text: Doodle Dandy: Washington senior searches for Google gloryMay 7, 2013CHARLES TOWN — Andrea Siles-Loayza has always loved the ocean, but especially now that the artwork she submitted to the sixth annual Doodle for Google competition was chosen to represent West...... elinorA young local student has made a lovely drawing and brought national attention to a local high school for a positive reason. Surely these comments can reflect pride and congratulations instead of snide political remarks. Now go vote for her, please, and support a good Jefferson County High School! 12 Agrees | 1 Disagrees | Report Abuse » ProudWV1963Major - didn't your parents teach you if you have nothing good to say then don't say anything at all? This is a feel good story and the young artist should be praised for her work. I with Elinor on this one, Go Vote! Congratulations Andrea. 10 Agrees | 0 Disagrees | Report Abuse » AmbergMajorSME is not only an a** but he's an Unamerican a**. It's so rude to make negative and nasty comments about a country that offered him a home when his own kicked him out. He's just another hater and taker living the good life at our expense. 6 Agrees | 1 Disagrees | Report Abuse » WVCommuterCopy editor alert: in second graph colorful imagines--I guess this was supposed to be colorful images. Does anybody proof articles before they go to press?? 3 Agrees | 0 Disagrees | Report Abuse » Showing 5 of 5 comments


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But he still needs extra help if he's going to read quickly enough to keep up with class work, pass state-mandated benchmark tests, and go on to excel in his educational career.
Lucky for Cosio and 64 other students in the Homer area, the state has funneled a significant chunk of money to remediation programs in the form of Learning Opportunity Grants. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has used around $250,000 this year to fund a newly intensified summer school program aimed at helping students meet the recently enacted standards.
Cosio and his peers, some 300 to 400 districtwide, are spending their June mornings working on reading and math skills in small group settings. Teachers work with groups of six to seven students using a combination of computer programs and instruction. Some students in Cosio's class have improved their reading a whole grade level in only two weeks.
"These students are constantly challenged," said Cosio's teacher Robin Ingles. "We are able to give them a lot of attention."
Ingles said the small class sizes and continuous evaluation allow her to know where each student stands on certain skills and minimizes behavioral problems and other distractions that occur in larger class settings.
While summer school has occurred each year, programs varied widely. This year, the district stepped up the tempo, funding a summer school principal in five Peninsula communities and housing classes for a variety of needs under one roof. The district also provided lesson plans, computer programs and other resources.
Students like Cosio are identified as potential candidates for the program from their standardized test scores. District Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Gary Whitely said each student's parents are asked to make a commitment to have their children attend all summer school sessions.
Students will be tested again at the end of the June, and statistics will be analyzed to examine the success of the program in specific areas. While all the testing may sound impersonal, Whitely said the district can virtually predict the future success of a student by statistics showing how fast they can read or where their math skills are. For example, statistics show that if a student is reading 40 words per minute at the first grade level, they are almost certain to pass their first benchmark exam in third grade.
"We are not saying, 'Gee, I guess we should work on this,'" Whitely said. "We are actually being quite analytical about it."
While the reading and math programs the students are using are innovative, and other remediation programs exist during the school year to help students, few can discount the value of the small class sizes for providing an intimate learning environment where even small improvements are noticed immediately.
"Nothing builds success like success," said Whitely.
Glen Szymoniak, Homer summer school principal, said the students recognize the value of this program and are responding.
"Kids are seeing this as an opportunity to learn. They are working hard," he said. "This is another opportunity for them to catch up and fill in some gaps in their learning."
Szymoniak said the experience is inspiring for the teachers as well, who get to see what gains can be made with small groups and intense programs. The only down side, he said, is that the summer school ends.
"It makes you wonder why we are not given these resources all year long," he said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Quality Price Value Inexpensive, yet durable! I had been looking online for quite some time, but this was the cheapest one yet, and organic. Couldn't have asked for better. I made nut milks with mine. The bag does discolor if used with turmeric and not washed out immediately. Turmeric root is an orange root that semi stains the fabric.
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Value Quality Price I had been looking for nut milk bag so that I could make my own almond milk. I love that it is organic as well! The bag works perfectly and I love the way my homemade milk tastes.
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Value Quality Price This was a great nut milk bag - and the price is the best I've seen. My milk tasted better after using this and I think because the cotton is organic - it really makes a difference!
Am definitely going to buy more.(Posted on 12/11/2013)
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Quality Price Value I had been searching for an organic bag and so thankful to have found it on your website. I'm using it to hold my cabbage for sauerkraut. It keeps it under the juice and when I'm ready to us it I just pull it to the top and the juice is left behind. I love drinking the juice without the kraut.
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Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family |
Scientific Name: | Podiceps cristatus | ||||||
Species Authority: | (Linnaeus, 1758) | ||||||
Common Name(s):
Red List Category & Criteria: | Least Concern ver 3.1 |
Year Published: | 2012 |
Date Assessed: | 2012-05-01 |
Assessor(s): | BirdLife International |
Reviewer(s): | Butchart, S. & Symes, A. |
Facilitator/Compiler(s): | Ekstrom, J., Butchart, S., Malpas, L., Calvert, R. |
Justification: This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend is not known, but the population is not believed to be decreasing sufficiently rapidly to approach the thresholds under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. |
Range Description: | The Great Crested Grebe is found across most of Europe and central Asia, though it also winters in parts of southern Asia (e.g. northern India). Colonies can also be found scattered through Africa, from Tunisia and Egypt in the north, through a few scattered colonies in central Africa to South Africa. Nesting colonies are also found in southern Australia and New Zealand, with individuals wintering in eastern and northern Australia (del Hoyo et al. 1992). |
Countries: |
Native: Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; Angola (Angola); Armenia (Armenia); Australia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Belarus; Belgium; Bhutan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Botswana; Bulgaria; China; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Egypt; Estonia; Ethiopia; Finland; France; Gabon; Georgia; Germany; Greece; Hong Kong; Hungary; India; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Latvia; Lebanon; Libya; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Malta; Moldova; Monaco; Mongolia; Montenegro; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nepal; Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Pakistan; Poland; Portugal; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation; Rwanda; San Marino; Saudi Arabia; Serbia (Serbia); Slovakia; Slovenia; South Africa; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Tajikistan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Uganda; Ukraine; United Kingdom; Uzbekistan; Zambia; ZimbabweVagrant: Burundi; Faroe Islands; Gambia; Iceland; Indonesia; Lesotho; Mali; Nigeria; Oman; Senegal; Swaziland; United Arab EmiratesPresent - origin uncertain: Gibraltar |
Range Map: | Click here to open the map viewer and explore range. |
Population: | The global population is estimated to number c.920,000-1,400,000 individuals (Wetlands International 2006), while national population estimates include: c.100-10,000 breeding pairs, c.50-1,000 individuals on migration and c.1,000-10,000 wintering individuals in China; < c.50 individuals on migration and c.50-1,000 wintering individuals in Taiwan; c.100-10,000 breeding pairs, c.50-1,000 individuals on migration and c.1,000-10,000 wintering individuals in Korea; c.100-10,000 breeding pairs, c.50-1,000 individuals on migration and c.1,000-10,000 wintering individuals in Japan and c.10,000-100,000 breeding pairs and c.1,000-10,000 individuals on migration in Russia (Brazil 2009). |
Population Trend: | Unknown |
Habitat and Ecology: | Behaviour The majority of this species is fully migratory although some populations may only undergo local dispersive movements (del Hoyo et al. 1992). It breeds between April and September in Europe, in all months of the year in Africa (peaking during long rainy season) and from November to March in Australasia, nesting either in solitary, dispersed pairs or in loose colonies (del Hoyo et al. 1992) (forming only where safe nesting sites are few and feeding areas are extensive) (Fjeldsa 2004). After breeding (from August to October) (Fjeldsa 2004) adults may disperse locally to large lakes and reservoirs to undergo a flightless moulting period (del Hoyo et al. 1992), during which gatherings of hundreds of individuals(occasionally even greater than 10,000) may form (Fjeldsa 2004). During the winter the species largely remains solitary (Snow and Perrins 1998), especially when feeding (Fjeldsa 2004), but temporary congregations (Snow and Perrins 1998) of up to 5,000 individuals may form in some areas (Fjeldsa 2004).Habitat Breeding The species breeds on fresh or brackish waters with abundant emergent and submerged vegetation (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Snow and Perrins 1998), showing a preference for non-acidic eutrophic waterbodies with flat or sloping banks and muddy or sandy substrates (Snow and Perrins 1998), usually 0.5-5 m deep (Snow and Perrins 1998) and with large areas of open water (del Hoyo et al. 1992). Suitable habitats include small pools or lakes, backwaters of slow-flowing rivers and artificial waterbodies (e.g. reservoirs, fish-ponds, gravel pits and ornamental lakes) (del Hoyo et al. 1992). In Australia the species also utilises swamps, reservoirs, lagoons, salt-fields, estuaries and bays (Marchant and Higgins 1990), and in tropical Africa and New Zealand it may breed on montane, subalpine and alpine lakes up to 3,000 m (del Hoyo et al. 1992). Non-breeding The species overwinters on large exposed ice-free (Fjeldsa 2004) lakes and reservoirs (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Snow and Perrins 1998), moving to sheltered coastal inshore waters (Snow and Perrins 1998) less than 10 m deep (Fjeldsa 2004) such as brackish estuaries (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Snow and Perrins 1998), deltas, tidal channels and tidal lagoons (Snow and Perrins 1998) during cold spells (Fjeldsa 2004). In addition it frequents large saline lakes in Australia (Marchant and Higgins 1990). Diet Its diet consists predominantly of large fish as well as insects, crustaceans (e.g. crayfish, shrimps) and molluscs, occasionally also adult and larval amphibians (del Hoyo et al. 1992). The species's invertebrate consumption is highest during the breeding season (del Hoyo et al. 1992). Breeding site The nest is a platform of aquatic plant matter either floating on water and anchored to emergent vegetation or built from the lake bottom in shallow water (del Hoyo et al. 1992). Typical nest sites include reedbeds or flooded thickets as well as more open sites such as floating mats of water-weed or kelp fronds (Fjeldsa 2004). |
Systems: | Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine |
Major Threat(s): | The species suffered declines in the nineteenth century as a result of hunting for the plume trade (this is no longer a threat) (del Hoyo et al. 1992). The species was also hunted in the past for food in New Zealand, a threat that although past is still limiting to the New Zealand population when combined with the modern threats of low food availability, modification of lakes for recreational purposes (del Hoyo et al. 1992), hydroelectric development and the introduction of competitors (e.g. trout) and predators (e.g. weasels, cats and rats) (Fjeldsa 2004). The species is commonly drowned accidentally in monofilament gill-nets (fishing nets) (del Hoyo et al. 1992, Fjeldsa 2004) with mesh sizes greater than 5 cm (Quan et al. 2002). It may also be threatened by future coastal oil spills (Gorski et al. 1977), and is susceptible to avian influenza so may be threatened by future outbreaks of the virus (Melville and Shortridge 2006). Utilisation The species is hunted for commercial (food) and recreational purposes in Iran (Balmaki and Barati 2006). |
Citation: | BirdLife International 2012. Podiceps cristatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 19 April 2015. |
Disclaimer: | To make use of this information, please check the <Terms of Use>. |
Feedback: | If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please provide us with feedback so that we can correct or extend the information provided |


