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WASHINGTON. All three major averages took yet another sickening plunge Tuesday morning. The Dow experienced another Journey to the Center of the Earthmoment, blasting well below the minus 500 point mark at one point. As we write this, approaching 1 p.m. ET, the Dow has recovered somewhat. It's "only" down 296 points, at least at this second. But again, as we've been reciting for at least a week, who knows where this, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ will end up at today's 4 p.m. closing bell? Will it be another sickening Wall Street crash?
There's no way to guess the answer to these questions. It's pretty clear now that Mr. Market is considering a full-blown correction of 10-20 percent or more before this is all over. Such a correction isn't guaranteed. But since October began its inauspicious run of days, Mr. Market seems to be well on the way to creating such a scenario. Hence, our ongoing Wall Street crash this month.
Wall Street crash: Inspired by Election 2018 antics?
At this moment at least, two things seem to be heading traders and investors streaming for the exits. The first of these involves the nail-biting character of Election 2018. This year's upcoming midterms were supposed to be a slam-dunk for the Schumer-Pelosi "blue wave" fans. That's probably why so many of the left's Soros-paid thugs have been waging an intimidation campaign against Republican politicians and supporters alike.
But these violent clowns, and their Congressional pals, virtue-signaling away, really jumped the shark when they launched an all-out, unfounded smear campaign against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Trump, McConnell & Co. surprised everyone on this one, braving the leftist onslaught to put Kavanaugh on the nation's highest court.
That triumph, ugly and sad though it was, got complacent Republican voters fired up again. The President, the GOP and their supporters were furious over the shameful treatment of now-Justice Kavanaugh and his incredibly abused young family. And all of a sudden, the polls – likely overweighted toward the Democrats anyway – began to show a big shift in voter sentiment.
Now we're at the point where the punditocracy no longer asks whether the GOP will hold the Senate for two more years. They wonder how much more of a majority Republicans will end up when all the balloting is over. The current Wall Street crash environment is a risk, however, for other races. Headline risk, of course.
As for those 2018 House races…
Contrariwise, the House has been a much greater slog. Mass quantities of veteran GOP Reps – mostly RINOs and #NeverTrumpers, interestingly enough – decided not to run for re-election this fall. That's usually a sign that their internal polling showed they'd be handily defeated. And so, rather than face reality and join the Trump Parade, they bailed on the party and its two years of lawmaking and repealing success, and abandoned their seats to an open contest.
That astonishing mass exit gave a phalanx of massively Soros-funded, hard-left Democrat newcomers the green light to go for those open seats. The objective for the Democrats, as always, was to take back complete control of the House, the better to destroy the next two years of the Trump presidency. And it looked like it would be a cakewalk, too, with tens of millions of Steyer and Soros $$$ cascading the Democrats' way.
But then the Kavanaugh Katastrophe happened. Over the past 3 weeks or so, a fired-up Republican base re-launched their crusade. President Trump, indefatigable as always, has been doing mass rallies across the country nearly every night. And suddenly, the tide could be turning that now-evaporating "blue wave" into a red tsunami.
Actually, this may be a bit optimistic. The Dems still appear to have a slight edge. But if they do take the House, now, their majority would likely be as slim as it could be. However, ditto, too, the Republicans. But at least they could seal the fate of the Trump-Russia nonsense for at least the next two years.
What do elections have to do with stocks?
But, you say, what the hell does all this have to do with stocks? Quite a lot, actually. Constant headline risk is, well, one important element of over all risk. But how about looking at things according to a dude who seriously knows? We're talking about Larry Kudlow, currently President Trump's U.S. National Economic Council Director. CNBC summarized a recent press briefing with Kudlow that touched on that Election 2018 issue.
"The recent sell-off in stocks reflects fear that Congress will be remade in the upcoming election and pro-growth policies will fall by the wayside, according to White House advisor Larry Kudlow.
"Kudlow, speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, blamed the market decline on mid-term elections. 'I think the stock market is worried that Congress will change and will overturn these pro-growth policies,' he said. The 'correction has to overcome the uncertainty about this election.'"
That's about right. Mr. Market, and investors in general, really hate it when the investing environment begins to shift. Uncertainty can put a very rapid end to any bull market, leading to an almost predictible Wall Street crash. And uncertainty seems to be doing that right now, given October's already crash-prone daily action.
Not helping the market today was the poor action in the shares of industrial giants Caterpillar (symbol: CAT) and 3M (MMM). Both reported poor earnings today and both got clobbered, accounting for a big chunk of the Dow's red ink.
About those interest rate worries
Which led to Kudlow's and CNBC's secondary reason for October's lousy crash-prone performance.
"[The] October market drop seemed to be more about fears of slowing global growth and rising interest rates than anything to do with the election….
"The Fed has moved on rates after years of historic lows to stay ahead of inflation. Unemployment is at decades-old lows and the economy is growing."
Yeah, but traders and investors no longer trust the Fed not to over-do it when it comes to those interest rate hikes. Already, the hikes have effectively killed off new home sales. That has a ripple effect on other sectors as well. Investors don't like what they see down the road if the Fed doesn't slow down that interest rate juggernaut for a while. This is what makes many investors sell off stocks until they can get a good night's sleep for a change.
More interest in those interest rates
One of our favorite sites, Tim McPartland's Innovative Income Investor, pinches in a bit more on that interest rate issue.
"Interest rates are moving a bit lower – the 10 year is in the 3.15% range, but it is moving grudgingly – no wholesale movement.
"While no one can really pinpoint exact reasons for movements in stocks and bonds on a day to day basis, I believe that higher interest rates are the culprit behind stock weakness."
Personally, I think it's both items A and B on the speculative menu. Let's see what happens after today's latest market debacle, this Tuesday edition of the October 2018 Wall Street crash. Things have been improving somewhat since I began punching this article out. But sellers have a way of ganging up on a week market near that closing bell. So for us, it's watchful waiting for now.
— Headline image: Cliff diving in Bruce Peninsula National Park on Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada.
(Flickr, CC 2.0. Photo credit: Derek Tsang)


