text:
I'll be away for the next week. Have fun everyone! I've temporarily enabled comment moderation for all comments. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.
I'll be completely incommunicado, so I hope everyone out there in the world behaves. Try not to destroy too much while I'm away. :)
Post updated, 10/21/14. See below!
It's general trope in the HBD community: people are getting dumber. The low IQ are outbreeding the high IQ, leading to a slow decline in genetic intellectual potential in the population. Indeed, my own analyses seem to have shown that there was a fair fertility advantage among the lower IQ over the higher IQ (seen most recently in my post Who's Having the Babies?):
The key limitation is that most of these analyses left off in 1950s cohorts – the people who had their children in the 70s and 80s. This was my parents' generation! We don't know what people born later did. Does the apparent dysgenic pattern continue right up to the present day? I decided it was time to take a look:
These are average number of children had by White Americans aged 42 and older born during the 1960s, from the GSS (drawn from all GSS years, with those two parameters established), by WORDSUM score, a proxy for IQ. 95% confidence intervals shown, which should give an idea of sample sizes. I've collapsed the 0-3 score to make the distribution symmetrical on both sides in terms of number of subjects (there appears to be a significant rightward skew in the WORDSUM data).
Now this is interesting; unlike previous cohorts, fertility among the 1960s cohorts doesn't look dysgenic for IQ. If anything, it looks slightly eugenic.
Let's see further what's going on, by looking at the sexes separately:
Here is fertility by WORDSUM for White males and females separately. Previously, we've seen that fertility is eugenic for men and dysgenic for women. For the 1960s cohorts, this appears to be case. But the eugenic fertility for men is strong enough to outweigh the dysgenic fertility for women, so the net effect is slightly eugenic (things were probably a bit more eugenic when you consider childhood mortality is more concentrated on the low end).
To confirm that net White fertility was eugenic, I ran the correlation between WORDSUM and average number of children (for all individuals 42 and older at time of survey):
|Total fertility-IQ correlation
|Males only
|Females only
This is a fascinating finding. A big point of alarm in the HBD world (even noted by myself previously) is that people are getting slowly dumber with each generation. Aside from the fact that this process is, at best, very slow (see Greg Cochran here and here), as far as we're concerned, it doesn't even appear to continuing! At least for one period, it reversed somewhat. This seriously calls into question the practice of projecting fertility trends into the future on the assumptions current patterns will hold.
So why did dysgenic fertility halt for the 1960s cohort? That's currently not clear. These were people born in the tail end of the Baby Boom, who would have been having children in the '80s and '90s. Economic conditions (which, as we've previous seen, can strongly affect fertility – see Another Tale of Two Maps and A Tale of Three Maps) – while clearly being not as good as during the Baby Boom – were not particularly bad, nor particularly good. This was during the "Rust Belt" epoch – "deindustrialization"– where many manufacturing jobs across the Midlands and Greater New England left the region for other parts of the country and overseas. The erosion of earning ability for low-ability males may have stymied their child-bearing prospects compared to earlier decades. I will return to this point shortly.
What about the 1970s cohorts? Well, this is a bit harder to call at the moment, because that generation is still having children (I should know). Here is a look at fertility for 1970s White Americans:
These are only individuals age 38 and over. I didn't bother with error bars, because sample sizes are all really small here. I collapsed score 0-4 and 9-10 to make the distribution symmetrical. Sample sizes were too small for me to look at the sexes separately. But, at first look, it would seem fertility appears to have returned to a dysgenic pattern.
Though before we go too far with that conclusion, let me show you something else:
This is average age of having the first child for the marked cohorts, for White Americans, from all GSS years. To ensure every respondent had a chance to contribute their likely lifetime datum, I included only individuals age 48 and older at the time of the survey. As we see, there is a fairly consistent pattern for smarter individuals to have their first child systematically later than dumber individuals. The pattern reverses a bit at the lowest IQ levels, it appears (note: this doesn't appear to an artifact of small sample size).
Here are males and females separately:
For the 1970s (and younger) cohorts, the smartest individuals are likely not done having children, due to the high average age of first child, which is in the 30s for these folks. Indeed, see here [Edit, 10/21/14: I've inserted a chart that includes all sampled individuals from the 1970s cohorts, to increase the sample size. The samples are still pretty small
(age 38 and older) –forewarned: samples are tiny, sometimes in the single digits]:
For the record, I did look at other races. Sample sizes are much smaller here, so charts would have much less value. For Blacks, fertility is generally much more strongly dysgenic throughout, increasing with time. The correlation between fertility and WORDSUM is remains in -0.19 to -0.25 range. However, the correlations are smaller in magnitude for the oldest cohorts, though it has to be expected that this is partly due to attrition through death at these ages. While samples are small, preliminarily for the 1970s cohort, the correlation is -0.30. The male-female difference was present, but small (see also Dysgenic Fertility Among Blacks? Apparently, Yes).
Samples sizes for Hispanics were too small to do anything useful.
Edit, 10/21/14: [On the advice of Greg Cochran, I also looked at whether the above pattern was just an artifact of unreliable WORDSUM scores by looking at fertility by education. Here at the results:
This is average number of children had by non-Hispanic Whites, age 44 or older, 95% confidence intervals shown. Here again we what looks like a neutral to perhaps very slightly negative relationship between education and fertility for the 1960s cohorts.
Here are males and females separately:
We see the classic pattern: fertility appears to be eugenic for men and dysgenic for women. Indeed, a look at the correlation between education and number of children shows very near neutral total fertility for the 1960s cohorts:
|Total fertility-Education correlation
|Males only
|Females only
(Indeed, the correlation for the 1960s people becomes positive, r = 0.02, if I set the cutoff at age 48. This is driven by an increase in the correlation for men, from 0.14 to 0.20. This indicates that older fathers may be driving the relationship.)
Here are the 1970s cohorts (included only those age 40 or over) – sample sizes are very small, so I forwent the confidence intervals (0-1 = high school and below; 2 = some college; 3 = bachelors; 4 = graduate):
This suggests a return to a dysgenic pattern, as seen from the correlations. However, the as seen before, the small samples and the possible age effect makes this hard to call.
Either by the IQ (as gauged by the WORDSUM) or by reported education, the GSS data shows that dysgenic breeding seems to have significantly stalled or even reversed for those born in the 1960. For what it's worth, Audacious Epigone has noted a decreasing correlation between the WORDSUM score and reported education in the GSS:
the correlation between wordsum scores and educational attainment by decade of birth among all native-born Americans who have participated in the GSS:
Born prior to 1950: .536
Born in the 1950s: .507
Born in the 1960s: .469
Born in the 1970s: .419
Born in the 1980s: .373
One serious issue would be this: the current neutral to slightly eugenic fertility reported in the GSS stems from a serious sex difference: eugenic for men and dysgenic for women. This leads one to suspect that low-IQ men may just be systematically underreporting the number of children they have, perhaps unwittingly so. To check for this, I looked at the total average number of children for men and women separately. I did find a slight difference (1.88 for men vs 1.96 for women), however it's not statistically significant. ***End Edit***]
Looking at total fertility rates over time and age of first child underscores a pattern I found earlier (as noted in my post Some guys get all the babes – not exactly). Specifically, the Baby Boom was a brief period (at least during the past 100 years or so) where the total fraction of individuals who contributed to the gene pool increased:
In the era before the Baby Boom (the people who gave birth during the Great Depression), ~20% of individuals, male and female, had no children. That fraction fell to less than 10% during the Boom. It has since returned to its pre-Baby Boom size of ~20-25% (higher for males). During the Baby Boom, all sorts of individuals (about 10% more of the population) were having children who previously wouldn't have. Since we see that in the pre-1900 cohorts, the fraction of the childless was about the same as it was for the people born at the start of the 20th century (~20%), this doesn't appear to be solely a product of the generation trough during the Great Depression.
This may explain something noticed by blogger "Agnostic": homeless individuals, who are very often mentally ill (especially schizophrenic) appear to be disproportionately Baby Boomers. If a certain segment of the population who, in earlier epochs, normally didn't reproduce as much, suddenly increased their fertility due to a time of easy living, then you would expect an uptick of those sort of individuals in the following generation. If that 10% of people who bred more during the Boom were in the top 10% of those with genetic load, say, then the following era would witness a significant increase, at especially at the extreme ends of the distribution – which schizophrenia, for example, may represent.
These generational effects in fertility, with boom and bust cycles, represent the effects of the population cycle as described by Peter Turchin (see here for a good description of the process). Population growth sows the seeds of its undoing, by decreasing the share of resources (be it food, land, or these days, well-paying jobs) available to the up-and-coming generation. In short, the more people, the smaller slice of the pie each individual gets. The fewer people, the larger piece of the resource pie each family can acquire, typically boosting fertility. Immigration exacerbates these trends (see Turchin on it here). The whole process represents one of the most reliable "environmental" effects I have examined.
Coupled with the good times during the Baby Boom, we see that age of first child fell a bit (though it was fairly low before), as you'd expect. Afterwards, it rose significantly, especially for smarter women. The smartest individuals (WORDSUM 10 – roughly IQ 120+) now typically have their first child after their 30th birthday.
These and other factors makes many individuals (you know who you are) want to return us to the Baby Boom-like era, where labor was scare, and anyone who wanted a well-paying (though often gungy) job could have one. Restricting immigration, as Turchin discusses, is most likely to trend things in that direction. But it's starting to look more and more questionable that the Baby Boom was an unadulterated good. Sure, the living was easy for those during the Boom, but its products haven't necessarily been the best.
Fertility rose among everybody, even the smartest were breeding well over replacement then. However, the dumbest were breeding much more, more than they otherwise would, apparently. Perhaps excessive good times aren't really all that great in the long run.
But, the following period appears to have given us an epoch of eugenic breeding, if ever slightly. Regardless, the important thing this demonstrates is that, at least in the U.S. anyway, we can forestall the coming of the supposedly inevitable idiocracy. We had a long way to go to get there anyway, but even that required a sustained dysgenic trend, and it's unclear if that can be taken as a given. Razib Khan was right; population projections 50 years into the future are fantasy. Demographic trends have a nasty habit of changing quite a bit over time, enough to mess with the predictions of the most enlightened prophet.
Can be quite substantial. Jump off the Empire State Building and see for yourself. But, beyond that, the question remains how much of the variation in health outcomes and longevity can be explained by behavioral variation? Well, we don't quite know. But we do have evidence which indicates that – at least in the developed world – that fraction is quite small.
Here's I'll post a series of tweets I made on the subject. Much of the matter is discussed in my post IQ and Death (see also my post "Squid Ink").
On the matter of the attenuation of the association of IQ/simple reaction time with health/longevity, I'll quote a few passages on that from relevant papers:
From Ian J. Deary & Geoff Der (2005) Reaction Time Explains IQ's Association With Death:
After AH4 scores and each of the reaction time measures were adjusted for sex, smoking status, social class, and years of education, all effects remained significant, and the hazard ratios were only slightly attenuated (Table 1). Thus, the relation between IQ and mortality in this sample was not substantially mediated by social class, education, or smoking. Nor was the relation between reaction times and mortality substantially mediated by these variables.
From Batty & Deary et al (2008) IQ in late adolescence/early adulthood, risk factors in middle age and later all-cause mortality in men: the Vietnam Experience Study:
we adjusted for a range of physiological, behavioural, psychological and social risk factors that can be considered as mediating variables in the IQ–mortality relation. The influence of controlling for these factors can be broadly divided into three strata. In the first, despite being associated with both IQ and mortality, adjusting individually for marital status, alcohol consumption, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, blood glucose, body mass index and psychiatric and somatic illness at medical examination had very little, if any, impact on the age-adjusted IQ–death relation (<10% attenuation in risk)
From Hagger-Johnson, Deary, Batty, et al (2014) Reaction Time and Mortality from the Major Causes of Death: The NHANES-III Study:
In fully adjusted models which also adjusted for educational attainment, occupational grade, poverty/income ratio, health behaviors and CVD risk factors, the association was attenuated but remained statistically significant for all-cause mortality (HR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.02,1.29; 37% attenuation), and CVD mortality (HR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.15,1.29; 36% attenuation).
The 2014 study found some attenuation when "health behaviors," among other things, were factored in. Nonetheless, the association remained. A key problem, however, is that "health behaviors" were gauged via self-report. This has been demonstrated to be highly (though by no means completely) inaccurate. The effect of the measurement error in assessing behaviors in the study is unknown; it could bias the attenuation either upwards or downwards. Another similar study by Deary et al (2008) found that the association between simple reaction time and deaths from cardiovascular disease (and stroke in particular) unaffected by adjusting for covariants (they did however find that the association between reaction time and IQ and deaths from coronary artery disease in particular become non-significant when "health behaviors" were factored in). However, these health behaviors were also assessed by self-report. Yet another study by Shipley, Der, & Deary et al (2006) looked at a British sample (N ~7,400) found the association with simple reaction time and all cause mortality. The effect was also mediated by variables. These results call for a meta-analysis.
I also threw out this idea today:
The idea is that some ailments do appear to be heritable (e.g., heart disease), however, may have pathogenic involvement. A (heritable) weaker immune response or otherwise compromised defensive capacity might then at least partly explain observed heritability of these diseases.
So the time has come for your gracious blogging host to request your assistance in helping my family meet our daily necessities.
When my computer broke down, prompting my previous funding drive, you guys and girls literally came to the rescue, and allowed me to fix it right up. A deep debt of gratitude to all that came to help, and to all that have responded to my call in my preceding post. Thank you!
Now again I ask for your help in contributing to the JayMan family and supporting my tireless blogging efforts, as we saw again highlighted in my previous post. I have a few good things in store for you guys that I will unveil over the summer ;). As I said, I appreciate anything you can give.
There are many ways for you to donate. At right (and below image is clickable too), you will find the "Donate" button that will take you to PayPal.
Also at the bottom of the page, I have a Flattr button for those of you who prefer to give that way.
Bitcoin is still out of commission at the moment, but I may be able to get that back up soon.
As well, Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends!
Let me also pre-emptively wish my American readers a happy Fourth of July, as well!
(Flag photos by me.) I hope you all enjoy a great holiday!
In his latest VDARE column, John Derbyshire has written a glowing discussion of yours truly:
John Derbyshire On JayMan—A Righteous Jamaican-American | VDARE.COM
Bloggers come and go. They say all they have to say; or they take a more demanding day job; or start a new hobby; or fall in love; or, I suppose (gulp), are gathered unto their fathers. As VDARE.com always says in its fundraisers, in the long run it's very hard to write unless you're paid for it.
New ones come up, though; so from time to time I'll give you an update.
Of bloggers unmentioned in that November 2012 column, the most interesting one is JayMan. I don't think I knew his blog at the time. At any rate, I feel sure that if I had known it, I would have included it.
Well… more on that shortly.
JayMan writes about human nature, with particular attention to human differences. As such he has particular appeal to Us of the Cold Eye. That is to say, he's a stone empiricist who scoffs at happy talk and wishful thinking about human nature, and goes to the research studies.
That is my thing. A couple of my tweets on the matter should sum it up:
