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UCLA's Langenfeld Named Player of the Week
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – UCLA's Megan Langenfeld (Bakersfield, Calif.) was named the USA Softball Player of the Week for the week of April 5-12 announced today by the Amateur Softball Association after leading her team to two shutout victories overthen-No. 3 Washington. She also made her mark in the storied history of UCLA softball by throwing UCLA's 100th no-hitter.
On Saturday against Washington, the junior pitcherheld the third-ranked Huskies to one hit in 16 innings to help the seventh-ranked Bruins move to No. 3 in this week's poll. Langenfeld struck out 10 and gave up just three baserunners over the two games on a hit, a walk and an error.
"It's such a great feeling to be recognized by USA Softball with this award. Last weekend was a great momentum shift for our team. We went out there and played UCLA softball and played the way we know we can. Washington is an outstanding team with a great pitcher and a great offense," said Langenfeld. "To beat them twice changes the momentum for us after a couple of tough weekends and will help us going forward with the rest of the Pac-10 season. To pitch a no-hitter is a great accomplishment. I knew I had one going, but I didn't realize it was the 100th in UCLA history. To be in the same class as so many great UCLA pitchers who have recently thrown no-hitters like Keira Goerl, Jelly Selden and Donna Kerr is an awesome feeling."
On Saturday, Langenfeld retired the first 13 batters she faced before Taylor Smith reached on a fielding error with one out in the fifth inning. She struck out a pair, both in the first inning. The junior didn't allow a ball out of the infield for the entire game. Langenfeld clinched her first career no-hitter and extended her record to 6-0 when the Bruins scored six times in the bottom of the fifth inning to invoke the mercy rule.
Langenfeld began the two-game series allowing just one hit in 11 innings while striking out eight in a 2-0 win on Friday. She threw eight hitless innings before surrendering a leadoff single to Alicia Blake in the ninth. Following a two-out walk to Jennifer Salling in the first inning, the junior retired the next 22 in a row before the Blake hit. After the hit, Langenfeld set down the last nine batters she faced, never allowing a runner to get past first base for the entire game.
"Megan is a fierce competitor. Her confidence in the circle was contagious to the entire Bruin lineup," said UCLA Head Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. "Not only did she lead the Bruins to two big wins but she also placed herself in the Bruin record books by throwing the 100th no-hitter for the program."
This is the second-time for Langenfeld to receive this award as she was named USA Softball Player of the Week, as a freshman, for the Week of May 7-13, 2007.
About ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit http://www.asasoftball.com/.
About USA Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men's, Women's, Junior Boys' and Junior Girls' National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women's National Team is one of the only two women's sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.


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Twenty years ago – 1993
Student of the Week is Raymond Hudack, a senior at Silver Creek Central School. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hudack of 12809 Cayuga Drive, Irving, he is currently ranked second in his class. Ray is a participant in SUNY Fredonia's 3-1-3 program, a member of the National Honor Society and an avid golfer and bowler. He plans to attend the University of Rochester to pursue a degree in chemistry.
Thirty years ago – 1983
Daniel Adamczak, 724 Grant Ave., Dunkirk was named recently as honorary chairman of the annual Hose Co. No. 1 installation banquet. He joined the company in 1935 and is a life member of Southwestern, Western and New York State Volunteer Firemen's Associations. Albert "Jake" Foley, a local attorney, will also receive honors at the banquet for 50 years of service to Hose Co. No. 1. Also being honored this year are Leonard F. Schrantz, Carl Waterman, Robert Teclaw, Robert Meyer and Robert Michalski.
Forty years ago – 1973
The newly-organized drum corps of the Murray Hose Co. No. 4 in Dunkirk made its debut by marching in the VFW convention parade through the city. The drum major is Chet Tarnowski.
Fifty years ago – 1963
About 700 persons watched as the first in a series of races was presented by the Southern Tier Amateur Harness Racing Association in Little Valley.

subset: commoncrawl


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Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday released the updated AMD accelerated parallel processing (APP) software development kit (SDK) v2.3 with full support for the first AMD Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs), OpenCL 1.1 and AMD Radeon HD 6900-series graphics cores. The new SDK will allow software designers to utilize advantages of APUs as well as latest graphics processing units (GPUs).
AMD APP SDK v2.3 empowers software developers to write new applications that can take full advantage of the parallel processing power of heterogeneous computing platforms, such as those based on new AMD E-series and C-series APUs that combine a multi-core CPU and DirectX11-capable GPU on a single die. The new SDK also offers improved runtime performance and math libraries for OpenCL.
"When developers harness the power of parallel processing within our APU designs, they can fundamentally change the PC experience to help not only make it faster, but also to create new possibilities in software," said John Taylor, director of client product and software marketing, AMD.
Improving OpenCL performance and programmability on AMD platforms is a key initiative for AMD, and this summer, AMD technical personnel, AMD executives, developers and partner companies will gather at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit to discuss industry standards including OpenCL, and to explore how to best optimize applications for heterogeneous computing. The inaugural AMD Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS) will be held June 13-16, 2011 in Bellevue, Washington. AFDS will gather developers, academics and emerging innovators to learn more about heterogeneous computing, APU technology, parallel processing and developer programs like the AMD Fusion Fund.
Tags: AMD, Fusion, ATI, Cayman, Radeon, OpenCL, GPGPU


