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22 DECEMBER 2012 - SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE: A teenaged boy prays in the main prayer hall at the Sultan Mosque in Singapore. The Sultan Mosque is the focal point of the historic Kampong Glam area of Singapore. Also known as Masjid Sultan, it was named for Sultan Hussein Shah. The mosque was originally built in the 1820s. The original structure was demolished in 1924 to make way for the current building, which was completed in 1928. The mosque holds great significance for the Muslim community, and is considered the national mosque of Singapore. It was designated a national monument in 1975. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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Internalization of a construct
It's ages since I've written anything substantive, but today I felt rather impelled to do so. That was a few hours ago, and I'm bloody tired now, so please add elegance and erudition as necessary. This afternoon, I was doing prep for tomorrow's historiography and methods class -- always a thrill, as I've never actually taken a class in historiography, although the economic history seminar I took in grad school was largely historiography. And, of course, one does pick up a lot of historiography along the way. Still, I've had to do a lot of catching up. This is one of the things that makes me glad that I'm at SLAC -- I really do need to refine my upper-division teaching skills and develop some upper division courses. SLAC's students can be pretty good, and most of the majors are pretty bright, but I've found that even the best sometimes are less prepared for discussions than I'd like. So I've been focusing on getting them to talk about the historiographic and methodological concepts they've been reading about and get them to relate them to things they already know from classes they've taken, rather than concentrating on exposing them to a more traditional 'names, schools, and arguments' kind of course. This means that I do a good bit of work on the fly, adding readings as we go to help reinforce the points I've tried to make and to help clarify things for them. We use Tosh for the main text, by the way.
Last week, one of our topics of discussion included the caveats of using constructs to explain history, and the students really seemed to be unsure -- unlike when we talked about the tensions surrounding trying to maintain historical objectivity, when someone astutely pointed out that there was a difficult line to walk between remaining objective and falling prey to relativism. Anyway, back to the idea of constructs ... you know where this was going, right? You probably knew when you saw the title of the post!
I decided last week to have them read the Brown article (the one in the AHR in 1974) I was re-reading it today and I realised something -- it's more than a seminal article. It's part of me. I think I've read it about 4 times over the past 18 or so years. I know the arguments, even if I don't always keep the major scholars straight. For example, I've been thinking that Maitland argued some things in a way he never did -- that is, I somehow always want to argue that, if feudalism worked anywhere, it was in England after the conquest, and I thought that might have been Maitland -- who argues the opposite, if anything!
But basically, I've been arguing that article for at least the last 15 years. I cite it all the time, but until tonight, I never realised how much I'd internalised Brown's arguments -- more than I have Reynolds', as it happens. When people ask me about the f-word, I answer with Brown, where Brown = the entire history of arguments against the f-word. I know there are parts I don't entirely agree with, but in terms of being able to argue the case, I can't imagine doing it any other way -- and I can't always remember when I'm arguing a slightly different case. In some ways, I think this makes me particularly crap at historiography. Aren't we supposed to know what Bloch said and what Ganshof said and what Brown said and what Reynolds said? I can place them all on a spectrum. I think one of the difficulties is that, except for Reynolds, everybody is still a bit vague. But I think the hardest part for me is that I've just taken all of this and synthesized it and turned it into a more coherent, if amalgamated, argument.
I think in some ways, this ability to synthesize and distill arguments is one of the things that makes me a decent teacher. On the other hand, I worry that it's one of the things that makes scholarship difficult for me. Once I've read the same things, or sorts of things, a few times, I forget who said what. I think that part of it is because I have my own internal system going at all times, and so there's a kind of unconscious selection system working to reconcile different arguments into the "best guess" mediated argument. But my internal system needs to be (re)trained to remember the actual arguments and who made them, I think. There needs to be a more conscious sense of acceptance or rejection of other scholars' work; I need to not only be aware of what I know and how I know it, but much more articulate about why I accept some ideas more than others, and why I've synthesized information the way I have.
Overall, thinking about how much this one article has become part of my approach to my field has helped me to connect a little better one of the things I've been grappling with for years, and that I have to try to teach -- why is history important? I've always argued that it's less important for the facts, and more important for the kinds of approaches to sources and analysis we use. But reading "Tyranny of a Construct" again has also made me realise that, for me at least,there's a kind of connection between how I handle information -- subsuming it into my thought processes so that it's as seamless as I can make it -- and who I am. But is my life informed by history and historiography, or am I an historian because I don't know any other way to be?

subset: commoncrawl


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Andrew Berry, the Oak Bay father who murdered his daughters, Aubrey and Chloe Berry, on Christmas Day in 2017 will find out his sentence Thursday.
On Tuesday lawyers took turns addressing Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper with suggested parole eligibility. Defence attorney Kevin McCullough asked for 15 to 20 years and made no mention of consecutive or concurrent sentencing.
"Mr. Berry says he did not kill the children," he said on Tuesday, the second day of the sentencing hearing and the same day 13 victim impacts statements and three community impact statements were read in court.
RELATED: Mother of murdered Oak Bay girls gives tearful victim impact statement
Crown lawyer Patrick Weir asked for a sentence of 21 to 24 years for each count, severed concurrently or at the same time.
On Monday, Gropper determined the facts of the case which she would base Berry's sentence on. Crown counsel Clare Jennings called Berry's alternate tale of owing money to a loan shark named Paul "completely fabricated" and "self-serving."
Gropper agreed with Crown, stating that it "defies logic" that the loan shark would kill the children and leave Berry alive.
Evidence shown at trial determined the girls were killed where they were sleeping, in their own home, which Gropper said would be considered an aggravating factor. There was blood inside the suite, but no blood was found anywhere outside the suite.
RELATED: Story told by Oak Bay dad who killed daughters 'defies logic,' says judge at start of sentencing
Chloe was struck in the head and stabbed 26 times, Aubrey was stabbed 32 times. Berry was found naked, in a bathtub full of water with wounds to his neck, which the judge found to be self-inflicted.
It is unclear which girl was killed first.
"Berry would have seen the effects of his stabbings and then moved on to the other bedroom and done the same thing to the second daughter. A period of time must have elapsed," said Jennings, adding that Crown did not know whether all the wounds were inflicted to each child one at a time, or whether Berry went back and forth between the two.
Gropper said Berry's motive, at least in part, was to hurt Sarah Cotton, the girls' mother
"Berry believed, for good reason, that he wouldn't get the girls back when he handed them over to Sarah on Christmas Day," said the judge. The electricity to Berry's apartment had been turned off and he admitted he had no money to get it turned back on.
"To try to understand how the father of my children is capable of doing such a horrific and unimaginable act to his own daughters is inconceivable," Cotton told the packed courtroom, through tears on Tuesday. "All they ever did was love him."
READ MORE: About this case
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Volcanic eruptions come in many different forms. Shield volcanoes usually only spew lava and hot gases. These lavas flow slowly down the mountain with speeds of 15 miles per hour or slower. Composite volcanoes can put forth lava accompanied by clouds of ash, bombs, lava fragments, crystallized, glassy material, as well as hot gases. In some eruptions, ash and lava are buoyied by hot vapors and pour down the slopes of a volcano very rapidly, with speeds up to 100 miles per hour. This special type of eruption destroyed the city of St. Pierre in 1902. In other cases hot material from the volcano can melt snow and ice at the volcano summit and the whole mass of mud and lava can sweep rapidly down the mountain, destroying everything in its path. This type of flow is called a lahar.
There have been some spectacular eruptions in Earth history. These include Mt. Pelee, Krakatoa, Crater Lake (formerly Mt. Mazama), Mt. Vesuvius, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Pinatubo.


