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Ney/ Nei Payasam (An Indian Jaggery-Ghee Kheer/ Rice Pudding)
It is our daughter's birthday today, even though she wasn't born on the 3rd of July! As improbable as that sounds, it is possible if you are Indian and follow the traditional Indian lunar-solar calendar
Like the English calendar year, our traditional calendar also has 12 months in a year, but each month has 29.5 days. Each of the 29.5 days has a date and is also marked by a "star" or "nakshatram". There are 27 of these "stars" which follow a particular order and appear in that order periodically every lunar month throughout the year.
This means that in an English calendar month, a "nakshathram/ star" may occasionally appear twice. All traditional celebrations/ religious observances are decided based on this solar-lunar calendar.
The long and short of this is that in Hindu families in India, when a child is born, the month (on the Indian calendar), time and day of birth decides the birth "nakshathram/ star" of the child. For us, this then is the day that is celebrated as a child/ person's birthday, and it does not fall on the same date every year.
When we were children, our families celebrated only "star birthdays" as we called them. On this day, one got up early in the morning, had a ritual bath and wore new clothes, then sought the blessings of all the elders at home and then visited the temple for special prayers and blessings. Special birthdays, like a first birthday, are more elaborate celebrations.
For all other purposes we follow the English calendar in India, so as we grew older we came to know of birthdays celebrated on the same day every year with cake, blowing out of candles and birthday gifts.
At some point in time, especially after our daughter was born, we were a bit undecided on which of the two birthdays to celebrate. While cultural traditions definitely have a place in our lives, our more "modern" and changinglifestyles meant that it made sense to celebrate one's birthday according to the English calendar.
We finally got around this dilemma by celebrating two birthdays in a year each - a "date of birth" birthday and a "nakshathram/ star" birthday!
As I mentioned, traditional birthdays are celebrated with "payasam" and the other birthday means cake or dessert.
A "payasam", also known as "kheer", is a milk/ coconut milk and rice/ wheat pudding-like sweet celebratory dish. It is usually sweetened with sugar/ jaggery depending on the kind of payasam being made.
Akshaya does not like payasam very much, but a traditional birthday is just not the same without it. When given a choice of payasam, this birthday girl settled for "ney payasam", as this is about the only payasam she does like.
Funnily enough, this is not a payasam that's usually made for birthdays. Ney payasam, as the name suggests is has a lot of ghee (called "ney" in Tamil and Malayalam) is normally made and offered to God in temples, or at home during special poojas (ritual worship), and then distributed as prasadham (blessed food) to devotees. In fact, for a long time I used to call it "kovil" payasam where kovil means temple because that's where most of the ney payasam that we ate came from.
The best tasting ney payasam is always slow-cooked in an uruli and requires a bit of an arm workout in the form of constant stirring. This pudding-like payasam is quite sweet, very rich and is meant to be (and can only be) eaten in small quantities.
Ghee ("ney" or browned butter), raisins, cashewnuts and cardamom.
In this version I have added cardamom, cashewnuts and raisins which are really not part of an authentic ney payasam. A true ney payasam is deep brown (from the jaggery) and shiny (from the ghee), with a bit of crunch that comes from the ghee-fried coconut pieces in it. My ney payasam is quite pale in colour, because the jaggery I get here in Goa is very light unlike the dark jaggery available back home.
"Payasam ari" (a variety of raw rice used for making payasam)
Do not use long grain aromatic rice like basmati for this recipe. A short to medium grain raw rice is best. I used what is locally (in Kerala) called "payasam ari" or rice for making payasam, which is unpolished and brown-streaked raw rice.
If you cannot find the coconut to slice and chop into thin bits, do make this payasam without it. It might not be authentic but is still pretty good.
- Wash and cook the rice and well cooked but the grains are still separate and not mushy. The rice must be cooked till very soft and you can test this by pressing a couple of cooked rice grains between your thumb and index finger. You should be able to mash into almost a paste.
- If at this point your rice is not cooked enough (or to the right texture), when you cook it with jaggery, the rice will become tough and your payasam/ rice pudding will not have a soft texture.
- Heat about 1 1/2 tbsp of the ghee in a pan and fry raisins till the puff up and become golden (not brown). Remove and keep aside. In the same ghee, fry the cshewnuts till golden. Remove and keep with the raisins. Similarly fry the small coconut pieces till brown and crisp. Keep this also with the raisins and cashewnuts.
- Now dissolve the jaggery in the water and strain to remove any impurities. Pour the jaggery solution into a thick walled pan and bring to boil, while stirring occasionally. Turn down the heat to medium and allow to simmer for about 2 or 3 minutes.
- Add the rice to this and stir well, ensuring there are no lumps. Continue to cook the rice over medium heat and add about a tbsp of ghee. Keep stirring till the ghee gets absorbed. Use up all the ghee in this way, adding a tbsp at a time.
- By now the payasam/ rice pudding would have thickened and start leaving the sides of the pan when stirred.
- Once the payasam is thick yet still moist, about the consistency of a very thick sauce, take it off the heat. Add the powdered cardamom, the fried coconut pieces, raisins and cashewnuts and mix well.
- Serve warm. Remember that this rice pudding is very rich and so the servings need to smaller than most other desserts or sweet dishes. This payasam, as all others we make, are traditionally served slightly warm and taste the best this way. It can also be served at room temperature or chilled, if you prefer.
This recipe will serve about.
Other payasams on this blog:
Aval Payasam (Beaten rice flakes in sweetened milk)
Parippu Pradhaman (Lentils in jaggery sweetened coconut milk)
Cabbage Payasam (A modern twist to the traditional payasam)


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Examiner writes, "The Xbox 720 and next-generation consoles seem to be a bit of a mystery in some respects, but not to 343 Industries as they seem to be working on next-generation development for Halo 5."
This is positive news
Even before the grand celebration caliber release of the industry leading platform exclusive first person shooter franchise with Halo 4. Halo fans can rest assured that Halo will carry on into the next generation of Microsoft and online gaming. With Halo 5 being developed for the successor of the current generation leading HD platform the "Xbox 720".
News has been breaking out left and right for future next generation platforms. Even rumors of an E3 2013 showing. The world has been on the sidelines patiently waiting for future Xbox confirmation. 343 has just given us the evidence needed to insure that the future of Xbox live is lurking.
Day one purchase for the Xbox 720, and Halo 5 when available wherever videogames are sold.
Rated E For Everyone
I bet Halo 5 will blow us away! Can't wait for my eyes to melt with those next gen graphics and to see whatever else they may surprise us with.
Of course it's Halo 5, they should try to come up with a new Ip. New System, New Ip.
This shit is getting ridiculous. I'll admit that I'm VERY excited for this but Jesus, Halo 4 isn't even out yet. Might as well write an article on "Halo 7 being developed for Xbox 4".
We all already knew this was gonna happen.

subset: commoncrawl


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Daniel Grailer
HAW RIVER, N.C. – Daniel Ralph Grailer, 59, of Haw River, formerly of Iron County, passed away Wednesday, May 15, 2013, at his home.
Daniel was in the U.S. Air Force in the Vietnam era. He worked with public safety in Kingsford, where he was a firefighter and a policeman.
He was a proud Eagle Scout and held offices in the American Legion where he was a past post commander in Haw River. He was retired from GE as a quality control manager with more than 20 years of service.
Daniel is survived by his wife, Cindy L. Grailer of Haw River; sons, Erick Grailer and fianc Brittany, of Trinity, N.C., Sean Grailer of Haw River, Chris Sinclair of Haw River; sister, Donna Waligursky and her husband Tom, of Michigan; and many loving nieces, nephews, cousins and dear loved ones.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred G. Grailer and Agnes Nordlander Grailer; and brothers, Fred and Alan Grailer.
A memorial service will be held with military honors at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22 at the McClure Funeral Home Chapel in Graham, N.C.
The family will receive friends following the service on Wednesday evening.


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Skip to comments.My Wife and I are Atheists, but Our Daughter Wants to be Baptised Catholic
Posted on 01/14/2014 8:25:45 PM PST by marshmallow
I'm proud of my daughter, but I can't deny that she stopped us in our religiously disinterested, bleeding-heart liberal tracks
For decades, god and religion have played no part in my life. I was baptised as a baby, but didn't make it as far as first communion. That may officially make me a Catholic in the broadest sense, but if it does, I'm one who's not so much "lapsed" as "stalled before I started".
Apart from morning assemblies and weekly hymn practices at primary school, followed by a couple of years of religious education classes at comprehensive (which I dropped as soon as exam options allowed), I have barely considered my immortal soul, much less the direction it may be heading when I die.
Over the years, when I bothered to think about it at all, I came to the conclusion that I prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one. I'm most likely an atheist, but one leaning to the agnostic side of the spectrum. I know I'm a sceptic, in the true sense of the word. Or shallow. One of the two.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Sad story. Not for the daughter...
Just because the parents may not be among the elect, it doesn't mean that the daughter can't be. Anyhow, good on the parents for being supportive—even if they don't understand.
"Over the years, when I bothered to think about it at all, I came to the conclusion that I prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one."
What a moronic statement. Completely ignorant of both science and religion.
1) there is no scientific theory of life and the universe
2) she's just mistaken science for another spiritual view or religion.
Maybe her daughter can teach her some things, but I am not going to click through to read this whole thing.
She starts off talking about herself exclusively and i doubt the self absorption becomes less.
If a Catholic parent had a daughter who announced she was a lesbian atheist, the overwhelming sentiment would be that the parent should embrace and accept the daughter for "who she is." I guess it doesn't work in reverse.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
This is the blindness and rationalization of atheists. That somehow God and science are opposites. That somehow mankind's ridiculously small understanding of "science" will allow complete explanation of the universe. That somehow God can not be "proven."
See God working through the child to soften the parents.
"I came to the conclusion that I prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one."
That is probably one of the stupidest statements I have ever heard. The false conflict between religion and science is used by people who want to make themselves seem smarter than people of faith. It is also a justification for their refusal to live by the personal moral code that religion requires.
Episode of M.A.S.H, Guy was asked if he wanted a Priest, said no I am a atheist , Dr said really? Guy says, swear to God
Our daughter-in-law became Catholic - from secular Jewish upbringing - because our son shared his faith. They were not engaged. I think the Lord is using her wonderful enthusiasm to reach her entire family - aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, parents/ not one of them is really involved in church. Grandparents, maybe, some bit. They'll all be at the baby's baptism, though, etc.
I think the writer is a "he". Cue title.
I'm glad the story was posted. It is a victory for Kingdom of God that these two atheists couldn't stop their daughter from finding faith. Who knows—her example and her prayers may someday conquer their stubbornness.
I agree. Their child is a blessing to them from our Father.
The Left wins by us reading and tearing apart the stupidity of an atheist author? Should we only post material that meets your ideological standards?
"Just because the parents may not be among the elect...."
None of us are among the elect until that moment when our divine Judge, at our death, deems us worthy of entry into his realm.
In the meantime, let's not be too presumptious.
"We enrolled our little girl at a local Catholic school, selected purely on the recommendation of a colleague for the quality of its education"
What did you expect?
Our son is in a Catholic school, and if he says he wants to be Catholic, it's no skin off my nose. I would not be shocked, since we sent him there. Happened to his grandmother, at the same school.
Why do people put children in such a situation if they are going to have a problem with possible consequences? How dumb is that?
Don't scroll down to the comments. Guardianistas are some of the most vile fascists I've ever had the displeasure of hearing from and they don't disappoint here. Let's hope the British Muslims pay them a visit.
The daughter will lead the rest of them back home
As someone who's been asked to do this on multiple occasions, you don't want to go there.
I don't follow you. Explain.
You'll be surprised at how many Muslims send their children to Catholic schools strictly for the quality of education.
Never heard of a conversion because the children know what dire consequences await them if they did.
She has as her mission to pray for her parents. They are very, very fortunate.
*8For me, it means regular trips to the presbytery for extra "Catholic lessons". It means going to church for family mass on Sundays and not knowing when to sit or stand; **
Good for this dad. May the daughter bring him and her mother to the Catholic Church.
Catholicism is very conservative at it roots. It's just that everyone does not know those roots.
They are indeed
Good post! :-)
Old Woody Allen joke.
A hypocrite is a guy who writes a book extolling atheism and then prays that it does well.
As C. S. Lewis might put it, an atheist couple who wants to pass atheism on to their children really cannot be too careful of their schooling.
When I was a confirmation teacher, back in the 90s, we had one girl sign herself up for confirmation. Her parents were indifferent about it, but didn't stand in her way. When her younger brother was old enough, she brought him to class and they both ended up confirmed. I never met her parents. I wonder if they had the faintest idea what a remarkable daughter they had.
Great minds think alike. See post #9.
Never heard of a conversion because the children know what dire consequences await them if they did."
I helped out at a recent first communion in my parish. One of the boys receiving his first communion was named Mohammad.
I assume it was a conversion.
Woody IS a joke. Funny you would pick such a pervert to prove your point. What's next, you're going to quote the pedophile priests?
Wow, what a story!
There is a children's book on this topic. I cannot remember the title.
It is about a teenaged girl who is expelled from a high dollar private because of something she didn't do. The only school that will take her is a Catholic one that has a very strict dress and discipline code. She is upset at her secular, atheist parents for not standing up for her and making her go to that school. She decides that the best way to get back at them for putting her in Catholic school is to pretend to become religious which will mortify her parents. After a while she discovers that has stoped pretending.
It was a pretty well written book for teenagers
Here are the final words in both Darwin's "Origin of the Species" and its modern eye-opening update "Darwin's Ghost" by Steve Jones.
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one, and that, whilst this planet has gone on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
"...life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one..."
Quite a "scientific theory".
>> Over the years, when I bothered to think about it at all, I came to the conclusion that I prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one.
Atheists are idiots.
exactly. Science is about what you can prove by experimentation. When you get into speculation, it's then a religious thought...
I always think these Guardian CiF stories are made up. They are always too glib, too perfect, too pat. This fits right in the mold.
They NEED to believe that people who believe in God necessarily oppose science — that science and religion are mutually exclusive. It makes them feel superior, because a lot of science is provable. Therefore, they're clearly right and obviously intelligent — and believers in God are clearly wrong and laughably stupid.
So they don't have anything to teach their child. (Dt. 6:7)
Their sin is visited on the next generation. (Ex. 20:5)
. Pray that someone who knows the gospel will tell them all God's plan for them:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Funny that Darwin steals his 'breathed' metaphor straight from Genesis 2:7 and John 20:22.
God Bless the daugther. May she become a bright shinning light for her parents.
I'm curious. Where does the author believe there is a conflict?
sounds like this lapsed cradle Catholic is innately leary of atheism and covers the options with "the God of Spinoza"
Oh, yes I do.
Irresistible grace. It doesn't matter who your parents are, if you are elect you will believe.
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Wavy dark Brown Tresses
This is a formal look. A lovely hair style that can be worn anywhere at any time. It is parted half way in the middle with her hair brushed back and the sides falling against her shoulders.Her hair is a medium to long cut. It is cut past her shoulders. Perfectly even hair all around. This is an easy to manage hair cut.Compliments are clues to this ideal hair colour. If someone says "that's a great colour on you" pay attention and do it again. This is a beautiful colour of chocolate brown with a lighter shade of brown.
Michael Kostopoulous - MKMODELS3.COM


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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
wow, I am surprised you are using so little yeast. I now wonder if I'm overdoing my yeast.... but then again yourrecipe is only using 1 cup of flour.I usually use 4 teaspoons of yeast, but I"m making a lot of dough, and use a good 4 cups of flour.However I may try dropping the yeast a bit, and see how it goes.MarkI am by no means and expert on pizza making all though my pizza'sas of late have been turning out to be great. I guess the sicilian bloodin my veins helps. The amount of yeast your using seems high to meand i would try it with half that amount. What might be happening isa lack of browning . That happened to me and since i have used a smalleramount of yeast and proper fridge retard time (24 hrs or more) i am seeingvery good results. I use approx. 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of IDY to 3 cups of High GlutFlour (All trump). 60% water as well. Salt , a little more than 2 teaspoons.1 1/2 teaspoons of EVO and thats it! Good Luck!


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Notes From the House Geek
February 4, 2008. Posted by Amy Niles.Add new comment | Filed under: audience, bottom line, fascination, favorite one, fruit cellar, hats, japan, jazz, listeners, music, newark public schools, Notes, publishers clearinghouse, Riff, tokyo, Uncategorized, virgin islands, wbgo
I wear the title proudly. I wear a lot of hats here at WBGO- but this is my favorite one. While I am overseeing a number of the activities here at WBGO, I am sitting in my cold dark office ( no, they don't keep me in the fruit cellar!) and pouring over stats. Man, I love this stuff. Trying to understand more about our listeners and what they like ( don't ever be shy about telling us). Finding stats for our dynamic underwriting duo to use with potential sponsors ( they are one of the components along with your membership that keeps this station on the air and on the web). Just loving the fact that this station has grown from a signal in the Newark Public Schools and has expanded to include YOU- where ever you are in the world!
I thought that I would share my new fascination:
We have all kinds of tools that tell us and I am obsessed with this stuff!
Don't worry, we don't know exactly where you are. We are not going to come and visit like the Publishers Clearinghouse guys ( sorry to disappoint you!). We can only tell kinda sorta where you are- the country, state and city. Nothing creepy. We could speak in just about any language and someone in our audience would understand the words that we were saying- but you ALL understand the music.
Did you know that the majority of you who listen online are in our terrestrial listening area?
4 of you were listening from Botswana yesterday. And 4 from the Virgin Islands.
5.1% of our US online audience yesterday was from California. And 2.6% came from Florida.
OK, so now guess. Number one place outside of the US where people were listening-
Who are all of you? Are you expats? How did you find WBGO? Are you members ( ok, so shoot me, I had to ask!)? Share something with the rest of us about what turns you on about this music. I am going to Japan in March- where should I go to hear jazz in Tokyo?
Bottom line, you are a part of a great community, a party that goes where ever you do, whenever you want us. Thanks for joining us! And if you ever find yourself in Newark, feel free to come and visit us- we love having you.
Amy- The House Geek


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Holiday Inspiration with Authentique!
October 16, 2013 by Core'dinator
Filed under Core Blog, Helmar Adhesives, Jillibean Soup, Maya Road, Provocraft, Queen & Co., Spellbinders, Tim Holtz
All week long we are playing with Authentique papers! How awesome is that?
We are so excited for this week and trust me when I say our papers are a match made in heaven! But seeing is believing, right? So make sure you stick around all week long for some inpsiration and a giveaway of course!
Make sure you check out the Authentique BLOG for more ideas and a giveaway AND their complete lines of gorgeous papers HERE. Today we are using the Seasons Autumn and the Tradition lines.
Before we give you all the goods 😉 PLEASE check out both companies on Pinterest and follow them for endless inspiration!
First up we have Mary Pat Siehl with a layout using the Seasons Autumn layout. She really embraces the Autumn color palette with the rusts and reds and I love that touch of navy blue!
You can see the beauty of the Core'dinations inner core with each page being embossed and sanded. The Authentique pattern papers match perfectly with Core'dinations cardstock.
This Authentic Tradition collection is truly a complete collection to allow for a finished album without the need to purchase additional supplies.
The Authentique sticker elements embellished the album by bring back memories of our Christmas Eve Celebration.


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Rickey Gates on Trail Running, Traveling and Living the Dream - Page 4
When you're not traveling or running, how do you spend your days?
I spend my time reading and writing, exploring the city. I spend a lot of time at coffee shops, biking around town, etc. In other words, not whole lot, but I enjoy it.
How do you afford that lifestyle?
I normally do restaurant work through the winters to stay afloat but decided against it this year in to allow more time for writing and training. Not having a job to fall back on forces me to focus my energy on that which is really important to me. Combine that with a modest lifestyle, race winnings and a supportive sponsor, and I manage to stay afloat.
Who has inspired you, and how?
I have always used myself as my main source of inspiration. I don't mean that to sound self-conceited, but at the end of the day, I'm the only one that I really report to. I'm the only one that really knows if I put in 100 percent. I am the only one I truly can't get away with lying to. Finding inspiration in others is important, but at a certain point you need to look inside yourself.
Are you in a relationship now? Any plans to settle down?
That's my personal life. Sorry.
You'll turn 31 in May. How do you answer the question that looms large for a lot of people when they turn 30, "What do you want to do with your life?"
I have been living a dream for 10 years, traveling, running, meeting wonderful people. Wonderful experiences. This is what I want to do with my life: keep living the dream. I have tried hard to live by the saying, "Do what you love and the money will follow," which can be a little frightening at times, but it keeps a smile on my face.
Sarah Lavender Smith blogs about trail running and travel at TheRunnersTrip.com. You might spot her on the trails around the San Francisco Bay Area, getting ready for the Miwok 100K.


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My anniversary is coming up and I'm looking to get a 5-6 cup rice cooker as a gift to my wife and myself. We eat rice several times a week. I want one that is going to last, and makes great rice. I've done a good bit of research already, but it just occurred to me that perhaps I could get some feedback from the people here on TC. Tea and rice aren't totally unrelated. I don't want to spend more that 150 USD, but I do want to get something good. I keep hearing how Zojirushi is the ultimate in rice cooking, but you have to pay for that expertise. I am looking hard at the Panasonic SR-MS102 and will probably go that route if nothing else stands out. I recently purchased a Panasonic bread maker and love it.
Any thoughts, experiences and suggestions are welcome.


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Maple and Cider Brined Turkey
This is the perfect treatment for heritage birds, which can be tougher but more flavorful than mass produced frozen turkeys. The brine tenderizes the meat while the robust flavors of the maple cider glaze stands up to the stronger tasting meat. But the recipe is not just for heritage birds: standard turkeys are also made tender and flavorful.


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Shouting out to our dear Mod: Can we possibly add an Events Forum?
I'm starting to feel like the forum cruise director . . . *cheerily directs you to your assigned seats*
Richard Dawkins in conversation with Roy Eisenhardt
Monday, October 30, 2006 8pm
The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco
Producer: City Arts & Lectures, Inc.
Tickets are $19 and are available at City Box Office (415-392-4400) or online at cityboxoffice.com
For more Information on this event call 1-415-392-4400
Special Event
Richard Dawkins
In conversation with Roy Eisenhardt
Monday, October 30, 2006 8pm
The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco
Thirty years ago, British scientist Richard Dawkins set out to explain the newest and most thought-provoking theories of evolutionary biology to a wider audience. Written with clear and vivid prose, Dawkin's groundbreaking book The Selfish Gene reignited Darwinian theory and synthesized broad ideas on natural selection, influencing both his peers and the public. Throughout his prestigious writing career in books including Unweaving the Rainbow, A Devil's Chaplain, and The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins has exposed many common misperceptions of evolutionary theory. A rationalist and vocal atheist, Dawkins asserts the irrational belief in God in his most recent book The God Delusion. Dawkins firmly roots The God Delusion in historical arguments for a divine being, from St. Augustine onwards, and negates influential theologians. His impassioned rebuttal compellingly shows how religious fervor fuels wars, compounds bigotry, and perpetuates oppression in human society. One of the most influential scientists of our time, Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.
Roy Eisenhardt was President of the Oakland Athletics baseball team from 1981 - 1987. He was the subject of a 1983 Roger Angell Profile in The New Yorker.
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
3301 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Administrative Office: (415) 563-6504
Box Office: (415) 567-6642
Fax: (415) 567-4062
The Emptiness of Theology
by Richard Dawkins
A dismally unctuous editorial in the British newspaper the Independent recently asked for a reconciliation between science and "theology." It remarked that "People want to know as much as possible about their origins." I certainly hope they do, but what on earth makes one think that theology has anything useful to say on the subject?
Science is responsible for the following knowledge about our origins. We know approximately when the universe began and why it is largely hydrogen. We know why stars form and what happens in their interiors to convert hydrogen to the other elements and hence give birth to chemistry in a world of physics. We know the fundamental principles of how a world of chemistry can become biology through the arising of self-replicating molecules. We know how the principle of self-replication gives rise, through Darwinian selection, to all life, including humans.
It is science and science alone that has given us this knowledge and given it, moreover., in fascinating, over-whelming, mutually confirming detail. On every one of these questions theology has held a view that has been conclusively proved wrong. Science has eradicated smallpox, can immunize against most previously deadly viruses, can kill most previously deadly bacteria. Theology has done nothing but talk of pestilence as the wages of sin. Science can predict when a particular comet will reappear and, to the second, when the next eclipse will appear. Science has put men on the moon and hurtled reconnaissance rockets around Saturn and Jupiter. Science can tell you the age of a particular fossil and that the Turin Shroud is a medieval fake. Science knows the precise DNA instructions of several viruses and will, in the lifetime of many present readers, do the same for the human genome.
What has theology ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has theology ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? I have listened to theologians, read them, debated against them. I have never heard any of them ever say anything of the smallest use, anything that was not either platitudinously obvious or downright false. If all the achievements of scientists were wiped out tomorrow, there would be no doctors but witch doctors, no transport faster than horses, no computers, no printed books, no agriculture beyond subsistence peasant farming. If all the achievements of theologians were wiped out tomorrow, would anyone notice the smallest difference? Even the bad achievements of scientists, the bombs, and sonar-guided whaling vessels work! The achievements of theologians don't do anything, don't affect anything, don't mean anything. What makes anyone think that "theology" is a subject at all?
(apologies for gratuitous use of periods at the end—HAD to widen the thread; I get claustrophobic )
Snake Oil and Holy Water
by Richard Dawkins
Are science and religion converging? No.
There are modern scientists whose words sound religious but whose beliefs, on close examination, turn out to be identical to those of other scientists who call themselves atheists. Ursula Goodenough's lyrical book, The Sacred Depths of Nature, is sold as a religious book, is endorsed by theologians on the back cover, and its chapters are liberally laced with prayers and devotional meditations.
Yet, by the book's own account, Goodenough does not believe in any sort of supreme being, does not believe in any sort of life after death. By any normal understanding of the English language, she is no more religious than I am. She shares with other atheistic scientists a feeling of awe at the majesty of the universe and the intricate complexity of life. Indeed, the jacket copy for her book—the message that science does not "point to an existence that is bleak, devoid of meaning, pointless," but on the contrary "can be a wellspring of solace and hope"—would have been equally suitable for my book, Unweaving the Rainbow, or Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. If that is religion, then I am a deeply religious man. But it isn't. And I'm not. As far as I can tell, my "atheistic" views are identical to Ursula's "religious" ones. One of us is misusing the English language, and I don't think it's me.
Goodenough happens to be a biologist, but this kind of neo-Deistic pseudoreligion is more often associated with physicists. In Stephen Hawking's case, I hasten to insist, the accusation is unjust. His much-quotd phrase, "the mind of God," no more indicates belief in God than my saying, "God knows!" as a way of indicating that I don't. I suspect the same of Einstein invoking "dear Lord" to personify the laws of physics. Paul Davies, however, adopted Hawking's phrase as the title of a book that went on to earn the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the most lucrative prize in the world today, prestigious enough to be presented in Westminster Abbey. The philosopher Daniel Dennett once remarked to me in Faustian vein: "Richard, if ever you fall on hard times…"
If you count Einstein and Hawking as religious, if you allow the cosmic awe of Goodenough, Davies, Sagan, and me as true religion, then religion and science have indeed merged, especially when you factor in such atheistic priests as Don Cupitt and many university chaplains. But if the term religion is allowed such a flabbily elastic definition, what word is left for conventional religion, religion as the ordinary person in the pew or on the prayer mat understands it today—indeed, as any intellectual would have understood it in previous centuries, when intellectuals were religious like everybody else?
If God is a synonym for the deepest principles of physics, what word is left for a hypothetical being who answers prayers, intervenes to save cancer patients or helps evolution over difficult jumps, forgives sins or dies for them? If we are allowed to relabel scientific awe as a religious impulse, the case goes through on the nod. You have redefined science as religion, so it's hardly surprising if they turn out to "converge."
Another kind of marriage has been alleged between modern physics and Eastern mysticism. The argument goes as follows: Quantum mechanics, that brilliantly successful flagship theory of modern science, is deeply mysterious and hard to understand. Eastern mystics have always been deeply mysterious and hard to understand. Therefore, Eastern mystics must have been talking about quantum theory all along.
Similar mileage is made of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle ("Aren't we all, in a very real sense, uncertain?"), fuzzy logic ("Yes, it's okay for you to be fuzzy, too"), chaos and complexity theory (the butterfly effect, the Platonic, hidden beauty of the Mandelbrot Set—you name it, somebody has mysticized it and turned it into dollars). You can buy any number of books on "quantum healing," not to mention quantum psychology, quantum responsibility, quantum morality, quantum immortality, and quantum theology. I haven't found a book on quantum feminism, quantum financial management, or Afro-quantum theory, but give it time.
The whole dippy business is ably exposed by the physicist Victor Stenger in his book, The Unconscious Quantum, from which the following gem is taken. In a lecture on "Afrocentric healing," the psychiatrist Patricia Newton said that traditional healers "are able to tap that other realm of negative entropy—that superquantum velocity and frequency of electromagnetic energy—and bring them as conduits down to our level. It's not magic. It's not mumbo jumbo. You will see the dawn of the 21st century, the new medical quantum physics really distributing these energies and what they are doing."
Sorry, but mumbo jumbo is precisely what it is. Not African mumbo jumbo but pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo, down to the trademark misuse of the word energy. It is also religion, masquerading as science in a cloying love feast of bogus convergence.
In 1996 the Vatican, fresh from its magnanimous reconciliation with Galileo, a mere 350 years after his death, publicly announced that evolution had been promoted from tentative hypothesis to accepted theory of science. This is less dramatic than many American Protestants think it is, for the Roman Catholic Church has never been noted for biblical literalism—on the contrary, it has treated the Bible with suspicion, as something close to a subversive document, needing to be carefully filtered through priests rather than given raw to congregations. The pope's recent message on evolution has, nevertheless, been hailed as another example of late-20th-century convergence between science and religion.
Responses to the pope's message exhibited liberal intellectuals at their worst, falling over themselves in their eagerness to concede to religion its own magisterium, of equal importance to that of science, but not opposed to it. Such agnostic conciliation is, once again, easy to mistake for a genuine meeting of minds.
At its most naive, this appeasement policy partitions the intellectual territory into "how questions" (science) and "why questions" (religion). What are "why questions," and why should we feel entitled to think they deserve an answer? There may be some deep questions about the cosmos that are forever beyond science. The mistake is to think that they are therefore not beyond religion, too.
I once asked a distinguished astronomer, a fellow of my college, to explain the big bang theory to me. He did so to the best of his (and my) ability, and I then asked what it was about the fundamental laws of physics that made the spontaneous origin of space and time possible. "Ah," he smiled, "now we move beyond the realm of science. This is where I have to hand you over to our good friend, the chaplain." But why the chaplain? Why not the gardener or the chef? Of course chaplains, unlike chefs and gardeners, claim to have some insight into ultimate questions. But what reason have we ever been given for taking their claims seriously? Once again, I suspect that my friend, the professor of astronomy, was using the Einstein/Hawking trick of letting "God" stand for "That which we don't understand." It would be a harmless trick if it were not continually misunderstood by those hungry to misunderstand it. In any case, optimists among scientists, of whom I am one, will insist, "That which we don't understand" means only "That which we don't yet understand." Science is still working on the problem. We don't know where, or even whether, we ultimately shall be brought up short.
Agnostic conciliation, which is the decent liberal bending over backward to concede as much as possible to anybody who shouts loud enough, reaches ludicrous lengths in the following common piece of sloppy thinking. It goes roughly like this: You can't prove a negative (so far so good). Science has no way to disprove the existence of a supreme being (this is strictly true). Therefore, belief or disbelief in a supreme being is a matter of pure, individual inclination, and both are therefore equally deserving of respectful attention! When you say it like that, the fallacy is almost self-evident; we hardly need spell out the reductio ad absurdum. As my colleague, the physical chemist Peter Atkins, puts it, we must be equally agnostic about the theory that there is a teapot in orbit around the planet Pluto. We can't disprove it. But that doesn't mean the theory that there is a teapot is on level terms with the theory that there isn't.
Now, if it be retorted that there actually are reasons X, Y, and Z for finding a supreme being more plausible than a teapot, then X, Y, and Z should be spelled out—because, if legitimate, they are proper scientific arguments that should be evaluated. Don't protect them from scrutiny behind a screen of agnostic tolerance. If religious arguments are actually better than Atkins' teapot theory, let us hear the case. Otherwise, let those who call themselves agnostic with respect to religion add that they are equally agnostic about orbiting teapots. At the same time, modern theists might acknowledge that, when it comes to Baal and the golden calf, Thor and Wotan, Poseidon and Apollo, Mithras and Ammon Ra, they are actually atheists. We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
In any case, the belief that religion and science occupy separate magisteria is dishonest. It founders on the undeniable fact that religions still make claims about the world that on analysis turn out to be scientific claims. Moreover, religious apologists try to have it both ways. When talking to intellectuals, they carefully keep off science's turf, safe inside the separate and invulnerable religious magisterium. But when talking to a nonintellectual mass audience, they make wanton use of miracle stories—which are blatant intrusions into scientific territory.
The Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, even the Old Testament miracles, all are freely used for religious propaganda, and they are very effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children. Every one of these miracles amounts to a violation of the normal running of the natural world. Theologians should make a choice. You can claim your own magisterium, separate from science's but still deserving of respect. But in that case, you must renounce miracles. Or you can keep your Lourdes and your miracles and enjoy their huge recruiting potential among the uneducated. But then you must kiss goodbye to separate magisteria and your high-minded aspiration to converge with science.
The desire to have it both ways is not surprising in a good propagandist. What is surprising is the readiness of liberal agnostics to go along with it, and their readiness to write off, as simplistic, insensitive extremists, those of us with the temerity to blow the whistle. The whistle-blowers are accused of imagining an outdated caricature of religion in which God has a long white beard and lives in a physical place called heaven. Nowadays, we are told, religion has moved on. Heaven is not a physical place, and God does not have a physical body where a beard might sit. Well, yes, admirable: separate magisteria, real convergence. But the doctrine of the Assumption was defined as an Article of Faith by Pope Pius XII as recently as November 1, 1950, and is binding on all Catholics. It clearly states that the body of Mary was taken into heaven and reunited with her soul. What can that mean, if not that heaven is a physical place containing bodies? To repeat, this is not a quaint and obsolete tradition with just a purely symbolic significance. It has officially, and recently, been declared to be literally true.
Convergence? Only when it suits. To an honest judge, the alleged marriage between religion and science is a shallow, empty, spin-doctored sham.
(Richard Dawkins is a professor at Oxford University. His books include The Selfish Gene and, most recently, Unweaving the Rainbow.)
As important as it is to recognize that theology is a failed intellectual enterprise, it is moreso to acknowledge that the vast majority of human beings alive and ever to be born cannot function from day to day without this concoction, and are essentially ineducable.
Evolution is the tale of populations as much as anything. Draw your own conclusions.
I really enjoy Dawkins.
You know, that last post you did of his thoughts, Mia, got me thinking about these fantastical miracles in the bible and all the people who believe that they happen. There is a sort of evolution of the mind that happens once one looks around the world to see that these miracles do not happen today. It's a quickening of sorts. Yet many religions claim that miracles happen all the time. Opposing religions claim them. All religions, even atheists have their miracles.
It's a dumbing down of the word miracle. Or if a truly spectacular occurance comes about, it is never able to be substantiated.
http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com says it best.
post script. I second Mia's motion for an events location/bulletin board
Thank you for the posts, Mia. I enjoy reading Dawkins and in general I agree with him. He explains in some detail my reasons for preferring to call myself an atheist rather than an agnostic. Both terms are misleading if there is no further explanation, but "agnostic" is more misleading.
In what follows, I express some disagreement with the implications of a rhetorical question Dawkins wrote.
What has theology ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody?
Religion would not have survived and thrived if it offered no benefits to anyone. Theology in the form of some religious doctrines offers comfort and various kinds of support to believers. Believers receive assurances that they are individually loved by an all-powerful father figure. (What a thrilling notion the Christian has: He who has unlimited knowledge, power, and benevolence cares about poor little me, one six-billionth of living humanity, though he knows in intimate detail all my short-comings, erroneous thoughts, and misbehavior.) Believers while mourning receive further assurances that they will (or might) be reunited with their loved ones in a life after this life. That comfort may assist believers through difficult times. I think this comfort of at least some small use to some people.
You recall that I support a Freudian idea that religion is a shared neurosis just as neurosis is a private religion. The neurotic holds onto his neurosis for the benefits it confers. If there were no benefits whatever, he would be much more likely to abandon the neurosis. It is not that religion has no benefits. It is that religion's benefits come at too high a price. That price includes accepting dubious propositions as certain although the evidence is inadequate or contrary. This is a big step toward a pernicious habit of ignoring reality in favor of wishful thinking. Further, religious teaching commonly includes much that is terrifying, not just things which might be comforting. Consider "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and "Many are called but few are chosen". The devout have to accept a certain amount of cognitive dissonance in accepting views such as "God knew that the tsunami would kill many people, including innocent children. He could have prevented it. Being benevolent, he would have prevented it. Nevertheless, the tsunami happened."
From Edward Gibbons, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on what theology in the form of religious practice did for one man:
He (Gibbons) tells the story of a Benedictine abbot who confessed: "'My vow of poverty has given me an hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince. — I forget the consequences of his vow of chastity."
The Church has always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for cash down.—Robert Green Ingersoll
It does placate those torn by loss and poverty, and I'm of course not keen on demanding that people with next to nothing (or worse than nothing) abandon the one thing that makes life even vaguely endurable. If only faith did not so often lead to violent clashes and control, and was practiced only for its comforts—like hugging a teddy bear, or hearing mom tell you everything is going to work out just fine—then these many books would hardly be necessary. We're so insulated in the USA, thus far. The violent and controlling expressions of this 'comfort' aren't on every street corner, or leveling our villages; it still takes a flood, tornado or catastrophic quake to do that. Christians also don't execute ex-Christians.
As many of us have discovered, though, the comfort aspect does not protect us from an unpredictable invasion of logic, else I would still be in the grips of it, comfortably numb. Some upredictable correlation of evidence intersected my beliefs and forced a process. Obviously the comforts were still desirable, it's just that they began to feel childlike, like waking up from a great dream as a kid, or a drug stupor. The stupor was more pleasant, but that's largely because I was cherrypicking my perception of God & Heaven. I suspect most Christians cherrypick dramatically—how many think there's a real chance God will send them to Hell?
As it turned out, I was completely off-base in my belief about reunion in Heaven, anyway, since Christianity says we will not be married in Heaven, nor will the parent/child relationship be in place there. In fact, we may not have any memory of each other at all; there is no evidence in the Bible indicating that we will even experience recognition, other than, presumably, to know and adore the 'face' of God/Jesus/HolyGhost. I didn't know about this before my deconversion 'happened'—my upbringing had been infused with all variety of flowery Heaven notions, so I envisioned a great reunion, not riches—and am convinced that [knowing there could be no reunion] would have quickened my awakening.
Thank you for the response, Mia. You said
I suspect most Christians cherrypick dramatically—how many think there's a real chance God will send them to Hell?
I have the same suspicion. In recent years, I have had contact with many people who are mourning the deaths of people they loved. Sad to say, they are grieving for parents, siblings, spouses, children, grandchildren, grandparents, friends, lovers, and on and on. I frequently encountered expressions meaning that the one who died has gone to Heaven. ("She's in a better place now," or something like that, a woman said of her young adult daughter who died Christmas Eve of cancer.) Never once did I hear anyone suggest that Hell was even the faintest possibility for the people they loved or for themselves or for anyone else. Cherry picking indeed.
One woman, mourning her son, told me that her priest had said "You know three things: where your son is now, who he is with, and that when you see him again, it will be forever." I didn't say what I thought, namely, that that was an impressively kind, gentle, generous, humane comment—seemingly assuming Heaven for both her and her son, and intending consolation to the grief-stricken mother—but not obviously in accord with Catholic doctrine. It is not what I would expect from the Church's stern insistence on Justice for us but not for our alleged maker. You know, the One who, they say, requires us to believe in Divine Three-in-One Oil as a condition for salvation and then hides from our view.
Having lived in an intellectual cave for many years it is interesting to come out into the world and see what is in the air.
I just read the articles here by Dawkins, which gives his take on the state of religion and science.
"Ignorance is bliss", the religious fanatic sees and lives in a fantasy of the imagination, dogma bound and stifled until all that is seen and felt comes from within the deeper inner reaches of the fairytale self created world.
Dawkins on the other hand represents the "bliss of ignorance". In the self imposed state of higher knowledge all that is not yet studied cannot be important. So opinions and formulations come from this arrogantly blissful state "knowledgeable ignorance".
The human race has barely crawled out of the muck intellectually. Scientifically we are just over a hundred years from the first powered flight and still at the early beginnings of any true understanding of the nature of our Universe. I highly suspect even the Big Bang theory until the before and regenerative states can be clearly understood. Most scientist, let alone lay people I suspect don't understand there is no such thing as random chance, or a random piece of matter or energy how ever you want to call it. Ever spec of everything has an orchestrated non linear probability that precludes purely random movement or spacing. Just something as simple as a circle does not exist in reality in any form, nor even mathematically, it is a construct of our imagination. The world really is not what we think it is or seems to be.
Some few things are coming into clearer view through science and that is the stupendous, mystifying, miraculous world we really do live in. Science through its micro managed view of things sometimes misses the big picture. Still there is a marriage of understanding the real world utilizing our intelligent mind through scientific principle that brings into outline the nature of reality as we experience it.
Nothing is as complicated a subject as science and religion. To do justice to ether would take more than volumes. To do justice to both certainly takes more than a few paragraphs, or my poor writing skills
Cutting to the chase there is a "science of belief". A close examination of the world and how we exist in this world makes it clear this is so. There is no easy answer to anything, but one thing is clear the atheist is just as wrong in his thinking and view of the world as the false prophet is. The atheist does worship at the alter of metaphysical philosophies and pondering. The ability to do so is at the heart of the nature of the Universe. If one cannot see one's self as a swirling cloud of self conscious matter formed by the eons of time as the inevitable consequence of matter left to its blueprinted own devices, you don't understand science as we know it today.
What is left to the understanding mind is that using a defining team like God will always be a question left wanting proper definition. What the word God means or is, is irrelevant, what is relevant is we can ask the question. Why is it that the Universe left to time and its blueprint creates self aware beings that can contemplate its own self-awareness and in this contemplation seemingly at any place or time in this Universe be it here on earth or anyplace will always ask these same questions. What are we, who are we, where did we come from, from these metaphysical questioning, meaning and purpose are contrived. Metaphysical questioning is hard wired into the beings that have the greater intelligence, self-awareness and ability to effect the inanimate matter around themselves in the most complex ways. From this understanding comes the "science of belief". It is as real as any truthful fact, for even in the distracters denial of its truth comes confirmation of the reality.
Robert Thomas
I wish I had seen this earlier. It looks like the event is sold out now.
Although I did get to see Sam yesterday in SF. :D Very interesting discussion; I just wish he had more time to answer people's questions.
Ah, El Topo, I'm sorry to hear that. I will be there, my first time hearing Richard, other than on the God Who Wasn't There dvd. Sorry also to report, too late, that Richard was apparently at a Palo Alto bookstore tonight to do a signing for the new book.
You say Sam was in SF yesterday? What was that—a book signing? Details, please :D.
Mia, he was at UCSF as part of the Atlantic Monthly "Day of Ideas". It was an all day event, and Sam was the last speaker. The moderator was great at being "The Devil's Advocate", and so it was an interesting but brief discussion (only an hour long, including audience questions).
There was a book singing afterward, but unfortunately I had to leave before I had a chance to get my books signed. It was pretty well attended (I think I spotted Tracy Chapman in the audience?).
Thanks for the info, El Topo. . . I'm just bugged that I don't know where to find out in advance about events like this—does Sam publish his appearance schedule on another part of this site? I would've loved to see that.
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I found out through Sam's Myspace page:
Go to Sam's home page on this forum and sign up on the e-mail list. They send out notices for stuff like this.
El Topo . . . heehee . . . thanks for the link. I go to one other myspace page, a guy from this forum named roiscience. That's his myspace ID name, too. Great page.
Rod. . . I wasn't familiar with that mailer—thank you!—I'll sign on.


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Brief SummaryRead full entry
Species of Abralia are small squid some of which are associated with shallow bottoms on steep slopes and as such are members of the mesopelagic-boundary fauna.
Brief diagnosis:
An enoploteuthid ...
- without large, black photophores at the tips of arms IV (see, however, A. astrolineata).
- with fins extending to posterior tip of tail.


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Thanks for the replys.no it wasnt baked in a pan I used a g3 ferrari oven which has a refractory stone.i rolled the crusts over to make a stuffed crust pizza and they ended up massive
I figured you did something sorta like that jj...it's an interesting look. The main part of the pie looks extra cheese NY'ish and quite delicious. I've made similar pie's in my 'lil Deni pizza oven.


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Debates of May 19th, 2006
House of Commons Hansard #27 of the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was budget.
- Question Period
- Points of Order
- Budget Implementation Act
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- Budget Implementation Act, 2006
- Points of Order
- Budget Implementation Act, 2006
Budget Implementation Act
Government Orders
10:45 a.m.
Joy Smith Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
Mr. Speaker, it is part of parliamentary rhetoric to hear the kinds of comments that we heard from members opposite this morning, but just to be clear, is the member opposite saying that a cut in GST will not help Canadians? Is the member opposite saying that $1200 for every child under six years of age going to every family in Canada will not help Canadian families?
Budget Implementation Act
Government Orders
10:45 a.m.
Rodger Cuzner Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Mr. Speaker, what I am asking is whether Canadians will use those deductions. Yes, they will use those deductions. Is a cheese sandwich going to feed a starving nation? I do not think so.
I believe the purpose of government, through the budget, is to elicit positive outcomes and make positive impacts. I will use the $80 tax deduction. I have three boys that take part in sports. Will it have any type of impact on whether I register my children in sports programs? It will have absolutely none.
Is being able to deduct the tax on books going to make a difference as to whether I am going to encourage my oldest to go to university next year? It will have none. There are Canadians who will look at the bottom line, when sitting down with their sons and daughters and making a conscious decision as to whether they will be able to afford post-secondary education.
This was an opportunity for the government to invest in our young people. This was an opportunity to give them something that would encourage them to pursue post-secondary education and the government failed miserably on this account.
Budget Implementation Act
Government Orders
10:50 a.m.
Michael Savage Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Mr. Speaker, I agree with much of what was said by my hard-working colleague from Cape Breton—Canso.
There are two things we can say about this budget. First, it is dumb and, second, it is mean. It is dumb because it invests in the wrong things. The challenge for Canada is productivity. The challenge for Canada is to educate its people. The challenge is the emerging giants of China and India. They are not our enemies but they are our competitors.
We need to educate our children. The Liberals would have done that, particularly the lowest income children, if the economic update had been adopted in the fall. There would have been billions of dollars in direct assistance for low income Canadians, aboriginals and persons with disabilities, as well as expanding other scholarships.
My question is about the inequity of this budget, the meanness part, such as cutting the EnerGuide for low income houses and introducing a GST cut that disproportionately assists the rich. There are tax credits for education of $80 on tuition in my province, which is from $6,000 to $8,000 a year. The Conservatives' own brochure advertises this great cut, but for a family that makes $15,000, it will save, according to the government's own numbers, less than $100 a year in 2007 while families that make $150,000 a year will save over $1,200 a year.
The Conservatives advertised the GST cut and the example they used is a $375,000 house. I would like to ask my colleague from Cape Breton—Canso, does this budget even attempt to speak to the people of his riding or mine? How many in his riding live in $350,000 houses and how many make more than $150,000?
Budget Implementation Act
Government Orders
10:50 a.m.
Rodger Cuzner Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Mr. Speaker, that was one aspect of the budget that really jumped off the page when I saw the $350,000 house. I know for some people in our urban centres a $350,000 house is not a strange thing, but one thing this misses is rural Canada. I have a coastal constituency. I probably have small streets in my riding that would not have $350,000 worth of real estate on them.
That is the sad part. It is the people who live in those homes, good Canadians trying to raise families and kids, and contribute to this country that this budget leaves behind. That is who this budget totally misses the mark on and that is why I will not be supporting this budget.
Budget Implementation Act
Government Orders
10:50 a.m.
Paul Dewar Ottawa Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House to speak to the budget. There have been many comments made about missed opportunities and I want to look at a couple of those.
Before I do that, I want to take a couple of moments to talk about the philosophy behind the budget. Looking at it from a historical perspective, the budget is extremely interesting. In many ways it reminds me of the kind of strategy the Liberals used to take, and I go back as far as Marc Lalonde. There was a little for everyone, but in the end nothing for anyone. We have a lot of pronouncements about little things that might seem to be good on the surface, as many have mentioned, but when we look at the detail, there is little substance to what is delivered.
I refer back to the way that budgets used to be written. It is from a strategic, philosophical approach at odds. It is what is referred to by some political scientists as brokerage politics. It is broker this group, broker that group, be it regional, be it class-based, so the government can be seen as meeting the needs of everyone, but meeting the needs of no one in the end.
I will now go into more detail about what the budget does not do and the opportunities that were missed.
The opportunities missed were on child care. I take great exception with some of my Liberal colleagues who have said that so much would have been done if they just had another couple of months. Let us be real about this. There were 13 years of missed opportunities. Many deathbed conversions were made up until the last election, but Canadians were tired of that. The trust had been broken and as a result voters told the Liberals what they thought.
We did not have a child care act in place. We had child care agreements. Yes, that was better than nothing, but let us be clear about what it was not. It was not permanent child care. They were child care acts that, as we have seen with the new government, were taken away with the stroke of a pen.
What we have in the Conservative budget is not a child care act nor is it comprehensive child care. It is income support. While no one would critique the need for income support, particularly for those who are most vulnerable, we have to acknowledge that this is not what Canadians wanted and it is not what they asked for with regard to child care.
I think even within the Conservative Party some members would have to acknowledge that their mandate was not on the issue of child care, and it is a minority mandate. The issue for the Conservative government, and why I believe it was elected, was a consensus that a trust had been broken with the previous government and it was time for a change. I have heard this on talk shows, from people in my community and I have read it in letters to the editor. If people did vote for the Conservative Party, it was not because of child care or the $1,200.
My leader has said time and time again that it is important not just to oppose but to propose. What should we propose instead of what has been delivered? We have said is the $1,200 should be there, but it should not be seen as child care. It should be seen, as we had proposed in the election, as an increase to the child tax benefit. My predecessor, Mr. Broadbent, was the member who proposed that we eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. We know the sad story and record on that issue.
What we do know is the child tax benefit was a good, sound policy. We should have increased the amount of that benefit by $1,200 to attack child poverty. This is not what the government has put forward. It has said that the $1,200 is for child care and that is it.
The NDP has proposed that the government keep the $1,200 for the child tax benefit and do not tax it. Interestingly enough, the government is opening that up. We should ensure that we follow through with sound investments in child care. The NDP wants the government to bring forward a child care act, which will guarantee that no government can take away child care. It is so important and so crucial to our youngest citizens.
What would we have in the child care act? Beyond child care agreements with the provinces, we would have an agreement that would set out not only financial support, but standards as well.
Budget Implementation Act
Government Orders
10:55 a.m.
The Speaker Peter Milliken
Reluctantly, I have to interrupt the hon. member's speech. He will have four minutes remaining in the time allotted for his remarks when the debate resumes on the bill later this day.
We will now proceed to statements by members.
Statements By Members
10:55 a.m.
Larry Miller Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say I am proud to announce that the town of Hanover has been selected as one of 25 finalists and is heading into the third of five stages in the CBC Kraft Hockeyville 2006 contest. The contest began on March 19, with 450 communities competing. Hanover is one of five communities advancing from the central region of the country.
Hockeyville is about community spirt and hockey. The town of Hanover's support and commitment to Hockeyville is very evident. Hockey is an undeniable part of Canada. Hanover's spirit for hockey and Hockeyville is contagious. Given the chance, this community and, indeed, the entire surrounding area will show their fellow Canadians what it means to have hockey spirit.
If successful, Hanover will win $50,000 for a new arena, $10,000 in hockey equipment and a chance to host an NHL exhibition game.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate the Hanover Buck-aneers for submitting the bid. I would like to wish the town of Hanover good luck because Hanover is Hockeyville.
Bowen Island
Statements By Members
11 a.m.
Blair Wilson West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to recognize a specific area of my riding, Bowen Island. As the first ever sitting member of Parliament to visit Bowen Island, I am proud to represent its interests.
Bowen Island is an idyllic setting that attracts many artists, sculptures, painters, writers and musicians. In fact, Bowen Island was recently identified as the fourth most artistic community in all of Canada.
Bowen Island, with its abundance of arts and community groups, is in desperate need of a multi-faceted, multi-use stage for all events. This facility would provide a home for a variety of events, including performing arts, literary reading and film screening.
Sharing culture brings richness to any society and encourages deep community spirit, not to mention job creation and economic spin-offs of increased tourism.
I wish to recognize the hard work of the Bowen Island Arts Council, which is dedicated to representing and coordinating the creative efforts and programs of all cultural groups on Bowen Island. I wish to thank it for its dedication to promoting the vibrant art community in our riding.
I also wish to welcome Monte and Gayle Rolston from Madeira Park who are in Ottawa today.
Noëlla Tremblay Carreau
Statements By Members
May 19th, 2006 / 11 a.m.
Richard Nadeau Gatineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak here today in order to celebrate the outstanding work of Mrs. Noëlla Tremblay Carreau who was honoured by the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec on May 15, 2006.
This extraordinary woman, who works at the CHSLD in Gatineau, received the Florence award for community involvement for her contribution to the development and humanization of perinatal care in the hospital environment and for her commitment to the family.
Ten nurses from across Quebec received awards during the gala evening marking the end of nurses week, which was held May 7 to 13, 2006.
Mrs. Tremblay Carreau, your dedication brings honour to our community, which makes us even more proud of your involvement. The Bloc Québécois and everyone in Gatineau would like to thank you for your commitment to the well-being of the people of your community.
Human Rights
Statements By Members
11 a.m.
Wayne Marston Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Mr. Speaker, on Monday the United Nations Human Rights Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is set to release a report, an assessment of Canada's progress on implementing our human rights commitments. The report is widely expected to raise serious concerns about our own record and make recommendations for improvement.
Many of those recommendations we will have heard before, recommendations like implementing transparent and accountable procedures for reporting to the Canadian people on our own human rights record; recommendations like the need to address the concerns of aboriginal communities, concerns like the alarming rate of violence and discrimination against aboriginal women and how we must, after 15 years, settle the Lubicon Cree land dispute; recommendations to find ways to address security concerns in a way that do not cause further injustice and increased insecurity through human rights violations, no more security certificates, no more deporting Canadians to countries where there is a serious risk of torture.
It is time for the Canadian government to take its commitments on the international stage seriously. It is time to comply.
Statements By Members
11 a.m.
James Rajotte Edmonton—Leduc, AB
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the governments of Alberta and British Columbia for signing a groundbreaking agreement to eliminate barriers to trade, investment and labour mobility between their two provinces. The agreement will give businesses and workers in both provinces seamless access to a larger range of opportunities across all sectors including energy, transportation, labour mobility, business registration and government procurement.
Unfortunately, even though Canada has signed free trade agreements with other countries and despite the fact that we have an agreement on internal trade from 1994, we still do not have free trade within our borders. This is simply wrong and needs to be addressed.
That is why I also commend the Minister of Finance for raising the issue of the economic union in his recent budget and recognizing that governments will have to work together better, especially with respect to mobility and trade, employment for immigrants, capital markets and tax harmonization.
I support the finance minister in his efforts in this area and I encourage all provinces to follow the example set by Alberta and British Columbia.
Statements By Members
11:05 a.m.
Gary Merasty Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Mr. Speaker, when does the government plan to start treating the crisis in farm income as an immediate crisis, one that needs action today?
First, farmers demanded direct, immediate assistance for spring seeding but what did they get? Nothing. All the government is offering is double-talk, claiming that money delivered in the fall is somehow money put into the hands of farmers today and encouraging farmers to borrow themselves out of debt by offering no other immediate assistance.
Producers deserve a real plan and real action, not a whole lot of nothing. The hon. member for Malpeque saw through this ruse and I join him in demanding the government to stop this deception and to start acting.
Second, there is nothing on delivering a national renewable fuel strategy, nothing on the opportunities that ethanol and biodiesel offer farmers and forestry.
I call upon the government to support farmers across Canada.
Statements By Members
11:05 a.m.
Rick Norlock Northumberland—Quinte West, ON
Mr. Speaker, the hypocrisy of the opposition during last Wednesday night's vote on our mission in Afghanistan is shocking. Opposition members are on record as supporting our troops and yet they played politics and voted against the government instead of voting for our troops.
The member for Vancouver South said:
We support the mission, absolutely, and in unqualified fashion...If you had a vote in Parliament, I have no doubt in my mind that there would be absolutely overwhelming support.
Yet he voted against our troops.
The member for Esquimalt--Juan de Fuca said:
The courageous Canadians who are in this dangerous theatre must have our unequivocal and steely support....We cannot afford to give them anything less.
Yet he voted against our troops.
The member for Markham--Unionville said:
...it is right that Canada step up to the plate and do its part. Canada is committed to Afghanistan.
This is not an easy mission and these are not easy decisions. I applaud those opposition members who were steadfast in their support, put politics aside and did the right thing, voting for our mission and for our troops.
Clothing and Textile Industry
Statements By Members
11:05 a.m.
France Bonsant Compton—Stanstead, QC
Mr. Speaker, since being elected, the government has not yet done anything for the clothing and textile industry, even though the needs facing these sectors are just as dire as when the current government was in opposition.
Last week, the failure of the Conservatives to take action once again cost approximately 50 jobs, and what is more, in a riding that they represent, Mégantic—L'Érable.
The closing of Confection Lapierre in Saint-Ludger represents another blow for the Mégantic region, which was already reeling from the closing of the Canadelle factory last March.
Conservative members and ministers have spouted plenty of rhetoric about these industries, yet they do nothing. The government must commit to saving the clothing and textile industry.
The Bloc Québécois has proposed several measures, including POWA, to help this vulnerable manufacturing sector. The federal government should use it as a model to save thousands of jobs in our regions.
Child Care
Statements By Members
11:05 a.m.
Ed Fast Abbotsford, BC
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to express my support for Canada's new universal child care plan.
As I know from my own constituency, the child care option that is great for one family does not necessarily work for another. That is why our plan is founded on respect for parents' ability to choose what is right for their children.
By providing each Canadian family with $1,200 a year for each child under the age of six, Canada's universal child care benefit will support their freedom of choice in child care.
I am proud of our plan that incorporates the Canadian values of respect for diversity and universality.
The Liberals spent 13 long years promising a national child care program and never actually delivered. Our government's plan is a balanced approach that supports all families, irrespective of what form of child care they choose. We made a promise and we have delivered.


text:
What is Aviation Archaeology?
Visit Aircraft Crash Sites
Virtual Tour of a crash site
Click Here to go to Yap
Aviation Archaeological Investigation and Research,
AAIR, is your source for U.S.
military aircraft accident reports, individual aircraft
record (history) cards, and aviation archaeology information.
We have over 100,000
accident reports
on file. Orders are generally processed in
just a few weeks. In addition to our collection of microfilm on
accident reports and aircraft record cards, we have expanded our
research library to include MACRs.
AAIR is now offering a weekend course in Aviation Archaeology.
Click Here for Details
Missing C-54 Group Needs Your Help
USAF photo via Matt Kennebec
On 26 Jan 50,
USAF C-54D 42-72469 failed to arrive at Great Falls MT on a
flight from Anchorage AK. The last known position was over Snag,
Yukon Territory, Canada. A massive joint US-Canadian search was
conducted, but the aircraft and its victims were never found.
With 44 people on board this is probably the largest unresolved
missing aircraft case in North America.
members and interested researchers are spearheading an effort to
renew the search for this aircraft. If you have not done so
already, please consider joining his facebook page, Operation
Mike, at
This page serves
as a place for people interested in this accident to connect,
and as new (or forgotten)
information is discovered, it is being posted here for all to
see and discuss.
This group is
also petitioning the US government to have the Air Force reopen
the search. Not only is the technology available today
significantly advanced from what was available in 1950, archival
records indicate that the original search, while large, was not
as systematic or comprehensive as it should have been. The
petition is at Whitehouse.gov,
AAIR has been featured in the
Smithsonian magazine.
AAIR is
an associate member of the
British Aviation Archaeology Council.
you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail
us. firstname.lastname@example.com
Accident Reports
Some Comments about
the search for Steve Fossett's missing plane in Nevada.


text:
I am looking forward to this card tonight.
I'm a sucker for MMA.
Main Card Bouts:
-Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni
-Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Joey Villasenor
-Paul Buentello vs. Carter Williams
-Cung Le vs. Tony Fryklund
-Victor "Joe Boxer" Valenzuela vs. Edson Berto
-Paul Daley vs. Duane "Bang" Ludwig (swing bout)
-Josh Thomson vs. Nick Gonzalez (swing bout)
Preliminary Bouts:
-Jason Von Flue vs. Luke Stewart
-Mike Pyle vs. Aaron Wetherspoon
-Anthony Figueroa vs. Chris Cariaso
-Rex Richards vs. Ray Seraille
-Seth Kleinbeck vs. Sam Spengler
-David Smith vs. Sean Bassett
-Nik Theotikos vs. Nick Covert


