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Springtime in the Rockies!
Spring is a time for newness, change and revitalization. Don't we all feel a sense of relief when the winter passes and we begin to see color again? Bring that freshness inside with a few easy, affordable tips that you can do yourself.
One of the easiest and most affordable ways to add color and spruce up your space is with pillows. You will notice the stores are full of colorful pillows with fun designs, patterns and textures! And bright colors! Be a little brave and go for that fun floral in bright green, sky blue and red. You can expect to pay $7 to $60, you decide what you feel is worth it. One of my favorite places to look for pillows is Homegoods on Powers and North Carefree (next to Target). Another great place is Pier1 at various locations around town. They happen to have an extensive selection of pillows in really great colors and styles! They hit it on the head for the season's hot picks. And while you are there, check out the drapery panels. Find some new curtains to match the pillows you are buying. Easy, quick and affordable.
Another way to spruce up for Spring: Paint your walls. If you are not into color on your walls, buy a fresh clean neutral color, maybe accent one or two walls in your home with a subtle color and then add the bright colors with the pillows, new linens and new bedding. My favorite resource for paint is Sherwin Williams. They have a fantastic website that allows you to see the paint colors in a room scene and they group complimentary colors together for you. No guesswork! And on top of that, they have a quality paint product at reasonable prices and experts in the store that will help you with your project.
Clean your rugs and buy new florals! Some of the most overlooked design elements in your home are the dirty, dusty area rugs and the outdated, dingy floral arrangement from 1989. You might be surprised to see that your area rug used to be brighter in color! You can rent a carpet cleaner from King Soopers or call a professional who can clean your rugs and your sofa as well! And as far as florals go, if you have silk trees and bushes, buy a couple cans of Silk Plant Cleaner from Hobby Lobby and spray the dust away. This really is effective and it repels future dust. This can be used on your existing floral arrangements, however, flowers are indicative of the times. No more over sized, elaborate arrangements. 2010 calls for simple, elegant and unusual. Shop the 50% off sales at Hobby Lobby and design your own or select one of their pre-arranged florals.
So there you have it! These small steps can make a huge impact. Now go open your windows, dust those blinds and implement some of the ideas above! Happy Spring!!


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More New and Used
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Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
Legacy Of Conquest Pa
ISBN13:by Limerick,Patricia
Trade Paper
Questions About This Book?
Why should I rent this book?
Renting is easy, fast, and cheap! Renting from eCampus.com can save you hundreds of dollars compared to the cost of new or used books each semester. At the end of the semester, simply ship the book back to us with a free UPS shipping label! No need to worry about selling it back.
How do rental returns work?
Returning books is as easy as possible. As your rental due date approaches, we will email you several courtesy reminders. When you are ready to return, you can print a free UPS shipping label from our website at any time. Then, just return the book to your UPS driver or any staffed UPS location. You can even use the same box we shipped it in!
What version or edition is this?
This is the 00 edition with a publication date of 1/17/2006.
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
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The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality?n hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here she interprets the stories and the characters in a new way: the trappers, traders, Indians, farmers, oilmen, cowboys, and sheriffs of the Old West "meant business" in more ways than one, and their descendents mean business today.
Table of Contents
|p. 9
|Introduction Closing the Frontier and Opening Western History
|p. 17
|The Conquerors
|p. 33
|Empire of Innocence
|p. 35
|Property Values
|p. 55
|Denial and Dependence
|p. 78
|Uncertain Enterprises
|p. 97
|The Meeting Ground Of Past and Present
|p. 134
|The Conquerors Meet Their Match
|p. 177
|The Persistence of Natives
|p. 179
|America the Borderland
|p. 222
|Racialism on the Run
|p. 259
|Mankind the Manager
|p. 293
|The Burdens of Western American History
|p. 322
|p. 351
|Further Reading
|p. 369
|p. 385
|Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Submitted by egraham on Mon, 2013-08-05 15:22
Lourdes Chavez Personal Appearance and Evening wear Collection Trunk Show
When: (Ended) September 26, 2013 - September 27, 2013 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Event Phone Number: 713.622.1331
Event Phone Number: 713.622.1331
Elizabeth Anthony | Esther Wolf
1180 Uptown Park Blvd.
Houston TX
Elizabeth Anthony | Esther Wolf
1180 Uptown Park Blvd.
Houston TX
World-class designer Lourdes Chavez brings a brilliant Spring 2014 evening wear and dress collection to Elizabeth Anthony/ Ester Wolf. Chavez only creates two collections per year, allowing her to immerse herself into the entire design process from pattern making to final embellishments and creates pieces that perfectly and elegantly suit each woman. She hand-sketches each item with her client's comfort and appearance in mind, and has a clear focus on future trends while maintaining a classic and timeless feel.
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The five Regional Internet Registries today published a process (https://www.nro.net/nro-and-internet-governance/iana-oversight/consolidated-rir-iana-stewardship-proposal-team-crisp-team) for producing a single proposal from the global IP addressing community to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S Government.
This process, which establishes a Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal (CRISP) team drawn from RIR community members and staff, is open for public comment.
More information on CRISP Proposal at:
More information on the IANA stewardship transition process is available at:


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I met recently with Mr. Jack McCarthy, the president and chief executive officer of the popular and highly respected AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation and Appletree Early Learning Public Charter School. The setting was a little unusual for my exclusive interviews since our conversation took place at the Southeast Washington, D.C. Douglas Knoll Campus. The school is located right in the middle of a subsidized housing complex.
Mr. McCarthy wasted no time in explaining the mission of AppleTree. "Our goal," Mr. McCarthy stated, "is to close the achievement gap before our children enter Kindergarten." The CEO related that AppleTree now educates approximately 640 students on seven sites. Some 73 percent of all AppleTree pupils qualify for free or reduced lunch. 80 Pre-Kindergarten three and four year olds are enrolled at Douglas Knoll, 95 percent of whom at this facility are eligible for free and reduced lunch. The location of the school is intentional, as I was about to learn is the way everything is approached at the charter.
"We are able to reach the children who benefit the most by locating the school inside of the housing complex," affirmed the AppleTree CEO. "Access to this type of program is especially important for kids living in poverty. The groundbreaking Hart and Risley study found that low income children by the time they reach three years old are exposed to 30 million fewer words than those of middle or upper class families. In order to reverse this phenomenon AppleTree designed an evidence-based, data-driven program that is highly focused on building young childrens' language and vocabulary skills with teacher-child interactions that are warm and nurturing."
The issue Mr. McCarthy and is team is addressing is especially profound. Today, about 70 percent of D.C. third graders cannot read at a basic level of comprehension, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or "The Nation's Report Card." Research has demonstrated that the failure to learn to read by the end of third grade is a leading contributor to students being identified for special education, being retained in grade, dropping out of high school, and the failure to find a job.
I asked Mr. McCarthy what led to his creating AppleTree. The story is fascinating. It turns out that Mr. McCarthy was a co-founder in 1996 of Boston Renaissance Charter School, the first such school in Boston and only the nation's 32nd charter. He was responsible for finding and financing a building for the Kindergarten to sixth grade 650 student school and arranged for $12 million to renovate their 14 story building. His epiphany came during Renaissance Charter's first lottery. He watched as 1,000 parents found out that their children were not selected for admission. Everyone seated around him was crying; there was not a dry eye in the place. The powerful value of charter schools indelibly entered Mr. McCarthy's being.
Through a D.C. contact from a foundation that supported Boston Renaissance Mr. McCarthy became involved in the birth of the charter movement in the nation's capital. He worked with early pioneers such as Mike Peabody, founder of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, and Congressman Steve Gunderson, who shepherded the original D.C. charter legislation through Congress. In 1996, the AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation was formed with the mission, according to the school's website, "to increase the supply of effective schools through innovation." Mr. McCarthy and his partners created the first charter school incubator which led to the founding of some of the city's early groundbreaking public charter schools such as Cesar Chavez, Paul, and Washington Math, Science, and Technology.
One of the most unique components of AppleTree is the Institute. Mr. McCarthy maintained that it "serves as the research to practice" branch of the organization, developing new instructional techniques and refining proven strategies. Data and continuous improvement are heavily relied upon to drive pedagogical improvement. During the 2001 to 2002 school year the Institute opened Apple Early Literacy Preschool, a privately funded laboratory school at the Riverside Baptist Church in Southwest D.C. with two classrooms of 36 pupils. According to Mr. McCarthy their main emphasis was to provide and develop a quality program that "would do no harm to the children and at the same time figure out the most effective way to teach this population of underserved kids."
In 2005 AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School opened at the Riverside location. Six more campuses were founded over the next five years. The work of AppleTree has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and private sector match partners including Fight for Children, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Boeing, JP Morgan, PNC Bank and others. The entities have provided $6.5 million in grant money toward the development of Every Child Ready, a unique program that includes teacher professional development, curriculum, and systems for school support. The focus of AppleTree's Every Child Ready early learning model is "what to teach, how to teach, and how to tell it in improving instruction and learning." In addition, DC based Venture Philanthropy Partners has invested $3 million in AppleTree's five year business plan.
