text:
My friend, Jenn Roberts, wrote this phrase in her race report about TransRockies, which she and another friend, Sierra, completed in the Women's Division. I first met Jenn in June 2007, during the 24 Hours of Light, while I was trying to pound out as many laps as possible with a bad knee and almost no training, because I had been injured for the past four months. Needless to say, riding solo in a 24-hour race was an abysmally bad idea, and by the 1 a.m. "twilight lap" - my 12th - I was struggling mightily. Jenn was taking photographs at the base of the short, steep descent into camp. Since even 12 times around the block hadn't given me enough confidence to ride it, especially while I was being observed, I stepped off my bike and walked toward her.
"This lap is going to have to be my last," I said. "I don't want it to be, but my knee is locking up."
Jenn shook her head. "I don't know how you do it," she said.
"It's easy," I said. "You do one lap, and then you do another, and another. You just keep going until you can't."
"Well, I did one lap and that was enough for me," she said. Jenn was riding the race in with a team of eight women.
"You're not going to ride any more?" I asked.
"If they need me in the morning, I might," she said. "But I'm really more of a one-lap kind of person."
Jenn lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, and I only see her once or twice a year. So I don't know what her journey has been like during the past three years, but it landed her at once of the more difficult endurance mountain bike races in the world, TransRockies. Jenn was an inspiration to me during the past week, because every stage managed to throw out more and more challenges, and every night she was clearly at her limit of stress, fatigue and fear, but every morning, come rain, wind and bitter cold, she toed the starting line and started the suffer-fest anew. She went from a "one-lap kind of person" in 2007 to riding 400 kilometers and 39,000 vertical feet of muddy, rooty, rocky trails in TransRockies 2010. And in her transformative journey, I can't help but see reflections of my own.
I'm sure there were innumerable times during the week when Jenn asked herself the question, "What in the #$%& am I doing here?" It seems from her race report that even now, with the glow of finishing the race still fresh, she continues to wonder about that ever-present question - "Why?"
"Why?" Personally, I have never been all that interested in getting on a podium. I'm sure I would enjoy it were I ever to achieve it, but instead I continue to seek out races that are way over my head and glean satisfaction from simply surviving them. It would be logical for me to choose shorter, more surmountable goals, then work on my speed, work on my skills, perfect my strategy and finish knowing I did the very best I could do. But that whole approach seems so mechanical to me; not that there's anything wrong with it, but it's just not who I am. I view my cycling not as mechanics, but as art. I don't want an instruction manual. I want a blank canvas, as white and wide as the summer sky, that I can imprint with my joy and sorrow, and color with my blood, sweat and tears. Then, long after the race is over, and long after the race results have been relegated to the deepest regions of the Internet and the instruction manual has been rewritten, the experience is still permanently rendered in my heart with abstract shapes of knowledge and beauty.
"Why?" It's easy for me to say I race for fun, but I don't. Yes, I do think biking is fantastically fun. But if I was purely interested in fun, I would spend my holidays on fair-weather joy rides, taking in front-country scenery and sipping cold drinks on a beach. Instead, I take the hard way into the back-country, purposefully experiencing a wide range of discomfort along the way.
I could say I do this for my health, but battering my muscles and bones amid physical extremes, not sleeping and stuffing my craw with refined sugars isn't doing my body any favors.
I could say I race for personal challenge, but that's not entirely true either. Trying to build a bicycle or learning Spanish would be challenging for me, but I don't spend my time immersed in challenges that are actually useful. Instead, I go out and destroy bicycles, and grind my body into the dust, and cry out in pain and frustration and get back on the bicycle and do it again. I pay a lot of money to do this. I allot a large chunk of free time and vacation to this. All because of these beautiful works of art. These works only I can see. These works that I can never forget. And I cherish the hard moments, the moments of despondency and unhappiness. I cherish these moments because they're so intense and real, like bold, red brush strokes through a life of placid beige. And then, when the placid beige gets me down, as it sometimes does, I close my eyes and see the flickering green aurora that filled the sky the night I bonked on the Iditarod Trail ... the night I was so scared and weak that no movement before or since has been as difficult ... the night I was so overwhelmed and uncertain that I wasn't entirely sure I would live. And the green waves of northern lights were so bright that they still reflect warmth and joy in my heart, two and a half years later.
"Why?" I want to take the image of something impossible to me and make it real, make it possible, just for the sake of creation. In that, I feel a glimmer of what it's like to fully live.
And then I see others do the same, and it fills me with hope:
"It was hard - as I knew it would be - but what was hard about it wasn't what I expected. And I suppose that's a good thing. It's almost enough to make me want to try it again. Which is crazy."
18 comments:
- AnonymousAugust 18, 2010 at 2:07 AM
"I cherish these moments because they're so intense and real, like bold, red brush strokes through a life of placid beige" - beautifully captured in one sentence Jill...this is why we do what we do :)
ReplyDelete "I want to take the image of something impossible to me and make it real, make it possible, just for the sake of creation. In that, I feel a glimmer of what it's like to fully live."
I love that line - so true for endurance events and all the crazy stuff we do. I love how you say, it isn't really for getting on the podium, or fun, or health, or challenge, or personal challenge...that it is really hard to describe the why...although in those few lines you do it beautifully.Eszter,
Huge congratulations on the Colorado Trail Race. I just read your race report yesterday and it was your and Jenn's writing that sparked this blog post.
I thought about the CTR often this past week during TransRockies - instead of 30 to 50 miles a day and five to eight hours of tough, techy, hike-a-bike singletrack, you were dealing with 100+ miles and 13 to 18 hours a day, fully unsupported. CTR really is the ultimate mountain biking challenge currently out there. Someday, when I improve my own riding skills, I would love to face it. I already have the hike-a-bike thing down.:-)- AnonymousAugust 18, 2010 at 2:45 PM
As you may have noticed, you are not actualoy the only obne who can appreciate these works of art. Thank you for letting us in on them, too. Val
ReplyDelete "As you may have noticed, you are not actually the only one who can appreciate these works of art. Thank you for letting us in on them, too. Val"
Seriously. Thanks for sharing the thrill, pain, insight, & life, Jill. And you do so ... so eloquently, which such clear focus.
A true artist at work ...
Bill- AnonymousAugust 18, 2010 at 7:40 PM
Posts like this, Jill, are one of the many reasons why I follow along on your travails. You can put into words what most of us cannot! Thank you.


text:
Getting Ready to Worship
Introduction to the Unit
Gathering Song
Getting Ready for Bible Storytelling
Saying Sorry to God
Saying Sorry Action
God Gives us a New Start
Prayers for Other People
Prayer Action
Thank You God
Creative Response
Sharing God's Peace
Taking God's Love
Into the World
Getting Ready for Bible Storytelling: Option 1
➜Action: opening your group's box and naming this week's object
See the beginning of the weekly storytelling material for ideas of items to place in your box. Invite one of the children to open the box.
What's in the Box?
Ask the child to respond.
Getting Ready for Bible Storytelling: Option 2
➜Song: 'Jesus, open up my eyes' © Sharon Moughtin-Mumby
➜Tune: 'Michael, row the boat ashore' (traditional).
It's time to open the Bible.
Let's get ready!
Let's take our thumb Lead the children in showing thumb
and draw a cross on our eyes, Draw cross
and our lips, Draw cross
and our heart. Draw cross
Let's ask Jesus to help us get ready to listen out for God!
Jesus, open up my eyes. Alleluia!
Trace a cross between your eyes.
Jesus, open up my lips. Alleluia!
Trace a cross on your lips.
Jesus, open up my heart. Alleluia!
Trace a cross on your heart.
Jesus, help me hear your voice. Alleluia!
Cup your hands behind your ears.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The policy contained in the Prime Minister's speech of ten days ago was a good answer to the question "what should we do about Europe?" It was never, I hope, supposed to answer the question "what will ensure we win?" If anyone expected an immediate leap in the Conservative Party's popularity, the evidence should by now have disabused them of the notion. Polling I completed earlier this week shows little change in the bigger political picture.
As with most of the published polls since The Speech, I found a small increase in the Conservative vote share; my poll put Labour ahead by just to 38% to 33%. Analysis of the numbers shows much of this is down to some 2010 Tory voters. Back in December less than three in five of 2010 Tory voters said they would vote Conservative in an election tomorrow; after the speech that number had risen to two in three. Existing supporters also say they are marginally more likely to turn out and vote this month than last.
In other words, The Speech, and more importantly the policy it articulated, has made Tories feel better about being Tories. This is not to be sneezed at – but let's not confuse it with having changed anybody's mind.
One thing it did achieve was a small but measurable boost to David Cameron's leadership ratings. I found people were more likely to say they were satisfied with him as Prime Minister, and those who were dissatisfied were slightly less likely to say they would rather have Ed Miliband instead. Cameron's advantage on representing Britain in international negotiations, having a clear idea what he wants to achieve, being able to lead a team and doing the job of Prime Minister overall was enhanced.
Otherwise little has changed. Though the coalition remains more trusted than Labour to manage the economy overall, people are if anything less optimistic about economic prospects than they were at the end of last year. While the Conservatives retain a small lead on steering the economy through difficult times, Labour have edged ahead on helping businesses grow and recover; the Opposition's lead on getting the balance right between tax rises and spending cuts is, at 11 points, as big as the Tories' had been in September 2010.
The 34-point leads the Conservatives enjoyed four months after the last election on tackling abuse in the welfare system and dealing with immigration have been cut to 6 points and 10 points respectively.
The Conservatives are no more likely to be seen as united, or to have clear plans to deal with Britain's problems, than they were last autumn. Not surprisingly, given all this, the promise of an EU referendum has not unleashed a desire for an overall Conservative majority. Just under a third (32%) of voters told us last weekend that this would be their preferred outcome of the next election – a proportion unchanged since last November. A Labour government remains the most popular choice, with 38%; 17% would rather have a Labour-Lib Dem coalition. Another round of what we have now is the least popular choice, with 13%.
None of this is to say that The Speech was in any way undesirable. The issue needed to be dealt with, and it has been. It showed David Cameron as a strong leader, taking the initiative and enhancing his credentials as a Prime Minister who stands up for Britain. But the lack of movement in overall perceptions of the party is instructive.
The effect of the referendum policy on attitudes to Europe has been interesting. There has been a small boost in the numbers saying they feel positive about Britain's EU membership (from 18% to 22% since December). However, a substantial fall in the numbers saying they feel negative about EU membership and that Britain would be better off out (from 34% to 26%), and a smaller decline in those saying they are negative about it but we are better off in (by 1 point to 19%), has been accompanied by an increase in the number with no strong views either way (from 28% to 33%). While most Conservatives are excited by the in-out part of the policy, others have registered the negotiate-and-decide part.
In debating the question in the coming years we must remember that there is only so much oxygen in the room. Most people do not pay much attention to politics at all; when they do, let's make sure they hear something that changes their view of the Conservative Party, not just of Europe.
Visit lordashcroftpolls.com home page and sign up for alerts when new research is published.


