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You feel like your life is not what it could be. You're missing out.
Each day passes and you have nothing to prove that it even happened. Did you achieve something? Go on a date? Have an emotional breakthrough? Who knows?
What you do know is that you don't want to make the same mistakes that you've made in the past.
Our lives are full of hidden gems of knowledge and insight, and the most recent events in our lives contain the most useful gems of all. Why? Those hidden lessons are the most up-to-date, meaning they have the largest impact on what we're doing right now.
But the question is, how do you get those lessons? There's a simple way to do it, and it doesn't involve time machines:
Journal writing.
This simple practice improve mental clarity, offer the ability to see the big picture of our lives, and serve as a catalogue of every success we've ever had.
Journal writing is a useful and flexible tool[1] to help shed light on achieving your goals.
Here are 5 smart reasons why you should start a journal today.
1. Journals Help You Connect to Your Values, Emotions, and Goals
By journaling about what you believe in, why you believe it, how you feel, and what your goals are, you understand your relationships with these things better. This is because you must sort through the mental clutter and provide details on why you do what you do and feel what you feel.
Consider this:
Perhaps you've spent the last year or so working at a job you don't like. It would be easy to just suck it up and keep working with your head down, going on as if it's supposed to be normal to not like your job. Nobody else is complaining, so why should you, right?
But a little journal writing will set things straight for you. You don't like your job. You feel like it's robbing you of happiness and satisfaction, and you don't see yourself better there in the future.
The other workers? Maybe they don't know, maybe they don't care. But you do. You know and care enough to do something about it. And you're capable of fixing this problem because your journal writing allows you to finally be honest with yourself and get to the root of the problem.
2. Journals Improve Mental Clarity and Focus
If there's one thing journal writing is good for, it's clearing the mental clutter.
How does it work? Whenever you have a problem and write about it in a journal, you transfer the problem from your head to the paper. This empties the mind, allowing allocation of precious resources to problem-solving rather than problem-storing.
Let's say you've been juggling several tasks at work. You've got data entry, testing, e-mails, problems with the boss, and so on—enough to overwhelm you—but as you start journal writing, things become clearer and easier to understand: Data entry can actually wait till Thursday; Bill kindly offered earlier to do my testing; for e-mails, I can check them now; the boss is just upset because Becky called in sick, etc.
You become better able to focus and reason your tasks out, and this is an indispensable and useful skill to have.
3. Journals Improve Insight and Understanding
As a positive consequence of improving your mental clarity, you become more open to insights you may have missed before. As you write your notes out, you're essentially having a dialogue with yourself.
This draws out insights that you would have missed otherwise; it's almost as if two people are working together to better understand each other. This kind of insight is only available to the person who has taken the time to connect with and understand themselves in the form of writing.
Once you've gotten a few entries written down, new insights can be gleaned from reading over them. What themes do you see in your life? Do you keep switching goals halfway through? Are you constantly dating the same type of people who aren't good for you? Have you slowly but surely pushed people out of your life for fear of being hurt?
All of these questions can be answered through self-reflection, but you can only discover the answers if you've captured them in writing[2]. These questions are going to be tough to answer without a journal of your actions and experiences.
4. Journals Track Your Overall Development
Life happens, and it can happen fast. Sometimes we don't take the time to stop and look around at what's happening to us at each moment. We don't get to see the step-by-step progress that we're making in our own lives. So what happens? One day it's the future, and you have no idea how you got there.
Journal writing allows you to see how you've changed over time, so you can see where you did things right, and where you took a misstep and fell.
The great thing about journals is that you'll know what that misstep was, and you can make sure it doesn't happen again—all because you made sure to log it, allowing yourself to learn from your mistakes.
5. Journals Facilitate Personal Growth
The best thing about journal writing is that no matter what you end up writing about, it's hard to not grow from it. You can't just look at a past entry in which you acted shamefully and say "That was dumb, anyway!" No, we say "I will never make a dumb choice like that again!"
It's impossible not to grow when it comes to journal writing. That's what makes journal writing such a powerful tool, whether it's about achieving goals, becoming a better person, or just general personal-development. No matter what you use it for, you'll eventually see yourself growing as a person.
The Bottom Line
How can journaling best be of use to you? To vent your emotions? To help achieve your goals? To help clear your mind? What do you think makes journaling such a useful life skill?
Know the answer? Then it's about time you reap the benefits of journal writing and start putting pen to paper.
More Tips on Journal Writing
- 15 Inspiring Journal Ideas to Set You up for Success
- How to Bullet Journal to Skyrocket Your Productivity
- Writing Journal for a Better and More Productive Self (The How-To Guide)
Featured photo credit: Jealous Weekends via unsplash.com
[1] | ^ | New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education: Uses and Benefits of Journal Writing |
[2] | ^ | David Boud: Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice |


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Huge Settlement Unearthed Near Stonehenge World Heritage Site
Archaeologists at the University of Sheffield have unearthed a huge settlement at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge, confirming that the Stonehenge monument was part of a larger ritual centre.
The excavations reveal an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds of people. Archaeologists believe the houses were constructed and occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge, the legendary monument on Salisbury Plain.
The houses have been radiocarbon dated to 2600-2500 B.C., the same period Stonehenge was built - one of the facts that leads the archaeologists to conclude that the people who lived in the Durrington Walls houses were responsible for constructing Stonehenge. The houses form the largest Neolithic or new stone age village ever found in Britain.
Eight of the houses' remains were excavated, and six of the floors were found well-preserved. Each house once measured about 5 metres square and had a clay floor and central hearth. The team found 4,600-year-old debris strewn across floors, postholes and slots, which once anchored wooden furniture that had disintegrated long ago.
The rest of the houses are clustered on both sides of an imposing stone-surfaced avenue some 30 metres wide and 170 metres long. The avenue connects remains of a colossal timber circle with the River Avon. Existence of the avenue, which mirrors one at nearby Stonehenge, indicates people once moved between the two monuments via the river. Discovery of the avenue has helped the team piece together the purpose of the entire Stonehenge complex.
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986.

subset: commoncrawl


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Blogger Contest
The Localista Blogger Contest
Contestants should want to write part-time for The Localista Magazine - at least two to three posts per week. If this already sounds like too much, don't apply. Only residents are eligible, and no prior experience is necessary but personal style is a must.
Advice: Create something unique -- This is after all!
Your Round 1 entries must include a short bio (name, age, background, character-defining qualities, embarrassing tidbits) and a 300 to 600 word sample of your best -related work and a relevent don't forget a high-res picture!. The Localista team will judge your submission based upon how interesting, funny, informative, creative it is and we'll factor public opinion into our final decision.
Keep in mind that you're writing for a very large audience, and we'll be selecting finalists based on the quality of entries - no pressure.
Entries are due by August 15 at 8 p.m.
Good luck!.


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WASHINGTON, September 6, 2012 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA's SuperTracker diet planning and tracking tool has reached one million registered users. SuperTracker is a resource to help individuals make healthy lifestyle choices to improve their dietary pattern, maintain a healthy weight, track their level of physical activity, and reduce their risk of chronic disease.
"SuperTracker allows Americans to build a healthier diet based on individual needs and personal preferences," said Vilsack. "Overcoming the health and nutrition challenges we face as a nation is critical. I am thrilled that so many people, particularly young people, are taking advantage of this resource to improve their overall health and well-being."
Built and maintained by USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), SuperTracker is free to use and available at ChooseMyPlate.gov. CNPP continues to update SuperTracker's features based on user feedback, including:
- Updated food and physical activity databases that allow users to track foods and activities as accurately as possible;
- Additional capabilities planned for release in 2013.
The SuperTracker's million-user milestone comes as USDA highlights the fourth in a series of quarterly consumer messages supporting the MyPlate icon – Make at Least Half Your Grains Whole Grains – that USDA is promoting in conjunction with more than 6,000 organizations participating in the MyPlate Nutrition Communicators Network.. Consumers can use SuperTracker to monitor their whole grain intake and receive tips and support to optimize their choices.
SuperTracker was unveiled in December 2011 as a complement to the new MyPlate icon and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative. SuperTracker incorporates both the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines and helps Americans put them into practice in their day to day activities.
As Americans experience epidemic rates of overweight and obesity, the online resources and tools available at ChooseMyPlate.gov, including SuperTracker, can empower people to make healthier food and physical activity choices for themselves, their families, and their children.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of Adjudication, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (866) 632-9992 (Toll-free Customer Service), (800) 877-8339 (Local or Federal relay), (866) 377-8642 (Relay voice users).


