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By Kemo Cham
An Ebola vaccine candidate which was tried in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has been found to provide 100 percent protection, raising hopes for a potential prevention of the deadly hemorrhagic fever disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Friday.
The experimental vaccine called rVSV ZEBOV was found to be effective against the virus in a trial in Guinea, details of the study published on the medical journal, the Lancet, earlier in the week show.
The breakthrough comes nearly a year after the end of the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak that wreaked havoc in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Over 11,300 people died, out of more than 28,000 cases globally, according to figures from WHO.
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where it all started, bore the brunt of the cases and fatalities.
About half a dozen candidate vaccines were put on trial in response to the epidemic. rVSV EBOV, which is a Canadian made vaccine, was considered as one of the most promising experimental vaccines among the lot.
This is a vector vaccine, meaning that a small piece of Ebola virus that cannot cause Ebola is inserted into a different virus that's harmless.
A team of three dozen researchers, headed by Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO's assistant director-general, found a 90-percent likelihood during a full-fledged epidemic that the vaccine would work in more than 80 percent of cases.
Initially developed by the Canadian Public Health Agency, rVSV ZEBOV was later acquired by the US pharmaceutical giant Merck which now holds its license.
The Guinea trial was the only one that involved the participation of Ebola cases, meaning it's the only one designed to demonstrate the effect of the vaccine on Ebola.
WHO funded and led the trial in collaboration with the Ministry of Health there. Some 11, 000 people were involved in the trial. The vaccine was given to people who had come in contact with confirmed Ebola patients.
Of the 5,837 people given the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, none had a recorded case of Ebola after 10 days or longer, the study reveals.
From among another set of people who were not immediately given the vaccine, called the control group, 23 cases of Ebola were recorded.
This is described as the 'ring strategy'. The idea is that by vaccinating all people who have come into contact with an infected person, a protective 'ring' is created so that the virus is stopped from spreading further.
This, experts say, was crucial because the West African epidemic was the first ever experienced in an urban setting.
A Guinean health official hailed the development.
"Ebola left a devastating legacy in our country. We are proud that we have been able to contribute to developing a vaccine that will prevent other nations from enduring what we endured," said Dr. KeÏta Sakoba, Director of National Agency for health security in Guinea.
As expected, however, there were some reports of side effects among those who took the vaccine. While some reported headaches, fatigue and muscle pain, two patients reportedly had serious reactions, including one who had an allergic reaction. But they all soon recovered, according to the authors of the study.
This breakthrough also comes after 40 years since Ebola was first discovered.
The virus was first identified in 1976 in the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then there had been sporadic outbreaks with little fatalities, until the 2014 West African epidemic.
The UK firm Glaxosmithkline and the US-based Johnson & Johnson each has a candidate vaccine on trial for Ebola, as are China and Russia.
A standard approval process for a new drug or vaccine usually takes at least a decade.
Officials of the pharmaceutical firm behind the rVSV EBOV say it is expected to be available for use in 2018 as they intend put it through the fast-track approval process planned to be initiated next year.
But a few questions still remain unanswered about the vaccine.
These are its safety on children six and under, pregnant women, or people with the AIDS virus — all groups that were excluded from the most recent trials.
Another unknown is how long the vaccine's effect lasts. The present findings only show that it provides protection very early after vaccination, and the effect only last after six months.
Hopefully, answers to these may be obtained from the trials in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
An official involved with the Sierra Leone trial told Politico recently that a key result that is pending and which was expected to be available early next year could provide answers for immune response to the vaccine and the duration of the protection that might be given by it.
Conducted under the Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce Vaccine against Ebola [STRIVE], the Sierra Leone trial was funded by the United States government through its Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) which also provided technical assistance to the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences of the University of Sierra Leone as lead researchers.
More than 8, 000 volunteers were vaccinated.
In Liberia the vaccine was trialed under the Partnership for Research in Ebola Virus in Liberia [PREVAIL], also a joint US-Liberia initiative.
All of the studies used slightly different scientific approaches but all were attempting to show an effect on the disease and to gather information on safety, Dr Barbara Mahon, the CDC's Lead in STRIVE, told Politico in an earlier interview.
"The different studies ultimately will provide different information on the vaccine that can be used to support the application for licensing," she said.
(C) Politico 26/12/16


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How to: Implement a Wrapper for Inspectors and Track Item-Level Events in Each Inspector
This topic contains two code examples that show how to implement a wrapper for an Inspectors collection and to use that wrapper to track item-level events in each Inspector object in the collection.
The following code example is an excerpt from Programming Applications for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, from Microsoft Press (ISBN 9780735622494, copyright Microsoft Press 2007, all rights reserved).
The following two code examples implement the Connect and OutlookInspector classes. The first code example involves methods and event handlers you include in the Connect class to implement a wrapper for an Inspectors collection. The second code example involves a simple implementation of the OutlookInspector class.
If you use Visual Studio to test this code example, you must first add a reference to the Microsoft Outlook 15.0 Object Library component and specify the Outlook variable when you import the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook namespace. The using statement must not occur directly before the functions in the code example but must be added before the public Class declaration. The following line of code shows how to do the import and assignment in C#.
In the following code example, a NewInspector(Inspector) event occurs after a new inspector window has been created and before it is displayed. A user action may also create a new inspector window. A class-level instance variable named inspectors in the Connect class is declared, and a NewInspector event is hooked up. In the inspectors_NewInspector method, the FindOutlookInspector method checks whether the new inspector window is already in the inspectorWindows list. If FindOutlookInspector does not find the Inspector object in inspectorWindows, the AddInspector method adds an instance of the OutlookInspector class to inspectorWindows. You can use the OutlookInspector class to raise events for this particular inspector window. The implementation of the OutlookInspector class is shown in the second code example.
class Connect { // Connect class-level Instance Variables // Outlook inspectors collection private Outlook.Inspectors inspectors; // Collection of tracked inspector windows private List<OutlookInspector> inspectorWindows; // Hook up NewInspector event inspectors.NewInspector += new Outlook.InspectorsEvents_NewInspectorEventHandler( inspectors_NewInspector); // NewInspector event creates new instance of OutlookInspector void inspectors_NewInspector(Outlook.Inspector Inspector) { // Check to see if this is a new window you don't // already track OutlookInspector existingWindow = FindOutlookInspector(Inspector); if (existingWindow == null) { AddInspector(Inspector); } } // Adds an instance of OutlookInspector class private void AddInspector(Outlook.Inspector inspector) { OutlookInspector window = new OutlookInspector(inspector); window.Close += new EventHandler(WrappedInspectorWindow_Close); } // Looks up the window wrapper for a given Inspector // window object private OutlookInspector FindOutlookInspector(object window) { foreach (OutlookInspector inspector in inspectorWindows) { if (inspector.Window == window) { return inspector; } } return null; } }
The following code example is an implementation of the OutlookInspector class. This class is used to raise events for the inspector window from the preceding code example. Multiple inspector windows can be open simultaneously. Item-level events such as Open, PropertyChange, and CustomPropertyChange are tracked by hooking them up in this class constructor. A Close event for a ContactItem object is also hooked up in this class constructor. You can define other class-level item instance variables as needed. All the events that were hooked up in the OutlookInspector constructor are unhooked in the OutlookInspectorWindow_Close event handler.
Note that at the object model level, an Outlook inspector object is not specific to any Outlook item type. This code sample makes use of the OutlookItem helper class, defined in How to: Create a Helper Class to Access Common Outlook Item Members, to conveniently call the OutlookItem.Class property to verify the message class of the current item in the inspector, before assuming the item is a contact item.
// This class tracks the state of an Outlook Inspector window // and ensures that what happens in this window is handled correctly. class OutlookInspector { // OutlookInspector class-level instance variables // wrapped window object private Outlook.Inspector m_Window; // Use these instance variables to handle item-level events // wrapped MailItem private Outlook.MailItem m_Mail; // wrapped AppointmentItem private Outlook.AppointmentItem m_Appointment; // wrapped ContactItem private Outlook.ContactItem m_Contact; // wrapped TaskItem private Outlook.ContactItem m_Task; // OutlookInspector constructor public OutlookInspector(Outlook.Inspector inspector) { m_Window = inspector; // Hook up the close event ((Outlook.InspectorEvents_Event)inspector).Close += new Outlook.InspectorEvents_CloseEventHandler( OutlookInspectorWindow_Close); // Hook up item-level events as needed OutlookItem olItem = new OutlookItem(inspector.CurrentItem); if(olItem.Class==Outlook.OlObjectClass.olContact) { m_Contact = olItem.InnerObject as Outlook.ContactItem; m_Contact.Open += new Outlook.ItemEvents_10_OpenEventHandler( m_Contact_Open); m_Contact.PropertyChange += new Outlook.ItemEvents_10_PropertyChangeEventHandler( m_Contact_PropertyChange); m_Contact.CustomPropertyChange += new Outlook.ItemEvents_10_CustomPropertyChangeEventHandler( m_Contact_CustomPropertyChange); } } // Event Handler for the inspector close event. private void OutlookInspectorWindow_Close() { // Unhook events from any item-level instance variables m_Contact.Open -= Outlook.ItemEvents_10_OpenEventHandler( m_Contact_Open); m_Contact.PropertyChange -= Outlook.ItemEvents_10_PropertyChangeEventHandler( m_Contact_PropertyChange); m_Contact.CustomPropertyChange -= Outlook.ItemEvents_10_CustomPropertyChangeEventHandler( m_Contact_CustomPropertyChange); ((Outlook.ItemEvents_Event)m_Contact).Close -= Outlook.ItemEvents_CloseEventHandler( m_Contact_Close); // Unhook events from the window ((Outlook.InspectorEvents_Event)m_Window).Close -= new Outlook.InspectorEvents_CloseEventHandler( OutlookInspectorWindow_Close); // Raise the OutlookInspector close event if (Close != null) { Close(this, EventArgs.Empty); } // Release item-level instance variables m_Mail = null; m_Appointment = null; m_Contact = null; m_Task = null; m_Window = null; } }

subset: commoncrawl


text: http://bugzilla.openmoko.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=262 Summary: Indicate different charging mode in battery applet Product: OpenMoko Version: current svn head Platform: Neo1973 OS/Version: Linux Status: NEW Severity: enhancement Priority: P2 Component: openmoko-panel-battery AssignedTo: buglog at lists.openmoko.org ReportedBy: laforge at openmoko.org Since we can be on 100mA or 500mA charging modes, it would be nice to indicate the mode in the battery dockapp while charging. The kernel exports this via sysfs (see http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Kernel). Ideally we would wrap this in some hardware abstraction layer, but for now a quick hack might be applicable ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You reported the bug, or are watching the reporter.


