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BEIJING (AP) — China's top general said Monday that a fourth North Korean nuclear weapons test is a possibility that underscores the need for fresh talks between Pyongyang and other regional parties.
Chief of the General Staff Gen. Fang Fenghui said Beijing firmly opposes the North's nuclear weapons program and wants to work with others on negotiations to end it. He said Beijing's preference is for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the U.S.
"We ask all sides to work actively to work on the North Koreans to stop nuclear tests and stop producing nuclear weapons," Fang told reporters. "We believe that dialogue should be the right solution."
Fang offered no indication as to when Beijing thought a test might happen or give other details.
His comments followed a meeting with Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose first visit to China in that position comes amid heightened tensions between Pyongyang, South Korea and the U.S.
North Korea has ratcheted up tension on the divided peninsula in recent weeks, threatening to attack the U.S. and South Korea over recent military drills and sanctions imposed as punishment for its third nuclear test in February. Pyongyang calls the annual drills a rehearsal for invasion. South Korean officials have said the North is poised to test-fire a medium-range missile capable of reaching the American territory of Guam.
China is North Korea's most important diplomatic ally, main trading partner, and provides a key source of food and fuel aid. Yet while Beijing signed on to tougher U.N. sanctions following the February test, it says it has limited influence with Pyongyang and Fang declined to say whether Beijing would adopt tougher measures to pressure the North into reducing tensions.
In other remarks, Fang also sought to reassure Dempsey over recent reports of Chinese military-sponsored hacking attacks on U.S. targets, saying China opposed all such activity. The new spotlight on a long-festering problem has prompted calls for Washington to get tough on Beijing, and the administration is reportedly considering measures ranging from trade sanctions to diplomatic pressure and electronic countermeasures.
Fang repeated China's portrayal of itself as a major victim of hacking, saying China is heavily reliant on the Internet and has a strong vested interest in ensuring cybersecurity, Fang said.
"If control is lost over security in cyberspace, the effects can be, and I don't exaggerate, at times no less than a nuclear bomb," Fang said.
For his part, Dempsey sought to allay Chinese unease about the U.S. military's renewed focus on Asia. That has reawakened Chinese fears of being encircled by U.S. bases and alliances and brought strong criticism from the military.
"One of the things I talked about today with the general, is we seek to be a stabilizing influence in the region. And in fact, we believe, that it would be our absence that would be destabilizing, not our presence," Dempsey said.
However, while Washington is committed to building a "better, deeper, more enduring" relationship with China, its traditional alliances in Asia — including with Japan and other Chinese rivals — could at times create friction, he said.
While distrust lingers on both sides, efforts to expand cooperation between the Chinese and U.S. militaries have gained friction in recent months, and new anti-piracy and humanitarian relief drills are planned.


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Moonrise Herbs Blog — eastern coltsfoot
Coltsfoot - Herbal Wisdom Wednesday
coltsfoot eastern coltsfoot herbalism herbalwisdomwednesday herbs moonriseherbs Petasites spp. respiratory herbs tussilago farfara western coltsfoot
The rain may be a bit of downer after all the beautiful sun, but it is so nice to take a breath and smell the freshness that comes with it. Not to mention our plant friends are just bursting with growth! One in particular you may see by the roadsides right now is Coltsfoot! This prolific set of herbs does so much for us...read on to find out more! ColtsfootRespiratory Soother & Strengthener Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) also called Eastern Coltsfoot and it's counterpart most often seen here on the West Coast (Petasites spp.) are two different perennial species of the Asteraceae family with...

subset: commoncrawl


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Of course, never ones to get right to the point, we first strain to entertain you with a reading of Letters, followed by a look at What's in the Box. This time, and in keeping with the theme of the show, we open a fresh copy of Pegasus Bridge. Ahh. Satisfying.
We had a hard time explaining what happens if a Glider or Paratroop gets moved offboard, so we've included some pics here to aid in comprehension -- we hope.
The example from Chapter E 8.221. Blue markers represent Avenue of Approach |
Further, if the Glider were forced to take Evasive Action two hexes further offboard. |
Greg Dahl's Paratrooper and Glider Summary Sheet
David Galan's Glider Landing Chart
David Galan's Paratroop Landing Chart
Look, up in the sky!
0:00 - Silly Banter
7:00 - Letters
21:00 - Call-ins
25:00 - What's In The Box?
43:00 - Glider Rules
1:1:06 - Paratroop Rules
1:1:35 - Total length
Listen Now:


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Demi Lovato's Alleged Drug Dealer Breaks Silence on Night of Overdose
Demi Lovato's alleged drug dealer has broken his silence to TMZ about what exactly went down the night of Lovato's reported overdose, which nearly killed her and left her in the hospital for days.
Brandon Johnson told the site that Lovato texted him at 4 AM on July 24, asking him to come over, which Johnson said he interpreted as a request for drugs. Johnson said the two then freebased pills together. He insisted "Demi knew they were not pharmaceuticals, but much stronger...though he denies knowing they were laced with anything."
TMZ reported that Johnson is notorious in the industry for getting pills from Mexico that are laced with the incredibly dangerous fentanyl.
"We watched out detective shows, as usual, she's a cool girl who watches true crime detective shows," Johnson said. "She sometimes has such long days — a stressful job, such stressful hours — so to unwind a little bit. One-hundred percent she knew what she was taking."
"It was unfortunate what happened, but for people to think that there was any misconception on my behalf is absolutely ridiculous," he added. "I'm not here to hurt anybody. I care for her very much."
Johnson said he left at about 7 AM or 8 AM and that Lovato was sleeping, but there weren't any signs of trouble. It wasn't until a few hours later that Lovato's team found her and called for an ambulance.
"When I was with her she was fine for the whole time," Johnson said.
Lovato's since entered rehab treatment, and friends are said to have taken measure to ensure she never sees Johnson again.
Johnson also alleged that while he and Lovato started off as friends, their relationship ultimately became sexual, though Lovato's team has denied it.
Lovato first opened up about her relapse and overdose earlier this month in an Instagram post.
"I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction," she wrote to her followers. "What I've learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet."
"I now need time to heal and focus on my sobriety and road to recovery," she added. "The love you have all shown me will never be forgotten and I look forward to the day where I can say I came out on the other side. I will keep fighting."


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I leaned over her bed, late at night, placing a gentle kiss on her cheek. As I did, one of my tears fell onto her face, falling down into her wild and curly hair.
I love this girl so, so much I feel my heart physically swelling at the sight of her, but I don't get her and I don't know how to get her.
She could easily be described as sweet and kind… but that sweet demeanor can turn on a dime. One moment happy, cuddly and cheerful… the next in a fit of emotion about something small, like the taste of her toothpaste. Even if it the culprit of the fit seems trivial, her pain over it is obvious. She feels so deeply, so loudly, every emotion she has. Whether happy or sad, she feels in extremes.
She's the one who has challenged me for at least four of her six years now. She's creative, kind, loving, hilarious, talented and more… but we are slowly understanding that she needs more help than what we can give her. Parenting is hard. And honestly, it's not going as I imagined it would so many years ago when my husband and I shared dreams about our future family. Never in a million years would I have thought we'd have a child who not only tries so hard but despite that is well below the average benchmark in school. Throw in extreme emotional issues (although that doesn't present itself at school, ever) and you've got a picture perfect family shattered by reality. There is no picture perfect…it doesn't exist.
And I can't help but look at myself and wonder… what did I do wrong? I feel as if I've failed her in some way… and that's a horrible feeling.
At the prompt of a friend, I made an appointment for my daughter with a child psychologist. Plus, she'll be getting additional help at school.
I need answers. I need to know how I can help her. I need to make sure this path she's spiraling down changes directions. I need help as much as she does… I need to know how to parent a child who doesn't fit the mold. I'm hopeful yet feel so very helpless. Our appointment is not until May… what do I do until then?
I had been meaning to write about chowder today. About how on a cold day like today, a bowl of this hearty and flavorful chowder can wrap you in temporary comfort. When my mind is wild and my thoughts are far from being able to wax poetically about a pot of chowder, I know I can at least find some comfort in knowing that things will get better. And a bowl of comfort is a great way to start.
Creamy Chicken & Corn Chowder
- 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
- 5 bacon strips diced
- 1 red bell pepper coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
- 1 cup cooked chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon Basil (I use and recommend Gourmet Garden
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic (I use and recommend Gourmet Garden
- In a large Dutch Oven, fry bacon over medium heat for 5 minutes. Next add bell pepper and onion. Cook until onion is translucent and the vegetables are tender.
- Add flour; cook and stir until smooth. Slowly stir in milk, Tabasco sauce and chicken broth. Bring to a boil; then cook until thickened, about 3 minutes.
- Add chicken, corn, seasonings and herbs. Stir until well incorporated and cook for 10 minutes or until heated through.


