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NEWARK, N.J. -- Whether he stays or goes, wins a Cup or leaves empty-handed, New Jersey Devils captain Zach Parise will have left every single bit of it on the ice during this playoff run.
The Devils' best player is set to become an unrestricted free agent in July, so his future lurks around every corner, hangs in the air, is a shadow just out of eyeshot as the Devils continue their deepest playoff run in almost a decade. But regardless of whether these are the final days of his tenure as a Devil, Parise will not have cheated the Devils and their fans out of anything.
All this was brought into focus with a virtuoso performance in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals Monday night. Parise set up what would be the Devils' winning goal, scored a crucial power-play goal and then iced a 4-1 victory with an empty-net goal.
"That's why he's wearing the 'C.' He leads by example, and no one was happy with the result after Game 3 but no one was frustrated, everyone was just left [with] a bad taste. But he comes out and he's our best player," said New Jersey defenseman Bryce Salvador, who scored the game's first goal.
Parise was so disappointed with his play and the play of the team after Saturday's 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers that he declined to talk to the media.
That in and of itself was hardly cause for presses to stop anywhere, but Parise is so selfless with his time that it spoke volumes about his level of frustration.
He had not scored in five straight games and added a lonely assist during that time.
His team had played well for long stretches in the first three games of this series against the Rangers but had been shut out twice and was in danger of letting the conference finals slip from its grasp.
Maybe he should duck the media more often, as Parise rededicated himself Monday night and was the best player on the ice by a country mile as the Devils evened the series at two wins apiece.
Parise's play -- dogged and relentless from the moment the puck dropped in Game 4 -- stood in stark contrast to a Rangers team that unraveled in the face of what was the most complete game presented by an opponent this spring.
In fact, it's not a stretch to suggest that Parise's play put the Rangers in a position in which they were primed to melt down.
The Devils struck first in Game 4 when Salvador notched his third of the postseason through a maze of bodies. Less than four minutes later, it was Parise who put his seal on the game. Charging down the right side, he blew past defenseman Michael Del Zotto, then fed a terrific pass to Travis Zajac, who blasted a shot past Henrik Lundqvist to give the Devils a 2-0 lead.
"You knew it was just a matter of time. He doesn't take a game off. He's a competitor. He knows how to score. He goes to the tough areas so it was just a matter of time, and for him to get rewarded tonight, it was nice and I'm sure it felt good for him," Zajac said.
Although the Rangers were better in the second period, it was Parise who would send the Rangers off the rails in the third period, scoring a power-play goal just four seconds after Derek Stepan had been sent off for high-sticking.
The goal marked just the second power-play goal of the series for the Devils, and while they would later squander a lengthy 5-on-3, the goal was important to the psyche of the team.
"The looks have been there, we just haven't made the right plays when it's there. Tonight we were able to get one on the power play, and it makes a difference. You've either got to score or get at least some momentum off your power play, and tonight we got one," Parise said.
After that, the third period degenerated into a festival of penalties as the Rangers were assessed 34 minutes of penalties in the final frame, including 14 minutes to Mike Rupp, who gave Martin Brodeur a cuff to the head, a play that led to some serious jawing between the two coaches.
"This isn't about John [Tortorella] and I. This is about the guys on the ice. So I don't have anything to say about that," New Jersey coach Peter DeBoer said.
But he was happy to talk about the play of his captain.
After Game 3, DeBoer had insisted he wasn't worried at all about Parise or his play and in a way predicted exactly the kind of game Parise delivered Monday night.
"Your best players have to be your best players. I know it's cliche, but it's critical this time of year. And I knew he would respond. I knew it was a matter of time," DeBoer said.
In fact, the coach took some of the blame for Parise's offensive sluggishness, saying he took too long to make line adjustments.
Parise played mostly in Game 4 with Dainius Zubrus and Zajac, a trio that had played together at times in the past.
Certainly netminder Brodeur liked what he saw.
"I think Zach's been playing really well. He's been on the puck a lot. It's tough when you don't find the back of the net or you have a hard time scoring, not just individually but as a team," Brodeur said.
"When you come through and score big goals at the right time of the game also, I'm sure it feels really good for the offensive guy. At least the dividends are collected here."
Asked about the transformation, Parise insisted that what happened after Game 3 was no big deal.
"I don't know. I think some people are making a big deal out of nothing really. But it was the same, just the puck happened to go in tonight. That's the difference," Parise said.
"These games are so tight, and when you get the opportunities, you want to put them in. Last game we didn't, I didn't, and tonight they went in."
Except that's not exactly true.
Maybe they went in for Parise because he's exactly the kind of player for whom these things happen at these critical times.
Maybe he simply works and plays the right way to find himself on the right side of that fine line.
In the end, guys like Parise rarely have to ask themselves whether they've done enough, regardless of which side of that line they stand on.
The Devils and their fans know that very well. They just hope they're not seeing the last of it here.


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50th anniversary
Barry and Kay Schrader of DeKalb will observe their 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 27.
In 1963, the couple eloped to be married in Byron and this time will fly to Breckenridge, Colo., to attend the wedding of Kay's great niece, Nikki Larson, that weekend. They will be joined there by sons Todd and Darrin.
They were both born in DeKalb County but lived in the San Francisco Bay area for 37 years. They retired back to DeKalb in 2006.
They decided to forgo an anniversary party, instead making a donation to the DeKalb Public Library building project. Cards can be sent to them at 511 Roberts Lane, DeKalb, IL 60115.
Jennifer Danekas and Jason Simon, both of Milwaukee, were married June 22, 2013, at Zion Lutheran Church in Menomonee Falls, Wis.
Daughter of William and Janet Danekas of Hinckley, the bride is a 2003 graduate of Hinckley-Big Rock High School and a 2007 graduate of Concordia University in Mequon, Wis. She is employed as a fifth-grade teacher at Grace Christian Academy in Milwaukee.
The son of Mary Beth Simon of Wauatosa, Wis., the groom is a 1998 graduate of Wauatosa West High School. He attended Waukesha Technical College in Waukesha, Wis., and is employed at Lowe's Home Improvement in Wauatosa, Wis.
Maid of Honor was Shelby Gerth of Cedarburg, Wis. Bridesmaids were Penny Tupper of Milwaukee, Jacqui Sharpee, Jessica Sharpee and Janelle Sharpee, all of Waukesa, Wis., and Sarah Goodman of Milwaukee. Allison and Danielle Obregon of Milwaukee served as flowergirls.
Best Man was Mike Henry of West Bend, Wis. Groomsmen were JJ Marshall and Casey Knapp, both of Milwaukee, Randy Madritsch of New Berlin, Wis., Nick Loth of Cedarburg, Wis., and Ray Koukari III of Chicago.
John Boesche of DeKalb, Christopher Pickwell of Shabbona, Dave Jonovic of Milwaukee and Joel Morales of Cudahay, Wis., served as ushers. Ring bearers were Jack Obregon and Christian Tupper, both of Milwaukee.
The wedding reception was held at Milwaukee Mariott West in Waukesha, Wis., followed by a wedding trip to Daytona, Fla.
The couple resides in Milwaukee.
Suzanne Jourdain and Landon Rosenik were married on Saturday, July 13, 2013, at The Clock Tower Resort in Rockford.
The bride is the daughter of Sharon and Rick Jourdain of Malta. She is a 2007 graduate of Indian Creek High School and a 2012 graduate of Northern Illinois University. She is employed at McCoy Chiropractic in Sycamore.
The groom is the son of April and Richard Rosenik of Miami, Fla. He is a 2007 graduate of South Dade Senior High School in Miami, Fla., and attended Kishwaukee College. He is the culinary manager at Ruby Tuesday in DeKalb.
The Man of Honor was Nick Jourdain, brother of the bride, of Malta.
The Best Man was Justin Rosenik, brother of the groom, of Miami, Fla.
The wedding party consisted of sister-in-law of the bride, Meridith Jourdain of Malta, Reynolds Davis of Lilburn, Ga., Jonathan Giardelli of DeKalb (formerly of Miami, Fla), Rachel Korosik of Waterman, Emily Padilla of DeKalb, and Eric Rolon of Rochelle, all friends of the bride and groom.
The ceremony was officiated by Jerry LeKostaj, longtime friend of the family, of Aurora, and coordinated by Geralyn Ignarski, aunt of the bride, of Warrenville.
A reception was held at The Clock Tower Resort in Rockford and was followed by a wedding trip to Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
The couple resides in Cortland.
Dean and Connie Holliday of DeKalb are pleased to announce the engagement of their son, David, to Amber Phelps, daughter of Dennis Phelps of Hinckley and Sandy and Larry Weber of Homer Glen.
David studied horticulture at Kishwaukee College after graduating from DeKalb High School in 1994 and is currently employed at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
Amber, a 2011 NIU graduate with a Master of Science degree, is a teacher at Kishwaukee Education Consortium in Malta.
A June wedding is planned at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle.
Jessica L. Novak, of Serena, and Michael L. Madsen, of Sandwich, will be married at their church in Sheridan on Oct. 19.
Parents of the couple are John and Sunny Stufflebeam of Serena, and Lee and Blanche Madsen of Hinckley.
The bride-elect is a 1997 graduate of Serena High School and received a Bachelor of Social Work degree from Aurora University in 2002 and a Master of Social Work degree from Aurora University in 2004. She is an individual and family therapist for Centennial Counseling Center in Yorkville.
The future groom is a 1996 graduate of Hinckley-Big Rock High School. He is a truck driver for J.B. Hunt in Montgomery.
