text:
- Dodecad Ancestry Project: 6 Poles, 12 Russians (Russian_D), 11 Germans, 19 Scandinavians, 6 Mixed Slavs (various West and East Slav combinations), 17 Britons, 17 Irish
- HGDP: 25 Russians from Vologda
- Behar et al. (2010): 10 Lithuanians, 9 Belorussians
March 05, 2011
Celto-Germans vs. Balto-Slavs
36 comments:
- Diogenes said...
MCLUST didn't pick it up since it was forced to assign individuals to one of only 2 clusters, but MDS is very suggestive of similar admixture level of both populations in 4 of the 9 Germans, and a smaller Northeastern European component in another German. Similarly for 2 of the Scandinavians. Same apparently applies in reverse to 2 of the 6 Poles, who show possible Northwestern admixture in 2 individuals.
I think this be a fossil of a major ancient admixture event.
In this case Brits-Scandinavians-Germans might represent decreasing population 1 contribution and increasing population 2 contribution. Balts-Byelorussians-Poles the opposite? Maybe with a third Finnic/Siberian element added in for the Russians?
Also, I think the symmetry of the MDS if we exclude Russians seems to posit opposite population movements from 2 core/origin areas (contemporary or not), wherever they are, since if one population had stayed put it would show unequal admixture levels of the other, which isn't the case.
The admixed populations would then represent the area where the two waves clashed. - Sunday, March 06, 2011 12:38:00 am
- Average Joe said...
Well done! A minor issue is that in the graph the color dots for the British and the Irish are very similar as are those for the Scandinavians and the mixed Slavs. It makes it a little difficult to distinguish between these ethnic groups.
- Sunday, March 06, 2011 4:11:00 am
- eurologist said...
As to the Prussian, it depends of course if this person's ancestry is Old Prussian (i.e., native Baltic) or from the occupying Germans.
Would definitely be worthwhile to see at least the first 4 (if not 5) dimensions. Or perhaps you can even do a rotating animated .gif of the first three dimensions? - Sunday, March 06, 2011 5:00:00 am
- Fanty said...
That clean split into 2 clusters is amazing to behold.
- Sunday, March 06, 2011 5:19:00 am
- Unknown said...
What an insolence using Vologda samples as the "Russians" in every Western DNA-research?
The same way you could use a "Russian" sample from Yakutsk or Kazan. The substratum admixture appears too significant in such regions, so this way you will get a good propaganda stuff but will never see who Russians really are. The more appropriate are central regions of European part of Russia like Smolensk, Tver, Voronezh. If the ones are not available that is better to note the used samples are not representative for real Slavic Russians. Only if you make the science, of course. - Sunday, March 06, 2011 9:06:00 am
- Andrew Lancaster said...
Compared to geography, I guess the most surprising thing is the distance between Scandinavians and their closest neighbours to the south and east. They are further from them than German are, and that is what seems to cause the big genetic gradient showing in the Poland-Germany area? It would be interest to see what would happen with France and/or Finland added.
- Sunday, March 06, 2011 12:00:00 pm
- Dienekes said...
What an insolence using Vologda samples as the "Russians" in every Western DNA-research?
The blame should be placed on Russia and its policy of not allowing export of DNA. Until then, and until Russian researchers publish their own data, the HGDP sample, and the data submitted to the Project by various Russians who manage to evade the ban (e.g., by expatriates) are the only data we've got. - Sunday, March 06, 2011 3:05:00 pm
- Njord said...
is there any way to get the ID's of these participants labelled on the plot?
- Sunday, March 06, 2011 4:43:00 pm
- Dienekes said...
As per the project's privacy rules I either post DOD-unlabeled/ethnically-identified results or ethnically-unlabeled/DOD-labeled ones. This is an example of the former.
- Sunday, March 06, 2011 6:51:00 pm
- Fanty said...
That gradient region between Poles and Germans is of course easily explained by the existance of multi-etnian empires like Prussia or the German Empire.
Map, that shwows Polish speaking areas in the 2. GErman Empire:
Or Prussia, annected a large part of Poland and called those provences "South Prussia" and "New East Prussia"
Or just recall General Feldmarschal "Erich von Manstein". Whos true name was "Erich von Lewinski" and who was partly of Kashubian (A slavic speaking minority in Prussia/German Empire) anchestry.
He was adopted by the Manstein family. Thats why his Polish surname was exchanged into a German one.
The Lewinski family served in the Prussian and later German armies for 16 generations.
Peronaly, I wonder if those 4 Germans are actually from these old Prussian terretories and since 3 of my 4 grandparents are from these parts of the German Empire (East Prussia and Silesia), I wonder if I am of those 4 spots or not. - Sunday, March 06, 2011 8:01:00 pm
- Diogenes said...
I think you make some sense. German colonization of the East could have led to admixture events explaining this. However 4 out of 9 individuals is a lot and I'm not sure this suffices. Also this doesn't explain why there's such a huge gap between both groups. Poles are also admixed to a large degree apparently and they never colonized the west (post WW2 events can't count). There's no desert or sea between them. There is between Ireland and GB, and between GB and the Continent, as well as between Scandinavia and the Continent. Germans and Poles should fade into each other if admixture within neighbouring populations was the explanation.
I think this points to a more ancient event. The admixed individuals are I believe not exceptions but the rule for border populations (Eastern Germans and Western Poles).
It's not just Germans, Scandinavians (R1a can't be explained by Finnish admixture) and Poles either. Romanians, Hungarians seem to have such a spread among "the gap" in an European MDS plot too. These populations are EXACTLY where you'd expect them in such a theory.
The gap must point to significantly different origins of both groups, and since only food producing technology could explain such a phenomenon by assimilation of sparse (but genetically gradually merging geographically) preexisting populations, I think it's likely that "Celto-Germanic" is actually the large Neolithic wave coming from the Mediterranean and the Balkans, rivers of Central Europe from Western Anatolia, while the Eastern wave may be another food producing revolution coming from the rivers of the Ukraine and ultimately also from some other population at or close to the Near-East. Naturally gradual assimilation of some hunter-gatherers occured along the way, explaining the spread among each population.
I think these waves, particularly the Western one, may thus be totally unrelated to Indo-European linguistic diffusion. Pre-existing cultural similarities may explain the development of different IE branches instead. - Sunday, March 06, 2011 11:49:00 pm
- Average Joe said...
It is strange that the Scandinavians seem to be more closely related to the British and the Irish than the Germans. I wonder if this is evidence of Viking ancestry in modern British and Irish populations.
- Monday, March 07, 2011 3:45:00 am
- eurologist said...
Dienekes: "I think this be a fossil of a major ancient admixture event."
Or ongoing admixture and separation since the neolithic. However, parts of Northern Germany, the Baltic, and Poland were so sparsely populated (due to poor soils and climate) that the core populations could retain their separate genetic identity through the past ~ 9,000 years.
These are the ancient populations I see in the area, going back to before agriculture, but solidified during the first ~2,000 years of agriculture:
1. Central European (From NE France through Hungary, in the NE to the Vistula river; with more Mediterranean and Anatolian/Caucasus admixture in the very south)
2. Ancient Scandinavian
3. Baltic (around Vistula river and East thereof)
4. East European (with Eastern Ukraine as core region)
Then, relatively late, Finnish migration from the Urals, Balto-Slavic later perhaps from the East Belarus/NE Ukraine area, but with impact mostly on the language, only, and then 1,500 ya Slavic expansion into Czech, Slovakian, and Polish areas including the Western Baltic and parts of what is now Eastern Germany.
So, I think there is an ancient East-West gradient in Europe (and a second one to the Baltic) that was maintained by a relatively sparse mixed population in the "center" (NE Germany through Poland/Belarus).
The relatively recent Slavic expansion has actually steepened this gradient by introducing more Eastern Europeans toward this "center."
Other historic events have likewise increased this separation: German re-settlement and pushing out of most Slavs from west of the Oder river and beyond (with the Wend and Sorb minorities exceptions), as well as the mass exodus of ethnic Germans (including "German Prussians") from east of the Oder river after WWII. - Monday, March 07, 2011 10:13:00 am
- Dienekes said...
Dienekes: "I think this be a fossil of a major ancient admixture event."
You got your quotations mixed up. - Monday, March 07, 2011 10:24:00 am
- eurologist said...
I guess Diogenes is just too similar!
Sorry. - Monday, March 07, 2011 10:29:00 am
- eurologist said...
Average Joe: "It is strange that the Scandinavians seem to be more closely related to the British and the Irish than the Germans."
I don't see that in the plot. In pretty much all European PC analyses you can see two additional Scandinavian components (an ancient Scandinavian and a Sami/Finnish one). If you ignore those, then there is a simple gradient between southern Swedes and southern Germans, with northern Germans in between. Neolithic settlers to the British Isles surely were very close to people in the Dutch/Northern German region, which in turn are close to modern southern and western Scandinavians. And all those populations form the core of historic settlers. Even Normans were a mixture of Vikings, Franks, and older northern French/ Belgian populations that surely were not all that different in their autosomal make-up, either.
Of course then you have other components from pre-neolithic inhabitants, prehistoric and ancient seafarers, trades people, and soldiers/occupiers from the west Atlantic and Mediterranean. - Monday, March 07, 2011 10:46:00 am
British Islands were sstrongly influenced by Scandinavians at least for four centuries, this is historically documented and can not surprising.
