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The Freedom of the Hills
He's done heaps of climbing over his lifetime, including a couple of new routes in the Darrans, in New Zealand. But he probably remains best known for his participation in the 1975 Everest expedition led by Chris Bonnington, which pioneered a new route on the South West face of the world's highest mountain. On 24 September 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Brits to stand on the very top, more than twenty two years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
I think this photograph of Doug on the summit manages to capture something of what it must have felt like to be there. The location is stunning, and the elation at having reached the summit is palpable. But the sun is setting, so the situation is deadly serious. As it is, the two men survived a very cold night out on the South Summit, where they were forced to bivouac on the way down because their head torches stopped working.
In his acceptance speech at Courmayeur, Doug comments on how fortunate we are that we have unrestricted access to the mountains – in this case the European Alps.
There's an obvious humour in the way he say this, but he's also very serious. Because there really is a danger that the "crazy politicians" could prevent, or at least restrict, access to the wild places of the world. Even here in New Zealand.
Last year, Coroner Richard McElrea called for Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson to "take steps" to create bylaws to restrict or close public access to the terminal face of the Fox Glacier. Anyone who breached the bylaws could be instantly fined, his report said. Practical difficulties mean that this hasn't been implemented and is not likely to ever be. D.O.C. staff I've talked to are clearly opposed to this. I was incredibly surprised by the coroner's report, and deeply disappointed that he could arrive at such a conclusion. Thankfully, I'm not the only person who feels this way, as the ODT reported. Educating members of the public on the dangers of the terminal face seems a much saner approach.
Doug Scott articulates something that I feel very strongly: people should be free to take risks. Anyone who has spent time in the untamed places of the world knows how much there is to be gained from simply being there. Away from the literal safety barriers and figurative safety nets you discover aspects of who you are that you wouldn't otherwise.
My Brief Career as a Rugby Player
To anyone who knows me, the idea of me playing rugby will seem slightly incongruous. Because, although I live in "Fox", I'm certainly no Grant Fox. But for a day, last year, I found myself wearing the number ten jersey worn by the famous five-eighth and playing with the "Cunning Foxes" for the Glacier Country cup. Now, the video's just been uploaded on to youtube.
OK, so it was quite obviously staged! However, there was some genuine competitive spirit, and most of us almost forgot the fact that we were just shooting a little promotional video for our local area. The tackling was not hard, because the snow was so deep, and the landing was very soft. But to say it was a "friendly" wouldn't be quite accurate! Of course, the standard was not particularly high, given that a number of the players had been selected on the basis of their mountain knowledge (for obvious safety reasons) rather than their rugby playing ability. It was surprisingly hard work, too – between takes we were all puffing and panting because of the deep snow and the altitude – and all for less than 4 minutes of film. All in all, it was a fun day, in a beautiful setting.
My rugby playing may not be over yet though. If I practise a bit, I might just get selected for next year's Glacier Country cup!
The Baloney Detection Kit
It's a question I find hard to answer because belief (or non-belief) is not really an appropriate response to this issue. It doesn't matter what I believe! What's important are the facts.
- "Is the Earth's climate changing?"
- "Are humans a causal factor with respect to climate change?"
- Yes, definitely. The Earth is getting warmer.
- Yes, probably. Humans are contributing large volumes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and this appears to be driving an increase in the earth's average temperature.
Giving What We Can
Earlier this week, the BBC published an article about Tony Orb, who created that website. (Thanks Felicity for sending me the link.)
It's a timely reminder, in this supposed "season of giving", of how well off we are, and of how small sacrifices on our part can make a big difference to the lives of others, who aren't so fortunate.
Watch Tony explain why he has decided to give away a million pounds over his lifetime to help address global poverty.
Changing Education Paradigms
I think it's worth sharing further, for its insights into creativity and education, and the uneasy relationship between those two. And also for its cool visual design.
Ruth Bourchier, who forwarded the link to this video, said in her email that Ken Robinson used to flat with Guy Claxton. (I linked to a couple of videos of him in a previous post.) This seems to confirm what Ken Robinson says: "collaboration is the stuff of growth." I can just imagine those two, as students, having conversations about creativity and education; discussions that have shaped their views to this day.
I've always thought that there are "creative hotspots" at various times and places, where a bunch of like-minded individuals encourage each other to develop their ideas. I'm not sure that they can be replicated online. In the era of facebook, I'm still convinced that nothing beats real face-to-face human interaction. So, do the conversations I have with actual people shape me more than the books I read, or than what I view on the Internet?
I'm afraid that Fox Glacier in the early part of the 21st century is not one of the great "creative hotspots" of human history. That means I am relying, more than I'd like to be, on the virtual world of this blog, and its online habitat!
Microact now!
So, I've started my own "action platform". Check it out:
It's just a bit gimmicky for my liking, and heavy on the buzz words. But does it have potential as a tool for change? The site is only six months old, so I guess it's too early to tell...
Can I Help You?
A new report, out last week, from the CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) puts NZ and Australia at the top of its "world giving index". The report finds, "when giving is thought of as more than just money, a new order of global generosity emerges."
So, yay for New Zealand! (And Australia, of course!)
You can download the report here.
However... last month, John Key said New Zealand will not meet its pledge to donate 0.7 percent of GDP as foreign aid by the United Nations' 2015 deadline. (See this article.)
This graph (from globalissues.org) shows the figures, for 2009:
It's easy to be cynical about aid, and give up in the face of corruption and mismanagement. William Easterly's The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest have Done So Much Ill and so Little Good (Penguin 2006) is on my wish list. There is certainly plenty of evidence to support his claim. However, Amartya Sen's more moderate response feels truer to me. He thinks Easterly's is an "overblown attack", which "obscures the real point: that aid can work, but only if done right."
So, we could still be doing more...
These websites provide points of departure for responding as an individual:
The Majestic Plastic Bag
It's been a year since supermarkets in New Zealand backtracked on their decision to charge 10 cents per shopping bag. Now, we get them for free, in unlimited quantities ... thus ensuring the continued survival of the 'species'.
Learning to Learn
Guy Claxton is a British academic who is interested in how children learn. Teachers are familiar with the ideas he's presenting. In fact, they've almost become clichés: I hear teachers talk a lot about helping children become "confident lifelong learners".So, it's disconcerting to realise how entrenched we teachers are in modes of teaching that simply do not foster children's capacity to learn. Professor Claxton reminds us that there are all sorts of ways that we can improve school results without genuinely increasing children's capacity to learn.
This shorter video, "How Children can Learn Better" (also from dystalk.com), outlines some key ideas of his, and gives suggestions for what parents can do to help their children become better learners.
The challenge for me in teaching is to focus less on their work and more on their learning.
What makes Us Happy?
Naturally, Felicity and I think a lot about what we want for our boys. We'd like them to be happy, well-adjusted individuals. That's the easy part! The hard part is working out what it means to be happy and well-adjusted. And figuring out how success and happiness are linked to each other. Sometimes, I feel we have divergent opinions on this. I'm quite happy for my boys to be ski-bums if that's what makes them happy. Felicity tends to think that would be a waste of their potential, and therefore they'd be less likely to be truly happy. (I could be misrepresenting her position here!) External markers of success inevitably shape our lives. Certainly, it's a rare person who cares not at all for what others think of him or her. And I'm definitely not one of them.
So, a conversation we'd had prompted me to go online yesterday, in search of answers! I found a New York Times article by David Brooks, written over a year ago, which led me to a beautiful, long article from the June 2009 Atlantic Magazine, written by Joshua Wolf Shenk. It describes the longitudinal study conducted since the 1930s on a group of Harvard students that included JFK (often called the "Grant Study") and the story of the man who, for the past 42 years, has been leading the study: George Vaillant. It's a fascinating insight into the complexity of human life, and the impossibility of pinning happiness down to a simple formula.
On the face of it, these men were all the very picture of success. Indeed, that was the point of the study when it first began: to extract a kind of recipe for success. That project went by the wayside fairly quickly, as various "successful" men succumbed to alcoholism, mental illness, or somehow lost their way.
Listen to Dr Vaillant share some thoughts from his involvement with the study:
As David Brooks puts it so beautifully, in the NYT article, "There is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute."
It confirmed for me the Aristotelean notion that we can't judge a person's happiness until after their death!
With my boys, all we can do is offer them love, provide them with as many opportunities as we can, let them choose their own path, and then hope for the best!
Incidentally, Aristotle believed that children couldn't be happy! Listen to Myles Burnyeat, talking to Nigel Warburton on Philosophy Bites, if you want a short introduction to Aristotle's conception of happiness.
He's a cheerful looking chap, isn't he!
Rien à Dire
Even when I'm trying to be as honest and relevant as I can, I still have a lurking insecurity that it's all been said before, and better. So, how can I truly claim to have something to say?
It's a poster by Alan Fletcher, "Britain's Most influential graphic designer". CUBE (the Centre for the Urban Built Environment) in Manchester just had a retrospective on his work. Too bad it ended last week. And too bad it's on the other side of the world from where I live.
This is Alan talking about his book The Art of Looking Sideways. He was a fascinating and prolific character.
On Being Malleable
However, after my (admittedly half-hearted) attempts to get a land line to our property have come to nothing, I've finally signed up a for mobile broadband deal. This could be a good occasion for a rant about phone companies and the privatisation of public assets: New Zealand now has several inefficient phone utilities when previously it had just one! But it's my increasing reliance on the internet (and therefore, phone companies) that interests me more. I'm also just a little worried by the ways that I am shaped by it.
Small Things
The record has been officially validated by the Guiness Book of World Records: it's the world's smallest street legal vehicle! You can visit the creator Perry Watkins' site for more details!
It really makes no sense to blog about this! It's old news and irrelevant to anything happening in my life at the moment. It's just that it taps into a childhood fascination with records, with cars and with trying to make things really small.
So, here's a more accessible challenge – cheaper, at least, if not less time consuming – than building a tiny automobile: try to make the smallest origami tsuru you can.
I did this as a kid, and was pretty pleased with the results. I stored my best attempts in a Kinder surprise plastic egg! But I remember being staggered when I found out how small they can actually be. And probably, I gave up making them shortly after! Apparently, Assistant Professor Watanabe at Nigata University, in Japan, was able to fold a 1mm by 1mm paper square into a crane, using a microscope and a sewing needle. (Here's my source for that fact.) Could it be this particular Assistant Professor Watanabe, who researches mental health issues? If so, it's like something straight out of a Murakami novel...
Raising the Standard
John Key's been going on about raising educational achievement for quite some time now. Back in April 2007, well before last year's parliamentary elections, he gave a campaign speech outlining National Party policy on education.
It boiled down to three things:
- The introduction of national standards in reading, writing and maths.
- National assessment against these standards.
- Clear reports to parents on kids' progress against the standards.
Now, I can certainly agree that parents deserve clear reports from schools. Some of what I've seen is pretty confusing, to say the least. John Key's election promises stipulated that reports would be "in plain English", which was beautifully intentioned, if somewhat vague.
There are (at least) 2 problems though:
- Where do you draw the line in the sand?
- Once you've got your line, how do you actually get kids over it?
High standards won't make kids perform better, any more than Usain Bolt setting a new record makes me run faster.
Anyway, the new National Standards were released last weekend, along with the usual political fanfare and talk of fulfilled election promises. Detailed information about the standards is available here, and more general information can be found on the Ministry of Education website. The response hasn't been all that favourable (see, for example, this editorial from the Herald on Sunday) and it's not a good look when the Principals' Federation and the like boycott your launch!
Anne Tolley, the education minister, spoke to the media. Here she is, on Breakfast talking to Paul Henry.
Source: TVNZ
I find their performances incredibly irritating, especially the minister's.
Of course, she is unable to give an objective rationale for where the line's been drawn. It seems that she's just worked back from NCEA level 2, which is an arbitrary benchmark for school leavers. She does, however, claim that the standards are based on averages. In that case, we can guarantee that half the children in New Zealand will be below standard.
She tries to paint the critics as, "some people [who] might feel challenged by it," as if only teachers who aren't up to scratch are resistant to the standards. The clear implication of what she's saying is that schools are not teaching effectively if children in them are underperforming. And this is a worry.
Where she gets it really wrong is when she says "good teaching has the most effect on a child's learning." The evidence simply does not support this. John Hattie says, "it is what students bring to the table that predicts achievement more than any other variable." He attributes 50% of the variance of achievement to the child, and a generous 30% to the teacher. (You can download the article here.) Others, such as Marzano, credit the teacher with less influence.
I know what it feels like to mark a test and feel that my students are not performing. I start to feel personally responsible for their shortcomings. Then I mark an able student – not a "gifted" student, just a regular good worker, with supportive parents and some application – and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, someone has learnt something!" I say to myself. There is no way that a teacher's performance can be rated by the performance of their students. Anyone in athletics can tell you that. You can be the best coach in the world but you will only succeed if you find talented athletes to mentor.
In this beautiful egalitarian society of ours, we cherish the idea of a level playing field. In theory, everyone has a shot at success. And yet we believe that only a very few are talented enough to "make it". Or lucky enough. I'm pretty sure that teachers and parents know which of their kids are struggling; the standards won't tell us anything we didn't already know. We don't want teachers becoming like talent scouts, who will only mentor those who have potential for "success". We need people who are prepared to nurture the children who will never reach those benchmarks.
Meanwhile, politicians might want to start addressing some of the systemic reasons why many children aren't reaching their full potential.
The year is 1974, and the occasion is historic. It's the first time anyone's used a barcode in a commercial transaction. Mr Dawson's packet of chewing gum and the receipt for it are now in the Smithsonian Institution!
In just over 35 years, the barcode has become ubiquitous. I have vague childhood memories of religious nut cases warning us about this new technology, which had something to do with the Anti-Christ! We were all going to end up with barcodes tattooed to our foreheads, apparently. Like all apocalyptic predictions (so far!) they turned out to be wrong. It seems absurd now, and the fears certainly didn't stop this ingenuous little invention from gaining pace.
That is my name in barcode! I used this encoder, which is fun! Elsewhere, there's also a decoder, if you wish to find out what a particular barcode symbolises.
Though I've got no time for the apocalyptic prophets of doom, I can sympathise with the technophobes. Does anything represent the number crunching anonymity of our modern world better than the barcode? The image of rows of checkout operators scanning groceries is hard to beat as a symbol of mind-numbing consumerism.
Out There!
At least from where I live I can actually see the night sky. But saying that is a bit like Sarah Palin asserting her foreign policy credentials by saying she can see Russia from where she lives! Despite the few street lights, which I am fond of complaining about, the brightness of the stars remains relatively undimmed here. I have had the privilege of peering through my father-in-law's telescope, and through the one at Tekapo, also with my father-in-law. But I recall very little of his explanations. Mostly, what I retain is the sense of being but a small creature in a very vast universe. Perhaps the fact that space is uninhabited (as far as we know!) makes my ignorance a little more forgivable than the ignorance of certain Americans about their foreign neighbours!
This beautiful image of the so-called Butterfly Nebula is from a crop of pictures released on Wednesday, which have been taken by the Hubble telescope since its recent spruce up.
The May service mission was Hubble's last. "The US space agency and its international partners plan now to concentrate their efforts on preparing a bigger and more capable observatory known as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)," I read in the BBC article accompanying the images. From there, I had a (very) brief look at the official website. There's lots to explore, which I'll have to save for another day!
The telescope's been up there since 1990, doing its thing, and will probably remain there until 2014. "Among its many discoveries, Hubble has revealed the age of the universe to be about 13 to 14 billion years, much more accurate than the old range of anywhere from 10 to 20 billion years."
Well, I'm glad they've narrowed that down!
1.4 Billion Reasons
This term, with the kids at Fox Glacier School, we've been learning about our world. And not all of what we're learning is heart-warming. It came as a shock to some that if our world were a village of 100 people, 60 of the inhabitants would be constantly hungry, and 26 of these severely malnourished, despite the fact that there's no shortage of food in the global village.
It's pretty obvious, that not everyone has access to the same resources but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.
I thought this could be a good time to plug the Global Poverty Project. D'Arcy Lunn put me onto this one. He's cycling up the East Coast of Australia to raise awareness of the project, and posting videos of his trip online. The big message is that 1.4 billion people on our planet are living in poverty and we've got to do something about it. Poverty, meaning they subsist on less than NZ$2 per day.
There's a series of public meetings being held in New Zealand this August.
- mon 24 Beehive event, Wellington
- tue 25 Auckland media/VIP event
- wed 26 - Dunedin at town hall
- thur 27 - Christchurch, majestic theatre
- fri 28 - Wellington at The Street venue , city centre
- sat 29 - Auckland at Beaumont Centre, city centre
- sun 30 - Tauranga, Holy Trinity
- mon 31 - Hamilton, Waikato Uni Price Waterhouse lecture theatre.
The Eternal Now
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
I always thought our only chance at immortality was in making an outstanding contribution to humanity. It was in this sense that Ben Jonson was able to declare, in his poetic tribute "To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare", that the playwright remained alive even after his death.
I'm afraid the possibilities I have of making such a contribution are dwindling by the year. Perhaps a certain maturity has replaced my youthful hubris because I am pretty sure I will be remembered by only a very few people when I'm gone.
