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The other day, I shared an interview compiled from a series of emails exchanged with the UK-based poet Rick Holland, who most recently worked on a collaborative album with rock's most famous intellectual, Brian Eno (Eno collaborator/poet Rick Holland corresponds on craft – An Indie Ethos exclusive [Part 1 of 2]). Drums Between the Bells (Support the Independent Ethos, buy the limited edition on Amazon) saw release by Warp Records back in July. I had been exchanging emails with Holland since late June, as he considered several questions I had about his collaborative work with Eno.
He took his time, and I offered it to him. He wrote out my questions and journaled answers in hand-written notebooks before writing me back with thoughtful answers. But he also sent me back some spontaneous emails with thoughts on further questions. Though this certainly allowed for much editing of thoughts, I think it appropriately reflected the craft of what he and Eno did together. After all, Drums Between the Bells, with its electonic-based music and deliberately read poetry (sometimes presented in a haze of another layer of electronics), is anything but a jam record. The Eno/Holland collaboration is a thoughtful work, and grows with age and listening investment.
When I began my undergrad art studies in the early nineties, I took a mix of Eno's instrumental music on a portable cassette player to art galleries and parks. Who better to offer musical accompaniment to art? His music can range from subtle drones to hyperkinectic layers of poly-rhythmic dissonance. It also defined a new genre of music in the mid-seventies that Eno himself coined: ambient. What better composer to offer a musical track to a poet who crafts artistic prose that can both observe the world on its existential face and cut into the fabric of perceptions? My favorite track on Drums, must be "Pour It Out," adapted from Holland's poem "New York" from his Story the Flowers book (It's all there):
But then the album as a whole offers its own dynamic journey through a variety of prose and musicality (In the interview below, Holland notes the complete process of writing, recording and producing this album took eight years). Throughout our correspondence, Holland offered some dense insight into the process of crafting Drums Between the Bells, and also provided an illuminating look into the mind of a poet well-suited to work with someone as intellectual as Brian Eno. Before I continue with this interview, which you will find concluded below, I feel it's important to contextualize the significance of a new, original, Eno-composed album featuring words.
Eno has been recording solo albums since 1973. He broke out of England's post-prog scene of glitter and feathers glam rock, after leaving Roxy Music. All the while, he made a career of coming to terms with the role of words in music. Eno famously considers the function of words within songs as just another instrument rather than a literary narrative with a message, as the implications behind the latter throw in a huge monkey-wrench into the ideas of composition for him.
Citing from Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound, the Eno-centric website More Dark Than Shark, quoted Eno as having said, "[Lyrics] always impose something that is so unmysterious compared to the sound of the music [that] they debase the music for me, in most cases." That was back in 1985. I thought surely his attitude towards lyrics had changed by the time he recorded his first solo vocal album in 25 years, 2005's Another Day on Earth (Support the Independent Ethos, purchase on Amazon). It seems it has. In an interview with Sound on Sound (a music magazine for the studio engineer) promoting that album, Eno said of his return to music with vocals: "The simple answer is that five or six years ago I noticed that I was starting to sing again and enjoying it. Also, since I stopped doing vocal albums and worked on the landscape side of music, certain technological developments have happened that give you the possibility to shape your voice, and that reawakened my interest."
This technological idea of obscuring the voice of the singer was key for Eno, in that it seems to separate identifying the singer with the words he is singing. "One of the reasons I stopped making vocal records was because I was fed up with the identification that's always made between the voice on the record and the composer, as if this person singing was some sort of extension of my personality," he continued in the 2005 interview. "But I don't care about my personality being the content of the thing. I always liked the idea of seeing what I was doing the way a playwright might think of a play or a novelist might think of a book." So chalk up Eno's growing distaste for lyrics to the influence of mostly "illiterate" music journalists and fans he must have encountered during his many years as a rocker.
To the ears of this writer, Eno's attitude to lyrics produced some amazingly surreal and pure prose in his early years, but the later years of his lyrics never seemed to stand out as some of his more remarkable works, as it all must have worn thin on him by then. Now here comes the 32-year-old Holland, invited by the 63-year-old Eno to provide him with some of the most refreshing words in many years for Eno to work with. The result, which suitably features an array of guest vocalists who have nothing to do with the rock world– as noted in the first part of this interview series– certainly has brought my attention back to words entangled in Eno's music. In the end, Drums Between the Bells offers something even more interesting than Eno's most recent work with a better known songwriter and long-time collaborator, David Byrne, for the pleasant, albeit predictable, 2008 album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Support the Independent Ethos, purchase on Amazon).
With that context in place, on with the interview with Holland, who, in this part of the feature, offers his ruminations on the best place to listen to Drums Between the Bells, the music of words and even an evaluation Eno's early explorations of lyric-writing on 1973′s Here Come the Warm Jets (Support Independent Ethos, purchase on Amazon) and 1974′s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Support Independent Ethos, purchase on Amazon)…
Hans Morgenstern: Can I just say that I read this article (Clash Music's Aug. 7 interview with Holland), and the fact that Brian says Drums Between the Bells is a good album to "wash up to" was funny to me because that was the first way I heard it (whilst taking a shower). So where's the best place to hear the album in your opinion?
Rick Holland: In a state of stillness akin to lucid dreaming where surface concerns are replaced by free and contemplative activity that is not self-conscious. In the absence of this elusive brain state, washing up sounds a pretty strong contender. I have most enjoyed listening while driving on a long journey; though the best time for achieving this brain state seems to be in the middle of the night listening to incidental sounds mashing up – I like to use the sounds as triggers to imagine whatever comes into my mind. A flow is achievable in this state that is very much reduced when 'recording' art from imagination to medium. Getting near to that state is probably 'the best place' to listen to this album, where judging brain is dampened and imagining brain is electric, and as free to move as electric as long as the circuit is in place and not interrupted.
As I noted in an earlier post on Drums Between the Bells (Brian Eno reveals full streams of 3 tracks from new album), I was attracted to this Eno record because he seems to finally be dealing with lyrics on a deeper level than usual. Has he told you why he was interested in putting your words to music?
Strangely enough we have never had that conversation, we just got to work. I did learn through the process that 'lyrics' served a greater master: 'sound' in world Eno, but also that he was not closed to them as carriers of their own potential, but that he was overjoyed for the 'meaning' to become tied in with different axes of sound and atmosphere, and be loosely and ambiguously tied to the more conventional systems of language.
Is there anything on the album the could have been done differently? If so, how?
The whole album could have been done differently; it spanned eight years or so, and at any particular juncture in that time I would have had strong ideas about what could have been done differently. There were techniques available in the last three weeks of work that were not available in the first seven years, and early tracks with components that were lost forever in archival glitches and were rebuilt. There were times when I wanted only to feature the voice, and other times I wanted the voice obliterated into signals bearing no obvious resemblance to speech. At various points we would try versions of each of our visions, and make a piece that really and truly was not the end product of either of those visions. I would make the whole album differently if we started again tomorrow, and so would Brian. From 'Drums Between The Bells', all of the experiments have been successes in my eyes, but all of them have also suggested future alternatives. People who listen to the record will have strong ideas of what can be done differently too. That is one of the album's great strengths; it moves in between territories, music, words, sound, that are familiar and then alien and many points in between. That aspect of it I wouldn't change at all.
Do you have any rhythm or music in mind when your poems come out of you?
The words themselves dictate the rhythm, set it running like a free drum part, but I would say I have an instinctive relationship to music and rhythm in my writing more than a trained one. To steal directly from something I heard Rakim say in a documentary the other night, 'I was trying to rhyme like John Coltrane played the sax'. Fundamental rhythms and music have moved me since I can remember, and these are definitely built in to my writing without ever feeling the need to adhere strictly to traditional 'poetic' forms and meter.
From what source do you find most inspiration comes from when composing?
The world playing out in front of me. If pushed to identify a trigger, I would say pattern formation followed closely by sound. 'Artificially' speaking, music and especially live performance fills my gut with a kind of adrenalised need to express something.
Have you read reviews of the album? What do you think of the reception? Do you think music critics are "getting" it?
I went on a journey with the criticisms of the album. I ignored common wisdom that says 'do not read reviews' and actually ended up being encouraged to read them and respond in a 'blog conversation' with Brian (which itself headed off piste straight away). Like everything, some are good and some are bad, but of the critics who were able to put time and investment into listening and avoid the understandable traps of rushing out copy, I think the reception was fair. For a reviewer wanting to be transported without challenge, 'Drums Between The Bells' may seem an unnecessary challenge of disparate ideas and sounds. And it is completely reasonable to expect music to be a portal to elsewhere that doesn't need to be 'got'. If a reviewer came to the album with no expectations and a little time to think, they almost unanimously found things that resonated strongly in the experience. There are of course plenty of comments, good and bad, that are wide of a mark that I would recognize, and a few that have made me want to contact the writer and vent some spleen, but life is short.
I would say that our need as a society to quickly package anything is indicative of a wider approach to the world that has serious pitfalls, but I am not so self-important to think that someone 'not getting' this album is significantly important to the wider good of humanity. I wish people would stop harping on so much about 'Art', 'Poet', 'genre' and other blanding agents, but it is for each person to decide how he or she perceives what is really only a collection of sounds and relationships, like any music. Brian and I came up with some categories for songs when putting the running order together, they were 'think', 'look', 'feel' and 'soul,' I think, or similar with several crossovers.
I'm very curious of what you think of Eno's early forays into lyrics, which he himself has called nonsense, but I feel have an unabashed surreal quality.
I scanned (thanks to Enoweb) through the lyrics for 'Here Come the Warm Jets' because I haven't listened to that album, so I thought it would be a good appraisal of the 'lyrics' as standalone … the scanning happened quite fast until I hit 'Dead Finks Don't Talk.' This was the first thing that caught me as more than words to be sung that had been transcribed. From what I know of Brian, the sounds will most likely have come before the actual words, but in this automation there is still subconscious coupling of sounds with emotions, and emotions with word choices, and word choices with streams of more 'macro' patterns of thought.
Rappers freestyle in 16 bar salvos. Through practising and writing more, the rhythms and internal variations within those rhythms develop so much so in the best rappers that they become second nature until they act as a conduit for whatever the consciousness wants to express. I think good lyrics are the same beast and are no less 'poetry' because of it; if anything they are more so, as they are perhaps more likely to avoid the pitfalls of over-analysis on the way out.
'Dead Finks Don't Talk' on the page could be about any 'authority' figure in any walk of life who is more bluff than balls, and it also has interjections from less primary sources of input like modernist poetry (which may have taken that tendency to mix and match from a world of songs and televisions and technology anyway). 'More fool me, bless my soul' sounds like a blues phrase co-opted, especially repeated. The 'perfect masters/thrive on disasters/look so harmless/til they find their way up here' is pure 16 bar beat riffing when I read it on the page. So, in the interests of science, I listened to the song after reading the lyrics to see what happens to them in the song…
At which point I realised I have heard this song before! No matter, I wrote all the above before realising that. The 'more fool me, bless my soul' was unsurprisingly musical, though more Buddy Holly than I was expecting. The lyrics in this song are certainly not nonsense, though that doesn't mean that they have been set out to work as words on a page (which, in this case, they certainly do. I enjoyed reading them).
I'll try the same approach with the 'Whale' song ["Mother Whale Eyeless"] you mentioned, which I haven't heard before.
This reads like an appraisal of life in a country even more at the mercy of its media and propagandas than the one we live in now. It reads as highly political and highly poetic. 'Don't ever trust those meters', 'there is a cloud containing the sea', 'parachutes caught on steeples', these all sound like the product of automatic writing that has been introduced to and bedded into an environment; the environment has been made by constantly observing the world in an imaginative way ('stirring the air' I called this in my own early poems about escaping from the claustrophobic world around me). At its start it reminded me of the impression I got from 'A Day in the Life' when I listened to it as a kid. 'Got up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head…. somebody spoke and I went into a dream'. It says the details of our politicised lives are as ridiculous as they are pervasive, and that we, as individuals, are in turn angered, powerless and gloriously alienated from those details. Our bonds in life are all constructs ultimately.
Then I listened to the song…
"Mother Whale Eyeless" is a fascinating song, unmistakably Brian in places, I would have to say. That brilliant simple guitar riff after about two minutes, the change and shift with the female chorus vocal. But anyway, the words, the words. The thing is, the morning papers, tea and other details are already shaken to their core by the way they are sung and spiral away from the details I picked up reading the lyrics straight away. It says a lot about the 'lyrics' debates that go on, the words on a page are a wholly different animal from the words performed and adorned.
If I had just listened to that song straight away, I would not have listened closely to most of the words, I must admit (though certainly would have picked up more with repeated listens). I would have started in the kitchen, then moved on to the guitar-feeling and then moved into the otherworld of the clipped female chorus and settled on the statement, 'In another country, with another name/ Maybe things are different, maybe they're the same' as a carte blanche for anything that doesn't make sense to float on unrepentant for being nonsense, because it might make sense under different circumstances, and the next evocation of something more 'graspable' may be just around the corner. I've always made these kinds of allowances listening to music, ever since I can remember. There is something perfectly sensible about that approach to writing words and to listening to them too. The eyeless whale chuckles at the world's myths. Nonsense?
If I had to choose between the two experiences, in this case, I would choose reading the words, which is a surprising outcome. 'Mother Whale Eyeless' is a poem on the page for me (maybe because I approached it like this first) and the song is an event with some exciting moments but holding less meaning overall for me, at this moment. Perhaps this tells us that anything is ultimately what we make it. Perhaps it also tells us that Brian was writing poetry in spite of himself, and perhaps it also tells us that his instinctively curious approach to the world manifests itself clearly in the groups of words he chooses to fit together, which certainly isn't a surprising outcome. I mentioned (skilled) rappers earlier so used to their molten bedrock that what they can sprinkle on top of it is almost instinctive. This doesn't make their output less important or interesting.
Brian understands his vocabularies and their potentials so well that the more cumbersome 'word' part I would imagine does not excite him as much as other things: 'sound', 'voice', 'space', 'colour' being a few. Doubly so when you consider that he has been making music for several decades and is always keen to explore new possibilities.
* * *
Many thanks to Rick for taking the time to entertain these questions and offering such an enlightening look into the experience that culminated in one of the richest albums 2011 has had to offer! Not to mention indulging me with his honest view of some early iconic Eno glam rock songs that he had never heard to start with.