Michael and Margaret Budzynski of Arlington Heights announce the engagement and upcoming wedding of their daughter, Amanda, to Jeffrey Cervenka, son of Michael Cervenka and the late Penny Ewing Cervenka. The wedding is planned for Oct. 18, 2013, in Barrington.
Amanda graduated from Rolling Meadows High School in 2001 and is a 2005 graduate of Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Art in psychology.
Jeff graduated in 2003 from Kaneland High School and is a member of Plumbing and Pipe Fitters Union 301.
The couple lives in Rolling Meadows.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Host Committee is pleased to invite all SEAHO members to the Louisville conference. This will be the 50th conference meeting. In light of this, our theme is the same as that of the 1st meeting. The details are as follows:
Theme: Today's Challenge and Tomorrow's Direction
Hotel and meeting space: Marriott Louisville Downtown. Registration is available at https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_gi_new&groupID=19518204A second hotel is available, Spring Hill Suites, that is honoring the conference rate.
A third hotel is available, Fairfield Inn and Suites Louisville Downtown, that is also honoring the conference rate. This hotel is connected to the Spring Hill Suites hotel and is only a block away.
Costs: $163
a night which includes internet capability at no additional charge and a
discounted rate of $10 a day for parking. ($20 extra fee a night for 3-4 people
in a room) The Marriott is located right in the heart of Louisville and prime
entertainment, educational, and cultural activities are within walking distance.
Corporate Partner area: ATTENTION: At this time the SEAHO 2014 Exhibit Hall is filled to capacity. If you are interested in getting on a waiting list or being contacted should additional space open up please contact Gavin Roark, SEAHO 2014 Corporate Partners Chair, via email firstname.lastname@example.com.
The Louisville
Regional airport (airport code SDF) is only 15 minutes away and has 6 major airlines (American,
Delta, Frontier, Southwest, United, and US Airways) that offer daily flights
from all parts of the Southeast. For
those using cars, Louisville has interstates 64, 65, and 71 within the city.
Transportation from the airport to the Marriott Hotel downtown will be
provided at NO COST on February 18, 19, and 21 at the following
days/times (first come, first served basis):
Meeting space: The
Hotel will be hosting all of our events except for the opening reception on
Wednesday at Churchill Downs. (We will provide transportation to the location
and back that evening). We will have 10 program rooms, a registration area,
spaces for the program and host committees, and more. Seven of the program
rooms are located across near the associate area, ensuring constant traffic flow
back and forth.
Registration fee: $215
for professionals and $180 for graduate students. January 17th is the cut-off for the early bird discount of $25.
Cancellation Policy: Registration cancellations prior to January 17, 2014 will receive a 100% refund. Registration cancellations after January 17, 2014 and before January 24, 2014 will receive a 50% refund. Registration cancellations after January 24, 2014 will receive a 0% refund. Registration is not considered complete until payment is received.
Local attractions: Louisville offers something for everyone: from Baseball fans, to Boxing fans, to Racehorse fans, to clubs, restaurants, and more all within walking distance. You can count on your host committee to have several exciting opportunities to soak in the culture that is Louisville. Local Attraction Human Relations Event: Visit to Muhammad Ali Center: http://www.seaho.org/?page=muhammadalicenter
2013 Louisville Visitor Guide - http://s7d5.scene7.com/s7ondemand/brochure/flash_brochure.jsp?company=LouisvilleConvention&sku=VG_final&config=meeting_planners_guide_2008&zoomwidth=1000&zoomheight=600&wh=740
Guidebook:The link to the Guidebook landing page is http://guidebook.com/g/seaho2014Redeem Code for our Guidebook is seaho2014 Contact information:
SEAHO 2014 Conference CoordinatorDr. Tom HardyDirector of Housing and Residence LifeValdosta State University(229) email@example.com
Note: For
two days prior and two days after the conference, there will be no rate changes
in the hotel, so extend your stay or show up early and have a blast!
Remember Me
Forgot your password?
Haven't registered yet?


text:
About Lady Decadence
Just fine!
I saw Papa Roach for the first time in 2007 at the Metal Meeting in Belgium. If you wanna talk magic ... well ... tshaaa!!! They were playing in the midst of a thunder storm. I remember Jacoby screaming "Aaahhhh!!" and right after came the lightning, a ruffle of the drums and than the roaring of the sky. Well, I was blown away! It was so inspiring that I knew right there and then I had to do something with this life, this anger and all the passion underneath, and so I did. Now 2 years later I'm no longer a civil servant, but a massage therapist about to become a health coach and hopefully this year I will publish a little poetry book. So thanks guys, thanks a thousand!


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When teams across Kentucky open the football state playoffs this weekend, both schools in Henry County will be playing at home for the first time. Yes, I will be going back and forth between the two games. And yes, I am definitely excited.
It wasn't their prettiest football outing this season, but the Henry County Wildcats were able to pull away from Gallatin County during the second half on Friday night to earn a 39-0 victory and end the regular season with an impressive 8-2 record.
The Wildcats, who won the District Four title, have the third best record in Class 3-A behind Somerset and Mason County at 10-0 each, and will host Moore in the first round of the state playoffs this Friday night. If the Cats win, they will be at home again the following weekend against either North Oldham or Shawnee.
The team Steve Frommeyer calls the most improved squad in his 30-plus years of coaching football will take to the field this Friday night in an attempt to win Eminence High School's first 11-man playoff game.
After racing at the Meet of Champions at Masterson Station Park in Lexington on Saturday, the Eminence cross-country team has shifted its focus to the all-important Class A Region 5 Championship.
The regional meet, which will be held at the Trimble County Park this Saturday, has been the one race the Warriors have been aiming towards all season. In their final build-up race, they competed alongside thousands of runners in Lexington at the annual Meet of Champions. It's one of the largest cross-country meets in Kentucky with more than 10 separate races.
While the Henry County High School varsity football team has been on a roll to finish the regular season at 8-2 and win the Class 3-A District Four title, the junior varsity squad has been equally impressive.
The younger players had a 6-1 record this season and won the conference championship on Oct. 24 with an 8-0 victory over Grant County in the finals. The JV program is making that transition from middle school to varsity much easier. Ray Isaacs is the team's head coach and coaches defense; Cliff Dawson coaches offense. There were 21 freshmen and seven sophomores.
Shortly after running two miles close to 100-percent on Monday afternoon at practice, the Henry County cross-country runners toed the starting line again for one mile all out. Minutes later, they sprinted past coach Greg Woods one by one to complete their final tough workout of the season.
There is something that just doesn't feel right about this school year. So far, I've covered every type of game. I've covered wins. I've covered losses. I've covered nail biters. I've covered blowouts. By now, I've interviewed coaches hundreds of times, talked to players and written too many stories to keep count. Until Saturday night, I couldn't put my finger on that something that is missing. Now I can.
Henry County High School will host a 30-minute Title IX Public Comment Session this Thursday in the HCHS office from 5 p.m. until 5:30. Everyone in the community is eligible to attend the public forum to discuss matters related to equal rights in athletics. For more information, contact the high school at (502) 845-8670.
Cassey Fischer placed fifth in the girls' varsity race, Eric Phillips placed 14th in the boys' varsity race and the Henry County Cats got the opportunity to test out the same course their regional championship will use two weeks later.
Outside of a mark in the win-loss column, there wasn't much at stake for the Henry County football team in Friday night's game at Spencer County. The Wildcats had already secured the regular-season District Four championship and were already guaranteed to be at home in at least the first round of the Class 3-A State Playoffs.
But the Wildcats moved the football for 30 first downs, finished with 253 passing yards and had 445 total offense en route to a 33-20 victory over the host Bearcats. It was just the effort coach Chris Engstrand was looking for.
Copyright © 2016
The Henry County Local is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Eminence, KY and the surrounding area.


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For WVU's Fla. natives, you can go home again
MORGANTOWN - When Stedman Bailey found out the Orange Bowl was West Virginia's postseason football destination, he literally couldn't control himself.
"When I first heard the news, I was jumping all around the house,'' Bailey said. "We realize this is the closest we'll probably ever play to home.''
Probably the closest? Well, sure, it's probably the closest he and the rest of the Miramar High School crowd that populates WVU's football roster will ever come to playing at home.
Probably, that is, unless someone decides to build a stadium literally in one of their back yards.
If you've never spent much time in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, know that it is spread out. For instance, West Virginia's team hotel is the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. Clemson is staying at Westin Diplomat in Hollywood. Clemson is practicing at Nova Southeastern University. West Virginia's practice is at Barry University.
And if you set off to drive to each one of those locations, it would take roughly two hours to complete the cycle. In other words, this is a big place. Spread out doesn't begin to describe South Florida.
We bring that up only because of what is not spread out - Sun Life Stadium, where the Orange Bowl will be held on Jan. 4, and Miramar, where some of West Virginia's best players grew up and went to high school.
How cozy is that geographic relationship?
"I actually grew up across the lake from Pro Player Stadium,'' WVU quarterback Geno Smith said, referring to one of Sun Life Stadium's previous monikers. "You can't get much closer to home.''
No, you can't.
"I was probably about five minutes away,'' said Bailey, one of Smith's top receivers both at Miramar and WVU. "But even Miramar, that's within walking distance from the stadium. That's pretty much our neighborhood. Every day growing up, I passed by that stadium. To actually be able to play there and to have everybody from home there to watch, that's big. That's big for all of us from South Florida.''
