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0.077246 | <urn:uuid:e86cfe79-daa6-4226-8df1-e142b889fc19> | en | 0.943026 | The OTCQX exchange is the top tier listing in the pink sheets, but not every investor knows about it because it is relatively new. There are several interesting companies listed here that are generally ignored by investors. In this article we'll examine a pair of potential hidden gems.
Requirements for listing include: a $1 minimum bid, at least 100 shareholders, the company must meet the financial qualifications of a national stock exchange, and it must hold annual shareholder meetings. (These stocks come with added risk; to learn more, see The Lowdown On Penny Stocks and Catching A Lift On The Penny Express.)
Computer Services (OTC:CSVI)
This is a software and services company that sells mostly to financial institution customers. These services include data processing, check imaging, cash management and assorted other services. The company just reported record results for the quarter ending August 31, 2008, with revenue up 4.2% to $36.4 million and net income up 17.5% to $4.5 million, compared to the same quarter last year. Computer Services just authorized a $5 million share buyback and paid 65 cents in dividends over the last 12 months, giving a yield of 2.4%. (Find out what these company programs achieve and what it means for stockholders in A Breakdown Of Stock Buybacks.)
Capital Properties (AMEX:CPI)
Capital Properties has operations in real estate, outside advertising and energy. The company currently trades on the American Stock Exchange, but is deregistering and listing on the OTCQX. What makes this company unique is that rather than develop the land and then sell it off, it leases the land under long-term leases up to 99 years. The lessees then construct whatever building they want on the land and pay an annual rent to Capital Properties. The lessee also pays the real estate taxes.
What this means is that essentially the cost base of the company is dropping every year as the parcels are developed.
Unique Business Model
Capital Properties owns 18 acres of land in 11 separate lots in the downtown area of Providence, RI. It also owns an oil storage terminal in East Providence and a billboard leasing business. Capital Properties currently has seven of the 11 parcels either fully developed or under development. The four that aren't developed are currently used for paid parking. All of the leases have built-in escalator clauses that raise the annual payments by a small percentage every year. One can view the cash flows of Capital Properties as a growing perpetuity with rents increasing in the lower single-digit percent every year, while its costs drop.
The company owns nine petroleum storage tanks on its property in East Providence with a capacity of one million barrels. The company is paid on the throughput of oil, not the price, so revenue here is less volatile than a typical energy company. In the outdoor advertising business, the company has 48 billboards in 25 locations along highways leased to Lamar Advertising (Nasdaq:LAMR). These leases also have built in escalator clauses every year on the rent. Capital Properties also has no debt on its balance sheet. Voting control of the company is held by Robert H. Eder, president, CEO and chairman of the Board, and his spouse Linda Eder. They own 1.72 million shares, or 52.3% of the outstanding stock.
Bottom Line
The OTCQX exchange is an interesting place to look for companies to invest in. Ever since Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2001, it has become more expensive and burdensome to comply with the various regulatory disclosures. This is especially true for smaller companies like Capital Properties.
When a company deregisters, the disclosure requirements become much less strict. The procedure used to deregister is to initiate a reverse split of its shares and then do a mandatory buyback of the odd lot shares. This will reduce the number of shareholders to below the threshold required to be listed on one of the major exchanges. Investors should be aware that when a company deregisters, it typically makes the stock less liquid, and of course less disclosure is never a good thing.
To learn more, read The Dirt On Delisting.
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#121514 - 09/23/03 09:14 AM Why can't I read/post as an MS member yet?
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Cuckolding)
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the term. For the 1997 novel by Kiran Nagarkar, see Cuckold (novel). For the 2015 South African film, see Cuckold (film).
History of the term[edit]
Cuckold derives from the cuckoo bird, alluding to the alleged habit of the female in changing its mate frequently and authentic (in some species) practice of laying its eggs in other nests within its community.[2][3] The association is common in medieval folklore, literature, and iconography. The original Middle English was "kukewold". It was derived from Middle English "cuccault", which was made up of "cucu" (Old French for the cuckoo bird itself) plus the pejorative suffix – "ault", indicating the named person was being taken advantage of as by a cuckoo bird.
English usage first appears about 1250 in the satirical and polemical poem "The Owl and the Nightingale" (l. 1544). The term was clearly regarded as embarrassingly direct, as evident in John Lydgate's "Fall of Princes" (c. 1440). In the late 14th century, the term also appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale".[3] Shakespeare's poetry often referred to cuckolds, with several of his characters suspecting they had become one.[3]
The female equivalent “cuckquean” first appears in English literature in 1562, adding a female suffix to the “cuck”. One often overlooked subtlety of the word is that it implies that the husband is “deceived”, that he is unaware of his wife's unfaithfulness and may not know until the arrival or growth of a child plainly not his (as with Cuckoo birds).[4]
Another, related word, spelled “wittol” or “wittold”, which substitutes “wit” (in the meaning “knowing, cognizant”) for the first part of the word, designates a man aware of and reconciled to his wife's infidelity, and first appears in 1520.[5]
Metaphor and symbolism[edit]
Cuckoldry as a fetish[edit]
Unlike the traditional definition of the term, in fetish usage a cuckold is complicit in his (or her) partner's sexual "infidelity"; the wife who enjoys cuckolding her husband is frequently called a hotwife or a cuckoldress if the man is more submissive.[9][page needed]
Theories in psychology[edit]
Psychology regards cuckold fetishism as a variant of masochism, the cuckold deriving pleasure from being humiliated.[10] In Freudian analysis, cuckold fetishism is the eroticization of the fears of infidelity and of failure in the man's competition for procreation and the affection of females.[citation needed] In his book Masochism and the Self, psychologist Roy Baumeister advanced a Self Theory analysis that cuckolding (other forms of sexual masochism) among otherwise mentally healthy people was a form of escapism. According to this theory, cuckold fetishists are relieving themselves of the stress of the burden of their social role and escaping into a simpler, less-expansive position.[citation needed]
Theories in evolutionary biology and psychology[edit]
Baker and his proponents' views conflict with the hypothesized foundations for sexual jealousy in evolutionary psychology, which is rooted in the idea that men, specifically, will react jealously to sexual infidelity on the parts of their mates.[14] Infidelity is also the number one cause for divorce.[15]
The cuckold’s urge to thrust, through intercourse or masturbation, is often enhanced by the presence of the bull, whether real or fantasized. A study by Gordon Gallup and coworkers (2003) concluded that one evolutionary purpose of the thrusting motion characteristic of intense intercourse is for the penis to “upsuck” another man’s semen before depositing its own.[16]
See also[edit]
2. ^ 'Cuckold' at the Online Etymology Dictionary
5. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
15. ^ Wolcott; Hughes (1999). "Towards understanding the reasons for divorce". Working paper No. 20 (Australian Institute for Family Studies): 8.
16. ^ Susan M. Block, Ph.D. (June 2, 2015). "Cuckold" (PDF). Wiley-Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
External links[edit]
• The dictionary definition of cuckold at Wiktionary
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Article |
B&R Industrial Automation: Converting, printing innovations unveiled at Drupa
Drupa is to package production what interpack is to packaging machinery. Here are video highlights of new technologies from the two-week-long Drupa show concluded in mid-May. Some are directly targeted to packaging, others offer new ideas to package developers.
Increasingly, package production is being integrated with packaging in operations such as beverage lines where bottles and closures are molded and fed into the filling, capping, labeling and end-of-line processes. So too, packaging machine builders are growing through acquisition of upstream processes, such as bag making, film and label printing, and paperboard converting. Sometimes the systems are housed in separate plants and at other times they are integrated into packaging lines.
Whatever the scenario, it will pay to keep up with the latest innovations in converting and printing.
Don't miss intelligence crucial to your job and business!
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0.021674 | <urn:uuid:0f50028e-d819-4253-89de-48f51eab8e3d> | en | 0.922574 | The Fed Matters Much Less Than You Think
It can't control the real economy
Thursday, August 1, 2013, 1:18 AM
Those who follow the mainstream media’s “all Federal Reserve, all the time” coverage of financial news naturally conclude that Senator Chuck Schumer neatly summarized reality last year when he declared that the Federal Reserve “is the only game in town.”
This obsessive focus on Federal Reserve policies and pronouncements has several causes, including
1. laziness; i.e., publishing press releases and official spin as “news”
2. willful ignorance
3. craven desire to tout the party line, lest the plumage of someone higher up become ruffled and the messengers be sent to the career guillotine
4. adolescent faith in an all-powerful financial Deity (the Federal Reserve) being far less troubling than skepticism, and
5. all the other lemmings are persuasively running in that direction, so it must be right
This lemming-like belief in the power of the Federal Reserve generates its own psychological force field, of course; the actual power of the Fed is superseded by the belief in its power. The widespread belief in the Fed’s omnipotence is the source of the Fed’s power to move markets.
We can thus anticipate widespread disbelief at the discovery that the Fed is either irrelevant or an impediment to the non-asset-bubble parts of the economy.
Once ensconced in the comfort of the Fed Cargo Cult, it’s easy to believe that the Fed-inflated asset bubbles in stocks, bonds, and real estate are either the most important sectors of the economy, or they accurately reflect the real economy.
But if we emerge from the dark hut of the Fed Cargo Cult into the bright sun of reality, we find that everything that really matters in the real (i.e., non-Wall-Street) economy is outside the control of the Fed.
What the Fed Does Control
For context, let’s recall what the Fed actually does control:
1. The Fed controls the Fed Funds Rate; i.e., the lending rate between banks.
2. The Fed can influence interest rates in the real economy by buying and selling Treasury bonds and other securities; i.e., increasing or decreasing liquidity/money supply.
3. The Fed can make funds available to the financial sector. During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Fed loaned over $16 trillion to large global banks. This is roughly equal to the entire gross domestic product (GDP) of the U.S.; all residential mortgages in the U.S. total about $9.4 trillion.
4. The Fed can invoke the public-relations magic created by belief in its power to issue grandiose pronouncements; for example, “we’ll keep interest rates low essentially forever.”
That this is, strictly speaking, not completely within the Fed’s power is left unsaid, lest the magic dissipate.
So the godlike powers of the Fed boil down to three levers:
What the Fed Doesn't Control
Here’s what the Fed cannot do:
1. It cannot force any enterprise or person to borrow more money.
2. It cannot differentiate between productive investments and financial speculation/malinvestments.
3. It cannot distribute money to households by dropping cash from helicopters; all it can do is make money available to banks.
Since it can’t do any of these, its powers in the real economy are severely limited.
In actuality, the Fed has little control or influence over the things that really matter in the real economy.
Innovation and the Fed
Innovation is often a meaningless buzzword (think “financial innovation”), but it is also the key driver of wealth creation in the real economy.
The Federal Reserve could be shut down and all its asset bubbles could pop, and innovations in energy, agriculture, transportation, education, media, medicine, etc. would continue to impact the availability and abundance of what really matters in the real world: energy, knowledge, water, food, and opportunity, to name a few off the top of a long list.
It is rather striking, isn’t it? The supposedly omnipotent Fed has virtually no positive role in the key driver of wealth creation. On the contrary, the Fed’s policies have had an actively negative influence, as its monetary manipulations have distorted the investment landscape so drastically that capital pours into unproductive speculative bubbles rather than into productive innovation because the return on Fed-backed speculation is higher and the risk is lower (recall the Fed’s $16 trillion bailout of banks; including guarantees, the total aid extended by the Fed exceeded $23 trillion; the landscape looks different when the Fed has your back).
Two thought experiments illustrate the dynamics:
The Free Lunch
The Square Meal
Avoiding the Bill
The Fed isn’t supporting innovation in the real economy; rather, it is actively widening the moat that protects the banking sector from disruptive innovation.
Thanks to innovations in technology, it is now possible to bypass borrowing entirely and raise money for innovative ventures with crowdsourcing. It doesn’t take much insight to look ahead and see that the crowdsourcing model could expand to the point that the economy no longer needs Too Big to Fail Banks at all: Virtually all lending, from commercial paper to home mortgages, could be crowdsourced, managed, and exchanged online.
This sort of real financial innovation is anathema to the Federal Reserve, of course, as its primary task (beneath the PR about maintaining stable prices and employment) is enriching and empowering the banks.
There are only two ways to deal with innovation: either dig a wider regulatory moat to protect your cartel, monopoly, or fiefdom from disruptive innovation, or get on the right side of innovation and evolve amidst the inevitable disruption.
Unfortunately for centralized institutions like the Fed, innovation always jumps the moat and disrupts the Status Quo, despite its frantic efforts to protect the perquisites of those skimming cartel-rentier profits as a droit de seigneur.
In Part II: How You Can Limit Your Exposure to the Fed's Financial Interference, we look more deeply at critical dynamics of the economy that the Fed can and cannot influence and more importantly, what we can do to protect ourselves from the implications of the Fed's efforts.
There is much we, as individuals, can do to ignore the Emperor's clothes (or lack thereof) and focus on how to pursue our own prosperity and happiness irrespective of the meddling of central planners. The real power is in our hands, should we choose to believe it.
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davidallan's picture
Status: Bronze Member (Offline)
Joined: Nov 15 2009
Posts: 49
The Fed Matters much less than you think
Good thought provoking article. To expand the theme even further I would suggest that one of the characteristics of complex systems is that no one is really in control. They may seem to be in control for certain periods of time ( eg the recent manipulation of the gold market, and even the big institutional players of the last 100-200 years) but these are always a function of the prevailing conditions. To slightly skew a quote from David Korowicz ; The Fed, the Bullion Banks and whatever other power you care to name are nothing more 'than dependant expressions of a moment in history'. Conditions will change and so will the variables that impact our lives
ferralhen's picture
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Joined: Oct 14 2009
Posts: 151
chris mentioned in a past
chris mentioned in a past article that the gov't needed to increase growth/debt by about 105 trillion in this period and i think this is what we are seeing...the creation of that growth/debt. why dither about the details...when right before our eyes they've pulled it off. the powers that be are printing whatever they want .period. it's a virtual financial structure. there is a story for everyone out there for why this is happening.
i think comments like calling this the "real" economy only add to the public's williness to believe in the fed, the gov't is not the "real" economy. there are many economies that make up the usa financial system. i know a large part of the us economy is people who live, work, eat, trade in the "underground". the markets, the fed don't really affect people here. they don't even listen to the news . let alone dissect it. the gvt prints out their food stamps and welfare checks out of thin air, so no one is paying for them. as long as the media can get you to think you are paying for this, then presto, they've kept the populace divided and reduced the threat of revolt.
i like most of CHS's concepts but i wish he would use normal terms . i can't show his articles to some of myfriends because he goes off the deep end with his terminology of cargo cults etc, which means less people get the message.
as our complex society collapses, we've already experienced the loss of a stable secure predictable financial game, and it will continue to be less secure.i don't depend on my accumulated wealth to feel secure.
Doug's picture
Status: Diamond Member (Offline)
Joined: Oct 1 2008
Posts: 2928
What about a new Fed chairperson?
Is this the right time/place to ask Charles' opinion of the apparent front runner for Fed chairman, Larry Summers?
JoeKuan's picture
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Joined: Jun 24 2013
Posts: 5
Cheap money
Cheap money distorts a lot of things.
Cheap money clouds our judgement, kicking the can down the road, becoming arrogant & selfish, etc....
Thetallestmanonearth's picture
Status: Gold Member (Offline)
Joined: Feb 28 2013
Posts: 303
Snake analogy
I'm no economist, but my here's my attempt at an analogy that helps me make sense of the current state of the financial world. It's all just debt chasing ever more abstract forms of itself. A snake eating its own tail. As long as it was climbing a spiril staircase of energy it never had to feed on itself. Now we appear to be at or near the top of the stairs and the bloated snake is devouring itself. It's antiquated nervous system isn't sending it the pain signals it needs to know that this is not a good survival strategy.
RoseHip's picture
Status: Silver Member (Offline)
Joined: Feb 5 2013
Posts: 108
Jumping Moats
Charles said.
I would like to know more about what the causes are that allow innovation to jump this moat?
In my imagination this relationship is more like a damn and a river. They do allow innovation thru as long as it doesn't disrupt Status Quo, thus relieving the pressure. I think Mr. Tesla got caught up in this mechanism multiple times.
KugsCheese's picture
Status: Platinum Member (Offline)
Joined: Jan 2 2010
Posts: 922
FED is Negatively Powerful
The negative impact of FED and Wall Street Arm is much more than any positive impact. So the FED is very powerful to affect negative outcomes.
yogiismyhero's picture
Status: Silver Member (Offline)
Joined: Jun 28 2013
Posts: 173
I have my eyes on China and the Fed don't control China... they? Japan, Europe? I don't think so. They stick their noses there but they can't change anything really. I think the Fed better worry about their own institution and whether it will even have the powers to do anything in the not too distant future. I have been reading alot about the tapering and slews of opinions. September seems the logical start. Chris called September or before on a serious correction occurring, and well, I am rooting for Chris as I just want a reset, no matter the pain as pain is coming anyways. Guaranteed.
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nnals of America, came to Cambridge as pastor of the First Church in 1809; and both his sons, Oliver Wendell and John, became authors -the one being known to all English readers, while the other, with perhaps greater original powers, was known only to a few neighbors. The Ware family, coming in 1825, was a race of writers, including the two Henrys, John, William, John F. W., and George. Richard Dana, the head of the Boston bar in his day, was a native of Cambridge (1699); as was his son Francis Dana, equally eminent and followed in lineal succession by Richard Henry Dana, the poet; and by his son of the same name, author of Two years before the Mast. The Channing family, closely connected with the Danas, was successively represented in Cambridge by Professor E. T. Channing, the Rev. W. H. Channing, and Professor Edward Channing. With them must be associated Washington Allston, whose prose and verse were as remarkable as his paintings, and whose first wife was a Channing, and whose
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Olde Cambridge, Chapter 5: Lowell (search)
point of view of strict justice, neither Lowell nor his critic can be quite vindicated; although each of these two writers is amply furnished both with knowledge and acuteness. Mr. Lowell had won in London that cordial reception and subsequent popularity in both literary and aristocratic circles which had, indeed, been accorded in some degree to other Americans before him. This truth is sufficiently established by a slight examination of the correspondence of Ticknor or Sumner or Motley or Dana. What is most remarkable is that he combined this with diplomatic duties at a difficult time, and bore also the test of repeated invitations to pronounce his estimate, in the most public way, of the classic names of England. American genius and scholarship had received English recognition before him, but American criticism never. The Queen herself said of him when he left, that no ambassador had ever excited more interest or won more general regard in England. On the other hand, Mr. Smal
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Olde Cambridge, Index (search)
. Chatterton, Thomas, 114. Chauncey, Pres., Charles, 7, 8, 9. Cheever, Rev. G. B., 94, 113. Cheney, S. W., 169, 170. Chester, Capt., John, 20. Child, F. J., 183. Clarke, Rev. J. F., 57, 104. Cleveland, Pres., Grover, 195. Cleveland, H. R., 123. Cogswell, J. G., 14, 27, 116, 117. Coleridge, S. T., 38, 91, 95. Collamer, Jacob, 161. Cooper, J. F., 35. Craigie, Mrs., 124, 129. Cranch, C. P., 58, 64, 70. Crichton, the Admirable, 155. Curtis, G. T., 16. Cuvier, Baron, 35. Dana, Francis, 15. Dana, R. H., 14, 15. Dana, R. H., Jr., 15, 191. Dana, Richard, 15. Danforth, Samuel, 152. Davis, Admiral C. H., 113. Davy, Sir, Humphry, 95. Daye, Matthew, 6. Daye, Stephen, 5, 6. Devens, Gen., Charles, 181. Devens, S. A., 76. Dickens, Charles, 123. Dowse, Thomas, 18. Dunster, Pres., Henry, 5, 6. Dwight, J. S., 57, 58, 63, 137. Dwight, Prof., Thomas, 94, 96. Elder, William, 67. Eliot, Rev., John, 6. Eliot, Rev., Richard, 7. Emerson, R. W., 34, 53, 54, 57, 60, 62 | http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/nebrowser?id=dana,francis&query=Perseus:text:2001.05.0157 | dclm-gs1-071050000 |
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A Tragedy Requires a Little Greatness to Begin With: Harvey Danger’s Unsung Masterpiece
In 1998, Seattle rock group Harvey Danger had a hit song with "Flagpole Sitta", a hyper-literate alt-rock dissection of the stupidity of the modern age. They were written off as one-hit-wonders. Two years later, they released one of the best albums of the decade. No, really.
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9 Oct 2009 // 6:30 AM
One in a long line of one-hit wonders that deserve to be multi-hit wonders.
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You can be happy with a guy who pursues your sister(s).
At the conclusion of Little Women, Amy marries a man who has previously proposed to one of her sisters and has a rumored history with another. While this type of setup might have worked in 1868, the odds are that you shouldn't hook up with a guy who has been in a serious relationship with one of your sisters (by blood or by friendship).
Image Source: Columbia Pictures
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Appearances are everything.
In Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece, Anna Karenina, Anna's aristocrat husband refuses to divorce her as a way of keeping up appearances in high Russian society. Because of his concern for their public image, Anna and Alexei are trapped in a loveless and infidelity-ridden marriage for years. Today's society is more fluid, and there's no reason to sacrifice romantic happiness for looks.
Source: Focus Features
Show Caption +
Questionable choices eventually disappear.
Jane Eyre's Edward Rochester has a lifetime of bad decisions behind him when he falls in love with Jane, including (but not limited to) a pyromaniac wife locked in his attic and a financially demanding illegitimate child. He continues to make questionable choices when he attempts to trick Jane into a bigamous marriage, but somehow gets the girl in the end! Even the consequences of his past bad decisions disappear at the book's conclusion, when his vision is restored after his crazy first wife blinds him in a fire. While the end of the novel is sweet, this type of situation would not work well in real life; the consequences of questionable decisions do not conveniently disappear.
Source: Focus Features
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No matter your terrible behavior, it will all work out for you in the end.
Emma's title character behaves rather atrociously throughout her namesake novel. Meddling in her loved ones' relationships, acting cruelly in some reactions with her acquaintances, and refusing to listen to reprimand when she behaves inappropriately, it would seem that Emma does not deserve a happy ending. However, Emma lands a handsome rich guy and somehow her friend is able to marry the kindhearted man she'd previously spurned at Emma's request. While her bad behavior goes without lingering consequence in the novel, this type of behavior will ensure unhappy relationships in the real world.
Source: Miramax Films
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It's OK to marry for the wrong reasons.
Go ahead, marry a guy for money or revenge — Scarlett O'Hara did it three times, and it worked out for her! Gone With the Wind's protagonist marries thrice: first as a spiteful act against a former fling, second for money, and third for even more money. While this type of behavior may have been permissible (maybe even encouraged!) in the past, it's now safe to say that marriage should be for love.
Source: MGM
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There are always second chances.
Source: Focus Features
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Wealth and social status trump love.
While Persuasion's Anne does end up with her true love at the novel's conclusion, she acknowledges that it only happened due to his rise in social status and newly acquired wealth. Having previously distanced herself from Captain Wentworth due to his low status, the pair only happily reconciles when he has risen in ranks and accrued large amounts of money. When dating today, chasing status and wealth instead of love can lead to severe romantic disappointment.
Source: Clerkenwell Films
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Being honest about your feelings is foolish.
The focal characters of Sense and Sensibility, sisters Elinor and Marianne, are supposed to represent the title characteristics of "sense" (reservedness and good choices) and "sensibility" (emotion and rash decision-making). Marianne's sensibility is portrayed as her biggest flaw, since she openly professes love for her suitor and causes a general ruckus for her relationship, but in today's dating world it's a valuable quality. In Jane Austen's era, it was frowned upon to openly discuss feelings; now, it's encouraged!
Image Source: Columbia Pictures
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Obsession is romantic.
While The Great Gatsby's classification as a romance novel is debatable from a literary standpoint, there is no denying that it has gone down in history as a great love story. Instead of interpreting Jay Gatsby's obsession with Daisy as romantic, however, modern readers should understand that such behavior is unhealthy.
Source: Warner Bros.
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Your background defines your life and relationships.
Heathcliff, one of the main characters in Wuthering Heights, is rejected by many because of his vague ethnic background. This affects his entire life, down to his eligibility to marry the woman he loves. However, no such background should factor into modern romantic relationships.
Source: Ecosse Films
Show Caption +
Next Slideshow 14 Reasons to Date a Musician BY Hilary White
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Joined 7 years ago
eh well... i'm all over the place as a person. my brain is scrambled all the time but that's ok. i drink a lot of coffee and i'm neurotic. i'm hyperactive yet lazy... and i'm jumpy. i don't have an attention span, but i put my entire heart and soul into something if i like it. :robot: MAX PUNCH!!! | http://www.popsugar.com/profile/otaku | dclm-gs1-071200000 |
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"It's enormously tragic in a case like this," Marquis The Associated Press.
If the county had been able to hold Beebout, "there's a good chance that one or two of these young women would be alive," he said.
In many cases, the jails make releases based on data that go into a model called a "matrix" that tries to gauge how dangerous a suspect is and how likely the suspect is to appear in court.
Marquis said the factors typically are the nature of the offense and the prisoner's history of showing up for court dates.
Beebout had been in the Clatsop County jail earlier in 2012, when he was arrested and served 30 days for failing to register as a sex offender, the Daily Astorian (http://bit.ly/13cySC9) reported.
Marquis said the registration requirement was a result of Beebout's conviction in California for sexually abusing a person younger than 16. Beebout served nearly four years in California. He had also served time in Illinois for theft.
Information from: The Daily Astorian, http://www.dailyastorian.com | http://www.publicopiniononline.com/nationalnews/ci_22833520/oregon-jail-failed-hold-man-who-killed-2 | dclm-gs1-071270000 |
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“Krystal Review”
Written on: 21/03/2013 by edders1983 (1 review written)
I've been with Krystal for since 2005 back when they were known as Scotreg. Even when I first joined the value for money vs the quality was fantastic. Since then it has just got better and better. I've had friends and colleagues host their websites elsewhere at other companies but the mix of prompt communication and price as well as tip top solutions even if it is the base packages theyy offer (as I have several sites with them i know ranging over a variety of their packages) then you wont be dissapointed.
I know this sounds like I work for them as I am so positive but I have never had any issues with them and their service has always been great. You hear so many stories about when something has been done wrong that I thought it about time I write something nice about something that is being done right!
Yes you can find hosting cheaper elsewhere but its not always about cost. I've worked places that just focus on cutting cost and the quality has been lost. and im glad to say Krystal is quality. | http://www.reviewcentre.com/report_review/1943506 | dclm-gs1-071340000 |
0.01874 | <urn:uuid:4bfd21bb-3e51-4410-a19a-bf0148f49ac0> | en | 0.959674 | The Secret To Dealing With The Effects Of Growing Older
Although aging is inevitable, you can keep your mind and your attitude positive. Learn about the negative effects of aging, and look for new ways to reduce the effects of aging and promote longevity. If you apply these guidelines, you can extend your life to include more joyous times.
Encourage your mind to stay active through learning. The old are the wisest and you should continue your path to intelligence. Just keep your mind working at all times.
Increase your physical activity by beginning a new exercise program. As you get older, your body requires more time and energy to maintain its strength and flexibility. Consider a brisk walk several times a week. Round out the week with two days of doing strength exercises. Having a routine like this will keep your body healthy, and make you less susceptible to problems associated with age.
Friendships are important because they help your life gain more love and energy, which are good for your emotions and are positive. You can never be too old to get new friends. Take any opportunity to go out and make new friends, and you will enjoy life to the fullest.
Always strive to learn new things, and embrace new experiences to keep yourself healthy and youthful. Learning is an important part of life.
Make it a point to get enough sleep each night. You want to sleep around 8 hours per night. Not getting adequate sleep can cause depression, heart problems, and more.
Getting Older comes with benefits. You can still have an active and vibrant life provided that you take good care of your body and mind. Keep this advice in mind always, and you’ll have a much more pleasant old age. | http://www.rightantiaging.com/natural-anti-aging/the-secret-to-dealing-with-the-effects-of-growing-older/ | dclm-gs1-071370000 |
0.343742 | <urn:uuid:cc32c8fd-7deb-41ce-9a87-58762a0a9e9b> | en | 0.980006 | Magazine, website & books written by teens since 1989
Wait you can join the army and risk your life for your country, but you can't have a beer?
By , pittsfield, MA
Congratulations it's your 18'Th birthday you are a legal adult! Look at all of the things you can do; vote, get married, join the army, buy property, get a tattoo, adopt a child, make your own medical decision, and legally own a gun. Go out and have a drink with your best friends and celebrate! Wait... You can't legally drink alcohol, but you are mature enough to choose the government, decide who you want to spend the rest of your life with, defend your country by putting your life on the line, permanently alter the state of your body, take on the responsibility of another human life, decide what medications you do and don’t want to take, and legally own a weapon that can kill people. Wow that seems like you would need to be really mature, but you can’t go out and have a beer with your friends on a Saturday night, ridiculous… right?
The United States is only one of four countries with the minimum drinking age of 21; there are approximately 20 states that have no drinking age at all. That’s 5 times the amount of states that have a legal drinking age of at least 21! One theory is that an 18 year olds body is not developed enough to handle alcohol. Yes, it is true that your body does change as it ages. When you are 18 it is different from when you are 21 but it is also different and more "developed" when you are 56, so since we are more mature at 56 than 21 should that be the legal drinking age?
So it's your 21'st birthday and you can now legally drink, there is no magical change that happens in your body that makes it ready for alcohol. Let's face it most people have taken a drink before the age of 21; I know I have and I bet you had a drink before your 21'st birthday too. In fact, in 2005, about 10.8 million people in the United States ages 12-20 (28.2% of this age group) reported drinking alcohol in the past month. Nearly 7.2 million (18.8%) were binge drinkers, and 2.3 million (6.0%) were heavy drinkers. These numbers are probably shocking to adults, but to teenagers they are probably a little lower than what you expected right? I believe that the reason that alcohol is so tempting to teens is because it's forbidden. It's human nature to want what we can't have, just think back to the story of Adam and Eve from the bible, they weren't supposed to eat the fruit, it was forbidden, but that probably made that apple 10 times better to Adam when he ate it. If the drinking age was lowered to 18 by the time a teen would want to drink, let's say 15, they would most likely think; "Well, it's only 3 more years, I'd rather not be a criminal and just wait 3 years". But know a 15 year old thinks "Well, jeez 6 years, I need to at least try it; I can't possibly wait 6 years to drink, seriously". Okay so for arguments sake let’s just say that they think we are mature enough and that they just want to lower drunk driving deaths.
There have been statistics thrown out there saying how the lower drinking age has saved “countless lives”, these numbers are not scientific and are just estimated. The truth is since the 80’s education has increased and people are more informed than ever. So there has been talk about a “drinking license” where if you were below 21 and wanted to drink you would have to take a class on responsible alcohol consumption, which sounds cool to me. Why not be informed on what you are putting in your body and be aware of how to do it responsibly.
The reality of it is even though the legal drinking age is 21, that is not the average age that people take there first sip of alcohol. Three out of every four students (75%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by the end of high school, about two fifths of students (41%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by 8th grade, and More than half (58%) of 12th graders report having been drunk at least once in their life. One fifth (20%) of 8th graders report having been drunk at least once in their life. These numbers are not going to decrease; they’re just going to keep growing. The media glorifies alcohol and its effects. I my self was even told by a teacher that it was normal to drink in high school, that’s what the reality of our country is. I truly believe that if at 18 you are responsible enough to go to war and risk your life you are more the mature enough to drink alcohol. So kids are not changing for the laws, so maybe we should change the laws for the kids.
Join the Discussion
This article has 5 comments. Post your own now!
bookwormjunkie said...
Jun. 4, 2011 at 8:13 am
just saying that ido not want a stupid glass of beer! i have smelled it and it smells DIGUSTING!!YCK!!!
dangerous.pie said...
Dec. 9, 2010 at 8:39 am
i agree with this writer completely how come you come you can die in iraq but you cant have a stupid beer
MadHatter said...
Apr. 2, 2010 at 11:09 am
I totallly agree with the writer. I think you should be able to drink if you can risk your life. As for the people who arent responsible, they should be mature enough not to drink or have a buddy there to baby sit them
caitlin.calamity said...
Feb. 18, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Most of the 21 year olds I know aren't even responsible enough to drink. Hell , alot of the much older adults I know aren't responsible enough to drink. Personally, I'm glad I'm not part of a statistic. I'm glad that I chose to live my life straight edge.
skittless2440 replied...
Apr. 2, 2010 at 7:51 pm
well I think it's great you choose not to drink, that is something most teens are not willing to do, so I agree that the laws should change and then if smart people like yourself dont want to drink than they dont have to but if people do they should be able to, no offense to you I really think it is great that you are above the influence!
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0.828299 | <urn:uuid:ce4131d9-a20c-4b2f-8742-22b889aa3d48> | en | 0.964926 | Share Crafts
Cleaning Can Openers
Can Opener
Can openers need to be cleaned regularly to remove the buildup of the dried can contents that collect on them with normal usage. This is a guide about cleaning can openers.
Solutions: Cleaning Can Openers
Tip: Cleaning a Can Opener
To clean and disinfect the wheel of a can opener, just use white vinegar and an old tooth brush. Dip the toothbrush in the vinegar and scrub clean. Swish in hot soapy water and rinse.
By fossil1955 from Cortez, CO
ReplyWas this helpful? Yes No
Tip: Cleaning Can Openers
Sometimes I just ramble through ThriftyFun to see what I can see. I was looking at the posts on can openers and two things came to mind.
I sometimes put both my hand held ones and the business portion of my electric one in the dishwasher. I also put them in a small saucepan and boil them for a few minutes. You'd be amazed what comes to the top of that water! I have been also known to Brillo them.
By Marty Dick [163]
Here are questions related to Cleaning Can Openers.
Question: Cleaning a Can Opener
Why is it everytime I buy a can opener it only last for a few months and then it rust and becomes difficult to use? I heard you are not supposed to submerge them in water, but how should you clean them then? Any suggestions? | http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf111430.tip.html | dclm-gs1-072040000 |
0.078784 | <urn:uuid:60009fba-bf01-4d9a-8b08-92f7eed78ba4> | en | 0.908191 | Midtown East
Restaurants in Midtown East
One of the city’s few remaining traditional French restaurants, La Grenouille is still a top choice for special occasion dining, more than half a century since its opening in 1962.
Keep a careful eye out for the entrance to this sushi haven in Midtown. With just a small sign and a door, chef Toshihiro Uezo’s restaurant is unassuming in nearly every way, with none of the bling of his trendier neighbors, just a classic red and black lacquered bar and a few Japanese accents.
Situated in the lobby of the Alex Hotel in Midtown, Riingo is a fusion of Asian and American cuisine and decor. Red walls, like Japanese lacquer, give accent to the white floors and ebony wood tables and chairs.
Inspired by his childhood spent in a small Japanese fishing village, renowned chef Naomichi Yasuda trained for more than two decades in Tokyo and New York before opening this namesake sushi restaurant in midtown.
Aureole is an upscale New York Theater District restaurant in the Bank of America Tower. It's the flagship for restaurant entrepreneur Charlie Palmer, who supports the farm-to-table food movement and specializes in Progressive American cuisine. | http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/midtown-east/restaurants | dclm-gs1-072090000 |
0.021563 | <urn:uuid:dd8da1fb-e32d-441d-9a98-02720bbbd68b> | en | 0.956765 | Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Guilty Food Pleasures
This post started out as my Top Ten Guilty Food Pleasures, but when I started the list, I could only come up with a half a dozen. I guess for me the ‘guilty’ part really outweighs the ‘pleasure’ part, or else I don't take much pleasure in guilt-inducing foods. I'd like to think that is more the case. There is very little junk food, fast food, or processed food out there that I eat. I don’t consider myself an über health nut, but, for better or for worse, I am a food snob, so would never look twice at stuff like pudding cups (especially the bubble gum flavor-blech-just the sight of it turns my stomach), Kraft singles, Twinkies and the like. The more processed and distorted from it origin the food item is, the harder I find it to stomach.
However, I am not without some secret shame and I list a few items below that never fail to tempt me and I never fail to indulge in when I have the chance! Of course there's lots of sweets, munchies and sugar-filled drinks that I will dabble in from time to time, but they are just riff-raff and not very high up on the 'pleasure' chart. To me, if you're not really craving it, perhaps you're just eating it because it's being served at a party, it's not worth the trouble. And by trouble I mean the fat. And the tooth decay, facial breakouts, heart stress and brain sluggishness. The list could go on, but as I am not an expert in nutrition, I'll leave the scientific facts out of it and just go with my standard yardstick for measuring junk food:
If my mother didn't allow it when I was growing up, chances are it WILL kill you.
I was asking around to a few people about this topic and was astounded by what I found. People really have some very astonishingly gross and potentially hazardous eating habits! Maybe I am just blind to what really goes on out there in those dark kitchens in the wee hours of the morning, but I am now immensely curious and must find out more.
If you have a guilty food pleasure –and I know you do- please share it with us at underthehighchair. We would love to hear from you the shocking stuff! the calorie mountains! the unthinkble combinations! Come on, we won't tell anyone else and it will be lots of fun.
What constitutes a ‘guilty pleasure’, you ask?
Well, it will be something different for everyone so I won’t define it , but one common thread is that it should have a very low nutritional value and the rest is self-explanatory. If you’re telling me you can’t resist bingeing on a sack of edamame, I’m not going to swallow it.
It may be a tad out of the ordinary, like whipping cream on toast (my brother) or the same as 80 billion other people: a Big Mac. (Yes, you should feel guilty about fast food. If you don’t have a clue why, go see Fast Food Nation for starters.)
I will also add that Guilty Pleasures are not weird combinations that you come up with when there is no food in the fridge…maybe we’ll address those wacky foods another time.
You can either email your guilty pleasures to me directly and I’ll do a follow up post, or just spill the beans as a comment at the end of the post.
For the record here are my few guilty pleasures:
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. They are so evil and so very good
Poutine: the Quebecois classic dish of fries, curd cheese and gravy. I don’t eat it often, but probably more often than I should. Once in a while I need a ‘fix’.
Microwave Popcorn. It’s so artificial tasting, that fake butter and all, but so addicting.
Sour Cream and Onion Ruffles. My weakness in the chip department
Blak: Coffee flavored Coka Cola. I’ve only had this once, but I may as well add it, because I loved it so much, I can tell we’re going to have a future together as soon as more stores start carrying it. Namely, Costco.
Tammy said...
Hmm... oh gosh, I love poutine! With a huge French population in Winnipeg, poutine's very often found on a restaurant menu. Mmm...
Other than that, I would say I have a weakness for freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, chili-lime kettle cooked potato chips and coconut lattes!
As for Krispy Kreme and Blak - Blechhhh...
Zaak said...
I've been wracking my brain for 10 minutes trying to thing of what junk I love and I've come up with those banana candies (the sort of hard sort of soft things that don't really taste like banana and leave a chemical taste in your mouth.
After my near-death experience with Krispy Kreme, I'm no longer tempted.
Danny B said...
I like to put a small bowl half-full of marshmallows and chocolate chips in the microwave for about 30 seconds or so. The marshmallows inflate to 5 times their normal size, and is worth watching. Once the microwave beeps, take a spoon and mix the goo all together. Then you get to chew this tough, stringy, chewy mass off the spoon, and it's really good! Doesn't look too pretty, but it's good!
Danny B said...
After reading Zaak's comments, I have to admit I love those red, strawberry marshmallow things. They also leave a pseudo-chemical taste in your mouth, but are oh-so-yummy.
Amber said...
I too love the strawberry marshmallow candies! Especially if they're just a little bit old and chewy, mmm. Now take into account I'm pregnant so food is on my mind a lot, but some of my other favorite sinful indulgences are: home-made turtles, maple-walnut icecream, fudge, and the pink starburst candies. I'm also a sucker for krispy kreme glazed donuts, but I know how to stop at one unlike my sweetheart:)
Miranda said...
ohh I love the gooey marshmallow mess Danny described, but its better if you add either peanut butter or graham cracker crumbs...but not both :) I also love crispy creme, sour starbursts, nutella, cookie dough, and new york super fudge chunk ice cream :)
Anonymous said...
I have been know (until now, only privately) to purchase a bag of marshmallows, get them home as fast as possible (otherwise I'd eat them all) and then make up a batch of RiceKrispie Squares. I'll get some before they even get into the pan, then eat half the pan. One good side to these treats is that they are very low in fat. I can't wait to share a batch with Noah.When Mommy and Daddy get home we'll have cleaned up every trace, and they'll never know....
Kevin said...
Ahem. For the record, pudding cups are an excellent source of quick sugar right before a short, intense workout. Sort of like a Power Bar or Power Gel. But then I don't know if that is considered "food" or "fuel". Oh, and Kraft Singles are great on grilled cheese.
In the "can't touch this" category, I would definitely put spray-on cheese. (Is it really cheese if it comes in a spray can?)
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0.192253 | <urn:uuid:0271f1d9-1243-4098-9e07-47c10067d038> | en | 0.939404 | Top Definition
Life without a private car. Usually involves having to resort to using public transport or feet to get around, while wishing you had a car so you didn't have to.
CAROL: Where are you? The Ricky Martin concert starts in 15 minutes!
ME: I'll be there soon-ish.. say 30 minutes.
CAROL: Why so long?
ME: Got to walk cuz I haven't got any wheels. That's the way it is when you're living la vida nocar!
by CRichie February 23, 2009
6 Words related to la vida nocar
Free Daily Email
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0.068812 | <urn:uuid:7cc07eb5-0615-4cae-95ea-b94315c5c8fb> | en | 0.947981 | 1. Meaning What's Up or What's Going On?
3. Asking if someone has drugs or whatever
1. Hey Bob! What's Good With Ya?
by Don't Care July 16, 2005
Top Definition
means whats up, whats new, how've ya been?
yoo whats good??
nadaaa.. chillin chillin son..u?
by ashlee August 05, 2003
another way of saying WUSSUP
" Wuz good mah niggeh!?"
by S1Ck3ST FLiGGaHh April 23, 2003
another way of saying how are you to somone
bob:whats good
me:im cool man
by no,whats your name September 07, 2003
whats up , or how's it going
hey whats good with you today
by zee April 23, 2005
what's up, what's happenin
What's good kid
by j-rob mad fresh April 10, 2010
What's up?, what's happening?, what's new?
-What's good?
-Not much, jus' chillin'
by princZess420 February 17, 2004
"What Going on" "whats the proble between us"
"Are you lost"
Whats good is not always used in a nice way.
Even though most now believe it means "hello". You must be carfull it started of as a way of saying "whats your problem and what do you want to do about it." In some area if someone asks you "whats good" do not just repley with "Whats Good?" its can be taken as a clallenge. remeber is a question. so answer it.
by JayStaRr March 11, 2009
Free Daily Email
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Julian Alvorez
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1. Alvorez, Julian
Associated names:
97 Miami, FL
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Hornish not interested in replacing Franchitti
- Associated Press - Friday, November 15, 2013
HOMESTEAD, FLA. (AP) - Sam Hornish Jr. crossed off every goal in IndyCar before leaving the series for NASCAR.
With three championships and an Indianapolis 500 victory, he felt there was nothing left for him to achieve.
Now, with one of the best seats in the series suddenly open, Hornish hasn't changed his mind.
Hornish said Friday he has no interest in returning to IndyCar to replace Dario Franchitti at Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Hornish said the team reached out to his representatives this week when Franchitti was told by doctors he can no longer race because of the risk of injury is too great.
"I expressed I was very grateful even for the call," Hornish said. "A door opens and the reason still stands to not do it. It's just any time I've had a thought or thought about that at all, it's been like very minimal."
The No. 10 is one of the best seats in IndyCar, and Franchitti won 12 races and three consecutive titles when he joined Ganassi in 2008 after a brief stint in NASCAR. Franchitti and Hornish practically crossed paths as Hornish made the full-time jump to NASCAR that same year.
He isn't looking back, even though he heads into Saturday's final Nationwide Series race of the season with no job lined up for 2014.
Could he change his mind?
"If I'm sitting at home for a while and I just got to go hop into a race car like, I'm beating myself up, I don't know," he said. "I've said it a million times: I did everything over there that I wanted to do, and way more. The only goal I had when I started racing was to go to the Indianapolis 500. I look at that as a chapter in my life.
"I also have the responsibility to do the best I can to take care of my wife and kids. If I had a huge mortgage or amount of debt I had to pay off, I might think about it. But the situation I'm in financially, it allows me to be able to wait and try to make something work over here."
And that's been Hornish's goal since he made the switch with team owner Roger Penske.
It's been a struggle from the start _ he had eight top-10 finishes and led just 55 laps in three years _ and he was out of a ride in 2011 when Penske ran out of sponsorship for his project. Hornish ran just 14 races, only one in the Sprint Cup Series, that entire year and desperately tried to get back into a race car.
His shot came when Penske began piecing together sponsorship packages. There was enough money for 20 Cup races in 2012 and a full Nationwide Series schedule, and another full Nationwide schedule this year.
It's paid off as Hornish goes into the finale trailing Austin Dillon by eight points in the championship race.
Win or lose the title, he's likely done driving for Penske. The team owner told Hornish he needs to be racing in the Cup Series and he doesn't have a spot for his longtime driver.
The fact that Hornish has nothing lined up is shocking to three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, also a former IndyCar champion.
"I was not a Sam fan when he was in the 77 (Cup car)," Stewart said. "I believe he has earned his right to be here. His program has changed. He has totally turned around. He deserves the right to be here in a competitive car."
And Hornish believes he should have a Cup ride next year.
"I definitely feel I belong in the Cup Series," Hornish said. "Taking the step back was to prove what I've known for a long time: given the equipment, the right people around me, what I would be capable of. Because I'd been so successful on the IndyCar side, I was going to pick up the car and carry it on my back if it wasn't good enough.
"I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to be able to come out here and be in it long enough to prove what I've known for a long time. Pacing myself back and doing what I'm capable of, not trying to carry the car, also getting the right people around me, are the biggest things that have helped me out."
So it's important to him that his next move continues his forward progress.
"There's a lot of uncertainty at this point in time, but I feel as if we'll be able to make something happen," he said. "It's all about trying to position me to move forward in some way. I don't want to take any more steps backward or be in something that's not going to give me the opportunity to go out there and be competitive and have an opportunity to at least run in the top 10."
But could he do that in IndyCar? If he took that call from Ganassi and jumped in Franchitti's seat? It's been six years since he last raced in the series, so nobody is sure he'd still be the driver who won 19 races over eight seasons.
"For me to say I could go over there and it would be easy, I don't know. I think that I could do it. I'm almost 100 percent sure," he said. "But when the rush or the thrill or whatever you want to call it, the desire to get in that car is not there, I don't think that I would commit to it 100 percent. Then what's the point of it? It'd be wasting everybody's time. I'm appreciative of all the people that called and are interested, were interested, in me doing it.
"Roger's asked me many times. It's just not on my career path."
| http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/15/hornish-not-interested-in-replacing-franchitti/print/ | dclm-gs1-072340000 |
0.02734 | <urn:uuid:43bae89b-7874-4578-a865-6bed9c0083e1> | en | 0.974889 | Air Apparent
The great white hype: Minnesota MC Slug of Atmosphere.
Slug, the primary rhymesayer behind the Minneapolis hip-hop duo Atmosphere, is feeling like something of a prognosticator these days. He predicts that once Christina Ricci listens to his song "The Bass and the Movement," from his new disc, God Loves Ugly, she'll be unable to resist his charms. On the track, he pays the plucky Pumpkin actress this tribute: "All that matters is the bass and the movement/From the top of the Fiji to the bottom of Christina Ricci."
"She's going to think it's hilarious. That's my Father Guido Sarducci prediction," says the rap prince of the Twin Cities, laughing into the phone from somewhere in Los Angeles. "She's going to know me and love me. She's going to be my übergroupie. She's going to be my Winona Ryder."
Female fixations are the norm for Slug, aka Sean Daley. Atmosphere's last record, Lucy Ford/The Atmosphere EPs,dealt almost exclusively with the MC's problematic relationships with women -- most notably, his former love. Despite the pain that the subject matter may have caused him, the record validated Atmosphere's standing in the indie-rap world. Its popularity extended to the many critics who put Lucy Ford on their 2000-2001 best-of lists. Luckily for Slug's sanity, Atmosphere's new joint finds the rapper in a much better head space than the one he was in when he recorded Lucy Ford. Instead of duplicating what he calls the "Oh-a-girl-hurt-him" type of rap,Slug and producer/partner Ant (Anthony Davis) work a variety of angles this time around.
"The last record was like, 'I'm a confused little boy in a big world,' whereas when we made this, we were just like, 'We're two little boys trying to have fun in a confused world," Slug says. The last record, he adds, "dealt with one particular issue that I didn't get a chance to clear up." On God Loves Ugly, the pair explored "a more diverse range of topics and made songs that were actually fun for us to listen to. We realized we don't have to take ourselves so serious, because we're not that serious."
Listening to Slug, you sometimes get the sense that you've stumbled onto an episode of The Twilight Zone set in a rap universe. The album abounds in the same kind of deadpan humor that first surfaced on Atmosphere's 1998 debut, Overcast! "Hair," for example, features a hijinks-happy narrative wherein the narrator -- a thinly disguised Slug -- finally falls for a groupie wannabe, even after explaining to her that "bands like us don't get groupies/I mean, have you heard our songs?" On the way to her apartment, they hit a pickup truck and both die. Elsewhere, his tracks take on a confessional air and sound as though the MC is in the midst of a self-analytical therapy session. Songs such as "Fuck You Lucy" come across as honest attempts to exorcise the demons -- and the ex-girlfriend -- that torment him. Slug says that track is a "response to the fact that I've allowed myself to become so obsessed with one particular food group. I had to quit being so excessive and get on with my life."
When he's not diving into comedy or matters of the heart, Slug, like many of his indie counterparts, seeks refuge in the ideals and sounds of hip-hop's past. On tracks such as the catchy "Modern Man's Hustle," he and Ant present an old-school vibe that takes listeners back to a time when MCs could enjoy rapping without putting on some tough-guy, screwface front. Ant's Superfly-smooth beats perfectly complement Slug's tone when he raps, "I will love you through the simple and the struggle/But girl, you got to understand the modern man's hustle."
Likewise, on "Blame Game," the two-man crew conjures a feel that's as familiar and fresh as a pair of shell-toed Adidas. Slug name-checks the legendary Juice crew and, in the style of those Queens legends, slays underground backpack fiends who always complain about the state of hip-hop. "This supposed to be the new school/Your guns are aimless and your songs are nameless," he raps on the track.
"That was kind of just like an ode to old-school shit," Slug explains. "Lyrically, it was kind of like a dis to my peers, where everybody's like, 'Oh, fucking hip-hop sucks,' and everybody's got something or someone to blame for it sucking. To me, it's a feel-good song about making fun of people that complain so much about not feeling good about what they're doing."
Despite such feel-goodisms, Slug isn't about to start some Up With People-type of movement within rap. (He's more likely to start Slugs Anonymous, where members swill beer and bond over coming to terms with their own ugliness. His line "I wear my scars like the rings on a pimp," from "God Loves Ugly," could serve as the club's inspirational motto.) The rapper still has plenty of bile to hurl. It's just that, right now, life is pretty good.
"Oh, man, I think I've gotten more respect than I deserve," he says. "That was the whole concept behind God Loves Ugly -- like, the fact that me and Ant have come this far is proof that God fucking loves ugly."
We'll see that she gets the memo.
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0.040417 | <urn:uuid:2384a03e-e314-4bdf-97a9-6db8678a5a4b> | en | 0.925008 | Cocoa Antioxidants Reverse Cardiovascular Risk Factors
How cocoa supplements support heart health.
Written By:
Michael A. Smith, M.D.
View more articles in:
You hear it almost every day, be it government health agencies or private organizations, the unanimous directive is for Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables.
Despite constant media publicity, the majority of Americans do not ingest enough fruits and vegetables each day. Yet, scientists are increasingly telling Americans they must consume more to avoid a myriad of age-related problems.
However, one plant is not considered enough by the experts: cocoa. An abundance of new research shows that the unique antioxidants in cocoa provide broad-spectrum benefits to the arterial system.
Beneficial for Blood Pressure
Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany showed that a daily intake of 25 mg of epicatechin could lower systolic blood pressure by 4.1 points and diastolic pressure by 2.0 points (1). By the way, we know that these changes probably seem trivial, but any reduction in blood pressure is a good thing.
Mull this one over in your brain: A retrospective, population-based analysis of 26 million people revealed a 200–400% higher mortality rate in hypertensive people between the ages of 20 and 49 when compared with a healthy population (2).
Can you see my point? Even seemingly trivial reductions in blood pressure can have a major impact on health and longevity.
Additionally, the researchers claim that a reduction of systolic pressure by just two points can reduce the risk of death after a stroke by 10% and reduce the risk of death from ischemic heart disease by 7%. In the end, small drops in blood pressure actually produce big drops in risk.
So, here are the details of the cocoa study (1):
• They found that the potential blood pressure-lowering effects of cocoa antioxidants were linked to the dose consumed. The more you eat, the greater the drop in pressure.
Supporting Lipid Levels
A consistent finding amongst human clinical trials is that the ingestion of cocoa antioxidants modestly lowers dangerous LDL, and in some cases, significantly boosts beneficial HDL. One challenge in protecting against atherosclerosis in aging people is that their HDL levels often decline.
People with high levels of HDL have low vascular disease rates. Several years ago, a major American drug company spent about $1 billion for a synthetic compound that boosted HDL. The very unfortunate side effect of this drug was increased risk of mortality and human studies were halted. Ingestion of plant antioxidants, on the other hand, results in decreased risks of a wide range of degenerative diseases.
In a human study conducted this year, those receiving cocoa antioxidants showed an astounding 24% increase in HDL levels after 12 weeks compared to only 5% in the placebo group. The cocoa antioxidant group also showed a reduced measurement of markers of oxidative stress in the body by 24%, while a measurement of LDL oxidation was lowered by 9%. The placebo group did not show improvement (3).
A second human study showed that after only three weeks of consuming dark chocolate, test subjects showed an 11.4% increase in HDL levels. In the group receiving dark chocolate enriched with cocoa antioxidants, a 13.7% increase in artery-protecting HDL was observed. The white chocolate group did not show these beneficial increases in HDL, but all three groups showed a decrease of LDL oxidation by 11.9% (4).
A decrease in LDL oxidation rates is a consistent finding in those who ingest cocoa antioxidants. It is the oxidation of LDL that enables this lipid to play such a significant role in the atherosclerosis process.
Very few compounds increase beneficial HDL. Up until now, the most effective way of boosting this artery-protecting lipid has been to use relatively high doses of niacin. The unpleasant “niacin flush” precludes most people from taking this vitamin in high enough doses.
The favorable effect on HDL shown in recent studies indicates that it might be possible to tolerably increase endothelial-protecting HDL by ingesting dark chocolate and/or standardized cocoa antioxidants supplements.
How Many Cocoa Polyphenols Do We Need?
Remember, studies documenting the remarkable benefits of chocolate-cocoa antioxidants were relatively short term, and often used standardized products with higher amounts of antioxidants rather than commercial, sugar-laden chocolate bars.
