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"Highly readable, fascinating account of the lives of contemporary young women … In probing chapters that deftly synthesize sobering statistics, case anecdotes, and personal observation, Hinshaw makes a strong case that teen girls are in crisis … This balanced, thorough, compassionate title is required reading for parents, teachers, and teens of both sexes."
— Booklist
"If you read any book about girls in the next decade, make it The Triple Bind. Dr. Hinshaw masterfully articulates the intense and hidden pressures that every one of our daughters endures. Most important, he offers us solutions."
–Dr. Meg Meeker, author of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters
"Society is failing today's girls, pressuring them to achieve success at levels they cannot possibly attain. Now that Stephen Hinshaw has named and explained The Triple Bind, it's up to all of us to better support the healthy development and inner well-being of girls. A must-read."
–Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., coauthor of So Sexy So Soon


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When I am on a diet, I can go for days without eating chocolate, for weeks without eating pasta and for months without buying ice cream. But there are two things that I can't spend a single day without: My breakfast; which I take with cereals or tartines and a bowl of milk, and my afternoon snack; with a slice of cake or cookies and a cup of mint tea or milk. I was raised that way. My mother always told us that a nourishing and well balanced breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But for the afternoon snack, it's a different story. It is more like a family ritual than a biological need to fuel my body. As far as I can remember, we always had tea or coffee with some kind of pastry after coming back from school. We usually wait until everyone gets home to gather around a hot mint tea and some fresh baked sweets. If for some reason one day, there was no tea and no sweets on the table, we would feel lost. My mother and I share the same feeling about this particular meal: I think it is more about the family getting together than the snack itself.
When I think about those baked sweets, four of them come to my mind: Beignets, Yoghurt Cake, Torno (kind of sablé with icing on top) and Pain d'épices...Ahh Pain d'épices, the whole house smells like the Islands when my mother makes this fragrant cake. Pain d'épices, which translates "bread of spices" is a french cake whose ingredients contain honey and many spices.
I made this cake many times but had never been satisfied with the result. It was too dry, not fragrant enough... in a word nothing like how Pain d'épice should be. Last week, while browsing my friend's blog, I came across a recent post she had about pain d'épices; or what was supposed to be Nonette (like Pain d'épices but with an orange marmalade filling) turned into a mini-Pain d'épices. Just looking at the picture made my mouth water. I was sold, I had to try the recipe. I took a bet with Lili that I will be able to make the marmalade slip into the dough to become a filling like Nonette are supposed to be. Infortunatly, I lost my bet but I had the pain d'épices of my childhood in my kitchen and it was so worth the loss. I even told my mother about it. She was happy that I won't have to ask her every time:"how come I can't have the same result as yours" and every time she tells me:"c'est l'experience ma fille!" (it's the experience my daughter!).
-5.82 oz all purpose unbleached flour
-1.60 oz light brown sugar
-2 oz honey (you can go until 4 oz)
-1/2 cup fresh orange juice
-3 tbsp butter
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1 star anise
-1/4 cinnamon stick
-1 tbsp candied orange rinds roughly chopped
-1/2 tsp ground cardamom
-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
-1/4 tsp ground ginger
-Pinch of ground cloves
-Pinch of salt
-Orange marmalade or jelly (1/2 tsp for each baking cup)
In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda, salt and the ground spices. Set aside.
In a saucepan, heat the butter with the orange juice, the cinnamon stick, the star anise and the orange rinds. Once the butter melts and the liquid reaches a boiling stage, remove the saucepan from the stove, discard the cinnamon stick and star anise and pour the liquid over the dry ingredients while whisking vigorously, until all gets blended. Let it cool a little bit, then spoon the batter into mini-muffin cups or standard muffin cups. Top each cup with the orange marmalade and press gently. Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 12-14 min in mini-muffin cups and for 15-18 min in a standard muffin cups. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container and serve until the following day. Your patience will be rewarded.

subset: commoncrawl


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Seventeen-year-old Dudley Craven in his tiny ham radio shack, circa 1961. Many of the Marshall JTM45 prototypes would be refined and tested here. Photo courtesy of Barbara Craven.
But the amp's unique harmonic characteristics caught the guitarist's ear. "I got very angry, very frustrated," he remembers. "I kept pushing them. I said, 'You'd better [expletive] do this—there's something happening here which is really interesting. You get up to a certain pitch, and something happens between the pickup and the amp. The guitar kind of starts to sound like a symphony orchestra."
It was almost as if Townshend could peer into the future and see that overdrive would shape the new sound of rock 'n' roll. "I knew that in distortion there was a music of a much higher harmonic order than anything that I could play," he said in the aforementioned interview. "So I started that whole trip off."
Bigger and Louder: Model 1959
In mid 1965 Marshall asked Craven and Bran to begin prototyping what would become model 1959, also known as the JTM45/100—Marshall's first attempt at a louder amp. The design team increased the power by building up the JTM45 circuit, while taking pains to prevent the components from overheating. All amplifier manufacturers knew heat was the enemy of a reliable amplifier.
The first model 1959 prototype was totally experimental. It used one 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier tube, four 6V6 output tubes, and three ECC83/12AX7 preamp tubes for about 60 watts of power. They used a Radiospares "De Luxe" output transformer, but it couldn't handle the power. The windings melted.
The second prototype was quite different. This amplifier used two 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier tubes, four 5881/6L6 output tubes, and three ECC83/12AX7 preamp tubes. The amp used two Radiospares 30-watt output transformers, which together could handle the amplifier's power. This prototype reassured the design team they were going in the right direction.
Third Time's the Charm
Craven perfected model 1959 with a third prototype in the fall of 1965. The design team had replaced the 5881/6L6 output tubes with KT66 tubes, which were easier to source in England. After testing with the dual 30-watt output stage, it became clear that heavier-duty output transformers were required. Craven selected a pair of Drake 50-watt output transformers (784-74), because at the time no 100-watt output transformers were available.
This third prototype of the Marshall model 1959, serial #6406, may be the first 100-watt Super Tremolo amplifier. These early 100-watt amplifiers incorporated a unique dual-output transformer design. There is no impedance selector switch.
Texas Instruments TS107 silicon diodes replaced the inefficient tube rectifiers, increasing power and changing the amplifier's sonic character. The mushy "sag" characteristic of tube rectifiers was gone. The bottom end was tighter. Highs were clearer. The response was faster. And there was an added benefit: The amplifier would never fail due to a bad rectifier tube.
The power transformer was a large military/industrial-grade model manufactured by Radiospares. Because this amplifier was used only for prototyping, the power transformer did not have a USA voltage tap.
The chart (right) shows the various voltages that can be obtained from the three taps on the power transformer in amplifier #6406—which is owned by the author and is one of the 12 original, dual-output 100-watt Marshalls.
Dual-Output 100-Watt Marshall Amplifiers
Dual-output Marshall amplifiers were manufactured for a few months in late 1965 and are extremely rare. Decades later, when Marshall conducted research for the 40th anniversary of the 100-watt stack, it was determined that a total of 12 dual-output amplifiers were manufactured, including the third prototype of model 1959. Ten of these 12 amplifiers were built with Radiospares power transformers with the USA voltage tap.
The dual-output model 1959 was available as a PA, bass, or lead model. These early amplifiers were built on aluminum chassis that are prone to warping and cracking under the weight of the transformers. The front panel is gold plexi, a look borrowed from the JTM45. (That's why some refer to the early model 1959s as JTM45/100s.) The PA amps received JTM100 gold plexi panels. The back panels were white with the "Super Amplifier" logo silkscreened in gold. The first few amplifiers used square power boards, which would have trouble clearing several of the output tube sockets and the internal fuse. Eventually the power board was cut slightly to provide clearance for these components.


