text:
"Look at the sunset from the sun's point of view."
- Steven Wright
February 14. For Valentine's Day, a short playlist: Steve Forbert - Romeo's Tune (1979), Beat Happening - Tiger Trap (1992), Fat White Family - Touch The Leather (Redux) (2014)
February 13. I want to pick up from a week ago, where I wrote, "The other way progress is dying, is that more of us are feeling drained, not energized, by its rituals."
Are Intellectuals Suffering a Crisis of Meaning? The article is full of a word I don't like: gifted. In practice, that word is bestowed on young people who are good at manipulating abstractions. Out of all the things you can be good at, that very specific skill is held up like a magic token that makes a person objectively superior.
Some people think the world would be better if we all had higher IQ's (and don't start with me about how that's impossible under the strict definition of IQ). I think the world would be worse. People who are good at manipulating abstractions are not wiser or more correct -- they're just better at building intellectual fortresses around the things they're wrong about. If everyone were as smart as Einstein, we would just make bigger and more tragic technological mistakes.
I think that's sort of already happened. Here's a 2007 article by Malcolm Gladwell on the Flynn effect, in which we're all getting better at taking IQ tests. He thinks this is caused by an increase in a detached and abstract style of thinking. I always say that the prophet of our time was not Orwell or Huxley, but Kafka. It's like the people who are better at filling out nightmarish bureaucratic forms, keep making the forms harder, to give themselves a competitive advantage, and now we're all stuck in that world.
More links on 21st century malaise: Let Children Get Bored Again. Kids used to be left to entertain themselves, and now adults think it's their duty to keep kids constantly stimulated. So they grow into adults who need constant stimulation -- which is no longer provided by benevolent parents and teachers, but by exploitative technologies and workplaces.
Ketamine Could Be the Key to Reversing America's Rising Suicide Rate. The article argues that the difference between people who attempt suicide, and people who don't, is that the non-suicidal people are better at blocking the impulse to kill themselves. That means, everyone wants to die!
If You're Often Angry Or Irritable, You May Be Depressed. Strangely, anger is an official symptom of depression for kids, but not for adults, so a lot of them go years without the right diagnosis.
I followed the Hacker News comment thread on that article to this great comment from a year ago, which argues that depression is a breakdown in our predictive model of reality:
When an individual's model of reality is broken, and society cannot guide them towards a more accurate one because society itself is still operating on the model that individual has determined to be flawed, then chronic depression is a likely result. Our current societal philosophy, the one our health care system is also based on, sees this individual's suffering not as a transition period in which they form a new model, but a severe disorder. To them, the rejection of the model is a form of insanity, and unclear thinking. This is why you sometimes see people tell a depressed person an obvious platitude in an attempt to cheer them up, only for it to further frustrate the depressed individual: they are aware that the platitude is part of a flawed model.
February 11. A few days back the subreddit had a post about religion with several long comments. The main post mentions Julian Jaynes and his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, with a link to this great post about it, Gods, voice-hearing and the bicameral mind.
I don't think I've ever written about Jaynes. I'm sure that ancient people had different consciousness than modern people, but Jaynes thought it was really different: that they were basically all schizophrenic, hearing voices and seeing visions, which they interpreted as gods. Then around the time of Socrates, those voices faded.
Another good explanation, Mr. Jaynes' Wild Ride. It mentions that ancient Greeks had no word for "body". They didn't need one, because they had not yet formed an identity separate from their bodies.
Some people say the distinction between mind and body is an illusion. I think the disembodied mind is a real thing, a living pattern in our brains, which models an external world and a discrete self. You can't make it go away just by disbelieving it. But with good drugs, or really difficult meditation, you can temporarily shut it down, and become one with your stream of experience.
My guess is that prehistoric people weren't schizophrenic, but tripping. And then gradually, our detached, rational, self-reflective mind became more and more dominant, until educated westerners lost the ability to imagine any other way of being.
I think we're already recovering. That's why it seems strange to us that Julian Jaynes used the word "consciousness" for self-conscious introspection, and not the broader way that we use it now. Now we're curious about the subjective experience of wild animals, and we're learning to see the human subconscious, not as a pit of primal terror, but as a helpful resource.
This is a hard subject, so I'll leave it with a hard question. Is the "unconscious" conscious? What is it like to be the voice in your head?
February 8. For the weekend, some happy links.
How Early Humans Handled Aggression. I read somewhere how miraculous it is, that you can pack an airplane with hundreds of humans who don't know each other, and there will be no violence at all. If you did that with chimps, they would tear each other apart. This article argues that we became so peaceful through prehistoric eugenics! Our male ancestors teamed up to ambush the most violent males, and our female ancestors refused to mate with them. I think that was the right idea -- but now that we have biotech, I expect that kind of thing to go too far. By the way, I think it's crazy that there are libertarians who like eugenics. Who doesn't trust the government to redistribute wealth and power, but does trust the government to say who can have kids? Rich white guys, that's who.
The World Might Actually Run Out of People. I remember this poster from the 1970's, when we thought overpopulation was the biggest problem facing humanity. It turns out, humans don't just mindlessly reproduce. When we have access to birth control, when society takes care of old people, and when women are educated, we have the opposite problem: birthrates are too low to replace ourselves. According to this article, global population decline will happen sooner than we thought, because now even women in the slums of India have smartphones, and with that expanded perspective, they're pushing back against being baby machines for men.
I think this bit is wrong: "Once that decline begins, it will never end." If it looks like humans are going to die out, society will create stronger incentives to have kids -- or just start growing them in vats and raising them without parents. But before that can happen, the population decline will force us to abandon growth-based economics, and that's such a radical change that all bets are off.
Arborists are bringing the dinosaur of trees back to life, planting groves of redwoods all over the world.
Pigeon Towers: A Low-tech Alternative to Synthetic Fertilizers. Not only do they gather pigeon poop to fertilize fields, they can also look really cool.
Ferrock: A Stronger, Greener Alternative to Concrete? It's made from steel dust and ground up glass, and it's carbon-negative, but it's not cheap.
Solar Farms Shine a Ray of Hope on Bees and Butterflies, by letting wildflowers grow in the spaces between the panels.
February 6. Still thinking about religion, and I've decided that religion is not a thing -- it's a confusing word, which points to several different things, which sometimes go together but don't have to. These include: 1) a community for doing any of the below; 2) an idea, that you refuse to doubt, and that serves as a foundation or anchor for your mental models; 3) a set of rituals, where a ritual is a highly predictable activity that turns physical energy into mental energy; and 4) an existential theory of mind. I got that last one from this article posted to the subreddit.
The idea is, when you talk to other people, you need to know how they tick, what it's like to be this person, what they want from you, what you should expect each other to do. That's a human theory of mind, and you might have a different theory of mind for dealing with nonhumans, like your dog, or your phone, or the government. An existential theory of mind is about reality itself.
In olden days, the dominant EToM was a bearded man in the sky pulling strings. You would look at things out of your control, and speculate about what God wants. Somewhere in the 1990's, I started to notice a shift, where people still do this, but instead of saying God, they say "the universe". This is full-on pantheism, and I would argue that pantheism is now the dominant EToM of educated people who are not materialists.
Materialism is an existential theory of mindlessness -- not just wondering, but being certain that there is no mind or meaning beyond what humans create. Rene Descartes, the father of materialism, actually believed that if you torture a dog, its howls of pain are no different from a bell ringing on a machine. The funny thing is, Descartes did believe in God. But he separated God from the world in such a way that God could be easily cut out of the equation.
I think materialism is a useful tool for switching from one EToM to another, like a transmission for the engine of meaning. Whatever you thought was important, is now just bouncing particles and waves, and you're free to decide that something else is important. But you can't keep driving in neutral. The Wikipedia page on nihilism is a good survey of all the ways people have continued to look for meaning after giving up on meaning.
Suddenly I understand the religion of progress -- I'm comfortable in calling progress a religion because it fits all four of my points above. The community is the whole modern economy. The undoubted idea is there is no value, meaning, or motive beyond what is created by human activity. The ritual is that your alarm goes off, you go to a job to make money, and what makes a job important is how much stuff it moves, from the empty realm outside humanity, into the realm of human-defined value. For example, turning a forest into board-feet of lumber, or a river into megawatts of hydropower.
But now progress is dying in the face of ecology. If a dog can feel pain, maybe forests and rivers have intrinsic value, which humans have been destroying. With climate catastrophe looming, even human value is now served by undoing the progress of the past.
That's why the Pope of Progress, Elon Musk, wants to colonize Mars -- because re-terraforming Earth means undoing what humans have done, while terraforming Mars means humans doing more things. Green Mars is more valuable than green Earth, because green Earth happened without us, and green Mars will be something we did.
The other way progress is dying, is that more of us are feeling drained, not energized, by its rituals. That's a whole other subject.
February 4. Last week Leigh Ann and I watched the new Netflix Ted Bundy documentary. One thing that struck me was how he talked about his youth. In reality, he was a mediocre student and athlete, a social failure, and was probably beaten by his grandfather. But the story he told was not only false -- it was empty, a bland mask of the all-American boy.
The week before that I read a new novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. (Thanks Alex for recommending it.) What I like about it is its detailed view of how fame works in the age of social media. It's terrifying! Suddenly your name and face are at the center of a battle, where everyone is busy trying to shape your image for their own motives.
The motive of the public, and anyone who can make money off you, is to make your image simple and bold and familiar, something both exciting and easy to understand. The more you play along with that, the more you're rewarded.
For example, there was just a scandal at Der Spiegel. It turns out the prestigious magazine's star reporter has been making stuff up for years. In the words of the reporter who caught him:
One thing you can learn from reading pieces by Claas Relotius, is that this is an easy world. It's easy to explain. It's easy to understand. And this is what Relotius really offers.
I'm thinking of all of this in terms of social ecology. Modern media have created a niche, which is filled by people who are most willing to build their public image backward from the bullshit the public wants, instead of forward from the reality inside them. So it favors people who don't have much reality inside them in the first place.
It's funny because we all wonder what that celebrity is really like, and not what that random person on the bus is really like. But the person on the bus is probably more interesting.
February 1. Why Do Rich People Love Endurance Sports? The article mentions three reasons. The first is selection bias, that triathlons are expensive. The second is that endurance sports provide something missing from most white collar jobs, "a clear and measurable goal with a direct line back to the work they have put in." And the strange third reason is the pursuit of pain.
Back in 2017 I did a post that linked to this long post, The opponent-process theory of emotion. Everyone knows that pleasure often rebounds into pain, and vice versa; but sometimes the rebound is stronger than the initial feeling, so someone could feel more pleasure by actively seeking pain.
That's never happened to me. That post doesn't even consider the possibility that different people get different amounts of hedonic rebound, but I think it's obvious, and I'm wondering if that difference is related to some kind of personality difference, like the old Type A - Type B theory.
It's easy to assume that everyone's inner world is like your own, but they might be radically different. The other day there was a short Ask Reddit thread, What does anxiety feel like? The answers are all over the place, and the most interesting difference is that some people feel the wrongness inside them, and some people feel it out in the world.
For me anxiety feels like the world is made of needles and knives, all poised to stab me if I make a move to extend myself. And I've made some progress against anxiety by seeking pain: when I notice that something bothers me, I try to amplify that feeling as long and hard as I can. It feels terrible, and it doesn't feel good when I stop. The mechanism is not like a rebound, but like draining my pain battery, until the charge becomes weaker and less frightening.
It's actually a lot like this technique from the meditation subreddit, an extended metaphor of hunting baby thoughts. Edited:
To catch baby thoughts, first build a fortress -- normally your own breath, but it can be anything. Soon, the baby thoughts will start knocking on those walls, and the method to kill a baby thought is simple: notice it.
If you don't notice it early, the thought will get older and eventually die after several long minutes. During those minutes, you will be absorbed by that thought, and then another thought will wait for its turn, and another. This is what happens to people in their everyday life: the birth, growth and death of long strings of thoughts.
During meditation, you shorten this cycle and hunt the thoughts as young as possible. After many hours of hunting, as you get better at killing them, they will come more sparsely, until you will find yourself alone, in peace and silence.
January 30. Quick loose end from yesterday. I said a religion's object of focus "has no practical value, but great psychological value." But nothing has more practical value than motivation! I should have framed the distinction as being between external and internal practical value. And I'm wondering if it's even possible to get both from the same thing. I've started looking at the meditation subreddit, and for some people, meditation is a path to becoming a better person, while other people say you have to let go of the expectation that meditation will help you in any way, because only then can you do it right.