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(CNN) -- Arash Alaei, a pioneering HIV and AIDS doctor, has been released from an Iranian prison, his family said Sunday.
Both he and his brother, Kamiar Alaei, who is also a doctor, were arrested in 2008. They were charged with "communication with an enemy government" and for trying to "overthrow the government," according to Kamiar.
Kamiar Alaei served most of a three-year sentence and was released in October 2010. Since then, he has fought for his brother's freedom.
"My dearest friends, colleagues and family thank you so much for your tireless help and support. I am pleased to share our happiness that my brother got released today. I am very happy that other prisoners got released, too and now their parents, family members and friends got reunion after a while. What a lovely day!" he wrote on his Facebook page.
A post attributed to the Alaei family said that Arash was released after spending 1,160 days in prison.
The brothers have been called pioneers for their community-based approach to HIV and AIDS in Iran.
Since opening a hometown clinic in 1999, the men raised awareness about HIV, dispelling myths about the virus and treating people who are shunned because of it. They also reached out to their neighbors in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and worked with medical universities in Europe and the United States.
Earlier this month, Kamiar told CNN being free without his brother was the worst feeling and that sometimes he wished he was in and that his brother was out.
"I have to be clear," he said then. "All our work was focused on health and science. It was never about politics. When we were arrested, I was shocked and I thought they must have the wrong people."


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To define a physical memory resource cap for a project, establish a resident set size (RSS) cap by adding this attribute to the project database entry:
The total amount of physical memory, in bytes, that is available to processes in the project.
For example, the following line in the /etc/project file sets an RSS cap of 10 Gbytes for a project named db.
Note - The system might round the specified cap value to a page size.
You can also use the projmod command to set the rcap.max-rss attribute in the /etc/project file.
For more information, see Setting the Resident Set Size Cap.


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Make life easier for your blog readers, turn off the captcha words!
It really gives people a lot of trouble to post, particularly those with iPad, and we do want our friends and readers to come
and post, right?
How to do it in blogspot:
1. Go to Design,
2.> then Settings,
3.> then Post and comments,
4.> then click NO for "Show word verification"...
Voila! "captcha" free!
"Moderate always" so no SPAM can sneak in, bur really, in over 7 years
of blogging, I have only had like 4 or so Spam attempts.


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Here is another interesting item from the collection of Carlo Vinci. These photographs were among his most prized posessions. They are turn of the century reproductions of the paintings of Eduard von Grutzner. Grutzner was born in 1846 and received classical art training at the Munich Academie under the noted realist painter, Karl von Piloty. Grutzner specialized in genre paintings, which formed the basis for the style of many classic book illustrators who followed. He was famous for his paintings of jolly gatherings in alehouses, hunting scenes, and humorous images of monastic life, which these particular images represent. Grutzner was successful and popular in his day, and died in 1925.
The family isn't quite sure where Vinci obtained these photographs, but my guess is that they date back to his earliest years as a professional artist. After graduating from the National Academy of Design, Vinci was hired to do reproductions of classic paintings. It's entirely possible that these were used by him as reference for reproductions of one or more Grutzner paintings. It's easy to see why Vinci treasured these pictures. The compositions are classically perfect, the caricatures are well observed, the lighting is beautifully rendered, and a Falstaffian sense of humor makes the images a lot of fun.
Stephen Worth
Animation Resources
This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.


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The latest budget deal, passed by a bipartisan majority in both the House and the Senate, suggests that Washington agrees with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) when she said that "the cupboard is bare. There's no more cuts to make."
The cupboard, however, is overflowing with liquor, crystal glassware, and more.
Here is our list of the top 10 examples of wasteful government spending this year, serving as a reminder that there is no shortage of excessive spending in Washington.
10. Outhouse in Alaska: $98,670. The Interior Department spent nearly $100,000 to install an outhouse on an Alaskan trail, which includes a single toilet with no internal plumbing.
9. A bus stop with heated pavement for the Washington area: $1 million. A lavish bus stop with heated pavement was built in Arlington, VA, but it has failed to keep commuters warm or dry.
8. Grant for a pole dancing performance: $10,000. Utility poles, that is. The National Endowment for the Arts provided a grant to PowerUP for Austin Energy employees to perform an artsy dance with 20 utility poles, accompanied by a live orchestra.
7. Pizza — from a printer: $124,995. NASA gave a six-figure grant to a company that aspires to make pizza from a 3-D printer.
6. Study to find out if couples are happier when the woman calms down after argument: $335,525. "[M]arriages that were the happiest were the ones in which the wives were able to calm down quickly during marital conflict," found a study of 81 couples funded by the National Institutes of Health.
5. Booze and crystal for the State Department: $5.4 million. The State Department went on a bender the week before the government shutdown, purchasing $5 million of "exquisite" crystal glassware to presumably drink the $400,000 in booze they purchased in 2013.
4. Monitoring depression on Twitter: $82,000. The National Institutes of Health is funding a study "to use Twitter for surveillance on depressed people," according to the Free Beacon.
3. Seven-figure stack of rocks at the London Embassy: $1 million. The American Embassy in London will be receiving a granite sculpture from an artist "whose work resembles stacked piles of paving stones," according to the Daily Mail.
2. Artwork for Veterans Affairs offices: $562,000. The Department of Veterans Affairs went on a spending spree during "use it or lose it" season, purchasing over half a million in artwork and millions in furniture in a single week.
1. Government employee trip to luxury hotel in the Caribbean: priceless. Federal employees took a taxpayer-funded trip to the Buccaneer Hotel in St. Croix—the same hotel made famous on TV's "The Bachelor." The bill was divided among a number of agencies, making a final tally difficult to come by.
Honorable Mention
A Super Bowl champion Obamacare campaign: $130,000. The Baltimore Ravens were paid $130,000 in taxpayer money to sponsor the Affordable Care Act.
An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of Americans thinks that Congress can find more ways to cut government spending, and there are numerous programs of questionable value that Congress should eliminate.
America did not end up $17 trillion in debt overnight. Congressional refusal to cut spending and prioritize taxpayer money more appropriately year after year got the nation to this point. Congress will have another opportunity before January 15, when considering the 2014 spending bill, to do better. Fiscal restraint is long overdue.
For other examples of government waste, see Heritage's 2013 edition of Federal Spending by the Numbers and Senator Tom Coburn's 2013 Wastebook.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.
Quick Hits:
- If you dare…take a peek at the 10 worst regulations of the year.
- That didn't last long: A&E has welcomed back "Duck Dynasty's" Phil Robertson.
- We hope you've enjoyed reading The Foundry this year. Take a look at these 5 posts that really inspired our readers.
- Did you stock up on incandescent light bulbs yet?
- You can advance your conservative principles with a tax-deductible gift to Heritage by December 31.


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'Skyfall's Title Track By Adele is Here
We're a little over a month away from the latest James Bond adventure 'Skyfall,' and that means we're going to be hearing a lot about the movie before its release November 9 (or October 25 for those in the UK). The latest to emerge is Adele's theme song, appropriately titled "Skyfall."
There's now an official release embedded below, and we like the song. What's great about it is that it recalls the feel and flavor of a John Barry score. Here's the synopsis for the film:
In SKYFALL, Bond's loyalty to M (JUDI DENCH) is tested as her past returns to haunt her. 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. When Bond's latest assignment goes gravely wrong and agents around the world are exposed, MI6 is attacked forcing M to relocate the agency. These events cause her authority and position to be challenged by Gareth Mallory (RALPH FIENNES), the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee. With MI6 now compromised from both inside and out, M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 takes to the shadows – aided only by field agent, Eve (NAOMIE HARRIS) – following a trail to the mysterious Silva (JAVIER BARDEM), whose lethal and hidden motives have yet to reveal themselves.
And here's the song:


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Choose Tools > Preferences... or click , and then select Generic Function Browser in the list on the left side of the Preferences dialog.
Using the options in the Sort panel, you can sort the items in the Generic Function Browser as you can in many of the other tools in the LispWorks IDE.
Displays items in the order they are defined in.
Sorts items by the CLOS qualifier of the method. This groups together any
, and
Sorts items alphabetically by name. This is the default setting.
Sorts items alphabetically by package name.
For more information on sorting items, see Sorting items in views.
You can also set the process package of the Generic Function Browser, and choose to hide package names in the display, using the Package box. See Displaying packages for full details.
You can also control whether the Generic Function Browser displays the history toolbar by the option Show Toolbar , as described in Toolbar configurations.
LispWorks IDE User Guide (Windows version) - 25 Nov 2011


