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Throwback Thursday: Happy Birthday, Commonweal!
This past Tuesday marked Commonweal's 89th birthday. We're planning some bigger things to mark the big nine-oh in 2014, but for now we thought we'd celebrate at home (on the blog) with a few close friends (that's you).
Back when we were young, we called ourselves "The Commonweal." We produced a new issue each week and a subscription cost only $10. Our inaugural issue's editorial—written by founder and editor Michael Williams with assistant editors Thomas Walsh and Helen Walker (and with the blessing of the seven-person editorial council)—was titled "An Introduction," and it set out the distinctive mission and role of the new publication:
We believe that The Commonweal will be so fundamentally different to our contemporaries that in place of competition in an over-crowded field we shall occupy a position that hitherto has been left vacant. For the difference between The Commonweal and other weekly literary reviews designed for general circulation is that The Commonweal will be definitely Christian in its presentation of orthodox religious principles and their application to the subjects that fall within its purview: principles which until now have not, we believe, been expressed in American journalism except through the medium of the official organs of the Catholic Church and of the various other denominations.
The editors, after making it clear they were not speaking with authority in the Church (yes, an uppercase "C" was house style at the time), and explaining that a variety of opinions would be presented in "an open forum for the discussion of such differences in a spirit of good temper," concluded with this declaration:
It is unquestionably a spiritual, moral, and patriotic duty for thinking people to at least make an effort to apply the conserving and regenerative forces of the fountain head of Christian tradition, experience and culture to the problems that today all men of good will are seeking to solve. As opposed to the present confused, confusing and conflicting complex of private opinions, and personal impressionism, mirrored in the so many influential journals, the editors of The Commonweal believe that nothing can do so much for the betterment, the happiness, and the peace of the American people as the influence of the enduring and tested principles of Catholic Christianity. To that high task The Commonweal is dedicated.
Read the entire editorial and let us know what you think—have we changed? Have we stayed the same? One thing that's not up for debate: we know for certain we've gotten better looking with age.
About the Author
Ellen B. Koneck runs Special Projects at Commonweal and teaches in the Catholic Studies department at Sacred Heart University. You can follow her on Twitter.
19 comments
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Our inaugural issue's editorial—written by founder and editor Michael Williams with assistant editors Thomas Walsh and Helen Walker
How common would it have been to have a woman in an editorial position in 1924?
A big change that has recently arrived [via Argentina] ........ how proud to be called a Commonweal Catholic.
I'd say that the editorial holds up pretty well, though obviously times have changed and expressions have changed. There are those who might cavil and say that Commonweal today pays rather less attention to questions decided by "competent authority" than it promised to do at its founding. I suppose the Clintonesque reponse to that might be "it all depends what you mean by competent."
Of course, had I been a reader of the Christian Century (founded 1884), I might be miffed that Commonweal, in staking out its place as a Christian journal, seemingly pays no attention to the Protestant press. And if I were a real grinch-like churl (which of course I'm not) I might wish I'd been on hand as an editorial assistant myself to correct "different to our contemporaries" to "different from our contemporaries." But of course I wasn't around at the time.
Isn't "different to" still used in British English?
As to women in journalism?
". . . in 1920 women were 16.8 per cent of the reporters and editors, and by 1950, they were 32 per cent of the journalists."
10 cents or 10 dollars. 10 dollars was a lot of money in 1923. If what you say is correct, Commonweal should be charging at least 500 dollars a year now.
Bill, $10 in 1923 would be equivalent to $136.93 today, according to the BLS Inflation Calculator. Of course, you got 52 issues at the old price.
Happy birthday! When and why did the "The" disappear in front of Commonweal?
I've always wondered why they dropped the "The"; did they ever explain? I rather liked it. But then I don't understand why that country in eastern Europe no longer wants to be known as "The Ukraine."
In France recently the INRIA research institute dropped the article before its name. INRIA is an acronym and the "I" stands for "Institut", so one used to say "à l'INRIA". Now people have been instructed to drop the article and say "à INRIA". The hope, I heard, is that it will make it look more like Microsoft, Apple, or some other brand name, and less like a research institute. There's been a lot of internal grumbling and some non-compliance. Maybe it's also an exercise in arbitrary authority, a way to test people's docility. Or maybe merely somebody's "bright" idea, and that somebody happened to be at the right place to push it through. (In a way it's a little like the new missal.)
I hope that the story behind the disappearance of the "The" in front of Commonweal is less inglorious.
I was surprised that the editorial didn't explain the name of the magazine. "Weal" even then was losing its meaning, and by now it exists only in phrases like "for weal or woe" where it's supposed to sound archaic and quaint. If you ask someone today what's the "common weal," the first definition will most likely be, "a magazine edited by lay Catholics out of New York." Which is OK.
Just shows that infation calculators may not trump experience. In the 1930's laborers were working for 1$ a day. So that would be close to $260.00 a year---a living wage. Now $20,000 a year puts one in poverty---like those who work in McDonalds (they make less). I guess we can thank the government for "getting off our backs" (Reagan) so we can screw whom we want.
Interesting to see the first cover. I remember the magazine later, when it was on creamy beige paper with a certain "tooth" to it and Jean Charlot's little illustrations graced its pages. Here's a link to the University of Hawaii's Charlot Collection :http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/charlotcoll/charlot.html
P.S. Dominic Prezioso: Whether my computer has received a helpful update overnight or your website has done the empowering, I am delighted to be able to paste in links and put in paragraph breaks once more. Thanks again for your support when I inquired about it some months back. Good to know the digital side of things is in good hands. Onward and upward!
Sorry Mr. Preziosi, for the typo in your name in the preceding post. Mea culpa. Looks like human errors continue even when digital ones are remedied.!
So is there any institutional memory of why the "The" was dropped from the title of the journal?
According to https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/history the name changed in 1965, but online archives on the website don't go back that far, so I cannot look at that year's issues to see if there was an editorial explaining the change on the first issue titled "Commonweal". Surely an explanation must have been provided then!
In the 50th Anniversary issue of Commonweal (Nov. 16, 1973), which is the oldest issue in my personal possession, there is an opening statement which reads as follows:
With this issue Commonweal begins its 50th year of publication. ("The" was dropped from the magazine's title, with considerable hesitation, in a 1965 redesign of the cover)
Since I may be among the oldest living former employees of the magazine (I left in December, 1962 just before the birth of my first child) I would like to pass along a favorite Commonweal story. We had back then a wonderful mailroom kid named Frank, a student from Xavier on 16th Street. He was good-natured, hardworking, and smart. We were talking one day about the relative obscurity of the magazine, and he said to me that The Commonweal was so esoteric that not even the editors knew about it.
I'd like to think that Frank is out there somewhere on our list of subscribers.
Maybe it saved on ink? But if so, wouldn't it now be "New Republic" and "Economist", etc.?
THE Bronx will never drop the THE
It must have been a proud moment for the publishers of "The Commonweal."
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UConn's Tuck has less hype, but plenty of talent
By Roger Cleaveland Republican-American
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subset: commoncrawl


