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Scout Oath
On my honor, I will do my best. To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
Scout Law
A Scout is:
- A Scout is Trustworthy. A Scout tells the truth. He is honest, and he keeps his promises. People can depend on him.
- A Scout is Loyal. A Scout is true to his family, friends, Scout leaders, school, and nation.
- A Scout is Helpful. A Scout cares about other people. He willingly volunteers to help others without expecting payment or reward.
- A Scout is Friendly. A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He offers his friendship to people of all races and nations, and respects them even if their beliefs and customs are different from his own.
- A Scout is Courteous. A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows that using good manners makes it easier for people to get along.
- A Scout is Kind. A Scout knows there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. Without good reason, he does not harm or kill any living thing.
- A Scout is Obedient. A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobeying them.
- A Scout is Cheerful. A Scout looks for the bright side of life. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.
- A Scout is Thrifty. A Scout works to pay his own way and to help others. He saves for the future. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.
- A Scout is Brave. A Scout can face danger although he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at him or threaten him.
- A Scout is Clean. A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He chooses the company of those who live by high standards. He helps keep his home and community clean.
- A Scout is Reverent. A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.
The Cub Scout Motto
Do Your Best!


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Open Webmail Help Tutorials
>> Using the Main Toolbar
A toolbar is a bar (hence the name) of buttons and options that allow you to quickly perform actions on different objects. There is a toolbar in each of the folders (explained later).
This is the Main Toolbar:
You may use this chart as a reference for these buttons.
Name/Alternate Text
Action It Performs
Folder Menu
Displays the current folder and the number of unread/read messages.
New Message
Allows you to write a new e-mail.
Allows you to view, edit, delete, and create folders.
Address Book
Opens the address book for editing.
Mail Filters
Allows you to filter incoming e-mail.
Receives any e-mail that may have been sent to you during your session.
Advanced Search
Performs a detailed search for a message.
Reloads the current page.
Move to Trash
Moves the selected message(s) to the trash.
Opens the Calendar, allowing you to make detailed daily notes.
User Preferences
Allows you to alter and personalize your settings.
Exits Open Webmail
Destination Menu
Moves or Copies the selected messages to the selected destination folder.
<< Reading a Message
The Message Toolbar >>
About Open Webmail Help

subset: commoncrawl


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Exploring the Limits: Understanding the Challenges Facing Olympic Champions
As the world turns its sporting gaze toward Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, The Physiological Society journal Experimental Physiology marks the occasion with a special issue exploring the biological and environmental challenges elite winter athletes must overcome to win gold.
"When most people think about these games we conjure up glorious images of snow and high mountains," said co-editor Mike White from the University of Birmingham, "but when physiologists think of cold and altitude, most immediately think of environmental challenges including hypothermia and hypoxia."
To explore these challenges, the editors avoided the standard, resisted the stereotypical and rejected dated physiological methods to create an innovative and integrative new approach to study and debate the limitations to performance in elite winter sport.
The biathlon, an event combining cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, serves as an ideal example for physiologists. For biathletes, high aerobic capacity and motor functions are vital to success, while performance limitations include the ability of the respiratory system at high-altitude and in cold environmental conditions.
"When skiing, a fall is always possible," said author Richard Ferguson from Loughborough University. "The question is whether or not the fall was preventable and, if it resulted from muscle fatigue or failure to execute a motor program correctly, the answer is yes."
The biathlon also involves shooting, with a miss incurring a penalty lap of the circuit, which has a strong influence on the race result.
"When looking at shooting, Martin Lakie's expertise on tremor and John Cootes' understanding of heart rate recovery come to the fore," said co-editor Stuart Egginton from the University of Birmingham. "The mechanical correlates of the heart beat and pulse wave propagation though the arm have a clear impact on accurate sighting of the target. Whether errors can be avoided by having a rapid heart rate recovery and a longer interpulse interval in which to shoot is debated here."
The papers also reveal how the physiology of a medal winning performance in many winter sports is still far from fully understood. Writing in the preface to this special issue, world-renowned explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes said: "While it is surprising to me how much we already know, these papers also identify where our knowledge is inadequate to allow a full mechanistic explanation. It is particularly gratifying to see how information from different disciplines is being harnessed to this end."


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Wednesdays at 7:00 pm
Class Instructor: James Clemens "Jim"
Cost: $15/person and $30/couple (Pay at the door with cash, check, or credit card)
Tips & Techniques classes include a variety of dances. You will experience a demonstration of each dance step for both men and women and then practice the steps individually and with a partner. Each step builds on the next to ensure you are comfortable with the flow of the dance.
We will be covering Nightclub Slow. No partners required!
For questions call Jim Clemens at (239) 775-3445.


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Crowding the private sector into Africa's climate action
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By Chinedu Moghalu, Head, Corporate Communications, Nigerian Export-Import Bank.
It is in the enlightened self-interest of African private sector to begin to mobilise investment capital for Africa's climate action
LAGOS, Nigeria, December 12, 2016/ — The global community for climate action was spooked by the November 8 election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States. The US President-elect had earned the sobriquet of "climate denier," for his claim that climate change is a hoax. However, there is cautious optimism that his presidency will not overturn the global agenda on climate change. Hopefully, his views on climate change will change and align with reality when he settles into the Oval Office. Policymakers also believe that global climate agreements cannot be reversed easily.
In the meantime, stakeholders are pressing on with formulating strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to the United Nations' agency on climate change held on November 7 – 18 in Marrakech, Morocco. At the climate talks, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, Pakistan and seven other countries ratified the December 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. A total of 111 countries, including the United States, China and Member Countries of the European Union ratified the agreement by the time COP 22 concluded.
Since the Paris accord entered into force on November 4th, quite earlier than anticipated, global action against climate change has effectively shifted to strategic programming. Therefore, in Marrakech, Canada, Germany, Mexico and the United States published their plans to significantly decarbonize their economies by 2050. A group of 47 developing nations also committed to running entirely on renewable energy sources "as rapidly as possible."
Some of the plans are already gaining traction. Investments in renewable energy totalled $286 billion in 2015. This surpassed by 3% the previous high of renewable energy investment achieved in 2011. Data gleaned from Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016, a joint publication by United Nations Environment Programme and Bloomberg, further revealed that last year, coal and gas-fired electricity generation drew less than half the record investment made in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
The trend in renewable energy investment is a mixed bag, even in developing countries. China alone accounted for 55% of total investment last year; Africa's share was less than 5%. As climate change mitigation is being driven by investment in green energy, Africa is already taking the familiar position at the back seat on the 'green energy train'.
This was not unanticipated by climate policymakers. Although China is the clear leader in investment in renewables, other developing countries, in particular the low-income countries, are not expected to be able to keep pace without international assistance. But the advanced countries appear to be reneging on their pledges to help finance both mitigation and adaptation frameworks in the developing world, including Africa. This generated some rumblings in Marrakech, with regard to the commitment by the developed countries to raise $100 billion annually by 2020 to support climate actions in developing countries.
Disappointing as this is, the prospects of improvement in international assistance at the required scale are not assuring. One, virtually all the advanced countries have been bedevilled by over half a decade of weak economic growth. This has put investment in infrastructure below ideal levels, suggesting near-term pressure on the fiscal regimes to close the infrastructure gap, create domestic jobs, and boost economic growth.
Two, the economic malaise is also driving populist nationalistic sentiments in Europe and the United States. The backlashes for the emerging isolationist regimes are expected to include decline in international trade, further political uncertainties, shrinking and closed borders, and volatility in financial markets – acting together to further put downward pressure on economic growth and constrict foreign aid.
Three, the developing world has ceased to be monolithic. A handful of the countries have recently made significant economic and financial advances. These countries, including the BRICS economies, and the countries of the Gulf States that have amassed huge reserve savings, are expected to underline their climate strategies by investment. The less fortunate countries will continue to rely on overseas development assistance, although the gap between pledges and delivery will continue to widen. Without a united front, commitment to pledges for climate change mitigation and adaptation will continue to slack, with consequences for vulnerable populations.
Africa that is left behind in the transition to the green economy will be worse off than it is today. As the drive towards decarbonisation gathers pace, Africa's oil economies will face more intense fiscal challenges. Given the strong link between government balance sheets and private sector balance sheets, this will result in serious constraint for business growth and profit. Therefore, it is in the enlightened self-interest of African private sector to begin to mobilise investment capital for Africa's climate action.
For starters, the private sector is best suited to take the lead role in innovating climate solutions and green development. In Africa, the frontiers for the innovations are in power and agriculture. These are sectors that have been far less developed, compared to services sectors. Happily, countries including Nigeria have recently enacted reforms in both their power and agriculture sectors. These reforms are geared towards mobilising private sector resources, having relaxed statist control and incentivised investment.
Accordingly, the private sector can leverage reforms that have relaxed the centralisation of the power grid to innovate and finance off-grid electricity solutions. Opportunities for Public Private Partnerships are also opening up as subnational governments are seeking to accelerate improvement in the power sector. These are happening in the region that is well endowed with solar energy and wind resources.
Similarly, various reforms in the agriculture sector have factored the need for climate resilience in national food security policies. But there is significant knowledge gap in Africa's agriculture which cannot be left to the smallholder farmers and governments to fill. Private investments across the agriculture value-chain are needed to help close the knowledge gap and support adaptation mechanisms in rural farming communities.
Token actions towards building the green economy cannot remain an option for Africa's private sector. The risks are dangerously stacked. Without adequate climate action, African farmers could lose between 40% and 80% of their croplands for growing grains. Also, the effects of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are dire for even urban populations.
But the question remains: how will private sector resources be mobilised? No doubt, significant capacity lies with the African financial institutions, including the development finance banks and to a lesser extent the export credit agencies. But there has been risk aversion and shortage of risk-sharing market instruments. In the Nigerian banking industry, for example, aversion towards risk in agribusiness has hampered funding by financial institutions. And funding pooled at the instance of Central Bank of Nigeria for on-lending to agro-SMEs has historically under-performed. A further drag is the macroeconomic conditions, which are driving interest rates more and more beyond the affordability of agro-entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers.
To unlock private sector funding, therefore, the blockades at both demand and supply sides of the credit market have to be addressed by smarter policies and more faithfulness with implementation. But this will not be enough. There has to be a framework for sharing expertise on the continent. The good news is that such frameworks that pool resources, help to mitigate risk, and share knowledge in mobilising climate actions already exist. At the supra-national level, the African Risk Capacity (ARC) was founded in 2012 as an agency of the African Union with the mandate to finance climate resilience and crisis response.
In line with its mandate, the ARC is planning to roll out an Extreme Climate Facility, which will issue multi-peril, climate change catastrophe bonds. The securitization instruments will bring scale and knowhow to Africa's climate risk management and climate change adaptation efforts, with tremendous benefits to the agriculture sector. XCF's catastrophe bonds are expected to attract not only investment from indigenous African banks but also from international financial institutions. One hopes that the XCF will soon be deployed, and the rigorous risk modelling it plans to have in place will serve other market initiatives.
Necessary as it is for Africa to take responsibility for its resilience to climate change and to develop its adaptation mechanisms, the continent should not be denied 'climate justice.' The heavily-industrialised countries account for overwhelming proportions of the emissions that are heating the planet and are intensifying climate risks for vulnerable populations in less-industrialised developing countries. This makes the delivery of aid towards adaptation in developing countries quite mandatory. Foreign aid is also required to catalyse market frameworks in developing countries, and secure part of the moral planks on which the much-celebrated Paris accord rest.
Author is Chinedu Moghalu, Head, Corporate Communications, Nigerian Export-Import Bank.


