text:
Photographer's Note
© 2014 - All rights reserved. The photos taken by photographer John Maenhout are registered and copyrighted. Use in any form (web, paper publication, public exposure, etc.) is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the photographer. To contact with photographer please use TE Contact Me
John's Flemish site
Thanks for viewing
Saturday afternoon I was in Ghent, a very nice old city with different nice old buildings.
The last years has a modern government, choice for change made, you can see on my picture, these place is very pleasant for families with children, without danger of cars, the parents can drink a good cup of coffee or a very nice beer out of the region.
I cannot make advertisement for one sort
In the past Emile Braunplein was fully developed. After the demolition of the last houses in the 60s the city council established temporarily in an above ground parking. The plans to build an underground parking garage were voted out by the people of Ghent in 1997 completely for no parking in a referendum.
One of the main thrusts of KoBra project ( Korenmarkt-Brabantplein) was the construction of the hall on it Emile Braunplein. Which is the meeting hall of Ghent, completely open at all sides. In addition, it will also form the backdrop to markets, dance demonstrations, concerts and more. Under the hall houses a new 'grand café' with a terrace in the new city park. Under the construction is good to stay and rest with shops, wc's and bike location as transportation for the car-free city.
The former art elements - the Minne-images and Mathildis clock - got a new place in the draft.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Shooting Date/Time
22/02/2014 13:50:11
Manual Exposure
Tv(Shutter Speed)
Av(Aperture Value)
Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed
EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Focal Length
Image Size
Image Quality
Picture Style
pajaran, chrisg76, papagolf21, danos, Subhogen, tyro, jacquest, pierrefonds, timecapturer, PaulVDV, cornejo, ourania, No_One, jjcordier, mirosu, ikeharel, Romano46, Schnappilic, mcmtanyel, photoray, krzychu30, bukitgolfb301, ChrisJ, kato, rychem, adramad, Graal, clic, Didi, Angshu, RhodieIke, RayTography, daddo, PiotrF, COSTANTINO, aliabazari has marked this note useful
Critiques | Translate
pajaran (98483) 2014-03-05 23:08
Dobar dan, gospodine.
Interesantan i dobar tekst o mestu sa istorijom i opisom ...
Lep pogled i trenutak ...
Dobar trenutak snimka, ostrina, kontrast i persapektiva, lepo pokazano mesto i trenutak sa posetiocima, lepe boje.
Dobar tekst o tehnici i elementima snimka.
Dobra kompozicija, lepo uhvacen trenutak, lepo mesto za odmor sa decom.
Imajte lep i uspesan dan, sve najbolje.
chrisg76 (1210) 2014-03-05 23:39
Good morning dear John.
What a nice place to live in.
It is certainly a very inviting and safe place for children to grow up and adults to have a good, relaxed and interesting life.
I love the buildings that are presented superbly from this POV.
Great light also.
Your note is also very thorough and explanatory.
Well done!
Warm Regards
jurek1951 (42198) 2014-03-05 23:50
Hi John,
a beautiful photo of this fascinating architecture, the composition is very nice, great details and the colours are beautiful. Splendid view,
papagolf21 (149683) 2014-03-06 0:11
Bonjour, cher ami John,
Quand le moderne côtoie l'ancien, cela étonne, mais, après tout, il faut vivre avec son temps.
L'image est belle et soignée, comme d'habitude.
Très bonne journée.
shreya2000 (2815) 2014-03-06 0:14
Dear Sir,
A pleasant atomosphere is shown in your pic. The place looks to be very clean and beautiful. Nice colours and contrast. Thanks for sharing.
carlo62 (81237) 2014-03-06 0:25
Ciao John
una piazza molto originale e bella, interessante la fontana.
Fa piacere vedere le persone che portano in giro i bambini, mettono sempre allegria erriempiono i giardini di voci e grida divertite.
fds (9963) 2014-03-06 0:38
Dear belgium friend very beautiful composition with this very beautiful postcard and very interested for my
Great colors and light and super scharpnees
danos (110395) 2014-03-06 0:47
Hi John,
very nice the view as the presentation of this section of the town of Ghent,with a lot of interesting elements to are the eye catchers.The brilliant light of the day enhance the vivid colours as the beauty of the scene.Well done.
batalay (41261) 2014-03-06 0:48
Dear John,
This is a very lovely photo of a slice of daily life in a par in Ghent. I have been eager to see photos of this city that is known for its history and beauty. I will visit your link "John's Flemish site" next.
Warm regards, John,
Subhogen (4067) 2014-03-06 0:49
Hello John,
A beautiful composition from Ghent. What a lovely picturesque town. I like the nice laid-back and relaxed atmosphere captured in the frame with these tourists in the FG. The Fg is very composed with the circular grass bank and the fountain. The buildings in the BG present nice old world charm. 'No cars' sound so good. More such places should be there where cars are not allowed. Excellent photo with nice natural colours, warm light and superb clarity. Thanks for sharing.
Kamilutka (8107) 2014-03-06 1:02
Hello John,
this is very interesting image almost bursting with plenty of details to dwell on. The architecture is quite original and the chosen POV shows it from a little bit different perspective. I like the people included in the composition, all busy with their own activities. Pretty light and colors.
Thanks for sharing
lousat (126527) 2014-03-06 1:26
Salut John,excellente capture et composition tres riche,il y a du soleil finalement et on peu sortir un peu,un corner tres joli et tres bien capture'.Belle journee' et merci,Luciano
Royaldevon (70349) 2014-03-06 1:43
Good Morning John,
This bright winter's day has given beautiful light for your photograph of Ghent, made all the more charming by the inclusion of these people, obviously enjoying the weather.
The elements are strongly placed and there is a lovely balance between the fountain and the bell. The steps make a natural lead into the b/g.
Have a lovely day,
Bev :-)
tyro (30513) 2014-03-06 3:31
Hello John,
An interesting note you have given about this place which appears to have undergone some very good and sympathetic improvements. It is nice that people can relax and enjoy time with their families here without the threat of the ever present motor car.
A beautifully composed photograph taken in lovely warm sunlight, the path on the left leading the viewer very nicely into the image and with some splendid buildings making a fine background. The fountain with its bronze figures on the right completes the composition very effectively.
Lovely light and colours, perfect exposure and exquisite details and sharpness.
Kind Regards,
BennyV (31046) 2014-03-06 3:54
Mooie foto van een knap staaltje stadvernieuwing. Ik hou ervan hoe er hier met verschillende niveaus gewerkt werd. Het werk van Minne (en de klok) krijgen zo een welverdiende upgrade. Ik moet toch nog eens naar Gent gaan...
jacquest (19251) 2014-03-06 3:58
Hello John,
I like this scene very much with the mix of architecture and the life in the park. The light is superb and gives good and natural colors with very good sharpness. I like the big bell.
Best regards
mesutilgim (0) 2014-03-06 4:15
Hello dear John,
Nice capture of this beautiful city in Flanders.
It brought back many nice rememberances from many many years ago when I'd spent two wonderfull days in Gent and spent two nights just in this Hotel,Novotel.
Amazing "photogenic" sky as background.
Many interesting notes as well.
TFS and best regards
PS.Many thanks also for your encpuraging message for our beloved friend Rabia Iffet who has now her last rsting place on the slopes of Bosphorus in a graveyard with a mejestic view towards Bosphorus. We shall miss here much.
pierrefonds (99448) 2014-03-06 4:29
Hi John,
The presence of the peeople is adding life to the scene. The distance between the sculptures and the buildings is giving depth to the composition. The point of view is showing the details and the colours of the buildings. The good luminosity is bringing out the beauty of the colours. Have a nice day.
Sergiom (117241) 2014-03-06 4:32
Bonjour John
Je ne suis passé que quelques heures dans cette très belle ville et je regrette d'en avoir manqué le plus beau. J'aurais aimé marcher la ville car elle est très belle. Tu nous en montre un petit coin bien charmant.
timecapturer (49288) 2014-03-06 5:20
Hi John