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"We support the troops!" That's the excuse the Democrats have given for continuing to fund Bush's aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan. But, of course, war funding doesn't support the troops. War funding supports an evil machine that chews up and spits out the lives and well being of the troops, along with that of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan, men, women, and children. War funding supports Bush's aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan and his continuing efforts to occupy both countries in order to turn them into puppet states.
Polls show that a majority of the troops and their families do not support Bush's aggression. The fact that Ron Paul's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination received the lion's share of contributions from military families also underlines the great divide between the troops and those who would "support" them by keeping them in Iraq and Afghanistan. What all those ribbon decals on the back of SUVs, which proclaim "support the troops," really mean is support Bush's wars of aggression against Muslims.
According to the Washington Post (Feb. 9, 2008), Bush's $3.1 trillion federal budget provides no funding for his proposal in his State of the Union address to permit military members to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. Bush got applause for his nationally televised words, but the troops and their families got no money in his budget.
Government analysts calculate the education benefits would cost in the range of $1-2 billion annually—the cost of funding the war for two days.
The only money that Bush and Congress want to give the troops is what is required to keep them at war. Everyone has read the horror stories of the lack of care for the physically and emotionally wounded troops who have made it back from Iraq.
In contrast, to fund Bush's war, Bush and Congress have already spent in out-of-pocket and future costs at least $1,000 billion. Every American can draw up lists of better uses of this immense fortune than blowing up a country's infrastructure and killing hundreds of thousands of its citizens.
Nothing good whatsoever has been accomplished by Bush's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. It was obvious to anyone with a lick of sense in 2002, six months prior to Bush's invasion of Iraq on March 18, 2003, that an invasion would be a strategic blunder. William S. Lind, myself and others made that prediction in October, 2002. Three years later, Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency, vindicated us by declaring Bush's invasion of Iraq to be "the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history." If the head of the NSA doesn't know a "strategic disaster" when he sees one, who does?
Gen. Odom's assessment is certainly correct. Bush, Cheney, the neocons, and the sycophant media were completely wrong. Look at the situation today. Unable to defeat the Sunni insurgency, the US "superpower" has had to resort to paying tens of millions of dollars to insurgency leaders to bribe them not to attack US troops. In addition, Bush is supplying the insurgents with weapons "to fight al Qaeda." The Sunni leaders gladly accept the money and weapons, but how long can they survive being collaborators with the American enemy that has destroyed their country and the Sunni place in the sun?
It was obvious to everyone but Bush and the neocons that overthrowing Saddam Hussein in the name of democracy would put the majority Shi'ites, who are allied with Iran, in place as the new rulers of Iraq. So far the Iraqi Shi'ites have bided their time and have not joined in earnest the insurgency against the US occupation. Instead, they, like the Sunnis, have directed most of their attention to cleansing neighborhoods of one another. The reasons that violence—although still higher than Americans could live with—is down are that most of the neighborhoods are now segregated, al Sadr has ordered his militia to stand down, and the Sunni insurgents are being paid not to attack US troops.
Bush started a war, and now to avoid losing it Bush pays Iraqis not to attack US troops!
The Sunnis and Shi'ites are stronger than ever, while the US troops are worn down and demoralized from multiple lengthy combat tours that violate traditional US military policy.
It was also obvious that Bush's invasions would destabilize nuclear-armed Pakistan. On February 8, seasoned foreign correspondent Warren Strobel reported for the McClatchy newspapers that "Pakistan is now the central front in America's war on terror." On February 9, the Washington Post reported: "Pakistan faces a growing threat from a new generation of radicalized, battle-hardened militants who embrace jihad and have become allied with local and international terrorists intent on toppling the pro-Western government [shorthand for paid US puppet], a senior U.S. intelligence official told reporters yesterday."[Pakistani Militants Teaming Up, Officials Say]
US officials have been pressing Pakistan, to no effect, to allow US troops to join the Pakistani army's fight against Pakistani tribes allied with the Taliban. US officials, "speaking on condition of anonymity," are trying to muster support for an expanded US military role in Pakistan by alleging that Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are in Pakistan with their top commanders. Bush wants to bomb Pakistan in order to win the war in Afghanistan.
With all available US troops tied down in Iraq, the US is using NATO soldiers as mercenaries to try to counter a resurgent Taliban. Europeans are tiring of their role as an European proxy for America's legions, and the NATO commander speaks of a NATO defeat in Afghanistan.
NATO was an alliance created to resist a Soviet invasion of Europe. The US has kept an unnecessary NATO alive for 18 years as a source of troops for its foreign adventures. Europeans dislike being mercenaries for American Empire, especially one that slaughters civilians.
Desperate for troops, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to scare Europeans with the threat of "international terrorism," but Europeans know that the best way to bring terrorism to Europe is to send troops to fight Muslims for the Americans. Whether Gates will get the German and French soldiers that he so desperately needs depends on whether the US can give the German and French leaders, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, enough billions of dollars to divide among their parties to embolden them to override public opinion and send their soldiers to die for US and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.
Gates told Europe that NATO's survival is at stake: "We must not—we cannot—become a two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those who are not." In a rare bit of honesty for an American government official, Gates admitted at the NATO conference in Munich last week that Europeans' anger at the US over Iraq is the reason Europe won't send enough troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus putting what Gates disingenuously called "the international mission in Afghanistan" at risk of failure.
The Afghanistan "mission," like the Iraq "mission," was a mission for US and Israel hegemony. The official reason for invading Afghanistan was 9/11 and the alleged refusal of the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden. It had nothing whatsoever to do with Europe, NATO, or any "international mission." The official reason for invading Iraq was alleged, but nonexistent, weapons of mass destruction that allegedly threatened America—another, but more deadly, 9/11 in the making according to the Bush regime.
If the US now needs foreign troops to save its bacon in these two lost wars, it should demand them from Israel. Israel is why the US is at war in the Middle East. Let Israel supply the troops. The neocons who dominated the Bush regime and took America to illegal wars are allied with the extreme right-wing government of Israel. The goal of neoconservatism is to remove all obstacles to Israeli territorial expansion. The Zionist aim is to grab the entirely of the West Bank and southern Lebanon, with more to follow later.
Remember "mission accomplished"? Remember all the strutting neocons with their promises of a "cakewalk war"? Remember all the ignorant bragging about having "defeated the Taliban"? All of these lies were designed to tie American down in interminable wars in the Middle East for Israel's benefit. There is no other reason for Bush's invasions. We know for certain that Bush and his entire administration lied through their teeth about the Taliban and about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
What a total crock of ignorance and deception the Bush regime represents. Bush, defeated in Iraq, defeated in Afghanistan, with Pakistan crumbling in front of his eyes, is now reduced to begging the French, whom it was such grand sport for his neocon officials to denigrate, to send soldiers to save his ass in Afghanistan.
What a laughing stock Bush has made of America. What ruination this utter idiot and his supporters have brought to America. What total traitors the neoconservatives are. Every last one of them should be immediately arrested for high treason. Neonconservatives are America's greatest enemies, and they control our government! All Americans have to show for six years of Bush's "war on terror" is an incipient police state.
Now standing in the wings is mad John "hundred year war" McCain. Will the American electorate wipe out the Republican Party before this insane party wipes out America?
Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan's first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow's Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.


