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Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site
We've come to the end of George Dodd's look at London beer and pubs. This time, it's pub names under the microscope.
"The public-houses of London are as motley an assemblage as can well be imagined — so far as signs are concerned We find among them about 70 royal dukes— 'Cambridge,' 'Clarence,' 4 Cumberland,' 'Gloucester,' ' Sussex,' and 'York'; a few royal duchesses: 60 or 70 'Georges' and 'George the Fourths'; 'Victorias' and 'Royal Alberts' in great abundance ; 80 'Crowns' and 20 'Crown and Anchors'; 70 'King's Arms' and 90 'King's Heads'; 20 'Queen's Arms' and 50 'Queen's Heads.' Next comes a menagerie of extraordinary animals, — 30 ' Green Men,' with or without 'Stills,' 'Bells,' and 'French Horns'; 120 'Lions' — red, white, blue, or black; 25 'Black Horses,' and 45 'White'; 70 'White Harts'; 55 'Swans,' black or white as the case may be —and so forth. Then we have a series of couplets—55 'Coach and Horses'; 25 'Horse and Grooms'; 55 'Rose and Crowns'; and numerous' Ships,' combined in an extraordinary way with 'Blue Balls,' 'Blue Coat Boys,' 'Punchbowls,' 'Rising Suns,' 'Shears,' and 'Shovels.' The system of numeration has been carried out by the licensed victuallers more fully than they themselves, perhaps, are aware; for we shall find 'One Tun,' 'Two Bells,' 'Three Suns,' 'Four Swans,' 'Five Pipes,' 'Six Cans,' 'Seven Stars,' 'Eight Bells,' 'Nine Elms,' 'Ten Bells,' and 'Twelve Bells': let any enterprising publican hit upon 'Eleven' something—' Cricketers,' 'Virgins,' or what not — and the duodecimal system will be complete. Some numbers are great favourites, especially number three, which developes itself in all the varieties of 'Three Brewers' and 'Three Colts'; three each of 'Compasses,' 'Cranes,' 'Cups,' 'Doves,' 'Elms,' 'Foxes,' 'Goats,' 'Hats,' 'Herrings,' 'Horseshoes,' and 'Johns' ; 'Three Jolly Bakers,' 'Three Jolly Butchers,' and 'Three Jolly Gardeners'; 'Three Kings,' 'Three Loggerheads,' and 'Three Lords' (three loggerheads between three kings and three lords might appear sarcastic, were not the order of the alphabet alone responsible) ; three 'Mariners,' 'Merry Boys,' 'Neats' Tongues,' 'Nuns,' 'Pigeons,' 'Spies,' 'Sugar-loaves,' ' Stags,' 'Suns,' 'Swedish Crowns,' and 'Wheat Sheaves.' A wonderful display of tapsters' ingenuity occurs in such signs as 'Blade Bone,' 'Coffee-pot,' 'Essex Serpent,' 'Knave of Clubs,' 'Lilliput Hall,' 'Naked Boy and Woolpack,' 'Old Centurion,' 'Pickled Egg,' 'Prospect of Whitby,' 'Tippling Philosopher,' 'Widow's Son,' 'Valiant Trooper,' 'Sun in Splendour,' 'Running Footman,' 'Experienced Fowler,' 'Good Man,' 'Kentish Wag,' and 'World Turned Upside Down.'"The Three Johns? Isn't that John Lydon, Sid Vicious and Jah Wobble?
"The food of London" by George Dodd, 1856, pages 460 - 475.
I particularly like the list of unusual names at the end of the list. You know what's really rather odd: I've drunk in two of them. I was in the Prospect of Whitby not long ago. And the Widow's Son, on Devons Road, I drank in when I lived just around the corner in the late 1970's.
I couldn't be arsed to check the whole list of odd names to see how many survived. The Essex Serpent is still around, but unfortunately the Naked Boy and Woolpack is no more. Shame. The World Turned Upside Down on the Old Kent Road seems to have only recently closed. Double shame. It's now a Domino's Pizza, though the building doesn't look that old.
I found a little more about the Naked Boy and Woolpack:
"Naked Boy and Woolpack, No. 23 PARISH STREET, TOOLEY STREET, SOUTHWARK, the last of the public-houses in London retaining the sign of the Naked Boy. Respecting the origin of the name there has been much difference of opinion. This is supposed to have been originally a Negro boy seated on a cotton bale. But the explanation is doubtful. Probably the origin of the name was in most instances a naked figure affixed to a house. Thus the Fortune of War public-house, at the corner of Cock Lane, Giltspur Street, used to be in vulgar language the Naked Boy, from an effigy outside it of a youthful Bacchus astride a barrel. Hatton, 1708, Maitland, 1739, and Dodsley, 1761, give one Naked Boy Alley, three Naked Boy Courts, and two Naked Boy Yards in London. In 1880 the only survival was Naked Boy Court, on the north side of Ludgate Hill, and that euphemised into Boy Court."Boy Court sounds almost as bad as Naked Boy Court. Still, better than a pub called the Naked Boy on Cock Lane.
"London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions" by Henry Benjamin Wheatley, Peter Cunningham, 1891, page 571.
Here's another mention of the pub:
"On Wednesday the Prisoner underwent another examination, and two other persons appeared as prosecutors against the unfortunate Ezekiel. One of these persons was Mr. James Tuck, the landlord of a public-house at Horsleydown, known by the queer sign of "the Naked Boy and the Woolpack," and the other was a Mr. Saker, an honest layer of brick, and neighbour to mine host of the Naked Boy and Woolpack. They charged the prisoner with borrowing money, and swindling them out of board, lodging, &c."It seems to have been used regularly to hold inquests:
Sussex Advertiser - Monday 03 May 1824, page 2.
"Mr. Payne held an inquest on Wednesday evening, at the Naked Boy and Woolpack, Parish-street, Horseley-down, on the body of William Wright, an infant aged seven weeks, who was suffocated by its mother under the following singular circumstances . . ."The Tippling Philosopher was in a bit of London I know quite well, as it's just around the corner from Jeff's Gunmakers in Clerkenwell.:
Hereford Journal - Wednesday 29 November 1843, page 4.
". . .in London there used to be a Tippling Philosopher, now extinct in Liquor Pond Street, opposite Reid's great brewery in Gray's Inn Road."There's one great thing about pubs with unusual names: it's easy to search for references to them.
"English Inn Signs: Being a Revised and Modernized Version of History of Signboards" by Jacob Larwood, John Camden Hotten, 1951, page 273.


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Vice President Joe Biden visited Cobb County Friday to see first-hand the aftermath of this week's historic flooding.
He also announced that Stephens and Chattooga counties have been declared federal disaster areas, in addition to Carroll, Cobb, Paulding, Douglas and Cherokee counties.
Catoosa, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Newton, Rockdale and Walker counties were also added late in the afternoon after Mr. Biden toured the flood-ravaged areas.
That means now 14 counties qualify for aid via the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
While at the Cobb County Civic Center, the vice president spoke with several families who were flooded out of their homes. Biden let them know that their elected officials in Washington were hard at work.
"I just want you to know that sometimes when we were in the Congress we get a bad rap," said Mr. Biden, a former Senator, before lauding Georgia Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and Representative David Scott. The three Georgia elected officials have been working to secure FEMA funds, and according to Biden, they acted swiftly.
"They weren't waiting around. I have not seen three people that reacted more, and more with a heartfeld sense."
Mr. Biden also said that the federal government is taking the disaster seriously.
"The truth of the matter is, for someone who lost their home, it is Katrina... On a beautiful sunny day like today, the reality is sinking in," Mr. Biden said.
Many state leaders were on hand for the visit, including Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Vance Smith.
Smith says he's hopeful that FEMA funds are coming.

subset: commoncrawl


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Nodejs Express enabling HSTS and cookie secure attribute
- node js: 6.7.0
- express: 4.13.30
- cookie-session: 1.2.0
- helmet: 0.14.0
The best articles and links to interesting posts for technical team leaders building sophisticated websites, applications and mobile apps. Think about: software architecture, hardware architecture, programming, frameworks, scalability, performance, quality assurance, security and Android.
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For a recent innovative project we were able to work with Kubernetes 1.3 as tool for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. In our case (micro)services.
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Labels: components, container, deployments, diagram, etcd, k8s, kubectl, kubelet, kubeproxy, kubernetes, label selectors, master node, overview, pod, service, software architecture, software architecture diagram, worker node
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Why you should choose Bartram's to undertake your :
We offer a service that is exceptionally reliable, honest and personal.
We are a family run landscape gardening company, who pride themselves upon their ability to provide the upmost quality and tidyness in any work undertaken.
No job is too big or too small and we treat each and everyone with the same commitment to achieve the highest quality finish.
"There is no spot of ground, however arid, bare or ugly, that cannot be tamed into such a state as may give an impression of beauty and delight." -Gertrude Jekyll
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden." - Thomas Jefferson
"A garden is never as good as it will be next year" - Thomas Cooper


