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White Sox erupt with seven-run fourth, pound D-backs
CHICAGO -- Through the first three innings of Friday's contest against Arizona and Brandon McCarthy, the White Sox did not have a baserunner.
That's nine up, nine down with the former White Sox hurler throwing 33 pitches and striking out four.View Full Game Coverage
CHICAGO -- Through the first three innings of Friday's contest against Arizona and Brandon McCarthy, the White Sox did not have a baserunner.
That's nine up, nine down with the former White Sox hurler throwing 33 pitches and striking out four.View Full Game Coverage
Fortunes changed in the fourth, and they changed in a big way. Or a cataclysmic way if you were the D-backs.
White Sox hitters went 9-for-10 against McCarthy during a seven-run frame and turned McCarthy's early bid for perfection into an early exit during their 9-3 victory at U.S. Cellular Field. McCarthy (1-6) threw 31 pitches alone in the fourth before being replaced by Trevor Cahill.
White Sox bench coach Mark Parent, who handled the postgame interview session with manager Robin Ventura gone to his daughter's college graduation from Oklahoma State, said that he was sitting next to assistant athletic trainer Brian Ball in the dugout during the massive rally. Ball didn't want to leave because the White Sox (19-18) were getting hits.
"He was lights out there for a while, and then I think the guys just made some adjustments," said Parent of McCarthy. "Second, third time around, they saw him better. Maybe he left some stuff over the middle and guys took advantage of it."
"It unraveled quick and it was an unusual game," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. "I don't know what to say."
Alejandro De Aza started the uprising with an eight-pitch at-bat, including four two-strike foul balls, which resulted in a double to center. Gordon Beckham singled home De Aza, Conor Gillaspie followed with another base hit and Jose Abreu singled to tie the game, 2-2.
Those three at-bats covered just four pitches.
After Adam Dunn struck out swinging, Dayan Viciedo singled to load the bases before Alexei Ramirez unloaded them with his sixth career grand slam. Ramirez connected on a 3-0 pitch, marking his first career hit in 68 situations where the at-bat was decided on the next pitch after a 3-0 count.
Ramirez became the seventh player in White Sox history to hit safely in 32 of the White Sox first 37 games and didn't miss on this 369-foot game-changer.
"I was looking for a good pitch that I can connect on. Something that was over the plate," said Ramirez through interpreter and White Sox manager of cultural development Lino Diaz. "And that's what I did and I was able to hit it."
Moises Sierra, Tyler Flowers and De Aza followed with singles, as De Aza brought home Sierra. McCarthy finished the night with seven runs allowed on nine hits over 3 1/3 innings, fanning five and not issuing a walk.
Having a few hours to think about the fourth-inning unraveling didn't make it any easier to explain for McCarthy.
"Even after four or five innings to sit down here and think about it, I really don't know," McCarthy said. "I don't know if they changed their approach and got super aggressive; I was throwing a lot of strikes. They just started jumping on everything. They're not terrible pitches. They're not anything different than what I was doing in the first three innings. I don't know how you can get nine hits out of 10 hitters when I felt like I was doing the things I needed to do.
"Mentally, physically, everything felt the exact same as the first three innings. It's just all of a sudden, every pitch I threw I was turning and watching it go somewhere else. I am baffled at this point."
Andre Rienzo (3-0) earned the victory by yielding three runs on four hits over 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander actually gave Arizona (13-25) an early lead when Gerardo Parra launched a two-run homer in the third. But it did not hold up thanks to the White Sox fourth.
Relievers Zach Putnam, who has limited opponents to seven hits in 49 at-bats this season, Ronald Belisario and Matt Lindstrom finished off the White Sox fifth win in six games. The bullpen has a 2.06 ERA and .175 opponents average against over the last 19 games.
"We just threw yesterday out. We got into a situation to win a ballgame and guys fell into their roles," said Parent, referring to the bullpen's struggles Thursday in a 12-5 loss to the Cubs. "Those guys have been lights out. Putnam has been just phenomenal."
Abreu added his 13th home run leading off the eighth, a titanic 442-foot shot to straightaway center on a 3-0 pitch.
"You don't see balls get hit like that very much," said Parent of Abreu becoming the first player in franchise history to hit at least 13 homers in his first 37 career games.
Playing on a sore left ankle, Abreu finished with three hits and two RBIs. Parent said postgame that the White Sox have dialed back Abreu's intense early work to help him heal. They will start him at designated hitter again on Saturday and then give Abreu a day or two off on the upcoming nine-game road trip.
Flowers smacked Chicago's third homer of the night in the eighth, a solo shot to left.
Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin.