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This image has format transparent PNG with resolution 178x518.
You can download this image in best resolution from this page and use it for design and web design.
Academy Awards PNG, the Oscars PNG with transparent background you can download for free, just click on download button.
The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, are a set of awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname "Oscar".
The award was originally sculpted by George Stanley from a design sketch by Cedric Gibbons. AMPAS first presented it in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and is now seen live worldwide. Its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music – are modeled after the Academy Awards.
The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2018, was held on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,072 Oscar statuettes have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 90th ceremony. It was the first ceremony since 1988 without a host.
The first Academy Awards presentation was held on 16 May 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5 ($73 in 2018 dollars). Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the film-making industry of the time, for their works during the 1927–28 period. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes.
Winners were announced to media three months earlier. That was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards. This method was used until an occasion when the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began; as a result, the Academy has, since 1941, used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners.
The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated bronze on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34.3 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.856 kg), and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio "El Indio" Fern?ndez. Sculptor George Stanley (who also did the Muse Fountain at the Hollywood Bowl) sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design. The statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of Britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy which is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Award's statuettes. From 1983 to 2015, approximately 50 Oscars in a tin alloy with gold plating were made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company. It would take between three and four weeks to manufacture 50 statuettes. In 2016, the Academy returned to bronze as the core metal of the statuettes, handing manufacturing duties to Walden, New York-based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. While based on a digital scan of an original 1929 Oscar, the statuettes retain their modern-era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast in liquid bronze from 3D-printed ceramic molds and polished, they are then electroplated in 24-karat gold by Brooklyn, New York–based Epner Technology. The time required to produce 50 such statuettes is roughly three months. R.S. Owens is expected to continue producing other awards for the Academy and service existing Oscars that need replating.
The origin of the name Oscar is disputed. One biography of Bette Davis, who was a president of the Academy, claims she named the award after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson. A frequently-mentioned originator is Margaret Herrick, the Academy executive secretary, who, when she first saw the award in 1931, said the statuette reminded her of "Uncle Oscar", a nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce. Columnist Sidney Skolsky was present during Herrick's naming and wrote that "Employees have affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'." The Academy credits him with "the first confirmed newspaper reference" to Oscar in his March 16, 1934 column about the 6th Academy Awards that year. Another early mention appeared in a Time magazine story about the 1934 awards. In the ceremonies that year Walt Disney thanked the Academy for his Oscar. The Academy officially adopted the name Oscar for the trophies in 1939.
To prevent information identifying the Oscar winners from leaking ahead of the ceremony, Oscar statuettes presented at the ceremony have blank baseplates. Until 2010, winners returned their statuettes to the Academy, and had to wait several weeks to have their names inscribed on their respective Oscars. Since 2010, winners have had the option of having engraved nameplates applied to their statuettes at an inscription-processing station at the Governor's Ball, a party held immediately after the Oscar ceremony. The R.S. Owens company has engraved nameplates made before the ceremony, bearing the name of every potential winner. The nameplates for the non-winning nominees are later recycled.
In this clipart you can download free PNG images: Academy Awards PNG images free download, the Oscars PNG


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Together We - 1
" I decided to do some images that were reflective of the pen drawings I was making from photographs and nature. Rather than abstracting the subject I was looking to develop my technique in realism but at the same time keeping that definite painterly feel. Painted on raw board, I like the idea of creating a heroic portrait using these subjects".
Original paired with Together We -2
Our print and photographic partners are locally owned and operated and support the highest quality product philosophy.
We use only high quality archival inks, some times known as Giclee prints and Canson fine art papers and canvas.
Custom sizes may be available in addition to sizes listed but it depends on the size of the original art work and the size of the digital file. Please enquire.
If you order your print on canvas, you will need to have it stretched and framed at your local picture framers. The surface has already been treated with a UV coating for extra protection. Your canvas will be rolled and posted to you.
A limited number are produced of between 20 and 200. These are produced on request. Each one is signed and numbered by hand. This is visible on the lower edge on the paper print, but is on the edge of the canvas and will not be visible when stretched.
Reproductions are NOT created in canvas at the same size as the original painting.
Each print is supplied with its own matching print certificate.
Prints over 50 cm in measurement are large format prints and are signed and come with a print certificate. Canvas prints are signed on the back .Smaller prints are not signed.
To facilitate stretching a boarder of plain canvas, or black canvas (on the Still @ Home series) is added to the image edge.
The paper prints measurements are given as image size and paper size in case you wish to have a larger space around your image before a mount window is laid on top.
Sizes shown in room setting images are for illustrative purposes only /not necessarily to scale.
Please check sizes with a tape measure before ordering, remembering that the framing you select will add to the size.
All prints are delivered to our studio where they are then checked and packed ready for postage.
All prints are carefully wrapped and rolled and protected and packed in a protective postage tube.
Postage including insurance within Australia is included in your purchase.
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Our square print sizes on paper 25 x 25cm, 35 x 35cm, 50 x 50cm have been designed to suit standard off the shelf IKEA frames available world wide. In some cases having your own picture mount cut at a picture framers may be an option to frame a smaller uprint 'up' into a larger frame. We do however always recommend using a professional framer to secure the longevity and condition of your print sealed under glass.
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Hi, all! I've been noticing my followers number creeping up slowly and steadily and to that I would like to say THANK YOU!!! To all of you who have followed me for any amount of time--you rock! You are the reason I keep doing this! I LOVE your feedback and I strive to be better each day to bring something new to those who even glance my way!
That said, I have a goal for myself. I would like to reach 500 followers! I only need about 150 more to get to my goal, but as an incentive, I've got some blog candy I'll be giving away once I reach my goal!!!
Candy includes a 6"x 6" paper pad and enamel dots by My Mind's Eye, the Happy Sentiments stamp set from Inspired By Stamping, and three colors of baker's twine. |
Here's how to gain a chance (or more than one) to win:
1. Follow my blog.
2. Like my blog page on Facebook.
3. Follow me on Twitter.
4. Follow me on Instagram.
5. Follow me on Pinterest.
6. Follow me on YouTube.
7. Follow me on Bloglovin'.
8. Add a picture of the blog candy on your blog linked back to THIS POST.
9. Refer a friend who follows me on any/all of these social outlets. (Each separate friend is ONE extra chance to win.)
For each of these things you do, leave a comment below stating which of these things you do/did. If you already follow me on all these social media outlets, all you have to do is comment! When referring friends, add a single comment with the person's name ONE TIME, meaning that you can't add their name each time they follow me on a social media outlet...that's THEIR chance. You may add an extra comment for each friend that follows me, I just need to know their name so that I can allow your comment to count. So, basically, you have UNLIMITED chances to win!!! SCORE!
As an extra incentive...I might add a few more candies when I reach 400, 450, and then 500...so you may really have a chance to win one of four prize packages! So, tell your friends, follow me, and THANK YOU for all of your support! :)
And now, I have a happy announcement to make! :) I am SO excited to announce that I have been asked to join the wonderfully talented design team for Diane's Daydream Designs!!! Diane's digis are fabulous and inspiring--you really need to hop over to the store to take a peek! I feel so grateful to God for this chance to work with digital images again and to work with such amazing women! I'll be sharing more cards made with these fabulous products each Wednesday from now on, so stay tuned for more! But for now, here's a little something for your viewing pleasure...
Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by today! I hope you all take some time to create today and that you join in these fabulous challenges and my blog candy!!! As always, HUGS and happy stamping to you all!


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About The ArtDBS Black & Red New Classic New Classic Black & Red Product DetailsLook sharp in this versatile polo, perfect for business casual or a polished weekender outfit. Our Men's Slim Fit Short Sleeve Polo features soft, breathable fabric with a close cut torso, tailored to show your natural physique.
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Back in 1934, veterans of First World War put up a memorial at a bleak but beautiful spot here Southern California's Mojave Desert. The veterans set a cross on what's known as Sunrise Rock.
Private citizens have always maintained the cross, most recently Henry and Wanda Sandoz took on the job, following the dying wish of the man who maintained it before.
MONTAGNE: They did it even though the cross stood on public land, the Mojave National Preserve. But the L.A. Times notes the memorial has sparked debate for years. The National Park Service turned aside a demand to put a Buddhist shrine at that spot.
INSKEEP: The question of the cross ended up in court and the cross itself was even stolen. But now the issue is resolved. The Park Service says it will give the Sunrise Rock property to the Sandozes in a swap for land they own elsewhere.
MONTAGNE: And Henry and Wanda Sandoz say they already have a new metal cross ready to go.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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2 Colors
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Download includes :
Also included is a PDF with all design info
All designs have been stitched personally. You will receive your design via instant download after payment.
As this is a digital item, refunds cannot be offered.
I am thrilled that you purchased this design and am happy for you to embroider on your personal items and items that you will be selling. However, copying and sharing design files is NOT cool! (also it's illegal)
THIS IS NOT A FINISHED PRODUCT! This is a machine embroidery design file. You must have an embroidery machine to work with these files. YOU MUST HAVE THE REQUIRED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TO TRANSFER THESE DESIGNS FROM YOUR COMPUTER TO YOUR EMBROIDERY MACHINE (cable, usb, memory card, etc.).