Derbyshire continues:
We are now at the point in our understanding where it is beyond dispute that all the interesting traits of human behavior, intelligence, and personality are heritable to some degree.
Biologists estimate heritability by studying different degrees of relatedness: identical twins, siblings, cousins, adoptees, unrelated individuals. Rigorous studies of this kind have been going on for decades. We have a vast mountain of data on human variability. They all agree on the essentials.
Here, for example, is a short piece on the heritability of adult height, which in well-nourished populations is about 80 percent.[ How much of human height is genetic and how much is due to nutrition? , Scientific American, December 11, 2006]
JayMan seems to know all the studies, and does not suffer gladly people who think that waving their arms and crying "epigenetics!" or "Pioneer Fund!" makes a contribution to any discussion of human nature. His question: What does the data say?
Here he is, for example, in the comment thread to one of hbd*chick's posts (JayMan is an indefatigable commenter). The point at issue is whether one's happiness as an adult depends to any degree on the style of parenting you were subjected to in childhood.
JayMan cites, with links, two different studies from two different countries showing that it doesn't.
The transmission of misery or bliss in a family is entirely due to shared genes, just like most everything else.
The fact that parenting style makes no measurable contribution to the finished adult personality is perhaps the most counterintuitive result in the human sciences. There is nothing more certain, yet there is nothing harder to get across to people—even well-educated people—who are unacquainted with the literature.
The case for behavioral genetics is as solid as a rock. Yet certain people like to pretend as if this is a "speculative" affair, or deny that we have such evidence entirely. A key reason for that is as Misdreavus once put it:
Well, there are certain people I can't fully convince of a lot of things. Smart people have a hard time with heredity, which is why there is big opposition to HBD. But I have a particularly hard time with the non-effect of parenting.
Derbyshire again:
Conservatives are even more clueless about the human sciences than liberals. It is for example a perennial theme in conservative social commentary that fatherlessness is the cause of much social dysfunction and many poor life outcomes. If only poor people could be persuaded to get married and stay married!
Sounds nice, and gets your timid conservative commentator off the "racist" hook, since ceteris paribus fatherlessness is much more common among blacks than nonblacks.
But … "Happy talk!" scoffs JayMan.
Even if there was more marriage among those in the lower class, the next generation, having inherited all the same traits, would be no different. The poor outcomes of children who were raised in fatherless homes stem not from the much maligned single motherhood—in and of itself—but rather from the traits these children inherited from their parents, who were the type of individuals likely to have their children end up being raised by single mothers. [Liberalism, HBD, Population, and Solutions for the Future, June 1, 2012]
So the arrow of causation is not from fatherlessness to poor life outcomes: It is from certain features of the parental genomes inclining to single motherhood and pump'n'dump fatherhood, and thence, by genetic transmission, to similarly feckless offspring.
This latter picture makes much more sense given what we know about the heritability of behavioral and personality characteristics. Which is a lot: JayMan has put together an excellent reference post, spelling it all out, with numerous links.
Resistance to belief that parenting has little lasting effect (beyond the primary goal of ensuring your children's survival and safety) is so fierce – and so irrational – that I'd say it has a religious nature to it, like political beliefs. That too demands explanation. And don't worry, I have something on that in the works. ;)
Indeed, knowledge of heritability (and by extension, the general non-effect of parenting) is on firm ground, as firm as evolution itself. To deny it is tantamount to creationism at this point. So for that reason, I say this:
In fact, I'll go a step further, and say to these people – you know who you are – it's like this:
The jury is in; and your team did lose. Contra the blank slatists, developmental psychologists, and all those people who claim that human differences result entirely or primarily from our experiences, you're wrong. "Nature" is powerful and pervasive; nurture is weak; what effect the "environment" does have doesn't work like you think.
Indeed, I'd say that the true reality of the matter – beyond what people discuss as being potentially acceptable and whatnot with the current (largely nonsensical) discussion revolving around Nicholas Wade's A Troublesome Inheritance – goes far deeper than this. On this point, I will note that Derbyshire referenced me before, in a radio interview about Wade's book (see here, Recent, Copious, and Regional), at time point 15:00.
Derbyshire notes there that "if dimensions of the individual human personality are heritable [and they are], then society is just a vector sum of a lot of individual personalities."
And hence, not to add insult to injury upon the various strands of blank slatists and other "environmentalists", but the fact of the matter, as established by the evidence, is even more far removed from what that might hope, and cling to. As accounted in my earlier post "Squid Ink":
the advice is that if we want HBD to gain widespread acceptance, we can't be too "hard" with our claims, regardless of how true they actually are. How would these people then receive the true realities of the situation then? Like:
- Every single human behavioral trait is impacted by genes, usually considerably so.
- How you raise your kids has virtually no impact on how they turn out. That is, nurture appears to matter little in the end.
- For that matter, contrary to what we've been told, it doesn't look like peers matter too much, either.
- We have been so far unable to find much of anything in the environment that leaves a lasting impact on intelligence or behavioral traits.
- Indeed, this is largely true of health outcomes. "Lifestyle" (say diet and exercise) doesn't appear to be primarily responsible for differences in illness or lifespan.
- One class of agents in the environment that the evidence does seem to be pointing to that can impact health and behavior are pathogens, and many, if not most, have yet to be discovered. These infections can cause chronic disease, like cancer and perhaps heart disease, and can even alter behavior, most poignantly in the case male homosexuality.
- While we know the grand-scale environment can make a difference, as seen with rapid secular changes, this seems to primarily occur because of alterations in the incentive structure or through hitherto unavailable possibilities (e.g., cars, internet, oral birth control). Changes here quite likely aren't easy to execute in a way that achieves controlled outcomes.
- Given the high heritabilities of behavioral traits and the lack of clear environmental mediators, differences in "culture" (especially within a given time period) are largely due to genetic differences between people. That is, differences between all human groups (races, ethnicities, social classes, or whatever) are all to some degree due to genetics, and perhaps mostly or almost entirely so. [Emphasis not in original.]
- Your birth family/clan heavily determines your eventual social status. Social status is in fact as heritable as height, and decays very slowly generation after generation in all different social systems across different countries. Social mobility, by in large, doesn't exist.
- This scales up to larger groups: the average intelligence and distribution of behavioral traits of a nation or a race/ethnicity within a nation are overwhelmingly the primary determinants of its outcome and social structure, and not its resource wealth or historical circumstances (generally).
- Indeed, these imply that all of human history is largely the result of the churning of these behavioral and intellectual differences, enabled by technology (which itself is a function of the people).
Would a speaker that said all these things get a lot of play? Would a book that laid bare the case for these rather than took the more muted tack that Wade's did be well received? What do you think?
I will say one thing: with all these considered, it's hard to escape the seeming importance of eugenics, if crafting a better society is what you're after. Indeed, if that's your goal, eugenics – in one form or another – does appear to be your only avenue.
I know others might not share the idea that such frankness is best, but, as I said at that post:
Derbyshire continues to my, frankly, unusual background:
As his affection for Bill Maher shows, JayMan is refreshingly eclectic in his opinions—the opposite of a straight-ticket liberal or conservative. He is an atheist, but a nationalist; a social libertarian who favors the "gay germ" theory of homosexuality.
He describes himself in fact as "very liberal … both socially and economically," and fleshes that out by posting his scores on a standard multi-factor test of political alignment.
A black, or part-black, HBD maven? I don't see why not. There are forty million self-identifying blacks in the U.S.A., plenty of room for every conceivable personality type.
My son will have his own rather interesting lineage to trace; for he is a part West African, part British (presumably English, and possibly Irish), part Chinese, and part Indian (subcontinent), part Yankee, part Quaker, part German, part Latvian tanned-skin blue-eyed male born in Maine. Oh the fun you'll have. Do these interesting combinations contribute to our unique insights? Well, more on that in the future too.
Derbyshire also talks about some of my impactful posts:
Some of JayMan's pieces are masterpieces of blogging, if there can be such a thing. Look at his "Maps of the American Nations" post, for example: two thousand words, twenty maps, two video clips, and full engagement with his comment thread.
Indeed, here, I'd like to call attention to some of my posts that, if you didn't already read, you best do so forthwith. These include:
My two definitive treatments on what we know from behavioral genetics:
The Son Becomes The Father – Here I discuss the recent findings of Gregory Clark (as told in his book The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility), finding a high heritability of social status across time and across space. I square this with what is known from behavioral genetics from the 20th century, noting that evidence for a high genetic effect on all behaviors and all major life outcomes, like the aforementioned life satisfaction, income, criminality, marital stability, etc. I also note that the transmission must be genetic, as evidence shows no parental effect on any of these things.
More Behavioral Genetic Facts – The sequel to the previous post, I continue to tie up additional dangling points and affirm the high heritability and lack of "shared environment" impact on traits such as IQ, criminality, emotional/mental problems. I talk about the extended twin design and how it can clear up some dangling questions, like who do we choose our mates? Do spouses influence each other? I mention the key findings of behavioral genetics, namely:
…and that if anything deviates from that rule, it can be taken to mean something is up.
The preceding post to "Maps of the American Nations":
Flags of the American Nations – Here I discuss each of Colin Woodard's American Nations, talking about the characteristics of each as well as a bit about each nation's origins. The enduring features that make up Greater Appalachia, The Left Coast, the Deep South, etc. that live on in today's America (and Canada and Mexico) can be traced to these ethnic differences in each region's settling and subsequent immigration.
The sequel post to "Maps of the American Nations",
More Maps of the American Nations – Bigger and badder than the original, with more maps solidifying the distinction between the different American nations, with genetic evidence of these differences to boot. Also some discussion of the history of each, and the founding of certain areas. I also include personality data showing that the American nations don't just exist on paper or in the voting booth. I use these to talk about the importance of self-sorting, founder effects, and Cochran's & Harpending's "boiling off" model to explain some of the differences we see. I also touch on immigration and the canard that immigrants "assimilate," showing that that is pretty much a myth. A must see if you have not.
Why HBD – Mostly quoting Misdreavus, but together with some additional commentary by me, the definitive introduction to human biodiversity, even for people with zero familiarity with the topic. On my About Me page, I direct new readers to start here.
No, You Don't Have Free Will, and This is Why – I make a detailed case against the existence of free will, which is a nonsensical concept in any rational analysis. I denounce even the latest and best attempts to restore some watered-down version of it. I note that since all actions have causes, human behavior is no less the result of physical processes than any other event in the universe – physical processes which include genes, environmental impacts, and random chance. Behavior is always the result of these forces, and arguments otherwise are merely obsfuctionary quasi-to-fully religious attempts to confuse the matter. I note the irony in the fact that inability of some to let go of the idea of free will is itself explained by its nonexistence (i.e., we can't escape the physical reality laid out by the structure of our brains, regardless of exactly how our brains got that way).
Where HBD Chick's Hypothesis Works – Here I take a critical look at the work of the venerable HBD Chick, looking at how the attributes of the world's populations fit into her theory. Many fit well (especially across Europe, the Middle East, and the Maghreb), but there are some interesting outliers that might provide some key insight.
Predictions on the Worldwide Distribution of Personality – There is more to HBD than IQ. And as we see all human behavioral traits are heritable. There are significant differences between different human groups, and this is my post on how some of the basic personality differences (as measured by the six-factor HEXACO model) might vary across the world, and, perhaps just as importantly, why they came to be so. What selective pressures led to these differences? I discuss here.
Finally, as Derbyshire noted, "As VDARE.com always says in its fundraisers, in the long run it's very hard to write unless you're paid for it." And this is where Mrs. JayMan has urged me to include a message requesting your generous support. I must say, putting this blog together is not easy – sourcing out the research for my posts, for one, is far from a trivial task. It's rendered additionally more challenging with a little one who insists on demanding much of my time, a demand which I more than happily obliged. I think the quality of my work speaks for itself, and I hope you find it incredibly useful. So if you would like keep it going, please donate. Currently, the two best ways are PayPal, see button at right. All major credit and debit cards are accepted. Also there is Flattr (see button at bottom) for those who prefer.
A satellite image of my ancestral home, Jamaica, courtesy HBD Chick.
What was his excuse? (From NBC)
Where's your psychoanalysis now?
Previously: Beware Armchair Psychoanalysis
Here are the results of my reader poll. All told, it looks like I had about 450 respondents.
Unsurprisingly, it seems most of my readers are male.
Most of you (at least of the respondents, anyway) are smart, with over 80% claiming to be college educated, and 1 in 5 having a terminal degree.
Now this is somewhat surprising to me. It seems the vast majority of my readers are White, and many are at least partly from "core" Europe, as HBD Chick considers it. Each voter could select multiple options, so that's worth bearing in mind.
There seems to be pronounced Rightward lean, more so economically than socially.Now this was perhaps the most surprising result. It seems most of my North American readers are from the North. I haven't crunched the populations numbers (I will soon), but by eye it seems the Deep South is rather underrepresented (I guess my posts on the Cavaliers did that in). The Far West appears overrepresented, unsurprisingly. I also seem to have a lot of voters from the Left Coast. I got slightly over 300 votes here, so the fraction of voters on this question is roughly in line with my blog traffic from North America.
Edit, 2/12/15. [With the help of figures provided by Colin Woodard on the populations of the respective American Nations, I'm able to calculate the representation of the voters to each nation. I've supplemented his figures with my own breakdown of populations of the Canadian sections of these nations (methodology to come at some point in the future). So, based on a total U.S. + Canada population of 354.6 million, each nation contains the following percentage of population:
Percent of
total population
(Odds Ratio)
|New Netherland
|The Midlands
|New France
|Greater Appalachia
|The Tidewater
|The Deep South
|The Far West
|The Left Coast
|El Norte (U.S. section only)
|First Nation
|(South Florida)
As we can see, most nations are roughly proportionally represented. Yankeedom is considerably overrepresented, while Greater Appalachia is somewhat underrepresented. The Deep South and especially El Norte are appreciably underrepresented, but it may be closer to parity when one considers only the White populations of those nations. But grossly overrepresented, by nearly a factor of 3, is the Left Coast. What's up with that? ***End Edit***]
A little over half my readers (by the vote) are at least semi-regular.It seems most of my respondents have been here for a while, but I've been getting a decent smattering of new people.
Now, I didn't get my intended goal of all readers to my blog over the past week. I've averaged about 500 unique visitors per day over that period, yet only 450 votes (I don't know if "unique visitors" get distinguished in weekly totals, so I don't know how many unique visitors I had over the week). So these survey respondents are only a small fraction of total readers, and likely the slightly more conscientious/less busy ones. But this also likely represents more reliable readers, as reported above. So, with these caveats considered, it seems my readers are largely middle-aged college educated White conservative men from the U.S. North and West Coast.
As for more complex analysis, unfortunately I can't do it with the way this poll was done. Maybe another time. In any case, here we are. Thank you all for participating!