text:
October 25, 2012 Humble Requests Gemini Daily Horoscope
You may feel worthy enough to ask for more of what you want today. This may be the result of you having confidence in yourself and your abilities to manage your affairs. It might seem that it is only fair to receive a little more from the universe because of your hard work and the full use of your talents. If you can remember that the universe always gives us everything that we ask for, you can open yourself to receive what you want. Ask for what you want from a place of appreciation and humility, and you could be surprised by how quickly your petitions are granted.
For more information visit dailyom.com
This article is printed from DailyOM - Inspirational thoughts for a happy, healthy and fulfilling day.
© 2004-15 DailyOM - All Rights Reserved
No portion of this site can be reprinted without express permission


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City Resort Hostel
Hostel | 103 - 105 Palmer St, Sydney, Australia 2011
128 out of 317 customers would recommend this property
Recent review (08/04/2015)
"The property was worth $18 per night & you also got free bread and tea and coffee"
Read all City Resort Hostel reviewsFacilities
- Credit cards accepted
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Purchasable Extras
- Airport Pickup USD 10.94
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What's Included
- Linen
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When arriving at the airport, just dial the freecall number from any public phone (you don't need coins) and we will give you a free pick up (minimum 3 nights stay).
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Customers can cancel their reservation free of charge up to 2 days before arrival (local time). Payments made to HostelBookers are non-refundable.
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All our staff are trained, friendly and extremely helpful. Their jobs are to make your stay a relaxed and enjoyable one so if you need help whether it is booking a bus to the airport, looking for a job or just need a hand with that huge backpack our staff is there for you.
Stay 3 nights or more for a free pick up from the airport (save $12 per person)!
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Looking for accommodation for events held at The Domain? We're just 2 minutes walk away! We have the perfect accommodation for events such as:
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Can you guess from the photo above? I suspect not, as the picture to me looks like an Alien coming down from the ceiling to hug me with its teeth. But guess away, and tomorrow I will reveal the truth.
All posts by John Scalzi
Taking the Weekend Off, Again
I know, right? What am I, a man of leisure?
Have a good weekend. See you Monday (or possibly Sunday evening).
The Big Idea: Carrie Patel
When you build on secrets you never know what you'll find. Just ask Carrie Patel, whose novel, The Buried Life, includes secrets literally built upon. What's going on there?
The Buried Life is about lost history, a forgotten catastrophe, and the city that springs up in its wake.
It started with the city: an underground metropolis where squalid, smoke-choked burrows nestle next to magnificent caverns framed with fire and stained glass. It was a place of glamor and grime.
I suspect that lots of speculative fiction begins with a setting. You take a mental snapshot of a new world that captures the atmosphere and the highlights. It's a start, but it's not enough. You need something you can walk around in.
So, you sketch the landmarks that exist just outside the frame—historical context and regional conditions. Things that anchor your new city and prevent it from drifting off into the stratosphere. Next, you sharpen the image to bring out the colors and details so that your snapshot will look just as bright and vivid to everyone else when you finally share it.
That leaves you with a fabulous backdrop, which isn't the same thing as a story.
However, it's the process of building the city up and out that can turn a Nifty Idea into a Big Idea. The Big Idea is what gives logic and context to the details that make up a vibrant, unique world. At some point, when you're rooting around in the bones of your city, stringing all those tendons together and trying to get the blood flowing from one end to the other, you stumble upon its DNA.
Suddenly, you know what it's really made of and where it's really going.
That's when you find your story.
For me, the "aha!" moment came when I saw Recoletta, my new city, for what it was: one civilization built in the hollowed-out corpse of another.
At that point, all of the cool flourishes and atmospheric touches were tied together by the inextricable bonds of context. Recoletta was built underground because it had started out as a city-sized bunker in more desperate times. A strict social hierarchy developed because, in the early days, people handed the reins over to individuals with practical skills—engineers, doctors, miners, and so on—and left the grunt work to the lawyers and politicians.
By the time events in The Buried Life roll around, people have stuck to their underground homes because old habits die hard. And the "whitenails," the people with enough clout to keep their hands clean, are still at the top of the food chain. It's the post-post-apocalypse.
But the most interesting detail for me was how these fictional citizens related to their troubled history. In the world of The Buried Life, they don't reconstruct it. They hide it.
The widespread fear of history becomes a superstition. Ideas of the past are seen as dangerous and virulent—after all, didn't they drive humanity to mass destruction centuries before?
And that's where the story came from—the tension between a history that almost no one wants to face and the intrepid few who are trying to uncover it. The Big Idea is about constructing a city built on secrets and leading the heroes to its heart.
The Buried Life: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's
Read an excerpt. Visit the author's site. Follow her on Twitter.
Moonrise Through the Trees, 3/5/15
It didn't look this spooky in real life. Honest. But it's fun to make it look spooky in a photo.
The Big Idea: Kirby Crow
Life doesn't always give us a happy ending. Should fiction? Kirby Crow ponders this question in relation to her new collection of stories, Hammer and Bone. Let's see what she has to say on the matter.
I think of stories like wagons or carts, one of those cute, rustic ones you see being pulled by a shaggy pony in Lord of the Rings. I load the cart up with things that appeal to me or that I need, beautiful things and grotesque, things I want to say or things that just need saying, and then I choose a street to wheel it down. Anything at all can be inside the cart, but the street is crucial.
Okay, it's weird. Bear with me… The street is everything, because it doesn't just represent the genre; it's the unity that binds the story together, the reason for its existence, why I'm telling the story, how I'm telling it.
Hammer and Bone has a long history, and the original idea was to bring together a collection of diverse tales featuring non-white heroes. I knew that was going to be a hard sell to a publisher, but I got lucky and found a great one. Despite the triple-threat gamble of being a collection rather than a single story (difficult to market in any genre), non-white characters inhabiting most of the pages (ditto), and overall a wicked and occasionally disturbing read, Riptide believed in Hammer and Bone, and here we are.
I didn't set out to write such a sinister book, but occasionally stories have a will of their own and depart on journeys you never considered, or expected to have to write your way out of. At one point, the process stalled completely. I was stuck and growing very frustrated with the path one of my characters was taking to resolve his troubles in the Southern gothic story, Sundog. Where some people might burn bridges, Michel would walk into the fire. It was the same with Bellew in the speculative world of Crank, who was inclined to hack through the middle of an obstacle, and Angelo in Hangfire, who took a road that only the most wronged would even consider.
My heroes were strolling willingly down the most painful streets, when taking a detour or even walking away would have been so much easier. I wondered what kind of courage that was, if there was a name for the kind of bravery that smiles at the devil just until his back is turned.
I began complaining to my husband about them. I drank too much coffee and slept poorly and I wondered loudly and dramatically if I should rewrite their existence. Life had given them options that were too narrow. Their worlds were too frightening. Things probably weren't going to turn out well for them.
He shrugged. "It sounds like life to me."
There is that, yeah. Every life is backbreaking in its own way, even fictional ones. The main quality I'd struggled to reflect in the stories was honesty, and although steering your readers to a fair sunset is usually the point of storytelling, it isn't always what happens in real life.
Sometimes it's not what should happen, either. Not every character deserves a pretty sunset.
That was when I stopped trying to push it all down the road to Happily Ever After, or any destination that didn't feel true. I wanted readers to turn the page thinking Yes. That's exactly how that would have gone down.
Don't worry, it's not all constant anguish and despair. Sometimes there's a happy ending and sometimes not, but the somber, seductive travelers of Hammer and Bone hereby promise to charm and entertain you in their own grim ways, as they invite you to question what perilous roads you might choose if you were snared into their worlds.
Hammer and Bone: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's
Read an excerpt. Visit the author's Web site. Follow her on Twitter.
Hey, I'll Be at the Pickerington, OH Public Library Two Weeks From Today
And what will I be doing there? Oh, you know. Talking and signing books and answering questions and maybe reading something from the upcoming book that no one will have ever heard before. Maybe. We'll see.
Anyway, if you happen to be anywhere near Pickerington, OH on the 18th of March, why don't you come on down. This is, at the moment, my only scheduled appearance in mid-Ohio for 2015, so if you'd like to see me, you know where I'll be.
Things I Promised People I Would Tell You About, Not That I Didn't Want to Tell You About Them Anyway, Because They're Cool
They are:
1. If you're a science fiction writer and you would like maybe to get a little better grounding in some of the "science" portion of that genre, then this is going to be for you: The Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction workshop, this summer from July 30 through August 1st.
What will the workshop cover?
The Schrödinger Sessions is a three-day workshop for science fiction writers offering a "crash course" in modern physics, to be held at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), one of the world's leading research centers for the study of quantum mechanics. We will introduce participants to phenomena like superposition, entanglement, and quantum information through a series of lectures by JQI scientists and tours of JQI laboratories. We hope this will inform and inspire new stories in print, on screen, and in electronic media, that will in turn inspire a broad audience to learn more about the weird and fascinating science of quantum physics and the transformative technologies it enables.
Go to the link to find out more. The application form is not up yet but will be, as I understand, in a couple of days. Also, I've been asked to note to writers that it's not just science fiction prose writers who are eligible to attend: Screenwriter and video game writers can also get in on this action. So check it out.
2. If you like Star Trek and/or Doctor Who — which given the demographics of the readership of this site seems like a pretty good chance — you may be interested in this: A Doctor for the Enterprise, a crossover comic book written by 2015 Worldcon Guest of Honor David Gerrold (who is enshrined in Star Trek lore for writing "The Trouble With Tribbles" and other things).
Note that this release is a limited edition, so if you want one, you should probably click that link above and get on it right away. I would not want for you to live your life in regret.
(Also, if you're the sort who likes behind the scenes articles, here's one on the making of the comic book. Enjoy.)
The Big Idea: Bruce Schneier
What's your electronic data worth to you? What is it worth to others? And what's the dividing line between your privacy and your convenience? These are questions Bruce Schneier thinks a lot about, and as he shows in Data and Goliath, they are questions which have an impact on where society and technology are going next.
Data and Goliath is a book about surveillance, both government and corporate. It's an exploration in three parts: what's happening, why it matters, and what to do about it. This is a big and important issue, and one that I've been working on for decades now. We've been on a headlong path of more and more surveillance, fueled by fear – or terrorism mostly – on the government side, and convenience on the corporate side. My goal was to step back and say "wait a minute; does any of this make sense?" I'm proud of the book, and hope it will contribute to the debate.
But there's a big idea here too, and that's the balance between group interest and self-interest. Data about us is individually private, and at the same time valuable to all us collectively. How do we decide between the two? If President Obama tells us that we have to sacrifice the privacy of our data to keep our society safe from terrorism, how do we decide if that's a good trade-off? If Google and Facebook offer us free services in exchange for allowing them to build intimate dossiers on us, how do know whether to take the deal?
There are a lot of these sorts of deals on offer. Waze gives us real-time traffic information, but does it by collecting the location data of everyone using the service. The medical community wants our detailed health data to perform all sorts of health studies and to get early warning of pandemics. The government wants to know all about you to better deliver social services. Google wants to know everything about you for marketing purposes, but will "pay" you with free search, free e-mail, and the like.
Here's another one I describe in the book: "Social media researcher Reynol Junco analyzes the study habits of his students. Many textbooks are online, and the textbook websites collect an enormous amount of data about how — and how often — students interact with the course material. Junco augments that information with surveillance of his students' other computer activities. This is incredibly invasive research, but its duration is limited and he is gaining new understanding about how both good and bad students study — and has developed interventions aimed at improving how students learn. Did the group benefit of this study outweigh the individual privacy interest of the subjects who took part in it?"
Again and again, it's the same trade-off: individual value versus group value.
I believe this is the fundamental issue of the information age, and solving it means careful thinking about the specific issues and a moral analysis of how they affect our core values.
