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China to spend $1b to help battle drought
Updated: 2011-02-10 09:20
By Jin Zhu (China Daily)
2.6 million people suffer shortages of drinking water
BEIJING - The government will spend $1 billion to battle the drought plaguing huge areas in the north, as wheat prices continued their climb and the UN warned of serious consequences for the winter harvest.
The meteorological department of Yichuan county in Luoyang, Henan province, conducts cloud seeding, by firing chemicals, to generate snow on Wednesday to alleviate the severe winter drought. [Photo/China Daily] |
The government will spend at least 6.7 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) to divert water to affected areas, construct emergency wells and irrigation facilities, and take other measures, the State Council, or the Cabinet, said in a statement on Wednesday after an executive meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.
The move was included in a 10-measure package to spur grain production and tackle the persisting drought, which poses a grave threat to wheat production.
The State Council also decided to pay crop-growers higher prices for their produce to offset damage to their yield in the drought-stricken areas.
Wheat is generally grown in the north, while rice is primarily cultivated in the wetter south.
The State Council warned the situation could worsen, saying rainfall across northern China for the foreseeable future would remain "persistently below normal levels and major rivers will continue to be generally dry".
Some 2.57 million people and 2.79 million livestock are suffering from drinking water shortages, official figures showed.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also issued a warning on Tuesday over the impact on the winter wheat crop.
"The ongoing drought is potentially a very serious problem," the Rome-based agency said.
Eight major grain-producing provinces, including Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, have been affected. Together they produce more than 80 percent of China's winter wheat.
The situation in the regions could become critical if temperatures dropped further this month and a spring drought followed the winter one, the FAO said.
By Wednesday, a total of 7.8 million hectares of winter wheat had been affected by the drought in the eight provinces, accounting for 42.4 percent of their total wheat-sown area, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Concerns about the impact of the drought sent wheat prices on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange soaring nearly across the board on Wednesday.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen paid separate visits to stricken areas last week and called for "all-out efforts" to fight the drought.
Footage from CCTV on Wednesday showed withered crops in parched farmland in Shandong, which could suffer its worst drought in 200 years.
Wheat prices in China have also been rising rapidly in the last few months. Average flour prices in the country rose more than 8 percent in January from the previous two months, the FAO said.
"China's grain situation is critical to the rest of the world - if they are forced to go out on the market to procure adequate supplies for their population, it could send huge shockwaves through the world's grain markets," the New York Times quoted Robert S. Zeigler, director- general of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, the Philippines, as saying on Tuesday.
But Chinese agricultural experts believed it is still too early to predict a decrease in the country's wheat output.
"We can still expect a wheat harvest if these regions have sufficient rainfall next month," Lu Bu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told China Daily on Wednesday.
Ear We Go
China and the world set to embrace the merciful, peaceful year of rabbit
Preview of the coming issue
Carrefour finds the going tough in China
Maid to Order
Mysteries written in blood
Historical records and Caucasian features of locals suggest link with Roman Empire.
Winning Charm
Coastal Yantai banks on little things that matter to grow
New rules to hit property market
The State Council launched a new round of measures to rein in property prices.


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Back to the West Coast…
The west coast river mouths are not an easy location to catch a fish. Time of tide is critical but it can be any time during the rise or fall. A weekend over there is simply never enough. Just when I start to get an idea of the right time of the tide to fish and where, it's time to go home again.. Every time I go there I have to start the learning curve again. Time of year, tide, trout food and weather will be very different and most importantly, the mouths themselves change after every flood. All these variables keep it interesting, that's for sure.
Iza and I hit the coast recently. On day 1 of our weekend we fished the hour to high tide, the entire fall of the tide and the turn. I had one little sea-trout and a decent Yellow Eyed Mullet. Iza had a little trout too. I was hoping for that magic hour but it never came. I assured Iza that her soft plastic would be even more lethal than my di7 if we could just find a few fish. She heard my trying to keep her enthusiastic many times before and I think it was wearing a little thin. She fished hard all day none the less!
On day 2 we went to a different river mouth. It was completely different to every other time I'd been there. The sand had shifted to the far side of the lagoon and all the current and depth was on the near side. I looked at it and my first thought was that its not worth fishing. The flowing tide was raging in and it was very coloured. After a coffee I had a better look and started noticing some holding water, the best of which was off the rocks right in front of the truck. I advised Iza to fish into an eye that had formed as the flowing tide passed by a rip-rap groyne. As she made her way down I had a quick cast with her spinning rod (I could not help myself) and immediately hooked a 1lber. I felt guilty for taking Iza's fish but not for too long. Iza got one almost right away, a 4lber, then another, 5.5lbs; then another 4lber; then a 1lber. That was the magic hour! I did not get a single touch for the day and neither did Iza after landing the fourth one..
That's how it goes. On the next visit we'll learn it all again!
By the way, you have 4 weekends to get over there before the place is mobbed with whitebaiters for 6 weeks!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
from New Riders Publishing
in conjunction with the American Institute of Graphic Arts
the original diagram that started it all
translations of the original diagram
the simple planes poster
teaser posters: #1 #2 #3
from the book:
table of contents
chapter 2: meet the elements
What the reviewers are saying:
"a must-have"
"an instant classic"
"a quantum leap in explaining user experience"
"will change the way you think about Web development"
"the best book I have read so far about creating a great user experience"
"there is probably no better book on the market that so clearly and rationally covers the entire area of user experience"
What it says on the cover:
Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goals without a cohesive, consistent user experience to support it.
But creating the user experience can seem overwhelmingly complex. With so many issues involved -- usability, brand identity, information architecture, interaction design -- it can seem as if the only way to build a successful site is to spend a fortune on specialists who understand all the details.
The Elements of User Experience cuts through the complexity of user-centered design for the Web with clear explanations and vivid illustrations that focus on ideas rather than tools or techniques. Jesse James Garrett gives readers the big picture of Web user experience development, from strategy and requirements to information architecture and visual design. This accessible introduction helps any Web development team, large or small, to create a successful user experience.
Advance praise for The Elements of User Experience:
"Finally, a concise explanation of user experience that synthesizes its many disparate parts. Clear-headed, readable, and necessary." -- Louis Rosenfeld, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
"Jesse James Garrett has finally expanded his famous diagram into a book that clarifies the entire jumbled field of user experience design. And because he's a very smart fellow, he's kept it very short so there's a useful insight on almost every page." -- Steve Krug, author of Don't Make Me Think!
"Jesse James Garrett brings incisive clarity to the complex process of providing a high-quality experience to the people who use your Web site. Deconstructing and modeling both the human and conceptual issues, he exposes the essence of a problem usually obscured by thick layers of technical camouflage." -- Alan Cooper, author of About Face and The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
"The Elements of User Experience explains, systematically and simply, perhaps the most important development from the confluence of design, technology and business." -- Richard Grefé, Executive Director, American Institute of Graphic Arts
From the Introduction:
This is not a how-to book. There are many, many books out there that explain how Web sites get made. This is not one of them.
This is not a book about technology. There is not a single line of code to be found between these covers.
This is not a book of answers. Instead, this book is about asking the right questions.
This book will tell you what you need to know before you go read those other books. If you need the big picture, if you need to understand the context for the decisions that user experience practitioners make, this book is for you.
This book is designed to be read easily in just a few hours. If you're a newcomer to the world of user experience -- maybe you're an executive responsible for hiring a user experience team, or maybe you're a writer or designer just finding your way into this field -- this book will give you the foundation you need. If you're already familiar with the methods and concerns of the field of user experience, this book will help you communicate them more effectively to the people you work with.
The obligatory fake FAQ:
How is the book related to the diagram?
In keeping with the spirit of my original diagram (PDF), the book is intended to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the field.
One way to look at it is that the diagram is an abstract; the book is the full thesis. The book unravels the diagram's secrets, exploring the underlying ideas that I simply couldn't fit on a single sheet of paper. Also, the book allows for a deeper examination of the various elements in the diagram -- each element gets a whole section, not just a sentence.
Who is the book for?
Hopefully, just about everyone. The book's approach makes it accessible enough that a project sponsor could read it over the weekend and be able to discuss issues with the team on Monday. The structure of the book makes it an ideal introduction to the field for students or entry-level practitioners. And I hope that the book will provide experienced practitioners with some new ways of thinking about the work they've been doing.
Will the book tell me how to design a Web site?
Not really. The book will definitely explain how the elements inform the development of a process, but if you're looking for a book about the process itself, this isn't it.
Will the book cover any user experience issues not related to Web development?
Only in passing. The book's focus is the Web; user experience issues that could come up in developing other kinds of products are mentioned, but only to make a point about the Web.
Is the book illustrated?
Yes. I did a few dozen new illustrations for the book.


text:
Have your auto or homeowner insurance rates been creeping up? If so, you may have been "POed" by your auto insurer. According to new information from the Consumer Federation of America, some insurance companies are secretly "price optimizing" customers; charging them a higher rate for no other reason than they think the customer won't shop around for a better deal.
"Price optimization is a data mining tool used by insurers to charge higher premiums to those consumers least likely to shop for a new policy in the face of a rate increase," says CFA.
How do they know whether you are likely to shop around? For now at least, that information isn't public. "I don't know what's in the black box," says Bob Hunter, CFA's Director of Insurance. But he notes that insurance companies typically can review credit report data, information provided on applications, and a host of other data available from third-party sources about current and prospective customers.
As an actuary, Hunter says he first heard of this practice when he participated in an industry webinar touting the benefits to insurers of pricing policies this way. He subsequently reviewed industry information that indicated this is not an isolated practice among just a few insurers. When insurers do use a price optimization tool, "if you are in a group that shops less, you are going to pay more," he says.
CFA and other consumer groups are asking regulators to stop insurance companies from using price optimization techniques when setting rates and premiums.
Julia Angwin, whose book Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance, revealed the myriad ways companies track consumer information and use it to increase profits, sees this as one example of the way our own information can be used to get us to pay more. "People are worried about the NSA but all the ingredients are there for…charging the prices consumers can bear," she says.
What Does This Mean for You?
Contact us for a quote today. We guarantee you great insurance at the right price.
Read More: Source


