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Avast AV, AVG, Avira AV, Clam AV, F-Prot, Moon AV, Panda AV
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Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Location: George's Island
Posted: Mon 19 Oct 2009, 08:45
Post subject: F-Prot i.e. error version not found, Clam AV works OK
Here's a little feedback:
XFPROT - Part 1
Ok, I admit I got distracted and took another look at f-prot/xfprot as accessed and installed via the menu in Puppy 4.1.2. (I'm using 4.1.2 because I ran into difficulties with 4.3 on my PC. That should take care of the inevitable question.) Anyway, I didn't have much luck with xfprot as implemented by the menu. I'm not sure why. Basically, after the install and update of f-prots antivir.def file everything is in place (so far as I know) but when I run xfprot (the gui) from the menu I get an error message in a GUI box regarding that it can't detect the version. At that point I have to exit the dialog box.
This install from the menu is more suited to those with highspeed internet access. On dialup its a bit painful, particularly if you have to ry it more than once. It takes a while to download the 14mb f-prot application, and the antivir.def file. I suppose it really needs to be done that way due to the install of f-prot downloading the latest antivir.def file as a part of its installation.
Nevertheless after the install via the menu I decided to try running f-prot from an rxvt window, "fpscan /directory/path/whatever" and it pops up with the response "illegal command".
XFPROT - Part 2
I tried deleting all the f-prot and xfprot files, and then manually downloading the tar.gz file f-prot from the FRISK. I copied it to the lowest level and installed it to /opt as it wanted and ran the installer from the command line which worked ok, that downloads the antivir.def file by the way if you plan on having a nap during dialup. However I had no issues with the download and after it was done it informed me the install/dowload was ok. I again ran f-prot from the command line "fpscan /directory/path/whatever" and it popped up again with the illegal command response.
I took a run at compiling the latest version of xfprot 2.2 but the attempt to compile the make file informed me it was missing the proper environment for compiling, missing C... Hmmm, well I guess I need the devx stuff and the proper GTK libraries for this one. It would have been smart to download them first eh? Thats a little project for later!
So, to be practical and in the interest of speed, I ended up downloading both the pets of xfprot from the repository for 4, partly because the first wouldn't complete the install from file using the petget manager, however the "420" version did. On running xfprot it popped up with the same error message in a GUI box regarding that it couldn't detect the version. That wasn't too surprising considering that it was essentially what I already had with the default install.
XFPROT - Part 3
I backed up the antivir.def file to avoid having to download it later. I deleted all xfprot and f-prot files from the install.
I changed my pup version to 400 and did an upgrade from the live cd to bring the default install of xfprot back. I copied the tar.gz file to the level below root and ran xfprot from the menu, it seemed to recognize that the file was there but errored out. So it can't use the downloaded tar.gz file which is a bit of a shame. Its more practical if your on dialup to download a file once and re-use it than to download it multiple times.
XFPROT - Part 4
Observations - So I'm not sure what to do with f-prot/xfprot now. Well, I can't run xfprot without further advice. While other people seem to have no issue with it the darn thing is giving me grief. I can't figure out why (scratches head).
Unlike F-Prot, Clam AV seems to be working quite nicely from the command line but it warns me the definitions are out of date. I had downloaded and installed the pet. I have yet to update the virus definitions via freshclam. I might just download the definitions manually, if that is possible.
The advantage of doing this on dialup would be that I would have the definitions to install to our other PC which also has a windows partition, so I don't have to download the definitions twice.
Other Observations - It's worth downloading the Clam PDF manual since it has the information you need to use Clam AV in it. It's fairly straight forward to run Clam AV from the rxvt terminal, easy for beginners. It would have been nice though if them manual had more examples of searches with the various variations combinations of the possible commands. A search of the net though should turn up some examples.
The only catch is that you have to manually edit the conf files before you can manually run a clamscan. You have to comment out "example" with "#example" at the beginning of each conf file, and then edit the rest of the conf settings. If you try and run a clamscan without editing the conf files it'll pop up and tell you exactly which three need to be edited, so it's dead simple even for a gearhead like me, wrench please! It's a good way to learn some basic commands to use in rxvt and how to navigate the file structure of linux as well.
Clam AV requires no license to run it, also nice.
I have the deb file and downloaded a license, but I have not tried it yet. I peeked in the archive and it looks like it will install the files to various directories. There's some documentation to read as well regarding the install.
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Joined: 15 Dec 2008
Posts: 4439
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK
Posted: Mon 19 Oct 2009, 11:09
Post subject:
I use the Avast installed using the pet file linked here.
i.e. avast4workstation-1.0.8.pet
Username = puppy
Password = linux
I've installed a number of times on different Puppies.
Pretty routine to install and get a licence key and copy it from the email sent by Avast and paste it into the window at 1st run, then complete a scan.
Did it on a neighbours PC with his new Puppy 4.2.1-rc3 I introduced.
No problem at all.
He likes his new Puppy.
Also runs Xp-SP3.
Scanned that NTFS partition with his new Avast, and came up clean.
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Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Location: George's Island
Posted: Tue 20 Oct 2009, 08:39
Post subject: Thanks
Hi Sylvander,
Thanks for the link to the pet file of Avast AV. I'll get that and give it a try. I checked out the site and read the message about the missing dependencies.
I'm still enjoying Clam AV. I'm still largely a linux noob but if your still in the same boat as I am basically all you have to do is open rxvt and navigate to the directory you want like this, enter the following in the rxvt window:
"cd /mnt/hda1/WINDOWS" press enter
Hints: I use ROX to figure out what directory path I want. If you want to see what is in the directory type "ls" and press enter
Anyway, to run the clam scan in "cd /mnt/hda1/WINDOWS" enter the following in the rxvt window:
"clamscan" press enter
Clam AV will then run a check on the active directory which in this case is "WINDOWS" and respond with a list of the files its checked in the rxvt window. Clam does not "clean" the files it merely tells you which ones are infected. The Clam AV philosophy is that once a file is infected typically it has nothing of value in it and even if you cleaned it would you trust it? I believe that they expect you to remove the infected file and replace it.
There are a lot more options, you can simply type the path to the directory you want checked etc., and I found this link quite useful.
because it gives you the full list of clamscan commands and examples.
There is also a tutorial for beginners who want to learn something about the command line, i.e. how to use rxvt:
I thought the check was fairly quick and the biggest slowdown was when it got to the Windows 98SE swap file. You can scroll up and down in rxvt if you want to see the result of the scan. You can also create more complex commands and use the options (
) to create a log file in txt format.
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Posted: Thu 22 Oct 2009, 01:57
Post subject: AVG
Hi All,
I have been working with AVG anti virus from 3+ years. I am satisfied with it. It is quicker and does not have the system clogged.
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Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 246
Posted: Tue 19 Jan 2010, 18:56
Post subject:
I caught on the Ubuntu forums that Avast will only detect windows viruses.
This would essentially defeat the purpose.
Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.
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Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Location: George's Island
Posted: Tue 16 Feb 2010, 14:47
Post subject: XF Prot Bugfix
-XF Prot Bugfix!
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Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Location: George's Island
Posted: Tue 16 Feb 2010, 14:49
Post subject:
Anniekin wrote:
I caught on the Ubuntu forums that Avast will only detect windows viruses.
This would essentially defeat the purpose.
Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.
I suggest you give Clam AV a try instead. I don't know a lot about Avast. More reading is required. Most people want to use it to find what is on their friends Windows PC's anyway.
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Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Location: George's Island
Posted: Tue 16 Feb 2010, 14:51
Post subject: Re: AVG
stephenmorphey wrote:
Hi All,
I have been working with AVG anti virus from 3+ years. I am satisfied with it. It is quicker and does not have the system clogged.
I did find Clam AV rather slow. I have to give the alternatives a try. Thanks for your input!
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Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 505
Location: George's Island
Posted: Thu 18 Feb 2010, 13:18
Post subject:
Use Shardana:
Multi ISO scanner complete with Puppy.
Can update.
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Joined: 20 Feb 2010
Posts: 22
Posted: Thu 01 Apr 2010, 15:42
Post subject:
can anyone chk eset nod32
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Joined: 26 May 2010
Posts: 1
Posted: Wed 26 May 2010, 09:55
Post subject: AVG Free
Subject description: Normally use it for scanning the Windows partition
I use
works very well.
Normally use it for scanning the Windows partition.
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Joined: 02 Sep 2010
Posts: 61
Posted: Sun 05 Sep 2010, 12:20
Post subject: Avast for Linux
Just chiming in a FWIW link, found a short but helpful review/test of several AV progs for Linux here: http://www.tuxradar.com/content/get-best-virus-scanner-linux
I haven't tried an install on Puppy yet, but for my Ubuntu 10.04 machine, I installed the Avast tar.gz from the command line, had to only add the one command to sysctl to fix the update bug, did NOT have to delete 400.vps, works just fine, and according to the review link I posted, found all their pre-planted fake "viruses", even the ones in a zip file embedded in an ISO.
Happy Labor day all!
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Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 774
Location: Montreal
Posted: Sun 05 Sep 2010, 14:00
Post subject:
After skimming through page three of this thread, it's still not clear to me whether any AV program other that x-fprot is available to run under Puppy 4.3.1.
I looked at the AVG link, and saw compatibility with Windows 7 and XP mentioned. Clamscan's link seems to be targeted at Linux users, but I didn't see any link for downloading a pet.
email@example.com facebook.com/otropogo
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Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 6730
Location: Earth
Posted: Mon 06 Sep 2010, 12:06
Post subject: Clarity on Pupps(s) and Antivirus
Subject description: Antiviruses should ID AND Clear any/all viruses in ANY FILESYSTEM!!!
It appears from reading this thread, that Anti-virus packages on Puppy(s) is misleading. Why??? Well, it appears that what I see, here, is that there are 2 classifications of Anti-virus software available of Linux users:
software for anti-virus
software that will clean/clear/quarantine anti-virus files
From what I see here, it appears that (maybe) there is collusion among the Anti-virus providers that
Am I correct in this observation?
What AV programs has anyone used that quarantines or repairs infected files on NTFS partitions?
Any AVs running under current version 5+ Puppies?
Get ACTIVE Create Circles; Do those good things which benefit people's needs!
We are all related ... Its time to show that we know this!
3 Different Puppy Search Engines
or use
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Joined: 08 Jul 2009
Posts: 5485
Location: Finland
Posted: Mon 06 Sep 2010, 14:33
Post subject:
F-prot 6 has this feature. fpscan --disinfect /mnt/sd** try to disinfect file. If you want to delete infected files > fpscan --disinfect --deleteall /mnt/sd** deletes all files it thinks are infected. fpscan -h shows you other options and description. F-prot 6 pet is now in Lucid Puppy official repo. It works much better from commandline because you can give options you want.
I tried also Bitdefender rescue cd based on Knoppix but I dont remember if there were disinfect possibility. I just deleted all infected files. It has nice GUI and it makes internet connection automatically, downloads latest virus definition database file and starts scanning automatically.
Hiren`s boot cd 10.6 has minilinux which has f-prot 6 option to download it from button and it executes install scripts automatically and then launches XF-Prot GUI. I used it from commandline though. It has also gparted, partimage and G4L aka Ghost for Linux but that doesnt handle big files in partition like partimage does. This minilinux is nice rescue linux distro inside Hiren`s boot cd.
There is somewhere in murga-linux thread to other preconfigured antivirus linux distros, mostly done by antivirus software companies. I think they work fine.
Thats about all I know about Linux virus apps for scanning windows files. Clam av has been discussed already in this thread.
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DivX Mobile Player
DivX Mobile Player is a multifunction video and audio player that can play DivX, OpenDivX, Mpeg-4, Mpeg-1 videos and Mp3 audio. · 10-Band Equalizer with Pre-Amp. · PlayList Support. · PlayList Editor. · Web Streaming. · Brightness Control (ARM devices only). · File Association Support. · Hardware Button Mapping...Read more

