text:
Google Photos – great but no faces?
May 30th, 2015
Google's new Photos app seems pretty great, with a consistent experience between the web and its native Android and iOS versions. The way your photos are organised is better than in Apple's app, but the clincher is that they give you unlimited online storage if you're willing to have them compress the originals. Given that (for me) this is just for family snaps, that is fine.
My iCloud storage has been full for weeks, and a combination of not being bothered enough to get round to it and not being sure I want to pay for the service (5GB feels tight, given I recently spent £ hundreds on a new iPhone) has led me to leave it like that. So goodbye iCloud Photo Library.
And as a it happens you can still post photos to iCloud shared libraries (which are, confusingly, separate from the iCloud Photo Library) direct from the Google Photos app.
Anyway two days into using it a couple of things are eluding me:
- A lot of people are tweeting about how impressive the facial recognition is, and the feature was demonstrated in the Google IO Keynote, but my Google Photos app (and also on the web) has no mention of faces anywhere and no apparent means of manually tagging faces – despite my library being full of photos of my family. Perhaps they're rolling it out incrementally.
- Google has rather cleverly tagged and grouped a load of objects and things such as cats, cars, trains and food. However these collections contain some notable mistakes. A photo of one of my cats sleeping has appeared in the 'food' set, for example. Oddly there seems to be no way of untagging these things. Surely if you could then this could theoretically help its learning algorithm.
I'm guessing these things will be sorted out in due course, but there's a chance I'm just missing something obvious. I've searched Google and Twitter but can't find anyone else with the same problem (I mostly care about the face recognition).
Anyone else?
The Web vs native apps
May 21st, 2015
Back in 2010 Sir Tim Berners Lee warned about the threat posed to the web by Facebook et al.
Yesterday Jeremy Keith made this timely post (thanks to @fjordaan for tweeting it) about how poorly-performing websites are fuelling the shift towards native apps. In case you missed it, Facebook – which has already created a closed content silo – recently launched Instant Articles, which is basically their proprietary presentation mechanism for external content that is (presumably) be pre-cached to enhance the speed of the experience.
Rather than taking you to the external site they're keeping you on Facebook, which is obviously good for Facebook, but you can't argue with the fact that sometimes the user experience of external news sites is pretty terrible, so users will understandably like Instant Articles.
I'll not repeat Jeremy's points so read his post.
As an aside (from me), Jeremy makes a valid point about the rise of JavaScript frameworks being a contributing factor to the problem. I've long argued about the appropriateness or otherwise of single-page-application sites. The truth is that there is a time and a place for them, but they are not necessary for delivering content quickly on the web. People often lose sight of this.
In a previous guise I remember arguing against going full-single-page-app in favour of 'proper' indexable content URLs on a project. And for keeping the number of requests on those pages down to a minimum (and, yes, making those requests super speedy via, minification, caching et cetera).
This is all well understood good practice, and yet a BuzzFeed article I just tested triggered 335 individual server requests. And one of the reasons I don't like WordPress particularly is that out of the box (and with most of the popular themes) it leads to bloated request-heavy pages. There's no culture of optimisation around it, yet WordPress seems more popular than ever (Yes, this site is WordPress; it's good at doing blogs).
This all said, I have spent most of the last 18 months years building complicated AngularJS-based single page application Milk. However, the reasons why a JavaScript framework is appropriate for Milk are:
- It is only for use by logged-in users.
- It serves individual user-specific content such as their personal messages. It's much faster to load the raw JSON data of a message than to reload an entirely new document with all its assets.
- It provides live status updates on some items.
- Our caching and local storage strategy ensures that users only load the application framework once, even though they may visit hundreds of pages within the app over the course of a week.
- And even then, our uncached page load is only 242KB (on a mobile device) and 18 requests, many of which are asynchronous.
It's an application not a website, it just happens to use web technology. This is a very different use-case to a public page of content such as a news article.
The web is natively great at delivering pages of text very quickly. I consider documents and applications quite separately. And I don't think it's contradictory to be a cheerleader for both. The trick is, I believe, not to try to make documents more application-like.
Mind you, that ALL said… Although JavaScript frameworks are a problem in some instances, I think the real culprit in the case of the Buzzfeeds of this world, is the amount of advertising and sponsored content adding bloat to their pages. If publishers had spent more time testing their sites on edge and 3G mobile connections maybe we'd not be in this situation where Facebook Instant Articles look set to be a hit.
This article on A List Apart also makes some good points
The trouble with Twitter
October 31st, 2014
The Problem with Facebook is well explained in this video by science communicator Derek Muller. Basically they algorithmically filter your news feed in such a way that you probably won't see most of what your friends post. This is contrary to what users expect to happen, but they are none the wiser because they don't know about what they don't see.
Of course it's all about this button, the heart of Facebook's business model:
Once you give them cash they'll show your post to all your friends / followers and of course a load of other people who don't know you too. Fine: they have to make money. I just happen to hate it because it feels dishonest to actively hide things like that.
Facebook would argue that they're trying to make my new feed "relevant" and "manageable", something which Twitter does not do.
I've always greatly preferred Twitter's follow model to Facebook's friend model because I'm not socially obliged to follow my friends and family. I might be related to you but I'm not necessarily interested in your town's local politics, or whatever. On Twitter it is left up to me to curate my feed by following the accounts I find interesting.
However, it's changed. I joined Twitter early when it felt like a close-knit little network. For ages I followed about 40 people, most of whom I knew personally (early adopter web industry-types) plus a handful of other interesting people. Posting a Tweet was like putting something up on the village noticeboard. Most if not all of your followers would see it. And I would see all of my followers' posts; in fact at first I received an SMS message whenever one of them tweeted. My feed was a mix of industry stuff and <= 140 character witticisms. However—grumble grumble—Stephen Fry joined and got stuck in a lift then it went mainstream. Soon those 'brand' things got in on the action and it became a marketing and news platform, all about driving clicks to websites. This has driven real human users away. I'd say 80% of the people I used to connect with on Twitter no longer use it. Or if they do they're completely silent and passive. "Last tweet: July". The trouble is that now when I post a tweet it feels like I'm standing at Oxford Circus during the morning rush hour. And most of the people surrounding me in the crowd are announcing things through megaphones. If I'm lucky perhaps I'll glimpse a familiar face but – to continue the urbanisation analogy – most of my friends don't come this way any more because they find it unpleasantly busy and they've moved out to the country. Evidence of this data overload symptom is the regular appearance now of ICYMI tweets. Often re-posting something a few hours later I'll get a number of people commenting on it that I would have hoped to have seen it the first time but it's now a mile down their timeline.
Solutions do exist: Using Twitter lists or TweetDeck, and the act of curating your following list by unfollowing non-human accounts. Sadly what's left when you take away the noise is a bit of a ghost town.
For me Twitter was most interesting as a system for connecting human minds in real-time, not unlike Conjoiner technology in Alastair Reynolds' fictional universe. That was genuinely exciting. Sadly, real-time is only usable up to a certain tweets-per-hour threshold. I don't want to be connected in real-time to machines.
Here are two hypothetical experiments (that of course would be completely at odds with Twitter's business model) that would make it very different but to me more interesting:
- Limiting the number of people you anyone can follow to 100
- Not allowing any links or media in tweets*.
A third experiment would be the option of following things that ONLY appear in a list and / or making a list your default timeline view, which would have the same effect.
But maybe it's too late for all that. Or maybe I'm just being a sentimental Old Web guy.
*Yes, I tweeted a link to this blog post.
Introducing Milk
September 17th, 2014
Milk is an application suite for schools and colleges designed to be used by students, teachers and parents. It is a student self-management tool. Milk comprises an iOS and Android mobile app for students, as well as the Milk Web Portal which is open to all users.
I was honoured to be invited to join the Milk team at the end of December 2013 and I have been heading up its development since January. Milk is being piloted in a number of schools across the UK this term. It's been a lot of hard work but it's immensely satisfying to see it now coming to fruition.
To find out more about Milk visit our website.
New Twitter.com features
April 23rd, 2014
Twitter finally updated my profile to the new display format – several weeks after they upgraded my cat. Here's an almost pointless blog post about what I like and dislike about the new profile design:
- Overall appearance: Like
- Massive font size for just certain tweets apparently selected at random: Dislike
- Front-end build details, particularly the way the profile photo slides up out of the way as you scroll down, to be replaced by the compact in-nav-bar version: Like
- Pinned tweets: Dislike (because it reduces the beautiful simplicity of Twitter… but I'll probably use it to promote something)
- Not showing replies by default: Like
- Showing non-tweet-based activity in my timeline such as who I followed: Dislike (I think).
That's it. You don't care. Good.
No signal
October 27th, 2013
I'm writing this in the notes app on my phone because I've got no signal so cannot log into my blog, or download and set up the WordPress app (which itself wouldn't be able to connect to my blog anyway, and I can't remember whether it works offline). Actually, worse than having no signal, I've got a patchy 2 bars and a GPRS connection that occasionally steps up to Edge but then drops out completely and the process starts over again. The tease.
I'm at my in-laws' house and they don't "have the Internet" here, and actually don't particularly want it either. Oddly there are no neighbours' WiFi networks in range; I just tried in the hope of finding a BT Openzone (or Fon) I could latch onto. Nope. Not even any private ones. A luddite neighbourhood?
I remember (of course) not having the Internet. Other than games, in those days PCs were more or less devoid of distractions. The 1996 equivalent of scrolling through Vines for 10 minutes was playing a game of Minesweeper on the big setting.
I remember my dad having Compuserve, and it seeming a bit boring. Then, later, I remember picking up a Freeserve disc from Dixons in Stockport and being fairly excited about getting on the World Wide Web – but not being exactly sure what the web was or whether I'd be that into it. I think I assumed it'd be a novelty for a while – I liked the idea of email – but had no idea quite how big a deal it would turn out to be. "Quite", you might say.
By 1997 I had made my own website complete, of course, with a visible hit counter and a Java plugin ripple effect. The future.
At university in 1998 we had an internet connection at our student house in Leeds but only on one of our PCs at a time, depending on which room we ran the phone extension and modem to. "Are you going to be long on the Web? Can you give me a shout when you're finished so I can use the phone?"
We played 2-player Warcraft II and Starcraft between the bedrooms on floors 2 and 3 by way of daisy-chaining parallel printer cables (remember LPT1?) and putting a Laplink cable on one end to reverse the gender and pin-out. I always lost.
And Unreal Tournament through a 56k 'v90' was unseen assailant frag hell. Though it's impressive that it was playable at all.
None of this was that long ago. It's remarkable how quickly we've come to expect connectivity to the Internet, wirelessly everywhere, such that now (trips into the wilderness aside) being offline is the exception rather than the norm.
The Internet has become a kind of magical Higgs-Field-like property that pervades the very air we breathe… Until we lose signal and the spell is broken.
"Oh for God's sake, why won't it just load?!"
So, keeping in mind that famous Louis C.K. clip, I won't complain. That such a thing as a wireless Internet connection exists at all is little short of a miracle (well that and the culmination of decades of work by scientists, mathematicians and engineers).
Instead I'll write this offline on my phone to kill some time until I'm tired enough to fall asleep. Which is, conveniently, now.
On the digital divide
July 30th, 2013
If you work in, around and underneath websites for a living it's likely (and indeed desirable) that you'll become acclimatised to using a lot of technical terminology and acronyms. But it's easy to lose touch with how much of that people outside the industry actually understand.
Jargon has its place but I'll actively try to avoid using any terms that I think might be lost on my audience in any given situation. I've always hated it when 'techies' appear to be trying to impress people by blinding them with science, and I never want to be that guy. So when talking to clients I often find myself treading that fine line between confusing and patronising them, constantly tweaking the tech-level to ensure that they're still with me.
This of course means I have to make some assumptions: "They'll probably know what X is, but I'd better briefly explain Y". But occasionally I'm way off, as happened the other day.
I recently made a site for a work acquaintance of my wife – just a small job for a local business. I knew it was likely that this client would be near at the non-technical end of the spectrum but I wasn't prepared for one phone conversation in particular, and it took me a while to figure out what they were doing wrong.
The site has a very simple and stripped back
CMS content management system that allows them to add, edit or remove products, and I'd given them printed instructions for getting into the system, which went along the lines of:
- Sign in by going to: http://www.site.com/admin-area
- Enter your username: XXXXXX
- Enter your password: YYYYYY (case sensitive)
- Click the 'Enter' button
And I'd done a face-to-face demo.
A week after handing over the instructions I received a message asking me to call urgently because they couldn't get into the admin system. Digging for a more specifics I asked them what browser they were using, though judging from the 'Umm…' response I may as well have asked them what their subnet mask was.
OK, no problem. I think I recall they have IE9 on their laptop. That should be fine.
And then they said "The admin page isn't showing up, nor is the contact page actually". That was weird. I fired up a Windows / IE9 image in VirtualBox and loaded up the site. Sure enough, 'Contact us' was there on the menu and it linked correctly to the 'Contact us' page (of course there wasn't supposed to be a public link the admin area but hey we'd get to that).
"Really? You mean you can't see the contact page at all?"
"No, it's only showing home and the about us page."
Then the penny dropped – they were going to a search engine instead of typing the address in. They were talking about which pages were showing up in the search results.
I explained that they needed to type in the link exactly as I had printed it into the address bar, but the term 'Address bar' was apparently unfamiliar technical jargon to them.
Finally, after advising that they include "…the 'http' bit. Yes, with the colon, and yes the two slashes as well", we got there and they were away.
Now I'm a big fan of the unified search and address bar that's been adopted across all the major desktop browsers. But thinking about it, it appeared first in Chrome and what Google wants is obviously more traffic to Google.com. The unified search bar surely delivers this. Increasingly people get to places via search even if they already know the URL because Google is so fast that it's still quicker than typing in the full address. That's fine, I do it myself.
But this has also dumbed down the user experience to the point that that I fear the notion of a website's address – for some – may never register on their jargon chart. "You just go to Google".
It worries me that there are people who frequently use the web yet do not know what a URL is. And that there's a real confusion around what Google (et al) actually is and what it does. Near enough all of us use it so we really ought to know – at least at some basic level – what is going on.
And – it wasn't the point of the post but as a side-note – ignorance affects the likelihood of certain Government schemes getting the green light. A recent Daily Mail front page (which must have been in the print edition-only as I can't find it online) declared in intentionally loose language words to the effect of 'Google refuses to remove child porn from the internet'. I believe that a not insignificant amount of people actually think that because you go to Google and then it shows you a list of websites, when you click on one of the results the website comes back to you in some way from or through Google. This failure to grasp even the basics is worrying and dangerous given what a powerful political and social tool the web has become.