You can see that in some of the debate today. I know hardened privacy advocates who think it should be a crime for people to withhold their medical data from the pool of information. I know people who are fine with pretty much any corporate surveillance but want to prohibit all government surveillance, and others who advocate the exact opposite.
When possible, we need to figure out how to get the best of both: how to design systems that make use of our data collectively to benefit society as a whole, while at the same time protecting people individually.
The world isn't waiting; decisions about surveillance are being made for us – often in secret. If we don't figure this out for ourselves, others will decide what they want to do with us and our data. And we don't want that. I say: "We don't want the FBI and NSA to secretly decide what levels of government surveillance are the default on our cell phones; we want Congress to decide matters like these in an open and public debate. We don't want the governments of China and Russia to decide what censorship capabilities are built into the Internet; we want an international standards body to make those decisions. We don't want Facebook to decide the extent of privacy we enjoy amongst our friends; we want to decide for ourselves."
In my last chapter, I write: "Data is the pollution problem of the information age, and protecting privacy is the environmental challenge. Almost all computers produce personal information. It stays around, festering. How we deal with it — how we contain it and how we dispose of it — is central to the health of our information economy. Just as we look back today at the early decades of the industrial age and wonder how our ancestors could have ignored pollution in their rush to build an industrial world, our grandchildren will look back at us during these early decades of the information age and judge us on how we addressed the challenge of data collection and misuse."
That's it; that's our big challenge. Some of our data is best shared with others. Some it can be "processed" – anonymized, maybe – before reuse. Some of it needs to be disposed of properly, either immediately or after a time. And some of it should be saved forever. Knowing what data goes where is a balancing act between group and self-interest, a trade-off that will continually change as technology changes, and one that we will be debating for decades to come.
Data and Goliath: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's
Read an excerpt. Visit the author's Web site. Follow him on Twitter.
Today's Reading is From the Book of Redshirts
This is cool: Redshirts being used as part of a church sermon (specifically at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin). It is, logically enough, being used a bit like a parable (or at least a framing device) to help discuss a larger and more complicated theological idea. I like it when my work finds use in interesting ways like this. The sermon's pretty good, too.
(Thanks to Pamela Grenfell Smith for bringing it to my attention.)
New Books and ARCs, 3/3/15
And now caught up on books that had come in before this week! (One of the books here is pixelated out because it was featured before.) See something that speaks to you? Tell us about it in the comments.
The Big Idea: Ferrett Steinmetz
In his novel Flex, author Ferrett Steinmetz comes up with a rather ingeniuous way of controlling the ultimate cosmic power that magic-wielders could have against the rest of the world — and suggests why maybe magic isn't always what's it's cracked up to be.
We all have obsessions. I have a friend who's played through Dragon Age eighteen times so she can hear every one of the 80,000 potential lines of dialogue. I have a friend who scrutinizes the Internet code that determines where text is placed in your browser, in the hopes of discovering that the webkit-transform property actually rotates an image 7.3 degrees, not 7.0 as promised.
What if those obsessions started to wear holes in the universe?
What if, merely by pouring so much attention into some random hobby, the laws of physics would soften to fit your outlook on life?
And what if the universe hated you for bending its rules?
Personally, I've always hated those stories where magicians a) had no limitations on their power, and b) weren't ruling the world. If magic came with zero drawbacks, then wizards would clobber the paranormally-illiterate with magic missiles in less time than it takes to say Neanderthals went extinct.
So when I wrote Flex, I wanted a really good reason why magicians hadn't kicked Obama off the White House and installed themselves as the Eternal Emperor-Kings of Washington.
The key was obsession. I liked the idea that every 'mancer would have their own set of powers keyed to whatever snared their attention – illustromancers, videogamemancers, origamimancers, deathmetalmancers – but that tight focus would be as much a hindrance as a help. By the time that Crazy Cat Lady has crossed the event horizon to become a felimancer, her priorities had warped. Does a crazy cat lady want to rule the land with an iron fist? No! She wants a house with infinite corridors so her kitties can roam safely under her benevolent cat-centered pocket empire.
Yet when my sister-in-law almost died, what I needed was a bureaucromancer.
See, I fantasized about having a magical power over paperwork when I was fighting the insurance companies to get life-saving surgery for my sister-in-law. She had a rare disease (at the time, her malady didn't even have a Wikipedia entry). The insurance company kept returning our paperwork because we filled out the wrong form, even though that was the form they'd sent us. They claimed her treatment was experimental (and hence uncovered), when in fact so few cases of this disease had surfaced that every treatment counted as experimental. They refused claims for ridiculously trivial reasons, hoping my sister-in-law would quietly kick the bucket before they'd have to shell out $200,000 for her kidney surgery.
You can get wrapped around the axle, seeing that kind of injustice. My sister-in-law's okay now… but even the slightest discussion of medical paperwork can send me into a frothing tirade.
So when I envisioned a magic system based on obsession, the first thing that came to mind was the living hell of a compassionate man working at a cut-rate insurance company like the kind that almost killed my sister-in-law.
That man would hate his employer. Except instead of quitting, and letting the insurance company win, a truly compulsive man would sabotage the system from within. He'd spend years mastering the insurance company's paperwork, staying at the office after dark, filling out the right forms for customers so the insurance company would have to pay for their surgeries.
And so I created Paul Tsabo, employed him at crappy ol' Samaritan Mutual, and drove him magically insane.
To Paul, paperwork is power. Fill out the right requests for information, and governments will fall. Now Paul can send SWAT teams crashing through your door by magically dropping warrants onto the right people's desks.
He is righteous. He is pure.
He is hopelessly, hopelessly naïve.
Now, I don't plot my books extensively; I just find a person I like well enough that I'd be willing to follow them through four hundred pages' worth of book. Paul was the kind of stand-up dude I personally would root for.
But sadly, the grand tradition of fiction is this: choose your hero. Yank him out of his comfort zone, plop him into a new battleground where all of his strengths no longer matter, where in fact all those grand ideals may be liabilities. Make sure he's going to have to either grow new talents to survive, or die horribly as he clings to the wreckage.
I needed to make Paul's life a nightmare. And having watched my sister-in-law's health dwindle, I can tell you that there's no greater hell than watching someone you love hurt and being unable to help.
So when Paul's daughter gets burned in a terrorist incident, he doesn't have the skills to magically summon up the money he needs to get her the reconstructive surgery. Because, he's new to this whole "bureaucromancy" schtick, a complete novice at his powers – and as mentioned, the universe hates 'mancy. Do enough magic, and the universe rains horrific coincidences down upon your head, sabotaging you with bad luck until the scales are balanced out.
(We're not even going to talk about the Bad Thing Paul accidentally did to his kid the first time he tried to save her.)
He'd do anything to save his kid, of course. So what profession, I asked, was a paperwork-loving, government-adoring bureaucromancer least suited for?
Brewing magical drugs, of course.
And who's the only person who can help him to master his magical backlash so he can get his daughter the treatment she needs?
That's right; the videogame-playing, magical terrorist who burned his daughter. Who happens to need some help brewing magical drugs.
Ladies and gentlemen, explosions are about to begin. Big magical battles. The quiet implosion of ideals meeting a raw and ruined reality on the ground. Obsessions compromised.
Let's hope the kid doesn't get hurt.
Flex: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's
Read an excerpt. Visit the author's site. Follow him on Twitter.
Standard Responses to Online Stupidity
Dear Citizens of the Internet:
From time to time, in your ordinary exercise of the delights of the online world, you may find yourself accosted by clods. These oafish louts crave your time and attention, but in point of fact, life is short and you have better things to do.
For you, I have created this helpful numbered list of standard responses to online stupidity. When accosted, send the twit here to read the specific numbered response(s) relevant to them. Saves you time; alerts them they're a jerk, and this is all the response they rate.
Use and enjoy.
- I don't care what you think.
- I didn't ask you.
- No doubt you thought that was terribly clever.
- You've attempted logic. Not all attempts succeed.
- One should not have that many errors in that few characters.
- Either your educators have failed you, or you have failed them.
- I see you've invited me to an argument. I decline.
- It appears an asshole has hacked your account and is posting in your name.
- Funny, most people go out of their way not to be a public bigot.
- Cosplaying as a tantrum-throwing child is no way to go through life.
- I'm sorry that you are so obviously scared of the world.
- My attention is a privilege, not a right. This is all you get.
The Big Idea: Justine Larbalestier
People aren't the only characters in books. Sometimes the most important characters can be places, and certain times. This is relevant to Justine Larbelestier, who found an important character in her novel Razorhurst just by looking around in the place where she lived.
Before Razorhurst all my novels began with the voice of the main character. Often that's all I knew: how the main character talked. It would take awhile—sometimes most of the first draft—to figure out where they were and what their story was. For Razorhurst the big idea was starting with a place, not a person.
Razorhurst grew out of my inner-city Sydney neighbourhood of Surry Hills. One day I noticed a sign at a local park called Frog Hollow, explaining where the name came from, and illustrated with photos of how the pretty little park used to look. It had not been a pretty little park; it had been a dark, dank slum and, according to the sign, home to the notoriously violent Riley Street Gang.
I live around around the corner from Riley Street. It once had a cut-throat razor wielding gang? I had to know more.
I've always been a history nut but I'd never been interested in Sydney or Australia's history. The way it was taught in high school was dire. Yet it turned out the history of Surry Hills in the 1920s and 1930s, back when Frog Hollow was a slum, was in no way tedious. This now hyper-gentrified Sydney neighbourhood had been full of sly grog shops, opium dens, brothels (there are still brothels but they're legal now) and every business had to pay protection money to the local crime lords.
Or, rather, crime ladies. Surry Hills back then was under the control of Kate Leigh. Nearby Darlinghurst was controlled by her crime boss rival Tilly Divine.
Oh my God! Two of the toughest crime bosses back then were women!
They'd risen to power because of a law that said men could not make their living from immoral earnings. Men, not women. Women could be madames, which Kate and Tilly were. They parlayed that into selling illicit after-hours alcohol, as well as all-the-time-illicit drugs—mostly cocaine and opium. At the height of their power they were making annual turnovers of millions in today's dollars.
Under their—and the other crime bosses'—reign the streets of Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, and other inner-city neighbourhoods ran with blood. So much so that one of the tabloids of the day dubbed them collectively "Razorhurst."
Razor, because that was the weapon of choice on account of handguns were banned. If you were busted by the coppers with a handgun you were sent straight to gaol, but if you were caught with a cut-throat razor? Well, officer, I was just about to shave, wasn't I?
While researching I discovered this extraordinary collection of police photos from the period. Now I could see what Razorhust looked like back then—her people, her streets and the insides of her homes.
I started to write characters based on those photos—crime bosses, coppers, and standover men with cold, dead eyes and razor-etched scars—something else I've never done before. It turned out I was writing a novel about a street urchin named Kelpie and gangster's moll, Dymphna Campbell, surviving on those bloody streets while being pursued by rival crime bosses and dealing with (un)helpful ghosts.
Those mug shots and crime scene photos began to haunt me. It's an odd feeling looking at decades-old photos of a place I know well and recognising buildings, streets, signs, even some of the trees. If I squinted I could almost see the people in those photos walking these streets now. (Though what they'd make of all the fancy hairdressers, gelato and yakitori bars crowding them today. I can't say.) Surry Hills and Darlinghurst are full of ghost buildings. Why not ghost people?
If you want to know more about the real ghosts of Razorhurt, take a look at the Justice and Police Museum. My fictional ghosts arrive in North American bookshops on Tuesday, 3 March.
Razorhurst: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's
Read an excerpt. Visit the author's site. Follow her on Twitter.
Taking the Weekend Off
Or more accurately, spending the weekend writing on the novel. Wheee! Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.
RIP, Leonard Nimoy
He passed away today at 83. Here's the New York Times obituary. Doubt there are many people in the world who were so plainly and simply admired as he was, and is.
And rather than to be entirely sad about the end of a life lived well and prosperously, here's a couple of music videos for you.
Rest in peace, Leonard Nimoy. We are, will always be, your friends.
We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Sam Sykes wrote on Twitter:
And Lartist (aka Lar deSouza, cartoonist of Least I Could Do), responded:
If for some reason you can't see the tweet, here's a link to the art.
For those of you who don't know the players, that's Chuck Wendig as Brody, me as Quint, Scott Lynch as Hooper, and Sam Sykes as Bruce the Shark.
And it's just about perfect.
Why Yes, I Still Have a Landline
Gizmodo is curious to know who still has a landline and why. Well, I do, and here's why:
