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Archive for the 'philosophy' tag
Seminary Student Reflects on Religious Pluralism Class
The following article is a final synthesis paper written by Lora Burge, a seminarian at McCormick Theological Seminary. The course, Religious Pluralism and the Ministry, has been taught by Prof. Robert Cathey and CPWR Trustee Janaan Hashim since 2006. The course developed as an off-shoot from the 2004 Parliament in Barcelona. Over the course of the semester, students actively study five faith traditions: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism. Students' final reading includes Tariq Ramadan's The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism. Equipped with a semester of observation, research, and writing, students leave the class working on a philosophical and/or theological framework for thinking about religious pluralism in Chicago and beyond. With Ms. Burge's permission, Prof. Cathey and Prof. Hashim are pleased to share with you this young interfaither's thoughts. Enjoy.
Finding a Universal
by Lora Burge
Humility is my table, respect is my garment, empathy is my food and curiosity is my drink. As for love, it has a thousand names and is by my side at every window. –Tariq Ramadan [1]
Approaching the sacred, finding the holy, listening to the divine, worshiping God within and among us. As I reflect on the journey and experiences of this semester, I can't help but marvel at everything I saw and observed. On one hand, it's hard to make comparisons between the different religions. Friday afternoon prayers, puja, and a Shabbat service are organized different ways for different purposes. Yet, on the other hand all these involved searching. Looking out and watching for something bigger, something outside of themselves, something beyond human reason and quantifiable experience. They were seeking Brahman, Allah, YHWH, God, enlightenment.
Growing up in a pluralistic, postmodernist world, I have always been taught to be suspicious of overarching truths and meta-narratives. I'm well-steeped in the practice of criticism and always asking "Whose truth? Whose narrative? Who's speaking? And with what authority?" I wonder if those questions don't put more distance between myself and my neighbors. Are these questions I was taught to ask other-izing the "other"? It's a lot easier to ignore, overlook, and mistreat people when central parts of their identity and belief have been objectified away.
I am such a product of my own education that I have a hard time conceptualizing what a universal truth would look like. I was taught to be so suspicious of any universals as to make them seem an impossibility. I will always be a child of postmodernism, understanding life in terms of social constructs, contextual truths, and lived experience. It seems unlikely (at least now) that I will completely break out of this mold of thought that has been the result of two decades of education. Yet now I criticize the critical mode of thought itself. If we objectify all truth, and conceptualize of each human being as living in her or her own uniquely-constructed world, then we've erased the possibility of common ground and shared experience. Anybody outside of myself will always be "other" to my reality. Not just somewhat "other," or different, but completely so, which will make relating and understanding each other difficult.
Here's the crux of it: by asking so many questions and stripping things bare as social constructs and humanity-made realities, we've removed the common ground out from under our own feet. Precisely by focusing on each individual's uniqueness, we've lost sight of or lost altogether the universal nature of our own humanity. We are making "other" out of our own flesh and blood. Until we learn a new way of thinking, we will continue to push people away as irreconcilably different.
The Universal
Something then must be done to reclaim our common ground. It is not hard to see the ways in which our world is tearing itself apart: wars, violence, poverty, economic injustice, and more. Yet how will we put it back together with such differences? It is imperative that we relearn how to understand our common humanity rather than focusing on differences.
If nothing else, we all share in the same humanity. We all breathe, eat, sleep, learn, and to some extent live in community with other human beings. Some faith traditions understand the condition of being human as the nature of being created in the image of God. Some understand the human condition as rooted in suffering. To others, being human is something to be mastered through rigorous spiritual disciplines. Regardless of our personal understandings of what it means to be human, we all are, and that is one universal characteristic that we share. Across religious, political, ethnic, racial, cultural, economic and any other constructed categories that divide us, we are all human. So what are we to do with our universal human nature?
It is time to recognize that shared humanity in itself is enough of a foundation for shared common ground. We must move forward understanding that we share at least one thing with the rest of the world: our being. This shared existence is something to be honored and respected. Tariq Ramadan notes that, "We must love human beings, with their qualities, their beauties and their difference, but also with their weaknesses, their doubts and their fears. This means acknowledging that they, like us, are capable of the best and the worst.[…] Our love must be resolutely universal, and eager to share."[2] If human nature is the universal condition, then love must become the universal action. Each of us from personal experience knows of the human potential for good or for evil, and everything in between. Love cannot be measured out on the basis of works and worthiness: this will only lead to constructed divisions, categories, and the naming of people as foreign "others."
Instead, this universal love needs to be something that we have in common and something that brings us together. The free, unconditional giving of love is not something that comes easy. Survival instincts and greed lead to the selfish management of resources, even love. A few millennia of stingy, particular love have left us a world full of divisions, hatred, and violence. There must be another way.
There is a practice within Hinduism of bowing to other people and saying "Namaste," or "I bow to the God in you."[3] Hindus will bow to other Hindus and non-Hindus alike; to them, there is God in everyone. For Hindus, this practice is based on their universal conceptualization of a sacred nature present within each human being. It would be presumptuous to think all human beings would want to engage in the practice of Namaste bowing. With many theological, spiritual, and anthropological understandings of what it means to be human, finding the sacred in our fellow humanity will not be a practical approach to the universal. Yet there is something in the practice that could be a helpful model.
There is no rationale or emotion tied to the bowing. I am not bowing to thank someone for a gift or a professor for help with an assignment. I recognize there may be circumstances where this bowing is easier and other situations where it is really hard to see God present in others. But regardless, the bowing happens simply to unconditionally honor the God-nature in others. This is precisely what we must learn to do. Regardless of any words or actions we may use, we must learn to love and respect the humanity—the human nature—of the people around us, both in the local but also the global sense. We need to recognize that within every other there is a shared human nature, a shared life force, and in fact, he or she is not such an "other."
This is precisely what I had a taste of this semester. Going to a synagogue, a mosque, a gurdwara, a Buddhist center, and a Hindu temple—I was an outsider and an observer but I never felt like an "other." All of our speakers and hosts were eager to have us there and as equally enthusiastic to help us learn about their faith tradition. In some instances, there were shared elements of religious heritage between us, and in other instances, none. Yet we are all human beings, living from the same human condition, and searching for similar things. Instead of seeing a young white liberal Christian woman from the West coast, each of them chose to see and affirm a fellow human being also searching for a life of meaning and happiness.
Moving Forward
This is what I need to take with me: there is one possible universal truth, and that is love for my fellow humanity. Not a love that requires uniformity in belief or political systems, not a love that dissolves diversity for a false sense of unity, not love that has any conditions or requirements at all. This universal love then is a deep, unconditional positive regard not because of how people are in the world but because they are in the world. This love honors people simply and wholly because they have a human nature and being, which means they are like us.
This universal love is something that needs to be cultivated and practiced. In an economic system based on achievement and merit, giving anything unconditionally is uncommon. Universal, unconditional love for the human nature of all people is not something that will happen overnight; it will happen in many specific moments and encounters. Tariq Ramadan explains that, "Love too is a journey. We have to set out, get away from ourselves. We have to take the first step, and keep our balance. And, ultimately, it is all a question of balance."[4] We need to step away from our specific selves, step into our common humanity, and live from a universal love and a shared reality that we are, in fact, all human and we share in this thing called life.
[1] Ramadan, Tariq, The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism (London: Allen Lane, 2010), xii.
[2] Ibid., 25
[3] Pandit, Dr. Bansi, "Hindu Tradition." Lecture, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL, 2 December 2011.
[4] Ramadan, Tariq, The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism (London: Allen Lane, 2010), 195.
Adieu Raimon, A Dieu
Raimon Panikkar, known to many in this society of Hindu-Christian Studies as a teacher, scholar, mentor, or friend, died at his home in Tavertet, near Barcelona, on August 26, 2010. He was ninety-one and had been in poor health for some time, but he did live to see the day when his Gifford Lectures, originally delivered in Edinburgh in 1989, and over which he had agonized ever since [he produced some nineteen different versions of parts of the texts], finally saw the light of day in June of this year as The Rhythm of Being (Orbis Books).
Panikkar taught and lived in the United States from 1966-1987 and was known to generations of students here and around the world through both his lectures and his many books. What they heard and read were the arresting reflections of a multi-dimensional person, who was simultaneously a philosopher, theologian, mystic, priest and poet.
