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Nearby chimpanzee populations show much greater genetic diversity than distant human populations
- Date:
- March 2, 2012
- Source:
- Wellcome Trust
- Summary:
- Chimpanzee populations living in relatively close proximity are substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents, according to a new study. The study suggests that genomics can provide a valuable new tool for use in chimpanzee conservation, with the potential to identify the population of origin of an individual chimpanzee or the provenance of a sample of bush meat.
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Chimpanzee populations living in relatively close proximity are substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents, according to a study recently published in PLoS Genetics. The study suggests that genomics can provide a valuable new tool for use in chimpanzee conservation, with the potential to identify the population of origin of an individual chimpanzee or the provenance of a sample of bushmeat.
Common chimpanzees in equatorial Africa have long been recognized as falling into three distinct populations, or subspecies: western, central and eastern chimpanzees. A fourth group, the Cameroonian chimpanzee, has been proposed to live in southern Nigeria and western Cameroon, but there has been considerable controversy regarding whether it constitutes a distinct group.
Scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Broad Institute, the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun and the Biomedical Primate Research Centre examined DNA from 54 chimpanzees, measuring the DNA at 818 positions across the genome that varied between individuals. Analysis of patterns in the data showed Cameroonian chimpanzees to be distinct from the other, well-established groups.
Intriguingly, a previous conclusion based on earlier studies -- that Cameroonian and western chimpanzees were most closely related -- was shown to be untrue; instead, the closest relationships to Cameroonian chimpanzees are with nearby central chimpanzees.
Dr Rory Bowden from the University of Oxford, who led the study, said: "These findings have important consequences for conservation. All great ape populations face unparalleled challenges from habitat loss, hunting and emerging infections, and conservation strategies need to be based on sound understanding of the underlying population structure. The fact that all four recognized populations of chimpanzees are genetically distinct emphasizes the value of conserving them independently.
"Genomics can also provide tools for use in chimpanzee conservation. Genetic tests could cheaply and easily identify the population of origin of an individual chimpanzee or even a sample of bushmeat."
The authors also contrasted the levels of genetic differentiation between the chimpanzees from the different groups with those based on similar data from humans from different populations. Surprisingly, even though all the chimpanzee populations lived in relatively close proximity (with the habitats of two groups separated only by a river), chimpanzees from different populations were substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents.
Professor Peter Donnelly, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford and a senior author on the study, said: "Relatively small numbers of humans left Africa 50 000-100 000 years ago. All non-African populations descended from them and are reasonably similar genetically.
"That chimpanzees from habitats in the same country, separated only by a river, are more distinct than humans from different continents is really interesting. It speaks to the great genetic similarities between human populations, and to much more stability, and less interbreeding, over hundreds of thousands of years, in the chimpanzee groups."
The conservation implications of the study extend to other species. New techniques such as next-generation sequencing, which have become available since the study was initiated, will allow a catalogue of genetic variation to be obtained cheaply and easily for any species, simply by sequencing even one or two individuals. Such a catalogue could then be used to perform a study like this one, to identify genetically distinct groups, and subsequently to develop simple and cheap tests of population of origin.
Dr Nick Mundy, from the University of Cambridge, and the paper's other senior author, said: "Because they are humans' nearest relatives, the structure and origins of chimpanzee populations have long been of wide interest. Future studies will be able to use genome data to uncover the adaptations that are unique to the Cameroonian chimpanzees."
Story Source:
Materials provided by Wellcome Trust. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Bowden R, MacFie TS, Myers S, Hellenthal G, Nerrienet E, et al. Genomic Tools for Evolution and Conservation in the Chimpanzee: Pan troglodytes ellioti Is a Genetically Distinct Population. PLoS Genet, 2012 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002504
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Amzamiviram. Detail of a painting by Tony Curtis.
Tarvu's best friend and Tarvuist proffet. Sometimes called the Grandfather of Tarvuism. Translated the Holy Text of Tarvuism, The Tarvunty.
Amzamiviram was a bellringer, and later bell-designer, who went deaf in later life. The sound of Amzamiviram's tolling bells led Tarvu to dry land during his swim with Oobu the Octopus. Amzamiviram appeared many times in Tarvu's life. It was said that Amzamiviram 'held Tarvu's ear', i.e that Tarvu would listen to his opinion. This may well be true, as Amzamiviram was a very wise man indeed.
A very emotional man, Amzamiviram had been known to cry for days on end when he was upset or depressed. For example, when Tarvu left Amzamivirm and began Thelvol Hatty Haynu, Amzamiviram cried for 70 days, and his tears were said to have created the river Euphrates.
At Tarvu's Unveiling, Tarvu appointed Amzamiviram his official right hand man. He was also often seen with Bilmtaasium, Tarvu's trusty bag-carrier, who had trained under Amzamiviram as a bell-designer.
Amzamiviram lived to the ripe old age of 400. However, he was accidentally buried alive at 399. At his funeral, mourners heard loud banging from inside his coffin. Luckily they opened it just in time, and saved Amzamiviram. Unfortunately he died the next day - on his 400th birthday. It was a tragedy.