- Monday, March 07, 2011 12:33:00 pm
- Andrew Oh-Willeke said...
It isn't inconsistent to think that there are two reinforcing separate population waves on each side. Hence, on one side you have Atlantic European followed by Celto-Germanic and on the other side you have early Eastern Neolithic (e.g. LBK) followed by Slavic.
While intermediate individuals could represent recent admixture, they could also represent cases where the early Neolithic layer and the Indo-European layer don't reinforce each other - for example, a place with Eastern affinities in the early Neolithic that developed Celto-Germanic affinities in the Indo-European wave. - Monday, March 07, 2011 6:34:00 pm
- eurologist said...
Andrew Oh-Willeke: "...the Indo-European layer..."
The thing is, though, that there is very little evidence of such.
You can easily explain all current genetic findings without ever knowing about or invoking IE. Which may indicate that either: (i) IE expansion had no significant impact on most European populations, because they were archetypal resistant agricultural settlers, or (ii) that, and in addition, those populations already spoke a language so similar that absorption of a a more global IE was easily done, without any measurable population exchange, at all. - Tuesday, March 08, 2011 1:34:00 pm
- pconroy said...
@Average Joe,
My father to the best of his knowledge has no English or Norman admixture, does however has Ancestry Finder matches in Norway and Sweden, and consistently clusters close to Swedes - in one of Davidski's runs he was in the Swedish cluster.
He also happens to suffer from Dupuytren's Contracture (aka 'Viking Hand'), which I believe Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher also had. - Tuesday, March 08, 2011 6:23:00 pm
- Diogenes said...
Yes. I believe current genetic patterns in Europe were mostly set in the Neolithic with only relatively minor changes since. Pots AND peoples maybe not much later, but at least for the Neolithic Revolution!
Its definitely interesting that despite mostly unscientific and completely wrong conclusions from most 19th and early 20th century anthropologists, their measurements seem to have been correct, as they correlate with genetics. And the Neolithic archeological panorama as well...
Over at Eurogenes, there are some strong indications of this, since the correlation of archeological ancient Neolithic cultures ("pots") with current European genetic elements ("people") is astonishingly close (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Europe).
However I think pre-set ideas may be blinding some of the analysis over there, which is a pity, since I believe this new ADMIXTURE fixture is what was needed to make sense of all of this. Maybe we can even bypass the need for additional South Russian populations with it.
Its a pity we can't have an Ossetian sample, since seems to me what "Dagestani" (Lezgins) was supposed to be might be them all along. However by finding similarities at the rim maybe we can find the source of the Eastern Neolithic wave. Like Chuvash, Ukranians, Northwest South Asians, Central Asians? If this could be demonstrated maybe we could finally start changing this paradigm for good...
I'm still hoping Dienekes will look into this with his large sample again... - Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:40:00 pm
- Unknown said...
I think we are seeing the basic split between the R1a population (cluster 1)and R1b (cluster 2). Other splits (eg Atlantic coastal vs other inland migrations) known to be present in Europe are not shown clearly in this spread.
The complete overlap of the Scandinavians with the "celtic" peoples is intriguing, suggesting maybe that the root of both was identical. Brits should be composed of at least 2 major components, with the Swedes more Atlantic coastal based. I am worried we may be seeing a blurring due to the Scandinavians being pooled together. - Tuesday, March 08, 2011 11:52:00 pm
- Diogenes said...
@Annie Mouse
This is a local variety of the wider Neolithic Atlantic, Megalithic Culture, from Iberia to Norway. - Wednesday, March 09, 2011 1:54:00 am
- Fanty said...
"The complete overlap of the Scandinavians with the "celtic" peoples is intriguing, suggesting maybe that the root of both was identical."
That correlates with the ancient idea (already mentioned by Dienekes), that the people of Northern Europe are only 2: "Celts" in the West and "Skythians" in the East.
The "Germanic" tribes had been estaminated to be "Celtic" by the Romans by the first contacts and it took them another 100 years to realise, that these are a third people in the North. One that lived between "Celts" and "Skythians".
A similiar thing are the "Picts".
Most common people of today usualy believe them to be Celts.
Scientist claim, that culturaly, "Picts" are neither real Celts nor are they "Germanics" but a third cultural group.
While Tacitus (Roman historian from the 1th Century AD)claims them as "Germanic", estaminated by their physical apearance. - Wednesday, March 09, 2011 2:05:00 am
- Fanty said...
I almost forgot one more "intermixture 2000 years ago" thing:
Tacitus describes a "Germanic" tribe in what is now "Sklovakia", that he believes, must have intermixed with the "Skythians", since their faces show traces of these looks.
Also, worth to mention:
tacitus does not believe the Goth (Who lived in Northern Poland during the time of Tacitus) to be Germanic (but he does not explain what he believes they are) while at th same time he mentiones the "Suiones", from Southeast Sweden as the northern most Germanic people known so far.
And as kind of a proof of how well Tacitus must have known the people of the North, he mentiones that the Finn are neither Germans nor Skythians but a third people. - Wednesday, March 09, 2011 4:57:00 am
- pconroy said...
These findings, together with Eurogenes, corroborate - or at least are in line with - what I suggested 3 years ago, that Germanic languages are a Creole, with a Baltic substratum and a Celtic superstratum.
It would seem that Baltic speakers stretched all the way to Denmark, then gradually were conquered from the South by Celtic speakers, and what developed was a Creole we know as Germanic. - Wednesday, March 09, 2011 10:29:00 pm
- Average Joe said...
It would seem that Baltic speakers stretched all the way to Denmark, then gradually were conquered from the South by Celtic speakers, and what developed was a Creole we know as Germanic.
Are you saying that the original Celtic speakers were Iberian? If so, how did Celtic reach Iberia? Was it a language indigenous to Iberia or was it brought there from somewhere else? - Thursday, March 10, 2011 2:05:00 am
- Average Joe said...
I think we are seeing the basic split between the R1a population (cluster 1)and R1b (cluster 2).
But doesn't Scandinavia have high levels of R1a? Shouldn't that place the region in the eastern cluster rather than the western one? - Thursday, March 10, 2011 2:07:00 am
The division of the Northern Europeans into East and West may have stood the test of time but your results don't indicate the length of time those East and West Northern Europeans have resided in Europe or where they came from outside Europe.
Your results just show that they are differentiated and have been since the Ancients, not that long ago in time in reality, listed the Barbaroi as Keltoi and Skythai. - Thursday, March 10, 2011 3:50:00 am
- pconroy said...
Well if Tartessian is the oldest form of Celtic attested - from South Western Iberia - then the Celtic language could have spread from there.
Most models assume that Celto-Italic arose in Central Europe - read Southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria - and spread East to France, then South to Iberia and North to Britain and Ireland.
But if Celtic - not necessarily Celtic peoples, just the language - arrived in Western Europe, from a likely source in the Usatova Culture of Romania/Moldova, then that might explain why Celtiberian is Q-Celtic, like Ireland - i.e. the more ancient form - and France/Gaul and Britain were P-Celtic, the newer form.
Last year I linked to a paper that proposed that the insertion of Etruscan into North Central Italy, and it's subsequent expansion towards the North East as the Villanovan Culture forced a sound shift in Celtic, that gave us the P-Celts - Thursday, March 10, 2011 9:54:00 pm
- Diogenes said...
OK. I may be overextending myself, but here is what I think is the most likely model.
The Baltic region was likely colonized by a first agricultural wave of people coming up the rivers of the Ukraine, I think. The Western North European plain likely received the Atlantic Neolithics, with some Danubian Culture-people contribution.
Maybe then as the Eastern Neolithic people filled the rivers and more fertile lands of the steppe, they adapted to a pastoralist lifestyle, likely advantageous for food production in the grass expanses.
They domesticated the horse, developed lactose tolerance, and improved social organization and animal breeds. Then they exploded demographically, as the Kurgan Expansion.
The Northern European plain had high densities of agricultural people in more fertile land, in the river valleys and some other areas. However as someone pointed out there are many sandy soil areas which are less good for agriculture but ideal for pastoralism. These "Baltic" Indo-European peoples may very well have occupied this niche. Since they had horses and chariots, a tremendous military advantage, and a warlike culture, they became dominant over the agriculturalists and a fusion "melting pot" culture drawing heavily on the Funnelbeaker Culture (with western Atlantic affinities), came into being- the Corded Ware/ Battle Axe Culture.
This was almost exclusively East Neolithic+ related Kurgan in the Baltic Sea area (Baltic branch); mostly "Baltic" with considerable Danubian/"Central European" and "Atlantic" in the east-middle (Slavic branch) and mostly "Atlantic" with some "Baltic" and CE in the North Sea/Scandinavia region (Germanic branch).
Slavic branch culture suffered much more Western Atlantic/Danubian influence than Baltic branch culture. They would adapt western agriculture techiques/seeds/organization to their eastern ones, and would thus be able to bypass the Balts into expansion into Forest zone Russia, then inhabited by a much more primitive neolithic culture- Finns (Combed Ceramic Pottery Culture).
From their Northern European plain base with their military advantages (=horses) smaller bands conquered the Western Atlantic and Southern Danubian and Mediterranean areas, establishing themselves as an elite and spreading Indo-European tongues.