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A Day at the Beach
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The winter has been warmer than average, but I still cracked during that 10-day siege of days in the teens and 20s last month. Three snowfalls in less than a week -- and too many times shoveling an annoying brick sidewalk -- took their toll.
I needed, really needed, to get to a warm, sunny place. I needed some beach time. But how? We were too busy at the office for me to get away. Except . . . maybe for a day.
In winters past, an escape to a warm beach for a frozen Washingtonian required lots of advance planning, hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars and at least several days off from work. But the combination of Internet fare shopping and low-price airlines have ushered in a new era -- the age of the day trip to South Florida.
Picking the right flight is the key to a successful emergency beach day. Weather.com had told me the skies would be clear over Florida. My Web search (including airline sites, Orbitz.com and Hotwire.com) coughed up some promising nonstop options (ATA, Independence Air, Southwest, Spirit and US Airways) to several choice Florida beach venues (Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and West Palm Beach). My goal was maximum sun time at minimum cost. The clear winner was Spirit's 7:40 a.m. from Reagan National to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, $50 each way, plus fees, totaling $118 round trip. This flight, if on time, would give me a bit more than eight hours in sunny Florida before I headed back at 7:35 p.m.
I happily walk the beach north, stepping in the slightly chilly (73 degree) surf. I go two blocks until I get to a chair rental stand. I spread my towel on my rented chaise, strip off my pants (I had flown with my bathing suit on under my khakis) and get down to the serious business at hand: doing nothing.
The good news is that my field trip to Florida cost me just $175, including airfare, parking and margaritas. I enjoyed every minute of it. And I was able to extract a moment of envy -- or at least bewilderment -- from friends and co-workers. (I even had a discernible tan to show off.) The bad news is that my 16-hour vacation didn't leave me with much of a residual vacation "mellow," as I learned within 20 minutes of getting back to the office the next morning. Maybe if I went for two days . . .


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What if I miss the peak fall foliage?
What if I miss peak fall foliage?
I hear this so often that I felt it was time to talk about it again. I consider peak fall foliage to be mythical. Now you may be wondering how I can say that. You look through my galleries and you say, "that's peak!" How can he say "peak fall foliage is mythical"?
First it's not that you can't find it but I live here and I don't find it every year, let alone many times during a single year. I have the leisure to pick my days and to decide where I'm going to look. Just like you I have guides and maps and yes, a bucket list of places I want to go and find.
I received an email from a gentleman and his wife over in the UK who are coming over for the foliage season and he has already purchased tickets and made reservations. This is exactly what you should do but now he is nervous because it sounds like they may be late for peak color! (The downside to locking in your reservations)
I don't know what his plans are once they are here and this is what I warn visitors about. If they try to time it so they arrive during peak foliage, they are now at the mercy of Mother Nature. Timing the absolute peak fall foliage is like timing the stock market which is known to be very tough. In fact those who study it daily, much like I do for fall foliage, have only a slightly higher success rate than those who wing it.
My best tip for finding fall foliage
My number 1 best tip… Come here with plan to have fun and enjoy yourself. That's it! You see, if your only goal is to come here to find colorful trees, it's so easy to be disappointed. After you lock in your tickets and hotel reservations you now have to sit on pins and needles and hope beyond all hope that the season unfolds perfectly for your dates.
I find that 9 times out of 10 the season will arrive early (or late) it will be wetter (equals dull colors) or less sun and that means the colors are slow to develop. A hundred factors can affect the way the season unfolds. So your best option is to pick dates and a location that give you the best possibility to roughly be in the middle of the wave of fall colors. This way you can travel North if they are late, south if they are early and all four cardinal points if just in time.
Now add in contingencies
There are many ways to create contingencies for your trip. A few follow and I'm sure you are familiar with one or more of these options.
- Delorme Gazetteer
- Trip advisor
- Frommer's
- Yelp
Google search for things nearby is a great way to start. From street view to their suggestions on nearby places. My wife loves Delorme's Gazetteers. We have all 6 states and actually two sets for our two cars. Just in case we find ourselves in an exploring mood.
I always tell you that I love them here is what you can get from one. This is an excerpt from the Vermont Gazetteer on Page 40 and the info pages are from the front.
To go with the placement, you add in a search around your hotel or B&B. With the internet I've found that locating nearby items of interest is much simpler. Much of it is delivered to you instead of reading tour books.
You merely have to decide what you want to find that will make you happy. My preference is old barns, farms, covered bridges, and history. So I keep my eyes open for Meeting houses and town commons and I pay special attention to historical markers telling about individuals (or buildings) of significance.
This is why you are probably here! Exploring Woodstock VT.
As I go through my travels I keep notes on places that may be interesting in fall. I blog about things I run across like a little out-of-the-way store that I hadn't seen before or a small pond (see Coffin pond) that had exceptional color. Maybe I walked through the village of Woodstock, Vermont and I describe the view from the village green. From that green, you can look at the old church in one direction and the town court-house in another and their covered bridge (the Woodstock middle bridge or Union bridge) in another.
I try to pass on to you ideas for exploring a location and what I hope to do is give you enough "flavor" of the place to whet your appetite. Then you arrive and find that there are trails to hike up to the top of Mount Tom which stands above Woodstock, you can try them out. This Woodstock Chamber article states: "The Faulkner trail, The walk is about 30 minutes for the average hiker and provides a magical view of Woodstock".
I haven't been on the trail myself but it sounds nice. So I hope you'll take this to heart and realize that your "fall foliage vacation" can be so much more than just going tree to tree looking for gorgeous fall colors. I'm sure you will find just that, just don't miss all the other wonders as well.
If you think you'd enjoy seeing what a working Vermont farm is like then you should plan to visit the Billings farm and museum website, just outside Woodstock. Here you can see a working farm with a jersey herd of cows and horses and sheep. They show you what a 1890 farm would be like from the restored farmhouse to the creamery.
You can turn this into a day long adventure by going just a short distance away to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, National Historic Park. Click to view a walking/hiking trail map and if you have a National parks pass it will get you into the NHS. Check the National Park website for detail, programs and more.
I hope this gives you an idea of what an outing around Woodstock Vermont would be like and why you could spend at least an entire day there exploring, and lets not get started on all the covered bridges that are nearby. (Taftsville and Quechee are an easy drive). The Jenne farm is just down the road (15 minutes, and 2-3 more covered bridge just past that!
More of my articles on scenic locations can be found here!Jeff "Foliage" Folger You can purchase images by visiting my Fine Art Gallery websites
- My Gallery on Fine Art America
- Try out the new Fall foliage forum
- Join my New England Fall Foliage page on Facebook
- Follow @Foliage_Reports on Twitter
- Follow me on Instagram @Jeff_Foliage
Jeff Foliage
but people call me Jeff Foliage.
I have several pages that I write blogs for such as: http://www.4cornersnewengland.com/
My most popular blog is for Leaf peepers: Jeff Foliage.com.
I live in Salem, Massachusetts and work as a blogger and Travel Photographer. I'm also the founder of the New England Photography Guild.
Feel free to visit me on my blogs and see what life in New England is like.
I started with Yankee Magazine as their first blogger on everything fall foliage. Now I blog on my own blog on my favorite subject, telling leaf peepers where the fall foliage is showing up in New England and helping them (to some extent) plan their fall foliage vacations.
Latest posts by Jeff Foliage (see all)
- Fall Foliage Forecast update & Feb Winner! - February 18, 2018
- Comment to win-February - February 14, 2018
- Old Barns in Autumn - February 7, 2018


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Students, faculty & staff agree – SCC is the place to be
No doubt about it. St. Charles Community College is an awesome place to work and learn.
I love working here, and it's clear the rest of SCC's faculty and staff members agree. A recent employee survey landed us Top Workplace recognition in The St. Louis-Post Dispatch, which doesn't … Continue reading


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Sorry, no definitions found. You may find more data at satten.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
There was a blew velvet bed with gold ffringe and very Richly Embroidered, all the Inside with ovals on the head piece and tester, where the figures are so finely wrought in Satten stitch it Looks Like painting.
Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary
Fans, says Editor in Chief Vanessa Satten, have grown numb to their heroes 'misfortunes.
Rappers like T.I. and Lil Wayne can't go to jail without missing a beat
"I don't think people are as compassionate as they used to be because, at some point, [going to jail was perceived as] a press stunt," Satten says.
Rappers like T.I. and Lil Wayne can't go to jail without missing a beat
Satten, Damaske, or Scarlet, girding themselues in stead of girdles with some fine white bombast doth: they haue breeches after the order of the Turks: they weare on their feet plaine high things called of them Aspergh, and at their eares they haue hanging great plenty of golde.
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
Of the Seigniory there be about three hundreth, and about fourtie of the priuie Counsell of Venice, who vsually are arayed in gownes of crimsen Satten, or crimsen
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
The cloth white and subtily wrought with drawne worke with Satten silke, the ground powdered and filled, and the worke white and plaine, with the representation of shapes, byrdes, beastes, and flowers, and in like sort the apparel of the wayters.
No, he is "sooping it in his glaring Satten sute."
And I protest, Praesumption shall never see mee out of order when I am marryed, but in a morninge, and at night in my severall Satten Petticotes and Wastcotes, and alwayes in my careles Garbe.
Madam you have left out yoe white Satten Wastecote
Silk, Satten, Jewels, and precious Stones of all sorts?