I then asked Mr. McCarthy about the recent controversy regarding whether the Early Childhood Performance Management Framework developed by the D.C. Public Charter School Board was overly tilted toward academics rather than emphasizing social and emotional development. The AppleTree CEO was happy to answer this question. "This is a false choice. It's like asking what is more important in water: hydrogen or oxygen? A student needs both components to be successful. We are satisfied with the Early Childhood PMF and we understand that it will improve over time."
Combining research and instruction AppleTree has grown into a $15 million system with 175 staff. There are seven AppleTree Early Learning preschools and the organization also provides instructional support to preschool and Pre-Kindergarten classrooms at four other charters, including Tree of Life, Center City, Potomac Lighthouse, and Ingenuity Prep. Moreover, the influence of AppleTree continues to grow. Through it's AppleTree @ model, it will operate preschool and Pre-Kindergartern for Democracy Prep when it takes over for Imagine Southeast next fall. AppleTree also plans to team with Rocketship Education Public Charter School when it opens in D.C. in 2015. These AppleTree @ partnerships will provide a smooth transition from preschool through elementary school at Democracy Prep and Rocketship.
During our conversation it became clear to me that Mr. McCarthy has a much different vision from many other charter founders I have met. He comes across as not much interested in conquering the early childhood market for children so he can boast about the size of his student population. What drives the AppleTree founder, and what leads to him putting in seemingly endless workdays, is his desire to truly close the achievement gap by bringing effective early learning to scale in DC. This may be why he and his team are realizing impressive results. Compared to children who have not attended AppleTree his alumni recognize 25 percent more letters entering Kindergarten, and score 20 points higher in reading in first grade. Mr. McCarthy had this to say about the school's accomplishments:
"We provide an education that provides children with the skills and positive behaviors they need to succeed in school. Since many of our parents didn't have great educational experiences, we help them understand what their children are learning and assist them in making good school choices.
AppleTree is leveling the playing field between affluent and disadvantaged, children, while also leveling the playing field between new preschool teachers and more experienced ones. These will always be our goals of our research to practice model. Our intent is to continuously improve our practice."


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Andy Murray left the Madrid Open earlier than expected and the hunt for a new coach goes into high gear. Murray went down in defeat in a 6-3 6-2 beating from Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo, ranked 46th in the world.
"It's tough," Murray added. "Some days I'm playing well and then the next day I'm not playing well, so I need to become more consistent."
Having dropped to number 8 in the rankings, Murray has not been in a final since his epic Wimbledon victory last July. Since parting with Ivan Lendl, his search for a new coach includes many of the usual names including a high profile applicant in John McEnroe. And McEnroe is listening.
McEnroe said, "I am pretty busy doing my own thing but, when you get opportunities to coach great players, it is definitely something that would be tempting to think about."
Other notable names in the coach pool include Australians Roger Rasheed, and Darren Cahill, Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman and American Larry Stefanki.
A couple of these men seem unlikely. Rasheed is already working with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who is quickly improving on his way to the top ten. Cahill's plate is full with his ESPN commentary work and he is earning a nice pay day as a coach for Team Adidas.
Bjorkman, the former world No 4 and doubles No 1, is probably an out of left field pick. Since retiring in 2008, he has worked closely with Sweden's Davis Cup team and is a top commentator on Swedish television.
The best option might be Stefanki who has worked with McEnroe, Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick. His crowning glory was getting Chilean Marcelo Rios to world number one in 1998.
Murray is getting closer to deciding on a coach but is not in a hurry.
"I need to have the right person in place." Murray said, "I don't want to have the wrong person in place by the French Open. "


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More zpaghetti
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
I've made a few more things with zpaghetti from my spiral slicer. No real recipes, but here's more or less what I did. They all turned out fine. Of course, I haven't had real spaghetti in close to 10 years, so what do I know?
1. Chicken Noodle Soup. Except I used turkey broth and zpaghetti. Just heated up some turkey broth I made from a turkey carcass, added some chopped onion, and cooked it for a few minutes. Then added a bunch of raw zpaghetti and some leftover chicken and cooked it for about 5 or 10 minutes. I cut halfway through the zucchini before making the zpaghetti so I had short strands instead of long ones. (I've been doing that all the time.)
2. Creamy Cheesy Zpaghetti. Based on a recipe from "The $21 Challenge" by Fiona Lippey and Jackie Gower. I cooked a pound of hamburger, a cup or so of frozen chopped mixed bell peppers (the last of last summer's, I'm afraid), half an onion, a chopped carrot, and a cup or so of frozen broccoli. When that was all done, I started some water boiling to cook the zpaghetti, then added half a cup of heavy cream and a good dollop of mustard to the meat/veggie mixture. Mixed that together, than added 4 oz of shredded cheddar. I cooked about 12 oz of zpaghetti (which made about 2 cups, cooked) for about 2 minutes, then added it to the meat/veggie mixture. Tossed it around together and served. It wasn't great, but it was quite acceptable. It would probably be a lot better if I had put more thought into the combination of veggies. This happened to be what I had on hand, and the peppers and broccoli were however much I had. The original recipe calls for 11 oz of spaghetti, which would make about 4 cups cooked, 3/4 c evaporated milk instead of the cream, cornstarch to thicken it, no meat, and 3 cups of sliced veggies of choice. So I figure that I can use any kind of meat and any kind of veggies and any kind of cheese and come out ok. Fresh veggies instead of frozen would be better, and I ended up overcooking them anyway. My fault, because things weren't ready at the same time.
3. Hamburger Casserole. Which is what happened when I planned to make the recipe above but didn't have any cream. So I just cooked some hamburger, onion and tomato, and probably added some basil and oregano from the garden. When that was mostly done, I put the raw zpaghetti on top of it and turned the heat way down and cooked it for 10 minutes or so. Then mixed it all in together. Topped it with parmesan before serving. Again, quite acceptable, and any lack came from the recipe (or lack of same) rather than the zpaghetti.
4. My spiral slicer does not work for grating cheddar. I thought I'd try it, since it was out and dirty anyway, but the cheese ended up crumbling. But then, I don't know that it is intended to work for grating cheese.
Note - I paid 50 cents for a big zucchini, about 2 pounds. So that should make about 5 cups cooked. I haven't priced spaghetti in years, but I imagine this is about the same price.
Note 2 - I have been surprised that the leftover zpaghetti didn't turn into overcooked mush when reheated.
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Yes, I want to know too! My DH is cooking more squash and zucchini lately (he used to absolutely loathe both), and he just loves gadgets, so this would be a natural fit.
1092 days ago
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Where did you get your spiral cutter? What does it look like?
1092 days ago
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We've probably all seen the 'magic tap fountain' where water runs endlessly from a tap magically suspended midair… well, maybe this is the lighting equivalent. Behold the liquid lamp, one to make you look twice!
According to MyModernMet.com, it's designed by South Korean Kim Yeongwoo and is dubbed the "Pouring Lamp":
"It is a fun lighting concept perfect for those who love optical illusions. The lamp freezes "tea" as it spills in mid-air. Simply give the tea bag a tug to turn it on."
It's also highlighted by Yanko Design – a "web magazine dedicated to introducing the best modern international design, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, interior design, architecture, exhibition and fashion" – in a more high falutin' way
In the post "Pour Me Some Light" it writes:
Human actions play such a significant role in design; it's either evident in the form or in the function. In the Pouring Light, the action is evident in the form and is delightfully executed as well! With the motive of giving off "an emotional flow of light", the lights linger on with a mesmerizing effect thanks to the use of phosphorescence in the "water" part. Yeongwoo suggests the use of LED lights to conserve energy, and my suggestion to him: get this in the market ASAP!"


text:
The heart of Weber and hub of Weber love.
Weber Nation has it all: stories, video techniques, the works.
Come on over, the grill is hot.
Package includes (1) granite-style thermoset work surface.
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'IMOGEN - two years and 27 days' is a collaboration between Imogen and myself, and includes one hundred forty one portrait photographs taken over the last two years.
The project started as a daily posting on Flickr.com (username unexpectedtales) two years ago, and to date the stream is running at 10.5 million views, with most of these views being for Imogen photographs.
We hope you enjoy our book.
