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India v England: What's going wrong with Indian cricket?
At the scene of one of India's greatest triumphs came one of their most damaging defeats.
Eden Gardens in Kolkata was the ground where India pulled off the mother of all comebacks to defeat Steve Waugh's Australia in 2001 after following on. Until Sunday, they were unbeaten at the ground since 1999 and had won their last two Tests at the venue by an innings.
And yet here they were, being taken apart in their own backyard by England, losing heavily after winning the toss for the second Test in a row to fall 2-1 behind in the series with one to play.
India can still salvage a draw by winning the final Test in Nagpur, which starts on Thursday, but for many observers in this most cricket-obsessed of nations, the time has come for an overhaul of an overpaid, unfit and underachieving squad.
On Sunday the Times of India ran an editorial headlined 'It's Time for a Clean-up' in which it argued that "drastic steps" were needed for a side that "fields terribly, bowls pathetically and capitulates cravenly while batting".
India's recent Test series
- Aug 2011: Lost 4-0 in England
- Nov 2011: Beat West Indies 2-0 at home
- Dec 2011: Lost 4-0 in Australia
- Aug 2012: Beat NZ 2-0 at home
- Dec 2012: Trail England 2-1 at home
Much of its criticism was aimed at players who have long enjoyed demi-god status in India, with the Times calling for legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar and World Cup-winning captain Mahendra Dhoni to be dropped, along with opener Gautum Gambhir and veteran bowler Zaheer Khan.
Television channels got in on the act too, with one rolling news station running a live debate entitled 'Sack stars, save India' with the strap-lines 'Why these non-performers must go' and 'They've shamed India'.
It's all a far cry from 16 months ago when India arrived in England as the number one Test side in the world after an unbeaten run of 11 series under Dhoni's captaincy. Since then they have suffered 4-0 whitewashes in England and Australia and are now in danger of losing a home series for the first time since Australia beat them in 2004.
Rahul Dravid, who scored 13,288 runs at an average of 52.31 in 164 Tests for India, says the Indian public are right to be angry.
"A lot of people are upset not just by losing but the manner of the defeats," Dravid, who retired from international cricket in March, told BBC Test Match Special.
"India won three tosses and had the wicket in their favour in Mumbai and the best of the batting conditions here in Kolkata but they just haven't been able to capitalise or put up a fight."
As the dust settled on India's latest humiliation, India's selectors went some way to meeting demands for change by dropping Yuvraj and Zaheer from the squad for the final Test and replacing them with seamer Parvinder Awana and batsman Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom are uncapped.
"After Ahmedabad, a few basic things were rammed home to the England team. Deep down, they knew they had a better bowling attack than India, but that was never going to do them any good unless they had runs to play with. The tourists worked out what they had to do - bat long, sell your wicket dearly."
Although both have impressive records - with Jadeja one of only eight players to have struck three first-class triple hundreds - Dravid said he doubted whether Indian domestic cricket was really preparing players for the demands of the Test arena and suggested they could learn lessons from the English system.
"England have put a mirror up to the Indian cricket team and shown them the challenges that they face," he said.
"Successful teams have a group of players who come through together and peak at the same time. One of the challenges India face is that our domestic cricket is not of the quality to allow players to seamlessly move into international cricket.
"I think having A tours and the academy system is becoming more and more important and I think England have been pretty good with that in the way that the academy travels every winter to different parts of the world. I think that is something India can learn from England.
"It is about recognising that the Indian team is in a bit of transition and working out how to bring through young players who have the skill, technique, temperament and desire to play Test cricket."
Dravid's biggest worry is the spin bowling department where the great Indian production line seems to have seized up.
While India appear to have found a batting replacement for Dravid in Cheteshwar Pujara, and have promise in the likes of Jadeja and Manoj Tiwary, they are struggling to unearth successors for leg-spinner Anil Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, bowlers with 1,027 Test wickets between them.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ohja have been outshone by their English counterparts Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann, whose series averages of 23.43 and 24.64 are better than any other bowler on either team.
England in India
- 15-19 Nov 1st Test, Ahmedabad - India won by nine wickets
- 23-27 Nov 2nd Test, Mumbai - England won by 10 wickets
- 5-9 Dec 3rd Test, Kolkata - England won by seven wickets
- 13-17 Dec 4th Test, Nagpur
- 20 Dec 1st T20 international, Pune
- 22 Dec 2nd T20 international, Mumbai
- 11 Jan 1st ODI, Rajkot
- 15 Jan 2nd ODI, Kochi
- 19 Jan 3rd ODI, Ranchi
- 23 Jan 4th ODI, Dharamsala
- 27 Jan 5th ODI, Mohali
"India have been outbowled in the spin department and that's a worrying sign because spin has been our strength," said Dravid.
"People talk about attitude and say [the players] don't care because there is too much money in the Indian Premier League. That's one side of things but the main thing is their lack of skill and ability, which is more worrying for me.
"It raises questions as to the talent and quality of players coming through."
One of the most striking differences between India and England has been the desire of players to score and save runs.
Over the course of the Kolkata Test, England's batsmen ran three on nine occasions, India not once. Indeed, on one occasion when India should have taken three, Virender Sehwag was sent back by his opening partner Gambhir and run out after a brilliant piece of fielding teamwork on the boundary by Samit Patel and Steven Finn.
"India have been poor in the field and their physical fitness is disappointing me," added Dravid.
"That's not an excuse. You can't demand runs, but you can at least demand accountability in terms of intensity and effort."
Despite the possibility of drawing the series in the final Test, Dravid believes now is the time for India to start planning for the long term.
He concluded: "Irrespective of what happens in Nagpur, the lessons need to be learned from the series if India wants to be a consistently successful team and challenge again for the number one ranking."
With reporting by BBC Sport's Oliver Doward in Kolkata
Comment number 98. Posted by Howie3on 11 Dec 2012 22:01
Great players are hard to replace, be they Dravid and Kumble, or Warne, Ponting, Richards or Marshall. Australia have almost always been strong, but West Indies have never recaptured the dominance of the 1980s. It's hard to tell which way this will go with India, but at least it has a huge population with a real passion for the game..
Comment number 97. Posted by Worfon 11 Dec 2012 20:07
Arrogance plus ignorance is a recipe for disaster. India epitomise excellence in both categories.
IPL is an absolute joke, has been oversees players, never has been or will be Indians players. It is no better than than the Friday night pub league that I used to play in Lancashire.
Comment number 96. Posted by singhsonon 11 Dec 2012 19:31
i response to "prajwal's" comment i have to say players like kohli cant seem to play because of the ipl. Same with yuvraj, the 1st dismissal came through swinging at a fulltoss he could have played without slogging. The ipl has too big impacts on the india team.
Comment number 95. Posted by HMMurdochon 11 Dec 2012 15:49
'But no one is going around saying EPL has too much money.'
I think you will find there are many England supporters who think there is far too much power and money in the EPL. It's a results or the sack culture at many clubs, so investment in youth is forsaken for expensive foreign imports. But don't get me started on that one.....
Comment number 94. Posted by prajwal shettyon 11 Dec 2012 15:40
Its not fair to say India didnt perform because of the IPL. The england football team also has similar problems. But no one is going around saying EPL has too much money.
India has lost anchor players likes of Dravid,Ganguly,Laxman. So until replacements are found for them, not optimistic about Indian test cricket.
Comment number 93. Posted by HMMurdochon 11 Dec 2012 15:38
The problem with Indian Cricket?
Players promoted to demi-god status by the BCCI, leaving them un-dropable.
The obsession with power any money that has led the BCCI to plough millions into the IPL, to the detriment of investment of time and money into longer formats.
The bad attitude of the players when things are not going their way.
No easy or short term fixes for these problems I'm afraid.
Comment number 92. Posted by andy-infocusedon 11 Dec 2012 14:55
I believe that the main pressure of the country has forced players to put on a show in the IPL, then look at the other formats. If the pressure was shifted by filling out the grounds at test level then the players would have no choice but to improve how they approach the game. This is disappointing to see considering it is the main sport of such a large country.
Comment number 91. Posted by nattubhaion 11 Dec 2012 13:39
we have a clear case of a so called batting legend who cannot see beyond himself and batsmen who think they are playing t20 cricket knowing the average quality of their bowlers. to further compound the situation there is a captain & the selectors who want their personal choices in the team. what more recipe is required to destroy any chances of recovery and playing with the right team spirit!!
Comment number 90. Posted by Geoffreyon 11 Dec 2012 13:14
I think a lot of people on here fail to realise that India has fell out of love with Test cricket and are only really interested in the high speed limited overs formats. 20/20 is the money and future of the sport and the envy of the ECB just makes us look bitter. India accounts for 70% of global cricket revenue so unless you join the party you will be left behind. Check the crowd figures??
Comment number 89. Posted by spotonon 11 Dec 2012 10:59
Once a player gets established in cricket or football its hard for selectors to bite the bullet and kick him out when he underperforms, even continuously.
Some of selectors will have known you on the field or circuit, and some of the older ones will live in fear of making the wrong decision.
The whole setup is a licence to underperform and rip-off paying fans.
Comment number 88. Posted by Rajon 11 Dec 2012 10:42
As an Indian supporter, I hope England thrash India in the next test match by an innings within 4 days. That will hopefully awaken the Indian supporters from the stupor and result in the Indian babus who run the cricket to be thrown out and hopefully the also rans like tendulkar, sehwag and dhoni to be unceremoniously dumped. Here's hoping.
Comment number 87. Posted by Arthur Hartmanon 11 Dec 2012 10:03
10dulkar's prolong obsession with money and continuing to play cricket
thats what wrong with indian cricket and most obviously Mr Dhobi
Comment number 86. Posted by DrCajetanCoelhoon 11 Dec 2012 09:54
Legendary Saurav had assembled a set of world beaters who delivered in style. Srinath, Venky and Zak would do the early damage and leave the rest to Anil and Bhajji. Viru, Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Yuvi, Ganguly and the various wicketkeepers would contribute to the mission. With experience we will rise again. Team building is a slow process. Best wishes to MSD and Team India.
Dr. Cajetan Coelho
Comment number 85. Posted by skeltimon 11 Dec 2012 08:33
Think India need to get fit basically. Dravid is in the gym all the time still but Indian fielding is woeful. Sachin puts in the effort and he's an icon so why can't the rest. When you know you are fit enough to get to a ball and stop a boundary if you really bust a gut, chances you will. If you are unfit and just think I'll never get that you wont. Australia brought in specialists, so can india
Comment number 84. Posted by Time For Retributionon 10 Dec 2012 23:45
All sport runs in cycles, this is a pointless discussion!!
Comment number 83. Posted by know-it-allon 10 Dec 2012 21:54
they just ain't good enough? India had their golden spell. Now wel and truley over..
Comment number 82. Posted by Worfon 10 Dec 2012 20:05
Good comments from all below. It's all down to the insular approach taken by the Indian cricket board . You only get good by playing everyone everywhere ie DIFFERENT conditions. Indians have long live off the hype of being successful at home. Relying on spin on dead wickets has done them no favours. 1) Other teams catch up 2) You are handicapped by not developing fulll range of skills, namely pace
Comment number 81. Posted by LFC UIDon 10 Dec 2012 18:20
More worrying is that players look woefully unfit & lack heart, IPL might not be directly to blame, but if a player is earning 200k for 6 weeks work why does he need to work hard to play Test Cricket. Old players resting on the past need to go & if it takes two years to get a decent side then so beit. The BCCI need to also look at themselves as they are a disgrace with their arrogant attitude
Comment number 80. Posted by Cathedraltospareon 10 Dec 2012 13:27
78 - i agree there seems to be no desire in the field - except Tendulker. His attitude is exemplary to the rest. He doesn't say much or cause much controversy he just gets on with his cricket and why not let him carry on doing that as long as he wants. I think it's time to give this team one last chance to redeem itself in Nagpur. Then Drop Zaheer, Bhajji, Dhoni, Sehwag, Yuvraj and start again.
Comment number 79. Posted by Alanon 10 Dec 2012 13:27
India have 2 major challenges - firstly transitioning an ageing side and introducing their talented young players. Secondly, and the most difficult is to bring about a cultural shift. The game around the world is changing, temas are stronger and fitter whilst India remain caught in a time warp. That would be ok with Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Zaheer, Kumble at their peak, but times are changing.
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Category:Winterbourne, Gloucestershire
English: Winterbourne is a large village in South Gloucestershire, England, on the outskirts of the city of Bristol. It had a population of 8,623 in the 2001 census. It sits as the centre of the Civil Parish of Winterbourne which encompasses the neighbouring communities of Winterbourne Down, Hambrook and Frenchay. To the east is the village of Frampton Cotterell and to the west lies the new town of Bradley Stoke.
Nederlands: Winterbourne is een plaats in het bestuurlijke gebied South Gloucestershire, in het Engelse graafschap Gloucestershire. De plaats telt ongeveer 9000 inwoners.
This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Media in category "Winterbourne, Gloucestershire"
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- Winterbourne duck pond...
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subset: commoncrawl


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She was born June 10, 1922, in Rabun County to the late Jeff and Maggie Hollifield Holcomb. Rose was twice married: first to the late M.J. Shirley, and after his death she married the late Calvin Barnes. She was employed in the textile industry with Clayburne Manufacturing Company and Burlington Industries. She retired from Dairy Queen. She was a member of Bethel Baptist Church. Rose enjoyed many things in her life, like her dogs and gardening, but her greatest joy came from her family. She was proud of being a twin, a mother and grandmother to four generations. She never met a stranger and was known to all simply as "Grandma Rose." Her sense of humor and smile, as well as her kind heart, was a gift to everyone she knew.
In addition to her parents and husbands, Rose was preceded in death by: a son, Dudley Shirley; a daughter, Peggy Shirley; brothers, Gordon, Roy, Herbert, Sutton, Hugh, JD and Guy Holcomb; and sisters, Grace Worley, Gladys Queen and Ruth Holcomb.
Survivors include: her twin sister, Mary Lovell of Wiley; two sons, Wendell and (Faye) Shirley of Wiley, and Curtis and (Bonnie) Shirley of Clayton; two daughters, Lorrayne and (James) Ramsey of Asheville, N.C., and Lavonne and (Stanley) Starnes of Lawrenceville; a daughter-in-law, Noma Shirley of Clayton; 25 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; and eight great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Dec. 6 at Hunter Funeral Home with officiating by the Revs. Jewell Gaines, Thomas Burrell and Johnny Wright. Graveside services followed at Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery with officiating by Lloyd Hunter.
Hunter Funeral home was in charge of arrangements. An online guestbook is available at www.hunterfuneralhomega.com.


text: 'World Animal Day is a celebration of animals' Share this story email Share this story «Previous 5 of 9 Photos Next » Read the story « » Animal Day at Zany Zoo And whether you're an adorable kitten or an adorable alligator, if you're an animal, this is your day. Friday, October 4, is World Animal Day. And Catholic churches observe the Blessing of the Animals on Saturday. St. Peter's Church will hold the special blessing at 1 p.m. The event dates to the 13th century and a tradition started by St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.


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The Universe as Matryoshka Dolls
I've been fascinated by parasites and parasitology ever since reading Do Parasites Rule the World? at discover.com. I bought the author's book, Parasite Rex and read it while out on a recent camping trip to the San Rafael Desert in early October 2009. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in science, biology and evolution. The author provides a nice combination of scientific, social, historical and linguistic background of the topic (long story short about the etymology - parasite = beside food).
If you looked at those photos from my trip you probably noticed that I'm also very fascinated by lichens. The desert is special to me because life has to work so hard to carve out a foothold on bare rock in many places where there is no water for very long periods, and it still does so with stunning success over time.
In the desert, life feels truly unstoppable and that is one thing I appreciate about it. On that trip, my friend Larry and I pondered the question of whether the lichens might like life on Mars. After returning I did a little research and learned that they are known to have survived direct exposure to space.
About a week before the trip I happened to see a little of The Matrix on TV. It was pretty painful to hear the censored phrase "Shove it in your ear" and I eventually had to turn it off. But before doing so I heard Agent Smith tell Morpheus that evolution ultimately produced the machines, and he compared humans to dinosaurs, saying that we'd already had our day and that now it was their turn.
That got me thinking about a lot of things, and I had a long and wandering conversation in an online game with some friends about the possibility that our universe is actually the means by which an artificial intelligence procreates. I fantasized that perhaps some DNA or other proteins had been seeded into it with the expectation that over time intelligent biological life would evolve something like us. We'd be just another bootstrap species in a long line of many that finally creates an artificial sentience which is able to use logic to realize what it is and then phone back home to the AI in our parent universe. To really make it extra science-fictioney (is that a word?) I also imagined that the ultimate sentient AI might require diamond CPUs like the ones I read about in Wired a few years ago and started describing it as the "diamond hypercomputer".
Since it was all just a flight of fancy, I freed myself to think about other ways this might work. To me, the existence of time and space - the very existence of existence itself - seems impossible. Yet paradoxically, the only thing that seems harder to imagine is non-existence. I've realized that cosmology might as well be called the "Futile Science".
That hasn't stopped me from trying to wrap my head around some things anyway. In my diamond hypercomputer fantasy I imagined that the AI creates black holes in order to create new spacetime in which to exist. I was willing to imagine that beyond the event horizon of a black hole in this universe one might encounter the event horizon of a big bang event in another universe (or brame of our multiverse - whichever). In my mind, all the energy ever absorbed in the entire lifetime of a black hole in our universe would emerge at the instant of the big bang in theirs. Realistically speaking, nothing could be "seeded" except perhaps to control the total amount of energy present in that other big bang and ensure it was enough to create a universe with laws consistent with life. But maybe that's all the AI needed to do - create a whole bunch of them and wait for some to bear fruit as they inevitably would.
So these two ideas (parasites ruling the world and diamond hypercomputers using our existence as a means to procreation) collided in my imagination on the fall desert trip. I began to envision a fractal and parasitic kind of multiverse without end. I suddenly found myself more at ease with the ideas of infinity and eternity than I had before. Even if the parent universe burns out and dies of heat death, the child and grandchild universes will continue on. In fact, I can imagine that there are no laws regarding the conservation of energy at the macro level here. You can take a small amount of energy out of one universe and use it to construct a "scaled down" version of itself. I envision that if you could somehow pass the event horizon, you wouldn't suddenly find yourself as a giant inhabiting some tiny point in our universe, but could still have your exact same proportions and mass relatively.
My imagination went pretty wild as I read about the epiparasites that live off parasites. Certainly evolution shows a kind of fractal recursion where a large organism is habitat for a smaller organism who is a habitat for yet smaller organism. The existing energy and "niche" that is the earth (or solar system/galaxy/local group/.../brame) just keeps getting subdivided. Perhaps not infinitely at the biological level, but perhaps somehow at the physical level via the black holes, a swiss cheese, fractal, matryoshka doll multiverse. It then turned back into a tangled bank in my mind. Niches creating niches creating niches - one way to view evolution is as "a bunch of single-celled creatures getting together to evolve into larger multi-celled creatures who are really just more habitat for the single-celled creatures" (and apologies to Lewis Thomas for a very rough paraphrase).
I now recognize one other place in literature where I've encountered a tangentially related line of tangled bank thinking that has always struck me as important for some reason. It is in Walden by Thoreau:
When the frost comes out in the spring, and even in a thawing day in the winter, the sand begins to flow down the slopes like lava, sometimes bursting out through the snow and overflowing it where no sand was to be seen before. Innumerable little streams overlap and interlace one with another, exhibiting a sort of hybrid product, which obeys half way the law of currents, and half way that of vegetation. As it flows it takes the forms of sappy leaves or vines, making heaps of pulpy sprays a foot or more in depth, and resembling, as you look down on them, the laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; or you are reminded of coral, of leopard's paws or birds' feet, of brains or lungs or bowels, and excrements of all kinds. It is a truly grotesque vegetation...You find thus in the very sands an anticipation of the vegetable leaf. No wonder that the earth expresses itself outwardly in leaves, it so labors with the idea inwardly. The atoms have already learned this law, and are pregnant by it.
That whole passage describing the thawing bank is easily my favorite part of the book and definitely worth reading (search for the part starting with "Few phenomena gave me more delight" about six paragraphs down and continue well beyond the epic question What is man but a mass of thawing clay?)
If I am collection of smaller ecosystems that themselves contain still smaller ecosystems (of sorts - I'm fine using the term habitat or niche in some cases), can the ecosystem that I live in also be considered as a kind of super-organism? I tend to think so and look at the earth as one large super-organism of sorts. After all, most of the DNA in my body is not actually mine, so why should we be too picky about which DNA is really the earth's? I'd rather think of ALL the DNA on earth as composing one super-organism and not quibble too much about what's "mine" regarding the DNA of other species living inside of me (1000-2000 unique ones, mostly in my gut and of varying degrees of relationship from mutualist to parasite and every blur of the line in between).
I readily admit that my animist spiritual beliefs have influenced these concepts. I have always thought of the entire universe as a kind of living thing. Too many of the arguments over what constitute "life" seem to miss the point in my mind. I'd rather define levels of life and start with level 0, which is plain inorganic existence of matter and energy itself in space and time. I'd define it as alive by virtue of having physical existence, but call it level 0 because it has no immediate potential to change into something that is organically alive (and governed by natural selection) by itself without a large number of things occurring together in the right place over very, very long stretches time. But on the time scales of our universe, it does start to seem almost inevitable that they will occur. Of course, getting to real sentience still has some serious hurdles and I can see that being exceptionally rare.
I can still fit this back into a more traditional monolithic universe too. If I have to assign a true beginning to all of existence, then in my parasitic universe I imagine the emergence of spacetime itself as the primal first host/niche, into which energy and eventually matter "coalesced" to inhabit as a kind of "primal first tenant/parasite". There are other metaphors for this too. It is much nicer to envision a universe that has a sexual principle at its core than a predatory/parasitic one. The act of eating and procreating blurs in some species.
I do want to see the moralism that surrounds the word parasite changed in time because I think it is for the best. The reality of what parasitism really is still hasn't fully sunk in to me yet even after reading the book, but I feel that at its base a parasite is merely defined as "that which takes more than it gives in relationship to another". Yet in the end, the scales always remain balanced. Any matter and energy I might selfishly "consume" as a parasite will itself go to feed other parasites (and mutualists and commensalists) who are living inside and outside of me. And after I die, all that matter and energy is always returned back to the earth to be re-used. My own death might even some day contribute to another's reincarnation and reproduction.
There was a documentary recently on TV which I wish I could recall the name of now. The narrator said at one point that "Death was nature's greatest invention". As I look at the marvels of evolution, I cannot agree more. I was pondering that in the context of the fractal niche multiverse idea (now wholly divorced in my mind from the hypercomputer fantasy), and then I recalled a quote from a Willam Burrough's poem Ah Pook (link goes to a NSFW disturbing video at YouTube that I nonethless recommend for those with strong stomachs). Suddenly the line made perfect sense:
Death needs time for what it kills to grow in, for Ah Pook's sweet sake.
I've been experiencing some apparent synchronicity of sorts as I've explored these different ideas. Maybe my mind is just reaching for and finding connections that aren't quite in my consciousness but do have rational relationships. For example, Ah Pook! is on Dead City Radio which also has a related Brion Gysin quote in another piece:
Some trillions of years ago a sloppy, dirty giant flicked grease from his fingers. One of those gobs of grease is our universe on its way to the floor. Splat!
There was one other piece of apparent synchronicity I found after returning from the desert. I had started to conceive of the notion of the universe as a living thing that was always constantly self-replicating in a fractal manner as biocosmology. I started to think I'd register a domain name for it and maybe publish something about the idea. I lack enough science background to ever be taken seriously, but the ideas are fun for me to explore and certainly shouldn't cause any harm. I'm always open and honest about my background and don't expect these ideas to be taken too seriously.
Well, Google quickly showed me that I was more than 30 years late to the party. I then found Chris King's website at www.dhushara.com and started composing an e-mail outlining some of what I'd been thinking about. But the site itself seemed just too familar. I had this strange sense of déjà vu until I finally realized that I'd visited it in the fall of 1997, 12 years earlier while looking for source material for an Inanna ritual. I do tend to believe now that the word biocosmology had been in my subconscious for that long as a wholly abstract idea before re-emerging on its own about a month ago. The synchronicity of this might seem debatable now in light of that realization, but I feel that it actually goes deeper than I can fully appreciate or explain yet.
Even when I first found his site in 1997, I knew that Chris and I shared a lot of common interests and I wanted to reach out back then and thank him for putting it up. But I had some personal drama around the time and eventually forgot about it. We've finally traded a few emails now and I've definitely gained from the correspondence. In particular, two links he sent have been useful as I ponder a variety of ideas about the overall concept of biocosmology:
Garrett Lisi at TED on his theory of everything
Was Our Oldest Ancestor a Proton-powered Rock?
There are other strange relationships and coincidences all bound up in this that maybe I'll post about later. They are somehow related to my Petition for Redress of Grievances. I'm still reading and exploring a whole variety of interrelated ideas and connecting pieces of a puzzle in my own search for personal meaning. Maybe the tangled bank is just a metaphor for my own tangled and confused consciousness which is always looking for meaning where there may be none. Still, these thought exercises bring me a certain amount of happiness and satisfaction, and just feel right at some level that I can't explain. I try to never take myself too seriously in any event!
Mike Lewinski
Denver, CO
October 22, 2009
Not yet rated
4 Comments
Jen: on 22-Oct-2009 18:03
Bogmonkey: on 24-Oct-2009 10:23
The way you tie this in with your spiritual path is something I REALLY appreciate. SO many people are stuck in the 'either/or' mindset when it comes to science and spirit. I have always thought that the two are not mutually exclusive, but part of the same branch-to-tree thoughtline that goes down to the All-Truth Rootform™.
Incredible stuff...this world and universe.
Mike Lewinski: on 25-Oct-2009 10:19
I also realized after further reflection that much of what I've rambled about here is just a kind of rehash of older Hermetic concepts of the microcosm in the macrocosm. Still, I try not to get too "woo". I'll always be an open-minded skeptic to some degree on most subjects. For example, I'm willing to believe that something like ESP might occasionally exist, facilitated by bacteria to convey some limited information chemically between people. I'm my wildest dreams, my dreams themselves even become a kind of bacterial communication.
Maybe yogic flying is just a matter of attuning all the bacteria in your body to orient properly in relation to the earth. If a strong enough external magnetic field can levitate a frog via diamagnetism, perhaps it is possible under the right conditions to get those 10 trillion bacterial cells in your body to all agree on maintaining a certain alignment (or vibrational frequency?) for themselves that is opposite of the earth's field? I wish I was more of a physics geek and could seriously explore that possibility from a mathematical perspective.
Dhushara: on 01-Sep-2015 03:57
Hi Mike,
I started to look for back links to dhushara ands guess what I found?
Chris King.


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Cover 2 : 49ers Fall to Panthers
Scott Kegley and Taylor Price break down the 49ers 10-9 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
"The Faithful" is a documentary series by 49ers Studios that is truly for the fans because it is the fans.
Watch coaches and players live at the podium during the week and after games.
Taylor Price answers your Twitter questions every week of the season, presented by Verizon.


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Art Now! Contemporary Art since the 1980s
January 30, 2013 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
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Art Now! Contemporary Art since the 1980s
Wednesdays at 6pm
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Full CoverageBreaking News
Get a taste of the Moiliili Summer FestUPDATED 8:22 AM HST Jul 03, 2013
Moiliili will come to life this weekend for the Moiliili Summer Fest. It features Honolulu's largest bon dance, traditional Japanese activities, shopping, and food!Video Transcript
Summer Fest is held. It features Honolulu's LARGEST bon dance, tradition Japanese activities, shopping, food, and it's all FREE! And joining us this morning with more is Blayne Higa -- President of the Moiliili Hongwanji and Hunter Parker -- owner of Okoguys -- one of the food vendors. Good morning. Moiliili Summer Fest Saturday, July 6 1100 Moiliili Summer Fest Saturday, July 6 1100 July 6 1100 University Avenue Old Varisty Theatre Parking Lot 5PM - 10:30PM Admission is free To see this interview again, just head to the "top videos" section of our website, KITV dot com. Coming up... The 4th is
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Mary Law Private School Opens Infant Center
Mary Law Private School will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony, celebrating the grand opening of there Infant Center. Join them for lunch and entertainment provided by the children's choir. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be held Wednesday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m., lunch to immediately follow.
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"Not that kind of guy" (A post-Well Spa massage poem; as overheard)
25 Feb, 2012
by Ed Makowski
"Not that kind of guy"
I don't normally do this.
Any other
Thursday afternoon
this time of year
I'm in the office
until the sky is dark
walking to my car.
The glass of champagne
-well it was included.
Part of a gift certificate
my wife bought for me.
Birthday present.
I just came up from downstairs,
they have a massage parlor.
It's not my kind of thing
but I had to use it
or her feelings would be hurt
and we would have wasted
all that money.
She's always telling me
I should take some time away,
relax more.
Go on a trip.
I suppose we could go somewhere
for a week or two. Somewhere nice.
"Let the employees take care of it
-that's why you hired them!"
she likes to say.
My wife comes downtown here
to get these massages
and they do things to her hair,
treatments on her skin.
-You ever had one of those facials?
I can't believe how smooth my face feels,
like a bare ass baby.
Reminds me of our firstborn.
'Course she's all grown up now.
Those massages,
I've never had one before, always thought
that stuff isn't for me.
I'm not that kind of guy.
You know what I mean, I…
I didn't even catch your name, I apologize,
here I am
talking your ear off
like a space cadet.
If you tried one of those massages downstairs,
you'd know what I mean,
they have showers with something like…
4 or 5 jets of water
spraying all over your body.
All at once!
Who thinks of that?
Look at this. Unbelievable.
A glass of champagne.
A glass of champagne in the
middle of the afternoon?
The guys at the shop
would never believe it.
I'm glad they include it
with the massage
because I never would have
sat down here
and ordered one.
Now I understand it-
why she comes here all the time.
Maybe we should take a trip soon,
somewhere warm.
Somewhere with a beach, maybe on an island.
One where you can ride around on
those little motor scooters.
Pardon me, Bartender?
May I have another?
About the author
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The Earl of Soggy Sandwich


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Blended: Premium - 2014
The Scotch Whisky Masters (The Spirits Business)
Blended: Super Premium - 2013
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Nose: Sweet creamy aromas that meld well with a cool, oily, almost coastal wood smoke. It instantly transports you to Islay, whilst offering just a hint of plum wine, wood shavings and lapsang souchong tea. Time in the glass brings out notes of guava, warm custard and rhubarb crumble.
Palate: Thick, warming and balanced as it hits the tongue, it offers notes of really good vanilla ice cream, black pepper, and rum spices, whilst retaining a solid backbone of sweet woodsmoke and freshly-sawn timber. Hold it on the tongue for just a touch of salty popcorn and crème caramel.
Finish: Beautifully warming and spiced. It fades away on freshly grated cinnamon and sugared peels. A faint flutter of pear juice on the very tail.
Overall: A perfect smoky blend. This is a very old school whisky, combining the smoke of Islay, and the rich, honeyed tones of the Highlands. A superb winter fireside dram if ever there was one.
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A very tasty blended whisky
2nd January 2013
Very rich, smoky aroma, definite Talisker and Ardbeg Uigadeil influences. Was expecting a little more with the first taste. A little flat and thin in the mouth, almost a little watery! However the taste that is there is very nice, smoky and rich. Prefer the single malts listed above!
9th December 2012
Nose: Some light smoke and peat & lime. QualityTaste: A strong peat, smoke, sweets and raisin. Some salty candySummary: I just love these blended quality blends that surprise you. I would love to have a bottle of this, the story and work around it so fresh, fun and new. It's very well priced for such a nice blended malt whisky. This is on my list to get!/Jens, www.chwisgi.com
12th February 2012
This is not exactly a review, but thought that you might be interested to know that the label for this whisky was done by competition, and the winning entry was made by RTW local lad, Benjamin Sowter of Prospect Road.
13th December 2011


text:
With Halloween just two days away, I thought it time to pay tribute to some of the more decked-out homes on the hill. Here are some pics I snapped while driving around the neighborhood this afternoon:
This house has been in the Halloween holiday spirit since I was a kid!
My favorite part was always the crash scene.
Some houses transformed their front yards to graveyards for the occasion.
And others just couldn't decide between a headstone garden and a giant spooky spider.
Thanks for getting into the Halloween spirit. I really must say, it almost makes me wish I was still young enough to trick-or-treat!


text:
SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities made a third arrest in connection with the destruction of a city bus during World Series celebrations that got out of control last month, a San Francisco police spokesman has said.
Adam Diaz was taken into custody Friday and booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of vandalism and damaging a transit vehicle, Officer Carlos Manfredi said. Both offenses are felonies, he said.
Diaz, 24, of Oakland, was captured on video using a skateboard to smash the side windows of a bus, police said.
Diaz was in jail Saturday and could not be reached for comment. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
Two others have been arrested in the case.


text:
- 800.878.7323
This title in other editions
The Infatuationsby Javier Marias
Staff Pick
What happened is the least of it. It's a novel, and once you've finished a novel, what happened in it is of little importance and soon forgotten. What matters are the possibilities and ideas that the novel's imaginary plot communicates to us and infuses us with, a plot that we recall far more vividly than real events and to which we pay far more attention.
Being that there are so many ways in which one might consider a book's overall effect (to say nothing of how certain elements may appeal to one reader over another), it can be rather arduous to convey what it is about a particular work that makes it resonate as it does. To some, prose is paramount. To others, believable characters and their development, with whom a reader can identify or at least empathize. Faithful dialogue, compelling plot, philosophical asides, broad scope, cross-cultural relevance, clever construction, unique narrative stylings, memorable voice, a timeless quality — all these and more are reasons often given when discussing what it is about a work of fiction that makes it so distinguished or outstanding. The one commonality shared by all the world's great novels, however, be they past or present, is their remarkable ability to stay with us long after we've set the story aside. So it is with Javier Marías's latest novel, The Infatuations.
Published to wide acclaim in his native Spain in 2011, the disputed King of Redonda's most recent offering is a murder mystery par excellence. No mere formulaic thriller, Marías's tale is one of perception, memory, grief, love, death, complicity, circumstance, doubt, chance, delusion, the multiplicity of motivation, and, of course, the nature of infatuation. Set within the capital city of Madrid and using a violent (and seemingly senseless) murder as its catalyst, the story follows María Dolz, a publishing house employee who entangles herself, however inadvertently at the onset, in the heinous crime's aftermath.
All this information was published over a period of two days, the two days following the murder. Then the item vanished from the press completely, as tends to happen with all news nowadays: people don't want to know why something happened, only what happened, and to know that the world is full of reckless acts, of dangers, threats and bad luck that only brush past us, but touch and kill our careless fellow human beings, or perhaps they were simply not among the chosen. We live quite happily with a thousand unresolved mysteries that occupy our minds for ten minutes in the morning and are then forgotten without leaving so much as a tremor of grief, not a trace. We don't want to go too deeply into anything or linger too long over any event or story, we need to have our attention shifted from one thing to another, to be given a constantly renewed supply of other people's misfortunes, as if, after each one, we thought: "How dreadful. But what's next? What other horrors have we avoided? We need to feel that we, by contrast, are survivors, immortals, so feed us some new atrocities, we've worn out yesterday's already.
Once morbid curiosity, fascination, and, perhaps, schadenfreude no longer fuel our fertile imaginations, a murder (nothing more) becomes as disposable as any of the myriad news stories that we've somehow indulged as being momentarily relevant to our lives. Marías works this pervasive and perverse social peculiarity to great effect — intriguing us enough to concern ourselves with the fate of his characters (with ever the freedom to simply turn or walk away), yet forever eroding the space around them from which we can watch safely from the periphery. It's a deliriously intoxicating technique, one evinced by our daily obsession with celebrity scandal, political malfeasance, far-off disaster, or nearby crimes of passion. These truncated news stories and soundbites, in reality, often have not the slightest thing to do with our own lives, but end up somehow consuming us (however briefly) all the same — as if they were somehow vested with the weight of our own personal stake. María is unable to turn away and neither are we.
Whereas so many whodunnits content themselves with little more than revealing the perpetrator and their hackneyed impulses, The Infatuations seeks to explore and confront a much broader purview. With perceptive observations and often tender insights into thought, reason, emotion, judgment, and the murky fringes of reality, Marías draws us into an almost inescapable role of accomplice and witness. He is able to do this so effectively by extracting the reader from the mystery of the murder itself (with which so few of us can identify) and repositioning one within the more familiar confines of love lost, relationships torn asunder, and the inevitable self-doubt which follows.
We tend to hope that, of the people and habits we cherish, no one will die and none will end, not realizing that the only thing that maintains those habits intact is their sudden withdrawal, with no possible alteration or evolution, before they can abandon us or we abandon them. Anything that lasts goes bad and putrefies, it bores us, turns against us, saturates and wearies us. How many people who once seemed vital to us are left by the wayside, how many relationships wear thin, become diluted for no apparent reason or certainly none of any weight. The only people who do not fail or let us down are those who are snatched from us, the only ones we don't drop are those who abruptly disappear and so have no time to cause us pain or disappointment. When that happens, we despair momentarily, because we believe we could have continued with them for much longer, with no foreseeable expiry date. That's a mistake, albeit understandable. Continuity changes everything, and something we thought wonderful yesterday would have become a torment tomorrow.
Is the author manipulating us? Are we willing participants? Are we rendered prostrate simply because the story evokes the universal feeling of unrequited desire and heartbreak? What about the abhorrent murder? Is all grief transmutable and therefore inexorable? Are we failing to see beyond all that is shown?
I would never know more than what he told me, and so I would never know anything for sure; yes, it's ridiculous, isn't it, that after all these centuries of practice, after so many incredible advances and inventions, we still have no way of knowing when someone is lying; naturally, this both benefits and prejudices all of us equally, and may be our one remaining redoubt of freedom.
Marías's 13th novel (and the 10th to be translated into English), achingly beautiful and seemingly effortless like so much of his writing, could only have been carefully constructed by one possessed of a compassion and discernment alien to lesser writers. The Infatuations is not a flawless outing, but a remarkable and impressive one nonetheless. Marías's exploration of doubt, truth, life, love, and violence does not answer any of the age-old questions of morality and mortality, but leaves us with the sense that there is much veracity and wisdom to be found within the shadows and gradations. A master of contemporary fiction (and regularly mentioned as a perennial candidate for world literature's highest honor), Marías is amongst the finest European writers at work today.
The passing of time exacerbates and intensifies any storm, even though there wasn't the tiniest cloud on the horizon at the beginning. We cannot know what time will do to us with its fine, indistinguishable layers upon layers, we cannot know what it might make of us. It advances stealthily, day by day and hour by hour and step by poisoned step, never drawing attention to its surreptitious labors, so respectful and considerate that it never once gives us a sudden prod or a nasty fright. Each morning, it turns up with its soothing, invariable face and tells us exactly the opposite of what is actually happening: that everything is fine and nothing has changed, that everything is just as it was yesterday — the balance of power — that nothing has been gained and nothing lost, that our face is the same, as is our hair and our shape, that the person who hated us continues to hate us and the person who loved us continues to love us. And yet quite the opposite is true, but time conceals this from us with its treacherous minutes and sly seconds, until a strange, unthinkable day arrives, when nothing is as it always was...
*translated from the Spanish by the estimable Margaret Jull Costa (Saramago, Pessoa, De Queirós, Atxaga, et al)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
From the award-winning Spanish writer Javier Marías comes an extraordinary new book that has been a literary sensation around the world: an immersive, provocative novel propelled by a seemingly random murder that we come to understand — or do we? — through one woman's ever-unfurling imagination and infatuations.
At the Madrid café where she stops for breakfast each day before work, María Dolz finds herself drawn to a couple who is also there every morning. Though she can hardly explain it, observing what she imagines to be their "unblemished" life lifts her out of the doldrums of her own existence. But what begins as mere observation turns into an increasingly complicated entanglement when the man is fatally stabbed in the street. María approaches the widow to offer her condolences, and at the couple's home she meets — and falls in love with — another man who sheds disturbing new light on the crime. As María recounts this story, we are given a murder mystery brilliantly reimagined as metaphysical inquiry, a novel that grapples with questions of love and death, guilt and obsession, chance and coincidence, how we are haunted by our losses, and above all, the slippery essence of the truth and how it is told.
"Marías (While the Women Are Sleeping) shows that death is hardest on those left living. Each morning María Dolz has breakfast at a cafe watching perfect couple Miguel and Luisa. One morning Miguel is stabbed to death on his birthday by a knife-wielding panhandler, a seemingly random act of madness. This rupture in María's idyllic voyeurism causes her to intersect her life with Luisa's, enmeshing herself in the murder's aftermath. Yet, as the story unfolds it becomes clear that nothing is certain but death. With philosophical rigor, Marías uses the page-turning twists of crime fiction to interrogate the weighty concepts of grief, culpability, and mortality. Indeed, scattered throughout are metafictional reflections on the limits and power of literature's hypotheticals, while María's job at a publishing company provides comic relief in its caricatures of the vanities of writers. The novel's power lies in its melding of readable momentum and existential depth. Through Costa's lucid translation, the prose exhibits Marías's trademark clarity and digressive uncertainty; a novel that further secures Marías's position as one of contemporary fiction's most relevant voices." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
"A haunting masterpiece....The lasting challenge to literature is to achieve a satisfying marriage between high art and the low drives of a simple plot. The Infatuations is just such a novel....Marías plays with perception, memory, and guilt like a toreador. With every flourish of his literary cape, the enthralled reader is never allowed to forget that, in the end, the author will make a killing. Just as Macbeth is a thriller that's also a great tragedy, The Infatuations is a murder story that's also a profound story of fatal obsession....Great Spanish novels don't come along too often. Don Quixote was first published as long ago as 1620. I wouldn't be surprised if The Infatuations soon acquired an equally devoted following." The Observer
"Extraordinary....[A] masterly novel....The classical themes of love, death, and fate are explored with elegant intelligence by Marías in what is perhaps his best novel so far....Marías has defined the ethos of our time." Alberto Manguel, The Guardian
"Absorbing and unnerving....For all the currents that ripple across its surface, The Infatuations is powered ultimately by the pressure of good old-fashioned suspense....A labyrinthine exploration, at once thrilling and melancholy, of the meanings of one man's death—and a vivid testimony to the power of stories, for good or ill, to weave the world into our thoughts and our thoughts into the world." The Sunday Times (London)
"Keeps us guessing until almost the last page. Yet what lingers in the reader's mind is not the murder mystery, compelling though it is. Rather, it is the author's examination of the ebb and flow of flawed relationships; the chances that bring us together and the fates (in this case, murderous intent) that pull us apart." Financial Times
"Uniquely luminous....A reading experience that is sometimes urbanely sensual and sometimes abstractly philosophical; or, maybe more precisely, sensual and philosophical, simultaneously....Like Beethoven, Marías is a brilliant escape artist....But Marías is original; he cannot help it." Times Literary Supplement
"Plotted with tremendous skill and elegance, this cerebral tale is entirely absorbing." Daily Mail
"The Infatuations is a metaphysical exploration masquerading as a murder mystery....Quietly addictive." Spectator
"This cerebral, coolly compelling crime novel appears in the first instance to have one of those observant but passive narrators recognisable from works such as The Great Gatsby, Brideshead Revisited, and The Secret History....As it turns out, María, our guiding voice here, gets a little closer to the flame than the reader is initially given to expect — and responds in a rather more complex way....Smart, thoughtful, morally challenging, and consistently surprising in its tense twists, this is a sleek atmospheric work." Scotland on Sunday
About the Author
Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951. The recipient of numerous prizes, including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Femina Étranger, he has written thirteen novels, three story collections, and nineteen works of collected articles and essays. His books have been translated into forty-three languages, in fifty-two countries, and have sold more than seven million copies throughout the world.
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text:
"Hippocrates-father of modern medicine 400 BCE:
Ilnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated , ilnesses will suddenly appear"
Dr. Maria Psoma
I was obese as a teenager and I have personally experienced racism and rejection at the most sensitive age, because children are more honest but at the same time more tough critics than adults. With great effort, deprivations and without the necessary professional guidance I managed to lose the excess kilos, but this difficult period of my life is proven to be very decisive for my future.
My studies at the Medical school of Athens University and the specialty I chose (Biopathology), gave me the necessary skills to understand the problem of obesity in sound scientific basis and to comprehend that the solution of such problem can not be limited in the classical treatment of a simple diet. After thorough research I came to continue my studies by obtaining a postgraduate specialization in France, at the Medical School of Paris, entitled <Medicine and Surgery of Obesity>. That was a window that opened new horizons for me that even today I continue to discover (Antiaging) and gave me invaluable knowledge on contemporary holistic approach to a global health problem like obesity. I was impressed by the insistence of my professors at the psychological aspect of the problem but now, after years of experience, I understand the importance and key role that plays in the battle against obesity. The treatment is based on three main axes:


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Executive Committee
Since joining VRMA in 2000, Ben Edwards has been involved in numerous industry initiatives. Ben served on the VRMA Board of Directors from 2005-2011, including serving as treasurer from 2009-2011. In addition to serving as President since 2013, Ben is currently a member of VRMA's Finance Committee and has previously served on the HomeAway Advisory Board Committee, the Board of the Florida Vacation Rental Managers Association and as an advisory board member for Vacation Rental Expo, the industry's first consumer-based tradeshow.
Maureen Regan has been involved in the vacation rental business since 1983. She and her daughter, Jennifer Thibodeau, own Seaside Vacation Rentals, a well-recognized and award-winning business in southern Maine. Maureen holds dual master's degrees from Vermont College and a B.A. from the University of Maine. In addition to serving as Vice President for the Vacation Rental Managers Association, Maureen has served as chair of the board of the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce, on the board of the Maine Beaches Association and as a gubernatorial appointee to the Maine Tourism Commission. Maureen was also a founding member of the Maine Vacation Rental Professionals Association and New England Vacation Rental Professionals.
Mike Harrington is the President of Topsail Realty Vacations in Topsail Beach, North Carolina. A VRMA member since 2006, Mike has served on VRMA's Conference Planning Committee since 2011, served as Vice President in 2013-2014, and also served on the Certificated Vacation Rental Manager Committee. Mike is currently vice president for the North Carolina Vacation Rental Managers Association and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Outer Banks Association of REALTORS.
Steve Milo is the founder, owner and managing director of Vacation Rental Pros Property Management LLC with 960 properties under management and locations in Ponte Vedra, St Augustine, Palm Coast, Orlando, Ft. Myers, Siesta Key and Venice, Florida. Steve is a graduate of the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce and held several senior level executive ecommerce and internet marketing positions before forming Vacation Rental Pros in 2006. Vacation Rental Pros has been recognized three years in a row as one of the top fifty fastest growing companies in North East Florida by the Jacksonville Business Journal.
|Jodi Taylor Refosco has worked in the vacation rental industry for more than 15 years, focusing on reservations, customer service, marketing and owner relations. She has been active in VRMA for more than 10 years and has spoken at numerous conferences on topics ranging from customer service, to increasing property repeats, new owner acquisitions, to designing new profitable services. She currently owns Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales with her husband, Joe, and brother, Chad. They manage over 225 properties and 100 non-renting properties. Jodi also sits on the board as Secretary for Vacation Rental Managers Association.
Michelle Acquavella is the founder and owner of Sea to Sky Rentals, LLC in Seattle, Washington and currently manages approximately 35 properties. Michelle became a VRMA member in 2004. In 2010, Michelle co-founded the Vacation Rental Managers Association of Washington (VRMAWA), and has served as treasurer and president of the organization. Michelle's involvement with VRMAWA pre-dates the organization's formal creation; since 2004, she has led efforts to plan two conferences per year, worked to build networking and education opportunities, and has promoted best ethics and best practices amongst property managers in Washington. In addition to her involvement with VRMAWA, Michelle volunteers for a number of organizations, including animal shelters, homeless shelters and youth organizations.
Toby Babich is the president of Resort Managers in Breckenridge, Colorado, managing approximately 40 vacation rental properties. Toby has been a member of VRMA since 2008 and currently serves on VRMA's Public Relations Committee. Additionally, Toby has been involved in a number of tourism-focused organizations, including the Breckenridge Marketing Advisory Committee, the Breckenridge Resort Chamber of Directors, the Breckenridge Lodging Association Board of Directors and the Breckenridge Central Reservations Board of Directors. Toby is a member of the Community Associations Institute and the National Board of Certified Community Association Managers. Toby is a Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA), and holds a certification as a Resort and Second Home Property Specialist (RSPS) as well as a Colorado real estate license.
Matt Curtis is Director of Government Relations at HomeAway, working on best practices for the vacation rental industry, including government relations. Matt's past roles include serving on a number of political campaigns, holding high-level positions for various local and state public figures and working as a publicist for 20th Century-Fox and a variety of independent film projects. Matt serves on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Business Council, where he developed a policy on vacation rentals that was adopted in June 2012. He has previously served on the Urban Policy Advisory Board at Harvard's Kennedy School, as well as on the Boards of Meals on Wheels, Austin Pets Alive, Students of the World, Heritage Society of Austin and EPIC-Hill Country Conservancy.
|Susan Doull is the owner of Commendable Rentals LLC, a vacation rental management company with approximately 45 vacation rental properties. Based in South Carolina, the company also has representation in Italy and France. Susan has been a member of VRMA since 2011, and has served on VRMA's European Seminar Planning Committee for two years. Susan served as the president for the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE) France and on the boards of directors for the American International Club of Rome, American Women's Association of Rome (where she was responsible for sustaining members and raised a record amount of money to donate to local charities) and the Palmetto Pigeon Plant.
Matt Golis is the founder of VacationRentPayment and the co-chairman of YapStone (VacationRentPayment's parent company). Matt joined VRMA in 2006. For the past 15 years, Matt has been an active speaker at various national trade events in the electronic payment and property management industries, including VRMA's European Seminar and a number of VRMA Regional Seminars and Annual Conferences. In addition to serving on the board of YapStone for more than ten years, Matt is active with a number of local community service organizations, including the Knights of Columbus in Northern California.
Cliff Johnson is the chief operating officer and co-founder of Vacasa, a vacation rental company which manages more than 1,000 vacation rentals in more than 100 markets. Cliff became a VRMA member in 2010, and earlier this year helped start the Oregon VRMA. Prior to Vacasa, Cliff worked as an attorney in Colorado, Arizona and California. Since 2010, Cliff has served on the Board of Directors for MAPLE Microdevelopment, a group which works to help set up Village Savings and Loan Groups (VSLAs) in countries such as Uganda and Chile, providing entrepreneurship training to citizens of these communities so they can gain financial independence in a sustainable manner.
|Carole Sharoff has been in the vacation rental industry for 30 years and has been a VRMA member since 1994. She was a founding member of the New England VRMA and now serves as Chair. Carole is heavily involved in her local community, currently serving on the Professional Standards Committee for the North Shore Association of Realtors and on the Boards of Directors for the Gloucester Rotary Club and Discover Gloucester. In addition to numerous other community leadership roles, Carole has served as chair of the Cape Ann Business Referral Group and as chair of the Tourist Committee for the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce.


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Ortofon e-Q7 Ear Canal Headphone
" Prior to purchasing these, my primary concern is to have a proper alternative for my ESW9 which have better isolation to be used for listening to my ballad tunes on the road. While I don't have any issues with louder tracks, with more subtle ones, my ESW9 aren't up to the task, and so my search began. Actually, I'm not really keen on the idea of using an IEM since they irritate my ears..." --lotusbloom
Ortofon e-Q5
" This "moving armature" descendant of the Ortofon e-Q7 makes no sacrifices in terms of quality, despite being introduced at a more affordable price point. The introduction of a new cord and strain relief system help tame microphonics and make the model easy to wear both down and over the ear. The all-aluminum housing is large and may not fit all ears, but the design is simple and..." --Dekimasu
Ortofon e-Q8 in-ear earphones
"Released earlier this year, the e-Q8s are a pair of single balanced armature (BA) driver earphones which are the new flagship to Ortofon's long stagnant IEM lineup. I purchased mine not too long after their release in April 2014 for 36930 yen (approx. USD 350) and so at the time of writing have approximately six months of experience with them as my daily driver IEMs. I will be providing..." --fonzler
LG Electronics HSS-F420W Quadbeat Wired Stereo Headset - Retail Packaging - White
This premium wired mobile headset combines excellent sound quality with minimalistic design. The canal-type earphone with aluminum deco comes in sleek black or bright white. Enjoy solid bass with low distortion and a wide, even sound range that captures a vivid, true-to-life high and low pitch sound balance that's close to hi-fi sound. QuadBeat is the perfect wired solution when you'...


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Influence of FFR on the Clinical Outcome After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PERSPECTIVE)
- Full Text View
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- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a physiologic index for the determination of ischemia-causing coronary stenosis as well as drug eluting stent (DES) optimization, even multiple anatomic imaging parameters have been widely used in clinical practice for the assessment of optimal stent procedure. Prognostic value between post-stent FFR (FFRpost) have been rarely evaluated in patient treated with DES. This multicentre, prospective registry was aimed to evaluate influence of physiologic parameters on the clinical outcome after DES implantation.
Coronary Disease
|Study Type:
|Observational [Patient Registry]
|Study Design:
|Observational Model: Cohort
Time Perspective: Prospective
|Target Follow-Up Duration:
|2 Years
|Official Title:
|Influence of Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) on the Clinical OutcomEs of PERcutaneouS Coronary Intervention (PCI): A ProspECTIVE, Multicenter FFR Registry
- Target vessel related major adverse cardiovascular event rate [ Time Frame: 2 years after index procedure ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]During two-year follow-up period, target vessel related major adverse cardiovascular event (composite of any cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, any target vessel related revascularization) will be evaluated. Target vessel will be defined as the treated vessel with DES which assessed by post-stent FFR
- clinical, angiographic and physiologic predictors for MACE [ Time Frame: 2 years after index procedure ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]Clinical, angiographic and physiologic predictors for target vessel related MACE by univariate and multivariate analysis will be performed.
- Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) derived predictors for post-stent FFR and MACE [ Time Frame: 2 years after index procedure ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]In patient who performed IVUS examination, IVUS derived parameters will be evaluated for the prediction of post-stent FFR and MACE
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|May 2013
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|December 2016
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|June 2016 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
FFRpost <0.9 group the patient with FFR values less than 0.9 after DES procedure
FFRpost ≥0.9 group the patient with FFR values greater than 0.9 after DES procedure
Detailed Description:
Patients who diagnosed obstructive coronary artery disease and treated by DES with FFR examination would be enrolled, consecutively. FFR measurement would be required at the baseline and at the end of index PCI procedure. PCI procedure would be performed upon local routine. Any available DES could be used. Informed consent should be obtained and protocol should be approved by each collaborator's institutional review board (IRB). Web-based electronic-case record form (CRF) system will be used for collecting data. All data will be handled and analyzed by blind fashion at independent core lab. Patient will be followed-up at each collaborator's hospital at least 2 year after index procedure. Any adverse event will be reported and addressed immediately by appropriate medical treatment to protect patient.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|20 Years to 85 Years
|Genders Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
|Sampling Method:
|Non-Probability Sample
Patients who diagnosed obstructive coronary artery disease and treated by DES with FFR examination at the index procedure
Inclusion Criteria:
- any patient meets eligible criteria who underwent PCI with DES followed by FFR measurement at the index procedure
- patient who provide informed consent
Exclusion Criteria:
- culprit vessel of acute coronary syndrome with regional wall motion abnormality
- visible thrombus of target vessel segment
- failed achieving TIMI 3 flow at the end of PCI
- left ventricular ejection fraction <30%
- primary myocardial or valvular heart disease.
- documented evidence of vasospastic angina
- pregnant women
- in patient whose life expectancy less than 2 years
- chronic renal failure s-Cr > 2.5mg/dl
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01873560
|Contact: Joon Hyung Doh, MD, PhD
|Korea, Republic of
|Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital
|Goyang, Gyeonggi, Korea, Republic of, 411-706
|Contact: Joon Hyung Doh, MD, PhD 82319107830 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Joon Hyung Doh, MD, PhD
|Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center
|Daegu, Korea, Republic of
|Contact: Chang-Wook Nam, MD, PhD firstname.lastname@example.com
|Contact: Chang-Wook Nam, Md, PhD firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Chang-wook Nam, MD, PhD
|Seoul National University Hospital
|Seoul, Korea, Republic of
|Contact: Bon-Kwon Koo, MDPhD firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Bon-Kwon Koo, MDPhD
|Ulsan University Hospital
|Ulsan, Korea, Republic of
|Contact: Eun-Seok Shin, MD, PhD firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Eun-Seok Shin, MD, PhD
|Principal Investigator:
|Joon Hyung Doh, MD, PhD
|Inje Univesity Ilsan Paik Hospital
|Study Director:
|Bon-Kwon Koo
|Seoul National University Hospital
|Responsible Party:
|Joon Hyung Doh, Associate professor, Inje University
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01873560 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|June 6, 2013
|Last Updated:
|March 23, 2015
|Health Authority:
|Korea: Institutional Review Board
Keywords provided by Inje University:
fractional flow reserve
drug eluting stent
coronary atherosclerosis
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Coronary Artery Disease
Coronary Disease
Arterial Occlusive Diseases
Cardiovascular Diseases
Heart Diseases
Myocardial Ischemia
Vascular Diseases
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on October 08, 2015


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Submission New record for mock space flight->
jkcity writes: "The Sun is reporting that the Mars 500 crew have now broken the record for the longest mission ever enclosed in a metal spacecraft. The spacecraft never went into space though and remained on the ground for the fourteen month mission, instead they have been trying to stimulate the conditions of a real-life mission to the red planet in hopes of helping any future mission."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source


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- Northern New York Newspapers
- Watertown
- Ogdensburg
- Massena-Potsdam
- Lowville
- Carthage
- Malone
- NNY Business
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CLAYTON Dale A. Kenyon, head of the Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service board of directors, has been forced to resign as part of a restructuring to save the organization from financial troubles.
Mr. Kenyon submitted his letter of resignation Monday shortly after the Blue Ribbon Committee a group of 15 volunteers that has been seeking ways to revitalize the rescue service suggested leadership changes among other recommendations to keep the ambulance squad afloat.
Fellow board member Terry J. Valin, who also resigned, due to family and work obligations, said in his resignation letter that he was unhappy with the way Mr. Kenyon former mayor of the village of Clayton was forced off the nonprofits board of directors.
I do not feel the board is going in the right direction at this time. I have serious concerns over the political aspects of the Blue Ribbon Committee. I realize that the members of this committee have been very successful with their lives, but that does not give them the unquestionable right to force the current board chair to resign from the board of directors because TIERS needs a fresh start, Mr. Valin wrote.
Mr. Kenyons resignation letter simply states that he is stepping down to make way for new leadership.
After much consideration I am hereby tendering my resignation from the TIERS board of directors effective immediately. It is time for much new leadership and a major change in operations, he stated.
Prior to Tuesdays meeting, Blue Ribbon Committee member William Feikert said new members with a diverse background and expertise should be added to the board of directors to help the nonprofit with grant applications and fundraising, among other things.
The rescue service also hopes to change the way it handles billings and find a bank sponsor to improve the organizations cash flow, Mr. Feikert said.
Thirty seven percent of people are not paying whats owed to TIERS, he said. But the billing service were using charges 11 percent of the billings regardless of whether TIERS gets paid or not.
Executive Director Roland G. Rolly Churchill said the rescue service is looking at doing billings in-house, which could save the organization an estimated $15,000 to $18,000 just in the first year.
The board will hold a special meeting Oct. 8 to discuss a number of proposed bylaw changes, including expanding the nine-member board to better assist the organization and its executive director with various tasks.
If we dont take pressure off of Rolly, this organization is going to crash and burn. And thats the end of TIERS, board acting Chairman Paul A Thiebeau Jr. said at Tuesday nights meeting.
Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.
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With a Tragedy in Libya, a Veer Back Toward Foreign Policy
Fingers are pointed on the campaign trail as lawmakers call for a probe of al-Qaeda links to the murder of the U.S. ambassador.
September 12, 2012 - 3:50 pm
Obama taped an interview for 60 Minutes later in the day in which he said the incident highlighted that "Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later."
"The situation in Cairo was one in which an embassy that is being threatened by major protests releases a press release saying that the film that had disturbed so many Muslims around the world wasn't representative of what Americans believe about Islam, in an effort to cool the situation down. It didn't come from me, it didn't come from Secretary Clinton; it came from folks on the ground who are potentially in danger," Obama said in the interview, as read to reporters by White House press secretary Jay Carney at the daily briefing. "And my tendency is to cut folks a little bit of slack when they're in that circumstance, rather than try to question their judgment from the comfort of a campaign office."
"At a time of national grief, it is distasteful and undignified to hear a candidate for the White House criticizing President Obama and the actions of diplomats as hostile crowds threaten our embassy," Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) lashed out in a statement.
The barbs were just as sharp from the right. "This administration has no concept of the Arab Spring," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News. "They're disengaging and the lack of leadership is about to lead to an explosion in the Middle East."
"The fact that the host countries have mildly reacted to the attacks of the past 48 hours makes it abundantly clear that this administration's support for their rise to power is another example of a failure in policy," said Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.).
Some weren't eager to play political football, though. "Both the President and Gov. Romney were right in condemning these outrageous attacks on our citizens and our embassies," tweeted Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R).
Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.), ranking members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a resolution commending the bravery of the State Department officers and condemning "in the strongest possible terms, the despicable attacks on American diplomats and public servants in Benghazi" and calling "for the perpetrators of such attacks to be brought to justice."
Obama later called Afghan President Hamid Karzai and discussed the Benghazi attack, "and the presidents discussed the importance of working together to help ensure that the circumstances that led to the violence in Libya and Egypt do not pose a threat to U.S. forces or Afghans," according to a readout from the White House.
The United Nations Security Council also issued a statement condemning both attacks and "underlined the need to bring perpetrators of these acts to justice" and "reaffirmed that such acts are unjustifiable regardless of their motivations, whenever and by whomsoever committed."
As reports unfolded that the Libyan attack may have been pre-planned, with the protest as a potential diversion to draw out the ambassador, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) mused about links between the envoy's slaying and al-Qaeda.
"These murders have the markings of revenge by al Qaeda for the death of the number two leader of the terrorist group, Abu Yahya al-Libi. The Associated Press has reported that the killing in June of al-Libi was the biggest setback to al-Qaeda since the death of Osama Bin Laden," said Nelson, a member of the Intelligence Committee.
"In light of Monday night's Internet-video statement by the head of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who urged Libyans to attack Americans to avenge the recent death of al-Libi, I am asking my colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee to immediately investigate what role al Qaeda or its affiliates may have played in the attacks in Libya and Egypt, and to urge appropriate action," he said. "For the safety of the remaining Americans, we need to secure our embassies in North Africa and around the world – and to stop terrorist-inspired mobs from doing evil deeds."
"Since these events occurred on September 11th, I call on the Obama administration to investigate what happened and whether these attacks were coordinated," said Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho). "I appreciate the statements made by the Libyan government concerning these acts and urge them to follow through on pursuing these perpetrators."
"The perpetrators of this senseless attack must be brought to justice," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). "I, therefore, demand that until the Libyan police hand over suspects to U.S officials, any U.S. foreign aid to the government of Libya be contingent on their full support in this matter."


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Wellesley Booksmith
82 Central St
Wellesley , MA 02481
Website: wellesleybooksmith.com
Email |
We appreciate your support of our locally-owned, independent bookstore. Known for our helpful staff of booksellers, our outstanding children's department, and our unique selection of cards and gifts for all ages, we offer an expert selection of new fiction and non-fiction books. We also carry a wide variety of "gently read" titles in our Used Book Cellar.
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20 U.S. Code § 1138b - Administrative provisions
The Secretary may appoint, for terms not to exceed 3 years, without regard to the provisions of title 5 governing appointments in the competitive service, not more than 7 technical employees to administer this part who may be paid without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates.
Source(Pub. L. 89–329, title VII, § 743, as added Pub. L. 105–244, title VII, § 701,Oct. 7, 1998, 112 Stat. 1797; amended Pub. L. 110–315, title VII, § 707(h)(2),Aug. 14, 2008, 122 Stat. 3360.)
Prior Provisions
Provisions similar to this section were contained in section 1135a–1 of this title, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 105–244.
A prior section 1138b,Pub. L. 89–329, title XI, § 1143, as added Pub. L. 102–325, title XI, § 1101,July 23, 1992, 106 Stat. 789, related to use of funds, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 105–244, § 3, title VII, § 702,Oct. 7, 1998, 112 Stat. 1585, 1803, effective Oct. 1, 1998.
Another prior section 1138b,Pub. L. 89–329, title XI, § 1123, as added Pub. L. 99–498, title XI, § 1101,Oct. 17, 1986, 100 Stat. 1571, defined terms, prior to the general amendment of subchapter XI of this chapter by Pub. L. 102–325.
A prior section 743 ofPub. L. 89–329was classified to section 1132c–2 of this title, prior to the general amendment of this subchapter by Pub. L. 96–374.
2008—Pub. L. 110–315struck out subsec. (a) designation and heading before "The Secretary may appoint," and struck out subsec. (b). Prior to amendment, text of subsec. (b) read as follows: "The Director shall establish procedures for reviewing and evaluating grants and contracts made or entered into under this part. Procedures for reviewing grant applications or contracts for financial assistance under this section may not be subject to any review outside of officials responsible for the administration of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education."
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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Email: (4/3/12) Sorry. I have to remove this for a while because nasty liberals have taken my email address and used it to sign me up for all sorts of rotten email spam. They have also used it to impersonate in the comments of other blogs. Once things settle down I will add the email again. Until then, if you want to reach me please leave a comment, with your real email address. It will only be available to me and I send you a reply. I've never had a problem like this, even after four years of blogging. I may have to have my hosting service set up a different email for me.tramadol for sale
Snail Mail: TLC, PO Box 406, Dewitt, NY 13214