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Above: "Enlightened and Christian Warfare in the 19th Century–Massacre of Indian Women and Children in Idaho" published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated," August 1868.
Note: We are republishing this essay by S. Brian Willson describing the true history of genocide in the United States which stands in stark contrast to the myth of Thanksgiving because of its popularity with readers and its educational value.
The Defining and Enabling Experience of Our "Civilization"
As we again plan to celebrate what US "Americans" call Thanksgiving, let us pause for a moment of reflection. Let us recognize that accounts of the first Thanksgiving are mythological, and that the holiday is actually a grotesque celebration of our arrogant ethnocentrism built on genocide.
Native Americans in the Caribbean greeted their 1492 European invaders with warm hospitality. They were so innocent that Genoan Cristoforo Colombo wrote in his log, They willingly traded everything they owned . . . They do not bear arms . . . They would make fine servants . . . They could easily be made Christians . . . With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. This meeting set in motion a 500+-year plunder of the Western Hemisphere, which then spread to the remainder of the globe. And it has not stopped!
Historian Hans Köning concludes that what sets the West apart is its persistence, its capacity to stop at nothing. Cultural historian Lewis Mumford declared, Wherever Western man went, slavery, land robbery, lawlessness, culture-wrecking, and the outright extermination of both wild beasts and tame men went with him.
Jump 129 years to 1621, year of the supposed "first Thanksgiving." There is not much documentation of that event, apparently a three-day feast, but surviving Indians do not trust the myth. Natives were already dying like flies thanks to European-borne diseases. The Pequot tribe in today's Connecticut reportedly numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had reduced their population to 1,500 by 1637, when the first, officially proclaimed, all-Pilgrim "Thanksgiving" took place. At that feast, the whites of New England celebrated their massacre of the Pequots in the Connecticut Valley where the Mystic River meets the sea. The Indians were in fact celebrating their annual green corn dance ceremony. But it was to be their last.
William Bradford, the former Governor of Plymouth and one of the chroniclers of the supposed 1621 feast, was on hand for the unspeakable massacre of 1637. He described it thus in his History of the Plymouth Plantation (@1647): Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory.
The rest of the white folks thought so, too. This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots, read Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop's proclamation. The authentic proclaimed Thanksgiving Day was born. Few Pequots survived.
Most historians believe about 700 Pequots were slaughtered at Mystic. Many prisoners were executed, and surviving women and children sold into slavery in the West Indies. Pequot prisoners that escaped execution were parceled out to Indian tribes allied with the English. The Pequot were thought to have been extinguished as a people.
But, the epitaph was premature. Enough survived such that today the Pequots own the Foxwood Casino and Hotel, in Ledyard, Connecticut, larger in size than the Pentagon, with gaming revenues in the billions.
Moving 158 years further, we discover a ruthless campaign conducted in central New York in 1779 during our "noble" Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress was furious that a majority of the Iroquois Indians (those who coined the Seventh Generation philosophy) were siding with the British against the colonialists who were rapidly settling their lands. The booming capital town of the Seneca Nation was Kanadesaga at the head of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region. In the summer of 1779, the Continental Congress instructed its Army's commanding general to take care of the Indian problem. George Washington complied. He ordered General John Sullivan to lay waste . . . that the country . . . be . . . destroyed, instilling terror among the Iroquois Indians in central New York; General Sullivan affirmed that the Indians shall see that there is malice enough in our hearts to destroy everything that contributes to their support. Washington declared, Our future security will be in their inability to injure us…and in the terror with which the severity of the chastizement they receive will inspire them [Richard Drinnon, Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian Hating & Empire Building (New York: Schocken Books, 1990), pp. 331-32].
The culminating day of "victory" was September 7, 1779. Total destruction of Kanadesaga and the forty other Seneca towns was accomplished by 4,500 troops, nearly one-third of the entire force of the Continental Army. The only major military campaign of that year, it was one of the most vicious scorched-earth campaigns in history. All orchards and food crops were destroyed, all buildings were looted, then burned. Many of the escaping Senecas were scalped and butchered: After the battle . . . Indian warriors . . . were scalped; Lieutenant William Barton amused himself by skinning two Indians from the hips down to make two pairs of leggings, one pair for himself, the other a present for his major [Morris Bishop, "The End of the Iroquois," American Heritage, October 1969, p. 78].
Jump 162 years to 1941, when I was born in Kanadesaga, renamed Geneva by our European ancestors. As a young boy I blissfully collected hundreds of Seneca arrowheads, storing them in a special protected box in my bedroom. A chapter in my seventh grade history textbook taught that, The Iroquois were the Indian Masters of the State, but due to their destructive attacks on the frontier settlements, George Washington decided to send an army to crush the Indians . . . The Six Nations never recovered from this blow. Europeans onward and upward!
The New Republic was formed in 1789, its 1787 Constitutional Convention having been conducted in enforced secrecy, never submitted to a popular vote. The third U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) described his vision of an "empire of liberty," with expanded commercial enterprises and territory. And without any Constitutional authority he quickly doubled the area of the young country by acquiring vast Louisiana from France's Napoleon for $15 million.
In 1807 he advocated preventive war: If the English do not give us the satisfaction we demand, we will take Canada, which wants to enter the Union; and when, together with Canada, we shall have the Floridas, we shall no longer have any difficulties with our neighbors; and it is the only way of preventing them [William Appleman Williams, The Contours of American History (Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1961), p. 192]. Others openly talked of expansion into Spanish America and Canada for planter and merchant prosperity in new markets, saying that the patriotic and virtuous "wise framers" of the Constitution had "too much wisdom to restrict Congress to defensive war" [Ibid., p. 194].
After moving to Humboldt County in northern California in the early 2000s, I carefully examined its history as well. The 1849 gold rush brought a large influx of white miners and settlers to California, leading to near virtual wipeout of California Indians by 1865-70. Between 1853 and 1861 there were at least fourteen wars waged against the Indians of California, with paramilitary campaigns continuing into the late 1860s. The population, once thought to have been as high as 700,000, was estimated to be 100,000 in 1849 partly due to grueling enslavement in the Catholic Missions starting in 1769. From 1849 to 1860 the population decreased by 65 percent to 35,000, due to systematic killings [Russell Thorton, American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), p. 109]; a detailed list of atrocities committed against Indians in California, including many in what is now Humboldt County, can be found in Sherburne F. Cook's The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976)].
From 1857 to 1860, U.S. author/poet Bret Harte wrote for the Northern Californian and the Humboldt Times. Bret was privy to the white massacre of 188 Wiyot Indians on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay near Eureka on February 25, 1860, in which it was reported only one Wiyot child survived. Harte's story, entitled "Indiscriminate Massacre of Indians, Women and Children Butchered," included this account: "Little children and old women were mercilessly stabbed and their skulls crushed by axes. When the bodies were landed in Union [present day Arcata] a more shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian and civilized people. Old women, wrinkled and decrepit, lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out and dabbed with long grey hair. Infants sparce a span long, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly wounds. . . ." [Northern Californian, Vol. 2, Issue 9 (February 29, 1960), p. 1]. Barte fled as whites sought to lynch him.
In California as elsewhere, hordes of white frontier settlers, speculators, surveyors and other opportunists were establishing permanent settlements as they moved westward from the Atlantic Coast colonies, especially following cessation of the Seven Years War in 1763. Thousands of murders of Indigenous were proudly admitted by settlers and investors/speculators engaged in activities the equivalent of today's paramilitary death squads operating outside "official" channels, i.e., acting parallel to or outside the jurisdiction of federal troops.
Preventive war using terror against civilians as ordered by the government carried out by young male troops or paramilitary forces are "all-American" values. Such policies have been witnessed time and again in U.S. history, rationalized by our sense of being "exceptional" people. We remain in denial about our arrogant, racist and genocidal origins. More redeeming values have been exhibited, such as civil disobedience and waves of progressive political movements. But the prevailing political and economic structures remain intransigently oligarchic. In simple terms, we remain a white male supremacy society of plutocrats supported by massive numbers of obedient consumers and laborers.
By revealing our social secrets (an oligarchy committed to selfish exploitation) and realizing that those secrets have masked our social myth (a democracy committed to equal justice), we can help catalyze a revolution of consciousness. Recognizing that obedience to our system is killing us and the Planet's capacity to host us, is a grand initial step for triggering the imaginative forces necessary to enable rapid movement toward a society based on mutual aid in which sustainable communities are built and nourished at the local level.
We have yet to come to grips with the original holocaust that continues to serve as the defining and enabling experience of our "civilization." Embracing this "shadow" can ironically enable sudden and radical shifts as we are freed from expending the incredible unconscious energy needed to conceal our shame. Sharing our grief for what we have done to others, and ultimately to ourselves, will be experienced as tremendous relief.
After serving in the Vietnam War, S. Brian Willson became a radical, nonviolent peace activist and pacifist.


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Puppy Socialization – Getting Started
Socialization is the process of preparing a puppy to be comfortable with interactions with people, other dogs, other species and the outside world. Ideally this should take place during the sensitive period between 3 and 14 weeks of age. This is the period when puppies benefit most from exposure to new or strange stimuli and they show a willingness to explore and play with little fear when encountering new people, animals, objects and experiences. Puppies deprived of these experiences will have a significantly increased risk of developing into adults with fear, aggression and arousal issues. The idea being to stop fear before it starts and to raise a well-adjusted, well-mannered dog. This socialization should begin at 3 weeks with the puppy raiser and continue with the new owner.
By three weeks of age the puppy's eyes and ears are well developed. They will readily interact and explore a passive human. They are ready and able to start bonding with people, littermates and other animals around them and can start recognizing their environment. The importance of starting at 3 weeks cannot be overstressed. If socialization is not started until 5 weeks of age, puppies may be wary of new people at initial presentation. By seven weeks of age a puppy will avoid a passive handler if early socialization has not been initiated. This makes it especially important to get a puppy that has been raised in a social, family situation rather than a factory style operation where little to no emphasis is placed on positive early social and handling experiences.
By 8-9 weeks of age puppies have the brain waves of an adult. They are neurologically developed and ready to explore new and unfamiliar social and physical environments. Puppies that are not allowed to do so by 14 weeks of age lose this flexibility and may forever be fearful in new situations. As adults, they may function well within an extremely limited environment but become fearful and reactive (barking, growling, biting) around unfamiliar people, pets and surroundings.
Socialization Periods – What to Do
Three to Five Weeks
Puppies should be raised in an enriched environment providing positive and diverse experiences. This will be done by the puppy raiser (breeder) and is something you will have no control over unless you are on a waiting list and have interviewed the breeder about their socialization techniques ahead of time. Knowing what should be done provides you a framework from which you can ask questions about your future puppy's early socialization.
- Interaction with members of his own species (mom and litter mates) that are friendly and outgoing. This allows him to learn normal canine behaviors and interactions.
- Passive exposure to familiar and unfamiliar people so he can learn to investigate on his own terms and solicit attention. Passive means sitting there and allowing the puppy to come to you, not grabbing him and putting your face in his which might scare him.
- Provide toys of various shapes and textures to encourage play. Daily exposure to a variety of objects and textures will also encourage fun exploration and early self-confidence.
Eight to Thirteen Weeks
Puppies are usually adopted out at 8 weeks of age. Taking a puppy any earlier than 8 weeks risks encroaching in on the first socialization period and subjects the puppy to a new set of experiences before they are ready to emotionally handle it.
- At this age the puppy will be more mobile and will begin activities outside of the home. Outdoor access should be limited to spaces where unvaccinated animals and wildlife do not go as your puppies' vaccinations will not be complete at this age. Avoid dogs of unknown temperament or aggressive tendencies that can scare or injure your new puppy.
- Your puppy will need to learn to travel to new locations and interact with new people and other healthy, vaccinated pets. Providing these experiences early on will allow your puppy to have positive interactions that will build competence and confidence in coping with new situations. Car anxiety and motion sickness should be addressed early before it becomes a learned behavior or lifelong fear. Enriched, new environments and a variety of toys will encourage play. Interactions should be supervised so no one gets overly excited and causes an accidental injury that can induce fear and anxiety.
- Enroll in a socialization class outside of the home at 9-10 weeks of age. This will help to reinforce early lessons about interacting with other dogs and people. Socialization classes should also teach owners appropriate handling and early training exercises.
- Expose your puppy to diverse groups of people of different genders, ethnicity and ages. Include people wearing hats, carrying umbrellas, briefcases and backpacks. Watch closely to be certain he does not show any signs of anxiety or fear. If he does, allow him to retreat, then start again slowly rewarding positive behavior with treats and praise.
- Provide positive experiences in different types of environments such as concrete, metal, tile, carpet, linoleum and sand. Allow him to withdraw when anxious and provide treats to encourage him to remain calm and relaxed.
- Gradually train your puppy to walk on a leash using treats to encourage him. Walk in safe places before he is fully vaccinated, avoiding parks and other areas where dogs of unknown status may congregate. This should include wooded areas where wild animals may carry diseases such as parvovirus and distemper.
- Continue working on handling exercises. Place your puppy in positions that allow all parts of his body to be examined. Handle his ears, feet and mouth to prepare him for ear cleanings, nail trims and teeth brushing. Never verbally or physically reprimand for non-compliant behavior, but rather use slow gradual exposure with rewards and praise.
In Part 2 of our Puppy Socialization focus, we will cover fear impact periods which can overlap with the 8-13 week socialization period, but becomes more important at 5-12 months of age.
The feed room is proudly brought to you by Nutrena and Cargill Animal Nutrition. Learn more about us here. You can see the original blog post here.