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Public Accounts Committee on Nov. 2nd, 2011
Evidence of meeting #12 for Public Accounts in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was clement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Richard Dicerni Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
- Michelle d'Auray Secretary of the Treasury Board of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
- Yaprak Baltacioglu Deputy Minister, Department of Transport
- John Forster Associate Deputy Minister, Infrastructure Canada, Department of Transport
3:35 p.m.
The Chair David Christopherson
I call this 12th meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to order. I would ask our friends in the media, with the cameras, to conclude their filming.
I have given permission for a couple of still cameras to remain for a minute or two because of the kind of shot wanted. Apparently that's not unusual. They assure me they will be just a moment or two.
Before we go to our guests, I will tell you that the steering committee met today, and it's agreed so far, subject to the approval of the committee, that at 5:15 we will conclude this hearing. If everything goes the way it should, we should have come very close to exhausting the speakers list. But it's accepted and recommended by the steering committee unanimously that, regardless of where we are in the rotation, at 5:15 we will conclude and move to an order of the day, which will be to deal with Mr. Saxton's notice of motion.
There's a further commitment—I want to put all the cards on the table—that we will conclude a vote on the matter of Mr. Saxton's motion before we rise.
That's our goal between now and....
I'm looking for a nodding of heads from the steering committee that this is what we agreed to.
Now I ask the general committee, do you support the recommendation of the steering committee?
3:35 p.m.
Some hon. members
3:35 p.m.
The Chair David Christopherson
Hearing no opposition, that is carried and so ordered.
So at 5:15 we have an order of the day to move to Mr. Saxton's motion.
With that, I'll go to the main business of the day.
First of all, welcome, Minister Baird and Minister Clement. Welcome to our committee. We are pleased to have you here.
We will be proceeding in our usual fashion, which is, first, to offer both of you an opportunity for opening remarks. Following that, we will move into rotation in our usual fashion, and people will have their five minutes.
You have the floor now, if you wish to make an opening remark.
Minister Clement, do you wish to go first?
November 2nd, 2011 / 3:35 p.m.
Parry Sound—Muskoka
Tony Clement President of the Treasury Board
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I will indeed.
3:35 p.m.
The Chair David Christopherson
Very good.
3:35 p.m.
Tony Clement Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
Let me thank you, of course, and through you thank the members of this committee.
It is indeed a pleasure to be here today, and in particular to address the events and decisions surrounding the 2010 G-8 summit and my role therein.
With the indulgence of the members, I'd like to rewind the clock a little bit and take us all back to just over three years ago, to June 2008. At that time the Government of Canada proudly announced that a world-class leadership event would be held in Canada in the Muskoka region.
An enormous amount of work went into preparing for that event. Many departments took part and the planning was done jointly by the federal, provincial and municipal governments. International authorities were also involved.
Ultimately, preparations for the 2010 G-8 summit involved a two-year process. The outcome was an event that has been praised internationally as a model for how future summits can engage with local communities. It was a summit that produced, amongst other things, the internationally acclaimed Muskoka initiative on maternal and newborn health, as well as an opportunity to showcase to the world our country's economic strength and unparalleled natural beauty.
There was, of course, a strong interest on the part of local mayors, municipal officials, businesses, artists, students, and other citizens to find a way to play a coordinated role in this important event. This led to the founding of what was then known as the local area leadership group, which held its first meeting on September 12, 2008.
Now, this group was set up primarily as a way of providing community leaders and others an opportunity to be briefed by government officials on developments that would affect the community throughout the G-8 planning process.
This leadership group also enabled the community leaders to dialogue and exchange ideas about the best ways to meet their community's needs during this incredibly important event.
I want to stress this, though: this was not, however, a decision-making body, and never behaved in that capacity.
Every municipality in the region was represented at the table, and every one of those meetings was followed by a press conference with local media as a way of engaging the public on progress being made on summit planning.
Now, several months after the first local meeting, on February 6, 2009, I announced on behalf of the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure the creation of the G-8 infrastructure fund, which had been funded in the January 27 budget of that year.
Local mayors and officials were of course keen to take part in the G-8 infrastructure program. They began drafting proposals for a wide variety of projects. In all, municipalities in the region came up with 242 different ideas for G-8 projects.
Now, since there were far too many project ideas for available funds, and since some of the ideas clearly fell outside federal jurisdiction, I then proposed to the mayors a simple, straightforward process through which they could focus on the project proposals that really mattered to them and the region. I suggested that they, amongst themselves and with their councils, identify their top priorities and, based on their own judgment, weed out those proposals they considered to be of low need or outside federal jurisdiction.
Since other mayors didn't want to submit proposals via the Huntsville mayor, I offered my constituency office in Huntsville as a depository where proposals could be dropped off and from there forwarded to federal officials.
These suggestions received a positive reception by the mayors and community leaders, and they worked cooperatively to identify their top priorities. Essentially, each mayor reviewed the proposals for his or her area and brought forward only those they considered a priority.
Most of these focused on improvements to enhance tourism, something the mayors felt was important given the international attention that, through the G-8 summit, would provide millions upon millions of dollars' worth of free publicity and resulting economic encouragement to the region.
Ultimately 33 projects were sent to Infrastructure Canada for review. Infrastructure Canada officials, operating independently, engaged their due diligence process on the 33 proposals put forward, and advised the Minister of Infrastructure which projects were eligible for funding.
In the end, a total of 32 G-8 legacy projects were approved. A public announcement for each funded project was held with media and the general public present.
As the members of this committee know, in order to maximize accountability to taxpayers, our government consulted the Auditor General at the time and proactively asked her to look not only at the expenses of the G8 summit, but also at those of the G20 summit.
The Auditor General fully investigated the G-8 fund and confirmed that every penny spent is accounted for, and has also clearly stated that there is no reason for any further audit of the fund.
In fact, just recently, the interim Auditor General, while testifying before this parliamentary committee, reaffirmed this position.
In her report however, the then Auditor General did make recommendations to improve the administrative processes. This includes the process I outlined just a couple of minutes ago, in which I asked local municipal officials to prioritize their own project submissions.
I can assure you that I have taken the Auditor General's recommendations with regard to the administration of the intake process very seriously, and I certainly accept her conclusions.
In hindsight, it may have been better for infrastructure officials to review all 242 initial proposals and not simply encourage the local mayors to collaborate and focus their requests in the interests of efficiency and time. It is worth reiterating, however, that every penny of the G-8 infrastructure fund was accounted for. The Auditor General's report is clear on this.
I have spoken at length about these issues in public already, including at the House of Commons government operations committee on June 20. In fact, members, since January 1, 2010, a total of 53 witnesses have appeared before two House of Commons standing committees on the G-8 legacy fund and the G-20 leaders summits. In all, House committees have spent 39 hours hearing testimony and discussing this topic. Today's meeting will bring this total to 41 hours.
Today I am hopeful that with me, with of course my colleague the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with the gathered federal officials here at the table we can finally put an end to the assertions contending that the review process undertaken was in any way unethical, and members can then move on to their reviews of other government operations pertaining to the rest of a large $280-billion federal budget.
I thank you.
3:40 p.m.
The Chair David Christopherson
Thank you.
Minister Baird.
3:40 p.m.
Ottawa West—Nepean
John Baird Minister of Foreign Affairs
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Honourable members, thank you very much for having me.
I do at the outset want to pay special note and welcome my colleague and friend, the member for Winnipeg Centre.
We're very pleased that you could join us.
3:45 p.m.
Pat Martin Winnipeg Centre, MB
I wouldn't miss it.
3:45 p.m.
John Baird Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
He said he wouldn't miss it, for the record.
He wishes Deepak was here; don't we all. Deepak is representing the Government of Canada at a very important meeting abroad.
The G-8 legacy fund helped an already beautiful part of Canada put its best face forward to the world. There were going to be literally 4,000 members of the media beaming pictures of this summit and the Muskoka region to every corner of the globe in blanket coverage. There were also thousands of delegates, thousands of diplomats, who would share their own impressions by word of mouth. Some stayed up to 100 kilometres away from the summit site. This was a huge opportunity. This was a huge undertaking.
Large international summits like this generally require significant infrastructure investments. Our government in February 2009 announced this fund to Canadians. Up to $50 million was available.
Ultimately, my office and departmental officials presented me with a list of public infrastructure projects that I approved. These 32 projects met the criteria of the program. These included the effective and secure hosting of the G-8, beautification of the region, and a lasting legacy for local communities.
As minister, I presented estimates to Parliament, and I am accountable for those estimates. When I arrived at the department, I was hearing concern from all sides that federal infrastructure approvals were taking far too long. They were mired in red tape. My mission was to get things moving, and, with this fund, time was of the essence.
The Building Canada fund was a seven-year program. Stimulus programs ran for two. With G-8 projects, though, we had approximately 15 months from start to finish.
Officials recommended, and I as minister accepted that advice, that we use an existing fund rather than create an entirely new one so that we could move quickly. The border infrastructure fund was topped up.
I am pleased to say that the 32 projects were delivered on time and millions under budget.
I would like to underline one point. I said the border infrastructure fund was an existing fund that was topped up. In other words, money that was designed for border infrastructure was not diverted from improvements to border security or mobility. It was merely a delivery mechanism.
The projects came in under budget, every penny was accounted for, and each of the projects continues to serve the public as it was intended. I'm told that this has been done in terms of parliamentary appropriations for more than 100 years.
I would also reiterate, Mr. Chair, the buck stops with me. The projects presented to me met all of the eligibility criteria for the program. I made the decisions, I am responsible, and I am accountable.
Let me also say that public servants at Infrastructure Canada did an absolutely outstanding job when the Canadian economy needed the federal government the most. They applied professional oversight and expertise to the thousands of project applications to help create jobs, hope, and opportunity at a time of global recession.
If our government had not acted to create more than 23,000 stimulus projects across the country, the great global recession may well have had great depression effects.
The Auditor General in her report made a number of observations about ways to be more open and more accountable to Canadians. I fully accept those comments, and the government agrees.
In hindsight, the estimates could have included a line regarding the top-up of this fund. I stand by my decisions, which were informed by the best possible advice. I was and remain accountable.
I'm open to providing responses to questions over the areas with which I was responsible.
Thank you.
3:45 p.m.
The Chair David Christopherson
Very good. Thank you, Minister.
Before we begin, there's been an oversight on my part. I would ask Mr. Dicerni and the other guests to please introduce themselves.
3:45 p.m.
Richard Dicerni Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
My name is Richard Dicerni. I'm Deputy Minister in the Department of Industry.
3:45 p.m.
Michelle d'Auray Secretary of the Treasury Board of Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat
I'm Michelle d'Auray, the secretary of the Treasury Board.
3:45 p.m.
Yaprak Baltacioglu Deputy Minister, Department of Transport
I'm Yaprak Baltacioglu, infrastructure and transport Deputy Minister.
3:45 p.m.
John Forster Associate Deputy Minister, Infrastructure Canada, Department of Transport
I'm John Forster, Associate Deputy Minister, infrastructure.


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Today, something for Obama supportersWednesday, August 8th, 2012
I've been taking a fair amount of heat lately because I can't find it in my heart to support Our Dear Leader…I mean, The Greatest President Ever®… I mean Barack H. Obama as he runs for reelection.
Apparently, all I ever do is lie about him and make up stuff and be mean and disrespectful. I've even had the racist card played on me a couple of times.
I will freely admit to being disrespectful, primarily because I'm one of those curmudgeonly folks who believe respect should be earned and not come automatically with being elected to something. The rest of the charges, well, I imagine they come from folks who live by sound bites and pretty much want to believe that "Yes, we can" move "Forward" and build castles in the sky but really don't like it when folks point out things like gravity, so they lash out. But that's okay. I have a pretty thick skin.
Still, I do feel a little bit bad that I made them feel bad. So today, I'm not going to say anything bad about Barack H. Obama. I'm not even going to point out any uncomfortable truths. I'm just going to offer this short music video by two folks who apparently were card-carrying Obots hopeful, thoughtful supporters in 2008.
I'll leave it to you, kind readers, to comment on the video.


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On the week they release their fifth studio album 'V', Maroon 5 have announced details of a May/June 2014 UK arena tour.
Adam Levine and co. will play a trio of shows in London, Birmingham and Manchester with chart-toppers Magic! and Nick Gardner in support.
The dates are as follows:
London SSE Arena, Wembley – Tue 26th
Birmingham LG Arena – Sun 31st
Manchester Phones 4U Arena – Mon 1st
Tickets go on sale from Aloud.com this Friday (5th September) from 9am. CLICK HERE to get yours.
Recorded in Los Angeles with superstar producers Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, Shellback and Sam Martin, 'V' boasts the number two single 'Maps' and sees the band join forces once again with long-time keyboardist Jesse Carmichael.
As well as scoring blockbuster hits like 'Payphone', 'Moves Like Jagger', 'Makes Me Wonder' and 'She Will Be Loved', Maroon 5 have sold over 17million albums across the globe.