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Category Archives: Lose Weight
Change your gut flora and lose weight
by Eric Hunter
(NaturalNews) Obese and lean individuals have different gut flora composition. The gut microbiota of mice and humans are similar, with Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes dominating. At this point it's not clear exactly which species are important in weight management. Some studies show reduced numbers of Bacteroidetes in obese subjects, while others point to lower levels of beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus.
Even though diet will affect gut flora composition, most studies conclude that gut flora on it's own has an effect on weight. Alteration of the gut microbiota can be an important part of a weight loss program.
Several mechanisms have been proposed as to how gut flora regulates weight. Inflammation, energy from polysaccharides, insulin sensitivity and energy expenditure and storage are all affected by gut flora.
What you eat affects the gut flora composition, but it can also be hypothesized that it can happen the other way around; that gut flora partly determines what you eat. People with gut dysbiosis and especially yeast overgrowth often feel sugar cravings. Gut flora can probably influence food cravings and thereby play a part in determining dietary choices.
Obesity is hereditary, and the importance of gut flora shouldn't be underestimated. Flora is passed on from mother to child during birth, breastfeeding and early years. The child also comes in contact with microorganisms from other family members. "Obese gut flora" is passed on to the child.
Children born via caesarean have double the risk of becoming overweight, according to research by Harvard scientists. The obesity increase has been linked to a lack of exposure to good bacteria which may be found in the vaginal wall.
Differences in intestinal microflora during the first year of life have been associated with higher risk of obesity later in life. Especially low levels of Bifidobacteria make children more susceptible to weight gain.
Obese individuals usually have a dysfunctional gut flora with higher numbers of LPS-containing microbiota and methane-producing bacteria. LPS, Lipopolysaccharide, is linked to obesity, leaky gut and low-level chronic inflammation.
Colonization of germ-free mice with gut flora from either obese or lean mice, leads to significantly greater increase in total body fat in those colonized with "obese microbiota." Animal studies further show that probiotic supplements with Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species help maintain a healthy bodyweight and promote weight-loss. Cattle treated with antibiotics store a lot of fat, and this is one of the reasons why these drugs are used so frequently in feedlots.
How to incorporate this info into your weight loss program
A healthy diet with reduced consumption of sugar, processed carbohydrates, most vegetable oils, anti-nutrients, etc. will on it's own promote weight loss and a healthier gut flora.
Additional gut flora modifications can also be an important part of a weight-loss plan. Simply eating yoghurt will not make any substantial difference in most people. Minimally washed organic plants and plant products, fermented foods and probiotic supplements are all good sources of beneficial bacteria. Prebiotics, soluble fiber that feed good bacteria, can be found in leeks, onions, apples etc.
Sources for this article include
Obesity alters gut microbial ecology.Ley, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005 Aug 2; 102(31):11070-11075.
Vael C, Verhulst SL, Nelen V, et al. Intestinal microflora and body mass index during the first three years of life: an observational study.
Gut Pathog. 2011 May 23;3(1):8.
Kalliomaki M., Collado M.C, Salminen S., et al. Early differences in fecal microbiota composition in children may predict overweight
Am J Clin Nutr March 2008 vol. 87 no. 3 534-538
Kondo S, Xiao JZ, Satoh T, et al. Antiobesity effects of Bifidobacterium breve strain B-3 supplementation in a mouse model with high-fat diet-induced obesity.
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2010;74(8):1656-61. Epub 2010 Aug 7.
Takemura N, Okubo T, Sonoyama K. Lactobacillus plantarum strain No. 14 reduces adipocyte size in mice fed high-fat diet.
Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2010 Jul;235(7):849-56.
Chen JJ, Wang R, Li XF, et al. Bifidobacterium longum supplementation improved high-fat-fed-induced metabolic syndrome and promoted intestinal Reg I gene expression.
Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2011 Jul 1;236(7):823-31. Epub 2011 Jun 17.
Karlsson CL, Molin G, Fak F, et al. Effects on weight gain and gut microbiota in rats given bacterial supplements and a high-energy-dense diet from fetal life through to 6 months of age.
Br J Nutr. 2011 Sep;106(6):887-95. Epub 2011 Mar 30.
Human originated bacteria, Lactobacillus rhamonosus PL60, produce conjugated linoleic acid and show anti-obesity effects in diet-induced obese mice.Lee, et al. Biochem Biophys Acta. 2006 Jul;1761(7):736-744
Metabolic endotoxemia initiates obesity and insulin resistance.Cani, et al. Diabetes. 2007 Jul;56(7):1761-1772
Tips to Take Control of Your Weight
Anyone who is overweight will testify that losing weight is not as easy as it seems. The people that are lean, or have gone from fat to skinny will say it's just a matter of motivation and elbow grease. Although it is not as simple as that. Our environments have waged war on us. Their weapons are sedentary lives and trans fats of mass destruction. All is not lost though, here are some quick simple tips to get ahead!
1. Substitute Water. Our bodies are about 65-70% water. It follows that water would be not only essential, but the best possibly choice of liquids to ingest. In fact, our bodies will sometimes simulate a hunger response, when in reality the body is craving hydration. When hungry, drink a glass or two of water to check if it suppresses your hunger.
2. Chew Your Food. Chewing our food very slowly and deliberately has several benefits that are often overlooked. It gives us the ability to relax, and enjoy our meal. Slow chewing is the first, and highly important, step in a complex system of digestion. Besides, if we eat slowly, we might feel full before finishing the whole meal, and can leave the rest for the next meal.
3. Exercise daily. How silly of me to include something as obvious as exercise. I did a 30 day trial with waking up, and walking for 30 minutes first thing in the morning. My journal records that I was feeling amazing during the period of time that I was following this habit.
4. Publicize your intentions. Start a blog, join a forum, and have other people keep you accountable to help. Tell other people your plan, it would help you get the motivation to go with it!
5. Create a food schedule. Plan your day so that you're eating at approximately the same time each day. This scheduling will incorporate itself into your circadian rhythm, and aid in digestion.
6. Do not over eat. Know your limit and stop eating when you are full. I have often been a victim of wanting to finish a meal so that it doesn't go to waste. This has left me with many a stomach ache. Next time, doggy bag it for later, and don't hurt yourself!
7. Choose your snacks wisely. Put down the Lays and cheese puffs. Pick up the apple and baby carrots. Make the right decision, I know you can do it.
8. Lifestyle. Remember, it's not about special diets, or special exercise programs. The real secret is in turning your health into a lifestyle, and focusing on this healthy lifestyle with every choice you make
Identify What's Stopping You from Losing Weight
By: Allison Winn Scotch
When your boss says, "We're not here to assign blame," duck. When we say you're not entirely to blame for your paunch, you're not off the hook. Nobody is the innocent victim of a drive-thru feeding. But there are sneaky factors—your friends, your family, your mindset—that can sabotage the best weight-loss plan. Your strategy: Identify the saboteurs, then adjust.
Your Wife
We do not suggest blaming her for your belly. This would be (a) wrong and (b) a reasonable defense at her trial. But know this: Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that men and women usually gain 6 to 8 pounds in the first 2 years of marriage. "Once you're married, that need to impress is gone," says Edward Abramson, Ph.D., author of Marriage Made Me Fat. "You may go to the gym less often, go out for meals or to parties more frequently, and develop new rituals, such as sitting on the couch with your wife and snacking."
Fix your head: Regain that need to impress. Imagine what that girl at the gym thinks of your gut—or what she'd think if you had abs. (Just don't hit on her.) As for that bowl of popcorn with your wife, Abramson says, ask yourself, Why am I eating? Boredom? Habit? Better yet, ask her to stop bringing those binge foods into the house.
Fix your routine: Establish healthful rituals. Instead of Access Hollywood after dinner, take regular walks, or play H-O-R-S-E in the driveway. (P-I-G might work better.) Exercise suppresses appetite. Cool down with Italian ice (120 calories per cup) instead of ice cream (290 calories per cup).
Her Belly
Dads-to-be gain almost 5 pounds from the end of their partner's pregnancy to the baby's first birthday, Australian researchers report. It's especially common in young, stressed-out fathers, says Lawrence Schwartz, author of Fat Daddy/Fit Daddy. And the cycle repeats with each kid.
Fix your head: Be a heroic provider, not a sympathetic eater. Prepare as if fatherhood were a sport—because it will be.
Fix your routine: Read her pregnancy books—they're full of excellent nutritional advice. As for her binge snacking and ice-cream jags, adopt a simple policy, says Schwartz: "She can have it, but you shouldn't." Maintain your exercise routine, especially weight lifting. "It's only going to be that much harder to get back into an exercise routine once the baby's here," says Schwartz.
Your Kids
The presence of children in a household sharply increases the likelihood of tempting junk food in the cupboard. Some of it ends up in adult mouths. Same goes for stray nuggets and fries left over by finicky kids. "I call this 'trolling,' " Schwartz says. "If you're prone to troll, the easiest thing to do is to avoid the Happy Meal altogether."
Fix your head: Grow up. Think: The sugary snack that a child will burn off with an hour of fidgeting will haunt you as a fat deposit. Read the nutrition label on any snack before unwrapping it. Realize the importance of setting a good food-and-exercise example.
Fix your routine: Make junk food a once-a-week thing. Designate Friday as Twinkie day. And instead of standing on the sidelines to watch your son's game, volunteer to coach, ump, or ref. Make fitness a family thing.
Craig Ferguson
Not getting enough deep, non-REM sleep inhibits production of growth hormone, which might lead to premature middle-age symptoms—abdominal obesity, reduced muscle mass and strength, and diminished exercise capacity. You become Homer.
Fix your head: "Mentally disengage yourself before you hit the sack," says Jim Karas, author of The Business Plan for Your Body. Don't plot a staffing reorg before bed.
Fix your routine: Exercise in the morning or afternoon, says Eric Nofzinger, M.D., director of sleep neuroimaging research at the Western Psychiatric Institute. Evening workouts may leave you too stimulated to sleep. Establish a ritual that signals your body that the day is over 30 minutes before bedtime—turn off the computer, read, stretch, or set the TV volume low, says Karas.
Your Shift
Workers gain 7 pounds on average when they switch from a day to a night shift, according to the New York Obesity Research Center. Men working the graveyard shift tend to eat a big evening meal and go to work, says Jim Waterhouse, Ph.D., author of Keeping in Time with Your Body Clock. "Then they come home to another 'supper' in the morning."
Fix your head: Adjust your concept of mealtime, says Waterhouse.
Fix your routine: Eat your biggest meal when you get home from your shift, Waterhouse says, then relax or exercise in the morning. Get 8 hours of sleep in the afternoon, then wake up and have breakfast. Kicking off your workday (even if it starts in the evening) with a light meal that's high in protein or fiber is crucial for weight loss.
Your Stress
Stress will spike levels of the hormone cortisol, which tells your body to store fat. "Unfortunately, some people appease their anxiety by reaching for fatty foods," says Elissa Epel, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. Eating boosts insulin levels; combining that with cortisol leads to greater fat deposits. More stress, bigger belly.
Fix your head: First, identify the type of stress you're under, Karas says. "Is it temporary, like a bar exam, or more permanent, like your job?" Short-term stress will pass. Long-term stress may require a permanent solution, like a new job.
Fix your routine: Make healthy eating effortless, Karas says. Buy snacks that won't send insulin levels soaring: high-fiber energy bars or single-serving bags of almonds or cashews. Fifteen minutes of explosive activity—hitting a speed bag or jumping rope—can alleviate anxieties after work. "It's about getting the tension out," Karas says.
Your Friends
Buddies can make or break a diet or workout plan, whether it's unconscious scarfing of nachos during the game or the lure of pumping beers instead of iron. Worse, some guys will deliberately try to sabotage your diet, just for sport. Want a cookie?
Fix your head: Admit you need support. "Let people know how to help you, and many will," says Beth Kitchin, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Fix your routine: Eat a protein bar before meeting friends, so you?ll feel fuller. Drink a glass of water for every glass of beer. A time-tested strategy: Recruit a friend to diet or work out with you. Having someone to answer to is the best enforcement plan.
10 Easy Ways to Lose Weight Without Starving
Way #1
Always Eat a Man's Breakfast
No more Lucky Charms—you want some protein and fat. Scrambled eggs and a few sausage links will keep you fuller longer than an airy doughnut will.
Way #2
Eat More!
We're talking three good snacks and three healthful meals. But what do you serve during the bowl game if you can't have chips and dip? Mixed nuts—especially almonds—will satisfy your craving for something crunchy while helping to build muscle.
Way #3
Just Say No to Starches
Foods like pasta, white bread, and potatoes make you fat. If you must have pasta, make yours whole-wheat. Same goes for bread, and swap white potatoes for sweet potatoes. Just don't eat too much!
Way #4
Lift Weights
Yes, you have to hit the gym, and no, lifting beer cans during happy hour doesn't count. The muscles you build will not only improve your performance, they'll stoke your metabolism so you burn calories long after your workout is over.
Way #5
Think Before You Eat
Don't just stuff your face with the stale cookies left over from the holidays, eat what tastes good and what's good for you. Take your time eating; you'll stay fuller longer.
Way #6
But Have Fun Once in a While—or Once a Week
Stifle those cravings for too long, and you'll be miserable and might fall off your new plan forever. Just splurge reasonably—two slices of pizza, not the whole thing.
Way #7
Go Low-Carb
It's the easiest way to drop weight fast. The cravings are hard at first, but it gets easier—especially when you see the results.
Way #8
Run Intervals
It's easier to alternate between hard and easy running instead of going for a long run—especially if you don't like running. Plus, you'll be done faster and burn more fat.
Way #9
Never, Ever Drink Sweetened Soda
But go ahead, have a glass of wine now and then. Low-carb beer is fine, too, in moderation.
Way #10
Don't Fear Fat
It makes you feel full, helps control your appetite, and your body needs it.
7 Strategies to Satisfy Hunger and Lose Weight
By: David Schipper
Recently, Cornell University researchers asked a group of people a simple question: "How do you know when you're through eating dinner?"
The answer might seem obvious. After all, doesn't everyone push the plate away when they feel full? Well, no. The leanest people do, according to the scientists, but people who are overweight rely more on what are known as "external cues." For example, guys packing a few extra pounds tend to stop eating when . . .
1. Their plates are clean.
2. Everyone else in their group is finished.
3. The TV show they're watching is over.
Unfortunately, these cues have nothing to do with how they feel physically. "People's brains are often out of touch with their bodies," says C. Peter Herman, Ph.D., a University of Toronto expert on appetite control. "And when eating becomes mindless, overeating becomes routine."
The key player in all of this appears to be a region of your brain called the left posterior amygdala, or LPA. This area monitors the volume of food in your stomach during a meal. Fill your gut to a comfortable level, and the LPA tells your brain to drop the fork. Trouble is, it delivers that information at dial-up speed in a DSL world. "Many men consume calories faster than their bodies can say, 'Stop!'" explains Herman. "So they look to external cues to guide their consumption."
The bottom line is this: To shrink your gut, you need to start listening to it. We've scoured the science and tapped the top experts to help you learn how to do just that. Use these seven simple strategies, and you'll fill up without filling out.
Sit Down to Snack
Turns out, the trappings of a formal meal make you think you're eating more than you actually are—and that may boost satiety levels. A 2006 Canadian study found that when people ate lunch while sitting at a set table, they consumed a third less at a later snack than those who ate their midday meals while standing at a counter.
Think of it as the Zen of eating: "If you treat every dining experience with greater respect, you'll be less likely to use your fork as a shovel," says sports nutritionist and behavioral psychotherapist Lisa Dorfman, M.S., R.D. "And that includes snacks as well as your three squares."
Turn Off the Tube
University of Massachusetts researchers found that people who watched TV during a meal consumed 288 more calories on average than those who didn't. The reason: What you're seeing on television distracts you, which keeps your brain from recognizing that you're full.
Slow Down and Savor
"Pay close attention to those first three bites, which people usually wolf down due to excitement," says Jeffrey Greeson, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Duke Integrative Medicine. In fact, mimic a food critic: "Examine the food's texture, savor the flavors in your mouth, and then pay attention and feel the swallow," he says. "Psychologically, this form of meditative eating boosts satiety and promotes a sense of satisfaction for the entire meal."
While you're at it, try spicing up relatively bland fare, such as scrambled eggs, with hot sauce or smoked paprika. "Hot, flavorful foods help trigger your brain to realize you're eating," says Dorfman.
Take a Bite, Take a Breath
University of Rhode Island researchers discovered that consciously slowing down between bites decreases a person's calorie intake by 10 percent. "Breathing helps you gauge how hungry you are, since it directs your mind toward your body," says Greeson. "It's also quite practical, since you can do it throughout a meal and not draw attention to yourself in a social situation."
Don't Share Your Food
Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo observed that men who ate with a group of buddies downed 60 percent more calories than when they ate with a spouse or girlfriend. That's because people often match their intake of food to that of their dining partners.
Of course, you shouldn't have to sit home on guys' night out. Choose one reasonable entrée for yourself, and skip the communal foods—bread, nachos, wings, and pizza, for example—which encourage you to take your eating cues from pals.
Keep a Food Journal
It's an effective way to remind yourself how much you're eating over the course of a day. But it doesn't need to be complicated: University of Pittsburgh scientists found that dieters who simply wrote down the size of each meal (S, M, L, XL) were just as successful at losing weight as those who tracked specific foods and calorie counts.
One useful addition: Detail the motivation behind your eating habits. "Were you really hungry or just blowing off steam before bedtime? Recognizing that you weren't feeling true hunger reinforces the idea of listening to your body," says Dorfman.
Don't Trust the "Healthy" Menu
You're likely to underestimate your meal's calorie count by about 35 percent, according to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research. The best approach is to check the restaurant's nutrition guide before you order. A University of Mississippi study found that people consumed 54 percent fewer calories when they used this simple strategy.
Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
As I write this, tomorrow is Tuesday, which is a cardio day. I'll spend five minutes warming up on the VersaClimber, a towering machine that requires you to move your arms and legs simultaneously. Then I'll do 30 minutes on a stair mill. On Wednesday a personal trainer will work me like a farm animal for an hour, sometimes to the point that I am dizzy — an abuse for which I pay as much as I spend on groceries in a week. Thursday is "body wedge" class, which involves another exercise contraption, this one a large foam wedge from which I will push myself up in various hateful ways for an hour. Friday will bring a 5.5-mile run, the extra half-mile my grueling expiation of any gastronomical indulgences during the week.
I have exercised like this — obsessively, a bit grimly — for years, but recently I began to wonder: Why am I doing this? Except for a two-year period at the end of an unhappy relationship — a period when I self-medicated with lots of Italian desserts — I have never been overweight. One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. But I exercise all the time, and since I ended that relationship and cut most of those desserts, my weight has returned to the same 163 lb. it has been most of my adult life. I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn't all the exercise wiping it out? (Read "The Year in Medicine 2008: From A to Z.")
It's a question many of us could ask. More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. Of course, some people join and never go. Still, as one major study — the Minnesota Heart Survey — found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly. The survey ran from 1980, when only 47% of respondents said they engaged in regular exercise, to 2000, when the figure had grown to 57%.
And yet obesity figures have risen dramatically in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government's definition. Yes, it's entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don't. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight? (Watch TIME's video "How to Lose Hundreds of Pounds.")
The conventional wisdom that exercise is essential for shedding pounds is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against rigorous exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated. (Read "Losing Weight: Can Exercise Trump Genes?")
"In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn't as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.
The basic problem is that while it's true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.
The Compensation Problem
Earlier this year, the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE — PLoS is the nonprofit Public Library of Science — published a remarkable study supervised by a colleague of Ravussin's, Dr. Timothy Church, who holds the rather grand title of chair in health wisdom at LSU. Church's team randomly assigned into four groups 464 overweight women who didn't regularly exercise. Women in three of the groups were asked to work out with a personal trainer for 72 min., 136 min., and 194 min. per week, respectively, for six months. Women in the fourth cluster, the control group, were told to maintain their usual physical-activity routines. All the women were asked not to change their dietary habits and to fill out monthly medical-symptom questionnaires.
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The findings were surprising. On average, the women in all the groups, even the control group, lost weight, but the women who exercised — sweating it out with a trainer several days a week for six months — did not lose significantly more weight than the control subjects did. (The control-group women may have lost weight because they were filling out those regular health forms, which may have prompted them to consume fewer doughnuts.) Some of the women in each of the four groups actually gained weight, some more than 10 lb. each.
What's going on here? Church calls it compensation, but you and I might know it as the lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym. Whether because exercise made them hungry or because they wanted to reward themselves (or both), most of the women who exercised ate more than they did before they started the experiment. Or they compensated in another way, by moving around a lot less than usual after they got home. (Read "Run For Your Lives.")
The findings are important because the government and various medical organizations routinely prescribe more and more exercise for those who want to lose weight. In 2007 the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association issued new guidelines stating that "to lose weight … 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary." That's 60 to 90 minutes on most days of the week, a level that not only is unrealistic for those of us trying to keep or find a job but also could easily produce, on the basis of Church's data, ravenous compensatory eating.
It's true that after six months of working out, most of the exercisers in Church's study were able to trim their waistlines slightly — by about an inch. Even so, they lost no more overall body fat than the control group did. Why not?
Church, who is 41 and has lived in Baton Rouge for nearly three years, has a theory. "I see this anecdotally amongst, like, my wife's friends," he says. "They're like, 'Ah, I'm running an hour a day, and I'm not losing any weight.'" He asks them, "What are you doing after you run?" It turns out one group of friends was stopping at Starbucks for muffins afterward. Says Church: "I don't think most people would appreciate that, wow, you only burned 200 or 300 calories, which you're going to neutralize with just half that muffin." (Read "Too Fat? Read Your E-mail.")
You might think half a muffin over an entire day wouldn't matter much, particularly if you exercise regularly. After all, doesn't exercise turn fat to muscle, and doesn't muscle process excess calories more efficiently than fat does?
Yes, although the muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that.
Fundamentally, humans are not a species that evolved to dispose of many extra calories beyond what we need to live. Rats, among other species, have a far greater capacity to cope with excess calories than we do because they have more of a dark-colored tissue called brown fat. Brown fat helps produce a protein that switches off little cellular units called mitochondria, which are the cells' power plants: they help turn nutrients into energy. When they're switched off, animals don't get an energy boost. Instead, the animals literally get warmer. And as their temperature rises, calories burn effortlessly. (See TIME's health and medicine covers.)
Because rodents have a lot of brown fat, it's very difficult to make them obese, even when you force-feed them in labs. But humans — we're pathetic. We have so little brown fat that researchers didn't even report its existence in adults until earlier this year. That's one reason humans can gain weight with just an extra half-muffin a day: we almost instantly store most of the calories we don't need in our regular ("white") fat cells.
All this helps explain why our herculean exercise over the past 30 years — all the personal trainers, StairMasters and VersaClimbers; all the Pilates classes and yoga retreats and fat camps — hasn't made us thinner. After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you're hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it's easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.
See pictures of what makes you eat more food.
Watch a video about fitness gadgets.
Self-Control Is like a Muscle
Many people assume that weight is mostly a matter of willpower — that we can learn both to exercise and to avoid muffins and Gatorade. A few of us can, but evolution did not build us to do this for very long. In 2000 the journal Psychological Bulletin published a paper by psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister in which they observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza.
Some of us can will ourselves to overcome our basic psychology, but most of us won't be very successful. "The most powerful determinant of your dietary intake is your energy expenditure," says Steven Gortmaker, who heads Harvard's Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. "If you're more physically active, you're going to get hungry and eat more." Gortmaker, who has studied childhood obesity, is even suspicious of the playgrounds at fast-food restaurants. "Why would they build those?" he asks. "I know it sounds kind of like conspiracy theory, but you have to think, if a kid plays five minutes and burns 50 calories, he might then go inside and consume 500 calories or even 1,000." (Read "Why Kids' Exercise Matters Less Than We Think.")
Last year the International Journal of Obesity published a paper by Gortmaker and Kendrin Sonneville of Children's Hospital Boston noting that "there is a widespread assumption that increasing activity will result in a net reduction in any energy gap" — energy gap being the term scientists use for the difference between the number of calories you use and the number you consume. But Gortmaker and Sonneville found in their 18-month study of 538 students that when kids start to exercise, they end up eating more — not just a little more, but an average of 100 calories more than they had just burned.
If evolution didn't program us to lose weight through exercise, what did it program us to do? Doesn't exercise do anything?
Sure. It does plenty. In addition to enhancing heart health and helping prevent disease, exercise improves your mental health and cognitive ability. A study published in June in the journal Neurology found that older people who exercise at least once a week are 30% more likely to maintain cognitive function than those who exercise less. Another study, released by the University of Alberta a few weeks ago, found that people with chronic back pain who exercise four days a week have 36% less disability than those who exercise only two or three days a week.
But there's some confusion about whether it is exercise — sweaty, exhausting, hunger-producing bursts of activity done exclusively to benefit our health — that leads to all these benefits or something far simpler: regularly moving during our waking hours. We all need to move more — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says our leisure-time physical activity (including things like golfing, gardening and walking) has decreased since the late 1980s, right around the time the gym boom really exploded. But do we need to stress our bodies at the gym?
Look at kids. In May a team of researchers at Peninsula Medical School in the U.K. traveled to Amsterdam to present some surprising findings to the European Congress on Obesity. The Peninsula scientists had studied 206 kids, ages 7 to 11, at three schools in and around Plymouth, a city of 250,000 on the southern coast of England. Kids at the first school, an expensive private academy, got an average of 9.2 hours per week of scheduled, usually rigorous physical education. Kids at the two other schools — one in a village near Plymouth and the other an urban school — got just 2.4 hours and 1.7 hours of PE per week, respectively.
To understand just how much physical activity the kids were getting, the Peninsula team had them wear ActiGraphs, light but sophisticated devices that measure not only the amount of physical movement the body engages in but also its intensity. During four one-week periods over consecutive school terms, the kids wore the ActiGraphs nearly every waking moment.
And no matter how much PE they got during school hours, when you look at the whole day, the kids from the three schools moved the same amount, at about the same intensity. The kids at the fancy private school underwent significantly more physical activity before 3 p.m., but overall they didn't move more. "Once they get home, if they are very active in school, they are probably staying still a bit more because they've already expended so much energy," says Alissa Frémeaux, a biostatistician who helped conduct the study. "The others are more likely to grab a bike and run around after school."
Another British study, this one from the University of Exeter, found that kids who regularly move in short bursts — running to catch a ball, racing up and down stairs to collect toys — are just as healthy as kids who participate in sports that require vigorous, sustained exercise.
Could pushing people to exercise more actually be contributing to our obesity problem? In some respects, yes. Because exercise depletes not just the body's muscles but the brain's self-control "muscle" as well, many of us will feel greater entitlement to eat a bag of chips during that lazy time after we get back from the gym. This explains why exercise could make you heavier — or at least why even my wretched four hours of exercise a week aren't eliminating all my fat. It's likely that I am more sedentary during my nonexercise hours than I would be if I didn't exercise with such Puritan fury. If I exercised less, I might feel like walking more instead of hopping into a cab; I might have enough energy to shop for food, cook and then clean instead of ordering a satisfyingly greasy burrito.
Closing the Energy Gap
The problem ultimately is about not exercise itself but the way we've come to define it. Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity — the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented — may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat. "You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles," says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. "The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don't have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day."
For his part, Berthoud rises at 5 a.m. to walk around his neighborhood several times. He also takes the stairs when possible. "Even if people can get out of their offices, out from in front of their computers, they go someplace like the mall and then take the elevator," he says. "This is the real problem, not that we don't go to the gym enough." (Read "Is There a Laziness Gene?")
I was skeptical when Berthoud said this. Don't you need to raise your heart rate and sweat in order to strengthen your cardiovascular system? Don't you need to push your muscles to the max in order to build them?
Actually, it's not clear that vigorous exercise like running carries more benefits than a moderately strenuous activity like walking while carrying groceries. You regularly hear about the benefits of exercise in news stories, but if you read the academic papers on which these stories are based, you frequently see that the research subjects who were studied didn't clobber themselves on the elliptical machine. A routine example: in June the Association for Psychological Science issued a news release saying that "physical exercise … may indeed preserve or enhance various aspects of cognitive functioning." But in fact, those who had better cognitive function merely walked more and climbed more stairs. They didn't even walk faster; walking speed wasn't correlated with cognitive ability.
There's also growing evidence that when it comes to preventing certain diseases, losing weight may be more important than improving cardiovascular health. In June, Northwestern University researchers released the results of the longest observational study ever to investigate the relationship between aerobic fitness and the development of diabetes. The results? Being aerobically fit was far less important than having a normal body mass index in preventing the disease. And as we have seen, exercise often does little to help heavy people reach a normal weight. (Read "Physical Fitness — How Not to Get Sick.")
So why does the belief persist that exercise leads to weight loss, given all the scientific evidence to the contrary? Interestingly, until the 1970s, few obesity researchers promoted exercise as critical for weight reduction. As recently as 1992, when a stout Bill Clinton became famous for his jogging and McDonald's habits, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published an article that began, "Recently, the interest in the potential of adding exercise to the treatment of obesity has increased." The article went on to note that incorporating exercise training into obesity treatment had led to "inconsistent" results. "The increased energy expenditure obtained by training may be compensated by a decrease in non-training physical activities," the authors wrote.
Then how did the exercise-to-lose-weight mantra become so ingrained? Public-health officials have been reluctant to downplay exercise because those who are more physically active are, overall, healthier. Plus, it's hard even for experts to renounce the notion that exercise is essential for weight loss. For years, psychologist Kelly Brownell ran a lab at Yale that treated obese patients with the standard, drilled-into-your-head combination of more exercise and less food. "What we found was that the treatment of obesity was very frustrating," he says. Only about 5% of participants could keep the weight off, and although those 5% were more likely to exercise than those who got fat again, Brownell says if he were running the program today, "I would probably reorient toward food and away from exercise." In 2005, Brownell co-founded Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, which focuses on food marketing and public policy — not on encouraging more exercise.
Some research has found that the obese already "exercise" more than most of the rest of us. In May, Dr. Arn Eliasson of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center reported the results of a small study that found that overweight people actually expend significantly more calories every day than people of normal weight — 3,064 vs. 2,080. He isn't the first researcher to reach this conclusion. As science writer Gary Taubes noted in his 2007 book Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health, "The obese tend to expend more energy than lean people of comparable height, sex, and bone structure, which means their metabolism is typically burning off more calories rather than less."
In short, it's what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight. You should exercise to improve your health, but be warned: fiery spurts of vigorous exercise could lead to weight gain. I love how exercise makes me feel, but tomorrow I might skip the VersaClimber — and skip the blueberry bar that is my usual postexercise reward.

subset: commoncrawl


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SGI launches 'hard-hitting and heartbreaking' campaign against impaired driving
Craig Stevenson says he will always remember the moment he found out his 17-year-old son was killed by an impaired driver. "You really can't put words to what you feel," he told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.
Now Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) is trying to prevent other families from experiencing something similar. SGI says a new advertising campaign, launched Monday, is "hard-hitting and heartbreaking" and includes testimonials from first responders and medical professionals in Saskatchewan who have witnessed the aftermath of impaired driving. It will also include a 60-second dramatization of the moment a family is "torn apart by impaired driving."
Craig says they got the news after hearing a loud knock on the door by a police officer early in the morning. "The officer there was asking Bonny to come downstairs and I knew right away something wasn't good," he said. After the officer verified who they were, Craig says he told them that their son had died in a serious collision. There's a lot of despair. You don't know what to think," he said.
Craig said he hopes SGI's new campaign will save other families from the experience. "We just hope people understand the pain it causes."
Craig said SGI did an excellent job keying in on what families go through. "I think this will just further make Saskatchewan a safer place," he said.
Craig and Bonny were in Regina for the campaign launch Monday along with first responders, medical staff and dignitaries who have been affected by impaired driving. "We know from the last campaigns that we've had that they're impactful, that it just brings that awareness to people," said Joe Hargrave, Minister responsible for SGI. "We want them to keep thinking this affects real people, real people's lives, your life, your families lives," he said. "Not only that, but also these first responders, their lives."
The province-wide campaign runs until the end of October and includes television, radio, theatre and online advertisements.


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Author(s): Selina Tusitala Marsh
NZ Non Fiction | General Graphic Books | Biography & Autobiography | NZ Poetry | NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults 2020 Shortlist
An inspirational graphic memoir of growing up Pasifika in New Zealand, written and illustrated by our fast-talking PI Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh. At school, Selina is teased for her big, frizzy hair. Kids call her 'mophead'. She ties her hair up this way and that way and tries to fit in. Until one day – Sam Hunt plays a role – Selina gives up the game. She decides to let her hair out, to embrace her difference, to be WILD! Selina takes us through special moments in her extraordinary life. She becomes one of the first Pasifika women to hold a PhD. She reads for the Queen of England and Samoan royalty. She meets Barack Obama. And then she is named the New Zealand Poet Laureate. She picks up her special tokotoko, and notices something. It has wild hair coming out the end. It looks like a mop. A kid on the Waiheke ferry teases her about it. So she tells him a story . . . This is an inspirational graphic memoir, full of wry humour, that will appeal to young readers and adults alike. Illustrated with wit and verve by the author – NZ's bestselling Poet Laureate – Mophead tells the true story of a New Zealand woman realising how her difference can make a difference.
Ruth's Review:
When I was 10 I was teased
for having BIG hair.
Not just thick curly hair
but wild Afakasi hair.
Selina Tusitala Marsh was our beloved fast-talking Poet Laureate from 2017 until August this year, but when she was a child she was teased for her big, frizzy hair. Kids called her "mophead". She tried to tame her hair so that she could fit in until one day poet Sam Hunt visited her school and Selina was energised into embracing her difference.
Mophead is an adorable graphic memoir in which Selina reminisces about her childhood and special moments, such as becoming one of the first Pasifika women to earn a PhD, reading for the Queen and Samoan royalty, meeting US President Barack Obama and being named the New Zealand Poet Laureate. Photos are included in the endpapers.
The inspiration to write and illustrate her story came from a kid on the Waiheke ferry who teased her about the fact that her ceremonial tokotoko (walking stick) looked like a mop.
Funny and poignant, Mophead will encourage everyone from age 4 to 104 to celebrate their individuality.


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Look HERE for more info on the weekly challenge!!!
The night of the super moon (July 12, 2014), the sunset was just as amazing. Here's a couple pics!
Look HERE for more info on the weekly challenge!!!
The night of the super moon (July 12, 2014), the sunset was just as amazing. Here's a couple pics!
Click here to learn more!
I chose this picture for music for a reason…the sound that a loon makes when it trills and wails, is absolutely incredible, and for those of us who love it, a gorgeous type of music.
For those of you who have not had the pleasure of hearing this AMAZING animal, here's a LINK where you can hear them. Enjoy!
So today's picture has to symbolize white….and I have the perfect one. 🙂
One of my two most favorite places in the world. Averill, Vermont. When I got home from Disney, my mom and aunt took me to Vermont in March, and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever.
We always go to Vermont during the summer, so I had never seen it covered in snow, and I had never seen even a spec of ice on the lake. When we got there the lake was so frozen you could walk on it, and I remember thinking how surreal that was. And even though this may not seem like a big deal to people, I've been going here ever since I was a baby….it was just weird. But it was cool to see the snow cloud tornadoes on the lake, and to actually walk out onto the ice. Can't wait to go again next year. 🙂
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Home Is Where Our Stories Are Welcomed To Begin.
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Reviews simply put at your fingertips.
Learning to cook from the heart, for the soul.


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Ape or Human? Fossils' Link to Evolution Questioned
Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer
Date: 23 February 2011 Time: 09:10 PM ET
In a paper published Feb. 19 in the science journal Nature, two paleoanthropologists argue that some recently discovered primate fossils may not be as human as everyone thinks. While the authors maintain that humans did, of course, evolve from apes, their contentions highlight the difficulty of using 7-million-year-old bone fragments to piece together the full story of human evolution.
The fossils in question — corresponding to species named Orrorin tugenensis, Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Ardipithecus ramidus — have all made headlines in recent years for filling in gaps in the evolution from apes to humans. Though they've been hailed as remnants of some of our earliest hominin ancestors, paleoanthropologists Bernard Wood of George Washington University and Terry Harrison of New York University say they're probably just non-hominin ape bones.
"The problem is that a number of features that have been identified as being related to humans may be interpreted in different ways," Harrison told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.
For example, all that has been found ofSahelanthropus, the oldest genus widely believed to have been a hominin, is a 7-million-year-old partial skull. And yet, from its shape, paleoanthropologists have concluded that the specimen must have walked upright. "The position of its foramen magnum"—the spot where the brain connects to the spinal cord—"has historically been argued to be associated with bipedalism," said Harrison. "However, we see from comparative anatomy that that's not always the case."
In 2008, Orrorin, the second-oldest alleged hominin, was also argued to be bipedal in an article in Science by William Jungers at Stony Brook University and his colleagues. But Harrison and Wood argue that Orrorin might not have walked upright either.
And of the famous 4.4-million-year-old Ardipithecus partial skeleton found in 2009, Harrison said, "It's a remarkable find. It's really incredible to have such an old skeleton of a potential human ancestor. But we would argue it seems to look like many of the forms of the apes we have seen from that period."
Skepticism regarding these famous primate fossil finds seems to call into question the rigor of the scientific process within the field of paleoanthropology. Wood's and Harrison's paper certainly makes one wonder: Are these isolated incidents of misinterpretation followed by media hype, or does the problem pervade the whole branch of science? Is the human evolutionary fossil record a crapshoot?
"No," said Harrison. There are reasons why this branch of science may seem messier than most, he said, but all things considered, it is doing extremely well.
Read more here: Live Science
Marcelo Gleiser afirmou recentemente no seu artigo Defendendo a ciência, publicado na Folha de São Paulo, que a questão da evolução humana já estava cientificamente estabelecida: registro fóssil, genômica y otras cositas mais. Nada mais falso.
A área da paleoantropologia é uma das áreas científicas onde os egos são inchados pela possível glória de entrar para o panteão da ciência se o elo perdido for encontrado. Há muitas disputas internas nesta ciência. Mas o que eles têm de evidência é circunstancial e não resiste ao rigor de pesquisas científicas como essa aqui.
Tarefa para casa de Evolução Humana 101 para Marcelo Gleiser:
Escrever 1.000 vezes - "O fato, Fato, FATO da evolução humana ainda não foi cientificamente estabelecido."


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to the new online home of the Fond du Lac Soccer Association
What are the select fees and what do they cover?
The fees for U10-14 will be $450 for the full year. Included in that price is:
The fees for U15-19 will be $225 for the year. The difference is these teams play only Fall (Girls) or Spring (Boys) so have one season of regular season league games (8-10) and two tournaments. All other inclusions remain the same.
What is the field maintenance fee?
The FDLSA maintains 53 acres of soccer fields. Registration fees help cover the cost to mow, stripe, fertilize and repair fields, as well as net and goal maintenance and replacement, and anything else that takes place on the grounds.
What about the referee fees?
The state association sets the referee fees, each team is responsible to pay ½ of the center referee fee and 1 AR. Fees can be found on the www.wiyouthsoccer.com website.
More on the tournaments.
The Select Director and Coach from each team will pick what tournaments they want to go to and give the registration to the club treasurer.
What if we want more training?
The club is looking at some other training opportunities that may carry an additional fee for them. Those will be optional and the responsibility of each player.
Phone: 920-539-6059


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Data Hub maintenance activities at end of July 2019
11 July 2019
Infrastructure maintenance activities will take place on the Data Hubs in the last two weeks of July. The maintenance schedule is as follows:
22 and 23 July from 07:00 to 16:30 UTC
Activities on security are foreseen on the following data hub instances, causing the publication delay of all Copernicus Sentinel-1, -2 and -3 products:
Service interruptions might occasionally occur during the maintenance window on the Copernicus Open Access Hub (also including API Hub and GNSS Rinex Pre-operational Hub).
Service interruptions might occasionally occur during the maintenance window on the following data hub instances:
The International Access Hub and the Collaborative Data Hub - Node 2 and Node 3 will continue to be accessible to their registered users.
We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause to your activities.


text: mason county jail Aging Northwest jails endanger lives, but replacing them is costly and controversial By Austin Jenkins • Oct 17, 2019 Austin Jenkins / Northwest News Network Listen Listening... / 4:27 The day the brand new Mason County, Washington jail opened in 1985, it was already full. The previous jail on the top floor of the courthouse held just over 40 inmates. The new facility wasn't much bigger. Nearly 35 years later, the one-story cinder block jail located in the town of Shelton now holds about 90 inmates on any given day. A few years back, as many as 150 people were crowded into the facility.


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You can pay for ATPSTAR using a credit/debit card, net-banking, and using online PAYTM wallet.
The Learning package offers you our Learning module which is great to get you started. With this, you will get detailed video lectures & DPPs (Daily Practice Problems). Video lecture contains tricks, concepts & problem solving.


text:
Request Exam or Desk
Copy. Request Review Copy
Cuban Studies XXV has a historical focus, emphasizing labor history, race relations, and the role of women. Of special interest is an overview by Jorge I. Dominguez, one of the journal's four rotating editors, of the contents and evolving mission of Cuban Studies.
Louis A. Perez Jr. is J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


text: About Me Mrs. Idehen is a serial entrepreneur. She has a Bachelor's degree from Indiana University Northwest Indiana and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University. She has lived in the United States for over 10 years and currently lives in Chorley England with her family. She has vast knowledge of the US educational system and health care studies. She has helped individual pursue their dreams in foreign lands such as United States and Canada. Currently, has clients moving from the United Kingdom to Canada and United States with clients who have successfully transitioned into the system in these countries. She is a determined, optimistic and candid individual. She has made mistakes and overcame them. Her mission is to ensure you don't make mistakes since I made them already. Her goal is to assist and leave no stones unturned. She succeeds when you succeed.


text:
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Florian Arendt
Tenure-Track Professorship
Health Communication
Währinger Straße 29, 1090 Wien
Zi. 7.22
eMail: email@example.com
Consultation: based up prior agreement (e-mail)
Research Area: Health Communication
Publications, Presentations and Grants
Information for Master Thesis (in German)
Masterprüfungen (in German)
Bei Zweitprüferanfragen für die Masterprüfung wenden Sie sich an Meike Müller.
Florian Arendt (Ph.D., University of Vienna) is a communication scientist working in the field of health communication. In general, his research addresses the role of the media in the health domain. His research operates at the intersection of communication/social science and medicine/public health. Behind the background that health communication scholarship is characterized by research in many different disciplines (e.g., communication, medicine, public health, and psychology), Florian mainly uses theory and methodology from communication science to contribute to these interdisciplinary research efforts. He has published 50+ articles, most of them in journals in communication science (e.g., Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication) and medicine/public health journals (e.g., British Medical Journal, Crisis, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Social Science & Medicine).
Florian's research focuses on a broad range of health issues such as suicide prevention, smoking cessation, cancer prevention, vaccination, depression, and sexually transmitted diseases. His research efforts can be broadly categorized into six domains: (1) Optimization of public health campaign messages, (2) global health disparities and digital health divide, (3) quality of health-related news, (4) stereotyping and health myths, (5) health-related consequences of new digital media technologies, and (6) historical perspective on health communication. In addition, Florian's research aims to advance general communication theory (e.g., media-related selection, media stereotyping) and methodology (e.g., dose-response methodology, implicit measures in communication).
Florian Arendt (*1984) received his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Vienna in 2013. Afterwards, he held the position as an "Akademischer Rat" (postdoctoral researcher) at the Department of Communication Studies and Media Research, University of Munich (LMU). Since autumn 2018, Florian holds the tenure-track-professorship of health communication at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna.


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Fluffy Chocolate Dessert Dip
1 cup Jif® Whips® Whipped Peanut Butter & Chocolate Flavored Spread
1 1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 teaspoons sprinkles
OR 2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips
Assorted cookies, pretzels and fresh fruit
- STIR chocolate spread in large bowl until softened. Fold in whipped topping until evenly blended. Place in serving dish.
- TOP with sprinkles or chocolate chips. Cover and chill. Serve as dip for cookies, pretzels and fruit.
Serving Size (1/16 of recipe), Calories 120 (Calories from Fat 70), Total Fat 8g (Saturated Fat 2.5g, Trans Fat 0g), Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 140mg, Total Carbohydrate 16g (Dietary Fiber 1g, Sugars 9g), Protein 2g; Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 6%, Calcium 0%, Iron 4%.


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Massive terracotta horses
have been built
Tamil villagers in south India for thousands of years.
Stephen Inglis
"technically they are
the most ambitious
achievements in clay found in India
and by any survey probably
largest hollow clay images to be created anywhere"
–Massive terracotta Horse. Environs of Puthur, Tamilnadu, South India.
This fifty year old massive clay image was fired on site.
Because the fired surfaces are porous a solution of oxides used as colorants are easily absorbed and thus made durable.
Fifty years have altered them only slightly.
Although the annual rains soak the porous clay, no harm
results because Tamilnadu never freezes.
In other climates water penetrating the clay could freeze and expand causing disintegration within a season.-.
-Created from sacred temple ground, this horse now stands purified by fire. No cracking or breakage due to trapped air or moisture occurred.
The non-ceramic decoration of calcium carbonate and water penetrates the porous clay and thus becomes durable.
Rain and subsequent freezing weather could spell the the disintegration of such massive clay images within a season, but the temperature in Tamilnadu is always warm, and thus the images stand for generations.
The methods
to construct and to fire images nine to fifteen feet or more in height
in ceramic history
and of unusual interest to clay specialists.
They differ dramatically from the images of horses and soldiers excavated in China, in that they are larger than life-size and fired in situ.
Not only is the
size impressive,
but the proportions and embellishment are
These works are created by a caste of
hereditary potter/priests
who are products and heirs
an ancient tradition
in which
clay and religion
are inseparably linked.
-This massive terracotta Aiyanar horse image was built around 1955.
It is distinctive for its high relief modeling.
Much the original white wash is still extant.
The high relief elements are technically possible because copious amounts of temper (rice straw) are mixed in the clay.-
-Detail of relief modelling, 18 inches high, one neck of ancient Aiyanar terracotta horse.
Environs of Puthur, near Chidambarum, Tamilnadu, India-
Yet because
the images are built
remote village shrines
they have been virtually
"visitors to Tamil Nadu may catch a glimpse of such images from the window of a bus or train yet an interest once aroused is difficult to pursue".
Tamil people of the cities
and for the ordinary village people, work on such images involves skills and a sacred ritual of which they have little knowledge.
The work is almost never seen in big towns or cities, sold in fairs, or otherwise displayed.
Although some attention has been given by scholars to the religious complex in which they playa part, information about massive images and the craftsmen who build them is not to be found in the literature on south India"
In May, 1980, as an Indo-American Fellow, I was able to observe at first hand, in remote and abandoned village shrines, ancient examples of these massive terracotta horses "with fiercely noble heads standing ready to carry god or demon"
As I looked at them, numerous questions came to mind:
How old were they?
Who made them?
What was their purpose?
Were they still being made?
How could such huge clay images be fired?
How could passages of clay varying in thickness from two to sixteen inches be dried and fired without mishap of any kind?
The answers
to these questions would
new light on the methods used in the past
the Etruscans,
the Chinese,
and pre-Columbian peoples to create such larger-than-life terracotta images.
The craftsmen who made them clearly used methods of construction and firing outside the spectrum of Western ceramic skills and processes.
Few, if any clay specialists in the Western world would attempt to build and fire on-site ceramic sculpture of such monumental scale.
Through the unfailing support of Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith of the Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, I found some important answers.
Former students of Susan Peterson, they are the only American potters successfully producing hand-thrown stoneware in India at present.
Their plan of organization made the documentation possible.
Intrigued with the projected filming of the construction of an
Aiyanar horse,
they offered me the use of their recently purchased jeep to search for Aiyanar shrines and potters.
The three of us, together with Ray's assistant, Ratchagar, to serve as translator, set out on a four-wheel drive field trip.
On a single day's outing, we sighted five Aiyanar shrines in the outskirts of Chidambaram.
Each of the sites held one or more terracotta horses, each ten to twelve feet high constructed within the last one hundred years. The surface decoration, in most cases, had weathered away and the patina indicated considerable age.
There was nothing to indicate the date or the names of either the potters or donors.
Such facts were never recorded.
This ancient terra cotta horse was built and fired on site some one hundred years ago.
It measures over ten feet in height.
The high relief images on the neck of the horse image were modeled of clay with an admixture of straw.
The images symbolize spirit attendants who ride with Aiyanar at night to guard the village boundary.
-Detail of ancient horse (with villager standing in front): The high relief images on the neck of the horse were modeled with the solid clay mixture.
They symbolize
who ride with
at night to guard the village boundary.
About 100 years old, four massive terra cotta horses constructed and fired on site stand in a seemingly
Aiyanar shrine.
Were such horses still being built?
Thanks to my friends' fluency in Tamil we soon found a pottery community reputed to have horse- building skills in the village of Puthur, sixteen kilometers from Chidambaram.
When we found the earth and thatch dwelling of the potters, we discovered an Aiyanar shrine nearby complete with a huge standing terracotta horse which the potters claimed was more than one hundred years old.
Near the older form was a more recent horse built of cement, a material that has now almost completely replaced clay as the medium for shaping ritual images.
To the west stood a large
cement image of Aiyanar
and to the south, a shrine housed a much smaller image flanked by two consorts.
The shrine is in active use.
Each evening some forty villagers worship there, the women touching their foreheads to the ground and the men prostrating themselves completely.
The indigenous religious system, involving the belief in a male deity, at once hero, protector, companion, and councilor, is Dravidian.
It predates by centuries the Aryan introduction of Hinduism with its complex pantheon of deities in the second millennium B.C. During the Middle Ages, in order to upgrade and legitimize Aiyanar through association with mainline Hinduism, devotees evolved the story of his birth as a son of Shiva and Vishnu (in the form of a beautiful woman).
Aiyanar helps on many important occasions in life -to choose a bride or groom, to cure sickness, or to punish a wrongdoer.
He holds a metal sword in his hand on which devotees thrust paper messages stating their various problems.
Often the solutions are revealed in dreams.
– S. Kalia Perumal was an important member of the four man crew who constructed the horse.
-This potter's wife standing before the shrine is in a state of trance.
The closer presence
and the forces of village deities stimulate states of possession.
For some their bodies temporarily become containers of the divine.-
We learned that the last Aiyanar horse was commissioned more than twenty years ago.
But the potters assured us they still knew how to build one. Would they do it?
Would they accept a commission from a non-Hindu – a foreigner?
I was impressed with the potters and had a genuine sympathy and liking for Aiyanar and his shrines.
Unlike Hindu temples, his shrines were always located in secluded country areas in which trees were a necessary and auspicious component.
They were restrained-the sculptural quality of the clay or cement images was stable and impressive.
Perhaps the potters were moved by my positive attitude and interest in Aiyanar; at any rate, they decided to accept the commission.
They agreed to build a horse nine feet high in twenty days; it was to be situated next to the existing horses.
They quoted a price of 500 rupees.
After haggling, they reduced the figure to 400 rupees- ($48.00) – a good price by Indian standards but by Western standards extremely low when one considers that four or five men would work for twenty days to complete the commission.
Day One
They knew their business.
On Monday, May 26, 1980, a puja (ritual) was held to ensure the success of the project.
To consecrate the ground on which the horse was to be built, the potters encircled the area using the blood streaming from the neck of a decapitated rooster.
Coconut halves were placed to each side of the area.
Liquor, an essential ritualistic ingredient, was present although Tamil Nadu is a "dry" state.
Technically, liquor is illegal but this was "home brew," which escaped official scrutiny.
Food offerings to Aiyanar completed the ritual.
Secure in the assurance that Aiyanar was now companion to the project, the potters began construction.
The preparation of the clay had taken place the day before.
A circular earth pit about four feet in diameter served as a mixing trough.
One part sedimentary earthenware is mixed with one part earthenware topsoil.
Although fine-grained, it contains silt.
To this enough water is added to produce a medium-viscosity slurry.
The potters knew this clay would fail as a medium for building large sculpture.
Large quantities of non-plastic ingredients are essential to prevent shrinkage and hence cracking, as well as to permit thick passages of clay.
The non-plastic ingredients consist of three parts rice hulls and approximately one part (by volume) of three-to-four-inch lengths of rice straw.
The potters added this to the earthenware slurry and mixed it by foot to produce a medium soft mixture possessing all the qualities of a "castable."
-First Day construction
Aiyanar Shrine, Puthur, Tamilnadu, South India, 1980.
Holes 12″ deep and 12″ wide were excavated in the ground possible to relieve air pressure during firing.
Katervil applies a heavy coil of clay with an admixture of rice straw to form the "hooves", the first stage in the construction of a massive terracotta horse.
These constitute the first procedures in the construction of a massive Aiyanar horse image.
When completed it will stand ten feet high.
In the background stands an ancient terracotta horse said to be 100 years old.-
Large coils of this material were used to form rings around previously inscribed twelve-inch circles on the ground marking the four "hoofs" of the horse.
A second coil of clay joined to the initial ring extended the diameter to sixteen inches.
Four of these clay rings were formed to establish the four "hoofs" of the horse's legs.
This accomplished, a potter, using a metal excavating tool, dug holes approximately twelve inches deep inside each ring of clay.
A potter set a wooden pole about six feet high inside one hole and held it while a colleague quickly filled the entire hole with clay thus supporting the pole in a vertical position.
In a similar fashion, vertical poles were set in the three remaining holes.
Each wooden pole, therefore, was supported by a solid mass of clay mixture about sixteen inches across and twelve inches
Without the use of rice hulls and straw such passages would shrink and crack.
These ingredients are the major part of the mixture by volume and are essential to this type of monumental clay construction.
The last part to be constructed was a clay base for the central rectangular support, 24" x 24".
This completed the first day's work. Nothing further could be done until the moist clay mixture stiffened.
The potters spent their time in the afternoon preparing ropes made of rice straw.
Wrapped around the wooden uprights these ropes create a compressible internal support system for the application of about a four-inch wall of clay thereby eliminating any possibility of the clay cracking as it dries and contracts.
-Woman Creating a Colam.
are ritual diagrams
or drawings that welcome the dawn, or gods to their festivals.
They illustrate the power of geometricity to create a force field or maze by which untoward forces are confused and thus kept at bay.
Mostly women create the geometric designs with rice flour.
Colams celebrate the impermanence of art and art as an essential aspect of daily devotion.
Their beauty of form and endless variety are at once decoration and ritual.-
Day Two:
On the morning of the second day of construction the potters completed the task of winding the straw ropes around the four wooden uprights.
They then applied a four-inch wall of clay so that four large tubes about 40 inches tall were formed, each serving as a metaphorical leg.
Next, four vertical uprights were fixed at the inside comer of the base of the central rectangular support previously completed. Straw ropes were wound around them to create an armature for a thick application of clay.
The potters worked surely and quickly in spite of a 112 degree Fahrenheit temperature.
Descendants of generations of clay craftsmen, they have learned the skills from childhood and are concerned only with the work at hand, In the afternoon they completed the front and rear legs and the central rectangular support.
The front legs now stood as a single unit 44 inches high, 38 inches wide, and 17 inches across, measured at the top center.
By fixing wooden supports to the wooden uprights, the potters created a horizontal passage of clay that bridged the two front and rear legs.
The clay mixture was laid over and under these supports to create a level horizontal surface.
This completed, nothing more could be done until the horizontal passages of clay tiffened.
-The legs of the horse are constructed of four wooden poles, rice straw, and rope.
Clay slurry is applied over all. The potters bridged the front and rear legs.-
-The two front legs are now stiffened, Katervil uses a wooden support covered with rice straw to form a compressible internal support.
As the thick clay passages dry and shrink the internal straw support compresses to prevent cracking.-
Day Three
On the morning of the third day, additional wood supports were placed horizontally to connect the front legs to the central support and then to the rear legs' unit.
The potters molded the horse's under-belly by laying "gobs" of the clay directly on the wood supports (both above and underneath); this process produced a slab four inches thick, seven feet, ten inches long, and thirty-four inches wide!
Such a feat was possible only because of the wooden internal support system.
-Third Day of Construction.
To bridge the pillars forming the legs and the cental support unit clay was applied over horizontal lenghts of wood wrapped with rice straw held in place with rope.
To prevent cracking rice straw is essential as an internal support because it compresses as the clay dries and shrinks.
Four wooden poles wound with rope and rice straw formed an internal support on which clay was applied to form the central support unit.
The height of all three units is three feet, eight inches.-
After the burning rays of the sun had stiffened the slab, the potters next added coils of clay to form the curve of the belly, a process which added seven inches to the height.
They tapered the edge of the final coil.
When the clay was stiff, the diagonal slant provided a broader surface and hence a good join for the next application of clay.
Day Four
In the afternoon the potters, using thick gobs of the basic clay mixture, modeled the figure of the guardian (or groom) of Aiyanar's horse directly on the surface of the central support form.
The modeling of the image of Aiyanar's groom starts with a massive gobs of the clay and will be finished with a levigated slip mixed with sand.
This older, mustached image symbolizes the neither aspects of the deity's nature.
Katervil's deft fingers bring the image to life and vitality.
Potter-priest and master clay craftsman of both utilitarian and sculptural forms, he models the groom of Aiyanar with thick gobs of clay on the central support of a massive Aiyanar horse image.
He, poses beside the completed form which took two hours to complete.
-An older, moustached image on the opposite side of the central support column symbolizes the neither aspects of Aiyanar's
nature…dark and problematic.
The smooth, ever youthful groom seen here symbolizes his divine nature.-
Day Six:
lengths of bamboo are placed inside the figure to complement exterior supports.
Katervil laid wooden sticks horizontally to connect the front legs, central support column and rear legs.
He applied the clay mixture around these supports to form a horizontal slab, thirty-four inches wide by seven feet ten inches long.
Horizontal lenghts of bamboo (one visible on the top interior wall) are used to support the walls and to reduce accidental damage by children or cows.
Because the shrine is sacrosanct there is no intentional vandalism.
Some of the passages were four inches thick, attesting to the non-plastic nature of the basic clay mixture.
An application of pure clay over the coarse basic clay followed, and detailing was done with fingers and a wooden modeling tool.
The modeling skills are of a high order and result in a figure with remarkable spring and incipient energy.
Katervil and two assistants are shown in process of hand modeling in high relief the bells associated with Hindu and home village deities.
In the modeling of the jewels, bells, and other decorative details, the intersection of the potter's skills and the common elements of Indian design are seen.
The decorative clay bands are identical to those applied to mounts on great temples by stone carvers, and to processional mounts and decorative architecture by wood workers…the skills of the garland and harness maker all flow behind the potter's skill.
– Ron du Bois and 16mm film camera.
Aiyanar shrine, Puthur, Tamilnadu, South India 1980.
An attendant holds an umbrella over the camera to protect it from the blistering sun.
At 114 degrees F., the camera could become burning hot and the canister of film inside ruined.
A homemade evaporative cooler was devised to store and save the 16mm film canisters from damage.
They were kept dry by placing them a lidded plastic container. This in turn was placed within a large terracotta vessel.
Sand poured around the plastic storage container was then watered to cool the film by evaporation.
-7th Day of Construction. Ron du Bois, Indo American Fellow, with massive terracotta horse in process of construction.
The final height of the massive sculpture was a nine feet, ten inches. An ancient terracotta horse built over 100 years ago is seen in the background.
Photo by Ray Meeker, 1980.-
The basic clay mixture is similar to what, in the West, is considered to be a "castable" -a clay body suitable for bricks, refractory linings, or kiln construction but rarely considered as suitable for ceramic sculpture.
Again, to the Western craftsman, a kiln for firing ceramic sculpture would appear essential.
As a result he limits himself to forms that can be lifted and moved into a kiln.
The idea of firing "in situ" at the site of construction rather than in a tudio/workshop has never been the practice.
Permanent kilns, plumbing and wiring for gas, oil, or electricity have all been part of the Western paradigm – yet the Etruscans, pre-Columbians, Africans, and the potter-priests of India as well all constructed temporary clay walls for on-site firing of monumental ceramic forms.
-Only a portion of the back form is closed.
To form the tail a wire serves to support solid masses of the soft clay mixture.-
A red slip or sigillatta is applied to seal and to smooth the course surface.
The lenght of the horse is thirteen hands, the height of both torso and legs is each four hands.
The length of the still to be built neck will be four and one-half hands.
These proportions passed from father to son may be adjusted only slightly depending on the judgment of the team leader.
D-The face on the breast of the horse is YALEE…it's fierce gaze guides the god on his nightly rides.
Developed over the ages this image is shared with the Hindu art of large towns and cities, but is now part of the village modeling tradition.
Able to see in all directions, able to see into the future.
Because of this he guides the horse safely.-
Day Nine:
The entire neck, saddle and tail are complete.
-To prevent sagging a wooden brace was used to support the mass of soft clay used to form the head.
It is now the 10th morning and the clay has stiffened overnight.
The potters work to complete the final details – eyes, ears, bridle, mouth, teeth and tongue.-
Day Twelve
Moist earth chopped from an adjacent drainage ditch was carried by baskets to the construction site to form the wall for an "open Field" firing.
At a height of 18 inches it is left to stiffen before adding more earth. A 10 inch wall thickness is maintained until the final height of five feet is attained.
The image peeks out, almost completely covered by earth, clay vessels, wood, dung, and straw.
As the wall grows around the image, the image of the beast inside is felt.
The horse remains an almost mythical creature in South India …imported in small numbers for the ancient kings, and now transformed from clay into the mount of a god.
A slurry made from ditch mud and water is carried in baskets and poured over the straw…five men take only twenty minutes to spread the thick slip over the entire surface and to overlap the clay wall.
The fire is started through a firehole igniting the layers of straw, dung and wood that surround and support the figure.
Day Fourteen
The firing is completed within three hours.
The potters brought the project to a conclusion with a final puja (religious ceremony) and a "bringing to life" of the successfully fired and decorated horse.
It is hoped that these notes and photographs will benefit Western craftsman and serve to enhance internationally the most impressive but little-known skills of Indian potters.
1-2 Stephen R. Inglis, "Night Riders: Massive Temple Figures of Rural Tamil Nadu, in V. Vijayavenugopala (ed.)
A Festschrift for Prof. M. Shanmugam Pillai, Madurai University Press, 1980.
3 Stella Kramrisch, Unknown India: Ritual Art in Tribe and Village. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Ron du Bois,
Emeritus Professor of Art,
ceramics and studio art
Oklahoma State University
He was
Fulbright professor
to Korea
in 1973-74,
where he taught ceramics at three Korean universities.
His award winning documentary, The Working Processes of the Korean Folk Potter, was filmed at that time.
In 1979-80, du Bois traveled extensively in India as a 1979-80 Indo-American fellow to research and document the work of Indian potters.
Among other projects he filmed the entire construction of perhaps the last massive terracotta horse to be built in India.
The documentary,
"The Working Processes of the Potters of India: Massive terracotta Horse Construction"
was completed under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities and deals with the subject matter of this article.
In 1987, du Bois was awarded a 10 month Fulbright Senior Research Scholar grant, African Regional Research program,to research and document
Nigerian potters.
For information on his
Ron du Bois, Professor Emeritus, http://www.angelfire.com/ok2/dubois, 612 S. Kings St., Stillwater, OK 74074,
(405) 377-2524, email: firstname.lastname@example.com, fax: 1-405-372-5023
Also by Ron du Bois
A Saga of Synchronicity
Making a Film Documentary
African Ceramics


text:
Women Build Nations Conference
Community Savings Credit Union is proud to sponsor scholarships for two BC tradeswomen to attend the Trades Women Builds Nations Conference held on October 4-6, 2019. The BC Centre For Women In the Trades is sending three women from the trades so they can participate in this empowering international conference for women.
Trades Women Build Nations Conference is now the largest gathering of Women Building Trades members in the world and the second largest gathering of union construction members in North America. In 2018 the conference hosted over 2,500 participants from around the globe. Trades Women Build Nations speaks to every tradeswoman's needs, offering workshops and plenary sessions facilitated by tradeswomen and featuring union leaders, apprenticeship coordinators, contractors and politicians. The conference provides opportunities for networking, learning, and leadership development for all attendees.
Profiles of the tradeswomen attending the Women Build Nations Conference
Nicki Smythe
I am a second year carpentry apprentice with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1598. I started in the trade as a labourer in 2017 and immediately fell in love with building! When I was in middle school I took woodshop for an extra semester each year because I loved the smell of the shop and the sound of the tools. I had no idea that girls could be carpenters too.
I have mostly specialized in commercial concrete work through my apprenticeship and what I love about concrete formwork is that I am always learning new and faster ways to build a building. I love building high-rises and the rush it gives me working so far above the ground.
What I am most looking forward to at this conference, is meeting like-minded women who have similar goals. I want to create more training and opportunity for women and youth to access careers in trades. I want to be a part of a team that sets others up for success.
Adrienne Nisyok
I am from New Aiyansh BC, a small community in the North Coast. I am a proud member of the Nisga'a, Haisla and Tsimshian Nations.
I have worked in the electrical trade for 22 years, 17 of those years, as a red seal certified electrician. I currently work as an industrial maintenance electrician, at a sawmill in Terrace BC.
I'm excited to meet other tradeswomen at the WBN conference. Sharing our experiences to learn from one another and gain valuable resources to help recruit and retain women in the trades. I am grateful for this opportunity to attend the 2019 Women Build Nations conference.
Rachel Van Zeumeren
I have been been working as an apprentice Refrigeration Mechanic for 4 months for Yeti Refrigeration in Prince George, and I am in the process of signing up for my first year of trades school!
I am most excited to meet other women in the trades, as I am very new to the industry and have not had the chance to connect with the awesome community of BC tradeswomen.
Women Build Nations Conference
CSCU is supporting BCCWITT by sponsoring two scholarships to the Women Builds Nation Conference. Scholarships to the conference include registration, travel and accommodation costs to the conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"With less than 5% women in the trades we are often alone on the jobsite, there are not many opportunities to participate in events developed for us. The Women Build Nations conference is an incredibly inspiring and unforgettable experience. More than 2,000 amazing tradeswomen come together for this rare opportunity to learn, share stories, and network—refilling our tanks for another year. "
Sandra Brynjolfson, Coordinator for BCCWITT and Red Seal Electrician.
"I'm not exaggerating when I say that getting more women into the trades is of critical importance to the BC economy. The current skills gap is a real burden to our economic growth and we have the answer right in front of us. Removing barriers for women to achieve qualifications and develop amazing careers in the trades is a proven way to drive economic growth and set families up for success. Community Savings Credit Union is very proud to stand behind BCCWITT in their inspirational work to create these opportunities for women in BC."
Mike Schilling, CSCU CEO & President
About BCCWITT
The BC Centre for Women in the Trades (BCCWITT) is working to eliminate the barriers faced by women in the trades by building a network committed to creating a culture of equality and equal opportunity. BCCWITT aims to increase the retention and advancement of women in the trades through targeted supports and programs.
The BC Centre for Women in the Trades


text: I've gotten a lot of nominations for awards lately and I thought I'd combine them all into one awkwardly long post of awards! Without further ado, let's get this party started. I was nominated for The Sunshine Blogger Award by Rayne @ Rayne at the Bus Stop, and Ally @ Ally Writes Things, so thanks… Continue reading Annie Gets Awards!


text:
Can Paul Ryan Make the Moral Case for Capitalism?
GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan sets forth his basic political philosophy in an August 13, 2012 article for American Spectator, "Who Built America?" Ryan explicitly attempts to make the "moral case" for capitalism, arguing that "people have a God-given right to use their creativity to produce things that improve. . . Continue »