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The New In wall Universalmounts Articulating mounts (includes Plasma/ LCD Plate) are latest and most flexible flush mounts for flat panel displays. The cantilever mounts offer maximum adjustability with a 29" Arm (26" from wall) , including horizontal extension, 180º of lateral rotation, as well as full swivel and tilt capabilities. More than just mounting hardware, these cantilever mounts have a tactile quality that enhances the high technology aspects of any flat panel installation.
FLUSH MOUNTING and Articulation (Swivel, Pan, Tilt) at the same time


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eBay's payment arm PayPal is to offer a credit card to its UK users.
Backed by GE Money the card will be available to any of eBay's 10m UK users immediately and to anyone else who wants one from mid-May. Online applicants for the cards will get an instant decision.The card offers six months interest free for balance transfers and 12.9 per cent APR after that.
But the cards will be a standalone business - credit cards will not be linked to PayPal accounts. It is PayPal's first venture which steps away from online payments. This month 100,000 PayPal account holders will be offered the cards.
The cards offer the usual protection for online shopping and ID theft.
In separate news courts in the US have decided that the Internal Revenue Service does have the right to ask PayPal for information on US taxpayers who use the service to send money to 30 countries described as known tax havens.
PayPal has not responded but did say it takes users privacy very seriously. More from CNN here.®
Sponsored: Webcast: Ransomware has gone nuclear


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Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories for December 18
Christmas Stockings
Christmas Stockings
This Blog is pleased to join with other GeneaBloggers around the world in presenting this Advent Calendar over the next 24 days leading up to the Christmas celebration - a different topic each day. We will attempt to post on each of the topics. Our invitation continues to be open to other writers to join us here with your comments (See Nov 29, Dec 5, Dec 12, and Dec 19 posts here - laber 'Advent Calendar' - for the topics; or the link in the title, here).
Christmas Stockings
Rather than Christmas Stockings of ancestors today, this will be about Christmas Stockings of our descendants... and continue the topic of minimalism. These Christmas Stockings are also celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 'beginnings' as Annette is celebrating her 50th year, this year, as well. [She even got to attend Silver Dollar City, the theme park, free, a few weeks back, because they are also celebrating their 50th anniversary, and everyone with a 50th birthday in 2010 got free admission, all year!]
Nancy made the stockings, as the girls arrived... we've used them every year. More symbolic than terribly useful, of course, expect for an apple, an orange, some nuts, some candy - perhaps a candy cane or two; oh, and often earrings or other jewelry in little boxes, hidden along the way... I won't bore you with the photos of the Christmas Stocking, heavy laden, with all the other gifts stacked around, many, many years, over the 50 years, but I do have them!
We'll not be home on Christmas, this year, so the stockings are hung in remembrance of all those great years past.
Families are Forever! ;-)


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Challenger Takashi Miura of Japan stopped Mexico's Gamaliel Diaz in the ninth round on Monday to claim the WBC super featherweight title.
Miura sent his opponent to the canvas twice in the ninth before the referee stepped in. The 28-year-old Miura improved to 25-2-2 with 19 KOs.
The 32-year-old Diaz, who was defending the title he won from Japan's Takahiro Aoh in October, dropped to 37-10-2 with 17 KOs.
In another bout, Japan's Akira Yaegashi won the WBC flyweight title, beating compatriot Toshiyuki Igarashi on a unanimous decision. The judges scored it 115-110, 116-109, 117-108.
Yaegashi improved to 17-3-0 (9 KOs). Igarashi, who was defending his title for the second time, fell to 17-2-1 (10 KOs).


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Catalyst::Manual - The Catalyst developer's manual
perldoc Catalyst::Manual::Intro
perldoc Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial
Install Task::Catalyst::Tutorial to install all the dependencies you need to follow along with the Tutorial. You can also refer to Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro for more information on installation options.
Some "Getting Started" Links:
For additional information on Catalyst, there are currently two books available:
The Definitive Guide to Catalyst: Writing Extendable, Scalable and Maintainable PerlBased Web Applications
By: Kieren Diment, Matt Trout Available July 12, 2009 ISBN 10: 1-4302-2365-0 ISBN 13: 978-1-4302-2365-8 http://www.apress.com/book/view/9781430223658
Accelerating Perl Web Application Development
By: Jonathan Rockway Published December, 2007 ISBN 10: 1847190952 ISBN 13: 978-1-847190-95-6 http://www.packtpub.com/catalyst-perl-web-application/book
Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm
This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
1 POD Error
The following errors were encountered while parsing the POD:
- Around line 81:
Non-ASCII character seen before =encoding in 'PerlBased'. Assuming ISO8859-1


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Brenner Children's pediatric emergency department has moved back to its original location. Learn more
In order to help protect patients, family members and health care workers from the spread of COVID-19, no visitors are allowed at any of Wake Forest Baptist Health's outpatient or inpatient facilities, except in certain situations.Learn moreMore COVID-19 Updates
Reticulocytes are immature red blood cells (RBCs). They're made in the bone marrow (the spongy material inside bone) and are released into the bloodstream, where they circulate for about 1-2 days before developing into mature red blood cells. Normally, only about 1% of all red blood cells in the bloodstream are reticulocytes.
A reticulocyte count measures how many of these immature red blood cells are in the bloodstream. This gives an idea of the rate at which these cells are made in the bone marrow.
A reticulocyte count is helpful when a doctor needs more information about someone's anemia (a low number of RBCs). For example, the number of reticulocytes in the blood can be low if anemia is occurring because fewer reticulocytes are being produced by the bone marrow.
The count can be high because more reticulocytes are being produced to replace mature RBCs being destroyed by disease or if there is bleeding. The test also can be used to monitor whether treatment for anemia is working.
No special preparations are needed. On the day of the test, having your child wear a T-shirt or short-sleeved shirt can make things easier for the technician drawing the blood.
Let the doctor know if your child has had a blood transfusion in the past 3 months because this can affect the reticulocyte count.
A health professional will usually draw the blood from a vein, after cleaning the skin surface with antiseptic and placing an elastic band (tourniquet) around the upper arm to apply pressure and cause veins to swell with blood. A needle is inserted into a vein (usually in the arm inside of the elbow or on the back of the hand) and blood is withdrawn and collected in a vial or syringe.
After the procedure, the elastic band is removed. Once the blood has been collected, the needle is removed and the area is covered with cotton or a bandage to stop the bleeding. Collecting blood for this test will only take a few minutes.
Collecting a sample of blood is only temporarily uncomfortable and can feel like a quick pinprick. Afterward, there may be some mild bruising, which should go away in a few days.
The blood sample will be processed by a machine and the results are usually available after a few hours or the next day.
If the reticulocyte count is abnormal, further testing may be necessary to determine what's causing the problem and how to treat it.
The reticulocyte count is considered a safe procedure. However, as with many medical tests, some problems can occur with having blood drawn, like:
Having a blood test is relatively painless. Still, many children are afraid of needles. Explaining the test in terms your child can understand might help ease some of the fear.
Allow your child to ask the technician any questions he or she might have. Tell your child to try to relax and stay still during the procedure, as tensing muscles and moving can make it harder and more painful to draw blood. It also may help if your child looks away when the needle is being inserted into the skin.
If you have questions about the reticulocyte count, speak with your doctor.
Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD
Date reviewed: August 2014
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Tasting Graham's 90 Very Old Tawny Port last week took me back to tasting Ne Oublie, the finest Very Old Tawny yet...
Tag Archives: Graham's Very Old Tawny Port
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- New post: First taste: Ramos Pinto Quinta do Bom Retiro Vintage Port 2018 https://t.co/UQzXsvo3o3 #wine
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Caught On Tape: Mailman Gets Caught Selling Marijuana Along His Mail Route!
Fox 12 reports "A former mailman is sentenced to 18 months in prison for dealing marijuana along his mail route"
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On-trend block heel with pointed toe in black faux suede with bold peacock crystal glitter block mid heel!
- Sample sale
- Heel approx 6.5cm
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Louis CK gives $280,000 from his DIY special to charity
LOUIS CK IS the new heavyweight champion of comedy, according to W. Kamau Bell. And maybe my newsfeeds are clogged by comedy nerd stuff, but even the channels my regular news comes through have been pretty Louis-heavy these days.
He's been on Nightline, Fresh Air, and recently answered fans' questions on Reddit personally. He's been pimping his new DIY DVD release Live at the Beacon Theatre, and pimping it hard. And he's got the sway to do it. After 10 days, the special has made one million dollars, and CK has donated more than a quarter of that money to charity.
It's hard not to admire the guy if you've followed his career at all. He directs, writes, stars in, and edits his television show on FX and produces a new hour of material a year while caring for his two daughters half-time as a single dad.
When it came time to produce a special, CK made an investment in doing it on his own, releasing an unencrypted version on his own website for just $5 a pop. According to Laughspin, CK announced last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that the special had made one million dollars and that he was donating a big chunk of that money to charity. Though it was easy to pirate, and surely some people did, at least 200,000 people bought it. CK has paid that good fortune forward.
The comedian polled his Twitter followers to find out where they thought his money would do the most good. He chose five of the suggestions, breaking up $280,000 between five charities.
I'm one of those people that bought the special, and it's gratifying to know that part of the money I spent to make myself feel good has gone towards The Fistula Foundation (about $40,000), Green Chimneys ($125,000), Charity: Water ($70,000), Pablove Foundation, and Kiva ($45,000 split between the last two).
Surely, it's not every comic that has the sway to do this sort of thing, but it's really something to see a guy take total control of his creative process on a variety of fronts and see that that effort's success is not something that only enriches him. CK puts his money where his mouth is.
Listen to Louis CK's thoughts on capitalism on the Opie and Anthony Show:
Find parts two and three here on YouTube.
For more information about this story, check out Laughspin.com.


