text:
Gas prices slowly coming back down
I just paid less than $2.50 at the gas pump today, for the first time since Katrina hit.
Gas prices have been inching down recently, but today felt like a milestone of sorts.
Dating – is it right for Christians?
Some of my best blog posts seem to start as comments on someone else's blog. This one was a comment I posted over at The Happy Husband, in his post titled Courtship is now in session. Here's what I said:
Josh Harris certainly started a whirlwind of discussion with his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, didn't he? I think
you're [The Happy Husband is] perfectly right that much of the heated argument is coming from mutual confusion over definitions, especially about the word dating.
I think to Harris, and many other people, dating means "what the secular world calls dating"; in other words, a euphemism for shallow relationships built around premarital sex. No wonder they're against it — we all should be! It's not surprising, then, that they swing around to the other extreme and say, "Christians just plain shouldn't date; they should find other methods of courting potential spouses".
There's also the fact that when people write books on dating, the first audience they think of to address (it seems to me) is high school and junior high students, who are either just going through puberty or only a few short years past it, and still in the middle of an onslaught of hormones. They're noticing for the first time in their lives that the opposite sex looks really, REALLY good, and trying to figure out what to do about it. But most of them are years away from having the emotional, spiritual, or social maturity for marriage. For that audience, a book that says, "Don't date, there are better ways of relating to the opposite sex" may be very good advice.
But I think there's another segment of the Christian population middle ground that these authors are missing: adult Christians. People with the social, emotional, and spiritual maturity necessary to make a good marriage work. And that, I think, is the group of people who are probably saying to Harris and other "Christians shouldn't date" proponents, "What are you talking about? You're just plain wrong." And again, it probably boils down to different definitions.
When I think of dating, I think of spending some time alone with a Christian woman I'm interested in getting to know better. We'd go out to dinner, or on a walk, or ice-skating, or some other activity that allows for plenty of time to talk. And we'd ask questions, find out about each other's families, each other's relationship with God, and each other's interests, dreams, and passions. All the while, the question would be at the back of my mind, "Could she make a good wife for me?" And she'd be thinking the same thing: "Could he make a good husband for me?" If the first date was enough for a clear "No" for either one of us, the right thing to do would be to share that, politely of course, at the end of the date. "Thanks for a fun evening. I probably won't ask you out again, but I'll see you around at church." Or, when I drop her off and say, "Let's get together again sometime," she might say, "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll pass. I appreciate the compliment, but I just don't think it would work."
(Incidentally, it's a lot kinder to let someone down, gently but firmly, sooner rather than later. If you're wanting to avoid hurting their feelings, consider this: they'll be hurt, at least a little, no matter when you tell them, "Thanks, but no thanks" — but if you tell them as soon as you're sure, you're sparing them the pain of having the "What if…?" drag on, and on, and on.)
Christian dating, as I see it, should be all about evaluating the other person as a potential marriage partner. It should only be undertaken by those who are themselves ready for marriage, and it should be undertaken with the greatest of respect for the other person as a fellow child of God. That means, among other things, back off on the physical. Don't kiss on the first date, or even on the second. Only kiss when you mean something by it, when there's already some level of emotional commitment and you both know you're getting serious about each other. Exactly what level of commitment is something you'll have to decide for yourself, but you should at least have known each other for a while and know what you're getting into. For myself, I've decided that I only want to kiss a woman after I've asked her to marry me. I'm not saying that everyone should follow that rule, but you should at least know that you plan to date only this woman for a while. In other words, you should be "going steady" before you kiss. (Now there's a useful phrase that should be brought back into the language!)
I've come to this opinion gradually, though reading books like I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot, Boundaries in Dating by Cloud & Townsend, and A Return to Modesty by Wendy Shalit. I've also had long conversations with other Christian guys, some married and some not, about their dating relationships, mistakes they'd made in the past, and pain they'd suffered. One thing I was surprised to learn is just how much of an emotional bond is established just by kissing. But when I thought about it, I realized that I shouldn't have been so surprised. The process of becoming one flesh isn't just about sex and physical intimacy, it's also about emotional, mental, and spiritual intimacy. They're all connected. One married friend of mine (male) put it this way: "Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual intimacy in a relationship are like four sliders tied together with a rubber band. If one of them gets too far ahead of the others, the rubber band is stretched. And if it's stretched too far, it's in danger of breaking. The thing is, the other sliders have to be pushed, but the physical-intimacy one has a motor driving it forward."
There are many ways of dealing with that motor that tries to drive physical intimacy forward. Some of them involve putting very careful limits — chaperones and the like — on opportunities for any physical involvement at all. Others involve setting limits for yourself, and then getting good friends to check up on you every once in a while: "How are you doing with your boundaries?" Ultimately, though, the goal is that once you get married, you know your soon-to-be-spouse well enough on all levels — mental, emotional, spiritual, and yes, physical too. The physical should be held back some, but I think it would be a mistake to hold it back all the way down to "No physical intimacy whatsoever," the way I've seen some people suggest. Shalit, in A Return to Modesty, mentions people who don't even kiss until their wedding day — the kiss at the altar is their first kiss. Shalit makes that sound like an ideal to live up to, but another married friend of mine (actually, the wife of the person I mentioned in the previous paragraph) said, "That sounds like a supremely bad idea to me. Unless you want to wait a few weeks before you have sex, that is." Expanding on her husband's analogy of the sliders and rubber band, she explained that holding the physical back so much is going to put a lot of tension on your relationship, and pushing it forward all the way from "no kissing" to "sex is OK" in one day is also far too much change at once, and would put its own kind of stress on the relationship.
So that's what I think of courtship and dating. Basically, understand that physical intimacy will pretty much drive itself forward, and concentrate on pushing the other three — mental, emotional, and spiritual intimacy — forward in your time together. And figure out how you're going to hold physical intimacy back to a proper pace: slow, but not completely stalled. Talk about your physical boundaries with each other, agree to respect each other and hold each other accountable for them, and then (because you're both going to be strongly tempted at much the same time, so just holding each other accountable won't always work) find a few good friends who can help. And then spend lots of time together, and talk a lot. And the last thing, which I haven't mentioned yet although I really should have said so from the beginning, bathe the whole process in lots of prayer. If you do that, you probably won't go too far wrong.
Desires of the heart
My friend Andrew writes about the desire to be great — to leave one's mark on the world, so that one will be remembered, that one's name will not be forgotten. I know exactly what he's talking about, although for me it's slightly different.
When I was in high school, I was on my school's Science Bowl team. One evening, as we were driving back from the regional competition, my teammates were joking around about what each of us would be famous for later in life: Lars would discover a new element, Eric would find a cure for cancer, and so on. Then someone mentioned me, and said something I've never forgotten: "Robin? Robin won't be famous." (pause). "But everybody will know him."
It says something profound about me that that statement made such a mark on my memory. It articulated so well one of my fundamental desires: to be known. Not to be famous — there's a difference. Famous people get tabloid articles written about them everytime they so much as sneeze. I'll pass on that one, thanks. But what my Science Bowl teammate said about me sounded like the best of both worlds — if that were true, then I'd avoid all the downsides of being famous, while still getting what I consider to be the only real advantage: to be known. To be recognized. Not to be a nameless face in the crowd. To have others greet you by name and be glad to see you when you visit them, when you go to church, when you meet them by chance in the grocery store.
That desire interacts in some very interesting ways with the other great desire of my heart, to serve. To serve God, and to serve His servants. That's why I'm heading off to Africa — to put my computer skills to good use in His service, by making my skills available to the other missionaries there. But as I mentioned, one of the things I love to receive is recognition from others. And I certainly get that when I help fix someone's computer — they remember me years later. I've been out of college for over four years now, yet I keep on running into people who remember me rescuing their term paper off a dying floppy disk or some such thing. And I have to admit that it gives me a bit of pleasure to find out that I've been remembered for being helpful. As far as ego-boosts go, that's a pretty healthy one, but nevertheless, am I helping people just so that they'll remember me? Is that the reward I'm working for? Jesus had a few things to say about that sort of thing, after all.
Fortunately, I don't think I'm really doing all this just for the praise of others. When I take the time to examine my motives, I find that I really am just wanting to help. It's nice that people remember me kindly for helping them, but I'd still help them even if they wouldn't remember me at all. That's a relief.
But there's something else, something to which I fall victim much more often. And again, my friend Andrew has it nailed. (Thanks, Andrew!) In the second half of his post, he goes on to talk about how the desire to be great can twist even our desire to serve God into something perverted, a kind of "servanthood contest" where one is trying, not to serve God to the best of one's ability, but to somehow be a "better" servant than everyone else. Once you actually look at that desire, of course it's ridiculous. But it got me thinking — the other great desire of my heart, as I mentioned, is service. And I'm heading off — to Africa, no less! — as a missionary. It would be far too easy to get sucked into the "more spiritual than thou" game. Have I ever been tempted to play it?
And suddenly as I phrased the question, I had my answer. Yes, from time to time, I certainly have been. I get tempted to look down on those whose calling is not to the mission field, but to a "comfortable" life in the United States — forgetting, of course, that God has called them to service, too. In fact, some of those very same people, that I'm tempted to look down on, are people whose shoelaces I'm not even worthy to tie. True prayer warriors, whose daily prayers for hundreds and hundreds of missionaries are only known to God — for now. In heaven, though, we'll find out. We'll see a saint, covered in the glory so bright it almost hurts our eyes — and when we peer into their face, we'll recognize that small, unassuming elderly woman who always showed up at the prayer meetings, or the man we only knew as the church janitor. And then we'll hear about the thousands upon thousands of lives their prayers touched, and we'll be amazed.
No, there's nothing inherently special or spiritual about being a missionary. It's just another way to serve God.
Pork futures look strong in the Senate
Well, the Coburn amendment (to kill a $220 million pork project in Alaska and redirect the money towards hurricane relief in Louisiana) failed by an 82-15 vote (3 not voting). The good guys:
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Burr (R-NC), Yea
Coburn (R-OK), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
DeMint (R-SC), Yea
DeWine (R-OH), Yea
Feingold (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Yea
Sununu (R-NH), Yea
Vitter (R-LA), Yea
11 R's, 4 D's.
Landrieu and Vitter are from Louisiana, so it's no surprise they voted for it. Their vote can't be taken one way or the other as to whether they'd be in favor of getting rid of pork or not. So there are only 13 Senators, ten Republicans and 3 Democrats, who can be really counted on to fight against pork-barrel projects in Congress.
Discouraging, but it just means that if you care about pork, you'd better contact your Senators and let them know your disapproval. Tell them, "Unless something drastically changes in the next year or so, you just lost my vote." Especially if your Senator is one of those running for re-election in 2006 — they'll be especially attentive to what you say.
Do your part to restore some measure of spending sanity to Congress: contact your Senators today!
Politics test – my results
| You are a
Social Moderate
(43% permissive)
and an…
Economic Conservative
(70% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
The best movie I never want to see again
I just saw Serenity, the movie based on Joss Whedon's TV show Firefly. Nearly everyone who's seen it so far has loved it. My reaction was more complex. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I'd have to say something like "that was the best movie that I never want to see again."
I think it was the excellent writing and the familiar characters that did it. This was the first movie where I didn't have that subtle disconnect, the sense that I was watching a movie. Instead, I was caught up in the reality of it — it really felt like I was watching real people deal with a real situation.
And normally, that would be a really good thing in a movie. A REALLY good thing. But… that meant my sense of reality was also engaged at other moments during the movie. Like the scene that's still haunting me, two hours after the movie's over. No spoilers here, but if you've seen the movie, you'll know which scene I'm talking about. It's the one where they're on a planet, and they find a holographic recording of a woman describing something that happened on that planet. I really, really needed my normal "I'm watching a movie, this isn't real" detachment for that scene. Especially the end of it. And because the writing was so good, the scene just slipped underneath my normal emotional "armor".
It's three in the morning right now. Two and a half hours after I walked out of the movie theater. And I'm still desperately looking for distractions, trying to forget what I heard in that one scene. I don't intend to go to bed anytime soon.
It's been a very long time since a movie did that to me. On the one hand, that's some really good writing. On the other hand, I never ever want to see this movie again, and I almost wish I hadn't seen it in the first place. Not that it was bad — as I said, it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. If it hadn't been such a good movie, it wouldn't have left me this profoundly disturbed.
Make of that what you will.
How to stay poor
My previous post on the subject of poverty referenced John Scalzi's article "Being Poor". Scalzi gives a very moving account of what poverty feels like, from the inside.
Now, here's an article that pretty much shows why some people stay poor.
One thing I noticed about Scalzi's article, and especially the comments, is that it was written by someone who used to be poor. But because he, and many of his commenters, didn't fall into any of the self-destructive traps Ms. Phelps mentions in her article, he didn't stay poor.
There are those who are poor because of circumstances beyond their control (for example, one of the commenters to Scalzi's article had to have cancer surgery while unemployed and insurance-less. That will pretty much wipe out anyone's resources.) But there are also those who are poor because they've never been taught how not to be poor, and they're trapped by the consequences of their bad decisions. The former just need a bit of extra help: a raise, a job schedule centered around the public transportation timetable, discounts on necessities like food and clothing. The latter, as Ms. Phelps' article demonstrates, would actually be harmed rather than helped by that kind of assistance. What they need, essentially, is an authority figure who will — lovingly but firmly — tell them, "If you don't change X, Y and Z in your life, you'll never escape poverty." And then — this is important — sticks with them. Otherwise it becomes the kind of condescension that the Bible condemns in James 2:16, mere words without action, utterly useless.
Anyone who reads Scalzi's article and doesn't feel compassion for the poor, and a desire to help them, has no heart. But it's important to understand the individual you're helping, and know exactly what kind of help they need. If the brain does not work alongside the heart, your well-intentioned assistance may end up actually harming the person you're trying to help. Brain and heart working together, though, are a powerful combination.
The logistics of Katrina relief
I haven't posted anything about Hurricane Katrina yet because I haven't had anything to say that hasn't been said elsewhere, and usually better. But I wanted to point out this rant on Hurricane Katrina by a guy who's been in the military and knows logistics. Relief efforts take equipment — lots of equipment. And to move heavy equipment you need vehicles and people, and fuel for both the vehicles (gasoline) and the people (food, water).