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Got BASQUE?
Eguberri eta Urte Berri On! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo! Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année
What we have been asked to share with others
Our federation receives various notices and they are posted here in topical order and remain for at least a month. Inclusion here does not imply that N.A.B.O. approves or vouches for the following, but we wanted to make this information available. Related links: Basque News Sources | Educational Offerings | Hosting inquiries | Entertainers/Athletic offerings | Summer Basque Festival Dates | Astero updates
Entertainment offerings
June-July 2010 Concert offering. An Andoni Aguirre & Kristi Gjezi tour is scheduled to take place in June and July of 2010. As well as the concert, they also hope to organize a master class in music for young people. The project that they have been working on is particularly good and has helped us gain the support of Pantxoa Etchegoin, who is head of the Basque Institute of Bayonne, and who has kindly offered to financially support the tour, helping with costs for travel to, from and within America. Here are some links for the artist's music: Andoni Aguirre http://www.myspace.com/andopiano999 Kristi Gjezi - http://www.kristi-gjezi.com For more information contact firstname.lastname@example.com (posted 10/15/2009) TREBESKA DANCE GROUP EXCHANGE OFFER. This dance group of sixty people from Donostia, Gipuzkoa is interested in a possible exchange with a dance group from here. Click on www.euskalnet.net/trebeska and http://trebeska.blogspot.com For more information email email@example.com (Posted 10/21/2009)
Basque Country travel/learning opportunities
LEARN BASQUE WITH A BASQUE FAMILY. We are a Basque family from Busturia in Bizkaia. For many years we have hosted Basque students from all over the world who have came to our house to learn Basque. They usually attend the euskaltegi in Gernika in the mornings. We would like to host a North American person interested in learning Basque during the year because in the summer we usually host the students that have a high level of Basque that are part of the program "Euskal familiekin egonaldiak"organized by HABE. We are musicians and play actors. Ama Rosa is a teacher of Basque language. The aita Doro is a musician and actor and he used to teach Basque too. The two daughters are Andere (actress) and Maialen (musician). We have a dog and we love people from all over the world. We can negotiate the price of the stay. In order to get in touch with us write us an email to: email@example.com ZUBEROA HOUSE. Etxe haundi bat sekatzen duzue oporretako lagun artean, familiarekin edo besta baten dako. Badugu hori zuretako.Laster izazue etxea ikusteko. View at www.gite-de-charme-pays-basque.com and contact R. Lascaray at firstname.lastname@example.com (posted 10/15/2009) SAN FERMIN LODGING. I've got 8 apartments, for 6-8 people each, that cost between 450 and 600 € per night. I´ve got balconies too! Contact Mónica D. at email@example.com (posted 11/4/2009)
Educational / Basque books & media
INTERNSHIP WITH BASQUE GOVERNMENT DELEGATION. Six scholarships are being offered, one for an American, to serve as an intern with the New York City delegation of the Basque Government. It is for youth (under 30). To find out more go to http://www.euskalkultura.com/noticias/el-gobierno-vasco-convoca-seis-becas-para-mexico-argentina-chile-colombia-eeuu-y-vitoria-gasteiz (and use googletranslatecom if necessary) Note the deadline is Dec. 28, 2009 ATXAGA BOOK IN ENGLISH. The Center for Basque Studies is now featuring on their website the new book by noted Basque author Bernardo Atxaga. Two Basque Stories, (translated into English by Nere Lete; illustrations by Antton Olariaga) includes "Two Letters All at Once" and "When a Snake Stares at a Bird." Click on http://basque.unr.edu/ (posted 11/4/2009)
SAN FRANCISCO BASQUE HISTORY BOOK. The Center for Basque Studies just published Pedro Oiarzabal's new book Gardeners of Identity: Basques in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information click on http://www.eitb.com/en/basques-in-boise/detail/283639/history-of-the-basques-of-san-francisco-topic-for-new-book/ (posted 11/4/2009)
BASQUE STONE CARVER. There is a stone carver willing to offer his serves to the Basque diaspora, by creating a stone work. Contact Régis Pochelu at http://edergile.free.fr (posted 11/4/2009)
See also N.A.B.O. Educational Offerings
Inquiries | Contest announcements
REMEMBERING GERNIKA BOMBING. There is a study at the University of Cambridge, England examining what kinds of transmission of memory were taking place amongst the Basque diaspora regarding the bombing of Gernika. Do you have any information from your local community about either public commemorative events or simply reflections on the ways in which the memory of the event has been transmitted unofficially through family customs etc. Contact Daniel Clarke at firstname.lastname@example.com (posted 11/4/2009)
Recreate + Educate = Perpetuate
naBASQUE.org is the website of the North American Basque Organizations, Inc. (N.A.B.O.) a federation of organizations for the promotion of Basque culture. Helping to make this website possible is the Basque Autonomous Government of Euskadi. Please send inquiries to email@example.com For links to all our pages on this website click on SITEMAP


