The theory of "intelligent design" was once dismissed by a Kansas professor as "creationism in a cheap tuxedo." Yet, the tuxedo in question appears to be hanging in George W. Bush's wardrobe.

President Bush was asked this week whether he thought U.S. schoolchildren should learn about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution or the theory of intelligent design.

Proponents of the latter maintain that life on Earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a "higher power" must have had a hand in creation. That power is naturally presumed to be God.

Astonishingly, the president answered that both theories should be taught side by side. Why? "So people can understand what the debate is about." There is, of course, no "debate" between the two theories on scientific grounds. And it is astonishing that this struggle is still going on 80 years after the Scopes Monkey trial.

The fact is that Darwinism has been subjected to empirical scrutiny and accepted by every serious biologist in the world. Intelligent design, on the other hand, was devised by a group of Christian fundamentalists to bolster their literal interpretation of the Bible's creation story.

There is no scientific evidence whatsoever to back it up.

According to the president, "Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought." This is true. But it is unjustified to introduce this theory in a science class -- let alone set it in opposition to Darwinism. It is also potentially damaging to the United States' separation of the functions of church and state, since intelligent design is a religious viewpoint.

One remark by the president is, of course, not going to change U.S. government policy. And Bush was careful to preface his remarks by saying curriculum decisions should be made by school districts rather than the federal government.

But there is a symbolic value in getting the head of state to acknowledge your view, as the Christian right understands.

All this is a worrying echo of the administration's refusal to recognize the evidence of how the burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming.

The depressing reality seems to be that the White House is more at home with Christian literalism than scientific fact.


These days, company workers have a lot of opportunity to collaborate with remote coworkers. In this study, we focused on “virtual same room” systems which provide a sense of co-existing virtually and enable real time interaction among remote offices. While many systems have been proposed, system effect was not fully evaluated in actual enterprise organization which has diverse workers and work context. To evaluate it, we conducted case study of implementation of SmoothSpace (SS) which is a teleconference type system, in remote offices of a Japanese manufacturing company. Survey was conducted in order to clarify the effects of SS and impact of two worker’s attributes, 1) job position and 2) working location on the effects. Results indicated that SS led frequent interaction between remote offices, and encouraged behaviors for knowledge creation. Frequency of interaction was depended on workers’ job position. Results also suggested that SS implementation had more significant impact on behaviors for knowledge creation of branch offices workers, rather than main office workers. These findings might be valuable to know environmental conditions in order to maximize a benefit of the systems implementation.


Chronic Pain or an Under-reported Birth Defect?

Chronic Pain

A recent medical discovery has been documented in Atlanta, Georgia last month as a patient with a chronic pain syndrome was found to possess an uncommon, and unnamed birth defect. Kristin Martin, 27, was treated for an Arnold-Chiari Malformation, which requires an invasive surgery at the lower skull and hind-brain area. However, the treatment has so far proven beneficial, as many patients around the world can now ask their doctor if their chronic pain syndrome is actually a symptom of an under-reported birth defect.

Martin was told by radiologists and neurologists, including a world-renowned surgeon from Emory, that she had neither Chiari nor any obvious signs of abnormality.

Chronic PainSurprisingly, however, upon surgical observation her doctor noticed her “entire posterior cranial fossa was asymmetrical, and one of her cerebral tonsils was hanging lower than the other.” (This is documented in the MR image on the left).

The Chiari and Syringomyelia Foundation is the lead organization in this field, and they explain Chiari as: A congenital malformation in which the lower portion of the brain (cerebellum) is crowded into the skull cavity, and forces the lower portions of this hemisphere (cerebral tonsils) into the hole at the bottom of the skull (foramen magnum). This typically causes the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into the spinal canal, sometimes forming a syrinx, or cavity (syringomyelia).

The neurology institute at the National Institutes of Health describes syringomyelia as a cyst that forms within the spinal cord. This cyst can expand and/or elongate over time, destroying spinal cord matter from its center. This syrinx causes compression and injury to nerve fibers that will result in chronic, severe pain, paralysis, headaches, weakness, and stiffness among other conditions. Patients with syringomyelia are cautioned to avoid straining and coughing.

Martin experienced abnormal sensations and severe pain. She also reported decreased sensations in certain areas of her body. She was previously diagnosed with scoliosis and a degenerative cervical condition, which a previous doctor ruled as the cause of her pain. However, the pain itself was the most unbearable symptom she had as she worked full-time as a nursing professional at a local hospital. She was at many points “hopeless,” and worried there would be no treatment.

This hopelessness is often reported by patients who are diagnosed with chronic pain disorders, where as Chiari patients, though likely under-reported, have a more permanent solution.

Martin’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Hart, recognized a unique malformation on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. “It is an abnormal arachnoid sac that fills up with proteins over time.” This causes hindered CSF flow that can be noticed through video imaging or cine MRI.

This particular malformation is not obvious to most neurologists because it “blurs during MRI” scans as the CSF pulsates–pushing the arachnoid webbing around like “tissue paper.” This could lead to assuming there is open space at this spot on the scan.

Hart says this is not the first abnormality he had to correct that threads the fine line of Chiari and an “other” diagnosis. Hart also says this birth defect has yet to be named.

Although the patient was told by more than one doctor that her cerebellum was not herniating (and therefore not Chiari), the doctor found during surgery that she was around 3mm herniated. This poses a struggle for medical professionals when using the MRI to diagnose “neuro” patients. Many are told they may have idiopathic syringomyelia, or no Chiari, and are unable to otherwise tell if they have any malformation without exploratory surgery.

Several patients with syringomyelia have also reported previously being diagnosed with a chronic pain disorder before a spinal MRI scan revealed a syrinx.

Martin had one hospital re-admittance for a minor CSF leak that did not require surgical intervention. This is a common complication following a decompression and ranges in severity. The patient has reported improved symptoms five weeks post-op. She is now grateful for this surgical treatment for an under-reported birth defect as it has already relieved some of her chronic pain symptoms.

By Lindsey Alexander

Direct Correspondence: Dr. Hart;
Patient Kristin Martin


tirsdag 15. mai 2018

Sample of a well-written text (with teacher comments) that shows how you can answer the long – answer part of the written exam.

The following text is written by my 16-year old student Camilla Lønningen, who is a student of general studies/studiespesialiserende.

She has kindly agreed to let me share her text for teaching purposes. She answered this task during her whole-day test / written mock-exam this semester. The whole-day test consisted of two tasks: one short answer task, and one long-answer task. Given that she only had 5-hours at her disposal, the ideas presented by her are very well-executed. I have placed the text into a table to show how the content has been organized. On the right-hand side, I have made some comments to provide an insight into what I think works in the text.

The text that she wrote was a response to the following task which is what the students enrolled in Vg1 or Vg2English typically get for their written exam in English.

In literature and films, the main characters often take on a challenge. Compare and contrast two such characters you have studied in your English course and reflect upon the challenges they have met and how their actions and choices help us understand them and the world around us.

In your text, you should
·         in short, introduce the texts you have chosen and how you will answer the task
·         present the challenges of character one with examples
·         present the challenges of character two with examples
·         compare and contrast the two characters’ challenges in a discussion
·         conclude by summing up the main differences between the characters

    Give your text a suitable title.

If you are interested, you can check out this post here about how to prepare for you written whole-day test or written exam.

On the blog you can also find an example of a well structured argumentative text with teacher comments.

søndag 15. april 2018

Some sample tasks for oral exams in English Literature and Culture.

Here are a few sample tasks that can be used for the oral exams in the subject English Literature and Culture. Assessment criteria are included in the tasks.

Teachers can use these as a point of departure to formulate their own tasks and the students can use these to prepare for the exams.

Here is a task about:
1) Literary Devices: Link
2)Book analysis and discussion: Link
3) Literary-historical period: Link
4) Satire: Link
5) Character analysis: Link

tirsdag 16. januar 2018

Becoming a critical consumer - Advertisement Analysis/Reklameanalyse

How do companies persuade you to buy their products? Learn how to reveal the manipulations at work.

Check out this article I wrote for Cappelen Damm about how to be a critical consumer.
You can also read it on the website for the book Tracks here

Here is a task related to the article and images learners can analyze. Here is an assessment form which can be used by the teachers to assess the analysis. It can also be used by the learners for self-evaluation.

In International English, it fulfills the following criteria:
In Literature and Culture, the following competence aims are fulfilled:

torsdag 2. november 2017

Task: Short story about communication breakdown due to challenges related to intercultural communication

Pupils taking general studies at my school have been writing a short story about the communication breakdown to challenges related to intercultural communication. Here is a document where you will find the task along with the assessment criteria. Here is the assessment form we used to correct the short stories. A big thanks to my colleagues Hanne Bjerke Vasshaug og Linn Therese Jostem for collaboration, and critical input in development of this task.