But then I come across Aubrey de Grey on TED talks and I discover that I do have a chance at literal (as opposed to literary) immortality. Personally, I think he's a quack. But, supposedly, the science is "not demonstrably wrong"! The amount of discussion generated by this guy's talk is amazing! People really do want to live forever. Forever young, of course, not simply forever!
For now, I think I'll just keep living my life with the assumption (blinkered, if you will!) that I'm going to die. Probably within the next fifty years.
Yikes! That doesn't give me much time!
And that's the point, surely. The fact is that we do not live forever and that is why time matters.
This talk by Philip Zimbardo oulines some thoughts of his in relation to time. He also seems a bit quack-ish to me, although in a different way. He's part of a generation of social scientists who really thought that their insights could improve humanity. These particular insights aren't perhaps as obvious as I'd first thought, and therefore might be worth sharing.
Natural Language
I must admit I was disappointed: it works well for limited purposes.
Here's a review by cnet's Rafe Needleman:
He got a sneek preview earlier this month, and his comments match well with what I found. I've had the site bookmarked for a while, checking it every now and then to see if it was live. So like many things, the idea was better than the reality.
The idea is nothing new.
The idea is that there's an amazing amount of information on the internet, and it would be wonderful if you could simply ask a question and get an answer! Search engines (for which Google has become the benchmark as well as the shorthand) just give a list of locations that may contain the information you want. Some do it visually and others try to organise sites thematically, but they basically all do the same thing. From the results, you have to find your answer and sometimes it's not easy.
What wiki answers and other similar sites (such as yahoo!Xtra in New Zealand) try to do is link you to people who can answer your question. The answers are as fallible as the humans who provide them but the idea is that as time passes, a big enough database of answers accrues and you can start to sort the wheat from the chaff, helped by a friendly answer rating system. It's darwinian in its simplicity.
But if your question has a factual answer (some do!) surely there's a way of getting a straight answer without the need for a social network. Well, it's not as simple as you might think! Language is complex and this requires the computer to understand your question, not just dredge up locations which contain your phrase. (Read this wikipedia article on natural language processing for a quick overview of some of the difficulties involved.) START, a "natural language question answering system" set up by a crew at MIT, has been online since 1993. START's aim is "to supply users with 'just the right information' instead of merely providing a list of hits." You can ask questions like "What is the population of France?" and it will give a single answer, along with a source. The trouble is Google does pretty much the same thing, and you get to choose your source.
Wolfram|Alpha is in a different league. Take a look at Stephen Wolfram's video intro on the site and have a play around! Nova Spivack took a trial version through its paces a while ago and made extensive comments on it if you're interested in reading those. (He has a site/product called twine, which is one of these web 2.0 things designed to make the web more user-friendly by linking you to new content, based on what your interests are.) Wolfram|Alpha can compare data sets and, in that sense, it can provide answers to questions that have never been asked before.
The impression I'm left with, though, is that there's too strong a human hand in Wolfram|Alpha. The data is curated and, therefore, limited. Instead of taking you straight to the internet, it takes you to a database built up from selected information that's available online (and possibly some that's not available online). The curators will be chasing their tails trying to keep up with everything that users could possibly want to find out about. And the curators' biases inevitably come out strongly. Perhaps I would find it better if I were more mathematically inclined, for example.
Surely, the point is that the internet is a big, free-for-all, self-regulating entity and that's precisely its strength. No one can collate or organise the internet, let alone the sum of human knowledge.
The subversive hope
In particular, I've been thinking about the tension that exists in education between its inherent conservativism – the desire to pass on shared, perhaps traditional, values – and its more radical elements – the sense that learning can open up new possibilities.
I came across an old piece by Andrew Delbanco in the New York Review of Books. It's an article called "The Decline and Fall of Literature". In a sense, it's nothing amazing and I'm not sure that I agree with the overall tone of it. What it did, though, was remind me of the powerful role of education in igniting the soul!
Delbanco argues passionately for what he describes as an Emersonian view of education. Emerson gave up being a preacher and became a lecturer, but he saw the role of educator as essentially the same as that of evangelist. "The whole secret of the teacher's force," he wrote, "lies in the conviction that men are convertible. And they are. They want awakening."
Delbanco, of course, is writing about literary studies. Back in 1999, when the article was published, I was just starting my English degree. (Like most things, it took me rather longer to complete than it should have done!) And while I feel very removed from that world now, the debates that Delbanco refers to seem strangely familiar. A decade on, I still feel that they matter somehow.
What I find energising is the sense that what I learned through university is directly relevant to the kind of teaching I'm doing at the moment. And more important than what I learned at teachers' college, it saddens me to add!
Perhaps a long quote from the article might be the best way of explaining this.
Literary studies, in fact, have their roots in religion. Trilling understood this when he remarked, in [a] gloomy essay about the future of the humanities [contained in his 1979 collection The Last Decade: Essays and Reviews, 1965-75], that "the educated person" had traditionally been conceived as
an initiate who began as a postulant, passed to a higher level of experience, and became worthy of admission into the company of those who are thought to have transcended the mental darkness and inertia in which they were previously immersed.
Such a view of education as illumination and deliverance following what Trilling called "exigent experience" is entirely Emersonian. It has little to do with the positivist idea of education to which the modern research university is chiefly devoted—learning "how to extend, even by minute accretions, the realm of knowledge." This corporate notion of knowledge as a growing sum of discoveries no longer in need of rediscovery once they are recorded, and transmittable to those whose ambition it is to add to them, is a great achievement of our civilization. But except in a very limited sense, it is not the kind of knowledge that is at stake in a literary education.
I can't overstate how much I like this!
The instruction I received at Teachers' College was largely to do with systems. Both in the content and in the method of instruction, it was about ways of delivering content and measuring its accretion. Very little, if any, time was spent discussing the important questions of meaning. No one seemed to ask why, if at all, it was important to learn what we were being taught to teach.
If we believe that school is merely preparing individuals for a function in society, perhaps we'll accept this impoverished view of education. But it doesn't seem outrageous to claim that, in this period of history, although we are replete with (digitised) information and we have more communal knowledge than ever before, our souls are conspicuously malnourished.It seems important then, vital even, to be unapologetic about a transformative view of education. Whether it be at year 1 or at post doctoral level, what matters is not the accumulation of knowledge, it's the transformation of the individual.
It's only in this transformation that we may discover new possibilities, new ways of thinking, new ways of being. And hope lies clearly in this direction, for us and for our children.
Relax! Procrastinating's Good For You.
Usually, when I write online, there are several other things I probably should be doing instead!
Like now, for instance: I should be marking schoolwork. Then planning my maths lessons, deciding what to focus on for my recount writing later this term, organising reading materials for reading groups...
So if I haven't been blogging, you might think that's a good thing. I'm obviously focused, non-distracted, task oriented. In other words, getting stuff done.
Well, to a point, that's true.
I have been getting getting stuff done. But I have to face it, getting stuff done isn't that fun!
Going off on tangents is far more rewarding! And in support of this thesis, I find none other than the illustrious Leonardo da Vinci.
He reputedly spent his whole life pursuing tangents, rarely finishing anything. He's even been put forward as an archetypal procrastinator. The suggestion is that he could have done better, if only he had applied his talents in a more focused manner.
So, I was heartened to read this article, yesterday (when I should have been writing unit plans). The author, Bill Pannapacker, says da Vinci's so called procrastination is precisely what made him a genius. "Mediocrity gets perfectly mundane things done on time. But genius is uncontrolled and uncontrollable. You cannot produce a work of genius according to a schedule or an outline."
"Procrastination," he writes, "is a calling away from something that we do against our desires toward something that we do for pleasure."
Next time I'm wading through my big long list of things to do, feeling creatively stultified, I'll remind myself of Leonardo and go where my inspiration leads me, rather than do what I'm supposed to be doing.
I'll be better off for it, and my students might be, too.
Moving On
Moving certainly makes you realise how much stuff you have! Our new house has a caravan parked out the back, which the previous occupants left for us! So, Felicity and I were reminiscing about the summer when we lived in a caravan. Life seemed simpler then. Perhaps memory simplifies things but I'm sure we had less stuff back then!
We joked that we could just move into the caravan and use the house for storage. Less housework, less heating, less hassle...
This New Zealand design, the portabach, could work! Pack everything into a container, sit it on blocks,open it up and, hey presto, you have an instant home!
Perhaps we should just consider moving to the Middle East. This guy doesn't seem too affected by the political vagaries of the region.
I can just picture us in a tent – Sebastian would love it!
Ah, the simple life...
Why do I do it?
Among the various other climbers in the hut, there were 3 Aussie guys, making a documentary about the history of mountaineering on Mt Cook, who interviewed us after our ascent. Their questions were geared towards a lay audience – people who don't know the first thing about climbing. Those sort of questions take you right back to basics. Let's face it, not every one thinks it's perfectly natural to want to get to the top of snowy peaks.
One response is to say that if you have to ask the question, "why do you climb mountains?", you simply won't understand the answer! But my family and friends deserve more than some sort of pseudo-zen evasiveness. It seems to me, the point is that climbing involves an element of risk. Of sports like soccer or golf, the question is different; although they are undeniably futile pursuits in the grand scheme of things, very few people die playing them. So, if you choose one or the other, it's really a matter of no great consequence. "Why do you climb?", on the other hand, is a question that deserves a decent answer.
I felt I wasn't able to articulate a decent on-the-spot answer for the camera. Here, I'll try to share some of the thoughts I've had during the last fortnight.
To say I climbed Aoraki "because it's there" simply isn't sufficient. It's too obviously disingenuous, anyway. In a sense the idea of mountain is there before the mountain itself. It strikes me that I wanted to be a climber before I'd ever set eyes on a mountain! Growing up in France, one of the few television programmes my parents allowed us kids to watch was called, if I remember rightly, "Les Carnets de l'Aventure". Adventurers of various persuasions, and their achievements, were celebrated for the entertainment of television audiences. I think it made quite an impression on me. Bushwalking in Tasmania, with my brothers, I remember us saying "this is just like 'Carnets de l'Aventure'!" We were conscious of the irony, aware of the life/art reversal. But we had an idea of adventure, for better of for worse. We knew what adventure was, and we recognised it when we saw it.
So perhaps climbing is egotistical. Our mediatised culture admires adventurers, and climbing is one way to gain the title. It's a way of simultaneously setting myself apart from the crowd and being validated by it.
I can't completely dismiss that possibility. But although that might have contributed to my initial interest in climbing, the reality of climbing is very far from the romanticised version of it. It actually no longer feels particularly glamourous, heroic, or even adventurous to me. Mostly, I would say that I do it purely because I enjoy doing it. And I think I would enjoy doing it if everyone else thought it a completely foolish thing to do.
My enjoyment is for several reasons:
- Most of all, it's incredibly beautiful in the mountains. Indescribably so.
- Climbing is often physically demanding, and I derive tremendous satisfaction from completing difficult tasks.
- I enjoy the mental focus required.
- In New Zealand, climbing can involve being away from people. That isolation is attractive to me.
- I value the friendships I have formed through climbing.
- I like being methodical, and planning the best way to do something.
But have I really answered the question? Given the satisfaction I derive from climbing, is the risk involved justifiable? In fact, I think the risk is actually a significant part of the attraction of climbing. To continue the sporting comparison, in soccer or golf, if you make a mistake, you lose the match or the round, or perhaps the ball. In the mountains, a mistake could potentially be fatal. In a culture which seems to be increasingly risk-averse, I think this is very healthy. And it is in this reminder of my own mortality that I find perhaps the most persuasive reason for climbing.
Change & Adaptation
But since my climbing accident last year, I've gained an increased awareness of the ways in which it is quite unreliable.
So, an article in this week's New Zealand Listener grabbed my attention immediately. It was a plug, under the guise of an interview, (and by whom, I don't recall) for a recent book by New York University professor Gary Marcus. The New Scientist reviewed it here earlier this year. The main point seems clear enough: the brain was not so much designed, as cobbled together, using a kiwi "number 8 wire" method, with whatever was at hand.
In a word, the brain is a kluge [rhymes with deluge].
Here's an example of one (from his blog).
Although it isn't elegant, it works – more or less! It certainly isn't the solution you'd come up with if you started from scratch.
It's a word which now seems indispensable!
My life is a bit of a kluge. One bit gets added on to the previous bit and I try to fit it all together with a careful narrative that is flexible enough to accommodate various about-turns!
So, we're moving up to Fox Glacier soon. I decided to apply for a position at Fox Glacier School, equivalent to the one I have here at Jacobs River, and was offered the job last week. It's a sudden change in some ways, but one which has obvious benefits for me professionally, and for us as a family.
Something that surprises me is how, no matter what decision I make, I usually find a way of justifying it to myself. It's one of those unreliable things about the brain!
But throughout the world, babies are born every second. About 4 and a quarter babies per second, in fact! Mitigated by deaths, this equates to two and a half extra people on the planet each second. If you need a sobering reminder of just how fast the world's population is increasing, visit this live counter.
Remote as we like to think we are in South Westland, we're certainly not isolated from the rest of the world. Even here, I notice the effects of population growth. People from other parts of the world come here in increasing numbers, hoping to enjoy the natural beauty of the area. As a result, the village of Fox Glacier that I first visited 10 years ago has changed markedly. People I meet continue to wonder how I can possibly live anywhere so small but, to me, some parts of the village have taken on a distinct suburban feel. (I don't dare point out to them that I actually live in another, much smaller, settlement!) The latest, shameful, addition to the village's growing list of motels is a collection of fake Tuscan buildings, which have taken the place of the rainforested "Glow Worm Grotto". The sign outside says "We only look expensive".
This afternoon, I came across this video of my grandfather-in-law at home in Tacoma, Washington, answering a few questions about his book, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change. He first became sensitised to population pressure when he noticed the increased numbers of visitors to National Parks in Washington state. It's worth listening to him explain some of his thoughts on the matter.
Elsewhere, he makes the point that, although the Earth's human population hasn't reached the astronomical numbers Malthus might have feared, the situation is actually worse than he predicted. Because we consume at a greater rate than Malthus could have envisaged, we're using more resources than billions more of our predecessors might have. Which is why it's wrong to blame the Earth's problems on population growth in developing nations; we in the developed world use far more resources than they do, despite their greater numbers.
Incidentally, World Population Day is 11th July. Be sure to put it in your diary!
Global Philosophy
It also turns out that David Bain lectures in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. I can't comment on his jersey, but he provided these 4 philosophical brain teasers for the Beeb.
What I want to know is who decides what we celebrate each day of the year. ("I want to know" is rhetorical here; I don't want to know quite enough to be bothered googling it.)
It was World Teachers' Day not that long ago. My only colleague and I congratulated each other on being teachers. And that was it. Not a single card from the kids we teach. No flowers. No "Happy World Teachers' Day Mr Hattrell". We didn't even mention it to them.
I don't quite get the point of a dedicated day for teachers/philosophers/etc. What's it supposed to achieve? It's a bit like mothers' day and fathers' day. Maybe Hallmark will start producing "Happy Philosophy Day" cards! And who really believes that in every country of the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, these World [fill in the blank] Days are actually observed?
Now, as an earnest subscriber to the New Internationalist, I realise it's the International Year of Sanitation but who knew it was World Toilet Day on Wednesday (the 19th November)?
The NRDC (don't worry, I don't know what it stands for either) put out a press release about it, on the day, presumably one of many organisations who tried to spread the word. It must have got buried among other items, certainly not making into the "most emailed news stories" on my favourite news provider's website.
But apparently, "more than half of all girls who drop out of primary school in developing countries do so because they lack separate toilets and access to clean water."
So that was one day I perhaps should have known about. Probably more worthy of global consideration than World Teachers' Day and even World Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day. And perhaps worth thinking about on World Philosophy Day. I'll just have to get one of those "Sorry I'm late" cards for it.
A Better Future...
Though I very much doubt it.
I woke up at 2 a.m. last night to find myself in Sebastian's room. I'd fallen asleep next to him when I was putting him to bed. That's how tired I am at the moment! I got up, crept into the study and checked the computer.
The little coloured icons on the auto-updating website had been shuffling around in a vaguely parliamentary formation since 7 o'clock and had finally settled. There were an awful lot of blue ones. A few more clicks revealed the precise details. I won't bore you with them. (They're here if you're interested.) But even the Labour Party representative for the West Coast had lost to his National Party opponent.
The 8 green icons were good news. That and Winston's demise. But two extra Greens aren't going to have much influence on policy, I'm afraid, despite their best intentions and their genuine concern with the future of our children and the planet we live on.
John Key promised a better future measured by the weight of our back pockets. Reducing taxes doesn't seen particularly visionary to me but it must be what people want. I'm just hoping that it's going to be a case of "plus ca change..."
Twilight of the Blogosphere
That's according to this article by some chap called Paul Boutin.
Gosh! If that's the case, perhaps I should quit while I'm ahead, take his advice and "pull the plug" on my feeble attempt at a web log. Trust me to turn up at the party when everyone else is leaving! The cool cats these days twitter, flickr or facebook.
But you came to catch up with a friend. Not to listen to a journalist or a specialist of some sort. There's been no compulsion. I didn't clutter your inbox with a group email you hadn't asked for. No imposition. You're here because you feel like it. You dropped by in your own time, on your own whim.
So, I'll just try to be me
...and make it vaguely interesting.
How's that?