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It has been raining steadily for 4 days. There is so much moisture that clouds form down in the trees. I had heard of that in fairytales, but I've never seen it for real. It is really pretty!
When the sky is solid clouds and it is raining steadily, they call it "stratiform". Since the scientists are not very interested in that kind of weather for this project, we stopped taking DOW measurements once the stratiform rain set in, which was around noon on Tuesday. The forecasters were hoping that there would be "enhancements", places where the storms get stronger, imbedded in the stratiform clouds. It turns out the conditions weren't quite right. We had left the DOW's at the site in France, where I wrote my last postcard, thinking we would be back in the morning, so we had to drive down and get them and bring them back to Gengenbach. Just driving to get them and coming back took about 4 hours!
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text:
Water Technology
Dike building was not new when the Mennonites arrived in the Vistula Delta of West Prussia. The Teutonic Knights had built a circular dike around 1320. But the system had decayed under Polish rule after the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). When the Anabaptist refugees arrived in the 16th century those dikes along the Vistula and Nogat existed, but the lower parts lacked drainage, because they lay one and one-half to two meters below sea level. The Dutch refugees erected a dike several miles long east of this old dam towards the Frische Haff and dug a network of ditches through which the excess water was pumped up into the Linau, Tiege, and Jungfersche Lake, which drained into the Haff. Mennonites imported new wind-propelled watermills, using a winding staircase to pump the water into those rivers.
In the same fashion they drained the Drausensee (west of Elbing and the Ellerwald swamps). Mennonites owned river boats ("Mennoniten Kähne" in the centuries that followed. They were well-suited to transport dirt for dike building. Since the dikes had to be inspected annually, Mennonites were often chosen as "Deichhauptmann" (dike inspector). Gustav Fieguth (Kunzendorf) and Hermann Froese (Klakendorf) were dike inspectors in 1936. The same year, Gustav Zimmermann (Tiegenhof) is mentioned as captain of a ship. Others worked for the Schichau shipyards in Elbing and Danzig. The book by Hermann Thiessen and Bartholomäus Tiessen, 300 Jahre Familientradition (Burgdorf 1986), lists a number of Mennonites and descendants who were involved with ships.
In 1740 about 300 Mennonites under King Friedrich II of Prussia moved to Labiau, east of Königsberg and received land in the "Elbings-Kolonie" (East Prussia), which had been started in 1728. The group did some draining of land, but could not make a fair living, so they left before 1748. An old dike was still called "Mennoniten-damm" in 1921.
Mennonites in the 17th century Netherlands played an important part in the whaling industry, especially those from the strict Mennonite traditions who wouldn't sail in ships to the Dutch East Indies because those ships carried arms. Mennonites involved in whaling included men from Ameland and the Zaanstreek (Dirk Hiddes Kat, Dagboek, Haarlern 1818; C. P. Sorghdrager, Memorie-boek: De wereld van C. P. Sorghdrager 1779-1824, Ameland, n.d.; S. Lootsma, Nederlandse walvisvaart, meer speciaal de zaanse, Wormerveer, 1937).
From the beginning Mennonites were interested in fighting Holland's number one foe, water. They were members of the boards of polders, and they were builders of mills. Well known were Jan Andrieszoon (Leeghwater) and Pieter Pieters (M. A Verkade, Den derden Dach: ontstaan en ontwikkeling van de Polder Westzaan, Wormerveer, 1982; J. G. de Roever, Jan Adriaenszoon Leeghwater, Amsterdam, 1944; S. Groenveld and others, Wederdopers, menisten en doopsgezinden, Zutphen 1981).
In the early 20th century Cornelis Lely (1854-1929), a minister in several government cabinets, improved the Noordzee Canal and planned the reclaiming of the Zuiderzee. (K. Jansma, Lely de bewinger van de Zuiderzee, [Amsterdam, 1948]). In all cities of the Netherlands Mennonites were shipowners, the best known being members of the van Eeghen family. (J. Rogge, Het handelshuis van Eeghen, Amsterdam 1949; S. Groenveld, Wederdopers).
Mennonites of Hamburg-Altona were, from the 17th century onward, leading shipowners, shipbuilders, and traders along sea routes. A Mennonite was the first to send a ship to Archangel, Russia. The leading family in Hamburg-Altona was descended from the Mennonite deacon Paul Roosen (1582-1649). His son, Gerrit (1612-1711) traveled to Russia to buy moose hides. His grandson Berend I (1705-1788) became the most outstanding Mennonite shipowner trading in ports such as Amsterdam, Bordeaux, and London. He built his own ships at his shipyards at Reiherstieg, which he inherited from his father-in-law Lucas Kramer. He owned 20 ships. One got lost with one million marks worth of linen, wax, and manufactured goods. In 1673, of the 53 ships in Hamburg's Greenland whaling industry, 46 were owned by Mennonites. The trade was so good that in 1674 the first Mennonite church in Hamburg was built and financed by a contribution of 5 percent of the proceeds of the whaling industry for one year. Emil Greve of Hamburg was from around 1900 on, owner of a port business and had in his possession tugs and barges.
Three Mennonite families who had lived under oppressive Polish noblemen in Jesiorka and 35 other families who had lived under the jurisdiction of Anton von Wipschinsky near Danzig came to the Netzebruch, a swampy area near Driesen and founded the colonies Brenkenhoffswalde, Franzthal, and Neu-Dessau. In the "Kiewitzwinkel" and a section of pasture belonging to the village of Trebitsch, which had not been used for ages, they brought the land, after draining it, into an arable condition. Here they could settle fourteen families, each having lots of 10-15 hectares (25-37 acres). They drained the Carleische Hütung and the "Elsenbruch" (Rudolf März-Vorbruch, "Neues von den Mennoniten im Netzebruch," Heimatkalender, Friedeberg, 1929, 19-26; "Franz Balthasar Schönberg von Brenkenhoff," Heimatkalender, Friedeberg, 1929, 39-43).
The Mennonitisches Adressbuch 1936 mentions under Hamburg, Fritz and Knut Claassen of Wedel as shipbuilders, and retired Admiral Siegfried Claassen (1884-1951) an elder in the Hamburg church. At the beginning of World War II he was chairman of the prize court of the German Navy in Hamburg. Walter Greve and Kurt Greve, father and uncle of present (1987) church councillor, Helmut Greve, spent a few years as wholesale traders in Paris, London, and Bangkok and as such had many connections with the shipping industry. Helmut got his practical experience with the Stülchen and Son Shipyards (Blohm and Voss).
The above-mentioned Adressbuch of 1936 mentions under Emden a seaport in northwest Germany, a number of Mennonite shipbuilders, shipowners, the widow of a navy officer, and Willem Mennen, "merchant and shipowner." The widow of Admiral Breusing, Martha, nee Brons, lived in Berlin. The father of the famous reformer of Mennonite agriculture in the Ukraine, Johann Cornies, had been a sailor prior to his moving to Russia. He likely learned to be a self-trained doctor while on merchant ships traveling to Lisbon in 1755 and India. Thus he could treat his native neighbors in the steppe of the Ukraine and make them friends.
The Kuban settlement in Russia, which was begun in 1867, had difficulties finding good drinking water. Spring water was of low quality. The village Wohldemfürst had to draw water from the Kuban River. Only after wealth increased and straw-thatched roofs could be replaced by tile and sheet metal, could rain water be piped into cisterns for household usage. (Die Kubaner Siedlung, Historische Schriftenreihe des Echo-Verlags, 9, Steinbach, Manitoba, 1953). When Mennonites settled in Crimea they also had water problems. In Toultschak they built a water system for the village in the 1890s. In Saribasch the water was not sufficient although the well was 80 meters deep. They built a reserve well, but sold the village in the 1890s to Lutheran Christians. In the village of Spat they found good water at the River Salquier. (Martin Durksen, Die Krim war unsere Heimat, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1980, pp. 26-30.) The artist Ernst Dyck, displaced by the events of World War II, was employed in Leninpol, Kirgizia, to construct irrigation systems at the River Talos in order to make the cultivation of cotton, apples, and grapes possible.
In Bavaria, Duke Maximilian Josef (King of Bavaria after 1805) invited Mennonites to settle, in part because they could drain the "Donaumoos" area near Neuburg on the Danube, where they established the settlement of Maxweiler (1802ff). However, they left after 1852 in order to avoid military training, for Lee County, Iowa. After World War II Mennonites of the Kohlhof congregation in the Palatinate used irrigation water to raise vegetables.
Mennonites were often busy operating water-propelled mills. Johannes Wohlgemuth (1720-1798) received an Erbbestandsbrief (hereditary contract) in 1755 from Carl, Prince of Nassau, to operate a regular mill and an oil mill in Albisheim/Pfrimm near Kirchheimbolanden. The mill was in the same family for seven generations. The Brubacher family operated the Obere Schmelzmühle in the same village. (Ludwig Wasem, 1150 Jahre Albisheim, 835-1985, Kirchheimbolanden, 1985, 87-88).
The book by Friedrich Wilhelm Weber, Die Geschichte der Mühlen und des Müllerhandwerks der Pfalz, (Otterbach 1978), mentions more than 20 families with Mennonite names who operated various watermills after the Thirty Years War (1618-48). The Brubacher family had the tanning mill in Albisheim (1843-1916). In the paper mill of Altleiningen the Göbel, Eymann, and Hertzler families were involved in the 19th century. Joseph Hauter ground limestone in Zweibrücken in 1791. It is very likely that Mennonites brought the idea of "limeing" to Pennsylvania. According to Mennonitisches Adressbuch 1936, the following Mennonite families had mills: Heinrich Reidiger, "Strohbrücker Mill"; Heinrich Guth, "Bärbrunnermühle"; Schertz, "Bettinger Mühle"; Heinrich and Adolf Hauter, Kirschbachermühle; Emil Hauter, "Eichelsbachermühle"; Adolf Eyer, "Faustermühle; Jakob Hauter, "Grosssteinhausermühle; Otto Schertz, "Haustadtermühle; Emil Eyer, "Rosselmühle; Joseph Schertz, "Schartermühle; Joseph Guth family, "Stampermühle/Giessen" and Adolf Guth, the "Stampermühle." All of them belonged to the Ixheim (Amish) or Ernstweiler (Mennonite) congregations, united in 1937 into the Zweibrücken congregation.
The "Schlossmühle" of Altleiningen was in the hands of Krehbiel, Johannes Ummel and later Heinrich Krehbiel (1700-1750) had the "Wartenberg Mill." The "Winnweiler Mill" was run by Jakob Würtz. He later had the "Untermühle" in St. Alban near Rockenhausen. Before 1870 he migrated to New York and worked there in a big mill. Christian Eichelberger (1772-1830) had the "Neumühle" near Sembach after 1811. The family had it for over 100 years until ca. 1916. The "Untere Mühle" near Enkenbach (now a retirement home for the Protestant Church) was run by the Krehbiel and Würtz families in the 19th century. The "Diemerstein Mill" was in the hands of the Engel, Eymann, and Goebel families in the 18th and 19th centuries. The owners of the "Weissmühle" near Eisenberg left for America about 1830-40. Practically all Mennonite families quit the milling business before or soon after World War II when legislation favored bigger mills. However, some like in Lauterborn (Luxembourg) and Hornbach (Reidiger-Hauter) are using the water turbine to generate electricity. Many more examples of Mennonites involved in water-driven milling businesses could be cited.
In Alsace Pilgram Marpeck greatly aided the city of Strasbourg by suggesting that wood should be cut in the Black Forest and Vosges Mountains and brought by river to Strasbourg. Even in 1600 this wood was called "Pilgerholz" after Pilgram Marpeck. In the Markirchen Valley the Anabaptists cultivated unused ground and at the ends of their fields they excavated a ditch that could be used as drainage. They also irrigated the pastures with a special type of equipment. When Peter Hege came in 1912 from Branchweilerhof to Schafbusch near Wissemberg, Alsace, he put drainage pipes 1,20 m (about 4 ft.) deep into parallel ditches, 12 m (40 ft.) apart. Gilles Pelsy developed a perfectly working drainage machine and is now (1987) receiving orders for it from all over France. At the same time Paul Oesch of Toul (Lorraine) was draining a sizeable piece of land. In the Colmar and Neuf-Brisach area of Alsace which has rainfall of only 500-600 mm (19-23 inches) per year, Mennonites together with other neighbors installed after World War II an irrigation system that raised the grain production. The Bon Homme Hutterite Bruderhof in South Dakota used irrigation water from the Gavis Point Dam of the Lewis and Clark Lake since the 1960s and has certain water rights. In a similar way the Hutterite colonies of Reardan, Espinola, and Warden, west of Spokane, Washington, use large irrigation rigs and raise fantastic crops of barley, alfalfa, and seed potatoes. Mennonites in the north central and northwestern states of the United States frequently depend on irrigation systems to farm otherwise nonarable lands.
European Mennonite Evangelism Committee and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers have supervised well-digging operations in Chad, Burkina Faso and other areas of the Sahel region since 1964. In Chad the wells were combined with desert-adapted techniques for planting trees (developed in Israel) and simple pumps. In Indonesia, MCC helped build dams to irrigate rice fields during dry periods (1971-77).
In 1985 MCC workers and local laborers in southern Bangladesh installed up to 40 tube wells a day and cleaned a number of flooded pukurs, normally used for fresh water wells, which had been filled by salt water during the flood, caused by a cyclone.
When the first Mennonites arrived in the Gran Chaco, Paraguay in 1926-27, their biggest problem was the lack of drinking water. In some villages they found no potable water at all. In Gnadenheim they dug 20 wells before finding one with good water. From these bad experiences the Mennonites learned better methods of well-digging, e.g., using sheet-iron to buttress walls against the sandy soil. In Filadelfia they did not have enough water for the settlers, soldiers, and the newly installed steam engine. So in 1932 they built a reservoir on the "Wasserkamp." In 1986 each Mennonite family had its own cistern with plenty of good water.
In Brazil the situation was better. When Mennonites arrived in 1930 they found many creeks and rivers, and the elevated land around Witmarsum, Paraná State, had many springs. These were improved and houses connected with pipes. Later artesian wells and a central water system was built.
Baume-Kloeppel, Bertram La. Das Weichsel-Nogat-Delta. Danzig, 1924.
Carstenn, Edward. Geschichte der Hansestadt Elbing. Elbing 1937.
Gerlach, Horst. Bildband zur Geschichte der Mennoniten, Uelzen, 1980: 160-62.
Gerlach, Horst. "Johann Cornies: ein Westpreuße reformiert die russische Landwirtschaft." Westpreussiches Jahrbuch (1975): 137-44.
Klassen, Peter P. Kaputi Mennonita. 2nd. ed. Filadelfia, 1976.
Schepansky, Ernst W. "Mennoniten in Hamburg and Altona zur Zeit des Merkantilismus." Mennonitische Geschblätter, 54-73.
Schowalter, Otto. "Kulturleistungen der Hamburger Mennoniten." Mennonitische Geschblätter 3 (December 1938): 33-48.
Séguy, Jean. Les Assemblées anabaptistes-mennonites de France. The Hague: Mouton, 1977: 491-97.
Szymanski, Hans. Brandenburg-Preußen zur See. Berlin, 1938.
Wasen, Ludwig. 1150 Jahre Albisheirn, 835-1985. Kirchheimbolanden, 1985: 87-88.
Wiens, Ed. "New Method Taps Wells in Bangladesh." Mennonite Weekly Review (11 July 1985): 6.
Wiens, Peter and Peter Klassen, Jubiläumsschrift zum 25 jährigen Bestehen der Kolonie Fernheim. Chaco, Paraguay, and Winnipeg, 1955.
Yoder, Samuel A. Middle East Sojourn. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 169-70.
Author(s) | Horst Gerlach |
Date Published | 1989 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Gerlach, Horst. "Water Technology." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989. Web. 21 Feb 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Water_Technology&oldid=135124.
APA style
Gerlach, Horst. (1989). Water Technology. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 21 February 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Water_Technology&oldid=135124.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, pp. 921-923. All rights reserved.
©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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Afghanistan Meltdown Continues
As we get closer to the NATO summit next week in Chicago, the meltdown of Afghanistan continues. It is clear that the intent of the Obama administration is to maintain the stance that the surge of US troops into the country over the past two years has stabilized the situation and that developments are on pace for a complete handoff of security to Afghan forces and full NATO withdrawal by the end of 2014. Any deviation from this script could trigger a Congressional review of strategy for Afghanistan just when the campaign season is heating up for the November election. Such a review, the Obama administration fears, would be fodder for accusations that their strategy in Afghanistan has failed.
The news today is not good for maintaining the "success" point of view. Yesterday, yet another member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council was gunned down in Kabul. This morning, a bomb placed on a bicycle killed nine people in what Reuters described as "the relatively peaceful Faryab province of northern Afghanistan". A provincial council member was among those killed. Reuters also reminds us this morning that there are over 500,000 refugees displaced within Afghanistan. Furthermore, at the mid-point of the surge, that total increased by 100,000 during the first half of 2011. The situation has not improved, as 400 more people are displaced daily.
"Isolated events" of green on blue killings appear to be picking up in pace. One American was killed on Friday in Kunar province and two British soldiers were killed on Saturday in Helmand province. These attacks bring the total to 16 isolated incidents for the year. The Department of Defense is now moving closer to adapting the language of the clumsily and retroactively classified report "A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility" (pdf), now saying ""We believe, again, that most of these [attacks] are acted out as an act of honor for most of them representing a grievance of some sort." Rather than acknowledging that the grievances arise out of cultural insensitivities displayed by NATO forces, however, DoD is offering the grievance explanation as a way of saying the attacks do not stem from Taliban infiltration (although the release does mention that "less than half" of the attacks have such an influence).
Interestingly, it appears that there is another publication that can shed some light on internal DoD analyses of green on blue attacks. Conservative blogger Bob McCarty is on the trail of a publication titled "Inside the Wire Threats — Afghanistan". He is about a month into an FOIA fight to get a copy of the publication from the Army.
There are two recent stories on Afghanistan that are not entirely bad news. AP has a story this morning from an interview with Agha Jan Motasim, who sits on the Taliban council. They quote Motasim: "I can tell you, though, that the majority of the Taliban and the Taliban leadership want a broad-based government for all Afghan people and an Islamic system like other Islamic countries." Motasim tells AP that only a few hard-liners are responsible for the violence carried out by the Taliban. On Friday, the Washington Post informed us that on "more than a dozen" occasions since control of night raids was handed over to Afghanistan, Afghan commanders have refused to act, citing a concern for innocent civilians who would be nearby. It appears that there might actually be a healthy process working in this case:
"In the last two months, 14 to 16 [night] operations have been rejected by the Afghans," said Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, the top Afghan army officer. "The U.S. has said, 'This operation better be conducted. It's a high-value target.' Then my people said, 'It's a high-value target. I agree with you. But there are so many civilian children and women [in the area].' "
Many of the rejected night operations are later conducted once civilians are no longer in the vicinity of the targets, Karimi said.
What a concept: waiting until no civilians are present to carry out a raid that is likely to be violent. Why couldn't US forces have come up with that idea on their own?