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Kanye West is the Joe "You Lie!" Wilson of the music world.
Spoofs of the hip hop artist's outburst at the MTV Music Video Awards began popping up on the Internet just hours after the self-proclaimed new King of Pop ripped the microphone out of singer Talyor Swift's grasp and ruined her acceptance speech after she won "Best Female Video" at the awards show last night.
A video of President Obama delivering a speech on health care to Congress last week that was infamously interrupted by Rep. Joe Wilson who shouted "You lie!" was posted on YouTube and overdubbed with Kanye's outburst from last night.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
The 13-second clip shows Obama speaking to Congress -- interrupted by Kanye's outburst.
"I'm really happy for you," Kanye blurts out. "But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time."


text:
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is opening a new exhibition to showcase examples of modern realism from 20th century artists.
"Modern American Realism'' opens Friday, featuring 70 paintings and sculpture spanning from 1910 to 1980. It draws on the works of the Sara Roby collection, which was given to the museum in 1986.
The show includes works by Will Barnet, Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Arthur Dove, Nancy Grossman, Edward Hopper, Wolf Kahn, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Jacob Lawrence, among others.
Curators say some of the museum's most beloved paintings are part of this exhibit, including "Cape Cod Morning'' by Edward Hopper and "Night in Bologna'' by Paul Cadmus.
Copyright AP - Associated Press


text:
Prescription for Service Excellence
Are you taking your customers as seriously as you should?
"Hang on for a minute." "Don't worry, it'll get done." "What do you want?" "It's not my job." "Sorry." If these phrases sound familiar, then you and your staff are not attending to your customers' needs properly.
I hear these phrases all too often when visiting clubs across the country. Remember, there is always someone else out there who will gladly satisfy your customers for you.
Think about this: 65 percent of your customers will leave because of poor service (e.g., inattentiveness), and you will never hear about it until they're gone; 15 percent experience service failures (e.g., a bad training session); another 12 percent are won over by your competitors; and the remaining 8 percent are lost due to relocation and death! If we concentrate on giving the 65 percent what they need not what we think they need then we can sustain a competitive advantage.
What Do Customers Want?
They want it faster, better, their way and cheaper! They value reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and the special tangibles that set your facility apart from the others.
Today, leisure time is at a premium for most people, and customers have less time to wait during check-ins/check-outs or to hold on the phone. Customer satisfaction is affected by the number of people a person must contact to have a question answered or a problem solved.
In addition, customers become confused and annoyed when jargon is used with them. Explanations and instructions should always be given in clear, simple language.
To put it simply, your customers want to be valued. Nothing can justify making a customer feel like a nuisance. They expect quality and satisfaction in direct proportion to the membership prices they're paying.
Remember, you are in the "memory management" business. If you manage your members' and guests' first and last impressions, you'll come out on top.
Start With the Front Desk!
Your front-desk people are your No. 1 employees. They make the first impression with every encounter, and you never get a second chance to make that first impression! Involve them in decisions, allow them to attend conferences, engage them in professional development opportunities and empower them to remedy complaints on the spot! Involvement is the key. Tell them and they will forget. Show them and they will remember. Involve them and they will understand.
Sam Walton (king of the Wal-Mart empire) said it best: "The folks in the front lines the ones who actually talk to the customers are the only ones who really know what's going on out there."
This is especially critical when dealing with complaints. We all have them, but it's how we handle them that will make the long-term difference with customers. Empower your front line to resolve a customer issue immediately without adding extra steps for the member. As previously stated, empathy is one of the cores that customers value. Empathy is especially crucial in dealing with complaints. Follow this empathy-based format to ensure the best outcome when your front line handles a complaint:
Listen "Tell me what happened
Apologize "I'm sorry it happened
Understand "I understand your frustration
Get it fixed "Here is what I can do
Happy outcome "I appreciate your input."
Nordstroms has a simple policy regarding the handling of a complaint: If it makes sense, do it.
Accept the Challenge
Remembering the customer in all transactions and encounters during his visit to your facility can be challenging. To help, consider this simple but effective customer-oriented formula:
Look at ME
Smile at ME
Talk to ME
Listen to ME
Thank ME
Remember ME
Much has been written about the delivery of exceptional customer service. And with all that has been delivered in this article, there is still one basic premise that must be reinforced. You can't take care of the customer until you take care of the staff. In winning organizations, exemplary customer service always begins with a commitment to exemplary associate satisfaction first!
Scott A. Chovanec, M.S., M.B.A., is the president of Scott Chovanec & Associates, a prevention-focused practice that provides design services, thought leadership, and decision support for the hospital, corporate, public and private fitness and wellness industry. A respected author and speaker, Chovanec can be reached at [email protected]


text:
The iceman bleedeth.
Scientists have discovered the oldest red blood cells ever observed on the 5,300-year-old mummified body of iceman Ötzi, they said in a study published Wednesday.
Almost a decade ago, the team of scientists from the Eurac Institute for Mummies and the Iceman found the blood protein hemoglobin around the site of a wound on Ötzi's hand, confirming that there had been a blood clot there, they wrote in a study published in 2003 in The Lancet.
But according to BBC News, it had long been presumed that red blood cells could not have been preserved as the hemoglobin was. Earlier scans had shown no such cells.
The new finding of red blood cells represented a breakthrough in the team's understanding of the last moments of Ötzi, whose body hikers found in the Italian Alps over 20 years ago with an arrow in its back.
U.S. & World
The team also observed another blood-related protein, fibrin, in their new tests.
That discovery torpedoed the team's earlier hypothesis that Ötzi had lived for several days after being struck by the arrow that killed him, according to study leader Albert Zink, because fibrin is present in fresh wounds and then degrades.
His team used nano-scale methods, including an atomic force microscope, to view tiny samples of Ötzi's blood and identify corpuscles with the classic blood cell doughnut shape.
To confirm that the shapes were those of blood cells, they used Raman spectroscopy to identify the hemoglobin and fibrin, key components of blood clotting.
The team had previously determined minute details of Ötzi's life from his well-preserved body — pinning his age at 45, his height at 5 feet 3 inches and his weight at 110 pounds. His hair and eyes were likely brown, and he was probably allergic to milk, according to Discovery News.
The mummy's full genome waspublished in February


text:
The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles
Faith Ringgold, American, born 1930. Printed by Eileen M. Foti, American, born 1963. Printed by Lynne Allen, American, born 1948. Printed at the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, New Brunswick, New Jersey (now known as the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions).
Color lithographDimensions:
Sheet: 22 x 30 inches (55.9 x 76.2 cm)Copyright:
© Faith RinggoldCuratorial Department:
Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsObject Location:
Currently not on viewAccession Number:
1996-124-1Credit Line:
Gift of Anne d'Harnoncourt, 1996
Social Tagsafrican american art [x] african american artists [x] autobiographical [x] awesome [x] black art [x] black power [x] black women [x] bold [x] ella baker [x] faith ringgold [x] famous figures [x] fannie lou hammer [x] good [x] group portrait [x] harlem [x] harriet tubman [x] ida wells [x] lithography [x] madam walker [x] mary mcleod bethune [x] maternal figures [x] quilting [x] quilts [x] rosa parks [x] sojourner truth [x] story-telling [x] strong [x] sunflowers [x] textiles [x] women [x]
[Add Your Own Tags]
In this lithograph, eight powerful African American women from the past and present display a colorful quilt that is a communal symbol of their achievements. From upper left they are Madam Walker, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells, Fannie Lou Hammer, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Ella Baker. A ninth figure, on the lower left, is Willia Marie Simone, a fictional character created by the artist. Vincent van Gogh, well known for his paintings of sunflowers, stands to the right.
Through words and text, symbol and metaphor, Ringgold acknowledges the contributions of African American women and honors their traditions. She is a painter, soft sculptor, quilter, performance artist, and author; and she always speaks in a clear voice that affirms women, especially African American women.


