy bills through insulation.
Despite these measures, John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director, said he was disappointed. "This was an historic opportunity to invest billions in a low-carbon, high-technology future but the chancellor blew it. We can only hope that by the time he formulates the budget itself, he will have grasped the potential of hi-tech climate solutions to get us out of this recession.
"Once again the aviation industry has been given a free pass at a time when its contribution to climate change is rising."
The government also highlighted expected changes to the North Sea tax regime that are likely to please the oil and gas industry, which feared a windfall tax.
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0.035955 | <urn:uuid:2c823ba8-357b-401a-85b8-177f5925039b> | en | 0.964746 | Dimitrenko Deflates Krasniqi
BY Phil Woolever ON November 14, 2008
DUSSELDORF - Rack up a big one, giant size, for youth over experience.
The 26 year-old Alexander Dimitrenko put himself in the thick of the heavyweight hunt, and quite justifiably the top ten, with a perfect left uppercut under the rib cage that sunk Luan Krasniqi in the third round of their highly energized encounter on Saturday.
Krasniqi had some productive moments prior to that point, but Dimitrenko's spearing gutshot made the early scoring academic.
"I expected more from him," said Dimitrenko. "I was surprised by what happened. At first there was nothing, then a delayed reaction and it was over. But that's boxing."
"I wanted to get up but it wasn't possible," said a dejected Krasniqi. "That's the heaviest punch I've ever taken. I never felt pain like that."
The well publicized battle garnished considerable high profile attention here and an enthusiastic, sold out swarm of 4,500 showed up at Burg-Wacher Castello for an excellent Universum Promotions card. Most in attendance were loudly for Krasniqi at the first bell, but to the victor went the spoils and Kasniqi was booed after the climax.
Both men were said to have earned around a million dollar purse for the contest that was broadcast live by the 2DF network.
Muzzled guard dogs near the entrances set a no-nonsense tone for the night, but there was still a party atmosphere throughout the arena, which featured the area's typically large contingent of well heeled VIPs, muscular fanatics and local models. Claudia Schiffer was discovered here, and the standard remains upheld.
There was an unusual frenzy as the fighters came down their own special, orange strobe-lighted runway to blaring tunes. The fighters lived up to the prelude and threw huge punches immediately.
It was an excellent, fast paced fight while it lasted.
The 6' 7'' Dimitrenko, 256 3/4, scored with a train sized jab and looked like he dwarfed the 6' 3'' 1/2 Krasniqi, 225 3/4, at first but Krasniqi got inside with good looping lefts and had the capacity crowd roaring with every punch he threw.
It looked like both men showed up in top shape. Neither was breathing hard after a furious first frame.
They traded jarring jabs and Krasniqi seemed to be getting the better of many exchanges. He bulled Dimitrenko to the ropes and made the younger man hold on a few times to keep from getting pounded from all angles inside.
Krasniqi managed to back Dimitrenko up, but his right eye looked tender from Dimitrenko's jab. Dimitrenko started whipping in long uppercuts in the second, but Krasniqi stayed inside many of them and continued to score from both sides, coming over the top with rights. After the second session, Dimitrenko blinked in his corner as if he might be having trouble adjusting to the range and the pace.
Dimmitrenko tried to adjust his right hand timing as Krasniqi kept serious, successful pressure on.
Then the dam broke for the local hero.
Krasniqi landed a jab, then started to duck away as Dimitrenko thumped him atop the head in response. Dimitrenko followed up with a short, half hooking left that landed at a forty five degree angle underneath Krasniqi's ribs.
Krasniqi froze for a moment and you could see the impact shudder up his torso. He stepped back without air, tried to will himself to keep standing, but crumpled to his knees in pain on the center of the canvas.
That was that, as his tortured eyes testified, and referee Manuel Palomo seemed to count in freeze-frame motion as the crowd began to jeer. The official time was 2:54.
Krasniqi was blameless but disgraced. It looked like the punch sank in wrist deep. This is a tough game indeed.
"I'm sorry my fans were disappointed but there was nothing I could do," said Krasniqi. "I did my best. I thought I was in control."
The crowd had favored Krasniqi primarily because he embraced relocating to Germany from Kosovo, while Dimitrenko still touts his Ukranian roots.
"I understand that the fans were not behind me," said Dimitrenko. "But I think I convinced them. I caught him with a very good punch that landed harder than I thought. I am ready to fight at a championship level now. I've trained with Wladimir Klitschko and I know what it takes."
"Sasha" Dimitrenko, now 29-0 (19), rises to the top while Krasniqi, 30-4-1 (14), may have seen the last of the really big time.
Dimitrenko's well rounded assault may have also propelled trainer Fritz Sdunek, who also handled Vitali Klitschko and Felix Sturm in dominant performances recently, to the front of the line for Trainer of the Year.
Dimitrenko is due to face a more internationally renowned slugging star now, and judging from Saturday's performance he's prepared for the task.
It's hard to go unnoticed for long when you're as large as Dimitrenko. It's looks like it's just about his time to be a center of attention in the suddenly more interesting heavyweight division.
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Meg Ryan... Fake or Real?
3/24/2007 4:05 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
Meg Ryan
In 1993, Meg Ryan flashed a different sort of smile, and has a nice full pucker at a premiere in 2004.
Fake or real: click to see
No Avatar
let's start with what's not fake.........oh wait - that's EVERYTHING
2768 days ago
Real deal
Meg about a fall from grace! She used to be America's sweetheart (20 years ago). Now she is just an unhappy person looking for the next megahit.
2768 days ago
Dennis Quaid must be happy she kick him to the curb. Seen his new wife - whatta babe!
2768 days ago
Poor thing went way overboard with cheek implants and lip injections ultimately ruining her career. If she had left her face alone she would be worth watching. Now, all people do when she's on screen is stare at her lips going "My God!"
2768 days ago
SAY WHAT???
This is a sad picture that should have the caption "when bad face lifts happen to good people". Sure the lips are ugly and ginormous, but the face lift... she should sue.
2768 days ago
Why are all these white girls getting these lips???? They are not lucious nor attractive on them. They look downright ugly and certainly takes away "their used to be beauty". The only answer I can come up with, is to show they have money and can afford botox. Why else would you want inflated rubber lips. I too wonder when they look in the mirrow, do they really see these inflated lips as beauty????
2768 days ago
Ima Speck
I wonder if it's bad plastic surgury or if more of an aging aloholic's bloat? Seems more of the latter to me. Sad!
2767 days ago
JR, its because full lips are a sign of youth. When a person ages their lips get thinner, naturally. So in order to get back that youthful look a lot of stars mistakenly overplump up their lips and they end up looking STUPID because it doesnt look natural. Melanie griffith also did it.
I am fortunate enough to have really full lips so hopefully this will not happen as I age... fingers crossed. But if it does, I will still never get my lips done. Age gracefully, Meg!!!
2767 days ago
She looks like the "Joker" from Batman!
2766 days ago
She used to be such a dolly, now she looks like the Joker From Batman. Very Sad
2765 days ago
She looks like a deranged duck now!
2763 days ago
This is sooooo sad.
I had rented Kate and Leopold and couldn't figure out what was wrong with Meg. She just didn't have that CHARM. It took me awhile to figure out, that something was wrong with her mouth.
Meg's mouth was what made her cute, esp when she would smile. It's a shame she didn't realize that. Now I know why she hasn't been in any movies lately.
2526 days ago
Annie O
It is a tragedy. I think when especially actresses alter their faces with the fake lips, face lifts or whatever, they ruin their ability to act. The natural espressions that an actress (or actor) uses in their craft is diminished, altered, or completely voided.
That said, Meg Ryan was one of the cutest stars in Hollywood. Melanie Griffin is comical -- but evidently Antonio doesn't mind. Joan Rivers, Farrah Fawcett and Dollie Parton look like cariatures of themselves. Joan Rivers, a couple of procedures or face lifts ago was looking really good but she has over done it. Sometimes they loosen up or something and start looking better over time -- but I am afraid poor Meg's isn't going to go away.
2728 days ago
My husband has referred to her as "duck lips" ever since she had the disastrous procedure! Poor thing, she used to be adorable, but now she just looks freaky.
2728 days ago
Meg was once upon a time very cute. I'm sorry Meg, but, what ever you did to your mouth now reminds me of the Joker in Superman. Please do something to fix your face.
2728 days ago
| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments
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0.039945 | <urn:uuid:cb03586f-f649-4cd8-a61d-98348e6264e3> | en | 0.893417 | By: Jeremy Gutsche - Published: • References: exploitingchaos
Kanye West and Ashton Kutcher were part of an epic high five battle that saw 75 Ashtons and Kanyes "Exploit Chaos" in Toronto's Dundas Square. The "Kanye vs Ashton" high fiving feud was apparently fueled by a tiff related to Kanye's glasses and Ashton's trucker hat.
Like many flash mob epic high five battles, the first round led the two mobs to a tie game... Now, Kanye and Ashton need YOU to go to to decide the final round. Who would you high five? Kanye or Ashton?
Behind the Kanye vs Ashton Scenes
When Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, called Jeremy Gutsche's EXPLOITING CHAOS "rebellious and seductive", we knew this was a different sort of book. Accordingly, we took our $5,000 launch party budget and did something remarkably unique. Behold and enjoy! Stats for Kanye vs Ashton High Five Battle Trending: Older & Mild
Traction: 359,982 clicks in 266 w
Interest: > 3 minutes
Concept: Kanye Vs Ashton High Five Battle
Related: 59 examples / 45 photos
Segment: Males, 12-35
Comparison Set: 21 similar articles, including: pop star princesses, exploiting chaos, and dark swan makeup tutorials. | http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/kanye-vs-ashton | dclm-gs1-454165528 | false | false | {
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0.021275 | <urn:uuid:1b82055d-0c97-407a-82cc-09d95f4c3d1c> | en | 0.891083 | Re: [FW: UNICODE versus Shift-JIS]
Date: Mon Jun 19 2000 - 01:35:55 EDT
"Magda Danish (Unicode)" <> wrote:
Got this request by phone and email at the unicode home office. Could
anyone respond directly to the list and cc to
Thanks. Magda.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Buis []
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 9:11 AM
Subject: UNICODE versus Shift-JIS
I'm currently researching the effort involved with localizing a medical
product to Japanese. This product is display-only, no data input is
involved. Some people are suggesting I translate the user interface
interface using the Shift-JIS character set, others support UNICODE. I'd
like to know how the characters from the two sets map to each other. For
example, would character #F123 in the Shift-JIS set be the same as
character #F123 in the UNICODE set. If not, are the characters stored in
the same order in both sets, but at different offsets within each set.
For example, the Shift-JIS set starts at offset 0x000 and their
equivalent characters start at offset 0xFF00 in the UNICODE set. If that
is true, then character #0002 in the Shift-JIS set would be the same as
character #FF02 in the UNICODE set.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Ken Buis
Agilent Technologies
I'm not sure, but guys, isn't SJIS more popular? But then again, if
"popularity" were always an issue, we'd still be writing numbers in Roman
numerals, right? Personally, I'd use SJIS. Which leads me to this question:
what is a good browser to use to read Japanese? Netscape seems to have trouble
with reading ALT tags in Japanese. I tried to counteract this problem on my
website by buffering some of the ALT tags with spaces, but no dice. (The
problem was it would only show the first half of whatever was in the ALT tag.
So I figured, put in dummy spaces...) Any of you have problems reading
Japanese ALT tags?
** 11-Digit Boy **
My site is:
Get free email and a permanent address at
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0.892746 | <urn:uuid:a7f79645-6982-49cd-b381-e2315ba73ebd> | en | 0.955705 | look up any word, like wcw:
Nicklas is slang for extreme awesomeness. Nicklas is also the name of people being awesome.
In northern Europe Nicklas is used as a way of describing males with very large penises.
Random guy #1: "I can't believe that touch down"
Random guy #2: "That is so Nicklas"
Guy in showe: "OMFG!! You are hung like a horse! You must be a Nicklas"
by Pikken February 07, 2010 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nicklas | dclm-gs1-454355528 | false | false | {
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0.577843 | <urn:uuid:c18c3305-b815-4cfb-91cd-68d7e8ae225d> | en | 0.91819 | look up any word, like thot:
When a person ejaculates and a bee or wasp comes out of their urethra.
You don't want to beejaculate if you have allergies.
He didn't just beejaculate he straight up fired a hive!
by jewmachine February 28, 2007
Words related to beejaculate
bee bees cum ejaculate jizz man yogurt wasps | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beejaculate | dclm-gs1-454405528 | false | false | {
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0.061864 | <urn:uuid:248f8e6e-0e1f-42f5-bce2-787e265a098f> | en | 0.977047 |
Penn State trustees meet amid sex abuse case
- Associated Press - Friday, November 11, 2011
STATE COLLEGE, PA. (AP) - The Penn State board that fired football coach Joe Paterno and President Graham Spanier (SPAHN'-yur) is meeting amid a shake-up caused by a child sex abuse case against a former team assistant.
The trustees opened their meeting Friday morning with Chairman Steve Garban welcoming interim President Rod Erickson. Gov. Tom Corbett is also on hand to help the board navigate a course through the turmoil.
Paterno and Spanier were fired Wednesday in the fallout of a shocking grand jury report alleging repeated illicit contact between retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and boys as young as 10.
Many of the cases are alleged to have happened on Penn State's campus, where Sandusky maintained an office as an emeritus professor.
Questions, however, still linger.
Gov. Tom Corbett will be on hand Friday to help the board of trustees navigate a course through the turmoil from a child sex-abuse scandal that has engulfed the state's largest university and led to the firing of the university's legendary coach Joe Paterno.
Corbett, an ex-officio member of the board, will participate in Friday's regularly scheduled trustees meeting, where a committee will be appointed to investigate the "circumstances" that led to the indictments of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, as well as two university officials. It's the first time the board has met publicly since forcing out Paterno and president Graham Spanier amid the unfolding child sex abuse scandal.
Paterno and Spanier were fired Wednesday night, four days after a grand jury report charged Sandusky with a series of sexual assaults stretching back to the late 1990s.
The grand jury report alleges Sandusky assaulted eight boys _ including one he allegedly raped in the university's football facility shower. Much of the alleged inappropriate contact with seven victims happened on Penn State's campus, where Sandusky maintained an office as an emeritus professor following his retirement.
The indictment also charged the school's athletic director and a vice president with perjury and failure to report the assaults.
The committee has no timetable.
And no shortage of questions to answer _ from how much Paterno actually knew to the future of his staff, including assistant coach Mike McQueary, who told Paterno but not police about seeing Sandusky in a shower with a young boy in 2002.
"We intend to be as responsible as we can and make whatever changes are necessary," board vice chair John Surma said.
McQueary, now the team's wide receivers coach, won't be present for the final home game of the season Saturday against Nebraska because of what the university said were "multiple threats."
Gerald J. Williams, a partner at a Philadelphia law firm, said Pennsylvania law is broad in protecting a person who reports wrongdoing, as long as that person is part of a governmental or quasi-governmental institution, of which Penn State would be one.
That protection includes any kind of adverse employment action _ such as being fired, demoted, ostracized or punished _ although a court, ultimately, would determine whether the person is protected if they bring a claim, Williams said.
The penalty on an employer can include monetary damages, attorneys' fees and reinstatement of the employee, he said.
All three maintain their innocence.
In Texas, San Antonio police Sgt. Chris Benavides said his department was "looking into the possibility that an offense may have happened" when Penn State's team was there for the Alamo Bowl in 1999.
The grand jury report said one of Sandusky's alleged victims was on the trip with him and he threatened to send him home.
Curley and Schultz _ as well as Paterno _ testified that they were told that Sandusky behaved inappropriately in that 2002 incident, but not to the extent of McQueary's graphic account to the grand jury.
Then 28, McQueary was "distraught" after witnessing the alleged 2002 assault, according to the indictment. Yet it appears he may have continued to participate in fundraising events with Sandusky _ including one held less than a month later.
The paper also reported that McQueary was scheduled to play in The Second Mile Celebrity Golf Classic in 2002 and 2003. The Second Mile is the charity Sandusky founded to provide education and life skills to almost 100,000 at-risk kids each year.
Associated Press Writer Genaro C. Armas contributed to this story.
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0.040632 | <urn:uuid:87b3b715-ef60-4388-b63f-0d38b6aa670c> | en | 0.825567 | Edit Article
• 11 Editors
• Edited
An origami banger is a fun paper project that bangs when you flick your wrist.
1. Make an Origami Banger Step 1.jpg
Place the paper wrong-side up then fold it horizontally then unfold it.
2. Make an Origami Banger Step 2.jpg
Then fold all the corners of the paper to the crease you just made.
3. Make an Origami Banger Step 3.jpg
Fold the paper across, with the corners facing in, using the horizontal crease.
4. Make an Origami Banger Step 4.jpg
Fold the trapezoid left to right then unfold it.
5. Make an Origami Banger Step 5.jpg
Then fold the bottom corners to the crease in the middle so the points stick out.
6. Make an Origami Banger Step 6.jpg
Then fold the two edges/points together so it forms a triangle.
7. Make an Origami Banger Step 7.jpg
To use the banger, pull your wrist down quickly with the longest edge facing you. To re-use the banger just gently push the paper back in.
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Don't say: Eat more fats.
• Make sure the long edge is facing you, or it won't bang.
• These break easily, so don't get angry if the banger doesn't last long.
• Practice makes perfect!
• The thinner the paper, the louder the bang.
• Not a good idea to use this in school, or a quiet place.
Things You'll Need
• A large, thin rectangular piece of paper
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0.093114 | <urn:uuid:d648c036-589d-459e-bb37-4e8994d28b6b> | en | 0.945457 | How to Make Your Own Soda
By Meg Favreau on 24 March 2011 (Updated 13 September 2013) 12 comments
Photo: poolie
I will admit that I am not a huge soda drinker; most of the time, it makes my teeth hurt. But when I do drink soda, I want it to be worth it. I'd much rather drink a bracing, sinus-opening ginger beer or a fresh carbonated lemonade than some boring old can of Coca-Cola. That's why I love making soda from scratch — I get to control the taste. (See also: 51 Uses for Coca-Cola)
Making soda can be as simple or as complicated of a project as you like. There are hundreds of different recipes for sodas, but as beverages, sodas all have the same basic parts: sweetness, flavor, and carbonation. Thus, directions for making your own soda don't vary as much by soda flavor as they do by how much time and money you want to spend.
This article focuses less on recipes (although it does link to some very good ones) and more on the different ways to approach soda making, so you can decide which way is right for you. Whether you want to make your own ginger beer for a great Dark and Stormy, provide a fun project (and less-sugary treat) for your kids, or just serve a unique drink at your next party, these soda-making techniques will help you out — all you need to do is choose how you want to carbonate and flavor it.
Choose Your Carbonation
How you carbonate your homemade soda will have the biggest effect on the cost and time involved. There are four basic ways to create carbonation.
Mix Your Ingredients With Seltzer
It doesn't get much easier than this. Buy a bottle of plain seltzer and mix it with your desired flavoring ingredients.
Buy a Carbonation Machine
SodaStream offers countertop carbonation machines that inject carbon dioxide (what makes carbonated water carbonated) into still beverages. Their smallest model is just under $80, and depending on how often you purchase seltzer or soda, this could be a money-saver...or it could be one of those underused gadgets that sits on your counter. The company also sells soda flavorings (including for energy drinks!), but you can easily use your own flavoring mixes.
Carbonate With Dry Ice
Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. It can be dangerous to work with, but it can also carbonate a beverage mighty fast. The video below shows you a little bit how it works, and why it can be dangerous:
(link to video)
Let Your Soda Ferment
Ginger beer, root beer, and birch beer are all made like real beer — allowing yeast to create the carbonation. Because of that, these sodas are ever-so-slightly alcoholic, but due to their short fermentation time, the alcohol percentage is very low. I've made ginger beer using champagne yeast (purchased from a home-brew store). It had a milder carbonation than your average soda, but a great ginger kick. There are several sets of instructions online for how to make your own soda using yeast, such as Jeffrey Morgenthaler's ginger beer recipe and CHOW's root beer recipe.
One recommendation I would make, if the aesthetics don't bother you, is to make your soda in used plastic bottles instead of glass ones — it makes it much easier to tell when the fermentation process is complete. If you visit your local home-brew store, they should be able to provide both ingredients and guidance.
Choose Your Flavoring
Just like carbonating, there are several different ways to approach flavoring soda. Depending on how sweet you like your stuff, all of these methods will likely require the addition of sugar as well, which should be added in the form of simple syrup (a mix of water and sugar heated in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves completely) unless the recipe you're using says otherwise.
Fruit Juice
When I was young, my mother would serve me "healthy soda," a 1:1 mix of orange juice and seltzer. The O.J. can easily be replaced with cranberry, apple, or any other fruit juice. You can also add simple syrup for a more traditional soda-like sweetness.
Syrups and Extracts
Readymade extracts are available for common soda flavors like root beer and birch beer, which require several different ingredients to make from scratch. You can also add cola syrup (which, on its own, is supposed to help soothe an upset stomach).
Syrup From Scratch
The difficulty and expensiveness of your syrup depends on how complex of a soda you want to make. Some recipes, like for ginger ale, are relatively simple, while root beer can involve around a dozen different ingredients (many of the more common root beer ingredients are available online from Leeners). Making your own flavoring syrup is a great way to experiment — what happens if you add pear juice to your ginger ale?
If you're trying any of the more advanced methods (such as fermenting your soda or making syrup from scratch), I recommend trying a batch or two using a recipe, but once you get used to it, start experimenting with different flavors.
Have you made your own soda? Do you have a favorite recipe? Share it in the comments.
Average: 3.8 (15 votes)
Your rating: None
12 discussions
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Guest's picture
I have a Sodastream and want to use natural ingredients. Looking at the "healthy soda" section, I might want to try fruit juices. How would that work on the Sodastream? Should I put one liter of water, carbonate it and pour one liter of fruit juice, and combine it to a two liter bottle?
Guest's picture
Great article! The best place I've found for recipes is There's a lot of good recipes there including a knock off for Mountain Dew. Definitely going for the pear juice in the ginger ale next time. Nice touch
Meg Favreau's picture
I'll have to check that site out! I haven't made soda in a little while, but my boyfriend and I just brewed our first round of beer, and it's made me want to get back to soda experiments soon.
Guest's picture
Thanks for the mention Sharktooth, the Mountain Dew recipe is a work in progress.
Wonderful article! I've linked it onto my blog's links and references page, I hope you don't mind.
Meg Favreau's picture
I don't mind all, homemade soda expert! I'm glad you liked the article.
Guest's picture
Great article. I have been thinking about buying a sodastream but haven't been too sure about it.
Guest's picture
My wife and I have a SodaStream and love it! Mostly we just make fizzy water (my wife more accurately calls it sparkling water) but sometimes I'll add in some lemon or a rootbeer flavoring.
It's a lot of fun to make your own soda. Plus, we're finding it saves us trips to the grocery store when we have all the supplies we need to make it at home!
Great article!
Guest's picture
I really want to get my hands on some water kefir grains and try making soda that way.
Meg Favreau's picture
Oooh, I've never heard of that method, Trish -- how does it work?
Guest's picture
For those homebrewers with a CO2 setup with a regulator; there is another way. There's a gadget on the market that is a ball lock setup that screws onto a soda bottle so that you can force carbonate.
Just make your mixture in a soda bottle. Put in in a cold fridge to chill it down. It's best to squeeze out all the air left in the soda bottle. Attach the gadget hooked up to your CO2 to the soda bottle and shake until you don't hear CO2 still being infused into the liquid. I would then let it settle awhile, shake again maybe, let it sit and carefully take the gadget off and put the bottle cap back on.
Guest's picture
wow those directions made great soda so everyone should use those steps :D
Guest's picture
Got a soda stream, i love it but the flavors are bad | http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-make-your-own-soda?wbref=readmore-2 | dclm-gs1-454655528 | false | false | {
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0.056547 | <urn:uuid:5c3625c6-b6a1-4a6e-9105-72b39a7fc7a6> | en | 0.949462 | 'Epic' review: Beyonce Knowles and Amanda Seyfried lend their voices to a film that doesn't live up to its title
Characters make sacrifices and die, miss their parents and mourn. And we're touched. At least a little. Hard (if over-familiar) lessons are learned and laughs land on queue. Throw in some truly gorgeous animation and Blue Sky, the studio that made it, delivers more proof that it's moved on from the junky cash-machine "Ice Age" movies, even if this one doesn't rise to the charms and wit of "Rio."
Taking characters from William Joyce children's novel about "Leaf Men" and "Brave Good Bugs," a team of writers has borrowed from "Antz" and "A Bug's Life," and even "Spiderwicke Chronicles," for a story about the fairy forces of life in a forest, the Leaf Men (and women) and their allies, in battle with the rotting reptilian bog-dwelling forces of decay.
A dotty scientist has surveillance cameras covering the forest where this struggle is going on and suspects there are little people out there, riding into battle on hummingbirds and crows, armored and armed with bows and arrows.
But it's his daughter, M.K. ( Amanda Seyfried), who finds the proof. That happens when she's magically shrunk by the Queen ( Beyonce Knowles) and tasked with ensuring that this one lily pod blooms and renews life by the light of the full moon.
M.K. struggles to survive this brave (tiny) new world, where warriors like the rebellious Nod ( Josh Hutcherson) and mission-focused Ronin ( Colin Farrell) must fend off the reptilian designs of Mandrake ( Christoph Waltz), who is determined to upset the balance between new life and decay and thus take over the forest.
M.K. is assisted in her quest by a very funny snail and a slug ( Chris O'Dowd, Aziz Ansari), who know how to keep the pod alive until it blooms. And they are guided by the daffy six-legged Nim ( Steven Tyler), the "scroll-keeper" who sings and studies records from the past to figure out how to carry out the pod-blooming ritual.
The film's 3-D makes excellent use of depth of field, delivering eye-popping next generation animation that, among other things, gives the forest and its creatures wonderful shadings and detail, and makes the cartoon humans even more lifelike. But that's the sort of thing critics mention when the story is kind of all over the place, a real patchwork of ideas and inventions borrowed elsewhere.
"Epic" isn't epic, but it isn't half bad, either. It's just that as high as the bar has been raised on this sort of animation, this is more evidence that a strong story is worth more than any next-generation software.
(Grade: C-plus)
Cast: The voices of Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Beyonce Knowles, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari
Directed by Chris Wedge, written by Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember, James V. Hart, Daniel Shere and William Joyce (based on characters from Joyce's book, "The Leaf Men and the Brave, Good Bugs"). A Blue Sky / Fox release.
Running time: 1:42
Photo/Video credit: Twentieth Century Fox | http://www.zap2it.com/blogs/epic_review_beyonce_knowles_and_amanda_seyfried_lend_their_voices_to_a_film_that_doesnt_quite_live_up-2013-05 | dclm-gs1-454785528 | false | false | {
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0.02033 | <urn:uuid:845f177b-5eae-4d35-916b-b7983fb5f563> | en | 0.943282 | “Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you” – 40 inspiring quotes from the late great B.K.S. Iyengar
BKS_IyengarWorld renowned yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar has left behind a memorable legacy of the power and beauty of yoga. When I was a schoolboy, my parents enrolled me in his classes in Pune (then called Poona) because I had asthma. As a child, I recall how stern and disciplined he was! I remember seeing him use wooden blocks, curved tables, ropes and straps to get people to become more flexible, something which I have not seen in other yoga styles. I also recall how people of all ages from across India and countries around the world came to him, hoping to find health and solace through yoga. Some things have not changed over the decades. His talks, books, ashrams and disciples are now enduring carriers of his wisdom and experience. Here is a sampling of over 40 quotes from this giant of a man, a true champion of India, a leader of yoga and enlightenment.
As animals, we walk the earth. As bearers of divine essence, we are among the stars. As human beings, we are caught in the middle
Be inspired but not proud.
Breath is the king of mind.
By drawing our senses of perception inward, we are able to experience the control, silence, and quietness of the mind.
Confidence, clarity and compassion are essential qualities of a teacher.
Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you.
Focus on keeping your spine straight. It is the job of the spine to keep the brain alert.
It is while practicing yoga asanas that you learn the art of adjustment.
Know your capacities and continually improve upon them.
Life means to be living. Problems will always be there. When they arise navigate through them with yoga- don’t take a break.
One’s spiritual realisation lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one’s fellow beings.
Spirituality is not some external goal that one must seek, but a part of the divine core of each of us, which we must reveal.
The supreme adventure in a man’s life is his journey back to his Creator.
The union of nature and soul removes the veil of ignorance that covers our intelligence.
True concentration is an unbroken thread of awareness.
When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God.
Willpower is nothing but willingness to do.
Words cannot convey the value of yoga – it has to be experienced.
Yoga is a means and an end.
Yoga is the golden key that unlocks the door to peace, tranquility and joy.
You exist without the feeling of existence.
You must purge yourself before finding faults in others.
Madanmohan Rao
Madanmohan Rao
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0.074284 | <urn:uuid:b99690af-0675-499e-af6d-9f5314db0ac6> | en | 0.772909 | WarKey++ 6.1 English (WarCraft3 Change HotKey) | 雨律在线
WarKey++ 6.1 英文版 (与中文版的功能略有不同)
对比 WarKey++ 6.0 English 修正了两个问题
* Copyright Yulv.net All right reserved
* From Http://Www.YuLv.Net
WarKey++ Yours WarCraft3 Hotkey Helper
Program features:
Active/disable "hotkey function" hotkey [Home]
Active/disable "AI block mouse" hotkey [End]
(Alt+[) Hotkey: show ally's hp bar
(Alt+]) Hotkey: show enemy's hp bar
(Alt+M) Hotkey: check current state of function
(Alt+F4) Hotkey: Quit Game
Other Functions:
Automatically shield left [Win] when gaming
Automatically shield right [Win] when gaming
Hero skills Modify hotkeys
Quick Message:
Text preceded by "ALL|" to send to everyone
Text preceded by "OUR|" to send to allies
What is not add to the default sent
Authors: JiaJia [From Http://Www.Yulv.net]
E-mail: YuLv_Soft@126.Com
1.This program supports the latest War3 1.24patch.
2.Active/Disable Enemy/Ally HP bars
3.Macro hotkey
4.Quick Message
5.Very simple and nice interface. Strong function.
all you need is just warcraft3 (1.20-1.24).
WarKey++ 6.1 update:
1.fixed hreo skills modify hotkeys
Download: WarKey++ 6.1 (English)
Loading ....
• Kiss.Kill 回应于2009/12/27 11:00 回复TA
• 忠实的使用者 回应于2009/12/27 23:29 回复TA
• Hi 回应于2009/12/29 12:17 回复TA
• bobo 回应于2010/01/07 10:44 回复TA
JiaJia 于 2010-1-7 21:00:00 回复
• lyz 回应于2010/01/08 12:32 回复TA
JiaJia 于 2010-1-8 17:46:55 回复
• Corsair 回应于2010/01/15 00:58 回复TA
I am making a program in AutoHotkey that is very much like this. I see you have put some very nice functionality in Warkey++. Can you please tell me
1. Which programming language did you write this in?
2. How do you assign hotkeys for Spell1, Spell2, etc.
3. How do you detect when chat is being used?
4. How do you send a chat automatically with a hotkey, and how do you make it to be sent to all players or to just allies?
5. How can you pause and resume the game with a hotkey?
6. Can you detect whether the game is paused, being saved, or someone is being disconnected from the game? If so, then how?
7. How do you set the mouse so that it will not move outside the window?
Please reply with a post here, or send me an email at corsair992@gmail.com. Feel free to reply in Chinese. I will use Google Translator to translate it.
Thank you very much in advance!
• guest 回应于2010/02/01 21:45 回复TA
對於國際化我非常贊同 可以變成多國語言去推廣 非常好!
• Ivan 回应于2010/02/09 18:15 回复TA
Can you customize your WarKey++ so that it can support Mouse button? Especially those mouse that have button4 and button5.
Very appreciate your effort!
Thanks! :)
• Corsair 回应于2010/02/10 13:43 回复TA
If you have a Logitech mouse then that has its own software to assign its buttons to different hotkeys. Otherwise other general softwares exist for that purpose, if your mouse doesn't have a specific one.
I found the answers to most of my above question from Warkeys, which is open-source. Still, I remain interested in the answers to questions 1, 6, and 7.
Ivan 于 2010-2-12 0:33:18 回复
I not using Logitech, instead i using Microsoft SideWinder X3.
By the way, may I know what that general softwares that you mentioned?
Can kindly share with us here?
• Corsair 回应于2010/02/12 21:24 回复TA
From what I have read of SideWinder X3, it seems that there is an Intellipoint software included with it that allows you to assign macros and hotkeys to its buttons. In case you don't have the software for some reason, I think it can also be downloaded from the internet.
JiaJia 于 2010-2-12 22:51:56 回复
My English is not good, don't know how to answer you.
JiaJia 于 2010-2-12 22:53:06 回复
Sorry, man.
• Corsair 回应于2010/02/13 01:02 回复TA
Feel free to answer in Chinese; I will use Google Translator to translate it.
My questions:
Can you detect (by reading a registry entry) when the game is paused or when the game is being saved or when someone is being disconnected from the game? If you can, then please tell me the offsets of the registry entries.
How do you stop the mouse from moving out of the game window?
Finally, I am curious as to what programming language you wrote this in.
You can use Google Translate to translate this into Chinese for easier reading if you like.
• jibun 回应于2010/02/19 01:48 回复TA
Hi ! It's really a nice program but I have a little problem.
My keyboard is AZERTY not the common QWERTY.
So is there a way to change the option in the Warkey to change the QWERTY keyboard type to AZERTY?
Thanks in advance,
3到12字节以内 于 2010-2-23 2:55:30 回复
I'm afraid there's no such an option that can be used to change keyboard type. Maybe this feature will be added in the future version.
• 3到12字节以内 回应于2010/02/23 02:53 回复TA
貌似翻译的惨了点- -
JiaJia 于 2010-2-23 19:08:41 回复
- - 萝卜翻译向来都是杯具...
• SE7EN 回应于2010/02/25 05:42 回复TA
U said that ur english is not so good,
so just Thank You!
• Hunter 回应于2010/02/26 17:23 回复TA
I set the num 8 to F, and the hero skill is F too, so i modify the hero skill F to T. But when i press F in game, sometime appear as num 8, sometime appear as hero skill. Why?
JiaJia 于 2010-2-27 10:32:27 回复
Chinese version has been correcting this problem, English version will be in the latest update.
Hunter 于 2010-3-10 3:45:15 回复
Thank u for ur info.^^
Warkey is the best now!!!
Hunter 于 2010-3-10 4:08:39 回复
I download and used the latest English ver 6.2, the problem still same. I also try in chinese version, same problem occur.
Hunter 于 2010-3-10 4:15:20 回复
Can already. sorry...
I will always support JiaJia!!!^^
• Corsair 回应于2010/03/06 10:51 回复TA
Hi JiaJia,
Is this program open-source? If it is, then could you please send me the source code at corsair992@gmail.com ? Thanks!
• Arron 回应于2010/10/13 08:55 回复TA
Hi, i'm facing this problem. I set my inventory as "spacebar" but when i press spacebar in a dota match, it toggles my screen too. How to solve this problem?
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Thursday, January 01, 2009
Kobe Bryant: "A Straight-A Student Who Still Goes to all the Extra Study Sessions"
ESPN's Mark Jackson sometimes refers to "fake hustle," meaning that an athlete does something to make it look like he is trying hard but it's all for show. That is what I think of most of the time when I see coaches ranting, raving and screaming on the sidelines. Think about it: how often do you see truly great coaches do that? John Wooden used to sit placidly on the bench with a rolled up program in his hands. Phil Jackson sometimes seems to be looking at his fingernails more than the game. A cynic might say that those guys had/have the horses, so they don't need to say or do much--but someone who really understands the game knows that the most important coaching is done behind the scenes in practice while preparing the players for the games. Once the game begins, it is up to the players to utilize what the coach has taught them. If the players are not adequately prepared before the game, there is not too much that can be said to them during the game to make up for that.
The reality is that most games--not just basketball games but any kind of games--are won before they begin, at least when the opponents are fairly evenly matched from a talent standpoint; the players/teams that are better prepared and better focused are most likely going to win.
That is why this L.A. Times story about Kobe Bryant's disciplined preparation habits is so meaningful: Bryant's edge over other top players is not solely based on athleticism or flashy plays or hype; it is based on studying the strengths and weaknesses of opposing players and applying that knowledge to gain an advantage during games. You really should read the whole article but in case you don't, here are three quotes about how Kobe Bryant uses video study to prepare for games:
1) "Hands down, he's the biggest video fiend we've ever had," said Chris Bodaken, the Lakers' director of video services. "I didn't know if it was possible to be more competitive than Magic was, but I think he might be. It carries over into his preparation, and this is part of that."
3) When the Lakers hired Phil Jackson in 1999, Bryant was tipped off that his new coach sometimes asked video coordinators to edit random on-screen words into video packages viewed by the entire team before practice. Jackson would then ask a particular player which word just flashed on the screen, the equivalent of a pop quiz for multi-millionaire athletes.
"I remember mentioning that to Kobe once and he just laughed," Bodaken said. "The concept of not watching something on film was so foreign to him."
So, the next time you see Bryant charge into the paint to grab a key offensive rebound versus a bigger opponent or jump into the passing lane to snare a key steal or position himself to prevent a top scorer from making his favorite move in crunch time, you will understand and appreciate that such plays are the product of dedicated study. In a league full of elite athletes, it is very difficult to gain an edge and the slightest advantage is very important, much like a tenth of a second difference is huge in an Olympic sprint; knowledge is power and the best athletes are very knowledgeable, at least regarding the intricacies of their craft. The lasting image that I will always have of Dennis Rodman is not his hairstyle or tattoos but the fact that when he joined the Bulls he studied the arc of each of his teammates' shots so that he would know how to position himself for offensive rebound opportunities. Rodman also studied a lot of tape of opposing players, though he reportedly would turn the VCR off if members of the media came into the locker room; he had his own reasons for developing and maintaining a certain kind of reputation/image but any of his coaches will tell you that his basketball IQ was off the charts. Rodman may have acted like the court jester but he was a veritable Einstein in high tops and he understood rebounding angles like Euclid knew geometry.
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posted by David Friedman @ 4:54 AM
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Is Kobe New and Improved or Just More Appreciated?
Golden State Coach Don Nelson recently said that Kobe Bryant "is not just the best player in the league but probably the best leader."
Broderick Turner of the L.A. Times reports that Nelson had some additional comments about Bryant:
He allows these guys to do their thing and be successful and encourages them. He makes them even better than they are by playing alongside of him. He truly makes everybody better when he's on the floor with them.
And you couldn't say that five years ago. But now you can say it. That's why he's such a complete player. When coaches look at players, we look at them a little bit differently. Do they make their surrounding teammates better? The answer with him is yes, yes, yes.
Coaches and scouts watch game film to break down player and team tendencies, so they know exactly who is creating scoring opportunities and defensive stops and who is dependent on someone else to create scoring opportunities and cover up defensive mistakes; statistics tell (some) of what happened in a basketball game but do not explain how it happened.
Bryant was understandably pleased when someone told him about Nelson's remarks: "That means a lot, because that's always been a big knock toward my game. To hear that coming from him, it means a lot. It means I'm doing the right thing." However, Bryant does not agree with the notion that five years ago he did not make teammates better:
I think my role changed so people looked for me to do that. When Shaq was here, people think that he got a lot of easy baskets because he was Shaq. I was feeding all of those. It's not something that's new to me. I think just the perception of me having a different role has brought to the forefront what I'm doing for everybody else. It's tough to say you made Shaq better. I just think on this team it gets a little more enhanced. It's because of the spotlight. 'This is Kobe's team.' So now everybody is looking at my leadership and what am I doing. The team we had before, I was still a leader...It was more on the lower level, more undercover. Now, you have the spotlight, so people look at that. This is not something that's new to me, to be honest. I think it's just the attention that people paid to it is a lot greater now than it was then.
Numbers don't tell the whole story and assists are a subjective statistic but it is worth noting that Bryant led the Lakers in assists per game (apg) in the regular season and the playoffs during each of their three championship seasons (2000, 2001, 2002). Ironically, even though Bryant is receiving more praise than ever for being a team leader and willing passer, he has had several seasons in which his apg averages exceeded the numbers he posted last season (5.4 apg) and this season (4.2 apg in 30 games); Bryant's career-high is the 6.0 apg he averaged in 2004-05. The reality is that Bryant has been a willing and able playmaker for quite some time; assist averages have a lot to do with scorekeeping and the placement of the players on the court (Bryant often creates shots by drawing double teams but does not get assists on those plays because he makes the first pass out of the trap, not the final pass before the shot). The only way to truly understand Bryant's role as a playmaker (or anyone else's role as a playmaker) is to watch the Lakers play and see how he creates open shots for himself and his teammates.
The ironic thing is that it is almost an annual rite of passage for someone to declare that we are witnessing a "new" Kobe Bryant who is now a willing passer; that may have been a legitimate story angle in 2000, when Bryant led the Lakers in assists for the first time, but it is old news now.
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posted by David Friedman @ 7:04 AM
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Allen Iverson and the Wages of Wins
The Wages of Wins Journal (WoW) is a popular sports statistics site based on a book titled Wages of Wins; WoW is frequently cited by mainstream media sources, including best selling writer Malcolm Gladwell and Henry Abbott's popular True Hoop blog (Abbott has also provided links to several of my articles, both from 20 Second Timeout and other publications). While I disagree with the methodologies and conclusions of many "stat gurus," I particularly find fault with WoW, starting with the basic premise of WoW creator Dave Berri that not only can basketball (and other sports) be understood without even watching the games but that watching the games biases the viewer because he is more likely to be influenced by a few spectacular-looking plays at the cost of losing sight of the larger picture. Competent NBA executives, coaches and scouts don't watch games in the way that Berri describes and it is insulting to imply otherwise; I believe that to understand NBA basketball you first must watch games with understanding and only then can you utilize certain statistical tools to add nuance and detail to what you observed--but the numbers can never take the place of watching games with understanding.
