text:
The nuke power industry is back at the public trough for the fourth time in two years demanding $50 billion in loan guarantees to build new reactors.
Its rust-bucket poster child is now the ancient clunker at Oyster Creek, whose visible New Jersey rust and advanced radioactive decay are A-OK with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which just gave it a twenty-year license extension.
The industry's savior may be France, whose taxpayer-funded EdF and Areva Corporations may be poised to build their own reactors on US soil using French and American taxpayer money.
And President Obama's first big test on nuke power may be how he fills a vacancy—and the chair—at the NRC.
The latest demand for a $50 billion taxpayer handout has been sleazed into the Senate budget bill. It has already been kicked out of the Stimulus Package, and George W. Bush's Energy Bills of 2007 and 2008. Bush did get $18.5 billion in guarantees into his 2005 Energy Bill, but that is being being challenged.
This latest bailout incarnation has been widely tagged "nuclear pork" even in the right-wing Washington Times, which says the Senate accepted it "without debate, explanation or a recorded vote." The amendment came from Sen. Michael Crapo (R-ID) with support from Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-ND). Crapo says the guarantees are part of a program created in the 2005 Bush Energy Bill is aimed at "clean energy" programs, not just "advanced" nuclear power. But no Congressional experts take that disclaimer seriously.
No independent financiers will take an un-subsidized flier on new reactors. Nuke operators can't get private insurance on a major melt-down. With the proposed Yucca Mountain dump all but dead, the industry—after fifty years—has no certified place to take its high-level radioactive waste.
Guarantees are also part of a bill supported by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees energy spending, and has been working with Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE), a pro-nuke cabal of business and retired military leaders.
Green energy groups such as Friends of the Earth, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Beyond Nuclear, NukeFree.org, Greenpeace, Physicians for Social Responsibility and others are gearing up for yet another Congressional fight. If they win this time, they'll have to fight it out again and yet again as the industry gloms onto new bills on a "clean energy bank," global warming, reprocessing and more. "The $50 billion in nuke loan guarantees proposed in February's economic stimulus bill were taken out in House-Senate conference following a national outpouring of opposition," says Michael Mariotte of NIRS. "With a similar outpouring, we can defeat these again in the conference committee that will meet after the Easter recess."
Mariotte says green energy groups are organizing a national write-in campaign to begin next week, and a call-in effort for April 27, the day after the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. No one doubts the industry will pour on one legislative scam after another in its desperate attempt to get taxpayer money as it is being priced into oblivion by rapid advances in renewables and efficiency.
Reports are also circulating that France's heavily subsidized reactor pushers, EdF and Areva, may use newly purchased stakes in Constellation and other US utilities to strongarm their way into the American electricity market. Among other things they may use French taxpayer money to build reactors on American soil. Their foreign ownership status may insulate them from even the infamously lax NRC regulation. The Atomic Energy Act prohibits "foreign ownership, control or domination" of a US reactor project, but the industry will try to work around that. As the over-priced, inefficient French fleet wobbles at home without meaningful regulation, and with no solution to its waste problems, the EdF/Areva reactor pushers apparently view the US as virgin territory.
Indeed, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just granted a 20-year license extension to America's oldest reactor. The Oyster Creek plant opened in December, 1969 with an expected design life of forty years. It now has visible rust around its core and has been constantly plagued by errant releases of hot water and lethal radiation.
Perched 50 miles east of Philadelphia and 75 miles south of New York City, Oyster Creek could not be licensed at all by today's standards. Its reactor containment was never required to withstand a jet crash and is far flimsier than the lid that blew off Chernobyl Unit Four in the Ukraine in 1986, releasing massive quantities of radiation into the surrounding countryside. Because Oyster Creek's old core is laden with far more residual radiation, a breach could blanket the densely populated American northeast with an apocalyptic cloud of death and destruction.
Owned by the Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, Oyster Creek has been bitterly opposed by area residents and nuclear experts who fear its vital internals are crumbling. The re-licensing process did not require a test of metals in the core, which can become dangerously embrittled after decades of exposure to super-hot water and intense radiation.
In 1991, Massachusetts' elderly Yankee Rowe was shut by lightening. Congressional pressure then demanded an embrittlement inspection that the reactor's owners would not do.
Parallel issues have been contested in bitter relicensing fights at Minnesota's Monticello, Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island Unit One, Vermont Yankee and Indian Point, 45 miles north of New York City. The first terror jet to hit the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 flew directly over Indian Point, whose elderly containments could not withstand an airplane's impact.
But the NRC's willingness to re-license the rickety, trouble-plagued Oyster Creek signals a willingness to ignore a wide range of serious health, safety and environmental concerns.
Thus pushers of the "Peaceful Atom" are pumping hard for taxpayer handouts and against meaningful regulation, even for the oldest and most decrepit reactors still pumping radiation into the American landscape.
Fittingly, there is now a vacancy on the five-member NRC that President Obama could fill. He could also appoint a new chair. The number of Commissioners over the past three decades who have been at all responsive to legitimate safety and health concerns has been miniscule. An independent-minded appointee would signal that the administration is serious about the health, safety and environmental issues that cut to the core of the "Peaceful Atom."
But whomever Obama appoints, it's painfully clear that the world's most expensive failed technology is not going away without a long, hard fight.
HARVEY WASSERMAN has been writing about atomic energy and the green alternatives since 1973. His 1982 assertion to Bryant Gumbel on NBC's TODAY Show that people were killed at TMI sparked a national mailing from the reactor industry demanding a retraction. NBC was later bought by Westinghouse, still a major force pushing atomic power. He is the author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030, is at www.solartopia.org. He can be reached at: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
So we write:
Customer c = new Customer();
Why is the design not such that we write:
c = new Customer();
c.CreditLimit = 1000;
The compiler can work out c points to a Customer and allow Customer's members to be invoked on c?
I know we may want to write:
IPerson c = new Customer();
IPerson e = new Employee();
so as to be able to write:
public string GetName(IPerson object)
return object.Name
string name = GetName(c); // or GetName(e);
But if we wrote:
c = new Customer();
e = new Employee();
we could still write:
public string GetName(object)
return object.Name
string name = GetName(c); // or GetName(e);
The compiler could complain about the code immediately above if the type of object c references does not support a Name property (as it can check which members are used on the argument/parameter within the method), or the runtime could complain.
Even with C#'s dynamic keyword, we are still using a variable 'type' (determined at runtime). But why does a variable need a type at all? I am sure there must be a good reason, but I can't think of it!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
… that Kode9's Sonar mix is the quality control dubstep is screaming out for.
… that Appleblim "Vansan" (Skull Disco) is the one. Hold tight for his mix on Mary Anne's show.
… that Pinch "Whirl" (unreleased) is broken Detroity 2step heaven, sent from Bristol.
… that Skream's "2D" was simply waiting to happen.
… that Forsaken's "Last Saloon Swagger ft. Joker and Ben Blackmore" is the biggest dubstep risk taken this year.
…that Y.Dot "I Violate Because I'm a Sinner" from Y.Dot's free mixtape is the first "refix" I've heard from grime in a while.
… that Kano "Layer Cake" (679) hits nail pon head: "I'll never sell more than an indie band… . Welcome to the layer cake son." Oh and don't forget "Be Real".
… that J2K's "Can't Chat to Me" is the sound of an MC going up a level. "Mixtape, mixtape, mixtape = air…"
… that Movado's "Amazing Grace" [Tremor Riddim, BigShip] and Busy Signal "Oh No", as heard on Robbo Ranx's show, hit the spot. I've recorded them and uploaded them here because I'm nice like that ;)
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
West goes East
Over the years, I've really enjoyed getting to know London's margins. While tourists traipse around - shudder - Leicester Square while staying in expensive Kensington hotels, it's long since been the edges I'm most excited by. Over the years I've reached a fair few amazing places. I've sat in Jammer's basement in Leytonstone, been to DMZ's Dubsessions in Croydon and wandered down to Roll Deep's base in Whilehouse. I've had football training in Dizzee's old school grounds in Stepney and played matches on Hackney Marshes. I'd like to think I'm loosely familiar with most of the main culturally interesting margins of this city – Brixton, Green Lanes, Hackney, Tooting, Croydon, Brick Lane and so on. Except Southall.
I'd never even been to Southall… until last weekend. I'd heard so much about the place, mostly from listening to Panjabi Hit Squad shows on 1Xtra. As my love of UK desi beats has grown, so has my curiosity about the place. So last Sunday I badgered some Sikh friends into giving us the guided tour of Southall.
Southall sits in west London, not the gentrified or affluent areas of Notting Hill or South Kensington, but far further west, out into the suburban sprawl, as the same approximate radius from the centre as Tottenham (north), Norwood (south) or Newham (east). Since the 1950s it has been predominantly Asian area.
Our guided tour began, as it should, on Southall's main street, The Broadway. With one fabric shop after another, it's riot of colour. To enter them is to be dazzled by rolls of material, in every possible shade, most bright. It reminded me of our friend's Sikh wedding. While the men sat to the right in the temple, dressed mostly in suits, the women sat together on the left, their sari's blending and clashing in an explosion of colour.