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Whether we know it or not, the two most important questions in life are: "Who am I?" and "What do I want?" Why?
Who am I?
"Who am I?" is important because knowing who we are is the purpose of life. The sages have been telling us this in many different ways since as far back as we have been recording their sayings.
The sufi sage Ibn Arabi expressed this truth when he said: "I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known, and I created the creation so that I be known." (1) God was a hidden treasure and longed to be known and so he (she or it – God has no gender) created this world full of living creatures to whom he gave the assignment of knowing their true identity – which is God.
And why did God do this? Sri Ramakrishna answers: "It is the Godhead that has become these two [God and devotee] in order to enjoy Its [own] bliss." (2) God created life to know himself so that God could meet God and thereby experience his own bliss.
Sri Ramakrishna tells us that "the only purpose of life is to realize God." (3) "Without the realization of God everything is futile. This is the great secret." (4) The Christian mystic Jan Ruusbroec also reveals this to us: "[For] the rational creature to attain the sublime beauty of God and to possess it in [a] supernatural way … is [the] reason that God created heaven and earth and all that is in them." (5)
Sufi Sage Hazrat Inayat Khan explains that:
"The purpose of life … is that the only Being makes his oneness intelligible to Himself. He goes through different planes of evolution … to make clear to Himself His oneness. And as long as this purpose is not accomplished, the one and only Being has not reached His ultimate satisfaction, in which lies His divine perfection." (6)
My own teacher Mata Amaritanandamayi tells us the same fact as well: "God-Realization is our life's aim." (7)
The poet Rumi reminds us that, if we do not know ourselves by the end of our lives, we have accomplished nothing.
"There is one thing in this world which must never be forgotten. If you were to forget everything else, but did not forget that, then there would be no cause for worry; whereas if you performed and remembered and did not forget every single thing, but forgot that one thing, then you would have done nothing whatsoever.
"It is just as if a king had sent you to the country to carry out a specified task. You go and perform a hundred other tasks; but if you have not performed that particular task on account of which you had gone to the country, it is as if you have performed nothing at all. So man has come into this world for a particular task, and that is his purpose; if he does not perform it, then he will have done nothing." (8)
Therefore answering the question "Who am I?" is the very purpose of our lives and that is why this first question is so important. Knowing this is universal wisdom.
What do I want?
The second question, "What do I want?" is so important because God has structured life so that we get what we want. This design principle of life is called the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction is most often stated as "like attracts like." So far, I have examined the first question by looking at the great sages and saints of Earth, but let me switch here and discuss the second question by drawing on the galactic and spirit teachers that we follow on this site.
Here is Matthew Ward explaining to us what the Law of Attraction is and how it works.
"The universal law of attraction, or 'like attracts like,' which is totally neutral and constantly in operation, will serve each individual in accordance with his or her perception of and reaction to personal situations." (9)
"Just as everything else is being accelerated, so are the results of the universal law of attraction coming more rapidly and forcefully. We cannot stress too strongly how crucial it is to focus on what you want, NOT what you don't want!" (10)
"Drawing to you the energy of souls in spirit whom you didn't personally know but greatly admired and often think about is 'like attracts like' in operation." (11)
"Remember that the universal law of attraction, 'like attracts like,' always is in effect—sharing what you have with those who have less will bring back to you what you need. The energy of giving from the heart not only adds to your light, thereby radiating out to all lives you touch, this starts a cycle of upliftment. Just as your heart feels lighter when you help others, they in turn feel grateful and hopeful, and the energy in gratitude and hope gives them more light to send out to all lives they touch, and so on and so on." (12)
Here is SaLuSa:
"Like certainly attracts like, which is again why you need to be careful where you place your focus." (13)
"Freewill is a gift from the Creator that is sacred and covered by the Law of Attraction. Human beings sometimes blame others or God for their experiences, but in truth they are attracted to you by your thoughts and actions. … Freewill is still your prerogative, but having agreed a plan for your life you are drawn to those people and experiences that will help fulfil it. Your Guides are also very active in keeping you on track, but the final word is with you." (14)
"Everyone will eventually reach an advanced level of understanding, and be naturally drawn to those souls that are of a similar vibration." (15)
"Where you direct your thoughts is where your energy goes, and the more you focus upon it the stronger the link becomes for you." (16)
Here is Atmos of Sirius: "Fortunately, those who are on Earth to lead people out of the dark work quietly and without drawing attention to themselves. As you seek, so you will be attracted to them [because] as you know 'like attracts like'." (17)
And here is Diane of Sirius: "Be of the Light and, by the Law of Attraction, more shall fill every cell within your body, and balance and harmony shall be your gain." (18)
Because the Law of Attraction works, a sorting-out process is going on in the world, as a group called the Angels tells us:
"If all in the world could embrace the concepts that they are loved, [that] they are guided, and that their truth is valid for them, while others may or may not share the same, you would sort yourselves out into circles of like-minded individuals and be among those who see and share life as you do. You would be able to interact with those who don't in peace and harmony. This type of sorting out is going on right now on your planet earth." (19)
It is also the reason why we can forget about the dark, as SaLuSa tells us:
"Forget the Dark Ones and leave them to own future, as no soul can remain in the lower vibrations and expect to go with those who have dedicated themselves to moving on to Ascension. That is simply impossible, and there you have the beauty of the Law of Attraction. What you focus on comes into your life at some time, whether it is really what you wanted or not. Thoughts and desires are powerful energies, and as creators in your own right you should guard against negative thoughts." (20)
The Law of Attraction works whether we are aware of it or not, as he tells us:
"The fact that you are invoking the Laws of Attraction may not be something that you are consciously doing, but it will still bring the same results. It is therefore imperative that you continue to give power to your thoughts, by projecting your vision. How it will ultimately be manifested is something you leave for the energetic thought form to decide." (21)
Matthew explains how it may work in the background unknown to us.
"Let me return to the law of attraction for a moment to mention another of its dimensions. If a spiritually-evolved individual feels uncomfortable or even repulsed when meeting a stranger, it is because their energy fields are so incompatible—there is no 'like' to attract 'like.' When that same individual feels strongly attracted to a stranger, it is 'like attracting like'; without consciously knowing that the stranger has qualities of compassion, honor, helpfulness, honesty and a sense of justness, the individual experiences soul-to-soul recognition of those components in that person's energy make-up." (22)
If we see life negatively, we attract negative results to ourselves, Matthew tells us.
"The energy sent forth by those who see themselves as tragic victims will zoom out and draw to itself the energy of thought forms in the 'universal soup' that match the individual's thoughts and feelings, and the energy combination will manifest 'tragic victim' circumstances for the person to deal with. Those who feel genuine gratitude for what they have will be provided with more to be grateful for, and the energy of sharing with an open heart has the same positive result."(23)
SaLuSa explains that knowing these facts about the manner in which the Law of Attraction works should show us why we need to stay away from negative thoughts.
"Those who are out of balance bring adverse results to themselves, and that is the Law of Attraction at work." (24)
"So you can see Dear Ones, why it is important to keep in your sight the beneficial changes promised to you. In so doing you are helping manifest them quicker than they might have done otherwise. Your present reality developed in this way and hence we say that you created it yourself." (25)
However, everything I've said so far about our wants or desires and the Law of Attraction could be considered to be a junior discussion. The senior discussion, in my view, is different. Just as Rumi said that, if we end our lives not having realized God, we have done nothing, so we could also say that all our desires will produce little of lasting value, except one desire only. Krishna explains what that one desire is:
"I am all that a man may desire
Without transgressing
The law of his nature." (26)
Krishna is speaking here as an Incarnation of God. How many people in this world desire God? How many desire the perfect freedom that comes with the knowledge of God? Krishna says:
"Who cares to seek
For that perfect freedom?
One man, perhaps,
In many thousands." (27)
Swami Brahmananda puts the figure even higher: "Only one in a million sincerely longs for God and few sustain that longing." (28)
So advising us to seek the positive rather than the negative is one, junior level of counsel to the wise seeker. But advising us to seek only God is another, more senior level.
Thus, the two most important questions in life for us to pay attention to are: "Who am I?" and "What do I want?"
Answering the question "Who am I?" is our assignment in life. Without answering it, we have accomplished nothing, as it were. Watching what we want is the second most important matter because life is designed to give us what we want, whether we know it or not. If we want only God and sustain that desire throughout life, then God is what we shall get.
(1) Muhyidden Ibn Arabi, Kernel of the Kernel. trans. Ismail Hakki Bursevi. Sherborne: Beshara, n.d., 3.
(2) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 305.
(3) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 273.
(4) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 95.
(5) John Ruusbroec in James A. Wiseman, John Ruusbroec. The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. New York, etc.: Paulist Press, 1985, 72.
(6) Hazrat Inayat Khan, Way of Illumination. Delhi, etc.: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988, 237.
(7) Mata Amritanandamayi, Awaken, Children! Vallicakavu, India: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust., I, 2.
(8) Rumi in A.J. Arberry, trans., Discourses of Rumi. New York; Samuel Weiser, 1977; c1961, 26.
(9) Matthew's Messages, Oct, 22, 2008, at http://www.matthewbooks.com/mattsmessage.htm
(10) Matthew's Message, Sept. 21, 2009.
(11) Matthew's Message, April 26, 2010.
(12) Matthew's Message, Sept. 24, 2008.
(13) SaLuSa, Feb. 5, 2010, at http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm
(14) SaLuSa, Sept. 18, 2009.
(15) SaLuSa, March 19, 2010.
(16) SaLuSa, Feb. 5, 2010.
(17) Atmos of Sirius, Nov. 21, 2008, at http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm
(18) Diane of Sirius, Feb. 2, 2009, at http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_Quinsey.htm
(19) Message from the Angels, 9 May 2009 at http://www.visionsofheaven.com/AAngels/newsletter_2009_0509.html#AngelMessages .
(20) SaLuSa, April 6, 2009.
(21) SaLuSa, April 13, 2009.
(22) Matthew's Messages, Oct. 22, 2008.
(23) Matthew's Messages, Oct, 22, 2008.
(24) SaLuSa, 5 Nov. 2008.
(25) SaLuSa, Feb. 5, 2010.
(26) Sri Krishna in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944, 71. (Hereafter BG.)
(27) Sri Krishna in BG, 70.
(28) Swami Brahmananda in Swami Prabhavananda, The Eternal Companion. Brahmananda. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1970; c1944, 194.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Development & Education In Israel, the once nomadic Bedouin are reluctant to move PRI's The World December 18, 2013 The Bedouin in Israel are no longer nomads. In fact, Israel's government is having trouble convincing them to move. Israel wants to use the land where they now live and has been offering to move them into towns with paved streets and modern conveniences.


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< Guns Rights Before Spokane City Council
Jul 09, 2013 06:39
Category: General News
Category: General News
Oregon Closes Session Without Slashing Education
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon lawmakers closed on another legislative session yesterday. An improving economy allowed for an end to years of painful budget slashing and brought an increase in school funding. Howver, majority Democrats' achievement of $6.8 billion in school funding was overshadowed by the failure of weeks of negotiations over pensions.


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|Fresno, Calif.
|High School:
|Clovis West HS
UC Santa Barbara
As a freshman, appeared in 35 games with 23 starts ... Hit .231 with 14 runs scored and 12 RBIs ... Had a fielding percentage of .942 ... Played mostly at third base, also saw time at second ... Started 19 straight games from Apr. 2-May 5 ... Had three RBIs in the regular season finale at UC Davis ... Hit .345 on the year with the bases empty.
High School: A three-year letter winner at Clovis West HS in Fresno … played shortstop for head coach Kevin Patrick and the Golden Eagles … In his senior season he batted .429 with 12 stolen bases … Also competed in football … Earned All-League and All-Valley honors … Earned 2012 Male Athlete of the Year.
Personal: Born Ryan Joseph Clark on Nov. 30, 1993 in Fresno, Calif. to parents Joe and Sharlesa … Has one younger sibling, Bobby … Currently majoring in business economics … Favorite teams are the San Francisco 49ers and Giants … Favorite athlete is David Eckstein … Most memorable sports moment was winning Male Athlete of the Year in high school … Favorite movie is Shooter … Favorite novel is The Mind Gym … Listens to hip-hop … Hobbies include playing golf … enjoys watching ESPN … Also recruited by Long Beach State, Fresno State, Cal Poly, and Texas.


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McDougal '12 to Serve Phi Gamma Delta National Boardby Kyle Bender '12 • August 12, 2010 Share:
While it is well known that almost 13 percent of Wabash graduates hold a title of president, owner, or CEO, it is rare for a Little Giant undergraduate to be named to a board of directors' position.
Cameron McDougal '12 was chosen for a two-year term to the Board of Directors of the International Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta during the fraternity's biennial convention, held July 29 – August 1 at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Phi Gamma Delta board of directors, more commonly referred to as "archons" by members of the fraternity, consists of seven graduate brothers and two undergraduate brothers from across the nation.
"I am honored and very grateful to be elected to serve on the Archonate of Phi Gamma Delta," McDougal said. "I embrace the challenges ahead and am confident I can make a positive impact during my term. I look forward to the opportunities I will have to represent both Wabash and Phi Gamma Delta in the Greek world."
The fraternity's executive director, Bill Martin, acknowledges the importance of McDougal's election.
"In Phi Gamma Delta, our undergraduate brothers have a significant role in the governance of the Fraternity, as evidenced by the two students on our nine-man board," Martin said. "Because of the quality of candidates, the process of electing undergraduate board members is highly competitive. Wabash College and Psi Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta should be very proud of Cameron."
McDougal, who is a Presidential Scholar from Fort Wayne, Indiana, is majoring in biology and helped found the Pre-Dental Club. He has served Psi Chapter as its historian. He will assume his new duties immediately.
McDougal was first selected as a finalist for the position from a deep applicant pool. At the convention, he underwent several interview sessions with a 30-person nominations committee. The committee proceeded to recommend McDougal, citing his dedication to working to establish new chapters at other colleges, as well as his commitment to Psi Chapter at Wabash. The entire convention then voted to elect McDougal.
For a press release from Phi Gamma Delta regarding McDougal's election, click here.