Smith and Bailey aren't the only Miami area players on West Virginia's roster. There are 19 Floridians on West Virginia's roster and nine call Miami or Miramar home.
Most are in South Florida right now on break. The rest of the team will join them there on Thursday, when the team re-assembles to begin practices for the game.
And with that kind of familiarity with the area comes both the good and the bad.
"We want them to be excited about going to the game and about playing the game. But we're not going to treat it like a vacation,'' first-year West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We obviously want to have a good time down there and let them enjoy it and be close to home and let a bunch of their friends and family come watch the game. But we've still got to get our work done and prepare and do the best that we can to make it a competitive game.''
The Miramar guys all seem focused on that. They play games in different places all the time. And they're just trying to treat this as another road game.
For friends and family, though, it's different.
"All the people who ever wanted to come to a game up here or anywhere else, now they have an opportunity to do so,'' Smith said.
That's not always easy given the distance from Miami to Morgantown or to most of the places the Mountaineers play. Shoot, even a drive from Miami to Tampa for a game at USF is a haul of some 41/2 hours.
"It's more for my family members to get a chance to see me play,'' Smith said. "They've always wanted to come up here for games or go where ever [the team plays], but it's just a distance thing. But now we get a chance to go home and everybody's going to be there. I've got long, lost cousins wanting to come to the game now. But it's going to be more special to them than me.''
How many of those long, lost cousins actually make it to the game remains to be seen, of course. Smith can get only so many tickets from teammates.
"I'm just trying to grab up as many as I can and then let my mother disperse them,'' Smith said. "If it was up to me, I'd just give them to everybody. So she's the ticket master.''
All of which leaves guys like him and Bailey to focus on what matters.
"It's a business trip. We're not taking this lightly,'' Bailey said. "It's not a vacation trip.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Can I be the first to call bull on this?
"There is a US process and an EU process and I don't have the details of where we are within those processes."
Yet he thinks he knows where they are well enough to call on the (non-existant?) trademark?
I wonder if he's aware that trademarks granted can be challenged in the "EU process"?
Really, you start to wonder about the logic process going on inside these people's heads. This largely pointless exercise is just going to cost them money, generate a whole heap of bad feeling, and what's the point considering the project can be forked and renamed (if it hasn't already - any sane devs might be considering ditching close ties to a company acting in this matter). How can they possibly stand to gain from this? Can anybody explain?


text:
Canonical Unveils Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS Beta 1
A few days ago, Canonical pushed out the first beta edition of Ubuntu Linux version 14.04, the release of the open source operating system that will hit production mode this April. As a long-term support (LTS) release, the new OS will help define the face of Ubuntu for a long time to come.
Content Classification:
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Comments are closed.
Copyright © 2016 Ubuntu Look - All Rights Reserved


text:
All parents must give the office a two week notice prior to a PCS move. This gives the teachers time to prepare the student's report card and the office will prepare a copy of the PCS orders.
Educational files (records from Hainerberg and previous schools) may be released directly to a parent who has given the school notice and proper orders indicating a PCS.
All library books must be returned to the school. If the library books are not returned, a bill will be presented to the parent when he/she comes in to pick up the student's educational records.
The Military Child Education Coalition (external site) has additional PCS information, including a Checklist for Student Transfers.
Unit 24305 Box 86
Phone: 011-49-611-705-2220
Fax: 011-49-611-74123
DSN Phone: 337-2220
It is the responsibility of the parents or guardians to notify the school every time a student is absent.
Building 7790, Room 33
Hainerberg Housing
Unit 29623, Box 0051
Civilian: 0611: 408-0129
Email School Liaison Office


text:
This is a potential security issue, you are being redirected to http://nvd.nist.gov
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NVD provides four mailing lists to the public. For information and subscription instructions please visit
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GNU Wget 1.12 and earlier uses a server-provided filename instead of the original URL to determine the destination filename of a download, which allows remote servers to create or overwrite arbitrary files via a 3xx redirect to a URL with a .wgetrc filename followed by a 3xx redirect to a URL with a crafted filename, and possibly execute arbitrary code as a consequence of writing to a dotfile in a home directory.
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text: Kate Harrad 2016-05-30T11:18:51-04:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=kate-harrad Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Kate Harrad Good old fashioned elbow grease. Red Phone Boxes: A Novel Angle tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.4378126 2013-12-03T11:05:51-05:00 2014-02-02T05:59:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ They're still there, though, on street corners, waiting for occasional use or repurposed as cashpoints, internet connection points, collections of call girl photos, and impromptu urinals. They're street furniture. But if you're not from around here, London's red phone boxes can be magical. Which is what writer/editor Salome Jones found when she moved over from the US a few years ago. Salome explains: "We don't have phone boxes where I'm from - even the drab clear phone booths are long gone. Public phones are attached to walls with maybe a little shelf over them to protect them from the weather. The first time I saw one of those beautifully designed red telephone boxes I had to get inside it. It was like a shiny, red building for one." Salome's interest, combined with the enormous number of writers she knows, has resulted in an unusual writing project which launched last weekend. Red Phone Box, a 'story cycle' or collaborative novel, was written by 28 writers - one of them Warren Ellis - and edited by Salome and games writer Tim Dedopulos. It started as a series of linked stories on a website, and was then edited into a single story - although the short-story structure is still intriguingly visible underneath the novel structure. As Salome said in an interview with Bleeding Cool, "You can think of it as two things: its original pieces, and the novel we made out of them." The process of turning the one into the other was helped by Tim's experience as a puzzle creator - he was behind 2011's The Great Global Treasure Hunt on Google Earth. So what's the book about? It's based around the idea that phone boxes are essentially small enchanted places where almost anything can happen. You pick up a ringing phone and your life changes. And God help you if you get trapped in one. Some of the plot revolves around the Anglesey Deer, an amulet dating from AD 60, which is sought after and found and lost. Some of the many characters include Amber, whose life-changing midnight walk opens the book, a sinister lion-headed lord, occultist Croften Wingwalker, black cat Max, magician-on-the-take Maz, storyteller (and other things) Safran, and Jon, "who has lived and died and lived again". One of my stories is outside all the main storylines and features a tragic goddess worshipped by a gang of feral children. Getting involved in Red Phone Box has given me a whole new outlook on London. At the launch party on Saturday I shut myself into a phone box for a photo, and found a shudder running down my back. I'd better make sure I never lose my mobile, because I'm not sure I can bring myself to call anyone from a red phone box again. But I can't wait to write for the sequel.]]> Am I My Avatar? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2515104 2013-01-20T19:47:49-05:00 2013-03-22T05:12:01-04:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ Foresight, part of the Government Office for Science, takes an in-depth look at the question of identity in the UK. As you might expect, it's not a simple issue. Foresight suggests that we have no 'identity' as such; we have multiple identities - social, religious, ethnic, national, and so on - which together make up the self: and whichever identity we might think is most relevant to us at any given moment can change. When a toddler is pushing banana into my ear on the sofa, that's a different facet of me than the person I am in a meeting at work; and I'm different again when I'm on Tumblr posting a particularly cute picture of Benedict Cumberbatch, or a kitten. Or a kitten who looks like Benedict Cumberbatch. It used to be assumed that we were different online - that the internet was there to let people play out their fantasies and be whoever they wanted to be - but as the report points out, it's not like that any more, if it ever was. These days most of us carry smartphones around which allow us to connect anytime or all the time - what the report calls 'hyper-connectivity' - and segue between being online and offline as easily as we step in and out of a shop. Facebook is really just an extension of our usual selves, mostly linking together people we already know offline who are likely to notice if you decide to be a completely different person online. Twitter is a lot like chatting to your friends in the world's biggest and most argumentative pub. We tweet from work and work online at home; we stand in shops checking comparable prices on our phones before purchasing; we can have lively arguments on a forum while we're commuting home. As the report puts it, the divide between online and offline identities is indeed dissolving, and it's hard to know at present what effect that might have on social norms and attitudes. One trend the report points to is a loss of privacy as more and more information about us is put into a 'public' sphere; along with this is a lessening of interest in privacy among young people. When my daughters are older, I fully expect to be finding out details of their social and sex lives via the internet - it's already happening to friends with teenage children. But that's not the whole story either, of course. For every person whose offline and online personas are identical, there's another who uses the internet to escape, to hide, or to explore new sides of themselves. In some cases, they just want the chance to insult strangers without getting punched, but there are positive aspects too. The Foresight report instances Jason, a disabled man who plays Star Wards Galaxies, who's quoted as saying: "Virtual worlds bring people together. In the real world, people can be uncomfortable around me before they get to know me." Averaging 80 hours a week playing the game, you could argue that despite his distinction between virtual and real, his avator is as much 'him' as his physical self is. Mother, worker, activist, churchgoer, fanfic writer, Twitter troll, OK Cupid dater: it's not necessarily one integrated identity, but there's no question that it's all us.]]> Bad at Sports (Good at Spelling): Why Don't I Care about the Olympics? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1702227 2012-07-25T12:29:10-04:00 2012-09-24T05:12:25-04:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ However, I think it's probably true to say that the above paragraph describes the entirety of my interest in sport. I think this is a shame. If I enjoyed sports more I might play one of them, which would be good for me, and I'd have more in common with some of my friends. And I might regard the Olympics with something more than boredom and despair. (The despair, to be honest, isn't about the sporting aspect but about the prospect of a summer filled with travel chaos, security everywhere, and disturbing reports about the treatment of workers.) So why don't I like sports? I'm not the only person I know for whom the very mention of the word induces glassy-eyed ennui. And when I think about the reasons for it, my answer comes down to this: School. My school wasn't any worse about this than any other. It's just something about the nature of how school sports works, as opposed to how academic classes, work. The trouble is that if you're bad at sports - and I was - it's really, really obvious. There you are: coming last in every race, being picked last for every team, being ordered to try to throw a javelin that is actually taller than you are and then falling over. (The latter was a particularly humiliating moment in my humiliating school sports career.) It's no fun. I'll never forget the face of the girl who was assigned to play squash with me. It's a game I find deeply scary. You get shut in a room and someone repeatedly tries to hit you with a small, very hard ball, and apparently you're not allowed to hide in a corner till it's all over. It's a nightmare in an extremely literal sense. My squash partner, unfortunately, was very good at the game, and I would like to apologise to her for having been made to play with me. I would also like to apologise to anyone who played volleyball in my vicinity, since I never actually understood the rules of it. There was a large ball and a net and again, you weren't allowed to run away from the ball, and sometimes people shouted at you. That's all I got. I liked table tennis. It will be apparent from my last paragraph that when it comes to balls, I'm a physical coward, and table tennis balls are reassuringly light and unlikely to cause damage. Badminton was also borderline acceptable. Hockey, on the other hand... I can't even think about hockey without shuddering. The sticks! The noise! The noise of the sticks as they hit bits of me! So there I was. I got excellent marks in English, Maths, History and so on, but academic success at school is an ambiguous thing. It's not going to win you friends. It's not something you're supposed to be pleased about or tell people about. I feel embarrassed I even mentioned it. Forget I said anything. It's not that I wanted to be awarded medals on a daily basis. (I would have been too shy to accept them anyway.) But it seemed unfair and it still does, that sporting failure is so public. That teenagers who are bad at running and hitting balls should have to feel that it's a mark of personal failure, when teenagers who were bad at, say, chemistry could just shrug it off. And rightly or wrongly, it really did put me off sports. As a short, plump, physically awkward girl with spectacles who couldn't return a serve if you stood opposite her placing the ball directly into her racket, I associated physical activity with embarrassment and unpopularity. And still do. Of course, lots of people who didn't like sports at school grew up to enjoy them - Stephen Fry has written about this, for example. Nevertheless, I wish there was some way to make school sports less about who wins and who loses, and more about a collaborative joy in activity. And while we're at it, why aren't squash balls, you know... squashy?]]> The Karaoke Expansion tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1217314 2012-01-19T17:34:36-05:00 2012-03-20T05:12:01-04:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ You're So Vain or Smells Like Teen Spirit while my friends watched politely and waited for their turn. (I can't sing, and have not completely come to terms with this fact. My friends can sing, so perhaps I should find some new friends to do karaoke with.) And there have been some developments in the area: for example, there's Rock Club London, a popular pub night where you play Rock Club with drums and guitars as well as vocals, thus giving you bonus opportunities to enjoyably embarrass yourself in front of strangers. There's also a club called Karaoke-Cokey in London, apparently, although in my head this is an activity that should simply consist of someone doing karaoke while everyone else does the Hokey-Cokey around them. But karaoke is a concept that deserves to be expanded beyond mere singing. For example, what about stand-up comedy? You don't even need a backing track. Just memorise or transcribe a routine by your favourite stand-up comedian or sketch show, and throw a Comeoke (commee-oaky) party. It should be fascinating to discover what jokes still work when Eddie Izzard or Stewart Lee aren't telling them, much in the same way that it's fascinating to realise that the person singing I Will Survive at a karaoke party has not fully thought through the high notes. You might need a rule where if you forget the punch line three times in a row, people are allowed to throw fruit. But overall, it should be great: basically like being in a tribute band without needing to play any instruments (unless your stand-up routine of choice is by a musical comic such as Bill Bailey or Tim Minchin, in which case you brought it on yourself, frankly.) There's more. How about Bookaoke? Yes, this does simply mean picking a passage from a favourite book and reading it aloud, but don't knock it: that's what the Victorian middle classes did practically every night for entertainment, and they ruled most of the known world. Or Dramaoke. I know people who do this, although mysteriously they don't call it that: they get together for weekends and perform Shakespeare plays, having assigned the parts in advance. Tellyoke and Movieoke would work well, too, especially with props - we're more or less getting into LARP territory here, but that's fine. And Artaoke - where people get together to paint copies of famous pictures - is what many art classes do anyway. All that's missing is the branding. Those who wish to take this to extremes, and why wouldn't you, should try Lifeaoke. Simply spend a day or so living the life of someone famous whom you admire. If you pick someone who uses Twitter a lot, you should be able to get plenty of details about what they're up to, so copying them will be easy. Enlist friends to play the roles of their more famous friends, buy a wig, and you're sorted. We won't talk about Deathaoke. Those people are just weird. ]]> True Friends and False Dichotomies tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1180725 2012-01-04T19:00:00-05:00 2012-03-05T05:12:02-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ I don't want to undermine this noble activity, but I can't help noticing that a lot of self-help advice is not actually that useful. Being inspirational is all very well, but being told, for example, "stop worrying" and "stop blaming other people for your problems" and "you can't love others till you love yourself" is getting a bit grating. In the entire history of spoken language, the phrase "stop worrying" has never decreased anyone's levels of worry. And what if other people actually are to blame for your problems? And it's demonstrably true that you can, in fact, love others without loving yourself. People manage it all the time. But the one that's particularly annoying me is actually two pieces of advice in conjunction. I won't name the site I saw it on, because it's not fair - it's well-intentioned, and you can find the same advice all over the internet. But this is the quote: "Stop spending time with the wrong people. Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you... And remember, it's not the people that stand by your side when you're at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you're at your worst that are your true friends." Let's look at a practical example of what this advice entails. Let's say Ai and Bee are friends. However, Bee has become clingy and depressed and is draining Ai's energy, so Ai drops Bee as a friend. That's what happened from Ai's point of view. From Bee's point of view, Ai failed the test of true friendship by not standing by her when Bee was "at her worst". Who's right? What I'm trying to say is that the two pieces of advice above can easily lead to double standards. Dump people who drag you down, but only be friends with people who won't do that to you? Is that fair? The trouble is, it's when people are at their worst that they suck other people's happiness. And it's probably because they're suffering from depression or loss or rejection themselves. The problem of what to do about that is a real one, both for them and for their friends, but I don't think it should be solved by dividing one's friends into 'people I will dump if they get too needy' and 'people I will stand by at all costs.' And to continue to look at this in practical terms, how do you tell someone they're too depressing to be friends with any more? Email? Text? Skywriting? A personalised message in a stick of rock? The etiquette is far from clear. And when does the tipping point come? The 1am phone call when they cry at you over the infidelity of their partner or the loss of their mother or their boss's insensivity? Is that a great time to mention that they're getting a bit draining and could they stop talking to you? I agree that sometimes you do have to focus on looking after yourself first, and I can see that standing by people could be seen as one of the criteria for 'true friendship' - but I'd like more detail on what standing by someone involves in reality. What if they've killed someone? Do you have to take their side in every argument (and what if you have another friend on the other side?) Can you still hang out with their ex? Loyalty is not a simple concept. And nor is friendship. ]]> Have We Become a Nation of Scrooges? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1157747 2011-12-19T10:02:03-05:00 2012-02-18T05:12:02-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ return to Christian values. Well, as a non-believer, I'd prefer not to sign up to the actual religion, but I agree some of the values are very much worth preserving. And for me, especially at this time of year, those values are largely summed up by the story of A Christmas Carol - a traditional family tale which should be well up Cameron's street, surely. But is he, and are we, really listening to its message? It's a very clear message, made plain from early on when Scrooge is approached to give to charity. "Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." "Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. Earlier this year, Ken Clarke's attempt at prison reform was blocked because the government didn't want to be 'soft' on crime. "I don't make merry myself at Christmas [said Scrooge] and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned - they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there." The government and the right-wing media are full of attacks on benefit fraudsters, 'scroungers', and 'handouts'. But 96% of calls to the National Benefit Fraud Hotline are malicious or timewasting. Of 254,000 calls to the hotline in 2009/10, only 1.3% resulted in a claimant being sanctioned for fraud. The Guardian has also reported that most cases of 'fraud' are actually error. Meanwhile, ATOS is blithely pronouncing people fit to work on the basis of primitive tests and a brief interview. Not that they can get jobs, because there aren't enough jobs to go round, and employers frequently discriminate against disabled people either overtly or covertly. "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides - excuse me - I don't know that." "But you might know it," observed the gentleman. "It's not my business," Scrooge returned. There was a call recently for better-off pensioners to donate their winter fuel payments to less well-off pensioners. David Cameron's comment on this was: "I would not want to see any pressure put on people to do something that might not be in their best interests." "Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!" Ken Clarke said after the riots: ''In my opinion our feral underclass in this country is too big, it has been growing, and now needs to be diminished." They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. "...This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want." "Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge. "Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?" The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that child poverty will rise by 800,000 by 2020. People with cancer could lose their benefits if they don't get better fast enough, and disabled children are being targeted too. David Cameron has proposed stripping benefits from families where children regularly play truant. "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge. "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" Do I even have to mention bankers? Is Scrooge really the role model we want to adopt? If so, let's stop pretending that we have any respect for the (traditional) values of generosity, benevolence and kindness. And while I don't believe in ghosts, this image from A Christmas Carol never fails to chill me. The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever. Christmas Eve is this Saturday. Who's on for putting on some chains and arranging a midnight visit to Cameron? Or is it the whole country that needs deScrooging?]]