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On 11 September 2012, in a conference room in a hotel in Fukushima city, Professor Yamashita Shunichi presented the latest results of the Fukushima Prefectural People's Health Management Survey, launched in June 2011. Twenty-seven people were in the audience, mainly journalists. The CRMS (Citizen's Radiation Measuring Station network) was one of two citizen groups present on that day.
Prof. Yamashita, president of the exploratory committee of the Health Survey, presents the results |
Last year Yamashita had recommended that the people of Fukushima smile in order to better face radiation, and he stated that 100 mSv per year1 is an acceptable radiation exposure limit. Today he sits before the "exploratory committee" of the survey, which he presides over. This committee is comprised of eight core members and some thirty collaborators from the Fukushima Medical University. The host of this research project is Fukushima Prefecture with core members from several different Japanese scientific institutions and officials from Fukushima Prefecture, as well as members from Hiroshima and Nagasaki Universities. At the eighth meeting of the exploratory committee, a representative of the health division of the Ministry of Environment and the vice-president of the Science Council of Japan joined the committee.
The final objectives of the Fukushima health survey were set by Yamashita and Prof. Suzuki Shinichi even before obtaining the first results. They were: "to calm the anxiety of the population" and to convince doubters that "the health impact of the nuclear accident of Fukushima can be assumed to be very minor." The initial statement made at the start of the survey on July 24th 2011 during the third meeting of the exploratory committee was that,
"at the present time, the health effects of the radiation caused by the Fukushima NPP accident might be extremely low as far as both internal and external exposure are concerned. The only symptom (disease) that was clearly recognized after the Chernobyl accident is an increasing number of childhood thyroid cancer cases because of internal irradiation by radioactive iodine, an increase in other symptoms not having been identified" . . . "After the long term effect of the Chernobyl accident, mental health issues were pointed out, so the residents in the areas of exposure presented symptoms of anxiety and inexplicable symptoms of their body" . . . "In Fukushima, the same kinds of psychological effect are expected to emerge."
Clearly, the investigators leading the Fukushima Prefectural People's Health Management Survey have very strong prior beliefs regarding the health impact of the nuclear accident. They believe that the study will not detect any physical effect of the accident; rather, the survey is being conducted "to calm the anxiety of the population." This is a difficult starting point for a scientific investigation. Typically a scientific study is designed so as to be able to detect an effect and lead the investigator to accept or reject a stated hypothesis. This is the basis for calculating the necessary sample size to reject a null hypothesis. In this case, they have a strong prior belief that there is no physical effect of exposure. If the study produces evidence counter to their prior belief, the investigators are left with a problem of how to interpret it.Can they reject their starting beliefs and accept the counter-hypothesis (i.e., that the accident caused some health effects)? It is not clear they have a framework for doing that or have figured out properly what sort of weight of evidence could cause them to reject their starting assumption.Can such a study protect the interests of people in the wake of the most serious nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, which took place twenty-five years earlier with devastating effects on human and animal life and the environment?
Scientific results matching the expectations of the survey makers
The objective of the meeting is ostensibly to present the results of one phase of the Prefectural People's Health Management Survey, namely that portion dealing with thyroid condition among children. The group surveyed is comprised of the 38,114 children of the prefecture residing in the 13 towns and villages located in areas designated as highly contaminated and restricted access zones after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown. This means that there was no control sample from elsewhere in Japan that was not affected by fallout at this time or earlier. The survey does, however, include 42,060 children from other parts of the prefecture.
12 September 2012, police roadblock 10km north of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant |
One case of thyroid cancer was announced on 11 September 2012, one and a half years after the nuclear accident, by Professor Suzuki Shinichi, who heads the division dealing with thyroid checking at the Medical University. The age and the sex of the child were not made public. We should mention that childhood thyroid cancer has occurred in 1-2 out of 1 million children. Such rarity of childhood thyroid cancer in the general population made it difficult for institutions such as the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the International Atomic Energy Association to ignore the effects of radiation exposure on thyroid cancer following the Chernobyl accident.
According to Prof. Suzuki, "in Fukushima there was neither the major external exposure found in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nor the major internal exposure found in Chernobyl." In his view, there is no relation between this first declared case of thyroid cancer and the nuclear accident in Fukushima. This is for three reasons:
First, according to Suzuki, aside from times of disaster, it is rare to have thyroid examination surveys and echographies of children. So no "reference" survey is available with which to understand the prevalence of thyroid disease in children, subjected to similar intensive thyroid screening, in the absence of radiation exposures from an accident. However, in fact a survey was conducted by Prof. Yamashita and his team in 2000. This survey examined abnormalities of the thyroid among 250 school children in Nagasaki where only 0.8% of the children surveyed were found to have nodules and none had malignant disease.2 So, while the sample is limited, it should be considered a useful reference survey.
Second, again according to Suzuki, "if we refer to data from Chernobyl, an increasing incidence of childhood thyroid cancer was found from four years after the Chernobyl accident." However, such an argument is silent on the political context in the years following the 1986 accident. At that time there was no reliable access to data and surveys. The testimony of Dr. Alexey Yablokov is helpful for grasping the situation: up to 1990, the Health Ministry of the Soviet Union ordered doctors not to "connect diseases with radiation" and "all data were classified for the first three years." Two important decisions were taken right after the Chernobyl accident by the Soviet authorities under the seal "Absolutely Confidential". The first was to keep secret any information related to the catastrophe, especially information related to the health of the affected population. The second was taken by both Ministries of Health and of Defense of the USSR: it was aimed at concealing the level of radiation received by the population and by the "liquidators". Moreover the two decisions instructed the medical staff not to mention the diagnosis of "radiation disease" in the personal files and to replace it with another disease.3 In other words, Soviet political calculations overrode scientific considerations in the four years following the Chernobyl accident. It would be regrettable if political calculations led to the suppression of scientific findings in the Fukushima case. Also, Prof. Yamashita's past report on Chernobyl concluded that the data from before 1990, that is before the Soviet break-up, but which were only made available later, are not relevant and are not sufficiently detailed. In other words, he concluded, it is difficult to quantify levels of cancer in Chernobyl in the years immediately following the accident.
Third, again according to Suzuki, the technical tools available to scientists today are so developed that even small size cancers can be detected, something that was impossible in the past. We note that such an argument was also widely used to explain the large increase in thyroid cancer cases from 1990 in Chernobyl. If we recognize that the development of technical tools makes it possible to detect more thyroid abnormalities and cancer cases today, and to detect them earlier than in the past, then if these tools had been available at the time of the Chernobyl accident, the evolution of excess thyroid cancer cases might have been detected earlier. In short, such arguments cannot disconnect the present effects of radiation from the thyroid cancer cases which are detected.
Surprisingly, there was no discussion at all about the possible effect of migration on the thyroid abnormality rate of the two groups. As noted above, 35% of the first group of 38,114 children examined were identified as having nodules of a size under 5 mm and cysts under 20 mm, while among the 42,060 children in the second population subject to thyroid screening, this figure was 43%. The first group was drawn from 13 towns and villages located in areas designated as highly contaminated and in restricted access zones after the accident at the nuclear power plant, where the migration rate following the accident was 14%. The second group was drawn from Fukushima city, which is more distant from the plant, and where the migration rate was much lower at 3%. Since in both groups the children who migrated were also tracked and tested, does it mean that the more children migrated, the fewer abnormalities of the thyroid are to be found? If such a relation were to be confirmed, it would help to identify a direct relation between thyroid abnormalities and the degree and length of exposure to the fallout. It would also deeply call into question the government's strategy of limitation of population movements after the accident that was clearly set forth in the definition and settlement of concentric evacuation zones. From the beginning, the Japanese state placed Fukushima city (and other "distant" cities) beyond the reach of the fallout. Detailed data should be made available to make it possible to check the reality of such relationships. It could also help to consider whether evacuation of children, who are particularly vulnerable to exposure to other radionuclides, should be considered even now from Fukushima City and other localities outside the evacuation zones.
Of course the first possible factor to consider in order to explain the numbers of nodules and cysts is the level of radiation people were exposed to. What can presently be said is that:
- A massive amount of I-131 in the form of gas and dust was diffused from the explosion of the third reactor on March 14, 2011.
- Some towns and villages close to the nuclear power plant evacuated part of their population from Fukushima Prefecture on the 12th, 13th or 14th of March, depending on each local government.
- Personal dose reconstruction by simulation and estimation is to be conducted by the National Institute of Radiological Sciences and the results have not yet been published.Therefore, we still don't know how much internal radiation people received at the very beginning of the accident.
- Basic research (questionnaire on activity and food intake from March 11 to 31 included in the Health Management Survey) has produced results for only 22.9%, 470,593 out of the total Fukushima population of 2,056,994.
- Research on dose estimation from external exposure alone has been completed only on 7.8% in a first group drawn from 13 towns and villages, while for the entire prefecture only 23.5% has been completed. Up to now, we can only conclude that the question should remain open pending further data.
- The data should be made accessible and transparent to the public, including the results of the thyroid screening, the health examination and the total amount of estimated personal dose.
We don't know the precise amount of received dose. But the question remains and only transparency and freedom of information will allow us to draw conclusions. Therefore, the role of third parties consisting of scientists, lawyers, politicians and residents is necessary. We are surprised to learn that a radiation's epidemiology research team from the French Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) contacted Prof. Yamashita and his team in order to obtain access to the thyroid survey data last June, but received no reply to their request.
Although it should be considered praiseworthy to so quickly launch such a large health survey with significant technical and human resources, we still cannot understand clearly the real motives of Yamashita and Suzuki as illustrated by the following. First, Yamashita failed to arrange for the distribution of stable iodine pills to the population immediately after the accident. Second, Yamashita and Suzuki have repeatedly tried to slow the process of examination of children through other health structures inside and outside Fukushima. In a letter sent to the members of the Japan Thyroid Association on January 16, 2012, discussing the parents of children being examined without any finding of "abnormal"nodules and/or cysts, Yamashita and Suzuki made the following request: "Please explain to them well to be sure they understand that any further testing is not necessary before the next scheduled examination two years hence unless symptoms appear."
Dr. Hoshi, Commissioner of the Fukushima Medical Association, who participated in the health survey presentation, reiterated the researchers' fear of losing the high ground on their sample when he observed that the second level examination of children is moving too slowly, and that "if we don't prepare the second level examination more quickly, the patients will slip through our hands."
We should also bear in mind that we owe to Yamashita and his colleagues the idea of tracking all those who took refuge outside of Fukushima prefecture, using their application for compensation payments as people affected by the nuclear accident. The statements quoted above clearly reveal the concern on the part of survey committee members to discourage the 70,000 people who officially left the prefecture (not to mention the many undeclared migrants) from receiving health examinations not conducted under the supervision of by the Fukushima Medical University team. In response to such determination, medical associations in Sapporo (Hokkaido) decided to conduct their own independent examinations of child migrants from Fukushima to Hokkaido following the protocol of the Fukushima Medical Association, and citizens associations are now organizing to pressure the authorities to provide access to free medical examinations for nuclear refugees outside Fukushima Prefecture.
12 September 2012, in Odaka, Minami-Soma city, 18 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Iwata Wataru collects water from the Pacific Ocean to be analysed at CRMS. |
The unification of information
A few hours after the conference, Kyodo News echoed the official press release, sayingthat "a single case of thyroid cancer was identified among the 80,000 children examined." This was a grave mistake!
The 95-page report presenting the survey results reveals a different reality. According to previous results published on 26 April 2012, 35% of the first population of 38,114 children being examined were identified as having nodules of a size under 5 mm and cysts under 20 mm, symptoms that the scientists in charge of the survey considered "normal". However, one hundred and eighty six children, 0.5%, were identified with nodules over 5mm and cysts over 20 mm. Those children are to receive a second examination (more precise echo examination, blood testing, urine testing, and aspiration biopsy cytology). Yet five months later, only 60 of the 186 children scheduled to receive a second examination have actually received it, and only 38 of those examined actually completed the second examination: 10 of them have been reintroduced into the "normal" cycle of an examination every 2 years; 28 were directed toward a thyroid cytology. Half of those children were finally told that "there is no necessity for an aspiration biopsy cytology" with the result that it was performed on just 14 children. It is thus among those 14 children alone that one thyroid cancer case was officially diagnosed.
Among the 42,060 children comprising the second population subject to thyroid screening, 239, 0.6%, have been identified with nodules over 5mm and cysts over 20mm. Those children will also receive a second examination. We cannot say anything about them prior to the second examination.
So if we bring together the 239 children of this second population waiting for a second examination and the 148 children (186-38) of the first population who are to be reexamined but who have not yet been reexamined, we have a total of 387 children about whom nothing can be said prior to completion of examination.
Consequently, the unique case of thyroid cancer identified thus far cannot be compared either to the 38,114 children who comprise the first population group, or to the 42,060 children of the second population group, still less to the 80,174 children of the total surveyed population.
Any attempt, even tentative, to provide a ratio at present is pure speculation. Once the 387 children scheduled to receive the second step examination have completed it, it will be possible to compare the total number of observed cancers to the whole population of children surveyed and to a control population. Of course, the validity of such a ratio will only hold until the next examination of the same children, and the 280,000 other children from other parts of the Prefecture that the Medical University of Fukushima plans to check who are still waiting to receive their first examination.
It is therefore premature to draw conclusions about these findings in the absence of control groups. Large scale screening of thyroids tends to lead to detection of many abnormalities that would otherwise go undetected, which makes it difficult to interpret the screening results.The single case found is itself important given the rarity of the outcome, but without details on the age, sex, and location of the case, and without completion of the pending tests, it is hard to judge how rare it really is.