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Skip to comments.Why so many people including scientists suddenly believe in an afterlife
Posted on 05/07/2013 11:00:54 AM PDT by rickmichaels
Death, it seems, is no longer Shakespeares undiscovered country, the one from whose bourn no traveler returns. Not according to contemporary bestseller lists. Dreams and visions of the afterlife have been constants across human history, and the near-death experiences (now known as NDEs) of those whose lives were saved by medical advances have established, for millions, a credible means by which someone could peek into the next world. Lately a fair-sized pack of witnesses claim to have actually entered into the afterlife before coming back again to write mega-selling accounts of what they saw and felt there. Afterlife speculation has become a vibrant part of the zeitgeist, the result of trends that include developments in neuroscience that have inspired new ideas about human consciousness, the ongoing evolution of theology, both popular and expert, and the hopes and fears of an aging population. Heaven is hot again. And hell is colder than ever.
Recent polls across the developed world are starting to tell an intriguing tale. In the U.S., religion central for the West, belief in heaven has held steady, even ticking upwards on occasion, over the past two decades. Belief in hell is also high, but even Americans show a gap between the two articles of faith81 per cent believed in the former in 2011, as opposed to 71 per cent accepting the latter. Elsewhere in the Western world the gap between heaven and hell believers is more of a gulfa 2010 Canadian poll found more than half of us think there is a heaven, while fewer than a third acknowledge hell. Whats more, monotheisms two destinations are no longer all that are on offer. In December a survey of the 1970 British Cohort group9,000 people, currently 42 years oldfound half believed in an afterlife, while only 31 per cent believed in God. No one has yet delved deeply into beliefs about the new afterlifethe cohort surveyors didnt ask for detailsbut reincarnation, in an newly multicultural West, is one suggested factor. So too is belief in what one academic called an unreligious afterlife, the natural continuation of human consciousness after physical death.
While most of the current bestselling accounts of afterlife experiences are recognizably Christianat least in outlinesigns of changing beliefs can be found in them too. Nor are the new travelerswho include a four-year-old boy and a middle-aged neurosurgeonwhat religious skeptics would think of as the usual suspects. Colton Burpo, now 13, died 10 years ago from a ruptured appendix, and spent three minutes of earthly time in heavensome of it in Jesuss lap, some of it speaking with a miscarried sister whose existence he had never been told aboutbefore being pulled back to Earth by his surgical team. Since 2010, when his father, Todd, a Nebraska minister, published his account of what Colton told him, Heaven is for Real has sold more than 7.5 million copies. If Coltons story sounds like a contemporary take on an ancient Christian motifunless you become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3)the same cant be said about Eben Alexanders post-religious cosmic experience.
It is Alexanders provocatively named Proof of Heaven, released in November, that wrenched afterlife visitation literature out of its below-the-radar religious publishing niche and into the spotlight. Alexanders professional statureas a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon, a man expected to know what is possible and what is not for human consciousnessensured him of extensive media coverage, including on Oprah Winfreys Super Soul Sunday, massive sales (it remains No. 1 on the New York Times paperback non-fiction bestseller list), and often venomous responses from fellow scientists.
Alexander woke one day in 2008 with an intense headache. Within hours, my entire cortexthe part of the brain that controls thought and emotion and that in essence makes us humanhad shut down, he writes. Doctors finally determined that E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid and were eating my brain. For seven days he was in a deep coma, during which time, often guided by a beautiful girl riding a giant butterfly, he flew around the invisible, spiritual side of existence. And there he encountered God, whom Alexander frequently refers to as Om, the sound he recalls as being associated with that omniscient, omnipotent and unconditionally loving God.
He eventually recovered, a medical miracle in itself, Alexander writes. But he was an entirely different man, no longer a neuroscientist like other neuroscientists. I know that many of my peers holdas I myself didto the theory that the brain, and in particular the cortex, generates consciousness and that we live in a universe devoid of any kind of emotion, much less the unconditional love that I now know God and the universe have toward us. But that belief, that theory, now lies broken at our feet. What happened to me destroyed it.
Not according to most of his fellow neuroscientists, whose reactions made the predictable Christian warinessno angels, no Jesus, and a God named Om left Toronto pastor Tim Challies to sum up Proof of Heaven as more New Age-y than the rest, close to non-Western religionseem welcoming. Oliver Sacks called Alexanders claims not just unscientific but anti-scientific. Others opposed dogma with dogma: Alexander was correct that by current neurological understanding what happened to him was impossible if his cortex was shut downtherefore, they said, it wasnt shut down, no matter what his medical records say. Many skeptics referenced British psychologist Susan Blackmores 1993 book, Dying to Live, which dismisses NDEs as a result of chemical changes associated with dying brains, as the last word.
For their part, non-materialist neuroscientists, like University of Montreal professor Mario Beauregard, have long critiqued Blackmore and point out that brain research was in its infancy 20 years ago. Blackmore argued that a lack of oxygen (or anoxia) during the dying process might induce abnormal firing of neurons in the part of the brain that controls vision, leading to the illusion of seeing a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel.
Beauregard cites objections by Dutch cardiologist Pim Van Lommel that if anoxia (lack of oxygen) was central to NDEs, far more cardiac arrest patients would report such an experience. Whats more, as pointed out by Dr. Sam Parnia, whose resuscitation techniques have doubled his New York hospitals cardiac-arrest-recovery rate, some NDE patients were not terminal during their experiences, meaning their oxygen levels were normal. In fact, Parnia notes, dropping oxygen levels are associated with acute confusional state, something at odds with the lucid consciousness reported by NDE people.
Two decades of research and medical advances have moved near-death experiences from rare events to common occurrences. In his book Erasing Death, Parnia cites a 30-year-old Japanese woman as the current record holder (in terms of time) for someone who was found dead and restored to life. She may have been dead up to 10 hours, Parnia says, but after six hours work, doctors got her heart started and brought her back to health: she had a baby in the last year. Now that patients who have been clinically dead for hours can be brought back to life, says Parnia, the question of the continuation of human consciousness is a live scientific issue.
And its not only the remarkable extension of the time patients can now spend suspended between life and death, but the sheer number of individuals involved, that has made NDEs so contentious among researchers. Those whose NDEs also involved an out-of-body experience raise the stakes further.
Materialist skeptics are not troubled by accounts of tunnels of light or angelic beings. Perhaps the dying brain hypothesis doesnt fully explain them, but there are other possibilities. Too much carbon dioxide in the blood perhaps or, as a recent study from the University of Kentucky posits, NDEs are really an instance of a sleep disorder, rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In that disorder, a persons mind can wake up before his body, and both hallucinations and the sensation of being physically detached from the body can occur. Cardiac arrest could trigger a REM intrusion in the brain stemthe region that controls the most basic functions of the body and which can operate independently from the (now dead) higher brain. The resulting NDE would actually be a dream.
But that hypothesis still cannot account for people who report seeing, during their out-of-body experiences, what they could not have. Most commonly thats an overhead view of their frantic medical teams. Parnia reports a 2001 case, in which a Dutch patients dentures were removed during cardiac arrest. When his nurses couldnt find the dentures later, the patient was able to remind them where they were. Perhaps the most famous corroborated case, cited by Beauregard, is that of a migrant worker named Maria, whose story was documented by her critical care social worker, Kimberly Clark. The day after she had been resuscitated after cardiac arrest, Maria told Clark how she had been able to look down from the ceiling and left the OR. She found herself outside the hospital and spotted a tennis shoe on the ledge of the north side of the buildings third floor. She described it in detail. Maria, not surprisingly, wanted to know whether she had really seen the shoe, and asked Clark to go look.
Quite skeptical, Clark went where Maria sent her, and found the tennis shoe, just as shed described it. The only way she could have had such a perspective, said Clark, was if she had been floating right outside and at very close range to the tennis shoe. It shouldnt have been possible, as both Beauregard and Parnia point out. The question becomes, Parnia says, how can people have conscious awareness when theyve gone beyond the threshold of death?
The answer to that question is not necessarily Christian, or even metaphysical at all, not for Parnia, who describes himself as not a religious person and not for many of his fellow NDE researchers. In a similar vein, many traditional Christians are more than a little wary of the reported experiences of the heaven travelers. For them the ideaso intolerable to materialist skepticsthat consciousness, or the soul, can and does exist outside the body is an article of faith. But some of the new afterlife, however seemingly Christian in outline, is often troubling, especially in its utter lack of judgment. All are welcome, all are heaven-bound in those accounts: there is no sign of Gods wrath for sinners. The division over the possibility of continuing human consciousness is not entirely between the religious and the secular. And the extraordinary popularity of heaven tourismbooks have continued to pour down the publishing pike this year, including I Believe in Heaven by Cecil Murphy, one of the pioneers in the genreis not entirely driven by evangelical enthusiasm.
In that regard, the storm stirred up by Proof of Heaven only obscures the wider significance of the afterlife books. The controversy over the scientific basis of Alexanders experiences, like the skeptical poking for holes in the Burpo storycan Coltons parents really be sure he never heard a word about his mothers miscarriage?can miss the cultural forest for the factual trees.
Consider the many other near-death survivors-cum-authors and their places along the continuum, from pastors son to neurosurgeon. Theres Mary Neal, an orthopaedic surgeon whose account of the aftermath of her drowning in Chile in 1999, To Heaven and Back, has spent two years on bestseller lists; teacher Crystal McVea, whose Waking Up in Heaven tells the story of the nine minutes that followed after she stopped breathing in 2009; The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven is about six-year-old Alex Malarkey, who met Jesus after an car accident in 2004; and Texas pastor Don Piper, whose 2004 account (co-written with Cecil Murphy) of his car crash, 90 Minutes in Heaven, is often credited with kick-starting the phenomenon.
There are elements, from key plot points to tiny details, that link their stories, starting with two obvious points. The idea that major scientists no longer dismiss the idea of continuing consciousness colors all accounts, as does the fact that, whether truth or fantasy, the experiences are necessarily culturally specific.
All overwhelming and bewildering mental states have to be sorted, defined and made comprehensible in the light of the familiarwhat else do our brains have to work with? One way or another, a pastors child and a fallen-away Christian like Alexander will filter an NDE through the earliest Sunday school tracks laid down in their memories. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, first famous for her five stages of grief, later became a doyenne of NDEsher lectures on her NDE patients (who turned her into a believer), first published in 1991, were reissued in 2008 to catch the current publishing wave. Even in her rather homogenous western European clientele, Kübler-Ross could see the effects of early enculturation: I never encountered a Protestant child who saw the Virgin Mary in his last minutes, yet she was perceived by many Catholic children.
Many of the writers share a common gaping wound, centred on lost children, a wound usually healed by simultaneously finding the child and realizing there is no blame or judgment to suffer, no forgiveness to offer or seek. Most of Colton Burpos account is a childs-eye account of orthodox teaching, but its most affecting passage is when he lifts years of guilt and anxiety off his mother, Sonja, by telling her that her miscarried child had been a girl, and that she was now flourishing in heaven as Gods adopted daughter. One of Kübler-Rosss patients, a 12-year-old girl, told her father how she was comforted during her NDE by her brother. Except that she didnt have a brother. Her tearful father then told her about the son who had died three months before her birth.
Eben Alexander, whounlike most NDE caseslost all sense of personal identity during his experience, was troubled because that loss meant no relative offered him assurances of love and acceptance. Afterwards though, Alexanderan adopted child who had felt abandoned his whole lifesaw a picture of his deceased natural sister, whom he had never met in life. She was the girl on the butterfly. (There is more than a trace of Kübler-Rosss influence in Proof of Heaven. The butterfly girl stands out as one of the more psychedelic elements in an account mostly abstract and metaphysical: Kübler-Ross, however, constantly describes the human body as a cocoon, from which a metaphorical butterfly of spirit will eventually emerge.)
And the stories offer similar proofs: Colton, like Kübler-Rosss patient, inexplicably knew of a lost sibling, whose existences their parents believed they had kept hidden, while Eben Alexander could describe precisely what his medical team and his family were doing during his seven-day coma. They are all, even the children, witnesses who experienced what they didand came back, reluctantlyfor a reason. Mary Neal was sent back with what she called a laundry list of tasks to do, which she still doesnt talk about, at least not until they are accomplished: one was to help the rest of her family cope with the foretold death of her young son, which occurred 10 years later in 2009. Colton and Alex provide truth out of the mouths of babes. Alexander knows he is uniquely positioned among NDE subjects to challenge the materialist orthodoxies of mainstream neuroscience.
Those similarities in form pale beside the deep thematic link between the new bestsellers: the (previously) undiscovered country is a place of unconditional love. Several of the writers pause, sometimes for pages, to stress the adjective as much as the noun. None express the message more clearly than Alexander, who writes that the only thing that truly matters was communicated to him in three parts. He boils those down to one wordlovebut the key phrase may be the third sentence of his longer version:
You are loved and cherished.
You have nothing to fear.
There is nothing you can do wrong.
Thats fodder for cynics and skeptics, of course. That an individual like any of the authors, someone of broadly Christian background coping with emotional pain, should undergo such a heaven-centerd experience when in the throes of physical trauma, is broadly predictable and easy to dismiss as wish-fulfillment. The fact it has happened to a group of such similar individuals does not in itself prove the truth (or the falsity) of the experiences; what that does, though, is illuminate a culture that increasingly rejects the very notion of judgment while equating salvation with personal healing.
Most observers trace the current upsurge to Don Pipers 90 Minutes in Heaven. Largely ignored by the non-religious world and looked at askance by many Christian commentators, 90 Minutes sold like hotcakes. And while it set the template for what was to come, what stands out about it today is its modesty. Piper was declared dead at the scene of an auto crash on Jan. 18, 1989. His body was left in place while the authorities waited for the tools needed to extract him from the wreckage. An hour and a half later, though, Piper stirred back to life, albeit to a long and excruciating recovery, involving 34 painful surgeries.
And to bear witness to where he had been in that 90 minutes. In the transcendent light, actually, just outside the pearlescent gates of heaven, surrounded by perfect love and the gathering presencesimultaneously physical and spiritualof loved ones who had died during Pipers lifetime. There were friends who had passed away young and were thus still youthful looking; his grandfather, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair; and his great-grandmother, still aged but now no longer with false teeth, but her own restored, no longer stooped and no longer wrinkled. Signs of age, in other words, and of the gravitas they confer, but no traces of the ravages of living.
All thisthe approach to the pearly gates, the welcome from loved ones, the presence of unconditional love and the absence of judgmentwas pregnant with accounts to come. But, as it turned out, 90 Minutes first-bornthe genetic relationship obvious in their titles, not to mention the way Amazon bundled them together for a special low pricewas the most striking outlier in recent afterlife literature, Bill Wieses 23 Minutes in Hell. A California realtor, Wiese was sleeping peacefully on the night of Nov. 22, 1998, when God pitched him into hell at 3 a.m., so thatWiese later decidedhe could warn others of their peril. He landed abruptly in a five-by-three-meter cell, shared with two gigantic, evil, reptilian beasts who proceeded to smash him against the walls before shredding his flesh.
Yet Wiese did not die, could not die, as much as he wanted to. He continued in seemingly endless pain, tormented too by the terrible, foul stench. (Smellthe most evocative of senses, the one most closely tied to deep memoryis prominent in accounts of heaven as well, where it brings visitors the most comforting reminders of childhood and, when the odors arise from food, assurances of plenty.) At precisely 3:23 a.m., Jesus rescued Wiese and returned him home, where he landed, terrified, on his living room floor.
The book, published in 2006, spawned no serious imitators. In part that was due to its lack of the scientific gloss the heaven narratives bear (and the times demand)one Christian nurse, posting on Amazon, rejected 23 Minutes because of her familiarity with NDEs. There is no explanatory traffic accident, cardiac arrest or brain-eating bacteria, nothing to indicate a hovering between life and death when the sufferer could peek through the curtain, nothing that didnt point to a (very) bad dream.
But Wieses book also went nowhere because hell no longer possesses the power it once held in Christianity. Thats particularly remarkable within an American religious milieu that was always attentive to warnings of hellfire. In 1741 Jonathan Edwards delivered what is often called the most famous sermon in American history, Sinners in the hands of an angry God. It is beautifully composed, rigorously logical (in terms of Calvinist theology) and frankly terrifying: Men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked. Edwards was interrupted often during the sermon by congregants moaning and crying out, What shall I do to be saved? Its doubtful hed receive the same reaction today. Many modern Christians struggle to reconcile a loving God with one who would condemn the majority of humankind to eternal torment.
Within Roman Catholicism, notes Smith College world religion professor Carol Zaleski, the last three pontiffs, including Pope Francis, have all been supportive of the late Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, who taught that Catholics have a duty to hope and pray for an empty hell, for the salvation of all. Even those Protestant traditions that have historically been more attuned to the gulf between the elect and the damned have seen vigorous theological debate about the afterlife, and the defense of ideas that effectively weaken the severity of divine wrath. Conditional immortality, for one, says true eternal life is reserved for the saved; souls in hell will eventuallyand, in this context, mercifullybe annihilated.
Most people are no longer afraid of being seized at an unguarded moment, judged wanting and flung into the fiery pit like Edwardss congregants were, says Zaleski. We are now more creatures of anxiety than of guilt. The anxiety, as well as the interest, is surely tied to the greying of the Western world too, as our thoughts, conscious or not, increasingly turn to whats next, whether we think thats oblivion or some kind of afterlife. Baby boomers, by sheer force of numbers, have always driven cultural trends, from the lowering of voting and drinking ages in their youth to the politically untouchable status of retirement benefits today. Its hardly surprising to see them favor not just the existence but the congenial nature of an afterlife.
And that is where the heaven tourists finally mesh, not just with each other, but with the larger culture. We seem to be moving inexorably from a society where organized religion dominates issues of moralityand mortalitybut not to the secular promised land of reason. Rather, we are orienting ourselves to a more personal spirituality, at once vague and autonomous. Ordinary sinners increasingly dont believe that they deserve judgment, let alone hell. Theists and atheists alike dispute any earthly authoritys right to judge, and both feel NDEs give them reason to hope for something beyond the grave. And many believers confidently expect that God isnt judgmental either.
It's all happened before...
There's no dead atheists.
They know the end is near.
Obama's Amerika — proof positive that hell exists.
And the "visions" tend to correlate with whatever the person was trained to believe in. Like that kid whose book sold well last year or so, who "saw" a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Jesus.
We scientists are a religious lot. As Einstein used to say in talking of the existence of God, "God does not roll dice."
It is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgement.