text:
November 2019 M T W T F S S « Oct 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Category Archives: Networking
Networking – Beginners guide to how it works
Following on from my blog about making sure you don't close off to the idea of networking. I thought I would outline some of the many opportunities there are to do this for those just starting out on their networking … Continue reading
Networking Opportunities
Networking is an ongoing process and is not just restricted to an event you may attend. It's essential to keep your eyes and ears open all the time. I'd like to share a couple of anecdotal stories of how networking … Continue reading
"Networkings not for me "
I recently had a conversation with an accountant who deals with pretty high end clients. He mentioned he seen me pictured at a recent networking event and we got talking about the merits of networking. He said it wasn't something he … Continue reading
Helping New Networkers
I recently attended a networking group that I hadn't visited before. Even though I have been frequenting meetings for about 5 years now, theres always a degree of nerves before walking into somewhere that may be full of strangers. One thing I've … Continue reading
How Twitter keeps me connected
Since I first attended a Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast in 2006 I have become at times quite a prolific networker and built up a large group of contacts who can help me in my business and in turn I … Continue reading
Response To Lord Sugar
Lord Sugar caused uproar (I think he may enjoy this) again the other day by suggesting that SME's should stop attending networking groups and seminars and make their own decisions regarding their businesses. He has been castigated by many regarding … Continue reading

subset: commoncrawl


text:
6th Grade Book Group*
Tue., 11/19/19 4:00 pm to 4:45 pm
registration required
The 6th Grade Book is: Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs.
Join this once-monthly book group for a lively book discussion and a yummy snack of bagels & cream cheese. Book group members should read all of the book prior to the group meeting. Sign up for a book group, and we will request for you a copy of the book we will be discussing.
New members are welcome ~ spaces are limited in some groups.
Please call the Children's Room at 978-456-2381 for more information and to pre-register.


text:
Did you know that using water in inside storage hallways is dangerous? There is An Easy Solution to a Serious Problem.
Most inside self storage units are not waterproof. Water can leak under the walls or doors and damage your customer's goods. If you were to accidentally spill a pail of water in the hallway, you may have some very unhappy customers. Imagine the cardboard boxes on the floor and the contents getting wet and soggy.
CLEAN - SHINE - PROTECT Without WATER
Dust and grimy fingerprints can make your inside doors look dull and dirty. One-Step Waterless Cleaner will clean, shine and protect all in One Step! Just spray it on and wipe it off. The metal does not have to be pre-cleaned. Just spray on One-Step and wipe off dirt and grime while leaving a beautiful shine that repels dirt.
One-Step Waterless Wash and Wax is a cleaner and wax in one - requires no pre-washing. NO WATER! Spray over dirt & grime. A combination of lubricants, cleaning agents and wax will lift the dirt and grime away from the surface without harming the finish. NO SCRATCHING!
- EASY TO USE - Spray On - Wipe off Dirt and Grime while you Wipe On Shine and Protection.
- EASY TO MAINTAIN - Surfaces will repel dust and grime and will be much easier to keep clean.
- ONE-STEP Cleaning and Protection - For Interior Doors, Hallway Systems, Elevators, Lockers, Fiberglass, Gelcoat and more.
- WATERLESS - No Messy Water in Hallways or Other Areas where water is a problem.
- Shine your Golf Cart. Remove marks & even graffitti with One-Step.
- REMOVES: Dirt, Grime, Dust, Fingerprints LEAVES: A clean, shiny surface that repels dust and dirt
- Available in 2 Formulations. Higher Shine and Deeper Cleaning.
You can either clean the entire door or just use One-Step to clean up grimy handprints and marks.
Pre-wash is not necessary but you may prewash if desired.
- Shake can vigorously before each use.
- Spray a light coat of Everbrite Waterless Wash and Wax on a small section (2 to 3 sq. ft. area). To remove heavier dirt or oxidation, spray on a heavier coat and let stand for one minute.
- Using a terry cloth or microfiber towel, rub surface removing dirt and grime.
- Using clean cloth, buff to a showroom shine.
Everbrite One-Step Waterless Wash and Wax can be used to clean and wax any non-porous surface: Paint, Fiberglass, Smooth Plastics, Metal, etc.
QUESTIONS? Check out the FAQ's for the Storage Industry.
Do you have faded or chalky exterior doors? Restore the color and luster to look new again.
Need to clean your exterior doors? Here is the Best Way
Everbrite One-Step Waterless Cleaner -Available in 2 formulations: Higher Shine & Deeper Cleaning.
Higher Shine One-Step has even more high quality carnuba wax for a higher shine. Click to Order.
Deeper Clean One-Step also contains ammonia for cleaning greasy handprints or greasy dirt when your doors are near freeways or railroad tracks or for more heavy duty cleaning.Click to Order
Need to Clean your Exterior Doors? Step by Step directions.
Have Light Colored splotches on your exterior doors? What are they and how to fix them.
What Everbrite Customers Say.....Unfortunately, when I built my storage facility in 1988 hallway system that are easily found today such as, DBCI, Janus and others were not available. We made due with R-panel to fill in between the swing doors for the 5x10 units. Little did I realize the the maintenance that would be required with the horizontal ribbing because of the dust that accumulates. I does sound like much, but over time it builds up especially in non-climate controlled building like mine. It has probably been two years since we the hallways got a serious dusting. I picked up a can of the Everbrite One-Step aerosol can just to see how it would do. I was pleasantly surprised how much easier it made the dusting go. We ordered a case to we could finish all the building.
Douglas W. Hunt
Access Self Storage & Truck Rental
Questions? Can't find the information you are looking for!


