text:
The junior middleweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez of Mexico this past Saturday in Las Vegas had a national rating of 41.1 points in Mexico, which equates to 77-percent share, a record for a boxing event televised in Mexico.
The numbers mean some 22.1 million viewed the bout in Mexico on Televisa.
Mayweather won via majority decision.
Pay-per-view numbers in the U.S. have yet to be released by Showtime.


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Historic Centre of the Town of Goiás
Historic Centre of the Town of Goiás
Goiás testifies to the occupation and colonization of the lands of central Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries. The urban layout is an example of the organic development of a mining town, adapted to the conditions of the site. Although modest, both public and private architecture form a harmonious whole, thanks to the coherent use of local materials and vernacular techniques.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Centre historique de la ville de Goiás
Goiás constitue un témoignage de l'occupation et de la colonisation de l'intérieur du Brésil aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Sa conception urbaine est caractéristique des villes minières à développement organique, adaptées aux réalités de l'environnement. Bien que modeste, l'architecture des bâtiments publics et privés n'en présente pas moins une grande harmonie, fruit, entre autres, d'un emploi cohérent des matériaux et des techniques vernaculaires.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
الوسط التاريخي لمدينة غويياس
تشهد مدينة غويياس على إحتلال الداخل البرازيلي واستعماره في القرنين الثامن عشر والتاسع عشر. وقد صُمّمت على غرار المدن المنجمية ذات التطور العضوي والمتكيّفة والوقائع البيئية. وتظهر المباني العامة والخاصة، في هندستها البسيطة، تناغماً هائلاً لعلّه ثمرة الإستخدام المتناسق للمعدات والتقنيات الوطنية.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Исторический центр города Гояс
Город Гояс – свидетель освоения и колонизации центральной части Бразилии в XVIII-XIX веках. Планировка города является примером органичного развития шахтерского поселения, хорошо приспособленного к условиям местности. Общественная и частная архитектура города скромна, но образует гармоничное целое благодаря использованию местных материалов и традиционных приемов строительства.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Centro histórico de la ciudad de Goiás
Goiás constituye un testimonio de la ocupación y colonización del interior de Brasil en los siglos XVIII y XIX. Su diseño urbano es característico de las ciudades mineras de desarrollo orgánico, adaptadas a su entorno. Aunque modesta, la arquitectura de sus edificios públicos y privados presenta una gran armonía, que es fruto, entre otros factores, de un empleo coherente de materiales y técnicas locales.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
ブラジル中部、ゴイアス州南部にあり、18~19世紀における中部ブラジルの植民地化の証跡を顕著に残す植民都市。歴史地区では南米中部の風土・地理・文化と適応したヨーロッパ的建築物が多く残っており、また、鉱山町らしい典型的な都市構造をもっている。公共建造物、私有建造物ともに、簡素な造りではあるが一貫して現地の材料や伝統技術を採用していることによって、都市全体が調和のとれた景観になっている。source: NFUAJ
Historisch centrum van Goiás
De stad Goiás getuigt van de bezetting en kolonisatie van de centraal Braziliaanse landsdelen tijdens de 18e en 19e eeuw. Het stedenbouwkundige ontwerp toont de organische ontwikkeling van een mijnstadje, aangepast aan de omgevingsomstandigheden. De architectuur van het bescheiden stadje vormt een harmonieus geheel dankzij het coherente gebruik van lokale materialen en eigentijdse technieken. Goiás is gebouwd tussen heuvels en ligt langs de rivier Rio Vermelho. De oprichting van de stad is nauw verbonden met de expedities (bandeiras) vanuit São Paulo om het Braziliaanse binnenland te verkennen. In 1682 werd goud gevonden tijdens het verkennen van de regio van Goiás.
Source: unesco.nl
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The Historic Centre of the Town of Goiás is built between two series of hills, along a small river, the Rio Vermelho. The areas on the right bank are tight up against the north-western hills, and have a popular character, indicated by the church of Rosario, which was traditionally reserved for slaves. The areas on the left bank, limited by the hills to the south-east, are reserved for the more representative groups of buildings, including the parish church (today the cathedral) of Santana, the Governor's Palace, the barracks, the Casa de Fundição (foundry), extending to the Praça do Chafariz and climbing towards the hill of Chapeu do Padre. Here are also to be found the historic residential quarter and a characteristic market place.The urban layout is an example of the organic development of a mining town, adapted to the conditions of the site. Although modest, both public and private architecture form a harmonious whole, due to the coherent use of local materials and vernacular techniques.
Goiás testifies to the occupation and colonization of the lands of central Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries. The origins of the town of Goiás are closely related with the history of the more or less official expeditions (bandeiras), which left from São Paulo to explore the interior of the Brazilian territory. It was the first officially recognized urban core, the first borough to be planned West of the demarcation line of the Treaty of Tordesillas that defined the boundaries of the Portuguese possessions.
Criterion (ii): In its layout and architecture the Historic Center of the Town of Goiás is an outstanding example of a European town admirably adapted to the climatic, geographical and cultural constraints of central South America. This is demonstrated by the urban plan adapted to the topography either side of the river, the architectural features and layouts, materials and building techniques.
Criterion (iv): The Historic Center of the Town of Goiás represents the evolution of a form of urban structure and architecture characteristic of the colonial settlement of South America, making full use of local materials and techniques and conserving its exceptional setting. It is the last remaining example of the occupation of the interior of Brazil, as it was practiced in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Historic Center of the Town of Goiás is characterized by the harmony of its architecture, due to the proportions and types of buildings.
The Historic Center of the Town of Goiás went through a long period of stagnation from the 19th century until recent times. Its townscape has therefore not been subject to any major changes in modern times. Otherwise, it is a good example of the appearance of the mining town of the 18th and 19th centuries, including its natural environment, which has remained intact. The few constructions that have taken place since the 19th century have been made using for the most part traditional techniques and building materials, or their size and architectural expression do not jeopardize the integrity of the place.
The Historic Center of the Town of Goiás and its hinterland bear a rich cultural tradition that includes not only architecture and construction techniques but also music, poetry, gastronomy, and popular events. Many of these traditions continue and form a substantial part of the cultural identity of Goiás. The historic centre has an important meaning for the local community, not only on account of its urban and architectural values but also for its rich social and cultural life. The relatively modest development of tourism reinforces the genuineness and authenticity of these cultural manifestations. For that reason, the Historic Center of the Town of Goiás is considered to have well preserved its historical authenticity.
Protection and management requirements
The applicable legislation governing the protection of the Historic Center heritage site is set out in the Brazilian Federal Constitution (1988), in particular articles 20, 23-24, 30, 182, 215-216, and 225. In 1978, the Historic Center of the Town of Goiás was designated a federal heritage site by the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional – IPHAN), although individual structures had been protected since the 1950s. At the federal level, protected heritage properties are governed by Decree-Law 259 (1937) and IPHAN Directive 001 (1993). In response to the recommendations of the International Council on Monuments and Sites – ICOMOS, the protected perimeter was expanded in 2003 to include an additional 300 properties and 6 urban farmsteads which surround the city to form a "green belt" of protection. In 2010, IPHAN issued Directive 187, which sets forth the procedures for investigating and ascertaining administrative violations arising from conduct and activities that cause damage to the architectural heritage. In addition, the Historic Center of the Town of Goiás is protected at the state and municipal levels through State Law 8915 (1980) and Municipal Law 206 (1996), respectively. Review of the city's Master Plan is still pending.
IPHAN's Goiás Technical Office has primary responsibility for day-to-day enforcement of the heritage site, a task accomplished primarily through ongoing monitoring and surveillance of the site. Staff of the agency's Goiás State Superintendence conduct regular visits to the city, providing the local Technical Office with the necessary support.
In regard to the flooding that affected the Historic Center of the Town of Goiás less than a month after its designation as a World Heritage Site, specific guidance from ICOMOS provided invaluable support to the effort to address specific cases of cultural properties found in degraded and poor condition, spurring the execution of emergency repair work and subsequent rehabilitation of structures damaged by the disaster. Surviving knowledge and continuing use of traditional construction techniques by local builders has been central to maintaining the integrity of the site. All measures to date have been conducted in exemplary fashion by the working group established under IPHAN and the related goals and objectives fully achieved.
Significant urban restoration and rehabilitation efforts have been implemented with budget resources from IPHAN and the Monumenta Program. Indeed, the financial resources extended through the Program to privately owned properties have played a particularly significant role in enhancing the city's urban framework. Moreover, IPHAN has provided a crucial contribution by training qualified personnel in restoration and refurbishment work, while indirectly contributing to job creation in the city through the contracting of public projects. Educational initiatives have also been sponsored with a view to transforming the local population into a primary guardian of local cultural heritage, guided by the recognition that this objective is inextricably bound to the local community's knowledge and understanding of that heritage. In late 2009, the federal government launched the Growth Acceleration Program for Historical Cities (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento para as Cidades Históricas – PAC-CH), which encompasses the city of Goiás. The program serves as an important management tool, through which guidelines, measures, and goals aimed at fostering integrated action within the pertinent government agencies in coordination with organized civil society are set forth based on a clearly defined strategic plan. In particular, the measures seek to endow historical cities with the means to adapt themselves to the needs of contemporary life while preserving their cultural heritage.
Current challenges include promoting enhanced coordination between government agencies and civil society organizations to address the cultural issues associated with the environmental context in which the city is embedded.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hard Row is a small boutique winery on the north shore of Lake Chelan in picturesque Manson, Washington. Their southwest facing vineyard looks out over the lake and the peaks of the North Cascade Mountains which provide the clear, glacial water to irrigate the vines.
Hard Row is dedicated to the production of ultra-premium wines from estate grapes as well as from designated vineyards across Washington. They focus on seeking out unfamiliar varietals from lesser-known vineyards, as well as from the Lake Chelan AVA, Washington\'s smallest appellation. The winemaking philosophy is one of letting the fruit speak for itself through the use of gentle handling techniques, as little manipulation as possible and the prudent use of new oak.
The Hard Row name celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of a man who ran a row boat taxi service on Lake Chelan in the 1930's ferrying miners by rowboat to a brothel located at Point Lovely. Nectar Tasting Room is excited to share the Hard Row to Hoe wine with you. We encourage you to visit the Chelan area, but until then, stop by and experience the Hard Row story.
Meet the owners, Judy and Don Phelps
Don, who manages the vineyard, has a Master\'s Degree in Civil Engineering from Washington State University specializing in water resources and works in his private practice in Chelan. Don is a Board member for the Columbia Cascade Winery Association.
Winemaker Judy Phelps has a Master of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Connecticut Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. She retired from her corporate career in research and development at Pfizer, Inc. in 2006. Judy completed the Winemaking Certificate program at the University of California at Davis in July 2006. She is a past President of the Lake Chelan Wine Grape Growers association and still sits on the Board for that organization.
The Wine at Nectar Tasting Room
2006 Syrah $32- Big bold and spicy. This Syrah is perfect with spicy pork ribs. It starts smooth and provides aromas of bacon, campfire, bright plums, and pepper.
2099 Pinot Gris $18- Lower alcohol wine that makes the perfect afternoon sipper. It has zippy acidity with pineapple and honey flavors along with some earth and mineral notes. Light and refreshing
Non-Vintage Pinot Noir $30- The wine is a medium ruby red with aromas of cedar, red cherry and raspberry. Medium bodied, spicy and smooth textured, it has ample sweet fruit and good varietal character.
2007 Primitivo $32 – Big bold and delicious filled with fruit, minimal oak and tannins, exotic spices and a finish that goes on forever. Genetically identical to Zinfandel. Hard Row is one of the few wineries in the state producing this wine.
2007 Cabernet Franc $35- Dark cherry, currant, ground black pepper flavors open up to a broad palate and a soft finish. This glides over the tongue like silk and pairs beautifully with seafood and poultry as well as heartier red meat dishes.
2007 Iron Bed Red Blend $28- 40% Cab Sauv, 40% Cab Franc, 10% Zinfandel and 10% Syrah – rated \"Excellent\" by Wine Press Northwest Magazine. This lively and balanced wine displays red currants, boysenberries, cordial cherries, pouch tobacco, and baker\'s chocolate.
2007 Shameless Hussy Barbera $24- Good acid with slightly tart cranberry and blueberry that make it a perfect pairing for Italian dishes. Blended with 25% Merlot
2009 Shameless Hussy Sangiovese Rose $22- Dry fruity, tart and refreshing. Like drinking strawberries. The wine is versatile and will pair well with many styles of food. Try it with smoked fish, beef stew or even wasabi peas.