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Thai Beef Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Slaw (Adapted from CL)
For the steak and marinade
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
16 ounces trimmed flank steak
For the slaw
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups broccoli slaw
1 cup matchstick-cut carrots
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
For the assembly
8 6" flour tortillas
To prepare the steak
In a large ziploc bag, add sugar, ginger, fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, pepper and garlic cloves. Add the steak, remove any air and seal - place in the refrigerator for at least 20-30 minutes to marinate.
Prepare grill
Remove the steak and discard any marinade left in the bag. Place the steak on the grill and cook until it is done to your liking - we cooked ours for about 5 minutes per side. Remove and place on a cutting board - let sit for 5 minutes. Cut diagonally across the grain into thin slices.
To make the slaw
In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, sugar, rice wine vinegar, ginger, fish sauce, chili sauce and garlic. Add broccoli slaw, carrots, green onions and cilantro - toss well to completely combine.
Evenly divide the thinly sliced steak among tortillas and scoop about 1/2 cup of the slaw mixture on top of each tortilla to serve.
Makes 4 servings.
Just found the recipe? Click here to see where we talked about it!
Friday, May 06, 2005
2 comments:
- Anonymous4/05/2007 12:38:00 PM
I have these on my "to try" list to make sometime soon, I like seeing your photos and review of this. Now I can't wait to make them yours look delicious.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Download the App now on the App Store or Google Play.


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Drinks for every moment
Delivered to your door. How 'bout that.
Drinks for every moment
Delivered to your door. How 'bout that.
Dessert & Fortified Wine
(2,169 results)
All about dessert & fortified wines
What is a dessert wine?
Swap that heavy dessert for a refreshingly sweet dessert wine that tickles your taste buds. Varieties range from the delicately frizzy type to full-bodied flavors and sweeter styles. Wine lovers enjoy savoring these wines on their own or pairing them with salty cheese or light desserts to round off a meal. Brewers use white or red grapes to make this wine, which can be sparkling, fortified, lightly sweet or strongly sweet.
How is it made?
Extra sweet grapes are a key ingredient in dessert wines. The grapes ensure there is enough sugar left over after fermentation to make the wine taste sweet. Brewers ferment crushed grapes, and, in the process, form alcohol by breaking down the sugar. To ensure the wine tastes sweet, manufacturers stop the fermentation by super-cooling the wine or adding brandy to it. The result is a delicious wine with a bold flavor of natural grape sugars.
Types of sweet wines
Sweet wines are a broad category within wines. Some popular types include sparkling, still, fortified, sweet or dry. For a spritzy wine with high acidity that is not very sweet, try a sparkler.
If you seek higher alcohol in your wine, fortified wines are an ideal choice. Manufacturers add brandy to the wine during or after fermentation, and that timing defines whether the end product is dry or sweet. A wine fortified before fermentation has sweeter notes since there is more residual sugar, while wine fortified after fermentation is dry. These wines also have a greater shelf life once opened because of their higher alcohol content. Vermouth wine is a style that's richly aromatic.
Pour a glass of wine to add sweet notes to your dining experience. Shop Drizly or see if we've made it to your city. Click these handy links to search for Drizly in your city, and look for liquor stores on Drizly near you.


