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When it was time for homeowners at the historic Fleur du Lac Estates in California to select new roofing materials, they looked for a product that would mimic the look of cedar, but bring them advantages to protect their homes and buildings from Mother Nature. After a comprehensive search, they determined that the Class A fire and Class 4 impact ratings of Bellaforté polymer shake tiles from DaVinci Roofscapes met their needs.
A prime filming location for the 1974 movie "Godfather II," Fleur du Lac Estates is now a private condominium development located on the beautiful west shore of Lake Tahoe. A Yacht Club and Boat House, 22 individual homeowner units and a variety of shared recreational facilities make the historic 1938 compound a much-sought-after retreat.
Fire Resistance a Prime Benefit
Years of harsh weather conditions took their toll on the real cedar shake roofs at Fleur du Lac Estates. Damage from repeated leaks, hail, ice dam issues, snow and other weather conditions recently convinced the board of directors it was time to invest in new roofs for the entire estate.
"We started with our two most valuable community structures, the Yacht Club and Boat House," said Stewart Dalie, maintenance supervisor and project manager at Fleur du Lac Estates in Homewood, Calif. "Our plans are to re-roof all of the buildings in the Tahoe Blend over the next five to seven years. We did a tremendous amount of research to determine what roofing products would look realistic in this setting, meet the new codes required for roofs in our area, and offer us superior qualities and a long life span.
"Selecting the fire- and impact-resistant Bellaforté shake material from DaVinci Roofscapes means we won't have to be concerned with the potential spread of flames should our area ever be touched by wildfires. That's a huge concern for our geographic area. However, not having to worry about wind-blown embers landing on a roof and then catching the building on fire is a tremendous relief."
The Class A fire and Class 4 impact ratings of the Bellaforté tiles bring peace-of-mind to residents within the community. The durable roofing tiles have the appearance of natural hand-split cedar shake with slanted sawn edges and staggered lengths, but with the hassle-free qualities of a manufactured product. At a one-inch average tile thickness, Bellaforté Shake roofing tiles remind many residents of jumbo cedar shakes prevalent in the Lake Tahoe area.
Safeguarding a Historic Setting
It's not surprising that homeowners at the upscale Fleur du Lac Estates want to invest in the best possible roofing material. This is a mountain and lakeside homeowners association where every home has a deeded slip in the marina, resort-style services are the norm and aesthetics of the community are vigilantly upheld.
Originally the summer home of famous industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, the 15-acre lakeshore site's construction began in 1938. After Kaiser sold the estate, it went through a series of transitional uses from the 1960s to 1979, including serving as a private school and as the site for many on-location scenes for Francis Ford Coppola's film, "The Godfather II." Only in the 1980s did the current project begin to refurbish existing key structures and transform original homes on the property to individually-owned homes.
"Our community has always embraced the history of this setting while looking toward protecting its future," says Lane Murray, general manager at Fleur du Lac Estates. "That's one of the key reasons we wanted a roofing product that has the look of real cedar shakes, but with man-made advantages like resistance to fire, impact and high winds."
Superior Roofing Installation
Despite a variety of challenges with removing the old roofs and prepping for the new synthetic shake tiles, the team at Bruce Olson Construction has successfully tackled their first DaVinci Roofscapes installation project at Fleur du Lac Estates.
"The roofing surface for the Yacht Club and Boat House were in bad shape and very uneven," says Taylor Greene, general manager of Bruce Olson Construction in Tahoe City, Calif. "We had to plane these into workable surfaces before getting started. Once we got started the product installed beautifully. We added flashing material to cover some valley locations which made the project look exceptional. To achieve the realistic look, gable end flashing that concealed the manufactured edge of the DaVinci product was added."
The company, which does residential and multi-family new construction work in several states including Hawaii, has already started work on several additional roofs in the Fleur du Lac complex.
"The Bellaforté roofing looks amazing," says Greene. "Best of all, these polymer shakes are perfect for this geographic area. Traditional wood shakes 'hold' the water from melting snow. Those saturated shakes weigh more and cause the freeze line to be a part of the shake. With the DaVinci product, the water is not absorbed into the tile, so snow melting is faster and more efficient. This can also help reduce the ice damming effect in many locations."
Laughing at Mother Nature
Nestled amidst stunning mountain peaks and world-famous ski conditions, Fleur du Lac Estates can experience heavy snowfall during the winter months. The property is just five minutes from Homewood Mountain Ski Resort, and the area usually sees snow in excess of 180 inches total. That's one reason why the community decided to have the Bruce Olson team incorporate snow fences and snow guards from Rocky Mountain Snow Guards into the structures.