text:
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The pope will hold two meetings with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, as well as an ecumenical meeting in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. He will also sign a joint declaration.
The pilgrimage is particularly important because it marks the 50th anniversary of the embrace of peace in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, on 5 January 1964.
Although questions were raised about certain issues concerning the three main stops in the papal visit, namely Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. However, Holy See Press Office Director Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said in a statement that the release of the programme shows that preparations for the trip are "continuing as planned."
When asked about labour problems in Israel, Fr Lombardi said that he hoped the Vatican authorities would soon be able to resume "formal contacts" with the authorities responsible for the papal visit.
According to the official schedule, the pope will leave Rome in the morning on 24 May. After arriving in Jordan, he will be welcomed at a ceremony at the Al-Husseini Royal Palace in Amman, where he will pay a courtesy visit to King and Queen of Jordan, followed by a meeting with Jordanian authorities and Mass at Amman International Stadium.
The pope will then visit Jesus' baptismal site at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where he will meet Syrian refugees and young people with disabilities at the Latin Church.
On Sunday 25 May, the Holy Father will travel from Jordan to Bethlehem, in the Palestinian Territories, where he will be welcomed at the Presidential Palace during a courtesy visit to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
After that, the pope will meet with local authorities, and then celebrate Mass in Manger Square.
Around midday, he will have lunch with a group of Palestinian families at the Franciscan Convent of the Casa Nova, followed by a private visit to the Grotto of the Nativity.
He will then proceed to the Phoenix Center in the Dheisheh refugee camp, where he will be greeted by children from the Dheisheh, Aida and Beit Jibrin refugee camps.
From Bethlehem, Francis will travel to Jerusalem where he will meet privately with Patriarch Bartholomew I at the Apostolic Delegation in Jerusalem. The two will sign a joint declaration.
This will be followed by an ecumenical meeting in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre to mark the 50th anniversary of the embrace between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras. Afterwards, Francis will dine with the patriarchs and the bishops at the Latin Patriarchate.
On Monday 26 May, after a visit to visit to the grand mufti of Jerusalem in the building of the Great Council on the Esplanade of the Mosques, the Holy Father will lay flowers on Mount Herzl and visit the Yad Vashem Memorial.
He will then make a courtesy visit to Israel's two chief rabbis of Israel at the Heichal Shlomo Center, followed by a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the presidential residence in Jerusalem, and a private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem.
In the afternoon, Pope Francis will meet privately Patriarch Bartholomew at the building next to Orthodox Church of Viri Galileai on the Mount of Olives.
This will be followed by a meeting with priests, men and women religious and seminarians, and then a Holy Mass with the ordinaries of the Holy Land.
From there, the pope will leave Jerusalem for Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Avivi for his return flight to Rome Ciampino Airport late Monday evening.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Very ecumenical visit for Pope of Rome in Jerusalem
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text:
Best Pumpkin Patches to Visit Near Lufkin and Nacogdoches For Halloween 2012
Halloween is quickly approaching, and we found a few great pumpkin patch spots to visit near Lufkin and Nacogdoches this October!
1) Peanuts™ - The Great Pumpkin Patch Express in Rusk
This is one of the best places to visit before Halloween!
The Texas State Railroad trains depart Rusk at 11:00 am and 2:30 pm every Saturday and Sunday in October (6,7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28). Kids can meet Snoopy, pick pumpkins, visit trick or treat street and wear fun Halloween costumes! Lunch is not included, but vendors will be available at the pumpkin patch.
Ticket prices:
Standard: - Buy One Get One Free!
$20 Child (ages 2 -11) and $40 Adult
Lone Star Class:
$45 Child (ages 2-11) and $69 Adult
Call 1-888-987-2461 for reservations.
2) Saint Matthews Pumpkin Patch in Henderson
This fun pumpkin patch area for kids has pumpkins already gathered from the field plus a child-sized hay bale maze. There are many varieties of pumpkins and great set ups for family photo opportunities as well as special, free family activities on Sundays from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
You can visit the Patch for free at any time from September 30 through October 28 and buy pumpkins on Thursdays from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m, Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (cash or check only)
Visit them at 214 College Avenue in Henderson, TX, or call or email at 903-657-3154 and email@example.com for more information.
If you know of any more pumpkin patches in the area, let us know by filling out this form with all of the details, and we'll add it to our list!


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thank you very much Vladimir to inspire me and my family.
wishing u all the best ..read more >>


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Nadejda (ID: 13614)
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I like active way of life, family coziness,cooking, travels and communicating with different peole.I am fond of playing billiard,dancing. I often visit many galleries, museums and theatres. I go to a gym, swim and do some shaping. I also like hiking tours.
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text:
BinderPad is an iPad case that can fit inside a 3 ring binder. What's so special about that? For the kids man! It's completely stealth so students can hide it in their binders and look like they're studying when they're actually on their iPad.
Ignore your teacher, don't pay attention in class and spend all day working on Tiny Tower and reading Gizmodo. The life, my friends. [Zoogue via Cool Hunting]
You can keep up with Casey Chan, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.