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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Checking in on the Acorn Rainbow - March 2010
The snow has finally melted and been replaced with warmer days (at least for now...) so I thought it was time to go check on the acorn rainbow. It has been a few months since I last checked in and I wasn't sure what to expect. As I was meandering towards my destination, a flash of purple in the leaf litter caught my eye. It was the purple acorn, from my rainbow, some 30 feet from its stump. How did you get here, little friend? His cap has been broken, probably from someone's size 10s. (ahem, me, aka sasquatch) In November, Mr. Purple was still on his stump. Poor little guy. I left him there, to finish out his days.
The blue acorn had previously been missing, but I found him north of the stump, still surprisingly blue. In fact, all of the acorns have retained their colors remarkably well.
The red was hidden beneath some leaves as well, south of the stump, and the orange had been incorporated into some kind of web, to the southwest. All in all they look pretty darn good considering the elements they've been exposed to.
Until then, little rainbow.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Button Monday
I'm a sucker for natural materials, especially those with patina and wear, so it stands to reason that today's buttons are amongst my favorites. Here are some wood, bone, and tagua nut or "vegetable ivory" buttons.
wood buttons
a wooden button carved in the shape of an oyster shell
I love these make-do buttons made of cross-sections of walnut shells.
Vegetable ivory buttons were used as an alternative to ivory, and come from the nut of a type of palm tree. They have a beautiful feel to them and a lovely patina as they age.
Bone buttons were often cut from cow shin bones. These were common during the civil-war era.
Hope you've enjoyed the buttons. Happy Monday!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Earth Hour 2010
Tonight is Earth Hour and here in the Jordan house, this event is met with giggles and anticipation. Last year we armed each of the boys with a wind-up flashlight and let them loose. Whirr whirr whirr went the flashlights. Run run run went the boys. They loved it. The smaller guys are too little to understand why we were sitting in the dark, but my 10 year old got it. They are all looking forward to tonight at 8:30 when we turn the lights off again. We've been talking about nocturnal vs. diurnal animals lately and we hoped to sit outside and watch for flying squirrels and listen for owls, but it looks like some cold rain will keep us in tonight. Wind up the flashlights, boys, it's flashlight tag time! Whirr whirr whirr...
What is Earth Hour? Why do it? According to the Earth Hour website, the event started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating.
It's a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.
Won't you join in?
Tonight. 8:30pm local time.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Bunny Finger Puppets
I used some thin wool felt that I made from blazers and coats, along with some pink felt that I found at a garage sale a few years ago. I needle-felted a small ball of wool roving for the tail. I cut the bunnies free-hand, but the template is provided in the tutorial (which, by the way, was really clear and detailed)
I think it took me about 20 minutes to sew one of these guys up, and they're so cute I think it was well-worth the effort. The boys have already been playing with them so I know they're a hit with the 3 and 4 year old set.
I think it took me about 20 minutes to sew one of these guys up, and they're so cute I think it was well-worth the effort. The boys have already been playing with them so I know they're a hit with the 3 and 4 year old set.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Golden Eggs - Dyeing Eggs With Turmeric
Here's an easy and natural egg dyeing technique for you to try just in time for Easter ....give turmeric a whirl. It produces a lovely golden color and it smells nice too. You can find turmeric in the spice aisle at your local supermarket.
I started with some white, light brown, and green eggs from my girls. While they were hard-boiling, I heated up about 5 cups of water in my crockpot and added roughly 4 tablespoons of turmeric. I let the turmeric and water simmer for about 15 minutes, then turned the heat off. When it had cooled slightly, I added my now-boiled and slightly cooled eggs to the mixture.
I looped rubberbands around a few of them as a resist, but you could also let the kids add designs with crayons too.
I let the eggs sit in the dye bath for an hour and when they emerged, they were a gorgeous gold.
Here are the dyed eggs and their pre-dyed counterparts. The green egg had a sort of olive green tone to it. Lovely!
I've read that you can add vinegar to the dye bath to help the color stick more. I added a splash of vinegar to the eggs while they were boiling so I did not include more vinegar in the dye bath. Of course, I had to taste test them too to see if the flavor of the turmeric came through, but it had not. Nothing but eggy goodness.
As far as getting a good hard-boiled egg, here's an interesting article on the subject. I find that older eggs do in fact peel easier, so I typically use store-bought eggs for boiling. (our fresh eggs get eaten up pretty quickly around here)
What kinds of natural egg dyes will you be trying this year?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Button Monday
It's a little overcast and grey here today in the north woods so I thought I'd share a little sunshine for this button Monday.
May I present...yellow!
Most of these are plastics, but there are a few glass and at least one Bakelite as well.
lovely yellow flowers
and finally....quack.
Happy Monday!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Workin' on the weekend, that's me.
I'll be listing a few new brooches in the shop later today, and a set of heart ornaments (it's been a while) too.
I'm running low on birch rings for my brooches so I think today I'll be digging through our firewood pile and looking through the back woods for dead birch limbs. When I find one that's suitable, I'll be cutting, sanding, and waxing these little babies. Then I'll need to make more felt... I'm trying out some other woods too and hope to continue working in this theme. Combining the wood and wool has hit a note with me and I'd like to see where it takes me, so bear with me sweet readers because I am bound to bore you to tears with images of wood and wool...
It was 14 degrees when I woke up this morning but I see the sun shining so I have high hopes that this first day of spring will be a warmer one.
Have a great day. Happy Spring!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
An Interview With Lynne from BlossomBabies
I'm a mom of 3 boys which suits me well, I'm a dig in the dirt, play hard kind of girl, but when I found out in 2008 that I was having a baby girl, (and after I recovered from the initial shock), I squealed (well, like a girl)and clicked my way over to the most adorable little dollies ever, in Blossombabies' shop on Etsy. I had known Lynne's work already but now I had a legitimate reason to own some! I bought my daughter her first baby doll, one that was made with love, and one that is cherished by both of us. I wanted something special, made of natural materials, and well-made, and what I found was that not only is Lynne a talented doll-maker, but sweet, caring, and funny too. Yeah, I'm a fan. I bet you will be too.
Tell me about you:
My Name is Lynne and I live in a small(ish) German town near Frankfurt.
What do you make?
I make Waldorf-inspired toddlers dolls and I also free-lance design toys and plush things for babies.
Is there a particular theme in your work?
My work is really focused around simple, unobtrusive playthings. I don't like to have anything complicated or artificial on a children's doll or toy, because I really believe that simple playthings and simple natural toys inspire gentleness and nurturing in children. Especially fabric toys. They help them to be more attentive to subtlties. How fabric feels, how it ages with play and loving, how it acquires a certain scent, these are all experiences a child takes with him his whole life. A simply designed toy made by hand has a value children intrinsically appreciate.
Where do you find inspiration?
I am most inspired by my own children and their nurturing play. My children are just moving on from doll play but their deep love and care for the many dollies and animals always touches my heart. I try to capture this feeling and even that wistful bit of nostalgia in my heart about these beautiful growing children of mine when I make my dolls.
What do you love about what you do?
I really love the fact that I can create things which may, ideally, become a very special part of a child's life. I don't think that every single child who receives one of my dolls will connect in a special way to it. But of course, I really hope some may. What an honor that would be for me!
Tell me about a favorite piece that you've made
My favorite piece is the very first Sweatshirt Baby I made. The afro! The afro! He was special, and I kept him.
What do you do when you're not creating?
I am a manager and a key buyer for a shop here in Germany. I love my job because I get to work on a lot of interesting projects (we design some of our own products as well) and I also get to visit some of the biggest and most interesting trade fairs in the world. I love it. Its a big job, so I can't always keep my personal projects going at the speed I would like, but I try to make room for everything.
How can people find you?
I have an Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/blossombabies
Thank you Lynne!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Playing With Packaging
I'm so excited about the new tags that I'm using for packaging my brooches that I just had to show it off. A few weeks ago I found PulpArt's amazing plantable paper and featured it in my Sunday Window Shopping finds. I knew immediately that they would be the perfect compliment for my brooches.
They're handmade paper, made of recycled paper, and embedded with flower seeds so that once planted these tags will actually sprout flowers. That just makes me happy. I consider these a business expense, not a craft supply, so I have not nullified my New Year's resolution to buy no craft supplies for one year. (yay me!)
I decided to do what I call a "poor man's" letterpress on them. OK, OK, it doesn't really look like beautiful letterpress, but this is in my budget and the sort of imperfect nature suits me. I have these metal stamps and used them to pound letters into this lovely paper.
I just picked out my letters, lined them up on the paper, and...whack! A couple of smacks with the hammer and I have my shop name down the side. Pretty sweet, methinks. There is also a little poem to go along with the tags.
If you haven't already, you should pop over and have a look at PulpArt's paper offerings. Lovely stuff.
So it makes me wonder, what kind of packaging do you like? Have you seen something that really made you stop and say "wow" or "that's so innovative" or "that's really smart". Have any eco-friendly packaging tips you'd like to share?
Speaking of eco-friendly packaging tips...I'm a member of the Eco Etsy Street Team and our team blog has lots of good information and tips so while you're at it, you should stop over there too. :D
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Speaking of eco-friendly packaging tips...I'm a member of the Eco Etsy Street Team and our team blog has lots of good information and tips so while you're at it, you should stop over there too. :D
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
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While plenty of games are set in a postapocalyptic wasteland, not many let you participate in the actual end of the world. In the case of Darksiders, this is precisely where the action begins. Influenced by games like God of War and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (and often dangerously straddling the line between homage and plagiarism), Darksiders offers an expansive world to explore, with satisfying combat and intriguing puzzles to solve peppered throughout. Though it falls prey to a poorly fleshed-out story and overly complex controls that don't always work the way they should, Darksiders is nonetheless a thoroughly fun and visually engaging adventure that manages to take some old ideas and make them feel fresh once again.
As War, the red rider of the Four Horsemen, your job is pretty simple. An enforcer of the Charred Council, a neutral body that maintains the balance between the forces of heaven and hell, you apply pressure to make sure that both sides play fair in their endless bickering. Perhaps the Four Horsemen's most important duty, however, is to heed the call of the Endwar and punish anyone unlucky enough to be found on Earth. When you're somehow prematurely summoned to Earth, which begins a chain of events that ends with the unfortunate extinction of humankind and the victory of the armies of The Destroyer, it's time for vengeance. You are charged with the crime of upsetting the balance and are sent back to Earth to find answers, or die trying. Though it's a grand setup, once the first hour or so of gameplay passes, the plot quickly runs out of steam and devolves into absurdity. None of the characters you're introduced to are fleshed out beyond weak stereotypes and one-dimensional cliches, and the various plot twists and turns are predictable and unsatisfying.
While wandering through the great wasteland that was once civilization, War takes out his boundless rage on both the legions of The Destroyer and the armies of heaven in fun and brutal combat. Slow-paced and methodical, battles typically pit you against large numbers of foes, which the wide, sweeping strikes of War's weapons allow you to hit en masse. Once beaten to within an inch of their lives, enemies can be brutally executed with the press of a single button (indicated by a floating button icon above their heads), though some of the weaker enemies can be similarly dispatched from the get-go. Besides his massive sword, War can have a secondary weapon equipped (such as his brother Death's scythe), and it's simple to switch between the two even during a furious assault. With a quick sliding move that can be activated at almost any time to dodge an attack or break off a combo and switch targets, War is surprisingly nimble for such a bulky guy. This freedom, when coupled with your ability to transition instantly into an execution, makes fights feel extremely fluid, even when their generally slow pace is taken into consideration. But while it's incredibly satisfying to eviscerate an enormous horned devil or cut the wings off an armored angel, battle is, surprisingly enough for a guy named War, only one half of the equation.
When you're not on the warpath, there's an enormous world waiting to be explored and dozens of intriguing puzzles to solve along the way. Traversing from one area to the next isn't always straightforward, for your progress is often hindered by your gear, or at least by your lack of it. As you proceed through the many dungeons on your journey through Darksiders, you find that each one includes a useful new item, such as a bladed boomerang, a grappling hook, or an armored gauntlet, each of which opens up new paths for you to travel and is used in often creative ways to solve puzzles and defeat bosses from then on out. Puzzle complexity ramps up nicely, and each new variation encountered is a fair step up from the previous one. Though some can initially look overwhelming--such as a series of puzzles near the end of the game in which you must redirect a beam of energy from its source using mirrors, moving platforms, and interdimensional portals--they never feel impossible and are extremely gratifying to complete. At the end of each dungeon is a large-scale boss battle that puts what you've learned solving these puzzles to the test. These impressive, multifaceted fights are sometimes a bit on the easy side, but not so much that it makes them any less fun.
Throughout the game, you are constantly rewarded with new pieces of equipment, weapons, and abilities--every hour of gameplay yields something new, which keeps you wanting to play to see what's next. The unfortunate downside of this is that there are so many different things to keep track of that it can get confusing sometimes. Unfortunately, the complex controls don't do much to curb this confusion. Every single face button on the controller is used (sometimes for more than one thing), and some moves require combinations of buttons to be pressed. Certain actions, such as throwing a charged boomerang at several targets, require a dizzying array of inputs to be made: in this case, you have to tap the right analog stick to enter aiming mode, hold the left trigger down, paint your targets with the cursor, and hold then release the right trigger to finally charge the boomerang and toss it. Because only so many pieces of gear can be instantly accessible through the D pad, in the latter parts of the game you'll find yourself frequenting the cumbersome inventory menu to swap out items for easy access, which can be annoying. Finally, the controls aren't always as responsive as they need to be, which can cause you to flub a jump, miss a dodge, or inexplicably fall while hanging off a wall or ceiling when you meant to do something entirely different. This doesn't happen often, but it's always troubling when it does.
Though the world of Darksiders is one of decay and neglect following the premature apocalypse, it is still one of visual splendor. From the lush vegetation of the Drowned Pass to the barren desert of The Ashlands, a refreshingly bright and colorful palette is always on display. Varied and imaginative, the open world and dungeons look great, though there are some unfortunate graphical issues in the Xbox 360 version. Screen tearing is a huge problem that surfaces almost any time the camera is rotated, and it's bad enough to distract you even when you're just exploring. In addition, battles that get too big make the frame rate suffer, causing graphical slowdown. The PlayStation 3 version suffers neither of these issues. Action in Darksiders is punctuated by an appropriately moody and atmospheric soundtrack, and the vocal cast does a good job bringing the characters to life, considering how meagerly they're fleshed out. Mark Hamill in particular seems to relish his role as the Watcher, a sadistic demon tasked with keeping an eye on War (though it's a bit odd to hear him recycle his Joker voice so soon after Batman: Arkham Asylum).
Darksiders unapologetically borrows gameplay ideas and mechanics from all over the spectrum and is constantly cramming new ones in all the way up to the very end. While it's not innovative by any stretch of the imagination, neither is it entirely derivative, as these myriad features not only gel together surprisingly well, but when put together even feel fresh again. Though it's hobbled by a disappointing story and excessively complex controls (as well as some technical issues on the Xbox 360), Darksiders is a fun and entertaining adventure with a host of fair but challenging puzzles, a lengthy single-player campaign, and an engaging combat system.


