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ST. LOUIS (AP) David Ross never expected to be on a World Series podium. That seat is for stars, not for gray-bearded baseball journeyman, not for backup catchers knocked onto the disabled list for much of the summer by foul tips.
"The trip I've taken this year, I never thought I'd be here, There were times I was questioning whether my career was over," he said Monday night with a smile that brightened the interview room. "I'm playing in the World Series, so just this whole skit is just - I'm up here talking to you guys. This is pretty cool, right?"
The very definition of a bench player - he's never gotten more than 311 at-bats in a season - Ross got the biggest hit of the year thus far for the Boston Red Sox, nearly completing his long-and-winding trek to a World Series title.
Ross pulled a hanging curveball down the left-field line that landed just a few inches fair in the seventh inning, driving in the go-ahead run and boosting the Red Sox over the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 for a 3-2 World Series lead.
Now 36, Ross's sandy-colored beard makes him look more aging rocker than dashing athlete. A veteran of six major league organizations, he signed last November for his second tour with the Red Sox, his team for part of 2008.
His season began to come apart on May 11, when he took a pair of foul tips off his mask against Toronto. He went on the DL for two weeks and fell into a 3-for-22 slide when he returned.
Then he got whacked in the mask by another foul at Baltimore on June 14.
"I got home and my wife said, `You're not right,"' he recalled. "And they did some tests and kind of concluded I wasn't right. Then I tried to come back fast, not giving enough credit to really what a concussion is. As athletes we feel like we can get through anything, and I couldn't. I stunk for a good two weeks, three weeks, and my wife finally was like, `If you don't tell the doctors, I'm going to."'
The Red Sox sent him to Pittsburgh to be examined on June 20 by Dr. Mickey Collins, a concussion specialist. Ross didn't play for Boston again until Aug. 20.
"We try to do mind over matter sometimes, and the hardest part when you're going through something like that is just you don't have a cast on or you didn't have surgery," Ross said. "I looked fine, but I wasn't right. It's hard to look your teammates in the eye when you're going through something like that and see if you're bowing out or not, with the questions that they have. Because I used to do the same thing. `Concussion, just push through it. You're not tough enough' or something like that."
But now he knew.
"Headaches and dizziness and all the symptoms, couldn't ride in a car, couldn't be in crowded places," he said, "but did all the exercises Mickey put me through and slowly came back. And thank goodness my hitting has come around, because I stunk there for a while."
With Jarrod Saltalamacchia in a 6-for-32 (.188) postseason slump, Ross got the opportunity of his 12-year major league career. He's caught Jon Lester's last four postseason starts, impressing Red Sox manager John Farrell with their rapport.
"We're all excited for him, and we're glad he's doing it and hope he keeps on doing it," first baseman Mike Napoli said.
Lester credited Ross for his dazzling performance.
"Did a good job of keeping me calm, keeping me in the game," he said.
Ross was 1 for 9 in the Series before his fifth-inning single. He stepped to the plate in the seventh against Adam Wainwright following a single by rookie Xander Bogaerts and a walk by Stephen Drew, took a called strike, watched a ball and then fouled off a pitch. When Wainwright left a 79-mph hanger up, Ross pounced. If the ball hadn't bounced into the stands, Drew would have scored, too, but he came around on Jacoby Ellsbury's single as Ross was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Shane Robinson.
Ross had never seen himself as a Series star.
"I'm kind of more of a keep-my-head-down-and-work-hard kind of guy," he said, "I'm not the type of player who can plan out all these goals. That's probably why it hadn't sunk in yet of what all this is, because I'm worried about Game 6 already. There's a pit in my stomach already."
After it was over, already showered and dressed for the flight home, he was given a televised postgame news conference. He called it "the signature moment" of his career.
"I'm just in awe of being in the World Series, really," he said, turning around to look at the MLB logos on the backdrop behind him, as if he wasn't quite sure they were real.
"That's when you see people on TV," he said excitedly. "I'm stoked!"
Ross had answered questions for 14 minutes, yet he still didn't want to leave the room.
"Jon Lester is waiting to come in," announced Phyllis Merhige, an MLB senior vice president. "You can stay as long as you like."
"Can I sit up here while he's up here?" Ross asked.
And so he did, alongside Lester and David Ortiz, savoring the night of his career just a little bit longer.


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Method 1
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to WikiFur style and standards. For specifics, check the edit history and talk page. Consult the Furry Book of Style for editing help. |
Method 1 is a weekly podcast hosted by Nik Vulper, featuring co-host Gir Tygrin and DJ Oddy. They take a humorous slant on current events, review a beer and a clip from the internet, then answer listener letters. They used to record live every Sunday night at 8 PM Eastern Time, but since their 57th episode, they have moved their show to Wednesday at 8pm. They did this avoid scheduling conflicts with Sunday Night Football and Family Guy; also because Nik and Gir prefer broadcasting on this day. They broadcast live on uStream and offer downloads of their entire archive through their homepage.
- Address: http://www.method1show.com
- Staff:
- Nik Vulper: host
- Gir Tygrin: co-host
- Oddy: DJ
- Ran from/to: July 27, 2008 - present
Episodes vary between 74 and 80 minutes, fitting into this time constraint so they can be burnt onto a CD-R. Though technical difficulties have pushed the show to a Monday publishing or re-record on a few occasions, a new episode of the show has been put out every week since its inception.
Show format[edit]
- Introduction -- Episodes start with a reading of the show's intro blurb. The text is "Method 1 is proudly recorded in Ubuntu, using open source software. Our show is intended for adult listeners, as it contains explicit language and unbridled opinions."
- Theme Music -- Since Episode 6, the show has utilized an electronic music piece put together by Rok Kaiser as its official theme. Before that the show utilized classic video game intros, which moved to after the theme music when the song was added.
- Nik's Intro -- About halfway through Rok's theme, the music is faded down and Nik comes in to give the date, episode number and a preview of some of the stories to be featured. He then says "I'm your host Nik Vulper, my co-host is Gir Tygrin, and..." followed by a brief look into his week, or something entirely random.
- Sound Clips -- Video game themes were used first, followed by classic game shows, and finally cartoon intros. This section has been phased out of the show.
- News -- Nik and Gir go back and forth for a while, discussing what has happened to them in the past week, filling listeners in on their jobs and happenings with Furry Connection North. They then do a few general interest news stories (usually four), before going into the next segment.
- News... that PISSES US OFF -- This segment features stories that raise the hosts' ire. The introductory sound bite features the cocking of several of Gir's personal guns.
- Confuse News -- The last news segment features stories that boggle the hosts' minds. When their brains have been sufficiently hurt, they move on to drinking.
- Beer of the Week -- Each week the hosts (or one of the wonderful listeners) buy a different beer, which is then sampled and reviewed on a five star scale. Currently the worst review is from a Sri Lankan beer called Lion Stout. Dragon's Milk and Orval Trappist Ale are the only two so far to get 5-star ratings from both Nik and Gir.
- Who's Manning the Internet? -- After utilizing a sound bite of Stan Smith from American Dad as the intro, the hosts talk about a different humorous clip from the internet. Following a brief description, they play a sample and then tell folks how to find it online to watch the whole thing.
- Football/Sports -- During the fall, Nik discusses what has happened with the Michigan Wolverines (and sometimes the Detroit Lions) that weekend. When the team wins, he plays a sample of Hail to the Victors recorded by the Michigan Marching Band. When the team loses, he plays a clip of the fight song shifted into a minor key. During other seasons, sports may be covered, depending on something notable happening, otherwise this segment is omitted.
- Listener Letters -- In the last segment of the show, Nik and Gir answer questions submitted either by audio or text. Since Episode 26, they have had a SkypeIn number (734-961-4121) where audio letters can be submitted over the phone.
Listener interaction[edit]
Method 1 thrives on interaction with its audience. The intro, which is usually read by a listener, refers to it as "our show". This means that it belongs to everyone who enjoys it, not just the hosts.
Intros are either submitted digitally, over the phone, or recorded in studio. Most of the stories reported are submitted by listeners, who are credited before Nik reads their submissions. When multiple people submit the same story throughout the week, it is almost always used, so the hosts can give the listeners what they want.
Since going live on episode 31, the hosts interact with the uStream chat room, repeating comments they find humorous and responding to questions that are posed. Art is produced most weeks by Alpha Raye during the show, putting the hosts into humorous situations inspired by the stories being read.
Bonus material[edit]
Started as a way to finish the six pack after episode 5, supplemental material is recorded after the main show is exported as a WAV file. This leads to a super-bonus material in the interim for the viewers of the uStream during that 3-5 minute process. Normally that time is filled with the hosts wandering off to go to the bathroom or grab a snack, but interesting exclusives have happened in this time.
When the bonus material proper starts, Nik and Gir cover topics that they skipped over in the main show. These may include happenings from the weeks, stories that were skipped for time constraints, explaining personal references they made during the show, reviews of movies or shows they enjoyed (or hated) during the week, and whatever else they feel like doing. There is no time constraint for the bonus material, though they average about 20 minutes when recorded.
The alternate dimension / convention performances[edit]
Nik and Gir were at a quandary of what to do for Episode 18, due to the need to record while they were at MFF. Utilizing technology, they tapped into an alternate dimension's recording of Method 1. This world seemed like a utopia at first, but in reality was actually very boring. The show featured a wine of the week and a highly ranked Michigan Wolverine Football team, coached by Les Miles. While at MFF, Nik and Gir were granted programming space on Sunday night to record an episode anyway.
