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I just released an article in my latest newsletter, Biodiesel Review, ( http://www.biodieselreview.com ) on all the different ASTM tests that make up the full ASTM D6751-08 panel and a brief summary of what they test for and in some cases how the test is done.
Click Here To See The Article.
I figured some of you might be interested in what I found & wrote about.
For those with more experience with the tests, feel free to chime in & give more details on them or correct any errors that I may have.
Also, Bently Biofuels has an excellent write-up of the different tests performed as well and what they may indicate. http://www.biodieseltesting.com/tests.php
(Also, new in this post, I'm including the Home Brew Equivalent (HBE) tests that I'm aware of.
If I don't list one, it means that I'm not aware of an equivalent test. If you know of one, chime in & I'll add it to this first post.)
ASTM D6751-08 Tests
ASTM D6584-Total & Free Glycerin Total 0.24% Free 0.02%
This test is by far the most important one. It's a measurement of how much glycerin is left in the finished product. Too much glycerin indicates the reaction didn't go well or that the fuel wasn't properly washed.
HBE - 3/27 Biodiesel Conversion Test
ASTM D445-Viscosity @ 40 deg. C Limit 1.9-6.0 cst
This is an indicator of how viscous the Biodiesel is. If it's too thick it won't flow right in the fuel system. It's very rare that Biodiesel ever fails this test. If it does, it's usually an indication that there's still a lot of oil in the fuel or some other contaminant.
HBE - World Famous Dr Pepper Viscosimeter
ASDM D664-Acid Number Limit 0.50 mg KOH/gm
This indicates how acidic the fuel is (similar to what a titration measures, only much more accurate). If fuel is acidic it's an indication of high free fatty acid levels or other acidic contaminants still present in the fuel. Highly acidic fuel can corrode fuel injection components.
HBE - Titration testing, to a point
ASTM D1160-Distillation Temperature Limit 360 Deg F Max
This is a test that measures what components "boil off" as a sample is heated. Biodiesel has a known boiling point. If during distillation the sample exceeds that point excessively, it's a good indication that there may still be oil in the sample. If it all distills off too low, then other contaminants may also be present.
ASTM D613 Cetane Number - 47 Minimum
This test relates to how well the sample will ignite. Biodiesel purposely put this number higher than diesel in the specification to brag about how good Biodiesel is. It's extremely rare that this test fails, if it does, it means your sample probably isn't Biodiesel or has high levels of contaminants in it.
ASTM D2500 - Report To Customer - No Limit
This indicates at what temperature a sample of Biodiesel clouds up. It gives an indication of when Biodiesel will begin to gel. Granted, clouding & gelling are two different things, but this test will give you a good ball park figure.
HBE - Shove it in the fridge w/ a thermometer & record the temperature at which it clouds.
ASTM D93 - Flash Point Limit 93 Deg C Minimum
This test indicates at what point a sample of Biodiesel will ignite in the presence of a flame as the temperature of the sample is raised. If it ignites before 93 Degrees Celcius (approx. 200 Deg. F), it indicates the presence of a highly combustible material in the fuel (usually methanol). This also impacts how the Biodiesel may be shipped. If its flash point is too low, the transport vehicle must be marked as flammable and hazardous. If this test is failed, it usually means you haven't removed all the methanol from the Biodiesel (ie. The Biodiesel wasn't properly washed all the way).
HBE - Carefully raise the temperature of Biodiesel in a pan OUTSIDE. Introduce a small flame to the top of the heating Biodiesel. Measure at what temperature the flame ignites the fumes from the Biodiesel.
ASTM D5453 - Sulfur Content - S15 - <=15PPM, S500 - <=500 PPM
This test is looking for the presence of sulfur in Biodiesel. Onroad Biodiesel can only have 15 parts per million (0.0015%) of sulfur. Biodiesel for off-road use can only have up to 500 parts per million (0.05%). This is a mandate by the EPA. Fail this test and you can't sell the Biodiesel in the US. This also applies to diesel fuel too. It's rare for Biodiesel to fail this test unless there are contaminants in the fuel.
ASTM D4951 - Phosphorus <= 0.001% , Sodium & Potassium <=0.005%, Calcium & Magnesium <=0.005%
This one is actually 3 tests combined and is done by spectrochemical analysis. The limits for Calcium & Magnesium combined are a max of 5 ppm, Sodium & Potassium have a max of 5 ppm. Phosphorus is 1 ppm. If you fail this test it's an indication that the fuel wasn't properly washed. It's also a good indication that there's still soap in the fuel too. I've seen some customers fail this simply because the water they were using to wash with had some of these components in it. This is also the test that is extrapolated out to identify the 41 PPM limit of soap in NaOH reacted Biodiesel and 66 PPM limit of soap in KOH reacted Biodiesel when testing fuel for soap content.
HBE - Soap testing to a certain extent
ASTM D2709 - Sediment & Water - Max 500 PPM (0.05%)
This indicates the presence of free water and sediment in Biodiesel. The test is performed by spinning a sample of Biodiesel in a centrifuge at high speed. Water obviously will cause problems in fuel systems and sediment can plug filters and leave deposits. There some speculation that this test may be removed in the near future for ASTM D6304, which is Water Testing by Karl Fisher because the Karl Fisher is a more accurate representation of all water in the fuel. If you fail this test, you most likely haven't dried or filtered your fuel enough.
HBE - Hot Pan Test
HBE - Heat, Weigh, Heat
HBE - Sandy Brae Water Tester
ASTM D874 - Sulfated Ash - Max of 200 PPM (0.02%)
In this test a sample of fuel is burned and the ash residue is measured. If the ash levels are too high (ie. sulfated ash) then the sample fails. It's usually an indication that there are contaminants in the fuel since Biodiesel will burn completely.
ASTM D4530 - Carbon Residue - Max 500 PPM (0.05%)
Carbon residue in fuel can lead to carbon deposits in the engine. Too much can cause engine problems down the road.
ASTM D130 - Copper Strip Corrosion Rating - #3 Maximum
This tests the corrosive nature of the Biodiesel sample. If it's too high, then it can corrode internal engine components. It usually indicates contaminants in the fuel.
EN14112 - Oxidation Stability - 3 Hours Minimum
The fuel is tested to see how quickly it oxidizes. If it oxidizes too quickly this means the fuel can go bad too fast while in storage. Several variables will impact this measure such as the type of oil that's used, however there are several additives on the market that can help improve oxidative stability. Even adding Vitamin E to Biodiesel in small amounts can help.
ASTM D6217 - Cold Soak Filter Ability Max 360 or 200 seconds
The fuel sample is chilled to a certain temperature, then brought back up to ambient room temperature. The fuel is then passed through a small micron screen. The time the fuel takes to pass through the screen is then measured. This measurement indicates how well the fuel will do in cold weather at gelling up. The standard is 360 seconds for fuel used in temperatures -12 Deg Celcius (about 10 Deg. F) and above. It should take less than 200 seconds for fuel that will be used in temperatures below -12 Deg C.
There's an excellent description of how this test is performed here:
HBE - Get an equivalent vial and filter screen & cool your Bio down, heat back up & pour through a filter & measure how long it takes. This message has been edited. Last edited by: Graydon Blair,
That cold soak filter test is incorrect!
It specs a 21 psi vacuum for the test. A complete vacuum is around 15 psi(29.92 in/hg at sea level).
They probably meant 21 in/hg vacuum.
Good catch.
He just fixed it.
For the D93, you need to heat up the biodiesel while covered. It's a closed cup flash point test. Also, subsections of D93 stipulate to for 'alcohol control' you need either less than 0.2% methanol or else a flash point above 130 Celsius. So for a homebrewer's test, one should be testing at 130C, not 93C.
Galen Bowen
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Springboard Biodiesel, LLC
Technical Blog:
Good points...
Keep em coming everyone..
I know it may be stating the obvious but the flashpoint test should be done on a SMALL sample only not on any large quantities and certainly no where near the main batch or stores of methanol etc.
If you do happen to have a low flash point due to residual methanol and you try the closed cup test you may lose more than your eyebrows especially if you are trying to test a large sample. 50 to 100ml would be more than sufficient for a homebrewer to see the flash point, you should be able to get away with a lot less.
A quick search of closed cup flashpoint equipment shows a 2-4ml sample size.
That is right for a controlled sample with a controlled flame size in a piece of laboratory equipment. However if you are just trying it in a cup with a lid on then opening it to stick a lighted match or similar in then you typically need a bit more of a sample. It is not always that easy to see the flashpoint of a tiny sample in nything other than ideal conditions.
Hi Graydon Blair,
Thank you for the informations on collective test methods for biodiesel... I have read the link on World famous Dr Pepper Viscosimeter, but it would be more helpful if there is pictorial representation of constructing it... Have you got any info on this Dr Pepper Viscosimeter
I personally don't have anything picture wise on it.
You may poke around on the forum thread where I've linked back to though.
Someone may have done pictures of how it works in the past.
Just curious if anyone has run across additional home-brew equivalent tests for any of the ASTM tests above that haven't been covered.
I may be able to add to your list.
The carbide manometer is a useful alternative way to measure water content. Essentially it works in the same way as the Sandy Brae but can be improvised by the homebrewer,
The falling ball viscometer can easily be constructed from standard plumbing fittings as is shown in my utube video. The formula that I used to translate the readings into Centistokes turned out to be wrong but the viscometer is still useful as a way of comparing viscosities of different liquid. Incidentally if anyone could help with the formula I would be very grateful.
The copperstrip test can easily be replicated . A small heated bath of biodiesel, controlled by a cheap PID controller with polished strips of copper suspended in it for the required time. However its hardly worth the trouble as Ive never had biodiesel that fails.
I test for flash point in an open cup which I realize is technically wrong but can be done. If you practice doing the test with fuel of a known flashpoint such as kerosene FP38°C you can get a decently accurate result.
In this test I wrongly state the flashpoint at 40°C, it actually occurred at 35°C. This result is only 3°C off the flash point of kerosene at 38°C.This message has been edited. Last edited by: imakebiodiesel,
I can offer a possible test for residual glycerol. I dry wash my biodiesel using my own system and like most drywash methods glycerol is not removed as effectively as with water washing. So my biodiesel can be as low as 20ppm of soap and still contain a significant amount of glycerol.
If I test the bio with the Wash Test I get clear separation of the 2 layers inside 15 minutes but a trace of cloudiness in the water layer. This indicates to me the the soap is sufficiently low but there is some residual glycerol. If I retest after a days settling the test will show perfectly clear water in the lower layer indicating that the glycerol has settled out.
Rereading this I should make clear that I confirmed that the soap levels in both tests were 20ppm measured by the soap titration test so the soap levels remained the same but something else changed, methinks glycerol.This message has been edited. Last edited by: imakebiodiesel,
Thanks for the updates!
dang I hadn't been here in quite some time. I guess i'm outdated now. Good news is my Appleseed processor has been working fine for nearly a decade
Brian Rodgers
Home of the biodiesel drinking bears.
2005 Jeep Liberty, 2003 VW Jetta TDI
1992 Dodge Dually Cummins Peirce Arrow Dumpbed
Good to see you!
All the Isuzu's still running well?
I performed a 50/50 shake up test yesterday on some high conversion biodiesel which was <10ppm soap.I also knew this sample contained a small amount of glycerol.
I can confirm the water phase is cloudy when glycerol is present.
This test is probably more useful for those who don't water wash.especially if an Ion Exchange media is used. These resins will reduce soap levels but not reduce any glycerol present.
how can you know that glycerol was present? with a soap test of less than 10ppm the biodiesl to me is top notch. I suspect your soap test is in error or there is a higher amount of mono or di glycerides in the biodiesel which would account for the cloudy shake em up test. Is the liquid in the 3/27 test clear?
" I don't know what I don't know until I know"
1994 GMC 6.5 Tubo 2005 Dodge ram 3500, 3 VW's 2000, 2002, 2005.
Hi Biotom,
No, there would not be any excess of Di's or Mono's in there.
I know what it was as it happened doing one of my experiments.
I will explain.
As I've mentioned before I use "spent glycerol" to de-soap my bio. A friend who also uses this method managed to have a totally clear 50/50 shake up test simply by settling (several days) then heating and bubbling,without water washing.
I thought I would try this (after all if it would dispence with the water washing stage that would be good) but it didn't work for me,I don't think I left it to settle for long enough.
I took a sample before I water washed it and sure enough next morning there was a residue of glycerol on the bottom of the container.
Thanks Tom and thanks for the PM's,appreciate it.
Can you explain "spent glycerol" for me. Byproduct is loaded with soap it works as a degreaser as is so I am having a problem understanding how this product which settles out of the biodiesel can now be used to remove soap from the same biodiesel. Sorry Dave I must have missed something. Keep up the good work!
" I don't know what I don't know until I know"
1994 GMC 6.5 Tubo 2005 Dodge ram 3500, 3 VW's 2000, 2002, 2005.
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Auditions for Stage Coach Players' spring musical, "Jesus Christ Superstar," will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 20 and 21 and from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 22 at Stage Coach Players Theatre, 126 S. Fifth St. in DeKalb.
All are invited to audition. The director seeks a large cast, ages 8-80, of all vocal ranges. The production is ensemble-driven, with many chances for vocal solos. Featured parts include roles for men who are tenor, baritones and basses, and women with mezzo soprano voices.
Those auditioning should bring a vocal number of at least 16 bars of music to sing and be prepared to dance and present a cold reading as needed.
Performances will be March 14 to 24, 2013. For more information, visit www.stagecoachers.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Taylor Swift Spotlights 'Ours' Video Director in Behind-the-Scenes Series – Webisode Two
"This is my second time working with Declan as a director," Taylor Swift says to start off the second behind-the-scenes webisode of her new 'Ours' video. In the first part of the series, Swift briefly introduced the video's director, Declan Whitebloom, who also directed the video for 'Mean.' In this clip, she explains in detail why she's so comfortable being in cahoots with him.
"I wrote the treatment for the ['Ours'] video, which is the storyline and the details of it, and he directed it — so it was very collaborative," Swift says in the short video below. "I had a very definitive idea as to what I wanted this video to be, so I just wrote it and I sent it to him, and he called and was like, 'I'm so excited. Let's do it.'"
And so the creative pair found themselves filming yet another music video together. In the making of the video footage seen here, viewers can spy Whitebloom coaching the singer on specific facial expressions, consulting with her on the set and, of course, having a few laughs.
"When Taylor says, 'I've got an idea,' you listen to what she's gonna say! And so I did, and it was a great idea and I loved it," he says in the piece, later adding that he "knew it was gonna be a good experience" and that their balance of trust is what made the project work.
Check out the behind-the-scenes vignette to see what else Swift has to say about her time working with him. Be sure to return to Taste of Country tomorrow and beyond, as this installment is only part two of a total of 13 webisodes.
Watch the Taylor Swift Behind-the-Scenes 'Ours' Clip – Webisode Two


