text:
30 September 2013
Excellent example of the Ponzo Illusion
The above image was created by 'shopping three identical images of a car onto a photograph of a street. The context of the photo (a receding street) creates in your mind the illusion that the cars are of different sizes - but they are exactly the same. ( I had to measure them to convince myself.)
At Neatorama, Alex Santoso has appended an animated gif to confirm the equality of the car images.
Here's another Ponzo Illusion:
Yes, get out your ruler. We'll wait...
For a sea burial, the last stitch goes through the nose
On one of the ships I sailed as a cadet in the Merchant Navy in the early 1960s, there was a death on board off the West African coast. As there were two doctors on the ship to sign the death certificate and no refrigerated space, it was decided to "commit the body to the deep."I found confirmation at Exeter Flotilla, with a notation that the person who sewed up bodies for burial was paid a guinea per body.
The mate sent me down to assist the bo'sun to prepare and stitch up the corpse, as he said I would be unlikely to witness such an occurrence again. The bo'sun, a North Sea Chinaman (ie, he hailed from the Orkney Isles), was in his sixties and had performed the task several times before. He was a deft hand with the palm [leather glove] and needle used to sew the heavy canvas into a shroud around the body, and when he came to the final stitches around the face he pushed the large triangular-shaped needle right through the nose. I winced, and he looked up at me and said, "That's the law of the sea, the last stitch through the nose, if that don't wake him up I know he's dead."
I can't help but think of how this custom might have doomed the Count of Monte Cristo.
And btw, the phrase in the citation "He was a deft hand with the palm and needle" is interesting in and of itself. See Wherein I learn what a collarmaker's palm is.
Photo from a brief instructional on how to make bunny whiskers: "When you have several loops, remove the needle from the thread, even up the length of the loops, then use sharp scissors to cut the loops open and trim the whiskers to the length you prefer."
The Leidenfrost Effect is endlessly fascinating
I've written about it before (see "How to dip your hand into liquid nitrogen") and was delighted to find at Nothing to do with Arbroath the above video, in which students at the University of Bath used the effect to create directional movement by droplets of water.
Today I also found a description of the effect from 1868:
Mr. Davenport informs us, that he saw one of the workmen in the King's Dockyard at Chatham immerse his naked hand in tar of that temperature [220°]. He drew up his coat sleeves, dipped in his hand and wrist, bringing out fluid tar, and pouring it off from his hand as from a ladle. The tar remained in complete contact with his skin, and he wiped it off with tow...And found that the eponym comes from a German physician:
Mr. Davenport ascribes this singular effect to the slowness with which the tar communicates its heat, which he conceives to arise from the abundant volatile vapour which is evolved 'carrying off rapidly the caloric in a latent state, and intervening between the tar and the skin, so as to prevent the more rapid communication of heat.'..
The workmen informed Mr. Davenport, that, if a person put his hand into the cauldron with his glove on, he would be dreadfully burnt, but this extraordinary result was not put to the test of observation.
"During his lifetime, Leidenfrost published more than seventy manuscripts, including De Aquae Communis Nonnullis Qualitatibus Tractatus (1756) ("A Tract About Some Qualities of Common Water") in which the Leidenfrost effect was first described (although the phenomenon had been previously observed by Herman Boerhaave in 1732)."
Vivienne Westwood catwalk models, Paris, 2014
I've been accused of being provincial or narrow-minded when I've made snarky comments about modern fashion in dress, so I'll just hush up and let these photos speak for themselves.
From a gallery with dozens of photos at The Telegraph.
"Getting into the weeds"
I heard the phrase this afternoon on an NPR radio program about recent Congressional shenanigans and had to look it up. The best I could find was a column in The Word Detective from 2011, excerpted herewith:
"[I]nto the weeds" now seems to be very, very popular, to the point where it earned its own article in the Christian Science Monitor in 2008. That article, in turn, heavily relied on an immensely helpful 2006 post on the excellent linguistics blog Language Log by Mark Liberman, who did some solid research on the phrase.Golf, rather than farming, is favored for the etymology (details at the link).
There seem to be two different uses of "getting into the weeds" out there in the wild. One is the "getting into too much (possibly irrelevant) detail" sense that you mention. This is evidently a very popular figure of speech among policy wonks, beltway insiders in Washington, D.C., and savvy observers such as Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall, who has frequently used the phrase in his articles. The other sense is a restaurant term invoked when the staff is overworked, everything is going wrong, and total chaos is only a burnt fillet of sole away. Back in 2000 there was actually a Molly Ringwald movie about the staff of a restaurant dealing with a bad night called "In the Weeds."
27 September 2013
CCC stonework at Yellowstone Park
Earlier this summer I noted that life is too short for me to personally document all of the CCC projects, and I suggested that readers interested in the subject matter might photograph (or even write up for their own blog) CCC stonework in their community or that which they encounter on their travels.
Today, the first post resulting from that suggestion. Reader Jan Bussey visited Yellowstone Park, and remembering my request she focused her camera on some of the stonework she encountered.
The Civilian Conservation Corps, а New Deal relief agency fоr young men, played а major role between 1933 аnd 1942 іn developing Yellowstone facilities. CCC projects included reforestation, campground development оf many оf the park's trails аnd campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, аnd fire-fighting work. The CCC built the majority оf the early visitor centers, campgrounds аnd the current system оf park roads.The top embedded photo is of a stone building at Madison Junction within the park. One problem that Jan noted is that the park is older than the CCC, so that not every structure can be assumed to be the work of the CCC participants. This building clearly has a new roof (right), but the construction style - with the wall entirely made of native stone rather than faced with stone - clearly suggests an earlier date for its creation. I did find online confirmation that CCC work was done at Madison Junction.
The Old Faithful Lodge (above) has extensive and impressive stonework, but because it was constructed in the 1920s and because the stonework is so integral to the building (fireplace, load-bearing walls), it must predate the CCC program.
Road overlooks are also prime sites for impressive stonework. Jan photographed this one at Gibbon Falls, where there certainly has been recent restoration and repair -
And this one at Lake Jenny - done in mortarless fashion. There was no single fashion or style of stonework common to all the CCC projects. The administration hired local professional stonemasons to instruct the boys who came out of the inner cities and farmsteads, and each stonemason presumably had skills acquired over a lifetime on how to work with local material.
I'll end with this photo taken at Madison Junction. I particularly like the way the stone wall of the building was integrated into the massive stone protruding from the ground.
If other readers have photos of CCC stonework in Yellowstone, I can append them here later. Jan Bussey's other photographs are displayed in galleries at her Cascade Exposures website.
I believe two readers (Flask and Christy) are currently compiling photos of CCC stonework at Watkins Glen. Stay tuned.
An extremely clean harvestman
As reported by Susannah Anderson in her delightful blog Wanderin' Weeta (With Waterfowl and Weeds):
I took a blouse out of the washer and hung it to dry. This daddy-long-legs came running out of a fold. Good thing I used cold water and the gentle cycle.More photos at the link, along with this interesting question: "I wonder: does he run faster with shorter legs? Do those long, wobbly legs slow down his brothers?"
I saw him last night, roaming placidly around the bathroom; he looked duller then. Today, the first thing I saw was the flash of brick red. And he was panicking; I don't think I've ever seen a harvestman run as fast as he was before.
I don't have an answer, but I did find this interesting tidbit:
The legs continue to twitch after they are detached. This is because there are 'pacemakers' located in the ends of the first long segment (femur) of their legs. These pacemakers send signals via the nerves to the muscles to extend the leg and then the leg relaxes between signals. While some harvestman's legs will twitch for a minute, other kinds have been recorded to twitch for up to an hour. The twitching has been hypothesized as a means to keep the attention of a predator while the harvestman escapes.Just like a skink's tail. Cool.
Adrian's bookcase
"Just showing what's on my main bookshelf at the end of 2012. Not every title is legible, but it's the best of several takes. There's one more shelf underneath (containing textbooks and magazines) which I chose not to include.
Happy to answer any questions."Readers who would like to submit material for this feature will find guidelines here.
p.s. - a video like this is a quick way to create documentation for insurance purposes in case of fire, flood, tornado, or other biblioholocaust.
Professor Batty's bookcase
"This is my personal shelf, my wife has her own. The top row are all Icelandic books, with many of the sagas and all of the translated work of Halldór Laxness. This is an active reference for my Laxness in Translation site. There is a fair amount of modern Icelandic fiction on the second row as well; the Arnaldur Indriason mysteries, Sjón's strange novels, along with the late Minnesota author Bill Holm's evocative essay collections. The rest of the case holds music-related books (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Björk), mythology (Robert Graves, Joesph Campbell), folktales, some modern fiction (Douglas Coupland, Jeffery Eugenides, Charles Portis), a variety of art books and some miscellany. Some of the more interesting titles:
Songs of a Sourdough, by Robert W. Service (1907)
The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire, by Charles Morris
The Art Journal Volume XVIII, (1879)
After 1903—What?, by Robert Benchley (1938)
California and the West, by Edward Weston (1940)
Growing Pains, by Wanda Gág (1939)
Most of these books I look at or read fairly often, I don't keep books I won't read again."Readers who would like to submit material for this feature will find guidelines here.
The value of a dashcam
Dashcams are very popular in Russia because they provide documentation of faked accidents and injuries - as for example those created by the pedestrians in this supercut.
One note from the BoingBoing via: "Unfortunately someone really does get run over, so don't watch this if you think you might be disturbed."
26 September 2013
Using polio virus to treat brain tumors
This MRI depicts a sagittal view of the head of a 15-year-old boy with GBM.
My wife forwarded to me an article in the Washington Post that is absolutely fascinating.
Glioblastoma multiforme is a particularly vicious type of brain cancer. It arises from neural tissue and is extremely aggressive, infiltrating in a fashion that makes surgical excision virtually impossible, and is resistant to radiation therapy and chemotherapy (because drugs have difficulty penetrating the blood/brain barrier).