Comment posted.
gurdish says
check your mailbox
posted at 04:12AM Dec 28 PST
photoman56 says just a GREAT book as i am a sports and band photographer you have helped me in some outdoor band promo shots with your videos that you put up ever week thks.
posted at 02:25PM Apr 05 PST
miles11 says loving your work
posted at 06:24AM May 19 PST
spiritofgod says
je te trouve tres jolie tu es magnifique je t adore
your big fun AMIN
posted at 01:53AM Sep 08 PST
Espilotro says
This book is very fantastic... and there is beautiful pictures.
posted at 12:52PM Aug 19 PST
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Growing Pains Published April 27, 2016
Imogen: four years and 53 days Published January 25, 2016
HELENA Published May 24, 2013


text:
Men's Health
Balding Before 30 May Cut Prostate Cancer Risk
Balding and Prostate Cancer Risk: Findings
Men with any significant hair loss at age 30 had a 29% reduced risk of prostate cancer, the researchers found.
Then Wright's team looked at a smaller subgroup -- men who were balding in their 30s at both the top of the head and the forehead -- and were over age 60 at the reference date.
In this subgroup, he found a risk reduction of 45%.
Balding and Lower Prostate Cancer Risk: Why?
Previous studies have found conflicting results when looking at the relationship between baldness and prostate cancer risk, Wright says. Some studies found an increased risk with baldness and others found no change in risk, regardless of hair patterns.
But his study, unlike others that looked only at baldness close to the diagnosis date, looks back decades.
Even so, he says, ''Our findings are a little bit counterintuitive."
He can't explain the finding linking baldness and a reduction in prostate cancer risk. ''It's not as simple as DHT and testosterone levels," he tells WebMD. "There is a very complex environment going on."
Genetic differences may help explain the link, he says. For instance, he says, a genetic variant in the male hormone receptor gene can affect cancer development and male pattern baldness.
They will look next at genetic data from the men to try and understand the link.
Balding and Lower Prostate Cancer Risk: Other Views
The new findings fly in the face of traditional thinking, says Leonard Lichtenfeld, MD, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, who reviewed the findings for WebMD.
''The old thinking is, the balder you are, the higher your risk of prostate cancer," he says, and that link was thought to be associated with testosterone levels, with both baldness and prostate cancer thought to be sensitive to hormone levels.
''This study is saying just the opposite," Lichtenfeld says. ''This concept doesn't fit the concept of the way things should work." But, he says, ''you always have to be willing to look at new evidence."
He agrees with Wright that the relationship between hormone levels and baldness and prostate cancer is complicated. "It may have to do with other genetic changes that we don't fully understand at this time," he says.


text:
Looking for a job? This tutorial includes the best places to look for job openings in Kansas City, lists helpful local agencies, identifies job clubs for networking and support, and suggests some books to help you in your search.
Job listings | Helpful local agencies | Job clubs | Books
Job listings
More and more job postings are being found on the Internet. Web sites have been created which allow employers to post jobs as well as allow job seekers to post their resumes. Some sites are specific to the Kansas City area while others allow one to search a much larger geographic area. Additionally many companies place their job openings on their web sites.
Kansas City Area
Kansas City Star - Employment [1]
Search jobs published in the Kansas City Star.
KC Career Link [2]
Find jobs in the Kansas City area.
Kansas City Business Journal - Jobs [3]
Jobs posted here tend to be ones that require extensive education and/or experience.
National job search sites restricted to Kansas City:
- Craig's List Jobs - Kansas City [4]
- Careerbuilder.com - Kansas City [5]
- Indeed.com - Kansas City [6]
- Jobs.net - Kansas City [7]
- Simply Hired - Kansas City [8]
- USAJobs:The Official Job Site of the United States Government [9]
Missouri and Kansas
Missouri Career Source [10]
The Missouri Division of Workforce Development's web site lists jobs available throughout the state of Missouri. It includes job listings, how to file an Unemployment Insurance claim, information on how to search for jobs, and more.
Kansas Works [11]
Find jobs in Kansas.
Job Hunting Advice
Beehive - Jobs [12]
This is an excellent site for career and job planning. The site offers a career interest inventory, information of writing a resume, qualifying for unemployment benefits, and a place to keep track of your job hunting plan. The information is provided in English and Spanish.
Helpful Local Agencies
There are many agencies in the area that offer assistance to job seekers. The services they provide include job search classes and skill building classes. Likewise, the Kansas City Public Library offers a variety of classes that help the job seeker [13].
Full Employment Council [14]
1740 Paseo Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64108
"The Full Employment Council is a business-led, private, nonprofit corporation whose mission is to obtain public and private sector employment for the unemployed and underemployed residents of the Greater Kansas City area."
Excelsior Springs Job Corps [15]
"Job Corps is the largest residential education and training program in the United States for disadvantaged youth ages 16 through 24."
Missouri Career Center - Kansas City - South [16]
6801-A Longview Road
Kansas City, MO 64134-3315
Missouri Career Center – Independence [17]
15301 East 23rd Street South
Independence, MO 64055-1698
Goodwill [18]
1817 Campbell St.
Kansas City, MO 64108
Jewish Vocational Services [19]
1608 Baltimore
Kansas City, MO 64108
Job Clubs
Job clubs can provide job hunting tips, networking and moral support while looking for a job. Many of the clubs meet at churches and are on the Kansas side of the state line however the clubs are open to anyone regardless of where they live and religious affiliation.
Center for Spirit at Work [20]
Career Transition Support Group
4310 Madison, Suite 204
Kansas City, MO
Also at the Kauffman Foundation
4801 Rockhill Road
Contacts: Bob Gillis 816-268-1077 or Patrick Hasty 816-268-1078
Support for persons out of work, underutilized, considering a job transition or seeing a new direction.
First Baptist Church of Raytown
"Job-Links" Networking Group
10500 E. 350 Hwy., Raytown, MO 64138
Contact: Pat Windham at 816.353.1994
List of Job Clubs in Johnson County, KS [21]
Kansas City Metro Job Hunting Network [22]
An online networking site created by the Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Books can give good advice on the job hunting process. Books have been written about the job hunting process in general, about finding a job online, as well as ones that address the concerns of a specific population. Just a few of the Library's many job hunting books are listed below.
Insider's Guide to Finding a Job [23] by Wendy S. Enelow (650.14 E56I)
Job Hunting Online [24] by Mark Emery Bolles (025.06 B69J 2008)
Blue-Collar Resume and Job Hunting Guide [25] by Ronald L. Krannich (650.14 K89BL)
Job Hunting Tips for People With Hot and Not-So-Hot Backgrounds [26] by Ronald L. Krannich (650.14 K89JT)
Find more books on job hunting [27] or career guidance [28].


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I bought the dress at Linsey land bridal. It was the second dress I tried on. I fell in love with it the moment I put it on. The dress isn't to heavy, it's just perfect. I love the beading at the top.
- Alterations: No alterations have been made to the dress. The only thing is its a little dirty from the ceremony, but a good cleaning will get it out. I just haven't had the time to do it.
- Preservation Method:
- Terms of Sale: All Sales Final
- Original Owner: Yes
- Has Original Receipt: Yes
- Location: Rantoul, IL
- Will Ship to: Anywhere at Seller Expense
- Payment Methods Accepted: Other
Please read our BUYER'S GUIDE before purchasing a dress online.


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Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You
Questions About This Book?
What version or edition is this?
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
Author Biography
Table of Contents
Praise for Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You:
"The illustrations that flow across each page of this tale are every bit as beautiful as the message: Never doubt that you're number one with Mom." --Parenting: Early Years
"Encourages an adult and child to snuggle affectionately together with a book is undeniable and may make this just the balm the doctor (or librarian) ordered." --Booklist
"Parents and grandparents with a sweet tooth will likely lap up the latest in Tillman's string of sentimental favorites." --Kirkus Reviews
"[Tillman] has an unerring instinct for dramatic composition--in these pages, readers get the sense of spying on a secret world--and her potent combination of unapologetic sentiment, fantasy, photorealism, and painterliness has an undeniable allure." --Publishers Weekly
"Oh, to be the lucky child whose parent reads Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You aloud…Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You is the book you want to give to whomever you love; it would make a memorable birthday, holiday or 'just because' gift, and it is sure to be treasured." --BlogCritics.org
Praise for On the Night You Were Born:
"This is one of those rare baby books that should make both skeptics and sentimentalists of all ages happy."—Publishers Weekly
"A beautiful tribute to the uniqueness of every child."—Kirkus Reviews
"Many parents will welcome this opportunity to tell their children how special and loved they are."—Booklist
Praise for It's Time to Sleep, My Love:
"As in On the Night You Were Born, the words directly address a young listener with comforting, fanciful imagery. . . . culminating in a final scene of a sleeping child in a floating bed under a watchful moon, this gentle, tender offering will buoy children with its strong messages of safety and love."—Booklist
"A luxuriant bedtime retreat for children and parents alike."—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for The Spirit of Christmas:
"Tillman expertly swirls together reality and fantasy—the narrator's child delights in the sight of the decorated tree, the lion lies down with the lamb—as is fitting for such a magical night."—Shelf Awareness
"Handsomely illustrated, this Christmas book is bound to be hyped as the perfect seasonal gift. . . . Tillman's sentimental sensibility and beautiful artwork ensure that this will become a popular choice at holiday time."—Booklist
"A beautiful and timeless book."—School Library Journal
"As the adult speaker of the story nods off in a comfy red chair, the Spirit of Christmas appears, ready to get the narrator in the holiday spirit. What follows is a buoyant, imagistic tribute to the season, as the Spirit lists joys both concrete and intangible, before offering the reminder: 'Because it took nothing but love to begin it,/ it's not really Christmas if love isn't in it.' Tillman's ethereal illustrations are surreal but captivating."—Publishers Weekly
"Bestselling author Tillman offers a dreamlike interpretation of the collective spirit that permeates the holiday."—Kirkus Reviews


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Public Service Announcements (PSAs) as an Effective Marketing Tool
Filed under: Health
Michael J. McCurdy – Founder/Publisher
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) as an Effective Marketing Tool
Public service announcements have been around since the 1960's when a lawyer in Washington thought it would be a good idea as a counterpart to all of the cigarette advertising. It caught on, and the rest is history. The reality is, stations actually need PSAs to fill unsold air time.