Even if you took God out of the equation there is far too much evidence that suggests there is life after death. Tales of reincarnation, ghost stories, out of body experiences where they one back with knowledge they could not have possibly known or observed things that are other worldly and unfamiliar to them. I've literally heard thousands myself because this is one thing my wife is really into. Even taking into account charlatans / hoaxers the evidence is overwhelming. I'm guessing once the scientific immunity really e mbraces this that the liberals may start to worry. Maybe they have been the ones with closed minds that lacked sufficient creativity or imagination to believe that another reality may exist right around them. After you usually can't see nitrogen or oxygen but you breath it every day.
It seems rather obvious to me that human beings, regardless of intelligence, have absolutely no idea "how" death occurs - not all the signs of death are physical - if so, we have not learned to detect them.
Is anyone who was "brought back" ever really dead in the first place? I don't think so. The thought of it staggers my mind.
Satan can truly deceive.
<"And the stories offer similar proofs">
And the stories were all deception...amid drugs and vivid imaginations.
I love reading things like this. People who believe in Heaven, but not Hell, or Heaven, but not God, are cowards. They want all of the beauty that faith brings, but not any of the responsibilities. Their stance is, "I'm going to Heaven whatever I do and no one judges me for anything"
I have to ask these people if they believe they'll meet Ted Bundy and Hitler in Heaven. Their disbelief in God is usually grounded in "rationality", yet they find belief in Heaven to be perfectly reasonable.
In the end, these people are what's known as "cowardly atheists", and I am related to a few of them. They embrace atheist disbelief in divinity to avoid having to subject themselves to any kind of objective right and wrong, however unlike Dawkins and other members of the hardcore elite, they just cannot bring themselves to the logical conclusion of their beliefs. That when they die, that's all there is. They will never see their dead loved ones ever again, because humans are just bags of meat.
I can't help but shake my head at people like this. They eat from both sides of the plate.
The facts are these. There is a Heaven. There is a Hell. Our actions in this life determine where we shall end up.
Afterlife ping.
Jesus? Lazarus?
No one ever mentions their dead pets in these NDEs. I've always wondered about that.
Jesus? Lazarus?
Apples, Oranges
This article states that none of the books talk about hell. I read one by a college professor from KY who 'died' in Paris, in which he was being dragged to hell by a host of demons before being saved. Can't remember the name, but it was much better than the Mary Neal book I just finished.
What of Lazarus?
None of them were resurrected by an act of faith (either by themselves or of others), by God Himself, nor a Miracle performed by Jesus.
They "said" they died, man-made machines may have "said" they died - perhaps they were even resuscitated by men. That is not to say they were yet "dead".
The spiritual realm is constantly trying to communicate with us on this Earth. The story being told is not what we were told in Sunday school or in ancient times.
That is an interesting comment but one that is true. Christians rarely talk about hell any longer. It's almost as if they're embarrassed by the topic. But it is a fact that our Lord Jesus talked more of hell than He did of heaven. For those who are interested: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Ah, then I merely misunderstood what you were getting at.
And if they are in rebellion, then it only makes sense they would wish to spread disinformation.
I would be interested in a NDE account by a person who verifyably had not been previously exposed to any organized religion. I did read a book once called, I believe, 13 minutes in hell. It was about a man whose NDE wasn't about a heavenly experience, but of the pure anguish and existence void of God in hell. Scary book.
I don't wanna go tot he afterlife, I wanna hang around as a ghost and haunt all of the liberals...
At least for a few thousand years....
Ok... If that is so, why did we need Lucifer?
There IS an afterlife, but IMO what you want out of it goes a long way towards predicting what you'll get out of it. No proof, just my opinion.
Someone had a pet butterfly.
Hopefully all sentient beings are there.
"No one ever mentions their dead pets in these NDEs."
Sure they do. All the time. Don't you listen to George Noory?
Widow of Nain's son? Jairus's daughter?
I'm not familiar with him
I believe. I've read the books by George Anderson and went with a colleague to see John Edwards once in one of his performances. Edwards contacted this colleague's deceased father and told him things that Edwards had no way of knowing - such as that the father spoke in tongues at church when he was alive.
After my best friend (not the colleague mentioned above) was murdered, his family and I went to a psychic. The psychic said that my deceased friend wanted his family to have the $100 dollars that he had hidden in his room. His room was locked and we had to climb in through a window, but the $100 bill was right where we were told to find it.
My friend's spirit also told the psychic to tell us to forgive his murderer and to feel compassion for him.
For anyone who may be interested read the book that started me becoming interested in the NDE'S phenomenon. "Return From Tomorrow", written by Dr. E. Gorden Ritchie while he had an NDE during basic training in WWII.
I am not an atheist or denier of an afterlife, but a near-death experience is not a death experience.
Here are a few:
Acts 9:36-41 - Peter raises Tabitha
Luke 7:11-16 - Nain's Son
Mark 5:35-43 Jairus' Sick Daughter
II Ki 4:20-37 - A Resurrection by prophet Elisha
That's right OWS, I was not speaking of REAL Miracles or Biblical resurrections - just the topic of "after death experiences".
For what it's worth, I saw an interview once with a man who claimed to have died and reentered his body while it was being autopsied. If he wasn't really dead, then somebody made a very big boo-boo.
thank you.
Um, if they (Jesus, Lazarus, etc) were miraculously brought back from the dead, then everything experienced after that is an "after death experience."
WATCH (Prove all things)
http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/Amazing/ (various amazing testimonies)
NDE Research: Gary habermas Near Death Experiences and the Afterlife (Video File download) http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/context/lts_fac_pubs/article/1214/type/native/viewcontent
Glimpse of Eternity with Ian McCormack: stung by box jellyfish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-ezZ9hkD8
Download: http://www.divinerevelations.info/Documents/ian_mccormack/Glimps_of_Eternity_GoodQuality.mp4
Dr Maurice Rawlings - NDE Interviews: To Hell and Back; including an atheist) Download: http://media.tbn.org/download/tbn/gallery/To_Hell_And_Back.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M19g4KtVAGQ ( Mickey Robinson air crash to Christ)
Roman Gutierrez Twice dead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh38mI498C0
Channel 7 news man raised from dead after 40 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRoAcfzytCA
23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysqXNRdZ4V8
Matthew Botsford - To Hell and Back http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/Amazing/Matthew_Botsford011206.aspx
Deerinda Lowe Gets A Second Chance http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Deerinda-Lowe-120810.aspx
The Day Jeffrey Thompson Almost Died http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Jeffrey-Thompson-072810.aspx
Dr Maurice Rawlings - NDE Interviews: To Hell and Back; including an atheist) Download: http://media.tbn.org/download/tbn/gallery/To_Hell_And_Back.wmv
You should spend more time reading the bible and less time coming up with your own facts. Jesus Christ would greatly disagree with you.
Repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ are actions.
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text:
A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize–winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.
In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.
Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.
There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who's spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.
A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Toni Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities, Emerita, at Princeton University. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She lives in Rockland County, New York, and Princeton, New Jersey.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Don't be afraid. My telling can't hurt you in spite of what I have done and I promise to lie quietly in the dark--weeping perhaps or occasionally seeing the blood once more--but I will never again unfold my limbs to rise up and bare teeth. I explain. You can think what I tell you a confession, if you like, but one full of curiosities familiar only in dreams and during those moments when a dog's profile plays in the steam of a kettle. Or when a corn-husk doll sitting on a shelf is soon splaying in the corner of a room and the wicked of how it got there is plain. Stranger things happen all the time everywhere. You know. I know you know. One question is who is responsible? Another is can you read? If a pea hen refuses to brood I read it quickly and, sure enough, that night I see a minha mãe standing hand in hand with her little boy, my shoes jamming the pocket of her apron. Other signs need more time to understand. Often there are too many signs, or a bright omen clouds up too fast. I sort them and try to recall, yet I know I am missing much, like not reading the garden snake crawling up to the door saddle to die. Let me start with what I know for certain.
The beginning begins with the shoes. When a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody's shoes, even on the hottest days. My mother, a minha mãe, is frowning, is angry at what she says are my prettify ways. Only bad women wear high heels. I am dangerous, she says, and wild but she relents and lets me wear the throwaway shoes from Senhora's house, pointy-toe, one raised heel broke, the other worn and a buckle on top. As a result, Lina says, my feet are useless, will always be too tender for life and never have the strong soles, tougher than leather, that life requires. Lina is correct. Florens, she says, it's 1690. Who else these days has the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady? So when I set out to find you, she and Mistress give me Sir's boots that fit a man not a girl. They stuff them with hay and oily corn husks and tell me to hide the letter inside my stocking--no matter the itch of the sealing wax. I am lettered but I do not read what Mistress writes and Lina and Sorrow cannot. But I know what it means to say to any who stop me.
My head is light with the confusion of two things, hunger for you and scare if I am lost. Nothing frights me more than this errand and nothing is more temptation. From the day you disappear I dream and plot. To learn where you are and how to be there. I want to run across the trail through the beech and white pine but I am asking myself which way? Who will tell me? Who lives in the wilderness between this farm and you and will they help me or harm me? What about the boneless bears in the valley? Remember? How when they move their pelts sway as though there is nothing underneath? Their smell belying their beauty, their eyes knowing us from when we are beasts also. You telling me that is why it is fatal to look them in the eye. They will approach, run to us to love and play which we misread and give back fear and anger. Giant birds also are nesting out there bigger than cows, Lina says, and not all natives are like her, she says, so watch out. A praying savage, neighbors call her, because she is once churchgoing yet she bathes herself every day and Christians never do. Underneath she wears bright blue beads and dances in secret at first light when the moon is small. More than fear of loving bears or birds bigger than cows, I fear pathless night. How, I wonder, can I find you in the dark? Now at last there is a way. I have orders. It is arranged. I will see your mouth and trail my fingers down. You will rest your chin in my hair again while I breathe into your shoulder in and out, in and out. I am happy the world is breaking open for us, yet its newness trembles me. To get to you I must leave the only home, the only people I know. Lina says from the state of my teeth I am maybe seven or eight when I am brought here. We boil wild plums for jam and cake eight times since then, so I must be sixteen. Before this place I spend my days picking okra and sweeping tobacco sheds, my nights on the floor of the cookhouse with a minha mãe. We are baptized and can have happiness when this life is done. The Reverend Father tells us that. Once every seven days we learn to read and write. We are forbidden to leave the place so the four of us hide near the marsh. My mother, me, her little boy and Reverend Father. He is forbidden to do this but he teaches us anyway watching out for wicked Virginians and Protestants who want to catch him. If they do he will be in prison or pay money or both. He has two books and a slate. We have sticks to draw through sand, pebbles to shape words on smooth flat rock. When the letters are memory we make whole words. I am faster than my mother and her baby boy is no good at all. Very quickly I can write from memory the Nicene Creed including all of the commas. Confession we tell not write as I am doing now. I forget almost all of it until now. I like talk. Lina talk, stone talk, even Sorrow talk. Best of all is your talk. At first when I am brought here I don't talk any word. All of what I hear is different from what words mean to a minha mãe and me. Lina's words say nothing I know. Nor Mistress's. Slowly a little talk is in my mouth and not on stone. Lina says the place of my talking on stone is Mary's Land where Sir does business. So that is where my mother and her baby boy are buried. Or will be if they ever decide to rest. Sleeping on the cookhouse floor with them is not as nice as sleeping in the broken sleigh with Lina. In cold weather we put planks around our part of the cowshed and wrap our arms together under pelts. We don't smell the cow flops because they are frozen and we are deep under fur. In summer if our hammocks are hit by mosquitoes Lina makes a cool place to sleep out of branches. You never like a hammock and prefer the ground even in rain when Sir offers you the storehouse. Sorrow no more sleeps near the fireplace. The men helping you, Will and Scully, never live the night here because their master does not allow it. You remember them, how they would not take orders from you until Sir makes them? He could do that since they are exchange for land under lease from Sir. Lina says Sir has a clever way of getting without giving. I know it is true because I see it forever and ever. Me watching, my mother listening, her baby boy on her hip. Senhor is not paying the whole amount he owes to Sir. Sir saying he will take instead the woman and the girl, not the baby boy and the debt is gone. A minha mãe begs no. Her baby boy is still at her breast. Take the girl, she says, my daughter, she says. Me. Me. Sir agrees and changes the balance due. As soon as tobacco leaf is hanging to dry Reverend Father takes me on a ferry, then a ketch, then a boat and bundles me between his boxes of books and food. The second day it becomes hurting cold and I am happy I have a cloak however thin. Reverend Father excuses himself to go elsewhere on the boat and tells me to stay exact where I am. A woman comes to me and says stand up. I do and she takes my cloak from my shoulders. Then my wooden shoes. She walks away. Reverend Father turns a pale red color when he returns and learns what happens. He rushes all about asking where and who but can find no answer. Finally he takes rags, strips of sailcloth lying about and wraps my feet. Now I am knowing that unlike with Senhor, priests are unlove here. A sailor spits into the sea when Reverend Father asks him for help. Reverend Father is the only kind man I ever see. When I arrive here I believe it is the place he warns against. The freezing in hell that comes before the everlasting fire where sinners bubble and singe forever. But the ice comes first, he says. And when I see knives of it hanging from the houses and trees and feel the white air burn my face I am certain the fire is coming. Then Lina smiles when she looks at me and wraps me for warmth. Mistress looks away. Nor is Sorrow happy to see me. She flaps her hand in front of her face as though bees are bothering her. She is ever strange and Lina says she is once more with child. Father still not clear and Sorrow does not say. Will and Scully laugh and deny. Lina believes it is Sir's. Says she has her reason for thinking so. When I ask what reason she says he is a man. Mistress says nothing. Neither do I. But I have a worry. Not because our work is more, but because mothers nursing greedy babies scare me. I know how their eyes go when they choose. How they raise them to look at me hard, saying something I cannot hear. Saying something important to me, but holding the little boy's hand.
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Book Description Knopf 2008-11-11, 2008. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. 0307264238 BRAND NEW. A portion of your purchase of this book will be donated to non-profit organizations. Over 1,000,000 satisfied customers since 1997! We ship daily M-F. Choose expedited shipping (if available) for much faster delivery. Delivery confirmation on all US orders. Bookseller Inventory # Z0307264238ZN
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Book Description Knopf, 2008. Book Condition: New. Brand New, Unread Copy in Perfect Condition. A+ Customer Service! Summary: "A horrifying act stood at the center of Toni Morrison's 1987 masterwork, Beloved: a runaway slave, caught in her effort to escape, cuts the throat of her baby daughter with a handsaw, determined to spare the girl the fate she herself has suffered as a slave. A similarly indelible act stands at the center of Ms. Morrison's remarkable new novella, A Mercy, a small, plangent gem of a story that is, at once, a kind of prelude to Beloved and a variation on that earlier book's exploration of the personal costs of slaverya system that moves men and women and children around 'like checkers' and casts a looming shadow over both parental and romantic love. Set some 200 years before Beloved, A Mercy conjures up the beautiful, untamed, lawless world that was America in the 17th century with the same sort of lyrical, verdant prose that distinguished that earlier novel. . . . Ms. Morrison has rediscovered an urgent, poetic voice that enables her to move back and forth with immediacy and ease between the worlds of history and myth, between ordinary daily life and the realm of fable. . . . A heartbreaking account of lost innocence and fractured dreams, [that] also stands, with Beloved, as one of Ms. Morrison's most haunting works yet." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Spellbinding . . . Dazzling . . . [ A Mercy ] stands alongside Beloved as a unique triumph in Morrison's body of work. The lush poetry and amorphous structure of [the novel] reflect the story's distant setting in the mist of America's creation, when independence and the three-fifths compromise of the Constitution were still a century away. . . . Morrison, who has written so powerfully of catastrophe, cruelty and horror, here adds to that song of tragedy equally thrilling chords of desire and wonder, which in their own way are no less tragic. Where Beloved ends with the cathartic exhaustion of an exorcism, A Mercy concludes with an ambiguous kind of prayer, redolent with possibility and yearning but inspired by despair. This rich little masterpiece is a welding of poetry and history and psychological acuity that you must not miss." Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book World "Luminous and complex . . . In Beloved, Morrison told the story of Sethe, a woman who murdered her own child rather than see her sold into slavery. Early on in A Mercy, we watch a mother do the oppositeshe puts her daughter Florens up for sale . . . It's a less bloody moment, but in its way it's no less chilling. A Mercy is that daughter's tale. . . . Morrison is mooting the perversely hopeful possibility that slavery could have existed without racism or at least without racism as we know it. She lavishes some of her best writing in years on [ A Mercy 's] pre-Revolutionary world . . . A Mercy shows us America in the moment before race madness ruined itit is a wounded land, but the wound has not yet turned septic. . . . In A Mercy, Morrison is urging her younger self, the tortured soul who fashioned the infernal vision that is Beloved, to look even furtherbeyond the veil of pain and anger, however righteous, to hope. There was a time before the present misery, Morrison seems to be telling herself. And therefore, maybe, there will be a time after it." Lev Grossman, Time "Magnificent . . . As with all Morrison's finest work, A Mercy compellingly combines immediacy and obliquity. Its evocation of pioneer existence in America surrounds you with sensuous intensity. . . . An attack by a bear is described with thrilling power. . . . Idioms have potent directness, too. . . . Rich knowledgeability about 17th-century America is put to telling effect. Voices speak to you as if you were there. . . . The book keeps you vividly aware of the vital human individuality that racism's crude categorizations are brutally trying to iron out. . . . A stark story of the evils of possessiveness and the perils of dispossession emerges slantwise. Hints, sus. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_new_0307264238
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Book Description Knopf Publishing Group, 2008. Hard Cover. Book Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. Bookseller Inventory # 007635
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Book Description Knopf, 2008. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. 1st. Bookseller Inventory # DADAX0307264238
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Book Description Book Condition: New. Depending on your location, this item may ship from the US or UK. Bookseller Inventory # 97803072642370000000
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Book Description Penguin Random House. Book Condition: New. Brand New. Bookseller Inventory # 0307264238
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Book Description Knopf, 2008. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. book. Bookseller Inventory # 0307264238
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Book Description Random House USA Inc, United States, 2008. Hardback. Book Condition: New. New.. 238 x 150 mm. Language: English . Brand New Book. A new novel, set, like Beloved, in the American past. Bookseller Inventory # AAS9780307264237
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Book Description Knopf. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. 0307264238 *BRAND NEW* Ships Same Day or Next!. Bookseller Inventory # SWATI2122048193
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Gwinn Easy Storage takes first at SC tourney
The Gwinn Easy Storage fifth-grade girls basketball team took first place in the Superior Central tournament. Pictured in front are Deena Firkell, left, and Taljia Borg. In the second row from left are Emily Mannor, Emma Kimsel, Megan Allie and Abigayle VanDuzer. Third row from left are Marissa Delmont, Cheyenne Meier, Megan Ruokolainen, Amaya Schuettpelz-Cornelius, Chloe Norman, Hallie Roos and Kadie LaRock. Top row are coaches Lance and Kristen LaRock. Not shown is coach Amy Kimsel.


