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Mrs. Marzean 94 passed away Thursday November 29, 2012 at Bay Shores Nursing Center following a brief illness. She was born in Alpena, Michigan on August 5, 1918 to the later Stanley & Agnes (Szykowiak) Werda. She married Lawrence Swallow on June 17, 1939 in Alpena, he preceded her in death in 1951. She married Leonard Marzean in 1958; he preceded her in death on May 27, 2006. She was a former member of the Rosary Society of Alpena and a life Member of the DAV of Alpena. She was a member of St. Michael's Church, Pinconning and attended St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Bay City. She enjoyed singing in the Adult Choir and the Resurrection Choir at both churches and spending time with her son and his family. She is survived by her son and daughter in law Jerry and Jan Swallow; granddaughters Amy and Doug Trombley and Sarah and Tom Hart: Great Grand Children Peyton, Parker and Brady Hart, Landon Trombley; two step great granddaughters Marrissa and Olivia Trombley, also several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by two sister Mary Zielaskowski and Blanche Partyka; three brothers John, Valentine and Anthony Werda. Funeral Mass will be celebrated Monday December 3, 2012 at 11 am from St. Michaels Church with concelebrants Rev. Fr. Richard Jozwiak, Rev. Fr. Craig Albrecht and Deacon Gary Patelski. Graveside service will be held at 12 noon Tuesday December 4, 2012 at Holy Cross Cemetery, Alpena, Michigan. Friends may call at Rivertown Funeral Chapel, Spring and Huron Rd., Kawkawlin, MI on Sunday from 1 to 8 pm. A Vigil Service will be held at 7 pm Sunday evening at the funeral home. On Monday Mrs. Marzean, will lie in state at the church from 10 am until time of Mass. Those wishing an expression of sympathy are asked to consider St. Mary of the Assumption Church or St. Michael Catholic Church.
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209 S. Huron Road
(989) 667-0891
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Published in Bay City Times on Dec. 2, 2012
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But this brings me back to my point, can we just have a graphic content option that way people who don't have a problem can just play the game as it is, and people who do have a problem can just filter it out.
I don't find violence offensive (I've been desensitised over my years)
What I said, was it's the true Evil of this World (prove me wrong)
The true evil of the world is not violence itself, but the evil people who do the violence, and that is why we have the military. The military must use violence against Evil people who would do violence against us. But let's not get off track, I'm just saying Infinity Ward should implement a Graphic Content option.
Yeah, that's a good point. Although the game is rated 18+ (M in U.S ?) you're right there should be an option!
To be fair to IW, they have had restrictions before. (No Russian)
so is there actually nude girls in the game cause i don't get what the the problem is? (a sign that says nude girls) of that that sign is it the nude part or the girl part that offends you... what really offends me in call of duty games is the eight year old kids playing the trending crappy music not turning their mic off when their mom is yelling at them or just the yamering on on about nothing when every one else is trying to enjoy the sounds that the developer is spending all my money on to make a AAA game with all the graphical content that my thirty years of gaming deserves
also where i live the strip clubs are 18 to party 21 to drink so where are they wrong on including this to a game that is 18 and up
Yeah, your right on the No Russian. IW could be cashing in big if they did reimpliment it on Ghosts. For example, if a teenager goes to the store with his parents and sees ghosts. If they put a graphic content reduced option label on it, I think the parents are more likely to buy it(let's face it, a good amount of COD players are under 17). That could yield a bigger profit for IW and Activision.
It doesn't take much to implement a graphic content reduced option, and yes the signs have shiloutte of nude girls with big words saying "Nude Girls". Not to mention the building can be walked through. Yeah and think of the automatic voice enemy finder,"There's a tango in the stripclub". I just think IW can make a lot more money by doing this(expanding to a much bigger audience).
Kids will always play the game!
When I was a Kid, I dreamt of games like this!
( a while ago now)
Younger gamers in terms of reflexes are a challenge, but more mature gamers bring greater XP and tactics.
The game is rated M17+ in the US where I live. So presenting something that is at least 18+ isn't a very good idea.
Me and my younger 7 siblings probably make up 50% of Call of Duty's revenues(jk). We each buy the new call of duty games ($60x8), then we also get the season passes($50x8) all the extra dlc content. There are alot of large families like us who would be more likely to buy call of duty if there was a graphic content option.