It was also that combination of personae that made him at times difficult to understand. He was a formidable scholar with doctorates in philosophy, theology, and chemistry and an acquaintance with the worlds of learning and religious reflection in more than a dozen languages. But at heart he was a mystic and a contemplative, who chose at the end of his academic career in 1987 to live in the small mountain village of Tavertet (population 75) in a remote part of the Pyrenees north of Barcelona. Even there he was not easily accessible because he would shut off his phone for half the week. The prayer and meditation room in his house was right next to his study, and he would drift imperceptibly between the two spaces both literally and in consciousness. He once wrote
"Writing, to me, is meditation—that is medicine—and also moderation,
order for this world. Writing, to me, is intellectual life and that in turn
is spiritual existence. The climax of life is, in my opinion, to participate
in the life of the universe, in both the cosmic and divine symphonies to
which even we mortals are invited. It is not only a matter of living but
also of letting life be—this life, offered to us as a gift so that we may
sustain and deepen it." (A Dwelling Place for Wisdom, 79)
He was born the son of an Indian Hindu father and a Spanish Catholic mother on November 3, 1918. He received a conventional Catholic education at a Jesuit high school in Barcelona before launching on his university studies in the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology, first in Barcelona and then in Madrid. Shortly thereafter, the Spanish Civil War broke out, and Panikkar was able to take advantage of his status as the son of a father who was a British citizen to go to the University of Bonn in Germany to continue his studies. When World War II started in 1939, Panikkar returned to Spain and completed the first of his three doctorates, this one in philosophy, at the University of Madrid in 1946.
In late 1954 when he was already 36 Panikkar visited India, the land of his father, for the first time. It proved to be a watershed, a decisive reorientation of his interests and of his theology. He had entered a dramatically new world, religious and cultural, from the Catholic Europe of his youth. The transformation was aided by his meetings and close friendship with three monks, who like him were attempting to live and to incarnate the Christian life in Indian, predominantly Hindu and Buddhist, forms: Jules Monchanin (1895-1957), Henri Le Saux, also known as Swami Abhishiktananda (1910-1973), and Bede Griffiths, the English Benedictine monk (1906-1993). All four of them, in different ways, discovered and cherished the riches and the deep spiritual wisdom of the Indic traditions, and attempted to live out and express their core Christian convictions in Hindu and Buddhist forms. To some extent this multiple belonging was made possible by their embrace of Advaita, the Indic idea of non-dualism, which sees the deep, often hidden, connections between traditions without in any way minimizing the differences between them.
One of Panikkar's many striking sentences looking back on his life's journey asserts: "I left Europe (for India) as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian." A wealth of meaning lies in that assertion. Christianity in its historical evolution began as a Jewish tradition and then spread to the Greco-Roman world, acquiring along the way Greek and Roman cultural expressions which have given it a certain form and character. Panikkar, having grown up and having been trained in a traditional Catholic and neo-Thomist environment, had a profound knowledge of, and respect for, that tradition. This knowledge prepared him for discussions with some of the great minds of twentieth-century Catholicism: Jean Danielou, Yves Congar, Hans Urs von Balthazar, and others. He was also invited to take part in the Synod of Rome and the Second Vatican Council. But Panikkar did not confuse or conflate historical contingency with spiritual truth. In Hinduism and Buddhism Panikkar found other languages, in addition to Biblical Hebrew, Greek philosophy, and Latin Christianity, to express the core convictions (the kerygma) of the Christian tradition.
That was the main thesis of The Unknown Christ of Hinduism, which Panikkar originally presented as a doctoral thesis to the Lateran University in Rome in 1961, based as it was on a close textual comparison between Thomas Aquinas and Sankara's interpretation of a canonical Hindu scripture, the Brahma-Sutras. Christ and his teaching are not, so Panikkar argues, the monopoly or exclusive property of Christianity seen as a historical religion. Rather, Christ is the universal symbol of divine-human unity, the human face of God. Christianity approaches Christ in a particular and unique way, informed by its own history and spiritual evolution. But Christ vastly transcends Christianity. Panikkar calls the name "Christ" the "Supername," in line with St. Paul's "name above every name" (Phil 2:9), because it is a name that can and must assume other names, like Rama or Krishna or Ishvara.
This theological insight was crucial for Panikkar because it provided the basis of the inter-religious dialogue that he and Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths were both advocating and practicing themselves. Far from diluting or in any way watering down core Christian beliefs and practices, such dialogue, in addition to fostering inter-religious understanding and harmony, provided an indispensable medium for deepening the Christian faith. Such dialogue provides an insight and entry point into other, non-Christian names and manifestations of Christ. This was particularly important for Panikkar because together with other Asian theologians he saw how historical Christianity had attempted, especially during its colonial periods, to convert Christ into an imperial God, with a license to conquer and triumph over other Gods. This for Panikkar is the challenge of the post-colonial period inaugurated in the mid-to-late twentieth century and continuing into our present and the future. In his words, "To the third Christian millennium is reserved the task of overcoming a tribal Christology by a Christophany which allows Christians to see the work of Christ everywhere, without assuming that they have a better grasp or a monopoly of that Mystery, which has been revealed to them in a unique way."
Needless-to-say, such striking ideas carefully and rigorously argued and dramatically expressed got the attention of religious thinkers and secular institutions around the world. Panikkar was invited to teach in Rome and then at Harvard (1966-1971) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (1971-1987). He was now, as Leonard Swidler, occupant of the Chair of Catholic Thought at Temple University, called him, "the apostle of inter-faith dialogue and inter-cultural understanding."
In true apostolic fashion, he traveled tirelessly around the world, lecturing, writing, preaching, and conducting retreats. His famous Easter service in his Santa Barbara days would attract visitors from all corners of the globe. Well before dawn they would climb up the mountain near his home in Montecito, meditate quietly in the darkness once they reached the top, and then salute the sun as it arose over the horizon. Panikkar would bless the elements—air, earth, water, and fire—and all the surrounding forms of life—plant, animal, and human—and then celebrate Mass and the Eucharist. It was a profound "cosmotheandric" celebration with the human, cosmic, and divine dimensions of life being affirmed, reverenced, and brought into a deep harmony. The celebration after the formal service at Panikkar's home resembled in some respects the feast of Pentecost as described in the New Testament, where peoples of many tongues engaged in animated conversation.
At the center of these celebrations, retreats, and lectures stood Panikkar himself and his arresting personality. People who heard or encountered him could not help but be struck by this physically small man who in his earlier days was like a cluster of fireworks exploding in an array of shapes and colors. Here is what the great Mexico poet Octavio Paz, who was his country's ambassador to India from 1962-1968, had to say about him:
It is impossible not to recall a Catalan Hindu, both a theologian and
a migratory bird in all climates from Benares to Santa Barbara,
California: Raimundo Panikkar. A man of electric intelligence,
with whom I would spend hours discussing some controversial point
in the Gita or Buddhist sutra—I have never heard anyone attack
the heresy of Buddhism with such furious dialectics as Panikkar
(In Light of India 209).
In later life, his persona managed to combine the dignity of a sage, the profundity of a scholar, the depth of a contemplative, and the warmth and charm of a friend in his effervescent personality. An Australian friend of his, Dr. Meath Conlan, mentions having dinner with him at his home when the phone rang. It was the Pope calling from the Vatican, seeking Panikkar's advice on how best to handle the aftermath caused by his ill-advised remarks about the Prophet Mohammed in his Regensburg Address of 2006.
He is well known to readers of this journal as a great scholar of both the Hindu and Christian traditions and the dialogue between them. The 940 page translation and commentary of the Vedas and the Upanishads, published as The Vedic Experience: Mantramanjari, is a sensitive hermeneutical study that attempts to bring the ancient Vedic world alive as a resource for contemporary celebration. Likewise, his account of Hindu myths in Myth, Faith, and Hermeneutics tries to bring out their deeper cross-cultural philosophical resonance.
Critics, of course, charged him with proffering a Christian interpretation of Hinduism to which his wry response often was that he had a Hindu interpretation of Christianity. The point for Panikkar as a thinker was to move beyond labels and the conventional ideas they carry to deeper spiritual truth. Indeed, one of the main purposes of inter-religious dialogue for Panikkar is the intra-religious dialogue it should spark and the discovery of often hidden treasures in one's own tradition.
Perhaps the most daring of Panikkar's attempts at charting a Hindu-Buddhist-Christian spirituality within a still Christian self-understanding came in his early and path-breaking little book first published in 1970 as The Trinity and World Religions. Here he imposed a Trinitarian structure on Hinduism and an advaitic structure on Christianity, both "trinity and "advaita" being alternative symbols for the cosmotheandric Mystery. Drawing on traditional and unacknowledged, submerged dimensions of the Christian trinity, Panikkar attempted to connect Buddhism with the silent, self-emptying dimension of the Father; Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as religions of the word, with the Son, the incarnate Word; and advaitic Hinduism with the immanent, radically inner dimension of the Spirit. In doing so it was not his purpose imperialistically to provide a Christian grid onto which other traditions could be forced. Rather, taking Christianity as his point of departure, he wanted to show that Christianity has no monopoly on Trinitarian understanding and that such understanding enriched by the contributions of different traditions can in fact deepen and transform all of them.