Enter the poliovirus, which has evolved over millenia to target neural tissue:
The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Cancer Center at Duke University has the largest experience on the East Coast with my sort of tumor, so I went there for further consultation and treatment.
As doctors there examined me, it was obvious that my tumor had already grown again; in fact, it had quadrupled in size since my initial chemo and radiation. I was offered several treatments and experimental protocols, one of which involved implanting a modified polio virus into my brain. (This had been very successful in treating GBMs in mice.) Duke researchers had been working on this for 10 years and had just received permission from the FDA to treat 10 patients, but for only one a month. (A Duke press release last May explained that the treatment was designed to capitalize "on the discovery that cancer cells have an abundance of receptors that work like magnets in drawing the poliovirus, which then infects and kills the cells. The investigational therapy . . . uses an engineered form of the virus that is lethal to cancer cells, while harmless to normal cells. The therapy is infused directly into a patient's tumor. The virus-based therapy also triggers the body's immune system to attack the infected tumor cells.")...
I returned to Duke a month after the infusion, and though an MRI showed some expected swelling, the more significant fact was that the tumor had stopped growing. I have gone back to Duke every two months since then, and the tumor, initially the size of a grape, is now a scar, the size of a small pea. It's been two years since the initial biopsy and radiation, and one year since the experimental polio viral treatment, and I have no evidence of recurrence nor tumor regrowth.
With a "smart rifle" anyone can be a sniper
Excerpts from a fascinating article at Vice's Motherboard:
[TalkingPoint Solutions] made headlines in early 2013 when it unveiled the precision guided firearm (PGF). Think of it as a long-range, laser-guided robo rifle—as much Linux-based computer as traditional firearm. The PGF's closed-loop system comprises not just the gun itself, a custom Surgeon rifle, but also custom ammunition and, notably, a proprietary (and WiFi-enabled) scope. The technology packed into TrackingPoint's initial PGF package is so advanced that we'd heard it could have an inexperienced shooter, maybe even someone who hasn't ever fired a gun, putting lead on targets at over 1,000 away in mere minutes. Not lifetimes. Not years. Minutes...
The art of sniping has traditionally been one of complex ballistics. A long-distance shot must be aimed above a target due to the bullet's drop (gravity) and a slew of other ambient factors that play with projectiles—wind, incline, cant, humidity, temperature, the coriolis effect. TrackingPoint's system does the exact same real-time ballistics calculation, only it does it for you. This is what the company means when it says it's "democratizing accuracy"...
The scope records video every time the system tags, tracks, and fires. Being WiFi enabled, users can immediately upload videos of their kills from the scope directly to social media. Shared killing—it's part of a broader push to target digital natives. "If there's one thing we've got, it's 12-year-olds on the Internet," said TrackingPoint's marketing director Oren Schauble, who is Jason's younger brother.
The PGF is by no means perfect, at least not yet. But that doesn't mean it's not really, really good at doing precisely what it's designed to do. It took all but five minutes for me to put that one together. That's how long I waited, in another stuffy blind on the opposite side of the ranch, for a 250-pound hog to saunter out of the brush and into a clearing, a black blob in the HUD's reticle. It was a big thing, the sort of critter that my guide, a leather-skinned ranch hand named Chris, referred to as a "fuckin' toad." I dropped my tag, aligned the pip and reticle, and just when I thought the PGF would fire, it did. It was a 200 yard shot to the neck. I was told if it had been just fractions of an inch further to the left I would've blown the thing's head clean off.Much more at the link. Interesting reading.
To think, even experienced snipers "have difficulty making first-round hits at long range," as TrackingPoint claims. But there I was, just some dude who only 48 hours prior had neither fired nor held a gun. One shot, one kill...
TrackingPoint doesn't want to wait around. To hear Jason Schauble tell it, they'll do it better and faster, and sell it to the public all the while. The company tells me they're on pace to sell 500 PGFs by the end of 2013, which would double initial projections. As of this writing, the startup has sold $250,000 worth of its custom ammo alone.
"Telephone Line" (ELO, 1976)
Hello, how are you? Have you been alright?
Through all those lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely nights
That's what I'd say, I'd tell you everything
If you'd pick up that telephone, yeah yeah yeah.
Re "Telephone Line":Hey, how you feelin'? Are you still the same?
Don't you realize the things we did, we did
Were all for real, not a dream? And I just can't believe
They've all faded out of view, yeah yeah yeah...
The song is track two on their 1976 album, A New World Record... It became their biggest single success in the US and was their first UK gold award for a single. With ELO's continuing success in America it seemed obvious to Lynne to use an American ring tone during the songWriter/guitarist, Lynne explained:And re the group:
To get the sound on the beginning, you know, the American telephone sound, we phoned from England to America to a number that we know nobody would be at, to just listen to it for a while. On the Moog we recreated the sound exactly by tuning the oscillators to the same notes as the ringing of the phone.
Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are a British rock group from Birmingham, England, who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones...Crank it up!!
The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits of any group in US chart history without ever having a number one single...
The group's name is an intended pun based not only on electric light (as in a light bulb as seen on early album covers) but also using "electric" rock instruments combined with a "light orchestra" (orchestras with only a few cellos and violins that were popular in Britain during the 1960s).
The official band logo... is based on a 1946 Wurlitzer jukebox model 4008 speaker... For instance, on 1977's Out of the Blue, the logo was turned into a huge flying saucer space station, an enduring image now synonymous with the band.
24 September 2013
Lake Bondhus, Norway
The Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year for 2011 (click image for fullscreen).
Winning (and runner-up) photos dating back to 2006 are available at the link.
The slaughter of rhinoceros
I've written five posts about the ongoing worldwide slaughter of rhinoceros. I hate to keep harping on the subject, but it keeps happening:
Nearly 700 rhinos have been killed in South Africa in 2013, making it the bloodiest year yet for rhino poaching. Last year, a record 668 rhinos were poached for their horns, but that figure has already been eclipsed with the deaths of 688 rhinos with three months left of the year, figures from the South African government show. There are around 18,000 white and 4,000 black rhinos in the country.
The dramatic growth in rhino poaching in South Africa, up from just 13 in 2007, has largely been driven by demand in Asia, in particular Vietnam, where rhino horn is seen as a status symbol. A survey of 720 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, published earlier this month, found that typical buyers were "educated, successful and powerful individuals" and use rhino horn as currency in networking.
A bleak future for the wife of a rapist
Excerpts from a grim story in the Wall Street Journal:
Akshay Kumar Singh and three other men were convicted this month of a crime that focused the world's attention on violence against women in India: the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in December.
For the parents of the woman who died, the sentencing brought a measure of closure. For Ms. Devi, who is in her 20s, and her 2-year-old son, her husband's crime and punishment have opened up a chapter of profound uncertainty.
Ms. Devi expects to be cast out by her in-laws and face ostracism and destitution here in India's conservative hinterland—not because she is married to a convicted murderer, but because she is a woman without a husband. "As a widow, my honor will be lost forever," she says.
Her husband's relatives say they can't afford to feed her. Her parents say they are too poor to take her back. The customs of purdah practiced in the region make it almost impossible for her to work outside the home.
"I am not educated. Our traditions are such that I cannot even step out of the house," Ms. Devi said. "Who will earn money to feed me and my son?"...
Ms. Devi says she can write her name and a few Hindi words, and read a bit. She knew from an early age, she says, what was expected of a woman: to raise children and take care of household tasks...
Since Mr. Singh's December arrest, his family has been thrown into upheaval. His brothers, Vinay and Abhay, who had also been working around Delhi, left their jobs for three months to help out at home, straining household finances. The family's reputation has been damaged.
"They treat us as untouchables," says Abhay Singh, who works in a paint factory in a Delhi suburb...
Ms. Devi doesn't know where to turn. "Is there anyone who is thinking of me?" she asked, crying after learning of the death sentence. "I am alive and I have a small child who is still breathing."
Elite fundraiser for Obama nominated for Canadian ambassadorship
Every president does this, and I'm frankly tired of it.
A veteran Goldman Sachs & Co. executive and major fundraiser for President Barack Obama has been nominated as the next ambassador to Canada — the latest in a parade of big-dollar campaign backers slated to represent U.S. interests abroad.
Chicago-based Bruce Heyman raised more than $750,000 for Obama's committees since 2007, along with his wife, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of records.
Heyman's nomination is a sort of milestone for the White House: During his second term, Obama has now tapped 20 campaign bundlers for ambassadorships. Together, these moneymen and women raised at least $13.8 million — and likely much more — for Obama's political committees since 2007, according to the Center for Public Integrity's research.I was delighted in 2009 when he chose John Huntsman (fluent in Mandarin Chinese) to the diplomatic post in China. But by 2011 the stream of patronage was obvious -
More than two years after President Obama took office vowing to banish "special interests" from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended numerous elite White House meetings and social events...And now it continues during the second term. Please someone tell me this Heyman at least speaks French.
As a candidate, Obama spoke passionately about diminishing the clout of moneyed interests and making the White House more accessible to everyday Americans. In kicking off his presidential run on Feb. 10, 2007, he blasted "the cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests," who he said had "turned our government into a game only they can afford to play."
Clever Halloween costumes
It's a bit early for Halloween-themed posts, but I wanted to break a series of rather serious topics. When I'm giving out treats to the neighbor kids, I much prefer to see home-made outfits rather than plastic store-bought Spiderman or Power Ranger costumes.
The soda-bottles-with-crepe-paper-flames comes from Been There, Pinned That (via Neatorama); the wheelchair adaptation (which seems more appropriate for a parade than for door-to-door trick-or-treating and may not have originally been for Halloween) was at imgur, via Reddit.
