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7 Famous 'Unsolved' Mysteries (Science Solved Years Ago)
We at Cracked aren't going to be satisfied until we've sucked every last mystery from the world like the final gurgling slurps of a milkshake. Thus, here are seven mysteries that have enthralled human imagination for decades -- if not centuries -- that were actually solved long ago. Hint: The solution never involves magic.
#7. The Shroud of Turin
The Mystery:
It's the ultimate religious artifact of our times, considering we still haven't found the Holy Grail yet. According to legend, Jesus was wrapped in a burial shroud after his crucifixion, and it retained the ghostly image of his face.
The shroud, mentioned only vaguely in the Bible, resurfaced in the possession of a knight in Lirey, France, in the year 1390 and made its way across churches in Europe. It eventually ended up in a chapel in Turin, Italy, after a fire damaged it in 1532. It remains there to this day and has since become known as the Shroud of Turin.
Wow, upping the contrast on a coffee stain can really work miracles.
It's considered one of the most holy relics in existence, and Pope Benedict XVI has declared it the authentic burial robe of Christ.
The Solution:
Unfortunately, it appears that the Church has been taken in by a 600-year-old hoax. In 1988, Oxford University in England, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and Tucson University in Arizona performed radiocarbon dating and found that the shroud was dated to around the 14th century -- the same time that it mysteriously appeared.
Be honest. You all wish those hands weren't there so we could see what the King of Kings is packing.
But even if the shroud is a medieval hoax, how was it created? According to Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pavia, it was pretty simple. Using a linen sheet laid over a volunteer and an acidic pigment (tactics and materials available to a 14th century forger), then artificially aging the cloth to make it appear a couple hundred years old, he and his students created a pretty damn impressive replica of the shroud in 2009.
If the messiah was Hulk Hogan.
That very same year, an authentic tomb from the actual time of Jesus was unearthed in Jerusalem, and archaeologists found a dead aristocrat wrapped in a shroud made from far less advanced a textile than the Shroud of Turin, which seems to use weaving techniques not found in the time of Jesus. So we'd have to believe that a really rich dude was somehow unable to afford the same super-shroud as a local carpenter who died a penniless criminal.
Oh yeah, and then there's the accusation that Church authorities in the 1300s knew the shroud was a hoax and actually had a confession from the unnamed artist who faked it.
"Also, keep spreading the word that Jesus was a white guy."
#6. Auras
The Mystery:
The one thing that connects every new-age guru from numerologists to palm readers is that they all think that auras are a thing. And why not? We have photographs of them.
Trippy photographs.
Generally speaking, auras are, you know, the manifestation of universal energy that, like, surrounds us all, man. And for a fee, professional aura readers who butcher the Papyrus font can take a look at your aura and tell you exactly what your spiritual malaise is based upon their handy color chart.
"I see sadness, and also that you need to replace your camera lens."
Those aura photographs can be taken with a kind of device that runs a current through your body. Not strong enough to kill you usually, just enough to bring out that spiritual energy. And for years, scientists didn't know what the hell it was. Maybe it was magic.
The Solution:
Turns out it's regular, old-fashioned sweat.
The electrical photographic method actually just brings out the outline of whatever it's observing in a beautiful neon glow. In the case of human beings, it also captures the cloud of sweat floating around the filthy, filthy hippie in question. The effect is much more dramatic if the subject is keen and nervous about, well, having an electric current shot through his body.
"Huh. Looks like you're feeling very apple today."
But there are some other explanations for why auras have featured prominently in iconography even before this neat camera trick. Visions of auras can be caused by defects in your own eye, brought to you by medical conditions such as migraines, epilepsy and eye burns. This is something even aura believers admit.
It also works if you rub your eyes really hard for about four minutes.
Still, there's something to be taken home from all this -- if you're into that sort of thing, you now have a way to know exactly what color your sweat is.
#5. The Ghost Ship Flying Dutchman
The Mystery:
The legend of the Flying Dutchman dates back to the 17th century. It's about a ghost ship that sails the deep ocean, full of lost souls who can never make port. According to the story, the Flying Dutchman sank in a terrible storm, and since that day it has drifted aimlessly (because apparently when ships are killed they also become ghosts). If you see the Flying Dutchman, it's a sign that a terrible storm is coming to make ghosts of you and your ship, too.