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A little late on the news; we wanted to make sure you guys checked out the inaugural MLHS podcast.
Jake Gardiner has been sent down to the Toronto Marlies to rediscover his timing and confidence in the AHL. His poor decision making with the puck and numerous bobbles have been uncharacteristic to say the least, and James Mirtle makes the point that he's just the latest in a line of Leafs who have shown even more rust than we expected coming off a concussion. A young player being sent down to get up to speed after a significant injury layoff is obviously nothing to worry about, at least not yet.
Meanwhile, I hope Mike Komisarek takes full advantage of his opportunity tomorrow night. For the first time since he got here, I can say with a straight face that, forgetting one costly penalty vs. the Pens, Komisarek deserves to be in the lineup. Maybe – okay, likely – he's just been the beneficiary of some good timing when it comes the team's performance in the two games he played versus the two he didn't, but he's nonetheless been a plus-three in around 15 minutes of ice time each game. His physical play, experience and tendency to stay close to home are qualities the Leafs blueline could use but it's always a question of how many mistakes he's going to make.
He'll be returning to the lineup following a game in which none of the Leafs' D looked good, especially not fellow fringe defenceman Cody Franson, who I thought played his worst game in a Leaf sweater with a direct hand in two goals against.
Ball's in your court, Mike. Surprise us all.