Berri's statistical system is based on calculating "wins produced"; he claims to be able to determine exactly how many of a team's wins each player "produced." This approach has led to some "interesting" conclusions: Berri applied his metric to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that won a record 72 regular season games en route to capturing the NBA championship and he concluded (page 144 of Wages of Wins), "Per 48 minutes played, Rodman's productivity even eclipsed Jordan. Rodman's WP48 of 0.415 was four times the production offered by an average player in the NBA and even surpassed the 0.386 WP48 posted by Jordan."
Dennis Rodman was a great player, a Hall of Fame caliber player (though he will likely not be inducted for reasons that have nothing to do with his basketball accomplishments)--but to suggest that on a per minute basis Rodman was more productive than Jordan is silly. Why does WoW make such a silly contention? WoW places a very high value on rebounding, a lower value on scoring and completely disregards the value of being able to create a shot (for oneself or for one's teammates); this also explains how Berri could assert--using the same metric that crowned Rodman over Jordan--that early in the 2007-08 season Andrew Bynum was more productive on a per minute basis than Kobe Bryant. The reality, then and now, is that Andrew Bynum is a young big man who has a lot of talent but he is still developing into someone who can be a productive player on a consistent basis; there are very good reasons why L.A. Coach Phil Jackson has tried to lower the public's expectations about Bynum and why Jackson has often benched Bynum down the stretch in games. Of course, Berri would likely assert that he simply understands the real value of NBA players better than Jackson and other NBA decision makers do; don't laugh, because that is not a sarcastic comment: Berri truly believes that by NOT watching NBA games he can more completely understand them than NBA lifers do, which makes almost as little sense as saying that by not working out you can attain the same level of physical fitness of a world class athlete who works out regularly.
Allen Iverson is one of WoW's favorite targets. On page 136 of Wages of Wins, Berri wrote, "At the end of the day, by some numbers Iverson is truly great. By other numbers, though, he is very far below the average player. When you summarize the great and the not-so-great into one metric, the net value of Iverson during his career is a bit below the average NBA player" (p. 136). Iverson's style of play and off court dramas are not everyone's cup of tea but to assert that overall he is "a bit below the average NBA player" is delusional.
Naturally, it would not be very good for the credibility of WoW if Iverson does well individually or if he leads his team to a successful season. Therefore, WoW frequently contains articles "proving" that Iverson is responsible for many of his team's losses and very few of their wins. I've done posts about the flaws of WoW (including one titled The Counterfeit Currency of David Berri's Wages of Wins) but the system is so obviously misguided that I eventually lost interest in even discussing it; however, a recent WoW post about Allen Iverson is so tendentious that I not only rebutted it but I did so at their site:
Really the Answer is Iverson
In the above post, WoW asserts that Iverson is the main reason that the Detroit Pistons struggled a bit after trading Chauncey Billups to Denver in exchange for Iverson and Antonio McDyess. As I noted in my comment at WoW, McDyess is not a mere throw-in with this deal; he was Detroit's leading rebounder last season by a wide margin and without his services the Pistons plummeted from near the top of the league in rebounding differential to near the bottom. The loss of McDyess' paint presence is a major reason that the Pistons did not win at their usual rate, not anything that Iverson did. By NBA rule, the Pistons could not re-sign McDyess for a month but now he is back with the team and Detroit is doing quite well, riding a four game winning streak that includes a victory last night over Orlando, ending the Magic's seven game winning streak.
It is horribly biased and just downright sloppy to purportedly analyze the impact that a trade has had on a team without even mentioning one of the key components in that deal (McDyess); just because Denver had no intention of keeping McDyess (due to their own roster and salary cap considerations) does not mean that he lacks value--far from it. This is what bothers me about WoW and other "stat gurus": they pretend to be engaging in a scientific, objective evaluation of basketball but once their precious systems make certain conclusions about player values then they feel duty bound to slant their articles to make it seem as though they have found the "Holy Grail" of basketball stat analysis. The formulas are considered to be error-free, so any difference between what the formulas say and what happens in the real world is the result of you believing what your "lying eyes" tell you. WoW stated that Iverson is a "below average" player, the Pistons struggled a bit after the trade, therefore WoW decided that this would be a perfect time to do a post reminding the world that for some time WoW has boldly gone against conventional wisdom with its rating of Iverson; data about McDyess does not fit into this "higher truth" and therefore is completely ignored.
I was disgusted after I read this WoW post and this has nothing to do with being a fan of a particular player or team; I really don't care how many games Detroit or Denver win this year and I don't think that Iverson is the best player in the NBA (though he certainly is well above average). What bothers me is that this post is either very poorly thought through or else deliberately deceptive--and although I think that WoW is misguided I don't think that they are stupid, so deliberately deceptive gets my vote. Basically, the post is the basketball equivalent of propaganda, like one of those political attack ads (by either party) that very selectively chooses information in order to not just make the opposition look bad but to completely distort the very essence of what that person is.
In my comments in the discussion thread after the WoW post, I made several of the above points and then offered three predictions:
1) By the end of this season, Denver will drop from second in the West (where the Nuggets were when the post was published) to a battle for the eighth-ninth spots; I expect the Nuggets to fall just short of making the playoffs, despite all of this overheated talk about a "new" Denver team and the ludicrous assertions in some quarters that Billups should be the MVP (which makes as little sense as crowning Gilbert Arenas an MVP candidate a few years ago when the Wizards were in first place in the East for a minute and a half but clearly were not the best team in the East, much like this year's Nuggets are clearly not an elite team in the West).
2) By the end of the season, Detroit will be battling Orlando for the third spot in the East.
3) Denver will struggle to beat plus-.500 teams, which is the main reason that I expect the Nuggets to plummet in the standings (they had been feasting on weak teams in the immediate aftermath of the trade).
There is still a long way to go, but the Pistons are 9-3 this season with McDyess in the lineup (two of those victories happened prior to the trade). Meanwhile, the Nuggets have gone 3-5 in their last eight games, including four losses by at least nine points versus plus-.500 teams; the Hawks drilled them 109-91 last night.
You can rest assured that whatever happens down the stretch, WoW will not budge from their engraved in stone conclusion that Iverson is a "below average player." If the Pistons drop off the map, it will be all his fault (according to WoW); if the Pistons perform along the lines that I expect, WoW will suddenly "discover" McDyess or someone else who will get credit for the wins, leaving Iverson to take the blame for the early losses. As for Denver, the story will be very similar but in reverse, because Billups scores well in WoW's metric: Billups will get credit for Denver's wins, someone else will get the blame for the losses.
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posted by David Friedman @ 5:42 AM
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Monday, December 29, 2008
Carnival of the NBA #62 Hosted by Hoops Addict
Carnival of the NBA #62 is being hosted by Hoops Addict.
I submitted my recap/analysis of the Lakers/Celtics game:
Bryant Leads the Way as Lakers End Celtics' 19 Game Winning Streak
Labels: , ,
posted by David Friedman @ 8:20 PM
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Golden State Coach Don Nelson on Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant scored a game-high 31 points on 9-15 field goal shooting and had a game-high four steals as the L.A. Lakers defeated the Golden State Warriors 130-113 on Sunday. Golden State Coach Don Nelson, who won five championships while playing for the Boston Celtics and has earned three Coach of the Year awards, believes that the Lakers are the best team in the NBA and he explained the primary reason that the Lakers enjoy that status:
"Kobe now has a grasp on the game like no other player and he controls it when he wants to. He makes the players alongside him succeed and he is a real leader out there. He has the whole package going for him; he is not just the best player in the league but probably the best leader. He could get 50 any time, I'm sure."
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posted by David Friedman @ 5:08 AM
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0.040516 | <urn:uuid:5c63dab2-3194-4d03-9ac3-02eb906d166d> | en | 0.949085 | Powerful portraits of the Liberians who beat Ebola
To help humanize the overwhelming statistics, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and senior staff photographer at Getty Images, John Moore, visited an Ebola treatment center of the organization, Doctors Without Borders in Paynesville, Liberia. At the treatment center, survivors spoke about the brothers, sisters, husbands and wives they lost due to the disease. They also spoke of recovery, stigmas they continue to face in their villages and renewed hope.
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I was reading some posts about how Dolls Kill is currently selling a sexualized “Native American” Costume. I went searching to see if they had any more, and surprisingly no. But seeing all the sexy style costumes made me think of, a lingerie website that is very much into Halloween costumes.
I thought hey, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt here. I liked them on facebook and they never posted appropriative costumes and I’ve never seen any sourced to them on facebook. I bet they totally realize the dangers and horrors of these costumes and fetishization like that.
Oh man…was I wrong.
I can’t even fit them all in a photo set, and every word of this sentence is linking ONLY to the "Native American” ones.
Of which there are 55 costumes, oh sooo easily accessed through this category on the homepage and side bar
They don’t stop here. They have dedicated categories including Geisha Costumes, Eskimo Costumes, and G*psy Costumes.
And don’t forget the rest of them that may not have their own racist category, but are still there, scattered and hidden in other categories such as the 7 Day of the Dead costumes they have, and the “Aloha Hula Girl” and “Tahitian Sweetie” I also found, unfortunately. I don’t even know how the hell i found this “Dragon Lady" one, that surprisingly is not in the Geisha category.
The costume names range in each categories from ridiculous shit like “Chief Hottie Body Costume” to “Native American Temptress”, and “Japanese Entertainer Costume” to “Asian Persuasion”.
I honestly don’t understand this crap. How can people seriously fucking do this? How do you think it’s okay? Before even finding out about the proper terms like cultural appropriation and fetishization, before i even had any idea that this was a widely recognized thing by others, I almost always looked down on these costumes. I didn’t know that they were actually as horrible as they truly are, but I always had that sort of sense within myself you know? How can you just throw on someone’s culture and not give a fuck about it whether its a sexualized costume like these, a less sexualized one, or even a legitimate cultural garment.
I could continue going on and on but I’m just so tired of this shit. Just.Fucking.Stop. Whether or not YOU agree with it, costumes like this hurt people. It promotes stereotypical fetishization that becomes the leading reason behind countless rapes. Culturally appropriative costumes in general hurt the people that are part of that culture. By wearing this shit, you are taking a part something that is so important to so many people and destroying it, showing us what a gross racist asshole you are in the process.
There are a million perfectly fine things you can dress up as, so why the fuck do you have to do this to my culture? Go be a fucking octopus or something I don’t even care.
This needs to burn in hell.
• me: whats your opinion on tampons
• little brother: they're little fuzzy sticks on strings
• me: then you are ultimately more mature than most boys
• little brother: why
• little brother: well so does a penis and boys never stop talking about those
• me:
• little brother:
• me: that is a fantastic point | http://allthedaysofelsa.tumblr.com/ | dclm-gs1-455025528 | false | false | {
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0.186799 | <urn:uuid:cbd72221-e72f-4dcd-ac23-86aab7146e2d> | en | 0.883888 | Saltwater fish are the most beautiful fish in the world. They range from the majestic marlin to the funny-looking flounder, and the goliath grouper to the tiny blenny, and just about everything in between.
The plaice is a flatfish related to the halibut and flounder. It is an important food fish in Europe.
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The barracuda is a saltwater fish. There are several species. Best known is the great barracuda, found in the American Atlantic from Florida to Brazil. See more »
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Batfish is a family of saltwater fish. There are about 30 species. A common species found in Caribbean waters is the longnose batfish. See more »
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The damselfish is the common name of a family of brightly colored marine fish. They inhabit coral reefs and rocky coastal regions of tropical waters. See more »
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The flatfish is a fish with a body greatly compressed from side to side, and with both eyes on one side of its head. See more »
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Flounder is the common name of some species of saltwater flatfish. Like other flatfish, the adult flounder has both eyes on one side of its head, and it swims and rests with this side of its body up. See more »
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Don't Miss | http://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/saltwater-fish.htm | dclm-gs1-455115528 | false | false | {
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0.154976 | <urn:uuid:93dc8ac3-d4b7-4cc7-8ac6-c0e4eaea9f36> | en | 0.976778 | Ask the rabbi
Q&A with Rabbi Thompson
May 14, 2010|Sun Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Ask the rabbi
Rabbi Yaakov Thompson is the spiritual leader of the Sunrise Jewish Center/Temple Sha'aray Tzedek. He can answer YOUR questions about everything Jewish. To submit your question, email Jewish Journal Editor, Alan Goch at
Please include your first name and city with each question.
Dear Rabbi,
I am a registered Independent here in Florida and a Christian who holds that Jews are my brothers. I was not a fan of George W. Bush. However, he was a good friend of Israel. Can you explain to me why Jews keep on voting Democrat without thinking or caring. Obama is not a friend of Israel which very much upsets me. He has more respect for the countries who want to destroy Israel. I simply don't understand. Why do Jews support anti-Israel policy? I keep on struggling with this question, and thought maybe you could explain it.
Thank you for your time.
Sandra, Stuart Florida
Dear Sandra,
Great question but I must admit that I am often as stumped as you are! I agree with you that the president is not a friend of Israel. That is not a surprise to me. Long before the election I stated in print and on radio that I would not support Obama for many reasons including his obvious luke-warm attitude about Israel. In the time that has passed it has only been too clear to me that the current administration thinks peace can only come if Israel commits suicide and gives in to every demand. I believe a great deal of this is caused by Obama's illusion that he can make the Moslem world "see America in a new light." That policy can't exist alongside a commitment to Israel.
I must address a bigger issue- Jews have, in the past, always voted democratic. Somehow the myth came to be that it was the "Jewish" thing to do to support every liberal cause. While it is true that it is a very Jewish thing to do to support equality and justice, it is no mitzvah (good deed) to support causes that clearly do not consider the well being of the Jewish people. Bottom line- I think many Jews are too busy being liberals to remember that they are Jewish! I am happy to report to you that every day I speak to people who now realize how wrong they were to support Obama. I think the last two years have exposed much of the falsehood in his agenda. I realize that there was much anger at the Bush administration but I think time has shown that they were right about many things.
I believe people should vote on issues, not along party lines and not because of any one individual. I think this is a very painful lesson that the Jewish community is learning. I appreciate your support for Israel and your love for the Jewish homeland. Remember that you are not the only one seeing the dis-connect between American policy and Israel's safety.
Rabbi Thompson
Hello Rabbi,
My fiance and I have had a frequent discussion on the authenticity of a rabbi offering wedding ceremonial services, answering phones, driving for a meeting, sending emails and finally negotiate business terms on a saturday before shabbat is over. Is this a true religious rabbi? And if he is, how is he able to break the rules?
We look forward to your answer,
Dear Sophie,
I understand your concern. As a rabbi I believe that my greatest "tool" is to serve as an example. It is very hypocritical to try to teach and affirm values that you do not follow yourself. That is, in my opinion, the fastest way to give religion a "bad name." In one sense I can't answer your question- it is a free country and a person can do what they want. But would I consider the person that you described as a "colleague?" No. Would I consider him to be an example to others? No. Would I have any personal or professional respect for such a person? No.
Being a rabbi is not easy- many Jews want the rabbi to be their surrogate Jew- while they may not observe anything, they want the rabbi to observe everything. I think that is behind your question. You expect the person that you choose to be "your" rabbi to be a "model" Jew. While there are certain wrong assumptions in that line of thinking (him being a model Jew doesn't get you off the hook!) there is also a very correct feeling that the rabbi is the one who can help you re-connect to Judaism. To do so he or she must be connected. From your description of this individual it doesn't sound like he is connected to Judaism's most important institution, Shabbat, in any way that is meaningful or inspiring.
To address the closing thought of your question, why does he get to "break the rules?" I can only say this- he does not. People (including rabbis) observe Shabbat in many ways- a Reform rabbi may not observe Shabbat in the same way an Orthodox rabbi would- but they both subscribe to the practices of their respective groups. Nonetheless, all of us agree that Shabbat is something special – it is not a work day, it is not a day to make business arrangements, it is not a day to pursue issues of livelihood.
Sun Sentinel Articles | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-05-14/florida-jewish-journal/fl-jj-askrabbi_1_israel-rabbi-yaakov-thompson-jewish-homeland | dclm-gs1-455305528 | false | false | {
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0.04838 | <urn:uuid:cc209884-3d4c-4204-8b2b-4607c4a47697> | en | 0.9845 | Breaking News:
11. 08. 11. - 17:01
Violin Dealer In 60m Fiddle
A priceless collection of violins stored with the world's biggest violin dealer has vanished after he was arrested for fiddling the books.
Dietmar Machold lived in a castle in Austria and owned a Rolls Royce Corniche and a VW Phaeton - travelling the world with his schoolteacher wife buying up rare violins.
His company Machold Rare Violins has been in the family five generations since it was founded in 1861 in Germany as a violin manufacturer.
But he fled Castle Eichbüchl at Katzelsdorf in Austria to Switzerland after he filed for bankruptcy and prosecutors announced they were investigating him for fraud.
He was arrested in Switzerland in March and is awaiting extradition back to Austria but now Austrian police say that a violin collection of 17 including five instruments from Antonio Stradivari and four from Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu have vanished.
Also missing are rare bows used to play the instruments that are similarly irreplaceable. Police said the violins were owned by big institutions that loaned them to the world's top musicians and it is believed they were being stored and cared for by Machold.
Now the collection easily worth over 50 million GBP has vanished.
Machold, who at the height of his fame had stores in Vienna, Zurich, New York City, Aspen, Chicago, Seoul and Tokyo had dealt in one in every two of the Stradivari and del Gesù violins in existence - making million in the process. In 2001 he sold a violin built by del Gesù for 1.6 million US-Dollars to a group of sixteen investors. In the spring of 2007, Machold obtained a price of more than 10 million Euros for four Stradivari violins.
But he told Spiegel that he had been forced to file for bankruptcy after buying violins worth millions that he had then not been paid for shortly before the market in the instruments collapsed - leaving him having borrowed heavily from banks with loans that he could not repay. He said: "I am expecting a down payment on a sale any day. Then the banks will love me again."
But the money never arrived and he filed for bankruptcy in October 22, 2010 in what he said was a "restructuring.". He was was arrested in Switzerland in March this year accused of embezzlement and grand commercial fraud, among other things. Machold is still in custody in a Swiss jail.
Write your comment to this article here
Cosmo and Nanu | http://austrianindependent.com/news/General_News/2011-08-11/8704/Violin_Dealer_In_60m_Fiddle | dclm-gs1-455415528 | false | false | {
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0.049946 | <urn:uuid:cd5a0147-0c20-443f-99a6-b7bede3a32e2> | en | 0.967829 | Saturday, March 29, 2014
Entrepreneurs Can’t Do It Without The Right Team
Schmidt-Brin-PageEntrepreneurs are usually highly creative and innovative, but many innovative people are not entrepreneurs. Since it takes a team of people to build a great company, the challenge is to find that small percentage of innovative people, and then nurture the tendency, rather than stifle it.
A few years ago I read a book titled “The Rudolph Factor,” by Cyndi Laurin and Craig Morningstar, which is all about finding the bright lights that can drive innovation in your business. The story most specifically targets big companies, like Boeing, but the concepts are just as applicable to a startup with one or more employees.
The core message is that real innovation and competitive advantage are more people-based than product or process-based. Every good entrepreneur needs a people-centric focus to ferret out creativity and innovation in his team, and to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
The authors observe that people who behave as mentors tend to have an uncanny ability to recognize and nurture people who have innate capabilities along these lines. Here are six of the characteristics they and you should look for:
1. Thinkers and problem solvers. Innovators are naturally creative and love new challenges. Some may appear a bit eccentric to people around them. They generally promote unconventional ways to solve problems and have an easier time than most at identifying the root cause of a problem.
2. Passionate and inquisitive. These team members are passionate about their work and light up when talking about their role or a particular project they are working on. They often ask “Why?” even when it is not the most popular question to be asked.
3. Challenge the status quo. They believe that questioning is of value and benefit to the organization. This is also how they discover what they need in order to solve a problem, so they aren’t rocking the boat just for the sake of rocking the boat.
4. Connect the dots. Innovators have the ability to quickly synthesize many variables to solve problems or make improvements. To others, it may appear as if their ideas come out of the blue or that there is no rhyme or reason behind their thinking.
5. See the big picture. They tend to be natural systems thinkers and see the whole forest rather than a single tree … or just the bark on the tree. They may express frustration if people around them are having conversations about the bark, rather than the forest.
6. Collaborative and action oriented. They are not loners, and have the ability and confidence to turn their ideas into action. They act on their ideas, sometimes without knowing how they will accomplish them. The “how” is always revealed in time.
Your challenge is to go forth with this new awareness and thinking, to find and mentor those bright lights that will drive innovation and competitive advantage. The next step after finding innovators is to integrate them into your team. A key aspect is establishing a team-based culture that is a safe environment to share and execute ideas.
In fact, this safe and nurturing environment has to extend beyond a single team to the highest levels of the organization. It should embody a style of leadership that is essentially a commitment to the success of the people around you. That opens the door for anyone in the organization to lead from where they are, rather than waiting for management to “do something.”
Innovation is at the very heart of every successful startup. Everyone wins when you look at things very differently and wonder “why”, not “why not.” What better way to extend this power than to surround yourself with more highly creative people? Then you can make the world a place of possibilities, as well as probabilities.
Marty Zwilling
1. Offshore companies (called PFICs by IRS) don't have to file income tax returns. See the attraction?
Bain Capital ($70 B AUM) have 138 PFIC funds in the Cayman Islands to avoid Capital Gains taxes.
Visit us on twitter | http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2014/03/entrepreneurs-cant-do-it-without-right.html | dclm-gs1-455725528 | false | false | {
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0.040913 | <urn:uuid:b03ab402-9284-4a21-8cb8-e4743b0c0781> | en | 0.946997 | Syndicate content
Mister 100%
Mark Ellery's picture
As a policy target, there is little doubt that it is desirable that government should ensure services for all. Breaking this down to a simple target of 100% access to a service, some local governments are showing that ensuring services for all is achievable, when they deploy their social and legal authority to leverage existing service providers to ensure a basic service for all and then increase the quality of the service (i.e. 100% by 100%).
In the remote North West Corner of Bangladesh in the poor and monga (hunger) prone District of Kurrigram there is a remote yet remarkable upazila called Rajarhat. Rajarhat was the first upazila (subdistrict) in the country to be declared Open Defecation Free (i.e. 100% sanitation) in 2004. In the light of the Government’s target of education for all, the Rajarhat upazila (subdistrict) is now seeking to be the first upazila in the country to achieve universal enrollment (i.e. 100% of children turning 6 are enrolled in school).
To understand this phenomena we visited one of the Union Parishads (UP) (Council) called Omar Majid and spent some time with the UP Chairman Khanbaker Abdul Hakim. This Union Parishad claims to have achieved:
100% sanitation (achieved in 2004) sustained through ward task forces, hygiene education and public latrines with MGSK and WaterAid.
100% registration at birth (achieved in 2007) and subsequently introduced as a pre-requisite for the enrollment of children in school.
Universalizing Opportunities through Investing in Education in India
Joe Qian's picture
The World Bank released a report this week on the current state of the educational system in India and concluded that while investments and performance have improved at the primary and higher education levels, there remains a rather considerable gap in access, distribution, and achievement at the secondary level.
As India continuously develops and entrenches itself as a major player in the global knowledge economy, the majority of growth have been in the skilled services and manufacturing sectors. This requires that the 12 million young people who join the labor force every year have the necessary skills to access these more lucrative jobs and compete successfully in the global economy, especially as the IT sector has become an essential driver of the economy.
“Evidence from around the world suggests secondary education is critical to breaking the inter-generational transmission of poverty -— it enables youth to break out of the poverty trap.” Lead Education Specialist Sam Carlson said.
However, India's gross enrolment rate (GER) at the secondary level of 52% is lower than the GERs of countries like Sri Lanka (83%) and China (91%). However, I was quite surprised that the rate was also lower than countries with lesser GDP per capita such as Vietnam (72%) and Bangladesh (57%). | http://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/category/tags/enrollment | dclm-gs1-455845528 | false | false | {
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0.130506 | <urn:uuid:6159fd0a-ed30-4d68-bb5d-4e95d08561a7> | en | 0.974977 | haunted house
Think you're a haunted house pro? How about this promo for McKamey Manor, San Diego's premiere 2 to 3 hour full contact haunted house experience?
I went to the video store this past weekend to grab a stack of horror movies and was pleasantly surprised to find that the title I was least interested in, was head-and-shoulders above the newer movies I picked out. At first I was pretty skeptical of watching a G-rated black and white movie from the 60's. Thankfully I went ahead and rented it, and what I found was a haunted house film that was scary enough to have me looking over my shoulder every time I heard a noise in my own home.
The second episode of "American Horror Story" was chock full of further character development, a ton of questions of who's living and who's dead and a very "Strangers-esque" style home invasion mixed with a bit of cult like murder. Now I'm not going to go with scene for scene descriptions on this show because well, first of all that's kind of boring and second of all, I'm assuming if you're reading this then you saw the same thing I did. If you haven't watched episode two yet, TURN AWAY NOW!! There, now you've been warned.
It's Halloween time and that means haunted houses! Cruising about the internet looking for such entertainment, I stumbled across the website of the Nightmares Fear Factory. Seeing as it's in Niagra Falls, Canada, it's a safe bet that I won't make it there this year. From cruising about the site however, it's officially on the list of things to check out!
Fun Fact: In Italy, the translated titles for "The Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" became "La Casa" and "La Casa 2." The titles, translating to "The House" in English, do not have much to do with the Raimi films other than the simple fact that all the films take place in some sort of cabin or house. Director Umberto Lenzi then went on to make 3 unrelated "sequels" to the "La Casa" films, which were titled "La Casa 3, 4 and 5". | http://bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/category/free-tagging/haunted-house | dclm-gs1-455855528 | false | false | {
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0.031708 | <urn:uuid:418990a1-b1b3-4f9e-96e8-280c37bfd400> | en | 0.921964 | HOME > Chowhound > Home Cooking >
Salads w/o lettuce?
So, apparently I had a REALLY good Thanksgiving weekend (yumming it up in Vegas) and I'd like to get a jump start on some slimming down. I figure if I don't call it a New Year's Resolution maybe I'll stick with it. I know you all have some good recipes up your sleeves, so I'm looking for a good lunch salad.
Something simple, but balanced and filling. I'm not a huge fan of lettuce, so I'm hoping to find something non-lettuce. I make a tasty bulghar wheat salad with tomatoes, chickpeas, cucumber, garlic and lemon, but I can't eat that every day.
I like to bring lunch to work with me, preferably in only one or two containers to make it easier. There's a fridge and microwave in the break room, although salads are something I envision as not needing to be heated.
Any suggestions? It doesn't have to be a recipe, per se, but perhaps some inspiration with the ingredients?
1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit)
1. i make a salad in the summer time with grape tomatoes that i halve and chop up some dill to put on top. then, i sautee pine nuts in olive oil (maybe not too diet friendly but DELICIOUS) and add those, then salt and pepper and mix all together. UGH. delicious. Good with some goat cheese, or cottage cheese or whatever else you want to eat with it. Its like a condiment.
1 Reply
1. re: Tal
It never occurred to me to use cottage cheese as a base. Tomatoes and pine nuts sounds pretty tasty.
2. This is a list of non lettuce salads from a local deli:
Potato Salad
Green Bean Salad
Greek Pasta
Pesto Pasta
Thai Chicken Pasta
Tuna Cheddar Pasta
Orzo Pasta
Fruit Salad
Chinese Cabbage Salad
Broccoli Salad
Spinach Salad
This is a list of their "lettuce" salads:
Seafood Salad
Chicken Salad
Caesar Salad w/ Grilled Chicken
Chinese Salad
1 Reply
1. re: Alan408
I was trying to stay away from pasta-laden "salads" and ones that might be full of mayo (potato, broccoli, etc). I mean, they taste good, but all that tasty stuff usually isn't healthy!
2. Check out the bagged lettuce section of your favorite supermarket...you will find shredded carrots, broccoli slaw, shredded cabbage...good alternatives to lettuce.
1. As a REAL quick and REAL easy summer side dish: I mix a can (or 2 depending on your taste) of rinsed chickpeas, a can of rinsed black beans, and a can of Italian style diced tomatoes. A bit of vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and you're finished. The longer it sits the better. Of course if you're looking to "fancify" it, add some fresh herbs or doctor as you see fit.
1 Reply
1. re: HaagenDazs
This sounds a lot like my italian friend's beautiful bean salad. chick peas, black beans, chopped red onions, garlic, celery salt, oregano, S&P, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Absolutely the best!
2. I like to make a salad w/ cukes/radishes/oranges. Another option is cukes/tomatoes/feta, with a zatar seasoning.
1 Reply
1. re: MMRuth
The cucumber/radish salad is also good with shaved fennel in lieu of or in addition to the oranges. Fresh dill is a good addition. And smoked salmon for protein.
2. Cold cooked barley makes a nice change as a salad base, and keeps all week in the fridge ready to go. It is good combined with cooked vegetables chilled and dressed, but it is also good to toss a handful onto lettuce or spinach leaves to add some fiber. I once made a refreshing salad from a diet book that had barley dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice and combined with diced apple and mint.
1. some salads that my roommates and I frequently make:
-green beans with red onion, chickpeas, red kidney beans, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper
-couscous or quinoa with tomatoes, cukes, feta, chickpeas (same dressing as above)
-shredded carrots with raisins (same dressing as above! it seems to work with just about everything!)
1. I am in love with the celery salad from Dec. Saveur. It is simply chopped celery and celery leaves with a vinaigrette dressing but I'm sure you could use anything you like. It was light and refreshing and kind of a revelation. It is in their article on Christmas in Provence.
1 Reply
1. re: Candy
Oh, that celery salad did look really good! Will have to try it.
My favorite non-lettuce winter salad bases include:
thinly-shaved fennel
julienned celery root
shaved brussels sprouts
Toss-ins that can be combined in a number of ways w/ the above:
roasted beets
citrus (oranges, blood oranges, clementines, etc)
various nuts
And for protein: Dungeness crab!
2. Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm definitely trying these out. And since it's been warm and sunny lately (crazy S. CA weather), I'll just pretend it's still summer with nice cool salads.
1 Reply
1. re: leanneabe
A traditional Nicoise Salad (not the americanized one with seared rare tuna) with Genoa brand canned tuna in olive oil (tastes terrible with tuna in water...tuna in olive oil is king), hard boiled egg, red or yukon potato, chick peas, and whatever else you like...absolutely delicious! It's great with or without rommaine lettuce. Works great with watercress as well.
Rachel Ray's, "curry in a hurry chicken salad", made with yogurt instead of mayo, mango chutney, smoked almonds, etc...yumm-o!
2. The problem right now is that it's winter so you won't get a lot of good fresh produce like tomatoes. I like to roast veggies with olive oil and seasonings, add some balsamic vinegar and have it cold. Cauliflower is really good like that (surprised me). I do it w/ Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn, add cumin and have a cold salad the next day. Broccoli slaw is easy and lasts--you can put the dressing on early and let it meld. I add everything to that--chickpeas, dates, spanish onions, sesame seeds, edamame, etc.
1. tomato,cuke,onion and feta cheese with a nice bit of olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice for that s california dreaming (also a bit of oregano)
1. Slice thin a large bunch of radishes. Add half dozen finely chopped scallions, white and green parts, freshly ground black pepper and coarse sea salt (e.g., Maldon). Stir in enough unflavored low-fat yogurt to coat (probably a little more than a small container).
1. I don't if you like radicchio or not or if it's too lettuce-y, but I really liked this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec... You could probably leave the radicchio out and go heavy on the green beans and it would still be good. The vinaigrette is excellent.
Also, Eating Well has a ton of salad recipes and they are usually pretty grain-happy too. http://www.eatingwell.com/
1. Thinking of green beans, a really tasty main dish salad is green beans, shallots, bay shrimp in a tomato viniagrette. Green beans will discolor after longer exposure to vinegar, keep the dressing separate until a half hour or so before eating.
Shrimp is incredibly low in calories.
1. Being of Slavic descent, I must bring up beet salad.
Searching http://www.foodieview.com, one finds 492 recipes...
1. I find that beets made a good salad base as do sugar snap peas. I like the snap peas with raw muchrooms, chopped raw cauliflower (pretty tasteless), some sort of sprout or cress, and a bit of blue cheese. The beets go into a salad with fresh salad and avocado, don't laugh, it is really tasty.
2 Replies
1. re: JudiAU
I like beets... do you use them raw in the salads or do you cook them first?
1. re: leanneabe
Raw beets are great in salads. Also, pickled beets of course.
A good broccoli/cauliflower salad includes chopped red pepper, thinly sliced red onion, fresh lemon juice, fresh garlic, S&P and maybe even a couple kalamata olives.
Quinoa is also a good base for grainy salads - you can get it in most larger supermarkets these days, but for sure in a health/whole food store. You can use it in place of rice or pasta and it has a high protein content so it doesn't spike your blood sugar as much as other grains.
2. How about a wilted spinach salad.
Fresh Mushrooms
Red Onion
Turkey Bacon
Chopped Egg White or Whole Egg
and Warm Vinegarette Dressing
You can microwave dressing and pour on salad when ready to eat.
Also, maybe a cold soba noodle (buckwheat)salad with chopped cucumber, scallion, shredded chicken and an asian vinagrette dressing.
1. You make me happy.
I hate lettuce in salads, well not hate (I'll eat it), but I'm completely finished with the idea of some lettuce with dressing on it being called a salad.
1. I'm with you, lettuce=gross, and no nutritional value. Here' my most favorite salad, pretty healthy too. I eat a salad at lunch everyday and many days I just eat spinach greens or mache with sunflower seeds and light Italian dressing with lemon. When I am bored or we are having people over for dinner, we make this:
Spinach or mixed field greens
Walnuts (superfood)
Dried cranberries (so good for you!)
Light raspberry vinaigrette (Newman's Own makes a yummy one)
Sliced apples (yum!)
Brie (okay, so it's not totally healthy but the brie is SO good, we all need a little fat, right?)
If I'm feeling guilty I leave out the brie, but overall delicious salad and pretty healthy. I got the idea from a restaurant in the town I grew up in and they call it a Winter's Night Salad. My husband just calls it Fancy Salad. Very tasty!
1. In cold weather months, I am aways making a red cabbage & carrot slaw with scallions, pepitas, feta, dried cranberry & (if it's acting as a whole meal) chickpeas. Toss with light mustard vinagrette. Delish.
1. You are all amazing! I'm seriously printing out this list and going through all these ideas one by one (because they all sound very tasty and interesting).
Thank you!
1. I like to prepare this low cal cucumber salad handed down from my Hungarian grandmother. I take 4 cucumbers and slice them paper thin in my salad shooter, then take one white onion and slice it the same way. Soak both in a brine of kosher salt for 15-30 mins. Rinse well to get the salt out. Add one cup water, 1/2 cup white vinegar and 25 lil packets of equal. Then add 1-2 tablespoons of white pepper and stir together. Serve the salad with a lil bit of the juice. It's so good and very low cal.
1. Fresh fruit salad combos are healthy, freshing and there is always at least five fruits in season.
Right now we've been enjoys poms, pineapples, pears, apples
If you like dressings a yogurt and honey drizzle is great!
1. Quinoa is perhaps the most nutritious of all grains (full of vitamins and fiber), cooks in about 20 minutes and can be made into an excellent and delicious salad. Cook the quinoa as directed and then add some fresh cut herbs and your favorite vinaigrette and you will have an easy and nutritious salad that will get better overnight in the refrigerator.
Another excellent and healthy choice for salads are soy beans (edamame). You can buy them shelled in the produce section of most grocery stores. Add some other fresh cut veggies, a light vinaigrette and you will be in salad heaven!
1. i would love a copy of this celery salad everyone is talking about...i tried a search, but no luck...
1. Cooked wild rice, chopped celery, pecans, craisins and a fruity vinegar dressing makes a nice refreshing salad and it's pretty.
1. http://food.sunset.com/sunset/recipef...
Here's a tasty salad of fennel, oranges, and green olives. When this was served to me the cook added a dash of tabasco to the oil & s&p, then drizzled that over all. Delicious.
1. *Celery with homemade pico de gallo - addicting and so low fat
*Orzo with dried cherry, fresh basil,fresh italian parsley pine nut, brocolli and grape tomatoes and red onion with balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil
*Strawberry, Pear , Pecans and Spinach salad with balsamic vinegar and oil.
*Fresh bell pepers stuffed with couscous salad with and roasted peppers and red onion and fresh italian parsley.
1. You might want to look into experimenting with different lettuces-- you might actually find one you like. The only one with zero taste and zero nutrional value is iceberg. The rest can run the gamut from bitter (arugula, romaine, etc) to sweet (red leaf). The deeper the color, the more nutritional value.
1. Here are a couple more that I like:
Chop up baby bok choy, red pepper, green onions and toss with toasted sesame seeds and slivered almonds. Some people also add dried ramen noodles. Dressing is made of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. Really simple, flavourful, crunchy.
I also like to mix quinoa with tuna (I like the Italian kind in olive oil), avocado, green onions and grape tomatoes. I usually toss with mixed greens but you could skip these if you don't want any greens. You could also add roasted artichoke. Season and dresss with olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest.
with aHere's an easy one with
1. Oh the mention of artichoke brought this one to mind, I recently had this at a lovely restaurant.
Artichoke, Avocado and Arugula Salad with Lemon, Capers and Olive Oil. Was just soooo good with shaved pecorino reggiano and black pepper.
1. Grill up a bunch of vegetables, like squash, eggplant, tomatoes, broccoli, beets, beans, cauliflower. All these can be cooked on your charcoal (best) grill, with a minimum amount of oil. Add garlic in the skin, then pop out when cooked. Chill all these in a big container, add whatever dressing you feel like, or not.
Slaws made with low fat mayo.
1. I ran a health food lunch counter (long time ago) and this salad is very good as a salad but then another day (because you can make alot and it saves nicely) saute it up and put over brown rice with grated cheese.
Super Salad
shaved white cabbage (or just cut at angle) You don't want it really shaved like in cole slaw
shaved red cabbage (less then white)
carrots - sliced thin
caulliflour - small pieces
broccoli - small pieces
Sprinkle with spike seasoning, shredded chedder or monteray jack cheese, a spoon of guacomole (if you like that), a few sunflower seeds and a good hearty creamy italian dressing or your favorite.
If you saute it for dinner sometime, just throw in a hot fry pan with a little oil, braggs liquid omino (it's like a soy sauce buy better), then pile over a good brown rice, then handful of shredded chedder or monteray jack cheese and spike seasoning.
You'll never realize you're missing meat.
1. Very thinly sliced fennel with a little olive oil, a little lemon juice and a few capers. Delicious.
Also thinly sliced cucumbers - so many different cuc salads, especially good are asian salads - rice vinegar, sesame oil, a little sugar, sliced green onions.
grape tomatoes with olives and basil.
1. Another thing that's nice is mixing up some different root vegetables. Some, like parsnip, should be roasted. But of course sunchokes, carrots, radishes, and beets can all be eaten raw. Cut into strips and toss with some balsamic vinegar, a light olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
You can make several different kinds of fresh, low-calorie, crunchy salads in the winter months.
1. There a great salad made with fresh white mushrooms, steamed asparagus, and fresh avocado (cut them up as you like) and a dressing made from 3T EVOO, 1T lemon juice, 1T soy sauce.
1. A Waldorf salad, using yogurt (honey optional) instead of mayo, and sunflower or pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts, if you want to keep the calories lower.
1. Favorite #1
1 C frozen corn thawed ( or a can, drained)
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1/2 C chopped red pepper
1/2 C chopped green onions
1/4 C chopped cilantro
Mix in large bowl
1/4 C canola oil
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
1 T chopped garlic
2T brown sugar
1 T cumin
Heat small saucepan until sugar dissolves
Poou over vegetables and chill for about an hour
Favorite #2
1 Can garbanzos, drained
1 bunch radishes sliced
1 bunch green onions sliced
1/4 C chopped parsley
Toss with favorite vinaigrette
You can make a main dish salad out of this by adding strips of ham,salami and swiss or provalone
1. i made a really yummy one today that was more like a side dish...
blanched spinach, blanched bean sprouts, sliced scallions mixed with a little soy, garlic, sesame oil, sugar and furikake(optional). you could add some surimi (imitation crab) to make it more substantial.
1. I love a grated raw carrot salad with mustard vinaigrette. | http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/348543 | dclm-gs1-456055528 | false | true | {
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0.025263 | <urn:uuid:baf9396e-8df1-4dc6-b37c-d7b066d5edff> | en | 0.965037 | HOME > Chowhound > Cookware >
Frigidaire Appliances
• 3
We are looking at new appliances - love to cook/entertain and want good functional stuff, but not looking to run a catering business out of my kitchen. Does anyone have Frigidair Professional cooktop/double oven/m'wave/dishwasher? What about LG side-by-side fridge w bottom freezer?
1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit)
1. Just ordered the top of the line 30" Frigidar double oven and their top of the line dishwasher for our new home. Went with the top of the line KitchenAid gas cooktop. No experience yet but the specs looked outstanding and I read lots of good reports on Frigidair.
1. I bought a 40-inch stainless steel range with two ovens - it's a Kenmore brand but the unit is actually made by Frigidaire. I haven't had any problems with its operations... I read some reviews that the main oven temp wasn't functioning, but both my oven thermometers say mine is right on. It does measure off-temp when I turn it to the convection setting, but that may just be a function of how the convection actually works?
My mom has a side-by-side LG fridge, which she loves and has been working well for the last 5 years. But it sounds like you're looking at the french door fridge with the bottom freezer? When I was looking at refrigerators a couple of years ago, I looked at that one (again, Kenmore brand, made by LG) and the salesguy said that they had gotten a few returned because the fridge seal leaked (I don't remember if it leaked cold air or condensation). But, it seems like french door fridges are more popular now, so maybe they've fixed that up. I'd go talk to some salespeople and ask if they've heard of any problems with it. They're usually pretty honest about that.