"In our area it's very common to use snow guards and fences to help keep snow from falling on individuals and property," says Greene. "The previous structures at Fleur du Lac Estates didn't have any type of snow retention system. We believe having these products in place now --- which were very simple to put in during the polymer shake installation --- will make life much easier for property owners no matter how much snow Mother Nature delivers each season."
Rocky Mountain Snow Guards custom designed the snow retention system for Fleur du Lac Estates incorporating both their Drift III+ snow fences and the company's Rocky Guard RG10 snow guards. The system was developed to handle the 180 PSF snow load that can occur in this geographic location.
"The snow guards are attached in a pattern above the snow fence that creates friction to hold the snow 'slab' in place while the snow fence provides a barrier beyond which the snow slab won't slide," says Lars Walberg, president of Rocky Mountain Snow Guards. "Using the combination of snow guards and snow fences gives this project a balanced snow retention system that has the 'look' the owners desired."
For homeowners, the new Bellaforté roofs on the Yacht Club and Boat House are tempting reminders of what will come on their own homes within the community in the years to come.
"Now that the Yacht Club and Boat House roofs are complete we're hearing very positive comments from our residents," says Murray. "Folks are eager for the work to continue in the common areas so that their individual homes can soon get these terrific-looking new roofs!"
For more information, visit www.davinciroofscapes.com.


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Now for a bit of a respectful rebuttal.
I admit: I missed the need to "opt-out" of this tracking when I registered for their meeting. But I really didn't realize that registering for a scientific meeting also required signing (checking?) a contract to not permit tracking when I registered at the time. Who knew?
Now more than ever, I believe the use of our personal data should be on the basis of an "opt-in" policy rather than an "opt-out" policy. Requiring someone the check a box to NOT have something is a pernicious way to illicit approval for an activity. I get that we could "opt-out," but why should I HAVE to? My privacy (and that of all of the ACC's membership) should be kept confidential first and foremost, marketing efforts should come second.
The ACC states that they use the RFID data for "two main functions," (1) meeting planning and (2) to collect "rent" for the use of RFID data by exhibitors:
Exhibitors were able to rent RFID readers from the vendor. They are able to use the data in much the same way as the ACC – to evaluate how effectively their work stations are structured and to improve their offerings to attendees….ACC's intention was not to create a revenue source by offering attendee data to exhibitors (in fact, only five out of more than 300 exhibiting companies decided to invest in RFID in their booths), but rather to provide exhibitors another resource by which to understand the traffic flow in their booths and to better align their displays with attendees' needs.They suggest that the ACC's "intent" was not to create a revenue source by offering attendee data to exhibitors because only 5 vendors opted to pay for the rental. If so, why not offer the data for free? While the data given was reportedly "the same information that was available on meeting attendees badges in print (name/city/state/institution). No contact information is provided" we really see that other data were also derived from this meeting, and hence distributable:
The attendee then goes to a session on appropriate use of PCI, followed by a session on imaging because he or she is interested in new advances in the intersection of imaging and intervention. Let's also say that several other people in these sessions followed a similar track. In this scenario, the ACC would receive a report of aggregated data, showing a significant level of physician interest in both imaging and interventional sessions.If the ACC collected and controlled the data themselves, then the ACC could assure the data's privacy, but they did not. The ACC contracted with an outside vendor, Alliance Tech, to collect the tracking data and, as such, they have the ultimate control over it. By supplying our demographic information to Alliance Tech, the ACC makes the tracking data useful to vendors and others. What assurance do members have that Alliance Tech has the same good intentions with the data as the ACC? Realize that this same tactic was used by the American Medical Association to provide our prescribing information to Heath Information Organizations with the same "opt-out" requirement.
This is not to say the ACC does not need the revenue. Putting on these meetings is expensive. But we must not lose sight of the real purpose of these meetings, education. Many doctors I know shook their head when the opening plenary session started with a light show and red carpet walk. Is funding of these "shows" why they need to see our personal data? Like it or not, we have to wonder.
Also, RFID data are easily hacked. One only needs to watch the short video of Adam Savage from the popular TV show Mythbusters at the 2010 Hackers Conference to see why the Discovery Channel opted not to air their show on RFID technology to understand how important this data is to businesses.
No doubt the ACC need to find ways to raise funds as pressure mounts on all of us to cut costs in health care. These scientific meetings are a major source of revenue for their organization and they do perform an important advocacy role for cardiologists in Washington. But there is a need to remember why they exist in the first place: to advocate for their physician members while respecting their practice of medicine, not sell us (and our personal data) short to other industry interests.