The reasons why a PSA can be effective may be as varied as the reasons a nonprofit may choose to undertake a campaign, but generally a campaign can satisfy one of these objectives:
Push traffic to their website. A widely viewed PSA with a call to action that says "for more information go to our website" can be instrumental in driving tens-of-thousands of clicks to your organization's website.
Support a fundraising effort. A big campaign push on television and radio stations in advance of a fundraising effort means that a viewer may be more familiar with the organization when the mailer arrives at their home.
Promote a new service or program. Whether it's to promote an effort, get volunteers, or have people sign up for a special service, PSAs are a means to get the word out to the masses.
Set the nonprofit as a leader. It is especially important to "get ahead of the pack" when there are multiple nonprofits with the same or similar mission (for example, there are many breast cancer nonprofits). Frequent visibility can give the sense that the nonprofit is a leader.
While all of these are important reasons to launch a PSA campaign, perhaps THE most important reasons is a benefit many nonprofits are unaware of: the donation of the media time can be taken as an in-kind contribution. This is important because it can help a nonprofit with its programs-to-overhead ratio.
Common Myths
If you're down on PSAs because you've heard that they only air in the "wee hours" of the morning or that it's only smaller stations use them, you're falling prey to common myths that we have proven to be false. Year after year we undertake analysis and historically, we find that two-thirds of all airings occur during normal waking ours (5 a.m. – 11 p.m.) and that more than half of the airings occur in the top 100 markets.
New Trends
As we monitor the PSA landscape we are seeing three newer trends emerging.
First is a dramatic increase in Hispanic PSAs. Nonprofits are taking their mainstream PSAs and making them culturally-relevant to the Hispanic community. These campaigns have been wildly successful mostly because the Hispanic community is grossly underserved with PSAs on important topics, especially health, and the Hispanic media has the same needs as their mainstream counterpart, which is to find a way to fill advertising time that goes unsold.
Another new trend is going online with the PSA. This is often through banner placements or other means. The Internet offers benefits like being able to target your audience better by sending the PSAs only to websites that match the profile of who it is you want to reach. Also, if increasing web traffic is one of your reasons for launching the campaign, consider that the person looking at your PSA is already on line and a few easy clicks get them right to your website!
Finally, more corporations get into the act. While stations will NOT donate PSA time to for-profit organizations, corporations are partnering with nonprofits with a like-minded mission. The PSA is distributed on behalf of the nonprofit, and the for-profit has no visibility. One of the most common partnerships is that between pharmaceutical companies and health-related nonprofits. A pharmaceutical company may have a new drug coming out and they may partner with a for-profit dealing with that disease. The PSA message is "check with your doctor for new treatment options." However, we are seeing more and more non-health partnerships between corporate and nonprofit. It's actually a win-win for everyone. The nonprofit gets visibility that they otherwise may not be able to afford, the for-profit corporation gets out a message with wide play (since PSAs stay on the air for three to six months and longer) at a fraction of an ad buy, and the consumer hears an important message that may have timely relevance to them.
If this information has motivated you to consider a PSA campaign for your 2010 initiative, you're taking a step in the right direction. Do seek the help and counsel of a reputable producer/distributor to assure the message is on point and positioned in a way that will give you success with the media. As with anything, there are common dos and don'ts and you can easily avoid pitfalls with free consultation.
We have created, produced and distributed hundreds of campaigns. For a personal presentation, or to receive a Power Point presentation:
Contact Mike McCurdy, Executive Producer of HealthyTelevisionProductions, a division of HealthNewsDigest.com Call toll free: 877-634-9180 or [email protected]
Filed under: Health
Michael J. McCurdy, Founder/Publisher
Reporting from the Pocono Mountains – 2
Impossible you say? Walk down any street in New York City and you can bet that everyone is carrying a cell phone. And, it's a safe bet that at any time 10% of those people are having a conversation with someone else on their cell phone. Have you ever forgot to take your cell phone when you left the house? Did it make you feel naked? All alone? Worried you'd miss a business opportunity; a date? Do you reach into your pocket everytime you hear one go off?
I have been without a cell phone now for 3 weeks; by choice. It's a surprisingly wonderful feeling. It's nice not to have to worry about being on a leash. I got tired of carrying my Verizon cell phone and trying to find the perfect high ground, or by standing on a rock on one leg in the Pocono mountains trying to call someone I didn't really want to speak to in the first place. So I went to Walmart here in Pa. – my first time – and right to the electronics department where I found the staff to be very courteous and well versed, and was told that Verizon didn't work here. I was told that I needed a local pre-paid phone called Tracfone, with a $60.00 credit. I rushed home to set it up and could not make a call from my house. Went outside, kept walking up the hill until I finally got a connection. Started to make a call, and decided that I was so laid back from being in the mountains, I didn't want to get back in the tag phone game. However, for the next two days I got a series of calls for Julie from some teenage girls and guys. It seems that they put Julie's number back in the barrel as soon as she stopped paying her bill.
I go for daily 3-5 mile walks through the forest of the Promised Land state park here in Pennsylvania (I decided to keep my cell phone on a permanent charge at the cabin) and it is so quiet you can hear your thoughts. My only concern is running into a black bear for which they are numerous around here. But mostly they come out late in the day, as I noted last week when I was introduced to a 400 pound bear named Bruno who sauntered up my driveway while I was checking out the stars. A local had mistaken him for another big bear they call Apache.
So, if you want to buy and ad on HealthNewsDigest.com, call me on our free land line:
877-634-1890 or email me at: [email protected]
I respond very quickly
Filed under: Health
Michael J. McCurdy, Founder/ Publisher-HealthNewsDigest.com
Reporting from the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania
On July 1st we moved HealthNewsDigest.com from our home base in Manhattan, NYC, into a summer house in the northeast Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania . We are 10 miles from the nearest town, and 30 miles from the nearest city. Across the road from our house is a trail that goes through a forest where black bears and deer roam. It is formally known as "The Promised Land" state park. About 3,000 acres in size, it is 1,800 feet above sea level, and is surrounded by 12, 464 acres of Pennsylvania's Delaware State Forest. The forests of the park consist primarily of beech, oak, maple and hemlock trees. Two lakes and several small streams add to the
parks outstanding beauty. The air is so clear, it seems surreal.
I slept 12 hours each night for the first three nights, without Tylenol PM. No fire engines, ambulance sirens or police cars. It was awful
As I toured the area by foot, I came across the local gas station about a mile down the road. Much to my amazement, it sells the New York Times, for which I immediately reserved one of the 5 copies it receives each day.
On the fourth day here, I was invited to a ritual of a nightly "bear watch" fire and barbecue, where the locals place breaded and buttered corn in the backyard of one of their houses, and at approximately 9pm each nite, adult bears and their cubs and some deer come to feed. For a true city boy, it is quite a site!
Not so, on the fifth night. As I sat in my driveway, looking at the stars, I heard what sounded like large rakes scraping across the asphalt to my left and rear. As the sounds got louder, I also heard what sounded like panting. A huge 400 pound black bear walked nonchalantly by me within 10 feet, and proceeded across the road and into the forest. It took at least 5 minutes for my body to defrost. It took another five minutes to push my eyes back into my head.
"Oh, that must have been Apache" said a local when I described my experience. "He's harmless. Loves to introduce himself to newcomers."
The next night, not to show any fear to the locals, I sat down in the exact same spot. At around 9pm, he came into view from out of the forest, crossed the road walking straight towards me, proceeded up my driveway, passed within ten feet of me, and into the bushes behind the house. It took 15 minutes for my body to defrost and 15 minutes to push my eyes back into my head. This is vacation ?