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The Coolest Fitness Classes in Boston
Hip Hop Yoga class photo provided by Back Bay Yoga
Hip Hop Yoga
Sorry yoga community, but we have to say it. Not everybody loves yoga. (Gasp!) Between the om's and the '90s Enya music, some of us feel like falling asleep in the middle of class. We prefer our 90s music to be of the hip hop variety anyway, which is why we love Hip Hop Yoga. Imagine deep stretching to Snoop Dogg (or is it Snoop Lion now?), or doing a sweaty flow to Biggie. The unique class is the brainchild of Back Bay Yoga owner Lynne Begier, who randomly created it while experimenting in her traditional Vinyasa Flow class. Sign us up. Back Bay Yoga; $15 drop-in; 364 Boylston Street, 2nd Fl., Boston
Photo courtesy of RealRyder® International LLC
Real Ryder
We all know spinning is an amazing workout, but it doesn't matter how high-tech the bikes are, one thing remains the same: they are stationary. But Real Ryder bikes are different and they are popping up all over Massachusetts. They provide lateral movement, meaning they move side-to-side, as if you are steering, turning, and balancing on a real bike outside. The bikes tilt and lean and you have to use your core muscles to stabilize for the entire class. These bikes take spinning to a whole new level. Core Cardio Fitness; $16 drop-in; 239 Commercial Street, Malden
Photo courtesy of Equinox
The Whipped class at Equinox basically uses every cool piece of equipment at the gym all in one class. You'll use heavy ropes, body bars (including the ViPR, that big rubber tube with handles that looks like it should be used in police training), and kettlebells for a total body workout. There is a reason why the class is called Whipped, and don't be surprised if you have a hard time walking the next day. Equinox; membership fees vary; 225 Franklin Street, Boston
What are your favorite fitness classes in Boston? Tell us in the comments!


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First, read this post by Smashwords founder Mark Coker.
Then tell me how you feel about PayPal dictating what Smashwords can sell. Sure, the site's turned into Smutwords lately. But offensive material is the price you pay for a 100% free market of written material.
My view is that PayPal needs to think hard about taking the moral high ground. Because if it wants to "go there," it needs to look at every transaction it processes.
I can't get too tweaked about Smashwords pulling bestiality, incest, pedophilia and rape porn.
I would think writers would get tweaked about anybody pulling any book because a financier says to.
I assume this would include offending books like The Bible?
This is kind of scarier than Southland pulling magazines. This is one company forcing another to comply with their wishes or lose a vital service.
What if they decide next week that they don't like books favoring Democratic candidates? Or negative comments on Islam? Or crime stories involving electronic fund thefts?
I don't like it. And that doesn't mean I'm in favor of bestiality and rape and such. Under 18 sex doesn't freak me much. Been there, done that, it's nobody else's business. But don't they always start with the evil demons? First they came for the Jews, and all that?
A REALLY interesting question to me, maybe somebody has an answer...did they do this to amazon, also?
The time is weird for me, personally, since I just had my first book put on SmashWords today.
I guess this means I have to cancel my next book, "Doing Daddy's Puppies". Ah well.
I gather necro porn is still okay?
This is worse than I thought, and has scarier ramifications. I just read this on a post in another forum where I brought this up in a discussion by "Crude" on whether he could publish a title about an affair between man and child. I mentioned this PayPal thing, and got this repsonse
Actually Cammy, Paypal has decided to enforce it's terms of content on any site that they transact with. They don't actually read, nor expect it's resellers to read, the content of the books. As I've stated, Crude probably is out of luck for publishing his novel, but so are a lot of erotica writers who don't fall into this situation. Your new book is subject to being banned, because Paypal might see the violence of blowing a guy's nuts off as offensive, demeaning, or otherwise objectionable. You will have no recourse. They won't read your book to see the 'how to; why to' manual... they will simply go by the title and decide not to publish it. You will be banned from Amazon, Smashwords and a host of others... have your account with Paypal (where we receive our funds) frozen for a minimum of 6 months with no recourse, you will not be able to open a new Paypal account (which is an affiliate of Ebay, so you lose your ability to open an account with them.) Paypal is not solely targeting material such as Crude as written, but ALL Erotica. I have over 30 published titles and belong to groups with erotica writers, and several have had books pulled simply because of their titles. They have been informed that if they resubmit the same book with a different title, Amazon and such will refuse to sell any of their works.
PayPal needs some competition, that's for sure. But I believe Smashwords should pull whatever they want, and for whatever reason. It's their company, not a public utility. If you like to read about humping animals, or forcing children to have sex, there are other places you can go. Freedom is supposed to work for everybody.
Well said, Jack. As my old journalism professor would say, "Freedom of speech includes the right to not say something."
My concern with this decision is that it will affect socially redeeming titles, too. Take Plastic Soldiers from the Speedloader anthology from Spinetingler (which I wrote about here). It's about child rape. It's also one of the best short stories I've ever read (for reasons other than the rape, of course). Had that story been published on its own at Smashwords, it would be on the list of items up for removal.
Child porn enthusiasts would not like Plastic Soldiers, but I see what you mean.
Thank goodness for that, Jack!
The division of public and private is likely going to be a big issue going forward - especially as more and more of the "private" world shows how dependent it is on the public. Smashwords is a private company but it exists in the public realm and must abide by the rules. And so is PayPal.
It's funny because years ago when porn started to really push online transaction (the same way it pushed VCRs and even cable TV) companies like PayPal came into existence almost exclusively to handle porn sales. The shareholder of some credit card companies complained about being in the porn business so the companies started up subsidies to pacify people.
But even porn has its limits ;).
But it's not a question of SmashWords pulling what it wants, is it? It's a question of them being forced to pull what another company wants.
I don't think this is too far away from the concerns about amazon that some have pooh-poohed here.
Once somebody dominates the whole field, they can do whatever they want, right or wrong, don't even have to do it for bottom line. This isn't a profit thing, it's enforcing ethics on others.
What if PayPal were acquired by the Emirates? Or the Vatican?
Accepting bookburning of just "bad" books is a slippery slope. Kind of like thinking it's okay to buy and sell people or pop people in ovens if they are the wrong kind of people.
Bookburning is famous for destroying books that later, or elsewhere, are thought valuable.
Nobody's defending rape books. But I think it's a worry for writers.
This is hard, and falls into the category of "just because you can do something doesn't mean you should."
PayPal is certainly free to run its business however it chooses. The real issue here is one of near monopoly. I have no interest in protecting those who write--or read for enjoyment--the kinds of stories they are requiring Smashwords to remove. Frankly, I think a rousing and graphically violent story about what should happen to those folks would be highly entertaining in its own way. It's the slippery slope we start down that worries me.
The perfect solution would be increased competition for PayPal.Then they could do what they want, and the things they didn't want to touch could be found elsewhere. In this case, probably under a rock, but that's a different argument.
Ditto on what Jon said. There are people with aberrant violent tendencies (frequently directed at women and children as victims of their violence) who feed on these books in the same way pedophiles exchange pictures of naked children in sexual situations. We send them to jail, but we publish any sort of book regardless of whom it victimizes. And let's keep in mind that porn sells. Those aren't artistic efforts. They are people being greedy.
I don't have a problem with porn--people have to make a living, and most of it's pretty harmless. And in fact fictional bestiality seems sort of goofy and harmless, too--no animals were injured in the writing of this crappy piece of prose, etc., and hey--if that's a turn-on for ya... Ditto adult step-siblings having sex--who cares? Still, the rape stuff and the pedophilia stuff is obviously problematic.
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Dwight Yoakam Performs 'Nothing But Love' on 'The Tonight Show'
Dwight Yoakam showed everyone he still has what it takes to be one of country music's most notable stars with his performance this week on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.' On Wednesday (Aug. 15), Yoakam gave his fans and peers a first taste of what they can expect from his forthcoming studio album, '3 Pears,' with a flawless performance of his song 'Nothing But Love.'
Yoakam looked the part of pure country with his signature cowboy hat tucked low over his brow, his denim jacket and his skin-tight jeans, which admittedly make us wonder how he ever gets them on and off. As he played, Yoakam strummed away on his vintage guitar and swiveled his hips and legs along to the beat of 'Nothing But Love,' impressing viewers.
Look for Yoakam's '3 Pears' album to hit stores on Sept. 18. The week following its release, the classic singer will be honored by the Academy of Country Music with the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award at the 6th Annual ACM Honors event, to be held on Sept. 24 in Nashville. The prestigious award honors individuals who are pioneers in the country music genre. Past recipients include Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Sr. and Hank Williams, Jr.
Watch Dwight Yoakam on 'The Tonight Show' (Performance at 39:00)


