There are two types of Orders of Protection (OOP) in New York, usually referred to as a Full order and Limited order. The full order prohibits all contact of any kind (subject sometimes to family court orders) while a limited order of protection prohibits specific conduct (assaults, threats, harassment, etc.) They are requested by prosecutors in all domestic violence cases, whether or not the "victim" requests one and almost always granted by the judge. In almost all cases, the OOP is issued at arraignment before the victim has had a chance to express their desires on the subject. If the defendant violates the OOP he can be charged with Criminal Contempt of Court for disobeying the judge's Order. This is true whether or not the prohibited conduct was with the consent of the victim. In other words, even if the victim wants to talk to or have contact with the defendant, they cannot without the defendant committing a new crime. Unless of course, the OOP is a limited order and not a full stay-away order of protection.

So what can a victim do if the judge has issued an OOP and they do not want one? While only a judge can modify or eliminate an existing OOP, I recommend a three-prong approach a victim should take if they find themselves in this situation. First, set a realistic goal. By that I mean seek to have the OOP changed to a limited order of protection instead of no OOP at all. Since the conduct that will be prohibited in a limited OOP is the type of conduct that is impermissible under the law anyway, it makes what you are asking the judge to do seem much more reasonable. Second, you need to let the defendant's attorney know that you do not want an OOP; this way they will argue to the judge on your behalf when the case is on in court. You should also let the prosecutor that is handling the case know as well, regardless of how you want the case resolved. You should be clear in expressing to them your reasons for not wanting the OOP and make sure they know that no one is threatening or forcing you into this decision. Finally, you should coordinate with the defendant's atttorney to appear in court to personally let the judge know how you feel. There is no guarantee that the judge will hear you out but this will likely be your best chance at getting the OOP changed. Remember to bring proper ID with you to court and to keep as far away from the defendant as possible in the courtroom so as not to cause any problems with the court.


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The Aqua Collection by Aitali is one of the most beautiful home creations I've seen to date.

The chairs feature glossy materials with an elegant combination of a modern Louis XVI style woodwork. You can call it the â€œOpposite Trendâ€ or â€œNewstalgia,â€ but regardless of the title you give it, the reality is they are a classic meets ultra modern look for your home.

Implications - The chair that is featured by Aitali is called the L16 Aqua Chair. The chair was inspired by recent fashion trends and features a gorgeous, diamond-quilted pattern in leather. The chairs are featured in colors such as black, white, grey and pink. The elegant seating is fit for a princess!


The Midnight Clock is a sleek, wooden watch that has a little personalized flair; it hides a miniature book within its gears and inner gadgets. First created by Devin Montgomery as a birthday present, it has since expanded as a Kickstarter project to become manufactured and distributed throughout the world.

The watch takes its inspiration from the hidden passages featured in many children's and fantasy books. The hidden Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter, and the magical wardrobe from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, are all cited by Montgomery as lending inspiration to the creation of The Midnight Clock.

The watch is a fully functioning, 24-hour time piece. It has four wooden keys inserted into its sides at each midnight, morning, and afternoon and evening. By removing the keys in a certain order, the watch's face can be removed to reveal a miniature book within.

This magical watch is perfect for reading lovers who long to inject their lives with a little mystery and intrigue. The Midnight Clock is a stunning creation that is sure to delight everyone from bookworms to magic junkies.


Step into the world of photographer Thomas Barbéy, captured on film. The black and white pictures take inspiration from Salvador Dali, who is well known for his whimsical and surrealist art pieces. Barbéy takes voyages worldwide to capture some of the most intriguing sights of scenery, still life and portraiture that the world has to offer. He then mixes reality into a dream like state as he manipulates and alters his photos to create a world all of his own.

These captivating images blend together two different concepts and are juxtaposed into one. Using a multi-angle technique that artist M.C. Escher mastered, he seamlessly fuses such animals as elephants into tree trunks and zebras into piano keys. For Thomas Barbéy “visionary inspiration and imagination is not a technical skill learned in school.” Rather, it is something that only a creative mind can think up to take it from a dream to reality.


Civilizations: ten thousand years of ancient history

Front Cover
BBC Worldwide, Mar 29, 2001 - History - 240 pages
2 Reviews
Civilizations takes the reader forward from the earliest days of human settlement to the civilizations of the New World overthrown by the Spanish Conquistadors. After a brief look at humanity's development as nomadic hunters and gatherers, the story begins with the crucial step taken around 10,000 years ago when some communities began cultivating plants. The settled villages of these early farmers were the forerunners of the complex cities and highly sophisticated cultures that were later to flourish in the emergent civilizations across the world. Following a basically chronological path, the book focuses on the world's key civilizations in each time period, beginning with the primary civilizations in Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and China, illuminating Greece, Rome and their contemporaries and culminating in the states of America, but not neglecting other, less familiar, civilizations. Illustrated with stunning photographs, artworks and maps throughout, Civilizations: Ten Thousand Years of Ancient History brings alive the ideas, events and people of earlier cultures whose achievements have laid the foundations of our present-day world.

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Review: Civilizations

User Review - Goodreads

Using it for the excellent maps and good brief descriptions to get to know the areas.

Review: Civilizations

User Review  - Michael - Goodreads

Ten thousand years of ancient history. I loved this book. You get to see ancient civilizations with their myths and religions. You see what foods they ate, tools used, military weapons, etc. It covers inventions over the years. It also shows medicine and surgey techiniques. Read full review

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the central Andes were the main centres by around 12oo bc Superb craftsmanship included

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Do Vegetarians Eat Eggs?

There are three types of vegetarians, the lacto-ovo vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian and vegan. The lacto-vegetarian and vegan excludes eggs from his or her diet, while lacto-ovo vegetarian does not eat the flesh of animals, but eats both eggs and dairy products such as milk and cheese.
Q&A Related to "Do Vegetarians Eat Eggs?"
Vegetarians do not eat eggs because of the fact that its a chicken and they do not eat meat.
Ovo vegetarians eat eggs, but no dairy.
Vegetarians restrict themselves only of animal products. There are several types of vegetarians, those that choose to cut out the meat portion of their diet to those that eat no animal
1. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat. When the wok is hot, add 2 tbsp. canola oil. 2. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the cabbage and carrots and stir-fry
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An egg comes out of a chicken and therefore it cannot be vegetarian. There are people on a vegetarian diet that eat eggs while others call them vegetarian for ...
Consumption of eggs in a vegetarian's diet depends on the type of vegetarianism you practice. Some will eat eggs whereas others avoid them. However, people should ...
Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy. They do not eat meat or fish. Vegans eat only fruits, vegetables and nuts. No eggs, no dairy, no ...


When Karen Butler, of Newport, Oregon, woke up from oral surgery a year and a half ago, she looked just like her old self, albeit with some swelling in her cheeks. But when she opened her mouth to speak, it was with someone else's voice— in a thick British accent.

“I sounded like I was from Transylvania,” she said to The Oregonian.

Over time, Butler’s accent softened slightly, but it never returned to her native northwestern lilt.

Eventually, doctors diagnosed Butler with foreign accent syndrome, a rare neurological disease that has only been documented about 60 times since the 1900s.

Usually caused by a stroke, foreign accent syndrome has also been associated with multiple sclerosis, head injuries and migraines.  But according to linguists, the accents developed by people with foreign accent syndrome aren’t pure. They tend to change and flux depending on how people pronounce different sounds.

"What happens with foreign accent syndrome to the best of our understanding is that a very, very small part of the speech area is affected so that the normal intonation of speech gets altered," said Dr. Ted Lowenkopf, medical director of the Providence Stroke Center.

The oddest thing about Butler’s voice transformation is that she doesn’t even hear her new accent, unless she watches it on video.

Alien hand syndrome is another neurological disorder in which patients lose control over the movements of one of their hands. They often feel as if their hand is being controlled by an outside source, and are unable to stop it from performing complex acts, such as unbuttoning items of clothing. Patients are also unaware of the actions taken by their ‘alien hand,’ until the movements are pointed out to them.  The condition generally emerges in the aftermath of a stroke, surgery or infection.

Patients affected by Cotard’s Syndrome believe that they are dead or non-existent. They may also be under the impression that their body is decomposing or that they have lost their blood or internal organs. In some cases sufferers of Cotard’s Syndrome may experience delusions of immortality. It is thought that Cotard’s Syndrome is the result of a disconnect between the part of the brain that recognizes faces and the areas that associate emotion with visual cues.

Piblokto or Arctic Hysteria is a neurological disorder that only occurs within Eskimo societies living in the Arctic Circle. Piblokto generally rears its head in winter months and sufferers exhibit a wide-range of symptoms, including hysterical screaming and uncontrolled wild behavior, depression, eating fecal matter, insensitivity to extreme cold and the nonsensical repetition of overheard words. It is thought that Piblokto may be linked to vitamin A poisoning, as similar symptoms have been observed in Westerners with vitamin A toxicity.

Stendhal Syndrome is a psychosomatic illness in which victims experience rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusions and sometimes even hallucinations after being exposed to objects of extreme beauty. The syndrome is commonly experienced when an individual is exposed to particularly beautiful or numerous works of art, and was first identified in Florence. It also sometimes manifests when people are confronted with immense natural beauty in the outdoors.


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Hard to Swallow?