It is important, however, to balance this account of Panikkar as thinker with the stress he placed on living an authentic life. "My aspiration," he would often say, "does not consist so much in defending my truth, but rather in living it out." As one of his students speaking for many put it, "He integrated intellect, commitment, and practice in a very important and inspirational way for so many of us. Many of our lives and paths have benefitted from his touch."
To cite just one example of that commitment, in September 1994 at the age of 76 Panikkar made a pilgrimage of almost a month to Mount Kailash. He had a weak heart, and the doctors were against it, but Panikkar was determined. Anyone who has been on such a pilgrimage can vouch for its hazards—there are no resources for rescue and hardly any medical amenities. It was in part a fulfillment of a promise to his Hindu, Saivite father. As Panikkar wrote after the expedition
I have always been more inclined to the spiritual pilgrimage. And
yet that memory of a hindu father telling his teen-age son
about Kailasa reverberated in him when the occasion arose to join the
last batch of sadhus the Chinese would allow in 1959. He had then
to renounce by virtue of 'holy' (christian) obedience, and later on
due to other reasons, not the least his heart not supporting high altitudes.
By an inexplicable synchronicity of events he found himself this time
almost led to undertake the pilgrimage which for him was likely to
be not only ultimate but final (Setu ed. Bettina Baeumer, January 1996, 8)
Sixteen years later, Panikkar did indeed embark on a pilgrimage both ultimate and final. May God and the gods grant him rest in the Great Source which he sought with such intensity and single-mindedness during his earthly sojourn.
Joseph Prabhu
Philosophy Department
California State University, Los Angeles
September 20, 2010
The Promise of a New Era in Our Conversation About Faith
From The Huffington Post
In 1953, Professor C.D. Broad of Cambridge University published a paper titled "The Argument From Religious Experience." Broad, who was not a religious man, responded to Bertrand Russell's challenge to philosophically prove the existence of God, and in his paper he evaluated beliefs from different world religions and cultures, concluding, "The claim by any particular religion or sect to have complete or final truth seems to me to be too ridiculous to be worth a moment's consideration. But the opposite extreme of holding that the whole religious experience of mankind is a gigantic system of pure delusion seems to me to be almost (though not as quite) farfetched."
After 58 years and numerous other attempts, Broad's conclusion seems to me to be the most mature and reasonable assessment that I have come across.


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Yep, Wheeler arrived just in time to blow a game we had won. Good thing we have him.
Perfect. Now we'll have an excuse for losing.
Pomeranz and White are both doing excellent for the Rockies. Saw them pitch this week and they looked good.
What happened in the off season? Chisenhall got got very little playing time in the spring. Hanahan is a known commodity but Chisenhall has potential that has not been explored.
I'm not going to hang my season on Jimenez or Tomlin. We've got to move on. Go Indians.
The only wind Tomlin needs is the trade winds. It's got to be discouraging to his team mates when they've lost by the third inning.
I hate all the sniping as it does nothing for the team. I have to go with the management to make the right choices and those choices are not always obvious to anyone. I can't see spending what Washington did in their trade nor can I see giving that much money to Mario. GO BROWNS.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't. All the pundits that said sign him will now call us fools. If that's the way to go, then go for it Browns.
If you don't want to play, just don't show up.
If Griffin is there at four, it is well worth the gamble but it seems like too much to give up two first rounds, maybe a second round and other future picks. I believe Tom is too astute to give away all our draft picks for one player.
I always wondered when a top Browns player was taken out in nearly every game with the Steelers or Ravens.
Which brings up something that has been on my mind. How come the Browns had key players taken out almost every time we played the Steelers or Ravens? Just a coincident?
I just worry about giving up all those picks that could make an impact this year. How will Griffin play after several concussions behind our porous line? Get well Tom, go Browns!!
The Rams are licking their chops at the prospect of getting the Brown's picks. So many pundits think that is the way to go but if Griffin doesn't work out too well they will be the first to tell us how stupid the Browns are (for taking their advice). ESPN enjoys promoting these scenarios but it's no skin off their backs if they are wrong.
Nobody can say for sure how successful Griffin will be but the likes of Kiper and other writers keep hyping him because that's their job. They promote scenarios that may or may not work and it is no skin off their back when the athlete tanks. If we spent all our picks on Griffin and he washed out, some of the writers would tell us how stupid we were. If we use the picks wisely we will improve vastly in any case.
I hope we don't give up all our picks for Griffin. If he falls to us at four, we have to consider him but there are too many quality players that will help us significantly their first year. We have lots of holes that can be filled.
I just long for some good games from the Tribe in the coming season. Play ball and win some games.
I agree. I will miss him. Plus it is being reported on ESPN that the Sox gave him 500,000 for the year.
We certainly did not have the right coordinator this year. Maybe Shurmur needs help in finding one.
I'm anxious to see how many sacks and hits Wallace has. This may give a clue to how well Colt has been playing.

subset: commoncrawl


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Nebraska governor requests denial of Keystone oil pipeline permit
September 1, 2011 at 1:13 am in The Daily Republic
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman urged President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday to deny a federal permit for a pipeline that would carry Canadian oil over an aquifer that supplies drinking and irrigation water to parts of several states.
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This is a community centered video search engine, originated to allow users to learn more fantastic world of the website from videos. Until January 2008, the site already has 90,000 video guides, and they said, they would continue to develop, and to provide users the most advanced resources.
Yahoo video search
This is one of the most famous search engines which provide you the best short video on the internet, and is able to search Microsoft Windows Media, Apple QuickTime, RealNetwork Real Media and other formats of video files.
This is a smartly designed video search site that provides videos from all sorts of sources, from YouTube to broadcasting companies. It is a powerful video search engine subsidiary of AOL, and is stepping out on its own now after spending three years under AOL.
This is a very interesting search engine. Some of its small characteristics will make you feel comfortable. For example, users can customize the interface Exalead homepage, add some of your frequently visited site (shortcuts), and Exalead will automatically generate the site's preview. So when you search on Exalead, you can easily access these sites. If you registered Exalead account, it will help you save these customized informations. Another feature of Exalead is its support on pronouncing the search keywords.So when you do not know how to spell a word, what you need to do is just entering the pronunciation of the word, and then it will help you find you're the pronunciation related results.
This is a flexible and personalized multimedia search engine, where you can bookmark multimedia contents from video and image search engines or any type of searches, including news, sports, celebrities, music, films, and tourism.
PureVideo and VidSea
These are two new video search engines under beta testing. If you are interested, have a look and enjoy them.


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Did Richard Nixon Have a Drunken Phone Conversation With Ronald Reagan?
A recently released tape from 1973 features Nixon slurring his words as Reagan pledges to stand behind him in the midst of the Watergate Scandal.
On April 30, 1973, less than a year after the Watergate break-in, President Richard Nixon received a call from the then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan.
It had been a rough day for Nixon: He had just announced that his two top White House staffers — HR Haldeman and John Ehrlichman — had resigned along with Attorney General Richard Kleindienst,. The White House counsel, John W. Dean III, had been fired.
As Mediaite points out, during Nixon's phone conversation with Reagan, he sounds suspiciously upbeat, slurring his words at times, and even jokingly asking him, "How, how'd you ever manage to marry such a pretty girl?"
After Reagan pledged his support, he reassured Nixon that "This [the Watergate scandal] too shall pass."
To which Nixon replied, "Everything passes." But of course it did not.
Nixon resigned the presidency 16 months later, on Aug. 8, 1974.
3. Listen to the phone conversation between Nixon and Reagan:
Via mediaite.com
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Cuba later this summer for the opening of a U.S. embassy there.
- Nicholas Winton, who saved more than 650 Jewish children from the Holocaust, died at 106.
- The fire at a South Carolina black church late Tuesday night wasn't arson, according to a preliminary investigation.


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« Captain Rochefort | Main | Captain Barbossa »
February 24, 2004
Sheriff of Nottingham
While King Richard the Lionheart is away from home fighting in the Crusades, somebody's got to keep the fair citizens in line. The Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) provides the protection and keeps the peace in his absence, that is, if starving, robbing, and murdering the people is the kind of protection you're looking for. One poor victim of the Sheriff's greed for power is the father of Robin of Locksley (Kevin Costner). If you're not with the Sheriff, you're against him, and Robin would find his father dead against him. Robin would take the earliest opportunity to annouce his return with a strike against Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott), the Sheriff's cousin and right-hand man.