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40% Off Aveeno Products on Amazon
32 minutes ago
sdjfalejl;ajre;ewjr;ldajf;lajfl;adjfl;adjfla;eiooiew eweurjkdf j;dfjaqeiuoewuo324jl;393j;a ajldsa olw4euoiemmakxwej is what I think! lol! sorry!
Wow-that's a lot of cash for non food items. If I spent that much each week, it would be in a few restaurants.
The thrifty plan for my family would be 109.60 (3 of us incl. a 17 yr old boy). I do spend about $100 a week at the grocery store, but that includes paper products, cleaning, toiletries (but not makeup) and food for 2 dogs and a cat. I think we actually spend around $65 for just the food.


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our latest posts
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One Spy Kid ties the knot and the Jonas Brothers watch their guitarist do the same.Posted on January 6, 2014 at 1:20 pm
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While Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake's wedding seemed like a fairy tale, things took a quick turn for the worst when a "gag" video was shown during the festivities. The video, which features homeless people offering their best wishes because they couldn't make the big day, was created by Timberlake's friend Justin Huchel. With a […]Posted on October 27, 2012 at 10:33 am
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Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth are ENGAGED
THIS IS FACT. Miley Cyrus announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend Liam Hemsworth, which is upsetting for their legions of fans who legitimately thought they had a chance with the celebrities. Personally, I really thought we had something Liam, I did. "I'm so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness […]Posted on June 6, 2012 at 9:31 am
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It's not a huge surprise to hear that Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose are making it official and getting hitched. The 24-year-old Grammy nominated rapper and model have been dating for a little over a year and have talked about marriage in the past. The newly engaged couple broke the news on Twitter with a […]Posted on March 1, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Man Stabbed for Not Knowing Jay-Z and Beyonce Were Marr ...
Some people take their music very serious – sometimes too serious. An Ohio man has been stabbed for not knowing that Jay-Z and Beyonce were married. Donald Deaver was arrested and charged with felonious assault for allegedly stabbing a 48-year-old Garfield Heights, Ohip man following an argument. Fox 8 reports the fight began because the […]Posted on January 5, 2012 at 4:14 pm


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Come into the store, ask for a piece of jewelry. When I come back with the piece of jewelry assembled, and with a price quote, tell me it's ridiculous and leave.
If you want to eat at McDonald's, that's fine, but don't expect to pay McDonald's prices when you do want a nice dinner. I don't sell cheap, Taiwanese jewelry, I sell good stuff, as a service to you. Idiots need to stay out of my store, you never buy anything anyways.


text: Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lancash8/public_html/lib/vivvo/framework/full_page_cache.functions.php on line 133 Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lancash8/public_html/lib/vivvo/vivvo_lite_site.php on line 115 Lancashire Cricket Board: International Twinning Project International Twinning Project ================================================================================ Dipesh Asher on 18/07/2012 11:26:00 Year Four pupils at The Willows Primary School in Wythenshawe, Manchester, have embarked on a Twinning project to celebrate the upcoming England v South Africa series and the Spirit of Cricket. The Willows have developed an existing link with Sentinel School, Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. Both schools have exchanged letters and are displaying cricket related work from each country. The Willows Primary School decided to become involved in the cricket related project as they are a school chosen by Wythenshawe Cricket Club to receive specialist coaching as part of the Chance to Shine programme in Manchester. The staff in the school also encouraged participation in order to broaden the children's horizons and educate them about life in an overseas country. The project involves both schools embarking on a series of tasks to celebrate the international series, the area each schools resides in and the Spirit of Cricket. Pupils from both schools have now completed pen pal letters for new friends in the southern hemisphere and dialogue between the schools is ongoing. Thirty pupils received a presentation detailing the project from Rob Tipping, the Lancashire Cricket Board Community Cricket Coach for Manchester. From this, each child was matched with a child from South Africa and letters were written. Children discussed families, hobbies, Wythenshawe, Manchester, the weather and school in their letters and they were posted to South Africa. Each child in Year 4 has also been encouraged to design a cricket bat sticker. A class competition took place and 6 finalists were decided upon. Some designs can be seen in the Image gallery. Many of the 'stickers' now hang from a classroom display in The Willows and some have been sent to South Africa. One design, chosen by the class, will be transferred to a cricket bat which will be signed by all the children in year 4 and sent to Cape Town. The Willows will continue to develop the link with Sentinel School into the new school year and are set to represent England as part of a Guard of Honour during the T20 International between England and South Africa at Old Trafford in September. Mr Swingler from The Willows Primary School said: "All the pupils have really enjoyed the cricket sessions and completing the artwork. They have come up with some very imaginative ideas." Rob Tipping from the Lancashire Cricket Board added: "The staff and children at The Willows have really embraced the Chance to Shine programme and have worked hard in class time to develop the link."


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The cruel and beautiful Baroness Kinky
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hey! you've got questions and i've got answers … here are just a few of the most common questions i get and their answers. awesome, right?!
Do you ever capitalize your sentences?
Hardly ever. I write like I talk and my brain moves faster than my fingers (which move pretty fast) so it's easier for me to ignore that pesky "shift key" unless I really have to. (also, i really like the look of lower case letters) 😀
Elipses, really?
… yes, of course … …
What kind of design services do you provide?
My services are wide ranging from logo design to business card design to web design and everything AWESOME in between.
What kind of clients do you accept?
All kinds. My clients range from christian organizations to tattoo parlors, from Florida to California and back again. It takes a lot to offend me, so unless I deem it inappropriate or heinous, shoot me an email, and I'll see what I can do for you.
What do you charge for your services?
I provide a formal proposal for each project based on their unique requirements. My minimum fees range from $55 – $100/hour based on the project type.
What is the communication with the client during the design process?
I try to stay on top of communication every step of the way. If I have questions, an idea, or I've hit a wall an email is sent out letting you know of the progress.
What is the best way to contact you?
Email. Email is the very best way to touch base with me. I schedule my days very tightly so I can multi-task to accomplish all of my projects in the most efficient manner possible. When I have to stop and answer the phone, I can't continue to multi-task. Also, I hate having a full inbox so I make sure to clear it out every day – you're guaranteed to get a response from me via email 3x as fast as a phone call.
How are proofs received?
Print proofs are sent via email, or a secure server link in PDF format – often in low-resolution until completion of project. Websites are hosted on my server and proofed with a direct link until all tweaks are made, and you are ready to go live.
How will I receive my design project once it is complete?
Unless otherwise requested, I will provide either a link to a secure server for download of all files, or a I will send a DVD/CD will all components of your design to you. Please Note: All files are only turned over upon completion of payment.
Who owns the copyright to the design once it is complete and paid for?
The copyright is yours upon completion of payment. I only reserve the right to use the design within my portfolio.
Do you require a deposit?
Yes. Projects less than $200 require full-payment deposit. Projects over $200 require a 50% deposit before work begins. Upon completion of work the remainder of the invoice amount is due before files are turned over.
Do you do rush jobs?
Because of my typical turn around, rush jobs are what are expected of me. If however, it is required that I rush the rush job, an additional 50% rush fee will be added to the original proposal amount or final invoice (per project).
What kind of websites do you offer?
Currently I offer informational, CMS (client managed), blog and e-commerce sites, all powered by wordpress.org, all responsive – complete with basic SEO.
What kind of website services (ie. hosting, domains) do you offer?
At this time, I only offer website design, maintenance and any technical support I can provide. In order to ensure that you always own 100% of your project once it is complete, I do not set up or purchase hosting or domain names – though I do highly recommend Hostmonster or Bluehost for both of these services.
What types of payment do you accept?
Currently I accept check, money order and money transfer via western union, as well as credit card payments via Paypal and Google Wallet.
Do you accept payment plans?
If a payment plan has been agreed upon during the proposal stage of the project, I don't have any problem with them. A payment plan afterwards would result in having to have a new proposal signed and on file. I accept a minimum of $250/month for any payment plan set up. Please note – if a payment plan is in place, no project will released until final payment is made.
When are invoices due?
Deposits are due with the receipt of the signed proposal. Invoices for complete projects are due two weeks after receipt, unless a payment plan has been worked out. For publications, half of the estimated page count fee is due once work begins – the final half is due before printer reception. For websites, the final invoice amount is due before the editing bible and passwords are provided.
What happens if I don't or can't pay?
I will try my best to exhaust all options in this scenerior – however, after 45 days of a past due invoice, your statements will be turned over to a collections agency or small claims court.
Are you always so … awesome?
Yes. Yes I am!