Article excerpt

Cough medicines aimed at toddlers are about to go behind the counter. But do any of them actually work? Jeremy Laurance investigates

A cough is usually a minor irritation. But when it becomes persistent and keeps you or your children awake at night it can be distressing, debilitating and drive you to desperate measures. At these times, parents turn to cough medicines to soothe their spluttering infants - and in some cases, dose them too heavily.

This is what sparked last week's decision by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to remove six cough medicines aimed at the under-twos from the open pharmacy shelves, so that parents can be advised about their proper use. But are cough medicines any use? And what is the best way to treat a cough?

A cough is a vital reflex action. It clears the airway of any blockage. It often develops in response to inflammation from a viral infection. It may be a symptom of flu, a cold, asthma, bronchitis or whooping cough. It may also occur in response to certain medicines and, rarely, as a symptom of lung cancer, tuberculosis or heart failure.

Most coughs clear up on their own after a couple of weeks. If you have had one for more than two weeks following a viral infection, it may be time to see your GP.

Coughs are usually labelled dry or chesty. A dry cough is usually felt in the throat as a tickle and does not produce phlegm or mucus. A chesty cough occurs when phlegm is produced in response to the infection. The cough helps clear phlegm from the lungs. But it may also be unproductive, when the passageways in the lungs become inflamed.

There is no way of getting rid of a cough caused by a virus. But you can treat symptoms of the virus with paracetamol or ibuprofen to reduce fever and ease aches - and the cough.

The basic ingredients of all cough medicines are demulcents - glycerine, honey and syrup that coat the throat and ease irritation. Other compounds - suppressants, expectorants and decongestants - have different actions. There is little evidence that cough medicines work, and they only contain small amounts of active ingredients. A soothing drink or boiled sweet may prove just as effective.

Cough suppressants suppress the cough reflex. They include pholcodine, dextromethorphan and antihistamines, and should only be used for dry coughs. Antihistamines can be helpful at night because they assist sleep. Some parents use older allergy medicines, such as Piriton, with their children for this reason (newer antihistamines don't cause drowsiness). Any medicine causing drowsiness should be used with care during the day, and avoided if driving.

Expectorants include ammonium chloride, sodium citrate, guaiphenesin and ipecacuanah, which help bring phlegm up so coughing is easier. …


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Ultrasonic Study of HEC

Ultrasonic Study of HEC

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Published by Alexander Decker
International journals call for papers, http://www.iiste.org/Journals

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Categories:Types, Research
Published by: Alexander Decker on May 07, 2013
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Advances in Physics Theories and Applicationswww.iiste.org ISSN 2224-719X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0638 (Online)Vol.17, 2013
Ultrasonic study of HEC/ ZnO and HEC/ TiO2 film composites prepared bycasting
Prof. Dr.Abdul-Kareem J. Al-Bermany,
 Advanced polymer laboratory/ Physics Department College of science / University of Babylon / Iraq
The HEC/ZnO and HEC/TiO
composite membranes were prepared by a sol-gel casting method. In order to evaluatesome physical properties of HEC/TiO
and HEC/ZnO composites the ultrasonic measurements were performed for the samples at room temperature (298.15 K.) with frequency (35KHz), these properties are ultrasonic velocity,compressibility, bulk modulus, absorption coefficient, relaxation amplitude, transmittance, relaxation time andviscosity. It was found that there is significant relationship between ultrasonic velocity and material properties alsoresults show that adding ZnO and TiO
effect on densities which were responsible for the ultrasonic wave’sabsorption inside the composites which effected also on the transmittance and reduce velocity.
: HEC composite; ZnO; TiO2; Ultrasound technique; physical properties
The sol-gel casting method is widely used in the preparation processes for inorganic/organic composites. Theadvantages of the sol-gel method are that the synthesis process is done at room temperature and organic polymer can be introduced at the initial stage in which the particles of solution kept in the homogeneous dispersed state [1].Composites have good potential for various industrial fields because of their excellent properties such as highhardness, high melting point, low density, low coefficient of thermal expansion, high thermal conductivity, goodchemical stability and improved mechanical properties such as higher specific strength, better wear resistance andspecific modulus [2]. The addition of inorganic particles into polymer matrices arises a new composite material hasunexpected properties, which greatly differ from that of conventional materials [1]. HEC is a water-soluble synthetic polymer, due to the characteristics of easy preparation, good biodegradability, excellent chemical resistance andgood mechanical properties; HEC has been used on many biomaterial applications [3]. Ultrasonic technique is goodmethod for studying the structural changes associated with the information of mixture assist in the study of molecular interaction between two species [4]. The manner in which the propagation of the ultrasonic wave is affected by thestructure of the material results in parameters that can lead to the characterization of the material. [5], the absorptionof ultrasound in polymer systems is governed by local modes of motion and cooperative because of the existence of strong intermolecular interaction within the polymer. Ultrasonic attenuation measurements are a standard methodused to assess the effects of material degradation [6]. The breakage of chemical bonds is due to cavitations into themedium. Cavitations are the formation and violent collapse of small bubbles. This leads to shearing forces of sufficient magnitude to cause the rupture of chemical bonds [7].
Table (1) the material under study (The materials were used as received without further purification.)
Material AssayM.W.(g/mol)Density(g/cm³)Company CountryHEC 99.9% ___ 1.3 Panreac SpainTiO
99.8% 79.866 4.23 Fluke USAZnO 99.7% 81.408 5.606 Merck Germany
Preparation of Samples
The HEC/ZnO and HEC/TiO
composite membranes were prepared by casting method, the appropriate weight of HEC was dissolved in (25ml) of distilled water under stirring and heat (70◦C) for (30min) then the ZnO and TiO
 were added for each sample, the resulting solution was stirred continuously until the solution mixture became ahomogeneous viscous appearance at room temperature (298.15 K.) for (30 min.). The composite membranes areobtained by leaving the mixture solutions in a petre dish at room temperature (298.15 K. – 300.15 K.) for 4 weeks.The densities of the samples were measured by the weight method.* We will refer to the HEC/ZnO as S1 and HEC/TiO
as S2 in this study.
Ultrasonic measurements were made by pulse technique of sender-receiver type (SV-DH-7A/SVX-7 velocity of sound instrument – Korea), as shown in Fig. below the measurements were made at fixed frequency (f = 35KHz), thereceiver quartz crystal mounted on a digital variable scale of slow motion, the receiver crystal could be displaced parallel to the sender and the samples were put between sender and receiver. The sender and receiver pulses (waves)were displaced as two traces of cathode ray oscilloscope, and the digital delay time (t) of receiver pulses wererecorded with respect to the thickness of the samples (x). The pulses height on oscilloscope (CH1) representsincident ultrasonic wave’s amplitude (A
) and the pulses height on oscilloscope (CH2) represents the receiver ultrasonic wave’s amplitude (A).
Theoretical calculation
The ultrasound wave velocity (V) was calculated using the following equation [8]:V= X / t …… (1)Compressibility (β) is a measure of the relative volume change of a fluid or solid as a response to a pressure (or meanstress) change, it was calculated by the following Laplace equation where (ρ) is the density [9]:β = (ρ v
…….. (2)Bulk modulus (B) of a composite is the substance's resistance to uniform compression, it is defined as the pressureincrease needed to decrease the volume; it was calculated by [10, 11]:B = ρ v
……. (3)The acoustic impedance of a medium (Z) was calculated by equation [12]:Z = ρ v …….. (4)Absorption coefficient (α) was calculated from Lambert – Beer law [13]:
= e
(- α x)
…… (5)Attenuation is generally proportional to the square of sound frequency (f) so the relaxation amplitude (D) wascalculated from the following equation [14]:D = α/ f
……… (6)Transmittance (T) is the fraction of incident wave at a specified wavelength that passes through a sample wascalculated from the following equation [15]:T = I / I
…… (7)Where (Io) is the initially intensity of the sound waves and (I) is the received intensity. The wavelength (λ) is thedistance that sound (of a particular frequency) travels during one period (during one oscillation), and it changes onlywhen the speed of the wave changes inside the samples we can calculate it by the equation [16]:λ = v / f …… . (8)On the basis that all solids flow to a small extent in response to small shear stress, some researchers have contendedthat substances known as amorphous solids, such as glass and many polymers may be considered to have viscosity.This has led some to the view that solids are simply "liquids" with a very high viscosity; the viscosity of the sampleswas measured by knowing absorption coefficient using the equation: [5]η
= 3 α ρ v
/ 8 π
…….. (9)The relaxation time (τ) was calculated from the equation: [11, 17]τ = 4 η
/3ρ v
…….. (10)
Results and discussions
The composite membranes density were measured by the weight method at room temperature (298.15 K.), figure (1)shows that the density of the membrane increase for S1 and S2 because its molecules which are heavier than HECmolecules occupied the vacancies between polymer macromolecules displaying HEC molecules from their positionand because density is mass per unit volume so increasing the density with increasing the concentration, the S1membranes have higher densities than S2 and this is attributed to the density and molecular weight of each as listedin table (1), the density values effected in other properties under study.The ultrasonic velocity technique has several advantages over standard techniques where it can be applied; theseinclude ease of use sample size and independence of the size of the tested particles. It does depend on an initialcalibration to a direct strength measurement technique [18], as shown in figure (2) the ultrasonic velocity wascalculated for different concentrations for S1 and S2, the ultrasound velocity are decreasing with the increasing thefiller concentration; since the filler molecules filled the vacancies of the polymer chains that randomly coiled andgive composite good tensile strength that increasing the impedance against velocity so reducing the later slightly, thevelocity in S2 is higher than in S1 depending on the densities.Compressibility of S1 and S2 were calculated using Laplace equation no. (2), figure (3) shows that thecompressibility are decreasing with increasing concentration this could be attributed that ultrasonic waves propagation made polymer chains that randomly coiled to be each close together, this change confirmation andconfiguration of these molecules, so there are more compression happen of these molecules through ultrasound wave propagation [19,9] this compression fills the vacancies between polymer molecules and restricted the movement of these molecules this lead to reduce the elasticity of the composite as shown in figure (3).The bulk modules are increasing with concentration a shown in figure (4), this could be attributed to the amount of contraction is governed by the compressibility, which is dependent on the intermolecular forces and because of thecompressibility is inversely related to the bulk modulus by means of equations (2 and 3) so there are increasing in bulk modulus with increasing concentration , figure (4) also shows from (0.08-0.1 gm/ml) concentration the bulk modulus values for S1 and S2 are clear rise and descent in the modulus values this may be because of the moleculesmake entanglement interaction to the polymer chains and network formation [20].The specific acoustic impedance are decreasing with concentration increasing as shown in figure (4); this attributedwhen the concentration increasing there are rearrangements of the polymer network by breaking chains bonds [21].

