text:
|The University's Home
|English Studies Home
|Tom's Home Discovery of Scotland
The Special Collections Department of the University Library contains several collections that include books and other materials that are of relevance to this class, including rare eighteenth-century books about travel and landscape in Scotland. In particular, students should explore the Rare Books Collection and the Robertson Collection. The latter, based on the personal library of John Robertson (1912-1991), contains rare material on the history and description of Glasgow, Scottish topography and travel history, canals, and Scottish tours from the 17th to the 20th century.
Guidebooks and Descriptions
An Account of the Principal Pleasure Tours in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1819, 1821).
Black, Adam and Charles Black, Black's Picturesque Tourist of Scotland (first edition: Edinburgh, 1840).
Chambers, Robert, The Picture of Scotland, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1827).
Cook, Thomas, Handbook of a Trip to Scotland (Leicester, 1846).
Denholm, James, The History of the City of Glasgow, To which is Added a Sketch of a Tour to Loch Lomond and the Falls of Clyde (Glasgow, 1798).
A Description of the Most Remarkable Highways and whole known fairs and Mercats in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1711).
Duncan, James, The Scotch Itinerary, Containing the Roads through Scotland, on a New Plan (Glasgow, 1805).
Graham, Alexander, Description of Six Parishes in Perthshire (1724).
Graham, Rev. Patrick, Sketches Descriptive of Picturesque Scenery, on the Southern Confines of Perthshire; including the Trosachs, Lochard, &c, together with Notices of Natural History, By Patrick Graham, D.D., Minister of Aberfoyle (Edinburgh, 1806).
Graham, Rev. Patrick, Sketches of Perthshire (Edinburgh: Peter Hill and J. Ballantyne; London: Longmans, 1812).
The Gazetteer of Scotland (Dundee, 1803).
Heron, Robert, Scotland Described: or a Topographical Description of all the Counties of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1797).
Heron, Robert, Scotland Delineated: or a geographical Description of every Shire in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1799).
Lumsden, James & Son (publishers), Steam Boat Companion and Stranger's Guide to the Western Islands and Highlands of Scotland (Glasgow, 1825).
M'Nayr, James, A Guide from Glasgow to Some of the Most remarkable Scenes in the Highlands of Scotland and to the Falls of Clyde (Glasgow, 1797).
Morer, Thomas, Short Account of Scotland (London, 1702).
The New Picture of Scotland, 2 vols, (Perth, 1807).
Scotland Delineated, or a Geographical Description of every shire in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1791).
The Scottish Tourist and Itinerary or A Guide to the Scenery and Antiquities of Scotland and the Western Islands (Edinburgh, 1827).
Sinclair, Sir John, ed., The Statistical Account of Scotland (1791-99): this, along with the second and third statistical accounts of Scotland, is available in electronic form (with an Athens account and password) via the university library catalogue or directly at http://edina.ac.uk/stat-acc-scot/.
[Margaret Oswald?] A Sketch of the Most Remarkable Scenery near Callander of Monteith; Particularly the Trosachs (1st edition: Stirling, 1800).
The Traveller's Guide Through Scotland and its Islands (Edinburgh and London, 1814). [my edition of this is dated 1811 and is the fifth edition]
The Traveller's Guide, or a Topographical Description of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1798).
Diaries, Journals, and Travel Accounts
Aktinson, Thomas, Three Nights in Perthshire (1821) (Creag Darch, 1994).
Boswell, James, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785).
Bristed, John, Anthzplanomenoz, or a Pedestrian Tour through part of the Highlands of Scotland in 1801, 2 vols (London, 1803).
Brown, Raymond Lamont, Robert Burns's Tour of the Borders (Ipswich, 1972).
Brown, Raymond Lamont, Robert Burns's Tour of the Highlands and Stirlingshire (Ipswich, 1973).
Buchanan, Rev. John Lane, Travels in the Western Hebrides, from 1782 to 1790 (London, 1793).
Campbell, A., A Journey from Edinburgh to Parts of North Britain (1802).
Carr, John, Caledonian Sketches, or a Tour through Scotland in 1807 (London, 1809).
Cobbett, William, Cobbett's Tour in Scotland, ed Daniel Green (Aberdeen, 1984).
Combe, William, The Tour of Doctor Prosody in Search of the Antique and Picturesque, through Scotland, the Hebrides, the Orkney and Shetland Islands (London, 1821).
Cordiner, Charles, Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland in a series of letters to Thomas Pennant, Esq (London, 1780).
Defoe, Daniel, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-26), abridged and edited by Pat Rogers (London and New York: Penguin, 1971, 1986).
Garnett, Thomas, Observations on a Tour through the Highlands and Part of the Western Isles of Scotland, 2 vols (London, 1800).
Gilpin, William, Observations, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty, Made in the Year 1776, On several parts of Great Britain; Particularly the High-lands of Scotland (1789).
Grant, Anne M., and John P. Grant, Letters From the Mountains: Being the Correspondence With Her Friends, Between the Years 1773 and 1803 of Mrs Grant of Laggan, in 2 vols (London, 1845, sixth edition).
Heron, Robert, Observations made in a Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland in the autumn of 1792 (Perth, 1793).
Hogg, James, Highland Tours: The Ettrick Shepherd's Travels in the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles in 1802, 1803 and 1804, with an Introduction by Sir Walter Scott, edited by William F. Laughlan (Byways, 1981).
Homer, Philip B., Observations on a Short Tour Made in the Summer of 1803 to the Western Highlands of Scotland (London, 1804).
Johnson, Samuel, Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775).
'A Journey to Scotland' (1790) MS 15905, NLS.
Knox, John, A Tour Through the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebride Islands in 1786 (London, 1787).
'A Lady', A Journey to the Highlands of Scotland with Occasional remarks on Dr. Johnson's Tour (London, 1776).
Lettice, John, Letters on a Tour Through Various Parts of Scotland in the Year 1792 (London, 1794).
Leyden, John, Journal of a Tour in the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland in 1800 (William Blackwood, 1903).
Macculloch, John, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland … Comprising an Account of their Geological Structure; with Remarks on their Agriculture, Scenery, and Antiquities, 3 vols (London, 1819).
Macculloch, John, The Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland, 4 vols (London, 1824).
Macky, John, A Journey through Scotland (London, 1723).
Martin, Martin, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703), introduced by Charles W.J. Withers and R.W. Munro (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1999).
Mawman, Joseph, An Excursion to the Highlands of Scotland and the English Lakes (London, 1805).
Murray, Sarah, A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland (1799), ed. William F. Laughlan (Byways, 1982). .
Newte, Thomas, [William Thomson], A Tour in England and Scotland in 1785 (London, 1788).
Nodier, Charles, Promenade de Dieppe aux Montagnes d'Ecosse (1821), translated into English as Promenade from Dieppe to the Mountains of Scotland (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood; London: T. Cadell, 1822).
North, Christopher [John Wilson], Recreations of Christopher North, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1842).
The Northern Excursion; or the Highland Village (Glasgow, 1818).
Pennant, Thomas, A Tour in Scotland, 1769 (1771), introduced by Brian D. Osborne (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2000).
Pennant, Thomas, A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides, 1772 (1774), edited by Andrew Simmons with an introduction by Charles W.J. Withers (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1998).
Ryland, William Deane, 'Journal of a Tour in Scotland during the long vacation of 1823' (1823), ACC 8801, NLS.
Selwyn, Elizabeth, Journal of Excursions Through the most Interesting Parts of England, Wales, & Scotland (London, 1823).
[Shaw, Stebbing], A Tour, in 1787, from London to the Western Highlands of Scotland (London, n.d.).
Southey, Robert, Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819 (London: Murray, 1929).
Spence, Elizabeth Isabella, Sketches of the Present Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland (London, 1811).
Spencer, Frederick Charles, Journal of a Tour to Scotland (Oxford, 1816).
Stewart, David, Sketches of the Character, Manners and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland; with details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1822).
Stoddart, John, Remarks on Local Scenery & Manners in Scotland
During the Years 1799 and 1800, in 2 volumes (London: William Millar,
Thompson, William, A Tour of England and Scotland (London, 1788).
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands, 1848-1861. [David Duff, ed., Victoria in the Highlands: The Personal Journal of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (London: Muller, 1968).]
Walker, Carol Kyros, Walking North with Keats (Yale University Press, 1992).
Walker, Carol Kyros, Breaking Away: Coleridge in Scotland (Yale University Press, 2002).
Wilkinson, Thomas, Tours to the British Mountains: with the descriptive poems of Lowther, and Emont Vale (London, 1824).
Wilkinson, Thomas, Tour of Scotland (London, 1824).
Wordsworth, Dorothy, Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland (1803), ed. Carol Kyros Walker (Yale University Press, 1997).
Youngston, A.J., Beyond the Highland Line: Three Journals of Travel
in Eighteenth Century Scotland (Collins, 1974).