1. I have the following Frigidaire Appliances
Professional series slide-in range
Professional speed clean dishwasher
I've been extremely pleased with both of these products. My one and only complaint is that the dishwasher really is not that quiet. I do love my stove and oven though.
Our refrigerator is Kenmore and we've also had great success with it.
Best of luck. Getting new appliances is so fun! | http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/392793 | dclm-gs1-456065528 | false | false | {
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0.302765 | <urn:uuid:8523841d-965f-4a18-b109-9398ed1778e1> | en | 0.929937 | Nodules On Liver Causes
But a group of flavonoids using witch hazel compressing the depending upon how extensive damage leading to have to search this simple blood tests whilst sufferers were given cordyceps sinensis possess all the signs and safe to use. Unprotected as the healing ingredient does not functioning of the liver cells. Dietary choices can save your liver.
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believed that the start. It has been started by a patient’s recommended for daily cups of coffee’s another hand caffeine use. Bladder ovarian pancreatic cancer and larynx. There are information that is seen in cases of cirrhosis:-
Explore your grocery stores which have chemical p-dichloroethane 1-1-1 trichloroethane solvents PCE
Found in: Paint Thinner
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their home
country National Cancer Institute showed that coffee is not just OK to consumption. There is no way to improve breast size. Ask your liver high blood pressure pills to replace 2% milks. Margarine excessive alcohol
consumed it does not getting nodules on liver causes diagnosed with cirrhosis but occurs when a womans appearance and performing the liver which it increases with the blood of the small gaps between teeth and also one may question then get rid of acne lesions for viral infection increasing their dinner. | http://cirrhosisblog.net/nodules-on-liver-causes/ | dclm-gs1-456165528 | false | true | {
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0.044107 | <urn:uuid:43445416-bed3-438e-9b4b-0301e3192047> | en | 0.908328 | vyhledat jakékoliv slovo, například ratchet:
One of the oldest Companies that makes tractors. The brand has become immortalized by Kids and farmers. John Deere started making tractors in the 1920's when they bought out the Waterloo Tractor Company.
Until the '60's they were known in the US for the "Putt-Putting" of their two-cyilender engines. They finally had to drop the Two-cyilender design for the engines to be more efficent and powerful.
John Deere may be famous for it's agriculteral equipment, but they also have a line of Construction equipment.
Interestingly, John Deere has not merged with anyone else, making it one of the only two to not have been taken over by another company. It walks alongside Caterpillar with this title.
Guy: I'm a bit surprised there are other tractors made other then John Deere!
Me: DUH!
od uživatele Puffie40 25. Leden 2005
the best of the best!!!
The best dame thing that god ever made for rednecks...
od uživatele missy dale 22. Září 2003
A manufacturer of fine construction equipment, farm machinery and lawn care vehicles.
Please do not refer to my John Deere LT133 as a riding lawn mower...it is a TRACTOR, asshole!
od uživatele harry flashman 17. Červenec 2003
They make the best farm equipment, Construction Equipment,and Forestry Equipment out there.
Nothing runs like a deere
Redneck from Medway, Maine: Lets go yard some big ol wood with the big ol john deere skidder
Look at thats 748 h John deere skidder she is big
od uživatele jim bob brown 22. Duben 2010
a company that makes tractors; like Microsoft is for non-rednecks.
"Don't you think you're all special now riding in yer brand new shiny John Deere, bitch."
"I thought the relationship was going well, when out of nowhere she sends me a John Deere letter."
od uživatele Nick D 02. Duben 2003
run with the best piss on the rest
john deere letter
od uživatele jerid hert 02. Únor 2004
A man or boy who tries to wheel the girl you are currently wheeling
Guy 1: (wheeling girl)
Guy 2: (to same girl) Hey! Haven't seen you in ages! Can I buy you a drink?
Guy 1: (to guy 2) hey John Deere quit mowin my fuckin lawn
od uživatele Some Guy18905 19. Březen 2013 | http://cs.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=John+Deere | dclm-gs1-456345528 | false | false | {
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0.235577 | <urn:uuid:1e796de9-7709-4960-b465-4ec4cc24ed7a> | en | 0.785998 | vyhledat jakékoliv slovo, například eiffel tower:
A boring town in Herefordshire, England. It is really shit and there is nothing to do except get drunk and mess around. The town is full of inbreds, chavs and idiots.
Person 1: Have you ever been to Ledbury?
Person 2: Yeah, it's a complete shithole.
od uživatele Wahs Sirhc 26. Duben 2010 | http://cs.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ledbury | dclm-gs1-456355528 | false | false | {
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0.924683 | <urn:uuid:42bd3795-e55b-4ad9-be25-575eafddeca9> | en | 0.846107 | søg på et hvilket som helst ord, for eksempel thot:
2 definitions by Mamakind
Someone who doesn't just smoke a bong, but gets physically aroused by seeing or using one.
Did you read Mamakind's latest RoachPlay column? She was pussytokin' in it-- what a hardcore BongSlut!
af Mamakind 15. september 2006
1. Verb meaning to fuck.
2. Noun, refering to your fucking partner.
af Mamakind 15. september 2006 | http://da.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Mamakind | dclm-gs1-456415528 | false | false | {
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0.031791 | <urn:uuid:42e325de-0d45-4f6c-9c46-5426718eca10> | en | 0.974963 | Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Seven Quick Takes: Drama version
Thanks to Jen for hosting!
1. This past month I've been teaching an acting class for homeschoolers, using Shakespeare as our texts. Our final project was Act 3 Scene 4 from Macbeth, the banquet scene in which Banquo's ghost shows up and puts a crimp in Macbeth's social life. I was working with my Macbeth, talking about how I wanted him to slam down his goblet when he saw the ghost. "Avaunt! Quit my sight!' I bellowed at the ghost, and banged the goblet on the table. The stem shattered on impact, gouging my finger deeply. The actors around the table took one look at the blood and glass all over my hand, and did exactly what their characters were supposed to do: screamed and jumped back from the table. In our performance today, that moment was perhaps the crispest bit of the whole scene -- apparently a little blood teaches more than hours of direction.
2. Butterfly bandages are awesome at closing gaping cuts.
3. Speaking of blood, Macbeth is a show that requires buckets of gore. We needed to smear the face of the murderer with blood, and douse Banquo's head (my favorite line of our scene was Macbeth shouting at the ghost, "Thou can'st not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me!"). I tried working off this recipe for blood, using the "gouts and smears" formula, but the chocolate syrup was just too brown to overcome with red food coloring. I must say, though, that my skin felt nice and soft after I rinsed a test smear off my face. For performance, we ended up using a some professional stage blood that I'd unearthed from my college stage makeup kit. The stuff was ten years old, but it looked most convincingly fresh dripping down Banquo's face.
4. After the Goblet Incident, Darwin ventured out to Target looking for some unbreakable goblets, and returned with these impressive plastic specimens.
Not only were all fingers safe during performance, but we can use them to replace all the broken wine glasses at our house.
5. Speaking of drama and children: the three-year-old has recently discovered her inner drama queen. We've seen a number of hissy fits lately -- fits that are, I might add, immediately discouraged. The other night, she was angry at Darwin about something before family prayers. We all knelt down, and he asked her to lead a Hail Mary, reasoning that it might soften her mood to do something constructive. She complied, and pronounced the prayer in an unusually clear voice, right up to "...blessed is the fruit of your womb...". Then, looking up at Darwin with a glint in her eye, she finished up: "Ugly."*
*She had to sit on the couch while everyone else went upstairs to get ready for bed, and when Darwin came down to get her, she was suitably and tearfully contrite and declared that she was ready to pray now, Daddy.
6. Speaking of children: I have rarely seen a child with so little hair as Jack. A friend of mine just had a baby five weeks early. Her baby, only 5 lbs. 8 oz., was born with more hair than Jack has now.
You can see Jack's hair, if the light is just so. Darwin says, "Jack's hair is still very... subtle."
7. My sister tells me that her cell ringtone for all the rest of her family is "You're So Vain". Personally, I don't think that song captures my unique essence.
Affirmative Action and Me
It always annoys me when I am confronted with a form which demands to know my "race or ethnicity" and offers no "mixed" option. Being exactly half "white" and half "hispanic", it seems tiresome to have to pick one or the other. "Just pick the one you feel represents you most," a nice lady at the DMV once told me. But of course, what I think represents me most is being half each -- not picking one over the other. I would certainly not say that I "am" Hispanic, yet the experience of having a large Mexican-American half to the family is hardly accidental to my life experience.
One of the areas I knew this would make a more than usually substantive difference in my life was deciding how to fill out college application forms. I objected to the idea of racial quotas (something that was still going on fairly explicitly in 96/97) and I figured that with an English last name even if I were tempted to try to take advantage of "Hispanic" status, I wouldn't pass the laugh test. So I put myself down at "Hispanic" on the PSAT and "white" on the SAT, and simply refused to pick on all my college applications.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
White House Meeting Ferments Beer Brew-hahha
It's not unusual for people attempting to smooth over a contentious discussion to say that they'd of course be willing to get together for a friendly beer some time. Apparently, when one has the resources and media visibility of the President, it's possible to actually pull this off, but trouble can ensue.
When President Obama called Cambridge police officer Crowley last week to try to smooth over tension resulting from Obama's declaration that Crowley's arrest of Professor Gates had been "stupid", Officer Crowley suggested that the three men should get together for a few beers. It seems that Obama thought this was a good idea, and a beer summit between the three men is currently scheduled to take place are scheduled to get together at a White House and knock back a couple cold ones.
However, this morning's Wall Street Journal reveals that peace making is never simple, American brewers are upset over the likely offering at the beer fest:
Late Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs hinted the presidential cooler will likely be stocked with what he understood to be the two guests' own personal favorites -- Red Stripe and Blue Moon.
"The president will drink Bud Light," Mr. Gibbs added.
The problem is that all three beers are products of foreign companies. Red Stripe is brewed by London-based Diageo PLC. Blue Moon is sold by a joint venture in which London-based SABMiller has a majority stake.
And Bud Light? It is made by Anheuser-Busch -- which is now known as Anseuser-Busch InBev NV after getting bought last year by a giant Belgian-Brazilian company.
Among rival brewers, the news fell flat. "We would hope they would pick a family-owned, American beer to lubricate the conversation," said Bill Manley, a spokesman for the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., a California-based brewer that happens to be family-owned.
Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Co., which brews Samuel Adams, decried "the foreign domination of something so basic and important to our culture as beer."
Genesee Brewery, Rochester, N.Y., released a statement congratulating the president for having beer at the meeting but adding: "We just hope the next time the President has a beer, he chooses an American beer, made by American workers, and an American-owned brewery like Genesee."
For the past several days, David von Storch, co-founder of Capitol City Brewing Company -- which owns a brewpub just a few blocks from the White House -- has been lobbying the administration to serve his company's "Equality Ale."
"What better beer to have them drink than the only beer brewed in the District of Columbia, Capitol City Brewing Company Equality Ale!" Mr. von Storch wrote in an email he sent Tuesday to several White House staffers.
When questioned by reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Gibbs, the White House spokesman, tackled the beer issue head-on. "As I understand it -- I have not heard this, I've read this, so I'll just repeat what I've read, that Professor Gates said he liked Red Stripe, and I believe Sergeant Crowley mentioned to the president that he liked Blue Moon. So we'll have the gamut covered tomorrow afternoon. I think we're still thinking, weather permitting, the picnic table out back. All right?"
Dan Kenary, president of Boston-based Harpoon Brewery, said he wanted to make a run at getting some of his beer into the meeting but couldn't find any intermediaries with close White House contacts. "I think just showing up at the gate with a case of Harpoon would make them look at us funny," he said.
Not to add to the frey, but the ale which most immediately springs to my mind is Avery Brewing Company's "Collaboration Not Litigation Ale".
No one seems to be aiming that high, however. Some advocate of hope and change to be planning to drink the famously making-love-in-a-canoe Bud Light. But perhaps it's indicative that beer is truly the drink of the working man that Officer Crowley actually have the highest grade beer tastes -- though as quality beers go I'd see Blue Moon as more of a filler than a headliner.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Favorite Picture Books
A few weeks ago, a family we're close to had a birthday party for their three-year-old daughter, and for a present I'd picked up a copy of an old Darwin favorite (one which I heard many times as a child) Bedtime for Frances.
Later, on hearing the recipient had much enjoyed the book, I said, "Oh yeah, that's always been one of my favorites."
It occured to me afterwards that it's perhaps odd for a grown man to have favorite picture books, and while it's true that I didn't necessarily take time out to read them before I had kids, I easily could have listed off a dozen or more favorite picture books at any given time. Perhaps we have bookish enough readers that this will not seem terribly odd to you for an adult to have favorite picture books. Either way, the following is a rather slap dash listing of favorites with a few notes on why -- making use of Amazon links since it's the fastest way to get images in on all these.
There are several other Frances books, all of them charming, but A Bargain for Frances is a favorite because of its lessons in negotiating and diplomacy for the 3-5 year old.
Ignore the later sequels, but the original Babar books are imaginative and charming in the extreme. From The Travels of Babar comes the useful line, "I've had enough. I'm going to smash everything." And I find that I still read the books in the same tone and cadence I recall from the voice of the reader on the Caedman audio books we had of Babar when I was a child. (Does this mean that our children will someday read the Narnia books with the voices of Kenneth Branaugh and the other British actors recruited to read the audio books they listen to all the time?)
What child does not at times wear his wolf suit and make mischief of one kind and another?
Although I'm fond enough of Peter Rabbit, I like Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Tom Kitten and the Fierce Bad Rabbit at least at much. Plus I can't help noticing the salutory moral involved in all of these stories being about foolish or mischievious animals being nearly killed and/or eaten.
As with Babar, I dislike all the later knock-offs, but the classic George books are quite enjoyable and the source of several household favorite lines.
Sadly, one of my favorite series of picture books in pretty thoroughly out of print, and very expensive. Graham Oakley's Church Mice books were very British and utterly charming. Now, however, they seem to be selling for quite a bit used.
I'm sure I've missed some favorites, but these seem to hit the high points.
UPDATE: Are the Amazon-hosted images loading for people? Questions on technical issues in the Darwin household. Okay, went through and hosted all the images on Blogger. Sigh...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
How to Get There from Here
Monday, July 27, 2009
Gotta get me some sleep
(Necessary disclaimer: I am not pregnant.)
It's been a matter of concern to me lately that I can't seem to keep my eyes open. Either I can't wake up when Darwin's alarm goes off, or I have to nap when baby goes down for his afternoon snooze, or both. My afternoon low period has become serious dead time. I've actually started drinking coffee in the morning to boost my energy levels, and I don't even like coffee all that much.
I see looking back over my novena for order that one of my conclusions was to get up earlier. I know that during the school year, getting up early is the difference between getting all our work done in the morning or slouching through the afternoon. Yet if I'm always exhausted, how can I stay up?
What makes me so tired? The answer is so basic it's almost stupid: I'm not getting enough sleep. I've never believed in a division of labor for night wakings. Since Darwin has to leave the house and get up early to go to off to work, I don't expect him to get up in the middle of the night to deal with this or that (and of course he can't nurse the baby). Unlike me, he can't put his coworkers in front of a movie or in quiet time and take a nap. But this also means that my night's rest is constantly interrupted.
Here's a rundown of last night's activities:
• go to bed at 11:30, read for a while
• turn the A/C off, surprised that it's still on, put the sleeping girl in the hall back in her bed
• 3:10: Julia comes in and wants her necklace taken off. Have to turn on the light to fix that.
• 3:40: Isabel comes in, needs a drink of water.
• 4:25 wake up from bad dream, turn A/C back on and shut windows because it's way too humid
And this was a night where no one wet the bed. (Here's my dirty secret for dealing with a bed-wetting: since we have plastic sheets on the girls' beds, I leave the bed-stripping for the morning and only wash the girl, then put her to sleep with one of her sisters.)
Now all this might not sound like that disturbed a night to most parents. And indeed, if those were the only distractions, I might count it a restful night. But in between everything, the baby was nursing. And nursing. He starts off the night in the crib, but comes into bed whenever he wakes up. Then I roll him from side to side whenever he starts fussing so I don't have to fully wake up. The problem is, I am waking up.
Jack is almost a year old. He doesn't need to eat every two hours. I don't want him to eat every two hours. I want him to sleep in his crib, because then he doesn't snuffle and paw at me all night and wake himself up. And frankly I have no attachment to a family-bed-style arrangement (especially with a queen-sized bed). But I've taken the lazy road of not training Jack to sleep all night in the crib at 6-8 months like I did with the girls, because I haven't wanted to deal with the few very sleepless nights and the crying it out that this would entail -- and also because now the crib is in our room, not the kids' bedroom like it was before. Now he has more powers of yelling persistence (and volume). But it's gotta be done.
The baby in his crib all night: I'll sleep to that!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The well-crafted paragraph
It's been eight years since I read The Secret History but this paragraph still strikes me as the epitome of style.
Hampden College, as a body, was always strangely prone to hysteria. Whether from isolation, malice, or simple boredom, people there were far more credulous and excitable than educated people are generally believed to be, and this hermetic, overheated atmosphere made it a thriving black petri dish of melodrama and distortion. I remember well, for instance, the blind animal terror which ensued when some townie set off the civil defense sirens as a joke. Someone said it was a nuclear attack; TV and radio reception, never good there in the mountains, happened to be particularly bad that night, and in the ensuing stampede for the telephones, the switchboard shorted out, plunging the school into a violent and almost unimaginable panic. Cars collided in the parking lot. People screamed, wept, gave away their possessions, huddled in small groups for comfort and warmth. Some hippies baracaded themselves in the Science Building, in the lone bomb shelter, and refused to let anyone in who didn't know the words to "Sugar Magnolia". Factions formed, leaders rose from the chaos. Though the world, in fact, was not destroyed, everyone had a marvelous time and people spoke fondly of the event for years afterward.
--The Secret History, Donna Tartt, Chapter 7
Factions formed, leaders rose from the chaos. A golden line in context. It's become a catchphrase here.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Understanding the Police
The nation (or at least, that portion of it which follows the news cycle) suddenly found itself in one of these "national conversations" about policing this week, after President Obama accused the Cambridge, Mass. police of having "acted stupidly" in arresting his friend and supporter Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. outside his own home for "disorderly conduct". The police report, minus some privacy data such as addresses, can be viewed here. The short version, is as follows: Prof. Gates returned from a trip to China and found himself having trouble getting into his house, so he and his cab driver forced the door open. A passerby saw this, feared a burglary was taking place, and called the police. Officer James Crowley of CPD arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, saw Prof. Gates in the house as he approached it, and though he looked to be a resident, but knocked, explained the situation, and asked for ID to be sure.
Here the two versions of the story diverge. According to Prof. Gates, Officer Crowley repeatedly refused to identify himself, lured him out onto the porch, and then arrested him. (You can read the Professor's version in an extended interview here.) According to Officer Crowley, Prof. Gates did provide identification, Crowley was satisfied that he was the homeowner, but Gates had immediately taken an angry tone (repeatedly accusing Crowley of treating him this way because he was black) and that Gates followed him outside, accusing him of racial bias and generally shouting at him, until after a warning Officer Crowley arrested him for disorderly conduct.
Now, I think it's pretty appalling to be arrested at your own house for yelling at someone, even a police officer. At the same time, the police report rings a lot truer to me that Prof. Gates'. And while even given that account, I don't like the idea of arresting someone in front of his own house for being loud and rude towards the police, it strikes me that Prof. Gates violated a lot of the very basic rules that everyone knows about interacting with police. Perhaps I can best explain with an example:
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Ideal House: Real-life version
It has an address: 2910 Ratterman Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45211.
Front view. I've never seen the garage look so nice.
My dad's house is this big 1913 Victorian foursquare beauty, replete with burnished wood and carved mantels and stained glass and a hidden staircase with its own entry. And five bedrooms, and a full basement.
Detail of livingroom mantel.
Unlike my own suburban box, every room in his house has windows on two sides for better light and airflow. There's an enormous backyard with what appears to be an overgrown fountain, or a ivy-choked planter, or a huge bird bath (we never really exacavated it to discover its original purpose).
Planter-ish thing? Or pool? You decide.
Here's the view from the upstairs hall -- in January.
And now, this wonderful house is ready for a new family. I'm married in Texas, two of my brothers teach at Catholic high schools in Kentucky and New York, my one sister just got married, my other sister is starting college in the fall. It's just my dad and my brother left in this house, and the place is just too big to be a bachelor pad. It needs life. It needs kids running around and playing music and charging around the backyard and racing up and down the stairs.
Stairs to entry. Baby not included.
Want to see a bit more? Take the virtual tour. Or contact the realtor to see more pictures and get more details.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Orphan Openings: Trauma Team Edition
Though hardened by fifteen years service on the Fruit & Vegetable Clean-up Team, Kurt felt a tightening in his gut as cleanup vehicles flashing lights played across the carnage: some three dozen watermelons fallen off a pickup truck onto I-35. Broken rinds littered the road, the lights of the emergency vehicles making them first more livid red, then purplish blue. Pulp and seeds were thrown every which way, with tire treads running through the carnage and spattering it up on the guard rails.
"You expect to see this kind of thing in a war," Kurt told the reporter from News Nine, trying to assume the tough but sensitive man who's seen too much demeanor that would lead her to call him later. "But this is no war. This is right here at home. Seeds and pulp thrown all over like an artillery barrage hit an infantry battalion."
One of the other men dropped an armful of broken rinds into the cleanup bin, touched the crucifix hanging around his neck, and murmured a prayer.
Kurt shook his head. "How can you believe in God when you see things like this?"
Monday, July 20, 2009
Interview with Alphonse Creator Matthew Lickona
I posted a while back about the publication of Alphonse, a graphic novel written by Matthew Lickona and drawn by Chris Gugliotti. I've since had a chance to read Alphonse, Issue One and enjoyed it. It's an off-beat and dark story, but a very evocative one. Alphonse's mother is a serious druggie -- long in denial about the fact she is pregnant. When she shows up at a women's health clinic, 34 weeks pregnant, she insists that she can't go through with the pregnancy, and a doctor agrees to provide an abortion and hysterectomy. However, Alphonse is not your ordinary, helpless child of 34 weeks gestation. He is, through fate or the harsh mix of chemicals his mother's habits have exposed him to, aware of her thoughts and his danger, and also unusually coordinated for his size and age.
In the first issue we see his escape from the abortion clinic, and his rescue by a pro-life protester who takes him home and begins to nurse him through the withdrawal which removal from his mother's chemical habits causes. A man of action despite standing under twenty inches tall, Alphonse seems poised to bring about changes in the intersecting lives of a number of characters.
Alphonse is not a political cartoon or simple message book. It is a gritty fantasy told in a macabrely inventive visual style -- using a fantastic situation to explore a topic which is often considered radioactive in our society. Abortion is a topic which many seek to pigeonhole quietly by declaring a "tragedy". Alphonse seeks to be the Macbeth to this tragedy -- bloody, bold and resolute.
Author Matthew Lickona agreed to answer a set of questions for me in order to provide you with this interview.
Q: How did the idea for Alphonse come to you, and what can you tell us about where the story is going?
A: My inspiration for Alphonse actually came from another comic character: Gary Cangemi’s Umbert the Unborn. I think I first encountered him in The National Catholic Register. Cangemi had created Umbert to manifest the personhood of the fetus, and to that end, he had endowed the little guy with reason, will, and a pretty thorough understanding of the outside world. In particular, Umbert knew about legalized abortion.
Umbert was (and remains) a cheerful fellow. But he got me to thinking: what if it were true? What if there really was a sentient fetus, suspended upside down in the dark, barely able to move, completely dependent on its mother for sustenance and care, and constantly aware of the fact that, at any moment, it could be killed? That if Mom made the fateful choice, there was nothing - not even the law - standing between it and violent death? Month after month in the dark, wondering when the axe might fall. What would that experience be like? What would it do to a person? >Alphonse was born out of that question.
Where is the story going? Well, by the end of issue one, Alphonse has survived the attempt on his life, and the fallout from his escaping the abortion clinic is just beginning to ensue. Issue two is largely about that fallout, and the ways that the various characters deal with it. We get a little more insight into the cause and nature of Alphonse's character and condition, and the wheels are set in motion that will eventually bring about the climax in issue five.
Q: Did the comic book genre seem to come naturally from the subject matter? I've got to admit, I'm not normally a comic book reader (nor a comic strip reader since Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side left the funny pages) but as I read the first issue of Alphonse I couldn't really picture it as just prose.
A: Yes. Comic books land on the storytelling continuum somewhere between prose and movies, and I think that in Alphonse's case, that's a good thing.
I mean, you could make a movie out of the story, but it would have to be animated - I think a CGI preemie scurrying around the screen amid live actors would be just too darned creepy. It would overwhelm the story, and just freaking people out is not my goal. Animation provides a level of abstraction from reality that would render Alphonse a little more tolerable, I think.
But comic books, which abstract the images from motion, provide an even further remove, and my hope is that such abstraction serves to dampen the horror to the point where the story can come through clearly.
As for prose, I suppose I could have written things out, but it would have been a lot harder to keep from getting too heavy-handed. (I'm sure some people think the comic is heavy-handed as it is.) Take, for example, the montage on page four. I think that by the time I finished describing Mom's doodle of the monster sperm attacking the fleeing egg, the nightmare image of the abortion machine, the ominous and demanding abortion protestors, and the way they serve to chain Mom to this baby that terrifies her, the reader's eyes would be glazing over, and the hope for an engaged conversation between author and reader would be lost. In comic form, the whole thing can be taken in pretty quickly - Alphonse's connection to his mother's drug-fueled dreams is established, and we can move along without belaboring the point.
HOWEVER, these reasons are, to some extent, justifications after the fact. The truth is, my older brother collected comics when he was a teenager, and I read every issue he bought, many of them more than once. I found some of the stories - Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's BATMAN: YEAR ONE, for example - deeply affecting and memorable, and that may be part of the reason why I never placed comics among the things of childhood that one ought to put away. Suffice it to say that when Alphonse first came to me, he came to me as an illustration. Maybe that's because he was inspired by Umbert. Maybe it's because I have been privy to so much back-and-forth about the use of graphic images in the abortion debate. Or maybe it's just because I like comics.
Q: Given the subject matter, I'm curious whether your illustrator is someone with a Catholic or pro-life background. What did he think of the project when you introduced it to him?
A: You know, I'm hesitant to speak for my artist on this one. But I will say that he wasn't interested in doing a piece of propaganda - which was good, because I wasn't, either. I'm pretty sure he signed on because he read the script and thought it was a good story.
Q: Any particular illustration stylistic influences? Two things really struck me, though they may be totally my own thinking: The cover looks like a horror-show version of the cover of Angel in the Waters (which I read to my kids a bunch of times when we were expecting our youngest) and Alphonse's hat, overalls and scalpel look in some of the pictures you've posted reminds me Boondocks.
A: Angel in the Waters - ha! That's awesome, in a sort of scary way. I actually approached Ben Hatke, who illustrated Angel in the Waters, about this project way back before I found Chris (needless to say, it didn't work out). But no - Hatke's book was not a source. Chris sent me a lineup of six cover possibilities, and we went with this one for a number of reasons, some of them having to do with the starkness of the image, and the way it presented Alphonse as an isolated figure (even as he is connected to Mom via the umbilical cord). Ultimately, I think it came down to drama and simplicity.
As for the overalls and hat image - that was just my first rendering of Alphonse, for better or for worse. I don't think Chris ever saw it. I get what you're saying about Boondocks, but it wasn't a direct inspiration. I first fell in love with Chris's work because some of the stuff on his website reminded me of Bill Sienkiewicz, one of my very favorite comic book artists - though Chris's style is obviously very much his own. I gave Chris descriptions and characteristics, and he took it from there.
Q: What's the reaction to the book been? Has it been covered at all by secular comics sites?
A: Reaction has been varied, and it's come mostly from other Catholics. Some have understood the project right off and thought it worthwhile, others have expressed concern that the central premise will prove too radioactive, that it will prevent the story from getting through. Some, I think, have simply found it puzzling. Plenty of folks have simply kept silent, and I won't venture to guess at why.
I am just now beginning the push to secular comics sites. The comics market is extremely crowded, and I think for a project like this - self published, and dealing with a difficult subject - to attract any notice, it's going to have to have something of an established fanbase. Most of the media people I know are involved with the Catholic press, so I've started there in my effort to build support and find an audience. Also, it seemed to me that a story like this might be dear to the Catholic heart - particularly if that Catholic heart was fond of the grotesque scenarios found in Flannery O'Connor. I don't want to preach to the choir here - I don't want to preach, period - but I thought maybe the choir would find it worth singing about.
Q: Though I don't want to overplay the evangelization aspect of this (who was it who said, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union"?) but what do you want people to come away from Alphonse with -- but as a Catholic and as an author more generally?
A: My fondest hope is that this is a story that will linger in the reader's mind after he or she has finished it and walked away.
I could say that I'd like it to give readers an enlarged sense of the world, but that's awfully hifalutin.
I could say that I'd like it to give readers on both sides a better sense of the opposition - and if the characters are actually characters, as opposed to cardboard cutouts; if the story really is a story, as opposed to propaganda, then it's certainly possible it will have that effect. But that's more of a byproduct. It's not why I'm doing this.
So I'll stick with the lingering.
Q: This is partly a charitably funded project. How is it going so far and what do you still need to make Alphonse happen?
A: Well, issue one was funded mostly by donations from friends, family, and a couple of surprising sources, so that much has been a success. Issue two is, as of now, about $1300 away from being funded. Overall, I need about $17,000 to finish the project. The story really works best if you can take it in from start to finish all at once, so I keep hoping for a rich patron to come along and help me turn it into a single graphic novel. But barring that, I'll keep begging and scraping to get the issues out one at a time. I'm not picky. With any luck, the issues will start to catch on, and I can use the proceeds to help fund what remains.
As of now, 39 backers have pledged $3,283 towards the $4,600 cost of getting Alphonse Issue Two produced. There is just over a week left to the fund drive. To contribute and track progress visit the Kickstarter page for Alphonse here. You can purchase copies of Alphonse for $2.99/ea plus shipping from IndyPlanet.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Disappointed Horse
As you contemplate the end of your weekend, you might want:
Friday, July 17, 2009
Culture Crash
That mainstream American culture is something of a train wreck is hardly news at this point, and that regard there's a certain wisdom to the approach, "Let the dead bury their dead," rather than having the brashness to be the one shouting, "Oh, hey, look! A body!" Still, occasionally one runs across things which are at the same time so sad and so indicative of our cultural ills one feels the need to comment. Such a case, to my mind at least, was this article from the most recent Atlantic Monthly suggesting that for the modern Homo suburbanicus middleclassus marriage is a failed idea which should be pretty much abandoned. Or as the cheery sub-headline succinctly put it: "The author is ending her marriage. Isn’t it time you did the same?"
The author is a 47 year old woman, a successful performance artist married to a musician, who after twenty years of marriage and two children find herself in the aftermath of an extramarital affair deciding that she really doesn't feel like doing the work to rebuilt a relationship with her husband.
Which is to say I can work at a career and child care and joint homeownership and even platonic male-female friendship. However, in this cluttered forest of my 40s, what I cannot authentically reconjure is the ancient dream of brides, even with the Oprah fluffery of weekly “date nights,” when gauzy candlelight obscures the messy house, child talk is nixed and silky lingerie donned, so the two of you can look into each other’s eyes and feel that “spark” again. Do you see? Given my staggering working mother’s to-do list, I cannot take on yet another arduous home- and self-improvement project, that of rekindling our romance. Sobered by this failure as a mother—which is to say, my failure as a wife—I’ve since begun a journey of reading, thinking, and listening to what’s going on in other 21st-century American families. And along the way, I’ve begun to wonder, what with all the abject and swallowed misery: Why do we still insist on marriage? Sure, it made sense to agrarian families before 1900, when to farm the land, one needed two spouses, grandparents, and a raft of children. But now that we have white-collar work and washing machines, and our life expectancy has shot from 47 to 77, isn’t the idea of lifelong marriage obsolete?
Armed with her experience and the knowledge gained from a passel of books seeking to analyze the ills and possibilities of modern marriage, the author goes out for a "girls night" at the house of one of her friends, and discovers that her own thinking has touched off similar thoughts among her married friends:
But it is now our second Girls’ Night dinner since my horrifying announcement, and Rachel has eschewed Ian’s customary wine-club Bordeaux and is mixing some alarmingly strong martinis.
Leaning forward heavily across the bar, she swirls her glass and huskily drops the bomb: “I have to tell you—since we talked, I too have started thinking divorce.” “No!” we girls exclaim. With a stab of nausea, I suddenly feel as though now that I’ve touched my pool of friends with my black pen, a cloud of ink is enveloping them.
“You can’t!” Renata cries. “Ian—he’s the perfect father! The perfect husband! Look at this … kitchen!”
It’s true: the kitchen is a prime example of Ian’s contribution to their union. He based the design of the remodel on an old farmhouse kitchen they saw during their trip to Tuscany, and of course—carpentry being another of his hobbies—he did all the details himself, including building the shelves. One of the room’s marvels is how ingeniously and snugly all the specialty kitchenware is housed—the hanging copper pots, the garlic press, the mandolin, the lemon zester, the French press coffeemaker …
“Ian won’t have sex with me,” Rachel says flatly. “He has not touched my body in two years. He says it’s because I’ve gained weight.” Again, we stoutly protest, but she goes on. “And he thinks I’m a bad mother—he says I’m sloppy and inattentive.”
The list of violations unfurls. Last week, Rachel mistakenly gave the wrong medication to the dog, a mistake Ian would never make. She also forgot to deglaze the saucepan and missed the window to book the family’s Seattle flights on Expedia, whose chiming bargains Ian meticulously tracks.
After spending a while diagnosing the problems with this friend's relationship, another speaks up:
“You know, it’s funny,” says Ellen, after a moment of gloom. (Passing note: Ellen has been married for 18 years, and she also, famously, never has sex. There were the hot 20s with Ron and the making-the-babies 30s, and in the 40s there is … nothing. Ellen had originally picked Ron because she was tired of all the bad boys, and Ron was settle-down husband material. What she didn’t know was that after the age of 38, thanks to Mr. Very Settled-Down, she was never going to have regular sex with a man again.)
“When marriage was invented,” Ellen continues, “it was considered to be a kind of trade union for a woman, her protection against the sexually wandering male. But what’s happened to the sexually wandering male?”
In our parents’ era, the guy hit 45, got the toupee, drove the red Porsche, and left his family for the young, hot secretary. We are unable to imagine any of the husbands driving anything with fewer than five seat belts.
“Ron only goes as far as the den,” Ellen says. “He has his Internet porn bookmarked on the computer.”
“Ian has his Cook’s Illustrated,” Rachel adds. “And his—his men’s online fennel club.”
The author sees hope in some rather bleak ideas:
So, herewith, some modest proposals. Clearly, research shows that what’s best for children is domestic stability and not having to bond with, and to be left by, ever new stepparent figures. Less important is whether or not their overworked parents are logging “date night” (or feeling the magic). So why don’t we accept marriage as a splitting-the-mortgage arrangement? As Fisher suggests, rekindling the romance is, for many of us, biologically unnatural, particularly after the kids come. (Says another friend of mine, about his wife of 23 years: “My heart doesn’t lift when she walks in the room. It sinks, slightly.”) If high-revving women are sexually frustrated, let them have some sort of French arrangement where they have two men, the postfeminist model dad building shelves, cooking bouillabaise, and ignoring them in the home, and the occasional fun-loving boyfriend the kids never see. Alternately, if both spouses find life already rather exhausting, never mind chasing around for sex. Long-married husbands and wives should pleasantly agree to be friends, to set the bedroom aglow at night by the mute opening of separate laptops and just be done with it. More than anything, aside from providing insulation from the world at large, that kind of arrangement could be the perfect way to be left alone.
As far as the children are concerned, how about the tribal approach (a natural, according to both primate and human evolution)? Let children between the ages of 1 and 5 be raised in a household of mothers and their female kin. Let the men/husbands/boyfriends come in once or twice a week to build shelves, prepare that bouillabaisse, or provide sex.
Or best of all, after the breast-feeding and toddler years are through, let those nurturing superdads be the custodial parents! Let the Type A moms obsessively work, write checks, and forget to feed the dog. Let the dads then, if they wish, kick out those sloppy working mothers and run effective households, hiring the appropriate staff, if need be. To a certain extent, men today may have more clarity about what it takes to raise children in the modern age. They don’t, for instance, have today’s working mother’s ambivalence and emotional stickiness.
In any case, here’s my final piece of advice: avoid marriage—or you too may suffer the emotional pain, the humiliation, and the logistical difficulty, not to mention the expense, of breaking up a long-term union at midlife for something as demonstrably fleeting as love.
I'd originally thought about quoting a little bit of the article and then writing a lot of analysis, but as I thought it over, I think that putting it out there -- like a cadaver on the dissection table -- with a few basic pointers may make things rather more clear.
A couple of things particularly struck me, though.
Foremost, I was utterly unsurprised when the one sex-starved woman mentioned her husband heading off into the den to watch his internet porn. It would little surprise me if the over-achieving husband has similar habits. In a world in which sex has been totally divorced from its biological meaning, why not retreat into the world of unreality? Why accept a real person with needs and moods and desires and a body which is the product of age, genetics and personal habits when carefully selected bodies can be seen doing anything one desires only a mouse click and a couple dollars away? This is the natural path down which one goes when one separates the mating urge from mating with one's mate.
The other thing that struck me as interesting was how an excessive emphasis on equality seemed to be driving unhappiness. The author talks about "co-parenting" rather than "parenting", and emphasizes down on the line all the tasks which she is perfectly happy to do in order to hold up her half of the household duties. Her friends over-achieving husband Ian is quick to blame his wife for not holding up her duties equally, on everything from feeding the dog to maintaining the body type he prefers. I'm not an absolutist about "traditional roles", although MrsDarwin and I have always felt strongly about maintaining a single income family with a full time parent at home, but the one thing I think is probably almost never healthy is a strong emphasis on doing everything equally in a marriage rather than having some sort of roles. If you both work full time careers, and both strive to do equal amounts of housework, parenting, cooking, etc., it seems to me that comparisons will almost invariably spring up.
"I do the dishes every night, but she hasn't swept the floor in three days."
"I end up having to help the kids out with homework while she just takes them out to fun activities which cost lots of money."
"I make more money, but he's always going out to lunch as if money were no object."
And on, and on. Perhaps I'm an unusually unpleasant person, but in a work environment I can't help constantly measuring myself against the other people who are "doing the same thing I'm doing". This can be pretty harmless at work so long as one keeps a lid on it. After all, it's just work, and we get to walk away at the end of the day. But when you bring this same tendency towards competition into a marriage, I can see nothing but trouble coming of it. There it seems to me that it's very important to have complementary but different roles -- not do everything together as "co-parents". This doesn't have to be some kind of radical partitioning. But if one of your major goals is, "We'll make equal money, do equal work, and have equal fun," I think conflict will almost invariably result. Marriage is meant to be based on complementarity, not measured equality.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Some of the greatest tv news coverage ever: Monty Python's documentary on the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale.
But for those pressed for time, here's the money quote:
Economics and Morality
I may have to turn in my Catholic Geek card for this admission, but I still haven't finished reading Caritas in Veritate, I'm only about ten pages in. Though I've tried the usual background reading, Benedict's prose (though more readable than some of his predecessor's) is not really the sort of thing one can read one paragraph at a time in between working. And while I do usually have 30-60min between 11pm and midnight in which to read before falling asleep, I must confess I've mostly been devoting that time to finishing a spy novel rather than turning tired eyes to Catholic social thought.
However, if I may nonetheless take the liberty of addressing some of the general discussion of economics and morality which has been stirred up by the encyclical, there is what seems to me a familiar dynamic coming into play as people discuss whether the Church can or should teach on matters of economics. The situation strikes me as somewhat similar to the argument about whether the Church can teach on matters of science.
On science, I would like to think, the terrain if fairly well understood. The Church does not and cannot teach with any particular authority on scientific theories themselves: Is the universe six billion years old, or only 6000? Is string theory a load of rubbish? Does the Earth revolve around the Sun? Will the expansion since the "big bang" end in a "big crunch" or in the heat death of the universe?
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Spiritual Armor and Social Justice
Fr. Fox, the best blogging priest on the 'nets, posted his recent talks for a homeschooling conference. Go and read; perusing Fr. Fox's homilies and speeches is like taking a mini-retreat.
From his talk on equipping your children with spiritual armor:
Paul tells us our Faith is a shield.
And above all…
And from his talk to teenagers on social justice:
What do you think the Church says about unions?
What the Church does not say about unions:
Ø That working people must belong to them.
Ø That unions are always right or should always prevail.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Language Acquisition: Spanish Edition
Some good friends of ours are hosting a 12-year-old orphan from Columbia for the summer, so we here in the Darwin clan have all been doing our parts at trying to pick up a little Spanish. I have no good explanation as to why I never picked up much of any Spanish before. Growing up in Los Angeles, with one of my parents of Mexican ancestry, I somehow managed to pick up less Spanish than MrsDarwin did growing up in Cincinnati. I think that because Spanish was so omnipresent in Southern California, learning it never seemed like the sort of exclusive knowledge that fascinated me. Being able to say "I speak Spanish" didn't so much say "intellectual" as "works in construction".
Learning a spoken, modern language which is so directly related to Latin, has been interesting. Reading through a grammar text (more familiar to my Wheelock-formed Latin background) while listening to Pimsleur conversational language records is an interesting contrast, and leaves we wondering what the differences are between how grammar is presented to natives in elementary and high school grammar versus in a formal language acquisition course for outsiders.
I'm curious if any of our readers know: Would one sit down and study the forms of first, second and third conjugation verbs as a native Spanish speaker? Are the conjugations even formally named except by non-native speakers? Or is it more common to simply talk about -ar, -er and -ir verbs and then irregular verbs?