text:
Stream to Scream: "NIGHT WOLF"
As many fright fans already know, FANGORIA offers a great selection of gruesome movies, old and new, for free at our Hulu channel. To give you a better idea of what's available, FANGORIA is taking in-depth looks at some of the channel's terrifying titles with Stream to Scream. Today: Jonathan Glendening's NIGHT WOLF!Read more »

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Viewers: in countries Watching now:
Photoshop has become an indispensible tool for photographers, designers, and all other creative professionals, as well as students. Photoshop CS4 Essential Training teaches a broad spectrum of core skills that are common to many creative fields: working with layers and selections; adjusting, manipulating, and retouching photos; painting; adding text; automating; preparing files for output; and more. Instructor Jan Kabili demonstrates established techniques as well as those made possible by some of the new features unique to Photoshop CS4. This course is indispensable to those who are new to the application, just learning this version, or expanding their skills. Example files accompany the course.
Every time that you perform a Transform command on an image, like scaling or distorting or rotating, you're degrading the image and if you transform an image more than once, it really can start to look poor, blurry and pixelated and you may not want to use it. There is a solution to this problem and that is to convert layers into Smart Objects before you transform the content. You can make a Smart Object out of one or more layers. In this case, let's make a Smart Object out of the flowers layer and the black matte layer behind it.
I'll show you what's on those layers. The first layer has these flowers and the second has just this plain black rectangle. And then there is a book behind them. I'll select both the flowers layer and the matte layer by holding down the Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on a PC, and clicking the second layer. And then I'm going to combine those into one Smart Object by holding the Ctrl key as I click on a Mac and right- clicking on a PC to bring up this menu, where I see Convert to Smart Object.
I can select that command from here or from the Layers panel menu. I'll click that and now you don't see the matte layer here in the Layers panel. It's been combined with the flowers layer and put inside a Smart Object that's represented by this icon here on the layer thumbnail. Because this is a Smart Object, I can transform more than once without harming image quality. Let me show you. I'm going to press Command+T on a Mac, that's Ctrl+T on a PC, to bring up my Free Transform bounding box. And then I'm going to move my mouse over one of the corners of the box, hold down the Shift key to Constrain Proportions and drag down to make this image really small.
I'll release the mouse and release the Shift key and then I'll go up to the Options Bar, and I'll click the checkmark to commit the transform. So, let's say that later I decide gee, I don't like this. I'd like the flowers to be big again. So again, I'll press Command+T on the Mac, Ctrl+T on the PC, I'll hold the Shift key and I'll drag from one of the corner points to scale the image up. I just want to be careful not to go more than 100% up, because that would be asking Photoshop to create image information for me.
So, I'm keeping my eye on the W and the H fields in the Options bar to make sure I don't go higher than 100%. I'm going to click the checkmark in the Options bar and you can see that even though, I have transformed that image twice in a very extreme way, it still looks fine. What's happening here is that when I created that Smart Object, Photoshop took the image information about the original image and tucked it away or embedded it inside the Smart Object. And then when I transformed the Smart Object, Photoshop referenced that original information and rerendered the image.
You can see how useful Smart Objects are when you're transforming, but there are some things that you can't do to a Smart Object. For example, if I get my Paintbrush and I try to paint on this layer, I'm going to get a warning saying that I can't do it unless I rasterize the Smart Object, which means turn it back into a regular layer. If I don't want to do that, I'll press Cancel, and I have yet another warning saying that I can't use the Brush tool on a Smart Object. So I'll say okay. Basically you can't do any pixel-based editing directly on the Smart Object and you can't access the layers that have been embedded inside the Smart Object, unless you do this.
I am just going to double-click on the layered thumbnail on this Smart Object layer, and I get this message reminding me that after I edit the contents of this Smart Object I should save it to the same place so that my changes are updated in the file I'm working in. I'll say OK and Photoshop goes ahead and opens a second image for me. This one is called flowers2.psb and you can see it's different than plant.psd, which is the original image I was working in a moment ago. Here in this psb image, if I look in the Layers panel I see that I have my original layers back again, the flowers layer and the matte layer.
So, let's say I want to paint on the flowers layer. I've got my Paintbrush selected over here in the toolbox. In the Options bar I've set the Painting Mode to Color, so that I can paint on this image and still retain its shading. I've lowered my Opacity to about 50% and I'm going to come in with the blue paint that's in the foreground color box, and just paint a little bit of blue on this. I could do other pixel-based editing too. For example, I could get the Dodge tool and I could come in and dodge some here making the image a little bit lighter.
When I'm all done with my edits, I'll make sure to save in the same location. I'll choose File and Save and then File > Close. That takes me back to my original image, plant.psd, and I can see the changes that I just made inside the Smart Object here in my main file. I'd like to show you one more thing about Smart Objects and that's something new in Photoshop CS4. In the past if you added a layer mask to a Smart Object, the mask would not be linked to the object. And that would be a problem if you moved the object around, because the mask wouldn't go with it.
Now, in Photoshop CS4 layer masks are linked to Smart Objects. To show you that, I'm going to get my Rectangular Marquee tool here and I'm going to drag a rectangular selection inside of the photo. Then I'm going to add a layer mask, by clicking the Create New Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. You can see the layer mask here and you can see its Link icon and in the image, you can see that it's hiding the edges of this image. Just to make that look a little better, I have my Masks panel open here.
This is a new panel in Photoshop CS4. If yours isn't open, you can open it from the Window menu at the top of the screen, and I'm going to drag my Feather slider over to the right to just soften the edge of that mask. Now let's say that I need to move the photo over a little bit. If I get my Move tool and I drag the photo, the mask goes with it and it still looks good. I can go the other way and the mask goes with it. The change is that in the last version of Photoshop, there was no Link icon here between the mask and its Smart Object.
So without that Link icon, which I've just turned off by clicking, if I moved the image the mask would not go with it and that doesn't look right, as you can see. So I'm going to undo that by pressing Command+Z on the Mac or Ctrl+Z on a PC and I'll link the mask back to its Smart Object by clicking between the two and then I'll drag my image back into place. And that's what I wanted to show you about Smart Objects. As you can see they come in really handy when you are transforming. Just be sure to convert layers to a Smart Object first and you can transform as many times as you like.
Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Photoshop CS4 Essential Training .
Here are the FAQs that matched your search "" :
Sorry, there are no matches for your search "" —to search again, type in another word or phrase and click search.
Access exercise files from a button right under the course name.
Search within course videos and transcripts, and jump right to the results.
Remove icons showing you already watched videos if you want to start over.
Make the video wide, narrow, full-screen, or pop the player out of the page into its own window.
Click on text in the transcript to jump to that spot in the video. As the video plays, the relevant spot in the transcript will be highlighted.


