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So… weeks three and four. Let's just say that No Spend month has been a very revealing project for me.
The month did not really go as I planned, but we still spent a lot less than we would have otherwise.
We spent $257.85 on groceries these last two weeks. Add to that a tank of gas ($46.02), the pumpkin patch outing ($60) and favor's for H's birthday party ($14.44) and we spent $378.31 in two weeks.
Total spending this month so far: $624.62
My original budget was $335. So we blew it by $289.62.
I'm really bummed that I couldn't manage to stick to our original budget. I don't know whether I just set the bar too high for us, or I just… lacked the self-control.
Besides going over out budget though, I have one major disappointment: I didn't save anything.
Because last month, our spending was so out of control, that all this no spending has done was allow us to catch up. While we did blow the budget out of the water, we still spent about $700 less than we do in a typical month. Because of No Spend Month, we've gotten well caught up and in a great place to rebuild that savings account and for the holidays.
Overall, the project was a success. Next time I think I'll set more realistic goals. In the mean time, we've hit the reset button on spending, so that next time we attempt a no spend month, we can really sock that money away.
Did you attempt no spend month? Have you saved anything?


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10 Discussion Questions for Book Clubs and Others
Turn of Mind
By Alice LaPlante
Source: One-Minute Book Reviews
This guide for reading groups and others was not authorized or approved by the author, publisher or agent for the book. It is copyrighted by Janice Harayda and is only for your personal use. Its sale or reproduction is illegal except by public libraries, which may make copies for use in their in-house reading programs. Other groups that would like to use the guide may link to it or check the "Contact" page on One-Minute Book Reviews to learn how to request permission to reproduce it.
Jennifer White has moved from mental derangement to clarity so often since developing Alzheimer's disease that her friend Amanda O'Toole once said she kept reappearing "like some newly risen Christ." But the 64-year-old Chicago widow seems to need another kind of miracle after Amanda turns up dead with four fingers surgically removed from her right hand. As an orthopedic surgeon, Jennifer is a person of interest to the police and can't or won't remember if she killed her friend. Can she save herself as her mind betrays her? Her effort to understand what happened to her friend becomes, whether or not she realizes it, a journey both psychological and spiritual.
10 Discussion Questions for Turn of Mind:
1. Did you find Alice LaPlante's portrayal of the mind of a woman with Alzheimer's disease credible? Why?
2. How would you describe the character of Jennifer White? How does she change – and how does she remain the same – as her Alzheimer's disease gets worse?
3. Turn of Mind is a murder mystery and a family drama, and some people would argue that in a mystery, the plot matters most, and in a drama, the characters do. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the plot of Turn of Mind? How would you rate the character development? Do your rankings tell you anything about the book?
4. LaPlante uses the literary device known as unreliable narration, telling a story from the point of view of someone whose account you can't fully trust, throughout Turn of Mind. And Jennifer is certainly "unreliable" in the sense that her mind is deteriorating. But at times she seems more trustworthy than the people close to her, including her children, Fiona and Mark, and her caretaker, Magdalena. How believable did you find her story? Who was the most reliable or trustworthy character in the book?
5. Jennifer says that she has abandoned the faith of her childhood: "I was raised Catholic, but now I just like the accessories." [page 165] But she later speaks of friends "Sent by God," which suggests that she has accepted God. [page 305] How would you explain this change in belief?
6. Amanda compares Jennifer to a "newly risen Christ" after one of her returns from the darkness of Alzheimer's into the light of clarity. [Page 114] Other characters have names associated with Jesus, including his apostles James and Peter and his faithful follower Mary Magdalene. And the color white – the source of Jennifer's last name — symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus (which is why many clergy wear white vestments and churches display white lilies on Easter). Details like these are never accidental in a book by a serious writer. In what other ways does Jennifer appear to be a Christ figure or a stand-in for Jesus? How is she "resurrected"? What is LaPlante saying with all of this? What links is she drawing between suffering and faith? [More on this issue appears in a review of Turn of Mind posted on One-Minute Book Reviews on Jan. 15, 2012.]
7. A key symbol in Turn of Mind is that of the labyrinth, which people have interpreted in many ways over hundreds of years. Some scholars say it represents the maze-like path heaven or enlightenment. In Turn of Mind it could also represent the mind of someone with Alzheimer's or Jennifer's search for answers about Amanda's death. What do you think the labyrinth in Turn of Mind symbolizes?
8. One of the limits of writing from a first-person point of view (having an "I" tell the story) is that you can show only what the narrator sees. You can't go inside the heads of other characters as you can when you use an omniscient or all-seeing narrator. LaPlante tries to overcome this limit in part by having Jennifer write in a notebook that contains messages left for her by others, including her daughter, Fiona [pages 9, 35, 86]; her caretaker, Magdalena [pages 8, 54]; and her dead friend, Amanda [pages 66–68]. Jennifer also gets a letter from her son, Mark [pages 71–73]. Were the notes in the notebook credible? Why or why not?
9. Did you notice that Jennifer switches from first-person narration ("I") to second-person narration ("you") at the start of Part Three? [Page 23] And that she switches to third-person narration ("she") on page 282? Why does Jennifer start referring to herself as "you" and "she"?
10. What did you think of LaPlante's decision to omit quotation marks from the book? Were you able always to follow the story or would quotation marks have made it easier?
1. Turn of Mind has moments of humor, such as a David Letterman parody in the form of a list of the Top 10 Signs You Have Alzheimer's. "No. 3: Girl Scouts come over and force you to decorate flower pots with them." [page 33] Were they appropriate? Which of the humorous moments do you remember?
2. Have you read other murder mysteries with unreliable narrators, such as Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent or Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? If so, how did Turn of Mind compare to them? An earlier post on One-Minute Book Reviews offered an answer to the question: Why do novelists used unreliable narration?
Vital statistics:
Turn of Mind. By Alice LaPlante. Atlantic Monthly Press, 305 pp., $24. Published: July 2011. Paperback due out in May 2012 from Grove.
A review of Turn of Mind appeared on One-Minute Book Reviews on Jan. 15, 2012.
Alice LaPlante talks to Jane Ciabattari about how she came to write Turn of Mind, which won the Wellcome Trust Book Prize in England. LaPlante has also written The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing.
Publishers' reading group guides are marketing tools designed to sell books. They encourage cheerleading more than a frank discussion of the merits and demerits of an author's work. Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guides are an alternative intended to give books a fuller context and to promote a more stimulating conversation.
One-Minute Book Reviews does not accept free books from editors, publishers or authors, and all reviews and guides offer an independent evaluation of books. Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guides appear frequently but not on a regular schedule. To avoid missing them, please bookmark this site or subscribe to the RSS feed.
Janice Harayda is a novelist and award-winning critic who has been the book columnist for Glamour, book editor of the Plain Dealer and a vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle. You can also follow her on Twitter, often comments on novels book clubs are reading, by clicking on the "Follow" button in the right sidebar.
© 2011 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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It was a simple idea: take a collection of independent games, offer them with no DRM, and allow people to pay whatever they'd like. The result? 123,182 people have paid for the bundle so far, and the total raised is now an incredible $1,126,563.
That generosity will be rewarded. "As of 5/11/10, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra Overture pledge to go open source," the developers blogged. "We are preparing the sources right now and will be releasing them ASAP." The sale was a huge success, began many conversations, and it provided insight into the behavior of gamers. Here's a look at what comes next.
Much larger than expected
"It's still pretty surreal. Once it was launched, it was immediately clear that we were on to something," Jeffry Rosen, the cofounder of Wolfire Games, told Ars. Raising a million dollars was seen as possible, but it was certainly a best-case scenario. "At the end, people really, really wanted to support the bundle and push it to make the million dollar milestone—we started seeing donations as large as $3333.33 and $1337.00 come in at the last few hours," Rosen explained. "Reddit completely lit up: I would estimate redditors to be the single largest benefactor, by far."
A lot of people were talking about DRM and piracy, but fewer were talking about the actual games in the bundle. Did the games themselves—which are more than worth your time—get lost in the shuffle? "I think we introduced a huge number of gamers to the indie community, and I hope they like what they see," Rosen said. "All of our forums are extremely busy now with activity. With Lugaru, people are actually already contributing patches, now that it is open source, and improving it."
That's the bonus prize: the games that are now open source. You'll want to check back for the licenses—no one is going to get rich reselling modified games—but poking around the code and improving the experience or trying your hand at creating content is going to be a great thing for the independent gaming community.
"When I saw this flurry of positive contributions, it immediately reminded me of its mirror image—the rush to be the first cracker to crack each new DRM scheme... It makes me a little sad to see all this effort expended on games with DRM. Could it work the same way in reverse?" Rosen wrote on the blog. "When Aquaria, Gish, and Penumbra Overture open up, I hope the community will help build them up with the same vigor that crackers tear DRM down."