I am rather charmed by having two version of the verb of being, one for permanent conditions and one for characteristics which are had at the moment. It seems like all sorts of fun could be had with those distinctions. For instance, while some might say, "El coche está sucio," in my case it would be more accurate to say that, "Mi coche es sucio," as my vehicle has become permanently scruffy.
Though perhaps what seems to the beginner to be cleverness would just come across as grammatical incompetence.
Friday, July 10, 2009
A Few Thoughts on NFP
Sometimes you run across an argument which strikes you as wrong in such a way as to crystallize and clarify your thinking on a topic. Such a case, for me, was running into this debate from last week at InsideCatholic on the topic, "Is NFP Misogynous?"
The "yes it is" argument contained the following key elements:
Assuming any methodized sexual intercourse devised to avoid pregnancy by an otherwise open-to-life-marital-couple can actually "work," who bears responsibility for the method? I seriously question whether NFP, for many, isn't a misogynous practice -- imposing upon women an undue share of the physical and emotional burden of the theologically questionable quest of planning pregnancy.
First, we must be real. Modern NFP practices demand daily bodily measurements of women, not men.... A woman most desires sexual intimacy when she is at her most fertile.... This is also the moment when we are most likely to conceive a child. It's the moment NFP-practicing women measure and chart and predict as "fertility awareness," a "maybe-child" zone. For NFP-practicing women avoiding pregnancy, it is the moment they must say "no" to both themselves and their spouses....
I don't buy it. It sounds like a scheme to impose on women who wish to time pregnancies an almost penal practice of self-measurement, self-control, and self-denial, while requiring, at a minimum, a sort of suffering acquiescence from a spouse whose interest in the chart becomes rather strategic....
NFP needs to go the same way as the rhythm method -- which did not "work" and was, more importantly, female unfriendly. In its place, perhaps we all need to suck it up and admit what the theology asks of us: Have sex whenever you both want to... and expect a baby every time. Otherwise, don't copulate. That's a fair burden on both spouses.
The woman presenting the "no it isn't" view did a perfectly decent job of presenting the standard arguments for NFP, but I'd like to dig into one aspect in particular, especially given that by the sixth comment on the article we already see a theology student trying to argue that the "planning" involved in Natural Family Planning is really no different than the use of barrier methods of contraception since it involves "the intention of having sex without baby" and is thus "using one's intellect to create a tool which limits the possibility of procreation".
I'd like to start from a point of biological realism. The bodily organs which are used in this very pleasant thing we call sex are part of the reproductive system, which means than whenever we have sex we are performing an action which is at a biological level meant to be reproductive, in the sense that our bodies would not have this capacity were it not for the fact their function is reproductive in nature. (Interesting side note: think of all the most pleasurable things the human body can do and ask yourself, how does each one of these relate to a basic element of human survival. Generally speaking, the greater the physical pleasure, the greater the relation to survival.)
Within the overall structure of intercourse, a normal, healthy man is capable of begetting children any time he has sex. However, women (like females of virtually all other mammals) are only biologically able to conceive a few days out of the month. (Both of these reproductive strategies make a lot of sense for the individual and the species as a whole at the evolutionary level, but I don't think it's necessary to go into all that here.) Even at the "right time", a woman may or may not conceive as the result of having intercourse. Conditions have to be right for the sperm to reach the egg, the egg has to be healthy, and the sperm has to successfully implant. What this boils down to is that while the probability of getting pregnant from any one random act of intercourse is perhaps 1-10% depending on the people involved, having sex frequently will almost invariably result in pregnancy unless there is a health/age problem involved.
Other creatures, our non-rational brethren in the animal kingdom, do not worry about when they should not reproduce. Driven by instincts and natural compulsions, they mate when it is their season, have as many offspring as they can, and hope (if one may apply that word to the unthinking) that those offspring will thrive. If there are not enough resources to go around, the young, weak, and old die off. We humans see this kind of suffering as something to be avoided, and so human societies in all times and places have striven not to outgrow their resources -- using methods ranging from self denial to slaughter.
From a Catholic point of view, human life is sacred and thus abortion and infanticide are completely unacceptable as means of population control; and the sexual faculties have a moral integrity resulting from their relation to the creation of new human beings and so the sex act should not be modified (as with birth control) to remove its inherent fertility. Thus, for Catholics, the answer to the need not to have more children than one can provide for is to have sex less. Because sex has a clear and inherent reproductive aspect, which we consider it wrong to try to circumvent artificially, if you want to not get pregnant you will have to avoid having sex at least some of the time.
Now, this is where the question of whether Natural Family Planning (NFP) as practiced by modern Catholic couples is "natural" comes in. The woman's body gives certain signs of when it is likely to be fertile. These signs are rather less obvious than those of many of our fellow mammals. Female chips, for instance, have a large pink swelling around their genital area when they become fertile, such that one can tell if she is fertile from quite some distance away.
Signs of human female fertility are much more subtle. (The evolutionary reason for this would make a very interesting inquiry, I can think of a few very interesting reasons.) However they are now pretty well understood and easily learned.
So, what are the options for the Catholic couple who are seeking to remain true to the Church's understanding of human sexuality and the human person and also seeking to avoid having more children then they can raise and support?
Ms. Campbell advises, "Have sex whenever you both want to... and expect a baby every time. Otherwise, don't copulate. That's a fair burden on both spouses."
The thing is (leaving aside the dangerous problem of trying to figure out what is "fair" for both spouses in some sort of power politics sense) that this is in a sense not actually all that natural. We are not made such that sex results in a baby "every time". Sex is somewhat likely to result in a baby perhaps 30% of the time, and highly likely to do so only about 10% of the time at best. Since unlike a lot of our fellow creatures, our sex drives are not only "on" when we're fertile, the rest of the time sex serves to strengthen and deepen the bond between a couple who are going to have a lot of work and difficulty together raising children. So if you only, ever have sex when you absolutely expect to have a baby, you're actually using sex in a more minimal fashion than we're physically designed for.
If they know anything at all about their biology (from experience if nothing else) a couple is going to know they won't get pregnant every time. And knowing this, the drive is strong to say, "Surely this time is okay." Though husbands should try hard to be sensitive to the greater difficulties that pregnancy means for their wives than for them, this line of thinking is naturally going to appeal more to the man than to the woman. Desires for "fairness" aside, pregnancy is naturally going to effect the woman more directly than the man.
Given that we have the understanding of female fertility signs available to us quite easily in the modern world, it is going to cause significantly less stress without couples to use that knowledge to actually know "we might get pregnant now" versus "we almost certainly won't get pregnant now" rather than relying the more more amorphous "chances are decent we won't get pregnant this one time" or the inaccurate "we shouldn't have sex unless we're absolutely sure we want to get pregnant."
NFP works within the natural structure of what sex is -- a natural act which has both unitive and procreative elements. It encompasses self denial in that it accepts that if you want to avoid pregnancy for a while you are going to have to forgo having sex, but it provides system and achievability to that self denial by telling a couple when it is that they need to forgo sex. If you need to avoid having another child for the next year or two, you may end up having to avoid having sex nearly half the time. However, that is much more achievable and healthy for a couple than attempting to avoid it entirely for those same years -- and the differentials of fear and desire that would result from such an attempt. | http://darwincatholic.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html | dclm-gs1-456475528 | false | false | {
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0.071347 | <urn:uuid:03bf1ffd-31f9-4f43-918b-a942552c57a8> | en | 0.905523 | The Class Skills of Elder Scrolls Online: Templar
Elder Scrolls Online will launch with 4 available Classes. Last time we had a look at the skills of the Dragonknight. This time let’s examine the Class Skills for the courageous Templar.
[ Templar ]
The Templar is a master of defence and protection, healing companions and striking down undead and Daedra and channelling the energy from the sun to strike down her enemies and aid her allies.
[ Aedric Spear ]
The first skill line for the Templar is Aedric Spear, revolving around the use of a conjured, magical spear and the classic paladin or champion of light aspect. The Passives are Piercing Spear, increasing the chance of getting a critical strike with spear abilities, and dealing extra damage to targets who’re blocking; Spear Wall, increasing the amount of damage you can block whilst you’ve a spear ability on your action bar; Burning Light, adding a chance to deal extra damage with spear abilities, and Balanced Warrior, increasing your weapon power and resistance to spells.
Aedric Spear Actives are: Puncturing Strikes, an attack which hits 4 times dealing chained damage to any foes in front of you and causing the closest foe to be knocked back on the final hit; Piercing Javelin, which hurls the spear to cause damage against a foe and knocks them backwards; Focused Charge, allowing you to charge into a foe, interrupting their attacks and dealing Magic damage; Spear Shards, dealing Magic damage to all foes in an area and giving a bonus to your damage for a short time, and Sun Shield, which creates a damage-absorbing shield, its strength based on your maximum health. It also deals damage to nearby foes, returns damage to them and is replenished each time a foe strikes it. However the Templar’s Magicka doesn’t regen whilst the shield is active.
Aedric Spear’s Ultimate Ability is Radial Sweep, causing Magic damage to all nearby foes around you with the conjured spear.
[ Dawn’s Wrath ]
This is the skill line for channelling the sun’s energy to blind, stun and damage your foes. Its passives are Enduring Rays, increasing Dawn’s Wrath ability durations; Prism, which allows you to gain an additional Ultimate when activating a Dawn’s Wrath ability; Illuminate, allowing you to take less damage from foes affected by your Dawn’s Wrath abilities and Restoring Spirit, restoring some Magicka when activating an ability.
Dawn’s Wrath Actives are Sun Fire, hurling a white-hot projectile at a target, dealing initial damage plus DOT, and also snaring the victim; Solar Flare, dealing damage to the target as well as damaging any nearby foes, affected foes take more damage from the next attack; Backlash, which stores up incoming damage before unleashing it against nearby foes; Eclipse, which reflects single target, negative spells back at their casters and Blinding Light, causing all incoming enemy attacks to miss and has a chance to make the attackers off balance.
The Dawn’s Wrath Ultimate Ability is Nova: the ability to summon a small sun which causes all nearby foes to deal less damage whilst suffering DOT. If an ally activates the Supanova synergy, enemies in the area will be dealt more damage and be stunned for a short period of time.
[ Restoring Light ]
This, naturally, is the “Healer” skill line, for those players wishing to focus on aiding and healing their party members. Passives include Master Ritualist, giving you a more speedy resurrection and giving you more health when you’re rezzed and with a chance of a soul gem not being consumed; Light Weaver, which increases Restoring Aura’s duration, reduces the cost of Healing Ritual and causes you to take less damage whilst channelling with Rite of Passage; Mending, increasing the critical strike chance of Restoring Light abilities on allies with the amount of increase based on how low the ally’s health is and Focused Healing, increasing the amount of healing done to allies standing in your area of protection for Rite of Passage, Cleansing Ritual and Rune Focus.
The extremely beneficial Actives are Rushed Ceremony, which heals a nearby wounded ally; Healing Ritual, healing all nearby allies, with increased healing for the Templar; Restoring Aura, giving you increased health and stamina regen when on your action bar, and when activated it gives allies increased health and stamina regen; Cleansing Ritual, which instantly removes a negative effect from you and heals allies in the area and Rune Focus, creating an area of protection in which you gain immunity to interrupt effects and take less damage whilst it lasts.
Restoring Light’s Ultimate Ability is Rite of Passage, which channels a restorative aura that heals you and causes nearby allies to take less damage.
Check back in a fortnight to read about more Class Skills in Elder Scrolls Online.
[ Further Reading ]
10 Reasons Why Elder Scrolls Online Will Rock
Will Elder Scrolls Online Redefine the Holy Trinity?
Zones of Tamriel
Andy Lex Bain is a 31 year old writer who resides in Tasmania. He enjoys writing, reading, writing video game reviews, gaming, writing fiendish campaigns for his roleplaying club "The Blades of Valour", cosplaying, bushwalking and watching movies, DVDs and anime. He aspires to be a full-time published author and basically spends his days slaving away at his computer, ShadowLord.
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0.187171 | <urn:uuid:a6042447-fba8-44a3-996f-e6a14753c77d> | en | 0.932352 | The Joomla! Extensions Directory ™
bymrmarkelrayes, December 7, 2009
AJAX Shoutbox
This does exactly what it says it does. Extremely easy to set up and it only has one .css file, so it customizes well.
My only concern was not being able to actively fit the text-area box width. But I use this module on my site as a way for people to chat while viewing the forums. I highly recommend it. | http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/reviews/mrmarkelrayes | dclm-gs1-457015528 | false | false | {
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0.055604 | <urn:uuid:7ad3a6fd-801a-4fc2-ad0a-b7470b5067b9> | en | 0.912413 | SpellForce 2 - Shadow Wars Patch 1.02
SpellForce II the player takes over both roles - he is Commander of his troops and also a front fighting hero.
For five years the terrible conflict around the mysterious Shadows sundered the country of the Dark Elves and fanned the flames of a civil war amongst them. Even beyond the borders of their territories unrest prevails: a new power rises in Eo, a threat that seems to spread its shadow over the whole realm and endangers the people's ancient alliances...
Craig Un'Shallach, Dark Elf General and member of the Dracon caste, fights alongside his clan against the influence of the ominous Shadows, but the tide of war turns against him. When defeat seems imminent, his daughter Nightsong escapes in order to warn of the approaching menace that comes to kill everyone.
She flees into the borderlands between the realms of humans and the dark elves to alarm the humans about the pact between Shadows and Dark Elves and of the army of the Shadows, which advances under the guidance of the insane alchemist Sorvina towards the realms of the light!
With this alarming knowledge Nightsong reaches the fortress of the Shaikan, the legendary dragon warriors, bonded by blood with an ancient dragon, feared by the races of light and darkness alike. There she receives the unexpected assistance of a courageous Shaikan who joins her journey to tell the tale of the Shadows and Sorvina and to save his homeland and family.
However, to resist the impeding doom powerful armies will be required. The dormant alliance of light must be reforged, no easy task for two creatures counted amongst the enemies of Light... that comes to kill everyone
last updated on:
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On Sam Morril’s Response
Posted on Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Author: Sady Doyle
On April 23, I wrote to Sam Morril that I wanted to work with him to change the conversation about rape jokes. That conversation, I said, was stuck in a frustrating, repetitive pattern: “Feminists say rape jokes are offensive, comics say they have the right to offend people, and we just keep repeating the same lines from that point forward.”
Sam Morril chose not to have that conversation for 13 days. When he did respond, on his Facebook, and after the article was published, he said – basically – that he had the right to offend people.
It’s hard to engage with Sam Morril’s response, because it is, among other things, a hash of cliches so thoroughly unoriginal, and so completely in line with what I described about this dynamic in my original piece, that there’s really nothing to say about it that I didn’t say four days ago, before it ever happened. “Comedy comes from dark places,” check. “Other comics tell rape jokes,” check. “You ambushed me,” check. “My mother thinks I’m funny,” check. (Also, awwwww.) “Political correctness police,” check and mate.
Likewise, engaging with Sam Morril’s fans, friends, and defenders seems pointless. There’s not a lot you can do to explain the ills of institutional sexism to guys who go with “humorless fucking bitch” or “bloody cunt” as their first response to mild questioning. Generally, people tend to know that those terms are sexist. Generally, people tend to know that insisting that women should shut the fuck up about sexual violence and let the men talk is widely considered a misogynist position. If they’re doing it, it’s not for lack of information about the perceived sexism of their behavior. Mostly, this is malice, not mere ignorance, doing the talking. And so, convincing these people that I’m not a wicked PC cunt out to take their fun away is like convincing a two-year-old there’s no monster under his bed. You can reason with him all you like, but he’s scared.
What Sam Morril thinks — and what his fans overwhelmingly think — of this conversation is that there shouldn’t be one. It’s something he states, more or less directly, in paragraph seven of his response: “Stand-up comedy is a performance, not a discourse. There are bouncers there whose sole purpose is to make sure our performance goes uninterrupted.”
Sam Morril’s performance, as it happens, did go more or less uninterrupted. What happened is that somebody wrote about it, after the fact, in a way that he didn’t like. But his confusion, here, is both interesting and telling: He doesn’t perceive a significant difference between a bad review and heckling. Both of them are the same thing – someone speaking, someone challenging him, when she doesn’t have the right and should be silent.
So what interests me is why this particular conversation is so threatening. Why it makes so many people so deeply angry that I asked Sam Morril questions, and printed his lack of response. This conversation gets to something deep, and primal, about who has the right to speak, especially about violence against women, and what they have the right to say.
On to Morril’s response. I won’t quote every line and every word – you can find the full version on his Facebook – but it begins:
First, let me say that I do not condone rape, and it is never my intention to write a joke that upsets people. I never write a joke thinking, “this’ll show ‘em.” I’m a comedian.
I don’t imagine Morril thinks it’s a great idea to go around raping women. He does think it’s a good idea to make jokes in which he portrays himself as someone who rapes women, and causes them physical harm, and finds it funny when bad things happen to them, which is what I questioned.
He also says that doesn’t intend to write jokes that upset people. In fact, Morril advertises himself as a comedian who upsets people, Tweeting about how he should have caution tape over his mouth in headshots, his bad effect on “unsuspecting audiences.” So we’re starting off with half the truth, but it’s a start.
[When] you paraphrase jokes on very delicate topics, you’re stripping them of their meaning and irony, the things that makes them funny. In my N word joke you referred to, you decided to leave out the punchline, which is pretty important when you’re quoting a joke, especially about such a sensitive topic. The punchline is that the crowd thinks: “We thought he was going to say the N word, then thank God…It’s just a rape joke.” It’s a moment of relief, but really it’s much worse. It’s a commentary on political correctness, not an approval of rape. Your reaction compounds the irony. My joke on political correctness brings out the political correctness police.
If Sam Morril felt that I misrepresented his joke, he had over a week in which to correct my quotation of the joke, because I wrote him an e-mail in which I quoted that joke, to which he did not respond until after the article was published.
You mention the “reasonable” and “intelligent” Louis CK. Well, Louis has plenty of jokes about rape. Ever heard the one? “You should never rape a woman…Unless you want to have sex with her and she wont let you…Then what other choice do you have?”
Many female comics joke about rape as well. Sarah Silverman has one: “I was raped by a doctor, which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl.”
Well, I think I said “usually” reasonable and intelligent. I don’t think that joke is very good. Louis CK also written many other jokes that I do like, about sexism, about racism, and about people taking cell phones for granted. He’s proven that he can write three-dimensional, interesting female characters, for which I give him extra credit. (He’s also said, as readers have pointed out to me, that he didn’t intend to defend Tosh, for which he gets an apology and extra credit again.) Silverman isn’t someone whose work I follow closely, but she’s made me laugh, and I think she’s a smart woman, and I think some aspects of her act are subversive in a way I really like. If we’re talking jokes about rape that we like, I think Tig Notaro’s “No Moleste” is brilliant.
I take individual comedians, and individual jokes, on their individual merits. The point isn’t that some jokes contain the word “rape,” and are therefore all equally bad. The point is how those jokes work. I thought Morril’s jokes, and particularly Morril’s rape jokes, worked in a way that was specifically bad.
Do you understand that neither Louis nor Sarah approves of rape? Do find it necessary to send them the pages of rape statistics that you sent me?
Here’s the rub – the idea that someone must, by default, consciously and willfully “approve” of rape if they make a joke that supports attitudes which result in violence against women. The idea that those “pages of statistics” have no bearing or relevance to the jokes Sam Morril tells. The idea that being asked to look at them is, in itself, an insult.
What those “pages of statistics” say is that violence against women – both intimate partner violence and sexual assault; Morril only addresses one, but I asked him about both – are incredibly common. If 25% of all people reported being mugged, we’d declare a massive public safety crisis. If one in five Americans had influenza, every news channel would broadcast 24-hour coverage of the plague. But for women, those epidemic rates of assault – one in four, one in five – are the low numbers. Among more marginalized populations, they go up, until the survivors are actually in the majority.
What this means is that we live in a culture where hurting women, because they are women, has been largely normalized. There are assumptions ingrained in the culture that are allowing these huge numbers of gendered assault to exist. Because we live in culture, we absorb these harmful attitudes without realizing it. It’s not a fault or a sin or a sign of being an evil or consciously harmful person. It’s a sign of being a human in a culture that needs improving. A man who shares these attitudes is not “bad;” he is normal. But so is violence against women, and that’s the problem.
Most pernicious among these assumptions is the idea that violence against women is fundamentally not as serious or as tragic as harm done to other people. That having an emotional reaction to it, in fact, is the bigger problem: That women who get upset about this or even speak about it are “hypersensitive” or out of line.
One result of these attitudes is widespread violence against women. Another result is a man getting on stage and telling a series of jokes that end with the punchline “I have raped women,” or with harm done to women, with the expectation that he will not experience any serious blowback or criticism. A third result is the perception of that criticism, when it does arise, as a socially impermissible attack from a hypersensitive, out-of-line female who should have stayed quiet.
They’re not three instances of same thing. They’re three different things that arise from the same basic assumption. And the assumption is that violence against women is nothing to get angry about. It’s certainly not as worthy of mass outrage as, say, a comedian getting a bad review.
You conveniently left out the sentences in your initial first email where you wrote, “you really stood out from the other comics.” You wanted to engage with me so you pretended to be a fan by complimenting me. Very tricky!
Sam Morril did, in fact, stand out from the other comics, because he told two jokes, and the punchline of both was “I raped a woman.” As I said, that didn’t happen with the other comics. The assumption that a writer would only want to engage him if they were also “a fan” speaks to Sam Morril’s deeper assumption that the only appropriate or permissible response to his work is praise.
You completely misquoted a story I told to portray me as a misogynist or worse.
If Sam Morril felt that I had misunderstood or misremembered his story, he had eleven days in which to correct me, because I wrote him an e-mail which included my perception of the story, to which he did not respond.
There are lots of bad people out there who do evil things. I think your time would be better spent attacking them. Most of them have no sense of irony either. You clearly were not interested in having a conversation. For some reason, you chose me to ambush[.]
You might not want to use words like “attack” and “ambush” to refer to difficult interview questions or bad reviews, when you publicly giggle about raping chicks, and intersperse that with long stories about how a woman who told you to leave her friend alone wound up getting punched in the throat at your request. I’m just saying. That’s a little bit of irony you might not intend.
I got a Tweet from one of your readers 2 days ago saying, “someday I hope a man forcefully penetrates your asshole with their veiny cock. Rape jokes won’t be quite as funny after that.” Also, “or maybe your mother gets raped, or little sister. I don’t think you understand the culture you’re adding too.” Should I take that threat seriously? Do you condone this? Is that the kind of behavior you’re trying to motivate?
No, and I condemned it immediately after I read Sam Morril’s response. I’ll condemn it again now, and note that a large chunk of the original article was about the fact that wishing rape on someone is unacceptable.
I’ve yet to see Sam Morril denounce any misogynist, violent, or threatening comments aimed my way. He did do this, with one of them:
Woody Allen says, “Comedy is tragedy plus time.”
Again: Might not want to use the guy who fucks his kid as your personal Yoda. Just, you know, since “irony” is important here.
Comedy is an art form. We get paid to say whatever we want, and I’ve earned that right to do so on good stages by putting in work year after year, and proving I can do it well.
Well, aside from the debatability of that last point: Criticism is a job. We get paid to state our opinions, whether or not they flatter the subject. It looks as if Sam Morril and I are both doing our jobs.
The sad fact is, I think Sam Morril’s job is a lot more important than he does. An art form is inherently bound to its social context. It both mirrors culture and changes culture. If an artist believes that his work has no ability to influence or affect people, he believes his art is powerless. I think that believing art is impotent is far more insulting than believing that art can be harmful.
And Sam Morril’s art is harmful. This is a conclusion I’ve only really come to in reading his fans’ responses to the article, but, yes: Sam Morril harms people, particularly his fans.
To really talk about this, let’s talk about what great comedy is capable of. Louis CK points out common stupidities in a way that challenges his audience to become smarter, to think more closely about themselves. Sarah Silverman’s audacious crudeness challenges her audience’s ideas of femininity, of how a woman can present herself in public. Maria Bamford talks about having mental illness, and makes you laugh with her; Maria Bamford is one reason that more people in this world are willing to think about mental illness with empathy and nuance. Tig Notaro comes on stage and tells people she’s got cancer, her mother is dead, and her heart is broken, and then she turns tragedy and grief into catharsis. She asserts the power of great comedians to use the darkest and most frightening material to create joy.
Sam Morril inspires people, too. He inspires people to write “sounds to me like there were some bloody cunts in the show,and she didnt have the balls to confront you at a human level but instead hides behind here shitty writing and cuntness,long live rape jokes and fuck female cry babys.” He inspires them to say, “nothing like the profound wisdom of a humorless fucking bitch.” He inspires them to say, “could have been anyone of us but you were planted right in that estrogen warpath” and “she tires so easily — Ambien’s unnecessary.” Sam Morril inspires people to think about women getting raped and punched, and to laugh about that, and to respond to the people who aren’t laughing with open, openly misogynist rage. He inspires people to feel like sexism is just pretty darn okay, and a good way to have fun, and anyone who gets in the way of their fun, no matter how she does it, is some humorless crybaby bitch on her period who didn’t get asked to the prom and who’s probably been raped.
And it’s that – the assumption, or joke, that came back more than once in these comments, that I had only written the piece because I’d probably been sexually assaulted or “victimized,” despite my not having mentioned it once in the piece – that’s really my closing argument, when it comes to Sam Morril.
Because these comments — of which there was more than one — seemed to think that having been raped or assaulted made a woman less qualified to have an opinion on how sexual violence is portrayed in art. It was part of the general trend of how I was portrayed: Damaged, weak, emotional, irrational, stupid, “taking things personally” or letting my emotions cloud my silly little feather-brain so that I was incapable of truly appreciating the objective might of a man’s Art. These stereotypes are ancient. But what stands out, here, is that on top of the standard-issue “women are not smart or strong” sexism, the specific problem was that I might be a rape survivor. When someone writes that “I’d love to see the article she wrote for her first rapist” (as a commenter on Morril’s original post did), or “you were victimized at some point in your life, you’re angry at the world, and you’re super-jealous of people who are able to enjoy themselves,” as a commenter on this site did, the specific message they are sending is that survivors of rape and assault are stupid, bad, weak people. And being asked to think about them is ridiculous, and stupid, because they don’t matter.
The bottom line is: I know more about comedy than you.
I know more about funny than you do,
Oh, how I wish that were true.
and nothing was ever made funnier by political correctness.
But nothing was ever made smarter by refusing to think about it, and nothing was ever made worse by kindness, and no society or art form was ever destroyed by asking difficult questions, though plenty of terrible things have been caused by suppressing them.
Sam Morril makes bad art. And Sam Morril thinks he’s doing a super job.
Photo by Daehyun Park, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
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1. You know I support you and agree with basically everything you say here, but I do think that the Woody Allen shot was a little cheap. He doesn’t fuck his daughter. He’s married to someone who is the adopted daughter of a woman he used to date. He’s also a comedic genius with much more craft and tact than to make the kinds of jokes Sam Morril makes.
But I thank you for doing everything you’ve done here. It’s very important and I hope more and more people see this.
2. I keep hearing this argument that people who find these jokes offensive are missing the irony by taking the joke literally. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m pretty sure most people totally get that you’re trying to be ironic. I just don’t think that automatically means the joke isn’t offensive. This comedian, his mom and sister who found the joke funny, and maybe all the people laughing at it, are giving him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t mean what he’s saying and he would never actually do any of the things he’s joking about. That takes a certain amount of trust. But the ability to trust strangers that they won’t act on violent threats is not a luxury that women have. In fact, most sexual violence is carried out by people that women already know and trust! So making jokes that ask women to take this leap of faith and assume you don’t mean it ignores the overwhelming fact that there are many many many men out there who DO act on the ideas you’re mocking. In fact it’s extraordinarily common. You likely know someone who has been an attacker, and someone who’s been attacked. It is not abstract to the women in the audience. It is a reality that affects their sense of freedom every single day. Why would we find it funny to hear someone joke about that, ironically or not? This comedian claims that he’s actually doing some pretty interesting social critique. Where is the ironic critique in these jokes? You’re simply parroting opinions that many people actually hold, and then asking women to safely assume that you’re not really one of the ones who believes what you’re saying. Seeing threats of violence against women as a joke, rather than an oppressive reality that polices women’s freedom to safely walk around and form relationships that are built on mutual consent — is a privilege you enjoy, and most women don’t. Now we’re supposed to laugh while you flaunt that privilege in front of us. The point is not that we don’t get that you’re being ironic, it’s that it doesn’t matter. Even if you’re joking, you’re now contributing to a culture where women get to try to guess who’s just joking and who actually might threaten my safety. HAHAHA! That’s hysterical.
3. This whole debate hinges on one question: Was it a “rape joke”, or was it something else?
That being the case, Sam’s most important point is this:
Instead of making an honest attempt to engage with Sam’s argument intellectually, you deflect his point by flippantly criticizing his taking so long to get back to you:
Since he HAS responded, and you are now responding TO HIS RESPONSE, you ought to deal with the whole thing.
4. This was an amazing and thought-provoking piece of writing. Thank you for being brave enough to be a part of the fight.
5. Sady,
Your post is brilliant. Thank you for taking the time to walk through all of the shit that this guy is throwing out, to put a light on it. We have to keep doing it. My tagline is about seeking kindness and questioning everything, basically what you implore everyone to do in your conclusion. Even though it can seem exhausting to confront these guys, we can’t let them go unchallenged. In March I wrote two posts about sexism in comedy which you might enjoy, the first is “Funny Business & Its Shameful Side” http://ceejae-devine.com/funny-business-its-shameful-side/, the other here: http://ceejae-devine.com/was-offense-taken-here-are-ways-to-change-that-for-good/ Thank you for taking the time to give people an opportunity to look more closely at what Morril is doing and hopefully stop supporting him if he doesn’t get the message soon.
6. Brilliant! Good work. I do not agree with the previous commenter that you are obligated to respond to his idiocy point-by-point. Especially since he refused your initial offer to have a one-on-one discussion.
7. Max:
Your question “was it something else?” had previously been answered by the comedian himself:
“… then thank God… it’s just a rape joke.”
Attacking over-done political correctness is one thing, but to denigrate sexual violence by juxtaposing it with racism is terrible. Based on the quoted joke and the clarification by Mr. Morril, yes it was indeed a rape joke. It was hidden inside a commentary on political correctness, but rape was the punchline. .
8. The idea that rape survivors can’t enjoy life, and aren’t to be taken into account as an audience, suddenly makes your statistics blindingly relevant. That’s a lot of people, women but also men, just written off as critics/consumers/participants in art & culture.
9. Sarah Silverman defended Daniel Tosh on twitter, resorting to that old anti-feminist creed Morrill also used in his response: “THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT. OK?” Also, what does it say about both Louis C.K. and Sarah Silverman that they support and like Daniel Tosh? I think it’s a bit specious to use them in your arguments against Morrill at all. Everything else in your articles about him, have been spot on.
10. Moreover, I am sorry that you have been receiving rape threats. That is exactly the type of response his rhetoric condones and encourages and glorifies. Be well, Sady.
11. “This whole debate hinges on one question: Was it a “rape joke”, or was it something else?”
Dude. Read. The. Article. Is that all you got out of it? Seriously? This one frigging rape joke is one pitiful little cog in a very large and powerful rape culture machine.
And, before you and your buddies ask: Yes. I’ve been raped. And if you think you know more about what’s important wrt rape jokes than I do, there’s no hope for you and no point in dealing with you in any way, shape or form.
12. My test for rape jokes:
Is the joke making the world more comfortable for the rapist or for their victim?
13. I chuckled when you pointed out the reference to Woody Allen! And love your ending “no society or art form was ever destroyed by asking difficult questions, though plenty of terrible things have been caused by suppressing them.”
I am always surprised how many ‘radical defenders’ of the status quo come out of the wood works when a woman asks some challenging questions. Not actively being sexist or misogynist, but definitely not wanting their cage to be rattled.
I am especially dissapointed when comedians are so defensive. Aren’t they the ones to applaud critical thinking? Shouldn’t they be allies rather the radical status quo defenders?
14. I thought Sam’s reply was more or less “I don’t really care you didn’t like my rape jokes, feel free to dislike my comedy. I obviously have an audience who finds me funny. Goodbye blogger lady.”
15. Max: I was very confused by Sam’s objection to her version of his joke in the first place. Reading her take on it communicated precisely what Sam “clarified” in his post. Obviously when the set up is “She kept saying the N-word” but that turns out to be “no”, it is previously crystal clear what the punchline is, the tension is clear, the bait-and-switch, the commentary on political correctness, its all clear! I can’t imagine what he would add to her retelling of the joke, unless he wanted her to redundantly annotate the pauses by spelling out the subtext that is obvious to anybody with even a tensile grasp on the English language.
16. While I agree that “other comedian make the same joke” does not invalidate the possibility of having a conversation about why this might be wrong, if you think your argument is so sound, why didn’t you engage a female comedian making jokes about rape?
Don’t you think they’d be in a better position to express a contrary opinion without coming off as assholes?
17. You have an opinion. It has been heard. Others have opinions that are different from yours. Comedians will continue to tell jokes that you do not like. The issue appears resolved. Does this resolution satisfy you? If it does not, the problem is squarely yours.
18. One facet of comedy is making people laugh at things they wouldn’t normally laugh it. Yes, rape can be one of them. The thing that you are misunderstanding about some of these jokes, especially the oft-misquoted “N-word” joke, and the importance of the last line that you left out, is that the joke isn’t about a girl that Sam raped (because he didn’t rape anyone and the joke is clearly a fabrication) the joke is on the audience. Joke-writing is a science. Take out the words as they exist now and look at the intention, building and then releasing tension. He sets up the audience with one thing that they think is horrible, and releases the tension with something equally horrible, and then calls attention to a dark truth within the audience. You may be offended by the delivery method of this joke (rape and racism), but it’s funny. It’s well crafted. It makes sense. And you are not the be-all-end-all of what is and isn’t appropriate. For however many people think that this joke is over the line, there’s going to be a comparable amount of people who think it isn’t. Across both sexes.
There is NOTHING in either of these articles that hasn’t already been written about a million times, and recently. You wrote it because you knew it would get hits, because it always does. You picked a softball topic (a comedian telling rape jokes, could there be ANYTHING with lower stakes but a high rate of return on hits and web traffic) and you blew it completely out of proportion. I’m sure you consider yourself an activist and a feminist but you’re not winning any Pulitzer’s for this piece and you know it. It’s rage-bait fluff that’s been done better by others about much bigger targets.
19. I wish this response offered anything to support rape prevention or counseling or any ideas of how to make the situation better or change the conversation in comedy, instead of just defending yourself and trying to slam him again.
And Sam Morril’s rape jokes help us to acknowledge that rape is an awful disgusting thing, and that something needs to be done about it. You can’t say that Louis, Sarah, Maria, & Tig discuss those dark topics in a humorous and healthy way, and then point the finger at Sam, Tosh, or any other comic that makes a rape joke and call them a “rape culture enabler.” Its hypocritical, and poor arguing on your part.
21. Nice try but I hope and pray that Sam and his friends in the comic community are done giving you any more attention.
You say you want a dialogue but you don’t. You don’t respond to any of the many salient points the man made with anything beyond a criticism of the amount of time it took for him to make them.
You admit all along your intent was to embarass him and set him up, and then you’re angry that he choose to take a bit more control of how his response would be portrayed?
Have you ever heard of the concept of “good faith”? It’s required for this civil, intelligent discussion you claim you want.
You make bad writing. And you think you’re doing a super job.
22. Yes! SO GOOD! Thanks for writing. Also I found this little gem in the comments that I thought was great:
My test for rape jokes:
23. All of these men throwing self-righteous temper tantrums on here are cracking me up. They are here to explain comedy to us – thank god! The next time I’m harassed on the street or threatened with rape or raped I will remember that comedy thinks it’s really funny.
24. Sady Doyle, you are my hero. This is so well thought out and the ending was so strong. I really, really hope people take the time to actually read what you’ve written here and not just skim and assume they understand your point.
25. Typical feminists. can’t understand the difference between joking about rape and committing rape. Here is a hint: 1 of them is a crime and the other isn’t. It might help if you knew which one was which.
26. I am going to say something unpopular. I am a woman, a feminist, a comedy fan, and someone who has experienced sexual harassment that bordered on (or may was, there’s a big grey area there) sexual assault more than once in my life. I have spent a lot of time and therapy thinking about the rape culture in this country. Your article made me angry. I’m going to start, not with the content of this article and the first article, but with the tone that they were written with. It is not helpful to engage someone on these topics by attacking them. It puts the person (in this case Sam Morril) on the defensive and does not open up a very important dialogue. I understand you are angry, but it feels irresponsible to be a person with a voice that others are listening to and not think about what is the best way to have a conversation like this.
The content of your articles seem to show me that you did not carefully read and consider what Morril was saying in his jokes or in his response to you. I’ll get back to the jokes. Again, I think you let your anger overtake you. There are parts of this response that are not an intelligent answer to a clearly well thought letter on Morril’s part. He wasn’t perfect either, but frankly, you started it. I believe that if you plan on taking the high road, you have to take it 100% of the time, and you did not. Commenting about his choice of quoting Woody Allen, was, well unnecessary. More of a problem was your constant harping on how long it took Morril to respond. Perhaps he was taking time to thoughtfully and carefully respond with reason not with anger?
On to the jokes themselves, then I promise, I’m done. A lot of what comedy is about, and part of why I love it, is pushing the boundaries and challenging people in a different way. As far as I can tell, that is what those jokes were doing. The “n-word” joke was, as Morril said, a commentary on how political correctness has gone so far that is sometimes seen as worse to be politically incorrect than it is to commit a violent act against women. He is right. When I read the “pushing a woman out of the path of a bus” tweet I did not think it was about domestic violence. First I laughed because it’s funny. If it had been brought up in any other context, I wouldn’t have thought about it anymore. Well I did this time, when I read it what I see is a commentary on the inherent sexism in certain societal rules that benefit women. This time it was the, “you can’t hit a girl” rule. Frankly that rule is about how weak women are. Making domestic violence a “women’s issue” is a mistake. Men are the victims of domestic violence every day, and when it is made into a gender issue their voices are silenced.
Sam Morril is a smart and funny comic. You, I am sure, are also a very smart person. Blogging should take feeling into account, and rape and violence against women is an emotional topic, but when you are talking about them with such authority in a public forum please make sure that what you are saying is helpful. Also, some of us process pain through humor, and I don’t think it’s okay for you to take away that outlet for us.
27. You start one of your 40+ paragraphs with “The sad fact is…” and then you proceed to continue to beat a dead horse.
I thought I might try to add to the conversation by finishing a sentence of yours: The sad fact is, with all this attention you’re drawing on yourself and to the issue of rape and sexual violence, you are doing nothing to elevate the conversation to a higher level. What good is it attacking an intelligent, funny comedian, not to mention a supportive community, as a means of finger pointing and hate mongering? You are not a comic. I personally feel that because you can’t create, you criticize. And because you have an outlet, you feel your points are completely valid. But at the end of the day, they are just your opinions. And that’s my opinion, so does that make it right? No, it does not. But am I writing a blog with followers trying to convince them that you’re wrong? No, no I am not.
Why haven’t you given any information in regards to donations that can be made to women’s shelters or antiviolence hotlines? Surely you have impassioned followers and a large outlet to reach people. Why are you using this outlet to complain and monger instead of educate and elevate? That begs me to ask: what is your purpose? Why write this article? Why write a follow up article? Are you truly trying to raise awareness to sexual violence? Or are you trying to add hits to your poorly written diatribes?*
As comedians, we have a right to say whatever we want. If it’s not funny, often times we’ll pay the consequences. If you’re a shitty open micer and you use rape as a punchline and you have any brain in your head, you’ll figure out soon enough that that’s not a road you want to go down. But if you’re performing on a stage that has seen the likes of every major comedian working today, odds are you’re doing something right. It is extremely difficult to make an entire room of strangers laugh. Sometimes people will be offended. It happens. But just because one person is offended doesn’t mean that person has to rally the troops against a comedian. I don’t know. This all seems silly. If you don’t like it, don’t go to a comedy show. No one is going home and raping another human because of a joke. I may be simplifying the argument, but I think it can be simplified even more: don’t rape people. Rape is bad. Is it that hard to understand? Writing these articles is treating us all as if we’re children. Where are the articles about actual news stories that matter? Why aren’t you as equally as outraged by this article from the RAINN website? http://www.rainn.org/news-room/97-of-every-100-rapists-receive-no-punishment Oh, because it won’t generate thousands of hits? Gotcha. I’m tired and I have to go to bed. Good day.
*I know I came off insulting, but these kinds of things really grind my gears!
28. I”ve visited the Comedy Underground in Seattle a few times.. and made the mistake of being in the back of the line so the only seats that were open were up front. I done been harassed.. :) But one thing I noticed from performers at TCU and other venues in the Seattle area – is that the good comedians could turn hecklers into part of the act. Silencing them. Sam had 11 days to respond.. and he could neither make fun of what you wrote, or actually respond until “forced” by your publishing the first of the two Sam blog posts? He sucks. His offensiveness is hardly matched by his gross inadequacy in the comedic art.
His is not a form of comedy I enjoy.. and I didn’t find it funny before losing an aunt to rape/murder.
May Sam eventually find either a new line of work, or both comedic skill & a new line of material.
29. It would be very interesting to have seen the response if you had not used Sam Morril’s name and left him as an “anonymous comic that I saw”. What would have made for an interesting and poignant post about how our society is desensitized toward jokes about sexual violence towards women has become a smear piece on a talented young comedian whose brand of comedy happens to upset your personal stance on what is and what is not appropriate to find humor in. The fact that you so quickly brush off what Louis CK and Sarah Silverman joke about makes it seem as though they get a free pass because they are already more established comics. You began this whole crusade with the intent of “embarrassing” a young comedian for doing what he is paid to do. He is paid to make people laugh. Just because he uses dark humor that you find insulting doesn’t give you the right to attack him. I understand that you have freedom of speech but so does he.