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6 pieces of fruit (pears, apples, nectarines, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, grapes - whatever your favourites are), sliced
¼ cup blanched almonds
2 cinnamon sticks
peel of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Place the sliced fruit in a baking tray, add the nuts, cinnamon sticks, orange peel and juice. Mix roughly. Sprinkle with the brown sugar.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Enjoy it hot or cold.
It's excellent served with Bircher Museli or Ricotta Pudding.


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Why Statesville Bathroom Remodeling Pros?
Making your bathroom remodel ideas a reality
Hiring a professional bathroom remodeler is a great choice for many reasons. They have the knowledge and experience to tackle any job size, as well as access to the latest products and materials to help create the perfect look for your bathroom. Professional remodelers, like those in our local Statesville network, can offer detailed advice, design expertise, and quality craftsmanship to ensure the job is done correctly and on time. They can also provide insights into the best ways to maximize space and make the most of the room, so you get the most value for your remodeling.
Hiring a professional also guarantees that the job is done safely and efficiently, as they have the right tools, safety equipment, and know how to properly dispose of any hazardous materials. If an issue arises, they can quickly and effectively assess the situation and take corrective action if necessary. This peace of mind can be invaluable when tackling any remodeling project, big or small.
Ready for Your Bathroom Remodel Quote?
1. Call us or Complete our Estimate Form
Our calls and form completions are completely free to you. You will only ever be charged if you decide to work with one of our bathroom remodel network experts. Our Statesville bathroom remodelers have a combined 10 years of experience of more! You can feel confident that your bathroom will be in great hands with one of our network professionals.
2. Connect with a local Statesville expert
Completing our form is great if you are busy right now and want someone to get back to you at a later time. A call will connect you with a bathroom remodel professional quicker. Receive your competitive estimate; our expert will schedule a time to meet and go over your vision, finding the smartest path to make your vision a reality!
Are you considering a bathroom remodel? Here are a few reasons why you may be ready to get an estimate:
Reasons for a remodel…
- You want to update the look and feel of your bathroom
- You want to add more storage space
- You want to make the bathroom more energy efficient
- You want to upgrade the fixtures
- You want to make the bathroom more accessible for elderly or disabled family members
- You want to increase the value of your home.
Top Bathroom Remodeling Services
- Replacing flooring
- Installing new fixtures
- Adding a vanity
- Installing new lighting
- Replacing the shower or bathtub
- Replacing the toilet
- Painting walls and ceilings
- Adding a new exhaust fan
- Adding countertops
- Installing a new sink
Local Estimates, No Risk, Great Service
Are you looking to remodel your Statesville bathroom? Look no further! Get estimates from a local bathroom remodel contractor in our network today and see how much you can save. With the help of experienced and knowledgeable contractors, you can get the bathroom of your dreams without breaking the bank. Don't wait any longer – get your estimate today!
Get Your Estimate


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The End of the Commoditization of Knowledge
Fifteen years ago I was asked to join the board of editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. In short order, I learned that these editors saw themselves as guardians of knowledge. They knew what was true and what was important and only knowledge that fit those criteria would be in their encyclopedia. I asked if the encyclopedia could be say, ten times bigger, economic issues aside, and they said 'no' the right information was already in there. I started to explain that the world as they knew it was going to change before their eyes and they would soon be toast, but they didn't understand.
I have had similar conversation with newspaper editors, librarians, heads of testing services, and with faculty at top universities. Like the Britannica folks, they see themselves as knowing what is true and what is not and what is important and what is not.
I am optimistic that this is soon all about to change.
What I mean by 'this' is the era that we have lived in, ever since the invention of the book, but clearly including the era where knowledge was contained in scrolls. In this era, knowledge is a commodity, owned and guarded by the knowledge elite and doled out by them in various forms that they control, like books, and, newspapers, and television, and schools. They control who can get access to the knowledge (through admission to elite schools for example) and exactly what knowledge matters (through SATs but also through intellectual publications that true knowledge owners would be embarrassed to have failed to have read.)
We are beginning to see the change in all this now. If anyone can take Harvard's courses on line then one wonders why one has to go to Harvard. Elite universities have struggled with this new world, but eventually people will take whatever course they want from whomever they want and a real competition about quality will take place.
We no longer have only three TV networks, so more points of view are available, but the cost of running a TV station is still high and there are barriers to entry and there is still the idea that a TV station broadcasts all day even if it has nothing to say. Soon this too will disappear. You tube is just they beginning.
Today print media is being challenged by on line material, but it is still prestigious to publish a book and newspapers still exist. More importantly, schools still exist. But they are all going away soon. There is no need to buy knowledge when it available for free, as newspapers are learning. When everyone has a blog and a website, the question will be whose information is reliable and how to find it. No one will pay a dime. Knowledge will cease to be a commodity.
I consider this to be a very good thing. I believe that those who own and dispense knowledge have turned off at last one and maybe more generations of thinkers to believe that all the important ideas are known and it is sad that you just don't know them. Religions have operated on this principle of knowing what is in the sacred scrolls for a very long time. Schools have acted similarly. Soon no one will be able to claim they know what is true because people will be able to create debates for themselves. Google has helped make this happen already but you ain't seen nothin' yet.
You may want to pay for the knowledge of someone who you believe to be very valuable to help you in doing something that you want to do, but that kind of knowledge will acquired 'just in time,' sort of the way consultants operate today, but for everyone and there will be hundreds of thousand of choices.
More importantly the size of information will change. Today the size is a book or an article or a lecture or a course, But soon it will be a sound bite (or a paragraph.). Yes — those terrible sound bites which the owners of knowledge like to complain about. Nuggets of knowledge will win because they always have won. People used to have conversations, sound bite followed by sound bite, directed towards a mutual goal held by the conversationalists. This will soon be possible on line. You will able to start a conversation with (an electronic version of ) anyone who wants to offer this service. We will be able to get information in the size that we got it thousands of years ago — in a size that we can process and respond to. No more blank-eyed listeners as people ramble on. Information will find us and we will express our thoughts back. Knowledge will mostly be free and the owners of knowledge will need to go into another line of work. Knowledge will cease to be a controlled commodity.