While visiting somewhere new, there's absolutely no substitute for guidance from an informed insider. Although many of the clothes shops looked loosely similar, our friends explained the transitions seen during their lifetimes. What was once exclusively the preserve of local family businesses, The Broadway cloth shops now share the footfall with boutique "designer" sari shops.
As we wandered through a shop, our friend also pointed out the way to spot an Afghan turban from a Punjabi one – quite straightforward when you know what you're looking for. In recent years Southall has seen large influx of Somali people too, which – with the usual differences in cultures and relative prosperity – has reportedly caused tensions.
Other dazzling shops included amazing jewellery emporiums; widows decked dozens of vast, colour-themed necklaces. At the centre of another hung an immense gold… um… dress? Embedded with South African gold sovereigns, it was large enough to function as the (front) half of a short, yet admittedly very revealing, backless dress, if someone was strong enough to wear it. Failing that, it could have functioned as a kind of chain mail of sorts.
The musical instrument shops were amazing too. Totally devoted to Indian musicians, they featured shelves after shelves of polished tablas and dhols, sitars, vaja (a harmonium variant) and other, large stringed instrument esraj, which is like a sitar that you bow. Oh for a sample CD of those badboys…
We headed off to lunch, at a run down café opposite the Mongolian-themed Bollywood cinema. Again the power of recommendation shone through as our friends ordered Tali and assorted vegetarian starters from the menu. I made the mistake of downing my mango lassi too soon but managed to avoid get laughed at during the dish called paani puri that involved breaking open a fried flying saucer-type pastry, filling it with spicy chick peas and runny sauce and then shoving it in your mouth at speed. Apparently this manoeuvre can get messy at times haha…
As soon as lunch ended, we hit the shops again. Some cloth was bought but I had only one place in mind. I'd wanted to hit ABC Music ever since I'd heard the tale that Timbaland has been taken there by Juggy D and they'd shut the shop so he could blow an insane figure on CDs.
It was easily on par with Raj Deep's in Tooting that I went to last year, in fact probably better. There was more upfront UK desi material, with that hip hop/bhangra edge I like as well as whole, accessible sections on Ghazals and religious music (both Hindu and Sikh). They were labelled (in English) so I didn't have to spend so much time guessing the most rudimentary of information about them like: how many people are singing? Are there any other instruments? When is this from?
My interest in Indian/Pakistani and UK desi beats doesn't seem to have one focus, beyond the peerless Lata Mangeshkar (who poses her own kind of problems herself, by the nature of the size of her immense back catalogue… over 70,000 titles is it?). I still love the early Ghazals by her that my track "Lata" was sampled from, given how brittle and naked they are.
I like a little current Hindi pop stuff, which tends on the whole to be quite sugary. The only one that has ripped my heart out is "Yeh Kya Hua" by Tera Mera Pyar. I like the strings in Bollywood tracks that swoop between tones, they can sound remarkably raw. But equally, lots of Bollywood "classics" do little for me, coming across as bad 1960s rock. I also like the Punjabi desi stuff from the UK, especially the releases on VIP records. With its rolling layered drum breaks, it's far more energetic than the Hindi pop stuff I've encountered. Finally there's the whole world of qawaali's, which edge into more abstract, extended-groove territories, but right now, while I have eight or nine Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan albums, they're a bit like Fela Kuti LPs: the tracks go on forever, all sound very similar, they're critically acclaimed but I'd rather not have to listen to them all. I'm sure this might change though.
In ABC I bought:
DJ Kunal "The Mixtape"
Jags Klimax "The Album"
A.R. Rahman "Timeless Classic Instrumentals"
Ghazals to Remember Vol 1
T-Series Super Hit Ghazals
Legends: Ghazals
I'll let you know if any of these turn out to be gems, but in essence, from two years of dipping into this vast sphere of music, if I were to recommend two, sell-your-gran for a copy, stone cold killers, it would be:
Specialist n Tru Skool "Word is Born"
Mughul-e-Azam soundtrack
I was physically dragged out of ABC Music kicking and screaming… OK so not quite but it was a shame to leave (record shopping is not a spectator sport) and headed off to buy some jalebis. I have a very sweet tooth – sometimes I just spoon brown sugar out of the bag, yeah yeah… I know… and what?! – and Indian sweets satisfy it. None more so than jalebis.
In essence, jalebis are deep fried sugar. Health food they ain't, but they taste amazing, with a soft gooey centre and crispy sugary outside. There are lots of types of other Indian sweets - gulab jamun which are soft damp cake balls served in syrup and others which are squares made from condensed milk – but to date jalebis are the ones that hit the spot.
We headed off for Indian tea and desserts. First we passed Glassy Junction, a pub on the corner by Southall station that, legend has it, used to accept rupees as legal tender so that new arrivals to the area from India could still buy a pint. We headed on past the station and into another section of Southall that started to look increasingly Somalian, until we got to the Sikh temple, the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha. It was opened four years ago and is said to be the largest Sikh temple outside of India.
The first thing that strikes you about being able to build your religious buildings from scratch is the ability to accommodate modern needs. I hate to think what you'd find if you began excavating under most Christian churches, nor what would happen to the structural stability, but thanks to its award winning design, the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha has a car park in the basement.
Our friends lead us through the temple. Apart from removing our shoes and covering our heads, in practice there're few restraints on access. Off the corridor sprang different spaces, like a function/wedding room with a lone practicing vaja player and a large canteen with stand up eating bays. We headed up to the first floor and into the main room.
We found ourselves in an immense space under a dome. There was no furniture, allowing a huge area for people to sit on the large sheets spread out across the floor on one half or other.
While I'm not religious, I felt really honoured to be there. While there were no physical or legal barriers to entry, the reality is I would never have entered the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha without an invitation or a guide. It was very peaceful place, with live tabla, vaja and singing being performed from the front, and I reflected on why I enjoy experiences like it so much. We all live in this city, share the public transport and the streets, yet in many ways we live within contained within the bubbles of our cultures, peer groups, jobs, upbringing and routines. Stepping outside of it is surprisingly hard. Londoners don't talk to strangers.
To the Sikh's praying, this was any given Sunday in the temple. To me it was a moment so out of the ordinary in my daily routine or experience. Living in London, a city that packs us all so near together on the tube, I'm consistently amazed how we can all live in close physical proximity yet there can be such large distances between our respective cultural understandings.
The first time I think I remember feeling this sense of amazement was in 2002, when I first interviewed Dizzee. I can recall being excited by the unique UK language he used – now familiar to anyone's who's heard grime or a London pirate. Yet I also recall being concerned how, as the urban and rural divide grew ever larger, how the two sides would ever understand each other if their unique qualities were diverging. Now I realise it isn't just the urban/rural divide, but an urban class/race/prosperity divide too. This is why I remain determined to try to cross these barriers, whenever I can.
It's for this reason that I decided, despite being very far west, that my Sunday should definitely include a mission across London to the House Party, squat rave. It's only been a few months since the first dubstep squat party but given how fun the first one was, I couldn't resist swinging by, not least because I got to cruise over the bit of the Westway that's elevated and makes you feel like, amongst the skyscrapers, that you're in Tokyo.
When I arrived in east, I found myself undergoing a proper acid house/illegal rave ritual: wandering around staring at completely normal buildings, wondering where the party was. I'd been convinced it was at "16 Commercial Road", which is near Whitechapel. If you look down the numbers on this road, as we did, from 30 and under, 16 seems to be somewhere on a massive roundabout. Or not. Only then did I check my email to find out the party was at 161 Commercial Street, which by car wasn't too far away, but really not anywhere near the bland buildings I'd been randomly staring at.
The House Party was pretty much what it said it was: a party in a derelict east London Victorian house, on three floors. On the ground floor there was a nice set of dancehall, Prince and jungle being dropped, not unlike Ripley might play. The DJ even had tattoos down her arms too, like Ripley.
Both this room and upstairs had graffiti on the walls, with the top room covered in strange murals. From the windows you could see out over east London and by this time night had fallen. The crowd were a mix as ever, but with lots of the dubstep scene heads, students, ravers but without the squat/crusty vibe that was part of the Dubstep After Hours rave. I didn't fall over any Mastiffs this time.
In terms of atmosphere, nothing could touch the basement though. "It's proper, like the parties in the basement of Big Apple used to be," joked Hijak. "If you look up, bits of the ceiling fall into your eyes."
Descending the rickety, damp and slightly soft wooden stairs lead you into a dark basement. Bits of dirt did indeed fall on your head and down your neck, probably aided by the fact that Chef and LD were filling the darkness with some deep bassline warfare. I stayed for a bit until a bloke let me know that only the night before, the stairs had collapsed. After a long, amazing day in London, it felt like time to leave.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Pitchfork pressure
My Pitchfork column for May including interviews with Martyn, Appleblim, Plastician, Tanya and the Grime Reaper. For a selection of previous months columns, check this link.
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text:
You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. You put radio in Sprint smartphones, and we'll make it worthwhile by placing the weight of the radio industry behind it. $15 million a year for three years. The radio industry's deal to promote Sprint and the NextRadio app seems to me like a giant win for radio. Why?
First and foremost, no one really knows what will happen when you put that many smartphones in the market with a radio built in. Will it be used? Will radio replace streaming listening? Will radio see an increase in listening overall?