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The 5 Most Depraved Sex Scenes from Important Cultural Myths
#2. Japan Has Always Been Like That
Look hard enough, and you're going to find some sick fetishes in every culture. And one of the kinkiest manifestations of Japan's weirdness is the "kitsune," which are foxes. But this is Japan we're talking about here, so these kitsune aren't just clever, mischievous tricksters, they're shape-shifters. And once again, since this is Japan we're talking about, kitsune aren't just shape-shifters, they're multi-tailed, godlike lovers, capable of mating with humans and making babies.
Yet another reason why Pokemon is slightly unsettling.
And just so we're clear, this isn't some old weird myth that people look back on and think, "Wow, our ancestors were pervs." South Korea has a sitcom called My Girlfriend Is a Nine-Tailed Fox. The sitcom was launched only a year ago.
Or How I Met Your Mother and Was Subsequently Raped, Also You're Half Fox.
The kitsune mythology starts off pretty normal. Foxes are cunning, so it only makes sense that ancient people imagined they had magical properties, like gaining a new tail every hundred years. Also at a hundred years, foxes gain the ability to shape shift. Still, that's pretty tame compared to Loki the horse-fucker.
The most common forms foxes take are girls, beautiful women or old men, except they keep their tails. And that's where things get a little kinky. There is a whole genre of fox-wife stories -- tales about men who accidentally marry foxes posing as women, only to discover the truth after they've bred some pups/babies. Here's a picture of a fox mom getting discovered by her kid and husband:
"I told you hundreds of times I was a fox, but as usual you weren't listening."
In one story, a man finds out his wife is a kitsune when her mortal enemy -- a dog -- tries to bite her and she turns into a fox. The man is shocked, of course, yet invites her to come back and sleep with him whenever she feels like it.
"Although it had better be midweek; I'm bukkaked out on the weekends."
And that's why the word "kitsune" doesn't literally translate into "fox." It translates into "come and sleep."
It Gets Weirder
At the same time that a whole subgenre of foxy love stories were developing, the fox came to symbolize Inari, the god of fertility and agriculture. Which is why even today you see statues of foxes all over Japan. In other words, the Japanese actually deified one of their earliest fetishes.
It's all starting to make sense.
#1. Egypt Keeps It in the Family
The Egyptians almost single-handedly make ancient history worth studying. They built cool stuff, fucked their sisters like it was no big thing and walked around looking like drag queens. And those were the actual historical figures! Wait until you find out how kinky their gods were.
Especially since one was a goddamned dung beetle.
We'll start with Atum. Atum made the universe by wanking it out of his dong.
"Atum was creative in that he proceeded to masturbate himself in Heliopolis. He took his penis in his hand so that he might obtain the pleasure of orgasm thereby. And brother and sister were born -- that is Shu and Tefnut."
Shu and Tefnut do it and have two kids named Geb and Nut. Geb and Nut do it and made Isis and her siblings, but we'll get to them in a minute. And just so we're clear that this is, in fact, the Egyptian version of creation, Shu is air, Tefnut is water, Geb is the Earth and Nut is the sky. So Isis is stupid inbred.
"Isis, stop trying to shove that thing up my nose."
It Gets Weirder
Atum, the masturbating creator of the universe, had four great-grandchildren: Isis, Osiris, Nephthys and Set. Isis and Osiris were also husband and wife, which pissed Set off, not because he figured out that marrying someone who came out of your own mother's hooch was gross, but because his sister/wife Nephthys wasn't nearly as hot as Isis. So Set murders his brother Osiris, chops him into 14 pieces and scatters them all over Egypt. Thirteen of those pieces were not dicks. Guess which one got eaten by a fish?
The dick. It's always the dick.
Getting dismembered sucks at any point in history, but back then it meant you weren't going to get into the underworld. So Isis gathered 13 of the 14 pieces of her brother/husband, fashioned a new dick out of gold, did some Egyptian voodoo and voila! Osiris and his gold member are back alive! But only long enough to get Isis pregnant with his son/nephew.
With enough inbreeding, you too can have an eagle head!
The best part is that we're not even done. Isis and Osiris' baby is named Horus, and Horus and his uncle Set have some business to work out. Namely, who was the dominant of the two. And we're definitely using "dominant" in the prison-sex sense of the word. So when Set tried to have sex with his (now grown up) nephew, Horus caught the semen and showed it to his mother.
Isis flung the semen into the Nile, then magically caused her son's penis to rise, and caught some splooge of his own in a jar. Stay with us, because we're not done. Horus then took his juice and served it to Set on a salad.
By getting his uncle to ingest his semen, Horus was then above Set in rank, at least according to the gods' rule book.
And that is how you start a civilization.
For more on ancient sex, check out The 6 Raunchiest, Most Depraved Sex Acts (From the Bible) and 6 Depraved Sexual Fetishes That Are Older Than You Think.


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Reading The Dark Knight Returns had woken up something or someone inside me. It had woken up my own Dark Knight, I suppose, the part of me that yearned to take on the universe, walk on the wild side, live dangerously, leap knowing full well the net would never appear, that its not appearing was precisely the point. Suddenly I craved to become a specialist in the Leap of Faith, to plummet headlong into my unknown destiny at twice the speed of death, to be a regular predator feasting for the duration of my short mammalian existence on fate's tissues …
Sol Luckman
Source: Beginner's Luke: Book I of the Beginner's Luke Series, Pages: 203..204
Contributed by: Alyce
Copyright © 2016 Gaiam, Inc.


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U.S. Geological Survey researchers are among an international group of scientists setting sail Aug. 25 on a voyage to explore the Arctic. This will be a five-week expedition aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy.
The primary purpose of this mission is to map the Arctic seafloor and collect data to help define the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf. There will be other projects taking place simultaneously on Healy, and this includes collecting water and ice samples to study ocean acidification in the Arctic.
Arctic Ocean Acidification
Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) increases in the atmosphere and is absorbed by the ocean. Acidification will continue to rise because CO2 levels are projected to increase. Acidification can disturb the balance of marine life in the world's oceans, and consequently affect people and animals that rely on those food resources.
The Arctic Ocean is one of the most vulnerable areas for acidification, yet it is one of the least explored oceans in the world. The USGS is leading a project to study ocean acidification in the Arctic and what this means for the survival of marine and terrestrial organisms. This is the third consecutive year of research.
For more information, read a press release on this research. Those interested can also track this year's expedition.
Mapping the Seafloor
The primary mission taking place on Healy is a collaborative effort to map the seafloor and help define the outer limits of the U.S. continental shelf in the Arctic.
Each coastal nation may exercise sovereign rights over its continental shelf's natural resources. These rights include control over minerals, petroleum and sedentary organisms such as clams, crabs and coral.
International law affords every coastal nation rights in its continental shelf out to 200 nautical miles from shore. If certain physical criteria are met, a nation is entitled to the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, an area referred to as the "extended continental shelf" or ECS.
The United States is now collecting data to see if it meets those criteria to establish the limits for an ECS off the Alaska coast in the Arctic Ocean.
In addition to the Arctic, the United States is working to define its ECS off many of its other shores, including off the Atlantic coast and Northern Mariana Islands, and in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Mexico. View a map online.
This is the ninth ECS-related mission aboard Healy, and will likely be the last mission addressing U.S. ECS extent in the Arctic, provided the weather and equipment cooperate in the often uncertain and challenging Arctic environment.
Marrying Science and Law
Establishing the ECS is a scientific inquiry joined to legal questions in that it involves both geology and international law. Therefore, it requires a collaborative effort among many agencies.
The current mission is in support of the U.S Extended Continental Shelf Task Force, which is an interagency body chaired by the Department of State. Additional agencies participating in the Task Force are the Department of the Interior; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; USGS; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Department of Commerce; National Science Foundation; Joint Chiefs of Staff; U.S. Navy; U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Executive Office of the President; Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; and the Arctic Research Commission.
The chief scientists for this summer's Arctic cruise are Larry Mayer, Ph.D., and Capt. Andy Armstrong. Both are from the Joint Hydrographic Center, a collaborative program between NOAA and the University of New Hampshire. The mission is funded by NOAA with a grant to the University of New Hampshire.
USGS Science
The USGS is a principal collaborator in these ECS missions. In the past, the USGS has served in various roles, from providing the chief scientist to assisting with data collection and analysis as well as coring for mud samples from the seafloor. The USGS is also helping to dredge rocks from the seafloor, and is storing and analyzing the samples.
Dredging for Clues: How did the Arctic Basin Form?
If time permits during the 2012 mission, rock samples will also be dredged and collected from the Arctic seafloor. The rocks will be dated to give scientists an idea of when they formed, and will ultimately give clues as to how the entire Arctic Basin may have developed. These samples have many other potential uses for science, including analyzing the rocks to see what minerals are present.
The USGS has been designated as responsible for the care and distribution of geologic samples collected on the voyage. At sea, the USGS will assist with the dredging operations, document and photograph all materials collected, and prepare them for transport to the USGS ECS samples repository. Back at the repository, the USGS provides proper care and storage of the samples, and facilitates sample requests for interested researchers.
Dredging operations in 2012 are being led by the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire. Dredging has been conducted during past cruises, and more information can be found at the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center's website.
Collaborating with Canada
Over the past four years in the Arctic, the United States and Canada have collaborated on joint ECS missions using Healy and the Canadian icebreaker, Louis S. St-Laurent. These joint missions were highly successful; they concluded in 2011 after having collected all the necessary seismic data for both countries.
Video on Past Expeditions
Watch a video produced in 2010 regarding past ECS expeditions by the United States and Canada.