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CNN has proven itself to be in the tank for gay rights in the past, and a fawning Friday afternoon segment was no exception. CNN's Kareen Wynter aired a gushing portrait of an openly-gay beauty pageant contestant, emphasizing her mission to "make a statement" about her orientation.
"Mollie's on a mission to disprove painful stereotypes out there about gay women," Wynter hailed contestant Mollie Thomas. Wynter hyped her mission to help "others to be themselves" and also highlighted openly-gay actress Amber Heard.
"Heard, who co-starred with Johnny Depp in 'The Rum Diary,' is an inspiration to Mollie," Wynter explained. "The actress who was also named the face of Guess' fall fashion campaign went public with her sexual orientation in 2010."
In 2010, CNN's Soledad O'Brien aired a documentary about two gay men trying to have a biological child of their own, and nailed CNN's beliefs perfectly when she stated that "we don't go out and solicit opinions from those against gay parents." CNN has been repeatedly sympathetic to the GLBT movement in the past, and reluctant to publish opposing viewpoints on the matters of homosexuality and gay rights.
A relevant transcript of the segment, which aired on January 20 at 12:56 p.m. EST, is as follows:
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: Mollie Thomas is the first openly-gay woman to ever compete for the Miss California Beauty Pageant. Kareen Wynter talked to her about what motivated her to enter the competition.
(Video Clip)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN correspondent (voice-over): In just three months, Mollie polished her look, studied up on pageants and joined the race for Miss California, USA. And along with 26-year-old Janelle Hutcherson became the first openly-gay women to compete in the 60-year history of the contest.
MOLLIE THOMAS, gay beauty pageant contestant: I wanted to put out a real person that someone could really say, I can relate to this girl.
WYNTER: Mollie's on a mission to disprove painful stereotypes out there about gay women, like we saw in "Miss Congeniality" when Sandra Bullock's pre-makeover looks and traits led to this question.
THOMAS: So many people have this image of what a lesbian is. And if you don't fit that, you can't possibly be gay. I grew up with the comment of, you're too pretty to be gay. There's no -- there is no such thing as too pretty to be gay.
WYNTER: So not for the cash or the crown, but to make her point. The 19-year-old student ran openly-gay in her first ever beauty pageant.
THOMAS: It's never been done before and anything new is always scary.
WYNTER: And Mollie tells "Showbiz Tonight" the risk was worth it.
THOMAS: I had my phone out all weekend because it was going nonstop and, just interviews and press and media.
WYNTER (on camera): Mollie just hopes her story inspires others to be themselves. And she admires women who are openly gay in the prime of their career. Women like movie star Amber Heard.
AMBER HEARD, actress, "The Rum Diary": I'm from Connecticut. My boyfriend's making a speech..
WYNTER (voice-over): Heard, who co-starred with Johnny Depp in the "Rum Diary," is an inspiration to Mollie. The actress who was also named the face of Guess' fall fashion campaign went public with her sexual orientation in 2010. She later told the gay pop culture website, After Ellen, "if you hide something, you're inadvertently admitting it's wrong. I don't feel like I'm wrong. I don't feel like millions of people are wrong because they love who they love or they were born how they were born."
Mollie says she's not interested in hiding either and the Miss Universe Organization, which running the Miss USA Pageant, was happy to have her center stage, telling "Showbiz Tonight," "the Miss Universe Organization embraces diversity and we look forward to the day when a woman's sexual orientation, religion or race is no longer newsworthy."
THOMAS: So I just finished my first pageant.
WYNTER: So, while Mollie didn't win the title of Miss California USA her first go-around, she tells "Showbiz Tonight" that she's going to run again next year.
THOMAS: I'm honored to be in the position that I am and to be able to speak up for what I really believe in.
WYNTER: Where she'll continue to wear a sash to make a statement.


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Counselling Service
We offer a counselling service for students who have problems or feelings that they find hard to cope with or want to understand better.
We provide a safe and confidential space where a qualified counsellor will listen to you without making judgements. This kind of support can really make a difference towards ensuring students stay on track with their studies.
Staff profile
Studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University and has been working at NewVIc since 2000.
"I love working at NewVIc and being there for students when they are going through difficult times. I know how hard it is to focus on your studies when you are confused, unhappy, stressed, anxious or depressed. My job is to help students work through whatever is going on for them (big or small) so they are more able to achieve their potential in all aspects of their college life."


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July 2018: The James Museum
Season 2018 Episode 7 | 26m 46s Video has closed captioning.
Visit St. Petersburg's newest museum destination, The James Museum. Co-founded by Tom and Mary James, the museum features their vast personal collection of Western and wildlife artwork and includes living legends as well as emerging artists. Tune in to Up Close as Cathy visits The James Museum and receives a personal tour of some of the highlights in the museum's collection.
Aired: 07/19/18
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning


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Natural Energy Stir Sticks were born to give you the freedom to enjoy a natural caffeine boost anyway you want, without the sickly taste of "extreme" energy drinks and without racking up empty calories. pureLYFT can get you out of bed for your 6AM CrossFit, get you over that 3pm slump at work, and it can help you get to the next level when happy hour has just begun.
We're so glad you're checking us out. We thought you might like to know how this whole thing started. Well, there we sat at happy hour, collectively exhausted from a string of long days and even longer weeks. Then, one of us said, Wouldn't it be great if there was a cool way to get natural "Clean Caffeine" in our drinks? Not something awful tasting you have to drown in a glass of vodka, but something you could add to anything, anytime. Something that actually tasted clean. Without a lot of calories. Not something that gives you a coronary and can make you crash hours later. That might seem like a cliche, "idea on the back of a cocktail napkin" story, but the result is anything but typical.
Welcome to the pureLYFT revolution!
Key Features:
- Zero Calories
- Clean Taste
- Can be used with a variety of different beverages from water to freshly pressed juices to coconut water and cocktails
- Vibrant Alertness
- No artificial flavors, sweeteners, or preservatives
- Caffeine equivalent to one tall coffee
pureLYFT Energy Stir Sticks are an innovative "clean caffeine" energy product infused with all natural caffeine and vitamins that provide a sophisticated energy experience. Join the pureLYFT revolution TODAY!
ENERGIZE ANYTHING, ANYTIME. With just a hint of sweetness, you can enjoy PureLYFT with any beverage: water, juices, smoothies, cocktails, etc. And each stir stick is a complete, convenient, on-the-go energy infusion.
EXPERIENCE A SMART, CLEAN and PURE CAFFEINE SUPPLEMENT. PureLYFT unlocks the health benefits of green coffee beans and vitamins A and B to kick your energy, focus, and attention into high gear-for a sustained period and with no side effects.
ELIMINATE THE JITTERS. Each PureLYFT stir stick contains 125 mg of all natural caffeine (about the same amount as a tall cup of coffee). You'll experience a long-lasting energy boost-with no shakiness, no nervous stomach, no sour aftertaste, and no sugar crash.
ENJOY ZERO CALORIES. Rather than relying on sugary, artificially flavored energy drinks, treat your body well with PureLYFT. Benefit from mental clarity and physical vitality with no calories, GMOs, or negative ingredients like taurine or guarine.
ELEVATE YOUR WORKOUT. PureLYFT is an energizing, refreshing, health-conscious workout companion. We use all natural caffeine from green coffee bean, not green tea extract, to jump-start your pre-workout metabolism.
- Natural Energy Stir Sticks – Original Flavor (1 Package, 6 Sticks) – Energize Anything with all Natural Caffeine and Vitamins


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Feather by Apiwat Chitapanya
Apiwat Chitapanya Spotlights The Feather Coffee and Side Table
Apiwat Chitapanya, the thinktank behind the awarded design Award Winning Feather Coffee and Side Table explicates, Feather Collection is the furniture art that has been inspired by the beauty of feather layer that overlapping together. Moreover, the creative shape contributes to the perfect function. Welding wire stainless steel is a resolution. These shows a virtual plume to be infrastructure that provides strength. At the same time, it makes the table feel light and like a bird would fly. The collection consists of two shapes that are circular and over shape with different height to achieve more balanced and dimensions..
Feather by Apiwat Chitapanya Images:
End of the article, click here to go back to previous page, or alternatively go back to Design Of homepage.


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About District Improvement & Data
The District Improvement and Data Department supports the District and its students by providing several important and connected services. These services include:
- Supporting the District's strategic planning process,
- Overseeing the District's Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) system,
- Assisting schools implement the District's school improvement process,
- Coordinating State and District assessments,
- Developing tools to assist schools with the productive use of assessment information, and
- Managing the District's screening and selection process for the District's Academically Talented and Gifted Program.
Please use the links to learn more about these important services.
Contact Us
Assistant Superintendent of District Improvement & Data
Thomas Edgar, Ph.D.
Phone: 847-963-3106
E-mail: email@example.com
Secretary (Assessments/Gifted)
Vanessa Caro
Phone: 847-963-3114
E-mail: email@example.com
Assistant Director of Research and Systems / Psychologist Coordinator
Laura Swanlund, Ph.D.
Phone: 847-963-3147
E-mail: email@example.com
Socio-Emotional Learning Coordinator
Robyn Cook
Phone: 847-963-3140
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Socio-Emotional Learning Coordinator
Kelly Maher
Phone: 847-963-3047
E-mail: email@example.com
Principal Coach
Mike Carmody
Phone: 847-963-3000
E-mail: email@example.com
Manager, Data Services
Tim Woomert
Phone: 847-963-3055
E-mail: email@example.com
Application Specialist
Bridget Byrnes
Phone: 847-963-3056
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Application Specialist
Bonnie MacEachern
Phone: 847-963-3057
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Lucy Gazda
Phone: 847-963-3054
E-mail: email@example.com


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Ice Dam Damage Prevention From 1-800-RITE-ROOF
If there's one major roofing concern during winter in Wisconsin, it is ice dams and the calamity it can cause if not treated. Ice damming in southeastern Wisconsin is a major problem for homeowners in the winter months. These ice formations that settle at the edges of your roofing system can do more damage to your home than you probably imagine. While you may regard them as non-threatening effects of the cold weather, the truth is they could be very harmful to your home. Ice dams happen for many reasons and are usually not the result of a faulty roof or improper roof installation. The main reasons for ice dams are poor ventilation, inadequate insulation, and a build-up of tree debris in your gutters and sitting up on top of your roof.
Our Team from 1-800-RITE-ROOF are the expert when it comes to Ice dam damage prevention and repair. Since 1996, 1-800-RITE-ROOF has been solving ice damming problems by improving ventilation, installing proper levels of insulation and we also have systems for gutters including a heated gutter cap system that melts ice dams with electric heat. We have many solutions for homeowners in the Milwaukee and Waukesha areas where there are many older homes. With proper maintenance and timely roof inspections, our highly-trained staff can assist you in preventing ice dams from damaging your home
What Causes Ice Dams to Form?
As mentioned above Ice dams are a common problem in southeastern Wisconsin with the winter cold and snow. Ice dams are considered one of the worst roofing problems in the winter, and they can do major roof, gutter and even structural damage to your roof.
Ice dams form along the roof's surface when there is not enough roof ventilation, and when the sun or the heat from the attic melts snow on the top portion of your roof. Water from melted snow will then run down the roof, refreeze when it reaches the colder eave edge of the roof. As snow repeatedly refreeze and melts, water pools above the ice dam and eventually finds its way under the shingles and into the home. As this process continues the ice dam continues to get larger and major icicles can form on the edge of the roof. This can be a dangerous situation. Dealing with ice dams on your own can be very dangerous as you can slip on the ice and fall or you can inadvertently damage your roof using tools to break the ice. Instead of attempting to rectify your ice dam problems on your own, trust your local roofing professionals at 1-800-RITE-ROOF to handle your ice dam removal for you.
Talk To An Expert Today!
To learn more about how ice dams can damage your home roofing system, or to get a few expert tips on avoiding them, 1-800-RITE-ROOF is always ready to assist you. Call us today or fill in the contact form on this page. In addition to roof maintenance we have been installing Roofing, Siding, Gutters, Ventilation, Insulation, Windows & Doors since 1996 in Waukesha, Milwaukee and all around southeastern Wisconsin. Call us today at (262) 373-3800 or simply fill out our contact form to request a no-obligation free estimate.