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ms, i miss u,
wish u a happy life
me too, i will study hard
i will try my best
hope to see u again in future
love, nur saraya najwa
In some way, we are all fishermen…
From Obama's Speech at Notre Dame:
"Years later, President Eisenhower asked Father Ted how on Earth he was able to broker an agreement between men of such different backgrounds and beliefs. And Father Ted simply said that during their first dinner in Wisconsin, they discovered they were all fishermen. And so he quickly readied a boat for a twilight trip out on the lake. They fished, and they talked, and they changed the course of history.
I will not pretend that the challenges we face will be easy, or that the answers will come quickly, or that all our differences and divisions will fade happily away — because life is not that simple. It never has been.
But as you leave here today, remember the lessons of Cardinal Bernardin, of Father Hesburgh, of movements for change both large and small. Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family, the same fulfillment of a life well lived. Remember that in the end, in some way we are all fishermen."
I'll be handing in my internet modem on Monday, so the time has come to wrap up this blog. I will be flying out of Kuala Terengganu after school on Thursday and then begin the journey from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to Japan and finally to Minneapolis and northern Minnesota, where I will be spending some time with my family for a week. If all goes according to plan, I will be back in New England August 10th, and am looking forward to connecting with everyone again. Beginning August 1st, I will resume using my American cell phone…so I'm excited to actually receive phone calls, instead of always being the one to make them!
Thank you for your comments, and your emails and your readership over these past seven months. I feel lucky to have had the technology to share glimpses of my experience. In an effort to preserve the privacy of the kids, I will be making the blog private very soon after my return.
I am eager to see friends and family again, to run in clean and cool places, to eat vegetables, to be in sync with the American time zone, and to stop being stared at. I will miss the night market and the mangoes and the kids. I still find it hard to make any large or sweeping conclusions about my experience in Malaysia or about life in a Muslim country. There are people who are compassionate and generous here, and there are people who are narrow-minded and obnoxious. I am so grateful to all of the Malaysians who have treated me with warmth and humanity during my stay in Terengganu and have allowed me to work alongside them, teach their children, visit their homes, and run on their roads. There is the Arabic teacher who speaks almost no English, but somehow always comes over to my desk and tries to include me in conversations, who gives me tea, and admires the art projects. There is the Bahasa Melayu teacher who brings me to the school canteen and who took me to her house to meet her daughters and bought me a shirt at the market. There are the neighbors in our shopping complex who bring us chocolate bars, and the woman that sells watermelons who knows us by name. There are the friendly people I run by at the stadium who ask me to teach them how to rollerblade and always wave when I pass by. These people remind me of the people who I love at home, and that is the strongest sense of "cross-cultural understanding" that I have experienced. Finally, there are the kids…who have clamored for my attention, become so invested in my art projects, practiced choral speaking, shriek when I run by, cheer when I walk into their classrooms, and try so hard to speak with me in a language that they only half understand. They have made every day here feel meaningful, and I know that I will think about them for a long time to come.
Islam will never be my own worldview, but I'm glad that I have had the opportunity to personally meet so many Muslim friends during a time when there is such a great need to heal rifts and repair misunderstandings. I'm grateful to be overseas in a capacity that emphasizes learning instead of combat. As challenging as some moments of this experience have been, it pales in comparison to the sacrifices performed and the struggles faced by those deployed overseas in other Muslim countries to protect American interests. My uncle has just been cleared to leave Afghanistan, and people like him deserve our gratitude and thoughts, even if we remain conflicted about our motives for entering war in the first place.
I think the coming days will bring more stories, but you will just have to wait to hear those in person. So, until we meet again, I wish you "Salam wa aleikum," as they always say over here. Peace be upon you.
My computer appears to be having some issues with overheating (I feel its pain), so I am going to give it a break for the next few days. Luckily, I am off on a short trip to Indonesia with Clare, Caroline and Liz starting Thursday night. It will be our last long weekend together before we head back for the final 8 days of classes.
At school, this is the week of paper plate art projects. Picture me "cycling" to school while trying not to get my long silk skirt caught in the wheels and holding a stack of 100 styrofoam plates, in addition to all of my usual school gear. Now picture that it is 100 degrees and random motorcycles and chickens and monitor lizards are randomly careening in your path. You get the picture.
My favourite text message of the week: "Do you know hw 2 make a coat made of cow skin soft?" This was sent in all seriousness by one of my fellow English teachers. It is still a mystery to me why she has a leather coat.
Basically, life continues to be about as absurd as possible. Camping trips with poisonous centipedes…teaching swimming lessons to sixty year olds…screaming about flower stems to herds of small children. But this will all be over soon, I guess.
When you look at these pictures, I hope you just see kids. They might be poorer and more Muslim than the kids you're used to encountering (they have the rotting teeth and headscarves to prove it), but ultimately they have the same quirky personalities and needs as the kids you babysit, teach, or come face to face with in the park at home.
There are myths about how kids from poor countries are so grateful for education that they will scratch letters outside in the dirt if they have to, just to learn the alphabet. They will scrape together all their money to buy a school uniform and a sharpened pencil, and treasure these rudiments of education. These myths allege that kids from Zambia, India, Cambodia are largely obedient and want to learn. While their classroom might be makeshift, they know how to stand in straight lines and salute their teacher. There are few problems with classroom discipline because they know that the alternative is child labor out in the heat and the dirt. These ideas vaguely undergird our perceptions of education in impoverished regions of the world. Maybe without even realizing it, we think that kids in these other places have a perpetual sense of gratitude and motivation.
These past few months have helped to disabuse me of some of these vague ideas, as I've come face to face with kids who are by turns raucous, sweet, lazy, impertinent, appreciative, receptive, and unmotivated. In short, they are like kids everywhere. The kids in the pictures all want attention. They are all exhausting. They ask for too much. They usually don't listen. They sometimes make me understand why corporal punishment is allowed in Malaysian schools. But–like kids anywhere–just when you think you can't take them anymore, they suddenly become disarmingly sweet. They get proud of writing the word "papaya" on the chalkboard. They go quiet and wide-eyed when you ask them why–15 minutes into an activity–they still haven't written any sentences. They hand you a card that says "I love you miss emi" over and over again. They start crying when they don't get the piece of pink paper. They ask you: "In America, there is whales?" They wave and shriek with excitement when they see me out on the street.
The nimble, jumping quality of their minds…their ability to become deeply invested in the smallest and strangest details…their resiliency…these are the things that are universally appealing about kids. Teaching, I'm discovering, is a strange alloy of exhaustion and earnest intentions, humility and small gains. These things make it a difficult career both to continue and to walk away from. The kids, the needs, the sense of validation, the setbacks are never in short supply, whether you're in Malaysia, Massachusetts, Ghana, or Philadelphia. No matter where you are, kids still need adults to help clarify why they should want to learn…to create academic situations that are engaging while also helping them understand that education is not entertainment.
An Early 4th of July Wish…
"I might struggle briefly with an attempt at anthropological relativism, but I soon give in and admit that the drastic limits imposed on women in public—I was just in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the limits are almost total—seem like a confession of some cultural failure, perhaps even the failure, the heart of the reason that war and oppression and intolerance are daily afflictions and, therefore, that I and other journalists keep visiting.
I've never gotten used to this fact of daily life; though I keep my thoughts mainly to myself, I think about it constantly. And though I don't agree with the French and Turkish policies of forbidding the hijab in certain areas like schools or government jobs, I can't help seeing it as an instrument of oppression, rightly or wrongly—even when it's the voluntary and self-imposed kind. Watching a woman at the airport in Jakarta trying to drink coffee under the veil of her niqab, an act that required all of her focus and dexterity and was almost impossible to do without spilling, reminded me of the images I saw as a child of Chinese women with tiny, bound feet.
This separation inevitably affects my work. "
-George Packer, The New Yorker
I've tried, really tried, to be culturally sensitive during my time here. I never go out of the house without wearing a skirt that goes down to my ankles. I wear their traditional baju kurung outfit to school everyday. I don't show them photographs of my family and friends wearing tank tops or shorts or track uniforms. I never mention that I have a dog. I'm careful to remove all pictures of pigs from the games, worksheets, or books I show the kids. Whenever my students come to my house, I make sure that the only food I offer them is halal. People tell me almost daily that I would look "more beautiful" if I wore a headscarf, but I refuse in what I hope is a gracious manner. I stand quietly and try to act respectful during all their prayer times at school. I thought that living in the shadow of these mosques, having the rhythm of my days dictated by the call to prayer would offer some sort of deeper understanding of this way of life. Maybe it has. But it has also just led to frustration, exasperation, and the entrenchment of new biases that I think will be hard to shake. I think the hard truth is that there are certain things that we will just never, ever be able to understand about each other.
Today at school, Clare was invited to dinner by one of the male teachers at her school. Even though this man is married and has a family, it has still been drilled into us–again and again–that we are not supposed to be in the presence of men alone. So, we usually try to avoid awkwardness by going to situations like this together; Clare, accordingly, accepted the invitation, but also asked if I could come along. She said his face got very strange and, after hemming and hawing, he awkwardly said that he guessed it was ok if "Miss Amy" also came. Usually people are more than happy to have both of us come, so Clare thought this was strange. Later, she mentioned it to her mentor teacher, Ena. "Oh yes," Ena replied, "People have been talking about Amy because she was seen out walking around the roads with a strange man." "That was her brother! You knew that he was coming to visit!" Clare retorted. "Oh yes," Ena said, "I know." But ofcourse she hadn't said anything to clarify. So, now I know that countless people here have been talking about me behind my back and jumping to conclusions about my sexual promiscuity. If you think that's an exaggeration, trust me, it's not.
I know that I shouldn't blow something as small as this out of proportion. All of the teachers at my school appeared to be comfortable with Ben visiting and I continue to have good relations with my coworkers and the kids. But maybe I should have exercised better discretion in having Ben visit here at all. We walked to the boat dock and people saw him going in and out of my house. They're not used to seeing young men and women alone together. I should have known this. But a part of me can't help being very hurt and frustrated. It is disturbing to realize, yet again, what a subject of scrutiny I am in this community and to realize how people talk so much behind our backs and make hasty generalizations about Americans. It transcends the level of talk, too: teachers at Clare's school are no longer comfortable inviting me to meet their families or visit their homes. After all I've tried to put up with here and do for these kids, I would appreciate the benefit of the doubt. I would like to think that having a member of my own family come and visit would not have to irrevocably damage the perception of me and my work here. If anything, this episode reminds me that I need to keep resisting the impulse to hastily judge Islam or Malaysia or Terengganu without knowing the full story. I can be equally guilty of condemning things that I don't really know about. We all can. But in this situation I am the one with an education that has taught me to think carefully and critically, to find ways to empathize across divides, to exercise skepticism, and to try to keep seeing the larger story or hidden subtext.
In the mean time, this 4th of July, please think about all the different valences that the word "independence" holds. There are so many women in the world who will never get to have a male friend, drive a car, exercise, open a bank account, choose a career. "Freedom" can be a vague concept, tarnished by its association with coercive American policies or unthinking patriotism, but it can also mean very real things. Savor those things.
Running in Malaysia, Part 2
I knew that my cross cultural immersion wouldn't really be complete until I had run a race in a foreign country. For a while, I had fantasized that this race would be a marathon. For an even longer period, I had imagined it would be a half marathon. But through the twists and turns of Malaysian fate, it ended up being a 10k. Maybe this gradual scaling down in distance is symbolic of how my ambitions have shrunk quite dramatically during my time here. Things that once seemed so small and conquerable in the United States sometimes seem close to impossible here.
Clare and I began training for a half marathon in Kuala Lumpur months and months ago. We gradually ventured out beyond the small orb of our parking circle. We ran next to the lagoon filled with monitor lizards. We ran through the fishing huts that stink of drying fish and human waste and garbage. We slogged through the 100 degree evening heat in long pants and long sleeves. The men on motorcylces hooted at us. Sometimes they creepily followed along trying to snap pictures of us on their cell phones until we yelled at them. Around March or April, we discovered that the huge stadium complex about 2 miles away had a brick-paved path looping around a man-made lake. It felt like a sanctuary. For the first time, we saw male and female Malays out jogging and walking in small numbers around this path. The air felt cleaner, the atmosphere generally nicer, and, sometimes, we could almost imagine the faint trace of a breeze coming off the lake. We registered online for the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur half marathon on June 28th. Despite the heat and the long pants, running was remaining a consistent element in my life–something that granted sanity and the semblance of normalcy to days that regularly felt indescribably strange.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. During my travels with Ben, I get an email saying that, because of my faulty internet connection, my online payment for the half marathon did not go through. The race has filled and there are no more spots left. Despite sending a consistent stream of pleading, desperate emails to the race organizers, they won't budge. Then, when I get back to Terengganu and go for my usual run to the stadium, I find that it has suddenly and mysteriously collapsed. The wreckage looks like the scene of a natural disaster. This massive, modern complex that was just built a year ago has completely crumbled. The running gods seem to have turned against me.
But I am too fed up to give up. So I keep running and find out that a friend has a race number for the 10K that she will not be using. I fly to Kuala Lumpur, armed with a copy of her passport and registration papers. At 4:30AM this morning, I find myself in the middle of a pitch-black foreign city engulfed in a sea of Asian runners as the call to prayer starts to whine from the loudspeakers. There are 13,000 runners competing in marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k categories. The majority are Chinese Malaysian citizens, and it is refreshing to suddenly find myself amongst people wearing shorts and tank tops, although I am pleased to see the occasional headscarved woman amidst the crowd. There are also lots of competitors from Singapore and Thailand, and because of the $20,000 cash prize for the marathon winner, there is also a significant number of long, lanky Kenyans. Scattered amongst the masses of people are a few white faces like mine.
The race itself is pretty sub-standard. The runners are given a single lane of the highways, so we plod along breathing in the exhaust fumes of passing cars and trucks in the semi-darkness. I now have a better understanding of why the Olympic marathoners put up such a fuss about having to run through the smog of Beijing. The air quality in Kuala Lumpur is similarly dismal. There are no spectators along the course and none of the race volunteers cheer. They stand in their headscarves sometimes awkwardly extending cups of water. At one point, the race merges into a traffic circle where they have failed to stop traffic. The kilometers are only marked out for the marathon, not for any of the other distances, and they are quite obviously in the incorrect locations. Gender bias is apparent too: the porter potties are gender segregated and there are only 3 for all the women. Needless to say, this leads to very long lines. At the end of the race, they have an elaborate prize giving ceremony for the male marathoners. They forget about giving out the women's prizes altogether.
Nevertheless, I had a really wonderful time. I discovered how abysmally out of shape I am and remembered how painful racing can be, but I felt like myself again, and that is one of the best feelings in the world. In my Brooks shoes, shorts, a tank top and a race number, I could forget for a little bit all the weeks of wearing a baju kuran. Although my time was terrible, I was running towards the front of the 5,000 10k runners. This just happened to put me in a place where I intersected with the elite male marathon runners finishing their final 5k. I kept running back and forth with a group of Kenyans who were hitting the wall hardcore as the Kuala Lumpur humidity got to them. Every time I passed or was passed by one of these laboring marathoners, I said a quick "good job." Although the Asians along the course didn't seem to be that excited about giving mid-race encouragement, I couldn't resist injecting some American-style racing camraderie. One of the Kenyans seemed to particularly appreciate this and, before I knew it, for the last 2 kilometers, he was gesturing that I should come and run with him. "Oh great," I thought, "Is this really happening right now?" I was hurting pretty badly, and not exactly at a time in my life where I felt like being pushed by a marathoning Kenyan. Although he was obviously struggling with cramped calves, he was still flying along at what felt like a very decent clip. One of his coaches jogged alongside him for a minute and handed him a bottle of some sort of foamy orange drink, which he offered me. I declined, but enjoyed this end-of-race distraction.
After the race, I kept my race number on as I rode the subway back to my hotel. Other racers smiled and asked how I had done. Men speaking in Chinese would suddenly flip into English and ask me what event I had competed in. It was kind of amazing to find this sense of running community existent even in Malaysia. Obviously, these past few months have been an exercise in seeing a place that once seemed so exotic, impenetrable, and strange become more familiar, mundane, and even home-like. But this race is what finally transformed Kuala Lumpur into just another landscape that I can run across, something I can know and conquer. At this point, I really do think it is possible to descend upon almost any place in the world and find a way to make it feel more familiar.
Sentimental musings aside, my painfully slow 10k time made me realize that if I want to run a marathon again this fall, I will have my work cut out for me. These past six months may have given me a broader worldview and other intangible rewards, but they have certainly not been good for my fitness level.