text:
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
Hear It Is
Oh my gawd!!! …The Flaming Lips are free for NXNE!
J. Michelle Martin-CoyneSo what are you doing June 16? Are you one of those so conditioned by years of Toronto Radiohead shows selling out in a heartbeat that you tripped over yourself getting tickets for their Downsview gig as soon as they went on sale, even though the new venue was over twice the size of the Amphitheatre and general admission? Or are you one of those conscious of the fact that this is a King Of Limbs tour and realistically speaking, they probably won't be playing the stuff you like most and anyways that's the day the reunited Archers Of Loaf are finally coming to town and there's no place you'd rather be that night than The Phoenix? Or were you waiting to hear what NXNE had up their sleeves since that's when the Yonge-Dundas Square mainstage traditionally hosts the biggest name of the fest playing for free? If you chose option c), then congratulations on wanting to make an informed decision. And I'm sorry to say that Radiohead is now sold out so all your strategizing was for naught.
But you've hardly lost out as NXNE finally announced their first batch of acts playing the festival this year, and the Saturday night mainstage headliners will be none other than The Flaming Lips. The Oklahoman psychedelic-rockers, last here in July 2010, will endeavour to transform Yonge-Dundas Square into a garish, technicolor assault on the senses… so pretty much what it is every day, but with a bubble walk. Kidding aside, it will be pretty exciting to see a lot of people who've presumably never seen the Lips perform (or even know who they are) witness one of the most ridiculous and entertaining live shows going. Laser hands! And hey – since Yonge-Dundas isn't far from The Phoenix, you can technically do both The Lips and Archers Of Loaf. I will, anyways.
As for the other confirmed acts, there's a pretty impressive collection of both buzz bands and veterans coming to Toronto the weekend of June 14 to 17 – certainly more than a few that I've either been waiting to see come to town or are quite curious about. And because I'm a big dork, as I've done the past couple years, I've tried to discern the when and where of as many showcases as possible based on tour routing, previous announcements, what have you. There's not quite as much info floating around right now as in past years, but if you wanted to get a jump start on trying to resolve inevitable scheduling conflicts, it's something. Of course, all of this is unconfirmed until the official schedule is unveiled and certainly subject to change – I'll probably keep updating it until that happens, if just for my own reference – but my sources are credible.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Hayes Carll, July Talk @ The Horseshoe
Eternal Summers @ The Drake Underground
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Bad Religion, No Use For A Name, Good Riddance @ Yonge-Dundas Square
White Rabbits, Vacationer, Nash @ The Mod Club
Bran Van 3000, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Violens, Hooded Fang @ The Horseshoe
The Men, Grass Widow, The Black Belles, Mac DeMarco, Gap Dream @ The Garrison
Young Magic, Purity Ring, Moon King, Exitmusic, The Hundreds in The Hands @ Wrongbar
The Danks, Vinyl Williams @ The Drake Underground
Bleached @ The Silver Dollar
Mean Jeans @ The Shop Under Parts & Labour
The Seedy Seeds @ The Painted Lady
Larry & His Flask, The Schomberg Fair @ Sneaky Dee's
Friday, June 15, 2012
Matthew Good, Plants & Animals, Eight And A Half @ Yonge-Dundas Square
2:54, Friends, Oberhofer @ Lee's Palace
The Smoking Popes @ The Great Hall
The Sadies & Andre Williams, Reigning Sound, The Black Belles, The Coppertone @ The Horseshoe
Widowspeak, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, Art Vs. Science @ The Garrison
The Men, Bass Drum Of Death, DZ Deathrays, The Death Set, Metz @ Wrongbar
Bleached, Parlovr, Hooded Fang, Goose Hut @ The Silver Dollar
Rah Rah @ The Dakota Tavern
Phèdre, Odonis Odonis, Beta Frontiers, Cartoons, Hellaluya, Hussy, Times Neue Roman @ Sneaky Dee's
Brasstronaut, Útidúr @ TBA
Saturday, June 16, 2012
The Flaming Lips, Of Montreal, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Ceremony, Art Vs. Science, Oberhofer, Parlovr, Hollerado @ Yonge-Dundas Square
Archers Of Loaf, Metz @ The Phoenix
Catl, Young Empires @ The Horseshoe
Killer Mike, Death Grips, Ceremony, Doldrums, Trae Tha Truth @ Wrongbar
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan @ Sneaky Dee's
Holly McNarland, The Deer Tracks @ The Rivoli
Limblifter, Shellshag, Our Brother The Native, Neon Windbreaker, International Zombies OF Love @ El Mocambo
Kontravoid, Automelodi, Bleached, Prince Innocence, Ell V Gore, Mac DeMarco, Cellphone, Dutch Toko @ The Silver Dollar
Sean Rowe @ The Dakota Tavern
WAZU @ The Painted Lady
Carnival Moon @ Czehoski
DJ Jonathan Toubin @ TBA
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Raekwon & Ghostface Killah @ Yonge-Dundas Square
The full list of announced acts – including those without a venue or exact date that I can pin down – can be grokked over here but definitely catching my eye are Rival Schools and Porcelain Raft (June 14 or 15). Not a bad start at all, lots more to come.
MP3: Archers Of Loaf – "Harnessed In Slums"
MP3: Ceremony – "Hysteria"
MP3: Death Grips – "Spread Eagle Cross The Block"
MP3: The Deer Tracks – "Dark Passenger"
MP3: Mac DeMarco – "Baby's Wearin' Blue Jeans"
MP3: Doldrums – "I'm Homesick Sittin' Up Here In My Satellite"
MP3: Hollerado – "Americanarama"
MP3: The Men – "Ex-Dreams"
MP3: Oberhofer – "Away Frm U"
MP3: Of Montreal – "Coquet Coquette"
MP3: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – "Karmageddon"
MP3: Widowspeak – "Harsh Realm"
MP3: Andrew Williams – "Dirt"
Video: Bad Religion – "21st Century Digital Boy"
Video: The Black Belles – "What Can I Do"
Video: The Flaming Lips – "Fight Test"
Video: Friends – "Friend Crush"
Video: Ghostface Killah – "2getha Baby"
Video: Matthew Good – "Everything Is Automatic"
Video: Raekwon – "House Of Flying Daggers"
Video: 2:54 – "You're Early"
And speaking of The Flaming Lips, their Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends album is out this Saturday for Record Store Day – if you can get your hands on one – and Wayne Coyne talks about it to The Huffington Post. They've also released a video from it – NSFW, of course. Lips don't do clothes.
Video: The Flaming Lips and New Fumes – "Girl, You're So Weird"
Electronic Anthology Project is the brainchild of Built To Spill's Brett Netson wherein he takes songs from artists who aren't especially electronic – like, say, Dinosaur Jr – and recreates them in synth-y, new wave style and actually makes it work. Of course it helps when you can get the likes of J Mascis to re-record some vocals for the project… The Electronic Anthology Project of Dinosaur Jr will be released on CD for Record Store Day but you can stream the whole thing right now at Stereogum.
Stream: Electronic Anthology Project – "Tarpit"
Stream: Electronic Anthology Project of Dinosaur Jr
Stereogum checks in with Jana Hunter of Lower Dens to see how things are coming on their next album Nootropics, out May 1.
Beach House are streaming another new song from Bloom, out May 15. It'll be available on 7″ for Record Store Day this Saturday.
Stream: Beach House – "Lazuli"
Spin interviews Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, whose new record The Only Place is out on May 15. They play The Phoenix on July 21.
Though Mark Kozelek has a habit of booking and then cancelling shows, he's planning to be in Toronto at The Great Hall on October 3 to promote the new Sun Kil Moon record Among The Leaves, out May 29. Tickets are $20 in advance and refunds will be available at the point of purchase.
MP3: Sun Kil Moon – "UK Blues"
MP3: Sun Kil Moon – "Carry Me Ohio"
MP3: Sun Kil Moon – "Sunshine In Chicago"
Exclaim reports that the second Guided By Voices album of 2012 – Class Clown Spots a UFO – will be out on June 21 and a third GBV album entitled Bears For Lunch should be out in November. Most prolific reunion ever?
That Nintendo-premiered new video from The Shins is finally available to watch online. They're at The Molson Amphitheatre on August 4 supporting The Black Keys.
Video: The Shins – "The Rifle's Spiral"
Craig Finn tells Rolling Stone that The Hold Steady will begin work on a new record this Summer, but he's not quite done with the solo thing yet – Paste has premiered a new video as part of a fundraising campaign for Big Brother/Big Sisters of America.