text:
Web designFeature
50 great parallax scrolling websites
It's the hottest technique in web design, but can backfire if overused. Check out these great examples of parallax scrolling done well.
With new technologies like HTML5 and CSS3, it's becoming possible to create more advanced, interesting and remarkable effects in the browser. While these effects can be gimmicky, when employed in the right way they can result in a remarkable and memorable website.
One big web design trend of the moment is parallax scrolling, which involves the background moving at a slower rate to the foreground, creating a 3D effect as you scroll down the page. It can sometimes be overwhelming, but when used sparingly it can provide a nice, subtle element of depth. You'll find more advice in our pro tips for building parallax websites post.
The 13 best website builders to bring your vision to life
But to show how it should be done, we've collected together sites that employ the technique to good effect. In some cases the parallax scrolling is the star of the show; in others it simply adds a touch of depth that makes the foreground seem to pop out a little. We hope you find this a useful source of inspiration for your next project, and if you come across any creative examples that we've not listed, we'd love to hear about them in the comments.
01. Alquimia WRG
Based in Milan, Alquimia WRG is a digital agency that aims to create amazing and effective experiences for brands on digital media. Clean and minimal, and only black and white, the website uses a mixture of the usual suspects (HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript) to achieve a neat package.
HTML5 canvas is used to animate the initial loading image. Subtle "parallax elements in the homepage are dynamically created and animated to simulate a 3D space environment through mouse movement," says Andrea Bianchi, creative director at Alquimia.
Page navigation is achieved via a simple and smooth page sliding effect, which is implemented by changing CSS properties with JavaScript. The works page contains a simple list of selected projects, which, when selected, reveals further information in a smooth sliding effect.
When such content is loading, a JavaScript animated preloading bar appears at the bottom of the screen, which is a nice touch.
The site achieves its goal, which, as Bianchi says, "was to create an ideal balance between content, usability and user experience".
02. The Royal British Legion
The Poppy Appeal site created by the agency nonsense is one that really sticks out. A site that is strong and full of character, this charity works hard for donations, year-on-year, and this appeal website is a wonderful way to explore how the donated money is used.
The site uses illustrations and animations to educate both a young and old audience. Founder and creator of nonsense, Robbie Greatrex, says his personal favourite element on the site is the television.
Greatrex adds, "To demonstrate the life-changing work The Poppy Appeal allows The Royal British Legion to do, we designed and developed a rich, interactive experience controlled by a simple scroll of the mouse."
There are lovely parallax-scrolling elements throughout the site that will appeal to children, and the one-page site lends itself so well to youngsters scrolling on tablets, too. Greatrex enjoyed being part of the site, and says, "This project was a lot of fun. The concept really leant itself to us being able to add lots of playful 'easter eggs' for the user to explore and discover."
03. Nintendo Game Boy
This latest site celebrating 25 years of the Game Boy is as playful as they come. Created by Melbourne based web developer Petr Tichy, the parallax scrolling allows you to control the Game Boy device; playing along with a classic game of Tetris, it will no doubt harbour some nostalgic feelings for all you gaming enthusiasts out there.
With plenty of projects capturing the glory days of Nintendo, the 25th anniversary of one of its most popular consoles seems another fitting tribute. You'll love this site if you've ever had a Game Boy youself.
04. Flat design vs Realism
Last year, flat design took over the world of digital design. To highlight this design trend, interactive agency inTacto created this brilliant interactive adventure Flat Design vs Realism.
"One of the principal problems was to insert the HTML5 game in the middle of a parallax scroll," explains inTacto's creative director Alejandro Lazos. "We wanted everything to be continuous and without jumps while scrolling, so the users could at any time go from start to finish without interruptions. To achieve this we utilized Ajax technology to pass parameters to the url, and the game which loads in a div, is in charge of collecting those parameters and display the corresponding loading screen (flat or realism)."
05. Sony
This offering from technology giants Sony is unlike any parallax scrolling we've ever come across to date. It was created as part of the company's 'Be Moved' campaign, where they state: "A journalist once called us a guinea pig because the results of our experiments were copied by others.
"It was meant as an insult, but we took it as a compliment. Combining artistry and engineering IS an experiment but when artists work with engineers, every day is a chance to be moved." Scroll for yourself and see what all the fuss is about!
06. Costa Coffee
This impressive one paper website, The Costa Experience, is the brainchild of Brighton-based agency Graphite Digital. Having worked previously with Costa Coffee, the team was recently tasked with better communicating its products.
The result was this visually rich, parallax website full of animated illustrations and interactive elements.
07. Highway One
This cool microsite, created by Newcastle agency Shout Digital, for luxury travel experts, Exsus, is another great example of the trend. Its delightfully retro cartoon scene takes you on a virtual trip along California's Highway One.
The scrolling journey seats you in a classic Cadillac Eldorado 1959 starting out in the Redwood Highway, which takes you though Fort Bagg, San Francisco, Cambria, Santa Barbra, LA, and San Diego, to name but a few. At first glance the effects look quite simplistic - but as you scroll down you'll see the site's got a few quirky tricks up its sleeve to keep things interesting.
08. Make Your Money Matter
Finance and money are hardly the most interesting of subjects. But New York-based digital agency Firstborn are quids in with this dynamic parallax scrolling website Make Your Money Matter for the Public Service Credit Union.
With the aim of teaching the public the benefits of joining a credit union, rather than using a bank, this brilliant site includes everything from how a credit union works, where to find one and apply as well as a calculator showing just how much banks profit from customer's deposits.
09. The Beast
Folk singer Laura Marling's album, A Creature I Don't Know, was given an accompanying website made by London agency Studio Juice with illustrations by Shynola. It's a site that self-scrolls as a poem is read out, while vivid illustrations and animations with parallax perspectives are revealed.
The site makes extensive use of new semantic elements and the data-* attributes used to trigger animations at specific audio cue points (such as scene changes, animation cues and so on) and also assigning control speeds and directions of the moving parallax elements.
10. The Lab
Alzheimer's Research, the UK's leading dementia research charity, aims to communicate information about dementia in an engaging way using its website The Lab.
From idea to treatment, users can scroll through two labs and a clinic, each of which is filled with pop-up information buttons. When clicked, new pages open with details on how scientists' ideas are turned into reality and how this can make a difference for the thousands of people living with the disease.
Next page: the next 10 examples of parallax done properly