subset: commoncrawl


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(visited by Gerhard Kaufmann, Jamila Ahejjam and `Abdu-l-Haqq Mlioui)
Nearly two years had passed since we last visited my wife's family in Morocco. Meanwhile we had become addicts to the Degree Confluence Project and had already discovered a new Confluence (37°N 30°E) last September in Turkey. So, when preparing our journey to Morocco, I checked the Project's web page and some roadmaps for possible Confluences within reach of our planned travels in this land. Luckily and astonishingly, until now only one Confluence had been discovered in Morocco (31°N 7°W), and so I arrived at setting ourselves the high goal of trying to discover up to SIX new Confluences in Morocco. Let's see how far we will be able to achieve this ambitious goal...
17-Apr-2002 -- After passing a few days with the family, we rented a car in Agadir and on Wednesday, 17 April we set out for the first Confluence. With great foresight of the difficulties we would meet to reach this Confluence, we decided this time to leave our little son with my wife's sister Malika to play with her three little daughters and took her husband `Abdu-l-Ḥaqq, one of my many brothers-in-law, with us.
On my roadmap I could see that the Confluence 30°N 9°W is not far off the road going from Agadir in SE direction to Tafrawt, a nice little town in the picturesque scenery of the colossal granite rocks of the Anti-Atlas. So we took the road S 509 via Inzggan, Biyugra and Ayt Baha into the mountains of the Jabal Tikwayn, a promontory of the Anti-Atlas. (Remark: For the cities' and other geographical names, I won't use their usual French-style transcriptions. Instead I will use a simplified scientific transcription of their Arabic and Berber names.) The road follows the deep carved valley of the Wādiy Ayt Baha, not in the bottom of the valley, but near its eastern rim, high over the creek. Most of the time the rivers and creeks in southern Morocco are dry, but this springtime abundant rainfalls had caused many rivers and creeks to run with more or less water. With only a slight gradient, the road winds around all the ledges of the mountains and into the clefts of ravines running down into the Wādiy Ayt Baha.
Observing my GPS receiver, I noticed that in one of these clefts we had the closest approach to the Confluence, being still 2.6 km away. I followed the road a little further to look for a way leading in the desired direction, but unfortunately all I could find were dry rivers full of boulders, and steeply rising rock walls that prevented even taking a look behind and towards our goal. A short distance after the closest approach we passed a small village, its houses apparently glued to the rock walls. I decided to use the paths of this village as the best way to climb up to the rim of the Wādiy Ayt Baha, which lay still nearly 100 m above the course of the road.
It was now 1 o'clock p.m.; we ate our sandwiches, took a big bottle of water and all the technical gear with us, and started the hike towards the Confluence, now 3.2 km away as the crow flies, by climbing up the steep lanes of the village Wiran. Having reached the rim of the valley, we could finally take a glance in the direction of the Confluence, and found rock- and bush-covered hills and dry riverbeds in front of us, and in the distance some other villages on top of the hills. After having climbed up to this height, at first we tried to keep the height by following small trails of men and animals on the hillsides leading in the desired direction. But soon we found that hiking along and over the hills was too difficult and exhausting because the hills were covered with countless rocks and undergrowth, and the trails disappeared. So we started to climb down a steep slope to the nearest dry riverbed, which was a good decision, because from now on we made much better progress, although following the wādiys meant a little zigzagging. In the wādiys we found again trails, the ground was covered with small plants in blossom, one spot was covered with wonderfully smelling rosemary bushes. Luckily all the time, the sky was a little overcast, and so we hadn't to walk in the hot sun.
After two hours and a march of nearly 3.8 km, the GPS receiver guided us to leave the wādiy and climb up a slope as we approached eventually the Confluence. From this point onward, we began also to walk between tiny terraces with barley fields. This was a sign that we were in the vicinity of one of the villages we had seen from afar, but from down in the wādiy we couldn't see it now. The barley fields here and there were interspersed with Argan trees (Argania spinosa). These trees grow only in the SW parts of Morocco, nowhere else on earth. They have a very hard wood; sometimes goats can be seen climbing to the very end of the twigs to graze on the foliage. The fruit of the trees is yellow and looks like a big olive, the countrywomen crush the kernels in hand-mills to produce a very expensive oil with delicious nut flavour, used for cooking and as a cosmetic.
The last one hundred metres to the Confluence were difficult to proceed because the barley terraces now covered the whole slope, and we didn't want to step inside the small fields for respect of the cultivation and for fear of getting problems with the farmers, if they saw us. So `Abdu-l-Ḥaqq and me cautiously stepped only on the stony borders while climbing the terraces and trying to get nearer to the Confluence, whereas Jamila waited a little downward until we would have found the spot.