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Exploring Photoshop: How to make textured edges for your photos
Textured and decorative framed edges for your photos, can really set the mood and turn your photos and images into something memorable, don't you think?
There are lots of different ways to add textured edges to your photos using photoshop or photoshop elements, but the easiest way I've found is to make a separate image and use it as an overlay mask. Using this technique you can accumulate a very nice library of textured edges that you can use over and over on your other photos as well.
This tutorial demonstrates the basics of making this type of textured edge using the basic round brush that can be found in the brush library, and once you know how to do it you can go crazy using other different types of brushes.
Note: This tutorial is presented using Photoshop Elements 9 however the instructions will be the same or similar for other versions of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
Let's go …
Open a photo in the workspace.
Alongside the photo, make a new file the same size as your photo and fill it with white. This will become your overlay mask. My photo size is 6″x 4.5″ at a resolution of 300px.
Minimize the photo, and working on the overlay mask add a new layer on top of the white layer and fill it with black.
Select the eraser tool, then select a brush from your Basics or Default Brush set. I've selected a soft round brush and set the size to 200px and an opacity of 100%. You might need to use a different size depending on the size of your image.
Make sure the black filled layer is selected …
… then run the brush, unevenly, along the edges.
Once you've finished removing the edges, you can add some additional decoration by then selecting a brush that has flourishes or swirls, and stamping them onto the black layer using your eraser tool. If you don't yet have a library of brushes, you'll find some lovely free brushes at Obsidian Dawn.
Once you've finished adding your additional decoration, right click on the top layer and select Flatten Image.
The two layers are now combined into one.
Bring your photo back up into the workspace and drag or copy and paste, the black and white overlay mask and position it on top of your photo.
The photo should now have two layers, the black and white overlay mask on top and the photo underneath.
Make sure the layer with the black and white overlay mask is selected and from the blend mode drop down box, select Screen.
And magically, the black center of the overlay mask disappears allowing the image underneath to show through, leaving the white edges intact.
The Screen Blending Mode looks at each channel's color information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. The result color is always a lighter color. Screening with black leaves the color unchanged. Screening with white produces white. The effect is similar to projecting multiple photographic slides on top of each other.
You can also adjust the opacity of the overlay mask which changes the transparency of the white edge. The transparency on this overlay mask has been set to 80%.
These are some other edges I made using the same process but with different types of brushes.
Have fun and happy photoshopping!
11 Comments
Many thanks for this great tutorial Linda. I have had a go and will be posting up my picture shortly. Thank you for the links too. I have downloaded some brushes but my lack of computer know-how has got me a bit stuck with adding them into Photoshop so far. I have a computer literate brother that I will be calling on for help 😉 Fortunately I did discover a load of brushes already in Photoshop 6 so I have plenty to play with.
Thanks Julie, looking forward to seeing your photo
great! thanks…
Love the tutorial. Tried it and am emailing you the result. THANKS!!!
Thanks Cindy, you did a great job with the tutorial – I really like it!
Wonderful tutorial. Great illustrations and great descriptions. Thank you!
Hi Linda,
What a simple way to get that effect. Thanks for the great tutorial. What an amazing resource you have shared. I could get lost in the number of brushes found at Obsidian
Great site BTW
Thanks for the tutorial, I really want to try it. Every so often I spend a few days on Photoshop but have to tear myself away to get some sewing done.
Thank you for another great tut. Now I just need to make time to play with PE and use this information. I also shared your tut link on FB in case someone else can use it too.


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In the post-Civil War Era, inspired by Abraham Lincoln and Union victory, those Blacks who could overcome State requirements aimed at preventing their voting usually voted Republican. President Dwight D. Eisenhower overwhelmingly was supported by Blacks when he ran for re-election in 1956. Then came Senator John F. Kennedy (D-MA) in the 1960 Presidential race. Blacks switched and voted for JFK. They helped him win that squeaker election against Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
What happened? At the time I just had begun my broadcasting career and was working at WLIP in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Working along side me on weekends was DJ Hal Mason. Since I liked the sort of jazz he played on his show we became good friends. I asked him why Blacks suddenly had abandoned the Party of Lincoln and switched to the Democrats, whose policies in the South, after all, were aimed at keeping Blacks in their place.
Mason explained to me that Democrats worked the Black Community hard. Democrats attended events all year long. They showed up at Black churches, at picnics and at businesses where Blacks were employed.
Republicans, he explained, rarely campaigned except perhaps immediately prior to an election and then the Republican Party, he said, showed no interest in the Black Community as such. Mason's comments made a deep impression upon me. For years after that I tried to interest Blacks in the conservative cause. The word "conservative" itself was poison in the Black Community as it was looked upon as rhyming with segregation.
President Nixon made an effort to reach the Black Community through small business initiatives. I played a small role in that effort. While it worked, the Democrats continued to get the votes. I tried in various ways over the years, first working with Black mayors, then later with supporters of Justice Clarence Thomas, such as Phyllis Berry Meyers, to reach the Black Community. Each effort did not produce a great deal, although Meyers' initiative was the most productive. She taught me that to attract Black Democrats we must work through the Church. We didn't have the keys to doing so. Democrats continued to receive the votes of Black citizens.
Paul M. Weyrich is the late Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.
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Time for Team Hillary to break out the gender card for young liberal women who prefer Sanders | Allahpundit


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ALBAY, Philippines - Albay Gov. Joey Salceda believes not all of the Team PNoy senatorial candidates will be in the top 12 in Albay.
Salceda said that while he is campaining for the 12 Team PNoy candidates, he believes only 10 of them will win in Albay.
He said two United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) candidates, JV Ejercito and Juan Miguel Zubiri, will most likely claim the last 2 winning slots in Albay.
He did not reveal the names of the 2 Team PNoy candidates who he thinks will lose in Albay.
Salceda said that although regionalism isn't a big factor anymore compared to previous elections, some Bicolanos still tend to support Bicolano candidates and those they are familiar with.
He cited several of the candidates' frequent visits to Bicol to establish themselves in the area and to court voters.
"Pag hindi bumisita ng Albay? Goodbye," he said.


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Batgirl Back in Black - The Wait by ozbattlechickWatch
©2012-2016 ozbattlechick
Batgirl Cosplay - Stakeout!
way cool! more please!
totally Sexy!!
Nice outfit.
This is my favorite version of the costume. Have you tried the Batwoman costume?
why so serious? Smile!
Awesome cosplay
i want a steck!
i want a steck!


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DeZign 529 by sedWatch
©2013-2016 sed
Fabulous and intricate - I can tell you labored on this creation for quite some time; but then, I feel persistence yields excellence - such as this!
Without suffering, there would be no art!
Well done!
Well done!
I don't understand what's going on, but I love it!
Great depth and intricacy.
absolutely stunning!
So cool composition !!
Excelent work
absolutely finest
Bravo, Bravo, Wonderful!
wow this is superb. I am curious to know what you did with the pen? I recently got one with a tablet and have no idea how to apply it
I'm in awe at your skills Sed This is truly beautiful
Cool piece sed
Amazing work how long for this one? Great one
Wow, I can see many things, I get the feeling that they were giving me a welcome to something very dark ... I like it ^^
that is... awesome...
reminding me of ancient Egyptian scarabee bugs...awesome work!!!
reminding me of ancient Egyptian scarabee bugs...awesome work!!!
very nice
Extravagant sed !!


