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Monday, June 25, 2007
Welcome to Diana Dyer's new blog!
8 comments:
Congrats on the blog! I will be following your posts and hope you get the amazing sense of satisfaction from doing it!
Your website has been a godsend to me and my daughter and we are ordering your book. We really look forward to reading it and beginning the next phase of 'healing' her body! Thank you and God Bless You.
One, more thing - please light a candle for her as she continues her next step in treatment, tamoxifen. She is way to young for this at 29. Thank you again. - July 4, 2007 at 9:46 PM
- Holli said...
Your information has been such a blessing. Thank you for what you do. I was just diagnosed 3 weeks ago with breast cancer and am 36. I am searching for any and all ways to be as healthy as I can be. I have two little ones and so much to live for.
- August 13, 2009 at 10:11 PM
- Holli said...
Your information has been such a blessing. Thank you for what you do. I was just diagnosed 3 weeks ago with breast cancer and am 36. I am searching for any and all ways to be as healthy as I can be. I have two little ones and so much to live for.
- August 13, 2009 at 10:11 PM
- Diana Dyer said...
Welcome to my blog. I am still here 2+ years after starting it, 25 years after my first breast cancer at age 34 and 14 years after my second one at age 45. My boys are now ages 31 and 26. They were 7 and almost 2 when all this started.
Yes, you have lots to live for and I send you all my best wishes for health, healing, and hope!
Diana - August 13, 2009 at 11:06 PM
- Jann said...
You have inspired me to start a blog, so thank you. I had a blog to keep family and friends updated while my husband was in and out of the hospital when he suffered with a fatal cancer a few years ago. I was just getting over the loss of my husband when I got an operable cancer of my own, and am doing well 3 years after my hysterectomy. I have your book and have recommended it and your website to others. Now, I am pleased to find your blog. Good luck with your organic farming. I lost my organic farmer when my husband died, but I hope to get a few tomato plants into the ground next year. Not as easy for me as I also have physical limitations due to post polio, but I am enjoying the fresh herbs I have planted, so who knows what I can handle...maybe some raised beds! Thanks for being such a good inspiration for all of us...Jann
- August 7, 2010 at 12:16 AM
- Diana Dyer said...
I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your husband and your own health challenges. However, you are one of the many inspirational people that I meet everyday, either in person or via the internet. I hope you have some raised beds made for you in order to grow some of your own food in addition to your herbs. You may find some ideas and inspiration at one of my other blogs - www.cancervictorygardens.com, along with tips regarding accessibility at my post that covers this important topic: http://www.cancervictorygardens.com/2010/03/accessibility-gardening-tips-for-people.html
Thanks for writing to share your own cancer story, and best wishes to you for health, healing, and hope!
Diana - August 7, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Stumbled across you by accident but feel that I was guided to you. I have MS and diagnosed with breast cancer 2009, which has spread to my lungs and bones. You are an inspiration and I will be following your recipes,along side my strong faith, support of family and friends,and a posivite attitude. May I ask about your recipes you use measurements 1/2 c or 2T what do they mean? I live in england and to me 1/2c is half a cup and 2T is 2 tablespoons is this correct.
God Bless you,and kind regards Susan. - May 20, 2011 at 9:50 AM
- Diana Dyer said...
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you found your way here. I do believe the universe provides or guides us to the help we need when we let it do so. It is my hope that my long experience as a multiple-time cancer survivor will provide both 'information and inspiration' to those on a similar journey.
Answering your question, yes T. = tablespoon and C. = cup. In addition, tsp. = teaspoon. I hope that clears up any confusion and makes translating my recipes to your measurements easier.
Please stop by again, and know that I am sending you all my best wishes for health, healing, and hope!
Diana - May 20, 2011 at 10:02 AM


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subset: commoncrawl


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LONDON (AP) — Britain's new monarch will be known as King Charles III.
Charles, the oldest person to ever assume the British throne, became king on Thursday following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. No date has been set for his coronation.
After an apprenticeship that began as a child, Charles embodies the modernization of the British monarchy. He was the first heir not educated at home, the first to earn a university degree and the first to grow up in the ever-intensifying glare of the media as deference to royalty faded.
He also alienated many with his messy divorce from the much-loved Princess Diana, and by straining the rules that prohibit royals from intervening in public affairs, wading into debates on issues such as environmental protection and architectural preservation,
"He now finds himself in, if you like, the autumn of his life, having to think carefully about how he projects his image as a public figure," said historian Ed Owens. "He's nowhere near as popular as his mother."
Charles must figure out how to generate the "public support, a sense of endearment" that characterized the relationship Elizabeth had with the British public, Owens said.
In other words, will Charles be as loved by his subjects? It's a question that has overshadowed his entire life.
A shy boy with a domineering father, Charles grew into a sometimes-awkward, understated man who is nevertheless confident in his own opinions. Unlike his mother, who refused to publicly discuss her views, Charles has delivered speeches and written articles on issues close to his heart, such as climate change, green energy and alternative medicine.
His accession to the throne is likely to fuel debate about the future of Britain's largely ceremonial monarchy, seen by some as a symbol of national unity and others as an obsolete vestige of feudal history.
"We know the monarch and certainly the monarch's family – they're not meant to have political voices. They're not meant to have political opinions. And the fact that he's been flexing, if you like, his political muscle is something that he will have to be really careful with ... lest he be seen as unconstitutional," said Owens, who wrote "The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public, 1932-53."
Charles, who will be the head of state for the U.K. and 14 other countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, has defended his actions.
"I always wonder what meddling is, I always thought it was motivating," he said in "Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70," a 2018 documentary. "I've always been intrigued if it's meddling to worry about the inner cities, as I did 40 years ago and what was happening or not happening there, the conditions in which people were living. If that's meddling, I'm very proud of it."
In the same interview, however, Charles acknowledged that as king, he wouldn't be able to speak out or interfere in politics because the role of sovereign is different from being the Prince of Wales.
Charles has said he intends to reduce the number of working royals, cut expenses and better represent modern Britain.
But tradition matters, too, for a man whose office previously described the monarchy as "the focal point for national pride, unity and allegiance."
That has meant a life of palaces and polo, attracting criticism that Charles was out of touch with everyday life, being lampooned for having a valet who purportedly squeezed toothpaste onto his brush.
But it was the disintegration of his marriage to Diana that made many question his fitness for the throne. Then, as he aged, his handsome young sons stole the limelight from a man who had a reputation for being as gray as his Saville Row suits.
Biographer Sally Bedell Smith, author of "Prince Charles: the Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life,'' described him as being constantly overshadowed by others in the family, despite his destiny.
"I think the frustrations are not so much that he's had to wait for the throne," Smith told PBS. "I think his main frustration is that he has done so much and that ... he has been sort of massively misunderstood. He's sort of been caught between two worlds: the world of his mother, revered, now beloved; and Diana, the ghost of whom still shadows him; and then his incredibly glamorous sons."
It took years for many in Britain to forgive Charles for his admitted infidelity to Diana before "the people's princess" died in a Paris car crash in 1997. But the public mood softened after he married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 and she became the Duchess of Cornwall.
Although Camilla played a significant role in the breakup of Charles and Diana, her self-deprecating style and salt-of-the-earth sense of humor eventually won over many Britons.
She helped Charles smile more in public by tempering his reserve and making him made him appear approachable, if not happier, as he cut ribbons, visited houses of worship, unveiled plaques and waited for the crown.
Her service was rewarded in February 2022, when Queen Elizabeth II said publicly that it was her "sincere wish" that Camilla should be known as "Queen Consort" after her son succeeded her, answering questions once and for all about her status in the Royal Family.
Prince Charles Philip Arthur George was born Nov. 14, 1948, in Buckingham Palace. When his mother acceded to the throne in 1952, the 3-year-old prince became the Duke of Cornwall. He became Prince of Wales at 20.
His school years were unhappy, with the future king being bullied by classmates at Gordonstoun, a Scottish boarding school that prides itself on building character through vigorous outdoor activities and educated his father, Philip.
Charles studied history at Cambridge University's Trinity College, where in 1970 he became the first British royal to earn a university degree.
He then spent seven years in uniform, training as a Royal Air Force pilot before joining the Royal Navy, where he learned to fly helicopters. He ended his military career as commander of the HMS Bronington, a minesweeper, in 1976.
Charles' relationship with Camilla began before he went to sea, but the romance foundered and she married a cavalry officer.
He met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 when she was 16 and he was dating her older sister. Diana apparently didn't see him again until 1980, and rumors of their engagement swirled after she was invited to spend time with Charles and the royal family.
They announced their engagement in February 1981. Some awkwardness in their relationship was immediately apparent when, during a televised interview about their betrothal, a reporter asked if they were in love. "Of course," Diana answered immediately, while Charles said, "Whatever 'in love' means."
Although Diana giggled at the response, she later said that Charles' remark "threw me completely."
"God, it absolutely traumatized me," she said in a recording made by her voice coach in 1992-93 that was featured in the 2017 documentary "Diana, In Her Own Words."
The couple married on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul's Cathedral in a globally televised ceremony. Prince William, now heir to the throne, was born less than a year later, followed by his brother, Prince Harry, in 1984.
The public fairy tale soon crumbled. Charles admitted to adultery to a TV interviewer in 1994. In an interview of her own, Diana drew attention to her husband's relationship with Camilla, saying: "There were three of us in this marriage."
The revelations tarnished Charles' reputation among many who celebrated Diana for her style as well as her charity work with AIDS patients and landmine victims.
William and Harry were caught in the middle. While the princes revered their late mother, they said Charles was a good father and praised him as an early advocate for issues like the environment.
Tensions persist inside the royal family, underscored by the decision of Harry and his wife, Meghan, to step away from their royal duties and move to California in 2020. In a televised interview, they later said a member of the royal family had raised "concerns and conversations" about the color of their baby's skin before he was born. The explosive revelation forced William to publicly declare the family wasn't racist.
Charles soldiered on, increasingly standing in for the queen in her twilight years. In 2018, he was named the queen's designated successor as head of the Commonwealth, an association of 54 nations with links to the British Empire. The process accelerated after the death of her husband, Prince Philip, on April 9, 2021.
As Elizabeth declined, he sometimes stepped in at the last moment.
On the eve of the state opening of Parliament on May 10, 2022, the queen asked Charles to preside, delegating one of her most important constitutional duties to him -- evidence that a transition was underway.
Camilla said in a 2018 documentary that Charles was comfortable with the prospect of being king.
"I think his destiny will come,'' she said. "He's always known it's going to come, and I don't think it does weigh heavily on his shoulders at all."