The Confluence was finally very near; we only had to climb one more barley terrace, but what a big surprise waited for us! After two hours walking through rubble and dry rivers, we found ourselves standing on a dirt road! And the Confluence 30°N 9°W (Picture #1) lies in fact exactly in the middle of this road! This means that this Confluence, like a few others, every day is obviously passed by dozens of people unaware of it. It was now 3:15 p.m. GMT (UT + 0) and the GPS receiver (Picture #6) indicated an altitude of 1182 m and an accuracy of 6 m.
Jamila climbed up to us, we still couldn't believe the presence of this carriageway, it seemed much too absurd to us. I started taking photos when some girls came along the road. They were very timid finding those strangers on their way and didn't dare to come closer. When Jamila started to talk to them in their language (Tašilḥit, the Berber language of south Morocco), they were surprised and lost a little bit their shyness. They told us that the road connects the two villages Tasakat and Adwwar Ayt Wuššn ("Village of the Jackal Clan" in Tašilḥit language) and then they squeezed past us at maximum distance and hurried away. Suddenly from the other direction a happy crowd of a dozen women in festive decorations came towards us. Again after Jamila addressed some words to them, they greeted us and gently invited us to accompany them to a marriage and to have a meal there. Of course this was an invitation you don't get every day, but we thought of our way back and sadly had to refuse, to their and our disappointment.
At last, it was now a quarter to 4 p.m., three boys arrived, obviously on their way to some afternoon hours at school. We asked them about the best way back to the asphalt road, and they confirmed that the shortest way was the one that we had taken before coming from the village Wiran, but they affirmed that the carriageway would lead back to the asphalt road, too, but this way would be much longer. Nevertheless we decided to follow the dirt road, because we were reluctant to go back the same way that we had come before, and because of curiosity to see where the dirt road would meet the asphalt road. So we passed the village Tasakat (Picture #9) and went on.
But the boys' hint proved right: The carriageway, not always in good condition, wound endlessly over hills and through valleys, going down and up, our feet and knees began to ache of this unaccustomed strain. I think `Abdu-l-Ḥaqq deeply regretted his rash decision to accompany us on this quest, and our only relief was the GPS receiver promisingly showing the trail of the asphalt road on its map window and our slow, slow return back towards it. When finally after more than two hours we were only some hundred metres from the asphalt road (but it still couldn't be seen, without the GPS receiver it could have been supposed as well to be still miles away), the carriageway swung back and away again from the asphalt road, climbing over another hill. Fortunately, we met three women at this point who told us that it would be still a long way following the dirt road, and instead they offered us their help by sending a boy with us who lead us down a shortcut to the road. This shortcut was in fact a very steep descent through a gorge, and when we finally saw the asphalt road beneath us, we nearly didn't want to believe our eyes. It was now 6:20 p.m., one hour later the sun would have sunk, and we had walked 9.4 km in difficult terrain since we left the car (see GPS receiver log on Picture #10).
Our car was now still 2.3 km away as the crow flies, but the next car coming along the road offered me a ride (many thanks again to the helpful driver) and so I quickly got back to the village Wiran, on foot I would have had to walk another 4 km along the winding road! Last thing to do after collecting Jamila and `Abdu-l-Ḥaqq at the roadside and returning to Agadir was to look for the junction where the carriageway would meet the asphalt road. We found it at 30°0'40"N 9°2'30"W, and so I would advise a future visitor to look for this turn-off and try to get to the Confluence by following the dirt road for about 7.5 km to the village Tasakat and a little further (cross-country vehicle recommended!). Another interesting task would be to follow it southwards from the Confluence to find out if there is another possibility to return to the asphalt road in this direction.