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NEW YORK — Rex Ryan spent part of his summer vacation running from angry bulls.
The New York Jets coach joined thousands of thrill-seekers on Sunday and Monday in the annual running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain.
The team confirmed Monday that Ryan was uninjured while participating both days in the run, which is the highlight of a nine-day street festival and is televised nationally. Ryan was there on two mostly uneventful days as there were no gorings, while six people were treated for injuries.
Ben Patton, a contestant on NBC's matchmaker show "Ready for Love," tweeted an Instagram photo http://instagram.com/p/bf6Qk0x2t5/# of himself and some friends posing with Ryan in Pamplona. A slim-looking Ryan is wearing white pants, a red T-shirt with a picture of a bull in the middle — with the words "Bad Toro" printed underneath — and a red bandana around his neck.
The sports website Deadspin posted a 17-second video Monday night of what clearly appears to be Ryan climbing a barricade, along with several other participants, moments before a bull charges down the street. It was uncertain if the video was from Ryan's run on Sunday or Monday.
The race, which lasts just over 2 minutes, takes place early in the morning as participants run with six fighting bulls along a narrow course of about 900 yards. It ends when the bulls have run from a holding pen to a city bull ring.
Ryan isn't the first football coach to race through the streets of the northern Spanish city. Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly, then the coach at Oregon, participated in the event last summer, along with wide receivers coach Scott Frost — a former Jets safety.
Ryan and the Jets report for training camp on July 25 in Cortland, N.Y.
Jets Ryan escapes gore-free
Running of the Bulls
Professional Sports
Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell signs with Raptors
Kansas State star Keyontae Johnson continues his comeback story as NBA Draft pick
From Wichita to KU, and now NBA, Gradey Dick aims to rep Kansas well
Sam McDowell: How Patrick Mahomes has forever changed the game — and his legacy — in Kansas City


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Explore the history, philosophy, and application of wilderness law and policy in the United States.This twelve-week course of study provides a comprehensive understanding of the basics of management in designated wilderness areas.This Certificate is designed for seasonal Wilderness rangers, federal personnel working near or with an interest in Wilderness Stewardship.
Learn More$410.00 -
Wilderness Stewardship Basics Certificate - Cohort Registration
Explore the history, philosophy, and application of wilderness law and policy in the United States.This sixteen-week course of study provides a comprehensive understanding of the basics of management in designated wilderness areas.This Certificate is designed for seasonal Wilderness rangers, federal personnel working near or with an interest in Wilderness Stewardship.
This Certificate is designed for seasonal Wilderness rangers and federal personnel working near Wilderness or with an interest in Wilderness Stewardship.
Learn More$495.00 -
Tourism Planning for Park and Recreation Agencies Certificate
Gain effective knowledge of the creation and use of parks and recreation assets for tourism. Learn how to set goals, analyze markets, and create and market tourism products.
Learn More$410.00 -
Public Health Fundamentals for Park and Recreation Professionals Certificate
Promote understanding of your agency's vital contribution to community health and wellness. This comprehensive program incorporates place-based assignments and five online courses including the Public Health & YOU courses developed in partnership with the Indiana University School of Public Health. Learn More$410.00 -
Park and Recreation System Master Planning Certificate
The purpose of this certificate program is to prepare park and recreation agencies to conduct a system master plan. The components can be used in several types of planning and will ultimately prepare agencies to either 1) conduct the planning process on their own, or 2) be prepared to collaborate with a contractor to facilitate the master planning process. This certificate covers the fundamentals of a system master plan according to the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA).
Learn More$350.00 -
Park and Recreation Facility Management Practices Certificate Program
Build a foundational understanding of facility management practices, particularly as they apply to parks and public lands agencies. The certificate program follows the Asset Management Process, an approach used by the National Park Service.
Learn More$410.00 -
Managing Wildlands and Wild Spaces Certificate
In this certificate you will learn the basic steps for decision making and management that are applied to federal wilderness areas, and how they can be interpreted and implemented on other, non-federal protected areas. These wildlands can benefit from the same systems and strategies the US government uses to identify the wilderness characteristics, develop plans for stewardship, manage visitor usage, and protect the natural resources.
Learn More$410.00 -
Intermediate Methods in Interpretation Certificate
Do you have a strong background and understanding of interpretation (perhaps in programming) but want to dig deeper? Do you struggle with interpretive media or writing? Are you curious about what exactly 'dialogic' interpretation means? If so, this certificate program is for you!
The Intermediate Methods in Interpretation Certificate is entirely web-based and consists of five interpretive courses each culminating with an applied assignment that relates to your organization or site. This course of study provides you with the opportunity to receive feedback from your instructor(s) who review the elements of your portfolio. Additionally, if you apply for and are accepted into the cohort-based program, you will work with a mentor who has considerable experience in the interpretive field who will guide you as you develop your intermediate skills.
Stop!Before you register for this certificate program, are you interested in completing it as part of a cohort and working with a mentor?
The Eppley Institute and the National Association for Interpretation are now recruiting applicants for our cohort that begins in January 2024. Apply online by December 1st!
If you would like to join NAI, please visit their website.
Learn More$410.00 -
Instructor Training Certificate
Provides a comprehensive overview of the underlying philosophies and theories of adult education, as well as practical application techniques for instructors, particularly as they apply to Park and Public land agencies. Learn More$410.00 -
Human Health and Natural Environments Certificate
Explore the role(s) that the parks and recreation profession can have in making connections between the natural world and human health through this self-paced certificate program.
Learn More$410.00 -
Fundamentals in Interpretation Certificate
Establish a strong foundation in the basics of interpretation. This certificate program explores the history of interpretation as a profession and provides knowledge in roving, informal interpretation, audience identification and engagement, and interpretive talks.
Learn More$410.00 -
Foundations of Accessibility Certificate Program
Establish a strong foundation in the physical and programmatic components of accessibility compliance. This certificate program explores disability and accessibility as a social construct and provides knowledge in disability awareness concepts, program access, universal design, and guidelines and standards for accessible design.
Learn More$410.00 -
First-Line Supervisors Management Certificate Program
Gain skills in developing competencies and managing staff with competencies in mind.
Learn More$410.00 -
Capital Improvement Certificate
The Capital Improvement Certificate provides the learner with a foundational understanding of capital improvement projects, financing of capital improvements, site plans for capital projects, and project management.
Learn More$410.00


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Quick Trim Flap Discs Reduce Labor and Material Costs
September 1, 2011Comments
Abrasives manufacturer Norton, Worcester, MA, a brand of Saint-Gobain, has introduced two new Quick Trim flap discs for the metal-fabricating industry, the SG Blaze R980P and TwinStar Quick Trim. Both feature a new, flexible and easily trimmed plastic backing plate, allowing full use of the flaps. Operators can trim the backing to expose the flaps and optimize product life. This reduces materials costs by allowing 100 percent of the abrasive material to be consumed.
SG Blaze R980P Type 27 flap discs feature the latest generation ceramic-alumina abrasive grain and an improved supersize grinding aid to provide prolonged life on stainless steel, cobalt, chrome, Inconel, titanium and other difficult-to-grind materials. TwinStar Type 27 flap discs are engineered for light stock removal, blending and finishing, all in one application. Use them to finish mild-carbon steels and other ferrous materials.
View Glossary of Metalforming Terms
See also: Norton Abrasives
Technologies: Finishing


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The synthetic light soda ash made by Tata Chemicals North America is a key input in several industries.
Soda ash is an essential ingredient in many familiar products such as glass, soap, powdered detergent, paper, textiles and even food. In fact, it is such a basic material that government and commerce agencies apply soda ash production statistics to gauge the health of an economy.
Tata Chemicals North America makes high-quality soda ash that is in demand by several industries in the US as well as the export market. The soda ash produced in the US is natural soda ash, which requires much less energy, capital and raw materials than synthetic soda ash production, and is a significantly less-costly process.
More information