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They will be in two different conferences next season, but they still share the same boulevard.
Lipscomb University remains in the Atlantic Sun Conference, but Belmont shifts to the Ohio Valley Conference beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year. But that doesn't mean the basketball rivalry between the two schools, known as the "Battle of the Boulevard" is over.
Today both schools are announcing that the rivalry will remain intact with Lipscomb hosting the first meeting on Friday, Nov. 9. It will be the regular season opener for both teams.
The rematch is Tuesday, Dec. 4, at Belmont.
"It is good thing for both teams and for both universities to continue playing," Lipscomb Coach Scott Sanderson said. "There is so much attention put on both of those games every year.
"The biggest difference is the games will be played in November and December instead of January and February. We will play the first game of the season here at Allen Arena. It will be a great atmosphere for both programs and both programs will benefit from it."
Ticket information will be available in early fall.


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Thinking Outside the Classroom: Winter's here: who's settling in, and who's heading south?
Now that winter has finally arrived in Summit County, we are starting to see a change in our forests' ecology. We see fewer chipmunks, deer, and bears and more moose, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep. All animals in the forest must make a decision when winter comes: should I stay or should I go? Either option requires a tremendous amount of preparation and energy from our local fauna. From migration and hibernation to building up resistance to Mother Nature's forces, here's what's coming this winter for our furry and feathered friends.When we think about migration, birds are often the first animals that come to mind. We've all seen massive flocks fly over us at the first sign of a winter chill. A bird preparing for a migratory trip must accumulate so much reserve energy that it may take off with up to 50 percent of its total body weight in fat. Birds also face obstacles such as hunters, ever-fading resting habitats along their migratory routes, and limited food availability at their final destinations. One of the most impressive migration feats is that of the Eastern North Pacific gray whale. They swim a massive 20,000 km round trip from their southern breeding grounds off Baja California and their northern feeding grounds off Alaska. We don't see too many gray whales around Summit County, of course, but we do see a lot of deer and elk. Instead of going south to escape the cold, deer and other ungulates go down in elevation to where there is available food. Because the Front Range typically gets less snow than us, it makes sense that these herbivores follow the food by heading downhill. The other option to migration is hibernation. The physiological changes that take place during hibernation are fascinating. By reducing their metabolic activity and decreasing their body temperature to just above freezing, hibernating animals are able to save energy by slumbering through the harshest part of winter. Bears are the most stereotypical hibernator, but other mammals such as chipmunks, ground squirrels, whitetail prairie dogs, and reptiles and amphibians such as rattlesnakes, copperheads, and northern black racers can also be found huddled together to keep warm in the winter months. If animals aren't hibernating, then they're building up resistances to snow and cold through physical or behavioral adaptations. One winter adaptation is growing more fur. Mountain goats can survive at extreme elevations throughout the year, so their winter adaptations allow them to live there without much competition from others. They have long, coarse, hollow guard hairs which provide incredible insulation, and underneath lies another 3-inch layer of soft, woolly underfur, which acts as a second thermal barrier by trapping warm air next to the body. Other physical adaptations include long legs in animals such as moose, who can more easily navigate in deep snow, and high foot-surface-to-body-weight ratio in lynx and snowshoe hares, who can more easily skim across snowy fields. Behavioral adaptations include living under the snow. This ecological niche is called the subnivean zone, and is where animals such as mice, voles, shrews, and lemmings stay insulated from harsh temperatures and wind. Thermal heat keeps the layer closest to earth warm (a balmy 32F) and the snow protects these small mammals from being seen by predators. By building tunnels underneath the snow, these mammals can gather food from a safe location and not freeze.As a citizen of Summit County, you are more likely to hunker down and pull out your ski schwag than to head to the beaches of Florida for the winter. If you do stick around, keep an eye out for the furry neighbors who decided to join you.Sarah Rosenkranz is a Program Instructor at Keystone Science School. To learn more about our programs, call us at (970) 668-4098 or visit our website, http://www.keystonescienceschool.org.
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Read below and ensure you share to help someone...
Breast examination in the shower;
The breast self-exam is a way that you can check your breasts for changes (such as lumps or thickenings). It includes looking at and feeling your breast. Any unusual changes should be reported to your doctor. When breast cancer is detected in its early stages, your chances of surviving the disease are greatly improved.
1. It is helpful to have your hands slippery with soap and water.
2. Check for any lumps or thickening in your underarm area.
3. Place your left hand on your hip and reach with your right hand to feel in the left armpit. Repeat on the other side.
4. Check both sides for lumps or thickenings above and below your collarbone.
5. With hands soapy, raise one arm behind your head to spread out the breast tissue.
6. Use the flat part of your fingers from the other hand to press gently into the breast.
7. Follow an up-and-down pattern along the breast, moving from bra line to collarbone. you can also apply the circular or wedge pattern.
8. Continue the pattern until you have covered the entire breast. Repeat on the other side.
Get Health Smart! Have a nice day.


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I drove this car off the lot in December of 2005 and I have loved every minute of driving time with it! It is a Smooth Ride! She is 10 years old and there have not been any electrical or engine issues! I have 4 kids involved with LOTS of extra curricular activities so we run around town often. We visit family out of state and go on vacations. The car is very spacious and the back is super big. I have never had any problems. She is 10 years old and still amazing. We have only had the maintenance done besides having the motor mounts replaced (I drive it like I did my first car- a fiat spider:/) Two kids are in their teens now and still fit comfortably in the middle or the back. The leather has held up well except the drives right arm (My arm is constantly resting on it...), oh and a cd got stuck in the changer a year ago- that's about the worst I have to say about her. I LOVE THIS VEHICLE!
Honda Odyssey Ratings, Reviews and Analysis
Ratings & Reviews
While there are many positives about the 2005 Honda Odyssey and it has a loyal fan base, fuel inefficiency, horrible door mechanics and poor maneuverability make this van less than optimal. Our next car will likely be a Subaru Outback.
I have LOVED this minvan. I am only trading it in because it has 190K miles on it and cars don't last forever. We took it to every suggested check up and service and it's run beautifully for almost 12 years now. I am looking at buying another Honda Odyssey
the known problem with their transmissions and the lack of warnings about it from dealerships and their sales teams!! ( After Recalls) I read after purchase and during my trans. problem that, Honda's of that year were recalled to fix such problems.
I don't dislike anything about this vehicle. Now that I don't transport kids as much in the vehicle, would be nice to have a slightly more fuel efficient car. That said, it is way more efficient than an SUV.