Continued at 31ºN 9ºW (First visit)


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text: December 3, 2006 Jerry E. Smith (RIP March 8, 2010), writer, researcher, activist, editor and lecturer returns to discuss his close friend Jim Keith and their work together. Mr. Smith's life-long political and environmental activism and research has resulted in the publication of scores of news stories, opinion pieces and several books. He is best known for his work on weather manipulation and warfare. Jim Keith (RIP September 7, 1999) was an American author, best known works are "Black Helicopters Over America" and "The Octopus", co-written with Kenn Thomas, which details conspiracy theories around the death of reporter Danny Casolaro. Keith wrote other relatively popular books on conspiracy topics, including Mind Control/World Control, Black Helicopters I and II, OK Bomb, Saucers of the Illuminati, Casebook on Alternative 3, Casebook on the Men In Black and many others. One of the underlying themes of Keith's works is the notion that the UFO phenomenon is, in fact, of entirely earthly origin and has its roots within a parallel program of technological development. Keith maintained a steadfast commitment to the earthly-origin theory, and he believed that there was a concerted effort to put forth the extraterrestrial hypothesis into the public consciousness. Keith fell from a stage and broke his knee at the annual Burning Man arts festival held on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. He went to the Washoe Medical hospital there and died shortly after surgery, in ICU, when a blood clot released and entered his lung, although the coroner's report listed cause of death as "blunt force trauma." Keith stated, prior to his death, "I have this feeling that if they put me under I'm not coming back". Jerry E. Smith returns to speak about his book "Weather Warfare - The Military's Plan To Draft Mother Nature". We discuss some of the technology involved, the different military projects including "Air Force 2025: Owning The Weather" and other documented history of weather modification. Does the military use earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes as part of their new weapons arsenal? Do rain making technologies, such as Wilhelm Reich's, actually work? If so, how does this affect the climate? In the members section, Jerry E. Smith continues talking about global warming. Is it real or is it fake? Other planets in our solar system are warming up and experiencing more severe weather. So what does this mean; is this because of the Sun? Is weather modification technology being used to create the global warming scenario for religious or other philosophical purposes, such as "the end times weather" or to justify the depopulation agenda? Jerry E. Smith - RIP March 8th, 2010 |


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Yesterday saw over 20,000 lightning strikes, adding to the 19,000 strikes from the day prior with both days seeing over 100 wildfires start in B.C., according to Chief Fire Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek.
"Another busy day. Definitely keeping our crews on the hop out there, but again nothing of huge concern."
Among the more significant was a 60-hectare grass/bush interface fire in Kamloops that briefly caused some tactical evacuations of about a dozen homes.
RELATED: Possibly lightning-caused fire burns within metres of homes in Kamloops
"We've definitely been making good progress and we're expecting that the worst of the lightning is now over. There's certainly still going to be a risk for some areas over the next few days but we don't expect to see numbers like that again for the foreseeable future."
The largest fire in the province is a 1,200-hectare fire near Kloch Lake about 200 km northwest of Prince George. There are a handful in the Northwest Fire Centre that are around 30, 50 and 100 hectares and in the Prince George Fire Centre near Fort Nelson at about 300 hectares.
"For the most part though, I think, as evidenced by the fact that we still don't have any really significant fires on the go right now, in terms of evacuation alerts or orders or threatening communities, the situation is still pretty well in hand," he says. "Obviously, we still have a lot of fire on the landscape that we have to deal with."
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Lions and Tigers and Orgasms, Oh My! When Orgasm Seems Scary.
Heather Corinna replies:I'm a girl and I've been with my boyfriend for 8 months. I'm 18 and he's my first boyfriend. We've never had sex (he has had it before) but we've done other things. I have a problem though, I'm really scared to orgasm. Like we'll be doing something that feels so good and I know that if we just continued a bit longer I would get there (I feel the muscles contracting, the heart pumping, the intensity building and all that) but then I chicken out and make him stop. He's fine with it and very supportive and respects that I'm so scared, but it bothers me. Why can't I just let myself get there? It's the same deal if I um, "pleasure myself." Is there any way I can or he can help myself get over this fear of the unknown?
My best advice is to just try and let yourself go there.
I think the safest way to do that, emotionally, would be to first try that in whichever sexual situation you tend to feel safest in, whether that's alone, in your masturbation, or during sexual activities with a partner. More people than not would probably feel less vulnerable and anxious alone, when no one else is there or watching, but people differ, so I don't know what you would feel best about. Only you can determine that for yourself, and there's no right answer to that, just what feels most right for you.
I do want you to know, though, that you're not alone in this. Reaching orgasm, just like experiencing pleasure in other ways, does involve letting go of some control, something which can feel terrifying for some people. When it hasn't happened before, as you know, it also involves experiencing something you don't know yet, and where you don't know what it will be like. You might make faces or noises you don't have complete control of, or might feel embarrassed by. There can be a lot of pressure right now for sex to be like a performance: to always look "sexy" or only involve people responding in certain ways presented as what's sexy or attractive, and people can feel afraid that certain sexual responses where they have less control, like ejaculation, orgasm or responses during orgasm, might not fit whatever those ideas or ideals are.
You might also feel like you're afraid to find out what orgasm is like, like it might be more exciting than you expected or less exciting than you expected. Orgasm is a pretty loaded thing in our world, and a lot of people feel very attached to it being or feeling a certain way, and some people can experience anxiety about orgasm not meeting their expectations or the expectations of a sexual partner. And of course, just like anything that's unknown, the unknown with this, as with anything else, can feel scary or precarious.
