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In the Dream House: A Memoir
Carmen Maria Machado
21,000+ Reviews
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A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope--the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman--through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. Machado's dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.Product Details
Graywolf Press
Publish Date
December 01, 2020
5.4 X 8.2 X 0.8 inches | 0.74 pounds
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Carmen Maria Machado is the author of Her Body and Other Parties, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife.
"Merge the house and the woman--watch the woman experience her own body as a haunted house, a place of sudden, inexplicable terrors--and you are reading the blazingly talented Carmen Maria Machado."--Parul Sehgal, The New York Times
"Breathtakingly inventive. . . . Machado's writing, with its heat and precise command of tone, has always had a sentient quality. But what makes In the Dream House a particularly self-aware structure--which is to say, a true haunted house--is the intimation that it is critiquing itself in real time. . . . Here and in her short stories, Machado subjects the contemporary world to the logic of dreaming."--Katy Waldman, The New Yorker "Machado's wit and compulsive post-mortem approach configure her story into a wildly propulsive memoir, an ambulatory survey of the genre."--The New York Times Book Review "If there are no new stories, only new ways to tell them, Carmen Maria Machado has found a way to do exactly that, ingeniously, in Dream House -- a book that manages to break open nearly everything we think we know about abuse memoirs. . . . The result is a gorgeously kaleidoscopic feat -- not just of literature but of pure, uncut humanity."--Entertainment Weekly "In the Dream House is the kind of book that burrows under the reader's skin while simultaneously forcing her to inhabit the body of the writer."--NPR.org"Machado's revolutionary and innovative gothic memoir about domestic abuse is a work of epic talent. In it she interweaves myth and cultural analysis--alongside her own searing, dreamlike recollections--to construct a portrait of what it is to be queer and in an abusive relationship, a subject long ignored by even some of the most vociferous domestic violence survivor advocates. Machado uses legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains to create one of the best memoirs in recent memory."--Nylah Burton, Oprah Daily "Piercing. . . . In the Dream House makes for uneasy but powerful reading."--Mark Athitakis, USA Today "A tour-de-force meditation on trauma, survival and the language we use to talk about it all."--TIME, Best Books of 2019 "[A] dizzying, dazzling amalgamation of memoir and criticism."--Vanity Fair "[In the Dream House] is a genre-bending, formally inventive, generous memoir that adds both documentation to the archive as well as a work of art to be admired for its narrative achievements. . . . Machado's memoir adds something vital to the canon of queer history. . . . Above everything else, this book is a gift to the reader, to anyone suffering in violence that is hard to prove or name, and people looking for ways to tell their stories that have few or no precedents."--San Francisco Chronicle "Carmen Maria Machado is as much alchemist as author. . . . In this brainy, playful, shattering account, Machado ultimately tells her own singular tale."--O, the Oprah Magazine "As her folkloric references suggest, the cycle of abuse is a kind of poisonous enchantment in which victims can be enthralled. Ms. Machado's memoir casts a powerful counter-spell."--The Economist "Machado rejects standard memoir conventions in favor of short discursive chapters. . . . The result is a thoroughly engrossing, sometimes enraging must-read."--BuzzFeed
"A stunning book, both deeply felt and elegantly written."--Julia M. Klein, The Boston Globe "Celebrated for her inventive writing, Carmen Maria Machado will not disappoint her fans with this dazzling memoir that journeys through a maze of stories, each vignette (some only a sentence long) an individual room containing a moment of wonder, curiosity or sorrow."--NBC News Latino "Two years after first commanding the world's attention with her debut collection Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado is back with In The Dream House, an engrossing memoir that blurs the lines between personal narrative and literary criticism."--Harper's Bazaar "Machado is able to captivate the reader while telling a brutally honest narrative of abuse."--Marie Claire
"In the Dream House gleamingly smashes our notion of memoir, relocating Machado's genre-bending mastery from fiction to nonfiction. As with her short story collection, an intoxicating mix of fabulism and horror, sci-fi and gutting realism, Machado's playfulness on the page is intoxicating."--Newsday "Carmen Maria Machado's pointedly funny, deeply reflective In the Dream House manages to be a short story collection, memoir, and lesson in fragmentation all rolled into one."--The A.V. Club "The world needs this book. . . . We need this book precisely because it's so literary--enabling a view of domestic abuse, in the LGBT community and beyond, that only literature can manifest. . . . [Machado] uses formal experimentation to extend [empathy] into moral and political territory."--Psychology Today "Forget everything you think you know about memoir when reading Carmen Maria Machado's brilliant, twisting, provocative entry in the genre."--NYLON "In the Dream House--a devastating chronicle, interrogation and historical contextualization of her experience in an abusive relationship--is no less than a brilliant revision of the form."--Salon.com "Machado's telling of this particular story is anything but common: It's compassionate and thoughtful and achingly honest. Most of all, In the Dream House is a generous book. It is generous to all the readers of the future who might find themselves in the Dream House as Machado did. And so that they don't have to make up their own language to make sense of what is happening to them, it offers itself up, bare and vulnerable."--Vox "[In the Dream House] is an impressive, finely calibrated work of literature, one that throws open the door to a subject that's still rarely broached, and makes the reader's stay equally illuminating and unsettling. . . . In assuming the role of architect and archivist, Machado makes In the Dream House as much a memoir as a monument."--The A.V. Club "There are hundreds of ways to be haunted, In the Dream House shows, but not all of them have been written: Via a delicate polyphony of storytelling and criticism, Machado lays out how the literary tradition of domestic abuse has both expressed and muffled the experiences of women in danger in their own homes."--Bookforum "Machado is not just a beautiful writer, she's a brilliant writer."--The Rumpus "In the Dream House is proof, a nod towards justice, however nebulous or impossible that idea might be, as it sounds out against gatekeepers, archival erasures, and silence, articulating the possibility of queerness against the grain of singularity."--Frieze "Machado's innovative memoir does not pull punches. . . . In the Dream House is a brilliant successor to her acclaimed short story collection."--Star Tribune (Minneapolis) "You leave In the Dream House dazzled by the author's artful inventiveness and pondering her hard-won wisdom. . . . Truly remarkable."--The Seattle Times "Machado's book vibrates truth."--Bitch Magazine "Deeply intelligent and fiercely innovative."--Slant "The way [In the Dream House] seamlessly weaves the facts of [Machado's] life with fictions--the ghosts that still haunt her, the fact that even time travel could not undo what's been done--is a masterstroke. Machado's that writer who can convincingly code-switch between sci-fi nerdery and lyrical realism. She's equally at home in both worlds."--Angela Watercutter, Wired "In the Dream House [is] one of the more unique memoirs you'll ever read. . . . It will be needed and recommended and read and reread for generations to come."--Autostraddle "An unflinching, engrossing memoir."--POPSUGAR "[In The Dream House] is a tour de force that demonstrates the many tools that Carmen Maria Machado wields as a writer. This is a difficult book and a glorious one."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "A groundbreaking memoir in terms of both form and content. . . . Get ready for Machado to take you on several breakneck cross-country trips of the soul."--The Observer "In the Dream House is a deeply personal, chilling memoir of abuse and a testament to the healing strength of vulnerability. Machado expertly centers each chapter around a different narrative device and in so doing provides a new reading experience altogether."--Ms. Magazine "The Philly author of the much-awarded Her Body and Other Parties comes back strong with this memoir about adolescence, sexual identity, and damaging love."--The Philadelphia Inquirer "A raw, innovative memoir."--BBC Culture "In the Dream House is a tough read - dark, disturbing, incandescent. But Machado bravely has decided to not be silent about her pain, and in sharing her story, she delivers a stunning and important work."--Suzanne Tobias, KMUW "What might feel gimmicky in another writer's hands is revelatory in Machado's: In the Dream House becomes a complexly layered exploration of the personal and the political, and the literary, both a brave baring of a painful experience and a reckoning with our collective failure to truly deal with queer intimate partner abuse."--Lambda Literary "In the Dream House is not only a memoir but a masterclass in what genre can do."--Electric Literature "[In the Dream House] confronts the issues of credibility, self-doubt, and disbelief that all too frequently arise when survivors of domestic abuse speak out. But the work also stands as an intervention explicitly aimed at the silences, erasures, and lacunae of the culture at large. . . . A human story, full of artistry, candor, and grace."--The Brooklyn Rail "In the Dream House is both innovative in its approach and nerve-striking in its subject matter."--Pacific Standard "Carmen Maria Machado's rise in the literary world has been nothing short of meteoric."--The Week "A spectacular literary performance."--ZYZZYVA "In the Dream House further cements Machado's status as one of the leading writers today."--Refinery29 "Machado's skill at cracking the candied shell around life's warm, sweet organs is on par with her mastery of gothic atmospherics: both are essential to this book's power."--Triangle House "Cycling through a staggering array of modes and strategies, In the Dream House wheels in and out of fabulist, formalist, and realist registers, cultural analysis and polemic to produce a fresh and unflinching interrogation of abuse in queer relationships. . . . In the Dream House arrives with a thunder that resounds."--4Columns "It seems absurd that no one has written about abuse in queer relationships like this before. Mercifully, In the Dream House fills an aching void."--Women's Review of Books "Machado has pulled off an amazing feat: a book that comments on its own existence and the silences it endeavors to fill; a work deeply informed by a sense of identity and community; and page after page of flawless, flaying, addictive prose."--Sam Worley, BookPage, starred review "Daringly structured and ruthlessly inquisitive. . . . The heart of this history is clear, deeply felt, and powerful. A fiercely honest, imaginatively written, and necessary memoir from one our great young writers."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Machado has written an affecting, chilling memoir about domestic abuse."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"[Machado's] writing exhibits all of the formal precision of her fiction, and the book draws the reader deep into the varied rooms of the haunted house of the past. Highly recommended."--Booklist, starred review "In this open examination of abuse--how it starts, how it hides, how it tears at the victim's sense of self--Machado reimagines and plays with the memoir form, bridging the gap between reader and author in a way that is original and haunting."--Library Journal "Absolutely remarkable. . . . What makes this book truly exceptional is how Machado creates an archive where, shamefully, there is none."--Roxane Gay "It's a testament to Carmen Maria Machado's abilities that a memoir as harrowing as In the Dream House can also be so energizing to read, so propulsive."--Kevin Brockmeier "Carmen Maria Machado's memoir about being trapped in a love relationship that turns nasty and shameful is unflinchingly honest. . . . In the Dream House affirms that Machado is one of the most talented young writers of our day."--Lillian Faderman "Wrought with alarming premonition, propulsive rhythm, and a trove of folkloric archetypes, Machado's genre-crushing memoir is a meditation on the eclipse of knowledge and intuition by the narcotic light of a destructive bond that feels like love."--Melissa Broder "Carmen Maria Machado has re-imagined the memoir genre, creating a work of art both breathtakingly inventive and urgently true. In the Dream House is crucial queer testimony. I've never read a book like it."--Alex Marzano-Lesnevich


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By Tina Burnside
(CNN) — Three people were shot at Colorado's historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre after a concert by the rapper Nas late Thursday night.