There's bound to be a bump in radio use, and that's a good thing. If I have any concern at all, it's that Arbitron's PPM measurement won't capture listening over headphones, the way most smartphone audio is heard. Still, more radio listening — and more response to advertisers — even if some of that listening is not recorded, can only be good.
But better still is that we, the people of radio, have a giant opportunity to show what radio can do to drive adoption of phones with radio on board. It's a giant test to show how radio performs — and proof is critically important today.
Last, this will gain the attention of other phone manufacturers, which may also look to radio to boost their sales by committing to put radio chips in their phones as well.
Should radio continue to push for other smartphones with radio built in? Absolutely. Now is the time for radio to step up to the plate. This is a brilliant strategy, a reasonable quid pro quo, and a chance to keep radio in the hands of every American.
Congratulations again to Jeff Smulyan for his leadership and to the RAB's Erica Farber and her board for making this commitment happen. Only good things can come from this.


text:
Faithfulness Is Better Than Life
And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom will see my face no more.
You recall what the situation is: Paul had spent three years in Ephesus teaching and building up the church and evangelizing so successfully that all the surrounding province of Asia heard the word of the Lord (Acts 19:10). He left and spent the winter in Corinth and is now on his way to Jerusalem, hurrying to get back by Pentecost probably in the year AD 56. His boat puts in at Miletus some 20 miles south of Ephesus and he sends for the elders of the church (20:17). And in 20:18–35 he gives them his last words and tells them he will never see them again.
So what we have here is a kind of last will and testament of the great apostle to a church where he seems to have worked longer than anywhere else. This is what he wants the elders to hear most of all. He chose not to talk to the whole church. There wasn't time (20:16). But he could not pass by without talking to the elders. This shows the tremendous importance Paul put on the eldership in the church. And the fact that Luke pauses in his account to give us the message shows that under the inspiration of God this message is important for us to hear as well. As the elders go, so goes the church.
So I repeat what I said last week: if you are an elder at Bethlehem, or aspire to be one some day, listen with all your heart and build these things into your lives. If you are not, do two things: learn these things that you may pray them into your elders; and take them for yourself as they apply, and imitate those who come closest to fulfilling this vision (Hebrews 13:7).
Paul's Future Commitment as a Model
Last week (morning and evening) we looked at verses 18–21. Today we will look at verses 22–25. One of the differences between the two texts is that last week in verses 18–21 Paul was looking back and today in verses 22–25 he is looking forward. Last week he described his past ministry as a model for them to follow (see v. 35). This week he describes his future commitment a model for them to follow.
It's as though he said, "You know what I was like over the last three or four years as we worked together. All right, let me show you what I am like today as I face the future, and what really matters to me in the years to come."
Paul is not rambling on aimlessly about himself. He is building his own heart and his life and commitment into the elders. And that is just as important as his doctrine (which we will focus on next week).
So today in verses 22–25 Paul talks about his future. And what he chooses to say is a powerful inspiration for the elders of the church. I can say as one of the elders of this church that this testimony of Paul makes me want to sell everything and follow Jesus. Every time I come back to the radical words of Paul, the chills of obedience go up and down my back and I long to be utterly un-American and utterly out of step with my secular age and utterly abandoned to the cause of Christ no matter what!
I have tried to sum up the message of these four verses with the words, FAITHFULNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE. I hope you will agree that this is a fair summary of verse 24: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus . . . " Faithfulness to my call is far more important than whether I live—live at all, not to mention whether I live comfortably!
Two Questions About Paul's Message
So what I would like to do is answer two questions using these verses as the basis for the answers:
- What does it mean that faithfulness is better than life?
- Why is faithfulness better than life?
This is Paul's message to the elders of Ephesus in these verses and to us today: FAITHFULNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE. Especially elders—but everyone else also—should count faithfulness to the calling of Christ as better than the comforts of life and as better than staying alive.
1. What Does It Mean?
What does it mean that faithfulness is better than life?
1.1. Bound by the Spirit to the Will of God
It means being bound by the Holy Spirit to the will of God.
Verse 22: "And now, behold I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit . . . " What does that mean: " . . . bound in the Spirit"?
You can't tell from the word "Spirit" whether it means Paul's spirit (bound in the spirit = "feeling a constraint in my spirit") or God's Spirit (bound by God's Spirit = "constrained and driven by him"). You have to decide on the basis of context. NASB decides one way (Paul's: little "s") and the RSV and NIV decide the other way (God's: big "S"). I think the RSV and NIV are right (see the instrumental dative with "bound" in 12:6 as well as the use of "bound" in 9:2; 21:11).
But there may be no big difference in reality, because if you ask, who is binding Paul's spirit? or, who is constraining him in this way? the answer would surely be the Spirit of God. So the point is that Paul is a man under strong conviction and constraint: his spirit is held captive by the Spirit of God to do the will of God.
And so here's the first thing to say: believing that faithfulness is better than life means being bound by the Spirit to the will of God. Your spirit is gripped. God's Spirit has a hold of you. And so the will of God is your passion.
1.2. Content Not to Know Tomorrow in Detail
Second, FAITHFULNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE means that you are content not to know in detail what tomorrow will bring.
Verse 22: "And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there . . . " The reason Paul says this is to show us that when "faithfulness is better than life," you don't need to know about tomorrow's details.
This is tremendously freeing. If you are a pessimist, you probably dream of a dozen things a day that may go wrong tomorrow that will make you miserable. "I may not be able to keep my spouse from leaving. I may not be able to keep my kid out of trouble. I may not be able to keep my job. I may not be able to close this sale. I may not be able to win my father to Christ." But this text means that what God requires of you tomorrow is not that you have to make things work. Success in human ventures is not the measure of God on your life. What God requires of you tomorrow is that you be faithful to him and let the chips fall where he wills. That is very freeing. And it leads to a third thing:
1.3. Not Forsaking Christ in Affliction
FAITHFULNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE means you do not forsake Christ when faithfulness means affliction.
In verse 23 Paul goes on and says that there is one thing he does know about tomorrow: " . . . that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me."
If you can honestly say with Paul that "faithfulness is better than life," it will mean not only that you can be content with ignorance about tomorrow; but you can also be content with the assurance that tomorrow is going to hurt. This is remarkable! Someone might counsel us to put out of our mind the high cost of following Jesus. But the Holy Spirit tells Paul in every city that bonds and afflictions await him.
Why does Paul tell these Ephesian elders this? To teach them that it doesn't matter. He's going forward anyway. And that's what the elders of Bethlehem Baptist Church should do too. The question is not whether there will be hardship and pain and trouble and affliction: there will be! Paul said to all the churches in Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom." (Also see 2 Timothy 3:12.) The question is whether we believe that faithfulness is better than life.
1.4. Going Against the American Dream
So the final answer in these verses to the question, What does it mean that faithfulness is better than life? is this: it means set your face like flint against the American dream.
Verse 22: "And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem." No matter what the cost! No matter what the impact on my safety and my standard of living.
But Paul, you're getting old. How 'bout a little cottage on the Aegean Sea? You've already done more in your ministry than most people could do in five lifetimes. It's time to rest. Let the last 20 years of your life be travel and golf and puttering around. Let Timothy have a chance. He's young. For goodness sake, don't go to Jerusalem. And don't go to Rome. And give up that crazy plan at your age to go to Spain. You could get yourself killed. It isn't . . . American! It's not the American dream of what to do with the last years of your life.
Faithfulness is better than life! Better than leisure life in retirement, better than leisure life in the middle years, and better than leisure life in youth. Do you want to hear some of the definitions of "retire" from my Webster's Collegiate Dictionary? "To withdraw from action or danger." "To fall back." "To go to bed." "To march away from the enemy." It may be the American dream, but it has no foundation in Scripture at all.
When your company or Uncle Sam tells you to retire (and of course they will, just like you may tell me to retire some day), here's what you should say, "You may call it retirement; but I call it a change of station. A new front in the warfare. A new assignment from the King, the Counselor in Chief. I am 'going to Jerusalem.' There is work to be done for the cause of Jesus Christ, and I will do what I can do while I have breath." Because faithfulness to the cause is better than a life of comfort.
2. Why Is It Better Than Life?
Why is FAITHFULNESS BETTER THAN LIFE? That's our second question.
There are at least two answers implied in verses 24 and 25.
2.1. Finishing the Race
First, "faithfulness is better than life" because faithfulness means finishing the race and the one who finishes the race will get the crown.
Paul says in verse 24 "I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course." The word "course" does not mean school course; it means race course. And "accomplish" means finish the race without dropping out from weariness or frustration or pain or pleasant detours.
There is one other place in the Bible where these two words come together like this, namely, in Paul's second letter to Timothy (4:7–8). At the end of his life, perhaps six or eight years after this meeting with the Ephesian elders, he writes, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race [same phrase!], I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but to all who loved his appearing."
In other words faithfulness is better than life because beyond this short life there is a great life of joy that stretches out forever into eternity. And those who are faithful here will enter that life and get a crown of righteousness.
- "He who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 24:13).
- "This slight momentary affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17).
- "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven" (Matthew 5:11–12).
- "No one has left anything for my sake and the gospel's who will not receive back a hundred fold . . . " (Matthew 19:29).
- "He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25).
- "The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13–14).
