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Fri, Jul 30, 2004
Time for launch…
uh, takeoff. There is a throaty and reassuring nature to the TCM
that defies precise description… but it's a good
feeling… and it only gets better as you put the hammer down
on that critter. There are 310 ponies up front and ain't nary
a one that's bashful about it.
Takeoff goes quick with one notch of flaps... those ponies
don't even play before galloping. I saw the ASI active and
swinging through 65 kts in barely enough time to lighten the
nosewheel and get off the deck at 75-85 kts, a mere 1000 feet or so
down the pavement from where we started. I held the 82 kt. speed
for a bit (Vx, by the way) until clearing the end of the runway and
settled into 110-120 kts cruise-climb and got rid of the notch of
flaps... with only a light pitch positive trim change (accounting
for less than two pounds of corrective stick pressure). Initial
rates of climb were well in excess of 1500 fpm and we settled into
a pretty solid 1100-1200 in the cruise climb mode. Visibility was
excellent in the cruise climb mode, and awfully good, as compared
to other aircraft, even at Vx. The initial climb to 3500 feet, took
less than three minutes from brake release and put us in a position
to actually see KSM off in the distance. That's scooting.
The short ride to KSM went speedily as we were granted a quick
right base for an eastern runway and the intercept was a pretty
easy affair with a few minutes with spoilers deployed to pop back
down to pattern altitude and swing onto the base. I love the
spoiler installation on the Lancair… an accessory that I
wish other aircraft manufacturers would offer. Not every bird needs
them, but there's often a condition or a flight profile that
can benefit from being able to lose a lot of altitude without
having to dive for the deck like you were flying a TBM Avenger or
something similar. Spoiler operation is incredibly simple, fairly
speedy and devoid of aerodynamic upsets. You'll feel them
deploy or retract but there is no trim change and the transition
effect is mild and momentary. However; pop those puppies up (there
is no speed inhibition with them either, if you're in the
normal ops envelope, you can deploy them at will), and you will see
that the drag profile heads for the roof…and the faster you
go, the better they work. For the doubting thomases among you, the
aircraft is quite controllable even with one spoiler asymmetrically
deployed (requiring about 20-30% of corrective roll input to deal
with it) and you can actually takeoff with the spoilers out if you
want to extend the ground roll a fair amount… they're
not idiot-proof by any means, but they're pretty close.
Highly recommended.
With two notches down and spoilers used for glidepath control,
the C400 drills down the final at 90-100 kts as if it were on
rails. Crosswind drift is easily countered with light aileron, and
the spoilers do wonders for killing speed-creep.
Landing this baby requires little from the brain trust. It's
really simple. The normal procedure seems to make it best to ride
the downwind at 100-120kts, drop the first notch of flaps at 100
kts opposite the midpoint of the runway, run the revs back to slow
it down further (that prop decelerates the bird well when you pull
off the power), slow to 90 kts on the base, drop the last notch on
short final and carry a little power to keep pitch excited as you
round out to a short approach at 80 knots. Hold it off slightly and
be not surprised when the bird settles in rather level; but note
that whatever you start with, a little more pitch up just prior to
touchdown helps a lot and keeps the nosewheel from making a more
solid arrival.
But we didn't do that.
A hasty right base for the runway showed the biggest difference
I had found between the 400 and the 300/350s I had flown earlier.
The 400's elevator is a bit more active at low speeds and the
stability profile remains nearly as tight as that we experienced at
cruise. The extra tail volume obviously was doing its job and the
slightly more authoritative effect was welcome. The extra pitch
authority was particularly helpful in the flare…as the 300
and 350 lose a little of their oomph in the late flare and require
a bit more of a pull in order to keep the nose off as you
decelerate. It's a nice update. I used 110-120 to the base,
about 100-110 on the base and decelerated slowly through final to
just under 100 kts. Overall controllability remained quite
good… with excellent yaw authority (and only slightly
lessened pressures), while pitch and roll remained nearly as active
as they had been some 50 knots faster… and notable but
sedately lessened control forces.
A light flare and light to modest braking got us stopped in less
than 1200 feet with the spoilers killing off residual float
(it's harder to make a bad landing with the spoilers covering
your backside). Directional control is excellent in the
roll-out… with a slight 8-10 knot cross barely noticeable
enough to deal with. Interestingly, the C400 still goes where you
point in the flare and roll-out with little tendency to weathervane
in sympathy to the cross. She's an animal in the air…
but pretty tame on the deck.
*Includes climb, descent and 45 minute
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4.) I'm beginning to think the "others" are conducting an experiment and drew the plane down to the island somehow.
8.) Lock certainly feels like he's sold out, doesn't he? This guy is so an 'other'. He was planted there so throw them into disarray. He knew he was going to be captured and put there.
6.) Sawyer holds all the guns but just hands one over to Kate? That does not make sense.
Sure it does!!! Guys are notorious for letting their "little brain" do all the thinking when a pretty female is involved!!!

subset: commoncrawl


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Pasta dinner benefits local fuel bank
BETHLEHEM — Sunday night dinner for the extended March family was at Memorial Hall.
The main course was lasagna, with a side of charity and a slice of grandma's famous apple pie.
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Bb. Pilipinas 2008 Ms. World Janina San Miguel: Deserving or Controversial Win?
Oh, my goodness Janina San Miguel, I checked my emails an hour ago and found some very interesting queries about the recently-concluded Bb. Pilipinas 2008 beauty pageant. This is in relation to my previous articles about the contest where Janina San Miguel won one of the highest awards – the Bb. Pilipinas 2008-Ms. World title. Much to my surprise, the win by Janina San Miguel of the title Ms. World was seen by many as controversial (based on email contents). This in turn tarnished the reputation of the Bb. Pilipinas franchise as it is bombarded as of late with negative feedbacks. This is partly because of Janina San Miguel, whether we admit it or not.
This then begs the question if Janina San Miguel is deserving or not to represent our country in the Ms. World beauty pageant on foreign territory. If Janina San Miguel is perceived by many as undeserving of the Ms. World crown, then what does that make the body governing the pageant?
I don't know about you but others have said their piece and see this poor 17-year-old lass as just a pretty face on a one-way street.
Here is again Janina San Miguel's photo:
In fairness, she's beautiful. But unlike her predecessors in the ranks of Ruffa Gutierrez and others, she just lacks the wit to please the judges of an international competition as prestigious as the Ms. World 2008. Well, that's just me. I just hope she improves a great deal before the day of the competition comes.
UPDATE: Shanker Bakshi, a blogger-friend from India requested me to upload this video for non-Filipinos like him to understand the issue. Well, I think he has a point there. Foreigners who were not able to watch the Bb. Pilipinas Grand Coronation Night could have a better insight if they can watch the youtube video of Janina San Miguel. So here it is.


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29 games left to make statement
BY GORDON WITTENMYER firstname.lastname@example.com August 27, 2011 11:03PM
Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster heads back to the mound as the Brewers' Corey Hart celebrates his second-inning triple. | AP
Updated: November 4, 2011 12:23PM
MILWAUKEE — With the Cubs getting whacked again Saturday by the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, the late-season mojo they seemed to be building a week ago has been knocked senseless.
With 29 games left, how they finish might be the last word they have to say about this team — and about the series of changes afoot in the wake of the firing of general manager Jim Hendry on Aug. 19.
''The circumstances don't change anything,'' said right-hander Ryan Dempster (10-10), whose string of six consecutive quality starts ended when he lasted only four innings in the Cubs' 6-4 loss Saturday. ''You go out there and play hard, no matter what the situation is.''
It's a far cry from last season, when the Cubs were a week into a 24-13 finish that had veterans lobbying for interim manager Mike Quade to get the full-time job and boosted optimism about possibilities for this season.
Fast-forward to this weekend, and the Cubs head into the final game of a series against the Brewers trying to avoid a sweep and trying to turn around a 1-6 skid.
''It's not a lot of fun when you're not winning games,'' Dempster said. ''Sometimes it looks like you make a couple of steps forward and start playing better, and then you take some steps back. You've just got to keep plugging away and continue to try to learn.
''We've got some young guys here getting a great opportunity to play and pitch, and we need to go out there and do the best job we can and just try to keep getting better each day.''
And looking at the Brewers across the field, might there be some hope to find in how they've gone from a 75-victory team to a World Series threat in one season?
''I'm just worried about tomorrow,'' Dempster said.
Reliever Angel Guzman, who continued his remarkable comeback from major shoulder surgery with another scoreless inning for Class A Daytona, isn't in the Cubs' plans for a call-up when rosters expand next week, team officials said.
Guzman, who has a 3.44 ERA in 19 appearances between Class A Peoria and Daytona, is being handled with extreme care as he closes out the season in the minors and prepares for what he and the Cubs hope will be a healthy start to spring training.
Guzman, the Cubs' best reliever in 2009, underwent what was thought to be potentially career-threatening surgery 17 months ago.