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How To Keep Cats Away
Learn how to keep cats away naturally and easily in this article. There are stray cats, and then there are feral cats. A stray cat is described as someone's lost animal, and a feral cat is one that has lived on the outside all their life and is not adoptable. These cats find any place to rest and eat, and in some cases cause problems. Keeping cats away takes a little planning, but it can be done.
- Adorable Sweet Kitties Come in Packs. Needless to say, one little kitten is never alone. Like mice, when you see one of these kittens, you will see six more. Before those adorable little kitties grow up, learn how to protect your lawn and garden with natural methods.
- Cat Fencing. Gardens are best protected with chicken wire or some sort of fencing to "deter" cat invaders. Make sure to cut a sharp ending on the top of the fence to deter cats from simply climbing over.
- Water. Water is the one of the things that cats hate the most. You can spray them with a hose, but it is best to spray cats with a super water gun that has pressure nozzle on the end. Cats will run away for a short while, but determined cats will return.
- Citrus Peels. Cats hate citrus smells, so you can eat the fruit and then shred or cut the peels into small pieces and spread them around your garden and yard. The problem with this solution is that it needs to be redone every four to five days. A simpler way is to buy cat repellant with citrus to keep cats out of your yard.
- Ammonia Around the Porch. For a quick dash or repellant, use ammonia all around the porch and areas you want to deter cats from coming. Be careful around the garden area though. If you are planning on having guests over, the ammonia may just deter the guests more
- Plant lots of Flowers. Cats hate marigolds, petunias, lavender, geraniums, peppermint and rue. By planting these plants around your yards, you can keep cats away.
- Coffee Grounds. After brewing up a pot of coffee, put the coffee grounds in places where you want to keep cats out. This natural alternative will save you money and keep your grounds all natural and smelling good.
- Moth Balls and Cayenne. A really good alternative to keep cats away is moth balls. The smell is awful and cats run away quickly. You need to put the moth balls in a plastic jug and then poke some holes in the plastic jug and put these jugs in bushes and on the ground to keep cats out. Cayenne can be sprinkled, but be aware that pepper is toxic to cats and you may harm the animal.
- Motion Activated Sprinklers. Motion automatic sprinklers can be found at your local hardware store and will start anytime someone is in the area. The sprinklers will frighten the cat and make them go elsewhere to rest. Not a cheap alternative, but one to keep your lawn bright green and cat free.
- Buy a Big Dog. One of the best ways to keep cats away is with a guard dog. Even a little Shitzu will make enough noise to frighten any cat. Cats will never go around a barking dog, even if it is very tiny.
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Washington State Cougars football blogger Insider Steve comments on yesterday's big news from Pullman Washington. As big as the Mike Leach hiring was, It was met with some criticism, with some pessimism thrown in for good nature. Steve reviews the Mike Leach Washington St. Cougars Coaching Misconceptions, he looks at ESPN Lawsuits and Texas Tech Red Raiders football as well.
WSU Insider Analysis: The Misconceptions of Mike Leach
December 1, 2011 By