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Posted by Benj Edwards | Wednesday, June 22, 2011
1 of 16 | NEXT»
Twenty years ago, Sega took a bold gamble in its bid to unseat Nintendo as king of the console realm. The company released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis on June 23rd, 1991, unleashing the company's speedy mascot onto the world for the first time.
The iconic spiny mammal saved Sega's console in its hour of need and spawned a massive franchise that spans dozens of releases for every Sega console (and plenty of non-Sega platforms since 1998). And whether we like it or not, Sonic started a trend of animal game characters with 'tudes that continues to this day.
To celebrate the anniversary, I dove headfirst the annals of Sonic lore to pull out oddities for your entertainment.
You cant go wrong with an article about sega that includes reference to Steve Urkel 🙂
This trivia is very cool. But have many people actually played the original Sonic recently? Give it a try and then read this and see if you don't agree: http://tevisthompson.com/sonic-and-tension/
My favorite bit of Sonic weirdness? The Sonic / Harry Potter / Barack Obama backpack:


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At first glance, hearing that Zynga and Atari are teaming up doesn't invite the most confidence. Both video game companies are pioneers in their respective fields and rode high on their successes. And like Atari, Zynga is going through its ups and downs.
Atari with Curious Brain is developing Super Bunny Breakout for iOS devices. It's an update to the classic Breakout, the simple game where players move a platform to bounce a ball and break bricks. To this formula, Atari and Curious Brain add a story, characters and a few twists to the gameplay. The result is a Zynga-published title that's addicting and has more depth.
It's also fun.


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Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid |
Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> Re: Your password!
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
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The Tangle of Turbulence Revealed: Could Lead To Better Car Design
- Date:
- March 29, 2007
- Source:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Summary:
- Turbulence is important in virtually all phenomena involving fluid flow, such as air and gas mixing in an engine and ocean waves breaking on a cliff. Now MIT researchers report that they have visualized for the first time a convoluted tangle underlying turbulence. This work may ultimately help engineers design better planes, cars and more.
- Share:
Picture the flow of water over a rock. At very low speeds, the water looks like a smooth sheet skimming the rock's surface. As the water rushes faster, the flow turns into turbulent, roiling whitewater that can overturn your raft.
Turbulence is important in virtually all phenomena involving fluid flow, such as air and gas mixing in an engine, ocean waves breaking on a cliff and air whipping across the surface of a vehicle. However, a comprehensive description of turbulent fluid motion remains one of physics' major unsolved problems.
Now, in a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, MIT researchers report that they have visualized for the first time a convoluted tangle underlying turbulence. This work may ultimately help engineers design better planes, cars, submarines and engines.
Researchers have long suspected that there's a hidden but coherent structure underlying turbulence's messy complexity, but there has been no objective way of identifying it, said MIT research group leader George Haller, professor of mechanical engineering, who also heads Morgan Stanley's Mathematical Modeling Center in Hungary.
"The fluid mechanics community has not reached a consensus even on an objective definition of a vortex, or whirlpool effect, let alone the definition of structures forming turbulence. The mathematical techniques we have developed give a systematic way to identify the material building blocks of a turbulent flow," Haller said.
To picture the skeleton of turbulence, the MIT researchers analyzed experimental data obtained from co-authors Jori Ruppert-Felsot and Harry Swinney of the University of Texas at Austin. The Texas group used water jets to force water from below into a rotating tank of fluid. They seeded the resulting complicated flow with luminescent buoyant particles. When illuminated with a laser, the miniscule polystyrene spheres were visible as they raced around the vortices and jets.
While the particles looked cool, "most important to our analysis were the particles' velocities, which our collaborators obtained by recording the particles' motion with a high-resolution camera, then using a software tool to figure out which particle moved where in a split second," Haller said. "This gave us a high-quality map of the whole velocity field of the turbulent flow at each time instance."
The technical analysis of the velocity field was carried out by MIT mechanical engineering graduate student Manikandan Mathur, whose work is jointly supervised by Haller and co-author Thomas Peacock, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.
Using involved mathematical tools, Mathur uncovered a convoluted tangle embedded in the flow. "With this approach, we isolated the very source of turbulent mixing, not just its effect on dye or smoke as earlier studies did," said Mathur.
The complexity they found surprised the MIT team. They knew that in turbulent flow, unsteady vortices appear on many scales and interact with each other. What they didn't know was that the complicated, constantly evolving flow patterns are driven by two competing armies of particles constantly being pulled together and pushed apart.
The researchers identified a complex network of two types of curves formed by two distinct groups of particles. The first type of curve, which the researchers colored red, attracts other fluid particles. At the same time, the second type, colored blue, repels other fluid particles. Both sets of curves evolve with the flow.
Imagine that the particles visible in the turbulent water are like an army of ants being chased through a bowl of mixed-up red and blue spaghetti. "The ants love red spaghetti and want to stay close to it, but they hate blue spaghetti and won't touch it. And they have to keep running in the bowl under these constraints, stuck in an endless maze forever," said Haller.
The resulting images, which look like dense, tangled masses of blue and red fibers, are snapshots of this stunning, constantly deforming structure. "The chaotic tangle forms the skeleton of turbulence as fluid is simultaneously attracted to, and repelled by, its different components," Haller said.
The MIT researchers call their discovery the "Lagrangian skeleton" of turbulence because their particle-based approach is motivated by the work of 19th-century mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange. "Lagrange developed mathematical tools still used today for calculating mechanical and fluid motion," said Peacock.
Among many applications, the new results promise to aid the early detection of clear air turbulence that causes those unexpected jolts in airplanes; they may also help control the spread of oceanic pollution. "Most certainly, they will lead to a better appreciation of ants running in a bowl of spaghetti," said Haller.
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office for Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Welcome to The Pass It On Center
The Pass It On Center continues to create national and state resources to foster the safe, effective and appropriate reuse of assistive technology (AT) so that people with disabilities can get the affordable AT they need in order to live, learn, work and play more independently in communities of their choice.
Our Mission
The Pass It On Center, as the National Assistive Technology Device Reutilization Coordination and Technical Assistance Center, fosters improvements in AT reuse practices and network among AT Reuse programs by:
- Creating a national network to help current and emerging reuse programs share information to improve their services.
- Providing technical assistance and support to current and emerging programs by conducting site visits, teleconferences and monthly webinars.
- Forging relationships and working with AT vendors and manufacturers to identify areas of mutual concern and collaboration by having a presence at national AT conferences.
- Identifying successful practices and quality indicators of AT reuse programs and promoting their use through an online Knowledge Base and program assessment tool, known as Indicators of Quality for AT Reuse (IQ-ATR).
- Exploring collaboration with public and private organizations that are interested in effectively reutilizing AT they purchase.
- Promoting public awareness of the economic and environmental benefits of AT reuse.


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Praise be to Allah.
May Allah love you, for Whose sake you love us, and may He bring us together in His mercy on the Day whereon neither wealth nor sons will avail, except him who brings to Allah a clean heart (al-Shu'ara' 26:89).
With regard to what you have said in your question, we advise you to keep away from everyone who speaks about your Muslim brothers or slanders them, or accuses them and casts aspersion on their intentions. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "O you who have spoken the words of faith but faith has not entered your hearts! Do not backbite about the Muslims or seek out their faults, for whoever seeks out their faults, Allah will seek out his faults even if he is in his house." Narrated by Abu Dawood, no. 4880; classed as saheeh (authentic) by al-Albani.
It is also necessary for you to advise these people to fear Allah and refrain from using such labels and names that divide the Muslims. With regard to offering advice and correcting mistakes, this should not be done by means of exposing people's faults or casting aspersions on their intentions etc.
With regard to the issue of takfeer (labeling people as kaafirs - non-Muslims), this is subject to further discussion. Describing as a kaafir one who has been described as such by Allah or by His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is obligatory. Allah has described some groups as being kaafirs in His Book, as when He says (interpretation of the meaning):
"Surely, disbelievers are those who said: 'Allah is the third of the three (in a Trinity)'"
[al-Maa'idah 5:73]
"Surely, in disbelief are they who say that Allah is the Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary)"
[al-Maa'idah 5:17]
But it is haraam (impermissible) to label as a kaafir someone whom Allah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not label as such.
Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Just as it is not permissible to label a specific person as a kaafir unless the conditions of labeling someone as such have been met in his case, so too we should not shy away from labeling as kaafirs those whom Allah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) have labeled as such. But we must differentiate between what is specific and what is general.
Sharh Kitaab al-Tawheed, 2/281.
See also question no. 21576.
And Allah knows best.
Moreover, everyone who levels an accusation against another person must provide proof:
"Say (O Muhammad), Produce your proof if you are truthful"
[al-Baqarah 2:111]
"Since they produce not witnesses, they are the liars in the sight of Allah"
[al-Noor 24:13]
This problem is widespread among some of those who claim to be religiously-guided, may Allah guide them, for they make accusations against people on grounds that are not regarded as something worthy of criticism in sharee'ah or that do not undermine a person's religious commitment.
Then they do not bring any proof of that, and they follow their own whims and desires, because it is human nature to appoint oneself as judge, praising and condemning on a whim.
We must go against the whims and desires of our own selves and measure people by the criteria set out in Islam; we should make mention of their good points and advise them with regard to their mistakes.
And Allah is the Source of strength.