a wonderful composition this. So perfectly balanced and a real mix of complementary elements that makes it so attractive . Amazing clarity and enticing lines that captivate the viewer. Excellent!
dkmurphys (77640) 2014-03-06 6:25
Hi John,
Very fine scene from that amazing city. I like the good mood atmosphere.
Have a fine evening.
Nicou (193806) 2014-03-06 7:13
quelle iamge et compo sueprbe avec cette statue en rond et l'animation et les personnage quel parc entouré de ces belles maisons fantastique.
Bravo et amitié
saxo042 (38078) 2014-03-06 7:32
Hi John,
A very pleasant mixture of old and modern architecture. This picture is also full of life with all the persons here, enjoying the exhibition of interesting artworks. The green barriers are well incorporated in the composition.
Kind regards
holmertz (89242) 2014-03-06 7:39
Hello John,
This is an interesting and pleasant blend of old and new and different styles of architecture. I think one reason for the nice impression I get is that it it shows two different levels, which makes the view quite dynamic. The park at the lower level is nicely filled with people, including statues on a fountain. As in most of your photos you enjoyed a beautiful sunny wather.
Kind regards,
PaulVDV (51544) 2014-03-06 10:03
Hallo John,
Een prachtige compositie in verschillende niveaus.
Magnifieke kleuren en contrasten met eveneens een sterk contrast tussen verschillende architectuurstijlen.
Vanuit een zeer goed standpunt genomen.
Uitstekende helderheid en scherpte.
Vele groeten vanuit een zonnig Brabant, Paul
cornejo (61504) 2014-03-06 10:16
Hi John, good view of this interesting scene of daily life with interesting edifcios the background, well captured with good photography. Interesting picture with good sharpness, depth, light and color. Very good job well done, congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this interesting work.
Good night and happy weekend.
Warm greetings from southern Spain.
ourania (51103) 2014-03-06 10:51
Hello John,
a very interesting corner of the fine city of Ghent, your composition is solid and elegant and the different styles of architecture, the park, the monuments and the people are so well placed and bound together. Each building has its own character and is differently affected by the light too. Clarity and colours are exquisite, you are offering us a very vivid experience of this scenery. I particularly like the presence and placement of the cyclist and her shadow. Congratulations and thank you!
All the best, have a lovely evening,
No_One (4) 2014-03-06 13:54
Hi John,
There is so much to see in this shot, the buildings, the sculpture, the people and all under such rich and wonderful light. Combined with your note, this is a wonderful post, filled with interesting, color and life.
Thanks as always
Periko (8297) 2014-03-06 15:01
Beautiful composition, John. Besides the nice architecture, the bell and the sculptoric group are interesting elements.
elenimavrandoni (0) 2014-03-06 18:18
John, such a relaxing and peaceful setting, colorful, sunny, bright and happy...so nice to see people enjoying a moment in the open air, a laid back moment!!
thank you very much for visiting me and for your very sweet words!! appreciated!!
cebe (1491) 2014-03-06 19:08
Hello John,
Pleasant city view. Good light and many things to look at. Very well composed too with the bell in one corner, the fountain in the other and the diagonal stairs making the link. Most (i.e. all but the man by the frame at left) people well placed and contributing well to the scene.
Best regards, Claude
Corry (4508) 2014-03-06 21:15
Bonsoir John
Belle photo de ce parc avec ses monuments. Il semble bien que ce soit un lieu de rencontre des jeunes familles. L'architecture du bâtiment de droite est particulièrement belle. Bonne netteté de l'image. Bien fait.
Apurba20 (984) 2014-03-06 23:08
Hi John,
Splendid architecture. You have captured that excellently. The light is just great.
jjcordier (79299) 2014-03-06 23:22
Cette place bien rénovée semble très accueillante et idéale pour la promenade, surtout sous un si beau temps. Très bonne composition.
Fis2 (150710) 2014-03-07 5:27
Witaj John!
Beautiful city is Gent!
A very nice view.
Good POV and colors.
I like the building on the right.
Have a nice weekend
ikeharel (103361) 2014-03-07 8:53
Good evening John,
Among the number of subjects in this photo, the bell-post is drawing most the attention when looking.
But also the statues and people around, added vivid tone, all culminate to a wonderful small garden surrounded by the modern buildings and hotel in town.
POV chosen superbly.
Have a nice weekend,
macjake (95439) 2014-03-07 10:26
Hi John
as much as I love the classic Belgium architecture post cars shots, this one is nice because we get to see locals, and a more family vibe.
nice to see some grass in the city too :)
warm photo despite the cold temps.
Alco (7559) 2014-03-07 21:49
Hello John,
Very nice place for families. The point of view is well chosen to show the park and the buildings at the same time. Beautiful fountain. I particularly like the architecture of the building on the right. Very well done.TFS.
Have a nice weekend.
wolf38 (30) 2014-03-07 22:41
Hi John. A wonderful picture with so many details. Of course, I like many people in the picture. I also like the detailed text.
Rgds, Wolfgang.
Romano46 (18472) 2014-03-08 6:29
Ciao John
una ripresa eccellente come tuo solito.
Ai bei colori si somma una nitidezza di alto livello ed una cura del colore impeccabile.
Bella anche la composizione.
Ciao e buon fine settimana
Schnappilic (9692) 2014-03-08 9:57
Hello John,
Another splendid picture from Ghent with its unbelievable architecture. Congratulations for such a beautiful presentation. TFS!
Best regards,
eldancer1 (36343) 2014-03-08 10:06
Looks like a harmonious combination of old and new style architectures. And it seems like a center of activities for families. I like your pov and it has good details. Well done, tfs.
mcmtanyel (58249) 2014-03-08 12:35
Hello John,
This is a very nice corner from Ghent. I like the geometric shapes that the buildings form. Colors and light management are great and the fountain is pleasantly balanced by the bell.
fritzi007 (14698) 2014-03-08 15:10
Hallo John,
wirklich eine schöne Aufnahme von dir, sehr klare Farben, gratuliere!
Viele Grüße
photoray (13981) 2014-03-08 15:53
Howdy John,
Interesting combination scene with the park, visitors, human figures statues in the foreground, then the stairway leading to the classical Ghent architecture, all in fine resolution.
Good job,
Buin (42580) 2014-03-08 23:05
Dag John! ;-)
This photo contains many many details and especially all these different contrasts in architecture catch the viewers eye. In addition I like ths colourful and somehow relaxed atmosphere in the photo
Once again thank you for the informative and interesting note!
Greetings from sunny and nearly warm Westphalia! Have a nice Sunday!
krzychu30 (15512) 2014-03-08 23:16
Hello John,
magnificent urban scene for a change from your landscape photos.And I have to say it´s equally captivating than your landscape photos.Taken from an excellent POV and with good attention for details it makes really pleasure to admire it and its urban character.
I like especially combination of light and colors,which create so pleasant atmosphere of the place.
Have a nice sunday
bukitgolfb301 (53764) 2014-03-08 23:38
Hi dear John, how are you? Sorry for my late reply.
Ya again your signitured image, so sharp and clear image, very very comfortable to see au usual.
The best exposure setting so deep one makes so outstanding image indeed.
All the best and habve a good Sunday! Takero
subhendu_bagchi (26091) 2014-03-09 1:15
namaste John,
a very nice composition here. Like those vibrant colours. Great sharpness and depth. Beautiful architectures at back with a nice sky at top. Superb shot. Tfs.
ChrisJ (156713) 2014-03-09 3:22
Hi John,
Nice warm cold color contrasts between the yellow green grass in the fg the reddish yellow facade of the distinctive building at right, and the blue sky. The people add life and scale. The sculpture at right makes a fine focal point. The stairs and bronze bell at centre and left counterbalance the compo. Tfs!
kato (11630) 2014-03-09 12:43
Hello John,
You're capturing well this place by a good angle and excellent tone/clarity, so it's interesting and impressive to see the familiar park in old city which is surrounded by old and new buildings. The bell and sculpture in the park look like to keep a good tradition of this city. And, it's also impressive that family and residents are relaxing at this park.
Kind regards,