Teaser for "Hug an Atheist"
Excerpts from an article at Sojourners:
Some outside the atheist community — and even many inside it — would argue that atheism has an image problem. Every challenge to the First Amendment seems to bring to the airwaves some version of an angry atheist versus a sputtering religious pundit. Cooler, calmer heads seldom make an appearance.
Now, a new feature-length documentary from a first-time filmmaker hopes to put a more human, middle-of-the-road face on American atheism... The 90-minute film is the project of Sylvia Broeckx, a 35-year-old Belgian who lives in England and has been an atheist and humanist since her teens. She became interested in America's perception of nonbelievers when some American friends and fellow atheists shared their own stories of feeling marginalized."I always assumed America was founded on freedom of religion and was very much like Europe where if you are an atheist it is no big deal," she said. "When I discovered that in America being an atheist could be a big problem, that was really a shock to me."She was especially upset by the stories of Jessica Ahlquist and Damon Fowler, two teenage atheists who challenged prayer in their public schools. Ahlquist, a Rhode Island high schooler, received death threats and was belittled by local government officials, and Fowler's family kicked him out of their Louisiana home before his high school graduation...What is not included is any sort of diatribe or argument against religious belief or believers that's become the common currency of the most visible atheist activists.
"I really wanted to make sure it was as upbeat as possible and that it really wasn't a case of 'us' against 'them,'" Broeckx said.
A vibration-cancelling spoon for persons with tremors
The device is described at Fast Company Design:
At first glimpse, the Liftware almost seems like a novelty gadget: an electronic spoon stuffed full of smartphone motion sensors and accelerometers. But the problem that the Liftware is trying to solve is far from trivial. Across the country, there are over 10 million people suffering from essential tremor; there are an additional 2 million people suffering from Parkinson's disease. For these 12 million Americans, the Liftware isn't just an electronic spoon; it's a tool that could give them their dignity and self-respect back...Anyone who has had a family member with Parkinson's will appreciate the potential value of such a device.
Here's how it works. Inside every Liftware handle is a number of common motion sensors, the type that you might find in your iPhone or digital camera. Each of these sensors measures motion, then passes it through a small microcontroller that uses custom algorithms to analyze the signal and identify the type of tremor being detected. If the motion has the frequency and amplitude of a large human tremor, the Liftware microprocessor will tell actuators in the handle to adjust the handle's attachment in the opposite direction of the tremor, hopefully canceling it out.
It's exactly what the word says - skin (derma) inflammation (itis) caused by exposure to plants (phyto) and sunlight (photo). My wife has experienced it after brusing against rue in our garden (which we raise for the Black Swallowtails). Other plants capable of photosensitizing human skin are listed in the Wikipedia entry, and include wild parsnip (which we encounter frequently while hiking in our part of the Midwest), parsley, celery, lemon, and lime.
The photos above are from a report on a group of children burned after playing with lime juice.
What at first seemed to be overexposure to the sun blossomed into softball-sized blisters and second-degree burns. Her girls, Jewels, 12, and Jazmyn, 9, wound up spending several days in an intensive care unit, hooked up to morphine to manage the pain...The tricky part is that even after initial clinical resolution, the victim has to minimize exposure to sunlight because the light can cause recrudescence of the lesions even without reexposure to the sensitizer.
A neighbor had a large lime tree that grew over the fence into the backyard where the girls went swimming. They had picked some of the fruits and squeezed them out into imaginary tea cups in their play lemonade stand... She remembered the girls crushing the fruits, juice sliding down their arms, splashing their legs, hitting their faces.
Via Nothing to do with Arbroath.
See if you could pass this "literacy" test
In the 1960s literacy tests were used in some states in the United States to suppress voting. The Civil Rights Movement Veterans website has collected a number of these.
In addition to completing the application and swearing the oaths, you had to pass the actual "Literacy Test" itself. Because the Freedom Movement was running "Citizenship Schools" to help people learn how to fill out the forms and pass the test, Alabama changed the test 4 times in less than two years (1964-1965). At the time of the Selma Voting Rights campaign there were actually 100 different tests in use across the state...Done with page one (above)? Here are pages 2 and 3:
Most of the tests collected here are a battery of trivia questions related to civic procedure and citizenship. (Two from the Alabama test: "Name the attorney general of the United States" and "Can you be imprisoned, under Alabama law, for a debt?").
But this Louisiana "literacy" test, singular among its fellows, has nothing to do with citizenship. Designed to put the applicant through mental contortions, the test's questions are often confusingly worded. If some of them seem unanswerable, that effect was intentional. The (white) registrar would be the ultimate judge of whether an answer was correct.
Try this one: "Write every other word in this first line and print every third word in same line (original type smaller and first line ended at comma) but capitalize the fifth word that you write."
Oh, BTW...
The test was to be taken in 10 minutes flat, and a single wrong answer meant a failing grade.
Did you fail? You can't vote.
Via Slate and BoingBoing.
Advances in logrolling
Meet Wisconsinite Abby Hoeschler, who is the boom running world record holder.
"I'm the current boom running world champion and world record holder. There are two events: In logrolling, you're trying to dislodge your competitor from the log (or just be the last one on the log) in a three-out-of-five-round match. In boom running, a course of eight logs tied end to end is attached to two docks, and you sprint across and back. The fastest time wins."More about her and the sport in the StarTribune. In the video she is promoting a synthetic log she developed and is marketing to help popularize (and standardize) the sport. To overcome the logistic problem of transporting 500-pound logs, the synthetic ones are hollow, made of polyethylene, then filled with water at the site of use to bring them up to mass.
"It uses a lot of core ... and a lot of butt, because you're in the squat position — really digging in. It's kind of like chair pose in yoga. You keep your shoulders up, with a strong core. It's an all-body workout."
Here's a video of the women's boom-running competition at the Lumberjack World Championships. And this one of the finals of the men's logrolling competition in 2011:
23 September 2013
Dinosaur feathers
Preserved in amber.
The researchers combed through thousands of minuscule amber nuggets from nearly 80 million years ago. Among them they found 11 M&M-sized globules with traces of ancient feathers and fuzz. A number resembled modern feathers—some fit for flying and others designed to dive. And unlike fossils, the amber preserved colors too: white, gray, red and brown.The research was published in Science back in 2011:
The unusual find suggests a wide array of plumed creatures populated the time period—sporting everything from seemingly modern feathers to their filament-like forebears—and that even by this early date, feathers had become specialized, for example, for diving underwater...
The currently accepted evolutionary-developmental model for feathers consists of a stage I morphology characterized by a single filament: This unfurls into a tuft of filaments (barbs) in stage II. In stage III, either some tufted barbs coalesce to form a rachis (central shaft) (IIIa), or barbules (segmented secondary branches) stem from the barbs (IIIb); then, these features combine to produce tertiary branching (IIIa+b). Barbules later differentiate along the length of each barb, producing distal barbules with hooklets at each node to interlock adjacent barbs and form a closed pennaceous (vaned) feather (stage IV). Stage V encompasses a wide range of additional vane and subcomponent specializations. Most modern birds possess stage IV or V feathers or secondary reductions from these stages...Red-feathered underwater dinosaurs. I love it.
The snapshot of Campanian feather diversity from Canadian amber is biased toward smaller feathers, subcomponents of feathers, feathers that are molted frequently, and feathers in body positions that increase their likelihood of contacting resin on tree trunks. Despite these limitations, the assemblage demonstrates that numerous evolutionary stages were present in the Late Cretaceous, and that plumage already served a range of functions in both dinosaurs and birds.
Via Discover Magazine and Neatorama.
"Mountain Dew mouth"
From a story at NPR:
[O]ver in Appalachia, the region that stretches roughly from southern New York state to Alabama, the fight against soda is targeting an altogether different concern: rotted teeth. Public health advocates say soft drinks are driving the region's alarmingly high incidence of eroded brown teeth — a phenomenon dubbed "Mountain Dew mouth," after the region's favorite drink...More information at the link. Photo from a related article at First Choice Dental.
Dentists have also found that the effects of soda on teeth are strikingly similar to the effects of methamphetamine or crack on teeth... Drinking more than a soda a day raises the risk that found in many soft and energy drinks will eat away at your tooth enamel and its pearly white color...
Harris says that dental problems are especially bad because dental care is harder to get in Appalachia, which includes many of the poorest and most remote communities in the country. Many people don't trust the well water in their homes because of pollution concerns and probably drink more soda because of it...
Video of the moon rotating
The technology is explained at NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day:
No one, presently, sees the Moon rotate like this. That's because the Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us only one side. Given modern digital technology, however, combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has now been composed. The above time-lapse video starts with the standard Earth view of the Moon. Quickly, though, Mare Orientale, a large crater with a dark center that is difficult to see from the Earth, rotates into view just below the equator. From an entire lunar month condensed into 24 seconds, the video clearly shows that the Earth side of the Moon contains an abundance of dark lunar maria, while the lunar far side is dominated by bright lunar highlands.
Where are they now? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"After the expiry of his second term he decided to withdraw from political life and started working again as a professor and teaches at the University of Science and Technology.Photo credit RTS, via In Serbia. Discussed at Reddit.
A situation where the highest state official and a man who wielded enormous power subsequently returns to his humble position as a university professor job is hard to imagine.
However, the former Iranian president now takes the a bus to work every day and, judging by the photo, looks content."
One-man band
Slightly modified from the original, via Alabaster.
Rob's bookcase in Amersfoort
"I didn't do any tidying up, it's always a bit messy. A bookcase is a window in one's soul - I always look at them when I visit somebody. You can spot lots of atlases and historical books, a.o. about NY, Berlin. There are some photo books, books about science, travel, etymology, and even the Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu I still have to read.Readers who would like to submit material for this feature will find guidelines here.
At the top there are two dinosaurs I made when I was (very) young."
