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From Abracadabra to Zombies
Evaluating Personal Experience
Robert Todd Carroll
"...the self is hardly a neutral observer of the world." --Daniel Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory
Experts in the psychology of human error have long been aware that even highly trained experts are easily misled when they rely on personal experience and informal decision rules to infer the causes of complex events. --Barry Beyerstein
This article is dedicated to the memory of Barry L. Beyerstein
There are sound reasons for preferring the data from randomized, double-blind, controlled experiments to the data provided by anecdotes when we are searching for causes. Even well-educated, highly trained experts are subject to many perceptual, affective, and cognitive biases that lead us into error when evaluating personal experiences. The informal procedures most of us use to decide whether events are causally related are vastly inferior to formal rules such as Mill's methods. The formal rules aren't infallible and can be misapplied but they are orders of magnitude more reliable than naive sense perception, unaided memory, or so-called intuition. Formal methods of causal analysis are necessary even if we do not have an emotional, doctrinal, or monetary stake in the acceptance of a particular causal claim. Many of our beliefs are driven by our biases and are generated for their comfort-value rather than for their truth-value. Formal methods of causal analysis are especially necessary when the causal claim is not particularly comforting or attractive. All things being equal, the more impersonal and detached we are in evaluating potential causal events, the less likely error becomes.
Thus, when personal experience conflicts with the data of well designed and executed controlled studies, it behooves us to examine our personal experience for bias. We should be especially wary of any product promising beneficial effects that is marketed before controlled studies have been done. When there is no compelling supportive evidence from controlled studies, we should subject a causal claim to a detailed critical evaluation before considering that there might be a causal connection between two events. For example, what evidence there is from controlled studies indicates that the claims of applied kinesiology (AK) are bogus. This fact has not diminished the attractiveness of AK for many people. In fact, some chiropractors reject controlled experiments on the ground that they don't work, i.e., the results conflict with their beliefs about and their personal experience with AK. This response is irrational, however. Instead of rejecting formal, scientific testing, a rational person would inspect his conflicting belief and make every effort to discover the source of his error.
The benefits of formal analysis and the pitfalls of anecdotal evidence are illustrated in the following e-mail I received from "Mike":
I can't attest to the validity of David Hawkins's assertions or opinions, but I will share my personal experience with applied kinesiology with you. [Hawkins is an AK practitioner, among other things.]
Twenty-five years ago (age 30) I began suffering from serious food allergies. I began reacting to common foods that I had eaten for most of my life with increasing severity including a couple of potentially life threatening anaphylactic shocks that resulted in my being rushed to nearby hospital emergency wards and saved with injections of epinephrine.
I exhausted the best traditional medical resources available in Boston without results. Out of desperation, I visited a practitioner of applied kinesiology on a recommendation from a local nutritionist. It was the strangest thing. This very professional female in a white lab coat had me lie down on a medical-style table in what looked like a traditional doctor's office. She placed dozens of small amounts food substances enclosed within what looked like small plastic pill boxes on my stomach while I laid down face up. She asked me to extend my right arm and resist her efforts to press my arm down toward the ground. In most instances, I easily resisted her pressure. In some instances my arm collapsed, which was astounding to me at the time both physically and mentally. She meticulously created a list that included several food substances to eliminate from my diet. I did so.
From that day forward I stopped having allergic food reactions. After a few months I visited her again. She tested me for the items I showed sensitivity to during our first visit. I tested as cured. Cautiously, I reintroduced those food items back into my diet without any repercussions. I have been fine ever since.
I don't know how or why this worked. I do know that very sophisticated lab work conducted in a highly regarded hospital in Boston by a renowned physician was unable to determine what I was allergic to and how to pursue relief.
I am a conservative executive, a practicing Catholic, and have undergraduate and graduate degrees in business.
Feel free to use my comments although I am not on a crusade for the credibility of applied kinesiology. If you do so, please withhold my last name.
Mike says he doesn't know how or why AK worked. However, from this anecdotal evidence alone we can't justifiably say that AK worked. Mike also implies that AK worked better than the best science available at the time. After all, AK found what caused his allergies and scientific medicine did not. The problem here is that at this point it is just an assumption that Mike suffered from food allergies identified by the AK lady.
It is understandable that a person suffering from some problem would infer that since the problem went away after the treatment that the treatment was effective. The only evidence we have that the treatment worked (i.e., was effective) is that the problem went away after the visit to the AK lady and after Mike stopped ingesting the foods on the list she made for him. The fact that scientific medical tests did not indicate that Mike's symptoms were due to an allergy is not evidence in favor of the view that AK is superior to conventional scientific methods. Had Mike not visited the AK lady, his symptoms might have ceased without any intervention at all. We have no way of knowing what would have happened to Mike had he not gone to the AK lady.
Mike's anecdote illustrates why scientists prefer controlled studies to the details of personal experience, even though those details are important for medical diagnosis. The first problem with the anecdote is that we have to rely on Mike's memory for details. The events happened twenty-five years ago. A lot of things can conspire to corrupt even a recent memory. The accuracy of the details may not be reliable. Memory can be selective and important details may not be recalled. Things that Mike experienced in the past twenty-five years might get mixed up with the old memory. Time sequences can get confused. A properly designed and executed controlled study can eliminate these problems.
Then there is the problem of interpreting the data. Mike seems convinced that he suffered from food allergies. It would be relatively easy to test AK's effectiveness at diagnosing food allergies. All we have to do is put the food or a known non-allergen (for the client) in a pill box and lay it on the client's stomach and subject him to the arm pressure test. As long as neither client nor AK practitioner knows what is in the box we should be able to do a fair test, expecting distinctly different reactions to the pressure on the arm routine depending on what's in the box. We could do a significant number of such tests with various clients, randomly assigning pill boxes and their contents, which would give us enough data to determine whether there is likely anything to the AK claims.
To prevent complaints from the AK person that the test wasn't fair, we'd let her do a few unblinded trials to make sure she thinks she can do what she claims. John Renish suggests that, to throw a monkey wrench into the mix, he would "put a compressive strain sensor between the practitioner's hand and the patient's for both the known and double-blinded materials: the record of force would demonstrate the variation due to the practitioner's ideomotor or unconscious effort, or possibly the practitioner's knowingly fraudulent actions."
There are a "number of social, psychological, and cognitive factors that can convince honest, intelligent, and well-educated people that scientifically-discredited [or untested] treatments have merit."--Barry Beyerstein
On the other hand, with the anecdote we have some problems. We can probably trust Mike's memory about the anaphylactic shocks and the treatment with injections of epinephrine. But we have no way of knowing whether the AK practitioner's pill box routine reliably identified food allergies. The list she gave Mike could have been determined by her pill box routine, but she could have just made it up based on general knowledge of foods that might be problematic. The amount of pressure she exerted might have been unconsciously determined by her beliefs about the allergenic potential of what she knew was in the pill box for each test. Even more problematic is the fact that there is no compelling scientific evidence to support the claim that this AK practitioner's method of identifying food allergens is reliable.
Furthermore, we can't be sure that the absence of further symptoms was due to the absence of the foods removed from Mike's diet. One thing happened after the other, but that is not enough to support a causal connection. For all we know, some X-factor caused the anaphylactic shocks, some event or substance not controlled for and completely independent of any of the foods Mike believes caused his symptoms. The best medical people in Boston couldn't identify the cause of Mike's symptoms, he tells us. It is possible but unlikely that such competent medical people couldn't identify a simple food allergy. The belief that food caused his medical problems seems based on little more than the claims of the AK practitioner and the fact that his symptoms did not recur after visiting her and he stopped eating the foods on her list.
I find it puzzling, however, that even though he received no therapy, he was told by the AK lady several months after his first visit with her that he was "cured" of his allergies and could now return to eating the foods that nearly killed him. He says he returned to eating these foods and hasn't had any more problems. This evidence is consistent with the claim that an X-factor, not the foods he avoided for a few months, caused his symptoms.
A properly controlled study would produce unambiguous results. This anecdote, however, can be interpreted in several ways. Perhaps Mike can now eat the killer foods because he never had an allergic reaction to them in the first place. Perhaps his symptoms weren't caused by an allergic reaction at all. Something else that we know nothing about may have actually caused his symptoms. Whatever it was, it was temporary. The symptoms might have been produced by voodoo or they may have been a punishment from God. Maybe stress or an infection caused the symptoms. Maybe aliens were experimenting on Mike, unbeknownst to him.
I am no expert on food allergies but from what I do know, it seems unlikely a person could both go thirty years without a reaction to certain foods that suddenly nearly kill him and then a few months later find that the killers have returned to their former gentle selves.
This anecdote illustrates the power of experience to deceive us into thinking we have identified a causal agent when, in fact, we have very little evidence in support of our belief. The astute reader will have noticed that I made no mention of the placebo effect to explain Mike's relief. In my Skeptic's Dictionary entry on homeopathy I review Wendy Kaminer's defense of the rationality of going to a homeopath even if there is no compelling scientific evidence that homeopathic remedies are effective. They may have some benefit due to the placebo effect, she argues, and so it would be irrational not to go to the homeopath. I won't repeat my arguments here, but I don't think Kaminer's position is defensible. Even if AK has some sort of placebo effect, that is not good enough reason to recommend it. It is possible, I suppose, that the AK lady was so charming and sweet that she completely disarmed Mike and relieved him of all stress, thereby relaxing him to such an extent that his own body was able to produce natural substances that brought him relief or shut down the production of the harmful chemicals that were causing his symptoms. However, even if Mike's recovery was due to a placebo effect, we have no way of knowing this without doing systematic formal testing of AK. With the amount of evidence we have here, the placebo effect is on par with voodoo or divine vengeance in terms of its supportive evidence.
It might seem that the evidence in Mike's anecdote that AK is an effective diagnostic and therapeutic procedure is on par with the evidence that the prescription a physician gives you for a diagnosed bladder infection was effective. It might appear that the only evidence you have is that the infection went away after you took the medicine. However, presumably the physician chose the drug to prescribe based on the evidence from scientific studies. The AK lady has no scientific studies to back up her method of diagnosis. What she probably has is some experience using AK where the method seems to work. She has probably seen demonstrations of AK, has received some positive feedback from her customers, and so "knows from experience" that it works.