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AFCOM 2015 Symposium recap
June 13, 2015 - Greg Corson, Founder & CEO, Blog
I was lucky enough to be invited to Boston AFCOM's annual Symposium. This is a yearly event (hence the annual part) focused on data center operations. It's a very interesting group made up of data center managers, IT engineers, architects, designers and technicians. It's not your normal IT tech conference. You can get more information on it and AFCOM in general on their site They had a lot of great speakers. The day kicked off with Joseph Higgins who is the VP of Engineering for Fidelity. They have forty thousand employees, 25% are technology focused, 50 data centers and … Read More


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Atlantic City, N. J. (Jul. 4)
Keep up with Jewish news by reading the Jewish Daily Bulletin, only English-language Jewish daily newspaper.
In an atmosphere fairly exuding optimism and gratification at the remarkable recovery of the Zionist Organization of America, which doubled its membership in the last year and reduced a budgetary deficit by $80,000, delegates to the thirty-seventh annual convention of the organization, which closed here late last night, unanimously adopted and pledged to carry through in the coming year an exceedingly ambitious program designed to secure the support of all American Jews; adopted a program of organizational changes calculated to increase to a maximum the efficiency of the organization and reaffirmed their faith in the mission of General Zionism and in the future of Palestine.
Characterized by veteran Zionists as the most peaceful convention in the history of the organization, the gathering still had hectic, fighting sessions during which resolutions containing implied attacks on the Revisionist Zionist group for opposing the supremacy of the World Zionist Executive were heatedly debated.
Despite the fact that after the fighting on the floor of the convention was over, all the controversial resolutions including the one on the Stavsky case were passed unanimously, it was obvious that much bitter feeling had been engendered and that the lines of the Zionist political battle here, which will culminate next year in the election of delegates to the nineteenth World Zionist Congress, had been definitely laid.
Fuel to the smoldering fire of group and party antagonism, which here as in Europe and Palestine is shaking the Zionist movement to its very roots, was added by the brilliant, fighting speeches delivered by Jacob Fishman, New York editor, and by Berl Locker of London, Laborite member of the World Zionist Executive. Both speeches attacked the Revisionist group in the bitterest terms and both called for the upbuilding of Palestine on a national cooperative basis Mr. Fishman demanded in fortright terms that the General Zionists, whose mission and place in the Zionist movement he warmly defended, come out and support the Laborite position "100 per cent."
While neither speech was implemented in the resolutions introduced, they were thoroughly discussed in the debate on other resolutions. It was evident from comment in the convention lobby and from the debate that many of the delegates were opposed to the views expressed by Mr. Fishman. In fact, a declaration protesting against the speech was signed by some sixty delegates, and was read to the convention, but the opposition having no real issue on which to fight, faded out. That the pro-Laborite group in the convention was strong and would probably have won in a straight out-and-out fight was indicated by the applause during the debates and by the votes on the resolutions.
But the majority of the delegates seemed desirous of a reaffirmation of the principles of General Zionism and a neutral stand, endorsing neither one faction or the other, but calling for the end of all internecine strife in the Zionist movement.
The political struggle, however, was clearly subordinated this year to the consideration of measures involving the basic structure as well as the future of the Zionist movement in the United States.
Resolutions were adopted following the speech on "The Future Program of the Zionist Organization of America" delivered by President Morris Rothenberg, making it possible to enroll Zionist "endorsers," who do not share the full Zionist viewpoint; granting funds to the education group to carry on Zionist education work among American Jewish youth; easing the path of organized groups into the Zionist Organization. A series of resolutions was also adopted outlining a number of reforms in the regional and district Zionist organizations all over the country.
Probably the most interesting and unusual resolution adopted by the convention and which called upon the new Zionist administration to initiate conversations with Soviet leaders to the end that Russian Jewish Zionists might have freedom of expression in that country brought out the interesting revelation that Mr. Rothenberg and other Zionist leaders had been in touch with Maxim Litvinoff, Foreign Minister of the Soviet government, and with Ambassador Alexander Troyanovsky in the presence of Ambassador William C. Bullitt.
Mr. Rothenberg disclosed that while the Soviet officials had been noncommittal, their attitude coupled with the promise of Ambassador Bullitt to make a thorough investigation of the situation in the Soviet Union and to act accordingly, had encouraged the Zionist leaders to believe that much could be accomplished for Russian Jewry through negotiations.
Another resolution certain to create a stir in the Jewish world and in League of Nations circles called upon the Jewish Agency to initiate steps to secure the admission of representatives of Jewish Palestine to the community of nations in the League of Nations.
Of equal importance with the resolution on the Soviet Jewish position was the resolution introduced at the close of the vitriolic attack on the immigration restrictions imposed by the Palestine government made by the veteran Zionist leader, Louis Lipsky. Picturing the tragic position of European Jews beset by anti-Semitism, hatred and economic discrimination, Mr. Lipsky told of the anxiety of these Jews to find a haven in Palestine, only to find the doors shut to them. He urged the convocation of an all-Jewish conference, consisting of representatives of all groups in American Jewry, to bring pressure to bear upon the mandatory power to open the gates of Palestine.
Mr. Lipsky recalled the role of the American Jews at the end of the World War, when thanks to their intervention, minority rights were granted persecuted European Jews, and declared that a united American Jewry could influence the British government.
The resolution, unanimously adopted, called for the convocation of the all-Jewish conference not later than December, 1934.
The convention also adopted a resolution calling for the continuation of the economic boycott against Nazi Germany until such time as the present regime was replaced with one willing to do "justice to the persecuted Jews of Germany."
The celebration of Palestine Day all over the United States to coincide with the week-end including November 2, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, was also decided upon by the convention. The purpose of the day is to focus attention to all Americans on the achievements of the Jewish National Home and the Zionist movement.
Other resolutions adopted praised James G. McDonald, League of Nations High Commissioner for German refugees, for his efforts on behalf of the refugees, and called upon Great Britain to open Transjordania to Jewish settlement.
One of the highlights of the convention was the personal appearance of Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the United Jewish Appeal. Comparing Zionist work and individual leaders to an army, Mr. Warburg reviewed in detail the work of the Zionist "generals" and "army" in the upbuilding of Palestine. He praised Zionist achievement in Palestine and hailed the alliance of the Zionists in Jewish community work in the United States. Mr. Warburg also praised the work of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
The noted financier paid a warm tribute to President Rothenberg, who mhe praised for his steadfast devotion to Zionist principles and for bringing closer understanding of Palestine among non-Zionists. Mr. Wanburg expressed the greatest admiration for Mr. Rothenberg's determination and talent for keeping all forces engaged in building Palestine together despite divergencies.
Rabbi Israel Goldstein, president of the Jewish National Fund of America, sounded a warning to American Zionists that the present trend of development, unless checked, contains an element of danger of overemphasis on urban as against agricultural settlement. Dr. Goldstein declared that the influx of immigrants into Palestinian cities because of lack of land called for the immediate creation of an agricultural counterbalance. Dr. Goldstein charged American Zionists with neglecting the Jewish land problem in Palestine, declaring that not enough attention was being paid to the extension of Jewish land holdings in Palestine. He called for a New Deal for the Jewish National Fund.
Keep up with Jewish news by reading the Jewish Daily Bulletin, only English-language Jewish daily newspaper.


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Either Brendan Rodgers is trying to play smart or willing to talk business come January in his refusal to get carried away by the exploits of Liverpool's teenage prodigy Raheem Sterling.
The England Under-21 winger has emerged as one of the most exciting young prospects to descend on the Premier League from the Kop this season.
Sterling carved a niche for himself by becoming the second youngest top-flight scorer in Liverpool history when his crisp finish against Reading on Saturday securing their first home Barclays Premier League win of the season.
"At 17, he's still got an awful long way to go, so it's important I try to manage him properly. We want to have him here as a legend for many years. We don't want him getting carried away with all the adulation and then find, at 21, he's washed up and everyone wants him out," Rodgers was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail (http://bit.ly/VrEIMd).
"Right up until now, Raheem has been brilliant. He's got a lovely way about him. He's made the transition from the academy very well, and it's brilliant for the supporters, because they love to see young players come in and do so well. We will be doing our utmost to make sure that it continues."
Clearly he does not want the youngster to get carried away having already ticked hiim off publicly at half-time for his over-exhuberance in the 2-2 home draw with Manchester City.
"The biggest thing with me is just maintaining the hunger that he's got now, because you see when he's got that, and he's learning and developing, that he can be a really top player. It's a long way to go for him but, up to now, he's been a revelation," said Rodgers acutely aware about his potential worth other clubs be interested in him.
Rodgers could cash in especially if Liverpool does not finish among the top six and Sterling shows ambition of wanting to play Champions League football.
Liverpool are languishing in 12th position now.
The likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United will be watching closely, while Arsenal will be best suited to harness the prodigious talents of Liverpool's brightest star.


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House of Commons Journal Volume 1: 05 January 1555
Journal of the House of Commons: Volume 1, 1547-1629
House of Commons Journal Volume 1 05 January 1555 Sabbati, 5o Januarii Coin. L. 2. The Bill touching Counterfeit Coin brought into this Realm. Privilege. Roger Radford, Merchant, Servant to Robert Massy, BurgessView result
Sheet 203
Map of Flintshire
Frankby, Grange, Greasby, Hoylake, Saughall Massie, West Kirby, CH48 1, CH48 6, CH49 3, CH47 2, CH46 5, CH48 0View result
Sheet 013
Map of Cheshire
Bebington, Bidston, Birkenhead, Claughton, Egerton Park, Greasby, Irby, Irby Hill, Landican, Moreton, New Ferry, Noctorum, Oxton, Port Sunlight, Prenton, Rock Ferry, Saughall Massie, Storeton, Thingwall, Tranmere,View result
Close Rolls, Henry VI: July 1440
Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VI: Volume 3, 1435-1441
Kebell and John Massy any issues thereof taken; as it is foundView result
Close Rolls, Edward IV: 1469
Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward IV: Volume 2, 1468-1476
IV. Memorandum of acknowledgment, 22 June. 316 John Massy, citizenView result
Inhabitants of London in 1638: St. Stephen's Walbrooke
The Inhabitants of London in 1638
Inhabitants of London in 1638 St. Stephen's Walbrooke ST. STEPHEN'S WALBROOKE. RENTS. MS. p. 308. Alderman Andrewes 60 Capt. Massy 36 Mr. Carter 11 Mr. Lownes 22 Mr. Gawthorne 18 Mr. Vanbrugge 30 Mr. Evans 11 Mr.View result
House of Commons Journal Volume 5: 4 February 1647
Journal of the House of Commons: Volume 5, 1646-1648
his Accompts. Massy's Brigade. The humble Petition of many poor distressed Soldiers, which were lately under the Command of Major General Massy ... Massy. Ordered, That Colonel Massy...View result
House of Commons Journal Volume 5: 10 July 1647
Journal of the House of Commons: Volume 5, 1646-1648
Collingwood, to them, or their respective Solicitors. Massy's Accompts. The humble Petition of Lieutenant General Massy was read. The humble ... the Accompts of Colonel Edward Massy, Commander in...View result
House of Lords Journal Volume 5: 29 August 1642
Journal of the House of Lords: Volume 5, 1642-1643
of Amsterdam, until Notice be given on the other Side. Mrs. Massie versus Rolfe and others. Ordered, That Mrs. Massie, having exhibited Two Bills in Chancery, ... have, upon a former Petition of Mrs. Massy...View result
House of Commons Journal Volume 4: 28 February 1645
Journal of the House of Commons: Volume 4, 1644-1646
Massy, of the 23th of February, was read, of a Victory God hath given ... from this House, to Colonel Massy, for the good Services done by him:View result


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An Evening with The Royal Southern Brotherhood
Categorized as: Performing Arts & Dance
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They said that rock 'n' roll was dead, but they were wrong. Right now, in 2012, there's something in the air, as Royal Southern Brotherhood drag their thrilling new brand of blues-rock and white-hot musicianship from the Southern States onto the world stage. The South is rising again. Come along for the ride.
Tickets: $22 - $27 via phone: 856-327-6400 www.levoy.netVisit Event Website for More Info


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He was the showstopper for designer Archana Kochhar at the recently concluded fashion gala here. (Agencies) Latest News from Lifestyle News Desk
"I think walking the ramp is more easy than boxing," Vijender said after walking the ramp.
"In boxing, there is a fight involved, but here you just have to go alone and walk. It's fun," added the multi-faceted star, who will be seen acting in Akshay Kumar's and Ashwini Yardi's Grazing Goat Pictures' 'Fugly', which is set to release in June.
Kochhar's Paris Amour collection, showcased at LFW, is inspired by the romantic city of Paris. For her young and vibrant collection, she brought the entire cast of "Fugly" on board.
Talking about the collection and the association with 'Fugly', the designer said, "I think Paris and romance go hand in hand. It is a city that is bursting with sparks, energy, love and fashion. This collection was inspired by the iconic Eiffel Tower. This is a very young and vibrant collection which had a bit of menswear and essentially womenswear."
"I am very happy to have the entire cast of 'Fugly' here with me. This collection is very young and I think the cast of 'Fugly' is young. It has high spirited debutants who have extraordinary talent," she added.
Besides Vijender, 'Fugly' also features Jimmy Shergill, Anil Kapoor's nephew Mohit Marwah and newcomer Kiara Advani.
He was the showstopper for designer Archana Kochhar at the recently concluded fashion gala here.
Latest News from Lifestyle News Desk


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In which my room is repainted, there was a ton of work, and we find out the baby's gender!
("A Moment A Day" is my monthly vlog series for 2016 wherein I film a video everyday (almost), and compile them for each month. I thought it would be a fun experiment to try for the year, and a great way to look back on my growth and memories! Click here to view the playlist!)


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Less Wrong is a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality. Please visit our About page for more information.
Generalizing From One Example
Related to: The Psychological Unity of Humankind, Instrumental vs. Epistemic: A Bardic Perspective
"Everyone generalizes from one example. At least, I do."
-- Vlad Taltos (Issola, Steven Brust)
My old professor, David Berman, liked to talk about what he called the "typical mind fallacy", which he illustrated through the following example:
There was a debate, in the late 1800s, about whether "imagination" was simply a turn of phrase or a real phenomenon. That is, can people actually create images in their minds which they see vividly, or do they simply say "I saw it in my mind" as a metaphor for considering what it looked like?
Upon hearing this, my response was "How the stars was this actually a real debate? Of course we have mental imagery. Anyone who doesn't think we have mental imagery is either such a fanatical Behaviorist that she doubts the evidence of her own senses, or simply insane." Unfortunately, the professor was able to parade a long list of famous people who denied mental imagery, including some leading scientists of the era. And this was all before Behaviorism even existed.
The debate was resolved by Francis Galton, a fascinating man who among other achievements invented eugenics, the "wisdom of crowds", and standard deviation. Galton gave people some very detailed surveys, and found that some people did have mental imagery and others didn't. The ones who did had simply assumed everyone did, and the ones who didn't had simply assumed everyone didn't, to the point of coming up with absurd justifications for why they were lying or misunderstanding the question. There was a wide spectrum of imaging ability, from about five percent of people with perfect eidetic imagery1 to three percent of people completely unable to form mental images2.
Dr. Berman dubbed this the Typical Mind Fallacy: the human tendency to believe that one's own mental structure can be generalized to apply to everyone else's.
Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI)
This post presents thoughts on the Singularity Institute from Holden Karnofsky, Co-Executive Director of GiveWell. Note: Luke Muehlhauser, the Executive Director of the Singularity Institute, reviewed a draft of this post, and commented: "I do generally agree that your complaints are either correct (especially re: past organizational competence) or incorrect but not addressed by SI in clear argumentative writing (this includes the part on 'tool' AI). I am working to address both categories of issues." I take Luke's comment to be a significant mark in SI's favor, because it indicates an explicit recognition of the problems I raise, and thus increases my estimate of the likelihood that SI will work to address them.
September 2012 update: responses have been posted by Luke and Eliezer (and I have responded in the comments of their posts). I have also added acknowledgements.
The Singularity Institute (SI) is a charity that GiveWell has been repeatedly asked to evaluate. In the past, SI has been outside our scope (as we were focused on specific areas such as international aid). With GiveWell Labs we are open to any giving opportunity, no matter what form and what sector, but we still do not currently plan to recommend SI; given the amount of interest some of our audience has expressed, I feel it is important to explain why. Our views, of course, remain open to change. (Note: I am posting this only to Less Wrong, not to the GiveWell Blog, because I believe that everyone who would be interested in this post will see it here.)
I am currently the GiveWell staff member who has put the most time and effort into engaging with and evaluating SI. Other GiveWell staff currently agree with my bottom-line view that we should not recommend SI, but this does not mean they have engaged with each of my specific arguments. Therefore, while the lack of recommendation of SI is something that GiveWell stands behind, the specific arguments in this post should be attributed only to me, not to GiveWell.
Summary of my views
- The argument advanced by SI for why the work it's doing is beneficial and important seems both wrong and poorly argued to me. My sense at the moment is that the arguments SI is making would, if accepted, increase rather than decrease the risk of an AI-related catastrophe. More
- SI has, or has had, multiple properties that I associate with ineffective organizations, and I do not see any specific evidence that its personnel/organization are well-suited to the tasks it has set for itself. More
- A common argument for giving to SI is that "even an infinitesimal chance that it is right" would be sufficient given the stakes. I have written previously about why I reject this reasoning; in addition, prominent SI representatives seem to reject this particular argument as well (i.e., they believe that one should support SI only if one believes it is a strong organization making strong arguments). More
- My sense is that at this point, given SI's current financial state, withholding funds from SI is likely better for its mission than donating to it. (I would not take this view to the furthest extreme; the argument that SI should have some funding seems stronger to me than the argument that it should have as much as it currently has.)
- I find existential risk reduction to be a fairly promising area for philanthropy, and plan to investigate it further. More
- There are many things that could happen that would cause me to revise my view on SI. However, I do not plan to respond to all comment responses to this post. (Given the volume of responses we may receive, I may not be able to even read all the comments on this post.) I do not believe these two statements are inconsistent, and I lay out paths for getting me to change my mind that are likely to work better than posting comments. (Of course I encourage people to post comments; I'm just noting in advance that this action, alone, doesn't guarantee that I will consider your argument.) More
Intent of this post
I did not write this post with the purpose of "hurting" SI. Rather, I wrote it in the hopes that one of these three things (or some combination) will happen:
- New arguments are raised that cause me to change my mind and recognize SI as an outstanding giving opportunity. If this happens I will likely attempt to raise more money for SI (most likely by discussing it with other GiveWell staff and collectively considering a GiveWell Labs recommendation).
- SI concedes that my objections are valid and increases its determination to address them. A few years from now, SI is a better organization and more effective in its mission.
- SI can't or won't make changes, and SI's supporters feel my objections are valid, so SI loses some support, freeing up resources for other approaches to doing good.
Which one of these occurs will hopefully be driven primarily by the merits of the different arguments raised. Because of this, I think that whatever happens as a result of my post will be positive for SI's mission, whether or not it is positive for SI as an organization. I believe that most of SI's supporters and advocates care more about the former than about the latter, and that this attitude is far too rare in the nonprofit world.
Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease
Related to: Disguised Queries, Words as Hidden Inferences, Dissolving the Question, Eight Short Studies on Excuses
Today's therapeutic ethos, which celebrates curing and disparages judging, expresses the liberal disposition to assume that crime and other problematic behaviors reflect social or biological causation. While this absolves the individual of responsibility, it also strips the individual of personhood, and moral dignity
-- George Will, townhall.com
Sandy is a morbidly obese woman looking for advice.
Her husband has no sympathy for her, and tells her she obviously needs to stop eating like a pig, and would it kill her to go to the gym once in a while?
Her doctor tells her that obesity is primarily genetic, and recommends the diet pill orlistat and a consultation with a surgeon about gastric bypass.
Her sister tells her that obesity is a perfectly valid lifestyle choice, and that fat-ism, equivalent to racism, is society's way of keeping her down.
When she tells each of her friends about the opinions of the others, things really start to heat up.
Her husband accuses her doctor and sister of absolving her of personal responsibility with feel-good platitudes that in the end will only prevent her from getting the willpower she needs to start a real diet.
Her doctor accuses her husband of ignorance of the real causes of obesity and of the most effective treatments, and accuses her sister of legitimizing a dangerous health risk that could end with Sandy in hospital or even dead.
Her sister accuses her husband of being a jerk, and her doctor of trying to medicalize her behavior in order to turn it into a "condition" that will keep her on pills for life and make lots of money for Big Pharma.
Sandy is fictional, but similar conversations happen every day, not only about obesity but about a host of other marginal conditions that some consider character flaws, others diseases, and still others normal variation in the human condition. Attention deficit disorder, internet addiction, social anxiety disorder (as one skeptic said, didn't we used to call this "shyness"?), alcoholism, chronic fatigue, oppositional defiant disorder ("didn't we used to call this being a teenager?"), compulsive gambling, homosexuality, Aspergers' syndrome, antisocial personality, even depression have all been placed in two or more of these categories by different people.
Sandy's sister may have a point, but this post will concentrate on the debate between her husband and her doctor, with the understanding that the same techniques will apply to evaluating her sister's opinion. The disagreement between Sandy's husband and doctor centers around the idea of "disease". If obesity, depression, alcoholism, and the like are diseases, most people default to the doctor's point of view; if they are not diseases, they tend to agree with the husband.
The debate over such marginal conditions is in many ways a debate over whether or not they are "real" diseases. The usual surface level arguments trotted out in favor of or against the proposition are generally inconclusive, but this post will apply a host of techniques previously discussed on Less Wrong to illuminate the issue.
Reason as memetic immune disorder
A prophet is without dishonor in his hometown
I'm reading the book "The Year of Living Biblically," by A.J. Acobs. He tried to follow all of the commandments in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) for one year. He quickly found that
- a lot of the rules in the Bible are impossible, illegal, or embarassing to follow nowadays; like wearing tassels, tying your money to yourself, stoning adulterers, not eating fruit from a tree less than 5 years old, and not touching anything that a menstruating woman has touched; and
- this didn't seem to bother more than a handful of the one-third to one-half of Americans who claim the Bible is the word of God.
You may have noticed that people who convert to religion after the age of 20 or so are generally more zealous than people who grew up with the same religion. People who grow up with a religion learn how to cope with its more inconvenient parts by partitioning them off, rationalizing them away, or forgetting about them. Religious communities actually protect their members from religion in one sense - they develop an unspoken consensus on which parts of their religion members can legitimately ignore. New converts sometimes try to actually do what their religion tells them to do.
I remember many times growing up when missionaries described the crazy things their new converts in remote areas did on reading the Bible for the first time - they refused to be taught by female missionaries; they insisted on following Old Testament commandments; they decided that everyone in the village had to confess all of their sins against everyone else in the village; they prayed to God and assumed He would do what they asked; they believed the Christian God would cure their diseases. We would always laugh a little at the naivete of these new converts; I could barely hear the tiny voice in my head saying but they're just believing that the Bible means what it says...
How do we explain the blindness of people to a religion they grew up with?
Eight Short Studies On Excuses
The Clumsy Game-Player
You and a partner are playing an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. Both of you have publicly pre-committed to the tit-for-tat strategy. By iteration 5, you're going happily along, raking up the bonuses of cooperation, when your partner unexpectedly presses the "defect" button.
"Uh, sorry," says your partner. "My finger slipped."
"I still have to punish you just in case," you say. "I'm going to defect next turn, and we'll see how you like it."
"Well," said your partner, "knowing that, I guess I'll defect next turn too, and we'll both lose out. But hey, it was just a slipped finger. By not trusting me, you're costing us both the benefits of one turn of cooperation."
"True", you respond "but if I don't do it, you'll feel free to defect whenever you feel like it, using the 'finger slipped' excuse."
"How about this?" proposes your partner. "I promise to take extra care that my finger won't slip again. You promise that if my finger does slip again, you will punish me terribly, defecting for a bunch of turns. That way, we trust each other again, and we can still get the benefits of cooperation next turn."
You don't believe that your partner's finger really slipped, not for an instant. But the plan still seems like a good one. You accept the deal, and you continue cooperating until the experimenter ends the game.
After the game, you wonder what went wrong, and whether you could have played better. You decide that there was no better way to deal with your partner's "finger-slip" - after all, the plan you enacted gave you maximum possible utility under the circumstances. But you wish that you'd pre-committed, at the beginning, to saying "and I will punish finger slips equally to deliberate defections, so make sure you're careful."
Schelling fences on slippery slopes
Slippery slopes are themselves a slippery concept. Imagine trying to explain them to an alien:
"Well, we right-thinking people are quite sure that the Holocaust happened, so banning Holocaust denial would shut up some crackpots and improve the discourse. But it's one step on the road to things like banning unpopular political positions or religions, and we right-thinking people oppose that, so we won't ban Holocaust denial."
And the alien might well respond: "But you could just ban Holocaust denial, but not ban unpopular political positions or religions. Then you right-thinking people get the thing you want, but not the thing you don't want."
This post is about some of the replies you might give the alien.
Abandoning the Power of Choice
This is the boring one without any philosophical insight that gets mentioned only for completeness' sake. In this reply, giving up a certain point risks losing the ability to decide whether or not to give up other points.
For example, if people gave up the right to privacy and allowed the government to monitor all phone calls, online communications, and public places, then if someone launched a military coup, it would be very difficult to resist them because there would be no way to secretly organize a rebellion. This is also brought up in arguments about gun control a lot.
I'm not sure this is properly thought of as a slippery slope argument at all. It seems to be a more straightforward "Don't give up useful tools for fighting tyranny" argument.
The Legend of Murder-Gandhi
Previously on Less Wrong's The Adventures of Murder-Gandhi: Gandhi is offered a pill that will turn him into an unstoppable murderer. He refuses to take it, because in his current incarnation as a pacifist, he doesn't want others to die, and he knows that would be a consequence of taking the pill. Even if we offered him $1 million to take the pill, his abhorrence of violence would lead him to refuse.
But suppose we offered Gandhi $1 million to take a different pill: one which would decrease his reluctance to murder by 1%. This sounds like a pretty good deal. Even a person with 1% less reluctance to murder than Gandhi is still pretty pacifist and not likely to go killing anybody. And he could donate the money to his favorite charity and perhaps save some lives. Gandhi accepts the offer.
Now we iterate the process: every time Gandhi takes the 1%-more-likely-to-murder-pill, we offer him another $1 million to take the same pill again.
Maybe original Gandhi, upon sober contemplation, would decide to accept $5 million to become 5% less reluctant to murder. Maybe 95% of his original pacifism is the only level at which he can be absolutely sure that he will still pursue his pacifist ideals.
Unfortunately, original Gandhi isn't the one making the choice of whether or not to take the 6th pill. 95%-Gandhi is. And 95% Gandhi doesn't care quite as much about pacifism as original Gandhi did. He still doesn't want to become a murderer, but it wouldn't be a disaster if he were just 90% as reluctant as original Gandhi, that stuck-up goody-goody.
What if there were a general principle that each Gandhi was comfortable with Gandhis 5% more murderous than himself, but no more? Original Gandhi would start taking the pills, hoping to get down to 95%, but 95%-Gandhi would start taking five more, hoping to get down to 90%, and so on until he's rampaging through the streets of Delhi, killing everything in sight.