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Martin Amis

Martin Amis, 2012.Maximilian Schönherr

Martin Amis,  (born August 25, 1949Oxford, Oxfordshire, England), English satirist known for his virtuoso storytelling technique and his dark views of contemporary English society.

Amis’s first novel was The Rachel Papers (1973), the tale of a young antihero preoccupied with his health, his sex life, and his efforts to get into Oxford. His first major critical success was Money (1984), a savagely comic satire of the conspicuous consumerism of the 1980s. London Fields (1989) is an ambitious work set in 1999 in which a number of small-scale interpersonal relationships take place amid a society on the verge of apocalyptic collapse. His other major work of this period is Time’s Arrow (1991), which inverts traditional narrative order to describe the life of a Nazi war criminal from death to birth. In Amis’s works, according to one critic, “morality is nudged toward bankruptcy by ‘market forces.’” Other novels of the first decades of his literary career include Dead Babies (1974), Success (1978), Other People (1981), The Information (1995), and Night Train (1997).

His short-story collection Einstein’s Monsters (1987) finds stupidity and horror in a world filled with nuclear weapons. The forced-labour camps under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin are the subject of both the nonfiction Koba the Dread (2002) and the novel House of Meetings (2006). In his novel The Pregnant Widow (2010), Amis examined the sexual revolution of the 1970s and its repercussions on a group of friends who lived through it. The pop culture indictment Lionel Asbo: State of England (2012) chronicles the vicissitudes of a fictional small-time criminal and his upstanding nephew after the former wins the lottery and becomes a fixture in the tabloid press.

Amis was one of the most well-known public intellectuals of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was a frequent guest on television programs, and his decades-long friendship with Christopher Hitchens was arguably the most prominent and productive literary relationship of his era. Among his volumes of essays are The Moronic Inferno, and Other Visits to America (1986), Visiting Mrs. Nabokov, and Other Excursions (1993), and The War Against Cliché (2001). Experience (2000), an autobiography that often focuses on his father, was acclaimed for an emotional depth and profundity that some reviewers had found lacking in his novels.


Kerry Pettis Bookwoman
Kerry Pettis Bookwoman

Bookwoman recommends

"Knocking on Heaven's Door" by Katy Butler

In the first chapter of this troubling nonfiction book there is a quote from Anton Chekhov: "Whenever there is someone in a family who has long been ill, and hopelessly ill, there comes painful moments when all, timidly, secretly, at the bottom of their hearts long for his death."

This is the story of one family that reaches that reality.

Katy Butler, freelance author, daughter and sister, is helping her elderly mother deal with the deteriorating health of her father. He has had a stroke and his symptoms are gradually getting worse, both physically and mentally. At a critical juncture a pacemaker is installed to regularize his heart's rhythm. It is only in retrospect the family realizes what a mistake that was. The apparatus is keeping him alive when the rest of his body is failing.

Years pass with Katy flying to New England frequently from her California home. Her two brothers also live on the West Coast, but they are less responsive to their parents' needs and are seldom helpful in dealing with the harsh realities of day-to-day life that their mother and father face.

Doing research Katy learns the history of pacemakers and discovers some doctors consider them life support and will not remove them once they are installed. She studies the new and growing field of hospital bioethics, and learns how much Medicare will and will not fund regarding payments for caregivers and assisted living. She discovers a new clinical approach called "slow medicine," which values "restraint, calm, and above all, time to weigh the emotional and physical costs of medical treatment; time to evaluate new methods and technologies."

Though Katy's father had a living will and medical power of attorney in place, the family still struggled with legal issues both in the hospital and in doctors' offices. Only after her mother reaches the end of her strength, both mentally and physically, did they finally learn about palliative care, which places an emphasis on caring for all of the family rather than trying to cure an incurable patient. Her father eventually qualifies for hospice and is given the calm quiet death they all hoped for, but it had taken years of unnecessary struggle and frustration to give that to him.

Having learned from this dreadful experience, when Katy's mother's health begins to fail, she uses her new knowledge to make better decisions and gain a quality death.

The average American's lifespan is now 78½ years and the number of elderly Americans will grow rapidly as baby boomers age. The need for better answers to end-of-life care will grow as well. "Dying is hard on the dying. Death is hard on the living."


Top-ranked Novak Djokovic has advanced to the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 54 minutes.

He'll play either No. 3 seed Andy Murray or No. 7 Juan Martin del Potro, who met in a later quarterfinal on Friday.

Djokovic broke Tsonga four times and served out the match with his fourth 40-love game in the second set. Tsonga fell to 0-11 against Top-5 opponents since beating then-No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal in November 2011.

No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova and No. 4 Angelique Kerber were to play separate semifinals at night.


Rare 'ring of fire' solar eclipse to grace Sunday sky

Rare `ring of fire` solar eclipse to grace Sunday sky Washington: A partial solar eclipse, which will see the moon completely block out the sun except for a ‘ring of fire’ around the moon’s edge, is set to offer a spectacular site for observers on May 20.

Skywatchers in East Asia and the western United States will be able to witness the spectacular ''Ring of fire'' in sky, CBS news reported.

The event known as an annular solar eclipse originating from the Latin "annulus," meaning "little ring” should be visible in its full glory from much of Asia, the Pacific region and some of western North America, provided the weather stays clear.

At its peak, the eclipse will block out about 94 percent of the sun's light.

However, the other parts of the United States and Canada will be able to see only a partial solar eclipse, without being treated to the ring of fire effect.

The East Coast will miss the event since the sun will have set before the eclipse begins.

The eclipse will occur in the late afternoon or early evening of May 20 throughout the continent of North America while in Asia the date gets switched to May 21.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon comes in between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on our planet. When the moon lines up perfectly with the sun and blots out all of its light it results into a total eclipse.

Annular eclipses are similar to total eclipses in that the moon lines up with the sun.

Like other types of solar eclipses, annular eclipses are spectacular but a potentially hazardous sky watching events.

Care must be taken while observing them otherwise it can cause serious and permanent eye damage including blindness.

To safely observe the May 20 annular eclipse, special solar filters can be bought to fit over the equipment or No. 14 welder's glass to wear over the eyes.

However the safest and simplest technique is perhaps to watch the eclipse indirectly with the solar projection method.

This technique uses projects a magnified image of the sun's disk onto a shaded white piece of cardboard.

The image on the cardboard will be thus is safe to view and photograph.


Coalition Urges No Vote on FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization

September 11, 2012

Supporting Documents

This is a letter to the House from a coalition supporting security and liberty urging a "no" vote on H.R. 5949,  the FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012, which would extend the FISA Amendments Act until December 31, 2017.

Unless reauthorized, the the Act will sunset on December 31, 2012.

The letter urges members to impose measures to prevent abuse of the FISA Amendments Act, and to require that government officials implementing the law be more transparent about its use.

The FISA Amendments Act authorizes the government to conduct surveillance in the U.S. of individuals reasonably believed to be non-U.S. persons located outside the U.S. Even if the target communicates with people in the U.S., the surveillance is conducted without meaningful judicial authorization and without probable cause. Instead, the FISA Court evaluates only whether the procedures under which surveillance is conducted are reasonably designed to target people reasonably believed to be abroad.


Light and Growth

Lynn A. Mickelsen
If we follow the Lord, we will receive the blessings of eternal light and life that only He can give.

A few years ago I was impressed by an advertisement for a fiber-optic glass products company with the caption “Light is the controlling force.” The illustration showed a corn seed with a small leaf extending above the surface of the ground and an extensive “fiber optic” root system below the ground, filled with the light of the sun.

I have a background in farming, so the ad naturally led me to ponder the role of light in a plant’s development. When the shoot of a plant breaks through the surface of the soil, it begins to conduct sunlight all the way down to the tips of the plant’s roots. This light tells a plant how high to grow, how many leaves to sprout, when to flower, when to set fruit, and when to age—a process called photomorphogenesis (not the same as the better-known photosynthesis). Without light, the plant dies. Fiber optics, which serve as the transmission lines of modern telephone communication and many other important technological applications, were patterned after this process.