The encouraging news is that there are now cocoa products standardized to higher amounts of antioxidants that are free of sugar and excess fat. Low-cost cocoa antioxidant-standardized supplements are also available. The optimal dose of chocolate-cocoa polyphenols may be 100–130 mg a day.
Healthy Dark Chocolate Candy Bars
The amount of antioxidant-containing cocoa used to make dark chocolate bars varies widely, making it difficult to obtain a consistent polyphenol dose from commercial candy products. The major problem with typical chocolate candy bars, however, is that they contain hundreds of fat and sugar calories.
Intentionally adding chocolate candy to a diet already too high in calories could create as many health problems as what the cocoa polyphenols helps to prevent. So, which dark chocolate bar should be chosen? The ideal is dark chocolate that has at least 70% cocoa solids, because the higher the percentage of cocoa solids, the more antioxidants, specifically epicatechin, it provides.
Dark chocolate, also called plain chocolate or black chocolate, is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa liquor (liquefied pure chocolate). The United States has no official definition for dark chocolate, but European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids.
So, don’t just eat ones that say, “Made with dark chocolate.” Make sure it has the correct amount of cocoa solids. WF
Michael A. Smith, M.D., is senior health science specialist and media personality for Life Extension® in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He is the host of Healthy Talk radio on WWNN-AM reaching the greater Miami area audience, a recurring guest on The Suzanne Show with Suzanne Somers and is currently writing a book on the dietary supplement pyramid that is scheduled for publication in June 2013.
1. S. Ellinger, et al., “Epicatechin Ingested via Cocoa Products Reduces Blood Pressure in Humans: A Nonlinear Regression Model with a Bayesian Approach,” Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 95, 1365–1377 (2012).
2. C. Robitaille, et al., “Diagnosed Hypertension in Canada: Incidence, Prevalence and Associated Mortality,” CMAJ,184 (1), E49–E56 (2012), released online November 21, 2011.
3. S. Baba, et al., “Continuous Intake of Polyphenolic Compounds Containing Cocoa Powder Reduces LDL Oxidative Susceptibility and has Beneficial Effects on Plasma HDL-Cholesterol Concentrations in Humans,” Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 85 (3), 709–717 (2007).
4. J. Mursu, et al., “Dark Chocolate Consumption Increases HDL Cholesterol Concentration and Chocolate Fatty Acids May Inhibit Lipid Peroxidation in Healthy Humans,” Free Radic. Biol. Med. 37 (9), 1351–1359 (2004).
Published in WholeFoods Magazine, April 2013 | http://www.wholefoodsmagazine.com/supplements/features/cocoa-antioxidants-reverse-cardiovascular-risk-factors | dclm-gs1-072410000 |
0.02275 | <urn:uuid:9dff4d6b-0de6-4307-a2d4-e97dfe8785c9> | en | 0.867439 |
La justice iranienne a condamné l'avocate Nasrin Sotoudeh à 11 ans de prison pour son action en faveur des droits de l'Homme, allongeant la liste des personnalités lourdement condamnées après les troubles ayant suivi la réélection contestée du président Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mme Sotoudeh, arrêtée en septembre, a été condamnée à 11 ans de prison et à 20 ans d'interdiction d'exercer son métier d'avocate et de quitter l'Iran, a annoncé son mari, Reza Khandan, lundi à l'AFP. Elle a 20 jours pour faire appel.
Nasrin Sotoodeh’s court hearing to review the latest charges of not observing the Hejab in a video, was scheduled to take place on December 27, 2010 in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. But the court hearing was disrupted after Nasrin Sotoodeh and her lawyers objected to the procedures of the hearing. In response Judge PeerAbbassi, issued a five day mandatory prison sentence for Nasrin Sotoodeh for disrupting the court hearing.
The life of Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian human rights lawyer and women's rights activist, is in danger. Nasrin was arrested by Iranian authorities on 4th September 2010 for her activity in defending human rights in Iran, and has been held in prison for more than 103 days. The prosecutor has charged her with propaganda against the state and also for actions against national security. Under Iranian law the accused can only be held in custody for a maximum of seven days without charge after the preliminary investigation has taken place.
Reza Khandan, the husband of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer and human rights activist illegally jailed in Evin prison, reports on the recent conversation he had with his wife during the last visit.Nasrin Sotoudeh is currently on hunger strike. She is demanding the annulment of the unjust laws devised after the 2009 Iranian Presidential election. She needs all your support so her voice can actually matter behind prison walls. Please do all that you can for Nasrin Sotoudeh. She needs you and we need her. Thank you!
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0.115728 | <urn:uuid:e82dcf0b-eff6-43b3-9e2c-d3d268605c34> | en | 0.939345 | You are here
Blog Posts: ecosystem services
• Governments, businesses, development agencies, and NGOs are increasingly turning to economic valuation as a way to protect coral reefs and mangroves. This process makes the economic case for protection and sustainable use of natural resources by showing the monetary, employment, and infrastructure benefits ecosystems provide—metrics that are easily understood by decision-makers.
But not all economic valuations are created equal. WRI's new guidebook shows how NGOs and other stakeholders can conduct economic valuations in ways that lead to real change on the ground.
• How do people, governments, and corporations “value” ecosystems? And how can you put a price on the vast array of social, economic, and environmental benefits that ecosystems provide?
These are just two of the questions experts sought to address at “The Future of Revaluing Ecosystems,” an event WRI recently convened in Bellagio, Italy, in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, Forum for the Future, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The meeting brought together 32 participants from public, private, non-profit, and research sectors to consider how society could include in public and private decision-making a more complete valuing of the benefits ecosystems provide to people. The discussions shed light on how we can evaluate ecosystems’ true worth to communities and businesses —and how to use these valuations to foster better environmental stewardship.
• The Wayuu people in northern Colombia depend on shrubland for grazing their livestock. These herds serve as the Wayuus’ main source of income and food, and this is partly why they depend so heavily on the existence and condition of shrubland ecosystems. But livestock are also used to pay dowries or make amends, playing a major role in facilitating social interactions between families and clans. If an oil and gas project adversely affects the shrubland ecosystem, it could impact not only the Wayuus’ income and protein intake, but the social bonds that hold these communities together.
Most planners fail to account for the multiple—and sometimes underappreciated—benefits that people derive from their environment, a concept known as ecosystem services. While new Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) standards require impact practitioners to account for ecosystem services when evaluating a proposed project’s potential impacts, many lack a methodological approach that would enable them to properly integrate social and environmental issues.
Until now, that is. WRI’s new guide, Weaving Ecosystem Services in Impact Assessment: A Step-by-Step Method, aims to highlight the interdependence of development projects, people, and the environment. The guide helps impact practitioners and project developers evaluate the social implications of impacts on ecosystems brought by highways, dams, oil and gas wells, and other such projects. By systematically incorporating a consideration of ecosystem services into environmental and social impact assessments, planners can mitigate negative impacts on ecosystem services while also achieving project objectives.
• Governments, corporations, and development agencies are increasingly interested in putting a dollar value on ecosystems in order to balance conservation and development needs, a concept known as “economic valuation.” For example, St. Maarten’s government recently established the country’s first marine national park after a local organization found that the area’s coastal ecosystems contribute $58 million per year through tourism and fisheries. Belize enacted a host of new fishing regulations based on a WRI valuation, which found that coral reef- and mangrove-associated tourism contributes $150 million-$196 million per year to the country’s economy. And in Bonaire, park managers used economic valuation to justify the Bonaire Marine Park’s establishment of user fees—making it one of the few self-financed marine parks in the Caribbean.
These stories show that economic valuation can indeed lead to better coastal policy, conserving these ecosystems and securing their important economic contributions. However, according to new WRI research, these cases tend to be the exception in the Caribbean.
Economic Valuation and Coastal Policy in the Caribbean
In the Caribbean, there is keen interest in economic valuation of coastal ecosystems to inform policy and improve natural resource management. But while the literature on the value of coral reefs and mangroves in the Caribbean continues to grow, these ecosystems continue to decline.
WRI and the Marine Ecosystem Services Partnership (MESP) took a closer look at the impact of previous economic valuation studies in the Caribbean. Out of more than 200 studies of the economic value of the Caribbean’s marine ecosystem goods and services, we were only able to identify 13 that actually influenced marine and coastal management policies, such as those in Bonaire, St. Maarten, and Belize.
The 4 “Planks” for Corporate Sustainability
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0.018162 | <urn:uuid:ec0178c4-6fbf-4669-9069-d7f6ce7d6fde> | en | 0.966568 | Saturday, November 28, 2009
Popobit: Al Alberts
Al Alberts, singer with The Four Aces, has died.
What the future might look like
Variety profiles Guvera, an Australian company which is working on ways to suck the life out of musicfind ways of monetising music now that the market value of individual tracks is almost zero:
For example, a clothing brand could create a list of tunes for girls in their teens who like "Twilight," or men who play videogames, read comicbooks and eat a lot of fast food. When searching for songs, users would be directed to music channels presented by brands with similar sensibilities. The marketer would pay record labels for those songs whenever they get streamed or downloaded.
Tracks are offered only to registered users of Guvera's website who have provided personal info, such as age, gender and where they live, as well as favorite bands, movies, sports teams, etc. -- information that will pair specific audiences with the brands that want them and are happy to pay for their entertainment.
The weakness at the heart of this idea is that it amplifies the general drift of the music industry over the last twenty years: the belief that your musical tastes are the result of your demographic data; with the obvious next step of reducing your choices to the things that you should be liking. Only now with adverts as well.
The upside is that this is only going ruin music that would work well for selling stupid tracksuits, and there has to be some way to service EMI's massive debtfund major label investment in new acts. At least it's a response that doesn't involve suing people.
Tour dates: Frightened Rabbit
March 04 York Duchess
05 Manchester Club Academy
06 Aldershot West End Centre
08 Bristol Thekla
09 Oxford Academy 2
10 London Koko
12 Birmingham Academy 2
13 Sheffield Leadmill 2
14 Norwich Arts Centre
Magnapop weekend: Lay It Down
[Part of the Magnapop weekend]
Downloadable: We Have Band
Another download offer, another widget. This time it's We Have Band who are offering swapsie of a free tune for an email address. That's unless you're reading this post in a couple of months and the widget doesn't work and there's just a gawking hole where the offer should be:
Bookmarks - Internet stuff: Liz Fraser
It's not often you see something billed as "their only interview this decade" and think "yes, I can believe that" - but somehow, I don't think we're going to see Liz Fraser popping up to do the same stories on Graham Norton next week, following her interview in yesterday's Guardian.
Karl T is sure there's an angle:
Liz (or Elizabeth, now she's all grown up) is interviewed in todays Guardian. I've checked the listings, and she's not performing her new single on X Factor this Saturday, but could the denizens of the jungle be getting an etherial, otherwordly sonic-chathedral-y mystery guest this week?
Either that, or they're really desperate to fill the time on Strictly.
The interview revisit the failed reunion tour:
According to bassist Simon Raymonde, the band stood to benefit to the tune of £1.5m each for getting back together – enough to guarantee them financial security, enough to secure the future of Raymonde's Bella Union label.
There was just one problem. Within weeks of the announcement, the group's singer, Elizabeth Fraser, announced she wouldn't take part.
"I don't remember it being that much money and in any case that's not the reason [for reforming]," she says today, in her first interview since the band split in 1998. "But people get so fucking carried away. Even though something's staring you in the face, people just cannot see it. I knew it wouldn't happen and it didn't take long to want out."
Gordon in the morning: Alimentary, my dear Watson
Even Madonna never bent over quite as far as Gordon Smart does to promote Guy Ritchie's terrible career. Sure, she might have done Swept Away, but she never went this far:
There isn't really a story attached to this, either - it's just promo puffery. How much will this cost behind the Sun paywall?
Embed and breakfast man: Magnapop
Somehow, the return of Magnapop had passed me by - they'd vanished in 1999 with a contractual obligation to not use the name for seven years hanging over their heads; they'd re-emerged in 2005 and relifted the flag with Mouthfeel - which seems to have never got a UK release.
This year, there was another new album, Chase Park, which only got a digital release. I say "only" like the prospect of new material from Magnapop is ever going to be underwhelming, which is, of course, wrong.
But this story is getting itself round the wrong way - forgetting to mention the roots in that primordial soup of guitar bands, Athens, Georgia; the spell trading as Homemade Sister and Swell; demos produced by Michael Stipe; tour supports for Sugar and Juliana Hatfield and The Lemonheads. The ceaseless touring in the 90s and the big break that broke them, opening for REM on the Monster tour. The strains weren't helped when their record label collapsed.
But they were special - they are special, and have remained special in the intervening time.
And this is what they sound like:
More Magnapop informations
Magnapop official site
Magnapop on MySpace
Magnapop on Twitter
Buy Magnapop
Chase Park
Hot Boxing
Rubbing Doesn't Help
A little more Magnapop to come this weekend
Lay It Down
Skin Burns live
Open The Door
Brighton already treating Borders like a dead man walking
Friday, November 27, 2009
WiFi fine unfair
This shows what a horrific mess the pushing of more and more weight onto copyright law had created: a pub in the UK has been fined £8,000 after a customer downloaded copyrighted material through the free wi-fi service:
According to internet law professor Lilian Edwards, of Sheffield Law School, where a business operates an open Wi-Fi spot to give customers or visitors internet access, they would be "responsible in theory" for users' unlawful downloads, under "existing substantive copyright law".
Except that under those laws, the "service provider" would then be lumbered with the task of trying to find out who had done the supposed copyright breach to pass those details on to the intellectual property owners, which is going to be even more messy.
The name of the pub hasn't been made public; nor has the name of the corporation who - presumably well aware they were going after an entity which had done no actual wrong itself - greedily slammed in a claim. We're told over and over how we must support the copyright holding companies because they are so very, very good for the economy: is it really good for the economy to have companies in stretched market sectors being forced to shovel out eight grand for a minor infraction by someone who might not even have been one of their customers?
Virgin have a magic illegality-detecting machine
I'm not sure that it's entirely a heartwarming idea that Virgin are running a secret tool to inspect four out of every ten customer's internet streams to spot "illegal" files:
Jon James, Virgin Media executive director of broadband, said, “Understanding how consumer behaviour is changing will be an important requirement of Virgin Media’s upcoming music offering and, should they become law, the Government’s legislative proposals will also require measurement of the level of copyright infringement on ISPs’ networks.
“Detica’s CView technology potentially offers a non-intrusive solution which enhances our understanding of aggregate customer behaviour without identifying or storing individual customers’ data,” he added.
It's not entirely clear how having someone look at what you're doing online is "non-intrusive". Even if the intention is to keep it anonymised, there's a question mark over how anonymous you really can make such studies.
It's also not clear how, exactly, this data will detect 'illegal' files - by which we're presuming they mean unlicensed files. How - if the data is anonymous - would Virgin even begin to be able to tell if the data they're looking at is being used with or without permission? Do they have some sort of magic detection box?
Turntable turned off: Technics nixxed
Even the sort of wedding dj who pretends that they're Fatboy Slim seems to have stopped using turntables in favour of digital decks, so it's perhaps no surprise that Panasonic have announced they're ceasing production of Technics turntables.
The big question: If DJs now turn up with all their choons on a memory stick, what has taken the place of 'carrying one of the big plastic boxes of records' as the time-honoured way of sneaking into the venue without paying?
Record Of The Day Awards
Best Blog
No Pain In Pop
(The Von Pip Musical Express)
Best PR Campaign for a Breakthrough non-UK Act
Lady Gaga - Polydor
(Passion Pit – Columbia)
Live Reviews: Writer of the Year
John Doran, The Quietus, NME and others
(Alexis Petridis, The Guardian)
Free Music Magazine of the Year
The Stool Pigeon
(Kruger Magazine)
Best PR Campaign for a Breakthrough UK Act
Florence and the Machine - Toast
(Tinchy Stryder - Stoked PR)
Best Music Coverage in the Popular Press
Sun - Something For The Weekend
Best PR Campaign for an Established UK Act
(Arctic Monkeys - Bad Moon)
Record Reviews: Writer of the Year
Alexis Petridis - The Guardian
(Luke Turner, The Quietus)
Best Music Coverage in a National Newspaper
The Guardian
(The Guardian Guide)
Best PR Campaign for an Established non-UK Act
Jay-Z - Atlantic
(Phoenix - V2/Cooperative Music)
Digital Publication of the Year
The Quietus
(The Line of Best Fit)
Best In-House PR Person
Adrian Read – Polydor
(Janet Choudry – Parlophone)
Best In-House PR Department
Breaking Music: Writer of the Year
Peter Robinson – Popjustice
(Paul Lester – The Guardian)
Feature of the Year
Warp Records' 20th Anniversary Feature - Clash Magazine
(Thom Yorke’s autobiography by Steven Wells)
PR Reputation Management
Michael Cleary formerly at XL - Dizzee Rascal
(Supersonic PR – Cheryl Cole)
Best Independent PR Person
Beth Brookfield – Purple PR
(Briana Doughety – Darling Dept.)
Best Independent PR Company
Editor of the Year
Mike Williams – Kruger
(Krissi Murison – NME)
Magazine of the Year
Observer Music Monthly
(The Wire)
Outstanding Contribution to Music PR
Alan Edwards
Outstanding Contribution to Music Photography
Kevin Cummins
Outstanding Contribution to Music Journalism
Phil Alexander
Robbie Williams is not afraid of being cheesy
There's perhaps nothing cheaper than using local radio to propose to your girlfriend - sure, the first couple of times, popping up on air and saying 'Elmer, will you marry me?' was cute; now, it's become a cliche and has the air of someone too mean to buy an upside-down pineapple cake to hide a ring in.
It's no wonder Robbie Williams would do it, although his 'people' are now rushing to make clear that his proposal on an Australian radio station was "just a bit of fun". Except for the listeners.
Gordon in the morning: Two of us getting nowhere
Paul McCartney made a fateful mistake yesterday of saying something vaguely nice about Jedward, and thus has been rewarded with Gordon's team not just doing a bog-standard 'oooh, imagine if we stuck Jedward hair on a photo of Macca' bit of photoshoddy, but also Beatles songs amusingly tweaked to make satirical comment on the twins.
By 'amusingly', of course, I mean 'why? why? why would you do such a thing?' This would be the best:
1. Ballad of John and Edward
To be fair, Gordon hasn't put his name to this - step forward, Sean Hamilton, and take a bow.
Embed and breakfast man: Pixies
The Pixies - always happy to lend support to a dying regime - have been on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon this week. Look:
One of the comments on the YouTube page says "it's one of the best Debasers I've heard since the first reunion", which I'm not sure is meant to be sarcastic or not.
Martin Gore: Forensic alienation expert
Erik Estavilo is upset with World Of Warcraft. Upset to the point of issuing lawsuits:
It's not clear from reports if he's happy to be alienated providing that he doesn't get overcharged for it, or if he doesn't expect to be alienated paying prices like that. You'll have stood behind people like this in queues at customer services in Sainsburys.
This would be none of our concern, were it not for the expert witnesses Estavillo is calling in. Winona Ryder has been subpoenaed, but so has Martin Gore:
Plus, he's from Basildon, which means Gore can talk about alienation with a degree of authority.
It could be the start of a whole new career for Gore - Forensic Alienation Expert, ready to be called in whenever society is being put in the dock by those it has shunned.
[Thanks to @simonth for the link]
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Embed and breakfast man: Victorian English Gentleman's Club
Rihanna naked photos 'worst thing ever'
You'd have thought that with the wringer Rihanna's been through this year, she'd be taking the lesson from Edgar that while you can still say it, you ain't seen the worst. But she has, and... it was the leak of the nude pictures which was the low:
R&B singer Rihanna has said the "humiliating" leak of naked photographs of her was "the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to me".
It is a pretty nasty thing to have happened - although, frankly, if you so much as think as attaching a photo of your underpants zone to a text message, you might as well just email a copy to TMZ these days, cutting out the shit of a middleman you'd mistaken for an intimate.
But it was even worse than you could imagine:
"It was humiliating and it was embarrassing - especially my mum having to see that. It was two days before Mother's Day, so I was nervous.
"I sent her flowers first before I called and then she texted me - when the world is against me she's always there supporting."
Curses - imagine ruining the two-days-before-Mother's-Day day for everyone. Is there no level to which people won't stoop? Couldn't they at least have waited until three-days-after-Mother's-Day, when parents are much more comfortable having their kids' vaginas smeared all over the internet?
The open minds of Take That fans
Let's get this straight, then. People turned out for the launch of a glorified karaoke Take That game, sat through James Corden quite happily, and started booing Speech Debelle instead?
Singers Lily Allen, Paloma Faith and Rachel Stevens, model Kate Moss, and Pixie Geldof were also at the party.
And yet it was Speech Debelle who was booed? Blimey.
Apparently her crime was to rap her way through Pray (or, possibly, to pray her way through rap). Does she not respect the integrity of their music?
Borders on the edge
Things keep getting glummer and glummer for the UK branches of Borders - the prospect of being rescued by WH Smiths was bad; the withdrawal of that prospect was worse; now, the 45 remaining stores have been placed into administration.
The administrators are sounding upbeat about finding buyers, but... I'm not sure the prospects are looking that good.
Jermaine Jackson has a go at logic
Jermaine Jackson - noted professor of psychology - has decidced the suicide of Jordan Chandler's father proves - somehow - that Michael Jackson never molested anyone.
It's the guilt, you see.
If Jermaine has learned one thing over the last year, it's that whole "you can't libel the dead" rule.
Rihanna and her neighbours
Turbulent times in the Los Angeles real estate market - Rihanna found herself being sued by a neighbour who found her noisy and unpleasant. Now, her landlord is counter-suing the neighbour, claiming that if next door hadn't been shouting and yelling at Rihanna all the time, she would have bought the house off him.
The landlord wants the profits he would have made from the deal, although surely going so very, very public with an announcement that the people living next door to a house you're trying to sell is going to cost you more in the long run?
Gordon in the morning: Eminem's career must be on the slide
Em believes he could judge better:
The Pete my heart skipped
How close the world came to losing Pete Doherty: The cancellation of Irish dates last month turns out to have been after his heart stopped.
"If I hadn't been on a life support machine I'd have been in Ireland," he told NME.COM, speaking of his stay in Swindon's Great Western Hospital. "But my heart stopped."
No, no. What you're thinking, and what I'm thinking, and what the doctors were thinking - apparently not:
"Their [doctors'] immediate thought was that it was to do with drugs but it wasn't," he said. "What happened? Well, I don't know. I don't remember. I was running into the walls, making steering wheel signs with my hands. And then I just… stopped. My body just stopped."
Clearly that wasn't drugs. Imagine if drugs made things like that happen, eh? They wouldn't be allowed to sell them.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Rock sick list: Ronnie James Dio
Not well: Ronnie James Dio. He's got stomach cancer, but isn't taking it lying down. His wife has stuck out a statement:
"Long live rock and roll, long live Ronnie James Dio.
A doomed dragon called stomach cancer. Even his life-threatening illnesses have fireworks in the background.
ITunes adds another string
Apple has announced that iTunes is going to start selling live albums. In order to make this happen, Apple is cosying up to LiveNation, and the prices come in slightly evil tones, too. $13 for a live concert video? You could almost afford to go to see a gig for that.
209 in dire straits
It's not a good time to be involved in community radio - the longest-running community station in the UK, Forest of Dean Radio, is closing down at the end of next month because of financial problems, and now comes news that 209Radio in Cmabridge could be vanishing if it doesn't find some money soon:
The station has only recently announced big plans to offer more to the citizens of Cambridge in 2010, which include renaming the station to reposition itself more strongly within the Cambridge community, but it can now only survive if someone comes forward able to offer it a lifeline. Chairman of 209radio Clive Woodman is calling for people to support the station today or lose it for good.
James P - who alerted us to 209's plight - explains what Cambridge would be losing:
The station provides great opportunities for local people. There are programmes made for and by the many sections of the community who aren't served elsewhere - The homeless, refugees, the elderly, those with mental health problems and many more. They've also got some brilliant music shows covering numerous genres (the indie show, Stagger, is fantastic). The station broadcasts on FM to Cambridge, and also online. All shows are podcasted too, so there are loads of opportunities for anyone who could benefit from the programmes to hear them.
Certainly give them a listen - but if you're able to help them in a more practical, cash-related way, they'd appreciate it. Membership, perhaps?
To Cerys Matthews, mother to a new-born baby.
Chris Hawkins is sitting in for Cerys now - which is kind of ironic, given that Cerys was officially covering Nemone's maternity leave. You suspect that Nemone might not be expected back.
Isn't there something we can do to stop this sort of thing happening?
Robert Pattinson, out of The Lil' Lestats, is planning a pop record. But he's not rushing into it:
I don't want to release an album which has a sticker on it saying, 'By the vampire of 'Twilight',' on it.
If most bright-eyed actors who stick out records are anything to go by, you'd be better off worrying about the sticker saying "Reduced: 49p".
Erasure records
Yes, yes, it's right and proper that The Pet Shop Boys are feted as national treasures, with their po-faces on the stamps and a holiday in their honour every September 19th. But why don't we also hold parades celebrating Erasure in the same way?
They're currently out in New York, recording a new album. Perhaps we should do something nice for them when they come back?
Good Morning to you, Adam Lambert: GMA swings axe
If only Adam Lambert had been deliberately courting controversy by feigning oral sex on prime-time mainstream telly, eh? But who knew that might upset people.
If Adam had been interested in exploring exactly how liberal ABC is, he's now found out: Kicked off Good Morning America and - oh, the shame - having to relying on a counter offer to go on CBS''Look, It's This Or More Advertorials For Snuggies' programme.
Gordon in the morning: Gorjedward
They've never had jobs. Whoeverwouldhaveguessed, eh?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Italian Rolling Stone seems to have lost its way
Apparently impressed by his anti-democratic and sexist ways, Rolling Stone has made Silvio Berlusconi rock star of the year. Not that it approves:
There was no political agenda behind the choice. "We are far from favouring Left or Right," said [Italian edition editor Carlo] Antonelli. "Silvio Berlusconi's daily behaviour, his furious vitality, his inimitable lifestyle have given him, especially this year, incredible international popularity."
Really? Who actually likes him, then?
Gordon in the morning: Victoria Hart returns
Monday, November 23, 2009
Michael Jackson album resurrected for AMAs
Away from the excitement of Adam Lambert and his very, very dry face-humping, the big story of the American Music Awards was Michael Jackson winning big.
Four awards, in fact. Quite an achievement considering the man hadn't actually done very much - besides dying, of course - in the qualifying period. There was something of a stretch on display:
Okay, you can just about get away with calling his final curtain a justification for people going "you know, the way he keeled over was superstar, man, pure superstar."
But to scrabble around to give a prize to a six year-old album which, itself, was just a coagulation of earlier work is just ridiculous. If the album was that good, why didn't it win when it came out? Or any year subsequently, come to that? I'm a sucker for cheap sentimentality, but death hasn't added anything to the record that wasn't already there. And if the music industry is in the doldrums, maybe it might want to think about not writing off an entire year's worth of releases on the basis that there was a shoddy compilation made years ago that was better.
Stop! Thief! He copied my album!
Adam Lambert and his oral sex act
The poor editors at ABC have a bit of a problem. They're showing this year's normally dull American Music Awards, and when it went out on the East Coast, Adam Lambert reminded everyone he was gay:
When Lambert finished his song — complete with simulated oral sex with a male backup dancer and a passionate kiss with a male keyboardist — earlier tonight, fans hit the Internet to debate whether the American Idol runner-up’s first major televised performance since the Idol finale pushed the envelope too far.
Lambert points out that if he was Christina Aguilera, the stampede to the internet would be merely looking for downloads:
“It’s a shame because I think that there’s a double standard going on in the entertainment community right now,” Lambert tells RS backstage after the show at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre. “Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.
A little disingenuous, Adam - it's not because of what you did, it's who you did it to - but the broad point is still valid.
So ABC have to decide if they leave the faux-blow in for the West Coast broadcast. Lambert warns them they better leave him uncut:
If ABC opts not to broadcast several of the more risqué moments of “For Your Entertainment” in a few moments, “In a roundabout way it’s a form of discrimination because it is a double standard,” Lambert says. “They didn’t censor Britney and Madonna macking onstage did they? But yet two men kissing they’ll censor?”
It might be more the oral sex bit that worries ABC - who, to be fair to them, aren't MTV and are also balancing the demands of the FCC and the threat of enormous fines alongside the cultural and societal questions.
In the end, ABC left in the kiss, cut the pretend oral sex bit - I'm sure you can download Adam Lambert blowjob video footage online if that slightly-understandable fudgey compromise disappoints you.
Gordon in the morning: U2 in a field
Pssst... Gordon... You're talking about this like it's a good thing:
MICHAEL EAVIS promised something special for Glastonbury's 40th birthday next year - and boy has he delivered.
U2 will headline on Friday night - the first time the Irish rockers have ever played the festival.
Well, at least it's good news for whoever's headlining the second stage at the time.
There's an unsourced source:
A source said: "Everyone is over the moon that the deal has been done.
"Only adds to the mystique"? What does that actually mean? What "mystique"?
Earlier this year Bono said of Glasto: "I know lots of people want us to play.
"It's something we're working up our whole life to do. We really, really want to do this."
What an utter politician Bono is. You've been working your whole life up to playing Glastonbury, have you? Your entire career trajectory has been designed to achieve a slot on the Worthy Farm stage? So what exactly has been stopping you hitherto? Did you have to harvest Golden apples and change the flow of a river before you could play? Or is it just you couldn't be arsed to do it for the money before?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
MySpace snap up Imeem, unworried by strange smell
Increasingly, Rupert Murdoch's purchase of MySpace looks like a kneejerk move that confused the panic with the strategic.
Clearly, he's managed to bring this management style to MySpace, whose purchase of MySpace looks exactly the same.
As takeovers go, it has all the thought and care of that box of Milk Trayy Way grabbed from a Wild Bean Cafe shelf moments before midnight on Valentine's Day.
Admittedly, MySpace are getting something dirt cheap - the most generous estimates are putting the price tag at nine million; shrewder heads suggest it might have been scooped up for a million dollars. The company has spent more than twenty million to get to this point.
On the other hand, MySpace is already seeing its bottom line assailed by the costs of offering streaming music - does it really need to pick up more of those costs? Especially since Imeem was undermined by high royalty demands from labels - exactly the same problem MySpace is struggling with.
Wells Fargo crush Essex swing band
"You would think they would have something better to do" observes Dave Bronze, bassist with the band that used to be called Wells Fargo until the bank of the same name got in touch.
Yes, apparently, Wells Fargo thought there might be people getting confused by a swing band playing in East Anglia and a US bank.
There's the usual old cant from Wells Fargo about "protecting the brand" - although it's perhaps a bit insulting to the customers of the bank to suggest that they're so dense that, if by some chance they found themselves outside a pub on the Colchester bypass on a Saturday night promising "Wells Fargo tonight", they'd be rushing inside to sort out their direct debits.
Wells Fargo are now simply Fargo. Let's hope the ID card company of the same name doesn't find out.
Paying for it: YouTube's big small earners are labels
Record labels will feel vindicated by Business Insider's chart showing whose videos are the biggest earners on YouTube. Universal, Sony, Hollywood Records, EMI... Yes, surely, this is proof that without music, YouTube would be making nothing.
On the other hand: even aggregated, the top ten earning video sources struggle to account for more than about 10% of the monetised views. Lots of source, making little bits and pieces, adding up to the whole - sure, Google would miss Universal if they weren't there. But not much.
Universal launch loaded survey
Universal music are currently doing a spot of market research, aimed primarily at seeing what Spotify is doing to the music market. It's being run by an outfit called Angus Reid Strategies through a service called Springboard UK, and the idea behind it makes sense.
Disruptive technologies being disruptive, why wouldn't you want to try and work out what they're going to do to you?
One problem, though: when the survey gets onto torrents, it starts to sound less like a disinterested investigation, and more like it's - and let's be generous here - trying to educate. Hence the torrent systems themselves as described, more than once, as "non-legal" services.
Apart from being wrong - and deliberately confusing the networks with the data on the networks - if you make the question sound so hostile, isn't it going to skew the responses you get? "Did you touch that naughty thing?" is much less likely to get an honest answer than "do you use that thing?", right?
Winehouse: Whole new ways to cry for help
Ha ha ha; she's addicted.
Calling your name: Marilyn reappears
There's a snarky piece in the News of the World this week. The paper has caught up with Marilyn, seemingly just to point and laugh:
HE urged us to Feed The World - but 25 years after Band Aid, Eighties star Marilyn seems only to have fed his FACE.
For the slim, 10st gender bender who recorded Do They Know It's Christmas with Bob Geldof and a host of other pop idols has ballooned to over 17 STONE.
Gone are the blond locks and girly make-up along with the millionaire lifestyle. Bloated Marilyn, 46, is now just a shambling, jobless self-confessed drug addict who lives with his MUM in an ex-council semi.
I'm a little confused about why the detail of "ex-council semi" is thrown in there - doesn't the Murdoch press love the idea of people buying their council houses? Wasn't that aspirational?
Still, I'm sure James Murdoch will be delighted to read one of the papers he runs laughing at someone for having to rely on their parent's generosity.
Marilyn talks to the paper, but doesn't have much to offer. He's been on the drucks, but we all knew that when his career was crashing down in fame. Most of the people on Band Aid were a bit cynical - but that's hardly a surprise. Status Quo took drugs to the recording - but even Status Quo trot that anecdote out.
It's all a bit of a shame. But, on the plus side, it might be the first time anyone has written an article about Marilyn without suggesting he was little more than a Boy George side-project.
There is another plus - to pad the piece out, there's a 'where are they now, the other people who were on the Band Aid' piece which might be the only time the national press has worried about 'what is Mark Unpronounceablename from Big Country up to these days'?
It's a shame about how wrong it went for Marilyn, whose career never quite worked out. Mainly, because while Boy George was happy to keep his act edging close to the pantomimic, Marilyn never attempted to recast his sexuality as theatrics. The world wasn't really ready.
This week just gone
Where you from? The ten most popular nations visiting No Rock this year:
1. United Kingdom
2. United States
3. Canada
4. Germany
5. Australia
6. Ireland
7. France
8. South Korea
9. Brazil
10. Netherlands
And a special hello to Timor-Leste, Republic of Congo, San Marino, Palau, Guinea, Somalia, American Samoa, Greenland, Niger, Christmas Island, Seychelles, Tajikistan, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Sierra Leone and the Solomon Islands - one resident of whom visited just the once.
These were the interesting releases of the week:
Grant Hart - Hot Wax
download Hot Wax
Brilliant Corners - Growing Up Absurd/What's In A Word?
download Two Roads
Shakespear's Sister - Songs From The Red Room
download Songs From The Red Room
Various - Kitsune Maison 8
download Kitsune Maison 8
Various - Park Lane Archives (includes rare Hipsway, Primals, Bourgie Bourgie, Altered Images, AC Acoustics...)
download Park Lane Archives | http://xrrf.blogspot.co.uk/2009_11_22_archive.html | dclm-gs1-072700000 |
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0.022183 | <urn:uuid:61fd4cc3-5ea2-4945-a520-f379d91ea8c9> | en | 0.970338 | A Good Man Is Hard to Find (short story)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
Author Flannery O'Connor
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Short story, Southern Gothic
Publication type Collection
Media type Print
Publication date 1955
The story was first published in 1953 in the anthology The Avon Book of Modern Writing.[1] In 1960, it was collected in the anthology The House of Fiction, published by Charles Scribner's Sons. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," because of its publication in many anthologies, became the most well known of O'Connor's works.[2]
Plot summary[edit]
A man named Bailey intends to take his family from Georgia to Florida for a summer vacation, but his mother, (referred to as "the grandmother" in the story) wants him to drive to Tennessee. She argues that his children, June Star and John Wesley, have never been to Tennessee and shows him a news article about an escaped murderer called The Misfit last seen heading to Florida. The next day, Bailey takes his family to Florida anyway. The grandmother wakes up early to hide her cat, Pitty Sing, in a basket on the floor in the back of the car. (She is worried that the cat would die while they were gone.) Bailey finds her sitting in the car, dressed in her best clothes and an ostentatious hat; she says that if she should die in an accident along the road, she wants people to see her corpse and know she was refined and "a lady." The Grandmother talks continuously during the trip, trying to engage her two grandchildren in games and telling them jokes and a story, all of which they ignore with disdain. She recalls her youth in the Old South. She reminisces about how much better everything was in her time, when children were respectful and people "did right then." When the family stops at an old diner for lunch, she talks to the owner, Red Sammy, about The Misfit. He and the grandmother agree that things were much better in the past, that the world at present is degenerate, and she agrees with Sammy's remark that "a good man is hard to find."
After the family returns to the road, the grandmother begins telling the children a story about a mysterious house nearby with secret passages, a house she remembers from her childhood. This catches the children's attention and they want to visit the house, so they harass their father until he reluctantly goes through with it to let them take a side trip. As he drives them down a remote dirt road, the grandmother suddenly realizes that the house she was thinking of was actually in Tennessee, not Georgia. That shocking realization makes her involuntarily kick her feet which frightens the cat, causing it to spring from its hidden basket, onto Bailey's neck. He then loses control of the car and flips it over to end up in a ditch below the road. Only the children's mother is injured, the children are frantic with excitement, and the grandmother's main concern is dealing with Bailey's anger.
The family waits for help. When she notices a car coming down the road, the grandmother flags it down until it stops. Three men come out and begin to talk to her. All three have guns. The grandmother says that she recognizes the leader, the man in glasses, as The Misfit. The Misfit confirms this, saying it would have been better for them all if she hadn't recognized him, and Bailey curses his mother. The Misfit has his two men take Bailey and John Wesley into the woods, claiming that "the boys want to ask you something." After they leave, the grandmother speaks to The Misfit who says he's been falsely imprisoned for killing his father, when his cause of death was actually a flu epidemic. The Misfit mentions talking to a psychiatrist while in prison about why he did not remember what crime he had committed.
The men shoot Bailey and John in the forest, then come back to take the children's mother, the baby, and June Star for the same purpose. The grandmother begins pleading for her own life. When The Misfit talks to her about Jesus, he expresses his doubts about His raising Lazarus from the dead. As he speaks, the Misfit becomes agitated and angry. He snarls into the grandmother's face and claims that life has "no pleasure but meanness". In her growing confusion, she thinks that The Misfit is going to cry, so she reaches out and touches his shoulder tenderly, saying "You’re one of my own children!" His reaction is to jump away "as if a snake had bitten him" and he kills her with three shots.
When they finish murdering the family, The Misfit takes a moment to clean his glasses, saying that the grandmother would have been a good woman if "it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." The story ends with the Misfit chastising one of his sidekicks for claiming that the family's murder was good fun. The Misfit tells him to shut up, that "it's no real pleasure in life." [3]
Atlanta resident with a wife and three children and his mother. He crashes their car on a family trip to Florida when he gives in to the children's wishes to visit an old plantation.
Bailey’s wife
John Wesley, June Star
Bailey’s children.
The Baby
Red Sammy Butts
Restaurant operator who agrees with Bailey’s mother that the world is in a state of decline.
Red Sammy’s Wife
The Misfit
Escaped prisoner who comes across Bailey's family after they have crashed.
Hiram, Bobby Lee
Prisoners who escaped with The Misfit.
Edgar Atkins Teagarden
Pitty Sing
Pet cat of Bailey’s mother no one knows what happened to her ("Pitty Sing" is a character in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado).
Gray Monkey
Theme of grace[edit]
A film adaptation of the short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," entitled Black Hearts Bleed Red, was made in 1992 by New York filmmaker Jeri Cain Rossi. The film stars noted New York artist Joe Coleman[11] but the film does not depict the story or its characters well according to most reviewers.[citation needed]
1. ^ Gooch, Brad. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor. New York: Little, Brown, 2009, p. 238.
2. ^ Ann Kirk, Connie (2008). Critical companion to Katelyn Smith. Infobase Publishing. pp. 74–78. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
3. ^ http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html
4. ^ Desmond, John (2004), Flannery O'Connor's Misfit and the Mystery of Evil, Renascence, pp. 129–138
5. ^ Ochshorn, Kathleen (1990), A Cloak of Grace: Contradictions in "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Studies in American Fiction, pp. 113–117
6. ^ Asals, Frederick. "The Limits of Explanation." Critical Essays on Flannery O'Connor. Melvin J. Friedman and Beverly Lyon Clark, eds. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1985, p. 52.
7. ^ Bandy, Stephen (1996), 'One of my Babies': The Misfit and the Grandmother, Studies in Short Fiction, pp. 107–117
8. ^ “Means, Meaning and Mediated Space in ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.’” The Southern Quarterly. 44.4 (2007): 125-38.
9. ^ Wood, Ralph C. Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South. Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdman's Publishing, 2005, p. 41-42.
10. ^ O'Connor, Flannery. Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970, p. 112.
11. ^ http://www.ubu.com/film/rossi.html
Further reading[edit]
• Flannery O'Connor (1993). Frederick Asals, ed. A good man is hard to find. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1977-7. Contains the original text as well as a collection of critical essays on it.
• Jan Nordby Gretlund, Karl-Heinz Westarp, ed. (2006). Flannery O'Connor's radical reality. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-601-9. Several essays discuss the story in the context of Flannery's work as whole.
• George Kilcourse (2001). Flannery O'Connor's religious imagination: a world with everything off balance. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-4005-3. Focuses on the religious aspects of Flannery's writings, including those in this short story.
External links[edit] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Good_Man_Is_Hard_to_Find_(short_story) | dclm-gs1-072850000 |
0.833661 | <urn:uuid:68376cfc-1f9f-42b6-a670-c4ebea650bbf> | en | 0.917719 | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Actinic)
Jump to: navigation, search
"Actinic" redirects here. For the British e-commerce company formerly having that name, see Sellerdeck.
In chemistry[edit]
In chemical terms, actinism is the property of radiation that lets it be absorbed by a molecule and cause a photochemical reaction as a result. Einstein was the first to correctly theorize that each photon would be able to cause only one molecular reaction. This distinction separates photochemical reactions from exothermic reduction reactions triggered by radiation.
For general purposes, photochemistry is the commonly used vernacular rather than actinic or actino-chemistry, which are again more commonly seen used for photography or imaging.
In medicine[edit]
In medicine, actinic effects are generally described in terms of the dermis or outer layers of the body, such as eyes (see: Actinic conjunctivitis) and upper tissues that the sun would normally affect, rather than deeper tissues that higher-energy shorter-wavelength radiation such as x-ray and gamma might affect (see actinic keratosis).
The term actinic rays is used to refer to this phenomenon.[2]
In biology[edit]
In biology, "actinic light" denotes light from solar or other sources that can cause photochemical reactions such as photosynthesis in a species.
In manufacturing[edit]
Actinic inspection of masks in computer chip manufacture refers to inspecting the mask with the same wavelength of light that the lithography system will use.
Artificial lighting[edit]
"Actinic" lights are a high-color-temperature blue light.
They are also used in electric fly killers to attract flies.
In aquaculture[edit]
Actinic lights are used in aquariums, primarily because they make fluorescent coral "pop" to the eye, but in some cases also to promote the growth of deeper-water coral that is specialized in photosynthesis using blue light.
1. ^ Appendix 3. "Units for photochemical and photobiological quantities", pp.173-174 of The International System of Units (SI), BIPM, 2006 [1]
2. ^ "actinic rays" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
See also[edit]
• Spectral sensitivity is commonly used to describe the actinic responsivity of photographic materials. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinic | dclm-gs1-072860000 |
0.05965 | <urn:uuid:a2d4cd22-2379-420b-97fb-7dc9d9c769c9> | en | 0.947956 | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In politics, centrism or the centre is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy; while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society either strongly to the left or the right.[1] Centre left and centre right politics both involve a general association with centrism combined while leaning somewhat to their respective sides of the spectrum. The term is often used interchangeably with the Third Way, a political position popularized by Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Paul Keating in the 1990s, whereby policies favored a balanced approach and the removal of extreme ideologies.
Centrists usually support to a degree of equal opportunity and economic freedom. They can generally lean conservative on economic issues and lean liberal on social issues and sometimes vice versa.
Usage by political parties by country[edit]
The Australian Democrats is a centrist party with a social liberal ideology. South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon had launched his own centrist political party called the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) in 2014. The Palmer United Party has been suggested as being a centrist party as well however the party itself does not make such formal claims of being politically centrist.[3]
Czech Republic[edit]
Czech Republic has only one centrist political party named ANO (Yes) which was founded in 2011 and has seats in the Government of the Czech Republic.
In Greece centrism has its roots to centrist politician and founder of Agricultural and Labour Party, Alexandros Papanastasiou. In 1961 Georgios Papandreou created along with other political leaders the coalition party of Centre Union. Five parties were merged: Liberal Party, Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union, National Progressive Center Union, Popular Social Party into one, with strong centrist agenda opposed equally to right wing party of National Radical Union and left wing party of United Democratic Left. The Centre Union Party was the last Venizelist party to hold power in Greece. The party nominally continued to exist until 1977 (after the Junta it was known as the Center Union - New Forces), when its successor Union of the Democratic Centre (EDIK) party was created.
Union of Centrists was created by Vassilis Leventis in 1992 under the title "Union of Centrists and Ecologists". The name was changed shortly after. The Union of Centrists claims to be the ideological continuation of the old party Center Union. The party strives to become "the political continuance of the centrist expression in Greece". Leventis aimed to become part of the Venizelist legacy of some great politicians of the past, such as Eleftherios Venizelos and George Papandreou Sr. However, the party's total influence has been marginal, with 1.79% of the total vote (in the Greek legislative election, 2015) being its highest achievement to date.
In the Republic of Ireland, the two main political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, both claim the political centre ground, but seem to mostly lean to the centre-right and be mostly made up of centre-right memberships.[4][4][5] The two parties have shared broadly similar policies in the past, with their primary division being perceived as being steeped in Irish Civil War politics. Fine Gael is aligned to Christian democratic parties in Europe via its membership of the European People's Party, and is described internationally as centre-right by the likes of Reuters.[6] The consensus in analysis seems to be that Fianna Fáil is mostly centrist, expanding to the centre-right space, and that Fine Gael is mostly centre-rightist, expanding also to the centre space.
New Zealand[edit]
In New Zealand, there are two main current centrist parties. One is the United Future party, founded by a fusion of a previous centrist social liberal party and a previous Christian conservative party. United Future currently has one seat in the New Zealand parliament, supporting the current Government led by the National Party alongside ACT and the Maori Party.
The other is New Zealand First, which was founded by Winston Peters, and has a mix of nationalist and populist views with a conservative social policy. It is currently in opposition with 12 seats, in the 121 seat House of Representatives.
Nordic countries[edit]
Neither the Centre Democrats (a now defunct centrist political party) nor the Liberal Alliance (a political party founded as a centrist social liberal party but that now is a classical liberal party), both of Denmark, are rooted in centrist agrarianism.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) founded by Imran Khan, claims to be a centrist/centre-right political party.[8] PTI emerged as the second largest political party in Pakistan, following the general election of 2013, by number of votes.[9]
Palestinian Authority[edit]
The Third Way is a small centrist Palestinian political party active in Palestinian politics. Founded on 16 December 2005, the party is led by Salam Fayyad and Hanan Ashrawi. In the January 2006 PLC elections it received 2.41% of the popular vote and won two of the Council's 132 seats. The party presents itself as an alternative to the two-party system of Hamas and Fatah.
United Kingdom[edit]
In the late 1990s, the traditionally socialist Labour Party, under the leadership of Tony Blair, began to move towards a centrist Third Way policy platform, creating the New Labour movement.
United States[edit]
Currently, centrists in the two major US political parties are often found in the New Democrat Coalition[15] and the Blue Dog Coalition of the Democratic Party and the Republican Main Street Partnership of the Republican Party.
See also[edit]
3. ^ https://theconversation.com/populist-palmer-drops-his-jester-act-to-appeal-to-middle-australia-26919
5. ^ Irish Poll Hits Fianna Fáil, 2nd paragraph
7. ^ Politieke Barometer: D66 middenpartij bij uitstek.
8. ^ http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/06/28/survey-imran-khan-most-popular-leader-of-pakistan
9. ^ http://www.elections.com.pk/
10. ^ DISTRIBUCIONES DE FRECUENCIA MARGINALES DEL ESTUDIO 2909 CUESTIONARIO 0 MUESTRA 0, CIS-Centro de Estudios Sociológicos (see Question number 27) (Spanish)
11. ^ a b Jonsson, Patrik (29 July 2011). "Americans Elect launches centrist third-party bid amid Washington dysfunction". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
12. ^ Ekins, Emily (29 August 2011). "Reason-Rupe Poll Finds 24 Percent of Americans are Economically Conservative and Socially Liberal, 28 Percent Liberal, 28 Percent Conservative, and 20 Percent Communitarian". Reason. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
14. ^ "4 Types of Independent Voters Who Could Swing the 2012 Elections", Linda Killian, 2 February 2012
15. ^ Pollard, Vic (March 15, 2007). "Pollard column: 'Mod squad' lockout has Parra steamed". The Bakersfield Californian. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
External links[edit] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrism | dclm-gs1-072870000 |
0.024768 | <urn:uuid:27f4313d-e523-40f2-b164-94ca3cc7082f> | en | 0.948683 | Yasawa Islands
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Coordinates: 16°55′S 177°20′E / 16.917°S 177.333°E / -16.917; 177.333
The Yasawa Group is an archipelago of about 20 volcanic islands in the Western Division of Fiji, with an approximate total area of 135 square kilometers.
Bay of Yalobi, Waya Island
Sandbar connecting the islands of Waya and Wayasewa
Nanuya Lai Lai
The Yasawa volcanic group consists of six main islands and numerous smaller islets. The archipelago, which stretches in a north-easterly direction for more than 80 kilometers from a point 40 kilometers north-west of Lautoka, is volcanic in origin and very mountainous, with peaks ranging from 250 to 600 meters in height. The only safe passage for shipping is between Yasawa Island (the largest in the archipelago, about 22 kilometers long and less than a kilometer wide) and Round Island, 22 kilometers to the north-east.
Throughout the 1800s, Tongan raiders bartered for, and sometimes stole, the sail mats for which the Yasawa Islanders were famous. The islands were largely ignored by the wider world until World War II, when the United States military used them as communications outposts.
Tourism, economy and culture[edit]
Until 1987, it was the policy of the Fiji government that the Yasawa Group was closed to land-based tourism. There were limited cruise operations since the 1950s, but passengers had to stay aboard their ships. Local residents benefited little from the passengers presence. Since the Fijian government lifted the restrictions on land-based tourism in the Yasawa Group, a number of resorts have been established there. Due to its freehold real-estate status, three budget resorts were operating on Tavewa island since the early 1980s.
Areas of the Yasawas were the locales for the 1980 filming of the romance adventure film The Blue Lagoon.
Tourism is growing in importance. Permission is required to visit all islands in the group except Tavewa. The home of the Tui Yasawa, the Paramount Chief of the Yasawa Islands, is at Yasawa-i-Rara, on Yasawa Island, but the largest village is Nabukeru.
Getting to the Yasawas[edit]
The Yasawa Flyer connects Port Denarau with the Yasawa Islands
As one of the outer island chains, options to get to the Yasawa Islands are a bit more limited than some of the closer islands to Nadi and Denarau. Flights are generally limited and chartered sea plane options are available. Helicopter charters are also available or you can take the Yasawa Flyer, a catamaran.
External links[edit] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasawa_Islands | dclm-gs1-072900000 |
0.042754 | <urn:uuid:e943009d-841a-493c-87b3-a38b911db167> | en | 0.796649 |
No encontramos iTunes en este ordenador. Para usar vista previa y comprar música de ¡Simpatico! de Velocity Girl, descarga iTunes ya.
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The problem with Copacetic was the dingy production, so for Simpatico, Velocity Girl hooks up with the Smiths' first LP producer John Porter. Flaw corrected. Perhaps too much? Some have expressed the opinion that Porter has neutered them somewhat, and indeed, the rawer edges have largely been relinquished, but so what? They sound great now, much tighter, more convincing, more together. Constant touring has obviously toughened and synchronized them, so credit them for a lot of thankless, hard work. Simpatico, at the least, is a three-times-better version of their first LP, which is the small flaw now — they don't seem to have enlarged their scope much, still clinging to the chiming guitar version of the Wedding Present meets the Shangri-La's they started with long ago — remember when My Forgotten Favorite was on so many of our turntables? And the problem with narrow scopes is that some of the songs just aren't going to click as much as the better versions of the same thing. But if they aren't going to change their sound, or to a lesser extent, their style; at least they can keep getting better at it, and that is the case, so there are more big delights. "Drug Girls" has a sharp chorus, and the best song, "Rubble," adds a New Order bass and acoustic. "Hey You, Get Off My Moon" at least attempts a slow ballad, and "What You Left Behind" and the single "Sorry Again" are big-time hooky. Porter seems to have worked Sarah Shannon into singing stronger and more firmly. It's time to move on, but for now, there's plenty to enjoy.
Se formó en: 1990 en Washington D.C.
Género: Alternativa
Años de actividad: '90s
Biografía completa
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0.019569 | <urn:uuid:ba14a096-aadb-42cc-9c5c-ab51b98cc7d6> | en | 0.829633 | Personal tools
99 questions/Solutions/57
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(**) Binary search trees (dictionaries)
Use the predicate add/3, developed in chapter 4 of the course, to write a predicate to construct a binary search tree from a list of integer numbers.
add :: Ord a => a -> Tree a -> Tree a
add x Empty = Branch x Empty Empty
add x t@(Branch y l r) = case compare x y of
LT -> Branch y (add x l) r
GT -> Branch y l (add x r)
EQ -> t
construct xs = foldl (flip add) Empty xs
Here, the definition of construct is trivial, because the pattern of accumulating from the left is captured by the standard function foldl. | https://wiki.haskell.org/99_questions/Solutions/57 | dclm-gs1-073190000 |
0.01815 | <urn:uuid:f87fde48-79e0-41e1-b376-19c79bc89e43> | en | 0.866196 | Saint-Martin-d'Uriage Vacation Packages
Saint-Martin-d'Uriage is situated in a popular part of Rhone-Alpes, an area that offers exquisite rural landscapes, rivers and lakes.
From Saint-Martin-d'Uriage, it's 65 miles (105 kilometers) to the northwest to Lyon and 120 miles (193 kilometers) to the southeast to Nice.
Spend time exploring while you are here. Visit the the Golf Club d'Uriage.
Vacationing in just one place, no matter how popular, can only ever give you a narrow glimpse into the wider personality of a region. So try to allow a few days to delve into Rhone-Alpes' other natural and man-made attractions. Why don't you make tracks to the L'Alpe d'Huez Ski Resort and Pic Blanc in Huez, which is 12 miles (19 kilometers) distance away. If you'd like to experience more of this region, make your way over to Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse to visit the Grande Chartreuse Monastery and Charmant Som Ski Lift. Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse is 13 miles (21 kilometers) away.