Cashner update
Right-hander Andrew Cashner will make his third injury-rehab appearance for Class AA Tennessee on Monday, then is scheduled for two more outings for Class AAA Iowa before rejoining the Cubs' active roster for the first time since April during the next homestand.
Quade said the reports he got from Cashner's outing Friday were good.
''I heard he threw the ball well, and I heard he wants to be in my bullpen tonight,'' Quade said. ''That's beautiful. . . . But I think we're going to stay with the program.''


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People often joke that writing about samadhi, the eighth and final limb of yoga, is an exercise in futility – since words can't convey the experience in any meaningful way, you might as well just leave a blank white page. To experience samadhi, which is sometimes called enlightenment, it's often said that you lose your sense of self as separate from the other. The observer and the observed blend into one.
Sri Swami Satchidananda writes that even he finds it hard to express adequately – to him, though, it's a state that takes over after you've done the work (the preceding limbs) to get there. "There is not much I can say about this one… Nobody can practice samadhi. Our effort is there only up to meditation. You put all your effort in dharana. It becomes effortless in dhyana, and you are just there, knowing that you are in meditation. But in samadhi, you don't even know that. You are not there to know it because you are that… In samadhi there is neither the object or the meditator."
It sounds like in samadhi you lose the "you" perspective, but you don't lose consciousness (although that can happen, too, but that's another story!). Figuring it might be less effective for me to write about samadhi, I thought it would be interesting to turn to the people who have commented along the way, and ask them to explain what samadhi is to them. Here's what they said.
* * *
Beryl Bender Birch really emphasizes that the feeling of separateness between you (the observer) and what you're observing disappears. "Samadhi isn't something you can talk about, write about, or for that matter, even think about… Samadhi is an experience, and as such, can only be experienced…. It is the experience of yoga, that 'ahah' boundless, infinite moment when one answers the question, ko-aham, or 'Who am I?' Almost any book you can think of that attempts to explain the experience of enlightenment, doesn't really explain it at all and ends up being a road map with directions on how to reach the destination… I think the best we can say about the experience is that it is a loss of individuality, of separateness, which is replaced by a boundlessness that goes beyond anything the mind is capable of understanding. It's silly to even try to explain it. Just pay attention. Breathe in, breathe out. That's all. If even for only a nanosecond, you'll know it when you meet it."
Reverend Jaganath Carrera urges us to remember that we're actually already enlightened – and it's just a matter of peeling back the layers to realize it. "Samadhi is yoga's technical term for higher states of consciousness," he says. "Although there are several levels of samadhi, when we use the word alone, it usually refers to the highest samadhi, the state of enlightenment. We are already enlightened. It is our true nature to be so. We don't really have to attain enlightenment, just realize it. But, what is enlightenment? To be enlightened means to be fully awake, to experience life and self without the filter of any conceptions, biases, or beliefs. To be awake is to experience our inmost nature, the core and source of our being – all being. It means to know our purpose and to be in tune with the flow of the divine will. When all the limitations of limited, ego-centered consciousness dissolve, when all barriers that separate us from each other and from nature, we experience oneness, the unity behind all diversity. It is pure love."
Linda Sparrowe expands on this point that the merging of perspectives doesn't have to be you and the object of your meditation – it can be you and another being. "It all sounds so lofty and so impossible to attain, but we all experience precious moments of samadhi when we are fully present to and completely absorbed in whatever is happening. I had a wonderful experience years ago that illustrates this concept perfectly. In a Qigong class at the Chopra Center, I partnered with an older man who was dying of throat cancer. The assignment was to move to music together with our eyes closed. The teacher asked us to bring our hands close enough to each other that we could feel the energy, but not close enough that they touched. The music started to play, we closed our eyes, and we began to move, tentatively at first–hyper-aware of each other's movements and needs. By the time the music ended and we opened our eyes, we both realized there was no separation between us–we were one entity. The music itself wasn't separate; we had embodied it. We were the dance and the dance was us. Nothing in the universe existed outside of that experience. I can still feel that tender moment of true integration and bliss."
For Elena Brower, it's even simpler. She finds Samadhi in the quiet moments, like ones with her son. "Just before bedtime, there is this moment with my son when the book is over, he puts his head down on my shoulder, takes a huge breath and says, 'I love you, Mama.' There is nothing else between us or around us aside from that connection, and that empty/full space for me is Samadhi."
Judith Hanson Lasater, PhD, PT says she feels "a little presumptuous writing about samadhi," but her feeling is that it's about multiple, perhaps infinite, points of view all happening in concert. "Usually we just identify with our body and our particular ego's point of view. But as one begins to experience life more often from the perspective of 'the other' through the arising of empathy and compassion, one is beginning to taste samadhi. As this process continues and grows in one's consciousness, it is possible to experience the world from a wider and wide perspective. Maybe God is that consciousness which has all points of view from all aspects of the Universe at once. We have all had moments of an identification shift where we perceive the whole as one, and the one as the whole."
Samadhi can indeed come in bits and pieces – it doesn't always have to be a momentous single experience, says Dinabandhu Sarley, and it's something you can encounter more and more with time and practice. He says that "for a yoga practitioner in the 21st century, the important thing to realize is that while this is often described as a stable, non-changing state of consciousness, the typical seeker can actually access this phenomenon on a intermittent basis through their practice of yoga. You can access this both in your daily life and in your meditation or yoga posture flow… For those of us on the path, these intermittent and time-limited experiences of integration point the way and give us a sampling of who we truly are and what we might move towards in our practice. Small tastes of Samadhi form the milestones marking the path."
Ever the realist, Glenn Black cautions that though it may be magnificent to experience, even enlightenment won't solve all your problems: "Samadhi, the eighth and last stage of Yoga, can never be explained. It is to be directly experienced after pratyahara, dharana and dhyana have been experienced, and they are not so easily attained either. In this age there are so many distractions that the same practices the sages did ages ago cannot possibly be as effective. I have taught and hung out with some people who have practiced seriously for decades and they still get angry. Ram Dass once said, 'if you think you are enlightened spend a week with your family.' There are some happy, peaceful and content people over there. Slap them upside the head and see what happens."
Brad Waites brings up an interesting point to leave on. He asks simply, why do we do it? Samadhi might blow your mind, but he wonders whether there isn't something at least as important to aim for. "Should samadhi as traditionally defined still be considered the ultimate expression of the practice? Does it matter that an individual consciousness enters into samadhi if the rest of the world is left just as it is? Really, what has been achieved in the big picture? Sri Aurobindo spoke eloquently to this with his integral yoga, teaching that universal transformation, not individual enlightenment, holds the true potential of the practice."
Maybe it's all just a matter of discovering the balance, where we can work on our own consciousness, but not forget that our relationship with others is at least as fundamental. It's fitting then that the yamas, which are the guidelines for how we relate to others, are taught first, as the "roots" of yoga – and that samadhi, which teaches us that there's not much, if any, separation between ourselves and others is the ultimate limb. There's a lovely connection there, and the limbs of yoga truly come full circle.
Have you experienced samadhi? What, to you, is the central goal of yoga?
Alice G. Walton, PhD is a health and science writer, and began practicing (and falling in love with) yoga last year. She is the Associate Editor at email@example.com/alicegwalton
So here we are, at the penultimate limb of yoga. Dhyana, or meditation, is described as the "continuous flow of cognition" toward an object – the object being the one we've been concentrating on from the last limb, dharana
Sri Dharma Mittra of the Dharma Yoga Centercoming back to – that return to something, every day or every week, whatever that something may be (within reason, of course). "All these are facets of concentration," he says. "All of these are better than the other one where you just sit there and you don't know where you are or what's happening to you." He talks about students who come to class every week without fail for over a decade, and of people who simply spend a minute of each day remembering god. "That is concentration," he says. "That is the very definition of steadiness. So, to meditate is more about steadiness than it is about how you sit or the quality of your concentration or anything else. This steadiness in concentration brings fruits."
So that is one form of practice. Another way is, of course, to sit in stillness, or to "retire in solitude," Sri Dharma says, which allows your brain to reboot. For this, he advises people to sit for five minutes and work from there, just being still and watching your mind as an observer. "It is in the absence of mental activities that you get recharged, that you come to operate on higher levels." If your mind is just too restless and you can't do it yet, not to worry – you can go back to concentrating on something specific, and work from there: "if you are not ready for this," Sri Dharma says, "you may concentrate on a picture or a diamond, the sun, a flower, or anything. But, the best thing is to sit comfortably for this with the eyes almost closed. There you remain unconcerned, watching the activities of the mind… This is not this kind of meditation that you lose your consciousness. No, it's just to sit quietly and keep watching, observing."
One of the loveliest points he makes is one that's true when we're meditating and when we're not. He urges people to remember that "We are not the body or activities. So it is good always to sit quietly like a witness watching the activities of the body and mind. You realize through this that everything is passing away all the time." The idea that we're not our bodies, our reactions, or even our thoughts, is sort of mind-blowing, and it may be one of the most important messages that yoga can impart.