Into Italy proto-Italic (similar to proto-Celtic actually); into France and Iberia and Britain pre-proto-Celtic-like tongues. Like Lusitanian. They were likely fragmented, coming in all directions from Corded Ware area. Linguistic unity could only come later.
"Atlantic" cultures relied a lot on seaborn small distance trade among themselves.
These Atlantic "proto-Celts" in Southwestern Iberia however sat on one of the richest copper and silver mines in Europe/Med.
Cornwall on a motherlode of Tin. This attracted attention from the developed Bronze age cultures of the Middle East. Phoenicians established colonies like Gades (Cadiz) as early as 1100BC.
I think it's likely the Celtic proper, despite its ultimate distant Eastern origins, developed as a lingua franca for this trade, either before or most likely under the strong stimulus given by Phoenician luxury items traded in return for the metals. Q-Celtic linguistic and geographical heterogeneity seems to point to it being an older group with P-Celtic likely an innovation associated with later Gaulish expansion into both Q-Celtic (old-Celtic?) areas and into non-Celtic speaking areas. - Saturday, March 12, 2011 9:09:00 pm
- Randy McDonald said...
In the case of the German-Polish border regions, the new west of Poland was populated disproportionately by people from the lost east--the former Breslau, now Wroclaw, was resettled substantially by migrants from the former L'wow, now L'viv.
- Sunday, March 13, 2011 9:52:00 am
- eurologist said...
"It would seem that Baltic speakers stretched all the way to Denmark, then gradually were conquered from the South by Celtic speakers, and what developed was a Creole we know as Germanic."
Archaeology shows continued cultural independence of the region north of the Danube watershed all the way to Denmark and east beyond the Elbe river (and at times farther, to the Vistula), for millennia. The region (except for the Saale/southern Elbe portion) was always poorer than the south, but traded with it even before a Celtic culture was established, there, but more so after - likely based on extreme proximity and the fact that they spoke about the same language (likely not the local "Celtic" - whatever form deviated from proto-Germanic that was - of the aristocrats and business people who started establishing a few new oppidae along the rivers in the south).
There is zero evidence of large-scale military advances northward (the "Celts" in southern Germany were crafty trades people, and lucrative trade is what they were interested in, also established by the formation of new trade towns along the rivers), as there is likewise zero evidence of any advance of something "Germanic" from Scandinavia.
The Celtic culture between much of Switzerland, southern Germany, Austria, and the Czech region was largely carried by an upper class that made large gains through connected, organized trade, but of course protected by an organized military. Celtic military expansion as such is a very late development - post-dating proto-Germanic by many centuries, and with targets solely in the very south. The majority of the people in the hinterland (including much of the south) undoubtedly were little affected by all of this and continued to speak their language - i,e, proto-Germanic.
Diogenes: "Since they had horses and chariots, a tremendous military advantage, and a warlike culture, they became dominant over the agriculturalists"
Horses during that time (from Bronze age until just before Roman times) were useless in the North for many reasons:
- there are no unforested plains you can cross, easily: you had thick underbrush, thick forests, and swamp land - with productive agricultural islands in between. The ox provided transportation through the narrow walk ways and heavy ground, with trails often straight - right through hills (rather than the gently curved trails advantageous for horses and horse carriages).
- the ground can not be passed easily for half a year (October through March or April) by horse over large distances without proper shelter and fodder stations.
- horses were so expensive to take care of in the north, that they were extremely scarce (well-documented by archeological finds) well into the iron age, almost until Roman presence. Hey require expensive (to grow and harvest) oats that you would not grow in large quantities, otherwise. Again, oxen were the work animals on the heavy fields, not horses.
There was no Kurgan expansion into Poland and Germany in terms of a "business model" - a better way of making a life, there. People would not have made it a single season. - Sunday, March 13, 2011 12:41:00 pm
- Unknown said...
"But doesn't Scandinavia have high levels of R1a? Shouldn't that place the region in the eastern cluster rather than the western one?"
Both Norway and Sweden (36%,42%)are mostly I1 with about even R1a and R1b. But this does not directly reflect the autosomal position because of the unknown relative impact of the maternal genetics (overwhelmingly H, 42%, 46%) - Sunday, March 13, 2011 1:58:00 pm
- Diogenes said...
Horses are never useless when you have them and the enemy doesn't. They could be few or many but still a major advantage. Horses and Chariots made it to Iberia very early (documented Chariot representations in Tartessian art), certainly not because they were useless.
The impact of the Kurgan people is well documented by Marija Gimbutas in the Northern European plain. Her theory has been gaining increasing acceptance, and could be considered majority view today...
Zones without many trees can always be found, and horses are likely a major military advantage even in less dense forests.
If the Northern European plain was congenial to pastoralism, likely history would be different. As it is, it's still the most congenial zone in Europe after the Ukranian steppe and Hungary. Thats why when much later Mongols/Tatars tried to conquer Europe, they came in through Hungary and Poland (where they were stopped by military defeat only).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Europe - Sunday, March 13, 2011 9:10:00 pm
- arvydas said...
Fanty said: "That clean split into 2 clusters is amazing to behold."
I don't see that "clean split". And if you add the Finns (most probably in the left-upper corner, if we extrapolate Baltic trend) then it becomes a nice tripod.
It is clear that the far right is Ibero-Britannic R1b, but I wonder- what is in the lower-left corner, towards which the Russians are gravitating?
arvydas - Wednesday, March 30, 2011 9:02:00 am


text:
What We Know About Pope Benedict's Resignation
In stunning news, Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday morning from the Vatican that he will resign his position as head of the Catholic Church, effective on February 28. This has already set off a flurry of speculation, largely because no pope has voluntarily done so since the year 1415.
The news is still coming in, but here's what we know so far:
- Pope Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected in 2005 at the age of 78. Now 85, questions about his health have been following him for some time now. In his announcement, he cited his physical condition: "I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise" of his position.
- His resignation due to health would be consistent with his past statements. When the previous pope, John Paul II, was getting sicker toward the end of his papacy, then-Cardinal Ratzinger said that if John Paul "absolutely cannot do it anymore, then certainly he will resign."
- Questions about the ongoing sexual-abuse scandals across the globe have plagued Benedict's years as pope, even leading many to call for his resignation as recently as 2010 over his role in what they see as greater concern for protecting the church than seeking justice. Surely some will now wonder if his announcement today is related to that.
- There is no obvious front-runner at the moment for the next pope, much like the situation in 2005 prior to Benedict's election. In the next few days, we will likely hear about many possible candidates. A major question will be whether the church will continue in the highly conservative direction Benedict led, or take a more liberal tack, possibly electing a non-European pope.
This post will be updated as events develop.

subset: commoncrawl


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We recommend having our shipping coordinator facilitate the transport of your new vehicle. We can handle all shipping arrangements in-house, so you know where your vehicle is from point 'A' to point 'B'. We highly suggest using only enclosed shipping to protect your investment. We useCentral Dispatchand they ensure all carriers are licensed, insured and bonded.
We have sold and shipped vehicles all over the world, with happy customers in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South America, and the Middle East, just to name a few. We can assist with the transport to your home port anywhere in the world, as well as help with the required export/import paperwork. We recommend the following import/export contacts:
•Halmari, in Houston, TX @ 1-713-644-0444
•Schumacher Global Transport@ 1-800-599-0190
We specialize in:
1. Vintage trucks and 4x4's! Pinzgauer, Unimog, Defender, Bronco, Land Cruiser FJ40 FJ45 FJ55, International Scout, Jeep Willys, Dodge Power Wagon, Nissan Patrol, Ford Truck 4x4s, Chevy Truck 4x4s, NAPCO, Marmon Herrington, etc.
2. Vintage American Cruisers! Cadillac Biarritz, Chrysler, Lincoln Continental, Oldsmobile, Convertible, Mercury, DeSoto, Ford, Chevy Belair, etc. and;
3. Muscle cars! Camaro, Chevelle, Nova, Challenger, Charger, Corvette, Biscayne, Cobra, Torino, Mustang, AMX, Falcon, Demon, Dart, etc. and;
4. European Classics! Porsche, 356, Speedster, Mercedes Benz, Austin Healey, Austin Martin, Rolls Royce, Volkswagen Microbus, MG, etc....
Although not a "no reserve" auction, the askingprice of this vehicle is well below comparable vehicles in the marketplace.
We would love to meet you in person and encourage you to come see the vehicles before you buy! If you cannot meet a salesman during business hours please call the main office, and one of the owners will meet you Monday through Saturday.
Due to our inventory size, we are unable to drive every vehicle for long distances. We also cannot guarantee that every gauge, light, window, horn, option, function, etc., will work as it should. Please check yourlocal state inspection requirements. We do our best to inspect these vehicles in every detail, and note any imperfections in the advertisement.PLEASE NOTETHAT WE DO NOT GUARANTEE ANY AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS, GAUGES, OR ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS. GIVEN THE NATURE OF THE VINTAGE VEHICLES WE SELL, THESE COMPONENTS CAN BE WORKING AT ONE MOMENT ANDNOT WORKING AT ANOTHER MOMENT. IT IS COMMON THAT THESE COMPONENTSWILL NEED UPKEEP OR ATTENTION. IN ADDITION, MANY TIMESTHESE VEHICLES SIT FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME ANDONCE YOU BEGIN TO DRIVE THEM SEALS HARDENAND GASKETS MAYBEGIN TO LEAK! CLASSIC CARS LEAK.PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH THIS BEFORE BUYING A VINTAGE AUTOMOBILE. Please call a sales expert to get details on these systems1-877-422-2940.