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The direct-to-garment All I need today is a little bit of Tampa Bay and a whole lot of Jesus shirt . process is self-explanatory. It involves printing directly onto a roll of 'prepared-for-print' fabric.The process requires specific ink for the various types of fibers. Acid dyes are for nylon and silk. Disperse dyes are for polyester. Whilst reactive dyes and textile pigments are usually for natural fibers, like cotton. So, now you know how to process works, why choose digital printing to transform your wardrobe? These are just 5 reasons why we think you'll love the idea of printing your own designs, there are countless others!
All I need today is a little bit of Tampa Bay and a whole lot of Jesus shirt, hoodie, sweater, longsleeve and ladies t-shirt
Choosing to create your own designs and print them on clothes that you already have can help you save tons of money! If you are keen to keep on top of the latest fashion trends, it can be very costly All I need today is a little bit of Tampa Bay and a whole lot of Jesus shirt . However, designing your own clothes can be a cost-effective way of ensuring you are fashionable and 'on fleek'. Not only does designing your own clothes from items you already own save you money, but it also saves the environment! The fashion industry is churning out garment after garment, this is known as 'fast fashion'. Fast fashion is damaging the planet because it uses excessive amounts of water, pollutes oceans with microfibres, and pollutes water. So if you are bored with your wardrobe but want to be more environmentally conscious, you can reuse old clothes and give them a make-over by creating a new design for them. Everyone nowadays wears the same clothes. This is because they all go to the same shops and buy the same clothes. If you want to be different, why not make your own clothes? Digitally printing is great for the people who don't know how to design a garment from scratch, but who want to have a unique wardrobe that reflects their personality. The good thing about making your own unique wardrobe is that you can follow fashion trends and also mix it up with your favorite trends from a few decades ago.
You Can See More Product: https://tshirtclassic.com/product-category/trending/