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Dove Beauty Bar
926 reviews
86% would repurchase
Package Quality: 4.0
Price: $$
Package Quality: 4.0
Price: $$
INGREDIENTSsodium lauroyl isethionate, stearic acid, sodium tallowate or sodium palmitate, lauric acid, sodium isethionate, water, sodium stearate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernelate, fragrance, sodium chloride, tetrasodium edta, tetrasodium etidronate, titanium dioxide.
Age: 25-29
Skin: Normal, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Green
This is okay. This is just soap for me... LOL I use it on my body, never on my face. I always put on lotion after my showers too...
Age: 30-35
Skin: Dry, Dark, Warm
Hair: Black, Kinky, Coarse
Eyes: Black
I have very dry skin on my face to the point thatthe sides of my nose, forehead peel unless I use 3 layers of Cetaphil lotion. I tried the sensitive/unscented version last year and within 2 days i had clogged my facial pores so much that the dryness was replaced by a film of 'lotion' that broke me out so I stopped using it.
This year I deciede that since there are a few versions and I heard a lot of good reviews about the pink beauty bar I'd try that. It hasnt clogged my pores so far and this is 3 wks later. It seems to wash the skin whereas the other bar just left behind too much residue.
After 4 weeks my face totally turned on this. It started clogging my skin and drying it out at the same time and my face never felt clean. I tried all of the other versions and they were all terrible in the same way. I don;t believe it;s really for sensitive skins at all.
Age: 44-55
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
I have normal skin, with a very slightly oily t-zone and large pores. This product gives me blackheads. It doesn't feel as if it cleanses properly and leaves a film on my skin. However my mum, who has much finer pores than I do, uses it and really likes it. Horses for courses, even good products won;t work for everyone.
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
My god. This is a miracle product. I'm fifteen, acne prone combination skin and ever since christmas vacation I just received a huge heep of breakouts on my forehead. it was horrible they were yet to go away! I was using Murad Cleansing Gel (acne) and clindegel or whatever and trentinoin 0.5%. it just wasn't cutting it for me. Derm recommeneded oral pills and trentinoin 0.1% . I hate oral pills because I can't swallow pills yet, I just haven't learned how to. so its a complete drag to take these and they give me mad stomache aches (its like deoxycycline or something). So finally I turned to something a little different. Dove. My friends use dove as a makeup remover, but I never really got into it. love the beauty body wash! works and smells like heaven. This soap cleared more acne then anything else has in two days. TWO DAYS! I've never been so shocked. I had a huge cyst form below my eyelid and it was starting to hurt so bad. I dropped the pills and added Dove instead, a little worried it might break me out but since people were saying it's a little drying, i had a feeling it wouldn't dry me out. Now I'm in love! my skin is clear, no more red spots and the cyst is about 3x smaller! which is a huge improvement. since Dove bars are about $1 at the target travel section, I'll definitely stalk up. I got mine from a friend. Works amazing. I love Dove.
EDIT MARCH02; Still working wonders, still being amazing dove! Cleared up tons of my acne. But blackheads, it won't touch. Too bad =( I'll find something else for my blackheads but this soap cleared up SO much of my acne.
Age: 25-29
Skin: Acne-prone, Fair, Neutral
Hair: Brunette, Curly, Medium
Eyes: Green
I am a bit on the fence about this as I love the smell of dove and use their original shower cream/gel and deodorant.
I used this on my face as i'm trying to go back to basics as it were with skincare but found it a bit too drying. I think it is one of those products that works for some and not others. I don't blame the soap, just my strange skin type! I have been using DHC cleansing oil instead and that is working out just great.
Have put a NO to repurchase but that is only for facial use. My husband is a soap and water kinda guy so i will buy it again for him, and me to wash my hands with. Also the price is fabulous so I am envious of you ladies who are getting on well with it. :-)
Age: 25-29
Skin: Normal, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Blond, Other, Other
Eyes: Blue
I don't use this on my face (I think that's what it's meant for?) but use it in the shower as a body soap. I find normal soaps quite drying but this is lovely - feels nice, smells great and leaves my skin moisturised.
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Combination, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Black, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
This clogged my pores.
Age: 36-43
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Blond, Other, Other
Eyes: Hazel
After being a neutrogena fan for years - I asked my mother in law who doesnt buy into all of the hype of cosmetic surgery and has beautiful clear skin, what she used and she proudly said Dove beauty bar. I know their tried and true beauty products (such as ponds cold cream) that our mothers and their mothers have been using for generations. I just started using this about 3 months ago and love it. It cleans my skin but doesnt dry it out. I havent noticed a huge difference in the appearance of my skin -but I feel good knowing that I am using something moisturizing on my skin.
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Oily, Fair-Medium, Neutral
Hair: Brunette, Wavy, Medium
Eyes: Blue
I love Dove soap bars. They lather up lovely and have pretty and clean scents and moisturize well. They are pretty themselves too. I left a packaged one without the plastic wrap in my room and for a day or two, the smell of soap kind of wafted around that area. Totally random I know but I just felt like noting it. Dove is the only soap bar I'll use.
Age: 19-24
Skin: Combination, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Red, Wavy, Medium
Eyes: Other
i got this as part of a dove gift set for christmas. i love the classic smell and it does get you clean feeling, but i find its not moisturising enough. it leaves my skin dry and thirsty. my husband really likes it though. i think this would be a great bar soap to use after exercising etc. or for anyone who really loves that squeaky clean feeling.
Popular Gels/Soaps
926 Reviews
74 Reviews
94 Reviews
63 Reviews
215 Reviews
72 Reviews


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When only the best will do! This quality lightweight, yet extremely strong and durable, black 1/8" mesh pond/leaf netting has 2" folded black polypropylene binding with 3/8" grommets every two feet. It is made from knitted high density polyethylene and has a UV protector melted into the fiber during the manufacturing process.
Available in seven sizes from 10' x 10' to 20' x 30'
Store Hours
Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Pacific Time
Mail Only (No Retail)
Ponds Inc.
4601 W. Sahara Ave. Ste L
Las Vegas, Nevada 89102