I'm not sure if it would help you to know a little more about orgasm than you do now, but in case it does, let me give you some information you probably don't have. Orgasm, like a lot of our experience of sexual activity, is something that happens primarily in our brains and central nervous system, not in our genitals. We can feel -- and often do feel -- genital effects of orgasm, like muscle contractions in our genitals and pelvic area, and orgasm can occur as a result of engaging in genital sex, but it really isn't primarily a genital thing. Have you ever exercised to the point where you get to what's often called a "runner's high?" Where you're moving and moving and moving and get to a point where you feel a rush in your brain and your body tends to just kind of chill out, even if you're still moving? Orgasm is a lot like that, experientially and also in terms of what's happening in our brains: it's mostly just a temporary neurological and neurochemical switch, and probably like others, in different situations, you've experienced before.
Orgasm involves the same things it seems you're already experiencing when you feel close to it: muscle contractions, increased heart rate, feeling greater physical sensitivity, and, probably, just feeling good. The main difference is that when you're experiencing those things before orgasm, they a) tend to last longer, as orgasm only lasts, on average, between 15 and 30 seconds, even though it can often feel like a lot longer when it's happening, and b) may feel somewhat less intense than during orgasm. In other words, what's feeling really good now will probably feel at least a little bit better during orgasm. The things you might feel with orgasm that are different than you have been experiencing are some muscle spasms -- though generally these aren't like the spasms someone might experience with a seizure, but more subtle and less dramatic than that -- a euphoric feeling and a feeling of relaxation or resolution after orgasm. Of course, when people are new to orgasm, orgasms can tend to feel more mild, so it might even be less to write home about than you think. That's not a guarantee, as experience with orgasm varies a lot, but for young women, milder orgasm at first is what tends to be most common.
One other thing to know is that when people are experiencing orgasm, fear and anxiety tend to decrease, if not shut down entirely. The tension you feel before orgasm, both psychologically and physically, will likely fizzle or go buh-bye. In other words, it's possible that the ways you are feeling before orgasm will change for the better if and when you just let yourself go there.
I wonder if you couldn't sit down with pen and paper and try and make a list of what you're scared of with orgasm. If you don't feel like you know, or can't put your finger on it, I think it might be helpful to try and figure it out. Heck, on top of potentially helping you to feel more comfortable with orgasm, you might even identify some fears you have that may be impacting other parts of your sexuality or sexual life. For instance, if you feel very scared to let go a little when it comes to controlling your sexual responses, that can also make partnersex or masturbation a lot less pleasurable and fun, physically and emotionally. Or, if you feel worried that reaching orgasm will mean different or unwanted expectations of sex from your partner, or even from yourself, than there are now, those fears might be holding you back from exploring other things you might want to.
Writing down what your expectations about orgasm are might help, too. I don't know what your perceptions of what orgasm will or may be like are, nor where you're getting them from. If you're getting them from pornography, for instance, they're probably not realistic. For instance, you thrashing around like someone is sticking you with a hot poker and screaming like your house is on fire are pretty unlikely, especially if you don't choose to engage in those things yourself to amplify your experience. It might help to know that whether we're talking about mainstream pornography or other media, most orgasms you have "seen" are usually people faking or acting orgasm, not people actually experiencing them. In a lot of ways, orgasm for you really may feel and look pretty similar to all the other kinds of sexual responses you have already had. While how orgasm is presented and framed in our world often makes it seem like it's this totally different thing than every other part of sex, in reality, it just really isn't that different, especially if you're experiencing a lot of sensitivity, arousal and pleasure during the sexual activities you're engaging in already.
Again, I'd say to try and just go there in a safe situation and see how it goes. Orgasm isn't something that is going to hurt anyone, or that makes you unsafe. It doesn't present any different physical or emotional risks than engaging in sexual activities without orgasm does, save risking finding out something is or isn't what you expected or wanted. If you experience orgasm and it turns out to be something you don't like or don't feel safe doing, you don't have to go there again if you don't want to. But it sounds to me like you feel worse about feeling so scared than you'd probably feel in the few seconds you took to let yourself find out what this is like.
Those lists might also help you identify what you need to feel safer: it may be some of these fears are about you feeling you need things to feel okay with this you don't have or don't always have. For example, maybe you don't ever or rarely have the kind of privacy you need: maybe you need to first find a place and space where you feel most comfortable, and can be sure no one will walk in on you or hear you. Maybe you need some reassurance from your partner that reaching orgasm isn't something that will radically change the dynamics of your relationship, or just need to talk about that. Or maybe you just need more time to get more comfortable with your own body, how it responds, and your sexuality first.