As I thought about this process, I was impressed with the parallel between the role of light in a plant’s life and in our own lives. Plants always grow toward the light. A sunflower follows the sun across the sky every day until it becomes “stiff-necked”; then it withers and dies. When a potato seed sprouts and begins to grow, a clean white stem grows upward through the earth toward the light. A fungal disease called rhizoctonia may attack the tender stem. If allowed to progress, the fungus destroys the stem so that the light cannot reach the root system. Yet if the stem can reach the surface of the earth and form leaves, the light can reach the root system, and the potato plant becomes strong enough to overcome the fungal enemy.

In our spiritual lives, our growth is determined by how we follow the Son—the Son of God—and allow His light to be the controlling force. If we become stiff-necked and cease to look to His light, or if we allow sin to damage our receptors for light, we will die spiritually. But if we obey the commandments, we come closer to God and gain greater light. This increase in light stimulates the “photomorphogenesis” of our spiritual lives and governs our spiritual progress.

What are some of the things we must do to receive of this eternal, life-giving light?

We must pray. The Lord’s instructions are explicit: we must ask, seek, and knock to receive the promises He has made to us (see Matt. 7:7; Luke 11:9; 3 Ne. 14:7; D&C 88:63). Any great outpouring of light has always been given in answer to prayer. The Nephites experienced this when the Savior visited them: “And it came to pass that Jesus blessed them as they did pray unto him; and his countenance did smile upon them, and the light of his countenance did shine upon them, and behold they were as white as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof” (3 Ne. 19:25). Daily prayer keeps our eye single to His glory and facing toward the light.

We must repent of our sins. Nephi and his brother Lehi were cast into prison by the enemies of the Church because of their great success in preaching to the Lamanites. After many days their captors came into the prison to slay them, but they were protected as they were encircled about by a pillar of fire and their captors were covered by a cloud of darkness. The earth trembled, but the captors could not flee because of the cloud and because of their fear.

The voice of the Lord came to the people through the cloud and commanded them three times to repent. The people asked, “What shall we do, that this cloud of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us?” A man among them named Aminadab, who had once belonged to the Church, told them they must repent and cry unto God. As they did so, the darkness dispersed, the captors were encircled about with a pillar of fire, and the Holy Spirit entered their hearts; they were filled with light as they were baptized by fire (see Hel. 5:14–49; 3 Ne. 9:20).

Sin limits light. As we follow the counsel of the Lord and repent of our sins, we open the way for this same infusion of light and baptism by fire.

We must look to our patriarchal blessings. Our patriarchal blessings can be a significant source of light. I shall be forever grateful for a patriarchal blessing that promised me “flashes from the eternal storehouse of truth,” for indeed that promise has been repeatedly fulfilled. We must seek the light that the Lord has personally promised each of us and live up to the heritage to which we have been called. The Apostle Peter taught, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).

We must follow the prophet. When we sustained President Gordon B. Hinckley in April 1995, he reiterated the teachings of those who had gone before with a challenge to pray; read the scriptures; partake of the sacrament every week; go to the temple; be more kind, patient, and loving; and be loyal to the Lord and to each other. He taught us to love one another and to share the blessings of the gospel. His clarion call was: “The time has come for us to stand a little taller. … This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation. … [It is a time] to become more Christlike. …

May we all prepare that our eyes, hearts, and minds may serve as conduits for celestial light. I promise you that as we expose our lives to greater light, we will continue to grow spiritually, and the light within us will grow “brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24). I am grateful for the light of the Restoration, which has made possible the fulness of God’s blessings for His children. Jesus is the Christ, the Light and Life of the World. He lives; I know He lives, and if we follow Him, we will receive the blessings of eternal light and life that only He can give.

[photos] Photography by Robert Casey

[illustration] Detail from The Second Coming, by Harry Anderson

Show References

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Take a simple dresser and add bright colors to just the drawers and add some sass!

Dresser and separate mirror with color. Love!

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These canisters measure the exact amount of flour, sugar, etc. by the turn of the lever. The amount you need falls into the tray below!

To not use a dryer for everything and ruin all your clothes...Retractable indoor clothesline for the laundry room. I want this, because I hang dry so much!!

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infusion pitcher

master closet. shelves above, drawers below, hanging racks in middle.

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great idea for a couch against the wall

You can remove one without having to remove them all. Turn a vertical bakeware organizer on its end and secure it to the cabinet wall with cable clips.

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Four Dead in Ohio: Thirty Years Later

Mark Weisbrot

4 will mark thirty years since four students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent

State University were murdered by Ohio National Guardsmen. It is no exaggeration

to call it murder, since the students were unarmed and– given how far they were

from the troops– could not have posed any threat. The closest of those killed,

Jeffrey Miller, was shot at a distance of 265 feet.

photo of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling beside his body, arms outstretched and

screaming in anguish, was etched into the national consciousness as a searing

image of the war at home.

campuses responded with an explosion of protest, with five million students

taking part in America’s largest student strike. Kent State was a turning point

in the history of the war– "a shock wave that brought the nation and its

leadership close to the point of physical exhaustion..," as Henry Kissinger

would later write in his memoirs.

war dragged on for five more years, and so we have recently been treated to a

series of ruminations on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its conclusion. But not

enough space has been given to those who got it right three decades ago: the

anti-war movement.

protesters put forth an alternative analysis of the war. It was not a war to

save the world from a "Communist threat," as our leaders told us, but

a colonial war. We took over the war from the French, who were trying to regain

control of their former colony after World War II. We refused to allow elections

in 1956, as provided for by the Geneva accords of 1954– because (as President

Eisenhower noted) we knew that our adversaries, led by Ho Chi Minh, would win

we poured in arms and money, and then troops to support a corrupt, dictatorial

client state in South Vietnam. We could never "win" the war, because

most Vietnamese saw the United States as a hostile invader trying to take over

their country. And the South Vietnamese army was understandably demoralized. So

our involvement escalated, and we resorted to increasingly brutal methods–

including the bombing of civilians and defoliation of large areas of land. Two

million Vietnamese civilians were killed, mostly in the South, in addition to

more than one million fighters. As Nixon spread the war to Cambodia– his

invasion of which brought the Kent State protesters into the streets– our

bombing probably killed as many Cambodians as Pol Pot did, and helped create the

conditions for the holocaust that ensued there.

anti-war movement argued that these were heinous crimes that could never be

justified. "We have destroyed their land and their crops," said Martin

Luther King, Jr. "We have supported the enemies of the peasants. . . we

have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What

1990 poll by the Chicago Council on Foreign relations found that 71% of

Americans thought the Vietnam war was "more than a mistake; it was

fundamentally wrong and immoral."

the 25th anniversary has seen numerous attempts to find some middle ground, so

that we may "put the war behind us." Fifty-eight thousand American

soldiers died in Vietnam, and even more committed suicide after returning home.

Some say it is a disservice to the millions of veterans who fought there to talk

about the evils of the war.

many veterans do not feel that way. Barry Romo, national coordinator of the

Vietnam Veterans Against the War, reminds us that his was the only organization

of Vietnam veterans that existed 30 years ago– and the only veterans who took

to the streets were those protesting the war. "It’s unfair to those who

lost their lives, and their arms and legs, to pretend that the war had some

value. We were lied to by the government and the media– we should never have

been there. The most important thing now is for people to know the truth so that

it never happens again."

a compelling argument. Our government’s support for the mass atrocities in

Central America in the 1980s, which included arming the killers of tens of

thousands of innocents, might well have been avoided if we had owned up to the

truth after the Vietnam war. And since this more recent history, too, has been

swept under the rug, we are currently going down the same road in Colombia.

forgive is a virtue, but forgetting is an indulgence we can ill afford. Our

foreign policy establishment remains addicted to empire, and is possessed by a

hubris that is arguably even greater than the one that got us into Vietnam.

Until they learn the lessons that the anti-war movement tried to teach them, we

can expect more Vietnams ahead of us.

Washington, D.C.


Cristian Y.

HTML Developer

La Verne, United States

What's the difference

Over the past 8 years, I have developed websites to basic static sites to fully dynamic sites using HTML, DHTML CSS etc.

- 2+ years of experience in Excel database driven web pages.
- Excellent experience with Html, Dhtml, CSS etc.
- Able to write elegant and tight, production-ready code
- Excellent communication and writing skills.
- Proficient graphic design experience using PhotoShop.
- Proficient with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Digg etc. - Using Social Media sites for Marketing.
- Responsi…

Tests Taken
Name Percentile Score

oDesk Readiness Test for Agency Contractors


Feliratkozás Hungarian
Keress bármilyen szót, mint például: yeet
The vile act of crapping while in the ocean. Occasionally committed by those surfers who are too lazy and/or unmotivated to get out of the water to deuce like a normal person. In fact, some surfers deliberately do it to "mark their terrirory", or do it to mark the end their surf session, leaving it behind it as an "I was here" statement.
-"Saturday was nothing but music, beer, surfing & aqua turding." *lmao*

-"You'd want to avoid that spot in the water, that's where Ronny went aqua turding....and unfortunately he had a bout of diarrhea." *lmao*
Beküldő: CactusHeart 2010. november 12.
13 2


The 5 Harsh Truths of Being a Manager

Being a manager is hard. It’s an entirely different set of skills than what you learned as an individual contributor and good resources are few and far between.  Most companies, especially if they’re startups, have no leadership training, so you’re often on your own. Making matters worse, you often have more bad examples of management around you than good ones.