To provide medical care or "to set a science record"?
Such clarification is crucial since we cannot neglect the fact that never, even in Chernobyl, has science had access to such a large population sample. Last year in an interview with a newspaper Yamashita described the Fukushima health survey: "We know from Chernobyl that the psychological consequences are enormous … relocation is not easy, and the stress is very great. We must not only track those problems, but also treat them. Otherwise people will feel they are just guinea pigs in our research."
Yamashita's prime objective is "to set a science record." The Medical University of Fukushima has announced it will engage next year in a large "collection of DNA samples from volunteers and hunt for abnormalities in their genes due to radiation damage."
The first problem, as explained above, is that there is a risk that the team in charge of the Fukushima Prefectural People's Health Management Survey is biasing the results since its final objective was "to calm the anxiety of the population."
Second, there is a lack of transparency concerning the survey results. The research is closed and the data are not made available to the public. For example, even though patients receive prints of their own ultrasound, they have to make a complex request through the Freedom of Information Act in order to obtain access to the complete set of their own file. The quality of the prints, moreover, is terrible. Matsui Shiro, in charge of public relations at the Fukushima Medical University, has stated that the reason for not providing the patients with high quality prints is that people could rather easily "falsify" them. We would like to know who, and for what purpose, Fukushima Medical University expects that someone would wish to falsify the prints. Shimizu Tsutomu, chief committee member of the committee on information and communication from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations points out that concern that the picture of the echo-screening might be falsified could not be the reason for refusing access to information since the Fukushima Medical University needs only to keep the original record (Mainichi newspaper, 26 August 2012).
Third, the quantitative concern of Yamashita's team is related to its goal of controlling the scientific results and the process of securing such results. The objective is to be accepted as an authority, and Prof. Yamashita has a certain experience in that field. Actually he and his team already "set a scientific record" with the research surveys they conducted with 200,000 children from Chernobyl in the early 1990's.4 Those surveys underestimated the effects of the Chernobyl accident on children by supporting the idea that only some thousands of "avoidable cases" of thyroid cancer (meaning cancers considered to be medically treatable) appeared after the nuclear accident. Two thousand such "avoidable cases" were found according to a report from WHO (Les conséquences de Tchernobyl et d'autres accidents radiologiques sur la santé -WHO/EGH95II – Geneva 20/23 november 1995); 6000 cases according to Dr. Malcom Crick, Principal Officer of UNSCEAR who recently declared : "after Chernobyl, the only public health impact that we have seen has been the more than 6000 thyroid cancers among those people that were children at the time of the accident, drinking contaminated milk. Of those 6000 or more perhaps 15 have died." (Video Fukushima and Chernobyl – Myth and Reality, 26 march 2012 ).
Those surveys underestimated the effects of the Chernobyl accident on children by supporting the idea that only some thousands of "avoidable cases" of thyroid cancers (meaning cancers considered to be medically treatable) appeared after the nuclear accident without mentionning that when the Chernobyl thyroid cancer cases were found in the early 1990s, it was also found that the cancer had already metastasized to the lung and lymph.
Iwata Wataru is commissioner in charge of measurement and (system) design at CRMS (Citizen's Radiation Measuring Station).
Nadine Ribault is a writer and Thierry Ribault is researcher at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research, Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo). They are authors of:
Les Sanctuaires de l'abîme – Chronique du désastre de Fukushima
Published by les Editions de l'Encyclopédie des Nuisances, Paris, 2012.
This is a revised and expanded version of an article that was originally published in French as Cancer de la thyroïde à Fukushima: des chiffres manipulés, Rue 89 20 Septembre 2012. Photographs © Ribault.
We thank Mark Selden and two anonymous experts who reviewed the article and proposed stimulating amendments. The authors remain responsible for the conclusions.
Results of Fukushima Prefectural People's Health Management Survey presented on September 11, 2012
Site of the Fukushima Prefectural People's Health Management Survey
English translation of the first part of the Survey
Recommended citation: Iwata Wataru, Nadine Ribault and Thierry Ribault, "Thyroid Cancer in Fukushima: Science Subverted in the Service of the State," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10 Issue 41, No. 2, October 8, 2012.
Articles on related subjects
• Masuda Yoshinobu, From "Black Rain" to "Fukushima": The Urgency of Internal Exposure Studies
• Shaun Burnie, Matsumura Akio and Murata Mitsuhei, The Highest Risk: Problems of Radiation at Reactor Unit 4, Fukushima Daiichi
• Fujioka Atsushi, Understanding the Ongoing Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima:A "Two-Headed Dragon" Descends into the Earth's Biosphere
• Kodama Tatsuhiko, Radiation Effects on Health: Protect the Children of Fukushima
• Say-Peace Project and Norimatsu Satoko, Protecting Children Against Radiation: Japanese Citizens Take Radiation Protection into Their Own Hands
·APJ Feature, Save the Children: Radiation Exposure of Fukushima Students
1 The internationally recognized acceptable dose limit for members of the general public is 1mSv per year from environmental contamination, one hundred times less than that proposed by Yamashita. In Japan, according to the Atomic Energy Basic Act established in 1955 and revised in 2010, the effective dose limit to the "general public" is also 1 mSv per year. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, the Japanese government on various occasions issued other limits for the general population, notably 20mSv, which is the recommended annual occupational dose limit for workers in the nuclear industry.
2 This figure should be compared to the 35% out of 38,114 of the first population in the Fukushima survey as explained below.
3 Quoted by Alla Yarochinskaga in her account entitled "Absolument confidentiel": Les Autorités Soviétiques face à la catastrophe", in "Les silences de Tchernobyl – L'avenir contaminé", Editions Autrement, Collection Mutations n°10 2004, p. 27.
4 S. Yamashita, Y. Shibata (ed), Chernobyl. A Decade. Proceedings of the Fifth Chernobyl Sasakawa Medical Cooperation Symposium, Kiev, Ukraine, 14-15october 1996, Elsevier Science 1997. This book collects the results obtained from the research conducted on 160,000 children since 1991. It will be followed by S. Yamashita, Y. Shibata, M. Hoshi, K. Fujimura (ed), Chernobyl: Message for the 21st Century Proceedings of the Sixth Chernobyl Sasakawa Medical Cooperation Symposium, Moscow, Russia, 30-31May 2001, Elsevier Science 2002.
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For months, Colorado Governor Jared Polis has taken a different approach to COVID than many of his Democratic counterparts. Last July, Polis canceled Colorado's state of emergency. Then, as omicron surged, he said officials should not tell people what to wear and refused to reinstate statewide mask mandates.
JARED POLIS: We kind of really tried to focus on that lived experience that people have first and foremost. And yes, you know, visiting Grandma or not, here's your risk parameters. Here's how you make the decision, you know? But obviously, the answer was never to say no, you can't be with your loved ones in any way. So as we look for the future, I think it's important to take into account in addition to people's physical health, in addition to people's economic well-being, people's happiness.
CHANG: Now Polis' approach seems to be paying off. He's running for reelection, and he's pretty popular in his state, and it's raised questions about the firmer measures that other state officials have taken during this pandemic. NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith asked Polis about that earlier this week.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Do you think that Democrats underemphasized or made a mistake by not pushing toward more normalcy more quickly?
POLIS: Well, there was no playbook for this. And I don't think there's anything that, like, Democrats or Republicans did. I think there's just a lot of individual decisions that mayors made, that governors made; some are Democrat, some are Republican. I mean, what you really saw is 50 different responses across all 50 states.
CHANG: Tamara Keith and NPR's senior political editor Domenico Montanaro broke down the implications of Polis' decisions on NPR's Politics Podcast.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: He's been a really interesting governor when it comes to how he's dealt with COVID because we've seen a real split, this blue-red divide across the country about wearing masks, not wearing masks. It's become something of a virtue on either side of things. And we've seen Polis be one of the first Democratic governors to sort of crossover and say that it was time to sort of end indoor mask mandates.
KEITH: He lifted the state's statewide mask mandate indoors back in July of 2021 for everything - grocery stores, schools. Now, unlike some Republican governors, he did not ban mask mandates. So places like Boulder, where he lives, it's more liberal, they've had a mask mandate in place until very recently. But taking off that mask mandate, not bringing it back through the delta and omicron waves, that put him out of step with a lot of Democratic governors around the country.
He was way ahead of basically the rest of Democratic states. He was way ahead of the CDC guidance, which only just recently relaxed on masking. And so when I interviewed him, I asked him whether it felt risky when he made that decision.
POLIS: I mean, I never doubted that it was the right thing. I mean, we have some neighboring states that required masks, and they had as much COVID, if not more than we did, in deaths and hospitalizations. Obviously, there are some people that wanted everybody to, you know, continue to wear masks and so forth.
But, you know, the burden on an elected leaders to tell people kind of what to wear or do is very high. I mean, you need to convince me as governor that this will do something. We're not just going to, you know, just wear masks for the heck of it. So unless we're convinced that this requirement is necessary to save our hospital capacity, which it obviously was before the vaccine existed, then why would we do it? So I never really considered it.
KEITH: It almost seemed like you were trying to guide the people of Colorado to be vaxxed and done.
POLIS: Yeah. I mean, and I'm proud of one of our higher-than-average vaccination rates. I think we're 10th or 11th. But for a bigger state, we're one of the higher ones. And it's a direct correlation, right? We're the, I think, 10th or 11th-highest percentage vaccinated. We're also ninth or 10th-lowest death rates. I mean, and the two are linked, right? The reason we have one of the lowest death rates is because we have one of the highest vaccine rates.
But the truth is you have a much higher level of protection. And to have that credibility as a messenger of that in Colorado, it was important that we didn't get into these things like, you know, mask mandates and other things because we want to be trusted purveyors of real scientific information. And that's why one of the reasons, I think, we were so effective in getting people vaccinated.
KEITH: And, Domenico, you and I have both covered some of the political fallout from pandemic measures, something that has affected Democrats, just look no further than the Virginia governor's race, for instance. It is certainly something that Democrats are concerned about heading into the midterms.
MONTANARO: Well, yeah, I mean, a lot of the places that they're having to contend with, these swing districts, are in suburban places, places where you have parents who are concerned about their kids being back in school, whether they're masked or not, you know. And it's a contentious issue. I don't think that it comes down - parents come down on one side or the other because they're a parent. It's really all through the lens of politics.
And, you know, this is an issue, though, that does affect lots of parents, lots of kids, and it is something that, you know, is going to become an issue in the 2022 midterms. It's something Democrats are bracing for. And, frankly, a lot of Democrats have felt like they didn't have a real strong message because they felt like the federal messaging was kind of off.
KEITH: What's interesting here is that as the coronavirus fades, hopefully, into the background, as policy focuses on being prepared but not having it sort of overwhelm our lives anymore, now there are other issues that Democrats have to worry about heading into the midterms that Americans are broadly concerned about. And that includes the price of gasoline and other inflation. These are now top-of-mind issues, right, Domenico?
MONTANARO: Yeah, I was going to say, in a word, it's prices, that things are going up. They cost more. That includes gas. That includes your groceries. Inflation's at a 40-year high.
KEITH: Housing in Colorado in particular. Well, housing all over the place, but it's a big deal in that state.
MONTANARO: Yeah, there's all kinds of, you know, places where we're seeing that. And we've seen it in our surveys where we've asked people what they think President Biden's top priority needs to be. And overwhelmingly, you know, now inflation has moved to the top. Now, we could look at COVID as that recedes. I think the White House has to hope that inflation also recedes, that people go out, the economy - they're spending more money and that prices wind up coming down, you know, as companies are, you know, start to regain some of their - recoup some of their profits over the last couple of years.
KEITH: So we mentioned at the top that Polis is seemingly facing a relatively easy race this November, which can't be said for all Democrats. What do you think's going on here?
MONTANARO: Well, part of that pivot has to be what he saw was happening with the backlash from conservatives against, you know, some of these COVID policies in other places and federally. Remember, midterm elections, you know, wind up drawing a pretty activist base, activist election, and I think he didn't want to poke the hive, you know.
And that's why we're seeing his approval ratings, for example, outpace President Biden's approval ratings. He's at 57%, according to a poll that was out late last year. President Biden was at 47%. And that included people who only had a 49% favorability rating of Polis. So I think you had a lot of conservatives and Republicans maybe saying, fine, I don't really like the guy all that much, but I approve of how he's dealt with the COVID crisis.
CHANG: That was NPR's Tamara Keith and Domenico Montanaro. You can hear more of their conversation on NPR's Politics Podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Deputy Secretary of Commerce Sam Bodman and National Federation of the Blind (NFB) President Marc Maurer today announced that the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the NFB will work together to test a prototype technology developed by NIST that provides the blind and visually impaired with access to electronic images in the same way that Braille makes words readable.
NFB members will "field test" the new device, known as a tactile graphic display (see fact sheet for details), so that NIST researchers can get first-hand input on how the technology may be improved for future commercialization. The Federation put an early version of NIST's rotating-wheel Braille reader [that converts electronic text such as e-mail into Braille characters] through its paces and gave the designers valuable ideas for making the device more user-friendly and effective. Today, the current Braille reader is ready for licensing by the company or companies that can bring this low-cost, powerful tool to the marketplace.
Today's announcement comes in conjunction with National Disability Employment Awareness Month and NFB's National Meet the Blind Month.
"This collaborative effort epitomizes the spirit of President Bush's New Freedom Initiative and this Administration's commitment to improving the quality of life for all Americans with disabilities," said Bodman. "The NIST devices allow the blind to participate in the information revolution and are prime examples of the types of assistive technologies that the New Freedom Initiative encourages."
Maurer added his praise for the NIST/NFB partnership, saying that the collaboration has "created breakthroughs in access technology for the blind and visually impaired."
"Text and graphic conversion devices have in the past been difficult to produce and extremely expensive, limiting their wide distribution to those who could benefit from them," Maurer said. "Our work with NIST to foster the development of simple-to-manufacture, low-cost and easy-to-use alternatives will open opportunities for learning, exploration and growth to blind children and blind adults in the home, school and workplace."
Founded in 1940, the National Federation of the Blind is the nation's largest and most influential membership organization of blind persons. With 50,000 members, the NFB has affiliates in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and over 700 local chapters. As a consumer and advocacy organization, the NFB is considered the leading force in the blindness field today.As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurements, standards and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade and improve the quality of life.
Additional Contact: pmaurer [at] nfb.org (Patricia A. Maurer (NFB)), 410-659-9314 ext. 272