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First off, before anything else, I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to the RageBridge2 Indiegogo campaign. The campaign officially finished out at $8853, but if you still want to jump on the pre-order list, Indiegogo has a rolling system called "InDemand" where you can still contribute. The first production batch will be slated for those who are on the Indiegogo short list, before they are made publicly available on Big Chuck's Robot Warehouse Equals Zero Designs. You've seen all the gory RageBridge development and history right here first!
New York Maker Faire 2015
Another New York Maker Faire and another Power Racing Series finale have passed! I decided a little while ago that this would be the last official race for this version of Chibi-Mikuvan. The league's technology has greatly improved in the past 2 seasons, with many brand new teams trying experimental drives (including a few that used CMV's concepts to great success). The damage taken at Detroit is also starting to add up, and this time, Chibi-Mikuvan took more damage than ever with the high number of entrants on a very tight track.
When Jim tries to tell you that the race is not BattleBots, he's lying :p
The story actually begin shortly before Dragon Con, when I decided to bring CMV to Atlanta to participate in the parade. The impacts sustained during the Detroit race had caused some of the 3D-printed body mount pieces to delaminate from the body. No biggie – this was an issue I've tackled before. It just manifests itself in the body being flexible. But this time, I actually found out after removing the body that the mounts had stayed on fine, but in fact the entire layer of fiberglass had detached from the foam underneath!
Well that's not very good. I ended up drilling some small holes into the area and filling the gap with epoxy using a syringe, such that I could force it under pressure into the interstitial space.
After that cured, I re-sanded and cleaned the body mounts as well as the attachment area, then reattached the mounts with a healthy dabble of silica-filled epoxy, making sure to leave a giant fillet around all the corners. The inside corners were cleaned up post-cure with a small wood chisel.
Some of the damage from Detroit was pretty extensive on the outside, too. There was a whole 'flap' of foam hanging here, as well as chunks missing. I wasn't going to fully repair the area, but at least wanted stuff to stop dangling off. The solution was plenty of silica thickened epoxy, made to the consistency of peanut butter. packed into the area. I "vacuum bagged" the whole area with stretchy pallet wrapping to keep all the pieces in place while it cured. Some of the pallet wrap marks are visible on the right.
I also FINALLY built that 3rd battery pack I've been talking about since… uh, Detroit 2014. This one was painted Miku Blue to distinguish it from the others in addition to "because I had Miku-colored spraypaint".
The "convoy of cars with smaller cars on top of them" arrived all around 8 to 9am in New York. Once again, I carried Frozen Chainsaw Massacre and Corpus Krotus in the back.
Because the PRS (and Life Size Mousetrap) now occupied the parking lot I always illegally park in, I wandered a few blocks into Queens to street park.
That would be a 1984-85 Toyota Van (they were all called Van) across the street. Hello there, neighbor.
The New York track was planned to be small at the start (less than half the length of Detroit), and ended up being pushed together even more by the event. While cars could easily go three-wide in Detroit, there were parts of the track where going single-line was practically the only option. This will come into play later….
Some familiar faces from Detroit are here, such as the waffle car and school bus from The Arustocrats.
The Baltimore Burners brought a small fleet, including that train-thing to the right (made from an old lawn tractor) which actually had attachable carriages. Yes, they did try running with the carriages. Once. It worked about as well as something towing three large swivel-castered objects could have worked. Together with the Intimidator (right side, another Arustocrats entry), these two formed the spice dozers of this race by being massive and surprising you right as you exit a turn.
#95, the "Lightning McQueen" car, used an identical setup to CMV for its power system, except it was geared much higher such that it did not require CMV's famous "hump start".
Some entirely new entries also showed up. From Team Redshirts, this kart was built with much community-enabled learning and bodied to look like a Star Trek shuttlecraft. Which coincidentally looks like a 1980s Toyota Van. Just sayin' guys. Chibi-Mikuvan could use a nemesis.
The blue seg-thing was not a race entry.
Another new entry and team, "It's a Bert" from Hoboken Maker-bar.
I was tasked with tech inspections for this race, since I think I know how go-karts work and stuff… or something. Primarily the focus was on the brand new entries and making sure that nothing too sketchy was happening. For example, some teams needed to strap their batteries down, others needed a bumper-like object added so they don't run people over all the time. I am glad to report that minimal running-things-over occurred. Just enough to keep things interesting, though.
Step 1: Qualification. Everyone lines up and takes a stab at running a fast lap. How short was the track this time? The top few qualification times were on the order of 12-14 seconds. Ouch.
Chibi-Mikuvan narrowly lost out to Frozen Chainsaw Massacre, for a #2 starting position. FCM was massively revamped electronics-wise this time for increased reliability. On one chainsaw they were reasonable, on two they're damn near unbeatable.
Next step: Moxie. Everyone dons their silly hats and jump ramps (the rest of that video is interesting too) and shows off to the crowd for popular votes. I decided to exercise my serendipitous Dragon Con Parade discovery. Now there is VIDEO PROOF!
I specifically saved the completely thrashed rear tires from the Parade (and Detroit before that…) for the Moxie Round, where my plan was to do either donuts or burnouts until one popped. And one did, seemingly right on cue. The popped tire was on the drive chain side, so the chain did see some abrasion when it hit the ground. If it were on the other side, I would have kept going….
The two wheeling? Totally unintentional, though it looked planned.
That, everyone, is how you succeed at things. Make it looked planned.
The destroyed tire!
I'm completely unsure what was going on here, but it was just after Moxie round ended…
The MarkForged prints hanging on for dear life this. I reprinted these after Detroit using much more fiber-fill in the middle layers where the axles bolt through.
Once again, they worked flawlessly. CMV possibly had the most 2-wheeled moments in any race this time, and it took direct hits to the wheel from other peoples' wheels or bumpers multiple times. At the end of NYMF, one of the steering linkages was visibly bent and the center link (Pitman arm) began to slip on the steering column despite tightening the clamping bolts. Therefore, my steering torque was limited during the Endurance race, some times causing the handlebars to end up at wacky angles.
Here I am almost rolling The Intimidator. I categorize its driving experience as "real-Mikuvan-like".
Unlike most of the PRS vehicles, its steering gear is taken from a golf cart, and so the steering wheel requires multiple turns lock-to-lock compared to the direct linkage drive more commonly seen. Therefore you could, no longer hang onto it as a driver constraint. You therefore had to butt-steer (that's a technical term) much more intensely, all while whipping the wheel around.
There were so many collisions and "scrape-bys" that I can no longer tally new damage on CMV's shell. The endurance race, with the whole field out on the track for an hour, was where most damage occurred. There's at least one ding from a FUBAR car to the right there, with their signature green paint. The paint damage in the other spots up front were all caused by some form of rear end collision.
The back fared significantly worse. It would seem that I both rear-ended and was rear-ended by FUBAR at some point during the endurance race.
Big exposed tube bumpers on everyone else made short work of the foam on CMV when the opportunity arose. Here, someone straight up machined a chunk of the back end off. The flap hanging off to the left actually goes all the way through – this hit was on that corner moving inwards.
If you're wondering why the shell is sitting completely off CMV, it's actually very simple. At some point nearer to the end of the endurance race, I came around the back turn only to be greeted by a bunch of stopped cars. Someone then plowed into the back of CMV at full speed, shearing off all four of the body mounts at once. That left the shell hanging for about a lap and a half before I pulled into the pit area.
With no way to attach the body back on in a durable fashion at this point, I shed it and ran the rest of the race shell-less, which with big-tired karts out there was quite, umm, unforgettable. It was hot glued back together only for the return trip, and currently is still bonded by hot glue.
How did it do this time?! CMV's list of accomplishments this NYMF race were:
- 2nd fastest qualifying time
- Best Moxie Round judging score (from a group of very critical small children… they were brutal overall!)
- 4th place in the short 35-lap sprint race
- Didn't finish (or start) the longer 45-lap sprint race. I swapped to a different chopped up BEC unit, one with higher current ratings, and it still died at some point during Race 1. This means the logic battery was left to discharge, and it died on me on the starting grid. I had to bail from the race and debug that system, and by the time I figured it out, it was not worth recovery. I ran about 10 laps in that race for fun and more crowd votes.
- 6th in number of overall laps in the endurace race…