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Who's Selling Credit Cards from Target?
The previous two posts on this blog have featured stories about banks buying back credit and debit card accounts stolen in the Target hack and that ended up for sale on rescator[dot]la, a popular underground store. Today's post looks a bit closer at open-source information on a possible real-life identity for the proprietor of that online fraud shop.


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A Brief History of the Grafton-Midview Public Library
In the early half of the 1940s, Harriet Spitzer spearheaded efforts to organize a free public library to serve the Grafton area. The Grafton-Midview Public Library was chartered as a school district library in 1944. The library was first housed on the second floor of Grafton School on Elm Street, followed by a later move to the first floor of the school. In 1971, the library relocated to a vacated bank building down the street and around the corner at 983 Main Street -- purchase price: $1.00! In 1991, a new addition, with a renovation of the existing building, expanded the library's total square footage from 2,078 to 11,873.
The Grafton-Midview Public Library, one of seven independent public libraries in Lorain County, is located in the southeastern section of the county in northeastern Ohio. Its service area includes approximately 24,000 residents in Grafton Village, Grafton Township, Eaton Township, and parts of Carlisle Township and Elyria.
The Grafton-Midview Public Library has been automated since 1991 with software from The Library Corporation (TLC). In 1997, the library upgraded to TLC's Library.Solution application; the online public access catalog -- is available at the website. The library's Internet service provider is OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network which provides our Internet access via a 100 mg upload/download circuit and an Agile Network microwave transmitter.


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Prayer for Protection in time of Pandemic
Archbishop Lori invites Baltimore Catholics, Knights of Columbus to Pray Novena during Pandemic.
O Mary,
you always brighten our path
as a sign of salvation and of hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who, at the Cross, took part in Jesus' pain
while remaining steadfast in faith.
O loving Mother,
you know what we need,
and we are confident you will provide for us
as at Cana in Galilee.
Intercede for us with your Son Jesus,
the Divine Physician,
for those who have fallen ill,
for those who are vulnerable,
and for those who have died.
Intercede also for those charged with
protecting the health and safety of others
and for those who are tending to the sick
and seeking a cure.
Help us, O Mother of Divine Love,
to conform to the will of the Father
and to do as we are told by Jesus,
who took upon himself our
sufferings and carried our sorrows,
so as to lead us, through the Cross,
to the glory of the Resurrection. Amen.
Under thy protection we seek refuge,
O Holy Mother of God.
In our needs, despise not our petitions,
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
Adapted from the prayer of Pope Francis


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After years of watching synagogue members die or move away, the Sephardic Jewish Center of Canarsie made the difficult decision to downsize.
The 50-year-old Brooklyn synagogue had been a thriving center for the area's Sephardim. But after accepting that it could no longer pull together enough money to cover expenses, let alone muster the 10 men necessary for daily prayer, the synagogue disposed of most of its belongings and began holding Shabbat services in a nearby Ashkenazi congregation.
But what to do with its prayerbooks? The center owned several hundred volumes in the Spanish-Portuguese liturgical style — some tattered, some like new and some belonging to older members that may have had significant worth.
"We donated some to a local shul, but we had to get rid of a lot of them and bury them," said Rabbi Myron Rakowitz. "It was difficult because we didn't just want to throw them out or claim them unusable. We want other people to use them, to give them purpose when we no longer can."
What to do with old books is a growing problem for synagogues across the United States.
In the last six years, the three major American Jewish denominations have released new prayerbooks. More than 1,500 synagogues have purchased the books, in some cases making older versions obsolete.
More than 700 congregations have bought copies of the Reform movement's new Mishkan T'Filah, and hundreds more are expected to buy. The Conservative movement's new High Holy Days prayerbook, the Lev Shalem Mahzor, has sold nearly 260,000 copies to some 500 congregations since its 2010 release. And at least 200,000 copies of the Koren siddur released in 2009 have been purchased by more than 300 Orthodox synagogues.
The problem isn't going away. The Reform movement is working on a new High Holy Days prayerbook that it expects to release in 2015.
According to Jewish tradition, prayerbooks are holy and cannot just be thrown out. Traditionally, they must be placed in a geniza, a repository for holy books awaiting burial. It's the only religiously acceptable way to dispose of them.
"This problem is just rampant because now is the greatest time for creativity in writing new prayers and liturgy, and it's going to get worse when the new machzor comes out," said Rabbi Elaine Zecher of Boston, who is leading a committee working on the new Reform movement prayerbook. "But our solution to bury them shouldn't be looked at negatively. This is an intentional disposal, not a mindless disposal.
Some synagogues have sought alternatives to the burial option. Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley sent its old prayerbooks to Hillel chapters throughout the state two years ago when it bought new machzors. Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego takes its old books and those of several nearby congregations, and mails them to Jewish Prisoner Services International in Seattle.
But finding a new home for all the books can be difficult.
"Our machzorim we're looking to get rid of now are usable, but they are from the 1940s version," said Rabbi Philip Scheim of Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am in Toronto, which is planning to upgrade to the new Lev Shalem machzor this year. "The English translation is incredibly hard for people to get through."
For most synagogues, if the books don't eventually find a home, to the ground they go. Some buy pricey lots in a Jewish cemetery; others bury them near the synagogue. Sometimes a gravedigger is hired to do the work.
"It's really a shame if we have to end up burying our books. They'd be of good use, but we just can't find anyone to take them in," said Marjie Cogan of Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle, which has been trying unsuccessfully for years to unload 700 old machzors. "It's a huge problem for us because we don't have the means to store them."
Daniel Freedlander, the vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said his movement is confronting the problem of book disposal for at least the third time: first in 1975, when Gates of Prayer replaced the old Union Prayer Book; in 1990, when a new gender-neutral version was released; and again with Mishkan T'Filah.
"No weeks pass by without us being contacted by people looking to get rid of their old Jewish books," Freelander said. "A good majority of them get donated, but we've come to terms that many will get buried, and the ceremony can actually be educational for kids. Those books can't just sit in your attic forever."
At Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, the congregation gathers each year before Passover to collectively dispose of unused books. A communal prayer is recited, as is the Mourner's Kaddish, and there's a moment of reflection.
"We gather together at the synagogue where members bring tattered prayerbooks and other sacred books that can no longer be used," Rabbi Debra Robbins said in an email. "We developed a creative liturgical ceremony for families and members of all ages to participate in together, and we have a special grave site labeled sifre kodesh," or holy books.
Zecher noted that Jews have been burying books for centuries to make room for new ones, and the practice will continue to grow as the religion continues to evolve. "It might seem wasteful," Zecher said, "but like everything we do, it's with intention."


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Author: adminViews: 495 | Comments: 0 | Date: 03 Mar 2014 13:29
Getting into the world of blogging can seem overwhelming because there are so many choices available. There is no, one sure fire way to do it that will guarantee success. The information in this article can help you design and launch a blog that accomplishes your goals and reaches your intended audience.
Make sure that you are accepting and submitting valuable comments. You want to have as many ways as possible for a back link to happen. When you do comment, add your URL so that you will have a link created to your blog. This will make it easy for others to find you.
Avoid writing blogs about subjects you have no interest in or know nothing about. It will reflect in your writing and you could possibly come across as uninformed in you are unsure of what you are writing about. This can turn readers off and they will avoid revisiting your site.
Create an email update list for your blog. On your site, offer a place for people to sign up for these updates and send them out every time you post a new blog. Those who are truly interested in following your blog will like the idea of being notified when new content is posted.
Keep your blogs as clear and concise as possible. Comprehensive coverage is no doubt important, but writing a 2000-word blog post is a good way to make sure that it is never read to the end. Readers don't care about lengthy descriptions, they want you to get to the point quickly so they can learn what they came to find out. They want you to get to the point.
Keep your individual post focused on one point. Blog with the full knowledge that you will be making many subsequent posts and if you tell everything in the beginning you may not have anything left to say later! Think of your blogs as being the spokes in a wheel. By themselves they are important but as a wheel they are incredibly important.
Make sure to post content regularly to keep your readers coming in. Successful blogs usually post new material every day. Don't let this requirement overwhelm you. If you want, you can write several weeks' worth of material before opening your blog to the public so that you'll have material to post if you get stuck. This helps to make posts for days that you have writer's block.
Whenever possible, utilize header tags in order to separate particular sections of your blog posts. All the different tags that you should use are H1, H2, and H3 tags. In addition, you should ensure that you are using excellent search engine keywords whenever you can in all these different headers.
It is true that beginning to blog can be overwhelming at first. There are just so many decisions and options. There are many ways to create a successful blog. The information and tips from the above article were designed to help you create a blog that achieves your goals and gets your message to the masses.
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FRESNO, Calif. – A burglary defendant who won his freedom because of a jury's mistake lost his life a few hours later when he was stabbed to death in a fight.
The jury in the trial of Bobby Lee Pearson, 37, mistakenly signed a not-guilty form Wednesday, and the flabbergasted judge said he had no choice but to order him to be released from jail because the verdict had already been put on the record.
It was too late when the judge finally learned that the jury was unable to reach a verdict, stalling on an 8-4 vote in favor of guilt. Prosecutors might have had an opportunity to retry Pearson, but by then, changing the verdict form would have exposed Pearson to double jeopardy.
After being released from jail, Pearson went to the home of his sister, Lasandra Jackson, to get some clothing and belongings. Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer said Pearson apparently got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend, 35-year-old Willie Gray.
The two had a history of problems, said Dyer, adding that investigators believe Gray killed Pearson, who was found dead in the street with a chest wound from a knife or gun and a cut on his stomach. Investigators found a steak knife near the body, Dyer said.
Gray was arrested and treated for injuries to his hands before being booked on suspicion of murder, said Dyer, adding that Pearson might still be alive if it weren't for the jury's "mishap." Pearson had a long criminal past, Dyer said.
William Terrence, who prosecuted the case, told The Associated Press that despite the bizarre chain of events that led to Pearson's release, the man he tried sending to prison didn't deserve to die that way.
"There's not a death penalty on a burglary," Terrence said. "I'm not sitting here thinking he got what he deserved."
Terrence said he is still trying to understand the jury's confusion. He said he explained the verdict forms in closing arguments, and so did the judge.
"Apparently, the message wasn't quite received," Terrence said.
In a deadlock, jurors should have sent a note to the judge.
Pearson and two co-defendants were accused of burglarizing an apartment last year and stealing a video system and a gun. The homeowner allegedly caught the intruders and wrestled with one of them.
Jurors returned a guilty verdict against Pearson's co-defendant, Terrel Minnieweather and the mistaken not-guilty verdict against Pearson before lunch Wednesday.
Terrence said Hamlin polled each juror individually to verify Minnieweather's guilty verdict. Turning to Pearson's case, the judge asked the jurors as a group if that was its not-guilty verdict in Pearson's case.
"No one stood up and said, 'Hey, wait a minute. That's not my verdict,'" Terrence said. "They nodded along."
Terrence said that it wasn't a mistake to poll the jury as a group. The evidence against Pearson wasn't as strong, and Terrence said he respected the jury's apparent not-guilty decision.
The jurors were then asked to return after lunch for a potential second phase of the trial. The confusion over the verdict came to light during lunch, when one juror told court staff that he had voted to find Pearson guilty.
Jurors said they were confused by the forms, one of which was for a guilty verdict and the other for a not guilty verdict. One juror said there was no form they could sign to indicate a deadlock.
"It is bizarre," said Eugene Hyman, who retired from the Santa Clara County Superior Court after serving for 20 years on the bench. "But I can't find fault with anyone."
Hyman, who had no involvement in Pearson's case, said during trials, he would ask each juror whether the verdict read by the clerk was indeed their verdict. He said there's nothing wrong with polling jurors en masse.
Hyman said the judge had no choice but to acquit Pearson if Hamlin ordered the not guilty verdict "recorded" immediately after the jurors nodded in agreement with the verdict.
Judges are required to poll jurors after every verdict is read in criminal cases, Hyman said.