Vowing revenge but in search of shelter, Robin and his friends head into the mysterious Sherwood Forest. Many believe it is haunted, but Robin discovers the only thing it's haunted by is a gang of outcasts. His fighting skills win their respect and, when he announces his plans to take down the Sheriff, they're ready to follow his lead. Soon, Robin gets close enough to the Sheriff to leave a scar across his cheek; the Sheriff retaliates by terrorizing the lands with more of his own men. Finally, the people have had enough of the oppression and the Sheriff has had enough of their insolence.
The most compelling point about our villain here, however, is how over the top his rage is. Power has not only corrupted the Sheriff, it has saturated him. Greed and arrogance ooze out of every pore and, like any political leader, he often hides behind his men until it's safe enough for him to fight on his own. He is often sweaty and greasy-looking, taking advantage of the female servants, hanging on the every word of his old crone fortune teller, or hanging out with Guy of Gisborne, the cousin following in his wicked footsteps. Rage overtakes the Sheriff whenever he hears new news about Robin of Locksley and his merry men. Following another report of Robin's activities, he punishes the people with his own brand of terror: "Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!"
In the climactic part of this story, the Sheriff has taken Marian hostage and plans to personally hurt Robin in the worst way he can think of: by marrying the woman he loves. Just as the ceremony takes place between Marian and - ahem - George, Robin and his men storm the castle, leading to one of your classic swashbuckling encounters with swords, fire, and all that kind of thing. Robin eventually ends George's tenure as Sheriff by stabbing him through the heart. One might not have guessed his heart was vulnerable to attack, but Robin Hood proved them wrong.
INTELLIGENCE - 6: The Sheriff employs a old witch to prepare his strategies. Why guess the future when you can see it for yourself?
POWER - 6: He can handle a sword just fine, but lets his cousin and his men do the fighting for him.
VILENESS - 9: The Sheriff rose to his current station by perfecting his own personal brand of striking fear into the people and keeping them down.
SWAY - 7: He is as intense as they come, but is given to fits of whining and extreme anger.
PURITY - 9: The Sheriff hopes to remain Nottingham's dictator and milk it for all of its power and riches.
PHYSICAL - 5: His dark voice and gaze match his evil heart, and the sweat he produces makes him look even more out of control.
Posted by Destro at February 24, 2004 10:45 AM


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I have returned from my extensive session of holidaying and avoiding work, I know no one missed me but here is my latest. I think she has memories of being able to fly.
Friday, 29 August 2008
illo memory
Posted by Deborah Champion at 17:24
Labels: angel, bird, friday, illustration, memories
3 comments:
- Juan said...
Nicely executed. Great work!
- 29 August 2008 at 23:38
- NANCY LEFKO said...
so soft and lovely !!!
- 30 August 2008 at 19:10
- Christine said...
Beautiful illo. So delicate.
I tagged you for 6 random facts. I hope you will play:) Rules and likes are on my blog
- 2 September 2008 at 18:10
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Homeless youth subject of new film 'Sugar'
Rotimi Rainwater is the director of a new movie, "Sugar,� that takes a look at homeless youth in America. He sat down with POLITICO's Patrick Gavin for more on his message to Congress.
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Trials Evangelist
Joined: Oct 2009
Location: Minneapolis, Ks
Oddometer: 1,483
Originally Posted by
Really? A 1/2" rise made it like night and day?
PS; are your backs that bad that a 1/2 -1" rise makes that much difference in your trail (not trial) riding?
I think that my Alpinestars boots are 1/2" higher in the soles than my Gaernes. I should have raised the bars to get my world right again!
Are we talking
trials at a decent class level or mostly guys riding around on trials bikes?
I've had this discussion with dirt bikers with about the same results.
There have been some very good riders in this thread giving free and good advice. You guys jack up your bikes any way you want! At least we are all riding!
Gordy, I support 80% of your post, or more. I like to point out that our bikes are designed around some "general" height/weight considerations. that the 1/2 inch spacers under the bars "SEEMS TO BE" a fairly great way to make a 6ft 1inch rider (my dad for instance) be able to stand on the bike very similiar to how I stand on the bike without them. His legs are longer, torso not that much different. I, however am only 5ft 7inches, I ride dad's bike semi often, even had to ride his, one time when my gasgas let me down one weekend at our club event. the 1/2 inch riser affected me for about 1 of the 3 loops, by the end of the 1st loop I got used to them.
I also remind you that just because Raga/Bou do or dont use the risers, it is MOST LIKELY because they seem to be at the perfect height for what the bikes are being "designed" around. If Bou was 6ft 2inches, and weighed double what he does, either the bikes would relflect his 'adjustments' aka springs, and bar risers. Plus they make "taller" bars bent identical to what the bikes sell with, just for the reason. We do spacers, instead of custom bars, because dad and I strive for interchange-ability of our bikes! If he had taller bars, but had accident bent or broken, unless he buys spares, he has to use what I use (we actually keep 3 bikes, most of the time, like now we have a 10,11, & 12 Raga 300 in our stable, last year it was 08, 10, & 11 Raga). Risers are relatively easy to swap!
My dad is 76, the risers are mandatory for him, I don't know, I DON'T think moving the bars up a little hurts taller people as nearly as much as it does a "non-tall" rider like me!
I just say you are meaning the right thing, people ask John Force, for instance what does he do to win 15 championships (other than just money lol), BUT if they asked it here on ADV, they'd get pissy when he said "well there seems to be best results with his 4 inch throttle lever mounted comfortably 28 inches from the base of the race seat... For god's sake everyone if you ask what the people that ride hard, eat breath and love trials, then take the advice for what it is, ADVICE. if your leggs are 44 inches, then you might have to move the lever different measurements? Ya think? But maybe the key was how his leg fits on the pedals? this is just an analogy, not perfect.
And I would dare say that if you weigh exactly what Raga/Bou does, and same height, (what about 170-180 lbs at 5ft 9inches?) then 20 years of research seems to have proven, that the bike is damn near perfect from the factory, as far as ergonomics to do the best you can do in "TRIALS"? Deviation from that may or may not "help" the rider to become a Raga/Bou, so how far to change anything, would be incrimental? Lampkin was a good argument, for a tall SOB on a trials bike, anyone know if he might not have used different bars, or riser mods? (forgot who are the big dogs for Ossa and Sherco right now? sorry or I would include them in this arguement). If this crap doesn't seem to work, you know I dont think S-3 would have much chance in hell selling them? but who knows.
I think it takes 2 brain cells to rub together that 3 inch bar risers, when NOBODY that is "COMPETANT" and proven good, trials riders use them... I mean hell, you can swing a golf club like a baseball bat, if you tee the ball that high, but most people seem to try to learn to swing the clubs, like the pro golfers do, not reinvent the wheel and how we roll the damn things...
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Joshua M. Brown
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To access the entire Volunteer Resource Library, click the Sign In button to the Volunteer Portal. Your Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior, Ambassador and general Resources are at the top of the page.
If you have forgotten your user name or password, please use one of the following links:Forgot your usernameForgot your password
Q: I can't access the eBiz system.
A: If this is your first time accessing the eBiz site since August 10, 2013 you must click on the New Online Account button to create a new username and password.
Q: My password is not working.
A: Passwords can be accessed by clicking username or password.
Q: I don't see my troop record.
A:Only 01 leaders have access to troop management.
Q: How do I transfer a girl or adult to my troop.
A: The eBiz system does not process transfers.
Q: The system will not allow me to donate for the individual members in my troop.
A: Donations must be processed during the membership purchase. You may use the "Donate" link on Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta site to process donations for currently registered members.
Q: I don't see my family members.
A: The guardian 1 family member has access to family manager for processing family registrations.
Q: The system will not allow me to register parent in my troop.
A:Parent records must be attached to the troop record prior to membership purchase.
Q: I don't see new girls registered in my troop.
A: New member records are not visible until Oct 1 when the membership year begins.
All of these questions require some type of updating to the customer record so each answer should end with contact eBiz support for assistance at 770.702.9650 or at email@example.com.
Q: Is this a required activity/program?
A: GSGATL product sales have a two-fold purpose, to support council services and provide income for troops. GSGATL has developed two excellent money-earning programs designed to off-set program expenses for the troops within our council.
Each troop registered as of September 1st each year MUST participate in GSGATL's Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program and Girl Scout Cookie Program before undertaking any other money-earning activity. This is the best way to earn money for your troop/group. After participating in these program opportunities, your troop/group may decide to earn additional funds on its own. There are a few money-earning activities (listed in Volunteer Essentials) that do not require approval.
Not participating in the Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program will not prohibit troops from participating in the Girl Scout Cookie Program. Having an unpaid balance due from either program will prohibit troops from participating in subsequent sales or having other fundraising projects until the balance is paid in full.
Q: Why are we having a Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program?
A: The Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program is a great way for girls to practice basic life skills (goal setting, people skills, money management, decision making and business ethics) and to help defray some of the troop costs between start-up time and the Girl Scout Cookie Program. Girls can earn proceeds for troop activities and at the same time build self-confidence, learn to set goals, learn strong values and how to work as a team and be rewarded for their hard work with individual girl rewards.