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Industry-sponsored economic studies in oncology versus studies sponsored by non-profit organizations
Suche in Medline nach
Veröffentlicht: | 30. September 2004 |
Context and Aim of the Study
The purpose of this analysis of health economic studies in the field of oncology was to investigate among sponsored studies whether any relationship could be established between type of sponsorship and: (1) type of economic analysis, (2) health technology assessed, (3) sensitivity analysis performed, (4) publication status, and (5) qualitative conclusions about costs.
Material and Methods
The Health Economic Evaluations Database (HEED, Version 1995-2002) was searched on the basis of oncological ICD-9 codes, sponsorship, and comparative studies. This search yielded a total of 150 eligible articles. Their evaluations were prepared independently by two investigators on the basis of specific criteria. When evaluators disagreed, a third investigator provided a deciding evaluation.
There was no statistically significant relationship between type of sponsorship and sensitivity analysis performed (p = 0.29) or publication status (p = 0.08). However, we found a significant relationship between the types of sponsorship and of economic analysis (p = 0.004), the health technology assessed (p < 0.0001), and qualitative cost-assessment (p = 0.002). Studies with industrial sponsorship were 2.56 (99% lower-CI = 1.28) times more likely to involve cost-minimization analyses, were 0.04 (99% higher-CI = 0.39) times less likely to investigate diagnostic screening methods, and were 1.86 (99% lower-CI = 1.21) times more likely to reach a positive qualitative conclusion about costs than studies supported by nonprofit organizations.
Our results suggest that there is a greater probability that industry-sponsored economic studies in the field of oncology tend to be cost-minimization analyses, to investigate less likely diagnostic screening methods, and to draw a positive qualitative cost assessment, as compared to studies supported by nonprofit organizations.
Conflict of interest: None


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The researchers were studying how help from male moustached tamarins in the same group and the absence of female competition ensure the survival of offspring when they observed a female cannibalizing an infant. Necropsy and genetic analyses were used to rule out diseases and to determine paternity. They found that the infant has no diseases and did not die from trauma (falling from tree). Instead, it was a healthy infant and was being cannibalized by its own mother.
Five common hypotheses proposed by Hrdy (1979) were used by the authors to try to explain maternal infanticide and cannibalism in this scenario. These hypotheses are resource competition, sexual selection, social pathology, exploitation, and parental manipulation.The mother was seen biting and then eating the head of its own infant during a period when another female was pregnant and gave birth just 1 month later. Before that, the perpetrator had given birth to twins three times successfully when four to five adult and subadult males were present in the group. Although we do not know for certain that the infant was alive when the mother started biting it, our field observations preceding the event suggest it probably was. The possible infanticide case and the two cases of births and early death of the infants occurred while only two to three adult males were present in the group. This could be the second case of maternal infanticide reported in the genus Saguinus and the similar circumstances suggest a common pattern. Culot et al. (2011).
The resource competition and sexual selection hypotheses were rejected because it was maternal infanticide, and not infanticide from another female. The social pathology hypothesis was rejected because it predicts infanticide restricted in areas that are disturbed by humans. The study group was habituated and had many successful births, therefore social pathology was ruled out. The exploitation hypothesis was also reject because the mother did not kill her infant to exploit its meat. Observation shows that the mother only consumed the brain and parts of the infant's neck.
The parental manipulation hypothesis was accepted because the authors think that it best explains the scenario. The offspring was not pathological nor did it fell from the tree. Instead, it was a healthy infant that was killed by its own mother. According to Hrdy (1979), victim of parental manipulation does not necessarily have to be defective but also born "at the wrong place in the wrong time".
The authors concluded that parental manipulation is the best explanation for this possible maternal infanticide scenario. Parental manipulation strategy can happen in a group with poor capacity to raise the offspring from multiple breeding females, birth intervals that are shorter than 3 months, and low infant survival probability due to physical injuries or weakness.
Culot, L. Lledo-Ferrer, Y. Hoelscher, O. Lazo, FJJM. Huynen, C. Heymann EW. 2011. Reproductive failure, possible maternal infanticide, and cannibalism in wild moustached tamarins, Saguinus mystax. Primates 52(2): 179-186.
Hrdy, SB. 1979. Infanticide among animals: A review, classification, and examination of the implications for the reproductive strategies of females. Ethology and Sociobiology 1(1): 13-40.
Hrdy, SB. 1979. Infanticide among animals: A review, classification, and examination of the implications for the reproductive strategies of females. Ethology and Sociobiology 1(1): 13-40.


