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Laura Jane Grace and Against Me! take the stage in Belgium earlier this summer.
On a sticky night in mid-June, the four members of Against Me! walked onstage at Amos' South-end, a narrow, two-story club just past the edge of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. Three wore some variation on the plain black T-shirt. Laura Jane Grace, the band's singer and star, had on skinny pants and a sleeveless black blouse that let the crowd see her lean, muscled arms, which were covered in tattoos.
At big arena shows, bands prime the audience with flashing pyrotechnics and a video intro. At dingy punk clubs, the options are limited, though a well-selected walk-on can help. This summer, Against Me! chose the opening snippet from "Gonna Fly Now," the tune that played while Rocky Balboa trained to fight Apollo Creed. The use of Bill Conti's trumpet riff—instantly evoking a hokey, inspirational montage—by a pop punk band with self-proclaimed hints of outcast rebellion (even though their last album debuted at No. 34 on Billboard and they've opened for superstar bands like Green Day) was a bit of a joke. But in the context of the show, it also made sense.
Until recently, the world had known Laura Jane Grace by her birth name: Tom (sometimes Tommy) Gabel. Gabel started to hint at a change this spring. He grew out his hair and went on a brief solo tour, previewing material from the band's upcoming concept album, which he said would center on the character of a transgender prostitute. Still, it wasn't until Grace née Gabel sat for an interview with Rolling Stone in late March, and the article was released in May, that the world understood he was becoming a she. Grace told the magazine about her struggles with gender identity, dating back to times as a child when she wished she had been born a woman. She announced the name change and said she would begin hormone treatments; she also clarified that she would remain with Heather, her wife of four years. Overnight, she became one of the more public transgendered stars in the country.
Onstage in Charlotte, the band launched into its opening song, "True Trans Soul Rebel," about the upcoming album's protagonist wandering at night, looking for companionship—an arc that finds no completion in the three-minute yarn. The song is propulsive, even joyous. At six foot two, Tom Gabel had towered over his bandmates; in heeled boots, Grace gained several inches. Black-polished nails glinted as she ran her hands across the guitar frets, and when she reached the repeated line in the bridge, "Who's gonna take you home tonight," the crowd latched on, carrying surfers through the air.
Before the fourth song, Grace took a break to address the crowd. "Thank you so fucking much," she said, making sure to direct appreciation to recently minted fans as well as those who'd stayed with the band for years. The pause (it came at the same point in three shows I saw, suggesting she'd given thought to its placement) segued into "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," which charts the disconnect between how the character in the song perceives herself and what the world sees. "Your tells are so obvious/-Shoulders too broad for a girl," the song opens, eventually leading to Grace's scream, "You want them to see you like they see every other girl/They just see a faggot." This could easily be read as a song about frustration and despair. But punks are misfits, and in the genre's long tradition of twisting a potential dig into a point of pride, Grace sang the lyrics with glee, as if in the fullest appreciation that she was onstage performing as a transgender woman, not to insults but to the crowd's welcome shouts of "We love you Laura."
Against Me! started as Tommy Gabel's solo singer-guitarist act in 1997, when he was 17 and a high-school dropout in Naples, Florida. He would later credit a police officer who slammed his head against a cop car when he was 14 with turning him on to anarchist views, a point often alluded to in Against Me!'s music, though without much political heft. After a few years, Gabel moved north to the college town of Gainesville and grew his act into a band. Over time, Against Me! would feature a Spinal Tap–esque cast of rotating drummers, but by 2003 the group had settled into a three-man core: Gabel, his high-school friend James Bowman on guitar, and Andrew Seward on bass. Drummer Jay Weinberg—son of E Street drummer Max Weinberg—joined in late 2010.
As it expanded, the band always remained Gabel's project, dependent on his charisma and persona: brash and spewing onstage, known to have struggled with drugs and alcohol, but in interviews, and in interactions with fans, kindhearted and soft-spoken, a Southern gentleman. The music is credited to the band, but Gabel is sole lyricist. The songs on their first record, 2002's Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose, express conventional suburban teen ennui in confessional-notebook style. What distinguished them was their spirit of merriment. In 2005, the band got attention with "From Her Lips to God's Ears (The Energizer)," an anti–Iraq War anthem with all the outrage of a high-school protester that ends in a plaintive wail: "Condoleezza." That same album featured Against Me!'s first video, which led to a Jimmy Kimmel appearance, a major-label deal, and inevitable cries of "sellout" from the corners of punk fandom that seek shelter from popularity. Still, the band kept its core following. By 2010's White Crosses, Gabel had become a father. He'd been playing for 13 years, long enough for him to wax nostalgic. "Do you remember when you were young," he sang in the chorus of "I Was a Teenage Anarchist," "And you wanted to set the world on fire?"
Against Me! is not the first band to start out with a loose, disjointed sound that slowly became more polished at some cost to the verve that first made it appealing. Early on, Gabel's voice had a rolling-growl quality, as if the lyrics passed over a gravel road of emotions at the back of his throat. He maintained that rasp in live shows, but it began to be smoothed away after the band joined a major label.
Playlist: Against Me!'s Best Songs
Grace is now 31 years old and making more mature music, but Against Me!'s audience hasn't dramatically broadened out to a wider demographic. Like many a band before—whether punk or pop—they play to an audience that is five to ten years younger, if not more. The crowd in Charlotte was mostly 20-somethings, but Against Me!'s prime audience may still be adolescents. Fan favorite "Sink, Florida, Sink" ends with a call-and-response: Grace singing, "They make all the right reasons to fuck it up," the crowd answering with juvenile elation, "You're going to fuck it up."
For a while, Against Me!'s diehard fans could be found at the annual Warped Tour, a summer rite of passage for high-school scenesters. The early years of punk showcased women like Patti Smith and Debbie Harry and even transgender stars like the former Warhol acolyte Wayne County, who became Jayne. But this particular subcultural offshoot was, by the 1990s and 2000s, intensely guy-dominated—disgruntled dudes playing to crowds of thrashing moshers, all with a self-conscious physicality. When one of Against Me!'s songs appeared on the Warped Tour compilation in 2006, only 2 of the 51 bands featured on the 2-disc set were fronted by a female lead singer. "I felt more and more like I was putting on an act—like I was being shoved into this role of 'angry white man in a punk band,'" Grace told Rolling Stone.
Looking back, you could see that Gabel had obliquely been addressing gender-identity issues for years. Songs that once struck the ear as typical in the genre of youthful alienation now seem to tell the story of a singer struggling inside an uncomfortable body. Gabel essentially came out in 2007's "The Ocean," with the line "If I could have chosen I would have been born a woman/My mother once told me she would have named me Laura," a reveal that elicited rapturous applause when Grace sang the song this summer.
"When things really begin to change is when the social culture changes," Vice President Joe Biden said in a May appearance on Meet the Press when he announced he was "comfortable" with same-sex marriage—a move that helped trigger President Barack Obama's announcement of personal support for gay marriage a month later. "I think Will and Grace probably did more to educate the American public," Biden said, "than almost anything anybody's ever done so far."
With the exception of Chaz Bono on last year's season of Dancing with the Stars, and a few other celebrities—the numbers are just now starting to grow—transgendered individuals haven't had anywhere near the representation in mainstream pop culture as gays and lesbians. This may be at least a small part of the reason the T has been left behind as LGBT rights have been progressing. Early in Obama's presidency, when Democrats controlled the House and the Senate, the inclusion of gender identity helped derail passage of the national Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Only 16 states and Washington, D.C., protect citizens from discrimination based on gender identity. Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas refuse to reissue birth certificates to reflect sex-reassignment surgery.
The term transgendered doesn't actually indicate what gender one is attracted to. A transgender woman may like men or, as in Grace's case, she may like women. With its fluidity, its loosening of the polarized concepts by which we define our identity, being transgendered presents a different challenge than being gay does to a recalcitrant culture. But the culture does seem primed, potentially, for change. For many socially conscious millennials, gender and LGBT equality have become a driving cause. Our elders' opposition to LGBT rights seems antiquated, like the outlandish, premodern concept of separate but equal.
Grace told Rolling Stone that the only time she saw transgendered people on TV growing up was in The Silence of the Lambs and The Crying Game (in her words, the "fucking scary tranny" and the "sad tranny"). Today, thanks to the Internet, medical information and personal accounts about what a transition involves are more available. The community Against Me! has built through social media is another source of support that probably wouldn't have existed a few years ago. Last March, Grace seemed, understandably, at the start of a learning curve. A couple of months later, granting her first TV interview to MTV, she could discuss legal implications as well as medical details with more fluency. As she explained then, she eventually plans to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. But first, in accordance with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's standards for care, she must live as a woman for a year prior to surgery. She is still wary of a tracheal shave of her thyroid cartilage, smoothing out the Adam's apple but carrying the risk of changes to her vocal cords.
"There are going to be a lot of things about me and in my life that don't line up, and that's OK," Grace said during her MTV interview. "Like the fact that I identify as female, that my name is Laura, that I want you to call me she or her, but that I'm fine with my daughter calling me Daddy. That might not line up for some people, but that's all right."
For the Charlotte show, Against Me! was the headline act, but less than three weeks after Grace came out, the group started traveling as the opener for The Cult, a band coasting on songs from the 1980s. The Cult-headlined shows tended to pull in an older audience. Given the generation gap, I went to a few of them this summer half-afraid to see someone disgusted or outraged by the gender-bending opener.
At a show in Philadelphia, I stood next to an '80s rock couple, the man sporting a handlebar mustache and leathery skin, his arms wrapped around the woman, who wore a tight dress and a face that couldn't be natural. It was clear that they weren't familiar with Against Me! Still, they began to bop along, smiling. As a rowdy group of Against Me! supporters rushed the stage, the Cult crowd looked on bemused but friendly from the edges. One fan near the center thrust his arms up, hands clasped in a makeshift heart. Another shouted, "I love you Tom!" A third leaned over and offered a low-key rejoinder: "It's Laura now."
Every transgender person must navigate tricky waters: legal ramifications, impact on family and work life. Though deeply personal, this is by nature also a partly public process. But rarely have the early stages of the process been this public. Reportedly, Grace's father has cut lines of communication for now; her wife, Heather, and their toddler daughter toured with the band this summer. Grace has made early stabs at turning her concerts into events that will increase the visibility of trans rights. The new songs that address her identity are some of Against Me!'s best work since their early years.
At several shows this summer, Against Me! broke from their back-catalog set list when they returned to the stage for an encore. In Charlotte, to an at-first-muted crowd, they launched into a cover of a 1984 song by the Replacements about two people named Dick and Jane. That seminal Minneapolis band liked to play with boundaries: Guitarist Bob Stinson was not shy about donning a tutu before drunkenly stumbling onstage. But this was an early Replacements outlier, driven by piano and a lilting croon by singer Paul Westerberg instead of the usual rowdy guitar and drum. "Don't get him wrong and don't get him mad/He might be a father, but he sure ain't a dad/And she don't need advice that'll center her/She's happy with the way she looks/She's happy with her gender," Grace sang as Against Me! rolled through a bluesy cover of "Androgynous." "Same hair, revolution/Same build, evolution/Tomorrow who's gonna fuss?"