So, however simple or barebones our practices may seem at first, the reality is that we can all meditate in some way. It's not easy to quiet the monkey mind – and thankfully, everyone, even the most practiced teachers, agrees on that – but it gets incrementally easier the more you try. Sri Dharma ends by saying this: "Meditation is available to anyone regardless of where you are starting from. For those who are not in good physical condition, lie down. Lie down in a very comfortable position, but don't fall asleep! And there you stay, also trying to be unconcerned just like a witness. All these techniques lead to what: for the mind to become sharp. And then you'll be able to find answers."
How do you meditate? Do you notice that it gets easier over time? Please share your thoughts below.
The sixth limb of yoga, dharana, is affectionately referred to as "concentration." It's a limb that can get overlooked as either unimportant or too difficult to bother with, especially since its fuller, less tangible translation is "the binding of the mind to one place, object or idea." This conjures up images of master yogis staring at objects until they're "one" with them. And while there can be some truth to this scenario, it's not entirely accurate. Dharana, in reality, is one of the most important parts of yoga there is, and learning how to practice it (because it is definitely a practice) may be one of the most worthwhile things we can do for our brains.
This is party because dharana and the next limb of yoga – dhyana, or meditation – are two sides of the same coin. Conceptually they can be separated, but in practice, that makes less sense. Dharana, at its very heart, can be thought of as the work it takes – the practice – to get your mind to the point where it's ready for meditation. So dharana isn't so much the state of concentration, but it's more the act of brining your "monkey mind" back to whatever it is you're focusing on. Again, and again, and again.
Many yogis say that for beginners, choosing a thing to focus on, rather than an idea, is the way to go. The object can be a physical object, the breath, or an oral mantra. The idea is just to have something outside yourself that serves as a point to draw the attention toward. "I usually recommend practicing in the morning, before you get into the machinations and manipulations of your daily life," says Thomas Amelio
Most people, including Amelio, know that this is easier said than done. The problem is that the mind goes where it wants. So while the idea of intently focusing on, say, a flower is all well and good, the mind is naturally going to wander away from it, especially at first. Swami Satchidananda writes about a funny scenario that we've all experienced in some iteration, where a person is trying to practice dharana with a rose. "As you look at the rose," he writes, "the mind will try to go somewhere. The minute you begin, the mind will say, 'Ah, yes, I remember she sent me a rose like that for my last birthday.'… And then, 'After that we had dinner. Ah, it was the best dinner. Then we went to the movies. What was that movie? King Kong?' It will all happen within two minutes. Even less than two minutes. So, on what are you meditating now? Not on a rose, but on King Kong."
Because just about everyone experiences the unwelcome King Kong meditation, Amelio says he usually recommends practicing dharana with a mantra, since "it gives you something – a vibration – to focus on. And an internalized mantra can actually be more powerful than an oral one because you're occupying your mind. If you're repeating a mantra aloud, you can still be thinking about what you're going to wear to work the next day. But an internalized one takes up that space."
If you're not using a mantra, though, and you're practicing concentration with an image or an object, the most important thing to remember is that the goal is in the practice. Bringing the mind back to the rose – as many times as it takes – is what dharana is all about. Satchidananda points out that the practice of dharana is not concentrating on the rose – it's the act of redirecting the mind, again and again. He writes, "This very practice itself is called concentration: the mind running, your bringing it back; its running, your bringing it back. You are taming a monkey. Once it's tamed, it will just listen to you. You will be able to say, 'Okay, sit there quietly.' And it will. At that point you are meditating. Until then you are training yourself to meditate. Training your mind to meditate is what is called dharana."
Finally, it's worth pointing out that dharana can help us with our focus in any walk of life, not just when we sit down to meditate. Amelio stresses the fact that there's just something innately gratifying about focusing intensely on something – like getting lost in a book or abandoning yourself to the beauty of the ocean. "People often feel that they're scattered in day to day life," he says. "They get taste of dharana and they're surprised. Concentration gets easier as you practice it. It's joyous to concentrate on something, there's pleasure in it. When you get familiar with dharana, the mind becomes a much less restless place to be."
Have you practiced dharana? What do you find is the most effective way?
Pratyahara is the fifth limb of yoga, and it's usually translated as "withdrawal of the senses." The limbs from here on out are starting to feel a little less familiar, and maybe a little more intense (read: intimidating?). But the beautiful thing is that they're actually pretty accessible, even if you're just "going there" for the first time. As many yogis and scholars have pointed out along the way, there really is a very natural and scientific progression across the limbs, moving from body (asana) to breath (pranayama) to senses (pratyahara) to mind (the last three limbs). And you may not realize it, but pratyahara is actually something that you've probably already practiced somewhere along the way.
Here's where: Most yoga classes end with savasana, or corpse pose, and for this period of time, you've likely experienced some form of sensory withdrawal. Many teachers dim the lights and ask students to relax deeply, and just sort of…exist. When you're lying in savasana, with your eyes closed and your breath slow, it's very easy to bring attention inward and be less attuned to what's going on around you – and this, in essence, is pratyahara. If you've been in this state, you might feel as if there's a layer of distance between your senses and your surroundings: You might still register sounds in the studio, the temperature of your skin, your position on the mat, but you respond to them less. It's as if you're a little removed from your senses, not flush up against them – and for a true meditative state, this is a key element.
Because my experience with pratyahara had been mostly unintentional up till now, I spoke again to Patton Sarley
In other words, we're turning the stress response off and allowing the relaxation response to kick in. Bringing the senses inward follows naturally: Just think how when you're stressed, you're in a state of hyper-vigilance, and your senses hyper-attuned to your surroundings. On the flipside, relaxing completely allows your senses to take a break, and withdraw themselves, as it were.
To be sure, this isn't a practice that we can do walking down the street or riding the subway – it wouldn't be very safe to do so. Sarley recommends that pratyahara be done intentionally as part of your practice at home, in nature, or in class. In fact, he makes the excellent point that pratyahara almost can't be understood without the following two limbs, which are dharana (concentration), and dhyana (meditation). These three limbs together make up a trilogy of sorts, which is tightly and logically connected: Once we withdraw the senses, then we can focus our attention in concentration, and ultimately allow the mind to meditate.
A couple of points of caution about what pratyahara isn't. Most people have probably had the experience of being so caught up in your own thoughts that you miss what's going on around you. The other day, waiting for the train, I so completely wrapped up in my own contemplations that I missed a train announcement and probably a whole lot of other things that happened around me. Needless to say, this kind of withdrawal of the senses is not pratyahara.
A related point, also worth mentioning, is that pratyahara is not a way to intentionally cut yourself off from the world or to use as a form of escapism. It definitely shouldn't involve self-centrism. Sarley points out that "Yoga and narcissism can, unfortunately, go hand-in-hand. The self-referential processes can become pathological. And this is not at all what pratyahara, or any part of yoga, is about."
In contrast, yoga should do the opposite, and it's generally extremely good at this – at quieting down those "self" centers of the brainSutras book. "Turned outward, they reflect the outside; turned inward, they reflect pure light…. when allowed to turn outside they attract everything and transfer those messages to the mind, making it restless. Turned inward, they find peace by taking the form of the mind itself."
Have you experienced pratyahara in your own practice? How would you describe what it feels like? And does it help you prepare for meditation?
The goal of the fourth limb of yoga, pranayama, is to gain control of the breath. The Sanskrit term "prana" actually refers not only to the breath, but also to the life force, or to energy in a larger, more cosmic sense – gain control of the breath, and you gain access to a sort of cosmic energy. But the practice of pranayama doesn't have to be thought of as a way to connect to a larger energy (although it certainly can be, if that's helpful to the individual, and it is for many). At a much more literal level, pranayama is just an incredibly effective way to become more aware of your own bodily reactions to the things that trigger you into stress, negative thoughts, even despair. Learning how to change your breath actually allows you to halt (and redirect) that stress reaction, which is "turned on" all too often for many of us.
For a long time, I actually thought breathing exercises sounded kind of hokey. Breathing itself seemed like an arbitrary bodily process to pay attention to (I mean, why not pay attention to eye-blinking, or any other sort of physical pattern?). But I've since learned what any yogi or scientist will tell you: Breathing is truly unique in that it's the only bodily process that lets us gain access to – and control of – our brains. And importantly, for some of us more than others, this lets us have some element of control over our stress responses and our reactions to the world around us.
Rolf Sovik, PsyD, the president and spiritual director of the Himalayan Institute
Another way of thinking about it is that breathing helps strengthen the connection between the body and mind: In this case, it's through the one we have access to the other. That's a lot of what yoga is all about, reconciling the "divide" between gross and subtle – and doing physical things (like breathing and asana) is often the easiest way to gain access to the mental ones. Sri Swami Satchidananda even asks, "which is subtler, mind or breath? Which is easier to handle, a subtle thing or a gross one? Always the gross thing." As we become more experienced in our practice over time, we can rely less on the physical methods, and more on the mental ones. But for people just getting into the limbs of yoga (like me), it's a little easier to work on the physical methods.