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A compression artifact (or artefact) is a noticeable distortion of media (including images, audio, and video) caused by the application of lossy compression. Lossy data compression involves discarding some of the media's data so that it becomes small enough to be stored within the desired disk space or transmitted (streamed) within the available bandwidth (known as the data rate or bit rate). If the compressor cannot store enough data in the compressed version, the result is a loss of quality, or introduction of artifacts. The compression algorithm may not be intelligent enough to discriminate between distortions of little subjective importance and those objectionable to the user.
The most common digital compression artifacts are DCT blocks, caused by the discrete cosine transform (DCT) compression algorithm used in many digital media standards, such as JPEG, MP3, and MPEG video file formats.[1][2][3] These compression artifacts appear when heavy compression is applied,[1] and occur often in common digital media, such as DVDs, common computer file formats such as JPEG, MP3 and MPEG files, and some alternatives to the compact disc, such as Sony's MiniDisc format. Uncompressed media (such as on Laserdiscs, Audio CDs, and WAV files) or losslessly compressed media (such as FLAC or PNG) do not suffer from compression artifacts.
The minimization of perceivable artifacts is a key goal in implementing a lossy compression algorithm. However, artifacts are occasionally intentionally produced for artistic purposes, a style known as glitch art[4] or datamoshing.[5]
Technically speaking, a compression artifact is a particular class of data error that is usually the consequence of quantization in lossy data compression. Where transform coding is used, it typically assumes the form of one of the basis functions of the coder's transform space.
When performing block-based discrete cosine transform (DCT)[1] coding for quantization, as in JPEG-compressed images, several types of artifacts can appear.
Other lossy algorithms, which use pattern matching to deduplicate similar symbols, are prone to introducing hard to detect errors in printed text. For example, the numbers "6" and "8" may get replaced. This has been observed to happen with JBIG2 in certain photocopier machines.[6][7]
At low bit rates, any lossy block-based coding scheme introduces visible artifacts in pixel blocks and at block boundaries. These boundaries can transform block boundaries, prediction block boundaries, or both, and may coincide with macroblock boundaries. The term macroblocking is commonly used regardless of the artifact's cause. Other names include tiling,[8] mosaicing, pixelating, quilting, and checkerboarding.
Block-artifacts are a result of the very principle of block transform coding. The transform (for example the discrete cosine transform) is applied to a block of pixels, and to achieve lossy compression, the transform coefficients of each block are quantized. The lower the bit rate, the more coarsely the coefficients are represented and the more coefficients are quantized to zero. Statistically, images have more low-frequency than high-frequency content, so it is the low-frequency content that remains after quantization, which results in blurry, low-resolution blocks. In the most extreme case only the DC-coefficient, that is the coefficient which represents the average color of a block, is retained, and the transform block is only a single color after reconstruction.
Because this quantization process is applied individually in each block, neighboring blocks quantize coefficients differently. This leads to discontinuities at the block boundaries. These are most visible in flat areas, where there is little detail to mask the effect.
Main article: Deblocking filter |
Various approaches have been proposed to reduce image compression effects, but to use standardized compression/decompression techniques and retain the benefits of compression (for instance, lower transmission and storage costs), many of these methods focus on "post-processing"—that is, processing images when received or viewed. No post-processing technique has been shown to improve image quality in all cases; consequently, none has garnered widespread acceptance, though some have been implemented and are in use in proprietary systems. Many photo editing programs, for instance, have proprietary JPEG artifact reduction algorithms built-in. Consumer equipment often calls this post-processing "MPEG Noise Reduction".[9]
Boundary artifact in JPEG can be turned into more pleasing "grains" not unlike those in high ISO photographic films. Instead of just multiplying the quantized coefficients with the quantisation step Q pertaining to the 2D-frequency, intelligent noise in the form of a random number in the interval [-Q/2; Q/2] can be added to the dequantized coefficient. This method can be added as an integral part to JPEG decompressors working on the trillions of existing and future JPEG images. As such it is not a "post-processing" technique.[10]
The ringing issue can be reduced at encode time by overshooting the DCT values, clamping the rings away.[11]
Posterization generally only happens at low quality, when the DC values are given too little importance. Tuning the quantization table helps.[12]
When motion prediction is used, as in MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, compression artifacts tend to remain on several generations of decompressed frames, and move with the optic flow of the image, leading to a peculiar effect, part way between a painting effect and "grime" that moves with objects in the scene.
Data errors in the compressed bit-stream, possibly due to transmission errors, can lead to errors similar to large quantization errors, or can disrupt the parsing of the data stream entirely for a short time, leading to "break-up" of the picture. Where gross errors have occurred in the bit-stream, decoders continue to apply updates to the damaged picture for a short interval, creating a "ghost image" effect, until receiving the next independently compressed frame. In MPEG picture coding, these are known as "I-frames", with the 'I' standing for "intra". Until the next I-frame arrives, the decoder can perform error concealment.
Block boundary discontinuities can occur at edges of motion compensation prediction blocks. In motion compensated video compression, the current picture is predicted by shifting blocks (macroblocks, partitions, or prediction units) of pixels from previously decoded frames. If two neighboring blocks use different motion vectors, there will be a discontinuity at the edge between the blocks.
Video compression artifacts include cumulative results of compression of the comprising still images, for instance ringing or other edge busyness in successive still images appear in sequence as a shimmering blur of dots around edges, called mosquito noise, as they resemble mosquitoes swarming around the object.[13][14] The so-called "mosquito noise" is caused by the block-based discrete cosine transform (DCT) compression algorithm used in most video coding standards, such as the MPEG formats.[3]
Main article: Deblocking filter |
The artifacts at block boundaries can be reduced by applying a deblocking filter. As in still image coding, it is possible to apply a deblocking filter to the decoder output as post-processing.
In motion-predicted video coding with a closed prediction loop, the encoder uses the decoder output as the prediction reference from which future frames are predicted. To that end, the encoder conceptually integrates a decoder. If this "decoder" performs a deblocking, the deblocked picture is then used as a reference picture for motion compensation, which improves coding efficiency by preventing a propagation of block artifacts across frames. This is referred to as an in-loop deblocking filter. Standards which specify an in-loop deblocking filter include VC-1, H.263 Annex J, H.264/AVC, and H.265/HEVC.
Lossy audio compression typically works with a psychoacoustic model—a model of human hearing perception. Lossy audio formats typically involve the use of a time/frequency domain transform, such as a modified discrete cosine transform. With the psychoacoustic model, masking effects such as frequency masking and temporal masking are exploited, so that sounds that should be imperceptible are not recorded. For example, in general, human beings are unable to perceive a quiet tone played simultaneously with a similar but louder tone. A lossy compression technique might identify this quiet tone and attempt to remove it. Also, quantization noise can be "hidden" where they would be masked by more prominent sounds. With low compression, a conservative psy-model is used with small block sizes.
When the psychoacoustic model is inaccurate, when the transform block size is restrained, or when aggressive compression is used, this may result in compression artifacts. Compression artifacts in compressed audio typically show up as ringing, pre-echo, "birdie artifacts", drop-outs, rattling, warbling, metallic ringing, an underwater feeling, hissing, or "graininess".
An example of compression artifacts in audio is applause in a relatively highly compressed audio file (e.g. 96 kbit/sec MP3). In general, musical tones have repeating waveforms and more predictable variations in volume, whereas applause is essentially random, therefore hard to compress. A highly compressed track of applause may have "metallic ringing" and other compression artifacts.
Compression artifacts may intentionally be used as a visual style, sometimes known as glitch art. Rosa Menkman's glitch art makes use of compression artifacts,[15] particularly the discrete cosine transform blocks (DCT blocks) found in most digital media data compression formats such as JPEG digital images and MP3 digital audio.[2] In still images, an example is Jpegs by German photographer Thomas Ruff, which uses intentional JPEG artifacts as the basis of the picture's style.[16][17]
In video art, one technique used is datamoshing, where two videos are interleaved so intermediate frames are interpolated from two separate sources. Another technique involves simply transcoding from one lossy video format to another, which exploits the difference in how the separate video codecs process motion and color information.[18] The technique was pioneered by artists Bertrand Planes in collaboration with Christian Jacquemin in 2006 with DivXPrime,[19] Sven König, Takeshi Murata, Jacques Perconte and Paul B. Davis in collaboration with Paperrad, and more recently used by David OReilly and within music videos for Chairlift and by Nabil Elderkin in the "Welcome to Heartbreak" music video for Kanye West.[20][21]
There is also a genre of internet memes where often nonsensical images are purposefully heavily compressed sometimes multiple times for comedic effect. Images created using this technique are often referred to as "deep fried."[22]


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Far from the strife of Dominaria lies Lorwyn, an idyllic world where races of fable thrive in perpetual midsummer. Lorwyn is covered with dense forests, meandering rivers, and gently rolling meadows. The sun never quite dips below the horizon, and winter is entirely unknown.
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Helium 0.5.0 is available. It contains a lot of improvements and some new features such as
- Volume control on the player
- Possibility to play a media file on a different renderer than the currently selected
- Option to start the on-device media sharing
- Some more settings
Get it on this site or via apps.formeego.com. I've also updated the documentation to reflect the changes.