Next week: Reporting in from the mountains, Part 2
To email me: [email protected]
Phone: 877-634-9180


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UT Arlington | find
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an event
The Multicultural Mavericks proudly presents the featured educational event for Hispanic Heritage Month. Following a special documentary screening, Associate Professor Dr. Allan Saxe will lead a discussion exploring the difficulties faced by undocumented students within higher education and avenues for future success. Join on on Tuesday, October 8th at 6 p.m. in the UC Rosebud Theater. Admission is free and open to the public. Part of Hispanic Heritage Month 2013
Hosted by the UTA Multicultural Mavericks & the Division of Student Affairs
For complete details and calendar, visit the Multicultural Affairs website: www.uta.edu/multicultural More information...
Office of
University Communications(for inquiries on individual
please contact the event sponsor)


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Kansas Department of Revenue agents and Riley County Police Department officers seized the business assets of Maximillian and Lolita Collado, owners of Jasmine restaurant in the Manhattan Town Center food court, Wednesday morning.
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Follow ABC Vitamins on:
ABC Vitamins Club Members can enjoy the benfits of 2 Super Days every month. These are Super Tuesday on the first Tuesday of the month and Super Saturday on the third Saturday of the month.
Super Days entitle ABC Vitamins Club Members to an extra 5% discount off whatever Member's price they would normally pay. This discount comes off ALL discounted prices including Super Specials and Quantity Buy prices.
For example:
Blooms Fish Oil 1000mg 200 Capsules is currently on Super Special for Club Members for $7.95 each or 2 for $7.50 each or 3 for $6.65 each. On Super Days Club Members will get an extra 5% off $7.95, $7.50 or $6.65 depending on how many are purchased.
A dozen Free Range Organic Eggs are normally $8.95 for Club Members. On Super Days Club Members will get an extra 5% off $8.95.
Many Blackmores products are 30% off NRP for Club Members. On Super Days Club Members will get an extra 5% off the price they would normally pay.
There are some exceptions to Super Day prices. Certain products have no extra discount on Super Days - These are: NaturBee and NatureC products, naturopathic consultations, postage.
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Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Causation and Culpability
…Zimbardo said, "There are no bad apples, just bad barrels." Do have a look at Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment webpage: that work, done in the '70s, is still a sine qua non in psychology texts as it raised disturbing questions about how nice people can become evil very quickly.I want to nit pick the bolded phrase since it encapsulates what I think is a widespread misunderstanding about causation and culpability. Coyne is of course right that there are dispositional (characterological) as well as environmental (situational) factors that determine behavior, but whatever the balance is between them, a full causal explanation of behavior is not exculpating. To suppose that we can hold people responsible only if they are uncaused in some respect sets an impossible standard for responsibility. After all, there's no reason to think people are uncaused in some respect or ultimately self-caused, a logical impossibility. And even if Zimbardo were right that people's dispositions and characters count for very little, we would still have to hold individuals accountable as a means to deter wrongful acts, such as the torture at Abu Ghraib (about which see Zimbardo's book The Lucifer Effect and his interview with philosopher Tamler Sommers in Sommer's new book A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain, highly recommended).
I was not completely convinced by this extreme environmentalism. For one thing, it's an easy way to exculpate people who commit antisocial or criminal acts; for another, there do seem to be some people who are of inherently good
character and prone to do heroic things in circumstances where others are
apathetic. On the other hand, I keep thinking of Daniel Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, which showed how everyday Germans, most of whom we'd consider nice, well-meaning people, became avid supporters of the Holocaust.
What Zimbardo's analysis does, crucially, is to broaden the scope of accountability to include not just individuals and their traits, but the systemic, institutional and policy factors that bring out the worst in human nature. Understanding how those factors cause individuals to act badly gives us that much more potential power to prevent wrong-doing, so it's important not to let a narrow, dispositionist and perhaps even contra-causal conception of culpability block our appreciation of situational influences. Hence my nit-picking of Coyne's comment.
Curiously enough, however, I'm not sure that Zimbardo himself is completely consistent in the application of his thesis. At a talk he gave in Cambridge, I asked him if his analysis of the Abu Ghraib situation didn't also apply to George W. Bush and then vice-president Dick Cheney. Weren't they too the product of a situation, of political parties, ideologies and the lure of power, not self-created monsters? He hemmed and hawed, clearly unwilling to endorse such an apparently exculpating explanation of people he considered evil incarnate. But again, such an explanation wouldn't be exculpating since we can, and must, still hold Bush and Cheney responsible despite the fact that they were fully caused, by their situation and innate endowments, to be who they are, and act as they did. In his interview with Tamler Sommers, Zimbardo agrees with Sommers that contra-causal free will is an illusion, but he also says the higher-ups like Bush and Cheney bear greater responsibility since they create the systems that corrupt the underlings. But of course neither Bush nor Cheney created the system that created them, a crucial point Zimbardo seems unwilling to acknowledge, or at least vacillates on (read the interview, see what you think). The buck stops nowhere, which means interventions are appropriate everywhere they will do some good, including the reform of systems that create and enable nefarious leaders.
If Zimbardo, one of the major proponents of situationism (and more broadly the causal explanation of behavior) can't fully accept that causation applies to all of us, even presidents and vice-presidents, this just illustrates the power of contra-causal thinking. Indeed, Zimbardo says in the interview, "I don't really believe in free will, but I can't live without it" (p. 50). Nonsense! Please try harder. As long as we suppose the wrongs that people do are not the fully determined outcome of a host of social, environmental and biological factors, including an electorate that can put the likes of Bush and Cheney in power and an administrative system that allowed them to pursue a needless war in Iraq, then we're at a serious disadvantage in our attempts to make the world a better place. By pinning blame on the bad apple alone, we'll be blind to, and lose control over, the causes of bad apples.
Is Naturalism Nihilistic?
Scientism as Rosenberg describes it isn't equivalent to or implied by naturalism, a worldview that takes science as its guide to reality. He says "Science has to be nihilistic about ethics and morality." But science alone isn't in a position to be nihilistic. Science arguably provides the best answers to factual questions about what exists, but doesn't itself have the resources or competence to answer (in the negative, as Rosenberg would have it) the "persistent questions" of human meaning, purpose and morality. To suppose science alone can answer such questions is indeed to be scientistic in the original and rightly pejorative sense. After all, when considering the big questions, we ordinarily avail ourselves of all the philosophical and practical resources outside science, such as ethical and political theory, religious and secular traditions, maxims, rules of thumb, and other sources of wisdom on how best to live and find meaning.
It isn't surprising that Rosenberg's hyper-reductive scientism ends up in nihilism, since of course we don't find values or purpose or meaning at the level of what he thinks science shows to be the only reality: fermions and bosons. But such austere physicalism isn't forced on the naturalist, who can countenance higher-level ontologies, including mental states, so long as they play useful roles in our best (most predictive, transparent and unifying) explanations and theories. So far as science can tell, human beings (physical organisms) and their projects (their behavior) are just as real as their sub-atomic constituents, which after all are not directly observed but theoretical posits par excellence. Naturalism still leaves plenty of room for purpose, meaning and morality so long as these are understood as what they actually are under naturalism: human, creaturely concerns that need no cosmic or sub-atomic backup. To see this is to naturalize purpose, meaning and morality, to relativize them to naturally occurring needs and interests; it isn't to annihilate them.
Rosenberg underestimates the extent to which scientific explanations can be understood and found inspirational by non-scientists, for instance the grand stories of cosmic and biological evolution. To discover ourselves full participants in nature, historically and in the present moment, need not be demoralizing as Carl Sagan so wonderfully demonstrated. Crucially, scientific explanations don't entail that human existential and ethical concerns are unreal or unfulfillable, only that they are situated in a natural world that, logically enough, has no capacity to validate them. Only the assumption that addressing such concerns requires an appeal to supernatural or extra-human standards would lead us to suppose that naturalized meaning and morality aren't the real thing. But there's no good reason to make that assumption.
Rosenberg says that "If the physical facts fix all the facts…then in doing so, it rules out purposes altogether, in biology, in human affairs, and in human thought-processes." But the physical level of description doesn't compete with, or supplant, higher level descriptions of human behavior involving purposes and other intentional states, conscious and unconscious. There's no making sense of behavior at our level without them. True, science reveals no purpose in evolution or nature, but that doesn't show that our purposes are illusions, that we don't really believe, desire, plan, etc. Purposes and intentional states are real-ized in physical organisms such as ourselves.