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There is no need to ask why anybody would want to write a plugin for WordPress. It's one of the primary features that makes WordPress so flexible and a good fit for a wide range of projects. In the first part of our series we created the base for a WordPress plugin recognisible by the core. Then, in the second part we learnt how to alter the default functionality of the core. Today we're going to look at plugin options. This is one of the most common tasks that plugins need to perform.
Commonly you will need to create a set of parameters (options) and give the user the ability to assign appropriate values to them. Values are stored in the database and can be retrieved on request. The plugin will normally perform different actions based on these values, produce different output for example.
What tools does WordPress give us to make this scenario possible? It allows us to register options with the system and retrieve them by assigned ID - The Options API is responsible for that. WordPress also provides a Settings API to create an admin GUI for options dialogues. Apart from that it allows us to add custom items into the admin menu so that the plugin can have its own settings page. Finally, WordPress takes care of plugin security and provides a set of capabilities and cleaning methods to handle user input safely.
Let's take a detailed look at each part.
Options API
The Options API is a standardized way of storing custom data in the database. All the data is saved in the wp_options table under a given custom name and can be accessed by it from somewhere in the code. The most important functions of the API are:
<?php get_option('opting_name'); ?>
<?php update_option('option_name', $new_value); ?>
The get_option function simply extracts from the database any information stored under a given name and returns it. The function update_option takes an option name and its value and updates the corresponding entry in the database. If there is no such entry it will be created automatically. Both functions can operate with arrays as well as single values. That means you can store array data under a single name in the database and the API will handle serialization and mineralization actions for you. That's a recommended practice for plugins: store all plugin options as an array under a single name.
Plugin options' page
You can create a settings page or group of pages for your plugin in the admin menu. If you are creating a group of pages you should add a top level page first:
<?php add_menu_page( $page_title, $menu_title, $capability, $menu_slug, $output_function, $icon_url, $position ); ?>
The parameter values are self-explanatory but you can refer to the source for details. Now you have to add internal pages one by one in the following manner:
<?php add_submenu_page( $parent_slug, $page_title, $menu_title, $capability, $menu_slug, $function ); ?>
As a $parent_slug parameter you have to use the ID of the top level page — in the case of a custom top level page it's the value you provided as $menu_slug upon registration. If you don't need several pages you can create a single settings page under one of existing top-level sections — commonly under "Settings" (options-general.php should be used as the $parent_slug). Alternatively there is are shortcut functions for adding subpages under certain admin menu items, in the case of "Settings" it's add_options_page().
Settings API
The Settings API allows you to create an interface to manage the plugin's settings; mark a page as a settings page (to process input automatically) and output sections on that page and fields inside each section for accepting user input. To achieve that your first goal is to register settings with the system and create section-fields structure for them:
<?php register_setting($option_group, $option_name, $sanitise_callback); ?>
<?php add_settings_section( $id, $title, $callback, $page ); ?>
<?php add_settings_field( $id, $title, $callback, $page, $section, $args ); ?>
Refer to the Codex for a detailed description of the parameters, but the logic is quite simple: first of all, we register our options name (if there are a lot of options, they could be organised into groups); then we register section(s) with an internal ID and set of fields for each section; the API gives us the ability to specify custom callbacks for input validation and for displaying each field and section.
After registering our options and corresponding fields we have to display them on the settings page — the following functions have to be called inside the <form> tag:
<?php settings_fields($option_group); ?>
<?php do_settings_sections($page); ?>
The settings_fields function takes care of obligatory hidden fields for the native WordPress options mechanism to work. The do_settings_sections actually outputs previously registered sections and fields.
Security considerations
The fundamental security rule when dealing with options is very simple: clean the input, escape the output and take care of capabilities. In other words, if you accept input from a user, you have to check that its format is correct and does not include malicious content (that's validation), after that you can pass the data for further processing. When displaying data extracted from the database, it should be escaped to output special characters (especially HTML) properly. For both tasks WordPress provides native functions that can be used in different contexts (read more on the subject here).
Another point of concern is the users' permissions. WordPress has built-in mechanism controlling users' roles and capabilities that blocks access to certain admin areas for users with insufficient permissions. Only admins are allowed everywhere. When creating options pages you have to assign correct capabilities to them (normally it's 'manage_options') and do not allow users with low privileges to access the page (for more information about WordPress roles and capabilities please refer to the Codex).
Put it all into work
Let's see the whole scenario in action.
We'll continue to develop our 'Hello World' example (started in the previous parts of the series) that displays guest author's information under a post with the help of custom taxonomy.
The author's block markup was previously hard coded into the plugin. Now we are going to give a user the ability to specify a template for that markup using placeholders for author-specific data (name, url and description). Our plugin already has two includable PHP files: core.php (containing the main code) and admin.php (containing admin-related code).
What changes do we need to make?
1. Create a plugin options page (in admin.php)
/* register menu item */
function msp_helloworld_admin_menu_setup(){
'Helloworld Settings',
add_action('admin_menu', 'msp_helloworld_admin_menu_setup'); //menu setup
/* display page content */
function msp_helloworld_admin_page_screen() {
global $submenu;
// access page settings
$page_data = array();
foreach($submenu['options-general.php'] as $i => $menu_item) {
if($submenu['options-general.php'][$i][2] == 'msp_helloworld')
$page_data = $submenu['options-general.php'][$i];
// output

<?php screen_icon();?>

<?php echo $page_data[3];?>

<form id="msp_helloworld_options" action="options.php" method="post">
submit_button('Save options', 'primary', 'msp_helloworld_options_submit');
/* settings link in plugin management screen */
function msp_helloworld_settings_link($actions, $file) {
if(false !== strpos($file, 'msp-helloworld'))
$actions['settings'] = 'Settings';
return $actions;
add_filter('plugin_action_links', 'msp_helloworld_settings_link', 2, 2);
In this snippet msp_helloworld_admin_menu_setup creates a subpage under the 'Settings' menu (it should be executed on the 'admin_menu' action hook to work correctly). Then we output the settings form with msp_helloworld_admin_page_screen. It uses the Settings API functions for fields and pre-built WordPress functions for other elements of the interface (like the submit button). Note the action attribute of the <form> tag: it should point to 'options.php' to process options correctly. Finally, msp_helloworld_settings_link filter creates a shortcut link to the options page on the plugin management screen.
2. Register plugin options with the system and create fields and rules for them
/* register settings */
function msp_helloworld_settings_init(){
'Author\'s box',
add_action('admin_init', 'msp_helloworld_settings_init');
/* validate input */
function msp_helloworld_options_validate($input){
global $allowedposttags, $allowedrichhtml;
$input['authorbox_template'] = wp_kses_post($input['authorbox_template']);
return $input;
/* description text */
function msp_helloworld_authorbox_desc(){
echo "
Enter the template markup for author box using placeholders: [gauthor_name], [gauthor_url], [gauthor_desc] for name, URL and description of author correspondingly.
";
/* filed output */
function msp_helloworld_authorbox_field() {
$options = get_option('msp_helloworld_options');
$authorbox = (isset($options['authorbox_template'])) ? $options['authorbox_template'] : '';
$authorbox = esc_textarea($authorbox); //sanitise output
<textarea id="authorbox_template" name="msp_helloworld_options[authorbox_template]" cols="50" rows="5" class="large-text code">
<?php echo $authorbox;?>
I should point out that all plugin options should be stored as an array. Despite the fact that we only have one option (authorbox_template), we include it in an array and the corresponding field into the section for demonstration purposes. The registration function msp_helloworld_settings_init should be executed on the 'admin_init' hook. The function msp_helloworld_options_validate takes care of user input by cleaning it with the native wp_kses_post filter that relies on the KSES library. The function msp_helloworld_authorbox_desc creates a description for the form's section and msp_helloworld_authorbox_field outputs a textarea to handle inputted markup. Note that we assign the CSS classes "large-text code" to it so that built-in admin styling is applied.
All this produces the following screen in the WordPress admin panel.
3. Modify the function that outputs author's box (in core.php)
We do this so that it gets the template from the database and replaces placeholder data ([gauthor_name], [gauthor_url], [gauthor_desc]) with the corresponding values.
/* Create author's box markup */
function msp_helloworld_author_block(){
global $post;
$author_terms = wp_get_object_terms($post->ID, 'gauthor');
$name = stripslashes($author_terms[0]->name);
$url = esc_url(get_term_link($author_terms[0]));
$desc = wp_filter_post_kses($author_terms[0]->description);
//get template from option
$options = get_option('msp_helloworld_options');
$out = (isset($options['authorbox_template'])) ? $options['authorbox_template'] : '';
$out = str_replace(
array('[gauthor_url]', '[gauthor_name]', '[gauthor_desc]'),
array($url, $name, $desc),
return $out;
Finally, our plugin (after applying some styles) produces a nice guest author's box under post content.
Storing and accessing option data is a very common task, that a lot of plugins need to perform. Through the options mechanism you can provide your users with the ability to tune the plugin to their needs (which they will certainly appreciate). Even developing for yourself you may need a way to store details of a particular installation. Relying on native WordPress APIs and functions when solving such tasks is a good way to create maintainable, secure and future-proof code.
What sort of plugins would you like to see available for WordPress? Have you built your own using this series? Let us know in the comments below.
Featured image uses module image via Shutterstock