Keeping to their weekly performance commitment, Nik and Gir recorded episode 40 live at Furry Connection North. Due to Nik accidentally deleting the news file, this episode featured a more laid back performance. The regular segments were represented with one or two news stories, but they mostly told their own stories to fill the time. Despite the rough start, the hosts and listeners had a great time. Alpha Raye did live art for the show, and Knight Fox joined them as secondary co-host and for the beer review as well.
In addition to their performance at FCN, Nik and Gir also performed at Anthrocon and MFF in 2009. To keep with their weekly performance, they will happily perform at any convention they attend.
See also[edit]

subset: commoncrawl


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Spanish Word for raggedly
English Word: raggedly
Spanish Word: sordido
Now you know how to say raggedly in Spanish. :-)
Spanish Word: sordido
Now you know how to say raggedly in Spanish. :-)
Interested in travelling to a Spanish-speaking country? Read the travel blog below:
The Stunning Natural Beauty of Bariloche (Bariloche, Argentina)
This place was absolutely gorgeous! We arrived in the evening on Thursday just when the sun was setting over the mountains and across the lake, breathtaking. We ended up meeting two girls who were taking a break from volunteering in Santiago when we were in Castro, so we stayed at the same hostel and went out for Mexican food our first night. Bariloche is technically in Patigonia, it was...
[ view entire travel blog ]
Popular Phrase: servir preterite | Spanish for Business | Conjugated Verb: obscurecerse - to become dim [ click for full conjugation ]


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Carter's Online ShoppingCarter's is the leading brand of children's clothing, gifts and accessories in America. |
Get Instant Access to Carter's Coupon Codes and DiscountsOnce you join iGive, you can earn money for your favorite cause or charity every time you shop online at Carter's. Shopping online through iGive allows a percentage of what you're already spending to go directly to the cause or charity of your choice. There's absolutely no extra cost to you or the charitable organization! Check out the causes and charities that raise money through iGive to find your favorite or list your own cause on iGive. To gain access to Carter's discounts and donate to a good cause, simply log into iGive or become an iGive member now. iGive members get to choose between a variety of Carter's coupon codes, coupons, and discounts. We also offer deals for over 1,800 other stores. Save money for yourself while you raise money for your favorite cause or charity. Join iGive to use a Carter's promo code now! |


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The Duke Project on Custom and Law
Duke Law faculty are undertaking a new project that aims to engage the Law School community and the legal academy at large in a yearlong conversation about the relationship between custom and law.
"The relationship between custom and law has both perplexed and intrigued legal scholars through the ages," said Professor Curtis Bradley, who is directing the project. "It is present in almost every legal system and implicates almost every subject area of the law. The relationship also takes a wide variety of forms, with custom sometimes informing the law, at other times resisting the law, and in some instances actually being the law."
The Duke Project on Custom and Law will run throughout the 2011-12 academic year and will involve scholarly presentations, a symposium, a readings seminar, journal publications, and other events and programs designed to address the topic from a wide range of perspectives.
Bradley, the Richard A. Horvitz Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, cites a number of examples of the relationship at the heart of the project: Tort law considers custom in the industry in determining the standard of care. Property law draws from customary practices in developing rules regarding ownership and use. Contract law fills in the gaps of commitments based on customary practices. Custom has a potentially significant influence on what is considered "fair use" in intellectual property law. Constitutional law is informed by the customary operations of government. One of the two major forms of international law is customary rather than codified. An understanding of the unwritten institutional customs of legal actors (such as courts and prosecutors' offices) is often essential to an appreciation of how they operate.
By examining these and related subjects, Bradley hopes the project can both shed new light on the historical relationships between custom and law and advance a scholarly understanding of how custom can support or influence the development of law.
Another goal of the Duke Project on Custom and Law is to engage the Duke Law faculty as well as others from the Duke community in a focused, yearlong scholarly dialogue that draws on the university's interdisciplinary strengths.
"We want to take advantage of the extraordinary scholarly depth of both our law faculty and the faculty of Duke University," Bradley said. "This sort of project allows us to capitalize on our interdisciplinarity and benefit from the strength of Duke's programs in law, policy, history, political science, anthropology, and more. It also will allow us to engage on a more deeply scholarly level than is usually possible when we are all working on separate research."
The project will begin this summer with informal discussions among the faculty about some of the important published works on custom, from both law and other disciplines (a schedule of summer reading sessions appears below and will be updated as events are scheduled). During the school year, the project will sponsor a workshop series in which scholars from around the country will present work relating to the topic. Scheduled presenters include:
- Robert Cooter, Herman F. Selvin Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley;
- Robert Ellickson, the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law at Yale University;
- Emily Kadens, the Baker and Botts Professor in Law at the University of Texas, who will present the first workshop with a discussion of her paper relating to medieval merchant custom;
- Jody Kraus, the Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia;
- Richard McAdams, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago;
- Annelise Riles, the Jack G. Clarke Professor of Far East Legal Studies and Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University;
- Carol Rose, the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor Emeritus of Law and Organization and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale University and the Lohse Chair in Water and Natural Resources at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona.
Some Duke scholars also will begin writing and discussing their own papers on the topic of custom and the law. Their work will be presented at a symposium and eventually published in one of Duke's law journals. Duke students will have the opportunity to participate in a yearlong readings seminar on the topic and to attend some of the workshops and the symposium.
"We think this will be an opportunity for the entire Law School to make a scholarly contribution that goes beyond individual work and represents the collective strengths of Duke Law's diverse and interdisciplinary community," Bradley said. "We've received very positive feedback so far on the project, both from within our faculty and from others around the country. We're very excited to see how it will evolve over the course of the coming year."
For additional information on the project, please contact Professor Curtis Bradley at email@example.com.
Summer Reading Sessions
May 3: Richard Craswell, Do Trade Customs Exist?, in The Jurisprudential Foundations of Corporate and Commercial Law (Jody S. Kraus & Steven D. Walt eds., 2000); Frederick Schauer, Pitfalls in the Interpretation of Customary Law, in The Nature of Customary Law (Amanda Perreau-Saussine & James Bernard Murphy eds., 2007)
May 24: Richard A. Epstein, The Path to the T.J. Hooper: The Theory and History of Custom in the Law of Tort, 21 J. Leg. Stud. 1 (1992).
June 9: Gerald J. Postema (presenter), Custom in International Law: A Normative Practice Account, in The Nature of Customary Law (Amanda Perreau-Saussine & James Bernard Murphy eds., 2007).
June 29: Henry E. Smith, Community and Custom in Property, 10 Theoretical Inq. L. 5 (2009).
July 20: George Rutherglen, Custom and Usage as Action Under Color of State Law: An Essay on the Forgotten Terms of Section 1983, 89 Va. L. Rev. 925 (2003)


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Smart Meters Top-Down Agenda [from Common Ground]
"In the technetronic society the trend seems to be toward aggregating the individual support of millions of unorganized citizens, who are easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities, and effectively exploiting the latest communication techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason."
– Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era, 1970 (p 11)
More than four decades ago, flower power was still in swing while geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski was already envisioning the details in a control-based technetronic or "smart" society. As David Rockefeller's co-founding partner in the globalist Trilateral Commission, Brzezinski drew upon works from the 1930′s known as Technocracy Inc to map out his Orwellian paradise. It's curious how our "leaders" were able to so eloquently plan a structure of techno-control, decades before the required technology was ever invented.
Fast forward to 2012, and what we're seeing is a so-called "smart" grid being forced upon an unwilling and awakening population. This issue is unfolding with great grassroots notoriety here at home with BC Hydro's smart metering program, and also around the world. The utility-driven agenda is happening the same way everywhere: with a giant corporate slap in the face to the people, and to the very basis of democracy itself.
To be clear, if the people of BC and around the world allow smart grid installation, democracy will fall. However, tens of thousands in BC alone, and millions around the world, are pointing out the top-to-bottom lies and deceit that run through the smart grid program. Not the least of which is the idea that with smart meters, our power supply will be "more efficient", "more reliable" and will help the environment.
In actuality, a) regions where smart meters have been installed have not reduced energy consumption (only increased cost to customer); b) it's been demonstrated that the entire power grid will become vulnerable to being taken down by hacking; and c) there is a very strong indication that effects of such increased radiation has a profoundly negative biological impact on plants, insects, animals and human life.
On the positive end, the opportunity emerging from this crisis is a very real possibility for a complete shift to distributed, truly renewable energy – actually ending our addition to oil, coal, and nuclear energy. (Imagine that scope of change… does it bake your noodle?) Solutions such as these will be put forward in our upcoming BC-based film, Take Back Your Power.
In researching for the film, we have come across and verified many facts which one may find highly interesting, if not shocking. Here are 9 of them in brief:
- BC Hydro, currently about 60% through their province-wide smart meter installation campaign, has recently recalled 1000 smart meters due to their not functioning properly. In addition, hundreds of thousands of BC citizens have now received Hydro bills anywhere from 30% to 1000% higher, following smart meter installation – increases with no real justification. And as it now appears possible that none of these meters are measuring accurately, a possible scenario will be a complete recall of smart meters across the province, if public outcry continues to grow. In an unprecedented display of participatory democracy, there are currently 39 municipal governments in BC, representing a constituency of almost 2 million British Columbians, who have motioned for a moratorium on the installation of smart meters.