These are the texts that we worked with:
1)  The movie Outsourced. You can find the study guide for outsourced here.
2)  This brilliant text about Intercultural Communication on NDLA here. Explains in a wonderful way the difference between deal focused cultures and relationship-focused cultures. It also includes a text that outlines a Mr. Halliwell’s business trip and the intercultural challenges he encounters in Mexica, Japan, Saudi Arabia and France.
3) A very professionally put-together video here about certain American habits that are offensive in other countries.
4) A video here that shows habits from all over the world that can be considered offensive by different cultures.
5) A text about tips for doing business in Japan here.
6) How culture imapcts the way we think and speak here.

onsdag 20. september 2017

A literary essay: The Maltese Falcon and White Teeth - A Derridean Reading

Here is a Derridean Reading of the books The Maltese Falcon and White Teeth.

I wrote this essay when I took the course "Ways of Reading" (ENGMAU642) as part of my master's degree at the University of Bergen.

Teaching Assignment on the topic "The American Dream."

Here is a teaching assignment on the topic: The American Dream - is it dead or still alive?

The learners read an article and watch a movie which supports the view that the American Dream is still alive.
They also watch videos and read an article which claims that the American Dream is no longer a reality.

After reading and watching these texts the learners write an essay where they write their opinion on this topic. They HAVE to incorporate information from all these texts in the essay they are writing. This way we can teach them how to refer to sources and show arguments from both perspectives. I think this is a great assignment to work with at the beginning of the school year.

Here is an action plan for the task. This includes the articles and videos the learners will work with. The competence aims are also included. In order to practice the concept of "tilpasset læring" or "adapted eductaion", I have included some extra texts that learners who need extra challenges can work with.
Here is the task and it includes assessment criteria as well.

Thank you Hanne Vasshaug and Linn Therese Jostem for helping me develop this task.

onsdag 26. april 2017

Hand-out: How to Prepare for Your Written Whole-Day Test/Mock Exam/heldagsprøve i engelsk

Students these days are preparing for a written whole-day test/mock exams. Here is a hand-out I give to my students as an aid to help them prepare before the exam and during the exam. The hand-out is a modified version of a text that I got from Anette Haugen, who teaches English at Kristiansand katedralsokole.


Publication Details

Xu, J., Dou, Y., Wei, Z., Ma, J., Deng, Y., Li, Y., Liu, H. & Dou, S. (2017). Recent Progress in Graphite Intercalation Compounds for Rechargeable Metal (Li, Na, K, Al)-Ion Batteries. Advanced Science, 4 (10), 1700146-1-1700146-14.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with higher energy density are very necessary to meet the increasing demand for devices with better performance. With the commercial success of lithiated graphite, other graphite intercalation compounds (GICs) have also been intensively reported, not only for LIBs, but also for other metal (Na, K, Al) ion batteries. In this Progress Report, we briefly review the application of GICs as anodes and cathodes in metal (Li, Na, K, Al) ion batteries. After a brief introduction on the development history of GICs, the electrochemistry of cationic GICs and anionic GICs is summarized. We further briefly summarize the use of cationic GICs and anionic GICs in alkali ion batteries and the use of anionic GICs in aluminium-ion batteries. Finally, we reach some conclusions on the drawbacks, major progress, emerging challenges, and some perspectives on the development of GICs for metal (Li, Na, K, Al) ion batteries. Further development of GICs for metal (Li, Na, K, Al) ion batteries is not only a strong supplement to the commercialized success of lithiated-graphite for LIBs, but also an effective strategy to develop diverse high-energy batteries for stationary energy storage in the future.

Link to publisher version (DOI)


Vital Tips For Getting Terrific Photography Results Every Time

Have you caught the photo bug but don’t know quite what to do about it? Do you struggle to comprehend the effects of lighting or how to set a proper mood? Even if you’re an expert photographer, you can always learn more, and the tips in the below article could be extremely helpful.

Try new techniques, and be brave enough to take thoroughly original photos. A good photographer will be able to convey a sense of style with his or her pictures, and show a meaningful point of view. Do not take pictures that people have seen over and over again. Experiment with new angles, and be creative.

A dSLR is required for all serious photographers. A DSLR camera is the best one to use for taking shots as you can look at them as soon as you snap the photo. A full-frame DSLR gives the most comprehensive photos, and the largest image sensor.

While traveling you should take as many pictures as possible. Small unique details are often what makes a particular item, location or face interesting. Consider photographing things like signs on the street, odd storefronts, tickets to a museum or the food sold by street vendors.

Broaden your photographic horizons by playing with your camera’s features and the colors and angles you use. You can get an interesting, artistic photo without having an amazing subject to shoot. A skilled photographer can take an extraordinary picture of a marginal object. Experiment as much as you can, and find your own style.

Memory Card

Move in close to your subject. Subjects lacking in color or details are one of the worst things you can see in a photograph. When you move closer enough to get a great shot, you save both yourself and those you share your photos with much frustration because the subjects of your photos are more vivid and clear.

Strive to ensure your models, especially any you don’t already know, feel relaxed in your presence. Many people see photographers as a possible threat. Be engaging, talk to them and ask for their permission to take their pictures. You can help them to see that photography is the art of capturing memories, and not an invasion of their personal privacy.

Natural lighting is a key component. Whenever you take photos outdoors, you should try and shoot either early in the morning or later in the evening. Avoid casting shadows that may darken your photographs. Use the sunlight better by properly positioning yourself where your subject just gets light from the side.

If you are taking pictures of subjects near fluorescent lighting, you’ll need to manually set the white balance to correct for the tinting effect this causes. Fluorescent light gives a cold rather than a warm effect. This means you will need to adjust your settings to increase red and decrease blue tones.

White is a terrible color to wear in a photograph, despite popular belief. Commonly, the camera is set to ‘auto focus’, and will get a reading of all of the colors, shades and details of the photo. White clothes may appear washed out in such photos, or faces may appear too dark.

Enhance your images with alterations of scale, facial expressions and point of view. An ordinary object can be transformed to art if the setting distorts its actual size, or lends a silly or unique perpective. Play around with different photo composition ideas to get new takes on everyday objects.

Read your camera’s manual. Manuals frequently are large and awkward. In most homes, they will be tossed in a junk drawer or even thrown in the garbage. Instead, take the time necessary to go through it and understand your camera. You will take better quality pictures without making trial-and-error mistakes.

Avoid having your subjects where the color white to a photo session, as it can seriously affect the final images in a negative way. Most photographs will use the auto-focus setting and let the camera interpret what is in the frame. It is almost inevitable for white garments to appear washed out in pictures.

Use shutter speeds creatively. People usually think that using a faster shutter speed is the best way to capture something going fast, but using something more slow, like 1/30 can be beneficial. For example, consider the cyclist as he rushes by you. Your results will show the background being streaked in a horizontal manner, and that shows speed.

Use manual white balance when taking your pictures. This will convey a certain mood in your photos. It will also help you control how your pictures turn out. It may take some trial and error, but eventually, you will produce beautiful and creative photographs.

Finding the right brand of camera for you is necessary to be a good photographer. Each photographer has individual preferences when it comes to choosing a brand with which to shoot. It mostly comes down to personal preference; no brand has additional features that make it necessary to get if you prefer another brand. Although many people think there isn’t much difference from brand to brand, photographers do seem to choose favorites for very specific reasons.

When you understand how to use the ISO setting on cameras, then it will be your best friend. Setting the ISO at a higher level increase the grain and noise of your photograph. Unless your goal is to achieve a grainy look, this effect can be disastrous.

Use a tripod if you want to take pictures of a landscape. Making your camera steady with a tripod is always beneficial, but particularly with landscape photos, as it frees you to change settings easily and concentrate on the final image.

Get closer to your subject. As you frame shots, see if you can zoom in or draw nearer to the subject. Make sure that your subject fills the frame. Too much background, no matter how scenic, can detract from the focus of the image. Your photo will contain more details if you are closer to it as well.

In order to become a better photographer, you need to take time to expand your knowledge of the subject. There’s no right or wrong way to take a picture, so feel free to experiment with these tips and see which ones work best for you.

Try different shutter speeds to create unique effects. For instance, if your subjects are in motion choose a faster shutter speed. This will give you that split second timing that is necessary to capture your moving subject. This comes in handy at sporting events or when photographing pets and children. Also, if you wish to have the motion blur effect you can choose a slower shutter speed. Waterfalls and streams look phenomenal when shot with this method.

Emli photography
Danish wedding photography
Wedding Day
My photography


Adult chat oxnard - What is coral dating

Corals and other species associated with a reef provide food and shelter for a variety of organisms.

what is coral dating-17

The coral also sometimes uses nutrients produced during photosynthesis.

That reef may have been impacted by coral bleaching. The beautiful colors in tropical corals come from small dinoflagellate algae called zooxanthellae.

These organisms provide the coral's brilliant color.

The zooxanthellae can provide up to 90% of the energy the coral needs.