> A Tin of Baby: Should You Publish Your Book? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1130215 2011-12-13T19:00:00-05:00 2012-02-12T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ It's probably in your appendix. There has to be some reason why they're there. Curled up inside the appendix of everyone who still has one is the germ of the novel you always intended to write. (If you've had your appendix taken out, I'm afraid your chance for creativity went with it. Sorry. You may wish to sue someone.) Of course, the book you have in you may itself have an appendix, in which case you have an appendix in the book in your appendix, which makes everything even better, so I suggest all books should be legally obliged to include appendices from now on. It does seem odd, though, that novels are singled out this way, as the thing everyone has one of. After all, there are a number of other ways in which people can express their creativity. Surely, if everyone has a book in them, everyone should also have a film. And a song. And a poem, and a play, and a painting, and a piece of postmodern video art, and an immersive installation theatre project about the inner life of Edwardian wombats. The question, of course, is what you do with all that. The common cynicism is that most people should keep their novels, and other assorted creativities, inside where they belong. The recent explosion in self-publishing hasn't helped: your creative urges can now be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world for a fairly minimal amount of time and effort, and with no editing whatsoever, with the result that the market is flooded with fiction that, to put it politely, does not show its creator at their best advantage. (Obviously this isn't true of my own self-published short stories, just other people's works. Don't buy theirs. Buy mine. This has been your subliminal message for the day. Also, buy my novel, which was not self-published and is therefore irrelevant to this paragraph, but I have a PR job to do and I'm going to do it, so there. Thank you.) But then, why shouldn't people release their novels into the wild? People get to paint pictures and put them up in their houses. They get to knit jumpers, write blogs, collect Victorian memorabilia, stuff deceased animals with slightly smaller deceased animals - self-expression comes in a million unique, endearing and sometimes disturbing forms. And people have always written, of course. The only difference is that now they can also publish. It is a risk, though. Writers often compare writing books to having children, and there are certainly some similarities, although my children never reacted well to the editing process and personally I found toilet-training my novel a bit weird. But while your book may feel like your child to you, from the perspective of the outside world what you've basically produced is a tin. A tin of baby. You have created something that expresses and exposes yourself, that shows the world who you really are, but from everyone else's point of view it's an object. An object that nobody else, unfortunately, is obliged to like. That's the difference between books and babies: if someone doesn't think your baby is gorgeous, they probably won't tell you so. Or if they do, they'll know that what they're doing will upset you. Whereas if someone doesn't like your novel, they may well tell you so, and if they do, you're not supposed to mind. You've got to be able to take criticism. You've got to come across as strong, confident and adult enough to deal with a difference of opinion, even though what all writers want is for everyone on the planet to praise their novel with childlike fervour and utter sincerity. And then buy a copy or several. So yes, if everyone does have a novel in them, let it come out. But like any other object that emerges from your insides, don't assume that it will necessarily appeal to the wider world until you've polished it up a bit. And if you really want to be associated with something that will provoke gasps of adoration and admiration, try getting a kitten instead. It's a proven fact that 99.5% of people love kittens, whereas your 200,000 word novel about a depressed 15th century Icelandic priest who learns to love himself through the medium of interpretive dance is going to appeal to a niche market at best. But then, maybe that's not why you're writing it. In summary: free kittens for all, and do what makes you happy. Especially if that's buying my book. Did I just say that out loud? ]]> A Skyrim Widow Speaks Out tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1130199 2011-12-06T19:00:00-05:00 2012-02-05T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ But I get stressed when I have to do things within a certain time. And I get stressed when I have to talk to strangers, even imaginary and/or virtual ones. And I get stressed when I feel responsible for other people. And I don't want to kill anyone, even if they're a gangster, vampire, zombie ghoul, or evil prostitute who's nicked all my beer and betrayed me to the mafia boss who's also my mother. (I don't know if that actually happens, but that's what I imagine computer games to be like.) So that's almost all computer games out. I tried to play the Sims once and had to stop after five minutes, exhausted with the power. Having control of an entire world of tiny two-dimensional people was terrifying. What if they rebelled and rose up against me? What if I left them for too long and they all died from starvation? This is exactly why I didn't like playing with dolls as a child. I blame the graphics. They're too good: my brain cannot understand that this is a game, not reality. A lifetime of being culturally indoctrinated not to shoot anyone in the kneecaps has meant that I can't even pretend to do it to something that looks vaguely sentient. Which is silly, because I can watch violence on TV or at the cinema. (Well, I can if I squint a bit and think about happy things). I can even write characters that bad things happen to - there are two major deaths in my novel, and they're both characters I liked. Did I care? No. I laughed like a bouncy serial killer as I sent them to be murdered. And those are people from inside my own head. So there's no logic to it at all, really. But logic or not, I find that modern computer games mainly seem designed to give me a nervous breakdown, and I don't really need them for that - I have children. Anyway. One of the reasons why I wish I liked computer games is that I have currently lost my partner to one. Well, not lost. I know where he is. He's in his room, killing people in order to steal their souls and sell them so he can buy soft furnishings for his house. Only it's not 'his' house, because - I recently discovered - in every computer game he plays, his character is a lesbian elf. Even in games where that's technically not possible. It's probably very meaningful. I have in the past been a GTA widow, an Assassin's Creed widow and a Portal widow, so this is not new. I am used to finding that once the children are in bed, my partner slinks upstairs muttering something about the goblins getting lonely. Sometimes they are space goblins, sometimes they are undead goblins, but they always seem to need a lot of attention. I've started to feel quite motherly towards them, although I'm keeping that emotion under control since the attention they mainly seem to need is having machetes aimed at their heads. There is a Skyrim fraternity too, I notice. We went to a child's birthday party last weekend and the father greeted my partner with the words: "Wood elf?" "No," he replied. "Dark elf." They both nodded wisely. I stared at them and ate apple crumble. I think I just prefer my leisure time entertainment to be non-interactive, like TV. Maybe I'd like computer games better if they resembled the TV shows I like - has anyone invented one with singing and dancing in it yet? I could go for an X-Box with a pair of tiny tap shoes attached. As long as I didn't have to use them to stamp anyone to death.]]> Thanksgiving in the UK: Can It Work? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1107509 2011-11-22T19:00:00-05:00 2012-01-22T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ Daily Mail run an editorial about the erosion of British values? Probably not. Because it's just Americans celebrating Thanksgiving, and we're fine with that. We like Americans. They have pleasing accents and we understand their culture because we've already assimilated most of it. They think we're cute (if a bit quiet), we think they're cute (if a bit loud). They are Like Us, a bit. Apparently there are about 200,000 American-born people living in the UK, which isn't that many - about 0.3% of the population and 3% of all UK immigrants. For some reason, though, about half my friends seem to be US expats. Perhaps it's because I'm drawn to their voices. If you've grown up on American media, as most of us have, having an actual American around feels a bit like living in a movie, similar to when you're walking through London at night and hear a busker playing a saxophone and a voiceover starts narrating film noir plots in your head. (I assume this isn't just me?) Anyway, that's what Americans are like. In my opinion. (Which movie they evoke depends on the accent, of course: ideally you want a Southerner for that Tennessee Williams feel, a New Yorker for the Woody Allen vibe, a Texan for that Western atmosphere, and a Californian for more or less everything else. Assuming you're shallow enough to choose your friends based on what films they remind you of, which I'm not, obviously. Probably. I will note that I'm missing a Southern friend, though. Applications should include a audio tape.) I asked a few American expat friends what it was like, celebrating Thanksgiving in the UK, and I got a general sense that the question made them mildly homesick. "It's not a tradition here," said my friend Jason. "Non-USians know it's a holiday but I think it tends to be just seen as a dinner party. For us there's still very much a tradition of being thankful for what we have and celebrating it with the indulgence of food." Jennifer commented that "celebrating thanksgiving in the UK is kinda pale. You don't have Thursday (or Friday) off, so most people observe it over the weekend which means you don't even the get the sense that you're part of the celebration." Should we adopt Thanksgiving as a UK holiday? A couple of my friends thought so, pointing out that in the US, it helps to stave off Christmas saturation until the start of December. It's also a holiday with no presents, cards or non-food-related rituals; it can be religious but doesn't have to be. The only common thread is thankfulness (and pumpkin pie). But a holiday based around an emotion? Can the British cope with that? We can only just manage Valentine's Day. Having to express both romance and gratitude in one year might overload us. We're not great at giving thanks, at least not when it matters. I've said thank you to shop assistants probably a hundred times in the last year. Have I thanked my parents for bringing me up in that time, or my partner for his support? Of course not. Thanks to my middle-class British upbringing, I find sincere and openly expressed gratitude to be frankly embarrassing, and so do they. "Something we've done in the past," Jason told me, "is just go around the table at some point and ask people to share something for which they are thankful. It's very positive and actually kinda helps foster that feeling of community for the day." I think this is great, a lovely idea and well worth doing. I also think that if my family tried it, the sheer volume of embarrassment generated would actually contribute to global warming. Perhaps we'd be better suited to celebrating a different emotion. Mildly Disapproving Day, anyone? The Festival of That Pleasant Feeling You Get When It's Nearly Time For Elevenses? You bring the digestive biscuits, I'll bring the emotional repression, and once everyone's drunk we can mutter something inaudible about being grateful for each other and then deny it. It'll be fun. ]]> Let Me Eat Cake! What It's Like to Be Suddenly Diagnosed as Coeliac tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1091342 2011-11-14T18:00:00-05:00 2012-01-14T05:12:02-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ I have to admit, in the back of my brain, I knew that the