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Why did Japan's gymnastics coach have $100 bills in his hand to file appeal?
Operating within the rules and regulations of gymnastics, a Japanese coach handed over a wad of $100 bills to the governing body of the sport on Monday night in order to file an appeal on behalf of his athlete.
Kohei Uchimura awkwardly stumbled off the pommel horse in the final event of the men's team competition. His resulting score left Japan in fourth place. But team officials protested that his fall had actually been a dismount and should have earned points based on gymnastic's (confusing) scoring system.
International rules dictate that an appeal fee must be paid in order to file a protest. Japanese officials quickly rounded up a number of large bills and sent a coach, armed with cash and the proper forms, to appeal.
[ Related: Japanese appeal in gymnastics gives them silver medal, bumps Ukraine ]
Reports differ on how much Japan had to pay, but a report from earlier in the Olympics had a similar appeal costing $500 for the Indian boxing team. Judging by the thickness of the money stack and the paper clip attached to the Japanese protest, $500 seems like a reasonable estimate.
Had Japan lost the appeal, the money, however much it was, would have stayed with the gymnastics federation. (What happens to it then is anyone's guess. It likely would have been put to use within the sport: ie, going into picking up that night's dinner tab.) Japan won the appeal when it was ruled that Uchimura had dismounted and should have been awarded .700 additional points. That correction moved Japan from fourth to silver-medal position.
All of which leads to the question: Why does a nation have to put up $500 in order to correct a clear mistake made by judges?
The gymnastics federation wanted to cut down on frivolous challenges and make the process more streamlined. It all stems from a 2004 controversy involving American Paul Hamm, who was asked to hand back his gold medal in the men's all-around in Athens after it was determined that judges improperly scored a routine from the bronze medalist.
[ Related: Japanese equestrian defies Father Time as oldest competitor at London ]
It was a typical decision of big, disorganized groups: React to a bad situation by over-correcting. The process may be more open now. But in going for fairness, these international federations accomplished the opposite. Big countries like Japan, China, Russia and the United States will have no problem covering the fee. What about athletes who don't travel with large teams and groups of officials? Tuesday, there's a boxer fighting from Mozambique, a country that brought six athletes to London. Some gymnasts are solely representing their nation. Is going to the ATM to protest a call a viable option for them?
How big a problem were frivolous appeals in the first place? Did gymnastics teams appeal any decision that went against them? Was it taking hours to get through events because the coach from Romania challenged everything? Since judging decisions aren't subject to protest, there's not exactly a long list of things a coach could complain about. It's certainly not so big an issue that it needed to lead to the shady visual of money changing hands on the floor.
Related Olympics coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
More Olympics coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Dr. Dre gives headphones to Olympians, angering IOC in marketing controversy
• Poor weather could force Olympics officials to reschedule some events
• Afghani female sprinter resists country's old ideals

subset: commoncrawl


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If the Red Wings had beaten the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of their opening round Stanley Cup playoff series, it would have fallen under the realm of, "Too good to be true."
The Red Wings are an eighth seed. The Bruins are the top seed, not only in the Eastern Conference, but the NHL overall.
It doesn't mask, however, that the Red Wings' 4-1 defeat Sunday was disappointing.
It's understood they don't give out style points. A win is a win. A loss is a loss.
However, the Red Wings did exactly what was necessary to win a road playoff game against a rugged opponent in Game 1. And the opposite was true in Game 2.
Goalie Jimmy Howard allowed two inexcusable goals in the first period Sunday.
After the Red Wings pulled to within one after a goal by Luke Glendening in the second period, they allowed a quick odd-man rush, and the dastardly Milan Lucic scored for Boston. Early in the third period, Howard didn't corral a rebound and Zdeno Chara scored inside.
The Bruins had many better scoring chances. Howard didn't come up with the improbable stop or two, which saved the Red Wings' bacon in Game 1 before Pavel Datsyuk's thrilling game winner — and yielded questionable goals.
The Red Wings can't allow four goals and anticipate winning a playoff game, especially against the Bruins, who displayed more urgency Sunday than Friday.
Now that's the glass half-empty part.
The glass is still half-full.
The Red Wings were able to gain a split at Boston. It's the definition of "great shape."
The beginning of the series wasn't discouraging in any sense for the Red Wings.
There has been a lot of focus on what the Red Wings have been doing defensively. It's understandable.
Hockey, however, isn't a one-way game. The difference between the Red Wings now and 10 years ago is on the offensive end.
The Red Wings have scored two goals in two games. A goal per game isn't going to win this series - or any other.
When the Red Wings surged to make the playoffs for a 23rd straight season, it was Gustav Nyquist who broke loose on a scoring surge.
Youngsters Nyquist and Tomas Tartar are capable of scorers — and they need to put the puck in the net.
But this is more than a "kids" thing. The Red Wings acquired Daniel Alfredsson for a playoff run. He was a non-factor in the first two games. With Ottawa, he scored 100 points and 51 goals in 121 playoff games, including 10 points in 10 games last season. Johan Franzen carries a reputation for "scoring goals in bunches." Hey, the Red Wings could use a bunch about now.
David Legwand was acquired at the trade deadline with the hope he'd fill a void at center ice in the playoffs. He played 20 minutes per game in 22 playoff games the last two times Nashville got in, and scored nine goals. He wasn't that type of threat in Game 1 and Game 2.
Also, avoid the scrums. Nothing was more symbolic of the Red Wings' issues Sunday than Brendan Smith actually squaring off with the massive Chara for a minute.
The Red Wings need to just skate away and play their game. That doesn't mean lack physicality, but there is no point in getting involved once the whistle blows.
The Red Wings got a real good gauge of what this series is about. Game 1 was ideal. Game 2 presented the wrong approach.
The rest of the series will depend on how well the Red Wings learned their lessons, both good and bad, in Boston.