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Avoiding Common Mistakes with Time Series
January 28th, 2015
A basic mantra in statistics and data science is correlation is not causation, meaning that just because two things appear to be related to each other doesn't mean that one causes the other. This is a lesson worth learning.
If you work with data, throughout your career you'll probably have to re-learn it several times. But you often see the principle demonstrated with a graph like this:
One line is something like a stock market index, and the other is an (almost certainly) unrelated time series like "Number of times Jennifer Lawrence is mentioned in the media." The lines look amusingly similar. There is usually a statement like: "Correlation = 0.86". Recall that a correlation coefficient is between +1 (a perfect linear relationship) and -1 (perfectly inversely related), with zero meaning no linear relationship at all. 0.86 is a high value, demonstrating that the statistical relationship of the two time series is strong.
The correlation passes a statistical test. This is a great example of mistaking correlation for causality, right? Well, no, not really: it's actually a time series problem analyzed poorly, and a mistake that could have been avoided. You never should have seen this correlation in the first place.
The more basic problem is that the author is comparing two trended time series. The rest of this post will explain what that means, why it's bad, and how you can avoid it fairly simply. If any of your data involves samples taken over time, and you're exploring relationships between the series, you'll want to read on.
Two random series
There are several ways of explaining what's going wrong. Instead of going into the math right away, let's look at a more intuitive visual explanation.
To begin with, we'll create two completely random time series. Each is simply a list of 100 random numbers between -1 and +1, treated as a time series. The first time is 0, then 1, etc., on up to 99. We'll call one series Y1 (the Dow-Jones average over time) and the other Y2 (the number of Jennifer Lawrence mentions). Here they are graphed:
There is no point staring at these carefully. They are random. The graphs and your intuition should tell you they are unrelated and uncorrelated. But as a test, the correlation (Pearson's R) between Y1 and Y2 is -0.02, which is very close to zero. There is no significant relationship between them. As a second test, we do a linear regression of Y1 on Y2 to see how well Y2 can predict Y1. We get a Coefficient of Determination (R2 value) of .08 — also extremely low. Given these tests, anyone should conclude there is no relationship between them.
Adding trend
Now let's tweak the time series by adding a slight rise to each. Specifically, to each series we simply add points from a slightly sloping line from (0,-3) to (99,+3). This is a rise of 6 across a span of 100. The sloping line looks like this:
Now we'll add each point of the sloping line to the corresponding point of Y1 to get a slightly sloping series like this:
We'll add the same sloping line to Y2:
Now let's repeat the same tests on these new series. We get surprising results: the correlation coefficient is 0.96 — a very strong unmistakable correlation. If we regress Y on X we get a very strong R2 value of 0.92. The probability that this is due to chance is extremely low, about 1.3×10-54. These results would be enough to convince anyone that Y1 and Y2 are very strongly correlated!
What's going on? The two time series are no more related than before; we simply added a sloping line (what statisticians call trend). One trended time series regressed against another will often reveal a strong, but spurious, relationship.
Put another way, we've introduced a mutual dependency. By introducing a trend, we've made Y1 dependent on X, and Y2 dependent on X as well. In a time series, X is time. Correlating Y1 and Y2 will uncover their mutual dependence — but the correlation is really just the fact that they're both dependent on X. In many cases, as with Jennifer Lawrence's popularity and the stock market index, what you're really seeing is that they both increased over time in the period you're looking at. This is sometimes called secular trend.
The amount of trend determines the effect on correlation. In the example above, we needed to add only a little trend (a slope of 6/100) to change the correlation result from insignificant to highly significant. But relative to the changes in the time series itself (-1 to +1), the trend was large.
A trended time series is not, of course, a bad thing. When dealing with a time series, you generally want to know whether it's increasing or decreasing, exhibits significant periodicities or seasonalities, and so on. But in exploring relationships between two time series, you really want to know whether variations in one series are correlated with variations in another. Trend muddies these waters and should be removed.
Dealing with trend
There are many tests for detecting trend. What can you do about trend once you find it?
One approach is to model the trend in each time series and use that model to remove it. So if we expected Y1 had a linear trend, we could do linear regression on it and subtract the line (in other words, replace Y1 with its residuals). Then we'd do that for Y2, then regress them against each other.
There are alternative, non-parametric methods that do not require modeling. One such method for removing trend is called first differences. With first differences, you subtract from each point the point that came before it:
y'(t) = y(t) – y(t-1)
Another approach is called link relatives. Link relatives are similar, but they divideeach point by the point that came before it:
y'(t) = y(t) / y(t-1)
More examples
Once you're aware of this effect, you'll be surprised how often two trended time series are compared, either informally or statistically. Tyler Vigen created a web pagedevoted to spurious correlations, with over a dozen different graphs. Each graph shows two time series that have similar shapes but are unrelated (even comically irrelevant). The correlation coefficient is given at the bottom, and it's usually high.
How many of these relationships survive de-trending? Fortunately, Vigen provides the raw data so we can perform the tests. Some of the correlations drop considerably after de-trending. For example, here is a graph of US Crude Oil Imports from Venezuela vs Consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup:
The correlation of these series is 0.88. Now here are the time series after first-differences de-trending:
These time series look much less related, and indeed the correlation drops to 0.24.
A recent blog post from Alex Jones, more tongue-in-cheek, attempts to link his company's stock price with the number of days he worked at the company. Of course, the number of days worked is simply the time series: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. It is a steadily rising line — pure trend! Since his company's stock price also increased over time, of course he found correlation. In fact, every manipulation of the two variables he performed was simply another way of quantifying the trend in company price.
Final words
I was first introduced to this problem long ago in a job where I was investigating equipment failures as a function of weather. The data I had were taken over six months, winter into summer. The equipment failures rose over this period (that's why I was investigating). Of course, the temperature rose as well. With two trended time series, I found strong correlation. I thought I was onto something until I started reading more about time series analysis.
Trends occur in many time series. Before exploring relationships between two series, you should attempt to measure and control for trend. But de-trending is not a panacea because not all spurious correlation are caused by trends. Even after de-trending, two time series can be spuriously correlated. There can remain patterns such as seasonality, periodicity, and autocorrelation. Also, you may not want to de-trend naively with a method such as first differences if you expect lagged effects.
Any good book on time series analysis should discuss these issues. My go-to text for statistical time series analysis is Quantitative Forecasting Methods by Farnum and Stanton (PWS-KENT, 1989). Chapter 4 of their book discusses regression over time series, including this issue.


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Fury at Azaria verdict is Israel's Trump moment
By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
The United Kingdom has Brexit. The United States, an incoming President Trump. And Israel now has Elor Azaria. It may not have the same ring, but ultimately the turning point could prove as decisive.
Two fallacious narratives have greeted the army medic's manslaughter conviction last week, after he was filmed firing a bullet into the head of a wounded and helpless Palestinian, 21-year-old Abdel Fattah Al Sharif.
The first says Azaria is a rotten apple, a soldier who lost his moral bearings last March under the pressure of serving in Hebron. The second – popular among liberals in Israel – claims the conviction proves the strength of Israel's rule of law. Even a transgressing soldier will be held accountable by the world's "most moral army".
Telling reaction
In truth, however, the popular reaction to the military court's decision was far more telling than the decision itself.
Only massed ranks of riot police saved the three judges from a lynching by crowds outside. The army top brass have been issued bodyguards. Demands to overrule the court and pardon Azaria are thunderous – and they are being led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Azaria is no rogue soldier. He is "everyone's child", according to much of the public. The unexceptional nature of his act is vouched for by the complete indifference of his colleagues as Azaria pulled the trigger. Polls show overwhelming support – 84 per cent – for Azaria among 18- to 24-years-olds, the age of Israel's conscript army.
The trial, meanwhile, reflected not the law's sanctity – it is 12 years since the last soldier, a Bedouin, was convicted of manslaughter. It revealed only the growing pressures on Israel. Cameras in phones are making it harder to cover up soldiers' crimes. By prosecuting Azaria in a case where the filmed evidence was unequivocal, Israel hopes to ward off war crimes investigations by the International Criminal Court.
As Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea noted, Azaria's defence team also erred. Riding a wave of populist indignation, they accused Azaria's superiors of lying and bullying. Prosecutors had already reduced a murder charge to manslaughter. The court would probably have settled for convicting a repentant Azaria of misusing a firearm. But given the defence's framing of the case, the judges had to choose: side with the soldier or the army.
Rot all around
Like Brexit and Trump, Azaria's trial exposed not only a deep social fissure, but also a moment of transition. Those who see a virtuous system punishing a rotten apple are now outnumbered by those who see a rotten system victimising a hero.
Polls show the Israeli public's faith plummeting in most institutions, from the courts to the media, which are seen, however wrongly, as dominated by the "extreme left". Only the army is still widely revered.
That is in part because so many Israeli parents must entrust their sons and daughters to it. To doubt the army would be to question the foundational logic of "Fortress Israel": that the army is all that prevents Palestinian "barbarians" such as Sharif from storming the gates.
But also, unlike those increasingly despised institutions, the army has rapidly adapted and conformed to the wider changes in Israeli society.
Settlers and "settlerism"
Rather than settlers, we should speak of "settlerism". There are far more settlers than the 600,000 who live in the settlements. Naftali Bennett, leader of the settlers' Jewish Home Party and education minister, lives in Ranana, a city in Israel, not a settlement.
Settlerism is an ideology, one that believes Jews are a "chosen people" whose Biblical rights to the Promised Land trump those of non-Jews such as Palestinans. Polls show 70 per cent of Israeli Jews think they are chosen by God.
The settlers have taken over the army, both demographically and ideologically. They now dominate its officer corps and they direct policy on the ground.
Azaria's testimony showed how deep this attachment now runs. His company, including his commanders, often spent their free time at the home of Baruch Marzel, a leader of Kach, a group banned in the 1990s for its genocidal anti-Arab platform. Azaria described Marzel and Hebron's settlers as like a "family" to the soldiers.
By their very nature, occupying armies are brutally repressive. For decades the army command has given its soldier free rein against Palestinians. But as settler numbers have grown, the army's image of itself has changed too.
It has metamorphosed from a citizens' army defending the settlements to a settler militia. The middle ranks now dictate the army's ethos, not the top brass, as ousted Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon discovered last year when he tried to stand against the swelling tide.
This new army is no longer even minimally restrained by concerns about the army's "moral" image or threats of international war crimes investigations. It cares little what the world thinks, much like the new breed of politicians who have thrown their support behind Azaria.
The soldier's trial, far from proof of the rule of law, was the last gasp of a dying order. His sentence, due in the next few days, is likely to be lenient to appease the public. If the conviction is nullified by a pardon, the settlers' victory will be complete.