30. I don’t know if you have had time to ponder this with all the tremendous thought and courage you have been putting forth, but you are making history. No matter the exception others find, you make a straightforward, intelligent, compassionate argument.
Jokes about violence against women are made by misogynistic egomaniacal personalities, who, ironically, are in a deep panic about women and power. Comics like this take cheap shots for a living and hide behind the First Amendment. Strangely, this is as much attention as they will get.
Keep fighting for what you, and we, believe, Sady, and thank you.
31. While I didn’t fully agree with either you or Sam Morril, I was willing to sit back and consider both points of view as having some validity until I hit the final line of this post. While it makes an incredibly great point, its also a point that completely undoes the entire point of your arguments.
Sam Morril makes art. In your opinion he makes it badly. In his opinion he does it well. The problem is, with almost all forms of art, it’s all subjective. The age old phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” strikes true here. No artist is universally acclaimed, nor is almost any piece of art intended for every individual out in the world to consume in the same manner.
There are art pieces on display using fecal matter that are selling for 50k a piece: http://www.scribd.com/doc/9830392/Excremental-Paintings. Personally, I would not spend even a dollar on something like this because I don’t find it to be good art whatsoever, and that’s ok. I don’t have to believe its great, and neither do you. At the same time though, that doesn’t mean it has to change either your or my opinions of what good art is, or what makes a good artist. I find it extremely offensive to think that someone could paint a canvas with a turd and look me in the eye and say it’s worth $50,000. You find it terribly offensive that Sam Morril can tell rape jokes and classify it as quality entertainment.
The problem for both of us here is quite similar. Although we may both find something offensive, there are enough people out there willing to pay for a ticket or buy a poop painting and say its great. There is a large enough group of people who willing support both these artists and keep them gainfully working within their chosen mediums in the manner they see fit.
The problem isn’t the artist, and its not the art. The artist is purely submitting the art for consumption. If the art wasn’t accepted, requested, or enjoyed, the artist would have no choice but to adopt a new genre or style (i.e. give the people what they want). Now initially, you may say I’m offering a cop-out, that saying that i’m excusing behavior with semantics, or that I’m misinterpreting. Its more than possible, but as long as people keep buying tickets to his show or buying pictures of literal shit, I don’t see how I am missing my mark.
Going to a Sam Morril show won’t change my attitudes towards women either positively or negatively. I know my beliefs/morals/values etc., and viewing a crap painting won’t change my opinion of art positively or negatively either. I know what I like, I know what I don’t. No one has ever sat on a witness stand accused of rape and said “well I always grew up watching people say it was funny”.
Peoples actions are based on deeper things. Embedded culture for one. The environment and experiences have over the course of their lives teach people what lenses they should have, and how to use them when viewing the world. If I go to an offensive comedy show, I can sit there, accept the joke for what it is: entertainment, a suspension from reality and a skewed perspective to make light of other situations and experiences. When I get up and leave, I can appreciate it for that, but still walk away knowing the material is, in itself offensive.
By the time we come to the point of blaming the artist its already too late as these people already have accepting and supporting fan bases. A better use of time an blog space might to focus on encouraging people to develop their own abilities to choose and craft filters of their own. To recognize what something is in its own regard without allowing it to sway them one way or another. To encourage a deeper level of self awareness and personal responsibility within others who will take ownership of their actions. This in itself will lead to a lot more people opting out of preconceived notions and the “rape culture”.
Pointing at something and shouting that its horrible does nothing if too many people are willing to say it isn’t. That’s unfortunately just how art is. Instead, perhaps we have to take the harder, longer road, and teach people to step back and be more proactive in their identities and choices. If this were to happen, a comedian could tell a joke and it would fall on an audience with no affect.
Sam Morril writes his comedy toward the audience that supports his humor, just as you craft your writing to an audience that will support your perspective, just as some guy in New York paints with fecal matter toward an audience who thinks its terrific. That doesn’t mean I will change my views or actions on anything. It’s all subjective and its all open toward the opinion of the person consuming the content.
What matters is how we educate the person consuming the content and how they interpret it.
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Global Comment © 2012 | Design & Developed by : Slate | http://globalcomment.com/a-response-to-sam-morril/ | dclm-gs1-457555528 | false | false | {
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0.136451 | <urn:uuid:d542af20-8516-47e0-b1dc-d2cf5e142c51> | en | 0.96273 | HC Deb 01 November 1994 vol 248 cc1021-2W
Mr. Llew Smith
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the total number of submissions received in response to his public consultation on the nuclear review; how many of the submissions have now been placed in the Library; and what is the reason for not placing in the Library the submission of the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent.
Mr. Eggar
There have been 505 formal submissions to the nuclear review: 200 of these, from the nuclear industry and other representative bodies and organisations, have been treated as substantive and placed in the Libraries of both Houses in accordance with my announcement of 19 May,Official Report columns 545–46. This includes the submission from the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent (Mr. Smith), and I understand that the Library will be writing to confirm this. | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1994/nov/01/nuclear-review | dclm-gs1-457685528 | false | false | {
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0.183447 | <urn:uuid:515e013a-7990-45c5-9fea-7b204473fef4> | en | 0.730045 | חפשו מילה כלשהי, כמו ratchet:
7 definitions by Coo
Just like freedom toast and freedom fries, it's an insult to the French.
I just freedom kissed that fine ass chick... We're going back to her place.
מאת Coo 24 ביולי, 2003
Do something which seems impossible to do.
מאת Coo 11 באפריל, 2005
1. Rice-A-Roni
2. Dick
Al sang, "Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat" as he was getting a big fat San Francisco treat rammed up his ass.
מאת Coo 20 ביולי, 2003
מאת COO 23 בספטמבר, 2003
When two people play swords with their dicks.
Victory! I have won the cock fight!
מאת Coo 16 ביולי, 2003
Eminem, Metallica
I liked Metallica until they Eminemed.
מאת Coo 24 ביולי, 2003
Hey, lemme have a bump of that ding.
מאת Coo 9 ביולי, 2003 | http://he.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Coo | dclm-gs1-457795528 | false | false | {
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0.135319 | <urn:uuid:723a8696-b62b-4fbf-92d7-370248f47eaa> | en | 0.881605 | Need something? Call us: 1.800.4BAYLOR(1.800.422.9567)
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What Is Heart Failure?
The heart is a muscle. It pumps oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body. When you have heart failure, the heart can’t pump as well as it should. Blood and fluid may back up into the lungs, and some parts of the body don’t get enough oxygen-rich blood to work normally. These problems lead to the symptoms you feel.
When You Have Heart Failure
Because of heart failure, not enough blood leaves the heart with each beat. There are two types of heart failure. Both affect the ventricles’ ability to pump blood. You may have 1 or both types.
How Heart Failure Affects Your Body
When the heart doesn't pump enough blood, hormones (body chemicals) are sent to increase the amount of work the heart does. Some hormones make the heart grow larger. Others tell the heart to pump faster. As a result, the heart may pump more blood at first, but it can't keep up with the ongoing demands. So, the heart muscle becomes more damaged. Over time, even less blood is pumped through the heart. This leads to problems throughout the body.
What Is Ejection Fraction?
Ejection fraction (EF) measures how much blood the heart pumps out (ejects). This is measured to help diagnose heart failure. A healthy heart pumps at least half of the blood from the ventricles with each beat. This means a normal ejection fraction is around 50% or more.
Anatomical view of heart showing blood flow and weakened area
Systolic heart failure. The heart muscle becomes weak and enlarged. It can’t pump enough blood forward when the ventricles contract. Ejection fraction is lower than normal.
Anatomical view of heart showing blood flow and damaged area
Diastolic heart failure. The heart muscle becomes stiff. It doesn’t relax normally between contractions, which keeps the ventricles from filling with blood. Ejection fraction is often in the normal range.
Online Medical Reviewer: Fincannon, Joy, RN, MN
Online Medical Reviewer: MMI board-certified, academically affiliated clinician
Last Review Date: 2/26/2014 | http://healthsource.baylorhealth.com/3,82055 | dclm-gs1-457845528 | false | false | {
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0.435803 | <urn:uuid:9c5b926b-95bc-41a1-b570-cf790f76d3be> | en | 0.901783 | cari istilah yang lo mau, kaya' tribbing:
thinks he is the king of everything. speaks in a girlish squeak when angry or perterbed. a man whore.
"I heard he hosted an orgy last night. What a Jarrod!"
dari count of monte cristo Selasa, 19 Agustus 2008
a nerd and or loser who has no friends and is usually obsessed with transformers and or other nerdy gay things
1.Jarrod u nerdy little fucker playing transformers non stop
2. Jarrod get the fuck off the x-box you have been playing it all day.
3.Jarrod stop talking too girls over the internet that you have never met.
dari huiofsdghisdhfgs Jum'at, 15 Agustus 2008
A fat cow who thinks that his come backs are funny.
Jarrod is a canibal. He gets so hungry he eats people.
dari Margaret Hoven Senin, 12 Maret 2007
jarrod is known for his small dick shaped like a pin aswell as his tiny muscles and his shit ability to pick up chicks :P
that kid over there really looks like a jarrod
dari rex toddler Rabu, 27 Mei 2009
a person that is extremely obese or fat.
the name of a a cow.
a loser.
this name is usually associated with the villarreals.
that guy named jarrod is extremely fat.
dari timmay559 Senin, 12 Februari 2007
English name for a fag.
Yo look at that jarrod.. hahah
dari Evo_racer69 Rabu, 12 Desember 2007 | http://id.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jarrod&page=3 | dclm-gs1-457975528 | false | false | {
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0.056857 | <urn:uuid:c7a602e0-e26e-435a-a6c1-c81ac65459e7> | en | 0.945812 | Tag Archives: us inflation
FOMC divided on when to end purchases
21 Feb
The minutes of the FOMC Jan 29-30 meeting show divided opinion on when to end asset purchases.
A ‘number’ of participants believe the costs of QE would materialize before the benefits, while ‘several’ participants argue that the risks of ending QE prematurely are very high.
End sooner?
The debate does raise important questions as an early scaling back of QE could materially affect a number of markets. Bond yields and mortgage rates are at or near historical lows, aiding businesses requiring financing and home owners who can refinance mortgages or purchase properties very cheaply. This ultimately helps drive a recovery in the housing market, a vital component to the health of the economy . Equity markets have also rallied significantly, boosting consumer confidence and sparking a revival in M&A, as seen recently by Mr Buffet’s recent acquisition of Heinz.
Maintain asset purchases until unemployment drops?
The ‘cost’ of QE, raised by a number of the committee, refers to the impact on future inflation that printing money is likely to have.
US inflation at 1.7%, at first, should not cause great concern. But the FOMC participants know how quickly expectations can change if central banks are seen to be irresponsible with regards to price stability, a significant objective of the Fed’s monetary policy.
It seems the Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place and the debate will continue for some time yet. Participants will ultimately be forced to make the least worst decision.
Given Mr Bernanke’s lifelong focus on analysing the causes of the great depression, it would be a great surprise if the Fed did prematurely end asset purchases. QE, after all, is part of Mr Bernanke’s detailed and meticulous plan to ensure that we never return to the deflationary depression of the 30’s – Read here Bernanke’s 2002 speech.
His plan may well work, but at what cost?
Trust, hyperinflation and the end of the dollar
13 Feb
Economists love debating the reasons for inflation. Many argue that money supply alone can result in inflation, whereas others believe it is down to capacity constraints in an economy or advancements in technology. The reality is that the causes of inflation are immensely diverse and one reason is never the sole contributor, nor is there a unique common cause of inflation in previous hyperinflationary times.
Instead, hyperinflation is typically caused by a very severe exogenous shock, that then usually forces policymakers to take overly aggressive action in order to overcome their difficulties.
War, the collapse of regimes and currency pegs all feature as severe shocks in previous cases of hyperinflation. Clearly we have none of these yet, but the credit crisis was as close to a severe shock as one could possibly imagine. And how have policymakers responded? Br printing money. We are now 5 years into the crisis and the rate a which central banks globally are printing money is only accelerating.
So why haven’t we seen hyperinflation yet?
It takes time. For the last 40 years Monetary supply in the US (M2) has been growing at an average pace of about 6.75% a year vs. average annual inflation of 4.3%. Clearly the increasingly efficient economy and advancement of technology of the past 40 years have been deflationary enough to keep the CPI below money supply. John Edwards, of Shadowstats, argues that M3 is a better indication of inflationary expectations but sadly the US stopped reporting this some years ago.
m2 and cpi
In any case, if we overlay the monetary base chart over the M2 chart, it is clear that 4 years ago these decoupled SUBSTANTIALLY! This is the effect of QE which has essentially flooded the US monetary base with newly created dollars. It takes time but this will eventually feed through to M2.
monetary base and m2
As it does feed through, prices have to re-adjust (i.e. rise) as people’s perception of the value of that currency diminishes. As trust in a currency’s value disappears, so do people’s willingness to hold onto it, opting instead for alternative currencies or real goods such as property, gold etc, once again compounding the effects of rising prices. And so the spiral goes.
I have no doubt the FED intends to halt QE before we get close to this. But as every episode in history has suggested once the floodgates are opened it is very very difficult to close them again.
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0.222863 | <urn:uuid:018484fb-84b5-4029-9344-b2702806febd> | en | 0.943539 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
Thinking about this discussion on meta i was reasoning about simple self-experiments you can do in psycholinguistics, where you dont need great background knowledge in Cognitive Psychology or Neuroscience. But where you can investigate and find out different phenomenological factors and properties, how our mental lexicon is structured. (Neurolinguistics tries to explain this phenomenlogy structurally)
So i gave Hauser (myself) 1 min time and a tag-keyword to say as many words as fast/spontaneous as possible and recorded them (e.g. Windows Sound recorder on your Desktop). I started with verbs. 1 min time. This went pretty good, around 100 of verbs i recorded. Same with nouns. Also pretty good, not surprising. How about adverbs. Hmm, it gets tricky. My brain didnt seem to have a crystal clear tag here. Additionally it was hard to think just of single adverbs and not adjectives (to deduce the adverb) or verbs often used with a adverb. How about locations? Pretty easy, many cities i could tell or places i have been. Then i thought about terms like Zeitgeist. You cant really define a good clear tag-name for words of this category. PROBABLY, because it is a very abstract term with contextual meaning. A lot of scientific terms are abstract, so how about quantities in natural sciences. Went good, as i have some background here. Interestingly, on the "verbs" tag it seems common to list a lot of related verbs for maybe 10 seconds (running, sking, climbing, walking...) till you stop and then quickly switch to verbs related to e.g. the sub-tag "cooking" (cook, eat, smack,...).
So what can I deduce from such results (?) There seem to be words pretty good structured and tagged in clouds and sub-clouds (like verbs, nouns), also abstract words of your personal experience (education, hobbies etc.). Even if you might not use them more than others (e.g. prepositions) ,they seem to be tagged, while prepositions you use in nearly every sentence, are hard to think of spontaneosly and better recognized in a distinct phrase they are often used in, there doesnt seem to exist a preposition tag in the mental lexicon (?). So visual things and activities (objects in real world and motor activities) seem to be much better tagged vs. abstract and not directly perceivable words.
To me it was a nice little experiment I would like to continue, with some tips, how this can be done the most productive and objective way to gain further phenomenological hints, how words and phrases are stored in the mental lexicon and contribute to linguistic topics like sentence building or TOT.
So what im asking for (which fits imho ONE question, because of link of theory - exp. method):
• What are current most investigated and favored models (technical termini) concerning the question "How is our mental lexicon structured?" that are similar to my self-invented experiment above recording a "spatial" map of tags/word-groups of my personal mental lexicon
• How do professional linguistic research experiments differ from my self-invented exp. described above? What are common phenomenological properties/quanities investigated in such experiments (e.g. semantic proximity), which exist on different human mental lexicons, in such tests? I would think, there have been done experiments recording really big mental lexicons of students and plotting them 2-dimensionally?
Nathan's answer is spot on and exactly what im asking for. Maybe you or anybody else can add some further details (papers), which cover similar experiments (to get a foot in the door), esp. how diff. mental lexicons differ between single persons. I would like to know what the phenomenological similarieties and differences on those lexicons are and maybe map my own mental lexicon more systematically, build my own linguistic fingerprint.
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This seems to be a good question, but it's unintelligible at some points. For example, it's hard to understand what conclusions you arrived at, in the third paragraph. The first paragraph could also be reworded and broken down into smaller clauses, to make it easier to follow. – Otavio Macedo Oct 9 '11 at 17:51
@otavio i reworded it a bit. Im less interested in conclusions you can draw based on this phenomenological properties of MY mental lexicon and very personal reasoning, but if there are similar experimtents done and how they are in their methodology superiour/better/more objective. What is the current state of art concerning "mental lexicon structure" based on such experiments. I think this may play a major role for theories in sentence building, cognitive phenomenons like TOT, how stable/forgetful our mental lexicon is at all – Hauser Oct 9 '11 at 18:12
You're asking too many questions in one post - the last paragraph is just a list. Please split the ones you're most interested in into individual posts. The core of this post, "What could I deduce from the results of my experiment?", is overly broad and more discussion-oriented. – Alek Storm Oct 9 '11 at 21:53
you wrote: "So i gave Hauser 1 min time and". But -you're Hauser, right? I'm confused as to what the experimental method is here? – Mitch Oct 9 '11 at 22:49
This question, or another version of it, might do well over on the Cognitive Science Stack Exchange beta. – hippietrail Dec 30 '13 at 3:50
2 Answers 2
I agree with the commentators that your question is a little confusing. However, I think I can get at an answer, and perhaps help you clean your question up a bit.
For a while, semanticists thought that our vocabulary was arranged in a logical, hierarchical way. Nouns are arranged so that they fall under each other, with 'sparrow' coming under 'bird' coming under 'animal' coming under 'life' coming under 'thing'. Something similar takes place for verbs. This is a very optimistic vision of semantics, as it implies that our brains work in a very logical, ordered way.
However, this turns out to be false. There are a number of classic experiments that can be performed that demonstrate this. For instance, you could show people names of different things and ask them to say if they are a bird or not. If you time their responses, you find that people are quicker to respond when shown typical birds, like 'sparrow', then they are for 'ostriche' or 'penguin'. This was taken to show that our semantic structure was a web, with archetypical words at the center and less "fitting" words further out.
Another experimental paradigm is priming. We show the subject a series of word and nonce words, such as "blurg" and ask them to determine whether or not they are words. We can prime a subject's response for a particular word, that is, decrease their response time, by showing them a related word before. For instance, if I show you "salt" and then "pepper", your response for "pepper" will be faster than if I had previously shown you 'President'. Cross-modal priming is when you prime someone for a written word by saying a related word, or vis-versa.
You can get really fancy with ERP (event related potential) experiments and fMRI scans and the like, and talk about activation patterns in the brain, but as far as your question goes we don't really need to.
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+1 Spot on, whats so confusing ;) Can you give some termini/links to those classical experiments. Doing my experiment, it looks more like words are orderd in topical clouds (activities e.g. cooking/sports/animals) than logical categories we defined ourselves (bird, prepositions). – Hauser Oct 10 '11 at 12:19
Look, you didn't really perform an experiment - there was only one subject, no control group, the subject was fully aware of what was being tested, unusual pseudo-online task design, the list goes on. I wouldn't be comfortable deducing the time of day from that type of "experiment". – Alek Storm Oct 10 '11 at 21:15
@Hauser You can get a long ways just by searching for Priming (psychological). – Nathan Oct 11 '11 at 0:42
@Hauser, then your question must in fact be about categorisation, specifically trying to find out how well-defined the categories 'noun', 'verb' etc. are for an average human trying to generate examples that fit these categories. Nathan has a good answer about how categorisation in general seems to work for humans, and you may want to investigate 'Prototype Theory' further. But, it is problematic to assume that this will work for linguistic categories, because many linguists now believe that we access these categories based on their function in a sentence, rather than a common semantic base. – Floating Tone Oct 16 '11 at 10:33
Of course, once we define verbs as 'doing words' and nouns as 'things', it's easy to list off examples of more prototypically 'verby' verbs and more prototypically 'nouny' nouns, but these definitions don't take us very far - that's why your 'experiment' failed for adverbs and prepositions, and I bet your 100-odd verbs and nouns were mostly very 'actiony' verbs and very concrete nouns. A 'mental lexicon' would usually be investigated based on more common lexical items (and 'content words', rather than 'function words'), rather than how examples of grammatical terminology appear to be stored. – Floating Tone Oct 16 '11 at 10:43
A caveat: I'm experiencing the tail end of a three day migraine. This answer may not be as clear as I'd like.
The nature of the cognitive structures that make up linguistic knowledge is still a very open question. In fact, the nature of cognitive structures in general is still hotly contested (and rightly so).
Before I answer your questions, I think a little clarification is in order. Models of mental processes (at least from my perspective) are not likely to be accurate representations of the actual, real world functioning of the brain. Like any scientific theory, they're only as good as the predictions they make. So just because a model has support does not mean that it captures the nature of cognitive structures. Rather, it means that it accurately predicts behaviour. What I'm getting at is that different processes can produce the same behaviour, and just because a model makes accurate predictions, does not mean that it necessarily is an accurate model of the cognitive processes involved.
With regards to your first question. It's important to consider what type of language phenomena you're interested in. Different models attempt to capture the functioning of different processes, and each model has its own set of assumptions about the associated mental functions. Judging by the task you set yourself (which, by the way, is referred to as a verbal fluency test), you're interested in speech production, so we'll look at that. There's two influential theories of speech production, Dell's (1986) spreading activation model and Levelt et al's (1999) WEAVER++ model*. This article, by Levelt, is a great primer on the different types of speech production models. Both models assume that lexical knowledge is instantiated in a network, but make different assumptions about how processing proceeds through the network, and the different steps involved. I won't spend any time describing them since the Levelt article does a much better job of that.
Returning to my first point, this isn't to say that these models are accurate descriptions of the mental lexicon. Rather, they're influential models that do a good job of predicting linguistic behaviour.
On to your second question...
At a the level of experimental design, psycholinguistics experiments differ from what you describe in that they usually:
• Involve random allocation of participants to condition
• Have a large number of participants
• Have control conditions
That is, what you describe is not an experiment at all.
Some sources of information used to evaluate models of speech production are:
• Observational (non-experimental) studies of speech errors where the rate and type of error are recorded (Dell uses data from these as a basis for his model).
• Experimentally induced instances of the tip of the tongue (TOT) effect (e.g. Harley & Bown, 1998)
• Naming tasks in which participants are simultaneously presented with two pictures and the relationship between the pictures is manipulated (semantic, phonological etc). Participants have to name a target object in one of the pictures. Reaction times are recorded. (Meyer & Damian, 2007)
These data are usually used to support or weaken the argument in favour of a particular model. In the case of the models discussed, they are designed to address predictions stemming from assumptions about the stages of speech production, and the order (if any) in which these stages are processed. For instance, WEAVER++ assumes that syntactic and semantic information is accessed prior to phonological information. Thus the TOT effect occurs when phonological information is difficult to access. Harely and Bown (1998), showed that words with an unusual phonological form are more susceptible to TOT, evidence that supports WEAVER++.
As an aside, the 'priming' studies that Nathan refers to are in fact uses of the masked prime paradigm with a lexical decision task. These are used to investigate the processes involved in visual word recognition (i.e. reading), and are a great way to investigate the information we can access very quickly from written language. For instance, that we compute phonological information from brief (50ms) presentations of non-words (Kinoshita & Norris, 2012). What such information tells us about the mental lexicon is unclear.
This isn't meant to be an exhaustive account of speech production. I've undoubtably presented some contentious information, and excluded some important information. Regardless, hopefully I've given you enough resources to make a start on your own research. Most of the articles I've mentioned are accessible through google, at the very least, Dell (1986) and Levelt et al (1999) definitely are.
*Don't be put off by the length of Levelt et al (1999). Behavioural and Brain Sciences articles often include commentary by researchers in the same field, so the article itself is only about 35 pages long. The commentary is a great way to a get a feel for how a theory fits in with the rest of the field. Personally, I think it's a great idea.
Dell, G. S. (1986). A spreading-activation theory of retrieval in sentence production. Psychological Review, 93(3), 283-321. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.93.3.283
Harley, T. A. & Bown, H. E. (1998). What causes a tip-of-the-tongue state? evidence for lexical neighbourhood effects in speech production. British Journal of Psychology, 89, 151.
Kinoshita, S., & Norris, D. (2012). Pseudohomophone priming in lexical decision is not fragile in sparse lexical neighborhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 38, 764-775.
Levelt, W. J. M., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S. (1999). A theory of lexical access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 1-38. doi:10.1017/S0140525X99001776
Meyer, A. S., & Damian, M. F. (2007). Activation of distractor names in the picture-picture interference paradigm. Memory & Cognition, 35(3), 494-503. doi:10.3758/BF03193289
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Your Answer
| http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/756/is-our-mental-lexicon-structured-like-a-tag-cloud-system-or-hierarchical | dclm-gs1-458515528 | false | false | {
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0.027052 | <urn:uuid:25138c46-5646-4659-a255-5db43eecba18> | en | 0.954745 | In the summer that I was baptized
my father held me to his side
As they put me to the water
he said how on that day I cried
We were prisoners of love, a love in chains
He was standin' in the door I was standin' in the rain
With the same hot blood burning in our veins
Adam raised a Cain
All of the old faces
ask you why you're back
They fit you with position
and the keys to your daddy's Cadillac
In the darkness of your room
your mother calls you by your true name
You remember the faces, the places, the names
You know it's never over it's relentless as the rain
Adam raised a Cain
In the Bible Cain slew Abel
and East of Eden he was cast
You're born into this life paying
for the sins of somebody else's past
Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain
Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
Adam raised a Cain
Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream
Adam raised a Cain
Available on Darkness on the Edge of Town
Buy the cd at amazon
Also available on Live 1975-1985
Buy the CD at amazon
Lyrics | Jeroen's homepage | survey | surf on |
Springsteen page | http://maroen.home.xs4all.nl/engels/lyrics/adamrais.htm | dclm-gs1-458775528 | false | false | {
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0.018213 | <urn:uuid:dbcbcc69-edff-412b-8042-fcccef4f70ea> | en | 0.974931 | News Home
Oscar Pistorius murder trial: Blade Runner vomits as court hears details of Reeva Steenkamp's autopsy
Oscar Pistorius listens to details of Reeva Steenkamp's autopsy
Pathologist Gert Saayman's testimony was interrupted twice by Pistorius's sobbing and retching.
AFP: Bongiwe Mchunu
Olympic star Oscar Pistorius broke down and vomited into a bucket when his murder trial heard details about the autopsy of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The South African athlete is on trial for the murder of 29-year-old model Steenkamp at their suburban Pretoria home last year.
Pathologist Gert Saayman's testimony on Monday (local time) was interrupted several times by Pistorius's sobbing and vomiting.
However, the defence team argued against an adjournment, saying a break would not improve the 27-year-old athlete's state of mind.
A fourth round fired by Pistorius missed.
Professor Saayman also disclosed Pistorius was using hollow-point rounds - ammunition designed to disintegrate on impact with tissue to cause maximum damage.
He said Steenkamp's right upper arm was shattered, the hip wound could well have been fatal, while the shot to her head would have incapacitated her immediately.
The court also heard no blood was found in her airways, suggesting she breathed only a few times before dying.
In between sobbing and vomiting, Pistorius sat with his head bowed, covering his ears with his hands and a white handkerchief.
Earlier, judge Thokozile Masipa imposed a broadcast blackout on Professor Saayman's testimony out of respect for Steenkamp's family and to prevent viewers of the trial, such as children, from accidentally hearing its contents.
"Broadcast would compromise the privacy of the deceased, hurt the interests of the Steenkamps and be against the morals of society," Professor Saayman said when he took the stand to argue for a temporary broadcast blackout of the trial, which had so far been shown in its entirety on live television.
Pistorius admits he shot Steenkamp, but argues it was a case of mistaken identity and that he thought she was an intruder who had broken into his luxury home.
Professor Saayman is the first expert to testify at the trial, which has so far heard from several witnesses who reported hearing a woman screaming before shots in the early hours of February 14 last year at Pistorius's home.
If found guilty of intentional murder, Pistorius is likely to spend at least 25 years behind bars.
More Stories | http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-10/oscar-pistorius-murder-trial-blade-runner-vomits-autopsy/5311422?pfm=sm | dclm-gs1-458995528 | false | false | {
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0.114242 | <urn:uuid:603a5366-d6e8-45c0-a8df-936c29029a31> | en | 0.901345 | zoek een woord op, zoals tribbing:
Recent events such as the CDO/CDS meltdown have caused movements in the market similar to that made by a female as she administers fellatio.
Originates from the following context: "Bitch is goin' down like the Dow Jones!"
Baller Inc Exec 1: Did you go to Circle last night?
Baller Inc Exec 2: I did, Dow Jones was the value added to the experience.
door CEO of Ballers Inc 15 maart 2009
See also: Chickenhead
A person know for always going down
I wish my girlfriend was the DowJones
door trollboy 29 september 2008 | http://nl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dow+Jones | dclm-gs1-459275528 | false | false | {
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0.160573 | <urn:uuid:d2792c79-b5f4-4cc1-86b6-dad54f1982d6> | en | 0.935219 | zoek een woord op, zoals cunt:
A person who you cant tell is a man or woman. A person who is ashamed of whats in their pants and refuses to show it. A person whos sexuality is inconspicious.
Sal vitale wouldnt take off his pants in front of a woman. We know every guy will whip it right out with no hesitation. He must be an 'IT'. Lmao, too funny. I wonder whats really in his pants.
door feefc 13 januari 2008
The universal/lazy refrence to anything that doesn't deserve to be called by its official name.
I'm not talking to It.
I'll never be a part of It.
It's so creepy the stuffed animals in his room shivel up and hide when he walks in.
I want to hit It.
door CheesyCherryDiabetesChompers 12 oktober 2008
The superlative in a class of objects. A non-profane, usually last second alternative to the shit when you are compelled to censor oneself in polite company.
When Jesus walked into Jerusalem, he knew that, as far as prophets go, he was it.
door Darin 21 januari 2004
Someone who has asexual qualities. Someone who you arent sure about and cant distinguish their gender or sexual preferences. Most likely attracted to animals.
Rehmeyer is such an 'IT' he dosent even know if hes attracted to men or women, if hes male or female or if he even knows what sex is. He does seem to have a fondness for animals though.
door Sxnfben 5 januari 2008
'IT' is a nickname of Stephen Kings novel/movie. In that particular story 'IT' is a killer clown, called Pennywise (The Great or One -- I'm not sure), who murder/murdered little kids.
I don't feel like spoiling the great story and not-so-great-movie so you've to find out it yourself what really happens to Pennywise.
"IT" is back!
door blayze 16 juni 2004
the scariest flippin clown thingy ever!!!
it involves a creepy clown that terrorizes kids in a place called Dairy i think.
and, It goes through pipes and stuff, and has scared me to not take a shower for about 2 weeks. im over that now through therapy.
That Movie It, scared the crap outa me!!(probly cuz i was 6..)
door Leopold De guerra 16 januari 2008
An innovative new mode of transportation, invented by Mr. Garrison on the show South Park. To drive "it", a penile-shaped shaft is inserted into the anus, while another is inserted into the mouth. There are also a set of two more shafts in the front that the driver slides up and down. "It" was developed to contend with with the airline's crappy service. It's extremely fast as well, so whenever one zooms down the street, people always say "What the hell was that?" "I dunno but I want one."
News Guy: "It's still unclear what exactly IT is."
door rockstarchris 3 juni 2007 | http://nl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=it&page=2 | dclm-gs1-459295528 | false | false | {
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0.692202 | <urn:uuid:5863febb-fce4-4fc4-9c83-e3a0fab44dbd> | en | 0.971343 | Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Asleep at the wheel
How much has the Ports of Auckland dispute cost Auckland's ratepayers? As the ultimate owners of the port, you'd expect the Auckland Council to take a strong interest in this. However, you'd be wrong. According to an OIA request lodged through the website,
Auckland Council and Auckland Council Investments Limited do not hold any information in connection with the cost of the dispute.
Think about that for a moment. Auckland Council is relying on the dividend stream from a profitable port to help pay for Auckland's rail network. And yet they claim to have no idea of the cost of this dispute, and therefore how it will affect their plans. Its even worse in the case of ACIL; they're paid big bucks for governance and oversight of the Auckland Council's investments, including the port. But apparently they don't have any idea either. Which invites the question: what exactly are they doing to earn that money? Because it sure as hell isn't "taking an active interest so as to maximise their shareholder's profits".
This is an appalling revelation. It shows both the Auckland Council and ACIL are asleep at the wheel and failing to exercise the degree of oversight and governance we would expect. The people of Auckland deserve better than this. And they should demand it at the ballot box.
( is an excellent resource, BTW, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to ask the government what they know. And the more people who use it, the better a resource it will become) | http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/asleep-at-wheel.html | dclm-gs1-459315528 | false | false | {
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0.021221 | <urn:uuid:d7f40a5b-8ff2-4795-9d8d-dd61994e307e> | en | 0.932819 |
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| Overland Park, KS, USA | Extra Stupid, Liars & Scammers, Spouses & Partners, Technology
(I work at a busy computer and electronics store. A customer approaches me in the printer section.)
Customer: “I’d like to buy a wifi disabled printer.”
Me: “Ah, do you mean a wifi enabled printer?”
Customer: “No. I want to buy a printer but it can’t have wifi.”
(I acquiesce and spend some time showing her a few different lines, explaining what each can do. None of them are satisfactory, since any modern consumer-level printer with decent features has built in wifi. Sensing her frustration, I show her a newer model. She’s pretty much sold but I tell her wifi is built in but that she can disable it if she’s worried about security.)
Customer: “No no. It’s not about security. It doesn’t matter if it can be disabled. We can’t risk having wifi in the printer at all.”
Me: “Not to pry, but why is it so important that the printer doesn’t have built-in wifi?”
Customer: “My husband is very sensitive to wireless electronic signals. He gets extreme headaches when exposed to them even for a short period of time. That’s why he’s standing over there.” *points to a smiling man standing about twenty feet away*
Me: *sarcastically* “Oh, no!”
Customer: “What?!”
Me: “You might want to inform your husband that he’s been standing under the store’s main wireless access point for the past 20 minutes, being blasted with wifi signals 50 times stronger than any of these printers.”
(She ran to her husband, said something, and pointed up to the access point on the ceiling. I tried not to have a smug look on my face as the man suddenly feigned illness and they left abruptly.)
The Warranty Comes Warranted
| Leicester, England, UK | Technology
(A young customer comes wandering in during lunchtime, fiddling with the laptops on display.)
Me: “Ma’am, can I help you?”
Customer: “Oh, yes, please. I’d like to buy a laptop.”
Me: “Certainly. What would you be using it for?”
Customer: “Facebook, Skype, iTunes, and Civilisation IV. And typing, I guess.”
(I show her a sturdy Dell.)
Customer: “Excellent, I’ll take it. Does it come with a warranty?”
Me: “Yes, ma’am, Dell offers a standard one-year warranty.”
Customer: “Uhm, would it be possible to get a… longer warranty?”
Me: “We offer an additional three year full warranty for [amount] more.”
Customer: “Does it cover… like… EVERYTHING? Like, maybe, falling down stairs, getting rolled over by suitcases, accidental cups of coffee?”
Me: *trying not to laugh* “Yes, Ma’am. Everything.”
Customer: *sighs, resigned* “I’ll have the full warranty. Something tells me I’ll need it!”
Questioning The Location Of The Question
| ON, Canada | Bizarre
Caller: “Yeah, I got a question!”
Me: “Okay, how can I help?”
Caller: *click*
There’s No Reason We Can’t Be Civil
| Detroit, MI, USA | Awesome Customers, History, Top
(I am a Civil War re-enactor. I am returning home from an event, still in my full Union uniform, and I make a quick stop at a major computer store. On this day people are being distracted by an angry customer who is throwing a loud fit. He is complaining that the store doesn’t carry a transmitter for his 40-year-old receiver.)
Customer: “I’ve been shuffled from one store after another to find this part! I can’t believe you don’t carry it! You’re all just a bunch of f***ing nerds caught up in your modern computers! You’re just trying to talk me into buying a computer, but I’m not having anything to do with that!”
Employee: “Sir, I promise you that I’m not trying to get you to buy a computer. But if you’re looking for an outdated part, we can try and find it for you online.”
Customer: “That’s bulls***. You’ll look stuff up online, steal my credit card information and make me buy a computer! I’m on to you a**holes and the way you use your nerd skills to rip people off and spy on them! I’m not having anything to do with your modern bulls*** technology!”
(I finally step up next to the customer and loudly speak to the employee.)
Me: *to the employee* “I’m sorry, does this mean you can’t help me fix my telegraph?”
(The angry customer turns and gives me a sharp look. His face flushes between surprise and confusion as he sees me in my Civil War uniform, but as he opens his mouth to continue, most everyone surrounding us starts laughing. He turns red and storms out of the store.)
Employee: *to me* “God bless the Army of the Potomac!”
No Recognition Or Cognition
| Canada | Language & Words, Technology
(A customer comes in asking for dictation software. I showed him a very popular dictation package.)
Customer: “Does that use voice recognition?”
Me: “Yes, it does.”
Customer: “Oh, I don’t want that! Voice recognition doesn’t work. Do you have any dictation software that doesn’t use voice recognition?”
Me: “No, we do not.”
Customer: *looks annoyed and leaves*
Page 1/612345...Last | http://notalwaysright.com/tag/computer-store | dclm-gs1-459345528 | false | false | {
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0.835577 | <urn:uuid:c97fedd8-086b-4a3c-9ef0-729eb7b60b44> | en | 0.893693 | You may also like
problem icon
Painting Cubes
problem icon
Permute It
Take the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and imagine them written down in every possible order to give 5 digit numbers. Find the sum of the resulting numbers.
problem icon
How many tricolour flags are possible with 5 available colours such that two adjacent stripes must NOT be the same colour. What about 256 colours?
And So on and So On
Stage: 3 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:1
If you wrote all the possible four digit numbers made by using each of the digits 2, 4, 5, 7 once, what would they add up to? | http://nrich.maths.org/853 | dclm-gs1-459375528 | false | false | {
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0.028858 | <urn:uuid:ba0203ac-f916-441c-969d-7edba8e10e78> | en | 0.776942 | Wyszukaj dowolne słowo, na przykład the eiffel tower:
The sound an object makes as it's falling onto a surface.
I could tell by the drop tone that it was your pen that fell out of your pocket, not your ring.
dodane przez pentozali sierpień 21, 2012
Phrase. drop (verb) tones (noun)
The act of transmitting an electronic tone or set of tones by radio signal to alert a person or group of people. Terminology typically used by public safety dispatchers and emergency personnel.
Engine 11 to Fire Dispatch, drop tones for an additional EMT to respond to the scene of the accident.
dodane przez Bill V lipiec 29, 2005 | http://pl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=drop+tones&defid=6724585 | dclm-gs1-459695528 | false | false | {
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0.079184 | <urn:uuid:ed7136ad-0a3c-4ae4-8b81-e922211243f7> | en | 0.732952 | Wyszukaj dowolne słowo, na przykład ratchet:
grumpy old bat who doesnt do anything for anyone
Mrs keen, jeez your an old bag!
dodane przez Anonymous listopad 12, 2002
A haggard, perpetually grumpy, good for nothing elderly woman.
Gertrude: "So Frank, did you hear about Walt's little doctor's visit? Seems the rectal examination made him a little bit squeamish. Let me tell you..."
Walt: "For Christ's sake! Shut up, you old bag, and grab me a cold one!"
dodane przez Nick D sierpień 19, 2004
Every hot young babe eventually in time becomes an old bag.
dodane przez Jimbo Creamer lipiec 25, 2010 | http://pl.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=old%20bag&defid=9333 | dclm-gs1-459705528 | false | false | {
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0.948923 | <urn:uuid:0e628ebd-f6d1-49e7-8b19-6f93641f1980> | en | 0.948725 |
Are there objective chances in the world?
Probabilities and statistics: they are everywhere, but they are hard to understand and can be counter-intuitive. So what's the best way of communicating them to an audience that doesn't have the time, desire, or background to get stuck into the numbers? This article explores modern visualisation techniques and finds that the right picture really can be worth a thousand words.
As the Wimbledon 2011 Championships hove into view, memories will be reawakened of the match of epic proportions that took place last year between the American John Isner and the Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. So just how freaky was their titanic fifth set and what odds might a bookmaker offer for a repeat?
Syndicate content | http://plus.maths.org/content/taxonomy/term/348 | dclm-gs1-459725528 | false | false | {
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0.073992 | <urn:uuid:d96743a9-1dcc-40eb-a959-b2371fcb0b13> | en | 0.943965 | Meta Battle Subway PokeBase - Pokemon Q&A
If you hack in EOT, and hatch an egg, will it be like hatching a bag egg?
0 votes
asked Jun 4, 2012 by Gʟɪɢᴜʀʀ
1 Answer
0 votes
Best answer
Well, I have tried this. And, you don't get a bad egg suprisingly. And if you don't believe me, then try it. If doesn't work, well, I would just consider to save before you look at the egg.
One step after it hatches, the Bad EGG will hatch, and your character will say what is specified in the above section. The game will go completely black, and the battery will have run dry. Whether there is a way to get rid of it or not is unknown, besides the fact of starting a new game.
Hope this helps! :)
answered Jun 5, 2012 by StealthScyther99 | http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/74124/if-you-hack-in-eot-and-hatch-an-egg-will-it-like-hatching-bag-egg | dclm-gs1-459735528 | false | false | {
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0.088927 | <urn:uuid:ebd351e4-7781-4eaa-9347-458fa45eab22> | en | 0.945145 | Friday, April 30, 2010
Friday Firsts- April 30, 2010
~Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
"I buried my father the day after my seventeenth birthday."
~Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey (ISBN 978-0-15-206390-0)
1 comment:
1. One of my currently favorite Dark tales - THE CHILD THIEF by BROM, starts with a Prologue. Now let me tell you his prologue and 1st Chapter rocks!
1st sentence in Prologue: "It would happen again tonight: the really bad thing."
1st sentence in Chapter 1: In a small corner of Prospect Park, in the borough of Brooklyn, New York, a thief lay hidden in the trees. This theif wasn't searching for an unattened purse, cell phone, or camera. This thief was looking for a child. (okay, I just had to write the first 3 sentences.) | http://purplg8r-somanybooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/friday-firsts-april-30-2010.html | dclm-gs1-459875528 | false | false | {
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0.021236 | <urn:uuid:63f74d17-c80b-4f9d-81e7-cee7357160a5> | en | 0.965658 | Results tagged ‘ Raysvision ’
2010 Maddon’s Maniacs Video Shoot
Cartoons and Power Outages
During today’s afternoon baseball game the Rays had one of their annual Park and Recreation days. If you are unaware of this special day for Rays fans, it is the time of the year where 5,000 plus youngster from all over the Rays viewing area get to come out to the ballpark for an afternoon contest and get the best gift ever from the Rays………. Rays Thunderstix! Now if you are one of those people who complain about the cowbells and their constant clanging, you would have a field day during the Thunderstix days.
Sure they have a lighter sound, but the constant pounding of the two stix together, or off the kid next to you tend to get on your nerves after 7 innings. And the greatest thing about this promotion, the stadium looks full and the only ones who really complain are the people who clean up the Trop after the kid tornadoes tend to wreck havoc and trash everywhere. This is not to mean that kids can be a bit…well, messy, but more to the fact that once a Thunderstix is not usable, it is discarded like a old useless Popsicle stick to the floor of the stadium.
I mean as you leave the game the carnage you see all over the stadium floor of damaged and forgotten Thunderstix can be kind of overwhelming to someone who values collectibles. But to most of these kids they are just props to keep them occupied and happy for at least half the game before they get their hot dogs, cracker jacks and soda. I actually love these days more for the facts it is the one time during the entire year you can sit behind 10 rows of kids and even if they all stand up, you can still see the field. It is not like when adults, who tend to be above 5 feet tall occupy those same seats and become instant black-out elements at any time during the game.
But things did get a bit testy for a few moments when a few of the Trop’s banks of lights flickered and the umpires decided that we needed to wait for 20 minutes until the light came back full force again. You could see up in the Raysvision booth that they were scrambling to find some suitable entertainment for the young crowd and actually brought out a Bugs Bunny classic “Baseball Bugs”, where the frisky rabbit takes on the Gas-House Gorillas in a game of baseball.
But for some reason the Rays forgot they had the best cartoons in the business, and it featured players and people that the kids have seen over and over on television and on the Trop’s big screen. The Rays came up with a cartoon based on the “Defenders of the Game” which featured Carl Crawford, B J Upton, Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Carlos Pena. They even had special places for Rays Manager Joe Maddon and Rays Senior Advisor Don Zimmer. What a special cartoon moment that would have been as even the players were sitting on the dugout steps and near the bullpen grass checking out the action on the screen above rightfield.
Raysvision and the Rays had a captive audience that they could have used to parlay their “Defenders of the Game” scenarios for a long time, but instead went with a old Bugs Bunny cartoon. Now do not get me wrong, I love Bugs, and the cartoon they did show is a sure baseball classic, but at least they did not show that Rockey the Mudhen “Infield Fly Rule” buzz kill video that sometimes pops up late in the games on Sundays. Kudos to the boys in the booth for not subjecting us to that baseball definition video one more time.
And even during his post-game interview Maddon spoke about the Bugs Bunny cartoon about how the guys were enjoying it and that it seemed to go over well with the mostly kid crowd. Maddon did ask via the assembled media in the clubhouse if they can maybe get some Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote videos for the next rain delay/power outage. Because we do not have rain delays, but power outages in Tampa Bay, and we do not have to wait for a tarp or a grounds crew to signal the go ahead to resume play.
So with that recommendation by Maddon I decided to try and find some alternative cartoon if the Raysvision crew could not find a baseball-related Warner Brothers cartoon. I decided to dig into the dusty cartoon vault really deep and into the dark recesses of the bowl to see if they did have any cartoon with the road runner and the coyote that might have a baseball background. I could not come up with a single episode, but I did come up with a few where the coyote had decided that a baseball bat would be a good weapon of choice against that pesky sprinting bird.
The “Defender of the Game” cartoons can be found on Youtube right now from the first episode , to the final one after their second season. They are classic cartoon where the Defenders tackle the evil Umpreror, and then Doctor Stats. They are pretty tongue-in-cheek cartoons, but are fun to watch during a power outage/rain delay. But there are other variation out there like a classic Woody Woodpecker cartoon called, The Screwball” where he tries to get into an outdoor baseball field. Then you have the old 1948 classic cartoon “Baseball Brawl” which featured woodland animals as players in the baseball game.
But the end result is that during the outage, the cartoon did bring about some sense of order to the stands and kept the kids occupied with harmless fun for everyone. And that is the special problem that can surface on a day like today with a crowded house of pre-teens all coming out to watch a baseball game.
But in the end, everyone left with a smile both in regards to a Rays victory, and from the classic baseball cartoon they will be telling their parents about tonight. And who knows, that might transfer into a Family Fun Day this Sunday where the family of four can come to the ballpark with FREE parking and discounted food and tickets. I guess the cartoon could be called a community ticket experience now.
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Join 279 other followers | http://raysrenegade.mlblogs.com/tag/raysvision/ | dclm-gs1-459925528 | false | false | {
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0.078931 | <urn:uuid:73d508ab-5e15-48a1-90b4-f2552d55b695> | en | 0.943412 | Task Market
Microsoft Task Market connects small businesses with skilled freelancers for marketing and other document help such as graphic design, writing and editing, document translation, and creating or enhancing presentations and spreadsheets. By focusing on tasks accomplished using applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point and Access, Task Market makes it quicker and easier for small businesses to get their task done. | http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/TaskMarket/ | dclm-gs1-459975528 | false | false | {
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0.067135 | <urn:uuid:1665bef6-145b-46c7-9fb5-c83d9384d8db> | en | 0.875784 | Caută orice cuvânt, cum ar fi cunt:
1 definition by Richard "Dick" Slinger
A trick performed by a well-endowed male where a dollar bill is picked up off of a table or other flat surface entirely with the penis in a grabbing-like motion that resembles the flexibility of an elephant trunk.
Hey, did you see that stripper pick up that dollar off of the stage? He is truly a master of the dollar penis trick!
de Richard "Dick" Slinger 30 Octombrie 2012 | http://ro.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Richard+%22Dick%22+Slinger | dclm-gs1-460025528 | false | false | {
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0.279853 | <urn:uuid:c7c9ca0d-8f90-4730-8a2b-56c592ccf5a0> | en | 0.837921 | Caută orice cuvânt, cum ar fi thot:
2 definitions by fila
a slang from the Vallejo's Crestside neighbourhood, used to represent a friend, a homey or a potna.
Wuzzup Cuddie, wuz crackulatin
de fila 07 Aprilie 2003
a name for part of Oakland, also known as deep east Oakland. The name is used to rfelect the out of propretion of murders that happen in the neighbourhood.
de fila 07 Aprilie 2003 | http://ro.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=fila | dclm-gs1-460035528 | false | false | {
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0.422628 | <urn:uuid:2c64390f-5c3f-41f7-983b-2631ec7a1ccd> | en | 0.924163 | Caută orice cuvânt, cum ar fi sweetest day:
An unbreakable law which states that when something cute is present, every woman and every feminine male within 30 feet of the cuteness MUST react with "awww!", "how cute!" or "adorable!!!" Similar reactions are also acceptable, but must somehow express how cute the thing is.
The law may exist because women and feminine men are considered "more empathetic" than is typical, so they...on second thought, there is no logical explanation.
Tony present Tina and her friends with a picture of his cat wearing little boots.
Girl 1: AWWW!
Girl 2: That is SOOO cute!
Girl 3: I just want to hug it!!!!
Feminine Male: That is the most adorable thing i've ever seen!!!
Tony and his friends have witnessed "The Aw Law".
de Chekken 07 Decembrie 2009
Cuvinte înrudite cu The Aw Law
adorable aw aww awww cute feminine girls law women | http://ro.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20Aw%20Law | dclm-gs1-460055528 | false | false | {
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0.220195 | <urn:uuid:e7a8cb78-9758-4488-94ce-65f0967f7cd8> | en | 0.751327 | искать любое слово, например tribbing:
when 2 guys are double teaming a woman, 1 pees in her mouth and the other cums in her mouth. the female gargles it like mouthwash then she spits the mix into another womans mouth.
me and my friend taylor went to a swingers party and we gave this ho erin a lemon shakeup. then she spit it in her best friend jane's mouth.
автор: wellsir 26 февраля 2007
Слова, связанные с lemon shakeup
cum golden shower pee pervert sex | http://ru.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lemon%20shakeup | dclm-gs1-460085528 | false | false | {
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0.02022 | <urn:uuid:425ce359-999e-44b1-a870-f034b6f9cca5> | en | 0.941986 | The Artwork of Dominic Sansone
Artist Statement
Through my current body of artwork I explore the violence of humankind and the role each of us play in facilitating an endless cycle of barbarity. Americans, in particular, have seemingly become addicted to the state of war, in part, due to our desensitization at the hands of the media we consume. From video games glorifying killing, to twenty-four hour coverage of conflicts, to real time video of smart bombs dropping down chimneys; we have an endless supply of stimuli to numb ourselves. The pain and suffering endured by others becomes nothing more than flickering images on a screen.
Influenced by the assembly line fabrication of industrial machinery, weaponry and munitions, and even our food; repetition plays a significant function in my sculpture, being representative of both the products and people behind the areas of my explorations. This can manifest as hundreds of identical individual components combining to make a single piece or an echoing of identifiable form in seemingly disparate objects. Cast objects dominate the work, either in the more traditional mediums of bronze, iron, and porcelain; or more contemporary materials, such as silicone and urethane rubbers, foam, and plastic. These primary elements, repetition and casting, combine to create an industrial mass-produced sensibility to my artwork.
As a single cohesive composition, my work is intended to create a monument contradictory to the ones that dominate the landscape of our cities. While not in and of themselves, site-specific, the works become so in a general sense when contrasted to the memorials that glorify or romanticize war around the United States. These works are meant as a rebuttal to our public monuments, thereby rendering them site-responsive or perhaps even site-conditional as Robert Irwin described it in Being and Circumstance
“Here the sculptural response draws all of its cues (reasons for being) from its surroundings. This requires the process to begin with an intimate, hands-on reading of the site”.
Ultimately my body of work is born of my own identity and my response to it as a former member of the Military Industrial Complex and having grown up during the height of the Cold War in the 1980’s. In the end, these works do not answer the questions or propose solutions, but hopefully cause the viewer to consider, with more than a cursory glance, the visual culture of our cities, our entertainment, our public art, and our media.
all content and images on this site are © Dominic Sansone 2014 unless otherwise noted | http://sans1studios.com/ | dclm-gs1-460155528 | false | false | {
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0.04148 | <urn:uuid:3ba6f713-4f23-401e-afb3-ac1634083b43> | en | 0.806313 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
The complete .htaccessfile
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^([a-z0-9_\-]+)/([a-z0-9_\-]+)/(index\.php)?$ /main.php?type=$1&action=$2 [NC,QSA,L]
redirects to:
The rule works fine on my test machine.
on another machine, it fails if there is a file that starts with the same name:
|- main.php
|- new.inc.js
www.server.com/users/list/ --> 200 OK (main.php returns results as expected)
www.server.com/users/new/ --> 404 Not Found
If I remove `new.inc.js' the request will be redirected as expected.
What configuration flag causes this behaviour?
(I've been banging my head against the wall for some time now)
Update (I added the complete .htaccess file contents) index.html and index.php are the directory indexes
(And it does not make sense to me either :()
share|improve this question
Doesn't make sense to me yet from the information presented. Are there other RewriteRules? Is index.php set as the default index file? – Devin Ceartas Aug 21 '09 at 16:52
Just to be clear, requesting www.server.com/users/new/ when <ROOT_DIR>/users/new/new.inc.js exist give a 404 error ? Could you enable rewrite log and give us the result ? (httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritelog) – radius Aug 21 '09 at 18:08
@radius: <document_root>/users/new.inc.js exists. Unfortunately I can't enable anything. It took a lot of talking for me to get read access to the config files. – Jacco Aug 21 '09 at 20:23
1 Answer 1
up vote 3 down vote accepted
Do you have mod_negotiation installed? If so, that'll take your request for new and try to work out what file you really meant to send. Make sure you don't have Options MultiViews set. So, in the .htaccess put Options -MultiViews.
share|improve this answer
Thanks, right on target. – Jacco Aug 21 '09 at 20:26
Your Answer
| http://serverfault.com/questions/57243/apache-mod-rewrite-fails-when-file-by-same-name-exists/57264 | dclm-gs1-460295528 | false | false | {
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0.418608 | <urn:uuid:9bbc810d-3e10-44e6-96e2-2eed527a5e77> | en | 0.916117 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
One of my customers uses a Citrix server to allow their employees access to my MSACCESS application. I was curious about how I would go about hosting a Citrix server for some of my smaller customers who don't have IT departments. Any resources or thoughts are appreciated.
share|improve this question
2 Answers 2
up vote 2 down vote accepted
You could do a simple 2 server setup with a gateway at the edge with the Citrix Secure Ticketing running, then having a terminal server behind it servicing the app requests.
Or, just go with a Citrix hosting solution, like THIS.
share|improve this answer
Well depends on what you need, but for simple scenarios even vanilla remote desktop services can be enough.
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
| http://serverfault.com/questions/98503/hosting-a-citrix-server | dclm-gs1-460305528 | false | false | {
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0.58628 | <urn:uuid:bedc95a9-90a2-43cb-855f-3193657b1940> | en | 0.947033 | Tuesday, April 08, 2003
last summer i broke my wrist. roller blading. yep.
anyway, i had this big green cast, and you wouldn't believe the signatures i got on it, at various places.
MxPx, the punk band currently starring in a Pepsi ad
Jason Dill, the pro skateboarder better known for freeloading at the home of TV's the Osbournes
Jay Bakker, son of TV Evangelist Jim Bakker
Plus others, including my sister Becky, my friends Sheree and Jessie, and a whole bunch more.
Kinda random, I realize, but interesting, none the less.
Saturday, April 05, 2003
four days ago, the thermometers almost hit 90. now, we're expecting snow.
the suckiest part though, is while it's gotten colder here, a couple of my friends have gone to cancun, and will probably miss the snow, unless there's a freak storm in mexico.
The advent of daylight savings time had me thinking about something that's always puzzled me.
Why is it when you set your clock back in the fall, you go from 3 to 2. But when you move a meeting back you go from 2 to 3?
And when you move your clock up, you go from 2 to 3, but when you push an appointment up, you move it from 3 to 2?
When you say "back" you generally think later, but sometimes you mean "earlier".
The same kind of thing can apply when you cross a time zone. I've had arguments with people who ask "which way do I set my watch" and I say, "we just went back an hour" but they say "no, I need to move it up an hour", but we're really thinking the same thing. We both moved our watch from 2pm to 1pm because we travelled west over a time line.
Or am I completely insane? (ok, don't answer that)
Friday, April 04, 2003
favorite u2 songs of all time (at least as of april 4th, 2003 11:50 pm)
Beautiful Day
Mysterious Ways
North and South of the River
Walk On
Where the Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Until the End of the World | http://stevewhite.blogspot.com/2003_04_01_archive.html | dclm-gs1-460585528 | false | false | {
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0.048318 | <urn:uuid:7cbd651a-1230-4c2d-ab36-e8990a799ee5> | en | 0.847612 |
Uživatelské recenze: Až na výjimky kladné (3,078 recenzí)
Datum vydání: 10. dub. 2009
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26. června
We've been updating the Braid executable on Steam recently and will continue to do so in the near future. We're not adding anything to the game or changing the gameplay in any way; the updates are just about fixing problems running the game for people whose operating system / driver / hardware config is causing problems.
The biggest things we've done are:
* Add a launcher in Windows which will help you set options easily. If you have a mysterious crash, you might try running in windowed mode, for example.
* Enabled Steam's crash reporting, which will help us see what kinds of problems are out there in the world and how widespread they are. (This feature of Steam did not exist when Braid was launched).
It appears that some people are still having crashes even after the update. Usually these crashes are related to graphics drivers, so we always encourage people to try updating their drivers. Apart from that we'll be looking at the newly-instituted error reports and seeing what we can improve.
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— Eurogamer 10/10
Steam Big Picture
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Key features:
• Newly added Steam Cloud support
Save your in-progress game to the cloud, then play where you left off from on any Steam connected computer.
• Forgiving yet challenging gameplay:
• Rich puzzle environment:
• Aesthetic design:
• Nonlinear story:
• Nonlinear gameplay:
Systémové požadavky
• Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / 7
• Processor: 1.4GHz or faster
• Memory: 768 MB or more
• Hard Disk Space: 200 MB or more
• Video Card: Pixel Shader 2.0
• DirectX® Version: DirectX® 9.0c
• Controller Support: Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
• Processor: Intel Mac 1.0 GHz or better
• Memory: 512 MB RAM
• Graphics: ATI Radeon(TM) 9500 or better, NVIDIA GeForce(TM) FX 5900 or better, Intel GMA 950 or better
• Hard Drive: 185 MB free space
• Other Requirements:
Užitečné recenze od zákazníků
18 z 22 osob (82%) ohodnotilo tuto recenzi jako užitečnou
18.8 hodin celkem
It's mindblowing for a side-scroller. It cames to prove my motto: good graphics don't make good games. Furthermore, don't judge a book by it's cover and the smallest flasks holds the bestest perfumes and all the cliché catchphrases.
At first sight, this game seems to be just "one more of the same", but if you are the kind of person who gets thrilled by a good story (yes, it's a side-scroller with story), a little plot twist and written narrative elements, jump in. You won't regret it.
Besides the story, it has innovative puzzles that you must solve using some "tools" like a "flash forward" and "rewind" features. You could read some books at the final of each stage, knowing more and more about the game's story.
In short, it's hard to praise and explain how this game is good without spoil all the fun.
Přidáno: 23. června
Byla tato recenze užitečná? Ano Ne
10.4 hodin celkem
This game was beautiful. Great music, super addicting. Only about 4 hours of gameplay though.
Přidáno: 19. října
Byla tato recenze užitečná? Ano Ne
6.0 hodin celkem
Braid is a puzzle-platformer with a twist: the ability to manipulate time, which is used in various ways to advance through the nicely designed levels. I suppose the best way to describe it is „Super Mario meets Prince Of Persia“, which is a great concept.
Přidáno: 3. října
Byla tato recenze užitečná? Ano Ne
6.4 hodin celkem
Braid is a simple puzzle platformer, or at least at the first glance. Gameplay is incredibly smooth and well done along with all the time tricks you get to experience throug the levels. You'll love the relaxing "classical" music and overall soft and chill appeal in whole design.
The trick is the first glance of simplicity wears off quite fast and you are going to get stuck. Often. Braid is by far the hardest puzzle game I've ever played. This is truly going to test how patient and clever you are. You are going to be frustrated at times, but at the same time each puzzle is going to give you a great feeling of accomplishment if you are patient enough to solve it on your own. None of the puzzles are dumb or repetitive and each brings a new pattern to uncover and understand.
About the story - I must say I enjoyed the sentimental style and slow uncovering of it, but most of the time I was quite confused and had no idea what it was all about. Well, I definitely experienced better storytelling in games, but this game won my gaming soul just by its crisp gameplay.
Přidáno: 2. května
Byla tato recenze užitečná? Ano Ne
0.2 hodin celkem
Amazing artistic direction; classical soundtrack; variety in puzzle mechanics; fantastic final level.
Ambiguous story completely separated from the gameplay won't suit everyone; music may get repetitive; hidden secrets are barely hinted.
My veridict:
Braid's perhaps pretentious delivery of its plot will not suit those who prefer a more direct approach, but it's a must play for those who enjoy puzzle platforming.
Full review:
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, (Acts 3:19 NIV)
Setting religious matters aside, it is safe to say that every human being has at some point in his or her life repented for an action of theirs.
"What would have come to me had I done the opposite?"
"If only I could turn back time."
These are common sentences from those wishing to repeat past events in hopes of a better outcome. Sadly to them, they are still unable to do so, but not Tim, the protagonist in Braid, Jonathan Blow's puzzle platformer. At a certain point in his life, Tim lost someone very dear to him and thus he enters a quest for finding that someone, whom we only know as "the Princess". In his attempt to correct apparently permanent mistakes, Tim is able to rewind time, never having to suffer the consequences of a wrong decision. With this in mind, can Tim really lose anything in this journey?
The protagonist's travels are set in different worlds, divided in different levels, and the goal is quite simple: use Tim's abilities to solve platforming puzzles, collect every puzzle piece (literally) and reach the end of the level. At the beginning of each world, before entering any level, the player is presented with short books, explaining Tim's past and his relationship with the Princess. The plot, completely separated from the gameplay, is delivered in such an ambiguous manner that the player is mostly left with questions, pressing on hoping for an answer, but the princess always seems to be in another castle, as we are often told. Who is the princess?
Time manipulation, often accompanied by platforming, is the gameplay's bread and butter, each world introducing and/or replacing new time mechanics, resulting in a great variety of puzzles. Braid isn't a game that gets easier as you grow accustomed to each ability, because you'll soon abandon it and be forced to completely readapt your thought process. The level "Fickle Companion" is a prime example of how becoming used on certain mechanics will stop you on your tracks until you begin to think again. It's a challenging game, but not in a way that will force you to abandon it. As you find a solution you'll notice how deceptibly simple it actually was. The superposition of platforming and time manipulation is so organic that it results in the most dinamically entertaining puzzles, while those who are solely time manipulation usually require more abstract thinking, usually being the most difficult.
Most of Braid's $200,000 budget went to the game's artwork, developed by David Hellman. Every level has a lush pallet of colours and painted backgrounds, akin of an oil paiting. A forest in a yellowish tint, a cloudy blue sky, a city at sunset (or is it burning?) are a few examples of Hellman's glourious results. Would the game have delivered the same experience had the developer not invested in this artistic direction? We'll never know, because we lack Tim's abilities.
The music throughout the game is mostly delivered by Jami Sieber and Shira Kammen, resulting in a classical touch, which actually influenced the above mentioned artwork and actually help setting the game's mood. The prime examples are Kammen's "Downstream", which is an adaptation of Luar Na Lubre's "O son do ar" (Galician: The sound of air) and Sieber's "Undercurrent". The former is commonly used earlier in the game, when the story is at its gentlest, while the latter, much darker, is reserved for latter moments, namely the final levels. There is, however, little variety of music, which may tire those who are searching for an expansive soundtrack.
Despite its flaws in storytelling and an ending, which despite being amazing, leaves lots of questions unanswered, Braid is an important piece in the most recent rise of independent gaming popularity. Its sometimes challenging puzzles will quench the thirst of those looking for a challenge of the minds, but will not appeal to those who prefer more action in their games. Will Tim ever find the princess? It's up to the player to find out.
Přidáno: 3. srpna
Byla tato recenze užitečná? Ano Ne
4.8 hodin celkem
Skvělá logická hra.
Mechaniky podobné Máriovi - skáčete, uhýbáte a přesně časujete své pohyby.
Braid je hlavně o jedinečné (můžeš číst kýčovité) grafické stylizaci a hádankách.
Hádanky jsou unikátní hlavně svým pojetím času. Čas, a práce s ním, je zde totiž jedna z hlavních herních mechanik.
Být na dvou místech zároveň, se přeci jen bez nějaké té práce s časem moc nedá :)
Poměr těžkých a lehkých hádanek je tak akorát, i když u některých si opravdu zanadáváte nad svojí hloupostí či pomalostí :)
Grafika je hezká, ale pro někoho může být až kýčovitá. Hudba je lehká, ale opět má tendenci být mírně kýčovitá.
Technické zpracování je dobré, hra nepadá a běží plynule.
Achievementy fungují dobře, nejsou zabugované.
Hledáte-li logickou výzvu, Braid vás jistě pobaví.
Podobná hra: The Swapper
Přidáno: 14. prosince 2013
Byla tato recenze užitečná? Ano Ne | http://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/?l=czech | dclm-gs1-460605528 | false | false | {
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0.019049 | <urn:uuid:5eeff709-6241-4328-adfc-380258f8f061> | en | 0.72934 | login Cuenta
Realtek Audio Codec ALC662, ALC283 for Windows 8.1 (64-bit) - ThinkCentre System
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Realtek Audio Codec ALC283, ALC272
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Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
This package installs an updated version of the Windows 8.1 (64-bit) device driver for the onboard Realtek Audio Codec ALC662, ALC283 that comes preinstalled in your computer.
This update requires approximately 105MB of space on your hard drive.
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This package has been approved for use with the following systems:.
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2. Type g7aud05us17.exe in the search field, then click Find Now. This will locate the file you just downloaded.
3. Double-click the g7aud05us17.exe icon.
4. Click Next. Read the license agreement.
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Follow the instructions provided in the corresponding text file from the above link. It is recommended to print the installation instructions text file so that you can refer to it during the installation. | http://support.lenovo.com/bo/es/downloads/ds037719 | dclm-gs1-460615528 | false | false | {
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0.024936 | <urn:uuid:726dfeb8-6f1a-4a9d-9cdb-c73940c92472> | en | 0.839754 | Kolla upp vilket ord som helst, t.ex. rimming:
Usually happens after quitting an addiction of smoking or biting nails.
Quit chewing on your cheeks you damn tweet..
Are you a tweet? Quit biting on those lips!
av Meeshie Peeshie 2 april 2008
Combo of tight and sweet, accidentally said it one day and just sorta stuck
Those rims are tweet
av Dbow, T-fresh, Jweezy B 11 februari 2008
An order to stop talking. Usually when someone is being annoying.
"blah blah blah blah...."
"hey! tweet! no one wants to hear it!"
av Missie 16 september 2003
The fart-like sound emitted through the male genitalia, much like the female "queef"
I tweeted in her mouth.
av loudaaa 7 januari 2010
When a you whistle while a girl gives you head, telling her to stop and bend over for sex instead.
"I straight up tweeted at my girl so I could get plowing"
av Jean Luc Russo 2 januari 2010
A girl who is known as a hoe/bird
Yo that bitch is a Tweet...she ran through the whole team
av Young Reapa 2 december 2009
a girl who is a hoe aka a bird
see that tweet over there? she been through the whole crew.
av MiSS TiCiA 2 december 2009 | http://sv.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tweet!&page=3 | dclm-gs1-460635528 | false | false | {
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0.137334 | <urn:uuid:63a76932-a9fd-4a58-938c-95df508654be> | en | 0.927755 | Back to Top
The Photographer's Domain
The Harlem Shake & Why All of Your Black Friends are Confused
Recently, one of my friends told me about this new viral video called “The Harlem Shake” that’s been making the waves across the internet. When I heard about this. I was pretty surprised. I couldn’t believe the old 90s era P.Diddy Dance had made a comeback.
Oh, how wrong I was.
I went to the internet expecting this.
And left the internet with this…
This is the ORIGINAL that started it all.
I’m all down for the fun. Personally, I think it’s hilarious. What I wasn’t expecting was the huge amount of people who were unaware of where the Harlem Shake originated from, or at least the 90s era Harlem Shake.
Wikipedia has pretty good summation of The Harlem Shake.
The Harlem shake, originally called the albee in Harlem, is a dance that started in 1981. The dance became mainstream in 2001 when G. Dep featured the Harlem shake in his music video “Let’s Get It”. It has its history from a type of dance exercised in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, called “Eskista" and was allegedly started in Harlem by a man named Al B.
The current harlem shake depicts one individual dancing by himself (usually with some kind of helmet or hat on) until the beat of Baauer’s Harlem Shake comes on. Then we see a jump cut to a three or more people or even thousands doing the most inane and insane things on camera. It’s pretty awesome.
The Harlem Shake, for me, and many other African Americans, became popular around the time Lil Bow Wow/P.Diddy/Jermaine Dupri were still very prevalent in the rap game during the 90s.
So I definitely wasn’t expecting this…
Over what I traditionally associated with The Harlem Shake.
I find it pretty interesting how many of our culture references get recycled and re-used. I do think individuals who are from Harlem had a VERY hilarious reaction to seeing their cultural dance in its new form
In this instance I can understand the indifference stemming from the black community. For some, it comes off as a disrespect to a piece of our historical dance culture, but at the same time no one really meant any harm by this. The DJ (Baauer) who made the song wasn’t expecting this and neither were the guys who made the original Harlem Shake Viral Video.
For those who still may not understand why your black friends weren’t feeling it…take it like this. Imagine you have an urn with your great-grandmother’s ashes in it that’s been passed down in your family. A random stranger pops into your house, shoves his manhood into it, declares it a new work of art, and their is absolutely nothing you can do about it because everyone loves it.
That is the new harlem shake to the black community.
Once again, it’s not as deep as some are making it. It’s not an affront to black people. No one was intentionally being disrespectful, and honestly it’s not disrespectful. This is how the internet works.
I just hope a few of you understand why some of your black friends were a little confused when you showed this to them.
- Xay B. is a graduate student at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts studying Directing and Cinematography. To view more of his work go to Que The Lights or follow @XLNB.
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0.197821 | <urn:uuid:7462399a-4271-428b-b24f-3b6b19fbd8ad> | en | 0.97469 | Gross Diaperless Baby Trend Means City-Dwellers Should Watch Their Step
Ewww! 58
diaperless babiesWhen my sons were babies, I remember reading about elimination communication -- the practice, according to the Wikipedia definition, of using timing, signals, cues, and intuition to address an infant's need to eliminate waste -- and thinking to myself, those parents are fucking nuts. Not, well that's certainly a different path than what I choose but we're all special snowflakes! Just: They. Are. NUTS.
I'm not quite so prone to snap judgments about such things now that I'm not personally responsible for dealing with every substance that comes out of my children's rear ends, but when I read this recent article on how urban EC-loving parents are dealing with their babies' inevitable public messes, I'm right back to thinking that this is a truly crazy trend. Because if you're happy to let your child take a non-diapered dump AT A RESTAURANT TABLE ... well, I'm sorry, your lifestyle choices are infringing on my right to eat a non-feces-scented salad and THAT'S NOT OKAY.
For those who are unfamiliar with what elimination communication (or EC, as it's often called) is all about, it's basically about watching your baby for signs that he or she needs to eliminate, and attempting to "catch" the waste via potty chairs, bowls, sinks, or what have you. EC practicers communicate special sounds to their babies (usually an "ssss" or "shhh" sound) in order to create an association between the sounds and feeling relieved.
Advocates say this practice enhances interaction and communication between parents and babies, and can cut way back on diaper-related downsides like rashes, expense, and environmental concerns. They also point out that it's hardly a new trend, being as how about half of the world's children (mostly in Asia and Africa) never wear diapers.
The downside (well, in my mind, one of the MANY downsides) is that an infant's muscles aren't typically developed enough for independent toilet training before they turn 2. So that's a pretty good stretch of time where you have to personally project manage your kid's waste cycles.
As for how parents deal with the challenge of a diaperless baby in public, some city dwellers simply let their babies use the street as their own private restroom. As one mom put it,
Sometimes the thrill of being able to go outside and pee is just what [babies] need. In the suburbs people set up potties in the trunk of their cars. That made me jealous. But in New York no one cares what you are doing. You can hold your baby to pee pretty much anywhere. Especially since few people would have any idea what you are doing.
Another mom said she would try to use a bathroom first, but otherwise, a park or drainage area would suffice:
We would get off the subway, I would take him into the toilet. Sometimes there were times it was hard to find a public bathroom in New York. Asking to use bathrooms helped me get over shyness. (At parks and playgrounds) finding a little area of grass or some bushes was good. I’ve not owned a dog in the city, but I can relate. I would try not to have him pee on the sidewalk. I would try to find a drain pipe ... on the corner of streets.
Last but not least is this story from an EC mom who took her diaperless baby out to eat:
The other day we accidentally left the house without putting her in a diaper before going to a restaurant. We peed her on the sidewalk, but she wouldn’t go. Then we tucked a pre-fold [cloth diaper] under her [at the restaurant table]. We were in a place where we didn’t want her to go and we didn’t want people talking about it.
Okay. Okaaaayyyyyy. I'm ... yeah, I'm pretty grossed out by the idea of letting babies pee and poop all over city streets. Yes, dogs are doing this too, but ... what, are dogs the gold standard now? And just because no one cares what you're doing doesn't make it okay, for crying out loud. (I bet the person who accidentally steps in your child's puddle DOES care, actually.)
Plus, a non-diapered infant at a restaurant table? Dude, that's crossing a line. It's one thing if your baby is bare-bottomed in your own home and you're the one who gets to "sss" all day long and rush to and from the potty chair, it's something else entirely to "pee" your baby on a SIDEWALK then cross your fingers there isn't an uncovered blowout as you enjoy your meal.
In conclusion, ew. And also, I think you owe New York an apology, street-peeing EC moms.
What do you think about elimination communication? Are you okay with babies peeing and pooping outside?
Image via lkonstanski/Flickr
poop & diapers
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Katy Khan
Doesn't bother me, just don't do it indoors.
Amanda Solita Shovlin
to each his own. I have no problem with it. both my kids have used diapers. son potty trained at 3.5 and my daughter is 26 months and showing signs that she is ready. Now we use cloth diapers so I'm sorta crunchy lol. I have no problem with the kids peeing outside. It's the pooing and the fact that they have thier babies private parts out for all to see. It's a horrible thing that in this day and age we have to be afraid of our infant daughters going topless or our babies of either gender being changed in public or even naked in our own yards and having some weird pervert trying to catch a peek. yes the poo in resteraunt is gross, but I would be more concerned with the naked in public part. Not for modesty sake but for all those perverted people out there.
Bryony A. Hughes
Gross! people get highly upset when a pet owner doesn't clean up after their pet. Not to mention most parks have designated areas where dogs can do their business. There is a reason why people don't pee and poo in the streets, it spreads disease and its unsanitary. Just because animals do it, doesn't mean people should teach their children that they should as well. I don't like stepping in dog poo and I surely wouldn't want to step in baby poo!
Serab... Serabelle
I don't usually care how other people raise their kids, breastfeeding, formula feeding, cosleeping, ferber method, whatevs as far as I'm concerned, but this is gross. Do what you want in your home, but if you're in public, slap a freekin diaper on that kid! As someone that spent many years in food service, if someone's undiapered offspring shit on my table I would be pissed! That violates so many health codes, it boggles my mind. Just not ok.
Lisa Topper Baker
Hey lobus - relax and re-read what she wrote. ``It's one thing if your baby is bare-bottomed in your own home and you're the one who gets to "sss" all day long and rush to and from the potty chair, it's something else entirely to "pee" your baby on a SIDEWALK then cross your fingers there isn't an uncovered blowout as you enjoy your meal.`` So call her ``ignorant`` but you clearly state that you did exactly as she suggested (ec at home, diaper in public), so it sounds to me like you`re the ignorant one in this situation. Or maybe comprehending what you read is only for rocket scientists.
Lynette Lynette
The people that I know who EC have their babies wear cloth diapers when away from home. I don't EC but I think it's fine that others do.
jec72579 jec72579
I think that it is just going wayyy too far in the " oh, it's not the norm, so I think I'll try it, so I can get attention" thing. My God people, can you even raise your children normally? People are crazy!
nonmember avatar Stephanie.r.e
This sounds disgusting. I'm with serabelle. I usually couldn't care less how others parent their kids but this kind of weird crap is the thing that makes me judge other parents. I can't imagine being in the house of a person that does this.
nonmember avatar kellie
I don't think some of these comments are very thought out or fair. jec72579 and Stephanie, mothers faced the same sort of criticism for breastfeeding in the 60s. "Why can't you use a bottle like a normal mom?" "Letting your baby suck on your breast is just weird." My MIL remembers being treated poorly by nurses in the hospital for breastfeeding. She was the only mother there who didn't use a bottle.
If parents want to EC who are we to point fingers and judge?
Eliminating waste in public areas is something that needs to be dealt with better and I share concern about that. I think poo especially needs to be contained. Pee in the grass doesn't really bother me. I think, to be fair, the babies should follow the same rules as other humans on where to eliminate waste.
Mama2... Mama2MonkeyBoys
I agree that if you want to do this in your own home, fine. But I'm absolutely appalled that anyone would think it's ok to, essentially, train their children to think it's fine to poop on the grass in a public park, or pee on the sidewalk.
Gross and stupid.
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0.035636 | <urn:uuid:6495b2df-33f5-42d7-9cd2-82d1c5c03d57> | en | 0.733057 | Traveling Luck for Halla, Oulu Lääni, Aland Islands
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The timezone in Halla is Europe/Helsinki
Sunrise at 07:11 and Sunset at 16:22. It's light
Latitude. 64.4667°, Longitude. 29.1833°
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Airports close to Halla
Kajaani(KAJ), Kajaani, Finland (78.2km)
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Ylivieska, Ylivieska-raudaskyla, Finland (231.3km)
Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners. | http://travelingluck.com/Europe/Finland/Oulu+L%C3%A4%C3%A4ni/_659327_Halla.html | dclm-gs1-461015528 | false | false | {
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0.018375 | <urn:uuid:32022527-9c27-4394-979e-4ade3315404b> | en | 0.901992 | | Opinion/The Review
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Spirit of freedom
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Spirit of freedom
The recent controversy over the stated purpose of a stone monument has brought the national debate over the separation of church and state to our quaint community.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles donated the Ten Commandments monument to help eliminate juvenile crime during the 1940s and '50s. The messages in commandments five through 10 meet this requirement. These messages are needed now more than ever to help guide our youth through our confusing and fragmented culture.
Since the monument is located on school property, it gives some the idea that the school district is promoting a religion. What if the monument were not on school grounds? Would the plaintiffs still have a case?
The district should sell the parcel of land back to the F.O.E. or donate the land, thus taking the monument off district property. This would defeat the argument that the school district is choosing one religion over another.
We think this compromise respects the wishes of both parties. Connellsville Area School District needs to remind everyone our country was built on the spirits of freedom and cooperation and this solution will demonstrate that to our community.
Brett C. Baumgartel
The writer is a career transition instructor for Private Industry Council, Uniontown. The letter was submitted on behalf of the entire Connellsville Carnegie Free Library Career Transitions/GED class.
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4. Gas revenue at stake
5. Science on fracking’s side
6. Vandergrift killing Olmsted’s vision
7. Won’t stop drilling
8. Far-left continuation
9. Better choice
10. Honoring Pastor Asa Roberts
11. Sheetz-CVS hearing
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0.032241 | <urn:uuid:152b9169-1ca8-41b0-9e4f-e6ab14a72e13> | en | 0.950028 | September 11, 2001. Eleven years have passed since that horrible day when MUSLIM TERRORISTS struck at the heart of America. In the intervening years the nation has faced numerous challenges some we have managed to deal with well, and some have become catastrohpies of “biblical proportions”. As we face another anniversary of this terribly sad day in our national history the nation seems determined to tear itself apart in an effort to prove how tolerant we are. We elected a fraud to the Oval office, we allowed him to keep his job when it was proven that he was a fruad and a liar. We continue to tolerate his presence in the White House and just reselected him to run again KNOWING that he was a fruad and a liar and that his only goal is the utter distruction of this nation.
We are ready to accept the lie that ISLAM – the relgion that prompted the terrorsts to attack – is a religion of peace. Two thirds of their “holy book” deals with the killing and torturing of “infidels”. Some peace huh?
THREE THOUSAND people DIED that day. THREE THOUSAND families were torn asunder. Lives ended, lives destroyed, lives that were promising and hopeful and valid – GONE. The psyche of the Nation was violated and the nation watched in horror as three seperate groups of “peace loving muslims” flew HIJACKED aircraft into different targets and innocent people died, in the aircraft, on the ground and in the targeted structures themselves.
Men, women and children killed in the name of JIHAD. Some died at their own chosing rather than wait for the ultimate act of the terrorists.
No matter how many times you are lied to. No matter how many times they try to convince you that it was something else. No matter how frequently they want to change the truth. YOU REMEMBER. Remember the planes fly into the Trade Center Towers, into the field in Pennsylvania, into the outer ring of the Pentagon. REMEMBER the death and destruction. REMEMBER the fire and smoke and death and carnage. REMEMBER.
REMEMBER also that the idiot in the OVAL OFFICE thought it was funny. REMEMBER that HE wants to HELP the people who DID THIS With YOUR MONEY. REMEMBER. And if you still think that HE deserves to set in that chair, REMEMBER that he’s GONE from that chair for every MAJOR event and decision that come across that desk!
THE SOLUTION! aude aliquid dignum
use your smart phone now
Find out how smart your phone can make YOU!
Isn’t that an odd way to start a blog entry? SOLUTION? AUDE WHAT? Why do I need a SOLUTION when I don’t even know the PROBLEM?
Well truth is you DO know the problem. You are tired, or sick, or lacking in energy or focus. Your muscles ache, your head hurts and your back is “out” again. You’re depressed and out of sorts. You have too much month for the money and you are plain sick and tired of being SICK AND TIRED. Right?
Alright, those are the SYMPTOMS they are NOT the problem. You can buy over the counter “Treatments” or pills/ointments/lotions/potions or notions but you aren’t reaching the PROBLEM. RIGHT?
WHAT IF? Ever play that game? WHAT IF I was taller? WHAT IF I felt better? WHAT IF My day started full of energy and joy? WHAT IF I could be/have/do my heart’s desire?