Read his article, and the multiple links at the top of his article (particularly this one). You'll come away with a better understanding of what the disaster-relief efforts are facing, and why it's taking so much time (summary: the affected area is HUGE, a lot larger than just New Orleans, and trucks and helicopters don't just magically move themselves).
Being poor sucks.
The difference between living frugally and being poor is that when you live frugally, you're choosing to spend little money. When you're poor, you have no choice.
I suspect that John Scalzi and I differ widely in our political opinions on certain subjects. But I believe we agree on the goals, we just disagree on the best means to get there.
On that subject, I'm rapidly getting sick and tired of people accusing their political opponents of being evil. Both Democrats and Republicans tend to do it, although it seems to be more highly concentrated in whatever party is currently out of power. I just wish people would wake up and realize that those on the "other side" are also people of good will. More on that in another post.
Four L.A. men charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism
Hurricane Katrina's aftermath is getting all the coverage right now, and rightly so. But if it were a slower news day, this story would be all over the media. Four men in Los Angeles have been arrested on charges of plotting terrorism. They are accused of plotting to attack synagogues, and possibly other targets, in Los Angeles. They allegedly plotted to carry out the attack during Jewish holidays, when the synagogues would be packed, so that the number of victims would be as large as possible.
Once Hurricane Katrina coverage settles down and the media start covering other stories, this will be a trial to follow closely.
Green! Purple! Green! Purple!
After the 2004 elections, we've all seen the state-by-state results maps:
But the other day, it occurred to me that I'd seen this kind of political process before on a certain T.V. show. Everyone sniping at the other side, unwilling to listen to reasoned arguments, insults flying everywhere… That map had the wrong colors. Here's a more accurate map of the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, state-by-state:
Fans of the T.V. show Babylon 5, who are currently busting a gut with laughter, will need no explanation. For the others, you can read an episode description here.
Lawyer "war stories" – very well-told
What's one of the first things that comes to mind when you think of lawyers? A sense of humor? Probably not. But all that means is that you don't know too many good lawyers. The really good ones are folks like Bill Dyer and his friend Walter Workman. Bill Dyer has a collection of stories that happened either to him or to Mr. Workman, and they're really incredibly funny. I especially enjoyed the second story, about what Workman allegedly said after badly losing a case. I won't repeat it here to avoid spoiling the punchline — just go read it. (Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt).
What you may not know about Hiroshima and Nagasaki
I've gotten into a few arguments over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and whether there was any possible justification for them, so I was fascinated to read this article in the Weekly Standard. The author discusses transcripts of radio intercepts from 1945, some of which were only released fifty years later in 1995, and most of which I had never read before. It's fascinating reading if you're interested in the last days of World War II: it knocks down — or at least radically modifies — just about every major theory that I've heard advanced regarding the end of the war:
- The bombings saved hundreds of thousands of lives, because the Japanese would have fought to the end in a land invasion? But it's far from clear that a land invasion would have happened at all, even if the bomb had not been dropped. MacArthur still favored an invasion, but it looks like he was the only one. According to this new information, President Truman saw dropping the bomb not as a means to prevent a land invasion, but as the only way to end the war at all.
- Japan was looking for ways to surrender, and the atomic bombings were completely pointless? Intercepted radio messages from diplomats (of various neutral countries whose codes the U.S. had cracked) suggest otherwise. These diplomats, who were stationed in Japan, wrote home assessing the probability of a Japanese surrender. It's true that some did suggest the Japanese were interested in negotiating peace, but a lot more wrote home to say that in their opinion, the Japanese would never surrender no matter what. (Their definition of "no matter what" did not, of course, include the then-unknown devastation of a nuclear bomb). And in fact, even after the second bomb, the Japanese were still looking for ways to end the war without a real surrender. On August 10, the day after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, they gave an offer to surrender "with the understanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler" — in other words, the emperor would still rule in Japan, and could still commit his country to any action he chose, such as unilaterally starting another war once his military had been rebuilt. Only once this was rejected did the Japanese accept surrender terms that stripped the emperor of real power. It's clear that without the atomic bombs, Japan would never have given up on those terms — or, most likely, on any terms at all, short of invading Japan itself. (And see above for why the invasion was unlikely).
- Japan would have surrendered after the first bomb, and so the second bomb was simply a pointless massacre? Possible; the article mentions nothing about intercepts from Japan between August 6th and August 9th, so there's not really any new evidence for or against this one. I guess I shouldn't have said that the article knocks down every theory about the end of the war. For myself, I'm still inclined to think the second bomb had a larger psychological impact than the first one, and therefore that Japan would not have surrendered after just one bomb, or at least not before a land invasion and the concomitant high casualties on both sides. For proof of my theory, I offer the fact that it was on August 10th, not on August 7th, that the emperor ordered his cabinet "Find terms for surrender NOW".
Whatever your previous theory about the end of World War II and America's bombing of two Japanese cities, I think you'll find it modified after you read the article. In the traditional blogger's phrase, go read the whole thing.
I'm happy about these results…
The "Which ____ are you?" tests that are all over the Internet are usually just amusing, with the questions not really reflecting the results. But this one seems to have actually had a bit of thought put into it; the questions are good, and the answers make sense, at least for me:
A wandering spirit caring for a multitude of just concerns, you are an instrumental power in many of the causes around you.
And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.
It makes sense, too, in more ways than one. The test is based on personality and motivations and asks you "What would you do in this situation?" types of questions. But if you think about it, it makes sense in another way, since I'm such a computer geek.
Wizards in fiction are sometimes portrayed as good (like Gandalf), sometimes evil (like Saruman). But one thing they always have in common is their command of magic, which is (in fiction) always based on pieces of obscure, arcane knowledge. So they're constantly reading, absorbing knowledge for its own sake, as well as for the understanding of magic that it gives them. And magic, in fiction, is usually tricky to get right: there are certain magical runes that must be drawn in exactly the right way, certain magical incantations (which seem like nonsense syllables to anyone who hasn't studied magic) which must be pronounced exactly right if the spell is to work right, and so on.
Well, my nose is almost always in a book. There aren't many people who would see the book "802.11 Wireless Networks: the Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition" in a bookstore and say "Ooh, I've been meaning to study those!" But that's exactly what I did about six weeks ago: I pulled that book off the shelf and spent the next hour absorbed in the arcane realm of TCP/IP, 802.11 WLANs, and WPA/PSK. See? Looks like nonsense syllables to anyone who hasn't studied
magic computers, right? And let me tell you, if you get your WPA configuration wrong, your wireless network will just plain not work. It will sit there and do absolutely nothing useful. Until you contact your local "computer wizard" (see? even the terminology carries over) and get him to fix it. Then suddenly everything works, and your wireless NOTwork has been turned into a wireless NETwork.
I think there's a reason why fantasy worlds like Tolkien's appeal to so many computer geeks. It's because, in a way, they're a reflection of the work that geeks do.
You paid HOW MUCH for that?!!?
I couldn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. Oracle — the 800-lb gorilla of database servers, the mighty Oracle — cannot distinguish between an empty string ("") and a NULL! From the current Oracle documentation, available on-line at their Web site (although you have to register and give them your E-mail address to get access to it):
"Note: Oracle Database currently treats a character value with a length of zero as null. However, this may not continue to be true in future releases, and Oracle recommends that you do not treat empty strings the same as nulls."
That last sentence sounds promising until you realize that it's been there since version 7, and Oracle is now at version 10.
From now on, when someone's extolling the virtues of Oracle to me, I'll just ask them, "Oh, and have they fixed their empty string == NULL problem yet?"
Favorite hymns: Here is love
One of my favorite hymns:
Here is love, vast as the ocean, Lovingkindness as the flood, When the Prince of life, our ransom, Interposed His precious blood. Who His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise? He will never be forgotten Throughout heaven's eternal days. On the mount of crucifixion, Fountains opened, deep and wide. Through the floodgates of God's mercy Poured a vast and gracious tide. Peace and love, like mighty rivers, Flowed incessant from above. Heaven's peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love.
The basic unit of politics: groups, or individuals?
I was listening to an interview segment on NPR today, and one of the interviewees said something that caught my attention. He was making an argument for why one shouldn't tie the concept of sacrifice to citizenship because, he said, "Different groups, including some privileged or relatively-privileged groups, are going to feel that "we've made so many sacrifices", and that fuels the politics of resentment." The only specific example of a group that he named was tobacco farmers — an interestingly-loaded choice of an example. But that wasn't what caught my attention. What I noticed was that all three of the people on the show — this interviewee, the other interviewee, and the show's host — were all discussing politics as it would relate to various groups. Economic, social, ethnic, whatever category, they were thinking about politics as if the basic unit of politics were the group.
But what is a group? A collection of people, of individuals. Without the individuals that comprise it, there is no group. And any concept that applies to groups can also be applied to each individual. Thus, the reason that racial segregation was wrong was not because it relegated blacks as a group to second-class status, but because it relegated each and every black individual to second-class status. The reason why prejudice is harmful is not because it harms groups, but because it harms individuals, judging them not fairly on their own merits but unfairly on the (perceived) merits of their group.
Groups are easier to talk about, certainly. It's much easier to say, "Blacks voted overwhelmingly for Kerry, whites went for Bush by a strong majority, and the Hispanic vote leaned slightly towards Kerry", than it would be to interview all the individual voters and find out why they voted the way they did. (Although exit polls help). And there is quite a bit of utility in talking about groups that way — blacks do, as a group, vote consistently for Democrats rather than Republicans. But do all the members of the group behave that way? Absolutely not — even among groups that are close to uniform (for instance, the black vote in the 2004 elections) there is still a significant number who buck the trend. Pick ten black people at random, and chances are you'll find one who voted for Bush.
There's a point there: groups are not the be-all and end-all of political thought, because there are always exceptions to any group classification. And there larger the group, the more exceptions you'll find. If you only think about politics in terms of groups, you'll be in danger of forgetting those exceptions, which can lead to policies that make sense for groups but make no sense for individuals.
Let's illustrate this with a current, very controversial, example: monetary reparations for slavery. The idea is that non-black Americans, as a group, are seen as carrying some responsibility for slavery that they, as individuals, never participated in — and (reparations advocates suggest) should therefore give monetary compensation to black Americans as a group, whether or not any of those black Americans as individuals were enslaved or were the descendants of slaves. (A strong case can be made for reparations to the descendants of slavery, even on an individual basis: if their ancestors had had a chance to earn money for their work, the family inheritance would have been much larger and the descendants would have been better off financially).
As you can see from the way I wrote the above paragraph, reparations makes sense when you look at it from a group perspective — black Americans were oppressed, therefore black Americans should be compensated. But when you start to look at it from an individual perspective, suddenly it gets a lot more complicated, because of all the exceptions. Indeed, most of the arguments against reparations that I've read are written from an individual perspective, asking the question, "OK, so who gets paid, who has to pay, and please explain to me why they, as individuals, should be in those categories?"
Thinking in terms of groups is a useful tool, but it should never be forgotten that the basic unit of politics is not the group, it's the individual. Anyone who forgets that is in danger of advocating policies that appear to do justice on a group level, but end up doing great injustice to individuals.
That's it… Time for a tea party.
Remember the Fifth Amendment? It wasn't just about the right to remain silent. It also said, "… nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Are you wondering why I'm writing about it in the past tense? Because the Supreme Court just threw it out the window, that's why.
That's it. There's nothing stopping the government from taking away your home on any flimsy excuse they can come up with. The Supreme Court is ignoring the plain text of the Constitution, and siding with The Government against The People. Remember "The People"? "… of the people, by the people, for the people" — that "The People"? Yeah. I bet you thought that's what this country was supposed to be about.
I don't know how, but we're going to have to have some kind of public protest similar to the Boston Tea Party here. This must not stand.
Throwing pies at those you disagree with. Yeah. That's REAL grown-up.
The pie-throwing student who hit William Kristol with a pie on March 29 said he did it to protest "superficial dialogue with no real chance for debate."
Throwing a pie… superficial… check.
Throwing a pie… dialogue… well, no. It's less than dialogue.
Throwing a pie… no real chance for debate… check.
If he believes that "superficial dialogue with no real chance for debate" deserves a pie in the face, the next person he should hit with a pie should be… himself.
Logix: Lisp with Python syntax
New discovery of the day: Logix. Logix is Python, with macros. Logix is Lisp, with Python syntax. Logix is a programming language that lets you create programming languages. Logix is whatever language you need it to be.
If you're familiar with Lisp, you already grasp how powerful macros can be. If all you've used is Python, let's take a look at a practical example. Let's say you're writing a threaded program, and throughout your code is scattered constructions like:
_lock.acquire() try: print "We have the lock, now doing some work" finally: _lock.release()
Wouldn't it be nice to have a
synchronized construct that would do the work for you? You could write it as a function, but then you'd have to pass in the code you want to run, which means turning it into another function or a lambda, and that just creates more boilerplate. With macros, you'd be able to do something like this:
defmacro synchronized(lock, codeblock): lock.acquire() try: codeblock finally: lock.release()
Some magic would be required to pass in the codeblock, of course.
Well, in Logix, this is how that macro would be written:
defop 0 "synchronized" "(" $lock:expr ")" ":" $code:block macro lock code lock.acquire() `try: *code `finally: lock.release()
If you're wondering about the backslashes and backquotes, read the Logix tutorial. It will explain what those do, and in the process introduce you to what Logix is capable of (hint: quite a lot!).
What makes Logix so powerful? The same thing that makes Lisp so powerful: the idea that code is data, and data is code. Which means you can pass around chunks of code to functions, save them in variables, and generally do whatever you want with them. I've been meaning to learn Lisp for a while now, but I've always been put off by its syntax. That's because the basic unit of Lisp is the list, and lists inside lists inside lists meant Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parenthesis :-). And I could never get used to writing addition as
(+ 1 2 3) instead of
1 + 2 + 3. But Logix is based on Python, and inherits a lot of Python's syntax. So instead of parens inside parens, you've got blocks based on indentation, and colons at the end of lines signalling that a block is about to start. It's got the same "clean"-feeling syntax that makes Python so easy to read, but it's also got the power of Lisp: macros, and the ability to pass code objects (of any kind, not just functions) around. I'm looking forward to playing with it and learning it.
UPDATE, 2005-06-06: The code samples I gave above are for Logix 0.4. 0.5 is going to introduce some changes to the underlying structure (in particular, what "chunks of code" are made of is changing), and so the macro syntax may end up looking a little different. If the code above ends up being wrong, I'll post an update correcting it.