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Find accommodations in Norcross with the hotel list provided below. Find cheap and/or discounted hotel rates in or near Norcross, GA for your corporate or personal leisure travel. Explore the most favored Norcross, Georgia hotel and motel rooms. Browse the Norcross area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Norcross hotels. Planning a group? Lock in Norcross Group Hotel Discounts
The Norcross center point is about 1 mile southeast of Atlanta Unity Church and 2 miles northwest of North Atlanta Trade Center.
How should we direct your call?


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Caravan Sport Shelter
Product Information:
Stay cool and comfortable at any outdoor event with the Caravan Canopy® Sport Shelter. Complete with a fashionable carry bag, the 4.2 pound canopy goes absolutely anywhere. The Sport Shelter assembles in minutes and comes ready with stake kit, cover and poles. The eye-catching blue fabric will protect against harmful UV rays whether you are at the beach or on the sidelines at your favorite sporting event.
Click here for additional information relating to the Manufacturer's Warranty.
- Provides UV protection
- Stake kit, poles, and cover included for hassle-free assembly
- Includes wheeled carry bag for easy transport
- Manufacturer's warranty: 60-days
- Model: 80010100990
- Caravan
Click here for additional information relating to the Manufacturer's Warranty.
Country of Origin: ChinaWeb ID: 13149212