text:
My blog is a whole year old today! Thank you so much for reading, sharing and supporting me here for the past year.
When I started this blog I wanted to create a place that was going to help me to live a better, more positive and creative life for my family and me. And it really has. Having the blog pushes me to do things I wake up planning to do but that can be easily put off when faced with the chaos of family life with three little ones, or the stresses of start-up life. It has encouraged me to record and preserve memories, which was one of my 12 aims for 2012. When I came to put together our yearly photobook last month I was so excited about the number of images I had of my little ones, and many of those were a direct result of wanting to share things here.
It has also really helped me to share the times that are tough. Not that I want it to be a place to moan or be all "poor old me" all the time but when I write about difficult things I often feel differently about it all, and definitely feel better. And the responses I get make me realise that I'm not on my own, which is always a good thing!
I have also met some lovely people around the world through blogging and that is a beautiful thing indeed.
I am really excited about things I have planned for this coming year and I hope you will continue to visit here. Thank you for helping me to get this far. x


text:
It was Tuesday, February 18, the return of the legislature from their more than nine-and-a-half-week holiday break, and most media attention was trained on NDP leader Andrea Horwath and what zingers she'd have ready for Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberals after another NDP by-election triumph in Niagara.
Meanwhile, a familiar figure darkened the door of committee room 1.
A bespectacled Michael Bryant, brown hair slicked straight back and greying at the temples, entered the meeting room a few minutes before his scheduled appearance, looking slightly transfixed.
The former Ontario attorney general in Dalton McGuinty's government, once-rising political star, hasn't been publicly seen often since he was charged with criminal negligence in the death of cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard in a 2009. The charges were eventually withdrawn by a special Crown prosecutor called in to handle the case.
Since then, his public rehabilitation - and the political comeback that was supposed to follow - hasn't quite gone according to plan.
Bryant has kept a hand in issues like gun control and aboriginal affairs in an iPolitics.com column and the occasional op-ed piece for the Toronto Star. But toiling in obscurity as chair of the Public Accountants Council overseeing the province's accountants, which is the job he was hoping to secure at the Legislature Tuesday, seems like an odd place to start a political resurrection.
Appointments like this one are usually pro forma, but opposition MPPs on the committee wanted to question Bryant before handing it to him. They needn't have bothered; it was obviously a slam dunk.
NDP MPP Rosario Marchese handled the honours for the NDP by welcoming Bryant back to the leg.
"How does it feel to be sitting there as someone who needs to be appointed but was once a minister for a while and an MPP?"
"Uh, terrifying", replied Bryant, and all the politicians shared a little laugh.
"Well, I'll be supporting your appointment, so you don't have to worry about that," Marchese assured him.
How nice.
The two PC committee members were only slightly more penetrating in their questioning.
Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Doug Holyday asked Bryant how he felt about the fact that the nine members already serving on the council might resent an outsider's getting the chair's job.
Bryant responded with what he knew about the process.
Committee members ignored the elephant in the room. That would be the fact that same man who recommended Bryant for the appointment, Attorney General John Gerretsen, continues to deny Sheppard's father, Roy Allan Sheppard Sr., access to the Ontario government's voluminous files on his son's violent death.
Sheppard Sr. has doggedly sought all pertinent official documentation that might explain the horrendous event. Slowly, he's unearthed much of the raw police report, and last year he posted many of those documents online. Inconsistencies have been flagged.
The general public has been led to believe that Sheppard was killed only after he had attacked Bryant. But the police's collision reconstruction report states that, "There was no physical evidence, or independent witness statements... to suggest he (Sheppard) physically attacked Mr. Bryant."
Ideally, the dead man's father would also like to see a full public inquiry into how the whole "special prosecutor" concept is used by governments to make potentially problem cases just go away.
But Sheppard Sr. will settle for provincial documents that shed light on why the special prosecutor accepted the defence's arguments that Bryant was attacked as fact.
Sadly, most of the press and politicians have largely moved on as Bryant continues his slow ascent to his accustomed perch of professional entitlement.


text:
That "peddling add-ons" thing may work for most of your stuff, Microsoft, but when it comes to paying $90 for a wi-fi adapter, the argument gets a little shaky.
The PS3 has built-in wi-fi. The Wii has it. The PSP has it. Heck, even the DS has it, making the prospect of spending $90 on Microsoft's "add-on" as surprising as it is ridiculous.
But there's a way around it. A few ways, in fact. All of them involve buying routers or third-party adapters, and all involve more fiddling around than the official solution's plug-n-play, but does that matter? Every time you look at the setup hassles and baulk at the process, try and remember you'll baulk more at paying $90 for a wi-fi adapter.
Full, handy, helpful guide below.
How To: Add Wi-Fi To Your Xbox 360 Smartly and Cheaply [Gizmodo]


text:
Terms and Conditions of Award
- By using the Student Scholarship Electronic Agreement form to accept an award from the Pauahi Foundation, I consent to electronic transactions with Kamehameha Schools and the Pauahi Foundation generally and consent to electronically enroll myself in Kamehameha Schools and Pauahi Foundation as set out in this Agreement specifically. I understand I can withdraw this consent to electronic transactions at any time by so informing Pauahi Foundation in writing, and thereafter transactions with me will be conducted by paper. Withdrawing consent will not affect the validity of the Student Scholarship Electronic Agreement or any other transactions conducted electronically prior to my withdrawal of consent to electronic transactions.
- The intent and purpose of this scholarship is to assist with my (the student's) educational needs.
- I/We understand that funding from this scholarship is to be used for educational costs such as tuition, fees, and books.
- I/We acknowledge that I/we am/are responsible for informing the Financial Aid Office at my (the student's) college/university of any award that I/we receive from the Pauahi Foundation.
- The award offer is only valid for the school years stated
- I/We may not defer this award and understand that the funds awarded are only valid for the academic year stated above and will not be held for me should I choose not to enroll in a post-high institution. I also understand the funds may not be held by the post-high institution for future use should I choose to defer my enrollment for the academic year stated above.
- I am/will be attending an institution in Hawai'i or the continental U.S.
- I/We authorize Pauahi Foundation to release information regarding my (the students) scholarship to my school and the media and hereby release any rights I have to photographs, video recordings and/or audio recordings and I acknowledge that the Foundation is the owner and copyright holder of them. I also consent to the Foundation using the photographs, video recordings and/or audio recordings in any manner for any purpose deemed appropriate by the Foundation including but not limited to video productions, broadcasts, advertising, brochures, calendars, newsletters, books (including e-books), internal webpages, email and any other computer readable formats, video or audio segments of any nature by any means, and in all other media and publications now known or hereafter to become known.
- Any change in institution will require a review of scholarship criteria and a new college acceptance letter in order for funds to be disbursed.
- Any lawsuit or claim against KS must be brought exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai'i or in the state courts of the State of Hawai'i. Any federal claims shall be governed exclusively by the federal law applied by the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai'i and any state law claims shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the State of Hawai'i, without reference to its conflict of law rules.
- I (the student) agree to submit a hand-written (not typed or emailed) thank you card expressing my appreciation to the scholarship donor by the deadline date and time.
Additional Terms and Conditions for Multi-Year Scholarship Recipients
- Funds are available for the years communicated or until degree is obtained, whichever is reached first. If the student graduates after the first year, the remaining award will not be paid.
- I/We may not defer any part of this award if I am unable to enroll/attend school for any particular year.
- I (the student) will maintain at a minimum, a 2.0 GPA at the undergraduate or vocational/technical level; or a 3.0 GPA at the graduate level and above.
- I (the student) will provide an official transcript at the end of each year of award.
I/We understand and agree that if all terms of this scholarship are no met for each term awarded, the scholarship will be terminated and I/we am/are not able to claim funding either in-part or as a whole.