The term "restoration"in context to the vintage car world has taken on a definition of its own. For some people, a restoration is simply painting a car and replacing items as needed, while for others, restoration means an extensive disassembly and overhaul, with each piece getting rebuilt or replaced.
As a consumer, it's important to understand the basics of restoration levels for it can impact classic car values substantially. There are hundreds of ways to "restore" a vintage car or truck including but not limited to the following: i). Frame off restoration. Body of vehicle is completely taken off the frame and restoration includes body, frame, floor pans (top and bottom), etc. these restorations tend to be extensive and costly. ii). Rotisserie restoration. These restorations are when the body (or body and frame on a unibody vehicle) are disassembled and restored utilizing a rotisserie. Body of vehicle is completely taken off the frame and restoration includes body, frame, floor pans (top and bottom), etc. these restorations tend to be extensive and costly and iii). Cosmetic or "driver quality" restoration. These restoration are typically limited to cosmetic items including paint and body, interior, trim and emblems, etc. Within the three levels or restoration mentioned above, there can be varying quality from an "in the garage / amateur" restoration to a high dollar professional "concours" restoration. There is a universal 100 point grading system rating classic car conditions ranging from 100 being excellent to 20 being unrestorable.
In addition to the levels of restoration above, it's important to understand the type of restoration as well for it can also impact value substantially. Type of restorations include: i). Factory or stock restoration. This type of restoration is geared towards restoring the car or truck to stock specs from the factory as if it were new. These types of restorations use original or oem (original equipment manufacturer) where possible. Factory original restorations tend to bring the highest dollars from collectors. ii). Custom restoration. These types of restorations are geared towards builder preference over factory stock. These can be refereed to as "customs" or "hot rods". Typically these vehicles will have custom paint work, aftermarket wheels, suspension upgrades, power plant transplants, etc. A specific sector of custom restoration vehicles is "pro-touring" or "restomod / restomods" which are custom built with a more modern street performance and creature comforts than the original factory vehicle.
Please note that WWVA is not a restoration shop nor do we restore vehicles to any degree.
For questions on what type or level of restoration of any of our vehicles in inventory please call our vintage sales expert today at 1-877-422-2940.
We provide approximately75 HD images, and an HD video, in every one of our listings. Very few companies offer this much detail. We spend significant time inspecting and disclosing detailed items on all of our vehicles; however, at the end of the day, we are not you... we highly suggest that you come and inspect the vehicle.
The information contained in this ad is solely for convenience. The description is an opinion only and should not be considered a complete description of any or all faults; it may not be relied upon nor taken as fact or otherwise a representation or warranty of any sort. Please note, wedid NOTbuild or restore the vehicle. Vehicles are soldAS-IS, WHERE-ISwith all faults known/unknown and with no implied warranty.Unless shown in the photographs, we do NOT have documentation, receipts, or photographs of the vehicle listed.
We do not recommend driving a classic car home. Many classic cars are not driven often and tend to sit for long periods of time making them unsuitable for cross-country road trips. We strongly recommend shipping the vehicle.
We sell our vehicles mileage-exempt, meaning we do not know the actual, original miles. The information listed in the ad is based on the current odometer reading or from rebuild information provided by the builder, and cannot be used as fact.
Most of these vehicles do not have Carfax or Autocheck history reports; unless the vehicle is 1981 or newer, a Carfax or Autocheck history will not exist.
This vehicle is being sold byWorldwide Vintage Autos. All of our prices include a 30temporary licenseplate, a clearColorado title and VIN verification to ensure no surprises during the registration of your vehicle. We do not charge any additional dealer and handling fees!
Any vehicle listed in auction format may be sold, and removed fromauction, at any time.
Have a classic vehicle to trade or sell? Check our website for consignment information.
After selling thousands of classic vehicles, we understand the process and will ensure that you have a pleasurable experience. Check out our 100% positive eBay rating.


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Biden meets with gun safety and victims groups, 'critically important' to act
Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday heard personal stories of gun violence from representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations as he drafts the Obama administration's response to the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. He pledged that action would be taken.
"I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion (that) unless we can do everything we're going to do nothing," Biden said. "It's critically important (that) we act."
The meeting was part of a series Biden is holding this week to build consensus around proposals to curb gun violence after the Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown, Conn. Twenty school children were killed.
Biden meets Thursday with the National Rifle Association and other gun-owner groups. Meetings with representatives of the video-game and entertainment industries also are planned.
President Barack Obama wants Biden to deliver policy proposals by the end of the month. Obama has vowed to move swiftly on the package, which is expected to include legislative proposals and executive action.
Participants in Wednesday's meeting with Biden included the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence and groups from Arizona, Illinois and Wisconsin, states with spates of gun violence that garnered national attention, including the shooting in Arizona of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Also present were two survivors of the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people, as well as a stepfather of a victim of last July's massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in which a dozen people were slain. Attorney General Eric Holder also attended.
Dan Gross, the Brady Campaign's president, said afterward that the meeting was "very productive and actually inspiring." He said the administration is trying to figure out how to save many others from losing their lives to gun violence, not take guns away from lawful owners.
"Words like comprehensive and broad don't mean taking guns away from law-abiding citizens," Gross said as he stood on the White House driveway with some of those who shared their stories with the vice president. "This is not a debate around the Second Amendment."
But as the shock and sorrow over the Newtown, Conn., shooting fades, the tough fight facing the White House and gun-control backers is growing clearer. Gun-rights advocates, including the powerful NRA, are digging in against tighter gun restrictions, conservative groups are launching pro-gun initiatives and the Senate's top Republican has warned it could be spring before Congress begins considering any gun legislation.
"The biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said this week. "That's going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March. None of these issues will have the kind of priority as spending and debt over the next two or three months."
The killing of 6- and 7-year-olds at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School appeared to stir a deep reaction from the White House and Capitol Hill. Obama pushed gun control to the top of his domestic agenda for the first time and pledged to put the full weight of his presidency behind the issue. Some Republican and conservative lawmakers with strong gun-rights records also took the extraordinary step of calling for a discussion on new measures.
But other gun-rights advocates have shown less flexibility. The NRA has rejected stricter gun legislation and suggested instead that the government put armed guards in every U.S. school as a way to curb violence. A coalition of conservative groups is also organizing a "Gun Appreciation Day" to coincide with Obama's inauguration this month.
The president hopes to announce his administration's next steps to tackle gun violence shortly after he is sworn in for a second term on Jan. 21.
Obama wants Congress to reinstate a ban on military-style assault weapons, close loopholes that allow gun buyers to skirt background checks and restrict high-capacity magazines. Other recommendations to the Bidengroup include making gun-trafficking a felony, getting the Justice Department to prosecute people caught lying on gun background-check forms and ordering federal agencies to send data to the National Gun Background Check Database.
Some of those steps could be taken through executive action, without the approval of Congress. White House officials say Obama will not finalize any actions until receiving Biden's recommendations.
Gun-rights lawmakers and outside groups have insisted that any policy response also include an examination of mental health policies and the impact of violent movies and video games. To those people, the White House has pledged a comprehensive response.
"It is not a problem that can be solved by any specific action or single action that the government might take," said White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "It's a problem that encompasses issues of mental health, of education, as well as access to guns."
In addition to Biden's meetings this week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will meet with parent and teacher groups, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will meet with mental health and disability advocates.
The White House said other meetings are also scheduled with community organizations, business owners and religious leaders.


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Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Retrospective: H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands
From 1918 till 1922, Lovecraft himself penned nearly three dozen short stories where the influence of Dunsany is clearly in evidence. These "Dream Cycle" stories are not generally held to be HPL's best works, but there's no question that, despite their flaws, many possess a certain vibrancy and immediacy that makes them attractive. After 1922, Lovecraft largely abandoned his Dunsanian tales, believing himself not temperamentally well-suited to its idiom. Nevertheless, he did occasionally return to some of the characters, locations, and themes of his Dream Cycle in later stories, starting with The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath in 1926. For this reason, the Dream Cycle is sometimes considered a sub-set of his Cthulhu Mythos tales, even though the connections between them are tenuous at best.
Of course, tenuous connections are the stuff of which pastiche is made and so it is with H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, a 1986 boxed supplement to Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, written by Sandy Petersen, Kerie L. Robson, Keith Herber, and others. Subtitled, "Roleplaying Beyond the Wall of Sleep," Dreamlands is intended to open up a new realm for Call of Cthulhu adventures, one reached by leaving one's physical body behind and allowing one's consciousness to travel elsewhere. It's an intriguing basis for a fantasy roleplaying campaign, I can't deny, which is why I readily snapped up the supplement when it was first released. It's worth noting, too, that, though presented as an adjunct to Call of Cthulhu, its origins are in fact far older than that venerable game, having been conceived by Sandy Petersen before he wrote Call of Cthulhu (or so I believe -- someone with more certain knowledge can correct my misapprehension if indeed that's what it is).