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Melbourne : Sarah's
huhuhu.. too many photos to edit.. so i think i will just post some foodies' one to lure ur appetite first.. *nyek nyek*
Its eating time again hor!!! Look at all those pictures to find out how did 1 gain my 2 kg extra weight! *hmpf*
Nana say there is a very fine italian restaurant near our area.. Glenferrie.. so in that very evening.. nana, ying zhen and i just walk there to have our dinner..
We have the very famous Lasagna.. that nana recommended.. ooosei… nice can!! so much better than the one we had at Swanston Walk.. One best thing about the lasagna is like its so cheeesy… its cheesy and moist.. with lotsa mince beef tackle among each layer.. its a very heavy-tasted dish which i believe everyone would want to have a bite of it.. ^^
Tuesday's special.. i forgot the name di.. but tis chicken with lotsa cheese toppings!! Althought its a chicken breast.. the texture is still soft.. it is not only salty and cheesy.. the tomato spread underneath the cheese give the chicken a tase of sweetness.. *droolsss*
And my favourite Avocado… !! in Pizzzaaa!!! If u like avocado.. u will love this dish.. its not as heavy as those two so the avocado pizza actually provide the perfect match for the whole dinner.. =)
So here's my nana..
and us..!! so.. wads so special about this post???!
ITs Because…..
I found out the ultimate truth about my dar!!!
UUUiikkkssss!!! He is made of Mushrooom.. Olivess.. and Fetttaa!!! eeeeeeee……