- …and factored in with 2nd place in Moxie points (crowd votes), I won 2nd place overall for the weekend. Moxie basically saved my ass this time, exactly as it was intended to do! Now, to be fair, there is some discussion that the last roughly 1/4th of the endurance race I ran without a shell should not have counted – which I agree with, since at that point I was going for broke anyway – so I'd be curious to see the standings recalculated with those laps discounted, or CMV disqualified entirely from the endurance race.
Here I am doing my best K-Pop sensation act.
That is, giving a talk on 2.00gokart and design education using EVs. The venue was a small and quaint tent to a dozen or two spectators, and it was only a 10-minute talk, but CMV attracted a fairly inquisitive crowd by the end. So, I suppose this is my act of positive contribution to society in a weekend otherwise dominated by electromechanical hedonism. Here is the very short presentation that is the farthest I've condensed 2.00gokart down to yet.
Besides demos and exhibitions in the next couple of months, Chibi-Mikuvan's 2014 shell is being retired from battle damage. With it having accomplished everything I set out to do, I will likely retire the frame and running gear as well. Any revamps of Chibi-Mikuvan will probably see the front and rear bumper structures be actually made of steel (even if just painted appropriately, or made from thinner bent plates to approximate the shape, etc.) and the bodywork be given some kind of gravitationally stable mounting arrangement from the bottom. That way, in the worst case, I can tape it all down. And I'd want to come up with a whole new set of bad experiments to try for the next CMV… such as, perhaps, in the fashion of Frozen Chainsaw Massacrew, a different household appliance for drive.
I'm well known for turning "lol you know what would be funny" into actual things. Perhaps all of us who tend to do that also tend to gravitate together, because now the Boston area has its very own small robot arena and hopefully recurring local tournament because of a single "lol hey we should have our own event". A certain Max Bales (of Battlebots team Euclid) decided to be fancy and move to Boston for college, and dared to ask if there were any local events.
Well there is sure now. My long-time robot compatriot Rob Masek (over at Artisan's Asylum) decided to mobilize the Asylum troops and turn a welding class into a welding a robot arena class. The date was set for October 11th.
I elected to bring Stance Stance Revolution back from the dead after Dragon Con, since it was but a "Print" confirmation away. This time, it was back in black.
The first version was made using a generic ABS filament that we stuffed into a Dimension print cartridge to test out ways of hacking around the materials counter. The new frame which is largely identical is actually made from Stratasys ABS plastic, which is more rigid and also stronger. It would, you know, at least delay the onset of disintegration. I made no changes to the design besides correcting a few fits and clearances.
After the frame was finished, I decided do brush acetone onto most of the blade tower area to fuse the outer layers together. The layering allows the acetone to seep in deeper and solvent-fuse the outer skin together to increase strength (though not by much). This also incidentally gave the frame a nice glossy finish.
After that was a quick guts transfer.
I say quick, but this took much longer than I thought because SSR is built very "one way" for wiring. I basically had to undo every solder joint and reconnect it in the new frame.
While the bot was taken apart, I straightened out the blades (which were bent at the spokes in my last match with Silent Spring) and inspected the weapon motors. I must say I'm impressed with the construction of the Multistar 4822 motors. What I thought was detached magnets was actually steel arena grunge caught in the airgap.
The magnets were actually fine. In the interest of safety though, I mixed up some silica-reinforced epoxy and filled all the gaps between the magnets and sculpted a fillet all the way around.
Here's some vanity… I actually had the correct colors of spraypaint to make the discs into Dance Dance Revolution colors, just like the logo.
And the evening before MassDestruction, Stance Stance Revolution is reborn!
The Masekdrome "Cochran Combat Corral" was a unique design among arenas in that the walls are canted inward, the overall shape being a truncated pyramid. The vast majority of arenas are just cuboid in shape. This adds a bit of design flair, as well as allowing the walls to brace against one another, being leaned inwards. I maintain that the arena should be named the "Cochran Cybernetic Conference Center" or something though… Cochran is just a name that screams "legit".
(The name comes from a primary sponsor of the construction of the arena, so it's not totally random!)
The tournament format was a "Modified Swiss" format with playoffs for the highest ranked bots at the end. Each bot gets four (randomly selected) fights, and the end rankings are simply who has most wins. SSR faced off first against Ginger Baker, a small vertical drum-in-wedge kind of design.
To everybody's surprise, including mine, it did quite swell, despite being tossed around the arena a few times.
An artifact of SSR's blade orientation unexpectedly revealed itself here. This is a 45-degree gyro-stand.
It occurred unexpectedly due to a head-on collision with Ginger Baker which decelerated one of the blade suddenly while throwing SSR backwards, and the resulting torque on the opposite blade causing the bot to kick up on side. It's also unfortunately a dynamically stable position because of how the blades are spinning! This happened twice more during the same match and I began quickly braking the blades to get SSR out of it.
Midway through the match, things started turning in my favor as SSR was able to catch some more edges on Ginger Baker. I was finally able to execute the "one-two" hitting once with the forward blade, then immediately again with the reverse blade.
And that's how Stance Stance Revolution somehow a match! There is only one known video if it so far, here. As more videos surface, I'll update this post for a little while.
"Hyperderp", a Shenanigans production in the fashion of Hypershock with a very nicely machined weapon (and that's about it :P), is seen here flying away after a hit from RMR (a MITERS bot) the reflection of which can be seen in the arena wall.
So Will Bales shows up to my shop at 1am the day of with a box of parts…
Jamison was the first to ding the BRAND NEW arena polycarbonate walls with Silent Spring.
SSR unfortunately got set up in its 2nd match with Hyperderp.
It held together for a little while!
Uh oh.
Hyperderp was able to get a direct hit in on the ABS blade towers, so one half of SSR fell off. The other half, however still worked…
…and that's how I ran it for the rest of the event! With the rear blade, motor, and towers removed, SSR was a full pound underweight. I made this up by literally taping a random tool found in my toolbox to the back end … specifically, a small 3-jaw gear puller.
In "Stance Stance Revolution" mode, it was somehow able to make it through two more matches – one win against RMR, and the other against the above pictured robot, simple named "WPI Robot". It was also largely 3D printed. When will we talk about the problem of 3D-printed-bot-on-3D-printed-bot violence?
And it somehow STILL was able to do a 45 degree gyro kick, though it was no longer stable (would fall down automatically)
Stance Stance Revolution with the carcass of WPI Robot in the background
SSR somehow goes 3/1 in the first half of the tournament. Who do I get paired against first in the playoffs? Silent Spring, of course.
There was all of 1 hit in the match, and SSR pretty much exploded the rest of the way. However, it was still mobile (and the weapon was wiggling a bit), while Silent Spring actually stopped moving. Technically I had won the match, but it was utterly pointless to continue at this point since the bot was broke into another 3 pieces, and near the end, the Vextrollers both smoked. What had happened (post-match investigation) was that a broken ground wire forced all the drive motor current out the logic ground, which caused collective sadness in the electrical system.
I gave the match to Jamo right before he got counted out, and he went on to fight Hyperderp in a brütal final match. SSR also had to forfeit the 3rd place match because… no.
Look very closely at this 3lb rumble. There is in fact a tiny R/C helicopter hovering in the background. Everyone sort of stopped fighting and began to play chase-the-copter.
– a few people
Here's a better photo of the copter!
A great thing about this event which I absolutely love – a lot of younger kidlets – whether members' children or neighbhorhood kids or friends and tagalongs – were part of the audience, and they were ridiculously enthusiastic all the time. That's what we're here for.
The crowd began to thin out after the main tournament, but here's what it looked like when it was pretty empty. Seriously – next event, we need to do some better crowd control, because there were times I could barely see to drive!
At the end of it all, we collected a bunch of broken parts from everybody. This will be unceremoniously shipped off to this Cochran fellow, and I suspect this is exactly what he wants to see. I hope to be like this some day – funding the production and execution of dumb shit that teaches important life lessons. Big Chuck's Robot Warehouse, Auto Body Center & Foundation.
All in all, a fun local event that maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe we went way too hard at collectively, because after everybody packed up, the stark realization that we were all totally fucked for NERC Franklin Institute set in. SSR, sadly, will not be revived in time for FI, but I do have plans for a 0.050″ titanium welded unibody for its future version, since I now, once again, want to take my own joke too seriously.
I'm only planning on bringing Clocker at this point, with correctly machined hubs, and Colsonbot if I get around to repairing its own post-Dragon Con damage!


