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Consistently Inconsistent
By Shawn McEvoy
But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe - some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them - then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong. - Romans 14:23, The Message
Never brag on a four-and-a-half year-old.
This past Saturday, my wife and I could not have been more proud of our son, Jordan. He had been invited to a good friend's birthday party at a local YMCA, where they have a rock climbing wall, and the party was going to be Jordan's first chance to try it out. He'd been gearing up for it all week, even telling the stylists at the hair salon that he was going to get to climb a wall - just like Spider-Man. He also opted out of a post-haircut lollipop, completely on his own, rationalizing that because he'd be eating cake and ice cream later that day, he didn't want to have too many sweets.
Anyway, his mom had in her mind that the party was from 3:00 to 5:00 on Saturday afternoon. But as Valerie drove into the parking lot, she saw people leaving. Uh-oh. Yep... the cake was mostly eaten, the presents were being packed, and Nathan's birthday party had actually been from 1:00 to 3:00.
How would you expect the typical four-year-old boy to react to the news that he had just missed the whole party?
Well, when Val got down on her knees and looked him in the eyes and told him what had happened, he threw his arms around her neck and hugged her. He said, "I love you even when you mess up, Mommy." Nathan's mom invted Jordan over to their home to watch Nathan open his presents (they hadn't done this at the party) and play. Jordan eagerly accepted. To my knowledge, he didn't even have any cake. But when he came home, he told me this had been, "the best day ever," as it had also included going to the gym and to get a haircut with daddy that morning, and now he was going to get to watch some football.
It was his mom who was beating herself up, but the boy was as calm and pleasant and forgiving and full of joy as ever.
That night, at a fellowship for our Adult Bible class from church, some friends asked about the kids, and we told the story of Jordan's day. Jaws dropped. I went to bed feeling like the world's most blessed dad.
Then came Sunday morning.
First, Jordan decided he wanted neither a shower nor a bath, though he needed one. This may sound normal to you, but this boy generally loves getting clean. After we got him dressed he was fine. In the car, he informed me he didn't want to go to church. This wasn't unusual, as it was just a statement, one he has made before. But when we got to the church parking lot... he WOULD NOT get out of the car. When we finally got into the education building... he WOULD NOT go into his class. He was in between crying and screaming. Where did this come from?!
We pulled out every prayer and parenting trick we know. Ultimately, we presented our son a choice, and made it clear: go into the class, which would be fun (it always is! He always has loved it and participated and knows the Bible stories), or - go home with Daddy and face not only a spanking but an entire day in his room, without watching football with Dad, without his toys, without his games. He said he couldn't choose. We told him he had to. He chose option B, one that would literally be, for a boy of his age (and for his parents to carry out as well), Hell on earth for a day. My son, the same one who had mused to me the day before, "I think Heaven is going to be just great," the same one who had wowed us with a positive attitude and forgiveness beyond his years, was choosing, essentially, Hell, the worst possible day we could give him.
But we did give him one more chance. And another. Valerie went into class with him. He screamed. The teacher tried to soothe him with "Mommy's coming back" talk, but this was no separation anxiety issue. This was, for whatever reason, the day my boy decided to exert his will at any or all costs.
I honestly feel bad in some way that we still put him in the class - not only for disrupting it but because we so didn't want to see him suffer the consequences of a choice we WOULD have carried out because HE had chosen it. We just knew he'd be happier going forward with class.
So that's where I am right now - in my own Sunday School classroom in the same building as Jordan, at 9:23 a.m., writing this on my laptop (which I only have with me because I take the notes for our class) since I was too bothered to go sit in the service. Nobody else is here yet. But even before I have actually "had church" this Sunday, I have learned two huge lessons:
1) Inconsistency, thy name is humanity. Jordan sure is his father's son. If there were one thing I lack that I would prize above all other things in my life it would be consistency - of actions, thoughts, behavior, character. To not go lax on a health plan the moment people start to notice and give me praise. To not raise my voice or let the wrong word slip a day or two after studying how the man of God should speak. To act like I believe the things I say.
A good friend in college was once asked by a young friend what he thought it was most important for the Christian to achieve. "Consistency," he said. I overheard that... and it has stung like a barb in my brain ever since, as I knew the only thing I was consistent about was being inconsistent. Honestly, it's what I sympathize for my wife most about - that I am not sure she can count on my action or reaction to ever be what she expects, or the same from one situation to another. And oh Lord if that doesn't sting again seeing the same potential in my son. But then there's the flip side: is Jordan really behaving like me, or have I for too long behaved like him? I think that's more likely. And eye-opening. Perfect Christian with spot-on answers one day, sheer rebellion the next. Great in a crisis, raging at petty things. I've been living like an almost-five-year-old for most of my life.
2) That age-old theological question about free will and Heaven and Hell and God's role in sending people to one place or the other? It plays itself out all the time, I see now, in people of all ages. I love my son to no end, but no matter how we tried to "share the good news" with him, he was "hell-bent" to choose utter torment... almost just because he could. At the same time, we loved him so much that we were determined to: make sure he knew the consequences of his choices and actions, give him extra chance after extra chance, and in the end help him find the right way.
I didn't relish what I was willing to let happen if my son had willed it. But let it happen I would have. And rightly, so will our Father, if his children - who are by nature completely inconsistent - insist on their own way.
Jesus was marvelously, amazingly consistent. No wonder He is the model, He is the way, He is life, and the only hope we have to avoid a hellish eternity.
Intersecting Faith & Life: What action can you do today that would show someone important in your life that you are taking steps to be more dependable, consistent, trustworthy, or more grown-up?
Further Reading
Hebrews 13:7-8
Commitment to Consistent Parenting
Check out fantastic resources on Faith, Family, and Fun at Crosswalk.com!
Related Resource: Bold Prayers: Asking God to Reveal the Roots of Our Anxiety
Sometimes, anxiety can hit without any recognizable provocation, or our anxiety can feel more intense than the situation warrants. When we find ourselves in that place, we can pray the prayer ancient Israel's second king, David, prayed at the end of Psalm 139, trusting that our God will and is leading us to increased freedom. Listen in to this episode of Faith Over Fear and have your mind and heart fixed on the truth you need for your day! If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!


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A discovery at the University of Virginia School of Medicine is opening up new avenues for treating peripheral arterial disease, a common circulation problem that afflicts millions of Americans. Researchers have pinpointed a key genetic regulator that appears to control the ability to adapt to blockages in blood vessels – and it turns out to be a tiny RNA molecule.
The finding gives researchers a new target for potential therapies to treat patients with peripheral arterial disease, as well as allowing them to better understand the progression of the disease in patients.
"Why does one person with peripheral arterial disease remain stable and do well while another person has a much worse clinical course? We need to begin to unravel these types of questions," said Dr. Brian Annex, division chief of cardiovascular medicine at U.Va. "When we see a patient with peripheral arterial disease, the reality is that information we get out of their age, gender, risk factors and basic clinical measures doesn't tell us how the patient is going to do. We're often left with uncertainty. I think as we begin to understand the [implications of the discovery], we will better understand PAD and open up entirely new treatment approaches."
Peripheral arterial disease is caused by atherosclerosis that builds up inside the arteries and impedes blood flow, most often to the legs. Treatments to date have been ineffective at improving blood flow in PAD.
U.Va.'s discovery may help change that. The researchers determined that a specific "microRNA" molecule, microRNA-93, appears to control the expression of several related genes in mouse models of PAD.
"This microRNA had profound effects on both endothelial and muscle cells," Annex said. "Whether we used a gain of function or loss of function, in pretty much every situation, whenever we got a gain of function or a therapeutic benefit, the microRNA was present at a higher level and suppressed three genes. Whenever you had less miR-93, you had more expression of these and a poorer response to injury/repair."
Scientists once thought that microRNAs were effectively junk with no ability to generate proteins. But recently microRNAs have emerged as major regulators of how genes respond to injury. In the case of PAD, the U.Va. researchers found, microRNA-93 directs how genes react to the restriction in blood supply.
"The central dogma of molecular biology – that DNA makes RNA and RNA makes protein – is probably wrong more often than it's right," Annex said.