- According to BC Hydro's figures, our cost in BC is approximately $555 per meter (not including future upgrades paid for by further rate increases or "billing anomalies"). In Quebec, where citizens now officially have a free opt-out option, the cost is $263.16 – less than half the amount. In Ontario: $232.56 each. And the cost in many US states is under $200 per meter, including in Idaho, where smart meter do not transmit wirelessly.
- BC hydro awarded a $73 million contract for smart meter installation to Corix Utilities. A senior advisor with CAI Capital Management, a major investor in Corix, is David Emerson. Yes folks, this is the very same David Emerson who scandalously accepted an offer from Stephen Harper to defect from the Liberal party, crossing the floor to become Minister of International Trade after the election in 2006. Emerson also just happens to be the executive chair of BC Transmissions Corp, chair of the BC Premier's Economic Advisory Council, co-chair of the Alberta Premier's Council for Economic Strategy, co-chair of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee, former chair and CEO of Canadian Western Bank, and on and on. (He must be extremely talented – and well-appointed.)
- In March's Wired, Current CIA director David Patraeus actually admitted that governments plan to be spying on citizens through their "smart" appliances, and that we'll be forced to re-think "our notions of identity and secrecy." He went on: "Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing," Petraeus said. This is a flat-out decimation of recognized privacy rights. source
- Researcher Angel de Fazio used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain critical documentation of a $298 million grant for smart meter deployment in Nevada. One of the two funding sources is identified as "US Armed Forces Research and Development Projects". The US has acknowledged their longtime research programs around microwave radiofrequency radiation and its effects on the human body and mind, including a 1972 unclassified report released by the US Navy, which summarized 5 pages of line-by-line biological effects concluded at the time. The fact that military R&D is apparently involved in the deployment of smart meters is rightly raising some big questions. These two respective reports, including source documents, can be viewed at http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/12/08/smart-meters-being-funded-by-the-us-military and http://thepowerfilm.org/research/health.
- In a recent lawsuit in the state of California, Pacific Gas & Electric was required to supply information on how frequently each smart meter transmits wirelessly. By their own admission, the average meter pulses 14,000 times per day, each for 4.5 millseconds – every 6 seconds. Some meters, they admitted, pulse up to 190,000 times per day, or twice per second. Experts in spin, utility companies are fond of using a cumulative total (ie, "60 seconds per day"), rather than admitting the constant pulsing pattern. Critically, these totals do not include the radiation from each wireless "smart" appliance that the grid will require of us in the future, creating a veritable soup of in-home electromagnetic radiation, which has already been classified by the WHO as a "class 2B potential carcinogen".
- Radiation bursts have been measured at up to 100,000 microwatts/m2 several feet away for one meter – or up to 100 times higher than the "extreme concern" threshold as set by the international Building Biology (Baubiologie) code. And Dr. Daniel Hirsch, nuclear policy expert at UCSC, has shown that if a human is in an adjacent room (within 10 feet of a smart meter) they receive between 50 and 450 times more full-body radiation exposure than from an active cell-phone at the head. Anecdotal evidence includes thousands of reports that a percentage of individuals are having extremely adverse reactions upon the installation of a smart meter. The short-term symptoms often include headaches, nausea, insomnia, rashes, ear-ringing, irritability, fatigue and foggy thinking. The stark concern now indicated by thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers has led groups such as the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and the Austrian Medical Association to publicly call the immediate ban of the smart metering program on the sole basis of health damage.
- Most smart meters in BC are not yet actively transmitting. Current research indicates that after being installed, they actively radiate for an estimated 12 to 36 hours, before going in a "dormant" type mode if they do not find an active collector hub. As such, most meters are still being read manually, which means that we still have time to recall the entire smart metering program in BC – but we need to act now.
- In the bigger picture, the basis of the issue is energy and control. Rather than be chained to non-renewable centralized energy, technologies are now available to enable a global transition to de-centralized renewable energy. As a leading solar expert states in our upcoming film: "The entire world's energy needs can be supplied by distributed solar photo-voltaic panels, using a combined surface area the size of Utah." But, the political will to change must be present, and historically it has not been so. Former US Patent Examiner Tom Malone testified that the number of seized patents is "closer to 4000 or more", and that "a hidden purpose of this committee is to also screen energy-related patents which could also threaten the power and fossil fuel companies." Has the main reason for this techno-censorship been because it would interfere with the planned smart grid deployment?
This transition, required of us if human civilization is to continue, all starts with the individual decision to not allow a smart meter installation on your home or business. You do have this option, and BC Hydro has stated repeatedly, "We will not force you to have a smart meter". However, they have also failed to inform anyone that they have a choice. So far, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 British Columbians have on their own accord notified Hydro of their non-consent (though Hydro's public figures may still be lower), and installation has been delayed for most.
The smart meter issue will continue to gain more and more prominence in BC and globally, as more and more people understand the significance. This is about a corporate agenda that would affect virtually all aspects of our lives, and remove so many of the rights and freedoms we have enjoyed as a democratic society – while offer no benefit whatsoever in return.
All citizens are encouraged to become aware and participate in this movement by taking 5 minutes to mail Hydro their letter of non-consent. Templates are available at http://ThePowerFilm.org/taking-action or http://CitizensForSafeTechnology.org. If a smart meter has already been forced on you without your consent, you can demand to have it removed and replaced.
In addition, as debate is now beginning to heat up in the BC Legislative Assembly, contact all MLA's to inject them with truth, and share relevant information with friends, neighbours and colleagues. Because of mounting public pressure, already we're seeing many regional governments now offering free "opt-out" options, and according to industry polls the smart grid is becoming less and less popular.
Together, we're literally re-shaping our future by making individual decisions to take a stand and get involved. I invite all readers to subscribe on our website www.ThePowerFilm.org to smart meter updates and release news for our film Take Back Your Power, being released online later this spring.
Vancouver's Josh del Sol is producing the upcoming film, Take Back Your Power. The trailer and dozens of resources can be viewed at www.ThePowerFilm.org.
Tags: awakening, common ground, consciousness, current events, elite, smart meters, technocracy


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Washington D.C.
Last weekend Sue and I took what seems to be becoming an annual spring trip to visit our daughter in Washington D.C. It was wonderful to spend time with Abigail and her friends and perhaps most importantly we had the importunity to get to know her new boyfriend. He checked out quite nicely.Again this was a great time of year to visit the capital. Spring was fully in bloom and the oppressive summer heat had not yet settled on the city. The Cherry Blossoms were already gone, but the rest of the colors were a lovely foreshadowing of what is to come to us up north.
Botanic Garden
On Friday we walked the Mall, which seems in perpetual construction, and then escaped to the wonderful United States Botanic Garden at the base of the Capital Building.
The gardens were featuring a remarkable collection of Orchids. On a Friday morning
the place was not especially crowded and we had a wonderfully peaceful and colorful stroll. The exotic flowers in the greenhouse were lovely subjects for photography. I only regretted not having my tripod to allow better control of depth of field with smaller apertures and longer exposures. As I discussed in my previous blog about cheating with greenhouse photography, enclosed settings eliminate the wind which can often limit the length of exposure in outside flower photography. Without my tripod, I did my best by cranking up the ISO and trying to suppress the jitters from my morning coffee. In these situations positioning of the narrow focus point becomes critical as I tried to place the
small zone of sharpness on the most important spots. In portrait photography that critical focus point is the eyes, for flowers it is generally the central pistil and stamen. If you get that sharp, the surrounding softness tends to serve only to draw attention to the flower's "business" zone. All I could do was get as stable as possible, compose an interesting arrangement, and then adjust to ISO and aperture to allow a shutter speed down to around 1/40 – 1/60. With the help of my camera's image stabilization function, this was about the limit of what I could trust myself to hand-hold. Sometimes it worked and sometimes not. I had to be careful not to trip people as I knelt next to the flowers and I quickly learned to photograph the name tags immediately after I shot each flower. I hate having to use labels such as, "Red Flower # 2". Next time I will come better prepare, but it is silly to complain about any time spent in such a lovely refuge.
US Botanic Garden |
Get the "Business" in Focus |
Vanda |
Green Dragon |
In the evening we went to the annual Gospel Concert by the National Symphony at the massive Kennedy Center. Great concert, but sadly, not awfully photography friendly in the hall.
Kennedy Center |
Saturday was another beautiful warm day and
Trail-Side Dogwoods |
rolling Virginia hills. Susan was assigned to the job of driver so the rest of us
Abigail and Grayson, Sampling the Wine |
Wisteria Barn, Purcellville Virginia |
Old Town Alexandria
On Sunday, Abby and her house mates hosted about 20 of her
Doors of Old Alexandria |
On our way home on Monday we watched as the spring color slipped away, but things here in New Hampshire are greening up as well. Over the weekend we had a great early taste of the season, but I know that, given our shorter growing time, our spring will be even more vibrant and exuberant. I can't wait.
Colors of Home, Spofford New Hampshire |


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Kae Verens has posted another book review today covering APress' "Pro PHP: Patterns, Frameworks, Testing and More" (by Kevin McArthur).