Why is faithfulness better than life? Because faithfulness means finishing the race, and finishing the race means unimaginable joy forever and ever and ever. And we know we are on the right track here because the very last thing Paul says at the end of this message in verse 35b is, "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." That's the first reason why faithfulness is better than life.
That leaves one last question, namely, what was the basis of Paul's confidence that "faithfulness is better than life"? And what's the basis for his confidence and ours that faithfulness to God will bring a future of glory?
2.2. God Is Gracious and God Is King
The answer is found in two phrases: one at the end of verse 24 and one near the end of verse 25. The first phrase is "the gospel of the grace of God." The ministry Paul wants to be faithful to is the one he received from the Lord Jesus, namely, "to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."
The second phrase is the phrase "preaching the kingdom" in verse 25. "And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more."
So Paul sums up the content of his life's work with these two phrases. First: "testifying to the gospel of the grace of God"; and second, "preaching the kingdom." He lived to make known God's grace and God's kingdom.
So here's the answer to our question: the foundation of his life and his hope was that God is gracious and that God is King. And that's the basis of our confidence that FAITHFULNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE: if God is King, then he can reward the faithful, and nothing can stop him in his kingly power. If God is gracious, then he will reward the faithful.
So the message stands firm today—as firm and sure as the sovereignty and grace of God in Jesus Christ: FAITHFULNESS IS BETTER THAN LIFE. So I urge you, let God's Word and not the word of the world determine what you feel is better in your life.


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Helen Roberti Charitable Trust Grants $12,500 to American Indian College Fund
January 13, 2011
The American Indian College Fund received a grant of $12,500 from the Helen Roberti Charitable Trust for scholarship support for American Indian students. The grant will support a $1,000 scholarship for a student pursuing a master's degree in education at Sinte Gleska University, a $1,000 scholarship to a master's candidate at Oglala Lakota College pursuing a degree in education administration, and $10,500 in undergraduate scholarships for students studying education or nursing at a tribal college and university.
"The generosity of the Helen Roberti Charitable Trust is helping Native students achieve their educational goals while also impacting the future of Indian Country through education, cultural preservation, and health care," said Richard B. Williams, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund.


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Akal Takhat Jathedar warns Yogi Bhajan's SikhNet; Take control of complaints about Hinduvata practices!
Akal Takhat Jathedar warns Yogi Bhajan's SikhNet to take control of complaints about Hinduvata practices & align with Sikh Maryada as related in a memo by Yogi Bhajan's son in-law Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh Khalsa to Yogi Bhajan's Khalsa Council, Sikh Dharma International, 3HO Foundation and all other Yogi Bhajan's organizations.
In this video Gursant Singh, reads two inside memos sent to the Yogi Bhajan Khalsa Council which will be urgently meeting to discuss a strategy on September 25th at Hacienda De Guru Ram Das Ashram "...to counter the campaign by this former student (Gursant Singh) of Siri Singh Sahib Ji (Yogi Bhajan) who to my (Sat Pal Singh) knowledge is being instigated and funded by various groups to continue this negative movement against SDI/3HO and other Sikh Dharma organizations. He has the help of certain Sikh groups in India and USA. I do know of these groups which can be handled to stop further damage to our organizations." ~ Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh Khalsa
For further research please view these videos and articles: Mr SikhNet's twisted brand of Sikhi is protested by Sikhs who oppose Yogi Bhajan's tantric yoga! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shf_Nx4U7xA
Gursant Singh says, "Has SikhNet ever responded to legitimate concerns by Sikhs that Yogi Bhajan, Sikhnet and 3HO are distorting translations of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji to align with Yogi Bhajan's shiv shakti tantric yoga as Anju Kaur at SikhNN so clearly revealed in her article published almost six months ago now? Do you or your SikhNet writers believe the story is false or do you think Anju Kaur is engaging in a "hate campaign" too?: http://www.sikhfreepress.org/headlines/2667/american-yogis-distort-sikh-scripture
SikhNet director runs from fb discussion, deletes post, censors & threatens lawsuits against Sikhs!
Please find the entire text of the letters:
Satpal Singh Khalsa
Call To Action
September 5, 2015
Dear Esteemed Members of International Khalsa Council, Sikh Dharma International and other Organizations started by Siri Singh Sahib Ji,
Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.
Sat Nam. I am glad to hear that in the upcoming meetings later this month, there will be discussions regarding various serious matters that have been raised against our organizations that challenge the teachings and legacy of our beloved teacher -- Siri Singh Sahib Ji. In addition to the allegations mentioned in the recent letter by Sardarni Sahiba Gurujot Kaur, Secretary General/CEO of Sikh Dharma International/Khalsa Council, there are many others that have been brought to my attention from time to time.
These include the photo of the naked lady portrayed on Snatam Kaur's Kirtan Sohila Bani; worship of Hindu deities publicly and in homes of leaders of Sikh Dharma and their students; several complaints against practices at MPA and various Sikh code of conduct violations by MPA students and staff; complaints against MPA students smoking and drinking liquor in public; many instances of dancing on Gurbani Shabads including to Snatam Kaur and Gurmukh Kaur's chanting of Guru's Bani; idol and stone worship by Sikh Dharma members / teachers and many more such practices.
I get many reports, complaints, pictures, letters and proof of Sikh Code violations by Sikh Dharma International Members and Teachers from Siri Akal Takhat Sahib, SGPC, DSGMC and other Sikh organizations in India and USA. I have defended and clarified them to the best of my knowledge and ability but seek your assistance in combatting these ongoing problems.
I personally received the initial complaints from the office of Siri Akal Takhat Sahib and spoke to him extensively during my travel with him across USA recently. He has assured all support but warned us to take control of these complaints and rectify them. I am in constant touch with Sri Akal Takhat, SGPC and DSGMC on these issues and will be meeting their key representatives at an upcoming international inter-religious conference this month.
I also urge the International Khalsa Council to instruct their members and their respective communities they represent to uphold the tenets of Sikhism and adhere to the strict code of Sikh conduct (Sikh Rehat Maryada). When the Siri Singh Sahib Ji was alive, these issues were never major problems and if there was a slight problem, it would be remedied promptly by the Siri Singh Sahib Ji.
In today's day and age of electronic and social media, news spreads like wild fire and we need to take serious notice of these allegations and protect our organizations and our Sangat worldwide. We do need to counter the campaign by this former student of Siri Singh Sahib Ji who to my knowledge is being instigated and funded by various groups to continue this negative movement against SDI/3HO and other Sikh Dharma organizations. He has the help of certain Sikh groups in India and USA. I do know of these groups which can be handled to stop further damage to our organizations.
Last year I did speak with SikhNet and Sikh Dharma International officials and requested them to come up with a strategy to discredit this individual and stop him; but my requests were overridden and I was told that we should "just ignore it". With all due respect, we cannot "just ignore it" -- we have solutions that we can counter this negativity against us. If we just sit without taking any action and ignore these negative campaigns, people will start thinking that these are true and allegations will turn into facts in their minds.
I know we can do a lot and stop this individual from spreading further negativity. Please be aware that there is a serious negative campaign being brewed against us in Northern California, New York and Canada. Additionally, several groups in India have come in to the foray by joining the negative movement of Wake up Sikhs and other such web sites propagating against us.
I suggest that Sikh Dharma International set up a separate division to handle these issues and also a department to handle Indian PR, just like Siri Singh Sahib Ji did during his lifetime. The PR wing would be responsible for inviting and hosting Indian Sikh leaders and other important VIP's to our events and keep in constant touch with them about our activities and events around the world to promote Sikhi and other teachings of Siri Singh Sahib Ji.
I have from time to time brought to the attention of Sikh Dharma International the urgent need of this PR/Department but my suggestions have been outweighed and I am constantly told that there are no funds for these activities. Well, SDI/other organizations will have to find funds and establish this department as part of the legacy and continued promotion of Siri Singh Sahib Ji's teachings. SDI needs to interact more with Indian Sikh leadership in India and when they visit USA.
Recently, the President of Delhi Gurdwara Committee (S. Manjit Singh GK) and Chairman of Dharam Parchar Committee (S. Paramjit Singh Rana) visited USA and were in Los Angeles. They wanted to visit Guru Ram Das Ashram and meet with our Sangat members. Despite my emails to several SDI officials, I received no reply. I then called upon Sardar Gurdip Singh Malik and requested him to host them and also take them to the Khalsa Care Gurdwara and give them a saropa -- which he did. It does not cost anything for SDI to invite these officials and give them saropa and have them address our Sangat at Guru Ram Das Ashram.
It will only strengthen our relationship with Sikh leaders in India. (By the way, there is no honorarium required for such officials and they were staying in hotels and with friends-so budget and money is not the issue). I am on my own doing whatever possible I can to maintain our cordial relations with the Sikh leadership as directed to me my Teacher and Master -- Siri Singh Sahib Ji. And I will continue to serve as long as I can to uphold his legacy and his reputation.
I propose that SDI seriously looks into establishing this PR department and involve members of Siri Singh Sahib Ji's family. With all due respect and apologies, please bear in mind that the Indian Sikh leaders in India, USA and globally will listen and respect the immediate Indian family members of Siri Singh Sahib Ji more than an American Sikh Student / Leader / Teacher / official. Just like an American Sikh will listen more to their American-origin counterpart, similarly an Indian will listen respectfully to an Indian member of Siri Singh Sahib Ji's family.