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An 86-year-old Chilliwack woman died and three other people were injured in a two-vehicle crash on Sumas prairie in Abbotsford on Monday at about 11:40 a.m.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said a 2013 Mazda 3 and a 1997 Chevy Lumina crashed near the intersection of Marion and Campbell roads, and the Lumina spun off the road into a water-filled ditch.
The deceased woman was a passenger in the Mazda. The 87-year-old male driver, also of Chilliwack, was taken to hospital, where he was in serious condition as of yesterday at press deadline.
Two Abbotsford women – ages 82 and 84 – had to be extricated from the Lumina. They were in stable condition in hospital as of yesterday.
The driver of the Mazda and one of the occupants of the Lumina were airlifted to hospital, while the other Lumina occupant was transported by ground ambulance.
Investigators are still working out the exact circumstances of the crash.
Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service, BC Ambulance and Abbotsford Police were on the scene.


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Remembering Tony Gwynn
Former MLB player Tony Gwynn passed away the other day. Cancer. He was only 54. Gwynn was one of my favorite players as a kid…I've always liked the players who hit for average and rarely struck out. Rarely got to see him play because I lived in American League country, so I knew him mainly through his statistics and baseball cards. These pieces by Jay Caspian Kang, Buster Olney, and Bob Nightengale are all worth reading to hear about Gwynn's humanity and cerebral approach to the game, but Keith Olbermann's heartfelt eulogy was my favorite piece in the wake of Gwynn's death.


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The Diary of Samuel Pepys
1660 to 1689
University of California Edition
edited by
Robert Latham and William Mathews
Nine Volumes
A Reading Life Project
About fifteen years ago I read the complete University of California edition of the Diary of Samuel Pepys. I consider this one of the great reading experiences of my life. I found the collection at an extreme bargain price in a used book store and I still treasure it. Normally I do not get sentimental over physical books but I really enjoy seeing the beautiful University of California edition on my shelves. There is a stamp in the first volume saying it is book number 6,721 in the Library of R. A. Peterson. I wonder how the collection ended up being sold so cheaply. One has to guess that R. A. Peterson passed and his or her heirs did not value the set. Each volume bears the book count stamp and the bold signature of R. A. Peterson. I will say to her or him, I am taking good care of your books and I love them also.
Samuel Pepys (1633 to 1703) lived through some of the most tumultuous times in English history. He was there when the plague ravaged London and he records vividly his experiences of the great fire of London. During the period of the diary he was clerk to the to the Royal Navy board. He was very good at this job and he also had access to all sorts of patronage which he took advantage of at every opportunity. He married his beautiful wife when she was fifteen (normal at the time), he loved her dearly throughout their childless marriage but he pursued other women with great ardor. Many were the wives and daughters of men who needed his help with Naval matters and he got in big trouble when his wife found out about his dalliance with a maid. He also loved to read and was an avid collector of books. The events in his diary are as interesting as those in any fiction. For sometime I have wanted to read the diary for a second time. . The first time I read it I skipped most of the copious notes as I had less time to read then but they are tremendously edifying and this time I will read them all. There is no better way to get an inside look at Restoration London than in these diaries.
Parts of his diary was written in a code, only partially cracked is my understanding, he used this to describe many of the sexual encounters with women, including his wife. They are in the diary but it is in fact not quite clear what Pepys did with these women. He was not, unlike the other great English language diarist, James Boswell, an employer of prostitutes, he was more a sexual predator using his connections to bully women into some sort of sex.
Shortly after reading the diary I went to London and one of the places I visited was the Samuel Pepys Museum. I had a long talk with the curator, I think he was shocked I had read the diary, and got to see a lot of the artifacts of the period.
I have decided if I am to read the diary one more time I might as well start now. I will post on what strikes me, maybe a lot maybe just a bit. Pepys loves to read and left a wonderful 3000 volume library you can see at Cambridge. I recall he often talks of the books he bought. If you want to learn about English history in the 17th century, this diary is a true treasure. It is also fun to read, there is marital drama. There is high drama also, political and domestic. The sections where he is trying to get back in his wife's good graces after she finds out about him and a maid are totally exciting and as good any fiction. Married will cringe over this section! Pepys was very much a man about the town and off the world. Pepys was not close to a morally perfect man but he was as smart as they come and amazing perceptive.
I have started volume one and in the first entry he buys a dozen bottles of port, goes to church and visits his faher in the company of his wife and records some office politics.
I have started volume one and in the first entry he buys a dozen bottles of port, goes to church and visits his faher in the company of his wife and records some office politics.
Mel u


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Monitoring Enterprise Collaboration Platform Change and the Building of Digital Transformation Capabilities: An Information Infrastructure Perspective
- Enterprise collaboration platforms are increasingly gaining importance in organisations. Integrating groupware functionality and enterprise social software (ESS), they have substantially been transforming everyday work in organisations. While traditional collaboration systems have been studied in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) for many years, the large-scale, infrastructural and heterogeneous nature of enterprise collaboration platforms remains uncharted. Enterprise collaboration platforms are embedded into organisations' digital workplace and come with a high degree of complexity, ambiguity, and generativity. When introduced, they are empty shells with no pre-determined purposes of use. They afford interpretive flexibility, and thus are shaping and being shaped by and in their social context. Outcomes and benefits emerge and evolve over time in an open-ended process and as the digital platform is designed through use. In order to make the most of the platform and associated continuous digital transformation, organisations have to develop the necessary competencies and capabilities. Extant literature on enterprise collaboration platforms has proliferated and provide valuable insights on diverse topics, such as implementation strategies, adoption hurdles, or collaboration use cases, however, they tend to disregard their evolvability and related multiple time frames and settings. Thus, this research aims to identify, investigate, and theorise the ways that enterprise collaboration platforms are changing over time and space and the ways that organisations build digital transformation capabilities. To address this research aim two different case study types are conducted: i) in-depth longitudinal qualitative case study, where case narratives and visualisations capturing hard-to-summarise complexities in the enterprise collaboration platform evolution are developed and ii) multiple-case studies to capture, investigate, and compare cross-case elements that contribute to the shaping of enterprise collaboration platforms in different medium-sized and large organisations from a range of industries. Empirical data is captured and investigated through a multi-method research design (incl. focus groups, surveys, in-depth interviews, literature reviews, qualitative content analysis, descriptive statistics) with shifting units of analysis. The findings reveal unique change routes with unanticipated outcomes and transformations, context-specific change strategies to deal with multiple challenges (e.g. GDPR, works council, developments in the technological field, competing systems, integration of blue-collar workers), co-existing platform uses, and various interacting actors from the immediate setting and broader context. The interpretation draws on information infrastructure (II) as a theoretical lens and related sociotechnical concepts and perspectives (incl. inscriptions, social worlds, biography of artefacts). Iteratively, a conceptual model of the building of digital transformation capabilities is developed, integrating the insights gained from the study of enterprise collaboration platform change and developed monitoring change tools (e.g. MoBeC framework). It assists researchers and practitioners in understanding the building of digital transformation capabilities from a theoretical and practical viewpoint and organisations implement the depicted knowledge in their unique digital transformation processes.
Author: | Clara Sabine Nitschke |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:kola-22298 |
Referee: | Susan P. Williams, Petra Schubert, Catherine A. Hardy |
Advisor: | Susan P. Williams |
Document Type: | Doctoral Thesis |
Language: | English |
Date of completion: | 2021/08/25 |
Date of publication: | 2021/08/26 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Koblenz, Universitätsbibliothek |
Granting institution: | Universität Koblenz, Fachbereich 4 |
Date of final exam: | 2021/07/28 |
Release Date: | 2021/08/26 |
Tag: | change; digital transformation; enterprise collaboration platforms; information infrastructure; longitudinal |
Number of pages: | xvi, 322, XXXV |
Institutes: | Fachbereich 4 / Institut für Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungsinformatik |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 000 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke |
Licence (German): | Es gilt das deutsche Urheberrecht: § 53 UrhG |


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LOS ANGELES, California –
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego was a popular children's game and TV show, which taught geography and history to kids in the early 90s. Several other offshoots of the Carmen Sandiego character have appeared over time, and it was announced today in Variety magazine that a new, gritty version of the character is coming to the big screen.
"All the kids loved Carmen, but those kids have grown up, many with children of their own now," said Lionsgate CEO Mark Miller. "We thought about the property, and decided that a gritty, dark, violent version of the character would really appeal to those adults who grew up with her on TV and on the computer. This was a major deal for us, and a huge property to acquire."
Miller says that the character is being revamped and rebooted to be more of a sultry, violent, superhero like spy.
"She's a former stripper-turned-private eye, so she knows how to use her body as well as her fists, to get to the 'bad guys,'" said Miller. "The script is being written by Quentin Tarantino, who is a big fan of the original TV show, as well as the cartoon series from the 90s."
Tarantino is known for his violent characters in most films, including extremely badass female characters such as The Bride in his Kill Bill films.
"We know he will do a terrific job on the story," said Miller. "If things pan out, we may even have him direct."