This book is absolutely jam-packed with information useful to the medium-advanced PHP coder. SPL is described over a few chapters, and a quick intro to Zend's MVC framework is provided. Of particular interest to me were the final chapters, to do with certificate-based authentication, and a chapter near the beginning describing the upcoming features of PHP6. Great book - I really enjoyed it.
The review gets into detail on some of the chapters and some of the shortfalls that Kae saw about them. Things like:
- The title says "frameworks" but only one is really discussed (Zend Framework)
- The testing/continuous development sections weren't long enough
- The "web 2.0" section was a little sparse
- The only real web service protocol talked about is SOAP.
Overall, though Kae found the book to be worthy of a place on any developer's shelf.


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Boston Red Sox pitcher Brad Penny - pardon me, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Brad Penny has been released.
"I had some bad breaks and made some bad pitches. But I'm healthy, and that's what I'm happy about. This isn't last year, when I was hurt. If that had been the case, I'd be upset. All in all I had a great time here. My shoulder is healthy and I'm glad I came here. It was a blessing."
Could the Astros use him? Well, maybe. I would imagine there are three spots locked up in the rotation next year: Roy, Wandy, and The Troof (Bud Norris, for you newbies). There's a mutual option for Brian Moehler in 2010, and Yorman Bazardo figures to be in the mix, but if the Astros can sign Brad Penny (who signed a one-year $5 million deal). That leaves at least one spot available.
Penny, though, doesn't come without baggage. After leaving LA, Larry Bowa said:
"You mean the same guy who was never on time, out of shape and has one complete game? He has more stuff to worry about in the A.L. East than me. He has to worry about getting people out. He was never on time, was out of shape and never helped the kids out. Put that on the (expletive) dot-com. Put it in the headline. He never watched the game (when he was on the DL). Jason Schmidt watched the games. Nomar Garciaparra watched the games. Mark Sweeney watched the games. You go right down the line, everybody who was on the DL watched the games. But not him. He was out of there."
It's been since 2007 that the 31-year old Penny's ERA was under 5.50, and Houston isn't exactly known as a place for pitchers to reclaim their career, but if Easy Eddie is in the habit of taking fliers on veteran injured pitchers, Penny might work out. He's only pitched 226.1IP since 2007, and he says his shoulder feels fine. Buster Olney says the best place for him is Colorado, where he could take advantage of a chance to screw the Dodgers. What say you?


text:
Sunday, March 30, 2008
On Reviewing, elsewhere
Falling into Oblivion without a Parachute on The Mumpsimums
and Reviewing Books on Ecstatic Days.
And speaking of reviews, Julie Phillips' Kurt Vonnegut's Unpublished Writings discusses Armageddon in Retrospect.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
"A Reviewer's Hardest Task"
A reviewer's hardest task is to define standards. "Good" can mean almost anything: what the British call "a good read," "for those who like it, this is what they'll like," "it won't poison you," "good enough for minor entertainment," "mildly pleasant," "intelligent, thoughtful, and interesting," "charming!" and just plain "good"--excluding the range of better, from fine to splendid to superb to great. Reviewers also tend to adopt a paradoxical sliding scale in measuring a book's quality, i.e., the more ambitious a book, the more it's likely to fail; yet the competent, low-level "success" can be less valuable and interesting than the flawed, fascinating, incomplete "failure." For example, in July 1973 I reviewed James Gunn's The Listeners (which belongs emphatically in category two, above) and managed to make it sound worse than Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream, a considerably lower-level (although fun and interesting) category one. Novels don't only provide different kinds of pleasures; they involve a reader more or less profoundly. Listeners was "bad" because parts of it were so wonderfully good. Dream was "good" partly because it demanded so little of the reader-- some of this by the author's deliberate choice, which only adds to the complexity of the whole business.
None of this months' hardcover novels* lives up to its author's own best work and in that sense they are not good books. They're certainly not in the "good-by-any-standards" class. Yet none of them is in the droopy-eyeball or loathsome class, either, and all have some excellences. The reviewer's business (as so many reviewers have said) is distinguishing between various levels of failure, keeping in mind that by "good" here I mean very high standards indeed.
I'm variously a reader of reviews, a writer of reviews, a writer's whose work receives reviews, and an editor/publisher who hopes to see the work she publishes reviewed. I have long read reviews for pleasure-- and not as a guide to what I ought or ought not to be reading. I think I first began reading reviews as a graduate student, most often in the form of review essays (which I also, of course, was required to write). Review essays encompass more than a simple review does, exploring the subject matter of several books in a thoughtful, critical way. This probably has something to do with my interest--as a reader--in reviews these days. When I read a review for pleasure (as I still often do), it's in the hope of being given something interesting to think about, or even the occasional gem of insight. This is certainly why I'm reading Russ's old reviews. Reviewers who offer intellectually or emotionally threadbare descriptions or assessments of the books they're reviewing don't interest me; if after several encounters I see that their reviews consistently fail to give me anything worth thinking about, I stop reading their reviews. I also stop reading their reviews for pleasure if I see that a reviewer is intractably ignorant or stupid-- that they have a penchant for misreading or under-reading or for continually praising the banal. I'm a bit like Mr. Darcy, I'm afraid, in that my good opinion of a reviewer once lost, is unlikely to be regained. I'm a busy woman, you know?
As an editor/publisher, I'm largely unconcerned with whether or not a review is pleasurably insightful or even intelligent. It's still a mystery to me what actually sells books. A reviewer's writing intelligently about a book will likely make its author happy, but it probably won't make that much difference to sales. Because I read every review of Aqueduct's books (that I know of), I'm constantly made aware of how few reviewers are careful readers. More to the point, though, is that many of those reviewers who have passed beyond the naive-reader stage are so caught up in their own particular set of dogmas that their readings tend to be inflexibly rigid and skewed to conform to their dogmas such as they are. This doesn't concern me as a publisher, but I can't help reflecting on it as a reader and writer of reviews myself.
Not surprisingly, I try to write the kind of reviews I enjoy reading. It can be hard to do it, though, when a book is so poorly written that I can barely bring myself to keep reading it. (I've twice forced myself to finish really bad books and reviewed them, but the experiences were so painful that I have a deep aversion to doing it ever again.) Russ has no hesitation in characterizing books as "bad." But aware as I am of what inadequate readers so many reviewers are, I've been reluctant to deliver such bald judgments myself. [Though so as not to mislead anyone, I will cop to once having delivered an unequivocally scathing judgment of a book that really should not have been published.] And so I have to wonder just how useful terms like "good" and "bad" can be in reviews today. Russ, unlike most reviewers, offers insight into the books she reviews; so I'm tempted to think she knows what she's talking about. Even so, for me at least it is more her discussion of the books rather than her verdict on a given book's quality that "defines" her "standards." The "whole business" is indeed complex.
*The books under review were by Robert Silverberg, James Gunn, John Brunner, Philp K. Dick, and Howard Waldrop & Jake Saunders.
Lisa Tuttle's My Death
I'm pleased to announce that Aqueduct will be releasing Lisa Tuttle's My Death this summer. This creepy but feministically delicious novella will be the twenty-first volume in our Conversation Pieces series. It has previously been published in the UK, by PS Publishing, but this will be its first North American publication. Who can resist a story about an all but forgotten early twentieth-century feminist novelist who becomes the biographical subject of an early twenty-first century feminist novelist? And one who painted a watercolor she titled "My Death"? Here's an excerpt:
I gazed at the painted image of an island, a rocky island rendered loosely in shades of brown and green and gray and grayish pink. I remained unimpressed, and baffled by Alistair's attitude towards this uninspired daub. Risky?
And then, all at once, as if another light had been switched on, I saw the hidden picture. Within the contours of the island was a woman. A woman, naked, on her back, her knees up and legs splayed open, her face hidden by a forearm flung across it and by the long hair – greenish, grayish – that flowed around her like the sea.
The center of the painting, what drew the eye and commanded the attention, was the woman's vulva: all the life of the painting was concentrated there. A slash of pink, startling against the mossy greens and browns, seemed to touch a nerve in my own groin.
And why did she title such a painting "My Death"? I won't spoil it!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Snow in Late March in Seattle
In the meantime, let me toss you a few links. Kelley Eskridge sent me this one:
Labor of Love by Thomas Beatie. The transgendered Beatie, who is legally male and legally (i.e., officially) married to a woman, is pregnant and carrying a child.
Inter Press Service has an article on a report by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) to the United Nations Human Rights Council: "There have been "huge harassments of human rights organisations and defenders have been increasingly subject to abusive and suppressive actions by government actors… in the majority of Arab countries, particularly Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and Tunisia." The article notes:
The U.S. and other Western governments have had close ties with Arab governments in the Middle East and North Africa for many years. These ties have grown closer since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sep. 11, 2001.
But since the administration of President Ronald Reagan (1981-89), promoting democracy and freedom in the Arab world has been a staple in U.S. political rhetoric. The rhetoric has ratcheted up significantly during the administration of President George W. Bush. In his second inaugural address, Bush said, "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
The gap between the Bush Administration's rhetoric and its actions is derisible. A letter to the Washington Post from Venezuela's Communications Minister, also published on the Commondreams.org site, by its proximity prompted me to do a bit of a compare-and-contrast exercise. Imagine, if the Bush administration held its democracy-hating allies to the standards of Venezuela... (Well no, actually, I can't imagine it ever doing that. They wouldn't be allies any longer if they did.)