The evidence from satisfied customers is anecdotal and consists of nothing more than that some customers claiming that after the treatment they felt better. Again, these customers have no way of knowing that it was the AK that brought about the desired outcome. All they know is that one thing happened after another. The demonstrations of AK that the practitioner has probably witnessed or produced herself were most likely not controlled demonstrations. The method of testing AK used by practitioners would probably involve knowing what substance is being tested and then behaving in an expected manner. If the substance is believed to be bad for you, then they press hard or produce little resistance (depending on what role they are playing). If the substance is believed to be good for you, then they don't press hard or don't offer much resistance. This may all take place at the unconscious level, however. So, we need not accuse the AK folks of fraud. Ideomotor action combined with a strong desire to succeed in providing support for their belief system is sufficient to explain how this kind of self-deception works. These factors also illustrate the importance of doing randomized, double-blind, controlled studies rather than relying on personal experience and anecdotes to establish causal connections.
While there haven't been any well designed controlled studies indicating the effectiveness of AK, there have been numerous studies that seem to provide support for the effectiveness of acupuncture. Evaluating treatment by an acupuncturist is a bit more tricky than evaluating AK treatment. I will try to illustrate some of the issues involved in evaluating personal experiences with acupuncture by using an e-mail sent to me from "Fabio." (English is not Fabio's first language but I have kept my editing to a minimum. I believe that Fabio expresses himself clearly enough to be understood and that is all that is required for our purposes here. The reader should understand that it is the ideas that we are interested in here, not the grammar.)
Regarding your article on acupuncture: I agree with you that there are many people who claim to do acupuncture and what they do is just junk. And I agree that there might be several studies that prove acupuncture is not working, at least not in the way it should, or that it is even harmful.
On the other hand, take this personal experience, which I witnessed with my own eyes, from a person I know: A little girl of six years has had big problems due to the fact that her left leg was 6 cm [2.4 inches] shorter than the right one since birth. After taking her to hospital, the doctors advised the parents [that they wanted] to operate [on] their daughter and remove 6 cm from the longer leg. Accidentally, they met an acupuncturist, who I know personally, and he offered ... to try to treat the girl before the operation [and] to try [to] avoid it [the operation]. And funny thing, it worked, since it wasn't the leg that was 6 cm shorter, but the hip, which was tilted relative to the backbone. No difficult operation, almost no pain, almost no cost, and no more problems in the years since the treatment up to now.
I don't say this to claim that acupuncture is THE great thing and can replace conventional medical treatment. I am aware that there are a lot of people around who are just frauds or even harm people. But this little first-hand experience and some others I had myself on my own body, convinced me that acupuncture definitely can work and can do something to your body. Of course it will not work if not applied correctly. And it's no wonder-healing. Just like conventional medicine is dependent on being applied correctly and cannot perform wonders.
Of course you don't need to believe my story and can say that I am just telling nonsense out of wishful thinking or whatever. My only advice, if you want to be a "real" skeptic: go out, try a lot of people [and] a lot of treatments and see what it can do... if it does not work, you just waste money, if it helps you with something it is fine and if it harms you, at least you know that it works, just not in the way you liked it to have... no, sorry I was just kidding.
Anyhow, from my opinion it is very very important to try out as much as one can do, and not only read studies and books. In my opinion, this is what a skeptic in the sense of being a scientist should do. What can happen? If it does not work, it simply does not work, and if something works, it's just a starting point for thinking, more investigations and maybe findings. And it can definitely be exciting.
If you want to post my mail as a reader comment on your page, feel free to do so.
Fabio advises me and other skeptics to personally experience acupuncture if we are to understand it. Experience can provide us with lessons that books and scientific studies cannot. Furthermore, Fabio and many others are satisfied customers in the sense that they have experienced the effectiveness of acupuncture.
First, I must remind Fabio and the reader that in my article on acupuncture I make a point to distinguish the claim that sticking needles into various parts of a human body induces physiological changes in that body and the claim that acupuncture works by unblocking chi in meridians. The concepts of chi and meridians are metaphysical concepts that evolved long before physiology and long before the discovery of nerve endings, endorphins, etc. The fact that millions of people have sworn by acupuncture or lucky charms or prayers or faith healers, etc. is irrelevant to whether these practices are causal agents in the way their adherents think they are. As I make clear in my article, appealing to unblocking chi in meridians is superfluous metaphysical gibberish but the claim that sticking needles in people has measurable physiological effects is an empirical claim that has been tested and is correct.
We can test the claim, for example, that sticking needles in a person's ear lobes effectively treats addiction. But we are deceiving ourselves if we think we have good evidence for such a claim by experiencing auricular acupuncture before we quit drinking, smoking, or using heroin. I understand why a person who went to an acupuncturist to help with some addictive behavior would think that the acupuncture was the most significant causal factor in her treatment if she did actually overcome the addiction. But this subjective certainty of a causal connection is of little relevance to the accuracy of the general claim: acupuncture is an effective causal agent in the treatment of addiction. To provide compelling evidence for such a claim we should require controlled studies, not anecdotes. In our individual experience we are unable to control for dozens of other factors that might be significant and we are likely to give too much credit to the one thing that actually had little or no effect.
Fabio might reply by asking: What difference does it make? You quit smoking! That's what you wanted. So what if the acupuncture actually had nothing to do with it? The treatment worked!
In fact, you don't know that the treatment worked, i.e., that the acupuncture was effective. You can't reasonably advise others to try it simply on the grounds that after you did the treatment you quit smoking. On the other hand, if dozens of your smoking friends and colleagues all tried it and all quit smoking for several years, we would have to admit that the odds of some X-factor being involved have diminished. Though the placebo effect might account for these successes, such a mass of anecdotal evidence would warrant a nice grant from your government to do a proper scientific study of the issue. Any lingering doubts we might have about the causal efficacy of acupuncture for treating nicotine addiction could be erased by a few well designed and executed controlled studies.
I was intrigued by the story about the little girl because I was told by my parents that when I was very young one of my legs was shorter than the other. I received neither surgery nor acupuncture, but a shoe with a lift. Eventually, I didn't need the shoe. As far as I can tell, my legs are the same length now. Maybe my hip was out of whack and the shoe with the lift slowly adjusted it in relation to my leg. I've never heard of acupuncture making legs grow or hips relocate, so that is a new one on me. I asked Fabio if she received any other treatment besides acupuncture and he wrote:
Only acupuncture was used to treat her. In the weeks directly after the treatment, she had some trouble getting used to the "changes" in her body, but after this period, everything was fine and just normal, no limp, no brace. I followed her case for roughly two years after the treatment, where no negative change to her constitution happened.
What effect, if any, did the acupuncture have on this little girl? There is no way for us to know. We don't have anything to compare this treatment to. We have no way of knowing what would have happened had she received no treatment at all. There are studies that indicate acupuncture can relieve some of the pain associated with joint problems, but what relevance such studies have for this case is uncertain. Also, apparently it is not uncommon to have one leg shorter than the other, a fact that has been exploited by some chiropractors.
Acupuncture supposedly works by unblocking chi, a universal life force that the ancient Chinese believed runs through everything in the universe. Many modern people still cling to this ancient metaphysical notion, although there is no scientific evidence that it exists. We can only guess how the ancient Chinese came up with this idea, but the notion of a breathlike spiritual energy flowing through all things also evolved in other pre-scientific cultures such as ancient India, where it is called prana. George Dillman teaches martial arts and is a 9th degree black belt in Ryukyu Kempo Tomari-te. He has trained heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and movie action hero Bruce Lee, among others. He claims he can knock out anyone without touching them by hurling chi at them. Many students are attracted to Dillman's martial arts school because of his reputation for possessing the amazing ability of delivering a no-touch knockout. The students come, they see, and they end up believing because they have seen with their own eyes a demonstration of his superpower. On a National Geographic television program ("Is It Real? Superpowers"), Dillman pushes his hands through the air at one of his students while grunting loudly. After a few seconds, the student falls to the ground and appears to be unconscious. Dillman repeats the demonstration and knocks over a line of students without touching anyone. He rolls his hands around an invisible ball in the air before him and pushes his hands forward while grunting. Soon the line of students tumbles over. Dillman brags that he once moved the line at Starbucks by using only his mind to push auras around. Several young martial arts students were interviewed on the National Geographic program. Each told how they had come to the school because they had to see this exhibition for themselves. Now that they had seen with their own eyes what Dillman can do, they were convinced he was knocking people out with chi. If you can't believe your own eyes, what can you believe?
Luigi Garlaschelli, however, had his doubts. Garlaschelli was not one of Dillman's fawning students, but a chemist at Pavia University in Italy. Garlaschelli and fellow skeptic Massimo Polidoro have had extensive practice uncovering errors made by people who do not consider that there might be another, better explanation for their experiences. What appears supernatural or paranormal often has a simple physical or psychological explanation. Garlaschelli was shown a film of Dillman delivering his no-touch knockout. "I don't think it is possible for a person to transfer his or her energy to another person," said Garlaschelli. He agreed to put Dillman's claim to the test. For some reason, Dillman did not participate in the test. One of his top aides, Leon Jay, an 8th degree black belt, was given the job of knocking out Garlaschelli without touching him. Jay moved his hands in the air around Garlaschelli's head for some time but was unable to move the 125-pound chemist even a fraction of an inch.
Dillman did participate in the rationalization session that followed Jay's failure. He claimed that the skeptic is "a total non-believer," which was stating the obvious and, ironically, is the key to understanding what is going on with Dillman's chi punch. Dillman was suggesting that one must believe in the power of chi in order to be knocked out by it. That is exactly what the skeptics were to maintain. Like many AK chiropractors, however, Dillman was not going to let a controlled experiment destroy his belief. He went on to claim that maybe Garlaschelli wasn't knocked out because his tongue was "in the wrong position." He also claimed that he could not knock out someone if they had one big toe pointing upward and the other pointing downward. He didn't elaborate on the requirements of tongue location or toe direction for the flow of chi. Understandably, National Geographic didn't do any further tests on these claims, so we don't know for sure whether they were just rationalizations, which is what they appear to be, or legitimate exceptions to whatever rules govern the manipulation of chi. A reasonable person might be willing to consider Dillman's excuses had he revealed them to an experimenter prior to the test. Bringing them up after the test had been completed only adds to their implausibility.