Such is the psyche of Indian and American minds. Siri Singh Sahib Ji knew this well and would always send his immediate family members including Bibiji, Kulbir Singh Ji or myself to handle critical issues with the Indian leadership.
I propose that Sikh Dharma International considers appointing Sardar Kulbir Singh Puri to head this department and be the main person in charge of interacting with the Sikh leadership. He is not only the son of Siri Singh Sahib Ji which the Indians greatly respect, but he is also a very social person with great ability to make friends and win hearts. He has many inherent leadership qualities and represents an image of our Teacher and Master -- Siri Singh Sahib Ji.
With prayers and Blessings to our mission and to the legacy of our Teacher Siri Singh Sahib Ji. May Guru Ram Das Bless us all.
Bhai Sahib Satpal Singh Khalsa
(Ambassador of Sikh Dharma Religion, Western Hemisphere)
P.S. If anyone would like to add any comments or discuss this matter, please feel free to contact me anytime. --
"Without dialogue only one side of an issue is resolved."
My Sikh Sense
By S.S. Gurujot Kaur Khalsa
Gurujot Kaur Khalsa
Call To Meeting
September 5, 2015
Dear Esteemed Members of the Khalsa Council,
Sat Nam and blessings to all. I am writing to encourage all Khalsa Council members to attend our upcoming Khalsa Council meetings, which will be held on September 23 - 26th in Espanola.
At our meetings, we will be addressing a number of serious matters which have arisen over the past few months. There has been an aggressive slander campaign aimed at damaging and discrediting the teachings and legacy of the Siri Singh Sahib and our organizations. This campaign, led by a former student of the Siri Singh Sahib has escalated through his social media efforts.
On July 1st, a complaint, signed by 3000 Sikhs, was presented to the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, portraying us as being disrespectful to the Guru and to Gurbani. The issues cited were "dancing and doing yoga to Gurbani". Bibiji spoke with the Jathedar, and he said he did not wish to issue a formal edict (Hukamnama) against us, but he wanted to be sure that we have proper decorum in regard to the Guru, Gurbani and Gurdwara protocol.
Additionally, on August 11th, the Hamburg Ashram received an objection letter sent by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee regarding the engraving of the Mul Mantra on the stairs leading to their Yoga Center. This engraving, while having been there for over 20 years, was suddenly objected to by the local Gurdwara in Hamburg. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee threatened to initiate legal action if the floor tiles were not removed within 7 days. News of this was posted on Facebook and was carried on multiple Indian TV stations. The ashram community quickly responded and the situation has been resolved.
These incidents are being taken seriously, and raise broader issues and concerns that effect our organizations and Sangats world-wide. Our non-profit organizations (Sikh Dharma InternationaI, Siri Singh Sahib Corporation, Sikhnet, SDEI, KRI and 3HO) have been meeting together to identify and discuss the issues, and come to a common understanding of how we can move forward collectively.
The Khalsa Council will be fully briefed about these and other issues at our upcoming meeting. As per the feedback following our last meeting, this upcoming meeting will be more interactive, with much more time for members to discuss the issues, share their perspectives, and to develop a collective strategy in dealing with them. Our next generation members will be fully involved and play a vital role in developing our decisions and actions for the future.
We encourage all of our Khalsa Council members to attend and fully participate in these important meetings, so that the Khalsa Council can truly fulfill its role as a leadership body for our Dharma.
May the blessings of God and Guru be with you always.
SS Gurujot Kaur Khalsa
Secretary General / CEO
Sikh Dharma International / Khalsa Council --
Complete thread:


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Aggression is a both a political and social concept. In politics and military affairs, it refers to taking the first move in a war - especially a war of conquest. The United Nations has proposed various treaties banning "aggression" but without giving any sort of definition of it at all.[1]
In human society, aggression is often synonymous with taking the initiative in any endeavor, such as sales, R&D or sports leadership.
Among animals of the same species, aggression is generally found among males competing for scarce resources such as territory, food, mates, and group dominance.
- ↑ While arguments to include aggression centre on its extreme gravity and international repercussions, arguments against its inclusion centre on the lack of a sufficiently precise definition. Another part of the debate focused on the role of the Security Council in this regard. Pursuant to Article 39 of the UN Charter, the Security Council "shall determine" the existence of an "act of aggression". "Crimes within the Court's Jurisdiction", ICC


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An Irish toddler, who spent six months in the U.S. receiving life changing treatment, has learned how to walk and eat.
Elie Madden, 2, was flown to Boston by the Irish Air Corps in November 2011, for a revolutionary procedure where surgeons grew a new oesophagus.
Elie was born with the digestive disorder severe posterior tracheomalacia and long-gap esophageal atresia, which meant there was a five centimeter gap between her esophagus and stomach. As a result of her condition, Elie was unable to eat, drink or swallow without the use of medical equipment.
Using the Foker technique, doctors at Boston Children's Hospital successfully closed the gap between her oesophagus and stomach over a five-month advanced treatment period.
The tot, who was has a healthy twin sister called Emie, underwent 11 surgures in Boston and was in a 5-week induced coma also before she returned to Ireland in April of last year.
In May, Elie underwent a three-week program at Crumlin Children's Hospital in Dublin, to wean her off her feeding tube.
Parents, Esti and Eddie, who live in Santry in North Dublin, are delighted with her progress.
Esti told the Irish Mirror: "She's eating now and consumes 800ml of food a day, which is absolutely fantastic as it's a big step closer to normality.
"She was weaned successfully off her tubes and we now spoon-feed her a special supplement yoghurt, which contains higher vitamins and calories to build her up, as she lost 7 percent of her body weight in hospital.
"It's all new to her, as up to recently she had no idea what food was. But in time she'll learn to feed herself and then move on to solid foods."
Esti said the future has never looked as bright for her daughter.
She added: "She's thriving and has so much energy. She can't walk yet, but she's making good progress.
"Her sister is a big part of her progress, because they have a close bond and she spurs her on.
"She can also count to 30 and say all her colors, which is incredible because she couldn't make any sounds for the first 18 months of her life and only made her first baby sounds a year ago."
Watch a video of Elie walking below


text: On Thu, 9 Dec 2004, David Mathog wrote: > Besides, it may well be that the CPUs are bad and the > motherboards are all right. Not having any spare known > good CPUs or known good motherboards there's no way to > play mix and match to figure out which component is the problem. > Well, not unless we sacrifice one of the working nodes, and > I'm really hesitant to do that in case it's one of those horrible > situations where component A breaks component B, which would > result in us having 3 flakey nodes instead of 2. In any case, if > the CPUs are bad they'll be around $150 to replace from a vendor > and the motherboard about $190 (somewhat less on Ebay, but that's not > how I want to buy components.) Both AMD and Tyan have been pretty decent about fullfilling the terms of their 3 year mfrs warranty on both the CPUs and motherboards. So before you throw anything away, most definitely look into RMAing broken parts less than 3 years old. If nothing else, you could put replaced processors into the second socket of good motherboards, and keep replaced motherboards around as spares. If you kept one "known good" system more or less powered off, it would give you a testbed of sorts, although we see problems with heating fans and more that only surface (as you note) under heavy or variable load in a sealed case and not open running just a single exerciser on the bench. rgb > > Regards, > > > David Mathog > mathog at caltech.edu > Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Jeffrey Dean Morgan endeared himself to audiences with his recurring role on ABC's smash hit series, Grey's Anatomy. His dramatic arc as heart patient "Denny Duquette", who wins the heart of intern "Izzie Stevens" (Katherine Heigl) in a star-crossed romance, made him a universal fan favorite. He also had recurring roles on The CW and Warner Bros' television series, Supernatural, The Good Wife, and on Showtime and Lions Gate Television's award-winning comedy series, Weeds. He currently stars as Negan on the hit AMC series, The Walking Dead.
Morgan starred in Warner Bros.' Watchmen, director Zack Snyder's (300) adaptation of the iconic graphic novel. He played the pivotal role of "The Comedian", a Vietnam vet who is a member of a group of heroes called "the Minutemen". He next appeared in producer Joel Silver's The Losers, for Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of DC-Vertigo's acclaimed comic book series about a band of black ops commandos who are set up to be killed by their own government. The team barely survives and sets out to get even. James Vanderbilt adapted the screenplay, and Sylvain White directed. He appeared in Focus Features' Taking Woodstock, directed by Oscar-winning director Ang Lee. He also starred opposite Uma Thurman in Yari Film Group's romantic comedy, The Accidental Husband. Additional feature credits include a cameo role opposite Rachel Weisz in Warner Bros.' comedy, Fred Claus, and the independent office comedy, Kabluey, in which he played a charismatic yet smarmy co-worker to Lisa Kudrow's character.