text: This Nike KD 10 celebrating Black History Month features a Black White color theme. While Black covers most of the uppers, White lands on the Nike Swoosh. In addition we have Gold on the Kyrie branding on the tongue while marble covers part of the midsole and runs across the outsole. Completing the look is BHM on the inside of the tongue.


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Victor Klemperer's harrowing diaries of life as a Jew in Nazi Dresden have been my intermittent bedside reading for many months. In the end, Klemperer and his wife escaped deportation and death because the firestorm bombing of Dresden set them free, but only after a dozen years of living with the terror. This week I find it hard to pick him up again because I suddenly feel a small piece of what he felt — a quite impersonal fear that the world I have come to live in is more threatening than I had surmised.
Most Americans now alive have gone their whole lives believing they had something approaching a free pass to escape the miseries of war, terror, and want. Now a fragment of terror easily recognizable to those who survived the Nazis has suddenly torn a strip off that free pass. What now?
Threat and reaction are the commonplace headlines, and measured, decisive response to threats at every level is obviously the order of the day. But we should look for opportunity as well. Some will look for opportunity picking up bargains at the stock market, but there are larger opportunities as well, and two are of great importance:
1. One unexpected effect of World War II was to leave behind a world that found the way to build a far more global and integrated society than had ever existed before. The "Cold War" distracted attention from this effort and impeded it in parts of the world, but it is undeniable that peoples who once hated each other from near or from far (Germany/France, US/Japan) or merely had little to do with each other (Euroamerica/East Asia) now coexist, cooperate, and help build one another's prosperity and well being. We pay now the price for incomplete globalization, for leaving one whole swath of the world poor and angry. However the military history of the next five months or years proceeds, the deeper opportunity is to bring together cultures that still live on different planets and find the modus vivendi for them. That such reconciliation will happen is to me certain; anxiety is in order for the short term (the cost of reaching such reconciliation) not the long. Building that future can and should begin immediately, and many can participate.
2. The technologies of communication mediated by information technology give unprecedented opportunity to support the growth and development of collaborative community. At the same time, the frenzies of media reaction to public events remind us that building the public discourse is a positive task that we all share parts of. The culture of frivolity that has been possible in our heedlessness is, let it be admitted, a delightful thing, but we have now the opportunity to add to the discourse of frivolity a more sustained and sustaining measure of the discourse of responsibility and the long view. In global communication of that sort is the best antidote to the waves of irrational anxiety that many do and will experience.
Best website for this moment? The Long Now Foundation (www.longnow.org) takes the broadest and longest view of human possibility. If your work is not to make a direct contribution to the aversion of new misery (and for most of it is not), then the old, common work of building community and possibility for ourselves and others takes on new and rich meaning. In that spirit, I find myself at the tail end of the day this week reading Proust instead of Klemperer.