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There are some ingredients I cook with so often I can never buy too many of them, and most of them are produce. Onions, garlic and fresh herbs are staples in a lot of dishes, and they may be inexpensive, but when you use them on a daily basis it can add up.
Some foods are easy to regrow at home from leftover scraps, and some of them can even be grown right on your kitchen counter. Here are 10 vegetables and herbs you can buy once and regrow forever.
#1. Garlic
When garlic starts to sprout, the little green shoots are too bitter to cook with. Rather than throwing away sprouted cloves, you can put them in a glass with a little water and grow garlic sprouts. The sprouts have a much milder flavor than garlic cloves and are great in salads, pasta and as a garnish.
Learn more on Simple Daily Recipes.
#2. Carrot Greens
The ends of carrots you usually chop off and throw away will grow carrot greens if you put them in a dish with a little water. Set the dish in a well-lit windowsill and you'll have carrot tops to use as a garnish or in salads.
Read more details on how to use and grow them on Fidgety Fingers.
#3. Basil
Put a few basil clippings with 4-inch stems in a glass of water and place it in a spot with direct sunlight. When the roots are about 2 inches long, you can plant them in pots to grow a full basil plant.
You can find more details on The Urban Gardener.
#4. Scallions
In as little as 5 days you can completely regrow a full scallion (or green onion) from the scraps. Leave about an inch attached to the roots and place them in a small glass with a little water. In a few days, you'll have all new scallions.
Learn more on The Kitchn.
#5. Romaine Lettuce
If you have a stem from a head of romaine lettuce that's still intact, place the stump in a bowl with about ½ inch of water and put it on a windowsill. You'll start to see new leaves in about 2 weeks, and they'll be full grown in 3 to 4.
Learn more on RemoveandReplace.
#6. Bok Choy
Just like romaine lettuce, bok choy can be regrown by placing the root end in water in a well-lit area. In a week or two, you can transplant it to a pot with soil and grow a full new head.
Read the full instructions with progress photos on 17 Apart.
#7. Onions
Plant the discarded root end from an onion in a pot or directly in the soil outside to regrow. You can harvest it early and get fresh green onions or wait until the bulb is fully developed.
Find the full tutorial on Instructables.
#8. Ginger
Like onions, ginger root can be planted in soil to regrow, but the process is a lot more lengthy. It can take a few months for it to sprout, and you should be able to harvest a fully grown bulb in 8 to 10 months.
Read more on 17 Apart.
#9. Mushrooms
Plant mushroom stalks in soil with some compost or used coffee grounds and keep them in a moist environment, preferably where it will be cool at night. They can be tricky to grow, and within a few days the stems will either start to sprout new heads or rot.
More details on Earth911.
#10. Cilantro
Like basil, cilantro can grow roots if the stems are placed in a glass of water. Once the roots are long enough, just plant them in a pot. In a few weeks new sprigs will be starting, and in a few months you'll have a full plant.
Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for Podcasts, News, Books, and TV, as well as important security improvements and fresh wallpapers. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.5 update.


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They're called discreet DNA samples, and the Elk Grove, California, genetic-testing company easyDNA says it can handle many kinds, from toothpicks to tampons.
Blood stains from bandages and tampons? Ship them in a paper envelope for paternity, ancestry or health testing. EasyDNA also welcomes cigarette butts (two to four), dental floss ("do not touch the floss with your fingers"), razor clippings, gum, toothpicks, licked stamps and used tissues if the more standard cheek swab or tube of saliva isn't obtainable.
If the availability of such services seems like an invitation to mischief or worse - imagine a discarded tissue from a prospective employee being tested to determine whether she's at risk for an expensive disease, for instance - the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues agrees.
On Thursday it released a report on privacy concerns triggered by the advent of whole genome sequencing, determining someone's complete DNA make-up. Although sequencing "holds enormous promise for human health and medicine," commission chairwoman Amy Gutmann told reporters on Wednesday, there is a "potential for misuse of this very personal data."
"In many states someone can pick up your discarded coffee cup and send it for (DNA) testing," said Gutmann, who is the president of the University of Pennsylvania.
"It's not a fantasy to think about how, without baseline privacy protection, people could use this in a way that would be really detrimental," such as by denying someone with a gene that raises their risk of Alzheimer's disease long-term care insurance, or to jack up life insurance premiums for someone with an elevated genetic risk of a deadly cancer that strikes people in middle age.
"Those who are willing to share some of the most intimate information about themselves for the sake of medical progress should be assured appropriate confidentiality, for example, about any discovered genetic variations that link to increased likelihood of certain diseases, such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia," Gutmann said.
The commission took on the issue because whole genome sequencing is poised to become part of mainstream medical care, especially by personalizing medical treatments based on a patient's DNA.
$1,000 genome
That has been driven in large part by dramatic cost reductions, from $2.5 billion per genome in the Human Genome Project of the 1990s and early 2000s to $1,000 soon. Several companies, including Illumina Inc. and Life Technology's Ion Torrent division, sell machines that can sequence a genome for a few hundred dollars, but that does not include the analysis to figure out what the string of 3 billion DNA "letters" means.
A three-year-old federal law prohibits discrimination in employment or health insurance based on someone's genetic information but does not address other potential misuses of the data. Without such privacy protection, said Gutmann, people may be reluctant to participate in genetic studies that do whole genome sequencing, for fear their genetic data will not be secure and could be used against them.
Recommendations from such panels are not binding but have been used as the basis for policy and legislation.
One scenario the panel offers is a "contentious spouse" secretly having a DNA sample sequenced and using it in a custody battle "as evidence of unfitness to parent," perhaps because the DNA showed a genetic risk for mental illness or alcoholism. There are no federal laws against that.
Or, the panel said, DNA information might be posted in a social networking site "by a malicious stranger or acquaintance," possibly hurting someone's "chance of finding a spouse, achieving standing in a community, or pursuing a desired career path."
The bioethics panel recommends a dozen forms of privacy protection, including that "surreptitious commercial testing" be banned: No gene sequencing or other genetic testing should be permitted without consent from the person the DNA came from, it said. About 25 states currently allow such DNA testing.
Critics of the lack of genetic privacy thought greater urgency was needed.
"The report lays out a lot of important best practices and does endorse further state and federal regulations, but it doesn't offer a timeline," said Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a private group that monitors genetic issues. "What will inevitably happen is whole genome sequencing will enter greater use and we won't have proper regulations to insure privacy."
A bill introduced in California, home to many DNA testing companies, by state Senator Alex Padilla would ban surreptitious testing, requiring written authorization from the person the genetic sample was taken from.
It is not clear how many labs are willing to analyze DNA without that authorization. In practice, well-known genetic testing companies such as privately held 23andMe test only saliva samples that are too large to acquire surreptitiously, such as from a drinking glass or licked stamp. "A person would really know that they are spitting into a tube," said 23andMe spokeswoman Jane Rubinstein.
The full report from the presidential commission is at www.bioethics.gov.