1. The landline comes bundled with my DSL line and it's not really any cheaper to have just the DSL service and not the landline, plus my provider whines petulantly if you ask for just the raw DSL line, so the hell with it, I'll keep the landline.
2. Continuity. It's useful to have had the same phone number for the last 14 years.
3. When the power goes out the phone lines still work. Likewise when the cell phones occasionally and inexplicably bork for whatever period of time it is until they unbork themselves again.
4. It's the phone number that's generally available, saving my cell phone number for people I know personally.
5. Voice reception is much better, so when I actually want to talk to people, rather than text them, it's the phone I use.
6. If I want my wife to join in on a phone call for some reason (or she me), I don't have to do some sort of complicated routing thing involving Skype/Google Hangouts/Conference calling, I just say "pick up the other receiver" and she does.
7. It's actually useful to have a phone that serves the house generally, and not a specific member of it; for example, business that needs to be done in/around the house itself.
8. Inertia. There are ways to get around all the stuff mentioned above but it requires time/effort/interest on my part, or I could just keep the damn landline and have to do nothing. So.
9. Immunity to social judgment about keeping a landline. No, I don't care if you think it's odd/weird/quaint/adorable I still have one. It's useful to me and I'm not going to give it up just because most people have ditched theirs at this point. You're not the boss of me, jerks!
10. Nostalgia for dialing "1" before the area code (this last one is a lie, but I had to get to 10 reasons for completist purposes).
Mind you, I don't judge (or, really, care) if you do or do not have a landline yourself. It's not something I think is actually that important. But they are in point of fact getting rarer and rarer. Someone somewhere will have the very last landline one day. I wonder if it will be me.
Reading Authors Not Like Me
I've been getting emails from folks asking me what I thought about and/or to comment on this article from K.T Bradford*, the headline of which is "I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year." As with many headlines, it's an unnuanced take of what the article actually is about, which is, as I saw it, to have readers challenge themselves by mindfully reading within a group of authors they may not been reading much of before, to experience different writing and to gain perspective on defaults in the publishing world. That said, part of doing that is moving away from a default set of authors, i.e., straight white male authors (Tempest also includes "cis," in that formulation, meaning in this case males whose gender identity conforms to general social expectations of maleness).
As I am generally accepted to be straight and white and male and cis, I think people are interested in whether I see this as a broadside against my identity and livelihood as a writer, and whether I myself would cut out straight white cis male writers from my reading diet for a year.
Let me answer the second part first: No, I won't be cutting straight white cis males out of my reading, for two reasons:
1. As a straight white cis male professional writer, it's literally impossible for me not to read in that category, unless I decide not to write for a year, which I won't be doing, because I need to eat. Note that this is a highly specific reason for not participating that applies only to a very specific subset, of which I am a member.
2. I grok that the article is not aimed at me, who already and mindfully reads a widely varied diet of authors as a matter of course. I flatter myself (erroneously or otherwise) to think I've always done this, primarily because as a reader I think it's interesting to get inside of the head of someone who is not like you; also I'll admit when I was (much) younger I would walk around ostentatiously with books by unexpected authors because I wanted credit for being that kind of reader. I got over that part of it by my late 20s, mostly, even as I kept reading the books themselves.
It also helped that when I entered into the SF/F community I fell in with a pretty diverse crowd of writers and fans, which a) meant that when I was reading my friends I was reading all sorts, b) when they raved about the writers they loved, they tended to be a diverse group as well. Having diverse, literate peers is a pretty good shortcut to diverse reading.
And yes, I am also mindful if I'm reading too much of the same old, same old, because like anyone I can lapse into it if I'm not careful. When I'm aware of doing that, I mix it up (mind you, this awareness is key, too, and needs to be cultivated). Doing so doesn't require that much effort, and I find that it doesn't limit the amount of interesting reading I can find out there, because why would it.
(Note well that in my particular case I get sent literally dozens of books on a weekly basis, from publishers and authors, so I don't find it difficult to find books by diverse authors I might be interested in — they come to my door unbidden. I recognize that this is also an advantage I have others don't. I am in many ways a not especially useful case for Tempest's point.)
So that's why I won't be cutting straight white cis male authors from my reading diet – or, more accurately, reading only from a specific group of authors, the demographics of which by practical necessity would exclude straight white cis male authors.
But if someone else does, for a year? Well, you know. I generally support reading more and different authors. If digging down specifically into a group of authors you've previously neglected or who were swamped out by other authors means you leave other writing aside for a while, I think that's fine. Readers don't owe any particular author a sale or even a read; they also don't owe that author a sale or a read at a particular time.
Also, some things to be made clear:
1. Tempest here isn't saying never read another book by a straight white cis male ever again in this life or any other, which is a thing that seems to be strangely overlooked, with regard to this suggestion of hers.
2. She's also not saying The Official Year of Not Reading Straight White Cis Male Authors begins March 1 at which point no one will read anything by these dudes. She's suggesting a general idea which may be done — or not! — at the individual reader's convenience. Even if a large number of people endeavor to read diversely, it will be on their own schedule.
3. Are any of us under the illusion that Tempest's suggestion will galvanize the entire reading population of the world?
So simply as a practical matter, if the article convinces some people to read outside their usual habits for a year, then what that means is that someone like me won't make a sale from that one person for a particular timeframe, but might possibly at some other point. Meanwhile, other people will still be available for potential sales.
Which already happens. I'm very sad to say that not everyone in the world buys the hardcover edition of my books when they come out. Some people don't know I and/or my book exist; some people do know but don't like me/my writing; some people like me/my writing but can't afford the book in hardcover; some people can afford it in hardcover but choose to spend their money on something else; and so on.
Over time, some of those people who don't buy my book when it comes out might buy it later. Which, again, already happens. It's why I have a backlist. I like backlist sales. So does my publisher; they don't have to spend a lot of time or money promoting my backlist, so the profit margins are nice. Honestly, spend money on me now, spend money on me later: It's all good from my point of view. I'll have use for that money whenever it gets to me, I assure you.
But — cutting out straight white male authors for a year is bigotry! Eh. Again, speaking as the proverbial straight white cis male author, I'm not feeling it, for the reasons noted above. Or at the very least I see no reason to feel threatened; maybe it's because I believe that even if the advantage of a reader's implicit default to authors like me is challenged or taken away, what I write will still be able to compete in both the stream of commerce and the marketplace of ideas. I don't fear competition, and philosophically speaking, I would rather have readers who range far and wide and still choose my work, then ones who pick my work because they just don't know any better. I'm not afraid to be set aside for a bit, while a reader explores works by other authors, and by other authors who are not like me. I figure they'll be back, in which case our author-reader bond is even tighter. Hooray! If they don't come back, it's probably for a good reason. In which case: Too bad for me, but there are lots of other potential readers about there.
What if someone only or primarily reads from [Insert whatever combination of not white and/or straight and/or male and/or cis] authors? Would you have them set those authors aside to read only white straight cis male authors for a year? If that's what they wanted to try, sure. Get out of whatever reading rut you're in, I say! But note that (at least as I see it), Tempest's formulation of reading is highly intersectional; someone who only reading [whatever combination of not white and/or straight and/or male and/or cis] doesn't have to go all the way to "white straight cis male" to shake up their reading lists. And also, and again as a practical matter, the number of people only or primarily reading [whatever combination of not white and/or straight and/or male and/or cis] is likely relatively small compared to those reading only/primarily straight white cis males, which is to the point about bias in the system, and is worth thinking about, rather than sort of eliding in a rush to get to another point entirely.
Speaking personally, I think one can build more diversity into one's reading without entirely dropping straight white cis males from one's reading diet for a year, if that strikes one as simply too harsh to folks like me; make a "buddy system," for example, in which every book you read by a straight white cis male is followed up by one written by someone who is not. Being mindful of your reading biases, and the practice of reading widely, are things that are beneficial however you do it.
But however you do it, at the end of the day, if you find more writers who speak to you, move you and make you think more widely, your life is going to be better. Find a way to bring in a wider set of authors to your reading diet, in a way that works for you. If it means taking a year off from me and writers like me, then good luck, have fun and remember we'll be here when you get back. We'll have stories to tell you when you do.
*Disclosure: I know K.T. Bradford ("Tempest") and have for years, and consider her a friend. Note she calls me out from time to time, and we occasionally disagree on things, sometimes very widely. You can do that with your friends.
The Big Idea: Matt Richtel
In his guise as a reporter for the New York Times, Matt Richtel won a Pultizer Prize writing on the intersection of technology and the fallible humans who use it. In fiction, and in his new novel The Doomsday Equation, Richtel does the same… but this time the results may be apocalyptic.
Thank you for clicking on this. In doing so, you've done your little part to help predict the next world war.
Yes, you (I do mean you, clacking away on the keyboard) are part of a remarkable development, one that is not nearly so farfetched as it may sound. It's the newfound capacity of computers to help predict – and shape – human events. Including war.
The premise stands at the heart of The Doomsday Equation, near-term science fiction that lives just on the other side of real, and borrows from the exploits of a real person. His name is Sean Gourley. A Silicon Valley darling, fairly called a wunderkind, he created an algorithm to help predict the outbreak of armed conflict and project its length. When will war come and how long will it last?
Do you doubt the concept? As it is, computers use Big Data to make all kinds of predictions, involving weather, stock markets, retail supply and demand. The more information you put into a computer, the more scenarios it can measure, the more it can do what the human brain cannot: see patterns that are the precursors to events. Sean figured out the kinds of patterns that precede a war, "the mathematics of war" he called it in an article in the esteemed journal "Nature."
The paper proposed an algorithm that its authors called "The Power Law."
I call it: The Doomsday Equation. In the book, hundreds of inputs – from weather patterns to stock market indices to shifting demographics to our daily surfing Internet patterns – contribute to predicting the stability of the world. Or, rather, impending instability – Armageddon. The implications become staggering (I hope) and, in the end, the world's fate left in the hands of a protagonist who shares all of Sean's intellect but none of his grace. The made-up man at the center of The Doomsday Equation is named Jeremy Stillwater. He's a wonder with computers but he's terrible with people.
He's self-righteous, maddeningly so, aggressive and impetuous, driven by conflict himself and, as a result, he's the last person in the world who should be in a position to prophesize and prevent doom. Over the years, he's infuriated and alienated all those who had invested and believed in him: his girlfriend, not least, but also the well-heeled investors, academics and even military liaisons who had hoped to use Jeremy's digital oracle to predict the next terrorist attack.
And so, having isolated himself from the world, there is nowhere for Jeremy to turns when his computer gives him ominous news: global nuclear war, three days and counting.
Is it a joke? A bug? Someone out to settle a score with Jeremy? Or the most important computer message anyone has ever received?
Frantic, skeptical, Jeremy begins a lonely hunt to figure out if his computer is telling him the truth. That's half the equation, and it is borrowed from real life.
So is the other half of the equation, namely, the conspiracy that has put the world in such a precarious position. I don't want to give too much away, but what Jeremy discovers is an ancient plot, a network as old as parchment and the Biblical Scrolls, devoted in its own way to keeping the world pure of modernity.
Put another way: the tools that Jeremy must use to save the world are the most modern. But the foe he faces is as ancient and inborn as human nature itself. And their clash gets at the heart of questions we have begun to face: what price modernity? Where it heals does it also betray? Is it salvation or damnation?
With each page of Doomsday Equation, the clock clicks down, heading inexorably to zero, as Jeremy can only save the world by coming face-to-face with the fact that his own craving for interpersonal conflict – his default embrace of self-righteousness – may well be a big part of the reason the world stands on the brink of war. Can computers tell us that war is coming? Can they save us from ourselves? Or will they, by extending the darkest parts of us, merely hasten our demise?
The Doomsday Equation.
The Doomsday Equation: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell's
Read an excerpt. Visit the author's site. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
Today's New Books and ARCs, 2/23/15
Still catching up on books and ARCs sent a couple of weeks ago. Here's a representative batch:
See anything you'd like to be reading right now? Share in the comments!