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Our Fitness Blog
Top Seven Workouts to Help Speed up Your Weight Loss
Many of us are doing everything that we can to lose those excess pounds. We try everything that we come across to help us on our weight loss journey, but we may still not being seeing the results we want fast enough. If you are trying to lose those pounds in record-breaking time maybe you should consider adding some of these fat blasting workouts to your normal fitness routines.
Step Aerobics. Did you know that you can burn up to 800 calories an hour doing step aerobics? It is a great form of cardio exercise that uses your leg muscles to their fullest. This is especially beneficial for your body because the leg muscles are one of the biggest muscles in the body, and they use a lot of energy, which can help in burning more calories.
Cycling. Cycling is another great form of cardio that can help you burn a lot of calories, anywhere from 500 to 1000 calories per hour. You can pedal faster to achieve the maximum caloric burn, or you can take it easy and still see results. It is also a great way to get outdoors and liven up your fitness routine.
Strength Training. Many people overlook this necessary component in their workouts and think they only need cardio to help them lose weight quickly. If you lift weights you can burn up to 1000 calories per hour. It also helps you gain more muscle, which also helps you burn more calories because muscle burns more calories than fat. So, it is a win-win situation when you work on your muscles.
Boxing. Boxing is an intense form of exercising. It is fast-paced and high energy, which all adds up to major calories being burned. If you workout for an hour you can burn around 800 calories or more, especially of you get really into it. It is a dynamic form of exercise that can add some excitement to your exercise program.
Swimming. Swimming is a total body workout that is highly effective at burning calories. If you swim at a regular steady pace for an hour you can burn up to 800 calories. You can probably remember your trips to the pool or lake and coming home exhausted. It is because swimming requires a lot of energy, which can burn a lot of fat.
Dancing. I can not lie, dancing is one of my favorite forms of exercising. It is fun and exciting. You can switch it up and make it your own. It does not have to be the same old thing over and over. If you are keeping a constant and fast pace, you can burn up to 800 calories an hour, maybe even more depending on how much energy you put into it.
Martial Arts. Another way to add some excitement to your fitness routine is with martial arts. You can learn how to defend yourself, improve your balance and posture and gain a greater mental focus. If you add on the fact that it is an excellent way to lose weight, you get the perfect overall workout to add to your fitness routine. In an hour you can burn up to 800 calories or more, if you really get into your routine.
It can be challenging for most of us to achieve the results we want from our fitness routines. It seems as if we set ourselves up to become discouraged or sabotage our fitness routines. It is as if everything we try ends in failure, but we must not give up on our fitness goals. We need to find something we enjoy doing and stick with it. If we stay motivated and have patience, we may just find the fitness routine that will give us the results we have been wanting.