Polidoro offered a different explanation for Dillman's no-touch knockout and for Jay's failure to put down a featherweight Italian chemist using his superpower. Polidoro suspects that Dillman's students were being manipulated by the power of suggestion, not by chi. It was their belief in Dillman's powers that led them to unconsciously suggest to themselves that they were being overpowered by some force controlled by Dillman. The students weren't pretending to be knocked out, but they were conditioned to behave the way they did based on what they believed was expected of them in that situation. The expected reaction to the master's moves had been reinforced by the community of students in past demonstrations.
You can view the experiment and decide for yourself which explanation for what happens is more plausible, Dillman's or Polidoro's. Pay attention to how the students fall when they are "knocked out." This slow, gentle falling is a key to what is going on.
I'll conclude this section with a very apropos quote from Barry Beyerstein:
The pioneers of the scientific revolution were aware of the large potential for error when informal reasoning joins forces with our penchant for jumping to congenial conclusions. By systematizing observations, studying large groups rather than a few isolated individuals, instituting control groups, and trying to eliminate confounding variables, these innovative thinkers hoped to reduce the impact of the frailties of reasoning that lead to false beliefs about how the world works. None of these safeguards exists when we base our decisions merely on a few satisfied customers' personal anecdotes—unfortunately, these stories are the "alternative" practitioner's stock in trade. Psychologists interested in judgmental biases have repeatedly demonstrated that human inference is especially vulnerable in complex situations, such as that of evaluating therapeutic outcomes, which contain a mix of interacting variables and a number of strong social pressures. Add a pecuniary interest in a particular outcome, and the scope for self-delusion is immense.
Sense Perception
Some events are not subject to controlled studies, e.g., UFO sightings. Having some knowledge about how the visual system works is essential to evaluating UFO claims. Since we tend to see things that conform with our beliefs, it is inevitable that skeptics and those who believe we have been visited by aliens from other worlds will disagree in their evaluations of such things as the so-called Phoenix Lights. On the evening of March 13, 1997, at 8:30 p.m. many people witnessed lights over Phoenix. At 8:15 p.m. the lights were seen over Prescott, Arizona, and over Tucson at 8:45. Later, around 10 p.m. up to nine bright lights were seen in the sky near Phoenix. They appeared to hover for several minutes and then disappear southwest of Phoenix in the direction of the Sierra Estrella. "Video cameras at points across the Valley caught the string of hovering lights. All nine were visible from some locations, others saw fewer."* The lights were reportedly also seen in Nevada and Sonora (Mexico).
Some identify the lights as a massive spacecraft of unearthly origin. Others identify the lights as illumination flares used by the military. Those who believe they saw an alien spacecraft have no explanation as to where it came from or where it went to after the time it was visible. Those who believe they saw flares note that the United States Air Force has stated that A-10 Warthogs from the Barry Goldwater Range at Luke Air Force Base were on a training exercise that night that involved jettisoning slow-falling, long-burning illumination flares over the area. (Air National Guard pilot Lt. Col. Ed Jones has confirmed that he flew one of the aircraft in the formation that dropped flares on the night in question.*) These kinds of military flares can be visible for hundreds of miles. The skeptics also note that the lights disappeared just as one would expect them to if they dropped out of sight behind the Estrella mountain range.
One of those who believes he saw an aircraft is former Arizona governor Fife Symington III. He is quoted as saying: "I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen....And it couldn't have been flares because it was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape."
Brian Dunning has investigated the type of flare used that night:
The illumination flare is ... called the LUU-2 air-deployed high intensity illumination flare. It's made by defense contractor ATK Thiokol. The variant in use at the time of the Phoenix Lights incident was the LUU-2B/B. It weighs 30 pounds and its canister is three-feet long and 5 inches in diameter. Once it ejects its parachute and ignites, it puts out 1.8 million candela for 4 minutes, or 1.6 million candela for 5 minutes. It falls in its parachute at 8.3 feet-per-second. At 1000 feet above the ground, it lights up an area half a kilometer wide at 5 lux. The LUU-2's pyrotechnic candle burns magnesium, which produces an intense white light. Because it burns so hot, it also ends up burning the aluminum canister, which adds an orange hue to the light for most of the burn. About halfway through the burn, enough of the canister has been burned away that it actually lightens the load and it falls more and more slowly. Once it's almost completely out, an explosive bolt disconnects the parachute and the flare drops, burning out completely sometime hopefully before landing on someone's wood shingle roof.*
Despite the governor's protestation, it could have been flares that he and others saw. Perceiving lights in the sky as symmetrical, geometric, or constant does not exclude the possibility of the lights being objects falling from the sky. Everything depends on perspective. Depending on the angle of perception, the distance and size of the objects emitting the light, atmospheric conditions, the brightness and constancy of the light, and wind patterns, military flares could have produced an optical illusion of a solid object. If one believes he is looking at a spacecraft, he could easily perceive lights from falling flares as a solid object. The brain is always filling in the blanks, so to speak, when we see things. We're not taking videos or pictures of the external world; we're constructing and projecting from the data available and from our expectations. I can't say that the governor didn't see an aircraft that night but I am sure he is wrong to claim that it is impossible that what he saw was flares that appeared to be an aircraft.
Another aspect of perception that cases like the Phoenix lights invite us to explore is how what others say affects what we see. Once we've been encouraged to see a spacecraft instead of some drifting lights, our perception may change and we, too, may see a spacecraft where moments ago we saw no such thing.
The governor saw the lights with his own eyes, without the use of cameras. Video and still photos present special problems when evaluating experience because their settings are not the same as those for the human eye. Thus, evaluating photos is a different process from evaluating eyewitness testimony. Things can show up in photos and videos that are very misleading as to what was actually occurring in the real world at the time the pictures were taken. This is especially true when we are dealing with photos taken in low light or of the night sky. Many people took photos and videos of the Phoenix Lights but those who then filled in the blanks to produce spacecraft were constructing a specific vision out of ambiguous data (pareidolia).
Another perceptual twist to this story is that some people may have seen the lights from planes flying in formation, while others saw flares. Some may have seen both and conflated them into a single object. Tony Ortega investigated the story for the Phoenix New Times and interviewed Mitch Stanley who reported seeing the vee formation from his backyard. He was able to view the formation through his telescope and was sure he saw planes in formation, each with two lights. The lights that appeared as single lights to the naked eye, appeared as two lights in his telescope.
In an article published a year after the 1997 sighting, Ortega wrote:
An alert owner of a home video camera caught the 8:30 vee pattern on tape. Terry Proctor filmed the vee for several minutes. The quality of the tape is poor, and even under enhancement the video shows nothing joining the five lights of the pattern. However, the pattern of lights changes over just a few seconds. The lights clearly move in relation to each other, proving that the lights represent five separate objects, rather than a solid body. This is consistent with witness reports from Prescott, where one light trailed the others temporarily. ("The Hack and the Quack," Phoenix New Times, March 5, 1998)
The pictures above show an image from video shot of the 10:30 lights and a drawing of the 8:30 lights that hammers home the vee shape. Ortega has recently written that programs like Dateline continue to interview people who saw the 8:30 lights while showing pictures of the 10:30 lights. The witnesses swear that what they saw was not a bunch of flares hanging from balloons. "They are right," says Ortega. "They couldn't see flares, they saw a formation of planes." ("The Phoenix Lights Explained (Again)," Skeptic, Volume 14 Number 2, August, 2008).
MSNBC considers the Phoenix Lights to be the top UFO story of all time!
The story doesn't end here, however. (In fact, these kinds of stories never end, thanks to UFO fanatics and the ratings-hungry media.) On April 21, 2008, strange lights appeared over Phoenix again! This couldn't be coincidence, right? But the military was not engaging in any exercises involving illumination flares on that night. Well, that's what the Air Force spokesperson said, but he may have been part of a conspiracy to keep the public ignorant of alien visitation. Could it be that the skeptics were wrong and that the spacecraft seen by so many people, including the governor of the state, was making a return visit to the Phoenix area? Perhaps. But another explanation is that the second lights were launched by a hoaxer. A helicopter pilot with the Phoenix police department reported that the lights looked like flares hanging from balloons. Furthermore, there was an eyewitness to the launching of several helium balloons shortly before the sightings of the mysterious lights. Lino Mailo said he saw his neighbor launch balloons with flares attached to them from the back porch of his north Phoenix home. Ben Radford noted that there are other problems with the alien spacecraft hypothesis: the lights slowly drifted apart over time and disappeared one by one, and nothing showed up on the radar screens of air traffic controllers in the area. ("The Mysterious Phoenix Lights," Skeptical Inquirer, July/August 2008.)
Transcendental Experiences
Transcendental experiences are those that appear to be grounded in some supernatural or paranormal dimension, quite distinct from ordinary experience. Mystical experiences, out-of-body and near-death experiences, some energy healing experiences, and the like deserve special attention because they often have monumental, life-altering effects. Those who are skeptical of the supernatural or the paranormal often derisively reject accounts of transcendental experiences as delusions, hallucinations, or nothing but brain states. On the other hand, those who experience the transcendental are often too eager to identify their experiences as supernatural or paranormal and are unwilling to even consider other possible explanations. If it is the truth that a person is after, then it behooves that person to become knowledgeable of what psychology has learned about unconscious processes that affect how we perceive, remember, and develop beliefs. The first step each of us must take if we seek the truth and if we desire to avoid self-deception is to recognize why it is dangerous to take experience at face value. We must always keep in mind that nobody is immune to the many perceptual, affective, and cognitive biases that can lead us into error when evaluating personal experiences.
At the end of his fine little book on The Psychology of Transcendence, Andrew Neher notes that researchers have shied away from studying transcendental experiences. Today, more than twenty-five years after the publication of Neher's book, there is more study being done on transcendental experiences but overall the subject is basically still ignored by skeptics* and pursued mostly by incompetents like Gary Schwartz and Rupert Sheldrake on the believer side.* Neher believed that "transcendental experience is of great importance to us all" (296). Maybe, but until competent researchers, without axes to grind or points to prove, design and carry out the research projects, I'm afraid we'll continue to be left wondering whether there is anything behind the transcendental mask worth exploring.
See also Belief Armor, Why Do People Believe in the Palpably Untrue?, Defending Falsehoods, and Why Woo-woo Wins.
further reading
Why We Need Science: "I saw it with my own eyes" Is Not Enough by Harriet Hall, M.D.
Robert Todd Carroll
July 16, 2007
* There are a few exceptions, e.g., Richard Wiseman, Chris French, and Peter Brugger.