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amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
Published Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Mark Schoofs; Daria Hazuda, Ph.D.; Regan Hofmann; Keith Jerome, M.D., Ph.D.; and Martin Markowitz, M.D. An amfAR symposium on November 29 brought together leading scientists, advocates, journalists, and one extraordinary "patient" to discuss the holy grail of AIDS research: a cure. The symposium, titled "Making AIDS History: Closing in on a Cure," featured a conversation between Timothy Brown, "The Berlin Patient," who is recognized internationally as the first and only documented case of a person being cured of HIV, George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, and Jeffrey Laurence, M.D., senior scientific consultant for programs at amfAR.
In 2006, while on treatment for HIV, Mr. Brown was diagnosed with leukemia, and his physician, Dr. Gero Hütter, had the cutting-edge idea of treating his leukemia with a stem cell transplant from a person who was born immune to HIV infection. Following the transplant, Mr. Brown was able to stop HIV treatment without experiencing a return of his HIV disease. His case provides the first proof of concept for a cure for HIV and has been the impetus for scientists and donors to begin working together toward a research goal previously thought impossible.
Sharing his extraordinary story, Mr. Brown said he was gratified that his case was providing to people around the world living with HIV. It was a sentiment echoed by Regan Hofmann, editor-in-chief of POZ magazine and amfAR board member, who participated in the second panel of the day and explained that as an HIV-positive woman, she is optimistic that continued investment in groundbreaking AIDS research will allow her to one day join Mr. Brown's ranks as one of the cured.
Ms. Hofmann shared the stage with Daria Hazuda, Ph.D., of Merck Research Labs; Keith Jerome, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Washington; and Martin Markowitz, M.D., of the Aaron Diamond Research Center in a panel discussion on the latest advances in research and the challenges that stand in the way of a cure. The panel was moderated by Mark Schoofs, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote the first news story about Timothy Brown for The Wall Street Journal in November 2008.
The symposium, held in New York City and generously underwritten by Hublot and the Mandarin Oriental, New York, also featured a presentation by Carl W. Dieffenbach, Ph.D., director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, on the enormous progress that's been made in 30 years of AIDS research.
"The fact that we are here today is a measure of the tremendous advances we've made in our understanding of HIV over the last three decades," said amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole, who acknowledged the pioneering leadership of amfAR Founding Chairman Dr. Mathilde Krim and Founding International Chairman, the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor. "And it's an affirmation of amfAR's unshakeable belief in scientific solutions to AIDS."
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Schoofs interviews Dr. Daria J. Hazuda, Regan Hofmann, Dr. Keith R. Jerome, and Dr. Martin Markowitz.
Wrapping up the symposium, amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost set out amfAR's vision for bringing the AIDS epidemic to an end.
ABC Chief Political Correspondent George Stephanopoulos interviews amfAR Senior Scientific Consultant Dr. Jeffrey Laurence and Timothy Brown, the so-called "Berlin Patient"—the first and only person believed to have been cured of HIV infection.


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Why Don't Bats Get Disoriented By Each Other's Sonar?
By Mark Mancini
Contrary to popular clichés, bats are hardly blind. Yet, when it comes to getting around and locating food, vision takes a backseat to echolocation. By emitting high frequency sounds and listening to them bounce off various objects with their remarkably sensitive ears, bats are able to construct a mental picture of their environment. Amazing research about how bats locate bodies of water has recently shown that this strategy is, at least partially, instinctive:
However, many species are communally inclined, with as many as several hundred individuals occupying the same cave before taking off in massive swarms. With so many screeching at once, providing what would appear to be near-endless interference, a simple question emerges: Why don't bats get distracted by each other's cries?
It would appear that a variety of strategies exist. For instance, the call of the North and South American moustached bat is, according to biologist John D. Altringham, "so weak that other bats are very unlikely to hear it." Because of the sound's relative quietness, neighboring moustached bats simply ignore it and go on hunting undistracted by their kin.
Furthermore, Gareth Jones and Marc W. Holderid of the University of Bristol have observed that, in the lion's share of species, most individuals have different call lengths to help them navigate different environments: When a bat flies in a wide open space, it will often use a lengthy vocalization, which will travel farther. Conversely, should the bat in question fly into a crowded environment, a series of short screeches, which can only bounce back a comparatively short distance, is preferable. Because the latter technique has a smaller range, fewer noises can interfere with the interpretation process—including the sonar of other bats.
For more info on the subject of bat echolocation and its evolution, check out this story.


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A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.
Aaarggghhh. Well, I got one day off from awarding a Sombrero. I swear, these things are starting to haunt me. I thought this would be a fun little segment with some cheap tequila and pinata blooper videos. Now it's an every day chore and the tequila has just made me an angry drunk and I'm out of pinata videos. I even kicked Youtube in the crotch out of frustration and too much Costco tequila. I was almost through all of the box scores today when I came across the Dodgers game. Lo and behold, Matt Kemp managed to 0-4 with 4 strikeouts on 15 pitches. It's a good thing Alyssa Milano is a big Dodgers fan and I'm still in love with her from when I was 10 or I'd make some serious idle threats about Kemp and the Dodgers. Let's go to the at bats before I go write about more strikeouts...
Bottom 1st: Kemp struck out swinging against Jason Marquis. 3 pitches. Just like a Dodger fan, Kemp was planning on getting out of there by the 7th inning to beat traffic.
Bottom 3rd: Kemp struck out swinging against Jason Marquis again. 4 pitches. Patience young Jedi.
Bottom 6th: Kemp struck out swinging against Miguel Batista. 4 pitches. I don't know why he was in such a hurry. Entourage doesn't come on until late even on the West Coast.
Bottom 7th: Kemp struck out swinging against Tyler Clippard. 4 pitches. At least he could still beat traffic.


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As expected, Governor Deval Patrick on Friday signed the repeal of the new tax on software services, ending a two-month-long controversy that had inflamed the state's business and technology sectors.
The governor's office announced the signing of the bill on Twitter, which had been a key platform for members of the state's tech community to protest the tax.
Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Senate and House each voted overwhelmingly to abolish the levy, which imposed the state's 6.25 percent sales tax on a range of computer and software services. Tech executives complained the tax was so poorly written that it was confusing to interpret and could add significant new costs on purchasing software and related products.
In striking down the new tax, Patrick killed a major part of a financing package for transportation projects that alone would have raised an estimated $160 million annually. The governor has called on Beacon Hill to find a replacement for the revenue but no alternative funding was recommended during the repeal.
The transportation funding package that was passed in July raised taxes on gas and cigarettes, and extended the sales tax for the first time to computer-related services. The business community did not begin speaking out on the software tax until it went into effect July 31. After that, some of the state's largest corporations and smallest start-ups banded together to support a ballot initiative, organize protests, and even threaten legal action against the state.
But a key turning point in the tech tax controversy seemed to come from face-to-face meetings between Patrick and key lawmakers and members of the tech community. After those, Patrick came out against the tax, calling it a "serious blot" on the state's reputation.
Members of the local tech community celebrated their victory via Twitter on Friday. "Huzzah! The new MA tech tax repeal officially signed," said tech entrepreneur Daniel Sullivan. "Warning shot for the local industry, let's pay attention."
Michael B. Farrell can be reached at email@example.com.


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Some of the jewelry that every woman should have
Be prepared for a special occasion, such as a party or a date, is never easy to do. There are so many things you should consider, so it's not surprising if you feel depressed. Things can get even worse if you feel like you are running out of time. However, despite finding the right clothes, there are some other details that you should keep in mind. One of these details is related to finding the right jewelry. Believe it or not, the power of the accessories is almost extraordinary. These little things can completely change women's clothing.
Thus, it is not surprising that buying cheap jewelry is one of the biggest issues when talking to women who are trying to keep up with the latest trends. But what jewelry is the most important thing a woman should have? Here are some suggestions. Some of the jewelry that every woman should have
First of all, there are jewelry statements. When it comes to these small accessories, there is one thing for sure: everything can be offset by almost anything. What's more, they never miss a style and they are the perfect choice for everyday work clothes, college style and more. Usually these accessories are made of silver or gold. In most cases, women who decide to invest in such items believe in the principle: "Less is more".
Secondly, do not forget the elegant and larger jewels which are the perfect choice for ultra glamourous evenings. For example, if you are going to attend your best friend's wedding or you are getting ready for a fancy show like a prom, you need some regular accessories. In this case, experts advise you to dare to do more. Search online jewelry Australia and select the perfect accessories that will make everyone say "Wow! This lady has style!". It is advisable to invest in beautiful necklaces and rings that can make your hands look feminine and soft.
Third, try adding some antiques in your personal collection. Good idea, in this case, look for them in terms of your grandmother. But be careful to respect one simple rule: start with pieces next to your skin color. Believe it or not, these things have the power to make your hue look brighter.
On the other hand, do not ignore diamond diamond bracelets or earrings. Or, if you feel you need more, you can look for pearls. Jewelry that includes pearls is always an interesting addition. You will be considered a beautiful beautiful woman who is ready to run the world. But, if you're looking for some attention-grabbing items, do not hesitate to invest in a diamond tennis bracelet. This includes a symmetrical diamond line that can be discrete and elegant. Some of the jewelry that every woman should have