There are a lot of different practices in pranayama, from observing the breath, to training it, to retaining it for some length of time. For most of us, the simpler ones are probably the most powerful and the safest. To start out, Sovik recommends relying on the natural patterns: "Breathing practices are most helpful when they arise from the spontaneous flow of normal, relaxed breathing," he says. "It is a process that evolves over time and emphasizes smooth, deep, diaphragmatic breathing." He recommends beginning breath training in one of two reclining poses: corpse pose or crocodile pose. (Here's a more in-depth descriptionYogaGlo's collection of classes
Sovik stresses that pranayama should really be about getting in touch with something visceral and learning how to work with it – it's not about teaching the body something new or unnatural. "Frequently, breathing techniques lead to over-control and a sense that the life force can be governed mechanically. Ultimately," he adds, "the effort to control the breath is not robotic but a natural stage in the meditative process."
So here's to breaking misconceptions. Pranayama isn't hokey, mysterious, or mechanical. It's actually quite simple and natural, and it may be the single best physical tool we have to gain some access to our minds. Offering some perspective on how the limbs of yoga relate to one another, Satchidananda sums up the transition across the eight limbs in this way: "first we learn to control the physical body, then the movement of the breath, then the senses, and finally the mind. It is very scientific, gradual and easy."
Does your yoga practice include pranayama? Do your teachers integrate it into their classes?
For most of us today, the third limb of yoga, asana – the poses or postures – is the essence of the practice. Asana is borne of down dogs, alignments, up dogs, chaturangas, warriors, twists, and trikonasanas. To most practitioners over the centuries, though, it's not. And this is where the discussion really gets interesting. Instead of debating the benefits of kundalini vs. yin yoga, or trying to figure out where our heels should be for perfect warrior II, a better question might be, "Why do we do asana at all?" And even better, "Why do we think this is yoga?"
In the last seriesDevarshiSteven Hartman
So why do we hang on the idea that yoga is physical, or that asana is yoga? Glenn BlackNew York Times article "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body," and has seen, in decades-worth of students, how yoga can, actually, wreck your body. Part of the problem, he says, is that Westerners are simply not prepared – in body or in mind – for practicing yoga, and certainly not for the rigors of the physical practice that today we call yoga. He points out that the practice we think of as yoga is really quite young, and it's certainly not part of the millennia-old tradition that originated in India. But, physical risks of yoga aside, he still questions seriously, as hopefully more and more burgeoning yogis are beginning to, the value of a purely physical practice.
"Basically, the asana that's taught here now is Indian gymnastics," he says. "Americans who get into yoga are going to have a difficult time, because our bodies were never prepared to do intricate movement. I find that in most Western cultures, we're so enamored of anything physical. And maybe it's because of this that we tend to negate the subtler aspects of own bodies and minds. I don't know why in the West we got so fond of the asanas. I don't think they allow us to go into regions of ourselves that we really need to explore."
For him, Hartman, and most of the yogis who have commented along the way, getting in touch with our awareness – some would call it mindfulness – is a step in the right direction. Black also recommends learning from a teacher how to experience yoga nidra, which is a kind of in-between consciousness – a state of deep relaxation, literally translated at yogic sleep. This, for him, is leaps and bounds more useful than asana alone.
Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Black also recommends that people get away from yoga classes a bit. "Go to nature – a stream or a mountain – and just practice. Find two or three things, and go into them deeply. Otherwise it's just talk. You have to attain the condition yoga nidra, so that the stress you've accumulated will be alleviated, and, more important, new stresses won't gather back up." He says one of the big challenges of yoga today is that we may feel great when we practice and shortly afterwards, but the benefits of yoga too often wear off when we find ourselves back in the real world, amongst our everyday stressors, cell phones, and other attachments. Redistributing our time, so that more is spent regularly in yoga nidra or meditation, might make a big difference to our overall mental health.
Hartman agrees that we often make strange assumptions about asana, or ask the wrong questions of it. "The real issue is, what really makes something yoga, if it's not the asana? And the answer might be, it's who we're being in the asana. The physical practice is just one method, just like pranayama, or any of the yamas or niyamas. Many great yogis don't even do asana; and they'll be enlightened way before people who do great backbends."
If this sounds discouraging, it shouldn't. Like sex or pizza, even a bad yoga class is still pretty good. "Luckily," says Hartman, "even when done poorly, when the yoga teacher doesn't do anything but walk around barking commands, students can still gain awareness from the practice. This is the great thing about asana – it still opens the door.
"True alignment is not where toes are," he continues. "It's when the consciousness, the body and mind, and awareness are in alignment. That's what it's all about. To me, the real yoga is when you create awareness, authenticity. Asana is prayer in motion. That's where we should be moving."
None of this is meant to say there isn't value in asana, but just to remind us that asana is not the centerpiece of yoga – it's just one piece. Hartman sums it up well: "Awareness is really what makes the difference in yoga. If you're doing a handstand with no awareness, you're just an athlete. But the person washing the dishes with awareness – that's a yogi."
What are your feelings about asana? Is it the center of your practice, or do other aspects/limbs play a more principal role?
The fifth and final niyama, ishvara pranidhana, is the queen mother of all the restraints and observances that serve as the roots of yoga. In fact, The Yoga Sutras translator Sri Swami Satchidananda says that if you can master this one, there's no need to read any more of the Sutras because you'll already have attained samadhi, the state of oneness which is the final limb of yoga. He defines ishvara pranidhana like this: "By total surrender to God, samadhi is attained." If this sounds foreign, or the reference to God makes you nervous, read on: You don't have to be religious to "get" ishvara pranidhana, you just have to be willing to look outside of yourself.
Luckily, this is something most of us know on a gut level we need to do to be happy and at peace with ourselves. In fact, everyone from yogis to neuroscientists
Surrendering ourselves to something bigger than us – whether we call it God, nature, or the universe – is at the heart of ishvara pranidhana. We spend so much of the day in our own heads, listening to the endless chatter of our thoughts, and flitting from one worry the next. This pattern is so ingrained in us, but it's almost always in an effort to control our circumstances and gauge how we're doing. But relinquishing this control (or, as some would say, our false sense of control) to something bigger than ourselves is the goal.
My lovely teacher and YogaGlo's own Elena Browerfeel it, even though I hadn't a name that really resonated with me at that time."
There are, wonderfully, many ways to experience ishvara pranidhana on a daily basis. Some feel it, as Elena did, in a breathtaking surrounding, whether it's a place of worship, walking along the beach, or looking up at a sky-full of stars. But there are other ways, too. Many yogis believe that being of service to others is one of the best things – or perhaps the single best thing – we can do, since, after all, god is in all of us. As Satchidananda says, dedicate yourself to benefit humanity, and you've dedicated yourself to god.
Satchidananda also underlines that, just as all the yamas and niyamas are different doors to the same place, there are lots of ways to practice ishvara pranidhana. "Tastes differ," he says. "That is why the scriptures give different paths."
Seeing beauty and divinity in the small, quotidian things is another way to get there. Taking the time to experience the beauty and comfort of a hot cup of tea, the delight in your kid's smile, or even the warmth of the soapy bubbles while doing the dishes, are the simplest ways – they can also be the most profound, because they are everywhere. Practicing asana and meditation are other, more deliberate ways, but equally important. Finding the connection between ourselves and other is what's important, and at the heart of ishvara pranidhana.
"Each morning and night, I spend just a few minutes experiencing and seeing this connection, in myself and in those around me," says Elena. "Usually I'll use a meditation or kriya… Kriyas bring us into a meditative state, which is our connection to that devotion, that state of surrender."
The point is, it doesn't really matter how you do it – the opportunities are infinite. As always, it's a practice: So if you only experience it for five seconds one day, don't be discouraged. Just try to get in touch with it when you can, and you might be surprised at how it builds.
"We practice creating that feeling of quiet even when we're not practicing," says Elena. "We can commit to seeing beauty in unexpected ways. We can serve others by giving our resources, time or listening. We can be confidently attentive to our kids, our parents, our friends or our colleagues. All of these small actions of noticing, listening and acknowledging connect us to that state of surrender, recognition, and devotion."
How do you experience ishvara pranidhana? Doing yoga? Communing with nature? Or in your ordinary activities throughout the day?
So now it's really starting to get good. A little less comfortable, for sure, but in a good way, I think. The consensus seems to be that moving through the yamas and niyamas, and actually incorporating them into your life, is not exactly easy or even pain-free, but it's a necessary part of getting "there." Samtosha and tapas blended so beautifully into each other, and here comes another that helps push us towards change and becoming more conscious: svadhyaya, the fourth niyama. It has some different interpretations, having to do with studying the self, learning sacred texts, or reciting mantras, depending on whom you ask or what period of history you're talking about.