Coral bleaching happens when coral polyps, the animals that build corals, shed the algae (zooxanthellae) that give them their color, and which are necessary for their survival. Warming water is the most likely culprit of coral bleaching.

Last modified 15-Aug-2015 06:46


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new york stock exchange trader computer charts REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Good Morning! S&P futures are 70bp better than Germany's, as the $ drop + Greece + Ukraine weigh on our European brethren. Get ready for Headline Bombs - FinMins are arriving for the Eurogroup meeting - A post-meeting press conference should be around 12ET. Yanis Varoufakis has made clear he is coming to Luxembourg with no new proposals, while Greek papers spew "Chowder" that debt relief plans are being drawn, causing Athens to rally 4% from morning's lows (but rolling back). Consumers and Financials continue to weigh on Europe's bourses, with volume tracking 20-30% heavier than normal. Over in Asia, Shanghai dropped almost 4% amid IPO and Margin concerns - The Stronger Yen hit the Nikkei 225 for 1.1% ahead of the Bank of Japan tonight - The KOSPI eeked out a small gain as MERS fears subside, while Aussie dropped 1.3% as financials saw renewed weakness and miners struggled in the wake of a sharp drop in iron ore prices.

The US 10YY remains under pressure, testing 2.26% in the overnight on several occasions - while 30's get closer to a 3% test. German Bunds seeing some "haven" buying on Grexit concerns, while Greek debt's weakness is bleeding slightly into the peripheries. With the DXY nearing 4week lows, we have a sharp bid for commodities - led by a 1.8% pop in Silver, followed closely by Gold (which failed a $1200 test overnight). The Oil complex has rallied overnight for 1%, but there were heavy US Sell tickets going out yesterday - so let's see what floor trading brings in Crude. Scheduled Catalysts Include Weekly Jobless Claims at 8:30, along with US CPI and Current Account Balance. At 10 we get the Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook and Leading Index - ahead of 10:30 Natty Inventory release from the DOE. Inflation players will be focused on the TIPs re-opening at 1.


Friday, January 22, 2016

9 difference between Array vs ArrayList in Java

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

How to declare and initialize a List (ArrayList and LinkedList) with values in Java

Initializing a list while declaring is very convenient for quick use, but unfortunately, Java doesn't provide any programming constructs e.g. collection literals, but there is a trick which allows you to declare and initialize a List at the same time. This trick is also known as initializing List with values. If you have been using Java programming language for quite some time then you must be familiar with syntax of array in Java and how to initialize an array in the same line while declaring it as shown below:

String[] oldValues = new String[] {"list" , "set" , "map"};

or even shorter :

String[] values = {"abc","bcd", "def"};

Similarly, we can also create List  and initialize it at the same line, popularly known as initializing List in one line example. Arrays.asList() is used for that purpose which returns a fixed size List backed by Array. By the way don’t confuse between Immutable or read only List which doesn’t allow any modification operation including set(index) which is permitted in fixed length List.Here is an example of creating and initializing List in one line:

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Solving java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet in Java Spring MVC Application

The  java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet error comes when you deploy a Spring MVC application into Tomcat or Jetty and Servlet container not able to found this class, which usually found in the spring-webmvc.jar file. The DispatcherServlet is the core of Spring MVC framework, it implements the FrontController pattern and intercept all HTTP requests sent to your Web application and subsequently route it to correct controller based upon URL mapping. You need to declare the DispatcherServlet in your web.xml and specify the URL pattern such that Servlet container like Tomcat should send all HTTP request to DispatcherServlet. We also set load-on-startup tag as 1 for this Servlet, so that it should be loaded at deployment time. This Servlet is the link between Servlet Container and Spring MVC framework.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Why JPA Entity or Hibernate Persistence Class Should Not be Final?

One of the interesting hibernate interview questions is, why you should not make a Hibernate persistent class final? I'll try to answer this question in this short blog post. Use of proxies is the core feature of Hibernate (one of the most popular ORM framework for Java Projects) for implementing key performance features e.g. lazy loading and lazy associations fetching. In order to use a proxy in place of real class, your hibernate persistence class must be either non-final or the implementation of an interface that declares all of the public methods. Why? because you cannot extend a final class in Java, and to stand up as a proxy, proxy class must satisfy the IS-A relation, which comes either by extending a class using "extends", or implementing an interface using "implements".

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Monday, January 4, 2016

How to become a better Java developer?

First of all wish you very happy new year guys. It's that time of year when we start afresh, make plans, set goals and make resolutions for the new year. Being a Java developer and author of a Java blog, I frequently receive a request from Java programmers from all over the world about how they can improve themselves? How they can become a better Java developer etc. In the past, I have shared my 10 tips to become a better programmer and every tip on that article still holds true, but given it's a new year. I have decided to jot down 5 new resolutions for Java programmers to improve themselves, enhance their knowledge on Java Programming and increase their value for future career growth. So without wasting anymore time, let's see what are 5 resolutions for Java Programmers in the new year, 2016.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

SQL EXISTS Example - Customers Who Never Order LeetCode Solution

Good morning Guys, Today we will learn how to use the EXISTS clause in SQL by picking up a nice SQL exercise from LeetCode. Suppose that a website contains two tables, the Customers table and the Orders table. Write an SQL query to find all customers who have never ordered anything. This problem can be solved from different way but it is also a very good example of how you can use the SQL EXISTS clause. If any customer has ordered anything then their CustomerId will exist in Order table, we will take advantage of this knowledge to solve this problem. This question is not as popular as the second largest salary query, but it is also one of the frequently asked SQL queries from programming interview, you can see the full list here.

Friday, January 1, 2016 Failed to read from SocketChannel: Connection reset by peer

You might have seen the Failed to read from SocketChannel: Connection reset by peer error while working with Java NIO based server which is using SocketChannel instead of InputStream for reading data from the network. In general, this can come at both client and server end of a client-server Java application which is using TCP/IP to connect each other. Though, this exception usually comes at the server end and client was complaining that they are not able to connect. From the error message, it's quite clear that before client or server could read the data from SocketChannel, another party has disconnected the session. Let's see the root cause of the problem and how to solve Failed to read from SocketChannel: Connection reset by a peer in Java application.


April 11, 2018

Coming hOMe: The Ease of Things Meant to Be

I have always thought of myself as a “go-getter.”  If I want something to happen, I have to make it happen, and if I don’t I will miss out on an opportunity.  I also had a belief that if I wanted something good, I would have to work really really hard to get it.  I’ve spent the first thirty-plus years of my life trying to get what I want by pushing and grasping, grasping and pushing.

In my yoga studio, there is a Rumi quote on a sign that says, “What you seek is seeking you.” I have used this to remind myself that what I want also wants me, yet I have encountered road block after road block, which develops into frustration and desperation. After three years of owning my quaint yoga studio downtown, I decided that it was time to make more profits.  I was tired of barely being able to pay my bills every month.  So I jumped on an opportunity to lease a 4500 square foot high-end retain space. In the negotiations of the lease, another potential lessee came in and the landlord was going to choose them due to the fact that they already had a salon and spa in operation.  This make me fight even harder for the space–I HAD to have it, because my belief was that anything that is worth anything takes hard work to have. I bothered the landlord enough, and made the acquisition of the space my priority, so he finally arranged the lease signing with me.

One year later, the doors closed.  Even though I had received a grant from our City to remodel the space, I couldn’t keep up with the financial obligations of the high monthly rent and utilities.  What I had pushed so hard to have, ended up crumbling.  Not only did I not profit, I went into a very deep hole of debt.

It humbled me tremendously.  I moved all of my equipment and retail out of the space, sold it for pennies on the dollar, and went back to my little low-profit studio with my tail between my legs. I was crushed because my belief system had failed me–God had failed me, I thought. Depression sunk in and I scrambled to find a way to pay off my debt and my back-rent that I couldn’t afford to pay when I was in the space.

I had gotten to the point of complete mental and monetary exhaustion and finally became complacent.  I stopped looking so far into the future and just tried to make it through the moment.  Little by little, the sun came back out and I was able to find joy in what I was doing.  I developed new programs in my little yoga studio that slowly developed profit, and I was able to pay off my debt with the landlord and chip away at my credit card debt.

You see, at the time, I was so focused on pushing and fighting to get what I wanted. I became blind to what I needed to do, which was focus on the present moment.  My belief that all good things come from working hard forced situations to happen that caused me to take several steps backward financially.  It would be easy for me to see this scenario as a foolish or stupid mistake, yet the value of the lessons I learned are priceless.  I tend to learn the hard way.

I have now come to a place with some debt left to pay, but FAR less.  The Universe has shown me that my belief that all good things come from working hard is often false. What I have realized is that, yes, what I was seeking was seeking me.  I was seeking wisdom.  Wisdom found me through a very difficult scenario, but none-the-less, it found me.  In turn, I have found that the right scenario will find me in its own Divine timing, after the wisdom has been learned and a deeper level of understanding has been found.