éclair hadn't actually done anything wrong. It's only problem was that a month ago I would have bought it and eaten it, and now I can't. And frankly, I resent that. What right do chocolate éclairs have to be unavailable to me? How dare my body acquire a non-éclair-eating disease? What are M&S thinking, selling éclairs with wheat flour in? Don't they know that stuff is poisonous? Should I complain to someone? I had been gluten free for about a week at this point, and the reality of it was starting to sink in. At first I didn't mind being diagnosed with coeliac disease. It was nice having a proper diagnosis rather than just unidentified stomach pains (like a UFO, but with fewer aliens, unless you're very unlucky). People were sympathetic. And it's a controllable disease; you don't suffer from it, provided you can manage never to eat gluten again. Any of it. Ever. So gluten and I were through, like a partner you think is tasty and delicious, but then it turns out they were secretly poisoning you all along. It's not literally a case of never eating bread, cereal, pasta, pizza, cakes or pastry again, because you can get gluten-free equivalents of all of those. But you can't walk into most shops and get them. Those cupcake cafes around London have become forbidden fruit. (Though luckily, fruit itself is not forbidden. But if you're craving the squishy fluffiness of a cupcake, apples just don't satisfy. I suppose I could coat them in bright pink butter icing.) But the thing I hadn't quite realised is how wheat gets into everything. Like chips. I had friends who were openly sceptical about this. "Chips are potato", they pointed out, and potato is fine. But I'd joined the Coeliac Society and read up on this, and I knew that some chips were fine and some weren't - for example if they'd been fried in the same fryer as onion rings. So now I have to be someone who goes up to the bar in a pub and says, "excuse me, are your chips gluten free?" I hate the idea of being that person. In fact, I hate it so much that I haven't actually done it yet, I've just eaten the chips and hoped. But I'll have to get over that hurdle, because if I eat gluten-contaminated things I will damage my intestines and increase my risk of getting various cancers, all of which seem to have terrifyingly high mortality rates. I will do a lot of things to avoid dying of bowel cancer, and if one of those things is going to have to be sounding like a fussy eater in public, then so be it. Picky wins over dead. I do wonder how it's going to be, never eating a Double Decker again, or a bowl of Ricicles, or a Terry's Chocolate Orange. (For those who are worrying about my appalling diet, don't worry - it also features food that is not composed mainly of sugar.) On the other hand, there are always Twirls. And as I discovered the other day, I live in a world where Tesco will sell me a gluten-free, raspberry-jam-doughnut-flavoured milkshake. Frankly, that's a world I'm okay with. ]]> Frozen Planet: TV's Most Exhausting Show tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1077303 2011-11-06T18:00:00-05:00 2012-01-06T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ Frozen Planet. Two ponderous yet bloodily violent elephant seals fight as endless penguins stand around, presumably making cheerful bets on the outcome. ("I'll have five medium-sized rocks on the slightly greyer one." "You're on!") We long ago gave up trying to stay emotionally detached from it all. Animals show us ourselves, and we know it, and so does David Attenborough. The male penguin looking shifty as it nicks the stones from its neighbour's nest, the polar bear looking back at her furry babies tumbling playfully over each other and then trudging on with a resigned sigh, even the baby albatross stoically waiting in the snow till it's old enough to leave its nest and learn to fly: there's no pretence that we're not essentially looking into an animal-shaped mirror here. That's one of the reasons it's so tiring to watch, in a good way. All human life is here, and there aren't even any humans. And then there's the horrible bits. A central feature in any nature programme is the sight of a cute animal being devoured by another cute animal as David Attenborough solemnly intones: "One of these incredibly adorable creatures must die to feed the other. THIS IS HOW LIFE WORKS, PEOPLE. NO LOOKING AWAY, COWARDS." But we do. We go through a guilty process of determining what we can manage to watch. Whales eating fish? No problem. Wolves eating ducklings? Bearable, though we wince when the furry wolf-puppies get joyfully spattered with the bloody meat of the hare they're devouring. And then there's the inevitable, heartbreaking narrative of the baby polar bears versus the baby seal cubs. That's the one that gets us. The large, meltingly beautiful eyes of the baby seal gaze at the screen with mute appeal as the mother polar bear approaches from behind like a very high-stakes game of Grandmother's Footsteps. If the seal escapes, the baby bears may starve. We pause the TV, take a deep breath, and half-watch through averted eyes; but it's okay, the programme has taken pity on us and started showing us an overview of the Arctic ice instead. Oh God, the landscapes. Every frame of every shot of Frozen Planet is so achingly, icily beautiful that I keep finding I've forgotten to breathe. Of course, it's not a beauty you want to get close to, as becomes extremely clear during the last section of the show, the 'how-we-did-it' segment. The sight of the cameramen trapped in a flimsy-looking hut for four days during a 130-mile-an-hour Antarctic snowstorm is terrifying. They remain startlingly stoic through it all, I feel. Towards the end they're a bit red-eyed and tired-looking, but that's about it. BBC people are made of steel, apparently. I would have given up after a couple of hours and abandoned myself to my fate, gibbering. In fact, that's really why I find Frozen Planet exhausting. It's not just the range of emotions I run through: awe, terror, maternal protectiveness, laughter, more awe, more terror. It's the way it illustrates that life just keeps going, on and on, despite everything that nature, the world's most challenging obstacle course, can throw in its way. I know I should find this exhilarating. Instead I find it enervating. Take the woolly bear caterpillar. Attenborough shows it to us, balanced hungrily on a leaf, eating as if there's no tomorrow - which there more or less isn't, as it's trying to build up enough energy to become a moth before the spring ends. But it runs out of time, so it buries itself and freezes: blood turns to ice, heart stops, everything. Next year, it emerges as if nothing had happens, metaphorically looking round and going, "Haha, you thought I was dead? Fooled you!" Cue another season of trying and failing to eat enough to become a cocoon, giving up, and then freezing itself again like a caterpillar-flavoured ice lolly. This goes on for 14 years. Fourteen years! I know they say if at first you don't succeed try, try and try again, but this is ridiculous. And then, finally, the woolly bear gets the right weather. It cocoons itself, turns into a moth, mates if it's lucky and dies about a week later. Does this serve as a metaphor about how the human spirit endures hardship, or does it suggest that some people (and animals) just don't know when to quit? I am filled with ennui just contemplating this life cycle. I admire, but I also think "Just give up! Nature does not intend you to reproduce! Take the hint!" Yes, life endures; but I'm not sure it always wants to. You can see it in the eyes of Mark the Antarctic cameraman, staring at us after two months with the face of a man who has seen far, far too many penguins. I should have been an accountant, he's thinking. Right now, I could have been sitting on a sofa eating Pringles. Like you. You bastards. ]]> Gendering Free: Exploring Outside the Binary tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1067201 2011-11-01T10:27:05-04:00 2012-01-01T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ Once upon a time there was a country called Gender. The country consisted mainly of two large cities, one called Male and one called Female. Most people lived in one of the cities, and people who didn't were frowned on, but sometimes someone would leave one city and go and live in the other, if they were allowed in. Other times, people would visit the other city and come back. Some people didn't want to live in the cities at all. They left and went to the space in between, or to a different part of the country altogether, and built their own houses there. They even founded villages with other people who didn't take to city life. Some of the people who'd left tried to persuade the city-dwellers that it was OK not to live in a city. Just because most people lived in cities, they argued, it didn't mean that everyone had to, or that cities were better than villages, any more than villages were better than cities. But most of the city dwellers were very suspicious of the people who'd left, and often mocked them or even hurt them, because they felt that leaving the cities was weird and wrong, even though it wasn't doing anyone any harm. (Responsibility for this metaphor rests entirely with me. This metaphor is entirely my own opinion and is not legally binding. Use of this metaphor is at your own risk.) I'm someone who's always lived in the city of Female, but I know quite a few people who have gone visiting, or have rejected city life altogether*. They might describe themselves as nonbinary, non-gendered, genderqueer, genderfree, trans, androgynous or all or none of the above or something else entirely. What they have in common is that they can't or won't fit into a simple binary definition of male or female. For example, when I asked some friends to describe their gender in one or two sentences, the answers included: "Fluid, intermediate, opportunist, and very much free from gender when I am alone. It's others who gender me. I just do what I can to work that system in work and social situations." (Ash) "The flip answer would be something like "Not as simple as you think it is". The sensible answer would be something like "One of the many datapoints which combine to make the person I am." (Klepsie) "Indecisive tomboy feminine-in-some-ways dandy butch genderqueer woman. I think. Today, anyway." (Yoyo) "I've never really had a gender identity - I can't decide if it's more like being ambidextrous, or more like being tone-deaf." (Ed) This is obviously a world away from the way many people think about gender. It makes it clear that pink and blue aren't the only colours in the world - no matter what toy shops may believe. So why do we feel the need to be so rigid about being male or female, and about what that means? Why do we teach young people that they have to fit neatly and naturally into one box or the other in order to be acceptable? Rose Fox comments: "A friend of mine has a delightful young child, M, who drew a picture of "mom's friends" for school. M explained to her fellow classmates that the person with the short hair is Rose, who is a girl, and the person with the long hair is Dave, who is a boy. The five-year-olds had no problem with this. Why should they? Another friend's nine-year-old, Y, met me shortly after I'd buzzed off all my hair. "You look like a boy!" Y declared. "Thank you!" I said. Over dinner, I mentioned something I was doing that's culturally male-coded, and Y exclaimed, "Wow, you really ARE like a boy!" I replied, "That's right: a boy who likes to knit and wear dresses." Other than that, gender was not at all a topic of conversation, and Y seemed perfectly comfortable hanging out with me and chatting about subway trains and origami and other items of mutual interest. ...So, no, I don't think my mere existence poses a danger to children, nor do I think I should somehow be hidden away from them in order to protect their fragile little minds. They don't know anything about sex or gender until we tell them, so why shouldn't we tell them the whole story?" Klepsie agrees: "The vast majority of things in life which are presented dualistically are in fact not so, and children are going to learn about these things one way or another - why not make sure that they get accurate information?" Giving people more information about how other people work doesn't spell decadence, doom or the end of civilisation as we know it. Nat of Practical Androgyny says: It is my experience that children are happily open minded to the idea that someone could be neither [male nor female]. I often turn back the question when kids ask me if I'm a boy or a girl, asking which they think I am and if they