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Yoga harnesses, magnifies and directs our energy. It clarifies our thinking whilst healing and maintaining the body. This is a simple and yet powerful practice.
Every time I step into a class to teach, I do so with the a renewed sense of respect and humility for the students who so bravely seek to better themselves both physically and mentally. I would say this about anyone doing anything positive for themselves but I get to see this happening in a yoga class and for that I am very grateful. With the honest companion of yoga as our aid we breathe and move our way to physical vitality. In the process we are reminded of the power and sheer real-life magic that our bodies contain. We learn to love our feet. And ourselves. I aim to share in people's experience and hopefully spread some of the joy and healing I have received in my own journey.
When practised correctly Yoga has an incredible potential to physically heal the body from the musculo-skeletal issues common to many office-bound working warriors, to deeper problems related to the digestive, endocrine and nervous system. Because of this, I keep a keen eye on what we are doing with our bodies but it is the mental, emotional and spiritual journey that grounds me and keeps me humbled by this beautiful practise.
Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. ~B.K.S. Iyengar
- Current: BA of Biokinetics
- 2014 – Introduction to Human Movement Anatomy 30 Hour
- 2013 – Air Yoga Teacher Training Course 50 Hour
- 2013 – Hot 26 Yoga Teacher Training Course 100 Hour
- 2012 – Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training Course 200 Hour


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About Us
In 2009 we moved to Gallatin County, KY and acquired the "farmland" previously owned by Keith's late father. Our dream was to build a log cabin on the property, raise bees, and establish a garden big enough to grow most of our own vegetables with enough extra to provide to the local markets. Then, someday, establish the capability to showcase beekeeping and sustainable living.
Well, we didn't waste much time! The log cabin is built. We are raising bees and selling our honey products at local farmer's markets, restaurants, food shows and other local stores, while having the time of our lives. It has been an amazing adventure and we are so thankful to all of you for joining us on our journey!
Our Mission
Inspiring healthier lifestyles by choosing natural alternatives, one spoonful of honey, one bee hive at a time.
What We Do
Crigger Farm is a family owned and operated farm in Warsaw, KY. It all started over 40 years ago with Jim "Pappaw" Crigger , beekeeping and selling honey locally. In 2010, Keith and Lori Crigger decided to sell the honey and garden produce from the Warsaw farm at local famer's markets. And thus, the official business of Crigger Farm was born.
Our goal is to provide fresh, healthy, locally grown food products to our customers, as well as offering innovative recipes and other healthy living tips. We do not chemically treat our beehives and always seek natural solutions to any issues that may arise. We also do not place our hives on any property where chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides are used to ensure you get the most natural honey possible. We strive to provide our customers with unprocessed local honey year round. Our methods ensure the honey is never at a temperature warmer than what it was in the hive, and only coarsely filtered (taking out the extraneous large particles that do not impact the health benefits of the honey).
It has been a wild ride since the business began! We now operate hives at 8 locations throughout Northern Kentucky (and we are always adding more). We have developed a full line of honey products and the list is constantly growing. Our products are on the shelves of several retail locations throughout Kentucky and Ohio, and you can still find us at our local farmer's markets on the weekends.
We are thrilled to be a Kentucky Proud business partner and so excited to offer our products online.


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FEW ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers——letting parents choose to educate their children wherever they wish at the taxpayer's expense. First suggested by Milton Friedman, an economist, in 1955, the principle is compelling simple. The state pays; parents choose; schools compete; standards rise; everybody gains.
Simple, perhaps, but it has aroused predictable——and often fatal——opposition from the educational establishment. Letting parents choose where to educate their children is a silly idea; professionals know best. Cooperation, not competition, is the way to improve education for all. Vouchers would increase inequality because children who are hardest to teach would be left behind.
But these arguments are now succumbing to sheer weight of evidence. Voucher schemes are running in several different countries without ill-effects for social cohesion; those that use a lottery to hand out vouchers offer proof that recipients get a better education than those that do not.
Harry Patrinos, an education economist at the World Bank, cites a Colombian program to broaden access to secondary schooling, known as PACES, a 1990s initiative that provided over 125,000 poor children with vouchers worth around half the cost of private secondary school. Crucially, there were more applicants than vouchers. The programme, which selected children by lottery, provided researchers with an almost perfect experiment, akin to the pill-placebo studies used to judge the efficacy of new medicines. The subsequent results show that the children who received vouchers were 15—20% more likely to finish secondary education, five percentage points less likely to repeat a grade, scorced a bit better on scholastic tests and were much more likely to take college entrance exams.
Vouchers programmes in several American states have been run along similar lines. Greg Forster, a statistician at the Friedman Foundation, a charity advocating universal vouchers, says there have been eight similar studies in America: seven showed statistically significant positive results but was not designed well enough to count.
The voucher pupils did better even though the sate spent less than it would have done had the children been educated in normal state schools. American voucher schemes typically offer private schools around half of what the sate would spend if the pupils stayed in public schools. The Colombian programme did not even set out to offer better schooling than was available in the state sector; the aim was simply to raise enrollment rates as quickly and cheaply as possible.
These results are important because they strip out other influences. Home, neighborhood and natural ability all affect results more than which school a child attends. If the pupils who received vouchers differ from those who don't——perhaps simply by coming from the sort of go-getting family that elbows its way to the front of every queue——any effect might simply be the result of any number of other factors. But assigning the vouchers randomly guarded against this risk.
Opponents still argue that those who exercise choice will be the most able and committed, and by clustering themselves together in better schools they will abandon the weak and voiceless to languish in rotten ones. Some cite the example of Chile, where a universal voucher scheme that allows schools to charge top-up fees seems to have improved the education of the best-off most.
The strongest evidence against this criticism comes from Sweden, where parents are freer than those in almost any other country to spend as they wish the money the government allocates to educating their children. Sweeping education reforms in 1992 not only relaxed enrolment rules in state sector, allowing students to attend schools outside their own municipality, but also let them take their state funding to private schools, including religious ones and those operating for profit. The only real restrictions imposed on private schools were that they must run their admissions on a first-come-first-served basis and promise not to charge top-up fees(most American voucher schemes impose similar conditions).
The result has been burgeoning variety and a breakneck expansion of the private sector. At the time of the reforms only around 1% of Swedish students were educated privately; now 10% are, and growth in private schooling continues unabated.
Anders Hultin of Kunskapsskolan, a chain of 26 Swedish schools founded by a venture capitalist in 1999 and now running at a profit, says its schools only rarely have to invoke the first-come-first-served rule——the chain has responded to demand by expanding so fast that parents keen to send their children to its schools usually get a place. So the private sector, by increasing the total number of places available, can ease the mad scramble for the best schools in the state sector(bureaucrats, by contrast, dislike paying for extra places in popular schools if there are vacancies in bad ones).
More evidence that choice can raise standards for all comes from Caroline Hoxby, an economist at Harvard University, who has shown that when American public schools must compete for their students with schools that accept vouchers, their performance improves. Swedish researchers say the same. It seems that those who work in state schools are just like everybody else: they do better when confronted by a bit of competition.
没有什么教育观念比学券更容易引发争议。所谓学券,就是让父母花纳税人的钱随意为孩子选择去哪里上学。经济学家Milton Friedman 1955年首次提出这一概念,其原则十分简单,但令人信服:即国家出钱;父母选择;学校竞争,标准提升;各方受益。
世界银行的教育经济学家Harry Patrinos列举了20世纪90年代启动、被称做"PACES"的哥伦比亚项目。该项目旨在增加学生上中学的机会。它为12.5 万名贫困孩子提供了学券,其价值约为私立中学教育收费的一半。但关键问题是,申请人比学券多。该项目以抽签方式挑选学生,为研究人员提供了几乎完美无缺的实验,类似于用来判定新药疗效的"安慰剂"研究。后来的研究结果表明,接受学券的孩子完成中学学业的可能性要高出15%至20%,留级的可能性低5个百分点,在学术能力测试中的得分高些,也更有可能参加大学入学考试。
美国也有几个州在类似方式实施学券计划。主张全面推广学券计划的慈善组织弗里德曼基金会的统计学家Greg Forster说,美国有8项类似的研究,其中7项研究的统计数据显示,学券对于那些幸运的获得者们具有明显的积极作用;第8项研究也显示了正面结果,但由于设计不佳不予考虑。
一位风险资本家在1999年创办的Kunskapsskolan是一家拥有26所瑞典学校的连锁学校,现在正处于赢利状态。该校的Anders Hultin 说,各分校几乎没有用过"先来先得"的规则——为满足需求,连锁学校增加得非常快,愿意送孩子来该校读书的家长一般都能如愿。所以,通过增加学校数量,私立学校这一领域能够缓解公立学校领域疯狂争抢进入最好学校的压力(对比之下,如果劣等学校还有招生空间,政府官员就不愿意为增加名校招生拨款)。
哈佛大学的经济学家Caroline Hoxby为择校能够提高所有学生水平提供了更多的证据。他已经证明,当美国的公立学校必须同接受学券的学校竞争生源时,它们的业绩就有进步。瑞典的研究人员也坚持同样的观点。看来,在公立学校工作的人就像其他人一样:面对一点竞争时,他们会做得更好。
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There's always a story attached to the purchase of any boat, and it usually revolves around the age-old conundrum of matching all of your needs and at least some of your wants with your budget. Human nature being what it is, we're all after a top-shelf boat for a bottom-end price, so the search and eventual decision are generally anything but easy. Gold Coast boater Elliot Griffen recently made the decision to upgrade from his 4.5m side-console tinnie to something a bit bigger and more suitable for his family. Let's face it: the more comfortable your boat, the more time your family will want to spend with you on it.
For full details click here to read the PDF…