U.Va.'s discovery presents an exciting new possibility of treating PAD by boosting the effects of microRNA-93, Annex said.
"To date, drugs used to treat patients with PAD have always tried to target a single gene, whereas it's very clear this microRNA has significant effects on multiple related genes," Annex said. "This opens up an entirely new paradigm for treating and understanding peripheral arterial disease."
While more research needs to be done, Annex foresees several potential ways doctors could manipulate microRNA-93 to target PAD and avoid problems that plague other efforts to develop new treatments.
"One can imagine a direct strategy of delivering the microRNA, one can imagine a strategy to change the body's own expression of the microRNA, one can try to figure out ways to prevent the breakdown of the microRNA," he said. "Many of the strategies that are being set up to treat patients with peripheral arterial disease try to grow new blood vessels. Our microRNA will grow blood vessels, but what's absolutely fascinating is that … it not only makes new blood vessels, but the blood vessels have structure and architecture and may very well get around the prior problems where drugs cause the development of leaky, malformed blood vessels."
The new findings have been detailed in a paper published online by the journal Circulation.
Source: University of Virginia
Published on 15th June 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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University of Tennessee professor Alan Solomon, director of the Human Immunology and Cancer/Alzheimer's Disease and Amyloid-Related Disorders Research Program, led a team that discovered a link between foie gras prepared from goose or duck liver and the type of amyloid found in rheumatoid arthritis or tuberculosis.
Their experimental data has provided the first evidence that a food product can hasten amyloid development.
Amyloidosis is a disease process involving the deposit of normal or mutated proteins that have become misfolded. In this unstable state, such proteins form hair-like fibers, or fibrils, that are deposited into vital organs like the heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas and brain. This process leads to organ failure and, eventually, death. There are many types of amyloid-related diseases in addition to rheumatoid arthritis, such as Alzheimer's disease, adult-onset (type-2) diabetes and an illness related to multiple myeloma called primary or AL amyloidosis, an illness that has been a particular focus of study in the Solomon laboratory.
Foie gras is a culinary delicacy derived from massively enlarged fatty livers of ducks and geese. It is produced by gorging the fowl over several weeks. Solomon and his research team analyzed commercially sold foie gras from the U.S. and France and found that it contained a type of amyloid called AA. Amyloid deposits are commonly found in waterfowl, but this condition is noticeably increased in force-fed birds. In their study, mice prone to develop AA amyloidosis were injected or fed amyloid extracted from foie gras. Within eight weeks, a majority of the animals developed extensive amyloid deposits in the liver, spleen, intestine and other organs.
Based on the findings of the study, Solomon and his team concluded that this and perhaps other forms of amyloidosis might be transmissible, like "mad cow" and other related diseases. Until now, no other infectious sources of food products have been found.
"It is not known if there is an increase of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes or other amyloid-related disease in people who have eaten foie gras," cautioned Solomon. "Our study looked at the existence of amyloid fibrils in foie gras and showed that it could accelerate the development of AA amyloidosis in susceptible mice. Perhaps people with a family history of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or other amyloid-associated diseases should avoid consuming foie gras and other foods that may be contaminated with fibrils." Other investigators have reported that meat derived from sheep and seemingly healthy cattle may represent other dietary sources of this material, he said.
People develop diseases for many reasons. "Eating foie gras probably won't cause a disease in someone who isn't genetically predisposed to it," Solomon explained. "More critical is determining what causes these diseases in the first place and, most important, developing new means of diagnosis and treatment designed to rid the body of harmful amyloid deposits or preventing them from occurring or progressing. Indeed, this is the very focus of the work of my team at the University of Tennessee, and we are all deeply committed to achieving this goal. I am hopeful that our research efforts and those of other scientists throughout the world will help those afflicted with these diseases, which exert such a devastating toll on patients and family members alike."
The research study was funded through research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Aslan Foundation, Swedish Research Council and Torsten and Ragnar Soderberg's Foundations.
Source: University of Tennessee


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Diamond Aircraft's president, Peter Mauer, is making it sound like the future of the company may be hanging on a $35 million Canadian loan that, as of Friday, may or may not be coming. The loan would help launch production of Diamond's D-Jet, save 200 jobs and create 500 more in London, Ontario, where the unemployment rate is currently near 8.5 percent. Roughly half of Diamond's workforce is currently dedicated to the jet, which has amassed more than 230 firm orders. According to Mauer, without the jet the company's debts would be "very difficult to satisfy" based on depressed piston sales. And "I'll let you do the extrapolation," he told the Financial Post.
Diamond has gathered $20 million in private funds and an additional $35 million from the Ontario government. But the Ontario money is contingent on Diamond securing the separate $35 million Canadian loan. According to Mauer, "The federal level is the very last piece in the puzzle." If the loan is approved and added to previously committed funds, it would bring the total Ontario and federal government investment to $100 million. A spokeswoman for the Canadian government said last week that a decision is pending.
Related Content:


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The Honors Program at Temple University is dedicated to providing high-achieving students with enriching academic opportunities, holistic advising, a dynamic and inclusive community, and strong encouragement and support all the way to Commencement and beyond.
Photo credit: Ryan S. Brandenberg
We are a part of the mix that makes Temple a wonderful place to earn a degree. Our faculty, renowned scholars from all of the university's schools and colleges, lead small seminars in a variety of interesting subjects: Dissent in America, Religion in Philadelphia, Youth Cultures, and Cyberspace and Society (to name only a few).
Our staff is dedicated to providing individualized advising on course selection, scholarships, fellowship applications, careers and graduate schools.
Learn more about the Honors Program.
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Genesis 44:1-34. POLICY TO STAY HIS BRETHREN.
1. And Joseph commanded the steward--The design of putting the cup into the sack of Benjamin was obviously to bring that young man into a situation of difficulty or danger, in order thereby to discover how far the brotherly feelings of the rest would be roused to sympathize with his distress and stimulate their exertions in procuring his deliverance. But for what purpose was the money restored? It was done, in the first instance, from kindly feelings to his father; but another and further design seems to have been the prevention of any injurious impressions as to the character of Benjamin. The discovery of the cup in his possession, if there had been nothing else to judge by, might have fastened a painful suspicion of guilt on the youngest brother; but the sight of the money in each man's sack would lead all to the same conclusion, that Benjamin was just as innocent as themselves, although the additional circumstance of the cup being found in his sack would bring him into greater trouble and danger.
2. put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth--It was a large goblet, as the original denotes, highly valued by its owner, on account of its costly material or its elegant finish and which had probably graced his table at the sumptuous entertainment of the previous day.
3. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away--They and it may be readily supposed in high spirits, after so happy an issue from all their troubles and anxieties.
4. When they were gone out of the city . . . Joseph said unto his steward--They were brought to a sudden halt by the stunning intelligence that an article of rare value was missing from the governor's house. It was a silver cup; so strong suspicions were entertained against them that a special messenger was despatched to search them.
5. Is not this it in which my lord drinketh--not only kept for the governor's personal use, but whereby he divines. Divination by cups, to ascertain the course of futurity, was one of the prevalent superstitions of ancient Egypt, as it is of Eastern countries still. It is not likely that Joseph, a pious believer in the true God, would have addicted himself to this superstitious practice. But he might have availed himself of that popular notion to carry out the successful execution of his stratagem for the last decisive trial of his brethren.
6, 7. he overtook them, and he spake . . . these words--The steward's words must have come upon them like a thunderbolt, and one of their most predominant feelings must have been the humiliating and galling sense of being made so often objects of suspicion. Protesting their innocence, they invited a search. The challenge was accepted [Genesis 44:10,11]. Beginning with the eldest, every sack was examined, and the cup being found in Benjamin's [Genesis 44:12], they all returned in an indescribable agony of mind to the house of the governor [Genesis 44:13], throwing themselves at his feet [Genesis 44:14], with the remarkable confession, "God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants" [Genesis 44:16].