Q: When does the program take place?
A: Girls will begin to take orders for ALL items (magazines and chocolate/nut items) September 1. Only items entered into Nut-E by October 18 will be ordered and used to earn troop proceeds and individual girl rewards. Products will be delivered to service units November 9, 10, 11 and 12. Troops will need to verify their designated pick-up location and time with their Service Unit Chocolates & Magazines Program Manager to receive their troop order.
Q: Are booth sales allowed?
A: Yes - While booth sales are allowed as part of this program's activities, there is only one opportunity to place a troop's order for chocolate/nut items needed. This means that if a troop intends to host a booth sale, all additional products for this activity will have to be ordered by October 18; the troop order deadline and ALL money for ALL products ordered will be due to GSGATL by December 3.
Q: What items are being offered in the Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program?
A: Items sold during this program activity include subscriptions to over 700 of the most popular magazines in America with over 80 digital subscriptions as well as 16 varieties of chocolate/nut items. A Girl Scout collectible tin is featured each year as well as a holiday tin for gift-giving.
Q: Can new troops participate in the Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program?
A: YES! If a new troop is forming and wants to participate, they need to submit their registration form to their Service Unit Registrar and attend Girl Scout Chocolates & Magazines Program training where they will receive information and materials to share with girls and parents. Troops need to be sure they receive a troop number before October 18 – the date all troop orders MUST be entered into Nut-E. All troop orders must be entered into the Nut-E site for each girl to receive proper credit for her earned rewards and for the troop to receive proper proceeds.
Q: Why should customers order magazines through Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta?
A: You won't pay any more than you are already paying for your magazine subscriptions and 45% of your order will help Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta provide girl programs for more than 44,000 girls, provide training for adult volunteers and support our five camps.
Q: What does it mean when a customer makes an online chocolate/nut promise?
A: When customers place an order/promise online, they are essentially selecting what they intend to purchase from the Girl Scout who they received the order email from. Customers ARE NOT paying for these items online. For items to truly be ordered (received in-hand), a girl/parent MUST be submitted the Girl's Online Sales Report to the Troop for these promises/orders to be entered into Nut-E by the troop order deadline of October 18. Without these orders being entered by the troop Nut-E deadline, these items will not be shipped as part of the service unit/troop order (November 9, 10, 11 and 12), nor will girl reward items be earned for the items sold.
Q: Can customers pay for chocolate/nut items online?
A: No – online promises/orders require the Girl Scout to follow-up on the order for delivery and collection of payment. This process differs slightly from the actual ordering and sale of magazines online where customers use their debit/credit card to pay online and have subscriptions mailed directly to them. Those payments are made directly to the magazine vendor (QSP) who is responsible for assuring delivery of magazines to the purchaser.
Q: Can a magazine subscription be renewed through Girl Scouts before it is due to expire?
A: Yes – Renewals ordered ahead of time will be added to your existing subscription. To avoid receiving double subscriptions, fill out your order form online with name and address exactly as it appears on your current subscription label.
Q: Can a customer order magazines for a business?
A: Yes. However, the subscription must be sent to a specific person. Subscriptions sent to a business name, library or media center cannot be processed.
Q: When will customers receive their subscription?
A: Because all magazines are not on the same subscription cycle they vary largely in their mailing cycles. Renewals begin when the old subscription expires. QSP customer service (1-800-251-1542) is available to answer any questions a customer has regarding their purchase and magazine subscription cycle.
Q: Does QSP accept coupons?
A: QSP does not accept any coupons or discount offers. Only gifts described on the QSP online site will be provided.
Q: Does the customer need a receipt?
A: Yes! Online customers can print a receipt when they place their order. Both online magazine orders and online promises for chocolate/nut items afford the customer an opportunity to print a receipt at the time the order or promise is placed, as well as have one automatically emailed to them after completing all online steps of the process.
It is a good business practice to provide all paying customers a receipt for their chocolate/nut items at the time of payment. Girls/parents are welcome to purchase their own receipt booklets and/or the troop may want to distribute a custom receipt on behalf of the troop. Troops may also decide to distribute a few copies of the G3 receipts (received in each troop packet) to each girl/ family to help ensure each girl is equipped with some form of product receipts.
NEW THIS YEAR! Each girl will receive a Smiles4Military receipt book to issue receipts to customers who make a purchase to donate to the military—either a nut item or the $5 magazine voucher.
Q: When do we collect the payment for magazines, nuts and chocolates?
A: Payment is collected for chocolate/nut items when the Girl Scout delivers to her customers; this is true for orders taken by Order Card and those acquired online by accepting promises using the QSP site. Girl Scouts SHOULD NOT collect money for any magazine subscriptions - payment for these items is made online at the time of purchase by the customer using their chosen credit/debit card.
Q: What is the Address Booklet?
A: The Address Booklet is a way for girls to contact friends and family they may not be able to see face-to-face or send an email to directly through the QSP site during the program. Girls simply fill out the booklets with legitimate names and addresses. Each person listed in the booklet will receive one follow-up mailing (personalized by the Girl Scout who provided their name and address) directly from QSP regarding the purchase of a magazine subscription. QSP guarantees no names, mailing addresses, or email addresses will be shared, sold or used for other solicitation purposes.
Q: If one girl turns in a completed Address Booklet and has suggestions for names can she turn in another booklet?
A: NO, we can only accept one booklet per girl. However, if there are girls in a troop who have completed their one Address Booklet and have friends and family names and address that she has not used – those contacts may be used to help another Girl Scout complete her booklet. Why not share? That's what teamwork is all about! Do not include payments with the Address Booklet—they will be returned and not processed.
Q: Can siblings use duplicate emails for the online QSP program?
A: Yes. Friends and family are likely to purchase from each of their favorite Girl Scouts.
Q: Can a girl duplicate contacts, using the same people in her Address Booklet and in the online QSP program?
A: Yes. A girl's customers will have many different buying habits. Some will make their purchases online and others will order via the response mailing they will receive from the Address Booklet.
Q: Can a customer order or renew magazines not listed on a girl's QSP online store?
A: No. Only magazines shown/offered on a girl's online store may be purchased or renewed through QSP.
Q: Can girls earn rewards on orders placed after the troop order deadline of October 18?
A: No. Girl rewards are only earned on orders entered into Nut-E by the troop order deadline (October 18).
Q: How does a troop get credit for additional magazines subscriptions that customers may order after the troop deadline (October 18-December 15)?
A: Although girls no longer earn reward credit for magazine subscriptions after the troop deadline, any additional subscriptions ordered from their customers will allow the troop to continue to earn $2 for every subscription sold. GSGATL will credit all troops with the additional sales credit generated by their participating Girl Scouts and issue proceeds checks to troops after the close of the program, generally in late January to early February.
Q: What are the proceeds tiers being offered to all troops this season?
A: ALL troops will earn:
Girl Scout Cadette, Senior & Ambassador Troops can earn MORE!
Girl Scout Cadette, Senior or Ambassador Troops ONLY have the choice of opting out of receiving rewards and receiving an additional $0.10 per chocolate/nut item in lieu of the rewards. In this instance, girls in the troop who reach the 12 chocolate/nut level and/or the 5 magazine levels will still earn the patches offered at these levels – all other items will not be received in lieu of the additional proceeds.
Magazines will accrue their same rate of $2.00 per subscription.
Q: Why are journeys prerequisites to earn the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards?
A: The Journeys give girls a full experience of what they will do as they work to earn the highest awards. The skills girls gain while working on the journeys will help them develop, plan and implement their award Take Action project.
Q: How do girls know when a journey is "completed?"
A: A Journey is completed when a girl has earned the official award(s) for that Journey.
Q: What makes the high awards' guidelines for a Take Action Project different from the Take Action Project guidelines included in a Leadership Journeys?
A: Journey Take Action projects are based on the theme of the Journey, and are built into a Journey award. Take Action Projects for the Bronze. Silver and Gold Awards require girls to identify issues they care about, which may be different from their Journey theme, and to explore their community to identify its needs before they decide on a project that addresses one of those needs.
Q: What are the suggested hours for earning each of the awards?
A: Not all projects will require the same length of time to complete from planning to sharing and celebration. The time it takes to earn the awards will depend on the nature of the project, the size of the team, and the support of the community. Quality projects should be emphasized over quantity of hours. After the journey(s) requirement is fulfilled, the suggested minimum number of hours to use as a guide is:
• The Bronze Award -- suggested minimum 20 hours
• The Silver Award -- suggested minimum 50 hours
• The Gold Award -- suggested minimum 80 hours
Q: Can girls begin working on their awards the summer after they bridge (transition) from one Girl Scout level to the next?