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Pagan Paths
Hellenismos, otherwise known as Greek Reconstructionist Paganism, is the traditional, polytheistic religion of ancient Greece, reconstructed in and adapted to the modern world. It's a vibrant religion which can draw on a surprising amount of ancient sources. Baring the Aegis blogger Elani Temperance blogs about her experiences within this Tradition.
Taboos in ancient Hellas
Society is an ever-chancing construct, influenced by the people living (in) it and changing those people in return. What was socially acceptable as little as ten years ago, may not be socially acceptable today. Smoking in public spaces, for example. Imagine going back hundreds of years to a society much unlike our own. Most of what we do today would have been taboo then, and much of what was daily practice then, is taboo today. This post will serve to highlight some of these taboos, from both sides of the coin. Please, remember this post is all in good fun; some of these practices may seem barbaric, but that's your culture speaking. For the ancient Hellens, it was absolutely normal: it was their culture and no modern Hellenic would try to bring back practices which are now against the law.
On to the taboos!
Animal sacrifice: at this point, even I realize I talk about animal sacrifice too much, so I'll just leave you with a few sentences on it, and a link to more information about the practice in ancient Hellas and modern Hellenic Reconstruction. Animal sacrifice is a controversial practice these days, although many religions, even within Paganism, practice it. Back in ancient Hellas, it was a very common practice. While I have never been to a ritual which included the sacrifice of an animal, I am not morally opposed to it in a religious setting where it makes sense and when it is done in a way that is quick and painless for the animal.
Pederasty (παιδεραστία): pederasty was a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male and a younger male usually in his teens, and was practiced mostly in the Archaic and Classical ages of Hellenic history. The courtship of the younger male (although the age difference could be neglectable in some cases) started with a ritual abduction of the younger male. The older male selected a youth and enlisted the chosen one's friends to help him, and carried off the object of his affections to his andreion, a sort of men's club or meeting hall. The whole group spent one or two months out in the countryside where they feasted, hunted and simply spent time together, enjoying life.
The next step in the process was to court the youth with gifts. Three gifts were traditional: military attire, an ox, and a drinking cup, but the youth most certainly received more expensive gifts. When the youth returned to the city, the ox was sacrificed to Zeus and and the youth and his friends feasted. The young man also received special clothing that in adult life marked him as kleinos, 'famous, renowned.' The young man was called a parastatheis, 'he who stands beside', and served as cup bearer for the older male, the philetor, during meals in the andreion. Remind you of someone? Sex was part of this relationship, although the younger male rarely carried any love for the older male. Semen was said to transfer wisdom, so this is why younger boys accepted the practice. The rise in status also helped. There was a female version of this practice, but it's much less documented.
Homosexuality: although the practice of pederasty is often interpreted as a 'homosexual practice', no ancient Greek in their right mind would see it as such. If they had known the term 'bisexual', they would not have used it. Marriage was to someone of the opposite gender. You were heterosexual. Period. While members of both sexes may have shared their beds with someone of the same gender, this had nothing to do with the way they identified on the Kinsey scale. In ancient Hellas, what mattered was the role you played in bed. The males, especially when older or higher up in the hierarchy, were supposed to be the dominant ones, the active ones, while the women, the young and those lower in the hierarchy, the passive ones. Because of the age difference and the difference in social standing, the young male assuming a passive role was permitted in pederasty, but a grown man assuming that role was a social and sexual taboo. A wife who took charge in the bedroom would have been frowned upon as well. Especially within the marriage, sex served to make babies, nothing more. Prostitutes and concubines were still supposed to assume a passive, female, role, but I am willing to bet there were some exceptions to that rule.
Adultery: although it's not exactly cheered on in modern times, both partners tend to walk away with emotional and financial pain only. In ancient Greece, the punishment was a tad more severe. If a married woman had intercourse with a man other than her husband, she could be killed. Another option was to divorce. she was then sent back to her father. If he rejected her (and he usually did), she was left to fend for herself, which often led to a life of slavery. The man she cheated with was often worse off. He was also liable to get killed, especially if caught in the act, because the husband had the right to kill him, without getting punished for it. There is another reported punishment for a man who slept with a free woman who was married: rhaphanidosis. Rhaphanidosis is the act of inserting the root of a horseradish into the anus. A mulletfish could also be inserted. The act of rhaphanidosis is part of the comic play 'Nephelai' (Νεφέλαι) of Aristophanes, but no one knows for sure if the punishment was ever really applied.
It makes sense that the male involved with the adultery was more severely punished than the woman; birth control was available in ancient Hellas, but rarely applied. To bring an illegitimate child into the oikos was a terrible offense, and one for which the male was blamed. Needless to say, the husband was free to find pleasure with any woman who was not married. Prostitution was common, and men tended to have concubines. Some even lived at the house. Demosthenes, a Hellenic writer from ancient Athens, was recorded as saying: 'we have courtesans for pleasure, concubines to provide for our daily needs, and our spouses to give us legitimate children and to be the faithful guardians of our homes'.
Slavery: I have already written about slavery in ancient Hellas, so let me copy/paste the basics and direct you to the post for further reading. A Greek slave was called a doûlos (δούλος), which would translate best as a 'servant' or 'serf'. In ancient Greece, doûlos were the working class. They were teachers, farmers, shop owners, herders, doctors, city militia, cleaners, etc. Because many performed a public service, they had a house of their own as well as a salary. Household serfs were called oikétês (οἰκέτης). The female head of the household was charged with teaching--and keeping order amongst--the household serfs. Slavery as it is known today is a lot different than slavery in ancient Hellas. In fact, if I had the money, I could still hire a nanny for my children, a gardner for my garden, a cook for my supper and farmers to tend to my farm. All could come to live at my house if it was big enough. The only difference is that I do not have to buy these people, nor would I own them.
Nudity: the ancient Hellens were very proud of their bodies. Both men and women worked hard to retain or attain beauty. The men were warriors and athletes, women could be athletes as well. Both had the highest beauty ideals one could ever look to live up to: the Theoi themselves. Men went to school at a gymnasium. A large part of the curriculum consisted of sports, and these were practiced in the nude. Most often, the young men didn't dress again for the lectures on mathematics, astronomy and other sciences that were taught afterwards; the climate didn't require it, nor did society. Even women were fully or partially naked when practicing sports. Nudity--especially for men--was completely normal in ancient Hellas. When they felt the urge to dance, make music or practice sports, they threw off the loosely draped cloth they wore as clothing and went for it. Measuring how free women were with their nudity is more difficult as ancient Hellenic women rarely left the house, except for religious festivals. It is recorded, however, that nudity during festivals happened quite often. Although there were undoubtedly situations in which nudity was frowned upon, public nudity was very much an accepted practice.
Minor taboos: although these were not minor back in the day, to write an entire paragraph on each would make this post entirely too long. Fallatio was a big taboo in ancient Hellas. It was performed, on occasion, but the young boy, prostitute or lover would always refuse to do it, get beaten about some, and then surrender. To just perform the act was shaming for both, so the ritual needed to be included. A man never made his wife perform the act. Sex before marriage was also frowned upon. Eating meat from domesticated animals and drinking milk was also taboo. Eating meat from an animal which was not sacrificed to the Gods was also not done. Not performing the proper rituals to purify yourself for the Gods was also a big taboo.
There were a lot of other taboos in ancient Hellas, but since many of these prevail to this day, I have not listed them. Incest is one that comes to mind. Taboos say a lot about a culture and the people in it. The boundaries of what is, and what is not, socially accepted bind people together. They also give clues about Hellenic Reconstruction. I have said before that reconstruction separates religion from culture, but when reconstructing a religion where religion defined the culture, one is invariably bound to it by some extend. While pederasty was a big thing in ancient Hellas, no one is saying we need to bring it back today. There are laws against it, and those are justly in place. Yet, taking a second look at our bodies--especially in this age of prudishness, distorted body images and obesity--and our reaction to it, may not be such a bad thing.
This was a small sampling of ancient Hellenic taboos and modern practices which would have shocked the ancient Hellens. I hope it was a source of information and amusement. Take from it what you will, and--perhaps--take a look at our modern taboos and practices to say what it says about our culture and society. Which taboos and practices will future humans frown, laugh or gawk at? What will we change or leave behind... and what will--and should--we hold on to as long as possible?
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Am I ready & without rubbing my clitoris, will it even feel good if I am?
Heather Corinna replies:I have been with my boyfriend for about three months and I am not sure if I'm ready to have sex. How do you really know if you're ready? We have talked about sex before and he wants to do it but I'm just not sure if I want to or not. We have done other things and have also talked about those and if it felt good for us. It was just a little bit awkward talking about it with him at first, then I got more comfortable. He's not pressuring me into doing it, I just want to make sure I'm absolutely ready because I don't want to regret it. There is another question I would like to ask. If you have been masturbating for quite some time (by rubbing my clit), and I mean a long time, will I only be able to get pleasure from rubbing or will having sex feel good too? I have read somewhere that you can get used to one thing and only be able to feel pleasure from it. My boyfriend has fingered me, it hurt a little at first but then it didn't. It's not that I hated it, but I also didn't get pleasure from it. I'm scared that I won't be able to get pleasure from anything else other than rubbing. Please help.
Madison: I'd suggest you start by taking a look at our sex readiness checklist which I've linked at the bottom of my response to you here. It's a really excellent tool for getting a good overview of all the aspects of sexual readiness.
Now, a lot of people who are ready may still not check off ALL of those items, and with some of them, that's okay. The trick is to look at if you've got most of them accounted for. If you do, you're probably in a good space to be sexually active.
But hinging on ALL of that is the barest basic, which is you FEELING ready, and feeling sure that you're ready. If you feel uncertain that you're ready overall, or that you're ready for what you're doing now, but not for intercourse, then there's just no reason to rush in. Any type of sex really always keeps, and any type of sex is pretty much always physically, emotionally and interpersonally better when the people involved both absolutely want to be doing what they're doing, are and feel ready to deal with all the pros and cons, and have a very strong desire to be doing what they're doing.
I hear you saying that you're just getting to the point where you're comfortable with whatever sex activities you're doing now, but not so sure about adding more to the mix. So, why not stick with what you've got going on that does feel good, and which you do feel okay with for right now, and giving intercourse or whatever else you're considering a little more time?
In terms of what you're asking about clitoral stimulation and vaginal intercourse, all of us are capable of feeling a myriad of kinds of pleasure. If I really enjoy tomatoes, and eat nothing but tomatoes for a while, that won't change me in some way where I no longer can enjoy carrots. Same things goes for pleasure and your body. The fact that I really enjoy oral sex doesn't mean I don't also still really enjoy a good makeout session, and the fact that someone really enjoys manual sex doesn't mean they can't also enjoy oral sex just as much.
Certainly, it's important to understand that vaginal intercourse all by itself isn't super-duper amazing for a majority of people with vaginas, period. But that isn't because those women got so into their clitorses that they can't feel pleasure from anything else. Rather, that's because unlike the clitoris -- which has more sensory nerve endings in the whole of it than any other part of the genitals -- the vaginal canal doesn't compare. Not only is it far less sensitive (and after the first couple inches, it's practically not sensitive at all, which is why you can wear a tampon for hours and forget it's even in there), it's also just a different kind of sensation: it's much more general than specific and intense, the way clitoral sensation is.
So, for most people with vaginas, while vaginal intercourse can be enjoyable in it's own way, physically and emotionally, for it to play a part in orgasm and to be super-sensory, you've got to combine that with at least some clitoral stimulus. And that's easy-as-pie to do: some sexual positions for intercourse will provide that all by themselves, and/or you and your partner can add clitoral stimulation with your hands before, during, and/or after intercourse, too. Same goes with when your boyfriend is inserting his fingers into your vagina: if that's all that's going on, that just may not be the ticket for you, as it isn't for a lot of people. Again, adding extra stimulation to the part of your genitals that's WAY more sensitive is the key.
Lastly, by all means, sometimes people do just get accustomed to one kind of stimulus, so it can happen that that one way is the quickest or easiest route to cloud nine for them. But that doesn't mean other things don't or can't also feel good, nor that you can't keep mixing it up so that any number of things feel good and are satisfying for you.
Here is that link to the checklist, as well as a few other pieces I think you'll find helpful:


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This is it folks. I spent a good chunk of 2017/18 working on this project; Historic New Zealand Racing Cars. Its now finally in the shops or available to purchase online.
Historic New Zealand Racing Cars is 192 pages long, hardcover, and includes the histories of 18 race cars covering the late 1940s through 1980s. The cars featured were either built and raced in NZ, or built internationally but with NZ history. They include single seaters, sports cars, and saloons.
I chose the cars based on their interest level, and/or creativity, rather than their on-track successes. The variety is pretty broad, from Denny Hulme's 1968 Can-Am Championship winning McLaren M8A, right through to the little Paton Ford.
The retail price is around NZ$40. The book is available in all good book stores, or online through MightyApe: https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/...dback/30462190
The following are a small number of images for the opening spread for each car.
I couldn't have achieved this without the help and input from so many Roaring Season members, so this is something we can all take pride in. Thanks to you all.


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Show All Answers
The runway remains open until winds reach 40 knots; however, each airline may have their own policy regarding delaying or canceling flights. Contact them directly for information.
For items left in the terminal buildings or other areas of the airport, please contact the Monroe County Sheriff's airport office at 305-292-4625. For items that were lost during TSA checkpoint screenings, call 866-289-9673.
Visit the Transportation Security Administration website for current information on restricted materials.