text:
So, the first of the bunch… This is a vibrato unit which can be used with VST organs, electric pianos, clean electric guitar sounds, etc. Whilst at first it may appear that the SK-1 would be largely redundant with VST organs (most of which, afterall, have their own built-in vibratos), the fully variable nature of this outboard effect allows much greater scope for tailoring the sound to your exact needs. It's quite surprising how much effect adjusting the vibrato rate and depth can have on the instrument's character.
Place the .dll file in your VST Plugins folder, and when you start your VST host it should detect the new software. If you normally have to add your VST instruments and effects manually, you'll need to use the same process here.
Please be aware that the Stomp King effects are home-made products, released as freeware, with no guarantees of any kind. Every effort is made to ensure that the effects work well and enhance your recordings. However, they cannot be tested on a wide range of systems, and therefore there exists the potential for problems. In downloading, you agree to absolve Planet Botch of all responsibility should a problem of any kind arise as a result of you downloading, installing and/or using the .dll file.
Once the effect is installed, simply switch on the SK-1 by clicking its On/Off stomp component, then use the three parameter knobs to adjust the effect to taste. The SK-1 has digital readouts under its parameter knobs, allowing you to note your settings (and perhaps pass them on) when you dial in a combination you really like.
Here are some of the ways in which the SK-1 can be effectively used…
Set Depth to 20, and Rate to 21 for a subtle movement which works well with electric piano sounds. You can tailor this further by setting the Dry/Wet balance in your VST host to around half and half. This mixes the original signal with the slow vibrato for a very pleasant and mild chorusing.
Set Depth to 40 and Rate to 50 for a classic electronic organ vibrato.
Set Depth to 46 and Rate to 75 for a fast electronic organ vibrato.
Set Depth to 60 and Rate to 22 for a slow vibrato which works well with clean guitar sounds. Again, adjusting the Dry/Wet balance in your VST host will add variety.
Set Depth to 25 and Rate to 0 for a very subtle 'drift' which can add retro personality to any instrument without the listener really gathering that a vibrato effect is being employed.
Set Depth to 10 and Rate to 42 for another interesting vibrato effect for electric pianos.
Download the Stomp King SK-1 Vibrato
I sincerely hope you enjoy using the Stomp King SK-1 and its forthcoming companions.
This site offers some of the Web's most comprehensive, informed and detailed articles on older musical instruments and devices. CLICK HERE to visit the Music Making page for the full index. If you like the site, please spread the word.
Posted by: Bob Leggitt