For our purposes, it has more to do with self-reflection and introspection, but it didn't start out this way. Matthew Remskithreads of yoga: a remix of patanjali's sutras with commentary and reverie,
But more recently svadhyaya has come to mean "self-reflection." This shift makes it more straightforward, but also a little intimidating. After all, self-reflection is the thing that most of us not only resist, but resist with vigor. Sitting with all our pain and trying to understand it by looking into it can feel like the most heinous undertaking in the world, and it's often the reason why we eat, drink, smoke, get high, or spend an extra few hours a day futzing around on the computer. It's also not the simplest undertaking, since it seems (at least to me) like thinking about yourself or a problem in your life doesn't always get you anywhere at all.
So to look inside isn't often comfortable, but, like samtosha (practicing contentment) and tapas (burning up our negative thought patterns and crutches), we really have to " go there" if we want to change.
To get started with it, Remski recommends just carving out some time in the day to sit alone with yourself. "The first part of practicing svadhyaya is just structural; it's timing. Manage to rise an hour before sunrise, and have that hour or even 45 min, to yourself to pursue and contemplate whatever moves you most deeply, whether it's sitting with your thoughts, reading, or what have you. What I usually suggest to people is to make a cup of tea after rising, sit by the window, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and ask yourself, 'what do I need to know?' 'What do I need to know about myself, or to learn?'"
Remski says that this "god hour" of the early day, or brahmamuhurta, is also known as the hour of expansiveness, where our thoughts tend to be clearer and crisper. "Every person needs to find his or her holy hour," he says. "That's the beginning point. We're a very nondenominational bunch in western culture. For my students, for my clients, my job is to help people structurally, to create the space for them to find out how they'll study their internal states most closely. From there, then, it can unfold."
It's probably worth pointing out that there's a difference between self-reflection and the self-centric thoughts we so often have throughout the day (the mind chatter, worries, and self-flagellating thoughts we often resort to). Svadhyaya is about inquiring in an interested, non-judgmental way – trying to figure out our patterns, beliefs, habits, and maybe even our purposes in the world. Paying attention to how we look inward is really important, as it can be easy to get caught up in our regular cycle.
For people who are having a very hard time with this niyama, you can always back out of it, just like any other part of yoga, and come at it another way. "If this question [svadhyaya] makes you feel anxious," says Remski, "then sitting in contemplation isn't for you just yet and it would be really good to move your body instead. So if the question brings up anxiety, if it causes the mind to buzz or whir, then that's the time to go for walk rather than sit. Use that time for movement instead." Come back to it when you're ready.
That's the beautiful thing about the yamas and niyamas – they offer different ways of getting towards the same end. If one avenue doesn't feel right at this particular moment, you can always focus on another, and come back to the first when you're able. And the thing about svadhyaya is that there's no measuring stick for it: With this one, it's up to you to measure yourself. This is what makes it both more challenging and more engaging. Of course, that's true of many parts of life, and certainly many aspects of yoga.
"Nobody has the truth," writes Remski in his book. "Truth is the product of sharing what seems to be true. We all inquire into yoga."
How are you doing with self-reflection, or svadhyaya? Is it intimidating, exciting, scary, enlightening, or all of the above?
Tapas is a beautiful complement to samtosha
Or, at least, it doesn't have to be. Rather, tapas is about adding little elements of "discipline" to one's routine, which is key to getting the mind on the right track, and breaking down all the negative thought patterns that can plague us, creating unhappiness or depression. The disciplines you add to your life can be simple: Carving time out to exercise daily; practicing yoga, meditation, mindfulness; and eating healthily.
Jennifer Schmid, who lives and teaches at the Ananda Ashram in upstate New York, tells me, "it's through having a focused effort of self-discipline – be it asana, meditation, or mindfulness – that we purify the mind of impurities, habits and patterns that are no longer serving us. When these impurities are destroyed we begin to see the world as it is, rather than a projection of what we think it is." In other words, it's when we burn through our crutches (overeating, over-drinking, negative thinking), that we can be freer, and more in touch with the universe, and those around us.
Schmid does point out that it's a big endeavor, tapas, just like the other yamas and niyamas, which ask us to go beyond our comfort zone. "It's intense," she says. "But in that intensity, purification is a natural by-product, well-being unfolds, and we literally ignite the fire of consciousness within ourselves to burn brighter." Just think about the first few days or weeks of dieting or quitting smoking – they can be miserably painful, but then you start to see the benefits and feel more comfortable in the new practice. Eventually, the change becomes pleasurable (hopefully), and creates more energy to continue on with it.
Jeff Migdow, MD, who is director of prana yoga teacher training and lived for 15 years at Kripalu has seen what a little tapas can do, in others and personally. "The heat that's created by the practice does various things: it burns away karma and it gives you energy to continue practicing. But it also gives you a certain vitality, a physical energy that emanates." He says that during visits to India, he's practiced alongside people who were almost literally glowing, so filled were they with the heat and energy of tapas. But like Schmid, Migdow makes no secret of the fact that it's not easy, and can be quite uncomfortable at first. "It's literally like burning up – you feel like you're dying. The ego really resists it. But there's this fire that gets created." He says the unpleasantness in the beginning is actually how you know you know you're doing it right, despite the days, weeks, or months of discomfort before the heat created from the practice actually feels positive.
That said, if practicing tapas is too intense, you can always back out of it a bit, just like in any physical yoga pose that's painful rather than challenging. But if you can take a little discomfort while your brain is sorting itself out, then go for it. "When we're in a difficult place, and things are starting to heat up inside us, it helps if our self-awareness steps in and we tell ourselves, 'oh that's just my ego kicking up, I can get through this.' It's a bit like jumping into the fire." But, he adds, in the end, the heat that's stirred up by practicing tapas can lead to extraordinary change, which can last a lifetime.
Where are you with tapas? Are you in the gritty, unpleasant part, or the energetic part?
When it comes down to it, most of us just want a little freedom from our pain, whatever the cause may be. At this time of the year, a lot of us are thinking about happiness…and how to get more of it in the coming year. We often look for the antidote to unhappiness outside ourselves – in new shoes or electronics, new clothes or a good meal. But like we saw with a lot of the yamas, looking outside usually only enhances the problem, and ends up multiplying the craving/anxiety/unhappiness that we feel. What samtosha is all about is going back inside and trying to tweak our own reactions to life, so that we can learn to sit more calmly and less reactively in the presence of whatever life throws at us.
I have to say, I have a really hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that contentment is considered an "observance"– which is what all the niyamas are – as if one can just choose to be content. On the contrary, isn't contentment sort of the overarching goal or endpoint of Yoga, something we should only achieve after we learn and become masterful at all eight limbs? Can it be as simple as making a choice to feel content? I'm reluctant to embrace this idea, but after talking with Patton Sarley, who has directed both Omega Institute and Kripalu Center for Yoga and Life, I start to warm up to it. He says that in fact contentment can actually be an outcome AND a practice – the seed is always present in the fruit, he says – so maybe it is that simple. (But it's also a little more complicated.)
Part of the secret is that our perception of pain or unhappiness is intimately linked to our reaction to it. We've all seen that certain people just seem to let things, even very bad things, roll off them, and they're the better for it. It seems like this might be an innate quality, but actually it can be learned, though it may take some practice. Sarley first explains the contentment-as-a-choice idea by bringing to mind the old Native American tale of the two wolves: a grandfather is talking to his grandson about how inside his mind are two wolves in a constant fight. One is anger, greed, self-pity, revenge; the other is love, kindness, empathy, hope. The child asks which one wins, and the grandfather replies, "Whichever one I feed." In the same way, we can make a choice to be content – to practice non-attachment (refer to the yamas) and take each event in our lives a less personally. It's not that bad things won't happen, but we'll learn to react to them very differently, which leads to a lot less pain.
"Most people think of contentment as a middle place," says Sarley. "It's arriving at contentment with the difficulties of life, the shitstorm of being alive, crisis to crisis." Because, as he points out, life really can just feel like a string of unfortunate events. "With samtosha, it's not that 'everything is ok.' It's, 'man this sucks, but I'm ok.'" In other words, you won't be immune to bad things, but when they happen – when the shitstorm comes – you'll weather them much better.
So how do we practice contentment? It's using all the tools we have at our disposal, and using them again and again. We can breathe, meditate, practice asana, observe the yamas and niyamas. Anything that shifts our attention to what's going on inside, so we can attend to it (in a nonjudgmental, non-attached way), describe it (if possible), and then let it go of it just a bit. Anything that helps us do these things will get us a little bit closer to samtosha.