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Founded in 2001, CIVIQ Society is an international community for people having proved intelligence performance expected by 1:750 of the unselected population
Founded in 2001, CIVIQ Society is an international community for people having proved intelligence performance expected by 1:750 of the unselected population
1. Society Member online profile (inc. name, information, links and email)
2. Society web Editor rights (publishing & editing articles)
3. Society membership certificate (unique authorization code issued)
4. WIN boards access (Society forum and WIN Private boards)
5. Private chat available for Society members and all WIN members
6. myWIN access and personal profile
7. WIN Online Editions (WIN ONE) journal contributions
8. Special Interests Societies (SIS) participation.
9. National Intelligence Networks (NINs) involvement.
10. Real-life meetings for the Society members or all WIN members
Required on many life instances, when time availability is often limited. Employs the procession of large amount of various data within a small amount of time.
Learn moreLooks like magic, coincidence or good luck to many, however the thinker does know that nothing of the aforementioned is the case. It is just pure thinking.
Learn moreBeing practical may seem different or even the opposite from being thoughtful. Taking into account all the available information can improve practice.
Learn moreBeing productive, creative and imaginative equals to being alive, happy and free. Thinking is a major parameter of success in life beyond any limits and barriers.
Learn moreFacing many problems, dilemmas, having to take many decisions throughout our lives, thinking can be helpful in defining the important and neglect the non.
Learn moreHumans do have the gift of advanced thinking among living creatures on this planet. It is the size of the brain, it is the number of synapses, it is the training, it is us.
Learn moreProperty, land, fame, recognition and luxuries are the common human goals today. Well, we think that the one and only goal is feeling happy and nothing but that.
Learn moreLooks like that thinking can be somehow beneficial for our life success. It is not everything in life, but much in life can be supported and succeeded when thinking.
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How To Shoot A Liquid Flow
Jul 4, 2012
How To Shoot A Liquid Flow
Just for the 4th of July, we thought to show you how to make a different kind of fireworks, the liquid kind.
If you liked Corrie White's how to shoot water drops tutorial, you are going to love her how to shoot a liquid flow tutorial (it's this tutorial :).
And here is how it goes
Preparation and Materials
I use a small plastic 5 liter aquarium filled to 3 cm. from the top with water. Only an area of about 8 cm. wide is used to take the pictures. After filling the tank with cold tap water, I wipe the front of the tank with a bundle of pipe cleaners to clean any bubbles sticking to the inside of the tank in the drop zone. Then I let the water settle for a couple of minutes to allow the tiny bubbles to dissipate. On the inside of the back of the tank I have some black plastic for the background which also stops any flash glare on the tank itself.
I usually use table cream mixed with some food dye. Sometimes I will use a bit of acrylic paint but I prefer the cream. I have a thin wire across the top of the tank to mark the area of focus in the drop zone. I dip a marker or ruler into the water to use as a focusing aid. The tank sits on a small cardboard platform with some raised markers so I can reposition the tank in the same spot after each cleaning without having to refocus each time. I prefer to have the camera at a very low angle to the tank so that I can include the surface of the water in the shot. I use medicine droppers and have the cream mixture in shot glasses. I use three flash guns for these. One from the top and two on the front corners. They are triggered by wireless on my Canon 7D camera.
The Process
When I'm ready, I drop a small drop of cream into the water and take a couple of shots of the single drop. Then I will use various colors and sometimes drop two colors simultaneously for which I have to tape my shutter button to the floor and trigger it with my foot. Lately, I have been using three droppers with primary colors to get a nice color blend effect. For the plumes, you need to give the dropper a good squeeze. You only get a few shots before the water is too cloudy for any good keepers and the process starts all over.
For the ones with the splash on the surface with the flow under the water, I fill the tank only half full. The first drop is discarded, but the second one will show the flow underneath. Quite often I will drop a couple of drops of cream into the water, then trigger the splash to fall on top of these. For these shots I will use a delayed flash to light up the action in the water. Also, for these I will use colored gels on the flash guns. Two or three shots and it's clean up time again.
I like a clean background so I do a lot of clean-up. The water is often cloudy so I clean this up as well as any bubbles that get left in the tank. On all my shots, I rotate the picture 180 degrees so it looks like the flow is moving upwards. Just my preference. Some of the liquid flow shots are suitable for the mirror and flip process. There is a simple tutorial for this here.
These are a lot of work but I love the outcome. Definitely not for the impatient!!
About The Author
Corrie White is a photographer based in Ontario, Canada. She shoots breath taking water drops and other water inspired photographs. You can watch her art on her Flickr stream, on her site, or follow her on Facebook.
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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Written vernacular Chinese
Written vernacular Chinese | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 白話 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 白话 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | báihuà | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "plain speech" | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Written Vernacular Chinese (simplified Chinese: 白话; traditional Chinese: 白話; pinyin: báihuà) refers to forms of written Chinese based on the varieties of Chinese spoken throughout China, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used during imperial China up to the early twentieth century.[1] A written vernacular based on Mandarin Chinese was used in novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and later refined by intellectuals associated with the May Fourth Movement. Since the early 1920s, this modern vernacular form has been the standard style of writing for speakers of all varieties of Chinese throughout mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore as the written form of Modern Standard Chinese. This is commonly called Standard Written Chinese or Modern Written Chinese to avoid ambiguity with spoken vernaculars, with the written vernaculars of earlier eras, and with modern unofficial written vernaculars such as written Cantonese or written Hokkien.
During the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC), Old Chinese was the spoken and written form of Chinese, and was used to write classical Chinese texts. Starting from the Qin (221 BC), however, spoken Chinese began to evolve faster than the evolution of written Chinese. The difference gradually grew larger with the passage of time. By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279), people began to write in their vernacular dialects in the form of bianwen and yulu (simplified Chinese: 语录; traditional Chinese: 語錄; pinyin: yǔlù; literally: "language record"), and the spoken language was completely distinct from the still-maintained written standard of classical Chinese. The majority of the population, not educated in classical Chinese, could understand very little of written or printed texts. During the Ming and Qing (1368–1912), vernacular language began to be used in novels, but formal writing continued to use classical Chinese.
Lower Yangtze Mandarin formed the standard for written vernacular Chinese until it was displaced by the Beijing dialect in the late Qing. This Baihua was used by writers all over China regardless of the dialect they spoke. Chinese writers who spoke other dialects had to use the grammar and vocabulary of Lower Yangtze and Beijing Mandarin to make their writing understood by the majority of Chinese.[2] After the May Fourth Movement, Baihua became the normal written form of Chinese.[3] While the phonology of Modern Standard Chinese is based on that of Beijing, its grammar is officially based on the exemplary works of the vernacular literature.[4]
Literature in vernacular Chinese
Jin Shengtan, who edited several novels in vernacular Chinese in the 17th century, is widely regarded as the pioneer of literature in the vernacular style. However, it was not until after the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the promotion by scholars and intellectuals such as pragmatist reformer Hu Shih, leftist Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu, and leftist Qian Xuantong that vernacular Chinese, or Bai hua, gained widespread importance. In particular, The True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun is generally accepted as the first modern work to fully utilize the vernacular language.[5]
Classical Chinese became increasingly viewed by the progressive forces as hindering education and literacy, and, many suggested, social and national progress. The works of Lu Xun and other writers of fiction and non-fiction did much to advance this view. Vernacular Chinese soon came to be viewed as mainstream by most people. Along with the growing popularity of vernacular writing in books in this period was the acceptance of punctuation, modeled after that used in Western languages (traditional Chinese literature was almost entirely unpunctuated), and the use of Indian, or Arabic, numerals. Following the 1911 Revolution, successive governments continuously carried out a progressive and national education system to include primary and secondary education. All the curriculum was in vernacular Chinese. Prolific writers such as Lu Xun and Bing Xin published very popular works often in important literary journals of the day, the journals published essays and reviews providing the theoretical background for the vernacular writings. For example, Lu Xun's A Madman's Diary elicited spirited debate in the journals of the time. Suffice it to say that systematic education, talented authors and an active scholastic community (which was closely tied into the education system) all contributed to the establishment of the contemporary vernacular written language within a short time.
Since the late 1920s, nearly all Chinese newspapers, books, and official and legal documents have been written in vernacular Chinese using the national standard. However, the tone or register and the choice of vocabulary may be formal or informal, depending on the context. Generally, the more formal the register of vernacular Chinese, the greater the resemblance to classical Chinese. Since the transition, it has been, however, extremely rare for a text to be written predominantly in classical Chinese. Only educated speakers have full reading comprehension of classical texts, and very few are able to write proficiently in classical Chinese. Classical Chinese is, however, still taught throughout mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Literature in non-Mandarin dialects
There is also a modest body of literature for Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Taiwanese, which include additional characters for writing the language as spoken. Unlike central Mandarin, these written forms have not been standardized and are used in informal contexts only. They are most commonly used in commercial advertisements, song lyrics sung colloquially in native dialect, and legal records to accurately record dialogue and colloquial expressions. They are often mixed to varying degrees with Classical Chinese and Modern Standard Chinese.
See also
- ↑ "The centuries-old three-way opposition between classical written Chinese, vernacular written Chinese, and vernacular spoken Chinese represents an instance of diglossia." (Jacob Mey, Concise encyclopedia of pragmatics, Elsevier, 1998:221. ISBN 978-0-08-042992-2.)
- ↑ Chen, Ping (1999). Modern Chinese: history and sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-521-64572-0.
- ↑ Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 134, 136. ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
- ↑ Ramsey, S. Robert (1987). The Languages of China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-691-01468-5.
- ↑ Luo, Jing. [2004] (2004). Over a Cup of Tea: An Introduction to Chinese Life and Culture. University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-2937-7


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The White Ovals of Jupiter
Among the cloud shapes in the atmosphere of Jupiter are white ovals. White ovals are a collection of white clouds which are grouped together into an oval shape. They are found almost anywhere in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Even though the oval is made of clouds, the oval itself can be as long as 9000 km (that is, 3/4 the size of the entire Earth since the Earth is 12,000 km across).White ovals can change their shape, migrate through the atmosphere, jostle each other for position, and even eventually merge with each other. Despite all of this, white ovals have been known to survive for 40 years or more in Jupiter's atmosphere. That means they are much younger than the Great Red Spot, which is at least 400 years old, but much older than any cloud feature found on the Earth.
The clouds circulate around the center of the oval, much the way a hurricane circulates around the eye. That is, ovals are known as anti-cyclonic systems the same way that a hurricane is considered to be cyclonic (circulating around). In the southern hemisphere, air in anti-cyclonic systems spins in the counter-clockwise direction. Air is also rising, just like inside a terrestrial thunderstorm.
Although there are other white ovals in Jupiter's atmosphere, in recent decades there have been 3 which are considered to be famous. They are famous because they have been around such a long time. They are named FA, DE, and BC, and they were born in 1939. You may ask, "where did the scientists get those awful names?". These three ovals have had a unique history which has lead to the names by which they are known today. After such a long time, two of the ovals, BC and DE, recently merged together (1998). What do you think scientists might name the newly merged oval: perhaps ABCDEF? Scientists have decided to call it BE.