If this all still just feels way too scary, and those lists don't help or only make you feel more apprehensive, I'd not sweat this overmuch or push yourself to do anything you don't really want to do or feel grossly uncomfortable with.
It is okay not to experience orgasm until it feels more comfortable and less scary, and it's okay to not go there until it feels more right or safe for you. Ultimately, the big deal with sex, be it with a partner or with masturbation, is just enjoying ourselves -- which tends to include feeling more relaxed than scared -- and that tends to last a lot longer than orgasm and offer more than orgasm, all by itself, does for most folks. That's not to say orgasm can't feel great, as it most certainly can, but it, like any other part of sex, is not required of anyone. If it's not something you feel excited about in a good way, you don't have to go there yet.
You say this is your first boyfriend and, it sounds like, your first sexual partner. You, like everyone should, get to take the time to have a learning process with sex, and that includes taking whatever time you need to get comfortable with your own sexual responses or those of others. It seems like your boyfriend totally gets that and is on board, so you might want to take a cue from him, here. Maybe you're still getting comfortable with sex and sexuality as a whole, and this feels scary because it just feels way further in that process than you're actually at. You might even feel best scaling back where you're at with sexual activities: some of this may be that it feels like this is all moving too fast for you. It may be that you just need to take more time to become comfortable with engaging in any kind of sex, including masturbation. From the way you talk about that, it sounds like that isn't something you feel all that comfortable with yet, either. And that's okay. It's not unusual for it to take time for people to feel comfortable with the wide range of sexual responses we can have, and for some people, I'd even say many, that's a lifelong process, really, and rarely something people arrive at right at the gate.
I'm going to leave you with some links to look at that might help you figure out how you feel, but might also help you feel more comfortable, or feel better able to talk about this. You're also welcome to come on over to the message boards if you'd like to talk more about this with me, one of our volunteers or other users.
- With Pleasure: A View of Whole Sexual Anatomy for Every Body
- What's Sex?
- Sexual Response & Orgasm: A Users Guide
- Whoa, There! How to Slow Down When You're Moving Too Fast
- Be a Blabbermouth! The Whats, Whys and Hows of Talking About Sex With a Partner


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This article is more than 1 year old
Nine MS security bulletins create busy updates workload
Patches needed for almost everything - except IE
Microsoft released the expected nine patches - five critical - as part of a busy August Patch Tuesday update that focuses primarily on client-side vulnerabilities.
The bulletins collectively address 19 security flaws. The batch includes a bulletin covering a flaw in Office Web Components (MS09-043) that has served as the fodder for active hacking attacks since June. Users are open to attack if they stray onto sites hosting exploit code. A separate critical update for Windows Media Player (MS09-038) addresses a flaw that created a means to hack systems after tricking users into playing malformed AVI files.
Another update fixes five ActiveX controls that were made using a vulnerable version of the ATL library template. The root cause of this flaw - which has affected third party applications developers such as Adobe as much as Microsoft - was addressed in the MS09-035 out of sequence update in late July.
Flaws in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP - formerly known as Terminal Services) that create a drive-by download attack risk are also addressed in the patch Batch.
On the server-side, the worst of the critical flaws addresses a severe threat for WINS servers on Microsoft networks. The flaw creates a means to mount an unauthenticated server-side attack. Providing an attacker can smuggle malicious packets past a firewall, the bug, if left unaddressed, creates a means to execute arbitrary code on a server.
Other "important updates" address flaws in Workstation service, Windows Message Queuing Service (MSMQ) services, Telnet and a denial of service vulnerability in ASP.NET.
A Microsoft summary can be found here, and an easier to digest "Black Tuesday" overview from the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre can be found here. Microsoft's summary of affected software reveals that all supported versions of Windows (client and server) will need updates for one reason or another. Office suites also need patching because of the Office Web Components flaw, which affects server applications including BizTalk and ISAS.
Eric Schultze, CTO at patch management firm Shavlik and a former programme manager for the Microsoft Security Response Centre, explained: "The bulletins cover a gamut of affected products - almost everything in your enterprise will need to be patched today with the exception of Internet Explorer."
Wolfgang Kandek, CTo at vulnerability assessment firm Qualys, commented: "There are five critical patches that can all be exploited remotely and four important ones that require direct access to the system for exploitation."
"Although this is a big release, there are no surprises in it as it addresses an outstanding public zero-day vulnerability and it includes an official patch for the out-of-band patch released in July for MS09-034. As always users are urged to review these critical patches carefully against their environment and apply them as soon as possible," he added. ®


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Photographers, the hummingbird photography workshop begins in seven weeks? Did you know this is going to be a great opportunity for you to get some of the best bird photographs you could ever hope for? Three slots are open and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. When I get your deposit, you are officially booked for the workshop. So, move on over to the photo tour schedule on this web site, read about the workshop, and email or call me to register. I look forward to showing you how it is done.