In 2011, the in-demand actor starred in the independent murder mystery, Texas Killing Fields. In the film, based on a true story, Morgan plays a detective transplanted from New York who teams with a local investigator (Sam Worthington) to work on a series of unsolved murders in industrial wastelands surrounding Gulf Coast refineries, where as many as 70 bodies turned up over the past two decades. Together, they wage a war against the unknown assailants. Michael Mannproduced the film, while his daughter, Ami Canaan Mann, directed. The actor traveled to Thailand, where he filmed the Weinstein Company's period drama, Shanghai, under the direction of Mikael Håfström (1408). John Cusack stars as an American who returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months prior to Pearl Harbor and learns that his friend "Connor" (Morgan) has been killed. While trying to solve the murder, he discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding. In addition, Morgan has a role in Michael London's Groundswell Productions' All Good Things, starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling, also for The Weinstein Co.
He also stars opposite two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank in the suspense thriller, The Resident, for Hammer Films. It is the story of a young doctor (Swank) who moves into a Brooklyn loft and becomes suspicious that she is not alone. Morgan plays "Max", her charming new landlord who she discovers has developed a dangerous obsession with her. Morgan previously co-starred with Swank in Warner Bros.' P.S. I Love You.
Morgan also appeared in the MGM/UA reboot of the 1984 action movie, Red Dawn. The plot focuses on a group of teenagers who form an insurgency, called "the Wolverines", when their town is invaded by Cuban and Russian soldiers. Morgan plays the role of "Lieutenant Andrew Tanner", leader of the U.S. Special Forces who finds the Wolverines.
Morgan was born in Seattle, Washington, to Sandy Thomas and Richard Dean Morgan. In his spare time, Morgan enjoys barbecuing on the grill, reading, watching movies and listening to his favorite band, The Eagles. He also loves to root for his home team, the Seattle Seahawks. He resides in Los Angeles with his dogs, Bisou and Bandit Mogan, a puppy he rescued in Puerto Rico while filming The Losers.


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Europeans, North Americans, or Australians who rely on the tabloid press might well believe that their countries were under siege by asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Sensationalist journalists and right-wing politicians map out dire consequences like rocketing crime rates, fundamentalist terrorism, collapsing welfare systems, and mass unemployment. They call for strict border control, detention of asylum seekers, and deportation of illegals. The public appeal of such polemics is obvious: recent right-wing electoral victories in countries as disparate as Denmark, Austria, and Australia can be attributed to fears of mass influxes from the South and East. Some prominent academics ague that the world is in the throes of a "global migration crisis."
But who are the forced migrants whose efforts to escape personal disaster provoke such debate? And can their flight really be said to constitute a worldwide crisis? An examination of migration history, as well as a careful categorization of forced migrants and their motivations, is key to understanding the reality behind the rhetoric and headlines. New Migrants, Old Fears
The political potency of fears of immigration—often of waves of refugees in particular—is nothing new. Historians recall campaigns against Jewish immigrants in Britain in the 1880s, and the US Nativist movement of the 1920s, which opposed entry of all people not of British or Western European descent. The White Australia policy, designed to keep out Asians, was supported by the labor movement and all political parties up to the 1960s. With the end of the Cold War, migration again became a key issue, with fears of tens of millions of East-West migrants, as well as countless more from the South. Extreme right-wing parties mobilized public opinion, and racist violence escalated throughout Western Europe. States strengthened border controls and tightened up refugee rules.
But the predicted mass influxes from the East never happened. Most migrants to the West were people returning to ancestral homelands: ethnic Germans to Germany, Albanians of Greek origin to Greece, and so on. Other migrants usually came only if they could link up with existing social networks of previous migrants, who helped them find work and housing. Migration stabilized and declined. Today, the UN estimates that 175 million people live outside their countries of birth. Even allowing for under-counting—especially of undocumented migrants—only about three percent of the world's population are migrants.
Yet by the beginning of the new millennium, migration was again a hot topic. Britain experienced growing entries of asylum seekers and undocumented workers. Germany adopted measures to turn the descendants of the "guest workers" of the 1960s and 1970s into citizens. Southern European countries became aware of a sharp fall in fertility, while inflows across the Mediterranean from North Africa increased. Both Canadians and Americans were divided about the merits of their relatively open immigration policies.
Is this all a re-run of old themes, or is something new happening? Taken as a whole, it appears something new is afoot: population movements are taking on increased significance in the context of current global social transformations. First, forced migration is growing in volume and importance, as a result of endemic violence and human rights violations. Second, policy makers are attempting to implement differentiated policies for various categories of migrants. Specifically, there is global competition to attract highly skilled migrants, but refugees, unskilled migrants, and their families are unwelcome. Third, there is growing understanding that migration—both economic and forced—is an integral part of processes of global and regional economic integration. Fourth, it has become clear that immigrants do not simply assimilate into receiving societies, but rather tend to form communities and retain their own languages, religions, and cultures. Finally, migration has become highly politicized, and is now a pivotal issue in both national and international politics. Who Are Today's Forced Migrants?
Forced (or involuntary) migration includes a number of legal or political categories. All involve people who have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere. Popular speech tends to call them all "refugees," but this is actually quite a narrow legal category. The majority of forced migrants flee for reasons not recognized by the international refugee regime, and many of them are displaced within their own country of origin.
The global refugee population grew from 2.4 million in 1975 to 10.5 million in 1985 and 14.9 million in 1990. A peak was reached after the end of the Cold War with 18.2 million in 1993. By early 2003, the global refugee population had declined to 10.4 million, according to UNHCR. The broader category of "people of concern to the UNHCR" (which includes refugees, some internally displaced persons, and some returnees) peaked at 27.4 million in 1995, and was down to 20.6 million in 2003. In addition to the people with whom UNHCR is concerned, the establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement of many Palestinian Arabs led to the world's longest-standing refugee situation, with over four million refugees today. This issue is too complicated to be discussed in detail here.
Refugees came from countries hit by war, violence, and chaos. According to UNHCR figures for 2002, the 10 main places of origin were Afghanistan (with 2.5 million refugees), Burundi (574,000), Sudan (505,000), Angola (433,000), Somalia (429,000), Democratic Republic of Congo (415,000), Iraq (401,000), Bosnia-Herzogovina (372,000), Vietnam (348,000) and Eritrea (316,000).
Table 1 shows the top ten refugee-hosting countries in 2000 according to three different criteria. The first column shows the total refugee population. Pakistan and Iran had by far the largest refugee populations—mainly from Afghanistan. Africa figures prominently in the table, but the United States is also on the list, together with two European countries: Germany and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). However, to understand the weight of the "refugee burden," it is more useful to relate the refugee population to the overall population in host countries. This is shown in the second column of Table 1, which consists mainly of very poor countries, with the sole exceptions of Yugoslavia and Sweden. Even more instructive is to relate refugee populations to the wealth of the receiving country (third column). This list does not include a single developed country. Refugees are overwhelmingly concentrated in the poorest countries. This puts in perspective the frequent the claims of countries of the North (loosely defined as the developed countries of Europe, North America, and Oceania) that they are unfairly burdened with refugees from the less-developed countries of the South.
The media and politicians sometimes claim that asylum seekers are not real victims of persecution, but simply economic migrants in disguise. Yet in many conflict situations it is difficult to distinguish between flight because of persecution and departure caused by the destruction of the economic and social infrastructure needed for survival. Asylum seekers live in a drawn-out limbo situation, since determination procedures and appeals may take many years. In some countries, asylum seekers are not allowed to work, and have to subsist on meagre welfare handouts. Up to 90 percent of asylum applications are rejected—yet the majority of asylum seekers stay on (see related article). In many cases, they cannot be deported because the country of origin will not take them back, or because they have no passports. In fact, asylum seekers are a useful source of labor that fuels Western countries' burgeoning informal economies.
At the end of 2003, Sudan was the country hosting the largest internally displaced population, some 4 million people. The Democratic Republic of Congo (3 million), Colombia (2.9 million), Uganda (1.2 million), Iraq (1.1 million) and Burma (up to one million) are also among the countries with the highest numbers of internally displaced people.
The increase is due to new types of wars that deliberately target civilian populations. Indeed, mass displacement of the population may be a deliberate instrument of warfare, as in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Rwanda, or Myanmar. In countries like Sri Lanka, Angola, and Sudan some people have lived as IDPs—often in great insecurity and poverty—for over 20 years.
IDPs are more numerous than refugees, yet are often without any effective protection or assistance. There is no international legal instrument specifically designed to protect them, although they are covered by general human rights conventions (see related article). Nor is there any international agency like the UNHCR with responsibility for IDPs. The key problem is sovereignty: under international law, IDPs are the responsibility of their own government, since they have not crossed international borders, yet it is often this very government that has persecuted and displaced them.
Development displacees constitute another group larger than official refugee populations, for whom there is no protective regime. Many of them end up drifting into urban slums, or becoming part of floating populations, which may spill over into international migration.
Similarly, it is impossible to distinguish clearly between natural and man-made disasters. A mudslide that buries a Brazilian shantytown may be labeled by the media as a natural disaster, but on closer examination it may be seen to be a result of land speculation, unplanned urban growth, and a lack of government accountability. Thus we cannot clearly define who is an environmental or disaster displacee, nor quantify this category in any meaningful way.
The trafficking of women and children for the sex industry occurs all over the world. Thai and Japanese gangsters collaborate to entice women into prostitution in Japan by claiming that they will get jobs as waitresses or entertainers. Victims of civil war and forced displacement in former Yugoslavia, Georgia, or Azerbaijan are sold to brothels in Western Europe. Women in war zones are forced into sex-slavery by combatant forces, or sold to international gangs.