text:
By clicking the "Submit" button, you agree to Avvo's Terms of Use. Please see our Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy for information on posting to Avvo and how we collect, use, and share information you provide to us.
37 South Main Street #2PO Box 368Munroe Falls, OH 44262
Licensed for 5 years
Go back to Kyla's profile.


text:
The World Hasn't Tackled Syria's Real WMD Nightmare
Forget the nerve gas. It's Assad's bioweapons program that should keep you up at night.
- By Leonard A. Cole<p> Leonard A. Cole is an adjunct professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and of political science at Rutgers University-Newark. He is author of The Anthrax Letters. </p>
A recent U.N. report on chemical weapons use in Syria has strengthened claims that the regime killed more than a thousand innocent Syrians, including hundreds of children, with the nerve agent sarin. Video images after the Aug. 21 attacks showed victims frothing at the mouth, convulsing, and suffering tortured deaths. But the effects of a chemical attack, horrible as they are, can be minuscule compared with a worst-case assault with a biological weapon.
Sarin, like similar nerve agents, degrades after release and poses little danger over an extended period. But bacteria, viruses, and other bioagents reproduce and could make an area more dangerous with the passage of time. A microorganism that causes contagious disease such as influenza or smallpox could infect individuals who further spread the disease, thus turning them into biological bombs. Such germ-caused outbreaks have occurred throughout human history.
A lethal strain of influenza killed more than 50 million people during the 1918-1919 "Spanish flu" pandemic. An estimated 300 million people died of smallpox in the 20th century. Although smallpox was deemed eradicated in 1980, the virus is still legally stored in a laboratory in the United States and at another one in Russia. Suspicions have been raised that it might be illegally held elsewhere as well.
Some lethal agents, like anthrax bacteria, are highly durable and could pose a long-term danger at a site of infestation. This was amply demonstrated after anthrax spores leaked from threat letters that were sent in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Scores of buildings were later found to contain anthrax bacteria, including the Capitol, the Senate and House office buildings, the Federal Reserve, the Pentagon, and numerous postal facilities. Several remained closed for months before they were properly decontaminated. One postal sorting center didn't reopen until 2005.
The danger posed by biological weapons continues to be broadly recognized. A 2012 Aspen Institute report on weapons of mass destruction, titled "WMD Terrorism," reiterated a White House determination that "effective dissemination of a lethal biological agent within an unprotected population could place at risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people."
With this understanding, it would be irresponsible not to press for full disclosure about Syria's biological program. Views about the Syrian program vary from the belief that it poses no immediate threat to worry that it might already include the production capability of agents that cause anthrax, botulism, and other fatal illnesses.
A 2008 assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency reflects this uncertainty. It affirms that Syria "has a program to develop select biological agents as weapons." Yet it also says the regime "is not known to have successfully weaponized biological agents in an effective delivery system." The statement, larded with qualification, hardly offers a sense of comfort.
U.S. officials now clearly believe that a program of some sort exists. As recently as this March, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told Congress that the United States was "tracking Syria's munitions stockpiles, particularly its chemical and biological warfare agents." But specifics about U.S. knowledge concerning Syria's biological weapons program are elusive in part because details remain classified.
Several nongovernmental sources name Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) in Damascus as the locus of military research and development of biological, chemical, and nuclear technology. A 2002 report by Israeli microbiologist and former intelligence analyst Dany Shoham asserted unequivocally that the government-controlled SSRC was producing chemical and biological weapons.
This contention was buttressed five years later when the U.S. Treasury Department prohibited Americans from commercial interaction with the center because it was the "Syrian government agency responsible for developing and producing non-conventional weapons." The department further stated that despite the SSRC's guise as a civilian institution, "its activities focus substantively on the development of biological and chemical weapons."
When asked what an inspector should be looking for to uncover Syria's presumed biological weapons program, former U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer's reaction was quick: Not an easy question, he said. Then he harked back to his years tracking Iraq's biological weapons program in the 1990s. "We found evidence that unusual quantities of growth media had been imported," he recalled. "Also, we found munitions with markings that signified they were intended to deliver anthrax and other biological agents." Interviews with scientists and examining records were also essential in making determinations, he added.
In fact, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein repeatedly frustrated U.N. inspectors by providing them with incomplete information or by blocking access to suspicious locations. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must not be permitted to impose any such restrictions.
Identifying an illegal biological program is complicated by the fact that the required equipment is largely the same as that for legitimate activity. Syria's dozen or so pharmaceutical plants could be converted secretly and quickly to grow large stocks of pathogens from small quantities of bacteria or viruses. The same is true for the country's public health laboratories and vaccine production facilities.
Thus revelation about Syria's biological program requires three elements. The first is access by outside inspectors to the SSRC and other suspect facilities. Second, staff scientists and administrators at these institutions must be available to experts for interviews about their activities. Third, inspectors must be able to review the logs on biological research and production activities at these institutions during the past decade.
Unless outside inspectors have access to Syria's biological program as they presumably will have to its chemical inventory, the country's biological weapons status will remain unclear. But speculation on a subject with such deadly potential should not be the last word, especially when dealing with a dictator with a penchant for rampant murder. Assad has killed more than 100,000 Syrians in the past two years with bombs, guns, and grenades — which prompts comment about why his regime has been fingered in the chemical murder of another 1,000. Who knows what misery he could unleash with a fully functioning biological arsenal?
The first large-scale use of chlorine, mustard, and other gases as weapons occurred during World War I. The indiscriminate nature of the exposures and the agony suffered by victims prompted a postwar international agreement, the Geneva Protocol, to prohibit the use of such agents in war. Subsequent treaties prohibit even the development and stockpiling of biological and chemical weapons. The taboo against biological weapons in particular was underscored by wording that first appeared in the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which describes the use of these weapons as "repugnant to the conscience of mankind."
This morally charged phrase applies to all weapons of mass destruction — chemical, nuclear, and radiological as well as biological. Permitting the use of any of these weapons without retribution weakens the taboo against all of them. Assad's professed willingness to relinquish his chemical arms has for now sidetracked the promise by Barack Obama's administration's to punish Assad for using them. Whether Assad will try to cheat on his chemical promise is an open question. But what is not in question is the imperative for disclosure and elimination of Syria's biological program.
Concern about Syria's biological and chemical weapons programs does not supplant the need to address the other horrors perpetrated by the Syrian regime. Further, the norm against the use of these weapons is not only a moral precept but a highly pragmatic one. Weakening the taboo against them would make their use more likely and more frequent. Ultimately it would risk a condition of WMD anarchy.
Related Stories
Why you can't just bomb Syria's WMD into oblivionKevin Baron
Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge.| The E-Ring |
209 Shares
U.S. Spies, Experts: Chemical Weapons Likely in Syria AttackNoah Shachtman
Noah Shachtman is Foreign Policy's executive editor of news, directing the magazine's coverage of breaking events in international security, intelligence, and global affairs. A Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, he's reported from Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq, and Russia. He's written about technology and defense for the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Slate, Salon, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, among others.
Previously, Shachtman was a contributing editor at Wired magazine, where he co-founded and edited its national security blog, Danger Room. The site took home the Online Journalism Award for best beat reporting in 2007, and a 2012 National Magazine Award for reporting in digital media.
Shachtman has spoken before audiences at West Point, the Army Command and General Staff College, the Aspen Security Forum, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Harvard Law School, and National Defense University. The offices of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, and the Director of National Intelligence have all asked him to contribute to discussions on cyber security and emerging threats. The Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, ABC News, and NPR have looked to him to provide insight on military developments.
In 2003, Shachtman founded DefenseTech.org, which quickly emerged as one of the web's leading resources on military hardware. The site was later sold to Military.com. During his tenure at Wired, he patrolled with Marines in the heart of Afghanistan's opium country, embedded with a Baghdad bomb squad, pored over the biggest investigation in FBI history, exposed technical glitches in the U.S. drone program, snuck into the Los Alamos nuclear lab, profiled Silicon Valley gurus and Russian cybersecurity savants, and underwent experiments by Pentagon-funded scientists at Stanford.
Before turning to journalism, Shachtman worked as a professional bass player, book editor, and campaign staffer on Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. A graduate of Georgetown University and a former student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Shachtman lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Elizabeth, and their sons, Leo and Giovanni.| The Cable |