Their injuries were not life-threatening, and the wounded were taken to a local hospital, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said.
The shooting took place in the parking lot of the theater after the show.
Officials have released very few details about the incident, other than to say the suspect was at large.
The amphitheater was host to "Feed the Rocks," featuring rappers Nas, Flying Lotus and Schoolboy Q.
Following the shooting, the venue was shut down, with no one allowed in or out.
™ & © 2014 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Andrew Mudge's South African drama The Forgotten Kingdom is screening as part of the Africa in Motion Film Festival (AiM), which kicked off last week.
The impeccably photographed Kingdom begins with its protagonist Atang (played by Tsotsi's Zenzo Ngkobe),
who's walking the streets in Johannesburg, a vibrant scene which seems
to have been choreographed to the local hip-hop beats and sounds.
In an early sequence in which a convenience store owner tells Atang he looks nothing like his father, except for the "anger in his eyes,"
we sense that a resentful Atang has been fending for himself in the
South African town for some time without parental or familial guidance.
After a long-due visit to his estranged father's dwelling, a neighbor
tells Atang that his father had been sick and passed. Atang is now in
charge of taking his father's body to his native land of Lesotho to be
The drama begins to slowly unfold hereafter. Atang must
return to his native land to confront his past and deal with his issues
of abandonment, which stemmed from his mother dying when he was a young
boy and his now deceased father sending him to live with different
acquaintances. Atang looks and feels like an outsider in his native
Lesotho, although he soon reconnects with Dineo (played with aplomb by Nozipho Nkelemba),
an old childhood friend who lives with her father and HIV-positive
sister. Conflict arises when her father gives Atang an ultimatum to pay
the dowry and marry his daughter. Atang returns to Johannesburg, but
soon after he has a change of heart and decides to go back to Lesotho to
reunite with Dineo.
For the most part, the film plays like a
quiet, meditative tale, marked by compelling performances. There is a
also a whimsical element permeating throughout the film. A key character
at the core of Kingdom is an orphan boy (Lebehang Ntsane) who knows Atang's native land. The boy tells Atang he is "the eyes on the dark clouds following you around this country."
The young boy seems possess an old soul; you wonder if he is in fact
real or a mystical character. There's also supernatural elements
discussed throughout. The two embark on a journey to find Dineo, who has
moved to another town at the will of her father, who is ashamed of
Dineo's sister's HIV prognosis.
Atang and Dineo's relationship
could have definitely been more developed
more; the film gears its focus to Atang's journey with the orphan boy.
Towards the end, the film may become a bit predictable. Atang and
Dineo's respective conflicts – Atang's issues with abandonment and
Dineo's issues with her controlling father seem to have a steely resolve
and closure. Don't expect any explosive, shocking or brutal scenes; it
just isn't that type a film. Overall, Kingdom is more of a perceptive
film, although some may find some aspects of the viewing tiresome.
However, Kingdom is a well crafted film. Mudge's direction augers some fine acting from all main characters.
Zenzo Ngkobe pulls off a powerful performance. He is a fascinating
actor to watch. It will be interesting to see if he's interested in
crossing over to American films, not that it would be necessary for him
do so in order to showcase his obvious acting chops. Newcomers Nkelemba,
who plays Dineo, and Ntsane, who plays the orphan boy, are both
quite a revelation. While the pace may drag at times, the film's crisp
scenery and stunning photography will transport you to
its painterly landscapes. But most significantly, Kingdom's heartfelt
performances and director Mudge's competent direction will
keep you engaged through the duration.
The Forgotten Kingdom (Trailer) from Black Kettle Films on Vimeo.


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The Prophetic Household
1. khadijah bint khuwailid: in makkah — prior to hijra — the prophet's household comprised him [pbuh] and his wife khadijah bint khuwailid. he was twenty-five and she was forty when they got married. she was the first woman he married. she was the only wife he had till she died. he had sons and daughters with her. none of their sons lived long. they all died. their daughters were zainab, ruqaiya, umm kulthum and fatimah.
zainab was married to her maternal cousin abu al-'as bin al-rabi' and that was before al-hijra. ruqaiya and umm kulthum were both married to 'uthman bin 'affan رضى الله عنه successively (i.e. he married one after the death of her sister). fatimah was married to 'ali bin abi talib; and that was in the period between badr and uhud battles. the sons and daughters that fatimah and 'ali had were al-hasan, al-husain, zainab and umm kulthum.
it is well-known that the prophet [pbuh] was exceptionally authorized to have more than four wives for various reasons. the wives he married were thirteen. nine of them outlived him. two died in his lifetime: khadijah and the mother of the poor (umm al-masakeen ) — zainab bint khuzaima, besides two others with whom he did not consummate his marriage.
2. sawdah bint zam'a: he married her in shawwal, in the tenth year of prophethood, a few days after the death of khadijah. prior to that, she was married to a paternal cousin of hers called as-sakran bin 'amr.
3. 'aishah bint abu bakr: he married her in the eleventh year of prophethood, a year after his marriage to sawdah, and two years and five months before al-hijra. she was six years old when he married her. however, he did not consummate the marriage with her till shawwal seven months after al-hijra, and that was in madinah. she was nine then. she was the only virgin he married, and the most beloved creature to him. as a woman she was the most learnèd woman in jurisprudence.
4. hafsah bint 'umar bin al-khattab: she was aiyim (i.e. husbandless). her ex-husband was khunais bin hudhafa as-sahmi in the period between badr and uhud battles. the messenger of allâh [pbuh] married her in the third year of al-hijra.
5. zainab bint khuzaimah: she was from bani hilal bin 'amir bin sa'sa'a. was nicknamed umm al-masakeen , because of her kindness and care towards them. she used to be the wife of 'abdullah bin jahsh, who was martyred at uhud, was married to the prophet [pbuh] in the fourth year of al-hijra, but she died two or three months after her marriage to the messenger of allâh [pbuh].
6. umm salamah hind bint abi omaiyah: she used to be the wife of abu salamah, who died in jumada al-akhir, in the fourth year of al-hijra. the messenger of allâh [pbuh] married her in shawwal of the same year.
7. zainab bint jahsh bin riyab: she was from bani asad bin khuzaimah and was the messenger's paternal cousin. she was married to zaid bin haritha — who was then considered son of the prophet [pbuh] . however, zaid divorced her. allâh sent down some qur'ânic verses with this respect:
"so when zaid had accomplished his desire from her (i.e., divorced her), we gave her to you in marriage." [al-qur'an 33:37]
about her, allâh has sent down some verses of al-ahzab chapter that discussed the adoption of children in detail — anyway we will discuss this later. the messenger of allâh [pbuh] married her in dhul-qa'dah, the fifth year of al-hijra.
8. juwairiyah bint al-harith: al-harith was the head of bani al-mustaliq of khuza'ah. juwairiyah was among the booty that fell to the muslims from bani al-mustaliq. she was a portion of thabit bin qais bin shammas' share. he made her a covenant to set her free at a certain time. the messenger of allâh [pbuh] accomplished the covenant and married her in sha'ban in the sixth year of al-hijra.
9. umm habibah: ramlah, the daughter of abu sufyan. she was married to 'ubaidullah bin jahsh. she migrated with him to abyssinia ( ethiopia ). when 'ubaidullah apostatized and became a christian, she stoodfast to her religion and refused to convert. however 'ubaidullah died there in abyssinia ( ethiopia ). the messenger of allâh [pbuh] dispatched 'amr bin omaiyah ad-damri with a letter to negus, the king, asking him for umm habibah's hand — that was in muharram, in the seventh year of al-hijra. negus agreed and sent her to the prophet [pbuh] in the company of sharhabeel bin hasnah.