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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered remarks at a World Refugee Day event, co-hosted by the Department of State and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on Friday, June 18. Along with Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Eric Schwartz and President of the International Rescue Committee George Rupp, the Secretary was joined electronically by UNHCR Antonio Gutierrez in Syria, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie at a refugee camp in Ecuador, and from refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Secretary said, "This marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Refugee Act, and I want to thank each and every one of you who have been instrumental over these past 30 years, because the plight of the world's refugees is an issue that transcends not just geography and ethnicity, but politics and partisanship as well. It reminds us that we are all vulnerable, no matter how comfortable our lives may appear to be, but we, too, around the world -- those of us who enjoy the benefits of the life that we have built or inherited, we, too, are vulnerable to war and conflict, droughts and floods, environmental disasters, as we've seen even in our own country.
She continued, "Now, for the United States this has been an enduring commitment, but our work on behalf of refugees is not the result of some grand strategic calculus. We don't help because it bolsters our ability to play power politics or advance our economic interests, although in the long run I believe it does make our nation stronger and allow us to promote reconciliation and stability in areas of desperation and despair. We help because it is the right thing to do. We happen to believe it's also the smart thing to do, but even in cases where it doesn't appear all that smart, it's still often right. And therefore, we proceed."
Click here to read the Secretary's full remarks.
O.C. in the U.S.A. writes:
Causing mayhem and strife as a means to profit is unacceptable in today's world. The USA needs to take a very long, critical look at itself. You can't bang the drumbeat of human rights while simultaneously wreaking havoc in the world. Supporting nations in intelligent partnerships will have a much more profound affect on the world than centuries of strife.
O.C. in the U.S.A. writes:
Professionalizing development teams like a huge army of ants to quell conflicts that quickly get people working and making money would be far more beneficial to global trade than the current reality. Marginalizing drug dealers and organized criminals and getting them on a more positive track would spare the world from erupting into conflict every other week. Think massive development, education, partnerships and trade. The world's security is being hijacked by greedy criminals that need socializing and a new mindset, including American ones too. Profiting from illicit business is passe. It's time to lose the greedy brain and bring a little bit of morality back to capitalism.
Patrick W. in Maryland writes:
I thought the live broadcasts from the camps,
helped to get a better understanding of the situation in these countries.
It's too bad they couldn't get live video of
the camp in Ecuador,where Angelina Jolie was
talking from.But she gave a pretty good discription of how things were there.
Hillary's Remarks were also very helpful, in understanding what our government is doing
to help the Refugees in these Countries.
Cya-Later..have a nice weekend..:)