text:
About 75% of all Americans will have hemorrhoids at some point in their lives. Fortunately, most flare-ups are not severe and can be improved with Preparation H® and simple, at-home treatments:
For tips on treating hemorrhoids while at work or traveling, see Treating Flare-Ups Away From Home.
Please feel free to contact us with your questions and comments in any of the following ways:
1-800-99PrepH or 1-800-997-7374
Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.
PCH Product Information
Pfizer Inc.
PO Box 1043
Kings Mountain, NC 28086
To ask a question online, click here
Or visit our Product FAQ section to see if we have already provided the
information you are looking for.
"I take pretty good care of myself. I watch what I eat, I work out a couple times a week and I try not to stress out too much. But for the past year, I've had hemorrhoids on and off. I'm not sure what triggers the flare-ups—but I've read it could be from my diet or straining when weightlifting." Read about Gus's Personal Relief Plan
The duration of a flare-up varies by person. It can last anywhere from a few days to more than a week. Some people have flare-ups once a month, others only once every few years. Read more
*Among OTC brands
Use as directed
This site is intended for residents of the United States.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Making Sense of Senseless Events
by Christine Hazelett, ATR-BC, LCPC
ITA Practice Manager and Art Therapist
In the wake of the horrific school shooting in Connecticut, many parents are wondering how, and whether, they should talk to their children.
6 Things you CAN do
1. Wait to talk about an event/experience until your child brings it up.
The younger the child, the more this is true. Young children may not even be aware that something scary happened and there is no reason to bring it into their world unless it has a direct impact on them or until they begin to wonder, ask questions or express feelings about it.
2. Answer questions clearly and directly.
It's difficult to know what to say to your child when you, as a parent, are overwhelmed or scared by something too. You might want to avoid or change the subject when your kids ask questions. Please don't. It's ok for your kids to know that you have strong feelings too. It will actually help them to see you model safe emotional expression. Things will feel even scarier to them if questions are left unanswered or, worse, if they don't feel like they can ask questions. Imagination takes over and may lead your child to a much scarier place or a much scarier outcome than is realistic. There are no absolute right or wrong answers. Do your best and keep it simple.
3. Reassurance is important, your kids will need it and so will you.
Answers like "we are ok" or "it happened far away" will be helpful to bring back a sense of immediate safety, but emotional responses are important too and deserve empathy. Your child might need you to help him/her name his/her feelings. The younger the child, the more true this is. You might say, "I understand you might feel ______________ (worried, scared, sad, etc.). Me, too. Sometimes scary things happen and it's difficult to understand."
4. Provide opportunities to express thoughts and feelings.
When events are sudden, frightening and inexplicable words might not be the best way to express the associated feelings/responses. In fact, responses to trauma and tragedy will most definitely be sensory. It might help to offer your children the opportunity to draw, paint, play with clay or playdoh, and join them in the creative process. Keep this open ended by saying something like, "Let's see if we can draw a picture together. Can you show me what ____________ (scared, sad, worried, angry, lonely, etc.) looks like to you?" Other options for non-verbal methods of processing emotional experiences might be: "Show me what ____________________(sad, angry, worried, scared, etc.) looks like by moving your body and your face" then mirror their response back to them to show them what it looks like. Show them ways they might be able to move their bodies to release some of the big feelings (stomping feet, clapping hands, running or doing jumping jacks, squeezing a pillow or favorite plushy, wrapping up in a cozy blanket, giving a hug). Practice the movement with them. Use books or favorite storybook characters to tell a story about the event or emotions offering various outcomes or interactions to help your child make some sense of what they are experiencing.
5. Normalize emotional responses.
Don't assume that you know how your child feels. Get really curious about their experience and ask lots of questions. In processing images they might create or other non-verbal forms of expression (facial expression, uncommon act of aggression, body tension, posture changes, etc.) notice the changes in them or specific aspects of their images. You might ask "I noticed you are frowning. Are you concentrating really hard or are you feeling _______________________(sad, angry, etc.)." or "Wow, you're really mad about something. Hitting hurts. Are you feeling _____________ (scared, sad, angry, etc.)? Does that hurt, too?" Remember that there are no "good" or "bad" feelings and any feelings your children might be having are "normal" and just fine. The same goes for your own feelings.
6. Trust your instincts.
No one knows your children better than you do. If something doesn't seem to be working, or doesn't feel right, you don't need to do it. Hug your kids! It will comfort both of you.