The heat wave has driven a lot of us underground for most of the summer. Although I've been chilling in front of the computer during most of June and July, I did get out last week to check on the fawn crop. You probably know that white-tailed deer breed rather late in south Texas, so a lot of the fawns aren't born until June and July. There were a lot of fawns out there on Friday morning, but it was so hot that the mamma deer are taking their babies to the shade about 20 minutes after the sun comes up. Nevertheless, I got a few keeper shots to show you.
Last year, I looked for fawns a little later in the summer and found some buck deer with nice, velvety antlers at the same time. It has taken me a year to get around to working on those photos, so I have two batches of deer photographs to share with you this week.
Click on the right side of each photo to go from one photo to the next. This also will cause the photos to open into a larger, sharper format.
This doe was on her way to the shade just a few minutes after sunrise. The photo was taken with a Canon 1D Mark III and Canon 100-400 mm lens from the window of my Durango.
Being aware that the heat and high humidity could cause condensation on the lenses, I had reduced the amount of air conditioning in the car during my 90 minute drive to deer country. Nevertheless, it wasn't enough. My 500 mm lens was so fogged up, it was an hour before I got the glass clear enough to shoot. You can guess where the deer were by then. So, the lesson for all of us is that during the winter or summer, try to get the car or camera storage area as close to air temperature as possible an hour or so before you plan to begin photographing. Otherwise, you will only be able to watch from the sidelines while the glass returns to the ambient temperature.
The little guy above had a lot of running he wanted to do before his mother took him to the shady woods for a nap. Luckily, he decided to stop in front of me on a little rise with nice shadows in the background.
The fawns above were so eager to feed that they lifted mom right off the ground. Any time you are photographing young animals, keep your finger on the shutter release because something interesting what will happen.


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Happenings During the Paleozoic Era (545-248 Million Years Ago)
- 545 to 248 million years ago
- Geologic periods (divisions) of the Paleozoic: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian
- (See the geologic timescale!)
- Early in the Paleozoic the continents were far apart, but, by the end, all continents had been assembled into a large supercontinent called Pangaea. Continents move due to plate tectonics.
- Geologic evidence shows that a brief glaciation occurred 430 million years ago. It may have lasted only one or a few million years, causing an ice sheet, similar in size to the one on Antarctica today, to cover the area that is today North Africa. At the time, this part of the African continent was positioned over the South Pole.
- Climate models have been used to help understand past weather and regional climates of the supercontinent Pangaea. The models suggest that monsoons affected the subtropical east coast, which likely had a distinct wet and dry season. This hypothesis is supported by evidence preserved in the rocks formed at that time. The interior of Pangaea was likely dry, just like continental interiors typically are today.
Evolutionary Events:
- The Cambrian Explosion of Life- According to fossil evidence, almost all of the main groups of animals evolved between 530 and 520 million years ago. Most of these life forms, such as jellyfish, had no shells or bones making them difficult to preserve, so fossils are rare. However, excellent conditions in certain areas (China and Canada) led to discovery of a wealth of fossils from this time period.
- Early to Middle Paleozoic- Invertebrates (animals without backbones) ruled the seas in the early and middle parts of the Paleozoic. Diversification of animals led to a large number of different species of marine invertebrates such as corals, brachiopods, mollusks, and arthropods such as trilobites.
- Late Paleozoic- Vertebrates (animals with backbones) began to flourish in the later Paleozoic (including fish, amphibians, and reptiles). Animals and plants populated the land.
- Late Ordovician mass extinction- This was the second largest mass extinction of all time. Rapid global cooling and a million year long glaciation may have been the cause of the extinction. However, large amounts of greenhouse gases at the time mean that cooling may not have been possible.
- End-Permian mass extinction- This was the largest of all time during which
as many as 96% of species in the oceans became extinct over 8 million years.
This extinction may have been caused by extreme global warming as flood basalts
added greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the developing supercontinent of
Pangaea, or a major drop in sea level during which the ocean level fell lower
than the continental shelves providing little shallow water habitat for marine
Last modified June 1, 2005 by Lisa Gardiner.


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I'm reading Alice in Wonderland, and found the following dialogue:
"The master was an old Turtle — we used to call him Tortoise—"
"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?" Alice asked.
"We called him a Tortoise because he taught us."
What is the relationship between "he taught us" and "Tortoise"? Is this some kind of pun or joke?