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As a child, I was taught to have an open mind when it came to the unknown. I was given books on UFOs, hauntings, mystical places, and other weird happenings. During the summer, you'd find me reading my family's collection of Mysteries of the Unknown books for hours. One of my favorites in the series was one about psychic phenomena, which interested me in particular because of a dream I had where I was walking to the restroom at school, holding my wrist. A couple days after the dream, I fell off the playground bars at recess, and my watch cut my wrist. My dream came true! Over the ensuing years more and more little things like that happened, coming to a head when I was 18 and dreamed I saw my already deceased grandma waving to me with my best friend's grandmother. When I woke up I knew his grandma was going to die. She ended up passing away two weeks later. I felt horribly guilty and freaked out, so I prayed not to have dreams like that ever again.
So I do believe there is some kind of weird psychic "connection" going on in the world, though I question exactly how it happens. Are some people naturally more intuitive than others, and accessing a part of their minds most of us can't? Or are they receiving actual messages from "the other side"? Or maybe it's a little bit of both. I have friends who are psychics and healers, and I dabbled in tarot a bit when I was younger. When I get time to read metaphysical books, they help me center and focus in a positive way. I also get my tarot cards read every once in a while. The first psychic I ever went to was during my high school's senior trip to Puerto Vallarta. The things she said about my life were so scarily true, it made me cry. I've also had some readings that were ridiculously inaccurate. This past month I decided to visit five different psychics in L.A. and compare what they told me about my future.
Naha, tarot, House of Intuition
My first reading was at a metaphysical store in Echo Park where you can pick up candles and crystals while you get a reading. In preparation for my reading, I was led into a private space where I was supposed to focus on my intent. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, thinking about what kind of information I wanted the cards to reveal. I focused on two fairly common subjects: love and career.
The tarot reader was a woman named Naha who had short, bleached-blonde and lavender hair and sleeve tats. She was sweet and cheerful and reminded me of Weetzie Bat. I felt comfortable right away.
Love: Naha didn't really give me specifics, but she asked if there was someone that I had been involved with back and forth, three times. I said that might apply to a couple of people in my past, but I don't talk to them anymore. Naha was happy that I don't. She said I had been attracting people at lower vibrations than mine, but now I will attract people at higher vibrations, since I am now vibrating at a higher level. She said a Scorpio dude would be good for me. (Justin Timberlake is a Capricorn, unfortunately.)
Career: Naha asked me if there were two women that I work with a lot. "One of them has a really far reach to the world," she said, tapping on the card representing the Queen of Swords. Tavi, datchu? She then said that I have this kind of power too, and the time to own that has come.
General vibes: All of my cards kept coming up in threes, including many swords and wands, which are "action cards." Naha said that people usually come into readings lost and stuck, but I was already ahead of all that. She felt a lot of good things happening for me, starting in the summer and opening up more in the fall. Much of her reading was advice oriented—and she told me to visualize how I would FEEL instead of a specific thing I want to have happen. It was a very positive reading,and I left feeling excited about all the magical things to come.
Zana, psychic medium
When I booked this reading, I thought I'd be visiting with Zana in person, but I found out she operates only over the phone. I immediately thought this was going to be some Miss Cleo-type shit. Bring it on!
Love: The first thing Zana told me was that the name Tom had come up; she asked if I had an ex with that name. I said no, and that I had no idea who that could refer to. Then she said it might be someone I will meet in the future, but that she saw him being very close to me now—she kept asking if I was sure that I didn't know someone named Tom. She said my future mang is going to be older, in his late 30s or early 40s, and is a Capricorn (like Justin!) or a Scorpio. He is really fit, she told me, into biking or running, and she saw me at some kind of event like a marathon or 5K (THAT is already weird). Tom has been divorced for three years, has no kids, and is conservative—more business minded than creative. Then Zana said, "Oh, and he has a dog!" The spirits must have told her that I don't like cat dudes. She added that there was a man from my past who is in a relationship now but is very confused and filled with turmoil. He thinks of me often and looks forward to talking to me because I ground him and make him feel better. UGH. Whoever that is, please don't call me, thanks. I ain't nobody's ego boost.
Career: Zana told me that what I'm doing right now is really good and will open the door to many other things and that I am being "SEEN." She said that she sees me writing for a sitcom. COOL! But I wonder if she said this only because I was cracking jokes the whole time.
General vibes and observations: Zana asked me a LOT of questions,which automatically makes me do the side-eye. She told me that I am surrounded by brightness, which means good things are coming my way. I am very intuitive, apparently, and must listen to my intuition. If I don't feel like going somewhere but there's a nagging feeling that I should go, then I must! That's where someone I am meant to meet will be. Zana saw me in the lobby of a big house or a hotel with a lot of natural wood saying, "Yes, this is it!" She also saw me in a plastic surgery or cosmetics office! OMG I better not be getting work done…
Ivory Lee, tarot reader and astrologer
I must have eaten something bad before meeting with Ivory, because my stomach was all kinds of fucked up when I got to her. I was rushing over to meet her and afraid that this reading was going to be all bad diarrhea vibes. But I immediately felt at ease with Ivory, who was warm and welcoming and GORGEOUS.
Love: Ivory was really accurate about my ex-boyfriends. She knew the timelines when I dated them and a lot of weird details. "There was that one at 25…what was up with that one? Were you lonely or something? He wasn't your type at all. EL ROACHO…" She must have meant the guy whom my friends and I refer to as "Pigpen." She told me that I would soon meet two guys: One was a Latino GOTH (!) who was probably "too sad for me." The other was going to be a very tall, muscular white guy who was fun and playful with me. She liked the second guy better for me.
Career: Like Naha had, Ivory asked if there were two women I frequently work with in writing. "There's one that is older, you'll learn a lot from her…I like her a lot." (Anaheed, datchu?) She also said that a lot of things are going to start happening for me in the summer, and coming to a head in the fall.
General vibes and observations: This was the most accurate reading I have ever had. Unlike with Zana's reading, where I was asked question after question, Ivory just TOLD me things, and these things were so personal and true that my eyes were watering the whole time. I had trouble keeping my mastered "psychic poker face" on. It was seriously unbelievable. I noticed that a lot of the same cards from the first reading appeared in this one as well, whatever that means. Ivory gave me amazing advice that makes me wonder if I should quit therapy and just see her every week. She teaches an astrology class every Sunday called ASSTROLOGY and has started doing horoscopes for Opening Ceremony.
Vikramadithya Ikshvivek, clairaudient medium
A couple of years ago, a friend told me she got a really accurate reading done by a guy who was buds with a mutual friend of ours. I ended up arranging to meet with him. The reading resulted in a memorable prophecy: I was going to get a writing gig near April of the next year…that ended up being the time when Tavi contacted me to write for Rookie. Clearly I wanted to go back to him.
Iksh is a different kind of medium. He is an avishkari, which means "spirit-possessor" or "manifester" in Sanskrit. What he does is stop breathing and become possessed by a ghost called the Germanic Madame. It's pretty wild, and the most unique kind of reading I have had so far. Iksh is currently writing a memoir.
Love: The Germanic Madame is persistent that I heed one particular warning: I must not to get involved with an older man. I wave goodbye to Tom, my divorcé cyclist boyfriend from Zana's reading. The Germanic Madame points out that I am still quite young and exclaims, "The fruit is ripe inside, it is not time to make raisin!" This becomes my official life motto. There is also talk in this reading of having two serious options for new menz. No specific talk regarding Latino goths or hunky jocks, but there is one that "tells dirty jokes and wears glasses." Oooh girl, if that's the case, I am definitely going to be in trouble…
Career: The GM is very specific about things when it comes to writing. She said that I will be writing the captions for pictures for some sort of anthology. I wonder to myself if she's picking up on some captions I wrote that morning. She says I am going to be visiting people and reviewing them. Um, is she talking about what I'm doing right at this very moment? I'm going to be involved in a project that has to do with TV where I am working with a man as his counterpart, and providing the feminine perspective on something. INTEWESTING…
General vibes and observations: Iksh's voice changes and becomes a couple of octaves higher when he is possessed by the Germanic Madame. The first thing she says before I ask anything is that I will be changing residences in October.
Madame Pamita, tarot
I have known about Madame Pamita for a long time, and decided to pay her a visit at her new space in Santa Monica. Pamita, who looks more like your rad aunt than Madame Serena from Teen Witch, greeted me warmly and led me to a room behind a curtain.
Love: Because I am an air sign (Libra), I have a tendency to overthink things. I need to release that, said Pamita. There was no specific talk about men I'll meet, just that "an amazing and blessed relationship full of love and great happiness" is coming into my life.
Career: She told me that I should focus on writing fiction, and that I need to spend more time writing privately. She said I will have great success as a writer and a beautiful and harmonious work life is ahead. I LIKE THE SOUND OF DAT.
General vibes and observations: Once again, the same cards came up as in my other two tarot readings! EERIE. Madame Pamita told me to make lists of what I am thankful for and what I want to happen, but write it as though it is happening now. I feel happy that all of these readings basically agreed on one important thing: I'm a badass bitch with a lot of good things coming my way. After my reading, I tell the universe that I'm ready for her and pick up a candle and some "attraction oil" on my way out. A little bit of extra assistance won't hurt, right? ♦


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What's even more expensive than college tuition?
The gold-plated tour.
Magellan Jets is trumpeting 10 hours of flying time on private jets – that start at $43,500. It also will arrange the itinerary and car services to get you and your budding college freshman from one campus to another. In its pitch, it says it wants to "take care of the headaches so you can concentrate on what is important…your child's future."
The price of that peace of mind and missing out on hours of driving time exceeds the average published cost of tuition, room and board for the just-ending academic year at a private four-year school, as compiled by the College Board. It puts that price at $40,917, before any financial aid and scholarships to cut the bill and before the bar tab and other personal expenses, including books. (Yes, Harvard is more expensive, at $56,407.)
The cost of going to your four-year in-state school averages $18,391, it says.
By comparison, Amtrak's discount for taking the train to campus visits (50% off the second fare) seems like a steal. If, of course, Amtrak goes there.
Likely there are plenty of prospective schools on the list to visit. The College Board recommends having five to 10 schools under consideration by the end of junior year, and applying to five to eight.
For those who opt for the private jet, it leads to the next conundrum: How will your college student get home for Thanksgiving? A packed economy flight, or another private jet?
— Silvia Ascarelli
Follow Silvia @SilviaAscarelli
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
How to vacation like the super rich
American teens don't want a summer job


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MISFILE - Book 4 - Created by Chris Hazelton
Paperback, 137 Pages
Price: $10.96
Prints in 3-5 business days
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile... The 4th book in the Misfile series of graphic novels.
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2 People Reviewed This Product
Oct 15, 2009"Question..." Is it the same size as a anime Graphic novel? I don't know the original size I should make mines....I need help, anyone??
Jun 19, 2007"Nice" I've only read the small previews of the book, and I got to say I wish I had a credit card account. ^^ It seems pretty interesting to me...! >__< And the fact you've been able to draw so much of one series is amazing.
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Product Details
- Copyright
- Standard Copyright License
- Publisher
- Chris Hazelton
- Published
- July 7, 2011
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 137
- Binding
- Perfect-bound Paperback
- Interior Ink
- Black & white
- Weight
- 0.69 lbs.
- Dimensions (inches)
- 6.63 wide x 10.25 tall
- Product ID
- 393135
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Disney World" href="http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/star-tours-20-will-b-7178/">Star Tours 2.0 promises the possibility of 54 different experiences when the updated attraction reopens at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida on May 20 and Disneyland in California on June 3.
Photos: Concept art for Star Tours 2.0
Star Tours 2.0, set between the "Star Wars" prequels and the original trilogy, will update the 1980s simulator ride with high-definition 3-D technology and special effects. Riders aboard the new Star Tours will experience a randomized storyline throughout the ride, resulting in a different beginning, middle and end for every journey.
[For the record at 12:15 p.m. March 24, 2011: While Disney has said in the past that riders would have the power to change the storyline of the ride, officials now say the ride will have a randomized storyline not controlled by the riders. This post has been updated to reflect this change.]
In the new ride, dubbed "The Adventures Continue," participants on board the StarSpeeder 1000 transport ship will join a pod race on Tatooine, fly above the skyscrapers of Coruscant and battle Boba Fett through an asteroid field within the fictional "Star Wars" universe.
Although not yet confirmed, other destinations may include:
* The Wookie planet of Kashyyyk
* The unfinished Death Star space station
* Queen Amidala's home planet of Naboo
* The snow-covered planet of Hoth
A "commercial" planned for the Star Tours 2.0 queue advertises getaway travel packages to the peaceful world of Alderaan, the cloud city of Bespin and the forest moon of Endor, but it remains unknown if the new ride will visit these destinations.
Confirmed Star Tours 2.0 characters include Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, Yoda, Boba Fett and Admiral Ackbar.
In addition, two new droid characters have been introduced for the Star Tours 2.0 ride:
* AC-38, or Ace, a Starspeeder pilot
* Aly San San, a spokesbot voiced by actress Allison Janney