It's not easy or quick, and even Sarley says that "You can't just meditate your way to enlightenment." It takes some conscious effort – it's about practicing over and over again, and gradually breaking down those fixed reactions that we've been falling back on our whole lives. To be sure, as Sarley points out, there's a huge irony here: To change ourselves, we have to rely on the very thing that's giving us the trouble in the first place – our minds. The endless and often destructive "mind chatter," or chitta vritti, says Sarley, is what most people want to get away from, and largely the root of our unhappiness. Luckily, the brain is quite plastic, and with some practice it can be rewired. It may not be pretty and it may take a while, but we can learn another way of thinking that will totally transform us.
"Whenever you get jacked up about life," Sarley adds, "with either fear or desire – each of which tends to dominate our consciousness – you always have a choice. It's all about tolerating the consequences of being yourself. Yoga is the practice of tolerating who you are."
Do you think that contentment is something you can cultivate? Do you make a conscious choice about how to react when bad things happen?


text:
Bank Of Hawaii Corporation First Quarter 2012 Financial Results
Total shareholders' equity was $995.9 million at March 31, 2012, compared to $1.0 billion at December 31, 2011 and $996.2 million at March 31, 2011. The ratio of tangible common equity to risk-weighted assets was 17.62 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2012, compared to 17.93 percent at year-end 2011, and 19.04 percent at the end of the same quarter last year. The Tier 1 leverage ratio at March 31, 2012 was 6.57 percent compared to 6.73 percent at December 31, 2011, and 7.16 percent at March 31, 2011.
The Company's Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.45 per share on the Company's outstanding shares. The dividend will be payable on June 14, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 31, 2012.
Hawaii Economy
Hawaii's economy was stable with continued improvement in certain aspects, particularly in tourism, during the first two months of 2012. For the first two months of 2012, total visitor arrivals increased by 6.7% and visitor spending increased by 11.4% compared to the same period in 2011. The increase in visitor spending was primarily due to strong spending growth by visitors from Japan and Canada. Hotel occupancy and revenue per available room also continued to improve. Overall, state job growth has begun to stabilize as the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.4% as of March 2012, compared to 8.2% nationally. For the first three months of 2012, the volume of single-family home sales was slightly lower than the same period in 2011, while the median price of single family homes sold on Oahu was higher compared to the same period in 2011. Months of inventory continued to remain low at approximately 4 months as of March 31, 2012. More information on current Hawaii economic trends is presented in Table 15.
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text:
Facebook bans Gandhi quote
via www.naturalnews.com 1 year, 11 months ago
2 responses
gm989 1 year, 11 months ago
Can't believe the quote is considered racist. Maybe they should change the last word to a different font color.
JakeLonergan 1 year, 11 months ago
If "racist" was the reason, it's just a lame excuse. It's the (fear of) guns thing. The same reason NBC Sports cancelled Tom Gresham's shows.
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text: Well, that's not what I was hoping to hear, but it certainly answers my question, so thanks again for that! By the way, it turns out that we do utilize the 3D capabilities of this data in our software for a separate page that shows the Helicopter from a out-of-copter view, flying over the terrain/buildings. My focus is on the 2D part. Tomorrow I'm presenting a bunch of data/issues/alternatives to some In-House big wigs, so they will determine our next course of action. Thanks again for all your help, and hopefully we'll get this thing working at some point! > Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:12:36 -0700 > From: xenon at alphapixel.com > To: osg-users at lists.openscenegraph.org > Subject: Re: [osg-users] Setting up VPBMaster > > Jacob Armstrong wrote: > > I want to thank you again for all your help on this issue. I've got my > > fingers crossed for this to work, but we've already come up with some > > ideas of how to cut this down for the next run. My manager knows I've > > been in contact with you on this, and she was wondering if you part of > > the development team for OpenSceneGraph, or if you're a knowledgeable > > user or what? I told her I wasn't sure, but you seemed to know more > > about this stuff that I do. :) > > Well, I don't know that the "development team for OpenSceneGraph" is a clearly defined > set. By volume, Robert is the author of the vast majority of the OSG source code, but > there's a long list of other contributors as well. I'm one of the those folks. I've worked > on terrain-related aspects of OSG since, err, I can't remember how long. Well before OSG > 1.0. I'm also one of the few people brave enough to dive into and work on VPB's own code, > though I don't know it inside and out. I've worked on 3D terrain software since about 1992. > > > I wanted to ask you something else on OSGDem if that's ok. I posted > > another thread about what to do if OSGDem crashes during a run, but I > > haven't gotten any responses to it. I was wondering if there's any log > > file or any way OSGDem can pick up where it left off (or somewhere close > > to it) after a crash, or does it have to start from the beginning again? > > Do you happen to know about this? > > I don't know if there's any way to restart OSGDEM. I kinda doubt it, because it would > have no idea what the current state would be, or what files might have been written > improperly or incompletely during the crash. > > I would expect the full VPB might have a better chance of this, because it breaks the > work up into discrete jobs and dispatches them, and keeps track of what gets done. it > might be able to resume a partially completed job. > > -- > Chris 'Xenon' Hanson, omo sanza lettere Xenon AlphaPixel.com > PixelSense Landsat processing now available! http://www.alphapixel.com/demos/ > "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen > _______________________________________________ > osg-users mailing list > osg-users at lists.openscenegraph.org > http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org _________________________________________________________________ Bing brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. http://www.bing.com/search?q=restaurants&form=MFESRP&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MFESRP_Local_MapsMenu_Resturants_1x1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.openscenegraph.org/pipermail/osg-users-openscenegraph.org/attachments/20091103/bae4af77/attachment.htm>


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Find a hostel in Pacific and save money on discount lodging. Hosteling in Pacific offers a different travel experience than staying at traditional accommodations. Youth hostels allow you to meet new people and learn from other international and worldly travelers. Most hostels are conveniently located in the center of the action close to public transportation, including buses and rails. Staying at a hostel in Pacific is a great option whether you are backpacking or traveling on a budget . Browse our hostels and plan your Pacific vacation today!
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text: Horizontal TabsOverview This accelerated business communication training program provides a unique situation for students who have demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence with the opportunity to take a master-level specialization for their bachelor degree. Full-time students can complete their accelerated ABM program coursework in less than four years; the specialization for the bachelor's degree will consist of 4 master's-level specialization courses from either the MABC or MBA program. Master's tuition rates apply to the selected master-level specialization courses. Students who elect to then pursue their master's degree will only have 8 courses remaining. If you're interested in earning an accelerated communications degree online, this program could be a great option for you. Select an Area of Study Entrepreneurship (ABM) Leadership and Influence (ABM) Leading the Customer-Driven Organization (ABM) Project Management (ABM) Outcomes Program Learning Outcomes Identify business and professional communication. Examine the theories of human communication. Discuss the principle research findings in communication. Review the current and classic literature in the field of communication. Develop resources to solve problems in business and professional communication. Explore current and emerging communications technologies. Demonstrate skills in business and professional communications. Produce oral and written communications using various communication knowledge, strategies, approaches and techniques. Explore effective group and team communication strategies. Examine research and effectively communicate the results. Develop interpersonal communication strategies. Select the appropriate communication technology to deliver the communication. Program Disclosures Make an informed decision: Gainful Employment Disclosures Review potential occupations, tuition and fees, on-time completion rates and median loan debt.


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Join the 'Xanax XR' group to help and get support from people like you.
Xanax XR Questions
Questions & Answers (55)Blog (19) Group Members (52) RSS
We found 55 questions associated with the 'Xanax XR' topic.
Is Generic Xanax Available?
Posted 5 Jul 2010 • 7 answers
Xanax - How long does the sedation and fog feeling last?
I started xanax xr .5 mg twice a day a couple days ago for anxiety and panic attacks due to stress and depression. I feel tired and foggy all the time. I also am having memory issues. How long does ...
Posted 11 Aug 2010 • 3 answers
Does xanax xr work better than xanax ir?
I,ve been taking xanax ir 1mg 4x daily for many years for my anxiety disorder,but i still have severe panic attacks at times.My doctor has just prescribed 2mg xanax xr once a day,I,ve never taken ...
Posted 9 Feb 2012 • 6 answers
Do you have to take more xanax xr to feel the same effect say 3mg of xanax ir?
Would you have to take double the amount of xanax xr to get the same effect as if you took 3mg xanax ir?
Posted 10 Nov 2014 • 2 answers
Do I have to taper Lexparo if I was taking 5mg for 8 days?
I had been taking Xanax xr for about 2.5 weeks and stopped and started the Lexparo 5mg for my GAD. I do like the way I feel and want to get all the meds out of my system. Do you think that I can just ...
Posted 3 Sep 2014 • 2 answers
Xanax XR : how long before the XR 1mg tablet takes effect?
taking Xanax XR 1mg for 8 nights has given me around 6 hours sleep for first time in two years. But it knocks me out in late morning for another two hours. Now, I don't know what time i should ...
Posted 23 Sep 2012 • 2 answers
How to detox from Xanax XR safely?
I take 2 mg of Xanax XR twice daily and 1 mg XR in the afternoon. I am taking it for maintenance, not to get high. I want to safely stop taking it or at least lower my dose. I know I can't taper ...