As implied by the name, it actually flies. That's how you know it's a ghost ship and not just some regular ship you've mistaken for one -- it's the one that's hovering above the water. No non-ghost boat can do that.
"Phew! It's just a regular rotting ship haunted by the anguished souls of the dead."
The Solution:
Sailors who report seeing the Flying Dutchman have kept this legend alive for centuries because, come on, it's a flying boat that predicts storms. How many of them can possibly be out there?
Turns out this all makes perfect sense. No, seriously. They're just falling victim to an optical illusion called fata morgana. It's a form of mirage that plays with light and moisture in a way that can and often will cause faraway ships to appear as all sorts of terrifying apparitions that float well above sea level. The Flying Dutchman is heavily associated with the areas that have conditions ideal for fata morgana mirages, such as the North Sea (the phenomenon is most likely to occur in colder water temperatures).
Apparently, 17th century sailors aren't the best way to objectively assess nautical phenomena.
But what about the storms? How many optical illusions do you know that can control the weather? Actually, it's the other way around. Guess what kind of atmospheric conditions are perfect for creating the fata morgana mirage? If you guessed "the ones right before a storm hits," you win 12 Cracked points.
Cracked points are redeemable only for shotgun shells and expired peanut butter.
#4. Human Magnetism
The Mystery:
Yes, we said "human magnetism." As in, there are people out there whose job description is "sticking metal objects to themselves." These are regular people like Aurel Raileanu and Brenda Allison, who display the uncanny ability to draw metal objects like a particular X-Men villain you may have heard of.
The Sun
Yup, Ironman.
Seriously. They have entire tournaments in which these real-world Magnetos compete to find out who is truly the master stick-shit-to-himselfer. The current champion managed to lift, get this, a 92-pound slab of stone with his skin. This is particularly impressive when you consider that stone isn't noted for its magnetic properties.
Waaaaait, we can't see what his penis is doing here.
The Solution:
Skeptics such as James Randi have found that human magnetism is simply caused by a skin condition called not fucking bathing.
One of these years, Burning Man is going to suck a goddamn jet out of the air.
The stickiness of a suitably greasy skin and a certain amount of practice enables these people to use their skin for suction in a manner not unlike that of octopus tentacles, which also explains why they are able to attach technically non-magnetic objects to themselves.
Randi actually proved this theory on the field by rubbing talcum powder on human magnets, who instantly, magically lost their powers like it was Kryptonite.
It cost literally dollars to replace that TV.


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added some equations to ecolib dox
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[Issue #99] Begin support of x86_64-w64-mingw-g++.
[Issue #101] mingw.mak builds contrib libraries by default.
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user contribute library from weihai, some useful functions for doing simulation in admb and overloaded functions of negative log likelihood for some distributions
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Add place for user contributed files.


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Breaking Bad: Death closes in on Walter White
The Breaking Bad commentary has reached a fever pitch, with everyone weighing in with their predictions and last-chance-for-relevance think-pieces before Sunday night's series finale. The Twitter account Pour Me Coffee imagined the president offering his own take (instead of the expected remarks on Iran):
"My fellow Americans, Walt has no obvious beef with Lydia. I don't think the ricin is for her. Gretchen has always been a problem..."
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) September 27, 2013
And Emily Nussbaum -- whose Twitter feed is a great source for worthwhile Breaking Bad commentary -- wrote this week,
Some days it feels like we're all taking an ambitious graduate school course in Breaking Bad together, with a ton of required reading.
— emilynussbaum (@emilynussbaum) September 24, 2013
Television this good is actually pretty exhausting. And so it's with some relief, as well as the familiar sense of dread, that I approach the final session of this not-for-credit course.
But I'm here to offer one more bit of recommended reading before we start our post-mortem on Monday. "The Dark Art of Breaking Bad," by David Segal, from the New York Times Magazine, is actually a few years old, but I missed it at the time (I may not even have been watching the show yet, which would put me in good company; plenty of johnny-come-latelys on this bandwagon). Reading it now sheds a lot of light on what the show has been doing (according to its creator, Vince Gilligan) with the themes of evil and its rewards and punishment, and where it is all likely to end up tomorrow night.