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British painter Hazel Soan grew up in the UK and graduated with a BA hons in Fine Art after studying painting at Camberwell and Leicester Art Colleges.She was awarded the Holbrook Trust Prize from Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1976 and within a year of her graduation, she was earning a living by her paintings, and her watercolors sold out within the first hour of her first exhibition in London. Hazel has since held over 20 solo exhibitions, heeding the advice of one of her college professors- 'Always have an exhibition on the horizon'. She has held exhibitions from as far afield as the Namibia, Venezuela, South Africa and Zimbabawe to closer to home in the UK. She took advice from the same lecturer when he told her to have a studio of her own where she could work uninterrupted and also to travel in order to avoid getting in a rut. She now has a studio in West London and another in Cape Town.
Hazel has always loved the written word and began writing articles and books about painting in the 1990's. Analysing visual practice became an interesting challenge. She has now written 10 books, mostly on watercolor, almost all published by HarperCollins and is about to publish her 11th book. She contributes articles regularly to magazines such as The Artist and Leisure Painter and has been writing a regular bimonthly article for the leading Art Magazine, Kunst, in Norway for the last 4 years.
In 1996, with a desire to communicate her passion to a wider audience, Hazel took up the offer of her own television series 'Splash of Colour' with Anglia TV. This propelled her into the public eye and later brought her the role as an Art Expert on Channel 4's ever popular painting programme 'Watercolor Challenge'. Her natural enthusiasm and engaging personality won the hearts of millions of viewers and her talents as a communicator made her much in demand for lectures, workshops, painting holidays and demonstrations, taking her from the QE2 to the Kalahari Desert.
A significant part of Hazel's artwork is by commission, for the last 10 years she has painted the Ritz Club Calendar for the Ritz Hotel, London. Many other works hang in hotels, hospitals and other public and corporate buildings, including the two huge murals that grace the atrium of the Durban Hilton in South Africa and the Black Christ hanging in Nazareth House.
She has participated in numerous mixed exhibitions including the Royal Academy, Barbican, Midland Open, Mall Galleries, many London and provincial galleries, USA and Tokyo.
The main themes of her contemporary, figurative oils and watercolors explore the individual and group shapes of people, animals and landscapes, surrounded or backed by light. Her work is represented in private, public and corporate collections worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, who recently acquired an in drawing of the photographer Bill Brandt for its collection.
Hazel has been traveling in Africa since 1981 and now shares her life between London and Cape Town. For many years Hazel has been passionate about the African Continent. Her painting forays have taken her into Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa. Whilst on safari she paints in watercolor for speed and ease of transport but creates larger works and paintings in oil and acrylic back in her studio.
The people of Africa and their association with each other features prominently in much of her work. Especially in paintings from the Cape & Malawi. The Cape Peninsula has also been an important inspiration.


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Randy Bachman Turned Career Around After 'Intervention'
Randy Bachman admitted he'd lost his "essence" for several years as a result of a difficult divorce, and only turned his career around after his manager and lawyer staged a joint "intervention."
Since then, the former Guess Who guitarist has gone on to release two well-received albums, 2015's Heavy Blues and this year's By George by Bachman, a tribute to Beatles icon George Harrison.
"I had a confrontation with my manager and my lawyer, and they're both Buddhists," Bachman told Billboard in a new interview. "I'm having lunch with them and they say, 'This is your intervention,' and I go, 'What? I don't drink or smoke or do drugs,' and they go, 'No, but you're angry and you got this cloud over you everywhere you go. You want to change the past and you can't change the past. Let it be. All you can do is change yourself and change tomorrow and live in the now.'"
In the new documentary, Bachman, his son commented about his dad losing that essence. "Yeah, because I'm near the end, I think, of a seven-year divorce," Randy confirmed in the new interview. "That hits you over the head or hits you in the face with a shovel every day you wake up and the thing still isn't resolved. There's still legal, financial, anger and regret issues. … And I've come out of it, or have been coming out of it for three years. Heavy Blues was a real leap into the unknown for me to write and record a blues album in one week with two unknown female musicians."
He said the Harrison album "was another step out." "I'm not really showing my feelings, except in one song, 'Between Two Mountains,'" he noted. "I wrote that first verse, I think, with the spirit of George in the room. I was wakened up at three in the morning. I sensed something is in my room, so I wake up and I come to the room next to mine, and there's my typewriter and I sit down and I type these lyrics, 'Between two mountains,' and I go, 'Wow, this isn't my normal songwriting style.' I look at the lyrics and they're clearly not me -- they're not my thoughts, they're not in my vocabulary, I've never written about this before. ... It's one of the best songs I've ever written."


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The last of the five services held on the Day of Atonement. The earliest mention of it is in the Mishnah (Ta'an. 26a), where it is said: "On three occasions the priests pronounce the benediction four times in the day, namely, at the morning, special [Musaf], and afternoon sacrifices and at the closing of the gates" ("Ne'ilat She'arim"). These three occasions are the Day of Atonement, other fast-days, and the days of "ma'amad" (local celebrations held in the country towns simultaneously with offerings brought in the Temple by delegates from them; see
Another discussion arose, on the meaning of the word itself. R. Johanan held that "Ne'ilah" meant the closing of the gates of the Temple, while Abba claimed that it meant the closing of the gates of heaven (Yer. Ta'an. 7c). Both the Sephardic and the Ashkenazic rituals express the latter idea in their anthems; the Ashkenazic saying: "Open for us the gate at the time of the closing of the gates," and the Sephardic still more clearly: "At the time of the closing of the heavenly gates forgive our iniquities."
History of the Service.It would seem that R. Johanan's interpretation is correct. In the Temple at Jerusalem the priests pronounced the benediction at every sacrificial service. On especially solemn occasions they pronouncedthe benediction a second time, when the gates were to be closed and the last worshipers dismissed. Such an occasion was the Day of Atonement. After the destruction of the Temple, and especially after the Bar Kokba rebellion, when the synagogal service was modeled strictly after that of the Temple, the custom of pronouncing a final benediction at the end of the service was introduced. This benediction seems to have been preceded by another confession of sin. Rab, who had a decisive influence on the crystallization of the ritual (Weiss, "Dor," iii. 157), demanded that a new Tefillah be added to the four of the other holy days; and his opinion prevailed.
Owing to the fact that the Talmud quotes prayers only by the opening words, it is difficult to decide how the present Ne'ilah prayer, which differs considerably in the various rituals, was developed. From the statement of Samuel (Yoma 67b) it would appear that the oldest portion of the Ne'ilah service is the confession of sins, beginning with the above-cited words, "What are we? What is our life?" The passage following it, beginning with the words, "Thou hast distinguished man from the beginning," and dwelling on the power of repentance, is also old, inasmuch as it is found in both rituals, the Sephardic as well as the Ashkenazic, while the introductory passage in the latter, beginning with the words, "Thou holdest out a hand to the transgressors," etc., is much later, though it is met with as early as the thirteenth century. A noteworthy feature of this passage, and to some extent of the whole Ne'ilah service, is the emphasis laid on repentance, while fasting, as well as the expectation of seeing the sacrificial cult revived, is passed over in silence. Throughout the service the word ("seal us") takes the place of ("inscribe us" [in the book of happy life]), which is employed from Rosh haShanah in all services up to the Ne'ilah.
Extraneous Elements.The piyyuṭim and seliḥot of the Ne'ilah service are of comparatively late origin. Evidently they merely served the purpose of prolonging the service, which had to begin before twilight, until nightfall. Thus there is found in both the German and the Polish rituals a potpourri of various hymns, different in each case. Three anthems in the Ashkenazic ritual begin with the words "Father," "Son," and "Nature." At the end of the service the reader and congregation loudly proclaim seven times "The Lord is God" (this profession of faith being called "Shemot" = "sacred names"), evidently recalling Elijah's invocation on Carmel (I Kings xviii. 39). This custom dates from the thirteenth century. Later sources mention two other passages, "Shema' Yisrael" and "Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and aye"; the former to be recited once, the latter three times. These formulas have become invested with a special solemnity, since they are customarily employed in the chamber of the dying. The Ḳaddish and a blast on the shofar conclude the service. It is customary to have the Ne'ilah recited by the rabbi or by a prominent member of the community.
- Yoma 67b;
- Yer. Yoma 7c;
- Maimonides, Yad, Teshubah, ii. 7;
- idem, Tefillah, i. 7-8, iii. 6, xiv. 1;
- Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 624;
- Shulḥan 'Aruk, Orah Ḥayyim;
- Baer, in his commentary to the prayer-book 'Abodat Yisrael, Rödelheim, 1868;
- Heidenheim, in his commentary on the Maḥzor.
The traditional intonations of the Ne'ilah are well calculated to excite the emotions of the worshiper. The prevailing chants and melodies are those which characterize the Days of Penitence generally (see Ḳerobot; Music, Synagogal;
As a complete compilation, the melody took shape rather later than the other prayer-motives and melody-types, which were already definite in the medieval period (see Music, Synagogal). Its opening and closing phrases are direct quotations, the first (as far as A in the accompanying transcription) derived from the beginning of the "reshut" and versicle theme for the morning of the Day of Atonement (see Ḳerobot), and the last (commencing at D in the transcription) from the end of the prayer-motive (see Mi Kamokah; Music, Synagogal) of the evening preceding, or "Kol Nidre" service. Prefaced to this closing phrase is an ancient Oriental figure (between B and C in the transcription) occurring elsewhere in the traditional melodies (see Geshem; Mizmor Shir). The intermediate passages, of which the German version is probably the more original, are mere connecting phrases imitated from other passages in the penitential music, but successfully binding the whole in a homogeneous melody.
Several of the sections quoted from propitiatory poems are accompanied by the tunes for these hymns when forming part of the penitential prayers on the previous days (see Adonai, Adonai; Bemoẓa'e; Ḳerobot;
As the service nears its climax, the melodies become severer in tone and broader in expression. This is especially marked in the antiphonal responses of Abinu Malkenu and in the solemn profession of the Shemot. Here, however, as in the earlier portion of the service, the strains characteristically associated with the seasón of penitence are often again utilized. The short concluding sevenfold declaration is then chanted to the intonation already given under Adonai Melek (especially version C). The Shema', with its associated sentence from the Temple service (see 'Abodah), is at least recited by the cantor if not repeated in the tumultuous response of the congregants, in the noble chant to which the Scriptural verse enshrining this declaration of the Unity is traditionally uttered when the Scroll of the Law is displayed as it is taken from the Ark in the New-Year and Atonement services. The verse was originally rendered to the tune designated by its Accents, in the form of Cantillation which was special to these days; and this derivation is still clear under the more melodic form which the rendering afterward took, developing eventually far beyond the original. The melody, by the ingenuity of the Paris cantor Naumbourg, has also been impressively adapted for the successive line of text, on the model of the strain quoted above from the evening service of Atonement.
Sephardic Order and Melodies.In the Sephardic rite the Ne'ilah differs from the use of the Ashkenazim in the medieval hymns introduced into the public recitation. The traditional intonations lack the haunting tenderness characterizing those of the northern use; and they are much more obviously identical with those of the other Atonement services of the rite (see
Among the Atonement services in the southern use the Profession of Faith is not so special to the Ne'ilah as in the northern use. In the seliḥot of each of the other four services of the day, officiant and congregation have already reverentially sung the Shema' with its Temple response and the words "The Lord, He is God," the latter in the double form in which it originally occurs in I Kings xviii. 39.In the preceding four services of the day, however, these utterances were associated with a short hymn of Ḳaliric form (comp. Ḳerobot). In the Ne'ilah they are proclaimed by themselves in the midst of the closing Ḳaddish, first by the officiant and then by the congregation, the double verse being seven times reiterated, and all being immediately followed by a single complete series of the Shofar calls, instead of the weirdly solitary call which is heard in the northern ritual.
- Dembitz, Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home. The various melodies of the Ne'ilah are given by A. Baer, Ba'al Tefillah (Der Praktische Vorbeter), Nos. 1466-1488, Göteborg, 1877, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1883;
- Cohen and Davis, Voice of Prayer and Praise, Nos. 278-289, London, 1899;
- D. Nowakowsky, Schlussgehet für Jom-Kippur, Odessa, 1895;
- Jessurun, Traditional Tunes, in Book of Prayer of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, London, 1904.