Posted 2 Jul 2014 • 1 answer
Anyone taken Gabapentin and xanax xr, how did you find it?
I have been prescribed 1mg xanax xr twice a day, and 300mg gabapectin twice a day. I am a little nervous about taking it as i saw there were drug interactions on eppocrates for cns depression and ...
Posted 6 Feb 2012 • 4 answers
Is there a chemical composition difference between Xanax XR and Xanax?
Posted 15 Mar 2014 • 2 answers
Xanax - the different mg. doseage can be used to help some one who has suffered from ptsd and gad?
... since a a
Posted 25 Mar 2014 • 1 answer
XANAX XR coupled with another benzo?
Is anyone here Rx'd XANAX XR for baseline anxiety and instant release xanax (or any other benzo) along with it for "breakthrough" anxiety or panic attacks? is this a common form of ...
Posted 12 Feb 2014 • 1 answer
Xanax XR - I went to a new doctor and she prescribed 1 mg. Alprazolam ER - take one daily. I had?
... been taking 1 mg. Regular xanax 2 x daily. It has been 5 days now and I feel the Er is not effective for the full 24 hours, but rather more like 12. Is this supposed to last 24 hours or do I need ...
Posted 3 Dec 2013 • 1 answer
Info on Xanax XR?
Anyone have experience with Xanax XR? I was taking 1 mg 2x or 3x as needed on regular Xanax and it instantly made my mood increase, happier, more rational. Now she has me on Xanax XR but the effects ...
Posted 14 Nov 2013 • 1 answer
I am prescribed 1mg xanax xr twice a day. Is it ok to take 2 .5 xr instead??? I ran out!?
Ran out of the 1mg xr
Posted 22 Nov 2012 • 4 answers
Xanax XR - Do the positive side effects outweigh the negative?
Hi, I am wondering if I may have an anxiety disorder. I have not seen a Dr. yet but I am researching possible alternatives. I am usually very cautious when taking prescription meds..even over the ...
Posted 5 Sep 2013 • 1 answer
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Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences
Laboratory Quality Analysis and Management
What is Laboratory Quality Analysis and Management
Chemical measurements are essential in many different fields (e.g. environmental, geology, medicine, biology). Important decisions are often based on these measurements, for example, whether food is suitable for consumption, if goods can be sold, how a patient should be treated. In addition, chemical measurements are often mandatory in support of legislation (related to health care and trade), production processes and societal problems. At present, the world of chemical measurement is undergoing major changes on an international scale. International free trade has meant that initiatives are being taken at the international level and across measurement sectors to ensure measurement science (metrology) issues are being applied in a systematic and consistent manner. This means that for practising analytical chemists, training in quality assurance and metrology is essential to ensure that the quality of their chemical measurements is within international acceptance levels.
About the Laboratory Quality Analysis and Management Program
In collaboration with The National Measurement Institute (NMI) and The National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (NATA), Macquarie University is offering a new postgraduate program in Laboratory Quality Assurance and Management to train graduates with familiarity and understanding of the increasingly stringent rules and requirements in advanced chemical laboratory quality assurance and management. Depending on the number of credit points earned, candidates will complete the program with a Master, Diploma or a Postgraduate Certificate qualification.
Who is the Program For?
The Diploma program and the Postgraduate Certificate program are most appropriate for science graduates who are increasingly engaged in work related to analytical chemistry. The Master program is primarily designed for practising analytical chemists, laboratory supervisors and/or managers who need to improve their understanding of good quality practice and how to implement this in their laboratory, so as to produce more reliable results, to understand the accuracy of their measurements and to comply with accreditation requirements. The full-time Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma and Master programs are designed to take 0.5 years, 1 year and 1 year, respectively, for completion.
Program Aims?
The new postgraduate degree program in Laboratory Quality Analysis & Management program aims to:
- produce graduates at the Postgraduate Certificate level with an appreciation of and hands-on laboratory experience in basic analytical chemistry;
- produce graduates at the Diploma level with a sound knowledge of analytical chemistry, supported by some basic understanding of good laboratory practice, quality assurance;
- produce graduates at the Master level with an appreciation and understanding of contemporary areas of quality assurance in analytical chemistry;
All three levels of the program are available in the following mode: internal, full-time or part-time.
Admission requirements
Bachelor degree in a related field or other tertiary qualifications combined with relevant work experience.
Program structure
For details about the study programs offered in Laboratory Quality Analysis and Management go to: Course Finder
Application Forms
For local students should visit:http://www.postgradandbeyond.mq.edu.au/Coursework/Courses.htm
to download an application form for coursework postgraduate programs.
International students should visit:http://www.international.mq.edu.au/help/application_forms#pg
Further Information
Dr Danny Wong
Program Director
E: email@example.com
E: email@example.com


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Kevin Federline reportedly spent $300,000 on a new watch without telling Britney Spears, which is also the exact amount he was paid to record an album and tour in Japan. Additionally, Spears thinks K-Fed is responsible for leaking their private info to the tabloids by telling his friends stuff he knows they'll sell to papers.
Kevin Federline is a winner
Maybe she can pay the Manny to kill K-Fed.
I just really want to beat the hell out of that man with a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted baseball bat.
Bling this, bitch.
43 I think Britney bought those robes for the groom & groomsmen. Even worse!!!!!
Receive $300K payment from Japanese.
Spend $300K on watch.
April 15th: Accountant tells you that you owe $120K in taxes on the $300K.
April 16th: Hock watch for $120K to pay taxes.
#10 – The K-Fed/Paris duet will be Baby #5. It'll sound like Mambo #5 with worse vocals and Paris showing her nips to him every few minutes. Oh, and it'll be around longer.
LOL!!! #27, Papa.
Man, I can't wait until about 8 months after she dumps him and he is pawning that $300,000 watch for a months worth of rent at some freeway underpass motel. He's getting older, not sure how long he could support himself with the "Suckie Suckie" down on Hollywood and Vine Street.
#53 – You're a genius!
#46 For some reason they'll only fill my scrips in Mexico or through the mail from Canada. But you're more than welcome to try.
i'm sure there will be some reggae on it…after all, paris likes all types of music, and k-fuckstick is black…
Stinking rich people…
Spend that much on a WATCH when people who work hard are struggeling in debt, even still others in America are starving and even still children are homeless.
That takes the cake for me… I can't stand people who waste money like that.
Here's my watch:
Oh hell. Lamebananas just made me laugh out loud. Nice watch.
He reminds me of Brewster's Millions. I think this maroon has been told that he'll get 10 times the amount if he spends Brit's money by the end of the month.
Has anyone noticed no one has heard from "The Game" since he appeared on this idiot's My Space page?
You'd think that if Brit suspects he's leaking info to the press (via his friends), she's start doing it too.
I think she should start by telling her 'friends' that he can't get an erection without watching selected scenes from Conan the Barbarian.
It'd be a start.
@59 I knew you could do it! That post had humor. The picture of the watch is just the type of sarcasm I knew you were capable of. Keep it up you whore!!
@60- She actually did something funny. I'm waiting for the fire and brimstone.
Where's skeeter on the CB radio?
64 The alter ego will be out any minute now….
K_fed is very smart he put the dick on britney (dumb as a box of rocks), she fell for it, and I hope he spends every dime she has.
She thought she was hot and sexy at the time and could get whatever she wanted even taking another woman's man. So now she is a fat pig, always was trailer trash with little talent, and a unfit mother and depressed because she knows she's an ass and stupid.
K-fed is officially the greatest human being to walk the face of the earth and my personal idol. 300k for a watch…the genius of it, the staggering genius. He should be given the Presidential Medal of Leeching immediately.
The best part is you know he is going to leave it at a bar somewhere or give it to a stripper name Tittany Leers within a months time.
God bless you K-Fed.
Stallion, Papa, Doc…you rock my world…
Ari: Come on, the scene with the witch is pretty hot….
The more I see of K-Fed, the more I'm starting to think the guy is a genius – well, make that idiot savant. However, we are overlooking the fact that this guy could be the greatest weapon imaginable in the War on Terror.
1. Convince him to covert to Islam (not hard, since so many stone gangstas in prison is down with the Islam, yo!)
2. Tell him it will boost his street cred to join al-Qaida.
3. Within 30 days, Osama bin Laden will blow up to 300 pounds and be broke.
Dump his ass already!
I'm having an epiphany. All those helicopter shots of Britney with Sean P. were probably made possible by KFed tipping off the paparazzi. See, Britney …it's not that hard to figure out. You're married to a fucking loser!!
If I had a millionaire pop star by the…tits, I would buy a 300,000 dollar watch too. And then I would wave it around in front of homeless people and laugh.
Britney: Kevin where'd y'all put that 300K? Kevin: Yoyo biotch check it ( shows her the watch) Britney: But Kev that was our weekly budget for Cheetos an Red Bull now what are we gonna do?