text:
I was really happy with the results!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Fun in the tree
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Ethan singing
I just have to say before I start this post....this video is one of my favorite videos ever of Ethan.
Ethan loves singing. He loves when I sing, when people sing on the radio, when we sing in church....whatever. Lately, he has gone from only listening to actually participating.
Veggie Tales are always a hit when we watch them, because of all the music in them. He has become particularly fond of a song with a catchy tune....the one from The Ballad of Little Joe.
"Oh little Joooooooooooe, oh little Joooooooooooooe....."
You'll hear me sing that little ditty in the video. He loves when I sing this one, and now he is starting to chime in. It is really cute. I say, "Oh little........" and then he comes in with his version of "Jooooooooooooe....." Hilarious. I just get the biggest kick out of this, and he does too!
Also--for my stepmom Amy, who played that record for me over and over again at Normie's house while she would clean (when I was probably 6--oh yes, I remember) we have begun working on the old favorite, "On top of spaghetti." I was singing this to the older two boys, and Cameron (my resident comic) decided to add two fake sneezes after the first verse. He did it once.....and it caught on. Now, the song can not be sung in our house without the addition of "Ah-choo! Ah-choo!" at the end of the first verse.
On top of spaghetti,
all covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball
when somebody sneezed! (***Ah-choo! Ah-choo!**)
Most of the time, the older boys are the ones singing along with me....this day, I happened to catch Ethan doing it on camera! I was thrilled (you know how they never do anything when you hope they will!)
A couple of things to watch for:
- Ethan chiming in with me on the Little Joe song
- Ethan communicating with me that he wanted his yogurt (NOW) and exactly where he wanted me to put it....and his displeasure at the fact that I didn't put it in that exact spot :-)
- How he is sort of displeased and restless, but when I start to sing the spaghetti song, it completely captures his attention
- His fake sneeze at the end of verse one, complete with the blink!
- How, when I didn't begin the second verse (oh, yes....there is a second and a third verse to this one! The second verse starts, "It rolled off the table....." and it almost sounds like that is what he is actually saying! But I started back with verse one so he would do the sneezes again *grin*) right away, he started it for me....and in tune at that! :-)
Love it. I just love it.
And now, for your viewing pleasure....
Thursday, May 22, 2008
448 reasons to love shower time
15 minutes 'till bedtime.....
2 HAPPY parents!
Please pray
If you have listened to any kind of Christian music over the last 25 or so years, you have probably heard something by Steven Curtis Chapman. He is one of my favorite artists in Christian music, for many reasons.
Last night, his 5 year old adopted daughter from China was struck and killed by an SUV in their driveway at home. The SUV was driven by the Chapman's teenage son, who apparently did not see the child in the driveway.
I can't image this terribly difficult situation.....please, please include this family in your prayers as they face immensely difficult days ahead. You can read more about the incident at Fox News.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A special gift
She pulled pictures off of my blog and MADE THEM INTO COASTERS FOR ME!
Lynette--I love these! Thank you so very much for doing this for me! You are one thoughtful Mother-in-law!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
I just wanted to thank you all for pitching in your ideas for helping Ethan adjust to regular foods. And, if you haven't yet, please scroll down to the next post and add yours! I got several ideas that I intend to try, including what many of you said: trying to 'mash' the food up a little bit more. I am hoping that will do the trick!
Today we had quite a successful breakfast and lunch, so between that and everyone's comments, I am encouraged! Ethan had zucchini bread (not a new one--he loves that) and some dried cereal for breakfast, and Wheat Thins, some yogurt, several bites of cut up banana (which I did have to shove in his mouth for him, but he didn't scream and cry this time--he chewed it up and ate it like a champ, which is definite progress), a few bites of my PB&J, and a few Sun Chips for lunch. (He is a carb addict like his mom, can you tell? All the things he loves most....Sun Chips, zucchini bread, Triscuits, Wheat Thins, dried cereal.....CARBS!)
Anyway, thank you all for giving me some good things to work with....just goes to show you that with motherhood, you are always learning new things!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Calling all Mommies.....
Okay moms. I am calling for H.E.L.P.
My youngest little man, Ethan, is a pretty easy child on most fronts. You would think that by child #3, I would have everything down and hence, not need to be asking advice on something like this; yet, here I am, finding myself facing something that is new territory for me as a mommy.
Ethan will be 16 months old on the 31st of this month, and he is having an absolutely terrible time transitioning to 'normal' table foods. He is still eating jarred or mostly pureed food, like yogurts or refried beans (soft things). Colin and Cameron--and I do realize that each child is different--both began eating some table foods in the 9 - 12 month range; and were eating only table foods shortly after that. I always thought that 'once they get a taste of real food, they don't want to eat the jarred stuff anymore!'
However, that is not proving to be true with Ethan. He is giving us the hardest time.....meal times have just begun to get out of control. I mean, I really am starting to dread them. Ethan doesn't cry much....in fact, the most he does cry is when he is in his chair at the table! I have tried offering him MANY different foods, and he just cries and cries. However, when I finally give in and give him a jar, or some yogurt, because I know that he has to eat something, he stops crying (mostly) and eats.
He does like some table food; he will eat triscuits (how weird, huh? He loves those) or sun chips, cheerios or any kind of breakfast cereal, refried beans, some rice, some cooked hamburger, green beans (sometimes), yogurt, eggs, and cheese. But I am so limited....he just cries and cries if I offer him anything else. Today at lunch it was spaghetti (cut up really small, of course) that we fought over.
He won.
Another really weird thing....even with the foods he does like: when I put them down on his tray, he cries. I have to actually pick the bite up, put it in his mouth while he is crying, and wait for him to chew. Then, he realizes, "Oh, I actually do like this...." and will eat the rest by himself! It is just awful, and is really wearing on me.
I am at my wits end here. I know this may seem strange to some of you, especially if you have good eaters (and my other two have been!) but I am really struggling with this, and would appreciate any advice you are willing to give! :-)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Psalm 119:11 and Romans 6:23
These verses actually were from last week and the week before....I am sooooo behind! This computer trouble is giving me absolute fits, let me tell you!
So, in the time I have today, here are Cameron and Colin doing some verses! (Cameron is soooo cute doing these verses....he has 'ways' of making them his own! In this one, he turns around the words might and not. I'll correct him later--for now I think it's adorable!)
Psalm 119:11: "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee."
Romans 6:23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Computer Down! Computer Down!
You never realize how dependent you are on certain things until they're gone....
This week, it's the computer. My computer genius of a brother-in-law is in the process of helping me fix the problems, but right now, I can't do much. I think I have some sort of virus or something....the other day, it just crashed right in the middle of what I was doing. I panicked, because when I was trying to get everything up (like, all of my pictures/videos/precious things of my boys that I have recorded!) it wouldn't come up! Luckily, Roger helped me locate and save everything to a disk....and yes, I have now learned my lesson, because if I had lost all of that stuff, I would have been devasted!
Anyway, this silly contraption is still kicking me off of the internet after about 8 minutes, so I don't have long to blog....just wanted to let everyone know that we are doing great here, other than the computer issue, which is hopefully soon to be resolved. I'll be back soon with lots of neat things, including some video of Ethan singing "On top of Spaghetti...." (well, sort of) and the boys' new verses, and lots of pics from the last couple of weeks!
Hope you all had a marvelous and wonderful Mother's day, being celebrated for the amazing women you all are! :-)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
25 Reasons I owe my Mother
My Stepmom, Amy, sent this email to me, and I got a real charge out of it. A few times, I caught myself actually laughing out loud....in light of this coming Sunday, when everyone will pause to thank their mom for all the wonderful ways she has blessed their lives, I thought I would pass this along.
Happy Mother's Day everyone!
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE: 'If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.'
2. My mother taught me RELIGION: 'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.'
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL: 'If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!'
4. My mother taught me LOGIC: 'Because I said so, that's why.'
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC: 'If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.'
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT: 'Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident.'
7. My mother taught me IRONY: 'If you don't stop crying, I'll really give you something to cry about.'
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS: 'Shut your mouth and eat your supper.'
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM: 'Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!'
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA: 'You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone.'
11. My mother taught me about WEATHER: 'This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.'
12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY: 'If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!'
13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE: 'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.'
14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION: 'Stop acting like your father!'
15. My mother taught me about ENVY: 'There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do.'
16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION: 'Just wait until we get home.'
17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING: 'You are going to get it when you get home!'
18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE: 'If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.'
19. My mother taught me ESP: 'Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?'
20. My mother taught me HUMOR: 'When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'
21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT: 'If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.'
22. My mother taught me GENETICS: 'You're just like your father.'
23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS: 'Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?'
24. My mother taught me WISDOM: 'When you get to be my age, you'll understand.'
25. And my favorite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE: 'One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you .
And the winner is.....
It was:
#1. Cameron
#3: Colin
Also, big props go to Julie, Aimee, Karie, Shelley, and Grandma MJ for knowing the right answers, even though you weren't the first guess!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Name that Merritt
It amazes me sometimes, when I look at baby pictures of my children, just how much they looked alike at one time. (Colin and Ethan definitely still do....) These are all pictures taken very close to the birth of each of my children, and all in the exact same bouncy seat.
Can anyone guess who is who? You have two days from today, Monday, May 5th, to get your guesses in. Just leave me a comment at the bottom of which child you think is which! When you leave your comment make sure you specifiy: Picture #1 is....., #2 is....., and #3 is......
The first person to get the correct order gets their name posted here in BIG letters as the winner! *grin*
Friday, May 2, 2008
Ethan and my new best friend
Can you say, $12 a year to operate this bad boy?
The April 2008 Installment
~Colin comes into the bathroom, where I am getting ready.
Colin: "Mom, I have to go potty." (Why do both of my boys feel the need to annouce this every time they go?) He then gets on potty and starts going.
After a couple of seconds I asked, "Do you feel better buddy?"
"Not yet Mom...."
Tinkle, tinkle....
Tinkle, tinkle.....
"Aaaaaaaaaah, now I feel better."
~Colin was sitting quietly one day at lunch. This is absolutely unusual, by the way--normally, he and Cameron are carrying on a conversation a mile a minute. I could tell he was pondering something, but I didn't say anything.....I knew he would ask me when he was ready. Nothing could have quite prepared me for what he actually asked.
He turned to me and said,
"Mommy, are you a spring chicken?"
I had no answer for him.....
~Shane, to me, as he is walking out the door to go to work: "Bye, honey!"
Cameron, from the kitchen: "Bye, baby!"
~I noticed one morning that Colin was clearing his throat a lot. So, I asked him, "Col, what's the matter, buddy?"
Colin: "I'm just having some serious coughing issues."
~I came into the living room one morning to find Colin almost on top of Ethan, practically pinning him down. I couldn't tell what he was doing, until I heard Colin say,
"Ethan, hold still. I know this hurts, but I have to get these crusties out of your eyes."
And he did.
~The other day was grocery shopping day. Yes, I do it with all three of them. And, yes, it takes a long time.
Many times, Shane goes with me, and we have sort of a 'family grocery shopping event'; believe it or not, we fill two carts to the brim. But those are our BIG shopping days, when I am shopping for 3-4 weeks worth of meals. This one was just a quick one, only about a page worth on my list to get.
Colin wanted to go outside that morning. Big surprise there....anyway, I told him that it was a quick shopping day, and that we would only be gone for a little while. I said that when we got home, there would still be plenty of time left before lunch, reading time, and rest for him to go outside and play.
Colin, who has gotten used to going on these 2 hour major shopping trips, thinks that over for a moment; then turns to me and says,
"Mom, realistically, I just don't think that is actually going to happen."
~We treated ourselves last weekend to a family night out with my Mom at Monical's Pizza (sorry Dad, I know you are salivating....)
We had gotten our pre-pizza food--you know, the breadsticks and salad, drinks, and all that kind of stuff, and were getting all the boys situated with all they needed. (That can be a task in itself, huh moms?) We noticed, however, that the waitress had forgotten to bring us one of our salad dressings, so we called her over to the table and asked her for it. She left, retrieved the dressing, and brought it to our table.
"Is there anything else I can get for you? Anything else you need?" she asked me.
I replied, "No thanks, I think we are good now!" and she started to walk away. That's when Cameron, who was intently watching this interaction with the waitress, piped up from his seat:
"Yes, we need our PIZZA!"
~And, one that is not a funny, but just sooooo sweet, and I want to remember it:
Colin, saying his prayers a few nights ago, was done, and had said, "In Jesus' name....." and stopped. Then, he said (as if it were an afterthought), "And thank you for my Mom. My sweet Mom. Who is so pretty. In Jesus' name, amen."
He got an extra big hug that night....
~We went out for some mexican food a few nights ago. It was de-lish. :-) One of my favorite places.....anyway, as we were loading up the boys back into the van, Colin got a funny look on his face.
"What is it, Col?" I said.
Colin, after a long pause: "Mom, I almost threw up just now. I burped, and it came up in my mouth. And it was all over in there. It wasn't very fresh......it was yucky."
~Colin was putting on his socks this morning, and grabbed one of several pairs that are in his drawer that I hate--they are soooo huge on him, it is ridiculous. They have just gotten so stretched out because he pulls them up to his knees when he puts them on. They're ankle socks, crew style. I keep meaning to throw them away, but then the bargain hunter inside of me says things like "Well, maybe I'll rummage them....." or "I should just put them away until he gets a little bigger, and then they will fit him...." and so, they never make it to the trash can.
Colin knows how much I hate these socks, because every time he puts them on, he ends up taking them off and getting another pair midway through the day because they bug him so much, and I end up saying something to the effect of, "I hate those socks."
So, he grabs these socks, and we do our usual, "Take those socks off and get another pair, Col. Those are too big on you."
To which he says to me, "Mom, maybe instead of always having to take these socks off to get another pair, we could just take them back to the lady at the store? We could say, 'Excuse me, Lady? Lady? I mean.....Excuse me, Ma'am? We just need to tell you that we can't use these socks for our kids anymore, because they are waaaaaay too big for their feet.' And, then, we could just get some different pairs so I don't always have to change out of those ones."