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Sense Networks, the leader in delivering mobile ads based on mobile location and behavioral-targeting data, announced the successful completion of a mobile advertising campaign with Quiznos, a Denver, Colorado–based quick-service restaurant chain.
Sense Networks and Quiznos worked together during November and December of 2012 to target potential Quiznos customers with relevant mobile ads of local coupons.
"Quiznos saw a significant number of mobile coupon redemptions following a recently completed campaign with Sense Networks," says Susan Lintonsmith, CMO, Quiznos. "This increase in response is the result of targeting local, mobile consumers that demonstrate certain behaviors that align with the Quiznos customer."
Sense Networks uses the most sophisticated location data processing platform available in mobile advertising. Together, Sense and Quiznos set criteria on how they would target potential Quiznos customers.
Based on past histories, Sense set forth to place mobile ads on devices of individuals between the ages of 18 and 34, who have been at similar quick-service restaurants such as Subway or Jimmy John's over the previous 30 days and who were within a three-mile radius of a Quiznos in the Portland, Oregon market.
At the conclusion of the program, Quiznos saw nearly 3.7 million new impressions and had a 20 percent boost in coupon redemptions within the Portland area, compared to similar nationwide campaigns.
"We are extremely excited about this recently completed campaign with Quiznos," says David Petersen, CEO of Sense Networks. "We are continuously amazed at how much value brands such as Quiznos receive from well-targeted mobile advertising.
"Today's consumer is constantly on the move, and the ability to identify and target users based on the behavior our technology extracts from location data is invaluable," he adds. "Marketers and businesses alike will continue to utilize mobile location-based data processing platforms so that they can provide consumers with the most relevant and timely mobile advertisements."