text:
The Message audio Bible is now available on Bible Gateway! Click to learn more.
beloved, the Kenite, has been usually identified with Jethro (q.v.), Ex. 18:5, 27; comp. Num. 10:29, 30. In Judg. 4:11, the word rendered "father-in-law" means properly any male relative by marriage (comp. Gen. 19:14, "son-in-law," A.V.), and should be rendered "brother-in-law," as in the R.V. His descendants followed Israel to Canaan (Num. 10:29), and at first pitched their tents near Jericho, but afterwards settled in the south in the borders of Arad (Judg. 1:8-11, 16).


text:
HALO: Sugar hoping for a forever home
SEBASTIAN - Hi, my name is Sugar and I am an active and super sweet girl, I am even nice to my fellow hound mates! Once I build my family, introductions are a must with new house guests. I love long walks, car rides and being someone's best friend!
For more information about me, call HALO at 772-589-7297 or visit the shelter at 710 Jackson St., Sebastian. Animals for adoption can be seen at HALO or viewed on the shelter's website at http://halorescuefl.org
This story is contributed by a member of the community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with TCPalm.
Subscribe to TCPalm
Ready to subscribe to TCPalm? Choose between a Premium or Digital subscription below.
Need Help? Call us at 1-877-710-6180.
Monday-Friday: 6am-3pm / Saturday: 6:30am-10:30am / Sunday: 7am-11am


text:
Latest On Wellness
Is Aging Giving You The Blues?
Tue, Jun 30th 2015
Don't let aging deprive you of your mental peace. Let go of your blues, and allow yourself to age gracefully.
Summer Hacks To Keep Your Home Heat-Free
Mon, Jun 29th 2015
Shield your home, and lock the heat waves outside with these simple and economical home care tips.
#LoveWins: Same-Sex Marriage Could Improve LGBT Health
Mon, Jun 29th 2015
The exact reasons why marriage improves people's health are not known, but it may be due to a number of factors, including: being in a supportive r...
Kids Who Hear Many Languages Become Better Communicators
Mon, Jun 29th 2015
A study conducted by University of Chicago psychologists discovered that children from multilingual environments are better at interpreting a speak...
The Selfie Stick Just Makes You A Narcissist
Mon, Jun 29th 2015
A new study has discovered now that selfie sticks are no longer being just a convenience tool, but the new symbol of millennial narcissism and self...
6 Things Never To Say To Your Kids
Fri, Jun 26th 2015
While you maight not intend to be hurtful, judgmental or critical, sometimes parents can say the worst things without even realizing the damage the...
Strangers Judge Our Appearance More Accurately Than We Do: Study
Fri, Jun 26th 2015
A recent study reveals that we don't have a very clear idea about our own physical appearance. In fact, it seems that others are a better judge o...
Kitchen Hack: How To Keep A Cut Apple From Browning
Fri, Jun 26th 2015
Fruits like apples begin to turn brown minutes after you cut them. With this simple kitchen hack, you can keep them from losing their color and tex...
A Sigh Of Relief? Kids Who Lie Also Seem To Have Good Memory Skills
Thu, Jun 25th 2015
Children with strong memories are good at covering up lies and are better liars, new research says.
Now, There's An App To Make Breaking Up Easy
Thu, Jun 25th 2015
You can now delegate the dirty work of breaking up with a partner, to an app specially designed for this purpose. Called Binder, the phone app allo...
Yoga Sutra Now With Jai Sugrim
Yoga Sutra Now With Jai Sugrim
Rock Your Yoga
Rock Your Yoga


text:
Here's a secret to looking good that every woman should know about: antioxidants. These little substances may help prevent and repair cell damage. Because women are more prone to cell damage than men, they need more antioxidants. To get antioxidants and other nutrients that are important for women, try adding these foods to your diet:
- Berries – They're more than just sweet and juicy. Berries are a natural source of anthocyanins, which promote healthy skin. They also have lutein, which supports vision.
- Walnuts – You can find gamma-tocopherol in walnuts. That's the type of vitamin E that boosts heart health.
- Non-fat fortified milk – A top source of vitamin D, milk not only strengthens bones, delivers a host of other essential nutrients including calcium, protein and potassium.
- Tomatoes – Juicy and red, tomatoes feature lycopene, an antioxidant that promotes heart health. Watermelon and pink grapefruit are also great sources.
- Coffee – Decaf or regular, coffee has more antioxidants than an entire serving of raspberries, blueberries or orange juice. And the darker the roast, the more antioxidants.


text:
How to Get in Touch
Nutrient Rich is a small, nimble team that supports thousands of delightfully inquisitive customers. Email is definitely the best way to get in touch with us. Just send a quick email and someone from our team will get back to you promptly.
You can also contact us by mail, phone or fax at:
Nutrient Rich® Life
Performance Lifestyle, Inc.
209 E. Northfield Rd
Livingston, New Jersey 07039
For Sales Inquires and Pre-ordering call us at:
Phone 973-535-8750
Fax 973-535-8752
Office hours:
9:30 am to 5:30 pm EDT


text:
We found 4 sites within 47 miles of Gatehouse of Fleet with 3 bookable
Silloth, Cumbria, England Show on map
|Ennerdale three-bedroom lodge
|7 x
|From £368/€511.54/AU$705.52/$549.09/528.36Fr per 4 nights
Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland Show on map
|Glamping - family
|4 x
|From £35/€48.65/AU$67.10/$52.22/50.25Fr per night
|Glamping - S-pods - adult only
|2 x
|From £45/€62.55/AU$86.27/$67.14/64.61Fr per night
Church Stile Farm Holiday Park
Wasdale, Cumbria, England Show on map
|The Hogget shepherd's hut
|2 x
|From £175/€243.26/AU$335.51/$261.12/251.26Fr per 4 nights
|The Shearling shepherd's hut
|2 x
|From £175/€243.26/AU$335.51/$261.12/251.26Fr per 4 nights
Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland Show on map
Let us help you find more search results…
Try increasing your search radius to within 57, 67, 77, 87 miles of Gatehouse of Fleet.
Try widening your geographic area to: Dumfries and Galloway, or Scotland.
Remove all
or some of the feature filters:
Remove Drying room
Or start again by picking one of these wonderful destinations:
England, France, Spain, Wales, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Portugal, Croatia, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, San Marino, Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia
Want to see more? We're only showing the sites that are bookable on Pitchup.com.
Show campsites and holiday parks that aren't bookable through Pitchup.com...


text:
The controversial presenter also begged his social media followers for forgiveness over the fact it appeared he did.
It followed reports about using the N-word while reciting a nursery rhyme though it was later edited out.
Clarkson said on Twitter he had made every effort to make sure he did not use the slur, but realised it might have sounded as though he had.
Clarkson said: "I was mortified by this, horrified. It is a word I loathe. Please be assured I did everything in my power to not use that word. And as I'm sitting here begging your forgiveness for the fact that obviously my efforts weren't quite good enough."
The BBC said Clarkson had explained the 'regrettable' incident and it had made "absolutely clear to him the standards the BBC expects on-air and off".


text:
All quotes tagged Learn
(6270 quotes found)
"The learning communities tie academics to the student's living area so there's no separation between the two. It's a concept that more and more universities are adopting."
"Life is too precious to stress yourself out by worrying about everything. Relax, have fun, and enjoy the learning process."
"Let it be known that greatness in a student was cultivated in a building that was saturated with rigorous learning."
"It's a huge win for our program. But we have to take this and learn from it just as we have learned from our losses. If we can have the same focus we did this week in practice and in this game, we have a chance to compete with anybody in the country."
"This game was a carry-over from what we learned in the Alaska tournament. We learned what we need to do as a team."