10. safiyah bint huyai bin akhtab: from the children of israel, she was among the booty taken at khaibar battle. the messenger of allâh [pbuh] took her for himself. he set her free and married her after that conquest in the seventh year of al-hijra.
11. maimunah bint al-harith: the daughter of al-harith, and the sister of umm al-fadl lubabah bint al-harith. the prophet [pbuh] married her after the compensatory 'umrah (lesser pilgrimage). that was in dhul-qa'dah in the seventh year of al-hijra.
those were the eleven women that the messenger of allâh [pbuh] had married and consummated marriage with them. he outlived two of them — khadijah and zainab, the umm al-masakeen. whereas the other nine wives outlived him.
the two wives that he did not consummate marriage with were, one from bani kilab and the other from kindah and this was the one called al-jauniyah.
besides these, he had two concubines. the first was mariyah, the coptic (an egyptian christian), a present gift from al-muqauqis, vicegerent of egypt — she gave birth to his son ibrâhim, who died in madinah while still a little child, on the 28th or 29th of shawwal in the year 10 a.h., i.e. 27th january, 632 a.d. the second one was raihanah bint zaid an-nadriyah or quraziyah, a captive from bani quraiza. some people say she was one of his wives. however, ibn al-qaiyim gives more weight to the first version. abu 'ubaidah spoke of two more concubines, jameelah, a captive, and another one, a bondwoman granted to him by zainab bint jahsh. [za'd al-ma'ad 1/29]
whosoever meditates on the life of the messenger of allâh [pbuh], will conceive that his marriage to this great number of women in the late years of his lifetime, after he had almost spent thirty years of his best days of youth sufficing himself to one old wife — khadijah and later on to sawdah, was in no way an overwhelming lustful desire to be satisfied through such a number of wives. these marriages were in fact motivated by aims and purposes much more glorious and greater than what normal marriages usually aim at .
the tendency of the messenger of allâh [pbuh] towards establishing a relationship by marriage with both abu bakr and 'umar and his marriage to 'aishah and hafsah — and getting his daughter fatimah married to 'ali bin abi talib, and the marriage of his two daughters, ruqaiyah and umm kulthum to 'uthman — indicate clearly that he aimed at confirming the relationship among the four men — whose sacrifices and great achievements in the cause of islam are well-known.
besides this, there was that tradition of the arabs to honour the in-law relations. for them a son or a daughter-in-law was a means by which they sought the consolidation of relationship and affection with various phratries. hostility and fights against alliances and affinities would bring an unforgettable shame, disgrace and degradation to them.
by marrying the mothers of believers, the prophet [pbuh] wanted to demolish or break down the arab tribes' enmity to islam and extinguish their intense hatred. umm salamah was from bani makhzum — the clan of abu jahl and khalid bin al-waleed. her marriage to the messenger of allâh [pbuh] produced good results. khalid's deliberately undecisive attitude at uhud — for instance — was due to the messenger's marriage to umm salamah. khalid went even further than that, in a short time he willingly became a keen obedient muslim.
after the messenger of allâh's marriage to umm habibah, abu sufyan, her father, did not encounter him with any sort of hostility. similarly his marriage to juwairiyah and safiyah made the two tribes stop all sorts of provocation, aggression or hostility against islam. better still, juwairiyah, herself, was one of the greatest sources of blessing to her own people. on the occasion of her marriage to the prophet [pbuh], his companions set a hundred families of her people free. they said: "it is for their affinity with the messenger of allâh [pbuh]." no need to say what great good impression this gratitude had on everybody's soul. one of the greatest motives of all is allâh's bidding his prophet to educate and purify the souls of people who had known nothing whatsoever about courtesy, education and culture. he had to teach them to comply with the necessities of civilization and to contribute to the solidification and the establishment of a new islamic society.
an essential fundamental rule of the muslim society is to prohibit mixing of men and women. providing direct education for women, though highly compelling, is impossible in the light of this islamic norm. therefore, the prophet [pbuh] had to select some women of different ages and talents, and indoctrinate them systematically in order to educate she-bedouins and townswomen, old and young, and thus furnish them with the instruments of propagating the true faith. the mothers of believers (i.e. wives of the prophet [pbuh]) were in such a convenient position that they could convey the state of the prophet [pbuh] and his affairs to people (men and women). being educated and taught the teachings and rules of islam, his wives, especially those who outlived him, played a very important role in conveying prophetic traditions ahadith to the muslims. 'aishah, for instance, related a large number of the prophet's deeds and statements.
his marriage to his paternal cousin zainab bint jahsh was a peculiar case which aimed at eradicating a deeply rooted pre-islamic tradition — i.e. the adoption of children. in al-jahiliyah the arabs used to consider an adopted person exactly like a real son or daughter as far as rights and sanctities are concerned. that jahiliyah tradition had been so deeply rooted in their hearts that it was not easy to remove or uproot it. this tradition in fact affronts the basic principles of islam; especially those concerned with marriage, divorce and inheritance and some other cases, and brought about lots of corruptions and indecencies. naturally islam stands against such deeds, and attempts to remove them from the islamic society.
for the eradication of this tradition, allâh, the exalted, bid his messenger [pbuh] to marry his cousin zainab bint jahsh, who was an ex-wife to zaid. she was at variance with zaid to an extent that he intended to divorce her — that was at the time when the confederates (al-ahzab ) were making an evil alliance against the messenger of allâh [pbuh] and against the muslims. the messenger of allâh [pbuh] feared that the hypocrites, the idolaters, and the jews would make a propaganda out of it and try to influence some muslims of weak hearts. that was why he urged zaid not to divorce her, in order not to get involved into that trial.
undoubtedly this hesitation and partiality were alien to the character of the prophet [pbuh] . they did not apply to the power of determination and will with which he had been sent. allâh, the exalted, blamed him for that by saying:
"and (remember) when you said to him (zaid bin haritha رضى الله عنه — the freed slave of the prophet [pbuh]) on whom allâh has bestowed grace (by guiding him to islam) and you (o muhammad [pbuh] too) have done favour (by manumitting him), 'keep your wife to yourself, and fear allâh.' but you did hide in yourself (i.e. what allâh has already made known to you that he will give her to you in marriage) that which allâh will make manifest, you did fear the people (i.e. muhammad [pbuh] married the divorced wife of his manumitted slave) whereas allâh had a better right that you should fear him." [al-qur'an 33:37]
finally zaid divorced zainab and the messenger of allâh [pbuh] married her at the time he laid siege to bani quraiza. that was after she had finished her iddat (i.e. period during which a widow or a divorcee may not remarry). allâh himself had already ordained it, and so gave him no other alternative. allâh had even started the marriage himself by saying:
"so when zaid had accomplished his desire from her (i.e. divorced her), we gave her to you in marriage, so that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the believers in respect of (the marriage of) the wives of their adopted sons when the latter have no desire to keep them (i.e. they have divorced them)." [al-qur'an 33:37]
and that was in order to break down the tradition of child adoption in practice after he had done it in words:
"call them (adopted sons) by (the names of) their fathers, that is more just near allâh." [al-qur'an 33:5]
"muhammad ([pbuh]) is not the father of any man among you, but he is the messenger of allâh, and the last (end) of the prophets." [al-qur'an 33:40]
lots of deeply-rooted traditions cannot be uprooted or demolished or even adjusted by mere words. they must be matched and associated with the action of the advocate of the message himself.
this could be perceived through the deeds practised by the muslims at al-hudaibiyah 'umrah (lesser pilgrimage) during which 'urwah bin mas'ud al-thaqafi saw certain muslims tend to pick up any expectoration that fell down from the prophet [pbuh]. he also saw them race to the water of his ablution and they almost quarrelled for it. there were others who competed to pledge allegiance to death and some others pledged not to flee from (the battlefield). among those people, were eminent companions like 'umar and abu bakr, who although dedicated all their lives to the prophet [pbuh] and to the cause of islam, but refused to carry out the messenger's ordres with respect to slaughtering sacrificial animals after the ratification of al-hudaibiyah peace treaty, the thing that perturbed and caused the prophet [pbuh] to feel anxious. however, when umm salamah [r] advised that he take the initiative and sacrifice his animals, his followers raced to follow his example; a clear evidence in support of the saying: actions speak louder than words, in the process of exterminating a deeply-established tradition.
hypocrites aroused a lot of suspicions and made a broad false propaganda against that marriage. their acts and talks about that marriage had ill-effects on those muslims whose faith was still weak, particularly that zainab was the fifth wife — and the noble qur'ân limited the number up to four only; zaid was traditionally his son, and so a father marrying his son's divorcee was a heinous sin in the eyes of the arabians.
al-ahzab surah was revealed to shed full light on the two issues, i.e. islam does not recognize adoption of children, and the prophet [pbuh] is given (by allâh) more freedom as regards the number of wives he can hold than other muslims in order to achieve noble and honourable purposes.
however, the treatment of the messenger of allâh [pbuh] to his wives was of honourable, noble, and superb nature. his wives were on tops in respect of honour, satisfaction, patience, modesty, and service (that is to say the performance of housework and marriage duties). although the messenger's house-life was hard and unbearable, none of his wives complained. anas said about the prophet's life: "according to my knowledge, the messenger of allâh [pbuh] has never tasted a thin flattened loaf in all his lifetime, nor has he ever seen with his own eyes roasted mutton." [sahih al-bukhari 2/956]
'aishah said: "over two months have elapsed — during which we have seen three crescents — and yet no fire has been kindled in the houses of the messenger of allâh [pbuh] (i.e. they did not cook food)." "what did you eat to sustain yourselves?" 'urwah asked. she said "the two blacks: dates and water" [ibid 2/956] . lots of information about the hard life of the prophet [pbuh] were told.
