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Jonny Smallwood, one of my PhD mentors, just posted an interesting overview of some of his recent work on mind-wandering and metacognition (including our Frontiers paper). Check it out!
Originally posted on The Mind Wanders:
It is a relatively common experience to lose track of what one is doing: We may stop following what someone is saying during conversation, enter a room and realise we have forgotten why we came in, or lose the thread of our own thoughts leaving us with a sense that we had reached a moment of insight that is now lost forever. One important influence on making sure that we can stay on target to achieve our goals is the capacity for meta-cognition, or the ability to accurately assess our own cognitive experience. Meta cognition is important because it allows us the opportunity to correct for errors if and when they occur. I have recently become interested in this capacity for accurately assessing the contents of thought and along with two different groups of collaborators have begun to explore its neural basis.
We were interested in whether meta-cognition is a…
View original 1,192 more words
Yesterday, as I was completing my morning coffee and internet ritual, @le_feufollet broke the sad news to me of Aaron Swartz's death. Aaron was a leader online, a brilliant coder and developer, and sadly a casualty in the fight for freedom of information. He was essential in the development of two tools I use every day (RSS and Reddit), and though his guerilla attempt to upload all papers on JSTOR was perhaps unstrategic, it was certainly noble enough in cause. Before his death Aaron was facing nearly 35 years in prison for his role in the JSTOR debacle, an insane penalty for attempting to share information. We don't know why Aaron chose to take his life, but when @la_feufollet and I tried to brainstorm a tribute to him, my first thought was a guerilla PDF uploading campaign in honor of his fight for open access. I'm not much of an organizer, so I posted in one of the many rising reddit threads and hoped for the best:
My posts on reddit are usually ignored, so I went about my business and assumed it was the last i'd hear of it. It was amazing to wake up this morning and see that redditors had responded strongly to the idea and that a flood of tweets tagged #pdftribute had appeared:
Eva Vivalt coined the #pdftribute hashtag, and helped bring anonymous onboard. Currently there are
hundreds thousands of authors posting their PDFs. It's amazing to see that the original promise of the internet – the spread of ideas- is thriving. Lately i've been feeling a bit pessimistic, worried that the net was becoming an overly gamed, astroturf-ridden meme-preserve for advertisers to groom to their financial needs. It's great to see that the most exciting power of our newfound connectivity- driving ideas to spread freely and have impact without the restrictions of traditional hierarchical barriers- continues to thrive. I hope #pdftribute lives on in both force and spirit, and that we can all begin working toward a world in which all publicly funded research is available to anyone with net access.
For those of you who don't feel comfortable violating your copyright, but want to join in #pdftribute, your best bet is to check the specifics of your publisher agreement. Most journals allow you to upload a pre-print manuscript to your personal website. Then you can go ahead and tweet the link to your website or the individual pre-print PDFs. Jonathan Eisen has a helpful list of 10 ways to post your papers on twitter here.
Otherwise, hide in the swarm today as a show of support for Aaron. By standing together we show that the future of research publishing is freedom of information. But tomorrow remember that we need to push through real copright reform. You can start by reading Aaron's wonderful Guerilla Open Access Manifesto. If you are ready to commit to open access, you can sign the petition at http://thecostofknowledge.com/.
There is also this We The People petition demanding legislation requiring journals to use an open-access publishing model Woops that petition has expired- start a new one!. As Matthew Green put it, lets push for an Aaron Swartz copyright reform act.
Some nice folks have put together a link scraper to collect PDFs tagged #pdftribute here:
If I may make a humble suggestion- it may be useful to follow a specific format for sharing your papers. This will make them easier to find later, and for journalists to compile some sharing stats. Here is my suggested example.
Eva Vivalt reports #pdftribute getting 500 tweets/hr, >2.5 million impressions!
Allo- just checking in to say I'm about 8 days away from submitting my thesis. Then i'm off to Italy for some much needed R&R followed by SFN2012 in New Orleans. I'll be blogging regularly again this fall once I've had a chance to recoup. Lots of fun new stuff coming including a new direction for my research, new projects, ideas, and all that comes with finally finishing a PhD.
This is a test post, to try out my new import services. Also, A neat post on a useful motion tracking software!
Originally posted on Computing for Psychologists:
I just came across a gosh-darn drop-dead cool (and free!) piece of software that I just had to write a quick post on. It's called Tracker, it's cross-platform, open-source and freely available here.
In a nutshell, it's designed for analysis of videos, and can do various things, like track the motion of an object across frames (yielding position, velocity and acceleration data) and generate dynamic RGB colour profiles. Very cool. As an example of the kinds of things it can do, see this post on Wired.com where a physicist uses it to analyse the speed of blaster bolts in Star Wars: Episode IV. Super-geeky I know, but I love it.
Whenever I see a piece of software like this I immediately think about what I could use it for in psychology/neuroscience. In this case, I immediately thought about using it for…
View original 125 more words
I set out to write my top five tips for new experimenters today and found there were really only two universal suggestions I felt I could and should make:
Good post. I would add a #3, it's kind of an aspect of #2 although important enough to stand alone -
Make sure you are one of the pilot subjects. It's amazing what kind of things you notice when you're actually in the scanner that you never otherwise would – anything from the fact that the stimuli aren't very visible, to the fact that the sequence you're using makes the bed shake, to the fact that the task is just so long & boring that you fall asleep by the end (which is so much easier in the scanner than when you're sitting up at a computer, which is when you probably piloted the task!)
If you're not MRI safe, get a trusted fellow researcher to do it. But never assume that non-scientist volunteers will tell you these things because they don't (I think because they don't want to look stupid by questioning your authority.)
It's no secret in cognitive neuroscience that some brain regions garner more attention than others. Particularly in fMRI research, we're all too familiar with certain regions that seem to pop up in study after study, regardless of experimental paradigm. When it comes to areas like the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and insula (AIC), the trend is obvious. Generally when I see the same brain region involved in a wide a variety of tasks, I think there must be some very general level function which encompasses these paradigms. Off the top of my head, the ACC and AIC are major players in cognitive control, pain, emotion, consciousness, salience, working memory, decision making, and interoception to name a few. Maybe on a bad day I'll look at a list like that and think, well localization is just all wrong, and really what we have is a big fat prefrontal cortex doing everything in conjunction. A paper published yesterday in Cerebral Cortex took my breath away and lead to a third, more sinister option: a serious methodological confound in a large majority of published fMRI papers.
An important line of research in neuroimaging focuses on noise in fMRI signals. The essential problem of fMRI is that, while it provides decent spatial resolution, the data is acquired slowly and indirectly via the blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal. The BOLD signal is messy, slow, and extremely complex in its origins. Although we typically assume increasing BOLD signal equals greater neural activity, the details of just what kind of activity (e.g. excitatory vs inhibitory, post-synaptic vs local field) are murky at best. Advancements in multi-modal and optogenetic imaging hold a great deal of promise regarding the signal's true nature, but sadly we are currently at a "best guess" level of understanding. This weakness means that without careful experimental design, it can be difficult to rule out non-neural contributors to our fMRI signal. Setting aside the worry about what neural activity IS measured by BOLD signal, there is still the very real threat of non-neural sources like respiration and cardiovascular function confounding the final result. This is a whole field of research in itself, and is far too complex to summarize here in its entirety. The basic issue is quite simple though.
In a nutshell, the BOLD signal is thought to measure downstream changes in cerebral blood-flow (CBF) in response to neural activity. This relationship, between neural firing and blood flow, is called neurovascular coupling and is extremely complex, involving astrocytes and multiple chemical pathways. Additionally, it's quite slow: typically one observes a 3-5 second delay between stimulation and BOLD response. This creates our first noise-related issue; the time between each 'slice' of the brain, or repetition time (TR), must be optimized to detect signals at this frequency. This means we sample from our participant's brain slowly. Typically we sample every 3-5 seconds and construct our paradigms in ways that respect the natural time lag of the BOLD signal. Stimulate too fast, and the vasculature doesn't have time to respond. Stimulation frequency also helps prevent our first simple confound: our pulse and respiration rates tend oscillate at slightly slower frequencies (approximately every 10-15 seconds). This is a good thing, and it means that so long as your design is well controlled (i.e. your events are properly staggered and your baseline is well defined) you shouldn't have to worry too much about confounds. But that's our first problematic assumption; consider for example when one's paradigms use long blocks of obscure things like "decide how much you identify with these stimuli". If cognitive load differs between conditions, or your groups (for example, a PTSD and a control group) react differently to the stimuli, respiration and pulse rates might easily begin to overlap your sampling frequency, confounding the BOLD signal.
But you say, my experiment is well controlled, and there's no way my groups are breathing THAT differently! Fair enough, but this leads us to our next problem: end tidal CO2. Without getting into the complex physiology, end-tidal CO2 is a by-product of respiration. When you hold your breath, CO2 blood levels rise dramatically. CO2 is a potent vasodilator, meaning it opens blood vessels and increases local blood flow. You've probably guessed where I'm going with this: hold your breath in the fMRI and you get massive alterations in the BOLD signal. Your participants don't even need to match the sampling frequency of the paradigm to confound the BOLD; they simply need to breath at slightly different rates in each group or condition and suddenly your results are full of CO2 driven false positives! This is a serious problem for any kind of unconstrained experimental design, especially those involving poorly conceptualized social tasks or long periods of free activity. Imagine now that certain regions of the brain might respond differently to levels of CO2.
This image is from Change & Glover's paper, "Relationship between respiration, end-tidal CO2, and BOLD signals in resting-state fMRI". Here they measure both CO2 and respiration frequency during a standard resting-state scan. The image displays the results of group-level regression of these signals with BOLD. I've added circles in blue around the areas that respond the strongest. Without consulting an atlas, we can clearly see that bilateral anterior insula extending upwards into parietal cortex, anterior cingulate, and medial-prefrontal regions are hugely susceptible to respiration and CO2. This is pretty damning for resting-state fMRI, and makes sense given that resting state fluctuations occur at roughly the same rate as respiration. But what about well-controlled event related designs? Might variability in neurovascular coupling cause a similar pattern of response? Here is where Di et al's paper lends a somewhat terrifying result:
Di et al recently investigated the role of vascular confounds in fMRI by administrating a common digit-symbol substitution task (DSST), a resting state, and a breath-holding paradigm. Signals related to resting-state and breath-holding were then extracted and entered into multiple regression with the DSST-related activations. This allowed Di et al to estimate what brain regions were most influenced by low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF, a common resting state measure) and purely vascular sources (breath-holding). From the figure above, you can see that regions marked with the blue arrow were the most suppressed, meaning the signal explained by the event-related model was significantly correlated with the covariates, and in red where the signal was significantly improved by removal of the covariates. The authors conclude that "(results) indicated that the adjustment tended to suppress activation in regions that were near vessels such as midline cingulate gyrus, bilateral anterior insula, and posterior cerebellum." It seems that indeed, our old friends the anterior insula and cingulate cortex are extremely susceptible to neurovascular confound.
What does this mean for cognitive neuroscience? For one, it should be clear that even well-controlled fMRI designs can exhibit such confounds. This doesn't mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater though; some designs are better than others. Thankfully it's pretty easy to measure respiration with most scanners, and so it is probably a good idea at minimum to check if one's experimental conditions do indeed create differential respiration patterns. Further, we need to be especially cautious in cases like meditation or clinical fMRI, where special participant groups may have different baseline respiration rates or stronger parasympathetic responses to stimuli. Sadly, I'm afraid that looking back, these findings greatly limit our conclusions in any design that did not control for these issues. Remember that the insula and ACC are currently cognitive neuroscience's hottest regions. I'm not even going to get into resting state, where these problems are all magnified 10 fold. I'll leave you with this image from neuroskeptic, estimating the year's most popular brain regions:
Are those spikes publication fads, every-task regions, or neurovascular artifacts? You be the judge.edit:As many of you had questions or comments regarding the best way to deal with respiratory related issues, I spoke briefly with resident noise expert Torben Lund at yesterday's lab meeting. Removal of respiratory noise is fairly simple, but the real problem is with end-tidal C02. According to Torben, most noise experts agree that regression techniques only partially remove the artifact, and that an unknown amount is left behind even following signal regression. This may be due to slow vascular saturation effects that build up and remain irrespective of shear breath frequency. A very tricky problem indeed, and certainly worth researching. Note: credit goes to my methods teacher and fMRI noise expert Torben Lund, and CFIN neurobiologist Rasmus Aamand, for introducing and explaining the basis of the C02/respiration issue to me. Rasmus particularly, whose sharp comments lead to my including respiration and pulse measures in my last meditation project.
This has to be the best introduction to the Bayesian Brain hypothesis I have ever seen. I'm normally somewhat cautious about my endorsement of this view, but Daniel really draws you in. Beautiful talk, very understandable and yet not too dumbed-down.
Just a quick note. As most of you are probably aware, in the past week a bit of a furor has erupted on the interwebs regarding a certain UK Noblewoman's concerns regarding our free time, and it's impact on our brain. Susan Greenfield has written extensively, if without much depth, on the need to sound the alarm regarding how much time we spend staring at a screen. Thank goodness the kind, brillant minds have responded, and they've done so negatively. I'm not going to reproduce the debate here, but it suffices to say Susan's now been shredded publicly by both world-leading Autism experts and folks who actually research our digital habits.Anyway, this is just a short post to share my view on the whole thing:
It's not that i'm not sympathetic to the idea we spend too much time in front of a screen. It's levying the weight of that argument around some BS neurobabble. The brain, and it's astounding capacity for change, need not enter this debate in an alarmist fashion. If we want to discuss how our society spends its time, let's not cling onto poorly understood scientific phenomena to do so. Let's talk about radical capitalism and the 40 hour work week. I spend 38+ hours a week online, programming, and generally living on a computer as do many contemporary workers. Talking about the brain won't change that- but it will sell books. And I think it puts a clear perspective on the 3-4 hours a week I might spend playing games. The problem isn't brains, games, or anything in between. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise wants to make a fast buck off you.
Susan is hoping to use her high-standing to kick off some kind of alarmist movement akin to the global warming debate. She's even been so cheeky as to give her cause a similar sounding name "Mindchange", so that her would be activists might have some nice banner around which to rally. Plus, it makes for some pretty obvious best-selling book titles. Maybe even a series of self-help audiobooks filled to the brim with half-truisms, folksy inspiration, and plenty of badly misunderstood science.
And that's just the problem. Beneath the seemingly innocent wish to make a legacy and buck for herself, Susan has denigrated one big problem (global warming), disrespected the science, and mis-educated her audience. Not only that but I believe she's obscuring the real problem. Call me radical, but if we don't start to take serious the cultural-systemic problems that threaten our world, we're fucked. By capitalizing on sensation, the Baroness has obscured a legitimate debate about the way we spend our lives.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here's a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,400 times in 2010. That's about 11 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 13 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 17 posts. There were 13 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That's about a picture per month.
The busiest day of the year was July 1st with 182 views. The most popular post that day was My response to Carr and Pinker on Media Plasticity.
The top referring sites in 2010 were neuroskeptic.blogspot.com, twitter.com, healthfitnesstherapy.com, facebook.com, and Google Reader.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for neuroconscience, micah allen, inferior parietal lobule, dlpfc, and neurological basis of development.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
My response to Carr and Pinker on Media Plasticity June 2010
4 comments
Snorkeling 'the shallows': what's the cognitive trade-off in internet behavior? June 2010
9 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com
The Author October 2009
1 comment
Brain Plasticity, Distributed Social Cognition, and the Luddite Notion. February 2010
5 comments
Switching between executive and default mode networks in posttraumatic stress disorder [excerpts and notes] August 2010


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Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen White House Down and intend to, then you may not want to read further. You have been warned.
I haven't seen White House Down and don't intend to. I never intended to because I just wasn't that thrilled by the concept and the trailers, but if I had intended to I wouldn't now. It turns out that White House Down is blatant obnoxious left-wing propaganda (as opposed to the slightly less blatant left-wing propaganda Hollywood usually turn out.) The newly elected President is a Black man (Obama by another name) played by Jamie Foxx. Turns out the people trying to kill him are conservatives who are want to install the Republican Speaker of the House (John Boehner by another name) as President.
First of all, the idea that John "Crybaby" Boehner would have the balls to orchestrate a coup against the President is laughable. Second, how delusional and out of touch do Hollywood screen writers, producers, etc. have to be to think that this is a credible plot that movie audiences would flock to see? You wonder if they just said "Screw it, we're going to make a propaganda piece that demonizes Republicans and damn the consequences," or if they really were so insulated and deluded that they thought this was an idea that was credible and would sell.
Fortunately, the movie tanked. (Note: I think this link might change every week.) I don't think it tanked just because of the political angle, which was largely unknown before the movie was released. It tanked partially because it's concept was so similar to Olympus has Fallen which was released earlier this year and over performed at the box office. (BTW, Gerard Butler is also a more credible leading man than Channing Tatum who suffers the curse of the pretty boy.) But word of mouth has been horrible, and it has divided people politically if the IMDB message board is any indication.
Note to Hollywood writers, producers etc. The people who go see action movies are disproportionally Reds. You might want to consider not shoving your Blue sensibilities down their throats if you actually want them to see your movie.
27 thoughts on "White House Down is Left-Wing Hollywood Propaganda"
Kirt Higdon
The plot is indeed laughable and I had a good chuckle when I first read about it in TAC. The only thing more ridiculous than the idea of North Korean terrorists taking the White House is House Republican terrorists taking it, but the latter is apparently the fantasy fear of liberal Obamanites. That's worth a lot of laughs, not a rant.
I don't know whether or not I'll go to see WHD in the theater or leave it for Netflix. Sometimes I like to go out to a movie just to be doing so. I've already seen F&F6 and Now You See Me, and have no interest in the latest Superman, Brad Pitt winning WWZ, or whatever else is out there. So if I go to the cinema at all this week or month, it will probably be to see the action-comedy WHD.
Great post. I hadn't heard of either movie, but glad to read White House Down failed.
"Note to Hollywood writers, producers etc. The people who go see action movies are disproportionally Reds."
Really, it'd be best they didn't figure that out. Better they went broke. It's fully possible to direct the propaganda in such a way that Reds still like it and are brainwashed.
It sounds like White House Down targeted the wrong market.
What's needed is movie producers who have a right-wing agenda, not left.
Pardon the interruption: I left a comment on the latest post by S. Trifcovic at Chronicles Magazine. It is in moderation, and in the event it doesn't get approved I would like to leave a record of it here. In the event I am denied comment privileges at CM, I will instead attempt to refute Trifcovic's latest abomination on this site with the kind permission of it's moderators.
Here is the comment:
Before I write a refutation of this misleading, confused (and at time confusing) fandango I would like some sort of guarantee that my efforts will not be in vain, and that my response will see the light of day.
Ao Sergio! Sei davvero una chiavica! Tanti auguroni da parte mia!
In the meantime, perhaps "Sauron" (you know who you are) can approve this comment, review the video below and possibly provide a synopsis of it for his loyal fans.
Many thanks.
I perceive Hollywood as nothing more than a Zionist propaganda machine, that works to help sale citizens, that there is an arab terrorist under each of our beds.
Hollywood is definitely ground zero of The Synagogue (our Cultural-Marxist establishment), no question.
However, someone earlier mentioned the new Superman movie, and I have to say, I found Man of Steel to be quite enjoyable. It is definitely the most explicitly Christ-like depiction of Superman yet made. Nolan and Snyder are two of the very few gentile conservatives working in Hollywood today, and it shows in the film.
It has a serious, almost solemn tone, very much for adults, not just kiddies — unlike, say, the '70s Superman films, which are basically kiddie comedies, if you look back at them now.
As I expected, my comment was not approved.
If anyone is interested I'll make good my promise, if not I'll save it for another time.
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I don't comment there anymore. I left a few comments on the D Venner suicide thread a while back, plus one on a Trifkovic abomination at the same time. I only tried to comment on "Tricky's" latest abortion because it was exceptionally bad.
With those recent exceptions I haven't attempted a comment there in 2-3 years.
The Troll Sauron was refering to is Michael Kenny; I caught site of his post before the Dark Lord of Mordor took it down. Mine never saw the light of day.
I have to say, the Chronicles comment-approval policy is a joke. It's just one of the reasons why the site has faded into irrelevance.
A while back I posted a very mild disagreement with something Trifcovic mentioned in an interview with a Hungarian politician who was critical of Jobbik. I pointed out that frankly, Jobbik is the best political party in Europe today, Golden Dawn notwithstanding, and I suggested way.
Comment never saw the light of day.
Back when, I remember Trifcovic taking umbrage with a few thoughts that Richard Hoste mentioned at Alt Right — and by umbrage, I mean snooty condescension.
I'm sure that Trifcovic has written many fine things, but he could stand a little more disagreement among people who are basically on his side — as could Chronicles as a whole.
Then again, American Conservative is even worse than Chronicles at comment approval, so the venues for discussion on the trad Right are few.
One reason, frankly, why CHT is commendable.
We can win the culture war. We just have to have the will to fight back. A major force for evil is this guy Channing Tatum. Conservatives and all people of good will need to rally against this scumbag. He will try to assault common decency again with his slimy, sleazeball porno, magic mike 2. WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT TAKE THIS ANY LONGER. We have to rally against this smut magnate. All it takes for evil like this to triumph –oh, how true the cliche is–is simply for good people to do nothing. We have a lot of work to do to win the culture war: let's get to work!
To be fair, I'm not versed in all of Hoste's work. I only recall that in that one particular back-and-forth Trifkovic was in the wrong and Hoste in the right.
Trifkovic is hit and miss for me.
I'm not a perfect fit with Trifkovic. You have to remember he's Serbian, and they were persecuted during WWII.
I don't oppose Islam as strongly as does he either, which is not to say I like it invading Europe.
I dunno that he'd moderate his own comments at Chronicles. Few years ago, Chronicles had an issue of being flooded from the more popular racial right. And I think they disliked the association.
So, perhaps it's taken to censorship.
Anyway it's a wonderful site, very deep, regardless. It's unique, one-of-a-kind. I don't go there lately much, but I remember it fondly.
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Well, try saying something that is anything short of outright philo-Semitic at TAC and see what happens.
A while back, Dreher posted about the Joe Biden speech in which the VP identified Jews and the Jewish media as the reason why gay marriage has passed and why abortion became accepted. Even in the title of his article about Biden's comments, Dreher stated that he wouldn't be "deleting more comments than approving" if they were "anti-Semitic" — except it turned out that "anti-Semitic" meant any comments that were, not just critical of the Jews (even mildly), but even any comments that confirmed Biden's own contention.
It was utterly ridiculous.
Weaver & Thad,
Here's a little glimpse of what Tricky is really all about, and, by implication, MORDOR MAG:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
"From a political perspective, paleoconservatives like Gottfried did us all a service in the late '80s and early '90s by warning us of the dangers the neocons posed for America, warnings that were borne out when the neocons hijacked American foreign policy during the Bush Administration and involved America in a disastrous war with Iraq. In this regard, Gottfried was ahead of his time when he writes:
By the late '70s I noticed with growing discomfort the unalterably leftist sensibilities of many neoconservative journalists and social scientists. . . . Such characteristic views of theirs as attachment ot the anti-Soviet Left, a fixation on Christian anti-Semitism, and a raging hatred of Germans, Russians, and white Southerners, it dawned on me that I was looking at a mere variation on those usual opinions that could be found in the New York Review of Books and the New Republic (p. 37).
Then mysteriously the paleocon movement switched horses in mid-stream and started beating the drum against "Islamofascism" in a way that rendered it indistinguishable from Commentary or the Weekly Standard. I remember attending a Chronicles conference and listening to a talk by Srdja Trifkovic on the threat which Islam posed to the West. In the question and answer period following the talk I said, "I can understand your feelings toward Islam. If I were a Serb, I would feel the same way. But America has never been threatened by Islam, and the only reason we are threatened now is because of our support of Israel."
Afterward Trifkovic admitted what I said was true, but he then added, "You can't say that sort of thing in public."
- See more at: http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2013/05/23/9072/#sthash.NGTFkHkh.dpuf
Pettifogging is not the real reason certain comments aren't approved. The contributors of MORDOR MAG are themselves plenty hostile in their articles . But they can't defend themselves in free and open debate.
P.S. A small example of where Tricky goes wrong in his latest outburst of flatulence. The British were NOT in favor of a united Italy and Garibaldi's expedition. They even tried to prevent his crossing the Straights of Messina. (By the way Tricky says G first landed at Messina–he actually began his campaign at Marsala, clear across the island.)
The British didn't want a potentially strong unified state sitting athwart their sea route to India. This was made especially important by the then recently completed (1854) Suez Canal.
What the Brits had in mind was the severing of Sicily from Naples, whose king was Austrophile (the queens of Naples were commonly Habsburgs, and the army was traditionally staffed by Austrian mercenaries and officers) in an attempt to weaken the southern kingdom and diminish Austrian Catholic authority.
Like the American colonists, Cavour and Garibaldi played off various rival powers against one another to achieve their freedom from them all.
Chronicles probably just doesn't want more pressure than it already gets.
There's a difference between avoiding PC topics and pushing propaganda.
I've seen Dr. Wilson defend slavery there, lol. It does plenty enough. I don't personally like slavery, no; but that's perhaps the only place on the web one will find a scholar do so.

subset: commoncrawl


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without your permission.
We will send you an email with an invite soon.
Winner of $338 million Powerball jackpot wanted for child support:
RT @AC360: Could your child be a bully? (via @cnnhealth) Parents, don't miss a new documentary at 10pET #bullyeffect
RT @andersoncooper: An incredible story of an alleged serial child predator priest and how church officials helped him avoid law enforcement @AC360 8pm
Fighting for your bullied child.
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Do not make changes to someone else's message and pass it on without making it clear where you have made the changes.
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Ummm, excuse me. Not all of us AFK'd for honor. Some of us actually participated round after round after round to get our gear. In fact, we probably spent at least triple the amount of time grinding for a full S2 set than arena-goers spent getting S3 or S4 gear.
Why should it not be wiped? Because it's all about the TIME INVESTMENT. Many people would've played the game very differently had they known there would be an honor wipe. They would've spent their time making gold on the auction house, running instances (trade BoJ for epic gems), raiding, whatever. No matter how you slice it, wiping honor would have been the same as wiping any other form of currency.
And if people who are currently honor capped and are able to buy a couple pieces of pvp gear when they hit 80, so what? Worst case scenario, that puts them a week or two against the majority of WoW players. Certainly not the end of the world.


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Raise your volume. Who's your Baghdaddy? is episode 22 of Miss Dynamite. It is the continuation of episode 21, where Eva tried to join Al Qaeda but failed because she smacked one of the Pu Sisters in the face. This episode features Rina-Chan (formerly known as Kagome) as Eva; Mizura as Blackie, Pu Tang and Pu Nani; and Tomamoto as Moqtada al-Sadr and all the other male characters. As with the previous episode, this is limited-animation old school Miss Dynamite. Some of the combat sound effects are genuine firefight recordings by Canadian troops in Afghanistan (you can even hear a Taliban RPG at some point).
Rated 3 / 5 stars March 15, 2007
Well drawn, but in bad taste.
I know all things should be open to parody and discussion, but I can't help feeling agitated by this and the other Ms. Dynamite Iraq episodes. Perhaps it's just a 'too soon' sort of issue, but it's difficult for me to find humor in this terrible war.
Perhaps you could explain why I should be amused, because the boob jokes and random violence doesn't really do it for me anymore.
Rated 3 / 5 stars March 13, 2007
Pretty Nice
I thought Effort was put into it. Alwasy a good thing.
Rated 3 / 5 stars March 26, 2007
Nothing really great here; It's the same old song and dance you get with any other entry of this series: Awesome artwork, decent animation, good voice-overs, and a liberal agenda. I see that a few people think that the so-called "comedy" elements should be removed, and I'm inclined to agree. Stick to action and fan-service, because it's all this series is good for.
Reality seems to have a liberal bias. lol
Rated 3 / 5 stars March 26, 2007
pretty funny. nice boobs!
funny stuff. i love the chinc though, when she draws miss dynamite in class.
"perky!" this is the first miss dynamite ive ever seen, but i can guess as to why its popular :-P
Rated 2.5 / 5 stars April 17, 2007
Good flash film
I like it, but could you please refame from using the N-word pls it's hurting for those who are black like myself. Other than that the episode was good keep up the good work.
How am I supposed to portray racism without using racist words? You say it hurts, no doubt, but ignoring it is not gonna make it go away. It's just gonna make it worse.


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Discover Adionomy, Your Online Radio Advertising Campaign, Fast, Easy and Custom-Made!
Rush is a progressive rock band which formed in Willowdale, Ontario, Canada in 1968. The band currently performs with the lineup of Geddy Lee (vocals, bass, keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart (drums). John Rutsey was the original drummer, later replaced by Neil Peart in 1974, shortly after the release of their first album, and three weeks before their first American tour. Neil Peart also became the band's lyricist, and wrote the words for many of the band's best known songs. As a group, Rush possesses 24 gold records and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records.
43 played on Radionomy
Test For Echo
Working Men
Grace Under Pressure
Retrospective II (1981-1987)
The Spirit of Radio - Greatest Hits (1974-1987)
Snakes & Arrows Live
Exit...Stage Left
Rush in Rio
Roll The Bones
Vapor Trails
Snakes & Arrows
Snakes and Arrows
Hold Your Fire
Rush in Rio (disc 2)
Rush in Rio (disc 1)
Rush in Rio (disc 3)
Spirit Of Radio: Greatest Hits (1974-1987)
The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987
Retrospective I (1974-1980)
Different Stages (disc 2)
Exit Stage Left
All The World's A Stage
Moving Pictures
Power Windows
Permanent Waves
A Farewell To Kings
Fly By Night
A Show Of Hands
Retrospective II: 1981-1987
Retrospective I: 1974-1980
Caress Of Steel
Chronicles (disc 1)
Chronicles (disc 2)


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- Gerald O'brian
- Andorra City
- Andorra
This conversation is closed.
Evolution: "just a theory". Scientific caution is sometimes confusing.
The fact that our best available theories are still speculations misleads some people to believe that these ideas are not founded. Hence, some people suppose their uneducated opinion is just as bad, or as good, as the mainstream scientific hypothesis.
This trend is probably led by the way science has been taught, i e as a flawless method that offers facts about reality.
And by pre-scientific philosophy, still strong in our modern societies.
Evolution is "just a theory" the way Notre Dame is "just a pile of rocks", isn't it?
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May 25 2013: It remains a theory, but not "just" a theory. Its success has been great with a vast amount of evidence to its credit. Hoever, it has also been overused in fields where it does not belong and its practitioners have found ways of adapting the theory to be able to survive even when evidence stands against it. A similar thing happened with the old theory where the earth was at the centre of the universe.
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Artisanal mining compounds Philippine landslide risk
Manila, Philippines (IRIN) – A deadly landslide in the southern Philippines in early January underscores the dangers of unregulated, artisanal mining, experts say.
"Aside from the unusually heavy rains, small-scale mining is one of the major triggers of landslides in the Philippines," Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) director Leo Jasareno, confirmed.
Although no exact figures are available, he estimated about 30 percent of the latest landslides were due in part to such mining.
According to the International Labor Organization, artisanal miners employ rudimentary techniques for mineral extraction and often operate under hazardous, labor-intensive and illegal conditions.
On 5 January, at least 35 miners and their families were killed, and dozens more left missing, when a landslide tore through a small-scale gold mining site in Pantukan Township in the Compostela Valley on the island of Mindanao, burying a 7,500-square-mile area.
The mountainside in Napnapan Village collapsed around 3 a.m. when most residents were asleep, sweeping away dozens of homes, shanties and other buildings, officials said.
Government experts cite heavy rains, aggravated by unregulated gold mine tunneling as the cause. "The mayor of Pantukan has been instructed to padlock and close the tunnels that are unsafe and extremely high risk. We cannot afford another incident," Compostela Governor Arturo Uy told IRIN.
On 11 January, authorities began demolishing upwards of 200 homes and shanties in high-risk areas. There are nine mining towns in Compostela Valley in the Davao Region, an area that has long attracted individual prospectors.
At least 30,000 small-scale miners operate in Pantukan, most of whom are outsiders, local media reports say. More than 70 percent of all gold in the country is extracted this way, government sources say.
"Deadly mix"
According to the MGB, up to 80 percent of the Philippines is landslide prone, making the country the fourth most exposed to landslide risk after Indonesia, India and China.
At the same time, the country is also among the richest in mineral resources, making for a particularly deadly mix.
There are between 200,000 and 300,000 small-scale miners nationwide, Jasareno says.
"Sixty to 80 percent of them don't have permits. They're not regulated and they don't follow rules," he said, noting that many small-scale miners are also using heavy equipment. "Their operations certainly add pressure to the soil," the official added.
According to the World Bank, an estimated 20 million men, women and children worldwide from over 50 developing countries are engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining, while a further 100 million depend on it for their livelihoods.
These numbers are growing in line with higher prices and demand for minerals both in developed countries and emerging economies such as China and India.
– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.
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Sweaty feet are nothing nice on a hot summer's day run. Your shoes feel like an over sized sponge, which in turn limit your mental and physical spring (to your step). As a result that last mile feels like a marathon in and upon itself.
The adidas Climacool Seduction shoes further extend the brand's lineup of lightweight running shoes with technology to keep you cool no matter the scenario. These bad boys feature 360 degrees of Climacool ventilation plus rugged, lightweight cushioning. That includes a clover-shaped Coolever mesh upper, as well as a Coolever mesh lining for comfort with a perforated sockliner for added breathability. The result? Increased performance since your mind is focused on the run, not your soppy shoes. It's all built upon the adiWEAR outsole for what adidas says is the ultimate in high-wear durability.
You can grab a pair now in a variety of colors for $100.


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The ever-innovative folks at MIT's Media Lab are working on a prototype product, "Tastes Like Rain," that would dispense toothpaste flavors according to the weather.
Maker of brain-scanning tech says wearables like Google Glass could evolve to monitor brain signals and sell you toothpaste.
On this week's Crave, a slew of robots--especially two undeniably creepy baby models--have Jasmine so worked up she's lost her voice. And what's making us fat this week? Not pickle-flavored toothpaste, that's for sure...
AOL giving away an island; PlayStation 3 helps cure cancer; where we go for tech support; T-shirts for and by the people; and the perfect toothpaste dispenser.
Only available in Washington, D.C., and for a limited time, the service enables users to order household items and have a driver bring the products directly to their doorstep.
AOL giving away an island; PlayStation 3 helps cure cancer; where we go for tech support; T-shirts for and by the people; and the perfect toothpaste dispenser.
The company's new mobile app aims to make you buy your most-used products faster than ever before. Here's how your household items -- and a bit of augmented reality -- could help the retail giant's bottom line.
FAA releases guidelines that explain when hobbyists can fly drones legally. Amazon says rules won't ground drone delivery fleet.
International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield shows the world how astronaut's clean their chompers in orbit.
Developed to make video recordings more intuitive and fun, the app lets users edit together various scenes with music and filters.


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Hal Leonard The JBL Story - Sixty Years of Audio Innovation Book
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Sixty Years of Audio Innovation!
Hal Leonard The JBL Story - Sixty Years of Audio Innovation Book
Of all American audio companies, JBL holds the record for overall longevity and product renown. To celebrate sixty years of success, this book offers details on the people and products that have made this company famous. From car audio stereos to concert hall PA installations, JBL is a renowned audio brand.Written by audio expert John Eargle, this book features full-color photos, historical advertisements, and hundreds of diagrams and images, many taken right from JBL's archives. Topics include stories behind the development of innovative applications for consumer products, aswell as systems installations for stadiums, tour sound, movie theaters, recording studios, and places of worship.In addition to the technical info that will help explain the innovation, this book will cover the brilliant audio engineers and colorful record producers, musicians, and technicians who had the vision to pursue a "better way."This book is for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of a business success story, and who is fascinated on how amplified sound is applied in almost every aspect of our lives--from the home to the concert hall.
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User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings
User score distribution:
Positive: 11 out of 14
Mixed: 0 out of 14
Negative: 3 out of 14
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Dec 23, 2013After a disappointing third season, the fourth season fails to capture the essence of seasons one and two, but it is very close. Of the four hour-long episodes, I would say that my favorite was the first one. The finale is a close second. It felt like a regular Big C episode. That is what I enjoyed about the final season. The characters don't have confusing side plots like last season. Overall, you should definitely watch this if you are a fan of the show. The ending will feel satisfying.… Expand
May 28, 2013Each episode of The Big C's 4-hour finale is full of love, sadness and optimism. Each one has brought me to tears, and every actor is perfect in these last few episodes. It brings some really worthwhile ideas to mind. It's an emotional sucker punch, and it's quite depressing, but it's important viewing. Needless to say, Laura Linney deserves every award in the universe for this part. I'll never forget you, Cathy Jamison.… Expand
May 12, 2013Oh, The Big C. After an amazingly written first season, the show became, for the next 2 forthcoming seasons, mild. Problems weren't as brilliantly worked as they were in the beginning. However, season 4 brought deep emotions that were being held by the writers/producers. Seeing death being portrayed this way is, at least, incredible. It continues to be bittersweet in its core and that's what's amazing about the show. And Laura Linney is breathtaking to say the least. Amazing performance.… Collapse
Linney and company are masterful (Basso is a revelation); the final episode's writing is solid.
From its very first scene, Hereafter manages to capture the sense those of us being left behind sometimes get; that the person going already has a foot planted somewhere else. But it also, repeatedly, hones in on the joy that can hit unexpectedly at even the worst moments.
While there are times when it's no easier to watch, the certainty of the end seems to give the show more focus.


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October 21st, 2013 by Brendan Dunne | 5 comments
Chicago seems to want a bigger piece of Sneaker Con every time the show comes through. As a result the latest event, held this weekend, had more space than ever for the thousands of attendees to mill about in search of the finest footwear on the market. And they did, with attendance topping previous Chicago records and show-goers in turn rewarded by a more diverse set of sneakers on the floor. Stay with us after the break for some of the scenes from Sneaker Con Chiago's October 19th event and remember to check back in with us soon for the always entertaining on-feet recaps.
fuck resellers
i would just ruin all my money in 5 min if I went there....
Those Kobe x Kostons are nice! Only 24 pairs made.
Amazing show. Mad HEAT! Definitely going to the New York one.


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ilovehim<3.i rank under no category.i tend to get my ownway♥musicismyLIFE.partaays are mything.
rainbowws && smiles:D
paramore, the pretty reckless && thewanted<3 NOM
dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today♥
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Music, stage: Rain – A Tribute to The Beatles comes to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Oct. 28-30. It's been called the next best thing to seeing the Beatles perform live. Get the story behind the recreation of these classic songs.
Stage: The murderous musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is presented by Fabrefaction Theatre Company through Nov. 13.
Stage: In "Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them," 16-year-old Kenny cares for his little sister Edith on an isolated farm in middle America after being abandoned by their father. As Kenny and his best friend Benji begin falling in love, the three form an unlikely family. There are previews Oct. 27-28 and opening night is Oct. 29. The show continues through Nov. 26 at Actor's Express.
History, visual arts: "Carter's Quest for Tut," a fundraiser for the Arts Alliance of Georgia, Inc., has many original Egyptian artifacts, dioramas showing life in days of King Tut, a gift gallery with Egyptian-themed art and souvenirs and more. It continues through Nov. 18 at the Dancentre South facility in Woodstock.
Halloween: Imagine being cast in a zombie flick as humans chased by the undead. Now in its second year, Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse transforms a sprawling abandoned truck stop into a haunted attraction. Catch the brain-eaters at Safety Wolf Recreation Outpost in Conley through Oct. 31.
Halloween: Relive your worst nightmares in the smoke-filled, strobe-lit darkness at Frightmore, which continues through Nov. 5 at 1912 Mt. Zion Road, Building 1865 C, in Morrow.
Halloween: Chambers of Horror Haunted House is Atlanta's adults-only haunted house and was rated No. 13 must-see haunt in the nation by Horror Attraction Magazine. See it at 8 p.m. nightly through Oct. 31 at the Masquerade.
Stage: In "Freud's Last Session," Dr. Sigmund Freud and rising Oxford professor C.S. Lewis clash about love, sex, the existence of God, and the meaning of life, just weeks before Freud's death. The Theatrical Outfit production runs through Nov. 13 at the Balzer Theater at Herren's in downtown Atlanta.
Stage: "Golda's Balcony" follows the life of Golda Meir – from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to the epicenter of international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Tovah Feldshuh stars in this one-woman show, which brought her a Tony Award nomination in 2004. It's at the Alliance Theatre through Oct. 30.
Stage: With eerie stories, spooky songs and devilish dances, audience members will be taken to a world that is beyond this mortal plane in "The Ghastly Dreadfuls." The Center for Puppetry Arts production is for ages 18 and up and continues through Oct. 29.
Stage: The Bram Stoker classic "Dracula" comes to undead life on the stage at the New London Theatre in Snellville. The show runs through Oct. 31.
Stage: Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso meet at a bar in Paris in "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," a play by Steve Martin. The OnStage Atlanta production continues through Nov. 5 at the company's Decatur space.
Halloween: Netherworld Haunted House's custom Hollywood-quality sets and special effects have contributed to the haunt being named the No. 1 haunted house in America in 2009 by Fangoria. It continues through Nov. 5 at the Netherworld site in Norcross.
Exhibition, visual art: "The AIDS Memorial Quilt" was founded in 1987 as a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for use in preventing new HIV infections, and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world. With more then 40,000 panels, the blocks on display at the Museum of Design Atlanta will be changed out each month through Jan. 1. See our interview with the curators of the accompanying exhibition, "Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDS Posters."
Stage: The Atlanta Shakespeare Company presents "Macbeth," a tale of betrayal and the lust for power and one of the bard's best known works. The show runs through Oct. 30 at the New American Shakespeare Tavern.
Stage: A mother struggles to hold on to her family, a son struggles to let go and a daughter struggles to find her way in the world in this Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie." Georgia Shakespeare presents the beloved classic at Oglethorpe University through Oct. 30.
Stage: Three Civil War re-enactors clash with a theater critic and radio commentator in the new comedy "Gray Area." The show continues through Oct. 30 at Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville.
Stage: "Motherhood, the Musical" takes a tuneful and loving look at the blessings and perils of being a mom. The show continues through Nov. 20 at the 14th Street Playhouse.
History: "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment" is a multimedia exhibition that spotlights the New York City landmark's powerful impact on the entertainment business. It continues through March 4 at the Atlanta History Center.
Visual art: The High Museum of Art explores some of the highlights of the art of the 20th century with "Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters." the show opens Oct. 15 and runs through April 29. See our review of the show.
Halloween: The dead walk again in Marietta this weekend, both on the screen and in real life at the Marietta Zombie Walk. The Strand will screen several zombie films, taking a break at 5 p.m. so that the zombie hordes can gather on the square for a stumble through the city streets.
Pets, family: If you're prepared for cuteness overload, head on out to PugFest 2011. Southeast Pug Rescue & Adoption's fundraiser features best-of contests, homemade and store-bought costume contests, pet pictures, pet grooming, microchipping, a kissing booth and much more. The fest begins at 10 a.m. Oct. 29 at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds in Lawrenceville.
Music: Robert Spano leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the U.S. premiere of composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's "Nyx." The orchestra will also perform work by Rachmaninov and Scriabin. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Oct. 29 at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
Music, stage: The Atlanta Opera's first ever commissioned work is "Rabbit Tales," a children's opera based on the Brer Rabbit stories of Joel Chandler Harris. This premiere takes place at the museum that was the author's home until his death in 1908. 11 a.m. Oct. 29 at the Wren's Nest House Museum.
Music: The Johns Creek Symphony's fifth season premiere includes works by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Haydn and happens at 8 p.m. Oct. 29 at Johns Creek High School Theater.
Stage: Conceived and directed by Rosemary Newcott, "The Real Tweenagers of Atlanta" is a new musical created from interviews with 'tweens in our community. It runs Oct. 29 through Nov. 13 at the Alliance Theatre.
Music: The Gwinnett Community Symphony Orchestra's family concert includes Britten's 'The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" and Saint-Saëns' "Le Carnaval des Animaux." It begins at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at Gwinnett Arena in Duluth.
Kids, family, stage: Grab the kids and head to the Fox Theatre for "Yo Gabba Gabba Live: It's Time To Dance" at 2 and 5 p.m. Oct. 30.
Dance: France Atlanta 2011 presents "Asphalte," a contemporary multi-media creation by French choreographer, Pierre Rigal. It weaves together elements of hip-hop, popping and krumping enhanced by a light show. 7 p.m. Oct. 30 a the Rialto Center for the Arts.
For more things to do this weekend, don't miss our list of fall fun ideas, including pumpkin patches and corn mazes.
This is just a selective list of events happening around town, so if there's something going on this weekend that you're excited about and you don't see it here, please feel free to share the info in the comments. Follow me on Twitter at@ajchottix and @ajcatlevents for info on tickets going on sale and more upcoming events.
October 27th, 2011
1:06 pm
Zombies are stupid and Atlanta is a horrible city. I really want to move somewhere that doesn't suk so much. San Diego or Sarasota would be nice. There are so many stupid people here. ZOmbies? Really?
October 27th, 2011
1:12 pm
FoF's – Well stated. It's sophomoric & bizarre that these weirdos "enjoy" going about like "zombies". Beyond taking the kids trick or treatin' or handing out candy, I don't see the attraction of Halloween (for adults). These mugs need to grow up…or perhaps seek psychiatric help.
October 27th, 2011
3:58 pm
everything is dum & i'm stoopid. waaaaaaaaaaah!
halloween is dum 2, everyone should grow up and realize they live in a sukky city.
i hate myself and want to die!
October 27th, 2011
11:30 pm
This city does SUK! I wish a zombie would eat my brain so I can get out of this miserable town!
October 28th, 2011
9:34 am
I disagree with the comments above. I think Atlanta is a great city and i have had so many great opportunities here. You may say it S**** BUT all you have to say is you dislike it. If you do not like it here…here is a thought MOVE! No one says you have to stay. You should be happy no matter wherever you are. YOU have the power to change what is do not like in your life. And Halloween is a holiday …it is FUN and everyone has their opinion but i love Halloween. I work with kids and they love it and i love it too.
October 28th, 2011
9:36 am
Thank you AJC for posting what is going on in Atlanta. Atlanta is a fun city and has so much to do here. =)
October 28th, 2011
4:39 pm
I do so much here in Atlanta and have a blast! I've got friends in Los Angeles, NY, and Miami that keep wanting to move here because they have so much fun! ATL is a different scene than many cities, but I love how down to earth people are and the diversity. Its a young city that continues to develop with new projects and opportunities. Maybe the other two posters above should get off the couch and experience what the city has to offer. To say Sarasota is a better city, that's God's Waiting Room, and I'm definitely not that boring or 90 yrs old retired! Live Life!
October 30th, 2011
1:10 pm
yo gabba gabba


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Another week has passed by and things are still looking up.
I have been doing my daily walks and still eating right.
Work is going good and my body is pretty much used to the job now. I mean I still have sore feet after all that running around for eight hours.
Since I've lost a good amount of weight, my feet aren't swollen like they used to be.
So now that my feet are a lot skinnier than what they were, they are really feeling the stress of holding up 450 pounds.
I know they will get stronger and my weight will continue to drop so I just fight through it and push myself day by day.
I have been working a lot of overtime at work so it has been hard for my NOMS trainer Shawn Zahel and me to meet up at the gym.
I still stay active by walking and doing exercises at home that Shawn has had me do at the gym: stair steppers, squats etc.
The last time I weighed myself was two weeks ago and I was down to 448.
That is a total of 81 pounds so far that I have lost.
I will weigh myself again this week and I hope to see even less than 448.
I am proud of myself for how things have been going.
I know I haven't been able to get to the gym as much as I would like to, but I am losing weight,
I am 90 days into an awesome job and I am happier than I have been in a long time. "A pound lost is better than a pound gained."
I will continue to win this weight-loss battle.
I will take it day by day and pound by pound.
Thanks for all your support. I appreciate all of the people who come up to me and say they've been following my story and tell me that I'm doing great and to keep it up.
It really does boost my motivation more than you know.
Most people don't realize that being a bigger person is s hard on you emotionally and physically.
To have low self-esteem and feel ashamed of yourself most of your life, it is a breath of fresh air when everyone finally tells you how proud they are of you. It feels great.
So if you know anyone that might be a little "over weight," just remember that sometimes to some people, "words can cut deeper than a knife."
I will post my weight in my next blog.
Thanks again and good luck to the other contestants. Keep up the good work.


text: RummySC Publisher: Kevin Bowes Genre: Utilities Released: 13 Jan, 2009 Size: 872.1 KB Price: $0.99 Click here to request a review of this app App Store Info Description This is not a Rummy game. Rummy Scorecard is a simple application that lets you keep track of your Rummy game scores without paper. Always know who the next dealer is and who is winning. What's New in Version 5.5.1 Bug/UI fixes and better sharing Screenshots Screenshot 1 of 1


text:
This white top writeth myne olde yeris; myn herte is also mowled as myne heris.
Joomla's Atomic Template
This article assumes familiarity with the Back End, Joomla Templates in general, and how to edit their HTML and CSS, all boxes I could more-or-less tick but it wasn't at all obvious to me how to get from Screenshot 1 to Screenshot 2.
Above is roughly what you get if you select the Atomic Template as your default but before monkeying around with it. Screenshot 1 above was only altered by adding 'showgrid' instructions of which more later. Screenshot 2 below is what you can get after a few simple edits to the Template HTML [see below] and changing some of the Atomic modules from HIDE to SHOW. To do that go to Module Manager and click on whichever of the atomic-modules you want which will open a dialogue with the options show/hide.
What makes it all tick is something called BluePrint lurking in the background, which you'll see referred to in the Atomic Template HTML. The bulk of the layout and styling are seen to by BluePrint which uses GRID BASED design. Here's a separate page on Grids. The Atomic-Blueprint alliance has a natty option to display the default Grid on your webpage. In the Template HTML look for any div class="container" and alter it to div class="container showgrid". Screenshot 1 at top is with showgrid on; Screenshot 2 is without showgrid.
N.B. by DEFAULT Blueprint uses a WIDTH of 950px consisting of 24 columns all 30px wide with a 10px margin between columns. If you're doing the maths that should = 960px but the last column does NOT include the 10px margin. If this is not the layout you want, you can use a Blueprint Grid CSS Generator to generate a custom grid layout - but devising your own is pretty simple. There's more about this on the Internet! Here is a VERY USEFUL PDF crib-sheet for Blueprint.
Using the above Blueprint default, these Quivis pages consist basically of a sidebar on the left of 7 columns, plus 1 extra column as a margin between the sidebar and the main content section or mainframe composed of another 16 columns. See the Grids page where the underlying structure is displayed. Typing ?tp=1 after the URL of any page will display positioning information. All page elements, modules, menus etc, are assigned a POSITION on the page. These are in turn defined in 2 places; in the templateDetails.xml and index.php files of each template. The index.php file can be edited directly from the Back End of Joomla; it is the file that is edited when you go to Template Manager: templates, click on whatever Template Details and under Template Master Files click on edit main page template option. Not all positions need to be used; some can be reserved for specific pages only. The current Atomic template pages on Quivis have the following possible positions defined.
Blueprint contains a number of source files including;
- reset.css which sets sensible defaults across all browsers.
- typography.css which sets up some nice default typography and also sets up some attractive styles around font sizes, line-heights, default styling of tables, etc.
- grid.css handles the grid layout portion of Blueprint.
- forms.css provides decent looking default forms as well as classes for error or flash notifications etc.
- ie.css is a separate stylesheet for IE because Microsoft persist in producing crap browsers. Thus all Blueprint's core styles will work in all major browsers.
- print.css sets some default print styles to render printed versions of your site as attractively as possible. The print.css file has an option where you can fill in your domain name so that relative links are shown in parentheses behind the text link in the printed version of your page. Without filling in this section only remote links will print properly.
The Blueprint used by Joomla's Atomic template has the first 4 style sheets above compressed into one called screen.css plus the separate print.css, and ie.css files.
Blueprint and its attendant files are not in the root Atomic Template directory. Thus when you look at the Template's editing options for either the HTML or CSS files the only ones you see from the Back End are those of the Template itself. In other words, if you want to tinker with Blueprint files you must do so in an external editor. However, it seems that writing new CSS rules in the Atomic's template.css over-rides any in the BluePrint CSS. If you download the whole of the Atomic Template you will see the following structure, where Blueprint's screen.css, the main driving force behind the grid and its styling, is arrowed.
In Screenshot 1 showing Joomla Sample Data the main body of the page's content is the block to the left composed of the default 16 columns plus 1 additional column as a margin between that and the smaller area to the right consisting of another 7 columns. In the Template HTML span-1 to span-24 tells Blueprint how many columns are involved in the instruction. append-1 will add however many columns you stipulate to the defined block and last tells Blueprint that that is the final column or end of the row.


text:
Some people are so fearful of infection by HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS, they won't shake hands with someone who is HIV-positive.
But you can't get the infection unless you have unprotected sexual contact with an infected person, share needles, or come in contact with infected blood or blood products.
HIV isn't transmitted by casual contact. You cannot get it from sharing water fountains, toilet seats, pencils, or pens. And it's not spread through coughing or sneezing, tears, sweat, urine, or saliva.
To protect yourself from the deadly AIDS virus, it's imperative to understand how it is spread.
Homosexuals and heterosexuals alike are at risk. Infected people can pass HIV to anyone with whom they have intimate contact. Men can infect female or male partners, as can women. If you have many sexual partners, you increase your chances of encountering someone who's infected.
To protect yourself, use condoms unless you're absolutely certain your partner isn't HIV-positive.
Injecting drugs with someone who's HIV-positive puts you at risk. Dried blood can stay on a needle or inside a syringe, then be transferred to the next user. Because you can't tell by looking whether a person has HIV, sharing needles is always dangerous.
You're also at risk if you have any part of your body pierced or get a tattoo. If you have either of these procedures, make sure the person providing the service uses only new, sterile needles.
Today, blood that is used in transfusions in the United States is rigorously tested for HIV and several other contagious viruses, so there is only a very slight chance of getting HIV from a transfusion. That wasn't the case a decade ago.
The following steps can help you prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS:
Find out all you can about HIV and AIDS so you can protect yourself. Share your knowledge with family members and friends.
If you don't know your partner's sexual history, abstain from sexual relations or use a condom when having sex.
Don't inject drugs of any kind. Don't share needles or syringes. Seek medical help if you have a drug problem.
Have an HIV test if you've participated in unsafe sex or drug use. Encourage friends to do the same.
Postpone pregnancy if it's possible you've been infected. Unborn children can contract the disease from their mothers, although there are medications that can prevent this. Your doctor can offer advice, as can family-planning services.
Education is key to AIDS prevention. For further information, contact these resources: American Sexual Health Association website and hotline, 919-361-8488, and HIV/AIDS Education and Resource Center.
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text:
- chen xin
- Hai Kou
- China
This conversation is closed.
why money money money ?money !why ?do we really need money ?
how many people are burdened of money . without money can't we live a life full of happiness you know money is not a natural thing ,
i find out that money is one of the most popular words that used on ted..compared to money .i am more about to talk about the nature or enery
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Oct 3 2012: @Edward Long, I, too, am a novice re: economics. Perhaps the only difference between us in that regard is that I perceived that most of the world's problems involved money in some form or other. So, about a year ago, I started to look into the questions of "What is money?" and "Where does it come from?" Until then, I accepted the commonly held view of most folk in our society, much of which is reflected in your legitimate response above.
Part of that world view is that money is based on something material; that money is a commodity. While this is historically the case, my belief is that money has "evolved" (for lack of a better term) into an information system. Take your example cited above. Your labor, the REAL value in the transaction between you and your employer, is given in exchange for a claim on the productivity resulting from that labor. You produced something that didn't exist before, and that has value. Your employer gives you something in exchange. That could be something material, like a bushel of zucchini. But you don't need a bushel of zucchini (who would), so you need something that carries value in the larger society: you need money. Though he or she may give you a check, that wouldn't be necessary in today's world. Your employer could also have done an electronic funds transfer, which is, again, dealing only in information. 150 year ago, you probably would have demanded metal coin: something material. No longer necessary. THERE IS NOTHING MATERIAL BEHIND TODAY'S MONEY! THERE IS ONLY DEBT. True, you can go to the bank and get pictures of dead presidents on a piece of paper, and this fiat currency, by law is legal tender. This piece of paper is, indeed, physical, but it is not "backed" by anything tangible. It only has the perception of value, and your choice to use paper rather than plastic, or swiping your smart phone, is a choice to convenience the outgoing modality of exchange.
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text:
Tuesday on TV: "Big Brother" does the right thing for the wrong reason
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published: August 4, 2013 07:21PM
Updated: July 9, 2013 09:55AM
The 16 contestants on the current season of "Big Brother," which is enmeshed in controversy over some contestants' racism and homophobia. Courtesy photo
CBS and the producers of
Big Brother
(8 p.m., Ch. 2) did the right thing, but couldn't bring themselves to do it for the right reasons.
The show finally revealed the racist, homophobic behavior of some of the contestants in Sunday's episodes - after it became an issue in the press. (Viewers of the 24-hour live feed from inside the "BB" house had chronicled the bad behavior, which led to two of the contestants to getting fired from their regular jobs.)
But both the show's host, Julie Chen, and producer Allison Grodner have continued to insist that the info was revealed only because it became part of the "story" of what's going on in the competition on the show.
That's patently ridiculous. Comments made days earlier were not an issue.
And the fact remains that hiding the anti-gay, anti-Asian, anti-black, anti-woman behavior warps the reality of what's supposed to be a reality show.
Elsewhere on TV ...
America's Got Talent
(7 p.m., NBC/Ch. 5): Auditions continue.
So You Think You Can Dance
(7 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13): The top 18 perform; two are eliminated.
Rizzoli & Isles
(7 and 9 p.m. TNT): A body is discovered in a church.
(8 p.m., PBS/Ch. 7): Two working families in Milwaukee struggle to keep their homes, jobs, health insurance, and to build a future for their children.
(8 and 10 p.m., TNT): A serial killer is trying to send Pierce a message.
Pretty Little Liars
(9 p.m., ABC Family): Hanna finds something shocking i her mother's possession.
CONCACAF Gold Cup Soccer (9 p.m,. Fox Soccer Channel): USA vs. Belize
(9 p.m., PBS/Ch. 7): A report titled "Two American Families" follows working-class families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep their homes, jobs and health insurance, and to build a future for their children.
(10 p.m., ABC Family): Danny's appearance upsets some people in town.
© Copyright 2014 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text: Bang has dozens of small crocodile drilling screens, the crowd began to attack. The foreigner in this very tense moment, the Chinese suddenly said Shunliu up Wawataijiao incessantly. This seemingly small, but extremely ferocious species is very terrible, you can fly or, each one is like a crocodile god sword, strong penetrating power. In its surroundings, spatial distortion, light, misty, with dry, Kun, Sunda, against, Burgundy, earthquake, from, Hom gossip corresponding symbol has shined like a group of mysterious and ancient passlongchamps on sale word shine. Several luckily escaped the hideous creatures are almost char, rather, covered with burns, the body is no longer complete, staring in the distance vicious Fan Ye, producing a low cry, people chill blowing. Big sound Temple ruins kilometers away, where although not quiet down, but the sense of smell has been overwhelming tragic Gudang over, and that on the lantern-like giant blood-red eye is not instantaneous gaze moment herelongchamp sale online , in the dark the extra man, people nervous. Eight Diagrams throughout the Chinese ancient history, originated very early, in the end is how to create, and what is the purpose, is still a fascinating mystery. Fan Ye call static and several ten God crocodile close behind, only to violently toward the ancient lamp wick away, and suddenly there is a strong light filled the sky in his monstrous flames of five or six meters, which was completely submerged SureFlongchamps glassware ire. Pombo shouting, a large bronze plaque constantly Leiyin Si vibration, Huaguang ten thousand, forming a curtain, which protect the back of three or four people, although you can temporarily maintain peace, but for a long time is difficult to predict who will go on what. Seemingly soft, like a wave, but when those who rushed to touch the crocodile god, they like to become a butcher's knife, every golden ripples can cut a crocodile god. But was clinging tightly around the three, imedium longchamp bag t was three bloodless faces, they are not gods relic, if there is no large sound Temple bronze plaque of the sanctuary, they die. Kill, killing us better, this is a matchless big crocodile god demon offspring, from the essence of God flowing blood in vivo, cohesion some supernatural power, through the altar Taiji Bagua map can be transformed into a mysterious energy required. Obviously, people are all found in this situation, suddenly revealing exciting color. Shrouded in dark colored curtains on the altar longchamp boxford luggage to near light, only little faint glow in the sky circulation Taiji Bagua map, to see this scene everybody knows why. Do not you move, I go out first try. Tai Chi Bagua map in the sky has been formed, with a metal retrogradation and texture, such as one hundred alchemical fine cast.


text:
Coach of the Year in the CFL: is it about the year, about improvement from one year to the next, or about one game?
Last week the football reporters across the country were asked to vote on who should be this year's Coach of the Year in the CFL. It is a straight-forward procedure where the CFL head office sends out an email with a link to a site that has a list of all the head coaches and voters from all markets (seven per market) and a National chapter, are asked to pick their first and second choices. From those votes the CFL will break it down to the top three vote getters and the award will be handed out to the winner in mid-February. Last year's recipient was Jim Barker in Toronto when he led the Argos to a 9-9 season and the first playoff berth for the team since 2007. He is also the first coach in the last five years to win Coach of the Year and not win the Grey Cup.
This year with the way the season went, and specifically with the way it ended, the vote seems like a no-brainer. No team in the history of the league has started the season at 0-5 and then turned it around to win the Grey Cup like the Lions did in 2011. So that would lead you to think that the coach of that team would be the automatic winner, which would mean that Wally Buono will be this year's Coach of the Year in the CFL. He would be an excellent choice, for lots of reasons outside of the unthinkable turnaround, including the fact that he did it with such a young quarterback in Travis Lulay.
His competition this year could be Kavis Reed in Edmonton, for getting the Esks back to the playoffs, or Paul LaPolice in Winnipeg for taking a team from the outhouse to the penthouse in the East in one year with virtually the same team. Oh, and mark me down as one of the many who feel like Marc Trestman's approach in Montreal is always deserving of Coach of the Year consideration.
However, you might think that this year is a slam dunk for the winningest coach in CFL history and Buono should be the guy, or that the honour should go to one of the young guns like LaPolice who may have lost the last game, but put together a season that saw the Bombers knock off the Als for first in the East. But there is no denying the fact that voters are influenced by which team actually wins the Grey Cup, or by which team showed the greatest improvement from one year to the next. Now you may say of course they are, and so they should be, it is all about winning isn't it? And if a bad team becomes average in a year, that is a huge improvement, isn't it?
The answer would be yes to both questions, because it is about winning, and it is about improving a team from one year to another, and both should be part of the process. Even though in the last 50 years since 1961, twenty-nine coaches have been named Coach of the Year and did not hoist the Grey Cup, and it is certainly easy to lean towards a coach that takes a team that has struggled for a few years in a row to a team that wins nine games. However, the award is for, "Coach of the Year," and not coach of one game, or for the best coach in the post season, or for the coach of the most improved team. Is it tougher to take a team from a two- or three-win season to a .500 year, or is it tougher to keep a team with twelve or thirteen wins on top?
It can get complicated, how much weight in the vote do you put on the season before, or how much on simply the team that wins it all? However, it is an issue that may have a fairly simple solution.
Why not have three separate votes for the Coach of the Year. Have a vote at the midway point of the season in early September, a vote after the regular season ends, and a final vote after the Grey Cup. All the points are then tallied and the winner is a true representation of a year's worth of work rather than a half a season, a good playoff run, or a Grey Cup game.
Don't get me wrong, for the record, my first choice this year was Wally Buono in B.C. However, there was a time in the first half of the season that the vote would likely have been very different, and aren't coaches always saying that the games at the beginning of the year are just as important as the games at the end? Also if it is about success and winning, then how is a coach that leads a team to a .500 season considered, just because that team struggled badly for a few years before he even got there?
Three votes, the league tallies the totals and you have your Coach of the Year. It makes the early games as important as the rest; it eliminates the chance of a voter being overly influenced by a surprise run in the playoffs, while still keeping that playoff success as part of the process. It keeps the focus on the current year and not the previous year, and it takes care of the temptation to make it strictly about the coach that wins the Grey Cup.
There are so many variables when it comes to winning and losing during a football season, so many highs and lows, and challenges throughout the year, and how the coach handles all of them from July to the end of November should be part of the process. Three votes throughout the year may be a better way to make sure that all of those variables are considered equally.
Just a thought.
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