It also offers a good answer to anyone who has been wondering why this show is worth all the fuss:
What sets the show apart from its small-screen peers is a subtle metaphysical layer all its own. As Walter inches toward damnation, Gilligan and his writers have posed some large questions about good and evil, questions with implications for every kind of malefactor you can imagine, from Ponzi schemers to terrorists. Questions like: Do we live in a world where terrible people go unpunished for their misdeeds? Or do the wicked ultimately suffer for their sins?
Gilligan has the nerve to provide his own hopeful answer. "Breaking Bad" takes place in a universe where nobody gets away with anything and karma is the great uncredited player in the cast.
Lots more talk of religion and "cosmic justice" in that piece -- all of which makes me very doubtful that Walt is going to find an eleventh-hour redemption. Every time he crossed another line -- breaking the law, committing murder, committing more murder -- Walt would tell himself, and Jesse, and Skyler, and anyone else who had qualms, that the past can't be changed and the only thing they could do was go on with their lives and try to learn from their mistake. He was right, of course, that what was done could not be undone, and his logical approach was seductive enough to bring everyone, including the audience, along with him for a while. But he was lying to himself about what wrongdoing requires of a moral human being. Redemption, certainly in the Catholic view, requires owning up to the wrong that you have done, even if its practical effects cannot be undone. Walt's refusing to look squarely at the evil he had done and take responsibility for it meant refusing to turn away from sin and committing, instead, to continue on his wayward path. I'm not sure a single episode, even a 75-minute one, is long enough for Walter to make a good confession now. And we haven't had any signs that he's likely to try. It's clear to me from this article that Gilligan has been preparing Walt, all along, to reap the whirlwind:
"If there's a larger lesson to 'Breaking Bad,' it's that actions have consequences," Gilligan said during lunch one day in his trailer. "If religion is a reaction of man, and nothing more, it seems to me that it represents a human desire for wrongdoers to be punished."
Things look grim for Jesse, too, because he is also on the hook for a lengthy list of bad deeds. Unlike Walt, Jesse has been tormented with guilt over his many sins, but he has stopped short of actually atoning for them. He wants to give money to Drew Sharp's family to make up for their loss, but he doesn't want to come clean and tell them what happened to their son. He wants to relieve himself of guilt without taking responsibility.
According to Gilligan's mother, who's quoted in this article, the Breaking Bad creator was "an acolyte in the Catholic Church." He now identifies as an agnostic, though he rejects the Woody Allen school of atheistic auteurism. "I find atheism just as hard to get my head around as I find fundamental Christianity," Gilligan says. "Because if there is no such thing as cosmic justice, what is the point of being good?" Segal notes, astutely, that Breaking Bad seems to have brought back an old-fashioned approach to morality in art: "There is a long history in art of foisting suffering on characters who sin, but it seems to have fallen out of favor." See, for example, The Sopranos. Will bringing back that sin-leads-to-suffering vision be Breaking Bad's legacy?
Religion as such has played no role in Breaking Bad that I can think of, save for Tuco's murderous cousins and their devotion to Santa Muerte. We never saw the main characters in church or heard any sermonizing, ineffective, ironic or otherwise. (Contrast with the intriguing but usually off-key splashes of Catholicism in antihero dramas like The Sopranos and Mad Men.) The moral vision that grounds the show never announced itself that way. But Season 3 opened with an arresting, baffling image of "the Cousins" joining a host of other supplicants crawling on their bellies toward a Santa Muerte shrine in Mexico. At the time it was a flourish that introduced a new set of "bad guys" who, because they were targeting Heisenberg, seemed to confirm Walt's "good guy" status. But over the course of the series it has become clear that Walt, while less colorful than the most sinister members of the drug cartel, is no less a villain. The image of Heisenberg that the cousins brought to that shrine was itself a crude death's head. Walt has been making his own trail in the dirt all along. It turns out we've been watching our hero, and everyone else he dragged along with him, crawling serpent-like toward death.
About the Author
Mollie Wilson O'Reilly is an editor at large and columnist at Commonweal.