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Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.
Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.
from notes by Francis Pott © 1996
|Bowen: Piano Music
'This disc came as quite a revelation … this eloquent new collection suggests that a radical reappraisal of Bowen's compositional achievement is ...
'Few new discs of piano music match this for sheer magic: magnetic performances that come as a revelation. Vivid piano sound' (The Penguin Guide to Co ...» More
|The Stephen Hough Piano Collection
'In all, a cogent overview of and ideal introduction to Stephen Hough's artistry' (Classics Today (USA)
'As a retrospective of a fine pianist, this bargain issue has many virtues … If you have not already added these Hough performances ...» More


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Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Russian Helicopters Obtains Approval for Mi-171 VIP Variant
Russian Helicopters is ready to bring the VIP version of its Mi-171 to the corporate transportation market after receiving type certification from the aviation register of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC). The manufacturer received the type certification at the MAKS 2013 air show. Upgrades on the VIP variant of the Mi-171 include, a Prima VHF radio set, luxury cabin and a universal communication unit.
Related: Airframe News


text: Yes, "drippy" and "dreamy".....there are some wonderful pieces there. I checked again late last night and some new pieces were added. I could not, did not, resist the pull of that wonderful chawan. I'm going to have to hand over my credit cards to my wife for safe-keeping if this keeps up.


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Recipe of the Week: Mint Chocolate Shake!
WARNING: This blog may cause serious drooling.
This week, to wrap up our month of "cool down" recipes (because, you know, it's hot outside!), we're featuring this new (vegan) take on a classic—the mint chocolate chip shake. Seriously, just look at this thing! Perfect as a dessert or a special treat on movie nights, this mouthwatering shake is sure to impress your friends and family members who think that vegans have to deprive themselves of the good stuff. Check it out!
Mint Chocolate Chip Shake
Mint Chocolate Chip Shake
- Prep time: 10 mins
- Cook time: 5 mins
- Servings: 2
- Select your preferred print size and click 'Print Recipe':
- 3"x5" Cards
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- 2 cups almond milk
- 2 cups frozen bananas, broken into chunks
- 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. vegan chocolate chips
- 2 Tbsp. fresh chopped mint
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
- 2 sprigs fresh mint
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender, except the 2 teaspoonfuls of chocolate chips and the 2 sprigs of mint, and process until well blended.
- Pour into two glasses.
- Garnish with the remaining chocolate chips and mint.


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Moving can test even the most organized person. It seems that no matter how much you plan for the big day, Murphy's Law kicks in. The moving truck is late, or belongings are lost or damaged.
But sometimes problems go beyond a broken vase or dent in a cabinet. Sometimes the move is beset by fraud.


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Hey everyone!
I am super excited to be back here in office today! I had a crazy time last week and loved every second of it. The third and final day at GDC was so fun! It was a shorter day than the others but so much happened. The first thing was that the students decided to go out and prove how much they loved games by trying to win every contest at the expo booths, they did pretty well and their spoils proved it. They also went out and tried talking to as many indy game designers as possible. Many of them had amazing conversations with the designers and who knows what will come of that, but I foresee epic things on the horizon. So all in all, this years GDC experience was an amazing one and the students can't wait to go next year!
We have a couple pictures of the team getting together at the booth at the end of the day and expressing their satisfaction. Here they are below:
Be sure to keep reading everyone, we will be having some pretty cool things coming up on the blog! I will talk to you soon!


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Basic Birman Information
- Lifespan: 15 - 20 years
- Weight: 6 - 15 pounds
Medical Conditions Seen in Birman
- Cataracts
- Deafness
- Hemophilia A & B
- Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
- Hypotrichosis
Birman Traits
- Lap Cat
- Intelligence
- Ease of Training
- Grooming Requirements
- Shedding
- Good with Children
- Good with Dogs
- Chattiness
Birman History
- Originated in western Burma, but the circumstances remain unclear. One popular belief touts that these cats served as feline companions for Kittah priests. When bandits fatally injured a high priest while attempting to steel a golden statute of blue-eyed goddess Tsun-Kyan-Kse, his loyal Birman, Sinh, stayed by his side as he was dying. Sinh's fur was turned golden like the goddess and his eyes turned blue. His paws were turned to pure white to symbolize his devotion to his dying priest.
- The breed arrived in France around 1919 and the first Birmans came to the United States in 1959.
- Birman breeders name their kittens born in a specific year with the same letter of the alphabet. This naming convention makes it easier to determine the age of a Birman. For instance, all Birman kittens born in 2007 in the United States are registered with names beginning with the letter, "E."
- Accepted by the Cat Fanciers Association in 1967 and attained championship status in 1972. All major cat breed registries now recognize this popular breed.
Birman Behavior Concerns
- Speaks in soft tones.
- Welcomes being part of a multi-species pack in the household.
- Seeks your company in a sweet, quiet manner.
- Gentle, playful and inquisitive.
- Learn commands and tricks easily.
- Does better with another cat or pet in the house when owners are at work.
- Not noted for climbing counters or hanging out on high shelves.
Look of Birmans
- Large, cobby-shaped body with medium to long silky hair that doesn't mat.
- Features a body that is golden or eggshell in color with darker points displayed on the face, legs and tail.
- Points come in such colors as seal, blue, chocolate and lilac.
- The eyes are round and always deep blue and the ears are small. The head is round.
- All four paws are always white and called gloves. It is genetically unclear why this occurs with such consistency.
Grooming Birman Cats
- Its silky coat lacks an undercoat and mimics the feel of rabbit fur.
- Comb through the coat once or twice a week to keep looking healthy.
Suggested Nutritional Needs for Birmans
- To prevent this breed from becoming overweight, measure food portions and feed two or three small meals daily.
Fun Facts of Birmans
- According to popular legend, it is said that when a Birman cat dies, the soul of a priest chaperones the feline up to heaven.
- All Birman kittens are born all white and gradually develop colors and points with the final colors established by age 2.
- Easily mistaken for a longhaired Siamese or Ragdoll.
Did you know?
- A decrease in cat grooming behavior may indicate they are in pain.
- Some cat parasites are transferable to humans.
- Many common pet ailments may be detected early and prevented by visiting your veterinarian twice yearly - saving both time, money, and most importantly, ensuring the best quality of life for your cat.
Come visit us, we would love to see you!
We are here to help! Book an appointment today to continue your pet on a path to great health and wellness
Ask the Vet
Have unanswered pet health questions? Dr.Donna Spector, with 10+ years of hands-on Internal Medicine experience, is here with your answers every Friday.