Unfortunately, Dreamlands suffers a bit from the same problem that nearly every Mythos-related project suffers from: the need to codify. Now, as someone who is regularly guilty of the same vice, I say this not to point fingers at Sandy Petersen and friends. I mention it because I think the great difficulty in producing a roleplaying game (or supplement) that takes place in the land of dreams is that dreams are regularly whimsical to the point of incoherency. By their nature, they defy codification, even when there's a seeming connection between them. I often have dreams that take place in the "same" locale and yet, each time, details -- sometimes very large ones -- change or are omitted entirely and my dream self rarely takes notice.
So, while there's clearly a basis for a single dream realm in Lovecraft's stories, I'm not sure that realm is consistent enough to serve as the basis for, say, a canonical map. But that's exactly what Dreamlands does. It gives readers a map and a gazetteer of the Dreamlands, along with stats for many of its inhabitants, including its deities and other supernatural beings. It's all very well-done in a literal-minded way, but it certainly doesn't feel very much Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories, even the worst of which possesses that queer, malleable feeling that so many of my dreams do. Furthermore, the connection between the Dream Cycle and the Cthulhu Mythos feels very forced at times. Simply because, for example, ghouls appear in both doesn't mean that Lovecraft saw his stories as all taking place within the same "universe," at least no more than the fact that I dreamed about "M.A.R. Barker" means that he and I actually met.
If that all sounds nitpicky and pedantic, that's probably because it is. H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands is a supplement I enjoy and I regularly think about finding some way to incorporate it into my Call of Cthulhu campaigns, but I've never done so successfully. Every time I've tried to do so, it's felt a bit silly and cheap, more akin to revealing that Hastur is Cthulhu's half-brother than something mystical and phantasmagoric. Maybe the failing is in me rather than in Dreamlands itself, but I'm not yet fully convinced of that.
29 comments:
I'd be curious to learn how Dreamlands campaigns have worked for CoC groups in practice. Amongst CoC aficionados there seems to be relatively little discussion of the Dreamlands (at least that is my impression; I'm hardly an aficionado myself). I own this book, and very much like it, but my impression is that a Dreamlands campaign would be closer to a 'weird fantasy' campaign, rather than a 'standard' CoC campaign.
I do think that the CoC rules + Dreamlands + some house rules would serve quite well for a CAS 'Zothique' game.my impression is that a Dreamlands campaign would be closer to a 'weird fantasy' campaign, rather than a 'standard' CoC campaign.
I think that's right, which is fine, but it's very jarring both when compared to baseline CoC and the source material on which it's based. I've often thought of just running a "straight" Dreamlands game, where the PCs are all natives to this place and without any connection either to Earth or the Mythos, except the superficial ones present in HPL's Dream Cycle. I've never done it, though.I love the Dreamlands, both the novels about it and the supplement (the only CoC supplement I ever bought).
I've thought about running a "native" dreamlands campaign more than once, as both James and Akrasia said it would make for a perfect CASian weird fantasy.
BTW a board member on dragonsfoot (Turanil, I think) has been working on a cthulhu themed fantasy setting for quite some time: Swords & Cthulhu, the World of Zhultoom
The map is very nice and some ideas are wonderful, I hope he will publish it one day.Wow, you and I had very opposite reactions to the dream stories. I saw them as closely interlocked with the larger universe of the stories, and felt that, in that universe, the realms of dreams were as real as the real world, but that most people papered fancies over them in order to shield their minds from the shattering and dangerous revelations that could be found there. In nearly every story they appear, dreams, whether lucid or half-remembered, hold the truth to the protagonists situation which the rational mind rejects until the very end.
I'm still not sure if the ending of "Dream Quest..." supports or refutes that interpretation, though.It's fair to say that it's difficult to integrate the Dreamlands into an ongoing Call of Cthulhu campaign; I've been running and playing the game for almost twenty years and have never seen the Dreamlands in play.
That's more an issue of tone than anything else though. It's pretty clear that the two sides of Lovecraft's stories are connected, at least by the time Randolph Carter turns up. There is a good argument that the original short stories were never supposed to be part of a cohesive Dreamlands, but the Carter stories pull everything together into a more coherent canon. Or at least that's my reading of it anyway.
Even so, the shift in tone is too much for me to be able to bring the Dreamlands into play. It's difficult to go from blobby eldritch horror to magical cats and fairy dragons without undermining one or the other.The Dreamlands are difficult to tack onto a baseline CoC game because of the incongruous mood shift that Kelvin mentions above. Additionally, player expectations and learned CoC habits get disrupted by the setting shift.
However, if you start your campaign planning to get into the Dreamlands, then the campaign needs to be structured towards experiencing the "weird" rather than towards horror. Then the shift in mental gears isn't so disruptive for the players. I've played in such a campaign and it was really fun, a refreshing change from the Cthulhu standard.I love the concept of the Dreamlands in Lovecraft/Lord Dun terms, and got even more fascinated when I got the Mythos card game supplement for it with amazing art of the locations.
In my 90's Cthulhu campaigns, I eventually had characters interact with the Dreamlands. By that point my games were a little more on the Gonzo Derleth side of things, with more action and adventure than a typical Cthulhu game. PC's used a technique that made the real world fade out slowly into nightmare before casting them into Dreamland, so I was able to slip in some Nightmare on Elmstreet type visions. Sky was the limit. When they later encountered horrors in the real world, they would wonder if they were just falling asleep.In the only Cthulhu game I played with a strong Dreamlands component the gamemaster purposefully separated the games by having our standard Call of Cthulhu characters play characters in the Dreamlands. In other words the dream avatars of our characters were different.
An interesting aspect was that you could pay magic points to draw on a skill or knowledge from your other character sheet, although many dream skills were of limited use in the real world and vice versa. For example, once my real world investigator suddenly needed the ability to fight with a sword.
Worked quite well. Although it also relied on a related plot happening in each world.
Whilst The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath is one of my favourite stories, I admit I do prefer the much more hopeful and less Mythos-ridden Dreamlands stories of Brian Lumley. It's the escapist element, I'm afraid, where dreams aren't as scary because at the deepest level you know they aren't real, and characters (and places) can be larger than life. If I were to run it that would be the tone I would take.Wow, what a fanciful cover that boxed set has! I own the later, book form editions, one with the ship on the cover and the last reprint with the ominous, almost petrified sleeping faces (from 1987 and 1991, I presume).
I don't think that the Dreamlands Cycle is any way inferior to the rest of the Mythos, on the contrary, I feel the childlike wonder and the longing for unattainable beauty quite moving, like HPL allowed a leave for himself from his usual bleak, inhuman rigor, and let his lyrical half frolick free.
A long-time pet project of mine is to run a game set entirely in the Dreamlands, with characters native to the place and little to no connection with Earth. Capturing the elusive, melancholy and poetic feel of the land will be quite a feat as opposed to the opportunistic, roguish mindset of the average bunch of D&D characters, but with any luck, soon I will know how it's going to turn out.I am currently running a campaign in the Dreamlands. I'm using it in a fantasy context rather than a Call of Cthulhu game. I treat it as an alternate reality accessible to all worlds via dream; from the 'H.P. Lovecraft's Narnia' point of view it is like 'The Wood Between the Worlds' from 'The Magician's Nephew'. So, two of my characters are shamans from different parts of the world of Nehwon, and a third is a psychic space navigator from a starship in a (barely defined) science fiction setting. All of the characters possess some level of 'Dreaming' skill (mentioned in the supplement) which allows them to modify the environment. That's probably the key difference between the Dreamlands and a 'normal' fantasy setting.
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/nehwon/wikis/three-lands-first-session if anyone is interested.I haven't read the Dreamlands book, but I remember being interested in it and leafing through it in a shop.
Nowadays I'd recommend Don't Rest Your Head for dreamland-type games. It's not an old-school game, but it has simple mechanics and an example world. The example world is too defined to my tastes for a dreamy game, but it's easy to modify it.
The game is about people who can't sleep and acquire mystical powers via their insomnia. I've run two one-shots using it and it has been fun.
The game has some advice on giving more than the traditional amount of narrative power to the players, as opposed to the GM and even though I haven't used it, it might be a good thing to try out in a dreamlands game as other people might have different interpretations of things and describe more dream-like things happening.
It's a small book, so it might be worth checking out if you're looking for a game to run a Dreamlands campaign.
(for some reason I can only use Google Account to comment this - I've been mikkop through the Livejournal here this far.)When we ran a CoC campaign set in 1969 San Francisco the Dreamlands became an important element... they could be accessed by using certain drugs and there was a house that seemed to exist in both the real world and the DL (as well as other places... other Dreamlands?). The DL could be a pretty scary place as well...
ReplyDeleteI've also long had a desire to run a native Dreamlands campaign, even though the COC game does pretty much nothing for me. I also personally feel the HPL's Dreamlands stories are among his compelling (and also that they're clearly tied to the mythos via Randolph Carter).
I also agree that random-tablature seems ideal for conjuring the flavor of the setting (but I might argue that random mechanics were very out-of-favor at the time of this supplement being printed).Dreamlands was hard to incorporate into CoC games because you needed a Sanity score of 75 or more to make it past the Cavern Of Flame and down the 700 Steps of Deeper Slumber. Most CoC characters Don't have the SAN scores higher than 75 for very long, if they have them that high at all.