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CSB and SJU report strong enrollment numbers
The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University together enrolled 3,938 first-year to senior students, which marked the fifth straight year total combined undergraduate enrollment has exceeded 3,900 students.
CSB and SJU recognized as top institutions nationally
The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University have been recognized nationally by their peers in the recently released U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Both CSB and SJU were again ranked among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the country. The magazine listed CSB and SJU for their strong commitment to teaching and the schools' study abroad program. For the second year in a row, CSB was named an "Up-and-Coming" institution.
CSB and SJU named 'Best Buy School' by Fiske Guide
The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University have been named a "Best Buy School" by the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2011. Fiske named 45 institutions - 24 private and 21 public - as Best Buys this year. There are no other Minnesota colleges or universities on the 2011 list. The ranking combines academic ratings, pricing and the quality of student life on campus.
Saint John's Pottery marks anniversary with exhibit
"Stoked - Five Artists of Fire & Clay," a national touring exhibit celebrating 30 years of the Saint John's Pottery Studio, is on display at Alice R. Rogers & Target Galleries, SJU Art Center through Oct. 15. It features ceramic work by SJU artist-in-residence Richard Bresnahan and four former apprentices: Kevin Flicker, Stephen Earp, Sam Johnson and Anne Meyer.
Welcome from Career Services at CSB/SJU
Career Services (with offices on both campuses) extends greetings to returning students' parents and gives a special welcome to those first time parents of a Bennie or Johnnie. This and future monthly updates provides information about what is happening in Career Services and how we're working with your sons and daughters.
During the early part of fall semester staff from Career Services as well as Academic Advising will visit the First Year Seminar classes to introduce ATLAS (Achieving Through Learning and Searching). This program will expose first-year students to information relating to major choice, career exploration, and four-year planning. ATLAS is designed to guide students all through their college experience.
Plan now for Family Weekend 2010
Join us Oct. 22-24 for Family Weekend 2010. For additional information, please contact [email protected].
Klobuchar delivers McCarthy Lecture at SJU
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., delivered the fourth annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture Aug. 30 at the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater, Saint John's University.
Her speech, "Conscience and Courage in Public Life," was sponsored by the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at Saint John's University.
The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University have converted to electronic billing. For your convenience, students can authorize their parents/guardians to access their account information. Please encourage your student to set you up as an authorized user. Bill statements are sent by e-mail only.
Deadline set for SJU Off-Campus Request form
SJU students who are interested in applying to live off-campus during the academic year must fill out an Off-Campus Request form to indicate their intent and be granted permission from the university. Students who have not been granted permission to live off-campus and are found to be off-campus may be billed room and board. To avoid these problems, students must fill out and submit the Off- Campus request for the 2011-2012 academic year by Friday, Oct. 15, 2010.
Award-winning Norwegian author Per Petterson will be at CSB Sept. 18, to read from his new book I Curse the River of Time. Sponsored by the Literary Arts Institute, Petterson's visit is one of only five stops he'll make in the United States.
Res Life offers tips on care packages
Check out the care package tips that CSB associate director of Resident Life Mary Beth Thompson offers in the St. Cloud Times D'Lish story, "Jazz up college care packages".
Visit the CSB Health Services website
CSB Health Services, located in the CSB Health Center (Lower Level Lottie Hall) welcomes CSB parents to the new academic year. We encourage you to visit our website to learn more about the services offered on campus.
What? Order flowers for free delivery on campus?
Yes, that's right. CSB/SJU Bookstores has partnered with Floral Arts to bring fresh flowers to dorm rooms or offices, and, yes, it's free delivery to any on-campus address. We have several arrangements to choose from, a happy birthday cupcake, an all-occasion package and several rose bouquets. You can also add other items to the arrangement, such as a teddy bear or balloon. We have created a great Bennie Pride and Johnnie Pride arrangement that includes a mug as a keepsake for the recipient.
Coming this month: Historical Books, the sixth book of The Saint John's Bible
Historical Books is due to arrive in September; order your copy today. Historical Books is the sixth of seven full-color reproduction books from The Saint John's Bible. It is available at a special introductory price of $63.96.


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5 Inventions You Won't Believe Came From War
If there's one thing that everyone can agree on, it's that war is horrible. Nothing kills the mood faster than a bloody, painful death for a political agenda that you probably don't even fully understand. But you can't deny that armed conflicts gave us some pretty good things, such as major advances in everything from rockets to microwave ovens.
Oh, and also there's this stuff.
#5. Feminine Pads and Tampons (World War I)
The biggest problem with war is that it tends to put holes in people, thus encouraging blood to take a scenic stroll through places it's not supposed to visit. Especially during World War I, when the dead and wounded toll hit the double-digit millions. And especially when a cotton shortage made the bandaging of dying soldiers a pain in the neck.
At the time, Kimberly-Clark was a paper mill company that realized you could do more with wood pulp besides just make it into paper. In fact, if you prepared the right combination of pulp, you could get a material that was five times more absorbent than cotton, yet significantly cheaper to produce. Kimberly-Clark named their newly discovered material cellucotton and the Allied Forces were on it like white on rice.
Or gangrene on trenchfoot.
Guess who else was on cellucotton like white on rice? Allied nurses on their lady-days. It turned out those super absorbent bandages worked really well as disposable sanitary napkins, something that was not readily available to women at that point. Back then, most women were forced to use literal rags, sponges or a whole mess of nothing during their periods.
So once the war ended, Kimberly-Clark had a ton of blood bandages on their hands and no one's blood to soak up. Until someone remembered that unlike the war, menstruation wasn't going to end anytime soon, and that those nurses LOVED using their bandages during their periods. With a quick re-branding that actually capitalized on their product's origin, Kimbery-Clark packaged cellucotton as feminine hygiene products and was hailed as the saviors of women everywhere.
And the bane of whipped boyfriends everywhere.
#4. Twinkies (World War II)
There is something about eating a Twinkie that just lets the world know you're not too keen on self-respect. Maybe it's because under "expiration date" Hostess just prints "LOL." Or maybe it's because you're eating something called a "Twinkie" and you're not five-years old. We're not judging; this is being typed one-handed, and there are Twinkie marks all over the space bar. So why do we have Hitler to thank for them?
If Hitler just stuck to inspiring delicious snack cakes.
Well, back in the 1930s, a baker named James A. Dewar invented a sort of strawberry shortcake snack for Hostess; yellow sponge cake with strawberries crammed inside. Because strawberries were only in season a couple of months out of the year, they eventually switched it up and filled them with bananas instead. People didn't exactly go crazy for them.
But then WWII began. The government started rationing all sorts of goods, so they could be used to fight the Nazis instead. Bananas were among these items, because apparently you can't stop a blitzkrieg without bananas. Maybe by littering the battlefield with peels so the Wehrmacht would slip hilariously on them.
In Charlie Chaplin's Wehrmacht, anything is possible.
Whatever the reason, Dewar and Hostess were clearly screwed. No strawberries, no bananas; all they had was their stupid empty yellow cakes. Dewar finally decided screw it, leave out the fruit completely and squirt some cheap cream filling in there. What else was he going to do?
People went absolutely nuts for it. Sales exploded, and the modern Twinkie was born.
Followed shortly thereafter by its cousin, modern obesity.
#3. A Bunch of Classic Toys (World War II)
In 1943, naval engineer Richard James was working on a doozy of a problem. Delicate equipment aboard battleships had this way of getting knocked the hell around during high seas. So James was messing around with springs to support the phonogram machines or whatever, when what do you know? He dropped one of the springs. And instead of just sitting there like a punk, the little spring kind of stepped away in a very slinky-like manner.
"Holy shit! Jagged metal springs are the perfect child's toy.
Knowing that there was nothing kids loved more than coiled metal, James figured he just might have invented the world's greatest toy ever. Within two years, James found the perfect metal for his toy idea and scored a $500 loan to build his first batch, which he sold in 90 minutes. A few years later, probably still haunted by his failure to actually keep the battleship equipment safe, James gave it all up and ran away to join a cult. Go figure.
While the Slinky was discovered by accident, tons of government dollars worth of research were poured into Silly Putty. In 1943, the wartime rubber shortage was so bad that the government asked private companies to create a synthetic rubber substitute. General Electric had a whole team of scientists throw together every chemical they could think of in hopes that it would create something rubber-like.
Some successes were more notable than others.
One squishy mixture proved to have surprising qualities: It bounced and stretched, it would not stick and it only melted at very high temperatures. Things were looking up until someone pointed out that you can't make tires out of something with the malleability of wet chewing gum, even if it can totally copy the newspaper.
"Mr. President, I'd ask you to reserve judgment until you see it make Blondie look like she's blowing Dagwood."
It was so useless at replacing rubber that GE tried to send it to scientists around the world in hopes that someone, anyone, could figure out something to do with it. Eventually, a toy manufacturer mentioned that little kids will pretty much play with any goddamned thing you give them. He figured that he might as well try to sell the stuff by packing it in small eggs and advertising it through novelty catalogs. The rest is history. Cheap, $2 in a pink plastic egg history.
Finally, there's Walter "Fred" Morrison.
The patron saint of hipsters.
Fred, like most other college kids in the 1930s, spent a great deal of time throwing around pie pans from the Frisbie Baking Company. But it wasn't until he joined the Air Force that he learned about aerodynamics and he realized he was doing science during those pan-flinging sessions.
So, Fred took what he learned about basic aerodynamics from the Air Force and made a prototype of a better flying disc, that didn't have bits of pie crust stuck to it. And instead of tin, he went with plastic. He dubbed his creation the "Pluto Platter," which was ultimately renamed the "Frisbee" and went on to provide hardcore leaping motivation for extreme college kids everywhere.
It is impossible to say the word "extreme" without sarcasm.