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Bioethicists Call For Public Debates On Future Uses Of Stem Cells
- Date:
- July 2, 2009
- Source:
- Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
- Summary:
- More than 40 scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors are calling on their colleagues, policy makers and the public to begin developing guidelines for the research and reproductive use of stem cell-derived eggs and sperm, even though such use may be a decade or more away.
- Share:
More than 40 scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors are calling on their colleagues, policy makers and the public to begin developing guidelines for the research and reproductive use of stem cell-derived eggs and sperm, even though such use may be a decade or more away.
"Science has always moved faster than social debate or society's ability to grapple with these issues," says Debra Mathews, Ph.D., lead author of a paper published in the July issue of Cell Stem Cell and assistant director of science programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. The paper calls for all parties to begin engaging in open discussion and debates, and describes the need for informed social policy well in advance of the eventual use of eggs and sperm derived from pluripotent stem cells.
Mathews said stem cell researchers need to be better prepared to address public questions about uses of so-called pluripotent stem cell-derived gametes -- regardless of how realistic or soon those uses may be. Such uses would potentially include reproductive uses such as the creation of sperm and eggs for in vitro fertilization, embryo selection based on genetic profile, and the creation of embryos from the tissues of fetuses, children and the deceased.
The issues are too complex, and the stakes are too high, the authors suggest, for the public to be caught unaware by some new capability for using stem cell-derived gametes, and the research already is moving rapidly toward generation of sperm and eggs capable of making human embryos and potentially children.
"Because derived-gamete research will require the creation and destruction of human embryos, this line of research will be morally objectionable to those who imbue human embryos with full moral status, and those objections must be addressed," the authors state.
In their paper, the Johns Hopkins-led team described an analysis of the current state of pluripotent stem cell science and suggested a framework for the debates that need to take place.
There was consensus by the authors that policymakers should not restrict scientific inquiry solely because ethical or moral disagreement exists about the use of these cells. Instead, they offered recommendations for guidelines that would be the focus of social debate. Among them were that restrictions should be specific to those aspects of the technology that are deemed morally unacceptable in a given nation or state, and that specific consent should be required of tissue donors whose cells will be used to derive gametes for use in reproduction. This approach would rule out using for reproduction any tissue from fetuses, minors and the deceased. Consent, they said, need not be required in situations involving laboratory studies that produce no embryos.
The authors emphasized that significant oversight rules must be in place before any reproductive uses of gametes even begins, and early attempts to use gametes for these purposes should take place only as part of clinical research that follows the highest ethical standards.
Assuming that reproductive use of stem cell-derived gametes does occur, the health of women carrying the resulting fetuses, and of children born to them, should be monitored rigorously and tracked in long-term studies.
Pluripotent stem cell-derived gamete research brings together several of today's most contentious ethical issues, including the use of embryonic stem cells, the increasing ability to identify and understand risks associated with particular parts of the human genome, advanced reproductive technologies to treat infertility and interest in "human enhancement."
Mathews noted that pluripotent stem cell-derived gamete research already is producing significant advances in basic understanding of how eggs and sperm develop from germ cells, infertility, genetic diseases and some cancers.
Mathews said the most difficult scientific issue the study team faced was predicting how long it would take to get from a human stem cell to a set of gametes capable of successful test-tube fertilization, and how long, if ever, it would be until such gametes are used in clinical care. The group believes it will take at least a decade to develop derived human gametes and that clinical applications likely won't be available for several years beyond that.
Whatever the time frame, she said determining whether pluripotent stem cell-derived gametes can function reliably and normally is critical for both nonreproductive and reproductive purposes.
Scientists and the public also must prepare, Mathews noted, for the potential production of large numbers of human gametes that facilitate multigenerational laboratory studies of human genetics and disease.
"Although many welcome the prospects for disease prevention and health promotion that such research should facilitate, many others will find the treatment of human embryos in such blatantly manipulative ways to be ethically unacceptable," the authors said in their paper.
Other authors of the paper are Peter J. Donovan of the University of California, Irvine; John Harris of the University of Manchester; Robin Lovell-Badge of the MRC National Institute for Medical Research; Julian Savulescu of the University of Oxford; and Ruth Faden, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Fill out the form below to receive your hardwood buyer's checklist
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A simple checklist to help you make your hardwood floor buying decision.
When it comes to choosing the perfect hardwood for your home, you can't just "knock on wood" and hope for the best. There are many hardwood variants and features to consider: wear resistance, durability, style, engineered hardwood, solid hardwood, and the list goes on. One of our expert flooring associates can provide answers for all of your concerns, but it helps to know the right questions to ask. Simplify the hardwood floor buying process with this quick and easy checklist.
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Do local and state officials tune out when you try to talk to them about bicycling? Are they unconvinced by arguments about public health, transportation options, or clean air? Do business leaders send you packing when you suggest building new bike lanes and bike parking, fearing that the loss of car parking will keep customers away?
Then show them the money.
Bikes can mean big business, and businesses are beginning to realize it. At a Bike Summit panel Wednesday on the economic boost cycling can provide cities, speakers highlighted another strong message cyclists can bring to politicians when making their case for investment in bike/ped facilities.
Far and away, the biggest reason business owners resist the addition of bike infrastructure is that they're afraid it will limit parking. Once they realize they can get 12 bike parking spaces for each car spot, sometimes they begin to change their tune. Even better, they begin to discover that cyclists can be their best customers. "We tend to shop closer to home and shop more often," said April Economides, a consultant who helped the city of Long Beach, California build bicycle-friendly business districts. Rather than jumping in the minivan and heading to the suburbs to go to the big shopping malls, cyclists patronize the businesses in our neighborhoods.
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster understands the value of bikes: "I see parts of the city on my bike that I would never even notice if I was just driving," he said. "It's a way for me personally to get closer to the city."
That closeness has a dollars-and-cents value. Cyclists travel at what Portland Bike Coordinator Roger Geller calls a "human-scale speed" that allows them to "stop and buy something." Besides, Economides said, if you're car-free you've got an extra $6,000 jangling around in your pocket that you otherwise would have spent on gas and car maintenance (actually, $8,776 if you believe AAA). According to researchers with Intelligent Communities, a program of the National Building Museum, only 16 percent of household car expenses stay within the local economy.
The four bicycle-friendly business districts Economides helped develop in Long Beach provide a model of how to encourage cycling without adding infrastructure. Local businesses see bike access as a boon for local shopping and dining. They have an informal merchant bike-share program, so the business owners themselves can enjoy the benefits of biking around town. The program created the nation's largest citywide bike discount program, where customers get better prices if they arrive by bike. The program also brought the districts community bike rides, free bike repairs, bike valets at local events, and even free bike portraits, where you can get your picture taken with your bike (see left). The programs have brought a flood of new customers into participating stores.
Two of the four districts didn't even have a lot of good bike infrastructure to begin with – but there's more demand for it now, even from businesses that used to be bike-averse.
Long Beach got a stimulus grant to create the districts, and the term of the grant expired just last week. But Economides said participating merchants are now so jazzed about cycling that they'll carry on the work. And it's a diverse group of businesses: Organizers reached out to Spanish- and Khmer-speaking merchants in the area and got their full participation. They also left paper flyers and postcards on people's doorsteps, since not everyone is wired.
"Open Streets," or ciclovias – events where streets are closed to motorized traffic and become the domain of bicyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, rollerbladers, jugglers, dog-walkers – are another way to bring money to local businesses. Washington University in St. Louis was able to quantify the economic benefit of Open Streets programs: 73 percent of Open Streets participants spent money at a restaurant or store on the route, and 68 percent became aware of a restaurant or store that was new to them.
Business Improvement Districts are another good place to seek support for pro-bike policies, said Andy Hanshaw of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. Local shopping and dining is what they're all about, and they might be happy to sponsor community bike rides and new bike parking.
After all, in downtowns turning car lanes over to people can be a great moneymaker. Its most stunning success, perhaps, has been Times Square, "the ultimate end vision of how to pedestrianize the most pedestrian-heavy place in America," according to Mike Lydon of the Street Plans Collaborative. According to a recent study commissioned by the local BID, Times Square helps generate more than one-tenth of the city's economic activity– on less than one percent of its land.
From park(ing) day, where people create ephemeral parks in parallel parking spaces, to parklets that make those tiny parks more permanent, to pop-up cafés, adding outdoor public space draws people and adds life to the street. Those spaces also often become de facto additional seating for nearby establishments, giving them more capacity for free.
"Bicycling, just like walking, helps make a Main Street more vibrant," said Economides. "It adds more eyes and ears to the street, so it makes it safer. So think about a mom pushing a stroller. She's going to want to walk down a block that has more people walking and bicycling; she'll feel safer. And you do want to attract women and moms. We're a pretty important shopping base."
Rory Robinson of the National Park Service found many other examples of bicycling spurring economic revitalization, like the opening of the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville, Colorado, which led to a 19 percent increase in sales tax revenues, helping the city recover from a mine closure in 1999. The 45-mile long Washington & Old Dominion Trail in the D.C. suburbs brings an estimated $7 million into the northern Virginia economy, nearly a quarter of that from out-of-towners. And downtown Dunedin, Florida was suffering a 35 percent storefront vacancy rate until an abandoned CSX railroad track became the Pinellas Trail. Storefront occupancy is now 100 percent, Robinson found. "Business is booming."
And the economic benefit of bicycling for communities doesn't end with cyclists' expensive cappuccinos and impulse buys. Properties near bike paths increase in value 11 percent, said Economides. Realtors and homebuilders consistently find that access and proximity to walking and biking facilities, especially greenways, makes homes easier to sell. A reporter for the Indianapolis Star said it best in 2003: "It may not have sand and crashing waves, but the Monon Trail is the equivalent of beachfront property in the Indianapolis area."
Add to that the fact that bike lane construction creates about twice as many jobs as road-building for the same amount of money, and you've got yourself a great economic argument to take to local leaders and politicians when you ask them to support walking and biking – even (or especially) in tough economic times.