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Oracle » Java System Application Server » 8.2 : Vulnerability Statistics
Vulnerability Trends Over Time
Warning : Vulnerabilities with publish dates before 1999 are not included in this table and chart. (Because there are not many of them and they make the page look bad; and they may not be actually published in those years.)
If you can't see MS Office style charts above then it's time to upgrade your browser!
This page lists vulnerability statistics for Oracle Java System Application Server 8.2 . Vulnerability statistics provide a quick overview for security vulnerabilities of Oracle Java System Application Server 8.2


text:
The City of Wilmington and New Hanover County are in discussions to jointly participate in a study that would look at options for providing fire services to the community. Fire service is one of several areas City Manager Sterling Cheatham and County Manager Chris Coudriet have discussed over the last several months about how the city and county could work together to reduce costs or increase service.
The County Manager sent a letter to the City Manager requesting the city and county join forces to commission a study identifying efficiencies that could be achieved through further partnering of the two fire departments. The letter went on to state that the study "evaluate the current conditions of each agency, including their organization structure, staffing, capital assets, and service delivery; and future opportunities for cooperative efforts, including multiple options for shared services up to and including consolidation."
The request grew out of an initial conversation held between City Council and County commissioners during a joint work session held Aug. 9, 2012 to discuss several issues, including possible options for future collaboration between the two governments.
The feasibility of further review of other service areas will continue over the next several months. "As public dollars continue to shrink, we must responsibly look for ways to save money while also maintaining our high level of service," said City Manager Sterling Cheatham. "We must ensure that both city and county residents benefit from any further collaboration."
"This is part of our ongoing effort to explore shared and reduced costs without compromising on service delivery," said County Manager Chris Coudriet. "This study, if agreed to, is simply the first step in determining what is feasible, and comes as a suggestion after several conversations with city leadership and the board of commissioner's expectations to look harder at local partnerships."
Read the letter from New Hanover County to the city.