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In honor of mother's day, I want to share a very real, raw story that is near and dear to my heart. It's about the relationship between a Mother and her family, and how the Lord worked to bring them back together through His unconditional love. I am grateful to have my Mom's blessing to share this story with you. She is the incredibly beautiful woman who raised us girls, and through her life has taught me what real redemption in Christ looks like.
A Relationship on the Rocks
If I can be honest, my relationship with my Mom for the longest time was on the rocks. Coming from a daughter's perspective, I begrudged my Mom that I never got to have that "best friend" relationship that I saw so many of my peers having with their Moms. I loved her, yes; but she wasn't necessarily my "role model".
Why was this? I think Jessica puts it very eloquently in her post on our B.Well Instagram:
"As a young girl, teen and finally adult, [Mom] lacked the example of true maternal love. Just love from her family, really. And for as many years as I can remember, I've seen her struggle to love us and be loved back. She fought her own inadequacies as a mother so that we girls could live the life she never had. I used to misunderstand my Mom's struggles. I used to get angry at her unpredictable emotions. But as we've both grown in Jesus' unconditional love, I've come to learn that my precious Mother has spent most of her life in fear, and her emotions are only a product of her broken past."
As a young teen, I really didn't understand this. I just was bitter, and I sought solace by building my relationship with my Dad. I thought my Mom was living in sin, and that she needed to repent and move on. Plain and simple.
Actually, it wasn't quite that simple.
A Turning Point
My Mom and Dad went to some incredible counselors this past Winter, and what was taught to them was truly liberating. To be honest, it was a turning point for our family. Like Jessica said above, my Mom was carrying around shame and guilt from her broken childhood that had nothing to do with sin on her part. Whether it was her sibling's or parent's sin, she carried it around as her fault. It became baggage that she mentally had no idea how to deal with. This created unhealthy mental patterns that manifested themselves in her marriage & family.
The story I have begun to tell you is one of a broken life that was beautifully redeemed. I'm going to be blunt here and spell it out plain as day: our family is a very dysfunctional one. I don't care how perfect we may seem in the pictures we post or the articles we write; much of the behind-the-scenes you haven't seen over the past 2-3 years has been soul-wrecking to the heaviest degree.
If there's one thing our family has been learning, it is that sweeping the brokenness and shame under the rug and pretending like it's not there is one of the most unhealthy things you can possibly do.
I remember one day in particular when Jess and I were having it out at Mom, ranting about her behavior of late, trying to shake sense into her. Her response was completely unexpected. After so many years of witnessing her adding more and more bricks to the wall surrounding her heart each time someone would confront her, at that moment she actually began breaking it down to let us in.
As I listened to her pour out her heart to us, I knew that I could never view Mom the same way again. I realized that I had lived my whole teen years holding out for this one moment. It was then that I understood all I had ever wanted was for her break down so that God could build her back up. Truly all the glory goes to God who answered many, many prayers that day.
Brokenness made Whole
Why do I share all this? Yeah, it may seem weird, even dangerous, to open up about your dysfunctional family on the internet. But as Christians, our stories are not those of perfection and accomplishments, but of humility and redemption. Every single one of you reading this is a messed up, broken human being. You've got thoughts, actions, and troubles you would never want to see the light. But you know what God's word says?
"and all the things reproved by the light are manifested, for everything that is manifested is light" (Eph 5:13)
This Mothers Day, if you are dealing with a dysfunctional parent, I encourage you to hold out for them. Keep praying for them. Show tough love to them. But whatever you do, don't pull away or sweep the shame under the rug.
For quite a few months, actually, I was very close to just leaving home and all of the dysfunction. I was exhausted trying to figure out why my relationship with Mom was so tenuous, and I wanted to move on in life. I know it was God's hand that stayed me and strengthened me to push through. I can't even begin to describe how worth it all the pain was, to see my Mom find redemption and wholeness again in the Lord. It has taken many, many years, yes: but all those years are but a sigh compared to the hope our family has now.
God's Love Wrecks You
You are messed up. Your parents are messed up. If you both are children of God, however, there is hope. You can have full assurance you and your parents will find wholeness in Christ, even if that's later on in life. As I heard Matt Chandler put it in one of his sermons, God's love will wreck you until you are forced to face the light and return to Him. It may take a few days, it may take years; but nothing can separate you from His steadfast, abundant love.
Your family isn't meant to have an ideal life that composes perfect Instagram photos & captions. It's meant to be a story of broken redemption that draws you closer to Christ, and further away from the world. Hold onto this fact tenaciously, pursue God relentlessly, and pursue your parents even when it feels like the hardest thing you could possibly do.
Because you are unconditionally loved by a heavenly Father who relentlessly pursues you.


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For those who have not heard, my cousin Ray was killed by an IED in Iraq over the last weekend. This weekend my family is all headed to West Texas for his funeral services. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Ray was a sweet kid with a big heart and big ears. He was quiet and polite and I don't recall him ever saying a cross word to anyone.
When all the other cousins had gotten to cool to hug... Ray was always the one to get in there and grab you around the waist and squeeze his goodbyes out of you. I will miss his shining face.
Cpl. Ray Michael Bevel
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | Posted by Shane Bevel at 11:11 PM 1 comments
Too Much
OK. Sorry guys... I went as long as I could... but the kid is just too damn cute NOT to be on my blog. I introduce to you my nephew...
I doubt this is the last time you will see him.
Friday, April 13, 2007 | Posted by Shane Bevel at 1:08 AM 2 comments
I have written before about the difficulty of covering funerals, it's hard to explain what it's like. Most of the time for us it's just another day at work. But on occasion it can be emotionally taxing. Military funerals are especially hard for me. I have a relative overseas in the war and it's always hard to lock that out.
Yesterday I shot Coach Eddie Robinson's funeral. I wrote earlier in the week about spending a day with him and his wife. So having seen the way they were together I knew the funeral might be difficult. For the most part it was a happy occasion, a celebration by thousands of people who had gathered together to celebrate his life.
But during the first song, Doris Robinson broke down and wept. The strength and composure she had shown all week left her in an instant. For just three minutes in a nearly four hour funeral we saw the grief and sorrow that strikes someone who has lost the one thing they love the most.
Watching through thousands of dollars of glass and mirrors, you can't look away and the camera is no longer a barrier. You are involved. You watch and you shoot and you are truly attached. For a moment you feel just a fraction of what that person feels and there is nothing to be done about it. All we can do is our jobs and try to understand what true empathy feels like.
Thursday, April 12, 2007 | Posted by Shane Bevel at 11:31 AM 1 comments
Industrial Art
I love shooting heavy industry. I don't know why, but it always seems to have a certain grit about it. There is very little color so when color does show up its always vibrant. Here are a few examples, one from a construction site and the other from the Port of Shreveport.
Thursday, April 5, 2007 | Posted by Shane Bevel at 3:34 PM 0 comments
A Lifetime of Love
Former Grambling Coach Eddie Robinson died this morning.
One of the things he always pointed out was his love for his wife. "The real record I have set for over 50 years is the fact that I have had one job and one wife," Robinson said.
I had the good fortune to spend a game day with Coach Rob and his family a few years ago as his health was declining. It was a great day filled with warm people and old stories. Everyone knew Coach Rob and had a story to tell him. The press box was filled with NFL scouts who had been coached by Robinson in college. People just stopped by the Robinson's home before and after the game. Coach Robinson remembered some of them and not others, but was kind and welcoming to all of them.
Perhaps the thing that stuck in my mind the most was the obvious love between Robinson and his wife. You don't often see that kind of relationship these days.
I made this photo while setting up for a formal portrait in the Robinson's home that morning. It hasn't ever been published anywhere else. It's something I made just for myself. His high school sweetheart and wife Doris takes a just moment to adjust his tie and collar before the portrait and in that moment I can see 60-something years of love and dedication. Its a shame we can't see that more often.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | Posted by Shane Bevel at 11:43 AM 0 comments
When Dirt Turns to Mud
Just a short update... my dirt road turned to mud.
When parts of Texas received up to nine inches of rain on Friday the Sabanna River rose up out of its banks and we had to go in the back way, which other than the 20+ feet of water is a much worse road. This was 18 hours after the rain had stopped and the bridge is still under 10+ feet of water. Two full days later we were able to cross with some effort.
Monday, April 2, 2007 | Posted by Shane Bevel at 11:36 AM 0 comments