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Keeping one's clothes classic and simple is always a good idea with more formal modes of dress, but it's frequently an even better idea in the casual realm. There are a lot of inherently American combinations which have stood the test of time, but I think my favorite is this:White oxford and blue jeans. Can't be beat. Finished off with boat shoes and a surcingle belt. What better outfit is there for the first really nice day of Spring, spent largely outdoors with the wife and kids.
To me, the key to an outfit like this is the shirt. These days it seems to be all the rage to prattle on about these jeans or those, and which are more "authentic". As far as I'm concerned, jeans are from Levi's, and you wash them when they get dirty. No, the shirts the real thing here.
This kind of thing works best with a really old shirt in heavy oxford cloth. It should be one that used to serve as a dress shirt, but its been washed and worn so many times that it has reached an absurd level of comfort. Worn un-ironed of course, it's heavily frayed collar is unbuttoned:the sleeves rolled in an effort to mask the hole worn through one elbow:And yet its still bright white. I think Ralph Lauren made a lot of money selling this very concept in pre-packaged form to the young-uns, which is all well and good, I suppose. But a hole in your clothes only counts if it's your hole.
Keep it simple: wear a white shirt to death, and then keep wearing it. Just make sure your wife doesn't throw it out when you're not looking.
p.s. since when do Baracuta jackets cost $265? When I was a kid, we all got them for school jackets because they would go on sale at Sears for $10. I also remember them being popular with old men on Social Security. What gives?


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50 Food Sensitivity and Intolerance Test
Intolerances differ significantly from allergies. Unlike allergies, intolerances may vary from situation to situation, while an allergy always produces the same reaction. Intolerances are caused by the body's inability to process specific substances and may cause bloating, digestive problems such as gas and/or diarrhea, fatigue, headaches and even the inability to lose weight or weight gain.
Symptoms may be difficult to link to specific foods, environmental substances or food additives because they may not occur until hours or days later. To complicate the situation, each individual has a different tolerance for specific foods, so even if a person has an intolerance, it may be mild so that a small amount of the food doesn't cause a reaction until enough of the food is eaten or is consumed consistently over time.


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The terrible floods in Queensland, Australia, have destroyed thousands of homes, done billions of dollars of damage, and have left at least a dozen people dead. Queensland is a major coal exporter, and with the rising waters hampering shipments and flooding mines, world coal prices have risen. A major consumer of Queensland coal are Asian steel mills, which are already feeling the pinch. This has led to a rise in steel prices. That's a double dose of bad news for the economic recovery.
Another Queensland industry has also been hard hit–tourism. The tourists have fled along with the residents, but it's the long-term effects that are more harmful. If rising coal and steel prices hurt the economic recovery, that's bound to hurt the tourism industry pretty much everywhere. Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city, is the center for Australia's Gold Coast, a major draw for Australia's $32 billion tourist industry. Floods are damaging popular beaches and will require costly repairs. Coastal and riverside hotels and shops are being destroyed. The Brisbane Times reports that toxic materials washed into the sea could have an effect on delicate coral reefs and fish populations. With snorkeling and scuba diving such popular activities on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, this could do long-term damage to tourism.
Meanwhile, airlines are worried about how this will affect them. Virgin Blue has already seen its shares drop by 3.4 percent today because investors fear there will be a drop in bookings. Qantas shares also dipped slightly. Airlines are issuing fee waivers for passengers who want to change their flights to, from, or through Brisbane.
It looks like Queensland residents will suffer from the flood long after the waters recede.
[Photo of Brisbane sunset courtesy user t i m m a y via Gadling's flickr pool]


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January 2022 - Turkey Monthly Calendar
These January 2022 Turkey monthly holiday calendars have downloadable and printable formats in PDF, Microsoft Word, and Excel. One-page yearly, monthly, and quarterly calendars with holidays are also available in our world calendars collection.
See our main calendars page for generic or blank yearly, monthly, and weekly calendar.
Use our printable monthly calendar page for to create calendars with week numbers or Monday start.
Sunday Start Calendars Monday Start Calendars
General Blue provides various types of calendars, from weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, to calendars with holidays. All calendar templates are free to use, edit, print, or download. The free January 2022 Turkey Monday start calendars can be downloaded in PDF, Word, or Excel formats. The Word and Excel calendars are editable calendars while the PDF calendar is for direct printing.
These calendar templates can be used in many ways. The Turkey January 2022 calendar Excel can be used as online calendar. With its featured monthly holidays, you can plan out your events and schedule ahead of time. The January 2022 Turkey calendar in Word formats are also great tools to use at home or in the office. It can help set out any type of events, be it personal or office related. Ensure you don't miss any company events, family birthdays, or anniversaries by using these calendar templates.


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Public Comment Period on Proposed Changes to the Hanford Dangerous Waste Permit
The U.S. Department of Energy is holding a 60-day public comment period on a proposed Class 2 permit modification to the Hanford Dangerous Waste Permit, "Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility" chapter. This proposed permit modification is required to expand the existing 2025ED Load-In Station, construct the 2025EG Backup Load-In Station container storage and treatment area, and remove two unused tanks at the 2025ED Load-In Station, all of which are within the permit boundary.
The comment period is from Dec. 15, 2020, through Feb. 13, 2021. A virtual public meeting will be held Jan. 21, 2021, at 5:30 p.m. PT. To participate via GoToWebinar, please follow the instructions below:
Visual (presentation only): Click the GoToWebinar link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9073672840153859598; ID #: 865-670-531
Audio: 1. Dial (509) 372-3087 (local) or (800) 664-0771 (long distance) 2. Enter Conference ID: 1333#
Please submit any comments by Feb. 13, electronically (preferred) or by mail to:
Washington State Department of Ecology 3100 Port of Benton Boulevard Richland, Washington 99354
Information about the proposed modification and supporting documentation are available online during the public comment period on the Hanford events calendar, the Hanford Administrative Record, and at the Hanford Public Information Repositories. Please see the attached summary fact sheet.
Questions? Please contact Jennifer Colborn, Mission Support Alliance, at email@example.com, or Daina McFadden, Washington State Department of Ecology, at firstname.lastname@example.com.
To request disability accommodation, please contact Jennifer Colborn, firstname.lastname@example.com or (509) 376-5840 at least 10 working days prior to the event. DOE makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests.
Fact Sheet Public Meeting Presentation Public Meeting Agenda


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defmethod function-name {method-qualifier}* specialized-lambda-list [[declaration* | documentation]] form*
=> new-method
function-name::= {symbol | (setf symbol)}
method-qualifier::= non-list
specialized-lambda-list::= ({var | (var parameter-specializer-name)}* [&optional {var | (var [initform [supplied-p-parameter] ])}*] [&rest var] [&key{var | ({var | (keywordvar)} [initform [supplied-p-parameter] ])}* [&allow-other-keys] ] [&aux {var | (var [initform] )}*] ) parameter-specializer-name::= symbol | (eql eql-specializer-form)
Arguments and Values:
declaration---a declare expression; not evaluated.
documentation---a string; not evaluated.
eql-specializer-form---a form.
Form---a form.
Initform---a form.
Supplied-p-parameter---variable name.
new-method---the new method object.
The macro defmethod defines a method on a generic function.
If (fboundp function-name) is nil, a generic function is created with default values for the argument precedence order (each argument is more specific than the arguments to its right in the argument list), for the generic function class (the class standard-generic-function), for the method class (the class standard-method), and for the method combination type (the standard method combination type). The lambda list of the generic function is congruent with the lambda list of the method being defined; if the defmethod form mentions keyword arguments, the lambda list of the generic function will mention ..... key (but no keyword arguments). If function-name names an ordinary function, a macro, or a special operator, an error is signaled.
If a generic function is currently named by function-name, the lambda list of the method must be congruent with the lambda list of the generic function. If this condition does not hold, an error is signaled. For a definition of congruence in this context, see Section 7.6.4 (Congruent Lambda-lists for all Methods of a Generic Function).
Each method-qualifier argument is an object that is used by method combination to identify the given method. The method combination type might further restrict what a method qualifier can be. The standard method combination type allows for unqualified methods and methods whose sole qualifier is one of the keywords :before, :after, or :around.
The specialized-lambda-list argument is like an ordinary lambda list except that the names of required parameters can be replaced by specialized parameters. A specialized parameter is a list of the form (var parameter-specializer-name). Only required parameters can be specialized. If parameter-specializer-name is a symbol it names a class; if it is a list, it is of the form (eql eql-specializer-form). The parameter specializer name (eql eql-specializer-form) indicates that the corresponding argument must be eql to the object that is the value of eql-specializer-form for the method to be applicable. The eql-specializer-form is evaluated at the time that the expansion of the defmethod macro is evaluated. If no parameter specializer name is specified for a given required parameter, the parameter specializer defaults to the class t. For further discussion, see Section 7.6.2 (Introduction to Methods).
The form arguments specify the method body. The body of the method is enclosed in an implicit block. If function-name is a symbol, this block bears the same name as the generic function. If function-name is a list of the form (setf symbol), the name of the block is symbol.
The class of the method object that is created is that given by the method class option of the generic function on which the method is defined.
If the generic function already has a method that agrees with the method being defined on parameter specializers and qualifiers, defmethod replaces the existing method with the one now being defined. For a definition of agreement in this context. see Section 7.6.3 (Agreement on Parameter Specializers and Qualifiers).
The parameter specializers are derived from the parameter specializer names as described in Section 7.6.2 (Introduction to Methods).
The expansion of the defmethod macro ``refers to'' each specialized parameter (see the description of ignore within the description of declare). This includes parameters that have an explicit parameter specializer name of t. This means that a compiler warning does not occur if the body of the method does not refer to a specialized parameter, while a warning might occur if the body of the method does not refer to an unspecialized parameter. For this reason, a parameter that specializes on t is not quite synonymous with an unspecialized parameter in this context.
Declarations at the head of the method body that apply to the method's lambda variables are treated as bound declarations whose scope is the same as the corresponding bindings.
Declarations at the head of the method body that apply to the functional bindings of call-next-method or next-method-p apply to references to those functions within the method body forms. Any outer bindings of the function names call-next-method and next-method-p, and declarations associated with such bindings are shadowed[2] within the method body forms.
The scope of free declarations at the head of the method body is the entire method body, which includes any implicit local function definitions but excludes initialization forms for the lambda variables.
defmethod is not required to perform any compile-time side effects. In particular, the methods are not installed for invocation during compilation. An implementation may choose to store information about the generic function for the purposes of compile-time error-checking (such as checking the number of arguments on calls, or noting that a definition for the function name has been seen).
Documentation is attached as a documentation string to the method object.
Examples: None.
Affected By:
The definition of the referenced generic function.
Exceptional Situations:
If function-name names an ordinary function, a macro, or a special operator, an error of type error is signaled.
If a generic function is currently named by function-name, the lambda list of the method must be congruent with the lambda list of the generic function, or an error of type error is signaled.
See Also:
defgeneric, documentation, Section 7.6.2 (Introduction to Methods), Section 7.6.4 (Congruent Lambda-lists for all Methods of a Generic Function), Section 7.6.3 (Agreement on Parameter Specializers and Qualifiers), Section 3.4.11 (Syntactic Interaction of Documentation Strings and Declarations)
Notes: None.