There is a process of discovering your true passion and desires.  The process takes time in this life.  I’ve learned that what I seek truly is seeking me, but will not come until I’ve learned what I need to know.  When we are ready, what we are seeking comes with ease. Roadblocks are a form of the Universe asking us to check on the true foundation of our desires. Why do we seek what we’re seeking?  That second giant location was a product of my belief that in order to succeed I had to work hard and make big profits.  But my true desires have always resounded in the yearning for peace and wisdom.  That space only gave me one of those desires, which was wisdom the hard way. Peace was nowhere to be found.

In this current moment, I am resonating on the fact that I do have two very strong desires that have held on for many years now. They truly are seeking me as I seek them. But I don’t have to break myself to make them happen.  I can still find a place of peace and ease to bring them into manifestation.  If they are meant to be, they will happen easily and joyfully.

The first desire that continues to show itself is the yearning to manifest yet another space to share yoga.  Where does this desire come from?  It comes primarily from the place that I believe I have something very valuable to share with others…the authenticity of the yoga practice.  The studio that I have now has done exactly this, but is in a location that many people are not willing to travel to.  This desire is coming from the guidance to reach out and expand the mission of my yoga business.  The Universe taught me that my past desire to acquire another space was rooted in money and profits, not an authentic truth that I yearn to share. Now that I have fully understood my authentic desire, the process of finding and opening another space is coming with ease.  The landlord is easy to work with and the process is almost happening by itself.

The second desire that is always present is the yearning to live in the country and to be surrounded by nature.  I know this comes from my deepest desires to grow roots of peace in my home.  I didn’t have a lot of peace or foundation in my home growing up.  As I move from day to day, this desire has manifested into a passion for nature and for animals.  While I have been looking at properties, I do not push or force, even though I recognize that my ego wants to.  I allow the amazing abundance that the Universe yearns to give me to manifest. I recognize roadblocks and I understand how the Universe guides me with ease to what is meant to come to me.  I have always heard of the concept that things that are meant to be will feel like I’m coming home.  I never knew what this meant because I didn’t have a physical concept of what home felt like.

Coming home is the knowing and understanding that I am guided and co-creating with what created me. It’s a place of complete trust, without the need to force, fight, or push.  It’s a place of ease and joy.

December 5, 2017

Connecting with Nature by Sally Keys

Contributed by Sally Keys

Feel Your Best, Be Your Best

Our mind, body, and spirit are connected in a way that science has not been able to understand or pinpoint. Yet there’s growing evidence that the more spiritual you are, regardless of being religious or not, the healthier and more satisfied you become with your life. Spirituality can be defined as your attempt at finding peace, meaning, and a sense of purpose, hope and comfort in your life. The Yamas and Niyamas as ethical guides offer a way to reawaken spirituality. Additionally, research has found that the positive feelings you gain from your yoga practices lead to a stronger, happier and more confident you. And while some people find spirituality in arts, music, and religion, others experience it in seeking an intimate connection with nature.

Spirituality gets us closer to nature

We are constantly torn between science’s objective analysis and spirituality’s subjective understanding. In the past, a person’s whole outlook of the world was complemented by both his knowledge and his beliefs and spiritual practices. Trying to get back to that harmony and balance is one of yoga’s main goals. To create an intimate relationship with the environment and connect with nature’s inherent equilibrium. By tapping into the vast symmetry of the universe we become more attuned with the peacefulness within us.

Tuning in to the natural world

Humans are inclined to gravitate toward spirituality and natural elements. Receiving flowers makes us happy not only because they come from a person we care about, but also because they remind us of the notion of growth as flowers later morph into fruit and produce seeds. E.O Wilson, a researcher and naturalist, noted that we have a predisposition to preserve and enjoy nature. He asserted that those of us who embrace that nature-loving tendency will have less mental health issues later on in life. Exploring and investigating nature fills us with a sense of wonder and belonging that is both empowering and healing.

Re-awaken your spirituality

Getting in touch with your inner-self has nothing to do with beliefs or certain practices. Yet the more you advance in your yoga practice, the more spiritual being you become. You can find meaning in life by focusing on the self. As you embrace yoga in search of your inner strength, you’ll find that dependency on external sources like food, alcohol, drugs and unhealthy relationships diminishes. This allows your true, happy self to emerge unblemished. Likewise, addressing your emotions and adopting an active lifestyle will help you open up to people and experiences and go about life with a calmer and more centered mind.

With yoga you direct your attention to a specific focus which awakens and nourishes your spirituality. Spiritual strength is an important weapon in getting over hardships. No matter what life throws at you, the more spiritual you will find a way to overcome it, bounce back and carry on with your purposeful life.

November 15, 2017

I first learned to practice yoga from a very amazing and beautiful soul.  She was soft and calm and taught me how to learn to love my self a little more every time I went to her class.  She also taught me how to become aware of my body as I moved through beautiful flowing sequences. Without even specifically saying certain cues, I learned some of the necessities of a safe and accurate pose…through feelings and sensations in my body.

There was always one problem in my practice, however, and that was that I felt a sharp sensation in my lower back every time I went through my favorite sequence, the vinyasa, that involved upward dog.  And upward dog was my favorite part.  I loved the heart opener and the strength I gained through my shoulders.  But I didn’t love the lower back sensation that was becoming a problem beyond discomfort.

I had suffered from lower back pain for many years and the reason I found the physical practice of yoga was because of sciatica. I often blamed the lower back pain on my larger chest.  Through yoga I was able to relieve the sharp nerve pain by strengthening my lower back, but still experienced lower back pain. Throughout several years of practicing and teaching, I finally have realized why.

I wish I could remember the first person who suggested the release of my glutes on most yoga poses.  No squeezing the butt during upward dog, cobra, or back bends??!!  I thought for quite some time that squeezing the glutes during these poses “protected” my spine.

What I now know is that the rotation of the pelvis, along with releasing the glutes, is absolute KEY in any pose involving a back bend or extension. Squeezing the butt can actually cause problems with compression of the lumbar spine, which is often why individuals will often feel pain in those poses.  Instead of clenching or squeezing, awareness of the actual action of tilting the pelvis back and lengthening through the tailbone toward the heels helped me eradicate the pain and create relief!

This is also applicable to many standing poses and positions.  Warrior 1 is a classic pose of low back compression issues. While clenching the cheeks may not be as common of a pattern in this pose, the release of the pelvic muscles causes the pelvis to excessively tilt forward and compress the vertebrae.  This often happens because the back heal is down in Warrior I, which means that the lower back has to work extra hard to bring the pelvis toward square. This causes the left hip to disengage and pull down and back, leading to an excessive forward tilt of the pelvis. The action of “lengthening the tailbone toward the floor” (tilting the pelvis slightly back, but not too much to clench or tuck) is extremely helpful in the neutralization and stabilization of the spine in addition to strengthening the abdominals.

In standing back bend, it is classic practice to squeeze the glutes, but the same principle applies. Try releasing the glutes and creating space in the lower back by drawing your tailbone toward your heals! You may notice a slight release in the spine and an engagement of the lower core.  Add in a pelvic floor engagement on an exhale and you’re really onto something! 😉

And in poses like cobra and wheel, allow the butt to relax so that the core can do the heavy lifting!

If you’ve made it this far through the yoga explanation, congratulations.  It’s important that I mention that this applies to many of your normal actions and postures in your everyday moments.  Notice the positioning of your pelvis when you sit or stand.  Often, when we aren’t mindful, we will allow the pelvis to tilt in one direction or the other, causing long-term compression and damage to the spine.  Releasing the glutes, and drawing the tailbone toward the floor will more than likely create the relief you yearn for if you suffer from lower back pain.

Plus, as I always say in my classes, “we have enough tight a**es in this world.  We all need to loosen up a little!”

For more information and insight, click here:  https://yogainternational.com/article/view/which-way-should-you-tilt-your-pelvis-in-backbends-and-forward-folds/?utm_campaign=S8%20-%20Specific%20Drip%208%20-%20Yoga%20Classes&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=53418823&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–0BB2QD4eqZmoKaMTrPTJ0tFa0h8l3xbcogv_NTogHITkEPDYtw4PymTbZKUDNUb6EAFIhak8oYbxGbX1rxxeXn-fCms-DVS3s87CyR0mv5ML4Bzk&_hsmi=53418823

Photo References to help identify poses:

Upward Dog                                                          Wheel

Bridge                                                                      Modified Camel

October 4, 2017

The recent Vegas shooting has been on mind my mind constantly since it happened.  While I have seen a lot of tragedy in my short 33 years, this one hits particularly close to home.  As I scrolled through the photos of the innocent people that were lost that day, tears streamed down my face.  Life is so fragile.  Mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, friends, and lovers were lost that day.