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Terminology Warning – awakening
I have been re-engaging with Eckhart Tolle, someone who has greatly helped in the past. I like him because of his apparent lack of dogma, and his similarity of early experience as described in Power of Now (see below).
I re-engaged with him because I was examining pain, and in this talk he speaks of his dogma coming from Buddhism. That statement in itself now says little to me because there are many appeals to Buddhism, and as Eckhart also points out the mind has complicated what is Buddhism – sankhara or as Ajaan Buddhadasa says concocting or proliferations.
I am absolutely certain that Eckhart Tolle is talking beyond dogma, but in doing so he creates his own dogma. But the difference with his dogma is that for him it was insight – personal assessment. In other words Eckhart has moved beyond dogma, come up with his own insights, and then applied his own framework to where he has gone. So for him it is Buddhism that is beyond the dogma of Buddhism. Yet for others it is still dogma.
This paradox of the last sentence illustrates that there is a huge problem in all of this, communication – explaining. Once you move beyond dogma, language is a great limitation because language is the métier of dogma – it is the tool of sankhara. The only way that language has meaning beyond dogma is that if the experience is somehow shared.
Below I have copied Eckhart's experience, and I want to compare. First I want to explain why. These experiences, awakenings connected to jhanas, are so important, and treated as non-existent by the intellectual establishment – by the intellect. I have only just begun to re-celebrate my own experience mainly through consideration of the 5 Gateways movie – if these experiences interest you listen to the people describe their experiences in the movie. Whilst Buddhism talks of these experiences through jhanas there is a sense of belittlement of them possibly because of institutionalism, the dogma of detachment or maybe simply some monks don't have such experiences. I don't know.
But these experiences are so important if placed in life's context.
My experience was not one full-blown awakening as Eckhart describes his and that was primarily because of the booze. Because of the booze I describe my despair as "hitting bottom". I think I was not suicidal because of the booze but as my "hitting bottom" was diffused over time by the booze, fortunately there was not the same intensity – the same level of despair.
Another difference, maybe, was that my life had not been intense. My early life been totally superficial, just concerned with academia. Everything had been easy. Get up, go to school, play some football. University was just as superficial with drink thrown in. Starting work was the only form of intensity. Studying for exams had been focussed – although not too successful. But there was a real focus for the job, I had to get up go to work and do the stuff they did; I had to have discipline for something that I found meaningless. And as it went on I had to be disciplined to do the work to get money to drink. I didn't spend my 20s in despair, I drifted around on the surface getting drunk. When I hit bottom it was like I woke up and found an inner life.
But there was another important aspect of intensity for me, after awakening I spent 13 years getting increasingly dependent on alcohol. This diffused the intensity, I even remember thinking at times that getting drunk burnt off excess energy. Coming to terms with the newfound awakening was tempered by increasingly dealing with alcoholism.
This also meant that I was in no way fit to be a spiritual teacher, I could not control my desires – addiction. But over time in this world you cannot live with the intensity, and over time I eschewed the addiction. By then I had accepted the world path of teacher, and in my personal time I occasionally wrote – although that was not frequent. But once I retired I found my own way. Getting rid of the job by writing – Matriellez, then coming to terms with how I should lead life – Treatise, blogging as a means of clearing the mind – Zandtao, Matriellez and Ginsukapaapdee, until I am now writing stories – Wai Zandtao.
His description of experience sounds so exciting:- "Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words "resist nothing," as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It felt as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that."
Experiences occurred for me differently. Hitting bottom was obviously brought on by the booze, and booze, as I suspect all drugs – maybe not marijuana?, prevents these jhanas. Immediately following hitting bottom I ran to my parents – I was 22. As usual at my parents' house I spent much time walking, and I remember wandering around Manchester looking at suits in a Xmas pub thinking "what is this?" Still coming to terms with what was going on I returned to London, and in my Chiswick bedsit finding these experiences happening regularly. I think I was meditating but they just came in, nothing as shattering as Eckhart but there was presence. (Added next day) Exploring memory makes things clearer. That Chiswick bedsit was far more important than the hazy recollection I have of it. It was not special. I remember cooking on a landing in a loft space, having little room but loving it. Getting up there seems almost to have been a trigger for presence. I was stuck in the cubicle of a job, escaped and wandered up and down Chiswick High Road. Then there was the bedsit. Maybe meditation triggered it, maybe just being there triggered it. Can't remember, doesn't matter. It happened. That Chiswick time was Eckhart's "I spent almost two years sitting on park benches in a state of the most intense joy."
After that initial Chiswick "reward" they settled down but have been there for much of my life. Usually they occurred late at night in bed, and suddenly this experience would well up inside me and expand. There was no light for me but it was almost like the air itself was visibly vibrating. I remember the Summer I wrote Kirramura, and I spent the days waiting for the late night where I would go to bed, lie down and just wait for "the guys" to come …. and then I wrote. It was as if such experiences were a bottleneck, they would build up and then wait for a chance to come out – a time when I was quiet or meditating. Now they are less because I am old and meditate regularly. I discussed experiences and Buddhism generally here.
Recently I heard of someone watching 5 Gateways and crying because she had something similar. I was unable to follow up. It made me realise that there is a need to celebrate such experiences because in this world such spiritual matters are belittled by academics, and such people are marginalised not celebrated.
Such great joy!!
"I had become a spiritual teacher." During Chiswick I started writing – Martin Smoothchatter. It was a time when Arts Centre people were so important as they ratified my experience. The cubicle was never for me, and after a couple of months I started taking Mongol kids out on a Saturday morning, I had found a meaning. This compassion turned to child care and then teaching.
And why are these experiences connected with dogma. They are not, because such experience does not happen if all there is is dogma. Dogma is the refuge of the academic mind. Of its nature dogma creates restrictions, belief in a dogma or not. And if there is restriction there is no experience. This is an experience of genuine freedom, and that only occurs if what we are doing is opening doors. By the way institutions cling to dogma, there are not doors opening.
So Eckhart explains his despair, his experience and his expanding consciousness offering his insights. And he says choose to do this without going through pain and despair. Can we choose to do this without despair? Ajaan Buddhadasa did – I think he just grew up being wise and grew older getting wiser, but others? Is there a choice without pain and despair? I hope so.
The Origin Of This Book
Books:- Treatise, Wai Zandtao Scifi, Matriellez Education.
Blogs:- Ginsukapaapdee, Matriellez.
Posts Tagged '5 gateways'
Choice Experience and dogmaPosted: 25/08/2017 by zandtao in Buddhadasa, Freedom, Insight, Meditation
Tags: 5 gateways, bottom, Eckhart Tolle, Experiences
A Good ExperiencePosted: 18/08/2017 by zandtao in Buddhadasa, Freedom, Meditation
Tags: 5 gateways, Eckhart Tolle, Experiences
I was drowsy last night – in and out of dozing so went to bed early. As to be expected there wasn't sleep, and I began thinking about detachment from the 5 khandas. This has followed from this Santikaro talk on Ajaan Buddhadasa that, simplified, talks of 4 systems:-
At the crux of the first 3 systems are the 5 khandas – discussed in part here. I want to look more at the Psyche and Self systems, and I want to bear in mind the visualisation talked of in the same blogpost. It is most interesting to me why Buddhadasa wanted to choose the word psyche as opposed to mind, and again for me it has an implication that mind is more than psyche.
Before I go on I consider myself Buddhist but much of this is personal. OK I am bouncing off a talk about Ajaan Buddhadasa, a key Buddhist in Thailand – if not mainstream, but I have no suttas or related dogma to back this up. If I thought I was wrong I would not be writing this but it is not mainstream Buddhism – I think.
Let me return to the term "psyche". I believe Buddhadasa chose the term psyche because it is concerned with the 3 khandas, vedana – feeling, sanna – perception, and sankhara – formations and proliferations. But it is also concerned with that part of consciousness – vinnana (the 5th khanda) which enables us to experience the 4 other khandas of rupa – body, vedana – feeling, sanna – perception, and sankhara – formations and proliferations. But there is a part of vinnana that is more than just consciousness of the other khandas, a part of mind that is more than psyche.
Now how does this relate to self? Anatta, no-self, is a Buddhist tenet, but how can there be no ego, no self? This is where the khandas come in. When you examine the function of ego or self and compare it to the 5 khandas there is no difference, there is no functioning of I that is not a function of the khandas. A human functions as the 5 khandas. So where does I come in? As part of vinnana. There is that part of vinnana which enables the 4 other khandas to experience but through our conditioning we say that I experienced – I felt, I perceived, I thought. But it goes further than this – I become attached to the feeling, I become attached to the perception, and I become attached to the thoughts. These attachments start to build up the I, then through desire we indulge the feelings, through desire we remember and focus on the perceptions, and through desire we concoct proliferations and theories and reasons and theories and reasons and theories and reasons and theories and reasons and theories and reasons and theories and reasons and theories and reasons ….. And this becomes the I that is our ego – our self.
But if we detach from the desire, detach from the excesses, let the feelings, perceptions and thoughts happen without attachment we have the normal functioning of the khandas – and no self.
Let me recap simply the visualisation. In this I was trying to detach from conditioning – detach from the khandas, and once detached there was a part of mind that enabled me to relate to sunnata.
So this brings me to last night. I eventually slept trying to detach from the 5 khandas. I woke up early, and began thinking of vinnana. It was vinnana that transcends, it is a part of vinnana that transcends – that is meant to transcend. By transcending I mean beyond conditioning, that it is part of vinnana that detaches from the conditioning, detaches from the khandas, detaches from the self, and moves to relate to sunnata.
At this point consciousness started to lift from the base of my stomach and move up the body and towards the top of my head – crown chakra. It was a great feeling as this heaviness in my stomach became lighter and lighter as it moved towards the crown. With it came a great sense of freedom. I enjoyed it for a while, consolidated thoughts on vinnana and slept again- too much!
Fascinating – a good experience!!
I need the 5 Gateways people to do some effusion for me! And to counter my framework crit of 5 Gateways Ascension theory, I could be just fitting the experience to the theory – a Buddhadasa 4-system moment. Of course there is no answer to such except .
Books:- Treatise, Wai Zandtao Scifi, Matriellez Education.
Blogs:- Ginsukapaapdee, Matriellez.
Focus on Experience?Posted: 13/08/2017 by zandtao in Buddhadasa, Freedom, Insight, Meditation
Tags: 5 gateways, bottom, Experiences
This is my 3rd blog on 5 Gateways movie.
It is strange how things happen. I got into discussion with an ex-student – communication friend, and amongst the first things I discussed was what I consider my awakening – nothing as arrogant as an awakening as a Buddha but an awakening. At one point I was sent a fascinating Anonymous clip much of which I agree with, and all I could see was a lack of joy. How could this Anonymous guy say all this without joy?
That took me to the 5 Gateways movie where there is joy, and this elicited tears from someone watching it. I have watched (and slept) with this film a number of times, and feel good about it (proviso (s)).
I have to react to the following. Here are the movie's initiation stages:- Awakening, Realignment, Transfiguration, Enlightenment, Resurrection. Given all of this what does it mean to me?
Whenever I start questioning myself, it usually means I have been complacent, and complacency usually means less meditation. This is true. My first reaction is to offer my ageing body as an excuse, but whilst it requires more time it is not an excuse – except occasionally.
I am at peace. Whilst I continue to offer my limited dhamma online there is little feedback – perhaps I have been too willing to accept this. This last year writing has blossomed with there being 2 Wai Zandtao books completed and a third half way through. Same issue as my online Dhamma – it is not being read. I am willing to accept this too. I would like to see ever y thing distributed, but am unwilling to pay the publishers' price for doing that – if I were ever to seek one interested. I have done enough work, and am at peace. But having said that, I have some interest in seeing if there are benefits in helping distribution.
In the movie I love all the effusion about nature, I don't do effusion. Maybe I should. But nature and I are close now with the house and the sea and the walking – and the birds that want my bananas but run from me. And my tokey friends. Close without effusion.
It is only now that I thought of Ascension as western and I amended the framework blog accordingly. That east-west dilemma has been something I have never been comfortable with, maybe it is just east and west together that we should think about. Eastern religion regularly sends emissaries because they see what is missing. To me what is missing in the West is tradition, the strength that tradition gives you, countering the risks of ego that exist without tradition around you. But the eastern institution can bury the rapture especially if the institutional "experts" have not experienced the rapture.
There is a need to detach from rapture but being detached does not mean not evaluating the rapture for the importance of what it is. And when people ask the dogma which of the jhanas is happening, do the institutions have the answer? Maybe they do, that is for them to answer, but per se an institution does not as an institution does not have experience. Buddhism has the tradition and there are individuals within the tradition to help. It is up to you how you go and look. A question just struck me, can a person be a true Buddhist without having experienced the rapture?
The most important thing about the Buddhism is its focus, it has taught me to focus on what people can control and not to try to get into areas where humans can only speculate. This is the danger of rapture (piti) – trying to control it. Is rapture a goal? I do have to say that at times when I was writing I did try to experience both sides of the muse – the writing and the presence that accompanied it; but it was never presence alone. Never a goal.
Ajaan Buddhadasa's 4 systems do not seek rapture (see this talk):-
Link these systems with the teachings concerning khandas (aggregates). The body and psyche systems are primarily concerned with khandas. We have to have an appropriate relationship with the 5 khandas – not attaching to them. If we don't attach to them then effectively we have removed the "I and mine from the 5 khandas" (another Buddhadasa phrase), and there is an appropriate lack of ego (or self system) that enables us to relate to sunnata. I am not able to define this but this relationship with sunnata is what connects us to piti but the objective is not piti but sunnata. But we cannot experience sunnata we can experience piti, and we can only experience piti if we have established the conditions of the first three systems. And ironically those conditions are lack of conditioning. In the West that conditioning is oppressive and leads to rapturous experiences as discussed in 5 Gateways. I believe Hindus discuss such rapture as well (see Jim Carrey), but I don't know Hindu except what is in Buddhism but am not sure of the distinction.
But the conditioning discussed in Buddhism is the same but different – what an appalling sentence. In the West conditioning tends to be discussed as social conditioning – almost indoctrination. It is almost seen as the outer imposing on the inner, and these external factors are considered as education, parents, community, society etc. Whereas the conditioning discussed in Buddhism comes from how we experience the 5 khandas through dependent co-arising, much more of an inner focus.
I often talk of "moving beyond" conditioning but this is not something we control. What we control is removing conditioning, by removing conditioning we open ourselves up to being the emptiness system – open ourselves up to a relationship with sunnata. This phraseology is so dangerous. What is sunnata – emptiness? It is the emptiness that is full, what does that mean? We cannot explain it, yet there is an emptiness system and a meaningful relationship with that system but one that cannot be explained. I said once that during meditation I breathe in emptiness, what does that mean? But doing it helped. Relationship with emptiness or an emptiness system is so fraught with danger.
Is the approach to conditioning helpful in considering rapture? I expand on this without answering. Does western conditioning with its type of oppressive approach encourage rapture when breaking out of the conditioning?
In meditation I worked on a visualisation that might help. To use this visualisation we must first know the 5 khandas:- rupa(body), vedana (feeling), sanna (perceptions/memory), sankhara (mental formations/concocting or proliferations), vinnana (consciousness). Basically Buddhadasa's first three systems are concerned with understanding the khandas. He uses the word psyche as covering the 4 mental khandas of vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana, and it is my understanding that there is an aspect of mind that is more than these as can be seen by the visualisation.
The first 3 systems are basically covered by the Buddhadasa purpose of Buddhism:- "To remove the I and mine from the 5 Khandas". The visualisation is based on the seeking of harmony of the first three systems enabling the freed mind to relate to the emptiness system.
The body has to function. It requires healthy food – ideally organic plant-based, any necessary medicine – hopefully natural/herbal, and it requires exercise both physical and energetic, and if done harmoniously rupa is a happy system ready for sunnata. Lack of harmony can be caused by indulging in unhealthy food for taste's sake, partaking of drugs, and indulging in excessive exercise perhaps for reasons of "body beautiful" etc.
The 4 mental khandas are concerned with harmony of the mind, this perhaps is better understood as non-attachment. The easiest to explain in this way is sankhara. In this world the mind has certain functioning such as reasoning, the mind must apprehend theories in order to understand them (and reject them?). This is a sankhara function. But if we attach to theories, concoct theories, let the mind proliferate here there and everywhere, this is the ego attaching to sankhara and is evidenced in academia (Buddhist and otherwise). Why does academia not have a functioning approach to mind when all people have to do is look inside? Because of sankhara. There is a harmonious relationship with sankhara where the ego is not attached. Similarly there is a harmonious approach to the other three khandas whose functions are harmonious if the ego is not attached to them.
If there is harmony and non-attachment to the 5 khandas, then the body and psyche systems are ready. And of these systems are ready the self system is also likely to be in harmony. In Buddhism there is anatta – no self. There is no function of I and mine that is not covered by the 5 khandas. I grows out of the 5 khandas. If we attach to emotions, memories and theories saying this is who we are, we are attaching to the 5 khandas. Over time this attachment becomes our personalities – I. Letting go of attachment to I, to the 5 khandas, leaves the mind free. Letting go of conditioning leaves the mind free.
And here is where the visualisation comes in. With the 5 khandas in harmony, the body's food and exercise having been dealt with, the psyche functioning also being in harmony with no attachment to the khandas, no attachment to I, the mind (the rest of the mind that is not psyche) is free. Visualise the mind being free from the khandas, free from I, and that min can expand and soar. That mind can be open to breathing in sunnata, that mind can soar into Unity, that mind can feel unconditional love. It is this freed mind that experiences rapture once mind as a whole is free from conditioning, free from khandas, free from I.
I contend that it is this mind freed from conditioning that experienced during the 5 Gateways, and it is the soul that "ascended". Mind free from conditioning can experience.
Books:- Treatise, Wai Zandtao Scifi, Matriellez Education.
Blogs:- Ginsukapaapdee, Matriellez.
Framework?Posted: 05/08/2017 by zandtao in Buddhadasa, ONE planet
Tags: 5 gateways, Ascension
It was difficult for me to write about 5 Gateways, I don't want to discourage people who are interested in 5 Gateways from going to them. But I don't like frameworks.
For many of you (many on my blog?), looking at Buddhism you have got to see a huge proliferation of frameworks – it's not worth listing them there are so many. And there are as many Buddhist traditions as there are Gateways. But it is my view that the Kalama sutta says that we should not hold to theoretical systems unless we have experienced them. Yesterday I mentioned Ajaan Buddhadasa. In a talk given by Santikaro (recognised as being a westerner close to Tan Ajaan), he described 4 samatthas (right systems) that Ajaan Buddhadasa focused on on his last mindful birthday:-
Body system
I actually like this, if I think about these I feel it helps my understanding. But if you don't that's fine, that is the Kalama point to me.
And that's my point about the 5 Gateways. If the 5 Gateways or initiations :-
if these Gateways work for you then use them. But trying to squeeze into them is the danger I am concerned about. What is valid is your experience, whatever happened to you that is what is valid, that is your strength.
But having said that, even that is not true. There are people who are stuck because they had such an experience and have never moved on. They try to recreate the experience because it was so meaningful, so powerful. I tend to think of these experiences as nature's rewards for your progress on the Path, if you are following the Path then these rewards, wonderful experiences, happen. But if you become hooked on the experience and become an experience-junkie there is no satisfaction or peace – and no progress on the Path.
However it is worth considering the following:-
I relate to the movie because the repressive conditioning I grew up with blew up into an awakening after hitting bottom. When I examine Buddhism I do not find discussion of oppressive conditioning, and a resulting awakening. Yes Buddhism talks of all the things including awakening but it seems as a gradual transition, awakening is maybe more "integrated" into eastern upbringing. It is hard to work out because of the institutional nature of much of Buddhism in the east and it is hard to judge an upbringing that is not your own. But there is a western thing when awakening happens or even before – "Go east". And it is there in the east in Buddhism (and elsewhere) if not in the institutions – by the vary nature of institutions. Even though I ask questions about frameworks, Ascension has elements of western experience not found in Buddhism. Interesting.
Below is how the Buddha described these experiences as jhanas, complicated? I have seen within forums people forlornly asking "did I experience a jhana?" I see people trying to squeeze into this jhana framework. I also see the experience of rapture being played down in Buddhism – non-attachment. Whilst I understand this I also understand the desire to celebrate the experience. This is a dilemma, attach to the experience or play it down as if detached. These are the negatives of the dilemma, there is a need for genuine equanimity – upekkha.
I don't know whether the people in the movie are attached or not, that is for them to decide. My strategy in recommending the movie is to encourage people to celebrate their experiences (and to cover myself I should say in a detached way). I have no doubts at all that I have overly-detached, and allowed time to forget the rapture. When I was younger (30s and 40s) such rapture was sporadic. Then I meditated daily and the highs of such rapture disappeared. But overall I felt better, no rollercoaster just peace – mostly.
Am I being clear about fitting the framework? Let me try by example.
Clip 20.36 – 23.32. Here Chris and Lesley describe experiences that have happened to them, these experiences don't just happen to them they happen to many. But at the end Chris says it is his "Gateway 1 experience", he fitted it into his Ascension framework. For me the descriptions of the experiences could equally have been described as rapture or jhanas. Or they could have just been described – that is why I recommend the film – for the description.
When I hit bottom there was a mega-awakening from all the conditioning that had turned me into an arrogant academic focused on the system. I went back to London, took a job for money, realigned myself into a focus towards the Path, this realignment pushed me to child care and teaching, I had lost my ego and become this new compassionate person. This was the drastic one, the one that was obviously fitting into these Ascension categories. But as life went on there were further changes that could be described in this 5-stage process, and will be continued to be described in this way; this repetition was alluded to in the movie. The Buddha describes this as letting go of the ego leading to anatta, that is the emptiness that Ajaan Buddhadasa encourages. It is the experience not the framework, we don't have to fit into a theory UNLESS that theory is where you are at. If theory and practice are together – great.
It could just be that I have not reached the stages as described in the movie, I can't be definitive about that – nor would I want to be. For me it matters not, but if you feel pressured to adhere to the framework it matters, that concerns me. For me measuring up to the framework doesn't matter. If you relate to the experiences in the movie but don't measure up to the framework, does that matter? That is for you to answer.
Because they believe in the Ascension framework they will measure themselves against it, that is their choice. Because you have these experiences you don't have to measure yourself by the same framework. BUT if it helps you do it.
There is other stuff out there but not so many good movies. Enjoy, learn and feel reinforced.
jhána: 'absorption' (meditation) refers chiefly to the four meditative absorptions of the fine-material sphere (rúpa-jjhána or rúpávacara-jjhána; s. avacara). They are achieved through the attainment of full (or attainment -, or ecstatic) concentration (appaná, s. samádhi), during which there is a complete, though temporary, suspension of fivefold sense-activity and of the 5 hindrances (s. nívarana). The state of consciousness, however, is one of full alertness and lucidity. This high degree of concentration is generally developed by the practice of one of the 40 subjects of tranquillity meditation (samatha-kammatthána; s. bhávaná). Often also the 4 immaterial spheres (arúpáyatana) are called absorptions of the immaterial sphere (arúpa-jjhána or arúpávacara-jjhána). The stereotype text, often met with in the Suttas, runs as follows:
Books:- Treatise, Wai Zandtao Scifi, Matriellez Education.
Blogs:- Ginsukapaapdee, Matriellez.
Shared Experience – Wise Ascension??Posted: 05/08/2017 by zandtao in Buddhadasa, Insight, ONE planet
Tags: 5 gateways, Ascension, bottom, Experiences
5 Gateways is a wonderful movie from these people. If you want a movie that talks about finding the Path this is it. Most importantly when you first find the Path you need to find people who have shared experience. For me after hitting bottom it was the people at the Arts Centre – to whom I will always be grateful and to whom I am so sad we have lost touch only 42 years ago!!
Why is this movie so important? If you start on the Path, hitting bottom or otherwise, you need shared experience. This world will negate everything you are going through. Finding the greatest thing you could possibly find will be negated by family, friends and establishment authority because they have not experienced it. If you watch this movie then you can feel what these people feel, and your experience is reinforced. That is wonderful.
Now to the downside. These people have explained their shared experience through Ascension. Do you know if Ascension is true? For the makers of this movie Ascension is true. If you watch this movie after hitting bottom – in that or any other vulnerable position – you might well be attracted to their Ascension framework. I don't know whether Ascension is true, and if I don't know something is true I don't go there. This movie has tremendous shared experience that helps in the alone situation people on the Path can find themselves, this movie can alleviate at such times but it is a danger at a time of vulnerability.
I am not saying Ascension is not true, I am saying I don't know whether it is true. I have chosen a different Path – Buddhism. In Buddhism there is a lot of dogma, and over the years I have whittled down the dogma so that I have a Buddhism I am comfortable with – but many might not see it as Buddhism. BZBuddhism requires very little dogma – little more than the 4NT with a bit of help from Ajaan Buddhadasa. But even then to understand Ajaan Buddhadasa requires going beyond a great deal of dogma because he was such a dedicated scholar; dogma that in my view he eschewed. And studying Ajaan Buddhadasa would not ratify the tremendousness of experience that is shared in 5 Gateways, however the framework that Ajaan Buddhadasa gives you does not require any faith. It does require you to be discerning, questioning and intelligent but it does not require any leaps of faith. 5 Gateways requires a leap of faith to begin with (unless you know for yourself you have already gone through the 5 Gateways). I am not in favour of anyone taking a leap of faith.
I have an anecdote which gives me cause for concern. I met a drunk in Africa who had been involved with Ascension – not with these people. He spent a few years with them and did not ascend. He felt a failure and turned to drink. Accepting himself for who he was at whatever stage on the Path that he was might have kept him interested in the Path and kept him off the booze.
In the movie the shared experience is ratifying and well worth hearing. But all the people measure themselves in terms of the 5 Gateways, I have reached such and such a stage. This is understandable as the movie is made by people following this approach, but is it advisable for all people starting on the Path to measure themselves in this way?
For years after hitting bottom I studied spirituality in one form or another, sadly I wasted some time in the bottle. There is a variety of spiritual experience out there, but some of it is charlatan, some of it deluded and some of it exaggerated. Path experiences or jhanas are so powerful they can become all-embracing and all-consuming; they can also be a fixation. When you are vulnerable and starting out which of these attributes do you want? What do you want to know?
Firstly you need to know that your experience is real. You do not want to listen to people who dismiss your experience as trendy hippy or doped up or whatever, your experience is valid do not let people dismiss it. But such experience (or jhana) is not an end in itself, it is part of the Path. And what is the Path? And we are back to doubt again. The Path is real, or it can be real depending on who is talking about it. Out there there are charlatans who will tell you they have found the Path to enlightenment, but have they? You can only take their word for it – or not! Ascension is a Path to Enlightenment – or not, you can only take their word for it.
When I listen to what they say in the movie, they are people who have experienced, their experience is valid, they have done a great thing in sharing that experience in the movie, and that sharing of experience has to be validating for the vulnerable who have just started on the Path. But is their framework correct? Is there a leap of faith involved?
Does Buddhism require leaps of faith? To begin with, most definitely. Have most Buddhists made a leap of faith? Most definitely. Does the Buddha ask you to make a leap of faith? In my view the Kalama sutta suggests that you do not take a leap of faith. If you walk into a wat or Buddhist monastery will the monks have taken a leap of faith, and the answer most definitely is yes. Should you take a leap of faith? My answer is no.
The essence of all of this is understanding. To gain understanding you have to study dogma until that dogma falls away and you have understanding or wisdom. So as part of the learning process I have believed in Buddhism. By believing in it I was able to come to an understanding of those parts of Buddhism that I initially believed in. I now eschew the dogma and hopefully have wisdom. Can new people on the Path do this? I couldn't when younger. Can young people believe in Ascension, let the dogma fall away and be left only with wisdom? That does not appear to be the teaching methodology but maybe so? Can young people go to Buddhism, let the dogma fall away and be left with wisdom? Definitely not within most of the Buddhist institutions I know of.
Buddhism has an advantage over the 5 Gateways Ascension. Buddhism is big and does not necessarily require commitment. I have been on retreats but I have not committed myself to cloisters. Maybe remaining on the periphery of 5 Gateways would allow their dogma to drop away? Immersing in their programme I would suggest might create problems of faith.
But I go back to my original point in this post, their movie is validating. For people new to the Path watching their movie without embracing their dogma would be extremely worthwhile. Maybe even getting involved with them would be worthwhile – I do not know, but the getting of wisdom anywhere means eventually eschewing dogma. There are Buddhists with dogma, eschew that dogma and get wisdom, there are followers of Ascension with dogma, eschew that dogma and get wisdom, there are followers of Eckhart Tolle (whom I at one time considered wise – he has done so much with Oprah I don't know where he is at now), eschew his dogma and get wise. Wisdom is gained by eschewing dogma.
Why did I choose Buddhism? Ego. Buddhism has centuries of tradition in which there have been Buddhists who have questioned. Whilst Buddhism has its dogma, whilst Buddhism has a proliferation of intellectuals and concocters, it has its tradition. Wise people over the years have gained wisdom and contributed to Buddhism. What about the people ascending? Where is their tradition? They have to rely on themselves. And what happens? They come under threat from the society they are rejecting, and this can build up an ego that defends. How would this ego respond? Possibly by becoming more dogmatic, defending the dogma of their beliefs; is this wise? Immersion with Ascension risks such dogma, and possibly risks eschewing wisdom. At the beginning of the Path when people are vulnerable this is a danger.
To avoid this I have never recommended 5 Gateways until now, but the shared experience is so valuable so reinforcing, so invigorating, so IMPORTANT I want to recommend it with the above proviso.
Books:- Treatise, Wai Zandtao Scifi, Matriellez Education.
Blogs:- Ginsukapaapdee, Matriellez.