in spite of these hardships, straits and adversity of life in the house of the prophet [pbuh], none of his wives uttered a word of complaint worthy of reproach — but once. this exception was required by human instinctive inclinations. however, it was not so important and consequently it did not require the decree of a legislative rule. allâh has given them an opportunity to choose between two things, as clearly stated in the following verses:
"o prophet (muhammad [pbuh])! say to your wives: 'if you desire the life of this world, and its glitter, — then come! i will make a provision for you and set you free in a handsome manner (divorce). but if you desire allâh and his messenger, and the home of the hereafter, then verily, allâh has prepared for al-muhsinat (good doers) amongst you an enormous reward.'" [al-qur'an 33:28,29]
they were so noble and honest that none of them preferred 'the life of this world and its glitter' to the abode in the hereafter.
although they were many in number, nothing of the dispute occurrences that normally happen among co-wives, took place in their houses. very few cases could be the only exception; but they were quite normal. allâh reproached them for that, so they ceased to do such a thing. this incident is mentioned in at-tahreem chapter:
"o prophet! why do you ban (for yourself) that which allâh has made lawful to you …" [al-qur'an 66:1] (to the end of the fifth verse).
discussing polygyny — in my opinion — is not a necessity; since a person who is familiar with the europeans, and indecent practices, sufferings, wickedness, their sorrows and distresses, the horrible crimes they commit in this respect as well as the trials, the disasters that they are involved in, and which emanate directly from their disregard of the principle of polygyny form a good reason (to justify the soundness of polygyny). the distorted picture of life in europe with the ill-practices featuring it, could truthfully justify the existence and practice of polygyny. in this, there are divine signs for all people possessed of lucid mind.


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The CFB provides campaigns with several resources to assist them in complying with the Campaign Finance Act & Board Rules, as well as participating in the Campaign Finance Program.
Campaign Finance Handbook
The Campaign Finance Handbook is a user manual for candidates running for city office. The Handbook is a plain-language compliance guide, but is not a substitute for the Campaign Finance Act or CFB Rules. The Handbook is up to date as of July 2018.
Forms & Template
Campaigns will need to complete and submit certain forms to the CFB throughout the election. The CFB also provides templates for campaign use that may assist them in gathering necessary information for disclosure purposes.
These resources provide campaigns with supplemental information on specific campaign-related topics. They do not replace or supersede the Act, the Rules, or the Campaign Finance Handbook.
Special Elections
In New York City, special elections are held to temporarily fill vacancies in city offices resulting from an elected official's resignation, removal, death, or permanent incapacitation. Special elections are called by the mayor and are usually held on the first Tuesday at least 45 days after the office has been vacated.
How to File a Complaint
Members of the public who have knowledge of a specific action or lack of action that seems contrary to the rules and regulations regarding campaign fundraising, campaign or independent expenditures, or other activities under the CFB's jurisdiction may file a complaint with the CFB.
Doing Business FAQ
NYC has stringent restrictions on contributions from individuals doing business with the city. Learn more about these anti-"pay to play" regulations in the FAQ.
Consultant and Vendor Guide
This guide demonstrates best practices for the consultants and vendors that regularly work for campaigns. The guide includes information on the types of documentation that campaigns will request, as well as links to templates and sample documents.


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Healthcare sector is growing at a very rapid pace, which in turn has led to tremendous increase in the quantity of medical waste generation in developing countries, especially by hospitals, clinics and other healthcare establishments. The quantity of healthcare waste produced in a typical developing country depends on a wide range of factors and may range from 0.5 to 2.5 kg per bed per day.
For example, India generates as much as 500 tons of biomedical wastes every day while Saudi Arabia produces more than 80 tons of healthcare waste daily. The growing amount of medical wastes is posing significant public health and environmental challenges across the world. The situation is worsened by improper disposal methods, insufficient physical resources, and lack of research on medical waste management. The urgent need of the hour is to healthcare sustainable in the real sense of the word.
Hazards of Healthcare Wastes
The greatest risk to public health and environment is posed by infectious waste (or hazardous medical waste) which constitutes around 15 – 25 percent of total healthcare waste. Infectious wastes may include items that are contaminated with body fluids such as blood and blood products, used catheters and gloves, cultures and stocks of infectious agents, wound dressings, nappies, discarded diagnostic samples, swabs, bandages, disposal medical devices, contaminated laboratory animals etc.
Improper management of healthcare wastes from hospitals, clinics and other facilities in developing nations pose occupational and public health risks to patients, health workers, waste handlers, haulers and general public. It may also lead to contamination of air, water and soil which may affect all forms of life. In addition, if waste is not disposed of properly, ragpickers may collect disposable medical equipment (particularly syringes) and to resell these materials which may cause dangerous diseases.
In some countries, there may be legal remedies for such losses. For example, Floridians in the US can go to a medical malpractice lawyer in West Palm Beach. In others, especially developing countries, it may be harder to get compensated, and disease may be spread more easily as a result.
Inadequate healthcare waste management can cause environmental pollution, growth and multiplication of vectors like insects, rodents and worms and may lead to the transmission of dangerous diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis and AIDS through injuries from syringes and needles contaminated with human.
In addition to public health risks associated with poor management of biomedical waste, healthcare wastes can have deleterious impacts on water bodies, air, soil as well as biodiversity. The situation is further complicated by harsh climatic conditions in many developing nations which makes disposal of medical waste more challenging.
The predominant medical waste management method in the developing world is either small-scale incineration or landfilling. However, the WHO policy paper of 2004 and the Stockholm Convention, has stressed the need to consider the risks associated with the incineration of healthcare waste in the form of particulate matter, heavy metals, acid gases, carbon monoxide, organic compounds, pathogens etc.
In addition, leachable organic compounds, like dioxins and heavy metals, are usually present in bottom ash residues. Due to these factors, many industrialized countries are phasing out healthcare incinerators and exploring technologies that do not produce any dioxins. Countries like United States, Ireland, Portugal, Canada and Germany have completely shut down or put a moratorium on medical waste incinerators.
Alternative Medical Waste Treatment Technologies
The alternative technologies for healthcare waste disposal are steam sterilization, advanced steam sterilization, microwave treatment, dry heat sterilization, alkaline hydrolysis, biological treatment and plasma gasification.
Steam sterilization is one of the most common alternative treatment method. Steam sterilization is done in closed chambers where both heat and pressure are applied over a period of time to destroy all microorganisms that may be present in healthcare waste before landfill disposal. Among alternative systems, autoclaving has the lowest capital costs and can be used to process up to 90% of medical waste, and are easily scaled to meet the needs of any medical organization.
Advanced autoclaves or advanced steam treatment technologies combine steam treatment with vacuuming, internal mixing or fragmentation, internal shredding, drying, and compaction thus leading to as much as 90% volume reduction. Advanced steam systems have higher capital costs than standard autoclaves of the same size. However, rigorous waste segregation is important in steam sterilization in order to exclude hazardous materials and chemicals from the waste stream.
Microwave treatment is a promising technology in which treatment occurs through the introduction of moist heat and steam generated by microwave energy. A typical microwave treatment system consists of a treatment chamber into which microwave energy is directed from a microwave generator. Microwave units generally have higher capital costs than autoclaves, and can be batch or semi-continuous.
Chemical processes use disinfectants, such as lime or peracetic acid, to treat waste. Alkaline hydrolysis is a unique type of chemical process that uses heated alkali to digest tissues, pathological waste, anatomical parts, or animal carcasses in heated stainless steel tanks. Biological processes, like composting and vermicomposting, can also be used to degrade organic matter in healthcare waste such as kitchen waste and placenta.
Plasma gasification is an emerging solution for sustainable management of healthcare waste. A plasma gasifier is an oxygen-starved reactor that is operated at the very high temperatures which results in the breakdown of wastes into hydrogen, carbon monoxide, water etc. The main product of a plasma gasification plant is energy-rich syngas which can be converted into heat, electricity and liquids fuels. Inorganic components in medical wastes, like metals and glass, get converted into a glassy aggregate.


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Head of state: Paul Biya
Head of government: Philémon Yang
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice
Population: 20 million
Life expectancy: 51.7 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f): 151/136 per 1,000
Adult literacy: 75.9 per cent
The government continued to restrict the activities of political opponents and journalists and to stifle freedom of expression. One journalist died in custody. Detention conditions remained harsh and often life-threatening. People engaging in same-sex sexual relations faced arrest and imprisonment. Members of the security forces implicated in human rights violations in February 2008 continued to enjoy impunity. At least 77 prisoners were on death row.
Ahead of elections scheduled for late 2011, fears grew of potential instability after 28 years of rule by President Paul Biya. Opposition leaders accused the President of undermining the powers of the electoral commission, known as Election Cameroon (ELECAM). Parliament, dominated by the ruling Democratic Assembly of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), passed a bill in March giving the government oversight of poll preparations through the Ministry of Territorial Administration – a task previously carried out by ELECAM.
In September, President Biya reshuffled his government and replaced senior security service officials.
Armed clashes in the Bakassi region continued during the year. On 18 March the government announced that 19 soldiers of the elite Delta Rapid Intervention Battalion had been convicted for "acts of brutality against civilians" following clashes in February in the Bakassi Peninsula in which 24 civilians had been injured. Insecurity increased off the Bakassi coast, with boats being captured by a group calling itself African Marine Commando, and sailors being held hostage or killed.