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Home » Posts tagged 'Polar'
Tag Archives: Polar
Sky Rocketing Arctic Methane Levels Help Tell Part of the Much Bigger Story of Major Change
(Last updated March 6, 2016)
Lately, methane levels in the arctic have been spiking to unheard of high levels. What does this mean?
We can tell from extensive ice core sampling that for at least the last 800,000 years, average ambient methane – or CH4 – levels apparently never rose above around 800 ppb (parts per billion), in the earth's global atmosphere.
Yet in the modern industrial age – a pinprick of geologic time – average levels of this potent greenhouse gas have suddenly risen by an amount that's more than double the highest concentrations recorded in at least 800,000 – i.e, not far from a million – years, and possibly longer.
And in the Arctic, where concentrations of late have been particularly high, last fall and again this past spring, methane levels have at times spiked an additional 800 ppb or more above that.
Update: Lately methane has been spiking even higher still, and Winter 2016 saw the previous highs not just beaten, but shattered, as NOAA's METOP orbiting polar satellites in late February recorded a spike to a whopping 3096 parts per billion:
Through a multitude of processes – enteric fermentation in ruminants (cows, camels, goats), landfills, energy production, etc., methane levels – from a geological perspective – have skyrocketed.
Pay close attention to the left side of the EPA chart below, and note how from a geologic perspective methane levels (as with CO2), have shot straight up – suddenly going frrom around 700 -750 ppb, to over 1800.
Given methane's fairly rapid rate of breakdown, it leveled off near 1800 ppb in the atmosphere in the very early 2000s. (To keep levels high, let alone continue to increase it, requires a lot of ongoing net emissions, since methane's half life is only around 6 to 9 years.) But since 2007, levels have been slightly increasing, and are currently a little over 1800 ppb. (As of Winter 2016, average ambient atmospheric methane levels are around 1830 ppb – which given methane's fairly rapid breakdown, means large – even increasing total amounts – are still being emitted. And in the arctic and surrounding northern polar latitudes, it appears the surface of the earth's methane potential is just starting to be scratched – see below .)
Methane – It's History, and What's Happened Now
About 2000 years ago – or 1/400th of an 800,000 year period – levels of this potent greenhouse gas were a little bit above 600 ppb, and, in part through human activity ( rice cultivation -which is a form of wetlands, which are otherwise large natural emitters of methane -increasing domestication of ruminant animals, etc.) that rate "crept up" to around 700 ppb around the year 1600. (Which is also roughly around the height of Western European deforestation, when all but an estimated 5-15% of Western Europe forests had been cleared.)
Total atmospheric methane then tailed off slightly, then started to creep up a little faster to right around the start of the industrial revolution, where it was nearing 800, which is slightly above its highest point for more than the last three quarter million years. (Graph by EPA):
Then, particularly as we moved into the 20th century, from a geologic perspective levels of this gas essentially started to shoot straight up, comprising a rise from around 700 – 800 ppb around the years 1800 – 1850 – and just about the highest methane had also ever been over the past 800,000 years – to a concentration a little over 1800 ppb today. With again, similar to the rapid rise in CO2 over what is also a mere geologic moment – the far more significant part of that rise occurring over an even shorter time period. .
In other words, until recently, as far as we can tell from ice core sampling, the earth over the past 800,000 years had not seen an ambient atmospheric methane concentration level above the high 700s.
Yet today ambient global methane levels stand at a little over 1800 ppb. And in the arctic this past October, methane levels shot up to an amount more than 800 ppb over that, as atmospheric concentrations of methane over the arctic region reached 2666 ppb.
Again, this also occurred this past spring (when they actually went up to 2845, almost 200 ppb higher than in the fall), and, although a little lower, in early fall of 2013 a well, when methane levels spiked to over 2500 ppb in the arctic.
Why is Methane Seemingly Starting to Move Upward Again, Particularly in the Arctic Region
Additional arctic methane spiking happens when northern permafrost areas start to slowly melt. While seemingly minor right now, the issue isn't so minor, as permafrost covers about 24% of the northern hemisphere's total land mass, and it's slowly starting to change. (In fact, in one of the many indices of "hidden" changes beyond what we simply feel when we open a window, in many shallow frozen and partially frozen northern permafrost areas, the actual ground just below the permafrost has warmed more, sometimes considerably more, than the ambient air just above the surface of the frozen area. Which is kind of remarkable when you think about it, and bodes a lot more long term change than mere, "ephemeral" and always changing air temperatures.)
And, more fitting for a movie than a science piece, it also happens when shallow sea bed areas – essentially frozen solid for hundreds of thousands of years if not more – warm up and thaw sufficiently to release methane that's otherwise tightly bound up in copious amounts in frozen clathrates along much of the upper ocean shelf sea bed floor, leading to the eruption of methane gas.
When methane bubbles up, it's sexier, or eerier, than the simple emission of carbon dioxide into the air: It erupts out of the sea bed bottom and, lacking buoyancy, if enough of it displaces water on its way up, can literally cause a ship to sink straight down in what would appear to the outside world as an unsolved mystery.
This is interesting in small amounts (though not for any ship that happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time).
But it's also something that in large amounts will have a fantastic impact upon our world, due to the powerful heat energy absorbing properties of methane in comparison with the far weaker carbon dioxide molecule and – along the massive amount of carbon "stored" in the northern land permafrost – the huge quantities of methane on our sea bed floors that after long epochs of geologic time, and not at all "coincidentally," are now suddenly starting to thaw.
How is this thawing happening?
While there is great variability from year to year, each year, on average, less and less arctic sea ice – which in the past has dwindled during late summers somewhat but for the most part essentially remained year round – exists by late summer in the northern polar arctic region.
In fact, over the past several decades, summer arctic sea ice extent has been decreasing by a little over 13% per decade.
This change is critical. Darker ocean water absorbs a much broader spectrum of incoming solar radiation – for the same reason that when you wear a dark shirt in the sunlight, you are warmer than when you wear a white shirt.
Reflected solar radiation doesn't have nearly the same effect as absorbed solar radiation.
Solar radiation is mainly short wave radiation, and atmospheric greenhouse gases predominantly absorb and re-rediate medium to long wave length radiation. But when solar radiation is instead absorbed, that heat energy isn't reflected back into the atmosphere (where in turn it is largely unmolested by the greenhouse gas molecules that otherwise keep our planet warm), but is transferred into the absorbing body. Yours and your clothes if you are wearing dark clothes, for instance. Or a dark macadam surface. Etc.
Additionally, when some of that heat is given off by the absorbing body or earth surface or water surface area, it is emitted as thermal radiation, not solar radiation.
Although warm matter can also convey heat via conduction, the passing of heat via molecules to cooler, neighboring molecules – though here directly to molecules of gas, not solids as is the normal definition of conduction – as well as by convection, which is the passing of molecular heat from or to a gas or liquid, and, via conduction to gases such as air, which then frequently results in air currents that then transfer that that heat outward – as for example you may feel when sitting near a fireplace.
Thermal radiation, on the other hand, is in the medium to long wave radiation form: This is the radiation wavelength range absorbed and re radiated by greenhouse gases. While again, the short wave solar radiation that is incoming from the sun, and then to some extent reflected back out by various surfaces, is essentially not absorbed and re radiated.
The measure of a surface's reflectivity is its albedo. The albedo of open ocean water is low, and in high latitudes it's as as low as 10%: Meaning that almost all of the incoming solar radiation is absorbed.
Contrast that with a nice solid layer of light colored and highly reflective sea ice sitting atop the arctic waters instead – where most of the incoming solar radiation is reflected.
Snow and sea ice have a very high albedo. This is in part why large northern, southern, and until recently mainly high mountainous but much smaller ice sheets, tend to perpetuate local climate conditions, and remain relatively stable.
Although even that is now changing with respect to the very large thick ice sheets that sit atop the land at both our northern and southern polar regions: Mainly Greenland in the north (the actual area surrounding the north pole itself is all ocean water), and Antarctica – a continent that actually sits atop the pole – in the south.
Both regions are experiencing a net loss of total glacial ice; and, far more tellingly, both are experiencing it an accelerating rate, with even East Antarctica – which until very recently was thought to be extremely stable – despite ongoing atmosphere and ocean changes – getting in on the act.
This increasing rate of acceleration is not just relevant in the Antarctic, where as noted above a part of the ice sheet is now considered on a pathway of unstoppable loss, but particularly in the smaller – and thus less stable – and not quite as "polar" Greenland area. (The north pole region is open water, which used to be mainly frozen year round, but while there is wild variation from year to year, long term that is changing, and also at a fairly rapid geological clip, and leaving more and move summer water open to absorb instead of reflect the summertime solar radiation, while the south pole region is covered by the frozen but now starting to in part thaw continent of Antarctica.)
Greenland likely melted less than a million years ago, and, with far more changes in energy input into our system than occurred less than a million years ago, is increasingly likely to again.
This is an area that contains enough ice to raise the world ocean not by the few feet that the IPCC – tending to leave out many considerations on which there is still a wide range of uncertainty – usually tosses out; but by over 20 feet. Greenland, like West Antarctica, is also starting to see ice sheet melt at an accelerating rate: So much so that rivers are now forming along its surface to speed away melting snow and ice, while also hastening and accelerating the melting process, since water itself – and moving water even more so – is a melting accelerant.
And while we conjecture, we really don't know just how fast melt acceleration can or will occur with a globe that is accumulating net long term heat energy – and one that for very specific and still even rapidly increasing reasons – doing so at a geologically breakneck, and increasing, pace.
For instance, as the World Meteorological Organization pointed out in its last Statement on the Status of the Global Climate (emphasis added):
93 per cent of the excess heat trapped in the Earth system between 1971 and 2010 was taken up by the ocean. From around 1980 to 2000, the ocean gained about 50 zettajoules [10 to the 21st power] of heat. Between 2000 and 2013, it added about three times that amount.
In other words, in the thirteen years between 2000 and 2013, our ocean gained more than 3 times the energy that it did in the 20 years from 1980 to 2000.
There's presently a sort of fiction in even some climate change concerned circles that this is "absorbed heat" that mitigates the effect of "climate change." We'll get into that in another post (as well as below when looking at methane clathrate eruptions):
But essentially the heat retained by the ocean is simply a reflection of excess atmospheric heat energy over the earth's surface (mainly ocean, as water can absorb a great deal of heat, and do so more easily than land surfaces, which stay fairly insulated very close to the surface). This in turn becomes part of our climate system over time, and reflects a key part of what drives and directly affects what drives our climate.
For instance, extra heat is not "hidden" in oceans, it affects those oceans and how the oceans ultimately affect the world, through a multitude of processes.One of which is warming sea columns in shallower ocean areas, warming up long frozen sea bed floors containing large amount of previously well contained or "trapped" methane.
The insulating Process
The earth's climate is driven by the stabilizing and moderating forces of it's geo-physiology – its oceans ice caps and, secondarily, attendant global patterns of tendencies. (Such as ocean currents, etc. Also note that not only do the polar ice caps play a key role in moderating and generally stabilizing earth's temperatures, but even relatively minor changes in them can have a very large impact upon climatic conditions.)
And it's driven more directly and immediately, of course, by the source of almost all energy: The sun, and then the amount of solar radiation, transformed after absorption into thermal radiation upon release from any surface area of a warmed body, that is then re-absorbed and re-radiated by the total greenhouse gases in our lower atmosphere, at which is incoming, both originally, and then again prevented from rom esIncoming energy, in the meantime, is a combination of the sun, which of course is what it is; and less directly, the level of atmospheric greenhouse gases, which absorb and re radiate heat.
These infamous greenhouse gases (though the term is sometimes sloppily used synonymously with carbon dioxide) are already at massively high levels for our current epoch – already higher in the case of CO2 alone than in the past few million years. (That measurement also doesn't even take into account large increases in methane, nitrous oxides, and fluorocarbons which when added in terms of each's "global warming potential equivalent" or thermal radiation absorption and re-radiation properties relative to a unit of carbon dioxide, add considerably more to the total long term molecular atmospheric increase in re captured energy.)
And, through activities that we could curtail, alter, or transform (mainly multiple traditional agricultural and energy practices), these levels are still skyrocketing. That is, from a geologic perspective, as noted at the outset, they are essentially shooting straight up.
These greenhouses gases also include water vapor, the most important greenhouse gas at any one time, and one which we're not affecting directly. But water vapor is not long lived, but ephemeral. Thus it's not a driver of long term climate, but a response to it, and a part of weather itself. With a warming world, the atmosphere will likely lead to the evaporation of, and retain, more moisture.
Since it can hold more moisture, this might mean increased precipitation intensities and changing patterns, one of the most likely long term responses to our ongoing change – although exactly how precipitation patterns will change is unclear. (What is clear is that our current fauna and flora as well as river systems, and current anthropogenic agricultural areas and systems, evolved under the general global and regional patterns of the past few million and in particular past few hundred thousand years.)
If it means more precipitation overall, much of this could come in less frequent but much more intense precipitation events. Though more precipitation overall would be far more welcome than less overall in an otherwise still warming world, it would also likely mean an amplification of the ongoing "greenhouse" affect, since it would mean an increase in average total atmospheric water vapor levels.
While water vapor acts as an atmospheric reflective agent during the day – increasing earth's overall albedo by reflecting a lot of sunlight right back up before it even penetrates through the atmosphere down to the ground, it also acts as a powerful greenhouse gas simply due to the massive concentrations relative to the other greenhouse gases, "trapping" in thermally radiated heat.
Both of these phenomenon – increased heat retention through energy re absorption and re-radiation ("re-capture") , as well as increased solar radiation reflectivity – are at play during the day. At night, only the powerful greenhouse effect of increased water vapor is at play, leading to an overall further amplifying effect if water vapor levels are generally increased.
On the other hand – although so far the evidence doesn't seem to support this being the case, but almost anything could change in terms of precipitation patterns as we move forward – if water vapor decreases despite a higher overall rate of evaporation due to warmer temperatures, this would heavily exacerbate what is likely to be one of the most fundamental problems caused by our change set of climatic conditions as it is: Drought.
Remember, even with increased precipitation, with more water vapor being held in the atmosphere, as well as shifting regional patterns, regions used to receiving rainfall could easily experience huge shifts and become regions that receive almost no rainfall at all (and vice versa) whereas many areas could receive the same or even more rainfall, but with precipitation events both far more intense, yet less frequent, etc, with thus far more of that precipitation lost to runoff under our current evolved world, including its rivers, topsoils, and root structures – as well as intensified flooding.
Drought and changing precipitation patterns, particularly for the poorer areas of the globe, is likely to be one of the most directly devastating affects of ongoing climate "change," and while a lessening of some of the greenhouse effect from reduced water vapor would be welcome in that sense, a decrease in overall precipitation along with changed patterns, likely increases precipitation fall intensities, and overall warming would be a particularly negative, possibly – at least in terms of what we are used to (and have come to rely upon) right now – mind blowingly devastating development.
So while water vapor is a bit of wild card, it's not really a good wild card in either direction. And there is a fundamental reason for this. We evolved, and the species we relied upon evolved, under the conditions of the past few million years. And those conditions are changing.
A Look At the Bigger Picture
While both polar glacial ice regions are decreasing in total ice mass, and far more notably, at an accelerating rate, the smaller, "less" stable Greenland ice sheets in particular are starting to show increasing signs of marked change. And in just the last five years – a remarkably short period of time – the extent of net melt loss from both polar regions together has doubled. In the apt words of Angelika Humbert from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute, this is an "incredible" amount.
(Do a little math. While there is no reason to expect this (or, for that matter, not expect it), if that pattern were to continue – i.e. regardless of size just keep doubling the loss every five years – it wouldn't be long before a good portion of Florida, and many other areas, would be completely underwater. In the U.S. for example, you might want to start investing in Arizona "beachfront" property, now.)
Greenland is also more conducive to easy climatic change than the vastly larger and colder antarctic region, as again even some 400,000 to 800,00 years ago, for a time it was not a large sheet of ice, but instead covered by fauna and flora; and the world's oceans, correspondingly, were much higher.
Whatever happened less than a million years ago, also keep in mind that the level of energy alteration we are currently undergoing is already on a multi million year level scale, and it is also one that, simultaneously, is still increasing. Fast. And from a geologic perspective, extraordinarily fast.
This rate of change is something we tend to confuse with our own sense of time; thinking that effects upon this enormous, structured system would be near instantaneous, when they will shift and accelerate, even lurch, over longer and largely unpredictable periods of time, as the net energy balance of the earth lower atmosphere continues to grow, and as these underlying and normally stable structural ecological systems – such as our ocean, ice sheets, and others – start to change over time at an accelerating rate.
And they will do so in most cases, with some sort of positive feedback. Such as, for instance, in the case of warming shallow ocean region water columns, which are showing very early signs, again, of releasing long frozen solid methane clathrate deposits up into the surrounding ocean waters, where they bubble up, and release out into the air. Where, in turn, they add to the process of increasing net energy retention (prompting yet more melting, etc), even further.
(You might think it's "odd" that things happen to be reinforcing, but this is because the two most critical elements in all of this often get completely overlooked. 1) This entire phenomenon represents what is in effect an external, or "forced" change in energy input – from something outside the natural system – namely, in this case our alteration of it. 2) It is geologically massive.)
In the arctic region where these methane spikes are seemingly becoming more prominent, the summer sea ice extent continues to decline, and there is a massive change in the surface albedo of these summer waters – that is, as the surface changes from the high reflectivity of an extensive ice coverage area, to the extremely low reflectivity of dark colored, high latitude open ocean.
And remember, this matters, since the ice depletion, of course, is occurring in summer when the north pole is angled toward the sun and receives its rays.
While at the same time, the 1% a year or so increase in southern polar sea ice extent, that is probably due largely to an increase in the Southern Annular Mode wind patterns pushing more of the ice northward and making room for growth, as well as concomitant near freezing upper surface water insulation from melting glacial run off is during the southern hemisphere winter months.
So with increasingly less arctic sea ice, the arctic ocean sometimes gets a lot warmer. And this in turn leads to some interesting things that sound like they are on the cutting edge of science fiction, but that are very real.
Namely, this eruption, or thawing, of methane clathrates that exist in large quantities amounts on sea bed floor areas, and that contain a massive amount of this long "contained" methane gas. (It is not that clathrates never released before. It is that the process has likely moved from a relative rarity in terms of occurrence and amount – and thus insignificant – to one that is increasingly significant, just as would be expected if shallow ocean bed areas – which generally tend to be very stable in temperature but are not that far below freezing temperature – were to warm.)
Current estimates of the amount of methane so "trapped," most of it in shallower areas more susceptible to thawing, have come down; as it has been discovered that the far deeper ocean floor areas contain very little of it. (These far deeper areas are also far less susceptible to thawing anyway, and in fact some studies have suggested that some of the deeper ocean waters have not warmed at all, while other deep ocean parts have, but these areas are hard to gauge, since they're not easily accessible.)
Yet the estimates still average out to more than the total amount of carbon (about 750-800 gigatonnes, or a little under 3000 gigatonnes of actual carbon dioxide) in our global entire atmosphere.
That's a lot. But even more relevantly, methane gas is a much more potent absorbent of thermal radiation than carbon dioxide. This causes a lot of confusion and assumptions, since methane breaks down into carbon dioxide, with a half life typically of somewhere around 7 or 8 years.
This means that the longer the time frame, the lower the overall potency of methane in terms of its Global Warming Potential equivalent. (Or "GWPe" – simply a measure of the warming capacity of a particular gas, relative to the baseline warming potential of the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide; which itself is very prevalent in the atmosphere but has a fairly weak warming affect per molecule, expressed as a GWP of "1.")
Typically, methane is expressed in terms of a GWP over a term of 100 years, over which it has a value of about 23 or so.
That is, each unit of mass of methane, first as methane and then as breakdown products, including carbon dioxide, will have about 23 times the effect, in terms of total thermal radiation absorption and re radiation, as each unit of mass of carbon dioxide, over a 100 year period.
Over a shorter time period, which means that for a higher percentage of the total time any particular molecule of methane still exists as methane – where it's vastly more effective at "trapping" heat than carbon dioxide – the GWP again is far higher.
But it's not, as some articles may inadvertently lead you to believe, that methane is "23 times more effective at trapping heat." (It actually a few hundred times more effective, but again, it doesn't last very long).
It's that over X period of time, a unit of methane will average out to have an effect that is about Y times as effective at trapping and re radiating thermal radiation energy, as the same unit mass of carbon dioxide.
But, just for example, over a century period a release of 10 gigatonnes of methane gas (a very large amount), would essentially have a similar effect, averaged out, of about or up to 230 or so gigatonnes of carbon dioxide over about a hundred years, and thereafter have around the same ongoing effect as carbon dioxide, since that is essentially what most of it will ultimately be. (A tonne is a metric ton, or about 2200 pounds. A gigatonne is one billion tonnes, or about 2,200,000,000,000 pounds.)
Notice also, though there's little in the way of information that would tend to support or refute such an idea at his point, that if very large scale sea bottom warming were to occur over a short period of time, and thus massive amounts of methane released, the higher warming intensity of methane over a shorter term time scale would become more relevant – particularly if it was released in significant enough quantities to have a shorter term accelerating impact upon other climate driving conditions.
This same possibility also exists with respect to the vast northern permafrost; which when it melts will release some of its vast trapped carbon in the form of methane, and not just carbon dioxide, as well.
Enormous releases over, say, a 10 to 20 year period (or high enough sustained releases to keep the overall level much higher over a longer period) would make the relevance of methane's higher GWP over that shorter period much more relevant, since the combined short term affect (or longer if suddenly much higher levels maintain through high sustained release), could quickly accelerate air temperature warming, and then further amplify ice melting rates. Over a 20 year period for instance, methane again has a much higher global warming potential equivalent (about 72 to 90.) than the 23 or so typically used for the gas, and based on a 100 year projection.
Thus an explosion into the air over say 20 years, of just a gigatonne of methane, would have up to the same short term affect of around 70 or more gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. 10 gigatonnes would have up to the effect of over 700 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide – near the total amount already in our atmosphere.
It's not quite that simple, since the atmosphere is a balance, and some excess gas will be absorbed into the carbon cycle. But as methane and not carbon dioxide, and over a shorter time frame, this is less relevant – and huge influxes in particular in a short time also allow for less time and room for quick integration into the total global system, even as some of the methane starts to break down after several years; so a big spike in methane releases would have an extremely powerful and fairly rapid amplifying energy effect, on top of the level of permafrost melt or sea bottom floor melting that led to the release to begin with.
And it would be pretty wild, which we still don't seem to be fully grasping.
Remember, aside from what are in the short term uncontrollable geologic emissions created by an increasingly altering climate, if we take steps to reduce methane emissions, we can reduce atmospheric levels of it pretty quickly, since it lasts as methane for only a short period of time.
And, barring an acceleration in "natural" (ir climate change induced) net methane releases, because of its fairly short half life it takes a continuation of very high emission levels just to maintain current high levels.
But levels of the gas aren't going down.
And in the earlier 2000s, methane levels, albeit very high, seemed to stabilize and even slightly decrease, and since – despite if anything a likely cessation in total net emission increases, or possibly a small decrease – have been slightly increasing.
Once again, take a look at the EPA graph from above. And the more geological time oriented chart on the left:
Now in the context of some of this additional information, notice again and almost identical in general pattern to an 800,000 year graph of atmospheric CO2 – that until recently – just about the start of the industrial revolution or thereabouts – atmospheric methane levels stayed relatively stable over long periods of time, varying between 450 to 700 ppb for most of the time covering almost the last one million years. And never rising above about 780 ppb. (And then essentially, from a geological perspective, as with carbon dioxide, they have shot straight up.)
With current methane levels at a little over 1800 ppb, a spike in a portion of the arctic atmosphere to over 2600 ppb (and now over 2800 ppb) is significant.
But it is what is happening more directly in the arctic system itself that is even more significant, and also fairly interesting. And, as with almost all aspects of the phenomenon known as climate change, here is where again the issue of a warming globe – not just a warming atmosphere, but far more relevantly, a warming globe – becomes very relevant. As does the issue of an ongoing yearly average decrease in arctic sea ice extent; which, on average, is leaving less and less ice in the late summer and early autumn months to cover up the otherwise dark, solar radiation absorbing arctic ocean relevant.
Robert Scribbler explains:
Imagine, for a moment, the darkened and newly liberated ocean surface waters of the Kara, Laptev, and East Siberian Seas of the early 21st Century Anthropocene Summer.
Where white, reflective ice existed before, now only dark blue heat-absorbing ocean water remains. During summer time, these newly ice-free waters absorb a far greater portion of the sun's energy as it contacts the ocean surface. This higher heat absorption rate is enough to push local sea surface temperature anomalies into the range of 4-7 C above average…
Some of the excess heat penetrates deep into the water column — telegraphing abnormal warmth to as far as 50 meters below the surface. The extra heat is enough to contact near-shore and shallow water deposits of frozen methane on the sea-bed. These deposits — weakened during the long warmth of the Holocene — are now delivered a dose of heat they haven't experienced in hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of years. Some of these deposits weaken, releasing a portion of their methane stores into the surrounding oceans which, in turn, disgorges a fraction of this load into the atmosphere.
This, along with the melting ice both on land and on sea, in polar regions and in permafrost regions (which themselves hold nearly twice as much carbon as is currently found in the entire atmosphere – some of which, again, will also emit as methane as the permafrost melts) and the increasingly warming ocean – also again, at a startlingly fast rate – is one of the many important aspects of this complex, non linear, dynamic, and system shifting process of climate change that are largely being overlooked in the popular discussion and media, as the issue gets oversimplified by a near obsessive, and very misleading, focus on air temperatures.
Although we focus on air temperatures for a practical reason – we can relate directly to air temperatures, and we even, literally "feel" it – this only tells a small part, and often a very misleading part, of the relevant story.
The bigger story is one of great change, and it is being told not just in the atmospheric record that reflects our atmosphere's now multi million year long term molecular heat energy re absorption property, but increasing, in the tell tale signs of a changing, if not slowly rumbling and even now occasionally erupting, earth.
Update: More information on methane, and why it's future impact may be greatly underestimated, is found here.