text:
Al Underwood
Al Underwood, Arlington Classroom Support Technician, DoIT - Classroom & Lab Technologies. Photo by Creative Services/George Mason University
Al UnderwoodStaff Senate140205519ArlingtonClassroom Support TechnicianDoITClassroom and Lab Technologies
All images are protected by copyright and the property of George Mason University.
To see the entire collection please click on "galleries" or use the search feature.


text:
WASHINGTON — In an effort to avert the bitter and public feuding between business and labor organizations that helped kill a broad immigration overhaul in 2007, representatives of the two groups released a statement on Thursday outlining shared goals designed to show that at least for now, they could reach a basic level of compromise.
In the statement, signed by Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Richard L. Trumka, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the groups called for a visa system that would let businesses meet their demand for lower-skilled workers, while offering protections for American workers.
The statement called for the creation of a government bureau that would use "real-world data about labor markets and demographics" to fashion a guest worker program — an idea that the Chamber had until recently opposed. The statement also described "a new kind of worker visa program that does not keep all workers in a permanent temporary status" — language that seems to imply, at least generally, the possibility of a pathway to legalization or even citizenship for some guest workers.
The groups articulated three general goals: the assurance that American workers would have "a first crack at available jobs"; a new visa program for lower-skilled workers that would be adjusted to reflect the changing needs of businesses as the economy shrinks and expands; and greater transparency in determining the market need for temporary workers.
Traditionally, labor unions have rejected the idea of a guest worker program for lower-skilled workers, which they fear could take jobs away from American workers and depress wages. Business leaders have lobbied for a guest worker program, arguing that they need low-skilled labor for jobs — in agriculture, for instance — that American workers cannot or will not do. (A leaked draft of the president's immigration proposal said nothing about a guest worker program, perhaps a tacit acknowledgment that the White House was looking to labor and business leaders to forge their own agreement on the issue.)
The principles outlined on Thursday — the product of months of negotiations between the groups — required compromise from both sides. Labor unions, acknowledging that "there are instances — even during tough economic times — when employers are not able to fill job openings with American workers," agreed that there may be a need for a new type of guest worker program. In return, the unions insisted that American workers get a first shot at open jobs, and they secured an agreement that the number of incoming lower-skilled workers would be set based on need.
But even as there appears to be a growing consensus on some issues, a full-scale immigration overhaul remains a far-off prospect. This week, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, came out against a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants — a crucial component for Democrats for any immigration plan.
"People have a pathway to citizenship right now: It's to abide by the immigration laws, and if they have a family relationship, if they have a job skill that allows them to do that, they can obtain citizenship," Mr. Goodlatte told NPR. "But simply someone who broke the law, came here, say, 'I'll give you citizenship now,' that I don't think is going to happen."


text:
Posted by DgFTLA on Thursday, July 11, 2013 · Leave a Comment
BTB #16: "Teeth Like Logs" feat. They As In Them by Below The Blvd. on Mixcloud
Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged with BelowTheBlvd, BobbyChavez, Music, NickCoffey, Podcast, TalkRadio, TheyAsInThem
Name (required)
Mail (will not be published) (required)
Copyright © 2019 · All Rights Reserved · Spot8816
We Love to get Weird and Pass Out! · RSS Feed · Log in


text:
Before we answer this question, tell us one thing: "why would you like to start a new outlet or office under a favorable situation"? We know the answer – you want to expand your business. In this on demand world, a website designing can do much more for you and at a much lower cost. Here is some information that may help you to understand why you need a website.
1– Websites Are Not Sleep
Many People Surf Internet in the evening when many business are closed, So That is the good time to pick the customers and drop in to your business .Having Website is like having an employee working 24 hours in a day ,7 days in a week ,365 days in a year , even on the weekends & holidays . And the best thing is you do not have to pay money every month
2-Your Top Competitor Has A Website.
If you are in direct competition with another business that has a website, they have a clear advantage – especially if they are adequately marketing website. A website is a great way to level the playing field.
3-"Just Google It".
More than ever before, people are turning away from traditional means of finding information and looking online, especially by way of mobile devices. Your business should be at their fingertips when they look in the search engines.
4–Websites Improve Corporate Image.
With a professional website, you will improve you overall impression to the public and, in turn, your customers will develop a greater sense of confidence in your organization.
5–Small Businesses Have Higher Revenue.
According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses that have websites are averaging 10.07 Lacs more per year in sales than small businesses not online. That equates to 39% higher revenue
6–Do You Know 70 Crore People?
That is the number of people that regularly use the Internet. Worldwide Internet usage is pushing two Crore.
7– Websites Help Establish More Customers.
According to the Small Business Administration, 50% of Internet sales are from new customers. Having a website significantly improves your customer reach no matter what services or products you offer.
8– Websites Are Not Just Local, They Are Global.
Most small businesses are only able to market to their town and surrounding communities. With a website, you can take your goods and services across India and around the world, if you so choose.


text:
It's the time of the year where all start feeling the stresses of the season no matter what holiday we celebrate. There are school parties and concerts, family parties and company parties, cooking, baking and shopping! It's easy to get wrapped up in everything that goes on but no matter how busy our days get, we must take a moment to stop and spread a little kindness.
This year, we invite you to join us in celebrating 31 Days of Kindness!
It's simple, follow the calendar and spread some kindness throughout each day for the month of December! Click here to print your own 31 Days of Kindness Calendar or follow along with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as we spread kindness around like glitter! Because let's face it, who doesn't LOVE glitter this time of year!
Don't forget, you can always share with us what your day of kindness looks like by using #Defeatthelabel or #31daysofkindness!