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Baidu fires researcher involved in AI contest flap
The company was among the participants in a computing competition called the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge. However, last month the contest organizers found that Baidu had essentially cheated to improve its results.
Baidu was notified, and the company launched an investigation. On Thursday, it finally spoke publicly on the matter in a blog post, and said the team leader involved had been terminated from his position.
Although the researcher was not named, computer scientist Wu Ren had been in charge of the team involved with the competition. The contest works by requiring the participants' computers to sort a set of objects from digital pictures into 1,000 different categories. As a rule, participants are only allowed to make their submissions to a test server twice per week.
In Baidu's case, it used at least 30 accounts to make at least 200 submissions over close to a six-month period, breaking the rule. According to the company's investigation, the team leader involved had "directed" junior engineers to submit more than two submissions per week.
"We have zero tolerance for such behavior," Baidu said in its blog post. To prevent future problems, the company has put new policies in place, including employee training sessions, and a panel to advise its engineering teams.
Wu could not be immediately reached for comment. But earlier this month, he wrote in a posting on the contest website that he was a staunch supporter of fairness and transparency.
Baidu is China's largest search engine, and has been focusing heavily on developing artificial intelligence to improve its services. Originally, the Chinese company had touted its performance in the ImageNet challenge, which was higher than Google's and Microsoft's.
But following the violations, the contest organizers have asked that Baidu stop making submissions over the next year. In its blog post, the company said the work of the team involved with the ImageNet contest violations was not connected with Baidu's other image recognition research.


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(A Diatribe in Three Harumphs)
I see him hovering in the fringes of my peripheral vision — analyzing me; analyzing my camera; analyzing my subject. He begins strolling toward me. I take a deep breath, grit my teeth and wait for the inevitable…
"You a photographer?" he asks, nodding at my camera.
"Aren't we all?" I grumble, hoping to quickly diffuse the exchange.
He nods in agreement, oblivious to my response. "So you a pro?"
"Only when someone pays me," I reply.
"Me too!" he laughs, failing for a second time to decode my cunningly crafted verbal hints. "Well, I don't actually do it full time, but all my friends tell me I should go for it. I was the second shooter at my sister's wedding last year. They hired a wedding photographer, but I actually shot more frames than he did. Everyone thought the pics were great, and I didn't even own a Nikon then."
He thrusts the camera toward my face as if to prove his point.
"You shooting street?" he asks, without waiting for an answer. "How long you been pro? What kind of camera is that? You on Flickr?"
"Sorry, man… gotta go. Late for a client meeting," I lie.
"OK. Nice meeting you. Maybe we can work together sometime…" his voice trails off in the distance.
What are we? How do we define ourselves? Convention says we're photographers. I call myself a photographer. You likely call yourself a photographer. When someone takes a series of photographs we admire, we all say "now that's a photographer!"
The last time I looked, Leica had 173,000 fans on Facebook. Discounting the 7 brainiacs who are actually optical physicists and another 4 who thought it was a site about Laika, the first dog to orbit the earth, that leaves… well… 173,000 people unaccounted for. Flickr states over 6 million people visit their site each month, and DPReview claims that more than 80 million of us land on their pages in a year. Heck, I've even got a pocketful of people subscribing to the RSS feeds on my ULTRAsomething site.
Who are all these people?
They are photographers — one and all — each suggestive of the fact that the word "photographer" has become an utterly meaningless label.
The most frequently repeated conversation in my life occurs in coffee shops, where the barista asks, "The usual?" and I reply, "Yep." The second most frequently repeated conversation in my life occurs when people tell me that they, or their friend, sibling, co-worker or spouse are "good enough to be a professional photographer."
What does this mean?
Besides further confirming the obvious — that nearly everyone in the world is now a photographer — it also illustrates that most people don't have a clue what it means to be a professional photographer.
The word "professional" is not an adjective. Well… OK… actually it is. But it's not a synonym for "great," "talented," "brilliant" or "awesome." It doesn't mean your photos are in focus and properly exposed — if it did, there would be billions of professionals. It doesn't mean you have an expensive camera and more lenses than a politician has enemies — if it did, there would be millions of professionals. It doesn't mean you take interesting, compelling and appealing photos — if it did, there would be tens of thousands of professionals.
Being professional simply means that you are paid to take photos, and that you are paid enough to call it a "profession." And this is precisely the reason why there aren't many professional photographers any more. How could there be? Now that everyone identifies themselves as a photographer, why would they actually pay someone else to take a photo? In fact, I'll go so far as to proclaim that becoming a professional photographer has less to do with one's ability as a photographer than with one's ability as a salesman. It's been said that a good salesman can sell sand in a desert — certainly a desirable skill for anyone wishing to sell photographic services to a world full of photographers.
"Photographer" is a vestigial term — presently misinterpreted by historical connotations that we all still apply in spite of the fact they're no longer applicable. A photographer is and always has been, by definition, "a camera operator." Period. 100 years ago, when not a lot of people could operate cameras and the whole photographic process required considerable training, knowledge and expense, being a photographer implied something more substantial — it meant you paid your dues, learned a set of skills, and offered a service few others could perform.
Calling yourself a "photographer" today is as trivial as calling yourself a "looker." After all, the vast majority of mankind is perfectly capable of looking at something, just as they are perfectly capable of photographing something. And no one would ever hire a professional looker would they?
Actually they would.
People hire private investigators whose anonymity allows them to look more discreetly at something of interest. We hire nannies to look after our kids so we can go look at something else. We hire lawyers to look at legal documents that are too confusing for us to decipher. We pay police to look for clues we're not trained to see, doctors to look at ourselves (even though we all have perfectly good mirrors), and security personnel to look at our luggage before we board a plane. We hire real estate agents to look for our houses, chemists to look for alternative fuel supplies, and pest control companies to look for bedbugs. Every one of these people is a professional looker — but none of them are dumb enough to actually call themselves "lookers."
No lawyer refers to himself as a "loophole looker." Nannies are not "offspring lookers." Everyone is capable of performing the simple act of looking, so the term "looker" is of absolutely no value in defining one's profession. Instead, the various "looking" professions are distinguished by what one looks for and the services that they provide.
With this in mind, those of us who rely on a camera — whether for personal expression or for next month's rent — need to neologize the word "photographer" right out of existence. It's an albatross with lead feet and two broken wings.
I am a man who observes human behavior. I endeavor to anticipate the precise moment at which a human's actions are the most poignant, ironic or meaningful, and then push a button on a mechanical device to record that moment for detailed examination by sociologists, humanists, historians or the just plain curious. Most would call me a photographer. On a more granular level, they would qualify me as a documentary or street photographer.
Some people travel to beautiful locales. They endeavor to find the precise coordinates at which the region's beauty is at its most aesthetically appealing, and then push a button on a mechanical device to record that scene for the purpose of informing all those who could not make the journey themselves. Most would call these people "photographers." On a more granular level, we would qualify them as landscape photographers.
Curiously — aside from the fact we both ultimately push a button to complete our tasks — the combination of skills, vision, temperament, equipment and mechanics required to perform these two missions have almost nothing in common with each other. Yet we're both lumped together as "photographers" — the implication being "if you're good at one, you're good at the other." You might as well toss in fashion photography, astro photography, lifestyle photography, forensic photography, spirit photography, and "here's a picture of my cat" photography.
Do people believe that if a coworker writes a cohesive email, then that coworker is perfectly capable of becoming a novelist? Of course not. The skill required to write a novel is much different than the skill required to write an email, technical document, legal brief, poem, comedy sketch, or an editorial capable of challenging people's minds and perceptions. Each of these disciplines is performed by a "writer," but no one has delusions that writing a thank-you note to Granny qualifies them to bump elbows with Hemingway. People have been writing for a lot longer than they've been photographing. And therein lies the problem — photography is still new enough in the context of human history that we haven't yet learned to disassociate the word "photographer" from the word "artist."
Many working pros are angry that the Instagram crowd has stolen their photojournalism jobs; or that the CEO's nephew absconded with the corporate website photo assignment; or that everyone's Uncle Mike is taking jobs away from wedding photographers. These pros, struggling to define the difference between their work and the dilettantes, proclaim themselves "real" photographers, as if to imply all these other people are not photographers. But they are photographers. They are camera operators — the same as all of us.
The reality is that 95% of the time, the photojournalist will take more compelling and contextual pictures; the trained corporate photographer will deliver more powerful and persuasive content for a business website; and a dedicated lifestyle and event photographer will create a more memorable portfolio of someone's wedding. But since society still applies the term "photographer" to each of these disciplines, they're perceived as tasks that can easily be performed by anyone who's labeled a photographer — which is just about everybody.
We need to fit the term "photographer" with a pair of concrete shoes, and drop it in the nearest lake. Those of us who believe we have a unique visual communication skill need to define ourselves by what, exactly, that skill is — and not by the equipment we use to realize it.
A novelist is not a "fictional typist."
A hair stylist is not a "topical scissorist."
A sommelier is not an "articulate drinker."
Photography is no longer a unique ability — but the numerous tasks we can accomplish with photography are still unique. And this uniqueness is how each of us, moving forward, must define ourselves.
I see him hovering in the fringes of my peripheral vision — analyzing me; analyzing my camera; analyzing my subject. He begins strolling toward me. I take a deep breath, grit my teeth and wait for the inevitable…
"You a photographer?" he asks, nodding at my camera.
"No. I'm a momentist." I reply.
"A what?" he asks.
"A documentary poet. A snarkicist. An encapsulator." I reel off a string of alternate terms, watching for one to strike a chord.
"Wow, what is that?" queries the fellow.
"Technically," I answer, "I'm a Human Proclivities Visual Artist, specializing in Wily Human Observational Recording— a W.H.O.R. for short."
"Cool, replies the Nikon toter. "I'm hoping to specialize in Ego Inflationary Face and Body Re-pixelation myself, but that's obviously going to take me years of practice and study."
"Best of luck," I reply, "Gotta go… I'm late for a client meeting." And this time, I'm not lying.
©2012 grEGORy simpson
ABOUT THESE PHOTOS: "Stultified Bride" was shot with a Leica M8 and a CV 35mm f/1.4 Nokton Lens. "Businessman" was shot with a Leica M8 and a 28mm Summicron lens. "The New Cool" and "Several Red Flags" were both shot with a Leica M9 and a v5 35mm Summicon lens. "Lookers and Photographers" was shot with a Leica M9 and a v5 50mm Summicron lens. "Makeshift Mask" and "Makeshift Wig" were both shot with a Leica M9 and a 21mm Elmarit-M (pre-ASPH) lens. "The Zone" was shot with a Leica M9 and a 90mm Elmarit-M lens. "Hitchcock Fanatic" was shot with a Leica M6TTL and a v4 35mm Summicron Lens, using Tri-X at ISO 400, stand developed 1:100 in Blazinal.
This article (along with many of its associated comments) first appeared on June 27, 2012 in my f/Egor column for the Leica Camera Blog.
If you find these photos enjoyable or the articles beneficial, please consider making a DONATION to this site's continuing evolution. As you've likely realized, ULTRAsomething is not an aggregator site — serious time and effort go into developing the original content contained within these virtual walls.