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Monday, March 22, 2010
Dispatch from the Medieval Academy Meeting @ Yale: The Toronto Feminists
by EILEEN JOY
I was not able to attend the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, held at Yale University this past weekend [18-20 March], but Kathleen Biddick has graciously agreed to let us post here the comments she made on a roundtable organized by Nancy Partner, The Toronto Feminists: How Did We Get Here from There? And Where is "Here"? The panel featured Kathleen Biddick, Dyan Elliott, Judith Bennett, and Maryanne Kowaleski, all of whom prepared remarks in response to questions posed by Nancy Partner beforehand. As is to be expected, Kathleen Biddick's remarks are richly provocative [especially her formulation, via the radical psychoanalytic thinking of Bracha Ettinger, to transmedieval transubjectivities, and her call for blasphemy at the end], and they also provide a rare insight into Biddick's own academic autobiography:
March 20, 2010
Yale University, New Haven
PANEL: The Toronto Feminists: How did we get Here from There? And where is "Here"?
Organizer: Nancy Partner
Panelists: Judith Bennett, Kathleen Biddick, Dyan Elliott, Maryanne Kowaleski
Response: Kathleen Biddick, Dept. of History, Temple University (email@example.com)
Question 1 In grad school, what did the category terms "woman/women" seem to mean, if and when they ever occurred at all? When can you remember "sex" being mentioned in connection with historical research? And when do you think you first learned the word "gender"?
Thank you, Nancy Partner, for organizing this panel. Your invitations have always productively provoked my thinking. The chance to participate in your 1993 Speculum special issue on Studying Medieval Women: Sex, Gender, Feminism gave me the opportunity to explore what Joan Scott has called the "psychodynamics of critique"—in her words "the critical refusal to accept the rules (the terms of identity) set by someone (or some group) I nevertheless care deeply about, indeed whose aims I share and whose approval and affection I also seek" ("Finding Critical History," in Becoming Historians, ed. James M. Banner and John R Gillis [Univ. of Chicago, 2009], p. 41).
My critical contributions today, as then, are offered in such a spirit.
Let me open with a conjuring.
How many feminists ghosts can fit on our podium? MANY—so please let me conjure just one: Nellie Neilson, one of 8 women to have received an American doctorate in history before 1900, at age 53 (1926) first elected female fellow the Medieval Academy, and at age 70 (1943) first ever elected female president of the American Historical Association. Neilson has always inspired me. Her work embodied precociously the productive tensions of critical history: in her loving attention to language, she cultivated a Maitlandian sensitivity to philology (Frederick Maitland being her English mentor) and at the same time she attended to the particularity of the archive. She channeled her archival studies of the estate of Ramsey Abbey to Ambrose Raftis (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies), the dissertation supervisor of Judith, Maryanne, and myself. In his own dedication to critical history, I now conjure Raftis (alas now, too, a ghost) to our podium as an honorary feminist.
Let me now move on to your questions: when did we encounter the categories women, sex, and gender?
My short answer: Blame it on Barnard College Class of 1971. I dedicated my first book, The Other Economy: Pastoral Economy on a Medieval Estate (1989) to my medieval mentors at Barnard College: Suzanne Fonay Wemple and Maristella Lorch and the company of Barnard women, 1967-71. As early as 1966, Barnard professor Annette Baxter was already precociously offering a course on the History of American Women. I learned about sex and gender when I studied with the internationally famous and deeply dashing sociologist, Mira Komaravosky, a pioneering expert on gender, especially on masculinities. Our class studied her then recently published and now famous book on BLUE COLLAR MARRIAGE. Given my class background, it seemed to me that I was learning more than I wanted to know about masculinity, femininity and gender. I can remember vividly a rather tearful interview with Prof. K. in which we discussed my discomfort over the painful closeness of her book to my background. Her deeply intelligent response: you are not your identity; your identity is not you. Komarovsky instilled in me a profound insight into the discursive process, an insight which stuck with me in my graduate studies and subsequent research. You are not your identity she told me; your identity is not you (Wow, thank you, Mira Komarovsky)!
And not to be forgotten, my Barnard course in Greek tragedy with the recently arrived assistant (and also beautiful) professor of classics, HELENE FOLEY, who went on to become an elected fellow of the American Academy for her feminist scholarship of Greek tragedy. Her brilliant course planted in me the seed of thinking deeply about Antigone. One of my favorite undergraduate courses, "Antigone and the Limits of Sovereignty," took root at Barnard.
But there is more to say about how Barnard, untimely in those times, shaped my desire for knowledge. There is the one professor with whom I did not get to study, a young professor who arrived at Barnard around 1968 or 1969. To the student body, she was simply thrilling; in other words, she created a buzz. This was the young Catherine Stimpson, who would contribute so much to feminist and queer scholarship and to making the academy a more livable space. Somehow, back then, we understood that she embodied what Homi Bhabha has called something new entering the world. Epistemological embodiments still thrill me.
So when I arrived in Toronto to commence my graduate studies in 1973, you could say by the standards of the master's discourse, I was deeply deluded. I expected nothing less than the powerful and beautiful intellects of Judith, Maryanne, Dyan. And I expected Ambrose Raftis to support my work in the epistemological spaces inbetween history, philosophy, literature. And so he did! Around 1973, I had yet to discover the brutality of the disciplinarity of history—more about that traumatic fall from grace as the panel unfolds.
Question 2 …..This is my career. It consists of sitting in rooms filled with men. When did this change? And when it changed, what changed? Things feel different now, but different doesn't feel as different as I thought it should….
The work of feminist theory is not finished yet. And it won't be finished as long as the discourse of the master, what Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Zizkek have called University discourse, prevails hegemonically. According to Lacan and Zizek, University discourse is the discourse of the master who "disavows [his] performative dimension, presenting what effectively amounts to a political decision based on power as a simple insight into the factual state of things" (Zizek, Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle [Verso, 2005], p. 139). By disavowing the gap between the subject position of enunciation and enunciated content, university discourse disavows fantasy.
In one of my all-time favorite books of medieval scholarship, The Master and Minerva: Disputing Women in French Medieval Culture (1995), fellow Torontonian medievalist, Helen Solterer, brilliantly elucidates how medieval scholastic protocols of dispute inscribed a female figure at their center. That feminine symbolic is what the University discourse repetitiously produces (even in the so-called days of postgender) as the disavowed foreign body at its very heart. Symptoms of such phallic thinking riddle the series of essays published recently in the December 2008 American Historical Review Forum on Revisiting "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis".
I think that fantasy can undo University discourse from within. One of the most exciting recent examples of this is the work of Bracha L. Ettinger, artist, psychoanalyst, feminist theorist and professor of psychoanalysis and aesthetics at the University of Leeds. Ettinger is reworking Lacan's late work and Freud's theory of the uncanny in order to rethink feminist theory beyond masculine-feminine difference (see her book The Matrixial Borderspace [Univ. of Minnesota, 2006]). To do so, Lacan warned, is to court psychosis. Ettinger breaks this taboo. In breathtaking moves she replaces the phallic structure of difference with a transubjective theory of co-emergence. She materializes her theory of these thresholds of identity and memory in her painting. Does Ettinger's rethinking of psychoanalysis beyond the sadistic-aggressive structure of separation and radical alterity signified by the Phallus and Castration "without displacing or rejecting either " (p.17) have any relevance for medieval scholarship?
For my work, it is her notion of transcryptum that I find most productive. Ettinger defines transcryptum as the "artobject or artevent, artoperation or artprocedure, which incarnates transcription of trauma and cross-inscriptions of its traces, in which case the artwork's working-through of the amnesia of the world into memory is a transcryptomnesia: the lifting of the world's hidden memory from its outside with-in-side" (p. 167).
New undertakings, such as the journal postmedieval, are exploring such transmedieval attunements. Likewise, the recently published collection of essays by Kathleen Davis and Nadia Altschul, Medievalisms in the PostColonial World: The Idea of the Middle Ages Outside Europe (Johns Hopkins, 2009) transcrypts. In my current project, entitled Dead Neighbors: Sovereignty and the Archive, I am attempting my own transcryptum. This project vibrates between the discourse on miracles to be found in contemporary debates over sovereignty (Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt, Eric Santner) and an interrupted reading of Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies. My project stages the archive and the artevent (whether it be the Bury Cross and governmentality, the optics of Shakespeare's play, King Richard II, and the medieval Eucharistic debate, engravings of the Turk, the name given to automata that wowed the salons of late 18th century Europe which made its way into Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History) as tuning forks that vibrate in the encounter with the corporeal, that is those dead neighbors, Jews and Muslim, out of which, I argue, medieval and early modern sovereignty fashioned its second immortal body.
But medievalists, please handle transmedieval transubjectivies with care. The University discourse resists. For example, take the fate of my NEH fellowship proposal for my project Dead Neighbors. The review panel awarded it a ranking of "no merit," because (as the comments stated) it was not "in the spirit of the mission of the NEH." It is labor to bring new things into the world.
Question 3 Setting: Late 90s at the American Historical Association meeting….Joan Scott and Natalie Davis walk into the crowded conference room….I could see a "wave-effect" ….I thought I was seeing that some big sea change had really happened in the profession. Right?
What vibrates in such a wave is not Scott and Davis as subjects, but rather the critique they practice. Critique is not dead yet, in spite of ferocious efforts to silence it. Critique endures in its slow, patient, focused interrogation of the "grounds of the system's possibility." When, for instance, King's College London recently decided to drop its longstanding faculty position in medieval paleography (a recent event to which the Medieval Academy responded) and one which, I think, needs to be heard as the canary in the mineshaft, deconstructive critique can come to our aid—in the words of Joan Scott: "what we need now is a reassertion of the value of critique, a defense of its scholarly integrity, and an articulation of its philosophical presuppositions" ("Against Eclecticism," differences 16.3 [2005]: p. 127).
The productive question to pose to King's College London is not one about preserving tradition, or the perils of presentism, or the pragmatics of practicality (as important as such interrogations might be); instead, I think, we need to grasp fully the discursive strategies whereby the corporatized Anglo-American University is increasingly reorganizing itself around sameness both in the classroom and in the research carrel. This process is already quite advanced and it has taken its toll on junior scholars in premodern studies who are especially vulnerable, I think, to the drive for sameness. Thus, many of them have to closet their passion for critique. So critique needs to ask, what are the conditions of possibility for "sameness" in the University discourse of power today?
I think we could begin a conversation about this by looking again at the set of essays recently published in the American Historical Review Forum (December 2008) on Revisiting "Gender as a Category of Historical Analysis". What seemed to have dropped out between 1986 and 2008 is critique. What is left is the becoming-orthodox of women's studies, gender studies, queer studies.
So perhaps the time has come to plan another retrospective, this one on a famous feminist manifesto published in 1985 (Socialist Review): Donna Haraway's cyborg manifesto. In the opening of that essay, Haraway meditates on blasphemy: "blasphemy always seems to require taking things seriously. Blasphemy is not apostasy."
5 comments:
- Eileen Joy said...
I have been thinking a lot about Kathleen Biddick's comments here over the past 2 days, and I am especially struck by her comments regarding University Discourse [and its disavowal of fantasy] and its drive toward "sameness," which perhaps damages young scholars [or really, *any* scholars] in our field who seek what I would call new *edges* of critique and maybe, also, pace many of our conversations here, new critical *modes* of address within our field. Next week I will be at NYU participating in a panel [sponsored by the Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium] on historicism and post-historicism, with Karl S., Dan Remein, and Patricia Dailey, and I am thinking that might be an ideal place to ruminate Biddick's "transmedieval" further. I also have some hope about the type of work in our field that could "undo" University Discourse [and we might say Medieval Studies Master Discourse] from with-in when I look ahead to several projects on the horizon--the special issue of "postmedieval" that Jeffrey and Cary Howie will be editing on "New Critical Modes":
--and also the 2 panels organized by Anna Klosowska and Nicola Masciandaro on the "post-abysmal" for the upcoming Kalamazoo Congress [scheduled for Thursday afternoon]:
Anna Klosowska (Miami University of Ohio) and Nicola Masciandaro (Brooklyn College, CUNY), Co-Organizers
The concepts we work with as we read medieval texts — fragment, plenitude, anagogy, devotion, smallness, radiance, saturation, etc. — constitute for each one of us a way to think through a new step in theory, including queer theory. Our manifesto is: "Give us something that is more than nothing; we're tired of the abyss/death. What else is there?" Both theoretical and thoroughly medieval in our orientation, we draw the impetus for this session from our belief in the importance of theoretical work as it applies to our different disciplines. The panelists are united in their belief that: 1) the study of medieval texts is aided, clarified, and furthered by a serious inquiry into the conditions and modalities of theoretical frameworks; and 2) a serious engagement with theory today calls for a reassessment of the Continental tradition, including the primacy of death, the supposed inaccessibility of meaning, and the linguistic turn. We want to argue against the "lack" model of theory as it stands today. This session, thus, is resolutely "post": post-post-modern, post-lack, post-humanist, post-Heideggerian, post-Blanchot, post-silence, post-death, post-speculative realism, even. With Michael Snediker, our Respondent, we create "epistemologies not of pain, but of pleasure; aestheticize not the abdication of personhood, but its sustenance" ("Queer Optimism"); with Alain Badiou, we want "a theater of capacity, not of incapacity" ("Handbook of Inaesthetic"), as we "return to the place of life" ("Saint Paul"); and with Giorgio Agamben, we want to speak the "language in which the pure prose of philosophy would intervene at a certain point to break apart the verse of the poetic word, and in which the verse of poetry would intervene to bend the prose of philosophy into a ring" ("Language and Death").
[to be continued] - 5:14 PM
- Eileen Joy said...
1. The Post-Absymal I: Exegesis, Ethics, Saturation
* Erik Butler (Emory University), "The Middle Ages Never Ended: Exegesis and Commonplace"
This paper argues for the timeliness of anachronism. The title refers to Léon Bloy's "Exégèse des lieux communs" (1902-1912). Against the grain of contemporary sensibilities, Bloy, the perpetual malcontent, claimed that the commonplace, like modern life itself, had fallen into dereliction. By definition, a clichéd phrase presumes to pronounce an everlasting verity. The task of the exegete, then, is to uncover a spiritual meaning in everyday discourse, a truth hidden to the vulgar. Historicism has a blind spot when it freezes the past and subordinates its creations to the present and passing concerns. Why should our day be more vital than earlier ages, which confronted problems that have hardly vanished with time? Is it not possible that our era of digital reproduction, automation, and mass-mediated spectacle is less alive than any other? The demarcation between "now" and "then" has been erected to hold events in place artificially. Only when the border is suspended can the future — whether "post-modern" or "post-medieval" — appear. The eternal (should it exist) is not lighted by a sun in the process of combustion and self-extinction.
* Nicola Masciandaro, "Getting Anagogic"
The anagogic sense is totally post-abysmal by virtue of being an experience of significance as palpably crossing the gap between word and thing, as fulfilling signification by overcoming signifying as such. Being the sense that proverbially gives a foretaste (praegustus) of heaven, anagogy fuses in principle the sensuous and the transcendent, the temporal and the eternal, and is accordingly conceived in the medieval period as the mystical sense of textual understanding, that "which perfects through spiritual ecstasies and sweet perceptions of wisdom" (Bonaventure) and provides "the foreseeing of hoped-for rewards" (Richard of St. Victor). Anagogy is thus defined by a simultaneously double movement, a going at once beyond and more deeply within the terms of the present. This double movement is intelligible, as Henri de Lubac explains, as anagogy's eternalizing trajectory, its entering into the place that holds everything, its finding of the something that includes what searches for it: "[anagogy] forms the total and definitive sense. It sees, in the eternal, the fusion of mystery and mysticism. Alternatively, the eschatological reality attained by anagogy is the eternal reality in which every other has its consummation." Crucially, the mode, the substance, the how of anagogy is pleasure, the savoring of the sense itself, which is (typically) sweet, fragrant, brilliant, and perfectly subjective is an absolutely objective way: "Every person . . . is free to pursue the thought and experiences, however sublime and exquisite, that are his by special insight, on the meaning of the Bridegroom's ointments" (Bernard of Clairvaux). The anagogic sense is deeply positive, good, a flavor from a wonderfully/terribly absolute perspective that precludes the possibility of not saying yes to it, of not tasting it for yourself. Who does not enjoy actually sensing the inevitability of her utmost bliss? Anagogy idealizes the real, preempts the abyss.
So the question I will pursue is: Where is the anagogic sense now? Where has it gone? Nowhere. The anagogic sense is always present. Every hermeneutic realizes some form of non-dualistic psycho-sensual fulfillment. Every thought and interpretation revolves around a taste for something immanent to itself. The issue is: what? In dialogue with medieval and modern authors (Rilke, Richard Rolle, Bachelard, Jacopone da Todi, Wittgenstein, Julian of Norwich, Agamben, Ibn Arabi), my paper will venture into the potentiality of this what beyond its traditional theological determination.
[to be continued] - 5:18 PM
- Eileen Joy said...
* Sol Neely (University of Alaska Southeast), "The Cruel Practice of Ethics"
In light of the post-abysmal manifesto — "Give us something that is more than nothing; we're tired of the abyss/death. What else is there?" — I want to talk about Levinas's notion of the "Il y a," which is his answer to exactly this question. The "Il y a" ("there is") expresses the pulsating anonymity of being, a "there is a there is," and he develops this notion from the concept of hypostasis. I will link Levinas' notion of hypostasis to its medieval origins and connect this to his notion of the "general economy of being." I have always thought that medieval literature dramatizes a Bataille-Levinas coincidence (coinci-dance?) that too many readers find horrific. Perhaps I will turn briefly to the monastic utopia dramatized in "The Land of Cokaygne," which expresses both general economy (in Bataille's sense) and a general economy of being (in Levinasian sense).
* Anna Klosowska, "Poetry of the Small"
An exploration into the poetic and theological dimensions of smallness as a way to articulate new readings of the Occitan canon. How are small things, not necessarily even saturated gold jewels, but humble everyday things, alchemically quintessential and radiant (images I eagerly borrow from Dan Remein)? While Dan Remein and Eileen Joy care to speak of, to articulate, the theories of, extremes of the small-as-plenitude, the alchemical and the saturated, respectively — I will follow the tracks of the humble object of which some Occitan poems make their meaning: hoarfrost (inverse flower?), a piece of string or tack, a glove.
* Eileen Joy (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), "It's Never Enough: Notes Toward a Saturated Literary Criticism"
This paper will take as its initial starting point John Caputo's idea that the literary text — whether Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" or the New Testament — is a "primary scene" of "the event," described by Caputo as "a kind of epistemic free radical that can migrate through many strata, the analysis of which reveals to us the sphere of the absolutely possible, of hitherto suppressed possibilities, previously undisclosed openings, and unimagined, unrealized unsuspected futures" ("Bodies Still Unrisen, Events Still Unsaid," Angelaki 12.1 [April 2007]: 73-86). Further, as Caputo writes, "whereas the 'world' is tightly bound and confined," the event "freely circulates," especially through bodies whose flesh is simultaneously a site of vulnerability and of pleasure, of bodies that so pulsate with sensation that their acting in the world is suspended and the flesh itself becomes all the world there is." Through a reading of an event as it circulates through a specific flesh-saturated body in Malory's "Tale of Balyn and Balan" — a woman who commits suicide over her dead lover's body while Balyn watches in astonishment, the aesthetic frame of the forest, the text, just behind him (with the whole scene forming a moment of narrative suspension, of radical possibility, albeit framed within a generic "plot" that can only go in one direction) — I hope to trace a new space for literary criticism as a site of interminable, saturated becoming, of writing in order to write even more, or as Caputo exhorts, "To live in order to live even more."
[to be continued] - 5:19 PM
- Eileen Joy said...
2. The Post-Abysmal II: Optimism, Devotion, Radiance
* Dan Remein (New York University), "Small Poem/Radiant Medieval"
In complicity with Samuel Beckett's poem "Alba" and Dante's "Purgatorio," these remarks will explore the possibility of a poetics of vertiginously small places, whose radiant unreadability (re)produces a literary modernism with a medieval heart capable of flouting the lack which would prevent a certain queer mixing of persons, things, pasts, presents, literary spaces and 'real' places. Small, because of the formal elements of the poem; vertiginous and indeed optimistically radiant in the ensuing density and unreadability of its complicity with medieval material — what might have been appropriated as modernist purgatorial, paradisiacal, or alchemical (transformational) lack appears instead as the ease of giving-in to the allure of such a densely radiant place. In the place called to appearance by the poem, the reader is invited to plunge into a radiant black-hole where distinctions between medieval, modern, persons, things, language (and the lack supposedly governing them) are all replaced by the production of a small place.
* Irina Dumitrescu (Southern Methodist University), "Saturnian Poetics"
Saturn, celestial body and pagan god with an euhemeristic past, had not yet given his name to a dark humoural disposition when he played the curious Chaldean prince in the Old English poems "Solomon and Saturn I" and "II." Nor, indeed, did that English possess the word "melancholy" to adjoin to his name. Still, the Saturn of these poems returns compulsively to the problem of sadness, joining to it violent excitement and curiosity. His voracious appetite for wisdom and texts recalls the god's feasting on his own children and suggests a way of reading characterized and made possible by fragmentation and incorporation. In turn, the fragmented poetics of both poems offers a deliberately tantalizing solution to his curiosity: it is through the experience of sorrow, compunction and a sense of loss that deep reading — and laughter — may come.
[to be continued] - 5:19 PM
- Eileen Joy said...
2. The Post-Abysmal II: Optimism, Devotion, Radiance
* Heather Bamford (University of California, Berkeley), "Old, but Not Tired: Closeness According to the Scars on One Epic"
This presentation begins with what Hans Gumbrecht might call "scars" on the surface of a medieval Spanish epic fragment, a tile containing verses of the "Poema de Fernán González" ("Eat your Fragments"). These ruptures solicit various types of putting back together, or philological surgeries. At the center of these philological surgeries, particularly in the case of epic testimonies, is a desire for a heightened sense of proximity, which I call closeness, with the protagonists involved in the histories of these fragments, as well as with the writing and images they contain. By accepting the scars as potential sites of contact with the past and by permitting discussion of the fuzzy questions regarding their creation, a different sort of contact with the medieval, albeit not a cognitive or historical one, can be brought about.
* Cary Howie (Cornell University), "As If: After Ciappelletto"
The title comes from the end of the first novella in the "Decameron," where the narrator asserts that, even though Ciappelletto was no saint, he serves as one if we pray to him as such, "as if we were having recourse to a truly holy man through the mediation of His grace." I want to use this as a chance to talk about the places where hope and cynicism meet, where the "as if" becomes not merely wishful but, in fact, effectual. Since so much of the basic wager of criticism relies upon treating things as if they were more than just what they are — and doing so in a way that, at its best, speaks of hope rather than cynicism, and finds that this 'more' ultimately inheres within those things after all — I'm finding it an especially evocative way of thinking the work, or, if you will, the devotion, of criticism these days.
* RESPONDENT: Michael Snediker (Queen's University, Ontario) - 5:20 PM