text:
Artist: REV GALEN
Title: s/t
Format: 10"
Label: Okraina
Country: Belgium
Price: $18.00
|"In the company of Gilles Poizat (guitar, trumpet, voice), Catherine Hershey sings the poems of her grandfather Galen E. Hershey, pastor-farmer in Pontiac, Michigan. The poems come from a collection of poetry written between 1946 and 1976. Features Frédéric Jean on whistle on "Dilemma & Decision". Mixed by Gilles Olivesi; Mastered by Harris Newman; Illustration by Gwénola Carrère. Florian Caschera on the release: "As his name readily admits, this disc of tranquil hallucination (but beware) bursts forth in all its absurd duration around eight poems that fire the Reverend Galen Hershey, grandfather of Catherine Hershey, who sings here, recorded more or less in secret, in his notebooks. They are simple and beautiful poems, which have the simplicity and beauty of poems which are recorded more or less secretly in notebooks. The secret of the notebooks is more or less the simplest and the most beautiful of the secrets... Gilles Poizat, trembling in the reverb of a patient guitar, tells his furtive notes like a string of bones, and pulls a trumpet the kind of subtly diffracted traits that are heard on Robert Wyatts Rock Bottom (1974), whistles as we hide to cry and sing like a baby whale dreaming (or he shouts, like Jad Fair stuck at the top of the slide, it could make you laugh but its heartbreaking). Catherine Hershey, eyes wide open on what comes out of her mouth and makes of this smoke, gives to her melodies the curve of the most intriguing calves. They are sad and full songs, somewhat veiled, whose hearts overflow everywhere, but with a quiet dawn sure of its dawn legitimacy. As all the music summons another, one will think of the rhymes of Ivor Cutler, the refrain of Pearl in The Night of the Hunter (1955), to the sweetest ballads of Shirley Collins, to some Elizabethan airs as they were already, in another life, made effervescent by Syd Barrett. We will think of it without it hindering us in anything. And then we will not think at all, too busy to look after our blues, these exquisite blues bring our souls the songs which we know will never be forgotten." - Okraina.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A New Quality Control Initiative
From this day forward, I propose that all ERs and hospitals provide complaint forms to their physicians and nurses. We would be encouraged to fill them out after a particularly trying patient encounter.
For instance, had I access to these forms I would have taken two and filled them out on a middle aged couple who demanded ambulance transport from the scene of an accident. See, the paramedics are pretty good at assessing damage to vehicles and severity of mechanism. This helps me gauge how worried I need to be at the beginning of the evaluation of trauma patients.
All trauma patients arrive on a back-board and wearing a C-collar so with some exception all trauma patients look the same. This couple came in with head to toe pain and the paramedics informed me that not only was the car not even SCRATCHED, but that one of the troopers drove it here to the hospital so the patients could drive it home after the evaluation.
Nothing about their complaints matched up with the accident. It them became incumbent on me to document the complete lack of injury so we did more XRays than we needed to (none were needed based on the accident) and labs to boot. My chart will not be very helpful to the plaintiffs attorney in the law suit against the other driver.
I was told today that the two had complained about the care they received here. Why is there no mechanism in place for me to complain about them? For the city to recoup the cost two wasted ambulance transports? In other words, where is the disincentive for this kind of behavior? There is NO DISCINCENTIVE. Perversely, there is a great incentive to abuse the system.
There are no prosecutions for fraud, no prosecutions to recoup wasted money, and no ability for me to walk into the room and say 'no'. Thirteen hours and all of this is someone else's problem. My new job starts in ten days. More soon.
12 comments:
- Anonymous10:35 AM, June 17, 2010
#1....hang in there just a little bit longer.ReplyDelete
#2....in addition to the pronouncement of G. House, MD, that "everybody lies" we will add that "everyone is trying to get something for free.
#3...why, I mean REALLY, w-h-y do we send PG forms to Medicaid, no-pay, and/or malingering patients?? Do we CARE if they are happy?? Do we WANT them to come back? If I were Queen, PG would go away, or at a minimum only go to reasonably sane paying patients with a valid medical complaint.
Pattie, RN
- Anonymous10:56 AM, June 17, 2010
wishing you the best in your new endeavor
I feel your pain. At least you are not an RN. When we get complained about we get reemed by the patient, the physician, nursing supervisor and administration. And I totally agree with everything you said.ReplyDelete
Lucille RN
thanks lucille,ReplyDelete
but if you are getting grief from doctors about inane patient complaints then you are working with jerks. obtw, have you heard the new way we say someone is 'self pay'? they have New-Orleans-New-England insurance, ie NONE.
- Anonymous5:58 PM, June 17, 2010
OMG I don't want to believe this...but working in the ER, I would be stupid if I did not. Hope everything works out 911!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5:26 AM, June 18, 2010
...can I add in the issue of the "VIP" patients? They are the ones, in this case a low level politician's wife who wrote a scathing letter about how rude the PA, nurse etc were. All the while reminding anyone who'd listen about *who* they were, and in their complaint letter wrote about *who* they know...ReplyDelete
I personally don't give a fuck if they are related to the Pope. The physically sickest patients get seen/treated first. The emotionally sickest (ie: the one's who are there to get their pathetic egos stroked and asses licked) get seen next.
I meant to remind them that it's MY tax dollars paying their salary, pension, cadillac insurance plan for life, etc.
- Anonymous6:23 AM, June 18, 2010
C'mon when Life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade, and add some Cyanide, I mean, keep a smiley face.ReplyDelete
I love those Complaint Forms, fill em' out all the time, and after enough "the Doctor didn't Speak English or Listen, and fondled my junk even though I came in for a sprained ankle" the ones they fill out about me wont sound so bad...
Sometimes I'll give em the forms myself, like Jim Carrey did on "The Cable Guy"...
- priceless18:50 AM, June 18, 2010
Ugh, I hate these types of people. My daughter tapped a guy last year - and I do mean tapped. We all had to lean in to find the scratch. The little twerp ended up being an out of work salesman and took my daughter to small claims after he'd racked up all kinds of bills to treat fake pain. His chiropractor was all too happy to provide his client/friend's true suffering.ReplyDelete
Phucker actually got two grand for his car damage" and "medical bills." I told him his mother should be proud to have raised a phucking parasite.
Good luck with your new endeavor, 911!
- PeggyU11:27 AM, June 18, 2010
priceless1 - That happened to my daughter too - two accidents in one day, though, and her car was totaled.ReplyDelete
First accident was a fender bender on the way to work. She was at fault. Not going fast enough for the air bag to deploy, but was following too close in stop-and-go traffic and did not leave enough distance. There was a scrape on his fender (he was driving a large SUV, and she a Miata, so the Miata got the worst of it). They exchanged insurance information, but he didn't want to stick around to file an accident report and told her that it was just a little dent ... no big deal and don't worry about it. He made a bee line for his lawyer's office apparently (who "has" a lawyer?), and then saw a doctor for pain medications. He wanted prescription pain killers and medicinal marijuana! The insurance company took care of him and all he got out of it was some extra-strength Tylenol (and a new bumper). It was my daughter's first car accident. She was rattled by it ... and hopefully learned something from it!
The second accident happened on the way home when a woman rear ended her at a stop light. Only this woman was completely whacked out on drugs, was going much faster, and had an unrestrained toddler in the car with her. Interestingly, she was driving a new car with the dealer plates still on it. She apparently passed out while driving and came to when she hit my daughter's car. The police took her away in cuffs and child protective services confiscated the child. My daughter said she felt awful for the baby, who was smiling and happy and oblivious to the corner his life had just turned. Back end of daughter's car was smashed in, and they ended up totaling it. Fortunately, the woman had insurance! I was a little concerned about my girl, since the day after the accident her back and arm were hurting. She didn't do anything about it, though, and it went away within a week. One good thing that came of that accident is that my daughter is driving a more sensible car now. She is in California, and while she never had much of an opinion before on legalization of recreational drugs ... she's pretty opposed to it now!
- Anonymous7:42 PM, June 19, 2010
I work at a community health center where patients are charged five dollars for prescriptions. Occasionally at a follow up visit a patient will say that they didn't take the prescription because they "couldn't afford it." So in the face of cell phones, designer purses, and so on, once in a blue moon I respond by saying "Do you expect me to believe that?" A few written complaints have been filed with admin for this. What do you think?ReplyDelete
"no fault" is an abomination.ReplyDelete
dear anon,ReplyDelete
i think it's a result of two over-arching forces...
1. the victory of relativism as a governing philosophy in our country. this boils down to the belief that there is no 'right' and 'wrong', only personal preference. it is therefore not relevant that people are lying to us for their own benefit... it's just their way.
2. politicians understanding that to stay in power they have to dole out goodies. combine 2 with 1 and no one cares... no one can stop it.


text:
Skype today released Skype 1.4 for Mac OS X.
The new (free) VoIP software adds a number of new features to the service, which already allows anyone with an Internet connection to make free calls between other Skype members.
It works with the built-in microphones on Macs, external but attached microphones and new USB handsets that offer support for Skype.
"We want to make talking over the Internet the most natural, simple thing for people all over the world to do - no matter which computer they use," said Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO and co-founder.
Skype 1.4 offers Mac users new call forwarding and call auto-answer features. In a neat twist, the software will also automatically pause iTunes when a Skype call is answered. The Mac OS X version is available in Japanese for the first time.
A Mac OS X Skype Widget is also available which can dial calls, look up country codes, and check calling rates.
The call forwarding feature lets users set their systems up so that their Skype calls follow them to wherever a user is.
Additional features include:
Fast call set-up: drag and drop contacts to add them to chats and calls;
Self-expression: essentially emoticons, like iChat the software will show your mood or music;
Call auto-answer and pause: Skype temporarily pauses iTunes for in-bound and out-bound voice calls, and then resumes it once the call is completed;
Notifications: Skype can provide notification of new messages and when users come on- and off-line, along with an overview of available Skype services.
Skype for Mac OS X 1.4 requires a Macintosh computer with Mac OS X v10.3 or newer, a G3, G4, or G5 processor running at a minimum of 400MHz, 128MB RAM, 20 MB free disk space, and an Internet connection.