I always wanted to run a game completely in the Dreamlands. I even created a Dreamlands Module for online play using Neverwinter Nights. I never got to use it though. A Dreamlands-D&D campaign is on my list if things to do however.I simply assumed that the Dreamlands were an aggregate, the sediment of myriad mercurial dreams intermixed. They were the dreams that "sunk to the bottom" and took on a level of coherency. On the other hand, I always made it clear in my CoC campaigns that the Dreamlands were also a sort of Internet...they existed so long as human dreamers did. But if all the "computers" were destroyed the Web would vanish with it. As a final note, I viewed them the way HP often did...as the only escape from a relentlessly materialistic cosmos, the only refuge.


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It's crunch time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks.
The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved.
Summer travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon, but only after the court hands down decisions in all the cases it has heard since October.
In rare instances, the justices will put off decisions and order a case to be argued again in the next term.
This is also the time of the year when a justice could announce a retirement. But the oldest of the justices, 81-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has signaled she will serve at least one more year, and maybe longer.
The justices will meet Monday and again Thursday to issue opinions, and could wind up their work by the end of the month.
A look at some of the cases that remain:
— Contraceptive coverage: Corporations are claiming the right to exercise religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive services included in health plans.
— Abortion clinic buffer zones: Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics.
— Cellphone searches: Two cases weigh the power of police to search the cellphones of people they place under arrest without first obtaining a warrant from a judge.
— Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in 2012.
— TV on the Internet: Broadcasters are fighting Internet startup Aereo's practice of taking television their programming for free and providing it to subscribers who can then watch on smartphones and other portable devices.
— Greenhouse gases: Industry groups assert that environmental regulators overstepped their bounds by trying to apply a provision of the Clean Air Act to control emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants and factories. This case is unlikely to affect the recent proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly one-third by 2030; that plan involves a different part of the same law.
— Union fees: Home health care workers in Illinois want the court to rule that public sector unions cannot collect fees from workers who object to being affiliated with a union.
— Securities fraud: Investors could find it harder to bring class-action lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services.
— "False" campaign claims: An anti-abortion group says state laws that try to police false statements during political campaigns runs afoul of the First Amendment.
Copyright © 2013 Capitol Hill Blue
Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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KDD Competition 2010
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We're interested in working on the KDD Competition, as a way to focus our machine learning exploration -- and maybe even finding some interesting aspects to the data! If you're interested, drop us a note, show up at a weekly Machine Learning meeting, and we'll use this space to keep track of our ideas.
- Machine Learning
- KDD Rules and Data Format
- R language
- libsvm
- Weka
- List of other competitions in which we could engage
- Hadoop
- Mahout -- machine learning libraries for Hadoop
- So-so intro to Pig Video
- An AWESOME intro to Pig on Elastic Map Reduce!
- Pig language
- Pig Latin Manual
- Cloudera -- see videos for Hadoop intro
- Vikram's awesome Hadoop/EC2 scripts
- Our mailing list
- S3Fox
- Importing data into Sqlite for SQL'ing the data
- Visualizing Sqlite data in Omniscope for understanding the data
- Chance mapping dataset for Vikram's EC2 presentation
- For KDD submission: to zip the submission file on OSX: use command line, otherwise will complain about __MACOSX file: e.g.: zip asdf.zip algebra_2008_2009_submission.txt
- We will need to make sure we don't get disqualified for people belonging to multiple teams! Do not sign up anybody else for the competition without asking first.
- Add new features by computing their values from existing columns -- e.g. correlation between skills based on their co-occurence within problems. Could use Decision tree to define boundaries between e.g. new "good student, medium student, bad student" feature
- Dimensionality reduction -- transform into numerical values appropriate for consumption by SVM
Who we are[edit]
- Andy; Machine Learning
- Thomas; Statistics
- Erin; Maths
- Vikram; Hadoop
(insert your name/contact info/expertise here)
How to run Weka (quick 'n very dirty tutorial)[edit]
- Download and install Weka
- Get your KDD data & preprocess your data:
this command takes 1000 lines from the given training data set and converts it into .csv file attention, in the last sed command you need to replace the long whitespace with a tab. In OSX terminal, you do that by pressing CONTROL+V and then tab. (Copying and pasting the command below won't work, since it interprets the whitespace as spaces)
head -n 1000 algebra_2006_2007_train.txt | sed -e 's/[",]/ /g' | sed 's/ /,/g' > algebra_2006_2007_train_1kFormatted.csv
- The following screencast shows you how to do these steps:
- In Weka's Explorer, remove some unwanted attributes (I leave this up to your judgment), inspect the dataset.
- Then you can run a ML algorithm over it, e.g. Neural Networks to predict the student performance.
- Screencast1
- Screencast2
A more step-by-step weka example[edit]
How to run libSVM[edit]
- See the notes at Machine Learning/SVM
How to run MOA[edit]
- See the notes at Machine Learning/moa


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Microsoft touching up Windows 8 to address gripes (Update)
Microsoft is retooling the latest version of its Windows operating system to address complaints and confusion that have been blamed for deepening a slump in personal computer sales.
The tune up announced Tuesday won't be released to consumers and businesses until later this year. The changes, part of a software package given the codename "Blue," are a tacit acknowledgment of the shortcomings in Windows 8, a radical overhaul of Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous operating system.
With the makeover it released last October, Microsoft hoped to play a more prominent role in the growing mobile device market while still maintaining its dominance in PCs. But Windows 8's design, which emphasizes interactive tiles and touch controls, seems to have befuddled as many people as it has impressed. One leading research firm, International Data Corp., says Windows 8 contributed to a 14 percent decline in worldwide PC sales during the first three months of the year—the biggest year-over-year drop ever.
Meanwhile, sales of smartphones and tablet computers are booming. The biggest beneficiaries have been Apple Inc., the maker of the iPhone and iPad, and Samsung Electronics Co., which sells the most devices running on Google Inc.'s Android software. Google is also benefiting from Android's popularity through increased traffic to its services, creating more opportunities for the company to display ads.
By contrast, leading PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., which primarily sell Windows-powered machines, have been mired in a financial funk that has battered their stocks and raised questions about their futures.
Despite the troubling signs, Microsoft insists it's pleased with Windows 8's performance.
The company, which is based in Redmond, Washington, says more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold so far, up from about 60 million licenses in January. The licensing volume "is in the same general ballpark," as Microsoft's previous operating system— Windows 7—at a similar juncture of its sales cycle, according to Tami Reller, who serves as the marketing and financial chief for Microsoft's Windows business.
In an interview, Reller said Microsoft still realized changes need to be made to make Windows 8 easier to navigate and capable of taking full advantage of technology improvements that have come out since October.
"Are there things that we can do to improve the experience? Absolutely," Reller said "There is a learning curve (to Windows 8) and we can work to address that."
For now, Microsoft isn't saying what kind of changes will be introduced with the release of Blue, which the company plans to anoint with a different name when the update is available. Microsoft also isn't saying whether it will charge existing owners of Windows 8 devices to get the fixes in Blue. The company plans to release Blue in time for the holiday season.
Reller said more details about Blue will be released before Microsoft holds a developers conference in San Francisco in late June. Some of Blue's features are expected to be previewed at that conference.
"I view this as a relaunch of Windows 8, finally giving everyone a fully baked version," said technology analyst Patrick Moorhead. "It has been a very rough road for Microsoft so far."
If Blue is meant to make people more comfortable, the changes may incorporate more of the elements from earlier versions of Windows.
A common complaint has centered on the lack of a "start" button in the Windows 8 menu.
Other critics have pined for an option that would allow the system to begin in a desktop mode suited for running applications designed for earlier versions of the operating system. Windows 8 currently starts off showing a mosaic of interactive tiles tailored for swiping through programs with a finger instead of using a computer mouse.
Blue also might make it easier to find a set of controls—known as "charms" in Windows 8's parlance—that currently must be pulled out from the right side of a display screen.
Besides responding to customer feedback, Blue also will make Windows 8 better suited for smaller, less expensive tablets with 7- and 8-inch display screens, Reller said. She declined to say whether Microsoft intends to make smaller version of its own Surface tablets. In a conference call with analysts last month, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said the company was working with other manufacturers to make smaller tablets.
Moorhead also believes Blue will bring more built-in programs, such as a video editor and audio recorder, to Windows 8 and may also include other improvements.
One thing that Blue won't fix: the relatively small selection of mobile applications tailored for Windows 8. Reller said the Windows 8 store now has more than 60,000 apps. By contrast, there are more than 800,000 apps available for Apple's mobile's devices and nearly that many for Android devices, too. In one of the most glaring omissions on Windows 8, Facebook Inc. still hasn't designed an app to make its online social network more accessible on that system. Facebook has about 750 million mobile users.
Microsoft's decision to tweak Windows 8 so soon after its much-ballyhooed release may reinforce perceptions that the product is a flop.
Windows 8's flaws were quickly evident to analysts such as Moorhead, who believes Microsoft took some short cuts to ensure the new operating system would be ready for devices going on sale during last year's holiday shopping season. "It's like they had an airplane and they threw off some of the bags to make sure it could take off," Moorhead said.