subset: commoncrawl


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The flashcards below were created by user
FreezingBlue Flashcards
What is the statute of limitations for filing WC claims?
One year of the date of injury. Two years of being informed by a physician, in writing, that a worker's disease/condition is caused, at least in part, by his employment.
Can injured workers choose their own attending physician?
What benefits are available for injured workers?
Medical benefits, wage replacement benefits, permanent partial disability, permanent total disability, vocational rehabilitation.
Limited medical treatment is allowed until?
a condition is fixed and stable (maximum medical improvement).
Treatment requested must be . . .
curative; palliative treatment (treatment to temporarily relieve symptoms) is not allowed once a condition is fixed and stable.
Injured workers, if they are prevented from working for more than three days following their injury or onset of an occupational disease, are generally eligible for . . .
time loss compensation also known total temporary disability.
If an injured worker, can return to some employment while his claim is open, and the wages are more than 5% less than the wages at the time of the injury, . . .
loss of earning power benefits should be paid.
Loss of earning power benefits are only available . . .
while the claim is open
At claim closure, an injured worker may receive an award for a . . . (loss of function) of the affected area.
permanent partial disability.
If a worker is not able to return to his job, or any other reasonably continuous, gainful employment (at any salary or skill level), he or she may be found . . .
permanently and totally disabled.
Are pain and suffering awards available?
An injured worker, or the employer, has the right to appeal or protest any order within . . .
sixty days of the datethat the order was communicated to the worker/employer.
Attorney fees may not exceed . . .
30% of benefits obtained, maximum fees on pension are less.
If the claim has been closed for less than . . .
then a protest or appeal can be filed to the closing order.
If the claim has been closed for longer than sixty days, then an
"Application to Reopen" or an "Aggravation Application" must be completed by both the worker and a doctor.
In order for claims to be reopened . . .
a doctor must certify that there is objective evidence of worsening of the medical condition caused by the industrial injury.
What is the significance of a "no-fault" workers compensation system?
Workers have a right to benefits even if they are at fault.
Does an injured worker have to accept "light-duty," transitional, or temporary job offiers from the employer of injury?
The consequence for deling a legitimate job offer is that time loss compensation benefits end.
Upon application, fees can be determined by the
Department of Labor and Industries or the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.
If the lawyer obtains additional permanent partial disability, loss of earning power, or total temporary disability by way of settlement prior to the presentation of testimony . . .
the Board can set the fee between ten and twenty five percent of the increased benefits.
If the client does not have a copy of the order he wants to protest, it may be prudent to . . .
send in a protest to all orders issued in the last sixty days.
Injury means
a sudden and tangible happening, of a traumatic nature producing an immediate or prompt result, and occurring from without, and such physical conditions as result therefrom.
When a covered worker suffers and industrial injury, the claim is initiated . . .
by filing of an accident report with the Department.
Claims for industrial injuries must be filed within . . .
one year of the date of injury.
Failure to file a claim within the one-year deadline . . .
will forever preclude the injured worker from securing benefits for the industrial injury.
To be compensible, an industrial injury must occur while the worker is . . .
acting in the course of employment.
acting in the course and scope of employement is typically met by showing
an employee is acting at the direction and/or in furtherance of the employer's business at the time of injury.
When an employee is required as part of the work process to travel . . .
coverage extends to virtually any time the worker can be said to benefiting the employer's business. Coverage will extend absent a significant deviation by the employee that removes him/her from the employment setting.
For those workers engagedin dual purpose (personal as well as business),
coverage will extend unless the work activity was merely incidental to the private deviation from employment.
Employees engaged in activity necessitated by personal comfort . . .
during the course of employment are often covered.
Mere clumsiness of a worker or conditions that make them more susceptible to injury . . .
will not bar recovery.
In order to be compensible, the heart attack or stroke must be proximately caused by
an unusual exertion or strain that occurred during the course of employment.
Card Set
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text: U.S. Endodontics Partners is an endodontic dental specialty services organization focused on developing and growing affiliated endodontic practices. Endodontists can focus on patient care while receiving the support of experienced professionals who are committed to the growth and success of their practices. Support provided by U.S. Endodontics Partners includes services related to operations, accounting, marketing, revenue cycle management, and human resources.


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03-06 Nissan 350Z Nitrous System With Polished Bottle
- Adjustable From 55 to 100 Horsepower
- Works Safely On Both Stock & Modified Vehicles
- Complete Wet Nitrous System
◄ '03-'06 Nissan 350Z Wet Nitrous System
The ZEX™ 2003-2006 350Z Nitrous System is the only direct fit nitrous system on the market for this incredible car. The kit includes a custom designed billet fuel adapter that simply bolts on to the factory fuel rail. This adapter keeps you from having to cut any fuel lines during installation. Because of the 350Z's higher than usual base fuel pressure of 51 psi, we have also included a custom set of tuning jets that not only maximize power but engine safety as well.
Fully adjustable from 55-100 HP w/ supplied tuning jets; Perfect for mild to wild performance
A complete wet nitrous system; Everything is included for a safe, proper installation
Works safely on stock or modified engines; Naturally aspirated, turbo or super charged
Every hose, wire & a custom machined billet fuel rail adapter has been engineered specifically for a perfect fit on the '03-'06 350Z
All major components are factory pre-assembled inside the Nitrous Management Unit; Easy, plug & play two-hour installation
Why ZEX is SAFER, SMARTER, FASTER NITROUS:
◄ Active Fuel Control™
One of our nitrous systems most innovative safety and power feature is the "Active Fuel Control". The ZEX™ Nitrous System reads the nitrous bottle pressure and adjusts the fuel enrichment accordingly. If it is a cool day and the nitrous bottle pressure is around the 700 psi range, the nitrous system will add less enrichment fuel than if it is a warm day and the nitrous bottle is at 950 psi. This unique feature ensures that you always have the optimum ratio of nitrous and fuel. Never too rich, never too lean. It also ensures maximum power and safety at all bottle pressures.
◄ Fuel Shear™ Technology
Fuel Shear™ Technology injects enrichment fuel using a fuel transfer tube. This tube allows the ZEX™ nozzle to directly inject fuel into the highest velocity area of the nitrous plume. This high-speed nitrous shears the fuel away from the tube, atomizing it to levels other nozzle designs never achieve. This high level of atomization ensures perfect fuel distribution from cylinder to cylinder, ensuring one cylinder is never dangerously rich or lean, like competitor's nozzles. This finely atomized mixture delivered by the ZEX™ nozzle also burns more powerfully and maximizes the horsepower you get from your nitrous system.
◄ TPS Sensor Activation
Our throttle position sensor switch is truly innovative. For years, nitrous systems have been activated by use of crude push buttons and throttle arm activated micro switches. These devices were very difficult to install and were constantly failing because of the extreme temperatures found in vehicle engine bays. ZEX™ integrated advanced microprocessor control circuits into our nitrous systems so that they "learn" the voltage curve of an engines throttle position sensor. This enables our nitrous systems to activate at wide-open throttle, precisely and reliably, every time.