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Proud to be celebrating 170 years in business
When Does Notice of Termination Take Effect?
Exactly when notice of termination takes effect can impact on an employee's entitlement to certain benefits or employment rights. In a recent case, the Court of Appeal ruled that, in the absence of an express term in the employee's contract, notice of termination takes effect when the employee actually receives it in person (Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood).
Sandi Haywood had worked for the NHS for more than 30 years. She held a senior role as associate director of business development for Newcastle and North Tyneside Primary Care Trusts. In April 2011, following a merger of the two bodies, she was informed that she was at risk of redundancy. On 13 April, at a meeting to discuss her situation, it was accepted that she was entitled to 12 weeks' notice and she was told that no final decision on redundancy had yet been taken. She said that she would be entitled to an NHS pension of about £200,000 if she were made redundant after her 50th birthday on 20 July 2011 and reminded her employer that she was about to go on annual leave, including a trip to Egypt.
On 20 April 2011, while Ms Haywood was away on holiday, her employer sent three communications, all terminating her contract with 12 weeks' notice, thus purporting to end her employment five days before her 50th birthday. One was a letter sent by recorded delivery, another was sent by normal post and a third copy was sent to the email address of Ms Haywood's husband. Her father-in-law collected the letter sent by recorded delivery and left it at her home on 26 April. She subsequently opened it at 8:30am on 27 April. Her husband did not read the letter emailed to him until later the same morning.
The question was whether the employer posting the letter terminating Ms Haywood's employment contract was enough by itself to trigger the notice period, whether it had to have arrived at her home or whether, as she argued, the effective date of termination was 12 weeks after she had actually read the communication. If the date was on or before 26 April, her pension entitlement would be significantly reduced.
The High Court ruled in favour of Ms Haywood and the Trust appealed.
In a majority ruling, the Court of Appeal found that in the absence of an express provision stating when a notice of termination is effective, notice is served when it is actually read by the recipient. The Court was confident that Ms Haywood had not unreasonably avoided receipt of the communication and the Trust had been aware that she was absent from home. On that basis, her notice period expired after her 50th birthday and she was thus entitled to an enhanced pension payment.
The Court added that the notice sent by email to Ms Haywood's husband's account was not, in any case, effective as she had provided a postal address and, although she had used that email address herself on a past occasion, she had not given permission for it to be used for delivery of her notice of termination.
For the avoidance of any doubt, employers are advised to ensure that written notice is given to an employee in person and the nature of the communication is confirmed.
For further information or to speak to one of our experts, please get in touch


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What Is a Covenant?
In this sin-ridden world we, keeping a promise is not looked upon with much respect. Therefore, in order for society to insure that promises would be kept, man has devised simple ways to enforce such things. Two of those ways are the ancient covenant and today's contract.
The difference between the two of them basically lies in the range of implementation and the way they are ratified or sealed. A contract is usually between two parties and can be either one-sided or two-sided – meaning that the second party either has something to say in the contract, or it doesn't. A couple of examples of one-sided contracts are the pledge to give money and the promise to marry. Neither one requires a response from the second party but is always considered legally binding (at least in the US).
Unlike a contract, a covenant can be a one-party, one-sided instrument, where the one party determines a course of action that may affect another party which has absolutely no say in the matter. Covenants such as the plan of salvation, devised before anything was created, and the promise of Christ's Second Advent form one-party, one-sided covenants. It doesn't matter what we think of these. God has promised, and He is going to do it, no matter what.
The Seventh-day Adventist dictionary further classifies the types of covenants into a covenant between equals and a covenant between vassal and lord. The first usually involves negotiated benefits both sides receive. It is this type that we usually call a contract. A good example would be purchasing something from a store or getting a loan from a bank. Both sides benefit by the transaction. The store gets money for the purchased object, and the buyer gets the object. When a borrower gets a loan, he ends up with an instant fist full of money while the bank makes money on the deal through an amount of interest the borrower agrees to pay for the service.
The second type (lord – vassal) usually involves a set of conditions stated by the lord that the vassal must keep in order to receive some benefit, if any, from the lord. A treaty is a good example of this type where one party has been totally conquered by the other which becomes its lord. All of the covenants between man and God are of this type, and, with few exceptions, involve the Lord commanding a certain set of requirements, either explicitly or implicitly, to be met by man in order for him to receive any stated benefits.
The core of the covenant is the promises that are between the parties. The promises always involve benefits to one or more of the parties. Many people become confused in thinking that a covenant is the benefits rather than the promise involving them. For this reason the book of Hebrews speaks of "better promises" rather than better laws (Hebrews 8).
After an agreement has been reached, whether it is a covenant or a contract, it was often sealed or ratified. Today that is usually done with a signature by both parties but in ancient times major ones were usually done with blood. A prime example of the ancient way of doing this is the covenant made between God and Abraham (Gen 15). The Seventh-day Adventist Commentary describes what was done in Volume 1, page 313:
9. Take me an heifer. God condescended to enter into a solemn covenant with Abram, in a form customary among the ancients. The expression "to conclude" or "to make" a covenant (v. 18), literally, "to cut" a covenant, was derived from the practice here described. The animals Abram was directed to use were precisely those later prescribed as sacrificial beasts by Moses (see Ex. 29:15; Num. 15:27; Num. 19:2; Deut. 21:3; Lev. 1:14). The requirement that the quadrupeds were to be "three years old" specifies mature animals.
10. Divided them in the midst. Each of the three animals was slaughtered and divided, and the two halves placed one against the other, with a space between. The birds were killed, but not divided. One was probably laid on one side, and the other opposite it. Those entering into the covenant were to walk between the divided pieces, symbolically vowing perpetual obedience to the provisions thus solemnly agreed upon. The lives of the animals pledged the lives of those participating in the covenant. This practice remained in force for many centuries, for we find it practiced in Jeremiah's time (Jer. 34:18, 19).
Another view of the act of ratification by blood is the ratification of the Old Covenant at Sinai, "And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words'" (Ex. 24:8 NKJV). Which the SDA Commentary says, "Because blood symbolized the life of the victim (Lev. 17:14) it was an essential part of every sacrifice, and the sprinkling of it upon the altar was a focal point of the usual sacrificial ritual (Lev. 1:5; Lev. 3:8). Now, half of the blood was apportioned to the people and half to God, the blood sprinkled on the altar binding God, in symbol, and that sprinkled on the people binding them to the terms of the covenant (Heb 9:18-22; see also on Gen 15:9-13, 17) (SDA Bible Commentary, Vol 1, p 631).
The two main things to remember about covenants are that the promises are what make the covenant rather than the objects they deal with and that the major covenants between man and God involved blood as a means of ratification.