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"Capturing the Vision of Scouting," Ensign, June 2012, 46–51
Capturing the Vision of Scouting
Our efforts as Young Men advisers and Scout leaders can have eternal consequences.
When I was a mission president, one particular zone was having a lot of success. I asked one of the zone leaders, "Elder, what's going on here?"
He said, "President, in high school I ran cross-country with a handful of friends. We trained hard and competed together. For four years none of us could break a certain time barrier on the 5K. But at a cross-country race during our senior year, one of us finally broke that barrier. Then, within seven days of that meet, the whole group had broken the time barrier."
The cross-country runners—like the missionaries in that zone—succeeded because, in the zone leader's words, "they believed they could do it."
Young Men advisers called by inspiration to serve in Scouting can succeed too. But a believing attitude requires that they be strong in the Spirit, committed to strengthening the young men they serve, and properly trained.
Learning Our Duty
One of the tools Satan uses against the Church is to convince priesthood holders that they can do tomorrow what they should do today. But the Lord tells us, "Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence" (D&C 107:99; emphasis added).
This counsel is foundational to any calling we receive in the Church, including callings in Scouting. And a key word to this counsel is now.
In a program as demanding as Scouting, some leaders are concerned and tentative and might feel inadequate or overwhelmed. These feelings are normal. The best way to deal with such feelings is to just jump in—now. The Lord has called you, and He will qualify you1 and bless you to the degree that you learn your responsibilities and magnify your calling.
Training is essential to understanding Scouting and feeling confident that we can implement the program. Training motivates us to succeed because as we develop a degree of mastery, we gain confidence that we really can be successful Scout leaders. We hope Young Men advisers, in addition to receiving training, are given enough time in their Scout callings to make a difference in the lives of the young men they serve.
Young Men advisers in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should be the best implementers of Scouting in the world. Training is an important step toward that end.
Strengthening Young Men
Scouting is more than camping and merit badges. Scouting is spirituality, duty, growth, and leadership. When the Church adopted Scouting in 1913, leaders wanted a program that would develop and strengthen young men. Properly trained leaders can better understand Scouting and appreciate the program's potential to help young men grow.
We have a legacy of doing hard things in the Church. We've always done hard things, and we will continue to do hard things. Hard things stretch us and allow us to bless others. Our youth are the future of the Church, and they must be prepared for difficult days ahead. Scouting is one way to help prepare our young men to do hard things, such as serve as faithful full-time missionaries.
When properly implemented, Scouting and Duty to God strengthen faith in Jesus Christ, character, relationships, and skills. In addition, they provide opportunities for young men to develop abilities that are essential to the priesthood ministry to which they are called, such as leading and serving.
Scouting and Duty to God help prepare young men to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and temple ordinances and to bless others as full-time missionaries. Scouting has proved for many young men to be a major component in building a bridge to activity in the kingdom of God.
Scouting's outdoor program is part of its message of self-reliance, but it's more than that. It's a relationship-building program in which young men work with each other and with their advisers, doing things that stretch them physically and emotionally. It puts them in contact with nature, freeing them from the distractions of a world that is growing increasingly noisy. And it allows them an opportunity to commune with the Spirit and to reflect upon their lives and their relationships, including their relationship with Deity.
Being Strong in the Spirit
"If any man among you be strong in the Spirit," the Lord tells us, "let him take with him him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also" (D&C 84:106).
If there ever were a time when our young men needed to associate with adult advisers who are strong in the Spirit, that time is now. As leaders of young men, we have the blessing of working with them during the time that they transition from childhood to adulthood. It is a time fraught with temptations and challenges. What a great privilege and an awesome responsibility we have.
Young men need to be guided, motivated, and strengthened by those who are strong in the Spirit. They need to discover through spiritual experiences the intrinsic motivation of being a disciple of Christ—to taste for themselves the fruits of the gospel and of the Spirit.
Young men need to know that their leaders are men of God who can be trusted, who truly care about them, and who take seriously their Scout callings. Trusted leaders can become a powerful resource to help and bless young men.
To "edify in meekness" means to build up in meekness. A meek man edifies young men with patience, gentleness, and an absolute commitment to do God's will. Confidence and trust are built in young men when they feel that their leaders have the Spirit of the Lord with them.
The Lord also tells us, "Therefore, … let not the head say unto the feet it hath no need of the feet; for without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?" (D&C 84:109).
Just as the feet provide support for the physical body, so does the Aaronic Priesthood help support and strengthen the Church. For the body—the Church—to stand now and in the future, we need to acknowledge and honor the Aaronic Priesthood by helping our young men become strong in the Spirit.
Contemplate a simple 14-year-old farm boy with limited formal education. God took him and trusted him to be His instrument in the Restoration of the Church in this dispensation. When you look at a young man, think of Joseph Smith and realize that any young man—with God's priesthood power—has the capacity to do great things now.
Becoming Shepherds of Young Men
Thank Heavenly Father for this season in your life to influence young men. Be there for them and give them a vision of what they can become as they learn their duty as priesthood holders—whether they are wearing a Scout uniform or a white shirt and tie.
Young men need shepherds, and we need to be the kind of shepherds God expects us to be (see Ezekiel 34:1–16). Our efforts as Young Men advisers and Scout leaders can have eternal consequences (see Jacob 1:17–19).
The adversary does not want us to act, and he will do everything he can to deter us. I pray that we will press forward in preparing the young men of this Church by engaging them in good and glorious things—the great work of the Aaronic Priesthood and the wonderful Scouting program.


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Wednesday July 3, 2013 2:21 pm
You'll be able to walk through a frightening Cabin in the Woods this fall
When Universal Orlando busts out the Halloween Horror Nights, it gets serious. Horror fans descend upon the theme park in droves each year to experience in-your-face scares each fall. This year? The park is working with director Drew Goddard to bring The Cabin in the Woods to life. Like, for real.
"We are building the cabin completely. You're going to walk through a forest to get there. You're going into the cabin. You're going to go into the cube cells. We're literally taking everything we can in the film and giving you a kind of best-of montage of the film with this kind of linking story," Universal Orlando Entertainment Team member Michael Aiello tells Zap2it. "You're going to be in the control room when merman attacks."
As guests make their way through the cabin maze, they'll be a part of the story with plot points from the movie being incorporated. You know that merman is gonna be ridiculopus. This is gonna be intensely awesome.
Read More | Zap2It
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To celebrate National Bubble Bath Day the generous folks at Vitabath are giving one of Susan's Disney Family readers a chance to win their choice of a Vitabath body wash in the your favorite scent! Choose from the many many scents on the site. Would you like to win? Please visit the Vitabath site, take a look around then come back here and tell me what scent you love to try the most. There are also other ways to enter, please enter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: The reviews and or opinions on this blog are my own opinions . I received a body wash for posting. No monitory compensation was received. I was not required to write a positive review. Your experience may differ. The opinions I have expressed are my own I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsement and Testimonials in Advertising .


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Kaillie Humphries, a two-time Olympic bobsled gold medallist for Canada and one of the top drivers in her sport's history, is planning to race for the United States this coming season and beyond — including at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Humphries has been seeking her release from Canada for several weeks, and she has filed suit against Bobsleigh Canada in an effort to expedite that release. She is marrying former U.S. men's bobsledder Travis Armbruster on Saturday, and that would allow her to represent the U.S. in competition — provided she is released by Canada.
Humphries is expected to compete in next week's U.S. push championships as a guest.
"We look forward to working with Kaillie once she gets her release from Bobsleigh Canada," USA Bobsled and Skeleton said in a statement provided early Friday to The Associated Press. "Kaillie is a tremendous competitor and has had the respect and admiration of USABS athletes and staff for many years."
Humphries has been estranged from the Canadian bobsled program for more than a year after filing harassment and abuse claims. She did not race last season and hasn't competed in a major international race since winning a bronze medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
She is suing Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton for blocking her release, according to CBC.
"They have not provided me a safe place to come back to compete," Humphries said in an email.
USA Bobsled and Skeleton has told Humphries — a two-time world champion and four-time overall World Cup champion — that it would welcome her to the team.
Under international rules, she would need to be released by the Canadian team by Sept. 30 to be able to compete for the U.S. this season, though it's always possible that could be appealed. The U.S. team is set to begin training on ice in early October, weather permitting.
The governing body confirmed the lawsuit to The Canadian Press on Thursday.
"Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton abides by its harassment and discrimination policy that has been in place since 2006," a statement said. "We can't provide any comments since this investigation is strictly private."
— with files from The Canadian Press
The Associated Press


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This is the eighth year Seldovia will be host for a fabulous display of art in motion, the annual Chainsaw Carving Competition. In past years, it has taken place during Memorial Day weekend. This year it happens today through Sunday, Labor Day weekend, when six carving teams from Palmer, Sterling, Kenai, Anchorage, Anchor Point and Chetwynd, Canada, arrive in Seldovia to begin three days of carving.
The master carvers for 2013 are Ben Firth, Jimmy Kitchens, Derrick Stanton, Randy Gauthier, Rob Younkins and Scott Hanson. The carvers will draw for the logs today. From 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sunday, the chainsaws will come alive, releasing incredible masterpieces from the unassuming local spruce.
Seldovia has more than 30 carvings that may be viewed all year long, including a swimming mermaid plucking a pearl from a clam shell, a fisherman, whales, eagles dueling over a salmon, a dragon and mermaid, a ram, a hermit crab, otters, a prospector, a pirate, a sea siren, the Cat in the Hat and many carvings that were interactive like eagle and bear benches, riding salmon, swimming fish and a sea lion.
Each year, spectators are completely in awe of the transformation of these logs right in front of their eyes. It is a complete delight to see the process of art in motion, and each year has outdone the previous.
Another fun aspect of the competition will be the "quick carves." For an hour and a half on Sunday, each carver is given a smaller log to create something in that short period of time. These are then offered as gifts to the top sponsors of the event. These pieces range from wall hangings to halibut chairs, jumping salmon, hugging bears and swimming otters. This is a great event, where the crowd gathers to witness the speed with which carvers create a piece of art in an hour and a half.
Each carver also may bring previously carved art with him or her to sell during the competition. Many pieces are brought to Seldovia and sold on the spot to spectators. From small wall hangings to large bear carvings, swings and stools, folks get the opportunity to see other types of work the carvers create besides the gorgeous masterpiece carvings and are able to take something home to remember the event.
We have enjoyed seven years of carving delight in the heart of Seldovia.
The carving competition takes place right on Dock Street and Main, across from the ferry terminal facing gorgeous Seldovia Bay. The three-day carvings, referred to lovingly by the artists as "masterpieces," are donated by the carvers to the Seldovia Chamber of Commerce to be placed around town at businesses where locals and tourists alike can enjoy them for years to come. There are more than 35 carvings already about town. With this year's additions, we will have more than 40 gorgeous pieces of art on display. This is a great excuse to visit Seldovia, come and see and participate in an event that leaves a lasting mark on our community by the sea.
This year's first place winner will receive a check for $3,000, second place will get $2,000 and the third place winner will receive $1,000. There also will be a Carver's Choice Award and the People's Choice Award.
Many great sponsors have made this event possible. This year's top sponsors include BP, Mike's Welding, Seldovia Fishing Adventures, Seldovia Fuel & Lube and the Seldovia Bay Ferry.
An addition to this year's event happens Sunday after the quick carve and during the People's Choice voting: a community potluck barbecue followed by the awards ceremony. Bring your chips, potato salad and watermelon and enjoy a chance to meet and eat lunch with the carvers.
This isn't the only reason to come to Seldovia over Labor Day weekend. The Seldovia Arts Council is hosting the Guitars Masters concert on Saturday.
A schedule of activities can be found online at seldovia.com/to-do/events/labor-day-weekend-events/craft-invitational-chainsaw-carving-competition/
Visit Seldovia.com for photos and more information about our community by the sea, and visit Facebook at facebook.com/SeldoviaChainsawCarvingCompetition.
Among the many hats Jenny Chissus wears in Seldovia is this year's Seldovia Chainsaw Carving Committee Chairperson.