Does this mean K-Fed is single? That would be awesome because I was just digging through Brit-Brit's dumpster and I scored bunch of her "Mrs. Federline" wife-beaters. Come on home to mama, baby! I got the inflatable pool goin' and the cooler's stocked with hot dogs and Natural Light, yee fuckin' haw!
Ew, he's gross, ok girlfriend, he's GOT to GO! He makes Wilmer Valderrama look angelic….!
i love the simpsons! this made my day.
I think the Superfish guy spelled weiner wrong in the title of this article.
On his kids: "It's completely unfair when a child is brought into this world an now he's already looked at like a prince. My kids are going to have to learn what a real job is, what life is. You don't have it easy with me. Period….My kids are going to work at Taco Bell, dammit."
K-Fed Quoted from Us Weekly No shit.
I wish I had some kids so I could make them work at Taco Bell. Then I'd order like 200 chalupas at the drive-thru when they were working at the window and when I pulled up I'd spray them with a super-soaker full of bong water. That would be awesome. I'm going to stop taking the pill right now as a matter of fact.
#80: K-Wigger earned his bling. Tell me with a straight face that seeing that fat sow naked in your bed and actually having sex with it isn't real work.
I can just hear her… "Damn baby, hold up a sec, I'm laying on my Ho-Hos and smokes!"
Years from now one of Kevin's freinds will come by and tell little Sean Preston of how his dad had to hide that watch in his ass for years to keep mommy from pawning it for Oxycontin after her inveitable meltdown and bankruptcy.
Forget about his stoner buddies selling stories for beer money.
K-Fed's GOT VIDEO TAPES! I KNOWS IT! And they might be hott. (The extra t is all about keepin' it real, yo).
Tommy Lee ain't got nothin' on K-Fed. Well, maybe four or five inches, but that's a given with most guys. That Tommy Lee, boy.
#83 – excellent!
Hugh3: That post was ridiculous. I'm laughing my ass off.
I bet you post-divorce K Fed will start pimpin Sean Preston like JonBenet, teach the some fly dance moves on his weekends, kid.
teach the kid.
Errr, burnt.
just lol you guys :))
#6 – we can only hope… *crosses fingers*
#38 – :D nice one! *applause*
lol i bet the that manny is the dad, we all know k fag aint around long enuf to stick his pecker in her
Britney if you hear me. You became "poor" since you are with this guy. Disencumber quickly of him!!!
I feel sorry for her but she should of none better to marry a child who was poor. He was about to declare bankruptcy when she met him which makes you wonder WTF where him and his GF bringing another baby into the world?
He has done nothing but lie to her since day one and by the looks of it he does not give a damn about any of his kids.
Shar keeps saying he is a good dad yet before Sean was born his kids were wlways around yet they were always with Britney.
Now with Sean being born Sean is always with Britney and you have not seen Kevins kids at all
Calling kfed a fag is a insult to the gay community
holy cow this is going to be so funny i know that my girl tanisha is gonna get into it with everyone dont matter who i know she will be good in the game though. as for kevin i didnt even know he had gained so much wieght all i can say is i cant wait till the show starts!!!!!


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Union National Bank Q4 net profit falls on provisions
Abu Dhabi lender Union National Bank's fourth-quarter profit fell 19.2 percent after the bank set aside more money to meet potential loan losses arising from exposure to Dubai Holding Group entities.
February 7, 2012 3:22 by Reuters
The fifth-largest bank in Abu Dhabi by market capitalisation saw its fourth-quarter net profit drop to 135 million dirhams ($36.76 million)from 167 million dirhams in the final three months of 2010, according to Reuters calculations.
Reuters calculated the fourth quarter profit from previous financial statements. UNB did not provide quarterly figures.
"The increase in non-performing loans and advances in the fourth quarter of 2011 was due to the classification of the bank's exposures to some entities that are part of the Dubai Holding Group and certain other credit exposures," UNB said.
The lender recorded a 2011 net profit of 1.5 billion dirhams ($408.4 million), compared with 1.35 billion dirhams in the previous year, according to a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse.
UNB, which is 50-percent owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said general provisioning for 2011 had risen 65.8 percent to 783.3 million dirhams.
The bank is one of the six institutions on the unsecured creditor committee for the $10 billion restructuring of Dubai Group. Sources told Reuters last week the Dubai government, acting through the Supreme Fiscal Committee, had walked away from talks to solve the unit's debt problems.
Bankers had warned in November that a lack of resolution to the restructuring would force banks into significant provisioning at the end of 2011.
An increase in net interest income and income from Islamic financing, up 22.5 percent in 2011, was partly offset by a 25.7 percent decrease in non-interest income, the bank said.
Deposits at the bank rose 4.1 percent in 2011 – to 60.3 billion dirhams from 57.9 billion dirhams in 2010, while net loans and advancesrose slightly, to 57.6 billion dirhams at the end of 2011 from 56.6 billion at the end of the previous year.
The board of UNB has proposed a cash dividend of 15 percent, the statement added. UNB shares dropped 2.5 percent in early Abu Dhabi trading. ($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirhams) (Reporting by David French; Editing by Dinesh Nair) *image from topnews.ae
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Last modified: 21 July 2008
After two centuries, red kites are now spreading their wings over Northern Ireland.
Image: The RSPB
A bird of prey extinct in Northern Ireland for at least two centuries is making a spectacular recovery as the first phase of a red kite reintroduction project began in southern County Down earlier today.
Northern Ireland Red Kites is the first species reintroduction in Northern Ireland and part of an All-Ireland project to bring back these exciting birds of prey to Northern Ireland. Project partners are the Welsh Kite Trust, the Golden Eagle Trust and the RSPB.
The project, which will release 27 kites this year, hopes to see these birds of global conservation concern become permanent residents in the rolling countryside of south Co Down.
Also today, more red kites took to the skies around Aberdeen, when Aberdeen's Lord and Lady Provost released six birds of 35 gathered from nests around the UK. Today's release in Scotland – part of the Aberdeen Red Kites Project - is the second year of a three-year reintroduction programme.
The Northern Ireland Red Kites project is the final piece in the jigsaw of red kite reintroductions across the UK and Ireland, where the return of this iconic species has proved to be one of the greatest conservation success stories of recent decades.
The RSPB worked with the Welsh Kite Trust to bring chicks from Wales – where conservation efforts and careful protection have succeeded in increasing the small population survive historical persecution. In a further boost to the population expansion in Ireland, the Golden Eagle Trust have also released Welsh chicks into the Co Wicklow countryside, south of Dublin, to supplement the 2007 reintroduction. This project is collaboration between conservation organisations in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Speaking after this morning's launch in Co Down, Robert Straughan, RSPB Red Kite Officer said: 'This morning's launch has been the culmination of a huge amount of work over this past number of years in order to make this project a reality.
'I have been looking after the birds prior to their release with important help from Forest Service and they are healthy and doing well. As they take their first flight in a new country the red kites should soon feel at home in the mixed woodland, farmland and rough grassland of south Co Down, as it offers ideal habitat for the birds.
'People will be able to easily identify red kites with their rusty-red colouring, forked tail, white patches under each wing and inky black wing tips, not to mention their five-and-a-half-feet wingspan.'
'Red kites have been absent from the skies of Northern Ireland for more than 200 years... the RSPB is very proud to assist the global recovery of this beautiful bird'
Kites, which will be the largest bird of prey to nest in Northern Ireland, are opportunistic scavengers; to conserve energy they feed mostly on worms and small dead animals, which they can see from a great height. They are a large bird, but are not designed to feed on mobile prey, so are not a threat to livestock, gamebirds or songbirds.
Robert Straughan added: 'Red kites have been absent from the skies of Northern Ireland for more than 200 years because of historical persecution and the RSPB is very proud to assist the global recovery of this beautiful bird - a species of global conservation concern.
'Not only is this an exciting and important conservation project, but it could also provide a tremendous tourist boost to the local economy in the Mournes area. The red kite has become a conservation success story from the north of Scotland to the south of England, and the UK population now stands at over 1,000 breeding pairs.
'It is our belief that the Northern Ireland Red Kite Reintroduction Project will provide a similar outcome for conservation and for the benefit of local people.'
Birds of prey continue to be mercilessly killed, despite the fact that it is illegal and has been for decades. Please add your name to our online pledge and say 'the killing must stop'.
Help protect birds of prey like these
The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. We rely upon memberships and donations to fund our work. Nature is amazing - help us keep it that way. More...
Visit our Contact us section for telephone numbers, office addresses and more.
18 December 2014
One of Britain's rarest beetles is discovered for the first time at Welsh reserve
Fundraisers mark centenary of passenger pigeon extinction with gruelling challenges to save the turtle dove.
15 December 2014
Bitterns - elusive heron-like birds once extinct in the UK - have had a record year in England with the highest number of individuals recorded since the 1800s, thanks to support from an EU conservation programme.
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This page was last published on Wednesday 3 December 2014 at 11:57 AM
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