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Private Loren Adams wrote to his uncle, Cecil Reasor, about his duties in camp and about taking care of his parents and grandfather with the money he would send his uncle. Adams was captured during the Korean War in December 1950 and died that month, but his uncle continued to hope that he was alive and a prisoner, and sent mail to him addressed through the Chinese government.
Second Lieutenant Arlen Richard Baldridge wrote his mother of a flight training accident that caused him to bail out of his plane in Massachusetts. He also wrote about the thrill of flying in a letter which was published in the newspaper. Baldridge was captured and murdered after his plane crashed in Germany in 1944. His parents received several letters concerning his disappearance and death.
Family members still remember and honor those they lost in wartime. This note was attached to a floral arrangement left at the West Virginia Veterans Memorial in tribute to Kenneth Monroe Barker, killed in Vietnam, from his aunt.
Private Fred Cavin provided a first-hand account of some of the bloodiest fighting during World War I with his description of the Argonne Woods. Written to his sister almost a month after the end of the fighting, he looked forward to coming home and mentioned how sick he had been with the Spanish Influenza, which killed millions worldwide.
Private William Roscoe Everett wrote his sister from England two months before being killed during the Normandy Invasion in World War II as a glider infantryman.
Arthur B. Greenlee left his Mason County home and enlisted in the Marine Corps during World War I. After training at Quantico, VA, he sailed for France, where he exchanged letters with his family in October 1918. His letter revealed his belief that the Germans would soon be defeated, while his father sent news of home and mentioned the flu epidemic, which killed nearly 3000 in West Virginia in 1918-1919. Greenlee was wounded at the battle of Bayonville on November 2, 1918 but returned to his family after an extensive hospital stay and rehabilitation.
Marine Private Raymond H. Jones wrote his father from Okinawa, hoping that his brother Dale would not be drafted. Ray was killed May 10, 1945 while Dale was captured and died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War.
Thomas Dale "Dewey" Jones wrote home during the Korean War from his New Jersey training camp and discussed his next trip to Brooke County. Jones was captured during the Korean War and died a prisoner of war. His brother Raymond had died during World War II.
Joseph A. J. Lightburn commanded Union forces in the Kanawha Valley before being promoted to general and transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, where he participated in the Vicksburg campaign. In this letter to a family friend named George, he recounts some of the action seen by the 4th WV Infantry, his former unit. After the attack of May 22, 1863, five members of the 4th WV Infantry were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Staff Sergeant Jessie Carrington McGhee served with the army in the Pacific theater during World War II, eventually dying in the Philippines October 22, 1944. In a letter home to his sister-in-law Garnette, he mentioned some of the fighting and what they did in their free time, as well as his happiness that his brother Lester had his mine foreman's papers, which would probably prevent him from being drafted.
Lieutenant Ballard McWhorter, stationed in India during World War II, wrote this letter home with his observations. He was killed November 9, 1950, during the Korean War.
Confederate Colonel George S. Patton of the 22nd VA Infantry wrote to Lieutenant James Welch about activities on and near the Kanawha River prior to the Battle of Scary Creek, which occurred July 17, 1861. Welch was killed at this battle, while Patton was mortally wounded at Winchester, VA on September 19, 1864.Camp Tompkins was located near the former site of the Valley Drive-In near St. Albans and is now occupied by a lumber yard.
During the Confederate retreat following the Battle of Gettysburg, George W. Peterkin of the 21st VA Infantry found a few moments to write his father about the battle and the losses suffered by the army. In 1878, Peterkin became the first Episcopal bishop in the new Diocese of West Virginia.
During the Civil War, 2nd Lieutenant John Price of the 7th WV Cavalry wrote to another officer in the regiment, Captain Jacob M. Rife, admitting his past problems with alcohol and promising to avoid drinking in the future. He hopes that Captain Rife can withdraw the charges he faces as a consequence of his drinking.
Sergeant Ralph Romine's letter to his mother and family sought information about people and events back home in Ritchie County, a common request of those overseas. He was killed in Italy on July 18, 1944, while another brother, Glendale, died the year before in North Africa.
Staff Sergeant William Smith received a letter from his mother in Logan, apologizing for not having any exciting news to send him but keeping him informed on family and friends back home. Smith was killed January 4, 1944 when his bomber was shot down over Germany.
The parents of Ray William Stotler received this letter of condolence from the parents of one of his buddies, Monte Pierce, who had been with him when he was mortally wounded in Vietnam on August 2, 1967.
Shirley Webb received this letter from his older brother Bruce during World War II while still a student back home. During the Korean War, Shirley Webb served in the Army and was killed in Korea.
Seaman 3rd Class George A. Wehrle witnessed the aerial support and invasion of Normandy from aboard the heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa. His diary recounted the artillery support provided by the ship for ground troops landing June 6, 1944 during D-Day.


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The widow of a man killed in the Colorado movie theater shootings has sued a psychiatrist who once saw suspect James Holmes as a patient, saying the doctor should have asked police to detain Holmes before the shootings.
Chantel Blunk filed suit in Denver federal court Monday alleging psychiatrist Lynne Fenton was negligent in not asking police to place a 72-hour psychiatric hold on Holmes. The suit says Holmes told Fenton on June 11 that he fantasized about killing people.
Fenton works at the University of Colorado, Denver where Holmes was a student. Holmes withdrew about five weeks before he opened fire in the theater on July 20, killing 12, including Blunk's husband, Jonathan, authorities said. Another 70 people were injured.
Holmes is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. He has not entered a plea.
The university said in a written statement it is sympathetic to the victims and survivors but that the suit is not well founded legally or factually.
Fenton's attorney declined to comment.
The lawsuit does not ask for a specific amount in damages.
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Psychiatrist Shares 4 Ways Sports-Obsessed
Families Can Affect Young Athletes
Families Can Affect Young Athletes
They're called student-athletes, but many youth advocates – including psychiatrist Gary Malone, are concerned that the emphasis is on "athlete."
"Anyone who follows sports knows that college-level and professional recruiters are looking at recruits – children – at increasingly younger ages, and it's not because they want to ensure these athletic students get a well-rounded education," says Malone, a distinguished fellow in the American Psychiatric Association, and coauthor with his sister Susan Mary Malone of "What's Wrong with My Family?" (www.whatswrongwithmyfamily.
"In my home state, Texas, a new high school football stadium is opening that cost $60 million dollars and seats 18,000. That's all funded at public expense. We constantly read of districts across the country cutting academic and arts programs and teachers' salaries due to budget shortfalls. How can this make sense?"
As a high-performing student-athlete throughout his own high school and college years, Malone says he appreciates the benefits of extracurricular programs.
"But the NCAA.'s own 2011 survey found that, by a wide margin, men's basketball and football players are much more concerned about their performance on the field than in the classroom," he says.
Malone reviews how the imbalance favoring athletic pursuits can damage student-athletes and the family unit:
• Life beyond sports: Only 3 percent of high school athletes will go on to compete in college; less than 1 percent of college athletes turn pro, where the average career is three years with risk of permanent injury, including brain damage, for football players. Even if they're among the successful elite, wealth management is likely to be a major problem; some studies show that up to 78 percent of NFL players go broke after three years of retirement. Is this the best future for a child?
• Misplaced parental priorities: A parent's obsession with a child's success in sports can be extremely damaging to a child, to the extent of bordering on abuse. Parents who look to their children to provide them with the validation, status or other unfulfilled needs don't have their child's best interests at heart. Parents who tend to be domineering can be especially dangerous in the face of an athletic success obsession.
• Siblings left behind: When the family values one child's athletic prowess over the talents and gifts displayed by his or her siblings, the latter children risk growing up without a sense of personal identity, which leads to co-dependency problems in adulthood.
• Pressured to play: Especially in the South, but throughout the entire United States, football is huge. Basketball dominates inner cities and regions like Indiana; wrestling is big in the Midwest and parts of the Northeast, and hockey might be the focus for children throughout Northeast and upper Midwest. Children, especially boys, may feel obliged or pressured to play a particular sport even if they have no talent or interest in it to the detriment of other talents that might have been developed.
"Athletics can be extremely beneficial to a young person's life, but I think we have our priorities backwards," Malone says. "Imagine how much better off our country might be if, instead of football, we were obsessed with our children's performance in science and math."
About Dr. Gary Malone, M.D. & Susan Mary Malone
Dr. Gary Malone is an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern and a teaching analyst at the Dallas Psychoanalytic Institute. He is a distinguished fellow in the American Psychiatric Association with board certifications in general and addiction psychiatry. He has worked in hospitals and private practices for more than 30 years. Dr. Malone is director of Adult Chemical Dependency Services at Millwood Hospital in Arlington, Texas.
Award-winning writer and editor Susan Mary Malone is the author of the novel, "By the Book," and three nonfiction books, including "Five Keys for Understanding Men: A Women's Guide." More than 40 of the book projects she has edited were purchased by traditional publishing houses. She is Dr. Malone's sister.