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Chakra Alpha 3 – Review!
Ive never been a fan of KDE. Maybe its because for me it reminds me too much of Vista and a part of my PC experiences I would rather forget, however I cannot stay with Gnome forever and since many new distro's don't come with XFCE it was only time before I gave KDE a run for its money.
I'd heard some good things about Chakra and since it comes packaged with KDE 4.3.1 I regarded it as the best way to test a new distro and give KDE another crack of the whip. Chakra Alpha 3 is a distro based off Arch which has a legion of fans and is highly regarded as a Linux distro.
The word Chakra has many meanings, you can read them here. If anyone can tell me which one is meant by the creators of the distro, I'd be very interested.
Its worth noting first of all that Chakra Alpha 3 is still in major development so its an opportunity for users to help contribute to a project whilst using the distro. For a new user or a user wanting a complete, stable distro, at this time its probably best looking elsewhere. As good as Chakra is, if you are wanting an out-of-the-box ready to rock and rock KDE experience then I'd suggest Mandriva or similar.
From the LiveCD installation was via a gfx front end accessed from the desktop (pretty par for the course of most distro's) what struck me immediately was that despite it was easy to use and appealing to look at, there was no option for a default install. Not a problem for those used to setting up swap partitions et al, but if Chakra is going to be aimed at newer users in future releases, then I'd say a default installation option is a requirement. Installation seemed to take rather a long time, strange because the Alpha 3 is a particularly minimalist install maybe it was just me but Im sure a "package rich" Ubuntu install took alot less time than this. I opted for ext4 for this review.
As stated earlier this is a pretty minimalist install. They say "be careful what you wish for" and since Ive always complained about duplication of software/packages within distro's, now Ive got my minimalist install, I find it lacking. IRC is handled by Konversation and I must admit, having given the package a miss for a while in favor of X-Chat, its a very good piece of client software. Internet browsing is handled by Arora and Konqueror which would not be my choice having now become an advocate of the excellent Chromium. That being said, its a reasonable browsing experience, so no complaints there.
Media is an important feature, which is handled by Kaffeine v1.0-svn2 / Dragon player (within the DE) and as I say the basic install will not flood you with packages so I won't dwell on any more of its pre-installed software (of which even office software is absent)
This brings me nicely onto hardware detection and Chakra, where Chakra gets kudos. Distro's like Ubuntu are renowned for easy installation and out of the box compat, however Chakra may just have beaten Ubuntu in the most important feature for me (and thats for any distro) that being my beloved proprietary Nvidia drivers which were automatically detected/downloaded and installed without any input from me. For most Linux users, we have done our time with fiddling around with Gfx drivers, but its a testament to Chakra and the state of Linux today that now this is more or less a non-issue. I would add by saying that Chakra was so complete in the identification of my system, that I was left suspiciously uneasy by the fact I had nothing to configure (accept a few user account creations)
Pacman handles package management and since I havent spent alot of time with it in the past I was taken aback by how great it really is. Simple to use, clear and quick. I will cover this package further when I review later releases of Chakra.
Ive always prefered the minimalist DE. XFCE was always a favorite of mine and whilst my hardware is more than modern enough to run the latest DE, Ive always been of the opinion that no matter what your specs, you shouldn't needlessly throw CPU cycles away on "bling features" that apart from being visually appealing serve little purpose. Having said that I cannot live in the past forever so "onwards and upwards" with KDE 4.3.1!
I think the problem Ive had with KDE over say Gnome or XFCE is the fact that I feel it provides too much of a "soft and fluffy" buffer between the DE and your systems core, in that I mean its very pretty, very smooth but tries to hide you from the "ugly" side of your OS. Thats my feeling and may stem from Vista having more than a passing resemblance to KDE.
For the first time in my Linux life, I had a play with some of the KDE widgets and have to ask the question, why? Theres a lovely analogue clock up on offer for example, but why would this be of any use when its rare that your desktop is empty (and in my case I have a plethora of Windows open usually maximized) and you have a perfectly informative clock ALREADY on your taskbar at the bottom right. You then have widgets such as RT pictures of the sun. Why? I would consider my desktop pretty standard and I already have all the packages I need running (browser, mail client, etc) so why on earth would I want a widget to do exactly the same thing, hidden on my desktop behind all the other windows I may have open. To me these widgets are simply giving away CPU cycles and offer little. For me this "bling" is a reason why Windows requires pretty high specs to achieve what Linux can already do on old tech and maybe if Microsoft had concentrated more on functionality and less on "bling" they wouldn't be coming under so much criticism.
It would not be fair to be critical of Chakra on the basis of it being incomplete in terms of default packages, if this is an example of later versions I can see Chakra being VERY popular. Its fast, functional & compatible. In regards to KDE I found it smooth, fast and puts Windows 7 to shame since I was running a very GFX appealing distro on only 512mb of ram and an old rig.
Am I converted to KDE? If XFCE hadn't been the DE on my distro of choice then probably yes. I am not happy with the direction Gnome is taking (this has been covered far too many times before so I won't dwell on it) as it stands KDE will be having a home on some of my secondary rigs which don't distro-hop. I think it will take alot more than KDE 4.3.1 to convince me to give away CPU cycles on aesthetics.
You can visit the Chakra homepage here.
Goblin email@example.com
17 thoughts on "Chakra Alpha 3 – Review!"
[…] #KDE4 Distribution Chakra is Reviewed https://openbytes.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/chakra-alpha-3-review/ Looks […]
[…] Chakra Alpha 3 – Review! « OPEN BYTES – cave quid dicis, quando, et cui. openbytes.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/chakra-alpha-3-review – view page – cached Is this the meaning of Chakra the distro creators had in mind? I'll let you decide as you experience Chakra with KDE 4.3.1 — From the page […]
CHAKRA comes from ARCH (CH..RA) and Alternative KDE…
They have done a great job making KDE modular! They have now released a FUZZY release…
Anyhow… I still run FreeBSD!!
I've been messing with Chakra since the 1st alpha and its come a long way. One reason for the long install is setting up Pacman and optimising the mirror list to find the fastest mirror to use for updates. Chakra is the 1st Arch based live distro to be taken seriously by the arch community and yes I'm a Archer. I don't find the install any harder than Ubuntu, plus its so much more pro looking than most.
One thing about the KDE4 'bling'… It is optional. KDE lets you setup a plain, sparse desktop without transparency or widgets if you so desire. It will still retain its stability, pleasing look, speed and control.
Having said that, I find that some desktop effects like e.g. present windows really enhance my productivity. And widgets for monitoring certain system values (disk space!) or new mail certainly make my life easier as well…..
Which XFCE distro are you using? I am downloading The fuzzy release of Chakra to test. But have also been wanting to try out something with XFCE since it's the only major DE I haven't tried yet.
As you sound like a lover of XFCE you might like to try "Godanes" Arch-live cd which is also installable. You'll find it at http://www.godane.wordpress.com
I live chakra. In this latest Alpha, I find Shaman causing some trouble but nothing that pacman cannot be used instead for :-)
First thx for the review. The install speed is cos of dd. Ubuntu unsquash its image, what we will do with beta1. Here is the roadmap: http://chakra-project.org/wiki/index.php/LiveCD_Roadmap
About the word chakra. arch + kde = chra + a + k = chakra: http://chakra-project.org/about-faq.html#faq4
I'm glad to see our installer worked for you. We did another release after alpha3 called fuzzy. This time we have also dvd-images available. More fullfeature as you might like it. Beta1 will have both images. What comes on or of you can decide here: http://chakra-project.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?id=1627
We are openminded and are always welcome for new developers or contributers to our project.
Happy hacking
Phil Miller – 2nd Project-Leader of the Chakra-Project.org
i'm most fascinated with someone that can actually write the first sentence of this review and stay alive.
"Ive never been a fan of KDE. Maybe its because for me it reminds me too much of Vista".
what kind of criteria is this?
Nice Post, btw do you know any good [url=http://maillistarchives.com]usenet archives and or mailing list archives[/url] site for unix / linux / bsd
[…] My GNU/Linux WordPress WordPress Adventures in Open Source TechieMoe […]