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text: Malicious - Platform: Playstation 3 Trophies: --------- Successfully complete one of the following tasks to get a trophy: Punitive Soldier (Bronze): You've put down a power holder. Story Completed (Bronze): You've completed the story mode. No Guard (Bronze): You've cleared a scene without any guard. Counter Master (Bronze): You've succeeded in all of the counter actions. Debut in Our Ranking (Bronze): You've made a debut in our ranking. 10,000 Killed (Bronze): You've killed 10,000 enemies in total. 100 Chained (Silver): You've achieved 100 chains. No Restart (Silver): You've completed the story mode without using a continue feature. All S Rank Completed (Silver): You've completed all scenes in story mode at S rank. 11 Kill Cleared (Silver): You've cleared this scene by defeating exclusively the power holder. No Repair (Gold): You've completed the story mode without repairing the vessel of spirit.


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Pentagon has received 'several hundred' new UFO sighting reports
WASHINGTON - A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects has received "several hundreds" of new reports, but no evidence so far of alien life, the agency's leadership told reporters Friday.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was set up in July and is responsible for not only tracking unidentified objects in the sky, but also underwater or in space — or potentially an object that has the ability to move from one domain to the next.
The office was established following more than a year of attention on unidentified flying objects that military pilots have observed but have sometimes been reluctant to report due to fear of stigma.
In June 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that between 2004 and 2021, there were 144 such encounters, 80 of which were captured on multiple sensors.
FILE - Aerial photo of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virgina. (Andy Dunaway/USAF via Getty Images)
Since then, "we've had lots more reporting," said anomaly office director Sean Kirkpatrick. When asked to quantify the amount, Kirkpatrick said "several hundreds."
An updated report from the Director of National Intelligence that will provide specific figures on new reports received since 2021 is expected by the end of the year, the officials said.
The office was set up not only to examine the question of whether there's extraterrestrial life, but also because of the security risk posed by so many encounters with unknown flying objects by military installations or military aircraft.
This May, Congress held its first hearing in more than half a century on the topic, with multiple members expressing concern that whether or not the objects are alien or potentially new, unknown technology being flown by China, Russia or another potential adversary, the unknown creates a security risk.
So far, "we have not seen anything, and we're still very early on, that would lead us to believe that any of the objects that we have seen are of alien origin," said Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security. "Any unauthorized system in our airspace we deem as a threat to safety."
The office is also working on ways to improve its ability to identify unknown objects, such as by recalibrating sensors that may be focused just on known adversary aircraft or drone signatures, Moultrie said.
One reason for the hundreds of additional reports coming in may be the outreach the department has done to destigmatize reporting potential encounters. Each service has also established its own reporting processes, Kirkpatrick said.
Beyond unidentifiable objects, there's a lot of new technology — such as future stealth bombers and stealth fighters, drones and hypersonic missiles being fielded by both the U.S. and China — that could be mistaken for a UFO. Kirkpatrick said the new office has been coordinating with the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community to get the signatures of U.S. technology in order to rule out those aircraft or drones.
"We are setting up very clear mechanisms with our blue programs, both our DOD and IC programs, to deconflict any observations that come in with blue activities, and ensure that we weed those out and identify those fairly early on," Kirkpatrick said, referring to the "blue" U.S. aircraft programs in operation by the Pentagon or intelligence agencies.