Dora's rainbow bookcase
"This picture was taken a couple of years ago when my husband and I had just moved into our first home together and merged our books collections. Not knowing how best to organize them, I went for visual appeal. So it ends up being a mix of my favorite novels (best is the Dark Tower series), his technical and 'geek' reads (tons of Make magazines on lower shelves not shown because it didn't fit the rainbow effect I was going for), and baby books since we were new parents. As you said in your post, the rest of our lives are delineated by other bookshelves in other rooms."Readers who would like to submit material for this feature will find guidelines here.
San Francisco Zoo advertisement
Agency: BBDO West, San Francisco, USA. Creative Director: Jim Lesser
Image cropped from original at Ads of the World, via Neatorama.
20 September 2013
Images from The Getty's Open Content Program
Alexander the Great in the Air; Unknown; Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany, Europe; about 1400 – 1410 with addition in 1487; Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment.
In a scene representing one of the stories from the legend of Alexander the Great most popular in the Middle Ages, the world conqueror, dressed as a European monarch might be, is pulled aloft by a pair of griffins and an angel. They hover precariously over a sea filled with an entertaining variety of fish and other creatures. The artist emphasizes the strange chair's upward movement as it carries the group out of the square framework of the miniature and takes off into the text.
A Harvest of Death; Timothy H. O'Sullivan, American, about 1840 – 1882, Print by Alexander Gardner, American, born Scotland, 1821 – 1882; negative July 4, 1863; print 1866; Albumen silver print.
Although Gardner's caption identifies the men in the photograph as "rebels represented...without shoes," they are probably Union dead. During the Civil War, shoes were routinely removed from corpses because supplies were scarce and surviving troops needed them.The two images I've embedded are from a selection of about twenty assembled at Public Domain Review.
In August of this year The Getty announced the launch of their Open Content Program which sees more than 4500 images from their collection made available under an open license, meaning anyone can share the images freely and without restriction.A wonderful resource for bloggers and the intellectually curious.
The disappearing "middle class"
Excerpts from an essay at Salon:
When I was growing up, it was assumed that America's shared prosperity was the natural endpoint of our economy's development, that capitalism had produced the workers paradise to which Communism unsuccessfully aspired. Now, with the perspective of 40 years, it's obvious that the nonstop economic expansion that lasted from the end of World War II to the Arab oil embargo of 1973 was a historical fluke, made possible by the fact that the United States was the only country to emerge from that war with its industrialMore at the link.
Capitalism has been doing exactly what it was designed to do: concentrating wealth in the ownership class, while providing the mass of workers with just enough wages to feed, house and clothe themselves.
The United States will never again be as wealthy as it was in the 1950s and '60s. Never again will 18-year-olds graduate directly from high school to jobs that pay well enough to buy a house and support a family.
Queen Marie of Romania
Via Alabaster. I was unable to find an explanation as to whether the headdress is part of some ceremony of state, or whether this is stage/costume/revelry related. A TinEye reverse image search didn't help. Biography here.
Addendum: A hat tip to reader
Influential and successful marijuana users
"Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's largest marijuana policy organization, released a list of the "Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users" in the United States on Wednesday. At the top of the list is none other than our hypocrite…er…commander in chief Barack Obama, who has sent more pot smokers and other nonviolent drug offenders to prison in his five years as president than any before him...Here's the start of the list:
"The goal here is to dispel the myth that marijuana users are 'losers' who lack motivation and highlight the fact that they are typically productive and oftentimes quite successful," said Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. "As this list demonstrates, many of our nation's most successful citizens have used marijuana."
The list is composed of Americans who have used marijuana at least once during their lifetimes, including some who speak openly about their current marijuana use. "
Barack ObamaThe rest of the list, with citations of their admissions to marijuana use, is at Salon.
Oprah Winfrey
Bill Clinton
Clarence Thomas
Stephen Colbert
Jon Stewart
John Kerry
George Soros
Bill Maher
Bill Gates
George W. Bush
Andrew Cuomo
Rand Paul
Sanjay Gupta
LeBron James
Rush Limbaugh
George Clooney
Michael Bloomberg
Lady Gaga
Brad Pitt
Ted Turner
Tom Browaw
Michael Phelps...
"So long."
I'm not the easiest guy in the world to get along with. So when our anniversary rolled around, I wanted my wife to know how much I appreciated her tolerating me for the past 20 years. I ordered flowers and told the florist to enclose a card that read, "Thanks for putting up with me so long."Found in Reader's Digest.
When my wife got the delivery, she called me at work.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" I said.
She read the card aloud as the florist had written it: "Thanks for putting up with me. So long."
—George Arnold, Melbourne, Florida
19 September 2013
A "standing version" of a seesaw
A school girl soars twice her height in a standing version of a seesaw in Tokyo, Japan, November 1964. Photograph by Winfield Parks, National Geographic.From National Geographic's Found, via old photos, young kids.
How to roll up your sleeves
"A new uniform rule that takes effect Monday will require all Marines to wear their sleeves rolled down, all year long.More information at Marine Corps Times, via an article at Lew Rockwell.
Beginning next week, leathernecks in Marine Pattern utilities will be required to cover their arms no matter the climate or place, according to Marine administrative message 621/11, signed Oct. 18."
Readers who are not in the Marines may wish to read the column at The Art of Manliness, which explains in detail when, why, and how to roll up your cuffs (including an instructional video).
"Poo Pourri"
An advertisement for a (real) product designed to minimize or neutralize malodorous flatus and fecal odors. The video is SFW, though many will find it egregiously tasteless.
Via within the crainium.
Valuable serial numbers on currency
Excerpts from an interesting article at Boston.com:
Currency collectors pay handsomely for what they call "fancy" serial numbers—digits that they perceive as unusual or special...
The simplest fancy numbers are the early ones: The redesigned $100 note with serial number 00000001 is likely to fetch $10,000 to $15,000, according to Dustin Johnston, director of currency for Heritage Auctions in Dallas. A $20 bill that was first off the press in a 2009 run sold in April for $5,581. A $2 bill numbered 0000001 with a star—the star means it replaced a misprinted note with the same number—sold in May 2009 for $29,900...
In addition to the "low numbers," which stop at 100, there are "ladders," which have numbers in sequence, such as 12345678 or 54321098. These sell for as much as $1,300. A "radar" (selling for $20 to $40) is a palindrome, such as 35299253, and "repeaters" are notes with two blocks of the same four digits, like 41884188. Undis observes subcategories of each of these, such as "super radars" ($75 to $100) that have all internal digits the same, like 46666664...
Undis says he got started looking for serial numbers about 30 years ago, when he found a note that had nothing but 3's and 8's. He is now trying to find the last nine notes in a set of all 254 serial numbers consisting solely of 1's and 0's ("binaries")."Solids" are numbers consisting of all one digit, such as 22222222. "Solids are popular with Asian collectors," Johnston says. "Solid 8's in particular, because the number 8 means good fortune," and collectors will pay as much as $3,000 for one to give to friends or relatives as framed presents. "The number 4 sounds like 'death,'" Johnston says, "but I can't think of anyone giving solid 4's to an enemy." Americans like 77777777's, and a solid-7 $20 sold in 2009 for $528.
For those of you who just peeked in your wallet, the relevant eBay category for selling your windfall is here.
Surfer catches wave - and vice versa
"I dropped Sean at the top of the reef, and the ocean went flat, like someone had turned off the tap. It takes a big set to light this slab up, and as Sean sat patiently I saw a big lump coming. I started yelling, but he had no reference as to where he was on the reef so he waited and paddled for this first wave of the set. He just missed it, and when I looked back, this deep blue lump just started draining out, almost sucking him under the wave. He took one big duckdive and got under the breaking lip. On a normal wave this is fine but this thing didn't have a back -- the reef drops to 200m out the back of this place so when it breaks it really folds. The wave had just too much power and sucked him back over the falls, it's pretty much a surfer's worst nightmare position, so many people claim this is photoshopped, but it certainly is not!"From The Atlantic. The image was a winning entry in the Red Bull Illume Image Quest photography competition.
Gut Fermentation Syndrome
As reported in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine, via NPR:
A 61-year-old man — with a history of home-brewing — stumbled into a Texas emergency room complaining of dizziness. Nurses ran a Breathalyzer test. And sure enough, the man's blood alcohol concentration was a whopping 0.37 percent, or almost five times the legal limit for driving in Texas.I'm not sure the term "infection" is proper here; probably better to say his intestines were colonized, presumably as a result of his avocational exposure to the yeast. Still, it's rather interesting.
There was just one hitch: The man said that he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol that day...
So the team searched the man's belongings for liquor and then isolated him in a hospital room for 24 hours. Throughout the day, he ate carbohydrate-rich foods, and the doctors periodically checked his blood for alcohol. At one point, it rose 0.12 percent. Eventually, McCarthy and Cordell pinpointed the culprit: an overabundance of brewer's yeast in his gut...
The patient had an infection with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Cordell says. So when he ate or drank a bunch of starch — a bagel, pasta or even a soda — the yeast fermented the sugars into ethanol, and he would get drunk. Essentially, he was brewing beer in his own gut.
Alice Liddell (1858)
Photographed by Lewis Carroll. See also the photo of Alice posing as a beggar-maid. Additional discussion/insight here.
Photo via Alabaster.
Urban feral dogs
Excerpts from an article at The Atlantic/Cities:
According to the city government, a staggering 64,000 feral dogs live on Bucharest's streets, giving the metro area, population 2.3 million, more than twice as many street dogs per capita as Detroit, its closest U.S. rival... Bucharestians will vote on October 6 on whether or not to allow euthanasia for the city's entire stray dog population.More details at the link.
Large stray dog populations are common across Southeastern Europe. Around the 2004 Olympics, there were unconfirmed allegations that Athens planned to kill as many as 15,000 stray dogs, though some of this number were eventually neutered and re-homed. A sad by-product of economic dire straits, Greece's stray dog numbers are now rising again due to the crisis. As many families can no longer afford to feed their pets, they set them loose on the streets, preferring to imagine a lean future of scavenging for their dogs rather than instant euthanasia at overstretched pounds...