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US Dollar (USD) to British Pound (GBP) exchange rate history. Currency Menu. Currency Rates; (USD) to British Pound (GBP) exchange rate history summary page.
get an automated currency feed through the XE Currency Data API. Currency Rate; EUR USD: 1. : USD JPY: 111. 085: GBP USD: 1. : USD CHF: 1.
Oanda Currency trading, forex training, converter, history, and tables; Like Coinmill on Facebook. Copyright (C).
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Elaine Howard Ecklund is a member of the sociology faculty at Rice University, where she is also Director of the Program on Religion and Public Outreach, Institute for Urban Research. Her new book, Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, investigates the unexamined assumption of what scientists actually think and feel about religion. Surprisingly she discovered that nearly 50 percent of the scientific community is religious. In the excerpt below we learn how religious scientists incorporate their faith into teaching.
"My Faith is Simply Part of Who I Am"
About 39 percent of the nearly 1,700 scientists I surveyed considered their religious or spiritual beliefs influential on their interactions with students and colleagues. Specifically, faith can create an ethos for teaching. In other words, the faith of these scientists is a part of their everyday lives to the extent that they see it shaping the what, how, why of their teaching.
A Catholic chemist was especially forthcoming about his religious views after I turned off my tape recorder. A recent immigrant, he thinks that academics (and Americans in general) should talk more openly about religion and integrate it into their lives. He blames the present unwillingness to discuss religion on what he called the "political correctness" of the United States, which he contrasts with the religious discussions people have in his home country. Although he clearly had outspoken views about public discussions of religion, this scientist explained that at work, his faith influences him primarily through the ethos it provides for teaching: "I would say religion itself doesn't come up, rather the values I get through religion…As a teacher you have, for example, a little bit more regard toward weaker students and trying to help them out and also communicate to them the joy of studying science." Here, he explicitly contrasted himself with more secular colleagues who he thinks mainly spend time with the better students.
Similarly, a physicist said that his faith causes him to treat those who work in his lab compassionately, going out of his way to do things for them that do not necessarily benefit his own career. In his words, "I'm at an age where I see mentoring as one of the most important things I can do,…trying to get [younger scientists] on paths that will get them to the jobs that they want. And you know there's no particular self-interest here. I mean the majority of [other scientists] I don't think do this." This physicist is also establishing a clear boundary between himself and his colleagues who, in his sense of things, care more about their own personal success than making sure that students are mentored well. Obviously, nonreligious professors might also mentor students well. The point is that religious scientists often mentioned this ethos of teaching as something that they believed separated them from their secular colleagues.
The Jewish economist…also said that his faith has a great impact on how he cares for students. He remembers his mother lighting candles on Friday evenings, a ritual that left him with "very peaceful imprints." And this knowledge that he belongs to a broader faith community influences, for instance, how he thinks about promoting character development among his students, such as those who have failed a class. These students might then meet him in his office to request a higher grade:
And I say, "Well close the door and let's talk now. Aren't you ashamed to be here? What do you want out of life when your parents are spending money to keep you here? Are you really interested in this? What are you doing with your life?" Never have I anyone walk out. But I've had people come up afterwards and shake my hand and tell me, "Thank you so much for this conversation."
So, in addition to religion being used by scientists who are experiencing environmental push as a way to (1) help students understand the differences between science and religion and (2) help protect science from the intrusion of religion, there is a specific utilization of religion/spirituality as a basis for a teaching ethos. And those who apply this faith-based ethos generally view it as differentiated from the habits and motivations of their colleagues without faith. We should notice, however, that scientists who talk about faith influencing the ethos of their teaching rarely mention any specific religious doctrines. Most of the students they interact with probably would not know that these scientists are religious. Rather, religion influences their teaching largely through the values it provides. Their faith comes alive through distinct relationships with their students that involve caring for them and promoting their better character.


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Oakdale Engineering develops DataFit curve fitting (nonlinear regression) and data plotting software, as well as DataFitX ActiveX curve fitting engine.
In addition to browsing our web site in order to learn more about our products and services, we invite you download fully functioning evaluation copies of DataFit and DataFitX in order to see them in action before purchasing them. We are confident that you will see our products were designed with both accuracy and ease of use in mind. The philosophy at Oakdale Engineering is that the simplicity of the curve fitting process is just as important as achieving accurate results.
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text: I know this doesn't really have that much to do with football, but I know the Steelers are one of only five teams to not have cheerleaders. Is there a reason for this? Personally I think it would be kinda cool to see good looking women sporting the black and gold . Also does anyone know the other teams that dont?


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Upper Hunter Shire Council is a local government authority and provides an extensive array of services including health and building; town planning; aged care; sporting and recreational facilities; roads; libraries; waste collection; airport facilities; saleyards; public venues; water; children, youth and families and tourist information.
Upper Hunter Shire is located in the Hunter Region of NSW, approximately 250km north of Sydney. The Shire is predominantly rural and encompasses 8,100km2.
PO Box 208
Scone NSW 2337
Phone: 02 6540 1100
Fax: 02 6545 2671
135 Liverpool Street, Scone
34-40 Vennacher Street, Merriwa
47 Mayne Street, Murrurundi
After hours emergencies for roads, bridges, animal control,
water, sewer & landfill
Phone: 02 6540 1199


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Hillary underestimated just how bad Obama would be at 3 a.m.
Hillary told voters that, when the 3 a.m. phone call came and the White House answered that call, she would have better qualifications to deal with whatever emergency awaited the President:
I don't think even Hillary could have envisioned that Obama would ignore the call entirely:
The White House left Ambassador Chris Stevens, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, and Sean Smith on their own on September 11 in Benghazi. That is the upshot of today's Capitol Hill hearing featuring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey.
After a pre-scheduled afternoon meeting, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified that he never heard from President Obama the night of September 11. In fact, Panetta said, he had no further communication from the White House that night—even as the attack turned deadly. This is truly extraordinary—and appalling.
And both Panetta and Dempsey admitted in today's hearing that they were not in touch with Clinton at all the evening of 9/11. "[W]e never received a request for support from the State Department," Dempsey said, explaining why the American military had not made any attempt to save the endangered Americans.
So the Cabinet officials weren't in touch with each other, and the president wasn't in touch with anyone.
The irony, of course, given the portentous warning in the ad, is that Hillary was also MIA when the phone call came through — and had been for some months before that blooding night.


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Opened 9 years ago
Closed 9 years ago
#1291 closed defect (fixed)
Code folding icons missing
|Reported by:
|Owned by:
- Open a Perl file
- View -> Enable code folding
- Look for a sub
There should be a [-] icon besides the line numbering. Klick on it (or the empty space where it should be), now you should see a [+] icon.
Some people are missing both, some only the [-] icon, but this is an issue.
Code folding is working as long as you ignore the missing icons and just click where they should be.
Attachments (1)
Change History (6)
comment:1 Changed 9 years ago by Sewi
Icons are defined here:
Padre::Wx::Editor line 1691
BEGIN { *show_folding = sub { [...] $self->MarkerDefine( Wx::wxSTC_MARKNUM_FOLDEREND, Wx::wxSTC_MARK_BOXPLUSCONNECTED, $w, $b ); $self->MarkerDefine( Wx::wxSTC_MARKNUM_FOLDEROPENMID, Wx::wxSTC_MARK_BOXMINUSCONNECTED, $w, $b );
comment:2 Changed 9 years ago by dolmen
Confirming the issue in r15466 on Ubuntu with Unity.
The [-] is ok, but I do not see the [+].
comment:3 Changed 9 years ago by dolmen
I just upgraded Wx::Scintilla to 0.21_05 and now I do not see neither [+] nor [-].
Changed 9 years ago by submersible_toaster
comment:4 Changed 9 years ago by ktaragorn
Confirmed on padre startup, however if code folding is disabled and enabled the icons are back, for a while atleast.. hope this helps..
comment:5 Changed 9 years ago by azawawi
- Resolution set to fixed
- Status changed from new to closed


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SOQUEL — Lynette Hamby has been immersed in the Soquel Union Elementary School District pretty much all of her life.
The married mother of three attended school in the district, watched her children go to the same schools she did and was a district employee for 14 years.
Hamby was an active parent volunteer and served for three years on the citizen"s oversight committee for a $15 million bond measure passed in March 2002.
The 53-year-old self-employed accountant, who specializes in school finance, is seeking re-election for the seat on the school board she was first appointed to in 2007 and subsequently won in the 2008 election.
Hamby is one of four candidates seeking one of three open seats on the Soquel Union board, which oversees three elementary schools, a middle school and new preschool.
The race includes incumbent Judy McGooden and newcomers Tory Tupper Delfavero and Antoinette Jardin.
Trustee Ted Donnelly is not running again.
"I have a lot of experience in education one way or another," Hamby said. "I"m a good fit because of my community involvement and length of time in the community, and I"m super-networked through working with other districts."
Like most any other public school board member or candidate in California, Hamby says the dire state of school funding and the need to have more local control over money is paramount to providing kids with a full complement of academic programs.
Soquel Union operates with about a $20 million annual budget.
If re-elected, she said she would focus on creating partnerships between Soquel Union and local businesses, Cabrillo College and nonprofit foundations to help offset financial cuts by the state.
"I know it will be difficult to maintain a balanced budget and working with whatever curves are thrown at us," Hamby said. "It"s going to be challenging."
Despite ongoing budget reductions in the five-school district — which includes Main Street Elementary, Soquel Elementary, Santa Cruz Gardens, New Brighton Middle School and Opal Cliffs School — Hamby wants to ensure English learners and kids from lower socioeconomic families receive the attention they need in the classroom to succeed.
Hamby says she"s proud of the district"s overall student scores on state standardized tests, though there"s a lot of room for improvement in student subgroups that include English learners and low income kids.
"Whether you agree with testing or not, it"s the way we"re funded," she said. "And, it"s how we attract students to our district."
Follow Sentinel reporter Shanna McCord on Twitter at Twitter.com/scnewsmom
Lynette Hamby
EDUCATION: Cabrillo College
FAMILY: Married to Scott Hamby, three grown children
INFORMATION: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Study Abroad
Take part in ONU Law's study-abroad program, and you'll enhance your study of U.S. law while gaining first-hand knowledge of your host country's legal system and culture. You'll develop your own international legal perspective, and you'll be able to explore potential options for practicing law outside the United States once you graduate. Plus, you'll start to build your network of personal and professional contacts across the globe.
See the World
Through ONU Law's study-abroad program, you'll study law and live in a foreign country. Study-abroad opportunities are available in London, Germany, Iceland and Southeast Asia, among others.