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Bubbli iOS app lets you create and share a spherical photo bubble with sound1 April 2014
Bubbli is a photo app with panoramic-like shooting features. It has debuted at time when the market is already brimming with stiff competition from the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. But Pocket-lint has decided to give Bubbli a whirl... >>
Royal Ceremony at Westminster Abbey gets Photosynth treatment29 April 2011
You no doubt watched the royal wedding as it happened, but now you can relive moments from the Westminster Abbey thanks to the help of Microsoft and it's Photosynth software. "In celebration of the Royal Wedding, we have assembled a Photosynth capturing... >>
VIDEO: Nokia Image Space launches in Beta Labs22 December 2009
Nokia has announced the launch of a new "experimental" app into its open Beta Labs for people to have a go and provide feedback. The new app, "Image Space", is described as a "solution for showing a new view to your photos, as well as to those from your... >>
Microsoft adds Photosynth to Virtual Earth with Silverlight7 May 2009
Microsoft has announced updates to its 3D Photosynth technology that will let businesses and Virtual Earth customers create detailed 3D views of "anything from places to products and from hotels to homes". Apparently the first commercial use for Photosynth,... >>

subset: commoncrawl


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Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale Review
Easy setup; Intuitive multiple user support; Offers helpful health tips ; Lets you choose body type profiles
Relatively expensive; Can't enter workouts or intake via Withings app
The Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale is a beautifully designed smart scale for serious exercise enthusiasts.
Don't be fooled: Weight alone is not an accurate measurement of a healthy body. The Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale records your weight, lean mass, fat mass and body mass index to give you a more complete picture of your overall fitness level. But can the Wi-Fi Body Scale help you understand the meaning of all of these measurements for the premium price of $159?
The Withings scale is available in black or white, but no matter which color you choose, the smooth glass surface gives the scale a modern look. The backlit 3.5-inch LCD with large numbers is easy to read in low light. Vertical and horizontal solid stripes under the colored glass spices up the design, and also marks where you are supposed to stand for the most accurate reading. The glass has electrodes that send a signal through your body to measure your body composition.
Measuring 12.6 x 12.6 x 0.9 inches and weighing 6.7 pounds, the Withings scale is slightly smaller than the iHealth scale and almost the same size as the Fitbit Aria. It comes with 4 AAA batteries, a USB cord, a tape measure and four attachments for when it is used on a carpeted surface. We loved the carpet attachments, something not included with the iHealth and Aria scales.
It was extremely easy to set up the Withings scale. While you can use it simply to measure weight, you can only use its advanced features by setting up an online profile. We created our free profile by choosing a username, a password, and entering our gender, height and starting weight. A window gave us an explanation of weight, lean mass, and fat mass, and supplied answers for such frequently asked questions as "What is a normal body composition?" Using these features, Withings really helped us understand all the elements that go into creating a balanced body instead of just purely looking at weight as a be-all-end-all measurement of healthiness.
Unlike the iHealth scale but similar to the Aria, the Withings Scale connects to your Wi-Fi network. In order to do so, we first had to connect the scale to our Mac via USB (it's also PC-compatible). The setup took us less than 4 minutes.
Software and Interface
In addition to using a browser dashboard, you can also check out your weight using the free Withings mobile app (available for Android and iOS devices). After signing into our account, we could view our weight information. When the app is in landscape mode, it changes from showing a single account of your weight, lean mass and fat mass to a chart of your weight history.
Unlike the Aria's Fitbit app for iOS and the iHealth scale app, we were not able to log our workouts or caloric intake with the Withing's app or Web portal. However, users can sync their data with a variety of different apps that do allow calorie tracking along with other metrics. We were able to sync with apps such as RunKeeper, DailyBurn and even the FitBit app.
Withings also offers many different sharing options, including Twitter and Facebook, as well as the ability to email your data to your doctor.
Where Fitbit tries to makes its scale and Web interface fun, Withings is aimed at more serious athletes, as there are a ton of FAQs about the science of losing weight and explanation of diet terms such as BMI, body fat percentage and lean mass. Withings also runs a great blog with a focus on health, diet tips and the impact of smart technology on the health industry--whereas the Fitbit blog is focused on feature and hardware updates, and iHealth does not have a blog at all.
The Withings scale measures everything that the Aria scale measures as well as lean mass--a great measurement for serious fitness enthusiasts. We were able to choose from different profiles to help make measuring our weight, BMI, lean mass and fat mass more accurate. On the top bar of the website, an "info" drop-down with a field called "Body Composition Model" gave us the choice of "Athlete Version." This profile is for people who work out more than 8 hours per week and who have a resting heart rate under 60 beats per minute.
For the scale to calculate lean mass, fat mass on top of the weight and BMI, we had to stand on the scale with bare feet. Using the little arrow cues on the display to center ourselves, we received consistent readings. Withings suggests that you weigh yourself around the same time every day for consistency; the app has an option to set up a push reminder for when it's time for the weigh-in.
Like the Aria scale, the Withings scale can track up to eight users. When a different person weighed himself on the scale, the scale and the website alerted us of an abnormality in the measurement and offered the option to create a new user profile. Even if two people have similar weights, we were still able to create a different user profile for that measurement on the Web or on the scale itself. The iHealth scale does not automatically recognize various profiles.
The $159 Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale looks great in the bathroom, and it is easy to set up and use. We loved the multiple user feature and the ability to choose a different profile for a more athletic lifestyle. This scale also provides an extra measurement of lean mass. While more casual users might prefer the $129 Fitbit Aria, those looking for a more comprehensive approach to weight loss and toning should check out the Body Scale.
- 31 Amazing iGadgets for the iPhone and iPad
- Top iPhone 5 Accessories
- Portable Bluetooth Speakers Reviewed: Palm Sized, Big Sound
|Accessories Type
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|Cell Phones Accessories
|Accessories Type
|Apple Accessories
|Battery Type/Life
|12.6 x 12.6 x 0.9 inches
|6.7 pounds
|Company Website