A: Yes. Girls can begin to earn the awards over the summer.
Q: Can Take Action Projects for the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards focus on Girl Scouting?
A: Final Take Action Projects for the Girl Scout Bronze Award may focus on service in support of the Girl Scout movement, while Take Action Projects for the Girl Scout Silver Award and Gold Award are expected to reach beyond Girl Scouting to "make the world a better place." The award progression is planned to offer our younger girls the opportunity to develop their planning and leadership skills within the comfort and familiarity of Girl Scouting if they so choose. As they mature within Girl Scouting, our Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors are ready to move beyond the Girl Scout family to share their leadership skills with the wider community. It is in fully exploring their communities that our older girls exemplify the Girl Scout mission to "Build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place."
Q: If a girl starts working on her Take Action Project and moves, can she still earn her award?
A: Councils and Overseas Committees are encouraged to be flexible to work and serve the girls' best interests. If a girl moves, she should work with her council and/or Overseas Committees to complete the project.
Q: Who are the adult guides for – council staff, parents, or volunteers?
A: Any adult is welcome to use the adult guides. The guides were designed for volunteers working directly with girls on achieving their awards.
Q: Do we need a different set of requirements for girls with disabilities to earn the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards?
A: No. The Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards are done to the best of a girl's ability. There is no need to have special requirements for girls with disabilities — encourage flexibility and the recruitment of advisors that can work with the girl individually.
Q: Can a girl earn her Bronze Award on her own?
A: The Bronze Award is a team-based project, but the team does not have to be made up of Girls Scouts – it can be other Junior-age friends, school-mates, club members, etc.
Q: What does it mean to have a sustainable project?
A: A sustainable project is one that lasts after the girl's involvement ends. A focus on education and raising awareness is one way to make sure a project is carried on. Workshops and hands-on learning sessions can inspire others to keep the project going. Another way to create a sustainable project is by collaborating with community groups, civic associations, non-profit agencies, local government, and/or religious organizations to ensure the project lasts beyond the girl's involvement.
Q: Is sustainability differentiated at each grade level?
A: The guidelines give girls tools to examine the underlying root cause of issues, develop a sustainable project plan and measure the impact of their project on their community, the target audience and themselves. There is progression. While Girl Scout Juniors working on their Girl Scout Bronze Award will reflect on how the project could be kept going, Girl Scout Cadettes plan for sustainability. Seniors and Ambassadors work to ensure the sustainability of their project in order to meet the Gold Award standards of excellence. While Juniors explore an issue that affects their Girl Scout community, Cadettes create a community map of their neighborhood or school. Meanwhile Seniors and Ambassadors earning the Gold Award assess an issue and its effect more broadly by interviewing community leaders, conducting research using a variety of sources, and investigating other community's solutions to a similar problem.
Q: Who can earn the Girl Scout Gold Award?
A: A girl must be a registered Girl Scout Senior or Girl Scout Ambassador.
Q: Can individually registered girl members or Juliettes earn the Girl Scout Gold Award?
A: Any girl, who meets the grade-level and membership requirements, can work on her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Q: Does a Senior or Ambassador need to do the two journeys in any particular order?
A: No. She can complete either two Girl Scout Senior level journeys, two Girl Scout Ambassador level journeys or one of each.
Q: How can we make sure that Girl Scout Awards represent quality projects?
A: The best way to make sure that a girl is doing the best of her ability is to ensure that both she and her project advisor receive orientation about the award and understand the difference between a one-time community service opportunity or event and a Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Award Take Action project. It's the responsibility of the troop/group volunteer, council staff member or Gold Award committee (for Gold Award only) to work with the girl to ensure that she meets the quality requirements of the award.
Q: What is the difference between a troop/group volunteer and a Girl Scout Gold Award project advisor in the Girl Scout Gold Award process? Do girls need both?
A: A Troop/Group Volunteer is the adult who works with an ongoing troop or group. Once girl identifies her issue, the troop/group volunteer might help her identify a person in the community who could be a great project advisor.
A Girl Scout Gold Award project advisor is a volunteer that guides a girl as she takes her project from the planning stage to implementation. The project advisor is typically not a girl's parent or a Girl Scout troop/group volunteer. The project advisor is typically someone from the community who is knowledgeable about the issue and who can provide guidance, experience and expertise along the way.
Q: Why can't a parent be a Girl Scout Gold Award Project Advisor?
A: Girls are encouraged to connect with their community when earning the Girl Scout Gold Award. That means working with a project advisor who is not her parent.
Q: At what point should a Girl Scout Gold Award project advisor be identified?
A: The project advisor should be identified in the planning phase before the Girl Scout Gold Award Project Proposal is turned in to the council. The project advisor expands the network of adults and provides expertise for a girl's project. If a girl has an idea before she starts any work on her Girl Scout Gold Award, she might want to identify her project advisor from the very beginning.
Q: What is the role of the council's Girl Scout Gold Award committee?
A: Some councils have developed Girl Scout Gold Award Committees to support Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors as they go through the process of earning their Girl Scout Gold Award. Girl Scout Gold Award Committees are typically comprised of community members, educators, key volunteers and young women who have earned their Girl Scout Gold Award. The Committee works with designated council staff. The committee's role is to ensure that girls' projects meet the national guidelines. Generally, the committee reviews Girl Scout Gold Award Project Proposals, makes recommendations for project development and resources, reads the final report, and makes a recommendation to the council on whether to approve the project. In some councils the committee approves the project. If a girl's project has not yet achieved its goals, the committee provides suggestions and tips to help her develop a high quality Gold Award project.
Q: How does a girl measure project impact?
A: Girls identify their project goals for their community, target audience and themselves by developing success indicators using a matrix provided in the award guidelines.
Q: Can a girl earn the Girl Scout Gold Award even if she hasn't been in Girl Scouts very long?
A: Yes! She just needs to be a registered Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador to begin her Gold Award project.
Q: What if a girl is 18 and graduating? Can she complete her project when she is in college?
A: A girl has until she turns 18 or until the end of the Girl Scout membership year (September 30th) in which she is a high school senior, whichever is later.
Q: What if a girl graduates and is 18 and doesn't have her project completed?
A: She would still have until September 30 of the year she graduates to complete her project.
Q: What if a girl's project is not completed by the council ceremony time?
A: This is up to the girl and the Gold Award Committee. She might be recognized for her work in progress at the Girl Scout Gold Award Ceremony for her peers, or she can be honored in a separate ceremony or come back for the council-wide ceremony the next year. Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta has a set time for honoring Girl Scout Gold Awardees and is part of the orientation to girls planning their Girl Scout Gold Award. Girls and their project advisors are encouraged to work within the council timeline; however, the ceremony time should not dictate whether or not a girl is able to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Q: How has the approval process for Beyond the Troop Events changed?
A: There is a new Beyond the Troop Event (BTTE) Application, and it includes a detailed instruction page which clearly defines the process and the types of supporting documentation that we need. There is also a new Preliminary Event Planning & Budget Worksheet that needs to be submitted along with the BTTE Application. Also, if the event is a money earner (defined as any event which generates a profit of more than $50), then the approved (by the SUD, or, if the SUD is also the Event Director, then by the Co-SUD or Membership Specialist) Money Earning Application must be submitted at the same time. Also, within 45 days of the completion of the event, an Event Finance Report must be submitted to Risk Management (failure to do so may result in future events not being approved.) All of these new forms can be found on the Volunteer Portal under the Resources tab.
Q: What are the new First Aider requirements for Beyond the Troop Events?
A: The Level 2 First Aider designation has been eliminated by GSUSA. For all events which are held in locations where EMT response is 30 minutes or less, one basic First Aider is required if participants are less than 200. At 200 participants, for each increment of 200, an additional First Aider must be added. For Events held at locations where emergency response exceeds 30 minutes, then a First Aider with advanced medical training (EMT, RN, MD, etc.) is required. Again, an additional advanced First Aider is to be added at increments of 200 participants. Also, Event Directors are no longer allowed to serve in the role of Event First Aider. These are separate roles filled by separate individuals.
Q: How soon before my trip to Savannah do I need to submit my paperwork?
A: We request that all required paperwork be received by Risk Management at least 3 months before the start of the trip. This allows us ample time to help you work through any issues that may jeopardize trip approval.
Q: Are Brownie troop permitted to travel to the Birthplace in Savannah?
A: Trips to Savannah are typically not appropriate for Daisy and Brownie troops. Although the Birthplace offers special "Brownie Days" programs, these are for troops who are located three hours or less away from Savannah. Most, if not all, of our troops are further away than that, and a trip of that distance and duration is usually more than is appropriate for the younger Girl Scouts. We encourage leaders to plan trips to the Birthplace for Juniors and above. They can begin discussing it and planning for it when the girls are Brownies. This will give them a goal to work toward.