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[Leogane, Haiti; January 23. Image via Getty]
A girl runs with a bottle of water distributed by a Sri Lankan United Nations unit January 23, 2010 in Leogane, Haiti. The Sri Lankans handed out food and water donated by the US for earthquake relief. AFP PHOTO/Stan Honda (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)


text: Because of the lack of choices among global balanced funds, consider these three exchange traded funds from PowerShares. By Thomas M. Anderson, Contributing Editor June 16, 2008 If you wanted to put all your eggs in one basket and forget about them, a global balanced fund seems hard to beat. Such an all-in-one fund invests in a broad range of stocks and bonds in the U.S. and overseas. You don't have to figure out how to distribute your money among different assets or markets. All you have to do is find a fund you trust.And therein lies the rub. Very few global balanced funds are worth a hoot. The standouts in the category carry sales charges and charge high annual fees. That's why three exchanged traded funds from Invesco PowerShares are so intriguing. The ETFs -- Autonomic Balanced NFA Global Asset Portfolio (symbol PCA), Autonomic Balanced Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio (PAO) and Autonomic Growth NFA Global Asset Portfolio (PTO) -- are global balanced funds and the first of their kind to trade on a U.S. exchange. They track a sophisticated index that covers stocks, real estate, bonds, commodities and currencies in the U.S. and foreign markets. Each PowerShares fund has a different mix of stocks and bonds: A 60-40 split for the balanced fund, a 75-25 split for the balanced growth fund and a 90-10 split for the growth fund. Each is a fund of funds and holds 27 different ETFs. All but nine of the underlying fund holdings are PowerShares ETFs. Advertisement If you buy these funds of funds, you have to trust the black box built by New Frontier Advisors. Hardly a household name, the Boston research firm made its bones telling institutions where to put their money. New Frontier created a patented process that determines how to allocate money among a wide spectrum of assets -- everything from emerging markets debt to stocks of very tiny companies to gold and oil. The process aims to keep trading costs low and usually adjusts the indexes quarterly, unless there are wild swings in the markets. The PowerShares funds are untested. Launched May 20, their short track records tell you nothing meaningful. But looking at the performance of the underlying indexes can give you a clue about how the funds behave. Over the past five years through May 31, the New Frontier Global Dynamic Balanced index -- the one followed by the most conservative PowerShares fund -- returned an annualized 15%. That beats the five-year annualized gain of the typical global balanced fund by an average of two percentage points per year. (New Frontier's balanced growth index had a five-year annualized gain of 17% and the growth index returned 19%.) But you can't eat index returns, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. So the other feature of the PowerShares funds that any indexer can appreciate is their relatively low fees. The funds carry an annual charge of 0.25% of assets for managing the portfolio of ETFs plus the 0.50% to 0.61% per year for the expenses of the underlying ETF funds. So investors are looking at all-in cost of 0.75% to 0.86% per year depending on which fund they pick. That's pricey for most ETFs but rock-bottom when it comes to costs for global investing. The average global balanced fund has an expense ratio of 1.2%, according to Morningstar. The critters from PowerShares aren't for every investor. Most do-it-yourself investors want to create their own blend of stocks, bonds and foreign investments. But if you like the simplicity of an index and the diversification of a balanced fund, these ETFs are worthy contenders.


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- Minimum Rating
- 10 ekW (10 kVA) 10 ekW (10 kVA)
- Maximum Rating
- 13 ekW (16.5 kVA) 13 ekW (16.5 kVA)
- Frequency
- 50 Hz or 60 Hz 50 Hz or 60 Hz
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John Leguizamo To Star in ABC Comedy Project Based on His Life
Dec 12, 2012 8:16 PM EST
ABC really wants to be in the John Leguizamo business. Just days after it passed on the pilot Kings of Van Nuys, which had starred Leguizamo, the network has picked up another project based loosely on the actor's life. The new untitled Leguizamo come… Read more


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Privacy and security settings
Keep your information safe with Firefox for Android's privacy and security settings.
- Private Browsing on Firefox for Android Private Browsing on your mobile device is great for viewing websites incognito - without saving information about the sites you visit.
- Does Firefox share my location with websites? Learn what information Firefox sends to web sites about your location and how to use and manage location-aware features of your browser.
- Tracking Protection in Firefox for Android Firefox for Android's Tracking Protection feature uses a list provided by Disconnect to identify and block trackers.
- How does Firefox for Android use the permissions it requests? When installing Firefox, Android asks you to grant a number of permissions. This article explains what these permissions mean and how they are used.
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Event box
Monday Meditation
Please join us in the library for lunchtime meditation. We will meet in the Fireside Room every Monday from noon-1:00pm throughout the semester. Participants will learn basic meditation techniques to better manage stress and increase focus. This is a secular meditation group and all are welcome (students, faculty, and staff).
For additional information, contact Will Breitbach (firstname.lastname@example.com).
- Date:
- Monday, December 17, 2018
- Time:
- 12:00pm - 1:00pm
- Location:
- Fireside Room (Room 253)
- Campus:
- Main Campus
Event Organizer
William Breitbach
Carey Castagnoli


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ncka needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 26 designs submitted by 10 freelance designers.
I am working on a new site to cover the growing worldwide activity of fishing from a kayak. I need a great snappy logo for the site.
Kayak Fishing Planet
Accepted File Formats:
Vector and JPEG or PNG
This is a new website I am putting together and would like a simple stylish and easy to recognize logo. Under 4 colors preferred but not required.
My site is called Kayak Fishing Planet so the logo should convey the global nature of the site and the sport. One thought that came to mind was someone fishing from a kayak "wrapped" around a globe.
Also note that I would prefer the kayak in the logo to be a sit on top variety, not the more traditional sit inside variety. A decent site to look at for examples of what these look like, with pictures of people fishing out of them is http://www.oceankayak.com/fishing/
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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vitalrec.com - Vital Records Information - Virginia
Resources to help you obtain a birth certificate, death record, marriage license and more by mail or online.
WorldVitalRecords.com - Marriages of Goochland County, Virginia, 1733 - 1815 $
Marriages of Goochland County, Virginia, 1733-1815. Kathleen Booth Williams. (1960). Goochland County, Virginia was carved out of Henrico County in 1728 and was the parent, direct or indirect, of nine other Virginia counties. The Goochland County marriage register upon which this work is based was originally compiled by the staff of the Virginia State Library and subsequently transcribed by Mrs. Williams. In all, it refers to some 3,000 brides and grooms and to another 2,000 associated persons (parents, sureties, and witnesses) mentioned in the register.
United States » Virginia » Counties » Henrico » Birth, Marriage, Death
2 Links