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A stack of Closer magazines are displayed at the magazine's headquarter, in Montrouge, near to Paris, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. The magazine on Friday published what appeared to be photos of Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate sunbathing topless at a private estate in southern France, prompting a strong condemnation from Britain's royal family. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
PARIS/LONDON: French magazine Closer unleashed a new media tornado on Britain's royal family Friday with a five-page splash of photos showing the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, sunbathing topless with Prince William in the south of France.
Closer, a weekly roundup of celebrity gossip, ran a dozen shots of the Duchess as she slipped off her bikini top, relaxed on a sun lounger and at one point pulled down the back of her bikini bottoms as William rubs sun cream on her.
Under the headline "Oh my God!" the photos show the couple, whose regal yet natural conduct since their April wedding has won them fans worldwide, soaking up the sun on the balcony of a 19th century hunting lodge, oblivious to lurking paparazzi.
The spread is a blow to Buckingham Palace as it tries to move on from a scandal over naked shots of Prince Harry that tarred an image bolstered by Kate and William's wedding, the Queen's 2012 Diamond Jubilee and her Olympic Games appearance.
While Closer defended its decision to publish the photographs, a royal spokesperson called it a grotesque move that had upset the royal couple, who are currently touring southeast Asia.
St. James palace said that "legal proceedings for breach of privacy have been commenced today in France" by the royal couple.
"Their Royal Highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner," a spokesperson said.
"Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them."
Closer's editor-in-chief Laurence Pieau described the photos as a "beautiful series" that showed a couple in love and were in no way degrading.
She said the magazine had more intimate shots from the same series that it opted not to publish.
"There's been an overreaction to these photos. What we see is a young couple, who just got married, who are very much in love, who are splendid," Pieau told French BFM TV. "She's a real 21st-century princess," Pieau added: "It's a young woman who is topless, the same as you can see on any beach in France or around the world."
Closer, published by Italian company Mondadori, would likely lose any legal case over invasion of privacy, although profits from the issue would likely far exceed any fine faced, likely just a few thousand euros.
The publication – which set off a stream of mostly angry commentary on Twitter – reopens a debate over the privacy of Britain's royal family and the freedom of the media weeks after a website published photos of Harry cavorting naked in a Las Vegas hotel room.
"Harry started the fashion: these days the Windsors take their clothes off," the French magazine quipped in the photo spread, which it claimed as a world exclusive on the couple's mini-vacation in early September.
Dubbing the affair "nipplegate" in some cases, a torrent of Twitter commentary on both sides of the English Channel mostly chided Closer for running the shots.
A spoof account for Queen Elizabeth, @Queen_UK, which has nearly 1 million followers, tweeted "Dear The Sun, Don't even sodding think about it," in a mock threat to the British tabloid newspaper that published the nude photos of Prince Harry.
The Sun said it would not be publishing the topless photographs of Catherine. The editor of the paper, Dominic Mohan, said: "The Sun has no intention of breaching the royal couple's privacy."
Mohan argued that the photographs of the former Kate Middleton on vacation with her husband could not be compared to the shots of a naked Harry during a game of strip billiards in Las Vegas which The Sun published.
"The circumstances are very different to those relating to the photos of Prince Harry in Las Vegas. Prince Harry was at a party with a large group of strangers – one of whom released a photo into the public domain," he said.
The photos of Harry stained a positive image the Royal family has carefully crafted as it worked to turn the page on Princess Diana's death in 1997 and a raft of scandals at the time including Prince Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson having her toes sucked by a U.S. businessman as she sunbathed topless.
Royal sources said the photo spread was a flashback to the paparazzi chases of Princess Diana, William's mother, making it even more painful for him.
"There is a feeling of anger and disbelief," one source said. "We feel there has been a red line crossed with regard to publishing these images."
William and Kate were staying at the Chateau d'Autet near Aix-en-Provence in the Luberon region, whose picture-postcard villages, rolling lavender fields and vineyards have made it a favorite getaway spot for wealthy foreigners.
At one point the Duchess, clearly recognizable in the slightly fuzzy images, stands up and partly peels down her bikini bottoms as William rubs sun lotion on her back.
"The last time we saw Kate and William on a balcony it was for their wedding. But they had more clothes on," reads a photo caption.
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July 22, 2013
Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest at Museum of Glass
Wsu Master Gardeners of Pierce County at Master Gardener of Pierce County
The Shape of Things by Neil Labute at Dukesbay Theater
All events for today »
Submit an event | All events
NCM Fathom Events brings the eighth season of the Metropolitan Opera's Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series The Met: Live in HD to select cinemas nationwide. The broadcast of Shostakovich's The Nose will be presented live on Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 12:55 PM ET / 9:55 AM PT. William Kentridge stormed the Met with his inventive production of Shostakovich's opera, which dazzled opera and art lovers alike in its inaugural run in 2010. Now Paulo Szot reprises his acclaimed performance of a bureaucrat, whose satirical misadventures in search of his missing nose are based on Gogol's comic story. Pavel Smelkov conducts.
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Running time: 2hr 15min
Opens: Oct 26, 2013 Limited


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|L. Frank Baum 1856-1919
|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
|Chicago, George M. Hill, 1900
|Baum inscribed this copy of the first Oz book "To my dear Sister Mary Louise Brewster with my best love, L. Frank Baum, Chicago, June 20, 1900." Although the book was not published until September, this is one of the advance copies which Baum circulated to his relatives and closest friends before it was placed on sale. Illustrated by W. W. Denslow, the most famous in the Oz series tells the story of Dorothy and her dog Toto, blown away in a tornado from Kansas to the mythical country of Oz. The popularity of the work led to thirteen sequels, a dramatization in 1902 and an extraordinarily popular motion picture in 1938.
|Gift of Solton and Julia Engel


text:
Kasimpasa agree terms with Newcastle target Artem Milevsky
2013-01-03 11:00:01
Kasımpaşa have agreed terms with Dynamo Kiev striker Artem Milevsky according to Turkish newspaper, Hürriyet.
The report claims personal terms have been reached and that Kasımpaşa are negotiating a transfer fee with the Ukrainian club.
Milevsky's agent Malik Arkinov has confirmed interest from Turkey.
Arkinov said, "Milevsky has been put up for sale by Dynamo Kiev. He has offers from Britain and Russia, and Turkey is also an option for him."
Milsevsky has fallen out of favor at Kiev and has been dropped from the team since November.
The 27-year-old Ukrainian international has scored 80 goals and 55 assists to his name in 228 appearances for Kiev.
Kasımpaşa were recently taken over by wealthy owners including billionaire Mübariz Mansimov.
The Istanbul club were promoted from the Bank Asya league last season, the club is managed by Shota Arveladze and play their matches in the, 15,000 capacity, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium.


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Gull thinks its mouth is bigger than a starfish
Gull trying to swallow a starfish. Photo by Joanne Smith, Union City, CA
I saw this gull in Santa Cruz. I watched him for quite a while and the starfish stayed put. Do you think this is a starfish survival method and he is purposefully sticking himself inside the bird's throat so he can't be swallowed?
If so, will this kill the bird? Or do you think the starfish will dehydrate first?
Joanne Smith, Union City, California
I think it's more a case of the gull thinking its mouth is bigger than the starfish. Gulls are pretty good at swallowing BIG things and it looks like this bird is giving the starfish its best shot. After a bit, if it doesn't work, the gull will bend over, shake it's head violently back and forth a lot until it dislodges the starfish. It may give it another shot (gulls are stubborn), or it will go look for something smaller. /Gary
Posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011
Under: Seabirds | No Comments »


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As a family physician, I am extensively trained in serving the primary care needs of patients of all ages: from babies to children, adolescent, adults, and often the whole family. Whether treating acute illness, managing chronic disease, or providing preventative health, I am enriched by the variety of patients I am privileged to serve. My goal is to establish trust as a provider through active listening, communication, and learning goals of care. I use these skills to partner with my patients in collaborating quality driven, evidence based outcomes in order to promote health and well being. In addition to broad spectrum family medicine, I have special interests in pediatric and teenage care, skin, hosptial and sports/ musculoskeletal medicine. I also am interested in community health promotion and integrating strategies to create sustainability and healthier lives in our environment.
Gender: Female
Practicing Since: 2013
Accepting New Patients: Yes
Practices at
19685 Highway 7
Shorewood, MN 55331
Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
Board Certified, Family Medicine: American Board of Family Medicine
Residency: University of Minnesota, Methodist
Family Medicine
St. Louis Park, MN
Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, DO: Des Moines University
Des Moines, IA
Bachelor of Science, B.S.: Iowa State University
Biology, Psychology
Ames, IA


text:
About » News » Birmingham Gears up to usher in the Year of the Snake
News Release
For PDF version of this News Release please click here.
Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor John Lines and Leader of Birmingham City Council Councillor Sir Albert Bore will be on hand to mark the start of the Celebration by performing the traditional Ceremony of Dotting the Dragon's eyes. The celebrations will start with a bang, with an extravagant dragon and lion dance closely followed by a fireworks display. Acrobatic and cultural displays will fill the rest of the programme and there is sure to be something for everyone. There will be traditional craft stalls open from 11.30am which visitors can browse at their leisure throughout the day as a result of the closure of Hurst Street, and there will be an even bigger screen than last year enabling visitors to continue following the action onstage while browsing the stalls. The day will be concluded with a spectacular Firework Finale.
Festival Committee Chairman, Jeffrey Yap said "As proven by previous years, the Celebration here in Birmingham is by no means confined to the Chinese Community. Each year we are thrilled to welcome people from all members communities to join in the fun and enjoy celebrating one of the oldest celebrated festivals in the world. Thanks to the involvement of our main Dragon sponsor, Lyca Mobile, and Tiger sponsor Genting Casinos we have been able to put on an even bigger and better show for the people of Birmingham." Subaskaran Allirajah, Group Chairman, Lycamobile comments, "We are incredibly proud of our strong connection to the Chinese community in the UK. Lycamobile was founded with the mission of bringing people together and we are delighted to be continuing this charge with our support of this wonderful festival. Here's to the year of the snake, may it be prosperous for all."
Birmingham's Chinese New Year Festival, sponsored by Lycamobile, is organised by the Birmingham Chinese Festival Committee (BCFC), and is free to the public thanks to the co-operation of our Corporate and Municipal partners. Our Tiger sponsor is Genting Casinos and other partners include: Birmingham City Council (Leisure and Tourism), The Arcadian Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome, Ibis Hotels (Birmingham City Centre) and Midland Linen Services.
The aims of the BCFC are to organise, develop, and maintain the Chinese New Year Festivities in Birmingham to a standard which reflects the high level of interest the wider community in the Midlands have for Chinese culture. The Committee also strives to promote Chinese culture through organising performances at other events, such as Birmingham's Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival."
Note to Editors:
The Birmingham Chinese Festival Committee is a voluntary, non-profit making organisation. It's membership comprises of:


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Minimalist Touring Thread (250cc and under)
View Single Post
Studly Adventurer
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Central Pennsylvania
Oddometer: 594
Originally Posted by
Just wanted to say thanks for this thread, it gave me the idea that I could ride my KLX250 2000+ miles, all for a long weekend of post winter warm weather in Folly Beach, South Carolina.
Was going to take the car and haul the bike, dog, surfboard, and bicycle...but the car broke down.
Faced with a repair bill that would negate my ability to go south, I found a dog sitter, put some Shinko 705's on the bike, changed the oil, loaded up, and went!
Two and half days down, four days there, and 2 1/2 days back...totally worth the sore butt.
The trip down was very windy, I got blown around a lot. It only bothered me on some of the taller bridges, but did add to my fatigue.
The 1/2 days were the first and last days. I started in the White Mtns of NH and rode to a friends in Boston as a shakedown. I ended up dropping some gear there, a good choice as my cockpit was a bit cramped.
From Boston, I rode to the state line of N. Carolina(a very long ride 7am to 1 am), where I slept on a covered picnic table for 6hrs. Up at 7am thanks to a rest area worker, I was off in 10 minutes. Only to realize I desperately needed coffee. Luckily I needed gas because my tanks is only 2 gallons. With coffee in me and gas in the bike I was back on the road and able to make dinner in Charleston SC, despite riding in rain for the last three hours and getting totally soaked. My stay included lots of family time, finding a new girlfriend, and lots of this...
If you can't go surfing, then go watch them surf.
The ride back was pretty uneventful, the weather was much more calm. From S. Carolina I managed to make it back to my father's house in Delaware(9am-10:30pm, a long day but not too long). After some hot stew and a beer, I fell into a bed. Another early start and I made Boston by 6pm, just in time for dinner, a shower, and to go out and see my host play in his Bob Marley tribute band, Duppy Conquerors(they are awesome btw, Sally O'Briens every Monday night, it's free!). Up before the rock star, as usual, I was off towards home to collect my dog and find some pain killers and ice packs for my shoulder.
Only things I'd do different is add a throttle lock of some kind, get a better seat, and a much bigger gas tank. But the throttle lock was really all I needed, my right shoulder was very sore after the trip.
And the final trip mileage at the last fill-up 10 miles from home.
Bike is a 2012 KLX250S with 16000 miles on it. I ride it everyday, all year(unless there is more than 4" of snow on the road, then the cage). Mostly ride to and from work (50 mile round trip), but I've also ridden it to the top of a few mountains on goat trails, it's a very competent off-roader. Great bike!
Next up is Chicago! Got to go see the girl! Just the motivation I need to try for the Iron Butt Saddlesore. I know the bike can do it, but not sure I can. Came very close on this trip, 900 miles in 24 hrs, but I slept and I didn't have a try for an IB planned. We'll see....
Good for you! Just pack it up and go. I ride all year round and rode PA to FL for bike week last month, on a scooter.
"To me the trail is calling! The old trail - the trail that is always new." Matthew Alexander Henson
"It's not the destination. It's the journey." Me
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Member Since: 07/22/08Send This Person a Message Give this person a Gift Add This Person as a Friend
You can reach this milestone by accruing more than 50 reputation points in the last 7 days
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You can reach this milestone by starting a group that is one of the top 100 most active groups.
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Add this person as a friend to write on their Comment Wall.
almost 4 years ago
20164 Comments
Just stopping by to see how your doing and to wish you a great week and weekend. Take care and stay safe.
over 4 years ago
19890 Comments
Just stopping by, hoping everything is going well. Stay safe and have a great weekend.
over 4 years ago
4 Comments
Hola compadre! Looks like we are friends virtually as well as literally. See you in class tonight!
over 4 years ago
20164 Comments
Thanks so much for the friendship! How's things in your neck of the woods? Hope your staying warm and you had a fun relaxing weekend and the coming week ahead is great and safe. Sunny Calif has been everything but, I'm so tired of being cold. Take care and stay safe as the crazies walk among us
over 4 years ago
"The Eyes of a Man"
If you ever can look into the eyes of a man dressed in blue,
It will make you wonder why he protects me and you.
He suffers from lack of sleep, the red eyes will tell,
Even missing a meal or two to keep us all well.
Years of tears sometimes built up inside,
From what he has seen, but thinks he hides.
Look a little deeper in his eyes and you could even see,
How he felt all the years he has protected you and me.
For all the times people have been rude to him,
For pulling them over, while out with their friends.
For the little girl he saved from a burning car,
While others just watched him from afar.
Not to mention, the bank robber he caught last week,
People never talk to him unless it's his help they seek.
For the drugs he has confiscated over time,
The people, he has saved comes to his mind.
The times he wonders at the end of the day,
Is it worth all this pain, for such little pay?
But, don't look unless you are willing to see,
He is a human being just like you and me.
He wears his uniform, gun and a badge on his chest,
Doesn't make him perfect just a grade above the rest.
For if you look real hard you will also see,
A man who you respect is who he longs to be.
Author Unknown
over 4 years ago
21862 Comments
over 4 years ago
516 Comments
Fellow recruit Stanger...Thanks for the invite. See you in class!!
over 4 years ago
996 Comments
thanks for the add!
almost 5 years ago
21862 Comments
thanks for the friendship and many greetings from austria in europe
over 5 years ago
44582 Comments
Thank you for the add. Stay safe. Jonas
over 5 years ago
23274 Comments
Hey Tristan--Thanks for the add. Nice to meet you. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. Be safe and a great week ahead. Carl
over 5 years ago
Hey there,
Thanks for adding me to your friends list, stay safe and God bless!!!
Shane (coshane220)
over 6 years ago
1020 Comments
thanks for the add, stay safe and have a happy holiday season