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I was commenting to someone else just the other day about the absence of any overt religion in Breaking Bad. I actually find it a relief, compared to the usually slightly off-key presentation of religion in most media (they always get something just a little bit wrong, like having priests wear purple vestments at a wedding). Somehow, I find it makes the show that much more interesting, theologically. It offers a vision of the world in which there is no forgiveness or redemption, but only relentless retribution. It's not pretty, but it makes the Christian vision of things stand out all the more clearly by way of contrast.
As much as I loved The Wire (hometown loyalty and all that), Breaking Bad goes a step beyond.
Fritz - That's just how I feel about it. It's so distracting when they get it wrong that I'd rather they didn't try. The wrong notes in The Sopranos' use of religion were always so frustrating (I just finished watching that recently, so it's fresh in my mind).
I just remembered Jesse's stint in rehab and recovery as another part of the plot that had an element of religion to it, although I can't remember whether they ever discussed the "higher power" aspect of the twelve steps directly. The whole process of accountability gave Jesse trouble; he couldn't stick with the program without the willingness to take a moral inventory of his life and make amends for what he'd done. You can't lie your way through recovery. (That lesson was dramatized on The Sopranos too, come to think of it.)
The other theological note was sounded in the episode (in the first season, I think) when Walt and Gretchen are analyzing the chemical makeup of the human body and when they add it all up they still don't have 100%. Gretchen suggests that maybe the soul is the missing ingredient, and Walter scoffs.
It seems obvious that the Greymatter subplot is going to be important in the finale. I just rewatched a clip of the "I am the danger" scene and was struck by how Walter compares himself, not to some mafia crime boss or master criminal, but to the head of a major corporation. His getting cut out of Greymatter seems to be a defining moment in his life.
I think the popularity of the show was touched on by Segal. It is middle American. The heroes are regular people who live regular lives. We can identify with Walter White because he is not, in fact, a criminal. He uses his talents to support criminal enterprises but he is not really criminally minded in say the way that Todd's uncle and his gang are. He stumbles into this world and at bottom, by temperment and training he is a scientist and a good one. There is an interesting scene where Gale (one of my faves) makes the libertarian arguement in favour of cooking meth and reconciling what they do with crime.
But Walt has a tragic flaw; greed and revenge. It is pointed out again and again by Mike. Even Mike tell Walt that just because he shot Jesse James (aka Gus) don't make him Jesse James. And in a scene he is so frustrated and says that he never had to convince someone so hard to take 5 million dollars. Jesse tells him the same thing.
I wonder about the whole Grey Matter thing. It could work one way or the other. Walt/Heisenberg is going after someone to get his empire back. Below is the famous scene where Walt talks about Grey Matter and explains why he is in neither the meth business or money business; he is in the EMPIRE business.
George D. ==
Walt's a murderer many times over but he's not a criminal??????? He might not be a psychopath, but he is most certainly a criminal, and a ruthless, calculating one at that.
I don't watch Breaking Bad, but I stay aware of what the show is about, which is a festering rectal cavity named Walt who got rich making and distributing one of the most addictive, and thus humanly destructive, drugs ever to emerge from the very pits of Hell. The only good thing that could ever happen to this demon woud be that someone puts a round into his skull and buries him in salted unhallowed earth.
Just for fun, a final prediction. Walt settles scores with the Nazis, frees Jesse. He moves on to Gretchen & Elliott, exposes them to the (nigh untraceable) ricin before being taken into custody. The Schwartzes die. Later, as Walt lays dying in a prison ward, word reaches him that the childless Schwartzes never changed their wills after his crimes were exposed, have left billions of dollars to Walt. Junior and Holly will be okay, we suppose. But a Treasure of the Sierra Madre blows like dust from Walt's unworthy grasp. Cough, cough. The End.
Haven't watched. Know nothing. Nonetheless, I found Ross Douthat's column illuminating. The Walt World is a world without either a Judaeo-Christian or Enlightenment ethic. Sounds like the basic business ethic at play in the U.S. Is the apt comparison here Walt and Jaime Diamond? Different crimes perhaps, same mentality perhaps. Douthat in Sunday's Times, 9/29/13.