And finally, the best link of all, with thanks to Josh Lukin: an excellent, intense six minutes of an interview with James Baldwin on YouTube.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Voices from Fairyland by Theodora Goss
I'm pleased to announce that this spring Aqueduct will be publishing Voices from Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner by Theodora Goss as a volume in the Conversation Pieces series. We'll be launching this volume at WisCon in May.
The volume will include fantastical poems by Coleridge, Mew, and Warner, accompanied by four fascinating essays and several poems by Dora Goss in conversation with the Coleridge, Mew, and Warner's poems. To give you just a little taste of Voices from Fairyland, here are a few paragraphs from Dora's Introduction:
Coleridge, Mew, and Warner are only three examples of what I consider a broader phenomenon, the rest of the ice that must be present, underwater, when we see icebergs floating on a northern sea. That underwater ice is the tradition of women writing fantastical poetry. I will show you what I mean by focusing on one theme. Over and over again, women have written about witches. In "Witch-Wife," Edna St. Vincent Millay describes a woman whose "voice is a string of coloured beads, / Or steps leading into the sea" who "was not made for any man," not even the narrator, to whom she is married. The witch in Anne Sexton's "Her Kind" is fiercer and stronger. She tells us,
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
She creates a domestic space for herself in a place that is decidedly undomestic, that is wild, feeding worms and elves rather than the children that the women who are not witches presumably feed. "A woman like that is misunderstood," Sexton tell us, and we can certainly understand why, if her voice is a string of colored beads or those mysterious steps. She must speak differently, in a language that we cannot quite understand. And here is Emily Dickinson:
Witchcraft was hung, in History,
But History and I
Find all the Witchcraft that we need
Around us, every Day—
Whatever you do, she implies, you cannot eradicate witchcraft. It is part of the world around us, always present. And we—History and Emily Dickinson—need witchcraft. I wonder what they need it for exactly, but Emily Dickinson, always her enigmatic self, does not tell us.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
When People Talk about Aqueduct Books, We Listen...
Cheryl Morgan reports that she's reading the first volume of The WisCon Chronicles:
It isn't often that I get an opportunity to talk about a book because I'm in it, but there are a couple around at the moment. The book I'm currently reading is The WisCon Chronicles, edited by Timmi Duchamp. It is a collage of material taken from WisCon 30: interviews, panel transcripts and so on. I'm in it because of a panel called (rather pretentiously) "Is Reading Feminist SF a Theory-Building Activity". (Wiscon, for those of you who do not know, is a feminist science fiction convention.) I have to confess that I was very nervous being put on that panel and didn't have much a clue what to say beforehand. I also think I performed better at other panels at that con. However, I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to be on a panel with Karen Joy Fowler, and if we really did need to talk about feminist theory I knew I could rely on my fellow panelist to do the business. As it turns out I seem to have ended up talking a lot about trans issues.
Read the rest of her post here.
And Jeff VanderMeer has this to say on Amazon.com's Omnivoracious:
L. Timmel Duchamp's The Blood in the Fruit - The latest book in the Marq'ssan Cycle might just be the best yet, part of a series that is the most important political SF published in the last decade. Praised by the likes of Cory Doctorow and Samuel Delany, Duchamp's accomplishment here is deadly, sharp, emotional, and intelligent.
Monday, March 17, 2008
A Handful of Links
--The Independent reports that the British Government is attempting to "rewrite" the history of the Iraq war as it is taught in UK schools:
Britain's biggest teachers' union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.
Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union's annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a "propaganda" exercise and makes no mention of any civilian casualties as a result of the war.
They believe the instructions, designed for use during classroom discussions in general studies or personal, social and health education (PSE) lessons, are arguably an attempt to rewrite the history of the Iraq invasion just as the world prepares to mark its fifth anniversary.
The article notes numerous distortions and lies (including the canard about Iraq's "failure to surrender" its [nonexistent] Weapons of Mass Destruction). Read more here.
--An event called "Winter Soldier," organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War was held in Silver Springs Maryland. "Winter soldiers, according to U.S. founding father Thomas Paine, are the people who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours." Dahr Jamail reports (for Inter Press Service) on a panel on the rules of engagement (or lack thereof) for Iraq, held on the first day of the gathering:
Garret Reppenhagen received integral training about the Geneva Conventions and the Rules of Engagement during his deployment in Kosovo. But in Iraq, "Much of this was thrown out the window," he says.
"The men I served with are professionals," Reppenhagen told the audience at a panel of U.S. veterans speaking of their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, "They went to Iraq to defend the U.S. But we found rapidly we were killing Iraqis in horrible ways. But we had to in order to remain safe ourselves. The war is the atrocity."
The event, which has drawn international media attention, was organised by Iraq Veterans Against the War. It aims to show that their stories of wrongdoing in both countries were not isolated incidents limited to a few "bad apples", as the Pentagon claims, but were everyday occurrences.
Read the whole article here.
--In the midst of the uproar over Geraldine Ferraro's remark managing to disparage both affirmative action and Obama in one mean stroke, the Inter Press Service reported that the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) based in Geneva, Switzerland released a report concluding that the US is failing to meet international standards on racial equality. The US, you see, is a signatory of an international treaty-- the 1969 Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination-- and the CERD is responsible for monitoring global compliance with the treaty:
In concluding the CERD report on U.S. record, the panel of experts called for the George W. Bush administration to take effective actions to end racist practices against minorities in the areas of criminal justice, housing, healthcare and education.
This is the second time in less than two years that the U.S. government has been found to be falling short of its treaty obligations. In March 2006, The CERD had harshly criticised the U.S. for violating Native Americans' land rights.
Taking note of racial discrimination against indigenous communities, the Committee said it wants the U.S. to provide information about what it has done to promote the culture and traditions of American Indian, Alaska Native and indigenous Hawaiian peoples. It also urged the U.S. to apply the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The CERD also voiced strong concerns regarding environmental racism and the environmental degradation of indigenous areas of spiritual and cultural significance, without regard to whether they are on "recognised" reservation lands.
The Committee recommended to the U.S. that it consult with indigenous representatives, "chosen in accordance with their own procedures — to ensure that activities carried out in areas of spiritual and cultural significance do not have a negative impact on the enjoyment of their rights under the Convention".
In its 13-page ruling, the U.N. body also raised serious questions about the death penalty and in the sentencing of minors to life without parole, which it linked to racial disparities between whites and blacks.
In their testimony, Bush administration officials held that the treaty obligations do not apply to laws or practices that are race-neutral on their face but discriminatory in effect. The Committee outright rejected that claim, noting that the treaty prohibits racial discrimination in all forms, including practices and legislation that may not be discriminatory in purpose, but in effect.
The gulag at Guantanamo also came in for criticism. Read the rest of the article here.
--An article in Foreign Policy in Focus by Ellen-Rae Cachola, Lizelle Festejo, Annie Fukushima, Gwyn Kirk, and Sabina Perez, Gender and US Bases in Asia-Pacific reports on the impact US bases overseas (including in Hawai'i, where the US military occupies one-fourth of the land) exercise on women's lives:
The power dynamics of militarism in the Asia-Pacific region rely on dominance and subordination. These hierarchical relationships, shaped by gender, can be seen in U.S. military exploitation of host communities, its abuse and contamination of land and water, and the exploitation of women and children through the sex industry, sexual violence, and rape. Women's bodies, the land, and indigenous communities are all feminized, treated as dispensable and temporary. What is constructed as "civilized, white, male, western, and rational" is held superior to what is defined as "primitive, non-white, female, non-western, and irrational." Nations and U.S. territories within the Asia-Pacific region are treated as inferiors with limited sovereignty or agency in relation to U.S. foreign policy interests that go hand-in-hand with this racist/sexist ideology.
At the end of their report, they conclude:
U.S. peace movements should not only address U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, but also in other parts of the world. Communities in the Asia-Pacific region have a long history of contesting U.S. militarism and offer eloquent testimonies to the negative impact of U.S. military operations there. These stories provide insights into the gendered dynamics of U.S. foreign and military policy, and the complicity of allied nations in this effort. Many individuals and organizations are crying out for justice, united by threads of hope and visions for a different future. Our job is to listen to them and to act accordingly.
The current elections in the US will have no impact whatsoever on the problem, of course.