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3/4 cup mashed cooked North Carolina Sweet Potato
1 1/2 cups low-fat vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt
1 cup skim milk
1 cup coarsely chopped snickerdoodle cookies
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Whipped cream, for topping (preferably lower in fat)
Cinnamon-sugar, for topping
In a blender, combine sweet potato, ice cream, milk, cookie, walnuts (save a few walnut pieces for topping) and cinnamon and blend until well combined and smooth.
Pour into two glasses and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle with walnut pieces and cinnamon sugar.
Makes 2 milkshakes


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Hi, One day I discovered 360Cities in the Gallery layer of Google Earth. What was this? Wow, this is cool. I wanted to learn how to make them myself and so began the exciting journey of learning all about shooting panoramas, stitching, and finding out how to get them on Google Earth.
Living at the eastern edge of the Great Basin in Utah I noticed that there were not many panoramas out west of I-15 in Utah all the way over to Reno Nevada. A few shots were in the mountains in Nevada by a fellow in Salt Lake City but other than that it was empty territory with all kinds of interesting places to take photos. This was a good excuse to start exploring these areas to take panoramas that could be shared with everyone on Google Earth.
Other areas of the world are well represented in 360Cities and as a way to show thanks to the other 360Cities photographers that have taken time to shoot their parts of the world, I decided that I would try to do my part by taking photos in the areas in the western United States that don't as of yet have any panoramic photos.
Panoramio photos (photos in the default layer in Google Earth) are interesting but don't give the feeling of being at that location like a well shot 360 panorama does. I use Panoramio as a tool to locate interesting areas for 360 panorama shots. A greater concentration of photos = an interesting area to be considered for a 360.
Its fun to study the maps and Google Earth, find some areas to shoot, learn the history about the area, take the photos, stitch and try to perfect the image, and then share the image on 360 Cities and Google Earth.
I hope you enjoy the photos, and if you have any comments feel free to contact me at:


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almond satay tempeh skewers
- 1½ cups (300g) brown rice
- 2¼ cups (560ml) water
- 600g tempeh+, cut into 2cm-thick batons
- 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
- 1 bunch (500g) snake beans, blanched
- 1 bunch (330g) radishes, thinly sliced
- ½ cup (80g) roasted almonds, chopped
- micro (baby) coriander (cilantro), to serve
almond satay
- 2⁄₃ cup (220g) almond spread++
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- ½ cup (125ml) water
- Place the rice and water in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid and reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 25 minutes or until tender. Remove the lid and set aside to steam for 5 minutes.
- To make the almond satay, place the almond spread, tamari and water in a bowl and stir until smooth and well combined.
- Preheat a char-grill pan or barbecue over high heat. Thread the tempeh onto 8 metal skewers and brush with half the almond satay. Brush the grill with oil and cook the skewers, turning, for 6–8 minutes or until golden and charred.
- Divide the rice, beans, radish, almond and skewers between bowls. Top with coriander and the remaining almond satay. Serves 4
+ Tempeh is a soy product similar to tofu. It is made from whole, fermented soy beans pressed into blocks, and has a meaty texture and nutty flavour. It's a good source of protein, and is available in the refrigerated section of supermarkets and health food stores.
++ You can find almond spread in the health food aisle of the supermarket.


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Growing up on a reservation in lower Saskatchewan, Alvin Manitopyes learned early to respect the sweat lodge. He was 10 when he attended his first sweat ceremony, and for more than 15 years tribe elders instructed him in his people's ways.
He understands the spiritual mandate he was given as a healer to serve as an intermediary between people and the spirit world. He carries with him the ancient ceremonial songs, passed on through generations.
He knows how the natural elements - earth, fire, water and air - work together to cleanse people, inside and out, and create balance. At 55, he has spent more than 20 years conducting ceremonies in sweat lodges, where water is poured over hot lava rocks as part of a purifying ritual.
"If you have the right to do it, then the environment you're creating is a safe place," says Manitopyes, a public health consultant in Calgary, Alberta, who is Plains Cree and Anishnawbe. "But today we have all kinds of people who observe what's going on and think they can do it themselves. ... And that's not a safe place to be."
No example of what worries him is clearer than the case of James Arthur Ray, a self-help guru who led a crowded sweat lodge ceremony that left three people dead. Ray faces manslaughter charges for the deaths allegedly tied to his October 2009 "Spiritual Warrior" retreat outside Sedona, Arizona. His trial began Tuesday.
Ray pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been free on $525,000 bail. Prosecutors say the deaths resulted from Ray's recklessness, an overheated lodge and because he encouraged people to stay inside when they weren't feeling well. His defense team denies those allegations, and attorney Luis Li has called what transpired "a terrible accident, not a crime."
Accidents, in fact, have happened even in ceremonies overseen by tribes. The Seattle Times reported a year ago the death of a 29-year-old Puyallup tribe member in a Swinomish smokehouse ceremony on a reservation near La Conner, Washington. The cause of death, overheating, was ruled accidental by a county medical examiner, the paper reported. And no criminal charges were filed in that case because it was an accident, says Alix Foster, an attorney for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.
The Ray case highlights an outrage that's long existed for many Native Americans. They are tired of their traditions being co-opted by others and exploited for capital gain. They resent that a ceremony they view as sacred is now being tied to terms like "death trap." They don't want their ancient ways to be deemed fashionable or inspire impersonators.
In Ray's Spiritual Warrior retreat, participants in a "vision quest" fasted for a few days before Ray reportedly led more than 50 of them - at least 30 more than the number many Native Americans recommend - in a sweat ceremony meant to purify. Each participant paid about $10,000 to take part in the retreat.
After the disaster and criminal charges, representatives of various tribal nations stepped into the legal fray, filing a federal lawsuit last March against Ray and those who run the Angel Valley Retreat Center, where he had leased land for his program.
The plaintiffs, on behalf of their tribes, sought to end the "abuse and misuse" of their ceremonies and hoped to convince the court that their rituals were their property and should be protected under the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act. Just as a merchant can't claim earrings were made by Native Americans if they weren't, their ceremonies shouldn't be falsely advertised either, they argued.
That suit was dismissed in October. The court held that "the operation of a sweat lodge is plainly not art, craftwork or a handcraft." Services can't be protected like goods, the court ruled.
Amayra Hamilton, along with her husband, Michael, owns the Angel Valley Retreat Center, where the lodge was located. Their business has suffered greatly since the sweat lodge incident. The couple, in fact, has filed a business claim tort suit against Ray for running his retreat, on their property, in what their attorney Kelley Ruda calls "a ridiculous manner."
But a December 2009 letter to prosecutors from defense attorney Li said, "Mr. Ray and his team relied on Angel Valley to provide a safe environment, warned people of the risks, did not force people to participate, did not prevent them from leaving, and did everything they could to prepare for any problems and to assist when problems arose."
Several civil personal injury/wrongful death suits are pending against Angel Valley, Ruda says, but they are on the verge of out-of-court settlement.
As for how tribe members reacted after the incident, Hamilton of Angel Valley says, "I feel how hurt they are. And I have an understanding of it."
Just as many Native Americans feel stung by what Ray allegedly did, Hamilton says so does she.
"Our focus here is on transformation, growth, sensitivity and creating a safe space," she says. "When something like this happens, is it a violation? Yes, it is."
The takeaway lesson for the couple, Hamilton says, is to make sure programs on their property are aligned with their intentions.
"We were removed" from Ray's program, she says. "We are more critical of who we allow here to do their work."
But even if she gets why Native Americans might be offended, Hamilton believes sweat lodges have a place and purpose beyond sanctioned tribal ceremonies. She says she and her husband suggested Ray split his retreat into two smaller groups and that the lodge had been used before Ray arrived, effectively and safely. Plus, the practice of doing sweats does not belong exclusively to anyone, she says; similar ceremonies happen worldwide.
That's a point echoed by Ruda, the attorney for the Hamiltons. She points to sweat structures and traditions dotting the globe: the Russian banya, the Finnish sauna, the Hindu fire lodge.
But Floyd "Looks for Buffalo" Hand, 71, doesn't care about the traditions of others. He's worried about the sweats that seem blatantly modeled after his people's practices.
A member of the Oglala Lakota Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation, he was among the plaintiffs listed in the now-dismissed complaint against Ray. A grandson of Chief Red Cloud and a descendant of the Crazy Horse Band, he was reached at his home on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where he has lived his whole life.
"I sat back two weeks watching the news (about Ray's sweat lodge incident), waiting for another tribe or individual to say something because they violated the way of life of the Lakota people," he says. "It is a way of life, our language, our custom, our culture. It's the way we live."
Adding insult, he says, was how Ray benefited, "making over $500,000 off of our way of life," charging for what is sacred.
This disbelief and frustration spans generations.
Autumn Two Bulls, 29, also lives on Pine Ridge, and just thinking about the dream catchers that hang in trendy gift shops, the non-Native Americans who make money off her people's artifacts, makes her cry "rape."
"Haven't native people been through enough?" says Two Bulls, a writer who created Reservation H.E.L.P. (Helping Every Lakota Person), an organization to help impoverished families.
"It's a fad to be Indian today. ... They envision us like a fantasy culture," but the harsh reality is one they helped create and won't face, she suggests.
She says this from her reservation, where there's 80 percent unemployment, suicide rates are reportedly 300 percent higher than the national average and alcoholism ravages her community. Two Bulls says she was 18 when her mother died in her arms from cirrhosis.
"In America, you are an individual. You can be whatever you want to be. When you're Lakota, we belong to each other. So when you take our way of life and put a price tag on it, you're asking for death, you're asking for something to happen to you."
It's not that she believes anyone deserved to die in Ray's sweat lodge; they were victims of his "wannabe" ways, of his playing with a tradition that wasn't his to claim, she says.
"But honestly, I think the spirits went and did something there," Two Bulls says. "He has taken the deaths of our ancestors, the slaughtering of our babies, and he sold it. And it came back on him and killed those people."
Less than a week after the Ray ceremony turned deadly, Valerie Taliman, a Navajo journalist and columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network, penned a scathing column with the title "Selling the Sacred."
She called out Ray for his actions, including that he fled Arizona after the ceremony.
"Who does that? Only a huckster posing as the real thing," she wrote.
Taliman, 53, also wrote about long-standing efforts by Native Americans to stop the "appropriation and exploitation of sacred ceremonies," pointing to a 1993 international gathering in South Dakota of 500 Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nation representatives. Together they "passed the 'Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality,' denouncing individuals involved in the New Age movement, shamanism, cultists, and neo-paganists and others who promote 'intolerable and obscene imitations of sacred Lakota rites,' " Taliman wrote.
Ray is a symbol, the latest and most horrifying example of what this trend purports, she says by phone. And the double standard in how he's been treated is glaring, she says.
"If an Indian man, a traditional person, killed people in a sweat lodge, he'd be in jail," she says, not free on bond. "And if I went out, and I impersonated a Catholic priest, and charged people to attend ceremonies, they'd arrest me."
Perhaps no one feels more troubled by what happened during Ray's retreat than David Singing Bear.
He was enlisted by the Angel Valley Retreat Center to design the sweat lodge Ray would use, a point the Hamiltons' attorney, Ruda, also highlights.
"To the extent that they (Native Americans) think it was a bunch of white people tying sticks together, that's not the case," Ruda says.
Singing Bear is a 60-year-old Eastern Band Cherokee who calls himself a wisdom keeper, ceremonial leader and healer. He says he spent 20 years learning from tribal elders on reservations across North America.
So when he was asked to design a sweat lodge outside Sedona, where he lives, it mattered to him that it was done right. He says he selected the blankets and canvas covering that would breathe and offered the space traditional blessings and prayers, at no charge. And he says he worried when he heard how large they said Ray wanted it to be.
He says he told higher-ups at Angel Valley that what Ray wanted was too big and that only trained facilitators should lead ceremonies. Hamilton says, "I do not know what he said at the time."
Singing Bear, who's been named a witness in Ray's criminal trial, says he doesn't allow more than 20 people in a sweat because each person needs to be looked out for and protected. Others add that Native Americans would never pressure anyone to stay. The allegation that Ray did this, again, is one the defense team denies.
With or without him, Singing Bear says, that lodge was going to be built because it was what Ray wanted. And he says he had no reason to believe the structure he designed and his nephew built, one meant to represent the nurturing "womb of Mother Earth," would go on to become a crime scene. Now, though, he'll stay away from these kinds of requests.
"They don't care about our ways. It's a dollar sign to them," he says. "I'll never mess with colonialists again."