boa (8039) 2014-03-09 13:37
Hi John,
How i like Saturday afternoons, especially during weather conditions like in this scene. Sun, a blue sky and people in the streets and parks with hope for a good summer:) Good capture of that mood in this shot and also a Beautiful old house to the right in the Picture. Perfect technical quality. Light, colors and sharpness, well done my friend!
Best regards/
jcpix (14030) 2014-03-09 19:10
Hi john,
You certainly do not disappoint, another delightful picture from this fine city. Looks to be a nice place for all to enjoy, family friendly. The architecture lone can make for its own highlight, but the addition of handrails on the stairs, the fountain, the bell...everything, it all works so pleasingly well in this composition...which is made even more enticing under a bright sky. Hard to resist the desire to be outside under such nice and attractive conditions. All around lovely! Have a great week ahead. All the best.
Friendly wishes,
claudeD (47754) 2014-03-10 1:15
Hello John,
wonderful picture from Ghent with an excellent composition, fine colors and good clarity.Very nice daly life scenery. I like the view very much.Very well done.TFS.
With regards from Luxembourg
Silvio1953 (200102) 2014-03-10 7:22
Ciao John, great view of beautiful place, lovely composition with nice people, excellent clarity, wonderful colors and splendid light, very well done my friend, ciao Silvio
abmdsudi (85901) 2014-03-10 8:51
Hi John
A lively town scape with lots of interest grabbing attention. The lighting could not be better that youve got a nice balance in the exposure which has kept a lot more detail throughout so nicely set off by that blue sky. Well done
Best regards
rychem (72077) 2014-03-10 9:35
Splendid photo as usual. Great quality, very nice scene, perfect light and depth, compliments
adramad (64892) 2014-03-10 10:38
Hi John.
A splendid image, which shows a different perspective of the city, away from the most famous part of the channels is a corner showing different styles, but it is nice and well harmonized, facades, sculptures, animation giving people. ...
Very good brightness and sharpness, with beautiful colors and a sky that is a great bonus.
Well seen and done better. I Like
Have a good day.
Best wishes.
Graal (103040) 2014-03-10 10:59
Hello John,
friends about this photo all told you. Very nice place and very good photograph. I like the architecture and amazing sculptures and bell also. Good presentation.
Have a nice evening.
sandpiper (6788) 2014-03-11 0:39
Hi John
a wonderful daily life shot of this beautiful old town. Great composition with soft winter colours. Beautiful.
carper (96) 2014-03-11 11:20
heel fraai gemaakt John fraaie plaat,
mooie verdeling goede foto john
omid266 (6812) 2014-03-11 21:38
** Salam , Hi John ,
This is really an excelent and beautiful park,
very Peaceful park with these families and people is
visiting and pass times on vacations,
nice text , very various details,
all the best and Thank you for sharing ,
Good Luck and God may be with you and your family,
Greetings , Omid
fabbs99 (17179) 2014-03-11 21:42
Hello John,
Excellent shot of the park from Ghent with nice colors and sharpness.Very well done,TFS.
mirosu (16313) 2014-03-13 2:49
Bonjour John,
Great photo! I like the superb light & clarity and well saturated colors and the excellent contrast between the well balanced buildings colors and the blue-white sky. There is very good depth of field. The people around add nice life to the scene. Great work in making the photo pop with the usage of colors and contrast.
Very well done.
clic (23388) 2014-03-13 11:06
Sorry for being so late, John
First, the stairway attracted my attention because it leads interest towards those appealing old buildings, fortunately-deprived of commercial signs.
Since this picture appears in HD quality, the minute details and the colors are most interesting, on the blue sky, in particular.
Tot ziens.
dta (97106) 2014-03-13 11:17
Hello John ,
Une belle image , que cette composition riche et colorée . Tout le monde semble profiter du soleil par cette belle journée d'hiver .
mkamionka (56819) 2014-03-14 9:52
Hi John,
beautiful place so very well taken care about. I like the pleasant light which created lovely well saturated colors. Everything seems to go well together with some old architecture well mixed with the newer elements.
Beautiful picture. Have a great weekend,
Didi (61587) 2014-03-16 11:39
Bonjour John
Difficile de composer une image avec beaucoup de sujets, mais c'est très bien fait
Très bonne luminosité ambiante on dirait une image en 3D
Bonne soirée
serp2000 (47063) 2014-03-18 10:43
Hello, John,
Another interesting photo from Ghent, thanks for so informative note and very nice photo, as an illustration of your words. What means this sculpture of these sad people? I think they and this black bell are partof some common idea.
Perfect quality! The colors and sharpness are superb!
Angshu (56760) 2014-03-20 21:36
Dag John
A very pleasant cityscape, where the relaxed atmosphere is shown in the park...interesting sculpture in the FG. The new construction of the Hotel somehow follows the traditional pattern...nice picture in good light!
Best Regards
jmdias (98406) 2014-03-21 6:51
interesting modern elements like the box with the bell, the fountains and interesting contrast with some old façades ahead. I liked the light and the perfect quality of the image. TFS this part of the town.
RhodieIke (11752) 2014-03-22 2:09
Hi John,
I love your low Pov in this below street square in Ghent.
There is so much to view and admire, wonderful light, great colours, nicely presented, and informative note. Tfs.
Trust you and your wife are well and enjoying the Spring.
Cheers, Iain.
branley (3681) 2014-03-23 2:34
A lovely combination of new and old. The railings lead us from the recreation area to those magnificent buildings. It's a very fine capture my friend.
RayTography (54) 2014-03-24 18:39
I really enjoy this photo due to the large number of different lines. There are horizontal, vertical, diagonal and curved lines. . . all without looking overly busy. The composition is well done and the clarity is excellent.
Thank you for posting this photo.
daddo (28728) 2014-04-12 22:34
Hi John. I do like your photos of urban settings as they tend to show people enjoying what cities have to offer, especially on a sunny day. Great details wherever one looks. Lovely light and colours. Best wishes. Klaudio.
halikarnas (8828) 2014-04-20 5:35
Büyük Usta,
Fotoğrafın kritik edilecek,daha doğrusu fotoğraf hakkında konuşulaçak çok güzel şeyler var.
Ama Usta'nın eserlerine konuşmak biraz zor oluyor.
Günlük hayaa ait muhteşem bir fotoğraf.Bütün detaylar içinde ÇAN'I çok sevdim.
Ellerine sağlık.
Tebrikler Usta John.
Hanssie (11018) 2014-04-21 1:18
Nou, hier is alles zo'n beetje in één foto gestopt,
we hebben oud, we hebben nieuw, mooie klok, prachtieg beelden, de mensen, leuke overzichtsfoto, John.
PiotrF (49318) 2014-06-03 13:28
Hello John,
A wonderful composition from Ghent. The point of view is well chosen to show the park, fountain and the buildings at the same time. Wonderful picture with so many details.
Your magnificent presentation is very good.
Good morning my dear friends
and have a nice weekend
I visited again you gallery today
and I traveled to Ghent this very nice
old city with different nice old buildingspleasant atmosphere here with a very clean place around
beautiful photo of this fascinating
welldone and wellseen
aliabazari (18416) 2014-09-12 20:44
Hi John dear
At first glance, very good sharpness and depth of the images catch the eye. Young parents with their children in a very peaceful and lovely. An engaging and interesting shot. Thanks for recording this nice picture
berek (50518) 2014-10-19 19:57
Dear John,
another beautiful picture from toys city Ghent . The atmosphere is very calm, very nice sunny day. sharpness, colors are all very successful.
Have a nice week.
Matyas (0) 2015-07-01 1:01
Hello John! Superb architecture. Amazing people. Fine POV, good composition. Good contrast and sharpness. Fine weather. Fine colours. Good frame. Regards!
Photo Information
- Copyright: John Maenhout (jhm) (198593)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2014-02-22
- Categories: Architecture
- Camera: Canon EOS 5 D Mark II, Canon EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, Sandisk CFIII 16GB, B+W 82 010 UV - Haze 1x MRC
- Exposure: f/20.0, 1/100 seconds
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Theme(s): My best of 2014 [view contributor(s)]
- Date Submitted: 2014-03-05 23:05