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Sigprices.com: Linsanity Continues With Exponential Growth in Autograph Value February 24, 2012 | Tom Bartsch | Leave a reply It's no secret of the rise to stardom for Jeremy Lin. And to back up the claim, here is tracking information on Lin's autograph prices over the recent span, courtesy of Sigprices.com. Read More
Instances like 'Linsanity' are Actually Quite Good for the Hobby February 15, 2012 | Tom Bartsch | Leave a reply Sure the speculative nature and go-for-the-quick-buck mentality brought on by the play of Jeremy Lin seems old hatt for hobby veterans, but it's actually quite good for the hobby as a whole. Read More
New York Media + Jeremy Lin = Trading Card Frenzy February 13, 2012 | Tom Bartsch | Leave a reply New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin is perhaps the most talked about person in the U.S. the past week. And all of the attention is leading to unbelievable prices for his trading cards. Read More


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Tori Staruch, a student at Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers, plays the role of Minnie Fay in the school's production of "Hello, Dolly!" / Ricky Flores/The Journal News
"Hello, Dolly!"
Where: Sacred Heart High School, 34 Convent Ave., Yonkers.
When: 8 p.m. April 3 and 4; 2 p.m. April 5.
Tickets: $10; $8 students and seniors.
Call: 914-965-6953.
With: Dashay Smith-Garcia, Billy Duross, Patrick Murphy, Luis Baerga, Amanda Alegria, Tori Staruch, Daniel Villao, Brittany Halterman, Daniela Matos, Michelle Muzzio, Dan Fennell, Devin O'Rourke, La Reina Brown, Paul Allen, Kiamesha Robinson, Andrew Holowczak, Kerrin Hurley, Jan-Robert Retome, Maggie Griswold, Andres Ramirez, Alyssa Benjamin, Mark Rosado, Gaby Naranjo, Rocco De Rose, Lamik Fitzgerald, Ryan Moeller, Jesus Munguia, Charlotte Hoar, Stephanie Giordano, Kevin Villa, Patrick Neilis, Noelle Alegado, Michael Oliveira, Joe Mahoney, Anthony Nash, Nicolette Cork, Gabriela Matos, Daniel Devlin, Brendan O'Rourke, Anthony Rossetti, Caitlin Mattil, Lenny Martinez, Sabrina Caruso, Valerie Venegas, Itoro Udo, Anna Cerasulo, Tom Longhi, Eric Rumore, Michael Cosgrove, Elina Paniagua, John Suarez, Licelott Barrios, Jessica Reider, Julia St. Clair, Matt Vetrano, Annalisa Samaroo, Josephine Paniagua, Chris Mendez, Brandon Ordonez, Eternity Rountree, Amanda Fernandez, Stephanie Ratanshi.
More coverage
- View a gallery of photos of rehearsals for the show at http://jukebox.lohud.com/photos/refers/index.php?gallery=Hello%20Dolly%20Sacred%20Heart%202009
- Follow the entire season at http://www.lohud.com/section/entertainment080201
- Read Peter D. Kramer's "In the Wings" blog - as he follows all 60 Lower Hudson Valley high-school musicals to opening night - at http://theater.lohudblogs.com.
- Three actresses are taking readers along as they ready their final high-school musical, at http://mymusical.lohudblogs.com
There have been five productions of "Hello, Dolly!" in Lower Hudson Valley high schools this year, but Sacred Heart High School has one tiny advantage: It's the hometown of several of the characters.
Dashay Smith-Garcia, a junior, plays Dolly Gallagher Levi, who comes up to Yonkers to arrange a husband for the city's first citizen, Horace Vandergelder, the well-known half-a-millionaire.
She has "lunch on the train and they mention something about chicken," says Smith Garcia, adding that the fare was "a couple of quarters, and she gets someone else pay it for her."
Today, that trip would cost her $6 at Grand Central, $5.70 if she bought it online and $11 if she paid for it - or had someone pay for it - on the train.
Dolly talks a lot about Yonkers.
"She has a line about getting to Yonkers on the train and at the end I sing a song and I say that I'm never going to Yonkers again, but that's a complete lie," she says.
"It's very funny to hear my town mentioned in the show," Smith-Garcia says with a smile. "I try to accentuate Yonkers every time I say it."
Senior Billy Duross plays Vandergelder, the curmudgeonly first citizen of Yonkers and owner of a hay and feed store. He says it's "pretty awesome" to have his hometown represented in a musical.
"We've done other plays and their setting is other places. But this one is where we live, so it's nice having that," he says. "It makes it more realistic."
Patrick Murphy, a sophomore, has played Vandergelder-like characters the past couple of years: Sheridan Whiteside in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and Mr. Applegate (the devil) in "Damn Yankees."
This year, he's the meek Cornelius Hackl, as far from those powerful men as possible. He was born in the Bronx, "two blocks from Yonkers, and grew up in Yonkers ever since."
Murphy is a repository of Yonkers fun facts. He knows that the name of the city is derived from Adriaen van der Donck, who was known as the "Jonkheer" - Dutch for "esquire" - of the area.
"Back in those days, Yonkers was actually bigger than New York City, because it went down to the Spuyten Duyvil creek," he says.
Amanda Alegria, a sophomore, plays Irene Molloy - the other widow in the story - who falls in love with Cornelius "when he stumbles into her hat shop."
"He's charismatic, sweet and kind, not like the grumpy Horace Vandergelder," Alegria says.
Alegria lives in Riverdale - "which used to part of Yonkers back in the day," Murphy interjects.
Senior Luis Baerga plays Barnaby Tucker. "It's probably the most corny role ever invented in the history of musical theater," he says. "But I'm proud to be taking it on."
Barnaby - who goes around yelling "holy cabooses!" - is a big shift from the heavy-hitting Joe Hardy Baerga played in last year's "Damn Yankees."
"He's like a little kid stuck in the body of a 17-year-old," says Baerga. He's not from Yonkers - he lives in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx - but, he says, "I've gone to school here my whole life, so I feel like I'm just as much a part of Yonkers as anybody."
Tori Staruch, a junior, plays the giggling, squeaky Minnie Fay, Irene's sidekick.
In one scene, Cornelius and Barnaby convince Minnie and Irene that it's more "elegant" to walk than to take a cab in Manhattan.
"I've been walking around Yonkers my whole life," Staruch says. "Born and raised here, you get to know the area well."
Out of Sacred Heart's 380 students, 70 are involved with "Hello, Dolly!"
They'll all be on hand at the end of the show when - spoiler alert - Dolly marries Horace.
Then Dolly'll never go away from Yonkers again.
Reach Peter D. Kramer at firstname.lastname@example.com or 914-694-5118.