As experience in Detroit shows, however, killing large numbers of dogs is expensive and complicated even if you disregard the suffering such a move would cause.
The above image comes from a gallery posted in The Telegraph. The photographs come from what must be a remarkable book "Before They Pass Away," documenting the faces and ethnic dress of members of small tribes around the world.
This photo was captioned "Others included the Chukchi and the Nenets (both Russia), the Drokpa (India/Pakistan), the Banna and the Karo (both Ethiopia)," but doesn't specify which group this lady belongs to.
17 September 2013
"Back-to-back" bookbinding
The bookbindings above are as odd as they are rare. In fact, I encountered my first only a few days ago while browsing Folger Library's image database of bookbindings. The binding is called "dos-à-dos" (back to back), a type almost exclusively produced in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are like Siamese twins in that they present two different entities joint at their backs: each part has one board for itself, while a third is shared between the two. Their contents show why this was done: you will often find two complementary devotional works in them, such as a prayerbook and a Psalter, or the Bible's Old and New Testament. Reading the one text you can flip the "book" to consult the other...Photo and text from the ever-interesting Erik Kwakkel, where there are additional photos of similar bindings, including one that incorporates seven texts back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
Addendum: A hat tip to reader Christina Wilsdon for her observation that the term "dos-à-dos" (meaning "back to back") is related in etymology to the square dancing term "do-si-do."
David's bookshelves
I have one entire bedroom plus my dining area dedicated to some fifteen bookshelves. My large library has always been an integral and important part of my life and identity.Readers who would like to submit material for this feature will find guidelines here.
Instead of wide photos of lots of shelves, here are some pics of my "Special Bookshelf" containing books I've had the privilege of having signed by the authors. Most of these are science-fiction novels and some are from famous authors that have now passed on, including L. Sprague de Camp, Roger Zelazny, and Jack Williamson, or from once obscure but now well-known guys like George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones). I interviewed most of these folks back in the '80s for a nationally syndicated radio show I co-produced, so most of these were personal signatures.
I also treasure several signed books on shamanism, alternative history, and visionary art from my friends, author Graham Hancock and artist Alex Grey. I'm including a pic of one of the books signed by Golden Age science-fiction author, L. Sprague de Camp and his wife Catherine. At the time I met them, he owned the Conan the Barbarian stories of Robert E. Howard and I got to go along to Cross Plains, Texas while they interviewed people who knew Howard back in the '30s.
Of all my possessions, I think I'd grab these signed books right after rescuing the family photos if there was some disaster.
Science tattoos
Depictions of a CERN bubble chamber and a horseshoe crab are two of the ten examples in an annotated gallery posted at Accidental Mysteries.
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text:
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Four couples from the United States and Australia have been prevented from leaving Thailand with surrogate babies as part of a government crackdown on the burgeoning commercial surrogacy industry, an Australian broadcaster reported Friday.
The crackdown follows recent publicity over a Thai surrogate mother who said she was left with a baby rejected by his Australian biological parents after he was born with Down syndrome. The biological parents, who took the boy's healthy twin sister home, dispute the circumstances in which they abandoned their son.
Two Australian same-sex couples were prevented by Thai officials from leaving the Bangkok airport on Thursday afternoon with babies born to Thai women, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. One couple had attempted to travel with the Thai surrogate mother in the hope of avoiding a challenge at the immigration desk, ABC said.
Two U.S. couples were prevented from leaving Thailand with babies in similar circumstances since Wednesday, ABC said.
Thai officials told ABC the couples would have to apply for court orders to take the babies from the country, a process that could take months.
Thailand's Immigration police spokesman Col. Voravat Amornvivat said the Bangkok airport's immigration departure section had no record of Australian couples with surrogate babies who were barred from leaving Thailand. He said, however, that it might be possible that it was not flagged in the system.
"If it did happen, it could be because the couples could not provide sufficient documents to prove that the babies are theirs," Voravat said. "Under the Thai law, in order to bring an infant out of the country, it has to be proven that the infant is traveling with or accompanied by the parents. And due to the recent surrogacy issue, the authorities are stricter in keeping an eye on those leaving the country."
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Friday would not confirm the report, citing privacy reasons.
"We strongly urge Australians entering Thailand for the purposes of commercial surrogacy to seek independent legal advice in both Thailand and Australia before doing so," the department said in a statement.
"In particular, they should seek advice on the implications of any new exit requirements," it added.
Scores of Australian biological parents are currently pregnant through surrogates in Thailand.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. -- Reggie Garrett will be joining the staff of Pace University football as the defensive backs coach for the 2014 season.
Garrett comes to Pace after coaching one season at the University of Rhode Island.
Garrett served as the cornerbacks coach for the Rams in 2013 and assisted in defensive film breakdown. Additionally, he created scouting reports for defensive players, ran film sessions and assisted with practices and game days.
Garrett was a four-year player for Norfolk State University from 2009-2012, and converted from quarterback to wide receiver in his sophomore season.
He finished his career with 73 receptions for 815 yards with three touchdowns in 29 games played at Norfolk State.
Garrett earned his Bachelor's Degree from Norfolk State in December 2012 in Building Construction Technology.


text:
In a 24-hour, Internet-fueled news cycle, political campaign reporters often seem to be focused on what just happened, and only what just happened. But presidential candidates profess to take a longer view: They consciously link their critiques and promises to the influential figures and debates of the past.
In a new series, Morning Edition will take a fresh look at American political history, beginning with the figure who loomed over the 2008 and 2012 campaign — that tall, well-spoken senator from Illinois, often hailed for his significance in the history of American race relations. No, not President Obama. We're talking about Abraham Lincoln.
President Obama and presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum each have put forward their own narratives of the life of Lincoln, fine-tuned to their own political purposes. But their versions of Lincoln are just drops in a veritable ocean of books — almost 15,000, to be precise — that assay Lincoln's legacy.
Where should a reader begin? Perhaps the most well-known biography is Lincoln, by the late historian David Herbert Donald. Eric Foner, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, recommends Donald's book as the best one-volume account of Lincoln's life.
"[Donald] avoided the two pitfalls that people fall into. One is just hagiography — you know, [Lincoln] was born with a pen in his hand ready to sign the Emancipation Proclamation; and the other is the opposite, of course — [he was] just a racist or didn't really care about slavery at all. Donald sort of navigates between them," Foner says.
Foner notes, however, that the book is not without its flaws — notably that Donald's portrayal of Lincoln may have been influenced by current events in the mid-'90s, particularly by President Clinton.
"[Donald] sort of sees Lincoln as a person without any deep convictions," Foner says. "I think he sort of saw Lincoln as a Clinton figure — buffeted by events, not clear what he stood for. I don't think that's a very persuasive picture of Lincoln."
Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian and author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, recommends a book that shows how Lincoln prevailed under pressure during the Civil War: Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson.
"He is such a narrative genius, McPherson ... what he's done is to mix together the battles, Lincoln's leadership, the home front, the finances, the Cabinet, all together, but it drives forward as a story, and you don't know until finally, perhaps, Atlanta, whether the North is really going to win this war," Goodwin says.
Lincoln's strategically brilliant decisions were gambles at the time, she says.
"We know the ending — we know that he was martyred, we know that the war was won. But the people living then certainly didn't know that, and I think that's what McPherson's pace allows us to see," Goodwin says.
But Lincoln's political persona is but one dimension of the man. Andy Ferguson, senior editor of The Weekly Standard and author of Land of Lincoln, recommends an out of print book, In the Footsteps of the Lincolns. The book's author, Ida Tarbell, the iconic muckraking journalist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exposes Lincoln's roots in the frontier culture of the Midwest.
Ferguson says Tarbell was obsessed with Lincoln throughout her life. "After World War I, she went and sort of fulfilled a part of her obsession that she had always wanted to, which was to retrace Lincoln's movements with his family since he was a little boy, from Kentucky to Indiana and into Illinois. And as she did this, there were still people alive who knew the Lincolns. It's a part of time that we can't really get access to any other way," Ferguson says.
In the days when Lincoln was growing up, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois were remote areas struggling to develop. "It was just a couple of steps up from the Bronze Age, really," Ferguson says.
But rather than embracing his hardscrabble background, Foner says, Lincoln distanced himself from frontier culture.
"He doesn't like hunting, he's not a violent person, he doesn't hate Indians, he doesn't drink. And he understands very early — and where this comes from, who knows — that the way to get ahead is through your mind, not through just hard physical labor, which is what his father does. [Lincoln] gets as far away from the frontier as he can, pretty early," Foner says.
As often as political candidates today employ Lincoln's name for their own purposes, there are certain aspects to Lincoln that modern-day candidates won't adopt. For instance, Foner says he would love to see a political candidate of any party forthrightly say, "I have changed my mind," because that's what Lincoln did over and over again during the Civil War.
"Lincoln was a flip-flopper, if you want to use the terminology of modern politics. We don't seem to allow our politicians to do that anymore," Foner says.
Ferguson says that even when politicians do change their minds, political speechwriters are tasked with making it seem like the politician's views remained consistent.
Goodwin adds that she would like to see politicians emulate Lincoln's sense of humor. She tells a story about a time when Lincoln was accused of being two-faced, and he replied, "If I had two faces, do you think I'd be wearing this face?"
"That ability to laugh at yourself, to look at yourself from the outside in, means a certain kind of confidence — means taking the world seriously, but not taking yourself so seriously at every moment. It is in such short supply in our campaigns," Goodwin says.
Listen to a presidential candidate long enough, and there's an excellent chance he will mention Abraham Lincoln.
NEWT GINGRICH: I've already promised that if the president will agree to seven, three-hour debates in the Lincoln-Douglas tradition, he can use a teleprompter if he wants to.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And my message to all the candidates is, welcome to the land of Lincoln - because I'm thinking maybe some Lincoln will rub off on them while they are here.