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One manner in which Michigan's administrative law differs from federal law is that Michigan has more stringent delegation standards, even if the exact contours of delegations permissible under Michigan's constitution are not clear. Unlike the federal courts, Michigan courts do not adhere to the intelligible-principle doctrine and require more standards before the Legislature may delegate power to an administrative agency.
In Westervelt v Natural Resources Commission, 402 Mich 412 (1978), this Court discussed delegation. Westervelt was a 3-3 decision. The lead opinion held that a delegation must meet two tests: (1) a separation-of-powers test, which requires "standards as reasonably precise as the subject matter of the legislation requires or permits"; and (2) a due-process test, which requires the presence of safeguards "assuring that the public will be protected against potential abuse of discretion at the hands of administrative officials." Id. at 444-45. The concurring three justices would review a delegation only under the separation-of-powers test, and would look at a potential due-process issue at a later time. Id. at 454 (Ryan, J., concurring).
Which of these opinions is correct has not been authoritatively settled, but in a recent remand order in DPG York, LLP v Michigan, 474 Mich 987 (2005), this Court cited Westervelt's footnote 20, which states:
This emphasis on the "safeguards, including 'standards' which the legislation affords" in order to best effectuate the due process foundation of the "delegation doctrine" echoes the judicial approach argued by Professor Davis:
The non-delegation doctrine can and should be altered to turn it into an effective and useful judicial tool. Its purpose should no longer be either to prevent delegation of legislative power or to require meaningful statutory standards; its purpose should be the much deeper one of protecting against unnecessary and uncontrolled discretionary power. The focus should no longer be exclusively on standards; it should be on the totality of protections against arbitrariness, including both safeguards and standards. The key should no longer be statutory words; it should be the protections the administrators in fact provide, irrespective of what the statutes say or fail to say.
Davis, Administrative Law Treatise, 1970 Supplement, pp. 40-41.
See also Justice Levin's dissenting opinion in [People v Fields, 391 Mich 206, 231-32 (1974)].
We wish to emphasize that this approach best effectuates the due process foundation of the delegation doctrine, i. e. the "standards test" as it has evolved in our jurisprudence no longer in itself assures due process protection. However, Professor Davis in his commentary, does not consider the "standards test" in terms of the "separation of powers" constitutional foundation of the "delegation doctrine." As we have carefully ruled, the "standards test" is an effective means for assuring that the constitutional "separation of powers" is maintained vis-a-vis a particular delegation of power to an administrative agency.
Thus, while the exact contours are not known, it is clear that the Michigan delegation test is more stringent than the federal test.
Related to the standards test is this Court's definition of what constitutes legislative power that cannot be delegated. In Blank v Department of Corrections, 462 Mich 103 (2000), this Court stated that "Policy determinations are fundamentally a legislative function." Id. at 116. General language may be used in the authorizing statute only so "long as the exact policy is clearly made apparent." Id. at 126 (internal citation omitted).[10]
The United States Supreme Court justified the deferential Chevron standard of review in large part because it did not want to become enmeshed in policy decisions. But such entanglement is far less of a concern in Michigan, since this Court does not allow the nearly limitless delegations prevalent in the federal system and thus avoids the subject of what a policy "should" be. This Court instead tries to deal with policy as it is - in other words, with the policy as set forth in legislative statute. By not allowing major policy questions to reach the agencies unless clear standards are provided, this Court avoids the risk of substituting its policy viewpoints for that of the agencies. And because the Michigan agencies must receive a clearer dictate from the Legislature than do their federal counterparts, it makes sense for the Michigan courts to hold the Michigan agencies to those dictates. In short, the federal courts must defer to agencies because oftentimes there are no standards limiting delegation, while in Michigan such deference is improper because those standards exist.
[10] Professor Pierce indicates that the United States Supreme Court used a similar test - that agencies could only fill in details and not make major policy decisions - during the period between its decision in United States v Grimaud, 220 US 506 (1911) and its decision in Hampton & Co v United States, 276 US 394, 409 (1928), where the court first set out the easier-to-satisfy intelligible-principle test. 1 Pierce, Administrative Law Treatise (4th ed. 2002) § 2.6, pp 90-91.