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text:
Jurriaan Maessen
A mention on the website of the World Health Organization (WHO) admits that there were suggestions by member or members of the Chemical Aspects Working Group meeting in Tokyo, held in 2002, to omit information on the "adverse health effects" of fluoride to "prevent controversy." Here is the full quote from the WHO's website:
"At the Chemical Aspects Working Group meeting (Tokyo, 2002), the group was informed that the monograph was being finalized, and there was considerable discussion on various aspects of the draft, including a suggestion that the monograph should not mix discussion on the beneficial use of fluoride with adverse health effects to prevent controversy. The monograph was not discussed at the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality Working Group meeting (Geneva, 2004). The document is in editing and layout (2005). A presentation to the Working Groups of the WHO Oral Health Programme on the importance of fluoridation was made in 2005."
In the questionnaire for the working group, posted on the WHO's website, the Working Group's members are assured that their comments "will not be posted to the public website." Well, it seems the WHO not only lies to the world, they lie to their own underlings as well. But no matter: the most important thing here is that the WHO deliberately contemplated omitting crucial information about fluoride's damaging effects from its future publications- which in turn act as guiding principles, commandments almost, for states all around the world.
As it turns out, the WHO not only omits and deletes. That would make the whole affair some sad sort of cover-up or whitewash. No, the WHO- knowing perfectly well that fluoride is most damaging- actively promotes the use of fluoride and works to distribute it through the world's water-supply. A WHO publication of the Expert Consensus Meeting Group Report even advises adding fluoride in the water-supply for specific segments of the population.
The "consensus" reached among the "experts" reads, that higher income groups often already consume enough fluoride for their purposes, which- by the way- has decidedly nothing to do with some dental battle against tooth decay.
"For example", we can read in the report, "in countries such as those in Scandinavia, where public dental awareness is very high and alternative vehicles for fluoride (e.g. fluoridated toothpaste) are widely available and widely used, a decision to not fluoridate the water, or remove fluoride, or to supply drinking water with suboptimal levels of fluoride would likely be of little consequence.
The report continues with the statement that for segments of the population which do not have wide access to fluoridated toothpaste, the WHO would me more than willing to dump trace amounts of it into the water-supply, free of charge:
"On the other hand in developing and developed countries where public dental health awareness in some population groups (e.g. lower income) might be much lower, water containing either natural or added fluoride at concentrations of 0.5 to1.0 mg/l would be important for dental health."
This idea perfectly coincides with the ruling guidelines of the WHO Oral Health Programme, which include a "particular focus" on "the disadvantaged and under-served population groups.":
"The WHO Oral Health Programme, jointly with the FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) and the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), have embarked on an action plan for the promotion of using fluoride, particularly focusing on the disadvantaged and under-served population groups."
Furthermore, the WHO's Guidelines for drinking water quality states:
"In setting national standards for fluoride or in evaluating the possible health consequences of exposure to fluoride, it is essential to consider the intake of water by the population of interest and the intake of fluoride from other sources (e.g., from food, air and dental preparations)."
Dr.Richard Shames, graduated Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, after in-depth research into the effects of Fluoride on the human biological system, noted:
"(…) the Nazi concentration camps used fluoridated water to suppress the will and vigor of inmates. This appears to have been during the 1930s and was the first known example of fluoridated water supplies for a specific population."
Fluoride, in whatever amount, is nothing less than a chemical weapon. Considering it is applied to entire populations or certain groups within a population, the definition is chemical warfare- a tool most useful to eugenicists who are intent on depopulation the planet.


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Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 4:50pm and last updated
Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 2:11pm.
Portland Ruby Brigade monthly meeting
Access Notes
Suite 300, 3rd floor. Office will have a CrowdCompass sign. Enter the building after hours on Division by walking through Ford Food & Drink, or on 11th by walking through the parking lot.
Thanks to CrowdCompass for hosting Ruby meetings every Tuesday!
11 year anniversary meeting!
- Markus Roberts: Ruby Hangman
- Jonan Scheffler will talk about metaprogramming in Ruby as it relates to eigenclasses and manipulating singleton objects and their methods.
ABOUT THE GROUP: The Portland Ruby Brigade, also known as pdxruby and pdx.rb, is a user group for Ruby programmers in the Portland, Oregon area. The group welcomes all programmers interested in the language and its implementations, tools, libraries and frameworks, such as Ruby on Rails. The group has been meeting since August 2002 for presentations, demos and discussions. Every month 35-75 people come together to share their knowledge, projects and enthusiasm for Ruby. If you'd like to present or have a topic you'd like discussed, please post to the mailing list. The group usually meets on the first Tuesday of the month, "Ruby Tuesday" -- see you there!


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When you kick down your side stand during a break in your ride, you want to be able to depend on it to keep your BMW from falling. The AltRider Side Stand Foot for the BMW F650GS Twin provides a larger footprint to support the weight of your bike on soft ground.
Made from hefty 1/8 inch stainless steel, this foot features a 3D tread that provides traction for your boots. It is the most ergonomic design on the market, allowing easy deployment of the side stand while still on the bike. The AltRider foot also clamps down on the actual foot of the side stand with Torx fasteners, which means it will remain tight even after months of use. No more rattling or stripped fasteners.
Not compatible with BMW OEM center stand.
Not compatible with factory lowered models.
Note: AltRider products cannot be shipped to Canadian addresses.
AltRider F650GS2 Sidestand Foot
Produced by AltRider of USA