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Happy 18th Birthday Jaelyn!
Can y'all believe she is 18!! When I started blogging she was only NINE!!! I started blogging in 2005. WOW Y'all have watched her grow up just like I did lol.
I can't believe how quickly this time has passed.
We have watched you grow up...
Develop your own little personality...
You like what you like lol and if you don't like it you let EVERYONE know lol
You have always had your own mind. You've always been a leader.
And you've always had an attitude lol.
You are growing up to be such an amazing person. Beautiful inside and out. It's our prayer that you will continue to allow God to use you. Keep Him first in all you do and praying nothing but blessings and success over your life!
We love you! Now let's have a BLAST this weekend!!
Happy 18th Birthday!!!


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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The bodies of 76 people killed by Greece's deadliest wildfire in decades have been identified, authorities said Tuesday, as forensic experts kept working to identify more remains recovered from the charred resort area.
Separately, the coast guard said Tuesday it had recovered the body of a woman from the sea in the Saronic Gulf south of Athens, many miles away from the site of the July 23 blaze. The body had not been identified and it was unclear whether it was related to the deadly wildfire that devastated the seaside resort of Mati northeast of Athens.
Coast guard special operations divers recovered another body Monday from waters off the coast of the fire area, believed to be someone who drowned in their effort to escape the flames. Identification of that body was pending.
During the blaze, hundreds of people fled to beaches, and many were forced to swim out to sea to escape the flames and choking smoke. A massive search operation involving ship and divers looking for more fire victims in the water is continuing near the fire zone.
At least 91 people are believed to have died in the blaze, but confusion surrounds the exact death toll.
On Sunday, the fire department said 59 bodies had been identified, while the identification procedure was pending for another 28. A further four people died of their injuries in hospitals.
However, the fire department explained Tuesday that coroners found some bodies were so badly burned that some body bags contained the remains of more than one person. The intensity of the heat during the fire was such that it even melted metal.
That has led the fire department to stop issuing information about the number of bodies believed to have been recovered, changing instead to relating the number of identified victims.
A list of people officially registered as unaccounted from the fire for stood at 8.
Fanned by gale-force winds, the blaze raced through seaside resorts that are a mixture of permanent residences and holiday homes for those living in the capital of Athens.
The high death toll has prompted strong criticism of the Greek government for not preparing enough for this year's fire season. The Mati area lacked good evacuation access roads, warning systems and other civil protection measures even though it was a residential area surrounded by forest and at high risk of wildfires.
(Copyright (c) 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)


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One of the most important steps in removing buckthorn is figuring out whether or not you have it on your property! Identifying buckthorn is pretty easy. If you think it looks like buckthorn, it probably is.
There are two species of buckthorn in the area. This page explains how to identify them at different stages of growth.
Don't worry about the small seedlings (see picture below) if you still have larger buckthorn around. But when you have the big stuff under control, you will want to keep an eye out for any seedlings that try to come back. It's a lot less work to pull out a seedling than to cut down a mature buckthorn!
Want to print this to use while you are in the field? View a printable version of this page (PDF) .
The information provided in the links below will walk you through identifying, removing, treating with herbicide and what to do when buckthorn is gone. Want a shortened version? Access a two page identification and control guide (PDF).
Take Back Your Woods - Identification and Control Guide (PDF)
Still have questions? Contact the City Natural Resources Department at 952-895-4543 or email Caleb Ashling.


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They write:
Our results are consistent with recent publications using ancientAs I've argued in this blog over the last few years, the mtDNA evidence speaks of near total replacement of forager mtDNA in Europe. In a sense there is continuity, as the forager mtDNA has not gone extinct, but I guess that is a matter of words. We could just as easily say that there is population continuity in parts of South America where a predominant Caucasoid population has absorbed a small native population.
DNA to assign the maternal affinities of early agriculturalists
and hunter-gatherers. Our LGP European sample includes
the U5a and U5b1 haplogroups, associated with Mesolithic hunter gatherers
at the majority of archaeological sites in Bramanti
et al. (3) dated to older than 5,000 ya. The presence of similar
mtDNA haplogroups in Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and contemporary
Europeans supports a model involving (maternal)
population continuity, even if this Mesolithic ancestry makes up
only a fraction of contemporary European genomes. U5a, U5b1,
V, and 3H combined account for ≈15% of western Europeans
mtDNA haplogroups (7) (Table S1).
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914274108
Rapid, global demographic expansions after the origins of agriculture
Christopher R. Gignoux et al.
The invention of agriculture is widely assumed to have driven recent human population growth. However, direct genetic evidence for population growth after independent agricultural origins has been elusive. We estimated population sizes through time from a set of globally distributed whole mitochondrial genomes, after separating lineages associated with agricultural populations from those associated with hunter-gatherers. The coalescent-based analysis revealed strong evidence for distinct demographic expansions in Europe, southeastern Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa within the past 10,000 y. Estimates of the timing of population growth based on genetic data correspond neatly to dates for the initial origins of agriculture derived from archaeological evidence. Comparisons of rates of population growth through time reveal that the invention of agriculture facilitated a fivefold increase in population growth relative to more ancient expansions of hunter-gatherers.


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The Lewiston Public Library provides resources and services to meet the cultural, educational, and information needs of children, teens, adults, seniors, families, and organizations in our city.
The library's mission is broad in scope and identifies the three major overall goals for the department. This mission is carried out in collaboration with a wide variety of community partners - the many educational and cultural institutions working to address similar community needs.
The Board of Library Trustees has adopted the following six service responses for the library to follow in carrying out the mission:


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Need for Speed: Undercover represented a slight departure from tradition for the long-running racing franchise, as EA implemented a movie-like storyline in order to grab new fans. Evidently, though, they didn't go far enough with the restructuring.
According to Eurogamer, EA says they plan to "reinvent" the Need for Speed series this year, which means we won't see just one blockbuster release. Instead, we'll get "separate core, casual and 'Play 4 Free' games." Therefore, the schedule includes Need for Speed: Shift for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP and PC (set for fall), Need for Speed: Nitro for the Wii and DS, and Need for Speed: World Online , which will be released to the Asian online PC market first in the summer, than head to North America in the winter. Shift is being developed by Slightly Mad Studios (they're responsible for GT Legends and GTR2 ), and this installment will focus on the simulation aspects of driving. Apparently, this will not only include racing physics, but "realistic driver behavior." That whole "urban underground" theme will disappear, it seems, and instead, we get features like "a flashy 3D HUD that mimics driver head movement" (feeds off inertia and G-force), a cockpit view, and more. Said EA Marketing boss Keith Munro:
"Need for Speed Shift is amazing and I think it will blow people away. The tech behind that game, the details that only a team with such racing pedigree could accomplish, and the ability to make you feel the intensity of a race is unprecedented. I can't wait for our fans to begin experiencing it! Regarding any new Need for Speed girls I can't comment, but I'll definitely mark down one enthusiastic vote for Josie Maran."
As if you hadn't already guessed, Nitro will be a "fast, fun arcade" racer, and…well, that's all we really need to say about it. World Online is being co-developed by Black Box and EA's online studio in Singapore. Munro says it's "not so much a proof of concept – it is a full-fledged launch in a market that we are very ambitious toward." If you want to sign up for this bad boy, you'll be able to get your hands on more licensed cars, parts and game modes than has ever appeared in any NFS title in history. So there you have it: the NFS revamping is under way! How do you like it?