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Are you A. Brattli?Claim your profile
Publications (15)27.76 Total impact
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ABSTRACT: The first sounding rocket of the European ECOMA-project (ECOMA, Existence and Charge state Of Meteoric smoke particles in the middle Atmosphere) was launched on 8 September 2006. Measurements with a new particle detector described in the companion paper by Rapp and Strelnikova [2008. Measurements of meteor smoke particles during the ECOMA-2006 campaign: 1. Particle detection by active photoionization. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, this issue, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2008.06.002] clearly showed meteor smoke particle (MSP) signatures in both data channels. The data channels measure particles directly impacting on the detector electrode and photoelectrons from the particles actively created using ionization by the UV-photons of a xenon-flashlamp. Measured photoelectron currents resemble model expectations of the shape of the MSP layer almost perfectly, whereas derived number densities in the altitude range 60–90 km are larger than model results by about a factor of 5. Given the large uncertainties inherent to both model and the analysis of our measurements (e.g., the composition of the particles is not known and must be assumed) we consider this a satisfactory agreement and proof that MSPs do extend throughout the entire mesosphere as predicted by models. The measurements of direct particle impacts revealed a confined layer of negative charge between 80 and 90 km. This limited altitude range, however, is quantitatively shown to be the consequence of the aerodynamics of the rocket flight and does not have any geophysical origin. Measured charge signatures are consistent with expectations of particle charging given our own measurements of the background ionization. Unfortunately, however, a contamination of these measurements from triboelectric charging cannot be excluded at this stage.
Article: The ECOMA 2007 campaign: Rocket observations and numerical modelling of aerosol particle charging and plasma depletion in a PMSE/NLC layer[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The ECOMA series of rocket payloads use a set of aerosol particle, plasma, and optical instruments to study the properties of aerosol particles and their interaction with the ambient plasma environment in the polar mesopause region. In August 2007 the ECOMA-3 payload was launched into a region with Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) and noctilucent clouds (NLC). An electron depletion was detected in a broad region between 83 and 88 km, coincident with enhanced density of negatively charged aerosol particles. We also find evidence for positive ion depletion in the same region. Charge neutrality requires that a population of positively charged particles smaller than 2 nm and with a density of at least 2×108 m−3 must also have been present in the layer, undetected by the instruments. A numerical model for the charging of aerosol particles and their interaction with the ambient plasma is used to analyse the results, showing that high aerosol particle densities are required in order to explain the observed ion density depletion. The model also shows that a very high photoionisation rate is required for the particles smaller than 2 nm to become positively charged, indicating that these may have a lower work function than pure water ice.
Article: An overview of results from the ECOMA-project: in situ studies of meteor smoke particles in the middle atmosphere[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The ECOMA-project is dedicated to the study of the `Existence and Charge state Of Meteoric smoke particles in the middle Atmosphere'. The project is led by the Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Germany, and the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Norway, and utilizes rocket borne in situ measurements as well as ground based observations with radars and lidars to characterize meteor smoke particles and their atmospheric and ionospheric environment. The prime instrument of the ECOMA payload is a new particle detector which combines a classical Faraday cup-design with a xenon-flashlamp for the active photoionization of mesospheric aerosol particles and the subsequent detection of corresponding photoelectrons. Other instruments are a swept Langmuir probe, two fixed biased probes and a wave propagation experiment to measure plasma parameters. In addition, an ionization gauge and two simple Pirani gauges are used for neutral density measurements, and a particle sampler is applied for the in flight collection of meteor smoke particles and their return to the ground. Two campaigns have been conducted to date: the first in September 2006 comprising two rocket launches and one in August 2007 where one sounding rocket was launched under conditions of noctilucent clouds and polar mesosphere summer echoes. A third campaign is currently planned for early July 2008. In the present paper we will present results from these campaigns. We will show that the ECOMA particle detector allows to detect meteor smoke particles throughout the mesosphere and that our measurements in autumn 2006 basically confirm expectations regarding the abundance of meteor smoke particles in the mesosphere from microphysical models. We will further compare measurements from autumn and summer conditions, where the most striking finding is that significantly less particles were observed in summer 2007 as compared to autumn 2006. The latter result will be critically discussed with respect to its implications for ice particle nucleation at the polar summer mesopause.
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ABSTRACT: In August 2007 the joint European-American ECOMA/MASS (Existence and Charge state Of Meteoric smoke particles in the middle Atmosphere/Dust MASS Analyzer) sounding rocket and ground-based campaign took place at the Andøya Rocket Range (ARR) (69° N). This campaign was devoted to the investigation of mesospheric aerosol particles. During this campaign, three instrumented sounding rockets were launched under the PMSE and NLC conditions. All rockets were carrying instruments to characterize mesospheric aerosol particles and their environment. The ECOMA rocket was launched during the first salvo shortly (30 min) after the MASS payload. At that time, the EISCAT (69° N, 19° E) VHF and ALWIN radars observed a double layered PMSE. Also an NLC layer was detected by lidar and photometers onboard each rocket. The main instrument of the ECOMA payload is the "ECOMA particle detector". This instrument comprises a classical Faraday cup with a xenon-flash lamp for the active photoionization/photodetachment of mesospheric smoke particles (MSPs) and the subsequent detection of corresponding photoelectrons. Comparing direct Faraday cup measurements and photocurrents we are able to derive particle properties like number densities and particle radii. We present the results of these measurements that show the presence of aerosol particles inside the NLC and PMSE layer, but not below or above these layers. These results are consistent with model predictions, which account for global transport of meteoric smoke. This implies that ice nucleation in the polar summer needs to be reconsidered.
Article: Measurements of Meteor Smoke and Ice Particles During the ECOMA-2006 and ECOMA/MASS2007 Rocket Campaigns[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: In the course of the European ECOMA project (ECOMA = Existence and Charge State of Meteoric Smoke Particles in the Middle Atmosphere) two sounding rocket campaigns were conducted in September 2006 and August 2007 from the North Norwegian Andoya Rocket Range (69N). The latter campaign was closely coordinated with the US-American MASS campaign which also focused on mesospheric aerosol particles and their plasma environment. A core instrument of the ECOMA payload is a Faraday-Cup-based particle detector which is combined with a Xenon-flashlight for the active photo-ionization of mesospheric aerosol particles. The first launch in September 2006 revealed evidence for meteor smoke particles in the entire altitude range from 60 - 110 km, as indicated by detected photo-emission signatures. In August 2007, however, when the ECOMA payload was launched into a weak event of polar mesosphere summer echoes and noctilucent clouds, particle signatures were confined to the altitude region of mesospheric ice layers identified by the ALWIN MST radar and the ALOMAR RMR lidar, i.e., roughly between 82 - 88 km altitude. These results will be discussed in the scope of our current understanding of the seasonal distribution of meteor smoke particles, corresponding implications for the nucleation of mesospheric ice clouds, and the physical mechanisms giving rise to polar mesosphere summer echoes.
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ABSTRACT: On 18 January 2005, two small, instrumented rockets were launched from Andøya Rocket Range (69.3° N, 16° E) during conditions with Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes (PMWE). Each of the rockets was equipped with a Positive Ion Probe (PIP) and a Faraday rotation/differential absorption experiment, and was launched as part of a salvo of meteorological rockets measuring temperature and wind using falling spheres and chaff. Layers of PMWE were detected between 55 and 77 km by the 53.5 MHz ALWIN radar. The rockets were launched during a solar proton event, and measured extremely high ion densities, of order 1010 m−3, in the region where PMWE were observed. The density measurements were analyzed with the wavelet transform technique. At large length scales, ~103 m, the power spectral density can be fitted with a k −3 wave number dependence, consistent with saturated gravity waves. Outside the PMWE layers the k −3 spectrum extends down to approximately 102 m where the fluctuations are quickly damped and disappear into the instrumental noise. Inside the PMWE layers the spectrum at smaller length scales is well fitted with a k −5/3 dependence over two decades of scales. The PMWE are therefore clearly indicative of turbulence, and the data are consistent with the turbulent dissipation of breaking gravity waves. We estimate a lower limit for the turbulent energy dissipation rate of about 10−2 W/kg in the upper (72 km) layer.
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ABSTRACT: We discuss the few existing in situ rocket observations of dust and plasma during the radar backscatter phenomenon Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSE). We show from one recent observation, where the rocket flew directly through the radar beam during observation of a PMSE, that there is a very good correspondence between the charge density of dust layer and the PMSE. A surprising observation is that only a small amount of charged dust can be associated with a considerable PMSE signal strength. By estimating the relationship between radar backscatter and dust charge density for other rocket measurements we have found a total relationship between radar backscatter strength and dust charge density. This shows a rapid increase of radar backscatter strength at low NdZd, a more or less constant level for a considerable range in NdZd and a decrease to low values for large values of NdZd where most of the negative charge will be on the dust.
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ABSTRACT: In January 2005, a total of 18 rockets were launched from the Andøya Rocket Range in Northern Norway (69° N) into strong VHF radar echoes called 'Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes' (PMWE). The echoes were observed in the lower and middle mesosphere during large solar proton fluxes. In general, PMWE occur much more seldom compared to their summer counterparts PMSE (typical occurrence rates at 69° N are 1–3% vs. 80%, respectively). Our in-situ measurements by falling sphere, chaff, and instrumented payloads provide detailed information about the thermal and dynamical state of the atmosphere and therefore allow an unprecedented study of the background atmosphere during PMWE. There are a number of independent observations indicating that neutral air turbulence has caused PMWE. Ion density fluctuations show a turbulence spectrum within PMWE and no fluctuations outside. Temperature lapse rates close to the adiabatic gradient are observed in the vicinity of PMWE indicating persistent turbulent mixing. The spectral broadening of radar echoes is consistent with turbulent velocity fluctuations. Turbulence also explains the mean occurrence height of PMWE (~68–75 km): viscosity increases rapidly with altitude and destroys any small scale fluctuations in the upper mesosphere, whereas electron densities are usually too low in the lower mesosphere to cause significant backscatter. The seasonal variation of echoes in the lower mesosphere is in agreement with a turbulence climatology derived from earlier sounding rocket flights. We have performed model calculations to study the radar backscatter from plasma fluctuations caused by neutral air turbulence. We find that volume reflectivities observed during PMWE are in quantitative agreement with theory. Apart from turbulence the most crucial requirement for PMWE is a sufficiently large number of electrons, for example produced by solar proton events. We have studied the sensitivity of the radar echo strength on various parameters, most important electron number density and turbulence intensity. Our observational and theoretical considerations do not provide any evidence that charged aerosol particles are needed to explain PMWE, in contrast to the summer echoes which owe their existence to charged ice particles.
Article: Rocket observations of Positive Ions during polar Mesosphere Winter Echo conditions at andenes in january 2005; First analysis and interpretations[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: On Janurary 18, 2005, two instrumented miniaturised rocket payloads, each with a Positive Ion Probe (PIP) and a Faraday rotation/differential absorption experiment, were launched from Andøya Rocket Range (69°N). The instrumented payloads were launched into conditions with Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes (PMWE) as part of a salvo of meteorological rockets measuring temperature and wind using falling spheres and chaff. Layers of PMWE were detected in the altitude range 55-77 km by the 53.5 MHz ALWIN radar. Fluctuations in the ion density, as measured in situ by the instrumented payloads, show that there was turbulence inside the PMWE layers, but not above/below and between. Data from the PIPs are analysed and related to the geophysical conditions, as observed with the ALWIN radar and meteorological rockets.
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ABSTRACT: We demonstrate how the observation of dynamic Mach cones in dusty plasma experiments allows one to follow the evolution of the dust acoustic wave velocity as charges on dust particles change, or as their mass changes. In experiments in which only the charge is changing due to, e.g., the application of a thin coating on UV-illuminated dust particles, the coating rate may be inferred through the analysis of the Mach cone pattern. In other experiments where the dust sizes are changing, also leading to some change in charge, the growth rate can be followed.
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ABSTRACT: The flow of charged dust around an electrically charged boulder moving through an environment thought to be typical of planatery rings is studied. As the boulder moves through the ring dust it will excite a V-shaped Mach cone pattern of a form and complexity which varies significantly with boulder size, relative velocity between the boulder and the dust, and with dust plasma conditions. Parameters relevant to the Saturnian ring system are used to compute examples which demonstrate the change in Mach cone patterns with the relevant parameters. Shortcomings of the model are discussed and ways to improve the calculations of Mach cone patterns are pointed out. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.
Article: First common volume observations of layered plasma structures and polar mesospheric summer echoes by rocket and radar[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: We report the results from simultaneous radar and rocket measurements of a PMSE event where for the first time the rocket measured dust and plasma within the radar beam. We find very clear correspondence between the measured dust charge density profile and the radar backscater profile as a function of height. We find that even very small amounts of charged dust is associated with an appreciable PMSE radar backscatter. Although we find it likely that the dust layer corresponds fully with the PMSE layer there is a possibility that the upper part of the PMSE layer may be influenced by ion clusters which are too small to be detected by the rocket dust probe.
Article: Mach cones in dusty plasmas in planetary rings and in laboratory experiments. Planet. Space Sci. 49, 223-220[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: We have discussed in more detail the possibilities of extracting information on the dusty plasma conditions in planetary rings and in laboratories by observing the V-shaped Mach cone pattern around a charged body moving through or close to a layer of dusty plasma. Based on the existing theories for dust acoustic waves and accelerations of dust orbits at the front of the body we find that, if the normal plasma parameters are known, we should be able to extract information on the dust average sizes and size distribution, the dust number density and material density. With more refined theories for the dust acoustic wave and dust bow shocks, including a dust size distribution it should be possible to find additional and more accurate information on the total plasma conditions.
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ABSTRACT: Using a kinetic model for low-frequency dust acoustic waves (DAW) in a dusty plasma, we have examined the effects of a dust-size distribution on their propagation and damping. Both Landau damping and damping due to dust-charge variation are included. We consider Gaussian and power-law dust-size distributions. In accordance with earlier results of Melandsø et al., we find that the dust Landau damping dominates at short wavelengths. At wavelengths longer than the Debye length λD0, the dust-charge variation is generally dominant. It is always dominant for the power-law size distributions that we have studied. We also find that if the upper and lower size limits of the dust are chosen so that the average dust size remains constant, regardless of the power-law exponent γ, the wave properties are practically identical to those of a monosize distribution of the average dust size. For a Gaussian dust-size distribution, Landau damping may be the dominant damping mechanism if the dust plasma is tenuous (P[double less-than sign]1) and the width of the distribution is large.
Article: Cooling by dust in levitation experiments and its effect on dust cloud equilibrium profiles[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The thermophoretic force on dust particles is caused by a temperature gradient in the background gas. This force can be important in experiments or production processes and in other environments where dust occurs. We discuss the local cooling of the neutral gas by levitated dust clouds and how this affects the temperature gradient and the equilibrium dust density profile. Dust is heated through neutral gas particle impacts while it loses energy by either reemitting impacting particles or by thermal radiation at the particle temperature. The dust particle temperature can be considerably lower than that of the ambient gas and can therefore lead to a local cooling of the gas. Changes in the temperature gradient and the thermophoretic force can be large enough to affect the equilibrium density profile of levitated dust. We find that the equilibrium profile with the thermophoretic force calculated from the temperature profile without dust cooling is closer to the electrode but with much the same shape as the profile calculated without the thermophoretic force. The profile where local cooling is included in the thermophoretic force is more compressed compared to the profile without local cooling and it often has a pronounced peak closest to the electrode. Since radiation cooling of a dust particle is proportional to the fourth power of its temperature, the cooling effect is largest at comparatively high gas (and dust) temperatures. We show examples of levitated dust layer profiles with and without the dust cooling effect. © 1996 American Vacuum Society
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University of Tromsoe
Tromsø, Troms, Norway
- Department of Physics and Technology