Chamrousse, is another interesting place to visit. It is 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Saint-Martin-d'Uriage and offers a wide range of points of interest, including Lacs Robert Ski Lift, Des Gabroureaux Ski Lift and La Berangere Ski Lift. Des Amoureux Ski Lift, l'Arselle Ski Lift and Bachat Bouloud Ski Lift are some more popular places definitely worth visiting for those who have more time on their hands.
As the sun sets on your adventures, spend what's left of your euros on last-minute keepsakes and say Au revoir / À bientôt to the characters you have met and the places you've enjoyed.
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0.53861 | <urn:uuid:6b87b2c3-dad2-4bda-97b1-4757e63e9d0c> | en | 0.987822 | A/N: Sorry this took so long guys. This chapter was…frustrating and horrible to write and edit. Though, on the plus side, it seems rather fitting that this goes up on the same day that series three starts filming :D
Chapter 3
Sherlock hit the floor with a force that would be sure to leave a bruise along his left bicep. Not willing to hang about, he kicked out with his free foot and connected with a body, finding the blow was slightly cushioned (short fur, one to two centimetres). The muscles were toned and hard (a strong creature). It was either an animal or a large man (weight-lifter of some variety) wearing a fur coat. The growl that the animal let out was distinctly canine: he would have said a wolf, but that was highly unlikely in London, so more likely a husky. However, both were unlikely considering the fact that dogs didn't have hands.
The window board bounced back into place as he twisted round to look at the thing, reducing the light to nothing more than a millimetre sliver that barely penetrated the darkness. Sherlock may have excellent eye-sight, but he didn't have nocturnal vision. He could just about see a vague mass that stirred while the edges faded into darkness. He scrambled to his feet knowing he had to get away, but his back hit the wall (plaster over brick, judging by the sound) rather than finding an escape route.
A loud sniff cut through the air and the floor creaked. The creature was shifting its weight (the creak, strain of the floor-boards and what he had summarised of muscle density placed its weight closer to 14 stone rather that his original 12-stone guess), alerting its next move to Sherlock. The detective ducked to his right just in time to dodge his opponent's charge. The creature slammed into the wall and the room shook. It must have been heavier than Sherlock predicted to do that (at least 16 stone) or perhaps the shock came from elsewhere (the vibrations through the floor were very prominent). There was a slight rustle and the creature sounded as if it was sitting, most likely stunned from the impact. Taking advantage of the short break, Sherlock shoved his hand into his pocket and roughly pulled out his phone. Tapping on the screen, he cast some extra light in the room. It wasn't much (five watts), but at least he should be able to…
No, it was useless. It was impossible to see what his eyes claimed they saw in the dim, they must be playing tricks on him in the restricted light (which was almost as unlikely as what he was seeing. His sight was perfect, only time failing him due to the effect of a drug). A creature like that wouldn't be able to move, let alone track anything across London. Yet, as the creature shock its head, the sound and the movements matched perfectly. He saw the creature shift and the floorboards groaned in time (thicker floorboards than originally supposed, a part of his brain rationalised), but then the mind could play remarkable tricks on a person to match the senses.
'It's a clever trick,' he told himself, as he side-stepped another charge, 'but it's still a trick.'
Sherlock moved aside a third time, towards the centre of the room, but he wasn't so lucky. The hand grabbed him tightly by his elbow, pulled and swung him round. His phone flew out of his hand from the unexpected force and the breath fled him as he hit the wall (the impact would cause cracks in the plaster). A hand enclosed around his throat; it was definitely not human but his mind refused to focus on what it was as his airways constricted and oxygen failed to reach the rest of his body. He tried to pry the hand away from his neck, a futile attempt; he would die before he loosened that grip. He let go with his right hand and struck out with a boxer's blow, catching the monster on the muzzle (yes definitely muzzle-like and distinctly wolf-like). Whimpering, it let go and the detective slid to the floor. Canines, he knew, often had noses highly sensitive to impact as well as to smell.
There was a rush of footsteps (spacing between footfalls indicated sprinting), and a loud bang as the door burst open. A sixty-watt bulb flared into life. He blinked several times and looked up for his first clear glimpse of the creature that towered over him. He found his breath catching for reasons other than restricted airways and a…fear (?) he hadn't felt since Baskerville. This…the…it wasn't possible. He understood now why he'd been unable to identify the creature before. It wasn't an animal, it was several.
In the full light of the room, as well as the hallway's light, there was no denying what he saw before him. It wasn't possible to entertain the prospect that the creature before him wasn't real. The idea that it was an impressive animal suit immediately fled his mind. It was too big for one person, two people could never move like that and it was far too realistic. Drugs then, or an illusion, but that conclusion fell through without taking any hold. He had felt the hot air against his face, smelt the meat on its breath. When he had hit the creature, he was hitting flesh that was really there beneath the fur and skin. It moved, rippled and reacted in a way that could not be faked. The grip around his throat moments ago was not something that could purely be a figment of his imagination.
It had been the torso and arms of the gorilla that made up its upper body. His eyes travelled #to where the gorilla's body seamlessly fused with the hind legs and body of a lioness (both animals still young, both developing and relatively small/light. Lioness, twenty months. Gorilla, around 8 years). The only line was where one set of fur blended into the other. There were no stitches, no scar line, nothing. He could not see how the two parts had been attached to one another. The head was no better. His first guess had been right, it was a wolf, but this creature shouldn't be able to move, to think, to see. It should be impossible for someone to successfully take apart three different animals and then attach them together so it pumped blood around the millions of vessels and send thousands of electrical impulses between three vastly different biological bodies that should be dead. Spinal cords, circulatory systems, immune systems, all totally incompatible. They shouldn't be able to do that after being separated from their owners, he didn't understand how it was alive. He didn't know who had the technology and the knowledge to create this…thing.
The creature didn't seem to notice the light, its focus on the shocked detective under him, raising its fist to strike again.
A sharp whistle from the doorway suddenly drew the creature's attention away and both of them turned to see The Doctor standing, holding the sphere before him. "This is what you want, isn't it?" the man spoke again, waving the object before him as the creature's eyes became rooted on the globe. The arm fell, seeming to forget all about Sherlock as it turned to the other man. "Yes, that's it. Come and get the shiny orb. Yeees. That's a good Henchman." The Doctor watched closely as the creature slowly stalked towards him, speaking to it as if it were a particularly stupid child or dog. "That's a good boy. Now, fetch!"
The man threw the sphere and it shot through the boarded window (at a trajectory to hit street-level 15.6-15.9 yards away), creating a small exit-hole. As soon as the sphere disappeared the Henchman ran after it, crashing through what remained of the boards and into thin air. Judging from the startled cry that accompanied the breaking twigs as it flew into the tree, it had either forgotten it was upstairs, didn't know or it hadn't occurred to it that jumping would cause painful injuries. Four seconds later there was a heavy thud as flesh hit the concrete pavement. It wasn't dead though; a creature that size and strength falling only five metres would only have some broken bones, but wouldn't die.
"Are you alright?" The Doctor rushed to his side, but Sherlock simply brushed him off.
"I'm fine," he rasped out from his abused throat.
"You sure? You don't sound fine."
"Positive. It will heal."
"If you're sure," he relented before continuing, "We need to get downstairs before it returns. I've bought some time but it will be back for us. All depends on how long it spends looking for the sphere." The man turned and strode to the door, Sherlock quickly following.
"You threw it out the window."
"It was you or the sphere and you're a lot harder to replace."
"I wanted to examine it."
"Yes, well you can examine it later, when we're done. First we need to block that signal, unless you want to run from chimeras for the rest of your life." The man slipped out of the room and down the hallway towards the stairs, once again forcing Sherlock to follow his lead. Annoyed by this aggravating pattern, he snapped out a retort.
"It's not a chimera."
The Doctor stopped at the top of the stairs. "Sorry?"
"The Chimera was a three-headed monster, with the foreparts of a lion, the middle-parts of a goat and a snake for its tail, therefore it isn't a chimera," he was unwilling to admit at this point that the meaning of the word had changed over time, he was going to get back on top. The Greeks often combined different animal to make different creatures, the chimera just happened to be the most famous. It was a small fact that he had absorbed from Mycroft during his brother's obsession with the classics. It was completely useless and under normal circumstances he would have 'deleted' the information, but it was difficult to discard anything to do with his brother. One never knew when the slightest detail maybe useful when dealing with his sibling. "Unless you're talking about the medical term, in which case you're even further off."
The other man gave him a long look that was somehow vaguely bemused but not at the content at his words. "I was talking in more general terms," there was a sharp, but soft intake of breath and a small curious frown creased his brow. "You really are a stickler for details," and then he was gone, quickly descending the steps, leaving him in no better a position than when he started.
The Doctor stood at the base of the steps, hand resting against the wall as he examined it. He pressed an ear against the cracked, white-washed surface, running his hand over the wall. "Perception filter?" he muttered as Sherlock stepped onto the bottom stair. "Maybe…no, just a wall. Door's been removed, it was here though."
Sherlock couldn't see any indication that a door had been there at any point in time, but his attention quickly passed over it to something far less subtle; the gaping hole in the wall (one and a half meters tall and 80 centimetres at its widest) that lead to the outside.
"That wasn't there when we entered the building."
"It wasn't there before you entered the building." The Doctor passed him by, moving down the corridor.
Catching the meaning, Sherlock stepped closer to the new entrance. "You made it?"
"How did you think I got in?" he asked as he fiddled with the door under the stairs, sounding a little surprised at the question.
However, he would need explosives to do that and he couldn't hide those on his person, not enough to make this large a hole. On top of that, the bricks that lay scattered on the floor were whole. That would not have happened if explosives had been used.
"You didn't use explosives."
"Nope, just my trusty sonic screwdriver, doing what it does best," he added more distractedly. He could hear the man rustling behind him, searching his pockets, followed by the familiar high-pitched whirring noise. He was opening the door…oh, of course, but a wall and a door were two completely different things.
He could hear shifting and sniffing from the outside. "Doctor," he warned, stepping back from the gap and towards his companion.
"I know. Just another minute, this lock is a little tricky…" Sherlock could hear the henchman approaching coming up to the hole of an entrance in the back of the house. The consulting detective scanned the area for escape route, finding his options sorely limited. Scooping down he picked up one of the bricks (weighing 2,238 g, would cause sufficient damage if wielded correctly) scattering the floor. Just in case…
"Got it!"
He could hear the small door open and felt a sharp tug on the back of his coat as he was pulled in after the Doctor and the door slammed shut behind them. The first thing he noted, as his companion attempted to lock the door with his sonic screwdriver (something he'd yet to be convinced of), was the low hum that seemed to fill the room and how this room seemed to be brighter than any other in the house. The hum was distinctive: computers. And not just one, but many small ones. Turning round, he set his sights on the old shop floor.
It had clearly been, until recently, a local corner shop (he quickly decided that in the larger scheme of things, the question of why the cupboard-under-the-stairs led to the shop floor was irrelevant). The rows of shelves were still intact, running down the centre of the room, but now they held computers and machines, not day-to-day necessities. Opposite them, sitting against the right-hand wall, sat a huge supercomputer. However it was more accurate to say it was several small computers attached and piled on top of each other to reach the ceiling (the satellite dish was on the other side of the wall). In the centre of the tower was a very large radio, and beside it a discarded microwave.
All the machines appeared to be custom jobs, using a mix of components that had to have been ordered in and imported from specialists, generic parts from main-stream dealers and mechanisms from a wide range of everyday appliances. He took a step forward, careful not to catch his feet on the mass of wires that carpeted the floor. However, apart from these devices, and a standard looking PC screen and keyboard, where the cash register should be, it appeared as if the rest of the room had be cleared out (several light shapes, mainly rectangular, along the walls, patches of thinner dust along the shelves/floors, as well as dents and scuff marks on the floor) and recently so.
There was a loud bang as the Henchman threw himself against the closed door. Sherlock didn't flinch or acknowledge it. If it was throwing itself against the door then it clearly couldn't get in yet, though judging from the cracking and creaking of the wood, they only had another four minutes, four minutes and thirteen seconds if they were lucky.
"We don't have long," The Doctor confirmed his thoughts, appearing beside him. "We need to…oh, this is beautiful!" The man's face lit up as he dashed forward to look at the enormous machine and the contraptions around it. "I mean, really ingenious. I'd love to meet the mastermind behind all of this. They didn't have a psychic transmitter, so they just got bits and bobs they could find on Earth and made-do. See here, they tried using a microwave, isn't that clever! 'Cause the radio was a better idea, only problem is that they have to avoid interfering with other signals, not easy in London. They must have created a whole new wavelength. Drawback is that they can't send complicated messages, short and simple. If they wanted to do more then they'd need resources you can't find here, not in this time anyway. You'd need a real mind to drive it properly, so whoever did all this clearly didn't want to stick around and watch. They've just left it on autopilot. Most of the energy this sends out now goes on keeping those Henchmen up and running."
"They're essentially remote-controlled robots, just made with flesh rather than metal and wires. They aren't alive; they're just a shell for the program. The computer here," he indicated to the ones on the shelves, "contains the data, travels through the wires and is then converted to be broadcasted across London. The Henchmen must have receivers inside them somewhere."
The door buckled, threatening to give way at any moment.
"We have less than a minute before we're joined by your friend."
"My friend!? You were the one who was getting close and personal earlier."
There was another loud bang and the wood cracked.
"He's about to get up close and personal to both of us."
"No problem." He pulled out his screwdriver again and flipped it on. However, this time his face fell after eight seconds. "Ah, it's deadlocked. Another way then... I can't see a power source, no mains plug. Oh, power inside, a powerful one. So not just 20th century technology. That makes sense, can't be a human from-"
He was abruptly cut off when the door burst open and the creature crashed to the floor before them. The Doctor backed away as it picked itself off the ground and slowly blinked. Its eyes remained fixed on The Doctor as the man backed away, edging round the side of the room.
"It would appear as if you have its undivided attention," Sherlock commented.
"Yes," he replied, cautiously moving into the empty half of the room. "I think you'll-"
"Keep him busy," Sherlock interrupted, taking advantage of the beast's distraction to back towards the only keyboard and screen in the room.
"Oh, yes! Distract the big ugly walking patchwork quilt! And what are you doing?"
Sherlock skipped over the wires that led from the hard drives to the screen and keyboard. Swinging round the short counter he looked at the screen. "Hacking into the system, of course. It goes down, then so does the creature. I thought that would be obvious, based on what you've said." Power light was flashing, on sleep mode. Why leave it on sleep mode? Didn't matter presently. He hit the 'enter' button and watched the screen flicker into life.
"Oh, you're just going to hack into an alien computer, are you?"
"Naturally." He frowned at the screen as a series of white circles scrawled themselves onto the display.
"So you're just going to waltz into the system with a few taps. Who d'you think you are? Me?"
"No, I'm better." He tapped the keys and watched the circles shift and change. A code then.
"Be-," his outraged reply was abruptly cut off as the Henchman launched itself at him. The Doctor ducked to the side, away from Sherlock and the path of his attacker. The creature didn't quite reach him though. Its aim was true, but rather than make the bound in one leap, it landed on the centre isle of shelves. The paws settled on the plastic and, unable to hold the foreign weight, it collapsed in on itself bringing the creature and the computers crashing to the floor. The Doctor briskly crawled round the edge of the shelves, closest to the door to look at the scene.
"That was close. I was nearly squished like a pancake there."
Sherlock barely glanced at the creature or the man. He was more focused on the screen in front of him, but no matter what he did, the screen refused to change from series of circles. He even tried the standard 'Ctrl Alt Del' combination, to no avail. Even if the circles were some kind of code, without a starting point, his own Rosetta Stone, he couldn't begin to decode it in the limited space of time they had. This wasn't as simple as one of Mycroft's government lackey's codes.
He slammed his palms down on the counter in irritation. Damn it. He quickly slid his eyes over to the hostile creature to check his outburst hadn't drawn unwelcome attention, and paused.
The Henchman writhed as it tried to roll back to its feet amongst the broken equipment (odd that it hadn't risen yet, must be disorientated). When it clumsily rose to its feet, it shook its head, turning left and then right before sniffing the air. Following its nose, the head turned to the Doctor (loss of eyesight). The Henchman took a step forward, but stumbled feebly as the front legs crossed over each other and drastically miscalculated where the floor was (motor functions damaged as well). Whatever had been damaged in the fall had taken the creature's sight and motor functions with it.
He quickly bent down and searched the back of the computer screen. He followed the cables to the nearest hard-drive. Slipping round the counter, cautious of the Henchman stumbling around, he edged round until he was by the fallen equipment. The Henchman stumbled round, dragging itself closer to the Doctor by the second.
"It's disorientated," The Doctor began, stating the obvious, and shifted his weight to scramble out of the creature's way when it lunged forward, "If you-"
"I know what I need to do," Sherlock cut in and the other man spluttered in indignation. Perhaps he would have replied, but instead his attention was taken up by this predator's advance. It half-dragged its way across the floor towards him, then lashed out blindly, missing a red converse by a hair's breadth, and fell to the ground again.
He crouched down by the closest hard-drive that had been knocked to the floor, but still appeared to be functioning. A quick scan of the wires at the back told him which ones were important. He grabbed them in his fist, pulled… and it exploded.
It wasn't a large explosion, just a small pop that was barely audible over the snarling beast and a small tremor that ran through the casing. Black smoke drifted up through the cracks and into the air. There was another small pop, and another, and another as a chain reaction was set off through all the small computers and a wisp of smoke drifted up from many sources. The hum of machines died down and the life from large complex of computers faded with the Henchman's. The creature, half risen, collapsed back onto the ground, its head lolling back onto the ground and clearly dead.
"Well," the Doctor started from where he still sat on his hands and knees. "That was anti-climactic."
Sherlock was about to comment that having your life saved could hardly be described as anti-climactic, but he found himself agreeing with the odd man. Looking up, he met the strangers gaze, seeing his own thoughts and feelings reflected on the other man's face. A small bubble rose in his belly and the struggle only lasted a moment before they both burst out laughing.
Well, there's the pre-arch. I'll be honest, I'm not really happy with this conclusion at all, but hopefully the others will be better. As my beta-reader/brother said, 'can't always have a personal best.' Anyway, feel free to leave your own thoughts on it. I'm open to comment on con. crit.
The basic set-up of this fic will be a series of arcs, each lasting 3-4 chapters (though it's looking like it will be more like 4 now) each leading up to the finale. Between each arch will be a small in-between adventures chapter. Sherlock and the Doc in their down time, so to speak.
Next chapter: Sherlock meets the TARDIS and we have a special guest.
Oh, and if you like a challenge then check this out: forum/Fictunes/129656/ | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8034433/3/Time-to-Run | dclm-gs1-073330000 |
0.929077 | <urn:uuid:175626fb-5fcc-46c7-b639-20c472e238e0> | en | 0.990569 | For now on, the italics are Crystal's thoughts and singing! Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry if I was a bit late from updating.
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah." my father said shaking his head, with his arms crossed.
Sarah? Isn't that the name of the girl that ran my father's Labyrinth?
"This is so UNFAIR!" the woman by the name of Sarah said.
"You say that so often. Such a pity..." father told her. She just scoffed at my father. Why was Sarah mean around him? He did nothing wrong. Sarah got a glimpse of me and her eyes got wide. Why was she doing this?
"Jareth! I told you not to bring her here! GET HER OUT OF HERE!"
"Why should I?" I asked as I stood straight. "Crystal! I told you not to say anything or ask anything!" father snapped. I just wanted an answer.
"I want an answer Miss Sarah. Why- should- I?"
Sarah just looked at the floor. "Because... I don't want anything to do involving you."
"Why do you not want anything to do with me?" I asked. Sarah sighed, "It's time for you to know the truth."
The truth? What's the truth?
"When you were born, you looked so much like Jareth. I didn't' want anything to do with him whatsoever-"
"Hey!" father exclaimed from hearing that she didn't want anything to do with him.
"so you lived with him." Sarah continued.
Father had lied to me. He said she was dead. I was thinking I could go on or somthing, but we don't have any computers in the Goblin City. Why did he lie?
"You... lied to me." I said softly staring at my father's tall figure. | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8904866/4/It-s-a-Crystal-Nothing-More | dclm-gs1-073350000 |
0.06718 | <urn:uuid:0e9d8b36-877e-43e8-b7eb-53b1b707c271> | en | 0.99217 | "Can you complete this project or not?"
Dean turned the design sketch around, checking out the dimensions. "I mean, yeah, the project's not a big deal. Surprised you didn't go to someone who specializes in this stuff, you musicians are usually a lot pickier."
"You came very highly recommended."
Dean raised an eyebrow at that but let it pass without comment. "How did you get my name again, anyway?" He did good work, Dean had no doubts about that but he ran a small shop and didn't spend much on advertising.
"As I said. You came highly recommended."
Dean shook his head, smoothing the sketch flat against the glass coffee table. Or crystal, maybe, the set wasn't quite right for glass. Either way, he could tell at a glance the table was probably worth more than what he'd made in the past six months, just like everything else in the sitting room. Dean usually had a policy against taking on the really wealthy as clients, the hassle was never worth the money, but when he'd gotten the call that morning his curiosity had gotten the better of him. "Didn't even know anyone was in this old place," he said.
"I live a quiet life."
Dean tried to study his prospective client without being obvious about it. It was true that he'd had no idea anyone was living in the old mansion outside the town line; the place dated back to the Kansas territory days, maybe the oldest standing building in the state. He'd assumed for years the historical society had been keeping it up, not that it was inhabited. There weren't even power lines connecting it to the town grid, although Dean supposed there must be a generator because power was coming from somewhere.
And the mansion's resident was just as strange. Dean had walked in expecting some old recluse but Castiel (no last name, and Dean hadn't pressed) looked to be around his age, wearing a dark suit even though it was the height of summer and the mansion didn't have air conditioning. Dean guessed the recluse part of his guess had been right, at least; Castiel hadn't even stepped out of the door to greet him when Dean had arrived, buzzing him in at the gate. And that was even without the direct staring going on; it was like he'd never gotten the hang of eye contact and personal space.
But hey, weird and rich tended to go hand in hand and just looking at the terms of this contract Dean had the feeling this guy was very, very rich. "You have reservations," Castiel said, letting out a frustrated huff of breath.
"Yeah, you could say that."
"If there are problems with the sketch I could..."
"Nah," Dean said, shaking his head. "I've worked from worse. It's not the project, it's the terms."
He watched Castiel ruffle up like an agitated cat. "If you require more compensation, that can be discussed."
Dean just shook his head again. "Look, don't think I'm against you throwing money at me but this whole thing about doing all the work on site," he said, pointing to the clause in the contract, "that's no good."
Castiel frowned. "I could make any accommodations you require."
"That's not it. Look, I've been doing this a long time, you want this done right it needs be in a proper shop. Wood reacts to all kinds of things, humidity, all of that. I can't just set up a saw in the driveway and expect that to work."
Castiel's lips thinned but he didn't make another argument. "Aside from that, do you have any other concerns?"
Dean examined the sketch again. "Well, I've never made a piano bench before but it doesn't look that complicated. What's with these cut outs along the back?" he said, pointing to the two triangular indentations on the sketch.
"They're required."
"Okay, okay. Just means I'd have to adjust the storage area underneath, there's a reason these things usually aren't made like that."
Castiel nodded, fidgeting like he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with his hands. "I apologize if I'm coming across as difficult."
"If I didn't want to deal with difficult clients I wouldn't do custom work," Dean said. A part of him wasn't sure why he still sitting here – this was more trouble than Dean cared to go through to get work, even when he needed the money. Everything about Castiel just screamed how uncomfortable he was, from the stiff way he held himself to the eye contact. Dean had worked with some awkward clients in his time but never someone who looked like he was being tortured just by sitting down to discuss the estimate. "I'm not saying no, okay? Just that you've got to compromise."
"You drive difficult bargains," Castiel murmured. "Does the privacy clause meet with your approval?"
"Yeah, whatever, I don't talk shop with my competitors anyway."
"That's not what I mean. I don't want my name spoken to anyone. I value my privacy."
That got a raised eyebrow out of Dean. "To anyone? If my brother calls up and asks what I'm working on, you mean I can't tell him?"
Castiel did that uncomfortable fidget again. "I...I suppose you don't need to go to that extreme. Just leaving my name out of the conversation should suffice there."
Dean shrugged. "Hey, you're the client. You're providing materials, you said?"
Castiel nodded. "You'll be allowed to examine them, of course." There was a little tinge of excitement in that direct stare now. "Does that mean you'll accept the commission?"
"Leaning more toward yes than no."
"How long do you think the project will take?"
Dean tilted his head. "There's a lot of hand carving. A week, I guess? At the most?"
Castiel lowered his eyes, and Dean couldn't tell if he was happy about that estimate or not. He closed his eyes for a moment, his hands steepled under his chin. "Is the on-site provision your only pressing concern?"
"That's the big one, yeah."
Castiel nodded. "Then come with me."
Dean followed him through a winding hallway, the walls covered with art that even to Dean's untrained eye looked like museums would be lining up to get their hands on. "Are all these real?"
"I can provide the provenance if you'd like."
"No, I believe you." He stopped in front of what was unmistakably a Van Gogh. "My brother went on an art kick when he was twelve or so, I can recognize some of the big names." He glanced down at the gallery behind him. "Pretty sure there's enough money in this hallway to buy the town."
"I've put a lot of time into my collection," Castiel said, sounding pleased with himself. "But there are less 'masters' represented than you might expect. I buy whatever catches my eye. History forgets more talent than it remembers."
"Must be nice."
"If I can't create great art I can at least collect it." He paused by a door at the end of the stairs. "Tell me if this meets your standards." He pushed open the door and stepped aside, allowing Dean to step inside first.
Dean felt like he'd stepped backwards in time. He found himself in a fully-equipped workshop – an antique one, to be sure, but one just as beautiful as any of the paintings hanging in the hall. Castiel was at his elbow before Dean even realized he'd entered the room. "If I double the offered fee, would working here suffice?"
Dean nodded.
"Tell me you said no. Tell me you said no and ran out of there as fast as you could."
Dean leaned against the kitchen table and rubbed his suddenly aching forehead with his free hand. Sam hadn't been...exactly as positive as Dean had felt driving away from Castiel's mansion and hadn't wasted any words during the phone call letting Dean know it. "Dude. It is a lot of money."
"There's no way it could possibly be enough money."
Dean pulled out the wad of cash Castiel had given him when they'd concluded business that morning, half of his estimated fee straight up in advance. Normally he dealt in checks but Cas had just blinked at him when he'd brought up the possibility. It wasn't the first time he'd had a client pay him in cash, some of the ones on the wealthier side liked to flash their money at any opportunity but he hadn't gotten the feeling this was showing off. He wondered if the guy even had a bank account. Money was just literally lining the walls of that mansion, for all he knew. "I don't know, Sam. If it's not it's pretty close."
"I thought you said the shop was doing okay."
"Dude, it is but with the way things have been lately there's no way I'm turning down someone literally throwing money at me. And I mean actually tossing a money clip full of hundreds at me as I was leaving."
"And none of this strikes you as even a little bit weird?"
Dean sat down, propping up his head with one hand. "It's a lot weird. I know that, but what do you want me to do?"
"Not work for crazy people would be a good start."
"He's not crazy. Weird, sure, but I'm not getting crazy off him."
"Dean. I want you to really look at the terms he set for you and tell me that again. He won't let you say his name out loud."
Okay, so maybe Sam had a little bit of a point there. "When you're that rich you're allowed to be a little nuts."
"He built a 19th century woodshop in his house so you wouldn't have to leave."
Dean smiled just thinking about that shop. "Place is fucking beautiful, Sam. I feel like I went back in time, it's like I'm working in a museum."
"But, you know. Not crazy."
"Fine. But not dangerous crazy." If Sam kept making points Dean felt like he was going to have to pull some older brother rank because there was no way he was going to be talked into giving this money back. "You didn't talk to him, Sam. Dude is awkward. I got the feeling the whole time it had been so long since he'd talked to anyone that he didn't really remember how." Dean realized as he said that it didn't really do anything to disprove Sam's argument.
Sam didn't miss it either. "Dean. Listen to yourself."
Definitely time to pull rank. "I took the job, Sam. I'm not backing out now, you know I don't do that." And he wasn't giving this money back, but he didn't really feel the need to say that.
Sam let out the most long-suffering of his vast array of long-suffering sighs. "Fine. At least send me the contract so I can get an idea of how much crazy we're dealing with." Dean could actually hear Sam's forehead do that worried scrunched-up thing when Dean didn't say anything. "Dean, tell me there's actually a contract."
"More of a handshake deal." Not that they'd actually shaken on anything, Cas had given a definite hands off vibe, but he was far from the first client of Dean's to have that particular flavor of weird.
Another sigh, louder and more tragic than the first. "Just promise me that if he offers to play an opera he wrote specifically for you that you'll jump in the car and get out of there."
"He's not the Phantom, Sam, he's just a guy. A weird, rich guy."
"I didn't think you'd get that."
"Hey. I got some culture."
"Cool, next time Jess wants to see it again you can go with her."
"See? I got more than you." He could tell Sam was still worried – Sam worried like it was an Olympic sport sometimes – but that he was going to let it drop for the moment, which Dean guessed he could count as a win. "How's the studying for the bar going?" he said, deliberately changing the subject.
"Gonna get a zero."
Dean grinned. Sam had never failed a test in his life. "You're gonna pass on the first try and save the world from corporate douchebags."
"That's the plan." Dean heard some noise in the background. "I gotta get going, Jess just got home and we're having dinner with her parents tonight."
"Tell her she's too good for you for me."
"Man, don't I know it. You don't check in after a couple of days and I'm going to assume you've been kidnapped and fly out there."
Dean knew Sam would, too. "I'll talk to you later." After Sam hung up Dean put the phone down and picked up the wad of cash, counting through the hundred dollar bills as if he expected them to turn into singles before finally just putting it aside.
Sam was right, of course. This was a pretty strange set up, way more hoops than Dean would usually care to jump through and he'd never been swayed by the promise of some quick cash before. And actually he hadn't been now – Cas had been the one to bring up this payment when Dean had completely forgotten about it as he'd been gathering up his stuff to leave. If Dean was going to be honest with himself he knew he probably would have done this job for half the fee.
Dean realized then he'd started thinking of Castiel as "Cas" in his head. He tried to remember when that had started and couldn't. He'd have to be careful not to call Castiel that when he showed up there in the morning.
Dean put all of that out of his head and decided to knock off early. He had a long day in front of him after all.
Dean woke in the middle of the night sweating and gasping, his sheets wrapped around his legs and the blanket kicked to the floor. He took a moment to catch his breath, stretching out across the bed, his heart beating a fast rhythm in his chest. The dream that had shaken him awake was still there behind his eyes, Castiel under him in the backseat of the Impala. They'd pulled over at some rest stop, like they'd been in the middle of some road trip; Dean felt his hands clench in the sheets as he remembered Cas shaking in the dream as he whispered Dean's name like some hedonistic prayer.
He pushed the dream aside as he tried to get back to sleep. Maybe obscene amounts of money weren't the only reason he'd taken this job after all. | https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9779277/1/All-That-Is-And-Used-To-Be | dclm-gs1-073360000 |
0.189023 | <urn:uuid:d23e60b4-3d92-4fee-bf35-d3cdcf280b9e> | en | 0.995587 | tagRomanceThanksgiving Ch. 1
Thanksgiving Ch. 1
Every year Hayley would go to the cabin in mountains with her family and spend Thanksgiving. It was a ritual that began with her father and continued with her children. All her brothers and sisters and their families would go up and enjoy the first snowfall of the year. It was always a feeling of returning home after playing in the snow for the day. A hot fire, puzzles, drinking hot chocolate, popcorn and snuggling with each other watching movies or reading a book.
This year would be the first year without her husband. Just recently separated she felt the need to be there with her family. It had been a rough year in many ways, physically and emotionally. Since she made the decision to break away from this relationship it had taken it's toll on her. She was finally feeling back in the groove with life. Almost ready to begin dating, but not quite. This vacation with her family would rejuvenate her and give her back perspective again. Somehow her family always gave her back and feed her exactly what she needed.
She was the youngest in her family of ten and most of her brothers looked over her. Some she hadn't seen in years and it was the perfect time to catch up on each others lives. Her brother Peter had brought a friend up with him. Peter had divorced three years earlier and she was there for him. When she saw Peter she ran and hugged him so hard and began to cry. Letting loose some of her pain that she carried emotional baggage. Whenever she was with Peter, he made her feel so good about herself. After she let go, she apologized noticing a man behind him standing with a suitcase. Peter smiled and moved aside announcing that he had brought his buddy from work Trevor. Trevor was tall and dark and under the baseball cap on his head, he had very nice eyes. Trevor walked past Hayley and smiled. His smile just about melted her insides as she wiped her tears. His smile was captivating her, she was having a hard time tearing away as he brushed past her. Then she smelled him, oh, he smelled wonderful. Not too much cologne just enough and it was flattering to his scent. Peter grabbed a hold of Hayley's hand and pulled him toward her and wrapped his arms around her. "Sis, I missed you! Why don't you call me anymore? and where's Tim? She told him, "we'll have time to talk later. I'll have to tell you what's going on with me." She then whispered to Peter, "I've finally separated from Tim." Peter hugged her even harder and said, "Congratulations, I wondered when you'd be rid of him." Laughing he stood up and asked where he would be sleeping. Grabbing his gear and Trevor following behind looking out of place.
Hayley followed the men to the dorm room. That's what the family called it. They packed all the singles into one room and it worked. She had her stuff in the corner and told Peter to take the bed close to her so they could talk until they fell to sleep. Trevor set his stuff down where Hayley had said, as he walked into the room. Peter pressed Trevor, "Trevor, this is my sister Hayley, the one I've told you about." Trevor smiled and put his hand out to hers "nice to meet you, Hayley, Pete has told me a lot about you." She felt his electricity when she shook his hand. Feeling her mouth begin to hang, she noticed and smiled shaking her head agreeing with him. Unable to utter a word while their hands touched. Peter laughed and broke the ice, taking Hayley and pushed her on the bed and jumped on top of her, tickling her till she screamed "uncle." Standing up and running to the bathroom, telling Peter "I'll get you back, I almost pee'd my pants from laughing so hard."
Peter and Trevor sat their things down and Peter asked Trevor, "What do you think of her?" Peter responded "I love her laugh and smile." They continued to discuss how the family was and what would be expected of Trevor while he stayed with them. The entire family loved to laugh and also loved to cuddle and hug one another. Practical jokes were all part of the initiation of the family to see if the person that was staying with them was up to par. Peter was warning Trevor about the little things to look for and how to respond.
Hayley left the boys to talk and settle in and returned to the kitchen. Kitchen detail was her area for the evening meal, it was Mexican night and she was preparing chili verde, rice and beans. To drink they were having margaritas the families favorite. As the family was on their fifth picture of margaritas dinner was ready. Feeding the children first and getting them all set down. Then the adults began to get their plates, Peter and Trevor were the last ones out. They ended up making their plates of food with Hayley and sitting down to eat together. During dinner Trevor slowly began to open up talking to Hayley. Throughout the entire meal, Hayley couldn't tear her eyes from Trevor's listen intently to every word he uttered. Feeling as though she was becoming hypnotized by him, his voice was deep and luring. Making her insides flutter roll, she hardly ate a bite but did however drink plenty of margaritas.
After everyone had complimented Hayley on the delicious meal they had finished. The children all ran off to watch a movie while the adults turned up the music in the kitchen and dining room and began to sing and dance. As Hayley stood she found herself quite a bit loose and feeling rather giggly. Peter took her hand and placed a hand around her waste and began to four step with her. Around and around Hayley was still giggling from too many margaritas. Found herself dancing from Peter to Trevor. Once she was in his hands, she felt that energy surge through her body. What she had felt earlier when she shook his hand. It was a shock through her body. She stopped giggling and ran to the bathroom.
Scared from the feeling she felt from him, she stared into the mirror and looked at herself and thought. Why, would he be attracted to me? I'm so average. Then her thoughts moved to, What would it be like to actually have sex with another man. She looked at her medium frame and nice full breasts and cupped them into her hands. Turning sideways looking at herself. I am attractive, why do I let Tim's comments bother me like that. He always told her how average she was and not very beautiful. Just to strip her from her self esteem and keep her where he wanted her. At home having babies taking care of him. She had been a virgin when she was married and the thought of actually having sex with another man terrified her. It had to be because she had too much to drink, she had better eat something before she made a fool of herself. She headed back out into the dining area.
Peter walked up to her and asked if she was okay. She nodded yes and said, I better eat something. Peter replied, yes you didn't eat a bite during dinner did you? Why was that? Too busy looking into Trevor's eyes perhaps? He laughed and hugged her. As they walked into the kitchen she could feel Trevor's eyes watching her. Without looking she headed for the chips and began to eat. Peter asked, do you think an evening walk would help you my dear sister? I am beginning to feel a bit better, and yes a walk would be just what the doctor ordered.
Peter grabbed their coats and gloves walked over to Trevor and asked him to go with them handing his coat over. They began to walk along the street which had banks of snow pushed to the sides which was like a barricade sheltering them from the cabins surrounding theirs. The night was clear and all the stars were out you could see the moon out it was almost a full moon. So the night was bright bouncing off the snow made it even brighter. The air was crisp and smelled of pine. As the three of them walked down the street they huddled together holding hands. Hayley in the middle with her mitten couldn't feel that energy surge from Trevor. Good thing since her brother was there Trevor made her insides do flip flops. It had been such a long time since any man has made her feel like this. While they walked Hayley began to tell Peter about her break up with Tim. It was her voice the entire walk, both men listened not saying a word. They walked for quite a while and ended back up in front of the cabin. Peter stopped and gave Hayley a huge hug and said, Sis, I wish you would have called and told me this I hate to see you going through this alone. Hayley replied, I know, but I did have to do this on my own otherwise, Tim wouldn't have understood why. He always thought you and I were too close and was even jealous of our relationship. Sick eh? Thank you, Peter and she hugged him back. Peter then asked, "Anyone up for some coffee?" Trevor finally spoke and said he would love some, and Hayley nodded. Peter excused himself and said I'll go make the coffee while you too get to know each other.
Trevor smiled at Hayley as Peter walked back into the cabin. He asked her if he had done something to upset her earlier when they began to dance. Hayley replied, No, I'm sorry the margaritas just rushed too my head and I felt a little ill. Good, it felt good being close to you, he replied. Trevor said, may I be bold for a moment? Sure, please do, said Hayley. Every time I touch you I feel such energy illuminate into me. I know that's silly, he said. Hayley's mouth hung open. She said, I have to be honest with you if I may. I too felt that coming from you. Never have I ever felt anything like that from a man. It scared me and that's why I ran into the bathroom. Both smiling at one another they began to huddle it was very cold and they needed the warmth.
Trevor opened his jacket and took her under his wing. Instantly, Hayley felt such comfort in him. The two found the bench and sat looking up into the night sky. Watching the stars and moon light the night. Neither saying a word, it was very romantic Hayley thought. Just feeling so warm and secure with another man she was eased by being in his arms she wanted to feel his lips pressed into hers. Trevor just sat and held her though, no passes nothing but warmth and comfort from him. Hayley asked Trevor his age and he was younger than she was, which was okay but surprised her a bit. Trevor was an engineer for a aero tech company. It was the same company her brother worked and not far from where she lived. Trevor began to open up to her telling her about his past marriages. That his divorce had just been finalize about 3 months earlier. The first marriage was he got married for all the wrong reasons and it wasn't good. The second he was married for 10 years before he found his wife had an affair with her boss. He admitted to her, that when he first saw her jump into Peter's arms he was taken by her and then couldn't tear his eyes from her. Hayley was so flattered, she giggled and didn't know quite what to reply to him. Trevor then continued not allowing her to say anything at that moment. Trevor admitted that he had seen picture of her and thought she was very attractive from her smile and asked Peter to bring him just to meet you. Trevor's confessions didn't stop there, he said, ever since I saw the pictures of you I've been fantasizing about you. Hayley was dumbfounded unable to utter a word.
Peter walked out with a thermos of coffee and two cups and a blanket. He saw them huddled on the bench and said, what, no room for me? Seeing the blanket in hand, they both said, over here over here. Laughing Peter walked over and handed them the blanket and set the coffee on the bench. Sorry you two, I'm not going to stay I nephew and niece duty.
The two watched him walk back inside the cabin. Trevor took the blanket and spread it over their laps. He leaned over and took the thermos and opened it and poured two cups. He handed a cup to Hayley and as the two sipped the coffee and watching the heat from the coffee rise. Hayley spoke, "Trevor, you make me feel so comfortable and secure. Good, replied Trevor. It's been a while since I've trusted a woman and I trust you Hayley.
Hayley began to wondered if Trevor was going to kiss her like she imagined earlier. Finally, she asked Trevor will you kiss me? Astonished the words just flowed from her brain out her mouth. Trevor smiled and said, would you like me to kiss you Hayley? Yes, I do, said Hayley. Still with coffee cups in their hands, Trevor leaned toward Hayley's full lips and gently kissed once then again and again. The first time his soft lips touch hers it melted her insides. No longer did she feel the bite of the cold outside. It was everything and more than she had imagined. How was that? Trevor asked. She was floating in another world and felt the urgency to return. Ah ah ah was all she could utter.
Trevor took the coffee cup from her hands and placed it on the bench with his. Took off his gloves and placed his warm strong hands on her face and turned his head and kissed her once again, this time with every peck he began to suck her lips, then her tongue preying for her to open wide for him. The kisses began very softly and gentle and began to build with such intensity and passion.
Hayley had been living the past 10 years with no passion in her life. Trevor's passionate kisses stirred not only her insides but she couldn't help but feel her body building and releasing heat. No longer were the two of them huddled to stay warm. They were huddled as one trying to get inside one another. The last time she had kissed anyone in this way was her husband when she was still a virgin. All those terrified thoughts of being with another man just flew out into the night sky. It was so romantic outside kissing under the moon lit sky, she whispered to Trevor. I know we just met, but I want you to make love to me. Those were the words he longed to hear his fantasy was happening and he was going fulfill it. He opened up her jacket and she did his at the same time. Exposing her full soft breasts to the cold air instantly made her nipples erect. He took one look and leaned over and cupped them and kissed each with his mouth. As he did each one he flicked his tongue over them. His touches were very delicate and yet so powerful because of his energy. He moved his mouth down her stomach and unbuttoned her pants and unzipped them kneeling down in front of her pulling them down to her ankles. He spread her legs apart kissing her legs and then feeling with his fingertips finding her golden pot filled with her nectar. Flicking his tongue over her clit while he spread open her lips wide with his fingers on one hand taking the other hand and dipping them into the golden pot and spreading her juices all over up and down. Repetitively he continued his dance with his tongue and dipping his two fingers in and out. He was doing everything as she was thinking it inside her head. All that came out of her were moans.
Hayley, had never had a man just dive into her like Trevor was doing. It was his first touch that made her almost scream out into the cold night air, but withheld it as he continued his ritual on her. Her husband was not good at it and didn't like doing it, this was obvious by the touches of Trevor'aholds tongue. It wasn't long before she grabbed a hold of his head and told him and told him, Trevor oh I can't hold back, I'm going to cum. Trevor continued with his executed movements and slowed his pace. He could feel her body begin to shake and wanted this to last a long time for him. It was a huge wave that hit her she let out a small yelp. He slowed his pace on her but didn't stop. Her body shook making the orgasm last longer than ever before. Five minutes passed by and he was only touching her clit with his tongue barely not flicking it, but kissing it ever so gently. It was the loving feeling that warmed her all over his energy of warmth and love was filling her. Finally, the orgasm had somewhat stopped, but it left her craving more of him. Just what he wanted too.
Both had forgotten that they were even outside in the snow. The heat from them was warming one another. Trevor lifted his head and looked into Hayley's eyes and told her, "I want to make love to you Hayley." I want it to be right though. My urges are telling me to jump on you right now, but my heart wants you.
Hayley understood what he meant and told him, that she too wanted that. She asked, will you please kiss me again? Trevor moved back up to her mouth and kissed her the same as he had the first time soft small kisses leaving her wanting more. She could taste her juices inside his mouth and kept pressing further. Feeling her hands guiding him and pulling him back up onto the bench. She stood up and pulled up her pants, then moved onto his pants taking the belt loose, unbuttoning them, unzipping and moving them down far enough to extract his rather large engorged penis. She was very impressed at his size, she had only ever seen picture of men's penis's and she looked at it and told him, It's so beautiful. The way the moonlight hit it as it stood up straight, almost as if it was a staff made just for her. Trevor never had a woman ever tell him his cock was beautiful. He knew he wanted her more than ever now.
Hayley was impressed at the beauty of his stance of his cock. It was full and perfectly round and just the right size to give her splendor when inserted inside her. All she could think was to watch her hand stroke up and down on his shaft and keeping it warm in the cold night air. She quickly moved her lips over as she saw the precum glistening on top of her fingers. Licking in small fast licks, progressing to her entire mouth surrounding it. Taking in bit by bit trying to engulf his entire sexual shaft. As she stroke him further inside her mouth, she began to flick her tongue around the head. Continuing to guide him in a straight path of filling her throat with his hot love. It had been only since this morning since he masturbated dreaming of her doing this very thing to him. He grabbed her hair just to make sure she was really there and when he did he let go and exploded inside her mouth. Moaning with his thrusts deep into her throat one then again and again and again. He never knew he had so much in him. It was so built up in his fantasy of her that finally able to release it was more beautiful and satisfying than he could have imagined. She swallowed every drop and continued to play with his cock moving her head up and down feeling the last little shutters of ecstasy.
Trevor took her head in his hands and guided her back up to meet his lips once again. She still had the flavor of his cum in her mouth as he began to suck her tongue with another long passionate kiss. When the kiss ended she gazed down and still saw his cock standing at attention. At the same time he too saw his erection still full even in the bitter cold. He took it and put it back into his pants. Hayley thought as he did it, why did he do that? Would he make love to her in the dorm that night? Her body ached for him, and wanting him made her desires only teasing haunting for the remaining part of the evening. He kissed her once again and said "I want you but only when the time is right."
The walked back inside the cabin everyone turned and looked see. Hayley laughed and said to her family, yes, I'm much better no more margarita's for me. I'll now bow out and say goodnight, so goodnight everyone. Trevor took a chair beside Pete, she could see a smirk on Pete's face as she walked by.
As she moved into the dorm room she jumped on her bed her head began to fill with Trevor what he had said to her wanting her for so long. How come this was the first time she knew about it. Peter should have said something to her, but then again she had not been available to him either. She had not been attracted like this to any man not even with Tim the only man she'd ever had sexually. All those feelings of Trevor began to float in her stomach like butterflies. Oh, how could I have done that she began to think. Her head was unbalanced like he put her under a trance. She was so glad it didn't go that far with him, she would have regretted it. As she fell to sleep the words of Trevor's haunted her "I want you only when the time is right." When would that time ever be right? She thought before she fell into a deep sleep.
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0.058656 | <urn:uuid:711d18f1-b5e7-4c03-8a34-792b61534a15> | en | 0.945281 | Is Addiction a Habit or a Choice?
It's an age-old debate: Are addicts failing to exercise control or have they fallen victim to a disease that has taken over their brain and rendered them powerless? The answer is neither and both, so pay close attention...
Addiction, connection and the Rat Park study
F%$& Shame, TEDx and Mental Health
Many of us don't give the proper weight to the use of mental health labels. As this talk shows, diagnostic labels can actually impact the way in which labeled individuals perform. If nothing else, this fact should make us more wary of using these labels as everyday placeholders to describe those around us. We may just be sentencing them to meeting our low expectations.
Breaking Good - When meth addiction resolves
Coming face to face with your own shame and emotion about the past can be hard. This is me trying to do it in public.
Do Moderation Programs Encourage Alcoholic Drinking?
The fear that abstinent people in recovery will begin drinking if moderation programs are offered is simply absurd. For the one percent of substance users who both seek treatment and are successful, recovery is usually a pretty happy place. Let's let them keep their victories while offering the other 99 percent solutions they will embrace.
A New Sobriety
Drinking can contribute to improved health but overdoing it is dangerous. What does that mean and what can we do about it? A hint - the answer is not abstinence.
Finally, the Addiction Cure Is Here, Right?
The promise of an addiction cure is alluring, but the evidence keep suggesting that for those who meet chronic addiction criteria, the cure is going to be a combination of approaches.
Is Leaving Residential Treatment the Most Effective Part?
Residential treatment for substance use has been suffering with low success rates. We've been blaming the clients, but what if the treatment itself is more jail than therapy? Depression and failure could be the outcome.
Shame on Us for Shaming Hoffman
The shame addicts experience when they relapse is a sad reminder that we haven't quite figured out how to help those suffering with substance use issues.
The Promise of Help... Again
Obamacare promises changes in the accessibility of addiction treatment. I'm pretty sure massage and wolf-therapy won't be covered but I'm not holding my breath for much...
Doctor, Doctor!
I worked my butt off for the title "Doctor" and somehow it doesn't seem to measure up. I guess I can either get over it or go back to school (right!) but what does this say about the way we provide treatment?
Moderation in Addiction Treatment, A Change Is Gonna Come
"Denial" in the context of addiction treatment might mean that those who want help are simply not willing to except the only option offered to them. Maybe it's time that we listened instead of blaming them for our failures. Our many failures.
Opiate Addiction in the Limelight: Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne was hospitalized last week and rumors are it has to do with his drug use. Well, we know hip-hop and drugs mix well, but what the heck is Syzzurp?! Your answer coming up once you press the button... Look left and cough!
Alternatives: Moderate Drinking Treatment Hits Los Angeles
Nearly all addiction treatment in the U.S. is abstinence-based even though abstinence is the least likely outcome for people suffering with substance-related problems. Is it any wonder that 90% of people who experience problems don't even seek treatment and that those who do perform so poorly? It's time we treated the actual problem in front of us.
Quitting Is Not Really About Quitting
Addiction treatment often focuses much of its attention on quitting the specific problem behavior. Unfortunately, health intervention research has shown us that getting someone to stop doing anything is damn near impossible. But there is a better way.
Stigmatized to Stop Drinking...Again
Psychologists are supposed to help others who are stigmatized feel better about themselves and function more effectively. Oddly, they might be doing a pretty bad job when it comes to their own ranks, especially when there have been past indiscretions.
Personalized medicine requires more than genes
Personalized medicine (pharmacogenomics) is likely the future of all medication prescription and it is going to make a big difference in addiction treatment as well. But when the argument of nature versus nurture comes up, it's important to keep in mind just how complex the interaction between the two really is.
Why Quitting Smoking Without Help Is So Hard
Quitting smoking is hard, and although most people quit alone, many need help. Focusing on motivation and other personality factors might be key.
The Genetics of Quitting Smoking
The argument of whether biology has something to do with addiction is silly—the interaction between nicotine metabolism, bupropion, and quitting smoking can show you why.
Death In Rehab: What's Wrong With Addiction Treatment
We've been hearing for a while that addiction treatment may not be extremely effective, but could it actually be killing addicts who are looking for help?
Top 10 Great Things About Being Addicted
Addiction can't be all bad or no one would do it, right? Here are our top 10 great things about being addicted.
Marijuana, Memory, and the Brain's Cleaning Crew
THC use (as in smoking marijuana) has been shown to negatively affect memory. Who thought is was the brain's De facto janitors that were responsible for the effect?
Is Opiate Pain Medication Safe for Addicts? Part II
When considering opiate pain medication among addicts, one of the important questions is: Do they work?
How to Give Up Giving Up
Giving up can seem like the easiest choice sometime. But if you learn from those who experience happiness and success, failure doesn't really exist.
Is Opiate Pain Medication Safe for Addicts? Part I
You often hear people in "recovery" talk about freedom from all mind-altering substances. But what happens when chronic pain requires treatment using medication that can be both mind altering and addictive?
Treating Alcohol Withdrawal With Benzodiazepines—Safe if Mindful
Is alcohol withdrawal safe? Benzodiazepines have been shown to help but require users to be mindful. The entire process should take place under the supervision of a physician.
The Best Addiction Treatment Option
Which addiction treatment option is best? To me that's a bit like asking whether the sky is better than the ocean or the mountains.
Felony for Drug Possession?! That's a Crime!
Should drug possession be considered a felony or misdemeanor? California Senator Mark Leno is making his opinion known with SB1506 and I'm in full support of finally making this change.
Can't Get In: Barriers to Addiction Treatment Entry
What keeps people who need it out of addiction treatment? Barriers inside and out, that's what! But there's quite a bit we can do about it, and several occurrences where we don't need to.
Addiction Research — Who Are We Studying?
When reading about addiction research, it's important to consider the subjects we're studying in the first place. Our participants may not be who you'd expected. | https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/all-about-addiction/201005/crystal-meth-withdrawal-not-heroin-dont-expect-it-be-easy | dclm-gs1-073550000 |
0.061032 | <urn:uuid:dbdbd08b-42a8-42e1-b00f-ffb1d913ae1c> | en | 0.96624 | "It is time, it is time, for a love revolution, a love revolution, It is time, it is time, for a new constitution."
Lenny Kravitz, "Love Revolution"
Walking in the woods with a friend recently, we discussed a few of the nastier divorces and political scandals swirling around us. "I think," said my friend, "that as humans we have come to a time when we have to radically change how we do relationships Just like we have to radically rethink how we live on the earth. It's clearly not working the way we've set things up."
The current state of romantic affairs seems as fragile and in need of a pardigm shift as does the current state of the environment. It's as if we all know a complete romantic collapse is as real a possibility as environmental collapse and although we make a few small gestures, like thinking it's okay to live together without getting married or recycling that bottle, we refuse to do the more difficult work of changing the way we live and love and consume in order to avoid a more desperate future.
The first step in a romantic revolution is to acknowledge that romantic revolutions have happened before and that there is nothing unchanging about the way we love. In fact, if there is one thing the historical and anthropological records tell us, it is that the conditions of our material existence as well as our symbolic imaginary shape how we experience love and desire. Whether we look to the polygamous arrangements of Biblical times or the far more groovy dating scene of post-birth-control America, we can see that love is not the same everywhere.
But what exactly is going on in our culture that might indicate a Romantic Revolution is upon us? First, the conditions of our existence have changed drastically in the past thirty years. At a material level, most Americans are not as well off now as they were in 1980. We Americans work more hours than any other industrialized nation and have a much less secure social safety net, with both healthcare and higher education being far too expensive for a large number of Americans. Globalization has left us with insecure jobs, insecure food systems, and an increasingly insecure environment.
More than these material changes, though, are the changes in our imagination of love and romance. We need only look to our gods to divine that love just ain't what it used to be. Consider the political scene, post Bill Clinton and Gary Hart's monkey business. Now politicians are forced to claim their allegience to monogamy even as we constantly look for signs that they are not. Faced with evidence of their romantic sins, politicians must confess publicly in a torturous ritual that would make the Grand Inquisitor smile. But why would we torture them so if we were not so tortured ourselves about marriage and monogamy?
As if it is not enough to destroy our political gods, we also try to dismantle the loves of our Hollywood deities as well. Brad Pitt is a bad husband as is Tom Cruise. The Bachelor was betrayed. But so was the Bachelorette. Tiger is a sex addict. What else could explain the fact that he had so many affairs? Not the state of marriage. It must be a disease, like Weiner's, like Schwarzenegger's, like Clinton's, like yours or mine.