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Sunday, July 28, 2013
ReThinking the City: Main Streets and Town Halls
ReThinking the City is a monthly symposium on new ideas and updates in urban ism held at Urban ReThink ( 625 E. Central Ave, Orlando, Florida). The June 25th meeting featured a remote presentation by Hesse McGraw, curator of the innovative Carver Bank Town Hall Project in Omaha Nebraska, which seeks to create a space for public participation and creativity. Also presenting was Pauline Eaton, curator of Orlando's Main Street USA program, on how the program is developing and helping local communities. Eliza Harris tried to get the Skype hook up working but there were several tech issues that kept us from connecting to Omaha.
Pauline Eaton stepped in and told us about the Main street USA program while folks struggled with the computer. Founded in 1980, there are now 2000 Main Street programs nation wide. There are about 5 different neighborhoods that are a part of the Main Street USA Program, like, Ivanhoe Village, Mills 50 District etc. The Milk District is spearheading its own neighborhood initiatives, learning from the developments in other neighborhoods. The point of the program is to improve the urban feel of the neighborhoods. It can be as simple as adding a bike rack to painting utility boxes pretty colors. The "BAT Team" is the mayor's better assistance team. The dream of pie in the sky ideal initiatives and then settle for what can be done with the present politics. Pauline joked that the "R&D" department, (Rip off and Duplicate) will take ideas that work in other cities and hope to duplicate them in Orlando. Orlando is a urban area designed for keeping automobiles moving quickly. The primary concerns are usually automotive sight lines. There was some lamenting that sometimes the only way to make improvements is to wait for incumbent politicians to die or leave office. Scottie Campbell who works for Ivanhoe Village was surprised to find that there are Main Street groupies who admire the work that is done. He felt like a rock star for the night.
The computer link to Omaha started working and Hesse McGraw showed us a slide show of the renovation to the first African American Bank in Omaha. Volunteer labor was leveraged to bring the building back as an active creative community hub. Old high school gym flooring was used to cover all the floorboards.. Slate from chalk boards was also used throughout the 100,000 square foot space. The building now offers residencies for artists. There are 15,000 applicants a year for 35 spots. The residency challenges artists to think of how their work effects and engages the community. Lamont Hamilton took 75 photo portraits of living artists he considers iconic. There is a sandwich shop inside and a mix of gallery and office space. I couldn't help but think of how similar the place sounds to the Urban ReThink ideal. Eliza spoke to me about her hope that someday local artist's work would welcome people arriving to Orlando in the airport. It would be awesome to get work in front of so many new fresh eyes. Now the work starts researching how to make that vision a reality.
Prints are available for each sketch for $250 and many originals can be purchased for $400. White museum grade shadow box frames are $100 more. You can e-mail Thor at firstname.lastname@example.com
Posted by Thor at 12:00 AM
Labels: BAT Team, Carver Bank Town Hall Project, Eliza Harris, Hesse McGraw, Ivanhoe Village, Lamont Hamilton, Mills 50 District, Orlando's Main Street USA Program, Pauline Eaton, ReThinking the City, Urban ReThink
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Getting Settled
Moving to Montpellier can be stressful. Uprooting your life is hard at the best of times. Throw in a border-crossing, another language, and the dreaded French bureaucracy and the problems multiply. Fortunately we've been there, done that, and got the official documents to prove it. Eventually.
By following the simple advice detailed in the posts below you can smoothly navigate the bureaucratic minefield and fast-track your route to being settled in Montpellier. That way you can spend more time doing what you came here for – to live in Montpellier.