16-34. Judah said, What shall we say?--This address needs no comment--consisting at first of short, broken sentences, as if, under the overwhelming force of the speaker's emotions, his utterance were choked, it becomes more free and copious by the effort of speaking, as he proceeds. Every word finds its way to the heart; and it may well be imagined that Benjamin, who stood there speechless like a victim about to be laid on the altar, when he heard the magnanimous offer of Judah to submit to slavery for his ransom, would be bound by a lifelong gratitude to his generous brother, a tie that seems to have become hereditary in his tribe. Joseph's behavior must not be viewed from any single point, or in separate parts, but as a whole--a well-thought, deep-laid, closely connected plan; and though some features of it do certainly exhibit an appearance of harshness, yet the pervading principle of his conduct was real, genuine, brotherly kindness. Read in this light, the narrative of the proceedings describes the continuous, though secret, pursuit of one end; and Joseph exhibits, in his management of the scheme, a very high order of intellect, a warm and susceptible heart, united to a judgment that exerted a complete control over his feelings--a happy invention in devising means towards the attainment of his ends and an inflexible adherence to the course, however painful, which prudence required.


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The "Godfather of Grunge" wants to clean up the sound of your music downloads. Neil Young, the legendary rock guitarist whose career has spanned over 45 years, is cranking out patents and inventions like a modern-day Ben Franklin. He recently converted his 1959 Lincoln Continental into an electrical hybrid car, and now he's trying to revolutionize digital audio and video for the Internet. He is trademarking a revolutionary new high-definition (HD) audio format that he hopes will replace the popular MP3 music file format. He has also submitted patent requests for a corresponding HD audio and video player for his new music file format, plus a cloud-based online music store.
Rolling Stone reports that Neil Young's new digital audio format will be called Studio Quality Sound (SQS), and will make your online music sound every bit as crisp and clear as it sounds in the recording studio. While this suite of online audio and video products is still in the trademark application phase, we know some of the products involved have names like "21st Century Record Player," "Storage Shed," and "Thanks for Listening."
Digital Audio Quality Clearer Than MP3
The MP3 music file format has seen some cool innovations in recent years, like the ability to convert video to MP3 audio files. Still, an MP3 is a compressed file wherein CODECs are used to eliminate much of the sound file's data. While this makes the file easier to download, some audio quality is lost in the trade-off.
On a statement on his website, Young says, "2012 will be the year that record companies release High Resolution Audio…Since the advent of the CD, listeners have been deprived of the full experience of listening. With the introduction of MP3s via online music services, listeners were further deprived."
Neil Young Worked With Steve Jobs On A Music Player
The late Steve Jobs shared Young's passion for high-resolution audio, and apparently the two had been working together to bring this technology to a future iPod model. Young has been quoted at D: Dive Into Media conference saying, "Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, but when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've gotta believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would eventually have done what I'm trying to do."
When former Apple CEO, Jobs, passed in October 2011, the collaboration between the two ended. Young may be after more than just improved audio quality since included in the trademark application is a mention of "online and retail store services" and "high-resolution music downloadable from the Internet."
High Resolution Video Of Concerts
This trademark application also details features like "high-resolution discs featuring music and video" and "audio and video recording storage." Clearly there will be a video component, and a corresponding online video player is specifically mentioned in the application. The "21st Century Record Player" might likely be equipped with a video screen, as iPods have conditioned today's listeners to expect the ability to upload and play video files on a music device.
The filings indicate that Young's proposed online music store would be primarily cloud- based. Live video recordings of concert performances might be one of the more novel features included in this suite of products. It's been reported that album sales have dropped by half over the last ten years; concert ticket sales during this period have more than doubled. It is clear listeners have a growing interest in live music, and Neil Young's online music project may deliver high-resolution concert footage tailored to satisfy this interest.
What Young's audio and video plans are won't be clear until the trademarks are registered and made public late this year. If his vision for high-resolution audio and video can be implemented and easily distributed, then digital music can "keep on rockin' in the free world" with sound quality every bit as good as what the musicians and engineers hear in the recording studio.
This article was written by Joe Kukura, a writer for the RealPlayer video technology blog who writes about streaming video news.
Photography credit: Joel Ryan/AP


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Novena Prayer Leader: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created. People: And you shall renew the face of the earth. Leader: Let us pray. O God, who instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to savor what is right, and always to rejoice in his consolation. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
People: Amen.
Leader: O Mary, conceived without sin,
People: Pray for us who have recourse to you.
Leader and People: Lord Jesus Christ, who has glorified your mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, immaculate from the first moment of her conception, grant that all who devoutly implore her protection on earth may eternally enjoy your presence in heaven. Lord Jesus Christ, who for the accomplishment of your greatest works have chosen the weak things of the world, that no flesh may glory in your sight, and who for a better and more widely diffused belief in the Immaculate Conception of your Mother, have wished that the Miraculous Medal be manifested to Saint Catherine Labouré, grant, we ask you that filled with like humility, we may glorify this mystery by word and work. Amen.
Novena Prayer
Leader and People: Immaculate Virgin Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus and our mother, we have confidence in your powerful and never-failing intercession, manifested often through the Miraculous Medal. We your loving and trustful children, ask you to obtain for us the graces and favors we ask during this novena if they will be for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. (Here privately form your petitions.) You know, O Mary, how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of your Son who hates iniquity. Obtain for us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone so that our every thought, word, and deed may tend to his greater glory. Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at length attain to that blessed abode where you are the queen of angels and of men. Amen.
Prayer to our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
Leader and People: Virgin Mother of God, Mary Immaculate, we unite ourselves to you under your title of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. May this medal be for each one of us a sure sign of your motherly affection for us and a constant reminder of our filial duties towards you. While wearing it, may we be blessed by your loving protection and preserved in the grace of your Son. Most powerful Virgin, Mother of our Savior, keep us close to you every moment of our lives so that like you we may live and act according to the teaching and example of your Son. Obtain for us, your children, the grace of a happy death so that in union with you we may enjoy the happiness of heaven forever. Amen.
Leader:O Mary, conceived without sin, People: Pray for us who have recourse to you.
Closing Prayer
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us: O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.(once)


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Boots, Dan Post. Sunglasses, Deb. Everything else, Target (although I thrifted the sweater).
The vest is from Deb and the bag is Nine West.
I don't think I've ever walked upon anything as odd as snow covered sand. It doesn't "give" the way you'd expect. I jumped from a rock on the jetty to the sand and promptly fell down.
Photos by Beefy Muchacho


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Youth Sports Training Variables
By Art McDermott
The purpose of this article to present some of the key variables required for a successfully designed youth sports training and performance program. This topic always seems to produce some VERY strong opinions about what works, what does not and what the latest and greatest techniques may be.
Once all the sweating, lifting and marketing are done, sometimes it may be difficult to tell the difference between one sports performance facility and another.
With rare exceptions, even a young athlete's parents do not know the difference between a good program and one that is not so good. As a strength and conditioning professional, it is your job to be able to clarify this.
At the end of the day, there is one thing that cannot be hidden from the light. Results. Physical Testing at the start of a summer program and then a retest at the conclusion of the training will always reveal the answer to the single most important question.
Did the youth sports training program work?
We cannot cover all the facets that go into a complete program in one article. This topic takes an entire semester when I cover it with the physical therapy students at UMass Lowell. However, I will do my best to present to most pressing issues.
There are nearly as many different approaches to youth sports training program design as there are coaches in the industry. However, here some of the factors that should be considered when designing an effective program.
* Time Frame – How long do you have to work with the athlete?
* Sport – What position does the athlete play?
* Gender
* Time of Year – Is this a pre-season program or an off-season program?
* Muscle balances and weaknesses – If any imbalances or weaknesses are present, are these the result of overuse, a lack of training, injury other factors?
* Level of Experience (Training Age) – Has the athlete be training for years or are they just learning to train or lift weights?
* Chronological Age – What level of physical maturity has the athlete reached?
Let's examine why these elements are important before designing a youth sports training program:
1) Time Frame: This is the first question I ask ANY athlete that comes to our facility. How much time do you have to train (in weeks)? This will determine nearly every aspect of the program. How much corrective work can I do? What kind of strength level can we expect to achieve? Will we have time to properly periodize the program? Basically, can we do our job effectively? We have literally had parents call us and say, "My son has hockey tryouts in two weeks and we would like to get some training in. What can we put together?" Short answer: Not much.