--And finally, Carmen Boullosa's Garden of Monsters offers a fascinating review of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolano's Nazi Literature in the Americas. Since her piece delivers a delicious punchline, I won't spoil it by saying anything more.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Lambda Literary Awards Finalists
- Wicked Gentlemen, Ginn Hale (Blind Eye Books)
- A Companion to Wolves, Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear (Tor Books)
- Spaceman Blues: A Love Song, Brian Francis Slattery (Tor Books)
- The Dust of Wonderland, Lee Thomas (Alyson Books)
- Ha'penny, Jo Walton (Tor Books)
- Comfort Food for Breakups, Marusya Bocurkiuw (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- And Now We Are Going to Have a Party, Nicola Griffith (Payseur & Schmidt)
- An Army of Ex-Lovers, Amy Hoffman (University of Massachusetts Press)
- Two Lives: Gertrude & Alice, Janet Malcolm (Yale University Press)
- Waiting for the Call, Jaqueline Taylor (University of Michigan Press)
Saturday, March 8, 2008
International Women's Day
Today is International Women's Day. I think it must be almost twenty years since I last celebrated it. I recall marches through the streets of downtown Seattle with a few thousand other women and forums and lectures and maybe even a film series or two. I thought of all this the other day when my eye happened to light on a bit of memorabilia that's been hanging on the wall (or, for awhile, the door) of my office for the last twenty years. My old friend and comrade in activism, Therese Spaude, made it for me; and yesterday, when I took it down from the wall, I found written on the back of it "Happy International Women's Day" (plus a few personal words). To make it, she photocopied a photo and inscribed the photocopy with tempera. I've scanned it, and as you can see, it's gotten a bit yellow with age and still, for some reason, retains the creases it acquired during its brief sojourn in an envelope that Therese taped to my back door one March day in the late 1980s.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Another Link
Naturally my attention zoomed right in on her discussion of the Marq'ssan Cycle in general and Blood in the Fruit in particular. Here's a chunk of it:
Throughout the Marq'ssan series I have been more and more impressed with Duchamp's skill at unpacking the infinite detail, the fractalness of thought, in human relationships, laid bare so relentlessly it feels like seeing another sort of interrogation — of the characters — and thus we can't avoid interrogating and examining our own lives and relationships in similar ways. I know that some people will pick up Alanya to Alanya and won't get it. But if you are the sort of science fiction reader who likes Middlemarch and books like that… You will be well rewarded by plowing through all the Marq'ssan books though I fear for most people it will take till the middle of book 2 to get really hooked. Then once you are hooked, watch out. It's painful and scary. Talk about axe for the frozen sea. These are books that leave you staring at the ceiling for several nights or violently sobbing as you reevaluate bits of your life and think of all your failings and self-lies, denials and blindnesses and hypocrisies. I don't think I've read anything that so well entangles that personal detail and complexity with political complexity, other than The Orphan's Tales, which is a completely different flavor of story. How do people make moral decisions? What makes them tick? What is evil? Why is our society so gendered? What the hell? Can people of different social classes, or genders, ever really trust or believe each other? What truth is even possible? Can non violent revolution succeed, and how would we measure its success, and while we're at it let's think more carefully about what we mean by violence… Who is fighting what, and why, and how, and what result might it have? ZOMG. Like that.
Wow. My cup runneth over.
Wednesday Links
Richard Larson reviews Vandana Singh's Of Love and Other Monsters at Strange Horizons. In his review he observes:
Singh is successful in her assertion that we are all alienated from each other and that none of us can really know anyone else, at least not in the way that we come to understand that Arun's people—other aliens—can understand each other, using a "language" involving an intimate conjoining of minds. Arun agonizes over his predicament with Sankaran—("How does a man who is not a man or a woman, not a human or an alien—how does such a being confess his love to another man?" [p. 52])—which is a love that will ultimately elude him and which will come, in the narrative, to represent the tragic inability of humans to ever truly connect with one another.
On a completely different front, Carlos Martinez reminds us that the US-powered and -directed "Plan Columbia" has been interfering with Ecuadoran sovereignty for years, for instance by spraying toxic chemicals on its crops, animals, and human populations; which is to say, Ecuador has much to resent from its bully of a neighbor. (And I can't help but note that Columbia is merely following the US's example in refusing to respect the national borders of other countries. Can it be any wonder that that so many of the US's allies feel free to violate other countries' national borders as though it were their right to do so?) Martinez notes the typically antihistorical and skewed reporting on the situation by the US media:
While some press in the United States question whether Chavez is using this situation as an opportunity to distract Venezuelans from their social problems, this excessive focus on him is in fact distracting people in the US from having a much needed dialogue on their own government's role in fomenting this so-called "Andean Crisis." As a result, the tough realities and repercussions from the US government's support for a military solution in Colombia are being overlooked. Emboldened and armed with the multibillion dollar support of Plan Colombia, the Uribe government has decided to violate international law rather than attempting mediated discussions with the FARC. This is simply the latest controversy to discredit Colombia, already renowned for having the greatest number of human rights violations and politically motivated murders per year in the Western Hemisphere.
Indeed. But human rights violations do not now and never have mattered to the US media (or Government)-- except, of course, when committed by designated enemies of the US Government.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
In the Realm of Political Fantasy
Deen observes:
A Security Council resolution (1325) adopted in 2000 called for equal participation by both men and women in maintaining and promoting peace and security. But that resolution "was a long way from being adequately implemented", says Anne Marie Goetz, UNIFEM's chief adviser on Governance, Peace and Security.
She told the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women — which concludes its two-week session Friday — that very few women participated in peace talks as official negotiators or observers.
"Disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration processes still rarely addressed the needs of women associated with fighting forces, and post-conflict planning and financing for women's recovery, remained weak," she added.
Goetz called for a gender-sensitive perspective on conflict resolution, peacemaking and rehabilitation.
On the positive side, UNIFEM has recently supported capacity-building of women's groups in Darfur and national peace consultations with women, while facilitating women's access to institutions involved in the peace process.
In northern Uganda, UNIFEM has joined hands with the Department of Political Affairs to appoint a gender adviser to the peace talks. At the same time, it has supported efforts to improve military and police tactics to prevent sexual gender-based violence in conflicts.
Assistant Secretary-General Carolyn McAskie, head of the U.N. Peacebuilding Support Office, points out that despite much rhetoric about women's roles in peacebuilding, women's contributions had rarely been fully recognised.
But both her office and UNIFEM have actively promoted women's groups to participate in the peacebuilding processes in two countries: Sierra Leone and Burundi.
The government of Sierra Leone and the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission have adopted a Peacebuilding Cooperation Framework that recognises gender equality as a cross-cutting peacebuilding issue with specific commitments to advance that goal.
These commitments include family support units, capacity-building of national gender institutions and implementing laws relating to domestic violence, inheritance and property rights.
In Burundi, McAskie said, women have participated in the peace process, integrating gender equality into democratic governance and the peacebuilding framework.
As a result of quotas spelled out in the peace agreement and Burundi's new constitution, women were now better represented in government, holding 30 percent of parliamentary seats and seven ministerial posts.
"Despite those significant achievements, much more must be done," McAskie told the Commission on the Status of Women last week.
"We have learned that our ability to affect real change in gender equality through peacebuilding greatly depends on how the international community establishes its priorities and uses its resources," she declared.
Read the complete article here.


text:
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text:
Glossary of Terms for Infection Prevention and Control in Dental Settings
Administrative controls: the use of administrative measures (i.e., policies and procedures and enforcement measures) to reduce the risk of exposure to pathogenic organisms.
Aerosol: particles of respirable size (<10 µm) generated by both humans and environmental sources that can remain viable and airborne for extended periods in the indoor environment; commonly generated in dentistry during use of handpieces, ultrasonic scalers, and air/water syringes.
Airborne transmission: a means of spreading infection in which airborne droplet nuclei are inhaled by the susceptible host.
Air abrasion: the application of a mixture of small abrasive particles by air blast to prepare a cavity in a tooth or remove deposits from teeth.
Alcohol-based hand rub: an alcohol-containing preparation designed for application to the hands for reducing the number of viable microorganisms on the hands. In the United States, such preparations usually contain 60%–95% ethanol or isopropanol. These are waterless antiseptic agents not requiring the use of exogenous water. After applying such an agent, the hands are rubbed together until the agent has dried.
Allergen: an antigen, a substance capable of inducing allergy or specific hypersensitivity.
Allergic contact dermatitis: a type IV or delayed- hypersensitivity reaction resulting from contact with a chemical allergen (e.g., poison ivy, certain components of patient care gloves), generally localized to the contact area. Reactions occur slowly over 12-48 hours.
Anaphylaxis (immediate anaphylactic hypersensitivity): a severe and sometimes fatal Type 1 reaction in a susceptible person after a second exposure to a specific antigen (e.g., food, pollen, proteins in latex gloves, or penicillin) after previous sensitization. Anaphylaxis is characterized commonly by respiratory symptoms, itching, hives, and rarely by shock and death (anaphylactic shock).
Antibody: a protein found in the blood that is produced in response to foreign substances (e.g., bacteria or viruses) invading the body. Antibodies protect the body from disease by binding to these organisms and destroying them.
Antigen: a foreign substance, usually protein or carbohydrate substance (as a toxin or enzyme) capable of stimulating an immune response, usually the production of antibodies.
Antimicrobial soap: a soap (i.e., detergent) containing an antiseptic agent.
Antiseptic: a germicide that is used on skin or living tissue for the purpose of inhibiting or destroying microorganisms. Examples include alcohols, chlorhexidine, chlorine, hexachlorophene, iodine, chloroxylenol (PCMX), quaternary ammonium compounds, and triclosan.
Antiseptic handwash: washing hands with water and soap or detergents containing an antiseptic agent. Antiseptic hand rub. The process of applying an antiseptic hand-rub product to all surfaces of the hands to reduce the number of microorganisms present.
Asepsis: prevention from contamination with microorganisms. Includes sterile conditions on tissues, on materials, and in rooms, as obtained by excluding, removing, or killing organisms.
Bacterial count: a method of estimating the number of bacteria per unit sample. The term also refers to the estimated number of bacteria per unit sample, usually expressed as colony-forming units (CFUs) per square centimeter (cm2) per milliliter (ml).
Bacterial endocarditis: a bacterial induced inflammation of the lining of the heart and its valves.
Bead sterilizer (endodontic dry heat sterilizer): a device that used small glass beads (1.2–1.5 mm diameter) and high temperature (217–232oC) for brief exposures (e.g., 45 seconds) to inactivate microorganisms. The term is a misnomer because it is not cleared by the FDA as a sterilizer.