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Buffalo torture 2010: Firsthand witness account of Tuesday's haze
Buffalo torture 2010: Firsthand witness account of Tuesday's haze
by Jim Macdonald
Here is something to keep in mind before reading any further. When describing through any medium the cruelty of a buffalo haze (forced march), you need to keep in mind that these moments are highly edited moments. We followed this haze for six hours - mostly on foot - it continued for hours longer. It's probably going on right now as I begin to write this account. You miss the step after painful step; each whoop and holler and whistle of an agent on a horse; each desperate breath prolonged over time; each blade of grass or sagebrush plant trampled under foot. I cut out many points of dialogue, many repetitive words of desperation.
Yet, as necessary as editing and cutting down is - much like the video footage I spent the whole morning collecting - you the reader miss so much of the experience over and above the sense experience you obviously cannot fully fathom. I can paint, but I can't breathe life into these words - for that, the sad truth is that you will have to see for yourself. And, if you cannot, then I hope you can appreciate the sadness of it all to take whatever action you have time for (as I know that injustice is pervasive everywhere). Yet, if you are touched, donate your time for the buffalo, even if it's as simple as sharing with others their story or as complicated and involved as organizing (and we desperately need more organizers and activists - especially in my area).
Anyhow, on to a sad story, one that happens every single year . . . the story of the forced removal of wild buffalo back deep inside Yellowstone National Park, the thing that's supposedly the more humane alternative to outright slaughter.
Here is my account of a haze. As I haven't spoken with my running partner for this gauntlet about my intentions in writing this, I will leave her name out of this; however, let me say that I couldn't have asked for a better partner and friend for this ordeal, which is the worst thing I've personally witnessed in my life. To her - as I expect she'll be reading this, too - I just hope I've been faithful to our experience and perhaps more importantly to the experience of the buffalo. I hope, my friend, that something good can from my writing (from the footage that I took as well) that will bring the people out who can make a difference for future generations of buffalo. Alas, it is too late for this one.
Okay, the haze . . .
It is relatively overcast at 8:30 AM, Tuesday, May 11, 2010. The temperature hovers somewhere in the 30s, as an overnight snowfall has already mostly melted. Our vehicle has just followed a horse trailer all the way to a field just past the Romset Summer Homes, which is about 8 miles west (as the crow flies; it's much further by car) of the boundary of Yellowstone National Park. The day before, a patrol had spotted buffalo in the area, and we expect that this is where the haze will start.
From their vehicles, agents appear. Today looks to be a major haze day; we would see agents from many law enforcement agencies (Montana Department of Livestock; National Park Service; U.S. Forest Service; Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks; Montana Highway Patrol; and more). Out of one of the vehicles pops out Christian Mackay, Executive Officer of Montana's Board of Livestock. Even the bigwigs like Christian are out today, and this is a dispiriting sign that today is not going to be a good day for Montana's wild buffalo population.
Agents mount their horses and begin to ride in the direction of buffalo who we can see just beyond the parking area in the willows. We now follow on foot. I'm carrying a video camera; my partner has a radio. Our job is to get as much useful video footage of hazing operations as possible. Thus, with horses moving and buffalo running, the challenge is to keep up and yet be able to stop long enough to hold the camera steady enough to get something useful for Buffalo Field Campaign as they edit and share footage with other media and the world. Doing that while moving, while keeping your emotions in check, while trying to catch your breath can be extremely difficult. And, when the most crazy abuses happen, it's often at high speed; you aren't stopped, and so you can't effectively document.
So, the agents on horse are moving; they approach a channel that pours into the Madison River as it widens into Hebgen Lake. They stop; the buffalo herd is on the other side, at the moment unconcerned with the danger they face. I am close enough to the agents to hear their radio transmissions to each other. They decide that it is too dangerous to cross the channel with their horses and that they should wait for the helicopter. We relay that information to other Buffalo Field Campaign patrols in the field, who are strategically placing themselves in order to gather footage of the hazing operation.
We worry that the helicopter might plan to run the buffalo into the channel that is deemed too dangerous for the horses.
Within a couple minutes, we hear the loud whop-whop-whop-whop-whop of the helicopter and soon can see it. The helicopter flies extremely low to the ground, not entirely clearing all the trees. My camera focuses on the chopper, as I'm no longer in a position to see the buffalo. We cannot stay at our previous position in fear that the buffalo would be run right over us. The helicopter flies low to the ground, though, and scares the buffalo into movement. Someone later suggests to me that it is the air of the helicopter that moves the buffalo; the helicopter flies forward and backward, up and down, then circles. Sometimes, it is so low the nearby trees actually block the view.
We notice the agents on horseback positioning near a field. Based on the position of the helicopter and the agents, it looks like the buffalo are thankfully not being run through the channel but instead around it and into a big swampy field. The horsemen take off, and soon we see the buffalo and the helicopter. The horses, as though we are watching a cattle roundup from an old Western, move around the herd and direct it along with the helicopter. Here is a big open field where I can take a wide video of the entire scene - buffalo that were once peaceful are now suddenly marching, forced along by helicopter and horsemen. When buffalo go the "wrong" way, horsemen whoop and holler and run them down to turn them around. Confusion sometimes reigns, and buffalo occasionally turn on each other with aggression.
Before you know it, they cross the field, and we're running to catch up. Splash, splash - this is soggy stuff, as snow pack has only just melted in this area. The terrain is uneven; we are not running on a track or a trail. Buffalo also don't have the greatest footing, especially when stressed. I've seen them fall in snow before and stumble on the ground; here I don't notice that happen - just the obvious fact that they are being forced to move on this ground against their will. This is the beginning of a very long day.
I gasp when I notice that the buffalo are being run fast up a steep hillside that rises to a nearby wooded area. With this group are a number of newborn calves. They have all been born anywhere from that very morning to the last couple of weeks. They too are being forced to run. Everything is happening too fast for me to count; there seems to be a few dozen in this group, but perhaps there were more. In a matter of a few minutes, all the bison are all the way up the hill and out of sight; we are significantly behind.
We're running through the swampy meadow and then up the steep hill. We each have small backpacks, and I'm carrying the small video camera in my hand. At this point, there's nothing to film; all we can think about is seeing if we can catch up with the haze. I'm breathing heavily; my partner up ahead is amazing. Whether running or walking, she moves nimbly. This inspires me to keep moving but to keep pacing myself; I know this is the beginning of a long day. Yet, I know that moving quickly and smartly here is the key; whatever video footage I can get depends on it.
The path of the haze is not hard to follow. Besides the loud buzzing of the helicopter, the trail of the haze is also just as obvious. Grass and sagebrush have been destroyed by an onslaught of 1,000-plus pound buffalo (females, yearlings, and then smaller babies) followed by the horses being forced into this cruel labor. There is an unmistakable path of destruction, and we are trudging desperately over it.
For the first of many times, we feel like we might have lost the haze for good, but around one of the bends on our descent on the other side of the hill, I catch a glimpse of a horse. We are catching up with the back end of the haze, and so we press forward. We keep moving down and notice a road. As it turns out, we are near some more summer homes around the Lonseomehurst Campground along the South Fork, which flows north into the Madison River (Hebgen Lake). We cut down to the road climbing quickly down a steep embankment. Then, we catch sight of not only a horseman but also a buffalo with a newborn calf.
The horseman is Christian Mackay, and he is personally hazing this pair to the main group of bison being hazed. We continue moving south, and I take every chance I can to stop and film this politician playing cowboy for a day. It's hard to film because I'm breathing so heavily. My breath naturally moves the camera up and down; I'm trying to keep my emotions in check so that I can film this. Then, the pair runs up another road (I think it's something called the Contour Road). This isn't where the powers that be intend them to go. Christian rides up the hill with his horse and chases the pair until they return back to the main road. I think I get good footage of this, but it's not satisfying because I'm afraid that the world won't notice what's happening.
Then, the helicopter flies low near us. Suddenly, I see another newborn with her/his mama racing out of the woods onto the road with the other pair. All four take off running scared. The horse chases them, scaring them to run harder. How is it that these babies in their first days of their lives have to spend it running from horses and a low flying and very loud helicopter? Of course, further behind, we start running as well. We are not anywhere near enough to be contributing to the haze, but the thought nevertheless strikes me that maybe I'm part of the rampage of humanity scaring these buffalo. I know that I'm not, but it's a disconcerting thought all the same. The day before, nearby, I was documenting a haze when a second part of the hazing operation had buffalo running right down the road where we were standing, hemmed in by a barbed wire fence and buffalo on each side of it. Could I have blamed the buffalo if they had gored me and hurt me badly? No. Could I have blamed myself? I don't think so, and yet you still wonder.
To our surprise, we see our friends with the vehicle up ahead of us. When we get to the car, we join them, continuing to film the haze as it approaches and then crosses the South Fork, where it soon hits Madison Arm Road and a whole large section of forest south of the Madison River. At this point, there is no reason to stay along Denny Creek Road where we are, and so we drive to a new location, attempting to get in a better spot to film the haze.
It hasn't taken long for these buffalo to be pushed a couple miles and across the river. Yet, again, their day had just begun. Those who were older have been through this every year since they were newborn calves; now their children are joining them for this awful rite of passage.
We drive around the Madison Arm area to the other side closer to the park and in through the Madison Arm road so that my partner and I can re-deploy in the woods. The goal is to get direct footage of the haze while avoiding what are called "lawful orders." A lawful order is not something I had ever heard about in years of protest and activism in other parts of the country; however, they are the main mechanism that law enforcement officers here use to keep us from getting footage of the haze. While they cannot legally stop us from filming, they can keep us away from the operations. Often, patrols will get stuck behind the last vehicle in the hazing operation, and the haze will become virtually invisible much of the way. That is not ideal for bearing witness to the rest of the world about what the state of Montana and the federal government are doing to wild bison.
We are dropped off near mile marker 4 of the Madison Arm Road, meaning four miles from U.S. 191 and just a little further to Yellowstone National Park on the other side of the road and Madison River. We are now in the middle of burnt forest; this is forest that burned only a few years ago. Beneath this forest of lodgepole pine trees is now a lot of vegetation. Though the Christian Mackay's and the Rob Tierney's (another livestock official) have tried to claim there is no bison habitat in these woods, it just isn't true. The buffalo love the burnt areas and find plenty of food growing in areas now exposed to the sun by the fire.
We set up a spot in the woods where we can hide but potentially still get footage of the haze when it arrives. For awhile, we have nothing to do but wait and talk while listening to grim reports from the radio. We talk about our sense that maybe we aren't doing enough for the buffalo, even if we succeed in getting the best footage possible. We talk about what else might be done. This happens between reports from the radio on the progress of the haze. We hear blurbs talking about how one of the hazed females has started to give birth right in the middle of the haze, how two grizzly bears are being caught up in the operations, about how more and more buffalo are getting caught up in it. Some of these buffalo have already been moved so many miles, and here the two of us are still recovering from a relatively short distance that was difficult enough for us (two people who had just run in a 10K race just a month before).
After awhile, we finally see some U.S. Forest Service vehicles, and then we see our first buffalo. Some look extremely tired, but further on they are forced to press. Babies abound; there are so many newborn calves in this haze that I can't keep track of them all. The only blessing is that I don't see any injured buffalo - which isn't to say that there aren't any. Last year, footage shows a newborn buffalo forced to march for miles with a broken leg.
Then, all of the sudden, there is a horse on top of us. As I have been looking through the video camera, I don't see the horse until it is within about 10 feet of me. We try to scatter quickly, but, of course, the agent sees us. He immediately issues us a lawful order to stay away from the haze. As that is rather vague, we continue to run a distance from the haze. The lawful order does us a favor because we are now moving to better positions to catch footage. Now, we can hear the helicopter, the horsemen (and women now) whooping and hollering. We can see the relentless push of the bison - yet so many are stopping for a brief second just to eat before being pushed further. Herds are being combined, family units are being consolidated and in many cases scattered. Just the day before, a cow and a calf were separated from the haze and forced off on their own where they had no choice but to fend for themselves - essentially grizzly bait.
The Fish, Wildlife & Parks agent who gave us the lawful order approaches again and has the nerve to tell us that all our running is spooking his horse and that we need to be further back; this isn't phrased as a lawful order, but we aren't taking any chances. I tend to think that he, the agent, is being spooked by our presence; with helicopter buzzing, bison running and grunting, horses neighing, and an operation that has no business being here, our running isn't spooking his horse! Give me a break. His horse should not be in that position in the first place; what a cruel thing to do to the horse. And, I don't believe it anyhow; his horse is spooked by the entire circumstance that he has put his horse into - whether it is because it is his job to do that or because he is a true believer in cruelty to bison.