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Mission Statement
The mission of Ohio Valley Hospital's School of Radiography is to meet the needs of the communities we serve by offering a radiologic technology program. This program aims to provide an environment for the development of competent and professional future radiologic technologists. We do this by offering a solid clinical and theoretical background in the Radiologic Sciences.
School of Radiography
About Us
The Ohio Valley Hospital/La Roche College Radiography Program is a full-time, primarily daylight program that is 24 months in length, including two summers. Classes start at the end of August. Although schedules may vary, students typically attend classes at the hospital two to three days per week during the fall and spring semesters, and three to five days per week during summer sessions. Please take a look at our brochure.
Please call our School of Radiography office at 412-777-6210 for more information.
Students successfully completing the program are awarded a certificate in Radiologic Technology and an associate degree in Health Science with a concentration in Radiologic Technology from La Roche College. They are then eligible to take the national certification examination administered by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). Students passing the national certification examination with a score of 75 percent or higher are then recognized professionally as registered radiologic technologists.
The Field of Radiologic Technology
A radiologic technologist, or radiographer, is a health care professional who plays an important role in patient care by assisting with the diagnosis and treatment of illness and disease. Through the use of x-rays, radiologic technologists perform sophisticated diagnostic imaging tests that uncover a wide range of medical conditions, helping doctors determine the best course of treatment for their patients.
The Ohio Valley Hospital/La Roche College Radiography Program is accredited by The Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology. Inquiries may be sent to:
The Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology
20 North Wacker Drive, Suite 2850
Chicago, Illinois 60606-3182
Phone: 312-704-5300
Website: www.jcert.org
Email: email@example.com


text:
"Mochou" means "without sorrow"; we couldn't find a more appropriate name for a lake. If one day you come to China, come to Nanjing and visit Mochou Hu Park. You will certainly find someone who will tell you a story about a graceful girl named Mochou and her loyal love who unfortunately led her to a tragic end a long, long time ago. Me, I am a photographer…
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Poésie II Published March 14, 2013
Poésie Published February 04, 2012
MADE IN DATONG Published November 20, 2011


text:
2013-10-09 / Obituaries
GLADEWATER -- Services for Robert W. Easley, 55, of Gilmer, will be 11 a.m. Thursday, October 10, at Croley Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Pete Dugger officiating. Burial will be in Hagansport Cemetery.
Stories older than 30 days are only accessible by purchasing access to each story at $1.99. If you have trouble with this feature please contact our circulation department at firstname.lastname@example.com
or 903-984-2593.


text:
GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1993). A study of Say's grandfather's life in Japan and the United States as well as his love and longing for both. Winner of the Caldecott Medal. Excellent companion book for TEA WITH MILK. Ages 4-up.
HOW MY PARENTS LEARNED TO EAT by Ina R. Friedman and illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1984). In this historical story of love and respect, the child narrator tells the story of how her Japanese mother and American sailor father learned the ways of eating in each other's cultures in an effort to better fit together. Ages 4-up.
A JAR OF DREAMS by Yoshiko Uchida (Paper, Aladdin, 1993). Rinko wishes that she didn't stick out because of her Japanese-America heritage. She wants to be like everyone else. A visit from Aunt Waka and her Japanese lessons and ways changes Rinko's mind about who she is. Set during the depression in California. Ages 8-up.
SONG OF THE STRANGER by Angela Tung (Roxbury, 1999). Karen Nomura, 13, is a talented young artist who thinks she knows "her Japanese self." What she doesn't know is how Obasan (Grandmother) from Hokkaido can be so unfriendly. The two don't know each other at the beginning of the story because Obasan was born and raised in California, went to the camps, and then moved to Japan. Now because of a death bed promise, Obasan takes Karen to Japan to learn more about her cultural heritage. But Karen doesn't want to go and is unhappy to be in Obasan's house in part because of Obasan's very negative attitude toward Karen's art. But perhaps there is a reason for Obasan's feelings and it traces all the way back to the United States and to WWII. Ages 9-up.
TEA WITH MILK by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1999). When May's parents move back to Japan because they are tired of being seen as foreigners, May finds herself feeling like a foreigner for the first time. She learns many customs and the language but eventually decides to move to the city and get a job. Will she find a love and a home with a like soul? Excellent companion book to GRANDFATHER'S JOURNEY. Ages 4-up.
TREE OF CRANES by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin, 1991). Told with quiet charm and dignity, the story of a mother who shares with her son in Japan a part of her American childhood: Christmas. Ages 4-up.
YOSHIKO AND THE FOREIGNER by Mimi Otey Little (Farrar, 1996). The author shares a story of her family history, about how a Japanese young woman broke custom and defied caution to speak to a foreigner, changing both of their lives forever. Ages 4-up.


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- History And Science In Tandem
- New Art Again
- For Future Generations
- A Wealth Of Turkmen Jewelry
- A Lasting Contribution To Cinema
- Changing The Lock On The Kaaba
- Antiques From East To West
- Rally On The Ocean Shore
- POST-Safari!
- 2 Cities, 2 Film Festivals
- The Tennis Season Opens
- His Father's Son
- Europe's Little Gem
- Happy Travels To All
For Future Generations
Slated to be held in Antalya in 2016, EXPO 2016 will be Turkey's first EXPO. The theme of the event is Children and Flowers, its motto A Green World for Future Generations. EXPO 2016 will take place on a 112,000-hectare area in the Aksu Municipality from April to October, 2016.
Among the objectives of the event are to endow future generations with environmental awareness, to create the world's largest agricultural and environmental museum, and to ensure the spread of alternative energy sources to counter global climate change.
Pointing out that the event will be visited by close to eight million people during its six months and is expected to generate a revenue of 4 billion Euros, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Mehdi Eker, had things to say about EXPO:
"The primary objective of EXPO 2016 is to ensure an exchange of information for a better world. The event is being brought to life with the approval of the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) and the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), and its contribution to the country where it is held is enormous."
Antalya Governor Dr. Ahmet Altıparmak also expressed his views on the EXPO: "EXPO 2016 Antalya is going to be an important experience for Turkey. To realize the event and bring it to a successful conclusion, all of our government officials, most notably, our President, Mr. Abdullah Gül, and our Prime Minister, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have pledged their complete support. From now on, we will be continuing our efforts under the leadership of Mr. Mehdi Eker with the same understanding and sense of responsibility."
Launched in the mid-19th century, EXPO is also known as the World's Fair. The expositions, which have radically changed every city in which they have been held, have also brought those cities magnificent monumental buildings.
Participation of 100 countries and 30 international companies is targeted at EXPO 2016 Antalya, where 20,000 different activities are planned by the end of the event.