Q: What documentation is required for any trip approval?
A: A completed Travel Approval Request Form, along with a detailed budget and comprehensive trip itinerary is required. Also, letters from at least three of the girls, describing previous trips taken by the troop and their role in planning for those and the currently planned trip, is necessary. For most trips lasting three or more nights, trip insurance is required. Information on this will be provided once all other documentation is received and approved. It is important to remember as well that all adults traveling with a troop on a trip must be approved Girl Scout volunteers who have completed a background screening. No trip is to be considered approved until you have received an email from the Council's Risk Management department stating that it is approved.
Q: Do all trips need to be pre-approved by Council?
A: Not all troop trips require Council pre-approval. Trips that are three or more nights in duration, or that include High Risk Activities (Archery, Backpacking, Camping, Caving, Horseback Riding, Swimming, Downhill Skiing, Rafting/Tubing/Boating, or Challenge Courses/Adventure Courses/Climbing Walls/Repelling) require that they be approved in advance by Risk Management.
Q: Where are the requirements for the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards?
A: The requirements can be found (respectively) in the Junior, Cadette, and Senior and Ambassador Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting, and online at www.girlscouts.org.
Q: How do we order the awards (pins)?
A: Order forms/reports for the Bronze and Silver Award pins are in the forms section of our council Web site under Program Resources and Forms. Gold Award pins are presented by Girl Scouts of Grater Atlanta.
Q: Who is our contact person at "council" for the high awards?
A: Brook Shelton is the Girl Leadership Specialist for Bronze, Silver and Gold awards; Theletia Clayborne, administrative assistant for the Girl Leadership team, keeps up with the Gold Award and Silver Award paperwork.
Q: Who is in charge of Juliette? Of STEM?
A: Victoria Cooper is the Girl Leadership Specialist for Juliettes (non-troop-member girls) and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
Q: How can we find out about council-sponsored events?
A: Online information about events is under Events and Things to Do. There's both a calendar and a program activity book where you can check general information, how to register, spaces available, and who is the contact person
Q: Is there a diagram showing where to place pins, badges, etc. on your uniform?
A: Each grade level Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting shows where to place insignia on both the sash or vest (or Daisy tunic). You can find the same pictures, plus a "where to place" picture of the adult uniform, online at http://www.girlscouts.org/program/basics/for_volunteers/where_to_place/
Q: In order to bridge to the next grade level, do girls have to:
Girl Scouts automatically bridge to the next level when they complete the last school grade for their current level – Daisies bridge to Brownies when they complete the first grade, for example, Brownies bridge to Juniors when they complete the third grade, and so on. For more information, check out "Bridging Basics and FAQs" in the Volunteer Resource Library Resources section of the Volunteer Portal.
If you have not received a confirmation (girl leadership and outdoor), or have questions about open registration dates. Contact Mary Ellen Waiting 770.7029140.


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So, while adding new-age air conditioning to a middle-aged muscle car is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, it is also a fairly involved project that will consume the entire weekend, require a good assortment of hand tools, and access to a special "bead lock" crimping tool for installing connector fittings, or a shop that can do the job for you. Plan accordingly. For our installation we ended up removing the front seat, the complete dash, the passenger side front inner fender, hood, radiator, hood latch, and the grille assembly. With all that out of the way, we were finally ready to begin our installation.
Of course, once you've completed your Vintage Air installation, you'll still need to have a vacuum pulled on the system to evacuate it and determine if you have any leaks. If you have a leak-free system, you'll be ready to have R-134a refrigerant added. But unless you have vacuum pump and a refrigerant recovery and service unit at your disposal, you'll need to take your Chevelle to a professional automotive A/C shop to have them put the final touches to your new Vintage Air system. Be sure to follow the instructions and charge with 1.8 lbs. of 134a refrigerant. With that done though, the inside of your Chevelle will now be just as cool as all the other upgrades you've done to it!


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Drug and Alcohol Abuse Growing in Iraqi Forces
A growing number of Iraqi security force members are becoming dependent on drugs or alcohol, which has led to concerns about a significant addiction problem among the country's armed services as the insurgency remains a potent force and American troops prepare to depart at the end of next year.
In some regions of Iraq, military and police officials say, as many as 50 percent of their colleagues, including high-ranking officers, use drugs or alcohol while on duty. Those numbers, if correct, would cast doubt on the readiness of Iraqi forces to defend the country without American troop support. The United States has spent more than $22 billion training and equipping Iraqi security forces since 2004, and the American military has repeatedly said Iraq's Army and police are capable of fending off armed insurgent groups.
While there is no way to know the exact number of drug- and alcohol-dependent members among Iraq's 675,000-member security force, interviews with dozens of soldiers, police officers, political leaders, health officials, pharmacists and drug dealers around the country indicate that drug and alcohol use among the police and the military has become increasingly common and appears to have grown significantly during the past year or so.
Those who admit to using drugs and alcohol on duty acknowledge that the substances lead to erratic behavior, but say long hours working at checkpoints, constant fear and witnessing the grisly deaths of colleagues make drugs and alcohol less a choice than a necessity. "Pills are cheaper than cigarettes and they make you more comfortable and relaxed," said Nazhan al-Jibouri, a police officer in Nineveh Province in northern Iraq. "They help us forget that we are hungry, and they make it easier to deal with people. They encourage us during moments when we are facing death."
Some senior police and army officers said that because drug abusers were typically among their most fearless fighters, they were loath to take disciplinary action against them.
Col. Muthana Mohammed, an army officer in Babil Province, in southern Iraq, said the problem had escalated in part because drug treatment was a rarity. "The percentage of the addicted among the police and army has increased because there's no medical staff to help and there are no drug tests," he said.
A spokesman for Iraq's Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, denied that the military had a drug problem.
"This talk is exaggerated," he said. "You can find one soldier or two on a brigade level, but I do not think it is something scary or popular, so it will not be a threat to our security forces. We have great intelligence systems in which one of our main duties is to follow the military's rule breakers. We have medical staff concerned with the matter of drug users, and if medical tests prove drug use, we will take the harshest punishment against them."
The Iraqi police would not comment. The American military referred questions about drug abuse to Iraqi security forces.
Health officials say that on-duty drug and alcohol use among security force members is part of a larger problem of drug abuse in Iraq, where addiction has spread amid three decades of war and economic hardship.
The problem has been exacerbated by the recent proliferation of powerful prescription medications — as well as of smuggled heroin, marijuana and hashish from Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Police and Iraqi Army officials in Diyala Province, on the Iranian border, say they believe insurgents have moved into drug smuggling to finance their activities.
Illegal drugs in Iraq are readily available in cafes, markets and on the street via dealers, including elderly women who sell pills hidden beneath their abayas.
Iraqi security force members acknowledge that habitual drug and alcohol use play a role in a general lack of discipline among Iraqi soldiers and police officers and may have contributed to several startling displays of recent violence.
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Every year many birds fly away to distant lands. But even though their journeys are familiar to us all, it turns out our understanding of them was, quite literally, backwards.
Most of the songbirds that migrate between North America and the tropics do it to escape harsh northern winters. That squares with the folk belief that "birds fly south for the winter", but is the exact opposite of what biologists thought – that tropical birds ventured north to escape overcrowding.
For decades, the received wisdom was that most intercontinental songbird migrations arose when tropical birds flew north during the summer breeding season, to escape the intense competition for space and food in the crowded tropics. This explanation seemed simplest: most songbirds in the Americas, including those that do not migrate, live in the South American tropics, and almost every migratory species has close tropical relatives.
Now Ben Winger of the University of Chicago in Illinois and his colleagues have strong evidence that most migrants hail from the north, not the south.
Point of origin
Winger's team studied the largest group of American songbirds, including some 823 species of sparrows, warblers and blackbirds. Other researchers had already developed a good family tree of these birds. The team began with the current distribution of each species, then worked their way back up the family tree, inferring where earlier species lived. Whenever intercontinental migration arose, they noted whether the bird lived in the tropics or the temperate zone.
They found that long-distance migration was twice as likely to arise in temperate ancestors than tropical ones. "We're not saying it only happens one way," says Winger. "But it happens more often by moving winter ranges toward the south."
It does look like the songbirds Winger studied began in the north, says Rauri Bowie of the University of California, Berkeley. However, these birds' common ancestor came to the Americas from northern Asia, so that could be a historical accident. The question is, did migration arise in the same way in groups that originated in the tropics?
If migration really is driven by frigid winters, might birds migrate less due to global warming? Winger found many cases of migratory birds settling down into a sedentary existence. "Migration is a fairly flexible trait that can change rapidly," says Irby Lovette of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "We should certainly expect to be seeing changes in the migratory strategies of birds as the world changes around them."
Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1405000111
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.


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Neanderthals Revisited
New Approaches and Perspectives
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moreRecent years have witnessed exciting and important scientific breakthroughs in the study of Neanderthals and their place in human evolution which have transformed our appreciation of this group's paleobiology and evolution. This volume presents cutting-edge research by leading scientists re-examining the major debates in Neanderthal research with the use of innovative state-of-the art methods and exciting new theoretical approaches. The topics addressed include the re-evaluation of Neanderthal anatomy, inferred adaptations and habitual activities, developmental patterns, phylogenetic relationships, and the Neanderthal extinction; new methods include computer tomography, 3D geometric morphometrics, ancient DNA and bioenergetics. The diverse contributions offer fresh insights and advances in Neanderthal and modern human origins research. less
Springer; March 2007
336 pages; ISBN 9781402051210
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Title: Neanderthals Revisited
Author: Katerina Harvati; Terry Harrison
336 pages; ISBN 9781402051210
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Title: Neanderthals Revisited
Author: Katerina Harvati; Terry Harrison
Buy, download and read Neanderthals Revisited (eBook) by Katerina Harvati; Terry Harrison today!
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5 Things to Know About Scandal, Shonda Rhimes' New ABC Show
Kerry Washington kicks ass. Kerry's last major TV role was as Chelina Hall on Boston Legal, and, even though she was a courtroom killer back then, Chelina's ballsiness is nothing compared to Kerry's character on Scandal. As Olivia Pope, Kerry plays a stern, serious, tough, frighteningly competent, powerfully intimidating former press secretary of the White House who has gone rogue in a very dangerous way. It's difficult to pull off playing a tough woman while also remaining likeable, and Kerry Washington is definitely the woman for the job." alt="Image1" class="image-fit">
Another President on TV! We love our TV presidents. They always seem to be so much better at their jobs than real-life politicians, don't they? Well, on Scandal, the POTUS is definitely not the loveable family man like David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) on 24, nor is he the liberal, cool-as-a-cucumber Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) on The West Wing. Tony Goldwyn (who we'll always associate with creepy Carl in Ghost) plays President Fitzgerald Grant. And beginning with the series premiere, it quickly becomes clear that this commander-in-chief is not your typically wholesome leader of the free world.
Not your usual co-stars. Since this is a Shonda Rhimes show set in a very different universe, Olivia Pope is not given stereotypical characters as her surrounding peers. There is no obvious hot guy that she works alongside and has sexual chemistry with (a la Derek Shepherd). There's Lost's Henry Ian Cusick playing a confused playboy who needs her advice on a pending engagement. There is no hot novice girl who comes to work all confused with a secret talent (a la Lexie Grey). There is Katie Lowes, who may be confused, but will not be catching the eye of the token hot guy anytime soon. The list goes on.
Welcome to Shondaland, no scrubs in sight. Shonda has more than proven her worth when it comes to creating successful medical dramas for primetime. Well, as long as the doctors work in a hospital. (Off the Map, which was a sort of Grey's Anatomy-meets-Tarzan, wasn't long for this world.) But no one would say that Shonda doesn't have a magical touch with creating believable, if melodramatic, personal relationships for the small screen. We're overjoyed that Shonda is taking that magic touch to the sleazy world of dirty D.C. politics.
Speaking of dirty politics... As dark as Grey's Anatomy can get (mutilated body parts and feelings), Scandal deals with dramas of the international variety. Halfway into Scandal's first episode, you might feel more like you're watching the latest film adaptation of a John Grisham novel instead of a network TV show. And Scandal is not afraid to shy away from, well, the dirtiest political scandals our generation has seen. Let's just say that Monica Lewinsky's name is tossed into the dialogue at least twice in the first episode.
Will you be watching Scandal this Thursday?
Scandal premieres on Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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text: I support 13 because the programs do not rely on advertisers whose propensity is to sponsor negative and violent entertainment for their ratings. I find the choice of this brutal agenda by the commercial networks is one of the underlying causes of extremely violent behavior in our society. I try to avoid buying those advertised products as my personal protest.


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Offthewall.tv and Zumiez teamed up to provide one lucky contestant the chance to fly out to Vans headquarters in Orange County and produce a video. Contest winner Ulysses Salcido came up with the idea to interview Pat Gudauskas and get the inside story on his early days in surfing.
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Wargaming has announced the rollout of World of Tanks' 8.9 update in North America today.
Update 8.9 introduces seven new German tanks, some rebalancing, plus Personal Rating changes. More importantly, the update also introduces the new Northwest map plus the new Team Battle game mode, a ten-minute match designed for teams of seven players to offer "more concentrated matchmaking."
Make sure to check the Release Notes page for the full details of this extensive update!


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Wigmore is a village and parish in the northwest part of the county of Herefordshire, England. It is located on the A4110 road, about 8 miles west of the town of Ludlow, in the Welsh Marches. In earlier times it was also an administrative district called a hundred.
It should be noted that, although Roman remains have been found in the area (near Bury Farm, to the east) on the western branch of Watling Street (which crosses Wigmore Moor), the town was not sited in relation to the road and thus it probably owes its existence more to the Norman castle on the hill above the church and village.
It is sometimes suggested that Wigmore is associated with Winingamere, a fortification built by king Edward the Elder in 921, but recent research has shown that Winingamere was, in fact, in Newport, Essex.
FitzOsbern built Wigmore Castle, as it became known. Although it was probably initially only built of earth and timber, it was to become one of the main English border castles along the Welsh Marches during the 13th and 14th centuries.
However, FitzOsbern's son Roger de Breteuil took part in the Revolt of the Earls; after the Earl's subsequent defeat William I seized the castle and gave it to another of his supporters, Ranulph de Mortimer. From this time on Wigmore became the head of the barony of the Mortimers, Earls of March.
Wigmore is one of very few Herefordshire boroughs recorded in the Domesday Book. Although Hereford was the only borough in the county in 1066, boroughs were attached to the castles of Clifford (also built by FitzOsbern) and Wigmore by 1086.
Wigmore, at the time situated in the Hazeltree hundred, is mentioned three times in the Domesday Book. The first entry is under the lands held by Ranulph Mortimer and records that he holds Wigmore Castle, which Earl William built on wasteland that was called Merestun, which Gunfrid held before 1066. It also records that there were two hides that paid tax, two ploughs in lordship and four slaves. The borough of Wigmore is recorded to have paid £ 7 - "bergu qd ibi est redd vii lib". Secondly, in the section recording the lands of the king, Merestone is recorded as being a part of the manor of Kingsland which Ranulph Mortimer held for the king. A third section mentions that Ranulph Mortimer holds Wigmore, which Alfward held, and that there is half a hide, which Wigmore Castle is situated upon. If a rental of 12 d per burgage (as was customary with other rental properties at the time), the money paid by the borough may represent about 140 burgages.
Although it is not considered to have been a failed borough, as it was a fairly prosperous small market town during the 13th and early 14th centuries, Wigmore does not seem to have flourished as much as others in the region, such as Bromyard.
There are two 14th-century extents (assessments or valuations of land for taxation purposes) preserved in the Public Record Office which include the settlement. In the one of 1304 it was recorded that there were 102 tenants who held 140 and a quarter burgages. It was also recorded that there was a weekly market and a fair, which was held on the feast of St Andrew.
The importance of Wigmore as a market town was at least partly due to the influence of the Mortimer family and their castle, which probably attracted much local and regional business to the town. However, Wigmore's prosperity probably waned somewhat in the mid-14th century when the Mortimer family moved its administrative centre to Ludlow Castle, which they had inherited through marriage in 1314.
However, Wigmore Castle still remained the family's official seat for the next 250 years, until the demise of their house; when the male line of the Mortimers died out in 1424, the castle passed to the crown. It was maintained throughout the 16th century, partly as a prison, although the castle was already in decay. The town of Wigmore shared the fate of the castle and it declined to village status by the 16th century. The castle was finally dismantled in 1643 to prevent it being garrisoned during the English Civil War.
In 1870 - 1872 it was recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales that Wigmore village was a seat of petty-sessions and that it had a post office, a police station, two Methodist chapels and a national school. Fairs were held on 6 May and 5 August. The parish included part of Limebrook and was in the Ludlow district. The size of the village was , it had a population of 499 and 104 houses. Regarding the Wigmore hundred, it was recorded that it contained 14 parishes and 5 parts. It had a size of , a population of 6,309 and contained 1,234 houses.
The Gazetteer of the British Isles of 1887 showed that the village of Wigmore had not changed much in fifteen years - indeed, the number of inhabitants had declined slightly: contained a population of 417. Similarly, the Wigmore hundred's contained a population of 5,665.