Bioburden: the microbiological load (i.e., number of viable organisms in or on the object or surface) or organic material on a surface or object prior to decontamination, or sterilization, also known as "bioload" or "microbial load."
Biological indicator: a device to monitor the sterilization process that consists of a standardized population bacterial spores known to be resistant to the mode of sterilization being monitored. Biological indicators indicate that all the parameters necessary for sterilization were present.
Bloodborne pathogens: disease-producing microorganisms spread by contact with blood or other body fluids contaminated with blood from an infected person.
Bloodborne Pathogens Standard: a standard developed, promulgated, and enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) directing employers to protect employees from occupational exposure to blood and other potentially infectious material.
Chemical indicator: a device to monitor the sterilization process that changes color or form with exposure to one or more of the physical conditions within the sterilizing chamber (e.g., temperature, steam). Chemical indicators are intended to detect potential sterilization failures that could result from incorrect packaging, incorrect loading of the sterilizer, or malfunctions of the sterilizer. A "pass" response does not verify that the items are sterile.
Chemical sterilant: chemicals used for the purpose of destroying all forms of microbial life including bacterial spores.
Cleaning: the removal of visible soil, organic and inorganic contamination from a device or surface, using either the physical action of scrubbing with a surfactant or detergent and water or an energy-based process (e.g., ultrasonic cleaners) with appropriate chemical agents.
Colony-forming unit (CFU): the minimum number of separable cells on the surface of or in semi-solid agar medium which gives rise to a visible colony of progeny is on the order of tens of millions. CFUs may consist of pairs, chains, and clusters as well as single cells and are often expressed as colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/ml).
Contaminated: state of having been in contact with microorganisms. As used in health care, it generally refers to microorganisms capable of producing disease or infection.
Control biological indicator: a biological indicator from the same lot as a test indicator that is left unexposed to the sterilization cycle and then incubated to verify the viability of the test indicator. The control indicator should yield positive results for bacterial growth.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD): a degenerative neurological disorder of humans thought to be transmitted by abnormal isoforms of neural proteins called prions. CJD is one of a group of related diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
Critical: the category of medical devices or instruments that are introduced directly into the human body, either into or in contact with the bloodstream or normally sterile areas of the body (e.g., surgical scalpel) These items are so called because of the substantial risk of acquiring infection if the item is contaminated with microorganisms at the time of use.
Decontamination: a process or treatment that renders a medical device, instrument, or environmental surface safe to handle. According to OSHA, "the use of physical or chemical means to remove, inactivate, or destroy bloodborne pathogens on a surface or item to the point where they are no longer capable of transmitting infectious particles and the surface or item is rendered safe for handling, use, or disposal" [29 CFR 1910.1030].
Dental treatment water: nonsterile water used for dental therapeutic purposes, including irrigation of nonsurgical operative sites and cooling of high speed rotary and ultrasonic instruments.
Detergents: compounds that possess a cleaning action and have hydrophilic and lipophilic parts. Although products used for handwashing or antiseptic handwash in a health-care setting represent various types of detergents, the term "soap" is used to refer to such detergents in this guideline. Detergents make no antimicrobial claims on the label.
Direct Contact Transmission: physical transfer of microorganisms between a susceptible host and an infected or colonized person.
Disinfectant: a chemical agent used on inanimate objects (i.e., nonliving) (e.g., floors, walls, sinks) to destroy virtually all recognized pathogenic microorganisms, but not necessarily all microbial forms (e.g., bacterial endospores). The EPA groups disinfectants on whether the product label claims "limited," "general" or "hospital" disinfectant.
Disinfection: the destruction of pathogenic and other kinds of microorganisms by physical or chemical means. Disinfection is less lethal than sterilization, because it destroys most recognized pathogenic microorganisms, but not necessarily all microbial forms, such as bacterial spores. Disinfection does not ensure the margin of safety associated with sterilization processes.
Distilled water: water heated to the boiling point, vaporized, cooled, condensed, and collected so that no impurities are reintroduced.
Droplet nuclei: particles 5µm diameter or less that are formed by dehydration of airborne droplets containing microorganisms that can remain suspended in the air for long periods of time.
Droplets: small particles of moisture (e.g., spatter) that may be generated when a person coughs or sneezes or when water is converted to a fine mist by an aerator or shower head. Intermediate in size between drops and droplet nuclei, these particles, although they may still contain infectious microorganisms, tend to quickly settle out from the air so that any risk of disease transmission is generally limited to persons in close proximity to the droplet source.
Endotoxin: A part of the lipopolysaccharide, which can be found in the outer membrane of gram negative bacteria. Endotoxins often induce the immune response in a host, which can lead to the presentation of clinical signs and symptoms of infection.
Engineering Controls: controls (e.g., sharps disposal containers, self-sheathing needles, safer medical devices, such as sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and needleless systems) that isolate or remove the bloodborne pathogens hazard from the workplace.
Event-related packaging: a storage practice that recognizes that a package and its contents should remain sterile until some event causes the item(s) to become contaminated.
Exposure time: period of time during a sterilization or disinfection process in which items are exposed to the sterilant or disinfectant at the parameters specified by the manufacturer (e.g., time, concentration, temperature, pressure).
Germicide: an agent that destroys microorganisms, especially pathogenic organisms. Other terms with the suffix "–cide" (e.g., virucide, fungicide, bactericide, tuberculocide, sporicide) indicate an agent that destroys the microorganism identified by the prefix. Germicides may be used to inactivate microorganisms in or on living tissue (antiseptic) or on environmental surfaces (disinfectants).
Glycocalyx: a gelatinous polysaccharide and/or polypeptide outer covering. The glycocalyx can be identified by negative staining techniques. The glycocalyx is referred to as a capsule if it is firmly attached to the cell wall, or as a slime layer if loosely attached. This material produced by bacteria forms the structural matrix of biofilm.
Hand hygiene: a general term that applies to handwashing, antiseptic handwash, antiseptic hand rub, and surgical hand antisepsis.
Health-care-associated infection: any infection associated with a medical or surgical intervention. The term "health-care-associated" replaces "nosocomial," which is limited to adverse infectious outcomes occurring in hospitals.
Hepatitis B Immune Globulin (HBIG): a product available for prophylaxis against hepatitis B virus infection. HBIG is prepared from plasma containing high titers of anti-HBs and provides short-term protection (3–6 months).
Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg): a serologic marker on the surface of HBV. It can be detected in high levels in serum during acute or chronic hepatitis. The body normally produces antibodies to surface antigen as part of the normal immune response to infection.
Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg): a secreted product of the nucleocapsid gene of HBV and is found in serum during acute and chronic HBV infection. Its presence indicates that the virus is replicating and serves as a marker of increased infectivity.
Hepatitis B Surface Antibody (anti-HBs): the protective antibody against the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBsAg). Presence in the blood can indicate past infection with, and immunity to, hepatitis B virus, or an immune response from hepatitis B vaccine.
Heterotrophic bacteria: those bacteria that require an organic carbon source for growth (i.e., they derive energy and carbon from organic compounds). The modifier "mesophilic" describes bacteria that grow best within the middle ranges of environmental temperature.
High-level disinfection: a disinfection process that inactivates vegetative bacteria, mycobacteria, fungi, and viruses but not necessarily high numbers of bacterial spores. The FDA further defines a high-level disinfectant as a sterilant used under the same contact conditions except for a shorter contact time.
Hospital disinfectant: a germicide that is registered by EPA for use on inanimate objects in hospitals, clinics, dental offices, or any other medical-related facility. Efficacy is demonstrated against Salmonella choleraesuis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Hypersensitivity: an immune reaction (allergy) in which the body has an exaggerated response to a specific antigen (e.g., food, pet dander, wasp venom). See allergic contact dermatitis, anaphylxis, latex allergy.
Iatrogenic: induced inadvertently by a HCW or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures. Used especially in reference to an infectious disease or other complication of medical treatment.
Immunity: protection against a disease. Immunity is indicated by the presence of antibodies in the blood and can usually be determined with a laboratory test.
Immunization: the process by which a person becomes immune, or protected, against a disease. This term is often used interchangeably with vaccination or inoculation. However, the term "vaccination" is defined as the injection of a killed or weakened infectious organism in order to prevent the disease. Thus, vaccination, by inoculation with a vaccine, does not always result in immunity.
Implantable device: according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), "device that is placed into a surgically or naturally formed cavity of the human body if it is intended to remain there for a period of 30 days or more" [21 CFR 812.3(d)].
Independent water reservoir: a container used to hold water or other solutions and supply it to handpieces and air/water syringes attached to a dental unit. The independent reservoir, which isolates the unit from the public water system, may be provided as original equipment or as a retrofit device on all modern dental units.
Indirect Contact Transmission: contact of a susceptible host with a contaminated, intermediate object, usually inanimate.
Infectious microorganisms: microorganisms capable of producing infection in susceptible hosts.
Intermediate-level disinfection: a disinfection process that inactivates vegetative bacteria, most fungi, mycobacteria, and most viruses (particularly the enveloped viruses) but not bacterial spores.
Intermediate-level disinfectant: a liquid chemical germicide registered by the EPA as hospital disinfectant and with a label claim of potency as a tuberculocidal.