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Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry
DescriptionUndaria pinnatifida or wakame is a large brown kelp with a branched holdfast giving rise to a stipe. Just above the holdfast, the stipe has very wavy edges, giving it a corrugated appearance. The stipe gives rise to a blade that is broad, flattened and lanceolate. It has a distinct midrib. The margins of the blade are wavy. Plants can reach an overall length of one to three metres. Undaria pinnatifida is an annual species with two separate life stages.
Wakame is a laminarian kelp indigenous to the temperate regions of Japan, China and Korea (Stuart, 2003). It has been spread around the world by international shipping and mariculture. It has extended its range to include 12 countries on four continents since 1981 (Stuart, 2003). Wakame is a non-native species, which may cause displacement of native species. It was first recorded in the UK from the Hamble Estuary in the Solent on 15 June 1994 (Farell & Fletcher, 2000). It tolerates a wide salinity and temperature range. Its morphological and reproductive characteristics make it a very successful invasive species. Undaria pinnatifida possesses a heteromorphic life cycle with alternation of generations between a diploid sporophyte and a haploid gametophyte (Aguilar-Rosas et al., 2004). It may be confused with Alaria esculenta but the corrugated stipe is distinctive.Wakame is economically important as a food crop but is also a fouling organism. It is able to compete with native kelp species in the shallow sublittoral/infralittoral zone (Farrell & Fletcher, 2000). It is also effective in providing habitats, nursery areas and protective cover for many species. It grows well in estuarine conditions unlike many of the native kelp species (Farrell & Fletcher, 2000) .


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Drogba Italy claims refuted
Didier Drogba's management company have distanced the striker from comments linking him with a transfer to Italy this month, insisting they did not come from his agent.
- Related Content
Carlos Arino Bajo, an agent claiming to represent Drogba, said on Friday the Ivory Coast international could cut short his stay with Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua and return to Europe with Juventus or AC Milan.
But the London-based Sports PR Company, who count Drogba and several of his former Chelsea team-mates among their clients, insist Bajo has no authority to speak on Drogba's behalf.
A post on the company's Twitter account read: "Please note, these quotes are not correct. This guy is not Didier's agent, his sole agent is Thierno Seydi."
Seydi is a FIFA-registered agent based in Senegal.
Juventus boss Antonio Conte last month ruled out an approach for Drogba, who scored the winning penalty in Chelsea's Champions League final success in May.
Despite that, Bajo told tuttomercatoweb.com: "Didier has a termination agreement with the Chinese club and I think he has a lot of possibilities to move to Italy in January.
"There is real interest from Juventus and AC Milan, and it is the same from Didier regarding the transfer.
"There have been contacts with both clubs and next week we will hear from them again. He would love to compete in one of the world's best leagues, such as the Italian Serie A."
Drogba, who has reportedly failed to settle in China, would be unavailable to play for any new club until after the African Nations Cup, with the final due to be played in Johannesburg on February 10.
The Ivory Coast striker has been training with Chelsea in the lead-up to the tournament after returning to Europe following the end of the Chinese season in early November.
Click here for completely free £10 bet with Sky Bet & £5 free every week


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An article this week by Chris Kirkham in the Huffington Post analyzes the merits of states privatizing their prisons in an attempt to control costs. It is an excellent piece that is truly a balanced view of the situation.
There is, however, one thing wrong with the article – it is concerned with a symptom, not the cause of the problem.
As Kirkham notes, "In exchange, the company (which is looking to run a prison) is asking for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full." (Emphasis mine.)
Just how do states plan to do that? Easy, by putting the majority of people in prison for non-violet crimes.
According to a Center for Economic and Policy Research 2010 report, more the 60 percent of those in prison are there on non-violent offenses. Another study from the Vera Institute estimates that Texas spends about $3.3 billion per year for adult corrections and prisons. That is $125 per person in Texas.
In Austin, I would move to strike down laws against non-violent offenses. If this eliminates 50 percent of the prison budget we could save $1.6 billion per year. Of course, this does not count the reduced burden on law enforcement at both the state and local level.
We are out of money! We need to rethink who really should and should not be incarcerated. It is time to wake up!


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Lexmark Printer Supplies, Laser Toner Cartridges for Lexmark X520 MFP
The Lexmark X520 MFP laser toner from LD Products is a professionally remanufactured laser toner cartridge that is guaranteed to meet or exceed the print quality of the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) toner cartridge. Purchasing our Lexmark X520 MFP laser toner is an excellent way to save money without sacrificing quality.We also carry the OEM Lexmark laser toner cartridges for the Lexmark X520 MFP. More


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SiSpa at the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa is helping raise awareness for A Rhea of Hope Foundation by donating a portion of all proceeds from three select Give Back Treatments through July 31. Anyone who orders the 50-minute Diamond Facial, 50-minute 'Zensory' Scrub or the Shellac Manicure will help those who face not just the challenge of the fighting cancer but fertility issues as well, with SiSpa graciously donating 10 percent of the total proceeds.
The AAA Four-Diamond rated Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa is continuously ranked as one of the top stays in Palm Beach County, and SiSpa is a big part of that continued success. With breathtaking views overlooking the Atlantic, SiSpa's treatment menu is an all-inclusive affair, incorporating time-tested spa treatments married with the latest in modern spa technology (to the spa outsider, the Total Transformation Oxygen Facial, with its use of hyperbaric oxygen technology and glycolic acid, almost sounds like a sci-fi movie deep-space travel scene—a suspended animation of the skin, if you will). At 8,500 square feet, SiSpa is a plush, luxe retreat along the Atlantic with eight treatment suites, a Vichy treatment room, steam rooms, heated marble beds, a spa patio with whirlpool, a separate manicure/pedicure area and a private beach cabana designated for seaside massages. SiSpa's menu includes an array of treatments, including facials, nail therapies, full body therapies, massage treatments, waxing options and a full guy's menu for the gents out there.
SiSpa's Give Back Treatments is a monthly charity partnership program, aimed to support local and national charities and nonprofits by donating a portion of the proceeds of specific spa treatments. The programing helps raise not only funds for various organizations but also awareness of their respective missions, with A Rhea of Hope taking center stage for July.
A Rhea of Hope Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "building awareness and creating opportunities for individuals and families affected by cancer-related fertility issues." According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2002 study, 7.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 experience an impaired ability to have children. But according to the 2009 "nationwide survey of oncologists regarding treatment-related infertility and fertility preservation in female cancer patients" [Forman et al.], less than half of American oncologists (39 percent to 47 percent) routinely refer patients to specialists in reproductive medicine, despite a concern within the medical community about the potential impact cancer treatments have on fertility. A Rhea of Hope is dedicated to assisting "women, couples and families who struggle to conceive a child" by helping educate not just the public but also health care providers about fertility options, "support research and development of new treatments relating to fertility issues and the causes and diseases that can lead to sterility" and provide financial support for those in need to realize their dream of having children.
To book a spa day at SiSpa and help support A Rhea of Hope Foundation, call 561-340-1755 or see SiSpa's website here.
Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa
3800 N. Ocean Dr.
Riviera Beach, FL 33404


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M.F.A. in Creative Writing
The Master of Fine Arts program is a rigorous three-year residency combining in-depth study of literature with an intensive focus on fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and dramatic writing. The program is made up of a core of writers who have come to Alaska looking for a different, more attentive way of life and the support of a community of like-minded artists.
The program's goal is to prepare students to be stronger writers, more independent thinkers, and well-rounded teachers. It offers several unique features to distinguish it as especially challenging and rewarding. Its participants may enroll in both multi-genre and genre-specific workshops as well as three genre-specific forms courses. A second year comprehensive exam requires students to read widely and then define their own future aesthetic goals. Third year students work closely with individual mentors as they prepare manuscripts for thesis defense and eventual publication.
The beauty and ruggedness of the Alaskan landscape offer a wide range of new experiences to the writer; students in the program receive not just an intellectual education, but an experiential one—an opportunity to live more simply and purposefully and in doing so develop new ways of seeing the world.