text:
Hello everybody,
I'm new to LAPACK and recently downloaded the source code. Happily, I found that it can be built with CMake, and so I created another directory to build out of source. I ran CMake it compiled a lot of source files and executables, but lamentably, I cannot find them anywhere in my build-directory. I wanted to create the BLAS and the LAPACK library to use them in my Fortran 90 programs. How do I do that?
Thanks for helping,


text:
Sigh... another example of mass media blowing it when it comes to coffee...
But wait... this one is interesting!
Because this time, the article is written by an Italian "espresso expert."
And as well all know.... no-one knows espresso better than the Italians.
Kind of like how no-one knows beer better than the Germans?
So, wow.
Yeah - the article is largely a promo piece for Illy and the "Illy way."
But none the less... wow.
I'd never really thought about the idea the cultural imperialism could be applied to espresso. I guess I wasn't thinking big enough.
My thoughts (in order and point by point):
Italian espresso (what he calls "traditional" espresso) is different from American espresso.
And to me that's a good thing. Each is its own thing - with its own goals and criteria.
As has been written before, Italian espresso is a cultural product perhaps more than a culinary one. There are rules. It is not a place for experimentation. That's fine.
What is called espresso here sometimes really isn't espresso.
Complaining about the fact that American espresso is different is just silly. It would be like someone from Pilsen complaining about Irish milk stout and saying "it's too dark and too heavy." Yes.... they're both beer. But they are different. And that's fine. They're different kinds of beer.
But what I didn't expect were so many baristas using so many methods to prepare espresso, far from the authentic Italian technique.
The trouble with a piece of food or beverage becoming a cultural artifact is that you end up feeling a sense of "ownership." And you start talking about things like "authentic Italian technique" as if it had some meaning. I'll use food as an example.... If it were not for people who ignored these rules and ignored the "cultural artifact" status quo preservationists, we'd all still be eating Chicken Kiev and Steak Diane. And that would be a travesty.
Yes... here in the US (and big shocker for you - also in places like Australia, Norway, England, Denmark... pretty much everywhere other than Italy in fact) we've been experimenting. We've been breaking the rules. And we've found that there are other options when it comes to espresso - and guess what. We like some of the results better than what you prescribe.
The biggest mistake I've seen is an enormous quantity of coffee being used—way too much. I'm talking about 20 to 25 grams of coffee for a single espresso shot! It is like making a mojito with half a mint leaf, one ice cube, a few grains of sugar, and a gallon of rum. Undrinkable!
Yes... I think we all agree that this is a writing error as I've never (ever) heard of anyone using 20 to 25 grams of coffee from a single shot. But this is the problem with being published when you are not a professional. You miss shit like this - and it destroys the trust in the writer.
Beyond that, I understand the point of hyperbole, but his analogy would only be true if he were talking about making a 5oz cappuccino with 4.5oz of espresso. If he wanted to make the correct analogy, he would talk about the amount of sugar cane used to make the appropriate volume of rum.
More importantly... if the amount of coffee used varies from what Illy prescribes, that is not a "mistake" (unless arguably you're working with Illy's coffee). It's a choice. We're choosing to use more coffee just like we're choosing to not use robusta and we're choosing to experiment with single origin coffees and we're choosing to create blends from 100% washed coffees. It's that that we're unaware of your "rules" - we're just choosing to move past them.
More importantly... if the amount of coffee used varies from what Illy prescribes, that is not a "mistake" (unless arguably you're working with Illy's coffee). It's a choice. We're choosing to use more coffee just like we're choosing to not use robusta and we're choosing to experiment with single origin coffees and we're choosing to create blends from 100% washed coffees. It's that that we're unaware of your "rules" - we're just choosing to move past them.
Espresso made this way—well, it's not espresso, but I'll call it that—turns out overly concentrated, and because of that it cannot delight the drinker with the magnificent aromas of toasted bread, chocolate, red fruit, orange, and jasmine flowers that are all present in a high-quality blend.
Three points.
1 - Who the hell is he to tell me what IS espresso and what is not?
2 - If I were to describe the best shot of Illy I've ever had (from Trieste in this case) I would describe it as "caramel, light peanut and marzipan, hints of tangerine zest and light chocolate in the finish." In other words... his own coffee from his own home town fails to meet his "requirements."
3 - On the other hand.... I've had at least 3 espressos in the US that are almost exactly what he describes. One of them was dosed at 17g, one was dosed at 18g and one was dosed at around 19.5g. The flavor has to do with the COFFEE more than the dose.
The beverages I tasted were almost syrups, full-bodied but with a very sour, almost salty taste. I suspect that beans that were roasted too recently played a part. After roasting, beans need a few days to breathe and mature. These too-young beans are a big problem. Also, I've visited too many coffee bars that don't heat cups before serving, and in the process sacrifice flavor and aroma. Or that serve in wet cups, an espresso sin.
And so we get to the point.... Where has he had these coffees? He speaks for ALL american espresso based upon what sample set?
His description (syrup, massively updosed, sour, salty) doesn't sound like the shots from any of the top US coffee bars.
Wow.... beans need to rest?!?!?!?! That must come as a shock to us dumb rubes here in the US.
Listen up buddy.... if you've been getting shots that sound like your description, in unheated cups, from beans that are fresh out of the roaster -- then you've been going to the wrong coffee bars. How would you like it if I went to the coffee bar at the airport in Naples and said "Espresso in Italy sucks."
Oh... and as for your "espresso sins".... yeah... I got your sin right here buddy.
Update: Giorgio has written a new piece responding to the critiques - and I've blogged about it.