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Inspired by SouleMama: A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.
*** Location: Cincinnati Nature Center


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The Ring-necked Pheasant was introduced into this country in the 1800s and now they are found from New England to California and are well established as a popular game bird in many states, including the Sooner State. A great hunting tradition in Oklahoma is the December 1 pheasant opener in the panhandle. The population of that part of the state swells on the opening day.
The average length for the male is 33 inches and 21 for the female. The male has a green or purple head with a bare red eye patch and a white ring around his neck. His russet breast is spotted with black, the back is variously hued with green fawn and light gold, and the bright gold tail is regularly barred with black.
Pheasants prefer cultivated farmland habitat mixed with weedy fencerows, ditches, and corners. CRP lands are also quite popular with these colorful gamebirds. Although they are swift runners and prefer to travel overland, when flushed, these birds generally fly toward timber or thick brush for escape cover. However, they are commonly seen out in wide open fields where they feed on waste grains, weed seeds and insects.
Ring-necked Pheasant Field Guide
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Since we had a relatively early flight (well, not really that early, but when you take into account time to get to the airport, etc) we hadn't planned much for the morning other than a lazy breakfast at the hotel to enjoy one of the better hotel buffets in the world.
No trouble getting a Grab, and since it was the weekend traffic to the airport wasn't terrible either. We had managed to check-in online, so no need to stop by the desks, and queues for immigration and security were minimal so we had some time to try the Cathay lounge.
Just as on previous visit it was a little difficult to find, and once we did it was unfortunately absolutely packed just like the previous time. I don't know if this is always the case for this lounge because it has flights to Singapore and Hong Kong at the same time, but it was difficult even finding a place to sit.
A couple of glasses of bubbles later, I didn't terribly care, and decided to chat up the lounge agent and see about changing my set to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). A couple weeks prior they had swapped in an aircraft with first class seats on this route, however, they were not selling first – getting access to these seats was at the mercy of airport agents since the app wouldn't permit it.
I totally admit that I might have been a bit flirty back to the lounge agent when they initiated it, and after much back and forth with a supervisor in some mysterious location on the phone, this exchange took place: "I would love to help you, but that seat is reserved for the bassinet." I made a joke that "it's ok, I'm pregnant and promise to give birth before Hong Kong" to which they laughed hysterically. First class seat was mine. Hopefully it would hold…
Cathay Pacific flight 750
Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Hong Kong (HKG)
Depart 11:40, Arrive: 15:30, flight time: 2:50
Boeing 777-300, Registration B-KQT, Manufactured 2014, Seat 12K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 186,401
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,878,703
Boarding was a bit of a scrum with everyone rushing the gate the minute they started boarding, and my first impression of the seat was pretty good. Reasonably private, lots of space, and I would be happy with this seat on a 10 hour flight, not to mention a regional flight of under three hours! Ian had the seat behind me, and off to Hong Kong we went!
Bubbles and water for a pre-departure beverage…
What's for lunch today? Can you imagine if US airlines served nice meals like this (complete with a menu!) for mid-con flights?!
In case of evacuation, throw your baby in a rubber sleepsack…
Lunch was served right after takeoff, complete with garlic bread, more champagne, and a nice thai salad.
I went with the Thai pork which was delicious. The perfect combination of savoury and sweet.
Choice of three flavours of ice cream for dessert. Strawberry for me, please!
After lunch was over, I walked past the galley and noticed a sign saying "work quietly, speak softly" – can you imagine this in the galley on US airlines? I'm sure the flight attendant unions would throw a fit! It would interrupt terribly important gripe sessions about their jobs, passengers. On the upside, a quiet environment would improve their concentration for Candy Crush and Suduko.
Arrival in Hong Kong was right on time, and since Hong Kong doesn't trust Thai security we had to clear again – unfortunately behind what seemed like dozens of inexperienced travellers. We barely had enough time for the connection as it was, and were determined to stop in the AmEx Lounge for at least 10 minutes.
Hong Kong (along with a few other locations like Mexico City and Buenos Aires) is one of the few AmEx Lounges that has a "lounge within a lounge" for Centurion Card holders, which actually makes it a lounge I'll go out of my way to visit.
As usual, Hong Kong was quite warm and we were a little sweaty by the time we arrived, but the champagne was poured and all was forgotten.
Despite having a very short time we were promised they could get the meals on the menu to us in five minutes or so, so we decided to order the caviar. Definitely a wonderful choice! Caviar and champagne make everything better!
Quick gobble of the goods, and then a bit of a run to the gate…where of course boarding was delayed meaning we could have spent some more time in the lounge. Said goodbye to Ian, and I was off to Ho Chi Minh City for the first time in 15 years!
Cathay Pacific flight 799
Hong Kong (HKG) to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN)
Depart 16:50, Arrive: 18:35, flight time: 2:45
Boeing 777-300, Registration B-KQM, Manufactured 2014, Seat 2K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 187,326
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,879,628
My seat assignment had stuck, and I was shown to seat 2K by the crew. It technically would be business class today, but the crew was still acting like it was first class, apologizing that they would only be able to offer business class champagne today. Could they get me some?
A bit warm from the run to-and-from the lounge, but my kitty fan and some champagne while settling into 2K made everything better.
What's for dinner tonight? Similar to the lunch menu from Bangkok.
The thai red chicken curry was delicious – I do love the thai dishes that seem to appear frequently in Cathay business – they're always tasty.
Choice of ice creams once again for dessert. They were out of Tegrity, so I decided to go with cookies and cream…and more champagne…this time around.
It had been fifteen years or more since I'd been in Vietnam, and in that time tourism had taken off and getting a visa had become much easier. No need to go to the consulate or embassy anymore, you can now do a visa on arrival by paying/arranging with an agency online who sends you an approval letter.
The whole process was quite confusing, and there was a waiting area where you had to fill out a form and wait. I asked about a dozen people if I needed to wait there with my letter, and the first several indicated yes, but eventually I just went up to the windows (causing several people to get upset with me) and they told me no, go straight to the arrivals queues.
Well, that would have been great, except with 20+ queues open they were all still 50+ people deep. It was going to be quite a wait. Still better than having to wait for the visa-on-arrival counter where some people said they had been waiting more than four hours!
I eventually found a line for VIP/diplomats/SkyPriority so decided that despite flying Cathay I would stand there since I have SkyPriority through Delta. That line only took about 10 minutes, but I was then berated by the guy at the counter who insisted I show him my boarding pass with SkyPriority on it – not just my card.
Feigning a bit of not understanding him he finally gave up on me and just stamped me into the country. I'm not usually a fan of gaming the system like this, but hey, to save a few hours and be able to at least enjoy the evening? Absolutely.
The other thing that had changed since my previous visit were the hotels. 15 years ago, there was no such thing as chain hotels in Vietnam, and we stayed at the Grande Olde Dame the "Rex Hotel" which was about as good as it got back then.
Now? There's a half dozen different Bonvoy options, not to mention Hiltons, Hyatts, and everything. Grab worked well to get me to the Le Meridien (which seemed to be the recommended hotel based on online reviews) and I was given a nice room on the executive floor.
I have to wonder, however, as someone afraid of heights, what's with all these hotels lately with 20+ floor atriums and waist-high railings where I felt I might plunge to my untimely death:
It wasn't too late, so I figured I would head out for a walk and try and get my bearings for the coming days. The city had changed so much a walk was in order, and there seemed to be a great craft beer place less than a mile away that looked walkable.
I immediately wasn't a huge fan of the changes in the city, as literally dozens of younger ladies from massage parlours grabbed my arm as I walked by and tried to get me to come inside. Ugh. It reminded me of Bangkok 20 years ago and the seedier side of tourism in Southeast Asia.
I managed to keep going, and was eventually rewarded with a great selection of beers at Heart of Darkness brewing. How amazing to find a Joseph Conrad-themed pub in the middle of Vietnam. While globalization definitely has its downsides in the homogenization of culture, there are some benefits…
After a couple of beers to tire me out, it was back to the hotel to rack out. I had two days to enjoy Vietnam, and wanted to make the most of them!