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Discussion (29) ¬
I might not trust the Lilitu, but I trust Quetzalcoatl. It was right of the Lilitu to send him here, then, and they gain a bit of credence through association.
Either way, dude should listen to Quetzalcoatl: His father is not going to just give up, and neither is his inner Antichrist.
I swear, sometimes, parents just make plans to screw up your plans! Shopping trip over the weekend, family outing on the day of the big party, end of the world before your thirteenth birthday… Sometimes, they can be so selfish!
"Quetzalcoatl seems to want to avoid the end of the world?"
Well… duh. The world is where he keeps all his stuff!
dang i was going to say that but it looks like i was beat to the punch… oh well maybe next apocolypse
Don't worry, once this one is stopped they'll just reschedule in a few years
Guess I was right, after all.
Ok, quetz, may I call you "Quetz?" How exactly should Laz "work things out" with his father?
I think that was a rhetorical question on Quezalcoatyl's part. Both he and Lilith seem to know what they are dealing with, a loud mouthed little brat, the proverbial loose cannon on deck and a little pain in the a** that needs to be contained…
Tezcatlipoca was always better at coercing people. Maybe he should be having this conversation. Then again, it'd probably end in rape if he did. :/
I really like the second panel today, Laz looks a lot more evil and sophisticated (not to mention more like a bad ass) when he is in silhouette. Though the bad ass part may be from Quetzalcoatl but that touch of red from Laz's eye certainly does not hurt.
Have you done any research on what the Mormon's view of Quetzalcoatl are? Those silly Mormons.
Are any of Quetzalcoatl's brother going to make an appearance? That be interesting (and probably chaotic)
This is…. going to be fun. I wanna see what Quetz is gonna do with this brat. If I remember correctly, as the god of learning and knowledge, he really did like to teach people things.
Then again, as the god of rivers, he could also go make Laz soak his head. Quite literally.
Yes, I'm very interested.
Love that creepy panel where they're all in shadows!
BTW, if Lil is Laz's mom, and Satan is his dad…That means they obviously copulated correct? How did that come to be? When the two of them are together they certainly don't act like old lovers XD
Not a pretty thought. I don't think lilith did it willingly, her early comments "I can't believe I'm doing this" and "you'll get yours, prince!" suggests she was raped by the devil while in her human form and forced to give birth to the 'Destroyer". and is now showing a maternal instinct to protect her unruly, angry child as well as revenge for how the devil mistreated her. The known universe under the Devil's dominion probably did'nt appeal to her either, as she originally was an old nature demon forced into serving him…..
hmm, If someone was to do the voice of quetz who would it be?
Morgan Freeman. Hands down.
Or claws, hooves, tails or whatever you have in place of hands…
James Earl Jones might be good, too.
Ah, man. Hopefully you get to the Greek gods soon, because I want to make a crack at them, cuz of all the gods, they're the most renowned for being selfish and petty. I'd make a joke at this one, but I don't know much on Native American mythology, aside from some of it was brutally gory, and others were just worshiping of spirits. x3
Regardless, we've already seen succubi, hellhounds, tainted satyrs, Native American gods, and crazy warlocks. I can't even begin to predict what's coming next, save maybe a Japanese yokai or something.
ooh i would love to learn what it is the aboriginal Australians worship(ped), that whole Dreaming thing is fascinating, and i love didgeridoo music, totally hypnotic
ALWAYS listen to the god of chocolate.
i think Mark Hamil would be an interesting choice for Quetzs voice. For some reason i hear him in my head sounding like the joker from the batman cartoons
maybe its the smile..
i'd groan too, father-son confrontations are dreadful


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Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino's Jockeys vs. Joes Poker Tournament raised more than $8,000 Feb. 24 for the Gulfstream Park Thoroughbred After-Care Program (www.gpaftercare.com) and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (www.pdjf.org).
The tournament, which featured a $10,000 guarantee and door prizes, drew more than 200 people, including jockeys John Velazquez (Chairman of the Jockeys' Guild), Joe Bravo, Alex Solis, Edgar Prado, Julien Leparoux, Kent Desormeaux, Rajiv Maragh, Manoel Cruz, Jeffrey Sanchez, Jesus Castanon and Daniel Centeno, trainers Todd Pletcher, David Fawkes and Joe Orseno, and retired Hall of Fame rider Angel Cordero.
After more than six hours of play, three players – Victor Terenek, Mario Defoy and Pletcher, Gulfstream's leading trainer the past eight consecutive years – agreed to a chop of the prize pool.
"This was a very special and significant event due to the support of our fans, jockeys, trainers and owners," said Gulfstream Park President and General Manager Timothy Ritvo, via a press release. "It's imperative that we support these worthy organizations that meet the day-to-day needs of our disabled jockeys and retired equine athletes. Our hope is events like this will continue to grow and shine a light on these much-needed and valuable causes."
The Gulfstream Park Thoroughbred After-Care Program was established in February of 2011 by Frank Stronach to help match retired thoroughbreds with loving owners who will provide a lifetime commitment to their health, safety and well being, the release says.
The Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) was incorporated in the spring of 2006. It was a collaborative effort of many leaders in the horse racing industry, including race tracks, jockeys, horsemen, and many others who had a vision of a program that would bring them financial assistance.


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Every September, Stuttgart hosts the Cannstatter Wasen, Baden-Württemberg's largest festival and one that is ranked as the second-biggest beer festival worldwide after Munich's Oktoberfest. Swabians have a reputation for frugality, but the Cannstatter Wasen shows them in a very different light – as happy, friendly, fun-loving folk with a sense of tradition.
Every year from late September until well into October, hundreds of showmen, breweries and traders set up their tents and stalls at the Wasen, the huge festival grounds in Stuttgart's Neckarpark. Swabian gemütlichkeit and a positively electric party mood in the many beer tents set the Wasen apart from the many other fairs in this region. Millions of visitors join in the excitement, enjoying thrills and spills on the traditional and the modern rides, and savouring a variety of Swabian, German and international food. This is one of Germany's sunniest regions, so wine belongs at this fair just as much as fresh, frothy Württemberg beer, both of which are best enjoyed with friends. Get to the tents early because they soon fill up and close when they reach capacity. Fortunately there are plenty of them, all offering free admission, because everyone wants to have fun at the Wasen, the big, friendly, traditional fair for the whole family.
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President Barack Obama will nominate John Brennan, the White House homeland-security and counterterrorism adviser, to be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to multiple reports.
According to Politico, Brennan's nomination will come this afternoon at the White House and will be a package deal with Obama's nomination of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense.
If confirmed by the Senate, Brennan would succeed Mike Morell, the agency's acting director. Brennan would be the next full-time appointee after David Petraeus, who resigned in November over an extramarital affair.
Brennan has a quarter-century of experience in the CIA. In the Obama administration, he was heavily involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Obama considered nominating Brennan in 2008, but he faced backlash over his role in enhanced interrogation techniques in the Bush administration. Brennan denied he was involved in any enhanced interrogation methods, including waterboarding, but he took his name out of the running.


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Get Five Stars API
The Get Five Stars API allows to integrate feedback, recommendations, and surveys features into web services and mobile applications. It provides protocols in JSON and REST. Client ID and private Key are available by contacting firstname.lastname@example.com. Get Five Stars is a customer feedback service that helps users organize and streamline the process of requesting and displaying customer reviews . It integrates with several review sites including Google, Yelp, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Foursquare and more.


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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Threatened Journalists, Tehran Claims the South Pole, and the End of Olympic Wrestling (Arseh Sevom)
Friday, February 22, 2013 at 11:09 | Scott Lucas in EA Iran, Middle East and Iran
An embrace between US and Iranian wrestlers in the 2012 Olympics --- but it may not happen again
The Ministry of Intelligence, not letting up on the "enemy" BBC Persian, continues to arrest, hold, and harass journalists and filmmakers.
Meanwhile, Jafar Panahi receives international acclaim despite being under house arrest and banned from filmmaking.
The South Pole could become a vacation spot for New Year revelers if Iran's claim to some of its vast territory holds up.
The Supreme Leader chastises President Ahmadinejad and the Larijani brothers for their very public dispute.
And Iran and the US finally agree on one thing: removing wrestling from the Olympic games is just tragic.