text:
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text:
Sarson Patal!
My bruised hands hurt as I pulled myself up the rock-face. I was hot and sweaty. As I came above the natural windbreak that a line of high rocks had provided, the cold wind cut through my jacket and left me shivering uncontrollably. We were tired but we could not stop or even rest. This morning, our group of the Corps of Engineers Scientific and Ecological Expedition had had just negotiated the Stairway to Heaven and we were now on a razor-sharp jigsaw puzzle of rocks, some five feet high, some fifty. The rocks were layered and cracked on end, here they offered good grips; there they were crumpled and had nothing to offer but rocky slides and yawning chasms. All of us moved carefully – it would not do twist an ankle here. For this hell hole was Patal Khan, the slate mine and today's destination was beyond this.
But my nerves were still on edge. The Stairway had been a nightmare – five hundred metres of insubstantial fixed rope. The path was but a series of indentations slanting across a steep rock slope; each just large enough to place the pad of a foot or a heel but not both. One had to lean onto the rock face at the right because the left hand stretched straight out and over the abyss. If one slipped, the rope would serve not to save us, but to doom us all as we would careen off into space and thud and splash thousands of feet below.
Far below out of sight, flowed the Rishiganga which eternally reminded us with its roar that we, mere mortals, had dared to venture into hallowed ground – the inner sanctuary of the Valley of the Lost Horizon, the path through which took 37 years after it had been first glimpsed to discover.
Between two rocks, bending down to ease the strain of my overfilled rucksack, I glimpsed a smidgen of green through the boulders. Yet the porter guided us unerringly through this stony maze. Before I realised it, my feet trod no longer on hard rock but on soil layered with a thick carpet of grass and herbs. We had reached our destination, the bugyal of our dreams, Sarson Patal.
But crossing the rock maze, it is not the picturesque high altitude meadow which intrigues you but the feature towering over all of us high up into the sky, the most beautiful mountain in the world – NandaDevi.
Shock and awe!
That's what I felt – the first time I saw her up close, in the flesh. She towered up above us until it seemed she would touch the very roof of the world!
Words failed me. ..
Magnificent, strong, eternal, immobile – all these seemed inadequate. ..
She was truly a Goddess.
The sun shone low over the Western sky and the face of the mountain was covered in a blue shadow. Eerily hypnotic, I realised that for the last thirteen years or so, no man had stepped on this earth till our expedition thrust through the Rishiganga gorge in the early summer of 1993 and made its way to the mountain's threshold. A nudge from a passing mate – I think it was Samant – woke from me from my reverie and I trudged wearily on.
The day's march was not yet over. We still had to march right across the alpine meadow to reach the campsite at its western end. As the sun lowered itself in the sky, we crossed a number of small ridges, most of them rocky with patches of scrub and grass lining the streams between them and dwarf junipers on their crests. Dog tired, we splashed through the streams and struggled up the slopes, unable to enjoy the rosy edges of the western crest-lines which told us where the sun had slipped below to give way to the twilight. It became darker, but an early moon illuminated our path across a never-ending series of billowing grassy slopes. All at once we plunged down a steep slope into a draw and there, nestled amongst a twisted skein of small streams, were the four white army arctic tents of the advance party. We had reached home!
The next morning, as we had reached our destination, our predecessors allowed us to sleep on, but they packed their belongings and moved ahead as soon as we woke. Wide awake in the cold morning. Ice cold water for ablutions. A mist hovered high above the draw but hugging Sarson Patal above us. The foot-slopes of Nandadevi were barely visible ahead.
We spent a couple of hours doing all those things that need to be done to get a camp in shape. By then, the mist had cleared and the sun shone on Sarson Patal. I clambered up the slope back to the alpine meadow, and what a sight it was.
The cold wind greeted me once again as I cleared the crest. A perennial chilly breeze blows across Sarson Patal, though you disregard it on a sunny day as I did. My eyes swept across the verdant swathes of the bugyal, which lay at the base of Nandadevi separated from her by the Rishiganga which flowed in between; a dangerous torrent even though we were so close to its source. The alpine meadow extended across the river as a narrow strip at the base of the mountain, topped by a rocky slope, boulder-strewn which climbed up and away to the Southern face of the mountain.
It seems that time stands still in Sarson Patal. These timeless words described the view I saw before me perfectly…
"The camp site was a delicious change after the cramped asperity of the quarters to which we had now been long accustomed and it was difficult to say what gave most pleasure, the space, the flatness or the absence of rock. Below our little hollow, the rounded slope curved gently down to the southern bank of the Rishi and the contrast between the opposite bank and ours was as great as it might well be, and could be adequately summed up in the words 'frowning cliffs' and 'smiling downs'. On our side, wide slopes of short sweet grass extended in all directions; a herd of cattle grazing on some distant rise or a flock of sheep coming over the hill would have caused no surprise, so peaceful was the scene. But across the river, presenting a seemly unbroken alteration of buttress and gully along four straight miles of river frontage; and beyond these the snow and rock of the western ridge of Nandadevi loomed vaguely in the swirling mists."
That was Bill Tilman's description of Sarson Patal in 1936. They were still a valid and vivid description of Sarson Patal, more than half a century later.
As I stood there, at the heart of the Inner Sanctuary, I could see a ring of high mountains all around, each a grand behemoth in its own regard. These majestic peaks form a rim surrounding Nandadevi and are known as the Sanctuary Wall.
On the eastern edge of the Sanctuary stands the impressive Mrigthuni (22,500ft), Devtoli (22,300ft) and Maiktoli (22,300ft). At the eastward end, Longstaff's Col connects the snow-capped heights to Nandadevi East, out of sight from Sarson Patal. Nandadevi East connects to Nandadevi itself. The North Sanctuary Wall includes the peaks Latu Dhura (21,000ft), Rishi Pahar (22,900ft), Deo Damla (21,700ft), and Mangroan (21,500ft). On the west flank of the Sanctuary wall, Kalanka (22,900ft) Changabang (22,500ft), and Dunagiri (23,000ft) keep the rest of the world at bay. On the south side of the Sanctuary Wall rises Bethartoli Himal & South (20,800 & 20,700ft respectively) and Trisul (23,400ft). Yet others are echeloned nearby, Nandaghunti, Nandakhat,…..there they stood in the bright, clear sunlight, imposing sentinels who protected the Goddess.
Sarson Patal was a carpet of grasses, herbs and shrubs. In those days I could not identify any wild flowers, unless I had Polunin and Stainton's 'Wildflowers of the Himalayas' jammed in front of me and someone to guide me as I leafed through the hundreds of illustrations therein. The flowers were still few and far between because summer had yet to catch up with us at this altitude. In between the grass stalks flew small white butterflies with rounded wings having small red and blue markings.
"Snow Apollos!", I cried. This was the very first time in my life that I had seen them. Ethereal, lightly drifting like snowflakes, they flew low on the bugyal. Amidst them also flew swift, brown Indian Tortoiseshell butterflies.
In the hollows where there was less wind, Queen Of Spain Fritillaries could be found. And everywhere, oblivious of wind, flew Dark Clouded Yellows and Common Yellow Swallowtails, sometimes zipping wind-aided across the meadows. Sometimes they were clinging precariously onto grass stalks with wings slanted at an angle to the vertical and horizontal planes; whether their aim was to reduce exposure to wind and minimise moisture loss, or, to maximize sunlight absorption, I could not tell.
Without packs on our shoulders, walking felt more like floating. Strewn across the meadow were desiccated skulls of Blue Sheep or Bharal interspersed amongst white fibrous scats of Snow Leopard. This evidence of predator and prey reminded us that just by being here, we were changing the dynamics of animal populations.
Keen observation is something army officers, especially sappers, pride themselves in, yet to me the mountain opposite looked barren. Satya gently took me aside and pointed out indistinct specks of grey dusted over the slopes. I put the pair of binoculars to my eyes and focused on one of the specks and to my astonishment, there sprung into my field of view, a magnificent male bharal, facing away but with head turned back towards me, staring into my eyes. It was like a revelation. One moment, the mountain seemed lifeless, the next it teemed with hundreds of handsome blue sheep; graceful creatures grazing peacefully in the soft sunshine of the short summer.
All morning they would graze and as the weather takes a turn after noon, as it always does in mountains, these Bharal would climb up amongst the rocks, carelessly leaping across breathtaking near-vertical faces and slopes as if they were the great flat maidans of the Gangetic Plain. There amidst the rocks, were niches and crannies which gave protection from the weather and safety from their foe. Amongst them, Satya mentioned, were many ewes heavy with lamb and young males bounding forth with the energy of their first year as adults.
A few hundred meters from our campsite, stood a stone tablet placed by the Paratroopers in 1980 before they climbed the mountain. It tells a tragic tale, being dedicated to the late Nanda Devi Unsoeld. American mountaineer Willi Unsoeld, upon seeing Nanda Devi in the Indian Himalayas in 1949 for the first time, vowed to name his first daughter after the mountain. Twenty-seven years later he returned as co-leader of an expedition organized by his daughter to climb the peak. Nanda Devi died on her namesake mountain during the 1976 expedition which has been criticised for allowing untrained people so high up on a technically difficult, extremely high and challenging mountain. The Paras themselves had a disastrous expedition, losing all their summiters. The memorial was thus a sombre reminder that though all was idyllic in the sunshine, our expedition-mates, attempting the mountain a few kilometres away, were precariously placed. It would take very small twist in our fortunes indeed for lives to be placed in jeopardy.
Our first task was to convert our camp into a staging point for pushing stores to the Base Camp at the top of the Nandadevi glacier. This was easily done as Capt Maharana, the member in charge of stores, and his team had made detailed systematic checklists.
The next was to make it a base for exploration by the scientists. We had Dr Ravi Sankaran of SACON, Dr S. Satyakumar of Wildlife Institute of India, Dr S.S. Samant of Pandit GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Ajay Rastogi of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Dr Bipin Balodi of the Botanical Survey of India. My good fortune was to be associated with them as the Officer-in-charge of the Ecological Team. In other words, I was the administrative support guy. The army's desire to return to the most beautiful mountain of India was serendipitously timed with a realisation by the Forest Department that this was a golden opportunity to survey the park. Nandadevi National Park had been closed since the early eighties. This was a pristine environment in the Himalayas, something almost unheard off today. It requires a major administrative effort even to just reach the inner sanctuary. Piggybacking on our expedition, we had a team of scientists to survey the Inner Sanctuary. The scientists swiftly chalked out their plan of action and eagerly fanned out in various directions, accompanied with a jawan or porter so as to form buddy pairs.
The third task was to clear up Sarson Patal campsite. We had been doing this at each camp since we entered. Collect the trash, bag it, give it porters on their way back or fly it out as a return load on mail-choppers. Sarson Patal was a major case of garbage-disposal. Most expeditions did load-breaking here, or dumped stuff on their way out which they didn't want to pay good money to porter out. This was strewn all over in the stream-beds. The two jawans who were part of my team and I spent many hours collecting trash and 'scrapping and bagging' it, as Tilman would have called it. Our hands got chapped fetching discarded cans and empty oxygen cylinders from icy waters. Often we had to dig out partly buried items.
The jawans did not like this task, but as long as I was doing exactly what they were doing, uncomplainingly complied. The porters did not like it either. An occasional porter even threw away trash loads en-route even though he could have earned the same rates for the returning trash loads as he had done for carrying normal loads into the sanctuary.
I made a collection of tin-can labels from the different countries whose expeditions had dumped so much trash in our mountains. At last count, I had seventeen and these were displayed as a collage at Pirojshah Godrej House of WWF at the exhibition after the expedition.
The days passed very quickly – time flies when you are having fun. Each morning, I would organise, task, communicate and arrange. After these mundane but vital duties were done and communicated, I was free to join the wild lifers or wander off on my own.
One night, there was a sound of many hooves stampeding through our camp. It was late and pitch-dark. We couldn't see anything but morning revealed some hoof marks. We surmised later on that a predator – possibly a snow leopard, had alarmed a herd of bharal which stampeded right through the camp in desperation. The snow leopard is, of course, the holy grail of mountain wildlife biologists. The twinkle at the thought of seeing a snow leopard in Sathya's eye was rivaled only by another twinkle when he fell for an attractive Garhwali colleague at the WII almost immediately after the expedition and married her. Sathya's diligence was unsurpassed but his searches and trips to remote corners of the sanctuary turned up pugmarks, some fresh, more scats and more kills but never the elusive ounce itself.
One thing we always looked out for was bear and bear-sign. We had no weapons to protect ourselves and plenty of stuff to entice them. However we were disappointed to find sign of neither the black bear or its high altitude relative – the brown bear.
Ravi Sankaran was a mercurial figure, full of fun and ever ready for practical jokes. Lean, dark, with a perennial stubble, brown corduroy windcheater and a brown leather bag carrying a camera and 500mm lens which must have weighed a ton, he was the first to draw me away from the simplistic world of butterfly lists which seemed to the be-all and end-all to the amateur in those days and exposed me to the magic of living organisms.
This article has taken a long time to write because my memories of him and the thought that I had lost a good friend saw me shy away from my laptop time and again. Ravi was a towering presence, a force of nature, full of pranks and fun. He had the ignominious privilege of teaching me to play bridge.
Under the tutelage of some of India's best ecologists, I began a small but useful study of the butterflies of Nandadevi. I selected some typical ecological zones and carried out spot counts, transects being out of the question. A later technique, taught to me by Satya which involved following the little creatures for a long time to learn more about their private lives, found me discovering some new food plants for the butterflies. The plant identifications were done by Samant whose off-hand recognition of young and growing plants confounded me. In this way, my work became the pioneering study for the butterflies of Nandadevi – not a compleat scholarly tome, but a useful beginning.
Things were not hunky-dory all the time. Once, we had a spell of bad weather. This resulted in a number of expedition mates falling prey to sniffling and small ailments. Dr Bharadwaj, our resident Doctor, soon found his time occupied examining team-members and porters. The daily duties continued but since wildlifing was not possible in the gusty rains, bridge, coffee and the telling of tall tales became our main pre-occupation. The swirling mist and howling wind led to a natural fear of a cloudburst on the mountains above our camp but thankfully this never happened. Two of our ecological team, Ajay Rastogi, an intense , bearded and spectacled ecologist with the WWF and Dr Bipin Balodi, a tall and laconic botanist were evacuated by chopper – Rastogi for bad feet and Balodi to deal with some urgent domestic developments.
Choppers! They were not just a great luxury, and a tremendous morale booster – these were our lifeline! The Army aviation boys from Bareilly with their mountain-climbing Cheetahs brought dak, goodies, news, medicines, the occasional VIP and evacuated our casualties (thankfully there were no serous cases). They once carried out some trash bags from base camp rather than return with empty loads. Flying in mountains is extremely dangerous. Flying close in support of expeditions and landing at windswept makeshift helipads even more so.
The arrival of a chopper was a great event at Sarson Patal. The pilots would arrive with the rising sun, the safest time to fly on most days. The helipad was marked with lime or 'choona', the wind sock was hoisted and we would wait expectantly for the sudden whirr of rotors climbing along the Rishi valley. Let a passing puff of cloud dim the sun or wall of mist drift across from the mountain and our hearts would race. Yet, sometimes despite the impenetrable thick mist on Sarson Patal, the chopper would miraculously appear from within the cloudbank and touch down like a feather. The day the chopper did not come when it was supposed to, all was dark, dreary and morose.
There was no greater happiness for me than than to see the green fuselage and bright roundels of the Army helicopters parked on Sarson Patal. I had no greater pleasure than to talk with, and ply hot coffee on the pilots in their blue or sometimes orange flying suits. There was no doubt that they risked their lives for us and we loved them for it. The best friend of the Indian soldier in the super-high picquets of the Himalayas, beside God and his arms and equipment, is the magnificent chopper pilot and his flying machine . Aside from the radio or the shots fired by the enemy, the soldier has no other link with the outside world except for the chopper which is nothing more or less than an angel in disguise.
You will find scant mention of the Corps of Engineers Scientific and Ecological Expedition 1993 in any article or book, even in the venerable tomes of the Himalayan Club on the Indian Himalayas but you will find, over and over again, the tragic tale of Nandadevi Unsoeld. This newsworthy but relatively insignificant attempt on Nandadevi in 1976 by a disparate bunch of foreigners is much reported. The Engineers expedition, a Government of India sanctioned climbing-cum-ecological mission of great import to the nation and the mountain itself, is not considered worthy of note. The first-ever ecological study of the Nandadevi Inner Sanctuary, the cleaning of the campsites, the checking of purity of water all along the course of the Rishi and from its western watershed, the close look at the lifestyle and requirements of the poor (but rich in spirit) Garhwali villagers of the Nandadevi Biosphere reserve, besides the climbing of the mountain itself, seem to carry no weight in the mountaineering fraternity, obsessed with its need to go there, climb up and get back.
The decision to open the sanctuary or not would be based on the report of these scientists. These reports unanimously recommended to the Government, the correctness of its decision of banning from these holy peaks of the rude hands and feet of mountaineers and the long line of destruction caused by the goats and porters which followed those expeditions. The vale of Nandadevi now blooms with protected medicinal plants, the monals explode across the forest clearings at Deodi and the musk deer find rare sanctuary in Dibrughetta. The bharal of the inner sanctuary are now as curious of man as they were in the time of Shipton and Odell.
It appears to me that I am hypocritical and not just a bit confused as far as my attitude towards mountaineers are concerned. Some friends are mountaineers, of these some, including those who went to Nandadevi, were genuinely concerned over the mountain, its beauty; they deplored the ravaging of nature and enjoyed the unmatched ambience which mother nature provides to undisturbed lands. On the other hand, some were not there with a spirit of supplication or piety of the kind advocated by Bill Aitken, they were there to 'conquer' the mountain and their scorn at people concerned with 'softer' concerns was plain to see . These then, must be clubbed with the boorish mountain climbers from abroad who desecrated these revered slopes with the specious excuse of climbing mountains because they are there. So, in my humble opinion, a good mountaineer cares about what he is doing, is knowledgeable about all around him, including nature, geology, the people and their small concerns and acts to minimise his ecological footprint in the mountains. He approaches the mountains with a sense of reverence, not with a desire to sate his ambitions. We need more Shiptons; we want no Hunts.
People like Mr Lavkumar Khacher who successfully lobbied to ban entry to the then much-ravished vale of Nandadevi can rest assured that the bharal lambs still frolic among the profusion of wild-flowers and the Himalayan Griffon still soars overhead searching for unwary marmot or pikas sunning itself in the brief blaze of summer on Sarson Patal – that most heavenly of bugyals in the Himalayas. Only the Nandadevi National Park provides true protection to its denizens – surely this is the finest blessing of the Goddess to her people.
Image credits
- Unless specified, Wikimedia Commons.
- Postage stamps – Col Suresh Bagga (retd).
- Bharal – Reurinkjan (Flickr) on Wikimedia Commons. Licensed applicable Creative Commons 2.0 (Generic).
If you liked this post, dont miss – The Favours of Goddess Nandadevi.
Tags: Bharal, butterflies, Nandadevi, Sarson Patal, WildlifeYou can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
13 Comments on "Sarson Patal!"
12 March 2009 at 1:14 pm
So, this is a '93 expedition? Thank you for sharing, and I look forward to the rest. I always marvel at mountaineers – it is such a high risk activity – and at the same time, one sees sights that we "mortals" dont.
I look forward to more vicarious pleasures through your accounts!
s it possible to include a map as well?
31 March 2009 at 2:14 pm
Dear Sir..
Hats off to you and your team for all the magnanimous work. And to you especially for a great narration. The very thought of mountains makes my hairs raise…!!
Your lines mentioning the obsession of climbers just to beat a trail for the sake of it, brings in a lot of philosophical thoughts too..!!
Thank you again
8 April 2009 at 4:52 am
Wow what an adventure! I absolutely love trekking and am always ready to travel anywhere so I this post was exhilarating with its combination of mountain climbing, imagery and butterflies!
8 May 2009 at 2:20 pm
Superb detailing! Have always revered the Devi, and hope to gaze up at Her one day from as close as possible. I was "up there" reading your description of Sarson Patal! Will remain glued to the 'butterfly diaries' for more on the Goddess.
Absolutely right, we need more Shiptons, not 'boorish mountaineers'
13 July 2009 at 6:24 pm
[…] through this stony maze and before I realised it, my feet trod no longer on hard rock but on soil layered with a thick carpet of grass and herbs. We had reached our destination, the bugyal of our dreams, Sarson […]
1 February 2010 at 3:50 pm
[…] Sarson Patar […]
1 February 2010 at 7:03 pm
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19 March 2010 at 12:17 pm
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10 man raiding: then and now.
Watching the shift in opinions regarding the difficulty of ten-man content is rather amusing for a former 10-strict guild to watch. As one of the few (and I mean literally, 3) guilds in the world to have gotten a 10-strict kill on HLK in WotLK, the end boss of the expansion, Vortex has watched with some smug delight as other guilds flocked to the 10-man format out of an assumption that it would be easier, only to find it far more difficult than they had expected and watching as 25-man guilds progressed more quickly.
Could 10s have been easier in this expansion? Possibly, depending on the tuning of the bosses.
The vast majority of raiders (and I'm talking those that probably never read this blog or followed ten-strict guilds) had it stuck in their heads that 10s were easy, and had no concept of the relative difficulty. In WotLK they had higher iLevel gear, and that mana and stamina and through-put matter. They had larger raiding rosters to pull from, cherry-picking their compositions for the harder fights. They had less room to spread out, but AoE heals weren't 40 yards in range so even 10's had to cluster up and stick together to a decent extent. The easier aspect came on the management front as there were fewer people to herd in 10s, though recruitment was a PitA.
Now, there are still fewer cats to herd in Cata 10s, but normalization of difficulty levels has ironically been in favor of 25s. I have to wonder if it's intentional, in an effort to keep 25mans viable. This doesn't really bother me: 10-strict was a very difficult format, and I am proud to say my guild is stubborn enough to tackle anything Blizz throws at us, though we may not necessarily be the first to down the content. So the concept that 25s are easier difficulty doesn't really phase me except out of some irony, in the form of "told you so" to those who doubted the difficulty of tens.
The difficulty currently lays as such:
- Composition. In spite of buff and class homogenization, there is a definite disparity in what is "needed" for a raid to excel through the current content, favoring certain mixes of classes and a LOT of interrupts. Going to Cho'Gall without a hunter? Good luck. One of your interrupters out for the evening? Scramble for Nefarian. No warrior? Add-tanking in multiple fights will be entertaining, if hell. Two resto druids out of 3 healers? ....lol, your hots won't tick up fast enough to counter a lot of raid-heal mechanics and your cooldowns don't come up fast enough, have fun wiping. No resistance aura? HAHAHAA. On a related note, I feel bad for rogues. They are the only class my guild has looked at and said "we just really don't need one."
- Loot Drops. Most 10m guilds I have talked with or read about have complained about never seeing certain drops. For Vortex, it is the trash-drop wand and the leather caster bracers. Out of two pieces and 10 players, there is less chance of it being something useful than with 25s. Guilds will shard the same drops off a boss week after week, the two drops always seeming to land on the same pieces. If something useful drops, there's a chance the person that needs it either isn't present that day or got rotated out due to compositional issues: something for the guild to plan around, certainly, but I have seen it happen often enough to remember. I will complain less about having only seen the feral bracers/boots/staff once or twice, as it means our mainspec feral has gotten them, but looking at blues in my offspec set is getting tiresome. Granted, I find it amusing that some of my feral upgrades have been straight jumps from blues to heroic-mode epics. It would be nice if the 'randomness' of the drops was twisted to rotate through the item table a bit more reliably, ensuring a more even spread of gear: some randomness is fine, but a bit more variety is also appreciated. Loot matters in progression. The drops can easily determine the rankings: an upgrade for a raider is worth more to the next boss kill than a shard.
- Recruitment. There are more guilds, plainly speaking. It makes looking for a guild harder, as there are more to sift through. It makes advertising for your own guild harder, as you have to shine out from the swarm. There are a lot of excellent guilds, but there are also many that a recruit may find is crumbling as soon as they join. The guild/raid leader may have expected things to be easier than they are, and are struggling to make things work. Raiders may be disillusioned by progression or loot drops, or even the lack of community as a 10-man guild is smaller than the large communities they knew in WotLK or further back. The 10m guild loosing one player--and it is bound to happen--can leave you short on raid nights, and often you may loose multiple at the same time for various reasons. A death spiral if you can't fill those spots.
- Hybrid requirements. This is the ultimate reason why we've not considered a rogue, as melee is generally being given the middle finger by boss mechanics: any melee we do get are all hybrids that will swap either to tank or heal on a given fight (cat/bear, unholy/blood, and ret/holy are our melee dps, excluding our two main tanks. Oh, and this crazy girl who is resto/bear and sometimes moonlights as a cat). With a smaller team, flexibility is very important, and that makes hybrids quite necessary. A healer/healer spec is less flexible than a healer/dps dualspec. On top of being able to spec for it, there is also the issue of knowing how to play it: someone who is used to healing is not going to have the UI and reflexes for reliable interrupts, in most cases (I am a prime example of that on H-Halfus when they had me tanking the fight as offspec!). Where a larger guild can support players who stick to one single role, a 10m requires most of its players to fluctuate between roles as hybrids, and this shows in recruitment.