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An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Historical Materials: Vessel Types
Historical Materials » Vessel Types » Brig (Hermaphrodite or Half)
You have navigated to this pages from catalog entry: Study of Ships, 1851 (inv. 141)
Brig (Hermaphrodite or Half)
View related Fitz Henry Lane catalog entries (31) »
Hermaphrodite brigs—more commonly called half-brigs by American seamen and merchants—were square-rigged only on the fore mast, the main mast being rigged with a spanker and a gaff-topsail. Staysails were often set between the fore and main masts, there being no gaff-rigged sail on the fore mast. (1)
The half-brig was the most common brig type used in the coasting trade and appears often in Lane's coastal and harbor scenes. The type was further identified by the cargo it carried, if it was conspicuously limited to a specialized trade. Lumber brigs (see Shipping in Down East Waters, 1854 (inv. 212) and View of Southwest Harbor, Maine: Entrance to Somes Sound, 1852 (inv. 260)) and hay brigs (see Lighthouse at Camden, Maine, 1851 (inv. 320)) were recognizable by their conspicuous deck loads. Whaling brigs were easily distinguished by their whaleboats carried on side davits (see Ships in the Harbor (not published)). (2)
– Erik Ronnberg
1. M.H. Parry, et al., Aaak to Zumbra: A Dictionary of the World's Watercraft Newport News, VA: The Mariners' Museum, 2000), 268, 274; and A Naval Encyclopaedia (L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1884. Reprint: Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1971), 93, under "Brig-schooner."
2. W.H. Bunting, An Eye for the Coast (Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House: 1998), 52–54, 68–69; and W.H. Bunting, A Day's Work, part 1 (Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House: 1997), 52.
Related tables: Brig »