think it matters. I've yet to receive a negative reaction from doing this. I was once amused to cause a group of children to argue amongst themselves shouting, "He's a girl! No, she's a boy!" And Ed points out that: "If you made everyone in the world think about their socks for ten minutes, then many people would probably decide to buy more interesting socks. But loads of people would still identify as men or women (and most people would stick with their existing socks)." All that's required here, to go back to my original metaphor, is more freedom for people to get out of the city if they want to, take a deep breath, and explore their surroundings. ----------------------- I asked my friends other questions about gender too - read the full text here. *This is mainly because I attend BiCon, the excellent UK annual bisexual convention/conference, which attracts any and all genders. ]]> Eight Legs, No Soul tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1031338 2011-10-30T19:00:00-04:00 2011-12-30T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ In the spirit of the season, I was talking to my daughter the other day about our biggest fears: I said mine was spiders, and being trapped in small dark spaces, and being trapped in small dark spaces with spiders. She said - rather smugly, I felt - "Mine is that my family and everyone I love will die." There's something particularly embarrassing about being morally upstaged by a seven-year-old, so I said quickly, "Yes, I meant that too, obviously," and changed the subject. I was right, though. About the spiders. They are the scariest thing, and I can prove it. Look at any list of common phobias. All the others make rational sense. Fear of heights, open spaces, flying, snakes - these are all things that could actually damage you. But most spiders, friends keep telling me, are harmless. Even beneficial. Sometimes people go on about how lovely and appealing they are, poor deluded fools. But you're supposed to trust your instincts. If you meet someone at a party and they inspire a vague but definite sense of repulsion and fear, do you decide to ignore that and go home with them? No. If you look at a picture of, let's say, a current UK prime minister, and experience a sinking sensation and a feeling of despair at the sight of his grinning, privileged, benefits-denying face, do you pretend everything's ok and vote for him anyway? No.* And so with spiders. How many people in the world look at a spider and find their inner voice screaming: "EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!" Should we ignore that reaction? No! It must be based on something, and I submit that it's based on the simple fact that spiders are pure alien malice in tiny dark eight-legged form. They really are out to get you. They want you to suffer. They don't need to bite you or try to eat your brains, like your common-or-garden monsters. They're beyond all that. They just need to hang quietly in the corner of a bedroom, occasionally moving closer when you're not looking. Or scuttle across the floor as you're in the middle of wrapping a birthday present, causing you to squeal like a five-year-old and hide in your room for the next four hours, sobbing quietly. (Yes, giant arachnid from my Southfields flat in 1998, I haven't forgotten you.) Spiders hate us. Even you, people who think they're adorable. You are merely their dupes, and will perish with the rest of us when all the spiders in the world swell to their true size of ten feet across and trap humanity in one gigantic sticky web. We will look at each other as we dangle, stuck and waiting to be slowly dissolved in spider venom, and we will wish we'd destroyed them all while we had the chance. Don't say I didn't warn you. Happy Halloween. *Oops, I seem to be channelling my friend Choler there... ]]> Rapture 2: This Time It's Fluffy tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1010492 2011-10-16T19:00:00-04:00 2011-12-16T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ You May Experience A Burning Sensation, in which I speculated that God's reason for the six months of fire was that he had some really big sausages to toast. Probably lost me a few brownie points in Heaven.) Anyway, as you may also remember, the Rapture didn't happen. But as is the way of self-styled prophets, Camping is undaunted: his website explains that Christ did come to earth on May 21st - spiritually, of course, not visibly or publically or anything, that would be silly - and the Rapture period began then. It will climax, by which I mean actually be noticeable, on October 21st with the actual carrying-people-up-to-heaven part. So far, so good. Well, no, not good, but it's impossible not to admire a man with such ability to bounce back from disappointment. I mean, seriously, Camping should write a self-help book. (Carry on, Camping? Camping in Heaven? The potential titles are endless.) Or if he doesn't have time for that before Friday, he could write an inspirational song. It could be called Don't Stop Believing In Camping. However! Reading through his announcement, I noticed that the Camping has softened quite considerably since May. The original prediction has been startlingly revised. To quote: "We have also learned that God is still teaching that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked and will not punish the wicked beyond what is called for in Deuteronomy 25." Good news. Because I looked up Deuteronomy 25 and it doesn't say anything about fire, or the world perishing, or any of that. It says the loser in a dispute can be beaten - ok, not ideal, but we'll adjust - and it also has a few other laws which are frankly bizarre, but presumably aren't going to come up that often. I'm thinking of this one: "If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals, then you shall cut off her hand." and this one: "You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light." I don't know about you, but I can probably manage to avoid those two sitations. So basically, the prediction now is 1. All true believers will be taken to heaven (but you won't know if you are one till it happenes) and 2. Everyone else gets to stay as they were, except for obeying a random handful of archaic rules. No problem. There is one more thing, though. I would like to alert Mr Camping to a potential issue he may need to be aware of. Has he heard of Project Blue Beam? Project Blue Beam - of which you have probably also not heard, unless you like the odder corners of the internet or have read my book, in which it features - is a fascinating (if you're me) offshoot of Rapture theory. It holds that the New World Order is designing a false Rapture using special hologram-based technology. The purpose of which would be to make true Christians believe the Rapture has happened and they've been left behind, thus causing mass outbreaks of panic and atheism, which are of course what the New World Order likes best. This would be such a great - if cruel - practical joke that I almost wish someone was designing it, but to the best of my knowledge they aren't. However, that doesn't stop these people believing it. Or these people. Or these people. Oh yes, there is a corner of the web that is forever Blue Beam. I was going to write a paragraph that started "So, why are people so keen to believe these things?" but really, there's no mystery at all about it. It is blindingly, face-meltingly obvious that we all want to feel that we're being paid attention to and that we're special. This can manifest itself in becoming an actor, in writing a blog, in getting drunk and smashing things up, or in devoting your life to the idea that a huge, powerful and secret organisation is so obsessed with breaking you that it will create elaborate and wildly expensive schemes in order to destroy your faith in yourself. In fact, that could loosely describe so many movie plots that it's hardly surprising the idea is spilling over into real life. Best of all, the fact that there is no evidence for it doesn't matter at all because a) obviously a secret all-powerful group would be good at hiding its tracks, and b) it hasn't happened yet. All in all, it's the perfect conspiracy theory in many ways. So: if Friday comes and you see the people around you slowly ascending into the air, don't panic. It's always possible they may be holograms. ]]> Be Yourself. No, Not That One, The Other One tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.999804 2011-10-09T19:00:00-04:00 2011-12-09T05:12:01-05:00 Kate Harrad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-harrad/ Here is a brief summary of prevailing self-help wisdom on the subject of being yourself: - Find yourself. - Be true to yourself. - Don't try to be something you're not. - Result: happiness. Finding yourself has to come first, of course, otherwise you won't know who the self is that you're supposed to be true to. You can achieve this through travel, yoga, meditation, a career, a family - there are so many ways to do it that it's amazing anyone has ever managed to lose themselves at all. Once found, cling to your true self like a leprechaun clutching a tiny precious pot of gold. (In this analogy, your true self was at the end of the rainbow. If this feels a little too fey for your tastes, please imagine that you found your true self somewhere more butch, for example under a monster truck, and that the leprechaun is actually a tiny rugby player clutching a gold rugby ball. OK? Good.) Never do anything that isn't dictated to you by your little gold item of choice, and you will achieve health and happiness and other good things probably also beginning with 'h'. (Harlots? Hobbycraft? Ham? Halfords? Who knows.) The problem with all this - or rather one of the problems - is that when people tell you to be yourself, what they tend to mean is "I know what you are really like. Be that person." They mean well. They genuinely believe they want you to be yourself. But there will always be provisos. To give an example: earlier this year I watched the US reality show The Glee Project. This was a search to find new cast members for US show Glee (with which I am somewhat obsessed). Glee is basically about singing, dancing, high school misfits with big dreams, and the contestants were therefore in the situation of needing to fit into that trope, while also being 'themselves'. Authenticity was praised, but so was fitting in to the existing cast. You couldn't come across as too pliable or conformist, but you'd get kicked out for not obeying instructions or causing hassle. And all this struck me as largely being how life is: it's ok to talk about not fitting in, as long as you also make sure you do fit in. One of the final contestants, Alex, was flamboyantly gay: initially this worked in his favour, and then it somehow started working against him. He kept being told to 'be his real self', show them the person underneath the camp. But when he did what they told him to - when he performed a quieter, sober number and won applause for it - I thought: they're telling him to be himself, but they're also telling him what that self should be like. Is that fair? Can't being flamboyant and camp be who you really are? There's this tendency to assume that the deepest layer is the real one. But they're all real. The skin of an apple is as real as the core (and, I would point out, much tastier). Maybe you're someone who spends most of their time as a housewife and mother, but sometimes likes to get dressed up in black eyeliner and big stompy boots, and go to goth clubs. Or you're really shy at work, but a karaoke fiend in the evenings. Or you're 60 but you like miniskirts, or techno, or World of Warcraft. Are you pretending to be someone you're not? Are you being your truest self? Or are you just expressing different facets of your overall personality? Trying to be something you're not may be a bad thing, but who's to say what you are and what you aren't? And anyway, people don't really mind you trying to be something you're not. They mind you trying to be something they don't think you should be. After all, many people aren't thin and rich, but working to become those things is very much encouraged by society. But don't act posh if you weren't born to it, and shave your legs, and don't wear pink if you're a straight boy, and don't go clubbing if you're over 30. Why not? Because changing yourself is good, except when it isn't. And being yourself is good, except when it's not. All in all, it's probably best to shrug, dust off those stompy boots, and go dancing. ]]>


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What is your favorite brand of cycling related components. Not company who sells a whole bike, but components.