RICK SANTORUM: It's only happened once in the history of this country where someone lost a race for the United States Senate, and then went on to get elected president.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Shouting) Lincoln! Lincoln!
SANTORUM: Abe's not a bad role model when it comes to those things.
Rick Santorum, President Obama and Newt Gingrich all make use of the 16th president, which does not surprise historian Eric Foner.
ERIC FONER: There's every possible way to interpret him. Every Lincoln you might want is out there in the literature. And every political movement, and every political group, has claimed Lincoln as their own - from communists to conservatives, from segregationists to civil rights activists. Everybody wants to get Lincoln on their side.
MONTAGNE: Lincoln is, in fact, the subject of more than 15,000 books. We've made him the first subject of an election year series of talks on political books.
INSKEEP: We've brought in authors of books about Lincoln. Eric Foner, of Columbia University, wrote "The Fiery Trial." Andy Ferguson, of the Weekly Standard, wrote "Land of Lincoln." Doris Kearns Goodwin is author of "Team of Rivals." And we started with this book: David Herbert Donald wrote what maybe is the standard biography of Lincoln, just called "Lincoln," a couple of decades ago. What approach does he take?
FONER: Well, if I can start - Eric Foner. You know, it's funny. I think it is the best one-volume biography of Lincoln. Oddly enough, I personally don't agree with his interpretation, and many people don't. He sort of sees Lincoln as a person without any deep convictions. You know, everyone who writes about Lincoln has one eye on the present. And I think Donald wrote this in the mid-'90s, sort of under the influence of Clinton. I think, you know, he sort of saw Lincoln as a Clinton figure - buffeted by events, not clear what he stood for. I don't think that's a very persuasive picture of Lincoln.
But nonetheless, Donald was a great historian, and I think he told the story of Lincoln's life in a way that avoided the two pitfalls that so many people fall into. One is just hagiography - you know, he was born with a pen in his hand, ready to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. And the other is the opposite, of course; you know, just a racist, or didn't really care about slavery at all. And Donald sort of navigates between them. So it's well worth reading, and I think it is still the best one-volume biography.
INSKEEP: Andrew Ferguson.
ANDY FERGUSON: Well, that's right. I think that Donald came up with this idea of Lincoln as sort of a passive character.
INSKEEP: A tactician.
FERGUSON: Really, yes. And kind of scheming and manipulative, but not particularly effective, and tossed and turned by events. But it's interesting, as you read through the book, even by the end, Donald loses faith in his own thesis, I think. The power of the Lincoln facts are so strong, that you have to concede that he was a giant in being able to manipulate events.
INSKEEP: Doris Kearns Goodwin, when we asked our panel here for recommendations of Lincoln books, you sent us one that is about more than that one man, "Battle Cry of Freedom," by James McPherson, which is a history of the Civil War.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: I think the reason that that one meant so much to me was that he is such a narrative genius, McPherson. And somehow when you read "Battle Cry of Freedom," what he's done is to mix together the battles, Lincoln's leadership, the home front, the finances, the Cabinet - all together. But it drives forward as a story and you don't know until finally, perhaps, Atlanta, whether the North is really going to win this war. And that's the way the people who lived in it felt it at the time.
INSKEEP: And I guess that's a good thing to think about if we think about Abraham Lincoln. All of his decisions that seem so brilliant now could not be known as brilliant at the time.
GOODWIN: Absolutely. It took a while for the country itself to understand him. We know the ending. We know that he was martyred. We know that the war was won. But the people living then certainly didn't know that. And I think that's what McPherson's pace allows us to see.
MONTAGNE: Let's get in one more book here, which Andy Ferguson has sent us. The name: "In the Footsteps of the Lincolns." Hard one to find, but a famous name behind this, Ida Tarbell, the famous muckraking journalist from the late 19th, early 20th century.
FERGUSON: Yes. She was, first and foremost, a journalist. But she, all along, carried this obsession with Lincoln. After World War I, she went and sort of fulfilled a kind of part of her obsession that she'd always wanted to, which was to retrace Lincoln's movements with his family since he was a little boy - from Kentucky to Indiana and into Illinois. And as she did this, there were still people alive who knew the Lincolns. It's a part of time that we can't really get access to any other way.
INSKEEP: Although Tarbell's journey across Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois does underline something that's worth remembering about Lincoln, one of the reasons that he's so well-remembered today: He came from this frontier culture. This was a - these were very remote areas that were struggling to develop in the time he was...
FERGUSON: It was just a couple of steps up from the Bronze Age, really.
FONER: You know, Lincoln as the frontiersman, in a sense, is part of the - sort of imagery that we remember about him. But it's very interesting how Lincoln kind of separates himself in so many ways from the - what you call frontier culture. You know, he doesn't like hunting. He's not a violent person. He doesn't hate Indians. He doesn't drink, you know, which is pretty prominent out there. And he understands very early - and where this comes from, who knows - that the way to get ahead is through your mind, not through just, you know, hard, physical labor, which is what his father does. He gets as far away from the frontier as he can, pretty early.
INSKEEP: If it were up to you, each of you, if you were presidential speechwriters, how would you want candidates to think of Lincoln, deploy Lincoln when they're talking about him today?
FONER: You know, I would love to see a candidate - I don't care which party we're talking about - forthrightly say: I have changed my mind about this. That's what Lincoln did during the Civil War. He changed his mind over and over again. He didn't change his core beliefs. Lincoln was a flip-flopper, if you want to use the terminology of modern politics. But we don't seem to allow our politicians to do that anymore.
INSKEEP: Andrew Ferguson, you're smiling.
FERGUSON: It's partly because politicians won't let their speechwriters talk that way. I don't think that Dr. Foner should wait for a phone call from any political campaign because...
FONER: I'm not holding my breath.
FERGUSON: Yeah. Having actually done a little bit of that, I can tell you that the last thing a professional politician ever wants to do is admit that he either made a mistake, or that he's changed his mind.
INSKEEP: And if you do change your mind, the task of the speechwriter is to find a way to say that you actually did not change your mind, even as you did change your mind.
FERGUSON: It requires a great deal of ingenuity. Of course, Lincoln had the greatest speechwriter who ever lived.
FONER: Mm-hmm.
INSKEEP: He wrote his own...
GOODWIN: Mr. Lincoln.
FONER: Mm-hmm.
GOODWIN: But I think - just to follow on that, the one thing I wish politicians had today - more than anything - that Lincoln had, is a sense of humor. I mean, his ability to laugh at himself when he was said to be - you are two-faced, Mr. Lincoln. And he said: If I had two faces, do you think I'd be wearing this face?
That ability to laugh at yourself, to look at yourself from the outside in, means a certain kind of confidence, means taking your - you know, the world seriously, but not taking yourself so seriously at every moment. It is in such short supply in our campaigns.
INSKEEP: We're talking about political books. It's a series of discussions we'll have in this election year. We started with books about Abraham Lincoln. And our guides today were Andy Ferguson of the Weekly Standard. Thanks for coming by.
FERGUSON: Thank you for having me.
INSKEEP: Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Thanks to you.
GOODWIN: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: And historian Eric Foner. Thank you.
FONER: You're very welcome.
INSKEEP: You can listen for more talks on political books as we go through 2012, and you can find links to the Lincoln books at npr.org. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Difference between revisions of "MATE"
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{{tip|It may be advisable to install {{pkg|bluez}} version 5 instead and access bluetooth functionality from the command line. For more information please consult the [[Bluetooth]] article.}}
{{tip|It may be advisable to install {{pkg|bluez}} version 5 instead and access bluetooth functionality from the command line. For more information please consult the [[Bluetooth]] article.}}
=== Use a different window manager with MATE ===
=== Use a different window manager with MATE ===
Revision as of 20:49, 15 January 2014
From MATE homepage:
- The MATE Desktop Environment is a fork of GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. MATE is under active development to add support for new technologies while preserving a traditional desktop experience.
- 1 Installation
- 2 Starting
- 3 GNOME 2 Applications
- 4 Tips & Tricks
- 4.1 Upgrading from 1.4 to 1.6
- 4.2 Bluetooth applet
- 4.3 Show or hide desktop icons
- 4.4 Use a different window manager with MATE
- 4.5 Change window decoration button order
- 4.6 Change window placement of new windows
- 4.7 Lock screen & default background image
- 4.8 Styling Qt applications
- 4.9 Consistent cursor theme
- 5 Where does the name come from?
- 6 Useful references
MATE is not packaged in the Official Repositories. MATE can either be installed from an unofficial repository or from the AUR. Please see the MATE wiki for instructions on adding the repository and signing the developer key.
Once the repository has been added you can install the core MATE components by installing the mate group. You can also install the mate-extra group which contains additional MATE utilities and applications.
MATE can be started via a display manager or manually.
Graphical log-in
Just select MATE from the Sessions list of you favorite Display Manager.
The MATE team recommend LightDM as the display manager with the lightdm-gtk2-greeter greeter.
If you are using gdm-oldAUR from the AUR, simply select the MATE session from the Sessions list. For your first time launching MATE, make sure to click "Just this session" when prompted.
In order to be able to launch MATE from KDM, the KDE Display Manager, you have to edit the KDM configuration.
As root, edit the
/usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc configuration file. Find the SessionsDir parameter and add
/usr/share/xsessions to the list.
It should then look like this:
Restart KDM and select the "MATE session" from the list.
In order to start MATE manually, you must add
exec mate-session
to your
~/.xinitrc file and then run
$ startx
GNOME 2 Applications
MATE is largely composed of GNOME 2 applications and utilities, forked and renamed to avoid conflicting with GNOME 3. Below is a list of common GNOME applications which have been renamed in MATE.
- Alacarte is renamed Mozo.
- Nautilus is renamed Caja.
- Metacity is renamed Marco.
- Gedit is renamed Pluma.