It is impossible to quantify the number of people affected by trafficking and smuggling, but both are widespread practices. They are a product of the increasingly restrictive immigration policies of rich countries. The high demand for labor in the North, combined with pressure to emigrate from the South, and strong barriers to mobility, have created business opportunities for a new "migration industry." This includes legal participants, such as travel agents, shipping companies, and banks, as well as illegal operators. Forced Migration and the Actual "Global Crisis"
Regardless of how the issue of migration is approached, it is misleading to speak of a "crisis" in isolation. Rather, international migration must be viewed as an integral part of relationships between societies. There is currently a crisis in relations between the North and the South, and migration is one facet of this crisis.
Migration as a whole does not present an economic or social crisis for the North. According to UN international migration statistics from 2002, there were 175 million international migrants. Of this 175 million, 32 percent (56 million) live in Europe; 23.4 percent (41 million) in Northern America; and 28.5 percent (50 million) in Asia. On average one in 10 people who live in developed countries is a migrant. One in 70 people who live in developing countries is a migrant. Such numbers are significant, but far lower than many people think, and certainly do not justify media headlines on "mass influxes."
The main reason for the presence of economic migrants is that they are needed to fill jobs in industry and services. Undocumented entry of unskilled workers is seen as a problem, but is actually a result of Northern economic structures and immigration policies. Since there is a high demand for such workers in construction, manufacturing, and services, the result is a burgeoning of undocumented work and the informal sector. Today, there is a growing realization that both demographic and economic factors make immigrant labor a necessity for countries of the North. Recent political initiatives, particularly in Germany and the UK, are opening up a debate on such topics.
In this context, forced migrants do not present major economic and social problems for Northern countries. As pointed out above, the numbers are relatively small. Although entries fluctuate, they are currently lower than in the early 1990s. Most refugees stay in the South, and those that do come cannot be seen as a serious strain for rich Northern countries. Indeed, most refugees enter the labor market, and often provide valuable skills.
Despite these facts, migration is seen as a crisis because it is symbolic of the erosion of nation-state sovereignty in the era of globalization. It is becoming increasingly difficult for states to control their borders, since flows of investment, trade, and intellectual property are inextricably linked with movements of people. Elites generally benefit from transborder flows. It is the groups who feel threatened in their security by economic restructuring and social service cuts that generally oppose migration most vocally. The visible presence of migrants in Northern cities symbolizes wider changes in economy, culture, and society.
Polemics about the "migration crisis" thus seem to have two sources. One is the manipulation of widespread popular fears about globalization to build right-wing parties and movements. This can be seen as a conservative-nationalist form of anti-migration mobilization. The other source is the trend to "securitization" of migration issues, which has gained new momentum in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States. This can be seen as a neo-liberal form of anti-migration mobilization, linked to US polemics against "rogue states" and fundamentalism.
As for the crisis in the South, it has two main aspects. One is the massive increase in forced migration, due to the "new wars" and the widespread abuse of human rights. Even at the height of the so-called "asylum crisis" in the early 1990s, refugee populations in the North were tiny compared with those in some Southern countries. For instance, the ratio of refugees to host populations in 1992 was 1:10 in Malawi, compared with 1:869 in Germany, and 1:3,860 in the UK. In short, the crisis of caring for refugees falls overwhelmingly on the poorer countries of Asia and Africa.
The other aspect of the "crisis," from the Southern perspective, is the blocking of free mobility to the North, which forces would-be migrants to rely on informal networks or people-smugglers in their search for a better life. The highly developed countries of the North have established a "non-entrée regime" based on border policing, visa requirements, carrier sanctions (forcing airlines to bear the costs of returning migrants refused entry), "safe third country" rules, and deterrent measures like detention and denial of the right to work. This regime is designed to keep out migrants from the South, but the experience of the last 10 years has shown that border restrictions alone are not sufficient. Just as Europeans were willing to endure danger and hardship to seek a better future in the New World a century ago, today's poor and oppressed are prepared to take enormous risks to reach the North.
Freedom of migration already virtually exists for middle-class citizens of Northern countries. It can be seen as a normal part of the relationships between societies with similar economic, social, and legal levels. The so-called migration crisis arises because of the vast imbalances between North and South with regard to economic conditions, social well-being, and human rights. Border restrictions, however draconian, will do nothing to eliminate unwanted migration flows, as long as these fundamental disparities persist. And, as they have in the past, forced migrants of every category will form part of those flows.
Adelman, Howard (2001) 'From Refugees to Forced Migration: The UNHCR and Human Security', International Migration Review 35(1), 2001.
Ager, Alastair (ed.) Refugees: Perspectives on the experience of forced migration, London/New York: Pinter.
Black, Richard (1998) Refugees, Environment and Development, London: Longman.
Cernea, Michael M. and Christopher McDowell (eds) (2000) Risks and Reconstruction: Experiences of resettlers and refugees, Washington DC: World Bank.
Chimni, B.S. (1998) 'The Geo-politics of Refugee Studies: A view from the South', Journal of Refugee Studies 11(4).
Cohen, Roberta and Francis M. Deng (1998) Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement, Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Duffield, Mark (2001) Global Governance and the New Wars: The merging of development and security, London: Zed Books.
Gallagher, Ann (2002) 'Trafficking, Smuggling and Human Rights: Tricks and Treaties', Forced Migration Review 12.
Global IDP Project. 2004. "Internal Displacement: a Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2003." Geneva: Global IDP Project. http://www.idpproject.org
Kaldor, Mary (2001) New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. Cambridge: Polity.
Keeley, Charles B. (2001) 'The International Refugee Regimes(s): The end of the Cold War matters', International Migration Review 35(1).
Loescher, Gil (2001) 'The UNHCR and World Politics: State interests versus institutional autonomy', International Migration Review 35(1).
McDowell, Christopher (ed.) (1996) Understanding Impoverishment: The consequences of development-induced displacement, Providence RI: Berghahn Books.
Myers, Norman (1997) 'Environmental Refugees', Population and Environment 19(2).
Myers, Norman and Jennifer Kent (1995) Environmental Exodus: An emergent crisis in the global arena, Washington DC: Climate Institute.
Summerfield, Derek (1999) 'Socio-cultural Dimensions of War, Conflict and Displacement' in Alastair Ager (ed.) Refugees: Perspectives on the experience of forced migration, London/New York: Pinter.
UNHCR (1995) The State of the World's Refugees: In Search of Solutions, Oxford: Oxford University Press
UNHCR (1997) The State of the World's Refugees 1997-98: A Humanitarian Agenda, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
UNHCR (2000a) Global Report 2000: Achievements and Impact, Geneva: UNHCR.
UNHCR (2000b) The State of the World's Refugees: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
United Nations Population Division. 2002. International Migration Report 2002. New York: United Nations.
Weiner, Myron (1995) The Global Migration Crisis: Challenges to states and human rights, New York: Harper Collins.
Weiner, Myron and Sharon S. Russell (eds) (2001) Demography and National Security, New York/Oxford: Berghahn.
Zolberg, Aristide R. (2001) 'Introduction: Beyond the crisis', in Aristide R. Zolberg and Peter M. Benda (eds) Global Migrants, Global Refugees: Problems and solutions, New York/Oxford: Berghahn.
Zolberg, Aristide. R., Astri Suhrke and Sergio Aguayo (1989) Escape from Violence, Oxford: Oxford University Press.


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Cussiano Camilher Carvalho, Perola and Chowne, Peter (2009) Can a city brand change a country's image perception? An investigation into the contribution of the Sao Paulo city promotion to the 'Brand Brazil'. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Destination Branding and Marketing. Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao, China, pp. 109-120. ISBN 978-99937-51-32-8


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The Madison Amendment gives States the same power as Congress to propose an individual Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
"ARTICLE ___. The Congress, on Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, which all contain an identical Amendment, shall call a Convention solely to decide whether to propose that specific Amendment to the States, which, if proposed shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified pursuant to Article V."
We need to restore accountability and balance in Washington
Many Americans believe that the growth of federal power and especially of federal debt is out of control. Congress continues to impose unfunded mandates on states. Many Americans believe that new Constitutional checks and balances or at least the possibility of them may be necessary to improve accountability and fiscal discipline in Congress.
Congress should not have a monopoly on the power to propose a specific amendment to the Constitution
Today, only Congress can propose a specific Amendment to the Constitution. Article V allows Congress to do so by a 2/3 vote or 2/3 of the states can demand that Congress call a Convention to propose Amendments.
But states have feared that a Convention they call for to propose an Amendment might do something unexpected, so there has never been such a Convention.
The Madison Amendment would end that risk. It would clearly give states the right Madison argued in the Federalist Papers they already have, to limit a Convention they call for to just the Amendment they propose.
How the Madison Amendment would improve American Government :
1. Because States would have power to propose a Constitutional Amendment to ban them, unfunded mandates would probably end.
2. State leaders would gain influence on federal laws and spending that impact their state.
3. Congress would no longer have the power to block Amendments just because they limited its power or forced it to make tough fiscal choices.