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(Pocket-lint) - The second in Sony's trio of smartphones announced at IFA is the Xperia V. While not being quite as exciting as the flagship Xperia T, there is still a lot to like about this handset. In fact the two are very similar.
Internally, both have the same 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait processor and 1GB of RAM. The V also throws in LTE for good measure. Just as its bigger-screen brother, the Xperia V seemed to handle very quickly indeed and gave away no indication as to its less-than-powerful processor. Don't forget that dual-core is more than enough to keep Ice Cream Sandwich happy and it definitely shows on the Xperia V.
As for the screen, which is just 4.3-inches this time round (gasp), it is still 720p and is a Reality Display, so you get the viewing angles. We can't fault this display and, to be honest, the size difference is so negligable, we would say go for this phone if you are after LTE.
As for design, it looks good, although the plasticky buttons on the side leave something to be desired, as does the phone's actual shell which looks cheap at the best of times. The hot pink version in particular screamed budget phone to us more than a top-of-the-line piece of kit.
NFC works the same as NFC does everywhere else, in that it lets you connect to things instantly. As we said in the hands-on with the Xperia T, this is great if you own a lot of NFC-capable Sony products, but we can't really see ourselves using much of the rest of the time.
What is particularly good is that the Xperia V takes the same stellar camera from the Xperia T, so you get absolutely top-quality smartphone photos with 1080p video recording.
Quite a package then. Depending on the price, if this is a mid-range phone then Sony might just have a winner with the Xperia V.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 20, What3Words CEO, and Withings Sleep Analyzer reviewed - Pocket-lint podcast ep. 65
Like the sound of the Xperia V? Let us know in the comments below ...