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|Title in Japanese
|Massugu Baka-Shojiki ni Yaritsuzukeru
|Kenichi Toyosaki
|Total pages
|18.8 x 13.2 x 2 cm
|DIAMOND, Inc. (Jul 1, 2014)
Sushiro's obsessive attitude of customers over everything was what made an ordinary sushi restaurant into a 120 billion yen top industry company. With their motto as "satisfying customers with delicious sushi", Sushiro has sought to deliver the best sushi for the price of a hundred yen. The company made continuous efforts, even sacrificing net profit at times. This book uncovers the "philosophy" of Sushiro as told by the ex-sushi chef CEO.
The story dates back to 30 years ago- when the author initially started working in a sushi restaurant called "Tai-sushi" in Abeno, Osaka. Not long after, his boss Mr. Yoshio Shimizu(Sushiro founder) decided on entering the kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi) market. At that time conveyor-belt sushi bars had a reputation for being cheap but second-rate quality, and Sushiro aimed to go against this stereotype and produce sushi that was affordable and delicious. This resulted in Sushiro's "cost rate of 50%". It is common knowledge for chain restaurants to keep their cost rate in the thirties, as without this it is difficult to obtain profit. Sushiro put all of their efforts into providing fresh seafood, even compromising profit on the way. Excluding personnel costs, they shaved off unnecessary expenses, 1mm at a time. As a result of this arduous process, a business model that could maintain itself on 50% cost rate was born. This book has extracted "38 points of philosophy" from Sushiro's history of 30 years, and captured the spirit of how a small restaurant had evolved into a top industry company.
This book introduces Sushiro's past history, its mottos and company spirit, and how exactly it was able to rise to the in the competitive kaiten-zushi market. It is truly astounding to see the art of sushi making, a traditional Japanese craft, be put into an economic viewpoint. The ambitions from the original founder of Sushiro were relayed to current CEO Kenichi Toyosaki, who raised the company to what we see today. Craftsmen are especially recommended to read this book. One reader comments that while there are many books in the world with advice on how to gain profit and become successful, this one is truly one-of-a-kind. It wasn't written by authors, consultants and others who need the book to sell out. It is a book filled with precious knowhow on how to create a top sushi chain restaurant from scratch.
Kenichi Toyosaki is the CEO of AKINDO SUSHIRO CO., LTD. Born 1965 in Tokushima prefecture. Upon graduating high school, enrolls in TSUJI culinary institute. Starts working in "Tai-sushi", a sushi restaurant in Abeno, Osaka after graduating from the institute. Immediately after in 1984, founder Yoshio Shimizu enters the kaiten-zushi (conveyor belt sushi) market. Kenichi Toyosaki is appointed as CEO in 2009. He increases sales from 50 billion yen (2007) to approximately 120 billion yen (2013), to have Sushiro reign as the top company in the sushi industry.


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IRAN has been "the world's central banker for terrorism since 1979", Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton has said during a fiery press conference today.
Breaking End Time News – Iran is WORLD BANK for terrorists!' US security chief PILES PRESSURE on Tehran
He also indicated the US would be highly reluctant to offer any waivers to countries seeking to buy oil from the Islamic Republic.
And the hawkish appointee of current US President Donald Trump also took a swipe at the administration of his boss's predecessor with a clear implication that Barack Obama had been soft of terror.
Mr Bolton has kept up a steady stream of rhetoric in the direction of Tehran in recent days, yesterday describing it as a "rogue regime" as the US officially terminated the bilateral Treaty of Amity signed with Iran in 1955.
Prior to this, he called for an investigation into Israeli claims of a "secret atomic warehouse" within the Islamic republic, and warned President Hassan Rouhani there would be "hell to pay" if they harmed the US or its citizens.
Tensions ratcheted up still further after Donald Trump's election as President in 2016, especially after his decision to pull the US out of the JPCOA accord with the aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, an agreement Mr Trump claimed Iran was in breach of.
Mr Bolton was a strong advocate of withdrawing from the deal.
Ever since then, Washington and Tehran have regularly lambasted each other, with Mr Trump warning Mr Rouhani of "consequences the likes of which few have ever suffered" if he ever threatening the US.
This was an apparent reference to a speech days earlier in which Mr Rouhani said a war between the two nations would be "the mother of all conflicts".
For his part, Mr Rouhani has been angered not just by the US's decision to pulling out of the JPCOA agreement, which will result in tough economic sanctions against Iran, but also comments by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo which were widely interpreted as seeking to encourage anti-Government demonstrations within his country.


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After my morning chat with J on Skype, THE INTERNET WENT OUT.
What's a girl to do?
I was about to do some online bill paying.
I was in the middle of sending a sketch to a client for some work I am doing and the damn internet went out.
I tried calling her because the email wasn't going to go through right then.
So I touched base with her via cell phone.
And then I thought, well, damn, I'll just see if there's anything good on daytime T.V.
Our provider, (I have a bundled package, obviously) I am sure, had some upset customers. The outage was widespread in about 5 towns.
For 6 hours.
Anyway, with nothing to do (and no, I wasn't really going to sit and watch TV), I opened up the big huge trunk of photos and started a project that is tedious, but must be done. Millions of photos. Half of them are organized. Other half isn't. I went through a mess of photos and sorted them by "child". Red got a box. Blue got a box. The photos of the two of them together, gets it's own box.
What to do with their dad?
Well, it was easy, if he was in a picture with them, I saved it and put it in their boxes.
If I was in the picture with him, well, I have the wedding album that I will save for the girls. So I dumped the other "me and him" photos.
If it was "me and him and the girls" photos, I saved them in another envelope and hid it underneath everything for when they are adults.
Or for when I am dead.
It was a hard decision, because really, for me, I wanted to toss him in the trash. But I know he doesn't belong there because he's their dad. He's a good dad. He was a sucky husband. And he is a fairly sucky ex-husband, but I know that in relation to most divorced folks, I have it pretty good.
Keeping the photos for the girls is important. I put them somewhere where they won't be dug up any time soon by one of them, but one day they will have them.
I DID, eliminate photos of ex boyfriends. I always kept one of each of the guys who hurt me physically. I did it in case one of them ever came back and hurt me again or killed me for that matter. But now, I decided to pitch them. They are gone forever.
The next task is to finish looking for them all on Facebook and blocking them.
I'm tired now from just thinking about the bill paying and other things I can do here on the laptop, even if it isn't related to internet access, now that I have it.
I got online, thinking I missed a bunch of news in the world and I went to Google News.
I discovered that the porn industry is looking for a bailout.
I clicked on a link from an email a friend sent me and GOT TO THIS.
After I dehydrated myself so much from bawling, I decided to go eat a barrel of hummus with Ritz Crackers, some gummy fruit snacks and fizzy water. I topped it off with Halloween Candy I stole from my kids' treat bags. I didn't have the heart to steal their Christmas candy because it's so new and all. But those Smarties really keep well. Then I cleaned out last year's Valentine's Day, Easter, and the Halloween candy. (I didn't eat it, I threw it all away, except the Smarties. THOSE I ate.)
So I am going to do something old fashioned and fill up the bath (get in it) and read a book.
And then I will go to bed before midnight for once.


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By Rob Smith: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is saying that unbeaten heavyweight prospect Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO's) is being slated to get back in the ring on December 15th in a fight that would wind up being televised on Showtime. There still isn't an opponent picked out for Wilder for that date, but unbeaten Bryant Jennings (15-0, 7 KO's) is a slight possibility for that fight.
Jennings, Wilder and Main Events have been battling back and forth on twitter since last night with an offer being made from Main Events, Jennings' promoter, to Wilder's promoter at Golden Boy. The offer made for the fight was $20,000, and Schaefer doesn't look as if he's going to accept that.
Wilder's trainer Jay Deas said to RingTV "There's room for negotiation, and that's something we'll explore but there would have to be a lot of negotiation."
A fight between Wilder and Jennings is a win-win fight for both guys. The winner of this fight could find himself ranked in the top 15 and would get his name on the boxing map. The loser could at least learn something from the fight and that could potentially help him.
If Jennings doesn't get the fight then Golden Boy is going to have to find a reasonable opponent for Wilder to take on if the fight really does wind up on Showtime. Wilder, 26, needs to start fighting better opposition because he's being matched up with consistently shorter heavyweights who look badly out of shape in many cases. It would be a dangerous fight for Wilder if Golden Boy were to agree to Main Event's offer for the Jennings-Wilder fight, not because Jennings is the greatest heavyweight since sliced bread but rather because of how incredibly poor Wilder's opposition has been during his four-year pro career.
Wilder seems to be on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. path of development with Wilder facing weak opponents over and over again while building up an inflated resume. The weak opposition has paid off in some ways for Wilder, because he does look a lot better than he was four years ago, and he's learned how to use his left hand to where he throw it with respectable power. However, Wilder's defense still looks bad at this point and it's really not all that surprising because he's been knocking everyone out in the 1st and 2nd rounds. He's not been given the chance to improve his defense because none of the weak opposition he's faced has been able to take him deep to test his chin.


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