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Pope passes on limo for modest Fiat ride through streets of DC
WASHINGTON - Pope Francis made his arrival in the nation's capital to great fanfare and excitement. The red carpet was rolled out as he received a rock star-like welcome from the crowd at Joint Base Andrews. He was even personally greeted by President Barack Obama himself at the base after landing.
But one thing during his arrival that illustrated why he has become known to many as the "The People's Pope" was the modest ride he hopped into while departing the Air Force base.
Pope Francis climbed into the backseat of a small, black Fiat 500L and rolled down the window as the vehicle was part of a motorcade that took him through the streets of Washington D.C. to the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican's diplomatic mission in D.C.
Francis will spend the remainder of Tuesday night there before his first full day of events on Wednesday.
Francis has made a point of using particularly modest cars, part of his emphasis on simplicity, conservatism and rejection of today's consumerist lifestyle. He uses a blue Ford Focus to get around the Vatican, and during his visit to South Korea he used a Kia.
For those wondering, the four-door Fiat 500L is a larger version of the Fiat 500 and has a starting MSRP price of $19,345. It can comfortably fit four people and has five different models.
Information from The Associated Press used in this report.


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Castrol said to be global leader in lubricants for wind energy
Driven by support from various governments, wind energy has grown rapidly since 2000. As a result, global lubricant demand in the wind energy industry has increased in line with the growth in total installed wind energy capacity. From 2008 to 2019, the global wind energy installed capacity grew at a CAGR of 16.6%, and lubricant consumption grew by a CAGR of 13%, shows Kline's recently published Lubricants for Wind Turbines: Global Market Analysis and Opportunities study.
As the industry matures, governments are phasing out monetary incentives and emphasizing supporting legislation such as renewable energy targets, grid priority, and land allocations. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, government policies to jumpstart economies will put more pressure on finances; this may accelerate the phasing out of monetary incentives. The industry will have to learn to stand on its own.
Currently, OEMs are experiencing tough market conditions due to the phase-out of subsidies. Senvion, a German wind turbine manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy in April 2019. Nordex recently announced a merger with the Spanish renewable energy company, Acciona Windpower. In emerging markets, Suzlon—the largest OEM in terms of cumulative capacity installed in India—is now on the brink of bankruptcy. The capital expenditure of wind power projects has also dropped by 10% to 15% after the transition from feed-in tariffs to reverse auctions.
The wind energy sector is dominated by a few global players, and OEM ties are increasingly important. The supply base for lubricants used in wind turbines is also largely consolidated in the hands of a few key companies. Global majors such as Castrol, ExxonMobil, and Shell are present in almost all markets. The study shows that Castrol is the global leader in the lubricants market for wind energy with a supply footprint covering all major regions.
"To succeed in this business, suppliers need to have a proven track record of products meeting OEM's performance requirements, the ability to demonstrate cost savings, and OEM tie-ups," comments Milind Phadke, vice president, Energy at Kline. "Castrol leads the market due to a strong product portfolio and tie-ups with such OEMs as Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, giving the company access to their first-fill and warranty fill business. This gives Castrol a strong position in Europe, North America, and India, along with a global leadership position."
Srikanth Visvanathan, global marketing director for Castrol Commercial Vehicles and Industrial, says: "Our leading position in wind, with 33% of the market, reflects our commitment to providing innovative lubricants and service solutions. With BP and our affiliate Onyx Insight, we can provide improved efficiency, lower downtime, and lower the levelized cost of energy for our customers."
"We are the trusted supplier for thousands of wind turbine OEMs and wind farm operators worldwide, from first-fill through the entire working life, providing them with the ultimate lubricants and optimized service solutions that help extend the asset life. Castrol's combination of industry experts and suite of wind solutions is designed to drive the success of the wind sector, delivering high-grade lubricants, advanced analytics, and expert training to upskill wind technicians."
Observing the rapid growth in the industry, new participants are trying to enter this market. These include mid-tier lubricant companies with a presence in the synthetics business. However, new suppliers face several entry barriers, including a rigorous approval process, a good track record as a supplier, and a performance history of new product development. The industry is risk-averse, and this results in an extension of warranties and the use of the same products outside the warranty period.
Despite the reduction in government support, the wind energy sector continues to receive support. Germany is likely to support local OEMs—Siemens Gamesa, Enercon, and Nordex—which have a strong global footprint. Governments are unlikely to withdraw complete support for the wind energy industry, as this will be difficult politically. However, they may reduce their support by decreasing the quantum of subsidies that they currently provide. Monetary subsidies will be replaced with favorable legislation (as in Germany), such as renewable energy targets, grid priority, and land allocations.
As per the GWEC outlook for spring 2020, new installations should grow at a CAGR of 4.1%, from60.4 GW in 2019 to 73.4 GW in 2024. As a result, total installed wind energy capacity is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% over the forecast period to reach 1,005.0 GW by 2024 from 650.1 GW in 2019. While not as strong as in previous years, the growth in new installations will continue to drive growth in the lubricants market. Besides the growth, other factors, including green image and high-margin business for lubricant marketers, will attract lubricant suppliers.
To learn more about this changing market, access Kline's webinar entitled Outlook for Wind Turbine Lubricant Demand in the Current Economic Environment.