text:
Ferrer Wins Thriller as Nadal Schools Monaco – Live from the Davis Cup
by Stephanie Neppl
Words won't do justice to try and convey what the atmosphere of a Davis Cup Final feels like. Even an hour before play started at Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla on Friday afternoon, the Argentinean and Spanish chants had begun and they would only intensify through the day and what would become a late night.
This was never going to be a quiet affair, but Spain versus Argentina was beyond loud. The crowd was boisterous, it was mischievous, it was ecstatic. Drums, brass instruments and horns were allowed inside the venue and they were used often, and not always appropriately.
When the ceremony began, I got goosebumps as the players were announced onto the court. Such applause, such appreciation and such idolatry particularly for David Nalbandian and Rafael Nadal. Rafa was of course the last of all players to be introduced and he was lovely in acknowledging his home country.
The first match, as expected, was very one-sided. Rafa has been a big match player for most of his career, and he had the massive advantage of playing on his favourite surface in his home country. It wasn't at all that Juan Monaco played badly, Rafa was just vintage Rafa on clay. It is amazing to watch this Rafa – the way he moves the ball around, the great way he is able to defend. This is just one example why it is so hard to put Rafa away on clay:
In the end, there was nothing Monaco could do as the King of Clay put Spain up 1-0 with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 win.
The second match would turn into those Davis Cup matches fans hear about and read about but few are lucky enough to see live. Well last night 26,000 of us got to witness Davis Cup greatness and the matchup was ideal. The young, tall Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro versus the veteran, much less statuesque, David Ferrer. Del Potro can annihilate the tennis ball but is not the greatest mover on court, particularly on clay. In the first set, Del Potro looked quite hopeless at times. His heavy shots were returned, and returned well over and over again and when he did venture to net things got ugly.
Somehow, Del Potro was able to turn the tide and starting hitting with much more conviction, actually winning some of the longer rallies that earlier he was unable to do. Del Potro would led two sets to one. The Spanish bench was looked tense, the Argentinean fans much more alive after they had little to cheer for in the first match. Alberta Costa was visibly tense and started to complain to chair umpire Carlos Ramos about the noise the Argentinean fans were making (particularly during a player's serve).
All bets were off by this stage of the match. The Spanish fans loudly cheered when Del Potro missed a first serve, horns were blown at will and the crowd was on its feet after most points. It's no wonder the match lasted nearly five hours.
Most fans knew that if Argentina was to keep itself in this tie Del Potro would need to win his match in four. David Ferrer would be a clear favourite to win should the match go five sets – he is the epitome of fitness. And when Del Potro was broken to give Ferrer the fourth set, it all seemed over.
Ferrer raced to a 5-1 lead and though Del Potro won two straight games to stay alive, fatigue had set in and Ferrer would clinch a 2-0 lead for Team Spain with a 6-2, 6-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
The celebration by Ferrer, the Spanish team and the crowd was an explosion of joy. One can only imagine what emotions will be shown on court today should Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco clinch a Spanish victory in the doubles as they take on David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank today.
Stephanie Neppl is in Seville, Spain covering the Davis Cup Finals as a guest contributor for Tennis Grandstand. She is the author of the website I Have a Tennis Addiction and you can follow her on twitter @StephInNZ for further updates.
(Ferrer and stadium photos via Getty Images; Nadal via AP)
Davis Cup build up, Roger happy with year end and Sharapova to play Fed Cup?
*Serbian star Novak Djokovic says that having the home support in Belgrade will be crucial to his homeland defeating France in the upcoming Davis Cup Final. Over 16,000 will be present at the Belgrade Arena when play kicks off this Friday, only 1,500 less than at the ATP WTF in London last week. "It's going to be an unpredictable match against a very strong French team and the crowd's support can play a key role," said Djokovic. "We've always had huge home support, and you can feel the interest and the passion of the people who want to come here and support their team." French captain Guy Forget also acknowledges how important a part the crowd could play in proceedings. "We are not afraid of anything, we know how good Novak and the other Serbian boys are," he said. "We also know that when you play away the atmosphere is sometimes hard and you have to be ready. It's going to be a great match, a tough match and we are really looking forward to it."
*Guy Forget also expanded on that point by insisting the partisan home support could put pressure on the home players to perform for their country. "If we have pressure the Serbia players might have even more," he said. "We have been talking about the crowd and we know it can get very loud at times. The only way to deal with it is to be quiet and forget about it. If the match gets close any Serbian player will feel the pressure. He is not just playing for himself, he is playing for his friend, he is playing for the whole country and if things don't go well he will have the feeling to deceive a whole nation and that's not easy to deal with as well." The full interview can be seen on the ITF website as well as listening to what the opposing players and coaches were saying at the pre-Final press conferences.
*Roger Federer described his recapturing of the Barclay's ATP Tour World Tour Finals as "amazing" after putting rival Rafa Nadal to the sword on Sunday evening. The 29-year-old triumphed 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to lift a trophy he last did so three years ago in Shanghai. "It's fantastic, I'm really thrilled the way I played all week," he told journalists. "To win a fifth time is obviously amazing, for the third time in a different place. Like I said before, it would be great to win in Houston, Shanghai and also now here in London. I'm just really happy the way I was able to finish the season in style, playing some of my best tennis, really saving the best for last. Obviously, beating Rafa in the final makes it extra special because of the year he had." The full interview can be seen at the BBC Tennis website in which he talks about plans for his future.
*Shamil Tarpishchev, both president of the Russian Tennis Federation and their Fed Cup captain, has confirmed that Maria Sharapova will join the squad for their first round match against France next year, according to the Malaysian Insider. "Sharapova has agreed to play the first round," he said. "She is now fully recovered from the problems with her shoulder and again could challenge for the number one spot." Sharapova has only played Fed Cup once before; a 4-1 victory over Israel in February 2008. She needs to play at least one round to qualify to play the 2012 Olympics and there are murmors she could be involved further. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dinara Safina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will make up the rest of the squad. However, a source from Camp Sharapova claims that she is only "very likely" to play, according to Tennis.com.
*Lleyton Hewitt will again join forces with new Davis Cup coach Tony Roche in a bid to stop his world ranking slide, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The two-time Grand Slam winner has recently suffered with injury problems but will once team up with Aussie legend Roche in 2011 as well as another former player Josh Eagle. "I'm really looking forward to working with both guys and feel that if I can keep the body performing then I can climb back up the ranks again," said Hewitt, who is currently No.55 in the world. "I have been discussing this with Rochey for a few months now prior to him accepting the job as Australian Davis Cup coach, and when he asked me about taking that role with Pat, I thought that would work in well with what we were planning for myself." Roche previously coached Hewitt between July 2007 and August 2009.
*Czech star Tomas Berdych has revealed that his continuing disappointment over comments made by Roger Federer after Berdych's Wimbledon victory over the Swiss led to him voting for Rafa Nadal for the ATP Sportsman of the Year Award. "I was trying to just decide between two names, him and Roger," he said. "I just decide to go for Rafa. I think he really deserves it. Just was a little bit disappointing after what I read in London, when I play against Roger and beat him. He was a little bit complaining about how he was injured and stuff like that. It was just kind of surprise for me. So maybe that was just the reason I vote for Rafa."
*2009 US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro has confirmed he will be returning to the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships in 2011. The tournament is played from February 18-27 next year. American trio Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and John Isner have already signed up to play while John McEnroe and Mark Philippoussis headline the Champions Tour Event.
*Mardy Fish has become the first singles player to commit to the 2011 US Men's Claycourt Championships at River Oaks Country Club, Houston. The 2006 winner ends 2010 at No. 16 in the world after what has been a magical and resurgent year. The Bryan brothers have committed to the doubles event for next year.
*British No. 1 Andy Murray has been reflecting on his 2010 in the latest entry of his column for BBC Tennis. "I've got to look back and think it's been a good year overall, bar the US Open, which was terrible," he says. "It was a bit inconsistent throughout but at two of the four Grand Slams I had a chance of winning. The Australian Open was very good, Wimbledon was very good and then I won in Toronto and, after New York, in Shanghai too. And it was great to end the year playing well in London with two good wins and a very tough match against Rafa. I've now got about five days at home before I leave for Miami, possibly via the Bahamas depending on whether I play in a charity event there first. This time next week I'll already be back in training and thinking about 2011. I go to Miami every year at this time and I plan to work even harder than ever. That might involve longer sessions, more hours, and just making sure everything is even more professional."
*Three Aussie youngsters have been banned from competing in the playoffs for next year's Aussie Open after reports surfaced about their conducts at various tournaments. Brydan Klein, Nick Lindahl and Dayne Kelly are the offending parties. "This action has been taken following reports of numerous accounts of unacceptable behaviour at tournaments both locally and internationally over the past few months," Tennis Australia's Todd Woodbridge said. "All players are expected to abide by Tennis Australia's code of ethics and behaviour. The opportunity to participate in the Australian Open playoff is a privilege, not a right. This decision will send a clear message to all Australian players that breaching this code will not be supported by Tennis Australia through the granting of wildcards or other financial support." Klein has previous including spitting at his coach and an opponent during a tournament at Wimbledon while Kelly is reported to also have problems with his temper.
*All in all, the ATP Player Portraits reported in last week's Tennis People raised a total of $127,755 for charity. Most surprisingly was a late surge in bidding for Andy Roddick's masterpiece which saw it finish as the highest valued painting at $33,100.
Roger Federer ($27,300) and Rafa Nadal ($26,500) were the other highest earning portraits.
Decoding Doha
Alright, so I know I'm a little late to the party. The Year End Championships are half way through and soon women's tennis will be (almost) done for the year and we'll move on to men's World Tour Finals. However, Doha is the most exciting thing happening in tennis this week and I can't help but think that some fans are a little hazy on the details. I know my twitter feed has been full of what ifs involving the Doha tournament and player rankings. Now it's possible that you don't watch tennis every minute of every day and haven't been looking forward to the YEC since September, which might leave you a little confused about the unorthodox format. Well, here's your guide to Doha 2010. Think of it as an FAQ of sorts.
What's the Format of the YEC?
Singles: There are 8 players in the YEC and two alternates. The players are divided into two groups and the first four days of the tournament are played in a round robin. Each player in Group 1 plays each of the other players in Group 1, and likewise for Group 2. This year's groups are White and Maroon which are the colors of the Qatari flag. The top 2 players from each group move on to the semifinals, where the number 1 woman from the Maroon group will play the number 2 woman from the White group and the number 1 woman from the White group will play the number 2 woman from the Maroon group. Clearly, the winner of each semifinal moves on to the championship match.
Doubles: I'm going to preface this with the fact that the doubles format is stupid and just further evidence that no one cares about doubles. There are only four teams in the doubles draw, which makes the doubles tournament boring. The doubles draw starts play on the same day as the singles semifinals. This draw works the same as the tail end of any tournament. There are two semifinals followed by a championship match. They just skipped the beginning.
The Field
Caroline Wozniacki – playing to defend her number 1 ranking and shut up some of the skeptics
Vera Zvonareva – ending what's been an amazing season with a chance to become number 1
Kim Clijsters – hasn't played much recently but has a winning record against just about everyone
Francesca Schiavone – making her YEC debut after winning her very first (and likely only) Grand Slam
Samantha Stosur – also making her YEC debut and has already clinched a win against Wozniacki and Schiavone (it's a shame she couldn't pull that off at the French)
Jelena Jankovic – I have no idea how she even got here. First match against Zvonareva was embarrassing.
Elena Dementieva – back after an ankle injury and did not look good in her debut against Wozniacki.
Victoria Azarenka – won last week's Kremlin Cup
Li Na (Alternate)
Shahar Peer (Alternate)
Dulko/Pennetta – won 6 doubles titles together this year
Peschke/Srebotnik – I'm not even going to pretend to know anything about these two
Raymond/Stubbs – reunited this year after a four and half year break, but have previously won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open
King/Shvedova – the 2010 Wimbledon and US Open champs
Llagostera/Martinez (Alternate) – 10 points to anyone who can tell me who these people are
I noticed that the Williams sisters aren't playing, should I still watch?
Yes! There's been a ton of talk surrounding the lack of Williams in Doha, drowning out the buzz about the players that actually are competing. Believe me, we're better off this way. Now we actually don't know who's going to win.
I don't get the tennis channel, how can I watch the YEC?
If you're willing to shell out $19.99, you can buy a one month subscription to tennistv.com, unless you live in Europe or several parts of the Middle East and Africa. There's no good answer to this one. I can't explain the weird territorial restrictions of tennistv. If you do live in Europe, you can check out the Eurosport Player. When I lived in London, the subscription was only about £4 and they played tons of tennis, including matches on demand. Make sure they're airing the YEC before you purchase though.
Is this the last tournament of the year?
No, next week another eight ladies will be playing in Bali. These eight include the six players with the highest rankings who have won international tournaments this year, but did not qualify for the YEC as well as two wild card players. You're probably wondering why they would have this event after the YEC. I have absolutely no idea.
Who can be #1 at the end of this tournament?
Caroline or Vera. Caroline would have to lose all of her matches and Vera would have to win all of hers. I don't see both of these things occurring, so Caro will likely end the year as #1.
Why would Jankovic play in this form? Why not give one of the alternates a chance instead?
Even if she doesn't win a single match, Jelena gets 210 points and $100,000.
How does the WTA describe the YEC?
Here's a quote from the WTA website. "The WTA Championships is the most prestigious and important tournament in professional women's tennis. It is the final event on the WTA calendar, contested by only the very best players in the world." These are both false statements. First, I would in no way consider the YEC as prestigious as a Grand Slam, although the prize money is comparable. Second, apparently even the WTA forgot that there's a tournament in Bali next week.
Alright, there's you guide to the 2010 Year End Championships. Maybe next time I'll get around to writing it before they actually start.
Maria Sharapova's Stay in Tokyo is Short but Sweet
Even though it's still early in the tournament , the Toray Pan Pacific has been very surprising already so far. Before this tournament started I had high hopes for a good series in Tokyo but Sharapova never really launched at this year's Toray Pan Pacific. She lost in the first round to WTA Tour veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm.But Sharapova ended up losing in the first round in three sets 7-5 3-6 6-3.
As you may know, Maria Sharapova has been struggling ever since her shoulder surgery back in '08. She has won three Grand Slam tourneys but after that operation nothing ever really was the same for Sizzlin' Sharapova.
Said Date-Krumm: "Playing against a player who used to be number one and the defending champion I knew I had to play my best. I just got back from Korea yesterday and felt really tired but my body felt a little better today."
And what did Sharapova about her 40 year old opponent:
"It's incredible," said Sharapova. "It just shows you how she has stayed in such great shape while away from the game. She is incredibly fit."
But at least Sharapova had some fun at Kids Day:
And here are some photos of the first round match between Maria Sharapova and Kimiko Date-Krumm
[nggallery id=88]
US Open Fourth Round Preview
The final week of Grand Slam play for 2010 is about to begin and there are sixteen players left in the men's draw. Noticeable absentees include the Andy's (Murray and Roddick) and Tomas Berdych. Other than that I suppose David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis bowed out slightly earlier than we had thought, but there are still several big names left in the draw.
Rafa Nadal has been rolling alo
ng just fine on the hard courts so far in this tournament. He'll get compatriot Feliciano Lopez next. Lopez took him out of the grass court tune-up event at Queen's Club in June so we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss him. Nadal will raise his game when required however and we all know how hungry he is to complete the career slam with a win in New York. I'm going with Nadal in straights.
Another all-Spanish battle features Fernando Verdasco the 8th seed against number 10 seed David Ferrer. Verdasco impressively knocked off Nalbandian in the third round while Ferrer advanced against a lesser-known hard court player in Daniel Gimeno-Traver. I'm looking at a tough five set Verdasco victory which would give us a nice re-match of the Nadal/Verdasco tilt from the Australian Open that went the distance in 2009.
American hopeful Sam Querrey and Swiss understudy Stan Wawrinka both have the opportunity to make their first career Grand Slam quarter-final. Querrey has had a great year at the lower-level tournaments winning three ATP Tour 250 events, and one 500 event. Let's see if he now has the game to make a splash on a bigger stage. Wawrinka just beat one of the U.S. Open favorites in Andy Murray. Can he keep that level up? I'm picking Wawrinka in four sets due to experience.
Mikhail Youzhny took out American John Isner in the last round and will now face veteran Tommy Robredo. Normally I'd go with Youzhny hands-down but I've learned to never count Tommy out. Just when you think his career is on the downward swing, he tosses in an excellent result. Still, talent wise, you gotta think Youzhny will pull this one out in four.
Monday gives us the four bottom-half matches, starting out with Richard Gasquet against Gael Monfils. This match should be one of the most entertaining between Gasquet's beautiful backhand and Monfils' colorful court antics. The all-French match holds a 2-2 career head-to-head with all meetings on hard court. Could go either way really as neither has enjoyed much success on this surface this summer, but LeMonf has my vote in a five setter.