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Choosing a Middle Name
Mining for Middles
The sources for middle names are virtually identical to the ones for first names, so you should have a good name pool already targeted to work with. Keep in mind, however, that middle names can be more creative or inspired than given names, so you might be able to broaden your pool a bit and consider some names that you wouldn't have put in the running before. For example, if you really want to commemorate the city in which your child was conceived, it might be a better idea to use it as a middle name, especially if it's a place like Des Moines or Taos.
Other potential sources for inspired middle names include:
- Circumstances and occasions. Maybe you want to honor the first time you and your partner met by using the day of the week or the month of the year in some form or another.
- Friends and mentors. Since there's more latitude in choosing middle names, this is a great spot to honor someone who's been important to you, especially if you can't do it with the first name for some reason.
- Fates and outcomes. Middle names, since they're generally not used as widely as first names, lend themselves well to names with symbolism or hidden meanings, especially from other countries and cultures. Comedienne and actress Sandra Bernhard used this name fashion when she selected Cicely Yasin for her daughter, who was born in 1998. Yasin is a Moroccan name that means "bearer of good news."
Be sure you test-drive your first/middle/last name combination thoroughly before making your final decision. Don't skip a step in this process, or your little girl may never forgive you for naming her Mary Ursula Davis, resulting in the unlovely acronym MUD.
Creating a Middle
There's nothing that says you can't take a creative approach to fashioning a middle name just as you would in creating a first name. For example, you can craft a middle name from elements of several names if you're having a hard time settling on just one. Or honor a male relative by creating a feminine form of his name for your little girl (just flip these genders around to fit your particular needs).
More on: Choosing a Name
Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Baby Names © 1999 by Sonia Weiss. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
To order this book visit the Idiot's Guide web site or call 1-800-253-6476.


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The wearBlast newsletter template consists of three different layouts in three different colors. Although the previews are sports-themed, it can be used for pretty much any occasion. The package also contains layered psd-files.
• 3 layouts, ready to be used out of the box • 3 different color themes for every layout • psd file for every layout, so that you can customize everything! • documented source code and help file • tested on all major email programms


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Building Design Suite
Integrated building design software featuring BIM and CAD tools.
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Where inspiration meets business excellence.
We'll feed your knowledge, fire your imagination, and fuel your performance.
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Amazon will collect sales tax in Texas. How about your state? Will this affect your buying habits?
Here's the story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018089225_amazontexas28.html
The reasoning is that Amazon has a distribution center in Texas.
Do you pay sales tax on out-of-state web site purchases?
In Washington, I pay sales tax on both Amazon and Woot purchases, though Woot thoughtfully honors the "taxsucks" code for $5 off of purchases over $30. Sounds like Texans will be in the same boat.
33 Answers answer
Not here yet, although our AG is apparently trying to force them to collect. And it probably won't affect my buying habits too much.
I think the state comptroller is grasping at straws, trying to get a quarter billion dollars in back taxes from Amazon. It'll likely continue to be a bit of a mess until the lawmakers figure out how to properly deal with online purchases and the varying tax laws.
I don't have a problem paying tax on my Amazon purchases. The free ride had to end sometime.
No state sales tax here.
I'm in NY and pay 8.875% sales tax on many web purchases, including most from Amazon and woot (NY's sales tax rules are rather complicated and many items are exempt, eg. most clothing sold by woot). In fact, my only emails to email@example.com (two of them) have been about sales tax that shouldn't have been charged.
On all purchases from woot over $40 (not $30), the taxsucks code saves me $5.44, even on items that don't have salestax added.
There are online vendors (eg. Newegg) that don't charge tax here, but many companies do have a business presence in NY State so I am rarely surprised when sales tax is charged.
As more companies charge tax, my cost will likely go up but I won't change my buying habits. When comparing prices, I already count shipping and tax because my final cost is what matters (a vendor that doesn't charge sales tax is effectively offering an extra 8% discount).
I don't want to see taxes added to online sites like Woot or Amazon, but I do think it's probably appropriate. Sometimes the only reason I buy from Amazon versus a local store is because of sales tax. I think it gives Amazon an unfair advantage over brick & mortar stores or sites like bestbuy.com which has a local presence so must charge tax on their online sales (note that I am not really a Best Buy fan, it is just an example).
I don't want to pay more, but it will be nice to see some companies not be disadvantaged because of the law.
@baqui63: Oops - Thanks for the correction on the code. Sounds like you really have to pay attention to keep up with the numbers.
@rprebel & @okham I also don't mind some taxes because I count on the infrastructure they support.
I am not taxed on Amazon purchases (yet), but I would still purchase anyways.
The nearest Walmart is about a 12 mile round-trip and the nearest Best Buy is about the same. I don't have the time to make a trip out there so I depend on Amazon to get items quickly.
I have heard that you are suppose to manually file some sort of sales tax with your state on purchases where it was not collected. So, if we were all purely honest and diligent Citizens, sites like Amazon collecting tax would only make our lives easier. I'm guessing that few, if any, will see it this way...
@wnyx585am: Yeah, most states have a use tax, but who seriously keeps track of all the purchases that should be taxed? I know I don't. I imagine very few people actually report it.
As noted above...
Well if I read every line of my state tax prep, there is a section in Ohio tax code called the use tax, and its the point where if everyone is being completely honest they would total all their online purchased and then charge the .0675% and pay taxes for your online or out of state purchases. So for honest people they are already paying tax for online purchases in Ohio.
stupid ass company will lose much of my business that's for sure. why on earth would they put a distribution center in the northern half of texas rather than further north in oklahoma where there's likely < 50% of the # of texas customers?
@pinchecat: well I think they go where they get a good tax break, access to infrastructure, skilled labor pool. Heck the number of customers might have lured them there so they could ship out to them faster. I know my recent amazon woots have gotten to me before wootbot emails me my shipping number. Those seem to ship out from indiana
What I found annoying was when I lived in California and my local tax rate was lower than the state-wide rate for online purchases from California based retailers and I got charged the higher "state" rate.
Here is another discussion on tax.
There have been other questions/discussions on tax collection. My state has a use tax and one is supposed to file a form when purchasing an item from out of state on which no tax has been collected.
A few years back, the NY State tax return added a line for unpaid sales and use tax. While I'm sure that most people simply put zero, I've always paid the suggested amount for my income bracket.
I use Quicken to track and categorize most of my spending and it is fairly easy to pull up a report of what I spent out of state and did not pay sales/use taxes on. I did this the first few years that NY State's returns had the sales tax line item and their suggested amount was close to what I would have owed, though slightly less. As my online purchasing has only increased since then, I've continued to pay the suggested amount and I don't worry about it any longer.
@notanaardvark: "I also don't mind some taxes because I count on the infrastructure they support."
Congratulations! you win today's gold star from my husband (the amateur economist) for recognizing how that works. He gets a little ranty when he reads comments [elsewhere, not here] from folks who complain about taxes in the same paragraph they're also complaining about lousy roads and bridges.
I understand the need for taxes and online retailers should probably all be collecting sales tax and giving it to their state for being able to conduct business there and support the local economy, BUT I have been a contactor inside many of my state's agencies and seen rampant waste of funds in each one so I'm reluctant to want to give my hard earned money to someone who is just going to p*ss it away.
@magic cave: We have lousy roads and bridges because the infrastructure stole the money. Here in LA you can tell we're ramping up for elections- they're fixing stuff. This time next year, and for 3 years- nada.
Our "conservative" Governator saved the road tax money for a couple years, then "repurposed" most of it; some to the general fund and some to repay other diversions. We'd call it check kiting. Pete Wilson did the same.
Ol Gov Brown came home and found the ex had run up the credit cards to appear successful, and ran out when the bills came due. Over due, I mean. There isn't enough to pay the expenses the ex signed up for; that's not counting the previous shopping trips.
It was almost funny. Where'd the road money go?- to the crippled kids fund. Well, where'd that money go?- to the hospitals to help pay for illegal alien healthcare. Well, where did the hospital money go?- to the committee overseeing the road budget.
The money we "saved"? Paid for a tax break for the rich.
@pinchecat: Mainly because - and I'm just going out on a limb here - Texas is freaking huge and has a lot of Amazon customers. It is so much cheaper to ship the items from a central location within the state than in a completely different state.
Also, Amazon wasn't the one who initiated paying sales tax it was the Texas government
No sales tax collected here in NJ although you're supposed to pay anyway. Goes for pretty much any state - you owe use tax even though sales tax isn't collected.
@popham05: your geography skills are weak. DFW is little more than 50 miles from the OK state line. your case about "a lot of amazon customers" residing in texas only furthers my point about catering to them by not setting up shop here (in turn charging them sales tax).
@pinchecat: You're supposed to be paying the sales tax anyway, whether or not Amazon charges it.
No Amazon sales tax charged in AR yet.
Amazon found NY a long time ago. Or, more likely, NY found Amazon.
I live in WA state and I pay 8.6-8.9% tax on Amazon and woot and local purchases. I just get a warm fuzzy feeling when I order from Newegg and don't get charged tax.
We (Texans) already pay sales tax on Woot no matter the purchase amount because Woot has a presence here. We don't pay sales tax on Overstock.com, for example, because they're in Utah. The way I understand the law, if we make an online purchase from an "out of state" company we don't pay sales tax. If we buy from a company in our state, we pay the tax just as if we'd walked into a store.
That said, if Amazon is going to have a distribution center here, it might change the way I shop with them. If it's something I can easily walk into a store and get, I will. If not, then at least (in theory) I'll get it quicker. I'm thinking I'd better hurry up and order that Kindle Fire soon, though, before this goes into effect so I can save that $16.41. ;-)
@shinespark Texas does not have a State Tax Return. How do you propose that sales tax for online purchases be reported?
@debbsc67: It looks like TX has a special form to allow for collection of this tax. Just like all the other states, they want their share.
While Amazon and TX were reaching an agreement on this, the IL courts said the tax on Amazon was unconstitutional, so for now we are happily not paying sales tax (except, of course, on the "sales and use tax" line on our tax returns).
Here is a Forbes article updating this topic printed today:
Looks like I'll be finishing up my christmas shopping before July 1st this year.
@lynnaux: Interesting. But, you must report it within 20 days of the item's arrival in the state? Yeah, that's gonna happen.
Seriously, I've never heard of a single person filing such a form. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. The form seems more geared towards a business, not an individual, anyway.
I don't see this being used by anyone any time soon. It'd would be fairly difficult to enforce or monitor. I can certainly say that I'm honestly not going to be filling out one of these forms and sending in a paltry little sum every time a make a purchase online. In a lot of cases, it would probably cost more to process the check than it'd be worth. My last purchase would result in a $2.89 check. Does anyone seriously think anyone's going to want to waste the cost of postage on top of that? Insanity.
@debbsc67: The only time I saw this enforced was when IL audited a FL jeweler. The audit revealed a purchase my boss made and showed that there was no sales tax paid on the items. (It was a substantial purchase, so there was incentive for IL to chase after the money.) After that incident, it became my job to file the reports as needed. So I tracked large purchases and followed the IL 30 day rule, when necessary, and filed the reports, when these purchases were over $600. Granted, I only knew about the large purchases he made out of state (art, cars, jewelry), and never filed on the everyday online purchases he and his family made.
It will impact my Amazon purchases, as I live in Texas. It will increase the cost of Amazon products by 8.25%, which may make their items no longer competitive with items from other states. I wont automatically ditch Amazon, but i will factor the extra cost when buying. Now, if the costs are the same, I'll buy from Amazon and pay the tax, as I am (at least in theory) a beneficiary of the sales tax. However, if it's something I can get locally for a similar price, I'll support my local brick and mortar stores and buy it here if I have to pay tax anyway.