In May, a Cameroon-Nigeria mixed commission started further demarcation of a disputed boundary that was settled by a decision of the International Court of Justice in 2002.
The government was reportedly planning to abolish female genital mutilation in its revision of the Penal Code.
Corruption charges
Dozens of former government officials and heads of state companies, some of them arrested during 2010, remained in custody awaiting trial on charges of corruption. Many of them claimed that the charges against them were motivated by political differences or jealousy.
- At the end of the year, prisoners Titus Edzoa and Thierry Atangana were on trial on new charges of corruption brought against them, barely two years before they were due to complete the 15-year prison sentence they received in 1997. Their trial in 1997 had been unfair – it ended in the early hours of the morning, without the assistance of legal counsel – and was apparently politically motivated. Titus Edzoa had resigned as a senior government official to stand for president and Thierry Atangana was accused of being his campaign manager.
Freedom of expression
The government sought to silence critics of its policies, including journalists and human rights defenders.
- Germain Cyrille Ngota, managing editor of the Cameroon Express, one of three journalists detained in March, died in custody in April. He was allegedly not given any medical treatment during his detention and members of his family claimed he had been tortured. A government inquiry, whose proceedings were not public, concluded that he had died from natural causes but its findings were disputed by journalists and human rights defenders. Robert Mintya, director of the magazine Le Devoir, and Serge Sabouang, director of the bi-monthly La Nation, who had been arrested with Germain Cyrille Ngota and claimed to have been tortured, continued to face charges of fraud and using false documents. Robert Mintya was assaulted by a fellow inmate in August and was hospitalized for several weeks as a result. Robert Mintya and Serge Sabouang were released in November, reportedly on the orders of President Paul Biya, but the charges against them were not dropped.
- The trial of three journalists and a teacher arrested after a televised debate in 2008 opened in January but was postponed at least six times during 2010. Alex Gustave Azebaze and Thierry Ngogang of the independent television channel STV2, Anani Rabier Bindji of Canal2 and university teacher Aboya Manassé faced charges of revealing confidential information for discussing Operation Epervier, a government anti-corruption initiative.
- Lewis Medjo, director of La Détente Libre newspaper, who was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in January 2009, was released in June.
- Former mayor Paul Eric Kingué and musician Pierre Roger Lambo Sandjo were serving prison sentences after they were convicted of involvement in the February 2008 riots. Human rights defenders in Cameroon maintained that Paul Eric Kingué was detained because he protested against unlawful killings of alleged rioters and Pierre Roger Lambo Sandjo because he composed a song criticizing the amendment of the Constitution that allowed President Biya to stand for president again.
Freedom of association and assembly
The government continued to curtail the activities of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), a non-violent secessionist group, whose members faced arrest and imprisonment. Non-violent activities of political organizations and civil society groups were similarly subject to official sanction.
- In November, seven trade union members were arrested following a public demonstration organized by the Central Public Sector Union (CSP) in front of the office of the Prime Minister in Yaoundé. They included Jean-Marc Bikoko, President of the CSP, and leading members of several education trade unions. They were charged with offences relating to an unauthorized demonstration, and their trial was continuing at the end of the year.
- Journalists protesting against the death in custody of newspaper editor Germain Cyrille Ngota were prevented by police from staging a sit-down protest on World Press Freedom Day in May. Some claimed to have been beaten by police.
Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
The Penal Code criminalizes same-sex sexual relations and even the National Human Rights Commission refuses to recognize and defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Arrests, prosecutions and trials of gay men continued during 2010 on a regular basis. Those imprisoned were prisoners of conscience.
- Fabien Mballa and Aboma Nkoa Emile were arrested on 24 March by gendarmes in Camp Yeyap, Yaoundé. They were sentenced by the criminal court of Yaoundé to five months' imprisonment and fines, and were held in Kondengui prison.
- Roger Bruno Efaaba Efaaba and Marc Henri Bata, who were arrested in September on suspicion of theft, but then accused of same-sex activities, were subjected to forced anal medical examinations in October, a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. They remained in custody at the end of the year.
Prison conditions
Prisons and other detention centres were overcrowded and conditions were often life-threatening. Medical care and food were often not provided or were inadequate. Disturbances and escape attempts were frequent, and several prisoners were killed during escape attempts. Prison guards were poorly trained, ill-equipped and their numbers inadequate for a large prison population.
Kondengui prison, which was built for 700 inmates, was holding 3,852 in August. Food, water and medical supplies were all in short supply. In one wing, known as Kosovo, there was not enough room for prisoners to sleep lying down. Another wing held mentally ill detainees who did not receive any psychiatric care.
Douala (New Bell) prison, with an official capacity of 700, held more than 2,453 inmates in August. Many of its inmates were in pre-trial detention and were held together with convicted prisoners. Some prisoners were held in leg irons.
Prisoners were reported to have died in Maroua prison because of the scorching heat, and in Ngaoundere prison as a result of cholera.
Government officials confirmed that no action had been taken against members of the security forces accused of human rights violations in 2008, when as many as 100 people were killed during protests against price rises and against a constitutional amendment that removed limits on presidential terms of office.
Death penalty
At least 77 prisoners were on death row, although no executions have been reported since 1997. There were concerns that a presidential decree issued in May to commute some death sentences to life imprisonment had not yet been fully implemented. Prisoners on death row were not informed why their sentences were not commuted.


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The RCA Studio II is one of the earliest games console to be made more accessible via a simple adaptation. In this case it was the use of a simple 'head-wand' that enabled the player to press down on the keypad by moving their head alone.
As well as being a good start for accessible gaming historically, this is also a good place to start for those brand new to emulation. Just don't expect too much from this machine as you will find things have come a long way since 1977.
N.B.Installing and using the RCA Studio II emulator games console is quite straight forward if you are using an older PC, and providing that you keep a handy note of the controls. However, some modern "64-bit" PC's will not be able to run this emulator, which is a bit rubbish. If you do get this emulator working, bear in mind that this machine has a number of in-built games available from the off.
Download the RCA Studio II Emulator then Unzip the file.
Double-click on the RCA red icon to start the emulator.
Upon starting you should see a blank window headed "WinStem". From here you may like to resize the window via clicking on "Display". Next take a note of the keys below. Player1 controls, as mapped to your PC's keyboard, are on the left-side, with Player2 controls (the numeric keypad) on the right-side. F1 resets the console.
Press "1" to begin. A white dot appears. Move it by pressing 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9 on the numeric keypad. Press numeric-keypad "5" to enter draw mode and "0" to enter erase mode.
Press "2" to begin. Form a simple design as for "Doodle". Press "0" on the numeric keypad to make the pattern repeat continuously - then press "5" to pause and "0" to restart.
Press "3" to begin. Players take it in turns. Player 1 uses "2" to hook up, "W" for straight and "S" for hook down. Player 2 uses numeric keypad "8" to hook up, "5" for straight and "2" for hook down. Plays up to 10 frames. More on Bowling here.
Press "Q" to start. Press "0" on the numeric keypad to start your engine. Control car via the numeric keypad using "4" and "6" to steer and "8" and "2" for accellerate or brake. Score given after 2 minutes. For a "hard" game, start by pressing "X".
Press "W" start. Add up the digits in the middle and press the appropriate key. The quicker you are the more points you get. Game lasts for 20 numbers. Tricky under emulation.
Take a short step over to the Games Showcase for the RCA Studio II for more games and some basic tips for making things a little more accessible. Includes possibly the first ever home one-switch game.
Much of the information on this page came from the RCA Studio II Emulator web-site set-up by Paul Robson.
LEGAL NOTICE: Many game ROMs remain the copyright of the original owners who may or may not be happy for them to be played under emulation. Put in the context of these games impossible to play in their original format for some disabled gamers and I would hope that attitudes would be more relaxed. Support developers by letting them know why you can't play their games and offer some solutions.


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Tidewater Chilifrom Entertaining Ideas from Williamsburg Ingredients:
Page 1 of 2 Tidewater Chili continued. Ingredients:
Directions: Sauté the onion and garlic in the peanut oil over medium heat. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs and spices, and simmer while cooking the meats. Cut the sausage into 1/2-inch pieces and brown. Drain and add to the tomato mixture. Brown the chuck in small batches; drain and add to the tomato mixture. Simmer for one hour. Add the beans and stir gently. Serves 18 to 20. Page 2 of 2
URL: http://www.history.org |


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There are many options available to adults and children when it comes to wearing corrective lenses (glasses and contacts) when engaged in physical activities.
Here is a look at the different modalities and the pros and cons of each:
Prescription Sports Goggles (i.e. Rec Specs)
The main benefits of goggles when playing sports are stability of vision and eye protection. When playing fast-moving sports, like basketball, soccer, rugby, etc., elbows, wrists, and heads are flying around at high speed, increasing the risk of eye injury. The eyes and eye sockets can be protected when covered by shatter-proof lenses. Additionally, there is no worry of having a contact lens pop out of your eye, which can be a debilitating experience for some people. The main drawback to goggles is that they can be cumbersome, decrease peripheral vision, and fog up. Additionally, very high prescriptions might not be available due to frame limitations. On the whole, this is a very good option for many people. One additional advantage to sports goggles is that in many cases you can have the lens made out Transition glasses, so the lens darkens in sunlight and lightens as it gets darker.