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I am trying to add some php which show the time left for a prodcut on my site, a little bit like an auction. It all displays well however when the time gets lower it shows
0d 34h 12m which means 0 days, 34 hours and 12 minutes, i was wondering if there was a way to get rid of the 0d bit if there are no days left a bit like this
34h 12m, it just makes it look better, the same for when there is no hours left and just minutes.
Here is the code that calculates the time left
$date = date('m/d/Y h:i:s', time());
$date3 = new DateTime($date);
$date4 = new DateTime($time_ending);
$interval_date = $date3->diff($date4);
$time_left = $interval_date->d."d ". $interval_date->h."h ". $interval_date->i."m ";
Is there anyway i can do this?
Thanks for any help


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Came across a very interesting article titled "Death on the Path of Enlightenment: Inside the Rise of India Syndrome". It talks of the Westerners who are drawn by the Spiritual aspect of India and get "afflicted" by a condition which some Western psychiatrists are calling "India Syndrome". Basically, India Syndrome is a condition where a person gets besotted by India and after travelling to India comes back a delusional person going into bouts of hallucinations and weird imagination.The author … [Read more...]
Western Spiritual Seekers vs Western Rationalist Mind: Curse of Materialism and death-knell for an important dimension
The Odd One Out – A liberal's life in an orthodox society!
By Guest Blogger, MeeraImagine a girl who heads to the pooja room every day right after bath to pray; one who wouldn't dare to go to her orthodox cousin's place wearing a sleeveless top or without bangles; one who would follow all customs and traditions (aachara as they call it here) to the last point even though that meant extreme discomfort to her; one who would not daresay comment anything when people bash Indians who settle abroad; one who would always nod to comments like 'Indian culture i … [Read more...]


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Don't let Nissan 710 Turn Signal Switch parts drain all the money out of your pockets. Instead of dealing with the hassle of the dealer, use our easy online Nissan 710 Turn Signal Switch order system to get the Nissan 710 Turn Signal Switch parts you need. Hundreds of thousands of other customers use us, try us and find out why. We can ship your Nissan 710 Turn Signal Switch parts order out as soon as possible via UPS. We have been providing our customers with the best possible experience for almost 30 years. Our online store has the absolute highest quality and best priced auto parts on the web. Buy Nissan 710 Turn Signal Switch parts from our website any time you want.
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Hotel Montecarlo Roma3
Via Palestro 17a, Roma, 00185
Price FromView Rooms
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About the hotel
Since 1957 Hotel Montecarlo is a family run 3 star hotel situated in the historical centre of Rome in a classical building of XIX century, in Via Palestra, a superb city centre location, only a short distance from Termini station, the famous Via Veneto and all of Rome's most famous attractions. The Hotel Montecarlo Rome is a charming, intimate hotel comprising of 48 rooms, recently renovated, all equipped with modern comforts, air conditioning, satellite TV and free internet access. Tastefully decorated, the rooms espouse the best traditions of Italian hospitality and create an atmosphere of charm, elegance and relaxation normally associated with luxury hotels.
Tourists and business people alike find the Hotel Montecarlo the ideal location for their stay. Our helpful staff is well prepared and is available 24 hours a day to satisfy with care the needs of each guest. Please let us know your individual needs at the time of booking.
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- Air conditioning in rooms , Safety Deposit Box , Hairdryer in each room , Minibar in each room , Telephone In Each Room
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- Wi-Fi Available , In-room Broadband , Wi-Fi Available In Public Areas
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A 16-year-old girl is in hospital with two broken legs after she was hit by a car in Newcastle overnight.
Topics: accidents, police, new-lambton-heights-2305
Newcastle police are investigating whether a house fire at New Lambton Heights may have been deliberately lit.
Topics: fires, arson, new-lambton-heights-2305
Posted| Updated
New Lambton residents say their small park is well utilised but they are concerned its sale is a fait accompli.
Topics: local-government, urban-development-and-planning, new-lambton-2305, merewether-2291, waratah-2298, new-lambton-heights-2305
Posted| Updated
Medical services for critically ill children are set to be bolstered in the Hunter with the construction of a dedicated paediatric intensive care unit at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital.
Topics: child-health-and-behaviour, healthcare-facilities, infant-health, newcastle-2300, new-lambton-heights-2305
Posted| Updated
Police have charged three teenagers with deliberately lighting bushfires near one of the state's busiest hospitals.
Topics: fires, courts-and-trials, youth, police, rankin-park-2287, new-lambton-heights-2305, newcastle-2300
A hazard reduction control burn will be carried out this morning at New Lambton Heights.
Topics: bushfire, residential, new-lambton-heights-2305
A luxury car worth up to $500,000 has been stolen from a property in Newcastle.
Topics: police, new-lambton-heights-2305, newcastle-2300
A Newcastle transport advocate says the $500,000 being spent on a free inner-city shuttle bus should instead be put towards increasing bus services that stop at Broadmeadow's park-and-ride station.
Topics: road-transport, rail-transport, newcastle-2300, broadmeadow-2292, hamilton-2303, new-lambton-heights-2305


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To provide Taiwan with critically needed United States-built multirole fighter aircraft to strengthen its self-defense capability against the increasing military threat from China.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the ``Taiwan Airpower Modernization Act of 2011''.
Congress makes the following findings: (1) The Department of Defense, in its 2011 report to Congress on ``Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China'', found that ``China continued modernizing its military in 2010, with a focus on Taiwan contingencies, even as cross-Strait relations improved. The PLA seeks the capability to deter Taiwan independence and influence Taiwan to settle the dispute on Beijing's terms. In pursuit of this objective, Beijing is developing capabilities intended to deter, delay, or deny possible U.S. support for the island in the event of conflict. The balance of cross-Strait military forces and capabilities continues to shift in the mainland's favor.'' In this report, the Department of Defense also concludes that, over the next decade, China's air force will remain primarily focused on ``building the capabilities required to pose a credible military threat to Taiwan and U.S. forces in East Asia, deter Taiwan independence, or influence Taiwan to settle the dispute on Beijing's terms''. (2) The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) conducted a preliminary assessment of the status and capabilities of Taiwan's air force in an unclassified report, dated January 21, 2010....


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The best cats in children's literature
I have to confess that Mog is my absolute favourite. The greatest cats in children's literature | The Swallows NestContinue reading →
I have to confess that Mog is my absolute favourite. The greatest cats in children's literature | The Swallows NestContinue reading →
From Buzzfeed – 25 Signs You're Addicted to BooksContinue reading →
A wee photo of some of the great titles I have to review in the near future… Mustn't grumble.Continue reading →
It's a Book by Lane Smith, Walker Books, RRP $29.99, ISBN 9781921720147, Available now. Monkey is reading a book. Jackass is having trouble getting his head around that concept. The story is awesome, the pictures are gorgeous and I laughed and laughed. Sure I could tell you how it's a postmodern commentary on our connected […]Continue reading →
It's a Book CAN IT TEXT? BLOG? SCROLL? WI-FI? TWEET? No . . . It's a book. For lovers and defenders of book culture of all ages – arm yourselves with this book and unite! A new technological breakthrough! It doesn't involve tangled cords, won't require the upload of apps and never needs charging. […]Continue reading →
Okay peoples, I have decided to compile a list of book related peoples on Twitter. To make it a little easier to go through I've divided them into rough groups. If you think I've left you off the list (woops, sorry) or you don't want to be on the list (woops again) or you think […]Continue reading →


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Cool Girls Science Club Days
SWE works with an after-school club of girls to learn about how fun and diverse engineering is! (Tuesdays are grades 1-3 Thursdays are grades 4-6)
Talk to Lisa Hobbs at firstname.lastname@example.com for more information on how to get involved!
Some possible activities include:
- solar cars
- circuits with breadboards
- environmental activities
- explosions
- focus on helping others- coding
Weekly Meetings: Totally Tuesdays
Our section meets weekly at 5 pm, normally at the BOLD Center in the Engineering Center. Each week is a different activity/event to give SWE members a chance to hangout, do crafts, and attend various guest lectures. Weekly activity locations and details may be found on the Totally Tuesdays page. Suggestions and questions regarding Totally Tuesdays may be directed to Sara Trout or Angela Kwak.
Subpages (2): SWE Calender Totally Tuesdays


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8 Comments
great art! +1 …..hey please check my first design for boys and girls :)
It looks awesome but it's kinda hard to see it on the right + 1
the cityscape looks cool on the black and blue. check out my new one: http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/45686
AccuratePassion Artist from
+1 For the use of Jared. Great colors as well.
Please support my design @ http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/46324
nice one voted
vengeanceballa Artist from
i like +1
please check my quiksilver design, vote and comment is appreciated
tijuanablue Artist from
Nice One And Very Cool.
Voted +1
Check My Stuff.
Great composition, looks better on the first image, the T looks a bit faded.
Please log in to add your comment.