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When you are shopping for pearl jewelry, the most important value factor to consider is the quality of the pearl. Natural cultured pearl colors are much more valuable than dyed pearl colors, which often look too vivid or harsh to come from nature. Gemvara does not sell any dyed pearls.
The quality of a cultured pearl is judged by luster, the reflectivity and shine of the surface, and the orient, which is the soft iridescence caused by the refraction of light by the layers of nacre. Also look for any flaws or spots in the nacre: the best pearls have an even smooth texture. Other factors that affect value are the regularity of the shape, size, and color.
Pearls are organic, created when a mollusk like an oyster covers a foreign object with beautiful layers of nacre, the mother of pearl. Most pearls today are cultured by man. A shell bead or mantle tissue is placed inside an oyster and the oyster is returned to the water. The mollusk does the rest: it covers the implanted shell or with layer after layer of lustrous nacre.
Although the culturing of pearls began in Japan with the saltwater white Akoya pearl, today the majority of the cultured pearls on the market, even traditional-looking white strands, are freshwater pearls cultured in the lakes of China. China has added beautiful natural pastel shades to the pearl palette: lovely warm pinks, oranges, and purples.
In the warmer waters of the South Pacific, bigger mollusks produce South Sea cultured pearls and black Tahitian cultured pearls, which come in larger sizes. South Sea golden cultured pearls are the world's most valued pearls for their buttery color and natural satiny luster.
Because all Gemvara jewelry is made to order, we can hand-select the perfect pearl for your design. What is the meaning of pearls in the language of gems? Pearls have long symbolized perfection and purity, making them popular for brides. Pearls are the most feminine of gems. According to ancient Chinese legend, the moon holds the power to create pearls, instilling them with its celestial glow and mystery.
Pearl is the June birthstone and the 3rd and 30th anniversary gem.
Pearl jewelry is crafted in white gold, yellow gold, rose gold, platinum or sterling silver.
Because pearls are organic, they have a relatively low hardness of 2.5 to 3.5 and should be stored away from other jewelry to prevent scratching. Always put on perfume, lotion, and sprays before you put on pearls, since chemicals may be absorbed into the surface of pearls, staining them. Wipe your pearls clean with a moist soft cloth after wearing them.
Gemvara's fine quality pearl jewelry is designed to be passed down for generations to come, crafted by hand in the United States.
We can help right away. Chat with a jewelry expert now!


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Carl Zimmer is a blogger and writer for both The New York Times and Discover Magazine, which also hosts his blog, The Loom. Zimmer writes on a wide range of scientific topics. He is the author of 12 books, the most recent of which is Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. When Zimmer asked on his blog how many scientists out there had tattoos, he was inundated with photo submissions and commentary, which he has collected into the neat book you can see and order below. It's our pleasure to share some of them…
Maria, a paleontologist, writes,
"Archaeopteryx, to me, represents a beautiful example of a transition fossil and of evolution in general, showing characters that both dinosaurs and birds share."
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.


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Safeguard your business
Commercial Insurance is much more than protection against Fire, Theft, and Storm damage. It is an investment enabling a company to remain in business should the worst happen.
Without the correct insurance protection the consequences are likely to have a crippling effect on your business.
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PIA Commercial is always available to discuss your business needs and will if you prefer meet with you at your business premises.


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Life in Christian County, Kentucky... Life in The Upper South...
More About Birds and Animals...
This part of Kentucky (and much of the greater Ohio/Mississippi Valley), is an overwintering area for blackbirds, or more correctly, black birds. Red-winged blackbirds, starlings, grackles, cowbirds, and others roost together in forested areas at night and fly in huge flocks during the day, looking for food in the fields.
I noticed earlier this winter that we didn't seem to have as many flocks of black birds this year, but this morning when I took Isaac to school, I saw big flocks of thousands and thousands of birds in the air, on the fields, and in the trees. I think the recent cold temperatures have finally brought them into our area. It was a frosty +10° here last night, and much colder than that farther north.
Many people don't like these big flocks. They eat grain that's waiting for harvest during the fall and drop manure over what they don't eat. When they roost too much in any one area, their manure builds up and histoplasmosis, a respiratory disease that humans can contract, can be a problem. They endanger airplanes when they roost near airports and they make suburban forests miserable for the human residents. And the complaints go on and on.
|Finding food along the road
Occasionally, a flock will drop out of the sky and land in our trees for a few minutes. Casper, our kitten, is really freaked out by the loud noise of their wings, the cacophony of their chirps and cackles, and the sudden sight of them swooping in to the treetops or rising into flight as a flock.
I enjoy seeing the huge flocks because they help me imagine how a flock of passenger pigeons might have looked. Two hundred years ago, passenger pigeons flew the skies of Kentucky in even greater number than the blackbirds. Here is John James Audubon's famous description of the passenger pigeon numbers in Kentucky:
"The multitudes of Wild Pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement.
"In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few miles beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the Pigeons flying from north-east to south-west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I travelled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with Pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse, the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose."
John James Audubon, in Birds of America.
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What do you think? I enjoy hearing from readers!


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Carole E Boutiette
Carole E. Boutiette, 49, of 392 Providence Road, South Grafton died Saturday, November 10, 2007 at home after a brave struggle with pancreatic cancer. She was born in Whitinsville, MA December 16, 1957 to H. Kenneth and Jeannette (Cadrin) Boutiette and is survived by her six brothers and sisters who cared for her during her illness and loved her so dearly: Ann-Marie (Boutiette) Kelly, Diane (Boutiette) and Michael J. Clements, Paul K. and Pauline Boutiette, Peter L. and Deborah Boutiette, John R. and Deborah Boutiette and Kenneth H. F. and Susan Boutiette; also many aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, and many friends.
Carole graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and worked in managerial positions at Data General, TEKRA Corporation and Radio Detection Corp. of Bridgton, ME where she made her home for the last few years before her illness. Her passions were snowshoeing, canoeing, downhill skiing, backpacking and hiking in the White Mountains that she loved so much. She was an avid musician, playing both the guitar and the piano. She was also an artist who worked recently in watercolors and she loved gardening with her flowers, and having fun being with her family and friends.
She was the inspiration behind Team Carole, which was part of the UMass. Medical "Walk for the Cure" in September, which succeeded in raising nearly $10, 000 for cancer research for UMass Medical in Worcester. All are invited to calling hours on Monday, November 12th from 5 to 8 pm in Roney Funeral Homes - North Chapel, 152 Worcester St. (Rt 122 & 140 ) in North Grafton. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, November 13th at 10 am in her Parish Church of St. James, 89 Main St. (Rt 122A) in South Grafton. She will then be laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery.


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Family of pets available for adoption
Sweetwater Animal Control currently has a family of pets available for adoption.The pets available for adoption this week are a black Labrador mix mother and her five male puppies, three black, one brown and the runt, a beige puppy. Also still available is the male husky mix puppy, about one year old from last week.Dogs and cats are available for adoption for a $15 fee and the cost of getting the pet vaccinated for rabies.The pets are required to have their vaccination before they leave to their new homes.The pet shown will be available for adoption until Tuesday of next week. For those interested in adopting a pet, call the Sweetwater Animal Shelter at 236-6139. If there is no answer, just leave a message and they will get back to you the same day or the next day.


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"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" Francisco Goya
The Philosophy Program promotes academic excellence by providing the highest quality teaching and scholarship in philosophy. It is focused on equipping students with core knowledge and skills, while acquainting them with the range and diversity of traditions and orientations in philosophy. The program is committed to the relevance of its efforts, promoting meaningful institutional, professional, and community service, while emphasizing teaching and research attentive to the application of philosophical knowledge and skills. The philosophy program is dedicated to regular and ongoing scrutiny of all its efforts in teaching, research, and service. Informed by these commitments, the Department of Philosophy seeks to assist its multiple constituencies in appreciating the great intellectual conversations, in clarifying unexamined assumptions, in evaluating the ideas and norms that motivate intellectual inquiry, and in participating intelligently and responsibly in public debates.
UNF Philosophy graduates should be able to:
Content/Disciplinary Knowledge & Skills
Explicate the key terms, concepts, and ideas in
the discipline of philosophy.
Articulate the main historical developments in
the tradition and/or methods used in the discipline of philosophy.
Critical Thinking Skills
Develop arguments that are well reasoned,
fallacy-free, with conclusions properly following from premises.
Reconstruct and evaluate arguments and ideas, and recognizing forms of fallacious, invalid, and unsound reasoning.
Interpret complex texts in a systematic and critical manner.
Communication Skills
Write in a reasoned, persuasive, and argumentatively effective manner.
Employ the verbal skills needed both for individual presentations and participation in group discussions.
Content/Disciplinary Knowledge & Skills
Critical Thinking Skills
Communication Skills
The UNF Philosophy Department offers courses and programs in philosophy:
The Philosophy Department currently has (in a comprehensive state university of about 16,000 students):
The Philosophy Program at the University of North Florida has several qualities that make it special among philosophy programs around the country.
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IDC: The Intelligent Integrated Enterprise Advantage
For a business to streamline processes and make decisions faster, integration is key - between applications, systems, and devices, not all of which are under enterprise control. As a result, the face of integration is changing to include monitoring and predictive analytics to better accommodate less reliable systems. This strategy is known as "intelligent integration."
In this IDC report, explore how you can transform your business into an intelligent integrated enterprise, in order to deliver more efficient processes and better serve your customers. Read on to learn six key attributes of intelligent enterprise integration design, and discover middleware tools you can use to help you make your enterprise systems more coordinated, smarter, and responsive.


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Trail-Lite, Holiday Rambler Set For Open House
August 29, 2013 by RVBusiness · Comments Off on Trail-Lite, Holiday Rambler Set For Open House
Newly acquired by Allied Specialty Vehicles (ASV), Trail-Lite by R-Vision and Holiday Rambler towable divisions will display their entire brand portfolio at the upcoming Elkhart County RV Open House, Sept. 17-19 in northern Indiana.
According to a press release, the companies will show product at 53111 County Road 15 on the southwest corner of CR 6 and CR 15. The site sits on the main corridor that bridges the multitude of manufacturer displays, providing dealers with easy and convenient access.
"The Open House event provides an outstanding venue to reintroduce the Trail-Lite and Holiday Rambler towable brands to the RV dealer network as an ASV company," said Matt Buckman, director of sales for Trail-Lite and Holiday Rambler Towables. "Our simplified business approach focuses on product, people and process. We invite anyone traveling the CR6 corridor to invest an hour of their day to experience our products, people and plan for success."
Trail-Lite offers a series of light, laminated travel trailers under the Trek, Crossover and Sport brands, while Holiday Rambler towable lines include Traveler, Ultra, Aluma-Lite travel trailers and Alumascape and Presidential fifth-wheels.
Production is based in Elkhart, Ind., and Harrisburg, Ore.


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The Gorge community lost a bright light this spring when Parkdale resident Nancy Napp died on March 27. But through her efforts, it has gained an important wetland that will be enjoyed for generations to come.
The public is invited to a walking tour of the Nancy Napp Memorial Ecological Refuge today, June 11, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The refuge is located at 986 Snowden Road in White Salmon.
"We wouldn't be where we are today without Nancy," said Stephen Finn who, with his wife Sharon Philpott, owns the property where the wetland is located. "Nancy taught me that education is the key difference between total disregard of the environment and proper management of the environment."
Nancy's life was rooted in a love for nature and the outdoors. After earning a bachelor's degree in botany, she worked as a botanist for the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service. During the last 10 years, she had her own environmental consulting business in the Gorge.
Finn hired her several years ago when the owner of property adjacent to his on Snowden Road known as "the dump" began draining the wetland on the property in preparation for development.
"Nancy's responsibility was to do an assessment and a wetland delineation to prove that, in fact, this area had historically been a wetland and should remain a wetland and should be designated as such," said Cathryn Whitman, a close friend of Nancy and her family (which includes her husband, Wes Lapp, and daughter, Zan).
Through Nancy's efforts, the area was eventually determined to be a Class 1 wetland, the highest quality of wetland.
Because of certain requirements for the designation - including the necessity of a large buffer zone surrounding it - Nancy encouraged Finn to approach the landowner and try to buy him out, with the goal of restoring and permanently preserving the wetland.
Finn bought the property (for almost $250,000 more than the seller had paid), then encountered still more problems when Klickitat County informed him the area was actually forest land and it could exercise its timber rights and increase his taxes.
Finn wound up having to get the area rezoned from forest to open space recreational use.
"Nancy was the key to all of this because she was able to provide the historical data on the meadow," Whitman said. During her research, Nancy discovered that the wetland recharges an important aquifer.
"What's being protected is water that White Salmon drinks," Whitman said.
Throughout the years-long process, Nancy's knowledge and levelheadedness was vital.
"Nancy's stance was, there's got to be a peaceable means to do this," Whitman said. "That was the essence of who Nancy was. She was always looking for the peaceable solution that was going to protect the environment."
Nancy worked passionately on the wetland restoration even after she was diagnosed with anal cancer more than a year-and-a-half ago.
All told, Finn has 120 acres that he is working to designate as a conservation easement in perpetuity. In keeping with Nancy's vision for the area as an ecological preserve and education center, the acreage will be dedicated as the Nancy Napp Memorial Ecological Refuge and be managed by the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute.
"I'm so thankful Nancy will have a lasting legacy with this memorial," Whitman said. "Her life was well spent. It wasn't long-lived, but it was rich and it was full."
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After the hurt will come the realisation that Italy had a good Euro 2012, says coach Cesare Prandelli
ITALY'S Euro 2012 campaign ended in a tired humiliation at the hands of Spain, with the Azzurri suffering the worst defeat of any team in a final, but coach Cesare Prandelli was justified in placing the conclusion to the tournament in some context.
"Of course, the (4-0) defeat hurts but I think as time goes by, it will be recognised that we had an excellent tournament," he said and few would dispute his conclusion even if there is plenty to improve on if Italy are to be challengers in 2014 in Brazil.
Prandelli's side certainly exceeded expectations and offered plenty of evidence that they are on the right track even if they were, like everyone else, far from the benchmark set by record-breaking Spain.
Italy may have had the pedigree of one European Championship title and four World Cup triumphs, but they travelled to Poland and Ukraine with few anticipating a run to the final.
Two years ago in South Africa, their dismal World Cup exit at the group stage led goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon to question whether Italy would even be good enough to qualify for the tournament.
That fear proved misplaced but the qualifying campaign was far from stellar and the pre-tournament form hardly hinted at what was to follow, especially given Spain and Croatia were inItaly's group.
A 1-1 draw with Spain in the opening game indicated however that Prandelli had found the right recipe for his side as question marks over some of his players were immediately removed.
Another 1-1, this time with Croatia, left all to play for with the final game against Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland andItaly responded well with a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli which secured them a place in the last eight.
A quarter-final with England, another team that appeared to be performing above lowered expectations, brought out the quality within the team - Andrea Pirlo was outstanding in midfield and although penalties were needed to dispatch Roy Hodgson's team - no-one disputed Italy's right to advance.
Then came the highlight of the tournament - an enthralling and emphatic 2-1 win over Germany in the semi-finals, with Balotelli coming into his own with two goals, the second arguably goal of the tournament, as Italy's midfield ran the game and their back-line, well lead by the impressive Andrea Barzagli, held firm.
Italy paid for those efforts though three days later when a jaded looking team were dissected by Spain's incisive passing and intuitive movement.
The final scoreline of 4-0 could be explained away by injuries and the fact that the Azzurri were forced to play the last half hour with 10 men but even without the bad luck of losing third substitute Thiago Motta just four minutes after he came on, Italy were already trailing 2-0.
Prandelli's biggest achievement was to create a 'club' type spirit in the squad, welding the players into a genuine team and that will likely mean that he heads into September's World Cup qualifiers without wanting to make many changes.
But there will be a need to integrate some fresh young talent while at the same time qualification will certainly have to be earned from a group with Denmark and the Czech Republic.
Pirlo will be 35 come the World Cup and has had a long career after starting in Serie A at 16, while Cassano is 30 this month and the 34-year-old Antonio Di Natale is likely to make way for younger striking options.
Italy's Under-21 squad has produced some players of great potential - strikers Lorenzo Insigne and Mattia Destro along with midfielder Marco Verratti, who is considered an eventual replacement for Pirlo.
Prandelli will hope that those three get a chance to show their worth regularly in Serie A in the coming season because the 'project', as the coach has labeled his job, will need a little refreshing on the road to Rio.
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I Have a Dream for Special Education
January 17, 2016 in Featured, Special Education Advisor Blog by Doug Goldberg
Special Education in America has come very far in the 30 plus years since the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed. The problem is somewhere along the way the spirit of the law and the practice of the law started to breakdown. The cornerstone of the special education law is the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and decisions about the IEP are decided at an IEP team meeting. The IEP becomes useless if the IEP team meeting goes off task. Unfortunately, instead of a team, often it becomes parents against the school and a massive communication breakdown occurs. There can be a significant lack of trust on both sides. Many times I hear from School personnel, "Why don't parents think we are capable of assessing their children properly?" While on the other side parents think schools are turning them down for eligibility and services due to lack of funds when their children really need help. Read the rest of this entry →


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Steve Dahl is a radio personality who has enlivened Chicago airwaves since 1978, following a stint in Detroit and several in southern California, where he was born and raised. A Chicago Emmy winner, Dahl has also created numerous TV projects over the years, including It's Too Early, a daily morning show hailed as "the best program on television" by Tribune columnist Bob Greene. His candid, stream of consciousness style, incorporating subject matter ranging from current events to family anecdotes to workaday life at a radio station, has influenced many other American broadcasters.
Noting that there has never been a person, thing, or substance he hasn't tried to abuse, Dahl joined the Chicago Tribune as the newspaper's vice advisor columnist in January of 2006. He also writes a daily weblog, which can be found at Dahl.com, and performs his songs in live concerts from time to time.
Dahl and his wife Janet have called Chicago home for almost 30 years. They live in the western suburbs and have three grown sons.