2) Sport: This is a given. Very rarely can two athletes in different sports be on the same program. The physical requirements from sport to sport vary too widely. This is why having "Today's Workout" posted on a board is a far cry from a properly designed program. A thorough coach should understand the needs of each sport or at least be adept at doing the research to gain this knowledge. The coach must then customize each athlete's program accordingly.
3) Gender: This one is also fairly obvious. There are particular movements that MUST be in every female's programs. Among them are: Knee and hip stability, hamstring work and upper body work. ACL injury is epidemic among female athletes but the incidence of ACL tears can be reduced by up to 70% according to some studies, if a proper program is put in place. A disproportionally weak upper body is usually the standard for females and should be addresses as well. As Martin Rooney says, "Who decided it as OK for females to do push ups from their knees?"
4) Muscle Imbalances and Weaknesses: While some imbalances may be genetic, many are a result of the trend towards early specialization in sport at too early an age. Examples are: Hip flexor shortening in hockey players, spine injury in gymnasts and figure skaters, dominant arm hypertrophy in tennis players, etc.
Muscular Weaknesses abound and have multiple sources. Most younger athletes are weak everywhere…unless they are one of those high-end gymnasts. Pinpointing muscular weaknesses allows the coach to correct them. Once the musculature is in balance, the entire "system" will be able to gain strength more effectively overall.
5) Time of Year: This refers back to point #1. The time of year will have a clear impact on exercise selection. Generally, as the competitive season gets closer there is a shift from general work to more transferable strength and power work.
6) Level of Experience: This is an easily overlooked parameter. If I am training a gymnast, she could be in her 8th year of high-end training and still only be 15 years old. On the other hand, you could have a 15 year old male who has ever been in a weight room but wants to try out for baseball in high school. Should these two be on the same routine?
7) Chronological Age: This one varies in a very important way from Training age. Actual chronological age looks purely at the physical maturity of the athlete. Keep in mind that one major factor impacting program design is onset or completion of puberty. If an athlete has significant androgens present in their system, additional intensity and volume options become available.
While not all-inclusive, I hope this article demonstrates the need for a properly designed youth sports training. From the testing procedures used to the energy system program used, making sure each program the right program for your athletes is vital for the athlete's success as well as yours!


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Japan's been on my mind. Your's too? Words fail to convey the depth of our sorrow for and horror at the loss of life, home, livelihood, basic necessities, and connectedness for countless families. Words fail at conveying our admiration for the heroism of the workers risking their lives struggling to bring six runaway nuclear reactors under control. Words fail to express the depth of our cynicism about the nuclear power industry's assurances of safety. What more is there left to express?
As Zen practitioners, we have a natural affinity for Japan as an ancestral home of our practice. I'm not the praying type, so I haven't offered any prayers. But I've done something practical: donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Google has made it easy to do at this URL:
Please do more than metta and tong-len. Let's put compassion into action.
I've never been to Japan, but I found myself free-associating this morning on the word "Japan" and all that it signifies in my imagination. It's not exactly a poem, but maybe it will remind you of whatever Japan signifies for you. Feel free to add your own associations below in comments.
Japan — Land of…
Shinto, Shingon, Jodo Shinshu, and Zen
Hakuin, Basho, Ryokan, and Dogen
Honen, Ryonan, Shinran, Nichiren
Sega, Sony, Nintendo, and Canon
Seiko, Toshiba, Yamaha, and Nikon
Bushido, samurai, ninja, and ronan
Honda, Toyota, Mazda, and Nissan
Kagemusha, Yojimbo, Ran, and Rashomon,
Gojira, Mothra, Gamera, and Rodan
Sushi, sashimi, miso, and daikon
Kurosawa, Miyazaki, Murakami, Mishima
Pillow book, floating world, samisen, and geisha
Nanking, Guadalcanal, Burma, and Iwo Jima
Karate, Ju-Jitsu, Sumo, and Aikido
Hirohito, Tokyo Rose, Matsui, and Tojo
Rock gardens, cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums, origami
Kobe, Sendai, earthquake and Tsunami
Hiroshima, Nagasaki — now Fukushima Daiichi


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I am grateful to my friend John Cavadini for his searching review of Evangelical Catholicism. Despite employing a slightly jarring method (erect straw man; concede that straw man is, in fact, straw man; suggest that author should have "blocked" the possibility of anyone erecting straw man), Cavadini raises important questions about the relationship between Christology and ecclesiology that will help clarify the theological architecture and missionary imperative of the evangelical Catholic project, which has been embraced by Pope Francis in his first months as Bishop of Rome.
The Catholicism of the New Evangelization, as I understand it, accepts and lives out of C. Kavin Rowe's formula in World Upside Down, his splendid commentary on Acts: "ecclesiology is public Christology." Christ and the Church cannot be sundered; and while it is true that, as John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis have insisted, friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ is the essence of Christian discipleship, it is also true (as I wrote in Evangelical Catholicism) that "this friendship is found in the Church, in the word of God recognized as such by the Church in the Bible, in the sacraments celebrated by the Church, in the works of charity and service, and in the fellowship of those who have been 'born of water and the Spirit' [John 3.5] . . . . [Thus] the Church is always the privileged place of encounter with the living God, who continually forms his people into the community in which the full truth about humanity is grasped." Moreover, as Rowe's exegesis demonstrates, the encounter with the Risen Lord in the Church necessarily leads to mission; as Rowe puts it, "the primary grammar of mission in Acts is that of witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus," such that the Christian life, born of a personal commitment to the Risen One, becomes "an alternative way of being in the world that takes as its pattern the life of the one to whom [Christians] bear witness." Thus, as I suggested in Evangelical Catholicism, the Church of the 21st century must be a "culture-forming counterculture," committed to converting the ambient public culture, not merely "engaging" it.
The evangelical Catholics who will contribute to that mission are those who are constantly being converted to Christ in the Church. Evangelical Catholicism, as I understand it, is quite clear on the effects of sacramental regeneration in Baptism, and evangelical Catholics celebrate that gift of grace throughout their lives. But Evangelical Catholicism also understands that that regeneration is not the end of the story of one's conversion to Christ, one's incorporation into the Church, or one's capacity for mission; Evangelical Catholicism thus respects the freedom of the heretic, the apostate, the unrepentant sinner, and the practitioner of that "false dissent" analyzed by Bruce Marshall in the October issue of First Things, by acknowledging that communion with the Church can and is damaged, and may be destroyed.
An important theological question is raised by the fact that there are "juridical" or nominal Catholics in whose lives there is little evidence of the grace of baptism at work, despite the ontological change wrought in them by reception of the sacrament, and by the fact that there are practicing Catholics who nonetheless deny to be true what the Church teaches to be true. That, in different degrees, these Catholics are in a defective state of communion with the Church is an idea requiring further theological debate and clarification, to be sure; but it is not a new idea. It is latent in the classic distinction between venial and mortal sin; it is implicit in Lumen Gentium 8 and Unitatis Redintegratio 3 (what is true of "separated brethren" is surely true, analogously, of brethren who have separated themselves from the fullness of Catholic communio by their denial of Catholic truth in their convictions and/or their mode of life); it would seem to be explicit in pastoral instructions on worthiness to receive Holy Communion. In any case, it seems fairly obvious that Catholics in a gravely defective state of communion with the Church cannot contribute as they ought to the Church's mission.
Emphasizing the centrality of friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Christian life, as the current Bishop of Rome and his two predecessors have done, in no way sets the "sacramentality" of Christ against the "sacramentality" of the Church. Indeed, it seems that the intent of the Fathers of Vatican II was to strengthen the Church by emphasizing ecclesial Christocentricity. Thus the very first sentence ofLumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, begins with the clarion affirmation that "Christ is the light of the nations," and then teaches that the Church exists to "enlighten all people with his brightness . . . by preaching the Gospel to every creature." Christ-Church-Mission: the three are inseparable, from Acts to Vatican II, John Paul II's Redemptoris Missio, and the Latin American bishops' 2007 Aparecida Document, of which Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a principal intellectual architect.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC's William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.