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Undergraduate students at the School of Education benefit from the community feel of a small school along with the resources of a large university. Our students are in the field in both urban and suburban schools as early as their first year at SED.
Talented graduate students from around the world prepare to become teachers, counselors, administrators, and more in as little as one year at the School of Education. Our students engage in diverse aspects of education both in the classroom and the field.


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Below is a blog of sorts documenting and sharing what PRISM index,
its artists, and inspirations are doing.
A Brief History of John BaldessariMay 17th, 2012
Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman created a wonderful short film about the life and work of artist John Baldessari. The film is narrated by Tom Waits and is told in the same playful, self-aware style of the artist himself. The filmmakers are coming off their great work with 2010′s Catfish and 2011′s Paranormal Activity 3. I can't wait to see their new project, which is supposedly The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Informative Beauty – The Art of AnatomyMay 14th, 2012
An introductory video to the power and purpose of illustrated science. The narrator gives a brief history of how art has been used over time to both educate and illuminate the public's understanding of their own bodies and grow to appreciate them. It's very beautifully animated and concludes with championing informative beauty, a valuable idea.
Claymation version of 'The Raid' with cats!May 14th, 2012
Maddie the CoonhoundMay 7th, 2012
A photography project by Theron Humphrey that he refers to as "a super serious project about dogs and physics."
Theron also does an incredible photo documentary project called This Wild Idea, where he travels the country interviewing and photographing a person a day for 1 year.


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Well the universe does certainly answer one's call! Since getting back to this project I got my first JASNA newsletter which had a blurb about the Chawton House Fellowship given to a member for a project/study at Chawton Library over the summer (doesn't have to be academic - woo hoo!), there's the Austen conference, and now the Evergreen House at Johns Hopkins is having a cavalcade of events related to 19th Century culture and arts, including a day of dancing, fencing, food, etc. this Saturday, the 26th.
But wait, there's more!
There's an exhibit:
Privileged Pursuits: Cultural Refinement in Early Baltimore
February 4, 2011–April 17, 2011
In the early 1800s, music, dance, literature, fine art, and civility were thought to be a part of a complete education. Homewood Museum's sixth annual student-curated focus show explores how young Baltimoreans were instructed in these and other cultural refinements This student-curated focus show explores how young Baltimoreans were introduced to these and other cultural refinements through parental instruction, printed materials, tutors, and specialized schools. Evidence has been drawn from Carroll family correspondence, rare books, and other period items. An accompanying display located on the main level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, adjacent to Homewood Museum, features objects from the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries.
Emergence of American Voices: Early 19th-Century Poetry: March 26, 5pm reception, 5:30pm reading / Presented by faculty and students of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars / $8, FREE for Members and JHU students.
And a festival!
Festival of Historic Arts: April 10, 12–3:30pm / Learn an old-fashioned skill or art as it may have been practiced in 1800s Baltimore / FREE with paid museum admission
There was also a painting class, but it was early Feb and I missed it.
The list of events and registration info here:
JHU Evergreen House - 19th Century Doings
What an awesome spring this will be! If you're local - check out these events.


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If $M$ is a smooth paracompact manifold, then what is the usual topology of $C^\infty_c(M) $, i.e., the smooth function with compact support?
Topologizing $C_c^\infty(M)\subseteq C^\infty(M)$ with the subspace topology (where $C^\infty(M)$ has the Whitney topology, generated by the seminorms $\left|\sup_K\frac\partial{\partial x^\alpha}f\right|$), makes it a dense subspace; in particular it is not itself complete. So I wouldn't really call this the "usual topology" on $C_c^\infty(M)$. (it would be sort of like saying the usual topology on $C(M)$ is given by the $L^2$ norm).
To me the usual topology is the inductive limit topology $C_c^\infty(M)=\lim_{K\subseteq M}C_c^\infty(K)$ (which Mariano calls the colimit topology). This topology is not metrizable when $M$ is noncompact (since it's not even first-countable), but is "nicer" in the sense that it gives a well-understood dual space, namely the space of distributions on $M$.
In comparison, the dual space of $C^\infty(M)$ with the Whitney topology is the space of compactly supported distributions on $M$.


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Need Help? Call 877.812.6235
Peach Trees
- Summary
Grow your own peaches and enjoy one of summer's ultimate pleasures: the sweet, delicate flavor a just-picked ripe peach. The juicy fruit is delicious fresh in salads, poached, baked into pies and cobblers, and preserved.
Contender: Provides a crop of big yellow fruit just when other peach trees are slowing down. The flesh of the peach is firm and resists browning, and the freestone pit removes easily. Tolerant of late-spring frost, Contender's a good choice in growing zones where other peaches falter. Fruits in mid-August.
Harvester: This luscious yellow freestone peach bursts with sweet-tart flavor. It's a reliable producer that thrives in a wide range of growing zones. Fruits in late July to early August.
June Gold: Kicks off peach season with large, firm, slightly red fruit that has creamy yellow flesh. This clingstone variety needs only 650 chill hours, making it an excellent choice for temperate growing zones. Fruits in late May to early June.
Red Haven: Firm freestone fruit with a good acid balance and almost no fuzz makes the Red Haven a popular choice for canning, baking, freezing and simply eating. It's a vigorous, fast-growing tree that bears fruit young. Fruits in late July to early August.
Rouston Red: An excellent producer that bears large, luscious freestone peaches early in the season, giving you a head start on summer canning. Fruits in early July.
- Contender and Red Haven: Zones 5–8.
- Harvester: Zones 5–9; June Gold: Zones 7–9; Rouston Red: Zones 7–8.
- Flowers in spring with blossoms ranging from pink to dark red.
- Grows 15'–20' high, 10'–15' wide.
- Suitable for ground planting.
- Requires full sun.
- For Yields approx. 3 bushels at maturity (3 to 4 years).
- Grown on a farm in Tennessee.
- Agricultural regulations prohibit shipment to AZ, CA, OR, WA, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
- Dimensions & More Info
- Trees are approx. 1 1/2 years old, 3' high at shipping.
- Arrives in a 1.65-gallon pot.
- Self-pollinator; does not require another fruit tree nearby to bear fruit.
- Use & Care
- Planting: Plant in full sun at a depth of 6"–8"; space 15' apart.
- Watering: Water the tree well as soon as you plant it, and then at least once a week for the first year after planting. A slow, root-saturating, one-hour trickle once a week is recommended for a new tree. The watering schedule should be adjusted accordingly if it rains or is very dry. Water twice weekly during dry spells.
- Shipping
- Agricultural regulations prohibit shipment to AZ, CA, OR, WA, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
Shipping Information
This item will be shipped directly from the manufacturer and is not eligible for rush shipping. Please allow up to one week for delivery.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
Return Policy
At Williams-Sonoma, we take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our products. Attention to design, materials, safety and construction are our priority. Upon receipt, please inspect your purchase and notify us of any damage; we will arrange for a prompt replacement.
If within 30 days, you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required for all returns and exchanges. Returns with a gift receipt will be refunded in the form of a Merchandise Credit for the amount indicated on the gift receipt. Returns with original receipt will be refunded in the original form of payment, cash and check refunds over $100 will be issued as a company check (may take 14 business days from time of request).
For all cutlery returns (knife sets, single knives, cutting boards, knife sharpeners, and knife storage) please contact us at 888.922.4108 to initiate the return.
We cannot accept returns on monogrammed, personalized, special-order items, custom upholstery, food, items shipped direct from the vendor, or on items damaged through normal wear and tear. Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
For returns of items purchased from your Williams-Sonoma Gift Registry, we will gladly provide a refund or exchange for the merchandise within 90 days of your event or within 90 days of purchase, whichever date is later. View Full Return Policy


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I own a student trombone, and I am looking to purchase a professional one with a trigger.
Does a trigger trombone produce the same sound as a non-triggered trombone of the same manufacturer?
All tenor and bass trombones are pitched the same. The difference between student instruments and professional ones is actually more in the bore size than whether or not the instrument has a trigger (which is typically called an "F attachment").
The F attachment's primary use is to extend the low range of the instrument, and enable technical facility in the middle-low range. For school band use, it typically only becomes necessary for literature played in a good high school band. It is required for modern solo literature and any 2nd or 3rd part orchestral playing. The extra tubing required by the F attachment adds to the weight of the instrument.
Bore size affects the dynamic range of the instrument, the amount of air necessary to play, and timbre in different registers. Smaller instruments aid the high register and are both lighter and require less air. Large bore instruments require a LOT more work, but are capable of a full low register and more volume.
Small- and medium-bore instruments typically accept a small-shank mouthpiece, and large-bore and bass trombones require a large shank mouthpiece.
A conservatory student will almost always require a large bore tenor trombone with F attachment. This instrument is also a good choice for an advanced high school student.


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I know that I personally work a lot better in the evening and at night rather than in the morning. However, I am curious whether it is just a matter of habit or some sort of natural predisposition. Therefore, I'd be curious to read about some research on whether there is such a thing as early bird/night owl productivity predisposition and whether these are caused by nature, nurture or developed individual habit.
There was a study in 2009 that showed that Early Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late. From the article:
Another article on the same research: Night Owls Are More Productive than Early Birds.
The original research published in Science was: Homeostatic Sleep Pressure and Responses to Sustained Attention in the Suprachiasmatic Area (requires creating a free login to read the full report).
This is what we call Chronotype, Clodoré et al. has also done research about alertness differences.
Further outlined in an abstract we find:
We can also look at circadian rhythm sleep disorders; if we look at Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome we see:
The Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome is less common, thus it's alertness hasn't been mentioned yet.
From http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=379301
As Tom points out, Chronotype is the key word here - Wikipedia has a slab of text on what the research says... examples include (choosing those that are not in other answers):
But as for the key point about if it's nature or nuture...


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What is the difference between "tits" and "boobs"?
P.S. I'm not sure if this question is appropriate but as English is not my native language I really would love to know the difference.
What is the difference between "tits" and "boobs"?
P.S. I'm not sure if this question is appropriate but as English is not my native language I really would love to know the difference.
(I was not aware of the verb form, but it follows from the first noun form)
Boob could also be used to refer to a person who is acting like a clown, or it could be used to refer to something that induces cluelessness. We have a nickname for television in the US (although it's going out of fashion) called the boob-tube. I assure you it's not because it shows porn.
(I was aware of titmouse but not a small bird called tit)
Tits is generally the word for mammary glands, being a corruption from teat. That's what @ghoppe was onto with his, where you emphasize the pointy bit of the end of the mammary gland. It's more evident on a dog or pig, where there are a line of teats (or tits). The fact that this usage has spread to also refer to women is likely from the fact that country/urban life has comingled more of late than of years past.
The usage to associate tits with boobs however, is purely sexist. In polite society you should mention neither, referring instead to the bosom that @Robusto mentions, or breast, but only when you must. Bosom indicates "that feeling of your grandmother wrapping her arms around you when you're scared" and breasts is generally seen as more clinical in nature.
Generally in polite society you would just avoid references to a woman's breasts, and let it go.
With men and men alone, tits is fine.
NOTE: I edited in response to a comment and decided I would give a little more attribution.
I think there is a slight difference in what you're emphasizing. They both refer to female breasts, but tits emphasizes the nipples (pointy bits) whereas boobs evokes an image of the round parts.
As others have said, both refer to a woman's breasts, but the main difference is actually in the connotation. While both are euphemisms, boobs is a slightly more socially acceptable term. Women, in my presence at least, use the term boobs; tits is more a term that men use and generally in a more lurid fashion.
They're both terms for female breasts. Women tend to refer to these as "boobs" and not "tits"; with men it can go either way, but a good part of the time they'll use "tits". Other (somewhat vulgar and borderline spring-break moronic) terms are knockers, twins, hooters, hoo-hahs, etc. Puritanical people sometimes call them bosoms, which is strange because bosom refers to the upper chest in general and few people have more than one of those.
By the way, to reference a woman's breasts by any term in her presence is coming on pretty strong, and in a business setting it can be tantamount to sexual harrassment.
Tit refers to either the breast or the nipple, is usually considered offensive, and refers to a stupid person in British English.
Boob can only refer to the breast, is not usually considered offensive, and refers to a stupid person in American English.
I'm sure it varies by region, but in most of the US, the words "tits" and its diminutive, "titties," are used when referring to smaller breasts (A or B cup) and "boobs" is used in reference to larger breasts (C and especially D cup or larger). As with most diminutives, the term "boobies" generally refers to smaller breasts.
While all four terms are used to describe human female breasts, there are variations used to describe other things:
I would just add that it is common, in the UK at least, for mothers to reply with "Mummy's boobs" or "Mummy's boobies" when asked the inevitable "What are those?" question by their offspring. I could not imagine a mother telling her child that they were "Mummy's tits"!
A small point, but one that perhaps illustrates the subtle social difference between the words.
I consider "tits" more offensive than "boobs". Also, I am against the notion that tits emphasises the nipples. That's misinformed IMO.
In the phrases "boob tube", "tit puller", "tit spanners", "get on someone's tits" and "tits on a billiard ball", the two words are not readily interchangeable. Otherwise, I think they are more or less synonymous.
My understanding has alway been that tits is British and boobs is American.
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Saturday 30th July 2016
Finch Hattons
Kampi Ya Simba
tel:- 00254 20/231/0335
web address:-
Finch Hattons :-
Hotel located in Nairobi
Wedding Trivia:RICE THROWINGRice has been used as a symbol of fertility and as a wish for a "full pantry" in various parts of the world from ancient to modern times. In the past, rice was not the only thing thrown at the bride and groom as the left the wedding. Wheat, instead of rice, was thrown in France, figs and dates were thrown in Northern Africa, and a combination of coins, dried fruit, and candy was thrown in Italy. In some European countries eggs are thrown!Rice is not harmful to the birds that eat it, but an article in California professing this to be the case, has caused birdseed to replace rice at most weddings. Flower petals, confetti, baubles, and balloons are often used today instead of rice.
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SWPP & BPPA, 6 Bath St, Rhyl, LL18 3EBTel 01745 356935International code (44)email@example.com © 2006-2012 SWPP. All rights reserved. - 16/07/2016 11:00:54