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Learn Types Part 1
Julia talks about various types of learners and shares what type of learner she it.
Todd: So, Julia, we're both teachers.
Julia: That's right.
Todd: And are you familier with the different learner types?
Julia: A little bit, yes, I encounter different kinds of learners in my classrooms.
Todd: OK, so for example, what kind of learner are you?
Julia: I think possibly more than one, maybe overlap on a couple, but primarily a visual learner so I'd have to take it in through my eyes usually like with a picture. I certainly have to see a word if I'm learning a language. I have to see it written down.
Todd: So you need a phonetic script? You need something?
Julia: I need something visual.
Todd: Yeah for it to stick in your head?
Julia: For it to stay in my mind, it has to have a visual. I can't just hear it for example. I can't just hear a word and remember it. I have to have some sort of visual to connect it to.
Todd: OK, so you're a visual learner, anything else?
Julia: I think it's called a visual learner. I don't know the technical term for it but an emotional learner if a...
Todd: Really?
Julia: Yeah. If a piece of information or the thing that I'm learning is attached to an emotional experience, I store it very definitively. I can remember it. I can recall it. If it's just a neutral, say a sentence, I can't remember it. It has to have a back story. It has to have an emotional connection somehow.
Todd: Right. It has to have some connection?
Julia: Yes, yeah. Usually a personal story especially humor. If there's a joke involved, if it made me laugh at the time of learning it. I'm a laughter learner, I don't know if that's a real one but definitely an emotional response makes it much more easy for me to learn something.
I encounter different kinds of learners in my classrooms.
When you 'encounter' something or someone, you come into contact with it. Notice the following:
- You never know what kind of people you are going to
encounter on trips abroad.
- Do you get nervous about encountering wild animals in the jungle?
I'm primarily a visual learner.
'Primarily' can be replaced by 'mainly' or 'essentially.' Julia is saying that she usually learns best with visual cues. Notice the following:
- He wears primarily black clothes.
- Do you speak primarily English at home?
visual learner
I'm primarily a visual learner.
A 'visual learner' is a person who learns best by seeing something, rather that just hearing it. Notice the following:
- Can you write that word down for me? I'm more of a
visual learner.
- Most of the class is taught for visual learners, so that's why it's hard for me.
phonetic script
So you need a phonetic script?
When something is written in 'phonetic script,' it is written with special symbols that show how it spoken. Notice the following:
- The school encourages teachers to use phonetic script in
the classroom.
- Do you understand how to read phonetic script?
If something that I'm learning is attached to an emotional
experience, I store it very definitely.
When you 'recall' something, you remember it.Notice the following:
- With some memory problems, people have difficult
recalling events that happened a few minutes ago.
- I can't recall her husband's name right now.
Vocabulary Quiz
phonetic • recall
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About the Teacher / Creator
Hello, and welcome to elllo. My name is Todd Beuckens. I've been an ESL teacher for 25 years. I created elllo to provide teachers and students free audio lessons and learning materials not usually found in commercial textbooks.
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Stay, Illusion! by Jamieson Webster and Simon Critchley
Photo by: Isabel Asha Penzlien
WRITING in mid-19th-century France, literary critic Charles Augustine Sainte-Beuve concluded that a classical work of art was simultaneously "new and old, easily contemporary with all time." This definition, now itself a classic, needs to be updated. Sainte-Beuve should have rather said that a classic lives in a time out of joint, often more in synchrony with the past and the future than with its own present.
In Stay, Illusion! Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster read Shakespeare's Hamlet in such a way that its homonymous character becomes more contemporary with us, 21st-century brooding and melancholic urbanites, than with its original audience. Approaching the play through a double philosophical and psychoanalytic lens, the authors foreground what is most vibrant in it: the power of powerlessness, meaninglessness, and death. Reams of hairsplitting Shakespeare scholarship and criticism aside, Hamlet is in the first instance about the unbridgeable gap between theory and praxis, thoughts and deeds. Sounds familiar?
Hamlet's predicament, so crucial to the understanding of our own age, teaches us "the Hamlet doctrine," or Hamletlehre, a term Critchley and Webster borrow from Friedrich Nietzsche. The German philosopher realized that knowledge, the face-to-face encounter with reality and its hopeless indifference to human pursuits, "kills action" and any form of desire. We can only act under "veils of illusion," the fictions that make our lives bearable by leading us to believe in the relevance and potency of our hopes, dreams, and desires. Hamlet cannot act because he knows too much.
Stay, Illusion! sifts through various occasional commentators of Shakespeare who, like Nietzsche, offer an outsider reading of Hamlet. Hegel, Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Lacan, among others, have all tried their hand at diagnosing the play's malaise. Each added his own twist, recognizing in Hamlet a mirror of the modern human condition: a melancholic, un-sovereign, lethargic, slothful young man, incapable of desire and disgusted with action. What hides beneath these theoretical-theatrical masks, however, is Nothing, Hamlet's nihilistic core. It is precisely here that we find Critchley and Webster's original contribution to "the Hamlet doctrine."
According to the two authors, the tragedy of Hamlet (and that of the modern subject) is that he is trapped in an unsustainable situation. On the one hand, "Hamlet does not accept what is," including the death of his father, his mother's likely betrayal, and his uncle's usurpation of the throne. On the other hand, he is unwilling to act in order to change the rotten state of things. In a nihilistic dead-end, he loses his foothold in the present and forfeits a different future. That is why he announces his death thrice before he actually joins the "pile of corpses." The entire play, then, unfolds in the delay between a de jure death of the subject and the body's de facto transformation into a corpse.
Before going any further, we ought to ask, "Why Hamlet?" Why not, for instance, add an "Oedipus doctrine" to the Oedipus complex? The key difference between ancient and modern tragedies is that in the former tragic heroes recognize the catastrophic nature of their condition belatedly, while in the latter anagnorisis (or recognition) is present from the beginning. In contrast to ancient tragedies, where action unfolds — whether consciously or not — in pursuit of knowledge, modern drama evinces the paralysis of action by an excess of knowledge. The more one knows the worse off one fares, realizing one's impotence to change the current state of things. Knowledge and its pursuit are devoid of meaning because they do not lead anywhere, or better, they lead to a nihilistic Nowhere.
Nihilism is the outcome of Hamlet's collision with the unadorned, raw reality of his father's murder, which provokes an intense feeling of disgust in the son. As in Lacanian psychoanalysis, the Real harbors a traumatic core, unmediated by subjective representations. If Hamlet is the typical (or prototypical) modern subject, then his nihilistic disgust cannot be explained away by an individual pathology. Even assuming that his violence, his response in kind to his clash with reality, is "the violence of failed mourning," the failure must be one we all share with the tragic character. What would successful mourning look like in a place where the very possibility of working through trauma is precluded by a sober view of history as a pile of corpses? (Just think of Benjamin's Angel of History, who sees "one single catastrophe that keeps piling ruin upon ruin" instead of a mere succession of events.) What can we do before we are swept into the pile? How to respond to nihilism?
At first blush, one may think that art — the mechanism of sublimation par excellence — should be ruled out in the exploration of escape routs from the nihilist impasse. Why would beauty survive the collapse of all previously esteemed values brought about by nihilism? And yet Critchley and Webster find a use for art. For them the saving grace of contemporary aesthetics lies in its tendency toward a de-sublimation "that attempts to adumbrate the monstrous, the uncontainable, the unreconciled, that which is unbearable in our experience of reality." The violence of (de-sublimated) art brings the mirror to the violence of the Real. In the era of nihilism, when there is no desire left to speak of, disgust, along with the entire aesthetics of indignation, may work as its substitute. Instead of the Lacanian "Do not give up on your desire," the authors seem to urge us, "Do not give up on your disgust."
The loss of desire is indeed a big part of the nihilistic attitude, perfectly epitomized by Hamlet. The Prince of Denmark "is searching for desire, in the name of king and country, of virtue and beauty; we might say, in the name-of-the-father." Hamlet's world (and time) is unhinged because the articulations of desire — that magic pivot between knowledge and action — are missing from it. Still, one neither loses nor finds one's desire as if it were some misplaced artifact. Its absence is tantamount to the loss of meaning attached to objects (be they persons, things, or ideas) that used to make life worth living. The problem is that Hamlet is searching in all the wrong places, in all the signifiers that have become obsolete with the advent of nihilism. If anything good comes out of the nihilistic attitude, it is precisely the deflation of hierarchical, metaphysical, or patriotic values, in the name of which desire could previously be legitimized.
Given that Hamlet is "the drama of surveillance in a police state, rather like the Elizabethan police state of England in the late sixteenth century or the multitude of surveillance cameras that track citizens as they cross London in the current second late-Elizabethan age," desire cannot be reanimated through an affirmation of its ties to the king (or queen) and country. Wouldn't a politics of disgust, not unrelated to aesthetic de-sublimation, be much more opportune than a nostalgic resurrection of national sovereignty?
After all, in the so-called liberal democracies, we are all like Hamlet, bereft of even a shred of sovereignty to decide the fate of our polities. For us, nihilism dons the appearance of the good old motivational deficit that has haunted democratic theory for quite a while. Although they do not touch upon this topic, Critchley and Webster would explain waning motivations, political or otherwise, with reference to the excess of knowledge that disables action. Like Hamlet, we know from the outset the ugly truth of "democracy"; it is this thoroughly modern excess that lies at the heart of the "corrosive dialectic of knowledge and action." In turn, the politics of disgust would de-sublimate bitter discontents with the present, coupled with resignation in the face of the future, in movements such as that of the Spanish Indignants. A starry-eyed politics of hope is appropriate to the subjects of desire; the politics of indignation and disgust befits the lot of nihilists.
Nihilism can be, of course, painted in different shades. Its lighter version is not political but ethical; it is the stance encapsulated in the words "Let be." Preferring to interpret these words as a response to the question "To be, or not to be?", Critchley and Webster inscribe them in "the refusal of any ability on our part to predict the future, to claim the power to foresee the course of events." Whereas ethically "Let be" spells out Levinasian radical passivity and openness to the Other, politically it capitulates before the rise of technocracy. Sanctioned by the indifference of the many, critical instances of decision-making pass into the hands of the least representative unelected officials. On the political arena "Let be" means "Let someone else decide for me"; it delegates responsibility to others, most often gray-suited men, intent on running the state like a business.
The question Hamlet confronts us with is an either/or choice between being and nonbeing. But our relation to the future can be mapped on a continuum extending between absolute control and sheer resignation, with some futures more desirable (or more disgusting) than others. When it comes to our incapacity to discern among these heterogeneous possibilities without resorting to outmoded metaphysical systems of value, nihilism is not an excuse.
The title of Critchley and Webster's book is a passionate appeal. It is also a citation from Hamlet where, in the first scene of Act 1, the protagonist enjoins the ghost to not leave with these very words, "Stay, illusion!" How does the fate of illusions pan out in nihilism? After all, a purely nihilistic worldview is a completely disenchanted one, obstinately refusing to place any protective, symbolic screens between the subject and the "mute rock of reality." When illusions abide, nihilism is far from being all-pervasive; we may still escape into the small pockets of belief that prevent us from being squished by the unbearable weight of the Real. But which illusions should be allowed to stand and which should be let go? What are the grounds upon which such choices may be made and justified? Hinting at the potentialities of de-sublimated art, the authors wish for this particular illusion to stay. Perhaps the aesthetics of disgust could provide us with a model of "desirable" illusions: stripped of excessive symbolism, disenchanted, conscious of their own limitations. This, however, is only the beginning of a search for ways of moderating nihilism without losing its radical edge. Stay, Illusion! will remain a milestone in this ongoing quest.
Patrícia Vieira is the author, most recently, of Portuguese Film 1930-1960. The Staging of the New State Regime. Michael Marder has written most recently, both for LARB and in book form, about plant-thinking.
LARB Contributors
Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. He works in the fields of phenomenology, political philosophy, and environmental thought. An author of ten books, including Plant-Thinking (2013), Pyropolitics (2015), Dust (2016), and, with Luce Irigaray, Through Vegetal Being (2016), he is currently elaborating a philosophical approach to the question of energy, inspired by vegetal thought. His website is www.michaelmarder.org.
Patrícia Vieira is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, the Comparative Literature Program, and the Film and Media Studies Program of Georgetown University. She is the author of Seeing Politics Otherwise: Vision in Latin American and Iberian Fiction (UTP, 2011); Portuguese Film 1930-1960. The Staging of the New State Regime (Bloomsbury, 2013); and co-editor of Existential Utopia: New Perspectives on Utopian Thought (Continuum, 2011). More information is available at: www.patriciavieira.net
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Story #36
February 11, 1979 — New York
North Americans just seemed slow to learn — or perhaps they were just stubborn. Canadians dismissed World Championships results from the 1950s and '60s leading up to the 1972 Summit Series — and were given a rude awakening. And the NHL didn't seem to learn anything from the results of that historic, eight-game showdown in 1972, either. Why else would the league organise a best-of-three series during the NHL season between a collection of the league's best players who had never played a game together against a team from the Soviet Union which had played and practised as a unit eleven months of the year for several years? The Challenge Cup replaced the 1979 All-Star Game, and these three games at Madison Square Garden were meant to showcase the league at the expense of the Soviets. Coached by Montreal's Scotty Bowman and featuring a hand-picked group of international players from the NHL, how could they not win? In truth, the roster included 19 Canadians and three Swedes — Borje Salming, Ulf Nilsson, and Anders Hedberg. Indeed, game one was won fairly and impressively by the NHL, 4-2, thanks to goals from Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Bob Gainey, and Clark Gillies. Game two was close and tense, a 4-4 game after 40 minutes being decided only by a goal early in the third period from Vladimir Golikov.
That set the stage for a dramatic final game — what more could the NHL have asked for? Shockingly, the Soviets were so confident in victory that they even gave their number-one goalie a rest and started their back-up! That is, Vladislav Tretiak watched the final game from the bench and Vladimir Myshkin played the full 60 minutes for CCCP. Myshkin didn't have much to do. The NHL players fired 24 shots at him, and not one got past him. At the other end, the Soviets pulled away. After a goalless first, they scored twice in the second and added four more in the third, the 6-0 victory emphatic and embarrassing for the NHL and putting an end to such a challenge series. Although not admitting that officially, coach Viktor Tikhonov and the Soviet hockey authorities valued this slap in the face at the hands of the NHL as much as any World Championship or Olympic victory. Not only did the Soviets put down the best NHL had to offer, they did in mid-season when the NHLers where at their best, and the win was accomplished in the "capitalist capital of the World" The next time the NHL replaced the All-Star Game was eight years later. The event was called Rendez-vous '87, and the format was the same save for one major difference — it was a best-of-two, not best-of-three series.
As part of the IIHF's 100th anniversary celebrations, www.IIHF.com is featuring the 100 top international hockey stories from the past century (1908-2008). Starting now and continuing through the 2008 IIHF World Championships in Canada, we will bring you approximately three stories a week counting down from Number 100 to Number 11.
The Final Top 10 Countdown will be one of the highlights of the IIHF's Centennial Gala Evening in Quebec City on May 17, the day prior to the Gold Medal Game of the 2008 World Championship.
These are the criteria for inclusion on this list: First, the story has to have had a considerable influence on international hockey. Second, it has to have had either a major immediate impact or a long-lasting significance on the game. Third, although it doesn't necessarily have to be about top players, the story does have to pertain to the highest level of play, notably Olympics, World Championships, and the like. The story can be about a single moment — a goal, a great save, a referee's call — or about an historic event of longer duration — a game, series, tournament, or rule change.
Click here for the 100 Top Stories


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Welcome! to St. Paul Lutheran Church. We are a member of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, which was formed in 1847.
Our pastor is Rev. Walter Keller, a 1981 graduate of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO.
St. Paul Lutheran is located at 42681 Hayes Road, (just south of 19 Mile Road), Sterling Heights, MI 48313.
You may contact us by email at [email protected] or by phone at (586) 247-4645.
Please join us for worship and let us know how we can be of further assistance to you!
Click for a map to St. Paul Lutheran.
Worship Times
Traditional Sunday Morning Worship Services: 8:00 am and 10:30 am
Holy Communion is celebrated in both services on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of each month.
Bible Class & Sunday School
(September through May)
Sunday Morning: Sunday School & Bible Class: 9:15am
Wednesday Morning Bible Class: 10:00am
(For Holiday and special service times please go to the Activities page.)
If you would like a brief history of our church please click here: History Of St. Paul Lutheran Church


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The Crust of Venus
Unlike the Earth's crust, the crust of Venus is very rigid. On Earth, the lithosphere can be pushed aside in response to the warmth of the Earth. The crust then subducts, melts, and becomes part of the warm rising magma again. Thus on Earth, the recycling of the crust keeps the crust from becoming too thick.
The shape of the volcanoes suggests that over its history, Venus, like Mars, has built a thick crust. A thick crust prevents motions of p lates over a surface.
Why would Venus, and not the Earth, have a thick crust? The answer is that unlike the Earth, the rocky material which comprises the crust of Venus does not contain enough trapped water to allow the rocky material to bend and deform (like silly putty). Thus the crust stays in place and thickens by cooling gradually.
Nevertheless, on Venus, there may be mechanisms for the surface to turn over.