Contact Lenses
Far and away the best option for actually seeing when playing sports is contact lenses, particularly soft contact lenses. The main benefits include full field of vision, no fogging of lenses, and obviously no unsightly, heavy glasses on your face. But where sports goggles shine, contact lenses fall short: higher risk of injury, possibly less stable vision (especially when wearing multifocal or astigmatic lenses), and the potential of a lens falling out during activities. With modern contact lenses, this rarely happens, however. Gas permeable (hard) lenses are not recommended for sports.
Wearing Nothing!
For those whose prescriptions are not so high as to prevent proper functioning without correction, wearing no correction whatsoever is a fine choice. I'm often asked by parents whether their child absolutely needs to wear correction when they are playing sports. The answer is, it depends on how high the prescription is and the activity in which the child is engaged. If someone can see well enough to perform tasks without being hindered, not wearing any correction is perfectly fine.
There are plenty of options available for athletes. Visit your eye doctor to see what the best option is for your particular needs.
Article contributed by Dr. Jonathan Gerard
This blog provides general information and discussion about eye health and related subjects. The words and other content provided in this blog, and in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice. If the reader or any other person has a medical concern, he or she should consult with an appropriately licensed physician. The content of this blog cannot be reproduced or duplicated without the express written consent of Eye IQ.


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YouTube had a feature that allowed you to stop buffering a video. You right-clicked a video, selected "stop download" and YouTube no longer downloaded the video. This was especially useful for paused videos and long videos.
The feature is no longer available. I've tried both the Flash player and the HTML5 player.
The truth is that this feature is no longer needed because buffering stops when you pause a video. Try this: open a random YouTube video, wait a few seconds and then pause the video. Even after 5 minutes, YouTube's seek bar will look the same.
YouTube has a smarter way to download videos that uses adaptive streaming and only downloads what's needed. That's only the case for the Flash player: the HTML5 player works just like before.
Here's what happens when you play a video right now: YouTube downloads a lot of different sized text files that are merged.
The HTML5 player and the old Flash player download a single video file. The new Flash player slices the video and requests each slice separately (the project was referred internally as "sliced bread"). What's the point?
"The new player is keeping close eyes on the speed and health of your internet connection, explained [YouTube's Andy] Berkheimer: 'It's continuously monitoring the bandwidth and the throughput it is seeing,' he said, adding that it also keeps tabs on the size of your player. Are you watching a video in full screen? Then you can expect YouTube to send you more bits, as long as your connection is fast enough. (...) YouTube tends to be more aggressive in sending out higher-quality video, and then scales down the video if necessary, Berkheimer explained. The site also makes use of the fact that you often watch more than one YouTube video in a row, and optimizes your bit rate across an entire session. The results of these efforts have been encouraging. YouTube has seen buffering reduced by 20 percent since it launched adaptive streaming for its desktop player," reported GigaOM.
Adaptive streaming will come to the HTML5 player, then to the mobile players and the TV players. At some point, the settings that allow you to change video quality may disappear because they're no longer needed. Instead of having to adjust the video quality, YouTube could automatically change it for you depending on your connection speed.
Here's a video from Google I/O that offers more technical information about adaptive streaming, a feature that was implemented in 4 years:
June 22, 2013
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"It won't be one where a problem comes along and Government has to solve it and people will just passively follow," Dr Balakrishnan said. Smarter Security Melbourne
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What's the Controversy with Palm Oil (and is Sustainable Palm Oil Actually Sustainable)?
I'm guessing you've heard of palm oil. And I'm guessing that you've heard that it's bad, or at least, you heard it's bad for the orangutans. But if it's so bad, you're probably also wondering why all the companies that use it think it's so good, seeing as it's in around half of all packaged goods in the supermarket.
There's got to be a reason for that, right? Otherwise wouldn't they just swap it out for something else?
And what about certified sustainable palm oil? That sounds good, yes? So why do many environmental groups call for a boycott or ban on all palm oil, including certified sustainable palm oil?
Palm oil gets talked about a lot, but sometimes it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Here's the lowdown: what's so good about palm oil, what's so bad about palm oil, and what certified sustainable palm oil really means.
What Is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil, and it is produced from the fruit of the oil palms (a type of palm tree): primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, but to a lesser extent the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa. Palm kernel oil is a different oil, but it comes from the same plant – this oil is produced from the seed, not the fruit.
Oil palms are tropical rainforest plants, requiring high rainfall, humid conditions and warm temperatures. It grows best when planted 10° north or south of the equator. Oil palms are more productive when grown in plantations, fruiting after 2-3 years until 25-30 years, when they need to be replaced.
What's So Good About Palm Oil?
Oil palm trees produce more oil from less land than any other oil crop (5x the second-highest oil crop, rapeseed, 6x more than groundnut and sunflower oils, and more than 10x crops like soy bean or coconut oil). The trees also fruit continuously, making them a reliable crop to grow and accessible for smallholders.
The fruits and kernels also have lower production costs than other oil crops, which makes palm oil an efficient and profitable crop to grow.
Because of this, palm oil is the cheapest plant oil to produce (whilst still being profitable for the growers), which makes it popular for use in foods and toiletries. 10% of palm oil is currently grown to produce biofuel.
Palm oil is tasteless, and has a long shelf life compared to other plant oils. Another advantage of palm oil is that it is semi-solid at room temperature, and can be easily refined into liquid and solid oils. The solid fraction has a melting point of 35°C (95°F). Solid palm oil is used in baked goods and pastry as a cheaper (and dairy-free) alternative to butter, in chocolate and desserts as a much cheaper alternative to cocoa butter, and in dairy-free spreads.
In cosmetics it's a good foaming agent and considered preferable to using animal tallow (animal fat). It's often used in soap to create bars that are harder and last longer.
In the 1960s, with concerns around the high saturated fat content of animal products like lard and butter, manufacturers began making alternatives by hydrogenating vegetable oils low in saturated fat to make them solid. Partly this was driven by health concerns, but it was also cheaper to produce. These trans-fats was later discovered to be even less healthy than saturated fats and many countries are now legislating to remove trans-fats from food (there are bans in Europe and Canada).
This left manufacturers looking for an alternative, which they found in palm oil.
Very few plant oils are solid at room temperature: the main alternative is coconut oil which has a lower melting point of 24°C (75°F). Cocoa butter is very expensive, and shea butter is rarely used in food products. With the rise in demand for vegetarian and vegan products, palm oil is a good alternative for products that traditionally would use butter or animal fat.
'Good', of course, depends on your perspective.
What's So Bad About Palm Oil?
One of the biggest concerns with oil palms is that this demand for palm oil has meant a significant amount of deforestation, because forests are what grow on the land that is prime for palm oil plantations.
Deforestation means displacement of indigenous people and wildlife habitat loss as old growth rainforest is cleared to make way for new plantations. Animals that have lost their homes enter plantations looking for food: they are seen as a threat to the oil palm crops and considered pests, and often shot.
84% of all the palm oil produced worldwide comes from Indonesia and Malaysia. This also happens to be the only place in the world where orangutans live (on the islands of Borneo – which has both Indonesian and Malaysian territory – and Sumatra, which is Indonesian).
The WWF estimates there were over 230,000 orangutans in the wild a century ago, but their population has halved over the last 100 years, and the Sumatran orangutan is now critically endangered.
Orangutans might be the most famous victims of palm oil, but they aren't the only species at risk. The Sumatran elephant, tiger and rhino and the Bornean pygmy elephant are also threatened.
Land clearing isn't the only threat to wildlife – poaching and logging are also issues – although in Indonesia it can be easier to get a land clearing permit than a logging permit, so land is often cleared for logging under an oil palm permit, but no oil palms are subsequently planted.
Palm oil isn't just a threat for wildlife: it's a threat for the climate. Another concern with palm oil is that many areas used for oil palm plantations are natural peatlands. Clearing of peatlands and planting of oil palms in these ares increase risk of fire, and the UN suggests peatland fires contribute around 5% of human-caused carbon emissions.
Palm oil is also the 6th most heavily fertilised food crop in the world per hectare. Chemical nitrogen fertilisers are made using natural gas, which can react with nitrogen gas in the air during an exchange that takes place at 400-500°C. This requires fossil fuels not only for the reaction but also to get to these temperatures.
It is estimated that the nitrogen fertiliser industry accounts for 3-5% of all natural gas used and causes more than 1% of all greenhouses gas emissions produced worldwide.
What Is Certified Sustainable Palm Oil – and Is It Sustainable?
The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established in 2004 by a collective of industry representatives, environmental groups and social advocacy groups to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil products. It now has over 4,000 members worldwide, who have all committed to produce, source and/or use sustainable palm oil certified by the RSPO.
To support this, the RSPO have developed a set of environmental and social criteria which companies must comply with in order to produce Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). The RSPO trademark was launched in 2011, and RSPO currently certify about 20% of global palm oil production.
The RSPO is not without criticism. When the certification began in 2005 it was found to be complicated, costly and hard to implement. Many consider the standards to be weak, enforcement is limited and there is little retribution for non-compliance.
Certification can be given to palm oil plantations planted on land cleared of tropical forest, which begin as non-certified palm oil and later apply for the sustainable palm oil accreditation: this hides the reality that this certified plantation was recently tropical forest.
Studies have repeatedly shown that certified sustainable palm oil does not stop deforestation (although it may slow it down), it does not reduce the threat of fire or halt the decline in orangutan populations, and there are questions around whether it actually lifts people out of poverty.