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Outrage over the Supreme Court's decision in the Hobby Lobby case reached fever pitch this week as congressional Democrats prepared to introduce legislation to reverse the ruling.
"Your health care decisions are not your boss's business," Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., told The New York Times. "Since the Supreme Court decided it will not protect women's access to health care, I will."
Of course, any attempt to reverse Hobby Lobby will fail in the House of Representatives. So Democrats are looking to the midterm elections – already sending fundraising appeals headlined "Supreme Court decides that corporate rights trump women's rights."
Before going off that deep end, let's all take a deep breath – and take a closer look at what the high court did and did not do.
I would argue that the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores is neither the all-out assault on women's rights alleged by some on the left – nor the major expansion of religious freedom trumpeted by many on the right.
Instead, the Hobby Lobby ruling is a narrowly tailored attempt to balance the conscience claims of religious owners of closely held businesses against the government's interest in ensuring that employees of those businesses receive health coverage, including full access to contraception services.
True, the Court's finding that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) protects closely held corporations breaks some new ground.
"Protecting the free-exercise rights of corporations like Hobby Lobby," argues Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion, "protects the religious liberty of the humans who own and control those companies."
In a strongly worded dissent joined by three other justices, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg argues that religious owners of businesses like Hobby Lobby must comply with the contraception mandate. Recognizing closely held corporations as "persons" protected by RFRA, says the dissent, allows religious employers to impose their beliefs on employees – and opens the door to endless lawsuits over a parade of claims for religious exemptions.
But, as Justice Alito takes pains to explain, the Hobby Lobby decision "is concerned solely with the contraceptive mandate." In most other instances, the government will have compelling interests such as health and safety that will trump religious claims for exemption when no less-restrictive alternative is available.
What tips the scale in favor of Hobby Lobby in this case, in the view of the Court's majority, is the fact that the government has already provided an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious objections to the contraceptive mandate.
Writing for the majority, Justice Alito acknowledges that the government may have a compelling interest in full health coverage for women. But if the government can accomplish that interest and simultaneously protect religious conscience – as it has done with religious nonprofits – then the government must make the accommodation.
That's exactly what's going to happen. In the wake of Hobby Lobby, the Obama administration will create a work-around for closely held corporations with religious objections to some forms of contraception – modeled on the one already in place for religious nonprofits (in which, for example, the insurer excludes contraceptive coverage from the employer's plan and provides separate payments for contraceptive services).
The result will be a win-win: Religious owners will be protected; women employees will be fully covered.
This outcome, I believe, best upholds American principles and ideals. Striking a balance between religious claims of conscience and laws designed to serve the common good is a balancing act as old as the Republic.
From the founding period when Quakers were exempted from military service to more recent accommodations for Amish families to withdraw their children from school at age 14, for adult Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse blood transfusions, and for Native Americans to use peyote in religious ceremonies (to name but a few), the United States has long been one of the rare nations in the world to take claims of religious conscience seriously.
It's sometimes complicated and often messy – but protecting religious freedom is what makes America a haven for the cause of conscience.
Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20001. Web: religiousfreedomcenter.org. Email: [email protected].


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Paul McCartney / Say Say Say Limited Record Store Day 12-inch
Concord Music are to issue a limited edition 12-inch vinyl single of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's 1983 hit single Say Say Say for Black Friday Record Store Day.
The A-side will feature the 2015 remix which debuted on this year's Pipes of Peace deluxe edition, while the B-side will feature a remastered version of the original seven-minute Jellybean instrumental which was on the B-side of the original 12-inch, but notable by its absence on the Pipes reissue (as was Jellybean's A-side 12-inch remix). Both of the Jellybean original remixes remain unreleased on CD.
This new single will be pressed on transparent vinyl (nice!) and will be a limited edition of 3500. It is released on November 27 for Black Friday Record Store Day, but since that doesn't really exist outside of the US/Canada there is some availability online in Europe at present (see links below).
A-side: Say Say Say (2015 Remix)
B-side: Say Say Say (Instrumental)


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Phoenix gunman found dead of apparent suicide
February 1, 2013
Jacques Billeaud
Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — A man who shot and killed a call-center CEO and critically wounded a lawyer at a Phoenix office building where they were meeting to discuss a contract dispute was found dead early Thursday, ending a nearly 24-hour manhunt that had area residents on edge.
A landscaper found the body of Arthur Douglas Harmon among some bushes in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. Harmon, 70, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
A handgun was found near his body, and a rented Kia Optima sedan that he drove from Wednesday's shooting scene was located in a nearby parking lot.
Authorities had been searching for Harmon since Wednesday morning, when they say he drew a gun and shot two men at the end of a mediation session at a north-central Phoenix office building.
Steve Singer, 48, died hours later. Mark Hummels, 43, with the Phoenix law firm Osborn Maledon, was in critical condition. A 32-year-old woman also was shot, but her injuries were not life-threatening.
"We believe the two men were the targets," Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said. "It was not a random shooting."
Harmon also fired at someone who tried to follow him to get his license plate number, authorities said.
Singer was the CEO of Scottsdale-based Fusion Contact Centers LLC, which had hired Harmon to refurbish office cubicles at two call centers in California.
According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in a lawsuit he filed against Fusion in April.
Fusion said Harmon was paid nearly $30,000 under the $47,000 contract. But the company asked him to repay much of the money when it discovered the cubicles could not be refurbished, according to the documents.
Harmon argued Fusion hung him out to dry by telling him to remove and store 206 "worthless" work stations after the mix-up was discovered. Harmon said Fusion then told him that the company decided to use a competitor.
Harmon's lawsuit had sought payment for the remainder of the contract, $20,000 in damages and reimbursement for storage fees and legal costs.
Hummels represented Fusion in the lawsuit. Harmon represented himself.
The shooting took place in the building where pro tempore Judge Ira Schwartz, who scheduled the mediation, has an office.
The response to the shooting first centered on that building — home to insurance, medical and law offices — but soon spread to a north-Phoenix home and a central-Phoenix high rise where Hummels' office is located.
SWAT teams and two armored vehicles surrounded the house. Police served a search warrant to enter the home, which county property records show was sold by Harmon to his son last year for $26,000.
For a time, officers used a megaphone to ask Harmon to surrender, believing he might be inside the residence.
Harmon's body eventually was found near a shopping area about 14 miles from the office building where Wednesday's shooting occurred. Police didn't immediately know how long it had been there.
The shooting took place on the same day that hearings on legislation to address gun violence were convened in Washington, with former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords testifying for stricter gun controls. A gunman shot Giffords in the head during a shooting rampage in Tucson in January 2011.