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The Chemical Health Commission of the City of Hopkins conducted a forum in order to learn the substance use and abuse situation at Hopkins High School. Thirteen chemically free student panelists presented their stories to an audience of 250 community members; some students had never used, some were in recovery, one admitted she was straight today, but could not make promises about tomorrow. At the conclusion of the evening, the community was amazed. They couldn't believe that any good kid next door could become narcotic dependent. Or that teens could have a smoking addiction or be a chronic alcoholic. The answer became obvious then. Hopkins did not have a chemically-free place for youth to gather that was nearby and safe. A question was posed by one of the student panelists to the audience, "Can you help us?"
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After two years of discussion, the project begins, as yet unnamed. Community members, business people, and students worked tirelessly together. An abandoned train depot along the former Milwaukee Railroad Line was chosen. This site was ideal for its location along Excelsior Boulevard and Highway 169, its restoration historical potential, and the lease terms of $1 per year to City of Hopkins from the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority.
The Depot Coffee House renovation completely by volunteer craftsmen and carpenters reaches completion on September 2, 1998. The project was funded by donation of money, labor, materials and grants from area foundations, a major contributor being Park Nicollet Foundation.
Grand opening on October 30, 1998. The Depot Board is charged with overseeing the entire project including the business coffee house. The student board works as the coffee house staff and management.
City Pages, recognizing perhaps the business' success compared to Uptown, awarded the Depot "Best Coffee House" for the 2000 Best of the Twin Cities. Star Tribune picked up and featured the music shows which ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The Teen Center, led by Financial Officer Kenneth Ward launches "Teens in Action: The Operation of a Youth-Run Teen Center and Coffee House" — a curriculum of what and how the Depot Coffee House project ideally was operating at the time.
The business is solely charged with the Operations Manager. The Depot Coffee House evolves into two important entities, Teen Center and Business.
The Depot Board produced "Wired Volume I" a compilation CD featuring the Depot Coffee House local bands. For New Year's Eve 2004, the Depot held its first New Year's Eve Bash Battle of the Bands. Other large events done by the board include the Freight Yard Party, and the Halloween Bash.
A new modern sound system was installed via a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Grant. The coffee house came under the direction of the Hopkins School District Royal Cuisine.
Depot consortium (Depot Express) takes over coffee house management.
Youth Award for Creativity launched – provides financial support for art/performance/music projects for local students.
Bike Scream Sundaes begin – monthly summertime bike treks to local ice cream venues departing from the Depot.
Depot celebrated 10th birthday with Anniversary Dinner and Outdoor Picnic.
First Hip Hop Residency with Kristoff Krane – funding from McKnight Foundation.
Depot students staff popcorn and cookie booth at inaugural Hopkins in Motion event.
ENTIRE Depot Board of Directors receives Caring Youth Award.
Hip Hop Residency with No Bird Sing – funding from One Voice Coalition.
Depot Partner Three Rivers receives grant for solar panels on the Depot and alternative energy education projects on site.
Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre lead community workshops for a Depot Raspberry Parade entry - funding from Minnesota Regional Arts Council.
"Raspberry Jam" 24 hours of (mostly) live music during Raspberry Festival.
A good mix of innovation and building on successful past events kept everyone at the Depot very busy in 2011.
Our goal for every event is youth participation - in the planning, in the marketing, in the activity, and in the evaluation. Our live music events continue to bring youth from the entire West Metro to the Depot.
Financially, we are finding our way in a nonprofit environment that has been shaken. Many of our traditional funders are experiencing a decline in investment income and donations. By limiting our expenses, working some unpaid hours, and seeking a broader base for funding, we have survived.
Laurel Sundberg's 'Local Landscapes' collection was featured at the Depot. (Featured painting: Garden to Sleep, 8x10, oil on linen).


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Brown Moroccan cuctus silk sabra pillow Handmade Moroccan Pillows are hand-woven in Morocco by Berber women cooperatives. Well known for their wonderful colours and textures. They are handwoven on traditional weaving looms making each pillow a little different. (This makes each and every one extra special!) Add these throw pillows to whatever room needs an extra dose of comfy and style.
Custom dimensions
One-sided print
Individually cut and sewn by hand in Morocco
Zipper on the side to insert pillow
Please note this pillowcase does not include the insert


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The immediate danger of the disaster has passed and now is the time to begin getting your life back to normal. Here are a few steps that you will want to take.
As soon as it is safe, do a survey of your home and begin noting the damage to the structure and your belongings. If you have a video or digital camera, use that to document the damage. In this case the old adage holds true: a picture truly is worth a thousand words.
Contact your insurer(s) to let them know what has happened. If you do not have your policy number, they should be able to look it up by your name or address. Follow any instructions they give as far as filing claims.
Following a disaster it is common for unethical repairmen and/or contractors to come to the area. Never hire anyone for repairs who cannot show you a current valid business license to work in Wyoming. In any case, never, under any circumstances, should you pay money up front for repairs. If you have questions, call your insurance company to see if they can refer you to a reputable contractor that they use in the area.
FEMA may be able to assist some individuals following a disaster. Have the following information ready:
Once you have all of that information together, you can go to FEMA's website to learn more and apply or call 1-800-462-9029. For the hearing impaired, the TDD line is 1-800-462-9029. When you conclude your call, be sure to write down your control number, since this is the way FEMA will reference your claim.
Maybe you weren't as heavily impacted by the disaster as your neighbors were. If that's the case, do everything you can to assist them in getting their lives back together. With all of its resources, the government can't provide people with what they really need following a disaster: a sense of community. Helping to clean up debris in someone's back yard or watching a neighbor's children while they are repairing their home can be infinitely more helpful than any assistance the government can provide.


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Flashing LEDs for a persistence of vision display are on bicycle wheels, alarm clocks, and even light painting sticks to draw images in the air. What if you wanted to plot an image in the air (translation) with a single LED? That's what [acorv] did after taking a cue from a polar plotter.
Like the polar plotter and Drawbot, [acorv]'s build began with a pair of stepper motors and fishing line (translation). [acorv]'s brother upped the stakes a bit and suggested replacing the marker with an LED and taking long exposure photographs. Armed with a DSLR and a lot of patience, a few experimental pics were taken. To plot the image, the Lightbot flashes its LED as it goes across the plot area. The process of building an image pixel by pixel takes a while – eight minutes for this image – but the brothers were encouraged enough to take their rig outside.
After setting up the polar plotter between two tripods, [acorv] and his brother made this image in the dead of night. It's an interesting spin on the POV LED builds we've seen before. Check out [acorv]'s Lightbot slowly drawing something after the break.


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Chinese giant salamanders are the largest in the world, with some in recent history growing as long as six feet. Lately, however, this unique amphibian has been driven toward extinction through loss of habitat and other factors. Fifteen of the few remaining specimens were recently lost at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, dampening hopes for recovery efforts.1
According to China's Global Times, the giant salamanders were put on display at the Shaanxi Pavilion in July, the hottest month in Shanghai. The creatures were conditioned to life in cool mountain streams and they suffered in the heat. Air conditioning was turned off in the evenings, so ice was sometimes added to the tanks to cool the water overnight.
The caretakers' efforts proved inadequate. Dai Mingheng, chairman of the company that provided the largest salamander for the exhibit, told the Global Times, "We didn't have enough experience since it was the first time we attended the exhibition. We should have taken emergency situations into consideration."1
For years, scientists have known of declining numbers of amphibians worldwide, including frogs and salamanders. A list of likely contributing causes appeared in the 2003 Cambridge conservation book Reproductive Science and Integrated Conservation, including "habitat degradation, pollution, acid rain, ultraviolet irradiation, pesticides, predators, competition from introduced species, climate changes, and disease."2
But aren't these environmental changes identical to "selective pressures" that are supposed to generate evolutionary progress? For example, a 2008 study stated that "rapid climate change has been implicated as a cause of evolution in poorly adapted populations."3 Another study declared that "rapid climate change is likely to impose strong selection pressures on traits important for fitness."4
Regarding ultraviolet radiation, one evolutionist claimed that "human biology was probably optimized through natural selection for a sun-rich environment."5 In sum, it is assumed that evolution can be caused by "factors such as food resources, climate, habitat, and interspecies interactions such as disease, competition, and behavioral interference."6
There seems to be a disconnect between biologists' stories about how external factors "act" to produce evolutionary advances and news stories about creatures being threatened by some of those very same factors.
The Cambridge list is missing a major contributor to the last stages leading to extinction: "mutational meltdown."7 Geneticist John Sanford wrote on the subject in his book Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome. Simply having a small population size can decrease the quality of genetic strength to the point that there are no longer enough high-quality genes to overcome such problems as environmental challenges, accumulating mutations, or the random shifts in gene structure that occur in each generation.
In Japan, giant salamanders have experienced an increase in numbers due to strong conservation efforts since 1971. But a 2008 study found that even these have "reduced genetic variability" and that "the species is thus susceptible to extinction by potential environmental fluctuations, and requires extensive conservation measures."8 They are susceptible because of their decaying genes.
The story in China is worse. Plummeting salamander populations are accelerating the extinction process. It appears that the Chinese giant salamander is on its way out, and the Shanghai Expo certainly did not help the situation.
These observations concur with the scientific principle of genetic entropy, which describes the relentless decay of genomes over time. They also concur with Scripture, which says "that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."9 They most definitely do not, however, support an evolutionary development of life on earth.
- Jingyin, D. 15 rare giant salamanders die at Shanghai Expo due to heat and noise. Global Times. Posted on china.globaltimes.cn October 13, 2010, accessed October 19, 2010.
- Holt, W. V. et al, eds. 2003. Reproductive Science and Integrated Conservation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 360.
- Charmantier, A. et al. 2008. Adaptive Phenotypic Plasticity in Response to Climate Change in a Wild Bird Population. Science. 320 (5877): 800-803.
- Gienapp, P. et al. 2008. Climate change and evolution: disentangling environmental and genetic responses. Molecular Ecology. 17 (1): 167-178.
- Vieth, R. 2006. What is the optimal vitamin D status for health? Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 92 (1): 26-32.
- Schluter, D. 2009. Evidence for Ecological Speciation and Its Alternative. Science. 323 (5915): 737-741.
- Sanford, J. C. 2005. Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome. Lima, NY: Ivan Press, 96.
- Matsui, M., et al. 2008. Reduced genetic variation in the Japanese giant salamander, Andrias japonicas (Amphibia: Caudata). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 49 (1): 318-326.
- Romans 8:22.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on October 26, 2010.