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This is an original 14 x 11 inch acrylic painting on gallery depth canvas, framed in a white wood shadow strip frame, comes wired and ready to hang. Signed in the bottom corner.
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EVANSTON – Courtney Roos has been selected as one of 78 students across the state by Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana for inclusion in the 2011 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in recognition of outstanding merit and accomplishment.
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When Sony Mobile announced that its leading 2012 products would be getting upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Xperia S owners were left in the lurch, with no timetable for the arrival of their update.
But today it seems an announcement may be near -- on its official Twitter account, Sony Mobile UK has promised details on exactly when Android 4.1 will hit the Xperia S by "mid-December." For the moment that's all Sony is saying on the matter, although the Xperia S is definitely confirmed as being in line to receive Android 4.1, as per the previous announcement.
Sony's Jelly Bean upgrade roll-out is set to commence in "mid-Q1 2013," according to a statement released by the company in late October. The first handsets in line for upgrade will be its late 2012 flagships, the Xperia T, Xperia TX and Xperia V.
Fingers crossed, Xperia S owners -- hopefully your Jelly Bean update won't be far behind.
Source: Twitter, via: XperiaBlog


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DailyDirt: Learning How To Do Math Like A Boss
from the urls-we-dig-up deptSome people claim that they are not "math people" -- that their brains just don't understand mathematics that way "normal" people are supposed to learn it. Perhaps that's true for some, but the subject of math seems to be taught in a way that tends to weed people out as concepts get more abstract. Educators are trying to figure out how to avoid making math lessons as painful as they might have been in the past (and hopefully not create any further torture with "new math" or even "newer new math"). Here are just a few links on changing the way these skills are taught.
- Math classes are usually taught as a progression of skills, starting with counting, then adding/subtraction, then multiplication/division, then algebra, maybe some geometry/trig, and ending in calculus. However, a growing trend of abolishing this artificial math progression could have toddlers learning calculus concepts -- and other "advanced" math topics -- in a non-linear order. [url]
- Psychologists see evidence that preschoolers have a natural ability to do basic algebra before they ever sit in a classroom. This ability seems to come from kids' "Approximate Number System" (ANS) or "number sense" -- which allows children to solve simple algebra problems without a systematic logic. Researchers would like to figure out how this number sense breaks down as kids go to school and appear to lose these inherent abilities. [url]
- There's a trend to try to teach *everyone* how to program, but maybe if we're really serious about doing that, we should change the way programming is done. Forcing humans to think like computers isn't going to make programming very popular, so making human-friendly programming languages might be the way to go. [url]
Filed Under: algebra, ans, approximate number system, calculus, coding, education, intuition, learning, math, number sense, preschoolers, programming, stem, teachers, teaching


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Health care providers in Lenoir County � and around the state and nation � are dealing with one of the most intense flu seasons in a decade, but the frequency of cases could be on its down slope.
Health care providers in Lenoir County � and around the state and nation � are dealing with one of the most intense flu seasons in a decade, but the frequency of cases could be on its down slope.
�Comparatively speaking, this is a very intense, very robust flu season that we�re experiencing right now,� Lenoir County Health Director Joey Huff said Monday.
At least 14 people have died from the flu in North Carolina during the current season.
While health officials do not keep a number on the total amount of flu cases per season, Huff said the state maintains a network of hospitals, primary care physicians, clinics and other health care providers who report the percentage of cases in which patients report the flu or flu-like illnesses.
He said 2 to 3 percent of patients report the flu or flu-like illnesses during a typical flu season, which usually runs from January through March � the 2012-2013 season also started earlier than usual last month.
Huff said about 8 percent of patients across the state have reported the flu during the current season.
�The percentage seems to be declining or leveling off a little bit, and that could be an indicator we�re reaching our peak,� he explained.
Local, state and federal health officials still urge those who have not already gotten a flu vaccine to get one.
They are available locally at the Health Department, the Kinston Community Health Center, a variety of area pharmacies and more. They can be had at a cost ranging from $20 to $32, and most insurance plans cover the vaccines.
Many people obtained flu shots after learning the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised last month of a particularly virulent strain of the flu making the rounds this season, H3N2.
�In the month of December, we�ve seen a 131 percent increase over December last year,� said Stephanie Grady, store manager of the Walgreens on North Herritage Street in Kinston.
Grady said there has been an �influx� of people coming to Walgreens for flu shots, a process which can take about 15 minutes per person.
Each vaccine costs $31.99, and most major insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, will cover the cost. They are available on a walk-in basis.
Residents can also obtain flu shots at the Health Department for $25 each � Huff said the vaccine is free for people older than age 65.
�We have plenty of vaccine and plenty of available appointment times,� Huff said.
Flu shots are available at the Health Department on Mondays and Thursdays. Residents should call 252-526-4200, ext. 0 for an appointment.
Anna Kinsey, community outreach director for the Kinston Community Health Center, said many employees of the Health Center have reported having the flu and having it longer than usual.
�There�s a lot of employees that have been out because of the flu, and it seems like they�re holding on to their nasal congestion and their sore throats,� she said.
Kinsey said many patients are also reporting having the flu longer.
�It just seems like the symptoms are more intense than last year and the symptoms are staying longer, even after antibiotics,� she said.
Hospitals around the state, including Lenoir Memorial Hospital, have restricted hospital visits by people who show flu symptoms.
�It�s always dangerous to try and give predictions about flu season, but we seem to be at about the peak, if it follows the traditional patterns,� Dr. Megan Davies, the state epidemiologist, told the News & Observer last week. �That peak should last about two to four weeks, and then gradually things should start to taper off, which would take four to six weeks.�
David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.
The following locations in Kinstonprovide flu shots:
Lenoir County Health Department
201 N. McLewean St.
252-526-4200, ext. 0
Kinston Community Health Center
324 N. Queen St.
Kerr Drug
2412 N. Herritage St.
MedSource Pharmacy
505 W. Vernon Ave., Suite 100
Rite Aid
201 W. Vernon Ave.
2201 N. Herritage St.
Kmart Pharmacy
1628 N. Queen St.
Source: flu.nc.gov


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Enrollment Services provides all of the resources you need to enroll at San José State
University and reach your academic goals. Housed inside the Student Services Center, the staff helps current and incoming students
apply for admission, register for classes, pursue scholarships and loans, and visit
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The Office of Admissions and Outreach determines whether students who apply at SJSU are admitted. The staff determines acceptance mainly on the students' GPA and SAT/ACT scores. The Admissions office evaluates applications for freshmen, transfer and graduate students.
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Graduate Admission & Program Evaluation
Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations (GAPE) handles procedures related to admissions, and university level program requirements for graduate students including applying for candidacy and graduation.
The Office of the Registrar helps students register for courses, maintains student academic records, and coordinates the registration process. The Registrar's staff provides registration assistance, verification of enrollment, loan deferments and transcript services to students.
The Testing Office provides testing related services in support of the educational development and success of students. Through collaborating with campus faculty and the community, our programs focuses on fostering closer relationships by providing proctoring and test administration services and test scoring services.


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In Black Canyon, water amply illustrates its mindless yet artistic ability to sculpt stone. Every once in a great while, a gush of sediment-laden storm runoff tears through the canyon bottom, carving and polishing the bedrock slabs, drilling potholes ever deeper, toppling trees, and pushing rounded boulders downstream. In a normal spring season, like this one, the stream of water in Black Canyon is often fairly placid: it happily splashes over small waterfalls, pauses in pools, slides along inclined slabs, and finds hidden passages beneath immense boulders.
The short little ramble up along Black Canyon's lower end is consistently enchanting, but it is no mere stroll. Rock scrambling is required. Although kids are often adept at such moves, they must be watched carefully and perhaps assisted at a couple of spots. The most serious hazard is the slippery surfaces of rocks at or near the stream.
To get to the starting point, drive east from Ramona on Highway 78 and turn north on Magnolia Avenue. Magnolia soon becomes Black Canyon Road, and later becomes a narrow, twisting, graded dirt road. At 7.3 miles from Highway 78, just short of the bridge over Santa Ysabel Creek, you meet the road coming down from Sutherland Dam. (This road, which is rough and rocky for one mile between here and Sutherland Dam and paved south of there, connects to Highway 78. This is an alternate route for your drive into or out of the area.) Turn left over the bridge and continue 200 yards on Black Canyon Road to a junction with a gated, descending road — the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail. Park at the top of this road, and (since this is Cleveland National Forest territory) don't forget to display a National Forest Adventure Pass in your parked car.
Walk 0.3 mile down the descending road. This once was the entrance to the Black Canyon Campground, closed about 30 years ago. At the bottom, the road fords Black Canyon and doubles back to contour along the north slope of the Santa Ysabel gorge. Don't cross the ford but stay right, following the oak-shaded floodplain on the south side of Black Canyon's creek.
After about 0.3 mile, the canyon narrows and scrambling begins. Perhaps 20 to 40 minutes later, depending on how much time you wish to dawdle amid the fine scenery, you'll come to a wide, shallow pool fed by a 20-foot waterfall. That's a good place to pause before turning back.
This article contains information about a publicly owned recreation or wilderness area. Trails and pathways are not necessarily marked. Conditions can change rapidly. Hikers should be properly equipped and have safety and navigational skills. The Reader and Jerry Schad assume no responsibility for any adverse experience.
Black Canyon
Enjoy mini-waterfalls and potholes in Black Canyon, outside Ramona.
Distance from downtown San Diego: 44 miles
Hiking length: 2 miles round-trip
Difficulty: Moderate
More from SDReader
- More stories by Jerry Schad
- Black Canyon's riparian habitat of waterfalls and pools — April 2, 2014
- Black Canyon Bike Ride — Oct. 21, 2009
- Black Canyon to Pamo Valley — Feb. 11, 2009
- Venture off the car-clogged two-lane ribbon of Highway 78 and take a bike ride on Black Canyon Road near Ramona. — June 3, 1999
- Water splashes over small waterfalls at Black Canyon near Ramona. — April 9, 1998