In any event, the haze has now moved off the road, and we wait for vehicles to clear before crossing in pursuit. We lose time waiting, but we have little choice after these confrontations with the agent in the forest. We even see the car that was with us move on the road ahead of us. After they pass around a bend, we take off after the haze.
Again, the direction of the haze is easy to follow; vegetation was dead everywhere. I know that we cannot ascertain any feelings for all the dead plants, and so it becomes next to impossible to empathize with that whose feelings you cannot possibly fathom, but I become upset all the same. Cruelty to bison is something that might move you; how much does cruelty to the land move you? Should we just be running roughshod over anything that gets in our way just because we don't understand or appreciate its place in our universe?
We sometimes run and sometimes hike quickly over hills, over dead trees that had fallen all over the place, through muddy and trampled dirt. The helicopter looks like it's too far from us, and we again fear that we've lost the haze for good. Eventually, we hit the Madison Arm Road again. Just prior to that, I realized that we have been on something of a short cut. It was becoming clear to me that this was a haze determined to go all the way to Yellowstone because previous hazes had stayed close to the winding road; however, this one was showing no regard for the road - simply the shortest line to Yellowstone, whatever the terrain. So buffalo are having to move their relatively thin legs up and over a forest of fallen logs and up and down these hills. If any bison have fallen during this part of the journey, I cannot say, but it's hard for me to imagine given the terrain that accidents haven't happened.
Back at the road, we are a little discouraged because we are behind. Then, we notice behind us a Park Service vehicle leading our vehicle. Somehow, we have moved faster than our friends, though we had started out behind them. The man in the Park Service vehicle tries to play nice with us, expressing in a friendly tone, "You have covered a lot of ground today, haven't you?" I don't particularly care if he is being sincere, if he is trying perhaps to let us know that maybe he's not the biggest fan of the haze - something you hear is true of many rangers. The fact is that he is a part of it and helping to enable it. And, today just as much as yesterday or tomorrow, I don't want to hear friendly words from sympathetic and yet complying officers of the law. Until he stops, I perhaps am angrier with him than I am with every Christian Mackay in this world because I know that Christian is a true believer in his torture of buffalo; I know who he is and what to expect from him. But, we could deal with him if he and his ilk didn't have the support of the people who work for the National Park Service.
So, I ignore him and joined my friends in the vehicle. It looks like we are only an hour from our shift change, where we would be relieved from the field. I do not want to be relieved. Though I am tired and have already seen more cruelty than I had in my life, I don't want to abandon my post in the field. I know that my partner and I have perhaps a better chance than any other group in the field at keeping up; we just need another chance. Then, almost just as quickly as those thoughts leave my lips to my friends in the car, our chance comes. We saw the haze off the road across a field.
Out we go trying to catch up.
We run some more, and we keep gaining ground on the agents and the buffalo. It seems they are having more trouble. We are soon back into burnt forest, and the fatigued buffalo are becoming more aggressive. Individuals and small groups run in different directions; the whooping and hollering of the people on horses becomes more frantic. Horses race them down, and calves are run off of positions just as easily as the yearlings and adults. There is no regard for anything except moving these animals in the right direction. The helicopter continues to hover nearby; it seems it is driving another group of buffalo into the main haze group. Then, yes, it is obvious that it is.
All of a sudden, this group of buffalo being hazed by the helicopter starts to merge in with the main group, but they keep running. They are running straight toward the spot where we are standing. "Oh no!" or something like that I shout. It is extremely scary for us, and we have to scramble away as quickly as possible. If it's scary for us, it must be that much scarier for the buffalo who have just gone from a morning of peaceful grazing to this awful trail they are now blazing back into Yellowstone. Whenever I can, I film, but when buffalo are running straight toward you, you run just like they do, and you are thankful that someone has your back.
Our emotions continue to well up; it is getting harder and harder to contain them. Sometimes, I'm angry; more often I am intensely and emotionally sad for what the buffalo are going through. And, yet, my emotions are also mixed with more positive feelings. I am happy with our ability to catch up repeatedly with the haze, happy as I could be with the footage I have been getting, and extremely happy to be out there with someone who I can call a friend, who is feeling and seeing things the way I am, who is extremely empathic, who is extremely dedicated, and who can keep me running and moving and inspired to keep my wits about me. Nevertheless, mixed feelings are still being drowned in growing sadness.
We keep moving through burnt forest, now not falling behind but actually starting to move to the side of the haze. These animals are all exhausted, including some of the horses. I see an agent actually stop in the forest and tie up his horse while the others continue. We move forward, lose sight of the animals, but then notice that we are actually now in front of the haze at mile marker 1. In fact, we are now almost directly in front of the haze that is now back on the road.
I get my closest footage from this vantage. Buffalo after buffalo, now a much larger number than had started our day, move past the shot of my camera that I keep fixed on a spot. Newborn calf after newborn calf . . . Behind me, I can hear my patrol partner apologizing to each as she or he goes by. The group out front, not immediately being pushed, stops along the woods for grass. They keep congregating near me, and I realize a couple times that I need to keep moving back. I hear a yell about a bison getting close to me, and I retreat as quickly as I can, again so thankful to have my partner looking out for me. The same Fish, Wildlife & Parks agent that had given us the previous lawful order approaches us yet again, yelling that I had gotten too close and telling us that this would be the last lawful order he would give us about getting too close to the haze. We assume that he means it would be the last lawful order until we would both be arrested. Having a 2-year-old child and a significant other back at camp, I am in no mood to tempt fate, and neither is my partner. Our footage might be useless if we are pulled from the field by agents and our tape confiscated.
So, we keep as far away as possible, but sometimes we are accidentally close to the haze again. Near here the road veers away from the Madison River, and we accidentally keep veering toward the river. We end up along the shores about a half mile from U.S. 191. So, we hike until we reached the road, and I'm thinking our day is about to be done. When we reach U.S. 191, traffic is stopped in both directions. We catch a glimpse of the haze we've been diligently following forever and the buffalo being forced across U.S. 191; soon these animals would surely soon be forced across the Madison River and into Yellowstone National Park. Their journey is not nearly done, though.
Radio patrols ask us to move to the northeast bluffs of the Madison River on the other side of U.S. 191 and to the Yellowstone National Park boundary. As we hike up the hillside to the steep, tall, and sandy bluffs overlooking the Madison River, there is a feeling of spectacle and confusion. Cars are all around; locals and tourists alike are out with their cameras watching the hazing. A newborn calf and its mama head by themselves north on U.S. 191. To give them space, we actually go into the very wet and swampy area below the Northeast bluffs until we are sure we aren't disturbing them.
At this point, we're both physically tired - we've covered a lot of ground, but we still are hiking uphill to the top of the bluffs. The hope is to get a better view of the haze from on high. However, we yet again think that we are outside the main part of the action.
We hit the top of the bluffs when a local's chihuahua comes running at us threatening to attack us. After having survived too many close calls with buffalo running at me, I am both skiddish and yet bemused by the absurdity of this scene. We get around and make it to the park boundary. It's clear some of our friends are out on patrol from this point. The Park Service is also up there, and we run into the same guy who had tried to be nice to us from the vehicle. Here he told us that he knew of us and the lawful orders given to us and that we're the ones who have been out spooking horses. The suggestion seems to be that we had better be careful or else.
The helicopter continues to buzz around low to the ground. Surprisingly, he flies over us where we now spot a group of buffalo inside the park at the top of the northeast bluffs. The helicopter all by itself forces these buffalo on the hillside in the park to race down the very steep and very sandy bluffs into the water below and the woods on the other side. So, all the sudden, we are in another part of the hazing operations, and my camera is fixed on buffalo going down the side of a cliff. We move along the bluffs, now inside of Yellowstone National Park and where the buffalo have just been driven off; in the distance, we can see the main haze being moved down the Madison inside the park. You see, these operations don't stop at the park boundaries; they continue for miles and miles inside the park. There are often further hazing operations inside the park of buffalo that have never left it to make room for the buffalo being pushed in - this can go on well inside the Wyoming border within 10 miles of Old Faithful.
Five park rangers on horseback come up from behind us. At this point, we are frazzled and worried about getting arrested. To our luck, there are some teenagers and a woman (a longtime Buffalo Field Campaign volunteer who has just arrived) who serve as eyes and ears for us. They let us know about bison still on the bluffs that are close to us, about agents coming; they are a fantastic help to us. Our senses are shot; all I can hear playing over and over in my brain is the buzzing of helicopters, the whooping of agents on horseback, the babies marching over fallen logs, buffalo charging in our direction being chased by horses, and mamas and babies being separated from their families. What is immediately around me mixes in with all these very fresh images now burned forever in my memory.
Still, we move along the bluffs, now at a much slower pace due to our exhaustion. We still almost catch a group of horses and see yet another buffalo forced to race down the cliffs, apparently to funnel her into the Madison River valley. Down below we see the occasional mama and calf that hasn't yet been rounded up by the haze running scared in the forest below.
We stop, though, knowing we can't keep up with the fast pace of the Park Service horses as they mop buffalo into the river valley, knowing that we've reached our physical and emotional limits. We don't yet realize how far into the park we have hiked.
We finally get word that our shift is about to be over; the haze continues.
In the end, I don't know how far the haze went or for how long, but it was still going on when I left a couple hours later. My partner - my ever dearer friend - and I hiked back out and to the vehicle waiting to take us back to camp. It was filled with others who all had their own stories and perspective on the day. When we saw a group of buffalo on U.S. 287, a group I had briefly seen hazed the day before and who I had kept watch over for an entire night on the highway, I could no longer keep my emotions in check. Yet, I was too dehydrated for the tears to flow. I was crying without tears, and I couldn't take it emotionally anymore.
And, I've been in that place ever since.
Whatever good I took from the day - my ability to keep up with the haze, to work with a wonderful and amazing person, to stand bravely and take footage - was lost and has been lost in the powerful images that I'm remembering and desperately trying to paint for you with my words. I know these words fail; I knew they would fail before I tried. Yet, I have to try. I have to do anything I can to let you know about it, to let you know what these animals are going through. Because, if you are inspired, you will help them, help me help them, or work on something completely different with them in mind.
And, I've been gloomier and gloomier and sadder and sadder since. But, I am determined to write and do more.
There's still a lot of buffalo in Montana, and so hazing operations are no doubt going on right now as I'm writing. You may all wonder why this happens or expect me to go into the whole policy; I've done that before. The absurdity of the policy and the execution of the policy could take up accounts much longer than this one. But, it would be hard to understand even if the policy were the most sound policy you could dream up how the consequence would be this kind of cruelty and torture to these beautiful, roaming grass eaters. How can any of that matter to what I'm writing?
So, I have to hope what I'm doing means something and that I have the creativity to do more and the inspiration for others in joining me to do more. I know that I can't stop the state and federal government by myself; I need friends. I need partners. I need people who want to work with me. And, I need to overcome some of my own weaknesses.
Okay, writing has exhausted me, too. I'll leave my account at that and pray that you were not only touched but moved to act in some way as well. And for those of you reading who are acting, who are there far more than me, who have been far more dedicated than me, please help me be as strong as you are and as strong as those buffalo who keep you strong. Just as I needed her pulling me along by moving a little more quickly than I thought I could, I need all of you to do the same in your own ways.
Jim Macdonald
May 12, 2010
Bozeman, Montana


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Business Description
Belinda Stronach served as an executive of Magna International and a member of parliament in the Canadian House of Commons. Ms. Stronach served in a variety of roles at Magna International, a major automotive supplier headquartered in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, ultimately becoming CEO in 2001. Belinda was named one of the most influential people by The Times Magazine in 2004. Belinda Stronach took her leadership skills to the House of Commons in 2004, serving four years for both the Conservative Party of Canada and the Liberal Party of Canada. She founded The Belinda Stronach Foundation in 2008; a social impact organization with the goal of improving health outcomes of women and children. Now serving as Chairman and President of The Stronach Group, Belinda Stronach continues building her legacy with success in racing, gaming, and entertainment.
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