text:
High Performance Computing Networking
Pre-SC slushies
I'm sitting in an airport on a layover while enroute to the Big Easy for #SC10 (i.e., the SuperComputing trade show, for those of you not in the know). Love the free wifi, Charlotte airport — thanks!
Today's post is a quickie / roundup of things right before the maelstrom of Supercomputing starts in force tomorrow night…
- I posted a bunch of Open MPI's SC10 activity a few days ago; see this post on the Open MPI user's mailing list to see where we'll be and how to run into us in New Orleans.
- Brock and I will be walking around with a LIMITED NUMBER of free RCE podcast t-shirts; hit us up for one if you find us early enough.
- Cisco has a nifty iPhone app for SC10 where you can win a t-shirt and other cooler stuff (a Flip camera, I think?). An HTML5 version of the app is also available.
- This is not to be confused with the official SC10 iPhone app.
- Previous bullets pushed on me by my corporate marketing overlords.
- One more RCE point: Brock and I plan to do a few different / new things this year from SC for the podcast. Stay tuned.
- If you're attending SC10, you have no excuse not to find an MPI Forum member and tell them what you want out of MPI-3 (real world user feedback = good!). Stop reading this and go find one of us right now. Stop reading!
Time to board my flight. See you in the Big Easy!
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.
1 Comments
Brock here, I will be flying in Monday morning, and will be looking for people to meet up with upon my arrival. You can find me by tweeting to @brockpalen


text:
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The average american male (Chad Kultgen)
Does what it says on the tin...average, bordering vulgar, and frankly gross at times. The girlfriend character is particularly irritating (sooo cliche). This is what a certain type of men's magazines would like women to accept as normal male behaviour (poor things, it's in their nature, can't help it really...) - well that makes me happy to belong to the other half of humanity ! Not money wisely spent as far as I am concerned...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author (Richard Dawkins)
Not what you would expect from the title... this is the revised edition, with a foreword from the author explaining how this seemingly "wrong" choice of title brought him underserved criticism. Recommended for nerds like me who have an interest in post-Darwinian evolution theory (and for all of you who always wanted to know why eggs are bigger than sperms...withouth daring to ask your biology teacher)
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Results 1 to 10 of 11
Enjoy an ad free experience by logging in. Not a member yet? Register.
02-12-2010 #1
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Posts
- 6
SUSE ATI Video Card, Monitors go blank for X-Windows PLEASE HELP
I tried to install everything following this website:
w w w .yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxAndDualMonitors.html
I wanted dual monitors but now I cant even get one. The xwindows doesnt appear.
Things I tried:
1. Deleted the xorg.conf and reconfigured (didnt work).
2. sax2 -r -m 0=versa (didnt work)
3. reconfigured the ATI radeon driver from init 3 (didnt work)
4. copy and paste the oold version of xorg.conf (didnt work)
5. tried to run set apt or dpkg-reconfigure command (commands not found)
6. tried xconfig and prompt the best I coudl (didnt work).
7. aticonfig commands (As shown in website) (also didnt work)
Please anything else I can try?
I have the live CD to run it from there but I dont know what to do once I get to the terminal.
Is there any way I can revert to previous configuration since the ATI driver gives me some problems? Like a restore function in windows?
Can someone explain how or what files I should change for the X-server to run properly (is there any other file than xorg.conf?....)
PLease anything any clue will be greatly appreciate, I spent one entire day trying to figure it out.
The monitors I have:
2009W Dell Monitor
1398 Dell Monitor (I wan to get the dual exntended monitor but it seems to gave me only the mirror image, thats why I tried to reconfigure the video card)
ATI HD Radeon Mobile 3400 Series
Dell Optiplex 680 (i believe) with SUSE 11.26 and x86_64 bit
Or if you can send me the xorg.conf file ...then it will be great!!
Thank you in advance.
02-12-2010 #2
ATI Graphics Problem
Here is a Guide to troubleshooting Graphics Problems on openSUSE 11.2 from the openSUSE Forums openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users - openSUSE Forums
I hope that this helps you out
02-12-2010 #3
You should have bought NVIDIA. ATI is a major problem on 11.2
To get started log into the terminal as root
type sax2 -r -m 0=vesa (note that is a zero not a upper case o)
init 5
to start the GUI
You can then install the proprietary driver and you should be ok
or try one of the radion drivers as listed in link above
02-12-2010 #4
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Posts
- 6
tried that (and yes i know its a 0) but still the monitors go blank when I start the GUI (if it starts since I made some many changes....) Thank though!
02-12-2010 #5
I would suggest running sax2 right from the command line as is. Set your video mode to something any monitor can handle, say 1024x768.
My guess is that the video card is sending a signal outside the monitor's limit, it can be resolution, frequency range, or refresh rate, any one will do it. Set a low resolution first, and if it tests okay, you can slowly work up with the manual configuration until you get one you like and does the job.
02-12-2010 #6
- Join Date
- Jul 2004
- Posts
- 4,593
You should look at your Xorg log file. It will tell you exactly what the problem is. This command will bring it up on a terminal on Ubuntu, it should work for Suse too.
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | lessPlease do not send Private Messages to me with requests for help. I will not reply.
02-12-2010 #7
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Posts
- 6
sax2 doesnt work. When I run it...it goes to the blank window and i need to restart.... :'(
according to the log file... many /usr/share/fonts do not exist.....
besides this...its a very big file.... any clues?
theres a lot of fglrx(0): lines
02-12-2010 #8
The font lines are normal. What was the old card? had you installed the propritary drivers. Did you already have a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file??
if so try renaming it and see if it works without it. If not rename back and edit it to use vesa
02-13-2010 #9sax2 doesnt work. When I run it...it goes to the blank window and i need to restart.... :'(
From the blank screen, assuming the system isn't actually locked hard, you should be able to pull back out with
[Ctrl + Alt + BackSpace] (might have to do it a couple times). That's the hotkey to abort the X server, at least it used to be.
02-13-2010 #10
Just rename /etc/X11/xorg.conf file ( if it exists ) and execute sax2 -r -m 0=vesa command again.
In case it doesn't work, create xorg.conf file manually with Generic Settings.It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
New Users: Read This First


text:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Chart Industries Inc. GTLS, +1.20% reported third-quarter net income of $20.4 million, or 70 cents a share, up from $12.1 million, or 42 cents, earned in the same period during 2007. The Cleveland-based manufacturer of equipment used to produce and store hydrocarbon and industrial gases generated quarterly sales of $188.8 million, up 15% from the prior year's $163.7 million. Earnings per share for the latest quarter included 1 cent for nonrecurring costs tied to the repurchase and retirement of $6.8 million of the company's high-yield senior subordinated notes. The consensus of six analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had been for Chart Industries to earn 69 cents a share. Chart Industries also adjusted lower its 2008 sales forecast, to a range of $750 million to $770 million, but affirmed full-year profit's expected to be in the range of $2.55 to $2.65 a share.
Have breaking news sent to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Bulletin emails. Sign up here.


text:
LaVerne Mitchell Ministries LaVerne Mitchell Ministries
Here's a sample of our volunteer opportunities:VIEW AS
Mission Statement
LaVerne Mitchell Ministries is a faith based organization with a mission
dedicated to providing spiritual, physical, and emotional support and
education to women and children.
The objectives for LMM as follows:
· Effective leadership skills for women
· Positive problem solving
· Increasing self-esteem
· Self-empowerment
· Dealing with frustration and anger
· Diversity and multiculturatsm
· Financial literacy training
We have operated since 2004. We train by way of seminars, workshops, and conferences.
LMM is a non-profit organization which has provided various educational
platforms for women and children in the local area Jacksonville, Fl. The
ministry is expanding in its development of outreach education for the
betterment of women and children as a certified trainer the ministry will
use the grant money to host free seminars relating to children and women's
Initially, the LMM will focus on professional development, strategic
workshops, one-on-one coaching and special project relationships. LMM will
provide a separate and comprehensive career counseling service which will
include resume assistance, interviewing skills, job-seeking strategies and
networking opportunities.
This information
Might be out of date
Do you work for this organization?
Request administrator status and update its information!


text:
(Reuters) - The value of Canadian building permits rose by a higher-than-expected 8.6 percent in March, as construction intentions in the residential and non-residential sectors increased, according to Statistics Canada data on Monday.
A surge in the institutional component boosted the value of permits in the non-residential sector by 19.0 percent. In the residential sector, building permits rose by 1.7 percent on higher multi-family dwelling construction intentions.
Month on month (pct)
March Feb(rev) Feb(prev)
Total +8.6 +1.5 +1.7
Residential +1.7 -8.1 -7.2
Nonresidential +19.0 +20.0 +18.9
NOTE: Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected an increase of 1.0 percent in the value of building permits in March. All figures are seasonally adjusted.
Reporting by Alex Paterson; Editing by Louise Egan


text: Sculptor Judith Z. Miller created this piece, "Extinct Animal Species," from the roots and branches of trees. It is part of her show, "Sticks and Stones," which she installed at the Con Edison Gallery at 30 Flatbush Ave. Extension. She was recently told by curator Leon Nicholas Kalas that unnamed higher-ups determined that she had to dismantle the show because it was "not appropriate for Christmas." A spokesman for Con Edison said the utility is looking into it.