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Like many e-rumors, this one has been circulating for awhile. A cancer update that warns readers about the evils of meat and dairy in the diet and how these foods lead to cancer is the topic of the email. This lenghty email about cancer and nutrition is said to have been published by the famous Johns Hopkins University. The suggestions in the email appear to have come from this reputable insitution. Despite the fact that Johns Hopkins University said in a public statement that they neither published the document or endorse it, this e-rumor is still making gains through the inboxes of our nation's consumers, and I think it's time we address it. Although this e-rumor, titled, "Johns Hopkins Cancer Update," doesn't provide substantial scientific evidence to back its claims, apparently, individuals are still buying into these lifestyle change suggestions. I have been sent this multiple times from cattle producers that were referred to this email by believers, and I want you all to be aware that it's out there. Let's start working to correct these harmful rumors that continue to plague our industry! I hate to reprint this, but I here it goes...
Update from Johns Hopkins (NOTE: This was not produced by Johns Hopkins. This is an e-rumor!)
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumours.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like
NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in colour. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.


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- "I can't believe I spent my Saturday picking up garbage. I mean, half those bottles weren't even mine."
- ―Lenny
- "Ow, my eye! I'm not supposed to get pudding in it!"
- ―Lenny
- "Dental plan!"
- ―Lenny
- "Eh, everybody makes mistakes, that's why they put erasers in the backs of pencils."
- ―Lenny
Lenford "Lenny" Leonard is the best friend of Carl Carlson and, along with Carl, second best friend of Homer Simpson, behind Barney Gumble. He works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and possesses a master's degree in nuclear physics, but he is portrayed as a simple, often naive, blue-collar working man. Lenny is also one of the few characters allowed to possess a "Simpson's Family" trait: Homer's beard line.[1].
He also has a Green elephant called Pinky as an imaginary friend who is killed by Homer's imaginary friend, who is the Simpsons' version of James Bond. Pinky thinks this is because he slept with Homer's imaginary friend's girlfriend.
BiographyDespite being shown in the First Church of Springfield, Lenny is a Buddhist. Born in Chicago, he is also a war hero and a three-time juror. His grandmother spent 20 years in a Soviet labour camp, hinting that Lenny may have ancestors from the former Soviet Union, or have ancestors who were POWs. Lenny was a member of the Springfield chapter of the Stonecutters secret society (Number 12, outranking Mr. Burns).[2] Lenny seems to have little regard for his own life: "Quick and pointless, that's the death for me".[3] Another example of his apathy towards salvation is that he shrugs after being pulled from a ladder which would have seen him and Homer to safety. In "Mommie Beerest", Lenny has a magazine cover from the week of his birth, the headline reads 'Bloodbath in Laos' this means his date birth is possibly in march of 1971, in that date Life magazine published on its cover photos of Laotian Civil War.
Lenny works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant alongside Carl Carlson. Despite his steady job, Lenny has been featured with several other jobs. On one occasion, he is promoted to head of the power plant when Mr. Burns goes bankrupt; which Smithers later describes to Homer as a "reign of terror". Homer considers Lenny to be the second richest man he knows. However, Lenny is once shown living in a dilapidated house, and pleads with Marge to not tell anyone how he lives. By the time of Helter Shelter, he has moved to a fancy, well-furnished modern apartment... that happens to share a wall with a jai-alai court. According to him, he finds the sound of the balls hitting the common wall 'soothing'.
In a "future episode", it's shown Lenny is once again in charge of the power plant. In one episode, it is implied he is an undercover agent whose target is Homer. He was also fired from the Nuclear Power Plant at least twice, once as a demonstration to Bart as how he should act as his heir, and the second due to being the last one in the designated cabin in a Company Competition. Also, during an Employee Appreciation Night, he attempted to thank Mr. Burns for the great evening, but his attempt backfired due to him being drunk, which only resulted in terrifying his boss.
At the Adult Education Annex, Lenny teaches a class on "How To Chew Tobacco". In one of Homer's daydreams, it's shown that Lenny is the President of the United States. In "Homer vs. Dignity", Homer says he is a war hero, implying Military Service.
Lenny is a member of the Republican party, and possesses a Dole/Kemp '96 American flag tattoo.[4] Lenny is also a successful writer who wrote a series of mystery novels, one of them entitled "The Murderer Did It", which are called "scary good fun" by Stephen King. Lenny is also shown to be a member of the NRA as seen in "The Cartridge Family". His weapon of choice appears to be an AR-15 rifle with a vertical grip, which he says "are manufactured for a reason: to take out today's modern super animals like the flying squirrel, and the electric eel." [5]
Lenny is an adept guitar player.
Website Biography
Though only a lowly nonentity at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Lenny holds an exceptionally high ranking position at the local Stonecutter's Lodge -- 17 points above Mr. Burns, in fact. Due to his exalted status in this secret order, Lenny enjoys the gratifying privledge of squeezing Mr. Burns' nose whenever he feels like it, which he never does.
Little is known about Lenny's family, although it is said that his mother loves both Carl and Moe better than him. She also states that she wishes Carl were her son. The feeling is mutual.
He once stated that his father died in a war, but he doesn't know in which.
Lenny has a Sister that dates Carl only on Valentine's Day.
FriendsLenny's best friend is Carl Carlson, as they are rarely seen apart; his other friends are Homer, and regulars at Moe's including Barney Gumble and Moe Szyslak. On Lenny's birthday, his friends attempted to throw a surprise party for him at Moe's, which is ruined by Homer, who then sits on a cake shaped like Lenny's favorite barstool. Homer repeatedly confuses Lenny and Carl, and is shocked to learn on one occasion that Lenny is white, and Carl is black. To guide himself, Homer has "Lenny = White, Carl = Black" on his hand. He once muttered to himself, "Is that right?" while reading it. Homer once exclaimed, "That's Lenny? I wanted the black one!".[6] When Mr. Burns appears on a radio show in an attempt to boost his popularity,[7] Homer tells him that he has a list of jokes explaining the differences between white and black people; Homer later stated, "White guys have names like Lenny, whereas black guys have names like Carl." Lenny appears to be well liked by the Simpson family. On one occasion, Marge and the kids built a prayer shrine for him when learning he was taken to the hospital. When Homer went bowling but tells Marge that Lenny was hospitalized; Marge informs the kids, they respond the same way she did and shout, "Not Lenny!" [8] The Simpson family had a cake inscribed "Happy Labor Day Lenny".[9]
Marge has a picture of Lenny in her hair.[10] In The Great Louse Detective, Lenny tells Sideshow Bob to kill Bart. It is also shown that Lenny greatly values all his friends when he throws them a lavish party (after winning on a lottery ticket) to celebrate their amity.[11]
Relationship with Carl
The possibility of a sexual relationship between Lenny and Carl has constantly been alluded. When Marge's Popsicle stick sculptures of Lenny and Carl are destroyed and mashed together, Lenny stated, "I don't know where Carl ends and I begin!", to which Carl replies, "See, it's statements like that that make people think we're gay." However, in one of the recent episodes, Carl and Lenny are seen to be holding hands when they are in a limo with Marge and Homer trying to cheer up Moe.
When Lenny saw heaven, and Carl asked 'Hey, what does it look like?' we see hundreds of Carl- Angels saying 'get up Lenny, it's time for work'.Carl once told Seymour Skinner that "Marriage is gonna be great. Now you'll have someone who'll rub your back - without being asked" while glaring at Lenny, who sighed "Oh, not this again." Carl then responds "Yes, this again." When Homer opened a chapel for gay couples after Gay Marriage was legalized, he speculated that Lenny and Carl might be interested, and Marge responds with "Don't you push them - they've gotta work that out for themselves." Once, Chief Wiggum remarked that Lenny's relationship with Carl is on the rocks.
While helping Lisa with a science project, Homer quoted to Lisa "You and science go together like Lenny and Carl - the science is Carl".[12] Another time, Lenny and Carl saw Homer and Marge kiss, prompting Lenny to remark, "Remember when we used to kiss like that, Carl... with our respective girlfriends?" They then discuss what happened to them. Apparently one turned out to be a prostitute and one died.[13] In the Simpsons Game, if the player fails to rescue Lenny and Carl in Lisa the Tree Hugger, Carl might say, "Tell Lenny... I loved... his recipe for caramel sundaes."
Lenny's hero worship over Carl has reached a mounting point. Lenny revealed that he carved Carl's face on a mountain, and called it Mount Carlmore.[14] He later leaves a burning oil field, only because Carl arrived. On one occasion, the residents of Springfield see the stars, and see deep within their hearts and souls; Lenny sees Carl's face in the stars (Carl also sees himself there). Lenny published a newspaper called The Lenny-Saver with the headline: "The Truth About Carl: He's Great." After displaying this, he shedded a tear and stated that "it had to be told." Lenny and Carl were once pictured driving a sports car through the woods with two children in the back of contrasting background (either noting they are both single parents have separately or otherwise adopted children).[15]
Carl Carlson states that he and Lenny have the same mother when a major fire is closing in on her work.[16] When Lisa brings back the stars, Lenny sees a constellation of Carl's face.It should be noted that all of these examples could just be for comedic purposes, as only their heterosexual exploits have been expliciltly confirmed. One time Carl and him drunkenly suggest to Barney that he take them to the Playboy Mansion and the Girls College, respectively[17]. In addition, Homer has mentioned that Carl and Lenny have mistresses they spend time with[18], and both Lenny and Carl were clearly aroused by the female stars of Lemony Lick-It's A Series of Horny Events when they accidentally stumbled upon the filming of the film, and were also shown to be extremely willing to take up Homer's bribe of giving them roles to buy their silence to Marge, their opting to be the foul-mouth boy and do the sex scenes with the girls, respectively.[19]
Love Life
Lenny is apparently divorced - Carl says that he sang "The Best Is Yet to Come" at Lenny's wedding,[20] although it was later shown that Lenny punched Carl for giving a bad speech at his wedding.Lenny is a persistent bachelor who has poor luck with women. Lenny once shaved the legs of a woman who calls him an idiot for not shaving in an upward direction.[21] Homer mentioned to Moe that both Lenny and Carl are with their mistresses.[22] In yet another occasion, he was seen in the opening scene with his arm around a woman who appears to be his girlfriend.[23]
It's revealed that he had dated a woman in a Woody Woodpecker outfit at a fairground for three months until she left him for the man who cleans the vomit on the roller coaster.[24] Lenny had told Carl that he was married to a Beauty-Queen, but it is later revealed that Lenny made his Beauty-Queen wife up, and is unmarried.[25]It is mentioned once, that Lenny dated a girl named Doreen, but decided to break up with her. He had no courage to do it, so he asked Homer to "dump his girlfriend for him". According to Moe, Doreen cheated on Lenny with everyone, except for him, even though Moe showered her with gifts.[26]
Non Canon Appearances
At age 53, Lenny owns a super pet. When Milhouse (with giant muscles) gets trapped between two trees, he and Carl leave him there. In Homer's dream in The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace, Lenny is shown at Homer's funeral as president and when Homer wakes up, he asks Marge not to vote for him.
In "Behind the Laughter", Lenny and Carl are constant companions, and Bart had apparently paid the two to kiss one another. They then question whether they ever received the money from Bart for doing so.
In "Treehouse of Horror XVI", Lenny dies and sees the angels in Heaven take the form of Carl (although they're saying, "Hurry up or we'll be late for work at the plant!"). Lenny is killed by killer dolphins in the "Treehouse of Horror XI" segment "The Night of the Dolphin".
Video Games
In the Simpsons Game, Carl and Lenny are shown arguing while bird-watching, and having forgotten Lisa and Bart's names when they save Lenny and Carl from logging machinery, even though Lenny and Carl have known them all their lives. Later on both Lenny and Carl can be recruited by Marge in her mob to ban the sales of the Grand Theft Scratchy game to minors.
It is known that Lenny has eye problems. As a large part of said problems are usually caused by Homer by comically getting things stuck in his eye.[27]
- ↑ Commentary for "Principal Charming"
- ↑ Homer the Great
- ↑ Half-Decent Proposal
- ↑ Bart-Mangled Banner
- ↑ The Cartridge Family
- ↑ Helter Shelter
- ↑ Monty Can't Buy Me Love
- ↑ Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder
- ↑ Sleeping with the Enemy
- ↑ Pranksta Rap
- ↑ Double, Double, Boy in Trouble
- ↑ Fat Man and Little Boy
- ↑ Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play
- ↑ Half-Decent Proposal
- ↑ Lisa the Drama Queen
- ↑ Little Big Girl
- ↑ "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"
- ↑ "Team Homer"
- ↑ "The Bonfire of the Manatees"
- ↑ The Bart of War
- ↑ Marge on the Lam
- ↑ Team Homer
- ↑ Homer the Smithers
- ↑ Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife
- ↑ In Marge We Trust
- ↑ Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words
- ↑ Homer vs. Dignity
Springfield Police
|Chief Wiggum ● Lou ● Eddie
|Bobo ● Officer Sniffy ● Laddie ● Scraps
|Former Cops
|Marge Simpson ● Gloria ● SpringShield: (Homer Simpson, Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson) ● Santa's Little Helper