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Libya News
Libya and the Arab Spring after Gaddafi
Oct 31, 2011
In exclusive interviews, Aaron David Miller, Haleh Esfandiari and William B. Milam discuss the significance of Muammar Gaddafi's death in the context of the greater Arab Spring.
Tunisian Elections Set Positive Precedent for Arab World
Oct 24, 2011
Jane Harman gives CNN "American Morning" her reaction from Tunis to the October 23, 2011 national elections in Tunisia.
Critical Next Ten Days in Libya
Aug 29, 2011
Robin Wrights discusses the fall of Gaddafi on ABC's This Week and MSNBC's Martin Bashir.
Libya Still an Uncertain Success
Aug 25, 2011
The U.S. has limited resources to act on protest movements around the Middle East and despite an apparent success in Libya, coercive sanctions may have been a better precedent to set for countries that are not a direct threat to U.S. strategic interests, says Jane Harman on Fox News.
Gaddafi Against the Ropes, Assad Remains Defiant
Aug 22, 2011
Obama Administration Tells Syrian President to Step Down
Aug 18, 2011
The U.S. has finally reconciled its policy between Syria and Libya, says Aaron David Miller, but this does not mark the end of the Assad regime.
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When Annelise Normand helped plan her friend's bachelorette party earlier this year, she stayed away from the tiaras, drunken trolley rides and strip clubs that have come to define the last hurrah of the American bride.
Instead, Normand organized an "Amazing Race"-inspired scavenger hunt that sent the bride-to-be and her friends, clad in homemade race bibs, scurrying through Boston on tasks celebrating the couple: Order food from the spot where they had their second date; take a photo with the celebrity who was present when her fiance proposed (it was Tom Cruise, on TV in the background); purchase the chocoholic bride's favorite candy.
"We tried to make everything really meaningful to her," said Normand, a 27-year-old grad student, who followed the hunt with drinks and dessert.
It was a low-key party for a low-key bride — and quite different from many of the other bachelorette parties Normand has attended. She recalls one in which the bride wore Lifesavers strategically stuck to her shirt and cruised the bar looking for men to bite them off.
The bachelorette party, part of the endless procession of pre-wedding festivities, has evolved (devolved?) in some circles into a brides-gone-wild phallus frenzy. (Case in point: Last year, one website tailored to these parties sold 200,000 penis-shaped drinking straws.)
Anyone who has watched a bride-to-be publicly titillate a banana on a dare from her girlfriends can't help but wonder: How did it come to this?
The origins of the bachelorette party are quite feminist: It was a leveling of the playing fields, an assertion that if he was going to go to a strip club, she would, too, said Beth Montemurro, associate professor of sociology at Pennsylvania State University.
It also was an acknowledgement that there is more to women than their relationship status, and they, too, give something up when they marry, Montemurro said. Though the bachelorette party rose from the sexual revolution and the increased female participation in the labor force, it took several decades to institutionalize an event that showcased women having any ambivalence about closing the chapter on their single life.
"We're so mired in our ideas about femininity and weddings and what brides are supposed to be, and that marriage is what really validates women," Montemurro said. "The bachelorette party was starting to resist that the bride isn't just about anticipating marriage eagerly."
Montemurro started studying bachelorette parties after witnessing her sister-in-law's bridesmaids challenge her to complete ridiculous tasks, like approach strangers and get their boxer shorts. She was initially put off by what seemed like embarrassing and demeaning behavior, but the more she researched bachelorette parties, the less disgusted she became.
"I realized how much fun women had and how good it is for their friendships," said Montemurro, who wrote about her findings in her 2006 book "Something Old, Something Bold" (Rutgers University Press; $22.95).
Though it's hard to know how long brides have been having pre-wedding last hurrahs with their girlfriends, it wasn't until the 1980s that the term "bachelorette party" started to creep into the collective lexicon. The first printed mention of a bachelorette party Montemurro found was in a 1981 New York Times article about the wedding of New York Gov. Hugh Carey and Evangeline Gouletas.
The explosion of the bachelorette party into a wild, often highly sexualized affair came in the '90s, part of a broader trend toward more elaborate weddings. It's not clear if a hunger for lewd props sparked an industry happy to provide them, or vice versa, but soon packs of women were parading around bars with phallic paraphernalia.
Montemurro believes women aren't just mirroring the male ritual; they're mocking it.
"They use these sexual props as humor and bonding and making fun of how men feel like they have to do this," Montemurro said. "They're hypersexualizing it so it's just play, not really sexual."
To Ariel Meadow Stallings, bachelorette parties are about doing whatever the bride enjoys, so let her eat X-rated cake if that's what makes her happy.
But Stallings, author of "Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides" (Seal Press, $16.95), said that as brides skew older they're steering away from "the cutesy 'tee-hee' expressions of sexuality" and toward a more sex-positive celebration of gender and sensuality. One bachelorette party trend in recent years has been to pose for a boudoir photo shoot.
Others are offended that public displays of male private parts have become the stereotype of the giggly bachelorette party.
"I think they think it's supposed to be funny," said Pat Brown, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. "But I don't think it's funny, and I don't think guys think it's funny."
Here comes the bawdy bride-to-be
Why have so many bachelorette parties become so raunchy?
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A bachelorette wins a prize while celebrating her bachelorette party in March of 2009 at Circuit Nightclub, 3641 N. Halsted St. At right is Honey West, the emcee. (Candice C. Cusic/Chicago Tribune)
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Original recipe yields 6 servings
Based on a 2,000 calorie dietSee full nutrition
Ready In
The end result in my house as it was delish. I found that you need to use good judgment on the size of the onion. Use too much chopped onion results in a not so formed or held together meatball....
Updated review: I've made these meatballs several more times (with the pineapple sauce still) and so far, my favorite version is with 2 tsp salt and a few shakes of worcestire mixed in the meat ...


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karen armstrong
How Do You Cultivate Compassion in Your Community?This month, Tricycle is partnering with the Compassionate Action Network to support Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion and Compassionate Cities Project. Join us today at any member level and you'll have the opportunity to sign the Charter, make a $5 donation to the Compassionate Action Network, and to download a free chapter of Karen Armstrong's new book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.We're discussing the Compassionate Cities Project at the Tricycle Community, asking the question: How can compassion help meet the needs in your community? One community member shares how her family is making their neighborhood more compassionate: More »
Cultivating Compassion: An Interview with Karen Armstrong (Video)This week we are beginning the Tricycle Community discussion, Cultivating Compassion in Your Community, with author and religion scholar Karen Armstrong. We were recently able to speak with Karen in Washington, DC: Join the discussion here! More »
Karen Armstrong's Twelve Steps To A Compassionate LifeThe title says it all for Karen Armstrong's new book. Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life (Knopf, 2011, 240 pp., cloth, $22) is a how-to guide meant to help readers cultivate and emanate the virtue of compassion. It's the latest effort in Armstrong's bid to place compassion at the heart of public discourse on religion and morality. After winning the TED Prize in 2008, an award that gives recipients $100,000 and grants them a wish for a better world, Armstrong launched the Charter for Compassion—a document written by a variety of leading religious thinkers in order to inspire worldwide acts of compassion. More »
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Karen Armstrong, the TED Prize and the Charter for CompassionThis picture was taken from the 30th floor of the UN Millennium Hotel in New York City, where a couple Tricyclers were fortunate enough to get together with Karen Armstrong, a historian of religion and recent TED Prize winner, to talk about her latest project The Charter for Compassion. The conversation covered topics ranging from the value of pluralism in the world today to what Armstrong finds so compelling about the Buddha. Keep your eyes peeled for the interview. More »
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Talking about nothing and making something of itTim McHenry never fails to impress. The Rubin Museum of Art's Director of programming, Tim produces series of talks that just get better and better. This time, he's making something out of nothing. Literally. He has put together a series of talks about, well, nothing. Among many others in the series, Oliver Sacks will speak with John Dugdale about "seeing nothing"; Nico Muhly and Andrew Solomon will talk about "lacunae"; and Peter Sellars and Raj Patel on the "economics of nothing. Other participants include Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, Even Ensler, Lama Surya Das and many, many more. I'll make as many as I can. The RMA is in Manhattan's Chelsea district. For more information, check out the website. More »


text: A 15kg snowball is fired from a cliff 12.5m high. the snowball's inital velocity is 14.0m.s directed 41 degrees above the horizontal. A)How much work is done on the snowball by the gravitatinal force during its flight to the flat ground below the cliff? b) What is the change in the gravitational potential energy of the snowball-earth systems during the flight? c) If the gravitational potential energy is taken to be zero at the height of the cliff what is the value when the snowball reaches the ground?


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Many farmers today are concerned, not only with the increasing cost of conventional drugs, but also with their side-effects and the build-up of resistant strains of bacteria due to the continued and often indiscriminate use of antibiotics.
While this book will appeal to the already converted it is hoped that the unprejudiced newcomer will be sufficiently encouraged to investigate this system of medicine and enjoy its undoubted benefits.
The aim of the homeopathic approach is to build up the health of the herd and increase the resistance of its individual members to disease, and, in consequence to increase the milk output and quality.
Homeopathic remedies are all derived from natural sources and George Macleod outlines the homeopathic approach to the commoner diseases of cattle, omitting only serious injuries and others which are not economic to treat.
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