So what’s an aspiring great manager to do? It starts with understanding the harsh truths of the role and then getting the right help.

The Harsh Truths of Being a Manager

1) Leadership is service to your team.

When you become a manager, it’s no longer about you. You are judged based on how your team performs, not how you produce. The most important thing you can do is motivate your team and focus them on their most important tasks.

This is a hard mentality to set when you are used to only having to worry about yourself. However, if you shift your mindset to that of serving your team, you’ll find it a lot easier.

Service to your team means . . .

  • . . . removing blockers for your team so they can get things done.
  • . . . listening to problems and helping address them quickly.
  • . . . shielding your team from distractions.
  • . . . accepting responsibility if something goes wrong.
  • . . . showering credit and praise on your team when something goes right.

There’s a special kind of satisfaction that you get when you see your team excited after conquering a major challenge that you rallied them to complete.

2) Your best people are easiest to take for granted and most devastating if they leave.

You don’t have to work for long to recognize A players. They’re hard working, always learning and produce great results in their field. As a manager it’s easy to take these stars for granted while you’re fire fighting and dealing with struggling team members. Unfortunately, taking them for granted means that you may not realize they’re unhappy until they have another job offer and it’s too late.

To retain your team, you should never take anyone for granted or go too long without talking with them. One on ones are the most powerful tool in a manager’s arsenal to avoid this grave misstep, so start them today if you haven’t already. You can also use the Management by Walking Around approach to also accomplish some of this, although the privacy of a one on one will give deeper insights.

You need to challenge your best people regularly, create opportunities for them to grow, praise them, and give them work that excites them. These things will change over time, which is why you need to regularly talk with them and not wait for them to come to you. You also need to listen carefully as they are often your front line for detecting problems early; fixing problems while they’re small helps you avoid constantly triaging major problems that consume all your time.

3) Your team members are more than just cogs in your machine.

Even at a big company, 9-to-5 job your team members are still giving you one third of their current life by working for you. If you’re part of a startup, it’s often significantly more time. Appreciate this as well as the fact that there are things that happen outside their work hours that are important to them.

Members of your team are complete human beings. They have a family, hopes, dreams, hobbies and passions.  When you show you care about them as a complete person, it makes them more engaged with their work and more trusting in you. It will vary from person to person, but there is usually something personal that can lead to work “resentment” as Marissa Mayer calls it. And on the positive side, giving a small thoughtful gift based on their interests will be remembered long after an Amazon gift card or cash bonus.

When someone is extra excited, they often want to share it. When they’re upset, they may need someone to confide in or understand what they’re dealing with. We’re all human and sometimes things outside work (cancer, death in the family, bad breakups, etc) affect us no matter how hard we try.  Being there for your team members and recognizing when they need some help (time off, extension on a project or just someone to listen) will pay massive dividends in retaining and motivating your team.

4) Your example sets the tone for your team.

One of the most fascinating things I have observed in my career is how a company takes on the personality of their founders and leaders. For better and worse, you’ll see nuances in how people communicate, deal with good and bad news, and react to customers, clients and team members based on the example set by leaders.

Are you excited about your mission? Are you motivated each day? Do you show patience or are you quick to judge? Are you the first one in the office each day or the first to leave? When you are a manager or leader, the spotlight is on you and everyone is watching. If you watch carefully, you will notice people picking up on your behaviors and often mirroring many of them. You will also see how even something as simple as a sigh or negative body language by you can take the wind out of the sails of an excited team member.

Self-awareness is one of the hardest, but most important, skills you can develop as a manager. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses and pay attention to how your actions impact those around you. The more your team is picking up good behaviors from you, the higher they will perform.

5) A lack of consistency and follow through kills your credibility.

When a leader says one thing and does another or is perceived as playing favorites, they lose credibility quickly. Without credibility, a team will not be inspired to follow them nor perform at a high level.

So on top of all the above challenges, you have the need to be consistent in everything you do so as not to be perceived as a hypocrite. Of course, the challenge is that with all you have going on as a manager, it’s very easy to not be consistent. You may not mean to, but when things get busy and stressful, it’s easy to be forgetful.

This is the harsh truth I struggle with the most. Even knowing so well the above lessons, reading regularly and seeking the advice of mentors, it is still very hard not to slip up and fail to follow through or be consistent. Even the best leaders I’ve spoken to have to constantly work on this one.

How are you supposed to avoid all these harsh truths without any help?

There are apps to help you ship code, track projects, analyze your customers and manage your sales process. And yet, there’s nothing to specifically help managers like you motivate, engage and support your team.

Bloated HR tools like Success Factors are not the answer and were not built with a manager in mind.

I’ve developed a system that has helped me motivate and retain team members for my startup, Greenhorn Connect, and as product manager at KISSmetrics. I’ve learned these techniques from talking to great leaders at startups and publicly traded companies, as well as reading many books on the subject. If you’d like to learn more, sign up below:

Special thanks to Justin Jackson, Alex McClafferty, Rich Rines and Thomas Schranz for helping with this post.

The 2 Most Important Skills to Start Your Career

There is nothing harder than starting out or starting over. When you are new, it can be difficult to get your foot in the door and make a good impression. It can be hard to tell the difference between incompetence and a simple lack of experience.

Therefore, if you’re just starting out, there are two skills that are essential and will carry you farther than any others:

1) A Fierce Attention to Detail.

Any manager with a new hire has in the back of their mind the questions of, “Can they handle this?” and “How much do I need to keep an eye on their work?” If your manager knows you have an excellent eye for the details, they will be much more trusting in your abilities, knowing that you’ve taken good notes of their instructions, will triple check your work for careless mistakes and won’t do anything to make them look bad.  Building this trust can be the difference between a fast accelerating career with new responsibilities and languishing as an entry-level hire for years.

The longer I’ve been a manager and worked on product teams, the more I appreciate this trait. Over and over again we see the evidence of how the little details are what people notice and love (A great example is how Crashlytics built for Tweets which led to their viral growth). This is at the heart of great craftsmanship.

2) A Hunger to Learn.

Unfortunately, minding the details is not enough to succeed. You must also be eager to learn new skills. The faster you level up, the more likely you are to advance in your career whether always at the same company or at new ones. You need to learn from others and seek out sources of information on your own, which are skills in and of themselves to develop.

Many people in other careers have asked me how to get into product management, which isn’t always easy. However, one of the easiest ways to change your role is to work at a growing company and show how fast you can learn and grow.  This gives a company the confidence to give you more and new responsibilities.

The Combination is the Key.

When you combine an attention to detail with a hunger to learn, you will be unstoppable. Watching for the little details will make you more inquisitive and help you find the hidden gems and little secrets others gloss over. The little details are where life’s curiosities and greatest lessons lie.

As you grow the confidence of others and use curiosity to drive your learning, you will open new doors and build great relationships with others in your field. You are likely to attract great mentors who enjoy watching your development and love sharing stories and lessons to further your learning. They will also become your strongest advocates, either as great references, or the kinds of people that hire you again and again.

What do you think are the most important skills for those starting out?

Why are there so many bad managers?

Nobody sets out to be a bad manager and yet so many fall into traps and become one; it’s counter-intuitive to realize that humans are not straight forward machines. What worked as an individual contributor will not help you as a manager.

It’s easy to focus on the mechanical elements of management like company outcomes, hours logged, and project results, but that’s only a small part of what makes a great leader.

It’s so easy to stay professional instead of getting to know your team and what matters to them, especially if you’re remote or don’t interact with them every day. When this happens, is it any surprise they not only get frustrated or burn out but they don’t come to you with problems? Is it any surprise many bottle it up until they quit or find another job, which can lead to company-wide retention problems?

What do you do? Why do so many managers frustrate their teams?

The human element is missing.

If you help people achieve their goals, they’ll work hard for you to achieve the company’s goals as well. If you can align what you need them to do with what they want to do, the results can be great. If you make them feel important and recognize what they care about, they’ll work hard for you.

But all of this takes effort and time. Something that you don’t have unless you make time for it, which isn’t easy with all the emails, meetings and other responsibilities that come with a management role.

And rarely do such efforts get rewarded like specific company results do. So how do you make sure you’re not forgetting these things that pay off in the long term? And are you sure you are doing everything you could be?

I believe there is a way for today’s technology to help us all be better managers and caring leaders. If you’re interested in learning more, sign up below:

Why Consumer 3D Printing Companies Should Think Twice About Fundraising

As I’ve spoken to many in the Consumer 3D Printing industry, I’ve heard an increasing amount of talk about raising money from professional investors. While an angel round could bring stability and some financial certainty, raising institutional money is very big risk in such an early market. Venture Capital can bring validation, a comfortable bank account and open a few doors thanks to partner networks, but at this point, I believe the risks far outweigh the gains for Consumer 3D Printing. Here’s why:

Why consumer 3D Printing companies should not raise Venture Capital now

1) We haven’t crossed the chasm yet.

If we had crossed the chasm, people wouldn’t still be asking why you would ever want a 3D Printer. Zeepro would have already well exceeded their Kickstarter funding given how nice looking and feature-rich their printer is (instead, they have sold 300 printers and barely exceeded their funding goal). We would also have a robust set of applications to leverage 3D printers, which excluding design tools (the 3D Printing era’s BASIC imho), is fledgling or non-existent today.