He makes the same sort of claim about morality: "There is no room in a world where all the facts are fixed by physical facts for a set of free floating independently existing norms or values (or facts about them) that humans are uniquely equipped to discern and act upon." Agreed: for the naturalist norms aren't free floating, but are rooted in our evolved needs and desires for flourishing in community with others (hence ethical norms of fairness and reciprocity) and for making accurate predictions about the world (hence cognitive norms of rationality, evidence and inference). But even though we don't find anything intrinsically normative in nature taken as a whole, or at the level of physical facts about fermions and bosons, these norms are just as real as the human beings that depend on them for getting by in the world. From a naturalistic standpoint, the normative force attached to our moral core – our judgment that it's correct – can only be a function of the fact that it serves basic human needs as shaped by evolution: if you want to get along with others (and you likely do) then you should in general behave morally. That this explanation shows our moral core to be an adaptation, along with much else about us, doesn't debunk normativity as unreal, only naturalizes it.
Rosenberg's reductive stripping away of higher level human perspectives continues down the line, for meaning, history, consciousness, the self, free will, and even knowledge (a perilously self-undermining tack to take). But the mistake in all this is to suppose that physicalist, mechanistic, sub-personal and selectionist explanations leave no room in naturalism for the higher level ontologies and explanations that comprise the need-driven normative realms of cognition, meaning and morality. That the brain doesn't traffic in propositions, and that consciousness isn't a direct mirroring of the world, doesn't mean that language-using persons don't have propositional knowledge or entertain accurate beliefs. That semantic meaning isn't a "fact about reality" considered at the sub-atomic level doesn't render unreal our linguistic referential capacities, or our ability to tell truthful and instructive stories about historical events. No original intentionality is needed, only the constructed intentionality made possible by being creatures whose brains instantiate mental models that track the world. Seeing that the consciously experienced self is naturalistically not a soul, but a neurally realized pattern (a "real pattern" Dennett would say) is to explain selves and self-concern, not to explain them away. That we aren't contra-causally free doesn't mean we cease being moral agents responsive to the prospect of rewards and sanctions, although it might entail that we rethink some of our more punitive responsibility practices.
The processes of naturalization spurred by science may indeed upset some cherished supernatural and theistic conceptions of the self, freedom, consciousness, morality, meaning and knowledge, which may in turn prompt changes in mainstream concepts and practices. But naturalism does not entail the scientistic elimination and debunking of all that matters to human beings; it simply places this mattering within nature as a set of creaturely concerns that other sentient beings might conceivably share with us. That nature, taken as a whole, or understood sub-atomically, does not validate our naturally occurring concerns and capacities isn't a reason to give up on them, and indeed we're pretty much constitutionally unable to do so. So naturalists need not be, shouldn't be, and in the end can't be, scientistic eliminativists or nihilists.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Mitigation Response: Getting Smart on Crime
It's appropriate that this change in our perception of causal responsibility mitigates perceived blameworthiness. To blame is to assign responsibility and seek redress, and as it becomes clear the offender is not self-made, but only the most proximate cause of harm, the smart course of action is to widen the scope of redress to include his causes – his formative environment and current situation. The tendency for blame focused on the offender to diminish in light of his causal story is an adaptive reallocation of emotional and attentional resources. It frees us up to consider a wider, more effective strategy in preventing future wrong-doings.
All this has implications for criminal justice, in that drawing attention to the causes of criminals, not just crime, might make us smarter in dealing with it. But just how real and robust is the psychological tendency described above, what we might call the mitigation response? Is there empirical evidence that understanding and appreciating causation actually reduces our desire to punish? Might it attenuate our desire for retribution, which aims only to inflict suffering on the offender, not produce good social consequences?
Some preliminary research supports these hypotheses. A series of studies conducted by psychologists Azim Shariff, Joshua Greene, and Jonathan Schooler indicates that heightening the salience of determinism reduces the attribution of moral blameworthiness, the perception of free will, and the desire for punishment ("Beyond Retribution?: Effects of Encouraging a Deterministic Worldview on Punishment," in preparation). Individuals exposed to explicit arguments in favor of determinism and against free will, or (in another study) scientific articles merely suggestive of determinism, were less likely to impose long prison sentences on a hypothetical murderer. The results also indicated that imposing shorter sentences was mediated by reductions in perceived blameworthiness, arguably the main factor motivating retributive, as opposed to consequentialist, punishment (about the difference see here). It looks as though these experiments induced the mitigation response.
They also suggest that educating the public about causation, in particular that human beings and their acts are likely fully caused, might help shift our criminal justice priorities away from retributive punishment, the law's current preoccupation, and toward prevention, rehabilitation and restitution, while maintaining deterrence and public safety. By widening the consideration of causes outside the perpetrator (but not forgetting him either!), the "deterministic worldview" can humanize criminal justice by motivating the idea that any suffering inflicted on him must have a solid consequentialist rationale: only inflict it if nothing non-punitive works to reduce the future harms coming from crime, and only if the suffering inflicted is less than the harm being reduced.
The mitigation response, generated by appreciating the offender's causal history of being shaped by criminogenic influences, can thus play a role in changing attitudes about blame and punishment. We should take full advantage of it in crafting a humane and smart approach to crime reduction.
(About a smarter, less draconian approach to criminal justice, have a look at Mark Kleiman's appearance on Bloggingheads with Reihan Salam.)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Freedom From Free Will
These concerns resurfaced in a debate between psychologists Roy Baumeister and John Bargh at the recent Society for Personality and Social Psychology convention in Tampa. Their presentations are on YouTube here and here respectively, and the debate continues on their Psychology Today blogs here and here. Baumeister, worried about demoralization, is very concerned to spike the idea that human behavior is fully determined, so he floats the unlikely proposal that causation at the macro level isn't deterministic (same causes, same effects) but more a matter of probabilities (same causes, a range of possible effects). The latter is likely true for micro-level quantum phenomena but there's no evidence that it's true at the level of human behavior. I try to steer him straight about determinism here, and try to persuade him that determinism isn't demoralizing here, with help from philosopher Tamler Sommers. Further, Baumeister's view of free will itself is somewhat confused, a mixture of naturalistic compatibilism and contra-causal libertarianism, so I try to clarify things for him here. Fortunately he's a forgiving soul and seems completely unfazed by my meddling.
Bargh, on the other hand, is a model of clarity in his responses to Baumeister (here and here), so hasn't needed any helpful hints. He's properly skeptical about contra-causal free will and makes these two important points, among many other good observations:
1) Where's the research, and publicity, about possible positive effects of disbelief in free will? All the focus so far has been on the downsides of determinism, at least what we've heard about. Interestingly, Bargh mentions that Jonathan Schooler, who brought us the study on cheating, also found that "telling experimental participants that free will did not exist caused those participants to be more forgiving towards the transgressions of others." But there have been no press releases or news stories about this to my knowledge. With any luck, Bargh and others will research the benefits of free will skepticism, so stay tuned.
2) Bargh says it's crucially important that if we don't have free will, people should know about it. Why? In order to empower them. He says:
To my mind, one potential benefit to getting people to not believe so strongly in the power of their own personal agency or free will is that they might then be more concerned about external influences or even explicit attempts by advertisers, government, etc. to control what they do (eat, drink, buy, vote). Research by Tim Wilson and Nancy Brekke (Psychological Bulletin, 1994) has shown that people do not worry very much about these influence attempts because they believe they are the captains of their minds and in near-complete control over their judgments and behaviors. For example, people do not believe negative campaign advertising affects them, and so do not attempt to counteract or defend themselves from the effects of such ads, yet that variety of campaign advertising is in actuality so effective that it became nearly the exclusive form of campaign ads during the recent 2008 US presidential election. And Jennifer Harris and colleagues in our ACME lab have recently shown unconscious effects of television ads on snack food and cigarette consumption, such that these ads contribute to societal health problems of obesity and smoking (see www.yale.edu/acmelab/publications.html). Thus I can see significant positive benefits in informing people of their (at least relative) lack of free will in the behavioral impulses triggered by the ads, both in their own health outcomes and in their ability to counteract presumed unwanted influences on their
important decisions, such as who they want to lead their country. Indeed, given that Baumeister has expressed his belief that telling people that free will may not exist is 'irresponsible', I can make the case that not telling them is perhaps even more irresponsible, because it leaves them at the mercy of corporations and governments who are not quite so naive.
Here Bargh agrees with behaviorist B.F. Skinner: the myth of radically "autonomous man" is used to lull people into being more easily controlled. Moreover, it helps in blaming and punishing victims (they cause their own misfortunes), and draws attention away from the actual reasons people fail to flourish (don't blame circumstances, just blame individuals). In helping to challenge conventional wisdom about free will, Bargh is bringing power to the people, if only they could be convinced. They are, paradoxically enough, made less free by their own beliefs about freedom, which is why we needn't be shy about advertising the truth about human agency. Freedom from free will is a liberation movement waiting to happen, should naturalism take hold. If it does, we can thank John Bargh for his straight talk on a matter many suppose should be kept under wraps.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Putting epistemology first
Of course there are important questions we can ask about reality outside the direct purview of scientific theorizing. Supernaturalist Ken Miller suggests some: "Why does science work? Why is the world around us organized in a way that makes it accessible to our powers of logic and observation?" And he points to "the deeper questions of why we are here and whether existence has a purpose." To the extent these questions involve matters of fact, or that they imply a factual state of affairs within which we ask them, we'll want to use our most reliable mode of knowing to ascertain those facts, which is science. What is the nature of existence, that it might or might not have a purpose? What is it about the methods of science that explains why it works so well? Science, and more broadly intersubjective empiricism, obviously has a role in investigating the nature of existence and the nature of scientific practice itself since these are empirical questions. To the extent these questions aren't directly factual, but involve conceptual analysis, they are ordinarily deemed philosophical. But the neat distinction between empirical and conceptual investigation has been blurred considerably by the naturalistic turn in philosophy over the last century, so that we might call Miller's questions "philo-scientific" questions, ones which arguably require the collaboration of science and philosophy to address.