We are all looking for answers and reasons as to why this happened.  We go through the process of despair, anger, confusion, and then we want to blame it on something because there must be a motive or a reason.  We search for answers because we know that the people in our lives would never even think of committing such a heinous act.

While I don’t have the answers, I know with certainty that the elements of a true authentic yoga practice can and will heal broken hearts.  Our practice of mindful movement, breath-work, concentration, and meditation is a process of healing from the inside-out. When we integrate these practices in our lives, the intense need to have answers subsides and we can move throughout our lives peacefully with a deeper level understanding and connection to all that is.  Taking the time out of our day for ourselves in this way can heal the body, but more importantly the mind.  Our yoga practice will relieve our suffering by quieting the ego, which uses the tool of fear to control our thoughts–causing dis-ease. Coming to the quiet space within is exactly what the world needs right now so that the healing can begin.

For more information and insight, check out this great article: http://www.chopra.com/articles/healing-emotional-pain-with-yoga

Or, even better, Limber Tree is the perfect place to start your practice.  Check out our schedule here.

May 7, 2017

The Beauty of Yin & Yang

May 7, 2017

Solutions for Those Pesky Wrists in Your Yoga Practice

As a yoga studio owner, I have taught thousands of yoga classes now, as a instructor of private classes, group classes, workshops, and trainings. One of the issues that I see in the majority of my students is wrist weakness and/or pain. Most of these complaints come from the overuse of the wrists at a keyboard, serving jobs and heavy tray-carrying, a previous fall, or (even worse) repeat patterning in their yoga practice.

The wrist problem often arises in our Vinyasa style class, which is my favorite style to teach. I have found that it is a great way for new students to understand some of the most basic, but also most important elements, of a practice. Vinyasa Yoga encourages breath with movement, and the breath, in my opinion, is one of the most important elements in a yoga practice. However, the foundation of Vinyasa Yoga includes our Sun Salutation sequence. This sequence includes plank, chaturanga dandasana (four limbed staff), cobra (or upward dog), and downward dog. All of these poses can cause major pain or injury in the wrists if they are not mindfully practiced. I am also a huge fan of props, so I will explain some ways to integrate props into your practice to avoid repetitive patterns that cause injuries in the wrists. When reading this, please remember that your experience may be completely different than others'. This is why I will give you several tips and solutions to ease wrist pain in your yoga practice, but it is up to you to decide what works best for you. You can discover this by....you guessed it...practicing and trying these solutions!

It's important to discuss the primary reasons that yoga can cause or perpetuate wrist pain. There are two main elements in all poses that take precedence in our practice: Foundation and Alignment. In our asana practice, our awareness begins with our foundation. This carries into our wrists in many of the poses when our hands are our foundation. People tend to misplace their foundation into certain areas of their hands when they are in poses like plank and downward dog. They place the majority of the weight on the heals of the hands, right near the wrist crease. This puts undo pressure on the small wrist joint and, over time, will cause pain. Be sure that you are distributing the weight of your body into the "balls" of the fingers and the knuckles, as well. I've even found it helpful to try "gripping" the floor with the fingertips. Mindfulness of where you are placing the weight in your hands is key.

You may also find that a thinly folded blanket can be helpful if placed underneath the heals of the hands. This tends to assist in the grounding of the forward parts of the hands and the knuckles, displacing the weight away from the wrists. However, while in plank pose, you might try "clicking back though your heals." This will increase the angle of your wrists and keep the weight from being placed directly above your wrist joints.

Also, keep in mind that your yoga mat is an important prop in your practice, as well. If you have a mat that causes you to slip, you will bear down and tense up more in the wrists to prevent your hands from sliding in poses like downward dog. It is well worth the extra money to purchase a mat that really does allow you to ground into your hands without being sticky. I recommend the Manduka eKO mat line. After trying several different brands of mat, the eKO mat is, by far, the best for creating a non-slip and non-stick foundation for your hands and feet.

Chaturanga Dandasana can be one of the main reasons that wrist problems originate or get worse for yogis. While moving through the vinyasa sequence of a sun salutation, we tend to rush through their decent from plank into cobra or upward dog. When done incorrectly, we either push our weight back too far when coming down to the floor or come too far down (to hover) altogether. Another pattern is that practitioners will lower down faster through their head and chest, causing mis-alignment in the wrists and elbows.

To solve these issues, we can easily practice Chaturanga by following one of two options. First, shift your weight slightly forward and then lower down (SLOWLY!) all the way to the floor with the elbows hugging into the ribcage. This would be directly followed by cobra pose. Or, we can lower down half-way, so that the elbows come to 90 degrees, again, hugging tightly into the sides of the torso. From here, you move slowly into Upward Dog, with the chest forward and lifted.

Additionally, I have also found it incredibly helpful to practice Chaturanga with a block under my sternum at its lowest setting. It gives me a very good measurement of how far to come down to bring my elbows at 90 degrees...and no more! Remember, when practicing this transition, you can always modify by lowering the knees to the floor. And one more tip...try to remember to pause in the actual pose itself--four-limbed staff. All to often, people tend to "dip" through the movement, which is what causes the issues in the wrist to worsen.

All-in-all, it is worth your time and effort to try these different suggestions. The distraction of sore wrists can take you away from the Bliss of your practice, which is why we come to our mat in the first place! Being mindful and finding solutions for your wrist problems so that you can continue with your practice is you showing compassion to yourself! And that is where the healing aspect of yoga begins.

In Love and Light,

October 25, 2016

How To Love Yourself

As always, a conversation between my friend and I lead to some pretty deep stuff last night. It ended up going to the place it usually does...the concept of self-love. It seems to be quite the topic lately. We hear it about it everywhere: "Love yourself and then you can truly love others," "I love ME, I don't need anybody else," "Love yourself and stop worrying about what others think about you," and other quotes like, "Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship that you have."

All of this sounds very great if we were born into a world that didn't completely focus on ethics and morals and the judgment surrounding them. Our society is based on the concept (whether we like it or not) of original sin. From the birth of humanity, per the Bible, we were barely even around on Earth as humans, and we just sinned right away! We didn't even have a chance, and the label was slapped onto us from the start.

We are told by most religions that we are born sinners, which leads to the practice of infant baptisms. These poor babies can't feed or clothe themselves, yet we are deeming them sinners and washing their sins away with a ritual of holy water and priests.

What is sin, after all? The first definition is, "An immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law." We even have some pretty intense Bible passages that address sin,
“I was sinful at birth, filled with sin from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).
Dummies.com even reminds us that "A common saying that helps reinforce that pride is at the root of all sin is that “I” is at the center of “sin.”"

Well, what are we to do? Where is that grey area between loving ourselves too much and remembering that we, in fact, were born as sinners and "fall short of the glory of God" while loving ourselves so that we can stop caring about what others think? After all, isn't it the judgments that have been established by society that makes us into the sinners that we are when we disobey them? Yes, we have God's law in the 10 Commandments and even the Yamas and Niyamas in Yoga, along with every other religion and tradition's guidelines, but when we think about it, have we ever really felt the vengeful wrath of God or an all-powerful being?

What is sin, after all? What about the perception of right and wrong, good and bad? Who decides? If it is an over-seeing God, and we were created sinners, per our origination story, then what the heck do we do now? How do we fix it? And, the most important question: If we don't know how to love ourselves because we are sinners and are bad, how do we even start to love others, since they are DEFINITELY sinners and are bad? How do we learn to love others if we don't have the example of loving ourselves to use as an example?

OK, let's look at the concept of the Golden Rule: Love others as you would love yourself. As we have already asked, what if you don't know how to love yourself in the first place? And, what if your 'other' loves differently than you do and has a different perception of what love is? What if your actions hurt others and it wasn't your intention? What if you misunderstood their actions or what they said as something other than loving? These are the questions that spin around in our heads over and over that we consciously ask ourselves. Furthermore, the answers to these questions that we eventually rest with get stuffed into our subconscious, which gradually leads to self hatred and unworthiness--and, even worse, resent toward others.

I do not have all of the answers to these questions, and contemplate this concept quite often, but here is the simplest method that I use when I work on loving myself in a non-arrogant way. It, hopefully, will help you and give you a good starting foundation with developing a healthy relationship with yourself: I think about how much I love my children. You can do the same for anyone in your life--your own children, your mother, your father, your spouse or significant other, your siblings, a grandparent, whomever. When you consider your love for them, sit with the feeling for a moment. Don't just think about the feeling as a thought--actually feel it in your heart center and your physical body. It is a sensation. If it is anything like the feeling I get, it is expansive, warm, and a lightness seems to fill my whole center.

Now, in this same way, think of yourself. Are you able to incorporate this same feeling of love as you think of yourself? If so, can you feel the same expansive, warm, and light feeling that you do for your loved one?