Spreadsheets and word processing programs were largely responsible for early majority users buying computers in the early 1980s. Specifically, VisiCalc has been credited with catapulting sales of the Apple II when it came out in 1979 (2 years after the first edition of the computer). Of course, those programs weren’t even possible until early computers advanced their hardware in key areas like memory, hard drive space, and displays as well as overall product reliability.

Today, we have many hardware improvements still needed for 3D printers to enable new use cases. Breakthroughs in multi-extrusion, print speed, materials and huge improvements to the kluge software experience are all needed to create a “Whole Product” as described in the classic, Crossing the ChasmUntil then, sales will continue to be measured in the hundreds or thousands, which does not align with the mass market growth investors crave.

2) Fundraising is an accelerant for your business.

If you raise venture funding, you may be able to relax a bit from the stress of bootstrapping (i.e.- making payroll), but it comes at a high cost. Venture Capitalists invest with the expectation of the funds being spent aggressively and creating significant growth. If you haven’t had explosive growth, the next set of dollars will be even more expensive, if they’ll fund you at all.

Once you hire people ahead of revenue, it’s hard to stop and even more painful to do layoffs. But don’t take my word for it. Ben Horowitz put it best last week:

“We should first decide how much we like laying people off, because if we love it then lets stay cash flow negative, because when we don’t generate cash, the capital markets decide when we have to lay people off. In fact, we will have to listen very carefully to investors on everything because as soon as they stop liking us, we will start dying. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to live my life that way. I do not want to have to tell all of our employees that we will do what we think is right until investors tell us we have to do otherwise. I want to control my destiny.”

If you absolutely need to raise money, sticking to Angel investment is the only way to go; prudent angels will understand the need for financial stability without aggressively outspending your revenue. You could sell them on plans to turtle up and survive the chasm crossing while placing a few intelligent bets.

Larger investors will neither understand this strategy nor support it as they have funds to return over a time frame that may be shorter than the path to massive growth for your business. You should expect a volatile, painful 2 to 3 year chasm crossing period before we really hit the early majority years. If you raise capital during this time, you will require multiple, highly-dilutive rounds of capital before you can really return value as investors usually expect a round of funding to last just 12-18 months when deployed properly.

3) VCs don’t just talk to you because they want to give you money.

So you’re getting repeat meetings with a VC. They seem friendly and interested in the data you’re sharing and the plans for your business. While it’s true it could be that they’re serious about investing, it’s also quite common for meetings to be free research for them on up and coming industries (Note: I’ve specifically heard from some 3D printing companies they “wasted a lot of time” doing this). Walking in their shoes, a few pitches from different 3D Printing companies would give a great view of the market to gauge when they may be ready to invest years down the road.

Of course, most VCs are also great at the “soft no”; they’re happy to continue to have you or one of your cofounders make more pitches and exchange more information without actually committing to funding or outright saying no to you. And as a worst case scenario, they can use your information to fund a competitor or steal your idea. I’m not advocating for you to completely ignore VCs, but choose wisely who you invest time in speaking with. Ask yourself if you could better spend that time growing your business.

4) The early PC industry succeeded without it.

In the early days of the PC industry, Venture Capital was just emerging and largely was not involved in funding companies. Microsoft only raised $1 Million in its history and at a time when it really did not need it. While Apple did raise money, the majority of the funds came in the 1980s, long after the market was established and Apple was selling millions of computers. The rapid growth of the market as it hit the mainstream allowed profits to easily fund additional growth and made many founders and their employees very rich thanks to their non-diluted stock options.

Early markets require new marketing channels and use cases. By Clayton Christensen’s definition in the Innovator’s Dilemma, truly disruptive innovations have to find their own way beyond what the existing industry does with a technology.  As PCs were before, consumer 3D Printers are just that kind of disruption, which means there is going to be a lot of experimentation and exploring to find the best opportunities and develop new ones. There are very few venture investors that have the patience and interest in letting companies do this kind of exploring, since their capital and experience is better leveraged for scaling.

5) Your best investors are your customers.

No one said it would be easy. To really meet where the market is going (because honestly, we don’t know), finding the first few people who will pay for something you’re doing is huge. They’ll help you build the product others will need, find others like them and keep your business afloat financially in the meantime. There’s a reason these businesses started in garages, motel rooms in Albuquerque, and the like; they couldn’t afford anything else.

To survive the chasm means finding a beachhead and expanding. The focus and controlled desperation of bootstrapping can be a powerful tool to develop such a market. If you’re sitting comfortably with venture capital, the hunger to find this will be less and you may even find yourself building a bunch of features that no real customer wants until it’s too late.

We’re in an exciting, but challenging time in the 3D Printing industry. There are many more players currently than there will be winners, which is the tragic, harsh truth of entrepreneurship. Raising money may seem like the obvious way to get a leg up, but it could also be a major waste of time or drive you and your business right off a cliff.

Want more insights like this right in your inbox?

Sign up for my 3D Printing newsletter, Observations in 3D here:

3 Books Every Investor Should Read

As an entrepreneur, when I consider the ideal investor I would like to have, it’s a lot more than someone with money. I want them to have characteristics like:

  1. Able to make smart bets: Investments are largely made when it’s too early to tell with certainty who or what will win in a market.
  2. Add value and insights: This is more than replaying personal war stories and biasing from your own experiences.
  3. Asking good questions: Someone who pushes founders to take a step back and recognize the things that matter often comes more from asking questions than providing answers.

Being great at those three things is no small task. Fortunately, there’s been some great books written that can supplement the knowledge and know-how of even the most veteran entrepreneur or get a new investor off on the right foot. These are books I’ve read and re-read because they’ve providing so much value to me and I believe can specifically help investors as well.

The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

Disruption is a brutally abused word in tech these days. Clayton Christensen brings it back to reality and explains how it really works in this classic written in the 90s (and has arguably gotten better with age).

As an investor this is critical so you can call BS on an entrepreneur that claims they’re disruptive, but really are hopeless. This book will help you understand not only how to recognize disruptive technology in its earliest days, but what it means to get in the market, grab a position and successfully grow and take down the incumbents. Benjamin Tseng, a Bay Area VC, has a great post also discussing the value of this book for investors here.

Investor Scenario: A founder claims they have a disruptive innovation and are telling you about their immediate mass market plans, The research in Christensen’s book will help you guide them a better approach or to pass on the deal.

The Master Switch by Tim Wu

Over the past 100 years, communication platforms have dramatically changed and evolved. During this time, we’ve seen the emergence of the telephone, radio, television, email, the internet and more. Without fail, every time one of these new mediums emerged, they fought an uphill battle to eventually win the market.

This book goes perfectly hand in hand with Innovator’s Dilemma by walking you through how many technologies were slowly commercialized and changed the world. By the time you get to the end the patterns will be impossible to miss and priceless to match against what you see in new markets emerging (some of which you hopefully can invest and place strong bets on).

Investor Scenario: A founder has a transformative technology. Knowing the patterns of past innovative companies, you can help them anticipate resistance they may face both in the market and legally.

Tribal Leadership by Logan, King & Fischer-Wright

A book on culture to go hand in hand with two on innovation cycles? Absolutely. While there are other books out there I’ve rated higher on culture, none are more powerful for an investor.

You only get a limited amount of time with a founder and their team, so knowing how to quickly tell the difference between a strong team culture and one struggling is huge. What makes Tribal Leadership special is how it helps identify the key words that you can listen for to tip off how a company is really doing.

Armed with this information, you can help a founder get back on track if some of the team has issues.  It can also help you decide if you should pass on an investment that looked good otherwise; a motivated, excited team will be significantly more productive, work longer hours and help recruit the best talent. You need those for the characteristics for a company to hit deadlines and win the market.

Investor Scenario: You visit one of your investment’s offices. If you overhear employees talking about their excitement for the mission, they’re operating at a high level. If instead they’re complaining about how much their work or a project sucks, you may want to ask the founder some questions.

Unfortunately, many business books are a complete waste of time. Luckily, gems like the 3 books above exist and help tremendously to educate us, change our perspectives and diversify our knowledge on important subjects. I’d love to hear any great book recommendations in the comments for investors or entrepreneurs.

Do you really read?

Spend five minutes on any social media site and you’ll see hundreds of articles shared and discussed. In our world of infinite knowledge at our fingertips, the challenge now becomes Quality, not Quantity.  As you read any article, book, answer or social media post, it’s important to take the time to digest what you consume.  Did you just waste ten minutes or was it worth the read? What did you learn? Do you really get it?

In our fervor to join the conversation or “catch up” on those thousands of articles you’ve saved in RSS, Pocket, Instapaper, or otherwise, we often miss the point.

We are all Hypocrites.

Too often we read something, share it and talk about it, but fail to retain its meaning. Maybe you retweeted something about taking care of employees, but then you failed to show interest and compassion for an employee that came into work visibly upset. Maybe you just shared an article about the importance of open communication, but then disregarded comments from someone who tried to bring up a problem with you. Regardless of what it is, you’re wasting your time with all your reading if you don’t use it to drive action.

I struggle every day to follow through on the things I passionately read and write about. As a habit, I re-read my own posts to remind myself what I care about so much. It’s easy to forget things like actually giving praise despite knowing how important praise is in motivating and appreciating your employees, remembering to always use the best structure for customer development interviews, or to keep applying the best takeaways from a great book I read.