I enjoy the way and the words of much of Douthat's writing. I believe he is largely dead on in describing much of Breaking Bad. With one significant exception. My understanding of the way he uses Darwinism as an explanation if not excuse for viewing much of the horror as predicatably human. There is as much useful truth in that all too common suggestion as there is in stating Catholicism can be defined primarily by the crusades or the visions of the sheperd children at Fatima.
Hmm. And what sort of ethic is it if it's neither Christian nor Enlightenment? Nietzschean? Will-to-power, ubermensch is beyond good and evil, with a Romanticized view of hero?
Good column by Douthat but I thought that the first commenter, Gary Smashedmycarup (don't you just love these internet handles!), on the story had it bang on!
The reason people pull for Walt is simple: underdog syndrome. DUH. He was the underdog in life (a marginalized nerd with cancer who missed out on an illustrious career with Gray Matter), and was an underdog in the underworld (an average Joe who through trial and error and good old fashioned hard work left his blue collar behind and joined the white collar ranks). He was also an underdog against the massive DEA and it's John Wayne macho agents. This is a classic underdog story and the writers have drawn sympathy for the devil through countless subtleties and nuances that build up in the audiences minds and make them root for the team the writers want them to root for. Your use of the word TEAM is very apropos. Think about it. How did the concept of a TEAM ever arise in this series? Gilligan created them. Team Walt represents the people. Team everything else represents the establishment. This is a story of the common man versus the bad guys, the backstabbers, the liars, the colossal government, the annoying extended family, terminal disease, unreliable cars, slick vulture lawyers, unethical business partners (Gray Matter), etc etc etc etc etc. Think about it. It's been Walt against the WORLD. Of course people would root for Walt ! Gilligan gave us no other alternative ! Even the writer of this column has been tricked . Gilligan has masterfully manipulated the majority , except for a tiny few of us who are smarter than him. The 1%.
In the midst of all this high minded analysis, let's remember it is entertainment and just a show! So reading toooo much commentary into people's sympathy might be unwise.
Anne O: Here is Douthat's analysis of Walt's ethics, or maybe the fans who love him.
"The allure for Team Walt is not ultimately the pull of nihilism, or the harmless thrill of rooting for a supervillain. It's the pull of an alternative moral code, neither liberal nor Judeo-Christian, with an internal logic all its own. As James Bowman wrote in The New Atlantis, embracing Walt doesn't requiring embracing "individual savagery" and a world without moral rules. It just requires a return to "old rules" — to "the tribal, family-oriented society and the honor culture that actually did precede the Enlightenment's commitment to universal values."
I've been teaching a survey of Marxism this semester, and Johnathan Sperber's new biography of Marx has made an interesting foil that I hadn't planned on originally when I prepped the course. One of Sperber's claims--indeed, perhaps his essential claim--is that our tendency has been to treat Marx as a contemporary for more than a century. Marx, as we usually read him, is seen as responding to the problems of our contemporary world. But Sperber challenges us to suppose that might not be true any longer. More directly, I think his message may be--'The Enlightenment has been ending for a while, and now it is over.'
I bring this up because events in Syria were unfolding as the semester began, as events in Egypt have unfolded throughout the summer. The typical response of many Americans when we are confronted with some far-off revolution has been to ask who are the good guys we should be supporting. There must be someone who wants a sort of Enlightenment kind of mixture of democratic procedures with tolerance and personal liberty, says this hopeful persective. Certainly, that's the John McCain-Lindsey Graham refrain. But a lot of Wilsonians on the Left tend to feel that way, too. It all made me think that Sperber may be on to something, as Douthat is on to something. A friend of mine recently quoted Einstein: "Nationalism is an infantile disease... It is the measles of mankind." My immediate reaction was, 'That's a 20th century sentiment. In this century, it's tribalism.' The Enlightenment paradigm doesn't apply any longer.