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June 3–September 11, 2004
In 2001 Ann Telnaes became the second woman ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. One of the few women in this highly competitive field, Telnaes creates some of today's boldest political cartoons. Humor's Edge celebrates Ann Telnaes's generous gift to the Library of Congress of eighty-one original drawings that represent the range of themes that engage this gifted artist who has recently emerged as a leader in American editorial cartooning. An artist who bravely criticizes the actions and words of powerful public figures, Telnaes takes stands on complex, divisive issues and affirms the editorial cartoon as a potent means of expressing opinions and illuminating issues of the day.
All drawings are gifts of the artist and are preserved in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. They are protected by copyright.
This exhibition was made possible with funds provided by the Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Fund for Caricature and Cartoon.


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PalMod - Paleo Modelling
(Isotope data for Greenland ice core)PalMod is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF) to understand climate system dynamics and variability during the last glacial cycle. Specific topics are:
- to identify and quantify the relative contributions of the fundamental processes which determined the Earth's climate trajectory and variability during the last glacial cycle,
- to simulate with comprehensive Earth System Models (ESMs) the climate from the peak of the last interglacial (the Eemian warm period) up to the present, including the changes in the spectrum of variability, and
- to assess possible future climate trajectories beyond this century during the next millennia with sophisticated ESMs tested in such a way.
The envisioned approach is innovative in three respects. First, the consortium aims at simulating a full glacial cycle in transient mode and with comprehensive ESMs which allow full interactions between the physical and biogeochemical components of the Earth system, including ice sheets. Second, we shall address climate variability during the last glacial cycle on a large range of time scales, from interannual to multi-millennial, and attempt to quantify the relative contributions of external forcing and processes internal to the Earth system to climate variability at different time scales. Third, in order to achieve a higher level of understanding of natural climate variability at time scales of millennia, its governing processes and implications for the future climate, we bring together three different research communities: the Earth system modeling community, the proxy data community and the computational science community.
The research is intended to be conducted over a period of 10 years, but with shorter funding cycles.
Expected major outcomes of the first phase (8/2015-7/2019):
- Transient simulations of the last termination with ESMs.
- Transient simulations of biogeochemistry through the last deglaciation using ESMs including dust sources and transport models.
- Comprehensive data synthesis of paleoclimatic conditions during the last glacial cycle, associated with explicit estimates of uncertainty.
- Improved run-time performance of ESMs


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The imageCLASS MF5950dw combines professional-quality multifunction capabilities with features that help businesses save time and money, making it the perfect device for today's small business owners.
Featuring a 50-sheet Duplex Auto Document Feeder (DADF), 250-sheet cassette plus 50-sheet multipurpose tray, and an optional 500-sheet paper cassette pedestal and handling paper sizes up to legal10, the MF5950dw delivers print speeds of up to 35 pages per minute single-sided and 17 pages per minute double-sided in black and white11. With Canon's Quick First Print Technology, your first print arrives in approximately 6 seconds.
The MF5950dw is also outfitted with cost-saving tools such as all-mode auto duplex functionality, energy-saving technologies and Department ID Management, which enables you to set limits on who can use the machine and how much they can print, copy or scan. You will be able to manage the device from your desk through an embedded web server (Remote UI), which will give you the freedom to view and modify network settings or retrieve an activity log. With built-in Fax Forwarding and Send functionality, the MF5950dw allows you to send incoming faxes, internet faxes and scanned documents to an email address, network folder or another fax number. For on-the-go users, the MF5950dw offers a USB port to facilitate scanning files directly to, or print files directly from a USB drive.
With built-in wireless you'll have the freedom to conveniently send print jobs to your device from any location in your home or small office7. The MF5950dw has a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) option for a one-touch connection to simplify the task of connecting your device to a wireless network. Furthermore, you'll reduce wiring clutter and help prevent security breaches with WEP and WPA-PSK.
The MF5950dw uses approximately 3 watts of energy during Energy Saving Mode and meets Energy Star guidelines, saving you money on energy costs. And like many imageCLASS products, it is part of the Generation Green program, Canon's initiative to reduce environmental burdens in all stages of a product's life-cycle.
© 2024 Canon U.S.A., Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. |


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Terhorne (Friesland, Netherlands)
Terhorne (in old documents often called Terhorne in Waterland), a village in the Dutch province of Friesland, the seat of a Mennonite congregation, which according to Blaupot ten Cate was founded before 1550; this early date is, however, questionable. Leenaert Bouwens baptized 30 persons here in 1561-66, and it is supposed that the letter of 1 September 1557(?), by Menno Simons, Letter to the Brethren in Waterhorne, was addressed to the Mennonites of Terhorne.
There is not much information about the Terhorne congregation. About 1713 it joined the Sociëteit of Mennonite congregations in Friesland. The congregation, whose members were mostly farmers and skippers with some fishermen, was until the end of the 18th century rather conservative as to living and dress: in 1765 a woman was not admitted to communion because she wore a gold cap (oorijzer).
The present meetinghouse was dedicated on 24 September 1865. An organ was installed in 1907, replaced in 1939. The parsonage, still in use, was a gift of the H. W. van der Velde family in 1855.
Until 1782 the congregation was served by preachers chosen from its own members; then (lay) preachers were called in from outside, one of whom, Oeds Roelofs Dantuma, a baker, served with great blessing from 1791 to 1836. The first pastor of Terhorne educated at the Amsterdam Mennonite Seminary was Jan Hendrik Akkerman, serving 1837-39; he was followed by Pieter Overbeek 1841-67, H. G. Dornseiffen 1867-1902, J. Koster 1902-5, A. Stiel 1905-9, G. A. Hulshoff 1910-13, A. de Vries Mzn 1914-35, J. W. Sipkema 1938-42, J. P. Keuning 1942-45, F. H. Sixma 1945-48, P. Messie 1949-53, and Miss J. Gorter 1954- . Among the church activities are a Sunday school for children and ladies' circle.
Cate, Steven Blaupot ten. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Friesland. Leeuwarden: W. Eekhoff, 1839: 89, 94, 189, 226, 248, 252, 254, 306.
The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, c. 1496-1561, trans. Leonard Verduin, ed. J. C. Wenger. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1956: 1055.
Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1861): 142.
Opera Omnia Theologica, of alle de Godtgeleerde wercken van Menno Simons. Amsterdam: By Joannes van Veen, boecken pargament-verkooper, 1681: 392.
Reliwiki. "Terherne, Buorren 35 - Doopsgezinde Vermaning." 14 June 2014. Web. 15 October 2014. http://reliwiki.nl/index.php/Terhorne,_Buorren_35_-_Doopsgezinde_Vermaning.
Additional Information
Congregation: Doopsgezinde Gemeente Mid-Fryslân: Terhorne/Terherne
Address: Buorren 35-37, 8493 LC Terhorne/Terherne, Netherlands
Telephone: 0566-689550
Church website: Doopsgezinde Gemeente Mid-Fryslân: Terhorne/Terherne
Denominational affiliation:
Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit
Doopsgezinde Gemeente Mid-Fryslân: Terhorne/Terherne Membership
Year | Members |
1713 | 110 |
1738 | 125 |
1838 | 119 |
1861 | 128 |
1901 | 144 |
1958 | 86 |
The baptized membership, numbering some 110 about 1713 and 125 in 1738, was 119 in 1838, 128 in 1861, 144 in 1901, and 86 in 1958.
Map:Doopsgezinde Gemeente Mid-Fryslân: Terhorne/Terherne
Author(s) | Nanne van der Zijpp |
Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Terhorne (Friesland, Netherlands)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 26 Feb 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Terhorne_(Friesland,_Netherlands)&oldid=126249.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Terhorne (Friesland, Netherlands). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 26 February 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Terhorne_(Friesland,_Netherlands)&oldid=126249.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, pp. 696-697. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.