Investors still believe Windows 8 will pay off for Microsoft, which gets more than half of its revenue from the sale of Windows operating systems and various software programs and services. The company's stock slipped 40 cents to $33.35 in Tuesday's afternoon trading, leaving the shares with a 20 percent gain since Windows 8 went on sale. That outstrips the 15 percent increase in the Standard & Poor's 500 index during the same stretch.
Reller is trying to frame the upcoming changes to Windows 8 as evidence that Microsoft is becoming more agile and nimble as it responds to a rapidly evolving technology market. Smartphones and tablet computers have been at the epicenter of the upheaval, diminishing the demand for PCs as more people and businesses opt for the convenience of increasingly powerful mobile devices.
Analysts say one reason Windows 8 got off to a slow start is because there weren't enough devices designed to take advantage of the system's touch-screen features. But that is about to change as HP, Dell and other PC makers prepare to roll out a wide variety of laptops and tablets with displays that respond to touch. More than 2,400 devices have now been certified to run on Windows 8, up from 2,000 in January, Reller said.
Most of the touch-screen laptops will sell at prices $50 to $250 below the first wave of comparable machines running on Windows 8, reductions that Microsoft hopes will prod more people to check out the system.
"As we look at Windows 8, it's important to remember a lot of its full potential won't be realized until there are more touch devices on the market," Reller said.
© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:
'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs in Iraq: Brian Castner commanded two Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in Iraq, where his team disabled roadside IEDs and investigated the aftermath of roadside car bombings. He returned home a completely different man, which he details in his memoir, The Long Walk.
'Margaret:' Inside The 'Fall' Of A Teenager: Kenneth Lonergan's critically acclaimed film Margaret stars Anna Paquin as Lisa, a Manhattan teenager who tries to make sense of a bus accident she may have caused — one that resulted in a woman's death.
Fresh Air Celebrates Woody Guthrie At 100: The legendary folksinger wrote hundreds of political songs, children's tunes and ballads, including "This Land Is Your Land," "Pastures of Plenty" and "Pretty Boy Floyd." Many of his tracks appear on a new CD box set released by Smithsonian Folkways.
You can listen to the original broadcasts here:
Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.


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The House on Thursday passed legislation to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of American phone records, the first legislative response to the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Although the compromise measure was significantly "watered down," in the words of Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, it passed by a vote of 303 to 120, with 9 members not voting.
"We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good," Mr. Schakowsky, an intelligence committee member, said in summing up the feelings of many Republicans and Democrats who voted for the measure but wanted tougher provisions. Dropped from the bill was a requirement for an independent public advocate on the secret intelligence court that oversees the NSA.
The USA Freedom Act would codify a proposal made in January by President Barack Obama, who said he wanted to end the NSA's practice of collecting the "to and from" records of nearly every American landline telephone call under a program that searched the data for connections to terrorist plots abroad.
The bill instructs the phone companies to hold the records for 18 months—which they already were doing—and lets the NSA search them in terrorism investigations in response to a judicial order. The phone program was revealed last year by Mr. Snowden, who used his job as a computer network administrator to remove tens of thousands of secret documents from an NSA facility in Hawaii.
The measure now heads to the Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the intelligence committee, has said she is willing to go along with a similar idea.
NSA officials were pleased with the bill because under the existing program, they did not have access to many mobile phone records. Under the new arrangement, they will, officials say.
"I believe this is a workable compromise that protects the core function of a counter terrorism program we know has saved lives around the world," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the House Intelligence Committee chairman.
Privacy and civil liberties activists denounced the measure, saying it had been "gutted" to win agreement from lawmakers such as Mr. Rogers who supported the NSA phone records program.
"This legislation was designed to prohibit bulk collection, but has been made so weak that it fails to adequately protect against mass, untargeted collection of Americans' private information," Nuala O'Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a statement.
Technology companies such as Google and Facebook also withdrew their support, saying they were concerned about language they fear could allow bulk collection of Internet data. Proponents say that concern is misplaced.
"Those who say this bill will legalize bulk collection are wrong," said Rep. C. A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. "They are trying to scare you by making you think there are monsters under the bed."
The White House endorsed the measure.
"The bill's significant reforms would provide the public greater confidence in our programs and the checks and balances in the system," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement Wednesday.
House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the bill is perhaps the most significant action Congress will take in response to the Snowden leaks. The former NSA contractor handed journalists documents that revealed a host of once-secret NSA surveillance programs, including some that sweep in the personal information of Americans even as they target foreigners.
Outrage over the programs that Mr. Snowden publicized brought together conservatives and liberals who favor civil liberties, while the administration and congressional leadership resisted changing what they considered a useful counterterror tool.
"I think there's been remarkable convergence on the issue," Mr. Schiff said. "It wasn't long ago that it was a real struggle with the idea of ending bulk collection. I think it's a very good bill."
Mr. Schiff said he wished the bill had provided for an independent public advocate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret judicial body that sets the legal parameters for NSA surveillance that touches on Americans. Such an advocate could challenge the government's legal positions on what surveillance is permissible, he said. As it stands, the FISA court only hears from the government. No one represents the American public, whose data is being collected, or the terror suspect in court.
Instead, the law includes "a fairly weak" provision for friend of the court briefs, which are already allowed under existing law.
"I don't think it's the end of the reform process," Mr. Schiff said.
In another change, the original bill required annual public reports by the government estimating, to the nearest 100, how many Americans were subject to various categories of secret intelligence surveillance, according to OpentheGovernment, a coalition promoting government transparency.
Those requirements were dropped from the bill, the group said.


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Wedding Favors Gift Bag Ideas
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ACC Basketball: Shin pain doesn't stop Duke's Curry
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Associated Press
DURHAM — Seth Curry has had a pretty good senior year for No. 2 Duke. Imagine how much better it might be if he could practice.
The senior guard is the Atlantic Coast Conference's third-leading scorer at nearly 17 points per game. He ranks as one of its top 3-point shooters with 57 and likely will play a big part in Duke's game plan against top rival North Carolina tonight.
That's despite lingering pain in his right shin so persistent that he rarely practices.
"It's the college player's dream," Curry joked Tuesday. "Be able to play a lot of minutes a night and not practice. I'm lucky."
Scrimmaging 5-on-5 is almost always out of the question for Curry, who has been playing with the shin pain all season and wears protective braces on his legs to help alleviate the pain. He says his work is usually limited to walk-throughs, going through defensive assignments and shooting without much contact.
Curry has downplayed the injury all season — "not too bad," he said Tuesday — and the key is staying rested and fresh.
"That's all I really need — rest," he said. "Get my shots up and try to focus on staying sharp."
The stat sheet suggests he's been doing a good job of that for Duke (21-2, 8-2).
His scoring average of 16.8 points, which ranks third in the league behind Virginia Tech's Erick Green (25.3 points) and Duke teammate Mason Plumlee (18.2), is nearly four points better than last year's.
He's shooting a career-best 45 percent from the field and he's hitting nearly 42 percent of his 3s — better than his 38 percent performance a year ago. Only N.C. State's Scott Wood (63) has made more 3-pointers than Curry.
He's playing 30.8 minutes per game — his most since he transferred in from Liberty after his freshman season in 2008-09 — and his quick catch-and-release shooting motion has made him a perfect fit in a motion offense that has him running the baseline, coming off screens and knocking down long-range shots.
"It's hard to guard anybody that's really good about running around screens, but if a guy can't shoot, you don't really worry about it that much," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "He does a great job of preparation of getting to the spot where he wants to get to the ball. He reads screens very well, they do a nice job of setting screens, and he usually catches the ball where he can catch it and shoot. . I think he reads screens and sets his man up and changes directions as well as anybody in college basketball."
Williams would know: In five appearances in the sport's fiercest rivalry, Curry has five double-figure scoring games. Curry averages 16 points and has made 48 percent of his shots — 52 percent from 3-point range.
Finding a way to slow Curry while not wearing themselves out will be key for the Tar Heels (16-7, 6-4), who will be short-handed on the inside. Williams says freshman big man Joel James suffered a concussion last week but didn't tell anybody about it until Monday, and won't play for a team trying to bounce back from a 26-point humiliation four days earlier at No. 3 Miami.
"It's difficult because you have to chase (Curry) around screens on defense, and then Coach Williams wants us to run 100 miles per hour on offense," North Carolina guard Dexter Strickland said. "You're chasing him on defense, you're tired and now you've got to run back on offense and you're more tired. Fatigue plays a lot in it, but you've just got to be ready to play."
Curry called it "speculation" to say that his stat line might benefit even further from four or five days of practice per week, but admitted his quickness and explosiveness might be better.
"I don't think he has chances to really work out after practice or do conditioning (and) it just says a lot about him and his toughness because just to play with an injury like that and perform at a top level is tremendous," Duke point guard Quinn Cook said. "I don't know how he does it."


text: Mother's Day Please leave us review. This New theme is about the The Mother's Day adaptation. For all uses of this name, use this The Mother's Day to show love ♥. A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dates all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path. A good mother loves fiercely but ultimately brings up her children to thrive without her.


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Join Nina for wonderfully stimulating educational activities (aged 1 – 5) in Inwood's natural community center.