text:
Private Arrival Transfer: Memphis International Airport to Hotel
- Private arrival transfer from Memphis International Airport (MEM) to your hotel in the greater Memphis area, the cities of Collierville or Germantown in Tennessee, or the cities of Olive Branch or Tunica in Mississippi
- Skip the stress of taxis or shuttles and enjoy private, affordable airport transportation
- Simply call your driver upon arrival for immediate pickup
- Service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Simply purchase, confirm, and meet your driver
What You Can Expect
Price is per person, based on three passengers per sedan.
Customer Reviews
March 2015
Maria (my driver) was fantastic! My flight was delayed and she waited patiently for me anyway. It was a lovely experience.
October 2014
Very good service the driver was waiting as planned and helped with cases and was very informative about Memphis on the way to the hotel. the vehicle was much more luxurious than expected. Would certainly recommend this service.


text:
Photo Flash: Photos & Details of Kim Kardashian & Kanye West's $2.8M Wedding!
E! News has shared exclusive details and photos of the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Kimye's spectacular and extravagant celebration was also one of the most expensive ceremonies in some time, and while there are no exact dollar amounts for absolutely everything, E! News gives an estimate on the cost of their big day and shares an exclusive First Look at the event!
According to top-end wedding planner Jinane Kafrouny, who has been at the cutting edge of luxury wedding planning for the last quarter of a century in Italy and is a senior event manager with Weddings Italy, owned by Regency Events, Kim and Kanye's nuptials cost around $2.8 million (and that doesn't even include Paris!).
"Cost of such an event would approximately be 2 million euros excluding flights, hotel stays and the French leg of the event," Kafrouny tells E! News.
The break down of the bill is as follows:
Andrea Bocelli: "Most expensive would be hiring Bocelli and the rental of Forte di Belvedere. Bocelli normally charges from 100,000 euros to a million euros as long as the event is close to his home. Bocelli is probably their friend so the cost might of been low."
Catering: "Catering company typically charges between 300-400 euros per person for such a menu inclusive of the wines." Since there were approximately 200 people at the reception, the grand total would be somewhere near $110,000.
Forte di Belvedere: As previously reported, Kimye allegedly spent an estimated $400,000 to rent the historic venue for their ceremony.
Jewelry E! News learned that Kim and her family were decked out in "millions of dollars' worth" of jewelry this weekend by Lorraine Schwartz.
Jets: Hunt & Palmer aviation Flight Services Manager Richard Hurrell tells E! News that the price to fly 200 people back and forth from Florence to Paris on an aircraft would cost anywhere from 37,500 up to 60,000 euros per aircraft, which comes to an estimate of $74,000 per aircraft.
Hotels: Joëlle Edwards, owner of Joëlle Marie Events, exclusively tells E! News, "The couple had paid for 100 of the property's 170 rooms at the Westin Excelsior to accommodate many of the wedding party." An estimated cost for one night at the Excelsior for 100 rooms could range up to 50,000 euros or $68,000.
Paris Dinners: One of the lavish family dinners at the Costes restaurant had a bill that was 2,400 euros ($3,282.72), while the pre-celebration ladies dinner was nearly 300 euros, or $409, per person.
Lana Del Rey Remember Yeezy surprised Kim with a live performance by the "Summertime Sadness" singer during their pre-wedding celebration in Paris? Thatreportedly cost him $2.8 million. Yep, you read that right. The singer's rep has not confirmed the amount.
Additional reporting by Senta Scarborough and Claudia Rosenbaum
Photos courtesy of E!
About Author
- CNBC to Air THE MAKING OF DIG, the USA Network Event Series, 3/1
- NBC to Air One-Hour Season Finale of CHRISTINA MILIAN TURNED UP, 3/1
- NBC Universo to Present ROMEO SANTOS DESDE VINA Concert Exclusive, 3/1
- Kelly Clarkson to Visit CBS SUNDAY MORNING, 3/1
- VIDEO: Clark Gregg Teases New AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Using Emojis
- Dakota Johnson to Host SNL Tonight; Alabama Shakes to Perform
- NBC Sports to Air Coverage of U.S. GRAND PRIX FROM PARK CITY
- Discovery Family to Premiere New Episodes of TRANSFORMERS RESCUE BOTS, Today
- Telemundo to Present FUTBOL ESTELAR: LEON VS SANTOS, Today
- Telemundo to Give Viewers Sneak Peek at Upcoming Programming on LO NUEVO, Today


text:
20 Geometric Texures and Pattern Sets Free to Download
Geometric shapes are widely used in web and graphic design. From complex large-scale patterns to simple shapes, geometry is one of the biggest trends that is easy to define. Textures with geometric shapes like triangles or circles are used for various illustrations, backgrounds, foregrounds, banners, buttons, and other design elements. Polygon graphics (3D-shaped textures) are especially trendy these days.
So, I'd like to bring to your attention geometric patterns and textures that are absolutely free to download. The entire showcase consists over 200 patterns and textures you can use. Vivid, complex, elegant, bright, polygon, abstract textures are waiting for you to come and download them!
Polygon abstract background set
Freebie Pack Retro Backgrounds by Code-P
Geometric Links Blue
Something 70s (Bright)
30 Free Polygonal Low Poly Background Textures by Rounded Hexagon
5 Triangulation Mosaic backgrounds by mariannizmo
Geometric free wallpaper
Geometric free abstract background
5 High Definition Geometric Backgrounds by bestpsdfreebies
Polygon abstract vector backgrounds
Blue background triangle design
Polygon free vector backgrounds
Rhomboidal vector seamless pattern
Geometry seamless pattern
Vector colorful background triangle
Photoshop: 14 High Resolution Geometric Patterns
Monochrome Geometric Patterns by MartinIsaac
Geometric Textures by Roberto Savino
Orange Discs
4 Comments
IreneJuly 30, 2014
Who's idea was it to include the Overlook Hotels carpet?
IreneJuly 30, 2014
Actually, most of these could pass for a spooky Kubrick pattern of some kind.
TeelahAugust 1, 2014
I love that freepik site, they have so many awesome freebies especially some fun flat designs and icons. I downloaded almost all of these! haha, thank you for the share, these are so great.
MattAugust 4, 2014
Great roundup. Thanks for sharing!


text:
Follow me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
subscribe by RSS
Recent Posts
- Latest terrorism update
- Obama Advisers warn against the Iran deal which will leave it a nuclear threshold state
- Flotilla fools' follies fizzle and flop
- ISIS terror wave hits 3 continents. When will the world wake up?
- Good News Friday
- BDS fails of the month
- Michael Oren's bombshell: US-Israel alliance in tatters due to problematic Obama relationship
- The UNHRC publishes its Schabas Charade
- Will Israel help the Syrian Druze?
- Terror strikes again
Recent Comments
TagsAmerica anti-Israel anti-semitism anti-Zionism antisemitism Arabs archaeology Barack Obama Bashar Assad BBC BDS Binyamin Netanyahu biomed boycott Brian Goldfarb Britain ceasefire Egypt elections EU Europe family flotilla France Gaza Good News Friday Guardian Guest Post Hamas Hezbollah human rights IAF IDF Iran ISIS Israel Israeli politics Jerusalem Jews John Kerry Jordan Judaism Judea and Samaria Knesset Lebanon Mahmoud Abbas media bias Middle East missiles Muslims natural gas nuclear deal nuclear program nuclear weapons Operation Protective Edge PA Palestinians Palestinian state peace talks rockets Russia settlements south speech Syria Temple Mount terrorism terrorists Turkey UK UN UNHRC US US-Israel relationship West Bank
Tag Archives: Obama
Obama has the lost the plot in the Middle East
Recent events in the Middle East, together with the incomprehensible decisions by President Obama and his Administration, make it apparent that the President has completely lost the plot in the Middle East. Even the Obama-admiring New York Times admits that … Continue reading
Posted in Defence and Military, Mideast news Tagged Egypt, Gulf States, Houthis, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan River, nuclear deal, Obama, Saudi Arabia, Shiites, Sunnis, US-Israel relationship, Yemen 8 Comments
Obama's spiteful reaction to Netanyahu's winning the elections
By now everyone has heard all about Binyamin Netanyahu's statement about a two-state solution not happening while he is Prime Minister, and also his possibly ill-advised words warning about Arabs being bussed in to vote on election day. I call … Continue reading
More Purim turnabouts: Arab reactions to Netanyahu's speech
Purim has begun tonight here in Israel (Purim post coming up later), and in a similar manner to the upside-down "Venahafoch Hu" character of the day, reactions to Netanyahu's speech to Congress were precisely the opposite of what one would … Continue reading
Posted in Media and journalism, Mideast news Tagged Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, Arabs, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iran, media, media bias, nuclear deal, Obama, Saudi Arabia, speech 6 Comments
Yemen insurgency shows the danger of the lack of a coherent US Middle East strategy
In Yemen, which was not exactly a stable country let alone an advanced or democratic one, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have marched in and taken over in a coup that has caused an outcry in Yemen and has seen local … Continue reading
Posted in International relations, Mideast news, Terrorism Tagged Al Qaeda, Houthis, Iran, ISIS, Middle East, Obama, rebels, Saudi Arabia, Syria, terrorists, US Administration, Yemen 20 Comments
Obama "has Israel's back" – with a knife in his hand
For reasons which remain a mystery to all right-thinking people (of which there appear to be fewer every day), the Obama Administration has chosen to abandon Israel in the same manner as the Perfidious Brits. In gob-smacking news yesterday we … Continue reading
Understanding Israel's fears over the Iran nuclear deal
The media has been saturated with reports of Israeli "hysteria" and "over-reaction" at the interim nuclear deal just signed between Iran and the P5+1. Reaction to Israel's reaction has ranged from bemusement to mockery to gleeful schadenfreude, although there have … Continue reading
Posted in International relations, Mideast news Tagged Administration, America, foreign policy, Iran, Israel, negotiations, nuclear weapons, Obama, US 4 Comments