Now we're tempted to say Gandhi shouldn't even take the first pill. But this also seems odd. Are we really saying Gandhi shouldn't take what's basically a free million dollars to turn himself into 99%-Gandhi, who might well be nearly indistinguishable in his actions from the original?
Maybe Gandhi's best option is to "fence off" an area of the slippery slope by establishing a Schelling point - an arbitrary point that takes on special value as a dividing line. If he can hold himself to the precommitment, he can maximize his winnings. For example, original Gandhi could swear a mighty oath to take only five pills - or if he didn't trust even his own legendary virtue, he could give all his most valuable possessions to a friend and tell the friend to destroy them if he took more than five pills. This would commit his future self to stick to the 95% boundary (even though that future self is itching to try to the same precommitment strategy to stick to its own 90% boundary).
Real slippery slopes will resemble this example if, each time we change the rules, we also end up changing our opinion about how the rules should be changed. For example, I think the Catholic Church may be working off a theory of "If we give up this traditional practice, people will lose respect for tradition and want to give up even more traditional practices, and so on."
Slippery Hyperbolic Discounting
One evening, I start playing Sid Meier's Civilization (IV, if you're wondering - V is terrible). I have work tomorrow, so I want to stop and go to sleep by midnight.
At midnight, I consider my alternatives. For the moment, I feel an urge to keep playing Civilization. But I know I'll be miserable tomorrow if I haven't gotten enough sleep. Being a hyperbolic discounter, I value the next ten minutes a lot, but after that the curve becomes pretty flat and maybe I don't value 12:20 much more than I value the next morning at work. Ten minutes' sleep here or there doesn't make any difference. So I say: "I will play Civilization for ten minutes - 'just one more turn' - and then I will go to bed."
Time passes. It is now 12:10. Still being a hyperbolic discounter, I value the next ten minutes a lot, and subsequent times much less. And so I say: I will play until 12:20, ten minutes sleep here or there not making much difference, and then sleep.
And so on until my empire bestrides the globe and the rising sun peeps through my windows.
This is pretty much the same process described above with Murder-Gandhi except that here the role of the value-changing pill is played by time and my own tendency to discount hyperbolically.
The solution is the same. If I consider the problem early in the evening, I can precommit to midnight as a nice round number that makes a good Schelling point. Then, when deciding whether or not to play after midnight, I can treat my decision not as "Midnight or 12:10" - because 12:10 will always win that particular race - but as "Midnight or abandoning the only credible Schelling point and probably playing all night", which will be sufficient to scare me into turning off the computer.
(if I consider the problem at 12:01, I may be able to precommit to 12:10 if I am especially good at precommitments, but it's not a very natural Schelling point and it might be easier to say something like "as soon as I finish this turn" or "as soon as I discover this technology").
Coalitions of Resistance
Suppose you are a Zoroastrian, along with 1% of the population. In fact, along with Zoroastrianism your country has fifty other small religions, each with 1% of the population. 49% of your countrymen are atheist, and hate religion with a passion.
You hear that the government is considering banning the Taoists, who comprise 1% of the population. You've never liked the Taoists, vile doubters of the light of Ahura Mazda that they are, so you go along with this. When you hear the government wants to ban the Sikhs and Jains, you take the same tack.
But now you are in the unfortunate situation described by Martin Niemoller:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, but we had already abandoned the only defensible Schelling point
With the banned Taoists, Sikhs, and Jains no longer invested in the outcome, the 49% atheist population has enough clout to ban Zoroastrianism and anyone else they want to ban. The better strategy would have been to have all fifty-one small religions form a coalition to defend one another's right to exist. In this toy model, they could have done so in an ecumenial congress, or some other literal strategy meeting.
But in the real world, there aren't fifty-one well-delineated religions. There are billions of people, each with their own set of opinions to defend. It would be impractical for everyone to physically coordinate, so they have to rely on Schelling points.
In the original example with the alien, I cheated by using the phrase "right-thinking people". In reality, figuring out who qualifies to join the Right-Thinking People Club is half the battle, and everyone's likely to have a different opinion on it. So far, the practical solution to the coordination problem, the "only defensible Schelling point", has been to just have everyone agree to defend everyone else without worrying whether they're right-thinking or not, and this is easier than trying to coordinate room for exceptions like Holocaust deniers. Give up on the Holocaust deniers, and no one else can be sure what other Schelling point you've committed to, if any...
...unless they can. In parts of Europe, they've banned Holocaust denial for years and everyone's been totally okay with it. There are also a host of other well-respected exceptions to free speech, like shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. Presumably, these exemptions are protected by tradition, so that they have become new Schelling points there, or are else so obvious that everyone except Holocaust deniers is willing to allow a special Holocaust denial exception without worrying it will impact their own case.
Slippery slopes legitimately exist wherever a policy not only affects the world directly, but affects people's willingness or ability to oppose future policies. Slippery slopes can sometimes be avoided by establishing a "Schelling fence" - a Schelling point that the various interest groups involved - or yourself across different values and times - make a credible precommitment to defend.
Dying Outside
A man goes in to see his doctor, and after some tests, the doctor says, "I'm sorry, but you have a fatal disease."
Man: "That's terrible! How long have I got?"
Doctor: "Ten."
Man: "Ten? What kind of answer is that? Ten months? Ten years? Ten what?"
The doctor looks at his watch. "Nine."
Recently I received some bad medical news (although not as bad as in the joke). Unfortunately I have been diagnosed with a fatal disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS causes nerve damage, progressive muscle weakness and paralysis, and ultimately death. Patients lose the ability to talk, walk, move, eventually even to breathe, which is usually the end of life. This process generally takes about 2 to 5 years.
There are however two bright spots in this picture. The first is that ALS normally does not affect higher brain functions. I will retain my abilities to think and reason as usual. Even as my body is dying outside, I will remain alive inside.
The second relates to survival. Although ALS is generally described as a fatal disease, this is not quite true. It is only mostly fatal. When breathing begins to fail, ALS patients must make a choice. They have the option to either go onto invasive mechanical respiration, which involves a tracheotomy and breathing machine, or they can die in comfort. I was very surprised to learn that over 90% of ALS patients choose to die. And even among those who choose life, for the great majority this is an emergency decision made in the hospital during a medical respiratory crisis. In a few cases the patient will have made his wishes known in advance, but most of the time the procedure is done as part of the medical management of the situation, and then the ALS patient either lives with it or asks to have the machine disconnected so he can die. Probably fewer than 1% of ALS patients arrange to go onto ventilation when they are still in relatively good health, even though this provides the best odds for a successful transition.
The Neglected Virtue of Scholarship
Eliezer Yudkowsky identifies scholarship as one of the Twelve Virtues of Rationality:
Study many sciences and absorb their power as your own. Each field that you consume makes you larger... It is especially important to eat math and science which impinges upon rationality: Evolutionary psychology, heuristics and biases, social psychology, probability theory, decision theory. But these cannot be the only fields you study...
I think he's right, and I think scholarship doesn't get enough praise - even on Less Wrong, where it is regularly encouraged.
First, consider the evangelical atheist community to which I belong. There is a tendency for lay atheists to write "refutations" of theism without first doing a modicum of research on the current state of the arguments. This can get atheists into trouble when they go toe-to-toe with a theist who did do his homework. I'll share two examples:
- In a debate with theist Bill Craig, agnostic Bart Ehrman paraphrased David Hume's argument that we can't demonstrate the occurrence of a miracle in the past. Craig responded with a PowerPoint slide showing Bayes' Theorem, and explained that Ehrman was only considering prior probabilities, when of course he needed to consider the relevant conditional probabilities as well. Ehrman failed to respond to this, and looked as though he had never seen Bayes' Theorem before. Had Ehrman practiced the virtue of scholarship on this issue, he might have noticed that much of the scholarly work on Hume's argument in the past two decades has involved Bayes' Theorem. He might also have discovered that the correct response to Craig's use of Bayes' Theorem can be found in pages 298-341 of J.H. Sobel's Logic and Theism.
- In another debate with Bill Craig, atheist Christopher Hitchens gave this objection: "Who designed the Designer? Don't you run the risk… of asking 'Well, where does that come from? And where does that come from?' and running into an infinite regress?" But this is an elementary misunderstanding in philosophy of science. Why? Because every successful scientific explanation faces the exact same problem. It's called the "why regress" because no matter what explanation is given of something, you can always still ask "Why?" Craig pointed this out and handily won that part of the debate. Had Hitchens had a passing understanding of science or explanation, he could have avoided looking foolish, and also spent more time on substantive objections to theism. (One can give a "Who made God?" objection to theism that has some meat, but that's not the one Hitchens gave. Hitchens' objection concerned an infinite regress of explanations, which is just as much a feature of science as it is of theism.)
The lesson I take from these and a hundred other examples is to employ the rationality virtue of scholarship. Stand on the shoulders of giants. We don't each need to cut our own path into a subject right from the point of near-total ignorance. That's silly. Just catch the bus on the road of knowledge paved by hundreds of diligent workers before you, and get off somewhere near where the road finally fades into fresh jungle. Study enough to have a view of the current state of the debate so you don't waste your time on paths that have already dead-ended, or on arguments that have already been refuted. Catch up before you speak up.
This is why, in more than 1000 posts on my own blog, I've said almost nothing that is original. Most of my posts instead summarize what other experts have said, in an effort to bring myself and my readers up to the level of the current debate on a subject before we try to make new contributions to it.
The Less Wrong community is a particularly smart and well-read bunch, but of course it doesn't always embrace the virtue of scholarship.
Consider the field of formal epistemology, an entire branch of philosophy devoted to (1) mathematically formalizing concepts related to induction, belief, choice, and action, and (2) arguing about the foundations of probability, statistics, game theory, decision theory, and algorithmic learning theory. These are central discussion topics at Less Wrong, and yet my own experience suggests that most Less Wrong readers have never heard of the entire field, let alone read any works by formal epistemologists, such as In Defense of Objective Bayesianism by Jon Williamson or Bayesian Epistemology by Luc Bovens and Stephan Hartmann.
Attention control is critical for changing/increasing/altering motivation
I've just been reading Luke's "Crash Course in the Neuroscience of Human Motivation." It is a useful text, although there are a few technical errors and a few bits of outdated information (see [1], updated information about one particular quibble in [2] and [3]).
There is one significant missing piece, however, which is of critical importance for our subject matter here on LW: the effect of attention on plasticity, including the plasticity of motivation. Since I don't see any other texts addressing it directly (certainly not from a neuroscientific perspective), let's cover the main idea here.
Summary for impatient readers: focus of attention physically determines which synapses in your brain get stronger, and which areas of your cortex physically grow in size. The implications of this provide direct guidance for alteration of behaviors and motivational patterns. This is used for this purpose extensively: for instance, many benefits of the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy approach rely on this mechanism.
Cached Selves
by Anna Salamon and Steve Rayhawk (joint authorship)
Related to: Beware identity
A few days ago, Yvain introduced us to priming, the effect where, in Yvain's words, "any random thing that happens to you can hijack your judgment and personality for the next few minutes."
Today, I'd like to discuss a related effect from the social psychology and marketing literatures: "commitment and consistency effects", whereby any random thing you say or do in the absence of obvious outside pressure, can hijack your self-concept for the medium- to long-term future.
To sum up the principle briefly: your brain builds you up a self-image. You are the kind of person who says, and does... whatever it is your brain remembers you saying and doing. So if you say you believe X... especially if no one's holding a gun to your head, and it looks superficially as though you endorsed X "by choice"... you're liable to "go on" believing X afterwards. Even if you said X because you were lying, or because a salesperson tricked you into it, or because your neurons and the wind just happened to push in that direction at that moment.
For example, if I hang out with a bunch of Green Sky-ers, and I make small remarks that accord with the Green Sky position so that they'll like me, I'm liable to end up a Green Sky-er myself. If my friends ask me what I think of their poetry, or their rationality, or of how they look in that dress, and I choose my words slightly on the positive side, I'm liable to end up with a falsely positive view of my friends. If I get promoted, and I start telling my employees that of course rule-following is for the best (because I want them to follow my rules), I'm liable to start believing in rule-following in general.
All familiar phenomena, right? You probably already discount other peoples' views of their friends, and you probably already know that other people mostly stay stuck in their own bad initial ideas. But if you're like me, you might not have looked carefully into the mechanisms behind these phenomena. And so you might not realize how much arbitrary influence consistency and commitment is having on your own beliefs, or how you can reduce that influence. (Commitment and consistency isn't the only mechanism behind the above phenomena; but it is a mechanism, and it's one that's more likely to persist even after you decide to value truth.)
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text:
Taylor graduated from college and we made the drive south with Aaron's family to hear her name called.
We had a lot of fun. We stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado and this. is. the hotel of my dreams.
Sometimes I find myself wishing I had a wedding to photograph when I'm at the Del.
And then I have to smack myself to remind me that the opportunity to photograph these people, my family, is the greatest blessing I could ever ask for.
My family will be the first ones to tell you that sometimes it is a PAIN to have a photographer in the family.
We can't just take a photo. I'm moving them into the good light, double checking the photo after some hapless passerby volunteers to take it and inevitably I'm asking them to do just one more.
Just ask Aaron. His eyes start to roll when I ask if he'll take a photo of me because he knows that I'm going to make him take a million before I am fully satisfied with the outcome. And I'm always yelling if I spy him messing with the settings after I've handed him the camera.
But deep down they love it. I know they do.
On the other hand, I couldn't stop myself even if I wanted to.
I don't just take photos to make a living. I take photos because I am literally compelled.
Compelled by the love of the story, of capturing the things I want to remember, of needing proof that the love is there, that the moments were real.
I am so deeply thankful for my family. I want to take photos of them all the time just to remind myself that they are real. That I have their love.
They are the reason I love what I do.
And I won't stop taking their pictures.
I'm a Southern California girl and sometimes I miss it dearly.
But home is truly where my family is.


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Samhain is a time to honor our ancestors.
Time to lay out a feast and invite them to dine, to share their presence with us while the veil is thin.
So, in respect for those who came before, I have made a small Ancestral Gallery of Witches. Give them a smile, tip your hat, light a candle and say thank you for blazing the trail and holding open the gates of Elfhame. It took a lot of courage, in those old days, to walk between the worlds.
My original plan was to give space to thirteen of our forebears in one blog post, but i realized, not everyone would know them, so I shall make a series of posts with three in each — a good magical number. It is amazing to discover these great teachers and mentors all over again and to remember how they kept magic alive for all of us, sometimes at great personal risk.
The Jackman's Song
by Ben Jonson
The Faiery beame upon you,
The starres to glister on you;
A Moone of light
In the Noone of night,
Til the fire-Drake hath o're-gone you.
The Wheele of fortune guide you,
the Boy with the Bow beside you,
Runne aye in the Way,
Till the Bird of day,
And the luckyer lot betide you.
The Faery Seers
Thomas Learmonth of Erceldoune:
Born 1643, Taken into Faery Dec. 13, 1713
True Thomas lay on Huntlie Bank
A furlie he spied with his e'e
And there he saw a Lady bright
Com riding along by the Eildon tree…
He has gotten a coat of the Elven cloth
And a pair of shoes of velvet green
And in seven years that have gone and passed
True Thomas on Earth was never seen…
From: The Ballad of Sir Thomas the Rhymer
True Thomas was a Faery Seer who was visited by the Queen of the Faeries and seduced away into Elfhame to live for 7 years. When he returned to the mortal world, he had the gift of prophecy. Many of his predictions have true.
We are very lucky that the ballad telling the tale of his adventure with the Queen of Elfhame has come down to us, over these 300 years, in an extremely intact form, for it is a most precise initiation into Faery, rivaled only by Tam Lin, a ballad of equal antiquity, that some scholars think is an extension of the tale of Thomas the Rhymer.
If you want the keys to Faery, the entire texts of Thomas the Rhymer, and Tam Lin, are here:
Initiatory Faery Ballad: Tam Lin
Thomas Rhymer: An Exploration of A Faery Ballad
The page will come up. You just have to scroll down to find the ballads.
Reverend Robert Kirk: Born 1644/Taken into Faery 1697
1. These siths or Fairies, which they call sluaghmaith or the good people: it would seem, to prevent the dint of their ill attempts: for the Irish usually bless all they fear harm of, and are said to be of middle nature betwixt man and Angel, as were daemons thought to be of old: are intelligent Studious Spirits, and light changeable bodies, like those called Astral, somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. Their bodies are so pliable through the subtlety of the spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear and disappear at pleasure…
The usual method for a curious person to get a transient sight of this otherwise invisible crew of Subterraneans, if impotently and over-rashly sought, is to put his foot on the Seer's foot and then the Seer's hand is put on the inquirer's head, who is then to look over the wizard's (seer's) right shoulder. [This method is one] which has an ill appearance [for it implies] as if by this ceremony an implicit surrender were made of all between the wizard;s foot and his hand before the person can be admitted to the art of Seership.
From: Robert Kirk: Walker Between the Worlds, edited by R.J.Stewart
Reverend Robert Kirk was 17th century clergyman who was always at the edge of controversy. His main task had been to translate the psalms and Bible into Gaelic. Besides that, as a seventh son of a seventh son, he had the Second Sight. He communed with the Faeries, wrote a book about them called The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Faeries. He talked about them openly from the pulpit of his church.
The people of hos parish thought he was taking chances, for he had broken a taboo of secrecy imposed by the faeries on those who witnessed their doings. When his body was discovered on the Fairy Knowe, or hill, the traditional dwelling of the faeries, it was rumored to be just a "stock", a simulacrum left by the good people who had taken the real Robert Kirk to live with them under the hills.
We are being blessed, that a film about the life of Robert Kirk by Scottish director Michael Ferns, will be released around Yule.
You can see the trailers and read my interview with Michael here:
Kirk! An Interview with Film Director Michael Ferns
Isoble Gowdie: Tried for Witchcraft in 1662
- I shall go into a hare,
- With sorrow and sych and meickle care;
- And I shall go in the Devil's name,
- Ay while I come home again.
- Hare, hare, God send thee care.
- I am in a hare's likeness now,
- But I shall be in a woman's likeness even now.
The year 1662 seems to have been a great year for Faery contact in Scotland, for all three of these Faery Seers, had their most intense experiences at that time. It coincided at a time when fairies were thought to be disappearing from the land a,nd that a vast and amazing store of cultural lore was threatened with extinction.
This process was being accelerated by the seizure of political control by Protestant extremists under Cromwell's Commonwealth. Unlike the more tolerant Catholics, the Puritans, Presbyterians, and others, viewed anything that smacked of Paganism as idolatry and suppressed it. This included the Faery Faith, and it was said that the Methodists had driven the faeries out of Wales.
Isobel Gowdie was tried for witchcraft in 1662. Historian John Callow told her story to a rapt audience in London in 2005. As a poor woman, changing into the shape of a hare or a raven, gave her entry into the glamorous Faery Hall where she attended feasts and danced in elegant clothes. In her raven form, she stole food and trinkets. She left a broomstick beside her sleeping husband and flew up the chimney to attend the Sabbat. In the end, she had wagered with the Devil to destroy a man she didn't like, and her magic was so effective that she turned herself in to the authorities as a way to make her stop.
She voluntarily gave detailed accounts of her experiences with her coven and her visits with the Faery Queen, whom she called the Queen of Elfhame. We are extremely fortunate that she did this, for otherwise her adventures would never have been written down for us to learn from, and be amazed at, three hundred years afterwards.
This interesting point of view comes from wikipedia:
It is unclear whether Gowdie's confession is the result of psychosis, whether she had fallen under suspicion of witchcraft and sought leniency by confessing, or was she simply much smarter than her Christian inquisitors. It is also unclear whether there was some truth to her remarkable confessions. Her confession was not consistent with the folklore and records of the trials of witches, and it was more detailed than most. What draws attention to her remarkable case is the fact that her admission of witchcraft sounds very much like the actual shamanic practices that are still in use today. She did not pander to the distorted beliefs of the Christian church about witches and the worship of Satan. There is no record of her ever being executed.
John Callow suggested that guilt made Isobel confess. That she was, in a sense, addicted to magic, and it was going terribly wrong. I agree. There is a lot of psychological validity to this view as some if us have seen in our own lives. Faery Witchcraft is also a highly shamanic path. For want of a better word — if you don't like the word "shaman" substitute "witch" and the picture comes clear.
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