Is 'Certified Sustainable Palm Oil' Greenwashing?
Many critics of the RSPO call it little more than greenwashing; a way for corporate palm oil stakeholders to look good to the public whilst continuing business as usual.
Some call for a full ban on palm oil, and many shoppers choose to boycott palm oil altogether.
Others critics argue that despite its flaws, a certification scheme for sustainable palm oil is still better than nothing at all, and it provides a way for organisations and companies to transition to more sustainable practices.
Supporters of the scheme, which include the WWF, argue that palm oil is necessary because it is cheap, more efficient than other oil crops, and provides economic benefits to the countries that produce it.
But production has roughly doubled every year since the 1970s, from around 2.5 million tonnes in 1970 to 75 million tonnes today (it's estimated to reach 240 million tonnes by 2050). It is hard to imagine that such rapid growth can happen in a way that is truly sustainable.
This continued demand means the threat to natural tropical rainforest areas remains as great as ever, as does the threat to wildlife.
What Can We Do About the Palm Oil Problem?
Start With an Audit of Your Pantry and Bathroom Cupboard.
If palm oil is something you're concerned about, the first thing to do is find out whether any products you're using actually contain palm oil.
If you live in Europe, an EU law on food information that came into force in 2014 requires that palm oil must be clearly labelled as palm oil: it cannot be called vegetable oil. The US FDA also requires that oils be declared by their common or usual name in food products.
However, in Australia there is no such requirement and palm oil can be labelled as vegetable oil. Most companies will have information about whether they use palm oil on their websites, or will answer requests for information, so you may have to contact them directly to find out.
With non-food products, palm oil may be labelled as Elaeis guineensis, which is the name given to palm oil by the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI).
So far, so simple. However there are actually over 200 ingredients in food and cosmetics that can be derived from palm oil (you can find the list here). If you come across an ingredient in a product, ask the manufacturer for clarification of its origins.
If a Company Uses Palm Oil, is it Certified Sustainable Palm Oil? Switch Out Non-Sustainable Palm Oil First.
Most companies who use Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) don't use the logo on their packaging, but they will be keen to tell you their sustainability credentials on their website or if you ask.
If your audit reveals a lot of products containing palm oil, a next step would be to find out which ones use CSPO and which ones do not.
This gives you a priority list of products to swap out first. Better to support a company at least trying to do better over one that is not.
As well as swapping products, it is worth telling both the company whose product you're no longer buying and the company whose product you're switching to why you're making the swap. Send a quick email, letting them know. This makes them aware that their customers are concerned about palm oil in products.
Slowly Switch Out Products that contain Palm Oil for Those That Don't.
One by one, as the things you buy run out, start looking for a palm-oil free version.
Some products are easy switches. Palm oil doesn't need to be in things like peanut butter, it's added in because it's a cheap filler. The same goes for chocolate bars: palm oil is simply cheaper than cocoa butter.
Some products are trickier. It may mean switching to a slightly different product (muesli over processed cereal) or it may mean deciding to make our own (and learning how to make our own).
The more processed a product is, the more likely it is to contain palm oil. Switch to less processed foods and less packaging and you'll reduce your palm oil consumption, naturally.
Ultimately, the problem isn't oil palms, it's the way we're using palm oil. Supporters of palm oil love it because its cheap. But do we really need to make more cheap fast food and processed snacks with empty calories?
Everything comes with a price. Cheap palm oil that results in deforestation, habitat loss, displacement of indigenous people, wildlife extinction and greenhouse gas emissions actually seems like a very high price to pay for low-cost shampoo and snacks.
Now I'd love to hear from you! Is palm oil something you're concerned about or not? Have you ever audited the products you buy to find out how many contain palm oil? Do you have any ideas for anyone wanting to reduce their palm oil? Anything else you'd like to add? Please share in the comments below!
All links to facts and figures can be found here.


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Born in Indiana to a Quaker family, Ned Rorem (October 23, 1923) grew up in Chicago, where he studied with Leo Sowerby, among others. Although he entered Northwestern at a normal age, his early career gives off an air of precociousness in his eager pursuit for independence. He soon transferred to the Curtis Institute, where he studied with Rosario Scalero, teacher of Samuel Barber and Gian-Carlo Menotti. However, he considered Scalero too inflexibly conservative and left, all 20 years of age, to become secretary and copyist to Virgil Thomson, in exchange for composition advice, especially regarding orchestration and prosody. The latter came in handy when Rorem began to write songs. He also studied at Tanglewood under Aaron Copland and at Juilliard, where he graduated with an MM degree in 1949.
However, Rorem had begun to attract serious attention in the late Forties for his songs. He had excellent literary taste and gifts for melody and for turning poetic structures into musical ones. In 1949, Rorem left for Paris, where he studied with Arthur Honegger. He lived in Paris – with time out for travels in North Africa (where he befriended Paul Bowles) – from 1952 to 1958. In Paris, he became part of the influential musical circle associated with Cocteau. He became friends with Jean Cocteau, Georges Auric, and Francis Poulenc, among others. Increased interest in his music in the United States prompted his return, where he taught off and on at Curtis and at various universities.
Nevertheless, Rorem became far better known for his diaries and polemical writing (sometimes the same thing) than for his music. Reviewed in The New York Times, the diaries may well have been the first time a homosexual artist reported on his intimate activities in great detail to a mainstream audience. Rorem has written that he simply didn't feel like lying about himself. Way before Stonewall and Gay Pride, the diaries caused a sensation (Rorem didn't hesitate to include Rimbaud-like detail and decadent adventure). Unfortunately, the sensation swamped the music. Rorem gets commissioned and performed, but not critically discussed – that is, taken seriously enough. This is a shame, because the music is quite good. Some of this lack of regard comes from the fact that Rorem is tonal but emotionally fastidious. He has used "advanced" techniques, and his harmonies can become rather stringent. Nevertheless, Rorem has argued that all music is fundamentally tonal. However, traditional development – catnip to most musical critics – doesn't particularly interest him. He finds other methods of coherence, often based in American popular music, although he rarely sounds like "pop."
Although he won the Gershwin Prize for his Overture in C and the Pulitzer for his instrumental Air Music, his songs and choral music have made the biggest impression. I'd single out the opera Miss Julie, the cycles Poems of Love and the Rain, The Santa Fe Songs, and War Scenes and the choral Pilgrim Strangers as especially fine. One distinction of his songwriting is his ability to set texts you wouldn't normally think of as suitable for singing. He is a genius at finding the emotional and structural crux of a text and giving those back in music. The instrumental works strike me as less direct but more interesting: the Overture in C, Air Music, three symphonies, a violin concerto, two piano concerti, the tone poem Lions, and A Quaker Reader either for organ or for orchestra. Again, you don't have traditional Haydnesque "signposts" to look for, but once you fasten on, Rorem takes you on remarkable rides. ~ Steve Schwartz


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Jenny Holt is a freelance writer, mother of two and contributor to my blog. She loves nothing more than getting away from it and taking her pet Labrador Bruce for long walks, something she can do a lot more now she's left the corporate world behind.
Have you ever declined an invitation to attend a work-related event? Perhaps you felt it wouldn't be a good use of your time, or it wasn't convenient since it was after hours. Or maybe you thought you'd feel uncomfortable and wouldn't fit it with the rest of the group. Whatever your reason, it may be time to take another look at networking and professional events.
Have an Icebreaker
Once you've secured your ticket to a professional event, you're probably anxious about how well you're going to network with others. When you walk into the room, quickly get the lay of the land. Look at where people are congregating (hint: it's probably the bar) and make your way there. As you're walking, think of an opening line you can use when you get there. When you get to the group, approach someone who is not already involved in a conversation and say something that's lighthearted and relevant to what's going on in the room.
If there's a long line at the bar, you could say something like, "I sure hope they have some wine left by the time we get up there!" If there's no line, and you can just walk right up, say, "Looks like we got here at the best time!" or words to that effect.
The other person will likely turn to you and either laugh or respond to you. At that point, you can extend your hand and give your name. After the other person responds with their name and shakes your hand, you can ask some questions, like where they work and what their connection is to the event. Now you're on your way.
Have a Pitch
Have a short speech you can give that tells people about yourself and what you do. This may be even shorter and more casual than the usual 'elevator pitch' since the person you're talking to is free to leave. Be sure to ask about the other person as soon as you've finished answering any questions the other person has about you.
Keep Moving
Your goal at an event is to talk to as many people as you can, so you'll need to keep moving. As soon as you've gathered some pertinent information from the person you're talking to, there is likely to be a natural lag in the conversation. This is your cue to make a graceful exit and talk to someone else. Of course, if you're seated at a dinner, this won't be possible. In that case, talk to as many different people at the table as you can easily converse with.
Follow Up
Make sure you get a business card from everyone you talk to and follow up within a day or two. You want the person to remember your conversation. Send an email, or connect on LinkedIn. Your message should include a reminder of what you talked about.
Follow these few guidelines, and you'll soon be working the room like a pro.


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This is my reinterpretation of the documentation on NuGet.org, modified to remove the public publishing steps, and to add local publishing steps and a source control reminder. This guide is intended to help enable the benefits of NuGet for proprietary code such as business-specific DLLs that are not fit for public distribution. There are plenty of details, options, features, and gotchas with NuGet that are not covered here, but this should hopefully be enough to help you get started.
Step 1 is to set up a private NuGet feed. You only need to do this once for your organization.