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By Nicholas Slade
- -
Many years ago, I was standing beside my mailbox, as I did every day, waiting for the mail to arrive. Each day had it's regular routine, I'd stand by the mailbox, the postman would arrive, he would hand me my usual stack of mail, and he would be on his way. That particular day started off like any other, I'd stood by my mailbox, the postman arrived, he handed me my usual stack of mail, and he went on his way. But as I walked back to my home, I noticed something different. There was something in my usual stack that was not so usual at all. It was a letter, from a man I could have sworn I had never met, from a town that I had never been to.
I walked into my home and looked at the envelope. In curiosity, I opened the letter. The letter was from a Mr. Shire; a name that I did not recall ever hearing before, but I read the letter anyways. The letter read:
Dear Johnny,
Hope you are doing well. You were right, New York is as big and bright as you said it would be and the wife and I are having a fantastic time. I am writing to you now because I had an interesting conversation with a Mr. Millar. He was going on and on about how he should have invested in Biggerton Company and how he would be rolling in the dough if he had just took the chance and invested in it. I thought you, of all people, would find this interesting. Well, I'll see you when I get back old chum.
Sincerely, J. Shire
Now, I had never met a Mr. Shire before and I have certainly never been to New York, so I thought that he must have sent it to the wrong address. But I did find the contents to be interesting. I had heard of this up and coming little company, Biggerton, before. Everyone was saying how it would go belly up within the year, so I didn't bother following it any further. But this letter made me rethink it. I had saved up some money and was considering investing it and this seemed to be the perfect excuse to do it. So, the next day I bought some Biggerton stock.
What could it hurt? I wondered.
I was absolutely shocked that by the end of the year, this little company that everyone said would be belly up, had shot up the ranks and become one the largest software companies in the country. I was rolling in the cash and never had to worry about money again. A short time later at a party, I met a man named Jacob Shire. I remembered the letter and chalked it up to coincidence. Jake and I would go on to be the best of friends.
Many years later, Jake told me that he and his wife were looking for a place to spend the week at. I recommended New York, as it had become a favorite place for me to visit. A week later, I was feeling nostalgic and was looking at the letter that had led me to my first million all those years ago. Suddenly, Jake burst through the door.
"Johnny," he yelled. "How have you been doing this past week?"
He looked at the letter in my hand.
"Oh, I see you got my letter."
"What?" I said.
"My letter that I sent you a few days ago. But dear God, look at the condition it's in. You should fire your mailman."
A cold sweat came over me. Jake walked up to me.
"What's wrong, old chum?"
I looked at him, "Nothing. Nothing at all."
- - -
Nicholas is a writer currently living in Florida. Originally from Mississippi, he moved to Florida in 2012 and is currently studying for his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Posted by E.S. Wynn at 12:00 AM
Labels: Nicholas Slade
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Middleman, "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation": There is no Dub-Dub, only Zuul
"Middleman" may not be an ideal fit with ABC Family, but give the producers credit for trying, with an episode that was as much an homage to "Greek" as it was to "Ghostbusters." If I didn't already know that next week featured a Kevin Sorbo guest appearance, I would start wondering if we were due for a "Secret Life of an American Teenager"-style episode where Lacey gets pregnant and Barbara Thornfield MD/PhD scolds her for it.
What I particularly liked about this one was the abrupt switch midway through from sorority spoof to body swapping story. I don't know that there was enough mileage in either joke to last a whole episode, and so we goofed on the former for a half an hour and then let Matt Keeslar brat it up for the rest of the show. The one joke with (hairy) legs, about the cross-dressing, psychic frat pledge who's also a perfect mimic, ran through the whole episode, but they didn't go overboard with the other stuff.
(The body swap/possession angle also allowed them to do a Wendy vs. Middleman fight scene that plausibly didn't feature much Sensei Ping-endorsed badassery, which I'm sure would have been expensive and time-consuming for a show that's obviously and lovingly done on the cheap.)
I also liked the Wendy/Lacey/Tyler love triangle, and not just because it featured a callback to the Stump the Band joke from the Art Crawl episode. At first, I assumed Wendy was backing off because she was following Middle-orders to not let Tyler get his memory back. The idea that this was Wendy's way of apologizing for putting the kibosh on Lacey's thing with Sexy Boss Man made more emotional sense, and allowed for Wendy to finally get something good going in her non-professional life.
What did everybody else think?
27 comments:
- R.A. Porter said...
My affection for this show is as deep as TheWife's hatred. Makes for rough Mondays.
I thought Matt Keeslar did a really good job of playing Chrissy Seaver. He loosened his gait and shoulders, animated his face, freed his hands up, and really let her come through in his movements. I wish he hadn't tarted his voice quite as much, but overall I thought he was great. - 12:22 PM, August 05, 2008
- a said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- 1:11 PM, August 05, 2008
- a said...
I'm in the bag for this show. Keeslar is great (outstanding change of pace last night), Natalie Morales does a great job of pitching Wendy just right, and Mary Pat Gleason rules. Over everything.
My daughter (12) made a great comment midway through "TEPI": "If the writing and acting weren't so good, you would notice how cheap this show is."
Since this will probably be its only season, I'll get in line for the DVDs. - 1:14 PM, August 05, 2008
- Nicole said...
I think this was my favourite episode so far. I liked Tyler so am glad that he came back, and I loved the DubDub and MM fight scene that consisted mostly of girly slaps and dirty kicks.
Why couldn't this air on regular ABC? I'm sure that it would find an audience, especially in the summer months. - 1:27 PM, August 05, 2008
Have to echo Nicole that it was my favorite episode, probably, to date. Perfect combination of everything (sincerity, wittiness, not-so-subtle-pop-culture-references ["Reitman University"], quippiness ["profound sense of giddiness"], and throw-back-shout-outs [the every-ep-line about plan being genious in its simplicity]). Just pure, pure fun.
Plus, like r.a.porter, my love is inversely proportional to thewife's hatred (esp. when I constantly sing "Middleman!", or shout "ArtCrawl!" putting arm and fist to air).
So sad the show has less than 5% shot of returning. - 2:04 PM, August 05, 2008
Has everybody seen the latest item on Middleman creator Javi's blog? See:
http://chaodai.livejournal.com/93691.html - 2:34 PM, August 05, 2008
"Muscle memory, bitch!"
- 3:19 PM, August 05, 2008
- Nicole said...
Although the sorority stuff could have been referencing "Greek", I also think that it was a more direct reference to Animal House, a movie produced by Ivan Reitman, especially since there seemed to be a John Belushi toga guy in the background, and not a "Cappie".
- 3:47 PM, August 05, 2008
- Karen said...
This was actually my favorite episode so far. I think Morales has gotten comfy enough in Dub-Dub's character to loosen up a little--she was wound pretty tight in the early episodes--and Matt Keeslar was comedy gold. They got in some fairly raunchy jokes for an ABC Family show--there was one about penetration that cracked me up--but it retains its essential innocence.
Excellent Ghostbusters references, along with one truly stellar Star Wars reference, when Dubbie makes the same observation about the sorority party that Obi-Wan Kenobi makes about the Mos Eisley spaceport. She doesn't quite carry off the Alec Guinness impression, but that's besides the point.
I thought the triangle was resolved most satisfactorily, and am glad Tyler found the right Booty Chest waitress. But poor Lacey--checked now on two fronts by her best friend! - 4:17 PM, August 05, 2008
- pgillan said...
Although the sorority stuff could have been referencing "Greek", I also think that it was a more direct reference to Animal House,
And also, the cross-dressing, psychic frat pledge was wearing the "College" sweatshirt John Belushi wore in that movie. I think I still have that poster, somewhere. I love that poster. - 4:45 PM, August 05, 2008
- Myles said...
I think my favourite pop culture reference was "Ray Parker Jr. Lane," but when you add up the multitude of them it's kind of hard to pick just one.
Really sharp little episode - this show knows exactly how to balance its procedural investigations with Wendy's personal life, and this was a fine example.
Plus, more than Greek, this has Veronica Mars written all over it; it is very similar to the early 3rd Season Sorority bust, straight to the vehement defense of the once reprehensible Greek system by our infiltrator. And while VM was uneven in its final season, I felt that episode was a fine example. - 6:55 PM, August 05, 2008
- Unknown said...
I'm still laughing at the penetration joke.
OHHH!!! - 10:52 PM, August 05, 2008
- Antid Oto said...
I'm really going to miss this show.
- 12:01 AM, August 06, 2008
I've been trying to get together a round-table discussion of people who cover the show to discuss how to save it on a podcast or SOMETHING and failing miserably...
Would you be interested in something like that?
If so - I'll continue to bug other people. :)
-Andy "Speaker" Floyd
speaker at geekgasm dot com - 8:43 AM, August 06, 2008
- LoopyChew said...
While the entire episode had me cracking up (this and The Sino-Mexican Revelation are up for best episode of the series so far), the one moment of stellar gold for me how after Wendy crotch-kicked the possessed!Middleman, one of the possessed alpha females winched and grabbed his/her crotch in sympathy.
- 11:30 AM, August 06, 2008
- joy said...
I have to say that when I saw the pilot, I was completely put off. But I persevered, mainly because of your blogpost reviews on it, Alan.
And, I've not been disappointed. Last night was my favorite episode yet.
So, thanks! - 12:08 PM, August 06, 2008
- barefootjim said...
I loved the fact that the first thing that Sexy Boss Man did when he got ghostified was go find the psychic so we didn't have half an episode of mistaken identity scenes (which I hate).
Also, it wasn't just the penetration joke, but the acknowledgement of the penetration joke as dirty which just about killed me. - 12:17 PM, August 06, 2008
Is Omega Theta Nu a reference? Because it sounds very familiar to me, but I can't place it and I can't find it online. Of course, it took me years to get Delta Tau Chi.
- 1:25 PM, August 06, 2008
- Alan Sepinwall said...
Of course, it took me years to get Delta Tau Chi.
And now I'm going to lose all my nerd cred by asking you to elaborate. - 1:31 PM, August 06, 2008
- Alan Sepinwall said...
BTW, my "Greek" reference was more of a rhetorical device to refer to the show's ongoing struggles to find an audience on a channel that's not the ideal place for it. The "College" sweater was, of course, a giveaway for the Animal House homage. (Plus, Ivan Reitman was a producer on Animal House in addition to directing Ghostbusters.)
- 1:33 PM, August 06, 2008
- a said...
So right! The "penetration" joke by itself was just this side of juvenile, but Wendy's "I'm here all week, try the veal!" response and the Middleman's clueless, then somewhat embarrassed look took it up a notch. - 1:37 PM, August 06, 2008
"And now I'm going to lose all my nerd cred by asking you to elaborate."
Woo hoo! I am not the last person in the universe to get it!!! hee hee. (sorry, Alan!)
Delta is the Greek equivalent of "D", Tau is "T" and Chi is "X". DTX. DeToX. - 3:04 PM, August 06, 2008
- Unknown said...
I thought the reference was to Delta House in Animal House. The first one, that is. Don't know what the other one was.
- 3:40 PM, August 06, 2008
- Kenrick said...
Caught this show for the first time with this episode. And I'm glad I did, as I had quite a good time watching it. Loved all the
Ghostbusters references and I thought Matt Keesler was particularly hilarious. Now I'll have to go back and watch the previous episodes.
Reading the comments, I'll try not to be too disappointed if they're all not as good as this one.
a - your daughter made quite a keen observation. Totally reflects my first impression of the show. - 5:03 PM, August 06, 2008
- LoopyChew said...
One more comment I need to make: Having re-watched The Sino-Mexican Revelation and noted a few things, like how both their fathers were military, and the scene with Wendy and the doctor outside Tyler's room (in which she poses as his sister) are leading my brain to some frightening possibilities as to... well, I think you guys can draw the conclusion my mind is jumping to, as well as why I feel so squicked right now, and agree/disagree with the possibility.
- 7:55 AM, August 08, 2008
From Jan:
I love this show. I have to watch it more than once just to get the references. As a "Great Gatsby" lover, I really liked the reference to T.J. Eckleberg in this episode as well as the ones to the Wachowski brothers and Superman ("Great Caesar's Ghost!). But the T. J. Eckleberg one is my favorite. I hope they are planning to put out DVDs soon. I'm in line for them. - 9:22 AM, August 08, 2008
I think you guys can draw the conclusion my mind is jumping to, as well as why I feel so squicked right now, and agree/disagree with the possibility.
This show seems too sweet to go there. And I certainly hope they don't - 5:21 PM, August 08, 2008