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It's taken me a long time to come to terms with the challenges Max has as a result of the cerebral palsy. Last week, though, I realized I'd better quit being so accepting.
It started with my niece's one-year birthday party on Sunday. My sister was having it in a big event room with 50 guests, and Max typically hates crowd. I'd resigned myself to the scenario I envisioned: He'd wail and screech and want to leave. "I'll hang out with him in Judy's apartment," I told Dave.
Except here's what happened:
Except here's what happened:
And then, last night, Max was roaming around naked before bathtime. I've made peace with the fact that we're in for a long haul before he'll potty train. We've tried, but no interest.
Except here's what happened:
Max wandered into the bathroom and pointed to the potty seat. We put it on the toilet, plopped him on it and he peed. At which point I performed my world-renowned "Max peed in the potty!" dance, coming soon to DVD.
My level of excitement—and surprise—at these events tells me something. To be sure, the accomplishments are worth woo-hooing about. But the thing is, I have gotten so complacent about Max's disabilities that I am bowled over when he surpasses them.
When he was a baby, I refused to accept. No, I didn't really have a kid with cerebral palsy and maybe it wouldn't even show and please please please let him be OK. As he got older, I did battle with the cp. I massaged Max's stiff little legs and arms, and got down on the floor and showed him how to crawl, and then I helped him move his arm and leg and arm and leg to get him to crawl.
But surprised? No, I wasn't surprised when he finally crawled on his own and took steps and walked.
Now Max is 7, almost 8. And I'm getting a little too astounded by his progress. I think it's because I've accepted the cerebral palsy. I've drunk the special needs Kool-Aid. Yeah, my kid has brain damage and his muscles are somewhat messed up but he's walking and he talks in his own way and he's using both his hands and he's doing amazingly well for himself and yes, he's super-cute, thank you.
And yet.
This acceptance has done on a number on my expectations. It's neutralized them, so I no longer anticipate accomplishments, though of course I celebrate them when they happen.
I need to rip my head and heart out of this complacency rut and realize that Max is going to keep getting the best of the cp month after month after month. There is much to look forward to.
Max deserves that anticipation.
Screw you, cerebral palsy. I'm not going to accept you.


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The Birthday Paradox |
My latest posts can be found here: Previous blog posts:
Additionally, some earlier writings: |
The Birthday Paradox - On Jupiter, and Beyond!A classic puzzle/paradox is to ask:
If you haven't seen this before then I urge you to have a guess now. Is it 180 people? More than that? Fewer than that? What do you think? Most people who haven't seen this before get it very wrong, and then are surprised by the answer.
Yes, as soon as you have 23 people in a room the chances that two of them share a birthday are just over 50%. This is true, even if you allow 366 days in the year, and it actually becomes more true (whatever that means!) if you take into account that birthdays are not evenly distributed throughout the year. Why is it so small?Suppose we have one person in the room, and consider what happens as we add more people. The first extra person only has to avoid one birthday, and that's not so hard. But then the next person has to avoid two existing birthdays, and the next has to avoid three existing birthdays. Not only must everyone who has come before have succeeded in avoiding the coincidence, but it gets harder as we go along. This accumulation of avoided coincidences eventually gets you, and sooner than you may think. Indeed, another way to view this is to look at how many pairings there are of the people in the room. With 23 people there are 253 possible pairs, more than half the number of days in the year, so suddenly it's not all that implausible that we have a shared birthday. (That's quite a lot more than half 365, but we may have three people sharing a birthday, or more, and the sums get quite complicated). And normal people stop there. They might be surprised by the result, and some don't even believe it, but certainly most people stop. Mathematicians aren't normal people ...But mathematicians aren't normal people, and they might ask - what happens in general? What if we were on Jupiter, for example, where there are around $10\frac{1}{2}$ thousand "days" in a "year"? How would it change then?
To do the analysis we turn this around and ask - what is the probability that we have no collisions? For just one person the answer is 1 - there is no chance of sharing a birthday, so there is a 100% chance of no shared birthday. With two people, the second person must avoid the birthday of the first person. Assuming 365 days in the year this is then 364/365, being the number of days allowed, divided by the number of days from which we must choose. Now add another person. To avoid a coincidence we must, in addition to the first coincidence dodged, now avoid two existing days. That has a chance of (365-2)/365. And so on, and these accumulate. So the chance of 10 people avoiding each other's birthdays is: We can make that a bit neater by saying that the first person has 0 days to avoid, so that makes it: and there are 10 terms in total. By extension we can see that for k people, the chances they all avoid each other's birthdays is: If we also replace 365 by N to make this even more general, and we observe that:
(where the pling represents the factorial operation) then we can write this fairly succinctly as: $P(avoid~clash)=\frac{N!}{(N-k)!N^k}\quad\quad\quad[1]$ So now we can ask - for a given value of N, what value of k first makes this greater than 50%?
And c turns out to be about 1.17741... Where did that come from?Now, you probably don't recognise that number, certainly I didn't. But after a bit of futzing about I found it to be remarkably close to $\sqrt{ln(4)}.$ Where does that come from? Let's find out. We need to analyse this: $P(avoid~clash)=\frac{N!}{(N-k)!N^k}\quad\quad\quad\quad[1]$ Factorials are quite nasty to deal with, but we can use Stirling's approximation which says that: Substituting that into equation (1), expanding and simplifying results in this somewhat scary beast: That's actually much simpler than we might otherwise expect, but it's still pretty tough to see where to go from here. However, the experienced eye will see something that looks familiar. We see something like this: $\left(1-\frac{k}{N}\right)^{-N}$ We've seen this before. Or at least, I have, and anyone else who has done some significant calculus, or combinatorics, or pretty much any more advanced mathematics. We know that as x gets larger: More than that, if k is constant then we have: But k is the number of things we choose, and that doesn't stay constant as N gets bigger. Still, all that means is that we have to work a little harder. The above rules come from recognising that there is a series for logarithms. In particular, the Taylor expansion for logs is: That means, after simplification: Now, with some trepidation, we can go back to our original: Taking logs of both sides: Substitute our expression for $ln\left(1-\frac{k}{N}\right)$ (watch out for the minus signs!) and we get:
Isn't that amazingly simple? Analysis of the analysis That's about 1.17741 times $\sqrt{N},$ and that explains our initial observation. It also explains clearly where the ln(4) comes from. It's actually -2.ln(0.5) and the 2 comes from the Taylor Expansion of log, and the 0.5 is the probability. Our formula is also pretty accurate, even for only moderate values of N. For N=365, our original birthday problem, that's just a shade under 22.5, whereas the interpolated answer is 22.77. If we pretend that we have 1000 days in a year, the interpolated true answer is 37.5 people, and the formula gives 37.233. So if we have a pool of N items and we select from them at random, with the possibility of repeats, by the time we have selected 1.2 times $\sqrt{N}$ items we have a 50% chance of a collision. This is relevant when designing hash tables in computing, and using hashes to represent items. Our formula gives us more, though, because we can substitute any given desired probability of a clash. Suppose you want a 90% chance of no collision. Then For a million items, we have a 10% chance of no collisions with 2146 selections, we have a 50% chance of no collisions with 1178 selections, and if you want 90% chance of no collisions then you can only select 459 items. That's quite small, which is why hash spaces have to be so huge to avoid collisions. It used to be quite common to use 40-bit CRC checks, but with only a million objects there's a 36% chance of a hash collision. Even using 64 bit hashes it only takes a billion objects to have a 2.6% chance of a collision, and 2 billion to have a 10% chance of a collision. In summary, choosing from N items, with N large, and wanting a probability of T of having no collisions, how many items can you choose at random with replacement? Credits and acknowledgementsMy thanks (in no particular order) to Wendy Grossman, Patrick Chkoreff, David Bedford, @ImC0rmac, @tombutton, @Risk_Carver, @standupmaths, @hornmaths, @snapey1979, and @pozorvlak for comments on early drafts. November, 2012: Someone has at last found the deliberate error! Congratulations to @jimmykiselak. I'll leave it in place for now for others to ponder over. March, 2019: And another one! Congratulations to Adam Atkinson.
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Maple Leaves Stencil. Perfect for mixed media projects. Hand drawn stencil, cut on my laser cutter. Each stencil will be slightly different only because it is hard to get the cut exact every time.
Stencils measure just inside 8.5 by 11 inches. The design is laid out in landscape mode.
Use Stencils to add color and texture to journal pages, mixed media art and more.
Any visible imperfection is part of a handmade item. I may try to duplicate, but no two are ever alike thus each item is a one of a kind.
Made in Yukon, Oklahoma, USA


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UrbanWood Flower Vase Set
Introducing our Coastal Flower Vase in a Natural Wood Finish – a perfect marriage of rustic charm and coastal elegance. Crafted with care and inspired by the serene beauty of the shoreline, this vase is designed to bring a touch of coastal living to your home.The vase features a natural...
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