text:
In a crowded music festival setting, losing sight of friends is a common problem - but now there's a solution...
10 Jun 2019
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text:
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text:
How many of you scroll through Facebook and find yourself rolling your eyes. I know I do. I know freedom of speech is one of our God given rights but I find myself wanting to tell some of these people to shut up.
Here are some of the things I find myself wanting to say, but can't.
1. Your boyfriend is NEVER going to make it as a musician. He's forty, cannot sing and is using this music thing as an excuse not to get his lazy ass a job.
2. Stop complaining about your job ALL THE TIME. Everybody's job sucks sometimes. EVERYBODYS. That's why they call it work. You're not special. If it's that bad quit. If you're being dramatic, stop.
3. If everybody you know has a problem with you, then it's you. Not them. Stop being so negative.
4. You claim to be a devout Christian and yet you KEEP having children out of wedlock. With different men. Really? Don't be such a hypocrite.
5. Stop telling us how happy you are with your life. Truly happy people don't have to tell the world all the time how happy they are. They are out being happy. Not posting it on Facebook.
6. And on the same note, nobody needs to hear how much you love your kids. You should love your kids. You should take care of them. YOU'RE A PARENT. Show your kids you love them. Don't tell us.
7. Stop bragging about getting drunk. You're thirty. It's not cute. You look like a loser.
8. Don't air your dirty laundry in public. Not classy. I don't care what your boyfriend/husband did. Be an adult. Talk to him. Make it work, because both are you are so crazy nobody else is going to want either of you.
9. No more political ranting please. You sound bitter and uneducated.
10. Vaugebooking. Either tell us what the problem is or don't. If you're attention seeking go see a therapist. Facebook is not therapy.
But despite all of that I love Facebook. I love cute animal pictures. Cute kid pictures. I like to see what people are watching. What people are listening to. What people are reading. I like to see the changes in people I knew from long ago. Where they want to go, where they have been.I even love food pictures. Facebook is how I keep up with my family members. It's where I see their happy news, it's sometimes how I learn of their tragedies. I'm probably never going to give it up.
So what are some of the things you wish you could say to certain people on Facebook?


text:
Smith endured an up and down tenure with the Rams, where four years ago he was a first round pick. Expectations were high, some of which he met and some of which were unfulfilled and led him to becoming a bit of a whipping boy among the Rams fan base. He was traded to the Jets this season in exchange for the much maligned Wayne Hunter and with his new team he's primarily been used as a jumbo tight end.
There's no extra feelings for Smith this week leading up to a return to the team that drafted and then three years later traded him. "I play for the Jets and that's my life now," Smith told The Jets Blog.
It's a new team in St. Louis and his ties seem to be limited with the Rams. With his focus squarely on making an impact in New York, Smith is refusing to look behind or look ahead at what many players would think is a possible statement game against his old team.
His focus is on the team he's with now and a place that, when talks about it, makes him smile from ear to ear.
"I like everything, I really like being here. I like playing for the Jets. I like the people, the coaches, the organization, the grass is green, the food tastes so good here," Smith said.
"They take care of us. The facility here came from our owner who wants the best for us. Everything here is about the players. It's great."
When asked if he wanted to prove a point on Sunday in the city that marginalized him, Smith just smiled a little.
"I'm happy to be a Jet. I'm more concerned about Austin Howard, Matt Slauson, Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Vlad Ducasse, Brandon Moore – all those guys," Smith said. "That's who I'm concerned about."
Follow Kristian R. Dyer at @KristianRDyer for Jets breaking news and info from Florham Park.


text:
Fire Fighting 101: The Six Basics Of Service Calls
For some of us, one of the most challenging type of work we will perform is a service call. Let???s start by defining a few different types of service calls: scheduled, follow-up, and fire fighting.
The first service call type is a scheduled call where the tasks to complete are well defined. The call has been scheduled and planned well in advance, and you have had time to research the problem thoroughly and prepare for the visit.
The next service call type is a follow-up where the system is familiar to you and maybe you have done some work with it on a previous visit. Although follow-up calls may not be as well thought out and planned in advance as the first, you do have some familiarity with the system and the customer.
The third type of service call, and the one this discussion will focus on, is fire fighting. That???s the one where you get a call in the middle of the night or 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. The problem might be connected with a system you have never seen or have little experience with. The customer has usually been working on it for some time and can???t figure it out before making the call. It???s the situation where you just never know what you???re getting into.
While the fire fighting service call is usually the most stressful and demanding type, using these few basic techniques will improve your effectiveness, and your customer satisfaction.
1. Prepare before leaving the office, whether the customer is in another state or your same building. I can???t tell you how many times I have witnessed (never personally of course) a service call where someone who is supposed to fix the problem forgot that critical cable or bit of software. Make sure you have connectors, cables, software, user manuals, any available backup programs, electrical drawings, necessary test equipment, etc. Print out everything you may need before you go. Access to a printer or internet connections is usually a luxury at the location where you will most likely be working. Most of the time when these calls come in, the priority is to get someone to the site as quickly as possible. Taking the time to stop and prepare will be well worth it once you are onsite. The last thing you want to tell the customer is you need to come back later or tomorrow because you were in a hurry and forgot a basic necessity.
2. What exactly is the problem? In my experience, the description you get at the outset may not reflect the reality of the situation you will be walking into. Like all good stories, the more people that tell it, the more it diverges from reality. Try to get as much information as possible prior to your trip. Talk to the operators as soon as you can since they are valuable resources. Not only do they know the system, they will be your best resource to determine the circumstances surrounding the problem. In some cases they may be reluctant to tell you exactly what happened for fear of blame. I always try to convey the message that it???s in everyone???s best interest to get the problem solved and the equipment running as quickly as possible, so tell me exactly what really happened.
3. Remember to keep it simple. Sometime you hear statements such as, ???We have been working on it for two days straight now.??? While that may be accurate, it does not always mean the problem is necessarily complicated. It might be very simple. I have been on many calls for blown fuses, faulted processors, loose wires, clearly burnt electronic equipment, etc. The time someone has spent working on the problem is not necessarily directly proportional to the complexity of the problem. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes.
4. The ???50% troubleshooting technique.??? Once you have a good idea of the problem and have eliminated the simple causes, good troubleshooting skills will help minimize the time it takes to identify the root cause of more complex problems. As a simple example, let???s say you have a good idea your problem is a valve controlled by a PLC that is not working when you turn the output on. Unfortunately, in this system there are nine connections between the PLC and the valve. So where do you start troubleshooting? When I ask this question, about 40% of the people answer, ???I always start at the PLC and work to the valve.??? Another 40% answer, ???I always start at the valve and work backward to the source.??? 10% don???t have an answer or any real troubleshooting process, and the other 10% use the same method I do. I always start in the middle of the system when possible. In this case, start by checking if the problem exists at connection five, the middle. If the problem is present, you have identified the problem exists in the last 50% of the system. If the problem is not present, it is in the first 50%. Now repeat again, trying to test at a point close to the middle of the remaining problem area. You have just effectively eliminated 75% of the probable causes in two steps!!
5. Take a break. Sometimes during a service call, there will be lots of pressure on you to ???get this thing running again.??? In the previous example, the problem was fairly simple and should not take too much time. There are, however, situations where the problems will not be so apparent. Solving the problem will take lots of concentration and critical thinking to determine the cause. It is these times where you can get caught up in the work and never take a step back to refresh your thoughts and validate the troubleshooting path you are on. Taking a break and clearing your head every few hours is an important step to solving the problem. Without it, you could end up saying, ???We have been working on it for two days straight now,??? only to realize you have been headed in the wrong direction.
6. Last on this list, but the most important aspect is safety. I have been in service call situations where people have been willing to waive certain safety requirements. It may be as simple as the standard site safety video, or as dangerous as bypassing interlocks. No matter the degree of safety or the simplicity of the process, it is NEVER ok to bypass or skip any safety systems or procedures. This is especially true when you have a system that is not performing as expected. It is both your obligation and your right to follow ALL safety requirements at ALL times. This includes times when the system needs to get back running as soon as possible.
I hope these basics tips will make your next fire fighting service call a little easier, a little more productive, and a lot less stressful. Please feel free to comment on your personal fire fighting experiences.
This post was written by William Zupon. Bill is a senior control systems specialist at MAVERICK Technologies, a leading system integrator providing industrial automation, operational support, and control systems engineering services in the manufacturing and process industries. MAVERICK delivers expertise and consulting in a wide variety of areas including industrial automation controls, distributed control systems,manufacturing execution systems, operational strategy, and business process optimization. The company provides a full range of automation and controls services ??? ranging from PID controller tuning and HMI programming to serving as a main automation contractor. Additionally MAVERICK offers industrial and technical staffing services, placing on-site automation, instrumentation and controls engineers.