- Eye of GNOME is renamed Eye of MATE.
- Evince is renamed Atril.
- File Roller is renamed Engrampa.
- GNOME Terminal is renamed MATE Terminal.
Other applications and core components prefixed with GNOME (such as GNOME Panel, GNOME Menus etc) have had the prefix changed to MATE so they become MATE Panel, MATE Menus etc.
Network Management
It is recommended that you use Network Manager for managing networks in MATE. Please see the wiki page for more details on installing and configuring it.
Tips & Tricks
Upgrading from 1.4 to 1.6
MATE 1.6 migrated from
gconf to
gsettings. If you are updating from an MATE 1.4 you might end up with an empty panel. To resolve the issue reset the panel configuration to its defaults using
# mate-panel --reset
Then use...
# mate-conf-import
to restore most of your old settings. After upgrading from MATE 1.4 to MATE 1.6 you should remove the some of the old MATE 1.4 libraries that are not required by MATE 1.6, this can also improve the start-up time of MATE.
# pacman -R ffmpegthumbnailer-caja libmate libmatecanvas libmatecomponent libmatecomponentui libmatenotify libmateui mate-conf mate-conf-editor mate-corba mate-mime-data mate-vfs python-corba python-mate python-mate-desktop
You can also use:
# pacman -R $(pacman -Qtdq)
to remove any orphaned packages. Packages which are not orphaned are probably still required.
Bluetooth applet
The MATE bluetooth applet currently requires Bluez4 which has been deprecated. If you need a bluetooth applet in MATE you will have to install mate-bluetoothAUR and bluez4AUR from the AUR. If you want to enable Personal File Sharing over Bluetooth you will also need to install mate-user-share-bluez4AUR because the packaged version of mate-user-shareAUR has had the bluetooth component removed.
Show or hide desktop icons
By default, MATE shows multiple icons on the desktop: The content of your desktop directory, computer, home and network directories, the trash and mounted drives. You can show or hide them individually or all at once using dconf.
Hide individual icons
$ dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/computer-icon-visible false
$ dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/home-icon-visible false
$ dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/network-icon-visible false
$ dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/trash-icon-visible false
$ dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/volumes-visible false
Hide all desktop icons
$ dconf write /org/mate/desktop/background/show-desktop-icons false
Use a different window manager with MATE
The default window manager in MATE is called marco, a fork of the GNOME 2 window manager metacity. You can replace marco with another window manager via a number of different methods:
- The easiest way to change the window manager is to autostart it using
mate-session-properties. Open the System menu, navigate to the Preferences menu and click on Startup Applications. In the dialog click Add. Enter a name and comment in the name and comment sections and in the command section add a command of the following syntax: "name of window manager" "--replace"
For example: for openbox you would use the command
openbox --replace.
Log out and log in again and marco should be replaced by the window manager of your choice. To revert to marco simply delete the entry you created in Startup Applications.
- Alternatively you can specify the desired window manager in dconf:
$ dconf write /org/mate/desktop/session/required-components/windowmanager "'mywindowmanager'"
replace "mywindowmanager" with the name of the window manager of your choice e.g. openbox or metacity.
- Killing MATE's window manager (marco) and starting your prefered one (this method is not recommended!)
Edit your .xinitrc as follow:
exec mate-session killall marco exec mywindowmanager
and replace "mywindowmanager" with the name of the window manager of your choice.
startx command. Users of display managers will need to use one of the previous two methods.
You can change the button using dconf. The key is in org.mate.marco.general.button-layout. Use the graphical dconf-editor or the dconf command line tool to change it:
$ dconf write /org/mate/marco/general/button-layout "'close,maximize,minimize:'"
and put menu, close, minimize and maximize in your desired order, separated by commas. The colon is the window title (it is necessary for the changes to apply).
Change window placement of new windows
By default, new windows are placed in the top-left corner. To center new windows on creation, edit the org.mate.marco.general.center-new-windows key:
$ dconf write /org/mate/marco/general/center-new-windows true
Lock screen & default background image
/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/org.mate.background.gschema.xml under root and change the default in element,
<key type="s" name="picture-filename">. For example:
<key type="s" name="picture-filename"> <default>'/usr/share/archlinux/wallpaper/archlinux-underground.jpg'</default> <summary>Picture Filename</summary> <description>File to use for the background image.</description> </key>
The original image used is
Then, re-compile the schemas:
# glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
Restart your X session for the change to effect.
Styling Qt applications
To make Qt4 applications inherit the MATE theme, do the following:
* Navigate to System -> Preferences -> Qt4 Config or execute
qtconfig-qt4from a shell. * Change GUI Style to
GTK+. * File --> Save.
See Uniform Look for Qt and GTK Applications for more details.
Consistent cursor theme
To ensure a consistent cursor theme edit
~/.icons/default/index.theme to include:
[Icon Theme] Inherits=mate
Where does the name come from?
The name "MATE", pronounced Ma-Tay, comes from yerba maté, a species of holly native to subtropical South America. Its leaves contain caffeine and are used to make infusions and a beverage called mate.
Useful references
- MATE homepage
- MATE wiki for Arch Linux
- MATE desktop screenshots
- The MATE Desktop Environment - Arch Linux forum discussion about MATE


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Russell McIntyre
Russell F. McIntyre, a 47-year Hood River resident died at Providence Brookside Manor on Saturday, June 7, 2003. Russell was the first person to reside at Brookside Manor after it was constructed.
Services will be held on Wednesday, June 11, at 2 p.m. at Idlewild Cemetery Mausoleum. Visitation will be held on Wednesday, June 11, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Anderson's Tribute Center.
He was born Jan. 13, 1911, in Shenandoah, Iowa, the second of three, to Fred G. and Edith (Herring) McIntyre, and the grandson of that pioneer Iowa family. He was a graduate of Shenandoah High School in 1929 and graduated from an Omaha business school the following year.
He married Lucille Wolford in Shenandoah on Dec. 24, 1931, and together they farmed land owned by others until they purchased the McIntyre family farm in 1943 where they resided until 1956 when they moved to Hood River. In Hood River, Russell worked for Central Sales selling farm implements until becoming employed with Hood River County in 1958. He retired as purchasing agent for the county in 1974. Following that retirement, he worked for the Port of Hood River for 10 years as toll-taker on the Interstate Bridge.
In 1942, Russell became a member of the Masonic Lodge in Farragut, Iowa, where he held many offices including Worshipful Master. After moving to Hood River, he transferred that membership to the local lodge.
He was a member of Riverside Community Church, was a volunteer fireman for the City of Hood River for several years, as well as being a member of the Hood River Masonic Lodge.
His wife, Lucille McIntyre, preceded him in death in March, 1982. He was also preceded in death by his parents, his brother Ralph, and his sister Louise.
He is survived by his daughter, Phyllis Kment and her husband, Karl, of Hood River; granddaughters, Kim Fierce of Seattle, Wash., and Robin Willis and her husband, Sam, of Terrebonne, Ore.; and great granddaughters, Sammy Jo Willis and Stevie Rae Willis of Terrebonne.
Vault entombment will be at Idlewild Cemetery Mausoleum.
Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of the Gorge or Providence Brookside Manor c/o Anderson's Tribute Center, 1401 Belmont, Hood River, OR 97031.
Charles Pomeroy
Charles "Chuck" Pomeroy, former resident of Hood River, passed away at his home in Salem, Ore., June 5. He had been residing in Salem for the past 5½ years. He was born in Lewiston, Maine, May 4, 1941, to Harry and Ruth Pomeroy. He is survived by his wife, Beverley, of 29 years, Brother Gene and his wife, Diane, of California, sister Pam Seeman or Connecticut, Rosemary and her husband, Clinton Chase of Connecticut, sister Ruth Ann and husband, Dennis Conroy, of Connecticut, younger brother Bradley Pomeroy of Virginia, mother-in-law Ethel Folts of Salem, stepsons Lance Levier and his wife, Debby, and Gylan Lavier, all of California, and his devoted cat, K.C., and dog Tina.
Chuck had numerous friends in Hood River and Salem. He enjoyed fishing, picknicking and spending time with his friends and family.
Chuck enjoyed his job as a house painter for many years. Chuck will be truly missed and at his request there will be no services.
Richard Hiatt
A memorial gathering for family and friends of Richard "Dick" Hiatt will be June 20 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Tollbridge Park near Parkdale. A potluck barbecue is planned, with a celebration of Richard's life. Bring memories, stories, and a dish to share. Family will provide barbecue main dish, refreshments, and eating supplies. For more information, call Cheryl Burdick at 352-6417.
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Please read our commenting policy before posting.
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To read more about the restaurant, click here.
Our 4,000 square foot lodge offers 8 bedrooms, 5 full baths, 1 half bath, a large dining & living space, game room & den, full kitchen, indoor Jacuzzi tub, outdoor hot tub, outdoor patio & grassy play area. To learn more about the lodge, click here.
In addition to our main lodge, we also have the Hoosier Hideaway and our Campground.
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*Brunch served Sat. & Sun. from 9a – 2p. Hours vary based on weather. Please call 812-837-9496 or check Facebook for more hours.*


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Should the 76ers draft Steven Adams with the 11th overall pick in Thursday's NBA draft?
The 7-foot, 254-pounder averaged just 7.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and two blocks during his lone season at Pittsburgh. Yet, the 19-year-old, who's from New Zealand, is regarded in some mock drafts as the third best center prospect behind Nerlens Noel and Alex Len.
The easy-going freshman is regarded as a "high-risk, high-reward" pick. He need polishing and looks lost offensively. But Adams has the potential to be better than Noel and Len down the road.
In addition to the 11th pick, the Sixers have two second-round selections (35th and 42d).