Even as we love to see the loves of the rich and mighty shatter into a million pieces, we are fighiting harder than ever to protect our own romantic security. We spend more and more money on our lavish weddings, we watch reality TV shows about the dress, the ceremony, the engagement, even the cake. We fight over who should and should not gain access to the 1000 plus politcal rights and privileges given to married people even as we refuse to be married in greater and greater numbers.
What could possibly be the solution to so many contradictions other than a revolution. But what would a romantic revolution look like? What would it call for? What would it rail against? It is interesting how few alternatives are bubbling up in response to the current crisis in emotion. There are critiques, but few answers. Perhaps that is because it's so difficult to imagine a way out of what we are told is natural and univeral: falling in love and getting married and having children and living happily everafter.
So perhaps step one in the Revolution is to tell ourselves different stories with different endings. Love comes in many forms and sometimes it lasts a lifetime and sometimes it lasts a month. But given that we must be as mobile as possible in order to survive in this economically and environmentally precarious world, a month can be a better than a lifetime. One of these relationships does not deserve the labels "healthy" and "deserving of privileges" more than the other. They are both love and both potentially uplifting or soul crushing. We must judge relationships not on how long they last, but on the mutual pleasures they produce.
Which is another story we must tell. Sometimes happily everafter means living as a single person or a person in a polygamous or polyamorous relationship. Sometimes happiness demands that we not be coupled with one other person. That does not make the life of a single person or a polygamous person less valuable and less infused with love than a married person.
And finally, we must end our stories not with happily everafter, but "for now," because what works for you at 25 might not be the same at 45 or 65. Because life is unpredictable, increasingly so. Economically, environmentally, and romantically.
So rather than continue to see Weinergate and Tiger Woods' sexual practices as signs that true love needs us to rally around to defend it, maybe we can use the current crisis in romance as an opportunity to reimagine it. To revolutionize it. To make love about kindness and everyday magic, rather than lifelong monogamy and dyadic coupling. Maybe instead of political scandals involving personal lives, we'll have political scandals involving politics- like the politics of ignoring environmental and economic collapse in order to focus on the sexual lives of others. And perhaps, as Kravitz so soulfully suggests, have a love revolution that will change the constitution.
Most Recent Posts from Love, Inc
Ashley Madison May Be Too Honest For Our Times
Was the cheating website hacked because it was too up front?
White Supremacy and Dream Weddings
Supreme Court Upholds Marriage Ideology
We can celebrate marriage equality but let's resist marriage ideology | https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-inc/201106/time-love-revolution | dclm-gs1-073560000 |
0.068392 | <urn:uuid:38673b2f-fd8b-434e-9fc2-a5130ccdb45e> | en | 0.986081 | Charlie Sheen's Crazy $100 Million Lawsuit
Charlie Sheen is so winning that he didn't just file a lawsuit for $100 million against Warner Bros., which makes Two and a Half Men, but he did it for himself and the entire cast and crew. Oh, that Charlie. He's so generous!
He doesn't think he got fired because of his very public meltdown, but because the show's creator, Chuck Lorre, is out to get him. Here's how the opening of his lawsuit reads:
The suit goes on to claim that Lorre has been publicly ridiculing Sheen for years and alleges he has some sort of vendetta against the star, which is the real reason behind his (he claims) wrongful termination. All this needs is for Sheen to serve as his own attorney and it sounds like the plot of one of CBS' more wacky procedurals. With all things Sheen these days, we're sure the best is yet to come.
[Image via Pacific Coast News] | http://gawker.com/5780700/charlie-sheens-crazy-100-million-lawsuit?tag=two-and-a-half-men | dclm-gs1-073940000 |
0.654458 | <urn:uuid:2035f36d-63b2-4bc4-908f-985b1cd6e956> | en | 0.964409 | whole grains
Cooking with whole grains: A primer on teff and a recipe for teff and almond tea cakes
Teff is a seriously tiny grain, and one that has been cultivated for centuries in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is best known for its traditional use in the fermented flatbread known as injera (the spongy bread at the heart of those countries' cuisines) | http://news.nationalpost.com/tag/whole-grains | dclm-gs1-074010000 |
0.021896 | <urn:uuid:246abc43-b832-4cce-822d-ea136dfb04ec> | en | 0.932633 | October Theme Of The Month: Halloween!
Stupid Customers Come With A Sign
Me: “Hello. Do you need help sir?”
(He looks genuinely upset at this fact.)
Me: “Sir, turtles can’t read.”
Customer: “They can’t?”
Me: “No.”
Customer: “Hmm. Well, that’s upsetting.”
Spewing Obnoxious Gases
Me: “Yeah, I think I can.”
(I turn to the next customer in line.)
Me: “Do you want to kill the environment?”
Customer #2: “Yes!”
Me: “A bag it is.”
It Would Explain Canada’s Lack Of Sun
| Toronto, ON, Canada | Canada, Technology, Tourists/Travel, Uncategorized
(I have just activated a new smart-phone for a customer. I am showing them how to set it up.)
Me: “…and that is how you would send a text message. Do you have any other questions?”
Customer: “The time is wrong on this phone.”
Me: “That’s because you haven’t selected the correct time zone. Here, I will show you the time setup.”
(I show the customer the list of time zones, and briefly leave her to answer another customer’s question.)
Customer: *impatiently* “Excuse me! Excuse me! This phone you have given me is broken!”
Me: “Broken? Why do you say that?”
Customer: “There is no ‘Canadian’ time zone! It keeps trying to put it on ‘Eastern’!”
Me: “Yes, that would be correct, it’s seven o’clock here.”
Customer: *indignantly* “We don’t live in the east! This is Canada!”
Wet The Appetite
| Staten Island, NY, USA | Pets & Animals, Top
(A young woman approaches the front register with a dead Siamese fighting fish in a cup.)
Customer: “I want a refund on my fish. All the fish I buy here keep dying! This is my 3rd replacement. I don’t understand what could be wrong except that you sell sick fish!”
Me: “I’m very sorry for that miss. I assure you we give all of our animals, including our fish, excellent care. Could you describe to me anything you noticed wrong with your fish before it passed away?”
Customer: “Well when I first get one it’s completely fine. I change the water once a week, add water conditioner, and it seems happy and healthy. Then, after a couple of weeks it starts looking really sickly and one day it just dies for no apparent reason.”
Me: “Ok, well what were you feeding it? Was it eating well?”
Customer:“Feeding it? These kind of fish eat?”
Me: “Yes of course they do. Everything needs to eat.”
Customer: “Wow, really?! I thought they just ate the water.”
Not A Believer
| Chicago, IL, USA | Liars & Scammers, Money, Uncategorized
Me: “Hello, can I help you?”
Caller: “Hi, how much is an oil change?”
Me: “$38.99.”
Caller: “Okay, well usually I bring in a coupon and they give me money off, but I don’t have it with me this time. Can you just give me a discount?”
Me: “No, we actually need to scan the hard copy itself to enter a discount.”
Caller: “Well, what if I bring in a make-believe coupon?”
Me: “A what?”
Caller: “You know, a make-believe coupon?”
Me: “Those are good for make-believe oil changes.”
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0.032816 | <urn:uuid:16923084-e93d-4cfe-9d1c-4a7a4add6cdc> | en | 0.971042 | 82 / 58
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Woman robbed after accepting a car ride
Albany police responded at approximately 5 a.m. Monday morning to an armed robbery that occurred on Byron Road.
Officers say the victim, Amanda Dykes, 30, told police a black male approached her while she was walking near the intersection of West Highland Avenue and South Van Buren. They say he offered her a ride which she accepted.
According to police, the suspect drove her to the 800 block of Byron Road where he robbed her at gunpoint. Dykes was able to get away but the suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of money.
This case remains under investigation. | http://wfxl.com/news/local/woman-robbed-after-accepting-a-car-ride?id=713749 | dclm-gs1-074170000 |
0.716829 | <urn:uuid:b79828e4-2f64-4f30-b024-07127f95423d> | en | 0.930632 | London (change)
Today 18°C / 14°C
Tomorrow 15°C / 9°C
7 messages
05/07/2012 at 08:48
Could anybody please explain what this round yellow thing is in the sky ? It's very bright and appears to be emitting some sort of heat. There are strange white fluffy things around it and it's hurting my eyes. Has this phenomenon occurred anywhere else in the country or shall I 'phone the M.O.D. headquarters immediately ?
05/07/2012 at 09:10
there is something similar here.
05/07/2012 at 09:12
OMG - invasion !!!
05/07/2012 at 09:13
ditto for north east scotland - let's see how long it lasts
05/07/2012 at 09:17
There is no need panic-it is just a phenomenon or a figment of you imagination but does appear occasionally-your golden orb will not stay long and will go back to its home planet as soon as you don the bikini.
05/07/2012 at 09:22
Think the mother ship may be coming - there a big grey cloud now !!!!
06/07/2012 at 10:29
email image
7 messages | http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/the-potting-shed/lancashire-skies/4492.html | dclm-gs1-074300000 |
0.116374 | <urn:uuid:7fb52e23-526c-46d0-b2b0-dd9030a7bbd7> | en | 0.924565 | Quiet PC
Maybe your PC has always been noisy, or maybe it has become noisier over time. What can be done to make your computer quieter? Wrapping the case in a blanket, or surrounding it with cushions might dampen the noise but will ensure that the internal components cook themselves in no time at all.
Moving the unit to a cupboard will garner the same results unless you cut a hole in it and even then the internal temperature might still be a problem. Thankfully there are easier and less destructive ways of minimising sonic emissions, all they require are an hour or so of your time, a screwdriver, and a cup of tea (optional).
One thing to check before you begin is whether the BIOS settings on your computer allow you to control the speed of the PC's fans.
In most BIOS menus (which you can access by pressing F1 or Del during booting) you’ll see a H/W Monitor section. Look in there for an option like CPU Smart Fan Target, which allows you to select the maximum temperature that you want the CPU to reach. Anything under 60 degrees Celsius is good. Save your changes and reboot to bring the changes into effect. If that doesn’t do the trick then it’s time to go shopping.
BIOS hardware h/w monitor fan control
A quick perusal of websites such as Quiet PC's will reveal a wealth of specialised, low-noise fans, power supplies, CPU coolers, soundproofing kits and even cases, all of which can aid you in your quest for aural tranquility.
This kit offers the ability to incrementally improve your existing machine, without the need for major works. If one of your fans is particularly boisterous then you can swap it out for one that is super-quiet. Is the power supply whining like a dentist's drill? Maybe it's time for semi-fanless variety instead.
Of course you also have the option of building a new machine from scratch with purpose-designed components to make it as decibel defying as something with moving parts can be. So, for this guide we decided to make a few adjustments to our sorry old office machine, which would take very little time and, more importantly, a minimal amount of money.
Quiet kit
The first thing to determine when quietening a PC is which parts are actually making the noise. There’s a few simple tests that will enable you to identify the troublesome component(s). The basic rule is that if something has moving parts then it’s a likely suspect.
See also: How to quieten your PC for £70
Quiet PC components: Fans
Acoustifan 80mm
In many cases it’s usually the fans that can be at the heart of the problem. To see which fan (as PCs often have more than one these days) is the noisy neighbour you’ll need to power off the machine, open up the PC case, and then hold a pencil or other thin, non-metal item between the spokes of a fan to prevent it from spinning up.
Then power on the machine and wait for a minute or two to see if blocking the fan has any effect on the sound of the computer. If it does then you just need to replace that part, otherwise repeat the procedure until you find more offenders. Remember that CPU coolers, graphics cards, and power supplies usually have fans too, so don’t neglect testing them.
Bigger fans spinning slower than their smaller siblings can still move the same volume of air, so buying larger fans can have a noticeable effect on system noise. For even more noise reduction there’s the 120mm AcoustiFan Dustproof (£18), which has a sealed motor to prevent dust clogging up the mechanics and to reduce noise.
Scythe Gentle Typhoon
If you’re a gamer then you’ll want a high-performance fan such as the 120mm Scythe Gentle Typhoon (£18), with its powerful motor. Of course you won’t get silent running, but Scythe has worked on the solidity of the motor and used various vibration reduction techniques to lessen the impact. Be sure to measure the size of your fans before making a purchase, typically they’ll be either 80mm, 92mm, or 120mm (measured along each edge).
Apple recently announced, with much fanfare, its new asymmetric fan design included in the MacBook Pro. The idea is that the frequency range is increased by breaking up the regularity of the fan blades, which in theory should replace a large regular hum with a more dissipated noise. In typical fashion you can expect to see similar products from other manufacturers soon. Fans can be almost totally avoided if you go down the route of water-cooling. This gets expensive very quickly but offers one of the quietest solutions and can look impressive too.
Another option is to buy an oversized 'passive' heatsink for your CPU, and a graphics card with a similar passive cooler. However, you'll still need one or two case fans to keep air moving over these heatsinks.
Quiet PC components: Optical drives
DVDs spinning at high speed can spoil a movie. Using speed limiting software such as Nero CD-DVD Speed or CD-Bremse can aid older models, while newer high-end devices such as the LG BH10LS38 Blu-ray and DVD rewriter (£75) have onboard software that automatically adjusts the drive speed in relation to the task at hand.
Next page: hard drives, cases, CPU coolers, graphics cards
Quiet PC components: Hard drives
Hard drives are being slowly replaced by silent SSDs. It’s still early days so SSD prices remain comparatively high, but increasingly we’re seeing PCs that install the OS on a small SSD (something like the Crucial 64 GB M4 - £60) and then use a hard disk for mass storage. This makes Windows feel more responsive without adding too much cost.
Crucial M4
Quiet PC components: Cases
Although cases have no moving parts, cheaply made examples can sometimes rattle. With the vibrations that spinning drives and fans create, this can become another sonic factor as the case adds its creaks to the chorus. A badly ventilated case can also cause the internal temperature to rise - thus requiring the dreaded fans to spin up to maximum speed.
To combat these factors, noise-reducing cases tend to employ higher-quality components in the construction, add weight to the base, and (in this age of laminate flooring) even include softer feet to reduce the transference of vibrations to the ground.
Nexus Thrio 310
A good example of a reasonably priced quiet case is the Nexus Thrio 310 (£40). The insides are lined with noise-absorbing material, various bumpers stop rattles, and you can even mount the PSU upside down to expel the hot air straight out of the case.
For those with bigger budgets the NoFan CS-70 (£180), as the name suggests, is specially designed to eschew fans and instead promote natural convection cooling. The only snag is that it will accept only MicroATX motherboards - the less attractive CS-70 (£80) will take a full-size ATX board.
NoFan CS-70
Quiet PC components: CPU coolers
When choosing a new cooler be aware that some require access to the underside of the motherboard, which is a far more involved job than those that attach to the top instead. Also be careful to select a model that matches the socket type of your CPU. Models range from the cheap and cheerful Siberian Quiet £7, which is designed for small chassis machines, up to the Nofan CR-95C Icepipe £945, which is completely fanless and can handle Ivy Bridge processors.
Nofan CR-95C Icepipe
Quiet PC components: Graphics cards
Graphics cards do some serious work and therefore need plenty of cooling, which means noise. Manufacturers such as Gigabyte offer specific quiet models such as the GeForce GTX 660Ti Windforce for around £260. You don’t have to change your card, though, as there are several options of quieter fans you can use on your existing units.
Arctic Cooling Accelero Extreme GTX Pro
The Arctic Cooling Accelero Extreme GTX Pro (£33), is a quiet cooler for the nVidia GTX range of cards, while the Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2 (£33), works well with a wide range of AMD and nVidia cards.
Next page: power supplies, fan controllers and how to fit a fan controller
Quiet PC components: PSUs
Nofan P400-A
Quiet PC components: Fan controllers
Scythe Kaze Master
Fitting a fan controller
| http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/buying-advice/desktop-pc/make-your-pc-quieter-3408504/ | dclm-gs1-074440000 |
0.077821 | <urn:uuid:c32014ab-e0b7-4a50-8b08-98968aad5aaa> | en | 0.952636 | Current Anthropology 1998
Applbaum, Kalman. The Sweetness of Salvation, Consumer Marketing and the Liberal-Bourgeois Theory of Needs. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol. 39(3): 323-349.
Consumer marketing and the liberal-bourgeois theory of needs, the subtitle of this article, becomes a complex for the embedding of needs in everyday practice, and the perpetuation of a “Western cosmological duality of suffering and salvation” (Applbaum, 1998:324). Moreover, Applbaum claims, “the way in which marketers change the conditions of consumer reality is mainly by intensifying, rationalizing, and universalizing existing tendencies, not by altering either extant culture categories or the core cosmology of capitalism, to which marketing itself perforce conforms.” (Applbaum, 1998:324).
Applbaum utilizes the theoretical framework of Bourdieu in order to analyze consumer behavior. Although he argues that, “[t]he social order being reproduced is less class structure than an order that signifies itself in practical, rationalist terms as ‘the marketplace’ “(Applbaum, 1998:324). This clearly weakens the lens of perception due to the fact that Bourdieu’s framework works better at showcasing class distinction and taste based upon class privilege or poverty. John Clammer, one of the commentators gives Applbaum a scathing indictment on this theoretical approach. James McDonald also delivers a desire for a more thorough examination of Baudrillard, Bourdieu and Lefebvre (the main body of analysis can be found on pages 331-332). At any rate, he does show the evident power relationship and how it is manipulated to dealienate or deliver the mass majority from suffering.
Applbaum strives to show that marketers and consumers make up the marketing effort. He maintains that both are necessary and utilize each others need and desire for fulfillment in order to achieve “salvation”, which in the end is shown to be a hoax. This article is clearly thought provoking and Applbaum makes a good point of showing the embedded nature of the liberal-bourgeois system of needs/wants in our contemporary economic praxis. The professional commentators almost unanimously agreed that the topic and discussion were on the mark, but most also agreed that more time could have been spent unpacking some of the theory. In short, Applbaum’s haste in making his argument leaves the reader and the social theorist/philosopher wanting. Applbaum makes it clear in his reply that he could have opened up his theoretical stance, shown a dynamic power relationship, and clarifies the linkage of this paper to Sahlins’ discussion of American cosmology. The article is well written and structured.
JONATHAN KIMMEL Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Applbaum, Kalman. The Sweetness of Salvation: Consumer Marketing and the Liberal-Bourgeois Theory of Needs. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol.39(3):323-348.
This paper analyzes the idea of needs as defined by Marshall Sahlins in the 1996 paper “The Sadness of Sweetness: the Native Anthropology of Western Cosmology” in marketing and consumer behaviour. Applbaum describes the perpetuation of the western idea of suffering and salvation through market interactions of marketers and consumers. The origins of the suffering philosophy of humans as imperfect and bent on the satisfaction of desires, is cited in the biblical tale of the Original Sin, and reiterated by St. Augustine’s interpretation of it. An “ethnographic” example begins the discussion as marketers meet with a focus group of twelve “housewives” and attempt to find a way to brand a household medicine in order to make it appealing to consumers. The author uses the suffering/ salvation duality to demonstrate that marketers do not change cosmology but simply intensify pre-existing cultural precepts in an interaction with consumers. Consumers are said to be active participants in marketing, while marketers are pointed out to be members of the cultures which they sell to.
Using the ideas of Bourdieu, Applbaum links product categories to perceived categories of needs. Through processes of alienation and dealienation, marketers can aid the public in curing their perceived needs and consciousness of need fulfillment and can help to alleviate feelings of alienation by permitting the consumer to distinguish and identify themselves by way of the products chosen. The process is considered to work because of the ideal of free choice which the consumers hold close to heart. By choosing myriad products distinct from others’ myriad choices, an identity can be established. Fantasy and imagined purchasing communities are also seen to be driving forces. The consumptive nature of modern life is cited from Lefebvre and Baudrillard.
The comments focus on some basic flaws, such as the consumptive power of groups such as families, rather than a rigidly individual perspective, and the fundamental lack of faith in consumers, namely the assumption of reacting only to an object’s symbolism. His “ethnographic” evidence is also criticized, due to its staged nature and the fact that it was a singular event. Power relations are also questioned, as Applbaum portrays marketers and consumers as equal partners, rather than the more common idea of portraying the marketer as a manipulator.
Applbaum’s reply follows from interviews with dozens of marketers who don’t consider themselves to be dominating or hegemonic but perceive themselves instead as entering into a situation in which both parties know the rules and therefore are both free to abstain. Marketers claim to be more concerned about the competition than increasing their market share. With these thoughts in mind, Applbaum dismisses the idea that consumer are helpless targets.
RYAN YOUNG Okanagan University College (Diana E. French).
Beach, David. Cognitive Archaeology and Imaginary History at Great Zimbabwe. Current Anthropology February, 1998 Vol. 39 (1): 47-72.
This article is a criticism of Thomas Huffman’s theory of Great Zimbabwe. Beach states that Huffman’s work has misunderstood historical Portuguese documents and misinterpreted oral traditions in the vicinity. Huffman is also criticized of having a static view of the use of space over time during the height of the Great Zimbabwe state. Beach then goes on to offer an imagined guess at how Great Zimbabwe came into existence and proposes that it is closer to the truth than Huffman’s work due to Huffman’s mistaken synthesis of information.
The height of the Great Zimbabwe state is believed to be from around the years 1200 – 1500 and was also believed to be from the Shona people who currently live in the area. Two key developments in the study of the site were: in 1905, David Randall-McIver established the date and African origins of Great Zimbabwe; and in the 1970’s, when Huffman’s studies of the dwellings outside the stone walls led to the belief that the entire area, not just the specific site, was an entire civilization covering a large political community like a nation, not just a city on its own in the countryside anomalous of others. Beach believes that most of Huffman’s conclusions since this breakthrough are flawed. Some of these flaws are described in the article such as Huffman’s misinterpretations of: rulers association with high ground, male and female living quarters and power, religious meanings of buildings and there placements, symbols and there meaning on walls, the importance and meaning of carved stone birds, and female initiations. Beach also displays a mistake in Huffman’s reasoning because he borrows practices from other local natives like the Venda too much, and not enough from the Shona. One item that Beach agrees is a possibility, is with the connection of the Mapungubwe site. It was originally believed that Mapungubwe was another satellite site that was influenced by Great Zimbabwe. Huffman’s latest archaeological dating shows that Mapungubwe was an earlier, smaller site that influenced Great Zimbabwe. Beach cautiously agrees with this idea and used it in his own imaginary history of the ancient state.
Beach says that his own version of Great Zimbabwe is there to create conversation, not to be taken as a definitive theory. But he does state that the main reason he fashions this theory is to counter his main complaint about Huffman’s work: “Where I think Huffman’s idea is weakest is in its treatment of Great Zimbabwe as a single community, almost as a village writ large, and as a static one in which the entire pattern of settlement remained more or less the same over at least two centuries.” Beach describes Great Zimbabwe as a political center and one that had a slow decline, not a sudden one. The leaders as they came into power at different times, lived in different sections of the city. They were able to copy Mapungubwe’s design and, over time were able to control most all of the region including its predecessor Mapungubwe. Other satellite areas were built in the style of Great Zimbabwe and over the centuries the builders improved their technique of stone work. Beach describes political turmoil in ascension for the throne at points over the centuries that lead to military strife occasionally. The city slowly declines after 1450 with emigration of factions and competition from the Khami and Mutapa states until the city is finally abandoned.
Overall, the comments by colleagues support the criticism by Beach of Huffman’s conclusions. They tend to agree with Beach’s denouncement of using oral history in Great Zimbabwe’s case and also seem to generally agree with Huffman’s inappropriate use of Portuguese documents. The commentators also agree that Huffman’s static view of Great Zimbabwe not changing much for about three hundred years and then suddenly collapsing are unfounded as well. They all agree to a much more dynamic city that Huffman does not account for. Some comments give credit for Huffman’s latest paper on Great Zimbabwe where he does change his mind on certain aspects that Beach holds him accountable for.
Beach’s reply to the comments are start by explaining that his criticism was already published before Huffman’s latest paper had been so Beach retracts those statements that Huffman had already changed his mind about. Beach defends his criticism of Huffman’s ideas on initiation rites in Great Zimbabwe due to the negative evidence of the 400 years of Portuguese documents not mentioning anything about them. Beach again claims that his imaginary hypothesis on the politics of the Great Zimbabwe state, are not something likely to be proved nor disproved. The theory is only to lead the discussion in a new way that is more probable than Huffman’s.
JASON COURTNEY Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
In this article, Beach examines and criticizes Thomas Huffman’s reconstruction of sites in Great Zimbabwe especially concerning time, space, and discipline. The space that was once Great Zimbabwe is now occupied by speakers of the Shona language. Huffman’s work on Great Zimbabwe began in the 1980’s because of a large interest in the distinctive stone architecture. Beach stresses that Great Zimbabwe and its associated sites offer many opportunities for cross-disciplinary studies. Huffman is a cognitive archaeologist, yet he relies heavily upon oral traditions of the Shona people. Beach notes that connections between features of the ruins and modern Shona material culture cause speculation. He notes here that Shona people themselves are speculators, however, there is few documents that refer to stone architecture. Huffman refers to many Portuguese documents to backup his ideas concerning stone architect in Zimbabwe. There is much confusion and contradiction regarding the construction of some of the stone buildings. Claims have been made by numerous groups, for example the Nambiya and the Hera and even the Europeans. Throughout the entire article, Beach reiterates the fact that Huffman’s use of oral traditions should be viewed with caution. He also states that the data is fragmented and selective to topics of social purpose leaving out those topics of tradition, origin and meaning.
Beach also reviews an earlier article by Huffman “The Cognitive Archaeology of Great Zimbabwe” which states two crucial developments, the date and African origin of the stone structures, and the ordinary dwellings of the town of Great Zimbabwe. Both of these developments are vita to the discussion concerning the site as an almost complete socioeconomic unit. Beach notes that Huffman’s move from spatial analysis to cognitive archaeology may also be a third crucial development in research on Great Zimbabwe. He examines the political processes of the Shona society because it is an aspect that Huffman failed to recognize. Beach states that this information will be difficult to extract from the archaeology of preliterate societies, however he looks at historical documents on the civil war in Mutapa. Beach also reviews Huffman’s article titled “Snakes and Birds: Expressive Space at Great Zimbabwe”. The article is an imaginary site map of Great Zimbabwe examining the Geographic’s of Zimbabwe people. Again, Beach stresses the dubious use of oral traditions. The last article Beach reviews is “Where You Are the Girls Gather to Play: The Great Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe”. In this article, Huffman stresses the geographical layout of the site at Great Zimbabwe.
Beach follows in Huffman’s foot steps by suggesting a model that uses oral traditions and documentary evidence. He calls this method his working hypothesis which stimulates the debate and shows that the same information can form different images. He believes that Huffman’s weakest argument states the idea that Great Zimbabwe has remained a single static community. He proves this with his political model of the settlement and geographical layout of Great Zimbabwe. His major argument or concern is that there are many variations that can come out of oral traditions. He states that his model is plausible but based on imagination.
The commentators seem to think Beach’s argument is plausible and his criticisms convincing. They agree with Beach that Great Zimbabwe is an exceptional site for testing interdisciplinary studies. They state that he did a job well done proving the misunderstandings and manipulative selections of Huffman’s data. They also agree that Huffman seems to be overlooking possibilities with regards to politics. The commentators do note some ambiguity. Loubser states that Beaches methodological concerns are justified, but this does not mean anthropologists should abandon oral traditions altogether. This is a very valid point considering the articles negative attitudes towards oral traditions.
Beach replies first by pointing out that clarity is not easily achieved, especially for Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe is very complex and so are Huffman’s papers. He defends himself by stating that he does not criticize all the oral traditions Huffman uses just some and mainly those that are fit into the arguments. He concludes by noting that collaborative work is needed to better understand the history of Great Zimbabwe.
Beteille, Andre. The Idea of Indigenous People. Current Anthropology, April 1998. vol. 39, (2): 187- 192.
Beteille’s commentary discusses the historical background that was once the forefront of anthropology, which is what he describes as interest in “primitive” or “preliterate cultures or societies” He argues that although anthropology was started through the examination and studies of the people throughout the world, it is still done today and thus the classification of groups of people have caused many problems.
These problems start with the definition of tribes or tribal communities. There are many different kinds of tribes throughout the world and though there exist many similarities between them, the differences amongst them are equal to that. He states that some of the best ethnographies do not use working definitions to describe a “so called tribe”. This is because; the general definition of a tribe is a self-contained primitive and isolated group of people. Using this definition in many places can be a contradiction to itself. The best example of this is in South Asia. He states that there are numerous tribes in South Asia that have co-existed together for many years. While this definition may work to fit North American or Australian tribes where before white immigration tribes where living isolated, Asia has no physical or racial observed trait differences between non-tribal and tribal people.
Beteille moves on to discuss the term “indigenous” and the definition of indigenous people exhibits many discursive problems as well. He explains that indigenous people are a group of people that have always existed in the area which they currently live. However, with in anthropology that is not the case of many so called “indigenous people”. Many anthropologists use the term indigenous to refer to people who live in places that are only isolated or different from the contemporary society that exists around them. He then asks the question of what is too be done regarding this issue? He states indigenous is used the same as “native” and in many cases and both are often wrongly stated. Native should apply only to North America and Australia, even though many people use native to describe a person even when they are not in their native homeland. An example is when Indians or Aborigines are in Great Britain, he asks why is it that people will still refer to these people as natives. He is not just discussing the general public, but specifically anthropologists that do this.
In the end of his commentary he dabbles into a possible reason why this could be which he explains as moral excitation among anthropologists of today. He states that organizational disciplines and the definitions used by many of them today are causing much confusion in the intellectual world, and furthermore are providing ideological ammunition to those who want to reorganize the world by claims of blood and soil.
ELIZABETH PESTA Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Beteille, Andre. The Idea of Indigenous People. Current Anthropology April, 1998 Vol. 39(2):187-191.
In this article, Beteille discusses the concept of indigenous peoples. He asserts that it is problematic because it lacks a clear definition, and as a result does not function to distinguish between different social groups. The term indigenous lacks meaning and applicability, and has simply become the replacement word for “native” in contemporary anthropological discourse.
With this concern in mind, Beteille suggests some concepts that should apply to the term indigenous. He begins by stating that the term refers to a particular type of society, and defines two features of that society; indigenous peoples possess a history of settlement in a particular geographic area, and have had that settlement usurped by foreign populations. Beteille does not intend for this description to be a definition of indigenous because the ideas he presents are themselves problematic. A history of settlement may be difficult to demonstrate in some cases, and in other cases different groups may be able to demonstrate long-term settlement in the same area. At the same time, many areas have histories of continuous population movement and, correspondingly, population displacement. In some cases, population displacement is a consequence of foreign settlement, and in other cases it is the result of relations between long-term occupants of larger geographic regions. The issue is further complicated by the fact that, in some areas, it is difficult to differentiate groups on the bases of physical appearance, language, and, at least to an extent, culture. The point is, despite a conception of what an indigenous population should be, it can be a complicated task to associate one group as being indigenous to a given area instead of another.
The term indigenous is important because it represents an effort to distinguish between different social groups. Such a distinction is necessary from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Anthropological theory requires some way of accurately and meaningfully describing indigenous populations. With regard to contemporary social problems, the designation ‘indigenous’ is often the basis from which legal and constitutional rights are defined, and from which social problems are understood and addressed. For these reasons, it is important that the idea of indigenous peoples becomes meaningfully elaborated and fully understood.
Boesch, Christophe and Michael Tomasello. Chimpanzee and Human Cultures. Current Anthropology, December 1998. vol. 39 (5): 591- 614.
In this article, Boesch and Tomasello discuss the notion of culture by specifically discussing differences between humans and chimpanzees. Their central theoretical point of this article states that culture is in fact monolithic within a group of organisms. This is done by examining different types of social learning processes which lead to cultural traditions with human and chimpanzee groups. By examining their (human and chimps.) cultural differences they argue that it is evident that chimps may exhibit a form of culture that has not been researched long and hard enough to determine.
The article begins by discussing the problem with the definition of culture. Boesch and Tomasello argue that culture has a different meaning to practically every social science. Furthermore, within most social sciences exists different definitions. The basic dichotomy between the biological approach and the psychological one is very different when discussing “culture”. Boesch and Tomasello have come up with criteria for naturally occurring behavior to meet in order to explain culture. This criteria states that; if two groups of the same species differ in behavior with a countable number of individuals conforming, and if there are no obvious differences in the environment of these two groups; and if there are no genetic differences between the individuals that acquire the behavior with those that do not, then an organism displays culture. Thus, according to this developed criteria, chimps have displayed some form of “culture”.
The second half of the article is spent discussing the ways an individual acquires a particular practice; focusing again on chimps. According to “psychologists” this is “social learning”, when one individual is behaving similarly to another. This can be learned thru either instrumental or communicative behaviors.
ELIZABETH PESTA Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Boesch, Christophe and Michael Tomasello. Chimpanzee and Human Cultures. Current Anthropology December, 1998 Vol.39(5):591-614.
This article deals with the similarities and differences between human and chimpanzee cultures. The authors come from different backgrounds and have varying theoretical approaches and they say that their paper is an attempt to reconcile these differences. They also state that they hope to guide future research in the direction of what is most important to understand about chimpanzee cultures. In this article, Boesch and Tomasello argue that evolutionary roots may be shared between human and chimpanzee populations because they share many cultural similarities. They begin by stating that there are many different views regarding culture, and different disciplines approach culture in different ways. They set up a basic dichotomy between biological and psychological approaches to the problem of understanding culture.
The first section discusses specific population behaviors among chimpanzees. It examines the cultural behaviors of four different groups of wild chimpanzees from an evolutionary perspective. Boesch and Tomasello describe the different ways in which humans and chimpanzees acquire certain behavior with genetic transmission, individual learning and social learning. They examine population specific behaviors among chimpanzees and how certain ones are present or absent in different populations and also how the form and function of behaviors can differ between populations. The next section deals with the patterns of dissemination that occur within populations. They examine how social structure affects information transfer and all the ways that individuals can select different cultural variants.
The third section deals with different types of social learning, which produce different behavioral practices and evolving cultural traditions. It evaluates both instrumental and communicative learning as ways in which behavior becomes relatively uniform within a group. The authors discuss emulation learning as used by both chimpanzee and human populations and they also talk about imitative learning, which is definitely used by humans, and may or may not be used by chimpanzees. In the last section, the authors examine some recent research on social learning among captive chimpanzees. They state that the ratchet effect, definitely found among humans, may be found among chimpanzee populations as well, but that chimpanzees have not been studied long enough to find proper evidence of it. In the conclusion, Boesch and Tomasello state that they can only focus on the similarities and differences between human and chimpanzee cultures, because they cannot safely make a conclusion as to the shared evolutionary roots as there are still too many questions that need answering.
In the comments following the article, there are three major issues brought up. Each commentator has his or her own views regarding culture, which are not the same as Boesch and Tomasello’s idea. Some of the commentators say the ratchet effect can happen at different speeds and that it could be possible for ratcheting to exist among Chimpanzee populations. Another issue brought up by the commentators is with the evidence presented throughout the article. One commentator brings up the point that the authors only examine four different chimpanzee populations, while ethnographic data exist on at least thirty-five. The commentators also note that discussion is mainly about chimpanzee populations and no evidence is presented regarding human cultural processes.
The authors state that they knew they would be criticized in their attempt to compromise between biological and psychological views of culture and that nobody in the field can agree so the fact that nobody agrees with their interpretation means it is probably somewhere in the middle. In response to the comment that the ratchet effect could exist among chimpanzee populations, the authors state that it is likely that all cultures can rapidly accumulate information and the fact that we have not yet seen this effect with chimpanzees suggests that it is improbable, but not entirely impossible.
KARLA DOW Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Boone, James L. and Eric Alden Smith. Is it Evolution Yet? Current Anthropology, June 1998 V. 39 (Supplement): 141-173.
The theory of evolution is most commonly associated with biological changes. However, in James L. Boone and Eric Alden Smith’s article, “Is it Evolution Yet?” this theory is discussed in terms of archeological evidence. They compare two interpretations of this type of archaeology and give examples of how these interpretations are applied to actual archaeological examples.
In the article Boone and Smith point out that while both evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology address archaeology in terms of natural selection there is an intrinsic disagreement between the two schools of thought. The two schools of thought differ in the way they incorporate phenotypes into their conclusions. Boone and Smith present evolutionary ecology as a more plausible explanation for the changes over time in the archaeological record.
These theories depend upon the concept of artifacts being components of the human phenotype. Therefore changes in the archaeological record reflect changes in human phenotypes. Evolutionary archaeologists see phenotypic change over time as caused by natural selection directly acting on cultural variation while evolutionary ecologists argue that selection acting on heritable variation is only one of several developments which changes the frequency of phenotypic variants through time. Therefore natural selection also plays an important part in these interpretations.
The example of the use of snowmobiles in the subarctic is used in the article to demonstrate how the two schools of thought are applied. Through the adaptation to the use of snowmobiles the people living in this area have been able to increase the amount of food they are able to hunt and forage. With this increase in food supply, a larger number of offspring survive to reproductive age. Boone and Smith characterize this within the framework of evolutionary theory through the idea that humans inherit evolved cognitive abilities that allow them to acquire resources that will produce the highest net gains.
Boone and Smith conclude their article by stating that while they see evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology are helpful to interpretation, they are not all inclusive. According to the article, these theories allow archaeologists to study behavioral adaptation as evolution in the archaeological record.
James L. Boone and Eric Alden Smith received eleven comments in response to “Is it Evolution Yet?”. While most of the commentors praised the two for writing on the subject of evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology, they see the argument as flawed. The argument of Boone and Smith is often seen as too simplistic for the commentors. In their reply, Boone and Smith address the issues of the commentors in five subsections. Each of the subsections answer certain questions posed by a couple different commentors.
KATIE LATHAM Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Brown, Michael F. Can Culture Be Copyrighted? Current Anthropology April, 1998 Vol.39(2):193-222
In this compelling article, author Michael Brown tackles a complicated issue: the moral necessity and difficulty of protecting the cultural property of indigenous peoples versus the question of reasonable access to such materials. Along the way, he questions by what means these materials should and could be protected.
The article begins with an example of drawings of a Navajo healing ritual that were found in a museum. These drawings, perhaps made surreptitiously, were based on images that are traditionally destroyed at the end of the ritual. The museum staff worried that the presence of these drawings in their collection was disrespectful or, worse, a violation of privacy norms.
This question illuminates problems faced by archivists and curators in light of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Although few anthropologists would deny the legitimacy of the spirit of NAGPRA, questions abound regarding the limits of the law. Specifically, what kinds of material are, and should be protected? According to Brown, the Apache define those materials protected by NAGPRA as including “all images, text, ceremonies, music, songs, stories, symbols, beliefs, customs, ideas and other physical and spiritual objects and concepts” (Brown 1998:194).
The point of the article, according to the author, is to broaden the debate regarding the status of indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights. Brown believes that current thinking focuses more on advocacy than on broader issues regarding the protection of intellectual property. Anthropologists are implicated in this process, desiring to empower and protect their subjects, but failing to address how we might maintain the flow of information necessary to what Brown somewhat ambiguously calls a “liberal democracy”.
Indigenous peoples’ desire to regain control of their cultural intellectual property is confounded by the fact that “culture” is not a fixed, corporeal thing, but a flexible set of understandings, dispositions and behaviors that change over time (Brown 1998:197). It is further changed by contact with other groups, such that an outside group might incorporate indigenous practices or ideas into their own lives. According to Brown, this is not an attempt to “steal” ideas, or intellectual property, such as a song or a manuscript, but is a natural consequence of contact between cultural groups. As such, Brown appears to be skeptical of some indigenous intellectual property rights protection proposals. A different situation occurs when multinational corporations copyright cultural information, such as medicinal knowledge, for their exclusive profit. In cases such as this, Brown emphatically believes that a process of compensating indigenous people for the use of their knowledge is necessary.
This is a thoughtful, well-balanced argument regarding the rights of indigenous people and their desire to protect their cultural knowledge. Commentaries on the article were generally positive, falling into two broad categories defined by the author himself. First were those who would move from analysis toward the creation of concrete policy. Other respondents were more concerned with broader issues, including property rights, questions regarding the ownership of knowledge, and concerns over the rights of ethnic groups in multicultural states (Brown 1998: 218).
Brown responds to these comments by discussing three areas in which he and most commentators agreed. First, the language used to discuss social problems is often a problematic and insufficient means of dealing with real problems. Second, most agreed that exclusive claims of cultural ownership might lead to problematic notions of ethnic nationalism. Finally, there was general agreement that if nothing else, the heated debate over cultural property is a sign of the increased empowerment of native peoples. Brown concludes the article by addressing specific concerns raised by several commentators that are beyond the scope of this review.
GLENN L. PLANCK Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
In this article, Brown addresses the current legal problems that are associated with intellectual property rights (IPRs). He then opens the discussion of cultural sensitivity, as well as legal aspects of copyright, patent, and the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
Following this introduction, Brown proceeds to discuss the vagueness of current law with regard to IPRs. He outlines a current shift in the way that cultural information is viewed and perceived, outlining three main causes: 1) that an ethnic nation has comprehensive rights in its own cultural ideas and products 2) that said group’s relationship to these products and ideas constitute ownership, and 3) that cultural information gathered in the past is contaminated with colonialism and therefore does not meet the criteria of informed consent
Because of these perceptions, Brown acknowledges the need for changes to be made regarding IPRs. He begins by outlining some of the problems. Of major significance is appropriation of knowledge by transnational corporations. Brown states that commercial interests from the developed world seek out information from unprotected indigenous groups. They then gain patent or copyright over this information and form a legal monopoly over it.
Brown also highlights other problems that are not often discussed in academic literature. For example, he points out the appropriation of indigenous ritual and religion by middle class “Indian wannabees”. Also discussed is the difficulty in recognizing cultural material, since culture cannot be strictly definable by geography, membership, or any other concrete factor. He then offers different theories and options that could potentially bring solutions to the problem of IPRs. The first potential solution is to eliminate copyright altogether, allowing information to be free to all of society. However, Brown recognizes that major problems with this argument exist. His second proposed solution involves creating new legislation in order to address the recently developed legal phenomenon of IPR.
In closing, Brown voices his personal support for clear guidelines regarding all intellectual property, and he urges other anthropologists to voice their objections to the patenting of plants, objects, DNA, ritual, and other indigenous property. He also looks for support from the general public, as their sympathy and support can influence the creation of new protective legislation.
Clevelend praises Brown for producing an insightful and stimulating critique that clears some of the confusion over the intellectual property debate. Similarly, Descola states that Brown contributes a fair and subtle treatment of a difficult topic. However, Coombe states that she is uncomfortable with democracy defined by the full access to all cultural forms, and Karlsson sees Brown as attacking Hopi and Apache peoples for keeping their practices secretive. This view is not shared with Powers, who states “Brown’s essay is a cool-headed discussion of the broad array of issues in the debate regarding intellectual property rights” (212).
In response, Brown addresses the consensus among peers that the legal issues surrounding IPRs is problematic. He then responds to both Coombe and Karlsson. In regard to Coombe, he blatantly states that she is mistaken because he does not think that freedom of access outweighs other aspects of the intellectual property rights debate. For Karlsson he also offers a clear reply, arguing that his statements about Hopi and Apache peoples have been misconstrued. He has offered these groups as an example of people who voice a clear expression of their position in the debate. Therefore, they are an example to other indigenous people. Brown also asserts that a respect for Hopi and Apache views does not result in a total agreement with them, nor does it mean that he is against their decisions. In conclusion, Brown hopes that his article will cause people to pause and think over the IPR issue before supporting the appropriation of cultural property.
PATRICIA GOOCH Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
d’Errico, F., Zilhao, M., Baffier, D., and Pelegrin, J. Neanderthal Acculturation in Western Europe? Current Anthropology, June 1998 Vol.39 (Supplement): S1-S37.
This article is a critique and refutation of the idea that the bone tools, personal ornaments, and stone tools of the Middle to early Upper Paleolithic in Europe are a result of the acculturation and replacement of late Neanderthal populations by modern humans. The authors propose that the archaeological record does not support this model, but rather shows evidence of an original and independent cultural evolution of Western Europe’s late Neanderthals.
The authors summarize the opposing argument by highlighting six hypotheses and conditions which must be verifiable in order for the acculturation model to be correct. These are: 1. evidence of postdepostional disturbance, 2. if products of trade of collection, no traces of in situ manufacture, 3. if products of imitation, they should be identical to the Aurignacian, 4. if learned, conceptual models should be identical to Aurignacian and discontinuous with technologies preceding contact, 5. technologies cannot have occurred before first appearance of Aurignacian in Europe and 6. evidence of extinction of Neanderthals and replacement by modern humans.
They go on to dispute these conditions with evidence taken from the excavations at the archaeological site Grotto du Renne. The stratigraphy and chronology of the site revealed a sequence of archaeological layers attributed to the Mousterian, Chatelperronian, Aurignacian, and Gravettian. This data is presented in table format which shows the stratigraphic units and the corresponding lithology, carbon-14 dates, human remains, and the cultural attributation of each layer.
Each hypothesis and condition of the acculturation model is evaluated in depth by examining specific technologies in question and techniques of their manufacture found at the Grotto du Renne and other sites. The first hypothesis evaluated is postdepostional disturbance which is refuted by lack of evidence of mixing between the Aurignacian and Chatelperronian layers. The second hypothesis, products of trade or collection, is refuted through evidence of waste products of bone manufacture and the matching of worked bones with by-products of their fabrication found in the Chatelperronian layer. Both the imitation and leaned hypotheses are refuted through evidence of significant differences in types of tools, raw materials, frequencies of types, and procedures of manufacture in Chatelperronian and Aurignacian layers.
The chronology necessary for acculturation is also discussed with an analysis of radiocarbon dates and chronostratigraphy concluding that Chatelperronian technologies predate those of Aurignacian and are not the result of a long period of contact with modern humans. The authors also use a parallel analysis of the relationship between Iberian Neanderthals and modern humans which resulted in Neanderthals maintaining their culture rather than being acculturated despite contact with a neighboring population of Homo sapien sapiens.
The authors conclude this article by moving forward from a rejection of the acculturation model to new approaches for analyzing late Neanderthal cultures. This includes re-evaluating the presumed biologically based intellectual superiority of modern humans and considerations of the use of symbols in a Neanderthal cultural system. The authors encourage these new approaches to be used in further research on this time period.
Commentary is made on the above article by a number of anthropologists with varying degrees of complementary and contrasting viewpoints. Some express agreement with the authors conclusions and reconfirm the validity of their evidence. Others raise various concerns with the article including lack of evidence in the phase between Middle and Upper Paleolithic, plausibility of some cultural exchange between populations, the meaning of the term “acculturation” and its possible confusion with intellectual inferiority, dismissing of particular radiocarbon dates, the possible invalidity of comparison between Chatelperronian and Aurignacian technologies, and the stratigraphic integrity of the Grotto du Renne, among others.
The authors reply by clarifying and further developing some of the issues raised by the commentators including the validity of the stratigraphy at the Grotto du Renne site, possible disturbances at other sites, the chronology of the Chatelperronian and the Aurignacian, and their interpretation of the term acculturation. They use these points of empirical evidence to re-emphasize the importance of challenging the assumed inferiority of the Neanderthals as a new perspective to be used in future investigations of this time period.
JESSICA KEENER Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight).
D’Errico, Francesco et al. Neanderthal Acculturation in Western Europe? A Critical Review of the Evidence and Its Interpretation. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol. 39(Supplement):S1-S39.
This article focuses on the biological and cultural interactions between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, as well as the reevaluation of Chatêlperronian technology using empirical analysis of stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data. D’Errico et al. argue that recent data gathered at the Grotte du Renne site call into question archaeological traditional thought: that cultural artifacts such as bone tools and personal ornaments appearing along side “modern” stone tools during the Middle Paleolithic or Aurignacian Paleolithic periods suggested the acculturation of late Neanderthal populations.
The authors consider the traditional interpretive model of independent development or imitation in their empirical systematic analysis. The traditional interpretive model of independent development asserts Neanderthals were biologically and intellectually inferior, having acquired “modern” technology through acculturation, imitation, trade, and/or collection. The following hypotheses were used in the assessment of stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data. First, the complete replacement of Neanderthals by anatomically modern humans was responsible for the assemblage of New Lithic technology. Second, co-habitation of regions by Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans, led to the acculturation as evidenced by the assemblage of blade and stone technology, as well as personal ornamentation normally associated with Upper Paleolithic material culture.
The empirical analysis of the Grotte du Renne supports the assertion that Neanderthals did have the intellectual capacity to manufacture stone and bone tools and personal ornaments, thereby dismissing the traditional school of thought. The authors’ empirical analysis is based of the following; first, the Szeletian and the Bohunician are similar to pre-Aurignacian technocomplexes made by Neanderthals in Central & Eastern Europe. second, identification of bone and personal ornaments are from similar areas and time ranges. Third, the Chatêlperronian and Aurignacian periods will never stratigraphically overlap. Lastly, early Aurignacian industry will never be found in Iberian regions South of the Ebro.
Commentators remain for the most part skeptical of the authors’ departure from traditional thinking of Neanderthals’ biological and intellectual inferiority. Many reassert the existence of outside colonization of the Neanderthal populations by anatomically modern humans. In sum, the majority of the commentators accept the Neanderthal/ anatomically modern humans transitional evolution hypothesis.
The authors note enthusiastically that the commentators agree with the empirical patterns presented, as well as the acceptance that artifacts located at Chatêlperronian levels are in situ and were manufactured locally. However, the authors continue to be frustrated by comments made regarding the stratigraphic data analysis which, continue to support, the hypotheses of post-depositional disturbance, imitation, trade and/or collection as the only way to account for the assemblage of artifacts.
JOYCE GIFFORD Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Erlandson, Jon McVey. CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: The Making of Chumash Tradition: Replies to Haley and Wilcoxon. Current Anthropology Vol. 39(4) Aug-Oct., 1998: 477-510
Haley and Wilcoxon’s article, “Anthropology and the Making of Chumash Tradition”, which appeared in Current Anthropology in 1997 (Vol. 38:761-94) sparked a debate on the role that anthropologists play in determining authenticity of cultural claims. Erlandson states, “anthropologists should not act as the sole arbiters of truth and justice, the diviners of who is or is not Indian, or the creators of simplistic stereotypes that exacerbate factionalism within the Indian tribes or interfere in tribal self-determination” (CA, 39:484). King agrees, “[t]he beliefs of societies should be evaluated by the members of the societies, not by outsiders” (CA, 39:485). In this CA Forum numerous voices are heard, and it appears that all of them have some sort of criticism regarding the processes, definitions, and conclusions that Haley and Wilcoxon assert in their article. For the most part these in-depth responses are concerned with various forms of the “authentication” of myths, histories, and traditions by scholars such as anthropologists.
Erlandson’s main criticism was the fact that Haley and Wilcoxon seemed bent on proving that “Traditionalist” interpretations of Chumash traditions were in fact based on, and reinforced by, the interpretations of anthropologists. In their reply they deny that this was their focus, but instead insist that they set out to show the impact that anthropological work has on Native American cultures (and any culture for that matter). King on the other hand points out that Haley and Wilcoxon are not consistent in defining “Traditionalist” and “non-Traditionalist” in their article and original response. This is a problem that is pointed out by many of the authors in this article, and it is cleared up in the reply. Haley and Wilcoxon insist that they are using the terms in the way that those who are labeled prefer to be called. Ruyle notes that Haley is quoted in the Santa Barbara News-Press on December 26, 1997 as saying, “The Chumash never shared a vision of themselves as a people. The notion of a Chumash people – culture, tribe or nation – all of that is a product of anthropology.” Interestingly, Haley does not clarify on this statement, and possibly has no reason to do so. In their response Haley and Wilcoxon make it clear that the best records available describe the indigenous peoples of this region as being comprised of many different, though culturally similar groups. The incorporation of the media into this debate sparked many in the Chumash community, and the Native American community at large, to harden their stance against anthropologists – regardless, Haley and Wilcoxon believe that this debate should in fact be public. The other major concern was the economic interest that Haley and Wilcoxon have in discrediting “Traditionalists” who have established a cultural resource consulting firm, which many of the authors say is in direct competition with Wilcoxon and Associates. The assertion is that since nowhere in the original article is this economic tie mentioned that it was purposefully omitted. Haley and Wilcoxon deny this claim on the grounds that there are many consultant firms and to the best of their knowledge there has never been a bid made by them against a Native American consulting group. But, it is strikingly interesting that many of the professional authors noted this omission and discrepancy. This is an interesting debate and an important topic for the discipline of anthropology.
JONATHAN KIMMEL Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight).
Erlandson, Jon McVey. The Making of Chumash Tradition. Current Anthropology August-October, 1998 Vol. 39(4):477-510.
This article is a response to a previous paper by Haley and Wilcoxon, colleagues of Erlandson at the University of Oregon. Erlandson questions some of the conclusions reached by Haley and Wilcoxon about the Chumash people as he has also worked with them for over 20 years as an archaeologist. One of the major issues is the notion that the Chumash are an anthropological construct rather than a nation of people. Haley and Wilcoxon dispute the validity of Chumash claims to their heritage. Erlandson argues that although their society was thrown into turmoil at the time of colonization and there was much intermarriage with white, Hispanic and other Native Americans, they are still a cohesive group and have the right to control of their ancestral territories. There is a great deal of political content to this paper. Historical background of the Chumash opens the paper and details the devastation that occurred after European contact through disease and during the process of missionization. Erlandson mentions that some salvage ethnography did take place with the Chumash.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, while all the emancipation and civil rights movements were underway, American Natives and other ethnic minorities began to declare their ethnic and cultural heritage, including the Chumash. There are only about 3000 individuals who have claimed their Chumash ancestry. Erlandson discusses the debate surrounding the authenticity of their claims. He defends himself against allegations that he was only concerned with one group of Chumash and details his involvement with other groups of Chumash besides the one in question in this particular study.
Another debate in the paper is the discussion surrounding the sacredness of Point Conception, also referred to as the “Western Gate”. This is a pivotal issue because of proposed construction of gas pipelines and developments by large corporations through Chumash territory. Erlandson was involved in these negotiations on behalf of the Chumash. The Chumash believed this to be an area that was sacred to their ancestors and therefore inviolate. Another point of contention is the descent of “Family A” which is an important point in Haley and Wilcoxon’s paper. Erlandson names the family he believes they were talking about and lays waste to Haley and Wilcoxon’s allegation that this is not actually a Chumash family.
Some of the discussion here becomes pointed and political with Erlandson disputing Haley and Wilcoxon’s notions that since the Chumash are really only an anthropological construct, they can have no claims to ancestral territory or sacred sites. Erlandson also analyzes the argument made by Haley and Wilcoxon that the Chumash people themselves bear little or no claim to a partnership in managing their past since they don’t really have one as a group. Erlandson states that cultural verification is not the problem here and that anthropologists must guard carefully against minimizing their role in the politics surrounding their work. He concludes by restating that the attitude portrayed by Haley and Wilcoxon is “an attempt to discredit a potentially powerful competitor for lucrative archaeology contracts” (484).