This article was originally published on First Things


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There are several WAL-related configuration parameters that affect database performance. This section explains their use. Consult Chapter 20 for general information about setting server configuration parameters.
Checkpoints are points in the sequence of transactions at which it is guaranteed that the heap and index data files have been updated with all information written before that checkpoint. At checkpoint time, all dirty data pages are flushed to disk and a special checkpoint record is written to the WAL file. (The change records were previously flushed to the WAL files.) In the event of a crash, the crash recovery procedure looks at the latest checkpoint record to determine the point in the WAL (known as the redo record) from which it should start the REDO operation. Any changes made to data files before that point are guaranteed to be already on disk. Hence, after a checkpoint, WAL segments preceding the one containing the redo record are no longer needed and can be recycled or removed. (When WAL archiving is being done, the WAL segments must be archived before being recycled or removed.)
The checkpoint requirement of flushing all dirty data pages to disk can cause a significant I/O load. For this reason, checkpoint activity is throttled so that I/O begins at checkpoint start and completes before the next checkpoint is due to start; this minimizes performance degradation during checkpoints.
The server's checkpointer process automatically performs a checkpoint every so often. A checkpoint is begun every checkpoint_timeout seconds, or if max_wal_size is about to be exceeded, whichever comes first. The default settings are 5 minutes and 1 GB, respectively. If no WAL has been written since the previous checkpoint, new checkpoints will be skipped even if checkpoint_timeout
has passed. (If WAL archiving is being used and you want to put a lower limit on how often files are archived in order to bound potential data loss, you should adjust the archive_timeout parameter rather than the checkpoint parameters.) It is also possible to force a checkpoint by using the SQL command CHECKPOINT
Reducing checkpoint_timeout
and/or max_wal_size
causes checkpoints to occur more often. This allows faster after-crash recovery, since less work will need to be redone. However, one must balance this against the increased cost of flushing dirty data pages more often. If full_page_writes is set (as is the default), there is another factor to consider. To ensure data page consistency, the first modification of a data page after each checkpoint results in logging the entire page content. In that case, a smaller checkpoint interval increases the volume of output to the WAL, partially negating the goal of using a smaller interval, and in any case causing more disk I/O.
Checkpoints are fairly expensive, first because they require writing out all currently dirty buffers, and second because they result in extra subsequent WAL traffic as discussed above. It is therefore wise to set the checkpointing parameters high enough so that checkpoints don't happen too often. As a simple sanity check on your checkpointing parameters, you can set the checkpoint_warning parameter. If checkpoints happen closer together than checkpoint_warning
seconds, a message will be output to the server log recommending increasing max_wal_size
. Occasional appearance of such a message is not cause for alarm, but if it appears often then the checkpoint control parameters should be increased. Bulk operations such as large COPY
transfers might cause a number of such warnings to appear if you have not set max_wal_size
high enough.
To avoid flooding the I/O system with a burst of page writes, writing dirty buffers during a checkpoint is spread over a period of time. That period is controlled by checkpoint_completion_target, which is given as a fraction of the checkpoint interval (configured by using checkpoint_timeout
). The I/O rate is adjusted so that the checkpoint finishes when the given fraction of checkpoint_timeout
seconds have elapsed, or before max_wal_size
is exceeded, whichever is sooner. With the default value of 0.9, PostgreSQL can be expected to complete each checkpoint a bit before the next scheduled checkpoint (at around 90% of the last checkpoint's duration). This spreads out the I/O as much as possible so that the checkpoint I/O load is consistent throughout the checkpoint interval. The disadvantage of this is that prolonging checkpoints affects recovery time, because more WAL segments will need to be kept around for possible use in recovery. A user concerned about the amount of time required to recover might wish to reduce checkpoint_timeout
so that checkpoints occur more frequently but still spread the I/O across the checkpoint interval. Alternatively, checkpoint_completion_target
could be reduced, but this would result in times of more intense I/O (during the checkpoint) and times of less I/O (after the checkpoint completed but before the next scheduled checkpoint) and therefore is not recommended. Although checkpoint_completion_target
could be set as high as 1.0, it is typically recommended to set it to no higher than 0.9 (the default) since checkpoints include some other activities besides writing dirty buffers. A setting of 1.0 is quite likely to result in checkpoints not being completed on time, which would result in performance loss due to unexpected variation in the number of WAL segments needed.
On Linux and POSIX platforms checkpoint_flush_after allows to force the OS that pages written by the checkpoint should be flushed to disk after a configurable number of bytes. Otherwise, these pages may be kept in the OS's page cache, inducing a stall when fsync
is issued at the end of a checkpoint. This setting will often help to reduce transaction latency, but it also can have an adverse effect on performance; particularly for workloads that are bigger than shared_buffers, but smaller than the OS's page cache.
The number of WAL segment files in pg_wal
directory depends on min_wal_size
, max_wal_size
and the amount of WAL generated in previous checkpoint cycles. When old WAL segment files are no longer needed, they are removed or recycled (that is, renamed to become future segments in the numbered sequence). If, due to a short-term peak of WAL output rate, max_wal_size
is exceeded, the unneeded segment files will be removed until the system gets back under this limit. Below that limit, the system recycles enough WAL files to cover the estimated need until the next checkpoint, and removes the rest. The estimate is based on a moving average of the number of WAL files used in previous checkpoint cycles. The moving average is increased immediately if the actual usage exceeds the estimate, so it accommodates peak usage rather than average usage to some extent. min_wal_size
puts a minimum on the amount of WAL files recycled for future usage; that much WAL is always recycled for future use, even if the system is idle and the WAL usage estimate suggests that little WAL is needed.
Independently of max_wal_size
, the most recent wal_keep_size megabytes of WAL files plus one additional WAL file are kept at all times. Also, if WAL archiving is used, old segments cannot be removed or recycled until they are archived. If WAL archiving cannot keep up with the pace that WAL is generated, or if archive_command
or archive_library
fails repeatedly, old WAL files will accumulate in pg_wal
until the situation is resolved. A slow or failed standby server that uses a replication slot will have the same effect (see Section 27.2.6).
In archive recovery or standby mode, the server periodically performs restartpoints, which are similar to checkpoints in normal operation: the server forces all its state to disk, updates the pg_control
file to indicate that the already-processed WAL data need not be scanned again, and then recycles any old WAL segment files in the pg_wal
directory. Restartpoints can't be performed more frequently than checkpoints on the primary because restartpoints can only be performed at checkpoint records. A restartpoint is triggered when a checkpoint record is reached if at least checkpoint_timeout
seconds have passed since the last restartpoint, or if WAL size is about to exceed max_wal_size
. However, because of limitations on when a restartpoint can be performed, max_wal_size
is often exceeded during recovery, by up to one checkpoint cycle's worth of WAL. (max_wal_size
is never a hard limit anyway, so you should always leave plenty of headroom to avoid running out of disk space.)
There are two commonly used internal WAL functions: XLogInsertRecord
and XLogFlush
. XLogInsertRecord
is used to place a new record into the WAL buffers in shared memory. If there is no space for the new record, XLogInsertRecord
will have to write (move to kernel cache) a few filled WAL buffers. This is undesirable because XLogInsertRecord
is used on every database low level modification (for example, row insertion) at a time when an exclusive lock is held on affected data pages, so the operation needs to be as fast as possible. What is worse, writing WAL buffers might also force the creation of a new WAL segment, which takes even more time. Normally, WAL buffers should be written and flushed by an XLogFlush
request, which is made, for the most part, at transaction commit time to ensure that transaction records are flushed to permanent storage. On systems with high WAL output, XLogFlush
requests might not occur often enough to prevent XLogInsertRecord
from having to do writes. On such systems one should increase the number of WAL buffers by modifying the wal_buffers parameter. When full_page_writes is set and the system is very busy, setting wal_buffers
higher will help smooth response times during the period immediately following each checkpoint.