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With tens of thousands of children lingering in foster care across the United States, waiting for adoption, Illinois schoolteachers Kevin Neubert and Jim Gorey did their bit. What began with their offer to briefly care for a newborn foster child evolved within a few years into the adoption of that little boy and all four of his older siblings who also were in foster care.
The story of their two-dad, five-kid family exemplifies the potential for same-sex couples to help ease the perennial shortfall of adoptive homes for foster children. Yet, even as more gays and lesbians are adopting, there are efforts by state and federal politicians to protect faith-based adoption agencies that object to placing children in such families.
Sweeping new measures in Texas and South Dakota allow state-funded agencies to refuse to place children with unmarried or gay prospective parents because of religious objections. A bill passed last month in Alabama applies to agencies using private funds. A newly introduced bill in Congress would extend such provisions nationwide.
For those who support gay adoption, the entire phenomenon is very much a good news/bad news story. Gays and lesbians have ever-expanding opportunities to adopt, and a strong likelihood of finding community support if they do so. Yet bias against prospective gay adoptive parents remains pervasive, whether it's overt or subtle, and experts in the field believe that many thousands of gays and lesbians are dissuaded from adopting for fear of encountering such bias.
"Some of these agencies are quite clear that they don't work with certain sorts of people," said Currey Cook, who handles adoption and foster care issues for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal.
Some would-be gay adopters seek out other agencies, Cook said. "But some people think, 'I'm not going to risk being stigmatized and turned away, so I'm not going to step up at all.'"
There's no official, up-to-date count of gay and lesbian adoptive parents, but the number is on the rise.
Same-sex couples are nearly three times as likely to adopt as heterosexual couples, says Gary Gates, a specialist in LGBT demography. His latest analysis of Census Bureau data indicates that in 2015, the year that same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, there were 44,000 adopted children being raised by 28,000 same-sex couples. That number of children was double his estimate from 2013.
For some gays and lesbians, particularly those able to afford the $20,000 to $40,000 cost of a typical private adoption, the odds of success are good.
"If you have financial means, you can find providers who are welcoming and inclusive and help you through that process," said Ellen Kahn, who oversees youth and family programs for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group.
She says problems often arise when gays and lesbians seek the far less costly option of adopting out of foster care, given that many of the placements are handled by faith-based agencies under contract with child-welfare departments.
"We wouldn't have kids waiting if we had enough families seeking to adopt," Kahn said. "Yet the LGBT community is being pushed aside."
Kim Paglino, program director for the Donaldson Adoption Institute, says gays and lesbians can benefit from networking and careful research as they seek an agency to work with.
"It can take a while to find the right place," she said. "You have very clear messages from the agencies that are not interested in same-sex couples. Sometimes knowing where you shouldn't go is helpful."
Among the supportive agencies is Vermont-based Friends in Adoption. Its founder and director, Dawn Smith-Pliner, says she's heartened by the overall trends of LGBT adoption in the past decade, but now worries about a resurgence of "frantic phone calls" if, given recent political developments, more agencies feel emboldened to refuse placements with gays and lesbians.
"Do we have to go backward again before we go forward?" she asked.
Of the couples currently posting profiles on her agency's web site, expressing their yearning to adopt, about half are same-sex couples. Smith-Pliner says birth mothers are increasingly open to placing babies with such couples, once the agency raises it as an option.
Don Dupont and Brian Hiller, music teachers in New York's Westchester County who married in 2011, decided they would try to adopt, and turned to Friends in Adoption at the recommendation of friends. They posted their profile online, stressing their love of music and love for each other, and it struck a chord with a pregnant woman in California's Napa County who chose them to provide an adoptive home for her child.
Hiller and Dupont were on hand, and welcomed warmly, at a Catholic hospital in Napa County when their son, Brandon, was born in 2015. They have arranged an open adoption that's intended to include annual visits with Brandon's mother and her family in California.
As for their home turf in New York, "We've been fully embraced by every person we've met," Dupont said.
In Illinois, Kevin Neubert and Jim Gorey opted to pursue adoption out of foster care after calculating that a private adoption might be too costly.
Following night classes to qualify as foster parents, they agreed in December 2011 to provide a temporary home for a newborn baby. A stay intended to last only for a few days was extended into several months, and Neubert and Gorey learned that the baby had four older siblings who were also in foster care.
Initially, the two men thought about trying to adopt three of the children, and eventually decided to adopt all five, a process finalized in June 2014.
"Some people thought we were crazy, but everyone was supportive of keeping the kids together," Neubert said.
The youngest, Derek, is 5; the eldest, Luke, is 12. There are two other brothers, 10 and 7, and a middle sister aged 9.
Neubert and Gorey, who married in 2010 and live in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, said the family has enjoyed strong community support, though shopping trips could be a spectacle. "We didn't know if people were looking at us because we're two guys with kids, or because we had so many kids in tow," said Gorey.
The dads have coached their children on how to handle potentially awkward situations.
"If someone asks, 'Where's the mom?' Derek knows to say there are all different types of families, and in our family there are two dads, and no mom," Neubert said.
The path to adoption was bumpier for Dr. Christopher Harris, though by some measures he was an ideal candidate when he first pursued that goal 17 years ago in Nashville, Tenn He was a pediatrician and faculty member at Vanderbilt University, but he also was single and openly gay.
For more than a year, he worked with a church-affiliated adoption agency, taking parenting classes, submitting to home visits. Yet his application never progressed, and he finally deduced that it was because he was gay. He reached a similar dead end with a second agency, which took fees from him, and only later — when he pressed for an update — said it would not place children with single men.
"It was frustrating for me to get passed over," Harris said. "As a pediatrician, I look at the science and see there are no data that children raised by gay and lesbian parents don't do well."
He persisted, finally finding an agency that was able to connect him with a woman open to having her soon-to-be-born child adopted by a gay man. The baby, Maria, was born in November 2002, and adopted soon afterward by Harris.
Father and daughter now live in Los Angeles, where Maria has completed her first year of high school. During several summers, the two of them have attended a weeklong gathering of LGBT families on Cape Cod. "It's very good for me and my daughter to be around families like ours," Harris said.
Those annual events on Cape Cod are organized by the Family Equality Council, a national group that supports LGBT families.
The council's chief policy officer, Denise Brogan-Kator, went to Texas to testify against the adoption-related bill there and was distressed by its passage. "The bill is designed to allow agencies to turn qualified families away," she said.
There are more than 100,000 children in foster care in the U.S. waiting to be adopted, and child welfare officials constantly struggle to find enough qualified adoptive families. Some jurisdictions — such as New York City and Los Angeles — have stepped up efforts to recruit gays and lesbians to adopt, but agencies that shun gay clients operate in most states.
Buckner International, a large agency based in Texas, specifies on its web site that applicants seeking to adopt should be heterosexual married couples or single adults who are not cohabiting with a partner.
Catholic Charities, which does child-welfare work across the country, says it seeks to ensure that the children it places in adoptive homes "enjoy the advantage of having a mother and a father who are married. "
In some jurisdictions, authorities have said Catholic Charities must serve same-sex couples. Rather than comply, Catholic Charities shut down adoption services in Massachusetts, Illinois, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
While many faith-based agencies contend that children fare best in the home of a married father and mother, there's a growing body of research contending that children fare just as well in the homes of same-sex couples.
Initially, such research focused on lesbian couples. However, Charlotte Patterson, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, said recent research suggests children adopted by gay male couples also are faring well. Indeed a 2014 study in Britain , led by University of Cambridge researchers, asserted that gay dads did better at parenting than lesbian and straight couples, likely because they faced more challenges en route to parenthood.
"It seems that those who successfully complete the adoption process become particularly committed parents," the researchers concluded.
Bethany Christian Services, which provides adoption and foster-care services in more than 30 states, says its religious principles preclude serving same-sex couples directly, but it has established procedures for referring them to LGBT-supportive agencies.
"When we meet with them, we're very respectful," said Bethany's president, Bill Blacquiere. "We want them to have all the rights any citizen has, including the right to be adoptive or foster parents."