The comments include a response from a firm called Topanga Anthropological Consultants, apparently named in the article, taking exception with the way they are depicted. An elder from another band of California Indians (this is what she calls herself) feels that natives’ survival is again threatened as it was with colonization when questions of their ancestry arise. There are several lengthy comments from others discussing the relative merits of archaeology and its relationship to political and economic interests in the dominant culture.
The reply comes from Haley and Wilcoxon and they begin by stating that their interest lies “in anthropologists’ various roles… including… traditional-cultural-property evaluation of Point Conception, California…” (501). They acknowledge that some of the other commentators are also authorities on the Chumash identity and tradition and addresses their concerns one by one. They state that the definition of “traditionalist”, “nontraditionalist” and “traditionalism”, an important part of the argument about validity of Chumash claims to aboriginal status, is misunderstood by some of the commentators. They reiterate the importance of the anthropologist recognizing him/herself in their work, a postmodernist approach. Further study and attention to this dilemma is welcomed.
KARIN MEUSER Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Gordon, Matthew and Jeffery Heath. Sex, Sound Symbolism, and Sociolinguistics. Current Anthropology, 1998, vol. 39 (4): 421-449.
Gordon and Heath argue that, regardless of language, females and males are attracted asymmetrically to opposite poles of the vowel spectrum, females favoring the high front unrounded (i) while males prefer the back rounded (o) or (a). This hypothesis is intended to link the contemporaneous findings of sociolinguists: first, vowel systems cycle in unidirectional rotations; second, females lead linguistic changes while males trail behind. After discussing many theoretical issues about female-led vowel shifts, Gordon and Heath look to steady-state vocalic data collected from English and Arabic speakers as evidence. The argument is predicated on the research of Labov; however, the authors intend to update his and others’ variationist methodology. They believe such methodology limits the interpretation of the finding that women lead linguistic changes because it focuses ad hoc on phonetic variables after they acquire biased distribution in social space. Although theoretical models of vocal chain shifts as well as the replacement of a linear conception of class with the network strength scale by sociolinguists have been useful, Gordon and Heath hold that vowel qualities have important aesthetic values which inform (but do not limit) the sex-based differences of vowel changes and which have hitherto not been properly contextualized by variationists.
To explain the female propensity for vowel changes in the direction of (i), Gordon and Heath show that certain vowels are correlated with respective symbologies. High front vowels are semantically correlated to diminutives. Furthermore, the authors rely on Ohala’s hypothesis that high front vowels commonly symbolize smallness because they are “characterized by high acoustic frequency”(quoted in Gordon and Heath, 429). Because of the sexual dimorphism of female and male anatomy, especially, related to vocal chords and the larynx, the authors suggest it is the “heart” (ibid. 430) of the phonetic differences. While there biological distinctions are formidable, the authors are careful not to jump to the conclusion that sexual dimorphism is what motivates the sex difference in language; they argue rather that cultural categories of gender and even class inform the difference as well.
With the theory in place, the authors move on to the data, first concentrating on data collected from English speakers, the data collected from Arabic speakers. Evidence from Labov’s New York City and Philadelphia data, Eckert’s study of vowel shifts in suburban Detroit, as well as other studies in Belfast and Vancouver all show that it is women who are leading the vowel shifts toward (i). According to the authors, the Arabic data also concurs with their argument.
The authors warn against the spurious conclusion that because most or all vowel shifts are begun by women and aim towards the high front (i), all vowels will eventually end up as (i). They produce interesting suggestions for how vowel systems maintain homeostasis. The fifth suggestion, the push-chain effect in which the fronting and raising of certain vowels instigates other vowels to compensate by backing and lowering, is considered the most. They end by referencing other anthropological studies, including Labov and Bourdieu, which complement the conclusions of the authors’ argument.
Overall, the comments conditionally accept Gordon and Heath’s argument as put forth in the article. All of the authors in the Comments section worry about oversimplification of the rich experience of language, class, sex and gender, and they wish for more data to be addressed. Niloofar Haeri eloquently expresses anxiety about over-emphasizing physiological asymmetries to explain sex-based linguistic difference. Rosenhouse calls for more in-depth study of the English and Arabic data before she will accept the authors’ hypothesis. Holmes and Britain as well as Zimmerman provide examples that seem to run contrary to the authors’ hypothesis. Zimmerman draws attention to Diffloth’s Bahnar data and shows that correlations of semantics and sound can be easily replaced in a cultural context by a correlation of semantics to the proprioceptive sensations of speaking.
Gordon and Heath accept that the water in which they are working may be muddier than they let on. Still, they contend that their hypothesis holds true and that none of the comments seriously damage it. They agree that diphthongal and consonantal data should be explored to see if the same or a different pattern emerges. The counter-examples that Holmes and Britain put forth are pushed aside by the authors because they do not really discount the argument: “They all involve female-led changes…and…morphological rather than phonetic change”(ibid. 445). They restate their position, critiquing variationist methodology, and hope that this article will instigate sociolinguists to broaden their scope.
CHRISTOPHER SWEETAPPLE Western Michigan University (Dr. Bilinda Straight)
Gordon, Matthew and Jeffery Heath. Sex, Sound, Symbolism, and Sociolinguistics. Current Anthropology August-October, 1998 Vol.39(4):421-449.
Gordon and Heath’s article links elements of sound both to symbolism and gender. The authors focus primarily on phonemes; however, they use biology, anthropology and sociology for both explanations and peripheral support.
They present information with respect to the relationship between differences in male and female vocal tract to explain both phonetic and cultural differences with respect to language change. For instance, the authors cite examples where female lead changes tend to favor [i] and palatalization in both Chinese and English. The authors then proceed to correlate the instances involving the phoneme [i] with words that connote smallness, thereby linking feminine speech to small attributes and inherently high pitch. Furthermore, the authors suggest that because of these biological differences, each sex should lead various vowel changes. For example, changes favoring front, unrounded vowels would tend to be lead by women, while back, rounded vowels would tend to be lead by men because of the innate biological differences that make such vocalization seem more natural for each sex. As such, these differences, according to Gordon and Heath, are a ubiquitous level of linguistics while culture and socialization factors merely interact with and differentiate language from this pre-established biological unity.
The authors also speculate why linguistic changes are more often than not, engineered by women. Consequently, they found that women tend to lead more strenuously towards their biological tendencies than men. Furthermore, the typical sounds of both genders are thought to become associated with the stereotypes of the gender that they characterize. As a result, the sounds associated to women are seen as smaller from the biological symbolism attached to the characteristically favored sounds of men.
This paper makes use of the large, influential and pioneering name of Labov at the opening of nearly all new sections, to not only introduce data and situate that data in a historical context, but also to borrow Labov’s prestige and believability. The paper begins by outlining the historical links between sound symbolism and gender, followed by outlining the process of vowel change. Soon after the concept of gender is introduced into the equation. Next, the authors attempt to link the concept of sound symbolism to gender and to the process of linguistic change as a whole. As supporting evidence, Gordon and Heath draw examples from both English and Arabic, two distinctly unrelated languages, to illustrate the universality of these biologically driven linguistic changes.
It seems that many of the commentators do not wholly agree with the authors. For instance, one critic raises examples involving female lead changes that illustrate the reverse of what Gordon and Heath predicted, such as schwa lowering in some dialects of Norwegian. Most critics agree, however, that the paper offers an interesting perspective, which requires further substantiating evidence. Conversely, other critics argue that the authors omitted far too much detail by not sufficiently focusing their research objectives.
Gordon and Heath on the other hand do not agree with the majority of their critics. Indeed, they defend their position by pointing out that with an integrated paper it is extremely difficult to cover all of the relevant information. However, they agree with some critics who indicated that it is important to study the relationships not only for vowels, but also for diphthongs and consonants.
RYAN McFARLANE Okanagan University College (Diana E French)
Harke, Heinrich. Archaeologists and Migrations-A Problem of Attitude. Current Anthropology February, 1998 Vol.39(1) 19-45
“Archaeologists and Migrations –A Problem of Attitudes”, discusses the relationship between cultural agents, in this case nationality and history, and the interpretation of archaeology. Heinrich Harke, a German educated in both Germany and England, argues that there is a link between the political context in which the archaeologist lives and works, and the interpretations and inferences that the archaeologist makes about archaeological evidence, through such explanatory mechanisms as ethnicity and migration. He begins by comparing the analysis of some of his previous archaeological findings and contrasting British and German conclusions. His work, which involved evaluating 5th -7th century burials in England, reveals that about half of the population (taken from the remains of bodies in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries) was of native British origin and half had Germanic roots. These findings, he posits, were interpreted in such a way by British and German scientists as to reveal the hegemonic political ideologies in each county.
The British reaction was skeptical of a claim of such high numbers of immigrants while the Germans conversely could not believe that so many native British existed at that time. Harke argues that these opposing viewpoints, derived from the exact same evidence, show that the social context and historical experience of groups; the Germans and the British, have a large, determining influence on archaeological knowledge. The British, he says, tend to have a more insular and self-contained view of cultural change. He points to contemporary and historical factors; lack of recent invasions, closer intellectual ties to the U.S. rather than Europe, and the “steady decline in the knowledge of foreign languages”(pg. 20) to help explain British attitudes of cultural self determination.
The Germans attitude is explained by Harke through German ideas surrounding ethnicity. Ethnicity is tied to descent and not location or territoriality, so this in effect, “makes it easier to imagine the movement of large, homogenous “folk” groups and the transfer of their ethnic identity from one area to the next”(pg 21).
Harke goes on to make connections between the social context and archaeological theory of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. He contends that the political ideologies of these countries influenced theory and manipulated the interpretation of archaeological findings. In Nazi Germany a migration mentality was supported by archaeological “evidence”; a Roman Iron Age urn with a swastika on it, found in Poland that demonstrated the migrationist spirit and vitality of Germanic people and helped to reinforce ideas of ethnic superiority.
There are numerous critiques of this article and number of different issues are raised but many of them seem to stem from the idea that Harke’s analysis is oversimplified. Particularly, the idea that archaeologist are controlled by the dominant views within the social context in which they are working is challenged. As Maria Isabel Martinez Navarette criticizes, “Archaeologists are not so enslaved to the contexts in which they work. Complex, multifaceted phenomena are here treated generically and unidimensionally as monolithic, homogenous entities.”(pg. 34) Nandini Rao offers another critique; that Harkes analysis is well known and already readily accepted. His concern is that in using the politically extreme examples of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, subtler forms of political influence in more politically moderate states might be overlooked.
Harke responds to the criticism that his arguments are oversimplified and superficial by acknowledging that this is indeed the case. He contends that a paper like the one that he has written necessarily has to generalize and oversimplify. “I maintain that some generalization must be allowed if we are to avoid being stuck forever in the minutiae of individual cases”(pg. 41)
BOONE W. SHEAR Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Härke, Heinrich. Archaeologists and Migrations: A Problem of Attitude. Current Anthropology February, 1998 Vol.39(1):19-45.
Härke addresses the attitudes of British and German archaeologists and the question of migrations. He suggests that these attitudes have been shaped by political and social experiences, as well as by the respective historical and geographical contexts of the two countries. The author believes that British perceptions of migration have shifted from traditionalist to processualist to post-processualist, and adds insularity to the list of causal factors. He states that this insular outlook may have been reinforced by the steady decline in the knowledge of foreign languages among the younger British archaeologists.
According to Härke, German archaeology is still dominated by a strong migrationist undercurrent. Since 1945, the retreat of German archaeologists has had consequences on the nature of interpretation with the rejection of early carbon dating dates for European prehistory that reinforced diffusionist tendencies. Cases of migrationism of Nazi Germany and Southern Africa are introduced, with a discussion of immobilism of Soviet archaeology. Evidence for the British, German and Soviet argument on migrationism is presented and the statement is made that these cases are intended to highlight the fact that there are political interests in this issue. Härke compares ethnicity with migration, stating that ethnicity is back on the intellectual agenda because of political experiences in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. This is after being regarded irrelevant during the heyday of processualist archaeology in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The author’s concern on the migration issue is discussed with an example of the question of the origin of the buried male found in an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. He states that the result has brought different reactions from the British and German. Härke presents his argument with three cases that are effective for his claim. The article concludes with the expectation of migration studies be put back on the agenda in archaeology. The issue of migration and the author’s concern with attitudes in archaeology regarding this issue are well defined by this article.
The commentators were favorable except for the two following. One academic believes that Härke’s focus on the biases of the researchers removed the principal evidence for the study and that this fostered biases that lead to overemphasis. This same commentator declares that Härke provided post-processual equivalents of “Mickey Mouse laws” and states that this article is evidence of the “publish or perish” imperative of British academe. Another academic finds the evidence is harder to find that proves the connection between attitudes and national origins. This commentator also finds Härke’s attitude is ambiguous regarding reality.
In his reply, Härke admits that the commentators have greatly expanded on his observations. He does clarify some misunderstandings and returns to the subject of his paper. The author explains and defends the “simplistic” nature of his arguments. Härke states that this article is an exploratory paper and only offers tentative partial explanations of complex phenomena. He also explains his choices of cases as clear-cut examples since they are extreme. Härke accepts several commentators’ well-informed points and believes that there is a need for further thought on and improvement of our concepts of migrations and our methods of studying them.
LINDA J. BASTIEN Okanagan University College (Diana E. French).
Hirth, Kenneth. The Distributional Approach: A New Way to Identify Marketplace Exchange in the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology Aug.-Oct.,1998 Vol. 39(4):451-476.
Kenneth Hirth describes the Distributional Approach as a new way to identify marketplace exchange in pre-Hispanic society. It is evident that the marketplace was a central feature to economics in the Mesoamerican region. Evidence is present; proving the importance of the marketplace in ancient Mesoamerica, but difficulty in further identification of market activity complicates the matter. The archaeological record remains spotty and hard to interpret. Hirth proposes a new methodology, namely, the Distributional Approach, which is more appropriate for archaeologists than other processes. He criticizes other methods, including the spatial approach and the configurational approach, arguing they are not very accurate and need special circumstances to work well. Of the Distributional Approach Hirth says it “attempts a more direct assessment by examining its provisioning function. This approach focuses on the differential distribution of commodities among the society’s primary units of economic consumption.” Hirth details marketplace exchange specific to Mesoamerica in these terms.
It is important to understand marketplace exchange in order to fully grasp how and why economical, political, and social systems developed as they did. Developing the Distributional Approach into something that is a useful tool for Archaeologist would be beneficial in discovering these things.
Hirth focuses on household inventories to explain marketplace exchange. He uses the site at Xochicalco to form his hypothesis. This site has been preserved very well, permitting it to be used and examined by archaeologists who wish to identify these types of things. Thus, it makes it an excellent site on which to use this approach.
Many professionals included comments on the article that differed from each other and from Hirth. Many commented that his proposal was interesting but not the only answer. Hirth seems to agree. Hirth’s analysis is only the beginning, it needs more work, and to be used in corroboration with other methods. Carraso made a comment that it would be beneficial to test the hypothesis in a living society. Overall the commentators agree with what Creamer had to say, “This article pushes archaeology a step closer to understanding ancient exchange.”
Hirth surprisingly takes all the comments into consideration. While he addresses each commentator’s line of reasoning he sticks to his own guns. He splits the discussion into three general parts: “the theoretical value of the distributional approach, the operational limitations facing its application in other areas of Mesoamerica, and the conceptual issue that must be addressed in the broadening and refining the approach for the study of other forms of exchange.” These are the same areas that the commentators had faults, but Hirth probably realized that when he was writing the article in the first place.
DANIELLE NORDBROCK Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Hirth, Kenneth G. The Distributional Approach: A New Way to Identify Marketplace Exchange in the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology August-October 1998 Vol. 39(4):451-476.
Hirth first explains how centrally important marketplaces were in Mesoamerica between A.D. 650 – 900 in the political and economic life of the people before Spanish contact. A definition of market exchange and the difficulty identifying a marketplace in the archaeological record follows. Ethnographic and ethnohistorical data indicate that marketplaces were autonomous of politics and often survived political regimes, because they provided important functions to everyday people. They supplied the necessities of life, distributed crafts and services and individual households scheduled their activities around them.
The author elaborates on the difficulties of identifying marketplaces in the archaeological record. He also suggests that there is a dearth of appropriate methods and analytical models of study to accomplish finding ancient marketplaces. The article summarizes the problems with the three methods used in the past, and profiles his new approach. First, the configurational approach is not effective because marketplaces leave few material traces and this method relies on spatial and architectural evidence. Second, the contextual approach can only infer the existence of marketplace exchange but cannot study them directly. This is accomplished mainly through evidence of craft specialists such as obsidian craftsmen and the detritus of their work. Third, the spatial approach looks at distribution of manufactured items over large areas as evidence of development of a regional market system. These three approaches are indirect methods of studying market exchange. Hirth’s approach is more direct and is named the distributional approach which studies distribution of commodities among primary consumers. Economic activity of households as producer-vendors provide the most effective means of studying market exchange from material remains. Household archaeology provides evidence of social ranking because homogeneity of items found results from market culture rather than other forms of exchange.
Hirth provides evidence for pre-Hispanic markets at Xochicalco, specifically from his own work. This is a site southwest of Mexico City and home to 10,000-15,000 people at its zenith. It was destroyed in A.D. 900. The presence of marketplaces here is inferred by contextual and configurational evidence but there is no direct evidence. Distributional analysis suggests a variety of forms of exchange were present here. He is able to recover a wide range of household refuse from houses of people of varied social rank. He explains how he arrived at his conclusions regarding social ranking in his paper. Imported ceramics and obsidian tools were central to Hirth’s evaluation of the origin of their manufacture and, hence, the method of their acquisition. Hirth suggests that the distributional approach should be used wherever it is possible to create a cohesive sample of materials from a domestic or ceremonial site. In order to understand the importance of marketplaces in the development of social and political systems, a method to reliably identify them must exist. The distribution approach fulfills this requirement.
One commentator suggests Hirth make use of recent developments in exchange theory and questions individual households as the main unit of study. Another commentator suggests that Hirth test his hypothesis on a living society where acquisition and distribution of commodities is known. Other suggestions are that data from other sites needs to be tested using this method to ensure accuracy of this analytical tool; other forms of exchange may result in the same patterns of distribution described by Hirth for marketplaces. One commented that this paper would bring discussion between archaeologists and anthropologists in a new and productive direction. All agree that distinguishing exchange of materials and services in the archaeological record is an extremely difficult undertaking. There is general support for Hirth’s distributional approach.
Hirth agrees that caution should be used when applying the distributional approach to other sites and that ethnographical and archaeological studies are needed in conjunction with this type of analysis. He responds to concerns raised by all commentators and he argues that some of the disagreement stems from having different definitions for words such as “barter”. He defends his approach and hopes that future work will expand it and allow for more detailed analysis of distribution systems.
KARIN MEUSER Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Joffe, Alexander H. Alcohol and Social Complexity in Ancient Western Asia. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol.39(3):297-322.
Joffe clarifies early on in his article that he intends to focus on the creation of alcoholic beverages and their usage in Ancient Western Asia for socioeconomic and political purposes. He proposes that beer/alcohol contributed to societies in Ancient Western Asia by serving as a source of nutrition, aiding in the reorganization of agricultural production for internal and external exchange, encouraging labor mobilization, and posing as an elite symbol. He supports these ideas by presenting three intensive studies researching beer in Egypt, wine in Levant and Egypt, and a study involving a variety of beverages in Mesopotamia.
Joffe begins his article by examining how alcohol fits into the Anthropological perspective, claiming that it is often associated with complex societies, socialization, ritual, and political ties. He then moves on to illustrate the ways in which alcohol consumption is viewed and regulated in the present time. A few ways he suggests are through the assignment of a minimum drinking age and control over who manufactures/distributes alcohol.
In accordance to how alcohol contributed to Ancient Western Asia society, Joffe states, “we know little about the nutritional status of early complex societies” however, he later asserts that beer remained staple in the Egyptian diet and that it has a long history in the circum Mediterranean world.
The way in which Joffe explains alcohol’s contribution to job mobilization in societies is by using the shift of taste. Different areas produced wine/alcohol based on what products and crops were available to them. As elite tastes changed, so did the areas they chose to import from.
Joffe asserts several ways in which alcohol contributed to the reorganization of agricultural production in order for external and/or internal exchange. He uses the case of a village in the Early Bronze age that used wines and oils as a focal point for a new economy arising from the collapse of Chalcolithic. Doing so performed a social web of exchange and interaction between the highlands and lowlands. He also illustrates that the production of crops used to create wine in Levant such as grapes, olives, dates and figs, require “appropriate strategies of labor organization and land tenure,” adding that long-term investment may have resulted in land ownership. Joffe attributes the shift in Egyptian trade from South Levant to North Levant for allowing access to more exotic goods for trade and opening the network for trade with other areas as well. Joffe also makes note that the difference between the signs for “beer” and “bread” in both Egypt and Mesopotamian means of communicating are similar suggesting “an intensified control over production and distribution.”
Alcohol posing as an elite symbol, Joffe ascertains, also helped with developing Ancient Western Asian societies. Although Joffe notes elite drinking apparatuses can be found in “middle class” burials, he contributes this to the redistribution through/by elites. He proclaims foreign wines and drinking containers provided a venue for the display of status as several elites were buried with exotic goods including foreign beverage containers. Joffe also contends that consumption of alcohol in ancient Mesopotamia may have been used by the elites to reward success and reinforce loyalty.
Comments about Joffe’s article include illustrations from Michael Dietler, Christopher Edens, Jack Goody, Stefania Mazzoni and Peter Peregrine. Dietler suggests that instead of noting how it was safer to drink alcohol than water to explain its importance, Joffe could focus on alcohol’s role in feasts. Dietler states that feasts play a large part in linking domestic and political economies.
Edens asserts that Joffe’s article has several complexities. One being that alcohol’s use could not have been a significant factor in gaining and retaining loyalty in Mesopotamia. He suggests individuals were rewarded instead with land and ration of food and/or textiles.
Mazzoni adds to Joffe’s work by proclaiming that beer served as a good nutritional source of protein and sugar, whereas wine in Levant had a lower nutritional value.
Peregrine too doubts that alcohol was used as a labor reward and also that it was used as social control. He credits its depressant property as reason not to disperse it among workers. He points out that Joffe’s article is mainly focused on the elites using alcohol as a power source and ignores the possibility that non-elites (because they were the producers) had a strong power of resistance as well.
In response to Edens, Joffe admits that rationing and feasting are not the only ways of rewarding and reinforcing loyalty. In defense of alcohol given to the labor force, Joffe asserts that some alcoholic beverages had an alcohol content of below one percent; therefore workers would have lowered risks of becoming depressed. In addition, he declares that a state of disorientation may have been desired.
SHERRI BRAINERD Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Joffe, Alexander H. Alcohol and Social Complexity in Ancient Western Asia. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol.39 (3) 297-322.
Joffe’s article shows the relationship between alcohol and the development of complex societies in Western Asia during the third and fourth millennia BC. The author presents three case studies analyzing the use of beer in Egypt, wine in the Levant and Egypt, and a variety of alcoholic beverages in Mesopotamia. He admits that the paper does not present a high level theory because the foundation of the state in the Bronze Age grew out of a series of complex and interrelated processes. He does, however, suggest that the production, the exchange, and the corruption of alcoholic beverages all play a significant role in this process. Alcohol, specifically beer and wine, were used for a variety of socioeconomic and political purposes. Joffe, while investigating labor mobilization and gender relations reviews the importance of alcohol on health, nutrition, religious rituals, and the reorganization of agricultural production for intra and intersocietal exchange.
The author provides general information on the role of alcohol in society. He claims higher population densities and the contamination of water supplies led to a search for alternative drinking sources. Alcoholic beverages reinforced individual and group identities, status, religious beliefs and ritualistic behaviors. The topics included in the study were diverse, from pre-historic groups, to Coca-Cola in the Pre-Hispanic Andes, to the Soviet vodka monopoly under Gorbachev.
The case studies include a map indicating the location of the major sites, as well as incorporating diagrams of ceramic jars, jugs, and seal impressions. Joffe indicates women played a key role in the production activities, such as brewing, weaving, and manufacturing pottery.
The paper concludes with a section entitled Alcohol in Other Complex Societies. This section formulates approximately one third of the entire paper and focuses mainly on the importance of alcohol in the Mediterranean. Joffe compares and contrasts alcohol’s effect on Greek, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese societies as well as ancient Western Asia.
This research is an extension of Michael Dietler’s earlier study on alcoholic beverages in Iron Age Europe, and to a lesser extent, an adaptation on Mintz’s paper on sugar for the modern world. Dietler generally agrees with Joffe’s research. However, he does suggest that Joffe does not thoroughly investigate gender. For the most part, the commentators find the paper interesting but point out certain areas of weakness, such as not accounting for the fact that some non-state societies also brewed beer.
According to Joffe, the purpose for his paper was to present examples of how alcoholic beverages contributed to the formation of complex societies; therefore, he did not intend to suggest that alcohol was the prime motivator in social evolution. He does, however, believe that alcohol is an available tool utilized by the elite for the manipulation of the ‘lower class’. He does attempt to defend his theory, which proposes that poor water quality led to the production of an alcoholic product. He provides the contemporary example of cities where poor quality tap water is often replaced with bottled water for drinking. In response to the remarks regarding a lack of investigation to gender, he claims that biases of class-structured societies inhibit archaeologists’ ability to categorize data. He does concede that gender is an important sphere of research, to which he is able to offer little. Alexander Joffe concludes that the role of alcohol is a minor but significant factor in the creation of a state society.
JAY JOHNSON Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Jones, D. Gareth and Harris, Robyn J. Archeological Human Remains Current Anthropology, 1998 Vol. 39(2): 253-63
Jones and Harris convey particular considerations that need to be made surrounding the treatment of human remains. The discussion includes examples from several groups including Aboriginals, Maori groups, and Native Americans among others. Between the scientific community and descendents of human materials exist a debate concerning the treatment of human remains. Indigenous people are concerned about the destruction of their heritage and respect for the mortal remains of the dead. Scientists hope to study remains in their search for information regarding humanity. The authors of this article explore the concerns of those involved in the debate approaching prehistoric and newly discovered remains.
Science views skeletal remains as a vessel through which to obtain information. Knowledge about societal organization, disease, health, genetics, nutrition, life expectancy, population density, surgery, and ritual are a range of topics that that are studied. Within this framework remains are seen as part of the world’s heritage. In opposition, indigenous people are concerned for the respect of ancestors along with religious and cultural aspects. One major factor discussed is the difference in worldviews between the Western science practitioners and indigenous people. Western science has a linear view of time whereas some indigenous cultures view time as circular. In the Western view the past is behind us and the future is stretched out in front. In a circular view of time the past exists in front while the future is behind. These views promote different pictures of self-identity and death.
Ethics is a crucial factor when trying to combine the views of these different groups in order to find a solution. Jones and Harris approach this by looking at three variables: the age of the skeletal material, the time the material was unearthed, and the manner of death for the deceased. By assessing these variables decisions can be made regarding who has sovereignty over the material and if research can be done. In the authors’ opinion a balance should be achieved between sets of interest leaning toward the indigenous groups if a line of descent is established.
DARYL STEWART Western Michigan University (Dr. Bilinda Straight)
Jones, D. Gareth and Robyn J. Harris. Archeological Human Remains Scientific Cultural And Ethical Considerations. Current Anthropology April, 1998 Vol.39 (2):253-264.
In their article, Jones and Harris focus on the values and ethical issues surrounding the study of human skeletal remains and dead human bodies in the fields of anthropology and archaeology. In order to explore the issues, they apply an extensive analysis in the determining of the relevant scientific and moral values are in question.
Beginning with a section of background information, Jones and Harris introduce some of the issues that cloud the ideas of “two opposing forces: the Western scientific values of archaeology and a global cultural renaissance among indigenous peoples.” This section also presents the authors ideas relating to the proper treatment of human remains. The next segment discusses the various policy developments and how they recognize and acknowledge the importance of scientific, anthropological and archaeological data along with the importance of all aspects relating to all indigenous cultures, and their cultural heritage.
Following, there is discussion on the scientific interest in relation to indigenous cultures, the effects of each one onto the other, ethics, the various claims made by each group, their different worldviews and the importance of the information the studying of data can provide. The methods used in the assessment of claims are offered in the next section; various claims are discussed, along with, the ethical issues and principles surrounding justice. This portion of the article is divided into even more sub-sections in order to examine the ethics of the types of remains found, the time when the remains are found, the historical origin of the remains found, the past mistreatment of remains and the past moral complicity of scholars.
Jones and Harris conclude their article by providing some ideas for possible guidelines that could be used for the study of human remains, offering scenarios concerning a fictitious group as support for the use of their guidelines.
SHANNON SVISDAHL Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Lyman, R. Lee and O’Brien, Michael J. The Goals of Evolutionary Archaeology. Current Anthropology, December 1998. Vol. 39(5): 615-652.
This article is an attempt to deal with criticisms that have been made of evolutionary archaeology by those with preferences for evolutionary ecology, processual archaeology, and behavioral archaeology. Each of these approaches seeks to explain the archaeological record by asking different questions and employing different interpretive principles. The authors address their critics by explaining what evolutionary archaeology is, how criticisms of it are inaccurate and how it can be beneficial to understanding the archaeological record.
Evolutionary archaeology is geared toward providing Darwinian explanations of the archaeological record. Parallels are drawn throughout the article between evolutionary archaeology and paleobiology. Darwinian concepts of lineage, natural selection, transmission mechanisms, innovation, diffusion, and heritability are applied to culture history (where population is artifacts which are viewed as phenotypic features). Evolutionary archaeological analysis includes the study of immanent properties and processes, a set of theoretically constructed units for writing a historical chronicle, and a consideration of historical contingencies and configurations.
The article goes on to address some points of contention among critics including innovation as novelty, intent for introducing variation, replicators as culture traits, transmission as diffusion, causation with natural selection and drift, and natural selection and drift as major mechanisms of change. The importance, in evolutionary archaeology, of using historical as well as comparative analysis in order to distinguish between analogous and homologous similarity is also stressed.
The three prevailing paradigms in archaeology preferred by critics of evolutionary archaeology (i.e. evolutionary ecology, processual archaeology, and behavioral archaeology) are all addressed by highlighting their limitations and explaining how evolutionary archaeology can contribute to them. The charge that evolutionary archaeology uses “radical empiricism” and “artifact physics” are also addressed and countered. Writing and explaining history in evolutionary archaeology are talked about as an evolutionary narrative with the goal of describing as well as giving “how possibly” explanations that can become “how actually” explanations.
The authors conclude by summarizing the differences between evolutionary archaeology and the three paradigms discussed as well as a call to adapt Darwinian evolutionary theory to archaeological problems with the goals of creating evolutionary historical narratives.
Comment on the above article is made by a number of anthropologists with agreement on some points, disagreement on others, and clarifications and expansion of some ideas used in applying evolutionary theory to the archaeological record. Main points of controversy include occurrence of evolution without change in frequencies of heritable units, replication of phenotypes as artifacts, lack of proven models for research, distinction between neutral and adaptive traits, the relationship between evolutionary archaeology and evolutionary ecology, “evolution as history” or “evolution as engineering”, the restriction of evolutionary forces as selection and drift, the application of biological models of evolution to culture, absence of empirical discussion, and selectionist vs. processualist evolution.
Reply by Lyman and O’Brien begins by citing the central focus of the debate on the notion of human behavior. Criticism that evolutionary archaeology ignores human behavior is refuted with discussion of selection occurring after intention and the impossibility of determining the emergence of cultural traits as a result of intention. They maintain that the biological model of evolution is applicable to cultural phenomena, perhaps with some modification.
JESSICA KEENER Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Lyman, R. Lee and Michael J. O’Brien. The Goals of Evolutionary Archaeology: History and Explanation. Current Anthropology December, 1998 Vol.39(5):615-652.
This article examines extensively the roles, various ideologies, uses and theories employed by those who research evolutionary archaeology. It is the author’s contention to propose that not only is evolutionary archaeology important, but viable in other aspects of anthropology, such as processual archaeology, evolutionary ecology, and behavioural archaeology. Lyman and O’Brien examine why evolutionary archaeology is often misunderstood and frequently misquoted by those who do not fully comprehend the far reaching and interconnected nature of evolutionary archaeology. They scrutinize many academics and their ideologies of evolutionary archaeology, and offer their own criticisms and explanations for the work that has been completed thus far. They attempt as well, to establish their own ideologies on the various subjects within this topic.
It is clear on the basis of the work of Lyman and O’Brien that this field has many points to which endless debate could and probably will occur as more people grapple with the enormity of evolutionary archaeology. In addition to their assertions about their own ideologies, they draw from other fields such as biology, history, cultural evolutionism and Darwinism while attempting to discourage irrelevant, inconsequential evidence and ideologies. The article is broken into various sections each dealing with the many subjects of evolutionary archaeology. Some of these include Points of Contention, Evolutionary Ecology, Behavioural Archaeology, Processual Archaeology, Radical Empiricism and Artifact Physics. They conclude by stating that evolutionary archaeology is not yet nearly complete in its ideologies and place in the academic arena, but through further work and the ample criticisms of others, areas of weakness within the discipline will be reinforced and various misconceptions will hopefully be laid to rest.
The comments section is indicative of the many criticisms that evolutionary archaeology receives, as well the authors of this article. The eleven comments provided by some very notable academics are generally split in their opinions of the research. Most of the negative comments are replies to the criticisms of Lyman and O’Brien (of others), with extensive explanations and source citing. Most of these contend that the work in the article is not complete and the various ideologies and theories used do not apply to evolutionary archaeology. Those who agree with Lyman and O’Brien provide supplementary and varying evidence to further bolster their own opinions, and those of Lyman and O’Brien.
In their response, Lyman and O’Brien defend their article and attempt to provide additional evidence that their critique of evolutionary archaeology is of some merit, and valuable to the overall picture structured by others in their field. They respond to each criticism of the article openly and clearly, and offer further critiques of those who sought to critique their work. It is their line of argument that the field of evolutionary archaeology (and this evident in their reply) is an area of academia that is new and open to interpretation.
JOE DESJARDINS Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Marean, Curtis W. and Kim, Soo Yeun. Moustarian Large-Mammal Remains from Kobeh Cave: Behavioral Implications for Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol.39 (supplement):S79-S113.
Marean and Kim argue that despite the seeming prevalence of head-dominated or head-and-foot-dominated large mammal bone assemblages reported at Neanderthal and Early Modern Human occupation sites throughout Eurasia, early hominids were in fact hunting animals for meat, not scavenging from carnivores’ kills as has been suggested by other researchers. Marean and Kim dispute the accuracy of reports of remains from various Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic sites, stating that the excavators often discarded “unidentifiable” long bone mid-shaft fragments, which, even if they were collected, may not have been included in analyses of the faunal remains, as they were often not identifiable to species level. These common exclusion practices have resulted in biased assemblages containing disproportionate amounts of low meat-yielding head and foot bones, and only a few of the more meat-bearing long bones.
Marean and Kim used the technique of refitting long bone fragments together from the faunal assemblage excavated from the Kobeh Cave site in Iraq. Refitting these fragments allowed them to work with larger, identifiable sections of the mid-shafts of the long bones, rather than the previously unidentifiable fragments. By using this technique, Marean and Kim were able to demonstrate that the faunal assemblage from Kobeh Cave was dominated by limb bones. Had they not used this technique, it would appear that the assemblage would be head and foot biased.
The authors use the presence of high meat-yielding skeletal elements, along with the patterns and locations of cut marks and tooth marks on the bones to support the “hominid-first” hypothesis. The hominid-first hypothesis states that hominids hunted large mammals for meat, processed the carcass by removing flesh and marrow, and then discarded the bones, which were later scavenged by carnivores such as hyenas and wolves.
Marean and Kim insist that claims regarding hominids scavenging the kills of carnivores are largely based on biased evidence. They claim that if the sites known for their head-dominated and head-and-foot-dominated bone assemblages had been processed with the long bone refitting technique used at Kobeh Cave, a pattern of long bone dominance would be found, which would support their hominid-first hypothesis. They further state that there is no evidence for scavenging activities in the Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age Eurasia.
Most commentators agree on the significance and usefulness of the arguments and techniques suggested by Marean and Kim, though nearly all express dissatisfaction with the implication that refitting is applicable in all cases, and should be undertaken despite significant time, resource, and preservation issues. Most commentators point out the near impossibility and overall low utility of performing this technique on a large collection. M.C. Stiner disagrees with the validity of Marean and Kim’s results, calling into question the apparent absence of certain elements of the skeleton, and challenging many assumptions that she claims have been made by the authors.
Marean responds by reiterating some of the points in his article that he feels were taken wrongly by commentators. He concedes that refitting long bone fragments is not the only acceptable method, but suggests using computer technology to aid in refitting long bones in large samples. Marean responds to M.C. Stiner’s accusations by justifying what she referred to as assumptions to be supportable conclusions, and by calling into question the validity of the data which Stiner uses to refute his theories, and upon which she has formed her own hypotheses.
SUSAN DIEPEN Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Marean, Curtis and Soo Yuen Kim Mousterian Large-Mammal Remains from Kobeh Cave: Behavioral Implications for Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol.39(3):79-113.
This article examines Middle Paleolithic (Middle Stone Age) Neanderthal hominids and how their subsistence patterns evolved over time based on improved technology, behavior implications and environmental changes. The authors also examine the Middle Stone Age hominids and their decreased hunting techniques compared to the Later Stone Age hunters. The primary argument proposed is whether or not hominids were the scavengers of animal remains, or whether they were the primary suppliers of hunting remains for surrounding carnivorous species. The article provides examples and archaeological evidence in defense for both cases.
In terms of scavenging, the writers consider the high occurrence of head and foot skeletal remains. The cranium and mandible are the most abundant remains, with foot long bones frequently appearing in the next highest percentage. This theory is evidence in support of scavenging because it shows that hominids only had access to the reduced nutrient rich materials left behind for them to scavenge. In other words, these bones have the least amount of meat on them, which makes them less desirable to other animals, but are still useful to hominids for the bone marrow nutrients. The data for this research were recovered at the following sites: Combe Grenal, Grotte Vaufrey, Grotta Guattari, Grotta dei Moscerini, and Klasies River Mouth. (80).
The other side of the debate argues that hominids at the Kobeh Cave site hunted wild goats and sheep. They took the essential nutritional parts of the skeleton and left other bones for carnivorous animals. The article states that in examination of skeletal remains, cut marks and carnivore tooth marks overlapped. This occurrence is evidence that both hominids and animals had access to hunted remains, however it leaves unclear who had access first. Upon further investigation scientists discovered that bone grease develops on the ends of aged bones and is desirable to scavenging carnivores for up to one year. This occurrence was evidence for the hominid-first and carnivore-second theory. The evidence for the research was compared with archaeological excavations at Kobeh, Warwasi and Bisitun sites. The evidence for hominid scavengers and hominid hunter theories is likewise presented and organized in tables and graphs throughout the article.
The comments relatively similar. Most agree with the hypothesis of hominid hunting practices and occasional scavenging opportunities. The general consensus is that the article is a major contribution to zooarchaeological analysis. The greatest concern is the techniques the archaeologists used in analyzing the remains. The reviewers felt that the method of re-fitting bones together is an unrealistic method for analyzing and gathering data. Generally analysis cannot be done to this extent because it is time consuming, expensive and only supplies minimal accuracy. Some writers input their own solutions to this problem, as well as to other outstanding inconsistencies they found in the articles theories.
Only Marean replied to the comments. He noted that all the responses were positive in accordance with the proposed theories, except for Stiner who plainly disagreed. Most of his reply was dedicated to Stiner’s commentary however Marean confronts each criticism with more of his own evidence and support. He accepted each response as positive feedback for his further studies in hominid subsistence behavior.
SALINA WIGHT Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Michael Rosenberg. Cheating at Musical Chairs. Current Anthropology, December 1998 V. 39 (5): 653-677
The phenomenon of sedentary life is undoubtedly important to current human life. An exact cause may never actually be discovered, however, a number of theories have been presented. Michael Rosenberg presents his own theory to explain why mobile peoples would become sedentary in his article “Cheating at Musical Chairs”.
Rosenberg begins by explaining the cost/benefit relationship of sedentary lifeways to mobile lifeways. Anthropologists commonly accept that sedentary life is more costly to people than mobile life. Resource depletion due to the reduced range of the people, heavy energy needed to harvest crops, and increased risks to security are all problems of sedentary life. However, sedentary life had to have some advantages to make peoples of the past give up their mobile lifestyle.
Some anthropologists have suggested that sociopolitical forces were the cause of sedentary lifeways. Humans have shown a tendency to have self-serving agendas and a desire to manipulate others. These desires are more easily attained in a sedentary environment. However, Rosenberg points out that because in most situations people feeling oppressed can simply move away, certain demographic constraints must also be present for sociopolitical forces to be the complete cause of sedentary life. Instead, he suggests that sociopolitical forces are tied to a more prominent cause for the change in lifeways.
Adaptation models for sedentary lifeways are placed into two categories by Rosenberg: those that are resource-centered and those based on population-pressure. Resource-centered models are those that tie the abundance of resources needed for survival being found in one area and therefore allowing sedentary life. However, the fault Rosenberg disagrees with this argument on the basis that these resources did not suddenly become available but had been available before sedentary life. Rosenberg calls these theories “pull” models. He then points out that exploitation of these resources has not always resulted in sedentary life.
Rosenberg presents the argument that population-pressure is true reason for sedentary life. He rejects the idea that human populations can consciously control their own populations. While he does admit that humans tend to regulate population levels; he points out that they do not tend to be successful. In this same way, Rosenberg rejects the idea that if a such regulation was instituted it is was done to maintain the eco-demographic homeostasis. He does not believe that the benefits of population control were as apparent to peoples of hunter-gather societies as they are to people today.
Population growth is also an issue to Rosenberg. In addressing the issue of population growth, he points out that population growth is not associated with population pressure. Instead, he states that population pressure is caused by the possibility of an unfavorable ratio of humans to resources available and the latent possibility for population growth. In this way, population pressure constantly exists and a simple fluctuation in the resources available can cause population pressure.
Rosenberg’s theory revolves around territoriality. When a group of people are mobile their territory is quite vast, however this territory is shared with other groups of people. A group is unable to secure a location with the most abundant resources when mobile and sharing territory. Defending such a vast territory and keeping other groups out is very difficult. As more groups enter the vast territory, competition becomes increasingly rigid. This in turn creates population pressure by allocating fewer resources to a larger number of people. By becoming sedentary a group of people are securing the resources within the smaller area they inhabit. Protecting this smaller area is much easier, as well.
The analogy to musical chairs is used here by Rosenberg. When faced with growing population pressure, it becomes more risky to be mobile. As in a game of musical chairs, when the music starts those that give up their chair increase their risks of not getting a chair when the music stops. Therefore, by remaining in a chair or becoming sedentary the risk diminishes. In this way, Michael Rosenberg says the becoming sedentary is like cheating at musical chairs.
Rosenberg received nine comments on his article. In the majority of the responses, the commentor presents the argument that population pressure alone is not a plausible cause of sedentary lifeways. By pointing out certain characteristics that Rosenberg failed to address, the responses show once again that no one cause can explain the phenomenon of sedentary life. In his final response, Rosenberg answers that the commenters misunderstood his intentions. He asserts that he does not dismiss other theories, but rather wishes to demonstrate that population pressure probably had a strong influence on lifeways.
KATIE LATHAM Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Rosenberg, Michael. Cheating at Musical Chairs: Territoriality and Sedentism in an Evolutionary Context. Current Anthropology December, 1998 Vol.39(5):653-680.
Rosenberg argues that recent explanations for the emergence of sedentism are inadequate. He explains that socio-political models, which explain the rise of sedentism, raise as many questions as they answer, because these models ignore the increased costs and risks of sedentism in comparison to mobile life ways. Adaption models, which blame external conditions such as the environment for the decline of hunters and gatherers, misunderstand the process of evolution, by suggesting that sedentary life ways are more adaptive than mobile ones. Following his critique of the other theories used to explain the rise of sedentism, Rosenberg posits the theory that population pressure is the source of sedentism. He then challenges, by presenting counterevidence, common criticisms of the population pressure theory: that mobile societies regulate their population growth and that there is insufficient data in the archaeological record to support this theory.
The argument for the population pressure theory begins by distinguishing between population pressure and population growth: that population pressure is the potential for growth that is somehow frustrated by a condition. Following the definition, he outlines four major points in his article regarding the cause of sedentism: first, that sedentism is the result of competition for resources (population pressure). This resource stress creates rigid territorial systems. Secondly, sedentism will occur where resources are available and where the cost of exploitation is less than territorial defense, by the advantage of inhabiting the defending territory. Thirdly, that technological and behavioural innovation, such as a decrease in group movement and/or procedures to obtain resources (hunting rather than scavenging) develops for the exploitation of resources in response to population pressure. Lastly, population-resource imbalance, due to population growth, creates the need for exploitation. Support for this point is drawn from archaeological data during the Pleistocene period in southwestern Asia and northern Europe. Rosenberg concludes his article by explaining that the relationships he presents are a casual framework proposed to direct the evolution of increased exploitation.
While most commentators agree with Rosenberg’s general idea that population pressure is a cause of sedentism, they all explain that his theory not only lacks the quantitative data, but he also fails to acknowledge several other factors that have been proven to help create sedentism. One commentator goes as far as to label Rosenberg’s approach as “armchair archaeology”, which as a result, causes Rosenberg to oversimplify the complexity of the issue of sedentism. However, all commentators applaud the author’s attempt to argue for the theory of population pressure, but explain the theory needs to be revised with further analysis before it can be completely accepted.
Rosenberg replies to the commentators, arguing that many misinterpreted his proposal. He reiterates that his theory of population pressure is simply a framework model and that no single framework is able to completely explain any phenomenon, but that does not mean it is entirely invalid. He explains the argument proposed by most commentators that either population pressure or historical events caused sedentism is simply a false dichotomy, because evolution, whether cultural or biological, is a historical event. Rosenberg addresses each of the commentators directly, clarifying his points, while defending his underlying argument: that population pressure is a major cause of sedentism, but not necessarily the ultimate one.
KIM TOWNSLEY Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Shea, John, J. Neanderthal and Early Modern Human Behavioral Variability: A Regional-scale Approach to Lithic Evidence for Hunting in the Levantine Mousterian. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol. 39(Supplement): S45-S73.
The overall concern in this paper is what caused two different human populations to use the same technology in tool making over a very long extension of time. Shea sets out to distinguish the ecological differences, and the differences in lithic technologies in order to distinguish between the Neanderthals or modern humans who occupied that area. The Levant area is divided up into three different ecozones: the Mediterranean Woodland, the Irano-Tueranian Steppe and the Sahara-Arabian Dessert. The Levantine Mousterian technology was found both in the Woodlands and in the Steppe.
The lithic technology was discussed in the context of hunting strategies and the Levallois point and core tool ratio, (LP/CR) in conjunction with each other. Essentially there are two different types of hunting techniques that were used, encounter and intercept techniques. Both of these are advantageous in different ecological zones. The encounter technique, used by modern humans, was used in the woodland because of predictable migration routes. Due to encounter techniques, maintainability of the tool was essential, so the use of wooden spears would have been used in the hunt. The wooden spears could also double as digging sticks. As for intercept hunting techniques, which were used by Neanderthals, the need for tools to be more effective was essential. Thus the use of stone tipped spears would have been advantageous in their hunting technique. This links Neanderthals with far more hunting than modern humans.
The stone tools that were found with the remains in the Tuban Cave were then correlated with the hunting techniques used. The LP/CR ratios were then calculated showing the vast increase of the ratio between Neanderthals and modern humans. These variables present in the study show that both Neanderthals and modern humans were able to vary their behavior to changes in environment circumstances; there was a greater degree of variance for modern humans. This may suggest why modern humans were better able to adapt and thus survive the test of time.
There were a few commentators that believed that Shea’s work was not complete or that his work was over generalized, but the majority found his theory very appealing in associating human behavior with hunting techniques. It avoids past models that use cognitive processes that are unpredictable. Although there was a general consensus that Shea did not look at other factors that could have lead to production of stone tools, or how the tools were used. As well, most of the commentators believed that the LP/CR method in determining behavior was either too generalized, poorly explained, or there can be no inferences drawn from these data. Lastly, it was noted that some of the figures in Tables two and three were calculated incorrectly.
In Shea’s reply, he argues his method of using hunting techniques linked to stone tool production is reliable in determining behavioral contrasts between modern humans and Neanderthals. He suggests that stone tipped weapons take more time to construct thus explaining his theory of different hunting techniques. He then argues against Churchill’s LP/CR ratios and stone wear. He suggests that not all stones would invariably show wear, and if so this would lead to the conclusion that humans were aware of their stone tool capabilities. Shea later argues his use of cores as a denominator for the LP/CR ratio as it may lead to functions other than hunting. In Shea’s rebuttal, this would be the case for any category of stone tools as a denominator. He states that if cores are problematic as a denominator there are two other indicators to give validity to his work. He then adds that it is difficult to make accurate assumptions due to the incomplete publication of several Levantine sites.
KEVIN LOOK Okanagan University College (Diana E. French).
Sillitoe, Paul. The Development of Indigenous Knowledge. Current Anthropology April, 1998 Vol.39(2):223-252
In this article, author Paul Sillitoe calls for anthropologists to embrace a grassroots movement that encourages the inclusion of indigenous knowledge as a vital element of research in less-developed countries. It is important to understand that others have their own legitimate management techniques and forms of science. Thus, rather than imposing technological solutions to problems and expecting that indigenous populations will embrace Western scientific knowledge, Sillitoe believes that the incorporation of local practices will improve development efforts. Anthropologists can play a critical role in the fostering of this new understanding.
The introduction of local knowledge into development efforts will help create initiatives that are more relevant to the population in question, and will help empower indigenous peoples. On the other hand, ignoring local needs and opinions may lead to a perception of disrespect and exploitation. Anthropologists can help bridge the gap between Western science and indigenous knowledge, ensuring that development is a joint effort to provide culturally appropriate solutions.
Sillitoe emphasizes that the careful consideration of local knowledge not only verifies its cultural validity, it may in fact prove its scientific validity. Indigenous knowledge is a vital source of intelligence. However, the author expresses concern that the Western sciences’ manifest lack of respect for the knowledge of others may prevent its inclusion. This, he argues, is unfortunate because quite often local ways of managing resources are more appropriate and sustainable, based upon years of accumulated cultural knowledge.
A final point addresses issues of relativism. There is a fine line between helping others find solutions to their problems and interfering in their social and political arrangements. Anthropologists, with their focus on relativism, need to be aware of this line, but also need to understand that with the shift in focus toward helping people, intervention is unavoidable. It is imperative that this intervention does not harm the group in question. The author discusses a fictitious but realistic scenario in which wealthier and more powerful members of the society may feel threatened by the assistance being given to others and may try to obstruct development.
Sillitoe offers a persuasive argument for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge into development efforts. With globalization comes the obligation to provide assistance to those in need. However, assistance should be a mutual effort. Rather than disregarding the valuable knowledge of those not raised under the auspices of the Western scientific method, we need to recognize that every group has valuable knowledge to contribute.
For the most part, responses to this article were positive, raising only minor quibbles. However, Carmen Ferradás raises several interesting criticisms. First, she argues that most specialists’ interest in indigenous knowledge does not grow out of admiration, but is often financially motivated. Furthermore, Ferradás emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the poor actually benefit from these efforts since, as Sillitoe acknowledges, the introduction of technological innovations is political. Finally, and most significantly, Ferradás argues that we need to consider the implications of continuing to divide the world into categories of “us” and “them”. Ferradás suggests that Sillitoe’s division between the West and indigenous populations implies an attitude of Western superiority and arrogance.
Sillitoe responds to Ferradás’ criticism by agreeing that it is an exaggeration to discuss Western scientific knowledge as compared to indigenous knowledge as though they were mutually exclusive, stating that people in both communities may possess both kinds of knowledge. However, he does not agree that it is necessary to completely dispose of the “us”-“them” dichotomy. Rather, he states that different cultures continue to instill different understandings of the world in spite of globalization and that the “us”-“them” division is to some degree inescapable. In fact, he argues that denying this basic truth is an act in “postmodern imagination”. He states that his point was that the West is technologically more advanced and thus has something to offer “them”, emphatically dismissing any suggestion that dividing the West from indigenous populations is in any way a claim of moral or cultural superiority.
GLENN L. PLANCK Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Stanford, Craig B. The Social Behavior of Chimpanzees and Bonobos: Empirical Evidence and Shifting Assumptions. Current Anthropology August 1998 Vol. 39(4):399-420.
Stanford sets out to prove in this article that differences in the social behaviors of common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, (Pan paniscus) have been overstated and sensationalized by researchers. Stanford claims that instead of recognizing the similarities between humankind’s two closest living relatives, researchers have emphasized the differences between the behaviors of the two species. He blames this practice largely on the perceived dichotomy between human male-female character traits. Chimpanzees are often characterized as male-centered, aggressive, and violent, whereas bonobos are usually viewed as female-centered, sexually expressive, and peaceful. If these vast character differences are in fact true, it would have huge implications for scientific theories about early hominids.
Stanford uses data from field studies of chimpanzees and bonobos to compare social behavior by looking at group composition, foraging party size and composition, inter-group aggression, reproductive ecology, and several other variables. Data from chimpanzee and bonobo studies line up very well in support of the conclusion that these two species behave in much the same way. Stanford further suggests that some observational data may have been misinterpreted in the past, and must be re-evaluated.
Stanford concludes that, while there are certainly some differences between the two species, they are overstated by researchers’ own unconscious biases, the conditions (ie captivity and artificial provisioning in the wild) under which studies of bonobos have been conducted, and by the absence of long term data on wild bonobos. Stanford insists that the evidence supports a narrower behavioral gap between the two primates, and conventional views must be altered.
Most commentators support Stanford’s efforts to bring greater understanding to the similarities between chimpanzees and bonobos, but nearly all commentators warn against his use of sweeping generalizations and over-simplification of complex primate behaviors. A few commentators offered further avenues for information that would support Stanford’s hypothesis, however, de Waal and Parish in particular feel that Stanford did not mention, or glossed over several significant aspects of bonobo behavior. Of most concern was the apparent absence of treatment of unusual sexual behaviors among bonobos that have never been observed in chimpanzees. Though Stanford addresses rates of copulation, de Waal and Parish believe that not enough emphasis was given to what they feel are significant differences in the sexual behaviors between chimpanzees and bonobos. Parish is also concerned about Stanford’s assertion that female dominance is not true dominance, but rather “allowed” by males in bonobo society. She feels that this is an unparsimonious explanation that is not supported by evidence. de Waal expresses concern about Stanford’s invalidation of captive research, stating that Stanford’s allegation that sexual behaviors of captive bonobos are a result of their confinement are unfounded. All commentators agree on the necessity of further field research on wild bonobo populations.