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Melissa O'Dell (301) 734-5222
Angela Harless (202) 720-4623
WASHINGTON, May 5, 2008--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is amending its regulations to allow, under certain conditions, the interstate movement of commercial shipments of mangosteen, dragon fruit, melon, pods of cowpea, breadfruit, jackfruit and fresh moringa pods from Hawaii to the continental United States.
To ensure that plant pests do not enter the continental United States by importing these commodities, the fruit must undergo irradiation treatment. In addition, the fruit must meet other inspection and treatment requirements specific to the commodity and its pest risk.
This action allows for the importation of these seven fruits from Hawaii while continuing to protect against the introduction of quarantine pests into the continental United States.
Notice of this action is scheduled to appear in the May 6 Federal Register and becomes effective upon publication.
Note to Reporters: USDA news releases, program announcements and media advisories are available on the Internet. Go to the APHIS news release page at /newsroom. Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to email@example.com and leave the subject blank. In the message, type
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Canada's gross domestic product grew for a second month in February led by gains at potash miners and factories, putting the economy on track for its fastest quarterly growth since 2011.
[np_storybar title="Here's what Canada's new $5 and $10 polymer bills look like" link="https://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/30/new-5-10-canada-bills/"%5D
Output rose 0.3%, matching the revised January gain, to an annualized $1.57 trillion, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 23 economists was for a 0.2% expansion.
The report suggests economic growth in the first quarter was faster than 2%, about the pace the central bank says output can rise before inflation pressures build up. That's up from the 0.6% annualized pace set at the end of last year as exports and investment slumped.
"Finally there's something to cheer about in the Canadian economy, with growth picking up in the first quarter, and in the cyclical industries where such a turn is more meaningful," Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said in a research note sent by e-mail.
In notes to investors, Derek Holt of Scotiabank said Canada is tracking growth of 2.3% in the first quarter, while Shenfeld has the economy on pace for 2% growth. Those would be the fastest quarterly rates since 2011.
The Bank of Canada projects potential output growth at about 2.1% this year.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney predicted modest expansion this year, reducing his first-quarter forecast to 1.5% from 2.3% on April 17 because of weakness in government spending and investment.
Mining Surge
Mining and quarrying jumped 6.4% in February on increased potash output, Statistics Canada said. The agency's mining, quarrying and oil and gas category rose 2.2%, the fifth straight increase. Manufacturing rose 0.8% following January's 0.6% increase.
Most other categories made small contributions to the change in gross domestic product in February. The output of real estate agents and brokers fell 0.8% on a decline in existing home sales, while arts and entertainment rose 3.3% as spending gained for a second month after the end of a National Hockey League labor dispute, according to the report.
The economy grew 1.7% in February from a year earlier.
Statistics Canada said in a separate report its index of raw-materials prices paid by manufacturers fell 1.7% in March led by crude oil. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had a median prediction of a 0.5% increase.
The industrial product price index, which measures what manufacturers receive for their goods, rose 0.1%, compared with a median forecast it would be little changed.