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Publisher: Torquere Press/Arcana | Date published: 02/07/2009 DescriptionLance Shaw knows life with his lover Triarius is anything but dull, but when Triarius tells him about a vampiric son named Aldrich, Lance isn't sure what to think. To make matters worse, Triarius' trusted friend and general, Apollonius, has arrived to help with bringing Aldrich to justice for his crimes against the Romanorum, and Lance finds himself drawn to the man. He's not the only one, either. Just as Lance, Triarius and Apollonius come to an arrangement, however, Aldrich pays the Inferi Brotherhood a visit, ready to take over his father's rule by force. Can Lance, Triarius, and Apollonius keep their people--and their hearts--safe? Or will an announcement from Triarius seal their fates once and for all? Find out in this sequel to Sight Unseen!


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Explore The east coast Kota Bharu From Kota Bharu to Kuala Terengganu Pulau Perhentian Pulau Redang Kuala Terengganu Tasik Kenyir Marang Pulau Kapas Cherating Kuantan Gua Charas Pekan Share For most visitors, the chief attraction of Redang is the abundant marine life. The reefs have endured a lot over recent decades, including a mid-1970s attack by the crown-of-thorns starfish, and silt deposition caused by development. More recently the coral has suffered from bleaching due to high water temperatures. Thankfully, coral reefs have remarkable properties of self-renewal, and Redang's marine environment appears to have stabilized in a reasonable state. Conservation has certainly been helped by the designation of the Redang archipelago as one of Malaysia's marine parks, and by the regulation of activities such as spear-fishing, trawling and watersports. The best snorkelling is off the southern coast around the islets of Pulau Pinang and Pulau Ekor Tibu; the larger resorts take endless boats stuffed with tourists to the main sites, so find a smaller group if you can. Diving is also excellent, with most sites off Redang's eastern shore. Almost every resort has its own dive shop, and divers also come here on day-trips from the Perhentians.
More about Malaysia Explore Malaysia Kuala Lumpur and around The west coast The interior The east coast The south Sarawak Sabah Inspiration Things not to Miss Explore Malaysia Itineraries Features Gallery Where Next? Check out Sarawak Book a hostel in Malaysia Latest Discussion Essentials Essentials Fact file Getting there Getting around Accommodation Food and drink Health The media Festivals Sports and outdoor activities Culture and etiquette Shopping Travel essentials


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Witnesses to Calamity
Dans le carnaval de I'histoire: mémoires Carnival in the spring of 1979
The Challenge of the Spirit
Notes of a Non-Conspirator
In 1942 Lionel Trilling wrote an essay for The Nation called "Tacitus Now," in which he remarked that "our political education of the last decades fits us to understand the historian of imperial Rome." By "us" he meant, of course, Americans, whose tradition had excluded the atrocious things that Tacitus spoke of as a recent witness—"dictatorship and repression, spies and political informers, blood purges and treacherous dissension." Trilling had in mind the events that shook the Soviet Union during the 1930s; and equally, no doubt, the Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany, the activities of the Gestapo, the attrition of the Jews. But, as Boris Shragin explains in the note "To the Western Reader" which introduces his book, the spiritual crisis of Germany is no longer actual and indefinitely continuing like that of Russia. The German people, in the shock of defeat, were ready to acknowledge their guilt, and for many of them that chapter is now closed.
However, as the three testimonies now offered by Plyushch, Shragin, and Etkind—who all left the USSR in the 1970s—make absolutely plain, such questions as the Germans were brought to ask about their own responsibility for the ordeal they and others had lived through have not so far been asked by many in Russia. Those who do ask these questions have to pay for it with a prison sentence, or malign "treatment" in a "special psychiatric hospital," or with exile.
Tacitus looked back on eighty years of the Roman Empire, from Tiberius to Domitian, and he wrote, Trilling reminds us, with the despair of a convinced republican who knew that the past could never return. The account he gave of high politics over most of that period, with no prominent citizen safe from denunciation, and the caprice of a despot like Nero or Domitian spreading panic, and with panic irresponsibility, through widening circles, led one French historian cited by Trilling to wonder that the Empire did not collapse. The same features in Soviet society, as revealed in each of these books, prompt the same question; but whereas it has been contended that Tacitus gave only a partial view of the historical process, and that Rome was in the broader perspective "a healthy developing society," any illusions of progress in the Soviet Union died within a very few years of Khrushchev's "revelations" at the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956.
The parallel between early imperial Rome and the first sixty years of Soviet power should not be pressed too hard. But the example of Tacitus—"a dangerously subversive writer," as Trilling points out, "under the dictatorship both of the Jacobins and of Napoleon"—is worth bearing in mind when we consider the best writing that comes from the Russian dissidents. The three books in hand qualify for that distinction. But their message, unlike that of Tacitus, is not void of hope. The equivalent of the ancient republican virtue that he admired may be achieved if a reborn Russian intelligentsia …
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Looking for Livy October 12, 1978


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Title: | Literacy - The importance of it. 2 |
Author: | Male; African-American; Working Class; 1945 |
Description: | I was amazed that words could really point a picture in my mind. |
Bookmark: | http://hdl.handle.net/2374.DALN/1433 |
Date: | 2010-02-09 |
Files | Size | Format | View |
VID00001.MP4 | 135.1Mb | application/octet-stream |
View/ |
If no Creative Commons license notice appears in the description of this narrative, it is covered by a deed of gift and is available for use/reuse/remix as long as the DALN and the original creator(s) are acknowledged, along with information allowing end users to access the original narrative. Citations should include the full name of the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, the name of the original composer (or "anonymous," if applicable) the title of the narrative, and the DALN URL for the narrative (e.g., http://daln.osu.edu/handle/2374.DALN/151).


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According to the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System, Western Equine Encephalitis has been diagnosed in a 4-month-old Thoroughbred horse originating from Mercer County, Calif., with neurologic signs and nonsuppurative encephalitis. An HI titer of >1:1280 and a SVN titer >1:100 was found
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Milestone capes
this wiki
Release date | 3 May 2011 (Update) |
Members | Yes |
Quest item | No |
Tradeable | No |
Equipable | Yes |
Stackable | No |
Value | 10 coins |
High alch | 6 coins |
Low alch | 4 coins |
Destroy | Drop |
Store price | Not sold |
Examine | A cape worn by those who've achieved at least level X in all skills. |
Weight | 0.4 kg |
Milestone capes are a series of nine cosmetic Capes of Distinction that are 'earned" each time all of a member's skill levels reach a multiple of 10. They were released on 3 May 2011, and first mentioned in the developers' blog "Capes of Distinction". Players who have levelled every skill above level 10, 20, 30, and so on, will be able to weave a special cape on a loom. Unlike other Capes of Distinction, this cape does not come with the accompanying hood, nor an emote. Also unlike the other Capes of Distinction, this type of cape does not have any bonuses what so ever, similar to the herald cape. All nine of the milestone capes can be stored on the player-owned house cape rack.
To make a milestone cape, you need to weave one yourself at a loom. Making a cape requires one ball of wool per 10 levels. For example, Milestone cape (10) requires 1 ball of wool, while Milestone cape (40) requires 4 balls of wool. A total of 45 balls of wool is required to make all nine milestone capes.
The milestone capes appear to stick out more from the neck compared to other capes.
List of milestone capes
- Milestone cape (10) (dark green)
- Milestone cape (20) (light green)
- Milestone cape (30) (yellow)
- Milestone cape (40) (yellow-orange)
- Milestone cape (50) (orange)
- Milestone cape (60) (red)
- Milestone cape (70) (pink)
- Milestone cape (80) (purple)
- Milestone cape (90) (dark blue)
- Milestone capes can be made using the assist system, though this is pointless because a player would need to have the required crafting level to wear the cape anyway.
- As of 24 July 2012, only a maximum of about 1,000,000 players, or about .5% of players, could wear a milestone cape.


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SAN FRANCISCO -- The young man stumbled into the emergency room late one night after a house party, saying his heart wouldn't stop pounding and he cou...
Read Whole Story
As parents, we tell our children not to drink coffee since it might "stunt your growth," but we do not tell them not to drink these caffeine-loaded energy drinks since it might kill them. The risks and severity of the dangers of these drinks are not being recognized.
Get top stories and blog posts emailed to me each day..