Irritant contact dermatitis: the development of dry, itchy, irritated areas on the skin, which can result from frequent handwashing and gloving as well as exposure to chemicals. This condition is not an allergic reaction.
Latex allergy: a type I or immediate anaphylactic hypersensitivity reaction to the proteins found in natural rubber latex.
Latex: a milky white fluid extracted from the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis that contains the rubber material cis-1,4 polyisoprene.
Low-level disinfection: a process that will inactivate most vegetative bacteria, some fungi, and some viruses but cannot be relied on to inactivate resistant microorganisms (e.g., mycobacteria or bacterial spores).
Low-level disinfectant: a liquid chemical germicide registered by the EPA as a hospital disinfectant. OSHA requires low-level disinfectants also to have a label claim for potency against HIV and HBV if used for disinfecting clinical contact surfaces.
Mechanical indicator: devices (e.g., gauges, meter, display, printout) that display an element of the sterilization process (e.g., time, temperature, pressure).
Medical waste (Regulated): waste sufficiently capable of causing infection during handling and disposal (e.g., blood-or saliva-soaked cotton rolls, extracted teeth, sharp items, surgically-removed hard- and soft-tissues) to merit special handling and disposal.
Microfilter: membrane filter used to trap microorganisms suspended in water. Filters are usually installed on dental unit waterlines near the point of use as a retrofit device. Microfiltration commonly occurs at a filter pore size of 0.03 to 10 microns. Sediment filters commonly found in dental unit water regulators range from 20 to 90 microns pore size and do not function as microbiological filters.
N-95 respirator: one of nine types of disposable particulate respirators. "95" refers to the percentage of particles filtered. ( see "particulate respirator").
Noncritical: the category of medical items or surfaces that carry the least risk of disease transmission. This category has been expanded to include not only noncritical medical devices but also environmental surfaces. Noncritical medical devices touch only unbroken (intact) skin (e.g., blood pressure cuff). Noncritical environmental surfaces can be further divided into clinical contact surfaces (e.g., light handle) and housekeeping surfaces (e.g., floors, countertops).
NIOSH: the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is the Federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related disease and injury. The Institute is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nosocomial: describes an infection acquired in a hospital as a result of medical care (see definition for health-care-associated infection).
Occupational exposure: a reasonably anticipated skin, eye, mucous membrane, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials that may result from the performance of an employee's duties.
OPIM ( Other Potentially Infectious Materials): an OSHA term that refers to (1) The following human body fluids: semen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, pleural fluid, pericardial fluid, peritoneal fluid, amniotic fluid, saliva in dental procedures, any body fluid that is visibly contaminated with blood, and all body fluids in situations where it is difficult or impossible to differentiate between body fluids; (2) Any unfixed tissue or organ (other than intact skin) from a human (living or dead); and (3) HIV-containing cell or tissue cultures, organ cultures, and HIV- or HBV-containing culture medium or other solutions; and blood, organs, or other tissues from experimental animals infected with HIV or HBV.
Opportunistic infection: an infection caused by a microorganism that does not ordinarily cause disease but is capable of doing so, under certain host conditions (e.g., impaired immune response).
Parenteral: means piercing mucous membranes or the skin barrier through such events as needlesticks, human bites, cuts, and abrasions.
Particulate respirator: also known as "air-purifying respirators" because they protect by filtering particles out of the air you breathe. Workers can wear any one of the particulate respirators for protection against diseases spread through the air- if they are NIOSH approved and if they have been properly fit-tested and maintained. NIOSH-approved disposable respirators are marked with the manufacturer's name, the part number (P/N), the protection provided by the filter (e.g., N-95), and "NIOSH." "95" refers to the percentage of particles filtered.
Percutaneous injury: an injury that penetrates the skin (e.g., needlestick, or cut with a sharp object).
Persistent activity: the prolonged or extended activity that prevents or inhibits the proliferation or survival of microorganisms after application of the product. This activity may be demonstrated by sampling a site several minutes or hours after application and demonstrating bacterial antimicrobial effectiveness when compared with a baseline level. In the past, this property was also called "residual activity." Both substantive and non-substantive active ingredients can show a persistent antimicrobial effect if they lower the number of bacteria significantly during the handwashing period. Substantivity is an attribute of certain active ingredients that adhere to the stratum corneum (i.e., remain on the skin after rinsing or drying) to provide an inhibitory effect on the growth of bacteria remaining on the skin.
Personal protective equipment (PPE): is specialized clothing or equipment worn by an employee for protection against a hazard (e.g., gloves, masks, protective eyewear, gowns). General work clothes (e.g., uniforms, pants, shirts or blouses) not intended to function as protection against a hazard are not considered to be personal protective equipment.
Plain or non-antimicrobial soap: soaps or detergents that do not contain antimicrobial agents or contain very low concentrations of such agents that are effective solely as preservatives.
Planktonic: collective name free-floating microbiological organisms dispersed in solution, as in the case of free-swimming plankton.
Postexposure prophylaxis: the administration of medications following an occupational exposure in an attempt to prevent infection.
Potable (drinking) water: water suitable for drinking per applicable public health standards.
PPM (Parts per million): a measure of concentration in solution. For example, a 5.25% chlorine bleach solution (undiluted as supplied by the manufacturer) contains approximately 52,500 parts per million of free available chlorine.
Prevalence: the number of disease cases (new and existing) within a population at a given time.
Prion: a protein particle that lacks nucleic acid and has been implicated as the cause of various neurodegenerative diseases (as scrapie, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy). It is a pathogenic form of a neural protein that is both less soluble and more resistant to enzyme degradation than the normal form.
Qualified health-care professional: any licensed health care provider who can provide counseling and perform all medical evaluations and procedures in accordance with the most current recommendations of the US Department of Health and Human Services, including postexposure prophylaxis when indicated.
Regulated waste: liquid or semi-liquid blood or other potentially infectious materials; contaminated items that would release blood or other potentially infectious materials in a liquid or semi-liquid state if compressed; items that are caked with dried blood or other potentially infectious materials and are capable of releasing these materials during handling; contaminated sharps; and pathological and microbiological wastes containing blood or other potentially infectious materials.
Resident flora: species of microorganisms that are always present on or in the body and are not easily removed by mechanical friction.
Retraction: the entry of oral fluids and microorganisms into waterlines through negative water pressure.
Semicritical: the category of medical devices or instruments (e.g., mouth mirror) that come into contact with mucous membranes and do not ordinarily penetrate body surfaces.
Seroconversion: development of antibodies in the blood of an individual who previously did not have detectable antibodies.
Spatter: visible drops of liquid or body fluid that are expelled forcibly into the air and settle out quickly, as distinguished from particles of an aerosol, which remain airborne indefinitely.
Spaulding classification: a strategy for sterilization or disinfection of inanimate objects and surfaces based on the degree of risk involved in their use. The three categories are critical, semicritical, or noncritical. The system also established three levels of germicidal activity for disinfection (high, intermediate, and low).
Sterilant: a liquid chemical germicide that destroys all forms of microbiological life, including high numbers of resistant bacterial spores.
Sterile/sterility: state of being free from all living microorganisms. In practice, usually described as a probability function, (e.g., the probability of a surviving microorganism being 1 in 1,000,000).
Sterile water: water that is sterilized and contains no antimicrobial agents.
Sterilization: the use of a physical or chemical procedure to destroy all microorganisms including large numbers of resistant bacterial spores.
Surfactants: surface-active agents that reduce surface tension. They help cleaning by loosening, emulsifying, and holding soil in suspension, which can then be more readily rinsed away.
Surgical hand scrub: an antiseptic-containing preparation that substantially reduces the number of microorganisms on intact skin; it is broad-spectrum, fast-acting, and persistent.
Transient flora: microorganisms that may be present in or on the body under certain conditions and for certain lengths of time; they are easier to remove by mechanical friction than resident flora.
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs): a group of rapidly progressive, invariably fatal, degenerative neurological disorders affecting both humans and animals that are caused by infection with prions (see Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and prion).
Transmission-based precautions: a set of practices that apply to patients with documented or suspected infection or colonization with highly transmissible or epidemiologically important pathogens for which precautions beyond the standard precautions are needed to interrupt transmission in health-care settings.
Tuberculosis infection, latent: a condition in which living tubercle bacilli (M. tuberculosis) are present in the body but the disease is not clinically active. Infected persons usually have positive tuberculin skin test, but they have no symptoms related to the infection and are not infectious. Infected persons remain at lifelong risk for developing disease, however, if they are not given preventive therapy.
Turbidity: cloudiness.
Ultrasonic cleaner: a device that uses waves of acoustic energy (a process known as "cavitation") to loosen and break up debris on instruments.
Vaccination: see immunization.
Vaccine: a product that produces immunity therefore protecting the body from the disease. Vaccines are administered through needle injections, by mouth and by aerosol.
Ventilation: the process of supplying and removing air by natural or mechanical means to and from any space; such air may be conditioned.
Washer-disinfector: an automatic unit designed to clean and thermally disinfect instruments. The unit uses a high-temperature cycle rather than a chemical bath.
Wicking: absorption of a liquid by capillary action along a thread or through the material (e.g., the enhanced penetration of liquids through undetected holes in a glove).
Work practice controls: are practices incorporated into the everyday work routine that reduce the likelihood of exposure by altering the manner in which a task is performed (e.g., prohibiting recapping of needles by a two-handed technique).