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NEW YORK, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The National Hockey League on Friday canceled all its regular-season games through Dec. 14 and the All-Star Weekend in late January.
NHL team owners locked out the players Sept. 15 in a dispute mainly over the split of revenues. With the cancellations announced Friday, the NHL will have lost more than one-third of its regular-season games.
The season was to have started Oct. 11 and a total of 422 games had been scheduled between then and Dec, 14.
The NHL All-Star Weekend was to have been Jan. 26-27 in Columbus, Ohio. The league previously called off the 2013 Winter Classic, in which the Toronto Maple Leafs were to play the Detroit Red Wings Jan. 1 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The league has awarded the 2014 Winter Classic to the same teams and location.
"The reality of losing more regular-season games as well as the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus is extremely disappointing," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said Friday. "We feel badly for NHL fans and particularly those in Columbus and we intend to work closely with the Blue Jackets organization to return the NHL All-Star events to Columbus and their fans as quickly as possible."
The league is looking to reduce the players' share of hockey-related revenues, which the most recent collective bargaining agreement set at 57 percent. The owners also seek to do away with salary arbitration and want to alter free-agency rules.
The two sides met Wednesday but broke off talks without making progress toward a new CBA.
"We are still far apart. It's frustrating for everybody," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday.


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With the new year on the horizon, its time to celebrate the year gone past by sharing some of the best and brightest campaigns on IndieGoGo. These are campaigns that have knocked it out of the park with their GoGoFactor, fundraising goals, or overall idea and execution. Yesterday we began with the best creative campaigns. … read more
Tag: Peralta Elementary: Art in Our Heart
Year in Review Part II: IndieGoGo's Best of 2011
December 28, 2011 · indiegogo-wp · · Share
Indiegogo, Attendance Records, community, LuminAID, Polar Vision, Help the Haleys Have a Baby, Best of IndieGoGo, IndieGoGo Blog, Peralta Elementary: Art in Our Heart, The Lovewell Project, 50 for 50 for WriteGirls!, Spark Arts, Join the FIN Free Movement, Alabamboo: Ride or Die, Cinque Terre Liguria, Cheb Shabbah Cancer Treatment, Create Maize and Blue History: Help Establish a Muslim Chaplain, UnAshamed, CHristian, Help Build Norbu Retreat House and Hospice, The Real Social Network, Crowdfunding Campaign to Change Crowdfunding Law, Rock and Rawhide, Please Help Addie, Jungle Joy - Wild Bonobos in the DR Congo, Animals, Education, Environment, Health, Politics, Religion


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Gifts to Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries support individuals looking for a hand up, not a hand out. Through job training programs and career services, as well as youth programs, Goodwill opens doorways of opportunity for those who seek greater independence and self sufficiency.
Your generous support helps individuals living with disabilities or who face challenges such as welfare dependency, limited work experience or education, domestic violence or homelessness. Your gifts enable individuals to experience the sense of dignity and self-esteem that comes with having a job. And for boys and girls growing up in communities with limited opportunities, your gifts offer the chance for academic success, leadership development, and a brighter future.
We share Goodwill success stories on this website and introduce you to some of the thousands of people who have been touched by the thoughtful contributions of Goodwill donors like you.
Ways of Giving
There are many ways to make gifts in support of Goodwill's mission, and Goodwill's Development Department is here to assist you. Call 617-541-1259 for more information about the options available to you, or review the following list to evaluate the ways you can make a difference:
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Bequests and Planned Gifts
Including Goodwill in your estate plan through a Bequest/Will or Charitable Gift Annuity is a very good way to leave a legacy—and make a life-changing difference to others in need.
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The Goodwill Monthly Donor Club
Add substantial value to your gift by becoming a "Count on Me!" monthly sustaining donor.
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Consider memorializing or honoring a loved one, friend or colleague.
For information on Morgan Memorial Goodwill's privacy policy for financial donors, please click here.


text:
Rachel Knox, MS, OTR/L
Adjunct Faculty
Ms. Knox earned a Master of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from Barry University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education from Georgia State University. She has been an instructor and summer camp counselor for children programs and currently works as an occupational therapist at ABA Therapy providing services to children with various medical conditions. She serves as the fieldwork educator for interning students. Ms. Knox has been an Adjunct Lecturer for the Occupational Therapy Program since 2008.


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I've been reading Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright, which I have to say is one of the most frustrating books I've ever worked through. Not because it is a bad book, but because the author is doing his job: Wright maintains a detached, non-judgmental, even sympathetic tone while describing appalling madness. I'm about two-thirds of the way through the book, and I'm still waiting for Wright to snap and tell us what he really thinks about the evil L. Ron Hubbard has wrought — a step I would have reached by about page two.
It's painful. Hubbard was so clearly delusional and so malevolently manipulative that you find it hard to believe people actually do fall for this nonsense, and fall for it hard. People put up with shocking abuse for years, decades even, all the while apologizing for their behavior, making excuses for the church, and even voluntarily submitting to the most degrading punishments. For instance, Scientology maintains something called the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which is little more than confinement and humiliation. People who question the dogma or annoy David Miscavage (the head of the religion now that Hubbard is dead) or sometimes just on a whim are tossed into basements or kept in trailers with no furnishings, no means of communication, and fed on slops, with frequent punishment drills. It's like a horrible caricature of a banana republican prison — it is a prison.
But there aren't locks on the doors. The inmates stay there, punishing themselves, begging for more, all in the hopes of achieving redemption in the eyes of the psychotics running the show. The whole book is a lesson on how human psychology can be warped and used by religion, leading people to submit to commands that I can't imagine ever respecting…but they are led step by step into an earthly hell, all the while thinking it's paradise.
One thing that struck me is that Scientology is a pathological extreme, but in substance it's no different than other religions. And this was confirmed in a discussion of the numerous court cases that challenged Scientology. Scientology had its tax exemption as a religion stripped from it for a long while, and fought hard to get it back (and they eventually did, in a craven capitulation by the IRS). One of their allies in these trials was a former Franciscan friar and product of the Harvard Divinity School, Frank Flinn, who happily defined religion for the courts and pointed out that Scientology was just like Catholicism.
Flinn defined religion as a system of beliefs of a spiritual nature. There must be norms for behavior — positive commands, and negative prohibitions or taboos — as well as rites and ceremonies, such as initiations, prayers, and services for weddings and funerals. By these means, the believers are united into an identifiable community that seeks to live in harmony with what they perceive as the ultimate meaning of life. Flinn argued that Scientology amply fulfilled these requirements, even if it different in expression of them from traditional denominations.
Like Catholicism, Flinn explained, Scientology is a hierarchical religion. He compared L. Ron Hubbard to the founders of Catholic religious orders, including his own, started by Saint Francis of Assisi, whose followers adopted a vow of poverty. Financial disparities within a church are not unusual. Within the hierarchy of Catholicism, for instance, bishops often enjoy a mansion, limousines, servants, and housekeepers; the papacy itself maintains thousands of people on its staff, including the Swiss Guards who protect the pope, and an entire order of nuns dedicated to being housekeepers for the papal apartments.
The Catholic Church also maintains houses of rehabilitation (like the RPF) for errant priests hoping to reform themselves. Flinn saw the RPF as being entirely voluntary and even tame compared to what he experienced as a friar in the Franciscan Order. He willingly submitted to the religious practice of flagellation on Fridays, whipping his legs and back in emulation of the suffering of Jesus before his crucifixion.
One of Flinn's most interesting and contested points had to do with hagiography, by which he meant attributing extraordinary powers — such as clairvoyance, visions of God or angels, or the ability to perform miracles — to the charismatic founders of a religion. He pointed to the virgin birth of Jesus, the ability of Buddha to "transmigrate" is soul into the heavens, or Moses bringing manna to the people of Israel. Such legends are useful in that the bolster the faith of a community, Flinn said. The glaring discrepancies in Hubbard's biography should be seen in the light of the fact that any religion tends to make its founder into something more than human.
I found myself agreeing entirely with Flinn: Scientology is a religion, different in no substantial way from Catholicism, and I think it should be classified as such. No problem.
What irritates me, though, is that anyone can read that and argue that any religion deserves a tax exemption, or should be regarded as anything more than a self-aggrandizing perpetual money-making machine for the hierarchy. As I said, the IRS did eventually give in in an out-of-court settlement and let the Church of Scientology have everything they wanted…but the message they should have taken away is that no church deserves special treatment. Tax 'em all. Remind the world that all of their mythologies are lies, and that all are just as corrupt and just as fraudulent as Scientology.
Kylie Sturgess has a documentary on the Australian Scientology RPF. Another thing brought up is how they keep children in ignorance, a point also brought up in Wright's book with an example of one young woman.
Lauren was told that Scientologists shouldn't look at negative stories about the religion. She was supposed to be saving the planet, so why was she wasting her time reading lies? Because of her isolation, and the censorship imposed on her education, when Lauren finally graduated from high school at the age of twenty, she had never heard anyone speak ill of Scientology, nor did she question the ban on research about her religion. She thought, "I guess I'm not supposed to do these things. I will stay away." Like her father [Paul Haggis], she learned it was easier not to look.


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The winner of a roach-eating contest in South Florida collapsed and later died after eating dozens of the insects and worms, the Broward Sheriff's Office said Monday.
Edward Archbold, 32, of West Palm Beach, won the contest at the Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach on Friday. The grand prize was a python. Shortly after the contest, Archbold wasn't feeling well and began to regurgitate, authorities said.
He later collapsed in front of the store, and Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue transported him to Broward Health North.
U.S. & World
He was later pronounced dead at the hospital, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
"It was quite amazing, because it looked like he hadn't eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner. And the guy definitely wanted to win that snake, at least that's what it looked like to me, at first," witness Mason Kahzam said. "I mean, unless he was really just that hungry. I wasn't sure if he tried eating worms or snakes or what he tried to eat before he ate those cockroaches, but he looked like he knew what he was doing."
Kahzam said that Archbold was grabbing the roaches "a handful at a time."
"I don't even think he was chewing them at one point, he was more or less swallowing them," he said.
According to the sheriff's office, "Several contestants signed up to eat a variety of insects for the chance to win the exotic reptile."
Archbold's body was taken to the Broward Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy. Authorities were waiting for the test results to determine a cause of death.
None of the other contest participants had any medical issues after the contest, authorities said.
"Some facts that have come out include the fact that all participants in the contest were entirely aware of what they were doing and that they signed thorough waivers accepting responsibility for their participation in this unique and unorthodox contest," Ben Siegel's attorney, Luke Lirot, said in an email statement. "The consumption of insects is widely accepted throughout the world, and the insects presented as part of the contest were taken from an inventory of insects that are safely and domestically raised in a controlled environment as food for reptiles."
"Once Mr. Archbold showed signs of distress, his companion represented that he had summoned emergency personnel and was going to immediately take him to the hospital. Moments later, Mr. Siegel made an independent call to 911 and Mr. Archbold was administered CPR. Mr. Siegel and his staff did all that anyone could to try and help Mr. Archbold, and they send out their deepest sympathy to the family," the statement said.
BSO spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said "no one has believed" the baffling story of what happened to Archbold.
"Everyone thinks that it's some sort of bizarre joke, but no, it's the truth and sometimes truth is just stranger than fiction," she said.


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No Caps/Pens Tonight; Here are Ovi "Sorry Penguin" GIFs Instead
This t-shirt can be bought here. (Illustration by Rachel Cohen)
Wednesday night was supposed to be the Pittsburgh Penguins' first visit to Verizon Center this season. Because of the NHL lockout, we won't get to see Matt Cooke trolling or Sidney Crosby caterwauling plaintively at the refs. We'll just have to settle for candy instead.
Hating Pittsburgh sports is coded into my DNA. I'm physically sick over this. Gary Bettman is depriving me of my regular Sidney Crosby hate, and now I am indescribably sad.
To cheer myself up, I have compiled these GIFs from the Alex Ovechkin "Sorry, Penguin" commercial. And now I share them with you. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll wave $15 goodbye.
Read More


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Pleasant Hill is a village in Pike County, Illinois with a population of just over 1,000 people. It is the home of the Pike County Fair as well as the Bi-State Annual Demolition Derby. Pleasant HIll High School also has an outstanding FFA Chapter and was the high school for Illinois State FFA 2004-2005 Vice President Cliff Dolbeare.
Pleasant Hill is also the home of two of Eli's most dedicated fans: Don and Florence Guthrie. On Easter Sunday of 2007, Don Guthrie celebrated his 90th birthday and the Guthrie's celebrated their 67th Wedding Anniversary. The Guthrie's are regular mail order customers of Eli's talking regularly on the phone with Eli's Andi Miles. We are very happy that they greet their many friends and family members slices of Eli's Cheesecake.


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Cops Have Video Of Lindsay Lohan At The Standard, Night Of Alleged Assault, She WAS There!
By Jen Heger – Radar Assistant Managing Editor
Oh Lindsay Lohan!
Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department have officially received the surveillance video from The Standard Hotel in West Hollywood from the night that a woman claims Lindsay Lohan assaulted her, and the video clearly shows Lohan at the club, despite her claims that she was at home watching television, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.
As previously reported, Lindsay is being investigated for allegedly assaulting Marisa Dugas almost two weeks ago. The actress vehemently denied being out that night, claiming she was at home watching television when the incident allegedly occurred, even though three people – including the accuser — have now filed police reports.
"Investigators obtained the surveillance video from the Smoke & Mirrors nightclub at The Standard Hotel and it clearly shows that Lindsay was there on the night of the alleged assault," a law enforcement source tells RadarOnline.com. "The investigation is still ongoing and follow-up interviews will now be conducted as necessary. Of course, investigators want to interview Lindsay about the incident, but she hasn't been interviewed yet, nor is she under any obligation to do so. Remember, two other witnesses besides the alleged victim filed police reports, including the bouncer of the nightclub."
When contacted for comment, Lohan's rep initially denied his client was at the hotel and told RadarOnline.com, "Whomever is responsible for this lie will be held accountable for their misguided actions." However, he is now saying, "We're going to wait for the Sheriff's Department to release their findings before we comment any further."
Just three weeks ago, Lohan, 25, was taken off of formal probation by Judge Stephanie Sautner, after successfully completing community service at the morgue. However, the actress remains on informal probation for the next two and a half years for her no contest plea in the misdemeanor necklace theft case.
Lohan reportedly went back to the scene of the alleged crime on Wednesday night, and had a drink thrown on her by another woman sitting in a nearby booth after being embroiled in a verbal altercation. The embattled actress is supposed to begin filming the Liz Taylor biopic for Lifetime Television soon, but as RadarOnline.com previously reported, she still hasn't signed the contract yet.
Lindsay's rep had no comment on this story.
Ali Lohan Shows Off Stick Thin Legs In Short Shorts
Amanda Bynes: 'Don't Compare Me To Lindsay Lohan!'
Lindsay Lohan Assault Accuser Just Wants An Apology, No Plans To Sue
Lindsay Lohan Still Not Officially Signed For Elizabeth Taylor Biopic


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Support our nonpartisan, nonprofit research and insights which help leaders address societal challenges.Donate
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Publication Date:
February 2014
Aristotle's maxim that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is alive and well in the boardroom. This report shows that the team dynamics of the board as a whole (not just the sum of their individual qualifications) have a measurable impact on performance. Recent literature on boards suggests directors should work as teams to produce better board outcomes, but few research inquiries have investigated whether boards are actually working as effective teams. This report presents a summary of quantitative research that measures and compares the material effect of collective board performance to individual director performance.


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October 29, 1976
Ambassador Joao Baptista Pinheiro
Ambassador of Brazil
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Dear Mr. Ambassador:
We were deeply distressed to learn of the brutal and apparently unprovoked attack against the Jesuit priest, Pe. Joao Bosco Penido Burnier by a military policeman in the patrimony of Riberirao Bonito on Monday, October 11.
As you know, Pe. Joao Bosco and the bishop of Sao Felix do Aragauia, Dom Pedro Casaldaliga, both passing through the area after a meeting it Santa Terezinha, had learned of certain arbitrary measures being taken against two women prisoners by the local military police. In attempting to mediate with the local authorities, Pe. Joao Bosco was shot in the head by one of the soldiers and, the following day, died in the neurological center in Goiania.
It is surely ironic that this missionary priest, dedicated to the welfare of the indigenous peoples in the Prelature of Diamantino, should die on October 12, the "dia de la Raza" on which we commemorate the first encounter of the European and Indian cultures.
Although we would like to believe that this was an isolated incident, speedily corrected by the appropriate authorities of your Government, we cannot forget, however, the several other incidents that have occurred in this same area in recent years, particularly the illegal actions taken against such other defenders of their people's rights as Pe. Francisco Jentel and Dom Pedro Casaldaliga, as well as the numerous and well-documented attacks on the posseiros and Indians themselves.
We trust that you will communicate this latest expression of our continued concern to your Government.
Most Rev. James S. Rausch
General Secretary
By accepting this message, you will be leaving the website of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This link is provided
solely for the user's convenience. By providing this link, the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops assumes no responsibility for,
nor does it necessarily endorse, the website, its content, or
sponsoring organizations.