Mardy Fish is likely wishing that the heat would return to Flushing Meadows in time for his match against Novak Djokovic. Unfortunately cool temperatures are in the forecast giving Djokovic the ideal conditions he needs to succeed against the American. While Fish has had a great summer and has made the quarter-finals in New York once before, the Djoker has been picking up his game this week and looks ready to advance. Djokovic in four.
Robin Soderling gets the easiest match on paper as he takes on clay-court specialist Albert Montanes. A straight set wins for the Swede should be in the cards, making him a very dangerous and well-rested player to face Roger Federer in the next round.
Federer gets resurgent Jurgen Melzer who has had the best season of his career for sure. The 29 year old had never before advanced past the third round of a Slam before 2010 and has now made the semi's at Roland Garros, the fourth round at Wimbledon and now again the fourth round at the U.S. Open. His run is about to end at the hands of Federer who will have one last routine victory before having to face a serious test in Soderling. Federer in straights.
US Open: Why Top Players Lose
At the start of every tournament, a player's slate is cleaned. Whether they've won the previous week's tournament or failed to even qualify, in tennis, everything can change in a week. Player's go on hot-streaks as well as cold-runs, losing to lower-ranked opponents who simply took advantage of the opportunity to play a big name in a big stadium at a big tournament. And this was the case in the opening rounds at this year's US Open, where several seeds took early surprise exits.
On this big of a world stage, anything can happen: youngsters take out veterans and darkhorses, players finally fulfill their potential and take out higher-ranked opponents, and heat favors the mentally strong ones. But why do the game's elite succumb to players sometimes ranked 200 spots below them? It is simply nerves? Yes and no.
After a loss, we sometimes hear the top-seeded players give the easy answer: blaming the wind and crowd, grasping at any phantom injury they could think of, and overall citing their games' weaknesses instead of their opponents' clear strengths as the deciding factor. What they fail to mention, is the state of their psyche. For a sport so dependent on mental strength, it seems strange that players don't talk about that more often. Mental fortitude was clearly the culprit that kept Tomas Berdych from breaking through until earlier this year in Miami. Like him, many players have the talent, the tennis I.Q., the physical strength, yet simply lack the stability in the mind to come back from 0-5, 0-40 down. After all, tennis players are still human, though as fans, we tend to build them into superheroes. But, as evident by Roger Federer's struggles this year claiming only two titles, even superheroes can falter.
Kei Nishikori of Japan. September 2, 2010
Take, for example, Kei Nishikori's second round defeat of #11 Marin Cilic yesterday. Not only did the match almost break the record for the longest match at the US Open at a whopping 4 hours and 59 minutes, but Nishikori handed Cilic a breadstick in the fifth set, 6-1. Cilic is no slacker however. He overtook both Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Roddick at the year's first slam, the Australian Open, to reach the semis, beat Rafael Nadal in Beijing last October, took out Andy Murray in straight sets at last year's US Open, and has been firmly planted in the top 20 since January of 2009. Nishikori, on the other hand, is ranked #147 in the world and even fell out of the rankings earlier this year due to an elbow injury sustained last year. He's on a comeback trail and clearly using his experiences away from tennis to fire himself up in his game. After the 3-hour mark of a match, fitness can no longer be cited as the culprit for a player's loss, as clearly both are fit to last the scorching New York sun. After 4 hours, it's all about mental strength and who can stay focused and 'win ugly' better. With the first four sets being marginally close, the 6-1 score in the fifth set is pretty telling of who lasted longer mentally.
Americans Ryan Harrison and Beatrice Capra
Then, there are those youngsters who have absolutely nothing to prove and walk away with a great victory over a top player. Ryan Harrison's defeat of #15 Ivan Ljubicic in the first round, or Beatrice Capra's advancement to the second round including a win over #18 Arvane Rezai shows another side to why seemingly great and capable players lose to relative nobodys. After having lost her chance to get a wildcard into the US Open by losing in the Girls' 18 national tournament, Capra went home to Ellicott City, MD to "chill." She then received a call from the USTA to play in their wildcard playoff tournament and voila, she got into the main draw as a wildcard after all. Harrison, on the other hand, went through the qualifying tournament and had match-play under his belt when he took on Ljubicic. With both Rezai and Ljubicic, you could say the heat and nerves were a factor as neither had played a match in days and perhaps weren't acclimated. But with their gutsy defeats, Harrison and Capra say the rest is "just bonus." The youngsters had more time on court, nothing to lose, and increased confidence in their game. Their competitors simply weren't prepared and couldn't study their opponents in time.
World #214, Andreas Haider-Maurer. August 30, 2010
And that brings up another reason why top players struggle in the opening rounds: the relative lack of knowledge about their lower-ranked opponents' game. The elite play each other week-in and week-out, and know what to expect in another's shots, playing style and strategy. Journeymen, however, travel the futures and challengers circuits struggling to win but tend to have a strange familiarity with the top players' games when they are slated against each other. The journeymen already know the ins and outs of the top opponent's play, as they've either watched them live, on tv, or perhaps even grown up admiring them. The top dog, on the other hand, may never have even heard of his opponent. Now, how do you study and learn someone's game who you've never even heard of? Well, if you have a smart enough coach, you would scope out the player's previous match. This can be time-consuming and even often prove unreliable since players at that level are inconsistent and may simply win by default because of their opponent's more aggressive, but error-filled, play. All in all, if you're a 'Djokovic' taking on a 'Jesse Witten' like in last year's third round at the US Open, you may become easily frustrated when your 276-ranked opponent is blowing you off the court with his forehand and unexpected lateral speed. Four days ago, we saw a similar pattern in Robin Soderling's opening match against 23-year-old Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer. Haider-Maurer, currently ranked 214, not only won the third set tiebreak but also won the fourth set, forcing a fifth. He barely lost 6-4 in the fifth to a man who has commandingly beaten both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in recent times. It's interesting watching Haider-Maurer stay cool and collected while Soderling scrambled to figure out his opponent.
Another factor during a match also includes the high heat and humidity, but which player does this favor, the journeyman or top dog? In short, neither. While it's easy to think that the top players have gotten to the top precisely because their fitness overcame the heat, in reality, fitness almost becomes null at this level of the game. It's a strange concept to analyze, but it makes more sense when you realize that the scorching heat envelopes everyone's lungs, legs and head in the same way. Rarely do players have the upper hand when play gets heavy, dragged out, sloppy and almost slow-motion. The big guys, like Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling seem to be exceptions and all have speed, strength and stamina. But how do players like Michael Llodra outplay and outwit ones like #7 Tomas Berdych in the first round? Or how Robert Kendrick was able to take Gael Monfils to 6-4 in the fifth set, or Viktor Troicki take Novak Djokovic to 6-3 in the fifth as well? Or even how newly-fit Mardy Fish was forced to five sets against Jan Hajek, even while winning three of them 6-0, 6-0, 6-1? Tennis is a strange sport and it is hard enough picking winners on any given day when the weather is mild. Throw in 140-degree temperatures on-court with not a single cloud in the sky, and you have the recipe for any top player's nightmare. At these temperatures it's hard to argue that a win comes about because of fitness or physical capabilities when neither player retires from the match. Instead it seems to favor the one who is able to squeak by with a few more winners and more playing experience on a big stage. Both players are battling the same demon and this is when mental toughness sets the two players apart.
Tomas Berdych. September 1, 2010
The first three days at the US Open were filled with storylines about cinderella stories and other notable exits by top players, such as Andy Roddick going out to Janko Tipsarevic in surprising fashion. But as tennis fans we expect this sort of drama to happen. In fact, it's almost a pre-requisite to viewer involvement; it's what makes tennis so exciting and unpredictable. But then one question still remains for me: why do we insist on calling all of these losses 'surprise exits' if we expect them to inevitably happen? What's your take?
Novak Djokovic Makes Funny Analogies at the US Open; Fan Fight During Djokovic Match
I was going to write about the Meaning of Life today, but I put it aside when I got a hot tip to write about Novak Djokovic' match versus Viktor Troicki that went down on the opening days of the last major tournament of the year 2010.
Novak Djokovic had a hard time earlier this week playing in the hot hot sun at the US Open. He was down two sets versus fellow countryman Viktor Troicki and it didn't seem like The Djoker was able to turn the tables this time. Not with the full sun heating up the court.
Troicki must have thought that he had bagged the match already when an epiphany struck The Djoker. With the sun going down and the shades providing cool air, The Djoker rallied and turned the tables and bagged the match in five.
Brad Gilbert asked him what the shade felt like and The Djoker just gave the perfect analogy:
And this is what The Djoker had to say at the press conference:
Q. Did you see the replay or the actual live shot of [Roger Federer's] tween the legs shot last night?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: No. I've seen it live last year passing next to me (smiling). That's enough traumatic experiences for me. Today when Viktor tried to do the same thing, I said, No, no, please. He was running for the ball between the legs. Please miss it. Please don't embarrass me again.
Q. As somebody who does very good imitations, is that something you can imitate?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: No, definitely not. I am not as good as he is in that. I'd like to be very careful with my racquet (smiling). You know what I mean.
Q. You made a comment about sleeping with your girlfriend out on the court. What was that analogy to?
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I don't know. He asked me for the comparison of the feeling, what kind of feeling was it to feel the shade. The sun came down and I didn't have any more heat, what kind of feeling was it. It just came up to me. It's one of the best feelings, I guess, when you're sleeping with your close one. So I compare it to that.
Q. Must have felt good.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: It felt unbelievable (smiling). Let's get back to tennis now (laughter).
In other Djokovic news it seems that some attendants of his match versus Germany's Philip Petzschner could have used some shade as well when things heated up and they got in a fight.
The horrors of having to witness that.
Update! The video of the incident can be seen below:
Paul Annacone Joins Team Roger Federer Full Time – The Friday Five
Player Down – In one of the scarier moments at the US Open in recent memory, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka collapsed on court near the tail end of the first set during her match encounter with Gisela Dulko. Heat was initially deemed the culprit behind the collapse (and it probably did add to the situation), but it was later confirmed that Azarenka was suffering from a mild concussion, which came as a result of a fall she had taken earlier in the day. In hindsight, Azarenka should recognize the foolishness of her actions in staying on the court. Health should never be that severely compromised, and there were plenty of signs that she needed to throw in the towel well before she collapsed. But at the same time, I have to applaud Azarenka. Many a player has retired from a match for far less than she was experiencing, and while she did push the limits too far, I do admire her attitude of wanting to try to find any way to cross the finish line, even when things aren't going well.
It's Official – It's probably no surprise, but Roger Federer did confirm prior to the start of the US Open that Paul Annacone would be joining his team full time. While Annacone is with Federer in New York, Annacone will not be able to go full time with Federer until he finishes his commitment with the LTA later this year. Swiss Davis Cup captain Severin Luthi will also remain a part of the Federer team. All are in agreement that having Annacone in his corner is likely to pay some big dividends for Federer down the road, and it would appear that Annacone's advice is already creeping into the "Maestro's" game, with Federer finding his way to net with increasing frequency. There's still plenty of tennis to be played, but a major win in their first Slam together as official coach and pupil could be in the cards for Annacone and Federer.
Hall Bound? – Earlier this week, the International Tennis Hall of Fame announced the names of those individuals who will be on the ballot for possible 2011 induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the spotlight belonged to Andre Agassi. There were a few grumblings about the Hall putting Agassi forth as a candidate after he had confessed in his autobiography Open to using drugs, but Agassi's situation is not the same as the performance-enhancing drug problem that baseball currently faces and should not stand in the way of his candidacy for induction consideration. Hard to imagine he won't make the cut at the first time of asking, so expect to see him take his place among the legends next July.
Roddick Bounced – A few upsets have already occurred at the 2010 US Open, including the loss of Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych to tricky Frenchman Michael Llodra in his opening match on Wednesday. But later that same night, in a men's second round encounter, Janko Tipsarevic caused an even bigger upset, bouncing crowd favorite Andy Roddick in four sets. While this match did go down as an upset (and certainly a disappointment to the home crowd), it wasn't a total shocker. Tipsarevic has shown he can produce phenomenal tennis, as few will forget his memorable five-set encounter with Federer at the 2008 Australian Open. That was the kind of spectacular brand of tennis Tipsarevic brought to the court this past Wednesday, and coupling that with the fact that mono prevented Roddick from being match tough going into the Open proved a recipe for disaster for the veteran American. The question to keep an eye on for now will be how Tipsarevic follows up that win in his next round.
Spare a Thought – A former Top-10 player, who along with countryman Nicolas Massu brought glory to Chile at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Fernando Gonzalez now finds his career in a freefall thanks to a niggling knee injury. The Chilean had only been able to compete in one other tournament since Wimbledon, and it showed. After dropping the first set in a tiebreak in his first round match with Ivan Dodig, Gonzalez appeared just a shadow of his former self, quickly surrendering the second set before retiring from the match down 1-0 in the third. A colorful character who hits his forehand as big as anybody, my fingers are crossed that his body cooperates and allows him to have at least one more go near the upper echelons of the game.
By Maud Watson
Azarenka Collapses on Court: A Strange and Terrible Saga
So this article will be short today. I am in a foul mood. I always had a thing for Victoria Azarenka ever since I watched her play at the Australian Open 2009. Watching YouTube videos and reading Fastscript interviews followed quickly after that to feed my infatuation. Every interview I could find of her, I read. And every tournament she played, I would check the draw to see if she's got a half decent chance of winning it.
I am not asking for much but a win, much like the one she recorded at Stanford a few weeks ago, every now and then would be great. Especially with a victory over fellow Russian countrywoman Maria Sharapova.
With the Stanford win in her pocket, a good run at the US Open 2010 seemed very very possible. I secretly even dreamed of her winning the 2010 edition of the final major of the year.
Alas, this afternoon while I was surfing the net and keeping scores in my browser I received the notification that Azarenka had collapsed and was wheelchaired off the court during her match versus Argentinan Gisela Dulko. Azarenka trailed 5-1 in the first set.
Of course, major panic struck on the court. Her trainer and tournament officials came rushing to check if Vika was still breathing.
"I was scared," Dulko said. "She went to the floor. I was worried for her. I went to see her, brought some ice, did whatever I could do to help."
The weather has been incredibly hot at the US Open since the start. With temparatures during the day rising to mid 90s. But tournament officials did not activate the Extreme Weather Policy which allows for icebags and a request for a 10-minute break amongst other things during changeovers.
"It's tough to play out there," Dulko said. "It's really hot, really humid. You sweat so much, sometimes it's impossible to hold the racket."
And Dulko is pretty much right. Playing under these circumstances is tough and for a player who has a history of not being able to cope with heat like Azarenka (retired match versus Serena Williams in the fourth round of the Australian Open 2009) it must be even tougher.
But then tweets started to appear about Azarenka bumping her head prior to the match. If that is so, then why did no one even do a quick medical examination before the match started? Just to see if she can actually play.
And John Koblin from The Observer wrote the following from the pressroom:
The early consensus in the press room seems to be that this was likely related to her fitness, and not exclusively a reflection of the heat out there. It's just over 90 degrees now, and it was hotter at times yesterday.
Yes, hotter at times yesterday. But she didn't play yesterday. She may have practiced but that's different from a match.
The WTA was asked for a comment but they were quick to say that it is up to the USTA. The USTA came with the following statement:
US Open Tournament Referee Brian Earley said in a statement following the match: "Victoria Azarenka retired from her match with headache-like symptoms. She was taken to a nearby hospital for diagnostic testing. Out of respect to her privacy, we cannot give any more details. However, we can say that this does not seem to be primarily a heat-related illness."
Greg Couch of Fanhouse was quick to Tweet that all this may be a cover up. But then again, a cover up for what? Surely something must be at stake, if there are any cover ups in the first place.
Azarenka wobbling from the start in high heat. WTA won't comment. USTA gives odd statement she had a headache-like. That passes smell test? – Greg Couch
With temparatures rising up until 90 degrees, things outside decay quicker. Let's hope that this one doesn't and that we get a full explanation in either a press release or a press conference.
An early conclusion based on the reports I have read is that her collapse on the court could very well be a combination of two things: The heat and her bumping her head prior to the match. But then the question still remains: Why wasn't there a medical examination before she started her match versus Dulko?
Azarenka's official statement is as follows:
"I was warming up in the gym prior to my match against Gisela Dulko when I fell while running a sprint," Azarenka later said in a statement. "I fell forward and hit my arm and head. I was checked by the medical team before I went on court and they were courtside for monitoring.
"I felt worse as the match went on, having a headache and feeling dizzy. I also started having trouble seeing and felt weak before I fell.
"I was taken to the hospital for some medical tests and have been diagnosed with a mild concussion."
Check the gallery and video to see how Victoria Azarenka lays on the Grandstand court and later is wheeled off in a wheelchair.
[nggallery id=81]