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"It's already kind of a circus," says White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko. "Worrying about bringing in another personality, we've got enough to go around…I wouldn't worry about the chemistry."
Besides, the White Sox already have a soap opera with the on-going friction between White Sox GM Kenny Williams and Guillen.
"If me and Kenny don't hurt this ballclub, nobody can hurt it," Guillen says. "At least we'll be talking about Manny and not worry about Ozzie. That'd be great for me."
August 29, 2010
Will adding Manny Ramirez be bad for the team chemistry Paulie?
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Jan 4, 2011
Creative Ads & Photography | fashion Photographers, Designers And art
Think Extraordinary | 7:54 AM | Creative, Photographs, Photography |
Pawel Fabjanski is a Polish fashion and sports photographer who also has an interesting, unique eye as expressed in his Creative Ads & Photography. After graduating from the Polish National Film School he's now senior photographer with Hiro Magazine, and having moved to Vienna is now also associated with Austrian independent style magazine, Indie Go. Pawel took his eye away from the lens to answer some questions for Pixelsurgeon.
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Baby boomers are getting on in years. If nothing else, who'll build the robots who'll take care of us?
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- In all the worrying over the high unemployment rate, it strikes me that an important point is being missed.
A labor shortage is on the way.
Even at 8.2% unemployment there are already employers scrambling for qualified help -- the key word here being "qualified." You know that because people go on TV complaining there aren't enough H1B visas being granted, which let skilled workers from other countries take jobs here.
But there are bigger problems on the way, and by the latter half of this decade even people in the media will start to notice.
For starters, I'm getting older. Chances are, so are you. The heart of the baby boom turns 65 in 2020 (and on my birthday, Jan. 12) but contrary to what some tell you (that you're all going to have to work until you're 80) most of us are quitting early. I already have friends and relatives who've done the old Johnny Paycheck on their job, and most of them are pretty happy about it.
The baby boom has always been a demographic pig-in-the-python. We were all young together, and we're going to all be old together. Tens of millions of jobs are going to come available.
Then there's the sickness thing. Most of us boomers have already been through it with our parents. You get old, you're sick a lot. And you need care. Personal care. Where are all us boomers going to get enough people to wipe our bottoms in 2032, I want to know.
Yeah, robots. We're decades away from any robot that can offer the real personal care old people need, full-time, 24/7 and 365 days a year. A lot of jobs there.
And then who's going to build the robots? Who's going to grow the food? You do know it takes more people to build and install wind turbines and solar panels than to watch oil come out of the ground. And there's the whole problem of the environment. Not to mention the natural world, slowing and in time reversing the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, otherwise known as middle-class civilization.
Now right now it seems tough for young people. My kids haven't had all the summer jobs and part-time humiliations we enjoyed at their age. They've been in school. They may be 25 before they get out, and my youngest may never get out. (He's much brighter than his parents.) With old industries gone, and new industries just starting out, I get that the unemployment rate right now is high, and if you're reading this without a job you may think I'm off my rocker.
But there is this medium, the greatest thing ever created for learning things, for figuring things out, for connecting with people. It's not all Angry Birds and entertainment. And the kids in this next generation were raised in this medium, not like us. They're the generation that's going to really create it. They're just starting to.
So anyone who tells you we have an intractable unemployment problem and there's no way out, frankly they need their head examined. There's new abundance everywhere, new demand for hands and minds growing in thousands of unlikely places.
The nature of the economy, and what we think of as our economic challenges, is about to take a startling turn.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.


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