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Isabel Hofmeyr, University of the Witwatersrand
Charne Lavery, University of Pretoria
On many beaches around the Indian Ocean, keen observers may spot bits of broken pottery. Washed smooth by the ocean, these shards are in all likelihood hundreds of years old, from centres of ceramic production like the Middle Eastern Abbasid caliphate and the Chinese Ming dynasty.
Originally destined for Indian Ocean port cities, this pottery would have been purchased by merchant elites accustomed to eating off fine plates. These traders formed part of vast commercial networks that crisscrossed the Indian Ocean arena and beyond, from East Africa to Indonesia, the Middle East and China.
These trade networks stretched back thousands of years, powered by the monsoon winds. Reversing direction in different seasons, these winds have long shaped the rhythm of life around the ocean, bringing rain to farmers, filling the sails of dhows and enabling trade between different ecological zones.
The monsoon wind pattern makes the Indian Ocean relatively easy to cross both ways. In the Atlantic, by contrast, winds blow in one direction all year round. That's why the Indian Ocean is the world's oldest long-distance trans-oceanic trading arena, and is sometimes known as the cradle of globalisation.
This cosmopolitan world has long fascinated scholars and has become a vibrant domain of research. Yet this work has had little to say about the sea itself. Its focus is on human movement with the ocean as a passive backdrop. In the age of rising sea levels and climate change, it's important to learn more about the sea from a material and ecological point of view.
Over the past few years, this situation has started to shift. In this article we survey both the older and the newer forms of Indian Ocean studies, of surface and depth.
Surface histories of the Indian Ocean
Given the long millennia of trade and exchange, one key concern of Indian Ocean studies has been a focus on cultural interaction. Cities on the shores have sustained deep forms of material, intellectual and cultural exchange, so that the denizens of these ports had more in common with each other than with their fellows inland.
This early cosmopolitan world has famously been explored in Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land, which traces the travels of Abram bin Yiju, a 12th century Jewish Tunisian merchant based in Cairo and later in Mangalore, India. The book contrasts the rigidity of borders in the 1980s with the relative ease of movement in the late medieval Indian Ocean.
The Swahili coast provides another famed example of Indian Ocean cosmopolitanism. Stretching a thousand miles from Somalia to Mozambique, Swahili society arose from centuries of interaction between Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Centred on coastal city states like Kilwa, Zanzibar and Lamu, Swahili trade networks reached far inland to present day Zimbabwe and outward to Persia, India and China. After reaching their height from the 12th to the 15th centuries, these city states were eventually undone by the Portuguese, who arrived from the early 16th century, seeking to establish a monopoly of the spice trade.
Central to these histories of mobility and exchange in the Indian Ocean has been the spread of Islam across land and sea from the 7th century CE. By the 14th century, mercantile networks around the Indian Ocean were almost entirely in the hands of Muslim traders.
In their wake came scholars, theologians, pilgrims, clerks, legal pundits and Sufi divines. Together, these groups created a shared economic, spiritual and legal frameworks. Sufism, a mystical form of Islam is an important strand in the Indian Ocean histories, as is the centrifugal power of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
European Colonisation along the Indian Ocean
When the Portuguese rounded the Cape in the late 15th century, they entered what many have termed a Muslim Lake, dominated in the north by the Turkish Ottoman, Persian Safavid and Indian Mughal empires. When the Dutch arrived in the Indian Ocean in the 17th century, "they were able to go from one end of it to another by carrying letters of introduction from Muslim sultans on various shores".
As Engseng Ho has indicated, these sprawling networks of Muslim commerce operated without the backing of an army or a state.
Early European entrants to the Indian Ocean world initially had to adapt to the trading orders that they encountered. But by the 19th century, European empires dominated. Their military, transport and communication infrastructure intensified the movement of people across the Indian Ocean world.
As Clare Anderson has demonstrated, much of this mobility was forced and conscripted. It involved slaves, indentured labourers, political exiles and prisoners who were transported between regions. At times, these systems built on existing foundations of labour exploitation. As recent research indicates, South Asian indentured labour was often taken from regions in India where slavery existed. Old and new systems of unfree labour produced an archipelago of prisons, plantations and penal colonies.
As an archive, the Indian Ocean provides a new way of looking at world history, that has previously been dominated by European accounts. The age of European empires is only one tiny sliver of time in a much longer arc. A view from the Indian Ocean unsettles ideas of the relationship between European colonisers and colonised groups.
As historians like Engseng Ho and Sugata Bose have argued, the Indian Ocean world was an arena of competing claims.
The ambitions of British imperialism, for example, were countered by the equally grand visions of Islam. Indeed, the Indian Ocean arena produced a rich repertoire of transoceanic ideologies, including Hindu reformism and pan-Buddhism.
Such ideologies eventually acquired an anti-imperial character which also fed into ideas of Afro-Asian solidarity and non-alignment. These arose from the Bandung Conference in 1955 at which 29 newly independent nations gathered to forge a new path rather than falling in line with either of the rival camps in the emerging Cold War.
In the 21st century, these older alliances have come under pressure as China and India elbow each other for dominance in the Indian Ocean. China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative involves massive transport and port infrastructure and aims to extend China's footprint across much of the Indian Ocean arena. In response, New Delhi has bolstered its economic and military activity in this domain.
Deep histories of the Indian Ocean
While the uniquely well-travelled surface of the Indian Ocean has received much attention, its depths barely register in the cultural or historical imagination. Its waters constitute nearly 20% of the ocean's total volume, and its deepest point, the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench, lies nearly 8km below the surface. Yet its seafloor, like much of the world's oceans, is largely unmapped.
Seafloor features determine weather patterns, fish concentrations and tsunami dynamics. Initial explorations by mining companies revealed mineral-rich deposits on submarine volcanic vents, while new species are continually being discovered.
The deep Indian Ocean is far less studied than the depths of the other oceans, for economic reasons: it is ringed by underdeveloped countries. The second International Indian Ocean Expedition was launched only in 2015, fifty years after the first. It aims to increase understanding about the oceanographic and biological characteristics of this undersampled ocean, as well as the ways in which it is changing.
Paying attention to the submarine world is becoming increasingly important in a time of climate change prompted by human activities. The Indian Ocean is warming faster than any of the other oceans, holding more than 70% of all the heat absorbed by the upper ocean since 2003. Indian Ocean islands – the Maldives being a well-known example – are already being submerged by rising global sea levels.
Cyclone patterns are shifting further south and happening more often as a result of the ocean's rising temperature. The monsoon, which underpinned the Indian Ocean's shipping networks and the rainfall patterns on its coastlines, is losing its power and predictability.
Deities, spirits and ancestors
While the Indian Ocean's depths are in many ways opaque, they are not unpopulated in people's imaginations. The ocean bustles with water deities, djinns, mermaids and ancestral spirits – a mythical submarine world that reflects the cosmopolitanism of its land populations.
In southern Africa this mix is especially rich: Khoisan/ First Nation water sprites, Muslim djinns introduced by South East Asian slaves, African ancestors, one of whose domains is the ocean, and British imperial ideas about the romance of the sea.
These ideas encounter each other and turn bodies of water into rich sites of memory and history. They have been explored by the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South project. Work by Confidence Joseph, Oupa Sibeko, Mapule Mohulatsi and Ryan Poinasamy explores the literary and artistic imaginations of southern Africa's creolised waters.
Afrofuturist science fiction is also turning to the deep Indian Ocean. Mohale Mashigo's Floating Rugs is situated in a submarine community on South Africa's east coast. Mia Couto's stories from the Mozambican coastline have long paired myths of mermaids with marine biology. Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's novel The Dragonfly Sea links contemporary Afro-Asian networks to the undersea.
Deep sea mining
Some exploration of the deep ocean can seem science-fictional, but isn't.
The International Seabed Authority, a branch of the United Nations in operation since 2001 and responsible for parcelling out potential marine mining areas, has granted contracts for mining exploration in the Indian Ocean. At the same time, researchers are discovering an astonishing number of new deep ocean species on the same sites.
The submarine world has long been plundered for riches. Histories of pearl diving in the Indian Ocean – as in a central scene of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea – are continued in today's illegal abalone trade. Poachers on the coast of South Africa don scuba gear to harvest abalone to trade with Asian markets, linking the undersea to Indian Ocean criminal underworlds, along the same lines as the ancient trade networks.
At times these networks are the source of treasure. On the Island of Mozambique, for instance, the shards of blue pottery that were traded around the Indian Ocean are one of the objects of the active treasure hunting trade today. While some of the treasures are sold by dealers in antiquities, others provide crucial evidence for maritime archaeological research. Recently, the Slave Wrecks Project has discovered slave shipwrecks that provide concrete symbols of the transatlantic slave trade and link it to histories of Indian Ocean slavery and indenture.
The old waterfronts of East African port cities like Mombasa, Zanzibar and Lamu are dominated by buildings with a pure white finish. This present-day architecture echoes a centuries-old tradition of building houses, mosques and tombs from white coral stone and dressed with lime plaster. Made from shells and corals that began their life under the sea, this luminous plaster made port cities visible from afar to incoming vessels.
The ocean's submarine life and its human histories are always entangled. And now writers, artists and scholars are increasingly drawing attention to their connectedness.
Isabel Hofmeyr, Professor of African Literature, University of the Witwatersrand and Charne Lavery, Lecturer and Research Associate, University of Pretoria
The Charles Telfair Centre is non-profit, independent and non-partisan, and takes no specific position. All opinions are those of the authors/contributors only.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


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Families and teens can visit popular Vancouver attractions for free*
Vancouver residents are able to you use their Vancouver Public Library cards to check out 20 amazing venues throughout the city
The city of Vancouver, Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Public Library have teamed up to Sponsor an amazing program. This has been done so the residents of our fair city can explore what millions of tourists come to Vancouver to see and experience.
The twenty partner venues will allow free access to museums, fitness centres, world - class gardens, and popular attractions once in the 2 week period that the pass is live.
This is one of the most fantastic oppurtunities we Vancouverites have to experience the wonders of Metro Vancouver. I applaud all the organizations that are involved, and celebrate the fact that low income families and our youths can enjoy the sight and sounds of Vancouver for free!!
Program has 20 Venue partners which for the 2 week borrowing period are free (once per venue or activity).
Events and Activities:
Fitness and Recreation:
VPB Fitness Centres VPB Ice Rinks
VPB Pitch and Putt VPB Swimming Pools
Arts and Culture:
Vancouver Art Gallery Vancouver Bach Choir
Vancouver Opera Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Science and Nature:
Beaty Biodiversity Museum Bloedel Conservatory
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
Nitobe Memorial Garden Science World
UBC Botanical Garden Vancouver Aquarium
Museums and Heritage:
Museum of Vancouver Roedde House Museum
UBC Museum of Anthropology Vancouver Maritime Museum
Link:How to get you pass
Link:Using your pass
Contact Vancouver Public Library for more details:
Call 604-331-3603.
or firstname.lastname@example.com
The information in this blog is informational in natuer and any information contained there in should be verified by VPL.


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Referral Line: 484-628-HELP
Reading Hospital: 484-628-8000
Toll Free: 1-866-988-4377
Reading Health System Menu
Request an Appointment
Health Library
Eye disorders that affect vision can be divided into refractive and non-refractive errors.
Refractive errors. These eye disorders cause blurred vision. They occur because the shape of the eye does not focus the light that enters the eye properly.
Non-refractive errors. These eye disorders are caused by eye diseases. They are not caused by refractive errors.
Refractive errors are seen in almost 20% of children. The following are the most common refractive errors, all of which affect vision:
Nearsightedness (myopia). Being nearsighted means that a child can see clearly close up but has problems seeing things far away. It's often not present at birth but begins to develop as the child gets older. It's often seen in children around age 9 or 10. For example, a child may not be able to read the blackboard from the back of the room but can see to write and read without a problem. Other symptoms may include headaches or nausea after reading. A child may hold books close to their face or write with their head very close to the table.
Farsightedness (hyperopia). A child who is farsighted may or may not see things close to them, but they have no problem seeing things far away. Squinting, eye rubbing, lack of interest in school, and trouble reading may be seen in children with hyperopia.
Astigmatism. This condition makes objects that are close up and at a distance look blurry. It's caused by an abnormal curvature of the cornea. It can start in childhood or in adulthood. Astigmatism can be easily corrected if it is causing problems. Some symptoms may include headache, eye strain, trouble reading, and extreme tiredness (fatigue). Depending on the severity, eyeglasses or contact lenses may be needed.
Lazy eye (amblyopia). Amblyopia is a common visual condition. It often happens when there is no problem with the structure of the eye. The decrease in vision occurs when one or both eyes send a blurry image to the brain. Then the brain learns to see only blurry with that eye. Early treatment can lead to better success.
Crossed eyes (strabismus). Strabismus is one of the most common eye problems in children. It's when the eyes don't line up with each other. The eyes (one or both) may turn inward, outward, up, or down. Sometimes more than one of these conditions are present. It's also called crossed eyes or wandering eye. Children younger than 6 months old may have a common form of strabismus that comes and goes. Most strabismus is caused by abnormality of neuromuscular (including brain) control of eye movement. Strabismus caused by poor eye muscle strength is less common. Symptoms may include squinting, not being able to judge distance to pick up things, closing one eye to see better, dizziness, or the eyes moving inward or outward. Early diagnosis of the underlying problem is key to prevent vision loss. Treatment may include patching the stronger eye to strengthen the weaker eye, eyeglasses, eye drops, surgery to straighten the eyes, or eye exercises.
The following are some causes of non-refractive errors:
Glaucoma occurs when the fluid pressure inside the eyes (intraocular pressure, or IOP) slowly rises. This happens because the fluid (called aqueous humor), which is produced inside the eye and normally drains out of the eye, can't drain correctly. Instead, the fluid collects and causes pressure damage to the optic nerve. This nerve connects the eye to the brain. This condition also causes vision loss. Glaucoma is classified according to the age when it starts. Glaucoma that begins before age 3 is called congenital (present at birth) glaucoma. Glaucoma that happens in a child is called childhood glaucoma.
Symptoms may include excessive tearing, light sensitivity (photophobia), closing one or both eyes in the light, a cloudy and enlarged cornea, one eye being larger than the other, and vision loss. Treatment often includes surgery. Without treatment, blindness may happen.
A cataract is a clouding or unclear (opaque) area in the lens, which is normally clear (transparent). As this clouding happens, it prevents light rays from passing through the lens and focusing on the retina. The retina is the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. This clouding is caused when some of the protein that makes up the lens clumps together and interferes with vision. Cataracts can affect one eye (unilateral) or both eyes (bilateral). Cataracts in children are not common. A child may be born with cataracts (congenital). Or the condition may develop later in life (acquired). Possible causes of cataracts include the following:
Injury (trauma)
Steroid use
Other childhood diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis
Complications from other eye diseases, such as glaucoma
Most congenital cataracts (those present at birth) occur in children who also have other eye problems or other health problems. In about 25% of children born with congenital cataracts, the condition is due to a genetic cause, such as a metabolic disorder (caused by an inherited enzyme deficiency) or a chromosome abnormality (such as Down syndrome).
Symptoms of a cataract may include the following:
White pupil on flashlight exam
Eyes don't line up
Involuntary rhythmic movements of the eyes back and forth, up and down, around, or mixed (nystagmus)
Cloudy or blurry vision
Decreased vision
Lights seem too bright or present a glare or a surrounding halo
Treatment often includes cataract surgery.
Retinoblastoma is a rare cancer of the retina. The retina is the innermost layer of the eye. It's located at the back of the eye. It receives light and images needed for vision. About 250 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with this type of cancer each year. It mostly happens in children younger than age 5. Most cases happen between infancy and age 2. Both boys and girls are affected equally. Retinoblastoma can happen in either eye. But in about 1 in 4 cases, the tumor is in both eyes.
Symptoms of retinoblastoma may include:
Leukocoria. A white light reflex that happens at certain angles when light is shown into the pupil.
Crossed eyes (strabismus). This is when the eyes don't line up with each other. One or both eyes don't seem to be looking in the same direction. It's also called wandering eye.
Pain, swelling, or redness around the eyes.
Treatment for retinoblastoma may include one or more of the following:
Surgery (removal of the eye, which may be followed up with an artificial eye implant)
Heat treatment (uses extreme heat directed toward cancer cells)
Radiation therapy
Laser therapy (uses light to destroy the blood vessels that nourish the tumor)
Cryotherapy (uses a freezing process to destroy the tumor)
Additional follow-up treatments may include:
Fitting and training for a prosthesis (artificial eye)
Blind or decreased vision adaptation training
Supportive care (for the side effects of treatment)
Antibiotics (to prevent or treat infection)
To protect your child, the American Pediatric Association recommends eye exams at all well-child visits. This means every age group, from newborns to teenagers. If your child complains of any vision problems, or if you notice vision-related issues, contact your healthcare provider right away.


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Insidious: The Last Key – Official Trailer
The creative minds behind the hit Insidious trilogy return for Insidious: The Last Key. In the supernatural thriller, which welcomes back franchise standout Lin Shaye as Dr. Elise Rainier, the brilliant parapsychologist faces her most fearsome and personal haunting yet: in her own family home.
The film is written by co-creator Leigh Whannell (Saw), who wrote the trilogy and directed Chapter 3; produced by Insidious regulars Jason Blum (The Purge series, Get Out), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) and co-creator James Wan (The Conjuring, Furious 7); and directed by series newcomer Adam Robitel (The Taking of Deborah Logan).


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A while back Mathew Turland posted a guide for getting a custom version of PHP compiled on a Windows machine.
At the encouragement of Elizabeth Smith, I went through the process (not-so-recently as of this blog entry) of compiling PHP on Windows.
He gives his "laundry list" of things to download/have access to and the link to Elizabeth's tutorial handy. Matthew found a few differences in his compile - an issue with IPv6 support and a pathing problem with the scripts trying to find libmysql.dll. He also throws in his instructions on getting aspell support compiled in.