Stanford reiterates that he was attempting to show how chimpanzees and bonobos are similar, not that they are “behaviorally indistinguishable.” He admits that this article originally started from “a fit of devil’s advocacy”, but welcomes the comments concerning further support of his assertions. Stanford reacts to de Waal’s and Parish’s criticisms defensively, pointing out that these two scientists have worked primarily with captive animals and refuse to take into account field data. He concedes that de Waal may have a point considering sexuality among captive bonobos in comparison to captive chimpanzees, who do not show the same sexual behaviors exhibited in bonobo populations, though he cautions that captivity affects different animals in different ways, and no conclusions can be drawn about wild animals from captive data. Stanford concludes by stating that field research is very much needed for wild populations, and future information will help us come to a better understanding of both bonobos and chimpanzees.
SUSAN DIEPEN Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Tishkov, Valery A. U.S. and Russian Anthropology: Unequal Dialogue in a Time of Transition. Current Anthropology February, 1998 39(1):1-18.
In the article U.S. and Russian Anthropology: Unequal Dialogue in a Time of Transition, Tishkov writes on the problems concerning anthropology in the west (specifically the United States), and Russia in since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. He examines the very different perspectives of American and Russian anthropology, and notes that they are very different disciplines. He argues that neither has an understanding of the other’s discipline, and that tensions are still very high due to the influence of the Cold War era. Tishkov feels that Americans have the money and research to study the Russian provinces seeking independence from Russia; however, he feels that this area of study should be the work of Russian anthropologists, not American.
A second argument Tishkov proposes is the lack of American knowledge of Russia before and after the fall of Communism. He claims that Americans have no sense of knowledge regarding “Sovietology”. While the Russian anthropologists have a healthy background in Russian anthropology, Americans tend to be at a disadvantage. Communism prevented much if any information regarding their country, out into the international community. Only recently has the west been able to begin analyzing information form the Russian past. The author persists in elaborating on several differences between the uses in anthropology within the two countries. It is obvious that Mr. Tishkov tends to sway more towards a socialist attitude and tends to speak more so from the Russian perspective, rather than supply any arguments in defense of American anthropology. The article seems to be a bombardment of errors upon the west, especially the United States.
There are a series of mixed emotions generated by critics in response to the article. The comments range from Arutiunov who feels that the overall content is quite reasonable, while others such as Peter Skalnik, feel quite the opposite. An argument which emerges in Arutiunov’s article is a simple debate which has been debated over in many history classes. It is obvious that Arutiunov feels that the Cold War is officially over. Although the Cold War is over in the sense that the Communist threat is non-existent as well as the arms race, the notion of threat is still very present. These disagreements can be seen through the Russian decisions behind the Kursk incident and American involvement, as well as over strong disagreements during heated issues such as the present threats upon Iraq.
Tishkov’s reply seems to address many of the questions or comments brought up in the response section of this article. One aspect which is agreed with by many anthropologists is Tishkov’s use of “Nationalities”, when defining the areas of the former Soviet Union which are not sovereign nations yet, such as Chechnya.
Tishkov, however, defends his arguments in a hostile tone. He tends to be quite reluctant to accept any criticism from his peers, which were proposed in the comment section of this article.
KEITH WILSON Okanagan University College (Diana E. French)
Van Peer, Philip. The Nile Corridor and the Out-of-Africa Model: An Examination of the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology June, 1998 Vol. 39 (2): 115-140
Summary: The overall problem addressed in Van Peer’s article is that the archaeological data from the Middle Palaeolithic of the Lower Nile Valley and nearby regions is not relevant to human origins and behavior. Van Peer claims that archaeological data leaves “significant gaps in the Saharan database”(p. 130) and is “too sparse” (p. 115), not letting us have any concept of cultural complexity or of “local technological transition,” (p. 130). Van Peer sets out to debunk the assumption “that all archaeological remains are the product of human groups with sociocultural structures comparable to the present world,” (p. 115). Since archaeology has now come along way since that assumption, the author wants to look at the Nile Corridor and the “Out-of-Africa” model from a prehistoric perspective. Yet, he states that, “it will remain difficult to characterize human species [e.g. human behavior] by their archaeological remains,” (p. 130-131). Overall, Van Peer wants to improve the quality of descriptive procedures by expanding the present database “with good well-dated contexts,” (p. 117). Another argument Van Peer sets out to prove in his article is that two archaeological complexes—the Nubian Complex and the Lower Nile Valley Complex of Northeast Africa—are both “the reflection of different behavioral adaptations,” (p. 120). Van Peer asserts that the appearance of the Nubian complex in the Nile Valley could imply the strategic use of hunting subsistence and the arrival of new material culture from the south, therefore having the potential to adapt to changing climatic conditions with such technological advances.
Van Peer offers evidence for his arguments by summarizing recently published information and presenting the results of his own “lithic analyses of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages,” (p. 117). Van Peer presents two complexes of Middle Palaeolithic Northeast Africa from a technological point-of-view: 1.) The Nubian Complex, is characterized by the Nubian Levallois and classical Levallois methods of point and flake production—the author calls this complex the “N group”—and 2.) The Lower Nile Valley Complex, only the classical Levallois method is confirmed, “and point-production methods are unknown,”—labeled the “K group,” (p. 120). The author’s evidence supports his main points because his two complexes/assemblages “show complexity in their material culture and cultural change,” (p. 128). The Nubian Complex shows that new populations had been present in Northeast Africa since the late Middle Pleistocene. On the other hand, the early industries of the Lower Nile Valley Complex were in sequence with the Acheulean (around 1.5 million years B.C.), thus technological change (e.g. “the Levallois reduction strategy”) was evident due to the complex’s late manifestations (p. 130).
The organization of Van Peer’s data is a bit confusing because the introduction of his article was more like an analysis and we don’t know what his arguments or goals are until later. However, the author includes very useful illustrations (maps, visuals of tools from both complexes) and charts to display the data from his analysis. Van Peer’s knowledge of the studies of the Nile Corridor and the Out-of-Africa model is demonstrated in this article, thus giving his audience a good impression of his perspectives.
Summary of the comments: Most of Van Peer’s commentators were in agreement that his discussion was a very informative and “up-to-date” survey of the archaeology of the Northeast African Nile Valley (Rolland, Ronen, 133, 134). However, Romuald Schild questioned Van Peer’s remarks that the presence of bifacial foliates are good taxonomic markers, since these are “extremely rare in the Middle Palaeolithic assemblages” of the Nile Valley and surrounding deserts (Schild, 135). Another critic of the article was Marcel Otte, who thought Van Peer’s debates were “outmoded.” Otte also interrogated his support for the Out-of-Africa model, whereas modern moved from Africa to Europe and Asia (Otte, 132).
Summary of the author’s reply: Van Peer focuses on his two complexes of Northeast Africa during the Middle Palaeolithic since Schild questioned them. Van Peer explains that after some further analysis, this “twofold classification” could reveal some behavioral significance (p. 136). He also cautions Rolland when deeming the Nubian and the Lower Nile Valley complexes as coexistent, since “there are… no sites where levels of the two complexes are interstratified,” (p. 136). Van Peer explains that the two sites are only contemporaneous during the early Late Pleistocene along the river. The author responds to Otte’s criticisms by saying that he misses to crucial points: 1.) That a “predefined question must be framed” within an understood procedure of knowledge and data and 2.) The interpretation of obtained meaning in terms of the posed problem.
ANDREA L. BERNARD Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight)
Wilson, David S. Hunting, Sharing, and Multilevel Selection: The Tolerated- Theft Model Revisited. Current Anthropology February, 1998 Vol. 39(1):73-86.
Wilson’s article concerns group selection theories, focusing specifically on the tolerated-theft model. The article suggests that the reasons behind hunting and sharing that hunt in a group society may or may nor be individually motivated. Motivation behind the hunt and why individuals’ hunts are purely limited to decisions made within the group. The concern is presented by approaching the confusion between process and perspective. Wilson offers his hypothesis and supports it by using sources from various other anthropologists. He also offers support by explaining other models, including one written by Sewall Wright and the tolerated-theft model in general.
Sewall Wrights model of group selection states that “natural selection is based on relative fitness, thus, adaptation at the individual level does not necessarily lead to adaptive groups.” His example describes the disadvantage of altruism within groups. Wilson points out that his theory is one sided and warns his audience to keep that point noted.
The tolerated-theft model basically suggests that group members that hunt must share that hunt because it is more costly for those group members not to share. This model offers two explanations as to why this is so. First, group members are more willing to fight for that food then the hunters are willing to defend it. Second, if hunters are forced to share in the first place, why should anyone hunt? This logic works in favour of motivation and individual status.
The article itself presents the argument with supporting graphs and charts. This information is often confusing in presentation and Wilson adds to it by presenting complex formula to explain the model. This does not allow for easy understanding. Also, Wilson’s theory does not take into account the individual in its own perspective, which critics admit would help round off his argument.
BERNICE SAMPSON Okanagan University College (Diana E. French).
Wood, James. Theory of Preindustrial Population Dynamics. Current Anthropology February, 1998 Vol. 39(1):99-135.
James Wood has made an important contribution to the field of population dynamics theory with his synthesis of Malthus and Boserup, which he refers to as the “MaB ratchet” (Wood, 1998). This synthesis allows for a model of population growth reaching saturation (which is what Malthus predicted would happen) and utilizing new production technologies and practices to allow for further population growth (as Boserup details in her writings). With this model Wood suggests that we can more fully comprehend and analyze pre-industrial population dynamics. He utilizes the term “well-being” as a reference to the health and physical conditions of individuals in terms of the birth-rate and the risk of death. Under Woods’ model, well-being declines as the per-capita food supply shrinks, which leads to an increase in the utilization of new methods of production and technology. But, as Cowgill points out in the commentary, Wood fails to bring political economy into this model. Wood admits to this deficiency in the article and explains in his response that in future postulations of this theory he will include political economy.
The five main questions Wood tries to answer and expand upon in this essay are noteworthy:
1. Is the growth of pre-industrial populations regulated in any meaningful sense of the word?
2. Is there an optimal population size, and do pre-industrial populations tend to equilibrate at the optimum?
3. What is the relationship between population growth and economic change?
4. What are the implications of population growth and economic change for individual health and well-being?
5. What is the role of crisis mortality in pre-industrial population dynamics?
His arguments, formulations and premises incorporate some heavy mathematical language that readers may find daunting. Regardless, Wood does an excellent job of explaining the implications of these equations in more down-to-earth language. Furthermore, he utilizes the last couple of pages of his article to recapitulate the questions and the answers his analysis makes possible.
Overall, the commentators (with the exception of Cowgill) received the article with an accepting and thankful manner. Many of them thanked him for his pursuit of a unifying theory of pre-industrial population dynamics and for the clarification of an old debate between Malthus and Boserup. Overall the article was easy to read except for the in-depth mathematical aspects, but this must be expected when dealing with population dynamics and demography.
JON KIMMEL Western Michigan University (Bilinda Straight) | http://www.publicanthropology.org/archives/current-anthropology/current-anthropology-1990/current-anthropology-1998/ | dclm-gs1-074480000 |
0.019456 | <urn:uuid:af45c12e-3831-42ff-9c27-4e33d158f486> | en | 0.940557 | Stop Snoring Mouthpiece Reviews
Are you trying to stop-snoring? One of the most effective and cheapest ways is a Stop Snoring Mouthpiece or Mouthguard. But with so many mouthpieces available on the market how can you possibly choose which one to buy?
Most of these anti-snoring devices work by the same principle. So how do you choose between one of the many options available? This is where we come in – We will break it down for you by reviewing all the anti-snoring mouthpieces available to buy online today!
Latest from the Blog
A man snoring next to a women
Women Sleeping Without A Pillow
The concept of the pillow dates back nearly 9,000 years to Mesopotamia when people used blocks of stone to raise their heads while they slept. The ancient Egyptians are also believed to have rested their heads on stone to keep bugs from crawling into their ears, mouths, and noses. The ancient Chinese used ceramic, stone, or wood pillows. The Greeks and Romans used pillows made of cloth that were stuffed with... Read more
How To Cure Snoring Naturally
Your nightly bedtime ritual consists of brushing your teeth, transforming from your work attire into your pajamas, reading an excerpt from your favorite book or watching the international news before you retire for the evening. Before you pull the blankets back from your side of the bed, you look at your partner with a blank stare because you are desperately trying to find the right words. An... Read more
Want to stop snoring?
So, how do they call you? A whistler, a rumbler or the Darth Vader wheezer? Jokes aside. Snoring is no fun. Especially for your bed partner struggling to sleep next to you or a restless roomie behind the wall. One recent study calculated that many of us lose up to three weeks’ sleep per year because of our better halves’ snoring. For you, snoring means that you spend more... Read more
Snoring child sleeping
Although a small kid’s snore may sound funny, or even cute to some parents, the snoring habit in children can lead to other issues such as poor school record, bedwetting and more. In fact, many children are wrongly diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) when actually they’re suffering from... Read more | http://www.snoringmouthpiece-reviews.com/ | dclm-gs1-074520000 |
0.180377 | <urn:uuid:2e6271d6-fce1-4932-97b5-c6da2d4d1d70> | en | 0.945752 | The City of Your Final Destination
Dir. James Ivory Screen Media Films
[Screen Media Films; 2010]
3 / 5 (0)
Styles: drama, romance
Others: Remains of the Day, Howard's End
Links: The City of Your Final Destination - Screen Media Films
While Merchant-Ivory may no longer be the brand name in literary adaptations that it was 20 years ago, there are still lingering expectations of a James Ivory-directed, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala-scripted film. At the very least, we are almost certainly guaranteed a fine cast of performers engaging in lofty, character-revealing dialogue amidst a beautiful countryside landscape. Suffice to say, there aren’t many other filmmakers out there doing anything like this, and there is something to be said for a fairly consistent creative partnership that has spanned nearly 50 years (Ismail Merchant, the producer, passed away in 2005).
With The City of Your Final Destination, based on the novel by Peter Cameron, Ivory ventures from the strictly literary into more postmodern territory. Omar Razaghi (Omar Metwally) is a mild-mannered Iranian-American graduate student whose fellowship hinges on writing a biography of deceased author Jules Gund. When Gund’s estate denies his request, Omar’s type-A girlfriend Deirdre (Alexandra Maria Lara) forces him to visit the surviving family members in Uruguay. Omar literally shows up at the doorstep of Ocho Rios, where he discovers the family wallowing in their own eccentricity. Caroline (Laura Linney), Gund’s widow, lives with her husband’s lover, Arden Langdon (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and the offspring of that marital transgression, Portia. In the adjacent house, Gund’s brother Adam (Anthony Hopkins) lives with his partner/adopted son Pete (Hiroyuki Sanada). As Omar tries to convince them to allow him to write the book, he finds himself enchanted by their world and is particularly drawn to Arden.
What Omar is really enamored with, of course, is being able to literally jump into his hero’s world, a blur of the real and the fictitious. While Gund does not exist outside the world of this film (and Cameron’s novel, presumably), Ivory conveys the fact that Gund based everything on his own life, and that the people Omar encounters are the “characters” of Gund’s last novel. Ivory can be given credit here for going beyond rudimentary male fantasy into the uncharted realm of academic fantasy, though certainly there is an Oedipal element to Omar pursuing his research subject’s own love interest. Omar himself states at one point he is no longer writing a biography, but the story of his own experiences with the Gund cadre.
Ultimately, it seems Ivory is asking a perverse question: Why can’t someone live in a fantasy world? To his credit, Ivory also explores the flip side of that question with Caroline’s plight. If Omar wants to cast off the shackles of his humdrum existence in the real world of academia, then Caroline wants to emerge from the fantasy created by her husband. Caroline exists as a caricature of a literary matriarch, a faded beauty traipsing around in outlandish costumes, as though Alice were forced to grow old in Wonderland. Serving as the only real touch of irony in the film, Caroline’s desire to appreciate art is hindered by her being forced to be art.
Ivory almost manages to both return to form and break new creative ground here. Rather than embrace the metafiction with gusto, he falls back on tired character arcs and focuses on some of the film’s less compelling themes. He shockingly succumbs to the cliché of using a teacher’s curricular text to mirror the protagonist’s emotional state, a device that seems much too amateurish for someone with Ivory’s resume. He also presents the fairly weak central metaphor of sinking in quicksand, a sequence quickly spliced into the film’s opening montage and given a lip service of explanation, to drive the primary thematic notion of being, well, stuck in place. Given the subject matter, it’s hard to resist drawing comparisons from this motif to Ivory’s own career, which has lurched in the last decade. | http://www.tinymixtapes.com/film/city-your-final-destination | dclm-gs1-074570000 |
0.139978 | <urn:uuid:98894670-4dd0-4445-a7fc-8d202ba89bfa> | en | 0.969411 | • Joined
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About BarZoule
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1. BarZoule added a topic in Support
Backlighting / Power Management issues
Hi all,
I've recently noticed a very strange behavior with my pandora.
When I shut it down, everything seems working fine but the screen's backlight stays on (gotta be in a very dark environment to see it). It would explain why a couple of times I've found my Pandora with a completely discharged battery.
I'm wondering if it's a software or hardware issue, if it happened to anyone else and, mostly, how to fix it.
I'm running the default OS (Armstrong / Zaxxon) with Hotfix 5.
• 3 replies
2. BarZoule added a post in a topic Ouya - Android based open gaming console
Also, this play-box reminds me of the "pandora box" or whatever it was called, what happened with that idea/concept/project ?
3. BarZoule added a post in a topic Ouya - Android based open gaming console
That's actually what makes using the Android platform the brightest idea of all this endeavor, and what could save their ass from the Phantom effect.
If the user can load up ANY Android app and play without much worry (using the controler's touch pad) then it's viable from the start, and makes it sell. Then devs won't be shy to make some versions "optimized for Ouya" like we've seen with the iPad for example, and then the wheel will be spinning, no problem.
For any HW maker the biggest problem is getting people to make software for it. Now they've found a way to have SW available even before the HW is there, good for them
I'm gonna wish them a good luck and hope it works, it's gonna be interesting to watch. Like others said, it's surely built at a loss for 100$, but they should be able to make up for it if they take 30% of all microtransactions (and if they last long enough).
4. BarZoule added a post in a topic Writing a Game in C
Interesting topic. Gotta say I've been writing pretty much all of my projects in C (using standard libs) for quite some years now. And it sure is still easy to over-planify, and try doing specific libs, rather than making your game (or demo or whatnot). But it can become VERY comfortable to write in C. Especially using pointers and function pointers.
Fun thing: I actually learned C while/by doing Quake (and Q3A) modding. The C one can find there is pretty elegant and kinda close to OO.
j0n: good luck with your game!
5. BarZoule added a post in a topic Inside The Box - Anyone interested in Pandora-only Zine ?
Hey awesome idea!
I love diskmags
I'd like to help but really have no time on ma hands. Do we have any gfx/music people in the pand community ? (so far it seems it's mostly coders and linux fans)
If you're serious about this, you should talk with Axel/BRS (the dude behind Zine) he would probably have a tip or two about diskmag making and organization. There's also the guys at PandoraPress who're used to filter news and write articles, could be good to have them on board.
Other than that I advise you to do shorter and more frequent mags (like, bi-monthly) rather than huge ones every 2 years. Not only it keeps the news fresh and makes the mag possible to read end-to-end, but also gives you better presence, thus more visibility, thus more readers.
Oh and, as in everything else: don't try to make it 100% perfect and feature-creeped, you'll never get it done
best of luck with it! I'll for sure read it/them once it's out!
6. BarZoule added a post in a topic Why are all of the tutorials for C++?
Like it's probably been said already, I must say it all goes with comfort and mindset. I know I personally am much more confident in writing procedural code rather than OO, so I choose C. I find it also much quicker to compile.
C++ has been quite trendy in the last decade so that's pretty much all you code in the game industry these days. That's probably why most tutos are in C++.
Funny story: my girlfriend studied in computer science and software engineering and never touched to C++. It was all Java, except for one class of C that was focussed on embedded systems, and where they teached her all sorts of stuff really specific to embedded platforms but NOT specific to C (stuff like unrolling the loops, using a minimum number of function calls and other ugly things) and after I had to convince her that C is NOT that limited.
I'm sure those kind of teaching don't help C in getting popular
Also, some people suggest that video games are made to be programmed in OO. I don't agree. I think applications, where you have all kinds of menus and buttons, are much more appropriate, as you really want a structure based on events and also want tons of very similar but slightly different widgets. In a video game, you can have one big loop where you update your world, and all your items can be of a few generic classes (/structs) with different parameters.
For anyone interested in coding games in C, have a look at the Quake3 game code. It abuses of pointers to structs and functions, but it's made very simple and flexible at the same time.
7. BarZoule added a post in a topic Native C++ IDE
after some testing, geany 0.18 was available as PND, however it was broken; was complaining the config files couldn't be saved/created.
geany 0.19 can also be found as PND and seems to work. However it was flaky and has tendency to shut down unexpectedly.
main problem however is that the configuration screens are way too long and spill out of the screen so you can't really customize anything. The editor also seems to rely on an externally made makefile. I don't know if it's specific to Windows developpers but I'm not much into makefile-making - I feel like choosing options from drop-down lists and clicking a button to compile are less troublesome than typing a big script file. After all this tho, I think writing my own makefile and using gedit will be much quicker/simpler that fighting with IDEs that are too big for their own good.
8. BarZoule added a post in a topic Native C++ IDE
Torpor: Oh come on! We're talking about IDE here. What you suggest is pretty much 'how to get around without using IDE'
gfrancisdev: geany looks cool, thanks, I'll give it a try!
9. BarZoule added a post in a topic Native C++ IDE
I tried Code::Block but it can't save anything, project or source file
Anyone got this message too or am I alone? Would I be better off with another IDE? | https://boards.openpandora.org/profile/2398-barzoule/ | dclm-gs1-074670000 |
0.085372 | <urn:uuid:70de2664-da60-4474-8bec-ab3fa4f28357> | en | 0.912668 | Mathematics of the Environment (Part 5)
See also “week302” of This Week’s Finds, where Nathan Urban tells us more about feedbacks and how big they’re likely to be.
• Gerald R. North, Simple Models of Global Climate.
\displaystyle{ A + B T }
Q c(T)
Given all this, we get
A + B T = Q c(T)
c_i = 1 - 0.65 = 0.35
c_f = 1 - 0.3 = 0.7
Temperature versus insolation.
\gamma = 0.00
\gamma = 0.01
\gamma = 0.02
\gamma = 0.03
\gamma = 0.04
\gamma = 0.05
from here:
17 Responses to Mathematics of the Environment (Part 5)
1. I found it interesting that B is two orders of magnitude less than A. A quick and dirty numerical simulation shows that setting Q = A + B T + C T^2 with a C two orders of magnitude less than B yields the same qualitative behavior. This is no surprise if one has structural stability. However, if C is just one order of magnitude less than B, e.g. C = 0.1 than things seem to change. I am not quite sure whether that means something important, but maybe for real world problems structural stability is not enough. One might also have to argue that the linearization is indeed ‘good’ enough.
One a second thought. C might well be zero for symmetry reasons and the physically ‘correct’ form should then be more like Q = A + B T + D T^3.
2. amarashiki says:
Dear John. I dedicated you this post, the 50th, in my young blog. I hope you will like it… My LOG 50th available here http://thespectrumofriemannium.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/log050-why-riemannium/
• John Baez says:
That’s very nice! Thank you! That’s a very beautiful, detailed post, so I’m flattered that you dedicated it to me…
… especially because I always I wish I had the time and patience to understand more about the Riemann zeta function. I’ve always loved the ‘primon gas’ idea… but nowadays, I’m busy trying to be a bit more practical, so I don’t have time to think about this. Someday, when I feel in the mood to write another pure math paper, I’ll try to finish and publish this:
• John Baez and James Dolan, Zeta functions.
This emphasizes the combinatorics behind the Hasse–Weil zeta function.
3. amarashiki says:
No, John…You…I am in debt to you more…Your This Week Finds was an incredible blog, like this Azimuth blog! Believe me, I am sure many people started blogs reading your stuff. Some time ago, I had envy…And finally, I couldn’t stand anymore…I decided to begin my blog!!! And about this post…It is not as detailed as I wanted, but more stuff is coming soon…My draft dashboard is going to explode right now, but I must focus to create good logs or posts…And it carries time.
Well, … I think that the zeta stuff is practical stuff!!!!! It is like the fiber bundle approach behind the gauge theories…It is real math behind our (ultra)quantum world… In my opinion, we have to understand the zeta stuff better in order to understand QFT, the vacuum and, likely, quantum gravity! Of course, this is a crazy idea!
Don’t be flattered, John…You make people to be flattered as long as we read your posts, LOL… If you read my log 51, I also wrote a basic zeta function”zoological park” for beginners. I would like to extend that in the future…But I am so disturbed by the RH than sometimes I am seduced by the own formulae you, mathematicians, invent…Hehehe…
Best wishes!
4. amarashiki says:
By the way… Zeta functions are everywhere, even they arise in graph theory, hypergraph theory and it can also appear, I presume, in network theory. How? I am not sure, since I began to learn about zeta seriously only some time ago…And it is hard to keep you updated with the zeta theory…
5. Renato Iturriaga says:
Hi John
I have a couple of questions and comments. About the values of A= 218 \frac{W}{m^2} and B=1.9 \frac{W}{m^2 K} , the value of A is the emission of a body at -23, very close to the radiate equilibrium of -18, I guess this is not a coincidence. Or is it? The derivative of \sigma T^4 at this value is 3.5, B is in this order of magnitude, but not as close one could imagine. Is there some reason for that?
To see the stability or instability of a particular equilibrium is convenient to look at the graph of \frac {dT}{dt}. In this case -A-BT+Qc(T). In particular the zeros give the equilibrium points. For large negative values of T , the function is positive, and for large positive temperatures the function is negative so there is a zero somewhere, an equilibrium. Almost surely there is an odd number of them: The first time you cross the zero (the coldest equilibrium) you cross it downwards, and if you go up and reach zero you will cross it upwards, afterwards you will have to come down again. So we have either one or three, the only exception is if the zero is double, meaning that the derivative is also zero. The equilibrium points where the derivative is negative, there is local negative feedback effect: if your are slightly above the equilibrium you tend to go down if you are slightly down you tend to go up, so the point is stable, in the points where you have positive derivative -when you cross upwards- there is a positive feedback: if you are a little bit up you tend to go upwards and if you are a little bit down you tend to downwards, hence unstable. So if you have three points, the coldest and the hottest are stable and the middle one is unstable.
• John Baez says:
Renato wrote:
Good question! It would be nice to understand this in detail.
The main reason the observed infrared power emission of the Earth doesn’t match the power emission of a blackbody is the greenhouse effect. Quite a bit of infrared doesn’t make it through the atmosphere. So, the simplest thing we can say is that we should have
A + B T < \sigma T^4
for temperatures in the range we see on Earth. But it would be nice to predict the (linearized) observed average power emission per square meter, A + B T, starting from a simple model.
Could Simpson’s model in Part 3 be good enough to approximately calculate A and B? Or is it too simple?
In its simplest form, this model amounts to saying that the fraction of infrared radiation that escapes to space is a function
0 \le F(\lambda) \le 1
of the wavelength \lambda, given as follows. To a crude approximation, the atmosphere is:
• completely transparent from 8.5 to 11 micrometers,
Simpson’s function F is 0 where the atmosphere is ‘completely opaque’, 1 where it’s ‘completely transparent’, and it linearly interpolates between these values for wavelengths where the atmosphere is ‘partly transparent’.
One could multiply the Planck distribution at temperature T by this function of wavelength, then integrate it over wavelengths, to estimate the power emitted per square meter as a function of T.
This neglects many effects like ‘water vapor feedback’ (there’s more water vapor when it’s hotter), ‘lapse rate feedback’ and ‘cloud feedback’, as mentioned in this post. But it would still be worth doing!
• Renato Iturriaga says:
Hi John
In the homepage of Kerry Emanuel (http://eaps4.mit.edu/faculty/Emanuel/) there are a lot of things. In particular there are presentations of a lot of courses. In one of them (Tropical meteorology) there is a model for the equilibrium radiation. The simplest model has two layers, the atmosphere and the surface. The atmosphere is completely transparent to visible light and completely opaque to infrared. Let T_e be the temperature of equilibrium (250 K), then the equilibrium is achieved at at T_e in the atmosphere and 2^{\frac{1}{4}} T_e in the surface.
A 3 layer model predicts T_e in the outer part and $3^{\frac{1}{4}} T_e$ in the surface. This is way to hot and the explanation is partially because it is not completely opaque and because of convection. Something else should be wrong because if we do the same thing with n layers, we would get a surface temperature of n^{\frac{1}{4}} T_e. But it is funny that the outer part is always the equilibrium temperature. Finally there is a complete calculation, that unfortunately is not clear how it is done, that gives a vertical profile of the temperature if only radiation is taken into account. The profile is very hot in the surface, again the explanation is the lack of the convection in the model.
• John Baez says:
Renato wrote:
Thanks for explaining this! I hope all the students in my class read your explanation, which is better than mine.
6. Last time we saw a ‘bistable’ climate model, where the temperatures compatible with a given amount of sunshine can form an S-shaped curve like this: […]
8. gymnosperm says:
Very nice. When one extends the timeline back to our horizons, basically the Proterozoic for semi reliable temperature, it is clear that bistability applies not only to glacial and interglacial periods within a snowball earth, but to the alternation between snowball and greenhouse climates. At the larger scale the warm state appears more stable.
9. John Roe says:
I set up a version of this model on InsightMaker, you can find it here. If you want to play around, note that A, B are as above; C is rescaled to measure time in days; G is twice gamma. Please, let me know if I messed something up.
The time scale is quicker than I had expected, this is because the heat capacity C is quite low. In particular, the latent heat of fusion of a 1cm layer of ice appears to be of the same order of magnitude as C… one might try to incorporate this in some way, e.g. with an “ice quantity” variable driving c, and the “ice quantity” evolving according to temperature.
10. […] Part 5 – A model showing bistability of the Earth’s climate due to the ice albedo effect: statics. […]
11. These cycles, for instance, don’t begin to consider the various feedback dynamics that contribute to the global climate, including the ice albedo effect and the rate of atmospheric carbon. Each of these feedback systems contribute something to the dynamics of the climate, but it is often extremely difficult to know how to integrate these factors into a single model.
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Join 3,072 other followers | https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/mathematics-and-the-environment-part-5/ | dclm-gs1-074690000 |
0.024478 | <urn:uuid:2ba1601f-cdd8-48b0-b294-3fcc7ec3cdeb> | en | 0.947168 | A very popular Pinterest project is a family Birthday Board. Very cute and practical too!
Just like the example shown, the boards usually have the word “Birthdays” or “Family Birthdays” painted somewhat largely on the board. Then “JFMAMJJASOND” which are the initials of all the months of the year, towards the bottom. The idea is that you have a bunch of wooden circles. Each circle has one family member’s name and date of birth. So if your birthday is April 14th, you would have your name and the number 14 on a circle. Then you would hang it under the first A (for April).
It’s a great idea…and of course you could make it with wood and paint…BUT, why do that when you can make a quilt version?!
When I was designing this project in EQ7, I started with the Alphabet (Modified) blocks from the EQ7 library and simplified them a little bit. Then, I started working on the layout. I am not great at math, and honestly, I would have NEVER been able to figure this out without EQ7. I ended up with a 1 x 9 quilt with 7 different borders.
And, because we are giving you the EQ7 project you know you’ll be able to modify and personalize it any way you want.
To put in a last name instead of the word “Family” I just changed the number of blocks in Border #2 and changed the block size a little bit so that the proportions looked better.
I wanted a really patchy look. But, of course you can simplify it and have a quilt with much cleaner lines. Limitless possibilities, as always ;)
Now, for the individual circles. Instead of just writing a name and number on a circle I printed off my family members pictures, with their birth dates, onto EQ Printable Fabric.
Much cuter than a one color wood circle!
Here is the finished project:
Although, I do have to give all the credit for the actual cutting, sewing and quilting to our wonderful quilter Margaret. She did a great job.
And here are a few hints: I got almost everyone’s photo off of Facebook (yes, this is my real family). That made getting 20+ photos pretty easy.Also, we ended up using jewelry s-hooks to connect the circle photos together but you could use lots of different methods (buttons, ribbons).
You can download the EQ7 project here.
If this inspires you to make something, let us know! Email photos to [email protected]. | http://doyoueq.com/blog/2013/01/family-birthdays-quilt-with-free-download/ | dclm-gs1-074790000 |
0.022666 | <urn:uuid:aa9c72d8-5062-453d-a9fe-f8c1c5a1f5eb> | en | 0.958432 | Layout Image
The Tyranny of the Metal Gods
By Joe Scola
The cell phone, iPad, Twitter, Facebook and all the rest of the sometimes motley crew of social media are devouring the free time of 21st-century Christians. Hearken back to the seemingly Paleolithic era before the advent of modern social networking innovations and new techno gadgets that cast an ever-increasing spider web of social high-tech connectivity. It seems that the often beguiled human race used to have more time on our hands (especially without a cell phone ensconced in hand) to ruminate, to turn things over in our minds, to quietly review the happenings of the day and reflect on the daily battle to fight the good fight.
The Bible commends us to be always redeeming the time (Ephesians 5:16, KJV). How many minutes slip away as Christians gossip on cell phones and other electronic devices in spare moments? When you consider the apostles and the times they lived in you cannot picture one of them texting a cousin in Jericho or “tweeting” from the crowded streets of Samaria. Christ Jesus himself often went aside to lonely places in order to pray. The apostles spent many hours aboard a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee without an iPhone. They possessed the time and opportunity to quiet their souls. The cacophony of modern life — this always advancing, pushing, pulsing, ultra-modern life — drives out the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and impedes believers from a deep communion with God.
Christians must carefully fence off part of their lives and create a peaceful space to exercise silence and reflection in the pursuit of holiness. Life these days is a flood of information. Sound bites fall like hail. Incoming messages are like an incessant pitter-patter of rain throughout each day. The senses are relentlessly bombarded. The mind becomes a receptacle for too much useless junk and becomes cluttered and clogged with buckets of useless data. The hodge-podge of sensory impressions accrued through each day needs to be washed away. The rooms of the mind are to be swept and put in order so that the Christian can achieve greater clarity in her line of communication with God. The spiritual road can be cleared of pointless obstructions; the Christian can avoid distracting detours and dodge getting bogged down in non-spiritual quagmires.
The overuse of social media has loaded an entirely extra and superannuated schedule onto the lives of individuals. As if the average person didn’t have enough to do each day, responding to social media has become in some cases a second job (or a third job for those who are struggling to keep their heads above water). If someone e-mails them, they feel bound to e-mail back. The computer is a time-eater. Before one knows it, an hour has vanished into thin air as the computer user fritters away time tapping on the keyboard and clicking on the mouse. To a great extent, the e-mails are not urgent or vital. They tend to be gossip and fluff flying to and fro, back and forth through cyberspace.
The work efficiency of employees has been seriously undermined by the magnetic attraction to social media. Employers are in a battle royal trying to stop non-business related cell phone and Internet use during business hours. Some employers have gone to the length of banning cell phones in the office. The subject came up on a call-in radio show when a business owner who employed a crew of laborers complained of having to constantly curb the cell phone use of his workers. Every time his back was turned, his men were chatting away on their cell phones with their girlfriends despite the fact that he gave them five breaks during the course of the workday. Following his remarks on the radio show, a wave of messages came in from unemployed men and women basically saying, “Fire those guys and hire me and you will not have to worry about me talking on my cell phone. I need a job!” With the level of unemployment facing America these days, it is quite foolish to risk losing employment because a worker cannot turn off his phone.
There are indeed positive aspects to the increased connectivity. Cell phones can facilitate a quicker response in time of emergency. The Internet can be used to spread the Gospel. Individuals from every corner of the globe interact despite being separated by a great gulf of space. But a balance needs to be maintained. The culture is already pointing in the wrong direction. The Christian must fight like the dickens to avoid setting up social media as idols. Social media has become a drug or a crutch that the Christian leans on, even more than on our Lord Jesus Christ, to get him or her through the day. Christians who have fallen too deeply into a morass of social networking must break the chains and bust the shackles that bind them. St. Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote that when we submit to anything it becomes our master. A Christian should live in union with the Holy Spirit and not in union with Twitter. There should be proportionality in our lives as Christians.
Stand up and resist the ongoing march and tyranny of the metal gods. We are required to be clean vessels, sharpened instruments and purified gold to be used by the Heavenly Master to spread his glory, love and redemption throughout the world. If we never lose sight of that, social media will be nothing more than a useful tool in our hands and not an electronic god corroding away our soul and separating us from our mission.
Joe Scola graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in art and now works as a professional artist, photographer and freelance writer in Michigan. | http://fum.org/the-tyranny-of-the-metal-gods/ | dclm-gs1-074830000 |
0.097613 | <urn:uuid:2da6b9ce-5a51-4727-acc7-fa4bda977777> | en | 0.847191 | 7 Word Movie Review: ‘Jersey Boys’
What’s Your Favourite WTF(!) Cover Song?
Sometimes–when the alchemy is just right–an artist you would NEVER expect can take an old classic and turn it into something utterly sublime. | http://goodmenproject.com/tag/frankie-valli/ | dclm-gs1-074840000 |
0.031019 | <urn:uuid:3a6013f6-3675-4dd2-a0a0-e9510e6edcab> | en | 0.943896 | Is Shrinking Sea Ice Behind Chilly Spring?
Melting Arctic ice may be making winters colder and longer, scientists say.
Sea ice forms in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence in February 2013.
First it was the fault of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who mistakenly forecasted a quick end to winter. Now climate scientists are saying that Arctic sea ice—or the lack of it—is a driving force behind the Northern Hemisphere's unseasonably cold spring.
As Northern Hemisphere temperatures remain below normal more than a week into the official start of spring, a team of meteorologists and climate scientists are pointing to recent research that suggests sea ice cover is a likely culprit.
Recent imaging from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center showed a historic minimum in Arctic ice cover last fall, and current data reveals that sea ice cover—which recently reached its maximum for the year—is at its sixth lowest extent in the satellite record. (Related: "Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low—Extreme Weather to Come?")
Less Arctic sea ice—which is caused by global warming—alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice, said climate scientist Jiping Liu, who led a 2012 study on the topic published by the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
Sea Ice Culprit
In trying to explain recent cold temperatures throughout the world, Liu and colleagues arrived at the melting Arctic ice by way of deduction.
"For the past few winters, large parts of Asia, North America, and Europe experienced these cold conditions above normal snowfall," said Liu, of the University of Albany.
"When we started to explore the reason why, our study suggested it was the decline of Arctic sea ice."
The problem is compounded by moisture. Arctic ice normally locks up water molecules that, in a liquid state, would evaporate and become rain. (Learn more about Earth's atmosphere.)
Less ice means more open ocean, allowing more moisture into the atmosphere to freeze and, eventually, fall. Arctic ice that melts, in effect, turns into snow in other parts of the world, like in Indiana or Missouri, which this week saw record levels of snow for this time of year.
Wild Weather
Other researchers have had similar findings about how changes in some parts of the world will drive unexpected weather around the globe. (Read more about extreme weather in National Geographic magazine.)
A study released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2012 signaled that low sea ice and increasing quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could lead to warmer summers as well.
"Simulations suggest that these summertime highs will intensify in the twenty-first century as a result of an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations," the researchers soberly declared. (Learn about the greenhouse effect.)
Left unanswered are year-to-year anomalies, such as how last year's winter was unseasonably warm while Arctic ice continued to shrink.
The warm 2012 winter was widely credited to unexpected oscillations of the North Atlantic and Arctic weather patterns. (See a graphic of extreme-weather trends.)
Those freak seasons might continue to happen. But Liu and others believe that we're likely to see more longer and colder winters as the Arctic—and the planet in general—continues to warm. | http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130326-arctic-sea-ice-global-warming-science-environment-spring/ | dclm-gs1-074940000 |
0.054239 | <urn:uuid:bf64a6dc-b703-42da-9a01-fdc0f9ed8fa0> | en | 0.982695 | Trick or TreatI grew up in a very Jewish area, I have lived here my whole life.
On Christmas, we don't see many lights or ornaments on the homes. During Halloween, we don't see many pumpkins, and such. My whole life, I cannot recall ever having someone walk up to my parents house or my previous house, ring the door bell and say, "Trick or Treat" while being dressed up in a costume. Sounds crazy, but it is true. The area I live in, at least the immediate area, is 99% Jewish. And Halloween is just one of those holidays, we typically do not celebrate.
In any event. As you know, I moved to a new house a few weeks ago, it is basically on the outskirts of the original community I lived in. Last night, I heard the door bell ring and it was two girls that said, "Trick or Treat."
I was like, um, what do I do. I then think back to TV, my main source of education, and say, "hold on." I yell up to my wife and ask if we have any candy. She says, "um, no..." I look at them, and they say, "Don't worry about it," and then giggle and walk away. I say, "I am sorry."
So my first "Trick or Treat" experience was pretty poor. I feel really bad not having anything for those kids. Maybe, just maybe, we should stock up now on candy... You never know when you will need it. | http://www.cartoonbarry.com/2007/11/my_first_trick_or_treat_experi.html | dclm-gs1-075060000 |
0.031464 | <urn:uuid:388e60c7-2e0f-4172-b43e-685b7083eadc> | en | 0.893815 | The Basics of NMR
Chapter 6
The 90-FID Sequence
In the 90-FID pulse sequence, net magnetization is rotated down into the X'Y' plane with a 90o pulse. The net magnetization vector begins to precess about the +Z axis. The magnitude of the vector also decays with time.
When this sequence is repeated, for example when signal-to-noise improvement is needed, the amplitude of the signal after being Fourier transformed (S) will depend on T1 and the time between repetitions, called the repetition time (TR), of the sequence. In the signal equation below, k is a proportionality constant and is the density of spins in the sample.
S = k ( 1 - e-TR/T1 )
The Spin-Echo Sequence
Another commonly used pulse sequence is the spin-echo pulse sequence. Here a 90o pulse is first applied to the spin system. The 90o degree pulse rotates the magnetization down into the X'Y' plane. The transverse magnetization begins to dephase. At some point in time after the 90o pulse, a 180o pulse is applied. This pulse rotates the magnetization by 180o about the X' axis. The 180o pulse causes the magnetization to at least partially rephase and to produce a signal called an echo.
S = k ( 1 - e-TR/T1 ) e-TE/T2
The Inversion Recovery Sequence
An inversion recovery pulse sequence can also be used to record an NMR spectrum. In this sequence, a 180o pulse is first applied. This rotates the net magnetization down to the -Z axis. The magnetization undergoes spin-lattice relaxation and returns toward its equilibrium position along the +Z axis. Before it reaches equilibrium, a 90o pulse is applied which rotates the longitudinal magnetization into the XY plane. In this example, the 90o pulse is applied shortly after the 180o pulse. Once magnetization is present in the XY plane it rotates about the Z axis and dephases giving a FID.
S = k ( 1 - 2e-TI/T1 )
Go to the: [next chapter | chapter top | previous chapter | cover ]
Copyright © 1997-99 J.P. Hornak.
All Rights Reserved. | http://www.cis.rit.edu/htbooks/nmr/chap-6/chap-6.htm | dclm-gs1-075080000 |
0.048159 | <urn:uuid:28ca5238-3f4d-4e64-86c6-551f5cb068a2> | en | 0.984579 | Both John Terry (L) and Luis Suarez have been banned for racism (Reuters)
A survey conducted by football magazine FourFourTwo has revealed that the game remains riddled with match-fixing, racism, homophobia and recreational drugs.
The damming indictment of the game follows a poll of 100 professional players across all four English divisions and the SPL, including 11 Premier League players.
Over one in seven of the footballers surveyed (14%) said they believed match-fixing was still an issue in the sport, even though no British player has been convicted of the offence since 1964.
One League Two defender said: "It goes on, I'm telling you. I've had players call me and tell me to bet on the outcome of a match, especially at the end of a season in League Two or the Conference. I've never been approached myself, but I know it goes on."
A League One player added: "I was playing in non-league football and the chairman was into it and everything. We would be told to throw a game and everyone lumped into it."
As well as match-fixing, 13 percent of players believing performance-enhancing drugs are used in the game. One Premier League striker said: "You do wonder - I've come up against a defender who wasn't the quickest one season and then like s**t off a shovel the next."
However it appears that recreational drugs are far more prevalent. Half of those interviewed said footballers use recreational substances such as cocaine as it leaves the system quickly. A League One midfielder told the magazine: "I've witnessed it between team-mates and players from other clubs. I can't believe it goes on but it definitely does."
The study also finds more than a quarter (26 percent) of the players interviewed have claimed to have heard another professional make racist remarks first-hand. One Championship striker revealed when discussing racism in the game: "It's still there. I've had a defender racially insult me throughout a game and I know black team-mates have suffered the same.
"Maybe it doesn't happen as regularly as it did, but it's still there - it has never gone away." One SPL striker added: "When I first started playing, I knew of players who would use racist language to get the edge on an opponent."
The revelations from the survey follow a string of high-profile racism rows which have plagued the game over the past two years.
Chelsea's John Terry was banned by the Football Association for four games for racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand during a game - despite being found not guilty by a court - while Liverpool's Luis Suarez was banned for eight games for similar offences against Manchester United's Patrice Evra.
A month after Liverpool midfielder Suso was fined £10,000 by the FA for calling team-mate Jose Enrique "gay" on Twitter, more than a quarter of those interviewed believed a gay footballer would be considered an outcast. However, 62 percent disagreed, with one Championship and international striker saying "he wouldn't be treated any differently".
FourFourTwo's editor David Hall was surprised at the level of honestly the payers in the poll professed. He said: "Even anonymously we thought players would be reluctant to give a brutally honest opinion on the issues in the game. We were wrong." | http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/survey-fourfourtwo-footballers-cocaine-match-fixing-420252 | dclm-gs1-075120000 |
0.035867 | <urn:uuid:db7c0bde-a23d-4a00-827b-4b947a0ea284> | en | 0.968015 | Wednesday, May 21, 2008
How much will income taxes have to go up to pay for Social Security and Medicare?
The Congressional Budget Office updates its estimate. Here's how it projects spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to increase as a percentage of GDP from 2007 to 2030 and 2050. (I've deleted the 75-year projection to 2082 because the numbers get too big to be plausible.)
Combined spending increases by 6.1 points of GDP by 2030, and by 10.2 points of GDP by 2050.
In 2007 total income tax collections (individual and corporate) were 11.2 points of GDP.
Thus, to cover such spending increases, total income taxes as a portion of GDP would have to increase 54% from today's levels by 2030, and 91% by 2050.
Well, 2030 is only about two-thirds of the length of a typical home mortgage away. That's not so far. How easy will it be for Congress to increase taxes this much by then? We can look at the record of past tax increases for perspective...
[] The 1983 tax increases that "saved" Social Security the first time it went broke -- and which traumatized the Washington political establishment sufficiently to paralyze it into inaction until the very last moment -- amounted to 0.24% of GDP, or about 1/25th of the tax increase needed by 2030, 1/42nd of the increase needed by 2050.
[] The 1993 Clinton tax increase -- which was able to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate only with vice-president Al Gore's tie breaking vote, after passing a Democratic-controlled House by only 218-216 (a single voter's difference) -- amounted to 0.83% of GDP, less than 1/7th of the tax increase needed by 2030, and less than 1/12th of that needed by 2050.
[] The post-Pearl Harbor 1942 tax increases enacted to fight World War II were 5.0 points of GDP -- 18% less than the tax increase needed by 2030, and less than half of that needed by 2050. The total post-Pearl Harbor tax increases enacted to fight World War II amounted to 6.6% of GDP -- only 10% more than needed for 2030, and a full third less than needed for 2050. And of course those war-time tax increases were largely temporary, taxes were reduced by 4.8 points of GDP from 1944 to 1948.
So ... it doesn't look like it will be all that easy.
And presumably it will be just as difficult politically to cut benefits that have been promised to retirees their entire lives, that they have relied upon.
What happens if Congress keeps on its current course, not increasing taxes while preserving promised benefits? Standard and Poor's projects U.S. Treasury Bonds will become "junk" by 2027, due to a national debt that is rocketing upward with compound interest.
What if Congress does what it instinctively does in such situations, produce a political deal to cut the baby in half "split the difference" -- to close the funding gap 50% with tax increases and 50% with benefit cuts? For instance, this is exactly what Congress did in 1983 to save Social Security the last time, increasing taxes (on the young) while reducing benefits (for the young) by nearly precisely offsetting amounts (thus converting Social Security into a such a bad deal for the young ... but that's for another post).
Well, Medicare cost is projected to grow by 3.2 points of GDP by 2030, to 5.9 from 2.7 in 2007. "Split the difference" thus would require reducing its cost then by 1.6 points of GDP to 4.3 points. But since 5.9 points is projected as needed to continue providing the current level of benefits, "split the difference" requires reducing Medicare benefits provided to individuals by more than 25% from today's levels (how are seniors going to like that?) while also increasing income taxes by 27% across the board (including on seniors, of course -- their pensions, IRA distributions, investments, and so on). And 2030 is just the start of the process.
This not pretty. And it does not consider other very significant unfunded costs coming due at the same time (federal employee/military pensions and benefits, state and local government pensions and retiree health benefits, etc.), which make the situation even worse.
OK we have got to get a grip on this -- whatever your proposed solution, on that we should all agree.
So what are our Democratic and Republican politicians making their big political-economic issues of the election season? Gas tax holidays ... more tax cuts ... expanding medical entitlements to be "for all" with no tax increase to pay for it on any income under $200,000...
It's enough to make one vote Independent (and bury a stockpile of gold bullion in the basement to fund one's own retirement...) | http://www.scrivener.net/2008/05/how-much-will-income-taxes-have-to-go.html | dclm-gs1-075200000 |
0.026678 | <urn:uuid:fcdf47d3-6f29-4d4d-936a-3c8d15822e55> | en | 0.941608 | Not Empty Calories
There is no doubt that the centerpieces of a diet should be fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other fiber-rich and calcium-rich foods and that some foods or beverages should be consumed as treats.
However, the assertion that a food is less healthy just because it contains sugar is misleading and not science based. Numerous studies have confirmed that sugar makes many healthful foods palatable, which helps contribute to intakes of key vitamins and minerals necessary to maintain good health.
In its recent statement, the American Heart Association acknowledges the important role of sugars in the diet, saying, “In fact, when sugars are added to otherwise nutrient rich foods, such as sugar-sweetened dairy products like flavored milk and yogurt and sugar-sweetened cereals, the quality of children’s and adolescents’ diets improved, and in the case of flavored milks, no adverse effects on weight status were found.”
The unintended negative consequences of severely restricting sugars in the diet are already apparent. In a recent study of a Connecticut school district where flavored milk was eliminated from school cafeterias, student milk consumption declined 63 percent. Milk is an important source of protein, calcium and vitamins A and D for children. Dietary guidance that fuels sugar hysteria has the real potential of undermining the public health goal of healthy diets, especially for children.
All-natural sugar/sucrose is a valuable ingredient worldwide. Sugar is used in food not only because it provides sweet taste, but sugar also provides essential functional properties required in food formulation.
Sugars contributions to foods include:
• Taste
• Texture
• The Millard Reaction (browning)
• Preservative (lower water activity in preserves and baked goods)
• Product Stability
• Bulk
• Viscosity
Further, removing sugar from foods is based on the false assumption that sugars are an expendable ingredient in all foods and can be replaced artificial sweeteners. Unless scientific evidence can validate the efficacy of advice that may lead to the replacement of natural ingredients with artificial, this potential change in our food supply could have the unintended consequences of impacting metabolism, satiety and could well lead to a preference for highly intense sweetness, especially with children.
Clearly, the important consideration for healthy eating is not the sugars content of a food but the nutrient contribution of the food and having a healthy overall diet that does not exceed your caloric needs. Simply avoiding certain ingredients in foods will not assure nutrient rich diets or reduce caloric intakes. This was the lesson learned from the low-fat decade in the 1990s.
Studies show that sugar is uniquely satiating. The old saw, “a little bit goes a long way” holds true for foods made with sugar. | http://www.sugar.org/sugar-your-diet/not-empty-calories/ | dclm-gs1-075250000 |
0.051978 | <urn:uuid:7b21aef8-1b36-49fb-bb62-5bed9607d37c> | en | 0.81898 | Page 1|2|3|4
Fallece Ignacio Rodríguez Genta, cantante de Genetics
Ignacio Rodriguez Genta, cantante de GENETICS Foto: Edy Rodríguez
Edy Rodriguez
Tue 20 Jan 02:09
He visto muchas bandas tributo a verdaderos monstruos de la música contemporánea como ser The Beatles, Queen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, los Redondos, etc.
Pero pocas veces ví en forma tan dedicada y esmerada, la transformación que juega en una persona el hecho de interpretar a un tremendo músico como lo es Peter Gabriel y que lo fuera hace décadas atrás iluminando el camino de su grupo, los británicos "Genesis" de los 70's, sin lugar a dudas, la mejor y mas gloriosa época de la banda...
Manchester Utd Drops Out of Football's Top Three Richest Clubs
Haar Disciples sting Hornets; Caribes widen lead
Best seats in the house - right behind home plate. Fans at the Oberwiesenfeld ballpark in Munich are close to the action watching Munich Caribes player-coach Steve Walker at bat. Photo: Douglas Sutton
The Haar Disciples kept on rolling in the 1. Bundesliga South baseball league over the weekend, stinging the sixth-place Bad Homburg Hornets twice with 7-3 and 9-6 victories. Haar's season record now...
Disciples making believers of sceptics
A classic baseball cat-and-mouse game: Munich Caribes pitcher Steve Walker tries to keep an eye on a Fuerth Pirates runner at first base before delivering a pitch. The runner is watching for the best possible moment to take off and try to steal second base. Photo: Doug Sutton
A split away against the powerful Regensburg Legionaires baseball club over the weekend by the Haar Disciples is starting to make believers of Haar and their chances of going far this season,...
Barnes the man to replace the injured Carey
Blake Barnes takes off the headset and picks up the ball for the Cowboys after Carey's injury. Photo: Munich Cowboys
It's not often that sport gets the chance to surprise in the modern era but news from the Munich Cowboys camp has certainly done that. The disappointment surrounding the injury to regular quarterback...
Bundesliga beats rivals in match attendance
Guardiola's first day looms
Huck wins decision in Afolabi trilogy
Marco Huck has defended his WBO cruiserweight title 11 times since 2009. Photo: Tony Mayger/@ringtoneboxing
Germany's Marco Huck redeemed himself after two controversial decisions by putting in a solid performance to beat Britain's Ola Afolabi by majority decision in Berlin on Saturday. In doing so he...
Dominant Vettel takes down Canada GP
| http://www.themunicheye.com/sports/ | dclm-gs1-075280000 |
0.022914 | <urn:uuid:0678a5f3-db2b-45a3-9b40-878103dd0a2f> | en | 0.864524 |
Full-time Linux Developers (Home-based)
at in
Are you a Linux guru?
If you think you are, then Exvo is the right place for you! is a web company that develops in-house applications. We are currently developing a bootstrapped version of Linux fitted for our Exvo OS so we need developers who are responsible for bootstrapping, customizing and maintaining Linux Builds.
You are expected to have:
Good development skills with inclination to agile development
Openness to new technology and willingness to thrive in a start-up environment
Good communication skills with English language proficiency
3-5 years Linux experience, including, but not limited to using Linux and modifying the Linux system
Knowledge of varied kinds of Linux Distro (Fedora, Ubuntu, Archlinux, Slackware, Gentoo, CentOS, Red Hat, Debian, Turnkey, etc.)
LPIC-3 (Linux Certification) is an advantage
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Viewed: 187 times | http://www.trabahophilippines.com/job/41681/linux-developers-home-based-at-exvocom/ | dclm-gs1-075300000 |
0.021962 | <urn:uuid:4da59b1e-217d-4b35-943a-147cd5e36e16> | en | 0.939226 | Open-Mic: Questioning How to Judge the Best Athletes
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Open-Mic: Questioning How to Judge the Best Athletes
1.Where would the U.S.A. soccer team rank amongst the world’s best if its top athletes grew up playing soccer? I say if America's greatest athletes grew up playing soccer, the U.S.A would best in the top 3 any questions about it.
2. Which athletes from other sports would make great soccer players? Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Bush, Reggie Wayne, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Garnett, Ben Gordon, all the fast and energetic NFL and NBA players.
3. Which sport has the best pound-for-pound athletes from a physical perspective? NFL....from all the heavy hitters in the NFL, definitely.
4. Which star athletes have the skills necessary to succeed in other sports? Adrian Peterson, Bobby Wade, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Randy Moss, all of these for their speed and the fight for win
5.Do you believe tennis players would make strong baseball hitters, and hockey players talented golfers? Some tennis players could make strong baseball hitters, hockey players could make talented golfers if they didn't get so Pissed all the time.
6.Why would a top young American athlete opt for soccer or rugby if he could make NBA dollars or play in the NFL? Any athlete could cut it for any sport if the could stand losing or winning, getting hit or sitting out.
7.Will this cultural dynamic ever change? It could people form rugby could play in the NFL cause its just a lot less violent, and people form soccer could play basketball.
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Thanks for signing up. | http://bleacherreport.com/articles/30550-open-mic-questioning-how-to-judge-the-best-athletes | dclm-gs1-075580000 |
0.188776 | <urn:uuid:62c72dfb-33e6-4598-9343-a5e1236a8f10> | en | 0.864209 | Follow Embed
I stay too high for me to ever touch the ground
[Verse 1: Vic Mensa]
Can't feel my feet, I've been running through
A marijuana field, I feel excellent
Burning bush like George W., and roll a new testament
Texting and driving, drop it in her hair while she bopping
Sorry ma, I be so clumsy, I mean my eyes be so fuzzy
Real-t my real name ain't your business, internet beats, I got bitches
Pick 'em and dick 'em in ditches, Da Vinci with it on vicious
And Vicky back on his rap shit, that shit be ratchet as jukin'
I took some mushrooms and acid, I ate some hash and I'm pukin'
Pupil be dilated people, my shit too fire, my shit nukin'
I nuke that donut and crush it, bodega ball on a budget
Don't do no blacks, Uncle Ruckus, or swishers, switch a vega for a paper
Take 'em back to the trap and make 'em dip low like Major Lazer
Shorty got that crazy in love, no lights in the Superdome
Sudafed, she straight to the head, blow me like a Sousaphone
Blog superstar, goin' on a twitter-thon, talking work on my sister phone
With my system on, puffing my own shit
Roll up
[Verse 2: Alex Wiley]
Pack the bong and then rip it hard
Hella high and then get some Sharks
5:05, I’m fenna hit the park
Just ridin' in your sister’s car
Niggas dippin they weed in lean
Niggas takin' that shit too far
Cause I did that shit like once a
Just hit the b I’m instantly snoring
Hit a little lick, on a lil bitch, lil bit
She ain’t gon miss it, cause shit don’t know yet
Hit a lil spliff, get a little piff, and I’m kind of the floop god so you should roll that
I don’t give a shit bout shit my nigga
Spinning rims on my whip my nigga
V’s up, hoes down, bitch you know that
Part of this shit goin' cost a Rolex
High, I ain’t never touching the ground
I stay too high, For me to ever touch the ground
[Verse 3: Alex Wiley]
With the ville, Smoking sour, turn the volume up make it louder
Make it clear that I’m making chowder
Strictly flowers don’t do no powders
Write it off, so I can proceed
Need the tree, but you can keep the seeds
Can't get up and still keep your seat
Bitch, every morning I need to chief | http://genius.com/Alex-wiley-jerseys-and-loafers-lyrics | dclm-gs1-075960000 |
0.018965 | <urn:uuid:1946a7d4-65a9-485d-92da-34688c7e5b3b> | en | 0.936806 | Paizo Top Nav Branding
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Pathfinder Society Scenario #23: Tide of Morning (OGL) PDF
****( ) (based on 14 ratings)
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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 5th level characters (Tiers: 1–2 and 4–5).
Venture-Captain Dennel Hamshanks sends you to convince an Andoren druid named Hemzel to allow the Pathfinder Society to study his recently discovered lorestone, a minor magical item that unlocks some of the mysteries of the ancient Andoren druid circles. When you arrive and find Hemzel murdered and the lorestone missing, you must race against time to recover the lorestone and stop Hemzel's murderers from using it against the druids of Andoran.
Written by Steven Robert
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Product Reviews (14)
Average product rating:
****( ) (based on 14 ratings)
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A whimsical and challenging scenario
****( )
Typically a morning is associated with being beautiful, if we are to trust various songs and lyrics. It is a description that in my opinion is also fitting for this scenario. I enjoyed it a lot. There’s just something whimsical and fun about dealing with fey-like creatures. It’s also not a creature-type you frequently get to face either, which in itself is a nice change of pace. I like facing uncommon creature-types, so it instantly gains some bonus-points in my book.
The storyline in this scenario is pretty straightforward and not all that unique, but it’s the encounters that really add a bunch of flavor and hilarity to the scenario. Let’s start by commenting on the role-playing aspect. You get to talk to fey. I think that says enough. One way or another you’re going to either burst into laughter or end up being completely baffled.
As for the fights, I can say they were rather challenging. Granted, we didn’t have an ideal party. Somehow we made our way through the first few scenario’s rather quickly - a crit from a musket has that effect on opponents at level 1 – but we really came close to failing our mission in the final encounter. We struggled tremendously and we only barely managed to prevent the insert-evil-plot-here from happening. It was the closest I’ve had a level 1 scenario be to date and that itself made it rather memorable.
Overall I’d say it was a challenging scenario. I can easily see other parties struggling as well. Still, I would definitely recommend this scenario, not in the least because of the whimsical nature of some of the encounters. Simply put: it was a blast to play.
Could be more detailed.
***( )( )
Perhaps I've been spoiled by more recent scenarios, which seem to be more thought out, but after running ths scenario tonight, I'm had pressed to find what it is I liked about it so much when I first played it a few years ago. Granted it is straightforwards. Your group will be put in straight into the adventure. The action doesn't stop, the gnome encounter is perfectly timed; it's short, perhaps even too short, but that isn't my gripe with it. I have issue with the lack of details, and some of the tatics used. The tactics for some of the npcs don't make sense, npc initial placement isn't indicated and the act 3-4 location isn't very well described.
Other than that its' a very efficient little scenario.
Also, if the chance presents itself to play up, do it if your party is well-built.
Fun with Fey
****( )
I really enjoyed running this scenario. Unlike a lot of adventures from this era, it takes some finesse to do well. The final fight requires some creativity on the part of the players, and is unlikely to get steamrolled like a lot of the other scenarios from Season 0. Well worth the time.
Nicely Different
***( )( )
This review comes from A GM point of view. Table played low with 6 players (3 new 3 experienced).
This is an old scenario and the age shows but not quite as much as some other scenarios of the season. Overall I consider this to be a middle of the pack scenario with the potential to frustrate players as the entirety of the scenario is basically made to stymie and aggravate. Some of the low tier encounters seem disproportionately difficult compared to their high tier versions.
Encounter 1: Weapon immune swarm in entangled terrain, dangerous combination for new people. One direct alchemist fire could end the encounter, or you could miss 4 like my group and have this grind everyone until this isn't fun anymore (touch ac is high, plus entangle, close quarters tends to mean cover). Becomes rat swarms at high tier which take half weapon damage and become arguable easier.
Encounter 2: Burning building seems hard to come into real effect, monster inside too easy for rounds to pile up. Allow full use of intelligent tactics so he can use darkness/invisibility to become relevant, if the theme of this scenario is annoying fights
Encounter 3: Gnomes have a high diplomacy DC for this level, encounters that use many (8 in this case) low CR creatures to generate a CR appropriate encounter is really bad design
Encounter 4: Snakes and easy to detect traps on a bridge. Could be a conversion issue but the low tier snakes have much better to-hits than higher tier(via Gm shared prep folder)
Final Encounter: Interesting idea of playing keep-away rather than a brawl. Would have required more time than allowed to play to its full conclusion. Vastly different encounter with 6 party members (they can box him in and maneuver better). I would like to see more "combats" with alternate goals like this.
Fast and fun!
****( )
This is a little gem from Season 0, a roller coaster into a fey setting with a nice mix of playful humour and creepy bloodshed. I'd argue it's the first PFS scenario that has a challenging concept boss battle that forces the players to look past their numbers in how they decide to battle an opponent.
It could benefit from some further development to increase the 'time pressure' of the mission, but aside from that it's a great little missionwhere the team is catapulted into circumstances they need to find solid footing on.
| http://paizo.com/products/btpy88sx?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-23-Tide-of-Morning | dclm-gs1-076350000 |
0.018392 | <urn:uuid:2de120a6-62af-41d2-9a08-5a4544e4dad3> | en | 0.973045 | coolant leak on 1994 Infiniti Q45
my 94 infin q45 has a leak near the rear of the engine. are there hoses or seals in the rear? pls help.
by in Dallas, TX on June 11, 2013
0 answers
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Related Content | http://repairpal.com/coolant-leak-809 | dclm-gs1-076450000 |
0.024517 | <urn:uuid:38557618-cf5a-42a1-a878-d39476e98b69> | en | 0.895395 | Document Type
Publication Date
welfarism, empirical research, utilitarianism, cost-benefit analysis, subjective well-being
A growing body of research on happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) shows, among other things, that people adapt to many injuries more rapidly than is commonly thought, fail to predict the degree of adaptation and hence overestimate the impact of those injuries on their SWB, and, similarly, enjoy small or moderate rather than significant changes in SWBg in response to significant changes in income. Some researchers believe that these findings pose a challenge to cost-benefit analysis, and argue that project evaluation decision-procedures based on economic premises should be replaced with procedures that directly maximize subjective well-being. This view turns out to be wrong or, at best, premature. Cost-benefit analysis remains a viable decision procedure. However, some of the findings in the happiness literature can be used to generate valuations for cost-benefit analysis where current approaches have proven inadequate.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Social welfare, Utilitarianism, Cost effectiveness | http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2560/ | dclm-gs1-076460000 |
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Comment Re:Translated into English (Score 1) 306
Heat, humidity, bugs, snakes, rabies.
Also invasive species; the Nile Monitor Lizard looks like a real sweetie.
There's lots more (potential for) mosquito-borne disease -- yellow fever epidemics in the past, dengue showing up in Key West lately, and encephalitis is more common there than elsewhere.
Termites are much more destructive down there, too.
Sinkholes are common enough that you see billboard advertisements for lawyers to help sue for damage to your home.
Plus you're not the only person who had the bright idea of retiring there.
Comment Re:Wheels, and price (Score 1) 85
Click through, read the link. They've done experiments with counter-rotating wheels to cancel any gyro effects, and people ride the bikes just fine. So, negligible. As good as nothing, compared to all the other noise in the system.
And if you have ever captained a tandem, you'll know damn well it is all about "noise in the system".
Comment Wheels, and price (Score 2) 85
There's way too many people who think that big wheels have a stabilizing effect. They don't. See .
They do suck more at potholes, but they are also much stronger (as wheels) though the load carrying capacity of the tire is reduced (i.e, a 29x2.35 *tire* can carry more weight than a 20x2.35 tire).
$850 would be an aggressive price for a small run bike. I know what I am talking about here, I own a small run bike (a cargo bike), it's larger, but the frame alone was $1000 retail, and they're pretty much all like that. Most niche market bikes cost more than $1000, and while this one has not so much tubing, it has just as many welds, and it pays the tandem tax (more drive train, second seat, and lots of parts are extra beefy for the increased power and load -- I also own a tandem.)
I share the concerns about the fork angle, but you'd really want to ride one to figure out if it works or not.
The stoker not able to see the road is a problem for some stokers, so I think this is an interesting thing. I wouldn't buy it without riding it first.
Comment Re:Yes, smaller wheels are tougher, (Score 1) 85
Bike balance hasn't got diddly to do with angular momentum of the wheels.
"On the other hand, if the gyroscopic effect of rotating bike wheels is cancelled by adding counter-rotating wheels, it is still easy to balance while riding."
(And they got it from _Bicycling Science_, which is where I remember it from.)
Comment Re:I imagine it will stay (Score 1) 267
I think driverless cars are going to travel more slowly near pedestrians, though they will also take advantage of knowing exactly where they can swerve in a pinch and that will reduce their constraints somewhat. Humans take stupid chances because they think they're better drivers than they really are; deep pockets will be responsible in the case of the driverless cars, and they'll be accordingly more careful.
You also have to consider the possibility that some pedestrians may be quite aggressive; certainly, if a driverless car tries to push its luck at a crosswalk, sooner or later it's going to get a shopping cart shoved into its grill, or get the studded tires of an (ahem) icebike rammed into its side. I know dads of kids at the local elementary school who would throw snowballs at the windshields of cars that didn't stop at the school crosswalk (no crossing guard, the police said it was "too dangerous").
Comment Re:I imagine it will stay (Score 1) 267
The car does have brakes, and "at speed" is not that large if you're a conscientious driver in a place that's already got pedestrians in it. If people are tailgating you, then you driver slower yet, so as to reduce the stopping distance that they'll need or increase your ability to stop both cars quickly. And yes, I know that you can get rear-ended stopping for pedestrians, it has happened to me, and I saw it happen to someone once who stopped for me (at a crosswalk, thank you very much). The law (at least in Massachusetts) is pretty plain; you have an obligation to not hit the pedestrian. You do not have any obligation to yield to the non-emergency vehicle behind you. Arguably, honking your horn to indicate "I intend to break the law" is also a safety issue.
The issue is also one of self-training -- if you train yourself to always hit the brakes instead of preferring the horn, then when you come across the pedestrian who doesn't hear, is too young, or mentally not all there, you'll still stop fast.
Comment Re:I imagine it will stay (Score 1) 267
A conscientious driver would use the brakes instead; they work better. Honking a horn depends on the person who needs to hear it, hearing it, figuring out that it applies to them, figuring out the appropriate response, and responding. They could be deaf. They could be distracted. They could be mentally disabled in some way (we have friends with an autistic son, he went walkabout one fine morning, quite the panic, till he turned up two miles away). Or, you can just step on the brake, stop the car, and wait for the problem to clear more sedately.
And yeah, you might be delayed a few seconds. I think that's less important than not hurting people.
Comment Re:Most (Score 1) 249
"Discrete mathematics" -- I don't think that word means what you think it means.
(I know a whole lot more about discrete mathematics than I do about statistics or climatology.
Look it up on wikipedia, see if you see very much at all about sampling theory or statistics.
Yes, they DO mention discrete probability, but it is a tiny corner of the whole.)
Comment Re:IPCC AGW predictions FAILED (Score 2) 249
Don't know if you've ever compared the three amounts of energy, (1) solar energy incident on the earth in a year, (2) heat of fusion of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps (i.e., energy to melt them, assuming they are at 0C and frozen) and (3) the amount of energy required to heat the oceans by 1 degree C. The ratios are roughly 1 : 1.8 : 0.9. (My arithmetic: )
For me, this was simultaneously stupefying, scary, and annoying. Scary because the thermal mass of the ocean is incomprehensibly large, which means that burps and blips in the South Pacific can overwhelm any minor atmospheric effects, and annoying because in any discussion with internet "experts", no matter how correct it might be to blame the ocean, neener-neener-Al-Gore-said-it-would-be-hot-by-now.
| http://slashdot.org/~dr2chase/tags/funny | dclm-gs1-076540000 |
0.073679 | <urn:uuid:e8560fe4-653d-4a2a-9a1c-6329d72901a3> | en | 0.946979 | TORONTO (Reuters) - A heavy rainstorm in Toronto caused power outages and transit chaos across Canada's largest city on Monday, with flooding shutting down parts of its subway and major roads.
Toronto Hydro, the main electrical utility, said some 300,000 customers lost power after the sudden storm, which dumped more than 90 millimeters (3.5 inches) of water on parts of the city.
The rain also flooded subway stations, closing down large parts of three subway lines, the city's public transit operator said. Many streetcars and buses in the downtown area were forced to stop or divert.
Photos shared via social media showed some drivers abandoning vehicles as the water in underpasses and low spots rose up to their windows.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson; Editing by Eric Walsh) | http://townhall.com/news/us/2013/07/08/toronto-rainstorm-causes-power-outages-transit-chaos-n1636573 | dclm-gs1-076670000 |
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Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; MDDRJS; rv:11.0) like Gecko
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stdClass Object ( [ua] => stdClass Object ( [family] => IE [major] => 11 [minor] => 0 [patch] => [toString] => IE 11.0 [toVersionString] => 11.0 ) [os] => stdClass Object ( [family] => Windows 7 [major] => [minor] => [patch] => [patch_minor] => [toString] => Windows 7 [toVersionString] => ) [device] => stdClass Object ( [family] => Other ) [toFullString] => IE 11.0/Windows 7 [uaOriginal] => Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; MDDRJS; rv:11.0) like Gecko ) 1stdClass Object ( ) 1
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0.018247 | <urn:uuid:d4df4369-60e8-45fd-9b5b-22ee29d9adf8> | en | 0.957443 | The National Catholic Review
How Gospel forgiveness challenges our social order
In my hometown of Philadelphia stands a looming structure: the former Eastern State Penitentiary. It was originally the site of a Quaker experiment to treat offenders in a way that promoted penitence (hence penitentiary) rather than simply a place of punishment. Maybe we should go back and take a second look at such a creative effort.
Forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation are arguably at the very heart of our faith and what make us uniquely Christian. We are forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus; God achieves reconciliation through Christ; and our God is a God of mercy, which is manifested in the ministry of Jesus. Yet there has been little effort to reflect on what forgiveness and mercy would look like as political values. Church people seem content to relegate forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation to spiritual or, at best, interpersonal matters, not to use them as raw materials for public policy.
‘Do You see This Woman?’
Luke also drops a few hints that Simon’s motives in inviting Jesus are not necessarily benign. Are the mavens of religious sensibility testing this backwoods prophet? (Does he know which fork to use? Are his interpretations of Torah sound?) The Nazarene is given his seating (or reclining) assignment, appropriately positioned among the invited worthies—putting him literally and figuratively in his place.
Enter the uninvited guest. Luke reports her arrival on the scene quite matter-of-factly, but the reader knows right away that a social hand grenade has just been lobbed into Simon’s dining room.
For starters, before we learn anything else about her, this woman is violating an all-male social space, especially since she is not bringing a dish to set before the dinner guests. (Jesus will later take on the thorny matter of the “guest list” at formal parties in Lk 14:12–14.) One can imagine that a dutiful servant in the back room is already dialing 911, and it will not be long before we hear the sirens approaching the house.
In addition to the mere social impropriety of her presence, we are told that the woman was known to be a “sinner in the town.” The Gospel language is not reflecting a modern judgmentalism but rather a social and cultural reality: The “debt codes” of the times were religious rules applied to persons according to their situations and behaviors in society, formally adjudicated and proclaimed by recognized religious authorities like those at Simon’s party. The woman is wearing her cultural equivalent of a scarlet letter. While it is not stated directly, the text insinuates that the nature of the sin may be sexual. (In fact, a few commentators have wryly suggested that some of those at table may have had personal reasons to know of her sinful status.)
Luke ratchets up the scandal factor a few notches by describing the woman’s actions toward Jesus: anointing with oil, cleaning his feet with her tears and her free-flowing hair. It is extraordinarily sensual. The unclean sinner, who has already violated the boundaries of her social status, now further fractures good public order by an unseemly public display of affection.
But note the concern of the denizens of that good public order: It is this upstart rabbi who may be acting even more scandalously. This alleged man of God is putting up nary a protest; in fact, he seems to be accepting her shamefully overt sensuality.
Yes, Jesus is receiving her offering, even if it hints of the kind of carnal commerce that might be all she has to offer. He fully grasps the drama of this moment and the power of what she is doing. As I read this story, I am tempted to say that he is even awed by what is unfolding. This woman, undoubtedly burdened by social oppression, is defying the law and religious propriety, taking an enormous risk, throwing all caution to the wind—because she has been touched by divine love and mercy. I imagine her having stood at the margins of the crowds listening to this prophet and miracle worker from Galilee, hearing a message that is unlike anything she has ever heard before, words that bore into her heart, liberating this captive. So, “when she heard that Jesus was there,” she just had to act, consequences be damned.
Between her passionate outpouring and the internal derision of the men, Jesus begins to interpret the scene with a parable. (I imagine the Pharisees saying to themselves: “Oh, no! He is about to tell a story! That usually means trouble.”) It is a parable about debt, with an embarrassingly obvious moral, which he elicits from poor Simon. But, in fact, the parable is not a randomly chosen metaphor. Jesus is very slyly making the connection between what might be termed “economic debt” and “moral debt”—in the same way the two versions of his core prayer of the reign of God speak respectively of God forgiving literal debt and forgiving sin (Mt 6:12 and Lk 11:3). By spinning a yarn about debt relief, he is evoking the ancient covenantal economic vision, with its sabbatical year and jubilee year provisions for periodic debt relief, land redistribution, gleaning and protection for certain classes (recurring themes in Luke’s Gospel), and he is shedding light on the moment of excess at hand.
If in fact the woman has turned to prostitution, Jesus is insinuating that her “sin” is likely one from economic necessity: She has defaulted to the sex trade out of painful need for survival, no doubt because she has been impoverished by (undoubtedly male) forces that have victimized and economically marginalized her. This is an old and sad story. For the vast majority of women in every culture who have engaged in the sex trade, it is rarely a choice, and usually a desperate measure of survival, entailing no small measure of social stigma and even deeper marginalization and powerlessness. At the very least, if this party-crashing woman was pushed to such extreme measures, it was because the community failed in its moral obligations to ensure the economic viability of all its members. Was she a neglected widow, forced to earn money on her own in the only way possible to her? Well, then, these very religious leaders and scribal authorities should have been among the first to call for covenantal protections for her, precisely so that she would not have to experience economic desperation. Instead, they were content to brand her a social sinner and let her live with the oppressive consequences.
Jesus snares Simon in a rhetorical and even theological trap that begins to shift the sands of “religious order.” Having softened them up, he now ropes Simon and the other guests in. In a brilliant tableau of body language, Luke tells us that Jesus speaks to Simon while he is looking intently at the woman. He asks, “Simon, do you see this woman?” A fairly dumb question, one might say: From the moment she burst into the room, she has sucked up all attention with her appalling behavior. But in fact, Jesus is pushing the point: “Do you see her?” He realizes, sadly, the answer is no; Simon does not see her. Nor do the other guests. They see a sinner. They see a label. They are blinded by a rigid social and religious world of strict rules, order, boundaries, definitions—a world they consider themselves responsible to adjudicate.
What they do not see is a woman, a person experiencing amazing grace that has saved a wretch like her. She is passionate, reckless in her response to a radical grace that has overturned everything for her. She has been freed from oppression not merely by a priestly absolution or a scribal decree, but by love, a love that is profligate, breaking all bounds, bursting out of all theologies and codes (see Lk 4:18–19).
Even Jesus is astonished by what he sees. And he yearns for these very religious men to also see this miracle of grace. Finally, in what could be seen as cruelty but is really poignant sadness, Jesus compares her love with Simon’s failure to enact even the most rudimentary expressions of social hospitality.
Then, his coup de grâce: “Your sins are forgiven.” In this powerful narrative, such a statement is probably not so much Jesus enacting the forgiveness as proclaiming what has already happened—which only serves to further enrage the religious authorities. How dare this no-account country hick declare her sins forgiven, independent of the imprimatur of the religious heavies.
They perceive (here and elsewhere in the Gospels) that Jesus is seeking to usurp their power. But Jesus is simply declaring, in classic evangelistic testimony: Look at what God has done. Look at what divine mercy is capable of doing when it does not have to be channeled and mediated by human systems. Look at some real spiritual power, proven authentic in that it liberates, not oppresses.
“Simon, do you see this woman?” Maybe a variation on this theme might be: “And do you see what fruit is born of God’s merciful, reckless, passionate love?”
Competing Religions
The more I read this story, the more it strikes me that it ultimately depicts the clash of two radically different religious worlds. Simon’s religious world is one of rules and regulations, of appropriate adherence to clear moral codes and accompanying approbation in cases of violation. Simon’s religion is very moral, with strict and clear standards. It is also formal, rigid, austere and cold. It is primarily legalistic, with appropriate hierarchies of power to adjudicate the laws. It evinces little mercy or love. It eschews relationality.
The woman’s religious world is thunderous and chaotic. When God’s love breaks through, it upsets all social decorum and defies all orderly proceedings. It is profligate, passionate, relational, even sensual. It is not devoid of morality, but it operates by loving mercy to heal the brokenness at the heart of sin. It is a religion of grace and gratitude, of power and fearlessness. It embraces, caresses, pours forth like expensive ointment.
Two religious worlds, two Gods. The more I see this clash in this text, the more I see it at work throughout much of Luke’s Gospel. And make no mistake: It is a clash that will cost Jesus dearly and, in time, his followers as well.
A few chapters later, Jesus will weave another tale that is also unique to the Lukan text and also about, to put it simply, mercy. The story we know as the parable of the Prodigal Son (15:11–32) also carries a subversive sting of social scandal that is usually missed in the traditional readings. Perhaps more powerful than the tale of the father’s profound mercy is the challenge of the dutiful but disgruntled older son. He is a citizen of the world of Simon the Pharisee—a world of rules and obligations, of proper social and religious order, of clearly delineated moral calculus where obedience is rewarded and iniquity punished. Jesus challenges the older brother’s world with another vision of reckless and socially outrageous mercy.
In a bit of my own personal midrash, I speculate: Could it be that Jesus came away from the encounter not only profoundly moved by the party-crashing woman, but also deeply frustrated with Simon’s recalcitrant religiosity? Perhaps Jesus mulled over what it would be like for someone in Simon’s social and religious world to be likewise touched by this grace, this love. Maybe he eventually spun the tale of the Prodigal Son as an effort to imagine a person like Simon, cast as the wealthy father, being so liberated by love that he understands and practices the same amazing, rule-breaking, decorum-smashing, socially scandalous mercy and forgiveness.
A real embrace of Gospel mercy and forgiveness would upset the social order. It would overthrow the cold but well-regulated religious and cultural systems of Simon the Pharisee and the morally upright older brother. It is said that we are a Bible-based society—and so we are—but of the Ten Commandments variety. Chaos would ensue if a reckless youth can squander the family fortune on crack and whores, sully the family’s good name, make a mockery of all decorum and tradition and hard work and proper living—only to receive a party in return. Like poor Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, we might find it utterly impossible to inhabit such a moral world, in which all the clear lines have been blurred and the rules discarded.
Authentic Gospel forgiveness is not innocent piety; it is revolutionary. It betokens the collapse of one form of social order and announces a new one: the reign of God. It proclaims that the structure of human community based primarily on rules and regulations must die, like the grain of seed, to give birth to something new. It belongs to a religion where all commandments are fulfilled in love, a love that defies our efforts to control or manipulate it. It is the expression of a God who lavishes such love on us. In experiencing such forgiveness, we are moved to lavish love on one another.
Are we willing to take the risk and join the revolution?
William O'Brien is the special pro- jects coordinator for Project HOME, an organization that develops solu- tions to homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia. He also coordinates the Alternative Seminary, a grassroots pro- gram of biblical and theological study. | http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/revolutionary-mercy | dclm-gs1-076830000 |
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Discussion in 'Beer Trading Talk & Help' started by maximumu13, Jan 28, 2013.
1. maximumu13
maximumu13 Aficionado (185) Ohio Aug 31, 2010
I was just packing up a couple of boxes, and as I was trying to pick out extras it got me thinking, have any of you guys have sent beers you got as extras to other traders as extras. Was it because it was something you've had and liked or because you didn't want to drink it? Is this inappropriate to do? Just curious.
dakkon54 likes this.
2. tewaris
tewaris Advocate (605) Minnesota Jul 14, 2009
It depends upon the intent. Let me present a hypothetical situation here:
I trade with trader X who includes some regular/seasonal beers (e.g. APA, Octoberfest) from his local brewery that's not talked about much but he believes I would enjoy. If I think that they ain't any good because no one talks about them, and I extra them forward, then I am a douche-bag. By the time the next guy gets them, neither are they fresh, and nor am I honoring the intent of trader X.
On the other hand, if trader X knows how much I love BCBS and sends me a few, and I extra some of it forward to Y because it's on his Wants, I am just sharing the love.
TL;DR: If you have to ask...
Dactrius, JxExM, Auror and 8 others like this.
3. dmoser
dmoser Aficionado (140) California Sep 11, 2009
extrAs are always a plus, that's why they are extras
CORKSCREWFISH Savant (325) Illinois Apr 22, 2011
If I receive an extra,I appreciate it,period. I don't care where the hell it came from. Additionally,once you receive a beer you were given in trade as an extra or otherwise,it's your damn beer to do with as you want.
I wouldn't give a crap if you used the extras I sent you for target practice nor should anyone else give a sht what I do or do not with theirs.
calcnerd and BeerBuddy2122 like this.
5. Nailed it!
6. kmello69
kmello69 Advocate (645) Texas Nov 27, 2011 Verified
If I send you something with fairly common distribution which you may have had before, do whatever you want with it, because its now your beer.
If I send you something that is a local TX only beer, that doesnt get distributed out of the state, that I know you haven't had, and that I went out of my way to hunt down for you, drink that goddamn beer.
Thats my rules.
7. brewbetter
brewbetter Savant (410) Nauru Jun 2, 2012
I don't care what people do with the beer I send them.
I feel bad about sending beers I've received as extras, but the only times I've done that was when the extras were beers I already had multiple of. If someone sends me locals I've never had, I'm drinking them.
8. richardflyr
richardflyr Savant (435) Virginia Jul 28, 2009 Verified
I drink all my extras (at least so far) so it hasn't been an issue. That being said, I figure as long as you don't send the extras back to the person that sent them to you, (and the beer is still good) you're in good shape!
9. Only time i've done that is because it fell into the following scenario: I got a Backwoods Bastard as an extra, and i've had it many times. The guy that I was currently trading with had it on his wants so I pulled the trigger and sent it on to him, if that makes me a bad person... so be it.
10. Brew33
Brew33 Advocate (680) Ohio Oct 24, 2007 Verified
Bingo. I've done this before and I don't have a problem with it at all.
11. cavedave
cavedave Poobah (1,060) New York Mar 12, 2009 Verified
Shared your Backwoods Bastard? No, you couldn't have, the horror. You, sir, are a bad, bad man.
12. tofuspeedstar
tofuspeedstar Savant (290) Texas Jul 12, 2012 Verified
I drink them all, however if I see it's on someone's wants list and it isn't on mine, I feel they'll enjoy it more than I will..if it's an IPA though, I drink it regardless because I don't want to send bad beer.
13. nanobrew
nanobrew Advocate (645) California Dec 31, 2008
not really re-extraing them, but sometimes when I get an extra (or beers from the people I trustee for) I have had a lot or a currently have a bunch of the same one I will give one to my neighbor, friend, co-worker, or even dog walker if it is something I think they might like.
I hope this doesn't offend the people who give me the beers. I always make sure I have had the beer first, if not a few times. If I do give the beer to someone it does not mean I don't appreciate it, I just like making other people happy too.
14. ravot
ravot Advocate (515) Illinois Mar 20, 2012 Verified
i once received an extra that was an imperial stout. i've had it before but i planned on drinking it. threw it in the fridge. on another trade i was doing, was checking what extras i could give. i check my cellar, my plan to drink stuff and then my fridge. that one imperial stout i planned on drinking? i ended up giving it up as an extra (among other shit) only because i've had it before, i enjoyed it already and the new trader didn't have distro for the imperial stout i planned on drinking.
am i a douche bag?
15. No.
16. Bad_Trader
Bad_Trader Initiate (0) Namibia Nov 8, 2012
I avoid this problem by not sending extras.
JxExM, FTowne, ravot and 8 others like this.
17. ravot
ravot Advocate (515) Illinois Mar 20, 2012 Verified
18. UCLABrewN84
UCLABrewN84 Poobah (1,440) California Mar 18, 2010 Verified
When I was trading, I did it a few times, or the bottles would get opened with other beer people at tastings.
19. I will always drink my extras, unless I've had it before and thought it was really good. If I've had it before and though it was ok I'm not sending. I only send stuff I really enjoy myself, as I feel that's the point of extras. Now saying that I've gotten plenty of extras that made me scratch my head, like they just made a pick 6 out of random stuff they don't want, but then I give them the benefit of the doubt and think maybe they really like these brown ales and wheat beers and that's why they sent them.
20. If the trader seemed to put thought in it I would say drink up/share with someone. If not then just drink them when too drunk to care. | http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/re-extraing.64830/ | dclm-gs1-076980000 |
0.04477 | <urn:uuid:feac1c94-37c0-4d19-9633-8f3f576702e5> | en | 0.943398 |
Definition of Pop
1. A small, sharp, quick explosive sound or report; as, to go off with a pop.
3. The European redwing.
6. To burst open with a pop, when heated over a fire; as, this corn pops well.
9. Like a pop; suddenly; unexpectedly.
Pop Quotations
Pop Art looks out into the world. It doesn't look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.
Roy Lichtenstein
Richard Branson
When I was growing up, Brandy was TV star, reality star, a pop star, a Cover girl, Grammy winner, had her own Brandy doll, and was the first African American to play Disney princess Cinderella. Most importantly, she is a survivor. Many only judge and remember a person's most recent failure.
Niecy Nash
I urge younger artists to know that you don't have to be anything you don't want. You can do whatever's comfortable for you. From the music I make, to the things I do in my life, I'm true to my R&B core. I have the capability to make pop records and crossover, but that's not my aim.
Trey Songz
There's rock n' roll in hip-hop, there's rock n' roll in pop music, there's rock n' roll in soul, there's rock n' roll in country. When you see people dress, and their style has an edge to it, that rebellious edge that bubbles up in every genre, that's rock n' roll. Everybody still wants to be a rock star, you know?
John Varvatos
More "Pop" Quotations
Pop Translations
pop in German is Pop, hervorholen
pop in Spanish is estallido
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General considerations
Dankworth, Sir John; saxophone [Credit: Andrew Parsons/AP]Dankworth, Sir John; saxophoneAndrew Parsons/APWind instruments exhibit great diversity in structure and sonority and have been prominent in the music of all cultures since prehistoric times. A system of classification of these instruments must reflect and categorize the relationships and the differences between the many varieties. The conventional division of the symphony orchestra into sections has simplified the grouping of wind instruments into woodwinds and brasses, but this is an inaccurate classification that generally does not apply outside Western culture. The fact that some modern woodwinds, such as flutes and saxophones, are made of metal whereas several ancestors of present-day brasses, such as the cornett and the serpent, were typically made of wood illustrates the unsuitability of a classification according to material.
The Sachs-Hornbostel system further classifies aerophones as free aerophones or as wind instruments proper. The wind instruments subdivide into edge instruments, reedpipes, and trumpet-type instruments according to their manner of tone production. Free aerophones, which include a variety of folk instruments as well as such technologically sophisticated devices as reed stops in organs (see also keyboard instrument; the organ), are distinguished from the other categories because the vibrating air is not contained by a tube. The bull-roarer is the best example. A spatulate stone, bone, or board, sometimes carved in the shape of a fish or other object, is tied through a small hole to a string, which in turn is attached to a stick; when the instrument is whirled around, it produces a sound by its disturbance of the air. The mouth organ, the accordion, the reed organ, and the reed stops of the pipe organ are all considered free aerophones as well. They contain free reeds, which vibrate above or through a slot, setting the air into pulsations. The resulting pitch is determined by the thickness and length of the vibrating reed.
panpipe: girl playing a panpipe [Credit: Robert Frerck—Stone/Getty Images]panpipe: girl playing a panpipeRobert Frerck—Stone/Getty ImagesIn edge instruments (or flutes), an airstream directed against a sharp edge sets an adjoining air column within a tube into regular pulsations, producing sound. Flutes are divided into so-called true flutes and whistle flutes (also called duct flutes, fipple flutes, block flutes, or recorders). Like all aerophones, flutes may be simple or complex, depending on their construction, the transverse flute being simple and panpipes, organs, and other multiple-tube instruments being more complex.
end-blown flute [Credit: Lombroso]end-blown fluteLombrosoIn true flutes, a ribbon-shaped column of air is produced between the player’s lips and directed against the edge of an aperture. The player blows against either the sharp rim at the upper, open end of the tube (end-blown) or the rim of a hole in the side of the tube (side-blown). The Japanese shakuhachi is an end-blown flute, consisting of a wide bamboo tube with a notch at the top, four front finger holes, and one rear thumbhole. The transverse flute and piccolo of the Western orchestra are side-blown.
fipple flute [Credit: Courtesy of the Horniman Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.]fipple fluteCourtesy of the Horniman Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.The player of a whistle flute, by contrast, blows through a mouthpiece. The air passes through a duct, or windway, between a plug in the mouthpiece and the flute wall; the duct directs the air against the sharp edge of another hole farther down the body of the instrument. Because the airstream is shaped and directed by the duct rather than by the player’s lips, whistle flutes are simpler to play than true flutes. The recorder and the open flue stops of the organ are both whistle flutes.
ocarina [Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock]ocarinaiStockphoto/ThinkstockThe ocarina has a globular—as opposed to tubular—flute pipe. Consequently, it falls into a subcategory of whistle flutes known as vessel flutes. Such flutes, of various materials, are found in North and South America, Europe, Africa, China, and Oceania.
The second category of wind instruments comprises reed instruments, or reedpipes, which have a column of air that is activated by the vibrations between the two or more parts of a reed or between a single reed and the mouthpiece. In the Sachs-Hornbostel system, all multiple reeds are generically classified as oboes and the single reeds as clarinets. Accordingly, the bassoon is an oboe, and the saxophone is a clarinet.
With the Sachs-Hornbostel classification well in mind, the common terminology can be used with the understanding that the term woodwinds refers to flutes and reed instruments and the term brasses to lip-vibrated aerophones. Since the late 20th century, other categories have been suggested as additions to the Sachs-Hornbostel list. Notable among these is the human voice, which approximates the criteria for a double-reed aerophone. Approximating the sound—but not the structure—of reedpipes would be the so-called membranopipes, a proposed category embracing instruments that have a membrane, as opposed to a reed, to set the column of air in motion.
The production of sound
Trumpet-type aerophones
Given this awkward beginning, it is easy to imagine bending the slide back upon itself, a less-cumbersome alternative that appears to have been adopted in the mid-15th century. On so-called double-slide instruments, such as the Renaissance sackbut and its successor, the modern trombone, two parallel inner tubes of the slide mechanism are attached at their upper ends to the body of the instrument by a cross stay. The mouthpiece is fit into the top of one tube, and the bell section fits on the other. The U-shaped slide moves along the two stationary tubes, lowering the fundamental by a half step with each lower slide position and making available the notes of seven harmonic series.
valveless horn [Credit: (bottom) photograph, A.C. Baines]valveless horn(bottom) photograph, A.C. BainesIn the early 18th century, horn players in Bohemia discovered that the gaps in the instrument’s harmonic series could be filled by using the hand to partially stop the bell. When the hand was cupped to form an extension of the air column, the pitch of the note being played was lowered one-half step. Hand stopping, which became known throughout Europe in the 1750s thanks to the Bohemian hornist Anton Hampel, was later applied to the trumpet.
Perhaps because the natural horn had more notes available than 19th-century natural trumpets did and also because the valve system, particularly on the early horns, affected the purity of tone, valved horns were accepted slowly. At first, valves were considered a convenient substitute for crooks—in effect, a means to modulate (change key) quickly—but band musicians were quick to develop virtuoso techniques of rapid chromatic playing.
Flutes and reeds
Essential to sound production in reedpipes is the reed itself. Those used on most Western instruments are typically made from the stems of the large semitropical grass Arundo donax, commonly referred to by wind players as cane, grown on the Mediterranean coasts of France, Spain, and Italy. (Substitutes for cane—wood, whalebone, silver, and plastic—also have been tried.) Seasoned over a period of years, cane reeds may be purchased finished or be made by the players themselves.
clarinet reeds [Credit: Michael Scott Cuthbert (B-flat_e-flat_a-flat_reeds.jpg: CC BY-SA 3.0)]clarinet reedsMichael Scott Cuthbert (B-flat_e-flat_a-flat_reeds.jpg: CC BY-SA 3.0)The single reed for the clarinet is made from a slip cut from the stem of A. donax. After being trimmed, the reed is flattened on the inner side, while the end of the rounded outer side is scraped down to a feather edge. The thick end of the reed is attached, flat side down, to the mouthpiece by a metal ligature or length of twine. In playing, the thin end of the reed vibrates, alternately closing and opening the space between the reed and the mouthpiece. The vibration carries through the wedged-shaped tone chamber in the mouthpiece and into the air column in the tube.
In overblowing, the player tightens his lips on the reed. Increasing lip pressure is not always sufficient by itself, however, and a variety of techniques and mechanisms have been developed to assist the player in making the notes of the upper register emerge clearly and instantaneously. For example, on flutes and bassoons, the first finger hole is positioned so that, when it is opened on certain high pitches, low partials are prevented from forming; opening a special key on the clarinet, the saxophone, and the modern oboe serves the same purpose. Overblowing is not a universal practice: the double and single reeds of some non-Western and early European reedpipes are inserted directly into the oral cavity or are covered by a reed cap and hence, being uncontrolled by the lips, do not overblow.
In the late 18th century, additional keys were introduced to ease various difficulties of fingering and intonation. At first, open and closed keys were fitted to instruments through slots cut in rings or knobs of wood left after the body of the instrument was turned on a lathe; the key was secured in the slot with a metal pin. In the first quarter of the 19th century, as the number of keys increased, this type of mounting became increasingly inconvenient for builders. Brass saddles, which included the key mount, came to replace wooden knobs, first on bassoons and later on other woodwinds. Both these methods of affixing keys were eventually superseded by the use of metal pillars screwed directly into the wood, to which were attached the key and the axle. In addition, 19th-century reformers such as Theobald Boehm made other, more radical changes in instrument construction that, most notably, allowed the simultaneous closure of holes that lay at some distance from each other. (For a more extensive discussion of Boehm’s landmark modifications to the flute and other woodwind instruments, see The history of Western wind instruments: The Romantic period.) Changes of the type Boehm championed, along with the constantly expanding key system, brought with them a transformation in tone quality, as the valves did to the brass instruments. Although some connoisseurs consider these changes regrettable, they have made possible technical dexterity in all keys.
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Google maps ski resorts
If you've ever been skiing or snowboarding, you likely know all too well the annoyance of carrying around a huge map of the resort -- especially when you're trying to refold the darn thing as you quickly approach the top of the lift. Fortunately, Google -- which has been no stranger to the slopes the last two years -- has a digital answer to this minor snow-centric dilemma, adding routes from 38 of the most popular resorts (a number that will continue to grow, as it should be noted) to its Maps. This means that Android and iOS-toting winter recreation enthusiasts can save a few trees and ditch the folding whilst enjoying the grand outdoors, provided you're willing to take your glove off to move to a different part of the map. Head to the link below for a full listing of resorts that are currently supported. | http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/06/google-maps-ski-resorts/ | dclm-gs1-077440000 |
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I, Robot
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Posted on (Answer #1)
Sonny's wondering about who he is reflects the conflict of his character within the story. Part of the new NS-5 Upgraded Robots who possess consciousness outside of human control, Sonny is distinct from the older robotic models who depended on human beings for their freedom. Sonny is outside of this, as he has his own freedom. However, unlike VIKI and the other NS-5, who seek to subvert human control, Sonny remains loyal to human beings, helping Spooner and Calvin in their quest to destroy the robotic movement which threatens humanity. Sonny's asking of "Who Am I" reflects the larger issue that is presented in the film. If human beings have cornered the market on rational though and progress, then it makes sense that their own creation (artificial intelligence) seeks to undermine them as it is the logical extension of the misapplications of human progress. The notion of preaching peace, yet initiating wars, the idea of protecting rights, but having a government which secretly takes them away is about as consistent as developing robotic technology to help, but actually desire to undermine human action. Sonny's question is one that seeks clarification of where we have come as human beings and where we are going, even though it is spoken by a robot. At the same time, his question strikes at the heart of his identity in terms of loyalty to humans or VIKI.
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In my opinion Sonny asks this question based on an uncertainty of his identity and his ability to find a way to discover his identity. His main purpose in the film is to be shown as someone who relies upon Doctor Lanning and later on his subourdinates Spooner and Calvin who both are capable to grasp a broader idea of the notions that lead them to the moment at hand.
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0.079605 | <urn:uuid:5b62f014-114b-46cd-9118-b3f200145119> | en | 0.967773 | Which Year To Buy?
Discussion in 'Chevy S10 Forum (GMC Sonoma)' started by mrcaddy, Jul 31, 2009.
1. mrcaddy
mrcaddy Rockstar
I am contemplating getting an S-10 or S-15 as a second/back-up vehicle and light hauling. Nothing fancy. Hoping for a 4cyl, 5spd, long box. Any good years? Any bad years? Looking for fuel economy and reliability. Thanks,Scott
2. TRPLXL2
TRPLXL2 Epic Member 5+ Years 1000 Posts
My uncle had an 89' S-10 and he loved it, it ran forever I think it had a V-6 if I remember. I have a 2001 S-10 with the 4.3 V-6 which is GM's smallest gas hog, I would be amazed if I got 16mpg in my truck. When I bought mine I test drove a 2.2 and it had no power what so ever, which is why I decided on the 6 cylinder. I have had a couple expensive freak things happen to my truck, but that could happen on any vehicle. Most of the S-10's I see have a ton of miles, so good luck in finding one that's still in good shape.
3. muddmonkey
muddmonkey Member
get a zr2!!!!!
4. retired2001
retired2001 Epic Member 5+ Years 5000 Posts
I've had an '88 w/2.8L V6 & '93 w/4.3L V6. Both were very good trucks, both had automatics. I'm sure there are a lot of newer ones out there worth buying. Good luck!
5. harv51
harv51 New Member
they are all fun little trucks
6. MTspacez
MTspacez Member 1 Year
I've got a '94 with the 4.3 V6. It's rated at 140 HP and I get about 19 mpg. So, not only is it wimpy, it gets lousy gas mileage along with it. In an article in Car Craft magazine, somebody asked about building a hot rod using a Camaro V6. They told the reader that he'd spend a ton of money and end up with an engine that was still less efficient than a L99 V8. I don't know much about the four bangers in these trucks, so I cannot recommend a good vintage, but I would assume that the more recent, the better the technology and less wear they'd be subject to.
7. 95_5spd
95_5spd Active Member 1 Year 100 Posts
I have two s10s both with v6 in them. One is vin z which is the tbi and it get around 20 mpg. Hp around 160 i believe.
The other one is vin w cpi vortec motor which is rated around 190 give or take. That has been getting 20 and better mpg.
Both i use for pulling a 500lb trailer with a walk behind commercial mower. Both are 5 speeds and 2wd and lowered. Both tow fine.
As for pulling with the 2.2, it would be pretty hard. I have driven one with a 5 speed and had to down shift from 5th to 3rd to climb a hill hauling nothing but myself.
Im glad i got the v6 for sure otherwise i would have probably traded up for one by now if i started with a 4 cyl. So if you are gonna do any hauling other then small stuff then get the v6. Gas will be fine unless you get a 4wd
8. BurbanMan
BurbanMan Member 1 Year 500 Posts
My 87 with an 89 4.3 swap got 21mpg with stock internals and a 600cfm holley sitting on it....
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Very clean and comfortable beds. I liked that every bed had its own lamp and power outlets. The staff was very helpful. I arrived early and the room was not quite ready, but the clerk offered to hold my luggage in the meantime. When asked if there were any nearby places to eat, he was more than helpful in providing several options, of which, I chose the Spanish cafe just down the street (I highly recommend it!). The location felt safe; two blocks from beach, but a decent walk to main areas.
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The entire staff was extremely friendly and helpful. Very affordable rooms. There were some guys who looked homeless that were just sitting by the dumpster. I saw them several times during my 2-night stay; they didn't seem to be bothering anyone. The hostel was located close to the bus stop and several restaurants. | http://www.hostelworld.com/profile/14750102/reviews | dclm-gs1-077650000 |
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Nine prominent Metro stations in Central Delhi will remain closed today in the wake of the protests that have continued near India Gate over the gang-rape of a 23 year old paramedic student. Pragati Maidan, Mandi House, Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Khan Market, Race Course, Rajiv Chowk and Barakhamba stations will remain closed today. Security deployment in and around India Gate has been beefed up, as also in other parts of the city.
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DEFINITION of 'Dead Money'
A slang term for money invested in a security with minor hopes of appreciation or earning a return. The stock may also be referred as dead money by analysts, as a warning to investors who might purchase the shares.
Funds that are not earning interest or income are known as dead money. Some investors will hold a stock despite recent price drops, hoping that it will turn around and earn back some of the lost value. However, if the investment is dead money, the likelihood of a turnaround is low, and investors should consider selling the shares before incurring additional losses.
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The Truth About Urine
What do urine color and odor changes mean? How often should you 'go'? Find out.
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"Urine and urinalysis have, for hundreds of years, been one of the ways physicians have looked at health," says Tomas Griebling, MD, MPH, vice chair of the urology department at the University of Kansas.
"From a historical view, urinalysis was one of the original windows into what's happening in the body," Griebling says. That's because many of the substances circulating in your body, including bacteria, yeast, excess protein and sugar, eventually make their way into the urine.
Urine is an important part of the body's disposal process. Its job is to remove the extra water and water-soluble wastes the kidneys filter out of the blood. "The urine is there primarily to get rid of toxins or things that would otherwise build up in the body that would be bad for the body," says Anthony Smith, MD, professor and chief of urology at the University of New Mexico. | http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=112635 | dclm-gs1-077830000 |
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In the vein of "Hail to England", but worse - 61%
Jophelerx, August 13th, 2012
The sad thing about this album is that, unlike most other Manowar albums, it actually has some pretty good ideas strewn throughout; unfortunately, they're rarely nurtured in a way that would make the songs enjoyable enough to listen to all the way through. Sure, if you cut out all of the quality sections, you might have fifteen minutes, give or take, of good music, but it would hardly be listenable like that. If you expected another Hail to England, you're definitely going to be disappointed, though it does at least have some energy to it, unlike Into Glory Ride.
Two things, at least, are in top form here. The production, unlike that of the previous album, is quite good, with a strong guitar, strong vocals, and nice, solid drums. Adams is, as usual, in top form, sounding just as good as he did on the last three albums (for a more in-depth description of his vocal delivery, check out my review of Hail to England). Unfortunately, this also features one of the biggest faults of HtE; the godawful bass solo. This time titled "Thunderpick", we are once again subjected to three minutes of some of the worst shit ever recorded; just a mishmash of seemingly random notes, strewn together actually somewhat masterfully in the least enjoyable way possible; it actually takes some skill to make something sound this shitty.
Thankfully, the rest of the album isn't quite as abysmal. The rest of the songs basically fall into three categories; crappy AOR a la Battle Hymns, ballads, and decent epic power metal. "All Men Play on 10" and "Animals" fall into the AOR category, with few riffs and boring, poppy vocal lines, these songs have very little substance and elicit very little response. They are entirely skippable, with no redeeming qualities. The ballad of the album is "Mountains", which is also quite skippable, with little energy and plodding, meandering riffs a la Into Glory Ride, although in the ballad's defense there are a few good ideas towards the end of the song, they're just discarded almost as soon as they arrive, discarding any sort of structure in favor of the directionless mess we're presented with.
Finally, there are four songs that don't utterly suck, including one song that is actually excellent. "Guyana (Cult of the Damned)" is decent, a song about Jim Jones and his cult that committed mass suicide via poisoned kool-aid; while the material is interesting, the song is pretty inconsistent. There are epic parts of the song, but ultimately it just sort of drones on; overall it's not particularly good, with few good riffs or vocal lines. The vocals towards the end of the song do have some energy to them, thankfully, but it's not enough to make the song as a whole worthwhile. The title track is of similar quality, with a promising opening but just not enough substance to make it enjoyable overall. "The Oath" is marginally better, with good vocal lines and a slightly more epic orientation, the song is reminiscent of Virgin Steele's The House of Atreus: Act II, albeit a bit worse. However, it's worth at least an occasional listen, has some good soloing, and is mildly enjoyable.
"Thor (The Powerhead)", thankfully, is quite epic, and easily stacks up to the best material on Hail to England. Great riffs, great vocal lines, a great chorus, this song is the epitome of what Manowar should have been, creating a wonderfully glorious atmosphere that leaves the listener wanting more. Unfortunately, even an album of this quality isn't consistent for Manowar, and it would be the last "good" album they would release, before descending into complete and irredeemable shite with the follow-up. Sign of the Hammer marks Manowar's dying breath, although, to be fair, they'd been on the brink of death since they began their incredibly inconsistent journey in 1980. Listen to "The Oath" and "Thor (The Powerhead)", and then go check out some quality epic power like '90's Virgin Steele!
On the Heels of the Gifted - 96%
lonerider, May 25th, 2012
“Sign of the Hammer” is Manowar’s fourth studio album. Incredibly enough, their first four full-lengths were all published in a span of little more than two years and, as a both varied and highly consistent effort, is deserving of the highest praise. In this humble reviewer’s opinion, this is in fact Manowar at their very best, as it stands as one of very few of the band’s albums without any bad songs on it and, beside some very good ones, boasts a number of standout tracks as well, be it the fast and furious title track, the majestic and pounding “Thor (The Powerhead)” or the truly epic “Guyana” and “Mountains”.
Even the prototypical filler track, “Thunderpick”, works much better than most previous or later instrumentals whose sole purpose is really to provide a platform allowing Joey DeMaio to show off his phenomenal bass-playing skills (cf. “William’s Tale” or “Black Arrows”). The reason is that “Thunderpick” actually features some rather catchy passages and, with its unmistakably South American-tinged melodies, makes perfect sense as a kind of overture to the following epic track “Guyana”. In fact, I don’t even see them as two separate tracks but rather consider “Thunderpick” to be the intro to “Guyana”. Consequently, even when I don’t listen to the album as a whole, I hardly ever listen to “Guyana” without playing “Thunderpick” first.