text:
Grand Canyon Loop: Ulterior Motives
View Single Post
Dirty Old Man
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Lost & Found again in the Great Basin
Oddometer: 929
WTF happened to the 690?
Ok so I have Ridden, Raced and Fixed my own and others bikes for more than 30 years so you would think I have some mechanical abilities, Right? Well apparently not. Remember back when Tiner said Fuel, Spark and Air is all it needs and I had been focused on the fuel part? Well tunnel vision got me then and it got me again later.
First time it ran poorly and symptoms were fuel related or so I thought and it turned out I had a cracked plug cap and when I fixed that it ran great. A couple days later when it just quit BAM quit I knew I had NEW fuel pump and NEW injector and my problem had been spark related. So on the side of the trail the first thing I tried was the plug. Put a new one in. Took the cracked plug cap apart again and re taped it. Checked the connections to the coil. Tried to see spark . Thought it was there but weak.
I did check the fuel by loosening the clamps on the filter ( mine is external) and had fuel come out. Took the injector out of the bike and watched it spray a mist. Put Rocs coil pack on my bike and mine would not run and mine on his ran barely. I really though at the time I had a problem with the pulser and the coil pack and repair was beyond my capabilities on the trail.
Slapped the bike back together and my friend Roc offers to ride my bike while I tow him ..I only put up a little argument before caving ..it was going to be a long tow and the terrain was steep, rocky and soft. This aint our first rodeo so we were prepared with a harness that attaches to the forks and pulls from the center with a carabineer to run the tow rope through and still have quick release, a long dymanic rope with another carabineer to attach to the foot peg of the bike doing the towing. But it was still going to be a hard trip.
All the way to the camp I am thinking of what I can do but in the end give up and am resigned to going home and now the issue is how to do it and let the group continue on. Im pretty bummed and even more that Herc is going to end his ride to help me get home but it is an adventure right.
At the miniquicksackgasmart I get on the smart phone and reach out to the 690 thread and get some info, make a couple calls to dealers and am being told it most likely the pulser on the crank. Neither of the shops have one, so the repair in the next day is out and now its time to change mindset and make the best out of the rest of the trip you already heard that.
Fast forward two weeks back home and I finally unload the crap off the bike and wash it and start digging into the problems. My spark plug cap is cracked and I dont have the BEST spark but there is a spark. I take the injector out and hit the key to see the spray and as I hit the key I remember that the injector is only held in the fitting now by the friction of the o ring and expect it to fly across the garage but it dont and I get a little mist ..WTF its supposed to have 55 psi ..its a new pump .. I take the hose off the inlet to the filter , hit the key and fuel dribbles out like an old guy pissin ..PUMP FAILURE .NEW PUMP FAILURE WRONG ! when I open the bottom of the tank I can see that all the safety wiring I did to keep the hose, electric wires and housing connected to the pump has held the hose ALMOST on the pump but the pressure has blown it off and it is sending some fuel but not like it should .. the replacement pump is one from Ca Cycleworks and it has NO BARBS on the outlet. We used safety wire to make the connection and that has held in the past but not without some barbs. I used a two eared crimp on clamp ( like you are supposed to), used a hot tip to melt a bit of plastic to make some ridges for the hose to hold onto and the bike runs good and even better and like it should with a new plug cap.
An Email to Ca cycleworks and they sent me email in 2 hours saying they will send another pump FREE, said sorry the first ones had no barbs, oh and by the way keep the old one. And it was here in 2 days
As I was in my garage with the shitty feeling of watching the injector flying across the room I remember clearly doing the same thing on the trail and forgetting the pressure should be blasting the injector into the dirt..
TUNNEL VISION it will kick your ass every time .
I HATE this bike because its SOOOOO good at most of the stuff I like when it works but we have gone round and round many times, engineering problems to overcome ..and sometimes it was my failures to overcome
Worst thing is I could have fixed it on the trail, in camp or in Escalante if Tiner was there to remind me
Fuel Spark Air"
Sorry Guys
Ride the DEZ
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Aka: Alex_Nsk
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I really like what I've seen so far, and it looks nearly finished. Why n update in so long? I'd love to see this mod released, even if some unfinished stuff is cut from the initial release.
3 comments by Starkku on Jul 14th, 2013
This time it's a media update plus a small status update as well.
Let's start on a less light note. As you might or might not have noticed, there hasn't been a lot of going on for Project Phantom in past few months. This is not without a reason. My motivation to work on the mod dropped dramatically a couple of months ago as a result of some circumstances that shall go unmentioned in this article and because playtesting of the mod revealed that the gameplay of the mod might require several, possibly very drastic reworks to put it back on it's track to perfecting the gameplay balance. Since then I've been taking a break of sorts from the development and most of the things you see me post below are in fact from March or early April. This was necessary, as continuing to work on a single project for years without a longer break in between might take it's toll on anybody.
Because things are not going to work themselves out by itself over a night and I want to take my time with this project to ensure that the end result will be as awesome as possible, it is entirely possible that the trend of a rather low public activity will be going on in the future as well, possibly for months. Related to this, I was planning to rework the content of Project Phantom website for the next public progress update to include most up-to-date information available so far, but because of high amount of changes expected to the mod, this has been delayed to indefinite future. I did, however, update the site layout of the site exactly as I planned to.
Once the development issues have been solved, it is likely that there shall be a surge of news released once again, likely accompanied by brand-new video footage of the mod. Time will tell, however.
Onto the actual content of this update, here are some new units/unit graphics, belonging to various factions.
Credits can be found in the image description on the image's gallery page.
Following is also a set of other, assorted updates.
A doodad addition - spotlights & spotlight towers. There are two sets of these structures, one where the spotlight won't rotate automatically (instead it is static and determined by the direction of the structure set in map editor) and another where the spotlight will automatically follow enemy units, with the tower only following ground units and the normal spotlight only following air units, respectively.
Other in-game content updates include new graphics for the capturable defenses, rework of the Conduit Tech Vault & new color scheme for the unique units available only from the Vault and two new defensive structures, one for the Eurasian Dominion and one for the Phantom Project.
Continuing on the long line of graphical reworks, here are the recently remastered versions of the faction logos for the three playable factions.
And to match the reworked logos, a new set of loading screens for skirmish & multiplayer had to be created.
Additionally, there is a remade version of the 3x3 faction logo grid image that was shown in last update in January, with the remastered faction logos and some other tweaks to match the more recent lore developments. Check out the description of the image on Project Phantom ModDB Image Gallery to see which logo belongs to which faction, if you didn't already know or wasn't able to guess. Lastly, there is a preview of new sidebar graphics for Allied Forces faction.
Until next time, farewell.
I really like what I've seen so far, and it looks nearly finished. Why n update in so long? I'd love to see this mod released, even if some unfinished stuff is cut from the initial release.
Sure wish this mod is still active :(
I think it still is, they keep their embedding updated.
No I think its dead
its dead, 1 year it dont give any updates:(
Hope this mod don't be dead like future crisis.
I hope Mod isn't dead.It look Good like Mental Omega Mod
the mod is dead?
No its not, the author hasn't quit modding it yet just because it hadn't had any updates in the past 9 months doesn't mean its dead.
HELLO SIR!! THIS MOD IS PRETTY COOL AWESOME, wondering about, if this mod will be release? Bcos the other mod i have seen is unavailable, i hope this mod is not dead. And i'm so great for the creator! :)
Latest tweets from @starkkupp
Signs of activity after a hiatus, #ProjectPhantom singleplayer mission mapping test by Cesare T.co
Sep 25 2013, 7:46pm
#ProjectPhantom July 2013 media/status update now live. Check out T.co for the full news update.
Jul 15 2013, 7:02am
Allies vs. Dominion promo image & Allied Phalanx trooper @ #ProjectPhantom ModDB image gallery T.co
May 2 2013, 12:55pm
@adlishinichi #ProjectPhantom mod will be released when it's ready. Thanks for interest, keep an eye out for more mod news in near future.
Mar 11 2013, 1:36pm
@CBCPT Thanks for featuring #ProjectPhantom in the most recent episode of CBCPT. Keep up the good work.
Feb 14 2013, 10:50am
Small showcase of civilian vehicles in #ProjectPhantom available at T.co
Feb 3 2013, 7:57am
#ProjectPhantom January 2013 news update now live on the webpage T.co
Jan 14 2013, 3:53pm
New #ProjectPhantom video showing Phantom forces fighting agains the Dominion in a city T.co
Jan 14 2013, 8:43am
#ProjectPhantom game cover promo artwork at T.co
Jan 13 2013, 5:00am
Standard infantry units for all factions in #ProjectPhantom - T.co
Dec 11 2012, 12:48pm
Promote Project Phantom on your homepage or blog by selecting a button and using the embed code provided (more).


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Latest News
Tour the Campus
JDS Welcomes New Head of School
July 1, 2014 - JDS is excited to welcome our new Head of School Hamutal Gavish to JDS and the Seattle area. Hamutal comes to Seattle from Northern California where she was Campus Head of the K-8 Brandeis Hillel Day School's Marin Campus.
JDS 2014 Plan for the Future
JDS is pleased to share our new Strategic Plan - the JDS 2014 Plan for the Future. Please click here to view the document.
How the Inquiry-based Class Works
>>Click here for a look at what JDS families have to say about our school and community.


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The news just keeps getting more depressing for iPad owners who are Spotify users like myself.
We originally told you about MOG coming to the iPad. It has become just the third streaming service to release an iPad app to take advantage of the larger display. The app is available for free in the App Store, but you must be a subscriber. But we're still wondering where the Spotify app for iPad is.
MOG's app is designed much like the desktop version. Play controls remain on the top of the screen. The left side of the app is designed for queues, playlists, recommended tracks and other services while the center is reserved for the current song playing.
MOG also boasts 320-kbps audio, which is better than any other streaming service. The iPad app also has built-in AirPlay support and artist-only radio stations.
Before MOG, only Rdio and Slacker had released iPad-specific versions of apps that work with the respective streaming services.
While MOG is looking to expand to a larger audience, its future does remain in doubt after news leaked of its acquisition by Beats Audio, which is controlled by Android handset maker HTC.
That still leaves a major player in the streaming arena and my favorite service, Spotify, without an iPad app.
Spotify, which burst onto the scene in the United States last year, has been promising an iPad version of its app for sometime, calling it a "priority" and "absolutely in the pipeline" last December.
In that time, the Spotify desktop version has gotten consistently better and added tons of additional features. But the iPhone version has languished and the tablet version has yet to materialize.
It's been four months, Spotify, and I'm still waiting. If I have to wait much longer, I may strongly consider defecting to MOG or one of the other streaming services that cares about its mobile users.


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October continues warm Washington weather trend
Although blustery and cold weather has settled in to round out the month, it is only a drop in the bucket compared to the warm month that preceded this chilly spell.
The high temperature on this last day in October at Reagan National Airport was 55 degrees following a morning low of 42 degrees. This is 9 degrees cooler than the average high and 4 degrees cooler than the average low for Halloween! The last time the high temperature was above average was Saturday.
When you put all the eggs in one basket though (factor in all the high and low temperatures for October) and do the math, the average high for October was about 1.46 degrees above the monthly average of 59.5 degrees. The warmer early to mid-October outweighed the colder end with Sandy and the cold front providing much below-average temperatures.
Checking back through the records, the last month that was cooler than average in Washington was just a year ago in October 2011. Therefore, we've had 12 consecutive months (November 2011-October 2012) with above average monthly temperatures. Prior to October, the last month with below-average temperatures was March 2011.
There have been NO other periods in recorded data for Reagan National Airport where the average monthly temperature was exceeded for 12 consecutive months prior to this current stretch.
However, there were 11 consecutive months of above average temperatures in Washington from October 1990 to August 1991. It's important to keep in mind, however, that climate averages or normal are updated every 10 years, so the average daily and monthly temperatures DO change as these new climate normals are released by the weather service office.
We still need rain though. Despite Sandy's 4.84 inches of rain in Washington, the yearly deficit stands at 4.70 inches. Therefore, prior to Sandy, the yearly deficit was about double its current status, about 9 inches below average before Sandy's revenge on the Mid-Atlantic.
The Climate Prediction predicts equal changes of warmer and cooler than average temperatures in November with improvement noted in the Mid-Atlantic drought through early next year.