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Where next for well-being policy?
I went to the book-launch of a new book on well-being policy yesterday, which brought together some leading figures in this nascent movement - including David Halpern of the government's 'nudge unit', Canadian economist John Helliwell, psychologist Maurren O'Hara, and Juliet Michaelson of the new economics foundation. The book - Well-being and Beyond - is edited by Michaelson and Timo Hamalainen, and has some great essays in it, including a particularly interesting one by Mihayli Csikszentmihalyi on 'the politics of consciousness'.
With the news that the government is set to establish a What Works research centre for evidence-based well-being policy, and that David Cameron may be resuscitating his well-being agenda, it seems like a good time to take a panoramic view of the politics of well-being in the UK, some of the areas into which it's developing, and some of the areas where more research is needed. It will obviously be a partial and incomplete view, but here goes:
The ministry of education under Michael Gove pulled back on some of New Labour's well-being initiatives, such as Every Child Matters and the promotion of Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL). However, there seems renewed political interest in the idea of teaching character skills like resilience, with all three parties recently offering broad support for such a move. The work of James Heckman, focused on early interventions, is particularly popular with policy-makers at the moment.
The area is likely to progress through local and regional evidence-based initiatives, rather than top-down national initiatives like SEAL. Key players include the Jubilee Centre for Character and Values, Jen Lexmond's work at Character Counts and elsewhere, James O'Shaughnessy's Positive Education network, the Education Endowment Fund's research, and the National Citizen Service, which apparently is building up a great evidence base for its intervention. The challenge is how to teach not just skills but also values within a pluralistic and multicultural society - more on this below.
There's growing interest in the importance of well-being at work, partly driven by the high economic cost of sick days due to stress and mental illness. Some of the more enlightened companies have bespoke well-being courses for their staff - like Google, Zappos, M&S, British Telecom or Saracens rugby club - in a manner reminiscent of 19th century Quaker companies like Rowntree's. A key player in this area is the firm Robertson Cooper, which established the Good Day at Work network.
As in schools, the new focus on work well-being ties in - or should tie in - with an ethical focus on values, character strengths and social responsibility. Saracens' personal development course is a good example of how to teach well-being + values but in a flexible and peer-led way, compared to Zappo's which, from the outside, seems quite inflexible and even authoritarian in its collective happiness ethos. Well-being at work ties in to another policy area, adult education (of which more below) - see, for example, Google's emphasis on adult education for its workers, again reminiscent of Quaker companies like Rowntree's. I also love the Escape the City network (by the by!).
One of the main recommendations in Sir Gus O'Donnell's Legatum Institute report on well-being, released last month, was that the NHS should focus more on prevention of ill-health, and also treat mental illness as equally important as physical illness.
That means greater support for the burgeoning Improving Access for Psychological Therapies programme across the UK, particularly in Wales, where there are high levels of depression and long waiting lists for talking therapy. It also means public health organizations like Public Health England taking more of a lead in promoting mental well-being. It means more support for peer-led well-being networks (one of the themes of Michaelson's chapter in her book), which can draw inspiration from historical models like 19th century Friendly Societies. And it also means trying to work out a better way to treat psychosis, as the government is now trying to do.
Well-being health policy ties into well-being policy in other areas, particularly schools, work, and adult / online education. Empowering people to take care of their own physical and mental health means treating them as reasoning agents rather than as malfunctioning machines.
Prisons and probation services
At the book launch yesterday, John Helliwell mentioned a paper he'd written on well-being in prisons, championing the Singapore Prison Services' reforms. Singapore pioneered a mutual model of well-being, in which staff, inmates, former inmates and the wider community worked together to help inmates flourish.
We're a long way from that here, but there is some interest in the 'desistance' model of rehabilitation, whereby inmates make a reasoned choice to leave their former criminal life and to pursue a new narrative. This fits with the coherence model of well-being, in which well-being is connected to our ability to find meaning and value in ourselves and the world. Some charities and probation organizations are also looking to extend the desistance / mutuality model beyond the prison walls - I'm meeting with one such organization, Co:Here, next week.
In England, the probation system is on the verge of a massive privatization, which is likely to cause stress to the system and to the people in it. However, the chaos will also create opportunities for new and innovative approaches. I'm interested to learn more about the RSA's research on prison learning.
The economy / housing / urban planning
The O'Donnell report suggests the best economic policies to promote well-being would be to reduce unemployment, which has a particularly negative impact on well-being. Fine - but which government says it's in favour of high unemployment? Other well-being economists suggest there is a correlation between income equality and national happiness - but so far this has failed to lead to major tax distribution policies, and inequality continues to rise.
The UK housing bubble also continues to grow, with the average property price in London now approaching half a million pounds. This is likely to have a significant impact on people's well-being, and their ability to feel in control of their destinies. As more and more humans live in 'mega-cities', will we know and trust our neighbours, will we have access to green spaces, will we have any real connection to nature?
More research needs to be done on the rise of solo living, which is particularly popular in Scandinavian countries (typically championed as happiness templates). What is the trade-off between autonomy and loneliness? Is solo living sustainable or equitable? Are new forms of conviviality emerging? The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has done good work in this area.
Adult education / online learning
So far there is little policy focus on the importance of adult education to well-being. Adult education is, in general, 'off the radar for policy-makers', as David Halpern put it. This makes no sense to me, considering all the research into the importance of coherence, meaning, reasoning and collective engagement to well-being - all of which points to adult education as a booster to well-being. There's been some work showing that engaging in adult education predicts higher well-being, but that has not fed into policy discussions at all, sadly. The national budget for community education shrinks every year.
However, informal learning continues to grow, with various organizations appearing dedicated to raising well-being, including Action for Happiness and the School of Life. There have also been some encouraging developments in online well-being courses. Stanford's Greater Good centre is launching an online happiness course in September, Berkeley has also launched a Positive Psychology MOOC, Action for Happiness recently launched an online course, while TED's Understanding Happiness course has been in the top ten of iTunesU for a few years. Online learning connects to health policy in well-being, particularly with the rise of health apps.
It's also worth mentioning the boom in mindfulness courses - including for example the phenomenal success of the book / CD 'Mindfulness', by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, which has been in the top 30 of Amazon for two years. Mindfulness is a policy intervention that can be deployed in health, work, education and prisons - similar in that respect to 'mental resilience' interventions.
British higher education seems so beleaguered that the well-being of staff and pupils is off the official agenda for the time being. If change comes, it is likely to be driven by students and staff rather than top-down, though perhaps some enlightened VC or chancellor will take the lead (eg Floella Benjamin at Exeter!) But this is a sector which potentially could play a very important role in the development and implementation of well-being interventions.
For example, universities could - and should - offer free courses in well-being to undergraduates. Such courses should (in my opinion) teach some of the techniques of well-being, such as meditation, gratitude, self-determination, resilience, while also providing a space for philosophical discussions about what it means to flourish. If done pluralistically, such courses would be an important space for inter-faith discussions, preventing campuses from becoming divided on religious lines.
I also think universities should do more to support the well-being of their staff, particularly PhDs, where burn-out and drop-out rates are high. Some PhDs, such as the LSE's Inez von Weitershausen, are beginning to work on this, and I think funders like Wellcome are keen to support more work in this area.
Academia could also play an important role in promoting adult education, as it used to do in the university extension movement. Unfortunately, humanities academics seem to have little time for adult education work and little faith in well-being politics - which is typically dismissed as 'neoliberal'. A few humanities academics, however, understand that well-being policy is an important way to champion the impact of the arts and humanities in national policy. The work of the Reader Organisation, based at Liverpool Uni, is a good example of this more enlightened and engaged approach (they have their national conference in London next month, by the by).
Sports / arts / the festive
Well-being research tells us how important sport and exercise is to our well-being. It's also beginning to tell us about the importance of the arts to our flourishing, particularly arts that engage us collectively, such as singing in a choir or reading in a book club.
I'd like to see more research on the importance of 'the festive' to well-being - think of the work of Durkheim, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jonathan Haidt, Martha Nussbaum and Charles Taylor in this area - or Dan Ariely's writing on Burning Man festival.
Why do the residents of the Orkneys have such high well-being? Ian Ritchie, former co-director of the St Magnus festival there, tells me that that one reason is the islands are so rich in festivals - a folk festival, a blues festival, a well-being festival. Parties, clearly, are good for us, particularly when we help to organize them. It would be good to study the well-being impact of starting a festival in a town. For example, Wigmore, a small town in Scotland with high unemployment, launched its own book festival two years ago and it seems to have revitalized that community.
More generally, well-being economists and psychologists need to connect with arts and humanities practitioners to explore the role of beauty, awe and wonder in well-being, and the higher states of consciousness which arts and 'the festive' can create. That means going beyond a aridly Benthamite notion of happiness towards a more Millsian appreciation of the transformative power of the arts.
The media
Alain de Botton has been generally mocked by humanities academics for his latest book, The News, but as is often the case there is wisdom beneath his gimmickry. Our well-being is deeply connected to our culture, and therefore to the media - in the broadest sense of TV, online media and advertizing. How, in a free market economy, can we try and make sure the messages we soak in are not entirely shallow?
This morning, it was announced that Richard Hoggart, the great public intellectual and critic of commercial television, has died. He thought commercial TV pushed viewers towards a way of life 'whose texture is as little that of the good life as processed bread is like home-baked bread'. His involvement in the Pilkington Report led to the establishment of BBC 2. But the vision of Hoggart, Reith and others - that broadcasting could be a force for the raising of public consciousness - seems to be in abeyance.
Perhaps this area of policy links up with health and adult education - the BBC is looking to launch MOOCs on FutureLearn, and to develop its online learning platforms. I know people in BBC Arts have been interested in promoting things like meditation or ancient philosophy, but it hasn't happened yet. Indeed, there is a weird absence of ethical / spiritual discussion on TV. Radio 2's Sunday morning show, once a province of spiritual discussion, is now presented by a sports presenter, which sums up the BBC's (understandable) unease with promoting any particular ethics in a multicultural society.
The environment
Clearly the big question for well-being policy is: is it at odds with the coming environmental catastrophe? Are we meditating while Rome burns?
In Well-Being and Beyond, Csikszentmihayli outlines three constituents needed for consciousness to flourish: first, the freedom to think what you want and decide what is true (rather than being coerced and lied to by our government); second, to find flow in meaningful and purposeful activity (he understands the importance of higher or altered states of consciousness like awe, wonder, transcendence and ecstasy). And finally, we need hope.
We need the hope, or faith, that tomorrow will be as good as if not better than today. That drives all of our activity, all our plans, our investment in our work and family. Without that, 'consciousness becomes idle and atrophied', or it shrivels up in despair or short-term hedonism.
What is weird and unnerving about this historical moment is the loss of hope. Living standards are declining, the young are poorer than the old, but above all, there is a collective sense that the future will be worse - perhaps much worse - than the present, that nature will be severely depleted, the world will be more crowded, politics will be more unstable, the weather will be more violent, and we may see mass migrations and perhaps mass extinctions of animals and humans. Indeed, the animal mass extinction has already begun.
Religion and Wisdom
This brings me to my final point, the final area of research which I think would be fruitful. I don't think secular humanism is going to be sufficient to sustain us through the coming crisis, because its hope in progress and a better tomorrow will not last in the face of mass extinctions. You need something more transcendent to believe in and give you the strength to do the right thing and to take care of the weak, even in the face of mass extinction and social collapse. Techno-humanism - in which the rich get to detach or upgrade from the rest of humanity - seems to me a much, much worse option than a return to the wisdom of older religious traditions.
Religion seems to me the massive elephant in the room of well-being policy. Well-being policy practitioners sometimes seem to me like people who have had their cultural memories wiped, so that they need to re-discover the basics of human flourishing from scratch. 'We've discovered volunteering is good for well-being! So is collective singing. So is a sense of meaning and purpose. So is gratitude. So are higher states of consciousness. So is neighbourliness, reciprocity and mutuality. So is self-control coupled with an acceptance of the limit of one's control over the universe. So is faith in the future.'
Well...yeah. All of which we used to get from religion, before we trashed it and turned to psychologists for guidance.
How do we spread the wisdom of religious traditions in a multicultural and increasingly secular society? To me, the key word is wisdom. Wisdom gives us the ability to appreciate the insights and practices of multiple religious faiths, to have respect for those faiths and to learn from them, while also finding our home in a particular tradition.
We need to learn not just the techniques of ancient wisdom traditions (meditation, gratitude, self-control etc) but also to create the space to discuss the different moral ends or goals which those traditions promote - nirvana, union with God, happiness, inner peace, Aristotelian flourishing etc. These different ends should be discussed rather than forced upon people. Socratic discussion is a way to include these moral ends / values without imposing them on people.
At the heart of most of the ancient wisdom traditions is an optimism that humans can use our reason to take care of our souls and our societies, combined with an acceptance that our reason is bounded, and that flourishing emerges best through habits and shared practices. These wisdom traditions are therefore opposed to a more biomechanical model of humanity, which sees negative emotions as chemical imbalances to be corrected with medication.
We need universities to take wisdom seriously, but I actually think we need a new sort of research institute - closer to the Esalen model - which combines intellectual and experimental research with practice. Sort of a think-tank / monastery. As Alasdair MacIntyre says at the end of After Virtue: 'We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict."
Well, those are some areas of possible research. A lot to be getting on with! But this is an important movement, and the UK is blessed with some pioneering thinkers and practitioners in this field, not just in economics and psychology, but also in the arts, technology, philosophy and faith.
PS I forgot to mention mental health in the military services. But that's obviously another potential area for interventions to promote resilience.