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Olympic day of politics and power on the slopes
SOCHI, Russia (AP) The politics got a little hotter. The slopes got a lot slushier.
On a day when the mountain courses seemed better suited for the crawl or butterfly but posed no obstacle to Tina Maze, the Sochi Olympics took a more overt political turn.
Two members of the punk group Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina - were among nine people detained Tuesday while walking in downtown Sochi. All were later released and no charges were filed.
The two group members burst from the police station wearing trademark ski masks - one pink, one blue. Police said they were questioned about a theft at the hotel where they were staying.
Pussy Riot has become an international flashpoint for those who contend Vladimir Putin's government has exceeded its authority in dealing with an array of issues, notably human and gay rights.
''We are constantly surrounded by people ... who are shadowing us, following our every move and looking for any excuse to detain us,'' Tolokonnikova said after her release.
At the Olympic Park, the Russian hockey team looked plenty vulnerable in its opening hockey game in the elimination round, defeating Norway 4-0 in a game that - despite the scoreline - was anything but a rout.
No questions, however, about the Dutch speedskaters. Jorrit Bergsma won the men's 10,000 meters to lead another sweep of the medals for the Netherlands.
Seven gold medals were on offer on Day 12 and among the winners were Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway in biathlon, Pierre Vaultier of France in snowboardcross, South Korea in short track relay and Joergen Graabak of Norway in Nordic combined.
SKIING: Neither rain nor snow could keep Maze from her appointed rounds. The Slovenian skier captured her second gold medal of these games by winning the giant slalom. Maze was in full command, leading all the way and finishing 0.07 seconds ahead of Anna Fenninger of Austria. Defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was the bronze medalist and teen sensation Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. was fifth in her Olympic debut. Last week, Maze tied for the gold medal in the downhill in glorious sunshine. On Tuesday, the sun seemed lost in the hills. Maze marked the moment in the spirit of Michael Phelps, simulating a breaststroke in the icy slop. ''We are all wet, so I said, `Why not?''' Maze said. ''It's been a great day for me.''
HOCKEY: Russia is playing under immense pressure in Sochi. It did not look strong in the preliminary round, and that was the case against Norway, which hasn't won an Olympic hockey game since its home Lillehammer Games in 1994. The game was scoreless after one period and 2-0 after two. Russia got two goals from Alexander Radulov and advanced to the quarterfinals against Finland on Wednesday. Latvia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia also advanced to the quarterfinals.
SPEEDSKATING: The podium has become a second home for the Dutch, with the walls painted orange. Bergsma set an Olympic record with his time of 12 minutes, 44.45 seconds. He was followed by Sven Kramer and Bob de Jong, sending the Dutch to their fourth podium sweep at this venue and giving them a total of 19 speedskating medals. Kramer had to settle for silver after botching certain victory in this race in Vancouver four years ago with a baffling mistake in a lane change.
BIATHLON: Svendsen edged Martin Fourcade of France to win gold in the men's 15-kilometer mass start biathlon. They both finished in 42 minutes, 29.1 seconds, with Svendsen's ski crossing the line a fraction ahead. This was Svendsen's fourth career Olympic medal but first in Sochi. Ondrej Moravec of Czech Republic won bronze for his second medal of the games.
SNOWBOARD: Vaultier held off Nikolay Olyunin of Russia to win the gold medal in men's snowboardcross on a chopped-up course slowed by drizzle. Alex Deibold of the U.S., a wax technician for the Americans in Vancouver four years ago, took the bronze. Italy's Omar Visintin was removed by a stretcher after crashing in the semifinals. The event was pushed back a day because of heavy fog.
SHORT TRACK: South Korea won the 3,000-meter relay, passing China on the last lap to take the lead. Four years ago in Vancouver, the South Koreans finished first, but were disqualified and China got the gold. Italy took the bronze, giving Arianna Fontana her third medal in Sochi.
NORDIC COMBINED: Norway delivered a one-two finish in the Nordic combined large hill. Graabak broke away from a five-man group with about 100 meters left in the cross-country race, finishing six-tenths of a second ahead of Magnus Moan. Fabian Riessle of Germany won the bronze.
FREESTYLE SKIING: Skiing through sleet and snow, David Wise ended up with gold in men's ski halfpipe. The American scored a 92 on his first run, which held up as the weather worsened. Mike Riddle won silver for Canada, and Kevin Rolland took bronze for France.
BOBSLED: Lauryn Williams and Elana Meyers in USA-1 lead at the halfway point of the bobsled. Williams, a two-time medalist in track at the Summer Games, and Meyers made two trips down the Sanki Sliding Center track in 1 minute, 54.89 seconds to open a 0.23-second lead over Canada's Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse. USA-2's Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans are in third. American track star Lolo Jones is in 11th with teammate Jazmine Fenlator in USA-3.
CURLING: Britain reached the semifinals in men's curling by beating Norway 6-5 in a tiebreaker. The game came down to the final shot, and British skip David Murdoch delivered. The British will face Sweden in the semifinals Wednesday while Canada plays China.


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A diplomatic crisis is engulfing part of Borneo, after Filipino rebels seized control of a remote section of Malaysia's Sabah state as part of an unresolved territorial dispute that stretches back centuries. Malaysian security forces have surrounded 100 to 200 members of the Royal Army of Sulu, who have holed up in the village of Lahad Datu for the past two weeks in order to press their historic claim to the land. The Philippine and Malaysian governments are now engaged in tense negotiations in order to resolve the dispute without the use of force. The rebels, who hail from the autonomous island province of Sulu in the southwestern Philippines, had been given until midnight on Tuesday to voluntarily leave the area, but Manila has been desperately trying to negotiate an extension to this deadline to avoid bloodshed and a tense standoff currently hangs in place.
(PHOTOS: Flash Floods Kill More than a Thousand in Southern Philippines)
The leader of the rebel unit is the brother of Jamalul Kiram III, one of the two main claimants to the title of Sultan of Sulu. Back in the 17th century, before the Philippines existed in its present form, the two principle sultanates in the region were Sulu and Brunei. In 1658, the Sultan of Brunei for some reason gave Sabah to the Sultanate of Sulu, which today is considered part of the Philippines. However, the picture is further complicated by an 1878 deal between the Sultanate of Sulu and the British North Borneo Company, in which Sabah was leased to the Europeans on a rolling contract. To this day, the Malaysian government pays a token sum, equivalent to around $1,500, to the Philippines every year in recognition of this continuing arrangement. The Royal Army of Sulu interprets this deal as a lease that can be canceled, while Malaysia believes that it represents the permanent transfer of the territory.
It does not appear that the Malaysian authorities are willing to give up the land, which boasts valuable petroleum reserves, palm-oil plantations and also serves as an agricultural and manufacturing hub. Regional commentators have accused the Sulu rebels of trying to exploit past claims as a gateway toward ensuring future prosperity. "The governments of Malaysia and the Philippines are trying to manage this incident carefully," Jonah Blank, senior political scientist specializing in Southeast Asia for RAND Corp., a global policy think-tank, tells TIME. "We've seen many Muslim rebel groups arise or take refuge in the southern part of the Philippines, and Malaysia has brokered a fragile cease-fire: neither Kuala Lumpur nor Manila is eager to see that fall apart."
(MORE: Filipino Faces Jail Time for 'Offending Religious Feelings')
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday appealed to Kiram to instruct his brother to end the occupation. "If you are truly the leader of your people, you should be one with us in ordering your followers to return home peacefully," he said during a statement aired on national TV. On Sunday, Manila sent the Philippine navy ship BRP Tagbanua to Borneo carrying Filipino-Muslim leaders, social workers and medical personnel for a "humanitarian mission" to bring their compatriots home. However, Royal Army of Sulu sources indicate that the rebels are not willing to entertain such a retreat.
Some observers believe that the timing of the occupation is designed to disrupt the Malaysian national elections that are due before the end of June, and the issue has now become a political hot potato domestically. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a Philippine NGO, on Tuesday released a joint statement condemning the arbitrary detention of three al-Jazeera journalists who were in Sabah to report on the standoff. The group was eventually released after being held and interrogated for at least six hours. Liew Chin Tong, a Democratic Action Party MP and shadow Defense Minister for the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition of Malaysia, tells TIME that the country is now suffering the consequences of decades of poorly enforced border controls. "Sabah is a key state which was previously seen as a safe zone for the government but now keenly contested by the opposition," he says.
MORE: The U.S. and the Philippines, a Century Ago: Dashed Dreams of Empire


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The Slow Bicycle Movement
I'm fascinated by the growing Slow Food movement which started in Italy in 1989 and I can certainly understand its popularity.
"Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."As with all good, timely ideas, the concept has really taken off. Inevitably, the concept of Slow has spawned other offshoots.
- Slow Company
- Slow Design
- Slow Retail
- Slow Planet
- Slow Cities [Cittaslow]
- The World Institute of Slowness
- Slow TravelTo name but a few.So why not start a bicycle-friendly version of the movement? The Slow Bike Movement - no, make that the Slow BICYCLE movement - the very word 'bike' is a speeded up version of the original.
The very cool Icelandic artist múm anticipated this inevitable Slow Bicycle movement by creating the anthem.
Here's a logo you can slap on whatever you want to slap it on.