text:
Physical Description
Harp seals boast a wide range of pelages through their development. Harp seal pups are born with a white coat of embryonic fur or lanugo, which gives them the name "whitecoats." Some pups' fur may be dyed yellow at birth by amniotic fluid, but it fades to white after a few days. About 21 to 22 days later, pups begin to lose their white fur in tufts, creating a "jagged coat." The lanugo is replaced by a silver-white coat with irregular black spots, which the juvenile seal or "beater" retains for a year. After 12 to 14 months the blacks spots grow larger and the seal is called a "bedlamer." The seal remains a bedlamer until it reaches sexual maturity. When the seal reaches sexual maturity (around 5.5 years old), the blacks spots converge into a "harp" shaped design, which is composed of two black lines that run up the dorsal side of the seal's flanks, starting at their pelvis and curving and converging between the shoulders. Also, adult harp seals develop a black head and may have black markings where the hind flippers meet the body of the seal. Some harp seals retain their spotted pelage ("spotted harps"). Of the seals that retain their spots, some have dark gray streaks, creating a completely gray pelage ("sooty harps"). The harp-shaped design on the backs of adults, along with the black head and sliver-white fur, helps Pagophilus groenlandicus stand out from the other members of Phocidae that share its habitat. ("Harp Seals", 2004; Jefferson, Leatherwood, and Webber, 1994; MarineBio.org, 2009; Novak, 1999; Schliemann, 1990)
Harp seals are sexually dimorphic in size and pelage. Male harp seals weigh an average of 135 kg and are 171 to 190 cm long. Females weigh an average of 120 kg and are 168 to 183 cm long. Besides being larger than females, male harp seals tend to have a more-defined "harp" pattern and black head than females. ("Harp Seals", 2004; Jefferson, Leatherwood, and Webber, 1994; MarineBio.org, 2009; Novak, 1999; Schliemann, 1990)
Adult harp seals have fairly small hind flippers and the fore flippers are pointed with short digit tips that boast large claws. Their heads are flat and wide and they tend to have a fairly long, but tapered snout. (Jefferson, Leatherwood, and Webber, 1994)
The dental formula of Pagophilus groenlandicus is 3/2 incisors, 1/1 canines, and 5/5 post-canines. (Jefferson, Leatherwood, and Webber, 1994)
Other Physical Features: Endothermic; Homoiothermic; Bilateral symmetry; Polymorphic


text:
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text:
Dispelling diabetes myths
By PATTY HAMMOND
Special to the OBSERVER
Have you ever wondered if what you eat causes diabetes? Or if what you drink affects your blood sugar? If you've seen Paula Deen in newspapers, on magazine covers, or on your TV recently you may have started to think more about the issues surrounding diet and diabetes.
Deen is well known for her love of butter, cheese and cream. If you've watched her cooking show you've seen her create, eat and rave about all sorts of wildly fattening food. Her dietary habits finally caught up with her about a year ago when she was diagnosed with diabetes.
Based on her doctor's advice, Deen wisely lost weight. What did she do?
Well, at first she claimed it was by giving up her sugary beverage of choice, sweet tea. That certainly helped, but in recent days she's been talking more about moderation. She admits she's still eating things she loves, but she's using less fattening food preparation methods, eating calorie dense foods far less frequently, and, when she does eat them, she eats a much smaller portion. She's eating more greens and is making sure half of her plate is full of vegetables. She's also talked about limiting the amount of carbohydrates she's eating, saying that when she does eat carbs, she's eating them with sources of protein to help slow blood sugar spikes. Perhaps most importantly, she's eating more slowly. Deen claims to be amazed at how making these little changes have made such a huge difference in her life.
However, when first diagnosed, Deen struggled with her new diagnosis as much as anyone else. Thankfully, recent research findings have made it easier to understand diabetes, so let's dispel some popular myths about the condition.
The first thing most people ask when diagnosed with diabetes is, "What can I eat?" or "What foods are allowed on a diabetic diet?" The answer is simple. There is no one specific diet for diabetes. Deen is right. Smaller portions of the foods you love can help you control your blood sugar and manage your weight. Most diabetics can still eat the same foods as their family and friends, if everyone is making healthful selections. Dietary recommendations for everyone, whether or not they have diabetes, include eating a variety of low fat foods from all food groups. Ideally, everyone should be eating a diet primarily consisting of whole grains, lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, and low fat dairy.
Some people mistakenly think that simply eating too many sweets causes diabetes. Most are not only talking about candy and cake, they're also referring to fructose, which is found in so many of the food and beverage products we consume. Fructose alone has been portrayed by some as a primary cause of diabetes.
It's true that eating too much sugar, in any of its forms, will likely lead to weight gain, so it's easy to assume that it will also lead to diabetes. It's also true that obesity and diabetes rates have risen in the U.S. right along with the increase in consumption of sweetened beverages and the increased addition of fructose and other sweeteners to many of the foods and beverages we consume.
So it also pays to be aware that many foods you might not think of as particularly sweet can contain quite a bit of sugar. Even condiments like ketchup. Reading labels can be a real eye opener. Read labels to be sure the foods you eat don't contain too much sugar. Pay close attention to the ingredients that you don't understand. For instance, if they end in "ose," they're probably sugar.
However, what's most important to note here is that when we eat or drink foods containing sugar, that extra sugar is usually replacing other foods in our diet. That means we're probably eating fewer foods like whole grains, lean protein and vegetables, foods that actually provide health benefits. So, whether or not we're diagnosed with diabetes, we'd all be well advised to reduce the amount of sugary things we eat and drink.
When told to reduce the amount of sweetened beverages they consume, the first thing many people worry about is their coffee consumption, especially if they use cream and sugar. Interestingly, research has found that people with a daily coffee habit have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but if you don't already drink coffee, there's still not enough conclusive evidence to recommend you start. You need to weigh the potential benefits against possible side effects. Coffee can cause stomach pain, insomnia, shakiness or irregular heartbeat, so if you don't already have a coffee habit, a diabetes diagnosis is not a good reason to start one.
Some people also think diabetics must avoid all white food, including white flour and rice. It is true that these white foods have been highly processed and that processing means they're quickly digested and raise blood sugar rapidly. Consequently, wise people limit the amount of white food they eat, replacing white flour and rice in their diet with whole wheat flour and brown rice. They also eat fewer starchy carbohydrates, including starchy grains, fruits and vegetables, making sure that less than half of their calories come from those food sources, and they make sure that the foods they do eat are high in fiber and low in glycemic index.
Others think they must avoid fruit because it is so high in sugar. You shouldn't completely avoid fruits because many fresh and frozen unprocessed fruits, if they are no sugar added, can be high in fiber, antioxidants and vitamins that are good for your health and weight. It is true that you should limit the amount of canned and dried fruit you eat and you shouldn't drink too much fruit juice. Instead, eat a couple of servings of whole fruit every day. Small portions of fruit eaten with a protein like nonfat yogurt, an ounce of cheese or a few nuts will have only a small impact on your blood sugar.
The bottom line is, if you want to prevent diabetes, or manage it once you have it, simply trade convenience foods for whole foods, use healthy preparation methods, and make sure at least half of your plate contains a lot of delicious and nutritious vegetables. Then replace sugary drinks with water or unsweetened beverages. It is possible to easily and successfully manage diabetes. Maintaining a positive attitude and embracing a healthy lifestyle is all it takes.
If you're looking for more ways to reduce your diabetes risk, increase your physical activity level or seeking other new ideas to help you live a healthier lifestyle, Cornell University Cooperative Extension's Eat Smart New York program may be just right for you. Interactive classes include fun activities and new ideas to help people incorporate exercise into their busy lives, improve their nutritional status, and save money. Classes can be scheduled at convenient times and locations throughout Chautauqua County and bilingual education is available. For more information call 664-9502, Ext. 217.
Patty Hammond leads Family and Consumer Science Programs at Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County. Her column is published on the first Sunday of each month.


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I was in Vernon, Texas, in November 2012, watching a remarkable crew help women from all around the United States put aside their worries and fears and press forward to obtain pilot certificates. The program is called GIFT (Girls in Flight Training).
As I wrote in "Women with Wings" (click the link to read the article), during that week Mary Latimer and her crew fed and housed more than 30 women, taught ground school and took them flying for 12 hours a day. At the end of the week, there were two new private pilots, eight solos, and five knowledge tests passed.
Is that the end of the story? Of course not. Mary keeps in touch and is happy to report that four more private pilots and a new instrument pilot have graduated from the 2012 GIFT. Several others are still plugging along; some are returning to Vernon to train with Mary, who works with her husband, Lawrence; her daughter, Tamara; and her granddaughter, Amanda—all flight instructors.
The 2013 GIFT is filled with a waiting list. Mary loves what she does, but also would love to see other flight schools put together this type of program to fill the need for this type of supportive, immersive training.
Mary says the 2012 FAA airman statistics reveal that the percentage of women pilots now stands at 5.29 percent (down from 5.35 percent in 2011). "Not a big change, but certainly in the wrong direction," she says. "I think it says a lot about the industry. Any flight school that wants to increase their business needs to figure out how to get more women in the door and then get them through the training."
Flight school owners and operators, Mary will be at AOPA Summit in Fort Worth, Texas, scheduled for October 10-12. Want to find out more about GIFT? She's happy to talk to you. Contact me at [email protected] and I will put you in touch with Mary Latimer.—Jill W. Tallman
Tags: AOPA Summit 2013, flight training, Texas, women pilots


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Can we expect to see any early movement this year? or do you think that the JETS will sit back and see what kind of "lunch pale" players are left?
Last year I just kept expecting to see an impact player signed but it just never happened.
IMO I think that in FA we'll probaly go NT,CB since we could use a vetern at those posisions then that should paint a clearer picture of the draft.
Toggle shoutbox NYJETSFAN BANTER
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Fa Opinions?
Posted 23 January 2007 - 02:08 PM
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