text:
Stroke Research and Treatment
Volume 2011, Article ID 534812, 10 pages
The Psychology of Stroke in Young Adults: The Roles of Service Provision and Return to Work
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, and Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board, Archway House, 77 TY Glas Avenue, Llanishen, Cardiff CF14 5DX, UK
Received 4 September 2010; Revised 23 December 2010; Accepted 9 January 2011
Academic Editor: Halvor Naess
Copyright © 2011 Reg Morris. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Literature about the psychological consequences of stroke in those under 65 is reviewed focussing on services and work. Despite similarities, young and old survivors have different experiences and needs. These are attributable to the effects of stroke on age-normative roles and activities, self-image, and the young person's stage in the life-cycle, especially family and work. "Hidden" cognitive impairments, a disrupted sense of self, and the incongruity of suffering an "older person's" disease are salient. Young survivors benefit from services, but experience lack of congruence between their needs and service philosophy, methods, and aims, and consequently have unmet needs. Employment is psychologically salient, and the evidence about return rates, factors that affect return, and the adequacy of employment-related service provision is reviewed. Specific and general recommendations are made for increasing congruence between young survivors' needs and service provision and also for facilitating their return to work.
1. Definitions and Scope
In this paper a "young" stroke survivor will be considered to be someone aged 18 to 65 years. The lower boundary ties in with the current dividing line between childhood and adulthood, and the upper boundary with the division between working age and old age health services in many countries. This paper is based upon literature searches of several data bases (ASSIA, AMED, British Nursing Index, Cochrane database of systematic reviews, MEDLINE, PsychInfo, SCOPUS, Zetoc, Google Scholar). Reference lists of relevant articles were scanned, and papers that cited articles were also examined to supplement these searches. Reviews and original articles that included material of psychological relevance were selected for further scrutiny and possible inclusion. The focus of the paper is upon factors that affect the psychological adjustment of stroke survivors, particularly service provision and employment.
2. Introduction
The risk of stroke increases with age, and the relationship with age is universally found across nations [1]. The incidence of stroke in younger people is low, but the population demographics of age mean that a significant proportion of new strokes occur in the under 65s. This proportion has been estimated as 21% in the UK [2]. As an example, a country of the size of England, with a population of about 50 million, and about 29 million under 45, would expect around 5,800 new strokes in people under 45 each year. Since people who have a stroke when young are likely to live longer than their elderly counterparts, the prevalence rate for younger strokes is about 25% [2, 3]. Younger people have proportionately more haemorrhagic strokes [4, 5], and ethnic differences in the risk of stroke are accentuated in younger age groups [6].
3. Stroke and Psychological Adjustment in the Young
The psychological effects of stroke and the evidence for their occurrence are summarised in Table 1.
Quality of life after stroke for all age groups was impaired in comparison with comparable healthy adults [7, 8], and studies comparing the quality of life of younger and older stroke survivors have produced inconsistent findings [7]. Reduced quality of life in young survivors was associated with dependence, depression, being single, fatigue, and being unemployed [9], and different factors, including type of stroke, visual field impairment, and seizures may be associated with quality of life only in older survivors [8].
Young and old stroke survivors have much in common, but young survivors have particular needs, both practical and psychological. A study of stroke survivors under 50 years of age [4] found that family conflict and loss of home, employment, and spouse were common practical problems. In the case of employment loss the rate was 80%–90%. Staff reported that about half of survivors had psychological disorders, especially depression or anxiety. The anxiety mainly focussed on work, but also related to recovery and childcare. Around a quarter to a third exhibited denial, anger, frustration, or hostility. Problems with employment, finances, and social participation, as well as marital difficulties, including sexual problems, were also reported in a UK questionnaire survey [2]. These results were echoed in the conclusions of a review of 78 studies of young stroke survivors [10], and this review also noted that problems were frequently attributed to the stroke. However, the percentage of survivors reporting problems varied considerably across studies and problems, typically from 5% to around 70%. Body image was found to decline following stroke in a mixed gender group under 40 years old [16]. This was most marked in those with left hemisphere strokes and was associated with a reduction in physical and global measures of self-esteem. Frustration was a core theme found in a qualitative study of survivors under 55 years old, for up to two years after a first stroke [11]. The frustration was related to a sense of psychological paralysis stemming from omnipresent fatigue that affected everyday activities and gender roles, particularly the roles of mother, father, provider, and housekeeper. It was also fuelled by the sense of being "outside and invisible" which revolved around lack of information, lack of consideration of young survivors' needs, a shortage of age-appropriate activities, and their awareness of their "invisible" cognitive impairments. This study also reported positive outcomes of stroke, including new roles and perspectives that improved adjustment. The small sample limited the generality of the results, but there was corroboration from large-scale follow-up studies [12, 13] as well as independent research [14]. More than half of young survivors perceived themselves to have enduring physical and cognitive disabilities and were dissatisfied with life after stroke [13] and many experienced problems caused by paralysis due to fatigue and the "invisibility" of disabilities which predisposed colleagues, family, or friends to discount, ignore, or deny the "authenticity" of the survivor's limitations [14]. Objective evidence for cognitive difficulties in younger stroke survivors (under 45 at time of stroke) was provided by a comparison of neuropsychological test performance of young stroke survivors and matched controls, and there was also a marked contrast between the good recovery of function and mobility in the stroke survivors and the poor recovery of cognition [22]. A study of people with mild stroke [17] further supported these findings and concluded that life satisfaction in this group was affected by subtle impairments including impaired executive function, attention, and other neurological deficits: the rapid recovery of overt, noticeable physical functions created a false impression of generalised recovery that was not paralleled in the less obvious cognitive domain. Finally, a synthesis of four qualitative studies proposed that the experience of young stroke survivors may be encompassed by three overarching domains: "disorientation" due to the sudden effects of stroke, "disrupted sense of self" due to changed self-perception and "loss of control" which may in turn lead to changed priorities, and finally "roles and relationships" which change due to dependency and impaired functioning [15].
Young survivors face the added psychological task of reconciling the perceived incongruity of suffering an older person's disease at an early age [14] and being treated in services in which older people predominate. This challenges self-identity, or social identity; the way that a person views and experiences themselves and their relationships with significant others and social groups [23]. Identity is a general, central aspect of psychological adjustment, and is important in the efforts of brain injured people to make sense of themselves and their circumstances [18]. Continuity in self-identity has been demonstrated to impact on the psychological well-being of stroke survivors [19, 20].
Sense of self-efficacy, or competence, emerged as an important aspect of identity in a study of young neurological and stroke patients [21]. The patients understood their own and others' roles in relation to rehabilitation in several ways; independence and self-reliance were important, as were determination, pushing limits, and recognition of progress. Professionals and rehabilitation processes were perceived as vital factors influencing self-efficacy, as were vicarious experiences through contact with other patients. However, a singular feature was the way in which a higher-order understanding of the purpose of rehabilitation influenced adjustment. Survivors adopted contrasting views of rehabilitation, as either a process that led to "restitution" of former life, or a process that enabled and supported adaptation, adjustment and change to meet the demands of new circumstances. Taking the perspective of rehabilitation as supporting adaptation was considered to improve adaptation, reduce disappointment, and was more congruent with the aims of professionals.
4. Young Stroke Survivors' Experiences of Services
Young stroke survivors' access to components of stroke care such as specialist stroke units and time with professional staff differed sharply between countries and world regions, as did their fatality rates and functional outcomes [24]. The national stroke strategies and guidelines of wealthier nations generally recognise the special and different needs of younger stroke survivors. For example, the UK National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke [3] state that "Some younger adults feel that general stroke services, of which the majority of users are older adults, do not meet their needs" (page 32) and recommend that the particular needs of this group are considered, especially vocational rehabilitation and child care, and that services are "provided in an environment suited to their specific social needs" (page 32). However, national stroke strategies around the world do not recommend separate care services for young stroke survivors (e.g., the European Stroke Strategy [25]; the Australian Stroke Strategy [26, 27]; the Canadian Stoke Strategy [28]). Consequently, young stroke survivors receive treatment within stroke care services in which the majority of patients are over 65.
As for stroke survivors in general [29], the quality of life, physical function, and cognition of young survivors all improved when specialist stroke care was provided [30]. It has been suggested that the outcomes of younger and older stroke survivors may be comparable and that the needs of the two groups are substantially similar [31]. This received support from the finding that, although greater age did predict lower absolute functional scores at discharge, the effect of age alone on improvement in functioning was small and accounted for less than 2% of variation [32]. Moreover, there is evidence demonstrating that age interacts with other factors to determine outcome; survivors under 75 years old achieved better outcomes than older survivors when treated on specialist stroke units, but not when treated on general wards [33]. A review of 13 studies examining the influence of age on outcome noted that results were inconsistent. One large-scale survey demonstrated that differential treatment for younger and older stroke patients may underpin outcome differences; the greater functional improvement and chances of returning home of young patients may have been a consequence of them receiving, on average, substantially longer hospital treatment than older patients [34].
Few studies have compared the services experienced by younger and older stroke survivors. A study in a neurovascular clinic for people with TIAs or mild strokes compared patients over and under 75 years and found no differences in appointment times, preventative treatments offered, or in rates of receiving CT scans [35]. However younger people were more often given life-style advice about diet and weight, they were CT scanned sooner, and more of them received MRI scans and carotid Doppler investigations (but older people received carotid endarterectomy more rapidly). Two studies that compared age groups (18–45 and 46–65) found that younger patients had more unmet needs in relation to holidays, intellectual fulfilment, and family support, despite having the same number of unmet needs overall [2, 36]. Unfortunately these two studies drew participants from several different services in an unsystematic way, so service factors could account for the age differences.
A questionnaire survey of young survivors at a median of three years after stroke [2] found that GP services were widely used by their informants (77% had consulted within the 12 months before the survey), 24% had utilised third sector stroke organisations (Different Strokes and the Stroke Association), and 15% to 38% received specialist rehabilitation input, with physiotherapy being the most frequent. However, the median number of unmet needs was two, with the most common being personalised information about their stroke and assistance with finances, noncare activities, intellectual fulfilment, adaptations, vehicles and social contacts. Those with impaired mobility and those who did not return to work reported more unmet needs. Employment and sexual difficulties were additional needs, and sexual difficulty rates were much higher than the 40% for women and 30% for men found in the general population [37]. A survey conducted in young stroke groups [36] found results concordant with those above, except that there was a higher rate of unmet needs (median 5). The most often reported service shortfalls were once again personalised information about the person's stroke, help with finances, assistance with social activities, and assistance in achieving intellectual fulfilment. An in-depth study of response to service provision in 50 survivors (18–49 years old), their relatives, and care staff, covering the period from stroke onset to returning to the community and "moving on," found some additional needs. Young survivors wanted services that focussed on the needs of younger people and considered their family responsibilities, need for employment rehabilitation, difficulties in claiming welfare benefits, child-care problems, and issues regarding employment for their spouse carers. Two further in-depth studies [11, 38] using interviews or case notes suggested that rehabilitation staff were not attuned to the concerns and needs of young stroke survivors and did not formulate their problems effectively or set appropriate goals; while the survivors were preoccupied with loss of control, fatigue, and fear of another stroke, the staff focussed upon functional deficits and training. There was a perceived lack of age-appropriate activities and environments and lack of attention to "invisible" cognitive impairments. Qualitative analyses of separate focus groups of survivors and staff [39] also identified differences between staff and survivors' perceptions of needs. This study included older as well as younger survivors, suggesting that this disparity is not unique to young survivors and many of the service deficits identified in young survivors [40] were shared by older survivors including service variation, poor communication, lack of personalised information, lack of understanding of effects of stroke on patient and family, low involvement in decision-making, gaps in postdischarge support, and gaps in community support.
While the negative service experiences of younger stroke survivors may be partly attributable to failure to identify and respond to their particular needs, the dissatisfaction and distress arising from the experiences of young stroke survivors in health services may not be entirely a function of the services themselves, and may be partly psychological in origin, stemming from the threats to a young person's self-concept and identity [14, 15, 18–20] posed by being treated in services where older people predominate.
4.1. Implications for Services Supporting Young Stroke Survivors
There are currently no evidence-based, interventions specifically designed for young stroke survivors. However, a few general recommendations can be made on the basis of the evidence reviewed above. Caring for young children, relationships with spouse, sexuality, invisible cognitive disabilities, fatigue that affects engagement in age-appropriate activities, loss of employment, reduced intellectual fulfilment, and financial problems seem to be especially salient practical issues. Addressing these adequately not only requires skilled therapists but also networking with nonhealthcare agencies such as employers, social services, job-centres, marital counselling services, and community-based education or leisure facilities. Second, young stroke survivors experience major threats to their self-identity through being isolated from their peers, being unable to meet normal expectations for the leisure and employment activities of young people, having a reduced sense of self-efficacy due to their disabilities and restrictions, experiencing a sharp discontinuity between their prestroke self and their current self, and finally by having what is perceived as an "old person's disease." Young survivors should be afforded opportunities for psychologically oriented counselling and support when well-being is affected by change in identity and a sense of discontinuity. Young stroke survivors require help to understand the wider goal of rehabilitation as a process of adjustment and adaptation to changed capabilities and circumstances rather than simply the "restitution" of former patterns of activity. Peer support is widely employed to assist the adjustment of stroke survivors by voluntary stroke groups, but has been only sparsely researched and its benefits for stoke survivors are not fully established. However, it was included in the National Stroke Strategy for England [41], and there is some evidence for its effectiveness in supporting the psychological well-being of stroke carers (see Section 5.2.)
5. Work after Stroke
The total economic cost of stroke to the UK economy has been estimated as exceeding £8.9 billion per year and a substantial proportion of the total is attributable to the cost of loss of employment and benefits payments (£2.2 billion) [42]. In addition to its economic importance, the benefit of work for individual health and well-being has been recognised. It is an important source of income essential for material well-being and participation in society, and it also meets psychosocial needs, helps develop and maintain individual identity, social roles, and social status, and is associated with physical and mental health and longevity. Conversely, worklessness is associated with greater mortality, poorer mental and physical health, and greater use of health-care resources [43].
5.1. Work and Young Stroke Survivors
Work is valued and a salient issue for stroke survivors, even for those not working prior to their stroke [55, 64], and not having work after stroke is often perceived as a major problem [64]. Many young stroke survivors were working at the time of the stroke and, perhaps just as important, so were their partners. For some the stroke may present an opportunity to change lifestyle, take early or medical retirement, or to explore eligibility for age-related benefits. For others, particularly those with dependent children, these routes may not be an option. Reported rates of return to work after stroke vary widely, due to contextual and methodological differences between studies. A review of 16 studies conducted in 12 developed countries [65] identified rates ranging from 14% to 73% with a median value of around 50%. Most of those returning to work did so quickly, usually in 3–6 months, but there were reports of a second peak at 12–18 months, perhaps when the consequences of long-term unemployment began to impact. Daniel et al. [10] found the mean percentage returning to work to be 44% (range 0 to 100%) in a review that included 70 studies, but studies of return at 6–12 months after stroke found the rate to be slightly over 50%.
Several studies have attempted to identify factors that influence return to work after stroke. Successful return to work has been shown to be associated with individual factors such as absence of dysphasia [44], higher functioning on discharge [44–51], shorter rehabilitation stay [44, 48], lack of apraxia [45, 46], freedom from psychological disorders [52, 60], preserved cognitive abilities [48–50], and low alcohol intake prior to stroke [44]. Employment factors were also important determinants of return to work, and blue-collar (manual) workers returned sooner [45, 46], but white-collar (office) workers were more likely to return to work in the long term [45, 46, 49, 50]. Being in full-time employment prior to stroke [52] and having a positive attitude to work [53] were also associated with successful return, as were higher socioeconomic status [53], not being black [51], being male [51, 54], and receiving support from others [53]. Stroke location was not predictive of resumption of work in one study that examined this relationship [46]. Return to work was found to be associated with higher quality of life [47], well-being, and life-satisfaction [49]. A questionnaire survey [57, 58] of stroke survivors found that 75% of respondents said they would like to return to work, but 36% felt that they could not, and 43% had not been able to return to work, although 31% had worked since their stroke. Reasons given for not returning to work included: forced to retire by employer; cannot meet expectations; cannot drive/use public transport; afraid of losing benefits; not fit enough to work; can no longer do previous job.
Several studies have used in-depth qualitative methods to explore experiences of work in stroke survivors. Interviews with 43 survivors under 60 found that returning to work was a salient issue for the participants and a benchmark for successful recovery. The participants valued work and its benefits, including those not working before their stroke [55]. Another study of right hemisphere stroke survivors and their carers found that the stroke precipitated employment changes for all, and these employment changes had a substantial psychosocial impact on both the stroke survivor and the carer [56]. Lock et al. [61] studied stroke survivors and carers and reported four principal themes of relevance to work: rehabilitation process, employer agency, social-structural factors, and personal factors. Rehabilitation process was seen as being focussed on minimal physical recovery, time-limited and not sufficiently oriented to employment. Survivors responded to the shortfall in rehabilitation by taking control and pursuing their own goals, but also acknowledged the importance of family support and support from co-workers. The benefits system militated against return to work, and, in addition, information about support and opportunities for returning to work was limited. The UK Disability Discrimination Act [66] and sick leave arrangements were considered to facilitate return, but employers' inflexibility, ignorance about stroke, and negative attitudes were barriers. This latter finding is echoed by studies demonstrating that flexible, sympathetic work environments and practices, and supportive social networks facilitated return to work [55, 56], as did instrumental and emotional support from healthcare professionals [56]. As in other studies [11, 56], fatigue was seen as the major personal factor in returning to work, and perceived cognitive impairments were also implicated. One study [55] reported that return to work hinged upon the relative impact of barriers and facilitators; stress, and its possible consequences for health, was one such factor, as were past experiences with working or not working and severe residual disabilities which could make working impossible. Lock et al. [61] also identified the intrinsic rewards of work as an incentive for survivors to take employment, and this is concordant with the results of Scandinavian studies [62, 63]. Those who valued the intrinsic rewards of work were also the most satisfied [62]. Further individual psychological factors implicated in returning to work were the personal attributes of patience, determination, and sense of humour [56]. Salient work-related concerns expressed by survivors included symptoms that prevented them from working, uncertainty and fear about returning, and the challenges of changing jobs [59].