How about the concept of unconditional love? When you think of your special loved one, do you love them despite any mistake they've made or despite the fact that they are deemed a sinner? Even if they hurt you through words or actions, would you still love them? My guess is that the answers to these questions are, "YES!" So...here is the ultimate question: "Why is it so difficult for us feel the same for ourselves?"

From this question, without over-thinking, listen to the first answer the pops into your head. Identify the answer, do not attach it or label yourself with it, and then observe your physical feeling in response to it. Sit with it and physically feel it. Normally, the answer will hear will be a label you've given yourself that stems from guilt, remorse, apathy, grief, fear, anger, desire, or shame. And here we are back to our original discussion. What was the foundation for this label you've given yourself? A feeling derived from the concept of sin as defined by...whom? Do you feel this way about your loved one that you thought about earlier? Would you ever dream of thinking of them in that way? Then why, my friend, would you ever do that to your closest best friend, advocate, and supporter: Yourself?

In the end, when we sit and feel in response to a label we have created about ourselves (which can be rooted from years of negative self-hatred), we can identify it's cause and realize it no longer needs to hold power over us. Only then, can we start to love ourselves as we would love our children, our family, or our closest friends.

October 22, 2016

Energy Pie

Sharli wrote a beautiful and absolutely accurate blog post on Thursday about truly living life. It inspired me to write this one.

I have been influenced by so many amazing people in the past year to spread optimism and light wherever I go. As much dark spaces and sadness and anger and chaos we see in the world, it doesn't do any good to give into that darkness. It doesn't benefit yourself or others to sprinkle little bits of negativity like a trail. Energy is alive and multiplies. The more you spread it, the more it sticks to you and leaves residue behind you for others. Energy also has amazing strength. It will hold on to you as long and as tightly as possible. It's your job to be strong enough to push away the bad and squeeze the good. It is up to us to figure out how to give and receive the right energy in our lives. Of course, this is easier said than done.

My mother is the epitome of light and sunshine. Those dark spaces don't really exist when she is around. Every single person she speaks to instantly feels full. It took me years to notice that she was a soul that was created to make the world a better place. She would tell you that she wasn't always like this and sometimes still isn't. In fact, she would tell you that it took her entire life to build herself into the woman she is now. It took practice and effort to find that energy is powerful beyond what we know. She would tell you that it took many trips on the struggle bus that crashed and burned many times in order to find a place where she could become her best self.

One of the many lessons she taught me was to use my energy with care. She explained to me many times in various ways that the energy I have is passionate and deep and that it could take on many forms. She also told me I didn't have endless amounts of it. She called this my "energy pie" (keep in mind that I was about ten years old when this idea was introduced to me and pie was on the top of my priority list). Every morning, I would wake up with a brand new energy pie.

This pie was the best because it was ooey gooey with high impact life. It was hot out of the oven and ready to dish out to whoever and whatever I wanted. I could choose to give a slice to school and to basketball practice. I could break off a chunk of the crust to playing with my friends at recess. Maybe I would give a small bite to doing a few chores around the house before my mom got home from work. But I couldn't have two pies in a day. Once I gave all the pieces away, I couldn't ask for more. It would be gone until I woke up the next morning to receive a new pie.

The concept was simple enough to me at the time but as I grew up with the classic teen issues like teachers yelling, too much homework, friend drama, etc., I forgot all about how much energy pie I had and gave it all away to the things that I thought were important. Looking back, I think most high school girls gave their pies to the same things that I did. I would come home from school with a frown some days and I know my mom was thinking "Julia gave her energy pie to all the wrong things today". It continued into more serious issues like money, jobs, time management, college, finding out who I was... Still I gave my energy to these things that I thought mattered or, rather, the things I couldn't do much about.

I didn't take this whole "pie" thing seriously until about a year ago when I realized that all these amazing people in my life knew just where to give their pieces. I also saw those who threw their's in the garbage right when they woke up in the morning. I saw how my energy as well as other's energy influenced everything around them. Of course, everyone is different and wants to give their energy to different things, but that's half the journey. It takes practice to find balance. I don't think we ever stop learning and adapting. Life changes just as we do.

So what happens when our days don't go as planned and negativity comes lurking around every corner? What do we do when life starts to feel like a job and our pie is being given out to all the wrong people and all the wrong things? When rough circumstances start smashing into us like bricks and we have no choice but to pay attention to them, how do we portion our pie so we can get through the day without scraping the bottom of the pan?

Our energy pie is precious. Our pie shows us what is really important in life. It shows us exactly what we are passionate about and where our vigor for life is. Sure, we won't always have enough pie for the day, pumpkin or otherwise. There will be days when we run out and may have given it to the wrong things. Just remember you wake up with a fresh one every single morning. A fresh start. A new day. An opportunity to spread light and goodness wherever you go.

Go and give your energy pie to the best and most beautiful things in your life.

A special thank you to my beautiful momma and Sharli for being true inspirations in my life. I am beyond grateful to have souls like you to look up to.

With lots of love,

October 20, 2016

A Guide for Truly Living Life

You May Be a Yogi Without Realizing It!

According to the foundations of yoga introduced by Pantanjali's The Yoga Sutras, Yoga Asanas (poses) are one of eight limbs or branches of our practice. To be quite up front, the yoga asanas were not even part of yoga until Pantanjali introduced the concept, and he did not even describe the postures in his guidelines. Yoga asanas are simply a tool for us to use to find an opening within ourselves, mentally and physically, to tap into the space beyond our five senses--to find our blissful subconscious, our Spirit, our Source. The other limbs that are just as valuable and necessary to living and creating a meaningful and purposeful life, and to reduce suffering, but are so often ignored or forgotten. So why has yoga REALLY been around for thousands of years? Let's review!

  1. Moral codes (sigh...). Yes these do show up in our yoga practice, as well, and include non-harm, truthfulness, non-stealing, sexual responsibility, and non-possessiveness.
  2. Guidelines for personal behavior. These include cleanliness internally and externally, contentment, discipline, spiritual studies and growth, and devotion to love/Spirit.
  3. Postures and the mastery of the body in order to find stillness in mind and body! Ironic!
  4. Breathing techniques such as Ujjayi (Darth Vader) Breathing, Alternate Nostrile Breathing, Breath of Fire, etc)
  5. Withdrawal of senses.
  6. Concentration and focus.
  7. Meditation (there are over 25 styles!)
  8. Merging with Spirit/Divine/Source of Life

Remember, these are guidelines to help reduce the suffering in your life. It is not as Pantanjali shared them with the world so that we would be damned to some sort of hell in the after-life if we do not follow them. Furthermore, know that you are human. You will find it challenging to stay disciplined with these guidelines, and this is normal! However, I am willing to bet that you, at some point, have already integrated one or more of these methods or concepts into your life. Whether you realized it at the time or not, you were "doing" yoga! Wow, doesn't that make yoga less intimidating and more accessible? Yoga is not some activity that is unobtainable because in order to be a yogi you do not have to be an acrobat, gymnast, or even touch your toes! A good teacher, mentor, friend, or studio will help you find the right limb to start your yogic practice with and then the sky is the limit with your journey and expansion from there!

Last, but not least, enjoy the journey, the transitions, and the challenges along the way! After all, what value and reward would there be if it was a completely easy path?

I hope this message finds you in peace.

Sincerely and with Love,

October 13, 2016

A Message Regarding Yoga And Limber Tree To You REAL People Out There

Mary McInnis Meyer

There is no mainstream demand [for yoga]. It is way too misunderstood. The closest thing to a mainstream demand for yoga is actually a mainstream demand for a misconception of yoga: that it's a bliss-out for young, skinny, flexy, women.

This misconception leaves out about 99% of the population. My goal is and always has been to share the true essence of what yoga is--and to let you REAL PEOPLE know that it can be life changing. It can change the way you view the world and your perception of the world's response to you. It is not just about the poses or being flexible. It is not fitness.

The misconception tends to cause individuals to undervalue the service being offered. No one bats an eye at $100 per month for their cell phone bill, but with yoga, that's unheard of! "How can I pay $100 per month for YOGA, when I can go to the gym for $40?!"

I have worked so hard to offer a peaceful and safe place for people to discover their practice every time they come to their mats. I have strived daily to create and maintain a consistent schedule with a large variety of (amazing) teachers that is workable for everyone--with at least 4 classes per day, 7 days a week. And then, there is the expectation of making the class styles work for everyone's needs--gentle, yet challenging; physical, yet spiritual, peaceful, yet interesting. Sometimes--actually almost always--this seems impossible.

SO often I want to give up and move on to an easier job. One that easily pays the bills...but my passion keeps me moving forward with the yoga studio--because I do see it making differences in people's lives--and I made commitments to this place, the people that are a part of it, and the new REAL people that have yet to discover what yoga truly will bring to them.

So, how do I get this message out to you REAL people more effectively, so you can discover the complete amazing experience of what yoga (and mindfulness, and meditation, and breathing practices, etc) brings into your life? How do I get to more of you REAL people, who just want to learn how you can live based on what's important and with more joy?