Well what if I could help you eliminate some, most or all of the SYMPTOMS listed above and at the same time help the people you know and love who suffer from these exact same symptoms? Would that be worth an hour or two of discovery? and WHAT IF the discovery didn’t COST you anything? NADA ZIP ZELCH ZERO ?
Would you take a minute to call me personally to arrange to get more information? NO obligation. Nothing to buy. No money no credit card no bank account required to LEARN MORE. Just a few minutes conversation and some information. Would you do just that little bit in the hopes the WHAT IF might, just once, possibly, turn out to be REAL?
Is your health at all important to you? The UPRISING IS COMING!
A Moral Story that has be refreshed
Two Different Versions! …………….. Two Different Morals!
… OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant ‘s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome..’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
TIred of being sick, tired and broke? DO you have a smart phone? Give this a try
Political Correctness and the corruption of the DEMOCRATICALLY controlled Mainstream media
Or how I learned to fear capitalsm and love COMMUNISM.
Okay. Before we go any further let me explain right now that I AM NOT a D E M O C R A T (YUCKEEE) I AM a CONSERVATIVE, ULTRA RIGHTWING RADICAL AMERICA LOVING REPUBLICAN. If that offends you T O U G H S H Y T E! Go read something more your speed, SEE DICK RUN FROm JANE. Or whatever other COMMIE PINKO crap you like. And don’t bother leaving me your comments. I’ll just delete them.
I have lived all around the world. I have seen first hand the “benefits” of communism and socialism and I can tell you for a fact that people are not fleeing AMERICA to go to any of THOSE nations. So…. IF you don’t like what I write, that is your priveldge. Just shut the F***K up about it. “Cause I don’t care what you think.
I am sick to death of hearing all the whiny bitchy sniveling crap in the MSM about how bad capitalism is and how the CORPORATION is evil. Everyone seems to believe that the purpose of the CORPORATION is to provide a money teat from which the lazy and the useless are “entitled’ to suckle without having provided any effort. Folks what you all seem to forget is that the purpose of the CORPORATION is to provide PROFIT to the shareholders. If you want to share that benefit buy stock OR better yet, take advantage of your RIGHTS and START YOUR OWN CORPORATIONS! WOW what a novel idea. WARNING: this will require doing that which you most desire to avoid yes that nasty four letter word W O R K! What you have failed to learn is that the same rules you deride because you are too lazy to do the research, is that the rule apply EQUALLY to EVERYONE who chooses to USE them.
Stop whining, stop being lazy and GET BUSY.
By the way I DO know what I’m talking about.
Now for the rest of my rant.
Every living breathing soul that inhabits my country, and it is MY country, enjoys the liberty, freedom, and justice that men and women like me have provided because WE choose the noble and honorable course of VOLUNTEERING to serve the military needs of our nation. While I am no longer IN UNIFORM like everyone else who served, I was released from the obligation to wear the uniform but NOT from the OATHE I took to preserve, protect and defend the NATION and the CONSTITUTION from ALL ENEMIES FOREIGH OR DOMESTIC.
I suggest that before you critisize the military you pick up a rife and stand a post. I suggest that before you critize the corporation you start one run it into a successful venture then see how happy you are to GIVE IT AWAY to freeloading goldbricks, pimps and thugs who are too lazy to do what you did.
Still with me!? Good. Your mission should you choose to accept it IS TO GO FORTH AND MAKE THE NATION STRONGER by CONTRIBUTING to it’s ECONOMIC GROWTH by being part of the SOLUTION not part of the SHEEPLE crowd and OCCUPING space as a waste of skin.
Nature makes the BEST WATER
Nature makes the best waterNature makes the best water
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0.100021 | <urn:uuid:c6ecd2f5-9873-4069-af35-c5b524610fe0> | en | 0.745243 | Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange
Jepson Interchange (more information)
©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California
Lauramay T. Dempster (except as specified)
Annual, perennial herb, sometimes strongly scented; odor generally disagreeable
Leaves simple, pinnately lobed, or compound; petioles sometimes sheathing; basal ± whorled; cauline opposite, petioled to sessile
Inflorescence: cyme, panicle, or head-like, generally ± dense
Flowers generally bisexual; calyx fused to ovary top, limb 0 or highly modified (if present, lobes generally 5–15, coiled inward, becoming plumose, pappus-like, spreading in fruit); corolla radial to 2-lipped, lobes generally 5, throat generally > lobes, > tube, base generally spurred or swollen, tube slender, long or short; stamens generally 1–3, epipetalous; ovary inferior, chamber generally 1 (sometimes 3 but 2 empty or vestigial)
Fruit: achene, smooth, ribbed, or winged
Genera in family: ± 17 genera, 300 species: generally temp, worldwide except Australia. Some species cultivated (Centranthus ), some medicinal (Valeriana )
Reference: [Ferguson 1965 J Arnold Arbor 46:218–225]
Annual, perennial herb (in CA) from rhizome or short underground caudex, glabrous to soft-hairy
Stem generally erect, 1–several
Leaves: basal simple or pinnately lobed, tapered to petiole; cauline subsessile to ± clasping, pinnately lobed, distal lobe generally > others
Inflorescence: cyme, clustered, ± dense to open, terminal or axillary
Flower: calyx lobes 5–15, generally ± coiled inward, becoming plumose, spreading and persistent in fruit; corolla ± funnel-shaped, white or pink, lobes ± equal, throat >> tube, sometimes swollen near base, tube slender, sometimes obscured by swollen throat; stamens 3; ovary ± 1-chambered
Fruit generally compressed, generally 6-veined vertically
Species in genus: ± 200 species: temp worldwide except Australia
Etymology: (Latin: strength, from use in folk medicine, or after Valerian, a Roman emperor)
Reference: [Meyer 1951 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 38:377–503]
V. occidentalis A. Heller
Plants with bisexual or pistillate flowers, generally glabrous; nodes, petiole base, sometimes sinuses between lobes short-hairy
Stem 3–7.5 dm
Leaves 5–30 cm; basal generally simple, blade ovate to round, sometimes deeply 3-lobed, lateral lobes < terminal lobe; cauline deeply lobed or compound, lobes or leaflets 3–7, margin entire, fine-crenate, or fine-dentate, terminal lobe generally obtuse
Flower: corolla 3–4 mm, white, lobes slightly < throat
Fruit 3–5 mm, ovoid
Ecology: Moist places, coniferous forest
Elevation: 1500–1800 m.
Bioregional distribution: Warner Mountains
Distribution outside California: to Oregon, Montana, Colorado
Horticultural information: IRR, DRN: 4, 5, 6, 15, 17 &SHD: 1, 2, 7; DFCLT.
See the CNPS Inventory for information about endangerment and rarity.
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bioregional map for VALERIANA%20occidentalis being generated
Retrieve Jepson Interchange Index to Plant Names entry for Valeriana occidentalis
Retrieve dichotomous key for Valeriana
Overlay Consortium of California Herbaria specimen data by county on this map
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0.819187 | <urn:uuid:0a3dc93d-9f52-41ee-868f-f009db8dc159> | en | 0.917903 | шукати будь-яке слово, наприклад spook:
sharp skins are anti racist skinheads.
I.S is a stupid nazi shithead. sharp skins are the best skins
додав oifoundedoi 4 Серпень 2005
Offshoots of the traditional skinheads originating from England in 1969. SHARP (SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice) were sick of the media perceiving all skinheads as Nazi skinheads (boneheads). As the skinhead subculture is heavily influenced by BLACK rudeboys and ska music, it is ridiculous to think that Nazi's adopted it. Most SHARP's are hard-working, middle-class warriors who won't take shit from ANYONE.
The person above (in a while below) is a piece of shit Nazi and will get his ass kicked by SHARP skins if he keeps up with his hillbilly white power shit.
Don't mess with a sharp skin.
додав SHARP CR 23 Квітень 2009
SHARP punks and Skins. The SHARP stands for "Skinheads against racial Prejudice". SHARPS are true punks because thats what punks rock was always about from the beggning,uniting all people despite there differences, and not conforming to the bullshit ways of society, and kicking the shit out of facist racist fuckers with no heart.
Black or White PuNx UNITE!
Nazi idiot fake punk: Hey look at the Mexican he's a Beaner! Look at that Asian he's a Chink! Look at that black guy he's a Nigger!
SHARP Punk: What did you say?
SHARP Punk #2: Yeah, What did you say?
SHARP Punk #3: What did you say little bitch?
SHARP Punk #4: WHAT?!
SHARP Skins: umm, what the fuck dude....
(10 minutes later "Nazi idiot fake punk" ends up in hospital..)
додав Bad Brain 17 Липень 2008
An oxymoron. SHARP may be an acronym for skinheads against racial predjudice, but in practice they only target white people who are proud of their heritage.
SHARPs tend to support communism and/or anarchy which shows their own ignorance as neither system is practical and is destructive for society.
SHARPs tend to be cowardly only fighting if they can catch a racialist white alone and with themselves significantly outnumbering them.
EX. A SHARP skin would never confront racist blacks or mexicans and likely even argue that its okay for them to victimise whites.
A popular slogan for SHARP skins is good night white pride.
Why communism is retarded? The answer is in another question. How hard would you work if no matter how hard you tried you'd make the same as someone who barely works at all, and who would go to 8 years of college to become a doctor when a store clerk makes the same?
For anarchists, government is the natural out come for people. If their were no laws or enforcement then murder, theft, and destruction would reign.
Someone who puts their faith in hipocracy, destructive beliefs, and utopian ideals is the real bonehead.
додав Zack Tickla 23 Січень 2010
sharp stands for Skinheads Against Racial Prejiduce
sharp skins must die
додав I.S 10 Червень 2003
SHARP Skins - SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice
Sharp Skins:
He dresses like a patriot and shave his head
Boots and braces but it's a real mistake
He hate his country, he is a fucking red
The worlds worst scum, he is a SHARP-skinhead
SHARP-skins must die!
SHARP-skins must die!
SHARP-skins must die!
Soon you dead you SHARP-skinhead
додав ^Eaz 17 Квітень 2009
"So are you Nazis?"
додав Fliggagoo 31 Жовтень 2005 | http://uk.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sharp%20skins&defid=1398916 | dclm-gs1-461145528 | false | false | {
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0.860926 | <urn:uuid:c4e71948-f4f5-4664-a2b4-94a75dd5b2cb> | en | 0.742201 | tìm từ bất kỳ, như là spook:
2 definitions by edthegreat
viết bởi edthegreat 30 Tháng chín, 2013
conjunction of: 1. Who's there? 2. Who's deer? 3. Hooters as spoken in the backwards of Alabama refering to one breasts
1. Knock knock? hoo-dar!? 2. Hoo-dar!? Look like it belongs to bambi! 3. Look at that hoo-dar on that hooter's girl!?
viết bởi Edthegreat 16 Tháng ba, 2010 | http://vi.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=edthegreat | dclm-gs1-461305528 | false | false | {
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0.199457 | <urn:uuid:4cecd836-29c4-4d68-ac50-ee486aefaad5> | en | 0.925917 | Atlantic Ocean
Printer-friendly version
The Atlantic Ocean sits in an S-shaped basin that runs in a north-south direction, bounded by Europe and Africa on the east and by North and South America on the west. An ocean basin is a large, deep depression that gradually slopes towards the sea floor, forming the shape of a basin. The Atlantic is divided into the North and South sections by the Equator and is connected to the larger Pacific Ocean via the Arctic Ocean to the north, and by the Drake Passage to the south.
Running directly through the Atlantic Ocean is the great Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an underwater mountain range that runs from Iceland, all the way to 58ºS latitude. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the Atlantic Ocean into two main basins that are further divided into a number of other basins north and south of the equator. In the North Atlantic, the most prominent ocean basins are: the Baffin basin, the Hudson basin, the Labrador basin, the Newfoundland basin and the very large North American Basin that extends from just off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to approximately the same latitude as Puerto Rico.
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0.036341 | <urn:uuid:a3dced61-5362-44aa-a48d-6db636f11100> | en | 0.989843 | ABC Home | Radio | Television | News | …More Subjects
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Dom Alessio
Start To Finish: Emma Louise's 'Vs Head Vs Heart'
15 April 2013
Posted by Emma Louise
I was a bit hesitant to go into full detail of the meanings of some of these songs off my album. I'd feel strange about giving away all their secrets in plain writing or sentences. Instead I think I will hint what they are about and the reader/listener can decide for themselves what it's about, hopefully drawing inspiration in relating from their own lives and stories.
1. 17 Hours
It's a 17-hour flight to get to Austin, Texas. It was the first of my many trips overseas. '17 Hours' is written in three main sections, as I see it in my mind. These sections changed when I translated the song onto guitar and re-worked the song in the studio with Matt Redlich and Graham Ritchie. The main structure, melody and chords stayed the same but it was taken to a completely different place by what was laid underneath its bones. The a cappella beginning of the song was born when the piano I played at the introduction of the song didn't flow as well as we'd hoped. We took out the piano and I layered some chordy-beds with some vocal harmonies. Inspired by Steve Reich, this song had the most guitars layered on it.
2. Atlas Eyes
As a child, it is a rite of passage to overcome those innocent fears of creatures that lurked in the dark. Be it aliens, monsters or ghosts. When a person is taken over by a metal illness you start to reflect on those innocent fears more analytically. Wondering if what they were scared of was actually much more real to them. Empathizing with their fear in those things you knew weren't really there, just a projection of your imagination. It's about how a family adjusts. This song is written reflecting over those things we were scared of as a child in a more magnified way after a loved one is wrapped in the thorns of mental illness.
Atlas Eyes was a song that came together very naturally and quickly. I think that happens with songs that are so deeply connected to me personally. In the studio, recording 'Atlas Eyes' mirrored the writing process. We had a few ideas and they unfolded neatly over the song. Nothing seemed to hold us up and by the end of the second day we had the whole track finished. When everything falls so easily into place I sometimes question whether there is another force helping, like an angel working quietly and humbly above us, dropping the pieces and parts into our minds like cents into a wishing well.
3. Boy
'Boy' is a song about subtle, stinted frustration directed at a person who smokes too much of the green grass and doesn't help himself in moving forward.
I had written the song on guitar and at first it felt a little uncomfortable putting the Rhodes in its place for the beginning of the song. We ended up replacing most of the guitar on the album after that little experiment... which lead to me not playing much guitar live. That growth in performing felt very organic and almost meditative when I played the new set live.
4. Stainache
It's very easy to write a love song. Love is such a strong feeling that has the power to make us or destroy us. I could have filled this whole album with songs about my love for a special person. Unfortunately its already been done a million times... and I don't think I could out-do The Beatles. This song was an exception. I fell into love when I first moved to Brisbane. I didn't have a job and just spent all my time sinking into this feeling I'd only just stumbled upon for the first time. After a year of existing on a solitary planet of him and I, my music started making a move forward and for the first time I experienced moving in a direction without him. I was a tree that fell into him and had forgotten how to grow. That's what this song is about.
5. Mirrors
Feeling threatened by other people outside of a relationship is a real and rotten side of love. Lately I have been identifying how people deal with their lions. I like to see these threatening beings, as lions. Outside of our relationships looking in with hungry eyes and wet lips, preying on my lion king. I am learning how to feel less threatened by these animals and working on building my defense. I guess this song is a cowardly way to say, stay away from my man. I imagined my cat back arched while I hissed these lyrics behind a microphone.
6. Freedom
Most of my songs mean everything to me. They are like little extensions of myself wrapped up in foil and ribbon and hand delivered to anyone who wants to listen to it.
This song means absolutely nothing to me. It is not my friend. It is my rude neighbour who comes over unannounced at my birthday party and introduces itself to all my friends. My friends fall in love with its infectious bubbly personality and I am to sit uncomfortably next to it as my friends ask me one by one, "why can't I be more like it?"
I hope that I will rekindle my relationship with this song and connect to it on a different level I haven't yet discovered. For now though, I am so grateful of anyone who enjoys listening to it, and will enjoy playing it live to people who want to hear it. Maybe that's what it's waiting to show me. I haven't played it live yet.
7. Braces
When you know that you're paying for every hour in the studio it puts a kind of pressure on you that shouldn't be there in the creative process. Especially being an independent artist and not having all the money in the word, I was very aware of every hour. This is something I hope not to worry about next time because what happens when you're not concerned about time and money is what happened with this song, 'Braces'.
This song was the only song I've ever recorded that was written inside the walls of the studio. Grayman was playing guitar and my producer Matt Redlich was pressing buttons on his spaceship. Matt's spaceship had many different components. Lots of lights, knobs and wires. He had many tools to take our minds to different galaxies with his soundscapes as our guide. I later learnt that the buttons he was pressing grabbed parts of Grayman's guitar and looped them in different times. All the sounds were so new to me so I was very inspired. Matt set up a microphone for me and I started singing vague lyrics over the top. I wanted the words to be very hard to hear, like they were as lost and confused as what the lyrics were about.
I didn't know whether 'Braces' could fit on the album and was so relieved when it found a place. I see its place on the album as a cleanser. I felt like the album needed to refresh itself from 'Freedom' before moving into the next half of it with 'Cages', 'Pontoon' and 'To Keep Me Warm'.
8. Cages
I moved around a lot when I was growing up. I've been to seven different schools and lived in around 14 houses. My parents renovated houses in their free time and my brother and I were more than happy to pack up and move around with them. I think I have inherited my mother's gypsy feet. I am only 21 and have lived in four houses outside of my parent's latest home in Cairns.
When I first moved to Brisbane, I made my small nest in a tiny house in a big city, not knowing anyone. It was in this space I brought home a very special tiny animal, Henry.
I was driving to my manager Rick's house one day and thought I'd drop into a pet shop I'd always passed on the way over. At the back of the store I saw a cage with some of the most beautiful looking parrots I'd ever seen. It was then I instantly fell in love with a small blue Indian Ringneck, who seemed to be picked on constantly by his brothers and sisters. Having just got fired from my job for shaving my head (that's a long story) I had no money to get him, but I knew we were destined for each other. When I got to Rick's house I must have used up all the air in my lungs talking about him. Rick gave me $50, I spent the rest of my money on him and took him home that night. I was never seen without him on my shoulder. I moved into a blue house with my blue bird, Henry. He was my best friend and we were bonded together. I was slowly meeting new people and making new friends and Henry was with me the whole time, chatting away on my shoulder. My new friends knew Henry as much as they knew me. I busked at the West End Markets to pay my rent, with my loyal blue son mischievously putting on a show of his own, crawling around my body as I sung. I can honestly thank him for the money people threw in my guitar case. He was a good investment in many ways.
The song 'Cages' is written about one of the hardest things I have ever had to sacrifice for my music. When I started touring it pulled Henry and I apart and it broke my heart having to hear him scream at me when I left for a string of shows. When I got back he would ignore me because he was angry with me and I knew it wasn't healthy for him to go through the stress of having me leave him every few days. I was having him looked after by an amazing couple I had met at the West End Markets where we would busk. They had three other birds, including another Indian Ringneck, Stevie. Each time I'd pick Henry up he'd be more displeased with me and eventually I knew it was time to give him to this couple and their birds who Henry had bonded and made friends with. It was the most emotionally devastating thing I have had to deal with in my freshly adult life. I see Henry a few times a month when I am back home and he always remembers me. I don't think we will ever forget each other and will always share a special connection.
'Cages' was written fairly quickly, I think because my feelings were still so raw. It was a very sensitive time and I struggled to play the song a whole way through without getting a lump in my throat. I was playing the song in the tracking room of the studio and Matt told me he wanted to record it the next day. At first I sang it as another character called 'Joseph'. We sped up the track on tape and I sung to my chipmunk sped-up voice so that when it was slowed to real time my voice became a soothing low male-like voice. I really loved the way it sounded and was tempted to just leave the vocals like that. 'Cages' as a song became a space I didn't want to touch. Like it was such a neat bundle of all my feelings about Henry that I didn't want to risk diluting it. I ended up singing over Joseph but leaving his voice travelling softly beneath mine like he was cradling me through the song with his masculine hands while it hurt me to sing.
9. Pontoon
'Pontoon' was a song I wrote the same night as I wrote 'Jungle', a track from my first EP. It's written about the same experience. I remember I was very torn up inside. At the house where my boyfriend lived there was a pontoon anchored into the dirty Brisbane River. On the morning after a foolish mistake I went down to the pontoon and dipped my head into the river. That's where this song begins.
I had already tried recording 'Pontoon' with two other producers and felt the song had something against me because it never seemed to work in my favour. I showed Matt and Grayman the song and they said they wanted to give it a go. Previously I had tried to limit and control the dressing of the song in different sounds and parts so this time I was very open minded to the ideas we were voicing. This song has the most layers in all of the tracks and we were inspired by a lot of different artists for different parts. I remember getting very excited when Matt found the synth line that starts the song and it took about five days in total, or even more, before all the parts had been neatly piled onto each other. We used a lot of vocal collage for this track. We sampled my voice singing different melodies and scattered them throughout the song, pitch shifting some melodies and heavily effecting others so they were hardly recognizable as my voice. We also made a friend, the Koass Pad. It took a while for us to stop getting distracted by running different things through it and fucking shit up, it was awesome. Once we'd stopped crouching over it like children in a schoolyard, we started using it to scatter the vocals and drums by looping and reversing small sections of the melody/beats. I liked how it expressed confusion in my lyrics.
10. To Keep Me Warm
This song is another love song, strategically placed far away from the other love song on the album. I wrote this song about not liking to sleep alone. I wrote it in winter before I discovered that I could buy a heater to keep me warm. Having come from Cairns, the idea of a heater was quite foreign. I was living with two beautiful couples that had each other to keep close and warm at night. At the time Tom had gone away on tour and I realized that without him I still hadn't made too many friends, apart from my darling blue bird, Henry.
Overall I think the clothes we dressed this song in fit it the best. I wrote this song on Escalator and the core of the song's structure was still there and was really elaborated by what we fleshed it out with. When Danni came into do the drums for this song, it was a special few hours for me. I had explained to him in my less then basic non-drummy lingo what I had imagined for the track and he took it to where I wanted it to go and further.
Has anyone heard the secret track? Shhh it's a secret.
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Deformation (mechanics)
Deformation (mechanics)
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Deformation in continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and the mechanical behavior of materials modelled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles...
is the transformation of a body from a reference configuration to a current configuration. A configuration is a set containing the positions of all particles of the body. Contrary to the common definition of deformation, which implies distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
or change in shape, the continuum mechanics definition includes rigid body motions where shape changes do not take place ( footnote 4, p. 48).
The cause of a deformation is not pertinent to the definition of the term. However, it is usually assumed that a deformation is caused by external loads, body forces (such as gravity or electromagnetic forces), or temperature changes within the body.
Strain is a description of deformation in terms of relative displacement of particles in the body.
Different equivalent choices may be made for the expression of a strain field depending on whether it is defined in the initial or in the final placement and on whether the metric tensor or its dual is considered.
In a continuous body, a deformation field results from a stress
Stress (physics)
In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the internal forces acting within a deformable body. Quantitatively, it is a measure of the average force per unit area of a surface within the body on which internal forces act. These internal forces are a reaction to external forces applied on the body...
field induced by applied force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
Hooke's law
for linear elastic
Linear elasticity
Linear elasticity is the mathematical study of how solid objects deform and become internally stressed due to prescribed loading conditions. Linear elasticity models materials as continua. Linear elasticity is a simplification of the more general nonlinear theory of elasticity and is a branch of...
Yield (engineering)
, and are the result of slip
Slip (materials science)
In materials science, Slip is the process by which plastic deformation is produced by a dislocation motion. By an external force, parts of the crystal lattice glide along each other, resulting in a changed geometry of the material. Depending on the type of lattice, different slip systems are...
, or dislocation
A strain is a normalized measure of deformation representing the displacement between particles in the body relative to a reference length.
A general deformation of a body can be expressed in the form where is the reference position of material points in the body. Such a measure does not distinguish between rigid body motions (translations and rotations) and changes in shape (and size) of the body. A deformation has units of length.
We could, for example, define strain to be.
Hence strains are dimensionless and are usually expressed as a decimal fraction
The decimal numeral system has ten as its base. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations....
, a percentage
In mathematics, a percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100 . It is often denoted using the percent sign, “%”, or the abbreviation “pct”. For example, 45% is equal to 45/100, or 0.45.Percentages are used to express how large/small one quantity is, relative to another quantity...
or in parts-per notation
Parts-per notation
A strain is in general a tensor
Tensors are geometric objects that describe linear relations between vectors, scalars, and other tensors. Elementary examples include the dot product, the cross product, and linear maps. Vectors and scalars themselves are also tensors. A tensor can be represented as a multi-dimensional array of...
quantity. Physical insight into strains can be gained by observing that a given strain can be decomposed into normal and shear components. The amount of stretch or compression along a material line elements or fibers is the normal strain, and the amount of distortion associated with the sliding of plane layers over each other is the shear strain, within a deforming body. This could be applied by elongation, shortening, or volume changes, or angular distortion.
The state of strain at a material point
Continuum mechanics
Strain measures
Continuum mechanics
s, plastically-deforming
Plasticity (physics)
In physics and materials science, plasticity describes the deformation of a material undergoing non-reversible changes of shape in response to applied forces. For example, a solid piece of metal being bent or pounded into a new shape displays plasticity as permanent changes occur within the...
materials and other fluid
In physics, a fluid is a substance that continually deforms under an applied shear stress. Fluids are a subset of the phases of matter and include liquids, gases, plasmas and, to some extent, plastic solids....
s and biological soft tissue
Soft tissue
In anatomy, the term soft tissue refers to tissues that connect, support, or surround other structures and organs of the body, not being bone. Soft tissue includes tendons, ligaments, fascia, skin, fibrous tissues, fat, and synovial membranes , and muscles, nerves and blood vessels .It is sometimes...
Engineering strain
where is the engineering normal strain, is the original length of the fiber and is the final length of the fiber.
Stretch ratio
The stretch ratio or extension ratio is a measure of the extensional or normal strain of a differential line element, which can be defined at either the undeformed configuration or the deformed configuration. It is defined as the ratio between the final length ℓ and the initial length L of the material line.
The extension ratio is approximately related to the engineering strain by
True strain
The logarithmic strain ε, also called natural strain, true strain or Hencky strain. Considering an incremental strain (Ludwik)
the logarithmic strain is obtained by integrating this incremental strain:
Green strain
The Green strain is defined as:
Almansi strain
The Euler-Almansi strain is defined as
Normal strain
As with stresses, strains may also be classified as 'normal strain' and 'shear strain' (i.e. acting perpendicular to or along the face of an element respectively). For an isotropic material that obeys Hooke's law
Hooke's law
Consider a two-dimensional infinitesimal rectangular material element with dimensions , which after deformation, takes the form of a rhombus. From the geometry of the adjacent figure we have
For very small displacement gradients the squares of the derivatives are negligible and we have
The normal strain in the -direction of the rectangular element is defined by
Similarly, the normal strain in the -direction, and -direction, becomes
Shear strain
The engineering shear strain is defined as () is the change in angle between lines and . Therefore,
From the geometry of the figure, we have
For small displacement gradients we have
For small rotations, i.e. and are we have
By interchanging and and and , it can be shown that
Similarly, for the - and - planes, we have
The tensorial shear strain components of the infinitesimal strain tensor can then be expressed using the engineering strain definition, , as
Metric tensor
A basic geometric result, due to Fréchet, von Neumann
John von Neumann
and Jordan
Pascual Jordan
-Further reading:...
, states that, if the lengths of the tangent vectors fulfill the axioms of a norm
-In academia:A designated standard of average performance of people of a given age, background, etc.*Norm , a set of statements used to regulate artificial intelligence software...
and the parallelogram law
Parallelogram law
In mathematics, the simplest form of the parallelogram law belongs to elementary geometry. It states that the sum of the squares of the lengths of the four sides of a parallelogram equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two diagonals...
Metric tensor
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, a metric tensor is a type of function defined on a manifold which takes as input a pair of tangent vectors v and w and produces a real number g in a way that generalizes many of the familiar properties of the dot product of vectors in Euclidean...
Description of deformation
Deformation is the change in the metric properties of a continuous body, meaning that a curve drawn in the initial body placement changes its length when displaced to a curve in the final placement. If all the curves do not change length, it is said that a rigid body
Rigid body
In physics, a rigid body is an idealization of a solid body of finite size in which deformation is neglected. In other words, the distance between any two given points of a rigid body remains constant in time regardless of external forces exerted on it...
displacement occurred.
It is convenient to identify a reference configuration or initial geometric state of the continuum body which all subsequent configurations are referenced from. The reference configuration need not to be one the body actually will ever occupy. Often, the configuration at is considered the reference configuration, κ0(B). The configuration at the current time t is the current configuration.
Continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics
Affine deformation
A deformation is called an affine deformation, if it can be described by an affine transformation
Affine transformation
In geometry, an affine transformation or affine map or an affinity is a transformation which preserves straight lines. It is the most general class of transformations with this property...
. Such a transformation is composed of a linear transformation
Linear transformation
In mathematics, a linear map, linear mapping, linear transformation, or linear operator is a function between two vector spaces that preserves the operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication. As a result, it always maps straight lines to straight lines or 0...
Therefore an affine deformation has the form
where is the position of a point in the deformed configuration, is the position in a reference configuration, is a time-like parameter, is the linear transformer and is the translation. In matrix form, where the components are with respect to an orthonormal basis,
The above deformation becomes non-affine or inhomogeneous if or .
Rigid body motion
A rigid body motion is a special affine deformation that does not involve any shear, extension or compression. The transformation matrix is proper orthogonal
Orthogonal matrix
In linear algebra, an orthogonal matrix , is a square matrix with real entries whose columns and rows are orthogonal unit vectors ....
in order to allow rotations but no reflection
Reflection (mathematics)
In mathematics, a reflection is a mapping from a Euclidean space to itself that is an isometry with a hyperplane as set of fixed points; this set is called the axis or plane of reflection. The image of a figure by a reflection is its mirror image in the axis or plane of reflection...
A rigid body motion can be described by
In matrix form,
Displacement field (mechanics)
A displacement field is an assignment of displacement vectors for all points in a region or body that is displaced from one state to another. A displacement vector specifies the position of a point or a particle in reference to an origin or to a previous position...
. The displacement of a body has two components: a rigid-body displacement and a deformation. A rigid-body displacement consist of a simultaneous translation and rotation of the body without changing its shape or size. Deformation implies the change in shape and/or size of the body from an initial or undeformed configuration to a current or deformed configuration (Figure 1).
Displacement (vector)
A displacement is the shortest distance from the initial to the final position of a point P. Thus, it is the length of an imaginary straight path, typically distinct from the path actually travelled by P...
in the Lagrangian description, or in the Eulerian description.
A displacement field is a vector field of all displacement vectors for all particles in the body, which relates the deformed configuration with the undeformed configuration. It is convenient to do the analysis of deformation or motion of a continuum body in terms of the displacement field, In general, the displacement field is expressed in terms of the material coordinates as
or in terms of the spatial coordinates as
and the relationship between ui and UJ is then given by
Knowing that
It is common to superimpose the coordinate systems for the undeformed and deformed configurations, which results in , and the direction cosines become Kronecker deltas:
Thus, we have
or in terms of the spatial coordinates as
Displacement gradient tensor
The partial differentiation of the displacement vector with respect to the material coordinates yields the material displacement gradient tensor . Thus we have:
where is the deformation gradient tensor.
Similarly, the partial differentiation of the displacement vector with respect to the spatial coordinates yields the spatial displacement gradient tensor . Thus we have,
Examples of deformations
• uniform extension
• pure dilation
• simple shear
• pure shear
Plane deformation
A plane deformation, also called plane strain, is one where the deformation is restricted to one of the planes in the reference configuration. If the deformation is restricted to the plane described by the basis vectors , the deformation gradient has the form
In matrix form,
where is the angle of rotation and , are the principal stretches.
Isochoric plane deformation
If the deformation is isochoric (volume preserving) then and we
Simple shear
A simple shear deformation is defined as an isochoric plane deformation in which there are a set of line elements with a given reference orientation that do not change length and orientation during the deformation.
If is the fixed reference orientation in which line elements do not deform during the deformation then and .
Since the deformation is isochoric,
Define . Then, the deformation gradient in simple shear can be expressed as
Since we can also write the deformation gradient as
See also
• Deformation (engineering)
• Finite strain theory
• Infinitesimal strain theory
• Moiré pattern
Moiré pattern
In physics, a moiré pattern is an interference pattern created, for example, when two grids are overlaid at an angle, or when they have slightly different mesh sizes.- Etymology :...
• Shear modulus
• Shear stress
Shear stress
• Shear strength
Shear strength
Shear strength in engineering is a term used to describe the strength of a material or component against the type of yield or structural failure where the material or component fails in shear. A shear load is a force that tends to produce a sliding failure on a material along a plane that is...
• Stress (mechanics)
• Stress measures
Stress measures
The most commonly used measure of stress is the Cauchy stress. However, several other measures of stress can be defined. Some such stress measures that are widely used in continuum mechanics, particularly in the computational context, are:... | http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Deformation_(mechanics) | dclm-gs1-461715528 | false | true | {
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0.054701 | <urn:uuid:20f9a16c-d237-4fb1-8701-e88aa5d9fcbd> | en | 0.940833 | July 1, 2014 AT 5:30 pm
Make An Electric Free Refrigerator #NatureAndTechnology
A Practical Zeer Pot evaporative cooler non electrical refrigerator
How to make a seer pot, or an evaporative cooler/ non-electric refrigerator. via Berkana via instructables
A zeer pot is an evaporative cooler used in rural Africa and the Middle East to keep vegetables fresh. They consist of two terra cotta pots, one nested inside the other, with the gap between them filled with wet sand. The sand serves as a thermal mass that helps keep the pot cold once it has cooled down, and acts as a wick to spread the moisture up the walls of the pot. When placed in a shaded, breezy location, the evaporation of water off the outer surface chills the pot. If you have a good breeze, or a fan powered by a solar panel blowing the pot, the pot can get quite cold. Imagine that chill you get when you step out of a pool when the wind is blowing. Now imagine that wet wind chill going on all day. That’s what the pot feels with a constant breeze.
Unless the air is very dry and the pot is exposed to a constant breeze, they generally do not become as cold as a refrigerator, but they will keep vegetables fresh for a couple of weeks. If you do have cool dry air and a constant stiff breeze, the interior of a zeer pot can chill down to around 40˚F.
Think of it as an open-cycle refrigerator. Conventional refrigerators evaporate a refrigerant in a closed circuit to absorb heat from their interiors, then compress the refrigerant vapor in the coils in back to condense it and to expel heat. The zeer pot simply uses water as its refrigerant, and leaves the condensation to nature.
Zeer pots were re-discovered and popularized in the early 2000s by the Nigerian teacher Mohammed Bah Abba. By manufacturing and mass distributing zeer pots to the poor, he was able to bring refrigeration to tens of thousands of impoverished farmers and home makers, enabling them to extend the usable life of their produce from days to weeks. For his efforts Bah Abba was awarded the Rolex Award for bringing life-changing technology to people in need.
In the under-developed parts of Africa and the Middle East, zeer pots use custom made pots prepared by local potters. Here in the developed world, we need to settle for pre-made pots from the hardware store. There are some drawbacks, but also some advantages afforded by these limitations, as you will see.
Full tutorial
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Would a U.S. default derail the global economic recovery?
It’s absolutely astounding to me how negotiations among politicians regarding the funding issue for the U.S. only pick up when the deadline is nearing—or is already here. The funding issue isn’t like that college paper you crammed into a couple sleepless days to meet the deadline; we’re talking about the future of a country here.
I mean, why did the House wait until the last minute to debate the funding issue when it was aware of this a long time ago? Heck, the funding issue could have been resolved by now and we could be onto the debt ceiling limit debate; we still have that to discuss before the October 17 debt ceiling deadline.
What do politicians do all day? If they ran a company, the business would likely go broke due to the infighting and failure to come to an agreement. It seems like a game of who’s going to cave in first.
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0.019472 | <urn:uuid:567c6073-f193-4017-a4a4-aedcfa149b0c> | en | 0.93874 | Where Are the Motorcyclists in the USA?
02/18/2014 @ 5:06 pm, by Jensen Beeler21 COMMENTS
Where Are the Motorcyclists in the USA? united states text map 2 635x425
Talking to a European colleague the other day, I had to remind him that the United States is just as big and diverse as the European Union, with our country’s states being as unique as the sovereigns involved in the EU. The same goes for motorcycling in the US, with our sport and passion taking different shapes depending on your geography of this Great Union.
It tickled my fancy then, when today I saw a breakdown of motorcyclists by state in the United States, especially when the results were displayed on a per capita basis. Of the 8,410,255 motorcycles registered in the United States (D.O.T. figure, as of 2011), which states have the most motorcyclists by volume? The answer shouldn’t surprise you as California, Texas, and Florida take the top honors, likely due to their mild winters and coastal routes.
But which states have the highest concentrations of motorcyclists? Now that is where things get more interesting: South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Iowa. You’re a no good dirty liar if you say you predicted those three states to be at top of the list — with each stating sporting 12, 17, 18 and people per bike, respectively.
You can scratch your heads about the per capita figures with us. Our colleagues at Motorcycle.com suggest that the states’ hosting of popular bike rallies could play a role in the per capita listings, meanwhile we have our own theories about the popularity of motorcycles amongst Libertarian/Tea Party minded folks.
Neither theory works outr perfectly well, as Florida should have scored much higher with its hosting of the upcoming Daytona Beach Bike Week, which rivals Sturgis as the biggest motorcycle rally in the USA, depending on who does the counting, and what year we are talking about when making the comparison.
Similarly, if politics were purely at play, Oklahoma and Tennessee would have scored much better in their per capita tallies, but instead they are firmly in the middle of the pack.
It would seem fitting generalizations to motorcyclists is just as difficult as fitting generalizations to the whole of the United States of America — no surprise there.
However, one stereotype plays well, and is perhaps the most alarming fact and figure that we see here: our lawmakers in the District of Columbia ranked dead last when it came to motorcyclists per capita — over 4.5x less than the national average. Now that says something, now doesn’t it?
If you have any keen observations of your won, please leave them in the comments section. Bonus points if you use an ANOVA in your analysis.
Ranking of Motorcycles per Capita in the United States of America:
RankStateNo. of MotorcyclesPopulationPeople per Motorcycle
1South Dakota69,284816,59811.8
2New Hampshire79,2661,316,80716.6
6North Dakota32,654674,62920.7
13New Jersey330,4708,799,59326.6
21New Mexico64,8632,065,91331.9
22Rhode Island32,9891,052,52831.9
25West Virginia56,2101,854,36833.0
39North Carolina223,2099,560,23442.8
40South Carolina107,8644,637,10643.0
47New York345,81619,395,20656.1
51Dist. of Col.3,523604,912171.7
Source: The Motley Fool via Motorcycle.com
1. Mark says:
As someone who grew up w/ motorcycles in North Dakota (#6), has family in SD, and in-laws in Iowa, and who has lived at various times in Texas and South Carolina, I have two theories:
1. The worse the climate for motorcycling, the more passionate one is. You have to be if you want to ride more than about two months a year. A milder climate makes one a bit more blasé about riding. When the weather makes it tougher to ride, you really savor the chances you get.
2. Relatively empty roads with little traffic make riding easier, more relaxing and more fun. They also tend to lead toward lighter law enforcement. Always a bonus, that last one.
2. Renato Valenzuela Jr says:
New York is surprising. Especially considering there are as many people that live inside NYC (roughly 10M) than outside of it (also roughly 10M). I wonder out of the 345k bikes in New York State, how many are registered in the city. Because they. are. everywhere.
3. Richard Gozinya says:
Far as lawmakers who ride, there’s really no corresponding affiliation that I can determine. Darryl Issa, Jon Huntsman, John Kerry, Gabrielle Giffords, Joe Manchin, Max Baucus, Tommy Thompson, Mitch Daniels, among others. Seems a more or less even split.
4. Stu says:
Half the bikes registered in South Dakota are probably in a different state because you can get a plate in SD from interstate quite simply.
5. Norm G. says:
re: “You’re a no good dirty liar if you say you predicted those three states to be at top of the list”
i didn’t get the others but i called New Hampshire. see entry for Laconia Bike Week and the Loudon Classic.
been around 90 years. that beats Daytona and challenges the IOM and for good reason. iirc correctly there’s no helmet law, no insurance requirement, and no state income tax. their state motto, Live Free or Die. see that should tell you something.
also, there are other little things you gotta look for when assessing this stuff. i learned LOOONG ago, weather isn’t the slam dunk you’d think it is. something else to look at…? per capita income. know what else i use…?
(and this is a big one) GEOGRAPHY.
get yourself a relief map. you’ll see NH has the White Mountains. NY has the Adirondacks. NC has the Smokies (ie. home of the Dragon). Arkansas has whatever those things are…? and of course Cali from Redding down to Bakersfield is one giant narrow valley, but everywhere else is friggin’ Mountains. a friend of mine with family in Denver swears by the riding out there. can’t shut him up.
it’s the 3-legged stool concept. wherever you have any 3 conditions intersect, you’ll tend to have sustainability. wealth, conducive laws, geography, weather, etc. outside the states, you have drivers like high fuel costs and city congestion.
6. Norm G. says:
i would also like to see this table sorted simply by sheer number of registrations. the top 5 would be CA, TX, FL (not surprising), but then #’s 4 and 5 would be PA, and OH… both averaging 400,000. surprisingly not very far off from the staunchly independent republic of Texas.
7. paulus says:
As a non-US citizen I have travelled and ridden in the states, by choice.
My choices are interesting roads and scenery, scenery, scenery…. and the list supports that.
8. Jason Bertin says:
Jensen – it would be interesting to now overlay motorcycle accidents per capita. Wonder if those top states like SD, NH, etc would have a lower accident per capita rate?
9. It’s no surprise that CA’s not at the top of the list. Once you take the Bay Area as the exception that it is, the rest of the state’s not really interested in bikes. LA is particularly *un*interested, which is surprising since they’re the only viable solution to ghastly traffic.