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2020 (click each date to see full topic listing!)
Jan 9, 2020 (Elimination diet tips, Food "sensitivity" vs "allergy", Leaky gut FAQ, whole food/plant based diet for inflammation) (56:26)
Jan 15, 2020 (food sensitivity IgG, Low progesterone, High Cortisol, Asthma, Influenza update) (55:33)
Jan 22, 2020 (Hashimoto's, Thyroid treatments, Low Dose Naltrexone, Vaginal itching) (54:01)
Jan 30, 2020 (Testosterone, Cortisol, Intermittent fasting, Elimination Diet anxiety, Coronavirus) (50:43)
Feb 6: insomnia, weight loss, parasympathetic regulation, codependency, gf/df food recipe sites (49:49)
Feb 13: Difficulty digesting, understanding lipids, methylation, OAT and mitochondria, mold and toxin treatment (47:30)
Feb 20: Hashimotos or Perimenopause, How stress can affect thyroid, Autism vs PANDAS, Mental illness, Vaginal health (46:00)
Feb 27: Insulin + Cortisol, Serotonin, Healing Mycotoxins, Gluten Sensitivity (47:36)
Mar 5: H.Pylori, Plastic toxicity, Inflammatory Colitis treatment, Collagen and skin, Ghrelin/Leptin and metabolism (54:09)
Mar 19: COVID-related questions, Mold treatment, Vit K2/D (47:05)
Mar 26: Making testosterone naturally, Menopausal hormones, COVID questions (44:51)
April 1: Chemical toxins, Food sensitivity (IgM, IgG), Histamine conundrum, COVID (36:55)
April 9: Severe cortisol dysregulation, essential Vitamins for any detox, optimal bacterial colonization, COVID (51:45)
April 16: Viral URI, Top 5 vitamins, Pulse Ox, Member Feedback (46:19)
April 23: all about insomnia in the time of COVID (37:51)
Apr 30: Top tips to understand pain and how to treat it with FxMed (36:36)
May 7: Yeast symptoms, causes, and treatment protocol (31:33)
May 14: Immune system tour and supplement support for viruses (36:10)
May 21: OAT test mastery (what do we see in OAT testing) (32:48)
May 28: Progress Tracking in functional medicine, Timeline, Fab Five vitamins (32:46)
June 4: All about skin! Decoding skin rashes, treatment and supporting aging (29:57)
June 11: Estrogen dominance -- symptoms, testing, and solutions (AND MEMBER UPDATE!) (37:19)
June 18: How to fall in love with exercise and movement again (38:43)
June 25: How to avoid hangovers (36:10)
July 2: Megan Schilt (guest expert) on trauma, brain spotting and tools to stop panic attacks (39:34)
July 9: Deconstructing a Diagnosis (all about ICD-10 codes and functional diagnoses) (38:16)
July 16: Polyvagal Theory and how it impacts mitochondrial function (27:13)
July 30: Amanda Kuehn (guest expert) "How to Kick the Sugar Habit" (52:01)
Aug 6: Tips for Athletic performance optimization (32:19)
Aug 13: Stress, cortisol, low hormones, brain fog. Polyvagal and DNRS (43:25)
Aug 20: GUEST EXPERT SPEAKER Marianne Gernetzke "Mindfulness as a tool for achieving health goals" (34:05)
Aug 27: Hacking your brain's happiness (dopamine, serotonin, cortisol) (34:12)
Sept 3: Alzheimer's (Dr. Dale Bredesen info)
Sept 10: Rose Brown (guest expert) on Vagal Nerve treatment with CranioSacral Therapy (46:24)
Sept 17: Emotional Eating (Dr. Deanna Minich's work) (52:52)
Sept 24: COVID review, tips for URIs, question about mitochondria, ergonomic posture and squatting (34:46)
Oct 1: Seasonal Affective Disorder TOOLKIT! (55:25)
Oct 8: Headaches and Migraines with Dr. Peter Schmit (35:29)
Oct15: All about BEVVIES (beverages) from kombucha to mushroom coffee (35:43)
October 22: Finding healthy (non-toxic) cooking utensils, water filters, mouth taping and post-covid exposure recommendations (23:48)
October 29: Flu vaccine, Supplements and IF/TRF, Glutathione details (33:31)
Nov 5: Finding your Calm in the chaos, functional testing for neurotransmitters, CBD, benzodiazepines (31:07)
Nov 12: Latest in Mold/Mycotoxin research, gallbladder and liver, binders (33:03)
Nove 19: HAPPY HOLIDAY TIPS with GUEST EXPERT Hannah Ritsch, RDN (36:26)
Dec 3: ADHD, Balancing Microbiome, Elimination Diet, Green Tea, Gallbladder "flushes" (35:36)
Dec 10: ALL ABOUT HAIR! (hair loss, alopecia, tinea, hirsutism, etc) (32:29)
Dec 17: Timing of supplements, types of 5HTP (sleep/anxiety), Vitiligo, Covid vaccination basics (27:34)
Dec 22: Osteoporosis, Peanut Butter, Birth Control for Endometriosis, Wine (22:01)
2021 (Click each date to see full listing)
Jan 7: Reintroducing foods after candida rebalancing, Total Body Burden, using Bullet Journals to smash your health goal (32:14)
Jan 14: Ashwagandha (nootropic and adaptogens), Stress and boundaries, Aging and Collagen, Covid Vax update (30:26)
Jan 21: Jessica's Post-Holiday Detox, Lectins, Fresh vs Dried herbs (28:28)
Jan 28: Probiotics (types, strains, spore probiotics) (33:02)
Feb 4: Superbowl Snacks with Jessica (buffalo bites and 5 layer dip) (42:10)
Feb 11: User Manual for the Anxious Brain (neurochemistry, thought work, nootropics, supplements) (31:35)
Feb 18: Jessica w/ Immune boosting foods, Bitters to aid digestion, Mindful eating tips, and nutrition label tips (38:02)
Feb 25: Pre-Covid Vaccination protocol, Leptin vs Ghrelin and weight/hunger (33:23)
March 4th: Meal Prep for the week with Jessica, are frozen fruits more nutritious, all about refined flours (31:26)
March 11: ReNew Diet info, Maximizing brain energy with boundaries, Flow, calendar management (45:58)
March 18: Jessica's info about cooking oils, fatty acids, Covid stress tips (31:15)
March 25: What to do when you are in the pit of despair, anxious, depressed, polyvagal info, 5 senses exercise (33:44)
April 8: Jessica's info about gf/df recipes for holidays (also Atrophic Vaginitis and estradiol, 5-HTP and serotonin) (36:46)
April 15: All about MENOPAUSE (39:22)
April 21: Jessica's info about FODMAP, snacks, low glycemic, best website recipe resources (40:02)
April 29: Active recovery toolkit for flow state, Covid vax side effects, New GI supplements for constipation, Sleep help, (37:23)
May 6: Jessica's PANTRY MAKEOVER (41:03)
May 13: Bloating, Vagal Toning Exercises, Thyroid hormone discrepancies, Deep Sleep and Oura ring (35:50)
May 27: Cognitive Decline part 1: Brain anatomy, Cognitive domains, dementia vs decline, ways to test memory (39:19)
May 20: Mini-episode about COGNITIVE RESERVE (10:27)