text:
1940 – The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
Pinocchio is a fictional character that first appeared in 1881, in The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and has since appeared in many adaptations of that story and others. Carved from a piece of pine by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamt of becoming a real boy. Pinocchio is often a term used to describe an individual who is prone to telling lies, fabricating stories and exaggerating or creating tall tales for various reasons.
IC is Alive!
1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
In electronics, an integrated circuit (also known as IC, chip, or microchip) is a miniaturized electronic circuit (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material. Integrated circuits are used in almost all electronic equipment in use today and have revolutionized the world of electronics. Computers, cellular phones, and other digital appliances are now inextricable parts of the structure of modern societies, made possible by the low cost of production of integrated circuits.
Thank you, IC. Without you, I wouldnt be typing right now.
1972 – Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Robert L. "Bob" Douglas (November 4, 1882 – July 16, 1979) was the founder of the New York Renaissance basketball team. Nicknamed the "Father of Black Professional Basketball", Douglas owned and coached the Rens from 1923 to 1949, guiding them to a 2,318-381 record (.859). He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1972, the first African American enshrined.The Rens barnstormed throughout the United States, mostly in the Midwest, and played any team that would schedule them, black or white. Traveling as far as 200 miles for a game, they often slept on the bus and ate cold meals; they were barred from many hotels and restaurants by Jim Crow laws and norms of racial discrimination which prevailed in the northern United States at the time.The Rens soon became a dominant team, winning as many as 88 consecutive games during the 1932–33 season. In the twenties and early thirties, their matches with the Original Celtics were basketball's greatest gate attraction. At the World Professional Basketball Tournament they won in 1939, lost to the eventual champion Harlem Globetrotters in 1940, and finished second to the National Basketball League champion Minneapolis Lakers in 1948.
SuperBowl Faux-pas
Feb 1 2004 – During the MTV-provided halftime show of the Superbowl, former boy band member Justin Timberlake conducts an obviously pre-scripted move to expose Janet Jackson's right tit, which oddly sports a ninjitsu-style throwing star as a pasty. The nation is shocked, simply shocked, that a pristine, noncommercial event such as the Superbowl could be ruined by a Jackson.
Dr Strangelove
Jan 29 1964 – Premiere of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, commonly known as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 black comedy film which satirized the nuclear scare. It was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick
Exploding whale
On this day in 2004, a whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.
UFO Sighting
1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States.
Roswell is most popularly known for having its name attached to what is now called the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, even though the crash site of the alleged UFO was some 75 miles from Roswell and closer to Corona. The investigation and debris recovery was handled by the local Roswell Army Air Field.
Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a civilian jet airliner shot down by U.S. missiles on 3 July 1988, over the Strait of Hormuz, toward the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The aircraft, an Airbus A300B2-203 operated by Iran Air, was flying from Bandar Abbas, Iran, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, when it was destroyed by the U.S. Navy's guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 66 children, ranking it seventh among the deadliest airliner fatalities. It was the highest death toll of any aviation incident in the Indian Ocean and the highest death toll of any incident involving an Airbus A300 anywhere in the world. Vincennes was traversing the Strait of Hormuz, inside Iranian territorial waters, and at the time of the attack IR655 was within Iranian airspace.
Hear that, Evander?
1997 – Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield II – Tyson is disqualified in the 3rd round of the boxing match for biting a piece off Holyfield's ear.