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For years, Barbara Stackhouse would go out every spring with her husband, Richard, to pick oranges from three big trees in her backyard in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood. The couple would give the juicy navels and Valencias to friends, family members and neighbors.
But as they got older, climbing ladders and hauling down all those oranges wasn't possible any more.
"They fall. The squirrels eat them. I had to put three bagfuls in the garbage on Sunday," said Stackhouse, 85, now a widow. "If somebody can use them, that's a lot better than having them fall on the ground."
Working to take backyard fruit that otherwise would go to waste, a growing "urban harvesting" movement is sending dozens of volunteers out every week into Northern California neighborhoods to pick fruit from thousands of residential fruit trees from willing homeowners and donate it to charity.
The largest of the nonprofit groups, called Village Harvest, recently visited Stackhouse's yard. A dozen volunteers removed 1,012 pounds of oranges from her leafy trees. The next day, the fruit was distributed to homeless shelters, senior programs and other charities through Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.
"It's fun. Somebody has to do it. Otherwise, it goes to waste. And there's no reason to waste food," said Bud Pyle, the team leader on the picking job at Stackhouse's home.
Village Harvest started in Palo Alto in 2001, when 22 volunteers picked 1,200 pounds of oranges, lemons and other fruit from nine backyards and donated it to an East Palo Alto food bank. Since then, the group has picked more than 1.5 million pounds of fruit, benefiting more than 100,000 people.
"It's based on the simple idea that there is an incredible natural abundance here — all the fruit growing on trees in people's yards — and a need," said Craig Diserens, executive director of Village Harvest.
An unknown trend a decade ago, today there are more than 100 urban harvest groups nationwide.
San Francisco has an "urban gleaning program" run through its city public works department. In the East Bay, the Urban Farmers, based in Lafayette, and Alameda Backyard Growers in Alameda harvest backyard fruit donations for food banks. Similar groups have sprung up in Fresno, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Orange County.
Diserens, who founded Village Harvest with his wife, Joni, is a former project manager at Hewlett-Packard and other high-tech companies. Through the use of databases, Web maps and other computer tools, he has organized 1,200 volunteers into an efficient fruit-picking army that completes 15 to 20 harvests a month from Gilroy to Daly City, turning the San Jose-based group into a national leader in the fledgling movement.
Village Harvest's volunteers come from churches, community groups, private companies, schools and other organizations. All year round, they pick oranges, apples, lemons, grapefruits, plums, apricots, persimmons and other fruit, and donate it to about 15 nonprofits that provide meals to low-income Bay Area residents.
"When school is out, children don't have access to free and reduced-priced lunches and breakfasts," said Jonathan Doherty, a spokesman for Second Harvest Food Bank. "Kids go hungry when school is out. Village Harvest gives us a lot of oranges, and oranges are a great source of vitamin C."
Second Harvest distributes the fruit and other food to 300 groups, including the Palo Alto Family YMCA, Half Moon Bay Meals on Wheels, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in San Jose, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Clara County in Milpitas.
"There's something about the bounty of sharing with others," Doherty said. "The leftover harvest is still perfectly nutritious and healthy."
Village Harvest needs volunteers. There are more five times as many homeowners trying to donate produce as it has people to pick it, Diserens said. He emphasized that homeowners can pick their own fruit and drop it off at dozens of charities around the Bay Area, listed at www.villageharvest.org, and are eligible for income-tax deductions.
Earlier this month, Village Harvest organized the first conference of urban harvest groups on the West Coast. Twenty-four groups came to donated space at Adobe Systems in San Jose and shared tips about how to recruit volunteers, how to use technology and other tactics.
"It's a tangible thing," said Randy Stannard of Harvest Sacramento, a similar nonprofit. "You know what you've done, and at the end of the day, you've filled stacks of boxes. A typical orange tree can feed 50 to 100 families for a week."
To volunteer, donate money or ask to have fruit from your trees picked, go to Village Harvest's website at www.villageharvest.org or call the group at 888-378-4841.


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U.S. farm production expenditures dropped nearly $20 billion in 2009 after a record-setting high in 2008.
"2008 was an abomination," said Jonah Bowles, agricultural market analyst for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. "It was a difficult year for farmers, so it's good news that expenses dropped."
According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service, this was the first major decline in farm expenses in nearly a quarter-century. Average production expenditures per farm fell 6.4 percent in 2009.
Falling gas prices were a major factor behind the overall decline, which led to decreases in the cost of fuel, fertilizer and agricultural chemicals. The report said farmers spent $12.4 billion on fuels in 2009, down 22.5 percent from the previous year.
The average U.S. farm operation spent $5,658 on fuel in 2009 — $1,642 less than in 2008.
And consumer gas consumption has mirrored that of farmers.
Total fuel expenditures nationwide included $7.22 billion for diesel, down 26.8 percent from 2008; $2.43 billion for gasoline, down 19.3 percent; $1.95 billion for liquefied petroleum gas, down 3.9 percent; and $800 million for other fuels, down 27.3 percent.
In addition to fuel, other input costs for farmers dropped in 2009. The average cost of fertilizer, lime and soil additives dropped 10.7 percent; the average cost of farm services decreased 4.2 percent; and average feed costs decreased 4 percent.
"Farm expenditures are constantly in flux, so if you take 2008 out of the equation, farmers are not much better off today than they were before that year," Bowles said. "The nature of farming is volatile, and we're just lucky farmers are willing to take the risks."


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On "Questions of Travel"
Ashley Brown (1977)
The title poem, "Questions of Travel," was first published in 1956, about four years after Elizabeth had taken up residence in Brazil. The tourist has now become the passionate observer and, in a sense, has lost her innocence. The poem is a wonderful mosaic of things that one can see and hear along a Brazilian highway say, along the road to Petropolis. (Some of these phenomena are, I fear, doomed as highway culture in Brazil resembles ours more and more.) The mechanics wooden clogs "carelessly clacking" over the floor of the filling-station, the bird in its fancy bamboo cage above the broken gasoline pump what a pity, says the poet, to have missed these things in all their particularity. And what random historical causes lay behind them? The poem builds up in a seemingly (but only seemingly) casual way to the two formal stanzas in italics at the end, where the traveller asks herself "Should we have stayed at home, / wherever that may be?" But she has already answered her question in the poem where, for meat any rate, a whole phase of lost experience has been transmuted into something permanent. The English poet Charles Tomlinson said, "for the fact of the matter is, Miss Bishop travels because she likes it, not because she is homeless in the way that Lawrence or Schoenberg were." But is it really necessary to insist on this kind of "radical homelessness?" It seems to me perfectly obvious that Elizabeth Bishop has followed Henry James, Katherine Anne Porter and certain other Americans who have gone out into the world, and these are the names to mention. She knows very well who she is. Again, speaking for myself, I have often wondered about the accidents of history that have made my Brazilian friends different from me they come from a country as old and large and diverse as ours, they had slavery twenty-five years after we did, they too are apt to make exaggerated claims. Elizabeths poems have more the "feel" of life in Brazil than anything else written by a North American because they undercut the large generalizations that we all have when we approach a subject on this scale.
From Ashley Brown, "Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil," originally published in Southern Review 13 (October 1977), rpt. in Elizabeth Bishop and Her Art, ed. Lloyd Schwartz and Sybil P. Estess (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983), 231-232
James McCorkle (1989)
The extreme process of self-definition, for Bishop, is the provisional and momentary act of writing and self-revelation. The poem becomes an interiorized debate the two voices are less separate characterizations than they are a compound self that interrogates itself and reveals, not affirmation, but doubt.
`[McCorkle quotes the italicized stanzas.]
The inclusion of the italicized transcriptions from a notebook emphasizes the durational quality of writing. Despite the seemingly multitudinous range of experience and possibility, Bishop asserts "the choice is never wide and never free," because we are governed by experience and language. The concordance of experience is not a Linnaean process if ordering chaos and intellectual control but a converse process where ordering and interrogation lead to further uncertainty. The moment of "golden silence" recalls the adage levelled at children, "silence is golden." The transcendent silences the two voices while returning us to writing and uncertainty. The adage, paradoxically, returns us to childhood and the subversive play of children. We thus return to the beginnings of the poem, the journals entries and questions, which break the imposed silence of that Victorian adage and admonishment authorized by the discourse of fathers.
From James McCorkle, "Concordances and Travels: The Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop," Chapter 1 in The Still Performance: Writing, Self and Interconnection in Five Postmodern American Poets (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1989), 20, 23.
Marilyn May Lombardi (1995)
Quae negata, grata "what is denied is desired." And what is desired may be wrongfully "pocketed." This awareness spills over into most of the Brazilian poems, particularly "Questions of Travel," in which she asks, in the name of all displaced persons:
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?
Where should we be today?
Is it right to be watching strangers in a play
in this strangest of theaters?
Oh, must we dream our dreams
and have them, too?
And have we room
for one more folded sunset, still quite warm?
The last query rebounds on both poet and reader, compelling the communal "we" to examine our urge to collect relics, "folded" moments pocketed in an effort to overcome our nagging sense of dispossession. Savoring this souvenir we call a poem, we as readers share the poets misgivings about the genuineness of human sympathy. Staring at her words resting on the page like "some inexplicable old stonework, / inexplicable and impenetrable, / at any view, / instantly seen and always, always delightful" the reader (a tourist in the alien topography of the poets mind" must ask herself whether she has room for one more image, for one more demand on her sympathy. Will our careful observation help any of us help the poet or her reader, or the world we ponder "blurrdly and inconclusively"?
Unlike the flaneur, a traditional masculine figure, the poet of "Questions of Travel" cannot remain comfortably aloof from the madding crowd. As Lois Cucullu observes, the woman who dares to travel alone is in a far different position than the male adventurer. The female flaneuse, or pedestrian, Cucullu reminds us/ may be mistaken for a common streetwalker/ Even though Bishops sexual preference alienated her from the marriage market, she nevertheless knew as a woman what it felt like to be on exhibition. For this reason, she might be expected to question the ethics of tourism with a greater urgency than her male counterparts.
From Marilyn May Lombardi, "Travelling Through the Flesh: A Poetics of Translation," Chapter 5 in The Body and the Song: Elizabeth Bishops Poetics (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995), 154-155
Helen M. Dennis
The best one can do as a "tourist" is get into it "like Indians"—but acting "like" is not the same as "being". In this reading of the Kantian sublime, the sympathetic imagination is no longer a sustainable solution, and we are left only with the recognition of inadequacy and difference. And that perhaps leaves one wondering, why bother? And that, I take it, is precisely the question in "Questions of Travel":
Think of the long trip home.
Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?
Where should we be today?
Is it right to be watching strangers in a play
in this strangest of theatres?
what childishness is it that while there's a breath of life
in our bodies, we are determined to rush
to see the sun the other way around?
The tiniest green hummingbird in the world?
To stare at some inexplicable old stonework,
inexplicable and impenetrable,
at any view,
instantly seen and always, always delightful?
Oh, must we dream our dreams
and have them, too?
And have we room
for one more folded sunset, still quite warm?
But surely it would have been a pity
not to have seen the trees along this road,
really exaggerated in their beauty,
not to have seen them gesturing
like noble pantomimists, robed in pink.
. . . . . . . . .
—And never to have had to listen to rain
so much like politicians' speeches:
two hours of unrelenting oratory
and then a sudden golden silence
n which the traveller takes a notebook, writes:
"Is it lack of imagination that makes us come
to imagined places, not just stay at home?
Or could Pascal have been not entirely right
about just sitting quietly in one's room?" (93-94)
Metaphors and similes operate here, but they tend to emphasize difference not similarity. The rain is not like politician's speeches in any fundamental way; trees are not actually noble pantomimists. Her previous assessment of the landscape and all it contains is more accurate: "inexplicable and impenetrable, at any view," pretty much sums it up. The self is not reflected in nature, one does not find confirmation of one's individual identity by travelling the tourist road. Instead, one finds inconsequential disruptions and discontinuitities. But the effect of this experience of being alien in an alien landscape is to prompt one to ask, as Bishop does at the end of this poem, "Should we have stayed at home, wherever that may be?" That is to question not only "travel" but its binary opposite "home."
from "Bishop and the Negative Sublime." In Kelly Lionel (ed.) Poetry and the Sense of Panic: Critical Essays on Elizabeth Bishop and John Ashbery. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000.
Return to Elizabeth Bishop