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We here at Ithaca Owners are beginning to look for sub-forum moderators. If you are interested please pm me and we can go from there. Each moderator can be assigned to up to 4 sub-forums. Below is a list of our expectations and responsibilities.
Following is a brief rundown of what is generally expected of a moderator here at http://www.ithacaowners.com
A moderator should be knowledgeable and practiced within the realm that they moderate. Which simply means... in order to assist members, you need to be familiar with that form in order to give ideas and suggestions.
A moderator should also work to keep the site running smoothly... enforcing the Board Rules of Conduct, solving problems, and answering any questions that members may have regarding the site, it's policies, and procedures.
A moderator should work to promote interest and participation within their forum... this can be with challenges, exercises, or anything else that would increase the creative response of members.
A moderator should promote the site and help in the recruitment of new members.
Above all, since this is a volunteer gig, a moderator should enjoy helping people. Having fun and enjoying what you do is a requirement.
We strive to make this a productive, pleasant, and stimulating atmosphere--and we hope that you will add to that spirit.
Staff Powers and Responsibilities
A. Powers
A moderator, super-moderator, or administrator is allowed to use the powers allowed in their account to the full extent necessary. Using your powers in ways detrimental to the board, unfairly harmful to a member, or breaking the rules while using your power is an abuse of power. Being able to see Invisible members online or the ability to ban people within reason is NOT abuse of power. Banning for no reason or for personal conflicts can be abuse of power. If a staff member is found to be abusing power, they will be issued either a warning, a strike, be put on probation as a staff member, or lose their position all together.
B. Confidential Information
Information and discussion posted in private staff discussion forums is to REMAIN confidential. It is posted in private staff areas for a reason. Staff is NOT having parties or gossiping about other members behind the members' backs. They discuss such things as board issues and what to do about policies. Any staff member found to be leaking information will be issued either a warning, a strike, be put on probation as a staff member, or lose their position all together.
C. Responsibilities
If you are on the staff, you are expected to do your part. If there is an issue in your section of the board, please deal with it. If assistance is needed, notify another staff member and ask for help. If you are not willing to do your job, there is no reason for you to be on staff.
If it sounds like you will be a great addition to our team, Once you get to a required 50 post count, we can set you up with a moderator role if all goes well.
Ithaca Owners is looking for moderators...
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Hope you find some good guys to help ya out! Good luck!
Please contact me regarding moderator. I am very much interested.
Thanks ! |
Welcome to the Ithaca Owners Forum blackfootmigrator !!
When you get a chance, let us know what kind of firearms you own and post up some pics of them !! |
pm sent, you need to have 5 posts before you can start pming back.
Thanks , this looks to be a forum that will entertain and help a lot of people !
Hello Shooter,
I will certainly get some pictures of my firearms. As of right now, I only have my Model 37, a T/C .56 Cal Renegade, My gandads 16 ga. Stevens, and a 12 ga. Beretta Xtrema 2. |
Welcome to Ithaca and to the team!
on YouTube email@example.com "No free man shall ever be procluded the use of arms." Do right and fear nothing! |
========================================================= Looking forward to that my friend...!! ========================================================= |
Copper BB
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:14 pm Location: Upstate New York - Erie / Niagara |
I am interested in becoming a moderator. I have knowlwdge with the 12 & 16ga. deerslayer. There's a place on Earth for all Gods animals...right next to the mashed potatoes!
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It's a horrible feeling to be captain of the ship when the ship goes down. That's how Antonina Radzikowski, 55, says she felt after falling asleep while driving down a Maryland highway one afternoon in 1994.
Radzikowski and her husband, Phillip, were heading home after dropping their teen-age son off at a gifted and talented summer program. Roughly 60 miles away from home on I-70 near Hagerstown, Md., the car Radzikowski was driving smashed into the guardrail, flew over it, and fell 30 feet before landing on railroad tracks on the opposite side of the highway. Radzikowski's husband died and she was left with severe brain injuries that shortened her attention span and led to her retirement from teaching.
"I sometimes felt drowsy before, but I never knew why until after the accident," Radzikowski says. A sleep study revealed that she suffers from obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which her breathing stops for about 10 seconds to as long as a minute while she's sleeping. Her effort to breathe wakes her up, and this stop-and-start cycle of waking to breathe can repeat hundreds of times a night. A person with sleep apnea isn't aware of the frequent awakenings, but is likely to feel overwhelming sleepiness during the day.
There are many reasons for sleep deprivation. Each year, there are about 40 million people in the United States who suffer from sleeping disorders. An additional 20 million have occasional sleeping problems, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
People who work nights, for example, probably never completely adapt because our bodies want to be awake during the day and asleep at night. We are governed by the circadian rhythm, an internal clock that regulates sleep and wake cycles. Sleep deprivation can also result when people choose to skimp on sleep in favor of work, parties or late-night television.
Whatever the reason for sleep loss, research has shown that it takes a toll on us both mentally and physically. While we sleep, our bodies secrete hormones that affect our mood, energy, memory, and concentration. Testing has shown that with a driving simulator or a hand-eye coordination task, sleep-deprived people may perform just as badly as intoxicated people.
Sleep deprivation and fatigue have long been issues for professions that have traditionally held long work hours. Pilots have federal regulations that limit their work hours to eight hours of flying time within a 24-hour period. Truck drivers can't drive more than 10 hours without a mandatory eight-hour break. Physician advocacy groups are pushing for the passage of the Patient and Physician Safety Protection Act, currently under consideration in Congress, that would set limits nationwide on the number of hours worked by medical residents.
According to the American Medical Student Association, residents sometimes work 100-120 hours a week in 24- and 36-hour shifts. Some have reported making mistakes with medication, falling asleep while driving home, and experiencing health problems, such as depression. The bill would limit residents to 80 hours per week with at least 10 hours off between shifts, among other provisions.
Recent research suggests that if sleep deprivation is long-term--whether because of lifestyle choices or sleep disorders--it may increase the severity of age-related chronic disorders such as diabetes and high blood pressure. In a study published in the Oct. 23, 1999, issue of The Lancet, Eve Van Cauter, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, led researchers who restricted 11 young men to four hours of sleep for six nights, and then recorded their bodily functions. The researchers then allowed the same young men to spend 12 hours in bed per night for six nights, and compared their bodily functions to those recorded earlier. The researchers found negative effects on metabolic and endocrine functions when the men were sleep-deprived similar to those seen in older people as a result of normal aging.
In another study, published in the Sept. 25, 2002, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Van Cauter and colleagues found a marked decrease in the response to flu vaccination in young, healthy people who were immunized after four days of sleep restriction, compared with those whose sleep was unrestricted.
"There's a need to look at sleep on the same level of importance as diet and exercise," says Carl Hunt, M.D., director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. "All three are equally important for good health."
Here's a look at some common sleep problems and what you can do about them.
Can't Fall Asleep--Can't Stay Asleep
Most people experience short-term insomnia at some time. Insomnia includes having trouble falling asleep, having trouble getting back to sleep, and waking up too early. Insomnia is more common in females, people with a history of depression, and in people older than 60.
Temporary insomnia can be caused by noise or a stressful event like the loss of a job or a death in the family. A National Sleep Foundation poll of 993 adults over 18 found that close to half of the respondents reported symptoms of insomnia as they tried to sleep in the nights immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Certain medications could keep you awake, particularly those that treat colds and allergies, heart disease, high blood pressure, and pain. And some of us practice bad habits that sabotage our sleep. This includes drinking alcohol and eating too close to bedtime, says James Walsh, Ph.D., president of the National Sleep Foundation and executive director of the Sleep Medicine and Research Center in Chesterfield, Mo.
"Alcohol works as a sedative, but it's also metabolized quickly--within two to three hours for moderate doses," Walsh says. "So you'll have a rebound effect. You may sleep soundly for the first couple of hours but then toss and turn later." And large meals in the two hours before bedtime could cause indigestion.
Short-term insomnia lasts only a few days and is usually not a cause for concern. For example, with jet lag, your internal body clock will readjust itself within several days. It's wise to read labels carefully and check with your doctor before using over-the-counter (OTC) sleep medicines for short-term insomnia. These drugs use sedating antihistamines to make you drowsy. Examples include Nytol (diphenhydramine) and Unisom Nighttime (doxylamine).
People with breathing problems, glaucoma, or chronic bronchitis, pregnant or nursing women, and people who have difficulty urinating due to an enlarged prostate should not use these medicines. People with sleep apnea shouldn't take sleep-promoting medicine because it could suppress their respiratory drive, making it harder to wake up when they experience an episode of interrupted breathing.
Insomnia is considered chronic when it lasts most nights for a few weeks or more. This longer-term condition deserves professional attention, says Tom Roth, Ph.D., head of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. If you're unsure about whether you have chronic insomnia, Roth suggests looking at it like a headache. "If it goes on day after day and nothing you do makes it go away, then you should see a doctor," he says. "Ask yourself: Do you know the cause?"
Sometimes insomnia is caused by an underlying illness that needs treatment, such as a thyroid disorder, anxiety, depression, arthritis, or asthma. Georgi Moyer, 60, of Gaithersburg, Md., has had problems with insomnia for 38 years because of restless leg syndrome, a condition that causes tingling and crawling sensations in the legs. "It feels like ants crawling around inside your legs," says Moyer. "The only thing that helps is moving your legs. So I end up pacing the floor or kicking my husband in bed."
Moyer, who is a nurse, chooses to work nights because her problem is at its worst from about 8 p.m. until 3 or 4 in the morning. There are no drugs approved by the FDA for restless leg syndrome. Moyer says she has found some relief with drugs that treat symptoms of anxiety.
For others, the cause of insomnia may be a combination of factors and hard to pinpoint. Mike Shockey, Ph.D., 52, of Stafford, Va., has had a severe case of insomnia for 30 years. There have been times when he's slept only 15-20 hours during a week. A sleep test indicated that he hasn't been reaching the deepest--and most restorative--stages of sleep for years.
As a result, Shockey has felt both the mental fog and a physical slowdown from sleep deprivation. "Sometimes, my legs have felt like stone," says Shockey, who is a college professor and novelist. "I've had to hold onto the podium to stay up. Or I might drive somewhere and sit in my car for awhile because it's a huge effort to get across the parking lot." He says he's often jealous of his wife. "She falls asleep soon after she hits the pillow and I look over and think--it sure must be nice."
About 85 percent of people who have insomnia can be helped with a combination of behavioral therapy and medicine, says Marc Raphaelson, M.D., a neurologist with the Greater Washington Sleep Disorders Center in Rockville, Md.
Prescription hypnotic drugs act in areas of the brain to help promote sleep. There have been advances with the development of more short-acting drugs to decrease drowsy spillover effects in the morning. Sonata (zaleplon), for example, is a drug designed to help you fall asleep faster, but not for keeping you asleep. Ambien (zolpidem) is an example of a drug indicated for both getting to sleep and staying asleep.
Insomnia has traditionally been viewed as a symptom of an underlying medical or psychiatric illness, and drugs to treat insomnia are approved for short-term use only, until the primary condition can be treated.
Hypnotic drugs are potentially addictive. Generally, their use is limited to 10 days or less, and the longest that they are approved for use is about 30 days, says Paul Andreason, M.D., a drug reviewer in the FDA's Division of Neuropharmacological Drug Products. "Drug sponsors have not done longer-term studies that evaluate the drugs' effectiveness for longer periods," he says.
Raphaelson says there is a gap in approved treatments because some people with this chronic condition may need long-term treatment. About 20 percent of people with chronic insomnia have a primary form of it, which means it's not associated with another medical condition.
"Most people I've seen are frightened of the medications for fear of addiction," Raphaelson says. "But there is little indication that people with insomnia abuse these medications."
As with any prescription medication, it's important to not increase doses or stop taking hypnotic drugs without consulting a doctor. No drugs that promote sleep should be taken with alcohol. And because of the sedating effects, caution must be used when getting out of bed, driving, or operating other machinery.
Sleepy During the Day
Feeling tired every now and then during the day is normal. But it's not normal for sleepiness to interfere with your routine activities. For example, you shouldn't be dozing off while reading the newspaper, during business meetings, or while sitting at a red light. Slowed thinking, trouble paying attention, heavy eyelids, and feeling irritable are other warning signs.
If you're feeling sleepy frequently during the day, you might simply need to make more time to sleep. "Every year, a couple of people will come see me and say that they go to bed late and wake up early, and ask if I could give them a pill to help them feel more refreshed," Raphaelson says. "I tell them to sleep."
Experts say that most adults need at least eight hours of sleep every night to be well rested, but this varies from person to person. The bottom line is that you should sleep for the number of hours it takes for you to feel rested, refreshed, and fully alert the next day. If you've had a good sleep, you shouldn't feel drowsy during the day.
Naps can be good, but the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends napping before 3 p.m. and for no longer than an hour so that it doesn't interfere with falling asleep at night.
If you are sleeping an adequate amount and you still feel drowsy going about your day-to-day routine, or if adjusting your sleeping habits hasn't helped, then you should talk with your health-care provider.
Overwhelming daytime sleepiness could be due to a number of sleep disorders. For example, people with narcolepsy experience excessive sleepiness even after a full night's sleep. "Some people may be able to sleep, but the sleep quality is no good," Raphaelson says. "If you look at the brain as a rechargeable flashlight, some people don't hold the charge very well." They may have sleep attacks, sometimes at very inappropriate times such as while eating or talking. But not all cases present this way.
Richard Bernstein, 46, of Baltimore, says he can remember always falling asleep very easily, wanting to take naps, and having a hard time getting up. "When I was a child, my mother used to say that waking me up was like moving mountains." Even after sleeping all night, he'd wake up too tired to get out of bed, which often meant missing school or work. "I've lost jobs over this," says Bernstein, who works as an airline customer service representative.
Bernstein was diagnosed with narcolepsy after taking a multiple sleep latency test, which measured how quickly he fell asleep. Most people take between 10 and 20 minutes to fall asleep. People who do it in less than five minutes may have a serious sleep disorder.
"There's definitely a stigma to it," Bernstein says. "People used to tease me or call me lazy and say that I was sleeping my life away." He says he's found some improvement since taking Provigil (modafinil) for the past two years. The drug is approved by the FDA to improve wakefulness in people with narcolepsy. Potential side effects include headaches and nausea.
Some people with narcolepsy experience episodes of cataplexy, a condition characterized by weak or paralyzed muscles such as buckling knees. In July 2002, the FDA approved Xyrem (sodium oxybate or gamma hydroxybutyrate, also known as GHB) to treat this condition.
Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep that occurs when relaxed structures in the throat vibrate and make noise. Most snoring is harmless, though it can be a nuisance that interferes with the sleep of others. Some snoring can be stopped with lifestyle changes, particularly losing weight, cutting down on smoking and alcohol, and changing sleeping positions. This generally means keeping snorers off their backs and on their sides as a way to keep the airway more open during sleep. There are over-the-counter nasal strips that are placed over the nose to widen the space in the nose and make breathing easier. Read labels carefully because these strips are only intended to treat snoring. The labels point out certain symptoms that require a doctor's care.
The trick is figuring out the cause of snoring. It could be related to allergies or structural abnormalities such as nasal polyps or enlarged adenoids, which are lymphoid tissue behind the nose.
If your snoring is loud and frequent and you also have excessive daytime sleepiness, you could have sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea tend to also be overweight, and it's more common among men than women.
When a person with sleep apnea tries to breathe in air, it creates suction that collapses the windpipe and blocks the flow of air. Blood oxygen levels fall and the brain awakens the person, who then snorts or gasps for air and then resumes snoring. This cycle is typically repeated many times during the night. It results in frequent awakenings that prevent people from reaching the deepest stages of sleep, which leaves them sleepy during the day.
"In this case, snoring is not just noisy, but could be a silent killer," says Jeffrey Hausfeld, M.D., the author of a book titled Don't Snore Anymore and an associate professor of surgery in the department of otolaryngology at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. "Sleep apnea has been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke," says Hausfeld, whose father suffered from sleep apnea and died of a stroke at age 66.
Hausfeld says that recognizing the signs of sleep apnea in children is a challenge because unlike adults, kids push through daytime sleepiness and keep going. "Sometimes you might see the child struggling to get air or moving around a lot in bed," Hausfeld says. "Rather than being noticeably tired, kids with sleep apnea may do poorly in school."
Doctors use an all-night sleep study to make a definitive diagnosis of sleep apnea. During the test, sensors are attached to the head, face, chest, abdomen, and legs. The sensors transmit data on how many times the person being tested wakes up, as well as changes in breathing and in blood oxygen levels.
Medications generally aren't effective for sleep apnea. There are about 20 FDA-approved devices available by prescription for snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, says Susan Runner, D.D.S., branch chief for dental devices in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "These work for some," she says. "The devices pull the tongue or jaw forward to open the airway." There are no similar over-the-counter devices approved by the FDA. Potential side effects include damage to the teeth and jaw joint.
The most common treatment for sleep apnea is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with a device that pushes air through the airway at sufficient pressure to keep the airway open while sleeping. Radzikowski says using CPAP makes her feel rested during the day. It involves wearing a mask over the nose while sleeping. A blower attached to the mask pushes air through her nasal passages.
Surgery also is an option to treat snoring and sleep apnea. This may include removal of the tonsils or adenoids. To treat snoring, a laser-assisted procedure called uvulopalatoplasty is used to enlarge the airway by reshaping the palate and the uvula, making them less likely to vibrate. For sleep apnea, a laser procedure called uvulopalatopharyngoplasty is used to remove excessive tissue at the back of the throat.
If you're troubled by sleep problems, ask your health-care provider about how your problem should be evaluated and which treatments may be appropriate for you. Experts say it's important to know that you don't have to suffer through sleep problems. Radzikowski says she had never heard of sleep apnea before the car accident that killed her husband.
"I was overweight and I knew I snored loudly. But snoring was like a big joke in our family," she says. "I didn't really take it seriously, and I wish I did."
Michelle Meadows is a staff writer for FDA Consumer.
Tips for Better Sleep
• Keep a regular sleep-wake cycle. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
• Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine in the four to six hours before bedtime.
• Don't exercise within two hours of bedtime. Exercising five or six hours before bedtime may help you sleep more soundly.
• Don't eat large meals within two hours of bedtime.
• Don't nap later than 3 p.m.
• Sleep in a dark, quiet room with a comfortable temperature.
• If you can't fall asleep within 20 minutes, do a quiet activity somewhere else and return to bed when you're sleepy.
• Wind down in the 30 minutes before bedtime with a relaxing pre-sleep ritual such as a warm bath, soft music, or reading.
Sources: American Academy of Sleep Medicine; James Walsh, Ph.D., National Sleep Foundation
Kids and Sleep
When they're infants, it's middle-of-the-night feedings. When they're toddlers and school-age, it's awakening to give medicine or soothe them after a nightmare. It's no surprise that, according to the latest poll from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), more people without kids in the house rated their sleep as "excellent" or "very good," compared to those with children.
Some sleep interruptions come with the territory. But experts say the best thing people can do for themselves and their children is to develop a regular sleep routine and bedtime for youngsters so that they get used to falling asleep on their own. Experts say school-age children generally need 9-12 hours of sleep each night.
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, many childhood sleep problems are related to irregular sleep habits or anxiety about bedtime. Young children view bedtime as a time of separation, which is why they pull out a number of stalling tactics such as repeated requests for water and trips to the bathroom.
Here are some sleep tips for children from NSF:
• Establish positive sleep habits with your child at an early age. Have a set sleep schedule for bedtime and waking. Keep the same schedule for weekdays and weekends. Know how much sleep is appropriate for your child's age.
• Establish a 20-30 minute nightly "calm-down" bedtime routine that can include taking a bath, putting on pajamas, reading, and other relaxing activities. TV viewing at bedtime, especially having a television set in the child's bedroom, may interfere with falling asleep.
Other childhood sleep problems include talking during sleep and bedwetting. Many children get over sleep problems as they grow. But if you have concerns, talk with your child's doctor.
If you think your child may have a sleep problem, ask yourself these five questions (remember them by the acronym "BEARS"):
• Bedtime: Does my child have problems going to bed or falling asleep?
• Excessive daytime sleepiness: Does my child seem sleepy or overtired during the day? Is he or she difficult to get up in the morning?
• Awakenings: Does my child awaken frequently during the night or have trouble getting back to sleep?
• Regularity and duration of sleep: What time does my child go to bed and get up on weekdays? Weekends? How much sleep does he or she get? Need?
• Snoring: Does my child snore loudly? Does he or she seem to have breathing problems at night?
The Stages of Sleep | |
Stage 1: | Light sleep. We drift in and out and can be awakened easily. Our eyes move slowly and muscle activity slows. |
Stage 2: | Our eye movements stop and our brain waves become slower with occasional bursts of rapid waves called sleep spindles. |
Stage 3: | Deep sleep. Extremely slow brain waves called delta waves appear, interspersed with smaller, faster waves. |
Stage 4: | Deep sleep. The brain produces mostly delta waves. There are no eye movements and no muscle activity. |
Stage 5: | REM sleep. Breathing becomes more rapid, irregular, and shallow. Eyes jerk rapidly, limb muscles become temporarily paralyzed. Dreams almost always happen in this stage, but may occur in other sleep stages as well. |
This information has been obtained from FDA and is updated by Life Alert ® frequently.