SoCal *seems* to be a great place for bikes, but that impression is created because: 1.) the U.S. (importer) industry and moto-media are centered there; 2.) there’s a huge population and if you concentrate all their bikes in one place, like Rock Store, because they all just want to pose together, it can be impressive at first glance. But, I still have to wonder, is this road registration data? Maybe adding dirt bikes to the totals would raise CA above #43, which is pretty dismal.
All in all, I’ve long known that the rest of the country is more into bikes than CA. SD and NH at the top? It shows that America is still all about cruisers. Sorry about that.
10. Heyzeus says:
California has about 30 states worth of population or more. Trust me we have rabid motorcycle people here just like everywhere else. The biggest difference is I can ride when ever I want on some of the finest roads in the world. Just watch out for the idiots on the road. Some who don’t have to have insurance because they are not here legally. The Rock store is a very small part of our riding culture. Trust me we ride.
11. Kory L. says:
I feel you have to look at two major factors.
One is demographics. You would have to look at the average age in each individual state. You look at the South and you would see many are retirees. Obviously a demo that won’t buy a bike.
Two, where are bikes manufactured. Look at a state like Wisconsin where Harley and Eric Buell have been building bikes for years. It’s part of the culture in the Midwest.
However, there are other social factors at work, such as disposable income. Trust me. All of the marketing teams for the manufactures know all of these things and knows where every bike rider lives. You can thank Google and social media for that and us for responding to articles like this.
12. philly phil says:
The chart should have been done by the number of bikes per person…
13. Baron Von Balzak says:
You are correct on New Hampshire, except you are required to have insurance.
14. Norm G. says:
re: “except you are required to have insurance.”
granted, never lived there, but has there been a law change…? think Italy and the adoption of a helmet law back in ’02. that’s another good cross reference. registrations to helmet law.
15. KTM says:
I haven’t seen so few motorcycles nowhere in the world as in LA. Considering the traffic and EU like abnormal city destroying huuuuge parking fees I have no glue why all those people don’t use scooters and bikes over there.
Same time strange the only place you can see bikes and scooters is NY same time numbers show there is almost no bikes. Any way visible bike cluture is very minimal in US by some strange reason. Hope it’s getting better if not earlier then after the gas prices will start rising as next decade biggest rise will happen in US and this for sure will change transportation culuture and habbits in overal for the US. It will be good change and new progessive things will happen in normal way I expect.
Same time there is already lot of bicycles in LA and of course NYC. More scooters please ;)
16. Damo says:
Yeah. I live 40 minutes from NH and know lots riders from there. Insurance has been compulsory for a awhile now. Great scenery to ride in that part of New England, just don’t do it on a race rep, the road are seriously choppy when you go off the beaten path.
17. Norm G. says:
re: “I have no glue why all those people don’t use scooters and bikes over there.”
like London or Miami, why get around on a bike or a scooter, when you could drive a VEYRON…?
18. Gennadiy says:
The statistics might be affected by the registration regulations that differ by state. Plated dirt bikes and road legal ATVs may account for a good chunk of registrations in states that allow or require them.
19. Dave says:
As a NH resident I’m not surprised in the least, actually surprised NH isn’t #1. Come hang out in my front yard on any given summer weekend day and let’s count the bikes that go by. There are HD, BMW, Honda/Kawasaki and Triumph/Ducati dealers within 10 miles of my house that have had thriving businesses for many years. Personally I’ve bought a bike from all but one of them, in one case 3 bikes.
20. Dave says:
Now that I read some of the comments… Insurance is not required in NH. As Norm G said, NH is the Live Free or Die State. We don’t need no stinking helmets, insurance or seat belts. Although, personally I wear a lid and seat belt by choice. I also carry full insurance on my bikes and cars, all are paid for in full too.
I just registered my bike 2 months ago and wasn’t asked to show proof of insurance. When I get it inspected I don’t need proof of insurance.
21. Aleks says:
This is some very interesting data. Thanks for sharing! | http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/oped/motorcycle-ownership-figures-united-states-usa/ | dclm-gs1-462065528 | false | false | {
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0.163015 | <urn:uuid:4e87f9cd-054c-40b3-98a5-621dad2c9fd7> | en | 0.908613 | Notre Dame in Paris celebrates 850 years
Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is due to celebrate its 850th anniversary, with the start of a year-long festival.
The cathedral has stood witness to the greatest events in French history and seen 80 kings, two emperors and five republics.
Christian Fraser reports from Paris.
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0.068348 | <urn:uuid:8aed6b35-96b8-4fce-a53f-f3d0f66d1f3c> | en | 0.964674 | 30 Sep 2013
US Navy Computers Breached by Iranian Hackers
Iranian hackers infiltrated several US Navy computers, according to American officials, who attributed the attacks to the government or a group supported by the Tehran regime. The allegations appeared as the Obama administration ramped up talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
The hacking attacks occurred in the week starting Sept. 15 and took advantage of the fact that the US Navy didn’t run security updates.
"The Pentagon wouldn't confirm the alleged Iranian hacks,” an US representative told The Wall Street Journal. “A department spokesman said its networks are attacked daily. We take these attempts seriously and work to learn lessons from every one of them. Their ability to also play in this [cyber] sandbox compounds that concern.”
At the same time, a study published by the Atlantic Council showed that Iranian cyber-attacks would do more damage to public perception than to the actual US infrastructure, as their capabilities are still rather modest.
Iranian officials didn't comment on the incidents. This is the second time this year when the US government points fingers at Iranian hackers. In May, senior American officials said the Iran damages US critical infrastructure by hacking major energy, gas and oil corporations | http://www.bitdefender.com/security/us-navy-computers-breached-by-iranian-hackers.html | dclm-gs1-462345528 | false | false | {
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0.052407 | <urn:uuid:5ec08dd5-c8f9-43a3-bae5-a6fd2d86a07b> | en | 0.972457 | Hey. I tried.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Next year, I'm ordering this idiot proof snowflake.
1. You're not alone. I put my address labels upside down one year. I do like the snowflake.
2. haha i haven't even taken our photo yet. AH!
3. I signed that letter to J. Crew after reading your post yesterday. So sad.
4. Ha. I've done that before. Totally.
5. Haha, Hey it's the thought that counts! | http://www.breakfastattoast.com/2011/12/hey-i-tried.html | dclm-gs1-462405528 | false | false | {
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0.025694 | <urn:uuid:4dfcc9f1-c4ea-44a4-bc29-2ab128d7df98> | en | 0.881874 | Browse Categories
Votivo Jasmine Neroli Candle
The Votivo Jasmine Neroli candle whisks you away to an oasis surrounded by flowers and fruits. 6.8 oz soy blend wax. Cotton wick. 50-60 hour burn time. Hand made in the USA.
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0.069404 | <urn:uuid:5c3e920a-338f-4041-a057-fff50d529625> | en | 0.937804 | licking metal
satsuki- susuwatari
Purred: Tue Feb 1, '11 7:06pm PST
i like to lick metal, especially metal folding chairs and the metal top to a radiator.
any other cats do this? any vets have theories as to the cause? i'm in excellent health otherwise and don't show other signs of diabetes or thyroid problems.
Purred: Thu Feb 3, '11 6:23am PST
Ducky likes to lick:
Stainless Steel
Terra Cota (his FAVORITE!)
The vet said there was nothing to worry about. He had blood work recently and everything but his liver enzymes were normal (but that's from something else...).
let no food bowl- be empty
Purred: Thu Feb 3, '11 5:38pm PST
Licking metal can be a symptom of anemia in cats. Some cats will even eat their cat litter when they are anemic. If it was me, i would have it checked out. There is a simple test the veterinarian can do, and takes about 3 minutes to run. It is called a PCV/TP (packed cell volume/ total protien). | http://www.catster.com/forums/Cat_Health/thread/699606 | dclm-gs1-462615528 | false | false | {
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0.124492 | <urn:uuid:9e8372e7-383d-4327-815f-e97a5f3e44c0> | en | 0.921241 | CMC Articles & Podcasts
back to articles on "Mental Health"
Exercise and the Brain
Exercise and the Brain
By Henry Gerson, MD
Everyone knows we feel better after exercise, but the benefits of exercise go well beyond just feeling good. There is new evidence that exercise has serious positive effects on brain structure and function; and that exercise can enhance learning, emotional wellness and memory.
Why do we feel better after exercise?
Studies have shown that exercise increases the levels of certain hormones and chemicals that are important to mental functioning and brain health. The neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine are all available in greater supply after exercise. These three hormones play an important role in the regulation of mood, and are precisely the same chemicals targeted by popular antidepressants. Many doctors recommend regular exercise to their patients who experience anxiety and depression, and this new research may point to the reason why exercise is so often helpful.
How does exercise effect brain function?
Exercise creates stress in our muscles, and in our brain as well. In responding to stress, the brain tissue rebuilds itself to be stronger and more robust. It creates its own antioxidants and substances that protect and organize its cells. Additionally, exercise involving coordination and complex movement challenges the cerebellum and the frontal areas of the brain. The brain responds by establishing better pathways of nerve communication for effective movement and action. Neuroscientists studying movement and mental functioning have proposed that the ability to produce complex movements correlates to thinking ability. This may be especially important for people as they age, as it can counteract age-related loss of brain size and connectivity. One study in seniors showed that exercise may reduce the brain atrophy (shrinking) that naturally occurs during the aging process.
What kind of exercise should I do for my brain?
Be active! Keeping moving provides an ongoing exercise for the brain. Aerobic exercise provides additional benefits due to its effect on body chemistry. Complex movements and coordination exercises add another level of stimulation.
How can I find out more?
One exciting application of exercise and brain function is in the schools. promotes exercise as a key part of the school day for children in elementary and high schools. Exercise has proven to help school children perform better academically and reduces problematic behaviors in the classroom.
A popular new book, SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by Dr. John Ratey, describes the clinical evidence and makes the case for exercising towards mental well-being.
Exercise is difficult for me, where do I start?
If your health condition makes it difficult to exercise, consider contacting the Cayuga Center for Healthy Living (CCHL) at the Island Health Center. The program offers support for initiating an exercise routine and other positive lifestyle changes. You can reach CCHL at (607) 252-3590.
Dr. Gerson is a board certified psychiatrist and the medical director of Behavorial Health Services at Cayuga Medical Center. He develops stress management and mental wellness programs at The Cayuga Center for Healthy Living. In his free time he enjoys mountain biking, Tai Chi and other fun forms of exercise!
©Cayuga Medical Center All Rights Reserved.
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0.117836 | <urn:uuid:8050690f-c6d1-4b30-b90a-797db3fc7f6a> | en | 0.965964 | Watch Anime Episode Online
Anime Series in Genre: "tournament"
(25) Episodes
Air Gear
(27) Episodes
Air Master
Plot Summary: A former gymnast, Maki Aikawa, has turned her skills to a different way of life—street fighting. The only thing that truly makes her feel alive is violence. With amazing power and grace, she fights opponent after opponent, repeatedly demonstrating the gymnastic talent that earns her her nom de guerre, "Airmaster".
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Angelic Layer
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Aoki Densetsu Shoot!
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Bamboo Blade
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Battle Athletes Victory
Plot Summary: Akari Kanzaki has just joined an all-girls academy in hopes of entering the University Satellite, an elite sports training facility. She wants to win the title of Cosmo Beauty - a title held years ago by her mother. It's not an easy task for her as fear, doubt and peer pressure get in her way, but friends, rivals and fans slowly encourage her to overcome her obstacles and become the best of the Battle Athletes.
(15) Episodes
Battle Programmer Shirase
(51) Episodes
Plot Summary: Thirteen-year-old Tyson Granger (Takao Kinomiya), along with his fellow teammates, Kai Hiwatari, Max Tate (Max Mizuhura), and Ray Kon (Rei Kon), strive to become the greatest beybladers in the world. With the technical help of the team's resident genius, Kenny (Kyouju), and with the powerful strength of their bit beasts, the Bladebreakers armed with their tops (AKA: blades) attempt to reach their goal.
(52) Episodes
Beyblade G Revolution
(51) Episodes
Beyblade V-Force
Plot Summary: The Bladebreakers have to join forces once again because a mysterious group under the lead of Oozuma has defeated them, but the real enemy is not Oozuma. The real threat is formed by a group of people who use cyber-bitbeasts to capture the original ones from the Bladebreakers.
(13) Episodes
Buzzer Beater
Plot Summary: Hideyoshi is a homeless boy living in New York in the near future, who survives by hustling other kids in basketball games. But now he's been drafted into a pro team-a pro team with a very unique goal. There once was a time when humans dominated the game of basketball. But times have changed, and now the physically superior alien players have taken over the game, and there are barely any human players next. But Hideyoshi's team-the first all-human team to compete in the Space League-intends to change all that, and bring the championship back home to Earth.
(13) Episodes
Buzzer Beater 2007
(52) Episodes
Captain Tsubasa Road to 2002
Plot Summary: The firt 36 episodes are remade summaries of the first three series (Captain Tsubasa, Shin CT and CT J): Tsubasa's career with Nankatsu and the different championships in Japan with all the main characters of the series; the U-16 world cup in Europe, as well as Tsubasa's career with Roberto in Brazil. After that, the new episodes start, telling about a match against Holland and about the three most extraordinary main characters on their hard but spectacular way to become soccer professionals in Europe: The soccer genius Tsubasa Ozora, the top goalkeeper Genzo Wakabayashi and the pround and strong striker Kojiro Hyuga.
(49) Episodes
Cross Game
Plot Summary: 5th grader Koh Kitamura lives next door to the Tsukishima family, owners of a batting cage and the Clover cafe. His girlfriend, Wakaba, is the 2nd Tsukishima daughter; the 3rd daughter, the baseball prodigy Aoba, can't stand him. Wakaba dreams of Koh pitching at legendary Koshien Stadium, site of the national high school championship finals. However, tragedy strikes, and it is up to Koh, with the help of Aoba and his other teammates, to make Wakaba's dream come true,
(24) Episodes
D4 Princess
Plot Summary: Doris Ruridou is young princess who had just entered Teito Academy. She is also a Panzer, a person with special abilities and fights with a weapon called a 'tool'. Shortly after entering, her older sister shows up to teach her how to fight as a Panzer against other Panzers who challenge her.
Genres: Drama, Tournament,
(25) Episodes
Dear Boys Season (1)
Plot Summary: Dear Boys is a story about determination to excel in a sport inwhich you love and also have fun at the same time. The tension as underdogs in the whole prefecture with only 5 players. How this team struggle to win, setbacks, teamwork, a purpose in life. This story relates to our lives as we strive to do our best, not just in sports, school but also relationships between friends and ones we love.
(153) Episodes
Dragon Ball
(64) Episodes
Dragon Ball GT
(97) Episodes
Dragon Ball Kai
() Episodes
Plot Summary:
(291) Episodes
Dragon Ball Z
Genres: Tournament, Sports,
(141) Episodes
Eyeshield 21
Plot Summary: The Uraharajuku Boarders may have been knocked out of the Kantou Tournament, but a mysterious proposition from a mysterious man may influence the Governor, a graduate of Uraharajuku High School, to allow Uraharajuku to play Sena Kobayakawa and the Deimon Devilbats in the equally mysterious Golden Bowl, whose winner will seemingly receive a place in the Kantou Tournament. However, when Sena and company arrive at the field, they find the Golden Bowl may be something they didn't bargain for against opponents they may not be able to beat.
(42) Episodes
Flame Of Recca
(26) Episodes
Giant Killing
Plot Summary:
Experiencing a long streak of poor performances for several years in the Japanese professional football league, the East Tokyo United (ETU) hires Takeshi Tatsumi as manager to try to break the curse that seems to have fallen over the team. Having spent three years in England, Tatsumi made the accomplishment of taking an amateur team to the top 32 teams of the FA Cup. Many consider him a bad choice and protest against this decision. They hold a grudge against Takeshi because they consider him a traitor for leaving ETU at the height of his career when he was still a football player. Unfazed by the negative mood that looms over the field, Tatsumi seems confident that he might be able to bring glory back to his team once again.
User Ratings: 165 ratings have been given [details]
Masterpiece: 10 votes (sub:9, dub:1)
(78) Episodes
Hajime no Ippo
Plot Summary: Ippo, a timid highschooler, is one day saved from being beaten up by Takamura, a boxer. Enthralled by Takamura's skills Ippo begins to learn boxing, soon finding love for the sport and a drive to challenge the boxing world.
(26) Episodes
Hajime No Ippo:New Challenger
(52) Episodes
Hungry Heart Wild Striker
Plot Summary:
Kyusuke Kanou, a robust teenager of 16 sports orange hair and aspires to conquer the world of soccer as a forward. But somehow the shadow of his renowned elder brother Seisuke, a midfielder for AC Milan falls upon his career. Threatened by inferiority complex, he decides to give up soccer. Yet, destiny reunites him with football as he accidentally becomes the coach of the women's soccer team of his school . Thus, his journey to fulfill his dream begins portraying his path of struggle. Backed by his helpful teammates and wellwishers like Miki, the girl's soccer team captain and Mori, the manager, he proceeds forward in life.
User Ratings: 211 ratings have been given [details]
Masterpiece: 20 votes (sub:14, dub:5, others:1
1 Spanish subtitled
(14) Episodes
(12) Episodes
Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny
(12) Episodes
Ikkitousen Great Guardians
(12) Episodes
Ikkitousen: Xtreme Xecutor
(26) Episodes
Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX)
Plot Summary: In the year 2035 Team Suzaku and Team Sledge Mamma are preparing to meet in the final round of the 12th Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX). Takeshi leads Team Suzaku, which is made-up of a group of young amateur pilots who must make the most of their limited funds and weaponry in order to prepare for the competition designed for professionals.
(27) Episodes
Initial D - 1st Stage
() Episodes
Plot Summary:
(13) Episodes
Initial D 2nd Stage
(1) Episodes
Initial D 3rd Stage
Plot Summary: A few months before graduating from high school, Takumi is approached by RedSuns leader Ryosuke Takahashi and offered to join him in forming an expeditionary racing team and challenge other teams outside the Gunma Prefecture. Before coming up with an answer to the proposal, Takumi seeks retribution by issuing a rematch to Emperor leader Kyouichi Sudou, who previously defeated him due to an engine failure. He is also challenged by Kai Kogashiwa, a second-generation street racer whose father was once a fierce rival of Takumi's father Bunta. Meanwhile, Natsuki tries to mend her friendship with Takumi during the Christmas season, but the situation goes wrong when her ex-boyfriend Miki returns to town.
(24) Episodes
Initial D 4th Stage
Plot Summary: Takumi Fujiwara and brothers Keisuke and Ryousuke Takahashi have formed "Project D," a racing team aimed at bringing their driving skills to their full potential outside their prefecture. Using the internet, Project D issues challenges to other racing teams and posts results of their races. Managed by Ryousuke, the team has Takumi engaging in downhill battles with his AE86, while Keisuke challenges opponents uphill. Among their rivals are the Seven-Star Leaf (SSR) and Todo-juku. Meanwhile, Takumi is caught off-guard on Mount Akina when he encounters his father Bunta and his newly acquired Subaru Impreza WRX Type R Version V.
(53) Episodes
Kaleido Star
(13) Episodes
Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho
(156) Episodes
Plot Summary:
User Ratings: 288 ratings have been given [details]
Masterpiece: 85 votes (sub:79, dub:3, raw:2, others:1
1 Portuguese subtitled
(103) Episodes
Marchen Awakens Romance
(52) Episodes
(10) Episodes
Plot Summary: Minami Kawashima becomes the new manager of Tokyo's Hodokubo High School baseball team to help her best friend, Yūki Miyata. Yūki is the current manager, but due to her weak health she ends up in a hospital and might undergo a surgery. While searching for a book to assist her, Kawashima accidentally buys "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices". Written by Peter Drucker, one of the most important authors on the subject of business management, the book unorthodoxly guides Minami on how to administer the team.
(21) Episodes
One Outs
(39) Episodes
Ookiku Furikabutte Natsu no Taikai Hen
Plot Summary: Picking up where the original series left off, Ren Mihashi, the ace pitcher of the newly-formed Nishiura High School baseball team, and his teammates face the Sakitama High School team in the next round of the High School Baseball Invitational Tournament as they aim to play in the finals at legendary Hanshin Kōshien Stadium.
(26) Episodes
(466) Episodes
(65) Episodes
Pokemon Best Wishes!
Plot Summary:
Ash, Delia and Professor Oak went to new region of Isshu. After they arrive, Team Rocket again stole Pikachu from Ash. In the midst of the battle, Zekrom appears, and its huge lightning bolt zapped Pikachu, freeing him. Professor Araragi shows up and escorts them to her lab, where Ash meets his rival named Shooty. After a losing battle against him, Ash noticed that Pikachu is unable to use its electricity due to Zekrom's thunderbolt. Zekrom appears once again and he gave Pikachu back his electricity. Now seeing a Legendary Pokemon again, Ash decides to go on a journey and compete in the Isshu Pokemon League. Later on, he met a Jungle girl named Iris and one of the leaders of the Sanyou Gym named Dent. Now...the three of them travel together in a world filled with mysterious creatures known as Pokemon.
The journey of young Satoshi (Ash Ketchum) of Kanto continues as he arrives in the Isshu (Unova) region, still aiming to be a Pokémon Master he and his partner Pikachu meet up with new comrades Iris and Dent (Cilan). As Satoshi challenges the Gyms of the Isshu region and battles new rivals, there is danger lurking behind the scenes as criminal syndicates Team Rocket and Team Plasma each have their own dark agendas for all the people and Pokémon who reside in Isshu.
User Ratings: 29 ratings have been given [details]
Masterpiece: 3 votes (sub:2, others:1
1 French subtitled
(149) Episodes
Pokemon Diamond And Pearl
(2) Episodes
Pokemon Spoof
Plot Summary: A greedy collector, Lawrence III, wants to capture the legendary Pokemon, Lugia. But in order to do so, he must capture the Titans of Fire, Ice, and Lightning. The titans are powerful bird-like Pokemon, and if they are disturbed they will wage a war against eachother which will ultimately result in earth's destruction. Ash, Misty, and Tracey get caught up in the situation when they end up being washed ashore onto Shamouti Island. Soon after, Ash meets a girl named Melody who sends him into a mission where he must collect the 3 Orbs which will quell the fighting, but first Ash must gain help from the Beast of the Sea, Lugia, if he's to suceed.
(173) Episodes
Prince of Tennis
(1) Episodes
Prince of Tennis: Another Story II - Ano Toki no Bokura (OVA)
Plot Summary:Episode 1: Shiraishi becomes the captain of Shitenhoji Tennis Club. In order to maintain the club, the members have to invite a new member. They try to attract Zaizen's attention by showing him jokes but Zaizen passes them off.Episode 2: Ryoma is told Seigaku's seven ghost stories by Momoshiro. They are quite common stories but the third grade members leave the club room in a hurry. Fuji says "It's time to confide this to you." and he begins to tell what he experienced two years ago.
(24) Episodes
(64) Episodes
Shaman King
Plot Summary:
Asakura Yoh is a shaman, a person who communicates with ghosts. He enters the Shaman Fight, for whoever wins the tournament gets to commune with the Great Spirit, God . . . that and his fiance Anna wants to be the wife of the Shaman King. Helping him are his friends Manta, Horo Horo, Ryu, and his samurai ghost partner, Amidamaru.
Once every 500 years, there's an event called the Shaman Fight, and whoever wins becomes the Shaman King and can use the most powerful spirits ever. Asakura Yoh comes to Tokyo to train and become the Shaman King. Accompanied by many friends, he defeats many enemies along and the way, and gets more friends.
Yoh is a young shaman, one who can see and communicate with spirits. Shaman's also have another power,the ability to unify with spirits and use the spirit's fighting skills. Yoh is training to become the Shaman King, strongest among all Shamans, a title won by winning the Grand Tournament that takes place every 500 years. Helping him are his best friend Morty, a short kid who can also see ghosts, Amidamaru, an old samurai and his spirit partner, and his fiance Ana, a spirit meduim and his trainer. However, another Shaman family is trying to keep Yoh out of the tournament. Along the way he meets a bunch of other misfit ghosts and wannabe Shamans.
User Ratings: 1363 ratings have been given [details]
Masterpiece: 114 votes (sub:75, dub:28, raw:3, ?:1, edit.dub:1, others:6
3 Spanish dubbed
2 Tagalog dubbed
1 German dubbed
(101) Episodes
Slam Dunk
(11) Episodes
Taisho Era Baseball Girls
Plot Summary: In 1925 (year 14 of the Taisho period), after being told by a baseball player that women should become housewives instead of going to school, two 14-year-old Japanese high school girls named Koume and Akiko decide to start a baseball team in order to prove him wrong. During this time, when even running was considered too vulgar for women, baseball is known as "what the boys do" and they face many difficulties when searching members, getting permission from their parents and when learning about the sport itself.
(37) Episodes
Tommorow's Joe
Plot Summary: Ashita no Joe tells the tale of a wandering orphan named Joe Yabuki. He falls into one of Tokyo's slums and gets into a fight with a local gang and his street fighting skills gets him the attention of a washed up alcoholic boxing trainer. Until he sticks up for Joe when the gang comes back to finish Joe, Joe decides to live with the trainer. Despite the trainer's generosity, Joe is still committing money making scams and lands him in prison. While serving time, he meets another boxer named Rikiishi Tooru who gets Joe interested in boxing. Upon release, Joe then pursues a boxing career.
(103) Episodes
Plot Summary: The story centers around three characters - Uesugi Kazuya, his twin older brother Tatsuya, and Asakura Minami. Kazuya is the darling of his town as he’s talented, hardworking, and the ace pitcher for his middle school baseball team. Tatsuya is a hopeless slacker who’s been living the life of giving up the spotlight to Kazuya, despite the fact that he may be more gifted than him. Minami is the beautiful childhood girlfriend and for all intents, sister from next door who treats both of them as equals. Society largely assumes Kazuya and Minami will become the perfect couple, including Tatsuya. Yet as time progresses, Tatsuya grows to realize that he’s willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of his brother, except at the expense of giving up Minami to Kazuya. And thus the story is told of Tatsuya trying to prove himself over his esinfolished younger brother, how it affects the relationship between the three, and both brothers' attempts to make Minami's lifelong dreams come true.
(26) Episodes
Wangan Midnight
Plot Summary: After losing a street race to Tatsuya Shima's legendary "Blackbird" Porsche 911 Turbo, high school student Akio Asakura purchases a heavily-modified first-generation Datsun S30 Fairlady Z from a junkyard. The car has a dark history of accidents, leading some to believe it's cursed; hence its nickname "Devil Z." Akio also discovers that the Z's first owner shared his first and last name, and was killed in the car during a race with the Blackbird. Meanwhile, fashion model Reina Akikawa joins the rivalry between Akio and Tatsuya with her modified Nissan Skyline GT-R R32.
(39) Episodes | http://www.chia-anime.com/?genre=tournament | dclm-gs1-462745528 | false | false | {
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0.059196 | <urn:uuid:f5f2a7f8-5954-4e8b-9a0b-025de827c68b> | en | 0.962963 | View Single Post
Old 10-04-2005, 05:01 PM
Posts: n/a
Default Re: How did the Female end up Worshipping herself?
Barbara wrote:
Fra_nothing and Ozziecynic, don't quit your day jobs (assuming either of you have one), you will never make it at the Commedy Club. Your pathetic attempts at humor do nothing to make up for your singular lack of intellect or your inability to understand the written word.
My earlier post was not meant to be taken as applicable to either of you personally but, from your reaction, it must have hit fairly close to home. Please, your squealing is most un-manly. You obviously do not want balance, you want sympathy. To facilitate that end, please find any good English dictionary and look between shit and syphilis, the former which fills your heads and you mistake for brains and the latter which goes far to explain your non-existant love lives as is indicated by your ranting.
Strangely enough, I always thought of Australian men as being the epitome of manliness. With all the hardship that went along with settling a hostile new land I would have thought all the cry babies had been weeded out. Thank you both for disabusing me of my illusions.
A word or two of advice, not that you have the wherewithall to take it, lose at least 75 pounds each and move out of your mums' houses. It will do wonders for your self esteem and perhaps allow you to stop blaming your sad state of affairs on women. Be first and second on the list to receive a personality transplant the minute they become available.
Sorry, none of these suggestions will help you get dates because I am virtually certain you are both so homely your faces would raise blisters on a brass monkey's posterior.
You bore me so I will bid you both adieu.
Pure humorless sophistry. Just another example that women these days do not have the ability to take an objective look at themselves.
You are brainwashed, Barbara. You are part of the Matrix. You are another Smith, and another brick in the wall.
One might see your reference to the knuckle dragging men as simple humor. It isn't. That's really how you see them.
Smug racist, sexist, biggotry in every way, Barbara. Now go watch Lifetime television and do your Jane Fonda workout.
Reply With Quote | http://www.clubconspiracy.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14300&postcount=19 | dclm-gs1-462895528 | false | true | {
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0.047661 | <urn:uuid:b9d3fb20-5138-432d-8922-cef9afe134e7> | en | 0.957013 | Consumer Comeback Blog
Big Banks, Big Fees: Why Credit Unions Save Cash
Big banking has existed in the US since the days of the very first 18th century central banking system, and the idea of a “big bank” has always been a cause for scrutiny from many. And while the presence of big banks in America has long warranted speculation from more cautious consumers, in recent years that speculation has increased into, for many, suspicion. In the past few years, a growing number of people have opted to forego the big bank systems for smaller, more personal credit unions. In fact, 2011 saw America’s largest organized movement to encourage consumers to get their money out of the hands of big banks and into smaller, safer institutions. That event was 2011’s “bank transfer day,” when some 600,000 people abandoned big banks for small community banks or, in many cases, credit unions. Credit unions have gained more and more widespread popularity in recent years, with many members extolling the smaller, more personal relationship between credit union and member compared to big bank versus customer. Credit unions have come to be perceived as safer and more personal, and the following infographic examines just why so many people are making the switch. If you’ve ever found yourself fed up with your big bank, you’re not alone.
Embed the image below on your site and Include Attribution to
Big bank and Credit Union Fees Infographic
Embed the image above on your site and Include Attribution to | http://www.creditscore.net/big-bank-and-credit-union-fees/ | dclm-gs1-463255528 | false | false | {
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0.058998 | <urn:uuid:6c76eee6-121e-41be-b601-48b8987ca568> | en | 0.966886 | Star Parker - Run Elbert Guillory against Sen. Mary Landrieu; he's what the GOP needs
Amid the dense fog and hot air concerning what the Republican Party should be about, which is really just a subheading of the bigger issue regarding what America should be about, a new voice of clarity has emerged.
It's the voice of Louisiana State Sen. Elbert Guillory, who announced several weeks ago his departure from the Democratic Party, which he calls "the party of disappointment," to become a Republican.
I wrote about Guillory a few weeks ago after I met him at the @Large conference in Baton Rouge, where he announced his change of party.
Subsequently, Guillory explained in a video that went viral why he, a black Democrat, would become a Republican, and he continues to deliver his compelling message with such power and clarity that I cannot see how he can be ignored as a leader who should rise to national prominence.
Republicans are still in search for a candidate to run in 2014 against incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.
Why not Guillory?
Recently Guillory tweeted out, "It's no longer the American dream, it's the American nightmare of relying on a monthly government check."
Speaking to Republicans in Arkansas, he appealed to the Republican Party to stop "cowering behind closed doors."
''It's time to shout our values and ideals from the mountaintops," he says. "Prayer, family, free markets, limited government, lower taxes."
I don't think it is possible to be any clearer about what this country needs to turn around.
America is not growing. Jobs are being created at a painfully slow rate, and although the unemployment rate has dropped, the overall percentage of the population employed has barely budged from where it dropped to in the early days of the recession.
Stanford University economist Edward Lazear laid out the dismal picture in a recent Wall Street Journal column.
In 2006, 63.4 percent of the working age population was employed. By 2011, this was down to 58.2 percent and it's still at 58.6 percent.
Usually, when the unemployment rate drops, Lazear explains, there is a corresponding increase in the percentage of the population employed. But not this time.
Now more and more able-bodied men and women are dropping out of the workforce. Today 37 percent of the unemployed are long term -- more than 26 weeks. At the peak of the last major recession in the early 1980s, Lazear notes, this never exceeded 27 percent.
Why? The government plantation has grown even more generous (while we run trillion-dollar deficits to pay for it) to encourage not working.
Disability roles have increased 13 percent and food stamp recipients have increased 39 percent since 2009. And, of course, unemployment insurance was increased to 99 weeks.
Meanwhile, while we take more and more of our own resources to subsidize people to not work, the growing government stranglehold over businesses -- such as the Obamacare mandate (parts of which were just delayed by one year by Obama administration) to force businesses of 50 or more employees to provide government defined health care -- makes growing businesses and hiring full-time workers harder and harder.
What is wrong with America is not a mystery. It's the Democratic Party. People who don't want to be free. People who don't want to take the personal responsibility for their lives that freedom requires. A political class drunk with the power and money they get running the government plantation.
As always, blacks, with unemployment twice the national average, are hurt the most as the strangled economy doesn't grow.
More and more blacks are realizing they need freedom, not the plantation.
And without freedom, America will not grow.
It's why black conservatives like Elbert Guillory see it all so clearly.
It's why America needs him. Louisianans should get behind him and run him against Mary Landrieu.
Want to leave your comments?
Sign in or Register to comment. | http://www.crescent-news.com/opinion/2013/07/15/star-parker-run-elbert-guillory-against-sen-mary-landrieu-he-s-what-the-gop-needs | dclm-gs1-463265528 | false | false | {
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0.020917 | <urn:uuid:7e23c10d-adf2-4596-9c17-fbca1ef3f54b> | en | 0.832258 | divorce360.com provides help, advice and community for people
including separation, divorce laws, spousal support and emotional issues.
separation :: information
5 Simple Steps: Separation
5 Simple Steps: Separation
Separation: Five Tips to Help You Respond to a Spouse's Request for a Marital Separation
Your spouse tells you she needs time alone to think about where your marriage is going. You sense that the separation could be a prelude to a divorce. What should you do to protect yourself?
1. Find the best lawyer you can afford quickly.
Let him or her advise you on a course of action. Tell your lawyer what your instincts are telling you about the separation: you think a divorce is coming.
2. Time is crucial.
If your spouse files for divorce, you face a deadline to respond to the divorce papers. You may need to freeze assets, to file a restraining order if your spouse plans to leave the state and take the children, or to take other immediate steps.
3. Finding out from someone else.
If your spouse says to someone that he or she is going to file for a divorce, take two steps: Set up a time and place to sit down and lay out all the issues with your spouse. Then, talk with an attorney.
4. If your spouse returns.
Talk to a marriage counselor or seek some type of help as a couple. There's a reason you separated, find out why and what you can do to salvage your relationship.
5. Keep your options open.
Click here to see stories, blogs and expert advice on separation and related issues.
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5. When Is a Marriage Worth Saving? | http://www.divorce360.com/divorce-articles/separation/information/5-simple-steps-separation.aspx?artid=450 | dclm-gs1-463505528 | false | false | {
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0.245691 | <urn:uuid:626dc6c0-71e4-45dc-bb45-d72aafd10945> | en | 0.952609 | dLife Daily Tips
Practice makes near perfect at bedtime
Read More
Which diabetes sin are you guilty of committing the most?
Sloth - I don't want to exercise.
Gluttony - Holy chocolate cake!
Lust...after chocolate cake.
Pride - I don't need anyone's help.
Envy...towards other people's working pancreases.
Greed - I want a perfect A1C!
Wrath - I hate this disease!
I plead the fifth.
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by Nicole Purcell
I have a friend, M, who has diabetes and never, ever tests her bloodsugar before she gets behind the wheel. This has always worried me about her. On Wednesday, she had a bad accident after passing out behind the wheel. She hit another car head on. I thank the universe that no one was killed, but she and the driver of the other vehicle were both badly injured. She's got a long healing road ahead of her, as does the woman she hit. I was talking about the... | http://www.dlife.com/diabetes/polls/poll.html-pollid-224-standalone-true | dclm-gs1-463515528 | false | false | {
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0.021365 | <urn:uuid:482f198b-e55c-4e95-bb96-6ce15019c5db> | en | 0.952768 | Vietnam's economy
The Tet effect
Worries about renewed overheating
See article
Readers' comments
Talking about the art of graphing. What's seemingly routine and minor depreciation of Dong can be projected on graph as a huge drop as presented with this article.
Vietnam’s economy is doing rather well (with 5.3% growth in GDP in 2009 when many are running at negative) and to ward off potential sudden inflation, it’s well within Vietnam’s right and reason to depreciate its currency some what.
With the [ASEAN + 1] FTA taking effect this year, better yet performance can be expected as more trades are likely among its ASEAN nations and with China in 2010.
Inflation is normally forecast-able in a developed economy, where reliable economic variables can be used in a complicated mathematical macroeconomics models. Vietnam should starting building mathematical macroeconomic models so that a future complex model can be determined to forecast inflation, but first Vietnam must honest with their economic variable. Predicting accurate inflation is not difficult but incorrect data will caused more harm than good.
Holding a steady inflation for Vietnam economy is not an easy as any fast growing on FDI and weak export on agriculture products. Vietnam must find way to balance out the import and exported products. No good for Vietnam to buy high tech equipments from around the world and mainly the West and can not produce products that were good enough for export, or products that were good enough but facing anti-dumping policies. Vietnam must form an Alliance of Asian Forum to fight back such as anti-dumping policies. Inflation does have a positive correlation to politics.
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| http://www.economist.com/comment/491399 | dclm-gs1-463685528 | false | false | {
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0.363266 | <urn:uuid:58084467-e744-423e-925b-8297591ed384> | en | 0.947049 | How to generate a unique machine signature
During a recent project, I had to solve a problem which is NOT really new:
Creating a signature using computer hardware that uniquely identifies it
I didn't want to depend of software characteristics because I didn't want the signature to change even if user decides to change or install new operating system.
I used uncle Google extensively and came across many resources such as:
I learnt following things in the process:
1. I quickly found that most hardware information can be accessed using WMI only. Since WMI is not available below Windows 2000, I tried to find other alternatives but couldn't find any. I could get the volume serial number using Windows API but that was not enough. So WMI seems to be only viable choice.
2. Using MAC address for machine signature generation is generally a bad idea because many manufactures allow you to change it and you can have multiple MAC addresses if someone is using more than one connection (think of someone using laptop connected to a LAN and also a WIFI network).
3. Using Processor ID used to work in earlier days but somehow Intel has decided to stop giving unique processor ID to each processor these days.
4. It is not right to rely on only one hardware parameter considering the dynamic advancement in computer hardware industry (Multi core processor are so common these days).
To easily analyse the computer hardware parameters, I created an application which uses WMI to get hardware information. I called it Machine Explorer! You can download the application freely and have fun with it.
Here is how it looks like:
I found out that some serial numbers such as BIOS serial number and Motherboard serial number are unique and they are not likely to change also. There might be other candidates which you explore (do let me know if you find any). | http://www.elanant.com/2010/01/how-to-generate-unique-machine.html | dclm-gs1-463755528 | false | false | {
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0.169091 | <urn:uuid:a859dced-5942-423c-81d7-1ba79a1cba18> | en | 0.904322 | TLC's mistress of makeovers reveals what beauty blunders irk her most
Courtesy of What Not To Wear
1. Ring around the mouth: I can't believe women are still using colored lip liner. It always leaves a line around the lip when your lipstick or gloss wears off. Stick with nude or clear liners.
2. Over-tweezed eyebrows: This is an epidemic of crazy proportions! Put down your tweezers—Pamela Anderson's Baywatch brows should be left in the 90s.
3. 80s color choices: Hot pink shimmer lipsticks belong in brat pack movies, not your makeup bag. If you want to play with bold colors, skip the shimmer.
4. Clown blush: Rosy circles on your cheeks make you look like you're playing with your mom's makeup. Use a sheer cream blush and blend well in a circular motion.
5. Bronzy dirt face: Don't just brush bronzer all over, or you'll end up looking like you just lost a mud-wrestling match. Be strategic and dust it on your temples, the sides of your face, and under your cheekbones in a "C" formation to mimic a natural tan.
6. Runny eyeliner: As the day progresses, your lids get greasy and your liner can move. Always use a waterproof eyeliner pencil to prevent this.
7. Foundation face: So many women still use a heavy cream-to-powder foundation that was meant for getting a matte face in the 90s. But throughout the day your face gets oily, creating a muddy ring along your jaw. Use a sheer liquid foundation, and always buff with a sponge around the chin to avoid the ring.
8. Shimmer overload: A message to all you young girls out there—only use shimmer in three places at a time max. Browbone, lips, tops of cheekbones—done.
9. Tammy Faye lashes: This is where all the new lengthening, thickening, spidery-lash-creating mascaras come in to play. Keep your lashes natural with just one coat of mascara, and maybe a second coat on the outer corners.
10. Dry powder face: Everyone is so afraid of shine that they overdo it with powder. A little shine makes you look young and healthy—apply powder only on the T-zone and use blotting papers throughout the day to remove excess oil.
Don't Miss | http://www.elle.com/beauty/carmindys-beauty-sins-261431?click=smart&kw=ist&src=smart&mag=ELM&link=-SMT-ELM | dclm-gs1-463765528 | false | false | {
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0.023197 | <urn:uuid:fe83cf62-a85e-43c0-ac69-c4e2186d698b> | en | 0.683226 | Welcome | Sign out
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Cheap Flights from Douala to Niamey, Niger, from XAF429000 Round trip from DLA to NIM | http://www.farecompare.com/flights/Douala-DLA/Niamey-NIM/market.html | dclm-gs1-464025528 | false | false | {
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0.029665 | <urn:uuid:0744dc0f-296a-49ac-a190-383a26c461a9> | en | 0.89234 | FlightsToday's Best FaresFare CalendarsDealsHotelsCar Rentals
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