text:
MEMPHIS,TN - Several days after a cyclist died after being hit by a car in Midtown
Davidson had a ring and was one day away from proposing to his girlfriend of a year. Her life stopped when his was taken.
"I'll never have that, it's gone," Dodge says, "He was on his death bed and he managed to blow me a kiss, I don't know how."
The kiss that lingers in her mind isn't the only thing Dodge is confused about. She was the last person to see him alive and nothing from early Friday morning, August 12, 2011, makes sense.
"I have no idea, we're not even sure where it happened."
Dodge says she woke up when Davidson stumbled through the door and fell to the floor inside her Midtown home. He told her he was hit by a car in
In shock, Dodge says she took Davidson to the bathtub instead of calling 911. "He told me not to, he said, 'No, I'm fine. I just have a couple broken ribs, just get me in the bathtub.'"
When she realized he was in too much pain she called paramedics. Within 10 minutes, Dodge says he bled to death. She says an EMT told her he had broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. But what Dodge doesn't understand is what happened before Davidson fell on her floor.
How did he walk so far with such severe injuries? And who hit the man she was planning to spend the rest of her life with?
Police haven't ruled it a homicide, but Dodge is certain it was.
"They're here. They're in this city. They're sitting around watching coverage and acting like nothing is happening." Dodge says, "They need to come forward."
Davidson's bike was found in the street outside Dodge's home, police are holding it for evidence.
Davidson's funeral was Wednesday, August 17.


text:
Highland Titles offers square foot patches for £29.99 on a 750-acre area known as the Keil estate, and tells buyers that owning the land allows them to adopt the title Laird, Lord or Lady of Glencoe. It is the brainchild of Professor Peter Bevis, an English biologist, and his wife, Laura, who bought the land in 2007.
However, they have been ordered to make clear to customers that buying the land does not give them a genuine title following a probe by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Douglas Wilson, a director at Highland Titles, claimed they had been targeted by a disgruntled customer.
He said: "The ASA ruling is incredible. We have made small changes to the website in light of this but we feel aggrieved."


text:
2 days ago in collection: Fashion
Loves people, makeup, clothes, shoes, photography, drawing/painting, manga/anime, Asia, music, instruments, literature, views, bows, lace, babypink and everything else that's fun or pretty.
Now available in your language!Use in your language! Go back to English
Sign in with Facebook or Twitter to start your gallery.
Sign in with Facebook Sign in with TwitterDon't have Twitter or Facebook? Skip this step!
Have a We Heart It account?Log in now
© All images are copyrighted by their respective authors.


text:
|24 posts found
Sounds more like World of Borecraft to me. You grind all the way to 60 only to realize you just started grinding, and now you get to wait in line to grind (limited number raids for the win).
Login or Register to never see this panel
Buff bots were turned into classes that didn't need buff bots. However, in WoW if you play a class that doesn't really need a buff bot you aren't exactly set up for grouping either.
I will take ToA over tier 0-3 gearing anyday. If you want to complain about something that doesn't allow you to get geared for the end game look at the gearing system in WoW's end game. Granted, when they first put TOA in it was flawed. They fixed those flaws overtime, and they even offered servers that didn't even have TOA at all. I've yet to see any other company do that based on massive player feedback.
If you want to see class balance issues then WOW is the game for you. There is a difference between a company that tries to maintain balance like Mythic does and a company like Blizzard that says screw it we'll never have balance. As a result they buff the much needed group classes (Warrior, Priest, Mage) and the classes that aren't in that list stand by the side begging for group spots. Then becasue they can't balance to bother the unique classes they decide Alliance should have Shamans and Horde should have Paladins.
Its funny, but most of the people that went to WoW from DAoC didn't stay with WoW when they found out exactly what WoW end game was like. DAoC has a much better end game than WoW even to this day. However, DAoC has also been out for 5 years. When WoW has been out for 5 years please rave about it. The fact is that the hardcores will always get burnt out on games because they burn through the material these games have to offer so quickly. That means that games add more and more content trying to keep up with the hardcore players, and then the casuals feel overwhelmed because there is to much content. The result is no matter what you do you will eventually lose either a good chunk of your hardcores or a good chunk of your casuals. You simply can not expect the same person to play the same game for 10 years (which is how long UO has been out now). Its not going to happen for the vast majority of the player base.
If hes wrong and you are right then how come hes making games and you are only playing them. Please explain that to me. I would think if your ideas are as revoluationary as you think they are that all the gaming companies would be going out of their way to hire you.
I lol'd at the part about keeping MMO's simple. He must have meant DoAC is a great example of how to NOT make a game user-friendly and instead how to bore you out of your mind by lvl 10.
Problems with WoW...
reputation grinding, current honor system, gear aquiring, maturity of players, locked raid size, current class balance
Problems with DAoC...
buff bots (and what they can accomplish), lack of players
I can handle buff bots. However, I can't handle the crap that all starts at end game in WoW, so if I had to chose between the two games it definately would not be WoW. Most of the people that I know that left for WoW left WoW as soon as they saw what being level 60 was all about. Most of those people came back to DAoC. DAoC population is currently on an UPTURN not a DOWNTURN as more and more people realise what WoW has done HORRIBLY HORRIBLY long and have went searching for something else.
Novice Member
Joined: 3/20/04
I'm gladly waiting for the people who say DAoC was nothing new to step up and show me another game where the PvP is lauded as a lot of fun (even with all the bitching and moaning going on re buffbots, balance, certain 'zones' being too 'easy'). When you come up with one that has as many supporters as DAoC then I'm willing to let you get away with DAoC did nothing groundbreaking. They changed what people understood PvP to be simply by playing 3 teams in instances where battles actually felt they had a point. Everytime I hear people bitch about DAoC it's mostly about ToA. Not the PvP and only a handful ever complained about the UI. (Hint: There are mods for DAoC UI available.)


text:
Congratulations Heidi!
May 31, 2003
Posted by Melissa AnelliUncategorized
Tomorrow, TLC editor Heidi Tandy will go to the hospital to give birth to her second child! Everyone at TLC sends her, her family and her newborn our love and best wishes, and congratulates her during this happy, happy time; join us by leaving a comment below!


text:
2015 Dates, Times, and Channels
01/02/15 – 6:00pm on ABC Family
01/03/15 – 3:00pm on ABC Family
Movie Summary
After 300 years, three sister witches are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it is up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches reign of terror once and for all.
Is it available on DVD?
Yes. Hocus Pocus on DVD
Year Released
Cast Includes
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw


text:
Cargo Commander
Third party DRM: SteamThis game requires a free Steam account to play.
Alone in space, light years away from your family, armed with only your FistcannonTM, Platform Drill and the meanest cup of coffee in the sector; you are Cargo Corps' latest recruit, a Cargo Commander. Your responsibilities are simple: travel through the vast reaches of wormhole-filled space salvaging priceless cargo from alien infested containers. The work, however, is hard, honest, and hairy: punch deadly mutants in the face, travel between your ship and containers using advanced Cargo Corp. technology like JumpingTM and Holding Your BreathTM, jockey for promotions with thousands of other Cargo Commanders in the galaxy, collect over 80 different cargo types, all the while earning your way back home.
Key Features:
Randomly generated levels; think of a name to create a unique level and share with friends to compete for high scores.
Fully destructible environment; create your own path with your drill and explosives.
Compete with other players for promotions; each level has an online leaderboard.
2 different play modes: Career and Journey
Loot the dead corpses of other player's vain attempts at beating your score.
Upgradeable weapons and tools.
Sweet Dutch bluegrass tunes from Doppler FX & Music!
Customer reviews
Tiny but funObsessor | May 15, 2015 | See all Obsessor's reviews »
In Cargo Commander you pull in containers with mysterious, randomly generated contents. Then you enter those containers, gather whatever you can find, while killing any enemies, and get out before the container is shattered by a wormhole. Cargo Commander is a good game, perfect for a short play. Controls are intuitive, graphics fairly detailed, for such a small title. It's not much, but CC isn't a disappointment either.
Fun and Endearing, and Then You DieNucularS | June 22, 2014 | See all NucularS's reviews »
Cargo Commander lies somewhere in the spectrum of incredible frustration, entertaining platforming, and engrossing storytelling. The game is really good at conveying the loneliness of space, and user-written postcards scattered throughout the containers is a very nice touch. On average, the game is a lot of fun. Until, you drop into a container only to find a million baddies already residing there. Or pick up cargo and get surrounded by spawned baddies. Or accidently punch an explosive barrel and vaporize the container. You get the point. Prepare for some frustratingly quick and numerous deaths.
A nice little game for short bursts.Mates1500 | Sept. 22, 2013 | See all Mates1500's reviews »
I wouldn't recommend buying the game for the full price, I simply think it's not worth it. It's, however a little game you can play in small bursts of time, explore a bit of space, find some treasure, beat someone else's score, upgrade your stuff. Nothing with very deep mechanics, but it's very fun to play nonetheless.
Fun in SpaceSkyrao | Aug. 30, 2013 | See all Skyrao's reviews »
Cargo commander is a lot of fun. I love turning on silent space and then just floating off. However, I would watch this just in case it goes on sale because I think the price is quite high. If you don't mind the price then definitely give it a go.
Scoring Commander ?ccccp | May 25, 2013 | See all ccccp's reviews »
Cargo Commander is an original game of platforms and provides a lot of thrills. Changes of gravity, giving the feeling of being inside a washing machine, and frantic races to try to escape the vortex that devours everything around you provide an exhilarating experience. Too bad that despite its random variable, the concept fairly quickly shows its limits, by the lack of renewal, so you should rely on scoring to make the pleasure last longer. This is a typical example of the game that will appeal to restart from time to time to check where your friends got up to and try to rob them the high score.