The commit_delay parameter defines for how many microseconds a group commit leader process will sleep after acquiring a lock within XLogFlush
, while group commit followers queue up behind the leader. This delay allows other server processes to add their commit records to the WAL buffers so that all of them will be flushed by the leader's eventual sync operation. No sleep will occur if fsync is not enabled, or if fewer than commit_siblings other sessions are currently in active transactions; this avoids sleeping when it's unlikely that any other session will commit soon. Note that on some platforms, the resolution of a sleep request is ten milliseconds, so that any nonzero commit_delay
setting between 1 and 10000 microseconds would have the same effect. Note also that on some platforms, sleep operations may take slightly longer than requested by the parameter.
Since the purpose of commit_delay
is to allow the cost of each flush operation to be amortized across concurrently committing transactions (potentially at the expense of transaction latency), it is necessary to quantify that cost before the setting can be chosen intelligently. The higher that cost is, the more effective commit_delay
is expected to be in increasing transaction throughput, up to a point. The pg_test_fsync program can be used to measure the average time in microseconds that a single WAL flush operation takes. A value of half of the average time the program reports it takes to flush after a single 8kB write operation is often the most effective setting for commit_delay
, so this value is recommended as the starting point to use when optimizing for a particular workload. While tuning commit_delay
is particularly useful when the WAL is stored on high-latency rotating disks, benefits can be significant even on storage media with very fast sync times, such as solid-state drives or RAID arrays with a battery-backed write cache; but this should definitely be tested against a representative workload. Higher values of commit_siblings
should be used in such cases, whereas smaller commit_siblings
values are often helpful on higher latency media. Note that it is quite possible that a setting of commit_delay
that is too high can increase transaction latency by so much that total transaction throughput suffers.
When commit_delay
is set to zero (the default), it is still possible for a form of group commit to occur, but each group will consist only of sessions that reach the point where they need to flush their commit records during the window in which the previous flush operation (if any) is occurring. At higher client counts a "gangway effect" tends to occur, so that the effects of group commit become significant even when commit_delay
is zero, and thus explicitly setting commit_delay
tends to help less. Setting commit_delay
can only help when (1) there are some concurrently committing transactions, and (2) throughput is limited to some degree by commit rate; but with high rotational latency this setting can be effective in increasing transaction throughput with as few as two clients (that is, a single committing client with one sibling transaction).
The wal_sync_method parameter determines how PostgreSQL will ask the kernel to force WAL updates out to disk. All the options should be the same in terms of reliability, with the exception of fsync_writethrough
, which can sometimes force a flush of the disk cache even when other options do not do so. However, it's quite platform-specific which one will be the fastest. You can test the speeds of different options using the pg_test_fsync program. Note that this parameter is irrelevant if fsync
has been turned off.
Enabling the wal_debug configuration parameter (provided that PostgreSQL has been compiled with support for it) will result in each XLogInsertRecord
and XLogFlush
WAL call being logged to the server log. This option might be replaced by a more general mechanism in the future.
There are two internal functions to write WAL data to disk: XLogWrite
and issue_xlog_fsync
. When track_wal_io_timing is enabled, the total amounts of time XLogWrite
writes and issue_xlog_fsync
syncs WAL data to disk are counted as wal_write_time
and wal_sync_time
in pg_stat_wal, respectively. XLogWrite
is normally called by XLogInsertRecord
(when there is no space for the new record in WAL buffers), XLogFlush
and the WAL writer, to write WAL buffers to disk and call issue_xlog_fsync
. issue_xlog_fsync
is normally called by XLogWrite
to sync WAL files to disk. If wal_sync_method
is either open_datasync
or open_sync
, a write operation in XLogWrite
guarantees to sync written WAL data to disk and issue_xlog_fsync
does nothing. If wal_sync_method
is either fdatasync
, fsync
, or fsync_writethrough
, the write operation moves WAL buffers to kernel cache and issue_xlog_fsync
syncs them to disk. Regardless of the setting of track_wal_io_timing
, the number of times XLogWrite
writes and issue_xlog_fsync
syncs WAL data to disk are also counted as wal_write
and wal_sync
in pg_stat_wal
, respectively.
The recovery_prefetch parameter can be used to reduce I/O wait times during recovery by instructing the kernel to initiate reads of disk blocks that will soon be needed but are not currently in PostgreSQL's buffer pool. The maintenance_io_concurrency and wal_decode_buffer_size settings limit prefetching concurrency and distance, respectively. By default, it is set to try
, which enables the feature on systems where posix_fadvise
is available.
If you see anything in the documentation that is not correct, does not match your experience with the particular feature or requires further clarification, please use this form to report a documentation issue.


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According to Sonoma County's data site SoCo Data, the most popular baby names in 2015 were Ava and Olivia (tie) and Mateo and Daniel (tie).
Here are the county's top 5 girl names and top 5 boy names of 2015:
Girl Names | Boy Names |
1. Ava and Olivia (tie), 28 baby girls 2. Camila, 25 3. Isabella, Mia and Emma (3-way tie), 23 4. Charlotte and Sophia (tie), 21 5. Alexa, 20 | 1. Mateo and Daniel (tie), 28 baby boys 2. Jackson, 27 3. Sebastian, 25 4. Benjamin, 24 5. Julian, Jayden and Noah (3-way tie), 22 |
In 2014, the top names in the county were Emma and Logan.
Of the 1,204 girl names bestowed last year, 811 (67%) were used just once. A smaller proportion of the 919 boy names — 549 (60%) — were bestowed once. Here are a few of those single-use names:
Unique Girl Names | Unique Boy Names |
Amarilla, Antimony, Edelweiss, Ember, Fanny, Lluvia, Lovely Estrella, Mae Pearl, Magnolia, Nkirote, Reminisce, Rosalene, Rurapenthe*, Summit | Attimus, Banyan, Cypress, Cyprus, Destry, Ernestor, Fogatia, Iknav, Montgomery, Mercury, Orion, Quintil, Thornhill, Zinley |
*Looks like Rurapenthe is based on "Rura Penthe," the name of a planetoid used as a Klingon penal colony (!) in the Star Trek universe. Its name is a nod to Rorapandi, a penal colony island in the Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Rorapandi was invented by Disney; it did not appear in the Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
Source: SoCo Data
Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)


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Although the U.S. war in Afghanistan ended last year, the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is still open. It was created to hold people captured in Afghanistan and the broader war on terror. And it now has 37 prisoners. The majority of them have never been charged and are being held indefinitely, some for more than 20 years. Now, one of those prisoners has sued the Biden administration. He says he has been unlawfully imprisoned and should be released immediately.
One of his lawyers, Wells Dixon of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is with us to explain the details of that lawsuit. Hi, Wells.
J WELLS DIXON: Hi, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: Your client, Majid Khan, is not the first Guantanamo prisoner to have sued over alleged unlawful imprisonment, and his case is unlike the others. Would you explain what makes him unique?
DIXON: His case is unique because Majid pled guilty more than a decade ago to various offenses and has been cooperating with U.S. authorities since that time. And he's now completed his sentence, but he's still detained at Guantanamo. And, really, everybody is waiting to see what happens to Majid Khan because in a certain respect, he is the key to resolving the military commission cases at Guantanamo. And that in turn is a key to closing the prison at Guantanamo.
PFEIFFER: How is he key?
DIXON: Well, resolving the military commissions at Guantanamo is, frankly, one of the more significant challenges when it comes to closing the prison. There are right now 12 men who are involved in the military commissions, and three of them...
PFEIFFER: And what you mean by that, to clarify, is 12 have actually been criminally charged. The remainder have not been charged.
DIXON: Exactly. And Majid's case is important because the other men who remain in the military commission system, including in particular the 9/11 defendants, you know, those cases have dragged on for more than a decade without justice, without accountability for anyone. There is right now an opportunity. But whether the government succeeds in resolving the remaining cases through plea deals and thus whether they succeed in closing Guantanamo depends in large part on what happens to Majid Khan.
So think about this - if you have completed your military commission sentence after cooperating with the U.S. authorities for more than a decade, and you look around you and it doesn't look any different to you than it did 10 years ago, that's not a tolerable situation. Why do we put anyone through a military commission trial or sentencing if at the end of the day it doesn't mean anything?
PFEIFFER: I have asked the State Department why Khan is still being held, and I'm still waiting for a response. But what have you been told, if anything, about the reason for his continued detention?
DIXON: It's hard to know and understand why Khan is being detained beyond the end of his sentence. And that's why we filed a legal challenge to his continuing detention because we weren't getting answers to those questions. But as best we can tell, there's no federal interest in continuing to hold him.
PFEIFFER: Your client grew up in suburban Maryland, but I believe he's a Pakistani citizen. And he said that Pakistan is the only country he does not want to be transferred to. Why? Why does he not want to go there?
DIXON: Majid Khan cannot be transferred safely to Pakistan because he has been cooperating with U.S. authorities for more than a decade, and that puts him at substantial risk of harm.
PFEIFFER: Finding countries to take these men is challenging. It has to be a place that won't torture them, that will have reasonable security assurances. Do you think the difficulty of that task is enough of an excuse for why so many prisoners continue to sit at Gitmo, even though they've been cleared for release?
DIXON: I don't think that the reason these men remain at Guantanamo is for lack of countries willing to accept them. I think it's really been a function of the fact that no one in the administration until recently has taken ownership or responsibility for transferring these men.
PFEIFFER: We should also note that there used to be a State Department office that helped negotiate prisoner transfers. The Trump administration shut that down. But the Biden administration has recently reappointed someone, so it looks like that process may begin again. Do you feel like that's underway in earnest?
DIXON: I do. I think it's very important and very significant and, frankly, encouraging that the Biden administration has appointed a senior official in the counterterrorism bureau to take charge of Guantanamo transfers. And, you know, I'm confident that if this work continues, there will be progress on transferring detainees and closing Guantanamo.
PFEIFFER: You have been working on Guantanamo legal cases for a long time. How hopeful are you that you'll see the remaining Gitmo cases resolved and the U.S. military court and prison there closed before Biden leaves office, whenever that is?
DIXON: Whether Guantanamo closes or not is a function of political will more than anything else. Guantanamo is fundamentally a legacy problem for the administration. You know, for the men who remain there, it is a human rights tragedy. And Guantanamo has existed for more than 20 years. It never should have been opened, but it certainly should have been closed a long, long time ago.
PFEIFFER: Wells Dixon of the Center for Constitutional Rights is a defense lawyer for Guantanamo prisoner Majid Khan. Thank you.
DIXON: Thank you.
PFEIFFER: And we did hear back from the State Department after this interview was recorded. A spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.


text:
Effective September 17, 2014
Why is the Desk purchasing longer-dated Treasury securities?
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) directed the Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to purchase additional agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and longer-term Treasury securities (see http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm for the most recent FOMC statement). The FOMC also directed the Desk to maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from the Federal Reserve's holdings of agency debt and agency MBS in agency MBS, and to roll over maturing Treasury securities into new issues at auction. The FOMC noted that these actions should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative.
For more information on MBS purchases and reinvestments, please see Frequently Asked Questions for agency MBS purchases.
What Treasury securities will the Desk purchase?
The Desk will purchase securities that, as of the date of each purchase operation, have remaining maturities of 4 years to 30 years. It will distribute purchases across seven sectors based on the approximate weights below:
Nominal Coupon Securities by Maturity Range* | TIPS** | |||||
4 - 4¾ |
4¾ - 5¾ |
5¾ - 7 |
7 - 10 |
10 - 20 |
20 - 30 |
4 - 30 |
11% |
12% |
16% |
29% |
2% |
27% |
3% |
*The on-the-run 7-year note will be considered part of the 5¾ to 7-year sector, and the on-the-run 10-year note will be considered part of the 7- to 10-year sector.
**TIPS weights are based on unadjusted par amounts.
Under this distribution, the Desk anticipates that the Treasury securities purchased will have an average duration of approximately 9 years. The distribution of purchases could change if market conditions warrant.
The Desk will continue to refrain from purchasing securities that are trading with heightened scarcity value in the repo market for specific collateral or that are cheapest to deliver into active Treasury futures contracts. Specific issues that will be excluded from consideration will be announced at the start of each operation. Currently, the Desk does not plan to purchase STRIPS or securities trading in the when-issued market.
How will the Desk manage the System Open Market Account's (SOMA's) maturing Treasury securities?
As directed by the FOMC, the Desk is rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. However, for operational efficiency, when the proceeds received by the SOMA from Treasury securities that mature on a given day total less than $2 million, the Desk will allow those securities to mature without reinvestment.
For example, if on a given date the SOMA holds two Treasury coupon securities maturing with balances of $0.5 million and $1.1 million, the full $1.6 million would be allowed to mature without reinvestment. However, if the balances of the maturing securities on that date were instead $0.5 million and $1.6 million, the full $2.1 million would be reinvested into newly issued Treasury coupon securities at auction.
As announced on January 13, 2014, Treasury Floating Rate Notes will be treated in a similar manner to other Treasury securities in its reinvestment of proceeds received from maturing Treasury security holdings (see /markets/opolicy/operating_policy_140113a.html).
For a full list of SOMA holdings, please see /markets/soma/sysopen_accholdings.html.
How will the Desk purchase securities in the open market?
The Desk will conduct its purchases through a competitive auction process that aims to accomplish the desired program at the lowest cost, while also seeking to avoid disrupting orderly market functioning.
How much will the Desk purchase each month in Treasury securities and how will this be communicated?
Treasury securities will be purchased at the monthly pace directed by the FOMC in its most recent policy statement (see http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomccalendars.htm for the most recent FOMC statement). On or around the last business day of each month, the Desk will publish a tentative schedule of operations expected to take place over the following calendar month. The dates and amounts published are subject to change should the FOMC alter its directive to the Desk during the month or if market conditions warrant.
How would a change in the FOMC directive be reflected in the Desk's published schedule?
Schedules published by the Desk are based on already announced FOMC decisions, and make no assumptions about future policy actions. Accordingly, if the FOMC announced a modification to its policy stance with a new policy directive, the Desk would release an updated schedule of operations for the remainder of the month as appropriate.
What is the maximum amount the Desk will purchase in each issue?
To provide operational flexibility and to ensure that it is able to purchase the most attractive securities on a relative-value basis, SOMA holdings of an individual security will be allowed to rise above the 35 percent threshold only in modest increments, as specified in the table below. Subject to market conditions, the Desk may further limit the size of additional purchases in certain issues or otherwise change the stated limits as needed.
SOMA Security Ownership Prior to Operation as a Percentage of Outstanding Issuance |
Maximum Purchase Amount per Security in Operation is the Lesser of: | |
0-30% |
(35% of Outstanding Issuance) minus SOMA Holdings |
30%-47.5% |
5% of Outstanding Issuance |
(50% of Outstanding Issuance) minus SOMA Holdings |
47.5%-59% |
2.5% of Outstanding Issuance |
(60% of Outstanding Issuance) minus SOMA Holdings |
59%-70% |
1% of Outstanding Issuance |
(70% of Outstanding Issuance) minus SOMA Holdings |
Above 70% |
Not Eligible for Purchase |
How will the Desk adjust for any unexpected deviations between anticipated and actual Treasury purchases over a given monthly period?
An adjustment for any deviation will be made by modifying the following month's Treasury purchases. For example, if actual Treasury purchases were $1 billion smaller (larger) than previously announced, the Desk would increase (decrease) the following month's anticipated Treasury purchases by $1 billion.
Will the Federal Reserve lend the Treasury securities it purchases through this program?
Yes, Treasury securities purchased through this program will be available to borrow through the SOMA's securities lending facility.
Who is eligible to transact with the Federal Reserve under this program?
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's primary dealers are eligible to transact directly with the Federal Reserve. Dealers are expected to submit offers both for themselves and their customers.
How will the purchases be conducted?
Consistent with its prior outright purchases of Treasury securities, the Desk will arrange these purchases with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's primary dealers through a series of multiple-price competitive auctions using the Desk's FedTrade system. Primary dealers will be able to submit a fixed number of offers on a range of eligible securities. Offers will be evaluated based on their proximity to prevailing market prices at the close of the auction as well as on measures of relative value. Relative value measures are calculated using the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's proprietary model.
How often will the Desk conduct operations to purchase Treasuries?
The anticipated number of monthly purchase operations by sector is listed in the table below:
Number of Monthly Operations | ||||||
Nominal Coupon Securities | TIPS | |||||
4 - 4¾ years |
4¾ - 5¾ years |
5¾ - 7 years |
7 - 10 |
10 - 20 years |
20 - 30 years |
4 - 30 years |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
What is the minimum amount for which a dealer may submit offers?
The minimum offer size is $1 million, with a minimum increment of $1 million.
How many offers can a dealer submit during a purchase operation?
Dealers can submit nine offers per issue, which should facilitate both dealer and dealer client participation.
How will the Desk communicate the operation results?
Operation results will be posted on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York website following each operation. The information posted will include the total amount of propositions received, total amount of propositions accepted, and the amount purchased per issue. In addition, participating dealers will receive the operation results, including their accepted propositions, via FedTrade.
Will the Desk release operation pricing results?
Yes, the Desk will continue to publish information on transaction prices in individual operations at the end of each scheduled period, coinciding with the release of the next period's schedule. For each security purchased in each operation, the Desk will release the weighted-average accepted price, the highest accepted price, and the proportion accepted of each proposition submitted at the highest accepted price.
In addition to the pricing information released each month, Section 1103 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 requires that detailed operational results, including counterparty names, be released two years after each quarterly transaction period.
Whom should dealers call if they experience difficulties during the operation?
Primary dealers may call the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Trading Desk with submission and verification questions. For system-related problems, dealers may call the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Primary Dealer Support.
When and how does Treasury security settlement take place?
Treasury security settlement will typically occur on a T+1 basis, i.e. one business day after the day of the operation, via the Fedwire Securities System.


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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent the day in Taiwan on a visit that's been harshly criticized by Beijing.
Tensions have escalated, with China's military drills around Taiwan, which Taipei claims could amount to an air and sea blockade.
MARTINEZ: To bring us up to speed, we're joined now by NPR's John Ruwitch, who has been following events from Beijing. John, tell us what Nancy Pelosi has been doing in Taiwan today.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Well, she spent the morning meeting Taiwanese members of Parliament. And then she met Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai awarded her a ceremonial civilian honor for her contributions in promoting Taiwan-U.S. relations. And in remarks at the event, Pelosi said that she visited Taipei to underscore the U.S. commitment to Taiwan.
NANCY PELOSI: Today, the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy. America's determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.
RUWITCH: This is a highly symbolic visit. But there's more to it than just political ideology. According to Taiwan President Tsai's Facebook page, she said she and Pelosi had lunch with senior executives from a couple of Taiwan's top tech firms, including TSMC, which is one of the world's leading makers of advanced microchips. And chips are, of course, an important part of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship.
MARTINEZ: Now, Beijing was not happy when she arrived in Taipei.
RUWITCH: No.
MARTINEZ: What's been the reaction so far?
RUWITCH: Well, the foreign minister called the visit a violation of China's sovereignty. And the foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador to make a formal complaint. You know, China has imposed also economic sanctions on some Taiwanese products coming into China, including citrus fruit, for example. It's also banned sand exports to Taiwan. And then, of course, there's the military component to all this. This week, China is holding several days of exercises in six zones that effectively encircle Taiwan. These are expected to be a large show of force. Taiwan says they encroach on its own territorial seas. Analysts, meanwhile, say we should expect more actions like this in the coming weeks, possibly months. And the White House, too, says that China is positioned for further steps.
MARTINEZ: Well, OK, so why is Beijing doing this? I mean, what are they worried about?
RUWITCH: Yeah, well, it goes back to Beijing's claim that Taiwan is a part of China, you know? Beijing wants to unify it politically with the mainland under the Chinese flag. So one concern is that after Pelosi's visit, other senior officials from other foreign countries might be inclined to follow suit. Another concern of Beijing's is that U.S. policy on China is just being hollowed out, you know? The U.S. says it adheres to a one-China policy and that it doesn't support Taiwan independence. But the Chinese government is increasingly skeptical of that.
MARTINEZ: We get a sense now of what the Chinese government thinks. What about the Chinese people?
RUWITCH: Yeah. A lot of people here seem to be paying attention to this. Today, on the streets here in Beijing, we spoke with a man named Gong Buyong (ph). And here's what he had to say.
GONG BUYONG: (Non-English language spoken).
RUWITCH: Yeah. So he's saying he personally is unhappy with the Chinese response so far. He thinks it could be stronger. He also says, though, that he understands why the government is, perhaps, being cautious in its reaction in what he says is a game of geopolitical chess. It's really interesting, you know? When Pelosi's plane landed in Taipei last night, there were a lot of posts online in China expressing deep unhappiness that the Chinese government allowed it to happen, effectively, didn't prevent it. Many of those critical comments are just gone today. They've been scrubbed from the internet, which underscores the sensitivity of the issue - really shows the government is trying to manage expectations on a deeply emotive issue at a sensitive time for China, with the economy under pressure, the pandemic still a problem and a key Communist Party meeting coming up.
MARTINEZ: NPR's John Ruwitch in Beijing. Thanks a lot, John.
RUWITCH: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan downgraded in annual anti-trafficking report
(Washington, DC): Today the U.S. State Department gave the governments of both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan well-deserved downgrades to Tier 3, the lowest possible ranking, in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Both governments continue to coercively mobilize citizens to grow and harvest cotton each year in two of the world's largest remaining systems of state-sponsored forced labor. The decisions were lauded in a letter sent today to Secretary of State John Kerry by the Cotton Campaign .
"The U.S. Government is to be commended for holding these government accountable for their pervasive abuses of human rights," said Nadejda Ataeva, president of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia. "Today, the State Department sent a strong message that states that use violence and fear to coerce citizens into forced labor belong on the lowest tier of the report's rankings."
The 2015 Uzbek cotton harvest was marked by a dramatic rise in attacks against independent civil society monitors, as reported in the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights' annual reporting on the cotton harvest. Elena Urlaeva endured multiple detentions with invasive body cavity searches, Uktam Pardaev was arrested and placed under a form of house arrest, and Dmitri Tihonov was forced to flee after his house was burned down and he was threatened with arrest. As these monitors documented, the Uzbek government's forced labor system continued unchanged from previous years. Officials forced more than a million Uzbek citizens to grow and harvest cotton under threat of penalty including loss of work or social security benefits, expulsion from school, and fines. Teachers, medical professionals and other public servants are particularly impacted, and public services such as education and healthcare are severely limited during the cotton harvest.
Forced labor in cotton production in Turkmenistan is also state-orchestrated, systematic and widespread. According to reports from the Alternative Turkmenistan News, the Turkmen government forces farmers to deliver state-established annual cotton production quotas and thousands of workers to pick cotton under threats of loss of land, employment or wages. Forced-labor cotton production was noted as a reason for Tier 3 designations in the country reports for both Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
"It is absolutely shocking these egregious worker rights abuses have persisted so long," said Cathy Feingold, director of International Affairs for the AFL-CIO. "It is incumbent on governments and international institutions to firmly press the Uzbek and Turkmen governments to end forced-labor cotton production, and the United States took a positive step toward that goal today."
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are the world's fifth- and seventh-highest exporters of cotton, respectively. The Uzbek and Turkmen governments both funnel hundreds of millions of dollars from annual cotton sales, by conservative estimates, into non-transparent, unaccountable funds only accessible to government elite. The cotton makes its way through opaque global supply chains and eventually winds up in the products of well-known global brands.
"With this year's report, the US government sent the right message to the Uzbek and Turkmen governments," said Pat Zerega, senior director of shareholder advocacy, Mercy Investment Services. "Progress towards fulfilling a state's duty to protect its citizens' right to freedom from forced labor must start with the state itself not using forced labor. We now urge the US government to use the report rankings to press the Uzbek and Turkmen governments to eliminate state-orchestrated forced labor in their cotton sectors."
For more information and recommendations on how the U.S. Government can effectively advocate for an end to state-sponsored forced labor in cotton, please see the Cotton Campaign's letter to Secretary of State Kerry.
The Cotton Campaign is a global coalition of labour, human rights, investor and business organizations to end forced labour of children and adults in the cotton sector of Uzbekistan.