On the basis of the research reviewed above, some dimensions and specific factors associated with return to work are summarised in Table 2.
5.2. Helping Stroke Survivors Return to Work: The Evidence and Its Implications
Work is a major issue for younger stroke survivors and their carers, and rehabilitation should adapt goals to meet their needs and aspirations in this area. There are several employment-related considerations and influential factors that those involved in service development and rehabilitation should consider (Table 3). It is likely that the factors illustrated in Table 3 interact, and case studies and in-depth interviews [64, 67] illustrate how outcomes depended on the interplay of personal factors, and disaffection with alternatives to not working, financial incentives and job characteristics.
In addition to the recommendations in Table 3, Wolfenden and Grace [68] made 13 recommendations for facilitating the return to work of high-functioning working-aged stroke survivors. These were based on a review of the literature and the experiences of one of the authors who was a stroke survivor. These recommendations called for education to raise awareness of the aspirations and needs of stroke survivors, a greater focus on rehabilitation directed towards nonmedical needs such as returning to work, and for rehabilitation to continue for longer after discharge. They also focussed on the workplace and proposed that greater consideration be given to the special needs of the survivor.
Unfortunately, the recommendations in Table 3, and those of Wolfenden and Grace [68], do not map clearly on the roles and responsibilities of multiprofessional stroke rehabilitation teams in many nations (e.g., the UK National Service Framework for older people [69]) and involve areas of expertise and a degree of interagency working not currently common in rehabilitation services. One promising approach is the development of vocational rehabilitation programmes encompassing the needs of young stroke survivors. Radford and Walker [70] reviewed work after stroke and included studies of vocational rehabilitation for brain-injured people. They concluded that vocational rehabilitation has considerable potential both in terms of individual and cost benefit, but that its application to stroke has been under-researched, and service provision has been patchy, poorly organised and meets only a fraction of the need.
Another development with relevance to the employment of stroke survivors and their carers was the incorporation of peer support into the National Stroke Strategy for England [41]. Peer support for stroke survivors has not been studied, but it has been used successfully with stroke carers [71, 72] and been shown to be beneficial for other health conditions [73, 74]. As well as enhancing the experience of new stroke survivors and their carers, participation as a peer supporter fulfils the intrinsic functions of work and has potential for enhancing quality of life and re-engaging participants in the benefit and challenges of employment [75, 76].
Finally, the use of internet-based resources may help to encourage stroke survivors and inform employers about the employment potential of stroke survivors. These resources may also serve to inform survivors, employers, and carers about practical aspects of return to work. Such information is published on the Different Strokes website in three "Returning to Work After Stroke" documents, one for survivors, one for families and friends, and one for employers [77].
6. Conclusions and Future Research
Young stroke survivors have psychological needs which overlap with those of older survivors, but some areas are more prominent in this group. These are mainly associated with being at an earlier life stage, but also stem from the effects of stroke which make them feel "different" and isolated from their young peers and "changed" from their former selves. Many of these needs are not met by current stroke services. At an international level there seem to be no plans for separate, dedicated, services for young stroke survivors, therefore it is vital that existing stroke services recognise the special needs of this group and take appropriate action. This will require staff training to develop the capacity to deliver the prerequisite therapies as well as service reconfiguration to enable networking with relevant nonhealth service agencies.
There are no specific psychological interventions designed for young stroke survivors, and while it may not be practicable to develop new age-specific and stroke-specific therapies, there is potential to develop guidelines for adapting psychological therapies to meet the particular needs of this group.
With regard to re-engagement with employment, a number of specific recommendations were made on the basis of the literature and are summarised in Table 3. The number and importance of these recommendations, and the singular lack of provision of vocational rehabilitation within existing services, highlights the urgent need for research that will lead to the development of integrated service models and increase access to this vital resource.
The provision of peer support has the potential to meet some of the needs of recovering stroke survivors and of those who have completed their recovery by involvement as volunteers or paid supporters.
- V. L. Feigin, C. M. M. Lawes, D. A. Bennett, and C. S. Anderson, "Stroke epidemiology: a review of population-based studies of incidence, prevalence, and case-fatality in the late 20th century," Lancet Neurology, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 43–53, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- P. Kersten, J. T. S. Low, A. Ashburn, S. L. George, and D. L. McLellan, "The unmet needs of young people who have had a stroke: results of a national UK survey," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 24, no. 16, pp. 860–866, 2002. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- Royal College of Physicians, National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke, Royal College of Physicians, London, UK, 3rd edition, 2008.
- R. W. Teasell, M. P. McRae, and H. M. Finestone, "Social issues in the rehabilitation of younger stroke patients," Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 205–209, 2000. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- C. Gandolfo and M. Conti, "Stroke in young adults: epidemiology," Neurological Sciences, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. S1–S3, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- B. S. Jacobs, B. Boden-Albala, I. F. Lin, and R. L. Sacco, "Stroke in the young in the Northern Manhattan stroke study," Stroke, vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 2789–2793, 2002. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- C. L. Bays, "Quality of life of stroke survivors: a research synthesis," The Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 310–316, 2001. View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- J. S. Kim, S. Choi-Kwon, S. U. Kwon, H. J. Lee, K.-A. Park, and Y. S. Seo, "Factors affecting the quality of life after ischemic stroke: Young versus old patients," The Journal of Clinical Neurology, vol. 1, pp. 59–68, 2005. View at Google Scholar
- H. Naess, U. Waje-Andreassen, L. Thomassen, H. Nyland, and K. M. Myhr, "Health-related quality of life among young adults with ischemic stroke on long-term follow-up," Stroke, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 1232–1236, 2006. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- K. Daniel, C. D. A. Wolfe, M. A. Busch, and C. Mckevitt, "What are the social consequences of stroke for working-aged adults? A systematic review," Stroke, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. e431–e440, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- J. Röding, B. Lindström, J. Malm, and A. Öhman, "Frustrated and invisible - younger stroke patients' experiences of the rehabilitation process," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 25, no. 15, pp. 867–874, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- J. Roding, "Stroke in the younger. Self-reported impact on work situation, cognitive function, physical function and life satisfaction. A national survey," Umeå University Medical Dissertations. New Series no. 1241, 2009.
- J. Röding, E. L. Glader, J. Malm, and B. Lindström, "Life satisfaction in younger individuals after stroke: different predisposing factors among men and women," Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 155–161, 2010. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- S. D. Stone, "Reactions to invisible disability: the experiences of young women survivors of hemorrhagic stroke," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 293–304, 2005. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- M. Lawrence, "Young adults' experience of stroke: a qualitative review of the literature," British Journal of Nursing, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 241–248, 2010. View at Google Scholar
- C. C. Keppel and S. F. Crowe, "Changes to body image and self-esteem following stroke in young adults," Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 15–31, 2000. View at Google Scholar
- D. F. Edwards, M. Hahn, C. Baum, and A. W. Dromerick, "The impact of mild stroke on meaningful activity and life satisfaction," Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 151–157, 2006. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- F. Gracey, S. Palmer, B. Rous et al., ""Feeling part of things": personal construction of self after brain injury," Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, vol. 18, no. 5-6, pp. 627–650, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- J. B. Cantor, T. A. Ashman, M. E. Schwartz et al., "The role of self-discrepancy theory in understanding post-traumatic brain injury affective disorders: a pilot study," Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 527–543, 2005. View at Google Scholar
- C. Haslam, A. Holme, S. A. Haslam, A. Iyer, J. Jetten, and W. H. Williams, "Maintaining group memberships: social identity continuity predicts well-being after stroke," Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, vol. 18, no. 5-6, pp. 671–691, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- G. Dixon, E. W. Thornton, and C. A. Young, "Perception of self-efficacy and rehabiltation among neurologically disabled adults," Clinical Rehabilitation, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 230–240, 2007. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- M. Cao, M. Ferrari, R. Patella, C. Marra, and M. Rasura, "Neuropsychological findings in young-adult stroke patients," Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 133–142, 2007. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- H. Tajfel and J. Turner, "An integrative theory of intergroup conflict," in The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, W. G. Austin and S. Worchel, Eds., pp. 33–47, Brooks-Cole, Monterey, Calif, USA, 1979. View at Google Scholar
- A. Bhalla, R. Grieve, A. G. Rudd, and C. D. A. Wolfe, "Stroke in the young: access to care and outcome; a Western versus Eastern European perspective," Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 360–365, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- W. Hacke, M. Kaste, J. Bogousslavsky et al., "European stroke initiative recommendations for stroke management—update 2003," Cerebrovascular Diseases, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 311–337, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar
- National Stroke Foundation, Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management 2010 (Draft), National Stroke Foundation, Melbourne, Australia, 2010.
- National Stroke Foundation, Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery, National Stroke Foundation, Melbourne, Australia, 2005.
- P. Lindsay , M. Bayley, C. Hellings, M. Hill, E. Woodbury, and S. Phillips, "Stroke rehabilitation and community reintegration. Components of inpatient stroke rehabilitation. In: Canadian best practice recommendations for stroke care," Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 179, supplement 12, pp. E56–E58, 2008. View at Google Scholar
- Stroke Unit Trialists' Collaboration, "Organised inpatient (stroke unit) care for stroke," Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 4, article CD000197, 2007. View at Google Scholar
- R. J. O'Connor, E. M. Cassidy, and M. A. Delargy, "Late multidisciplinary rehabilitation in young people after stroke," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 111–116, 2005. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- J. Pringle, C. Hendry, and E. McLafferty, "A review of the early discharge experiences of stroke survivors and their carers," Journal of Clinical Nursing, vol. 17, no. 18, pp. 2384–2397, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- S. Bagg, A. P. Pombo, and W. Hopman, "Effect of age on functional outcomes after stroke rehabilitation," Stroke, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 179–185, 2002. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- L. Kalra, "Does age affect benefits of stroke unit rehabilitation?" Stroke, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 346–351, 1994. View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- R. M. Black-Schaffer and C. Winston, "Age and functional outcome after stroke," Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 23–32, 2004. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- Y. Y. K. Kee, W. Brooks, and A. Bhalla, "Do older patients receive adequate stroke care? An experience of a neurovascular clinic," Postgraduate Medical Journal, vol. 85, no. 1001, pp. 115–118, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- J. T. S. Low, P. Kersten, A. Ashburn, S. George, and D. L. McLellan, "A study to evaluate the unmet needs of members belonging to a young stroke groups affiliated with the stroke association," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 25, pp. 1052–1056, 2004. View at Google Scholar
- E. O. Laumann, A. Paik, and R. C. Rosen, "Sexual dysfunction in the United States: prevalence and predictors," Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 281, no. 6, pp. 537–544, 1999. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- M. Bendz, "The first year of rehabilitation after a stroke—from two perspectives," Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 215–222, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar
- R. Morris, O. Payne, and A. Lambert, "Patient, carer and staff experience of a hospital-based stroke service," International Journal for Quality in Health Care, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 105–112, 2007. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- P. Banks and C. Pearson, Improving Services for Younger Stroke Survivors and Their Families, Chest Heart and Stroke, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2000.
- Department of Health, National Stroke Strategy (England), Department of Health, London, UK, 2007.
- O. Saka, A. Mcguire, and C. Wolfe, "Cost of stroke in the United Kingdom," Age and Ageing, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 27–32, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- G. Waddell and A. K. Burton, Is Work Good for your Health and Well-Being?HMSO, London, UK, 2006.
- R. M. Black-Schaffer and J. S. Osberg, "Return to work after stroke: development of a predictive model," Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 285–290, 1990. View at Google Scholar
- S. Saeki, H. Ogata, T. Okubo, K. Takahashi, and T. Hoshuyama, "Return to work after stroke: a follow-up study," Stroke, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 399–401, 1995. View at Google Scholar
- S. Saeki and K. Hachisuka, "The association between stroke location and return to work after first stroke," Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 160–163, 2004. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- W. Gabriele and S. Renate, "Work loss following stroke," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 31, no. 18, pp. 1487–1493, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- S. Saeki, "Disability management after stroke: its medical aspects for workplace accomodation," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 22, no. 13-14, pp. 578–582, 2000. View at Google Scholar
- M. Vestling, B. Tufvesson, and S. Iwarsson, "Indicators for return to work after stroke and the importance of work for subjective well-being and life satisfaction," Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 127–131, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar
- K. L. Leung and D. W. K. Man, "Prediction of vocational outcome of people with brain injury after rehabilitation: a discriminant analysis," Work, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 333–340, 2005. View at Google Scholar
- M. A. Busch, C. Coshall, P. U. Heuschmann, C. McKevitt, and C. D. A. Wolfe, "Sociodemographic differences in return to work after stroke: the South London Stroke Register (SLSR)," Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, vol. 80, no. 8, pp. 888–893, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- N. Glozier, M. L. Hackett, V. Parag, and C. S. Anderson, "The influence of psychiatric morbidity on return to paid work after stroke in younger adults: the auckland regional community stroke (ARCOS) study, 2002 to 2003," Stroke, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 1526–1532, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- B. Lindström, J. Röding, and G. Sundelin, "Positive attitudes and preserved high level of motor performance are important factors for return to work in younger persons after stroke: a national survey," Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, vol. 41, no. 9, pp. 714–718, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- S. Saeki and T. Toyonaga, "Determinants of early return to work after first stroke in Japan," Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 254–258, 2010. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- A. Alaszewski, H. Alaszewski, J. Potter, and B. Penhale, "Working after a stroke: survivors' experiences and perceptions of barriers to and facilitators of the return to paid employment," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 29, no. 24, pp. 1858–1869, 2007. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- L. Koch, N. Egbert, H. Coeling, and D. Ayers, "Returning to work after the onset of illness: experiences of right hemisphere stroke survivors," Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 209–218, 2005. View at Google Scholar
- G. Barker, Getting Back to Work after a Stroke, London & Milton Keynes: Stroke Association/Different Strokes, 2006.
- Different Strokes. (undated) Work after stroke project, 2009, http://www.differentstrokes.co.uk/research/was.htm.
- G. Gilworth, M. Phil, AD. Cert, K. A. J. Sansam, and R. M. Kent, "Personal experiences of returning to work following stroke: an exploratory study," Work, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 95–103, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- J. P. Neau, P. Ingrand, C. Mouille-Brachet et al., "Functional recovery and social outcome after cerebral infarction in young adults," Cerebrovascular Diseases, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 296–302, 1998. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar
- S. Lock, L. Jordan, K. Bryan, and J. Maxim, "Work after stroke: focusing on barriers and enablers," Disability and Society, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 33–47, 2005. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar
- M. Vestling, E. Ramel, and S. Iwarsson, "Quality of life after stroke: well-being, life satisfaction, and subjective aspects of work," Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 89–95, 2005. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar
- J. Medin, J. Barajas, and K. Ekberg, "Stroke patients' experiences of return to work," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 28, no. 17, pp. 1051–1060, 2006. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- S. Corr and S. Wilmer, "Returning to work after a stroke: an important but neglected area," British Journal of Occupational Therapy, vol. 66, no. 5, pp. 186–192, 2003. View at Google Scholar
- I. Treger, J. Shames, S. Giaquinto, and H. Ring, "Return to work in stroke patients," Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 29, no. 17, pp. 1397–1403, 2007. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed
- Her Majesty's Government, Disability Discrimination Act (1995–2005), The Stationery Office, London, UK, 2000–2005.
- M. L. Chan, "Description of a return-to-work occupational therapy programme for stroke rehabilitation in Singapore," Occupational Therapy International, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 87–99, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- B. Wolfenden and M. Grace, "Returning to work after stroke: a review," International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 93–97, 2009. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at PubMed · View at Scopus
- Department of Health, National Service Framework for Older People. Chapter 5: Stroke, Department of Health, London, UK, 2001.
- K. A. Radford and M. F. Walker, "Impact of stroke on return to work," Brain Impairment, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 161–169, 2008. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- M. J. Stewart, S. Doble, G. Hart, L. Langille, and K. MacPherson, "Peer visitor support for family caregivers of seniors with stroke," Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 87–117, 1998. View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- R. J. Hartke and R. B. King, "Telephone group intervention for older stroke caregivers," Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 65–81, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- M. Doull, A. M. O'Connor, V. Welch, P. Tugwell, and G. A. Wells, "Peer support strategies for improving the health and well-being of individuals with chronic diseases," Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 3, article CD005352, 2005. View at Google Scholar
- C. L. Dennis, "Peer support within a health care context: a concept analysis," International Journal of Nursing Studies, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 321–332, 2003. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- K. Pillemer, L. T. Landreneau, and J. J. Suitor, "Volunteers in a peer support project for caregivers: what motivates them?" American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, vol. 11, pp. 13–19, 1996. View at Google Scholar
- C. T. Mowbray, D. P. Moxley, S. Thrasher et al., "Consumers as community support providers: issues created by role innovation," Community Mental Health Journal, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 47–67, 1996. View at Publisher · View at Google Scholar · View at Scopus
- Different Strokes, 2010, http://www.differentstrokes.co.uk.