4. There would be no more risk of an accidental runaway Constitutional Convention because states would have the clear power to limit a Convention they call for.
5. With the new power to propose Amendments, states would be more effective partners working together with the Federal government to solve America's problems.
6. The people could make Congress more accountable, working with state leaders for change if Congress refused to listen to the people's views.
Friday July 30, 2010
The proposed "Madison Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution to restore a balance of federal and state power was introduced in The U.S. House of Representatives by a bipartisan coalition.
August 5, 2010
State leaders support the Madison Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
©Madison Amendment Coalition. All right reserved.
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Bryanna Clark Grogan's Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 21st Century Table: The kitchen journal of a vegan food writer.. I'm on Facebook and Twitter (see links in sidebar at right).
Sunday, August 27, 2006
The brownies in question, my "Almost-No-Fat Brownies" (but with walnuts added), recipe below.
Yesterday afternoon Brian and I went on a trip with my son Tim, his wife and their three girls, on their little boat around Denman Island, where we live. It was a glorious day and we had a great time. Best of all, was seeing our home island from a different perspective, seeing the mountains on both sides of us,
seeing houses on Denman that you can't see from the roads, and seeing porpoises and seals right alongside the boat! I took some inari sushi made with brown rice and quinoa (an interesting if inadvertant Peruvian/Japanese fusion, I just realized-- Peru has a large Japanese population, which has influenced the cuisine), and some almost-no-fat brownies for munching.
NOTE: I forgot to bring my digital camera with me on this trip! So, the scenic pics are variously from government and local tourism sites, or taken by me or my friends Fireweed, and Debbie Knight, previously.
We embarked on our little journey at the boat launch near Boyle Point Park, which the locals call "Eagle Rock":
We headed across to Ford's Cove Marina on Hornby Island (my oldest daughter lives on Hornby with her husband and two teenagers. It's a quaint little spot with some beautiful homes and a funky, well-stocked grocery store (shown here) and art shop. (The store carries soy cheese and fresh tofu, soy ice cream and fruit sorbet, and lots of Asian condiments.)
Here's a view from a Hornby beach:
and a view of Denman from Hornby:
After getting a few necessaries, we headed back across and up the eastern side of Denman to "Tree Island" (actually "Sandy Island Provincial Marine Park", but everybody calls it "tree island"). We had porpoises swimming near the boat on the way there.
You can actually walk there at low tide, but it's a long way and people have got stuck there! we spent a couple of lazy hours on the sandy beach there, taking in the sun (there was a nice cool breeze to mitigate that), and watching the girls cavort in the water.
Then we all piled into the boat again and went back to the boat launch up the western side of Denman, enjoying the cool wind and admiring the houses along the shore, which we never see from the land. The two younger girls fell asleep on the way.
Here's the ferry dock on the west side of Denman:
and a view of Denman from the ferry dock on the Vancouver Island side at Buckley Bay:
and a Denman Island beach scene:
We drifted for a bit near Chrome Island Lighthouse
where we saw a seal feasting on the school of tiny fish that were jumping in the water all around us-- it looked and sounded as if it was raining! We docked the boat and went home feeling very relaxed.
Once home, we had a very simple supper of rosemary-roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and steamed asparagus with mushrooms in a simple sherry sauce:
Now, those brownies:
Printable Recipe
BRYANNA'S ALMOST NO-FAT BROWNIES(Can be GF)
(From my second cookbook, The Almost-No-Fat HOLIDAY Cookbook.)
Nutrition facts include 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. If you need a big batch of brownies, triple the recipe and use one whole 12.3 oz. box of extra-firm (regular or lite) SILKEN tofu.
1 cup brown sugar
4 oz (1/2 c.) medium-firm tofu OR firm or extra-firm SILKEN tofu
1/2 cup unsweetened organic cocoa (I use Dutch-process-- read about cocoa powders here)
1/3 cup flour OR GF flour mix
1/4 cup water (can be part liqueur of choice, such as Kahlua)
4 tsp powdered Ener-G or Orgran No-Egg egg replacer powder
1 Tbs coffee (or coffee substitute) granules or espresso powder
2-3 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
OPTIONAL: 1/4-1/2 c. chopped nuts
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In the food processor mix until smooth the sugar, tofu, cocoa, water, egg replacer, coffee granules, vanilla and vinegar.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and soda. Add the cocoa mixture and mix briefly. Add nuts, if using.
Pour the mixture into a 7 x 11" or 8 x 8" cake pan lined with cooking parchment. Spread evenly. Bake 25 minutes. Cool on a rack in the pan, then cut into bars.
Servings: 12
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/12th): 131.7 calories; 22% calories from fat; 3.8g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 148.4mg sodium; 159.5mg potassium; 24.4g carbohydrates; 1.6g fiber; 18.0g sugar; 22.7g net carbs; 2.5g protein; 2.6 points.
15 comments:
- Celeste said...
I've made those brownies many times, they are delectable.
- Sun Aug 27, 03:30:00 PM PDT
- jenny said...
You live in such a beautiful place!! Love the BW pics!
- Sun Aug 27, 04:57:00 PM PDT
- KleoPatra said...
You beautiful dancer you!!!
I love the photos... to see dolphins and porpoises up close is heaven to me... what a spectacular area you live in.... and absolutely great lookin' brownies, for heaven's sake. Healthy (mostly!) too... what more could one want?
This is such a "keeper" of a post!
Really... thanks for sharing a part of your world with us, Bryanna. - Sun Aug 27, 11:08:00 PM PDT
Hi Bryanna! I've seen this recipe in your book, and was wondering: what type of flour? Pastery? Whole Wheat? Could All-purpose or Bread flour be used?
Tks, Mark - Mon Aug 28, 08:32:00 AM PDT
- Bryanna Clark Grogan said...
Hi, Mark! I use just plain unbleached white regular flour.
- Mon Aug 28, 08:39:00 AM PDT
- Susan Voisin said...
You live in such a beautiful part of the world! I am truly envious.
I feel bad that I've never made your brownies; now seeing them has given me a real craving!
And finally, I hope you don't mind (and ignore it if you want) but I "tagged" you for a food meme, to name the five foods you think everyone should try. It's explained
here on my blog. I'd love to hear what you would list, but feel free to ignore it if you don't have time. - Mon Aug 28, 08:43:00 AM PDT
- Bryanna Clark Grogan said...
Thanks, Susan! I am going to think about this all day and make my list!
- Mon Aug 28, 09:13:00 AM PDT
- Dori said...
Awesome Bryanna! Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures... now I don't feel so bad that I couldn't attend that cooking vacation way back when. I now feel I have an opportunity to see your "neck of the woods".
- Mon Aug 28, 10:52:00 AM PDT
- spiceislandvegan said...
The blog and pictures brought a lot of memories of my cooking vacation with you. What a wonderful 5 days vacation we had. A beautiful place indeed! I will be back someday.
I like the hiking trails in Denman Island also.
SIV - Tue Aug 29, 04:23:00 PM PDT
- I Am Gluten Free said...
Do you have any idea if you can just substitute gluten free flour measure for measure or would I need to add xanthan gum as well? Thanks! They look delicious!
- Tue Sep 25, 07:57:00 PM PDT
- Bryanna Clark Grogan said...
Ellen, this recipe works really well with my gluten-free high-fiber flour mix, cup for cup! It already contains xanthan gum:
BRYANNA'S GLUTEN-FREE HIGH-FIBER FLOUR MIX Makes about 13 c.
7 and 1/2 c. brown rice flour (I ground it from short grain brown rice)
2 and 1/2 c. potato starch
1 and 1/4 c. tapioca flour
1 c. ground flax seed
1 c. chickpea flour (or soy flour)
4 and 1/2 T. xanthan or guar gum (see NOTE below)
Mix well and store in a moisture-proof container in the freezer. Use cup-for-cup instead of regular flour.
NOTE: Because non-gluten flours lack the structure that gluten provides, xanthan gum or guar gum (available in health food stores) is often added to gluten-free baked goods. This mixture contains enough xanthan or guar gum for cakes, cookies, pancakes, and quick breads. For yeast breads, you may have to add up to 1 tsp. more gum per cup of gluten-free flour. - Wed Sep 26, 07:53:00 AM PDT
- mustardseed said...
Hi Bryanna! Can I replace the expresso with more cocoa powder? I don't like, loathe, coffee. (:
- Tue Dec 18, 01:40:00 AM PST
- Bryanna Clark Grogan said...
You can just leave it out, mustardseed-- but just so you know, it doesn't make the brownies taste like coffee-- it just deepens the taste, in my opinion.
- Tue Dec 18, 06:45:00 AM PST
- Bev's Place said...
Hi Bryanna :)
I've only been vegan for about two months and on Sunday, I had an intense craving something sweet that wasn't fruit. I wasn't worried about fat content, I just wanted sweet. I found your recipe for brownies and except for the nuts, I followed it to the letter. The brownies are a huge hit with my adult boys who would have refused it if I said it was vegan and made with tofu. Thanks for a great recipe!! - Tue Jan 20, 01:02:00 AM PST
- Lexi said...
First comment ever here :)
I was just wondering..on the brownies, if egg replacer isn't readily available..what should i use in a pinch? - Tue Jul 21, 01:21:00 PM PDT


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