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OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) The once-esteemed defense of the Baltimore Ravens is almost unrecognizable these days.
Many of the unit's most established players - including Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and Lardarius Webb - have sustained serious injuries. Suggs missed first six games of the season on the sideline with a torn right Achillies tendon, returned for a half-dozen games and then sat out last week with a torn right biceps. Lewis has been sidelined since Oct. 14 with a torn right triceps, and Webb is out for the year with a torn ACL.
As a result, the Baltimore defense has been uncharacteristically porous this season, especially in the fourth quarter.
The Ravens are ranked 24th in total defense, which means their nine-year run of top-10 finishes is almost certainly over. Baltimore finished in the top 5 in run defense over the previous six years, but now its ranked 25th among 32 teams.
Although head coach John Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron on Monday, the Ravens' current two-game losing streak could be attributed heavily to the defense. Two weeks ago, third-string quarterback Charlie Batch moved Pittsburgh the length of the field in the waning seconds to set up a game-winning field goal. Last Sunday, the Redskins got the tying touchdown and 2-point conversion with 29 seconds left in a 31-28 win.
``We've just got to finish,'' Harbaugh said.
Injuries are mostly to blame. Washington rookie Kirk Cousins victimized reserve cornerback Chris Johnson on the last-minute touchdown pass, and third-string linebacker Josh Bynes was on the field for the conversion play because Suggs, Lewis, Jameel McClain and Dannell Ellerbe were unavailable.
Lewis and Suggs have not yet been on the field at the same time on game day, and it's quite possible the Ravens (9-4) will again be without both Pro Bowl stars when they host Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos (10-3) on Sunday.
``Every team deals with injuries, and just it's a next-man-up mentality,'' Manning said. ``Ray Lewis is a guy we all know is hard to replace, but Baltimore always has young talent and guys ready to step in. They're aggressive on defense no matter who's in there.''
Perhaps, but the Ravens are clearly better with Suggs and Lewis in the lineup. Both practiced Wednesday, but Harbaugh said a decision on their status for Sunday would be made later in the week.
Harbaugh ruled out McClain, who has neck and back injuries. The injuries on defense run so deep that the Ravens activated cornerback Omar Brown from the practice squad on Wednesday to place Asa Jackson, who was suspended four games for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancing substances.
Asked if he's ever been a part of a defense that had so many injuries, safety Ed Reed shook his head before the question was completed.
``This is by far one of those years,'' Reed said. ``I think when coach first got here, second year, we had a lot of injuries. But not like this.''
In addition to Suggs, Lewis, McClain, Ellerbe, Webb and McClain, the Ravens have also been forced to operate at times without tackle Haloti Ngata, cornerback Jimmy Smith and end Pernell McPhee.
``It's been tough,'' Harbaugh said. ``It's been probably as many injuries as we've ever had on defense here during the last five years. We've got confidence in whoever we put out there. We are starting to get a little healthier, so it will be good to get some of those guys back.''
Ellerbe, who has missed two straight games with a sprained ankle, hopes to be available Sunday. This much he does know: Watching from the sideline is no fun.
``That's a terrible feeling, to see your guys out there fighting and trying to win the game and you can't help them,'' Ellerbe said, no doubt echoing the sentiment of many of his injured teammates. ``You know you're an asset to the team but you can't go out there and help. It's just something that's hard to deal with.''
Online:http://pro32.ap.org/poll andhttp://twitter.com/AP-NFL


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Some of my readers over on Sciblogs will probably have realised that I quite like Facebook – not least because it's a good source of gorgeous images and quirky facts that can start me thinking about a new science blog post. (You don't see that side of me here on Talking Teaching :D ) Also, it's fun keeping in contact with friends & participating in various discussion groups.
One of those groups was set up by the biological sciences students at my institution, and it's used mainly for sharing biology articles and images, the occasional in-joke :) , and alerting other students to upcoming events that their committee has organised. This particular page sees a bit more student activity than some of our paper-specific moodle pages, so for a while now I've wondered about the potential of a good Facebook page to be more than 'just' a place to hang out and share pictures & stories.
Anyway, recently I had a conversation (on FB, lol) with a couple of fellow Ako Aotearoa Academy members about this potential. It turns out that they both use FB quite extensively in their teaching lives and gave me a lot of helpful hints – along with a very recent paper on this very subject (Dougherty & Andercheck, 2014).
Kevin Dougherty and Brita Andercheck teach a large (around 200 students) introductory sociology class at Baylor University in the US. Like all those with classes of this size (or larger), they recognised that one of the major issues they face is
the tendency for students to feel like anonymous spectators rather than active, collaborative participants
– that is, there's a real risk that many students will not properly engage with classroom activities, & that their learning will suffer as a result. I've written previously about flipped teaching as an example of a technique to increase student engagement (& performance), but with a range of different learning styles among class members, what works for one student won't necessarily work for another.
So, how do Dougherty & Andercheck use social media to enhance their students' engagement with the subject, and their achievement (as measured against the learning objectives for the paper)?
The larger a class gets, the harder it can be – even with the best will in the world – get everyone actively involved in discussions, debates and group work during class time. Teachers might try & manage this using a Student Learning Management System (SLMS) like Moodle but again, many students don't really engage here either. (Certainly that's been my own experience.)
The authors wondered, what about Facebook? After all,
[s]ocial media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are part of life for the generation of students now filling college classes
and it's easy to load material and set up discussion threads. (Even a relatively technological illiterate like me can do it!) Why not use it as a more engaging SLMS, one that's more likely to get buy-in from students because it's already familiar to them?
I can just hear the cries of horror that might greet such a proposition. Don't students already spend far too much time on FB and other networking sites? It would just be a distraction. These are valid objections. But with evidence in favour from a developing body of research into such uses of social media, Dougherty & Andercheck set up a study of the impact of a group FB page on students' engagement & performance in their own class.
For anyone interested in doing likewise, their paper in Teaching Sociology has a very useful description of how the class page is set up & administered. (One of my Academy colleagues has similar pages for MOOCs that he is involved in; due to their size, he has some students help with the admin.) It was run in parallel with their 'normal' SLMS, Blackboard, and the latter was where students obtained class handouts & readings. FB was for sharing & discussion; for videos, news stories, & photos; for the 'Question of the Day'.
For students unable to participate or uncomfortable participating in the classroom discussion, we invited them to add their thoughts and reflections to the conversation on Facebook. We used poll-style questions on the Facebook Group as another means to engage students.
Students readily got involved, 'liking' posts, joining discussions, and posting material. Two weeks into the semester, more than half the class had joined the page, and 2/3 were part of it by the end of the paper. To see how all this activity affected learning outcomes, the researchers carried out content analysis of student postings & matched this to performance, and also asked students for feedback via the usual paper appraisals.
The appraisal data showed that half the class visited the FB page on at least a weekly basis, and that the majority were positive about its effect on their experience in the class. While 24% disagreed (ranging from slight to strong disagreement) that it enhanced their experience, Dougherty & Andercheck noted wryly that "it was students who never or rarely used the Facebook Group who disagreed". Students also felt that the page gave them a stronger sense of belonging in the course, and also that it positively influenced their achievement of the learning objectives.
Of course, the final proof of the pudding is in the eating (sorry, channeling cooking blog here!): was this reflected in actual performance? The researchers found that FB group membership showed a positive correlation to total quiz points and total points. It also had "a marginally significant, positive relationship" with both a student's total score for the paper and their score in the final exam, and the number of posts someone made was linked to their quiz score.
What's more, their analysis of the page's content and their students' use of the page clearly shows how involved many class members became in discussion. This is a big point for me: I use Moodle in my own class & it's sometimes a bit sad to see how little real conversation there is about a topic. We might see a question posted, followed by a couple of answers, & then it all dies down again. Would discussions become deeper & more complex in a different, more familiar (&, let's face it, less clunky) medium? I guess there really is only one way to find out. (And I'll be making good use of the very helpful hints provided at the end of this thoughtful, and thought-inspiring, paper!)
K.D.Dougherty & B.Andercheck (2014) Using Facebook to Engage Learners in a Large Introductory Course. Teaching Sociology 42(2): 95-104 DOI: 10.1177/0092055X14521022