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It Is Great Gain to Die
Five Reasons Why
1) Our spirits will be made perfect (Hebrews 12:22–23).
There will be no more sin in us. We will be done with the inner war and the heartrending disappointments of offending the Lord who loved us and gave himself for us.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the just which have been made perfect.
2) We will be relieved of the pain of this world (Luke 16:24–25).
The joy of the resurrection will not yet be ours, but the joy of freedom from pain will be. Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man to show the great reversal that is coming.
[The rich man] cried out and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame." But Abraham said, "Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony."
3) We will be given profound rest in our soul (Revelation 6:9–11).
There will be a serenity beneath the eye and care of God that surpasses anything we have known here on the softest summer evening by the most peaceful lake at our most happy moments.
I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer."
4) We will experience a deep at-homeness (2 Corinthians 5:8).
The whole human race is homesick for God, without knowing it. When we go home to Christ there will be a contentment beyond any sense of security and peace we have ever known.
We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
5) We will be with Christ (Philippians 1:21–23).
Christ is a more wonderful person than anyone on earth. He is wiser, stronger, and kinder than anyone you enjoy spending time with. He is endlessly interesting. He knows exactly what to do and what to say at every moment to make his guests as glad as they can possibly be. He overflows in love and with infinite insight into how to use that love to make his loved ones feel loved. Therefore Paul said…
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.
Scratching the surface of wonder,
Pastor John


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Fundamental to Scientology is a view of Man as a spiritual being. In Scientology, the spiritual being is called the thetan. The term is taken from the Greek letter theta for "thought" or "life" or "the spirit." It is used to avoid confusion with previous concepts of the soul. The thetan is immortal and has lived—and will continue to live—through countless lifetimes. One is a thetan who has a mind and who occupies a body. The thetan animates the body and uses the mind.
Also fundamental to Scientology is a view of life as compartmentalised into urges (drives, impulses) toward survival. These are called the dynamics and number eight in all.
The First Dynamic—is the urge toward existence as one's self. Here we have individuality expressed fully. This can be called the Self Dynamic.
The Second Dynamic—is the urge toward existence as a sexual activity. This dynamic actually has two divisions. Second Dynamic (a) is the sexual act itself. And the Second Dynamic (b) is the family unit, including the rearing of children. This can be called the Sex Dynamic.
The Third Dynamic—is the urge toward existence in groups of individuals. Any group, or part of an entire class, could be considered to be a part of the Third Dynamic. The school, the society, the town, the nation are each part of the Third Dynamic and each one is a Third Dynamic. This can be called the Group Dynamic.
The Fourth Dynamic—is the urge toward existence as or of Mankind. Whereas one race would be considered a Third Dynamic, all the races would be considered the Fourth Dynamic. This can be called the Mankind Dynamic.
The Fifth Dynamic—is the urge toward existence of the animal kingdom. This includes all living things, whether vegetable or animal, the fish in the sea, the beasts of the field or of the forest, grass, trees, flowers or anything directly and intimately motivated by life. This can be called the Animal Dynamic.
The Sixth Dynamic—is the urge toward existence as the physical universe. The physical universe is composed of Matter, Energy, Space and Time. In Scientology we take the first letter of each of these words and coin a word—MEST. This can be called the Universe Dynamic.
The Seventh Dynamic—is the urge toward existence as or of spirits. Anything spiritual, with or without identity, would come under the heading of the Seventh Dynamic. This can be called the Spiritual Dynamic.
The Eighth Dynamic—is the urge toward existence as infinity. This is also identified as the Supreme Being. This is called the Eighth Dynamic because the symbol of infinity, ∞, stood upright makes the numeral 8. This can be called the Infinity or God Dynamic.
Scientologists usually call these by number.
A further manifestation of these dynamics is that they could best be represented as a series of concentric circles, wherein the First Dynamic would be the centre and each new dynamic would be successively a circle outside it. The idea of space expanding enters into these dynamics.
The basic characteristic of the individual includes his ability to so expand into the other dynamics. But when the Seventh Dynamic is reached in its entirety, one will only then discover the true Eighth Dynamic.
As an example of use of these dynamics, one discovers that a baby at birth is not perceptive beyond the First Dynamic. But as the child grows and interests extend, the child can be seen to embrace other dynamics.
As a further example of use, a person who is incapable of operating on the Third Dynamic is incapable at once of being a part of a team and so might be said to be incapable of a social existence.
As a further comment upon the Eight Dynamics, no one of these dynamics from one to seven is more important than any other one of them in terms of orienting the individual. While the dynamics are not of equal importance, one to the next, the ability of an individual to assume the beingness, doingness and havingness of each dynamic is an index to his ability to live.
The abilities and shortcomings of individuals can be understood by viewing their participation in the various dynamics.
Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA) Test
Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA) Test
The OCA Personality Test and complimentary results consultation are absolutely free with no obligation—it's simply a great opportunity to learn more about you.


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Documentație provides sound structures and tools to maintain a Documentation Management System based on WordPress.
Leveraging WordPress' framework and internal structures, the system provides a completely new section to manage documents independently from normal posts or pages.
Documents are complemented by their dedicated document categories and document tags, which allows to keep the documentation structures separate from the more blog-oriented posts or CMS-like pages.
It can be used to build a dedicated documentation site, a subsite for documentation in a multisite network or other creative deployments.
See our documentation portal for an example where we use the system to maintain a considerable amount of documentation for our tools.
Simple to use, yet powerful to maintain even thousands of documentation pages.
Documents can be attached to products in WooCommerce using WooCommerce Documentation.
The plugin provides several widgets that are used to display document links:
- Document Hierarchy : facilitates navigating and viewing the document hierarchy
- Document Children : displays links to children of documents
- Documents : to display sets of document links
- Document Categories : to display links to document categories
The following shortcodes are available:
- [documentation_documents] Lists documents, also useful to list documents in a category.
- [documentation_categories] Renders a list of links to the document categories.
- [documentation_hierarchy] Provides a means to navigate the documentation structure, equivalent to the Document Hierarchy widget.
- [documentation_list_children] Lists the children of a document like the Document Children widget.
- [documentation_search_form] Renders a dynamic search form. Use Search Live for a more flexible search form.
Recommended Useful Additions
You should have a look at these tools. They will help you get the most out of this Documentation Management System.
- WooCommerce Documentation This extension for WooCommerce and the Documentation plugin for WordPress allows to link documentation pages to products and display them automatically on the product pages.
- Groups Groups is designed as an efficient, powerful and flexible solution for group-oriented memberships and content access control. Use it to control who can view documents and more.
- Groups Restrict Categories An extension based on Groups, provides access restrictions for categories and tags, custom post types and taxonomies. Very useful to restrict whole sets of documents based on their document categories or tags.
- Search Live Search Live supplies effective integrated live search facilities and advanced search features. Makes it really easy to find the desired documents.
- Widgets Control Widgets Control is a toolbox that features visibility management for all widgets, sidebars, sections of content and content blocks. This is very useful to show content and widgets in context.
- Widgets Control Pro Widgets Control Pro is the advanced version of the Widgets Control toolbox that features visibility management for all widgets, sidebars, sections of content and content blocks. With its additional features, it is even more useful to show document-specific content and widgets, including the options to show widgets on documents and related pages only.
- Decent Comments Decent Comments shows what people say. If you want to show comments along with their author's avatars and an excerpt of their comment, then this is the right plugin for you. Use it to show comments posted on documents only or including them.
- Open Graph Protocol Framework The Open Graph protocol enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph. For instance, this is used on Facebook to allow any web page to have the same functionality as any other object on Facebook. This will automate the process of adding basic and optional metadata to documents.
Please refer to the documentation pages for details.
The site uses the Documentație plugin and is a good example of deployment, with an extensive set of documentation sections and pages.
Feedback is welcome!
If you need help, have problems, want to leave feedback or want to provide constructive criticism, please do so here at the Documentation plugin page.
Please try to solve problems there before you rate this plugin or say it doesn't work. There goes a lot of work into providing you with free quality plugins! Please appreciate that and help with your feedback. Thanks!
Follow @itthinx on Twitter for updates on this and other plugins.
Capturi ecran
- Upload or extract the
folder to your site's/wp-content/plugins/
directory. You can also use the Add new option found in the Plugins menu in WordPress. - Enable the plugin from the Plugins menu in WordPress.
Întrebări frecvente
Where is the documentation?
The documentation pages are here and we obviously use our Documentație plugin to maintain them.
Contributori și dezvoltatori
"Documentație" este un software open-source. La acest modul au contribuit următoarele persoane.
ContributoriTradu "Documentație" în limba ta.
Te interesează dezvoltarea?
Răsfoiește codul, vezi depozitarul SVN, sau abonează-te la jurnalul de dezvoltare prin RSS.
Istoric modificări
For the full changelog see changelog.txt.


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Thanks for stopping by today! Just in time for a new challenge!
Thanks so much to those who played along with our April Anything Goes! Today's challenge is a Theme Challenge! The Theme is Spring Time!
Basically anything you think of when you hear the theme is acceptable! We look forward to seeing what you come up with! Be sure and check out the store here for some great images! Below the team has provided wonderful samples with many of the wonderful images that Jodie has in the store!
Please post your project to Catch the Bug, by 4/19/14 at 6:00 AM EST to be entered a random drawing for three digi prize packs – ) 10 free images (using a Bugaboo image only), seven (7), or four (4) using any image!
Now on to your Bugaboo inspiration! I love the great variety of images that the team has decided to use for this challenge!
New projects only no backlinking please! Limit 3 per person please!!
Now onto the amazing projects presented to you by the talented DT of Bugaboo and wonderful Guests who have played along as well!
Tammy Miller featuring Mini Set – Flowers


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If you would like a quote for a holiday at this hotel complete the form below and we'll get back to you with our best special offers and prices.
Alternatively, fill in this short form and we will call you back to discuss your holiday plans.
If you would rather speak to someone about your holiday plans, we'd be delighted to talk things through with you - please call on 01752 880 880, email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Our office hours are 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday.