I believe this is accomplished by continuing to spread the authenticity of yoga gracefully and patiently through the medium of Limber Tree. How much are you willing to pay to have a cell phone or a car every month? How much are you willing to pay to obtain an education about a lifelong practice that will facilitate peace and well-being into your life? Meditate on THAT for awhile. 🙂

So HERE is Limber Tree's paradigm that makes us different than the gyms and many other studios out there:

1. Our mission is to teach you the entire full-faceted system of yoga that can serve every kind of individual.

2. We will strive to include as many resources as we can that will teach you the value of this yoga system, and make it clear.

Above all else, LOVE resonates throughout Limber Tree. That is at its very foundation and it permeates all other elements of the space and the practices held within the space.

Thank you for reading this! I will see you REAL people at the studio~


Embed discourse top 3 topics in Chrome Extension popup

(Walter Sobchak) #1

I tried to embed a disqus forum in my Chrome extension but they prevent embedding from a different domain (none in this case, as its an extension) than the forum is registered with. Does disourse allow such embedding?

(Jeff Atwood) #2

No, Discourse does not support embedding in this manner.

(Walter Sobchak) #3

Thanks Jeff. Hmmm is this limitation easy to remove in my own branch of the software?

(Jeff Atwood) #4

Why not simply embed the RSS via a RSS reader, or write a quick set of API calls that return the necessary topics.

(Kane York) #5

Because your code is a chrome extension, that means it can ignore cross-origin restrictions, and this is a trivial task to perform. Just request /top.json.


This week we have learnt that chance is the likelihood of an event occurring. We have learnt chance words like certain, most likely, likely, 50/50 (even chance), unlikely, most unlikely and impossible.

Today you are going to use your knowledge to consolidate your understanding of chance outcomes and think the about the likelihood of different events occurring.


It takes only 2 easy visits to bring out your beautiful smile. During your first visit a precision mold will be taken. We will guide you in choosing the right shade for your new, permanently white smile. On your second visit, your custom designed LUMINEERS are checked for fit and shade. Then, they’re painlessly attached.

How are LUMINEERS different from traditional veneers?

Is the LUMINEERS procedure painful?

How long will LUMINEERS last?

How long does the procedure take?

Can LUMINEERS be taken off if I want them removed?

How much are LUMINEERS?

In most cases, the cost of LUMINEERS is less than the cost of traditional veneers. LUMINEERS cost is in the range of $600 – $1,200 but it all depends on the current state of your teeth and your esthetic goals. It is best to get a thorough evaluation so we can determine if LUMINEERS are right for you and what the total cost would be.


Why Seniors Seem Mentally Sharper in the Morning - AgingCare.com

Why Older Adults Seem Mentally Sharper in the Morning

Going to the doctor, paying bills, taking a driving test—older adults should try to tackle their most taxing tasks earlier in the day, claims new evidence from the University of Toronto (UT) that suggests aging brains function best in the morning hours.

The findings align with previous conclusions that people of all ages experience fluctuations in energy and attention levels throughout the day, with noticeable dips in brainpower occurring in the afternoon or following a meal. But the effects of afternoon brain fog may impact older adults more severely, according to John Anderson, a Ph.D. candidate at UT and lead author of the recent study. "This age group is more focused and better able to ignore distraction in the morning than in the afternoon," he says.

Anderson and his team developed a computer-based memory test and sprinkled elements of distraction (randomly flashing words and pictures) throughout. They administered the test to a group of younger adults (19-30 years old) and a group of older adults (60-82 years old) at different times of the day. During each test, participants' brain activity was monitored using an fMRI scan that enabled researchers to determine which areas of the brain were being used the most.

When tested in the morning, both the younger and the older groups performed relatively well on the exam and were able to disregard the irrelevant information that popped up on the screen. However, when the older adults were tested between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., they were 10 percent more likely to get derailed by the distractions. During this time, the older adults' brain activity also suggested they were slipping into a state of mental autopilot similar to the one that occurs when a person "zones out."

The study offers insight into how older adults should schedule their daily tasks for optimum efficiency: harder, more complex actions should be reserved for the early morning hours, while simpler errands that require less brain power are better off left until the afternoon.

Lynn Hasher, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at UT and senior author of the paper, points out that the findings also shed light on how time of day could affect a person's performance on dementia screening tests. "Since older adults tend to be morning-type people, ignoring time of day when testing them on some tasks may create an inaccurate picture of age differences in brain function," she says.

As routine dementia exams are increasingly incorporated into the medical care of aging adults, it's important for patients, caregivers and doctors alike to keep in mind the potential effect of the time of day on a person's performance on these tests.

Learn more about dementia screening tests and why some physicians are wary of using them too often: Why Experts Don't Want All Seniors to Get Screened for Dementia

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What Are Split Infinitives?

by | Jan 9, 2017 | GrammarSpot, Writing Tips | 0 comments

What Are Split Infinitives?

One of the first grammar rules I ever learned was to avoid splitting infinitives. While there are many rules that govern how written and spoken English is structured, there are also many different ways to string words together and convey meaning. Indeed, using split infinitives isn’t the worst thing you can do in English writing.

What Is an Infinitive?

An infinitive is the base form of the verb. In English, this is typically the structure of the verb using “to.”

– To go

– To write

– To eat

A split infinitive is the infinitive form of the verb where another word, which is usually an adverb, appears between the “to” and the verb.

– To carefully consider

– To effectively write

– To quickly eat

Are Split Infinitives Grammatically Correct?

If you ask someone with a general knowledge of grammar if it is incorrect to split an infinitive, he or she is likely to say yes. This is because it is a generally accepted grammar practice, although there is no explicit rule at all. It may have started in the 1800s when the Dean of Canterbury, Henry Alford, expressed that he didn’t see a good reason to split an infinitive. The Fowler brothers, who wrote The King’s English in 1907, also chimed in that they didn’t like the look of the split infinitive.

It’s important to note that these are mere opinions, but people latched onto them as if it were a rule to not split infinitives. This was how the grammar myth grew. In fact, this ”rule” doesn’t seem to appear in any credible English language textbook, which means that split infinitives are grammatically correct. So if you hear someone telling you or anyone else that you shouldn’t split an infinitive, you can now set the record straight.

To Split or Not to Split?

Many scholars, including Alford and the Fowler brothers, agree that it’s not always appropriate to split an infinitive. The tactic may work well in creative writing and poetry, but it’s sometimes awkward to encounter split infinitives in academic or professional writing. In many instances, it is possible to reword or rephrase a sentence so that it doesn’t contain a split infinitive. In short, you can split an infinitive any time you please, but it’s generally preferred to avoid doing so in formal writing.

– To effectively write quality content, you need to research and proofread your work.

This sentence can just as easily be rewritten so the infinitive is no longer split.

– To write quality content effectively, you need to research and proofread your work.

Keep in mind that sometimes splitting an infinitive places certain emphasis that isn’t the same if you reword the sentence. Consider one of the most famous modern sentences containing such a split infinitive and how it would change if you didn’t split it.

– To boldly go where no man has gone before.

Are You a Splitter?

Split infinitives appear in all kinds of writing. Well-respected authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald were known to use them. Although it is a good idea to be judicious about where and when you choose to split an infinitive, you don’t have to be a grammar snob if you happen to come across one in your readings. What are your thoughts on splitting infinitives? Is doing so OK, or should writers avoid doing it at all cost? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Britainy Sorenson

Britainy Sorenson has been freelance writing since 2011 in between time spent with her best friend and husband and caring for three active and amazing little boys. She earned a BA in Japanese, an MA in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching, and a Graduate Certificate in TESOL from BYU. When her fingers aren't flying at the keys, she enjoys reading, video games, drawing and learning new crafts.

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The Big Idea

23 March 2011

Religion is irrational, but so is atheism

Thou shalt believe – or not

Why are some people religious and others atheists? Do we really know what we mean by atheism? Here is a very paradoxical clue

IN THIS space a year ago, Lois Lee and Stephen Bullivant called for a science of “non-religion”. They provided evidence against the idea that more education leads to less religious belief, which they call the “Enlightenment assumption”, and argued that we know little about why we have the beliefs we do (6 March 2010, p 26).

I agree. The origins of our beliefs are more mysterious than the Enlightenment assumption holds. Besides specific …

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We examine hypotheses for the neural basis of the profile of visual cognition in young children with Williams syndrome (WS). These are:(a)that it is a consequence of anomalies in sensory visual processing,(b)that it is a de.cit of the dorsal relative to the ventral cortical stream,(c)that it reflects de.cit of frontal function, in particular of frontoparietal interaction, and (d)that it is related to impaired function in the right hemisphere relative to the left. The tests reported here are particularly relevant to hypotheses 2 and 3. They form part of a more extensive program of investigating visual, visuospatial, and cognitive function in large group of children with WS children, aged 8 months to 15 years. To compare performance across tests, avoiding floor and ceiling effects, we have measured performance in children with WS in terms of the "age equivalence " for typically developing children. In this article the relation between dorsal and ventral function is tested by motion and form coherence thresholds, respectively. We confirm the presence of a subgroup of children with WS who perform particularly poorly on the motion (dorsal) task. However, such performance is also characteristic of normally developing children up to 5 years; thus the WS performance may reflect an overall persisting immaturity of visuospatial processing that is particularly evident in the dorsal stream. Looking at the performance on the global coherence tasks of the entire WS group, we find that there is also a subgroup who have both high form and motion coherence thresholds, relative to the performance of children of the same chronological age and verbal age on the British Picture Vocabulary Scale, suggesting a more general global processing deficit. Frontal function was tested by a counterpointing task, ability to retrieve a ball from a "detour box," and the Stroop--like "day.night " task, all of which require inhibition of a familiar response. When considered in relation to overall development as indexed by vocabulary, the day.night task shows little specific impairment, the detour box shows a significant delay relative to controls,and the counterpointing task shows a marked and persistent deficit in many children. We conclude that frontal control processes show most impairment in WS when they are associated with spatially directed responses, reflecting a deficit of frontoparietal processing. However, children with WS may successfully reduce the effect of this impairment by verbally mediated strategies. On all these tasks we find a range of difficulties across individual children and a small subset of children with WS who show very good performance, equivalent to chronological age norms of typically developing children. Overall, we conclude that children with WS have specific processing difficulties with tasks involving frontoparietal circuits within the spatial domain. However, some children with WS can achieve similar performance to typically developing children on some tasks involving the dorsal stream although the strategies and processing may be different in the 2 groups.

Original publication

Journal article

Dev Neuropsychol

Publication Date

139 - 172

Adolescent, Case-Control Studies, Child, Child, Preschool, Cognition Disorders, Female, Form Perception, Frontal Lobe, Functional Laterality, Humans, Male, Motion Perception, Parietal Lobe, Space Perception, Visual Perception, Williams Syndrome


Quotient Technology (NYSE: QUOT) and YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR (OTCMKTS:YAHOY) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Quotient Technology and YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Quotient Technology $322.11 million 4.06 -$15.07 million ($0.13) -106.54
YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR $7.90 billion 2.49 $1.22 billion $0.44 15.68

YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR has higher revenue and earnings than Quotient Technology. Quotient Technology is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

This table compares Quotient Technology and YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Quotient Technology -7.07% -3.30% -2.35%
YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR 15.50% 13.58% 8.87%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Quotient Technology and YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Quotient Technology 0 1 7 0 2.88
YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR 0 2 0 0 2.00

Quotient Technology presently has a consensus price target of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.96%. Given Quotient Technology’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Quotient Technology is more favorable than YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

74.9% of Quotient Technology shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Quotient Technology shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Quotient Technology has a beta of -0.25, indicating that its share price is 125% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

YAHOO JAPAN Cor/ADR beats Quotient Technology on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Quotient Technology

Quotient Technology Inc. provides digital marketing platform that offers digital coupons and media solutions to consumer packaged goods (CPGs) brands, retailers, and shoppers in the United States. The company operates its platform across various distribution networks, reaching approximately 60 million shoppers, including the app and Website of its flagship consumer brand, Coupons.com, other owned and operated properties, and various publisher partners. It also operates Retailer iQ on a co-branded or white label basis with retail partners, providing them a digital platform to engage with their shoppers across their Websites, mobiles, e-commerce, and social channels. In addition, the company offers promotions and digital advertising services. It serves approximately 700 CPGs, representing approximately 2,000 brands, including various food, beverage, personal, and household product manufacturers; retail partners representing various classes of trade, such as grocery retailers, as well as drug, dollar, club, and mass merchandise channels; and consumers visiting its Web, mobile properties, and social channels. The company was formerly known as Coupons.com Incorporated and changed its name to Quotient Technology Inc. in October 2015. Quotient Technology Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Yahoo Japan Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides search advertising, information listing, and e-commerce services to Internet users in Japan. It operates through two segments, Marketing Solutions Business and Consumer Business. The Marketing Solutions Business segment offers Internet-based advertising-related services, such as paid search, display advertising, and other advertising related services. The Consumer Business segment provides e-commerce related, membership, and information listing services. The company is also involved in financial and payment-related services; cloud-related services; and corporate services, such as data center related operations, and other services. In addition, it is involved in the operation of various Internet sites that provide reservation services for hotels and restaurants; mail-order services for office-related products and other delivery services; rental server information processing, domain registration, and cloud services; parcel delivery service; Internet distribution of video-streaming; planning, production, and sale of Internet advertising; and provision of entertainment information. Further, the company offers cloud and agent services; and advertising business and marketing automation services. Additionally, it engages in data center, venture capital, credit card, card loan, credit guarantee, foreign exchange margin trading, life/non-life insurance agency, and e-commerce, online media, as well as other businesses related to automobiles and total driving experience; and the collection and production of sports-related information, as well as production of articles and content. Yahoo Japan Corporation also operates Internet sites that provide reservation services for hotels and restaurants. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Yahoo Japan Corporation is a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp.

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Dante Alighieri importance in literature and how did his work reflected "the spirit of the Renaissance".

Essay by zaogirlo5High School, 10th gradeA+, April 2003

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Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy, to a family of moderate wealth that was involved in the complex Florentine political scene. Around 1285, Dante married a woman chosen for him by his family. Despite this, he remained in love with another woman named Beatrice, and continued to yearn for her even after her sudden death in 1290. Three years later, he published Vita Nuova (The New Life), which describes his tragic love for Beatrice.

Around the time of Beatrice's death, Dante began a serious study of philosophy and intensified his political involvement in Florence. He held a number of significant public offices at a time of great political unrest in Italy. In 1302, he was exiled for life by the leaders of the Black Guelphs, the political faction in power at the time. All of Dante's work on The Comedy (later called The Divine Comedy, and consisting of three books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) was done after his exile.

Dante's personal life and the writing of The Comedy were greatly influenced by the politics of late-thirteenth-century Florence. The struggle for power in Florence was a reflection of a crisis that affected all of Italy, and in fact, most of Europe, from the twelfth century to the fourteenth century. The crisis was the struggle between church and state for authority. The main representative of the church was the pope, while the main representative of the state was the Holy Roman Emperor. In Florence, these two loyalties were represented by the Guelph party, which supported the papacy, and the Ghibelline party, which supported royal power. The last...


Why we need to become a multi-planet species

Tue, Sep 13th, 2016 11:00 by capnasty NEWS

Elon Musk is arguing that some of us need to leave planet Earth and start establishing a new home elsewhere. To start, he thinks Mars looks like a good place to get our feet wet, especially if we can send one million people to live there. The reason? By becoming a multi-planet species, we can fend off cataclysmic events that could render humans extinct — that last link is also a great read explaining how SpaceX works and their ultimate goal. Above, a short video by Erik Wernquist on travelling beyond Earth.

This is a bit of a problem because, assuming that humanity plans on sticking around for awhile, it is almost inevitable that we will have to face a large asteroid at some point. Of course, asteroids aren’t the only threat. There are a host of deadly diseases, volcanic eruptions, or other catastrophes that could bring about the end of civilization as we know it (and maybe even all life).

This is why it makes sense to transition into a multi-planet species as soon as possible. Blogger Tim Urban recently had a rather apt metaphor to illustrate why we need to leave our planet and venture out into the cosmos: Picture the Earth as a kind of hard drive. And on this hard drive we have saved everything. Every song. Every book. Every thought that has been thought and every word that has been uttered. Every memory.

And that’s not all: It also houses every single species. All of it is stored in a word document saved on that hard drive.

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“We could set up a small lunar base for $10 billion or less, and we could do it by 2022.”
Crowd-Funded Space Program Successful
"It’s sort of an astronomical fossil."


WASHINGTON — If a picture is worth 1,000 words, Angela Merkel has some thoughts.

The German chancellor uploaded a photograph on Instagram of her and French President Emmanuel Macron seeming to stare down President Trump. The U.S. president is staring back, arms crossed, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looks on with his arms also crossed. National Security Adviser John Bolton and other aides also look on what appears to be a tense moment.

The article goes on to state the following:

The captions reads: “Day two of the G7 summit in Canada: spontaneous meeting between two working sessions. #G7Charlevoix.”

Macron also tweeted Saturday a photo of the other leaders and aides surrounding Trump, who was one of just two people sitting. In the photo, Macron is looking directly at the president and gesturing.

“#G7Charlevoix, second day: A new step has been taken. After a long day of work and very direct dialogue, we are actively seeking an ambitious agreement,” an English translation of Macron’s tweet reads.

The photo of Merkel staring at Trump is going viral on Twitter, along with other photos from the summit: