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Five Favorite Books 1-4 the Harper Hall Trilogy
The second book of the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey, Dragon Singer begins where Dragon Song left off, with Menolly arriving at her new home in the Harper Craft Hall. She'd lived and thrived homeless for her love of music, succeeding where many others would not have. She discovered and adopted not just one fire-lizard, a creature thought to… Read more »


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Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
My Mom used to wake me up in the morning with this. I thought it was about Adam, from Adam and Eve.
Hi, charsnyder, welcome to the forum.
"Up and Adam" would be a malapropism, if it were inadvertent. I suspect that it is often a pun. In any case, it doesn't appear to be an eggcorn. To be an eggcorn, there would have to be some semantic synergy between "at 'em" and "Adam." But we're always interested in hearing reasons why slips might be eggcorns.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
I've got pretty much the same history with this one as charsnyder—even the gender of the parent is the same. I wondered for years what Mom meant by "Up and Adam!" and I was never able to make any sense of her bizarre expression—which means it wasn't an eggcorn for me as a kid. One day it finally occurred to me to ask her about it, and I can still remember being surprised at the explanation—"at 'em" had never occurred to me. I think I asked, "At who?"
For this one to qualify as an eggcorn there would need to be some imagery attached the expression "up and Adam." I can't figure out any way to interpret it which would lend any sense to the "Adam" portion. Likewise for "up and atom" or any other variant we might consider.
There was imagery for me. I didn't know much about Adam and Eve but I'd seen the Michelangelo painting segment where God's finger is sort of commanding Adam to "get up". I wasn't sure about Adam and didn't think "up and Adam" meant it was an exhortation to DO anything, but just to sort of "spring forth" into the world. So that made some sense in terms of my Mom wanting me to get out of bed.
Interesting explanation of the imagery. I guess it has a certain amount of sense to it that would qualify it toward being an eggcorn. I wonder to what degree the imagery has universality: Some eggcorns have a common imagery for many individuals, others have a more personalized imagery.

subset: commoncrawl


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Like many young car lovers we first fell in love with the exotic high dollar cars we saw on television and hung on our walls. Shortly thereafter, like many young car lovers we realized the closest we were going to get to the expensive supercars we lusted after were staring at posters and watching them on TV.
This weekend we want to know about the first car you dreamed of owning that you actually had/have a chance of owning. Even if you don't have it in the garage yet, what was the first car you loved after you realized you probably wouldn't be driving around in a purple Diablo (insert your own youthful dream supercar here) when you turned 16. What was the first realistic project car of your dreams?
In the neighborhood I grew up in there were three interesting cars—a red late 70s Corvette, a 1969 Camaro in permanent driveway project car hell status and a Meyers-Manx clone Dune Buggy. Not yet aware of the fact I was destined to own more RWD V8 GM products than I could imagine, I only had dreams of a Dune Buggy identical to the one I occasionally saw cruising my neighborhood.
Although a Dune Buggy dominated my young automotive dreams for several years, like most things, as I got older my automotive focus changed. By the time I got close enough to driving age that I could sell the idea of something old and rusty in the yard I had already moved on to a finned Mopar infatuation that haunts me to this day. Still, whenever I see a Dune Buggy cruising on a sunny day I get a pang of youthful jealousy and think back to the first semi-realistic object of my automotive infatuation.
What was the first realistic project car of your dreams?
Photo Credit: theakshay


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H.R.3135 - Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2013113th Congress (2013-2014)
BillHide Overview
|Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2] (Introduced 09/19/2013)
|House - Oversight and Government Reform; Education and the Workforce; House Administration; Judiciary
|Latest Action:
|House - 01/22/2014 Referred to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. (All Actions)
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Summary: H.R.3135 — 113th Congress (2013-2014)All Information (Except Text)
There is one summary for H.R.3135. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
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Introduced in House (09/19/2013)
Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2013 - Amends provisions of federal civil service law to extend employment-related and retirement benefits to domestic partners of federal employees and to set forth requirements for establishing and terminating a domestic partnership, including the filing of an affidavit attesting to the existence and legitimacy of the partnership.
Modifies provisions relating to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) to extend eligibility for annuity and survivor benefits to current and former domestic partners of federal employees on the same basis as married employees. Requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to prescribe regulations to provide that domestic partners and former domestic partners shall be considered as spouses or former spouses for purposes of creditable service determinations under CSRS and FERS.
Makes domestic partners of federal employees eligible for: (1) the federal employee group life insurance (FEGLI) program, (2) federal employees health benefits (FEHB), (3) dental and vision benefit plans, and (4) long-term care insurance coverage.
Grants the head of an federal agency authority to reimburse an employee for taxes incurred by the domestic partner of such employee for travel, transportation, or relocation expense reimbursements.
Modifies provisions of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) to make domestic partners of federal employees eligible for worker compensation benefits under such Act.
Adds "domestic partner" to the list of relatives subject to restrictions on federal employment of relatives and related prohibitions.
Includes a biological, adopted, or foster child of a domestic partner as a "son or daughter" for purposes of federal employee family and medical leave provisions. Allows a federal employee family and medical leave to care for a domestic partner.
Requires the President to prescribe regulations necessary to ensure that specified provisions relating to the following are administered in a manner consistent with the purposes of this Act: (1) the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993; (2) travel, transportation, and related payments and benefits under the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and for civilian employees of the Department of Defense (DOD); (3) certain benefits for members of the commissioned officer corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and (4) benefits related to federal employees or annuitants and benefits necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.Amends the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to make provisions of that Act applicable to domestic partners of federal employees to the same extent as married employees, including provisions relating to financial disclosure, government-wide limitations on outside earned income and employment, gifts to superiors and to federal employees, bribery, acceptance of travel expenses from nonfederal sources, taxes on self-dealing, and disqualification of a justice, judge, or magistrate judge.
Requires reporting by: (1) the President on the implementation of this Act, and (2) the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the effect of this Act on premiums or other periodic charges under FEHB and the impact of extending benefits to domestic partners on federal employee retention and recruitment efforts.


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PARIS (AP) - PSA Peugeot Citroen says its losses mounted in the first half as Europe's recession ate into car sales just as it attempts to battle back from last year's record 5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) loss.
PARIS (AP) � PSA Peugeot Citroen says its losses mounted in the first half as Europe's recession ate into car sales just as it attempts to battle back from last year's record 5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) loss.
The maker of Peugeot and Citroen sedans, hatchbacks and light trucks says it lost 426 million euros in the first half amid a continued slide in car sales and disruption at a key car plant near Paris where workers went on strike over the group's plans to shut factories and shed up to 8,000 jobs.
In a statement Wednesday Peugeot Citroen boss Philippe Varin said he "sees the first signs of the group's recovery," with the automotive division trimming its operating loss even as sales continue to shrink.
Investors were encouraged by the progress Peugeot had made in controlling costs with shares in the company up 6.5 percent at 9.59 euros in morning trading.
News of Peugeot Citroen's continuing push to contain losses comes a day after European authorities OK'd the French government's 572 million euros aid package meant to prop up the troubled automaker.
The European Union Commission's competition regulator said Tuesday that the plan will help return Peugeot to profitability while keeping damage to competitors who aren't receiving government money to a minimum.
Peugeot Citroen is being forced to sell assets to help fund a restructuring program that will see the company cut 8,000 jobs and close its Aulnay-sous-Bois plant as it struggles to compete in Europe's morose car market.
While unions and the government have called the plan unacceptable, the plant looks likely to shut next year. In May workers at the plant ended a four-month walkout.
Earlier this month, the European automakers' association ACEA said the car industry had its worst June in 17 years, with demand falling 5.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.1134 million cars. Over the entire first half Europe's car sales sank 6.6 percent.
Peugeot Citroen forecasts the European market to shrink by 5 percent this year.


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|Manziel in less happy times.
The real issue is that times have changed. The voters selected an undergraduate for the first time in 2007 and repeated it in 2008 and 2009. I my mind, it was inevitable that a freshman would win the trophy eventually, as the unwritten rule about it being more a career award than individual season had been seemingly stripped away. Interestingly, none of those winners repeated.
On top of having a higher number of voters than there were in 1980, I have a feeling, though completely based on nothing more than hunch, voters are likely younger. Age of the voters alone can explain how the voters can see Herschel's 1980 season and think a senior with more yards and 1 more touchdown is a more worthy candidate. Now, we can say with little doubt that finishing behind Hugh Green in 3rd was absolutely a slap in Herschel's face.
There will be another freshman win the Heisman. However, the real question is will we see another repeat winner? Obviously, Manziel is the only one that can do so right now, but history isn't on his side.


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So I guess Bachelorette Emily Maynard and her reality lover Jef Holm really are, in fact, going to get married. Emily told Life & Style that wedding planning has been so easy because, basically, Jef does whatever she wants. Apparently, Em's been planning her big day since she was young, and has all the details worked out.
If I executed the wedding I had in mind as a little girl, I'd wear a basketball jersey, feed everyone Skittles, and dance my face off to Zack Attack, but I suppose that's neither here nor there. It's Emily's day, and she can do whatever she wants. Mostly.
I mean, shouldn't Jef have some say?
It sounds like Jef subscribes to the idea of "happy wife, happy life," but I don't know, that sounds like a recipe for resentment in the long run. Here's what Em said:
It's been so easy. I'll show Jef the ugliest thing in the world, and he'll be like, "Whatever you want, I want."
Oh, Jef Jef Jef Jef Jef Jef JEF. That's sweet. Hope you enjoy showing up to your wedding in a horse-drawn carriage and dancing your first dance to Spice Girls' "2 Become 1."
Not that Emily's planning those things, but still. I've never fully subscribed to the notion that a man should only try and make his wife happy. I know in that Men/Mars Women/Venus book, they talk about how men are fulfilled by fulfilling the needs of a woman, and yes, that's gotta be true on a lot of levels, but come on, if a guy says yes to everything, he's going to lose his sense of self faster than you can say, "I had no idea you liked full body pillows that much."
It's important to have a partnership. If one person, regardless if it's the man or the woman, is calling all the shots, the balance of power is off, and happiness is at jeopardy.
If Jef wants a happy wife and a happy life, he should speak up a little bit, starting with the wedding.
Do you believe in the "happy wife, happy life" philosophy?
Photo via Pacific Coast News


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VCU, Dayton should lead Atlantic 10 as it seeks to repeat record success
Shaka Smart (right) may have his most talented team next season, including returning defensive leader Briante Weber. (Mike Lawrie/Getty)
SI.com is taking a first look at the major conferences for 2014-15. The series will include the AAC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC and ACC. Next up: the Atlantic 10.
It might be difficult for the Atlantic 10 to match next season what it accomplished in 2013-14, when it sent a record six teams into the NCAA tournament field. And after Dayton powered to the Elite Eight, the conference showed up Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who wondered how any Atlantic 10 teams would fare in the "meat grinder" of the ACC. For a mid-major league, that blend of success with a pinch of told-you-so is perhaps as good as it gets.
Whether the conference will be as deep and formidable in 2014-15 is a question, as top-half programs from last season like Saint Louis, George Washington and St. Joseph's have some prominent holes to fill. Here's an early look at what's in store in the Atlantic-10 next season:
State of the champions
Through Feb. 22 of last season, Saint Louis had lost just two games – to Wisconsin, which eventually made the Final Four, and to Wichita State, which ran off 35 straight wins to start the season before losing to Kentucky in the round of 32. The Billikens had the look of a sleeper national contender ... and then the bottom dropped out, with three straight losses as part of a five-losses-in-seven-games swoon to close the season. And now Jim Crews will have to replace key players: The top four scorers from 2013-14 all graduated and the leading returning producer is sophomore-to-be Austin McBroom, who averaged 7.3 points in 21.5 minutes per game. The 2014 recruiting haul is sizable, with six newcomers, but there's not a four-star prospect or top-150 player. In order to contend, Saint Louis' returnees must smoothly transition into primary roles. But it's a daunting overhaul, for sure.
First Look, Mountain West: Could UNLV be San Diego State's top challenger?
Saint Joseph's, meanwhile, was the conference tournament surprise, winning the event after starting as the No. 4 seed. There were significant losses here, too, as three of the top four scorers from 2013-14 graduated. The team will have to build around junior-to-be DeAndre Bembry (12.1 points, 4.5 rebounds per game) and senior-to-be Chris Wilson (9.1 ppg), but no one else who returns averaged more than three points per game. With a trio of three-star prospects arriving in the recruiting class, it appears the Hawks have more questions than answers at this stage.
Top contenders
VCU fell one win short of a league regular season title and one win short of a league tournament title but ought to have enough firepower on hand in 2014-15 to rectify either shortcoming, if not both. The team will rely heavily on Treveon Graham, who should be a conference player of the year frontrunner after averaging 15.8 points and seven rebounds per game last season. Third-leading scorer Melvin Johnson (10.4 ppg) also returns, as does arguably the most disruptive defensive force in the country: rising senior Briante Weber, who averaged 3.5 steals per game last season. Weber's steal percentage of 6.8 – a measure of how many opponent possessions ended in a steal by him – led the country. His 3.1 defensive win shares – a measure of how many wins were attributable to a player's contributions at that end – tied for seventh nationally. Added to the mix will be promising freshman Terry Larrier, the nation's No. 43 recruit per Rivals. Dayton returns leading scorer Jordan Sibert (12.2 ppg) among eight players who saw action in 30 or more games during a season that ended in an Elite Eight loss to Florida. Both VCU and Dayton seem equipped for strong runs next season.
First Look, Big 12: Kansas and Texas will battle in a top-heavy conference
Top freshman
Terry Larrier, VCU. There aren't too many McDonald's All-Americans dotting the recruiting hauls of Atlantic-10 teams. But VCU'sLarrier is the highest rated of the bunch, the only top-50 prospect to enter the league next season. He's 6-foot-8 and described by Rivals.com as a "tall jump shooter" with range to the three-point line. That size and that deep threat capability make him a mismatch waiting to happen, and while he likely won't be counted on for a central scoring role, VCU has had a place for three-point specialists in the past. Former guard Troy Daniels made 124 three-pointers (out of 149 total made field goals) in 2012-13. Larrier might not be nearly as prolific as Daniels, but he'll make an impact because the program knows how to maximize players with similar skills.
Impact transfer
Jabarie Hinds, Massachusetts. In two years at West Virginia, Hinds started 59 of the 65 games he played in, averaging 7.4 points per game each year. As a point guard, his distribution level was startlingly low; Hinds dished out just 1.6 assists per game as a sophomore, seeing 22-plus minutes of action per night. But with Chaz Williams' graduation, the Minutemen have a hole to plug in directing the offense, given that Williams led the team in scoring (15.6 ppg) and assists (6.9 apg). Hinds and Derrick Gordon (9.4 ppg) should form a solid, veteran backcourt for a team that brings back five of the eight players who saw action in 30 or more games in 2013-14. The point production is a concern with two of the top three scorers gone, but if Hinds can be more of a distributor, buckets could follow.
First Look, AAC: After UConn's championship, big changes in Year 2
Coach on the hot seat
Tom Pecora, Fordham. Pecora is a great guy and a great quote, but he's had four straight losing seasons at Fordham since arriving in 2010-11 after winning 55 percent of his games at Hofstra. The Rams are 9-55 in Atlantic-10 play during his tenure, and there will need to be significant signs of progress in Year 5 if Pecora wants to feel comfortable at the end of it. There is some hope for that; leading scorer Branden Frazier (18.2 ppg) graduates, but the next five top scorers all return, and they all played in 29 or more games a year ago. It's a bunch led by sophomore-to-be Jon Severe (17.3 ppg) and junior-to-be Mandell Thomas (11.9 ppg). Fordham seems capable of improvement. So if it doesn't show up in the win column, Pecora might not show up on the sideline the following season.


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Amid the heat and noise of end-of-session chaos at the Capitol, a major overhaul of how school performance is measured is quietly moving forward.
For years, standardized test scores have been the yardstick by which California's classrooms have been measured.
But Senate President ProTem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) says that narrow focus misses the mark.
"We're trying to make public education more connected to the economy," Steinberg tells Prop Zero.
He's authored SB547, which would replace California's Academic Performance Index with a set of standards that include items like career and college readiness and graduation rates, along with test scores.
Steinberg's intent is to help measure not just how well schools teach facts, but also such things as critical thinking skills, communication skills, and how to spark interest in a certain career path.
Steinberg points to a sobering statistic: more than half of freshman students in the California State University and community college systems need some remedial instruction in order to perform college-level work.
The plan has won the approval of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, whose leadership believes the plan will help students learn vital success skills.
School accountability is critical, especially in this era of budget cuts. Steinberg's plan is winning a lot of praise as a means of providing a clearer way of measuring classroom success.


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What is the Celebration of Scholarship?
The SSU Celebration of Scholarship features students in baccalaureate and graduate programs from different colleges across SSU's campus and visiting from neighboring universities who deliver academic presentations showcasing their exceptional projects.
Students are sponsored by a faculty member and present the results of their original work in oral and poster presentations before their peers, faculty and the public. Students present work related to research in their field, creative work in the visual and performing arts, community service, and study abroad.
The event begins on Wednesday afternoon and includes an honorary dinner for presenters and their mentors (Wednesday evening), and continues throughout Thursday morning. Presentations close on Thursday afternoon, culminating with a university-wide campus event.
Why should students participate in the Celebration of Scholarship?
The SSU Celebration of Scholarship is an opportunity for students to learn to present academic work in a formal setting, receive feedback from faculty and scholars in the field, exchange ideas with other scholars, and build a resume. Furthermore, effective presentation skills are valuable for all future careers. Thus, the conference provides an excellent public forum to practice skills, to explore strengths and identify areas for improvement.
Students should also regard the Celebration of Scholarship as an opportunity to share their work, see the work of others in the same field and other areas of study, and to give and receive valuable feedback. Intellectually, it is refreshing, rewarding, and motivating.
Students at prestigious universities across the nation participate in conferences, and Shawnee State's students also have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of such an experience.
Who is eligible to participate in the Celebration of Scholarship?
All students from Shawnee State are eligible to present if they have a faculty sponsor to mentor them through the process. Presentations may be done individually or in small groups.
Oral sessions are presented in both panel and discussion format. Each individual or group should plan on fifteen minutes per individual or fifteen minutes per small group. Presentations are grouped together on the day of the event by the Celebration of Scholarship committee, and students who commit should take that obligation seriously as a professional endeavor.
Poster sessions are arranged by discipline and topic, and, although there is no formal presentation, individuals are asked to be with their posters for informal discussion with visitors during a brief period of time during the event.
Participation in this academic event is a wonderful way to share the excitement of learning and thinking with fellow students and faculty members. It is also a good way for students to grow and mature into the professionals they aspire to become.
Contact Information:
Aaron Bruewer
Phone: (740) 351-3564
E-mail: email@example.com