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New and pre-owned "heavy" SUVs, pickups and vans used over 50% of the time for business are eligible for the IRS's Section 179 depreciation write-off in the year they are first put into business use. The Section 179 deduction will reduce your federal income tax bill and self-employment tax bill, if applicable. You might get a state income-tax deduction too. Setting up a business office in your home can help you collect additional tax savings. Here's what you need to know about the benefits of combining these two tax breaks.
First, pick out a suitably heavy machine
The Section 179 deduction deal applies to a wide range of "business property." But when it comes to vehicles, the really big deduction is only available for an SUV, pickup or van with a manufacturer's gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) above 6,000 pounds that is purchased (not leased). First-year depreciation deductions for lighter vehicles are subject to skimpy limits of a little over $3,000—just a fraction of what a bigger vehicle can get.
It's easy to find attractive vehicles with GVWRs above the magic 6,000 pound threshold. Examples include the Audi A7, BMW X5 and X6, Buick Enclave, Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Tahoe, Dodge Durango, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Nissan Titan, Toyota Tundra, Ram pickups, and most other full-size pickups. You can usually find the GVWR on a label on the inside edge of the driver's side door.
Then play the home office angle
As I said earlier, the tax-saving Section 179 deduction is only allowed if you use your heavy SUV, pickup or van over 50% of the time for business. (The business-use percentage is calculated by dividing business use mileage by total mileage for the year.)
Sometimes the over-50%-business-use test is difficult to pass. But you're much more likely to pass if you have an office in your home that qualifies as a principal place of business. Then, all the commuting mileage from your home office to temporary work locations such as client sites is considered business mileage. Ditto for commuting mileage between your home office and any other regular place of business, like another office you keep downtown. You can also treat all mileage between your other regular place of business (that downtown office) and temporary work locations as business mileage. (Source: IRS Revenue Ruling 99-7.) The point is, when your home office qualifies as a principal place of business, you can easily rack up plenty of business miles just running around, which makes it that much easier to pass the over-50%-business-use test for your heavy vehicle.
More business mileage also means a bigger Section 179 deduction. For example, a $50,000 heavy SUV used 100% for business in 2014 generally means first-year depreciation deductions of at least $30,000 ($25,000 from the Section 179 deduction plus another $5,000 of "regular" depreciation). In contrast, 70% business use would generally cut your first-year deductions to only $21,000 (70% x $30,000).
Last but not least, allowable home office expenses count as business deductions that will reduce your federal income tax bill and your self-employment and state income tax bills, if applicable.
How to make your home office a principal place of business
Our beloved Internal Revenue Code gives self-employed individuals (sole proprietors, partners, and LLC members) two different ways to qualify a home office as a principal place of business.
First way: You conduct most of your income-earning activities in the home office.
Second way: You conduct your administrative and management functions in the home office. However, to take advantage of this qualification rule, you cannot make substantial use of any other fixed location (like another office downtown) for administrative and management chores.
If you are an employee of your own corporation, your home office write-offs are treated as miscellaneous itemized deductions that can only be written off to the extent they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income.
In any case, you must use the home office space regularly and exclusively for business purposes during the whole year. Exclusively means no personal use at any time, so you might have to wait until next year to set up your deductible home office and buy your heavy SUV, pickup or van. No problem. That gives you more time to shop around for the right vehicle.
The bottom line
You can potentially mate the Section 179 first-year depreciation break for heavy business vehicles with the home office deduction privilege and reap major tax savings. If you feel guilty about buying a gas guzzler, console yourself by thinking about the taxes you saved.
Open issues and caveats
It is highly likely that Congress will increase the maximum Section 179 deduction for tax years beginning in 2014 from the current $25,000 to $500,000. However, the maximum allowance for heavy SUVs and heavy short-bed pickups will probably remain at $25,000. Heavy long-bed pickups and most heavy vans would be eligible for the $500,000 maximum, which means many small businesses would be able to write off 100% of the business portion of the cost of such vehicles in 2014.
It is also highly likely that Congress will restore the 50% first year bonus depreciation break for new (not used) heavy vehicles placed in service in 2014. If that happens, total first-year depreciation write-offs for new heavy SUVs and short-bed pickups would be dramatically increased, because you could stack the 50% bonus depreciation deduction on top of the $25,000 Section 179 deduction.
Warning: Your Section 179 deduction cannot exceed your aggregate net business taxable income (calculated before the Section 179 write-off). However, if you operate as a sole proprietorship, or as a single-member LLC treated as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes, you can count any wages that you earn as an employee as additional business income. If you're married and file jointly, you can also count your spouse's earnings from employment as well as any self-employment income. These loopholes reduce the odds that you'll be hurt by the net business income limitation.
Warning: If you operate as a partnership, multi-member LLC or corporation, special rules apply. So consult your tax adviser about how to take full advantage of the depreciation breaks for heavy business vehicles and how the home office deduction angle works in your situation.


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Hi, my name is monica (hi monica) and I am a recovering charismatic christian fundamentalist(try and say that ten times fast). I put up my intro in recovering religionists, but I felt like I could get away with saying the same thing since it got me to the same place. I'll try to not write a book:
I was a Fundamentalist Christian for 20 years, give or take times that I "backslid".
At age 7, I had what many would call a conversion. The preacher had just finished his sermon, and I felt the impressed need to become a Christian. So I, of my own volition, converted. My faith was simple: Jesus loved everyone and people of other faiths were okay. My faith had not become toxic until I hit my preteens. At that time, I joined a Full Gospel Baptist Church which leaned heavily on talking in tongues and appearing "reasonable" to outside folks. I took to it like a duck to water, as that I wanted to do what God wanted me to.
By age 13 I was a Nondenominationalist. I had read many(too many?) books on the Christian faith, and believed that if only we set aside our petty denomination stuff and just accepted the whole thing(tongues, casting out demons, God raising folks from the dead). I adhered to the belief that anything not of God(aka Christian) was tainted and therefore should not come into my life. That included people. I still shudder that I told people with complete sincerity that they were going to hell unless they accepted Christ/stopped being Gay. But at that time, I really believed it was the right thing.
By my late teens, I started wondering if because of how I came about, and the things that happened to me in my own life tainted every good thing I tried to do. So, I began overcompensating even more. Giving more, working in the church more, and trying as hard as I could to save myself for the Christian Prince God had for me. Yes, I did believe in the lie that women were made for the home(even if they had a job) and men were to work.
All througout this time, my personality began to fracture. I would have moments of not remembering what I was doing. I'd split during conversations(as in body there brain def not there). I started obsessing over my sins and trying my hardest to be perfect like God commanded me to.
As for church protocol, I was to NEVER be alone with a person of the opposite sex. The reasoning was that if a man was alone with me, he would want to do something. As that men are weak and must be exhorted to holiness by their spiritually stronger sisters. I was to GUARD his purity as well as my own. So it was no small surprise that when a leader at the church attempted to rape me in my own home, I was told that I brought it on myself(by my cell leader, the leader himself, and my own mother). There was a bit of a coverup and we never spoke of it again.
The tipping point for my fall, and then my attempt at a life of reason occured around my 21st birthday. The summer before, I had a complete nervous breakdown: I was fasting more than eatting, reading my bible for hours, and praying for hours without relief. I honestly thought God had rejected me. Found me not worthy and wanted to blot me out from the family. The church I went to did NOT help. They demanded that I either speak to the pastor or one of the smaller pastors of the church and NOT seek psychological help outside of the church. I was told by various people to just read the psalms and "rest in god's love".
By this time I felt so unloveable that the only option was to remove myself. So, on Christmas Day, I attempted suicide by hanging. As obvious by the fact I'm typing, I failed. My mother, once verbally attacking me for my self-injurous behavior, put me in the hospital. I was miserable. But I talked to a psychatrist and two psychologists who gave me the diagnosis of depression. That, and they told me to NEVER go back to that church again, because it appears that it is a bit of an agitator of my depression and very well may be cult like. Since I was unable to really make the descision to not go(I had no car at the moment) the psychatrist and psychology both talked to my mother and tried their best to inform her that me plus that church equals possible dead me. She smiled and said she'd keep me away.
She lied. Long story short(too late), I began to question the church, it's methods, and christianity in general. Because I dared to question the method of leadership and some scriptures, I was kicked out of my cell group and blacklisted. Yes, I was shunned. Rumors were spread. It's still kinda raw, actually. But, after having the veil lifted, so to speak, I began to read. I first got my hands on God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. It literally became my tome(I'm a writer so I understood him far more than Dawkins).
After some time, I started at the bottom. I had little to no reasoning skills outside of "fire hot" and "walking infront of cars is a very bad idea". I began to just question things again, and through trial and error, figure out why I believed one thing and disbelieved another.I'm to the point now that I can reasonably talk to a FC and not go nuts like I did at the beginning. But I'm not at "perfect". I still hold alot of anger from the things that occured...and as family and former cell leaders state, that I allowed to occur.
Views: 316
No, not really. The town of New Roads is pretty small(and VERY catholic) so any small instance of me even attempting to cast atheism in a good light is reason enough for them to try and make my life miserable.
So I'm making the move to Texas. The folks there appear to be alot nicer, and aren't so nosey. Yes, there are bible thumpers but so far I've been shielded from them :D
Wow, Monica. It sounds like you've been through a lot. Welcome to a new world. It really is better out here. I really resonate with your story, especially the over-the-top devotion, fasting, the spiritual crisis & depression.
I hope you're finding a safe place & that you can find like minded people and get your community back.
You have been through so much and it is obvious that religion played a huge role in it all. I commend you on your new found freedom of thought and life. I make the analogy that leaving religion is like its like a toddler who can stand up for the first time by him/herself.
The new found freedom to think, act, walk and talk for yourself can be overwhelming at first, but you get used to it. After a while you will think "How could I have believed such silly myths and thought such ridiculous things?"
Thanks :D
I actually have that book! If you can believe it, my mother bought it because I was like "Come on, you say I should read more(lol)". I haven't finished it yet, but I also haven't finished that Dan Barker book Godless yet either. Have you read God is not Great? It's beautiful(I'm a fan of flowery words, what can I say?).
Thank you! I thought I responded but alas my ADD kicked in(lol). I've been a lot more vocal about my background lately, and so far only one person was stupid enough to tell me that I just needed a different church.
To love yourself, and not have any rules or regulations placed on that love, is living life to it's fullest. You are going to be fine. I believe this: I believe in YOU and I believe in ME. That's it. It's beautiful and so uncomplicated. I grew up in the Catholic Church, and I'm still undoing the ... I won't call it damage...harm. Be good to yourself, and everything else will fall in place. I would give up on proving yourself to your family because that's filled with too much contension. Nobody needs that. Do your own thing.
~ much love to you...Kat
I love it when I read a story like this. Monica you are stronger than all those christian apologists put together. I got over a ten year affair with christianity and have likened it to recovering from a car crash...in that for years I have been picking peices of glass out of my hair as the various mind sets have given way to more logical ways of seeing things. But it is a process and recently I joined Nexus and so have been encouraged by examples like yours...keep up the good work.
You can read my story on F/B The Atheist Experience in discussions/ de-converted christian
© 2019 Atheist Nexus. All rights reserved. Admin: The Nexus Group. Powered by


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DAY ONE: By the time we got to our hotel room, it was time for a quick unpack and then out to dinner we went. The Pancake Bakery, a well known pancake house located on Prisengracht near the Anne Frank House, came highly recommended. Their menu boasted over 75 different kinds of pancakes and omelets. I love breakfast for dinner so this sounded like a great choice. Well, we were quite surprised when we found out the traditional Dutch pancake, pannkoeken, and was essentially a crepe. We were thinking hearty, thick pancakes. Should have researched a bit more! A unique, authentic meal- but a bit overpriced when you're spending 10+ Europe for a glorified crepe.
After dinner we walked around the beautiful canals along Prisengracht.
They were some of my favorite in all of Amsterdam.
DAY TWO: First on the agenda for the day was a visit to the Anne Frank House. The museum opened at 9 am and by 10:30, when we arrived, the line was down the street and around the block. We didn't keep track of time, but it was probably around 30-45 minutes before we got inside the museum. It was well-worth the wait! The Anne Frank House was one of my favorite tours to date. It was an incredibly sobering and very well presented. The tour was self-guided which allowed you to go at your own place. They did an excellent job of preserving the building which allows you to gain a much more realistic understanding of what they went through. Standing inside those small rooms gave incredible insight to the lengths at which the families took to hide out and really made the story come alive.
After the Anne Frank House we grabbed a quick bite at an Italian restaurant and then headed over to the Rijksmuseum. Another long line which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't cold and windy that day. Once inside we were able to see the collection of Van Gogh as well as Rembrandt's Night Watch.
The Heineken Experience was the final item on our list and a great way to close out the day. We took a tour through the brewing process like most places, but truly got the 'Heineken Experience' with all of their interactive activities. We were able to watch Heineken advertisements in a comfy lounge chair, perfected our technique for achieving the perfect pour, got a history of the company, and of course the most interactive part of all- drank 2 Heineken beers.


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Dora Wilson
Dora Ann Wilson, age 69, of Malvern passed away Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at Mercy Health Center in Hot Springs.
She was born March 16, 1943, in Sparkman, Arkansas the daughter of John Marvin and Nancy Laws Randle. Dora was a Supply Clerk at HSC Medical Center for over 20 years. She enjoyed painting, dancing and being with her grandchildren. Other than her parents, she is preceded in death by her siblings, Bernice Herrington, Clara Lee, Randolf Randle, Eva Lee Griffith, Fred Randle and Johnny Randle.
Left to cherish her memory, husband, whom she married May 19, 1960, Charles Wilson; son, Charles A. "Tony" Wilson (Angela) of Magnet Cove; daughters, Eva Marie Westphall (Charlie) of Beebe, Arkansas, Frankie Dionne Wilson of Malvern, and Angie Mitchell (Danny) of Glen Rose; brothers, W.T. Randle of Dubberly, Louisiana, Darrell Randle (Pam) of Dardanelle and Bill Randle (Sue) of Modesto, California; grandchildren, Nicole Roberts (Mark), Brittany Westphall, Ashley Wilson, Josh Wilson (Jessica), Jason Wilson (Erica), Audrey Mitchell, Mabrey Mitchell, and Ayden Wilson; great-grandchildren, Jace Wilson, Brantley Roberts, and Aliyah Wilson; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be Saturday, January 12, from 1:00-2:00pm at Regency Funeral Home in Malvern.
Funeral Service will be Saturday, January 12, at 2:00pm at Regency Funeral Home. Interment will be at Rockport Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Tony Wilson, Jason Wilson, Josh Wilson, Danny Mitchell, Marvin Randle, and John Randle. Honorary Pallbearer will be Roger Murphy.
Arrangements are by Regency Funeral Home. You may sign the guest book at www.regencyfuneralhome.com.
H. N. Holden
H. N Holden, 88, of Malvern, went to be with his Lord and Savior on Wednesday, January 9, 2013. He was born on January 8, 1925, in Joy, Arkansas, to Hugh and Pearl Holden. He was a member of Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church and a Mason. Mr. Holden spent most of his working years as a superintendent of highway construction throughout Arkansas. He made many friends around the state and community. In retirement, he enjoyed restoring old tractors and planting large gardens. Sharing the bounty of the harvest with neighbors and friends gave him great pleasure. He was always willing to help anyone in need and gave of his time and talents freely. He was gifted with much wisdom and love.
He is survived by his loving wife of 69 years, Lela Mae, his devoted children: Linda Kuhnert (Dale) of Hot Springs, Kathy McNabb of Benton, Rhonda Thomas (James) of Paragould, Kim Holden of Malvern, and Tim Holden (Tina) of Malvern, ten grandchildren: Mike Nofsinger, Ricky Kuhnert, Brian McNabb, Leslie Holloway, Bart Daniel, Jamie McClelland, Matthew Thomas, Nathan, Seth, and Shane Holden, and four great-grandchildren: Hannah Holloway, Rebecca Kuhnert, Randa Perry, and Aynslee McNabb. He was preceded in death by his children: Robbie Holden and Patricia Daniel, his parents and six sisters: Hillred Wortham, Lillian Hopper, Dorothy Clay, Sybil Hoofman, Helen Taylor, and Geneva Shelby.
Visitation will be held at 12:00 and Funeral Services will follow at 1:00 p. m. on Friday, January 11, 2013, in Searcy, Arkansas, at Roller-Daniel Funeral Home. Pastor Brad Warren will be officiating. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery at Judsonia, Arkansas. For online guestbook www.rollerfuneralhomes.com


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Prologue: Brett Leveridge was standing on the subway. A guy comes walking down the platform, stopping in front of each passenger and delivering a quiet verdict: "You're in. You're out. You, you can stay. You — gotta go." Most people ignored the guy. But Brett found himself, against his will, hoping the guy would give him the thumbs up, and when the guy does, it's thrilling in a very small way: a tiny kindness from a stranger. Brett's story also appears on his website Brettnews, and you can see a graphic recreation of it in our comic book How to Make Radio.
Act 1- Tarzan Finds A Mate: New York City locksmith Joel Kostman tells the story of an act of kindess he committed, hoping for a small reward. From his book: Keys to the City: Tales of a New York City Locksmith.
Act 2 - Runaway: In 1940, Jack Geiger, at the age of fourteen, left his middle-class Jewish home and knocked on the door of a black actor named Canada Lee. He asked Lee if he could move in with him. Lee said yes, and in Lee's Harlem apartment, Geiger spent a year with many of the great figures of the Harlem renaissance: Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, Richard Wright, Adam Clayton Powell. This is what Geiger ended up doing because of that experience.
A side note: It turns out there's a movie in which Canada Lee takes a white teenager under his wing and counsels him, as he did for Jack Geiger in real life. The film is called Lost Boundaries.
Act 3 - Unkindness Of Strangers: How two next-door neighbors start treating each other badly, and how, once they start, they become obsessed with each other.
Act 4 - Chairman Of The Block: An odd occurrence at 124 East Fourth Street in Manhattan's East Village. For the last five weeks, a singer named Nick Drakides has stood on the stoop singing Sinatra songs late at night to the delight of his neighbors. The cops don't bust them; the crowds behave. It's his gift to New York. Blake Eskin tells the story.


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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem early Friday evening as local residents were preparing for the Sabbath.
At first most people assumed the sirens were the weekly signal that Sabbath was about to begin. But it quickly became apparent that something was different - the siren sounded different, and it lasted far too long.
It was later reported that the missile had hit somewhere near the Etzion Bloc of Jewish towns just south of Jerusalem.
Israeli army officials said the current conflict is likely to last several weeks, and is set to escalate to unprecedented levels.
Want more news from Israel?
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sonierae needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 34 designs submitted by 11 freelance designers.
Need a logo for new web site. The website will be centered around a book to be self published this summer. Logo should read: "Self Storage Millionaire: How to Find Your Fortune." Shades of Blue (From Navy to gray) Yellow and or Gold looks nice too!
Need a logo for the website. Name needs to be a part of the logo. Blues (Navy all the way to light blue) , grays, black, white. Also, one other complimentary color is okay (green?). Bold colors (as opposed to soft)
The logo will be placed on the website where the banner (of the road) is now.
Edit: Yellow
see description above.
- No "frilly" font
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Birds are known to respond to nest-dwelling parasites by altering behaviours. Some bird species, for example, bring fresh plants to the nest, which contain volatile compounds that repel parasites. There is evidence that some birds living in cities incorporate cigarette butts into their nests, but the effect (if any) of this behaviour remains unclear. Butts from smoked cigarettes retain substantial amounts of nicotine and other compounds that may also act as arthropod repellents. We provide the first evidence that smoked cigarette butts may function as a parasite repellent in urban bird nests. The amount of cellulose acetate from butts in nests of two widely distributed urban birds was negatively associated with the number of nest-dwelling parasites. Moreover, when parasites were attracted to heat traps containing smoked or non-smoked cigarette butts, fewer parasites reached the former, presumably due to the presence of nicotine. Because urbanization changes the abundance and type of resources upon which birds depend, including nesting materials and plants involved in self-medication, our results are consistent with the view that urbanization imposes new challenges on birds that are dealt with using adaptations evolved elsewhere.
1. Introduction
Urbanization is increasingly interesting to biologists as it causes significant changes to species composition, species interactions, and ecological and evolutionary processes [1,2]. Because organisms residing in cities are exposed to different environmental conditions from those in which they evolved, it is relevant to investigate how populations cope with such differences. Parasites affect most aspects of their hosts' life history and are an important evolutionary force [3,4]. Potential changes in host–parasite interactions as a consequence of urbanization may thus influence which species are most able to exploit urban landscapes.
A variety of parasites cohabit with birds. Of these, ectoparasites are taxonomically widespread, and have severe negative impacts on host condition, reproductive performance and survival [3–5], both because of their direct effects (e.g. blood-sucking) and indirect effects (e.g. transmission of endoparasites) on avian health. These selective pressures have favoured the evolution of defence mechanisms such as complex immune systems or specific antiparasite behaviours [3,4]. Self-medication is an antiparasite behaviour in which substances produced by other organisms are exploited to increase fitness [6]. For example, some bird species incorporate aromatic plants into their nests, and it has been proposed that the volatile secondary compounds contained therein may either have antiparasitic properties [7–10] or stimulate the nestlings' immune system [11].
Urbanization changes the abundance and type of resources available to birds, including nesting materials [12,13]; nest contents of urban birds represent a shift from natural to anthropogenic nesting materials [14]. In nests of some urban birds, cellulose cigarette butts are commonly found [15–17]. Butts from smoked cigarettes retain substantial amounts of nicotine and other compounds that may also act as arthropod repellents [18]. Prominent among these is the alkaloid nicotine. This is an antiherbivore chemical derived from the tobacco plant (Nicotiana sp.), and has been used as an arthropod repellent in some crops [19] and for the control of ectoparasites in poultry [20]. Consequently, we hypothesized that cigarette butts may act as an ectoparasite repellent in the nests of urban birds. We conducted field measurements and an experimental field manipulation to evaluate the prediction that the presence of cigarette butts in nests reduces the abundance of nest-dwelling ectoparasites.
2. Material and methods
The study was conducted in an urban population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus; HOSP) and house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus; HOFI) breeding at the campus of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City during the reproductive season of 2011. Both multi-brooded species are widely distributed in cities and are known to incorporate cigarette butts in their nests [15,16].
A thermal trap was placed to attract ectoparasites in nests of HOSP (n = 27) and of HOFI (n = 28) during their second breeding events. This consisted of a battery (12 V/17 A), heating two resistors (37°C) that were situated at opposite sides of the nest. Resistors were fitted with adhesive tape so that parasites became stuck as they reached the source of heat. The cellulose fibres from a smoked (experimental) or a non-smoked cigarette filter (control) were attached to the resistors. To standardize the experimental treatment, smoked filters were obtained from a single 400-pack of regular filter cigarettes (Marlboro) consumed by an artificial smoking device. Traps were left for 20 min in each nest, then the adhesive tapes were collected in individually labelled plastic bags and stored at 4°C until any attached ectoparasite was counted under the microscope (Karl Zeiss Stemi DV4). Nest content (empty, eggs, nestlings) was recorded.
Immediately after chicks fledged, 28 nests of HOSP and 29 nests of HOFI were carefully collected in individually labelled sealed plastic bags and stored at room temperature; nests collected during a week were processed the following weekend. We weighed each nest, assessed the nature and quantity of materials it was composed of, and quantified the number of ectoparasites it contained using Berlese funnels for 24 h under constant temperature and illumination (from a 60 W incandescent lamp; [21,22]). Mites were collected in vials containing 70 per cent ethanol and counted under the microscope as above. We quantified the contribution of cigarette butts as the total weight of cellulose fibre per nest. Ectoparasite abundance was the total number of mites collected. To evaluate differences in ectoparasite abundance between treatments, we used variance component analyses, including nest as a random factor and treatment and nest content as fixed factors. To test for an association between ectoparasite abundance and the weight of cellulose in nests, a general linear model was performed including species as categorical predictor. Analyses were performed using STATISTICA software.
3. Results
HOSP nests were heavier (43.70 ± 24.34 g) than HOFI nests (26.22 ± 12.53; F1,55 = 11.74, p = 0.001). Cellulose from cigarette butts was present in 89.29 per cent of HOSP and 86.21 per cent of HOFI nests, and weighted on average 2.45 ± 3.34 g (range 0–11.75) and 3.06 ± 4.15 g (range 0–14.86) in HOSP and HOFI nests, respectively. On average, HOSP nests included eight (range 0–38) and HOFI nests 10 (0–48) used cigarette butts [23]. Neither the presence nor the amount of cellulose per nest differed between species (all p > 0.55). The number of mites was not different between HOSP and HOFI nests (F1,54 = 0.22 p = 0.64). In both species, parasite abundance was negatively associated with cellulose weight (F1,54 = 17.31, p = 0.0001; figure 1). Traps containing cellulose from smoked butts attracted significantly fewer ectoparasites than traps with non-smoked cellulose (F1,54 = 43.13, p < 0.0001; figure 2). Also, control traps in nests containing eggs gathered more parasites than those in empty nests or in nests with nestlings (F2,52 = 3.74, p = 0.03; see electronic supplementary material).
4. Discussion
We provide evidence that urban birds incorporate cellulose from smoked cigarette butts into the nest and that this behaviour entails a reduction in the number of nest-dwelling ectoparasites. It appears that this effect may be due to the fact that mites are repelled by the nicotine, perhaps in conjunction with other substances, because thermal traps laced with cellulose from smoked butts attracted fewer ectoparasites than traps laced with non-smoked cellulose.
This novel behaviour observed in urban birds fulfils one of the three conditions necessary to be regarded as self-medication: it is detrimental to parasites [6]. However, to determine that this behaviour amounts to self-medication, it would be necessary to demonstrate that cigarette butts are deliberately collected and incorporated into nests because of their detrimental effect on parasites, and that such detrimental effect on parasites leads to an increase in host fitness.
The similarity between butt cellulose nest-lining and the use of green plant material in the nests of several species [7–11] suggests that the former may indeed be an urban manifestation of pre-existing behaviour, and it would be interesting to investigate whether HOSP and HOFI use green plant material in their nests (outside or within the cities). Alternatively, the use of cellulose from cigarette butts may be due to other properties of the cellulose (e.g. as a thermal insulator) unrelated to the effect of nicotine on ectoparasites. Presumably, both new and smoked butts can provide thermal insulation, but only the latter would protect against ectoparasites, thus a choice test under controlled conditions could be used to disentangle which is the primary function of this behaviour. Birds could distinguish smoked and non-smoked butts from their scent, just as some birds that use the chemical compounds of plants as defence against parasites appear to rely on olfaction to collect those with effective chemicals [24]. Thus, we propose that olfaction must be involved if the collection of cigarette butts by urban birds is a translation to the urban medium of a pre-existing adaptation against nest parasites.
Smoked cigarette butts contain a large number of toxic substances, including traces of pesticides [25]. Such pesticides, however, cannot explain why fewer mites were attracted to the thermal traps containing smoked butts, an effect that is consistent with nicotine being an arthropod repellent (figure 2). Nonetheless, those chemicals are in contact with the birds at the nest, and their toxicity could potentially counterbalance any benefits that may result from the reduction of ectoparasites occasioned by lining the nest with cigarette butts.
Vianey Palomera, M. Méndez-Janovitz, J. J. Zúñiga-Vega and E. Ávila-Luna helped in various parts of this project, constituting the BSc thesis of M.S.R. supervised by C.M.G.
- Received October 1, 2012.
- Accepted November 9, 2012.
- Cigarette butts help birds keep nests free of pests
- Urban Birds Using Cigarette Butts to Protect Nests - Youtube