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Infective Endocarditis
Infective endocarditis (IE), also called bacterial endocarditis, is an infection caused by bacteria that enter the bloodstream and settle in the heart lining, a heart valve or a blood vessel. IE is uncommon, but people with some heart conditions have a greater risk of developing it.
Risk factors for developing IE include:
- Heart valve disease
- Previous heart valve surgery
- Congenital heart disease
- Intravenous drug use
- Previous history of IE
View an illustration of endocarditis.
Dental Procedures and Infective Endocarditis
People with the highest risk for poor outcomes from IE may be prescribed antibiotics (IE prophylaxis) prior to certain dental procedures to reduce their risk of developing it. These include procedures that involve manipulation of gingival (gum) tissue or the periapical region (area around the roots) of teeth, or perforation of the oral mucosa.
Antibiotic prophylaxis is reasonable before the above-mentioned dental procedures for people with heart valve disease who have any of the following:
- Prosthetic cardiac valves, including transcatheter-implanted prostheses and homografts.
- Prosthetic material used for heart valve repair, such as annuloplasty rings, chords or clips.
- Previous IE.
- Unrepaired cyanotic congenital heart defect (birth defects with oxygen levels lower than normal) or repaired congenital heart defect, with residual shunts or valvular regurgitation at the site adjacent to the site of a prosthetic patch or prosthetic device.
- Cardiac transplant with valve regurgitation due to a structurally abnormal valve.
Except for the conditions listed above, antibiotic prophylaxis before dental procedures is not recommended for any other types of congenital heart disease.
In addition, antibiotic prophylaxis is not recommended for patients with valvular heart disease who are at high risk of IE for nondental procedures (e.g., TEE, esophagogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, or cystoscopy) in the absence of active infection.
You can reduce the risk of IE by maintaining good oral health through regular professional dental care and the use of dental products such as manual, powered and ultrasonic toothbrushes; dental floss; and other plaque-removal devices.
If you meet the requirements for antibiotic prophylaxis for dental treatment or oral surgery, your cardiologist or other health care professional may give you an American Heart Association wallet card (PDF). Show this card to your dentist, pediatrician, family doctor or other health care professional. It recommends the type of antibiotic and dose for IE prophylaxis. For smaller children, the dose will vary according to the child's weight. Always remind your dentist or doctor if you (or your child) are allergic to any antibiotics or other medications.
Your health care team can provide you more information and answer your questions about preventing IE.
- Print our patient information sheet What Is Endocarditis? (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)
- Print your own Prevention of Infective Endocarditis Wallet Card (PDF) | Spanish (PDF)


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Muc-Off Dry Chain Lube is a durable, deep penetrating Chain Lubricant and oil that's formulated to hold up in extreme conditions that would destroy ordinary chain lubes. Muc-Off Dry Lube is a highly versatile, dry weather chain oil that has state of the art penetrative qualities to ensure that the lube is driven deep into each chain link's core. And there's no need to worry because Muc-Off Dry Lube is *biodegradable, so it's safe for you, your bike and the planet.
*Only contents are biodegradable.


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- Why do these people give a good goddamn what I think? Seriously - why would anyone waste their time arguing with complete strangers? I don't have a particularly large readership. I have 97 followers on Google Connect. There are 113 people subscribed to HCDSM via Google reader. And I get about 150-200 unique visitors a day. When you eliminate the folks searching for the pr0n and the drive-by readers, I'd estimate there's about 150 people who read this space on a regular basis. So it's not like this is HuffPo or Yahoo or whatever. So what drives these people to come here? Perhaps it's simply a case of "Someone is WRONG on the Internet," but I just don't get the appeal. I don't scour the web looking for people who think women (or progressives, or Navy vets, or engineers) are full of shit and argue with them for fun. How is this an interesting or rewarding activity?
- Do trolls really think that being rude, condescending, and pompous will make the author (or anyone) change their mind?
- As a corollary to the first point, what makes trolls think I give a good goddamn what they think? While I enjoy a lively exchange of ideas, and I've learned some interesting things from drive-by commenters, the fact of the matter is that trolls do not engage in a way that makes me want to learn from them. Whatever wheat they may have is lost in the chaff, and really - I couldn't care less about their opinions. What makes them believe that I do?
*The title of this blog post is a pun that maketh me to giggle, inspired by the amazing RANDOM MICHELLE.


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Appropriately marking the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, two of the season's Hollywood blockbusters, Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" and Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," are about, respectively, slavery and its abolition. And while they could not be more different in style, tone, and story, the two films are instructively complementary in reminding us of an uncomfortable truth about our nation's past: that underpinning slavery at the local, state, and national levels was the law, including the highest law of the land, the U.S. Constitution.
At one level "Django," set in 1858 on the eve of the Civil War, can be viewed as simply a prelude to "Lincoln." It captures essential realities of slavery, whose permanent demise "Lincoln," set in 1865 near war's end, reminds us came through hard-fought pragmatic politics that produced the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
"Django" graphically shows the pervasive violence — actual and potential, physical and psychological, capricious and everyday — that enforced slavery. Surprisingly — this is, after all, a Tarantino film — it does so most effectively, not in its more sensational scenes, but in its simple shots of the whip-scarred backs of the title character (Jamie Foxx) and his fellow slaves, including his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). One leaves the theater with a visceral understanding of the fear and rage that slaveholders and slaves both lived with.
"Django" also provides a much-needed reminder of another awful reality of slavery: the nation's horrific domestic slave trade so critical to the rise of the cotton kingdom. Between 1800 and 1860 some one million slaves were forcibly moved from the Upper South to the Deep South, 60 per cent of them through sale to traders. Like Harriet Beecher Stowe in her great 1852 antislavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Tarantino focuses less on slave labor than on the buying and selling of slaves, including the haggling over their monetary value. As in Stowe's novel, the slave traders in the film are a repellent blend of crudity, cupidity, and cruelty whose livelihood depends upon the forcible breakup of loved ones like Django and Broomhilda, for whose marriage slavery affords no legal protection.
The film's real achievement, however, is in highlighting slavery as a legal institution that gave masters ownership and control over the labor and bodies of the men, women, and children who by law were their human chattel. In the film's most chilling scene, the tyrannical slaveholder Calvin Candie (a creepy Leonardo DiCaprio) without hyperbole thunders, "Under the laws of Chickasaw County [Mississippi], Broomhilda is my property. And I can do anything with my property I so desire."
In the case of a female slave like her, we are led to understand, mercifully without heavy-handedness on Tarantino's part, that "anything" includes sexual domination at the master's whim. Candie's assertion of his property rights recalls the haunting words of Harriet Jacobs in her searing 1861 account of the psycho-sexual torments that she endured as a young slave, with "no shadow of law to protect" her from a master "who met me at every turn, reminding me that I belonged to him, and swearing by heaven and earth that he would compel me to submit to him."
While it is Django's violence that rescues Broomhilda from Candie's plantation, it is her "freedom papers," signed and sealed earlier by Candie in a transaction with Django's bounty-hunter mentor and partner, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), that formally liberate her from slavery. Django underscores this point by carefully folding the papers and placing them in his coat pocket.
And here is where the movie is more than simply a prelude to "Lincoln." The two films are complementary in a more important and fundamental respect. Despite all the gore that separates "Django" from "Lincoln," the law and legal documents are at the heart of both movies: the Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment in "Lincoln" and bounty hunter warrants and especially Broomhilda's freedom papers in "Django." Different as they are, both films demonstrate that it was not just violence and ruthless men like Candie that preserved slavery; it was the law itself. In short, slavery was a constitutional regime.
That is why the activist and scholar W. E. B. DuBois considered slavery one of those wrongs made "especially heinous, black, and cruel when it masquerades in the robes of law and justice and patriotism." It also helps explain why Abraham Lincoln believed that slavery's abolition must be enshrined by amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In their own ways, the two films cinematically affirm recent scholarship by historians emphasizing the Constitution's proslavery nature. If we can be thankful that the framers of that document knew better than to include the words "slaves" and "slavery" in it, we must also acknowledge their collective responsibility for lending slavery the legal authority of the supreme law of the land, thereby sowing the seeds of the Civil War.
For the abolition of slavery, Union victory in battle was crucial, of course. But it was the Thirteenth Amendment that destroyed the legal edifice of slavery and, like Broomhilda's freedom papers writ large, ended the terrible suffering of some four million American slaves.
Gregory L. Kaster is professor of history at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.