What do we do about it?

I challenge myself to answer the following questions in everything I read:

  1. Has this taught me anything new and valuable? (If not, move on quickly)
  2. How can I apply insights from this article today? (Wait and I’ll forget)
  3. When have I applied the ideas from this post? Where have I not, but could have? (What was the difference?)

The real key is Self-Awareness with Discipline.

One of the hardest things to do in life is to get outside your ego. This awesome post by the CEO & founder of Redfin captures it well:

“Most people spend nearly all their energy trying not to change. This is what the philosopher William James meant when he wrote the mind’s main function was to be a fortress for protecting your ego from reality. When the mind has to accommodate a new fact, James argued, it doesn’t settle on the change to its model of reality that is most likely to reflect reality. It protects the fortress, calculating the smallest possible modification to its bulwarks that can account for the new fact.

As I read and observe my daily life, I try to look for opportunities to apply all the great things I’m reading and everyone is sharing. And when I write or give others advice, I challenge myself to make those things not just aspirational or what I do at my best, but what I apply day in and day out. It’s not easy, and I don’t always succeed at this, but it has helped make me and those I interact with a little better every day.

How do you apply what you’re reading?

Founders: You don’t own your employees

[Ed. note: This is in response to a post by David Hauser entitled, "The Startup Side Project Bubble" which you can read here:]

So many founders forget something simple: You do not own your employees.

They are human beings with their own passions, interests and lives. You have a vision of a reality you want to create. After much labor and hard work to get it off the ground, either funding or your own revenue allows you to hire help. Those people are choosing to devote a significant portion of their lives to your cause to help make it possible. Take a moment to appreciate that.

In David’s post he argues that employees having side projects is bad for them and his business. This is so backwards.

First, telling someone what they should and shouldn’t do in their free time is a tremendous insult to them and their personal judgment.  It’s also incredibly short-sighted.

You want employees with side projects.

Especially for the creators at a startup (ie- the people that design and build your product), there is tremendous benefit to them having side projects. A few of those benefits are:

  • Experimentation. An outlet to experiment with new technologies before suggesting the company use them; no amount of research compares to having used a new framework and being able to provide first person accounts of the tradeoffs.
  • Independence. A place where they can make all the decisions (for better and worse) versus the negotiations that often happen in a company. You can also call this their creative release.
  • Mastery. The ability to further hone skills in a self-directed fashion, getting them to the 10,000 hours to mastery faster than standard work hours alone would provide.
  • Relief. Providing some variety in their life’s work can help avoid the burnout that comes from only working on one thing for too long.
  • Focus. Motivating them to get their work done efficiently because they don’t have every hour of the day to work on it. The saying goes, “If you want something done, ask a busy person” for a reason.
  • Contribute. The ability to help the greater tech community through contributions to open source projects, which wouldn’t exist without many people having side projects.
  • Network. They’ll often work with people outside their day job on these side projects, which will grow their learning and network. It might even provide the next recruit when you need more help at your startup.

And I’m sure there are others.

Great employees are a package deal.

In the early days of a startup, you want athletes, which are often entrepreneurs themselves.  Later, you want specialists who have deep expertise in their skills. By their nature the same skills you value each day in either group’s work for you also lends itself to having these side projects: In early employees that means a breadth of knowledge, while later, the depth of knowledge that comes from side projects is what makes many great later stage startup employees.

I would not be running product at KISSmetrics if I had only put my head down and worked on my past jobs (I wouldn’t even be in tech now most likely…I have a degree in Electrical Engineering). The skills that are core to my job came from side projects like Greenhorn Connect, taking the time to learn new skills in my free time and reading voraciously. Every founder wants to hire people with passion for their craft and a wide range or depth of skills.  This is a package deal.

“Why don’t you quit your job already?”

Taking a step back and looking at David’s argument, it seems centered around the idea that if an employee has a side project, they should quit their job immediately and start a company. While they should definitely quit their job if they’re ready to make a run at it as a business, they may not do that right away because of a few reasons:

  • Funding. They lack the personal funds and see the foolishness in fundraising when they don’t even know whether an idea has legs whatsoever.  Not all side projects have clear paths to revenue/bootstrapping either.
  • Motivation. Many side projects are for fun and passion. Sometimes those become businesses worthy of full time attention, but usually they are just an enjoyable thing to do with only part of their time.
  • Stability. Depending on what else is happening in their life, it may not be the time to start a company. If they’re getting married, just moved to a new city or a close family member is on their deathbed, they may not want the upheaval of launching a startup on top of that.

None of these reasons prevent a person from being a valuable contributor to your startup. In fact, someone may work for your company and add tremendous value you’d otherwise never receive.

This is a seller’s market.

If you have hard to find skills like design, product management or engineering, it’s a great time to be a startup employee. Companies must compete for you. With salaries skyrocketing, it takes more than money to attract talent. Having a good culture, treating people well and supporting them as individuals become important factors as well.

David’s views may work for him, but I caution other founders from adopting his cynical attitude towards those with side projects. The potential gains far outweigh any losses in hours David seems so concerned with and run the risk of turning off potential great team members.

How to Become a Better Leader Instantly

Whether building a career at a large company or starting your own, if you want to advance and grow, soft skills like leadership are just as important to develop as hard skills like programming languages and sales tactics. Despite being a species evolved to live and work in groups, most of us struggle to effectively communicate with and motivate others. This is unfortunate, given how important and helpful a skill it is to master.

I’ve been studying leadership for a while and there are many techniques for motivating and effectively working with others. Many take some practice and skill. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to very quickly develop your skills, which I was reminded of as I was recently reading the excellent book, “Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success in Work and Life One Conversation at a Time.”

One tip in particular stood out as something I’d heard many times before and I realized it’s the single easiest, yet important tactic to learn:

Give specific praise regularly

Animal trainers around the world know the best way to train animals is through rewarding good behavior. Just think about the last time you were at Sea World and the seals and dolphins got fish and other treats after each trick they did.

While humans are much more complex creatures, we still like rewards, just often in a different form: praise. Because this praise is written or verbal, the key is to be specific.  Don’t just say, “Good Job.” Instead, you’ll want to pull out exactly what was good so they know to do it again. Some simple examples could be:

  • “Great work on the folder feature, Susan. I really like how you made your code clean and easy to follow with comments explaining each section of the code.”
  • “Your report on quarterly earnings was great, Tom. Your graphics were perfect for explaining to the board how we recovered from the rough month.”

After praise like that, I guarantee you that Susan will continue to comment her code and keep it clean and Tom is much more likely to keep investing time to make great graphics for his reports.

This type of praise is powerful for a few reasons:

1) People want to feel appreciated.

Assuming you like your job even a little bit, you want to do good work. There are parts where you’ll put in extra effort. People just want to be recognized for that hard work and that will motivate them to do more of it. Think back to a time someone thanked you for a great job on a project you slaved over for weeks. Give others that feeling.

2) The absence of praise will be felt.

When someone does subpar work and you give no praise, they will notice and want to work harder to seek your praise they previously enjoyed. On the other hand, if you don’t praise people regularly, they are less likely to continue to put in the extra effort on projects. We have all had those moments where we went the extra mile on something and were disappointed when no one noticed. Chances are, you didn’t do it again for that boss or coworker. Don’t be that kind of manager.

3) People want to be noticed.

Especially in the startup world, it’s easy to take great work from your team for granted. Everyone just ships feature after feature, marketing content over more content and keeps grinding. This is also why celebrating wins as a team matters; it’s an opportunity to recognize both the collective efforts of the team and specifically who made major efforts to help the team get there. This is the key to making people feel like they’re “part of something bigger” that draws so many to the lower pay and longer hours of startup life.

Can you remember the last time you praised each member of your team? Were you specific with them or just a vague, “Good job”?

This is just one of the awesome tactics you’ll learn in the book, Fierce Conversations. It covers many excellent topics and will help you understand how to have productive and often difficult conversations effectively with others in both your personal and professional life. I scored it a 9 out of 10 on my ratings scale and highly recommend it.

Great Chefs and Great Entrepreneurs

One of the best rated restaurants in the world serves no cocktails, no appetizers and only has 9 seats. It has no menu and only serves a variety of sushi as laid out by its 85 years old master chef and his team. Jiro Ono, who has been honing the craft of sushi for over 75 years, is the master chef featured in the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which tells the story of him and his restaurant (#ProTip: it’s free on Amazon Prime Instant).

It is truly amazing and inspiring to hear his story of dedication, attention to detail and passion to work with the best; whether it be his source of rice, the fisherman he buys from or the 10 years of training for his apprentices, Jiro strives for perfection. During the documentary, a Japanese food critic revealed what he felt separates Jiro and other great chefs:

  1. They take their work very seriously and consistently perform at the highest level.
  2. They aspire to improve their skills.
  3. Cleanliness. If the restaurant doesn’t feel clean, the food isn’t going to taste good.
  4. Impatience. They are better leaders than collaborators. They’re stubborn and insist on having it their way.
  5. Passionate.

When I look at the food critic’s list of qualities, I realize that those are the same qualities that can apply to any craftsman. Entrepreneurs that put a high value on design, like most notably Steve Jobs, seem to fit that list as well.

What qualities make a great craftsman?

Should founders care about their employees’s personal lives?

