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, the remains of the Cara Merchant had lain undisturbed for more than three centuries.1 Though her resting place is in shallow water, the site is deep in significance: It is the only pirate shipwreck ever discovered in the Caribbean and one of only three ever found in the Americas to date.2 To this find of profound historical importance the name "Indiana" will always be attached—not Indiana Jones, in this case, but Indiana University.
While a landlocked institution of higher learning ensconced in the heart of the Midwest might not automatically conjure the words "underwater archaeology," Indiana University in fact has one of the nation's oldest and largest programs in the field. For the past 12 years the intrepid diver-scholars of the school's academic diving and underwater science programs have been conducting research with the cooperation of the Dominican Republic's Oficina Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural Subacuatico. So when a snorkeler reported spotting an array of barnacle-encrusted cannon a mere 70 feet off the shoreline of the Dominican Republic's Isla Catalina, government officials naturally alerted the Indiana team.
The wreck's location and the size and arrangement of the guns strongly suggested that there, indeed, was the grave of Captain Kidd's ship. Charles Beeker, director of IU's underwater archaeology programs, quickly recognized the value of the discovery and the immediate need to protect it from looters. As a preemptive strike against wildfire word-of-mouth and the subsequent swarming of divers like blood-crazed sharks, the discovery was officially announced at a press conference in December 2007, the site was declared temporarily off-limits, and the Dominican Republic licensed Beeker's team to protect, preserve, and research the wreck.
As work progressed through 2008, the "smoking gun" of positive identification revealed itself. After gingerly, painstakingly moving one of the cannon, archaeologists were pleasantly stunned to find the ship's keel still extant beneath. Wood-analysis results in September 2008 explained why: The keel had survived because it was fashioned from decomposition-resistant teak.
The very fact it was teak was the key to the mystery; this ship, clearly, was an absolute anomaly in Caribbean waters in the late 17th century. Quite simply, "Teak wood does not belong in the Caribbean in this time period," Beeker said.
Teak was used in the shipyards of the western coast of India, and no trade existed between the Mogul sea-lanes and the Caribbean at the time. "Indian merchants were trading with England, but they were not in the Western Hemisphere," said Fritz Hanselmann, IU director of field research. Such a ship would have seemed wildly exotic and utterly out of place heaving—to off the Hispaniola coast in 1699—which is exactly what Captain Kidd did. He and a bedraggled skeleton crew had crossed the Atlantic in a captured India-built craft, a 400-ton three-master with fanciful, swirling Eastern flourishes in the carving, a plunder-laden prize ship on the run from the combined might of the Royal Navy and the East India Company.
"It's a rare instance in the historical record of a ship built in India having been in the Caribbean," Hanselmann said. "If you couple the historical documentation that we've studied with the archaeological record at the wreck site and the wood being teak, that allows us to fill in the pieces of the puzzle."
William Kidd is pirate history's Rorschach blot. His record affords bountiful arguments both for his ardent defenders (he was railroaded, unlucky, a scapegoat) and his detractors (he committed murder, he crossed the privateer-pirate line). Somewhere between the rival schools of thought is the idea that someone can be a victim of circumstance and yet still have some degree of culpability. In the end, Kidd seems more worthy of pity than condemnation, whatever his transgressions. Beset below by an unreliable crew and above by fickle financial backers, he charted a narrow and treacherous course that led him, indignant to his dying breath, to Execution Dock, the Admiralty's infamous hanging place along the Thames River.
Born around 1645, he was a towering, broad-shouldered Scotsman, lusty and quick-tempered. The sea called him early, and by 1689 he was captain of the Blessed William, a Caribbean privateer. Kidd attached his ship to a Royal Navy squadron in the raid on the West Indies island of Marie-Galante; a fierce sea-fight with French warships followed off St. Martin. Anchoring at St. Nevis afterward, he lost the Blessed William to his rapscallion crew, who stole the ship and set sail for piracy. Kidd's recent heroics, however, garnered him a French prize ship courtesy of the grateful governor of Nevis. Kidd headed for new horizons, docking in New York in 1691. Marriage to a wealthy widow, life in a stately house, burgeoning business interests along the waterfront, and friends in influential circles all soon were his. But privateering remained in Kidd's blood, and 1695 found him shipping out anew for high-seas profiteering.3
In London he managed to secure the backing of the newly nominated governor of Massachusetts, the Earl of Bellomont. A prominent Whig Parliamentarian, the earl soon brought a powerful quartet in on the scheme: Sir John Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Baron of Romney, and the Earl of Orford—like Bellomont, influential Whigs one and all. But the most impressive subscriber to Kidd's latest adventure was no less than King William III himself. With the king on board (to the tune of a 10 percent cut of the spoils) and a freshly issued letter of marque from the Royal Navy, Kidd was auspiciously set.
But this would be a privateering expedition with a difference: In addition to legally raiding French shipping (France and England then being at war), Kidd would hunt down and capture pirates currently bedeviling the Indian Ocean. He and his lordly syndicate then would divide up the pirates' loot. In essence, it was stealing from thieves and then claiming the stolen goods as one's own. Such slippery logistics would require a new Great Seal of England patent and the signature of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal—who fortunately and conveniently was Somers, one of Kidd's backers.4
Captain Kidd set off down the Thames with a handpicked crew in the 34-gun Adventure Galley in April 1696. (He had 70 men signed on thus far and still needed 80 more, whom he intended to recruit in New York.) Passing a Royal Navy vessel on his way downriver, Kidd neglected to dip his colors, an important custom marking a privateer's deference to and respect for the bona fide navy. Kidd's insolence (perhaps borne of having such lofty backers) earned him a cannonball soaring across the Adventure Galley's bow. His crew responded by ratcheting up the level of disrespect: They turned and slapped their backsides at the navy vessel.5
Even before clearing the Thames, Captain Kidd had managed to incur the wrath of the Royal Navy. A press-gang boarded the Adventure Galley and made off with 20 of his best men. Furious, waving his official commission about, Kidd went ashore to protest. The navy did return him 20 men—not his 20 but instead a passel of irascible lowlifes and troublemakers. Off to a bad start, Kidd sailed to New York to round out his crew. The city was at the time a thriving nest of pirates, cutthroats, and sundry unsavory sailor types. Kidd managed to fill the Adventure Galley's ranks, but it was the textbook motley crew, indeed—"men of desperate fortunes," as Governor Benjamin Fletcher described them when Kidd embarked from New York in September 1696.6
New York to Madeira, Madeira to Madagascar, Madagascar to the Comoros Islands—the Adventure Galley made her way to the hunting grounds by early 1697. Tropical disease claimed the lives of 30 crewmen, and Kidd culled more recruits along the docks of his Indian Ocean ports of call. The new additions included numerous veterans of pirate crews. The voyage thus far had been a bust, and restless grumblings threatened from the forecastle.
Earnest for some plunder, any plunder, Kidd set his sights on the Red Sea and the rich prizes of the Muslim pilgrimage route. "Come boys," the captain reportedly said, "I will make money enough out of that fleet."7 Kidd's commission did not specify such action, and when he attacked a Mogul convoy on 14 August 1697, Kidd was flying the crimson flag. It meant "Surrender. No Quarter"—in essence, piracy. Edward Barlow, the English captain of the 36-gun Sceptre, one of three European ships protecting the convoy, fired warning shots and hoisted the colors of the East India Company, and Kidd backed down. While he had taken no prizes, he had demonstrated a willingness to exceed the parameters of his commission.
Kidd's men grew surlier, his supplies grew shorter, and his desperation intensified to the point that he even bullied a trading ship flying English colors off Malabar. His men raped and pillaged on the Laccadive Islands. Bad word of mouth about Captain Kidd began to spread through the region, as his lean and hungry crew became more mutinous. The boiling point was reached on 30 October, when Kidd had angry words with a malcontent, William Moore, before smashing in the crewman's head with a bucket. After Moore died the next day, an unremorseful and still angry Kidd declared he wasn't afraid of any legal repercussions from the killing, for he had "good friends in England."8
Fortune finally shone on the Adventure Galley on 30 January 1698, with the capture of the Cara Merchant off the Malabar coast. Here was the ripe prize at last; an India-built, Armenian-owned merchantman out from Bengal with a bounteous cargo of silks, sugar, opium, iron, saltpeter, gold, and silver. Kidd had fired a shot across her bow and raised French colors—camouflage for hunting French prey. The captain of the Cara Merchant, Englishman John Wright, tried a similar ruse himself to protect his vessel; he too raised French colors and sent a French gunner in the guise of the ship's captain with paperwork to parlay.
The Frenchman presented Kidd with a French safe-conduct paper. Once he had the pass in hand, Kidd had the verification he needed. This, to be sure, was a legitimate privateering capture, and a rich one at that. Only after claiming the prize did Kidd realize much of the cargo belonged to the East India Company, the ship's true captain was English, and the French dodge had been merely a safety measure that backfired on the Cara Merchant.
But for the time being, Kidd's restless crew had some plunder at last. Kidd made port, sold off some of the cargo, divvied the spoils, and made for the pirate's lair of Madagascar. Also anchored there was the pirate Robert Culliford's ship, the Resolution. Culliford was the very knave who had stolen Kidd's privateering vessel out from under him back in his Caribbean days. On a personal and professional level, now was the golden opportunity for Kidd to fulfill his pirate-hunting mandate. He had Culliford outgunned and outmanned—or rather, he would have, if the bulk of the Adventure Galley's crew hadn't up and deserted on him, preferring the pure-pirate path that siding with Culliford represented. Rather than attempting to nab Culliford, Kidd instead found himself discussing terms with him in a strained atmosphere of false bonhomie and rum.
The Madagascar situation would come back to haunt Kidd. He would argue (and his present-day defenders will echo) that he was the victim of a mutinous and then deserting crew. His prosecutors would assert (and his detractors still echo) that, if he was supposed to be hunting pirates, why did he instead engage in surfside detente with one, not to mention letting him get away?9
The Adventure Galley, meanwhile, was rotting and leaking; rats of both the rodentoid and human variety were abandoning her in numbers. Captain Kidd left her now as well, making the Cara Merchant his main ship (and renaming her the Adventure Prize). With little more than 20 crewmen left, he set sail for the West Indies, to sell more of the captured silks while wending his prize homeward. But when he arrived at Anguilla in April 1699, Kidd learned the awful news: He was a wanted man.
The Cara Merchant, as luck would have it, had been leased out to Muklis Khan, a prominent member of the inner circle of Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb himself. Investors in the ship and her rich cargo were from the highest echelons; the East India Company's reputation and its ability to continue its lucrative enterprise were threatened by a single ship's capture that had become an international incident. The Company was England's mightiest economic institution, and to restore itself to good standing, someone needed to hang for the Cara Merchant outrage. "Kidd," noted historian Robert C. Ritchie, "never allowed for the relentless malevolence of the East India Company."10
Prodded by the Company, the British government declared Kidd a pirate. The general alarm went out wherever the Royal Navy ensign flew. An all-out manhunt was on, and there would be no pardon for Kidd. It was distressing information to ascertain about oneself while standing at the bridge of a big, blatant, foreign-looking ship that was an inevitable attention-grabber. Kidd believed he was innocent, and he had the French pass to prove it. At the mouth of the Higuey River on the eastern end of the island of Hispaniola, he moored the Cara Merchant to trees on the riverbank. He acquired a sloop and raced to New York to clear his name. He did, after all, have influential friends.
That the aristocratic consortium backing Kidd dropped him like a hot potato is one of the salient tragedies of his story. In the interim, the Whigs had lost control of Parliament. The Tories saw a chance to embarrass their political foes, and those foes didn't want to stick their necks out for a hunted man. Offering himself up to set the record straight, Kidd was imprisoned, first in New York, then in England. By the time he finally came to trial, he was a reeking, slovenly wreck. The French pass, which clearly justified his taking of the Cara Merchant under his letter of marque, was conveniently misplaced. It didn't resurface until the early 20th century.11
The High Court of Admiralty found Kidd guilty of piracy and of the murder of William Moore. On 23 May 1701, he was carted out to London's Execution Dock along the mud-flats of Wapping. His hanging didn't go well; the rope broke and his executioners had to hang him twice. Once he was dead, they tied him to a post until the high tide of the Thames had washed over him three times (as per Admiralty tradition). Afterward, the waterlogged corpse of Captain Kidd was taken downriver to Tilbury Point, where the Thames meets the sea. After dipping the body in tar, they wrapped it in chains and put it in a cage that was hung from a gibbet. For many years, long after the tar wore off and the flesh decayed, he remained on morbid display, a warning to all contemplating piracy. The historian Ralph D. Paine offered a concise summation that could serve as Captain Kidd's epitaph: "Thus lived and died a man, who, whatever may have been his faults, was unfairly dealt with by his patrons, misused by his rascally crew, and slandered by credulous posterity."12
The search for the Cara Merchant began while Kidd was still languishing in prison. His erstwhile patron-turned-arrester, Lord Bellomont (whom Kidd had cursed from the gallows), sent a ship to the West Indies to track down the prize. It was the first of many fruitless attempts down through the centuries. Kidd's Caribbean confreres had emptied the ship of valuables, stacked cannon in the cargo hold, unmoored the vessel, and then torched and sank her. And there the Cara Merchant remained, in the shallows, undiscovered until 2007.
Her elusiveness was one of the loose ends that fed the Captain Kidd myth over the years. "What happened to his ship?" commingled with "What happened to his treasure?" to spawn a body of pirate legendry that refused to die. Kidd had taken some of the loot with him on his last run to New York. No doubt much of it was dispersed as well among those who burned the Cara Merchant.
The Cara Merchant herself became one of pirate history's famous lost ships, her mystique enhanced by the marquee value of her notorious household-name captain. Until recently, private treasure-hunting entities had been searching for her for years, sometimes only mere miles away from where she hid in plain sight.
In the end, fate turned the shipwreck's secrets over to academics rather than treasure-seekers. And preliminary X-rays of sample conglomerates (biologically concreted clusters of materials both organic and of human origin) indicate an abundance of artifacts, offering promising possibilities in the upcoming investigative seasons of 2009. The 26 cannon are still for the most part neatly stacked in two piles as they had been by the ship's crew. Anchor parts are also visible. And there is more wood to be sampled and studied; it is possible that the ship construction will prove to have involved rabbeted joints (a construction methodology somewhat akin to tongue-and-groove). If so, this will be the only 17th-century wreck found thus far featuring this type of jointing, thereby adding to the site's uniqueness and importance, noted Beeker.
While research will continue through 2009 and beyond, Captain Kidd's shipwreck will not be kept indefinitely off limits to the public. The plan is to open the site to visitation by December 2009. Supervised and supported by the Dominican Republic's government and boosted by a $200,000 award announced by the U.S. Agency for International Development in November 2008, Indiana University will make the Kidd shipwreck site (and three other Dominican underwater sites of historical and/or biological interest) a "living museum," where the policy will be one of "no anchor, no take." Underwater interpretive panels in five languages will enhance the wreck site. As a public shipwreck park, the Captain Kidd Preserve will allow visitors to experience a brush with the pirate past while research and preservation efforts are ongoing.
Visitation is expected to be high—how could it not be? There, in 10 feet of Caribbean blue, lie vestiges of Captain Kidd's wild and infamous career. An archaeological discovery of such resonance is a magnet of great power. As Fritz Hanselmann observed, "Archaeology allows history to become tangible."
"Everyone wants to know if there is treasure on Kidd's ship," said Charles Beeker, "but the true treasure is the ship itself, and the history it represents. Bringing history back to life, through the creation of the Captain Kidd Preserve, is the real reward for discovering the identity of the ship. Rather than be destroyed for recovery of cannon and anchors, the site will be protected for future generations."
1. The ship has been known by various names over the years, Quedah Merchant being the most commonly appearing one. Archival research has identified Cara Merchant as the correct name.
2. The other two New World pirate shipwrecks thus far discovered are Edward "Blackbeard" Teach's Queen Anne's Revenge and Samuel Bellamy's Whydah.
3. The overview of Kidd's career presented here is based on: David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995), pp. 179-190; Robert C. Ritchie, Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986); Frank Sherry, Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy (New York: Hearst Marine Books, 1986), pp. 148-195; and Richard Zacks, The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd (New York: Hyperion Books, 2002).
4. Cordingly, Under the Black Flag, p. 181.
5. Sherry, Raiders and Rebels, p. 164.
6. Cordingly, Under the Black Flag, p. 182.
7. Ibid.
8. Sherry, Raiders and Rebels, p. 174.
9. For contrasting views, see Zacks, The Pirate Hunter, pp. 181-189, and Cordingly, Under the Black Flag, pp. 184-185.
10. Ritchie, Captain Kidd, p. 128.
11. The suppression of the French pass, notes Charles Beeker, helps explain why the name of the prize ship, Cara Merchant, was wrongly referred to as Quedah Merchant, an erroneous name that cropped up in court references and has survived even up to the recent literature.
12. Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, Etc., Which Are Sought For to This Day (New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1911), p. 128.
More Finds from the Graveyard of the Deep
By Eric Mills
In addition to the Cara Merchant, here are some other notable shipwreck discoveries since 2007:
The Black Swan
MS Encounter and HMS Exeter


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High blood pressure may be especially lethal for blacks
(HealthDay) -- Black people with high blood pressure are twice as likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than whites or other racial groups who suffer hypertension, according to a new study.
Researchers found this was true regardless of blacks' other risk factors, such as age, gender, family history, weight, diabetes or pre-existing heart disease.
Researchers examined 533 black and 8,660 non-black patients with high blood pressure and followed them for five years. Sudden cardiac death occurred in 178 patients, including 17 blacks and 161 non-blacks. After adjusting for risk factors such as age, sex, body mass index (a measure of body fat based on height and weight), diabetes and history of heart disease, the study revealed black patients had a two-fold greater risk of sudden cardiac death.
In sudden cardiac death, the heart unexpectedly stops beating, causing blood flow to the brain and organs to stop. If blood flow isn't restored through CPR or defibrillation, death occurs within minutes.
The study appears in the April issue of HeartRhythm.
"The truly unique outcome of our study is the indication that black patients may be at a higher risk of [sudden cardiac death], but not because of other more well-known risk factors," study lead author Dr. Peter Okin, a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and an attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said in a journal news release.
While the study found an association between sudden cardiac death and high blood pressure, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
More research is needed to explore the genetic, structural and functional differences involved in the higher incidence of sudden cardiac death in black people with high blood pressure, the researchers said.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Man slices arms with saws at Calif. Home Depot
A man deliberately cut himself with saws in the aisles of a Home Depot store in suburban Los Angeles on Wednesday, creating a gruesome scene in front of several customers that left him severely injured, police said.
The man was in the store's tool section and went unnoticed until he began grabbing several small saws, including one meant to cut sheet rock, and started using them on his arms.
"He cut both arms with hand saws down to the bone," said West Covina police Cpl. Rudy Lopez.
Officers received several 911 calls and arrived to find the man lying unconscious in the aisle in a pool of blood.
An off-duty paramedic from the Pasadena Fire Department had been shopping nearby and hurried to the scene.
"The officers had already found the man down, face down, blood all over the store, multiple aisles, and the whole store is in chaos," the paramedic, Art Hurtado, told KNBC-TV.
Hurtado thought the man was dead but when he checked he found breath and a slight pulse and said he thought to himself, "I can save this guy."
With help from police and store employees, Hurtado collected rope and rags from store shelves and put makeshift tourniquets on both arms, most likely saving the man's life, police said.
"Were we in a good place for it? No, but you improvise," Hurtado said. "If I didn't have rope I'd have used my shoelaces. We would have made it work."
The man was in surgery hours after the incident, said Lopez, who knew no more about his condition.
The man, who looked to be in his 40s, was carrying no identification, has been unable to answer questions, and was not heard saying anything in the store, so police do not know his name or why he cut himself, Lopez said.
Police interviewed about five people who said they saw what happened, and Lopez said there were likely many more who quickly left the disturbing scene.
"It was pretty graphic," he said.


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You like movies to such a point that you wonder what the essence behind them really is? Then this site is for you, I am constantly trying to understand the deeper thinking behind a story, and how it links to our daily lives and thinking. My girlfriend, Amy Bandera is a psychoanalytically trained psychologist who writes screenplays and practices forensic psychology in Los Angeles combined her passions into one blog, I hope you'll enjoy it! Oh, and I am illustrating her posts too 🙂
Poltergeist illustration copyright David Levy 2012


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NBC supports David Gregory for 'Meet the Press'
NEW YORK >> NBC's news chief says she supports embattled "Meet the Press" moderator David Gregory "now and into the future" as the Sunday morning public affairs program tries to turn around sinking ratings.
NBC News President Deborah Turness, in a memo to "Meet the Press" staff members, said Gregory has been the victim of vindictive, personal and untrue chatter.
"NBC News is proud to have David in the important anchor chair of 'Meet the Press,"' Turness wrote. "He is passionate about politics, and is committed to getting answers for our viewers on the issues that matter to them the most."
The network has been concerned by the reaction to a story published Sunday in The Washington Post that said that NBC commissioned a "psychological consultant" to interview Gregory's wife and friends. The word "psychological" quickly became a sticking point; NBC says they worked with a brand consultant probing perceptions of Gregory's strengths and weaknesses to develop a marketing campaign.
Gregory, in an interview with Washington radio station WTOP on Friday, denounced "gossip reporting gone wild." He said there was nothing unusual about what the consultants did and that "the idea that there's any psychological counseling or testing is a complete fiction."
The Post story does not mention any psychological counseling or testing. Paul Farhi, who wrote the Post article, said Friday he's comfortable with how the questioning was characterized. "I don't know what kind of 'brand' research involves interviewing your wife and friends about you and your personality," he said.
NBC said its problem is not with the Post but how other media organizations have picked up on the article to make suggestions that NBC had Gregory see a psychologist, said an NBC executive who requested anonymity because the person could not discuss personnel matters. The consultants did their work more than a year ago, before Turness joined NBC.
"Meet the Press" recently slipped behind ABC's "This Week" into third place in viewership among the Sunday morning political chat shows. CBS' "Face the Nation" is first, although its rivals claim CBS' ratings are skewed because only the first half hour of the show is measured by the Nielsen company. Some CBS stations don't carry the full hour of "Face the Nation."
The NBC show is also third among 25-to-54-year-old viewers, the demographic that is the basis for most advertising sales for news programs. Last year, it was in a virtual tie with CBS for first, the Nielsen company said.
Turness said that she wanted to reach out to the show's staff "to reiterate my support for the show and for David, now and into the future, as we work together to evolve the format." She said Gregory is at the helm for any changes in the works.


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It's been a mind-boggling fortnight at the Internet water cooler. Kony 2012. Mike Daisey's dubious portrayal of Apple's manufacturing practices abroad. Questions of whether the "Christian Movie Establishment" is "out to get" Blue Like Jazz … and an Amazon petition to let Rachel Held Evans use the word "vagina" in her forthcoming book, The Year of Biblical Womanhood.
Running through each of these stories and the surrounding debate are similar themes: truth, storytelling, power, persuasion. The online conversation is often vicious and acrimonious, reflecting a trend that's spurred some writers to leave reader comments unread.
Adding to the intensity of the discussions is that almost each of these controversies involves an effort to change something: the Ugandan geo-political scene; unethical manufacturing practices; ways of talking about religious experience; "Christian" expectations for women. That's not to say these creators set out with those ends as their foremost goal, but their projects were certainly meant to be more than beautiful or useful.
The problem is that attempting change requires changing minds. With Kony 2012, viewers had to be persuaded a problem they hadn't previously heard of was real and obliged them to respond. But trying to change minds presents at least two challenges.
First, people hold opinions and convictions for several reasons, some of which are more amenable to persuasion than others. As a book I once read described it, some opinions are held on the basis of fact, some emotion, others prejudice.
Obviously, the first kind of position is the easiest to change. Present evidence that Mike Daisey did not have the interviews he claimed to, or that the circumstances he described exist whether or not he personally witnessed them, and people whose opinions about him or Apple were based on prior information may change their minds.
Positions held for emotional or other reasons are more resistant to facts, however. It is in such cases that the second challenge of persuasion is most acute. That challenge is the difference between the speaker and the hearer, the persuader and the could-be-swayed.
To want to change someone's mind is to see things differently than he or she does — and, frequently, to use the same words differently. Anyone who's been abroad can probably think of examples — words like "napkin" or "biscuit" that meant quite different things to others than expected.
But when dealing with those who share your nationality, maybe even your religion, it's easy to assume they'll know what you mean by a word like "religion" or "freedom" … or "f---." That was the word I wrestled with six years ago, while writing my memoir of reluctant chastity, Sexless in the City.
Somehow I had to explain to the reader how I, a regular church attendee and self-described "serious" Christian, found myself dragging a more experienced friend into a sex shop to help me purchase a token of revenge for a former date I'd met on Craigslist.
In the brain of the girl who'd once aspired to a journalistic career, sticking to the facts mattered. So if the reason for our shopping trip was that Ad Weasel had once told me, "Call me when you want to f---," that had to go in the book verbatim.
But after I sent the chapter to a small group of friends reviewing the manuscript, one objected to the language. When I protested that certain details were important, he reminded me that Hitchcock had made great use of viewers' imaginations, often implying more than he showed.
So I thought about it. I thought about friends from the bar, who would hear my story and think Ad Weasel a bit of a jerk, but little more. And I thought about the relatives who would be so offended that I'd use a coarse word in reporting the story, they might be more upset with me than the guy who said it to me.
Would anyone realize why that one sentence drove me to an unprecedented quest for vengeance?
While literalism and candor were important to my book, so too was engaging both Christian and secular readers in a discussion of sexual mores. Somehow I had to find words that would translate to both audiences, even if some phrases weren't my first choice. Surprisingly, the final version felt more honest than the first.
It took more time and scrapped words to find the right ones, but persuasion is always like that. It's a balance of truth and translation, with the shoals of accommodation on one side, misunderstanding and alienation on the other. And yet, if we don't find ways to graciously communicate with those with whom we disagree, nothing changes. If my friend hadn't so adroitly combined respect and objection, he couldn't have helped me grow as a writer.
Mutual help and correction is one of the foundations of Christian community. Without it, others can't help us discover and correct our blindspots, and we can't help them recognize the failings and flaws of their own.
Most of you who will read this are not in the position to create something like Kony 2012 or Blue Like Jazz. But you're probably among the legions of those who comment on articles about those projects, including this one. And you may be likeliest to weigh in when you disagree or object.
When you do so, will you take the time and care to consider how your words might actually get others to think, even help them grow as people? Will you pursue a dialogue that could change both you and others for the better? Or will you simply shout an opinion intelligible only to those who already agree with you?
Anna Broadway is a writer and editor living near San Francisco. The author of Sexless in the City: A Memoir of Reluctant Chastity, she is a regular contributor to the Her.meneutics blog and has also written for Books and Culture, Patheos, RejectApathy, Radiant and Beliefnet.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!


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Ed Levine's Must-Eat New York Dishes of 2013
When you eat out as much as I do, summing up a year of eating is excruciatingly difficult. It's one of those "tough jobs, but someone has to do it." So here goes: a baker's dozen of things that made my 2013.
RedFarm's Pork Chops
Everyone knows that RedFarm's Joe Ng is New York's greatest dumpling chef, but with the opening of the new UWS Red Farm location, it's clear that in working with restaurateur Ed Schoenfeld he is now New York's most talented and skilled Chinese chef working in any medium. Take these pork chops marinated in soy, papaya juice, and various spices, incredibly moist and tender, streaked with grill marks, sitting on top of grilled peppers (whichever are in season at the greenmarket), scallions, and sometimes leeks. Somehow these pork chops are both Vietnamese-thin and new American-juicy.
How does Joe do it? His partner Ed says it's the combination of the marinade and a quick dip of the chops in hot water before he marinates them. However he does it, it's a monumental food achievement.
Fairway's Potato Chips
First Fairway mastered popcorn and now they have conquered the potato chip. Thick, dark brown, just salty enough, these are potatoes that bring back the old "bet you can't each just one" commercials. The only caveat: The chips are sold in bags above the hot steam table items at the 74th and Broadway store, which is where I buy them. As a result they can sometimes get soggy from the steam below. The answer to this problem: try one when you grab the bag, and if it's soggy, tell someone at the store.
A runner up: Rick Bishop's potato chips sold at his Mountain Sweet Berry Farm greenmarket stand at Union Square are thinner and smaller (they're not made with Russet potatoes like Fairway), but they're just as addictive.
Grom's Dark Hot Chocolate Affogato
With espresso ice cream and whipped cream, it's decadent and supremely chocolatey, not too sweet, and affordable considering its indulgence. This is such a rich concoction that a small definitely does the trick, unless you're with someone you care about a great deal, in which case you can share a large. More Grom »
DiPalo's Porchetta
Yes, the wait can be interminable at this 100 year-old latticini still presided over by the DiPalo clan. But if you time your visit for 1:30, about when the porchetta is just out of the oven and resting next to the incomparable fresh mozzarella, you won't have to wait too long to buy a hunk of the crispiest, juiciest, porkiest porchetta on this side of the Atlantic.
Balaboosta's Cabbage Salad and Chicken Schnitzel
I eat at Balaboosta often for business lunches, and I'll invariably ask my lunch companion to share two dishes: chef-owner Einat Admony crispy cabbage salad made with crispy noodles, mint, and the optional grilled chicken (you will want the usually insanely juicy grilled chicken), and the ultra-crispy chicken schnitzel made with a corn-flake crust. I think of it as Balaboosta's version of Chicken Two Ways. You'll just think of it as two damn good plates of food.
Landmark Pancake House's Bacon, Egg, and Cheese
I know not the provenance of the egg, bacon, or cheese used on this sandwich at Landmark Diner, but what I do know is that they get it right every damn time. The egg is perfectly cooked soft (no easy feat on a griddle), the bacon is deep-fried to order, and when they're both put on a slice of cheese already sitting on half of a well-toasted English muffin, you end up with the egg sandwich of your dreams, no more and no less.
Asparagus and Mushroom Croissant at Balthazar
Filled croissants are invariably a soggy, disappointing eating experience. That's why it was such a delightful surprise to bite into Balthazar Bakery's asparagus and mushroom croissant: light, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside croissant dough filled with just the right amount of al dente asparagus and mushrooms that taste like they have been sautéed in really good butter. This croissant is the perfect walking lunch.
Cheese Roll at Maison Kayser
I admit—I'm a sucker for cheese rolls. I miss Madge Rosenberg's cheddar rolls at the recently shuttered Soutine more than I can tell you. Then to my rescue came Eric Kayser's cheese rolls at Maison Kayser. They're small and roundish, filled with pockets of Gruyere cheese, but what elevates them to near mythic status is that most of the time they'll be a round frico-like disk of baked, crunchy cheese on the bottom. I eat that first, because who wouldn't?
Original A Pizza at Paulie Gee's
I'm more than a little embarrassed that 2013 was the first time I had actually set foot in Slice commenter turned pizzaiolo supreme Paulie Giannone's pizzeria (I had previously had his pizza brought to me as leftovers in the SE office), but I'm man enough to admit it, and now wise enough to know that Paulie has learned from the all the pie men he has come into contact with and developed his own pizza style. He uses a thin but pliant crust, unique topping combinations that invariably make perfect sense, mozz that's creamy and fresh, and simple sauce that Paulie is smart enough to know is just a vehicle for the other aforementioned elements of his pizza.
And now, with the announcement that our own Adam Kuban is going to open a Paulie Gee's in Portland, I'm more bursting with pride than ever about Paulie's success and Adam's finding of his calling. I am partial to the off-the-menu "Famous Original A pie", which Adam himself has described perfectly on the site: "The Famous Original A is nothing crazy or super unique—in fact it's pretty much Paulie's "Brian DeParma" (sauce and Parmigianno-Reggiano) with a dusting of Romano and then sausage and onion added."
The man is being modest. It's fucking awesome.
Hot Dog at Epicerie Boulud
Caramelized onions come on the hot dog at Daniel Boulud's sandwich and take-out shop along with mustard, ketchup, and frisée, but if you ask for the crispy shallots that normally go on the Banh mi dog there and skip the frisée, which has no place on a hot dog, you will end up with one swell hot dog. Yes, it's $8 (which means you can get four hot dogs for the same price at Gray's Papaya nine blocks away), but the juicy natural-casing beef and pork hot dog is twice as big, and when you throw in the toppings mentioned above, it's worth every penny. The sticker shock increases when you pay and realize you also have to pay the tax. Such are the indignities we sometimes suffer in search of greatness.
Bagels and Bialys at Fred's at Barney's
With Hot Bread Kitchen, Kossar's, and Fred's the unjustly neglected bialy has been reinvigorated and restored to its former glory. Mark Straussman's bialys are small, onion-y, and ready to eat right out of the bag. No toasting required. Note: they only make them on Sundays for pick-up. Call ahead by Friday to reserve yours.
Babka, Cheese Straws, and Olive Sticks at Breads Bakery
There's the heavy, usually dry babka we all grew up with and tolerated, and then there's Israeli baking whiz Uri Scheft's babka at his Breads Bakery in Union Square, which basically redefines this classic Jewish baked good. Light, moist, bursting with flavor and character, and not tasting of cheap cinnamon, this is the babka of all of our dreams. And while you're there get some equally transcendent cheese sticks and olive sticks.
A Can of Diet Barq's at Nolita Mart
Until someone tells me a place where they sell diet Barq's in either 20-ounce bottles or the 12-ounce longneck glass bottles, I have to be thankful that our friends at our local coffee and noshing bar Nolita Mart go to the trouble of picking up cases of 12-ounce Diet Barq's cans in New Jersey and bringing them back to their beautifully curated store, located a mere half-block from Serious Eats World HQ. The only other place I have seen Diet Barq's is in those space-age multi-flavor soda dispensers at certain movie theaters like the Loew's on 84th Street (that's the one with the insanely comfortable seats) and at the Steak and Shake Signature location at 53rd and Broadway. Chasing a Steak & Shake classic cheeseburger with grilled onions and their salty fresh-cut French fries with a Diet Barq's is a quintessential midtown eating experience.
Still hungry? Follow SE:NY on Twitter and Facebook.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Classroom Production House: Webster University Students Learn While Helping Build a Brand
Feb. 13, 2013
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 13, 2013 – Once students graduate into the working world, class projects
are replaced by client meetings but for a few students at Webster University, one
class is offering a slice of professional life.
The class, "Pro-Seminar in Video Production" is offered through Webster University's School of Communications. From client meetings to final projects, the work load mimics that of a professional video production house. While the students have completed professional-quality videos for other organizations in previous semesters, they can now add their own university to their client list with the completion of six videos promoting programs and majors on campus.
"When I heard that the Global Marketing & Communications Department had a need for additional videos, I thought it was a great opportunity to prove that our students are just as proficient as people who do this work professionally," said Aaron AuBuchon, Assistant Professor, Electronic and Photographic Media.
The class received direction on University programs that needed additional coverage and used some existing videos as a template for what was needed. Students did the work on each video from the planning and shooting to the editing.
"We have so much talent on campus, it was a great chance for us to work across units at Webster University to create something that could benefit students, our department and the overall University," said Karen Burch, Manager, Video and Photography at Webster University. "This was an opportunity for the Global Marketing and Communications Department to utilize their video and editing skills, while the students were able to build their professional portfolio."
Students also saw the value in the project. "I feel much more confident in my ability to go out and interact with clients in a professional setting," said Catharine Goeke, a student in AuBuchon's class. "I know that I am capable of leading a team in a project and working with that team throughout the whole process. It's very valuable to be able to walk away from college and know that you already have the experience that will help you get jobs and grow as a professional."
Jeff G'Sell, another student in the class, acted as lead editor on many of the videos and agreed that the production house set-up is beneficial for his career. "This class gives us the unique opportunity to work on projects for clients that will actually be used," he said "This allows us to have professional video pieces to add to our portfolio which puts me in a position where I feel more prepared for my future career."
Webster University is just one of many clients on the classes' roster. Students are also doing work for Tenth Life, a St. Louis shelter for cats; Emmaus Homes, a faith-based non-profit helping those with developmental disabilities in the St. Louis area; the "Stay Tuned" show on the Nine Network; and Zombie Squad, an international organization that teaches about survival preparedness and disaster training.
The Webster University videos created by the Pro-Seminar class can be viewed on the University's YouTube page and include an inside look at the following programs: Photography, Combined Degree, Video Production, Political Science,Mathematics and Education and Animation.


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There is something amazing about baking a cake for someone. It fills you with a sense of achievement and makes you feel generous… Yes, agreed, anyone can walk into a bakery and buy the fanciest cake out there, but nothing beats the feeling of baking a cake from scratch (with imperfect frosting, of course) and bringing it over to celebrate someone. That smile on their face – priceless. Starting from the planning to baking it, each step has that person's thoughts etched in your mind.
Every time I bake something like Mishti Doi Cheesecake/Greek Yogurt Cheesecake or, Sticky Date Pudding with Rum Caramel Sauce, I'm engulfed with memories of my parents.
The special part about this Birthday Chocolate Cake is
- You don't need an oven (Yeah, you heard it right)
- Its done in less than 30 minutes (Literally)
- You need no fancy Baking gadgets. All you need a microwave proof mug.
- You don't have to worry about the left overs
Last year in August, I baked a The Naked Red Velvet Cake. It was three-tier and it took me quite a bit of work. This year, I decided to keep it really simple yet classic. :). I also decided to make this Birthday Chocolate Cake just for two (Sounds selfish, no?). I was debating between an Afogatto and a quick chocolate cake for two. Decided on the latter. This Birthday Chocolate Cake for Two is a really simple cake. All you need is less than 30 minutes (that includes the baking and frosting time as well).
I decided to frost the cake with Strawberry Buttercream and the buttercream was so delicious that, I literally licked it off the bowl.
These Chocolate Cakes for Two would be perfect to serve for dessert on Valentine's day, or for any other special day where all you want is celebrate someone you adore or even for those days when you just have a bad chocolate craving.
They are quick and simple to make, taste great and you don't have to worry about leftovers.
For the cake
- ½ cup sugar
- 7 TBSP all-purpose flour
- 3 TBSP cocoa powder
- ¼ TSP baking powder
- ¼ TSP baking soda
- ¼ TSP salt
- ¼ cup milk
- 5 TBSP canola oil
- ½ TSP vanilla extract
- 2 TBSP instant coffee
For the Strawberry Buttercream:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
- 2 TBSP seedless strawberry jam
- 1/2 TSP vanilla extract
- 1 TBSP whole milk
- pinch of salt
- In a small bowl, mix together all dry cake ingredients.
- Mix in wet ingredients, stirring until combined.
- Heavily grease two large mugs with butter and evenly distribute batter into mugs.
- Microwave each mug by itself for 90 seconds on high.
- Remove from microwave and shake slightly to loosen cake from mug.
- Flip mug over onto parchment paper-lined plate or board.
- The cake should drop right out.
- Completely cool the cakes
- Cream together butter and ½ cup of confectioner's sugar at a time.
- After each cup of sugar has been added, add strawberry jam, then add vanilla and then beat on high for about 20 seconds to lighten the frosting.
- Add milk and salt and whip on high for a final 20 seconds.
- Frost the top of each layer before stacking.
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We are not allowing the purchase of backordered parts at this time.
With over 15,000 British Car parts in stock, we ship most orders complete within 24-48 business hours. Our FREE catalogs are the most accurate, fully illustrated, completely detailed British car parts and accessories catalogs available for MG, Triumph, Austin Healey and Sunbeam.
Order Online 24/7 ... Fast, Simple and Safe.
The British Motor Heritage, Austin Healey, MG and Triumph Logos used in this catalog are Trade Marks of British Motor Heritage Ltd. The logos are used with their license under their special approval program. Applications listed are based on original factory information. However, variances will occur due to non-documented substitutions and changes made during the vehicle production.
My wife and I bought our little '78 Spitfire last November for $2000. It was in great shape mechanically, but had been a well-loved daily driver for over 30 years and the interior and paint were showing their age. We took it on ourselves to restore the interior using lots of part and pieces from Victoria British. It turns heads wherever it goes, and it goes everywhere. We are spending our spring and summer going to a different drive-in every weekend, taking the most rural country routes we can find. The adventure is getting there, and we're loving every minute on the road. Scott and Buffy B. - Nashville, TN
Parts at Victoria British Ltd. are reasonable and the memorable experiences our family has had in our '78 MGB are truly priceless. Donna W. - St. Joseph, MO
I restored a 1972 MG Midget in 1988 with almost all Victoria British parts. It is essentially stock but I have plans for a hotter engine, a hardtop, and rollbar in the near future. I had a Bugeye and a '68 Sprite back in the 70's but was away from sports cars for almost twenty years while I did the usual job advancement, buying a house, having children, and moving across the country. Once we settled down in Georgia and my son was old enough to be some help, I searched for another Midget to restore. It was a great father-son project and we both have a car to be proud of. Proud we did it together and proud of the way it turned out. Victoria British parts and service made it all possible and relatively painless. Thank you. Robert S. - Sharpsburg, GA
My '66 Sunbeam Series II Alpine was delivered to me in Hong Kong in 1968. I had it painted champagne gold in 1988. Thank you for keeping me in spare parts all these years, it still runs great! Cecil H. - Vancouver BC Canada


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Well it's taken a long time for me to get this book finished but it's finally done and out in the stores for sale! This is thanks to the hard work of the Caitlin Press Publishing crew. I am very happy with how it turned out. Vici (the owner of Caitlin Press) said she wanted to try to get it in color but was not sure it would be possible. But she managed the impossible and it looks great. There are many color photos inside that illustrate what I was up to. Some you will have seen on this blog and some are new.
It was a nice surprise to wake up to a box of my very own book on my front porch last week. Even funnier surprise to hear that my mum bought a copy for my dad for Father's Day!


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- About Meta
- Discussion pages
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- Policies and guidelines
- Information and statistics
- Categories
- Help pages
Project logos are trademarks that serve as the identifying mark for that project and its components. They serve to unify work on those projects, and help contributors identify with that project, across subprojects and language versions; online and offline, in banners and on sweet gear (stickers, ear tunnels, &c.) Logos of major Wikimedia projects are registered by the WMF to protect the projects and communities from clones or impostor sites that might deceive or harm users, or might otherwise cause confusion about the shared identity and goals of the Project.
Current logosEdit
See wmf:Wikimedia official marks for details about the logos.
- Project: Meta-Wiki
- Author: commons:User:WarX
- Legal status: Public domain
- See also: Community Logo
- Project: Wikimedia movement
- Author: User:Neolux
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- Project: Wikimedia Commons
- Author: User:Reidab.
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Commons:Logo
- Project: Wikidata
- Author: User:Planemad
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Voting contest
- Project: Wikipedia (version 2.0)
- Logo development: Wikipedia/Logo and c:Special:MyLanguage/Wikipedia/2.0
- Authors:
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Wikipedia/Logo, Logo history, Errors in the Wikipedia logo
- high-resolution: blueprint SVG
- Project: Wiktionary
- Author: w:User:Smurrayinchester
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- Project: Wikibooks
- Author: User:Bastique, User:Ramac et al.
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- Project: Wikiquote
- Author: User:Neolux
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- Remarks: variant A is on the English Wikipedia, Variant B is used on Wikiquote itself. Which is now the official logo? (The logo shown to the right is intended to be the official logo, A was just a quick draft - Neolux)
- Project: Wikisource
- Author: en:User:Zanimum
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Image:Wikisource-newberg-de.png, commons:Image:Iceberg.jpg, w:en:Iceberg, New Wikisource logo
- Project: Wikispecies
- Author: wikispecies:User:Zephram Stark (based on concept by en:User:Jeremykemp)
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Logo Concepts, w/English text
- Project: Wikinews
- Authors: User:Jasonp55 and User:David Vasquez
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Wikinews logo contest voting
- Project: Wikiversity
- Authors: User:Snorky
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Wikiversity/logo
- Project: Wikimedia Incubator
- Author: User:NielsF
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Voting contest
- Project: Wikivoyage
- Author: User:AleXXw
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- See also: Voting contest
- Project: Wikimania
- Author: User:Kaganer (bitmap version for Wikimania 2006), vectorized by User:Tlogmer
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- Project: Wikimedia Cloud Services
- Author: User:Brandon Harris (bitmap and concept), vectorized by User:Isarra
- Legal status: CC BY-SA 3.0
- Project: MediaWiki
- Author: User:Anthere (tournesol flower) and User:Eloquence (combination, concept), reworked by User:Aka, vectorized by User:Chrkl; brackets fixed by User:guillom
- Legal status: Public domain
- Project: Wikitech
- Author: based on MediaWiki logo by User:Aka, User:Anthere, modified by User:Isarra, User:Brion Vibber, User:Eloquence.
- Legal status: GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.2 (or higher), CC-BY-SA-3.0
If you propose a new logo for a project please add the copyright tag {{CopyrightByWikimedia}} to the image description page. If you are the creator of one of the logos, please change the copyright on the image description page accordingly.
Logo guidelinesEdit
Proposing new logosEdit
Don't change the logo on a project without a discussion with (at a minimum) the affected communities and the board. The logo identity of our websites is important for professionalism and consistency, to help end users be familiar with us, and we should be thoughtful about changes. Logos are global: All languages have to use the same logo, logo changes are possible on a project level only, but not for one language.
Since the Wikimedia logos are used in many different circumstances, a logo must scale well from great versions on flags to small favicons on the website. It must be substantially different from the other project logos but still harmonize with the others.
If you propose a new logo for a Wikimedia project it must not be licensed under GFDL. Copyright should be transferred to the Wikimedia Foundation instead. It may be useful to review the Mozilla trademark policies to gain an initial understanding of the problems of trademarks licensed under the GFDL. It is our intention to license the logos in a manner consistent with our values, and a free-using license on a logo is legally a very baffling thing.
Logo checklistEdit
- Assign the copyright to the Wikimedia Foundation (Contact the General Counsel)
- Submit all necessary formats
- Wiki.png for the website
- Vectorized version with text (SVG and EPS if possible, text should be embedded as graphic)
- Vectorized version without text
- Favicon
- Submit a specification
- Color specification in CMYK and RGB
- Used fonts
Temporary logo variantsEdit
There have been a few instances of logos temporarily changed for holidays on some wikis. This practice is discouraged. The problem is: it is tough to do it well, in a way that doesn't conflict with our neutrality policies. To illustrate what this means: is a Christmas logo neutral towards religion? If the en.wikipedians voted for a US Flag logo on the 4th of July, would this be neutral? Obviously not. But this sort of consideration will come into play for almost every holiday, and for now, unless and until we find a way to come to consensus about it, this sort of temporary change should be avoided.
On the other hand, projects sometimes change their logo to celebrate significant milestones (for example, five/ten year anniversary, 100,000 or 1 million etc. articles). This practice is welcome, and even encouraged, to help projects celebrate.
Interface administrators should not override the logo with a temporary logo by editing MediaWiki:Common.css of their wiki, as this would make web browsers download both logos and would increase traffic (see phab:T256295#6496718 for technical details).
Instead, request a configuration change (which unfortunately will require some waiting (due to T98640). Only if you are technically interested, feel welcome to write that configuration change yourself.
Wikimedia movement affiliates logosEdit
Best practices for Wikimedia movement affiliate logo creation are provided by the Affiliations Committee based on the Wikimedia Foundation's visual identity guidelines (specifically in regards to the Wikimedia Foundation mark), the Wikimedia Foundation's trademark policy, input from Wikimedia Foundation's Legal and Community Advocacy and Communications teams, and input from the community.
Every movement affiliate is able to pick from three basic options:
- Custom logo – may or may not include any Wikimedia logo component as permitted by the Wikimedia Foundation's trademark policy.
- Wikimedia community logo variant – based on the Wikimedia community logo.
- Wikimedia Foundation logo variant – below best practices provide information on how different types of movement affiliates logos may be based on the Wikimedia Foundation logo.
Big version suitable for use in printed publicationsEdit
These great versions are suitable for use in printed publications. Please refer to commons:Category:High-resolution or SVG official Wikimedia logos and commons:Category:High-resolution localized Wikimedia logos.
This section was outdated and has been blanked; see the history for previous situation.
- How can I get a version of the Logo for my Wikipedia?
- See wmf:Wikimedia official marks/Word mark creation and Requesting wiki configuration changes.
See also Wikipedia in other languages, User:Cbrown1023/Logos and a somewhat more detailed description regarding setting up a new logo for Wikibooks.
See alsoEdit
You can read the Logo history in prose or follow the links:
- The OldWikiPediaLogo
- The International logo contest
- The International logo contest/Final logo variants
- International logo contest/Final logo variants/Nohat
- Wikibooks
- Wikijunior
- Wikipedia
- Wikiversity
- Wiktionary
- Wikivoyage
- Wikidata
- Logo (current logos, guidelines, localisation)


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The terms and conditions depend on the address and status (private person or company) of the buyer.
In Finland, the provisions on distance selling are to be found in Chapter 6 of the Consumer Protection Act. Finnish law is applied when the buyer is a consumer locating in Finland. See more here [1].
In European Union, The Distance Selling Directive defines the minimum level of consumer protection. See more here [2]. The fact sheet of Direective about consumers rights in EU is here [4].
Selling to other countries is based on "General Terms and Conditions of Sale of VLSI Solution". See more here [3].
Following table summarizes the applied reference;
|[1] [4]
|Any EU country
|[2] [4]
|Outside EU
|Any country
These terms are originally for customers that order large quantities and use wire transfer for the payments. Some conditions, such as 30 days net payment time can not be applied here since the ordering in Web Store is done on-line and all payments are done advance the shipment. All shipments are from headquarters of VLSI Solution in Finland (see "Contact us" information of the left bar).
Some products require decoder licenses. The required licenses are shown under "Additional Product Information" when "Display Product" is selected. When mp3 license of Thomson is needed, the device price includes the license. For other WMA and AAC, customer needs to contact Microsoft or Via Licensing. Note that VLSI can provide software plugin (contact firstname.lastname@example.com) to disable WMA or AAC feature in the final product to avoid license payment when WMA or AAC decoding feature is not needed.
Customer need to request "Windows Media Components Final Product Agreement" of Windows Media Components, see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windowsmedia-components-licensing. The royalty rate was 0.10 USD with annual maximum of 400kUSD at the time this instruction was written. Note that license applies only to those who sell final products to consumers. If you are developer you do not need to pay royalties.
Customer need to request "MPEG-4 Audio Patent License Agreement" for two channels of audio decoder circuit, see http://www.vialicensing.com/licensing/aac-overview.aspx. Note that the license is needed by manufacturers or developers of end user encoder and/or decoder products. The license fee for two channels was 0.98 USD up to 500k units annually at the time this instruction was written.


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A selection of awesome HPI Racing off-road vehicles will be hitting the airwaves as they invade the Big Brother UK house! The housemates will be astounded when they learn about their latest task, which will revolve around a wide array of HPI remote-controlled off-road trucks, including the Wheely King, E-Firestorm 10T, E-Savage, Crawler King and Blitz short-course truck!
We're not quite sure what will happen to the HPI kits once they get into the Big Brother housemate's hands, but we're sure it will be entertaining!
Big Brother is one of the most widely-watched daily television programmes in the United Kingdom, drawing millions of viewers each day! Widespread exposure like this can only help expand the influence of radio-control cars with the general public outside the hobby, and we're sure all of the Big Brother viewers will enjoy seeing what Big Brother has planned for the HPI RC kits and the housemates! The kits that will be used in the Big Brother house include: #102117 Crawler King with Land Rover Defender 90 bodyshell #103172 Crawler King with Jeep Wrangler bodyshell #10831 E-Firestorm 10T racing truck #10551 Wheely King 4x4 monster truck #548 E-Savage 4x4 dual-motor monster truck


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Dangerous water: Well contamination 'a statewide problem'
WESTON -- Jessica Penna and Elle Wilson spent three years undergoing a battery of medical tests, searching for answers they now believe were floating in their well water all along.
The Weston mothers suffered similar symptoms: hair loss, stomach and joint pain, body numbness and skin rashes. After shelling out thousands of dollars on blood tests, CAT scans, skin biopsies, ultrasounds and even a brain scan, they decided to test their well water.
It turned out arsenic, in levels more than twice the federal Environmental Protection Agency's recommended health limit of 0.01 milligrams per liter, had been flowing from the two women's taps -- and they're not alone. The Connecticut Department of Public Health has received numerous reports in recent years of pesticide and heavy metal contamination in residential drinking water across the state. But the state has done little research on the source or location of well water contaminants such as arsenic, and requires the testing of private drinking water only once -- when a new well is installed.
"I have been sick for three years; I've been searching for answers," said Penna, a Stamford native. "Most people associate well water with natural springs. It's the best water, it's so clean. It's so healthy. You think that you're fine."
`A statewide problem'
Penna and Wilson's test results convinced them their health problems are linked to years of drinking and bathing in arsenic-laced water.
"To finally have an answer that was in my well water all along -- I never thought that all my symptoms were connected to the same thing," Penna said. "I just thought I was falling apart."
Penna and Wilson live in the same wooded neighborhood of rural Weston, where the majority of the town's 10,000 residents use private well water. The Weston Field Club, about four miles away, also recently tested positive for elevated arsenic levels, said General Manager Jeff Champion.
More InformationThe Westport-Weston health department will hold a public meeting with state health officials on well water contamination at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 11 at the Weston Public Library.
Weston residents rushed to test their own well water after hearing of Penna and Wilson's findings, and 104 homeowners have reported their results to the Westport-Weston Health Department, Director Mark Cooper said. About 30 percent of the wells tested positive for arsenic in levels above the acceptable health limit.
Arsenic contamination is not confined to Weston's borders. Stamford's health department detected arsenic in 24 of 227 well water tests performed since 2010. The state DPH has also found the heavy metal in drinking wells across Connecticut, most recently in Pomfret and Somers, said state epidemiologist Brian Toal.
"We've seen enough of it and it's been in enough different places that we do think -- it's an isolated, it's a sporadic problem -- but it is a statewide problem," Toal said.
The state has not investigated the scope or severity of arsenic contamination, however, even though the heavy metal has been linked to serious health problems. There are an estimated 400,000 private wells in Connecticut serving approximately 526,700 people, but it's not known how prevalent arsenic is in residential well water.
"We don't have a statewide database and we have not done a statewide survey," Toal said. "The testing that occurs is usually just citizen-initiated."
Skin, stomach, immune and neurological problems are common symptoms of arsenic exposure. These health issues are usually associated with very high levels of arsenic contamination and hair loss is not a common side effect, Toal said. The main health concern stemming from long-term arsenic exposure is an elevated risk of lung, bladder or skin cancer.
The state public health department recommends homeowners with high levels of arsenic in their well water stop drinking from the tap until they've installed remediation systems on their homes. Metal oxide filters or reverse osmosis procedures are typically used to treat arsenic contamination, but homeowners should consult a water service professional to determine which method would work best for their house, Toal said.
Searching for answers
Wilson's family has lived in their 19th-century farmhouse for three years. They stopped drinking the water about a year ago, after several family members began experiencing stomach pain.
A water sample taken from Wilson's kitchen and analyzed by Aqua Environmental Laboratory in Newtown contained 0.021 milligrams of arsenic per liter, which is twice the recommended health limit. Wilson then sent samples of her family's hair out for analysis -- her five-year-old daughter's hair tested positive for high arsenic levels, she said.
"It's one thing if you know as an adult that you could possibly get cancer or be sick," Wilson said. "But for your children to possibly get cancer is what I'm not sleeping over."
Health officials believe arsenic enters private well water from the surrounding bedrock. State Geologist Margaret Thomas said naturally-occurring arsenic is found in rocks that contain iron sulfites, which are prevalent in New England.
"It's actually a quite beautiful mineral to see, it's sparkly and silver, but that is one of the primary carriers of arsenic in the bedrock," Thomas said.
The state has not studied the location or extent of arsenic-containing bedrock, although it would be possible to do a geographic analysis based on geologic mapping, Thomas said. Arsenic was also historically used as a pesticide, mainly in apple orchards.
"The issue with arsenic is always that lingering question of whether or not it has to do with historic pesticide application or whether it's naturally occurring in the rock," Thomas said. "It is worth investigating, but regardless of the source it's still not a constituent you would want to be drinking."
Penna, a mother of three young children whose home was built in the 1960s, moved to Weston eight years ago. Her once-thick hair has since fallen out in clumps -- she was able to fill a plastic sandwich bag with brown strands collected from the drain after one shower. She decided to test her well water after other Weston mothers reported similar hair loss.
"I think the hair was the first thing that linked us all together because it was such a traumatizing thing," Penna said. "Then as we started talking together and comparing our symptoms; we were just checking all the same things off the list."
The water sampled from Penna's kitchen sink and analyzed by Aqua Environmental contained arsenic in amounts equal to 0.022 milligrams per liter, more than twice the acceptable health limit. Another raw water test performed a month later by Stratford-based Complete Environmental Testing Inc. found similar arsenic levels -- 0.024 milligrams per liter.
Penna installed a water filtration system, but wanted to know if the metal was present in her body after years of drinking her well water. She consulted several doctors and toxicologists but had a hard time finding someone who could test her for arsenic poisoning.
"I spoke to six different toxicologists across the state," Penna said. "It was mind-boggling to me that the medical treatment and research wasn't there to help me."
She eventually visited a Westport natural pathologist, who sent a sample of her hair to a Georgia laboratory for analysis. The results revealed high arsenic levels, with her hair sample testing positive for 1.16 micrograms per gram -- well above the recommended limit of 0.15 micrograms per gram.
"This might sound strange but when I read it I was jumping for joy at the fact that it said I have arsenic poisoning," Penna said. "This has been a mystery for me for three years ... now I know what the problem is and I can move forward to treat it."
A fact sheet published on the state health department's website said urine and hair arsenic tests are "difficult to interpret and, according to the American Medical Association, are unreliable." The best way to investigate arsenic exposure is to test drinking water, according to the publication.
spreading the word
But homeowners won't know to test their wells for arsenic if public health officials don't alert them, Penna and Wilson said. The state DPH does not require private well owners to test their water for arsenic and other known toxins, such as pesticides, copper and radon. The department didn't even recommend statewide arsenic testing until last week, when it issued a news release recommending all homeowners test their well water every five years for arsenic and uranium.
"If levels are found to be higher than state or federal criteria, homeowners have a number of effective treatment options to lower levels of the metals to less concerning levels," Toal wrote in the March 18 release. "The cost for testing for both metals can range between $65-$100."
Penna said she doubts homeowners will really be aware of the issue unless the state requires periodic testing.
"If I hadn't gotten sick and done the research and learned to test for these contaminants I never would have known that they exist," Penna said. "Unless the state made private well owners aware of the contaminants -- aware of what can be in their well and let them know to test for it -- no one would know to test for it."
The state requires tests of private drinking water only once -- when the well is installed -- and arsenic is not on the list of contaminants laboratories are mandated to test for under the state Public Health Code. The code requires new wells to be tested for total coliform, nitrate, nitrite, sodium, chloride, iron, manganese, hardness, turbidity, pH, sulfate, apparent color and odor.
Requiring homeowners to test their wells more frequently or changing the health code to encompass a wider range of contaminants would require legislative approval.
"That would be a long process and something we can think about, but that's not something we could do unilaterally," Toal said.
The General Assembly's Environmental Committee chairman said he is open to exploring the issue. State Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford, said he would support expanding the list of contaminants that laboratories are required to test for when new wells are installed. Mandating more frequent testing of private drinking water would be a tougher bill to pass, however.
"There would be some controversy about expanding the (frequency of) testing on the grounds that there's an expense involved and that's sort of a private right because it's a private source of water," Meyer said. "But I can't see any controversy with respect to expanding the list of contaminants."
State health officials are looking to boost the public's awareness of arsenic contamination, Toal said. Earlier this year the public health department updated its fact sheet, "Arsenic in Private Drinking Water Wells," which it sent to local health officials and posted online.
"Hopefully we'll get out and do some publicity in the near future," Toal said. "We changed the fact sheet a month ago and we're stepping up our efforts."
Penna and Wilson said they think health officials should be doing more.
"I just have a feeling nobody knows about this," Wilson said. "You buy a house, you're excited about the house. You don't even think about the water. I would never know to test for arsenic -- never in a million years."
Mark Cooper, the health director for Weston and Westport, said the department recommends private homeowners test their wells every year. He is creating a map with the test results homeowners have reported, which will be made public, and plans to hold a joint meeting with state health officials on arsenic contamination next month.
"The private testing, it's blown me away by how many people have gone out and done it by themselves and have been willing to share the results," Cooper said. "It's been wonderful. We now have more test results than we know what to do with."
Weston First Selectwoman Gayle Weinstein, a Democrat, warned the town will not be footing the bill for private well water testing or filtration systems.
"It is the homeowner's responsibility to test the well water and then remediate it," she said.
Penna and Wilson said they don't expect the government to pay for their well water testing or hook their homes up to city water -- they just want more public education about water contamination.
"We're taking care of ourselves," Penna said. "I think for both of us it was just important to reach out to the rest of the community and let them know that this is a problem. We just didn't want anyone else getting sick."
Penna is using Facebook to urge other Weston mothers to test their well water. Some residents have responded with fear that a contamination finding could hurt their property values, she said.
"I think that our health should come first and I don't think it should affect property values because it's a problem that can be fixed so long as you know it exists," Penna said. "My fight is to let other families and all the towns that have well water -- not just Weston -- become aware of these contaminants that are in their wells."
Assuaging property value fears and changing the way local and state health officials approach water contamination will not happen overnight, said Stamford resident Karen DeFalco.
DeFalco, president of the North Stamford Concerned Citizens for the Environment nonprofit, was an early advocate for municipal and state intervention in 2009 after the carcinogenic pesticides chlordane and dieldrin were discovered in North Stamford drinking wells. Stamford's public testing program, which has tested more than 1,000 of the city's estimated 5,000 private drinking wells over the last year, has helped local and state officials learn more about pesticide contamination and inspired other testing across Connecticut.
"When we started the fear was insurmountable; it was huge," DeFalco said. "People didn't know what to do with it. They were fearful. The city wasn't giving any answers; the state wasn't giving any answers. But now as we have started to keep the dialogue going, all of the sudden the fear factor has subsided."
In the meantime, Penna said she plans to test her water quarterly. There's a whole list of other contaminants Penna has yet to check her well for. Her sister, who lives in Newtown, has already tested her home's water and discovered her radon levels are 18,000 picocuries per liter -- more than three times the state-recommended limit of 5,000 picocuries per liter.
"I personally think there's probably more than just arsenic in our water," Penna said. "But until I have money to test ... I won't know what's in it."
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