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The NFL confirmed on Saturday that the matchup is still scheduled for its 4:25 p.m. kickoff Sunday afternoon. Gov. Chris Christie did not address the game during a briefing Saturday, and a spokesman deferred questions about it to the league.
Christie and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke on Friday.
The New York City Marathon, also scheduled for Sunday, has been canceled - although the New York Knicks opened their season on Friday night at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and the Nets were playing Saturday night for the first time in their new arena in Brooklyn.
Given the gas shortage in the state - New Jersey has implemented a rationing program - and the lack of mass transit available, the Giants have urged fans to carpool. In their conversation before the weekend, Goodell was assured by Christie that the game would not divert any major resources from relief efforts.
The league will bring 100 first responders to the game to meet Goodell as well as members of the Giants before kickoff. The home team will also hold a food drive to support those affected by the storm.
"Our thoughts are still with the people who have lost so much during this past week," Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch said in a joint statement Friday. "A football game by comparison is such an insignificant event, but hopefully it will bring some sense of distraction or comfort to those of our fans who have been hurt in any way by this storm."
The Steelers altered their travel plans in light of the situation. Originally scheduled to fly in on Saturday, and stay in Jersey City, N.J., they will instead travel on Sunday morning and return to Pittsburgh right after the game.
"That's nothing compared to what those people have been going through because of the hurricane," Pittsburgh defensive end Brett Keisel said. "Not having power to go to and from work? They're really fighting through it, so this is minor compared to what they're going through."