text:
Lyme Disease
Lyme Disease (Borreliosis) is the most common vector-borne illness in the Northern Hemisphere, caused by the bacterial spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. It is transmitted by the deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, and other insect vectors. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates there are over 300,000 new cases each year in the U.S., which cost over $3 billion annually. Lyme is reported in every state except Hawaii, however 96% of the cases are concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest, where over 80 million people live.
Borrelia usually don't travel alone, and co-infections such as Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia,
Mycoplasma and Epstein-Barr virus are a few of the common companions. Yeasts such as Candida albicans are frequent especially if antibiotics are taken. The many symptoms include extreme fatigue, muscle pain/weakness, joint pain, neuropathy, and headaches. The pathogens can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause brain fog and memory problems. Lyme is called the Great Imitator, and can mimic symptoms of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, ALS, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, a Lyme-autism connection is suspected in some patients.
Lyme can affect multiple metabolic and physiological pathways leading to autoimmune symptoms, allergies, endocrine/hormone disruption, and pain. Both Borrelia bacteria, and the antibiotics patients take, can wreak havoc on the digestive system, causing leaky gut syndrome resulting in systemic inflammation and fatigue. The beneficial gut bacteria may be compromised in Lyme, so probiotic foods or supplements are usually necessary. Nutrients may not be absorbed properly, and Lyme sufferers often have vitamin and mineral deficiencies, especially vitamins B5, B6, B12, zinc and magnesium. Supplementation with magnesium has been shown to reduce inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, helping to ease muscle and joint pain, as well as symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Under the care of a Lyme-Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) or nutritionist, many Lyme patients find relief with individualized protocols that may include medications and herbal remedies, in conjunction with a healthy diet. A Lyme diet should be tailored to the individual, and testing for nutrient deficiencies and food sensitivities can be beneficial. Patients often do better on a gluten-free, low-sugar diet, avoiding high-carb, processed foods. A whole-foods, anti-inflammatory diet is the best choice to help the immune system fight the Borrelia bacteria and other co-infections.
Many Lyme sufferers experience profound fatigue, coupled with muscle and joint pain. Lyme experts recommend working with light weights as well as stretching exercises which can help alleviate joint, tendon and muscle pain. They caution against too much aerobic exercise in the beginning, which can deplete the adrenal glands and decrease immune T-cell function. Walking and yoga are good suggestions. Deep breathing exercises can help relax muscles, ease tension, and provide necessary oxygen to the cells in the body. Sleep is very important for the healing process. Patients should strive for 7-9 hours per night. Saunas can help facilitate excretion of toxins, and Epsom salt baths relieve aching joints and muscles, adding beneficial magnesium that is absorbed through the skin.
Other therapies Lyme sufferers may use include chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, Reiki, Chinese medicine, homeopathy, and relaxation techniques. Meditation, counseling and mindfulness techniques are also beneficial and can help foster a positive attitude toward healing.
My Lyme Experience
I was a Lyme patient myself. In conjunction with my LLMD, I greatly improved my condition using a protocol that included a healthy, healing diet (GAPS), supplements, gentle exercise and mindfulness techniques including meditation.
If you or a loved one is suffering from Lyme and its co-infections, I know I can be of help.
I have been there and I know what it feels like.
Call me at 732-440-8859 for more information about my services.
I am the co-founder of LymePositive, an uplifting support group for people and their families who are affected by Lyme and associated vector-borne disease. Check out my Events page for upcoming meetings.