- You can find out how to do that using the official documentation here: Creating a private NuGet feed
- You should create a file share that you have at least "Change" rights on that points to the NuGet packages folder on the server where you configure the feed.
Step 2 is to write a cool or useful library (such as a DLL) in Visual Studio.
- Be sure to fill-in the project properties under Assembly Information, including the version number if you haven't.
Step 3 is to get the NuGet.exe file which is not included by default even if you have NuGet Package Explorer working in Visual Studio.
- Download NuGet.exe bootstrapper here: http://nuget.codeplex.com/releases/view/58939 . This is a "bootstrapper only" which means that the first time you run it, it will download the real NuGet.exe program and overwrite itself. Run it once from a command-line (just NuGet.exe) and you'll have the latest version (should be 600 KB or more).
Step 4 is to set up NuGet in your solution.
- Create a folder under your solution called "NuGet" and copy NuGet.exe there.
- Open the Package Manager Console window inside Visual Studio (under View... Other Windows... if you don't see it).
- At the PM> prompt, type dir and hit Enter. You should see the files and folders in your solution as well as the new NuGet folder that you just created.
- At the PM> prompt, type .\NuGet\NuGet.exe You should see the help for NuGet.exe printed in the console. If so, PowerShell is working and NuGet is in the correct place in the subfolder under your solution.
- At the PM> prompt, type .\NuGet\nuget.exe spec MyProjectFolderName\MyProjectName.csproj This assumes that there is a C# project called MyProjectName in a subfolder under MyProjectFolderName under the current directory. If so, NuGet will create a .nuspec file under the project subfolder. If you click the Show All Files button in Visual Studio, you should see it in the Solution Explorer.
- Right-click the file and choose "Include in Project". With the file selected in the Solution Explorer, hit F4 and ensure the Build Action is "None" and the Copy to Output Directory is set to "Do not copy".
- Open the file and update all fields that you feel are relevant. In particular, you should change the package ID field to be the name that you want the project to show as in the NuGet Package Explorer and get rid of any backslashes in the name. You can remove the children of the dependencies attribute if the package stands alone.
- Check-in your changes to Source Control! This should include the .nuspec file, and ideally the path and binary to NuGet.exe (if your organization permits keeping binaries in Source Control).
Step 5 is to package up your project.
- At the PM> prompt, type .\NuGet\nuget.exe pack MyProjectFolderName\MyProjectName.csproj This will run NuGet to package up the built project to a .nupkg file. This is the command that you will run every time you wish to update your NuGet package for publication.
- You can confirm that this file was successfully created by unzipping it and checking to see if your DLL is inside.
Step 6 is to copy your .nupkg file to the shared folder that you set up in step 1.
- You can do this with PowerShell in the Package Manager Console via COPY *.nupkg \\MyNuGetServerName\MyNuGetPathName$
Step 7 is to begin using your freshly created NuGet package in your team's other projects!


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Declaring that "it's an honor to be here," Savannah Guthrie officially took over the co-anchor seat alongside Matt Lauer on the "Today" show Monday.
"It truly is a new day around here," Lauer said in welcoming Guthrie as his latest partner. Guthrie arrived just 11 days after Ann Curry was thrown under the bus by NBC and made a tearful exit from the popular morning show.
Lauer, who according to some reports, pushed for Curry's ouster, said Guthrie brings "a great attitude and what we like to call a weird sense of humor."
"It's 7:02 and he's already calling me weird," Guthrie replied, with a smile.
Guthrie actually was in Curry's seat the day after the latter departed, but NBC didn't announce her promotion until after the show. The main "Today" crew had last week off.
Guthrie, 40, had been serving as the co-anchor of the third hour of "Today," alongside Natalie Morales and Al Roker, and as the show's chief legal correspondent.
Seen as a smart, funny and natural performer, Guthrie arrives at a crucial time for "Today," which has had its longtime morning ratings dominance challenged by ABC's "Good Morning America" in recent months. The network was reportedly eager to have a new co-anchor on board in time for the London Olympics, which begin July 27.
Guthrie, 40, clearly has the credentials for the job, and she already is proving to be adept when it comes to trading playful, off-the-cuff banter with Lauer, which was never one of Curry's strengths.
Still, she's in somewhat of a tough position. Fans of Curry, who feel that she got a raw deal, aren't likely to warm up to the new anchor. Not right away, at least. And if ratings don't pick up soon, it will be Guthrie getting the blame — not the old guys, Lauer and Roker.
But for now, it's all smiles and good vibes on the "Today" set, where Guthrie was feted with an expansive barrage of highlight clips ranging from her childhood, through her days as a whiz-kid law student and early stints as TV journalist. We learned that she can be a "shark" as an interviewer, that she's somewhat star-struck around celebrities and a bit of a klutz when it comes to sports.
We also learned (from her mom), much to her embarrassment, that her favorite book as a child was "Dreams Can Come True," about a cheerleader who fantasizes about being pretty and popular.
And now Guthrie's new dream begins.
"I'm so proud and honored to be in a place occupied by so many women I admire," she said. "… And I love being with you guys everyday."


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Having a baby is the equivalent of deciding that an uninterrupted night's sleep is overrated. But mothers hoping to get a little more shut-eye by formula-feeding should put that notion to bed. It's just not true, according to a new study in the December issue of Pediatrics published online Monday.
No matter whether moms breast-fed, formula-fed or did a combination of both, they got the same amount of sleep and considered themselves equally exhausted. Score one for the breast-feeding advocates, who hope this study gives women on the fence another reason to commit to breastfeeding, which conveys well-documented health benefits for baby — and mother. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies be exclusively breast-fed for six months and continue to receive breast milk for at least a year. (More on Time.com: Breast-Feeding: Not Just for Women?)
The research, from West Virginia University (WVU), also turns another new motherhood truism on its head — that annoying and completely unrealistic admonition to "nap when baby naps." (P.S. It has to do with sleep cycles; keep reading.)
"When a woman has a baby, she is given a whole Welcome to Motherhood basket of advice," says Hawley Montgomery-Downs, an assistant professor of psychology and coordinator of WVU's behavioral neuroscience program. "A lot is anecdotal and very little is supported by empirical evidence."
Most new mothers have likely heard that formula-feeding — and maybe a touch of rice cereal, as my grandma insisted — will help their babies sleep longer. It's true that formula takes babies longer to digest, while breast milk is processed more fully and quickly because of its composition. But even if bottle-fed babies are sleeping longer, their moms are not, say the researchers. (More on Time.com: Most Babies Sleep through the Night)
Miriam Labbok, director of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill calls the results a "helpful finding for the field."
"The perception is that the breast-feeding mom is up day and night, always breast-feeding," says Labbok. "But when you're bottle-feeding, you're up day and night always bottle-feeding, too."
That was borne out by the data collected from the new mothers, who were tracked from the beginning of the second week after their baby was born until the end of the twelfth week. The women — divided into groups who breast-fed, formula-fed and alternated back and forth — wore wrist actigraphs, a watch-like device that records movement to determine when sleep occurs. Each morning, they used a PDA to rank their sleep quality from 0 to 100. They also shared how many times they thought they awoke during the night and how long they thought they stayed awake. To top it off, whenever they fed their baby during the day, they would use the PDA to enter how sleepy they felt right then. (More on Time.com: Breastfeeding after Breast Cancer Is Okay)
This wealth of postpartum data yielded a surprising conclusion: there was no difference among the groups.
That, of course, raised other questions. "If it's true that breast-feeding infants wake up more often but their mothers don't, there has to be something going on," says Montgomery-Downs.
Maybe breast-feeding moms wake only to latch their babies on, then return to dreamland. I can certainly vouch for that happening. Or maybe formula-feeding moms catapult themselves into a more alert state as they pad downstairs, flip on the light to prepare a bottle and move around more than a breast-feeding mom. (More on Time.com: Breast-feeding: Does Guilt Play a Role?)
Yet even though these new moms are certifiably wiped out, they're not sleep-deprived: the 80 mothers surveyed reported getting 7.2 hours of sleep a night.
Yet even if they're not technically deprived of sleep, they are legitimately being deprived of good sleep. The moms tell of sleeping in bursts, a phenomenon the researchers refer to as "sleep fragmentation." "This is not a sleep disorder," says Montgomery-Downs. "This is what new moms do."
Since sleep fragmentation is the main issue with new moms' sleep, it makes little sense to nap alongside your baby — unless you know your baby is likely to snooze for at least 90 minutes, which is how long an adult's sleep cycle lasts. It's better to just go to bed early and take advantage of the longer chunks of sleep an infant typically experiences at night.
For those breast-feeding moms who crave the occasional night off that formula-feeding provides (since anyone can give a baby a bottle, while only Mom, obviously, can breast-feed), Montgomery-Downs suggests pumping in between sleep cycles, then handing off a bottle of breast milk to dad. (Pumping in the middle of the night when you don't absolutely have to sounds like a form of maternal waterboarding, but far be it from Healthland to dissuade you.) (More on Time.com: The 'Mommy Brain' Is Bigger: How Love Grows a New Mother's Brain)
Montgomery-Downs called the study's results "good, objective research" to fend off well-intentioned naysayers such as "practitioners and friends and mothers-in-law who say, 'We know it's hard, we know you're exhausted.'"
"It ought to be reassuring to breast-feeding moms," she says. "Stopping breastfeeding is not going to be the answer."
More on Time.com: