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By Mike Darwin
An Unusual, but Perhaps Valuable Analogy
This isn't 1964, 1974, or even 1984 anymore, we aren't in Kansas, and cryonics is not in the position it once was in. One of the reasons I was never a strong advocate of gay rights is that, long before it enjoyed the success it has, I could see that it would destroy one of the core values it was ostensibly launched to protect, namely the gay culture that had existed for centuries in the Western world. I used to tell my gay friends this at the time, and they would become enraged. Perhaps rightly so; they could see only the repression and injustice in a society that demonized homosexuality – and the self loathing, fear, and personal suffering that resulted. What they failed to reckon with is that homosexuality is a biological predilection, not a culture.[1-3] The culture that gay men "created" and inhabited prior to ~ 1990, was a product of both their biology and the attitude towards them of the culture they were embedded in. This two part dynamic generated a way of life and a culture that was exclusive, intimate, unique, and almost exclusively homosocial. While this microverse was a really bad place at its worst, it had many good features, as well.
What Shall it Profit a Man if he Gains the Whole World but Loses His Soul?
Literally without exception (no hyperbole here), I was the lone voice pointing out that being an outsider has some pretty powerful compensating advantages. One of the least appreciated and most profound of those advantages, is that if you are to survive under such conditions, you must, without exception, come to your own judgment about your own worth, the worth and the correctness of the core values of your culture and religion, and, should you decide to go on living, what kind of value system you will use to get you through life. Some gay men, confronted with the crucible of being told that everything they value and respect "rejects them, and even damns then to hell," decide that there are no values in life beyond their own immediate gratification, advancement and prosperity. Three instructive examples of this from the last century are Truman Capote, Ray Cohn, and J. Edgar Hoover. The rest of us tried to try to make sense of it all. One very visible consequence of the effect of having to make those kinds of decisions, is that everything in life is on the table, and that includes the purpose of life, the justness of death, and the reliability of contemporary medical and scientific authority. No wonder then, that the first generation of cryonicists consisted of an unusually large number of gay men.
Figure 1: Former ACS President Jerry White (left).
The American Cryonics Society's (ACS) president for many years, Jerry White, the Cryonics Institute's one-time dynamic editor of The Immortalist, and promoter of cryonics Pat Dewey, (who was also later President of the Cryonics Society of Illinois), Carlos Mondragon, former President of Alcor, and myself (also a former President of Alcor) were all not only cryonicists, we were also publicly "out" gay men. Jerry is now in liquid nitrogen, Pat chose death in the face of AIDS, and Carlos and I will, if we are unlucky/lucky enough, get our turn pushing up bubbles in liquid nitrogen whilst awaiting rescue. If cryonics works for any of us, it will be in no small measure because we were outsiders who learned a powerful thing as small children in the hardest of ways; how to think for ourselves, independent of how society and the culture informed us were the "right and proper" ways.
Figure 2: Former Alcor President Carlos Mondragon.
But the gay men I counted as friends and associates in my youth were unmoved by my arguments, and "Comes the revolution!" was the mantra of the 1970s and '80s. Well, the revolution is here, and now gay men from my cohort (those still living), are groaning in agony and shrieking in pain because their culture is gone – and I do mean gone. Young gay men don't know who Oscar Wilde was, think Judy Garland is irrelevant, and what's worse, bring straight people into gay bars and gay special interest organizations, and even more shockingly, bring children to the latter, in no small measure because they now increasingly have children of their own.
My partner is on the Board of Directors of a gay backpacking, hiking and 4-wheel driving club. Recently, after months of brutally contentious meetings, many of the old guard members have quit the organization. Why? Because the younger members now have kids, have straight friends they want to bring along on club outings, and these new faces, from an increasingly mainstreamed generation, carry with them "baggage" about things like smoking pot, nudity at summer pool parties (and on outings to hot springs), and frequent casual sexual encounters between men during club outings which, while they take place in private, are nevertheless "apparent." In short, the taboos and restrictions that people with children will obviously have, are now surfacing in and transforming a culture that previously had no use for them. These 'last generation gay men' woke up one day and found that they weren't special anymore, and that the social norms and rules they had long left behind, were now being unexpectedly reapplied to them. Similarly, this current generation of young gay men, and those who will follow, are going to find that the price of acceptance and equality will be, in part, bleeding and dying on the battlefield, instead of writing poetry, or doing interior design, while a war rages on in someplace like Vietnam.
Figure 3: Projection of the Alcor's Life extension Foundation's growth in membership and patient populations prepared by Ralph Whelan in 1993.[4]
And so it is with cryonics. This first wave of seriously threatening criticism now assaulting cryonics is a sign of "progress," of sorts. Once an outsider institution or group starts to become incorporated into the culture, the culture starts to demand compliance with its norms, its rules, and its regulations. When Alcor began to experience significant growth, gain significant assets, and began to develop a professional culture based on a scientific-medical paradigm in the mid-1980s, I became reasonably confident that cryonics would be adequately prepared to deal with the challenge of cultural integration when the time came, 20 or 30 years down the line. I and others projected we'd have ~5-10K members by now (Figure 3), a reasonably well established internal culture, and a good, solid base of scientific, procedural and administrative competence to rely upon. Regrettably, that didn't happen.
Who's Gaming Who?
Gay people are (and always were) just about as good or bad as the population as a whole with respect to skills, intelligence, and wealth generating capacity. Where they were and are vastly "different" is in the realm of "conventional morality." Be born gay (or realize it as a small child) and you will learn to deceive, and to do skillfully, just to stay alive. A 20 year old may have (in the past) announced, with considerable risk and heartache, that he was a homosexual, but a 12 year old (with rare exception) had no such option – it was simply unthinkable; and in most instances would have resulted in parental or societal intervention to change him as person, to in effect wipe out a critical part of his identity. The other major difference in gay men is a consequence of the fundamental structure of male sexuality, which is highly promiscuous, whether straight or gay – something that is masked and kept in check in heterosexual males by their need for women (who do not share this trait).[5, 6] In fact, the one way in which both straight and gay men are most alike, is in their appetite for sex and their desire for promiscuity – straight men just have a much harder time getting compliance from their partners in satisfying this desire.[7] Gay men are thus "sex machines," by comparison, and this has profound social implications. It took the breakdown of conventional sexual morality in society as a whole, before gay rights could proceed. Heterosexual GeNexters now perform oral sex with each other almost as casually (though not nearly as frequently) as gay men do – and they have (partially) uncoupled sex from romance and marriage.[8-11]
Figure 4: A sampling of public print adverts from around London that demonstrate what would be considered a homoerotic sensibility in the US, and that arguably are homoerotic, by just about any reasonable any definition. Top left Rugby player Paul Sackey, in a massive ad for the sports drink Powerade, lower left, Sky TV ad, and at right, a Dolce and Gabana underwear ad that saturated the London Underground in 2009. Photos by Mike Darwin
Some cryonicists are heard to declaim passionately that, "we're just like everybody else." In fact, that isn't the case at all, and once again a careful analysis of homosexuals and the gay rights movement reveals some interesting parallels, because the same remark is often used to justify 'equal treatment' of homosexuals. Virtually every study of the comparative psychosocial and neurobehavioral characteristics of homosexuals and heterosexuals reveals that they are not, in fact, "the same." Far from it; and this should be obvious given that both straights and gays do very well at identifying gay men and lesbians, just from body language on silent, detail-masked video, or conversely, from listening to conversation samples with no video.[12, 13] The take home message is that increased cultural acceptance of homosexuals has come not by convincing the culture to embrace gays as being the same as straights (and thus equal), but rather the reverse – the culture has been transformed, in terms of both values and characteristics, to be compatible with homosexuality.
As one straight friend of mine in London remarked recently, "I don't mind homosexuality being accepted, but I'm becoming increasingly concerned that it soon may be mandatory (see Figure 4)."[1] This is a consequence not just of the efforts of gay rights activists, but of a diverse array of mostly technologically driven cultural change resulting from the uncoupling of sex from reproduction (birth control and safe abortion), saturation exposure to the marketing machine that drives the mass media and generates heavy consumer spending, and removal of women into the workplace; with a concurrent negative impact on child rearing. Personally, I'm not persuaded that these changes to the culture are at all beneficial, but what they are is illustrative of what is possible, in terms of reshaping the culture radically and fundamentally, by exploiting the leverage provided from rapidly advancing technology's destabilizing effect on the existing cultural equilibrium.
Technological Advance in Medicine is destroying a Centuries Old Medical Culture
The relevance of this to cryonics is that developments in medicine, like Donation after Cardiac Death, and the increasing use of reversible cryopreservation technologies to store human embryos, stem cells, and a growing range of other tissues, are forcing medicine to confront the inadequate and flawed criterion it uses to determine and pronounce death. Incremental, but steady advances in transplantation, and the growing sophistication and increased utilization of technologies like joint and eye lens replacement, dental implants, and radical plastic surgery, are having a similarly destabilizing and transformative effect – not just in medicine, but in the culture as a whole. The general effect of this creeping biological revolution in terms of things like cloning, assisted reproduction, stem cell therapies and molecularly engineered drugs for cancer treatment, is to corrode the whole world view that medicine runs on.
At first blush, that may seem all to the good, but it is vitally important to remember that it was that "old time 20th century world view of life and death" that kept us safe, because cryonics was seen as simply too ridiculous to be taken seriously. That word ridiculous is really important, because it is the perfect word, with just the right nuance, to describe the position of cryonics relative to medicine in the last century. While it is certainly true that the cryobiologists hated cryonics, they did so only because they felt threatened personally. To continue the gender conflict analogy, they found themselves suddenly recast as heterosexual male cross-dressers confronted with a bunch of raucous and demonstrative guys who really were gay! It wasn't a happy experience for them (though I must confess, I enjoyed it immensely).
You don't, you can't, get too much exercised about anything that is simply ridiculous. In fact, it is in the very nature of being ridiculous that there is such refuge. Consider the definition of the word: "Deserving or inspiring ridicule; absurd, preposterous, or silly. See Synonyms at foolish. [From Latin r diculus, laughable.]" Thus, is it any wonder that so many gay men who could not hide their homosexuality, chose to be ridiculous as a survival mechanism?
Whatever else cryonics is, it isn't ridiculous anymore, and while the current round of critics may not amount to a hill of beans, what they have done is shown us that the culture is responding to this paradigm shift in how it views life and death, and the limits of the possible in medicine, by using a fundamentally new and different push-back tactic. That tactic is to realize that by taking cryonics just seriously enough to leverage the coercive might of the state on us, at a time and place when we are unprepared, and unable to meet the enormous associated burden of regulation and cost, and when the state is also unprepared to absorb cryonics, they can exterminate us.
In this conclusion they are almost certainly correct.
Self Defense 101
Unmoderated list serves are an unalloyed evil. I've now over 20 years of experience with them, and I don't know of any responsible person who believes otherwise. I've watched various high quality sites implode in anesthesia, critical care medicine, and numerous other disciplines and special interest areas.
This happens because of deep, biologically determined factors in human nature. This is not an opinion; it is a statement of fact. On any serious consideration, it is hard to believe that anyone would consider a "free press" to be a newspaper without an editor. There wouldn't be enough paper to print it, and the ratio of vile nonsense, and plain confused ranting to anything bearing even a vague resemblance to fact, would be overwhelming. So, clearly that isn't what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they gave a Constitutional mandate to free speech, and protection of the freedom of the press in the US.[2]
Instead, what they believed was that anyone has the right to express themselves in pretty broad terms (absent doing things like shouting fire in a crowded theatre). In practice, this means that people are free to speak their mind, verbally and in print, but they are still subject to civil laws regarding libel and slander. These used to be really important control mechanisms on "evil," "bad," or "destructive" speech – as I've often pointed out, many of Abraham Lincoln's cases were slander cases.[14] As communities and communications media grew and consolidated, the newspapers, and later the electronic media as well, became the real resource for credible "public information." What then happened was that the libel and slander suits migrated from the sphere of interpersonal community speech, to the sphere of journalism.
Figure 5: National Enquirer article 25 December, 1966 chronicling the work of Isamu Suda and his colleagues at Kobe University in Japan, who had just published in the prestigious journal Nature that they were able to recover EEG activity in cat brains after 203 days of frozen storage at -20oC.[15] The Enquirer flew a journalist and a cameraman to Japan in order to report this story!
As the media got sued and suffered losses, a number of things began to happen. The first was that they responded by becoming more responsible: they hired editors, and the editors hired fact checkers and quote verifiers. The idea wasn't to really ensure the "truth" was being told, or to ensure honest reporting, rather it was to ensure just enough restraint, the bare minimum in fact, to avoid getting sued, or at least to reduce the incidence of litigation to a tolerable level. The second response was a consequence of the first, and that's that there was a "split" in the media. Some papers just continued as broadsheets, packed with lies and enough truths to keep them useful – the National Enquirer is the best example of this. The Enquirer had a policy never to run misleading or phony news stories about health or biomedicine – and as a consequence, they were for years, one of the most reliable sources of information about cutting edge developments in both healthcare and biomedical research (Figure 5). Tabloid papers such as the Enquirer got away with outright fictions such as "Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson are signed up for cryopreservation," and even a fair number of calculatedly malicious lies. But they did so only at the price of "the loss of journalistic credibility." This is not an idle ideal. This is a big deal, because basically what that means is that people regard most of what these papers print as "entertainment" – fiction based on real peoples' lives. This is tolerated by all concerned, mostly because it is mutually beneficial.
Liz and Michael, and Brittany, and every other celebrity, want the attention, much more than they want the truth. And if the tabloids step over the line, they will usually retract and apologize, if their "victim" howls too much. It's a well choreographed dance. However, every once in awhile, they run a libelous story that crosses the line, and do so about someone who is not dancing the Minuet with them. Saying that comedienne and actress Carol Burnett was an alcoholic, is the classic example. Stupidly, the Enquirer refused to retract and apologize for that story, and Burnett subsequently sued them costing them so much money they were almost bankrupted.
By now, hopefully, you've come to see at that at no point is there truly 'consequence free' speech, or speech that has no regulation. Speech is, (or more properly was) in fact, heavily regulated at all (public) levels, it just isn't apparent.
It took a lot of effort and money, before the advent of the Internet, to communicate in writing, or by broadcast, with the masses. A 'fanzine' might have a few hundred subscribers, but it could never reach millions. Small publications like Cryonics magazine and The Immortalist did nick artwork, and excerpt quotes of such length that larger media would have been unable to get away with, simply because they did not reach a large audience. Similarly, much relaxed standards of accountability were present on such small endeavors of publication and exercises of free speech, and that was, by and large rational, and to the good.
Then, along came the Internet, and all those centuries of largely invisible control were wiped away. Now it is possible for a single individual to broadcast with all the credibility, and all the attention getting and credibility enhancing production values of the New York Times or CBS News – and to reach many fold more people. Still more importantly, it is easily possible to selectively target the people they wish to reach in ways no newspaper editor or media mogul in the previous centuries, ever dreamed possible. That's all wonderful, except that it has (inevitably) happened absent those critically important restraints and protections that were formerly in place – many of which were intrinsic to the high cost and labor intensive nature of mass print publication, or the infrastructure and licensing required for the broadcast media. That change can, will, and has unarguably resulted in great evil (as well as great good). It is, for instance, now perfectly possible to all but destroy someone's professional (and personal) reputation and employment prospects, without any risk of repercussions – and there isn't a damn thing they can do about it.
This was not something envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The idea of speech and writing being widely disseminated, completely disconnected from any accountability, was not even a technological possibility until the closing decades of the 20th century. Even the anonymous pamphleteer required a collaborator in the form of a printer, and as the scale of dissemination increased, the amount of infrastructure, resources, and public visibility increased as well. This made anonymity virtually impossible, because without the collaboration of 'big media' – and that didn't happen unless the story was both true and worth the risk of publishing (i.e., Watergate) – it didn't get disseminated. That control is missing today.
The notion that in the age of the Internet, the first "no load" global megaphone for truly free speech, that a tiny list serve within the cryonics community has an obligation to be "a free for all" is not only ridiculous, it is self destructive. We do not owe either our critics or our enemies a 'guaranteed access' bully pulpit at our expense. The closest analogy I can come up with would be to set up a venue in your front yard, and invite people to picket there and call you a child molester, a murderer, a psychopath, or any other wicked thing that they fancy. We don't need to create a venue for them to do that, let alone to cater it with refreshments, and resting benches. The US Constitution gives such people the right to do that in plenty of public spaces, including on an Internet so vast and so capacious, it almost exceeds human appreciation. Unarguably hateful and crazy people can even show up at your child's funeral, and say they're glad he is dead, and that he "died defending faggots, and is burning in hell." Such speech is protected here in the US, but we are not required to invite those who use it as their weapon to the graveside – nor into our patient care facilities. And every time we do so, we lend them credibility, because why else on earth would we give franchise to such people, when they can do the same damn thing on the sidewalk across the street from us?
This proposition that we cryonicists must create some "hallowed place for free speech" for our critics, let alone for our enemies, is bizarre beyond reckoning.
Finally, the only thing I find more offensive about this attitude than the direct harm it causes cryonics, is the implication that some cryonicists actually believe that the things these people are saying are, or might be, true. They aren't. And anyone who invites someone into their venue to shout vile lies and insults at their neighbors (let alone at themselves), is crazy, stupid, or both.
This article is available as a PDF at: http://cryoeuro.eu:8080/pages/viewpageattachments.action?pageId=1441801&highlight=We_Aren%27t_In_Kansas_Anymore_Chronosophere_Darwin.pdf#Chronosphere+Posts-attachment-We_Aren%27t_In_Kansas_Anymore_Chronosophere_Darwin.pdf
1. Lippa R, Tan, FD.: Does culture moderate the relationship between sexual orientation and gender-related personality traits? Cross-Cultural Research 2001, 35:65-87.
2. Lippa R: Finger lengths, 2D:4D ratios, and their relation to gender-related traits and the Big Five. Biological Psychology 2006, 71:116-121.
3. McFadden D, Loehlin, JC., Breedlove, SM., Lippa, R.A., Manning, JT, Rahman, Q.: A reanalysis of five studies on sexual orientation and the relative length of the index and ring fingers (the 2D:4D ratio). Archives of Sexual Behavior 2005, 34:341-356.
4. Whelan R: Suspension pricing and the cost of patient care. Cryonics 1993, 14(10):9-26.
5. Lippa RA: The relation between sex drive and sexual attraction to men and women: A cross-national study of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual men and women. . Archives of Sexual Behavior 2007, 36:209-222.
6. Lippa R: Is high sex drive associated with increased sexual attraction to both sexes? It depends on whether you are male or female. Psychological Science 2006, 17:46-52.
7. Lippa R: Sex differences and sexual orientation differences in personality: Findings from the BBC Internet survey. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2008, 37:173-187.
8. Brady S, Halpern-Felsher, BL.: Adolescents' reported consequences of having oral sex versus vaginal sex. . Pediatrics 2007, 19(2):229-236.
9. Halpern-Felsher B, Cornell, JL, Kropp, RY, Tschann, JM., Apr;. Oral versus vaginal sex among adolescents: perceptions, attitudes, and behavior. . Pediatrics 2005, 115(4):845-851.
10. Gates G, Sonenstein, FL.: Heterosexual genital sexual activity among adolescent males: 1988 and 1995. Fam Plann Perspect 2000, 32():(6):295-297, 304.
11. Lindberg L, Jones, R, Santelli, JS.: Noncoital sexual activities among adolescents. J Adolesc Health 2008, 43(3):231-238.
12. Lippa R: Sex-typing and the perception of body outlines. . Journal of Personality 1983, 51:661-683.
13. Lippa R: Sex differences in sex drive, sociosexuality, and height across 53 nations: Testing evolutionary and social structural theories. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2009, 38(631-651).
14. Steiner M: An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln. DeKalb: Northern IllinoisUniversity Press; 2006.
15. Suda I, Kito, K, Adachi, C.: Viability of long term frozen cat brain in vitro. . Nature 1966, 212:167.
[1] British TV and popular culture is saturated with homosexuality, and much the advertising and public art, is frankly homoerotic.
[2] Few Americans know this, but there is no such protection in the UK, or most of the rest of the world, for that matter.


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ONIGHT I attended a lecture at Sydney Uni by Catherine Waldby entitled "Biology and New Communities." (
It may, at some point, It's just appeared as a podcast here, where there are already a couple of interesting-looking casts available). I already knew Catherine's work (various conferences) which mainly has to do with the various ways that biotechnology and particularly the possibility of removing living tissue from the body and keeping it (the tissue, and sometimes the body) alive alter economies and communities. Her presentations always spark me off in a billion directions at once. And once those sparks went nowhere. Now I have a candle (aka da blog), and can actually justify (kinda) spending a little time thinking about her work in written form… or at least can write with a sharp retort to be able to offer my guilt-demon.
But first, I'll give you a sense of what she talked about so I can frame my response to it in those terms. Tonight she organised her discussion of tissue economies in terms of community. She opened by suggesting that the alterations to ideas about community are incredibly clear when we think about kinship, marked (so she suggested) traditionally by the sharing of biological material (from gametes from mummies and daddies to breast-feeding etc). Clearly the increased use of reproductive technologies affects this particular notion of community.
But her first detailed example was actually blood donation. She began with a very brief history of blood donation in the West, starting with its use during the Spanish civil war, but really becoming entrenched during WWII. The nationalistic notion of belonging to a nation-state by blood (English blood, French blood etc) from the C19 became entrenched here not only through the concept of 'shedding blood and shedding one's own blood for one's country' but also through the encouragement of civilian blood donations as part of the 'war effort'. We begin to see, then, the production of a nation-community as informing the approach to one's own biological matter. From here, she sketched Richard Titmuss' thesis in The Gift Relationship. Basically Titmuss, who was at the London School of Economics, was responding to economists at the same institution who argued that blood donation should be made a market economy (blah blah more efficient, same old story as always). His argument against them draws on Mauss on the gift economy to suggest that the gift of blood is significant in maintaining social ties through a sense of indebtedness and obligation that all hold to the community on the basis that there's a blood bank all can draw on at need. This differs to contract because the gift exchange is never fully complete because the gift remains (in this case quite literally) kind of a part of the donor. The 'imagined community' (Benedict Anderson) that is thus produced is extremely, Titmuss argued, important to the maintenance of the (welfare) state.
From here she turned to the most recent enactment of this: the national biobank. These don't exist yet in Australia (though there's one planned for WA) but our population is probably a bit too big to be able to live up to the standards of Iceland's standard-setting example. Iceland—Cathy didn't talk about this tonight, but I've seen her speak about it elsewhere—became all too aware that its major export—fish—was an unsustainable industry. So they began looking for other ways to sustain their economy. And some bright spark came up with the notion of a national biobank: not only would it be good for public health management, but it's the ultimate commodity for the burgeoning biotech economy. A biobank basically contains bodily tissue collected from citizen—usually blood (for DNA)—which is catalogued along with the medical histories of the citizen. Iceland, apparently, was particularly good for this because it has a manageable population size, and (I don't know the details, but this is interesting nonetheless) a low immigration rate. This produces less variety in the samples and thus makes them easier to compare (I think that's right.) In Iceland, there was much argument about how to create and regulate its use; originally, shifting away from compulsory enrolment, they chose an 'opt-out' mechanism. I can't actually recall if that was sustainable or not, in the end, but I do know that it became part of the national sense of duty to contribute to this biobank which was going to ensure the nation had a huge commodity that would support the economy.
(Just on a side note, I find the Iceland example interesting; in the past, Cathy has spoken about it in terms of a social contract which you have an obligation to (that was the compulsory enrolment position). My response to that was to ask how abandoned tissue (if you have a biopsy or an operation, any tissue removed during is considered to be 'abandoned' and hospitals sell it on to pharmaceutical companies who then use it for their research) functioned differently: you can't even opt out of that if you want medical care. Is this part of a sociomedical contract? Mmm. I liked this thought.)
But the sense of community in relation to blood donation turns out, by comparison with the biobank sense of community, to be immediate, and in the present or near future. A number of participants in the UK Biobank articulate their donation as towards a future community. This is primarily because, in contrast to a blood bank, we don't really know what use a biobank is going to be; we just know it'll be good for biotech research. But interestingly, from the civilian investment in the global power-based preeminence of the nation-state via blood donation, civilian investment in a biobank contributes to the future scientific preeminence of the nation-state as measured by its usefulness to big pharma.
From biobanks, she turned to gamete donation and the idea of distributed kinship. Sperm donation has long been anonymous. The introduction of laws which require that certain medical information be made available to children, as part, Catherine suggested, of the focus on the 'rights of the child', has actually meant a drastic drop in donors. What's intriguing about this (for me, anyway) is the uncovering of these rights that occurs in and through the development of health and health education. I guess this isn't that profound, but the rights of children are being invoked here makes me wonder about how many more 'human rights' are waiting to be found by biotech research and the concommitant capitalising on them by medical science. Anyway, back to sperm donors: in the US, the response to the inability to identify a sperm donor has been the development of the Donor Sibling Registry. Ah, biotech innovation combines with the development of internet cultures to produce what is a kind of 'My Space' where connection occurs through sharing biological kinship but not (up until this point) social kinship. Apparently parents take half-siblings on play-dates and adolescents create their own community. Kinship via distributed biological matter. I found this intriguing.
And finally, the big scary one: ova selling and global markets. Here I think it dovetails interestingly with this post from s0metim3s concerned with trafficking and the illegalisation of some forms of immigration; I'll come back to this at the end of my description of Catherine's lecture. Donating ova is a pretty onerous procedure: you undertake a month of heavy hormone treatment designed to make your body prep more than its usual one ova for release from the ovary, and then you have invasive surgery under a general to remove them. Aside from the risks of surgery, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome causes fatalities in between 1 and 4 % of the women undergoing this procedure. So most women who are using it are doing IVF, and these are, in most Western countries anyway, the ones who donate ova to other women.
But more and more people are undergoing IVF treatment, and more and more are requiring extra ova; not to mention the need for stem cells for research. Here we move more explicitly into the relation between the nation-state and the global market. In Europe, for example, the UK, Germany and Scandinavia have really strict regulation of ova donation, so less of it happens. In Spain, however, clinics can pay women to donate. Thus we have medical tourism or IVF holidays becoming available in countries where the regulation is really strict, often through partnership deals with fertility clinics in Spain. Some of the women who donate ova to these clinics are poor immigrant women. Many, however, are from former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe who are actively recruited to Spain for two reasons: they're blond (which makes their genetic makeup attractive for what is predominantly white, Westernised IVF purposes) and they're poor. They earn usually 300-600 pounds per procedure, which is about 3-4 months of income in their own countries. Some undergo this procedure five times a year—which is really risky—and will be offered more money if they take higher hormone doses which of course risks ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Interestingly, Catherine explained that many women combine a donation with work in the sex industry before returning home.
Such women, of course, are beyond the protection of national citizenship, which includes limitations on the ways that ova donation can occur, and are thus incredibly vulnerable. The merging of sex trafficking and ova donation trafficking in this regard only reinforces this vulnerability (Catherine's applying for a grant to see if they can find links with organised crime here, which she strongly suspects). Both industries are, of course, the result of the huge wealth differentials between nation-states across the globe. Here Sharma's comments cited by s0metim3s become increasingly important in thinking a response to this, especially given that the nation-state not only cannot protect women like these, but contributes to their vulnerability:
I argue that only by recognizing the agency, however constrained, of illegalized migrants can we come to understand how processes of capitalist globalization and the consequent effects of dislocation and dispersal shape the mobility of illegalized migrants. Within the current global circuits of capital, goods, and people, I argue that along with a call to end practices of displacement, a demand to eliminate immigration controls is necessary if feminists are to act in solidarity with the dispossessed in their search for new livelihoods and homes. (Nandita Sharma "Anti-Trafficking Rhetoric and the Making of a Global Apartheid" (NWSA Journal, 17.3, 2005))
Whilst Sharma is clearly referring specifically to asylum seekers here, I would suggest her position regarding the removal of immigration borders reinforces the suggestion that Catherine made at the end of her paper. She pointed out that the imagined community as bordered by the nation is no longer sufficient, a fact which is testified to by the vulnerability of ova donors, and that other ways of imagining communities which extend through and across borders become not just important but necessary in responding to the social justice questions that are raised by these kinds of tissue economies (and others, of course).
My question in response to these concerns is more, I suppose, theoretical than anything else, though with a strong practical concern. In the end, the communities that the West has thus far proven capable of imagining are fundamentally limited. Even heterogeneity within the nation is considered to be threatening in many cases, producing (as Nancy amongst others have argued) a community far too concerned with commonality; and we watch the dire consequences of the rejection of heterogeneity in what one might call (altogether problematically) the 'global community' everyday. In the end, for a suggestion like Catherine's to be tenable, I think that what we need is not merely to 'expand' those who this community is thought to include, but expand the very notion of a community (though perhaps these two things inflect and necessitate each other). Otherwise, the very differentials that cause the vulnerabilities for which Cathy is concerned to ensure protection will merely end up playing through in those new communities, in those protections. That is, without a re-imagining of the ways that community can operate, the 'imagined community' expanded from the national becomes, I think, colonialist, imperialist. And such a re-imagining could, would and should affect the functioning of these tissue economies, not to mention the global biotech industry (or, you know, the whole global economy) in ways that we can't even—and shouldn't be able to—imagine.
*Post title comes from the name of Catherine Waldby's and Robert Mitchell's book. She also has one forthcoming entitled the Global Politics of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research (from Palgrave).


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Dannii Minogue: Westfield Fashion Obsessions
Thursday night I had the pleasure of being invited to Dannii Minogue Fashion Obsessions and Confessions workshop at Westfield Fountain gate.
Dannii Minouge had travelled to NSW,QLD and final stop Victoria, as Westfields style ambassador for these workshop events filling us in on the latest trends for winter 2015 with also Vogue Fashion Editor Meg Gray and host Anthony Simpson.
That night Dannii took a trip down memory lane talking about her love for 80s fashion and her love for old hollywood . We had an insight into what she likes to do in personal life. Believe it or not her Dannii revealed how she loved going back to the family farm with her sister Kylie and just wearing her tracky pants and Ugg boots and their favourite woollen jumpers. A quote from her words were "I revel in it" meaning she loves and embraces her glamours days off.
One thing Dannii can't live without is.. pleather, its all the range vegan leather at the moment and her most prized item in her wardrobe is a leather jacket. Dannii bought it from Patricia Field's New York based shop at 17! . Patricia is also a stylist for the world known show "sex and the city". This jacket was worn in her first music video "Love and Kisses".
After fashion chit chat confessions, Dannii & Vogue Fashion Editor Meg Gray spoke about the up and coming trends for winter 2015.
It's been talked about all year! Normcore is a trend of wearing you classic colours black, whites and camel. Once you have these colours in your wardrobe you'll never look back! As these colours are here to stay and will be timeless pieces.
Sports luxe is here to stay.. it's relaxing tailoring look is perfect for any casual day.
Along with winter whites! Loving it, as you know us melbournians tend to stick to black, but don't be scared to go all out! If you a little scared for this look then then put a few white pieces with your black wardrobe, you can never go wrong with black and white!
Love this look! Especially the socks! Mod dressing was big in the 60's and we'll be seeing it hit centre stage all over again with a preppy twist!
oving this look, if you haven't heard by now but the 70's are back baby!
High thighs, neck ties this outfit is mega cute!
Here is with a lovely photo of Dannii and I!!


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Cubs reliever Adam Warren will be a part of the Aroldis Chapman/Gleyber Torres trade, the New York Post reports. Warren came up in the Yankees organization spending a couple seasons in New York before being traded to the Cubs in the offseason for Starlin Castro. Warren has had an up-and-down season in Chicago, starting red-hot before
More Rumors: Could Ryan Braun Be On His Way To Chicago?
I'll give you my answer before we start: no. Absolutely not. But let's see where all this is coming from: A piece posted on the Brewer's SB Nation site, brewcrewball.com, by Ryan Lesniewski outlines the possible trade scenario that could take place between the Cubs and Brewers for Braun. Here's what Lesniewski writes: "From a


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Since many years, the digitization of cultural material has seen significant progress. Nowadays, the cultural material digitization has become a key objective of heritage preservation. Presence of digital libraries is also seen as an important aspect in this regard. This actions mostly take place under the shades of Digital Agenda. In this manner, numerous of the intended movements under this framework are done in order to preserve and share the cultural heritage.
Therefore, having a digital resource will provide the easier access to our cultural heritage material and a huge number of items from archives, museums and libraries, which contains prints such as artwork, books and journals, letters, musical scores, photographs, post cards, cinematographic heritage, museum objects, archival documents, audiovisual material, etc.
The most important advantages of cultural heritage digitization could be as follows:
In the same manner, DAKMAR intends to collect any probable heritage objects from individuals in order to use in the digital agenda. Individuals can bring their probable cultural objects to our center for digitization.
Eastern Mediterranean UniversityFamagusta, North Cyprusvia Mersin 10, Turkey


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It is becoming increasingly difficult to find authentic African masks that have actually been worn and used in either ritual or ceremony. Here at Africa and Beyond, we are very fortunate to have collected such a grouping of genuine traditional masks from our own collection, various private collections and museum deaccessions. We are pleased to be able to offer as many as we can!
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My good friend Beebe Tran came down this weekend to help me out with my wedding and hang out with Ben and I. Beebe and his wife Corine were nominated as Blu Domain's "Photographers of the Year" and not only are they outstanding photographers, but they are also great friends. Thanks Beebe for coming down and thanks Corine for letting me borrow him for the night :) More to come from the wedding soon. Blessings. Jason
We made Ben carry everything!
The three of us an the Bride & Groom :)


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Are you looking for the professional ecommerce web design company who can assist in creating your business website then you know about some important aspects to take correct decision. Some of the essential factors to pick up best ecommerce web Design Company are:
Identify your requirements:
If you are thinking to create a website to make the visitors purchase your products or business services, then with the assistance of ecommerce web design company you can able to accomplish your task fruitfully. Ecommerce web design permits the user to undergo transactions easily and also acts as a wonderful platform for payment gateway and shopping cart. There are some essential elements needed to design a website and hence it is very important to design an ecommerce website with easy and safe environment that makes the visitor to carry out easy transaction. Due to that reason, it is vital to get the right ecommerce web design company to meet your expectations and needs.
Look for the suitable commerce development firm:
There are about thousands of web design companies found in the world. It is very essential to pick up the right ecommerce web development to meet your needs and offer good site to flourish your business. First and foremost thing to perform when you are seeking for right ecommerce development is to get references from your business partners, colleagues, family or friends to pick a good one. Other than that, you need to perform extensive research work on ecommerce web design companies and compare its price rate and get best deal through eye-catching website design for your ecommerce stores.
Factors to look for:
When you look for professional ecommerce web Design Company then look for certain factors. Consider for the past work and few samples developed by the professional firm so that you can come to a conclusion regarding their updated technology and skills. Moreover, assure that the team of professionals makes use of SEO friendly tools to create astonishing website for your ecommerce shop. If you look for a company with all these expectations then consider for SPG Techsoft Company.


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Troy Perry : biography
Troy Deroy Perry Jr (born July 27, 1940) founded the Metropolitan Community Church, a Christian denomination with a special affirming ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968.
Rev. Perry's activism has taken many turns, including positions on a number of boards of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender organizations. He held a seat on the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations in 1973. Perry worked in political arenas to oppose Anita Bryant in the Save the Children campaign in 1977, that sought to overturn an anti-discrimination ordinance passed by the city of Miami. Unsuccessful in Miami, he also worked to oppose the Briggs Initiative in California that was written to ensure gay and lesbian teachers would be fired or prohibited from working in California public schools. The Briggs Initiative was soundly defeated in 1978, due in large part to grass-roots organizing, which Perry participated in.Bullough, p. 396 Perry also planned the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979 with Robin Tyler.
In 1978 he was honored by the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay Rights Chapter with its Humanitarian Award. He holds honorary doctorates from Episcopal Divinity School in Boston, Worldwide Faith News Archives (Press release). Retrieved on January 3, 2008. Samaritan College (Los Angeles), and La Sierra University in Santa Monica, California for his work in civil rights, and was recently lauded by the Gay Press Association with its Humanitarian Award. Rev. Perry was invited to the White House in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to discuss gay and lesbian civil rights, and by President Bill Clinton in 1995 for the first White House Conference on HIV/AIDS. In 1997 he was invited to the first White House Conference on Hate Crimes. Perry was also a guest of the President that same year for breakfast in the State dining room in the White House to be honored with 90 other clergy for their work in American society.
On Valentine's Day 2004 he spoke to a crowd of gay newlyweds at the Marriage Equality Rally at the California State Capitol. He retired as Moderator of the MCC in 2005, and the Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson succeeded him at an installation service on 29 October 2005."New Gay Christians." The Toronto Sun; July 24, 2005: p. 47 He remains active in public speaking and writing.
Founding the Metropolitan Community Church
In 1968, after a suicide attempt following a failed love affair, and witnessing a close friend being arrested by the police at the Black Cat Tavern, a Los Angeles gay bar, Perry felt called to return to his faith and to offer a place for gay people to worship God freely. Perry put an advertisement in The Advocate announcing a worship service designed for gays in Los Angeles. Twelve people turned up on October 6, 1968 for the first service, and "Nine were my friends who came to console me and to laugh, and three came as a result of the ad."Tobin, p. 19-20 After six weeks of services in his living room, the congregation shifted to a womans' club, an auditorium, a church, and finally to a theater that could hold 600 within several months. In 1971, their own building was dedicated with over a thousand members in attendance.
Being outspoken has caused several MCC buildings to be targeted for arson, including the original Mother Church in Los Angeles. Perry's theology has been described as conservative, but social action was a high priority from the beginning of the establishment of the denomination. Perry performed same sex unions as early as 1970 and ordained women as pastors as early as 1972.
MCC has over 300 congregations in 18 countries. The 2007 documentary film titled Call Me Troy is the story of his life and legacy, including the founding of MCC and his struggles as a civil rights leader in the gay community.
In 2011, actor/playwright Jade Esteban Estrada portrayed Perry in the solo musical comedy "ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 5" which includes the song "I Will Follow You" sung by the character of Perry with music and lyrics by Estrada.
Living octopus
In countries which are located near sea coasts, sea food is an important part of national cuisine


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For many start-ups, funding their businesses stands as one of the key obstacles to getting their companies off the ground and moving forward. According to the SBA Office of Advocacy, small businesses seek financing for four primary reasons:
1) Starting a business
2) Purchasing inventory
3) Expanding the business
4) Strengthening the business
What approach to funding will best suit the intent and needs of your small business? Understanding what types of financing is available is a good first step in figuring that out.
There are two major categories of financing—debt and equity—and other options exist as well.
Debt Financing
This involves borrowing money that you must repay (usually with interest) over a period of time. Generally, some or all assets of your business will be used to secure the loans. To protect them from default on a loan, lenders commonly require borrowers to personally guarantee repayment (i.e., to have a sufficient personal interest at stake).
Banks have been the major source of small business debt financing, but some have become more reluctant to offer long-term loans to smaller companies because of the risk involved. Fortunately, the Small Business Administration's SBA 7(a) program has helped fill the void by encouraging banks to issue long-term loans to small businesses unable to get financing on reasonable terms through conventional lending sources.
Equity Financing
With equity financing (or equity capital), a small business raises money by offering shares of ownership in the business. Investors' equity investments give them ownership stakes in the business and allow them to share in the company's profits.
Equity capital may come from a variety of sources—such as your own personal savings, your life insurance policy, family, friends, employees, customers, government grants, venture capitalists, or angel investors.
Equity investors will naturally expect to get a return on their investments. Some might also require that they have a hand in your company's decision-making.
Other Funding Options
These other financing and cost-sharing options also exist.
• Partnerships
• Joint ventures
• Alliances
• Crowdfunding
And you might also consider researching business incubators. While they typically don't offer cash, they do provide some combination of valuable support in the way of free or discounted administrative services, an affordable workspace, shared office equipment, and even management guidance.
If you're seeking funding to start or grow your small business, reach out to your local SCORE chapter for guidance. SCORE mentors have expertise in all aspects of business, and they can help guide you to resources that might best fit your financing needs. More than 11,000 volunteers in over 320 chapters serve their communities through education and mentoring. To contact SCORE National visit http://www.score.org or locally visit www.hutchscore.org.
Dave Inskeep is a retired commercial banker and can be reached at email@example.com.


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One of Bonnie's greatest pleasures is getting to help kids learn how to work with dogs . This class will focus on teaching children how to communicate with their dogs and will give them an understanding of safe practices when meeting other dogs.
While teaching their dogs basic manners and obedience exercises: such as sit, down, stay, recall, heeling and particularly attention-based exercises, the children will learn how to properly give commands, when and how to praise and how to read their dog's body language. These basic concepts are the core of all dog-training and this class will give kids a great start for successful life-long interaction with dogs.
Maturity is more important than age for the kids but they should be able to concentrate for a reasonable amount of time. A Parent must stay with younger children. Older children may be picked up and dropped off as long as the parent returns no later than 5 minute prior to the end of class - all parents must stay for the first class.
Cost: 150.00
Classes: 6 sessions
Prerequisite: None
Location: K9 Co-Stars Training Facility - 27442 16th Ave., Aldergrove, BC, V4W 2C6
|Kids and Dogs
|Kids and Dogs
|call for wait list - when enough people have expressed interest we will put together a class.
To register online click here or for more information on classes please contact our administrator, Leslie Williams, at (604) 850-6687 or by email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Refund Policy: There is a $25.00 rebooking fee for any changes or cancellations before the class starts. Once the class has started no refunds will be given.


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Laboratory of Molecular Chronobiology
Nicolas Cermakian
Research articles
Review articles
Welcome to the Laboratory of Molecular Chronobiology, the laboratory of Dr. Nicolas Cermakian at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and McGill University. We study the molecular bases of circadian rhythms, and their connections to physiology, in particular the immune response, in rodents and humans.
Molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms in mice and humans
Many physiological processes present near-24h oscillations, even in constant conditions (1). For example, the hormone cortisol is at high levels in the blood in the morning, and low levels in the evening; another well defined rhythm is that of body temperature, which in human is high in the day and at its lowest point in the late night. These daily rhythms are called circadian rhythms, and they are generated by circadian clocks. The research in the Laboratory of Molecular Chronobiology aims at deciphering how these clocks work, and more specifically, to find an answer to three questions: What are the mechanisms or gears of these biological clocks? How can these clocks control physiology? How are these clocks controlled by the environment?
The master circadian clock in mammals such as mice or humans is located in the brain, more specifically in a region of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. However, recent research has shown that clocks are also present in other brain regions and in most peripheral organs too. During evolution, circadian clocks have evolved by giving an advantage to living organisms, by adapting their physiology to the cyclically changing environment (e.g. light/dark, warm/cold daily cycles), and by organizing in time the processes occurring in various tissues and within cells. Thus, it is not a surprise that disturbances of circadian clocks have been associated with various diseases, including cancer, metabolic diseases and mood disorders.
1. The identification and study of clock components
This project addresses molecular mechanisms at play in circadian clocks in mice. Circadian clocks are made up of so-called "clock genes" (2), and animals or human subjects with mutated clock genes present rhythm disturbances, even arrhythmicity in some cases. The work in the laboratory in the past years has led to the identification of new clock genes. One example of this is the finding that proteins of the REV-ERB and ROR families can act as clock components (3, 4). Surprisingly, the analysis of the expression of these new clock genes in mouse tissues has highlighted striking tissue-specific differences, which underlines the specificities of circadian rhythm role and regulation across the body. Our work has also provided important information on how clock proteins work together in generating rhythms: the studies on the modification and fate of CLOCK, BMAL1 and CRY proteins has added new layers of complexity in our knowledge of the circadian clockwork (5). In line with the aims of finding new clock components and unravelling new modes of regulation in the clock, we recently initiated the study of the circadian role of USP2, a protein known to remove ubiquitin tags from proteins (in collaboration with Dr. Simon Wing, McGill University). Tagging of clock proteins with ubiquitin, and the subsequent degradation of these tagged proteins, has been shown to be critical for circadian timing (2). We now found that the reverse reaction (removal of the ubiquitin tag) is important for the clock too: USP2 binds to and deubiquitinates the clock protein PER1 and that mice devoid of USP2 present abnormal rhythms (6).
2. The circadian control of the immune response
What is the role of clocks in peripheral organs? In collaboration with Dr. Nathalie Labrecque (Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, University of Montreal), we study circadian rhythms in lymphoid organs, i.e. organs involved in the development and function of immune system cells. More specifically we found that lymph nodes possess a circadian clock, and we are now studying how this immunological clock can control the presentation of antigens to T cells the initial event of the immune response to pathogens. We found that T cells from lymph nodes taken at different times of the day show different levels of proliferation when stimulated via their T cell receptor in vitro, and that this is associated with a rhythm of an important protein in this process, called ZAP-70 (7). Furthermore, we found that mice immunized during the day with an antigen carried by antigen-presenting cells respond more strongly to this antigen than if immunization is done during the night (7). In addition to studying how the clock regulates the immune response, we also study how the circadian clock responds to a state of inflammation, and showed that inflammation has strong tissue-, time- and gene-specific effects on clock genes in rats (8).
3. The regulation of human peripheral clocks
In order to study the regulation of human central and peripheral circadian clocks by environmental cues, we teamed up with Dr. Diane Boivin (Douglas Institute, McGill University). We assess the function of human peripheral oscillators by quantifying the expression of clock genes in human samples, in particular white blood cells. We found that clock genes can indeed be used to study the function of human circadian clocks under different environmental conditions (9). Building on these results, we applied this technology to subjects undergoing a protocol simulating night shift work, and they were able to show that clock gene expression in white blood cells becomes aligned to a simulated night shift after several days of bright light exposure, but that their response is slower than that of the central clock (10). We also looked at clock gene expression in post-mortem brain tissue, and found that rhythms of clock gene RNAs differ greatly between the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients compared to those of control aged subjects, which might underlie the sleep and circadian rhythms of these patients (11).
1. Cermakian, N. & Boivin, D. B. (2003) Brain Res Brain Res Rev 42, 204-20.
2. Duguay, D. & Cermakian, N. (2009) Chronobiol Int 26, 1479-513.
3. Guillaumond, F., Dardente, H., Giguère, V. & Cermakian, N. (2005) J Biol Rhythms 20, 391-403.
4. Mongrain, V., Ruan, X., Dardente, H., Fortier, E. E. & Cermakian, N. (2008) Genes Cells 13, 1197-210.
5. Dardente, H., Fortier, E. E., Martineau, V. & Cermakian, N. (2007) Biochem J 402, 525-536.
6. Yang, Y. et al. (2012) Biology Open, publiée en ligne, doi: 10.1242/bio.20121990.
7. Fortier, E.E. et al. (2011) J Immunol 187:6291-300.
8. Westfall, S., Aguilar-Valles, A., Mongrain, V., Luheshi, G.N. & Cermakian, N. (2013) PLoS ONE 8, e59808.
9. James, F. O., Boivin, D. B., Charbonneau, S., Belanger, V. & Cermakian, N. (2007) Chronobiol Int 24, 1009-34.
10. James, F. O., Cermakian, N. & Boivin, D. B. (2007) Sleep 30, 1427-36.
11. Cermakian, N., Waddington Lamont, E., Boudreau, P. & Boivin, D.B. (2011) J Biol Rhythms 26, 160-170.
Site created and updated by
Nicolas Cermakian
Nicolas Cermakian


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About Us
We are a rural couple living in the countryside of east central Minnesota. We love the outdoors and enjoy the country acreage God has blessed us with. We are in love with our dogs, they are well mannered and great with children.
Our goal is well balanced, well socialized Saints with quality as our first priority. It is our desire to honor God with our business and operate it with integrity and fairness. We desire to match puppies with homes where they will be a blessing and be loved.


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Standing Toe Raises
Stephen McCain | Oct 16, 2010 | Comments 0
In the beginning, stand next to a wall with fingertip touch for balance, perform toe raise by rising up on the toes and lowering, no hold. Eventually, do exercise away from the wall. Do not rock back onto the heels when you come down off your toes.
- Always wear shoes
Related Posts
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Filed Under: Base I Training • Maximum Strength • Structure Exercises
About the Author: Stephen McCain is an Olympic and Hall of Fame gymnast.


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Michelle L. (Marsh) Manseau
Beloved Wife, Mother, Daughter
LOWELL Michelle L. (Marsh) Manseau, born June 20, 1970, passed away at the age of 42 on November 21, 2012 at Lowell General Hospital from her twenty-one year battle with cancer.
She is survived by her husband, Lee Manseau; and her three teenage sons, Kyle Manseau, Brandon Manseau, and Adrian Manseau. She is also survived by her beloved parents, Paula and John Currier and Wayne and Cheryl Marsh; her three brothers, Wayne Marsh Jr., Steven Currier, and Shawn Marsh; and her sister, Tracy Marsh. In addition to her immediate family, Michelle had an extended family with her many loved friends and co-workers at Marshall's and TJX.
Michelle's sole purpose in life was to battle her cancer and to go on and have children. When her prayers were answered, her life was filled with joy. Her children became her passion. They loved her immensely, especially during every battle she faced. Michelle will be dearly missed and forever in all of our hearts.
The family of Michelle Manseau wishes to extend our sincere thanks to David C. Pickul, MD, Murat Anamur, MD, Christopher Morse, MD, and James Waters, MD for giving us 21 miraculous years with Michelle.
YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND HER COMMITTAL PRAYERS ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012. PLEASE MEET BETWEEN 9 A.M. AND 9:30 A.M. AT THE MCDONOUGH FUNERAL HOME, 14 HIGHLAND STREET, LOWELL (978 OR 800) 458-6816 FOR PROCESSION TO WESTLAWN II CEMETERY FOR HER COMMITTAL PRAYERS AT 10 A.M.. IN LIEU OF FLOWERS, MEMORIALS MAY BE GIVEN TO LOWELL GENERAL CANCER CENTER: https://www.lowellgeneral.org/about-lgh/ways-to-give/donate-online-now OR CALLED IN DIRECTLY TO 978-937-6430.


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> What tests for clear writing do you know of Lisa. Please send thoughts. I've implemented a service on Juicy Studio that determines the Gunning Fog Index, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid Grade of a web document <http://juicystudio.com/fog/>. I'm not sure of its usefulness (if any) for languages other than English, and I'm also not convinced about the underlying principles behind the algorithms. The algorithms favour short monosyllabic sentences, regardless of whether the sentence makes sense. Obviously, it's possible to get a good score with gobbledy-gook, but I've had quite a lot of positive feedback about its usefulness. Could make a starting point? Best regards, Gez _____________________________ Supplement your vitamins http://juicystudio.com Keeping developers informed! IWA/HWG Member ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregg Vanderheiden" <firstname.lastname@example.com> To: <firstname.lastname@example.com>; "'Chris Ridpath'" <firstname.lastname@example.com>; "'WAI WCAG List'" <email@example.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:51 PM Subject: RE: [w3c-wai-gl] <none> > > HMM > > What tests for clear writing do you know of Lisa. Please send thoughts. > This one has stumped us. Lots of things to measure but nothing that really > separates clear from unclear. Maybe we can't have a 'pass = fail' but we > could have something that would provide indicators of things that usually > accompany less clear writing. > > > Gregg > > -- ------------------------------ > Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D. > Professor - Ind. Engr. & BioMed Engr. > Director - Trace R & D Center > University of Wisconsin-Madison > > > -----Original Message----- > From: email@example.com [mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com] On Behalf > Of email@example.com > Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 6:36 AM > To: Chris Ridpath; WAI WCAG List > Subject: [w3c-wai-gl] <none> > > Looks like a lot of work Chris > > a few comments > > 1, I would love to see some tests for clear writing, which for English > there are a lot. Are you writing them? > 2, Not minimizing the real usefulness of this work, a lot of the tests do > not guarantee conformance or accessibility, but are a useful as a yard > stick and as an alarm bell... > > The best yard stick is still testing your interface with people with > disabilities. It would be a shame for people to reduce the amount of user > testing. > I would like to see something along thoughs lines as a footnote on each > test page. > > 3, puting the two points together. A sentence that has > a, a low reading age score, > b, a low number of conjunctions and comers, > c, is short > is probably clear and simple. > > Certainly failing these "testable" criteria is a good alarm bell that you > may want a rewrite. But to be safe, test with users with Learning > disabilities > > > Keep well > Lisa Seeman > > > > > >Received on Wednesday, 13 October 2004 17:49:29 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 16 January 2018 15:33:51 UTC


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This is Bob Tottens nicely build Le Mans looking Spitfire from Abington,
Massachusetts. The car is race prepared and he uses it in SCCA events.
This is Otto Kemps very unique GT6 with a very special trailer called the
Rumble-B Express. On top of the trailer which can be opened sits Toto. Otto&Toto are from Raleigh, North Carolina.
This is Doug Kibbeys GT6 (I want this car!!) which he competed during
1969-70 at the what was then known as the Charlotte Motor Speedway in NC where he beats most of the 911s. He sold the car later but is still a Triumph enthusiast.
Rocky Entrikens 1964 MKI from Salinas, KS is seen here at a racetrack in St.
Louis. He competed in SCCA Solo II National Championships (28 of the 29), more than any other car regardless of class or category.


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I saw a picture today, under it was a sentence asking for "likes" for a page called "Right out of the Trailer Park" and it pictured a very rough looking woman who was dressed in a ridiculous outfit. I have heard comedians making fun of trailer park living, "cheap" people, someone a person doesn't like or who act rude or are obnoxious in any way, are called "trailer park trash". Can I say that I know of persons who have been raised in the lap of luxury, and are both rude and obnoxious, being rude and obnoxious are a personality trait that doesn't have anything to do with where you live, right? Yes of course I am right!
I now live in a beautiful home on a gorgeous piece of property that is debt free, thanks be to God for giving me favor in that area, but let me go back a few years.
I was born to parents who were good, sincere, God-fearing, loving, ministers of the Word of God and serving people as pastor and evangelist who didn't have two nickels to rub together. When I was born they took me home to the back room of the fellowship hall they lived in courtesy of the church they were working for at the time. When I was nine-months old they felt "the call" to go and evangelize, that is to preach, sing and generally minister to any church that would have them, and the only place we had to live, to keep from being housed in back rooms or spare bedrooms of congregants, was a small "Silver stream" trailer which had no bathroom. My dad hooked that trailer up in many small trailer parks in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. When I was four years of age that trailer was parked in a place that was near a water treatment plant and we were there for more than six weeks. If you live in Atlanta and have to travel down Atlanta Road to Bolton Road where the water treatment plant is you know what the smell is like, it is not very pretty and the problem was that my mother was pregnant with my brother so the smell only added to her reasons to be nauseous. There was a Coke machine at the front of the park and the Coca-Colas in it were ice cold, a blessing on a hot day for my mother, but as soon as she drank it, up it came, in the slop jar, which my dad faithfully emptied of all the waste of the family. When I was ten my dad took a church which, had been abandoned by the current pastor and had taken most of the congregation with him but left a huge amount of debt on that big brick church on the corner of Dodd's Avenue in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The church couldn't afford a parsonage so daddy purchased a sixteen-foot Airstream, the up-grade was that this one had a small bathroom, nice since mother was pregnant with my sister, and instead of being in a trailer park we were backed up to the church and he was able to hook into the church water supply so we had running water. Funny thing is that my brother nor I ever felt poor, we never had that mentality, my parents made it an adventure and we were doing it for the greater good of the church, for the people who couldn't afford the church payments without hosting dinners every Sunday. I wonder if any of those people were ever thankful for what my parents did for them? Not that it matters because their aim was to please God, not man…as a kid I can't say I shared their enthusiasm.
I think that my brother, sister and I have turned out rather well. We are all upstanding citizens that are neither rude, nor obnoxious, we are registered voters, and the only time we look rough is when we wake up in the morning, speaking only for myself now. There is nothing wrong with providing your family a place to live in a place where you can afford to live and if that is a trailer park then good for you!
Every single time I hear one of those wise cracks or see one of those pictures I feel affronted and I am tired of hearing it made fun of and put down.
That being said, let me ask you to be kind to every person you meet even if they are not kind to you, you don't know what life at home is for them and your smile might just be the only one they see all day. If you deem yourself a Christian, a child of God, someone who emulates Him and His goodness, then remember this:
1 John 4: 7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
God is love and if He came to earth again instead of a stable in Bethlehem He might just be born and raised in your local trailer park!


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The App Store is constantly renewed offering all kinds of content to download on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch . Today, we wanted to gather the best free applications for a limited time.
These applications for iPhone and iPad will be very useful, take advantage of the offer and download those that you like on your device from the iOS App Store.
Free apps for a limited time today, December 12
Throwback Stories
Throwback Stories is an application that will help you create fabulous Instagram stories with a series of tools to animate your content.
CalcKey is a calculator specially designed for your iMessage conversations . You can perform any mathematical operation without having to leave the app.
Blink is a great photo editing application with very interesting filters and effects and professional tools to touch up your favorite photos.
Orderly is an application to create task lists that offers a large selection of options, features and additional functions. Tactile gestures, division by categories, night mode, view of tables and even a built-in map.
PicShop HD
We continue with another useful photo editor with dozens of filters and effects. In addition, it also allows you to include texts in the images.
Tiny URL
Tiny URL is one of the best applications to shorten URLs directly from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
To finish with this selection of free apps for a limited time, we recommend downloading Fuelly. It is an app that will allow you to keep track of your vehicle's gas mileage . In this way, you can save some additional money.
And here ends, for today, our list of free limited-time applications for iPhone, for iPad and for iPod touch of the iOS App Store. They are compatible with all models. But we do not know when the offers will end, so take advantage while you can.


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WOW WOW WOW please marry me like just your cock. Can I get one of those "mold a cock" things and send it to you because I want a dildo just like that. That cock is DADDY with all caps. Do you understand how I would bend backwards to have that in me? Jesus just to have it rub against my clit with its soft tip leaking pre-cum against me. I want it real bad. I could see myself gagging happily on that cock. I've never wanted to be slammed onto a cock so bad. YOU HAVE MAGIC COCK. Your cock is so just fucking hot that It could be a serious party trick "watch me grow". It would definitely get you laid. And you're just starting to date …you have nothing to worry about down there trust me (; 5/5
Are you serious….this isn't photo shopped right sugar. Where on earth did you come from I need to move there. Jesus is it Texas they say everything's bigger in Texas. I can ride a horse but hell that is one big ass stallion. I have neve EVER rode one like that before. Shit I bet it would feel good pounding deep into my pussy. Hell, I bet even with the softest push it feels like you're pounding. It looks so fucking fun to ride or even just rock on, like a rocking horse. I'm pretty small though so I know that id have to do some extreme prepping before I took that big boy. I bet you fuck like an animal with that thing, staking your claim on women. My lord that there cock is a 100% would keep 4.9/5
Katie's Cock Review:
…..holy saint Josephine your cock. IT IS HUGE. That is like KING KONG DONG. Please nick name your cock that it would truly make this valley girl happy. But seriously holy fuck. What were you in your past life a horse. You could kill someone with that thing. Omg I bet you could fill me up so good. You have that type of cock that when you sit on it , you almost choke a little because its just so damn much. I like that. You have the type of cock that would leave me limping in the morning . I definitely couldn't fit that all in my mouth even with me not having a gag reflex, but I would have so much fun trying. I bet my tongue could have the time of its life on that cock. Just licking it like a fucking lollipop so damn big I just can get over it. 4.8/5 damn..just damn
Kayla's Cock Review:
Just….FUCKKKKKKKKK. that is honestly all I have to say about this cock because just damn….and you're single. Is it against policy to talk to date costumers because I want to if it comes with that attached to it. You're like an actual cock that I would get off too. Not lying it took me a while to write this because I just was staring the whole time. I just wanna put my mouth on it. Like when you see something that looks just so fucking tasty and you can help but drool, that is exactly how I feel. I am two seconds from fucking myself on this dildo right now. I am so hot for you. Like why do you even need this rate your cock is perfect 5 out of fucking 5 . ugh . I just need to cum this is killing me.
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Foreign Affairs Anthology Series
The Best of 2016
Equality and American Democracy
Why Politics Trumps Economics
Fight or Flight
America's Choice in the Middle East
Russia's Perpetual Geopolitics
Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern
Making America Great Again
The Case for the Mixed Economy
The End of the Old Israel
How Netanyahu Has Transformed the Nation
The Case for Offshore Balancing
A Superior U.S. Grand Strategy
The Truth About Trade
What Critics Get Wrong About the Global Economy
France's Next Revolution?
A Conversation With Marine Le Pen
Populism on the March
Why the West Is in Trouble
Populism Is Not Fascism
But It Could Be a Harbinger
Wealthier World, Poorer Nation
The Problem With the Rise of the Rest
Lone Wolves No More
How ISIS' European Cells Really Operate
Watching American Democracy in China
Liberals and Conservatives After Trump
The Apocalypse in U.S. Political Thought
Trump Isn't the First—And He Won't be the Last
America's Misguided LGBT Policy
How the United States Hurts Those It Tries to Help
Debunking Microenergy
The Future Lies With Urbanization
The New Dictators
Why Personalism Rules
A Westphalian Peace for the Middle East
Why an Old Framework Could Work
A Tale of Two Statues
Putin, Stalin, and Russia's Bloody Past
Global Trumpism
Why Trump's Victory Was 30 Years in the Making and Why It Won't Stop Here
The Truth About Trade
What Critics Get Wrong About the Global Economy
Just because a U.S. presidential candidate bashes free trade on the campaign trail does not mean that he or she cannot embrace it once elected. After all, Barack Obama voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement as a U.S. senator and disparaged the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a presidential candidate. In office, however, he came to champion the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a giant trade deal with 11 other Pacific Rim countries.
Yet in the current election cycle, the rhetorical attacks on U.S. trade policy have grown so fiery that it is difficult to imagine similar transformations. The Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has railed against "disastrous" trade agreements, which he claims have cost jobs and hurt the middle class. The Republican Donald Trump complains that China, Japan, and Mexico are "killing" the United States on trade thanks to the bad deals struck by "stupid" negotiators. Even Hillary Clinton, the expected Democratic nominee, who favored the TPP as secretary of state, has been forced to join the chorus and now says she opposes that agreement.
Blaming other countries for the United States' economic woes is an age-old tradition in American politics; if truth is the first casualty of war, then support for free trade is often an early casualty of an election campaign. But the bipartisan bombardment has been so intense this time, and has been so unopposed, that it raises real questions about the future of U.S. global economic leadership.
The anti-trade rhetoric paints a grossly distorted picture of trade's role in the U.S. economy. Trade still benefits the United States enormously, and striking back at other countries by imposing new barriers or ripping up existing agreements would be self-destructive. The badmouthing of trade agreements has even jeopardized the ratification of the TPP in Congress. Backing out of that deal would signal a major U.S. retreat from Asia and mark a historic error.
Still, it would be a mistake to dismiss all
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While clearing out SPAM from an email account I rarely use I come across an email from my poet friend who passed away last year. I think it's just SPAM disguised as Roberto through some kind of computer virus, but the thought of him trying to sell Viagra from beyond made me smile.
Labels: brain cookies


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LIPS Skeleton software provides the real-time full-body or hand skeleton motion tracking functions and can be integrated with LIPS 3D camera module for a new range of applications including AR/VR, fall detection in elderly cares, smart digital signage, electronic virtual fence in security, …etc.
- Full body skeletal tracking with 18 specific skeleton joints
- Reliably up to 60 user segmentations and user skeletons
- Proprietary algorithms ensure detection performance
- API ready for various applications
- Compatible with LIPSedge® DL and Intel® RealSense™ D415
With LIPS Software
To make sure your LIPS camera has the latest features, you will need to update it by downloading and installing the latest camera software.
Tech Specs
1. 3D: up to 3 meters
2. RGB up to 8 meters
1. 3D: up to 10 segmentations per user
2. RGB up to 60 segmentations per user
Up to 18 per user
LIPSedge® DL
Intel® RealSense™ D415
- Specifications are subject to change without notice.
- Operating ranges and accuracy can be scene dependent.
Other Products
3DRuler is a 3D Metrology middleware that currently offers automatic measurement over L-W-H sizes of cuboid-shape or arbitrary shape object, like cardboard boxes, pallet...etc.
People Counting
People counting can differ dramatically in the way how people is to be counted as to from what angle the depth camera is mounted.
Driver Fatigue Detection
It analyzes facial features including closing both eye lids and/or head's forward pitch angle greater than pre-defined degree for a pre-defined length of seconds, that signifies fatigue.


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Applications were sent to the Russian Association of CryptoCurrency and Blockchain (RACIB) by companies and individuals, residents of the EU and China.
According to the president of RACIB Yury Pripachkin, all applications mention bitcoin mining only. He added that in Russia the number of mining factories accounts for hundreds.
"Our country has energy resources that can be sold to miners effectively. In fact, this is a new market for energy companies, and it is important to prepare a legislative basis, and possible preferential taxation for such foreign investors," he said.
Arseniy Shcheltsin, director of the RACIB, in his turn, said that the committee had formed a committee of miners with representatives from China and Slovakia. The committee is preparing proposals to increase the investment attractiveness of mining in Russia. The recommendations will be forwarded to the ministry of economic development and the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the installed capacity of the Russian power system in 2016 amounted to 244.1 GW, while the maximum load at the same time was only 154.3 GW. This demonstrates that Russia suffers from excessive capacities. According to analysts, the total electricity consumption in the world for mining in 2016 was estimated at 1.46 terawatt-hours per year.
"With loading the current excessive 100 GW of Russian energy companies capacities, the Russian economy could attract about 1.7 trillion rubles ($28 billion) a year," concluded Pripachkin.