June 3: Jessica talks all about AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) food plan and how to read nutrition labels (31:28)
June 10: GUEST EXPERT Constance Buckner from Motion Works, LLC on incorporating exercise and movement into daily life (47:05)
June 24: Jessica demonstrates a "Naughty but Nice" dessert (chocolate cookie bites and banana ice cream) (40:26)
July 1: Cognitive Decline part 2: Medications that increase dementia, metabolic pathways that impact cognition (37:43)
July 8: Jessica's Travel Recommendations on nutritious options (40:34)
July 15: Cognitive Decline part 3: best exercises, foods, and methods to decrease neuroinflammation (38:17)
July 22: Jessica's Meatless Monday option: walnut "meat"! (30:41)
Aug 5: Long haul COVID treatment and support, "Why am I having hot flashes if I'm on EstroDIM?" (31:09)
Aug 12: Jessica talks about TIMELINE and how to work with a FUNCTIONAL NUTRITIONIST (34:28)
Aug 19: Guided EFT ("Tapping") workshop by certified instructor, Anna Schulist (52:31)
Aug 26: Jessica makes two delish summer salads in less than 30 mins! (39:48)
Sept 9: Jessica explains the "WHY and HOW" behind Functional Nutrition (38:12)
Sept 16: Methylation and MTHFR (29:44)
Sept 23: Jessica explains MACRONUTRIENTS (27:32)
Sept 30: COMT gene explained (31:31)
Oct 14: Overwhelmed? Use the Core-Poor-More technique (36:14)
Oct 21: Qigong meditation (energy meditation) (34:56)
Oct 28: DAO gene and how your food sensitivity could be this (33:38)
Nov 4: Jessica talks about invisible ways that nutrition can be affected (mindfulness, gratitude, exercise) (46:28)
Nov 11: MAOA gene (sugar addict or serial killer?) and review of estrogen dominance (31:23)
Nov 18: Jessica's healthy sweet potatoes (35:17)
Dec 2: Jessica's GF and DF holidays (46:54)
Dec 9: SPECIAL ACTIVITY: Core value audit and anchor for a congruent NEW YEAR! (15:13)
Dec 16: Jessica's holiday biscotti recipe (31:06)
Dec 23: FINAL GENOMICS REVEAL (3x4 Genetics report) (27:55)
GUEST SPEAKER: David Deppeler teaches helps us anchor the new year with BREATHING TIPS (51:48)
Jan 13: Jessica cooks an ANTI-INFLAMMATORY MEAL (39:31)
Jan 20: Mini-Reset (Elimination Diet tips) to nourish your body (39:15)
Jan 27: Jessica cooks a DAIRY-FREE pasta dish (35:51)
Feb 3: All about SAUNAS (31:46)
Feb 10: Post-Covid GI distress, healing fractures, and JESSICA'S SAUCES (49:47)
Feb 17: COVID UPDATE, vaccinations and suggestions for stubborn residual symptomsr (32:03)
Feb 24: Jessica's delicious anti-inflammatory meal
Mar 3: The Birth of an Autoimmune Disease (35:03)
Mar 10: Jessica talks all about the MICROBIOME and example of stool testing (49:23)
Mar 24: Jessica cooks prebiotic/probiotic TACOS! (34:25)
March 31: Sleep Part 1 (34:24)
April 7: Jessica talks about PMS and nutrition (41:35)
April 14: Sleep Part 2 (36:09)
April 21: Time Restricted Eating (intermittent fasting) (35:41)
April 28: Jessica makes some PMS-friendly treats! (57:18)
May 5: Kidney and Bladder (34:35)
May 19: LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) for pain and autoimmune diseases (36:16)
May 25: Jessica's Grocery Store Haul for busy families (42:53)
June 2: Alpha Stim to help insomnia, depression, anxiety (29:41)
June 9: Jessica helps you avoid summer dehydration with food and beverage tips (34:49)
July 7: How to Handle Flare Ups (Jessica) (50:07)
July 28: Jessica's Sweet Chocolate Treats for Summer (44:02)
Aug 4: S.O.S. (Save Our Sh*t) Gut reset tips (33:48)
Aug 11: Nutrition Myths with Jessica (44:23)
Aug 18: Cold Exposure Therapy (34:50)
Sept 8: Ketogenic Diet with Jessica (34:23)
Spet 15: Preparing for CHEESE DAYS IN MONROE (28:51)
Sept 22: Navigating Nutrition Labels & Halloween Treats (25:30)
Sept 29: Mold Part 1 (32:17)
Oct 6: Jessica's Fall Treats- Pumpkin Spice Energy Balls & Maple Pumpkin Breakfast Bars (66:32)
Oct 13: Mold Part 2 (31:58)
Oct 20: Jessica- Leaky Gut & Chronic Inflammation (35:25)
Nov 3: Mold part 3 (CIRS and Vagal info) (32:41)
Nov 10: Jessica Discussing How to Avoid Environmental Exposures (47:53)
Nov 17: Jessica Introducing Holiday Mock-tails and "Healthy" Holiday Dishes (37:26)
Dec 1: YEAR IN REVIEW (Dr. Lara's fave apps, tests, supplements, and wearables) (41:25)
Dec 15: A Day in My Life (Dr. Lara) (42:40)
Dec 29: The 80/20 Focus Audit to help you achieve your goals (29:00)
Kickoff: Functional Medicine 101 (32:46)
Level 1: Understanding your Genetic "Soil" and inflammatory triggers (31:18)
Level 1b: Jessica talks about anti-inflammatory nutrition (36:44)
Level 2a: Pouring a healthy "gut foundation" (36:33)
Level 2b: Nutrition for a healthy gut reset (Elimination diet) (40:46)
Level 3a: Framing your "walls" of mental and physical support (36:33)
Level 3b: Mental Health & Stress Management Techniques (26:29)
Level 4a: Strengthening your immune "roof" (32:33)
Level 4b: Detox Supportive Foods (30:39)
Level 5b: Energy & Mitochondrial Supportive Foods (41:54)
Level 6a: Resetting your body's hormonal "thermostat" (28:25)
Level 6b: Food & Cortisol (23:21)
BONUS workshop: from burnout to bliss--how to supercharge your brain (33:45)
Level 1: The "soil" of your genetics (29:55)
Level 1b: Jessica- Anti-inflammatory and Methylations Supportive Foods (25:54)
Level 2: The "Foundation" of a healthy gut (30:32)
Level 2b: Jessica- Elimination Diet 101 & Bristol Stool Scale (23:42)
Level 3: The walls of mental and physical strength (31:57)
Level 3b: Jessica- Mental Health & Stress Management (24:24)
Level 4: The immune "roof" and summer skin support (30:51)
Lesson 4b: Jessica- Detox Supportive Foods (29:39)
Lesson 5b: Jessica- Energy & Mitochondrial Supportive Foods (30:32)
Jessica- Heat Exhaustion & Dehydration Replay (24:56)
Lesson 1a: Understanding inflammation, triggers, and the "Soil" upon building your home (33:22)
Lesson 1b: Jessica- Anti-inflammatory Foods and Methylation (21:12)
Level 2a: Gut restoration of your "foundation" (28:38)
Level 2b: Elimination Diet 101 w/ Jessica (29:57)
Level 3a: Building your mental and physical "walls" (32:46)
Oct 6: Jessica's Fall Treats- Pumpkin Spice Energy Balls & Maple Pumpkin Breakfast Bars
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