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23 year old woman | Fort George G Meade, MD, USA | Seeking men 24-30 within 50 miles
Tall, funny, likes to workout and eat clean. Social, likes to have his own time, has a job, no games. I am a 5' 7'' , and I like to wear heels. I like working out, eating clean, going out on the weekends, some nights I just like to watch Netflix at home. I am a Gemini, very social, and spontaneous.
Coffee and conversation , Cooking , Dining out , Movies/Videos , Music and concerts , Exploring new areas , Nightclubs/Dancing , Performing arts , Playing cards , Religion/Spiritual , Shopping/Antiques , Travel/Sightseeing , Volunteering , Watching sports , Wine tasting
Auto racing / Motorcross, Baseball, Basketball, Cycling, Dancing, Football, Martial arts, Running, Skiing, Swimming, Walking / Hiking, Weights / Machines, Yoga
I exercise 3-4 times per week.
I like Cats, Dogs
I want a puppy :D
Anyplace with good music, a good crowd, and a clean atmosphere.
Crap, don't judge. Pretty Little Liars. Its a great show, trust me.
Work out, run, shop, go out with friends, watch movies, cook, sleep, clean lol I really do everything. Go to OC on random days, parasail, I want to skydive really bad! I like being out and about, riding motorcycle, read on rare occasions.
A Beautiful Disaster 50 Shades of Grey I hope they serve Beer in Hell A Million Little Pieces
Her | What she is looking for | |
Appearance | ||
Height: | 5'7" (170cms) | 5'10" (177cms) to 8'11" (271cms) |
Body type: | Athletic and toned | About average, Athletic and toned, Stocky |
Eyes: | Hazel | No preference |
Hair: | Light brown | Black, Light brown, Dark brown, Blonde, Dark blonde |
Lifestyle | ||
Smoke: | No Way | No preference |
Drink: | Social Drinker | No preference |
Occupation: | Political / Govt / Civil Service / Military | No preference |
Income: | I'll tell you later | No preference |
Relationship: | Never Married | Never Married, Divorced |
Have kids: | No | Yes, and they sometimes live at home, No, Yes, and they live away from home, Yes, and they live at home |
Wants kids: | Someday | Someday |
Background | ||
Ethnicity: | Latino / Hispanic | Latino / Hispanic, White / Caucasian |
Faith: | Christian / Other | No preference |
Languages: | English, Spanish | English |
Education: | Some college | High school, Some college, Associates degree, Bachelors degree, Graduate degree, PhD / Post Doctoral |


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- Ok For Fine Detail
- Low Quality
- Outdoors
this is not a good pumpkin carving kit . It is too small/low quality for large pumpkins and does not work well. If you must carve using a electric knife , I suggest a electric fish fillet knife for a better job.
BOTTOM LINE No, I would not recommend this to a friend- Durable
- Fun To Use
- Replaceable blade
- Halloween
- Anytime
This carving kit has the ability to replace the blade which is great...and it comes with an extra blade also! Company is great to order from. [...]
BOTTOM LINE Yes, I would recommend this to a friend- Makes carving easier
- Can be awkward to hold
- Halloween
This saw is a great product and really saves a lot of time in carving a pumpkin. The only thing I didn't like was that I had to constantly hold down the power button which at times made the saw awkward to hold and after a while my hand hurt. But I still absolutely recommend it and I will be using…
BOTTOM LINE Yes, I would recommend this to a friendGreat idea. However, the batteries I put in (I bought two of them) did not last too long, so that's a bummer. Was really good for poking out your design though, as long as you found the right angle. And of course, it's not good for carving fine, small parts of your pattern; it doesn't really turn…
BOTTOM LINE Yes, I would recommend this to a friend


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Nice things to put a smile on your face and make you home prettier, I just bought the monkeys tray for myself. Thanks Dottie Angel for making beautiful things and keep inspiring me. Nice weekend to all of you, I am not feeling well, so need a good rest, and catch up with my sleep...
Saturday, 8 October 2011
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Failure Analysis and Risk preventionIALCCE08 - First International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering11 Jun 2008 - 12:00am 14 Jun 2008 - 12:00am Etc/GMT+1 IALCCE08 - First International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering June 11-14, 2008, Varenna, Lake of Como, Italy The aim of IALCCE'08 is to bring together all the very best work that has been done in the field of life-cycle civil engineering. The state of the art as well as emerging concepts and innovative applications related to life-cycle assessment, design, maintenance, rehabilitation and monitoring of civil engineering systems, will be considered. In this context, papers on theories, methods, algorithms, and applications are all welcome. Specifically, the Symposium will focus on the following topics: LIFE-CYCLE DAMAGING PROCESSES
LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT AND DESIGN Administrator – Mon, 16/07/2007 – 9:39am |
User loginNavigationNDAs.com newsletter |


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Snowman Scott will haunt my dreams...
I, for one, welcome our new snowman scott overlord.
I refuse to back a snowman overlord simply on the grounds that a heat lamp could kill him...
All hail the almighty heat lamp!
But when the heat lamp needs a new bulb or its power source stops working, what then? WHAT THEN?!!!
I say worship the sun, the Great Heat Lamp in the Sky.
Obviously when the heat lamp bulb breaks you worship the convenience store, the Giver of Bulbs.
Alternatively, the power company, the Giver of Power.
Snowman Scott is Watching you
Now I'm off for my Two-Minute hate, curse you giant heat-lamp!
I make my gf gifts :3
According to your gf, snowballs thrown from a hiding place make for bad gift ideas my friend. Step it up!
Am I the only one who heard "Secrets and Lies" to the old Christmas special tune "Silver and Gold?"
@Stewart: i'm pretty sure that was the point :)
As a band nerd who has to march in the hot sun all day, I am very opposed to the heat lamp in the sky.
All Hail Snowscott!!! The marching band is your new army!


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Prasad, Phoolan (2000) An asymptotic derivation of weakly nonlinear ray theory. In: Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences Mathematical Sciences, 110 (4). pp. 431-447.
29asym110(4)-nov2000.pdf Download (132Kb) |
Using a method of expansion similar to Chapman-Enskog expansion, a new formal perturbation scheme based on high frequency approximation has been constructed. The scheme leads to an eikonal equation in which the leading order amplitude appears. The transport equation for the amplitude has been deduced with an error O(epsilon (2)) where epsilon is the small parameter appearing in the high frequency approximation. On a length scale over which Choquet-Bruhats theory is valid, this theory reduces to the former. The theory is valid on a much larger length scale and the leading order terms give the weakly nonlinear ray theory (WNLRT) of Prasad, which has been very successful in giving physically realistic results and also in showing that the caustic of a linear theory is resolved when nonlinear effects are included. The weak shock ray theory with infinite system of compatibility conditions also follows from this theory.
Item Type: | Journal Article |
Additional Information: | Copyright of this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences |
Keywords: | Nonlinear wave propagation;ray theory;hyperbolic equations;caustic |
Department/Centre: | Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Mathematics |
Date Deposited: | 13 Sep 2004 |
Last Modified: | 19 Sep 2010 04:16 |
URI: | http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/id/eprint/1806 |
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The avant-garde founder of French New Wave Jacques Rivette, offers an on-going treatise of film versus theater in this basically non-story about two actresses and a director, or from another perspective, a play and a film. In the opening scenario, a couple come out of a bathroom and are surprised by a group of people. It turns out that the people are the audience watching a play performed in a private home. Among the spectators is Clément...more
All L'Amour Par Terre cast + crew photos


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A Rainy Night and Red Lipstick. {Poem}
A rainy night and red lipstick
Red shoes and rainy lips
A kiss, a sweet and beautiful kiss
Warm mouths on this misty eve
Tender, natural, and extraordinary
Souls careless, aside, faraway
Internal fire and an easy drizzle
An empty alley, a newspaper stand, wet cigarette butts
Bliss and shivers in a damp city
Truth in essence, timeless, surrounds
Streetlights and dirty puddles
Two lovers under a red moon
Soft lips, tongues sampling, teasing, exploring
A lover's flavor, thrilling and distinct
Cold hands and cozy hearts
A slow train, a transvestite, a marred vodka ad
The experience of unity
The touch of another
The experience of breath
To return love
To feel a soul
To feel a soul
There is only the now, forever, eternity
Red nails and a black dress
Chocolate, wine, and mints
A late hour and slippery sidewalks
A burgundy umbrella, no taxi
Two warm hearts and a bitter wind
Heaven, open up, let it pour
A loose button and a red camisole
A tighter embrace, a deeper kiss
The soul carried in breath
A universal exchange
Hot skin and damp clothes
Let it rain; let it rain
Love and a kiss; let it rain
A 24-hour coffee shop, two barking dogs, a soggy newspaper
A lover's embrace
Giving and receiving
Shedding one's skin; letting the other in
Last call, a wailing ambulance, a padlocked bakery
Two small figures, radiance in a showery city
A hot kiss and a polka dot bra
Stormy delights
A rainy night and red lipstick
Love abounds.
Yale Weinberger writes poems about love and its beautiful colors and flavors in sexual expression. She thinks anyone who has been in love and has had a craving or longing can relate to her words. Her words relate to the ultimate expression and the beauty of passion and appetite. With love, she hopes you enjoy her words and they reach your heart and all the right places.
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Ed: Lynn Hasselberger
Asst. Ed: Evan Livesay
Source: glamour-photos.org via Sandra on Pinterest
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5 Responses to "A Rainy Night and Red Lipstick. {Poem}"
After reading this piece, I stood on my porch, where the temperature is -6º and felt no cold. That's how powerful this poem is.
Wowza! Thanks, Martin. I'm so happy this poem warmed you. 😉
Incredible. I Love it!
Thanks, Heather! I appreciate that. You might enjoy some of my others, like "To Taste You".
[…] we talk and to how we move. For me, sexy means getting out of my jeans and into a clingy dress, or putting on red lipstick, or letting my hips sway when I walk. There is not one kind of sexy. There is just your own version […]


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Samsung Electronics, the Worldwide Olympic Partner for Wireless Communications Equipment, is pleased to announce the corporation has become a Worldwide Paralympic Partner of the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.
The announcement will take place at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games official 1 year-to-go celebration in Moscow. JaeYoung Lee, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, Sir Philip Craven, President of International Paralympic Committee, and Dmitry Chernyshenko, President and CEO of Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee participated in the event and shared the excitement of the upcoming Paralympic Games.
Samsung has been a Worldwide Partner of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) since 2006. It was in Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games where Samsung performed as a Worldwide Partner of the Games for the first time ever. Since then, Samsung has supported the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games as well as the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Now, being proud to perform as an Worldwide Paralympic Partner for the fifth time, Samsung aims to make the Paralympic Games an event that reaches a wider audience around the world, spreading the inspiration and excitement of the Games through its innovative wireless communication technologies.