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Top Definition
A person who suffers from a severe lack of sex despite being in a committed relationship.
"After being married for 14 years, I am now a practicing Getnosexual."
af Park Dad 24. februar 2010
A person who fails to fit in any other sexual category! or just carnt get any sex!
homosexual, bi-sexual, hetrosexual, getnosexual
af Rusty Andre 22. december 2009


text: We may have discussed this before, but that seems to be true of most issues on this list! I want to be able to run Xvnc on a Linux box and allow users to connect to it, but I would prefer that they use SSH tunnels from outside the network. I see no way to force them to use SSH tunnels. If I set up VNC for them, they can connect without the tunnel and I can't stop them. Thus, I would like to know if there is an Xvnc for Linux (or any unix OS) that has encryption built in. Of course, we'd need a viewer that also had encryption built in. That way we could avoid the hassles of setting up the SSH tunnels and would not have to worry if user connections are encrypted. Of course, if such a thing does not exist, I recommend it as a project! Mike -- Michael B. Miller, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Division of Epidemiology and Institute of Human Genetics University of Minnesota http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/


text:
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Latest posts are at the bottom of this page.Use the filter buttons above to help find answers - click on the boxes
Q: I was diagnosed from an adrenal stress test with stage 4 adrenal exhaustion..by then all I could do was lie in bed all day.I took prescribed supplements and after 3 months my energy was much better,as I also have sore kidneys I was advised to try acupuncture.the acupuncturist diagnosed my liver as being the source of my exhaustion. I agree with this. She has 20 years experience but after 7 treatments,when I was gradually gaining strength a treatment devastated my adrenals and I was thrown back 3 months with my symptoms.It is 3 weeks and I haven't recovered.I feel she was too heavy handed I pointed out how sensitive I am before treatment but this has not been taken into account. Can you recommend an acupuncturist who has a light touch,who can treat my liver/kidneys?
A: We are very sorry to hear of your experience. We have come across a small number of cases like yours where a treatment may well have been a little too powerful for the patient. To be absolutely fair, though, we also have to say that our experience of patients recovering from all sorts of long term chronic problems like adrenal exhaustion or the various ME-related conditions is that they can often have a good run with treatment and then for no discernible reason have setbacks which feel like they are back to square one.
The overall strategy with these sorts of conditions appears to be to treat as gently as possible, and to the extent that this is something that any practitioner can do it is simply a matter of negotiating with the practitioner about what they do. This expert, for example, has a patient who insists on no more than three needles per session at a very superficial level, and our experience of doing more than that has been very educational - she gets blown away by treatment and ends up being disorientated for a week.
The question really is whether you have lost confidence in the practitioner. If so, then the best thing to do is to use our postcode search facility to find a number of BAcC members near to you, and then to visit each of them in turn for a brief face to face chat to explain your predicament. The fact that you have had treatment with someone else is something which they will be duty bound not to discuss with the previous practitioner if you ask them not to, and you should assess whether you have confidence in any of them to keep the treatment as simple as possible. It may well be that you feel that the existing practitioner still has your confidence, and this would obviously be the best route to follow. She will know your energies well, and if it is simply a matter of turning the volume down, then she should be well capable of doing that.
We hope you manage to make some good progress. We are aware that adrenal exhaustion is not always accepted by the orthodox professionals, and this can make for a very uncomfortable situation when someone's genuine inability to work is not backed up by doctors who cannot fit the symptoms into their diagnostic models.
Q: I am having difficulty switching off and relaxing. This results in tension in my neck and other areas. I am interested in finding a "good" acupuncturist for, perhaps, treating stress. My stress isn't chronic but I'd like to try such therapy. Other than emailing each acupuncturist located in my area suggested by your site, is there any way of telling which ones are better experienced in certain treatments?
A: The short answer is 'no'. From our perspective, all of our members are equally well qualified to treat all patients. The only areas where we are looking to develop standards which define expert practice, and which may have an impact on our recommendations, are obstetrics, paediatrics and mental health problems. In each of these areas, there is additional learning, often in conventional medicine but in the case of paediatrics in Chinese mediicne, which would mean that someone working primarily with each group maybe better qualified to deal with what they find. In all other respects, the Chinese medicine which underpins the approach is known by all, and to a large measure is independent of the conventional disease labels which we all tend to use. Chinese medicine treats the person rather than the disease, and a label like 'stress' can mean as many different diagnoses in Chinese medicine as it can mean descriptions of stress in conventional medicine. The skilled practitioner will listen to what you tell them about how the stresses manifest in your system and from that, using Chinese diagnostic signs as well, determine areas of imbalance and poor flow which they need to correct. Having said that, many patients like to be able to make a good rapport with their practitioner as a part of the process of improving their health, and phoning rather than simply e-mailing often gives a prospective patient a good idea of who they are going to be dealing with. In this respect we're just like any other business; the services are pretty standard but we use the ones which suit us as individuals. Word of mouth referral still remains very important, though, and although you may not want to divulge your intention to anyone else you may well find that someone you know has had treatment and can give you a personal recommendation. This is the best guarantee of finding what you want and remains the most valued and effective source of referrals for most practitioners.
Q: I have a recurring problem with my shoulder and neck caused by stress and tension. I have received physiotherapy and osteopathy but I would now like to try something different. Is accupunture suitable for treating shoulder/neck complaints. I think the issue is mainly muscular but also affects the nerve in my arm.
A: There is no doubt that a great many people have acupuncture treatment for neck and shoulder problems, as well as coming along for stress and tension which they themselves recognise are the cause of neck and shoulder problems. On both fronts there is a gathering body of evidence which suggests that acupuncture may be of benefit, as our factsheets on stress http://www.acupuncture.org.uk/a-to-z-of-conditions/a-to-z-of-conditions/stress.html and other factsheets on sports injuries and muscular problems show.
We are sure, then, that acupuncture may be a suitable treatment for your problems. You will find that many conventional medical doctors and physiotherapists also use acupuncture in the form of 'trigger point acupuncture' to unknot the muscles. Our concern, however, would be to discover what the causes of the tension were. For many people the modern workplace is a significant and unavoidable source of a great many neck and shoulder problems, and even your 'expert' is starting to suffer this afternoon, having spent the last couple of hours at a keyboard and screen without a break. If this is the case then while acupuncture may help to reduce the problems they will tend to recur. Adapting the workplace or looking at various postural techniques such as the Alexander Technique may offer a longer term solution.
In most cases, though, it is not simply the physical stress of work but the mental and often emotional stress which can be a large contributory factor. The systems of Chinese medicine were developed over two thousand years ago with the key word 'appropriate' underlying much of the understanding. All of us will, and perhaps should, experience some tension and stress in life, just as we should have our fair share of grief, anger, joy, and so on. The key thing is that there is an appropriate length of time to hang on to any emotion or mental response, and then we should be able tmove on. The stresses of modern life are relentless, however, and we find very often that they affect the system such that people get stuck. From a Chinese medicine perspective, where body mind and spirit are interlinked, a mental or physical blockage may impact the whole system in the same way, and there are means of treating both, wherever the body's reaction is no longer 'appropriate.'
The best advice we can give is that you visit a BAcC member local to you to ask if in their view your own case is suitable for treatment. We are confident that a brief face to face assessment will be far more informative that we can be here, and may offer you a better perspective on whether acupuncture or some other modality like massage or related techniques may be a better bet.
The factsheet on our website here outlines a number of systematic reviews and randomised control trials which show some positive evidence for the effect of acupuncture on hypertension/high blood pressure. Taken as a whole the evidence is not quite good enough for us to make unequivocal claims for the efficacy of treatment, but there are certainly a great many patients who, alongside their western medication, use acupuncture regularly to help to maintain a relaxed approach to life and to help to break the cycle of anxiety/tension leading to high BP leading to anxiety/tension into which people can become 'locked'. Clearly the ancient Chinese did not have sphygmomanometers to measure blood pressure, and the diagnosis of the patient rested on the symptoms raising from the high BP which they experienced and some of the signs which a Chinese medicine practitioner looks for when taking the pulse at the wrist, looking at the tongue and a number of other indicators of imbalance. Not surprisingly the overlap between high BP and some of the syndromes into which the symptoms are grouped is very imprecise. This is one reason, for example, why research can prove problematic because the same reading of the BP in 20 patients can arise from 20 different diagnoses in Chinese medicine, which is not helpful if you're trying to standardise all the elements in a piece of research. The best course of action, as we say in nearly every response, is to visit a local BAcC member and ask their advice face to face. There are no rules about how many sessions someone should have for a condition, and a great deal will depend on whether in the practitioner's view the problem is a part of a much deeper pattern of distress or whether there are simple problems like blockages in the energy flow which mght be the prime cause. All that we ask our members to do is to remember to set reasonable outcomes, to review treatment regularly and certainly to review progress after four or five sessions to ensure that it is worth continuing and to make sure that the patient is happy to keep coming in.
Q. Hi, thank you for taking time to read and reply to my email. I am suffering from slight to mild anxiety (and OCD) and I'm currently going through a course of CBT with a therapist and he recommended acupuncture as a possible way to help relieve it. Will this help and where would you recommend I go for it in glasgow?
A. While the evidence (see our factsheet) for the use of acupuncture in the treatment of anxiety is not yet conclusive, there are promising signs in some trials, and certainly no evidence that any harm has befallen someone treated for this. From a Chinese medicine perspective, where many patterns of disharmony and imbalance are tied to the word 'appropriate', anxiety states which are reasonable to have in some circumstances become locked in a pattern which does not relent, and begin to manifest themselves at inappropriate times until they often become a way of living. Just as the CBT and conventional medicine aim to break the cycle which maintains this unwanted response to daily life, acupuncture treatment in Chinese medicine is aimed at re-establishing patterns of health on all levels - physical, mental, emotional. The simple underlying premise is that a system in balance corrects its own symptoms naturally, and leads to a set of more appropriate responses to the challenges of modern life. We do not give personal recommendations for specific members; in our view all of our members are trained to a standard which guarantees that your concerns will be addressed safely, competently and ethically. It may be worth contacting one or two members in the area if you decide to go ahead with treatment, because a good rapport with the practitioner can sometimes enhance the outcomes of treatment.
If you have any questions about acupuncture, browse our archive or ask an expert.
Research based factsheets have been prepared for over 60 conditions especially for this website
Catch up with the latest news on acupuncture in the national media
Keep up to date with our news or join the #acupuncture conversation
Thinking about trying acupuncture?
Have a look at our Frequently asked questions, browse our video testimonials or the Ask an expert area
63 Jeddo RoadLondon W12 9HQPhone: 020 8735 0400
Fax: 020 8735 0404
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Mar 15, 2012 8:49 AM
There can be nothing better than when two or three designers get together and come up with a super item to unveil for us greedy consumers. Our current love is the Kate Spade Tretorn Trey Shoe ($98). Kate Spade and Tretorn provided the perfect canvas for the gorgeous prints of Australian artist Florence Broadhurst: a sneaker! We can't wait to wear these comfy sneaks with our summer duds. We bet they'd look darling with a casual denim sundress!
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out:


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Maroon Madness at SIU Arena on Sat., Oct. 20
Oct. 12, 2012
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Saluki Basketball will hold "Maroon Madness" at SIU Arena on Saturday, Oct. 20, in which fans can get their first look at the 2012-13 men's and women's basketball teams.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. and feature player introductions, brief scrimmages by both teams, coaches interviews and an autograph session. The first 1,000 fans will receive a free rally towel. Next Saturday is also Tag Day, in which available season-ticket seating inventory will be tagged and available for purchase.
Maroon Madness is free to the public, and fans who bring their rally towel to Davies Gym later that evening will receive free admission to SIU's volleyball match versus Missouri State at 7 p.m.


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Everything you ever imagined. And more!
Yes, if you don't fish or hunt you might think the annual ISE isn't for you. Yes, if you're squeemish about trophy mounted fish and game you might think the same. My first time at ISE Sacramento it took some time to adjust; then discovered that ISE had many things of interest for an outdoor enthusiast. Not only that, but I ran into many friends from around the state and beyond.
Wear your comfy walking/running shoes. There's a lot of ground to cover. More than 600 exhibitors. Plus, hands-on special features, contests, 200+ free seminars and demonstrations spread throughout the show's five huge buildings. Displays of bass and sportfishing boats. Guides, outfitters from around the West, Canada, and Mexico. Six hours of fly-tying demonstrations.
For fun, how about Beer Buddy Hoodies and Dog Day Spice Rub? Discover Klamath, Oregon, Hotel Beuna Vista Beach Resort, Convict Lake Resort and David Walley's for fabulous recreation getaways! Now that's not so scary. The list goes on: Legacy Forged Millwork & Doors,Tailhunter Restaurant, Zipline Rentals, and Sugar Barge RV Resort & Marina. Is your interest piqued?
Among the many activities there's also a Youth Fair presented by California Inland Fisheries Foundation, California State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways. Introduce your kids to the outdoors with interactive and hands-on experiences. The youth fair opens Friday afternoon and continues through the weekend. Everything in the Youth Fair is free, from 18 different organizations. Plus, a rock-climbing wall.
International Sportsmen's Exposition
Cal Expo, State Fairgrounds
1600 Exposition Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95815
January 9 - 12, 2014
Thursday - 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Friday - 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Saturday - 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
Sunday - 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Adults: $15.00: Children, 15 and under, are free with a paid adult.
Pick-up $2.00 discount at area retailers.


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David Wilcox
Position: LB
Height: 6-3 Weight: 241 lbs.
Born: September 29, 1942 in Ontario, OR
High School: Vale Union
College: Boise St., Oregon (school history)
Drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the 3rd round (29th overall) of the 1964 NFL Draft.
Drafted by the Houston Oilers in the 6th round (46th overall) of the 1964 AFL Draft.
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 72 (521st overall since 1950)
Relatives: Father of Josh Wilcox and Brother of John Wilcox
7-time Pro Bowler & 2-time First-Team All-Pro (fine print)
Inducted into Hall of Fame in 2000
Our primary support comes from users like you. Sponsor this page for $10. Your message will replace this ad.
1966 Game Log: Regular Season · Playoffs · vs.


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The month of April, 2014 at Lake Murray, in San Diego, showed a diminishing number of wintering birds. Already, by the beginning of the month, numbers of scaup, gulls, ruddy ducks, and redhead ducks were noticeably less. Summer birds such as hooded orioles were already arriving and looking for mates. Here are some observations made about the birds at Lake Murray during the month.
Diminished numbers of coots, scaup, ruddy ducks at the beginning of the month. Coot numbers are about a fifth of what they were at their peak in the fall. Lesser scaup steadily declined during the month going from a couple dozen in the beginning to about three or four at the end of the month. Mallards were less than half of normal, possibly due to many females beginning to nest.
At the beginning of the month, one domestic mallard had several ducklings which didn't survive more than a week. Another family of wild mallard ducklings was seen near the end of the month. Two Canada geese were also nesting, but no goslings were seen by the end of the month. Ruddy ducks were fairly numerous at the beginning of the week, but were nearly absent at the end of the month.
A few surprises this month include warbling vireos singing loudly and least bitterns becoming more vocal. Many birds have begun breeding, making them less vocal and more difficult to find and count. Bushtit numbers appear greatly diminished, possibly due to flocks breaking up to nest. Other birds have mostly moved out of the area. These include white-crowned sparrows, of which many were still present throughout April, and yellow-rumped warblers which had pretty much vacated the area by the end of the month. No signs of cliff swallows during April, though northern rough-winged and tree swallows were still present.
For May, most, if not all, of the wintering birds should have left the lake area. A few ruddy ducks and redheads may be still be present. It is not unusual to see a lesser scaup during May, mostly weaker individuals who need to rest during migration. Listen for the "sweet sweet sweet, I'm so sweet" call of the yellow warbler. May also means more mallard ducklings. The ospreys have two chicks in their nest which should fledge in the next month. The three heron chicks, in two nests, will probably not fledge until after May.


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|Growing and selling organic vanilla in Vanuatu offers local growers the chance to increase their income and improve life for themselves and their families.
Many farmers in the Pacific have long used organic farming methods, but without official certification, they are unable to sell their produce as organic on the global market.
With Oxfam's help, Farm Support Association (FSA) in Vanuatu is enabling more growers to enter the lucrative global market in organics, which provides them with a much better price for their produce and the chance to improve life for themselves and their families.
FSA is currently working with small-scale farmers growing vanilla, ginger and other spices. They support farmers through technical assistance, training, field visits and mentoring to become organically-certified, as well as helping them access new markets. FSA also helps small-scale farmers establish producer organisations that can facilitate and coordinate access to local and international markets, allowing the growers to work together to get the best possible price for their produce.
Oxfam is currently helping FSA scale up its programme to reach over 300 organic rural farmers and community farming initiatives that will help improve incomes for up to 3,000 families.
Regional partnership
Oxfam is also supporting a new and innovative regional partnership between FSA in Vanuatu, Women in Business Development in Samoa and the Tonga National Youth Congress, who are all working to help rural communities earn an income through organics. By working together, these Pacific groups will be sharing knowledge and experience so they can increase and improve the vital services they provide to local growers.
Find out more about organics in the Pacific
- Find out how the Tonga National Youth Congress are working to help communities manufacture and sell organic virgin coconut oil.
- Read more about Women in Business Development Inc. in Samoa and how they are helping rural communities increase incomes and create jobs by selling to the organics market. Find out more about their sucess with organic virgin coconut oil and organic bananas.
- Read more about Pacific Organic Agriculture and the Pacific Organic and Ethical Community on the POETcom website.
Gifts for food lovers
Oxfam Unwrapped has great gift ideas for foodies: gifts that will help hard-working growers in the developing world improve life for themselves and their families.
Spice things up with a gift of chillies; sweeten someone's day with organic bananas; give a ginger kiss with a difference.


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funny stories
|3rd May 2011 11:22
Regular User
okay so every1 should put the funniest story from their life or one of them.
the scene me and some friends drivin home from a party
we run over a plastic gas container and a cop pulls up next to us with his window down while at a light. then it turns green and we start to go and this really loud noise emenates from the bottom of the car. so the cop sticks his head out the window and tries to look under our car with this wtf face. you had to be there to truly c how funny it was. so we pull into an emty parking lot to try and pull it out and the same cop pulls up and rolls down his window and says i think you have a f****** gas can under your car. so we burst into laughter and he gives us the same wtf look as he did b4 and drives away. all the same coolest cop ever
ive got others but this was the most recent
It isn't negativity, it's just being realistic.
|3rd May 2011 12:01
Death's best friend
I heard this story from my dad a few years ago... ok here it goes
This happen just before my sister came in the world. My dad was speeding on the motorway (or on a main road). He got caught by a cop, the cop asked him "Why were you speeding?" and my dad told him "My wife is going into labor" and the cop said "ok drive on but be safe."
Please keep in mind bits and pieces got lost in translation coz this story was told in cantonese by my dad, who told my older sister, who told her in-laws and some how I got told by someone. So bits got taken off and add on.
Warning: I might fall asleep on the spot.
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|3rd May 2011 18:14
Regular User
ummmm funny stories............hmmmm my dad dyed his hair pink by accident
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Call me Finbar
|8th May 2011 16:54
Emperor of the Forum
well i have good stories but they are to long to type
it will just hurt my hand
one time i slept on the road
my name is Jens by the way , but don't abuse it because I have that name copyrighted
|10th May 2011 19:34
Regular User
lol same, i also had to stop my mate from climbing a tree while crossing a busy road to get to it, it was a lot funnier if you saw the way he was doing it and the things he said......lol being drunk is fun
My Facebook page
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Call me Finbar
|11th May 2011 21:39
Emperor of the Forum
being drunk is the best
just those stupid stories are always great
and i stole a lot of traffic signs
my name is Jens by the way , but don't abuse it because I have that name copyrighted
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Most girls under the age of 18 are going to volleyball practice, prepping for prom and wondering what they're going to be when they grow up. As for the girls in Canadian rock group, Moeraes Fate, that's not exactly the case.
As the winners of the YouDiscover contest, guitarist Ali Stead, drummer Kayla Faye, and bassist/vocalist Katee Lee found themselves in front of 30,000 screaming fans and on live television playing at the Niagara Falls New Years Eve party opening for Glass Tiger and Styx.
They showcased a few tunes from their original catalog but also took the time to pay tribute to the late Michael Jackson with their rendition of, "Man in the Mirror."
Following the Niagara Falls gig, they played their next landmark gig of their careers, the Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto.
It's clear that such a young band, with hard work, dedication and natural talent, can make their dreams a reality.
Look for the girls to cross the boarder into the U.S. this year as their momentum continues to grow in support of their latest EP, "Making of the New Me."


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Everything But The Floral Blazers.
Chloe Orange Three Pocket Blazer $1895 // 3.1 Phillip Lim Rolled Sleeve Silk Blazer $625 // Steven Alan Renada Double-Breasted Silk Blazer $180
Records are being broken people and the 2012 Olympics haven't begun yet. I know some of us can't help but getting into a fashion trend like it's the latest dance craze, but if there is one trend that needs to be put to rest or avoided by all means, it's the floral blazer.


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MACON, Ga. – With the Mercer baseball team playing perhaps its best baseball of the 2013 season to date, head coach Craig Gibson stole some of the limelight on Friday evening when he reached career win No. 300 after the Bears took down Jacksonville 6-1 at Claude Smith Field.
Mercer's (23-7, 6-2 A-Sun) fifth-straight win pushed Gibson's career record up to 300-240 in his 10 years at the helm of the Bears and makes him just the third head coach to tally at least 300 career wins in the 64-year modern history of the Mercer baseball program. Gibson's 300th win tonight also gives him the distinction of leading Mercer to its best 30-game start in program history, tying the 1979 edition of the Bears who also started their campaign with a 23-7 record.
Friday night's win ensures that Mercer secures its series with Jacksonville (9-18, 2-3 A-Sun) this weekend and keeps its streak alive of not losing a weekend series yet this season.
The Bears got things started in the bottom of the second when junior Austin Barrett ripped an RBI single to give Mercer a 1-0 lead.
After both teams starters put up zeros over the next two frames, the Orange and Black put the game away in the middle innings of the contest with a pair of two-run rallies.
A sacrifice fly by junior Derrick Workman and an RBI single by Michael Massi in the fifth and an RBI single by sophomore Chesny Young and a sacrifice fly by Workman in the sixth pushed Mercer's lead up to 5-1.
That would be plenty of run support for Bears starting pitcher Brandon Barker, who tied his season-high by throwing seven innings and allowed no earned runs on just three hits while striking out eight to pick up his third win of 2013.
Five Bears finished the contest with multi-hit efforts, including Massi who went 2-for-3 with a run scored and junior Sasha LaGarde who ended up going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a stolen base in the win.
Mercer is back on the field tomorrow afternoon to wrap up its three-game series against Jacksonville. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Claude Smith Field.


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One call. Red does it all! 302-262-8254
Trash & Recycling Services from a Name You Trust…Peninsula!
If your trash day is Monday, July 4th, your trash will be picked up on REGULAR SCHEDULE.
Christmas trees should not be put out for normal pick up, they are considered yard waste and must be taken to a yard waste recycling center.
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We will be on normal schedule on the following holidays:
- Memorial Day
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For these holidays, your trash will be collected the following day:
Thanksgiving Thursday, November 24th – Trash collected Friday, November 25th
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Trash Service, Oil/Propane, Heater Service Plan
Peninsula will solve your trash and recycling issues with assured reliability.
From the company that you trust to deliver peace of mind comes a trash and recycling service that promises to deliver more of the same! Our customers have been with us for 40 years and more and know that when working with Peninsula, promises will be kept and professionalism will be provided.
If you want to schedule trash pickup with Peninsula, call us today at 302-262-8254302-262-8254 or click here!
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Automated curbside collection is clean, quiet, and efficient. We use a trash truck with an extendable arm to easily pick up your garbage can, empty it, and set it down carefully, greatly reducing the impact on your environment and decreasing the amount of time we spend in your neighborhood. For automated trash pickup, placement of your garbage can is crucial: make sure it faces the street, the lid is closed, and there are at least 10 feet of clearance from things like vehicles, mailboxes, etc.
For semi-automated trash pickup, our waste pickup specialists will ensure your garbage is removed carefully with no spills or messed. This hands-on approach to garbage collection is perfect for neighborhoods with cars parked on the street or other blockages in the way. For semi-automated trash pickup, all you'll need to do is put your trash can on the curb—we'll handle the rest!
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- Rigid plastic
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- Plastic bottles & jugs
- Plastic grocery bags (combined into one)
- Glass bottles/jars
- Aluminum & steel tin cans
What Can't You Recycle?
- Styrofoam
- Motor oil containers
- Chemical containers
- Ceramics or dishes
- Light bulbs
- Window glass and mirrors
- Food waste
- Televisions and computers
- Monitors
Count on Peninsula: Your Local Waste Collection Company
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Reputation is everything. That's especially true in the close-knit communities along the Maryland and Delaware peninsula. Here, Peninsula has built a long-standing reputation of respect and trust, home by home, family by family. And we're proud of that!
You can count on Peninsula for:
- An unequaled commitment to your needs and personal satisfaction
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So relax. You've come to the right place. You can count on our family to keep your family snug and secure. It's what we do!
To find out more about our trash pickup services, contact us today!
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Unknown, ca. 1880. Reverse inscribed in ink "A suburban encampment, Tangier." Albumen. Mounted. 9.5 x 7.5 inches. Acquisition number 160-85.
Unknown, ca. 1894. Mount inscribed in ink "Market Place. Tangier. Dec. 22nd. 1894." Albumen. Mounted. 8 x 6 inches. (First Acquisition list reads "Date is probably date of purchase- not date photo was taken."). Acquisition number 161-85.
Unknown, ca. 1880. Negative inscribed "Jewish Woman in Tunis." Albumen. Mounted. 6.4 x 4.5 inches. Acquisition number 137-85.
© 1996 Middle East Department. Joseph Regenstein Library. The University of Chicago.


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After initial failures of the N-1 Kuznetsov developed modified versions of engines for all 3 stages, with multiple ignition capability and increased operational lifetime. These engines were never flown and were mothballed after the cancellation of the N1.
Application: N-1F stage 3 (block V).
Engine: 631 kg (1,391 lb). Chamber Pressure: 98.00 bar. Area Ratio: 114. Thrust to Weight Ratio: 64.97. Oxidizer to Fuel Ratio: 2.6.
Status: Development ended 1971.
Unfuelled mass: 631 kg (1,391 lb).
Diameter: 1.30 m (4.20 ft).
Thrust: 402.00 kN (90,373 lbf).
Specific impulse: 352 s.
Burn time: 1,200 s.
First Launch: 1969-74.


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What is it to be a man in today's world? A female director works with a male actor to explore the qualities we shamefully hide beneath the carpet.
This event takes place at ASYLUM, London, Caroline Garden's Chapel, London SE15 2SQ. Booking: 07971 965510 or Website