What did we learn?
Just as impressive as the money raised was the amount of information gained about the community that picked up the bundle. There was a blog post detailing the popularity of the bundle on Linux and Mac OS X systems—much higher than assumed. The piracy rate was also explored, and that launched a heated conversation in our comments about what those numbers mean.
Publishers complain about piracy, and gamers complain about DRM, but in this case something new and novel was attempted, and the end result was profits for the developers, a ton of publicity, and another lump of cash for two very deserving causes.
"We are still finishing up, but whether it's us or someone else—I guarantee you will see more of these. We've already gotten a number of requests to purchase the website's code," Rosen told Ars. "You can bet there are many others already in development whether it's from developers directly or from other people."
What's next now that the sale has reached its conclusion? You can still donate and receive the games, but Rosen is going to return to his passion. "I have not really slept properly in over a week, so it will be great to be able to relax and rejoin my brother, working on our game."


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Parker: Michelle Obama becomes a star
If second-term presidents feel liberated by re-election to pursue bolder agendas, first ladies often become more comfortable to be their own person.
Witness Laura Bush, who in her husband's second term discovered that she, too, had a voice and a bully pulpit. Seemingly overnight, she transformed herself from librarian to liberator, becoming a voice for oppressed women — from advocating for Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratic leader then under house arrest, to spearheading a women's health movement across the Middle East.
Likewise, it appears that Michelle Obama has begun to break out. Though she long ago established herself as a health-and-fitness mom in chief, she had until recently been careful to stay well within the lines of traditional first lady. Obviously accomplished in her own right, she spent the past four years fashioning an image of good wife and mother to counter early impressions of her as politically ambitious and, to certain of her critics, angry.
Whatever she was then, she is something else now. In her second term, Michelle Obama has come out with, well, a bang! She isn't just breaking the mold; she's shattering the good china. The Madonna of first ladies, she is emerging as an iconoclastic, self-reinventing woman who clearly doesn't mind shaking the firmament. It seems clear that no one, including the president, tells the first lady what to do.
"She always looks good" was Barack Obama's wise response when asked how he liked his wife's new bangs. Studies have confirmed what all successfully married men know: The correct answer to any question is "Yes, dear."
The bangs were a clue that Michelle was evacuating the cocoon. Analyzing her bangs may seem a silly pastime — but only if you know nothing about women. When a woman changes her hair — especially as dramatically as the first lady did — something is up.
Those aren't bangs covering Michelle Obama's eyebrows. Those are butterfly wings.
Observe. The first lady completely changed her appearance on the eve of her husband's second inauguration. Now why would she do that? She jokingly has said that her bangs were her midlife crisis. Cute answer, but it's clearly more than that. Hair is the frame we choose for the portrait we project to the world. Hair conveys messages we don't even consciously recognize.
Who knew that Michelle Obama harbored an inner Gidget? Cute, fun-loving, perky were not adjectives that sprang to mind when Michelle became a household word four years ago. That was then. Michelle Obama obviously has decided to have some fun.
Thus, recently, she joined Jimmy Fallon in a viral pas de deux titled, "The Evolution of Mom Dancing." Sunday night she crashed the biggest party on television — the Academy Awards — to announce the best picture winner. Appearing remotely on a gargantuan screen like a holographic Princess Leia, she was a glimmering, spaghetti-strapped goddess beaming in to bestow the grand prize — Herself — on the adoring audience that helped put her husband in office.
Reactions have been mixed from the moment Jack Nicholson introduced her: Should she have done it? Is it too frivolous in these dire times for the first lady, bedecked in sequined splendor, to be participating in such self-congratulatory frivolity? Too much exposure? Too much ... too much? As usual, the responses tend to break down along party lines.
We have such conflicting feelings about first wives in an era when women do it all, including, eventually, becoming president. We want our first lady to be first a lady — a delicate balance between enjoying one's attractiveness without being too sexy. Michelle's sleeveless toned arms have kept us riveted for four years.
We want our first ladies to be intelligent but not aggressively so. Supportive but not fawning. Politic but not political. We mostly want them to not embarrass us — and this will be the same for the first husband when he arrives.
To most of the country, Michelle has passed muster thus far. Her youthful health and fitness are inspiring, and she can grab and hold an audience as few others. She and the camera adore each other, though some of us miss her Jackie Kennedy period — the black Armani sheath with a double strand of pearls, hair brushed back to reveal her best feature — an arched, intelligent brow line. Why cover it up?
The answer may be as simple as sometimes a first lady just wants to have fun. For certain, Michelle Obama is the star of her own movie.
Kathleen Parker works for the Washington Post, writing mostly from South Carolina. Her email address is email@example.com


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A battle over Colorado gun laws is shaping up to be as expensive and contentious as the one after the Columbine shootings, as gun groups vow to hold state lawmakers responsible for their votes this legislative session.
Coloradans' "live and let live" attitude has helped shape the state's middle-of-the-road gun laws, which aren't typically challenged with proposed restrictions. But recent mass shootings of moviegoers in Aurora and elementary schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., spurred Gov. John Hickenlooper and his Democratic colleagues — who control both chambers of the legislature — to promise a debate on gun-control measures this session. Some Democratic lawmakers last week said comprehensive gun laws, including bans on some assault-style rifles, should be passed immediately.
Meanwhile, gun-rights groups are raising money, organizing members and preparing for a battle that is "one unlike we have ever seen," according to the website of the Colorado State Shooting Association, the state affiliate of the National Rifle Association.
"We will fight tooth and nail and oppose any compromise on any (gun) issue," said Dudley Brown, head of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and the National Association for Gun Rights, who said his groups are actively fundraising. "We're going to remind Colorado voters in 2014 and elections beyond how (legislative) members voted" on gun-control bills.
Thirteen years ago, after the Columbine shootings, gun- rights groups and their opponents spent $1.5 million on ads, lobbyists and campaign contributions to influence state legislation and a ballot initiative.
Some policymakers say the political muscle of state gun advocates has started to atrophy, but they still hold considerable power. When asked about the groups and gun issues, many Republican lawmakers and operatives — past and present — contacted by The Denver Post refused to comment publicly.
The pro-gun organizations tend to exert most of their influence in Republican primaries. Last spring, the RMGO sent out mailings alleging state Sen. Jean White, who represented Senate District 8 in western Colorado, was "anti-gun" — despite the fact that she is an NRA member and has had a concealed-weapons permit for 15 years. White, who lost the primary, declined to comment.
People in Colorado are allowed to have a handgun in their home or place of business and may carry loaded or unloaded firearms in a vehicle, as long the gun's intended use is for a lawful purpose such as personal protection or protecting property. No gun registration is required, but to carry a concealed weapon, a person must get a permit.
If a person buys a firearm at a gun show, he or she must go through a background check. However, those checks aren't required for other places of sale, such as flea markets or online.
"On the whole, Colorado is more libertarian than most of America," said David Kopel, research director of the Independence Institute and co-author of the law-school textbook "Firearms Law and the Second Amendment." "The political system in Colorado has delivered something that isn't pro- gun or anti-gun. We have gun control and gun rights."
Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the gun lobby in Colorado isn't more powerful than other groups. Local organizations don't routinely raise large amounts of money, and national groups such as the NRA spend only about a quarter of their money on state races, with the remainder going to federal contests. In 2010, for instance, the NRA spent $746,078 backing Colorado Republican Ken Buck, according to The Washington Post. Buck narrowly lost his Senate bid to Democrat Michael Bennet.
Typically in Colorado, gun- rights advocates don't mobilize until there is a major threat.
The last time Colorado's gun laws were significantly threatened with restrictions was in 2000, the year after what was then the worst school shooting in history: Columbine. Pro-gun groups ran ads, sent out mass mailings, met with legislators and held public strategy sessions to stop what they dubbed the "gun-grabbers."
Since 1994, those groups have spent an average of $10,000 a year in Colorado, according to an analysis by The Denver Post.
In 2000, however, heavily backed by the National Rifle Association, they paid out $766,100 for contributions to lawmakers and the GOP and to fight a ballot initiative closing the so-called gun-show loophole.
A couple of bills introduced that session, including a law permitting prosecutors to enforce federal laws against straw purchases — when someone buys a gun on behalf of a person ineligible to do so —
passed. But most of the bills proposing gun restrictions — including those submitted by the Republican governor — were defeated. And, buoyed by a GOP majority, gun-rights groups were strong enough to push pro-gun bills through the legislature, including a measure that protects firearms manufacturers from lawsuits.
However, gun-control advocates followed up that fall by pouring $775,864 into a ballot initiative requiring background checks at gun shows, The Post found. It was overwhelmingly passed by voters. Two years later, the Colorado legislature also passed a measure establishing a uniform, statewide system for issuing concealed-carry permits.
"Colorado, like the majority of Americans … believe(s) in sensible gun laws," said Brian Malte, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who said his group would work with its local Colorado contacts during this session "to pass meaningful legislation."
It's unclear whether Republicans will put forward any bills expanding gun rights this session. Democrats are considering proposing bills that would prohibit people from receiving concealed-carry certificates online, require background checks on people buying guns at locations other than gun shows and ban assault-style rifles and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines.
"There is still a lot of strategizing going on," said gun-control advocate Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was killed in the Columbine shooting.
Hickenlooper, while promising a debate on gun laws, told The Post last week that he was still "ambivalent" on specific proposals, such as a ban on so-called assault weapons.
"I can see the strong arguments on both sides," he said.
Tony Fabian, president of the Colorado State Shooting Association, said his group will do "whatever is necessary" to "oppose any legislation that we see unfairly and inappropriately restricts rights of law-abiding gun owners."
What both sides will be watching carefully is Coloradans' reactions to proposed measures restricting gun laws. Most political observers agree it's difficult to predict.
Since the Newtown elementary-school shooting, unprecedented numbers of Colorado residents are scrambling to buy guns. And when asked in polls if they support gun rights, they say: "Yes. We don't need new laws; we need to enforce the ones we have," said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli. However, a majority also back a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
"It depends on whether the question is philosophical or about a particular weapon," he said.
State Sen. Steve King, a Republican from Grand Junction, said the Democratic majority "could have a significant effect on gun legislation" this session. But he also said that any proposed bills viewed as unreasonable would have little chance of getting public approval.
"The people of our state look upon any big movement one way or another as not being beneficial," he said. "It's an emotionally charged debate, but the people in the state want to see evidence-based problem-solving. They want facts."
Karen E. Crummy: 303-954-1594, email@example.com or twitter.com/karencrummy


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Storming Castles: New Routing in the High Sierras
My home in Colorado is day-tripping distance from the Diamond, but every summer for the last few years I have forsaken the Rockies to answer the siren call of California's High Sierra.
My home in Colorado is day-tripping distance from the Diamond, but every summer for the last few years I have forsaken the Rockies to answer the siren call of California's High Sierra. It happens like this: some time in early May, after a winter of short days and long nights, gleaming white castles of cleanly cleaved granite begin to occupy my imagination. Then my friend Chris Brown calls to pitch some impossible Sierra itinerary involving airborne reconnaissance and first ascents.
This year was no different. Although I knew Chris's half-baked plan would inevitably change, I also knew that in the dirtbag paradise of the Sierra, that's half the fun. Soon we were headed west, speeding down a lonely highway across basin and range until finally emerging from pine forests to a wall of steep mountains rising 10,000 feet from the Owens Valley. The Sierra is far more than what you'll find in the guidebooks. It's more even than what's contained in the latest edition of R.J. Secor's High Sierra compendium Peaks, Passes and Trails. It's more because those books only document what has already happened, and a lifetime of first ascents in the Sierra still awaits discovery.
Mount Whitney
Even among flatlanders, Mount Whitney needs no introduction. Hiking to its summit, the highest in the lower 48, has become so popular that the National Forest and Park Services have been forced to institute Whitney-specific regulations. Notable among these is a strict requirement to pack out all solid waste. Unfortunately, when imposed upon people unaccustomed to handling their own poop, like nearly all of those walking to the top, these regulations result in a trail strewn with abandoned Wag Bags, toilet-paper flowers, and raw human waste. To an experienced backcountry traveler, the irony is palpable: an army of city folk waiting in line for a permit to join the throngs as they wind past piles of poo on their way to an "I Climbed Mount Whitney" T-shirt. At least the impact is concentrated.
For a more pristine experience you will find refuge on the trail along the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek, which provides access to the technical climbing on Whitney's impressive East Face as well as Keeler Needle, Day Needle and numerous other cliffs and spires on the ridge. Although still crowded by Sierra standards, the North Fork sees a mere fraction of the traffic of the Mount Whitney trail. High camps have been established at Upper Boy Scout and Iceberg Lakes, and the classic rock climbs on Mount Russell are accessible via the Russell-Whitney col above Iceberg Lake.
Having never visited this historic area before, we hiked up the North Fork trail in late July with our friend Joe, intending to solo the East Buttress of Whitney while we waited for Sara, a willing fourth we had just met in Bishop, to show up at Upper Boy Scout the next day. Chris and I had been scrambling around at altitude for a few weeks, but Joe was coming straight off the couch. We brought along some rope just in case things got interesting.
As we crested a ridge on the approach, the iconic east faces of Whitney, Keeler and Day appeared, bathed in the soft orange light of early morning. We hustled up variable terrain to the base of the route. The climbing was engaging but never difficult, with memorable sections past a 5.7 finger crack and the famed Peewee block, a giant, insect-shaped ridglet named by the first ascentionists. We reached the top without making a claim against our nylon insurance policy and quickly slipped past groups of haggard hikers into the so-called Mountaineer's Route, a loose scree gully that offers a rapid descent back to Iceberg Lake.
Sara met us at Upper Boy Scout that evening. We had asked her to bring a rope and, jokingly, fish tacos, and indeed, she showed up with a half rope, two pounds of raw tilapia, tortillas, cilantro and a liter of tequila. Also with her was a foster pit bull she had taken in a couple of days earlier.
"She's really sweet," Sara promised.
The next morning as I contemplated leading all of Russell on a half rope, Chris bent down to pet the beast. It lunged for his face, narrowly missing as he lurched backward. Tempers flared, and various epithets were exchanged. Eventually we made it out of camp and over the Russell-Whitney col to the south face of Mount Russell. Joe and I enjoyed a low-drag ascent of the classic Fishhook Arete (5.9) courtesy of Sara's half rope, and Sara and Chris patched things up over a trip up the Mithril Dihedral (5.10a). Meeting up again on top, we enjoyed 14,000-foot vistas. Looking further southwest, we could see Guitar Lake and the Arctic Lakes Wall, with its fissures too numerous to count. "Sure would be nice to get a look at this area from the air," I remarked. And with that, the seed was planted.
We call him "The Pusher," because Chris Brown is an idea man, and when he gets one in his head, woe unto those who stand in his way. After scrambling around on the majestic east faces of Whitney and Russell, I was stricken with a strange illness that confined me to the van for the day. Never one to sit idle, Chris announced that he was going out to find us a pilot with a high-wing plane. Never mind that we were in Lone Pine, where maybe three people are licensed pilots, and even fewer own high-wing planes. Convinced I was hallucinating, I promptly passed out. When I came to, coated in a clammy sweat, Chris was in the van's front seat. He told me we were scheduled to board a souped-up Cessna 182 at 7 the next morning to scope some of the lesser-known gems of the Sierra, from the Evolutions all the way down to the Golden Trout Wilderness.
Turned out, there was one high-wing plane in town, piloted by a local motel owner Chris had tracked down in a string of back-room dealings. We met him at the tiny Lone Pine airport, where he pulled his plane out of the hangar by hand. Fifteen minutes later we were aloft. The protocol was informal: We pointed at mountains on a topo map, and he flew us by whatever aspects we found interesting, circling back and forth according to our fancy. All for gas money.
It's difficult to comprehend the enormity of the Sierra until you see it from the air. As our pilot banked the Cessna 182, soaring over the crest near the town of Big Pine, ridges and troughs unfurled to the west. Innumerable high peaks recalled the jagged edge of a serrated blade. Engravings of lower canyons revealed hidden buttresses of steep white granite. We flew over the entire expanse of the Palisade Traverse with Temple Crag below, a grizzly gatekeeper obfuscating access to the upper ridge. Spotting these familiar landmarks calibrated an internal GPS, gauging heights, distances, angles and aspects. From our vantage, ground that would normally take weeks to cover on foot panned by below in minutes.
Over the course of an hour we laid eyes on Mount. Tyndall, Bubbs Creek Wall, Charlotte Dome and Mount Barnard. As seen from above, the potential for climbing in this range, from third class to V16, was more than we could have imagined. Just before we circled back to the east, we buzzed the Whitney region. A stream of hikers ambled along the unmistakable Mount Whitney Trail, congregating on its broad summit. Just to the south, however, we flew multiple passes by the most impressive wall we had seen on our sortie: the northeast face of Mount Chamberlin.
Mount Chamberlin
A few miles south of Whitney lies the northeast face of Mount Chamberlin, three steep buttresses of golden granite described by Claude Fiddler as "one of the grand walls of the Sierra." This 2,000-foot precipice is the realm of Sierra hardmen like Galen Rowell, Dave Nettle, Brandon Thau, Mike Pennings, Nils Davis, Jimmy Haden. In fact, the face has probably seen only a handful of ascents by climbers other than these, and for good reason: it's a 12-mile hike over the Sierra Crest from Whitney Portal, and information about established routes is scarce. Few of the routes have ever been repeated. Adventurous climbers who pay the high price of admission will be rewarded with immaculate granite and a beautiful base camp in the Crabtree Lakes basin.
Rowell's first ascent took place in 1979 via the North Pillar, an obvious weakness on Chamberlin's westernmost buttress. Since then about 10 more routes have been added, most of them on the central buttress, the largest and most monolithic of the three. Established routes range from Safety First (5.10+) to Asleep at the Wheel (5.12). Potential for completely independent new lines is difficult to assess given the limited information available about established lines, but at least a few plums remain to be plucked, and there are plenty of major variations to satisfy the curious. Given the size and angle of the northeast face, future FAs will likely be in the 5.11 range or harder.
Visiting climbers should expect a decidedly more adventurous feel than at the Hulk or Whitney. There are few climbers or hikers in the area, and there is little in the way of fixed anchors or fixed pro. Mount Chamberlin is Sierra backcountry climbing at its finest. Please keep the mountain and surrounding areas in the pristine condition you find them.
Safety First (IV 5.10+)
I first heard about Mount Chamberlin from the intrepid Mike Pennings, the author of superb and difficult alpine climbs the world over. If Mike recommends a climb, you can bet it'll be proud, remote and a little more than you bargained for. In early August, Chris and I met up with Mike and Jimmy Haden, another unsung alpine hardman, for what Mike described as a three-hour approach to Chamberlin's northeast face. Mike and Jimmy started hiking around noon, while Chris and I ordered burgers and beer at the Whitney Portal Store. We figured we could leave at 5 p.m. and still make camp by dark. Twenty-four hours and one open bivouac later, we stumbled into base camp to Mike and Jimmy's guffaws. Eventually, they stopped laughing long enough to inform us that they had climbed the first route on Chamberlin's easternmost buttress that day and named it in our honor: Where's the Boys? (IV 5.11-). After a well-deserved dinner the four of us made plans to heckle each other up Mike and Jimmy's unrepeated 2001 route Asleep at the Wheel the next day.
By the time Chris and I left camp the following morning, Mike was busy working his way up the first pitch, a 5.10+ corner according to his recollection. The grunts emanating from the corner suggested it might be slightly more difficult than Mike remembered. What's more, a steady stream of rubble, ranging in size from soup can to microwave, trundled down in his wake. Dodging missiles up the snowfield to the base of the route, we took shelter from the barrage in a small alcove. Even larger debris rained down as Jimmy endeavored to clean things up for future ascents while he followed the pitch.
"It's much cleaner above," Mike shouted from the first belay. Chris and I locked eyes. Sandbagged once, shame on you. Sandbagged thrice? We moved down the wall in search of virgin terrain free from trundlebums. Around noon we started up a line we had spotted the day before and were rewarded with a new 1,500-foot route, Safety First, on the west side of the face. The free-standing tower perched on the ridge above the route still awaits an ascent.
Sword in the Stone (5.11-)
Most of the new routes I've done in the mountains have been interesting adventures, but not climbs I'd recommend. Sword in the Stone is one of the exceptions. Chris and I glassed the line from the comforts of our deluxe base camp in the pristine Crabtree Lakes basin, connecting cracks and corners as we daydreamed our way up the wall. One uncertain linkage remained, however. Through the binoculars it was just a peculiar shadow, the mere suggestion of a crack of indeterminable size and the only means of access to the upper corners. Nevertheless, we carried neither bolts nor pitons on our attempt the next day. The mystery feature was screened from view as we climbed the first few excellent pitches.
As I led the fourth, a sculpted flake with graceful movement and perfect protection, the apparition materialized into an overhanging hand and finger crack. I whooped and hollered from the sharp end. It was a gob-smacking splitter and the crux of the route, smooth on the inside as if carved with climbers in mind. We topped out after several more sustained, rope-stretching pitches. Adventures like The Sword will keep me wandering the Sierra for a long time to come.
The Hulk
The Hulk is the beast lurking just beyond the northern boundary of Yosemite National Park in the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest, near the fishing town of Bridgeport. It's one of the best chunks of alpine granite in the Lower 48, with sustained climbing from 5.10 to 5.13. In 1975, Dale Bard, Bob Locke and Mike Farrell made the first ascent of the west face via The Red Dihedral. The team originally named their route Yggdrasil after a mythological tree, but the name never stuck. Since then around 20 other routes have been added to the west face. They are generally steep and well-protected, from 800 to 1,500 feet. In the early 2000s the indefatigable Peter Croft became very active on the Hulk, establishing testpieces including Venturi Effect (V 5.12) and Airstream (V 5.13), both with Dave Nettle.
Positive Vibrations (5.11a)
This legendary route is so good we climbed it two days in a row. Like many of Hulk's routes, Vibrations is tucked into a dead-end canyon punctuated by a small lake that dries up in the summer. The flat, sandy bed is a fine bivouac and abuts a three-foot-tall, flat-topped boulder, the perfect backcountry granite counter top. All that's missing is the hot tub. Which is just a few hours hike down valley.
Sun Spot (5.11b)
A place as magical as the Sierra is best shared with friends, so last summer Chris and I rallied a posse up to the Hulk for what we dubbed "Hulk-a-Mania." As is often the case, everybody bailed at the last second, but Gabe Metzger and Taylor Lamoureaux were among the venturesome few who came through. A couple days before they arrived Chris and I climbed Sun Spot Dihedral. My calves were pumped silly as I tick-tacked up the first 5.11 section, a delicate stemming problem protected by small nuts. Eventually, I found a decent handhold but still couldn't unweight my legs. Desperate, I spun around to face out from the wall and was surprised to find that this unorthodox position offered relief from the toxic pump. When Gabe and Taylor showed up, we toasted Hulk-a-Mania with vodka and Cytomax slushies made from a nearby snowpatch. Eager to keep the party rolling the next day, we all climbed Sun Spot. Gabe inched into the stemming section. Even from my perch 160 feet above him, I could see that his calf pump was building. "Turn around and face out!" I shouted. He assumed the position and breathed a sigh of relief. We never discussed whether he still gets credit for the onsight.
Whitney and Chamberlin Logistics
GETTING THERE/CAMPING Perched high above Death Valley and the town of Lone Pine, California, Whitney Portal is the entry point for perfect gold-and-white Sierra walls. The cragging here on exquisite granite is great training for the nearby bigger backcountry objectives. Expect to find large crowds in the Portal during summer.
Camping is available in Whitney Portal for $12, but often completely full. The nice people of the Whitney Portal Store (home of the world's most delicious burgers and fries) also operate the Whitney Portal Hostel in Lone Pine. Reach them at (760) 876-0030. If no sites are available in Whitney Portal, camp at the Lone Pine Campground for $10 per night (760)-876-6200.
PERMITS For any activity requiring you to set foot on the Mount Whitney Trail or in the Mount Whitney Zone—you will need a permit from the Whitney Ranger Station in Lone Pine(760) 876-6200. The permits are free, but the daily quota fills up quickly in the summer. Get there early or be prepared to wait a day or two. Federal regulations require that ALL solid waste, including human, be packed out of the Whitney Zone. Wag Bags are available for free at the ranger station.
MOUNT WHITNEY APPROACH The five-mile approach to the eastern flanks of Whitney shares a brief section with the Mount Whitney Trail and then quickly breaks off at the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek. Four hours of walking should bring you to the shores of the trout-stocked Upper Boy Scout Lake. Many bivy sites exist here, or continue on about an hour or so to Iceberg Lake and the Whitney Cirque. To descend from the summit of Whitney, head slightly north until you are able to drop into the gully for the Mountaineer's Route and down to Iceberg Lake.
MOUNT CHAMBERLIN APPROACH Chamberlin can be approached from the west, but the best option is to start from Whitney Portal and share the 11-mile Mount Whitney Trail to the Sierra Crest. From the crest, drop over the west side into Sequoia National Park through knee- to waist-deep scree for a few more miles, heading toward the granite-lined Crabtree Lakes basin. It will take you about eight hours to reach the base of Mount Chamberlin. From the top of all routes head west north-west to the descent gully leading to the south side of upper Crabtree Lake.
The Hulk Logistics
GETTING THERE/CAMPING Bridgeport is a short drive north from Lee Vining and Yosemite, and is the gateway to the Incredible Hulk. From Bridgeport, continue southwest on Twin Lakes Road to its end. Here you'll find Mono Village—a large campground, and the jumping-off point for the Hulk and other formations in the Hoover Wilderness. You can park overnight here for a small fee. Camping in Mono Village is $18 per night, but many other primitive camping options exist on National Forest land between Bridgeport and Mono Village. Groceries are cheaper and more plentiful in Bridgeport than in the tourist-filled Twin Lakes.
PERMITS For overnight trips, obtain a free permit for the Hoover Wilderness at the Bridgeport Ranger Station (760) 932-7070. Only eight people are allowed into the Hoover Wilderness via Little Slide Canyon daily. If the daily permit quota has been reached, climb the Hulk car to car in a day.
APPROACH Plan on three to five hours for the approach from Mono Village. Try to stay focused on your main objective as you hike past the myriad towers and walls, some climbed, some not, lining the valley enroute to the Hulk. At the base, numerous established campsites are nestled among outcrops and talus fields. For routes in the Sun Spot/Positive/Venturi area, it is possible to rap Venturi Effect with one 70-meter rope. For routes around the Red Dihedral, continue to the summit, then head down the south ridge and make a short rappel into the descent gully.
As a large group in the backcountry we felt it imperative to minimize our impact. We packed out all waste, and hope you'll do the same to preserve the wilderness experience.


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Main Content
Top of the pageCheck Your Symptoms
Constipation occurs when stools become hard and are difficult to pass. Some parents are overly concerned about how often their child has bowel movements, because they have been taught that a healthy child has a bowel movement every day. This is not true. The frequency of bowel movements is not as important as whether the child can pass stools easily. Your child is not constipated if his or her stools are soft and pass easily, even if it has been a few days since the last bowel movement.
Newborns younger than 2 weeks should have at least 1 or 2 bowel movements a day. Babies older than 2 weeks can go 2 days and sometimes longer between bowel movements. It's usually okay if it takes longer than 2 days, especially if your baby is feeding well and seems comfortable. Breastfed babies are more likely to have frequent stools and may have a stool as often as every feeding. Constipation is likely to occur when a baby changes from breast milk to formula, especially if this change happens during the first 2 to 3 weeks of life.
As babies grow older, the number of bowel movements they have each day gets less and the size of their stools gets bigger. A child age 3 or 4 years may normally have as many as 3 bowel movements a day or as few as 3 a week.
It is important for parents to recognize there are many "normal" patterns for bowel movements in children. Some children may appear to have trouble passing a stool. The child's face may turn red, and he or she may strain to pass stool. If the stool is soft and the child does not seem to have other problems, this is not a concern.
Most children will occasionally become constipated. The problem is usually short-lived and does not cause long-term problems. Home treatment is usually all that is needed to relieve occasional constipation. Causes of constipation include:
Constipation may occur with cramping and pain if the child is straining to pass hard, dry stools. He or she may have some bloating and nausea. There may also be small amounts of bright red blood on the stool caused by slight tearing (anal fissure) as the stool is pushed through the anus. All of these symptoms should stop when the constipation is relieved.
For reasons that can't always be identified, some children often develop constipation that does not get better or go away with treatment (chronic constipation). The most significant factor may be the painful passing of a hard, dry stool. After a while, the child may be unable to resist the urge to have a bowel movement and will pass a large mass of stool. The child may have to "push hard" during the bowel movement, which may be painful. Passing the stool relieves the pressure and pain until another mass of stool collects, and the cycle is repeated. Fear of pain may cause the child to try to hold the bowel movement.
Other causes of chronic constipation may include:
The child may be unable or unwilling to pass the stool regardless of its size. Liquid or loose stool may leak out, soiling the child's underwear. When this occurs in a child who is past the age of normal toilet training, it is called encopresis.
Chronic constipation usually requires several months of treatment and co-operation between the parents, the child, and the doctor to overcome the problem. Don't be discouraged if the problem comes back during these months. The rectum is made of muscle tissue; when a child has had chronic constipation, the muscle becomes stretched. It may take several months to get the muscle back into shape.
In rare cases, constipation in children may be caused by other health problems, such as:
Check your child's symptoms to decide if and when your child should see a doctor.
Many things can affect how your body responds to a symptom and what kind of care you may need. These include:
You have answered all the questions. Based on your answers, you may be able to take care of this problem at home.
What you are looking for is a change in your child's usual bowel habits.
Every baby and child has different bowel habits. What is "normal" for one child may not be normal for another. For example:
Anywhere in these ranges can be considered normal if the habit is normal or usual for your child.
Many prescription and non-prescription medicines can cause constipation. A few examples are:
Based on your answers, you may need care right away. The problem is likely to get worse without medical care.
Based on your answers, the problem may not improve without medical care.
Based on your answers, you may need care soon. The problem probably will not get better without medical care.
Constipation can usually be treated effectively at home.
Call your doctor if any of the following occur during home treatment:
For babies younger than 12 months:
For children age 12 months and older:
Constipation sometimes becomes a problem when children start toilet training:
To prepare for your appointment, see the topic Making the Most of Your Appointment.
You can help your doctor diagnose and treat your child's condition by being prepared to answer the following questions:
Adaptation Date: 2/25/2022
Adapted By: Alberta Health Services
Adaptation Reviewed By: Alberta Health Services
Adapted with permission from copyrighted materials from Healthwise, Incorporated (Healthwise). This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise disclaims any warranty and is not responsible or liable for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise.org.
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Henrik Lundquist blanks Caps as Rangers force Game 7
NEW YORK -- Henrik Lundqvist slammed his stick in disgust when an overtime loss in Washington put the New York Rangers on the brink of elimination.
Two days later, the star goalie pumped his arm and let out an emphatic yell when his shutout kept the Rangers alive and set up a Game 7 in the nation's capital.
Lundqvist was the difference Sunday in stopping 27 shots for his seventh NHL playoff shutout. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner was perfect in making Derick Brassard's second-period goal stand up in a 1-0 victory over the Capitals that forced a deciding game in the first-round, Eastern Conference series.
"We needed it. There was desperation out there," Lundqvist said. "We showed a lot of character and worked really hard. It was that type of game where you pay the price -- big saves, physical. Great win."
Despite having little room for error, the Rangers stayed composed and played a disciplined game in which they took no penalties until a big scrum after the final buzzer.
Now the Rangers hope that can carry over to Game 7 on Monday night in Washington, where they have lost three times in this tight series. The home team has won all six games.
"They play really well at home and they're confident," Lundqvist said. "The games we've played in that building, special teams have played a big part. We played a really disciplined game, and that's going to be key for us because they have a really good power play, so you have to respect that.
"Play hard, but play smart."
The Rangers earned Game 7 wins at home in last year's playoffs over Ottawa and Washington. If they pull out this victory, it would give them just their second series win after falling behind 0-2.
"We are just going to have the same mentality we had coming into this game," Brassard said. "We just played our game, had fun. The guys were relaxed, and that's what we need to do (Monday)."
Special teams were a factor Sunday, but only in keeping the Capitals in it because of the Rangers' ineffective power play that went 0-for-5 and is 2-for-26 in the series. New York had a failed 5-on-3 advantage that lasted 44 seconds in the first period.
"Some were deserved. Some weren't deserved," Capitals forward Troy Brouwer said of his team's penalties. "We killed our momentum."
Washington didn't get a chance to improve on its 3-for-14 output in the first five games. Two Rangers power plays in the third cut out precious time the Capitals could have had to net the tying goal.
"We battled the whole way," Capitals goalie Braden Holtby said. "Disappointing, but we move along. Our (penalty-killing) is doing great, holding us in the series. Our guys kept their composure. We knew this could go seven."
Brassard handed Lundqvist the lead at 9:39 of the second period, with a goal that was originally credited to struggling forward Rick Nash.
Defenseman Mike Green left Washington short-handed when he took a retaliation cross-checking penalty on Derek Dorsett with 6:14 remaining.
"There are a lot emotions. You can expect scrums and things like that," Dorsett said. "You've got to play your game. You can't just go out and think you're going to scrum it up and win the game."
Just after Green's penalty expired, Lundqvist denied Eric Fehr's drive with a snaring glove save. He then covered the puck in front with 48.4 seconds left, keeping Marcus Johansson at bay after the Capitals pulled Holtby for an extra attacker.
Lundqvist was at his best earlier in the third when the Capitals came at him in waves. He turned aside Mike Ribeiro, who scored in overtime to win Game 5, with just over 11 minutes remaining, and stopped Fehr three minutes later on a rush up the middle.
"Especially late in the game, he made some great saves," Rangers coach John Tortorella said. "Last year, and now he has another Game 7, I think that builds. The ultimate goal for Hank in his mind is to win the Stanley Cup, but you need to go through these types of situations to get there."
Holtby was sharp, as well, in making 28 saves.
Brassard, who has had a breakout series, scored his second goal of the playoffs when he faked a shot and then ripped a drive from the Stanley Cup logo just inside the blue line. The puck clipped the glove of Capitals defenseman Steven Oleksy and sailed through a screen set by Nash in front.
The goal was originally credited to Nash, who is still looking for his first of the series. Nash was more of a presence in front, making more drives to the net in an effort to create more traffic in front of Holtby.
Brassard, a pickup from Columbus in the deal that sent Marian Gaborik to the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline, also had five assists in the first five games of the series.
Lundqvist faced only 15 shots through two periods, but needed to be sharp to keep the Capitals off the board. He made a big pad save with under 5 minutes left in the second to keep the Rangers ahead.
Despite having just a one-goal edge heading into the third, the Rangers carried the confidence that they could protect it. New York went 16-0 during the regular season when leading after two periods and has earned at least one point in those situations since Feb. 4, 2010.
Game notes
Rangers LW Chris Kreider, who hadn't played since the opening game of the series, replaced injured LW Ryane Clowe. ... Holtby has allowed just 11 goals in the series -- only two at home.
Series tied 3-3
Game Information
- Referees:
- Brad Watson
- Kevin Pollock
- Linesmen:
- Shane Heyer
- Derek Nansen


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Movie review: 'Out of the Furnace'
First-time scripter Brad Ingelsby and second-time writer-director Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart"), along with a cast-ful of actors giving it their best, try hard to reach Shakespearian depths and heights in this gritty take of vengeance, but ultimately they come up short.
Set in 2008 in a sad little Pennsylvania town where locals' aspirations usually stop when they land a lifetime job at the local mill, "Out of the Furnace" introduces two brothers, each with startlingly different temperaments. Russell (Christian Bale) dutifully, if unhappily, works at the mill, just like his father, who is slowly dying of some mill-related sickness; he goes home each night to his loving girlfriend, Lena (Zoe Saldana); he keeps a protective eye out for his troubled younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck).
Rodney, a true piece of work, is recently back home from the war in Iraq, but it's never made clear if it's because he fulfilled his duty or he was asked to leave. What's very clear is that he's got a drinking problem and a gambling problem, and that he keeps losing borrowed money to play the ponies. When Russell spots Rodney, in brooding mode, at an off track betting locale, it's quickly establishes that Rodney is a lost soul, and that he and Russell share a combination tentative and close relationship.
But even before all of this familial business, the film presents its villain: the heartless, fearless, violence-prone, and purely evil Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson) who not only takes his girlfriend to the drive-in to see Midnight Meat Train, he also beats the hell out of her and the Samaritan who tries to help her.
Harlan is a small-time but powerful thug who runs illegal bare-knuckle street fights. So does the less powerful but sketchy John Petty (Willem Dafoe), who is the "manager" who sets up fights for loose cannon Rodney, but owes Harlan a big chunk of change from previous fights gone wrong. So maybe John can loan the hot-headed Rodney to Harlan, have Harlan bet his wad on the opponent, then have Rodney take a fall. Score settled, debt paid. That's if, improbably, Rodney will go through with taking the fall, since he so enjoys beating the crap out of other people.
There's probably story enough there to easily fill the film's two-hour running time. But the scripters have other plans. They want to make things even more difficult for the nice people, get the problematic ones even deeper into crises, and turn the bad guys into absolute monsters. All of that could have worked, if not for some overkill in plotting. Drunk driving and a fatal car crash begets some prison time (the length of which is never revealed, but can sort of be followed by ever-changing beard lengths). Post-prison predicaments lead up to a cliché about how people can never really change, a side story of lost love, and then to some dire situations that end up in back-stabbing and ensuing repercussions, along with a couple of brutal deaths and, unsurprisingly, planned retribution.
As mentioned up top, performances, notably those of Bale, Affleck and Harrelson, hit high marks, and the choreography of the fight scenes make them frighteningly realistic. But the movie's heart has a sort of slow beat, and at times seems lost or just misplaced. We know who to root for and who to wish dead, but things get dragged out to the point of caring less about it all. And when the abrupt ending comes swooping in, it leaves us wondering what the heck the last few minutes were about and what the final stand-alone scene even means.
Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now.
Written by Brad Ingelsby and Scott Cooper; directed by Scott Cooper
With Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana
Rated R


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Kent Bush: Church is last acceptable target
If you want to gain support, attack an unpopular idea. If you want to gain notoriety, attack a popular institution.
The formula is simple and it plays out every day. Politicians hate taxes. You know why? Voters hate paying taxes.
Anti-tax politicians grow more popular every time they open their mouths.
People also almost uniformly hate political correctness. There is often a fine line between speaking freely and saying incredibly bigoted things.
As that line blurs, more people see valid opinions as bigotry and bigotry as expression of valid opinions.
But the beauty of political correctness is that it only controls sharing unpopular beliefs about minorities.
If you want to attack popular institutions or people, there are no boundaries.
No group is more open to attack than the church.
Christianity is considered the belief system of the majority of Americans. The principles of Christianity are the basis of many of the laws of this country.
Thanks to the predominance of those beliefs and the number of people who attend churches on a weekly basis, anyone can openly mock them with no fear of social repercussions.
If you openly mock a homosexual, you are justifiably called a homophobe. If you mock a black person, Hispanic or any other person based on the color of their skin, you are appropriately called a racist.
But if you mock or attack the church, you become known as a champion of free speech.
I know the church earns a lot of the criticism it receives. I have never found the perfect church and, if I did, I would never attend it. Because, like Charles Spurgeon said, I would just mess it up.
But there is a growing movement that believes the best way to "cure" people of their religious beliefs by mocking them until they keep quiet about their beliefs.
Deconverted bloggers extol the virtues of those willing to mock and ridicule them until they finally gave up on their belief in a magical invisible friend.
A newly elected town councilman in New York took his oath of office wearing a colander on his head because he is a member of the Pastafarian Church that is also known as "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster."
It is called a statement about religious freedom. But it is actually an attack on a group that is not protected from discrimination.
Atheists asked for a Flying Spaghetti Monster alongside Christmas displays at the Wisconsin state capital. Satanists hope to get a goat-headed statue placed alongside the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol building.
In major cities around the world, atheist "churches" are popping up to recreate the culture of the Christian church without all of the discussion of a deity.
If you make an off color joke about a minority group, you can lose your job, your standing in the community and all respect you may have earned.
But if you attack the right targets, you can mock them openly and no one will say a word.
The only hope we have as members of a local church who are not ashamed of the beliefs we share is for our response to reflect the higher power in which we believe.
As an approved target, you have to expect shots to be taken. Rather than responding – which only results in more charges against the victim - or even deflecting – which results in accusations of being out of touch with reality as it is defined by the attackers – the only acceptable defense is to absorb the attacks.
The best response is to try even harder to let our beliefs be defined by our actions.
Turning the other cheek is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are strong enough to withstand an attack without the need to retaliate.


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Social Networks
Posted by The Situationist Staff on March 3, 2008
Nicholas Christakis describes his research with James Fowler on social networks, and how he came to that research, on Edge. We have posted some excerpts from the fascinating video and transcript below.
There is a well-known example in evolutionary biology about whether the eye was designed, or is "just so" because it evolved and arose for a reason. How could this incredibly complicated thing come into being? It seems to serve an incredibly complicated purpose, and the eye is often used in debates about evolution precisely because it is so complex and seems to serve such a specialized and critical function.
For me, social networks are like the eye. They are incredibly complex and beautiful, and looking at them begs the question of why they exist, and why they come to pass. Do we need a kind of just-so story to explain them? Do they just happen to be there, for no particular reason? Or do they serve some purpose — some ontological and also pragmatic purpose?
Along with my collaborator James Fowler, I have been wrestling with the questions of where social networks come from, what purpose they serve, what rules they follow, and what they mean for our lives. The amazing thing about social networks, unlike other networks that are almost as interesting — networks of neurons or genes or stars or computers or all kinds of other things one can imagine — is that the nodes of a social network — the entities, the components — are themselves sentient, acting individuals who can respond to the network and actually form it themselves.
In social networks, there is an interdigitation between the higher order structure and the lower order structure, which is remarkable, and which has been animating our research for the last five or ten years. I started by studying very simple dyadic networks. A pair of individuals is the simplest type of network one can imagine. And I became curious about networks and network effects in my capacity as a doctor who takes care of people who are terminally ill.
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For example, one day I met with a pretty typical scenario: a woman who was dying and her daughter who was caring for her. The mother had been sick for quite a while and she had dementia. The daughter was exhausted from years of caring for her, and in the course of caring, she became so exhausted that her husband also became sick from his wife's preoccupation with her mother. One day I got a call from the husband's best friend, with his permission, to ask me about him. So here we have the following cascade: parent to daughter, daughter to husband, and husband to friend. That is four people — a cascade of effects through the network. And I became sort of obsessed with the notion that these little dyads of people could agglomerate to form larger structures.
Nowadays, most people have these very distinct visual images of networks because in the last ten years they have become almost a part of pop culture. But social networks were studied in this kind of way beginning in the 1950s . . . . But all these were still very small-scale networks; networks of three people or 30 people — that kind of ballpark. But we are of course connected to each other through vastly larger, more complex, more beautiful networks of people. Networks of thousands of individuals, in fact. These networks are in a way living, breathing entities that reproduce, and that have a kind of memory. Things flow through them and they have a purpose and can achieve different things from what their constituent individuals can. And they are very difficult to understand.
This is how I began to think about social networks about seven years ago. At the time when I was thinking about this, I moved from the University of Chicago to Harvard, and was introduced to my colleague James Fowler, another social scientist, who was also beginning to think about different kinds of network problems from the perspective of political science. He was interested in problems of collective action — how groups of people are organized, how the action of one individual can influence the actions of other individuals. He was also interested in basic problems like altruism. Why would I be altruistic toward somebody else? What purpose does altruism serve? In fact, I think that altruism is a key predicate to the formation of social networks because it serves to stabilize social ties. If I were constantly violent towards other people, or never reciprocated anything good, the network would disintegrate, all the ties would be cut. Some level of altruism is required for networks to emerge.
So we can begin to think about combining a broad variety of ideas. Some stretch back to Plato, and thinking about well-ordered societies, the origins of good and evil, how people form collectives, how a state might be organized. In fact, we can begin to revisit ideas engaged by Rousseau and other philosophers on man in a state of nature. How can we transcend anarchy? Anarchy can be conceived of as a kind of social network phenomenon, and society and social order can also be conceived of as a social network phenomenon.
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We are thus at a moment where a leap forward in the methodology for the study of social networks has been made, firstly by building on past work. But secondly, we are at a moment where — because of modern telecommunications technologies and other innovations — people are leaving digital traces of where they are, who they are interacting with, and what they are saying or even thinking. All of these types of data can be captured by the deployment of what I call "massive passive" technologies and used to engage social science questions in a way that our predecessors could only dream of. We have vast amounts of data that can be reapplied to investigate fundamental questions about social organization and about morality and other concerns that have perplexed us forever.
We have had advances in methods, we have had advances in data. We have also had advances in ideas. People are beginning to think more creatively about what it means to have these kinds of higher-order structures. Since the late 1990s and into the 2000s science more generally has been engaged in what I call the "assembly project" of modern science. . . .
Neuroscientists are beginning to think: okay, well, we understand a lot about neurons, but how do they interconnect to form brains? Geneticists are saying: at the end of the day, we will have understood all 25,000 (approximately) human genes, and then what? How do we put Humpty Dumpty back together again? How do we reassemble all of the genes and understand how they interact with each other in space and across time? We have seen the recent birth of a new field of biology called systems biology, which seeks to put the parts back together.
And similarly, in social science, there is an increasing interest in the same kind of phenomenon. . . .
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Understanding all of this is what drives me and James Fowler to death right now. And as we have been thinking about it, we have come up with some initial simple ideas, and some initial intriguing and very novel empirical observations. The simple ideas are the following: it is critical when you think of networks to think about their dynamics. A lot of times, people fail to understand networks because they focus on the statics. They think about topology; they think about the architecture of the network. They think about how people are connected, which is of course incredibly important and not easy to understand either. While on the one hand the topology can be understood or seen as fixed or existing, on the other hand this topology is itself mutable and changing and intriguing, and the origin of this topology and its change is itself a difficult thing.
But here is something else: Once you have recognized that there is a topology, the next thing you must understand is that there can be a contagion as well — a kind of process of flow through the network. Things move through it, and this has a different set of scientific underpinnings altogether. Understanding how things flow through the network is a different challenge from understanding how networks form or evolve. It is the difference between the formation and the operation of the network, or the difference between its structure and its function. Or, if you see the network as a kind of super-organism, it is the difference between the anatomy and the physiology of the super-organism, of the network. You need to understand both. And they both interconnect and affect each other, just as in our bodies our anatomy and our physiology are interrelated.
This is what James and I are tackling right now; we have started with several projects that seek to understand the processes of contagion, and we have also begun a body of work looking at the processes of network formation — how structure starts and why it changes. We have made some empirical discoveries about the nature of contagion within networks. And also, in the latter case, with respect to how networks arise, we imagine that the formation of networks obeys certain fundamental biological, genetic, physiological, sociological, and technological rules.
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We are interested not in biological contagion, but in social contagion. One possible mechanism is that I observe you and you begin to display certain behaviors that I then copy. For example, you might start running and then I might start running. Or you might invite me to go running with you. Or you might start eating certain fatty foods and I might start copying that behavior and eat fatty foods. Or you might take me with you to restaurants where I might eat fatty foods. What spreads from person to person is a behavior, and it is the behavior that we both might exhibit that then contributes to our changes in body size. So, the spread of behaviors from person to person might cause or underlie the spread of obesity.
A completely different mechanism would be for there to be not a spread of behaviors, but a spread of norms. I look at the people around me and they are gaining weight. This changes my idea, consciously or subconsciously, about what is an acceptable body size. People around me who start gaining weight reset my expectations about what it means to be overweight or thin, and this is what spreads from person to person: a norm. It is a kind of meme (but it is not quite a meme) that goes from person to person.
In our empirical work so far, we have found substantial evidence for the latter mechanism, the spread of norms, more than the spread of behaviors. It is a bit technical, but I will tell you why we have some evidence for norms. In our empirical work on obesity, we found two lines of suggestive evidence for a spread of norms. The first line of evidence caught everyone's attention, and frankly it caught our attention when we noted it. It showed that it did not matter how far away your social contacts were; if they gained weight, it caused you to gain weight. This was the case whether your friend lived next door, ten miles away, 100 miles away, or 1000 miles away. Geographic distance did not matter to the obesity effect, the interpersonal effect.
Another finding from looking at the spread of smoking behavior was that if you stop smoking, it makes me stop smoking and there is a spread of smoking cessation behavior, which itself is something we are investigating. Pertinent for the present purpose, however, is that, after taking into account the spread of smoking cessation behavior, it did not efface the spread of obesity. In other words, accounting for one particular behavior, smoking cessation (which is known to increase weight at the individual level), did not undo the spread-of -obesity effect. This is an example in which it is not a spread of a behavior that causes the spread of obesity. This finding, coupled with the finding regarding the lack of decay with geographic distance, suggests to us that it is a norm rather than a behavior that is spreading.
Why? Because for a behavior to spread, typically, you and I would have to be together. We would have to go running together, share meals together, or copy each other's behavior in some way. And that should decay with geographic distance because the farther away you are, the less time we can spend together. But a norm can fly through the ether. I might see you once a year and see that you have gained a tremendous amount of weight, which resets my idea about what an acceptable body size is. And minimal contact might be enough.
If I go see my brother Dimitri for Thanksgiving, no matter how much food we eat, no matter how much we share the behavior of eating, it will not change my weight that one day. But if I see him and he has gained a lot of weight, it can change my idea about what an acceptable body size is and, in that way, the spread of the norm can cause the spread of obesity.
Clothing fashions spread in our society. One way this can happen is you see people that reset your idea of what is fashionable. Another is more pragmatic. I take you shopping and we pick something out together. I say, "Oh, I heard about a new store," whatever. Those are two different ways in which fashions might spread.
We also have found in our work that things beyond obesity and smoking cessation spread in networks. Happiness spreads in networks. If your friend's friend becomes happy, it ripples through the network and can make you happy. We see clusters of happy and unhappy individuals in the social network like blinking lights in this complex fabric that is made up of people where some people are happy and some people are unhappy and there is a kind of gray zone between them. There is an ongoing kind of equilibrium that is reached in this social space. We have found that depression can spread, and drinking behaviors can spread, and the kinds of foods people choose to eat can spread (a taste for tastes can spread, as one of my graduate students is studying). All of this using the initial Framingham Heart Study Social Network data set.
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Incidentally, we are not claiming that the fact that obesity might spread through social networks — or that the social network phenomenon might be relevant to the obesity epidemic — is the only explanation for the epidemic. No doubt there are many explanations. Those explanations, incidentally, are not genetic. Our genes haven't changed in the last 30 years.
The real explanations for the obesity epidemic are exclusively socio-environmental — things having to do with the increasing consumption of calories in our society: food is becoming cheaper, the composition of food is changing, there is increasing marketing of foodstuffs and the like. Also, clearly, there has been a change of rate at which people burn calories due to an increase in sedentary lifestyles, the design of our suburbs, and a whole host of such explanations.
We are not claiming that such explanations are not relevant. No doubt they are all part of the obesity epidemic. We are just saying that networks have this fascinating property whereby they magnify whatever they are seeded with. And so if you can get something going in a networked population like obesity, it can spread.
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We also mention in our paper in the New England Journal the possible relevance of so-called "mirror neurons," which is another mechanism which I didn't touch on earlier. One possibility besides biological contagion is that by watching you exhibit certain kinds of behaviors like eating or running, I start to copy those behaviors mentally in a mirror-neuron kind of way. And this facilitates my exhibiting the same behavior.
It is actually quite complicated to know how to exploit these network phenomena in a situation like the one we have been discussing because if you have a lot of people of one body type and you introduce somebody of a different body type, it is unclear who will influence whom. The thin person might gain weight, or the overweight people might lose weight. Or both. It is a very complicated dynamic, which again requires a kind of deployment of a certain kind of data and methods to begin to understand.
I should also stress something very important, which is that James Fowler's and my primary focus is not obesity, it is networks. Obesity happens to be an incredibly important public health problem and was something very important to study, above all because it showed how something people might not have thought of as spreading in social networks could. If we had shown, for example that fashion spread in social networks, that might be much less interesting to people. But if you can show that something like obesity or happiness or even goodness spreads in social networks, you are on new terrain.
Incidentally, some of these things also touch on very old philosophical and social science concerns, as I mentioned earlier, because they raise questions about free will. If my behaviors and my thoughts are determined not just by my own volition, but are determined by the behaviors and thoughts of other people to whom I am connected, and are even determined by the behaviors and thoughts of other people who I do not know and who are beyond my social horizon but who are connected to people to whom I am connected, it speaks to the issue of free will. Are my thinking and my behavior truly free, or are they constrained because I am part of a social network? To the extent that I am part of this human super-organism, does that reduce my individuality? And does this give us more or less insight into human behavior?
Because we are talking about networks of human beings rather than networks of neurons or computers, it is the case that I am not just plunked down in a network that is determined by some kind of exogenous physical law. There is no doubt that the topology obeys certain biological and psychological rules and laws, but it is also true that I can choose who my friends are and say, "You know, I don't like these friends; I am going to pick new friends," and in turn choose new friends.
That is, your desires and ideas can influence the structure of your network. For example, if you have ideas that foster a certain kind of ties, those ties in turn foster and support certain kinds of ideas. You can imagine a circumstance in which certain kinds of ideologies can survive and offer certain kinds of advantages because they bind the group together, or tear it apart, in particular kinds of ways. We have been thinking a little bit about this in terms of groups of people that seem to evince what would appear to be self-destructive behaviors, but our thoughts in this regard are still very preliminary.
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. . . . We have talked about the flow of obesity through a network, we have talked about the flow of happiness through a network, we have talked about the flow of smoking cessation through a network, we have talked about the flow of fashions through a network. Now we are talking about the flow of tastes in privacy through the network. And tastes in all kinds of other things, like music, movies, or books, or a taste in food. Or a flow of altruism through the network. All of these kinds of things can flow through social networks and obey certain rules we are seeking to discover.
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To read the entire transcript or view the video on Edge, click here. For previous Situationist posts discussing the work of Christakis and Fowler, see "Common Cause: Combating the Epidemics of Obesity and Evil," and "Situational Obesity, or, Friends Don't Let Friends Eat and Veg." For Situationist posts discussing the situational sources of obesity, click here.
9 Responses to "Social Networks"
March 3, 2008 at 2:06 pm
[…] folks over at The Situationist posted some great excerpts from a recent Edge video of Nicholas Christakis discussion on the social […]
April 8, 2008 at 8:31 am
Dear Nicholas and James
Congratulations on an excellent article. I am a "semi-retired" Professor of Geography & Environmental Sciences and spent quite some time in the USA as a Visiting Scholar, Planning Fellow and Visiting Professor (Johns Hopkins, North Western, Michigan University, Michigan State, West Virginia). I was also interested in scial networks – however from a socio-spatial point of view. In particular, my interests revolved around the effects of socio-economics on social networks and propinquinty(e.g. how mobility influences social networking?). You may want to look at Walter Christaller's Theory on "Central Places" – (urban-based modelling)and some of Von Thunen's Works (rural-based modelling). Keep in touch!
I would be very interested in working with you on the issue of social networking.
Best wishes
Professor Dhiru V Soni
April 8, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Interesting concept. One group you can look at is the 12 -step programs. Being a part of a 12-step recovery program, fatal habits cease when you become "one" with the group. Your self-destructive will is given over to a grateful, self-accepting way of life. As your time and recovery in the group increases, it follows that you give back to the group and help others in their recovery. People stay 20-30 years as part of this group to keep focused and thrive in sobriety.
April 8, 2008 at 12:34 pm
It is my belief that Social Networks will be the key to our choice of either Evolution or Devolution. Whether our species will live or die.
It is also my belief that at the root of our choices for smoking, obesity, unhappiness, and many other symptoms of dis-ease, is the collective view that we are each Separate – from each Other and from Nature. Let us get to the root instead of placing so much energy on the symptom! We are ALL CONNECTED!
We need a New Collective Worldview! A New Paradigm! The time is NOW to Awaken the Power of our Social Potential! To Co-Create a Blueprint for the Re-Creation of Human Reality! And this will happen through the Co-creative Capacity of Social Networks! A Social Network System that will fulfill our Collective Potential!
I invite you to refer to the book, Conscious Evolution, by Barbara Marx Hubbard. She also speaks to the Noosphere, of which Social Networks very much play a significant role. Through Social Networks will come the Collective Rise of Consciouness,a New Guiding Worldview….Conscious Evolution! The Social Network most certainly contains the capacity for us to Co-Create a new Meme which will guide us through this danerous peried toward a New Worlview – a World that Works for Everyone!
In the past, memes aros unconsciously and directed our actions, often without our knowing consent. But now, not only are we responsible for our own actions, but we are also responsible for our beliefs. For as we see reality, so we act, and as we act, so we shape reality. The meme of Conscious Evolution, given modern communications, could spread very quickly. Within a few dicates it could become the guiding meme.
I also invite you to engage in a study of Social Networks and Conscious Evolution through a new emerging vehicle called Humanity Unites Brilliance. We are a Social Network that is committed to this very mission and vision. I invite you to learn more at http://www.ihaveimpact.com, or http://www.ihaveimpact.hubhub.org.
It is my belief that our Social Networks WILL provide us with the power of either Co-destruction or Co-Creation. Which will we choose?
April 11, 2008 at 2:46 pm
From an informal observation of my own life, I have seen the shift in social networks based on my shift of thinking. I may have been exposed to that way of thinking through different forms of media, but didn't really embrace change until I saw others around me living that change. In this case, the change of thinking is in living in optimism, happiness, and altruism.
When I was surrounded by negativity, selfishness, and low self worth, I became those very things even if it wasn't my natural state. I found I embraced the superficial lifestyle by eating out and shopping to fill the void of low self esteem. I was angry and frustrated often. Of course, I became obese and developed poor hygiene. All of this was acceptable, though, because I lived around others that were the same way.
I physically moved away from the majority of those that lived that negative lifestyle and immediately began to see a change of focus in my own reality to one of more optimism. By separating myself, I became more receptive to a differing of thought, gaining the confidence and self esteem to make better choices…or even to make choices. Then from that shift of thinking, I now find a new social network emgerging of similar positive thinkers.
The relationship I am in is currently experiencing this shift as well. Because of my shift of lifestyle and thinking, my spouse and I are experiencing friction in our relationship. Our options are that he shift with me, which he resists, or I shift back, which seems a bit couter-productive.
I'm not sure if I am influenced by a collective norm, but I am most definitely influenced by the behavior of those I associate with. How I think even seems affected by those in my social network. Then it also seems like the more I have shifted my thinking and behavior, the more opportunities arrive to increase my new social network.
November 29, 2008 at 9:14 pm
[…] from "Social Networks," by Nicholas Christakis on The Situationist Blog, which is a blog maintained by The Project […]
December 28, 2011 at 11:04 am
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[…]Social Networks « The Situationist[…]…
April 25, 2015 at 5:07 am
[…] Social Networks « The SituationistIn our empirical work so far, we have found substantial evidence for the latter mechanism, the spread of norms, more than the spread of behaviors(tags: normes comportements réseaux+sociaux) […]
March 14, 2019 at 2:07 am
[…] Social network patterns. Source: The Situationist […]


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