{Note: this is part of an experimental series of short posts. My goal is to spark more discussion and post things that aren’t fully thought out 1,500 word mega-entries I usually post.}

This tweet got me thinking today:

There are assholes and then there are people who have moments when they act like one. In a startup there is no room for the former, but we all have moments where we may be the latter.

I’ve found myself in the latter bucket a number of times since I got to SF because of the stresses I’m experience in adjusting to a new environment and starting over socially. Try as I might, I haven’t always been able to leave issues at home and just be my usual working self.  Fortunately, Hiten and others have been understanding of me. Team dynamics are hard to get right and when someone is being an asshole, it’s poison to the environment. That’s why I posit it is important for founders to care about their employees personal lives.

Of course, none of this is limited to just assholes; employees underperform for a multitude of reasons in a variety of ways.  If you have a connection with your employees beyond their job description, you’re likely to find out what may be the cause of an issue. And you wouldn’t have to be their therapist to be helpful and understanding.  At the least, you can help patch up some relations around the company by telling others on the team to cut that person some slack (without necessarily going into specifics) and making some recommendations of what the employee can do to help themselves.

What do you think?

Should founders care about their employees’s personal lives?


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    Topamax Lawyer Justinian Lane Discusses Cleft Lips

    In early March of 2011, the FDA strengthened the warning label on Topamax (generic name: Topiramate) due to an association between Topamax use and birth defects.  Currently, Topamax is most strongly associated with oral birth defects, such as cleft lips and cleft palates.

    Cleft lips are fairly common birth defects in which the upper lip is split.  A cleft lip occurs when the facial structures in a fetus do not fully close.  A cleft lip can occur on one or both sides of the face, and can range in size and severity.

    Researchers do not yet understand exactly what causes a cleft lip to occur.  However, studies have shown that Topamax increases the risk of a cleft lip.  Topamax lawyers are interested in this scientific research as it will be critical to win a Topamax lawsuit.

    It wasn't until I began researching Topamax birth defects that I learned how serious of a medical condition that a cleft lip is.  I initially thought a cleft lip was a cosmetic issue only.  It isn't.  In fact, a cleft lip can lead to hearing loss, eating and speaking difficulties, and numerous psychological challenges.

    If you or a loved one took Topamax during a pregnancy and gave birth to a child with a cleft lip, feel free to e-mail me at  I'm currently reviewing Topamax birth defect cases and will be happy to discuss your potential case with you.

    Will the first Topamax lawsuit be filed this week?

    Topamax lawyers are heavily advertising on the Internet regarding the link between Topamax and birth defects like cleft palates and cleft lips.  To the best of my knowledge, no Topamax attorney has yet filed a Topamax birth defect lawsuit.

    One of the reasons why I suspect that Topamax litigation will commence so soon after Topamax was linked to birth defects is because of the rules of Multi-District Litigation.  (MDL)  Whenever a large number of drug lawsuits are filed across the country, they are eventually consolidated into an MDL.  That simply means that instead of all of the Topamax lawsuits being filed across the country, they're initially filed in one court, so the same judge can make sure everything proceeds in an orderly fashion.  (Many people confuse class action lawsuits with MDL proceedings.  By and large, if the lawsuit involves a large number of people hurt by a drug like Topamax, it will be an MDL.  However, there may also be a Topamax class action.  If an when that happens, I'll post about it here.)

    When an MDL is created, the MDL judge appoints a steering committee.  The steering committee will consist of Topamax attorneys who (a) have a great deal of experience in drug litigation, and (b) have a large number of Topamax lawsuits of their own.  The first lawyer to file a Topamax lawsuit will be at an advantage when it comes to applying for a position on the Topamax steering committee.

    I therefore suspect that someone will work to get a Topamax lawsuit filed this week.  I could be wrong, but I'd be very surprised if the first Topamax case isn't filed this month.

    If you'd like to know more about how an MDL works, or whether you're eligible to bring a Topamax lawsuit on behalf of your child, feel free to e-mail me using the contact form.

    Topamax Linked To Birth Defects

    On March 4th of 2010, the FDA announced that new data showed that women who take Topamax during pregnancy are at an increased risk of giving birth to a child with a cleft lip or a cleft palate.  Topamax and Topiramate (the generic equivalent of Topamax) were approved by the FDA to treat certain types of epileptic seizures.  Eventually, they received FDA approval to prevent migraine headaches.

    The FDA classifies drugs according to whether or not they pose a risk of causing birth defects.  Topamax was initially in Category C, meaning that studies showed a risk of birth defects in animals, but there was insufficient evidence in humans.  The FDA has now moved Topamax to Category D, which means there is positive evidence of risk of birth defects in humans.

    Here is what the FDA currently recommends regarding Topamax during pregnancy:

    Before starting topiramate, pregnant women and women of childbearing potential should discuss other treatment options with their health care professional. Women taking topiramate should tell their health care professional immediately if they are planning to or become pregnant. Patients taking topiramate should not stop taking it unless told to do so by their health care professional. Women who become pregnant while taking topiramate should talk to their health care professional about registering with the North American Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry, a group that collects information about outcomes in infants born to women treated with antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy.

    If you took Topamax or Topiramate during your pregnancy and gave birth to a child with a cleft palate, a cleft lip, or other skeletal deformity, Topamax may be to blame.  As a Topamax attorney, I'd be happy to talk with you about your child and what legal options you and your child may have.

    FDA Took Years To Process Topamax Birth Defect Data

    It wasn't until March of 2011 that the FDA issued a warning that linked Topamax with cleft palate and cleft lip birth defects.  But back in July of 2008, a study linked the drug to those very defects:

    For the study, researchers examined women who became pregnant while taking topiramate either on its own or along with other epilepsy drugs. Of 178 babies born, 16 had major birth defects. Three of these were in infants whose mothers were taking only topiramate, and 13 were in those whose mothers were taking topiramate and other epilepsy drugs.

    Four of the babies had cleft palates or cleft lips, a rate 11 times higher than that expected if these women were not taking epilepsy drugs. Four male babies had genital birth defects, with two of those classified as major defects, which is 14 times higher than the normal rate for this defect.

    Source: Epilepsy Drug May Increase Risk of Birth Defects

    It's unfortunate that our regulatory system can take years to recognize the risks that drugs cause to unborn children.  At least the risk is recognized now, and hopefully there will not be as many women who take Topamax while pregnant.


Elizabeth Warren On Illegal Foreclosures.

"You have made a decision to protect the banks but not to help the families who were illegally foreclosed on," Warren said. "Families get pennies on the dollar for being the victims of illegal activities."

GovTrack.us - Easily track the activities of the United States Congress

While borrowers strug gle to repay their debt, the federal government is making money on its student loan programs. This year, the federal government will make $34 billion on student loans. The government even makes money on its loans to low - income students – 36 cents , on average, for every student loan dollar it puts out.

Always believe in yourself! #motivation #success #belief

Always believe in yourself! #motivation #success #belief

Virtual Coffee | Binaural Beats + Isochronic Tones | Coffee Break

Want to experience the energetic properties of caffeine without having to ingest any? This audio is based on a method developed by Michael Triggs, who found that a slow binaural beat with a rising pitch can be used to induce a feeling of wakefulness. Added to the binaural beat is a 17hz isochronic tone to further enhance the effect. This begins in the sub frequencies and culminates at over 1000hz.

So how do you use this audio? Simply put on your headphones/earphones, find a comfortable volume (usually I recommend a low volume but in this case louder may be better…. experiment), and if you like, load up your favourite songs in another tab. Listen until the end to experience the full effect.

What worries you, masters you. Often times our worries are worse than reality. Focus your attention on the desired outcome.

What were you called before 1492

1. What were we called before 1492?
Answer: The ’natural people’, who are the Founders of Civilization, and the Mothers and Fathers of the Human Family, were called Moors / Muurs / Mu / Maure / Maurus / More / Moorens / Moroccan / Al Moroccans, etc. These are some of the dialectical pronunciations, according to varied languages, such as, Moorish Latin, Middle English, Germanic, French, Greek, etc.

22. What is a Negro, Colored Man and Woman?
Answer: These names are ‘brands’ and ‘tags’ coined for ignominious social ‘status’ in society. They are political ‘Caste’ designations, and not national identities. Negro is an Anthropoid / Ape. ‘Colored’ is a legal term meaning, ‘Artifice, fake, covered up, artificial,and fraud’.

26. Who first started Religion and why is it needed today?
Answer: The Ancient Moabites founded the world’s first religion. The true etymological meaning of ‘Religion’ is ‘a study of the Stars, and the workings of Nature’ The masses of the world (miseducated by European conquerors) do not know of the original meaning of Religion. The power of knowledge has been preserved for the Elite Caste, Industrialists, and Rulers of Government. Another term for this Religious / Cosmo knowledge and Anthropological secrecy is called, Masonry.

27. What is the oldest religious so called Holy Book on This
Answer: It must be understood that so-called religious ‘Holy Books’ are all coded Astrology Texts. They are, for the most part, mathematical calculations of Human evolution, chronology and prophecy.

39. What is a Race, and are there 5 Races or just the Human Race?
Answer: There is but one ‘Race’ and that is the Human Race.

(Source: vervebucci)

We must travel in the direction of our fear.
John Berryman

You Can Heal Your Life - The Movie!!!

You can heal your life and you probably should. Lol. Great lessons!