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It all began in June 2007, with Hamas' coup d'etat in the Gaza Strip. I picked up a newspaper with a photo of a machine-gun and Quran-wielding militant atop a Fatah desk on the front page, and I knew that I wanted to read and know everything about them. So I picked up all the library books I could on the Palestinian struggle, then on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Iranian Revolution - I read it all. Islam was mentioned again and again, and I thought it was necessary to read the Quran, too, to understand the region's religious background and see if - and how accurately - the Quran was being used as an inspiration by militants. So I got a free copy, read the intro where it said to read it with clean hands and an open heart, and headed out to a nearby riverside to do so.
I read a sura that asked how a person could not believe in God when the proof was all around them, and at that moment I looked up as the sun was setting over the water, past the sand littered with empty beer cans, and something inside me just clicked. After more than a decade of staunch atheism, I cracked and thought there must be a creator because the universe really was beautiful.
Who needed tafsirs and obscure hadith tucked deeply inside 500-page volumes that were translated with Western sensibilities in mind? I didn't even know they existed. I went home and watched a youtube video of an azan from Mecca and cried. It felt like somebody was calling me back home.
So I researched and dug deeper, or at least as deep as a Westerner could while browsing websites carefully edited and catered to speak about "women's rights" and "freedom of religion." Then along came a man I met online who gave me the extra nudge I needed to say the shahada. I thought he was such a good man that what he believed could only also be pure good.
The doubt was always there. Not in God, but in the rationale of beating women or punishing criminals by stoning or lashing. For every absurdity there was a watered-down and false explanation: women could only be beat if the husband caught them cheating, Shariah would only be implemented in the far-distant future in which humans would live in a utopia where no such punishment was necessary. I met good people, felt the family spirit of iftars, found easy explanations online to funny problems, and life went on.
I saw the Kaaba and cried, because I felt such intense love and protection at that moment that I knew something had to be watching over us, and that something was kind and beautiful. I still believe in God, but it was just a coincidence that we met in Mecca.
Then I kissed a Muslim man, and we both felt sorry. Days later he said: "Well you know, the Quran mentions women first." I cried and thought how men so often twist a beautiful religion to serve their selfish needs. Or maybe deep inside I realised he was probably right, and that despite reassurances to the contrary the Adam and Eve story was the same in Islam? So many years struggling to leave Christianity, and had it come to this again? Was it all just the same crap?
I had stumbled upon "anti-Islam websites" before during Google searches, but I dismissed them as racist ramblings of Islamophobic Westerners and Zionists. Could I have bothered to check that the founder of this website was Iranian? How would I explain his apostasy then, could I have possibly told myself that he just "hated Muslims?"
A few weeks after that stupid kiss, I started talking with an Arab atheist online. He wasn't pro-Israeli, nor was he a European right-wing fanatic. How could I shrug off what he told me?
So I thought I'd forget the hadith and just go with the Quran, then I thought I'd just go with the nice parts of the Quran and be a Sufi mystic. Then I read about Sawda and I thought... enough. Maybe meditation, or Buddhism? Maybe later, I thought, because now I don't want "to be" anything but just human.
My faith died so quickly that I realised the seed of doubt had always been there, and I just needed somebody to water it at just the right moment for it to blossom into the flower of apostasy and freedom. After three or four years of feeling guilty for never waking up for fajr, of being too tired and hungry to understand the Bukhari hadiths I read during Ramadan, of ignoring those pesky issued that I had no energy to Google and find watered-down excuses for... it was finally over. I was back to myself, back to how I was born and always will be - human.
I am not angry or disappointed, perhaps because I wasn't a born Muslim and the faith was never forced upon me. I see it all as a journey now, and a reminder to myself that no matter how educated or how much of a feminist I am, I am not immune from making excuse upon excuse to justify something that I felt could be loved.
To the Imams in the West: we cannot read Arabic, and we are by your definition radical feminists, and perhaps we can be reassured and fooled for a few years. But not forever. We will arrive at the truth sooner or later. I've seen two Muslim convert friends leave before me, and now I follow in their footsteps.
To the Arabs: I still support the Palestinian struggle, and still respect you and still love living among your kind and hospitable people. Take it from me, a former Catholic: every religion has its dark sides that do nothing but hold humanity back from progress. I want nothing to do with mine, just like I want nothing to do with yours.


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CFA with dyadic data
Mplus Discussion
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Donna Cherry
posted on Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 5:58 pm
I would like to conduct a one-factor CFA on a set of 10 categorical co-parenting items collected from 111 couples. I have data from each spouse within the couple; there are no covariates and no weights. I have read through "Example 9.7: Two-level CFA with categorical factor indicators.." in the M-Plus Users Guide but would like to clarify
1. How to organize my data file. Specifically, I have one couple's data per row with a COUPLE ID identifier and each item identified by a subscript to denote father or mother (e.g. F1 – F10, M1 – M10). Is this correct?
2. Since I just expect one co-parenting factor, my attempt at Model syntax is:
Fw BY F1 – F10 M1 – M10;
Fb BY F1 – F10 M1 – M10;
Is this correct? Am I missing anything?
Any feedback you can provide will be most appreciated!
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 10:29 am
There are two ways you can approach couple data. The first way is a single-level analysis. Here you have one record per couple with different variables names for each member of the couple. This approach is described in the following paper:
Khoo, S.T. & Muthén, B. (2000). Longitudinal data on families: Growth modeling alternatives. Multivariate Applications in Substance use Research, J. Rose, L. Chassin, C. Presson & J. Sherman (eds.), Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, pp. 43-78.
The second way is a two-level analysis. Here each couple's data would reside on separate records and a cluster variable would specify the couple id. The cluster variable would be couple.
Donna Cherry
posted on Friday, January 19, 2007 - 11:40 am
posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 2:19 pm
Prof. Muthen
I trying to do a CFA for 2 constructs with each having 5 categorical indicators. However these 2 constructs are answered (survey of 130 firms) by two persons (hence now 4 constructs) in each firm. Hence there is a dyad. Could you please direct me to files/handouts/articles where I can get an example to do this CFA for 4 constructs please. Also kindly suggest whether I should use 'analysis: type = complex ' OR 'analysis: type = twolevel'; how to arrive at a conclusion when to use which type of analysis for dyadic data? My sincere gratitude in advance.
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 4:01 pm
TYPE=COMPLEX and TYPE=TWOLEVEL are two alternatives. A third it to take a multivariate approach. See the Topic 8 course handout on the website starting at Slide 52.
posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - 5:50 am
Prof. Muthen:
Thank you very much. I was looking more for simple/basic examples of CFA for actor partner interdependence model type (dyad of couples in same firm), like the two people here in my research where one is senior manager and the other his/her subordinate, however both answer the same two constructs. Kindly correct me here please because I thought slide 52/56 were more like growth models. Sincerely Arun
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - 6:55 am
Slide 52/56 can be applied to any model. The advantage is that you have access to more parameters. The non-independence of observations because of the dyad is taken into account by the multivariate nature of the data. You have a set of variables for each member of the dyad. If that is not of interest, you can use TYPE=COMPLEX or TYPE=TWOLEVEL. These are the three options you have for taking non-independence of observations into account.
posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - 10:01 am
Thank you for the clarification.
Could you please direct me to Mplus examples from book
'Dyadic data analysis by Kenny Kashy Cook'
. Also to get a more thorough understanding of dyadic data analysis using SEM what are the papers/handouts/books by Muthen(s)/statmodel website should I refer to. Please advice. Sincerely Arun. Once again my sincere gratitude for your ever quick help/advice !
Jean-Philippe Laurenceau
posted on Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 9:28 am
Dear Arun--I have used Mplus to analyze dyadic data in thae past. I certainly agree with Linda's suggestion about the three alternative approaches to dyadic data in Mplus. I would go further and say that the multivariate (or wide) approach in Mplus would be the most straightforward and flexible way to go for the type of dyadic data that you are describing.
Dave Kenny has a website (
) for his Dyadic Data Analysis book where there are example datasets and some code (but not for Mplus). If you point out a particular analysis that you would like to replicate in Mplus, feel free to note the chapter and page number and I can post the corresponding Mplus code to do it.
Best, J-P
posted on Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 10:54 am
Dear Jean-Philippe: Thank you, very kind of you to help. I did run CFAs for the two constructs ( for each person- CEO & CEO's subordinate-Champion in the dyad ) using multivariate approach. However the model didn't converge. I thought the problem was complicated due to categorical indicators. Hence I tried param = theta. Still the model is not converging. But, am not very confident whether what am doing here is correct. Because the data file has 130 records with all the 10 indicators ( 5 for each construct) for each person in the dyad in the same row & in this multivariate approach am not explicitly telling mplus to account for the dyad say using some cluster variable (which is here the recordid itself)?
! CODE snippet
CATEGORICAL = champintl champDiversification champMA champSell champRD CEODiversification CEOMA CEOSell CEORD CEOIntl ;
param = theta;
iChamp Schamp |
iCEO sCEO |
Jean-Philippe Laurenceau
posted on Saturday, September 15, 2012 - 8:31 am
What you have here looks more like a growth model specification and not the kind of factor model you described wanting to run earlier. I think the following might be closer to what you are looking for:
Champ BY champDiversification champMA champSell champRD champintl;
CEO BY CEODiversification CEOMA CEOSell CEORD CEOIntl;
champDiversification champMA champSell champRD champintl PWITH CEODiversification CEOMA CEOSell CEORD CEOIntl;
If you have 130 rows of data in your dataset and you have separate variables for Partner1 and Partner2 in your dyads, then this model syntax represents the multivariate approach and the dyadic interdependence is reflected in the covariance between the partners' factors and the covariances between the corresponding items each partner provides (see the last line of code with the PWITH statement).
Hope this helps, J-P
posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - 7:56 am
Thank you Prof. Jean-Philippe. This seems to fit better than previous models. One last question, so is this the general way to fit any dyadic models?
Jean-Philippe Laurenceau
posted on Saturday, September 22, 2012 - 9:16 am
Dear Arun--When it comes to dyadic modeling, what I described would be a general approach to doing CFA on dyadic data where there are separate partner 1 and partner 2 factors. There are other approaches to dyadic data that conceive of a latent variable as a common cause of the partner 1 and partner 2 observed variables. But more generally, a dyadic approach is typically reflective of a more general multivariate approach to data analysis where partners are repeated measures of the couple (as in the case for longitudinal data). Best wishes...
E.I. Montoya
posted on Thursday, June 20, 2013 - 12:05 am
I am running a CFA with dyadic data. The dyad members are indistinguishable.
I am using a pairwise (double-entry) dataset and following instructions in Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006 (p. 116). The text recommends weighting each case by 0.5 since there are two entries per person.
How would I accomplish this in MPlus? The "weight" option does not seem right because the weight is rescaled depending on the number of cases. I also considered "freqweight" but this only accepts integer values. The twolevel options do not make sense here because this is not a MLM.
Perhaps I can get around this weighting issue? I noticed that in the related article, Olsen & Kenny, 2006, there is no mention of weights. But how else would I adjust the standard errors for the various parameter estimates?
Thanks so much.
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Thursday, June 20, 2013 - 7:50 am
I think that may be an outdated way of handling dyadic data. You should have the data in wide format where multivariate analysis takes care of non-independence of observations. See the following reference:
James L. Peugh, David DiLillo & Jillian Panuzio (2013) Analyzing Mixed-Dyadic Data Using Structural Equation Models Structural Equation Modeling. Pages: 314-337 DOI: 10.1080/10705511.2013.769395
See also the Topic 8 course handout on the website under Multivariate Approach to Multilevel Modeling.
Elise Chaperon
posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - 12:08 pm
I am running a CFA with dyadic data (with couples). I have two factors for each member of the couple.
I would like to validate my syntax about 3 issues:
1) I want to set the loadings on each measure to be equal for the two members
2) I want to correlate factors of the two persons
3) I want to correlate errors across the same indicators for the two members of the dyad
Here is the syntax I have, could you please indicate if it's ok or how to correct it?
AvoidM by RS1_1 RS2_1 RS3_1 RS4_1 (1) ;
AnxietyM by RS7_1 RS8_1 RS9_1 (2) ;
AvoidW by RS1_2 RS2_2 RS3_2 RS4_2 (1) ;
AnxietyW by RS7_2 RS8_2 RS9_2 (2) ;
AvoidM WITH AvoidW;
AnxietyM WITH AnxietyW;
Thank you in advance!
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - 2:11 pm
1. Your BY statements hold the factor loadings of man and woman not only equal to each other but all factor loadings are equal.
2. The WITH statements are covariances between man and woman.
3. I see no statements that would correlate the residuals, for example,
rs2_1 WITH res_2.
Dr. Kashdan's Lab
posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 1:16 pm
Hi Muthens,
I am attempting to fit a two-factor CFA with continuous indicators from dyadic data. We have data in the "long" format where each case represents a person and then we have a couple ID. I told Mplus CLUSTER = ID and then here is my ANALYSIS syntax below.
ANALYSIS: estimator=mlr; ROTATION = target (OBLIQUE); TYPE=COMPLEX;
awap by use effect import attrct commit satis (*t);
cost by diff drain conflct (*t);
I keep getting an error and I am not sure why. I am using a syntax template I received from a colleague of mine and then modified it for my data.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
-Kashdan Lab
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Friday, April 17, 2015 - 2:51 pm
What is the error?
Dr. Kashdan's Lab
posted on Monday, April 20, 2015 - 11:46 am
EFA factors in the same set as AWAP must have the same set of factor
Problem with:
COST BY USE (not specified or fixed)
COST BY EFFECT (not specified or fixed)
COST BY IMPORT (not specified or fixed)
COST BY ATTRCT (not specified or fixed)
COST BY COMMIT (not specified or fixed)
COST BY SATIS (not specified or fixed)
Linda K. Muthen
posted on Monday, April 20, 2015 - 4:21 pm
You can't use *t for both sets of ESEM factors. You must name them differently.
Kelly M Allred
posted on Wednesday, March 01, 2017 - 12:44 pm
I am trying to conduct CFA and ESEM models of a measure which I expect to have a two-factor structure in a sample of distinguishable (patient/relative dyads) and indistinguishable (normal control dyads who have been screened to be free of clinical diagnoses) dyads. Once I do these analyses, I want to test for measurement invariance across the clinical (patient/relative dyads) and non-clinical group (normal control dyads) groups.
Do you have any advice on how to best proceed with these analyses?
Bengt O. Muthen
posted on Wednesday, March 01, 2017 - 5:48 pm
Both CFA and ESEM can be done as multiple-group analysis where you can test measurement invariance.
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When Blizzard introduces achievements in the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, it will be just the first phase in the company's plan to create a cross-game achievement system. The system will work with upcoming Blizzard games—i.e. Diablo III and Starcraft II—and will give gamers a "Blizzard Level" based on their progress with the developer's titles.
"Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system," Jeff Kaplan, a designer on WoW, told MTV Multiplayer. "Your WoW score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a "score," we just wanted it to be like you're leveling up on Blizzard games… You'll have this Blizzard identity, and you'll be able to see things like 'Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW.' That sort of thing."
The system will first be introduced in WoW:WOTLK as something character specific, but will be soon made account specific when the first content patch is released. And considering the long development time Blizzard titles are accustomed to, it could be quite a while before we see the system put in place across multiple games.
It's hard to think of another developer that could get away with creating its own exclusive achievement system besides Blizzard. This sounds like an excellent way to both bring in new gamers and keep old ones playing even longer.


text:
"centers on a dutiful 50-year-old wife whose husband falls for a younger woman, freeing her to explore her buried sensuality and leading to a very quiet nervous breakdown." In particular, Julianne Moore's role has been clarified: She plays a lesbian novelist.
The film, which starts shooting in April, is based on Rebecca Miller's novel of the same name, due out this August. Miller also wrote the screenplay and directs the movie version, which stars Robin Wright Penn as Pippa, the one who needs to explore her buried sensuality (possibly with Julianne?). Others in the cast include Winona Ryder (the younger woman), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Robin's mother in flashbacks) and Keanu Reeves (Robin's younger male lover).
Julianne Moore already has experience playing a novelist, since she recently co-wrote a children's book, Freckleface Strawberry:
She also has experience playing a lesbian — sort of, in 2002's The Hours, for which she was nominated for an Oscar:
Back in November, Dorothy Snarker, in a bit of "wishful thinking," theorized that Moore might be taking on a lesbian role in this film. I think this means that Snarker's more powerful than we ever imagined. Dear Ms. Snarker: Can you make Carmen come back to The L Word?


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MathGrapher is a graphical calculator for functions of the form F(x) and F(x,y)
containing up to 20 subfunctions and 150 numerical and 100 named constants. Cartesian as well as polar coordinates can be
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Contour plots and Cross-sections through Contour plots can be drawn in same way as 3D Functions.
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Gum disease is a problem known by everyone. According to a latest survey, about 80% of adults in the US suffer from this ailment. Gum disease is also referred to as periodontal disease. It occurs over the tissues supporting and surrounding the teeth. If not treated timely, the disease causes the loosening or even loss of teeth according to dentist gum disease. In a number of cases, the gum disease spreads painlessly. The patient might not know that he or she is suffering from this problem until it starts showing its ill effects.
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A thin layer of bacteria called the dental plaque deposits on teeth. It is colorless and sticky. If left unattended, this unhealthy bacterium begins to release harmful toxins which damage the gums. The disease may affect one or more tooth at a given time. Most of the adults unknowingly suffer from the mild form of gum disease.
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Gum disease is common but most of the time goes unnoticed since it is painless in its initial stage. However, below are the most common symptoms of the periodontal disease. If you are suffering from any one of these, don�t waste time and rush to your dentists Chicago:
1. The gums appear red in color. Eventually, they become swollen and tender.
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Can gum disease or Periodontal Disease be cured without surgery? Holistic dentist Dr Layton talks about the steps he takes to cure gum disease without expansive and painful surgery. Dr Layton has been a San Diego holistic dentist for over 25 years.


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Darwin's Literary Models
By Keith Thomson
It may not be structured like a journal paper, but On the Origin of Species was written according to classical rules of rhetoric
It may not be structured like a journal paper, but On the Origin of Species was written according to classical rules of rhetoric
In David Lodge's great comic novel of academic life in the long-distant days of 1969 and 1970, Changing Places, members of the English department at Euphoria State University play a typical intellectuals' game: humiliation. Each player must admit to having not read some canonical work in their field; for example, to have not read Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford would earn fewer points than Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Too many biologists, sad to say, could win this game by producing their own ace—Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Everybody has a copy, but, like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, the work is rarely read from cover to cover.
Darwin originally hoped that his great masterpiece, published in 1859, would be titled An abstract of an Essay on the Origin of Species and Varieties Through Natural Selection. As is well known, the book was written in great haste after Alfred Russel Wallace seemingly scooped Darwin by arriving at just the same idea. Darwin was forced quickly to digest the work he had pursued for the previous 20 years into a (relatively) short book, and we are all the winners for that. Under its final and even longer title, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, the book is a lucid exposition of his theory and far more influential than the obsessively detailed work that he originally intended to write would ever have been.
Those who, in this past bicentennial year of Darwin's birth and sesquicentennial year of the publication of the Origin, have taken the time to study the book carefully may have noticed an oddity of its structure. It is quite unlike most scientific books of its time, or of ours, in the development of its subject. As Darwin explained both in his final chapter and his later Autobiography, the 501 pages of the Origin were composed as "one long argument," and, like everything Darwin did, it was carefully calculated. Philosophers and logicians have, therefore, long been interested in Darwin's rhetorical method.
Darwin's other books—such as The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, (1842), The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects (1862), The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1865), The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881), and even his controversial The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871)—follow what seems to be a more conventional format. First the facts are laid down, then the various rival explanatory theories are laid out, and finally Darwin gives his own ideas. The approach can be seen particularly clearly in Darwin's Coral Reefs.
The first thing that is different about the Origin is that the title contains a one-sentence précis of its conclusion. Right on the cover, Darwin defines natural selection (a new term for his readers) as "the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life." But the book is different from Darwin's others principally because of the way in which he makes his "long argument" and, in fact, because it is an argument—an exercise in formal rhetoric—rather than an analysis or an exposition.
Since Francis Bacon's time (particularly since the publication of The Advancement of Learning in 1605), methods of scientific discovery have been categorized as some variant of either deductive (proceeding from the general to the particular) or its opposite, inductive. Method, however, is not the same as exposition. A piece of science might be created in one mode but be much better explained in another. In terms of rhetoric, the modes corresponding to deduction and induction were, respectively, synthetic and analytic. Coral Reefs is written in the latter, analytic mode. The Origin hews more closely to the synthetic, in which the author first lays down a central proposition and then presents more and more arguments to extend and confirm it.
Students of science today, and likely their mentors as well, are not schooled in the subtleties of logic and rhetoric. The composition of a scientific paper follows very simple conventions—woe betide anyone who submits a paper to a peer-reviewed journal without following the prescribed rules faithfully. Things were different in Darwin's day; styles of writing about science ranged from the mathematically precise to the discursively narrative. But that is not to say that there were no rules or models: On the contrary, in the late 18th century and early 19th century, attention to rhetoric and logic flourished.
The standards were high. In his 1687 Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton had pronounced his famous four rules for reasoning, of which the first is the most famous and influential: "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances." Closer to Darwin's time, the most influential works included Joseph Priestley's A Course of Lectures on Oratory and Criticism (1777), John Locke's essay Of the Conduct of the Understanding (1706), Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism (1762) and William Duncan's The Elements of Logick (1748), all of which still make fascinating reading today. Among the most widely read and influential of all was Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1784). And all rhetorical style traced back to, and reacted against, the classics, particularly the works of the great Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. As Darwin was a superbly well-read intellectual, it is natural to ask, with respect to his "long argument," where did he stand in relation to this great literary tradition? The question has fascinated historians and philosophers of science. Among the most notable contributors to the discussion are Martin Hodge at the University of Leeds, Matti Sintonen at the University of Helsinki and Doren Recker at Oklahoma State University.
Darwin specifies the pattern of his argument in the introduction to the Origin. First he establishes a key premise: Artificial selection of varieties of plants and animals would be its central analogy (chapter 1). He then documents variation in nature (chapter 2) and follows with the mathematical imperatives of population biology and the "Struggle for Existence," which combine to produce natural selection (chapter 3). He brings all of these topics together in chapter 4 and introduces the concept that transmutation of existing varieties of organisms into new species "almost inevitably causes much extinction of the less improved forms of life, and induces what I have called the Divergence of Character."
These four chapters contain his idea in a nutshell. He extends it in chapter 5 with discussion of "little known laws of variation and of correlation of Growth." But then, instead of pressing on directly with his case, he makes a detour into four chapters in which "the most apparent and gravest difficulties on the theory" are admitted and dealt with. Only after putting the whole affair into a geological context (chapter 10) is he ready to deal with corroborating elements of his theory—such as geographical distributions, homology, vestigial organs and (one of the strongest parts of his argument) the fact that a pattern of descent explains the patterns of similarity long since formalized in systems of classification (chapters 11 through 13). At last, there is a final summing up and some rather lyrical "concluding remarks."
In the synthetic mode of deductive rhetoric, the most effective argument is often syllogism: If all A are B, and all C are A, then all C are also B. Darwin's "long argument" has the character of an extended syllogism: Variation can be artificially selected by breeders to produce new forms; variation exists in nature; the mathematically driven struggle for life is comparable to the ruthless hand of the breeder; there have been vast eons of time within which natural selection could operate; therefore natural selection explains both origins and extinctions within organic diversity. The order in which Darwin developed his subjects is, however, different from the patterns originally laid out in his Sketch of 1842 and Essay of 1844, particularly with respect to the position of the "difficulties" discussion in chapters 6 through 9.
Darwin was quite self-effacing in his introduction, explaining to his readers that the book would necessarily seem imperfect, and that he could not "give references and authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy." This was a remarkable assertion for someone who was proposing to lay out a revolutionary idea that he could not definitively prove. In the same vein, in his first chapter, on "Variation in Nature," he announced that there would be no space to give "a long catalogue of dry facts."
Missing from the whole book is any introductory section laying out in detail the problem to be addressed. Darwin seems to have assumed that his readers would be perfectly familiar with the notion of transmutation of species, "the mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers" (referring to John Herschel). On his third page he cited Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), which suggests that this assumption was the case. But Darwin did not use his vast knowledge of plant and animal diversity and distribution to establish initially, through examples, that transmutation was a phenomenon seeking an explanation. Instead, he steadily built up an "argument" almost, as it were, from the other end, carrying the reader along until even the most recalcitrant must (he hoped) be persuaded.
During his final months at Cambridge, Darwin read and was greatly impressed by John Herschel's Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830). In it, Herschel lays out the approach to the exposition of scientific ideas known as vera causa, which was derived originally from Bacon and Newton. Establishing the vera causa—true cause—of a phenomenon involves three phases. The potential causal phenomenon has to be real and existing, it has to be demonstrated as capable of producing the effect under investigation, and then it has to be shown to be actually responsible. The last phase is always the hardest, and is actually impossible to realize in investigating a unique historical event that cannot be reproduced for experimental investigation. Hodge has convincingly argued that Darwin laid out the Origin along the lines of vera causa: Chapters 1 through 4 establish the existence of a cause (natural selection), chapters 5 through 13 demonstrate capability, and chapters 10 through 13 demonstrate responsibility.
But Darwin still had to argue his case for a vera causa, and here other models and approaches also may have influenced him. I will single out two. As a student at Cambridge, he had been vastly impressed with what he described as the "long line of argumentation" of William Paley's Natural Theology (1802). This influential book, which in some ways seems more like a biology textbook than a theological work, proceeded on the synthetic mode of deductive rhetoric via a syllogism. Paley first laid down a premise that seemed irrefutable—that a complex functional device such as a watch requires an intelligent designer and creator. He then demonstrated that organisms are complex and adapted. If the existence of a watch proves the activity of a designer, then even more so does a human, or a bird. The similarity of approach to Darwin's Origin, which also argues from a powerful analogy (artificial selection), is as striking as the dissimilarity of the two men's conclusions.
Towards the end of his book, Paley included a section arguing against the contemporary ideas of evolution propounded by Scottish philosopher David Hume, English physician Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. One might ask why this defense was necessary, especially because it drew attention to potential weaknesses in Paley's argument. The answer is partly that Paley was confident of his ground and partly that "refutation" was formally required. Paley's "long argument" is an example of the neoclassical dispositio defined by Duncan and Blair, in which a jurist or preacher was instructed to set out in order: introduction, proposition (the question at hand), division (elements of the case), narration (reasoning), argument (refutation of opposing positions), pathetic part (appeal to the emotions) and conclusion. (For Cicero, the roughly corresponding parts had been the exordium, narratio, refutatio, confirmatio and peroratio.)
It is interesting, then, that in the library of the University of Cambridge there is a short note in Darwin's hand headed "Books that I read my second year at Edinburgh" that lists, among works on medicine and travel, "Blair's Belles Lettres." If we look at the Origin from the point of view of rhetorical practice, we see the same convention Blair used: The Origin has its proposition (the congruence of artificial and natural selection) and its narration (chapters 3, 4 and 5). These fit Duncan's requirement that "those propositions are always first to be demonstrated, which furnish principles of reasoning in others; it being upon the certainty of the principles made use of, that the certainty of the truths deduced from them depends." The otherwise unusual positioning of chapters 6 through 9 is then made clear: They are Darwin's refutation. Chapters 11, 12 and 13 are his confirmation. His final chapter even has its pathetic part in the form of the slightly flowery sentiments with which he conjures up the metaphor of the "entangled bank" and glories in the "grandeur in this view of life."
Right from the beginning, Darwin faced a difficult problem in writing up his theory. As he noted in his Autobiography, he realized early on that it seemed "almost useless to endeavour to prove by indirect means that species have been modified." Instead he chose (or was forced) to make a logical argument in a form of which Cicero would have been proud. Each part of his theory—variation, overproduction, the struggle for life—was true and demonstrable. The argument was irrefutable. If he had been a mathematician he would have needed only to add one final notation to page 490: Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum).
All of Darwin's books and manuscripts reveal the extraordinary breadth of his learning. But the Origin was, in every sense, both the most original and the most classical, making it an even more remarkable achievement.
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text:
by Brie Sosnov
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people around the region celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by participating in a Day of Service. It's a way to commemorate King and his life teachings by turning a day off from work into a "day on" in community service.
Every year, students from around Northwest Philadelphia join that "day on" by participating in dozens of projects sponsored by their schools
Norwood Fontbonne will celebrate MLK Day early on Friday, Jan.18. The students will assemble toiletry bags for St. Johns Hospice, a homeless ministry in Philadelphia. Local hotels and NFA families have funded the project.
Once the toiletry bags are completed, NFA will bring the day to a close with a school-wide prayer service in which they will sing a Catholic hymn and the sixth-grade choir will lead the song Peace is Flowing.
There will be a video and slideshow about King, followed by a scripture reading and prayers. To conclude the day, one student from each grade, first through eighth, will reflect on their fall service learning experience.
Germantown Friends has organized numerous activities both on and off campus in honor of King.
GFS volunteers will make food for the Holsey Temple Feeding Ministry, Whosoever Gospel Mission and the Covenant House, a local homeless shelter for teens. The volunteers will organize supplies donated to families who are rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Sandy and among a variety of other on campus service activities.
The day will also include off-campus activities such as cleaning Waring House, an old Victorian home that community organizers hope to revive as a community center.
Following the service activities and a luncheon hosted by the Multicultural Parents Alliance, will be the Bayard Rustin Centennial Celebration, a community gathering hosted by the Lesbian and Gay Parents and Friends Alliance and the Multicultural Parents Alliance. This gathering is a teach-in and discussion about the life of Bayard Rustin, who was a close advisor to King. Rustin was an openly gay African American social justice activist and a member of the Religious Society of Friends.
As part of the focus on Rustin, students wil listen to excerpts from the children's book "We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin" and watch parts of the film "Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin."
Penn Charter has collected sports equipment, used books and learning materials to donate to the new Police Athletic League (PAL) Lighthouse Children's center in North Philadelphia. PAL provides free after-school and summer programs for children at 26 neighborhood centers.
On MLK Day preschool, Kindergarten and first-grade students will sort and count the donated items. First-and second-grade students will paint canvas murals for PAL on campus, while fourth-and fifth-grade students will help build a library at Lighthouse PAL. Students in Middle and Upper School have their choice among a few service activities both on and off campus.
They will clean the grounds at St. James School in Allegheny West, clean out the Manayunk Tow Path with Ivy Ridge Green, and/or help to staff the Matt Miller Memorial Basketball Tournament at Penn Charter.
The entire student body at SCH will participate in service activities, making MLK Day a "day on." Upper School students will paint murals, visit retirement home residents, create Valentines with orphaned children, and organize canned food donation among other projects.
Lower School girls will cook meals and desserts for Aid for Friends and assemble breakfast bags and bowls of soup for Meals on Wheels. Lower School boys will also serve meals on wheels as well as Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry.
Middle School girls will divide by grade to participate in different service projects. Middle School boys will clean and make improvements to facilities at Midtown Parish United Methodist Church, clean up Valley Forge National Park, and sort and shelve books at Philadelphia Reads.


text:
By Dr. Dain Heer
What if everything you have been taught or have learned about money, wealth and abundance is out-of-date or incorrect?
Translated versions available. See details below!
Duration: Evening Class
Facilitator: Dr. Dain Heer
Format: MP3 Digital Download
Pre-Requisite: None
In times of great financial change, what if you were willing to look at the infinite possibilities instead of the problems?
What if it's actually about how much you're willing to receive? Would receiving more allow you to contribute more to you, to everyone around you — and the world? What would that be like?
During this evening class Dr. Dain Heer will introduce you to a very different way of functioning and being in the area of money. You'll go home with a series of tools and processes that, if you use them, can assist you in finally creating the life you truly desire.
What if the Universe desires to support you in totality, and all you have to do is... ask?
Is now the time?
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Castell d'Or wines and cavas
Recents news
Bringing together the knowledge and the experience of nine different wine-elaborating cooperatives with different Origin Denominations from Catalonia, and the labour carried out by their vine-growers, technicians and oenologists, Castell d'Or produces wines, cavas and olive oils which have earned great recognition all over the world.
Apart from the high quality products, other features from Castell d'Or are the modernist cellars, the cooperative work, the variety of the landscape and the agroshop chain. So we encourage you to discover all this for yourself.
The cellar from l'Espluga de Francolí was named Catedral del Vi (Wine Cathedral) by the catalan writer Àngel Guimerà. This denomination was soon used for other cellars built at the beginning of the 20th century by architects such Cèsar Martinell, follower of Antoni Gaudí, and Domenech i Montaner and his son Pere Domènech Roura.
If you want to know more about modernism art and how it was applied to the wine-growing agro-industry, come and visit the cellars in l'Espluga de Francolí, Barberà de la Conca or Vila-rodona, a real work of art.
If you want to enjoy Castell d'Or's wines, caves and olive oils, come and visit our agroshop chain. We offer you a warm welcome, very good advice and a selection of local products.
The cooperative cellars of Castell d'Or are: Barberà de la Conca, Bellvei del Penedès, l'Arboç, l'Espluga de Francolí, la Nou de Gaià, Solivella, Vila-rodona, Vimbodí and Vinaixa.


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Video Celebrates Life of Beloved Chemistry Professor
Chemistry is widely seen as a high school chore. Why do we have to learn acids and bases, reactions, stoichiometry…when are we going to use this?
When we want to be awesome, that's when. As this video, collecting the chemistry demonstrations of Professor Paul Hunter of Michigan State University, shows us.
Unfortunately, this video is tinged with tragedy: it was posted to Reddit as a celebration of the professor in the video, Paul Hunter. Hunter had a stroke while driving on Wednesday and crashed, killing him. He was 69.
Our sympathies are with the Michigan State community and Professor Hunter's family for their tragic loss. We hope they find some consolation in the joy this video has brought to thousands of people across the world.


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The Black Flag Movement - White Boy Wasted [Label Submitted]
"Major Movz Entertainment, LLC present The Black Flag Movement… White Boy Wasted is the first video shot with The Black Flag Movement members Young Snipe and Lil NuNu... Be on the lookout for "I Jus Want It All" for more info check the website: www.MajorMovz.com"
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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My! My Friend's Mustard
On Saturday TBD hosted the First Annual Brooklyn Mustard Festival. It was the perfect day to sit in the sunny yard and eat mustard covered Sigmund's pretzels.
Mustard is one of those things I hated growing up and only recently acquired a taste for. Unless it's a giant slab of kielbasa, I never find myself asking for anyone to pass the mustard. That all changed this weekend.
There was a line-up of mustard geniuses but one mustard stood out among the rest: My Friend's Mustard. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night looking for anything to dip into "my tub" (not "my boyfriend's" tub or "our" tub) – "my tub!" of "whole grain beer mustard from Brooklyn."
It's not yellow runny mustard or fancy french dijon. It isn't the means to just spicing up your hot dog. My Friend's Mustard is an end in itself. A spicy and sweet mustard with an addictive creamy nutty texture and that invigorating wasabe effect on your senses. I am hooked and taking every chance I get to slather it on everything!
Get 'em while they last! Brooklyn Standard, Eastern District & Brouwerij Lane will only be carrying the mustard until their inventories runs out (meaning until I buy it all), then you can buy it directly from their website.


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It is April and April Fools has only just begun. Well, or so Matt Velic (blog | twitter) would have us believe.
Matt decided that this month for TSQL Tuesday, he would pull out all stops to help us break out the inner prankster in ourselves.
You can read all about it from his invitation here.
Reading the invitation made me immediately flash to a couple of recent possibilities or things that maybe others had done.
For instance, I thought about the April Fools post I did about Backups in SQL 2014. Mix a little truth and a splash of fun and you have a believable April Fools blog post. You can read that post here.
Then I thought momentarily on a great post by Paul Randal for April Fools. Paul talked about a great prank that could be pulled on some co-workers and it would really get them in a frenzy. You could read about his Day 0 checksum issue here.
Then I flashed to something a friend tried to pull on me. He sent me a script to the following tune.
[codesyntax lang="tsql"]
SELECT 'principal name' = p.NAME ,
'principal creation date' = p.create_date ,
'password' = ca.passwordcrack ,
'instance sid' = p.sid,
'user type' = p.type
FROM master.sys.server_principals p
CROSS APPLY ( SELECT p1.principal_id ,
CAST(0x596F75207468696E6B2070617373776F726473206172652074686174206561737920746F206465637279707420696E2053514C205365727665723F2E2E2E417072696C20466F6F6C277321 AS VARCHAR(1023))
+ ISNULL(CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), NULLIF(POWER(p1.principal_id,
0), 1)), ' ')
FROM sys.server_principals p1
) ca ( principal_id, passwordcrack )
WHERE p.type LIKE '[GUS]'
AND ca.principal_id = p.principal_id
For the seasoned DBA, the joke in this one is easy to spot. But it will still catch some people and it could provide a good laugh.
But my favorite piece of seriousness to parley in the workplace comes from this gem.
This gem from our friends at ThinkGeek®, can provide several minutes of hard laughter. You plug this into an USB port that is not very visible and then camp out and watch for the fun to begin. If they are typing in SSMS, you could end up with some real fun (random key strokes inserted into keywords etc).
Whatever you do, please do not attempt this with somebody who will be connecting to a Production instance.


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|Written by
|Christopher Cerf
|Splotched Animal Music Co.
|Episode 1375
"Born to Add" is a Sesame Street song that parodies Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run," and also borrows heavily from "Jungleland," another Springsteen tune (also from the Born to Run album). It was performed by Bruce Stringbean, Clarice, and the S Street Band.
- The song (and the album that was named after it) was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children, but it lost to the Michael Jackson-narrated read-along album from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
- In Sesame Street Unpaved and Sesame Workshop's parody of Facebook titled "Muppetbook" that was created for the 40th season of Sesame Street, it states that Count von Count's favorite songs are "Born to Add" and "Count on Me."
- Audio
- Born to Add (1983, 1993 and 1995 editions)
- Video
- Learning to Add and Subtract (1987, ending edited)
- Best of Sesame Street Spoofs! (2011, ending edited)
- Old School: Volume 3 (2012)
- 50 Years and Counting (2019)
- Special
- The Street We Live On (2004, clip only)
- Publications
- The Sesame Street Songbook (1992 and 2007 editions only)
- Other
- Numbers computer game (audio)
External links
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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"Sixty-five all-women police stations will be set up across West Bengal to deal with crimes against women," Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand leader of the Trinamool party, told a rally in the north of the state.
"Ten of these stations are already functioning," she added.
Ms Banerjee, who was until recently a coalition ally of the main ruling Congress party, also announced that 158 new courts were being set up in the state to fast-track cases involving crimes against women.
Her comments came after the federal government launched a drive to recruit more female officers as a confidence-building measure.
That campaign will start in the capital Delhi, where a 23-year-old student was brutally gang-raped on a bus on December 16, sparking nationwide protests.
The lack of women officers has been widely blamed for the failures of some police forces to thoroughly investigate allegations of sex crimes. Women currently account for less than one in five Indian police officers.


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Dan Ashmore Crab Lover ....
I have been told many tales by chefs about moving for the love of their life, Dan is no different. Heading to Edinburgh to the prestigious Number One at the Balmoral and from there to the Pompadour.
Although I have yet to meet him, Dan is another approachable chef. I've fired questions at him via social media, commented on his gorgeous looking plates of grub that I see on Instagram.
His eye for detail is made simple for him, after all we have some of the best ingredients that he uses in his dishes with amazing skill. Fish and seafood are some of his favourite foods along with our succulent summer fruits. As we are a tad early for strawberries (Dan thinks they are the best in the world), my recipe is a simple baked crab.
so here's to you Dan, have a fab birthday on the 14th June!
Baked Crab Pots
200g /8oz white crabmeat
Small bunch of herbs, chopped (I like chervil, parsley or chives)
Pink peppercorns or grated lemon zest
Double cream
50g/2oz grated Parmesan
Toss the crabmeat with the chopped herbs, a good grinding of pink peppercorns or lemon zest.
Check seasoning and add salt if required.
Share the crab mix between four ramekins, top with cream and Parmesan
Pop onto a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven (180C/Fan 160C/Gas4 for15mins.
Serve with crusty bread and wedges of lemon.
What else is in my basket?
Hare, lamb, duck, sardines, sea trout, cod, crab, hake, scallops, lemon sole, langoustines, farmed halibut, watercress, asparagus, samphire, spring greens, rocket, spinach, Jersey Royals, elderflowers, gooseberries, cherries.
Lea writes http://OfftheEatenTrack.wordpress.com, @BakersBunny on
There are currently no reader reviews. Be the first to review by clicking below!


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Monday, April 20, 2009
Apparently, Aaron Hill doesn't like black people
This season was probably going too swimmingly. Perhaps a little viral controversy could shake up our blissful early season lovefest?
We've got no idea who these Action Seat chicks are, or what purpose these videos might serve, or how they managed to get press credentials. But, oh, to be a fly on the Blue Jays' clubhouse wall as they all gather around someone's laptop to watch this car wreck.
(H/T to Hale at the Mockingbird, via Big League Stew)
24 comments:
That word association at the end was veering awfully close to the Job Interview skit a billion years ago on SNL.
- April 20, 2009 at 4:14 PM
- confido boyd said...
"Can't wait to see if there's any Toronto clubhouse fallout from that last one if it happens to go viral."
Do they not get that its a joke?
And a fantastic one.
- April 20, 2009 at 4:27 PM
- Tao of Stieb said...
Well, we wouldn't call it a "fantastic" joke exactly.
Aaron Hill and Russ Adams getting married is a fantastic joke. This is just a chick with a mic asking dumb questions and getting silly answers.
- April 20, 2009 at 4:33 PM
What is Wells thinking even doing this? Incredibly bad judgment, even if he is trying to be funny.
- April 20, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Wow Wells, you're so clever . . .
- April 20, 2009 at 5:51 PM
- Joanna said...
Oh my god, people, lighten up. As I said on Hum and Chuck, he saw the interview as a joke and made it a joke. It's a spring interview, and it's prob a running joke with the boys.
The real story here is how did these chicks get access to the players?
- April 20, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Quite the train wreck, but Vernon having fun with a dumb blonde is hardly going to cause a controversy...I assume the "24? 23? 22?" answer was how many whities are on the team...he realized Rios and Scutaro might get annoyed at being lumped in there...
The chick in the Johnny Gomes clip is one of the girls who serves food and drinks in the primo seats behind home plate (the "In the Action" seats I think, hence the name)...I assume Vernon's "interviewer" is as well...maybe a trip to Dunedin is one of the perks of the job?
- April 20, 2009 at 7:23 PM
- Tao of Stieb said...
Yeah, we're not scandalized by it, but we assume that someone else will be. A tempest for every teapot, and that sort of thing.
If those ladies are servers from the In the Action seats, we wonder if they will face any reprimand.
Not that being unfunny is cause for termination.
- April 20, 2009 at 7:30 PM
- b.now said...
i thought it was hilarious
- April 20, 2009 at 7:56 PM
Definately not scandalous, but certainly not hilarious either. She is clearly a knob & I feel bad for poor Vernon who is likely too nice of a guy to tell her to fuck off.
...Er, hows about that Ricky Romero?
- April 20, 2009 at 8:05 PM
...definitely not a spelling champ either :<
- April 20, 2009 at 8:22 PM
- Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...
Vernon can do no right in the eyes of most Jays fans.
- April 20, 2009 at 8:30 PM
PS: I was referring to MY spelling of definItely, there. I love Vernon. Keep up those numbers big feller...
Let's go baseball!
- April 20, 2009 at 9:38 PM
- Brad Fullmer Fan said...
Tao, you really do suck the fun out of everything.
This is hilarious. It reminds me of the sarcastic humour of Jason Kapono interviews.
- April 20, 2009 at 10:57 PM
I friggin' loved it!
- April 21, 2009 at 1:30 AM
Put this lame story to rest, Tao. Get on with the baseball analysis of the team that sits atop of the AL East!
- April 21, 2009 at 8:23 AM
Is this a baseball site or Tao-ez Hilton?
- April 21, 2009 at 8:32 AM
I think this brand of humor is called "tongue-in'cheek". Harmless. I thought it was fun.
- April 21, 2009 at 9:06 AM
- Tao of Stieb said...
There's a pretty important distinction between sarcasm and wit.
- April 21, 2009 at 9:46 AM
- Brad Fullmer Fan said...
#1. Relax. Stop taking yourself and this blog so seriously.
#2. This is pretty funny stuff. There's no reason to analyze it further or refer to it as some kind of controversy. It may not be the kind of humour that the brilliant Tao enjoys, but I laughed.
- April 21, 2009 at 10:22 AM
- Darren Priest said...
It's pretty clear he's joking, but is it really that funny? I guess if you're grading on the pro athlete curve (or the Cabby on the Street curve) it's hilarious.
Do I think it should be a starting point for a discussion about race in baseball? Hell, no.
I do think there is potential for a cross-over promotion where you can win a Rona room make-over with Vernon Wells as your decorator.
- April 21, 2009 at 10:51 AM
- SP said...
I agree, CALM THE FUCK DOWN EVERYONE (oh, sorry). Vernon was funny, the girls are hot. End of story.
- April 21, 2009 at 4:37 PM
These girls are beer servers behind home plate and should stick to that alone. They are dumb like log and are a embarssement.
Who gave them press passes should be FIRED
- April 23, 2009 at 8:26 PM
These girls were DISGISTING, I agree whoever allowed them press passes should get canned. Totaly unprepared and no profesionalism what so ever. In fact fire them as well
- April 23, 2009 at 8:28 PM


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Anja was visiting New York City from Denmark earlier this fall, when she ran into me in Penn Station. Of course, I was thrilled when she agreed to share this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday:
This tattoo on Anja's calf is based on the cover art from Es ist soweit, a 1990 album from a German band called Böhse Onkelz.
This record has significant meaning for Anja because it helped bring her and her brother together. She explained that they lived apart and didn't talk much, growing up in separate households. She was living with her grandmother, and came to visit her father and she was walking past her brother's room and heard him listening to this record.
The music brought them together, as she stopped to talk to him about it, learned that he had been listening to Böhse Onkelz longer than her, and this common ground broke the ice. Whereas before they had very little to talk about, Anja credits the band and this album with helping establish ties with her brother.
The top of the tattoo starts a lyric
and ends with
The lyric in question, "Let's forever be that Rebel Monster" is actually from a song by Volbeat, a Danish rock band, on their first album The Strength/The Sound/The Songs. The date below, "29-07-19--" is her brother's birth date.
This cool, meaningful tattoo was inked in Denmark by an artist named Dennis Wehler. I love how the words seem to be carved in her flesh.
Thanks to Anja for sharing this wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
As a bonus, here's a little "Rebel Monster" from Volbeat:


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Saturday, May 10, 2014
Out of the Box: Infect our system with creativity
Rockford Register Star Guest Column
By Ron Clewer
I believe everything happens for a reason. About a month ago I agreed to write this column about learning, innovation and creativity to celebrate May as "Out of the Box" month hosted by Rockford Lutheran. Prior to agreeing, I was chosen to attend an Executive Leadership Institute with the Alliance for Children and Families. The two-year program aims to grow high quality, human services executive leaders. I didn't know I would spend my first six days focused on learning, innovation and creativity. The timing is perfect as I sit in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan writing this column.
Over the last few days, my cohort has intensively focused on the concept of innovation. What is it? How does it occur? When is it most effective? We know innovation comes with risk. The more innovative, the more risk. Stasis, or a period of inactivity is also risky; however most of us have been taught to think it's "safe." Should we live our lives as "safe" not looking for new ways, ideas or opportunities to grow?
Do we reward creativity or do we look down on it? Pablo Picasso said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Think about it. Our children start out living creative lives. Purple dragons. Invisible friends. Fairy tales. Coloring pigs blue — pigs that may or may not drive black fire trucks. It's not long before we say, Honey, pigs aren't blue and they cannot drive. Fire trucks aren't black and there are no such things as fairy tales — except under 398.2 in the library. We teach them to think about "real," and we take their crayons away.
Some argue that innovation is creativity, and some may argue that creativity is not necessarily innovative. Why are we arguing?
Good work is about spirit that leads to greatness. Our city was founded with greatness by innovators, by creatives, by designers, by makers. Our history shows this, but at some point we settled with stasis. Yes, that's a pretty broad statement, but I think we can all agree with it.
I believe that we need to infect our system with creativity and celebrate it, and we need to reward innovation. We need innovation, and we need creativity to reverse the conditions present in our community. Disagree? Consider, creativity is the No. 1 desirable attribute for leaders, says an IBM Global CEO study 2013.
Thankfully, there are many innovative drivers currently underway in Rockford. Rockford Housing Authority is leading an innovative approach to help residents grow creative enterprises. RPS205 is piloting a craft entrepreneurship program. Both programs are partnered with Etsy, an online sales outlet platform and the Rockford Etsy team. These partnerships are so innovative that New York, Dallas and Chicago are replicating this work.
These are the types of events that will be highlighted in Rockford Lutheran's Out of the Box month-long celebration of creativity and innovation. Out of the Box is a coordinated series of events spotlighting creative efforts in our region that celebrate innovation and drive collaboration for the greater good. Take some time to return to your own creative space or celebrate others!
Rockford has been and will again be a great, creative place to invent and to make thanks to these and other innovative efforts.
For more information on events, please visit rockfordlutheran.org.
Ron Clewer is CEO for the Rockford Housing Authority
Read more: http://www.rrstar.com/article/20140510/Opinion/140519923#ixzz31dMyQqmC


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Queen Anne Style is one of the most recognizable styles of Victorian architecture in America. With castle-like turrets, colorful "painted lady" details, and grand porches, they're hard to miss. These stately homes often required teams of skilled builders, carpenters and craftsmen to construct, which of course came at a high cost. Often the style of choice for the lumber barons and railroad tycoons of the day, these romantic mansions captured the hearts of Americans coast to coast— and still do today!
Not surprisingly, the popular, late 19th century style also appeared in dollhouses. But how did toy manufacturers shrink the intricate Queen Anne Victorian details for mass dollhouse production? Toy makers at the R. Bliss Manufacturing Company had the perfect solution. Instead of hand carving and applying all of the spindles, lattice work, and shingles (just think of the choking hazards!), the dollhouse's ornate details were printed on chromolithographed paper facades. These colorful details applied to the sturdy Bliss dollhouse structure made for a perfectly playable and mass-producible Queen Anne dollhouse. After all, what little girl wouldn't want a dollhouse fit for a queen?


text: Prefer the Old School? If you do, you can definitely downgrade, but be sure check the chart below to downgrade properly. Follow the steps outlined and you will have a brand new old iDevice for your Jailbreaking pleasure or just for bragging to your friends that your model ain't the latest, but the longest in the tooth.


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Gastonia firefighters don pink shirts in October to raise awareness about breast cancer.
Cancer Services of Gaston County took a $160,000 hit to its budget this year.
The nonprofit that provides help for Gaston County residents going through cancer treatments lost $100,000 when a N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund grant expired. The group lost $60,000 when the Susan G. Komen Foundation reorganized its funding.
Cancer Services of Gaston County aims to make up for lost funding through a partnership with the Gastonia Fire Department.
Firefighters will trade their gray T-shirts for powder pink ones throughout October. Pink T-shirts with the Gastonia Fire Department logo on the front and a breast cancer awareness ribbon on the back will be for sale at the fire department and other local businesses to raise money for Cancer Services of Gaston County.
Gastonia has never done a fundraiser like this before, but the impact of cancer on the fire department crew made the collaboration an easy decision, said Gastonia Fire Chief Phil Welch.
Gastonia Fire Capt. Tim Barnhill experienced how cancer can change someone�s life when his wife Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer July 23.
Lisa Barnhill works at as a nuclear medicine technician in the X-ray department at CaroMont Health�s Gaston Memorial Hospital. She volunteered to get a mammogram from the CaroMont Health Wellness Coach, a 39-foot long bus that offers mobile mammography. Her mammogram revealed irregularities so she had more tests and discovered she had breast cancer.
Barnhill had skin-sparing mastectomy surgery on both breasts Aug 1. A skin-sparing mastectomy is a technique that preserves as much of the breast skin as possible.
Barnhill found out Thursday that she doesn�t have to have chemotherapy and all tests came back clear.
�One out of three Gaston County residents will hear those words, �You have cancer,�� said Kim Elmore, community outreach director for Cancer Services of Gaston County.
Name recognition is Cancer Services of Gaston County�s biggest challenge, said Elmore. People think the group is associated with the American Cancer Society, but the nonprofit runs its organization out of a small office and keeps all of its funding local.
�One hundred percent of any money raised here in Gaston County stays here in Gaston County to help Gaston County residents living with cancer,� Elmore said.
Cancer Services doesn�t charge for any of its services, which are tailored to each person�s situation.
�Our goal is to meet the need of that individual no matter what it is,� Elmore said.
T-shirts have been selling out. Cancer Services is on its fourth order even though the fundraiser officially starts Oct. 1.
�The timing of this for the year couldn�t have been any better,� Elmore said.
You can reach reporter Amanda Memrick at 704-869-1839 or follow @AmandaMemrick on Twitter.
Want to buy a shirt?
Pink Gastonia Fire Department T-shirts are available for $10. They can be purchased at Gastonia Fire Station No. 1, Akers Pharmacy, Bangz Salon, Buffalo Wild Wings, Hickory Tavern and the Cancers Services of Gaston County office.
Cancer awareness events
A motorcycle ride will be held Oct. 13 sponsored by the Gaston County Firefighters Association. Registration starts at 8 a.m. and bikes will take off at 9:30 a.m. at Gaston College, stop at Forest City and continue to Lake Lure. Cost is $20 for each bike and $10 per passenger.
The CaroMont Health Wellness Coach will be at Gastonia Fire Station 1 Oct. 24 to offer mobile mammograms to the community.