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Missouri antievolution bill dies
When the Missouri legislative session ended on May 16, 2008, House Bill 2554 died, although it was passed by the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education on April 30, 2008. If enacted, the bill would have called on state and local education administrators to "endeavor to create an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues, including such subjects as the teaching of biological and chemical evolution," and to "endeavor to assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies." "Toward this end," it continued, "teachers shall be permitted to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of theories of biological and chemical evolution."
The intent and likely effect of HB 2554 was not lost on the editorialist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (April 27, 2008), who commented (in the course of marveling at the latest confirmation of the dinosaurian ancestry of birds), "Once again this year, a bill has been introduced in the Legislature that would encourage students to question evolution. House Bill 2554, sponsored by Rep. Robert Wayne Cooper, R-Camdenton, claims to support academic freedom for teachers, and to help students 'develop critical thinking skills.' Those are the latest fig leaves used by creationists in their long war against science and evolution." In previous legislative sessions, Cooper sponsored a total of three antievolution bills: HB 911 and HB 1722, calling for equal time for "intelligent design" in Missouri's public schools, in 2004, and HB 1266, calling for "critical analysis" of any "theory or hypothesis of biological origins," in 2006. All three of these bills died, although HB 1266, like HB 2554, was passed by the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education.


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|Natalya Nesterovas Great and Eternal Themes
Natalya Nesterova, Gogol's House, 1979
The State Tretyakov Gallery, Russias largest museum, recently opened the first permanent exhibit in the country of twentieth-century Russian art. There are three paintings by Natalya Nesterova. Many other famous artists of various generations and directions are represented by only two or even one work. Natalya Nesterova holds a special place in the minds of curators and art historians. Beginning to exhibit only in the mid-1970s, she won the attention and interest of leading critics and the close scrutiny of museum people. Over the last fifteen years, the Tretyakov Gallery acquired a large and varied collection of Nesterovas paintings, including landscapes, urban episodes, and metaphoric compositions imbued with hidden meaning and extraordinary energy.
Natalya Nesterova is the first and most powerful expressionist in Russian contemporary art. The emotional world of this modest and delicate woman is so rich, changeable and at the same time whole, that with every new work, the viewer is inevitably struck by the frankness of sincere and acute feeling. It is always expressed through individual, instantly recognizable and capacious plastic language, whose basic tools are color, texture, dynamics of composition and space, and unexpected points of view. Nesterova sees and depicts a strange reality, where the most simple object and the deepest stirrings of the soul are equally visible. The structure of material is magnified many times and subjected to ruthless analysis. But at the same time, her view covers a broad spectrum of phenomena that simultaneously exist in metaphysical space, visually identical to a cinematic panorama of dreams and elusive reminiscences of the unconscious. The surrealistic impulse is definitely present in Nesterovas work. But neither it or any other terminologically defined influence predominates over the freedom and talent of the personality in choosing an independent style and organization of creative ideas.
Nesterovas Old and New Testament cycles hold a special place in her work. When she first began handling this great and eternal theme, the artist found something new for herself and for modern art as a whole. Alongside the facile interest in religious subjects today, her interpretation sounded a protest against the superficial and the salon, against the treacly and hypocritical. The power of her images is related to Giottos frescoes and the rather crude naïvete of early Renaissance masterpieces. The artists restraint and profound understanding of beauty do not allow emotions to overflow the bounds of esthetic refinement. Inner temperament, a storm of emotions, and a trembling sense of touching the primary values of humanity are strongly controlled by the masterful organization of the paintings surface, the confident brush strokes, and the far-seeing and responsible conception of the final result. In every painting, the inspired visionary works together with the demanding analytic who wields a brilliant mastery of artistic technique.
Natalya Nesterova, Waterfall in Novi Jafon, 1981
Maria Valyaeva, Ph.D.
is Chairwoman of the Department of Soviet and Contemporary Paintings at The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow


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|On conference t-shirts
Conference t-shirts can't be that hard, right? I certainly don't remember them being difficult when Canberra last hosted linux.conf.au in 2005. I was the person who arranged all the swag for that conference, so I should remember. Yet here I am having spent hours on the phone with vendors, and surrounded with discarded sample t-shirts, size charts and colour swatches. What changed?
The difference between now and then is that in the intervening seven years the Australian Linux community has started to make real effort to be more inclusive. We have anti-harassment policies, we encourage new speakers, and we're making real efforts to encourage more women into the community.
linux.conf.au 2013 is making real efforts to be as inclusive as possible -- one of the first roles we allocated was a diversity officer, who is someone active in the geek feminism community. We've had serious discussions about how we can make our event as friendly to all groups as possible, and have some interesting things along those lines to announce soon. We're working hard to make the conference a safe environment for everyone, and will have independent delegate advocates available at all social events, as well as during the conference.
What I want to specifically talk about here is the conference t-shirts though. We started out with the following criteria -- we wanted to provide a men's cut, and a separate women's cut, because we recognize that unisex t-shirts are not a good solution for most women. We also need a wider than usual size range in those shirts because we have a diverse set of delegates attending our event. We also didn't really want to do black, dark blue, or white shirts -- mostly because those colours are overdone, but also because the conference is in January when the mean temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius.
Surprisingly, those criteria eliminate the two largest vendors of t-shirts in Australia. Neither Hanes nor Gildan make any t-shirt that has both men's and women's cuts, in interesting colours and with a large size variety. So we went on the hunt for other manufacturers. However, I'm jumping a little ahead of myself here, so bear with me.
First off we picked a Hanes shirt because we liked the look of it. We were comfortable with that choice for quite a while before we discovered that the range of colours available in both the men's and women's cut was quite small. Sure, there are heaps of colours in each cut, but the overlapping set of colours is much smaller than it first appears. At this point we knew we needed to find a new vendor.
The next most obvious choice is Gildan. Gildan does some really nice shirts, and I immediately fell in love with a colour called "charcoal". However, once bitten twice shy, so we ordered some sample t-shirts for my wife and I to try out. I'm glad we did this, because the women's cut was a disaster. First off it didn't fit my wife very well in the size she normally wears, which it turns out is because the lighter cotton style of t-shirt is 10 centimeters smaller horizontally than the thicker cotton version! It got even worse when we washed the shirts and tried them again -- the shirt shrunk significantly on first wash. We also noticed something else which had escaped our attention -- the absolute largest size that Gildan did in our chosen style for women was a XXL. Given the sizing ran small, that probably made the largest actual size we could provide a mere XL. That's not good enough.
Gildan was clearly not going to work for us. I got back on the phone with the supplier who was helping us out and we spent about an hour talking over our requirements and the problems we were seeing with the samples. We even discussed getting a run of custom shirts made overseas and shipped in, but the timing wouldn't work out. They promised to go away and see what other vendors they could find in this space. Luckily for us they came back with a vendor called BizCollection, who do soft cotton shirts in the charcoal colour I like.
So next we ordered samples of this shirt. It looked good initially -- my shirt fit well, as did my wife's. However, we'd now learnt that testing the shirts through a few wash cycles was useful. So then my wife and I wore the shirts as much as we could for a week, washing them each evening and abusing them in all the ways we could think of -- using the dryer, hanging them outside in the sun, pretty much everything apart from jumping up and down on them. I have to say these shirts have held up well, and we're very happy with them.
The next step is I'm going to go back and order a bunch more sample shirts and make my team wear them. The goal here is to try and validate the size charts that the vendor provides and make sure that we can provide as much advice about fit as possible to delegates. Also, I love a free t-shirt.
After all this we still recognize that some people will never be happy with the conference's t-shirt. Perhaps they hate the colour or the design, or perhaps they're very tall and every t-shirt is too short for them. So the final thing we're doing is we're giving delegates a choice -- they can select between a t-shirt, a branded cap, or a reusable coffee cup. In this way we don't force delegates to receive something they don't really want and are unlikely to use.
When you register for the conference, please try to remember that we've put a lot of effort as an organizing team into being as detail oriented as possible with all the little things we think delegates care about. I'm sure we've made some mistakes, but we are volunteers after all who are doing our best. If you do see something you think can be improved I'd ask that you come and speak to us privately first and give us a chance to make it right before you complain in public.
Thanks for reading my rant about conference t-shirts.
Tags for this post: conference lca2013 swag t-shirts canonical
Related posts: Call for papers opens soon; Are you in a LUG? Do you want some promotional materials for LCA 2013?; linux.conf.au Returns to Canberra in 2013; Got Something to Say? The LCA 2013 CFP Opens Soon!; Announcement video; Folsom Dev Summit sessions
posted at: 14:42 | path: /conference/lca2013 | permanent link to this entry