Here's where mocks draft project Adams being selected:
Sporting News: 17, Hawks
SI.com: 11, Sixers
NBADraft.net: 10, Trail Blazers
ESPN:12, Thunder
DraftExpress:10, Trail Blazers
HoopsWorld (Joel Brigham): 11, Sixers
NBA.com: 12, Thunder
CBSSports.com (Matt Moore): 11, Sixers
Follow Inquirer Sixers beat writer Keith Pompey on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers


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Students, are you looking for a way to earn some extra spending money? Are you someone who is looking for a part-time or full-time career? A job with Jackson State University Campus Dining Services may be for you! We offer a variety of part-time, full-time and student positions.
We are the largest employer of students on campus. Work schedules can be arranged around classes and allow flexibility in hours. If you can work two or twenty hours per week, we have a job that can fit into your busy college schedule.
Student applications can be obtained by visiting our office in the JSU Student Center.
Part-time and full-time applications may also be obtained by visiting our office 1400 John Lynch St, JSU Student Center Jackson, MS 39217.
Sodexo Careers Blog
Subscribe to our blog feed and receive emails when we post on the blog to learn about our culture as well as hot news items like recent awards, new projects, and our employees and clients around the world. We encourage you to contribute to the blog with your comments and questions.
Find Us On Facebook
Learn more about Sodexo's past present and future employees by joining the Sodexo Career's Facebook page we encourage you to reach out to all of our members on the discussion board and wall. Facebook allows you to connect with Sodexo employees around the world.


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Nothing makes us happier than making our families happy. If you've had an extraordinary experience at our facilities or with our staff, we'd love to hear about it. Your recommendation will be passed along to future families who are considering our services, and will give them reassurance and peace of mind during a difficult decision.
By submitting any text, photographs, files, or other material ("Content"), you grant us, and anyone authorized by us, a royalty-free, non-exclusive, unlimited, worldwide license to use, distribute, publicly perform or display, transmit, and/or create derivative works from such Content, in whole or in part, for any purpose that we choose. The foregoing grant includes the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such Content, including, but not limited to, federal or state intellectual property rights.
Oftentimes the best way to get a sense of how you'll feel is to hear directly from families that have held services for loved ones at Green Hills
Mortuary & Memorial Chapel. We invite you to read and explore a range of testimonials and get the best sense possible of what your experience can be. Please ask us any questions, any time. We want nothing more than to help you through a difficult time with ease, peace and healing.
Find everything you need.
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Coping with Grief & Loss.


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Westchester's cities are starting to get built up.
According to the New York Times , cities like Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, and Yonkers are starting to play host to developers as the housing crunch hits New York City.
Mount Vernon is the home of a $48 million five-building 179-unit rental project near the Fleetwood station and this fall will see the opening of the Mount Vernon brewery at a site that used to manufacture fake Christmas trees, according to the Times.
In New Rochelle, 279 acres were rezoned to allow for taller construction, with the hopes of encouraging new development.
Since the new zoning, 13 projects, with 1,633 apartments and 115,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, have been approved for the downtown, according to the Times.
Yonkers has also made development a priority. A six-story 324-unit waterfront complex is set to open in the fall, while Larkin Plaza, a three-building, $190 million 440 apartment complex will open next year.
To read the Times story, click here .
Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.


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Los Angeles Times - Los Angeles, CA
AMARILLO, Texas — The Roman Catholic Church plans to establish its first religious society devoted exclusively to fighting euthanasia and abortion, church leaders said this week.
The male-only Missionaries of the Gospel of Life — founded by Father Frank A. Pavone, an outspoken opponent of abortion rights — will be housed in a vacant Catholic high school and dormitory on the grounds of the Diocese of Amarillo.
The order will have a decidedly political bent, and will be active rather than contemplative, Pavone said.
Its priests will be trained to conduct voter-registration drives, use the media to get out their antiabortion message and lobby lawmakers to restrict abortion rights.
They also will learn to lead demonstrations outside offices where abortions and family-planning services are provided.
"There is a difference between knowing the teachings and knowing how to effectively advance a movement," Pavone said.
In recent months, Pavone has been focused on marshaling religious conservatives around Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed March 18.
Pavone also is director of an association of antiabortion priests called Priests for Life.
In a prepared statement outlining his plan, Pavone called abortion the "fundamental human-rights issue of our day."
"The church finds herself battling a plague as spiritually fatal as any she has ever fought before — the plague of the culture of death," Pavone wrote.
The society will begin accepting priests and seminarians this summer, Pavone said, with training to start in the fall. Activists and other members of the lay community probably will be trained there as well.
The priest said he had received "a couple of hundred e-mails and calls" from young men interested in joining the society; a document sent to church leaders that outlined Pavone's plan suggested the number of priests could be "40 or 400."
The Catholic Church already has similar organizations. In 1991, the late Cardinal John O'Connor of New York established a women's religious community called Sisters of Life, dedicated to "protecting and advancing a sense of the sacredness of human life."
But, Pavone said, this is the first time the church has established an apostolic society for priests who will concentrate exclusively on abortion and euthanasia.
The society will be funded through private donations, Amarillo Bishop John W. Yanta said, and is being established with the knowledge and blessing of the Vatican.
In a statement from Rome, Cardinal Renato Martino, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the new order "may be just what the world of today needs."
The society's priests will be given the general mission of "preaching and teaching the pro-life message effectively," Pavone said.
They also will "bring healing and forgiveness" to those who have had abortions and will provide what they describe as counseling services to women who are "tempted to abort their child," he said.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, churches risk losing their tax-exempt status if they endorse or oppose political candidates.
But they can adopt political positions and, to a limited degree, lobby to influence legislation.
Antiabortion organizations applauded establishment of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life. Cheryl Sullenger, outreach coordinator for Operation Rescue, said that although some of the group's supporters were Catholic, it sometimes had a difficult time coordinating activities with the church.
"To have an extra avenue into the Catholic church would be very beneficial to our work," she said.
But in a prepared statement, Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle expressed concerns that the society could attract extremists who might resort to violence to further the antiabortion cause.
Planned Parenthood said it feared that people trained by the society would use hardball tactics against healthcare providers, such as organizing clinic blockades.
Healthcare professionals and women's right advocates often criticize such tactics as acts of intimidation intended to shame women who already are facing difficult decisions
If there is increased activity of that sort, Planned Parenthood said, money likely will be diverted from healthcare to security. And if women are afraid to go to area clinics, the number of unintended pregnancies could rise, the group's statement said.
Yanta, the bishop of Amarillo, scoffed at the notion that the society might invite violence, but said it would not shy away from aggressive strategies.
"We are living in a very secular culture," Yanta said. "There are many institutions that think they are the center of the world. Jesus Christ should be the center. We are going to act like Jesus. Jesus wasn't afraid of controversy."
Although the order's mission would be to fight for an end to abortion, other facets of the "culture of death" — such as euthanasia and the death penalty, both of which are opposed by the church — also would be addressed, Yanta said.
The establishment of such a specialized religious society surprised some church observers, who noted that the church was struggling to address a shortage of priests.
"It's certainly not going to help," said Sister Christine Schenk, executive director of FutureChurch.
The Cleveland organization advocates loosening church laws — including eliminating celibacy requirements for priests — to draw more people into the priesthood and attract a wider group of followers.
Schenk said she would support the establishment of the society, provided that its priests addressed the full spectrum of church life.
Yanta said some priests would eventually be sent out to perform more general parish duties, although they would maintain a special focus on abortion.
Pavone said he believed the society would draw more people to the priesthood because abortion was such a passionate cause to so many people.


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Track & Field News magazine is the leading publication for this sport. In each issue you will find information about every aspect of the sport. There are features about the best athletes, records that are being broken and information about them, and rankings of all the different specialties within the sport. If you are an athlete yourself or are merely a fan, you will appreciate this periodical. Order your discount subscription to Track & Field News magazine today!
Yearly Leaders
In this periodical you will enjoy reading and keeping up with all the athletes who are most successful in this sport. Track & Field News magazine provides you with information about the absolute men and women as well as the indoor men and women. You will enjoy being able to learn of the leaders in your sport. Whether you are a professional competitor or just learning the sport in school, you will enjoy having a subscription to this publication.
Every issue of Track & Field News magazine provides you with information about all the various records throughout the varying levels of the sport. You will appreciate being about to read about the records that are being surpassed at the levels: world, American, collegiate, junior college, world junior, American junior, world youth, and high school. You will enjoy keeping up with all the records that are related to your favorite sport.
Track & Field News magazine also provides you with rankings for all the events throughout the sport. The rankings are divided between the men and the women as well as the United States and the World. The rankings are compiled based upon three criteria: honors won, head-to-head records with other athletes, and sequence of marks. With each issue of this periodical that you receive, you will learn more about the sport that you enjoy so much.
To learn more about your favorite sport and the athletes that participate in it, subscribe to Track & Field News magazine today!


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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Lipscomb University women's soccer team will be hosting an alumni match on Saturday August 4, with kickoff at 5 p.m. This will be the first time Lipscomb fans can see new head coach Kevin O'Brien in action as the Lady Bisons will take on former players in the Purple and Gold match at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.
"We are excited about this year's Alumni game for several reasons….first off, it's a great opportunity for the coaching staff to evaluate the players, both new and old, in a competitive 11 aside match," said Coach O'Brien.
The alumni players in attendance will have the chance to suit up and play competitive soccer one more time taking on the 2012 Lady Bisons.
"It's just awesome to have the alums involved in the lives of our players, offering them encouragement and advice about how to be a successful student athlete here at Lipscomb," added O'Brien. "We, coaches and players alike, want to develop the strongest possible relationships with our alum's because we know that they have information, contacts, and resources that can help us all be more successful as we strive to put Lipscomb Soccer in its first NCAA College Cup."
The Lady Bisons will play one other exhibition match, a contest against Belmont at Rose Park on August 10 at 6 p.m. The regular season will kick-off with a home match against Jackson State on August 17, with a 7 p.m. start at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.