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It's started. We knew it would.
Japan current nuclear plant problem is real. I don't want to take anything away from that.
But the anti-nuclear rhetoric is already starting. This big scary nuke plants must be a danger to us all. And I freely admit, there are dangers involved. The only rational response I can think of, is a quote from Wikipedia:
Comparing the historical safety record of civilian nuclear energy with other forms of electrical generation, Ball, Roberts, and Simpson, the IAEA, and the Paul Scherrer Institute found in separate studies that during the period from 1970 to 1992, there were just 39 on-the-job deaths of nuclear power plant workers worldwide, while during the same time period, there were 6,400 on-the-job deaths of coal power plant workers, 1,200 on-the-job deaths of natural gas power plant workers and members of the general public caused by natural gas power plants, and 4,000 deaths of members of the general public caused by hydroelectric power plants.In particular, coal power plants are estimated to kill 24,000 Americans per year, due to lung disease as well as causing 40,000 heart attacks per year in the United States. According to Scientific American, the average coal power plant emits more than 100 times as much radiation per year than a comparatively sized nuclear power plant in the form of toxic coal waste known as fly ash.
Now, don't think for a minute that I believe nuclear plants are a good idea. No centralized, high-capital approach to energy is a good idea. But since we seem to be limited to centralized, high-capital approaches, nuclear power is about the best option we've got.
Here's to hoping Japan can solve this problem with the least possible damage to life and property. And to hoping we can learn the lessons needed to make this sort of thing safer in the future. But any discussion about the risks of nuclear power must consider the relative risks of just about every other energy source we currently have.


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I am a person who is not used to people telling me that they love me nor am I used to being the center of someone's universe. I feel very surprised now that someone actually can feel that way for me. R keeps all my pics on his iPhone and laptop and stares at them during work hours. His boss caught him once. My first reaction to this was 'huh?'. He THINKS all the guys are staring at me when we go out walking. He tells me I mean the world to him. To all this again I do a 'huh?'. I am not used to compliments and I still don't know how to react to them. He's a Leo and he's true to his sign - a energetic guy with a vibrant personality who finds it very easy to display his affection.
Yours truly on the other hand, has never gone to such extremes. I used to believe that as long as you feel it inside, you don't need to blurt it out. Maybe because I am used to being brought up in a family where you don't hug each other or say 'love you' every other day or so. 'It's all understood so why say it out loud?' is what I am used to.
I am learning how to open up because of him.
He's learning how to calm down because of me.
I correct him when he makes mistakes. I don't necessarily always take his side.
He corrects me when I make mistakes. He doesn't necessarily always take my side.
.. And we are both trying to make each other a better person than what we are at the moment.
The funny thing is months back, we would end up getting hyper pretty easily considering the difference in our personalities. Nowadays, we just seem to sense things out and try to calm each other down in a jiffy. We know what to say to each other and what not to say. We have reached that stage of silent communication where we know what the other is going to say even before saying it.
I am so glad we have reached this stage in our relationship, R. Like you said yesterday, we have changed... and it's for the better! :)


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I'm using ArcGIS 9.3.1
In my network there are isolated network(not connected to main network) and restricted(non-traversable network element position)
When I plot 1 point close to a isolated or restricted road. It will snap to it and return me no solution found or restricted network.
May I know is there a simple solution to ask the solver to choose another line/point if it can't find a solution?
In arcgis 9.3.1 there is no "Exclude restricted portion of the network" and I don't wish to use the query builder to ignore FType that carry restricted options.
So the main objective is to make the solver pick another line/point to snap on to.


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Welcome to the website of the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.The trust was established by Mrs Ursula Vaughan Williams (1911–2007), widow of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), and became active in the 50th anniversary year of the composer's death.
The celebrations connected with the anniversary demonstrated that Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the most loved British composers – his piece for violin and orchestra, The Lark Ascending, has repeatedly been voted the country's most popular piece of classical music.
The trust's primary object is to promote knowledge about Ralph Vaughan Williams and performance of his works. It does this by making grants in support of eligible projects.
Please click on the links to the left to find out about the trustees and Director of the trust, the grant application process, some of the recent projects that we have sponsored and how to contact us.


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Lindsay Lohan -- I'll Joke About ANYTHING on 'Saturday Night Live'
Lindsay Lohan I'll Joke About ANYTHING on 'Saturday Night Live'
Lindsay Lohan has been the butt of jokes on "Saturday Night Live" for years, but TMZ has learned that this coming Saturday ... the LiLo jokes will be made by Lindsay herself.
As TMZ first reported, Lindsay has been dying to do "SNL" as a way to re-establish her career and reached out to Lorne Michaels personally to make it happen.
According to our sources, Lindsay plans on using all the unpleasantness from the last few years as fodder for the show. We're told Lindsay has already told "SNL" that she is game for anything and nothing is off limits.
Our sources say Lindsay wants to show that she is "in on the joke" -- so expect to see references to any number of DUIs, alleged necklace thievery, jail stints, mug shots ... and on and on.
Waiting for your permission to load the comments.


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It's the midway point of New York's opera season, and the other day, while I was crossing Lincoln Center Plaza, I suddenly realized something: of all the staged productions I've attended since September, only one has really made any impression on me — New York City Opera's new Christopher Alden production of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Wadsworth's A Quiet Place.
This was the first time I'd heard the opera onstage; I had become interested in it, years ago, on the basis of the 1986 Deutsche Grammophon recording. Back then, I thought it was a fascinating mess. I still think so. Parts of Wadsworth's libretto — particularly parts of the ending — are painful, like undigested thoughts and memories thrown out randomly in a therapy session. I can understand why my companion denounced the whole thing as "dreck." And I don't think that it quite works to integrate Trouble in Tahiti into the middle of the work. I grasp the idea of a simpler time versus a more complex one, but it seems to me that Trouble in Tahiti simply interrupts the spell cast by Act I of A Quiet Place and reminds us that it has better tunes than the later work.
And yet — the damned thing moved me even more than it did when I first listened to the recording all those years ago. Bernstein contributed some wonderful writing to A Quiet Place — the warring eighth and sixteenth notes of the strings do a marvelous job of conveying Sam's tormented state of mind, and I love the oddball harmonies of the trio "Dear Daddy" and the prelude to the final act. I think Bernstein and Wadsworth must have felt a mutual need to create a tribute to the American family in all its inarticulate glory. A Quiet Place is no well-made musical play: it's much closer to a Robert Altman movie, showing the way real families function — we miss each other's points, say the opposite of what we mean, don't notice when people are reaching out to us. At the time of its unveiling, The New Yorker's Andrew Porter was one of the few critics who understood this.
I think A Quiet Place means even more to me now because it's really about something we can all understand. It isn't a dry literary transcription of a book we were forced to read in high school or college. It's a real, American, contemporary story — something that's always a rarity on the opera stage. Perhaps if it had been more successful originally, its example might have led to more of the same. Perhaps not: it's amazing how insistently the world has ignored the example set by Bernstein, in so many ways.
I don't know what Stephen Wadsworth thought about this production. He's a fine stage director himself, so I'm sure he had strong opinions about it. I couldn't help thinking, however, that Alden had made an excellent case for the piece. I gasped when the lights came up on Andrew Lieberman's funeral home set at the beginning: everything looked exactly how it should have looked, to the degree that I was deeply uncomfortable.
It's probably too much to expect an NYCO revival anytime soon, but kudos to the company for having taken a chance on it at least once.


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