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5/4/2018 – The second stop of the eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour from U2 at Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO.
Category Archives: Concerts
Dogs of Society – Ultimate Tribute to Elton John
4/27/2018 – An incredible, & credible, authentic, passionate Tribute to Elton John by Dogs of Society. Opening the show was the equally impressive Billy the Kid – Ultimate Tribute to Billy Joel. Family Arena, St. Charles, MO.
The Eagles
3/8/2018 – The Eagles Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO.
3/14/2018 – Pink brought her Beautiful Trauma World Tour to Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO. More photos and link to gallery –
Best of 2017 Year in Review
My annual recap of of concerts photographed at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, plus arena & club shows in the St. Louis market. (Link will open in new browser) http://rknphoto.zenfolio.com/p96988327
Best of Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre 2017
2017 – Every year I look forward to going through my images from the season at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO., and personally selecting my favorite shots. See a few of my favorites below, then click the photo to see the full Best of HCA 2017 gallery. As always, Thank You for visiting, […]
Photo Pit Gladiators v4
2017 – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, St. Louis, MO. – Photo Pit Gladiators – I look forward to putting this collection together every year. Posed portraits, along with the Gladiators in their natural habitat, doing what they do. When it comes to event security, these guys are second to none in the business. Many I have […]
September Shows 2017
2017 – Highlights from shows I shot during the month of September. Photo galleries from these shows & more, please visit http://rknphoto.zenfolio.com/f648085210
August Shows 2017
2017 – Highlights from shows I photographed during the month of August. All shows from Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, St. Louis, MO. Visit http://rknphoto.zenfolio.com/f648085210 to view all photos from these shows.
Dierks Bentley, Cole Swindell
7/29/2017 – Good times with Dierks Bentley, with guests Cole Swindell, Jon Pardi, & the Bolo Boys. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, St. Louis, MO.


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Scopus was contracted to design replacements for West & East 32" NB seawater headers. To achieve this, clash-free and with minimal disruption, an as-built survey was carried out to establish the position of all potential obstructions.
Client requirements included a 3d AutoCAD model plus isometrics, together with fabricated pipe spools organised by Scopus.
Scopus Solution
Using a state-of-the-art Total Station and Scopus bespoke survey software, we surveyed all remaining items for global positioning within the platform co-ordinate system. These included all structural steel including walkways and ladders, pipework not deemed for removal, and all cable tray, unit-strut and similar material.
A 3D model was produced in AutoCAD for client review. From this as-built model, we produced the detail design of new seawater header pipework and supports.
Schedule and Costs
Available on request.


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I have some favorite books from my childhood. But there are plenty of classics I don't ever remember reading. Never mind how old the book is. If it's a fun read and I can mix in some kitchen-time, it's a winner!
Over Christmas, my mother-in-law shared with me books about books. They listed the recommended books to get and read to your child. The key of course is to get books that appeal to yourself, too. Cause how many times have you imagined hiding a child's favorite book because you just can't take reading it again another night?
And since there are plenty of people out there who are rolling their eyes because, again, we have a topic about how to make a meal look pretty/fun instead of making it taste good, I hold up my hand for a patient pause. These blueberries were actually really good, which is surprising for this early season. But we have had a very mild Florida winter. And I've also noticed there's something to be said for a little distraction at the dinner table when trying to convince children to eat their food. Luckily, we don't have to distract Nora. Actually, quite the opposite. We had to distract her from the community bowl if we wanted to sneak a blueberry for ourselves.
So here's the fun with "Blueberries for Sal". She and her mother are out picking blueberries on one side of Blueberry Hill while a baby bear and its mother are roaming up the other side. Can you just hear the tune "I found my thrill. . ." as they stroll along? Sal and her mom have two tin pails. Hence the 2-cup measuring cup and the 1-cup that we used. But Sal enjoys eating them so much that she can only get a few in her pail, which make a ka-plunk sound. Naturally we don't get much of a sound dropping them from the large "pail" to the other. But the fun is in the reenactment!
Don't worry if you don't have children or if your children aren't young enough anymore to enjoy the book. I've picked up plenty of children's books just because I enjoyed them. And while you're at it, pick up some Florida blueberries and snack while you read.


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Happy Hour
Wait Staff
Ritz Grill 15 S. Tejon St., 635-8484
In other places, Young Frankenstein dance routines and that horrible '80s song by Taco still reign. But when it comes to Colorado Springs, the popular use of the term "the Ritz" can only mean one thing: the Ritz Grill, which has become as much a downtown institution as there is in this city.
This year, the Ritz celebrated its 20th anniversary. Since its introduction, it's racked up more awards than a performance-enhanced Marion Jones at an elementary-school field day. In the 14 years of Indy Best Of competition, the Ritz has earned more than 30 first-place nods. The only bigger winner in that time span is the Garden of the Gods.
So, when it comes to non-geological phenomena, there's nothing Colorado Springs seems to hold in higher esteem than the Ritz Grill.
And all this greatness stemmed from humble beginnings, explains one of its most well-respected patrons.
"This used to be the old Rexall drugstore," says the encyclopedic Mr. X, who has come in for dinner every week since it opened. He prefers to remain anonymous despite having his very own booth and a drink on the menu named after him.
"It stayed empty for many years, and then Zerbe Jewelers came in and used it before moving across the way, leaving this whole downstairs empty. The downstairs was gutted, but the ceilings, windows and the Rexall floor are still here. It was opened in a grand way, with an invitation-only party. And then the rest is kind of history."
While teaching Ritz 101, Mr. X is approached by well-wishers of all ages. It's like sitting with Don Corleone; he knows almost everyone in the bar, whether staff or other patrons. This place is his second home, and the Ritz staff, he says, makes all the difference.
"This operation is top-notch," Mr. X says. "The staff is always professional, and they know the menu by heart. They know what's going on. As soon as I walk in, the bar staff starts shaking my martini."
It's only natural for a longtime customer to get some love, but from the staff's point of view, every customer here gets treated like a regular.
"People come back when they see a familiar face and people know what you like," says Ben Jackson, the Ritz's bar manager. "It's a comfortable place to go. We have a philosophy about how we try and do things. It's not a written-on-a-piece-of-paper type thing, but if you treat people how you know they should be treated, everything else kind of falls into place."
This philosophy works not only because the staff follows this belief so fervently, but also because the Ritz appeals to so many people. The lunch, happy-hour and dancing-on-the-table-to-the-live-band-at-1-a.m. crowds are completely different.
"We have something for everybody," Jackson says. "We've got everything from cheap draft beer to $200 bottles of wine, and everything from lamb chops and a filet to cheese sticks. It doesn't matter what you're looking for; you can find it here.
"And if it's not on the menu, our guys on the back are good enough to make it for you. The key is being able to accommodate whatever people want."
For Monica Clemons and Jennifer Davis, two friends who often drop in together, the Ritz offers something else that's important: consistency.
"It's Ol' Reliable," says Clemons. "It's a really casual place, with live entertainment that's always good. And [it] has a charismatic staff."
"We just always end up here," adds Davis. "It's the most comfortable place."
Terry Terrones


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God's people are saved because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are not saved by our own works, but we have been saved in order to do good works. The Bible says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10).
God has a plan for you. At Mid Rivers we believe God's plan for your life of service is intricately connected to who you are. You are God's workmanship. Take a moment to prayerfully consider the following questions to further determine how God has shaped you for service:
What am I passionate about? What is on your heart may reveal where God wants you to serve.
What can I do? Your talents, gifts, skills and abilities may reveal what God wants you to do in service.
What is my personality? Your personal style or temperament could reveal how you are to serve.
What has been my journey? Your life experiences, good and bad, can further define the where, what and how of your service.
When a person serves in respect to how they've been created, enjoyment often results. However, as you pursue serving, also consider the needs that surround you.
Sometimes God calls us to an endeavor that, although it may not be enjoyable, it will address a great need. At these moments, we must have a servant's heart like Jesus when he went to the cross. If you would like assistance in discovering your unique shape for ministry, contact us to arrange a personalized ministry consultation.


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Poking through treasures that your parents have saved over the years always yields fun finds, like macaroni necklaces, lopsided paperweights, and tinfoil hats that you created when you were a kid. Though the days of finger-paintings being posted on the fridge may be over, that doesn't mean your early artistic endeavors are destined to remain hidden in a dusty box forever.
That's right, we want to see your most prized childhood art project for our Young at 'Art' Event! All you need to do is dig it up, post a photo of it on Instagram with the hashtags #YoungatArt and #ModCloth, then share it on Twitter. Everyone – yes, everyone – who enters will receive a 10% off ModCloth coupon code!
Once you're ready to start snapping those pictures, please read the deets:
- Photos can be old photos of your art from times past, or freshly snapped pics of you with your recovered/rediscovered art.
- Entries must be submitted by 9 a.m. PT on 8/15/2012.
- Entries must be submitted via Instagram and shared on Twitter.
- You must be following @ModCloth on Instagram and Twitter at the time of submission.
- Your entry must include the two hashtags, #YoungatArt and #ModCloth in order to receive the coupon code.
- Only one entry is allowed per person.
- You must own the rights to your photo entry.
- Still confused? Leave us a comment below, and we'll answer!
Have fun walking down memory lane!


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The Ground Rules Explained
look up the word subtext.
Quote from: Redjack on April 29, 2015, 04:02:38 pmlook up the word subtext.Put Tom Cruise/Ryan Raynolds/ Gosling in Will Smith's place. Is the movie still antiblack?
Do you know if the role (or the Original story) was written for Will Smith or any Black actor? Or was it written for a white actor and then they cast Will Smith because he wanted the role? The reason I ask, if it is the latter then the subtext only possible because Will Smith wanted the role and it wasn't the intent of the writer. If it is the former, I can see the subtext. (I know there is the incident that caused him to lose his memory points to a Black character, but she said that these attacks always happened, even long before the U.S. even existed. )
Quote from: Francisco on April 29, 2015, 07:58:58 pmQuote from: Redjack on April 29, 2015, 04:02:38 pmlook up the word subtext.Put Tom Cruise/Ryan Raynolds/ Gosling in Will Smith's place. Is the movie still antiblack?doesn't matter. no one ever made that movie.THIS movie, the one that actually got made, goes like this.Hancock is a black drunk and perpetual f*ck-up who gets the sh*t kicked out of him whenever he tries to hook up with or even get close to a white woman (sometimes by the woman herself). He needs to be taught how to act like a good human being by a white guy. The very white guy who ends up having the life with his lover that he could never have. (Whoever made this film is working out some issues.) Hancock ends the film okay with this arrangement, as all neutered house negroes should and spends the rest of his life as a sexless security guard dog, happily looking out for the perfect caucasian nuclear family.his white female fellow "god" is FANTASTICALLY more powerful than he is. her non-powered white spouse is fantastically smarter than he is. Hancock is the character sam jackson played in Django with a happy boyish face.the moral.white people know best.black people are to be civilized but kept in a metaphorical pen by whites until such time as they realize their duty in life it to protect and nurture the world affluent whites have built for themselves. black men stay away from white women.and it's it all SO funny.except not.


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I don't know about you, but sometimes rather than put a new untried dish on the dinner table, I find it easier to rely on some of my easy pleasers. Before I put together my shopping list this weekend, I asked Nicola to have a look through my recent copies of Olive Magazine to see if there were any recipes that she wanted me to bring to the table.
As a result, tonight we had a very light Green Curry with prawns.
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 2cm piece fresh ginger, roughly chopped
- 1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 shallot, diced
- 1 green chili, chopped
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 cardamom pods, split and seeds crushed
- 100 ml chicken stock
- 165ml half fat coconut milk
- Handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
- Small bunch fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
- 200g large raw peeled prawns
- Create a paste by putting the ginger, garlic, chili, shallot, cumin, coriander and cardamon seeds into a food processor and whizzing together. Add a little water if you need to bring everything together.
- Heat 1tbsp groundnut oil in a pan and fry the curry paste for about 5 minutes until you can smell the garlic, ginger and spices.
- Add the chicken stock and coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes before adding the chopped herbs and the prawns.
- Bring back to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for a further few minutes until the prawns are pink and cooked through.
I made the curry paste last night and kept overnight in the fridge, this saved me some time tonight which allowed me have dinner prepared and on the table in just 15 minutes. The resulting dish tasted very good, the mix of chicken stock and coconut milk creating a very light velvety sauce. Quick, tasty and at less than 150 calories per serving, (not including rice), this is a meal that I will be adding to the list of regular easy cook recipes.
Maybe I should get Nicola to pick from my magazines more often!


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The Power Of Two
The Power Of Two
How Friends Can Help You Achieve Your Goals
Family Circle April 1 issue
A few years ago I was self-employed and spending way too much time working, with little to show for it. I wasn't giving my young daughter the kind of time and attention she needed. And I couldn't remember the last time I'd gone out to dinner with friends. I'd gotten into a rut so deep I needed help getting out.
That's when I learned about the power of partnering up with a goal buddy. Goal buddies are ordinary people who help each other make their dreams come true. They motivate and cheer one another on, and offer tips and advice for dealing with challenges.
"Getting an accountability partner means that you're more likely to be successful in reaching your goals," says Suzanne Adele Schmidt, Ph.D., of Renewal Resources (www.renewalatwork.com), an organization that helps people work in a productive, balanced way.
Two years ago, when my then-five-year-old daughter sat me down and said, "Focus, Mama. Focus," I knew I had to make a change. I was distracted and sometimes short-tempered, juggling myriad tasks and doing way too much work at 3 a.m. The chaos was beginning to affect my daughter, but I didn't know what to do about it.
That's when I turned to my friend Linda Formichelli, a successful magazine writer who works about 30 hours a week, leaving plenty of time for her husband and her hobbies (not to mention two cats). I knew Linda wanted to write books, which was something I knew how to do, having had about 20 books published at the time. So I promised to help Linda with her book-publishing goal if she'd help me figure out how to get balance back in my life.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
I told Linda that I was working very hard and not making enough money, but that I didn't know what changes to make or how to make them. She helped me see that I was operating under assumptions that were no longer true. For example: Early in my career I had started writing books because my daughter was very ill and I never knew when she'd end up in the hospital for long stretches of time. Meeting with clients, doing rush jobs or working within short deadlines was impossible for me back then.
But circumstances had changed. My daughter was much healthier and I could now take on short-term assignments. Working on a mix of short- and long-term projects improved my cash flow and, happily, I wasn't working any harder.
Linda also encouraged me to do more magazine writing. She gave me the names of her editors and followed up to make sure I'd contacted them. She challenged me to answer, "Why not?" all the time, and often reminded me of a saying her martial arts teacher practiced: "If you argue for your limitations, that's what you'll get." Pretty soon I stopped explaining why I couldn't do things and just started doing them.
Two Heads Are Better Than One
Tina Tessina, Ph.D., believes that women can help each other achieve anything just by putting their heads together. "Your goal buddy has a slightly different take on the problem," says Tessina. "Add her approach to yours and you can come up with a better solution."
Tessina's own story proves the point. After her divorce in 1972 she started a bookkeeping business to support herself while studying to become a psychotherapist. She turned to her friend Maggie Bialack to help run the business. Tessina eventually got licensed, and now Maggie runs the entire business. "We've helped one another a lot over the years," says Tessina. "I couldn't have done it without her."
The Goal Buddy Difference
Kim Grant of Chanhassen, Minnesota, agrees with that statement. Kim had been trying to lose weight for years when she finally decided to become weight-loss goal buddies with her friend LuAnn Engelhardt of Chaska, Minnesota, and LuAnn's sister Chris Peters, who lives in nearby Waconia.
Several times a week the friends would walk three miles around a nearby lake. Whenever they went out to dinner, they'd help each other make healthy menu choices. The women shared their successes and brainstormed weight-loss solutions. The result? Since August 2002 Kim and LuAnn have lost—and kept off—35 pounds each, and Chris has lost an amazing 48 pounds.
Pay It Back
As these women will tell you, being a goal buddy means you have to give as well as receive. In my case, with Linda's help, I became a better and smarter writer, mother and friend. So when a publisher approached me with a book deal that I wasn't interested in, I suggested Linda, who got the contract. I coached her through the proposal and writing process and, in the fall of 2004, her book Becoming a Personal Trainer for Dummies (Wiley) was published.
The moral of the story? Between the two of us, Linda and I can accomplish practically anything—and you can, too!
Friendly Advice from Hannah Storm
The co-host of CBS TV's The Early Show offers up six ways friend can help each oither most.
- Always be realistic and objective. A true friend will dispense with false flattery and tell you like it really is (in a kind way, of course).
- Be your friend's biggest cheerleader. Support her however you can and celebrate her triumphs.
- Be a good listener. Lend an ear to a friend's ups and downs, and remind her of the big picture.
- Don't be jealous or competitive. Remember that your friend is trying to achieve her goal. It's not about you.
- Be optimistic and upbeat. Forget the saying "misery loves company." You'll both be happier.
- Make a friend laugh. A sense of humor will carry you through almost any situation.
Family Circle April 1 Issue


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|Usage rate of X-rays in China is 300 times that seen in the UK
Chest X-rays are a common medical examination method; however they can also damage human bodies due to excessive exposure to radiation. According to chinanews.com, the utilisation rate of chest X-ray examinations is 61.8 percent in China, more than 300 times of that of Britain, which is only 0.2%. Moreover, this examination has already been sharply curtailed in most developed countries including the US and Japan.
Liu Junfang, chief of the radiological department of Zhongnan Hospital of the University of Wuhan, said that excessive radiation exposure would harm young children, teenagers, and cause diseases including cancer.
Since 2006, the Wuhan Department of Health has canceled X-rays as part of the regular physical examination for students in middle schools and elementary schools.
Some hospitals in the city also canceled the examination, or stopped recommending the examination to minors six years ago.
Furthermore, experts also suggested that X-ray checks for pregnant women and women with intrauterine devices should also be canceled.
However, Wang Yimin, director of the radiological department of Wuhan PLA 161 Hospital, said the safety level of a chest X-ray examination was still within the national regulations, and some patients choose it due to the low cost.
Source: CRI


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Reasons of measurement from different angles
Impact measurement is often contested for increasing costs with little use for improvement. Additionally, small organizations find it difficult to adjust the elaborated methods to their limited resources. But there are good and very prevailing reasons for it.
The increase of quantification is not a recent development. As Barman (2007) shows for the development in the United Kingdom, measuring is not a new issue for nonprofits. However, the reasons for measurement changed over time. Before impact measurement came in the focus of nonprofit leaders and funders, the assessment of community needs or pure financial efficiency were former targets of measurement activities. Thus, as Barman (2007, pp 112) concludes, 'measurement emerges in moments of uncertainty and change… [and] …reflects larger debates and contestations over the appropriate purpose and nature of the voluntary sector.' Thus, the actual emphasis on impact measurement reflects a change in the perception of the nonprofit sector by the society at large. In the following, driving forces for the appearance and use of impact measurement will be explained. These include transparency, causality, accountability, and acceptance.
1. Drivers of transparency
The basic expectation towards social initiatives is transparency in terms of funding, resource management, and service delivery. The dependence on external or third party funding requires a clear and open communication in order to build trust. Usually, donors are not able to follow and understand the concept and logic or a social initiative in every detail. Thus, trust enhancing activities such as certificates, rankings, or labels are used as indicators of good work. Although most of these methods are input-based and do not tell much about impact, they are popular among donors or the media, because they are easy to assess and to compare.
2. Drivers of causality
Nowadays, solutions for social problems become more and more complex. The expectations of private donors or funding institutions go far beyond the ethical principle of 'do no harm'. Thus, philanthropic action requires well thought-out concepts that cover and align the interests of diverse stakeholders. In order to create real change, an underlying theory of change has to be developed and, afterwards, the goal attainment has to be measured. Theories of change are usually based on logic models that explain in a causal chain how the resources invested are used and what kind of outputs or outcomes should be achieved. Thus, only by measuring the contribution of the project to social change, the theory of change can be proven to be right. Accordingly, impact measurement is always oriented to the organization's mission and not only to aspects of effectiveness and efficiency (Sawhill & Williamson, 2001).
3. Drivers of oversight and accountability
In philanthropic relationships funders give resources to nonprofits as intermediaries linked with a mandate to provide goods or services to beneficiaries following the funders' purpose. Notwithstanding a thorough selection process of funded projects, funders and grantees inherently have different goals, interests, and motivations. The intermediaries might misrepresent their capacities to funders in order to obtain a grant (adverse selection), or might try to elude conditions agreed upon (moral hazard). As a consequence, both funders and grantees are obliged to agree on arrangements of monitoring, measurements, and oversight systems. Murray (2010) differentiates between two basic forms of accountability: legal and moral. Legal accountability is based on formally and officially defined contracts that both parties accept. Moral accountability exists when 'reporting is legally not required but parties believe there is an obligation for one to be accountable to the other'. A funder-grantee relationship is usually based on legally valid contracts. However, grantees often feel a moral accountability to other stakeholder groups such as beneficiaries or the community.
4. Drivers of acceptance: multiplication and leverage
Despite the global growth of philanthropy, the economic potential of 'the good economy' is still falling far behind public subsidies and investments. Being aware of the scarcity of philanthropic money, new ways of funding developed that highlighted the importance of multiplication and leverage. As a consequence, the understanding of giving transformed from alms to investment. Adapting strategies and techniques from venture capital to the financing of social purpose organizations, the notion of investing and reinvesting was introduced in philanthropy. This development was mirrored by an increase of hybrid organizations combining social and economic goals in favor of a better goal attainment. The basic idea of hybrid organizations is to use economic value creation strategies to solve social problems and by this, increase the utility of the donated money. These new structures on both sides – social investors and social entrepreneurs – call for new forms of measurement that cover economic and social aims. However, the aim to define and measure the so called blended value is a major challenge.
© University of Basel


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Our Programs
Each program is designed with a specific community in mind. Our programs are grounded in leading research and best-practices, and tailored to meet the unique needs of each learner community.
At Canada Learning Code, we believe that digital skills are tools of empowerment. The world is changing, and we want Canada to be ready. We're here to make sure that all people in Canada — particularly women, girls, people with disabilities, Indigenous youth, and newcomers — have access to the knowledge they need to prosper in our digital world.
We envision a prosperous Canada in which all people have the skills and confidence to harness the power of technology to create a better and more inclusive future.
A Theory of Change (ToC) is a visual description of the changes we would expect to observe as a result of our programs in the short and long term. In other words, it's our very own conditional (if, then) statement. If we do X then Y will change because…Read our theory of change
learners across Canada
educational events
(August 6, 2011 was our first workshop, ever!)
hours spent coding
mentors have volunteered in our programs to help others learn
of Ladies Learning Code learners felt more confident in their use of coding/tech after an experience with us
of Teachers Learning Code learners suggested that because of CLC programming they used coding/tech to teach in their classroom
of parents agreed that, as a result of CLC participation, their children had indicated they wanted to know more about coding/tech today
of children surveyed directly agreed that they wanted to learn more about coding/tech today
Each program is designed with a specific community in mind. Our programs are grounded in leading research and best-practices, and tailored to meet the unique needs of each learner community.
Workshops, camps and tech day experiences for 3 to 12 year-old girls.
Workshops, camps and tech day experiences for 3 to 12 year-old kids.
Workshops, courses and meetup experiences for adults of all ages and genders but designed to be a space for women.
Workshops, online resources and multi-day conferences for traditional and non-traditional educators
Workshops, industry events and Hackathons for 13-17 year old female-identified, trans and non-binary teens.
Meet our Core Team, our Chapter Leads, and our Board of Directors that drive our mission forward.Meet our team
There's an opportunity for everyone to get involved! Whether you want to take the podium as a Lead Instructor, help shape young minds at summer camp, or sponsor one of our national events. Your support today will help us to continue to deliver amazing educational programs and experiences that have the power to transform lives.


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EMC Redefines Simplicity With VSPEX BLUE Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Appliance
Value-Added Functionality and Offerings Downloadable From New One-Stop VSPEX BLUE Market
Feb 03, 2015, 10:15 ET
HOPKINTON, Mass., Feb. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
News Summary:
- Delivers compute, storage, networking and management in an agile, scalable, trusted and easy to manage hyper-converged infrastructure appliance
- Radically simplifies IT Infrastructure deployment and management
- Defines new levels of ease-of-use with power on to Virtual Machine (VM) provisioning in 15 minutes
- Embedded integrated management experience, downloadable software titles and secure remote support
- Ideal for infrastructure consolidations, virtual desktops in large remote or branch offices and managed service providers
- Available exclusively through ecosystem of industry-leading distributor(s) partners including Arrow, Avnet, Networld, TD Azlan and Tech Data
Interact with EMC Online:
- Follow @EMCCorp, @EMCVSPEX @EMCPartners
- View additional related news from EMC via EMC Pulse Blog
- For more information on VSPEX BLUE, go to http://www.emc.com/vspex
- Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn
Full Story:
EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced availability of the EMC® VSPEX® BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance that delivers compute, storage, networking and management powered by VMware EVO:RAIL and EMC software. The VSPEX BLUE hyper- converged infrastructure appliance enables customers to go from power on to provisioning virtual machines in under 15 minutes, offering impressive time to value when compared to other hyper-converged infrastructure offerings. The VSPEX BLUE scale-out infrastructure provides customers the ability to meet users' changing demands at the speed of business and freedom from the burden of advanced IT forecasting.
Well suited for mid-market customers, VSPEX BLUE comprises common modular building blocks offering customers seamless linear scalability from one to four 2U/4-nodes. VSPEX BLUE is ideal for infrastructure consolidations, virtual desktops in large remote or branch offices and managed service providers.
The VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance simplifies IT configuration, management, and maintenance. EMC is delivering an integrated management experience for VSPEX BLUE customers. The VSPEX BLUE Manager extends the capabilities of the native EVO:RAIL Deployment, Configuration and Management (DCM) Engine, delivering a built-in support experience and Market providing customers access to select software titles and solutions from an EMC interface that leverages VMware EVO:RAIL's clean and intuitive design principles.
VSPEX BLUE Manager
With the VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance, EMC continues to break new ground, offering for the first time a one-stop Market to download value-added software, from EMC and EMC ecosystem partners to quickly and easily meet ever-changing business demands.
The EMC VSPEX BLUE Manager provides a seamless and harmonious end user experience that embodies the simplicity and ease-of-use functionality VMware EVO:RAIL customers expect. From the VSPEX BLUE Manager, users can conveniently access electronic services, such as EMC knowledge base articles, access a wealth of community sourced online and real time information and familiarize themselves with EMC best practices for optimal appliance operations. The VSPEX BLUE Manager also simplifies IT management by delivering patch and software update notification that can be installed automatically without interruption or downtime so that the appliance software is always up-to-date.
VSPEX BLUE Market
Within the VSPEX BLUE Manager EMC has added VSPEX BLUE Market store. The Market provides customer access to trusted solutions and technologies that are developed by EMC and technology partners that are pre-validated for the VSPEX BLUE appliance and then made available to download. In the first release of the Market, EMC has included download access to business continuity with EMC RecoverPoint® for Virtual Machines, VMware vSphere® Data Protection™ Advanced providing disk based de-duplicated backup and recovery that is optimized for virtual environments, and access to virtually unlimited hybrid cloud storage via the EMC CloudArray® Gateway.
EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS)
The EMC VSPEX BLUE hyper-converged infrastructure appliance also provides EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS) that is built into the interface and provides end-to-end, consistent support via chat, community or phone with a single point of accountability for all hardware and software. With ESRS, EMC can periodically monitor the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance and will be notified of failure enabling support to take preventative measures to help avoid downtime. When coupled with ESRS, EMC 24x7 Support is incredibly simple. All appliance issues regardless of whether they are hardware or software are handled by EMC.
Partner Ecosystem
EMC will focus initially on a select group of world-class EMC Business Partner Program distributors for the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance including Arrow, Avnet, Networld, TD Azlan and Tech Data. Initial distribution partners have an established global reach, required manufacturing capabilities, and the necessary international certifications and capabilities.
EMC expands its converged infrastructure portfolio by affording increased customer choice with VSPEX BLUE. With fast, simple deployment, comprehensive support and the agility to scale, VSPEX BLUE joins VCE Vblock Systems and VSPEX Reference Architectures as part of EMC's comprehensive and trusted lineup of converged offerings.
The EMC VSPEX hyper-converged infrastructure appliance is generally available February 17. Customers should contact their authorized EMC partner to learn more about VSPEX BLUE.
Market Industry Analyst Quote
Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst, ESG
"ESG research validates that early adopters of converged infrastructure are achieving benefits associated with improved service and support, ease of management, and an improved total cost of ownership. The VSPEX BLUE appliance will help enterprise IT accelerate the strategic imperative of virtualization/migration to a hybrid cloud. The appliance is a simple, low-risk path to delivering virtualization, and snaps well into an existing line of EMC solutions. It helps reduce TCO, and ensures availability and flexibility so that enterprise IT can achieve infrastructure excellence and connectivity to the cloud."
Reseller Quotes:
Tim Frank, Executive Vice President, Sales, Ahead
"We see the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance as providing the simplicity and agility that our customers are looking for in a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance. The automated install, presided virtual machines and simple user interface is what customers are asking for. The VSPEX BLUE appliance provides Ahead with the ability to provide our customers one appliance to facilitate the many mixed workloads that are required by IT today."
Tom Cahill, Vice President Product and Partner Management, CDW
"The built-in differentiation in VSPEX BLUE separates EMC from a busy market segment. VSPEX BLUE will provide our customers greater ease of management, ease-of-use and access to a robust portfolio of additional EMC applications that will help make the day-to-day running of IT simpler. This product will give customers the agility they need enabling them to add IT when it suits their business."
EMC Executive Quotes:
Gregg Ambulos, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, EMC Corporation
"EMC's Business Partner Program is an ecosystem comprised of highly skilled and technical partners. Our distribution partners are uniquely qualified to help us address and meet the demands of the rapidly growing converged infrastructure space. We are excited bringing the EMC VSPEX BLUE appliance to market solely through this channel, where we can leverage our distributors' global reach and scale to take this highly differentiated product to market. This new approach will provide better growth opportunities for our partners, while continuing to provide innovative, industry-leading solutions to our customers."
Gil Shneorson, Vice President, General Manager VSPEX, EMC Corporation
"The VSPEX BLUE appliance represents a strategic addition to EMC's existing highly successful converged infrastructure portfolio. EMC's VSPEX BLUE appliance is delivered exclusively by our partners, and offers customers IT simplicity and agility backed by EMC's award-winning global support organization, with built-in differentiation such as the VSPEX BLUE Manager, Market and EMC Secure Remote Support that will dramatically simplify how IT is deployed and managed."
Strategic Technology Partner Quotes:
Shannon Poulin, Vice President and General Manager, Data Center Group – Intel
"A product like EMC's VSPEX BLUE appliance helps address many of the challenges that Enterprise IT is facing by combining storage, with compute and network resources into a single hyper-converged infrastructure appliance, it delivers a solution that minimizes the latency and also makes it easier to install quickly and scale performance to address real-time workloads."
Mornay Van Der Walt, Vice President, EVO:RAIL Group, VMware
"Today we are excited with EMC's announcement of VSPEX BLUE, a radically simplified hyper-converged infrastructure appliance powered by EMC solutions and VMware EVO:RAIL. This hyper-converged offering is a fully integrated and automated virtual infrastructure building block, which can accelerate customer's time to value for IT investments, and offers a fast and low risk path to the software-defined data center."
Additional Resources
- For more information on VSPEX, go to http://www.emc.com/vspex
- To learn more about EMC Converged Infrastructure Solutions, follow @EMCCloud
- Read the IDC White Paper, "EMC Launches VSPEX BLUE for VMware EVO:RAIL Hyperconverged Systems with Unique Feature Set Enabling IT Transformation," document number 253751.
- Join the #EMC conversation on Twitter
- Connect with EMC via Twitter @EMC Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and ECN
About EMC
EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.
EMC, CloudArray, EMC RecoverPoint, and VSPEX are trademarks or registered trademark of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other products and/or services are trademarks of their respective owners.
VMware and EVO:RAIL are registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. Other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organizations. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.
EMC Forward-looking Statement
This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (iv) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (v) component and product quality and availability; (vi) fluctuations in VMware, Inc.'s operating results and risks associated with trading of VMware stock; (vii) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (viii) risks associated with managing the growth of our business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (ix) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (x) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (xi) fluctuating currency exchange rates; (xii) threats and other disruptions to our secure data centers or networks; (xiii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (xiv) war or acts of terrorism; and (xv) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150202/172976
SOURCE EMC Corporation


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زبان اسوه علم
Learning Every Thing In The Domain Of Language
1 Grow and Grow up.
(a) Grow.
Don't say: These flowers grow up very quickly.
Say: These flowers grow very quickly.
(b) Grow up.
Don't say: When I grow I'll be a doctor.
Say: When I grow up I'll be a doctor.
To grow means to become bigger and to grow up means to become an adult.
2 Wear and Put on.
(a) Wear.
Don't say: Kathy always puts on black shoes.
Say: Kathy wears black shoes.
(b) Put on.
Don't say: I wear my clothes in the morning.
Say: I put on my clothes in the morning.
Wear means to have upon the body as a garment or as an ornament. To put on denotes a simple act.
3 Made from and Made of.
(a) Made from.
Don't say: The bowl is made of glass.
Say: The bowl is made from glass.
(b) Made of.
Don't say: The statue is made from marble.
Say: The statue is made of marble.
We usually use of when you can still recognize the original material. We use from when the original materials are unrecognizable. In most cases either is possible.
OK buddies, wanna add any kinda good examples? Have you ever faced to a person using such verbs interchangeably?
Please tell us about it!
طبقه بندی: Speaking & Listening، نگارش- Writing & Essay،
|[ طراحی : زبان اسوه علم ] [ All Rights Reserved By : OsvehElm]


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THIS WEEK IN THE HOUSE SITTING OF TUESDAY 14th APRIL, 2015 This week in the National Assembly, the Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Mr. Didier Dogley, will answer questions before the House. The Minister will address the following concerns: measures to resolve the poor drainage situation in the Anse Aux Pins district; envisaged strategies to address potable water ...Read More »
Daily Archives: 10 March, 2015
This Week – Sitting of Tuesday 10th March, 2015
THIS WEEK IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY Sitting of Tuesday 10th March, 2015 This week in the National Assembly the Minister for Education, Mrs. Macsuzy Mondon, will appear before the House to answer oral questions. Questions will relate to the following: the Ministry's plans vis-à-vis children suffering from Aspergers and Autism; construction plans for a multipurpose court at Plaisance secondary school; ...Read More »


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The Iranian regime ignores the increasing poverty that causes physical and mental distress among its children.
On Tuesday, in a developing story about Iran's 'butterfly children', the cause of such phenomenon is said be linked to their 'impoverished living conditions'. A news report on the same day came in of an unnamed 15-year-old girl who jumped to her death in Tabriz on Saturday April 9th; the young woman's motive for suicide unknown. These two stories underline the plight of children living in poverty in Iran.
The story turns to focus attention on the ability or willingness of the clerical regime to provide sufficient healthcare to Iran's 77.45 million population, as well as invest in treatments to manage particularly rare conditions like the congenital disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) which affects Iran's so called 'butterfly children' like Zeinab, Yalda, Hamideh, Zahra, and Daniel, living in a village of South Kerman.
Photos of the children published on state-run websites, including the Fars news agency, since April 5th feature one of these children, ten year old Zeinab Afzalpour, who is 'struggling with her blisters continuously'.
A resident of Haidarabad Roudbar, Zeinab's teacher says: "She is incredibly bright in math, and she has a very good learning competence. However, because of the pain she is isolated. She tries to avoid any contact with the other children because the smallest contact causes her wounds to split giving her much pain."
Pointing out about the recent lifting of sanctions by the US and EU, which recently allowed the regime access to new wealth, the article says that 'despite the promises of President Rouhani's government that billions of dollars would provide services to people, thus far the only path of expenses has lined up with [the purchase] of sophisticated weapons, that would only embolden the elite'.
This comes at a time when young people are facing increased 'social and economic pressures, unemployment, skyrocketing prices, corruption, drug addiction and social distress' listed as 'pressures imposed by the repressive police and their meddling in all aspects of [the Iranian] people's daily lives.' And because of that, 'suicides [are] becoming a daily issue in Iran under the mullahs' rule.'
Viewings of the 15-year-old girl's 'images of this young woman before and after her suicide (published alongside the report) raised waves of anger against the mullahs' on the internet. For the children affected by the congenital disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), hospitals in Iran such as Kahnoj and Jiroft 'lack proper healthcare services'.
Some officials of the regime have acknowledged that 'around 80 percent of Iranian people are living below the poverty line.' And in the face of this hardship, Iran's 'butterfly children' remain hopeful and are blindly cared for by their families and teachers who enable them in reaching their ambitions. Even though the Iranian regime ignores the need 'to improve [the Iranian] people's welfare or see to their medical needs.'


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The choice of host you use says a lot about how serious you are about being online.
Imagine spending thousands on setting up a new business to then look for and use free, discounted or shared hosting for your online business? Many do!
Shared hosting is common and many businesses use it. However, your website is hosted along with hundreds, sometimes thousands of other websites on the same server. This can, and sometimes does, have negative consequences.
We'd suggest you look into this and decide for yourself if the hosting you have is ideal for your online presence.
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