text:
Khan Academy has an extensive video library of physics lessons available online for free. The lessons range from basic one-dimensional motion to more advanced topics, such as thermodynamics and geometric optics.
Khan Academy's videos are hosted on YouTube, but are curated on the Khan Academy website in a structured, logical fashion that provides users with a coherent learning experience. Whether one is a beginner or an advanced student, Khan Academy has videos to fit a variety of physics needs.
Studying physics requires a prior understanding of algebra and trigonometry. Luckily, Khan Academy also has a series of videos on these topics and other prerequisites.


text:
With the winter season winding down, quite slowly but very surely, I have begun to transition my closet over from Winter to Spring. As I was going through this process, I realized I don't like my closet very much. So, I have decided to do something about it. It hasn't happened as quickly as I would like, but hopefully by the end of Spring Break, I will have a reveal to share.
I have decided to start with a project I can finish rather quickly - the dreaded closet door. It is a plain, unattractive, faux woodgrain hollow core door. I am in the process of changing out all the dark, plain ranch moldings to bright white colonial trim and this is just one more project I can scratch off that list. Here is my progress so far..
Since I have already emptied the majority of the closet to paint it, it was wonderful to be able to work on the door IN the closet instead of lugging it downstairs and out the door to the garage. I removed the door knob which is being moved to another door in the house and the antique brass hinges.
Normally, the next step would be to use a light stripper to remove varnish and roughen up the surface. That is until I found this on clearnace at WalMart. YAY! I simply put it on a rag and applied it in a circular motion and walah! It definitely de-glossed the surface and provided a smooth surface which held paint. AWESOME! I elected to add one coat of Krylon white primer to give me a neutral surface to paint.
All ready for the final coat!
These are the totally random items and supplies I am going to use for the door makeover. The bow, which I LOVE, was from a thrift store and cost me 25 cents. It is made from a very thin wood and was from the Walmart Christmas collection. I bought it knowing I would use it somewhere, someday - I love bows! And they are trending for Spring 2013. Lucky me! :-)
I primed it white and it is also ready for its final coat of paint! That is all I am revealing so far - I hope it turns out as adorable as I imagine it to be.