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HP Pavilion dv5-1032eg
SpecificationsNotebook: HP Pavilion dv5-1032eg (Pavilion dv5-1000 Series)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512 (bis 1791 MB mit TurboCache) MB
Display: 15.4 inch, 16:10, 1280x800 pixels, glossy: yes
Weight: 2.65kg
Price: 830 euro
Average of 3 scores (from 3 reviews)
Reviews for the HP Pavilion dv5-1032eg
Reasonable General-Purpose Computer. The HP Pavilion dv5-1032eg manages to combine low price and good equipment. An nVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT combined with a Core 2 Duo processor by Intel, even promises playable performance. The following article covers whether this multimedia notebook is able to meet the expectations arisen by the notebook specifications.
Source: Notebookjournal DE→EN
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 10/08/2008
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 90% performance: 60% features: 70% display: 30% mobility: 50% workmanship: 90% ergonomy: 70% emissions: 80%
Source: e-media - 17/08
Single Review, , Short, Date: 08/15/2008
Rating: performance: 60% workmanship: 80% emissions: 50%
Source: Notebookcheck DE→EN
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 08/09/2008
Rating: Total score: 82% price: 80% performance: 87% display: 70% mobility: 77% workmanship: 87% ergonomy: 76% emissions: 81%
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT: Successor of the 8600M GT and because of the smaller 65nm production process the card is higher clocked (and therefore faster) with the same current consumption.Furthermore, it features an improved video processor (VP3) and HybridPower to save current (in conjunction with the 9100M G).
Non demanding games should be playable with these graphics cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Core 2 Duo: This is the Core Duo and Core Solo successor with a longer pipeline and 5-20% more speed without more power consumption. As an addition to the Core Duo design there exists a fourth decoder, an amplified SSE-unit and an additional arithmetical logical unit (ALU).
The Core 2 Duo for laptops is identical to the desktop Core 2 Duo processors but the notebook-processors work with lower voltages (0.95 to 1188 Volt) and a lower Frontside bus clock (1066 vs 667 MHz). The performance of equally clocked notebooks is 20-25% lower than Desktop PCs because of the lower Frontside bus clock and the slower hard disks.
Entry level Core 2 Duo processor with 3 MB Level 2 Cache and due to the 25 Watt TDP also suited for 13" laptops.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
15.4": 15 inch display-variants are the standard and are used for more than the half of all notebooks. 15.4 inch display with 16:10 are the standard for notebook displays. Nowadays, more and more 16:9 displays with 15.6 inch appear. The reason why so many people like displays with medium size is, that this size is not exhausting for the eyes, does not need too much energy and the laptops can be kept quite compact.» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.
2.65 kg: This notebook is lighter than the average of all notebooks. It is too heavy for sub-notebooks. 14 inch displays are normal for this class of weight.
HP: The Hewlett-Packard Company, founded 1935, commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in California, United States. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, storage, and networking hardware, software and services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. Other product lines, including electronic test equipment and systems, medical electronic equipment, solid state components and instrumentation for chemical analysis. HP posted US $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006, making it the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion, making HP the first IT company in history to report revenues exceeding $100 billion. Market share regarding sales of personal computers in 2007 (market research IDC): HP 18.9 %, Dell 16.4 %, Acer 9.9 %, Lenovo 7.5 %, Apple 5.7 %
81.33%: This rating should be considered to be average. This is because the proportion of notebooks which have a higher rating is approximately equal to the proportion which have a lower rating.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.


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WHAT if we're all wrong?
What if this team doesn't go 6-10, or 7-9 as many have envisioned?
Suppose they somehow manage to make it into the playoffs. Even a one and done situation.
What then?
It occurs to me (and several others here) that if we go 7-9 or better, we're just about out of the running for a top rookie QB Draft prospect. If we see the playoffs, we're AUTOMATICALLY in the bottom 12, meaning we'd pick 21st or lower.
If on the other hand we get in behind Michael Vick, Howie Roseman all but HAS TO re-sign Vick to another deal. And you can bet that Vick will want years and guaranteed money on that deal. (Understand that guaranteed money equals Starter.)
The reason I say this is because of Chip Kelly. If he makes the postseason in his first year, then gives up the QB that got him there, he HAS TO do better than 2013 in either 2014 or 2015. He can't afford to succeed with the guy he made earn it, and then fail because he gave him up for the guy who lost the QB contest (Nick Foles), or less (meaning Matt Barkley or a lesser 2014 Draft prospect).
If Vick is successful this season, Kelly is married to him. Unless of course Kelly can broom Vick, and do better immediately. However, anything less than more than 2013, makes Kelly and thus owner Jeff Lurie look foolish. That has a way of shortening a coaching career.
So in a sense the Eagles almost have to suck in 2013 for Kelly to be here in 2016. Weird huh?
Not necessarily. It's August. Ncaa ball hasn't even started yet. Players get hurt in college and drop in the draft. Players have bad years and drop in the draft. Barkley was a top 3 pick one year and now was a 4th rounder. Teddy bridgewater seems to be everyone favorite for Kelly and most other nfl teams. If he brakes an arm leg pinky whatever later in the year he could drop. Then there what happens to nfl teams. Players get hurt, suck,and retire. We can also resign Vick trade our first and foles for a higher draft pick to a team who doesn't want one of the rookies. Point is its August and we have no idea how the draft will play out except if clowney isn't a top 5 pick five teams should be looking for new gms and scouts.
the problem is this: If Vick throws 3 interceptions and fumbles 2 times in just one game.. What will Kelly do?
I can't remember how many games I had to sit through watching that over and over again while Reid was here. I am just hoping and praying Kelly doesn't do the same thing.
[not displayed: comment from locked account]
Kelly has to stick with Vick for 3 starts at least, regardless of Hell or high water.
Vick over an entire off-season played his way into starting, so anything other than Vick clearly playing his way out of starting sends the exact wrong message to the other 52 players on the roster. You want them focused on their assignments, not their depth chart positions.
Yanking Vick and starting Foles after just one or two bad games means you have to be consistent in your treatment of all other positions. So what do you do when the Safeties have two bad games in a row? Or the Corners? Or the D-line? How about the O-line, for example Jason Peters? He's coming off of two Achilles surgeries in one year and hasn't played much in the preseason. His Week One and Week Two tests: Brian Orakpo and Dwight Freeney. Does two bad games get his back-up out there vs. Tamba Hali in Week Three? Of course it won't.
Kelly has to be consistent in how he treats his roster. Anything less de-legitimizes him as an NFL Head Coach. So he has to let Vick play his way out of the job once he grants it to him.
As antagonistic as it may be to fans, that is the clear common sense approach. That's not to say that the Eagles haven't bucked common sense before, and it's true I don't know Kelly; but I'm just talking about what makes the most sense here.
[not displayed: comment from locked account]
Spots, absolutely NOBODY at any level of this sport (above MAYBE Pop Warner) yanks a starting QB after 3 or 4 bad opening series in a game. QB like Center, is not a platoon position. Barring injury you finish with the guy you started with.
If that were the case, guys like John Elway, Brett Favre, Dave Kreig, Jake Plummer and Randal Cunningham wouldn't have been in the NFL long.
[not displayed: comment from locked account]
Assuming it is Vick we can assume peters wont see much of those guys since they want the best pass rusher to be on the qbs blind side and as we all know that's Johnson's side.
Good point. However one or two (maybe even 6) bad games from Lane Johnson won't see him sat down either.
Unfortunately in Philly fans think you can just switch QBs at the first sign of trouble. It doesnt work like that. Foles hasnt shown he can win. Vick is our starter. he needs the support of coaches, fans and players. We had the so called competition and from it the determination was Vick is the best QB on the roster. There is nothing left to do but play out the season with your best QB and move on to other problem areas. This idea that something could happen in 2016 is folly. This is precisely the mentality that creates losers.
Don't worry Flip, the eagles aren't going to the playoffs this year.
you wouldnt think so but the oline is healthy and thats where they have dumped alot of resources. They could make games interesting.
"Playoffs! Playoffs! Are you kidding me Playoffs y'all be lucky to win one game and you're talking Playoffs.
They CUT Brad Wing to KEEP Donnie Jones?!?!?! Mutherf----
The eagles organization is a joke,my predition,vick will have a good year,why go to a 3-4,when you have 4-3 personnel already,to win you ball games,easier fit for players,bill davis is a good coach,been with 5 teams,all losing records. The record for season 5-11 at best,first year college coach---ala jim harbaugh played gb in nfl--san fran he knows---same with pete carrol seattle---gus bradly,should have been coach for eagles!!!holla
Good point jerseys12. I say 6-10.
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