January 29. I want to say a little more about religion, and in general about old things coming back. A reader was asking me about "nomadic communities arising" as states and economies break down. My answer was, I don't see old-world nomads coming back, but nomadism might emerge in new ways. Already, people are changing jobs much more often than in the 1950's. And a lot more people are living in their cars.
It's the same with religion -- I don't think we're going to see more people praying to a sky father deity, but we might see new trends that only look like religions if we shift the definition. My latest definition is: a community of people united by a point of focus, which has no practical value, but great psychological value. If the object of your religion had practical value, if you liked it because it was good for something else, then that other thing would be what's really important. The religious object must be self-justifying.
So money can't be the focus of a religion, because money is good for other things. The actual god of capitalism is not money, but increasing money. Both as a society, and as an individual, you're never supposed to say, "Okay, we've grown our wealth enough now, we can quit." The game is to keep it growing forever. I think that game is dying, and in fifty years everyone will be talking about sustainable zero growth, or smooth degrowth.
I do see a big new thing, something that's not considered a religion, but a lot of people are focusing on it to give meaning to their lives, and it's both self-justifying and impractical: colonizing Mars. It's not physically impossible, but it's way beyond our present technology, and Mars will never be as hospitable as the planet where we already live -- which we've been busily de-terraforming for thousands of years.
Colonizing Mars is only the most dignified of several new points of focus inspired by science, including reversal of aging, unlimited energy, uploading consciousness, and the singularity. Or you could say all of these (and also economic growth) are just different denominations of the religion of progress.
January 25. I've done too much heavy thinking this week, so today I want to write about TV shows. We've just finished season one of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and Future Man. They're both sci-fi comedies where an ordinary guy is swept up in crazy adventures driven by time travel. The two protagonists, played by Elijah Wood and Josh Hutcherson, even look the same.
Beyond that, the shows are totally different. In Dirk Gently, the plot is like a giant puzzle. In the first episode you have no idea what's going on, and then gradually the pieces fall into place, until it all makes sense at the end. And holding the puzzle together is a metaphysics of time travel where it's impossible to change anything.
Future Man allows big changes, including multiple timelines, and the plot feels like headlong improvisation. It's also better written. Dirk Gently has some boring scenes, and a lot of dumb fights between characters who should be on the same side. In Future Man the motivations are clean, the storytelling is tight, and the dialogue is brilliant.
In Dirk Gently, the characters are like widgets to move the plot, and there's only one who I really like, a "holistic assassin" played by Fiona Dourif, who kills people seemingly at random, but of course it's all connected, and as long as she stays on the right path, she has luck that makes it impossible to harm her.
In Future Man, some characters have different personalities in different timelines, and the two best characters, Tiger and Wolf, start out as brutal warriors from a dystopian future, and gradually become more human and more complex. Most of this happens in my favorite episode, Beyond the TruffleDome. There's also a hilarious episode, Pandora's Mailbox, where they break into James Cameron's house.
Leigh Ann has been watching a third time travel show, 11.22.63, where James Franco goes back to try to save JFK. It has a really interesting time travel rule, where the past pushes back against attempts to change it, and it's not clear if big changes are even possible. But I hate Stephen King, with his Norman Rockwell vibe and his black-and-white morality.
Anyway, Future Man season two is out on Hulu, and we haven't started it yet, but I'm hopeful, because season one is the closest thing I've seen, so far, to the way I try to write fiction: funny, profound, dense, and unpredictable. There are even flashes of beautiful language, like this line from the finale: "Dingo plucked me from a Biotic necrochamber." Or this bit of poetry from the pilot: "Everything in Biotic Wars is true -- the Biotics, the wars, everything."
January 23. In the last post, I wrote, "If I have to do some cleaning, I forget the entire context of why I'm doing it, and just focus completely on the task itself." Tess writes:
I used to do exactly this when I was a novice nun because I spent hours doing manual work like cleaning and laundry. There were very precise rules about how everything should be done, and I knew that it would drive me crazy if I thought too much about other things I preferred to be doing.
So I focused all my attention on my senses, the light coming through the windows, the smell of the air, the texture of the bed linen I was ironing or folding, the smoothness of the cloth running along the kitchen work surfaces and so on. I ended up appreciating the moment so much that I lost all interest in trying to finish early so I could do something 'more interesting'.
Now I'm wondering, why is this only done in religious communities? Couldn't someone start a secular monastery, and say, "We're just going to give you a bunch of work, and if you think about it right, you'll feel good."
Tess writes, "The joy is kinda secondary and would go away if you made it the goal." I'm also thinking of a quote from Christopher Lasch: "The secret of happiness lies in renouncing the right to be happy." And it's oddly similar to a rule in fiction writing, that I saw the other day in this reddit comment: "If the plan is explained beforehand, it will fail. If it's not, it will succeed."
For some reason, happiness only comes from where we're not looking. So any institution that makes people happy, has to turn their attention elsewhere, and the simplest way is to have one point of fixation, that's the same for everyone, and while they're all looking at that thing, the happiness sneaks in sideways.
You could even use that as a definition of religion. Around 2005 I spent a month at the Twin Oaks community, which seems to be secular, but you could argue that their religion, their point of fixation, is the ideal of community.
Could you argue that capitalism is a religion, whose point of fixation is money? This subject is too big, so I'll cut it short with this thought: Of the many differences between money and God, the most important is that money can be used to transform work into power over others.
January 21. Odds and ends. A couple readers have challenged me on feelings vs thoughts, which has changed my thinking a bit, and I just wrote this in an email:
Everything we do comes from feelings, and the stuff that seems to come from thoughts, is coming from thoughts that we've chosen to listen to because they rationalize hidden feelings. So the secret of motivation is to find those hidden feelings, and tune into them, because they're stronger than thoughts.
I go to the gym because I remember, from other times, that afterwards I felt good and was glad I went. But all the feeling is gone from those memories. I have to use thoughts and willpower to jump the gap. So I'm wondering if highly motivated people just have better feeling-memory, and if it's possible to develop it.
Lately I've been making some progress in motivation by using my superpower: narrowly focusing my attention. For example, if I have to do some cleaning, I forget the entire context of why I'm doing it (to fit in with a culture whose standards of cleanliness are a waste of energy and a trick to avoid boredom), and just focus completely on the task itself. The book of Ecclesiastes said it best: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
New subject. Over on Hacker News, I just saw this article, The bed that saved me from the Taliban, which contained this description of the emotional vibe of the shooters: "Each time they would laugh afterwards, like they were just playing around, or like it was a big party or something." And I made this comment:
Terrorists in TV and movies are never like this. They're always super-serious evil, like Voldemort, like nobody ever is in real life. I wonder how much violence could be prevented if Hollywood didn't give us such a bullshit view of human nature.
Last week this was posted on the subreddit: The nightmares of the past about today. It's a long and thoughtful blog post about dystopian fiction in the late 1800's. My favorite bit: "Art is not the seed of wealth. Art is its fruit."
Posted on the subreddit yesterday, Is religion a universal in human culture or an academic invention? It's a subtle point. The author is not disputing the reality of all the stuff that we call religion, but arguing that the line between religion and not-religion is artificial, and that what we generalize as religion is better viewed as "a patchwork of particular beliefs, practices and experiences."
Also from Aeon.co, a nice article about Cosmopsychism, with some of the same ideas I mentioned in my December 3 post.
January 19. Fun links for the weekend, starting with three from reddit. What short YouTube video (30 seconds or less) makes you laugh uncontrollably every time you watch it? My favorite is Joaquin Phoenix's forehead.
I've started looking at the Casual Conversation subreddit, which is less active than Ask Reddit, but has a nicer vibe. This hilarious thread, I just realized I could let the shower warm up before stepping in, is full of other stories of people taking a long time to figure out obvious stuff.
And just this week, a post on Casual Conversation led to a new subreddit, BrokeHobbies. It's a response to all the hobby subreddits that have become elitist, where you get downvoted for posting something made without expensive equipment. I also see a lot of time/attention elitism. People who are obsessively into something, want everyone else to do it 100% perfectly, when I want to know how I can do it with half the work and still have it be pretty good.
And two more great songs from 2018. Viagra Boys are a Swedish band who have somehow made an extremely American song, Sports.
Also from Sweden, Anna von Hausswolff - The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra. It's six minutes of epic vocals over a slow pounding beat. If you like it, Big Blood's Water is slower, dreamier, and more than twice as long. [Update: also check out Angels of Porn II by Nicole Dollanganger].
January 17. First, a loose end from the last post. Josh mentions that wild animals seem to have an internal conflict when they want to get food or water but they're afraid of predators. My first thought was, that's different from humans who feel like playing video games when they should be exercising. But now I'm thinking, what if it's the same? Choosing the water, and risking being eaten, is like choosing the game, and risking death from heart disease.
One difference is, indecisive animals are torn between two feelings, while humans are smart enough to mentally understand dangers and opportunities that we don't feel, so we're torn between feelings and thoughts. And that leads me to a speculative definition of neuroticism: the distress that arises when we realize that our feelings are not reliable guides for our actions. So as our world gets more complex and alien, our feelings become less reliable, and neuroticism increases.
Related: What's Causing the Rise of Hoarding Disorder? I've been hearing a lot lately about Marie Kondo, a decluttering guru with a show on Netflix. Her big idea is sparking joy. You look at your possessions and ask if this or that sparks joy, and the more you do it, the more skilled you get at sensing your own positive feelings and acting on them.
My thought on hoarding, and the cure for hoarding, is that it's about animism. Quoting my December 5 post:
Our nature-based ancestors were animist, because almost everything in their world was self-organizing, and could be realistically viewed as a person. Even a tool would be made by the person using the tool, or by someone they knew, so it would already be integrated into the world of people and stories.
Now manufacturing has surrounded us with mass-produced objects, and we don't have a clear sense of how to assign meaning to all these things. From the article:
Rather than see an object as a member of a large group (say, one of 42 black T-shirts), [hoarders] see it as singular, unique, special. Each black T-shirt is perceived apart from the others and carries its own history, significance, and worth.
The genius of Marie Kondo is not fighting animism, but embracing it: Go ahead and think of all your objects as people, and then politely send away the ones that aren't making you happy.
January 15. I've been meaning to post this for a month: Why willpower is overrated. It's a great article about the surprising evidence that self-control and willpower are different things.
More precisely, there are people who report having high self-control, and there are people who do well on cognitive tests measuring the power of the mind to overrule habit and instinct -- but there's little or no correlation between those groups. People who actually exercise a lot of willpower to get through the day, are not more successful, only more depleted.
The most likely explanation: people who report high self-control are experiencing less temptation. Somehow, they just have more overlap between what they're supposed to be doing and what they feel like doing.
Here I would add a distinction between positive and negative willpower: forcing yourself to do stuff, vs stopping yourself from doing stuff. Those seem to me like different skills, because I'm not much tempted by vices, but my life sometimes feels like climbing a mountain of chores.
Of course these problems are caused by human society. Wild animals have no conflict between what they feel like doing and what's good for them to do -- unless they're facing a trap. We have accidentally turned our world into a trap for human nature, and I don't see that changing any time soon.
So our best move is to change our inner worlds, so that our feelings and habits lead us more often in the right direction. I'm not sure how to do that, but I think it's possible.
By the way, those "very hard" cognitive tests in the article are easy for me. I'm not sure what to make of that.
January 11. Stray links. Iron Is the New Cholesterol, with elevated iron being linked to a bunch of diseases. It seems to only be a problem for people whose bodies can't regulate iron absorption, but there's not much room for error, because the only way we lose iron is by bleeding. That's why I donate blood. I mean, it's nice to help people, but even if they dumped it down the drain, I would still do it. Psychologically, it feels like an oil change, and physically, for a few days after, I get stronger highs from weed, and food tastes better.
International System of Units overhauled in historic vote. The kilogram, the ampere, the kelvin, and the mole used to be defined by measuring actual objects, and from now on they'll be defined according to scientific constants. I can't put my finger on it, but this seems metaphysically important, as if science is now untethered from matter, and drifting in a realm of mind -- or fixed in a realm of mind, while the world of matter changes and no one notices.
The year social networks were no longer social. The idea is, internet communities used to be based on people having common interests. Then Facebook ruined everything, redefining social networks as everyone you know, and everyone who knows them, and so on, whether or not you have anything in common. That trend has gone too far, and the author wants us to go back to private communities based on common interests -- but he doesn't say it's actually happening. When a social critic says "it's time" to do something, you can be pretty sure that the best time to do it was in the past, and the time it will actually be done is in the future.
And a scary reddit thread, What's the most "Black Mirror" thing that's actually happening?


text:
On Sunday 2012-12-02 10:29 -0800, Tab Atkins Jr. wrote: > On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 10:03 AM, François REMY > <firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: > > | On further though, if we do make that change, we'll still want a style > > | attribute targetting a child to win over a scoped stylesheet scoped to > > | that child, I think. > > > > Are you sure? Normally, a stylesheet always win to an attribute, right? Why > > would we want to break that? > > I'm not sure I'm parsing you right, but a style attribute always beats > a non-!important rule from a stylesheet. This is preserving that. > > In case my description wasn't clear, I was referring to something like this: > > <div style="> :first-child { color: green; }"> > <p> > <style scoped> :scope { color: red; } </style> > foo > </div> > > I think we want the text to be green. I'm not sure we want that style attribute feature at all (and I wasn't thinking about it earlier in this thread). But if we do, I'd want the text to be red, because the scope of the <style scoped> is inside the scope of the style attribute. In other words, I'd want the style attribute's cascading rules to be defined in terms of scope. -David -- 𝄞 L. David Baron http://dbaron.org/ 𝄂 𝄢 Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/ 𝄂Received on Sunday, 2 December 2012 19:49:21 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Monday, 2 May 2016 14:39:06 UTC

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Bay Street law firm uses fingerprint technology to monitor employees' comings and goings
The days of sneaking out for three-hour lunch breaks will soon be over at a Bay Street law firm after it decided to install fingerprint-scanning technology to monitor its employees' whereabouts.
Last month, McCague Borlack LLP announced plans for a revamped security system that will require staff (except lawyers who spend much of their time with clients) to clock in and out of the office with a finger swipe, keeping track of morning late-comers or those who try to jump-start their weekends by slipping out early on a Friday.
"Some people were abusing the system," said founding partner Howard Borlack, 58. "We had people taking two to three hours for lunch and we had no way of knowing. . . . Some people were complaining."
Full Story
13 comments:
- The Rat said...
But not for the lawyers...
That's one place I would not work for.
- November 1, 2012 at 2:03 PM
- The Rat said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- November 1, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Pastes are isotropic but may exhibit anomalous double refraction.
Now player can think that why they select this game.
You must, however, practice auto-rotations at the flying field with the help of an instructor.
Still, within each of these types of simulation games, certain games
tend to rise to the top. If you want to manage your own virtual
airline then you need to visit the main Sim - Miles website and complete a virtual airline application form.
Here is my page: simulator
- March 29, 2013 at 10:07 PM
Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, wherein the Judeo-Christian West vs. The newspaper printing machines available online these days are superior in performance. Now, many Indian advertising agencies begin to pay more attention to Indian Hindi news and this can be led to the increase in revenue generation. Approximate 46% of the daily newspapers are vernacular, 45% of them publish in Hindi and only 10% in English. When scrapping with newspaper clippings, in most situations it is important to take the proper steps to make them archival safe before putting them with your photos in your scrapbooks.
Look into my blog post :: egyptian newspapers
- March 30, 2013 at 12:22 AM
My partner and I stumbled over here by a different website and thought I should check things out.
I like what I see so now i'm following you. Look forward to exploring your web page again.
Also visit my blog post: losing weight fast
- April 5, 2013 at 6:24 PM
Nanokeratin locks onto the hair, forming a fine, smooth coat
of keratin. Right away register your GHD curly hair straightener concerning
the GHD webpage so that you just can enact the 2-year ensure as well as to look at to make certainyours is genuine.
A well groomed woman will look to her hair and makeup first and a poll of 3,000 females across the UK revealed that about 44% feel attractive if they are having a good hair day, this compares to 16% who felt pleased with their appearance
if good teeth gave them that winning smile.
Review my webpage: hair products
- April 7, 2013 at 11:10 PM
Your current aгtiсle provіdes proven bеneficial to me.
It's extremely useful anԁ уou're simply clearly quite educated in this region. You possess exposed my sight to be able to various thoughts about this particular subject with interesting and sound written content.
My homepage ... Xanax
Feel free to visit my blog post - buy Xanax
- April 21, 2013 at 8:41 AM
Awesome! Its in fact amazing paragraph, I have got much clear idea regarding
from this piece of writing.
Feel free to visit my web page http://texasveteransforcongress.org
- April 28, 2013 at 5:58 PM
There are times when the borrower's loan is funded by more than one loan becomes so hard to break the financial obstacles and one remains to be caught in the credit crunches. Both refinancing and debt consolidation companies will differentiate themselves from the rest by offering consumers both a real value and legitimate help. As a result, people have fallen in debts pit and number of people with mounting debts and plummeting credit ratings is growing all the time.
Here is my page; consolidation loans for bad credit
- June 9, 2013 at 6:58 PM
Tip #2: Does he have quality time with your ex
how get a girlfriend fast and how to fix it?
Also visit my homepage: How Do You Get A Girlfriend
- June 10, 2013 at 4:08 AM
- June 15, 2013 at 2:24 PM
- June 15, 2013 at 2:27 PM
- June 15, 2013 at 8:24 PM


text: By far, The Notorious B.I.G. is my favorite MC to which we pay homage. Arguably one of the best to ever do it, tonight we set off Double Cross Lounge with an extra dose of goodness from Mr. Frank White. We kick in the door around 9pm. All Wax, of course.


text:
In trademark cases involving keyword advertising, the nominative use defense is often a powerful tool that leads to early success on summary judgment. We recently had a case where we represented a payment processor review site. At issue was whether or not a review site is able to advertise by purchasing trademarked terms on Google Adwords. In this post, we will run through the analysis and ultimate answer.
Where a trademark claim arises from the use of a trademark as a reference to mark owner's goods or services such as a review site, the case is among a "class of cases where the use of the trademark does not attempt to capitalize on consumer confusion or to appropriate the cachet of one product for a different one" and the plaintiff's claims fall to the doctrine of "nominative use." New Kids on the Block v. News Am. Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 308 (9th Cir. 1992).
Nominative use protects the defendant's use of a mark because the mark is the only word reasonably available to describe a particular thing and such use lies outside the strictures of trademark law: Because it does not implicate the source-identification function that is the purpose of trademark, it does not constitute unfair competition; such use is fair because it does not imply sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder. Thus, the doctrine provides protection for a review site even if that review site is bidding on the mark owner's keywords.
A slew of Ninth Circuit cases holds that internet consumers are highly sophisticated and do not form opinions of sponsorship based upon cursory reviews of domain names and search results. As such, cases like Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Sys. Concepts, Inc., 638 F.3d 1137, 1153 (9th Cir. 2011) have applied the nominative use defense to dismiss keyword based claims of trademark infringement.
The first part of the nominative use test asks whether the "use of the mark was 'necessary' to describe" Defendants' business. For review sites, the answer will almost always be yes. There simply is no way to review a restaurant, car or payment processing service without using the protected trademarks of the respective brand. Furthermore, bidding on the keywords of the reviewed companies is the logical way to draw viewers to the content. Although typically obvious to anyone with a brain, review sites do not need to specifically disavow an association with the trademark holder so long as confusion over sponsorship or endorsement does not arise. Use of marks can go beyond keywords to include URL's, meta-data and tags.
When the nominative use defense is so powerful and so obvious, why do mark holders continue to file infringement claims based upon keyword advertising? Because litigation is expensive and achieving victory, even early based upon a nominative use defense, will approach $100,000. Even though a summary judgment may be filed in response to a complaint, plaintiffs are often granted Rule 56 discovery in order to oppose the summary judgment. This often includes robust interrogatories and at least a few depositions. Plaintiffs count on the fact that review sites will acquiesce, opting to simply remove content or cease keyword bidding rather than spend $100k. Further encouragement for Plaintiff's in such suits arises from the fact that Courts are unlikely to award attorney fees to the successful defendant because this requires a finding of an "exceptional" case.
The conclusion is that keyword advertising cases are typically a no win proposition in that defendants are almost 100% likely to get the case dismissed but will be out of pocket around $100,000.


text: Nominally technical (but probably super-obvious) question about how we measure battery capacities... My son recently acquired a radio-controlled car (in case anyone's wondering it's a Traxxas Stampede 2WD). It has a battery pack that's rated for 3000 mAh. It has 7 NiMH cells in it, which produce a output of 8.4V. I'm trying to understand how that compares to the battery pack in a full-size EV, such as my Model S 85D, whose battery pack is rated in terms of kWh, let's assume for sake of argument it really holds 85 kWh even though we know it doesn't. I got hung up on a couple of questions I can't find the answer to: 1. How do you talk about these two battery packs in the same units of measurement? For the RC car, if you multiply the 3000mAh rating by the nominal output voltage, you can at least get something in terms of Wh (25.2Wh?). RIght? Or is there some other formula or correction factor needed? 2. Why are the capacities of the two types of battery packs given in different units? Shouldn't there be only one unit of measurement for battery capacity? (By the way, one of the reasons this topic came up was because the Traxxas Stampede comes with a battery charger that plugs into an automobile 12V outlet, so apparently I'm supposed to use my EV to charge his RC car. I ended up buying a 110V wall charger instead!) Thanks in advance for a clue... Bruce.


text:
Diane Kay "Dee" Johnson, age 59, of Maple Lake, formerly of Howard Lake, died Friday, June 19, 2009, at her home, surrounded by family.
She was born in Bismarck, ND Aug. 26, 1949, to Karl and Katherine (nee Bieber) Offenbacker.
Dee graduated from Litchfield High School in 1967.
She married Bruce Boehland June 16, 1968. They were blessed with a daughter, Darla, and a son, Barry.
Dee worked for many years at Tonka Toys. She was also employed as a kitchen aid at the Howard Lake High School, and at Gage Marketing in Howard Lake. She began working for Walter G. Anderson company in 1993, and was still employed with them at the time of her death.
Dee married Donovan Johnson July 16, 1994, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Howard Lake.
When Dee wasn't working, she enjoyed going to casinos, concerts, craft shows, eating out with friends, shopping, listening to music (especially Elvis Presley), taking trips to Branson with Don, and being with her grandchildren.
Dee is survived by her husband, Don; children Darla Yager (friend Wade Heins) of Buffalo, Barry (Elise) Boehland of Veseli, Judy (Mark) Boeckers of Buffalo, and Jim (Kelli) Johnson of Montrose; grandkids Melissa, Christopher, Matt, Amanda, Jordan, Bailey, Austin, and Abbi; and other family and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents.
The funeral service took place Wednesday, June 24 at 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Maple Lake. Burial was at Howard Lake Cemetery.
Visitation was Tuesday, June 23 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Peterson Chapel in Buffalo, with a 7 p.m. prayer service, and continued Wednesday for one hour prior to the service at the church.
Arrangements were by the Peterson Chapel in Buffalo. Online condolences may be made to: www.thepetersonchapel.com


text:
Sarbit Advisory Services
CEO & Chief Investment Officer
BA (Hons.) MA
As CEO and Chief Investment Officer for Sarbit Advisory Service, Larry Sarbit is a Canadian Financial Services veteran. In his partnership as Sub Advisor to IA Clarington, Larry maintains management over the funds under the same discipline he is known for within his investment style. Starting his career in 1979 with Richardson Securities as an analyst, Larry began his long study of the U.S. market.
Larry went on to become a portfolio manager for Investors Group in 1987. He managed the U.S. Growth Fund (now called IG U.S. Large Cap Value Fund) from November 1987 – March 1998. Larry inherited just over $185 million in assets, and by the time of his departure from Investors Group, Larry was managing over $3 billion in assets.
In November 1999, Larry went to AIC and launched the AIC American Focused Fund. Larry managed the AIC American Focused Fund from November 1999 – March 2005. The assets Larry managed went from 0 to just over $2.2 billion in that time.
Today, Larry Sarbit is one of Canada's best known and most highly respected asset managers. With over 25 years of experience managing investment funds, he is an industry leader with a proven track record and a strong reputation.
Undeterred by industry fads and trends, Sarbit has returned above average gains throughout his asset management career by following his successful investment philosophy of buying a great business at a bargain price, while managing with discipline and patience.
"I believe there is a place in the market for investments made in a common-sense, business-like fashion. This simple approach works because it is built on truth and logic"


text:
When police noticed the smell of cannabis coming from a car they discovered the driver had some of the drug on him and he was driving uninsured.
Daniel Sean Casey, (29) of Burn Brae, Banbridge, was fined £150 last Thursday at the local magistrates' court for unlawful possession of cannabis on August 12, 2016.
He was also fined £200, ordered to pay a £15 offender's levy and given six points for driving without insurance.
The court heard Casey was stopped by police who noticed a smell of cannabis coming from the car. he produced a small bag of herbal cannabis which he said was for his own use.
Casey was not covered by an insurance certificate which was in his mother's name. Hie solicitor said it was his girlfriend's car.


text:
Notas de prensa y noticias
Nota de prensa | Cultura 27.02.2014
CHANGING PLACES / ESPACIOS REVELADOS: Transformation of empty buildings through artistic interventions in urban environments
March 27 – April 6, 2014, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The project CHANGING PLACES / ESPACIOS REVELADOS uses empty buildings in Buenos Aires for artistic interventions to highlight social cohesion in the megacity. With their works, artists from Argentina, other Latin American countries and Europe explore the types of communities that can arise through a city's "blind spots." Changing places provides new space for art and opens up new spatial experience for city residents.
Abandoned residential and commercial buildings, imposing empty banks, a railroad bridge over the Riachuelo, and terraces high above the city, as well as walls and facades in public places are converted into a stage by outstanding theater and performance artists. CHANGING PLACES / ESPACIOS REVELADOS addresses the issue of local transformation in two respects: first, the project transforms unused places in a city through artistic ideas; and second, it mobilizes residents and artists to leave their familiar places to view the city with new eyes. To that end, shuttle buses for visitors connect the banking district in the city center with the La Boca district. The project draws another map of the city with new input and access to the idea of public space, which many people appear to have long abandoned.
The public presentation of artistic interventions is part of a comprehensive work process initiated by Siemens Stiftung in close partnership with the Ministerio de Cultura, El Cultural San Martín, Subsecretaría de Desarollo Urbano, and a number of other institutions, building owners, and artists.
The artists have been asked to respond to specific places and urban situations with their own proposals. They are doing so by assimilating the visible and invisible traces a city leaves behind in the course of its development. The artists shift time and space, and evoke the imagination, doubt, and hope found in the people and the city in which their work is embedded. They occupy places with words, send messages into the public space, reflect the conflicting dreams and possibilities of a city or find their themes in the void that points to what is missing and what demands presence. Places need people who perceive and use them. For that reason, various artistic works invite people in Buenos Aires to contribute to the composition, to bring, for instance, a bank hall to life or transform an abandoned building into a green oasis with their plants and thus create a social space of encounter.
Societies need places where they can demonstrate cohesion and where fears and desires can be expressed. Changing places can change perspectives and this can provide the impulse for changes in modes of thinking and behaviour. That is the reason why Siemens Stiftung initiates international projects in the area of Culture. The project in Buenos Aires marks the beginning of an inter-national series that aims to foster artistic pertinacity as well as creative powers and sense of responsibility in the city.
ProgramZona MicrocentroMariana Tirantte / Mariano Pensotti (AR) "Hoy es el día" InstallationLa Ribot (ES) "Laughing Hole"Performance and installationRabih Mroué (LB) "Pixelated Revolution"Video workMagdalena Arau (AR) "La invención del barco es la invención del naufragio. Museo del Presente"InstallationEdificio Tornquist, Bartolomé Mitre 523William Forsythe (USA/DE) "Scattered Crowd" InstallationWilliam Forsythe (USA/DE) "Solo" & "Lectures from Improvisation Technologies"Video worksPalacio Reconquista, Reconquista 46SIMA (AR) "Resonador Blindado" Sound installation and concertPalacio Reconquista, Reconquista 46Leonardo Moreira (BR) "Do Lugar Onde Estou Já Fui Embora (From where I was I've already left)Performative installationMuseo de la Ciudad, Alsina 421 Alejandro Tantanian (AR) "Bencich" City walkEdificio Bencich (Terraza), Av. Roque Saenz Peña 615Magdalena Arau (AR) "La invención del barco es la invención del naufragio. Museo del Pasado. Museo del Paisaje"InstallationGalería Güemes (Mirador), Florida 165Julian Hetzel (NL / DE) "I'M HERE"InstallationEdificio Lanusse, San Martín 236Tim Etchells (UK) "Some Imperatives" Intervention in public spacePared 1: San Martín 280Pared 2: Bartolomé Mitre 357Pared 3: Av. Almirante Brown 1330Tim Etchells (UK) "Neon Work"Intervention in public spacePalacio Municipal del Gobierno de la Ciudad, Bolivar 1Zona SurMAMAZA (CH/GR/IL/DE) "Garden State"Choreographic community garden Marialena Marouda (GR): Walking in the City: on the Poetics of SpaceCity walk in the frame of "Garden State"Rabih Mroué (LB) "Old House"Video workCasa del Sur, Av. Pedro de Mendoza 1621Vivi Tellas (AR) "Museo de la Paloma"InstallationMagdalena Arau (AR) "La invención del barco es la invención del naufragio. Museo Invisible"InstallationBarraca Peña, Av. Pedro de Mendoza 3003Beatriz Catani (AR) "Infierno" PerformancePuente Ferroviario, (frente a Barraca Peña)Tim Etchells / Hugo Glendinning (UK / BE) "Empty Stages"ExhibititionCine Teatro Dante, Almirante Brown 1239Tim Etchells "Some Imperatives" (UK)Intervention in pubic ara ¿Tienes una idea para mejorar tu barrio?WorkshopLa Usina del ArteAgustín Caffarena 1, Actividad especialextra location:Federico León (AR) "La última película" InstallationEstacionamiento Cuadra (ex cine 9 de julio), Bauness 2533Bus shuttle: Departure Casa de la Cultura, Av. de Mayo 575 Transfer every 30 minutes between Microcentro and La Boca-BarracasAdmission is free.


text:
Laser Tag
Day Camp
Our phenomenal specialty day camps combine the traditional fun of YMCA day camps with the more specialized skills and learning of our outside specialty camp providers or YMCA experts.
Each specialty day camp has a wide range of subjects to campers to enjoy — from sports-related day camps concentrating on skills and techniques, to creative camps like ceramics that focus on expanding artistic skills and confidence.
On or before 07/29/2019
After 07/29/2019
More Information
The YMCA is proud to offer this exciting and immensely popular camp. Campers of all ability levels enjoy the full range of the laser tag experience including exciting team-building and game-tactical components. During the camp week, campers will play a wide variety of game formats and become seasoned players. They will discover their inner leader as they chart out there teamsâ
Learn more about Day Camp at the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA.


text:
Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride
Studying at Cambridge
Many happy returns to Sir Colin Humphreys who celebrated his 75th birthday on Tuesday. We celebrated with a cake, and a group picnic on Friday 27th May, featuring many hexagonal cakes! Click on Colin's birthday card to see some of the many past and present members of the group.
© 2019 University of Cambridge
We may use cookies to record some preference settings and to analyse how
you use our web site. We may also use external analysis systems which may
set additional cookies to perform their analysis.These cookies (and any
others in use) are detailed in our site privacy and cookie policies and are
integral to our web site. You can delete or disable these cookies in your
web browser if you wish but then our site may not work correctly.


text:
It's no secret that Robert Pollard is one of the most prolific songwriters ever. I first became aware of Pollard sometime in late 1993, after the release of Bee Thousand. There were many albums and countless songs before that landmark album and there are even more in the years since Guided By Voices turned the world on its ear. A few weeks ago I was listening to Elephant Jokes, one of Pollard's 2009 releases and one of his absolute best solo albums. As I flipped the record I wondered, if I had never heard Guided By Voices or any of the other bands Pollard fronted over the years, where would I start? For that matter, where would I recommend someone else start. It's a tough question to answer. I think if you put 30 Bob fans in a room and asked the question you could very well come away with 30 different answers and a compelling argument for each. The longer I considered the question, the more difficult it became. I started slogging through record after record, taking mental inventory of the pros and cons of each. After an hour I decided to undertake an epic project. Starting today I plan to revisit and review as much of Robert Pollard's catalog as I possibly can. Without further ado, here's a look at Guided By Voices's 2001 release, Isolation Drills.
Isolation Drills is an interesting Guided By Voices release on many levels. This is the band's second and final album for TVT records, and the third album after the dissolution of the popular GBV line-up found on the earlier "classic" albums, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. In some ways Guided By Voices was still in the process of reinventing aspects of its personality. Isolation Drills' predecessor, Do the Collapse, saw the band working with its first big-time producer in Rick Ocasek. Do the Collapse saw the beginning of Pollard writing songs that broke the 3 and 4 minute marks. For me, this one on the most notable qualities of Isolation Drills. The bulk of the 16 tracks clock in around the 3 to 4 minute area, and, most importantly, they sound like they were meant to be that length. The bands past attempts at longer tracks sometimes seemed forced, but not here. Finally, Isolation Drills saw the line-up of Pollard, Doug Gillard, Nate Farley, Jim McPherson, and Tim Tobias hit its stride. The band sounds comfortable and unstoppable on this record and Rob Schnapf's production work only enhances the band's chemistry.
Isolation Drills is packed with some of Guided By Voices most accessible, catchy, well-crafted songs. At the time of its release the indie-rock climate was such that the record went almost unnoticed. The fans were still paying attention, but the world at large, who ostensibly would love a slicker, better produced, more conventional GBV album, had moved on. Tracks like "Chasing Heather Crazy", "Glad Girls", "The Enemy", and "Skills Like This" are incredible rockers. These are the Guided By Voices songs you would want to hear belted out as the band played a large arena. These songs are almost too big for the club; this is the soundtrack to a bigger party. "Frostman", "Run Wild", "How's My Drinking?" and "Sister I Need Wine" harken back to the songwriting of the classic era. They are intimate while still sporting a full, produced sound. Lyrically Isolation Drills remains true to the Pollard and Guided By Voices tradition, but there is something slightly different here. I've never put my finger on exactly what it is, but I can only describe it as a kind of maturity. Maybe it was some kind of life-event for Pollard when the songs were written, I'm nor sure, but it does seems a bit more sober and introspective than other GBV records.
Isolation Drills remains one of my favorite Guided By Voices albums. Is this the starting point for the uninitiated? That's still a tough one to answer, but it would definitely be one of the first five Pollard albums I'd recommend.


text:
Australian Geographic 100 x 100
The ultimate list book, 100 x 100 takes ten subject areas – the visual, literary and performing arts, science, nature, history, sport, design, technology and philosophy – and subdivides each one into ten sections of 100 profiles each, giving you a phenomenal 10,000 profiles of the best of everything.
Please allow up to 7-10 working days for deliver.
Lovers of the visual arts will encounter fascinating insights into 100 artists, paintings, sculptures, movies and more. Foodies will revel in 100 reviews of cheeses and luxury foods, and 100 accounts of legendary chefs and restaurants, while sports fanatics will enjoy 100 great sporting moments alongside 100 great sporting disasters, 100 sporting heroes, and 100 great races. Whatever your interest, this encyclopedic volume for the 21st century will captivate, inform and entertain in equal measure.


text:
Editor's note: This week, the Deseret News takes an in-depth look at how football coaches balance the demands of their profession with commitments to their faith.
Monday: Justin Anderson, Nicholls State
Tuesday: Ed Lamb, Southern Utah University
Wednesday: Steve Kaufusi, BYU
Thursday: Coaches and callings — serving in the LDS Church
Friday: Coaches and Christianity
Southern Utah University head football coach Ed Lamb regularly attends meetings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his family. He finds truth in the teachings of the gospel and has accepted various opportunities to serve. He said the church has been hugely influential in his life.
Yet Lamb is not a Mormon. He's been investigating the church since 1992 when he played at Ricks College.
"Most of the time, I don't even correct people who make the assumption," Lamb said in a recent interview with the Deseret News. "Over time, I've been exposed to the culture and have tremendous respect for the religion. This has been a real example for good in my life. The morals and beliefs are highly congruent with how I would want to live and how I want my family to live their lives."
If not for baptism, Lamb would call himself a Mormon. Although he was raised and baptized in a different Christian faith, Lamb has played or coached with many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for most of his adult life. Lamb also married a Latter-day Saint, and two of his daughters are members. Two younger children will likely be baptized when they turn 8 years old.
During his association with the church, Lamb has served in Scouting as well as in other capacities. Being a college football coach has granted him a little extra credibility with young people, and they have listened to him. Overall, church service has helped him to be a better coach. He also believes that LDS values are similar to athletic values, Lamb said.
"It has given me the tools to speak to players and helps me deal with all the different individual backgrounds," Lamb said. "The gospel also helps me put losses in perspective by understanding we are not perfect. This life is a process toward perfection. It's not just game-to-game or season-to-season, it's a lifetime pursuit."
Lamb has two Mormons on his staff, including offensive coordinator/associate head coach Gary Crowton and strength and conditioning coach Dan Bennion. Bennion currently serves as a bishop in the Cedar City area. While there are team meetings on Sunday evenings, Lamb does his best to accommodate the religious beliefs of each member of his staff and team.
In good-natured fun, family members and LDS friends occasionally ask when Lamb will get baptized, but the coach just smiles and says he's going at his pace, Lamb said.
"There is no question in my mind the LDS Church is a major source for good, and it has been a blessing to be around it," Lamb said. "But at this point, I am really comfortable with my relationship with God, my role as a human being and the opportunity to be an influence on the people around me.
"I also know my mother-in-law will enjoy seeing me show up in the Mormon Times."
Email: [email protected] Twitter: tbtoone


text:
GPS Machine Control
JPS the latest technology GPS-guided excavation controls. These systems are accurate within 1/10th of a foot (1.25 inches). That's pretty impressive for a bulldozer up to 43,000 pounds . This level of accuracy gives us a competitive edge that eliminates the need for conventional staking, and saves you money.
Our location equipment includes Topcon and Leica GPS systems mounted on various dozers, excavators, and graders.


text:
Sorry for the wordy title, I've got a lot on my mind.
My hard copy of To the Strongest came in over the weekend. Simon Miller had a special and threw in some laser cut chits. I've had the PDF's for awhile, but have been sitting on this game for too long. What I envision doing with it is playing out a War of the Roses campaign using the old Avalon Hill board game Kingmaker as a campaign map. My dream was to make it a play by blog, but I don't have period specific figures or recognizable personalities painted up. I'm also not sure if it would be better to try and have participants play on their own and report back or try to live play via video conference. I'm not sure if that would even appeal to people.
Over on face book people were talking about ipad apps for putting muzzle flashes and explosions into their 40K battle report pictures. I don't own an ipad, but have done a fair bit of photo manipulating for my comic reports in both GIMP and Comic Life 3. Following is a list of resources from deviant art:


text:
[note: last post before break]
-- China loosens its one-child policy.
-- Akash Kapur reports (paywalled) on the impact of development (or 'development') on an Indian village, and Pankaj Mishra critiques (paywalled) Perry Anderson's The Indian Ideology.
-- The Nation has a database compiling civilian casualties caused by ISAF and Afghan government forces' operations in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2012. (H/t FP's AfPak [now renamed South Asia] Daily Brief, which says that the total is in a range between about 2,800 and 6,500.) This is quite a bit less than Taliban-caused civilian casualties -- which does not excuse them, of course.
-- Latest UN estimates on global child mortality: available via this page.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
P.M. linkage
Labels: Afghanistan, child mortality, China, India, miscellaneous
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Account Switch Kit
It's easy to switch to Cross County Bank. We'll assist you with completing the necessary paperwork or you can take this kit and complete it on your own.
Account Closure Form
Use this form to request that the account(s) that you have at your present bank be closed. Remember to keep enough funds in the account until all checks have cleared and your direct deposit has been changed.
Download account closure form.
Payroll Deposit Change Form
Use this form to request the direct deposit of your payroll to your Cross County Bank checking account. You will need to provide this information to your employer.
Download payroll deposit change form.
Automatic Payment Change Form
Use this form to request an automatic payment from your Cross County Bank checking account. Complete this form for each automatic payment.
Download automatic payment change form.
Debit/ATM Card Consent Form
This Consent Form explains Overdrafts and Overdraft Fees and authorizes the bank to pay overdrafts on your ATM and everyday debit card transactions.
Download debit/ATM card consent form.
Telephone Banking Form
Use this form to reset your telephone banking. Complete and Fax to 870-238-4353 or e-mail to: email@example.com
Download telephone banking form.
Internet Banking Form
Use this form to reset your online banking. Complete and Fax to 870-238-4353 or email to: firstname.lastname@example.com
Download internet banking form.
Wiring Instructions Form
Use this form to wire money to Cross County Bank and First Commercial Bank.


text:
Contact: Adam Prato, (319) 643-2541
Contact: Peter Pappas, (319) 643-2541
WEST BRANCH, IOWA— Herbert Hoover National Historic Site invites filmmakers and photographers to attend a free one-hour orientation on how to obtain a permit to use the park as a setting for commercial photography. Commercial filming and photography in national parks such as Herbert Hoover NHS require a special use permit. Special uses are short-term activities in the park that benefit an individual, group or organization, rather than the public at large. The permitting system helps allow special uses of the park without impairing recreational visitors' access to or enjoyment of the park.
"We hope to encourage economic development for area businesses through promoting commercial filming and photography in this beautiful park," said John Slaughter, acting superintendent of Herbert Hoover NHS, "while at the same time provide an accessible, dignified, and spacious setting where visitors can experience the landscape commemorating the life of Herbert Hoover."
According to Slaughter, the park is hoping to use this orientation to begin the planning process for a photo competition and art show to be held in the spring on the grounds of the Village Green within the historic site.
The free permit orientation begins on December 10 at 2:00 p.m. in the Visitor Center. The orientation is expected to last about one hour and may include a tour of the park. Refreshments will be provided. Those interested in attending may contact Peter Pappas or Adam Prato at (319) 643-2541.
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 off I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Parking is limited so please allow extra time to find a parking space.
Last updated: April 10, 2015


text:
ATLANTIC CITY -- Gov. Jon Corzine today basked in the embrace of two of his best friends: organized labor and the Obama White House.
Again trying to lend national firepower to a tightening campaign, Vice President Joe Biden rallied union leaders in Atlantic City to churn out votes for the Democratic governor, who he called a critical ally for the president.
"This is not only one of the most important states in the union, this is one of the most consequential governors serving in any state in the union, and it's critical he be re-elected," Biden said at a conference of the state AFL-CIO. "He's tough, he's smart, he's honest. You are the key to geting this man elected, so go out and get those votes."
Even as Biden spoke, unions ramped up their involvement on behalf of Corzine, a darling of organized labor who has made up ground on Republican front-runner Chris Christie.
The powerful AFL-CIO, which has endorsed Corzine, is blanketing the state with mailings and sending 1,200 volunteers out each weekend to knock on doors of union households. The New Jersey Education Associaton, the state's teachers union, has also started weighing in heavily to aid Corzine, launching a new website and $500,000 worth of television ads this week.
"Election Day is Labor Day, because you guys get it done every time," Corzine told the crowd, which included delegates from nearly 70 national unions. "This is a high-stakes election. It's not about a candidate alone, it is about the things that people stand for."
Much of the union mobilization is aimed at tarnishing Christie as an enemy of organized labor. Attacks on Christie's positions have helped transform what had been unusually soft union support for Corzine, and the governor still needs to make up more ground with union households, said Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), an ironworkers union leader who has clashed with state worker unions.
"It's still not there," Sweeney said. "But Chris has made it very easy for union leaders to talk to their membership."
AFL-CIO president Charles Wowkanech said it is Christie -- not necessarily Corzine -- who "is actually energizing our people to levels now that we needed to be at."
Seeking populist support amid economic hardship, Christie has taken aim at some unions that form one core of Democratic support. He told the NJEA he would not seek its endorsement, and has said he would lay off state workers -- or scale back their pay and benefits -- to help balance the budget.
Christie has also targeted Corzine's handling of state worker contract talks. Today, the Republican's allies recalled the last time Biden campaigned for Corzine, on
primary night in June in June. The appearance drew controversy because state worker union members in tough talks with Corzine over proposed givebacks had threatened to picket the event. A deal was struck with the unions, saving the pro-union Biden a decision on whether or not to cross the picket line.
"Instead of taking on a serious and important negotiation with public employees, the governor made taxpayers pick up the tab so he could avoid political embarrassment," GOP state chairman Jay Webber said.
Christie has also tried to peel away rank-and-file union members, distributing information to teachers and law enforcement officers to counteract their leaders' claims.
"What they are saying is completely not true with regard to Chris's positions," said a Christie spokeswoman, Maria Comella. "At the end of the day, Chris stands with teachers, stands with law enforcement, stands with firefighters and is going to protect their pensions."
Biden's New Jersey appearance is expected to be followed by another from President Obama ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Statehouse Bureau reporter Josh Margolin contributed to this report.


text:
Plants by Flower Gallery
Want to send a plant gift but don't have a green thumb? Find the hottest picks in Flower Gallery's best selling plants and flowers section. Rose plants are perfect for romance; blooming plants brighten anyone's day; and a green plant provides lasting beauty. Our best selling plants take the guesswork out of gift-giving.
|We Accept:


text:
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles--that a man has his father's wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you" (1 Corinthians 5:1-2).
How are we to deal with sin openly committed by those in the church? Are we to just simply tolerate sin happening among us? On the other hand, are we to be so judgmental of one another, that we constantly feel like we are walking on eggshells as we try to live "perfectly" among our brethren?
In his epistle to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul addresses this question. As the opening verses above indicate, in the church at Corinth there was a young Christian man who was having sexual relations with his father's wife (1 Corinthians 5:1-2). Instead of the church being upset about this, they were actually "puffed up" about it (1 Corinthians 5:2).
Paul commands that they should have "judged" about this matter, not tolerated it! Since they had failed to judge this matter, he would: "For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Corinthians 5:3-5). They were to withdraw fellowship from this young man until he repented of the sin which he had committed with his father's wife (1 Corinthians 5:11).
As Christians, does God want us to spend our time constantly making judgments about others? No! Other passages from Scripture clearly warn us about being hasty in judging others (cf. Matthew 7:1-4; Romans 14:13). However, this does not mean that there are never times when we HAVE TO MAKE JUDGMENTS ABOUT OTHERS (cf. John 7:24). In the church at Corinth, this young man was brazenly flaunting his sin before the whole church by bringing his father's wife, with whom he was having sexual relations, to church services! Paul says that as Christians there are times when we have to make judgments about those who are in the church: "For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person'" (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).
Yes, as Christians we all struggle with sin. We always will. However, part of living a faithful Christian life is that when we commit sin, we acknowledge our sin, repent or turn away from having committed it, and ask God to forgive us for having done it: "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:7-9). When we fail to repent of our sin and believe we can flaunt our sin before the church and bring shame upon the body of Christ, those in the church have no choice but to honor God by judging us!
In the age of tolerance in which we live, as Christians we must realize that we cannot tolerate sin in the church, the body of Christ. Today, I acknowledge my own struggle with sin, but when I commit sin, I will confess it to the Lord and repent of it. May God help me to never tolerate it!
"For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:20). )}


text:
Having a garden of your own is a nice way to relax and enjoy creating something that is both fruitful and beautiful. But you need a lot of things and tools to make your garden look beautiful so you should be financially prepared. The tools and equipments that you need are garden carts, shovels, garden hose, rakes, garden urns, LED grow lights and a lot more. These are used to protect your plants which are the main spot in your garden. There are also many products you can use to help enhance the overall effect of your particular garden space. You will find many statues, tiles and lights that are designed to be used in a garden area. Garden spot lights are created to add a special focused light around the specific area to create an enhanced effect for the evening hours. It is very functional as a gooseneck lamp and a piano lamp in the bedroom or library.
Many of the styles available come as ground lighting that has the head or light portion attached to a small stake. This stake is inserted into the ground to secure the light in place. Because these items are small in size, they can easily be hidden under a bush to keep the area more attractive in appearance. It may also be used to highlight your fireplace designs by positioning well. The head portion is usually designed as a swivel style so you can position it to a certain degree up or down. These small spotlights are available in different designs that include low wattage, solar and LED styles of lighting. The solar spot lights are especially popular due to their low cost of operation. A variation on the stake design will be the units that come as bracket styles you can mount to any flat surface area.
There are also some taller designs of lights for use in a garden. These often resemble a lantern post light and will come in several different designs. Copper is commonly used for creating the top decorative portion on some of these styles because it weathers naturally to enhance the look of the piece over time. This style of light is popular for use as an attractive ornamental design in the garden by day and a source of light by night. You may find a few lights that can use different colored bulbs to create a special lighting effect for your garden space.
[quality-blocking code="us, ca, uk, au" display="1″]
Vast Home & Garden is part of the eBay Partner Network (EPN) and specially designed with customized coding to provide you with some of the most relevent home & garden products listings on the web. VHG is compliant with EPN standards. In the event you see an item you need in our listings, just select it to buy or bid.
On sale on eBay now:
[phpbay]garden spot lights,32,,,,,,,,,,,1,,4[/phpbay]
Recently Purchased Items:
[phpbay]garden spot lights,90,,,,,,,,,,,2,,1[/phpbay]


text:
Something strange has turned up in downtown Houston. It's a large red rock and it's standing in front of City Hall. It looks something like this:
Naturally I was curious as to what this might be, so went closer. And again I exercised my immense photography skills to capture the following picture:
What's this? GetCurious.com?
You'll be shocked to find out, I'm sure, that this Mars rock isn't really a rock, and it isn't really from Mars. But it's part of a clever campaign by Explore Mars to raise public awareness about the upcoming landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars.
Houston is one of eight cities across the nation to get a 1,000-pound "rock."
This is happening because we're now about 10 days and some change away from the actual landing of the newest, largest and baddest-to-the-bone Mars rover yet. And as I recently wrote, there's a lot on the line. Not only will Curiosity do some really cool science, there's really nothing in the pipeline behind it.
So if the rover's terrifying seven-minute descent to the Martian surface goes awry, our Mars science program will be seriously set back for awhile.
And if you're curious about Curiosity's descent? It's supposed to happen around 12:30 a.m. CT on Monday, August 6. And Space Center Houston is having a party if you want to watch with other space geeks.