What Miller and other supernaturalists such as Francis Collins at Biologos seem to suggest, however, is that religion and religious faith have some additional expertise, knowledge or epistemic competence beyond what science and philosophy have to offer in answering such questions. They believe that there are specifically religious, non-scientific ways of reliably knowing reality that can help answer the questions of why the world is accessible to logic and observation, and of ultimate meaning and purpose. If so, how do these ways of knowing work, such that we can see that they're trustworthy? Does theology, usually in the business of defending the existence of something beyond nature, have a special philosophical or epistemic competence such that it provides insights into reality not available to naturalistic philosophy? If so, what is this? In a must read essay on naturalism, Barbara Forrest quotes Sidney Hook asking the crucial question:
"Is there a different kind of knowledge that makes ... [the supernatural] an accessible object of knowledge in a manner inaccessible by the only reliable method we have so far successfully employed to establish truths about other facts? Are there other than empirical facts, say spiritual or transcendent facts? Show them to us..."This is a reasonable demand that any cognitively responsible supernaturalist should be able, and feel obligated, to meet. Of course it isn't as if naturalists claim to have all the answers to the big or even middle-sized questions, but the methods of inquiry we stick with have been proven pretty reliable. If there are any rival methods that establish the existence of something beyond nature that informs such answers, we want to know about them. If there aren't, then supernaturalists are skating on thin epistemic ice.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Getting Along: Civil Disagreements with a Thinking Christian
Tom Gilson at Thinking Christian was kind enough to offer a critique of Reality and its rivals, an article that discusses the justifications for intersubjective empiricism (exemplified by science) as our most reliable way of knowing, how empiricism tends to support naturalism, and the ethical obligation we have to one another to be empiricists (and thus, perhaps, naturalists). He then invited me to a debate in three parts, which you can read here.
I won't reprise the arguments since the disagreements are perhaps less important than the tone of the discourse, which was pretty amicable. Since it's unlikely that unanimity on the fundamental questions that worldviews address will ever be achieved, it's crucial that worldview adversaries share a belief in live-and-let-live tolerance, otherwise things can get very nasty, as the history of ideological conflict shows. They should agree that maintaining an irenic philosophical pluralism is more important than achieving world domination for their worldview, because that's simply not achievable given human diversity. Better we disagree peacefully than try to enforce an untenable uniformity.
I wrapped up my contributions by noting all the common ground that had come to light during the debate. I'll quote that and the end of Tom Gilson's reply, just as an example of how focusing on commonalities helps to generate cross-ideological comity. To put it succinctly and imperatively: everybody play nice!
Clark writes:
…But what I've learned from this debate is that we agree about those [epistemic] commitments more than I expected. We agree that "first person data" – for instance the subjective experience of being embraced by God – aren't alone adequate to prove the claim of God's existence. We agree (I think) that intersubjective evidence using public objects is necessary to justify that claim to persons not having such experience. We agree that history and philosophy have intersubjective elements to them, and we agree (I think) that one can't simply reason one's way to God: philosophical arguments supporting God's existence involve premises about how the world actually is in various respects (otherwise you wouldn't be interested in history or science, which of course you are). We also agree that there are unsolved mysteries about how the world works, that dogmatism is to be avoided, and that argument, not force, is the best way to resolve worldview differences. And if they can't be resolved, we agree that we can still live peacefully together in an open society (my cardinal value). So all told we agree on a lot, and for that and the very civil discourse I've encountered here, I'm most grateful.
Gilson responds:
...I continue to hold that God can communicate his reality to persons in a private manner, and that he does so, and that the shared reality of that experience among believers is as valid as persons' shared experience of "red." This is in addition to, not instead of, external inter-subjective validations.
I agree that there is epistemological value in your two requirements [the insulation and public object requirements], but I hold that to place complete reliance on them is self-defeating. I think you probably have agreed with that in the end, but I'm not entirely sure.
This has been an interesting discussion. There's room for more response here, and (whether this is good news to you or not I don't know!) I have two further topics to address from your epistemology article, relating to meaning and ethics, so I'll take those up in blog posts before long. I appreciate your excellent interaction!
The Wisdom of Alice
Alice writes:
I'm really happy with my understanding of the world based on what I understand Naturalism to be telling me. In the past I've found that I was coming up with theories, then when I came across a theory that made sense I was applying it, but it never went smoothly, something always came up that didn't fit in with my theory. So I jumped from theory to theory until finding Naturalism in July 2007. 18 months is probably the longest that I've had a theory that I've applied to my life where in 18 months I've not yet had a contradiction to the reality that I've experienced. I feel enlightened. I tell my friends this and they're not sure what to think. When things go wrong in my marriage and I 'attempt' to speak with my mother about it – she tells me 'well you've made your choices', so then I tell her, I don't have free will, she seems to think I'm trying to cop out of something and is very disapproving of me. In fact most people are disapproving of my belief in NFWism [no free will-ism: not having contra-causal free will]. I'm just really sorry they don't 'get it'. NFWism allows me complete acceptance of what is. It allows me to have compassion for all people. It allows me to make informed decisions and respond to everyone with the understanding that they 'couldn't have done otherwise'. This is an emancipating position. Yet still people look at me and think I'm some how being a smart-arsed shirker of responsibility, who hasn't quite understood how life works yet – a dreamer who really doesn't get it! Ironic that they have it so back to front – and yet my world view allows me to have total compassion for them and their attitude – whilst they look at me in judgment. It really throws the Christian door knockers - LOL!
On child-rearing:
…So the better I understand Naturalism, the better I can enact those principles in my life and use the rationality of naturalism in my thoughts and actions, the more likely that is going to permeate all my relationships and influence those around me. My eldest is currently 7 years old, and I find overt examples of my Naturalistic world perspective come out in my discussions with him regarding interactions between himself and his younger brother. Kids are very good at detecting false realities, so I have to be careful what I say if I want to maintain any authority or respect. I find that if I stick to Naturalistic parameters, my argument is quite based in reality and therefore acceptable.
I can't see any problem with introducing all aspects of Naturalism including NFW [no contra-causal free will] to my children. Children integrate what they learn very easily and can also easily see when things don't add up or make sense. If they feel safe they will talk about what is not adding up for them and allow you the opportunity to clarify concepts. One example of this for me was when my son's friend told him that he would burn in hell because he didn't believe in God. As my son approached me with his concerns, I was able to give my perspective, which was satisfactory and caused much relief.
If you hold Naturalistic beliefs and are able to concurrently have good self-esteem then there is no reason why your child wouldn't follow you to do the same. If anything Naturalism has improved my self-esteem, as I'm more grounded in reality, feel more confident about my understanding of the world and have more compassion for everyone around me, which has lead to my feeling more valuable in society and therefore created higher self-esteem.
With my first child I had a go at punishment as a parenting technique. It caused us both lots of distress [and] it clearly didn't work – it wasn't effective in outcomes. Now I go for a more effective method – I change the circumstances so that I achieve the outcome I desire. The child may or may not understand what I'm doing, or why, but if I get the outcome I want and the child is not distressed it's win-win. I have no concerns that this will create problems later on, as I explain everything I'm doing and allow the child to learn how to see other perspectives at their own rate – developing compassion (the ability to see another's perspective) in the child is the key to socially functioning adults.
And Stephen writes:
…the other day I was talking to my daughter about what school she will be going to. She was worried in case she got "a rough one." I explained that she was an amazing biological machine able to adapt to the situation and do well if necessary, that this was the result of billions of years of natural selection going right back to the first self replicating molecule, that she couldn't take ultimate credit for the fact but still she has this amazing ability.Oh and I told her we'd get her Karate lessons too :-)
She is 10, didn't bat an eye lid but it gave her justified confidence (along with the offer of karate lessons), she stopped worrying and cheered up.
I think she's used to having one strange dude for a father :-)
[Relatedly, see this interview with Dale McGowan on raising kids without supernatural beliefs.]