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On day one of his project, he ended up with one bag of his own dog's poop… and another 10 that weren't.
Day two was worse.
Along with a bag of his own dog's poop, he ended up with another 23 that belonged to other people's dogs. It would've been 75 but he ran out of little yellow bags.
Day three saw a massive 120 poops collected.
Perth man Andrew MacFarlane got so fed up with dog owner's not picking up after their pets at South Fremantle and CY O'Connor dog beaches he thought "bugger it, I'm just going to start doing it."
Since July, Mr MacFarlane has been documenting his dog poop pick-up crusade on his Dog's Life and the Freo Massive Facebook pages using the #NotThatHard hashtag.
"Ballpark, since I started a couple of months ago, [I've picked up] probably nearly a thousand poops," he told 96FM.
"Yeah… there's been some big days."
He says that some days were worse than others along what he calls the "Yellow Shit Road".
"After some nice sunny weather there's a lot more of it around because people are walking more."
Mr MacFarlane said that better bin accessibility would help.
"Leighton Beach as got bins all the way along but the access is much easier for rangers and [council workers] to empty them, it's right along the road the whole way.
"Along here, it's a bit harder to get to. I'm figuring the council is just putting them where they're easier to get to… it's not as accessible from the road.
In the same breath, however, Mr MacFarlane admitted that the "more bins issue" was secondary.
"I think it's more that people need to lift their game, to be honest."
What Mr MacFarlane found particularly puzzling was the move by some who did pick up after their dog but stop short of actually putting it in a bin… but leaving it right next to one.
"I just don't understand how people just don't pick it up, it's right there, you know, right near the bin."
From his daily beach walks with his dog Disco, Mr MacFarlane's opinion was that neither beach was any better or worse than the other – with one exception.
"The seawall near the Fremantle Sailing Club," he said.
"That's a particularly bad spot… there would be 50 there today without any trouble."
He said the problem is so bad at the seawall that Mr MacFarlane has run out of bags here "several times".
He's also caught plenty of dog owners in the act.
"I pointed it out and they went back and got it… another time I collected their dog's poop and gave them the bag," he said.
"Most times they're pretty good, I think if they're caught out they're embarrassed, no on really pushes back that hard.
"That's the thing, they all know it's wrong and they just do it anyway."
While he doesn't think the situation is getting better just yet, he does get the odd glimmer of hope.
"A couple of weeks ago I saw a bunch of bags lined up on South Beach and it wasn't me… it felt good"
His message was pretty simple: be responsible for yourself, your animals and your environment.
"It's all ours, we all share it, it's not that hard."


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Show us what you feel nostalgic about!
For most of us this contest will be about memories from our childhood, but maybe your sense for nostalgia goes even further? The Swinging Sixties? Or even the Golden Age Twenties? Maybe the classic furniture in your grandparents' house makes you feel nostalgic or a videogame that's just about 10 years old. This is supposed to be a more personal contest, so it's up to you what you make of it :). And maybe you want to tell us in the description why you chose this scene.
Examples: Fashion or art-styles from the past decades, a movie or tv show you watched as a kid, typical toys or games from the past years, antiquated inventions, scenes that make you remember "the good old times" in general.
If you are new: Register a nickname by clicking on the REGISTER button in the menu on top of this page.
Then you can upload your picture to the contest gallery.
The pictures will all show up on May 21, before this they are hidden. Then everybody can vote.
- The picture must be created at sp-studio.de and submitted here till May 20, 11:59 PM (GMT+1).
No editing with additional software! No effects, color change, zooming. Just SP-Studio pictures.
You are allowed to rotate the picture.
- Add a fitting English title & description (optional). You can add reference links. No text like "VOTE!!!".
- If you upload more than one picture for a contest the newest counts and the others are deleted.
- When the voting starts registered users can rate the pictures (1-5 stars) until May 31st.
- Vote fair! Do not manipulate results by telling friends to give you 5 stars and others 1 star. I will ban you for this.
1st place: Make a wish for a new SP-Studio item and I will draw and include it.
1st to 5th place: You win your own User Gallery. If you already have one you can upload 30 more files to it now.
Janina's Choice: I might pick one additional person, if I think he/she deserves a user gallery. The score doesn't matter.


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For as many times as I've rambled, made fun of, attacked, or complained about helmets, you'd think I'd have come across this before. Ironically, it was a coworker that pointed this cultural phenomenon to me.
When inflatable neck wear doesn't do it for you, it is time to don the hair-helmet. Brought to you by that fantastic folk duo Flight of the Conchords and presented without comment:
So we take the worry about helmet hair and replace it with a hair helmet. That's what you call turning a frown upside down.


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Blogging from the Center as an Historian During a Contested Campaign: Politically Anomalous and Academically Tenuous?
By Gil Troy
Mr. Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and Visiting Scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, DC. He is the author, most recently, of Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents. His other books include: Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady and Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. He is a member of the advisory board of HNN.
Mr. Troy delivered the following remarks at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians on March 26, 2009 at a panel considering "The 2008 Election as History." A video of this talk will be posted in the coming weeks on HNN.
I am faced with an odd dual mandate today. I have been asked to reflect on my experiences as a blogger during the 2008 campaign, and to analyze that elusive concept of centrism during a hotly contested presidential campaign. I am comfortable talking about centrism to this audience, having recently written a book about it. But speaking autobiographically, using the first person rather than the third person on an OAH panel, feels illicit, like reading literature at a chemists' convention or, even worse, preaching the Bible to a convention of atheists.
I am also uncomfortable talking about blogging because in truth, I am not a very good blogger. I blog regularly for HNN the History News Network – and I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of the superhuman force behind HNN, Rick Shenkman, who has done so much to forge a sense of community among historians – in a profession, I regret to say, where that sense is often lacking. After years of posting my occasional op-eds and reviews, Rick asked me to blog regularly for the campaign, starting in January 2008. I did it at least weekly, usually twice a week, and daily for two weeks in an exhausting marathon building up to Election Day.
But, as I said, I am not a very good blogger. I am not a good blogger because I write more in the style of an oped than a blog – my posts averaged 600 to 800 words rather than the ideal 300 to 500 words; and my style is more formal and less personal more historical and less hysterical, more complex and less black-and-white, than most bloggers.
I am also not a good blogger because I don't try to be a "good citizen of the blogosphere," as one of my blogging friends calls it. I do little cross-posting, blog-rolling, or any other insider blogging rituals. Rather than aggressively marketing my blog, I invest in the writing – coming more from the "If you build it they will come" school – although, in truth, I wrote it, and I'm not sure how many readers actually came.
Finally, and perhaps most relevant for today's discussion, I am not a good blogger because I chose not to be a verbal flame-thrower, I preferred to write historically and from the center. I did not consider it my mission in my writing as an historian for the History News Network to elect either Barack Obama or John McCain president. To the extent I wanted to push an angle, I wanted to encourage both candidates to move to the center, with the hope that whoever won would govern from the center. But my priority was to bring some historical perspective to the discussion, to try placing these fast-moving events in historical context. Moreover, I wanted to inject some complexity into the discussion, to take issues which reporters and politicians usually reduce to simplistic either-ors and make them multi-dimensional ands-and-buts. I think that is part of our mission as academics – to acknowledge the messiness of this world, to resist the urge toward polarization, partisanship, and simplification, without, of course, being obtuse. And if that makes me – and us – counter-cultural, it's a status – and a mission – I proudly embrace.
As a blogger, I applied the rules I had imposed on myself over years of writing op-eds and giving radio and television interviews. I should note that my impressions of insta-history, and of academic pundits, were formed in the late 1980s, when I was just finishing my Ph.D. – and Communism was collapsing. Suddenly, the same "Sovietologists" and "Kremlinologists" (which I believe was a worse media moniker than "Presidential Historian") who had spent years explaining to us on TV and in the press that the Soviet Union would never fall, were now, without acknowledging their errors, just as authoritatively explaining why it was so obvious that the Soviet Union fell. (our modern equivalent of course, is all the Jim Cramers and Larry Summers of the world who went just as quickly from singing the song of never-ending prosperity to describing this downturn prematurely as "the worst crisis since the Great Depression"). With these cautionary tales in mind, I have followed (or tried to follow) these basic rules:
For starters, no predicting. I cannot tell you how many times producers have called me saying they want "historical perspective" on something, then, with the cameras rolling, the anchors asked "so what's going to happen next?" I have my set response: "It's hard enough to predict the past I cannot begin to predict the future." But it is quite dismaying how much of the modern news business has become about anticipating what's next rather than providing the proverbial "first draft of history," rendering our historical judgment irrelevant.
Second, no roving – and that has nothing to do with George W. Bush's "brain|" Karl Rove. I am an American historian. My job when commenting in the public sphere as an historian is to stick to my area of expertise and not to fall into another common media trap of appearing to be an expert on whatever is hot at the moment.
Third, no rushing to judgment. We are historians. Our job is to be the brakes on the conventional wisdom even when it speeds ahead to make premature pronouncements. Our professional commitment to patience puts us in conflict with the dizzying immediacy of the blogging world – and the media.
I was on CTV – Canadian Television – when the Supreme Court released its decision in Bush v. Gore 2000. The CNN feed showed a reporter leafing through the pages of the decision, seeking the relevant passages. After this incomprehensible spectacle, the anchor in Toronto asked me in Montreal, "Well, Professor Troy, what's your analysis of this decision?" What could I say? I said – with a straight face I'm proud to add – "sometimes, in the life of a democracy you have to keep silent and listen to the sounds of democracy in action – let's take a minute and appreciate the silence – we don't hear rumblings of tanks in the streets, staccato shots being fired in the air, rather we hear reporters reading the words of the Supreme Court trying to decipher and analyze them."
More recently, I was in the distinct minority of historians who refused – one-third, half-way, two-thirds, even three-quarters of the way through George W. Bush's term, to answer the question whether W was the worst American president ever. That's a parlor game for journalists – we're supposed to be the ones who slow things down, wait for administrations to end, assess the data — and then start quibbling, labeling and oversimplifying….
Fourth, keep it historical. In almost every blog posting I write, as in every media appearance I do, I try to inject some historical perspective, some context, some dimensionality to the discussion. I try to avoid the Beschlossization of historical commentary – reeling off a series of historical parallels using history as window dressing.
Instead I try (I confess I don't always succeed) to link events, ideas, personalities to more enduring historical phenomena, conversations, figures. It's the difference between analyzing the McCain-Obama debates by saying the age difference reminds you of the Mondale-Reagan debates in 1984, versus comparing what McCain, Reagan, Obama and Mondale were saying about government's role in American life, about the causes of their respective economic challenges, about their governing philosophies, then placing these resonances in a broader historical conversation.
Now, here's where the instant feedback of the blogosphere – and the smart, demanding-in-the-best-sort-of-way readers of HNN keep you honest. Toward the end of my two-week pre-election day blogathon, I succumbed to a case of blogger's envy. I saw how short, snappy, contentious entries – and titles – generated all the traffic. I was also exhausted, from juggling teaching, grading, family, and other writing commitments. So after Barack Obama's closing infomercial, I wrote more of a quick reaction piece than an historical analysis, titled: "Barack's Infomerical: Too Cheesy for a Potential President?" One reader objected to my punting, and immediately threw down a penalty flag: "The piece is OK, unlike its title, but where is the history? the sociological analysis? This is Troy's reaction. I have mine. I didn't write mine up, because it wasn't a whole lot better than yours! Neither is Troy's. To make the grade and get on HNN, shouldn't a piece have some WORK in it? So we can LEARN from it?"
Fifth, and finally, keep 'em guessing – as to where I stand politically. I have always said that the best compliment I can get, at the end of a contemporary US history class – or when invited back by a TV producer — after having tackled major, controversial issues, is when I am asked: "Professor Troy, I'm confused, are you a liberal or a conservative?" I believe my job in the classroom – and as a blogging historian – a historiblogger? — is to avoid plunging into partisanship, and to stimulate debate rather than dictate thought or preach to the converted. I also think that partisan positions have become too rigid and frequently simplistic in this country, whereas our job as academics is to embrace the complexity of reality even at the cost of ideological consistency. I take as my standard, the words of New York's former Mayor Ed Koch, who said, "if you agree with me on nine out of twelve issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on twelve out of twelve issues, see a psychiatrist."
In this spirit, I try to avoid what we could call the Zinn not Zen of History (Howard Zinn), marshalling the forces of history to prop up my own contemporary partisan position. Historians should use the public platforms we are privileged to be offered to give historical perspective rather than partisan screeds with some historical camouflage.
Our profession would benefit from a fuller discussion about the perils of insta-history, our dos and don'ts to follow when we are invited to appear in the media or blog as historians. As a lowly historian in the trenches, I am not aware of any OAH or AHA guidelines. (In preparation for this talk, I did search around. I found some relevant statements one could apply from the AHA Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct, and a fascinating set of guidelines on "The Rights and Responsibilities of Historians in Regard to Historical Films and Video" from 1992, but nothing else – and no one who knew of anything else).
More broadly, I think we would benefit from a more developed conversation about what we would call our fiduciary role if we were in the financial sector. (Ok, maybe this is not the time to hold up bankers as ethical role models…)
So many historians have spent so much time over the less few decades blurring the line between the personal, the political, and the professional. Nevertheless, it is worth asking what professional and yes specifically political constraints, if any, we impose on ourselves when we operate in our professional capacity as historians? (And let me emphasize that whatever restraints we consider should be self-imposed not dictated by Big Brother or Big Sister). I am well aware that I am in the minority here. Many of my colleagues disagree with my attempts to hover above the fray and champion the center.
In fact, my two most controversial posts during the campaign – one at the beginning, one at the end, illustrate this tension. Early on, I objected when the group "Historians for Obama" formed. I was not arguing against Obama or against individual historians supporting Obama as citizens. I did object to hijacking our collective credibility and giving any candidate our imprimatur as historians.
If we remember what we learned in graduate school about the 1896 campaign, and remember Robert Wiebe's Search for Order,we will note that Mark Hanna's masterstroke in organizing what we would now call interest groups and reference groups in favor of William McKinley, was a clever attempt to build on the emerging identity and shared expertise of professionals in service of a presidential candidate. I suggested that we be more cautious when we act as historians collectively, not frittering away our scholarly authority on divisive partisan issues and fleeting candidacies. Many respondents strongly disagreed, arguing that they were exercising their democratic rights and following the rules of the game that so many others followed.
Toward the end of the campaign, my most controversial post was: "A Partisan Myopia Test: Who is Willing to Denounce both Sarah Palin and Al Franken as Unqualified?" Few respondents objected to the doubts I cast on Governor Palin's credentials. But, boy, were respondents steamed by my daring to suggest that Al Franken was unqualified to be a senator, that his brand of simplistic, punch-line driven, vulgar, polarizing political rhetoric harmed the American political system and was precisely the kind of approach we as intellectuals, as educators, as academics, should reject. Franken would be thrilled to know just how many Al aficionados there are among history Ph.Ds. I, for one, was disappointed by how difficult it was for Republicans to question Palin's suitability and for Democrats to question Franken's.
I say disappointed, but of course, not surprised. These days, in the historical profession and beyond, it is not easy being a moderate. Despite widespread grumbling that President George W. Bush was too headstrong and polarizing, both John McCain and Barack Obama were scorned this summer whenever they played to the center. Reporters mocked McCain's "Macarena," sliding right then left, along with Obama's "policy pirouettes."
More disturbing, we saw how the gravitational physics of American politics pulled candidates to the right or to the left – there were few institutional, ideological, or media forces pulling them to the center. In mid-June, when John McCain insisted on reading the Supreme Court's Guantánamo decision before condemning it, conservative bloggers blasted his "tepid" response. In the all-too-familiar media echo chamber that reinforces the conventional wisdom, the New York Times reported the NRO's verdict on McCain, to reinforce the pre-Palin narrative of the restive Republican conservatives. Now, maybe I'm a little off, but isn't it a good thing to have a candidate who reads a Supreme Court decision before bashing it (or praising it)?
Similarly, Obama's musings that by visiting Iraq, he might refine his position angered so many supporters he backpedaled quickly. You will recall that on the eve of his visit to Iraq, the simple suggestion that he needed to consult with U.S. commanders and do a "thorough assessment of the situation," triggered such a firestorm that he hastily called a second press conference on July 3 in Fargo, ND, saying, "We're going to try this again. Apparently I wasn't clear enough this morning on my position with respect to the war in Iraq. Let me be as clear as I can be. I intend to end this war." Once again, maybe it's me, but on the eve of a trip to a war zone, isn't it admirable to have a potential president willing to adjust his positions based on realities he encounters on the ground?
Watching the vacuum in the center, seeing how the moveon.org crowd pulled Obama left and the National Review-Rush Limbaugh types pulled McCain right, I sought metrics to assess moderation – and forces to encourage centrism. I invited student volunteers to develop a "moderometer" to gauge a candidate's centrism both tactically and ideologically, charting particular positions and moves on a color coded spectrum between red and blue, with the elusive purple the desired spot in the middle.
More broadly, in my book, Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents, I argued that our constant descent into partisanship is destructive. America needs muscular moderates—nimble and adaptable but anchored in core values. We need presidents who think first and bluster later, who adjust positions based on often messy facts. Running toward the center to lead from the center is the right thing to do and the shrewd political move to make, especially with the contest so close and the issues so serious. Neither McCain nor Obama was a Johnny-come-lately to centrism—moderation was central to their political identities. Both appealed to independents disgusted by the perpetual fights pitting Fox News cheerleaders against MoveOn.org critics. Like most Americans, both candidates understood that crises in finance, healthcare, energy, immigration, and national security require thoughtful analysis, not shrill attacks, complicated compromises, not partisan sloganeering.
Barack Obama first wowed Democrats as a lyrical centrist. The son of a white American and black African, celebrating a purple America, promised to heal the red-blue and black-white divides. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama crossed ideological wires, fusing the normally conservative critique of American cultural excess with liberals' faith in government.
John McCain was even better known for legislative bridge-building. From leading the "Gang of 14," breaking the logjam over judicial nominations, to spearheading the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, McCain long was one of Washington's most passionate moderates. That track record, plus his reputation as the Republican maverick, propelled his candidacy.
Historically, muscular moderates, not spineless centrists, inhabited the great American center. This moderation is rooted in principle, tempered by practicalities, anchored in nationalism, modified by civility. In the White House, it included George Washington's reason, calling on Americans to rally around their "common cause," Abraham Lincoln's pragmatism, focusing on union, not abolition, to keep the border states in the Union, Theodore Roosevelt's "bully, bully" romantic nationalism to inspire the people, Franklin Roosevelt's visionary, experimental incrementalism to solve the Great Depression, and Harry Truman's workmanlike bipartisanship in the face of the Cold War. On Capitol Hill, Henry Clay's tradition of great compromising inspired the roll-up-your-sleeves horse-trading of Sens. Bob Dole and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose bipartisan "Gang of Seven" saved Social Security in 1983.
Presidents preside most effectively over this diverse country by singing a song of centrism rather than indulging in partisan sloganeering. Following the George W. Bush-Karl Rove 2004 strategy of using slim majorities to impose radical changes violates the implicit democratic contract between the leader and the people. Great presidents –and shrewd candidates — aim for the center, targeting the popular bull's-eye, sometimes after repositioning it.
During the general presidential campaign, with the nominees wooing swing voters, not party warriors, this push to the center is frequently tonal and tactical. As nominees realize that selling simplistic solutions to complicated problems may shackle them when governing, many moderate their policy positions and philosophies, too. Alas, partisans yank their nominee left or right while journalists caricature policy refinements as pandering.
American citizens tired of the toxic red-blue bickering must push for the center. Finding energy alternatives, fighting terror, stabilizing Wall Street, and ensuring quality healthcare are national needs. Always seeing issues through Democratic or Republican prisms distorts reality. Some issues beg for bipartisanship.
Not all adjustments are betrayals. In accepting a different FISA domestic surveillance bill from the one he initially opposed, Obama was nuanced. By contrast, his turnaround from supporting public campaign financing to spurning it was dizzying. Similarly, many Republicans' recognition that the Wall Street crisis required government intervention reflected maturity, not spinelessness.
The push for moderation is ultimately a push to reinvigorate American nationalism. This approach of minimizing clashes, of seeking the public good, depends on a vigorous, romantic faith in American nationalism. Nationalism is a dirty word among too many academics and too many liberals these days, tarred by the cruelty which aberrant forms of nationalism unleashed in the twentieth century. But nationalism has also fueled many modern miracles, with American's liberal democratic experiment perhaps the greatest success story. Without appeals to the national conscience, without a strong sense of a national purpose, Americans might not have healed the sectional divide, settled the West won world wars, explored outer space, formed successful businesses or created the Internet. We need a creative leader to tap into that spirit of American nationalism at its best, and renew a sense of collective mission even as we retain our individual freedoms and prerogatives.
Moreover, in the last generation, we as historians have become so skilled at explaining America's shortcomings, we have too often forgotten that our job is also to explain America's many successes – without idealizing, but also without always criticizing.
By blogging through this election, by watching up close and occasionally plunging into the fray, I like to think that I sharpened my ability to interpret this election in the future, as they say, for the history books – without compromising my integrity (too much). For starters, I have a kind of writer's diary; I have a log of my impressions as Hillary Clinton – remember her — sputtered then surged, of John McCain's shifting identities, of Barack Obama's remarkable discipline and charisma. When I get to researching this election, I will be able to compare more sharply what I thought was happening with what insiders saw and tried to accomplish. I can see how my appreciation for Obama's skills grew, and also see how the economic tsunami that so few foresaw, roared through this campaign in remarkable ways.
Moreover, in blogging from the center during this campaign, in watching the remarkable rise of this young, talented, hope-generating politician, I as an historian, felt privileged to see America's strengths not just weaknesses, to see a vision of American nationalism that was not narrow but broad, and to help –in my small, insignificant way – try shifting the conversation – in our profession and beyond – from focusing on the margins to celebrating the center, from an obsession with extremists to an appreciation for moderates, from too many attempts at polarization and partisanship to Barack Obama's – and John McCain's joint attempts – at their respective bests – to build a broad, inclusive, inspiring narrative, for a nation that badly needed it, as an initial step in emerging from the economic, diplomatic, social, cultural, and existential muck of the Bush-Clinton years.


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Randy Grubb and Michael Leeds were both glass artists with a love of cars when they met. Now they're the Blastolene Brothers, taking the art of building hot rods to new levels. After their first project, the Blastolene Special, was purchased by Jay Leno, they were really in business.
First Broadcast: 2005
Producer: Mike Midlo
Videographer: Greg Bond
Videographer: Todd Sonflieth
Editor: Lisa Suinn Kallem


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Warning: these three mistakes could derail your communications strategy.
Communications professionals in the public sector increasingly work in an environment of high expectations and low resources. Having a robust government-to-citizen communications plan in place is not optional, it is crucial. This is where digital can help - but only if you do it right from the start.
In the first of several blogs following 2014's LGComms Academy, Dave Worsell from GovDelivery talks us through these top three mistakes and how to avoid them.
Posted on 13th June 2014


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Like getting the double guns from your least favorite uncle, Cadillac blasted the unsuspected public with the faux double jet-engined 1959 Cyclone concepts. Looking like a cross between a land speeder and the Thrust SCC, these jet age beasts comes in two flavors: bubble top and befinned or convertible and flat decked. The longer, lower, wider mantra was mixed with hallucinogens to fabulous result for these twins. Just look how low the seats are in the bubble top after the jump! We're not saying there is no love for the latest Art-and-Science designed Caddies, but based on these cars, one might say the new ones lack a certain braggadocio.
Spy Photos: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V Engine Bay; 1960 Cadillac Sixty-Two Coupe [internal]


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The Family and Local History Handbook
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