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I prefer to do my own regular oil changes, and only take my car to the mechanic/dealer for significant servicing milestones (e.g. 30/60/90k). Each time I change the oil, I can't help but feel that I've skipped checking something important. What is a good checklist to go through for routine oil changes?
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Staring with my own list:
Don't forget to change the oil drain plug gasket/washer. Particularly if it's a "crush washer". Even on the copper ones that you can re-use a couple of times, I just replace them every time. When I get oil filters for my cars, I also get a washer for each, and tape it to the filter box, so it's right there when I need it. I usually do this right where I buy them, they'll usually have tape they can give you a few strips of.
I also always coat the filter gasket with some oil to help it seal, though there's probably enough from the removal of the previous filter to make that not a big deal.
If the filter goes in open side up, I will fill the filter with oil so that on re-start it doesn't have to pump as long to get oil circulating. On older cars I've done a trick recommended by Pat Goss which is to ground the ignition coil input and crank the car for a bit to circulate oil, but I'm not sure how I'd even do that on my car that has 8 coil packs, one mounted to each spark plug. It's probably riskier to the electrical system than the engine wear it saves would be worth.
Some people recommend sending an oil sample in to a lab to have analyzed, every couple of years... I've never done that though.


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SAN ANTONIO (February 20, 2013) – Florida Panthers Executive VP/General Manager Dale Tallon announced today that the club has recalled goaltender Jacob Markstrom from the San Antonio Rampage (AHL). In conjunction, the Rampage have recalled from loan goaltender Brian Foster from the team's ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Markstrom, 23, owns a 16-15-2 record with three shutouts in 33 starts with the Rampage this season and a 2.65 goals against average and a 0.920 save percentage. The 6-foot-6, 195-pound goaltender has surrendered two or fewer goals in 11 of his last 16 starts and has posted an 8-4-0 record in his last 12 starts. Markstrom is currently fourth in the league in saves (994) and owns a 10-5-2 record in games where he makes at least 30 stops. The second-round draft pick (31st overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Panthers, has played in a combined eight NHL games for Florida in the last two seasons (2010-12). The Galve, Sweden native spent the majority of last season in San Antonio, where he had a 17-12-1 record and a 2.23 goals-against average in 32 appearances.
Foster, 26, has appeared in 31 games for the Cyclones and owns an 18-7-4 record. The 6-foot-2, 186-pound goaltender also sports a 0.908 save percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average. Foster was announced as the runner up for the ECHL's Goaltender of the Week Award on Monday after posting a perfect 3-0-0 record in three starts with a 1.34 goals-against average. In addition, Foster became the 11th goalie in league history to score a goal on Feb. 15 when he was credited with a goal against the Trenton Titans. Foster, who was drafted by the Panthers in the 5th round (161 overall) of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, played in 12 games for the Rampage last season, posting a 4-6-0 record.
The Silver & Black will kick off the final leg of the Rodeo Road Trip with a return to Peoria on Friday, Feb. 22. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m. from Carver Arena.
The Silver and Black will return to AT&T Center on Saturday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m. to host their annual Military Appreciation Night. Individual and season tickets can be purchased at the AT&T Center Southeast Box Office, by calling a Rampage representative at 210-444-5554 or online at sarampage.com


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The Graduate School invites applications from students whose breadth of academic experience and fitness for the specific field of study suggest the potential for scholarly achievement. We require online submission of the application.
In general, only applicants holding the BA or equivalent, with distinguished undergraduate records, are admitted. Faculty recommendations and the applicant's statement of purpose are carefully weighed. Research papers, publications, and other original works may also be considered by the admissions committees during their evaluations.
Persons holding a PhD or its equivalent, or who have completed most of the work required to earn the PhD elsewhere, may apply to a PhD program in the Graduate School only if it is an unrelated field of study. In view of the large number of excellent applicants for the limited number of places in the Graduate School, preference for admission and financial aid will be given to those who have not already had an opportunity to receive a doctoral degree here or elsewhere. As an alternative, such people may apply for Visiting Fellow Status.
Simultaneous enrollment in another degree program while a candidate for a degree in GSAS is not ordinarily permitted.
Students may receive the PhD degree from only one program in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Approximately 9 percent of the applicant pool is offered admission to enroll in an incoming class of about 640.
All programs require the General GRE test scores; some require the GRE Subject test scores (some programs allow the GMAT to substitute, see Program Details). Some programs require specific undergraduate courses, languages, or quantitative expertise.
Before filing your application, please be sure to read carefully the descriptions of the degree program(s) and requirements of the department(s) to which you seek admission.
We expect accuracy in all documents provided by applicants. If a candidate for admission makes inaccurate statements or submits false material in connection with the application, appropriate action will be taken. If a misrepresentation is discovered after a candidate is admitted, the offer of admission normally will be withdrawn.
Applicants are considered for admission to the fall term only. There are no spring or summer admissions.
Only the Dean of the Graduate School has the authority to make an offer of admission.
If you have decided that Harvard University offers the graduate education you are seeking, we hope you will apply. Be sure your statement of purpose outlines your goals for graduate study. This is very important to academic departments in deciding whether to recommend admission. If you need additional information beyond what is provided in the following pages, do not hesitate to contact the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid. We look forward to receiving your application.


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I tried to install Ubuntu 13.04 alongside Windows 8. I had shrunk the Windows partition
21 GBs, and did not format it. Then, I disabled fast boot and secure boot from the BIOS, and made the
UEFI: sandisk with the 13.04 copied with Universal USB installer, the first priority for boot.
When Ubuntu installer loaded, I chose
Install Ubuntu, and then chose
install alongside ubuntu.
When it restarted, GRUB showed up with no problem, but when I try to load Ubuntu, I get no GUI. I tried
startx, but it told me
no screens found.
When I try to boot into Windows 8, by choosing it from GRUB loader, It gives me the following errors:
error: can't find command "drivemap"
error: invalid efi filepath
But, when I go to the BIOS, the boot options have changed to include Ubuntu, and also the already existing
Windows Boot Manager. I choose
Windows Boot Manager again, which, upon restart, bypasses GRUB, and loads directly into Windows 8.
I am not sure whether these are two separate problems so I wrote them both in a single question.
The laptop I use is Samsung ATIV book 9, with 128 GB SSD.


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Given the $3\times3$ rotation matrices $A$ and $B$, find the rotation matrix $X$ that satisfies $$AX=XB.$$
Well, this is equivalent to $A = XBX^{-1}$, so it's only possible if $A$ and $B$ are equivalent. If they are, you can solve this by diagonalizing in $\mathbb{C}$ and finding both base changes $T$, $S$. Then: $A = T^{-1}DT = T^{-1}SBS^{-1}T$ if $B = S^{-1}DS$. And $X = T^{-1}S$.
Edit: This only gives a unitary $X$. Maybe this can be fixed.
If $A,B$ are 3x3 real matrices representing rotations ("3D rotation matrices"), the following are equivalent:
(1) $tr(A) = tr(B)$
(2) There exists real orthogonal $X$ such that $A = XBX^{-1}$.
(3) There exists rotation matrix $X$ such that $A = XBX^{-1}$.
Since rotation matrices are those orthogonal matrices with determinant 1, it's evident that (3) implies (2), and by replacing $X$ by $-X$ if necessary, also (2) implies (3).
Since similar matrices have equal traces, (2) implies (1). It remains only to show (1) implies (2), which we will do in a constructive fashion.
Setting aside the trivial case of zero rotation (identity matrix), every rotation in three dimensions is characterized by an axis of points fixed by the rotation and an angle by which points rotate around that axis. In the case of a special orthogonal linear transformation (rotation represented by a 3x3 matrix), the axis passes through the origin and may be identified by a unit vector $u$ that generates it. If we adopt a convention that positive angles of rotation are counterclockwise about the axis pointed in direction $u$, then changing the sign of the angle is equivalent to changing instead the vector $u$ into $-u$ (and keeping the same angle as before).
As the Wikipedia article points out, if rotation matrix $A$ has angle of rotation $\theta$ about an axis, then the trace of $A$ is $1 + 2 \cos \theta$. For example, by our convention the matrix which represents counterclockwise rotation by $\theta$ about the positive x-axis is:
$$R_x(\theta) = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \cos \theta & -\sin \theta \\ 0 & \sin \theta & \cos \theta \end{pmatrix} $$
and the trace is the sum of diagonal entries.
If $A$ is a rotation matrix with $tr(A) = 1 + 2 \cos \theta$, let $u$ be a unit vector that generates the axis of rotation, i.e. $Au = u$. Extend that to an orthonormal basis $\{u,v,w\}$ for $\mathbb{R}^3$, and obtain an orthogonal matrix $P$ using these basis vectors as columns. Then similar rotation matrix $P^{-1} A P$ is either $R_x(\theta)$ or $R_x(-\theta)$ in the notation above. If the latter, replace $w$ by $-w$, so that:
$$R_x(\theta) = P^{-1} A P$$
Do the same with rotation matrix $B$ also having $tr(B) = 1 + 2 \cos \theta$:
$$R_x(\theta) = Q^{-1} B Q$$
Now $X = P Q^{-1}$ satisfies (2), so proving that (1) implies (2) as desired.


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I saw a study a while ago where someone had tracked where people look onscreen for various types of help - I seem to remember that, for example, they looked to the right of the question for help on a form for instance, and at the bottom of the page for 'about us' type info? Can anyone remember/ help me out? I am trying to find a shorthand way to explain best practice, to help me steer a stakeholder away from wanting generic marketing spiel about 'how this site works' info front and centre when a customer is on task.
I woudl look at Nielson Norman group work see this site where they have a number of eyetracking reports, and they do quite a lot of the eyetracking work. I cannot find anything that directly relates to what you are after, but you might be able to find something that works for you.


text:
Your order must total $99.00 before tax and shipping. Free Shipping on Ground Deliveries only going to one delivery location in the continental U.S. only, additional locations are $8.95 each. May not be combined with other coupons or promotional offers. Coupon not valid on our selection of Tervis or Louisville Slugger products. Offer not valid on previous orders.
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An adorable mug with your special kids on it! Mug always reads "My heart belongs to" as shown and includes graphics as shown. You select the heads for up to 6 characters and we'll add bodies according to their age and sex. We position characters from left to right in the order you provide them to us. Microwave and dishwasher safe. Typestyle, positioning and format as shown. Quantity pricing available on order form if you need several of the same mugs!


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KILLEEN (January 19, 2013)--A one-car accident at the 1900 block of W. Stan Schlueter Loop killed a man early Saturday morning.
The accident happened at 12:59 a.m.
Killeen police identified the driver as 29 year-old Leonel Feliciano Fernandez.
Police say the driver of a silver Mitsubishi Eclipse had left the north side of the roadway and collided with a concrete drainage culvert which badly damaged the driver's side of the vehicle.
Fernandez was partially ejected from the Eclipse and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A passenger was found near the vehicle.
He was transported by ambulance to Scott & White Memorial Hospital and was later released.
Police are still investigating the crash.


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6 Music Industry Tricks That Must Die
If the music industry really wants to save itself, it could start by doing away with all the bullshit. What bullshit, you ask? Here are six underhanded tricks that we could live without, and that our kids probably will.
#6. Auto-Tune
Worst Offenders:
Kid Rock, Cher, Uncle Kracker, T-Pain
How it Caught On:
Frequently mistaken for a vocoder and more commonly known as "That Fucking Weird Computer Voice Thing," Auto-Tune is actually a brilliant piece of software. All you have to do is tell it which notes you're trying to hit while you're singing. When you fuck up, Auto-Tune makes the necessary adjustments so that you can pretend to be a good singer and a weird sounding robot at the same time. Obviously this has made it invaluable in the world of music.
Singers used to spend days trying to get their songs recorded perfectly, and studios charge by the hour. Some would record late at night when their vocal chords were more relaxed. Some (Rod Stewart) even gargled crew-members' love gravy to get that smooth, even tone (allegedly, but the kid who told us about it in high school also had the best weed, so it has to be true, right?). Auto-Tune has made it possible for performers to lower their recording budgets, get some rest, and sidestep such unfortunate homeopathic remedies.
Why it Must be Stopped:
Unfortunately, Auto-Tune has become the HGH of the recording industry. While we doubt that Kid Rock will be facing a grand jury for his blatant abuse of the software in the steaming turd of a song "Only God Knows Why," we can only hope that any future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees who've received such a heaping dose of simulated talent will get an asterisk next to their names. Also, we hope that in the future, an asterisk will resemble a middle finger.
"That Fucking Weird Computer Voice Thing" has made it possible for every paparazzi sweetheart, pop culture freak of the week to record an album and assail our eardrums.
For too long, consumers had been duped into thinking that fame had some sort of direct correlation to talent. Auto-Tune provided yet another step down the road towards the inevitable day when Soldja Boi wins the Grammy in rap, R&B, adult contemporary and operatic solo.
Auto-Tune will be around as long as talented musicians and teenage girls who make men want to masturbate continue refusing to be the same person (allow us a moment to shake our fist at evolution). But rest assured that the current trend of making one's voice sound obviously computerized will not last much longer. Our guess is that, in time, That Fucking Weird Computer Thing will sound as dated as Jeopardy's Daily Double laser sound effect.
#5. Rehab
Worst Offenders:
Scott Weiland, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse
How it Caught On:
In 2007, Paula Abdul appeared on a morning TV talk show, stoned out of her mind on what we imagine was a combination of oxycontin, absinthe, and Drano. This, of course, got people talking, videos YouTubed, and ratings boosted. In the music industry, there's no such thing as a drug scandal because we expect our musicians to be on drugs. We'd be a little disappointed if we found out they weren't. The downside is that publicists have figured out that checking your client into rehab is actually the cheapest way to drum up publicity, assuming the price of street drugs remains lower than whatever Nickelback's manager pays to get them into Rollingstone.
We are a nation of voyeurs, and there's nothing we like to watch more than celebrity sex tapes. But embarrassing celebrity drug freakouts come in a close second. And since sex tapes require that people actually want to watch you have sex (clearly not the case for two of our three worst offenders) chemical dependency is a much easier go-to. It should be noted that it's not as good an idea to combine drugs and sex tapes, as when a cracked out Tom Sizemore played power bottom to a hooker with an elephant trunk-sized slab of rubber strapped to her pelvis.
Why it Must be Stopped:
Repeat offenders have made going to rehab a joke. While regular-ass people rehabilitate in facilities that are just a step up from county jail, Britney Spears spends an extended weekend in Malibu, then Antigua, then Malibu again. These celebrities are giving real addicts a bad name. We'll start taking their problems seriously as soon as we see Scott Weiland barefoot, hauling ass down Sunset Boulevard, clutching a stolen DVD player.
On the other hand, being a regular person in rehab with a celebrity might not be so bad. If that celebrity is Lindsay Lohan, she'll probably have sex with you if you're a dude with a passably functioning penis. This is preferable to having sex with Lindsay Lohan in the bathroom at a club, because in rehab there will be medical help readily available when you come down with a mean case of Hepatitis F.
#4. Songs About How California is Phony
Worst Offenders:
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna, System of a Down
How it Caught On:
Those who faithfully follow rock stars do so because they feel a genuine, personal connection through the music. "Here is someone who's just like me," they think, "only better looking, rich and more prone to wearing black leather pants."
When you're a struggling musician, your life isn't that far off from other people: you're unsure of yourself, you're hung over, you get dumped for guys with better jobs (when you're a struggling musician, this includes the guy at the mall who paints himself silver and pretends to be a statue for two hours). Thus the rock star is able to write lyrics that almost anyone can relate to. Your girlfriend dumped you? There's a song for that. You're broke? There's a song for that too. You're married and you just realized that you're gay? R. Kelly wrote twenty-two songs for that.
However, it can become difficult for a performer to relate to his fans when he reaches a certain level of success. Those songs of struggle and heartbreak don't come as easily when the swedish bikini team is wiping your ass with hundred dollar bills in the back of a stretch Hummer limo.
That screaming horde of fans still loves their rock star, though. So much so that they'd trade anything to live his life. With that last remaining connection, the rock star pretends to be down to earth one last time with a song (or in the case of the Chili Peppers, three straight albums) about how California ain't all it's cracked up to be.
Why it Must be Stopped:
Ever since the overrated, pretentious, and ponderous "Hotel California," rock bands have tried to duplicate the Eagles' success. They'll sing ironic lyrics about the glamorous life and it's ugly underbelly, completely missing the irony that they've become exactly the sort of asshole their girlfriend used to leave them for. This is inevitable. It is simply very difficult to examine your own existence while spackling a hotel room with evidence for your future paternity suit.
Many of these songs are passed off as some sort of public service. If too many people are exposed to these contrived and cliched cautionary tales though, they may never have their dreams crushed by Hollywood, leading to the greatest restaurant-staffing crisis California has ever seen.
Vince Neil complained that Hollywood "fat cats" were going to "take our money and flush it down the drain" in Motley Crue's "Fake." Five years later he was singing a cover of "If I Die Tomorrow," through a face full of collagen implants. Fake, indeed.