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Science Wars: Dualism vs. Materialism
The intelligent design controversy is perhaps the biggest front on the science wars, followed by disputes over the paranormal, but a new front is opening up around the issue of materialism or physicalism. Is science biased in favor of the materialist-physicalist assumption, the idea that nature fundamentally contains only material things? A small but vocal group of self-styled anti-materialist and dualist neuroscientists held a mind-body symposium at the UN last year, arguing that science has indeed been hijacked by dogmatic materialists, who wrongly discount evidence for categorically non-physical phenomena. New Scientist ran a good article about it, quoting some well-respected mainstream scientists and philosophers who, unsurprisingly, see the anti-materialists as the dogmatists, intent on warping science to serve their agenda.
These opposed positions are mirrored in two responses to the 2009 Edge question, What will change everything?. One is by biologist Rupert Sheldrake, who says materialism's days are numbered: certain questions, for instance about the nature of consciousness, will never be answered unless science is liberated from its assumption that the physical world is all there is. He says "Confidence in materialism is draining away. Its leaders, like central bankers, keep printing promissory notes, but it has lost its credibility as the central dogma of science." The other is by biologist P. Z. Myers, who says that materialism rules, and that eventually people will adjust to the idea they don't have souls, widely believed to be the precious immaterial essence of our being: "Mind is clearly a product of the brain, and the old notions of souls and spirits are looking increasingly ludicrous…yet these are nearly universal ideas, all tangled up in people's rationalizations for an afterlife, for ultimate reward and punishment, and their concept of self." Science writers John Horgan and George Johnson discuss Sheldrake, Myers and the materialism/anti-materialism conflict at Bloggingheads, and there's been a protracted debate between materialist Steven Novella and dualist Michael Egnor, both neuroscientists, at their respective blogs here and here.
So who's right and how do we decide? Sheldrake and Myers are both credentialed, published biologists, so they must share considerable common ground in how they practice science on a day-to-day basis. But obviously that isn't enough to keep them on the same page when it comes to the prospects for materialism.
One way to moderate the argument, if not completely resolve it, is to see that science is primarily a method of inquiry, not a repository of metaphysical truths. Science has no particular commitment to materialism as a final conclusion about the world, it's just that so far it hasn't found evidence for, or explanatory justification for, categorically immaterial phenomena such as souls, spirits or disembodied minds and wills (whether agreement could be reached on the defining characteristics of such phenomena is an interesting and open question). If such evidence were to accrue, and were our best explanatory theories to incorporate non-physical entities, no good scientist would complain about it. It's just the way things turned out. What scientists are after, qua scientists (and not worldview advocates), is explanatory transparency and reliable, maximally predictive models of reality (see here). No one can say in advance where these cognitive desiderata will take us. If Sheldrake and Myers could agree on this point, then their opposing opinions on materialism are not fundamentally about science, but bets on where science is likely to take us.
Sheldrake seems to think science might be limited in its current menu of options when he says "But there is still no proof that life and minds can be explained by physics and chemistry alone." Fair enough - no honest scientist supposes that we can know in advance what the final scientific explanations for life and mind must involve. Perhaps totally new fields of inquiry will develop (but I'm not holding my breath). However, what is very unlikely to change is the basic methodological constraints of science and its criteria of explanatory adequacy, which require high levels of evidential support, explanatory transparency, and descriptive specificity for phenomena to be certified as real. It's these requirements that have thus far ruled out creationism and intelligent design as tenable hypotheses, and they will apply equally to any hypothesis about categorically non-physical phenomena.
Sheldrake says "science will be freer - and more fun" once divested of its materialist bias. But science, properly conducted, has no such bias, and its judgments on anti-materialist hypotheses will be determined by the same rather demanding rules of evidence and explanation it applies to any hypothesis, materialist or otherwise.
No Problem With Determinism
The problem of determinism is a deep one, and I think that neither scientific nor folk psychology have come to grips with it. In scientific psychology, there is constant friction between deterministic theories, such as behaviorism (or any other theory describing "mechanisms") and theories stressing human agency. What academic psychology seems to be telling us is that human behavior follows scientifically detectable laws and that at the same time we have the power to choose and change apart from these laws.It's crucial to see that determinism doesn't conflict with genuine human agency, including the power to change ourselves. Human beings, though caused in each and every respect, are just as real as the causes that shaped them, and they still have real causal powers to pursue their goals, including those set by psychotherapy. We can't logically attribute causal power to the factors that create human agents and yet deny it for the agents themselves (see Avoiding demoralization by determinism).
Were there some part of a human being independent of determining influences, it would have no reason to choose one way or another, since it wouldn't be affected by, and thus responsive to, its own motives and reasons. Any exemption from determinism wouldn't give us a freedom (or responsibility) worth wanting, as philosopher Daniel Dennett puts it, only a random factor introduced into behavior. So we don't need, and indeed shouldn't want, a power to choose that's independent of "scientifically detectable laws."
As it turns out, there are now psychiatrists and therapists who are coming to grips with a deterministic, and more broadly, naturalistic understanding of behavior. Dr. Ron Pies, clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University in Boston, is one - see his papers on what he calls "psychiatric naturalism" in Psychiatric Times: Hume's Fork and Psychiatry's Explanations: Determinism and the Dimensions of Freedom and Psychiatric Naturalism and the Dimensions of Freedom: Implications for Psychiatry and the Law. (Pies responds to Krueger at the blog.)
In a therapeutic setting, seeing that one's behavior and that of others is fully caused works to reduce shame, blame (of self and others), anger and other responses predicated on the idea that we could have done otherwise in a situation. Indeed, Krueger recognizes a thorough-going determinism might make us more compassionate and self-compassionate, since, as he puts it, "We acted the way we did because we did our best and really couldn't have acted differently."
The cause-and-effect understanding of ourselves not only generates compassion, but gives us control, since we won't suppose that any part of us escapes being shaped by our circumstances, internal and external. Instead, we'll look at the actual causes of behavior, and thus be in a much better position to design and target effective interventions. So the insight that we don't have contra-causal free will can be a key tool in achieving therapeutic objectives. Far from causing trouble, determinism - the reliable patterning of events and actions - can serve us well in navigating the world.
Further reading: Worldview Cognitive Therapy


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Do-it-yourself projects are a great way to save money and bring unique one of a kind pieces into your wedding. The DIY wedding series brings tutorials of completed projects that I made for my own wedding such as hanging paper cranes and pomanders.
There is not a great deal of variety in the cake stand options available on the market today. The majority of them are either clear acrylic tiered stands, or silver embossed stands, with a few rustic tree slice stands added in for good measure. While these stands are nice for some weddings, they don't fit in with every style of wedding, so for those of you looking for something a little different you can try out a wooden pedestal cake stand.
Materials needed: 18 in round wooden panel available at Lowe's, Wooden pillar candle stand available at multiple locations such Michael's or Target, Wooden plaque, Spray Paint, wood screws.
1. Using a ruler and pencil, mark the center point of the round wooden panel.
2. Place the round wooden panel on top of the candle holder, making sure it is centered.
3. Using the drill, screw the two pieces together, securely.
3. Using the drill again, attach the wooden plaque to the base of the candle holder for extra stability.
4.Choose your paint color and type. Spray paint is the easiest and fastest option
5. In a properly ventilated space, spray paint the cake stand, wait a few days and add more coats of paint if needed.
6. This step is optional but you can add more decoration to the stand such as string beads, lace edges or crystal ribbon.


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The complete "Dancing with the Stars" 2014 cast was at long last revealed on March 4 during "Good Morning America," and it features an intriguing array of celebrity personalities from both the sporting and entertainment worlds.
The roster of stars and their celebrity partners includes "Full House" actress Candace Cameron Bure and Mark Ballas, "The Wonder Years" alum Danica McKellar and Val Chmerkovskiy, Aussie singer Cody Simpson and Witney Carson, "Star Wars" actor Billy Dee Williams and Emma Slater, famed long distance swimmer Diana Nyad and Henry Byalikov, "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star NeNe Leakes and Tony Dovolani, "Big Time Rush" alum James Maslow and Peta Murgatroyd, former NHL star Sean Avery and Karina Smirnoff, actor Drew Carey and Cheryl Burke, and Olympic gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who will go head to head for the first time ever while partnered with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Sharna Burgess.
The cast is rounded out by the series' most intriguing pick to date, Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy, who will dance with five-time "DWTS" winner Derek Hough. After suffering a bout of bacterial meningitis at age 19, both of Purdy's legs were amputated below the knee. She is the first double amputee to compete on the show, but not the first amputee: that distinction goes to model and activist Heather Mills, who took part in season four with pro partner Jonathan Roberts.
But according to a press release from ABC, the celebs shouldn't get too comfy with their new partners. Per the announcement, season 18 will feature an all-new twist called "The Switch Up," which will allow viewers to vote to change pairings at some point during the competition.
"Dancing with the Stars" 2014 premieres March 17 on ABC.
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