What is your favorite brand of cycling related components. Not company who sells a whole bike, but components.
I like Shimano.
I like Shimano but I have to confess to never owning a Campy equipped bike. My mountain bike came equipped with Sachs shifters and derailleurs. I couldn't wait to replace that stuff with XT. The shifting is much better. My Sachs Neos hubs, on the other hand, are silky smooth.
I like alot of English cycling goods...
Last edited by roadfix; 06-20-05 at 06:29 PM.
Performance for apparel.
shameless POWERCRANK plug
Recommended reading for all cyclists - Cyclecraft - Effective Cycling
Condor Cycles - quite possibly the best bike shop in London
Don't run red lights, wear a helmet, use hand signals, get some cycle lights(front and rear) and, FFS, don't run red lights!
On the topic of cycling brands... I am looking at buying a pair of EXUSTAR road shoes.
First question is has anyone heard of this brand and if so are they any good. Notice they fairly reasonably priced, look decent enough and the specs given seem to be adequate however I haven't seen them in shops just on the net and for that reason am slightly sceptical. If anyone could shed any light would be appreciated. Ta If you want to have a look check out http://www.torpedo7.co.nz/digicart/f...eAction=engine.
Easton makes some really nice handlebars, seatposts and stems. But the ultimate stem has to be the new one by Zipp (who also makes some really good wheels):
Mine is Ritchey logic. Their WCS stuff is very well made, plus their stuff is cheaper than others
and if everyone followed chris king, none of us would be able to afford bicyclesOriginally Posted by Raiyn
How incredibly narrow minded of you. If more companies followed King's lead more of the processes they use would become less expensive due to the demand.Originally Posted by redfooj
I tend to buy a lotta Specialized accessories. They make good wedgies, but crappy gloves though, that BG design sucks, the pads aren't anywhere near where my hands grip the bars.
I rock peas on my head but dont call me a pea head.
Bees on my head but dont call me a bee head.
Bruce Lees on my head but dont call me a Lee head.
Now please excuse me, I gots to get my tree fed.
Bell and Walmart Schwinn components always worked great for me. Never a problem during my 1,950 mile trip.
Easton, Topeak and RaceFace seem to be the top three in terms of quantity. I guess I should also say Shimano as I have a lot of their stuff too. I also have a lot of Specialized water bottles and cages as well as their gloves. And I've been a longtime user of Selle Italia saddles... most notiably the various Flites. In the clothing department, I guess I'd have to say Sugoi, Pearl Izumi, Sidi and cheapo Bellwether. Other brands I like and own are SRAM/Avid, Wippermann, Chris King, FSA, ITM, CatEye, Speedplay and Time.
1999 K2 OzM 2001 Aegis Aro Svelte
"Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send." -- Jon Postel, RFC1122
Oh yeah. Producing bicycle headsets is a really big source of pollution nowadays. It rivals even industrial pollution and any other environmental concern in scope and size.Originally Posted by Raiyn
I like Heineken.
Going downhill fast!
fsa makes some good stuff. truvativ too, their parts are super solid....
FSA...past that...well..cheap. Some components aren't worth investment as they notoriously break.
Verge sports clothing
Just your average club rider... :)
Scott Speedster S30
Shimano 105 Shifters and Derailleurs
FSA Energy 50/34 Compact Cranks
Spinergy Stealth PBO Race wheels
Sram OG 1070 casette
Your ignorance of the subject is striking.Originally Posted by operator
- They make hubs and tools as well
- Component manufacturing IS a source of industrial environmental pollution Sparky. You know why? Component manufacturing IS an INDUSTRY that produces pollution as a waste product
- Considering that most of the other companies that make parts are located in countries have NO restrictions on what they do with their waste products it gets a lot bigger in size and scope. Especially when you consider that the bike companies alone aren't the sole source of the problem. These countries produce BILLIONS of dollars worth of merchandise due to their cheap labor rates and lax environmental controls.
- I can't believe you're arguing AGAINST a company that's PRO environment and PRO worker
The bottom line is this: Chris King is setting an example with their policies that the rest of the world needs to follow.
The processes would become less expensive? There would be more demand for the processes? Illogical sentence and high school economics lesson aside, share your financial and managerial sagacity regarding the feasibility for current manufacturers to convert their plants to such elevated standards.Originally Posted by Raiyn
And then there's the arm-twisting of dealers by way of CK's pricing policies.... real ethical


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Undergraduate Learning Environment
Page Menu: General information | The learning environment | The Greeley and Colorado communities
General information
There are about 350 biology majors at UNC who are distributed through four academic emphasis areas within the biology B.S. degree program:
- Prehealth and Biomedical Sciences
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For more information about the biology Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree and UNC in general, check out the links below.
- The biology undergraduate programs
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The learning environment
The classroom learning environment
The School of Biological Sciences is dedicated to giving you a top quality education. Unlike larger universities that have less emphasis on teaching, your professors will work hard to ensure that you learn up-to-date information and receive hands-on experiences inside and outside the classroom.
At UNC, class sizes are smaller than at larger universities, allowing you to interact with classmates and get to know your professors one-on-one. Professors also maintain extensive open office hours for students outside of class times. This allows you to pursue personalized instruction.
In the Ross Hall of Sciences where biology is housed, you will find rooms set aside for group studying, and these rooms are in proximity to your professor's offices. In addition, most of the buildings on campus have comprehensive computer labs for your use, and wireless internet access is available almost everywhere.
Mentored research opportunities
The School of Biological Sciences has extensive, well-equipped research laboratory facilities, and most of the biology faculty are research active. If desired, you can work with one of these scientists on a research project. Faculty research expertise includes all the areas of biology from ecology to molecular biology. Your opportunities for learning science by doing science "at the bench" or "in the field" are limited only by your imagination. Check out more research and internship opportunities.
Monies are available to support your research experience through the UNC Sponsored Programs office (SPARC), the College of Natural and Health Sciences (NHS), and the Student Senate in the form of undergraduate research grants. In addition, the national biological honors society, Beta Beta Beta, of which the School of Biological Sciences is a member (Chapter Phi Omicron), provides research funds to undergraduate students through their own granting process.


text: Hello, I have a rear wheel from a schwinn (collegiate?). It has 5 cogs. Markings on it say "Schwinn approved" "made in France model F2". I am having a hard time finding a correct removal tool. I bought a Park FR-4 but it is way too small diameter. Anyone know what I should be looking for ?


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From per adult
At an elevation of 1,460 metres (4,800 ft) at the foot of the slopes with a magnificent view over the ski resort, Club Med Valmorel is located in the heart of this beautifully preserved mountain environment.
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Equipped for your wellbeing, this warm, contemporary-style room (23 to 29 m² / 245 to 310 ft²) combines comfort with elegance.
In an ideal location, enjoy this spacious accommodation (from 50 sq m / 540 sq ft) with a lovely bright lounge and private terrace with a great view over the valley.
All prices are per adult, based on twin share room booking. (Room type is based on availability.)
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Above: The black wrought-iron fence, garden furniture and urns add cohesion to a small space.
Right: A pretty winter tableau, as seen through a tangle of branches and berries. The bird bath catches the snow and acts as a focal point in Anne's garden. Good texture and well-placed ornaments are key to creating a successful cold weather scene.
Garden design: Unique Image Landscape & Design, Markham, Ont.; 905-887-2362. Urns and arrangements: Kate's Garden, Markham, Ont.; 905-475-7674.
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Spurs star: "It's very hard on the bench"
20:29 09 June 2012
EMPICS Sport
Rafael Van der Vaart was devasted after watching Holland lose to Denmark
Tottenham star Rafael Van der Vaart admitted that it was difficult to watch his Holland team-mates struggle against Denmark from the substitutes bench.
The Spurs winger was brought on late on but the Dutch were beaten by a goal to nil.
"It's very hard on the bench," Van der Vaart said. "You see so many chances.
"I thought Denmark made very many mistakes building up the game.
"We had so many chances. But if you don't make these goals you don't deserve to win."
The Tottenham man is hoping that history repeats itself with Holland losing to the Soviet Union in the first game at Euro 88 before beating the same nation in the final.
"We've tried everything," he added. "But I believe in '88. We lost the first match at that tournament and we know how that happened.
"We must win two times. If you lose, you're out. It's painful. There's no words in the dressing room. We had to win this game. The next round is very far away."