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Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference
Eleven months in the making, the full schedule for The Lean Startup Conference is at last complete, and we can't wait to show you around! OK, sure, we're still nailing down a couple more speakers and sessions, which we'll announce as we finalize them. But other than that, it's all there. Talk descriptions, speakers, workshops, evening events, Ignite, Office Hours…but we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let's slow down and go over just what we have and for whom.
We took the feedback we gathered in previous years to expand on and improve the program. We've got more in-depth how-to talks than ever and even better opportunities for you to meet other relevant attendees. That means there's never been a better year to attend than this one. For first-time attendees, this conference offers a complete introduction to Lean Startup. Returning participants will find new speakers, fresh ideas, more options to meet other entrepreneurs, and special sessions for advanced practitioners.
Here's an overview of it all, and of course, you can find more detail on our site. (If you need additional ammo to convince your boss, we've written up detailed benefits for employees of established organizations.)
-- The Conference Core: Two Days and Three Nights
of Intense Education and Connection --
We don't fix what's already awesome. So as per usual, we kick off the main conference on December 9 with Ignite--a high-energy, entertaining series of lightning talks.
On December 10 and 11, the two main conference days are packed with mainstage talks to inspire and breakout sessions to teach you the how-to of implementing Lean Startup methods. At your request, we've brought in speakers from all kinds of organizations--including young companies, Fortune 500s, mission-driven orgs, and government, and they create websites, apps, games, hardware, consumer goods, social services, media products and more. We've tagged the talks by topic, so you can zero in on what interests you most.
If you've scanned the list of speakers before, take a second look. We've recently added talks from: Former US CTO and current tech advisor to the White House, Todd Park; former Facebook engineering director Joceyln Goldfein; Dropbox engineering VP Aditya Agarwal; and KISSMetrics founder Hiten Shah.
Take a third look, too, because there are a lot of people there you haven't heard of but who have in-the-trenches information to share. That's no accident. We actively sought out great stories, not just big names, and we found people who had compelling experiences to present. These are people you won't hear at any other conference. It's what keeps the Lean Startup Conference on point: No stale talks.
We're also going beyond traditional sessions. To help experienced Lean Startup practitioners share knowledge with each other, we're dedicating several breakout sessions each day for advanced attendees to hold focused conversations with each other. And after dinner on December 10 and 11, we've added hands-on sessions for you to learn video-editing techniques from one of our favorite speakers last year or to catch a jazz set with a discussion of improv as an analog for business collaboration.
We know that meeting other people at conferences can be rewarding--but surprisingly hard to pull off. So On December 10 and 11, we've booked tables for Lean Startup group dinners at popular San Francisco restaurants. These were such a hit last year that we've expanded on them, and we'll designate groups for each venue--startup founders and early employees, entrepreneurs within the enterprise, or mission-driven and non-profit innovators--so that you can connect with the attendees most relevant to you.
You probably don't come to this conference for the food--but that wouldn't be a crazy idea. For lunches, we've contracted with local food trucks to park outside the conference and offer a taste of San Francisco entrepreneurship (literally) just for conference participants.
-- Go Deeper: Up to Five Days of Incredible Events --
We designed our Platinum and Gold Passes specifically for people looking to do a deep dive into Lean Startup. They include training and are an amazing deal; they also offer exclusive networking opportunities. You can buy these passes now or upgrade an existing Silver Pass. Platinum Passes include everything above, plus:
- Startup site visits. Who doesn't love a field trip? Platinum Passholders will spend December 8 visiting four successful San Francisco startups. See for yourself what innovation environments look like and connect with the people making them work.
- Workshops. December 9 is devoted to full-day, hands-on sessions led by our community's most accomplished Lean Startup trainers. This year's workshops cover Lean Startup 101; Introducing Lean Startup in Your Corporation; Lean Impact; Innovation Accounting; and Metrics: The Data That Will Make or Break Your Business.
- Office Hours. On the evenings of December 10 and 11, you can sign up for 15-minute, one-on-one conversations with select conference presenters and expert mentors. This was an experiment we tried last year, and we were frankly overwhelmed by the positive response. So this year we're expanding Office Hours not only with more speakers, but also with more mentors from a range of fields--giving you an unusual chance to talk with people like O'Reilly Media CEO Tim O'Reilly, Reverb Technologies founder Erin McKean, and entrepreneurship expert Nathalie Molina Niño.
- Live Q&A with Eric Ries. On December 12, Eric will answer attendees' questions live. He's going to take all kinds of startup questions--on designing experiments, understanding metrics, deciding when to pivot--whatever comes. You not only get to ask, but you also get to hear details of the challenges other entrepreneurs are facing.
- Perks include:
- Reserved front-row seating in every conference room
- Platinum line at Registration to save you time
- Platinum line for our food trucks on Tuesday and Friday
- First dibs to sign-up for our Office Hours
- First dibs to sign-up for our group dinners
Our Gold Pass covers three days--including December 10 and 11, plus your choice of Workshop on December 9 or Live Q&A with Eric Ries on December 12. Gold Passholders also get access to Ignite, Office Hours, and designated ballroom seating for December 10 and 11 mainstage talks.
-- A Pass for Every Income --
We've talked a lot here about the Gold and Platinum Passes, because they offer incredible value. But we also want The Lean Startup Conference to be accessible to everyone. So we're pleased to offer passes at a complete range of levels:
- Our Silver Passes are a great deal: Two full days of the conference, a seat at Ignite, sign-ups for dinners, food truck tickets for purchase.
- Our Scholarship Pass offers the same benefits as the Silver Pass, but brings the cost of the conference down to $200 for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend (think: fledgling solopreneurs, employees at very young startups and small non-profits). Apply for a Scholarship Pass here.
- Livestream the conference. For the first time, we're making the conference available via livestream to individuals. You get all the mainstage talks and the most popular breakouts, along with access to live Q&A, moderated chat, and a conference social network. You pay per screen, so sit down with a couple of friends and split the cost.
- If you're a student, you can apply to volunteer. Pitch in for a shift, and we'll give you a Silver Pass. Apply to volunteer here.
All passes are on sale now, and you can compare them here. And, again, you can now see the whole program on our site. Register today to join us for our best Lean Startup Conference yet!
PS. While you wait for December, check out our webcast on November 25 with Brant Cooper--one of our most popular workshop leaders--and Coca Cola's Carie Davis. It explores a topic we haven't seen discussed elsewhere yet.
PPS. When you register for the conference, you can also choose to add on-site childcare options. Here's the deal.


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About TIFFANIE :
"I am currently in search for a boy who can keep up with my high level of naughtiness… I think its way too early for me to get seriously involved, so I am in search for a sexy boy with high stamina and very good looks. Best we keep this as a pure physical relationship. So I want a guy who looks great, is in perfect shape (as am I as U can see) and is up for mostly anything."


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One Man 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Will Blow Your Mind [VIDEO]
Whatever your opinion of British rockers Queen, there's no denying that their signature song 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' which consists of six different sections and hundreds of overdubs, is amazingly complex. That makes this cover of the song, which was done entirely by one man, all the more astounding.
Musician Richie Castellano sings all vocals, plays all instruments and even works triple-duty as the star in a split-screen music video for the song. He's a one-man rock band!
[via BuzzFeed]


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Gerrards Cross Artificial Grass Cleaning - Trading Standards Approved
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Power washing your lawn can be a fast, easy and effective way to clean it.
Here are a few reasons why people may be interested in having their artificial grass pressure washed:
- It is a fast and easy way to remove debris and dust.
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- It can aid in eliminating odours from pet urine.
- You can add distilled white vinegar or mild soap for more cleaning power.
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Unlike natural grass, where pet, oil or food stains would eventually grow out or get mown away, stains and spills in artificial grass need to be resolved to maintain the quality look and feel of your synthetic grass.
When we use a pressure washer, it de-compacts the original infill and thoroughly flushes out any old smelly contaminants. Then, as the high-pressure water shoots directly into the turf using a surface sweeper, the water bounces off the backing, allowing complete flushing of the infill, commonly affected by compacted debris. Loosening this debris packed between the microscopic spaces between the infill with our high-pressure washer allows the artificial turf system to breathe essentially.
If you have sizeable artificial grass areas, then regular pressure washing maintenance will help your artificial lawn last anywhere between 15 and 25 years, depending on its use.
If you would like a free price quotation for artificial grass cleaning services in Gerrards Cross, please contact us.


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Hosted by the University of Plymouth
Donated/on loan from: School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics, Plymouth University
The PCW8512 was Amstrad's second machine aimed directly at home office and small business users, offering a fully integrated word processing solution. Like its predecessor, the PCW8256, the full system came complete with a dot matrix printer, as well as the Locoscript wordprocessing application.... (read more)Amstrad, 1986
An example of one of the many compatible clones that soon followed in the wake of the IBM PC. Amstrad was one of the pioneers of truly budget clone systems, having shipped their 512K, 8086-based PC1512 in 1986. The model shown here was their next version; a 640K PC, which also includes a 30MB ha... (read more)Amstrad, 1987
Having led the way with budget IBM-compatible systems on the desktop, the PPC 512 (and an accompanying release, the PPC 640) was Amstrad's first attempt to do the same thing for portable personal computing. The systems came with 512K and 640K RAM respectively, and used an 8086-compatible NEC V30... (read more)Amstrad, 1988
Amstrad CPC464 User Instructions Manual by Amstrad. (read more)Amstrad, 1984
The first home computer produced by Amstrad, applying the same all-in-one approach that it had already pioneered in the hifi market by providing a system with built-in cassette deck and an accompanying monitor (the 464 came with a choice of green or colour screen). In addition to this value for m... (read more)Amstrad, 1984
The GX4000 followed the early 90s trend for repackaging successful home computers as cartridge-based consoles. The device was essentially an Amstrad CPC464plus in a console-style casing. However, like Atari's XE Games System and Commodore's 64GS, the GX4000 was a resounding market failure. Alt... (read more)Amstrad, 1990
Following the success of Cambridge Computer's Z88 (Sir Clive Sinclair's first - and to date only - new computer following Amstrad's purchase of Sinclair Research), it was perhaps not surprising to see Amstrad appearing on the scene with a machine targeting the same market. Powered by the old-fait... (read more)Amstrad, 1992
As the name suggests, the ALT-386SX is based on the Intel 80386SX (a version of the CPU without the mathematical coprocessor built-in), clocked at 16 megahertz. The system had 4MB of RAM and an 80MB hard disk, and a monochrome display supporting VGA graphics. While the design is now more remini... (read more)Amstrad, 1988
The 6128 was the third machine in the CPC series, appearing just a few months after the short-lived CPC 664. Key advancements over the 464 were the inclusion of the disk drive in place of the cassette deck, and a doubling of the memory to 128K (the 664 had the disk but just 64K RAM). This combin... (read more)Amstrad, 1985
Although retaining the Notepad name (following the NC100), the 128K NC200 is more akin to a laptop, with the flip-up screen doubling the size to 16 lines, and including an MS-DOS compatible 720K floppy drive for storage. It was also somewhat heavier to carry about, a factor further emphasised by... (read more)Amstrad, 1993
User Guide - CP/M Logo & Word Processor Manual for PCW8256 by Amsoft. (read more)Amstrad, 1985
BASIC Manual for PCW8256 (Part 2) by Amstrad. 396 pages. (read more)Amstrad, 1985
ZX Spectrum+2 128K Home Computer Manual by Ivor Spital and Robert Goodwins. 206 pages. (read more)Amstrad, 1986
Building upon the massive success of the PCW8256 ad 8512, the 9512 was Amstrad's attempt to update and enhance the range. In addition to the appearance being more akin to the traditional desktop machines of the era, the most notable changes were the inclusion of a daisywheel printer (as opposed ... (read more)Amstrad, 1987


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The number of Americans that renounced their citizenship was 221 percent higher in 2013 than it was in 2012. That is a staggering figure, and it is symptomatic of a larger trend. In recent years, a lot of really good people with very deep roots in this country have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to the United States permanently. A few actually go to the trouble to renounce their citizenship, and that is mostly done for tax purposes. But most willingly choose to leave America for other reasons. Some were very serious when they said they would leave the U.S. if Barack Obama got a second term, some (such as Jesse Ventura) are dismayed at how our freedoms and liberties are eroding and are alarmed at the rise of the Big Brother police state, some are absolutely disgusted by the social and moral decay that is eating away at the foundations of our society, and there are yet others that consider "the grass to be greener" on the other side of the planet. Personally, I have a number of friends that have made the very hard decision to relocate their families thousands of miles away because they see what is coming to America and they believe that there isn't any hope of turning things around at this point. I also have a lot of friends that are determined to stay in the United States no matter what. When it comes to the future of America, almost everyone has a very strong opinion, and these are discussions that we need to start having.
Once upon a time, the United States was seen as "the land of opportunity" all over the globe and it seemed like everyone wanted to come here.
But now that is all changing. As we have abandoned the principles that this country was founded upon, our economy has gone steadily downhill.
As I wrote about the other day, the middle class in America is slowly dying. As millions of good paying jobs have been shipped out of the country, the competition for the remaining jobs has become quite intense. At this point, there is even tremendous competition for minimum wage jobs.
Compared to exactly six years ago, 1,154,000 fewer Americans have jobs. Meanwhile, our population has gotten significantly larger since then. There simply are not enough jobs for everyone, and we continue to fall even farther behind. In January, the economy only added 113,000 jobs and in December the economy only added 75,000 jobs. Both of those figures are well below what we need just to keep up with population growth.
Looking ahead, things look even more troubling.
The number of "planned job cuts" in January was 12 percent higher than 12 months earlier, and it was actually 47 percent higher than in December.
The competition for jobs has also resulted in an extended period of declining incomes in the United States.
As I mention frequently, median household income in the United States has fallen for five years in a row, and the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row.
Those that read my articles regularly probably have those facts memorized by now.
In addition, a study that just came out has shown that the number of "low-wage breadwinners" in the United States is at an all-time high…
A staggering number of American households are relying on low-wage jobs as their leading or sole source of income.
Meet the low-wage breadwinner. There were about 21 million of them in the United States in 2011, according to a forthcoming study by University of Massachusetts Boston economists Randy Albelda and Michael Carr.
Unlike other studies which often focus just on low-wage workers, the researchers looked at those who also live in low-income households. This way, they were able to strip out the teenager making $8 an hour flipping burgers but still living comfortably with his parents. Or the mom who works a part-time job in retail to supplement her husband's otherwise ample salary.
For tens of millions of average American families, there simply is not enough money left at the end of each month.
That is why many of them turn to debt to try to make up the difference. Consumer credit is increasing at an alarming pace once again, and when the next great economic shock arrives many of those families are going to be in for a tremendous amount of financial pain.
In this type of economic environment, it should not be a surprise that anger, frustration and desperation are rising to very dangerous levels.
It was desperation and a fear of losing everything that he had ever worked for that drove one 80-year-old man to become a methamphetamine courier.
It was intense anger and frustration that drove a 58-year-old military veteran to package up cat feces and send it to employers that had turned him down…
Rather than simply grumble to himself or complain to others, a St. Louis man aggrieved by a company's failure to hire him took another approach.
Jevons Brown packaged up cat feces and sent it through the mail.
Brown, 58, was sentenced Friday to two years of probation after pleading guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge of mailing injurious articles.
The plea says Brown, a veteran, became frustrated with his lack of employment opportunities and lashed out at employees of companies that failed to hire him.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
In the years ahead, we are going to see much, much worse.
And if you do lose everything, don't expect anyone to care very much. There is already a frightening lack of compassion for those that are down on their luck in the United States today. For example, in Pensacola, Florida it is actually illegal for homeless people to use blankets or cardboard boxes to shield themselves from the cold…
So there I was with my wife and three kids, all of us huddled under blankets with the fireplace roaring, watching the temperature continue to drop from a comfortable 65 degrees down to 45. But outside it was 17 degrees and raining and sleeting, and if you were homeless, you had to consider that if you used a blanket to shield yourself from the elements, that you might be hauled off to jail for a violation of a local ordinance prohibiting using blankets, cardboard, or newspaper to cover yourself.
Once you lose everything, society just wants you to go away.
And this lack of compassion is going to get a whole lot worse during the very hard times that are coming.
So it is easy to understand why many Americans would want to get out of this country while they still can.
However, the truth is that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side.
For instance, you may be dreaming of moving to a tropical paradise where you can enjoy the sand and the sun every single day.
In the past, many Americans considered Puerto Rico a good place to relocate to. After all, it is a United States territory and if you only speak English you can still get around pretty well.
But you wouldn't want to move down to Puerto Rico these days. Right now it is in the middle of a full-blown economic collapse…
Puerto Rico's slow-motion economic crisis skidded to a new low last week when both Standard & Poor's and Moody's downgraded its debt to junk status, brushing aside a series of austerity measures taken by the new governor, including increasing taxes and rebalancing pensions. But that is only the latest in a sharp decline leading to widespread fears about Puerto Rico's future. In the past eight years, Puerto Rico's ticker tape of woes has stretched unabated: $70 billion in debt, a 15.4 percent unemployment rate, a soaring cost of living, pervasive crime, crumbling schools and a worrisome exodus of professionals and middle-class Puerto Ricans who have moved to places like Florida and Texas.
In fact, Puerto Rico is a preview of the kind of societal chaos that we could be seeing inside the United States in just a few years…
Schools sit shuttered either because of disrepair or because of a dwindling number of students. In this typically convivial capital, communities have erected gates and bars to help thwart carjackers and home invaders. Illegal drugs, including high-level narcotrafficking, are one of the few growth industries.
Well, what about South America?
In recent years, South America has been an extremely popular destination for those wishing to leave the United States.
Unfortunately, many areas of South America are experiencing full-blown economic collapse right now as well. As I wrote about recently, deteriorating economic conditions have resulted in widespread crime, looting, violence, blackouts, shortages of basic supplies, and runs on the banks in Argentina and Venezuela. The following is an excerpt from a recent interview with Fernando Aguirre who actually lives down in Argentina…
Chris Martenson: Okay. Bring us up to date. What is happening in Argentina right now with respect to its currency, the peso?
Fernando Aguirre: Well, actually pretty recently, January 22, the peso lost 15% of its value. It has devalued quite a bit. It ended up losing 20% of its value that week, and it has been pretty crazy since then. Inflation has been rampant in some sectors, going up to 100% in food, grocery stores 20%, 30% in some cases. So it has been pretty complicated. Lots of stores don't want to be selling stuff until they get updated prices. Suppliers holding on, waiting to see how things go, which is something that we are familiar with because that happened back in 2001 when everything went down as we know it did.
Chris Martenson: So 100%, 20% inflation; are those yearly numbers?
Fernando Aguirre: Those are our numbers in a matter of days. In just one day, for example, cement in Balcarce, one of the towns in Southern Argentina, went up 100% overnight, doubling in price. Grocery stores in Córdoba, even in Buenos Aires, people are talking about increase of prices of 20, 30% just these days. I actually have family in Argentina that are telling me that they go to a hardware store and they aren't even able to buy stuff from there because stores want to hold on and see how prices unfold in the following days.
Well, what about Europe?
Isn't Europe a lot more stable?
Unfortunately, that is not necessarily true. In recent years we have seen rioting, civil unrest and Depression-like conditions in Ukraine, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
And now you can add Bosnia to that list…
More than 150 people were wounded in Bosnia on Friday in the worst civil unrest in the country since the 1992-95 war as anger over the dire state of the economy and political inertia boiled over.
Angry protesters set fire to part of the presidential palace in Sarajevo in protests over unemployment and corruption, as well as government buildings in the capital Sarajevo, Tuzla and Zenica.
Just because you move out of the United States does not necessarily mean that you will avoid what is coming.
We are heading for a global economic collapse, and the pain is going to be felt to the farthest corners of the planet.
But of course there are many that will end up leaving the United States and will ultimately thrive.
So what do you think?
Is now a time for people to consider leaving the United States permanently?
Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…