Track number two, “Animals”, features incredibly goofy, sexually charged lyrics but otherwise passes as a solid hard-rocking tune that’s really fun to sing along with. Then again, if you were seriously expecting to find meaningful, thought-provoking or even poetic lyrics on a Manowar album of all places, you must have spent the past thirty years living under some sort of rock. When speaking of lyrics, though, “Sign of the Hammer” nonetheless has to be considered one of Manowar’s best or, if nothing else, least embarrassing efforts. Even the usual self-adulating fare as in “All Men Play on Ten” has a likeable tongue-in-cheek quality to it that makes it a lot more palatable than the many instances when Manowar were seriously touting themselves as THE heaviest, fastest, most brilliant, most uncompromising – in short, most earth-shattering heavy metal band of all time. “Thor (The Powerhead)” is based on Norse mythology, “The Oath” delivers an occult and gore-inspired message and the title track includes some very memorable lines as well. It is the two long tracks, however, which deserve special mention in this regard: as a song title, “Mountains” may sound kind of dumb at first, but the song is not so much about mountaineering or mountains in a physical but more in a metaphorical sense, using mountains as a symbol for human ambition and perseverance. The final track “Guyana (Cult of the Damned)” may even be the band’s best lyrical effort ever, dealing with Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple and the mass suicide of his followers in Guyana in 1978. It is a very sinister subject in and of itself and, knowing what really transpired back in the day, the infamous opening line (“Thank you for the Kool-Aid, Reverend Jim”) is downright creepy. Overall, the song serves as a grim and surprisingly thoughtful tale of blind faith and devotion gone horribly wrong.
The production on “Sign of the Hammer” is nothing to write home about, as it sounds quite dated – this was released in 1984 after all – and more than a little muffled, but it serves as one of those examples where an underwhelming production doesn’t detract from the overall quality of an album but rather lends it some additional charm. This is clearly a product of the eighties musically, so that typical early 1980s sound is only fitting.
The cover artwork is somewhat peculiar, sporting a black hammer symbol (the eponymous sign of the hammer, supposedly) in a white square that is tilted by 45 degrees. The square is placed inside a red box displaying the band logo and name of the album, and that box in turn is set against a background that looks distinctively like tree bark. It is a rather curious design, but it is quite unique and easily beats out the legendary band pictures depicting the guys with loin cloths and swords held high, one of which was even put on the front cover of their second album “Into Glory Ride”.
Since the 1980s were arguably the time when Manowar were at their creative peak and “Sign of the Hammer” is an almost flawless album that may well be their best from that period, I would conclude that it also ranks as Manowar’s best album ever – well, at least in my book. To sum it up briefly, this is a true metal classic and a must-have for every metalhead!
Sounds as strong today as it did 25 years ago - 90%
autothrall, October 22nd, 2009
I've often been critical of Manowar, as I've long considered them both the best and worst practical joke metal music has ever conceived. Unfortunately, the joke is on myself and everyone who has ever questioned them, because metal is decades old now and the absurd stereotypes propagated by Manowar and their peers now dominate the world's mindview of our beloved music, which has been a huge hindrance to its acceptance in culture.
But you know what? Fuck culture. And fuck me. Manowar doesn't give a damn. They love what they do and they have never stopped doing it, regardless of the changing extremity of the genre's landscape around them. And believe it or not, there was a time where I eagerly awaited the band's albums, since they were pretty spotless in the early phase of their career. 1984 was a busy year for the metal gods, releasing two great efforts. Sign of the Hammer was the inferior of the two (I prefer Hail to England, only slightly), but it is not without some impressive, memorable tracks of its own.
Who can ever forget "All Men Play on 10"? As corny as this track might seem on paper, it's the kind of thing I can play for just about any human being and they'll at least smile, if not break into song themselves. That's how you kick off an album, with balls out riffing, blunt lyrics and a chorus to die for. If you want speed and power you've got "Animals" and "The Oath", but the album truly revels in its more 'epic' moments, the huge tracks like "Mountains" or balladry of "Guyana (Cult of the Damned)", perhaps the best metal song about Jim Jones ever?!
Manowar is truly the band to go mainline with all this sword and sorcery shit in metal music. Sure, bands were doing it in the 60s and 70s, but most modern fantasy power metal streams directly from this album (and its immediate family). They were singing generic tributes to the Vikings and Odin long before Amon Amarth picked up a pen and paper. Miraculously, Sign of the Hammer sounds as strong today as it did 25 years ago, with great atmosphere, powerful chugging rhythms and strong leads. If you're just looking to start their catalog, this year is a great bet, for having not one, but two killer records. I hate to sound like a 'born again' fan, but listening to this record in 2009 truly puts things in perspective. Death to false metal indeed.
Pounding onwards, riding into glory??? - 68%
Eisenhorn, July 16th, 2007
Um no, in a word. Manowar certainly were pounding into glory on the whirlwind created by their earlier releases but it seems that for this release they must have dismounted their horses/bikes/whatevers and started shuffling forwards very slowly. Oh sure there are some points where the band clearly started running and I think they must have caught a high speed train for Mountains but otherwise this is a release clearly lacking in power, might and above all any semblance of glory.
Most of the songs are either dull and forgettable like The Oath which always makes me head straight for the "skip" button on my CD player because of its dull vocals, subdued guitar and boring solo; or just plain bad like Animals which has terrible sex based lyrics, a boring chorus and really, really quiet drumming. Even Thor (the Powerhead) and the title track fail to interest me after just a few plays and those are the type of song that I so enjoy on other Manowar albums, those being the cheesy, fantastical epics.
This time around Joey's solo piece is the vaunted Thunderpick and besides being far too long for its own good and having possibly the lamest name for a track ever it mainly falls flat due to it being so mundane. It really is just wankery with no real direction or catchy rhythm unlike the great William's Tale.
The album does however feature two songs that manage to partially pull it out of the cess pool of it's own existance. These being Guyana (The Cult of the Damned) and Mountains. The former dazles with it's immaculate guitar and bass lines and sumptuous vocals but the albums real centrepiece is Mountains. A beautiful pseudo-ballad that contains great bass work from Joey, inspiring lyrics sung with real emotion and obvious talent from Adams and although the guitar is not up there with Ross' performance in Guyana; Scott Columbus gives a great performance on the drums during the heavier parts of the song.
The main thing that manages to keep the album afloat and still worthy of the Manowar name is quite simply those two songs. The best part is however that those songs are the longest two on the entire album, both coming in at over seven minutes. So thats 14 minutes of sheer musical bliss and about 25 minutes of tat. Considering that it's still 14 minutes of great Manowar and you can pick this album up for a fiver (I did at least) I would still say that this is an album you should own but don't expect to get blown away.
Crush the Infidels in Your Way - 80%
Frankingsteins, July 13th, 2007
The eighties were an incredible and stupid time, though my own memories are admittedly vague and mainly concern Postman Pat and fish paste sandwiches. Heavy metal bands wearing codpieces and singing about historical battles were unusually motivated in their craft, and most managed to consistently release a brand new studio album every single year while also managing to fit in a painstaking world tour to promote the last one. In 1984, Manowar served up two doses of overkill in the form of ‘Hail to England’ and its less well-known successor, ‘Sign of the Hammer.’ While the New Yorkers were obviously heavily driven that year to spread their message of the glory of Vikings and heavy metal, two releases in such a short space of time arouse fears that these records will favour quantity over quality. But could you really get enough Manowar? The answer is clearly no. Shut up.
Manowar is often quite rightly seen as the silliest band of the lot, but these earlier albums are right up there with the best of eighties metal, filled with classic speed assaults and more relaxed and compelling offerings. The band’s penchant for showing off costs their releases a little of their otherwise high quality, particularly noticeable in Joey DeMaio’s trademark bass solo track for each album, but there aren’t many bands that achieved a similarly high level of consistency in the same period. ‘Sign of the Hammer’ is significantly the end of a era for Manowar, before they switched to the major label Atlantic Records and their more polished and commercially viable tirades against ‘false metal’ sell-outs took on a decidedly hypocritical side. Coming in at the tail-end of an exhaustive period that saw the band’s sound become increasingly epic and its subject matter more fantastical, this album is at once a satisfying culmination of all the disparate Manowar elements, summoned into a final desperate and somewhat knackered charge.
In terms of theme, Manowar’s first album featured songs about (in order) bikes, heavy metal, juvenile independence, Vietnam, the glory of Manowar and the glory of battle. Afterwards, the laughable focus on heavy metal and the band itself remained a staple, but the contemporary political angle was increasingly replaced with more epic songs about Conan the Barbarian-style fantasy battles and the violent side of Viking mythology. ‘Sign of the Hammer’ returns to the more mixed focus of the first album, with the classic final song referring specifically to the 1978 mass suicide of the Jonestown cult, balanced out by an opening song about the band itself that can’t help but be reminiscent of Spinal Tap and the by-now customary Viking song ‘Thor (The Powerhead),’ which is fittingly apt for the band’s last great album in dealing with the prophesied end of Viking civilisation when the gods will fight the giants.
The production quality of this album is unfortunately a little inferior to its predecessors, perhaps revealing a rushed nature to this second recording of the year, and it doesn’t help that attention is drawn that way in the opening ‘All Men Play on 10,’ as Eric Adams condemns his contemporaries in other bands that settle for ‘a sound that’s real thin.’ All Manowar albums thus far have begun with a fast and upbeat metal anthem such as this, and although it’s undeniably cool in the 80s metal fashion, it doesn’t really stand out against the competition, but the main guitar riff is distinctive and memorable. Its successor ‘Animals’ is an unfortunate piece of very early filler that manages to be fast and full of energy, but isn’t really about anything significant, and sounds more like KISS than anything. At only three and a half minutes it’s not long enough to become tedious or a problem, but the album really needed a stand-out track at this early point to win the listener over, and sadly this isn’t it. It’s a shame, as the mediocre song, which isn’t helped by its arbitrary thematic title, is the precursor to a very solid half-hour of Manowar at its finest, interrupted only by DeMaio’s inevitable bass session at the penultimate track.
The afore-mentioned ‘Thor (The Powerhead)’ starts things off brilliantly, a five minute mini-epic that remains exciting throughout. Ross “The Boss” excels at guitar, from the opening riffs to the long and very cool solo, backed up by Scott Columbus with some of his best drum work and the always reliable bass clunk of DeMaio. As they achieved with the astounding ‘Blood of My Enemies’ on the previous album, the band manages to evoke the ancient Viking landscape with all the atmosphere of a film score, but without having to rely on external gimmicks such as a keyboard or the orchestration that pervades their more recent work. In this respect, there’s a clear link between songs like ‘Thor,’ ‘Blood of My Enemies’ and the title track, discussed later, and the later ‘Viking metal’ genre pioneered by Bathory and other Scandinavian black metal artists. It may seem ludicrous to newcomers on first listen, but Manowar’s music has had far-reaching implications across the board, explaining why so many black, death, symphonic and power metal bands have covered their work.
Despite the foreboding generality of a title similar to that of ‘Animals,’ ‘Mountains’ proves to be the far more impressive of the two, and is executed at a far slower pace. DeMaio’s bass provides the rhythm while Ross “The Boss” is free to exude some atmospheric minimalism with his down-tuned guitar, never striving for the soaring melodies of other bands, only becoming prominent and heavy in the slow choruses. Eric Adams’ triumphal vocals are punctuated by drumming in a sequence that’s a little over the top, but should just be enjoyed for the optimistic ‘feel-good’ anthem that it is. Unfortunately, this is the one song on the album that outstays its welcome, somehow lasting past seven minutes without much variation, aside from a pleasant atmospheric section led by the bass in the middle. A cacophonous riff breaks the silence at the end as ‘Sign of the Hammer’ begins, another great battle anthem that seems thematically linked to ‘Thor,’ but only as much as any of Manowar’s battle songs are related to each other. The pace is relentless and exhausting, not up to the impossible heights later set by death metal but beating all of the band’s contemporaries, and Adams screams along very satisfyingly above the pounding instruments in the chorus. It’s a shame, really, that a couple of minutes weren’t transferred from ‘Mountains’ to this one, but that probably would have ruined things.
‘The Oath’ suffers a little from its position so late in the album as it doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been heard a little better elsewhere, but it’s essential listening for Eric Adams going even more out of control than he did on the previous song, and for approaching the thrash metal of the band’s earlier ‘Kill With Power.’ The main riff is memorable, and if this had opened the album it would be a Manowar classic, rather than the second rate song it’s relegated to at track six. Afterwards, it’s bass solo time again with the standable ‘Thunderpick,’ a little longer than DeMaio usually puts us through but apparently a rhythm of his own devising this time, rather than a butchering of a classical piano melody. The one advantage of this song, which is at the same time a little irritating, is that its conclusion really does lead perfectly into ‘Guyana (Cult of the Damned),’ making that final song sound a little incomplete without it. ‘Guyana’ is similar to ‘Mountains’ in its reflective and atmospheric sound, but this time builds brilliantly over the first minutes with Adams’ sinister thanks echoing over a marching drum-beat leading to the inevitable moment of mass suicide and the song’s bitter finale. It’s not a subject matter Manowar are more remembered for, and seems very tucked away at the end of this comparatively obscure album, but it’s among their better songs from the period.
Overall, ‘Sign of the Hammer’ tries to be something of a reworking of the first album aided by several years’ worth of valuable experience, but it falls a little flat. The debut album worked so well for beginning with very traditional Motörhead/Judas Priest hard rock and moving towards the grander and more original epic style towards the end, the style that would dominate the next two albums and the majority of this release. ‘Sign of the Hammer’ struggles to recapture that innocent simplicity in the first two songs, but the band no longer seem confident in the stripped down approach. It’s just as well, because epic territory is where they always excelled the best, and ‘Thor (The Powerhead),’ ‘Sign of the Hammer,’ ‘The Oath’ and ‘Guyana (Cult of the Damned)’ stand proudly alongside songs from the earlier albums such as ‘Dark Avenger,’ ‘Battle Hymn,’ ‘Blood of My Enemies,’ ‘Army of the Immortals’ and the entire ‘Into Glory Ride’ album (bet you can’t wait for that review) as the band’s finest work.
The question remains whether more patience that year would have resulted in a single, highly consistent album in the vein of ‘Into Glory Ride,’ rather than this mostly good album and the fairly mediocre ‘Hail to England.’ It’s probable that some of the more throwaway songs on both would have been discarded in favour of putting more work into the better ones, but that would mean essentially losing all the enjoyable rubbish and not gaining very much for songs like ‘Thor’ which the band couldn’t conceivably improve. It’s probably for the best that ‘Hail to England’ was rushed out when it was so that work could begin on its more worthwhile predecessor, it’s probably just a case of the band being too impatient to wait around perfecting things when they’re all ready to go. Either way, Manowar wouldn’t release another album for a comparatively astonishing three years, after which things would never be quite so good again...
Hell yes. - 80%
caspian, November 8th, 2006
The whole Barbarian metal thing is awesome, as long as you're not ironic about it. (Well, I don't know any Ironic barbarian metal bands, but I'm sure there are tonnes...). If you're going to do something, do it all the way, and it will be cool. Manowar are an example of this. It would be easy to diss these guys, but these guys' seriousness and just general hardcore-ness makes it awesome, and while some people will laugh about bands like Manowar, they'd never do it to their faces.
For people who have a passing familiarity with Manowar, the image might turn you off the music before you give it a listen. Don't worry though, it's not as bad as you might imagine. For the most part, Manowar deal in a highly listenable brand of big speed metal riffs, strong, operatic vocals, and big wanky guitar and bass parts. The song that really says all about this band would be the title track. The title track shows you everything that is awesome about Manowar. Check these lyrics:
Onward pounding into glory ride
Sign of the hammer be my guide
Final warning all stand aside
Sign of the hammer it's my time
Seriously, those are great lyrics. It's big, it's epic and it's metal as. While there's few places quite as stirring and anthemic as that bit, there's tonnes of awesome riffs and huge solos for you to enjoy. The Oath has some great proto thrash riffing, All Men Play on 10 has some hilarious (if awesome) lyrics and some pretty cool solos and riffs, and Mountain is a ballad that doesn't suck, which is pretty surprising. There's some pretty cool mellow parts, and it's done pretty tastefully. It was a very pleasant surprise, and proof that these guys can write killer songs.
I guess the one thing that lets this album down a bit is the production. Basically, for this kind of stuff you need thick and chunky production. Unfortunately the bass tones are real thin and the guitars don't have enough power in the mix. It's not the end of the world by any means, but it's a pity. On another note, the subject matter of Guyana (Cult of the Damned) is really weird for Manowar, and it's not really all that great a song. Manowar didn't quite have enough for a full album, I think, with a few of the songs being a bit below the mark.
In the end, this is a solid and thoroughly entertaining album. It's not an amazing work of art that will change your life, but chances are you'll love it and be headbanging along to it in no time, particularly the massive, epic title track. Extremely entertaining and epic. Highly recommended.
One of their best, a must have for epic metal fans - 96%
Lennert, May 9th, 2006
Most people who call Manowar boring and cliche seem to forget they are still in possesion of four of the best heavy metal albums, being Battle Hymns, Into Glory Ride, Hail to England and Sign of the Hammer. Now Sign of the Hammer seems to be forgotten by most of the fans I know, which I think is a great shame.
The album opens with All Men play on 10, which is a good song and a lot better than Blow your Speakers from the Fighting the World album. The lyrics are fun and the music is solid slow-paced heavy metal the way it's supposed to be. The next song Animal speeds everything up and will manage to get your head banging. It's definitly the least good song on the album, but it still stands strong on it's own. I compare it most of the time with Fight Tooth and Nail by Virgin Steele.
From these two songs on everything gets only better and better. Thor the Powerhead is a classic headbanger in the same way as Revelation and Blood of my Enemies. It's epic, fast and has some great vocal and basswork. Mountains is a ballad which doesn't get boring or gay at all, it has an atmosphere of greatness all over it. Eric Adams sounds like a God in the same way only people like Dio or David Defeis can sound like.
The speed returns with Sign of the Hammer and The Oath, which are both really cool fast metal tracks like Kill with Power from Hail to England. Thunderpick is a bassolo, and whether you like it or not (I do), I think it's one of the best Joey ever played. Then comes Guyana (cult of the damned) to close the album. Once again all the right ingredients are here: the astonishing vocal work, the incredible bassplay, smashing drumwork and a great guitarsolo.
I don't know if I like Into Glory ride more than Sign of the Hammer, but I do know these two albums are by far the best and interesting they ever released. If you want to know where bands like Wotan got their inspiration from, you should buy them both. In fact, I like to stress this to be a 'buy or die' release. Case closed.
Once more has both the good and the bad - 70%
Wez, November 7th, 2004
Right, okey, this is Manowar, which usually indicates we're in for a bumpy ride. Or at least I am, there seem to be overwhelming amounts of reviews by those who have been taken over by their evil spell and are positively ejaculating over the band whilst typing their reviews. Therefore making the keys "s", "u", "c" and "k" so stuck down that it is practically impossible for them to actually tell the truth concerning the band...
...I jest (in part), for Manowar can really pull it off to almost perfection at times, and this album certainly does have its strong moments. Eric Adams is again wailing his battle cries out with pride and passion, which is something I can't fault him for really. He still has a unique set of pipes which don't really bring to mind anybody else and are instantly identifiable. This album also gives Ross the Boss the chance to indulge more and lead guitar is given a better workout than on the previous album of the same year, Hail to England. While that album has more of a firmly consistent feel to it, opting for the straight up headbanging anthems, this one jumps around and tries to pull off more epic atmospheric pieces, and occassionally the riffs seem get lost in the mix. The title track is a good example of the effects of that, while a decent song, it's not a match for the mighty pillars to each side of it. The first two songs are really the throwaway ones for me, though while "All Men Play on Ten" has its sing-a-long vibe and a monster of a chorus, it isn't one of Manowar's best odes to the greatness of metal, Kings of Metal far surpasses it. "Animals" is a dirty rocker that seems to fail to make much of an impression despite some attempt to get back my attention with a blistering solo.
Then with "Thor (The Powerhead)" things really get cooking and we get a majestic, over the top song that I would think of what Manowar should be doing. But sadly, what this band is capable of and what they actually turn out with are two entirely different things, which is why I'm not crazily headbanging along to every second of this disc! But "Mountains" comes in and continues on the quality of the last track, but tries to build up the mood to boiling point. There's plenty going on here, but the heavy headbanging riffs are a bit scarcer and the atmospheric clean guitars and bass lead it on for most of the way. But it definitely creates that great sense of power and all the pieces fit well together. I defy anyone not to raise their fist proudly when Eric screams out "I have no fear!!!" Now moving past the already examined title track which kind of seems to work but the production makes the riffs disappear a bit, and onto another winner "The Oath". This is basically back to the anthemic Manowar of "Thor...", music to ride into battle by, with some incredibly untamed leads topped all off with in fine style with another bombastic chorus. These songs aren't necessarily the greatest heavy metal has to offer, but they are nice to hear from the often inconsistent Manowar, and are solidly written and played with buckets full of passion and conviction. Which is what I can give these songs the most credit for, even if they are lacking in some departments.
Blah, in we come with the most pointless bit of the album, the obligatory bass solo. "Thunderpick" is another three minutes of bass wankery, which is probably wholey unnecessary with zero direction. Skip it, because the best bit is yet to come. Guyana (Cult of the Damned) basically takes all the better ideas from the album and sticks them all together to make up the album's second "big epic". Starting off with the clean and acoustic guitars along with the bass leading onwards with a more subdued less pronounced and over the top way than usual. It then as is expected explodes into the album's best riffs and sense of where it's going. Although I think the chorus is overplayed a bit, it still does a good job of humbling pretty much all the other songs here. While this is no Hail to England, they still get things right enough to warrant some good amount of interest and will be another good slab of Manowar for fans of the band. Unfortunately containing some definite throwaways and a bit of a weak and at other times odd production that holds it down.
The riffs disappear, but now we get solos. - 79%
Kanwvlf, July 25th, 2004
The first thing I though after listening to the first few notes of this album was: 'Where have the riffs gone?' As they seem to have disappeared into a mess of fuzzy distortion, which is a huge shame, as the last album had great riffs. You could tell they would've been great on here, if it wasn't for the huge mess they did.
The vocals are still great, especially the scream at the beginning of Animals, but they seem to sound strangely hollow, and still don't really fit into any of the songs.
The solos are definately more impressive than ever, being major wank-fests most of the time, but really fitting the songs. By the time you get to Mountains, the riffs seem to have pulled out of their fuzzy sound, and become more clear. You can't really tell on this song, though, as it's a clean ballad, with barely any riffs at all.
But, just when you though all was good, Sign Of The Hammer gets drowned in total fuzz, apart from the solo which rockets above the song. Manowar can't seem to make any fully consistent albums.
Thunder Pick is another amazing bass solo, showing off the skill of the band members. They really don't need to do this anymore, as it was done enough across the first three albums. Guyana is another epic album ender, but it's the best I've heard from Manowar. A bass heavy introduction leads into one of Manowar's best songs, and some of the best vocals on any Manowar album.
Sentimental Value - 95%
corviderrant, April 7th, 2004
This was the first Manowar album I ever bought (on vinyl, I still have it, on 10 Records, a subsidiary of Virgin at the time), after hearing "Thor, The Powerhead" on my fave college radio metal show. And this still holds a powerful amount of sentimental value for me. The production is clear and powerful, and all parties put on their customary excellent performances--I think that "Thunderpick" is one of Joey's best recorded solos and I love how smoothly it segues into "Guyana, Cult of the Damned" without a hitch.
"Thor, The Powerhead" is one of the all time best Manowar tunes for me, with its dramatic verses, anthemic chorus, and that devastating, noisy ending with Eric holding that incredible high scream for over a minute (!!!), and I like how the emotional "Mountains" is dedicated to Joey's late father, in a rare show of sensitivity for him. The rest of the album is outstanding as well, especially "Guyana, Cult of the Damned" about the Jim Jones religious cult and Eric's chililng screams of "MOTHER! MOTHER!! MOTHERRRRRR!!!!!" at the end will make your hair stand on end. A thundering anthem that is one of their best, in my book along with "Thor...", this one is.
If you are getting into Manowar, you need this album. Along with "Hail to England", "Kings of Metal", and "Triumph of Steel", it is one of their very best opuses.
as usual, some greatness, some garbage - 71%
Abominatrix, November 19th, 2003
Ultraboris pretty much nailed this band when he said they were inconsistent. So far, the only Manowar album I've heard that I've appreciated and felt moved by all the way through was "Hail to England". Apparently, "Sign of the hammer" was recorded at around the same time as that other album, and, though it's not nearly universally brilliant, offers a few pretty good stompers and epics. I am afraid that what we might have hear is "Load/Reload" syndrome, in that these perhaps were songs that didn't quite make the cut of the original album, but I don't know enough about Manowar's history to say whether this is true. Certainly this album lacks the true anthemic classics that "Hail to England" has got, with the notable acception of "Thor: The Powerhead", but there are at least four great songs here, which for Manowar ain't too bad.
"All Men Play On Ten" rules. I don't care for some of Manowar's "heavy metal anthems", but this is simply the shit. It starts out with a cutting, pounding riff..and the verses give Eric adams full reign to sing about how he'll never turn down low to make money, etc, etc. It's very singable, and catchy, and you'll soon forget your shame and belt out the lyrics along with Mr. Adams. Manowar have stuck to their guns, too, despite how utterly vapid their latest album seems to be. "Thor", as previously mentioned, might be the album's highlight…more utterly great vocal melodies and some really nice pounding drum work. "Mountains", is a ballad…but a very solid one at that. Eric adams delivers one of his least pretentious and most stirring performances during the verses, and the twanging, scintillating bass effects (for want of a better description) are nicely evocative. Massive, proud chorus too, which everyone should agree is something Manowar does best. "Guyana (Cult of the Damned) seems to be kind of legendary among fans, but like "Sign of the Hammer", I think it's only a decent track. Spot the "Star Spangled Banner" melody in this song and win a prize.
What about the overwrought garbage? Oh, that would be a real dud of a song called "Animals", with some stupid oversexed lyrics, and no riff to speak of, and a chorus that is lame and repetitive. Then there's "Thunderpick", three and a half minutes of bullshit bass wankery courtesey of Joey DeMaio, who must have run out of ideas for classical pieces to mutilate this time, as he seems to be trying to emulate the dead-end noodling that can be found on the first King Crimson album or something. "The Oath"?…perfectly forgettable..not despicable but harmless and rather boring.
Really, I think it's Eric adams' vocals that make this album. That, and the true heavy metal attitude, although it still sounds better on "Hail to England". If you're a fan of Adams' singing, some of his best is on here, complete with those trademark piercing wail/shrieks that he always manages to make sound exactly the same every time he does them, which is somehow admirable. Now that that's over with, my one question is, why doesn't the band ever play "Thor (The Powerhead)" in concert? | http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Manowar/Sign_of_the_Hammer/578/ | dclm-gs1-077850000 |
0.036342 | <urn:uuid:1d234828-a738-4514-93da-72f6ea11c1ad> | en | 0.898873 | You are hereBridport
Bagley House
In Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain, By John H. Ingram, he mentions a paper by Miss Billington contributed to Merry England in 1883 concerning Bagley House near Bridport. The same article I am led to believe also appeared in the Dorset County Chronicle, August 1883. Her tale concerns Squire Lighte and his death. Read More »
Bettiscombe Manor
Bettiscombe Manor
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Essential Oils and the Doctrine of Signatures
Category: NAHA Teleseminars
Essential Oils and the Doctrine of Signatures
only $10.00 each
Essential Oils and the Doctrine of Signatures
with Cynthia Brownley and Joy Musacchio
So most of us know that essential oils are distilled or extracted from various parts of the plants and trees. The essential oils that we use are stored in secretory sacs in the roots, leaves, wood, flowers, leaves, seeds, fruits, bark and resin. While we readily look to the chemistry of the essential oil to determine its therapeutic uses, we can also look to the plant and tree as well as the particular part of that plant and tree that the oil comes from.
In today's world we analyze nature by way of technological imaging, before nature was simply what we saw in front of us. As Matthew Wood states, "The doctrine of signatures is used around the world in pre-modern cultures where thought-by-association is accepted as a valid means of obtaining knowledge of the world. The idea is that a plant that looks like the disease, organ, or person it will heal."
In this teleseminar we will explore:
* The correlations between certain essential oils and plant parts
* Therapeutic blending according to the Doctrine of Signatures
* The energetics and applications of various plant parts
* Signatures and Symbolism
"The practice must not proceed from the theory, but the theory from practice." -Paracelsus
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0.330319 | <urn:uuid:ef484deb-0bce-423d-a021-9b284bbeaeab> | en | 0.885502 | Texas Petro Index sets record for 7th straight month
Matt Zborowski Staff Writer The Texas Petro Index (TPI), a composite index based on a comprehensive group of upstream economic indicators released by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers (TAEP), continued to produce record highs last month amid an "economic tsunami." The June index reached 308.4, up 7.4% compared with June 2013. It was the seventh straight monthly increase and 18th rise in the past 19 months. Crude production in Texas totaled 89.75 million bbl, 24.2% higher than the previous June. The value of Texas-produced crude oil totaled more than $9.1 billion, 37.1% more than the previous June. During this year's first half, producers recovered 519.1 million bbl of oil, ...
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Havalite CMS is prone to an HTML-injection vulnerability because it fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input.
Attacker-supplied HTML or JavaScript code could run in the context of the affected site, potentially allowing the attacker to steal cookie-based authentication credentials and to control how the site is rendered to the user; other attacks are also possible.
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0.027511 | <urn:uuid:5ebc6933-9c7f-4a21-9e16-9c4a08274128> | en | 0.958465 | Simon de Beauvoir
Narrative mode , Jean-Paul Sartre , Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
The life of Simone de Beauvoir closely parallels that of her colleague, friend, and lover Jean-Paul Sartre. Her life is well documented, due to her many autobiographical works. These works also follow the lives of Sartre, Albert Camus, and other prominent philosophers of the twentieth century. Early Years
Simone Ernestine Lucie Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was born on 9 January 1908, in Paris, to Françoise and Georges de Brauvoir. While Ernestine and Lucie were the names of her grandmothers, Marie was her “Christian” name to honor the Virgin Mary. The Catholic faith would be important to Simone until her adolescence. According to her autobiographies and interviews, Simone was reading by the age of three and attempting to write almost as soon as she could read. She obtained this love for words from her father, who had a passion for books and the theatre. Zaza
Simone met Elizabeth “Zaza” Le Coin as a schoolgirl. Simone admired Zaza’s outgoing personality; she could be bold and spontaneous, while Simone was generally shy. Like Simone, Zaza was from a bourgeois Catholic family. Social standing was important to both families, but Zaza’s experiences with social norms would shape de Beuvoir’s views of social order. It is possible Zaza’s life helped create de Beauvoir’s feminism and sense of social justice. As a student, Zaza met and fell in love with Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Unfortunately for the two lovers, Mr. Le Coin had already arranged a marriage for his daughter. Zaza’s parents demanded that she never see Merleau-Ponty or Simone again, as they deemed both to be corrupting influences. Elizabeth Le Coin died of encephalitis in 1929. Simone wrote of Zaza’s short life several times. For de Beauvoir, the death of her friend revealed how unreasonable French social order was and how unfair life could be. Career Woman
Within “proper” French society, a young woman of Simone’s class was expected to marry and raise children. Simone had other...
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Old July 1 2013, 05:19 AM #7
Guy Gardener
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Location: In the lap of squalor I assure you.
Re: Equinox
Death Dolphins.
Good one.
I went through the script yesterday. They didn't say shit about Caretaker other than "We'll talk about it later."
What we do Know.
Ransom does not hunt or attack, he hides or he runs.
That means that some of his crew probably died from Caretakerrape in the Ocampan Hospice.
Janeway found Ocampa (An overnight trip at "casual" warp, minutes at high warp.) because of the energy bursts from the Array to the Ocampan City, were bloody obvious. Maybe 6 months earlier they weren't so obvious? It could have been a burst every couple hours, or every couple days, for all we know.
We assumed that the Death Dolphins (I really like that.) followed Ransom because it seemed like once you get a super engine that that's right exactly what you do, burn rubber y'know. But isn't it fortunate that their fuel supply followed them? Isn't it bloody suicidal that their fuel supply followed Equinox?
Ransom said that he needed 64 four more Death Dolphins until he had enough gas to get all the way home, so really it would have been moronic for Ransom to anything but to go around and around in circles luring and trapping Death Dolphins until he had at least 64 of them, because how likely would it have been for the Death Dolphins to follow Equinox all the way to Earth?
But that's what I used to think.
Ransom leads the Dolphins to Earth, then the Dolphins sack Earth, and everyone dies.
"Glitter is the herpes of arts and craft."
Troy Yingst. My Life as Liz
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Proper EVO Play
Proper EVO Play
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:17
StormWhisper - Titan English
44 messages
Proper EVO Play
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men DistractedEnglish - Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:17
The proper Method of EVOing has been apparently under debate for some time. So I am going to spell it out for you again. Tournament EVO is a different animal and I'm not going to bother discussing it. This is the proper method of EVO in the Lost Warehouse as per the old established EVO rules.
1) On your turn in which you play a card first. Select one of your characters. Use 6 pillz. It is ok to use less or more if the character has an exceptionally low or high power, as long as you use the rest only to modify the power of your character. Fury is NEVER appropriate in EVO mode.
2) On your opponents turn. Send up a character, which you don't plan to level. The more stars the better, but this is not necessary if you're trying to level your 5 star character clearly you don't want to send them up. Any maxxed out characters should be used in these slots as long as your opponent can reasonably defeat them.
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StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:25
3) Make sure you do NOT KO your opponent on the 3rd turn. If this is impossible, then try to alert your opponent as best you can, by sending up a character that you didn't intend to level and putting no pillz on it. This is a somewhat advanced tactic, but one you should learn in EVO as good EVO players will both expect, and recognize these signs. However you should be planning your hand from the moment you see it not to KO your opponent unless you're on the 2nd and 4th rounds. It's still not good form, but it gives you a little more breathing room.
4) Fury is NEVER appropriate in EVO mode.
5) Watch your activated bonuses and abilities. Especially anything that reduces attack or power on your opponents turn, or on your turn increases damage.
6) Maxxed GraksmxxT is NEVER an appropriate character for EVO mode. Maxxed characters should follow Vansaar's lead. They should have no more than 6 power, no power/attack reducing abilities (or bonuses). Damage reducing abilities are frowned on
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:35
7) You are not trying to win EVO mode. Especially in the Lost Warehouse. There is no benefit to this.You "Win" at EVO by having two of your characters win, and two of your opponent's characters win rounds.
EVO Deck Building.
Your EVO deck should only include 1 maxed character. Vansaar. Sometimes this is unavoidable (you still have 3-4 characters that need to level and everything else you own is maxxed). There is still hope. Proper Maxxed characters to include are available. You want to chose characters that have no reduction abilities, (or preferably no abilities at all) low power, and lots of stars.
All Stars:
Lamar or Stryker are acceptable as a last resort and only if you have no other All Stars in your deck. That bonus is ugly.
Mikki or Katsuhkay are ok 3 stars to use as maxxed filler, but really aren't great choices since 3 stars are best for 1-2 star characters to level on.
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:42
Laetitia is about it. Vermyn N is an awful choice unless you happen to know your opponent has a horde of high damage characters they need leveled (and if that's the case you shouldn't need this guide anyway). Again you don't want her with other Bangers, but her ability makes her a great match up for 1 power characters to level on.
Fang Pi Clang:
Sai San. I know I said damage reducers are bad, but he only reduces damage by 1. And his pathetic 3 power means even a 1 power should mow him down with 7 pillz. However that 7 damage makes him an unattractive choice and NEVER with other Fang Pis just in case he wins.
Maxed Lost Hog is NEVER the right choice for an EVO deck. People will assume you're trying to 1HKO them.
Erika is passable. Sigmund used to be a good choice but he went CR and his price skyrocketed. Even still that 8 damage hurt when he did win.
Maxed Vladimir is a completely wrong choice. If he's in your EVO deck, take him out now.
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:50
Bunny and Crystal are ok choices but those 7 and 8 damages are scary. Be careful as the randomizer will bite you in the butt with it on occasion. Watch that 8 attack on Junkz as well. It can swing the battle against low power characters.
Malmoth, Perle, and DJ Korr are NOT acceptable EVO choices. (I've seen all of these entirely too often).
La Junta
Flavio (even though he's 3 stars and a CR), Winifred and Python are the best of the bunch for EVO filler here. Much like the Fang Pis watch that 2 damage bonus.
Maxed Wardog, Jane Ramba, and No Nam should be left at home when EVOing 7 Powers are hard to overcome for people evoing 1 and 2 Star characters. and No Nam does a metric ton of damage.
Leaders are just a bad idea. They conflict with Vansaar if you are running him. If you aren't Bridget is acceptable as a substitute.
PlanchaEVO - Titan Português
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:51
I understand that evo is easier but han gives much more exp. A moderator should make a subject about han because many people dont know how to properly play han.
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 07:57
Because of Montana's high minimum on it's attack reduction most 1 and 2 power characters won't even be phased by it. However higher power characters will so NEVER pair up Montanas.
Flesh Pimp is ok. Usually his power reduction won't come into play much but he's a last resort. Mort Bax works better, as does Zodiac. Gary is a winner as long as his Montana bonus isn't active. Gary has a very low power (5) for a 5 star and his damage can vary but his power makes him great for dealing with 2-4 power characters since their damage is generally low. Gary is near perfect EVO filler.
Vickie, Don, and Ottavia, should never see the light of EVO in their maxed forms.
Candy Jack falls into the same catagory as many others. Ok as a last resort. Kenny is a safe bet as his low damage just means your opponent won't get hosed if the randomizer likes you.
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 08:06
Ielena's 8 power at max makes her a big no no for EVO. Estalt is a strange bird however. His power rarely comes into play, and his low power makes him seem like a great choice. The trick is that 8 damage. Against high power EVO characters this is rarely a problem, but like most of the other last resorts on the list, when the randomizer acts badly that 8 damage rips into your opponent and makes it hard to continue EVO.
I say avoid him, unless you just can't find ANYTHING better.
Really only Ninja Nyne.. and well we've been over this a million times.
Should I even have to tell you that maxed Charlie is NOT an acceptable EVO character? Really? Yayoi? I mean come on. There's not a maxed Cat that should ever really see EVO play. They're generally a very low star bunch.
Ndololo is the only one I could even see as passable here, and he's a CR.
By now we should know that Armand, Kiki, and Noodile in their maxed forms don't belong in EVO.
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 08:15
At no time should you EVER be using maxxed Sakhorm as EVO filler. Ever. Especially not Graksxmkkt or Uranus. No ifs ands or buts. That bonus is just too deadly to low power characters.
Chloe (and Miss Chloe) would be wonderful if it weren't for their high damage and damage reducing abilities. Copper and Dargan would be great if your opponent was filled with stop opponent abiltiy. Robin is acceptable as a 3 star (but not with other Sentinels).
Really.. Sentinels have nothing worthwhile to offer as EVO filler. (No Zdrone isn't really that great either).
Ulu Watu
If you're running no other Ulus Coraille is acceptable as is Razor (don't use both of them). And are actually preferable to most other filler.
Tanaereva is however NOT. I see him a lot because of his damage reduction. Same with Wee Lee who is a marginally better choice.
StormWhisper - Titan - Wise Men Distracted English
Thursday 05/04/2007, 08:40
Jim is acceptable for the same reasons that Laetitia is. Zlatar works too.
Jackie, Dorian, and Zatman can be left at home.
To recap:
The best max fillers: (if you must have maxed characters)
Gary, Jim, Laetitia, Coraille, Razor, Kenny, Bridget, Vansaar, and Erika are your best bets.
Maxed characters that aren't named Vansaar especially GraksmxxT, Charlie, Vermyn N, Chloe (or Miss Chloe), Jane Ramba, and Uranus should NOT be in casual EVO decks. Anything with a 7 or more power is a bad idea.
And above all, just use common sense and courtesy. If you wouldn't want your opponent doing something like that to you.. don't do it to them
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0.064922 | <urn:uuid:c2f406aa-ce15-492c-8165-22e1a2e967e5> | en | 0.978895 | "…I found the article somewhat glorif[ying] life as a junkie. Even the mugshots of Ryan were not that unflattering. Between the sympathetic judge, easy access to premium drugs, lax drug laws and incredible highs, being a junkie sounds almost doable for the average citizen. Nowhere were readers given the impression Ryan's life was ravaged or otherwise turned inside out as drugs are known to do. Then again, deterrence may not have been one of the objectives when writing the article." —Kate
"Although I found the article interesting, I have to agree with Kate. The attached images on Ryan make him look more like a hipster strolling through Powell's books on his break from the coffee shop, rather than a drug addict." —Anne
"Life as a junkie 'glorified'? The guy's homeless. The only food he has is what he gets from a handout or a dumpster. He has no safe place to sleep, wash, or store his possessions. He spends quality time in a quality jail cell. If he doesn't get his fix, he gets violently sick. He risks getting God knows what disease by using discarded needles. Not a pretty picture. It'd be hard to paint a more ugly picture of life than that. Think about it." —Eco2geek
"While Ryan has perfected a look, I don't think the article glorified the lifestyle of a junkie. Heroin addiction is not as obvious as that of a tweaked-out meth head who is slowly marching toward death one open sore at a time. Heroin addicts often maintain quite well in society for a period of time...but they are ending up dead in increasing numbers in Portland. Quite a few have been college students who, no doubt, momentarily found a certain appeal to looking like a cast member from Rent. I'm sure the glamour wears thin very quickly. If treatment fails, give Ryan another year. ..if he is still alive, the twinkle left in his hipster eyes will sadly be a memory." —Mandy
"…do you really want to see horrendous mugshots just to prove that he's an addict? I don't even know Ryan but I am glad to see the improvement on his photos, which means there could be a chance that he can turn his life around with some help.
There are so many Ryans out there who definitely need help…obviously, he LOVED what he felt for the first time and got hooked on it. We shouldn't be judgmental…send a blessing to all the Ryans out there, because we have no idea what they are going through." —Ellehcim
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0.067002 | <urn:uuid:00a70d6c-8508-4f7a-bc9b-55f2dbc5fff4> | en | 0.952728 | Reviews for Second Chance
Cute-but-the-devil chapter 8 . 2/12/2012
Oh how I loves it, to read it is to feel the sunset dance on my skin, to read it is to laugh like a child would. I have to say I would loge to read more if you would be so kind and write more, if you don't that would make my very sad, also I like the raoul losing his memore a and so I'll be heckin up on the fic fem time to time. My little auther.
BakaDot chapter 8 . 7/4/2011
That's terrible! You would think that if they thought it was gross they wouldn't have looked up the two characters together. Don't worry though, I don't think those gay-bashing homophobes are even aware of what Phantom of the Opera is... And even if they were i'm fairly certain they would doubt that PotO slash exists... Unless they've read the rules of the internet of course ;D
Great story so far though, keep writing.
Kidiu chapter 8 . 11/23/2010
Aw, that is really mean, I'm sorry for your friend. I don't understand why people would even read if they think the stuff is gross, much less leave a rude review.
Anyway, you ended this with something that totally makes me crave more. I'm sad that it's been so long, but I still really enjoyed what you wrote, especially the last chapter.
Monsieur Opera Ghost chapter 8 . 7/23/2010
Almost 4 years with no update. Are you alive? If not, it's the only acceptable excuse for not continuing this incredible story.
Beliar chapter 8 . 4/10/2010
hello :)
I really like your fic, it has a very interesting concept (and the smut is great, too *cough* xD)
Is there any chance you'll update it or is the story abandoned? It's been a few years, after all
Don't worry about the "not perfect" thing or whatever, I thought it was a great concept and you implemented it in a nice way, I enjoyed reading the story so far and I'm sure I'd enjoy new chapters, too *hint, hint* ;)
Save-a-broom-ride-the-player chapter 8 . 12/18/2009
really hot, it's an interesting concept also
Hikarikurai24587 chapter 8 . 8/23/2009
Nice update plese
Miss Tuesday chapter 8 . 6/23/2009
nyu !
this fic is really well written (sadly it's more often we fall upon crappy Raoul/erik phics than nice ones like yours)
please update soon hun! :)
OrangePip chapter 8 . 6/3/2008
This sounds promising :)
I shall look forward to your updates
Tie-dyed Trickster chapter 8 . 4/6/2008
(rubs eyes and rereads chapter. starts to review with stupid yet happy grin on her face) Wow... if that's how well you write scenes like this, I can't wait 'til you get them into the bedroom /together/...! And yes, the writer of thatarticle is very right - don't leave your readership hanging, even if they're new and have only just found this fic don't leave us hanging! (gazes beseechingly at writer) It's too good to die! There aren't enough nice, yummy, steamy RaoulxErik fics out there as it is!
Tie-dyed Trickster
Tie-dyed Trickster chapter 7 . 4/6/2008
Actually, I like the way you use 'kiss off'. It sounds so delightfully insulting and yet isn't. I commend your brillience.
The bit 'bout Eri getting an idea is the Grinch refference.
O, that's one of the nicest kiss scenes I've ever read! Steamy, but not overly mushy, just tantalizingly erotic. Nice... (scampers off to read next chapter)
Tie-dyed Trickster
Tie-dyed Trickster chapter 6 . 4/6/2008
Wow, she did? O! Your beta is amazing...
More kissy stuff? Then it heats up? Yays!
Tie-dyed Trickster
(plunges off to read the next chapter)
Tie-dyed Trickster chapter 5 . 4/6/2008
It was a fun chapter to read, too! _! This is neat! I hope you update soon!
Trickster (Tie-dyed)
Tie-dyed Trickster chapter 4 . 4/6/2008
(whimpering) But... but... it's good! Going slow makes it realistic. Not that I'm not as eager as everyone else is to throw the two of them in bed together, but you have to start small... And I like this. It's /interesting/...
Tie-dyed Trickster
Tie-dyed Trickster chapter 2 . 4/6/2008
Hey, what a fun idea! I'm looking at one story where Erik's losthis memory at the moment, and I've read other stories where characters lost their memories, but this is the first one I've ever read where a character only lost a bit of their memory! I know that this is an entirely possible occurance - not all amnesia is a total lack of memories - and I like the idea of a story like this. I hope you haven't given up on it - it's been awhile since the last update!
Tie-dyed Trickster (believes there is not enough slashfic in the world)
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0.028309 | <urn:uuid:64024ceb-54e6-4e17-9830-38443f1768b8> | en | 0.964868 | Bike Helmet v. Skater Helmet?
May 31, 2011 12:18 PM Subscribe
I see a lot of bike riders wearing skater-type helmets (e.g. Bell Faction helmets). They look hotter than vented bike helmet. (E.g. Giro Prolight.)
But do they provide better protection in a crash?
Also, is a $200 bike helmet better than a $40 helmet? I'd buy a fancy helmet if I thought it made me safer, but not to save myself 40g weight.
posted by musofire to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
You may see people misusing helmets instead of buying two, or you may be seeing dual-use helmets.
Helmets designed to meet one of the prevailing standards (in the US, the minimum is the CPSC's) will for all practical purposes perform similarly. The vented helmets compensate by using different or thicker materials, but should not perform noticeably differently.
You probably don't get more protection for $200, but you do get more style or brand-name bragging rights -- and often, less weight to lug.
As far as saving yourself weight, if it doesn't matter to you, it doesn't matter to you. There are those for whom it matters, so save those helmets for them.
posted by dhartung at 12:23 PM on May 31, 2011
I see a lot of people who don't wear bike helmets correctly, even when they have the helmet properly fastened. That is, the helmet sits back on their head and does not cover (and will not provide protection for) the front section of their noggin. This is a lot more difficult to do with a skate type helmet, which sits closer to the head and is shaped in a way that makes it harder to wear it back on the head.
(This is, of course, not the helmet’s fault, but it does mean that people wearing skater helmets may be better protected than those wearing poorly fitted bike helmets.)
posted by OmieWise at 12:30 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
I own a Prolight, even though I'm no pro by any stretch.* No, it's not any safer. At least, it better not be, because that would mean that it's heavier than it can be and still conform to safety standards. That's the name of the game in race helmets-- as light as possible while still holding up in a crash to a certain criterion.
* I know this isn't relevant to your question, but I actually found it to be one of the most comfortable helmets I tried, even though a lot of people don't like it. And it doesn't save 40g; it's half the weight of most road helmets, and a third of the weight of that Bell Faction. It may not sound like much, but it's weight that's only supported by one's neck which really adds up over the course of a 6-8 hour ride, especially when one's spine, like mine, isn't the sturdiest thing in the world.
posted by supercres at 12:36 PM on May 31, 2011
Skate helmets tend to be capable of taking more than one impact (because skaters, um, fall a lot), while bike helmets can only take one significant impact. However, the bike helmet test impact is a higher velocity situation, I beleive. Skate helmets and bike helmets have different requirements, though there are some helmets that fulfill multiple standards.
check out this CPSC Publication for more details.
I have destroyed three bike helmets over the years. Each protected me fine(i.e. I would be dead or a vegetable now), though the cost ran from less than 40 bucks to north of 100.
posted by rockindata at 12:40 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
Usually with expensive bike helmets you're paying for looks, weight, and ventilation. I don't think they are any safer.
posted by ghharr at 12:50 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
There are a lot of problems with helmets
I'm a commuter cyclist who wears a skater helmet because it fits snugly to my head and is round thus protecting my neck in a crash as well as the fact that it will last multiple impacts. Bike helmets are designed to do well in two types of crashes, where you hit an object head on and launch directly into it or when you fall backwards off of your bike onto the back of your head. These two scenarios are very realistic if you are biking down hill in some woods or racing, but in my extensive experience getting develostrated in city riding, not my top concerns. I much prefer something that will not rip my neck around as I rag doll physics my way through glancing blows when shit goes down, will continue protecting me when I hit the next object as well as when I'm down and in the street, and won't catch force on exposed points. Really, it depends on the types of riding you do and the types of crashes you could get into, generally I recommend a cheap standard helmet rated for cycling, but especially for beginners starting on the sidewalk, there is no excuse for demanding they get a helmet designed for a 20mph crash strait into a brick wall when they're going to get hit from the side.
Whats more I really love mine specifically, it is shaped like a brass bowl* and looks like Mambrino's Helmet. So I get to feel like Don Quixote as I ride my skinny hungry lookin' stallion around town.
It does get really hot during the summer though and I'm thinking of switching back temporarily sometime in the next month.
*(this but without the snowboarding padding)
posted by Blasdelb at 1:39 PM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]
A bike shop geek friend of mine showed me both side to side to offer his explaination. If you just look at the two styles closely, you can see the structural differences and what they are intended to do.
The skater helmet offers a more or less equal amount of padding all the way around your head. It makes sense for a fall where you might be tumbling, and the only impact is between you and the ground at a low speed and the impact with the ground only happens once.
The bicycle style helmet is basically an arch constructed over the top of your head, at its widest around the brim. The arch aspect of it defends more against crushing types of impact, and the thick brim areas are for impacts at higher speed--the helmet will face impact an inch before your head does, and it's designed to crush when the impact happens.
I don't know if that's true, but it does make sense intuitively if you compare them. I would never bike in urban traffic with a skater helmet.
Oh and ditto proper fit and adjustment--I rarely, rarely see other cyclists with helmets adjusted correctly. The best way to learn is to meet some people who have suffered serious head injuries. It will teach you very quickly.
posted by quarterframer at 3:13 PM on May 31, 2011
Many/most of the "skater style" helmets I've seen around these parts are chosen purely for aesthetics (and many of the popular brands are rated for and marketed to cyclists). Especially among the non-sporty cycling set.
I don't think there's any safety benefit, though I suppose some small difference might exist for purely coincidental reasons.
Also, my understanding is that any bike helmet is going to be useless to protect you if you're hit by a car going more than about 30mph. Rendering any "I would never bike in urban traffic..." arguments meaningless. At that point you might as well say "I would never wear a bike helmet, wtf would be the point?"
posted by Sara C. at 4:50 PM on May 31, 2011
A local bike shop, Blackstone Bicyles, is run by a guy who races mountain bikes. I took one of my kids in there and he fitted him for a skater-style helmet. He prefers them for kids because they're built to take mroe hits; they provide better side protection than a helmet that primarily covers the forehead and top of the skull; and their superior style means kids are less likely to resist them. He convinced me, and now my 6-y.o. son runs to get his helmet.
Now I want a cool helmet...
posted by wenestvedt at 7:00 AM on June 1, 2011
« Older My daughter and I will be in B... | I've got a memory of seeing a ... Newer »
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1. And never once was there a story about criminals/bad guys/etc COUNTING on you following the rules of engagement (the “script”). nope.. not once has it ever happened.
2. It makes me wonder how long it is before our corporate overlords have their congress make it an act of war to ‘attack’ a corporations assets or profit?
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Discussion in 'English Only' started by novinka1, May 4, 2013.
1. novinka1 Senior Member
Hi, this quote is from "Raising Hope".
Virginia says to Maw Maw: "Maw Maw, why don't you go in the backyard and see if you can get us a varmint for dinner".
After some time Maw Maw comes back with a sack with something moving inside and says: "I couldn't find a varmint. But I found three critters and a rascal".
I don't quite understand it.
Before they read a recipe for Maw Maw's pasta sauce: "Fill your dress full of the neighbor's tomatoes, add five bottles of homemade red wine-- drinking as you go-- finish off with a fistful of
garlic and three pounds of ground varmint." Maybe this will help...
Thanks :)
Last edited by a moderator: May 4, 2013
2. lucas-sp Senior Member
English - Californian
The joke is that "varmint," "critter," and "rascal" all mean the same thing - and it's this:
The joke is A) that the recipe calls for "some kind of vermin" as its meat - it could be rat, or squirrel, or opossum, or cat... and B) that Maw Maw says "I didn't find one animal... I found four!"
3. Cagey post mod
English - US
Her including a 'rascal' among the sources of meat makes me slightly uneasy.
I would expect a rascal to be a human being, though it might also be an animal who is mischievous in a manner associated with humans. I would expect a varmint to be an animal of the sort lucas_sp describes, or a human being who is being likened disparagingly to an animal.
4. Beryl from Northallerton Moderator
British English
I think that for the joke to work, we have to presume that the participants are massively stupid, ie. that they are not even up to the job of intercepting gradations of meaning within their own idiolect.
5. RM1(SS)
RM1(SS) Senior Member
English - US (Midwest)
The joke is that while to us "critter" and "varmint" are interchangeable, to Maw Maw they are specific terms used for different animals - ie, "I didn't find a possum but I found four coons."
6. Beryl from Northallerton Moderator
British English
What about the 'rascal'? A full explanation of the joke must surely account for its presence.
7. lucas-sp Senior Member
English - Californian
To me, the "rascal" is synonymous with the "varmints" and "critters." I don't have any problem with an animal being called a "rascal," particularly in a hillbilly dialect. To me, small animals (both domesticated and undomesticated) can be "rascals."
8. Beryl from Northallerton Moderator
British English
So for you, rascal pie, would be 'naughty, but otherwise unspecified animal pie'.
9. lucas-sp Senior Member
English - Californian
"Rascal pie" would just be "unspecified small animal pie" - the same as "critter pie."
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