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An ICE3 train is headed towards or away from the Hauptbahnhof in Köln (Cologne), Germany. The photo was posted by peters452002.
I am a railfan by any definition of the word. I cannot stop looking at pictures of trains. I look at Flickr every day and follow many contacts in Europe and Japan who post photos of trains. I've never attempted to describe why I think they're beautiful and I'm not going to start here. I've been fascinated by things on tracks for as long as I can remember.
I was very happy to choose DB for my trip from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to München, Germany. Here's a photo of the front of the train at Amsterdam Centraal Station.
Here are my other DB train photos.
N.b. I bring this up now because (1) I really love this photo that I spotted in my contacts feed, and (2) I explained what railfans and train foamers are to a friend after breakfast today.


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This week's edition of The Weekly League features:
1. Previews of the Green Bay-Minnesota, Oakland-Pittsburgh, Indianapolis-New England, and Denver-San Diego games.
2. Responses to three readers on matters sundry.
3. Tons of whimsy.
The Four Factors represent each team's raw performance in four important categories (pass and rush efficiency, pass and rush efficiency against) relative to league average (where 100 is league average and anything above is good).
Generic Win Probability (GWP) is the probability a team would beat the league-average team at a neutral site. It can be found for all teams here. Game Probability (PROB) is each respective team's chance of winning this particular contest. Those numbers (along with methodology) can be found here.
Finally, a glossary of all unfamiliar terms can be found here.
Notes to Three Readers
To the Reader Who Asked for Fewer NFC East Games
Your wish is my command. Or, at least, this wish is my command. Other wishes, probably not so much.
To the Reader Who Asked Why the Unlucky Teams on the GWP Table Are Green
I'm drawn towards -- and, I'm guessing, many readers here are drawn towards -- teams that are better than public perception might suggest. The green -- as opposed to the red -- reflects bad luck as a "virtue."
To the Reader Who Asked About My Impressive Jawline, Whether It's Natural
Yes. It is. Cento per cento.
Green Bay at Minnesota | Sunday, November 21 | 1:00pm ET
Four Factors
• This is what you might call "a clash of NFC North foes."
• So that's one thing.
• But another thing is: have you ever frigging seen Clay Matthews play?
• He's 24th among linebackers in +WPA and sixth in EPA/G.
• But he's more like first or second overall in the category of "being scary."
Oakland at Pittsburgh | Sunday, November 21 | 1:00pm ET
Four Factors
• This game became infinity-times more interesting on Wednesday when I traded for Rashard Mendenhall in a fantasy league.
• The full trade was Aaron Rodgers, Vernon Davis, and Pierre Thomas for Rashard Mendenhall, Zach Miller (Oakland), and Ryan Torain.
• I picked Troy Smith up, is why I felt comfortable giving away Rodgers.
• Feel free to comment upon this trade.
• I'll hang up and listen.
Indianapolis at New England | Sunday, November 21 | 4:15pm ET
Four Factors
• An unexpected thing is how the Colts have the 24th-ranked offense by GWP.
• It's even more surprising on account of they rank in the top half of the league in pass efficiency, offensive EPA -- all that junk.
• So I says to our host Brian Burke, I says: "What gives, compadre?"
• He says back to me, he says: "Their ORANK is really hurt because of their average opponent defensive strength. HOU x 2, JAC, WAS, DEN. 24th probably means they're at the bottom end of a pack of roughly equally average offenses."
• And he adds: "Please don't call me compadre."
Denver at San Diego | Monday, November 22 | 8:30pm ET
Four Factors
• You're never gonna guess who leads the NFL in pass efficiency.
• Actually, you probably will.
• It's San Diego.
• But you're never gonna guess who's second.
• Denver! At 7.2 yards per pass!
GWP Wins and Luck
Here's the table, through Week Ten and sans comment, of GWP wins and losses as compared to actual wins and losses.
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15 Responses to "The Weekly League: Notes and Ideas for Week Eleven"
- Anonymous says:
- Saturday, November 20, 2010
does this table mean san diego is the most unlucky and atlanta is the luckiest? or visa versa?
- Carson Cistulli says:
- Saturday, November 20, 2010
Unluckiest. They "should" have 7.2 wins.
- Anonymous says:
- Saturday, November 20, 2010
Somehow I think "unluckiest" means "has the worst special teams play".
- Brian Burke says:
- Saturday, November 20, 2010
Here unlucky means a lot of things, including has had poor special teams play in the past. For example, if a FG kicker is typically 85% from the 25, but misses a game-winner in OT, that team would be considered unlucky.
It also means a team has been unfortunate to have an easy schedule to date.
But it primarily means that because of how the chips of fallen, and in what order they've fallen, a team has not converted into wins their ability to move the ball and stop other teams from moving the ball. This can be caused by random bunching or clustering effects or by sample error effects in high-leverage situations. -
- Unknown says:
- Saturday, November 20, 2010
I remember a while back you made a post explaining how the Patriots, year after year, finished well above their expected win total, and that there was no way any team could have that level of sustained "luckiness" over such a long period of time. Thus you attributed New England's success to cheating, but in recent years (2007-2010) they have continued to out perform expectations based on your stats. Do you think there is something that contributes the the Pat's success that is not accounted for in your stats, is BB still somehow cheating and getting away with it, or are the Patriots just really lucky?
- Brian Burke says:
- Saturday, November 20, 2010
I think there is evidence that Belichick broke the rules repeatedly, at fair risk, and at considerable expense. He saw value in it, and continued the practice despite being warned by the league. I believe that he believed it gave him an advantage.
Usually, when there is a freakish outlier like that, there is a combination of factors all working in the same direction. My best guess is that the Pats were good, and were cheating, and were lucky, and were probably good at the things the model does not detect. -
- Chris says:
- Sunday, November 21, 2010
Have you looked at success rate over the years? If the Pats were consistently good at this in these same years, it may be necessary to back off just how much the cheating may or may not have helped them and focus more on just how much bb was making his team better by focusing on a stat that your model didn't incorporate.
- Anonymous says:
- Sunday, November 21, 2010
terrible trade
- Jonathan says:
- Sunday, November 21, 2010
"Here unlucky means a lot of things."
You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
- Anonymous says:
- Sunday, November 21, 2010
What do you think it means, Jonathan?
- Anonymous says:
- Sunday, November 21, 2010
To understand what's meant by teams being "unlucky" or "lucky" you first need to let go of the results-driven approach of assessing the quality of a football team. The quality of a team should be measured by the process rather than the end result - i.e., a team's stats (particularly those that are reproducible and correlate strongest with winning) is a better indicator of how good they are, rather than W-L record. One untimely interception, missed field goal, or something or other can skew a W-L record.
As Brian said, if a team is 85% to make a field goal and win the game, but misses and ends up losing, that's an extremely unfortunate event. While the game goes as a total loss in the W-L column, it really should be considered as something like .85 of a win (slightly more, considering they still could have won after missing the field goal). -
- Jonathan says:
- Monday, November 22, 2010
To me, "unlucky" is simply a word to describe anyone who doesn't know what wonderful movie I referenced.
- Brian Burke says:
- Monday, November 22, 2010
I'm stumped.
- James says:
- Monday, November 22, 2010
It's inconceivable anyone wouldn't recognize that reference, or my hint.
- Jim Glass says:
- Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Princess Bride?
As to what the word means, I prefer to think of football team performance that is not predictible from past performance simply as being "not repeatable" or "not predictible" rather than the result of chance, luck, randomness. Because it can result from foresight, skill, good coaching.
E.g., when the Giants showed up at the NFL championship game against the Bears with sneakers to switch into if the field was icy, then did and blew 'em out, that wasn't chance or randomness like a bouncing ball or play results not coming in a happy sequence. It was superior coaching in a big game. But it was not repeatable because you don't expect that situation to happen again, and if it does you'd expect the other side to have learned from the first time. (Though the Giants did that to the Bears in the NFL Championship twice, 1934 and 1956 -- some franchises learn more slowly than others.)
One could cite other examples of coaching innovations that turned games but weren't repeatably successful because later opponents with notice of them could adjust. OK, maybe I should apologize for being pedantic since 99% of what we're talking about really is random chance, but it doesn't seem that all of it is.


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After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, millions of families were stranded or displaced, food and water was scarce, and public safety became an issue of grave concern. The city was in a genuine humanitarian crisis, and many were calling for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
But following Hurricane Katrina, FEMA proved to be sluggish and unresponsive. The agency had trouble coordinating efforts between subordinate agencies, like the Red Cross and state departments, and delivering supplies to families that needed them.
President George W. Bush complimented the head of FEMA, his friend and appointee Michael D. Brown, but to the people in need of help in New Orleans as well as the press, Brown bungled the relief operation. In fact, the U.S. Congress held an investigation into the series of mishaps that made up FEMA's operations in New Orleans.
It was later revealed why Brown experienced hardship as the head of FEMA: Brown was the victim of a poor promotion. Put simply, he had risen to a job with responsibilities that he couldn't fulfill. Before his role as FEMA director, Brown served as the commissioner of judges for the International Arabian Horse Association. He excelled in that position, and as such, was promoted by President Bush into a role with greater responsibilities: that of FEMA director.
Brown was widely perceived to have failed in this position. To make matters worse, his incompetence was displayed as publicly as is possible, with the international media focusing their attention on his every misstep. Brown eventually requested to be removed from his position as FEMA director, with his famous question, "Can I quit now?" [source: CNN].
Brown was vilified by the media, but it's difficult not to commiserate with him. He was good at his previous job, and -- as is dictated by the American Dream -- when offered a position with more prestige, salary and potential for growth, he took it. The person who gave him the job had faith in his abilities, so why shouldn't he take the job? But Brown proves that a promotion isn't always a good thing.
While the stakes aren't usually as high, promotions like Brown's happen frequently in business and government bureaucracies. A person who excels at his position is often rewarded with a higher position, eventually one that exceeds the employee's field of expertise. This is called the Peter Principle, an observation put forth in the late 1960s by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, a psychologist and professor of education [source: Business Open Learning Archive].
"In a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence," or, as Dr. Peter went on to explain in simpler terms, "The cream rises until it sours." The Peter Principle has even found its way into Masters of Business Administration (MBA) curriculum.
So what does the principle imply about the structure of the companies that supply our livelihood and the governments that rule us? In this article, we'll learn about the Peter Principle and ways to combat it.


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Joanna Marple
In my 20's, with only my guitar and a rucksack, I wandered the continents, immersing myself in the lives of some wonderful people, projects and stories, which changed the way I view my responsibility to others and this earth. Right now I'm a European transplant in the US who writes books for children and young adults. Stories can help us not only navigate our world but can connect us to others, and allow us to inspire and help each other. I believe that equity and empathy should be at the core of our all actions, words, and stories. I am also a school librarian and I get a kick out of book-matchmaking! And I use the pronouns she/her.Easy Sign Up
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Illustrator Interview – Diandra Mae
I don't know about you, but when I have time, I spend my first half hour in the morning with a coffee and perusing social media, especially FB, and I confess, some illustrators' daily doodles I search out regularly for … Continue reading
Posted in Illustrators, Interview
Tagged Alice, and Luke Pearson, Crockett Johnson, David Small, Diandra Mae, Garth Williams, illustrator interviews, Isabelle Arsenault, James Marshall, Juana Martinez-Neal, Marla Frazee, Martin Provensen, Melissa Sweet., PD Eastman, Peter Brown, picture books, Renata Liwska, Richard Scarry, Sara Varon, Sergio Ruzzier, Sid Hoff, Viviane Schwarz, William Steig
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Shipping & Returns
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International Shipping: A standard shipping fee of INR 2500 is applied for all international orders.
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Cancellation Policy: Since all our products are customised, we will be unable to cancel the order.
For any queries regarding your order, please email firstname.lastname@example.com


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Accessibility Statement
Accessibility Statement
Berkshire is committed to accessibility, diversity and inclusion and it is our goal to provide all users with the means to successfully gather information and conduct business through our online platforms.
Berkshire strives to ensure that our websites are accessible and continually works to improve user experience. We welcome feedback on the accessibility of our websites and we encourage anyone who would like to discuss the manner in which we provide web based services, has questions about our accessibility standards, or has problems accessing any part of our website to contact our ADA support line by phone at 470-299-0952. You may also write to us at Berkshire Residential Investments, 1150 Sanctuary Parkway, Suite 150, Attn: Digital Marketing Department, Alpharetta, GA 30009. We will work with you to answer any questions and provide information in a way that is accessible to you.


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I'm writing this from seat 21D of Continental Airlines flight 251, as I fly home from South By Southwest 2011. For anyone who still follows this blog, you've probably done the math and realized that it's been more than a year since I last wrote in this space. This wasn't an intentional lapse, but perhaps more a lack of motivation to share what I was thinking, tinged by the instant gratification provided by posting to Twitter and Facebook. I've considered shutting my blog down entirely in favor of a Tumblr site or something similar, but I ultimately found the thought of removing 10 years of "random thoughts" from the web distasteful, and inaction would ultimately win out. Being that I generally return from SXSW somehow simultaneously renewed and exhausted, I'm hoping to resume regular longer-form posting here. (And yes, I know I've said that before.)
Ah, SXSW. I've given up trying to provide daily recaps of my exploits in Austin, in part because things move a lot faster in Austin than they did when I first attended in 2005, and in part because there's a lot about this year's conference that I'm still working to process. For starters, the interactive portion of SXSW has evolved from a poky little conference for bloggers and Internet types into a full-fledged extravaganza, nearly 20,000 strong. That isn't a typo – I've yet to find a confirmed report (and I expect the official number won't be published for a while yet), but buzz throughout the week places the total attendance between 18k and 20k. Either figure pushes IA well past the music festival, meaning that the geeks have taken over.
Or maybe not. While the conference still attracts a huge number of creatives, coders, and plucky end users & amateurs, 2011 may go down as the year the marketing started to drown out the message. You could test drive a Chevy, or chill out at the Pepsi Max lot, or…um, I dunno, eat Doritos and get high at the Sony Playstation house. I'm guessing, because I didn't bother with any of these things. (OK, I suppose I might have mooched a free caffeine fix off the Pepsi people. It's a long week.) For me, the conference is about content and camaraderie, and much of the marketing just throws off the signal:noise ratio.
(Pardon me while I have a strange interlude…
Normally when I fly, I try to sit in the window, mainly so that I don't have to worry about having to get up anytime someone needs to stroll around or go to the lavatory. In, out, and on my way. On this particular day, I'd opted to exchange my window seat for an exit row aisle seat that, while granting no extra legroom, ensures that one of my fellow travelers won't end up in my lap (row 20, the forward exit row, doesn't recline). What I didn't count on was the douchebag film attendee in the middle seat constantly leaning to the left, forcing me to lean half into the aisle just to get some personal space. Oh, and did I mention his nose picking, and the fact that he ate a bag of chips, licked each finger clean, then proceeded to touch everything in the setback pocket? Yeaaaaaah. You, sir, are the kind of person that makes me hate flying.
Back to our feature presentation…)
Let's return to that attendee total for a moment. 20,000. The interactive conference has experienced amazing growth over the last 7 years; when I first attended SXSW, I'd have been shocked if there were 2,000 attendees. The entire conference was contained within a single cul-de-sac of a hallway on the 4th floor of the Austin Convention Center. There were, at most, 4 panels running at a time – and if none of the panels appealed to you, there were always groups gathered in the hallway, charging their laptops and exchanging ideas. At night, there was AN official event, usually sponsored by a local Internet business. It wasn't impossible to meet, talk to, and collect business cards from the bulk of attendees.
Fast forward to this year: the interactive conference has expanded to encompass all but a handful of rooms at ACC, most of the meeting space at the Hilton across 4th Street, meeting spaces at the Courtyard by Marriott, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Radisson on 1st and Congress, the Sheraton on 11th & Red River, the AT&T Conference Center up by UT, and the Hyatt on the far side of Town Lake. (That doesn't even factor in the official "meet ups" at the Driscoll, or the unofficial panels being hosted by sponsors.) There were several official, and about half a dozen unofficial (but tacitly endorsed) parties, plus SXSW Comedy events. The sheer number of panels is overwhelming Getting from one panel to another ranges from being a minor hassle to something approaching the Bataan Death March – and the changes of getting locked out of a panel are higher than should have been acceptable. Lines for after-hours events stretch for blocks, and the local bars and restaurants which were once late-night refuges overflow with overdressed hipsters wearing familiar-looking badges. In short, things have changed.
[Scene change – it's now late night Wednesday, and I'm at home, unpacking and doing laundry.]
So in rereading what I wrote while on the plane earlier, I think I may have been focusing a bit too heavily on the negatives…in part because of the constant discomfort I was in for the whole plane ride. After I stopped writing, Film Douchebag asked for some help getting his MacBook Pro to boot. The solution, as it happened, was to make sure the computer actually had power. So maybe he wasn't a douchebag after all, just an idiot. That doesn't forgive the nose picking, but…let me try closing this post in a more positive light.
Anyway, changes – they were many and numerous. Thankfully, some things stay the same. Through SXSW, I've had the good fortune to develop an amazing group of new friends, and that group grows larger with each passing year*. I got to connect with people I've only known through photos and Twitter streams. The important traditions of 'old skool' SXSW Interactive remain – Fray Cafe, 20×2 and Smokler's closing dinner to name a few. And through the marketing, and the endless walks to too-small panel rooms, and the innumerable parties, hopefully somewhere in there the spirit of 'old skool' SXSW remains alive too – people exchanging ideas and forming lasting, meaningful relationships. Everything else is window-dressing.
*Many members of that core group were absent this year for various reasons, and they were sorely missed…


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Tracking Endangered Jaguars across the Border: The work of Sergio Avila
by Christine Hoekenga
Did you know that until hunters spotted two jaguars in 1996, these big cats were thought to be extinct in the United States? Jaguars roamed freely in the southwestern US until they vanished from the area due to habitat destruction, hunting, and other human activities. However, thanks to conservation efforts by Sergio Avila and others, jaguars have returned to the region and are now studied and protected.
Scientists are diverse in many ways, and their personal experiences – including cultures, backgrounds, and chance – influence the paths they follow.
Scientists may work for and receive funding from many types of organizations, including nonprofits, private foundations, and government sources.
Organisms and ecosystems do not abide by human-constructed political boundaries, and scientists can advance their research by working across borders, developing language skills, and building partnerships to understand local needs.
Science is valuable to individuals and to society. Reliable data and biological knowledge about organisms are critical when deciding how to manage a species or ecosystem in decline.
Data collected through scientific research must be analyzed and interpreted to be used as evidence. Visual representations of data are valuable for both data analysis and interpretation.
- border
- the edge, outermost limit, or division line between areas, as between two countries.
- conservation
- efforts to protect and preserve the natural environment and plant and animal species.
- habitat
- the natural environment or place where a type of plant or animal normally lives.
"Jaguars don't recognize political boundaries," says wildlife biologist Sergio Avila (Figure 1), the Northern Mexico Conservation Program Manager for the nonprofit group Sky Island Alliance in Tucson, Arizona. Avila ought to know. For nearly 15 years, he has studied the wildlife of southern Arizona and northwest Mexico, including the elusive and endangered jaguar.
But rather than seeing his work as straddling the border between two countries, Avila sees it as connecting a single bioregion. "In ecological terms, it's the same place. It really doesn't matter if it's Mexico or the United States. The trees are the same, the rain is the same, the deer are the same," he explains.
Making connections that defy traditional boundaries, in the natural world and among people, has been a constant theme in Avila's career. While tracking a stealthy cat through the wilderness may seem like solitary work, Avila has learned that drawing in all kinds of people and forming partnerships is key to successful research and conservation.
Where the jaguars roam
Sleek, muscular, and weighing in between 40 and 135 kilograms, jaguars are powerful, majestic cats (Figure 2). Known to scientists as Panthera onca, they are the largest feline species native to the western hemisphere, and the only one capable of truly roaring like a lion or tiger.
Today, it may be difficult for you to imagine these big cats roaming the southwestern US. Their golden-colored coats dappled with black rings and spots may seem like they belong in the tropical jungles of South America. But in the mid-1800s, the jaguar's range extended from Argentina and Southern Brazil all the way to present day Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Historical records of kills by hunters and wildlife managers from the first half of the 20th century show that jaguars even wandered as far north as the Grand Canyon.
Over the decades though, their numbers dwindled, mostly due to destruction of habitat, hunting, poaching, and removal by government officials and ranchers trying to protect cattle operations. The northern jaguars (those in the southern US and northern Mexico) were hit hard by these human activities, and sightings became less and less common. By 1990, the Arizona Game and Fish Department considered jaguars to be completely extinct in the US.
Then in 1996, something happened that would radically change both the status of jaguars in the US and the course of Sergio Avila's career.
Two hunters, Jack Childs and Warner Glenn, photographed two different male jaguars in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. The sightings, nearly six months apart and in two separate mountain ranges, proved that jaguars still roamed – at least occasionally – in the US. While most scientists believe that both cats crossed the border from a breeding population about 225 kilometers south in Sonora, Mexico, the photographs stirred new interest in studying and protecting jaguars within the US. The following year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service added jaguars to the Endangered Species List. (They are also protected by similar legislation in Mexico.)
That same year, Sergio Avila graduated from the University of Aguascalientes in Mexico with an undergraduate degree in biology. He had not heard about the hunters' sightings north of the border and had no idea that they would eventually have a major impact on his life and career.
Comprehension Checkpoint
Finding his niche
Avila had always been fascinated by wildlife, especially apex predators. As a child, he dreamed that he had a pet African lion in his backyard and would pore over encyclopedia articles about animals.
"My parents are both physicians, and I grew up surrounded by science books and scientific language," he says. "In those early years, I started learning English, too. Even though my parents weren't fluent in English, they could read in English and write in English. So it was a good way to understand why learning another language was going to help in the future."
Growing up and going to college in central Mexico, Avila often found that his perspective and interests differed from those around him. "I was not typical in so many ways – traditionally, culturally, the way I was raised, and other things – so I didn't feel I was fitting in really well down in Mexico," he recalls. Among other things, most people he met did not see wildlife conservation as essential or urgent. To them, conservation was perhaps a nice leisure activity. But for Avila it was a passion that would become his life's work. (For more about how science benefits from the creativity, curiosity, and personal experience of scientists, see our module about Scientists and the Scientific Community.)
After earning a bachelor's degree in biology and trying a couple of different jobs, Avila went to graduate school to study Arid Lands Management in northern Mexico. He continued to focus on wildlife, and for his master's thesis he was involved in a study investigating why mountain lions were killing cattle in Baja California. But Avila was more interested in the opposite question: What were the mountain lions losing because of cattle? How was grazing affecting their habitat and prey?
"I don't pretend to think like a cat, but I try to look at it from their perspective," he explains. "What are they gaining or losing because of what we are doing? How does this benefit them or harm them?" This approach ultimately led Avila to his first job tracking big cats. In 2003, his advisor from graduate school hired him to conduct research on mountain lions and jaguars for what would eventually become the Northern Jaguar Project.
For four months, Avila worked in an isolated mountain range in Sonora gathering data on where the cats lived, how far they roamed, and what they ate. He spent his days hiking and looking for evidence of the cats, such as tracks in the soil, remains of prey, hair, or droppings (called "scat"). He combined these low-tech observation techniques with two pieces of technology that would be important to his work later on: radio tracking collars and camera traps.
Telemetry tracking devices, which use radio transmitters, are beneficial in wildlife studies that require detailed information about where an animal spends its time (Figure 3). But putting a radio collar on a jaguar can be difficult and dangerous – for the researcher and the cat. On the other hand, small, self-contained camera "traps" (Figure 4), which take pictures when triggered by a passing animal, offer snapshots of the animal's behavior and movements. This technique is less disruptive for the animal and may capture other clues about its health and behavior, but piecing the pictures together into a larger pattern can be challenging.
After that research concluded, the University of Arizona hired Avila for a summer position studying pygmy owls in Sonora. The project needed a biologist who spoke Spanish, knew the region, and was familiar with telemetry techniques. While the research itself was in Mexico, Avila was based in Tucson, Arizona. That was his first taste of living in the US. At first he wasn't sure he would stay. "When I came here, I didn't know if I liked it," he says. "I remember telling people, 'I'll be here for three years. I'm going to work and make some money, and then I'll go back.'"
But the following winter, Avila took a job with Sky Island Alliance, a nonprofit group that works to protect and restore the species and habitats of the southwest sky island region. Much of Avila's work focuses on the Madrean Archipelago, a collection of forested mountaintop "islands" separated by large "seas" of a different biome (such as desert or grassland). The archipelago extends into the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, and Chihuahua. It is an area rich in biodiversity and home to some rare species, including jaguars (Figure 5).
Avila quickly realized that he was home. "Coming here, it took very little time to realize that I wasn't crazy – that there were a lot of conservation-minded people like me. I just didn't know they existed," he says. "That was cool! That was like finding my niche."
Comprehension Checkpoint
A wildlife biologist at work
In addition to finding people who share his passion for wildlife and wild places, Avila enjoys the constant variety of his job. He still spends time in the field studying jaguars and other wildlife, but every day is different. His projects keep him in touch with a wide variety of people: scientists in academia, government agencies, the media, volunteers, and the general public. And with only about a dozen people on staff, everyone pitches in, taking turns stopping by the post office or taking the research truck to the mechanic.
Being bilingual has continued to be helpful in Avila's work. While several people on the Sky Island Alliance staff speak Spanish, he is the only native speaker. When he started in 2005, the organization was only working north of the border. Avila extended the work to Mexico, using his language skills to form new partnerships.
Ranchers and other private landowners are one group that Avila has worked hard to build relationships with. In the US, he often conducts research on public lands managed by federal agencies like the Forest Service. But in Mexico, much of the prime habitat for big cats and other wildlife is on private land.
Currently, Avila works with about a dozen landowners who allow him to set camera traps and bring teams of volunteer researchers onto their land. The trust needed to form these partnerships must be built over time, and he says there is "no recipe" that works for everyone. "Little by little, I've been learning that not everybody trusts people in the same way. Not everybody sees biological research the same way," he explains.
Maintaining good relationships means going back to the landowners and sharing the research results. "We need to make sure that people understand that their little piece of land is part of a larger landscape – that their home or ranch is important because of the water quality, or the forest they have, or the species that live there," Avila says.
Helping a cryptic cat
Back in 1996, when two jaguars were photographed in the US for the first time in a decade, scientists and wildlife managers had a lot of questions to answer. Where did the cats come from? How many are there? How far did they travel? What paths, or corridors, did they use to get here? Are they staying or just passing through?
Helping a species in trouble is rarely simple, but jaguars are a particularly tough case. Like other large, elusive carnivores, it is difficult to observe them in their natural habitat. And compared to many other animals, scientists know little about their food and habitat needs, especially in the northern part of their range near the border.
But researchers have been creative in piecing together evidence from many sources. In 2000, wildlife biologists David E. Brown and Carlos López-González (Avila's advisor from graduate school) published a paper mapping jaguar sightings in Arizona and New Mexico between 1900 and 1999 (Brown & López-González, 2000). By pulling together hunters' photographs, historical newspaper articles, records from wildlife agencies, specimens in museum collections, and other published accounts, the researchers created a snapshot (Figure 6) of where – and when – the cats had been spotted in the US. (For more about how visualizations, such as maps, can highlight patterns in a dataset, see our module Data: Using Graphs and Visual Data.)
Brown and López-González's analysis included 62 reported sightings. A later study by Arizona Game and Fish officials (Hatten, Averill-Murray & Van Pelt, 2005) offered a model of potential jaguar habitat building on an even smaller dataset of 25 sightings that they deemed most reliable (those that were corroborated or reported by an expert and that had specific information about location). For conservation purposes, scientists and wildlife managers need to extrapolate a bigger picture of potential jaguar habitat from a collection of isolated sightings, but interpreting the very limited data in a meaningful way is challenging. (For more about how scientists move from raw data to evidence that supports a scientific hypothesis, see our module Data: Analysis and Interpretation.)
To help fill in the gaps, Hatten et al. and many other researchers have used geographic information systems (GIS) to combine sighting data with other types of information, such as vegetation cover, altitude, and locations of water sources. This allows them to create computer models that predict which areas are likely to be good jaguar habitats and which corridors the cats are likely to use when traveling from one area to another.
Scientists can refine these predictions based on what they know about other large cat species and observations in tropical areas where jaguars are more common. For example, researchers know that adult male jaguars can travel long distances (as far as 800 kilometers) while searching for territory not occupied by other males. Females and their cubs are more closely tied to specific food and shelter needs, so they tend to have a smaller home range. Thus, a sighting of a male jaguar has different implications for a habitat model than a sighting of a female does. López-González and a collaborator from the US Geological Survey, Erin Boydston, combined that knowledge with sighting records to map the potential distribution of jaguars in the border region (Boydston & López-González, 2005).
By overlaying roads and other human activities that threaten the cats, scientists have also used GIS to suggest high priority areas for conservation efforts. In one example, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Bordercats Working Group convened a workshop for land managers, conservationists, and scientists to share their collective knowledge about jaguars and two other cat species in the border region. In 2009, they published a paper (Grigione et al.) that offered a blueprint of priority conservation areas – places where the cats were known or predicted to occur that were also threatened by human activities (Figure 7).
Comprehension Checkpoint
The truth on the ground
GIS models can be incredibly helpful in conservation biology, especially when data are limited. But like all tools of science, they must be tested and calibrated. When he began working at Sky Island Alliance, Sergio Avila decided to test some of the predictions made by the GIS habitat models for jaguars and other big cats. Armed with camera traps and a keen tracker's sense, he began ground truthing. "I used their maps and models to go to places where they predicted we would find jaguars or ocelots, and I studied those places," he explains.
In seven years, Avila estimates that he has set between 30 and 40 camera traps, which have captured nearly a dozen photos of jaguars, plus thousands of photos of other wildlife. Each photo is a data point helping to map where jaguars and other wildlife are found.
Gathering that data is a slow process. On a typical field trip, Avila and a group of volunteers will hike the creeks and contours of a property for three or four days and check a dozen remote cameras. They make sure each camera is in working order, replace memory cards and batteries, and continue on hoping that the pictures they have collected will reveal something interesting.
Working with volunteers and students, or citizen scientists, is an important part of the research. Avila trains them to identify tracks and other signs of wildlife like scat and "kill sites" with leftover prey. The training is serious, usually lasting about five days, and volunteers are carefully instructed in a protocol to follow for collecting the observational data. This helps ensure that the information that volunteers collect is reliable.
"You don't just find things or see things and say that's it," says Avila. "You have to have some training to know what you are seeing. You have to have evidence, likely a photograph or a track, that other people can verify." (To read more about the difference between casual observation and scientific data collection, see our module Research Methods: Description.)
Putting the data to work
When he returns from the field, Avila begins analyzing the data he has gathered. He records any details he can mine from each of the camera trap photos and videos. Which species were photographed? How many? Is an individual male or female? Does it appear to be a previously photographed individual? Does it appear healthy? If the cameras caught a jaguar on film, Avila informs the Jaguar Recovery Team.
The Recovery Team is a bi-national group of experts and stakeholders assembled to help the US Fish and Wildlife Service put together a recovery plan for northern jaguars. Among other things, the agency will use the information and recommendations that the Team assembles to help designate and protect the species' critical habitat in the US. Given that knowledge of jaguars north of the border is still limited, making that designation will not be easy or quick. "They need more information about where the jaguars are in order to define their habitat," Avila says.
To help gather that information, the Fish and Wildlife Service has granted the University of Arizona's Wild Cat Conservation and Research Center funding to study where the cats are found in the Southwestern US, how many there are, and how they are connected to populations in Mexico. (To read more about how scientific research is funded, see our module on Scientific Institutions and Societies.)
In the meantime, Avila and his colleagues at Sky Island Alliance are working to make all their wildlife data available for research, education, and conservation. Photographs and other evidence of sightings from their work, the scientific literature, and public and private collections are being compiled in an online database called the Madrean Archipelago Biodiversity Assessment (MABA) Project.
In Mexico, state agencies have used the data to help understand where certain plant and animal species are found and the impacts humans have had on riparian areas. Students have also begun accessing the data, and Avila plans to offer training to help them navigate and use the MABA database effectively.
Of all of his work, Avila is probably proudest of his role in an event that occurred in the spring of 2011. Working with the landowner, Avila had documented jaguars and ocelots on a large ranch about 50 kilometers south of the border. The landowner, Carlos Robles, took these findings to the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (similar to the US National Park Service). Proof of the large cats' presence – combined with research from other groups showing a variety of migratory birds, endangered species of plants and animals, and permanent flowing water – led to the creation of the Rancho El Aribabi Natural Protected Area.
Under this designation, the Robles family retains ownership of the ranch and commits to managing the land in ways that maintain its healthy condition and rich biodiversity. The preserve now attracts visitors from both sides of the border for eco-tours and activities like hiking, camping, and bird watching. Volunteers are helping restore areas damaged by cattle grazing, and the ranch has hosted scores of students and other community members from Mexico, Spain, France, and the US for educational events and workshops.
At its core, the preserve protects 10,000 acres of land and the wildlife that lives there, but Avila believes its legacy will be much larger than that. In his vision, Rancho El Aribabi is a model for community-based conservation and the first in a network of conservation ranches in northern Mexico that will act as stepping stones for jaguars and other wildlife to move across the land. "It's really cool and extremely important. I think it's the biggest thing that I have been part of in my career," he says.
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11 in the Roads
Eleven in the Roads is within the green surroundings of the charming neighborhood of The Roads – planned By Mary Brickell in 1922 as a pedestrian- friendly residential neighborhood with wide streets, median parkways and roundabouts with Miami native plants. The project is nestled in a residential environment for family living and a stroll away from vibrant Brickell and its upscale amenities.
Eleven in the Roads is a boutique collection of 2, 3 & 4 bedroom modern residences, overlooking the tree-tops, just steps from vibrant Brickell, Eleven in The Roads is Miami's best-kept secret that introduces the next generation of low-rise boutique urban living.
11 in the Roads Facts
Price From$499,000 - $749,900
Address551 SW 11th St, Miami, Florida, USA
DeveloperRoads 11, LLC.
ArchitectKobi Karp
Interior DesignN/A
Number of Units24 units
Numbers of Floors3 stories
Size RangeFrom 1,373ft² -
HOA$0.49 per Sq.Ft.
Completion Year
Deposit Schedule
- 30% at Contract
- 20% 30 Days after contract
- 50% at Closing
11 in the Roads Picture Gallery
Legal Disclaimer
All promotional content displayed on this page, including renderings, floor plans, brochures, videos, and similar materials, are sourced from the developer to facilitate the marketing of the relevant project. PANDA IDX, LLC does not assert ownership or creation of these materials.
11 in the Roads Amenities
Highlighted Condo Features
- Light filled residences with open floor plans
- All corner units
- Smooth-finished ceilings up to 10' feet high
- Up to 9' feet oversized double-pane high-impact tinted windows and sliding doors
- Private gardens, decks, rooftop terraces and spacious Balconies with glass railings
- Superior wall sound insulation
- Energy efficient air-conditioning system
- Energy efficient appliances and finishes
- Front-loading stacked washer/dryer
- Private covered parking space assigned per residence
- Contemporary imported Italian kitchen cabinetry with exclusive custom design by Italkraft
- Cabinet lighting feature
- Elegant Compac Quartz countertops
- Stainless Steel Bosch appliances and built-in paneled Bosch dishwasher
- Wine cooler
- Grohe Kitchen faucet


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Thursday, November 30, 2006
This or That?
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Of Zebras & Empires
- David 200
- Mark 200
- Jim 190
- David 209 (2 markers)
- Jim 207 (4 markers)
- Mark 200 (zero markers - my tie at the end of Epoch 7 kept David & I both from getting a marker)
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Crackpipe Remote OR Yes, As A Matter of Fact, I Do Watch Too Much Network Television
t-shirt graphic is from glarkware
This show used to be cutting-edge political and social satire, but it's gotten lobotomized by a... broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience. We were about to do a sketch you've seen already about five hundred times. Yeah, no one is going to confuse George Bush with George Plimpton. We get it. We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry! It's just thrown in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn't include the courting of twelve-year-old boys. Not even the smart twelve-year-olds - the stupid ones! The idiots - of which there are plenty, thanks in no small measure to this network! So why don't you just change the channel? Turn off the TV. Do it right now. Go ahead.
There's always been a struggle between art and commerce. But I'm telling you, right now art is getting its [butt] kicked, and it's making us mean... It's making us cheap punks and that's not who we are! People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump? We're eating worms for money. Who wants to screw my sister? Guys are getting killed in a war that's got theme music and a logo? That remote in your hands is a crack pipe.
Wes Mendel, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
The Amazing RaceThankfully, The Amazing Race is once again amazing, as they've changed the non-elimination rules (now you get to keep your stuff/$ but you will take a 30 minute time penalty if you don't finish 1st on the next leg), made the clues back into clues rather than Mapquest directions, and found some interesting challenges again. It doesn't hurt that most of the contestants are reasonably likeable - with the notable exception of Peter.
If you gave up on The Amazing Race due to the debacle that was the Family season and/or the goofball fest that was last season, it's OK to come back now. MONDAY NIGHT My prime viewing night... and also my gaming night. Thank goodness for my trusty VCR. (Yes, I realize that "hip" people would be using Tivo, but that would require our little town to be wired for cable - which it isn't.) Prison Break- spiritual relevance: very low
- quality level: pretty darn good (if you can ignore plot holes big enough to drive a prison bus through)
- warnings: some language, drug use, and heaps o'violence
- network: Fox (8 pm Pacific)
The second season of this soap opera crossed with every prison movie you've ever seen (and an added pinch of X-File-ish government conspiracy for flavoring) is actually bopping along at a reasonable pace. They've managed to kill off 4 major characters in the first 6-7 episodes, which means they must be getting notes from the same folks who are behind the last season of 24.
It's not great TV, but I find the story interesting & unpredictable. It's also interesting how they are beginning to deal with Michael's guilt at the fallout from his plan. (This is one of my favorite things about good TV shows - they actually allow character's actions to resonate throughout their lives. For a great example of this, check out Boomtown on DVD... sigh, just one season.)Heroes
- spiritual relevance: it's got potential
- quality level: sweet (which is better than "pretty darn good")
- warnings: occasionally violent and/or gruesome, generally kind of dark (except Hiro)
- network: NBC (9 pm Pacific)
It's the X-Men meet the X-Files... which would only be mildly enjoyable - except that the guys plotting this thing are doing some creative stuff with that "high-concept" pitch. And they didn't hurt themselves with the character of Hiro, who is a complete delight. (Note: say "thank you" to Lost for making it cool to subtitle all of a character's dialogue.)
This one's doing well enough that is has a full season order already (that means the network is buying the whole season.) Don't miss out on the online graphic stories each week, too - on NBC's website. They add bits to the story that aren't in the episodes. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip- spiritual relevance: extremely high (Harriet is the best written Christian character on television)
- quality level: top notch
- warnings: language, adult things discussed, lots of humor that will anger rabid right-wingers
- network: NBC (10 pm Pacific)
Shari & I were huge fans of Aaron Sorkin's "Sports Night"... and this feels like Sports Night, only twice as long & with lots more cash. It's a "dramedy", much like The West Wing was in it's best moments, all with the trademark Aaron Sorkin whiplash dialogue.
If you bailed out on the show after the second episode (the weakest so far), it's time to come back. The show has finally found a groove that is sweet & enjoyable & promises interesting things to come. And if you were worried about getting your heart broken when it got cancelled, don't. It now has a full-season order. (Yeah!)Again, I want to make sure everyone is clear that my love for the show, the storylines & the characters does not necessarily extend to the political/cultural views expressed therein. What I do like, however, is that the debate doesn't feel one-sided... and not all of the "kicker" lines in the discussions are given to the folks on the Left.
TUESDAY NIGHT Standoff- spiritual relevance: none
- quality level: decent (the acting is great, but it's standard So Cal cop show locations & direction)
- warnings: language, some light violence, sexual situations
- network: Fox (8 pm Pacific... for now - there's some talk of it moving again)
Shari compares this to the early episodes of Alias, which took a potentially serious thriller story & made it light & fluffy. What Alias did for spies, Standoff does for hostage negotiation. It works, mainly because of the likeability & chemistry of the two lead characters.
Over the last few weeks, it seems to be establishing a pretty comfortable vibe - a cop show with a dash of humor & romance. It's not gonna set the world on fire, but Shari likes it and I like watching it with her. Veronica Mars- spiritual relevance: on occasion
- quality level: pretty good (the writing & acting are great, but the set/location quality is just so-so)
- language: language, alcohol & drug use, occasional violence, sexual situations
- network: CW (9 pm Pacific)
I really like the oddball combination of noir, Buffy sans the supernatural & bits of The O.C. that makes up Veronica Mars... and after a rough start (the first three episodes were pretty weak), the show looks like it is back to the high standards of the first two seasons.
I'm hoping this season maybe cuts back on the "let's show teens having sex" thing... I understand it as a story element but that doesn't mean I want to watch. WEDNESDAY NIGHTLost
- spiritual relevance: high (predestination, freewill, where does evil come from, how do you forgive?, etc...)
- quality level: astounding
- warnings: violence, sexual situations, language
- network: ABC (9 pm Pacific)
I watched the first season of this religiously... but the 2nd season started slow & when I missed taping a couple of episodes (about the time Ana Lucia shot Shannon), I gave up. Thanks to the magic of DVD & Netflix, I picked up where I left off - only to realize that I'd ditched the show just as it got REALLY good. Sigh.
So, I've been staying up with the third season... which is driving me crazy! Where are Sun & Jin? More Hurley, please! Who are the new pair that went to Pearl Station with Mr Eko, Desmond & John?
The Nine
- spiritual relevance: potentially high (forgiveness, revenge, consequences of our actions, etc...)
- quality level: pretty good
- warnings: violence, sexual situations, language
- network: ABC (10 pm Pacific)
The Nine is a pretty serious Lost-ish take on a bank robbery & the fallout in the lives of the hostages & hostage-takers. While the acting is very good & the ideas are interesting, they're going to have a problem on their hands if they don't pick up the pace of the story a bit.
- spiritual relevance: mixed (while there are some interesting questions about trust & honor, they're all pretty much undercut by the game-ish nature of the show)
- quality level: excellent
- warnings: language, pixellated body parts
- network: CBS (8 pm Pacific)
While the whole "racially divided tribes" thing got most of the early press, this has actually been a very interesting season of Survivor. There's been some intriguing people on the show, some good plans gone awry, and new elements (the jury starts at 12... and before "the merge"?!) that are making things harder to predict (and therefore more fun).
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
For more on Reggie McNeal, check out Missional Community


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A toy size Shar-Pei will be about 13" and weigh about 25 lbs. (A shar-pei is a very muscular, stocky little dog and will weigh more than you think.) Very few exist. You must be careful not to get one that is small because it is sick.
Every once in a great while I will have a toy size. I will not sell one represented as a toy until they are between 4 and 5 months old.
Ready for your Baggins Puppy? Call Linda at 817-829-2454