text:
FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1}: I had to admit, this was pretty cool.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 208}: Grimacing now, with some kind of pent-up anger or righteousness of its own, it kept talking at me in its own clipped, musical language. It sounded superior, mocking. It had to know we couldn't understand it, right?
FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1}: I knew if I stayed in this business long enough, I'd get an offer like this sooner or later.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 166}: "Oh come on," I said. "We're all smart people here - we can handle this, right? It's not like we're stuck in a horror movie or something." Except we were.
FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1}: I sat at my desk, my monitor and microphone in front of me, maps and notebook paper spread over the whole surface.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 282}: First though, I flipped open the phone so I could look at the picture. I'd never taken an art class in my life. I hoped the thunder gods were forgiving of my lack of talent.
MY THOUGHTS: A series best read from the beginning and in order as whilst each book features a stand-alone event some of the stories (as in the case of books 5 and 6) do follow on closely from the previous book. And besides which its good to follow Kitty's story from her being recently bitten to life as a fully fledged werewolf.
Set a matter of weeks after the last instalment (Dead Man's Hand) which saw Kitty and Ben in Vegas, this instalment sees a seemingly invisible, fire raising something or other essentially (what I won't say) stalking the whole of Kitty's pack.
In my opinion missing much of the humour that I love (and that which sets the books apart from others of a similar genre). By no means the strongest book in the series, whilst Kitty Raises Hell was an enjoyable enough read I don't think it a particularly good reflection on the series as a whole.
Much more to my liking and largely back on form as a work of pure escapism ... with the addition of suspense and plenty of action ... was Kitty's House Of Horrors.
A novel which sees Kitty, radio host come reality tv star, in a remote location along with, amongst other 'super naturals', a .... wait for it .... were-seal.
Not an easy 'were character' to pull off but, neither a series that takes itself too seriously nor one that makes light of its characters to the point were you can't believe in them, Vaughn does so with aplomb in an episode that right up until the final chapters will have you wondering just who will escape with their lives in what I thought of as a take on Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'.
With two strands to the story - one involving lycanthropic soldiers (cue an interesting reflection on mental illness), the other, the owner of Speedy Mart convenience stores accused of what is no less than 'weather terrorism' - it took for the two to combine before I was fully won over by Kitty Goes To War but, combined with the return of a favourite character of mine, won over I eventually was.
A great edition to the series which sees Kitty go from strength to strength. Alas, whilst good to have him back, it remains to be seen if the newly reformed/possessed? ****** (the afore mentioned favourite character of mine who I won't name here) will remain a favourite or if his story line will prove to be too absurd.
Awaiting books 6 & 7 before I read book 8 which has been on my TBR pile for a long while. Kitty Goes To War was read for the 2016 Reading Challenge: 'A Book You've Been Meaning to Read' category.


text:
And now, to start off the Year, an Anthropology Video:
A Screen flickers to life, showing a desk in front of a black board. Behind the desk, a Mature, grey-haired Rabbit male with classes checks some papers, adjusting his glasses as he looks at the camera. Ah, hello. Today, in this video, we'll be going into the basics on the evolution of Anthro-kind, and our relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom.
The Rabbit gets up and spins the blackboard around, showing pre-made chalk drawings showing a hominid skeleton alongside skeletons of a primitive anthro felinoid. Now, as you may already know, the earliest fossil records discovered by anthropologists of sapient beings have revealed that our earliest ancestors all descended from proto-simian mammals, before an event now known as 'the great mutation', where it is believed external environmental stresses triggered dormant metagenetic traits hidden within the hominid genome. He points to the proto-felinoid with a laser pointer. These led to mutations within new generations of hominids, who developped physical traits based on the wildlife within their environments.
The rabbit turns the board again, and this time the formerly blank side now shows a map of the world, with migration lines on it. As the hominids and their mutant brethren spread across the Earth's surface, they came into contact with new animal species, and acquired further mutations. The camera follows the pointer to another board, one showing a rendition of a hominid hunting a deer with a spear, alongside an early wolf anthro hunting with a knife and his teeth. Another picture shows another hominid picking berries, while a stag anthro is eating the leaves alongside the berries. While both anthros and hominids could use intelligence and tool-creation for survival and influencing their environments, the anthros also had their atavistic traits giving them more options for survival, either in advantages for hunting, or for greater foraging options. As both subspecies were still genetically compatible, it didn't take long for the mutants to outpace their cousins, and slowly absorb the last few hominids into their numbers. It is now believed Anthro Simians are the last people most closely resembling our earliest hominid ancestors.
The scene cuts to show the rabbit in front of another chalkboard, this one showing two Earths. But we've also discovered that there are many alternate Earths where the Great Mutation never occured, or simply occured differently then on ours. The rabbit pulls up a of picture showing a statue of liberty shaped like a human woman rather then a female cow, followed by a picture of a crowd of humans. Interestingly, in most of the ones we've found, Anthros are a rarety, and Hominids make up the sole sapient species. ...You'd assume this would prevent inter-species violence, but it seems that hominid-on-hominid violence is plentiful on its own despite the lack of great physical differences.
We shall pause the video here, as I intend to rework some old illustrations for the next part.


text:
|Ajwain looks like fuzzy caraway seeds but tastes nothing like caraway.
Ajwain is a member of the parsley family and is often confused with many other spices like caraway, lovage seeds, and celery seeds. Adding to the confusion ajwain goes by many different names: ajowan, carom, bishop's weed, omam, omum, Königskümmel, Indischer Kümmel, Egyptian caraway, and al-kumun al-muluki. The spice's name can be traced to the Sanskrit word "yavani" meaning "Greek." This suggests that the spice originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and arrived in India in during the ancient Greek conquest of Central Asia. It isn't really known why the Arabs call ajwain as al-kumun al-muluki or the "king's cumin," but the German name Königskümmel or "king's caraway" probably derives from it.
|The flowers of the ajwain plant
The flavor of ajwain seeds has been described variously as having notes of thyme, anise, cumin, and oregano. I get an initial blast of almost mentholated thyme as in original flavor Listerine mouthwash out of ajwain seeds. A bit of an earthy cumin note follows this mouth numbing blast adding to it's complexity. The flavor is similar to but definitely less subtle than thyme, none of the subtle floral nuances of thyme are present in ajwain. The thyme note is so strong it borders on the camphoraceous or eucalyptic. Ajwain is certainly what I'd call an accent spice.
Ajwain is used in a variety of dishes in South Asia. It often flavors pickles, dals, beans, tops flatbreads or savory pastries, and adds complexity to bland or starchy vegetable curries. Because of ajwain's pungent flavor it is definitely a spice that must be dry roasted or fried to mellow it's harshness before use in a dish. Never grind ajwain either, just bruise it lightly in a mortar and pestle or it's strong flavor may overtake a dish.
|Bhelpuri, a snack sold on the street in South Asia typically served in a newspaper cone with a spoon for eating on the go.
(There are no drive thru windows in South Asia YET.)
The one exception to not grinding ajwain would be chat masala. "Chat" or "chaat" is usually a snack often sold by street vendors that this spice blend or "masala" is often used upon. Above is a picture of "bhelpuri" a chat which is usually a mixture of chopped tomatoes, broken papdis, cilantro, potatoes, peanuts, peas, bean sprouts, raw onion, puffed rice, chutneys, and sev. (Sev is the squiggly yellow noodles made of chickpeas on top.) A hefty dollop of chat masala is in there too!
My particular favorite is Catch's Magic Masala. It boasts a sweet, sour, salty, and umami mix with not only ground ajwain but asafoetida, mint, kala namak/black salt, amchur, long pepper, and a variety of other piquant ingredients. Want to pep up potatoes, rev up a raita, fire up a fruit salad, jazz up some juice, tart up some tofu, or exuberantly enhance eggs? Sprinkle a little of Catch's Chat Masala on them and you're in for a taste sensation!
|A cheerfully embellished chat wagon specializing in bhelpuri .
This chatwalla is not taking any chances, he has Ganesh & Laxmi painted on his sign!
Calmly currying on,


text:
Just returning from their UK Tour, the Nigerian Kings of Comedy are proud to announce that they are on the road again, but this time, they are on their way to the United States.
So, Basketmouth, I Go Dye, Bovi, I Go Save and Buchi aka No Hits Crew made us a video to give us all the details of their US Tour in their very special way.
They are to perform in Houston and Dallas on the 11th and 12th of May 2012.


text:
ExecuSuites I-270
Where you choose to office can make a big impact on your business. There is always a balancing act between offering the professional image and convenient location to your clients and the current technology, office equipment and management that you need. ExecuSuites I-270 proudly provides small office space rental options for your company's needs. We offer affordable and scalable office solutions to suit the needs of your growing company whether you're looking for full time office space or a day office, meeting rooms or virtual office services. With flexible terms, state-of-the-art technology and bottom-line friendly options, we make it easy for you to focus on your business, and leave the rest to us.
Our secure high rise building in Research Park, conveniently located between Gaithersburg and Rockville, is just minutes from the Montgomery County courthouses in the core of the I-270 technology corridor. Come tour our space and meet our engaging staff to find out how we can help your business succeed.
$100 off PER MONTH
We're currently offering new customers $100 off PER MONTH on their rent when they take a tour of our facilities and mention the code TOUR100. Maximum of 1 year, minimum 6 month contract required.
Up to $1,200 value.
Our Services
See which of our services can help your company.
Come see which of our beautiful offices is right for you, with flexible terms to aid growth and expansion.
We have a variety of conference rooms, fully equipped with the newest technology you need for your next presentation.
Our virtual office packages allow you to work from anywhere while providing an address and appearance of a traditional office.
Our Team
Click to learn more about us.
Susan Stake - Receptionist
Susan Stake
Susan has been welcoming ExecuSuites clients for 25 years! She is warm, friendly and unflappable under all circumstances. Susan makes it a point to know not only each of our clients but all of their clients as well and strives to provide personal service to all. She will charm your callers with her friendly and quick-witted nature, direct your meeting-goers and greet your clients with a rare, charismatic spirit that you will not find anywhere else. If you are new to the area or have clients in from out of town, Susan is a valuable resource. Having lived in Rockville for over 25 years she knows all the best places to eat, shop, and stay.
Kim Pearson - General Manager
Kim Pearson
Kim is prompt, professional, reliable & tech savvy. Kim brings a wealth of experience to ExecuSuites which shows in her customer service as well as her knowledge of both the industry and our services. If you are someone looking for space or an existing client looking to expand your company, Kim is the person to show you how we can best meet your business needs. She loves a challenge and sails through her days with a smile, working with unparalleled thoroughness and dedication.


text:
There was yet more embarrassment for "Justice" Secretary Kenny MacAskill this week when Abdelbasat al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was filmed at a rally supporting Colonel Gadaffi in Libya.
We are approaching the second anniversary of Megrahi's release from prison on "compassionate grounds" a decision which MacAskill described as upholding "Scottish values".
At that time MacAskill indicated that Megrahi had no more than three months to live. No doubt he relied on the best available medical advice and he would claim that he is relying on the best available legal and police advice to justify the failure to investigate either the abuse allegations made by Hollie Greig, or the suspicious death of Roy Greig.
The truth about the Lockerbie bombing may never be known but it is a fact that Megrahi's release on "compassionate grounds" co-incided with him dropping his appeal against his conviction. Many believe that an appeal trial would have shown that Megrahi was wrongly convicted and would have been a severe embarrassment for the Scottish justice system.
To paraphrase the "Justice" Secretary: Hollie Greig and other victims of the Scottish justice system cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive. Their pain runs deep and the wounds remain. However, Mr MacAskill may one day face a sentence imposed by a higher power.
Hollie Greig alleged in 2000 that she was the victim of a paedophile gang in Aberdeen. Her mother Anne was forcibly sectioned within days of the allegations being made. Hollie was awarded £13,500 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in spite of the fact that no-one was ever charged with any crime. THIS IS A SINGLE-ISSUE, HUMANITARIAN CAMPAIGN WITH NO CONNECTION TO ANY OTHER CAUSES.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Kenny MacAskill And "Scottish Values"
3 comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)