All to say, I think BB is more than worth our analysis here. Simply because there are trashy paperbacks doesn't mean books can't be literary and, similarly, the fact that television is a vast wasteland doesn't mean that we ought to reduce it all to mere entertainment. Walt does resonate with something primitive in us, and the grip the show has on us today may testify to how we are struggling with that primitive instinct across multiple layers of the global arena. The NYTimes profile Mollie originally linked tells us that Vince Gilligan wants to set this tale in a context of morality, something recognizably Judeo-Christian or liberal. But also, I think more applicably, Greek. What Gilligan really describes himself as wanting is dike'--retributive justice, balance. Of course, the Greeks faced this struggle with a primitive instinct, too. We give the Athenians a lot of credit for the philosophers and the dramatists. But Thucydides recorded a perhaps more accurate picture of the Athenian character in the Melian dialogue. Then as now, it seems that the primitive instinct for tribe that privileges loyalty and might over right struggled against a more universal (or, ideal) conception of justice. The tragedians of the ancient world played out that struggle, as the tv shows play it out today. Our response to the entertainment tells us much about who we are and who we will be.
Steven --
But isn't nationalism a kind of tribalism, or at least it's an ism that can work effectively witih it? See Nazi Germany. Sort of tribalism in white gloves.
(I may not even have been watching the show yet, which would put me in good company; plenty of johnny-come-latelys on this bandwagon)
I never had any notion of watching the show until Mollie started blogging about it. And my take was, Sheesh, it's almost over. I'm basically taking the position that I've missed this particular bus.
Sorry, no wish to rain on the parade here. I'll dissolve back into the woodwork. Just wanted to comment on the phenomenon of not latching onto some cultural thing until it's nearly gone.
@Jim. Netflix!!
@Ann--My full reply is too much for a space like this, but of course you're right. Nationalism is a kind of tribalism. But, in the sense that came out of Westphalia and gave rise to the nation-state of the modern world, nationalism carries a significant connotation: the rule of law. Nations enjoy sovereignty within their territorial boundaries, and that sovereignty is the authority to make and enforce law which, usually, we conceive in the sense of a constitutional state. There are exceptions, of course. You mention the Nazis--though while their laws weren't just, they were a constitutional state. The point is--yes, there are many complicating factors but, generally, we think of the nation-state in the sense of modern states like the U.S. and as we find them in Western Europe, etc. Being a nation-state generally corresponds to some recognition of universal or ideal justice. No one is judge in her or his own case, etc., as the modern theorists described it. Nations do succumb to tribalism, and that is nationalism. The primitive instinct still lurks within the modern nation-state, but at least our world of Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian morality also recognizes a higher authority to which the best nations correspond in their constitutional arrangements.
My chief worry of the last few decades, since the end of the Soviet Union, has been the erosion of the Westphalian state. It's not only re-emerging tribal and religious loyalties after the end of the bi-lateral Cold War. Though it is that. Those re-emerging cultural conflicts meant that many fictional states (Afghanistan, Iraq) have failed, states whose boundaries and institutions didn't correspond to the people who lived there. But it's also the way that multinational corporations can shop for jurisdiction and effectively opt out of the rule of law because of their wealth. It's also the emergence of powerful non-state actors. Indeed, to some extent it even is the Tea Party phenomenon and its anarchic rejection of constitutional order (a law can be validly passed, adjudicated by the Supreme Court, and win a national referendum...and, still, it is so illegitimate that we shut down the nation-state).
So the point is not to say that nationalism and tribalism are wholly distinct. But I do distinguish them. And, it seems to me that nationalism is the lesser of these two evils.
Steven - right, Netflix has been very useful in catching up on Warehouse 13, another one that apparently is nearly gone. I'll add Breaking Bad to my list of Things That Have Come and Gone Already That I'll Get Around To Eventually.
" Being a nation-state generally corresponds to some recognition of universal or ideal justice."
Steven --
I think we're in basic agreement, except when it comes to the *universality* of justice in nation states. The universality stops at the borders of certain theocratic states, and, in some cases, even within those states there are sometimes different standards of justice *by law*.. For instance, in some Muslim states Christians had to pay added taxes, and now in some Muslim states Christians are being killed for being Christian. We need a new name for such states.


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An unshaven, skinnier, cuckolded Robert Pattinson appeared on The Daily Show Monday night to give his first interview since Kristin Stewart ground up on another man's privates in a park.
In case you missed it, we live-blogged the event and scrutinized Rob's every move. Here are some things we gathered about Robert Pattinson's condition:
- He's sad.
- Maybe he's not that sad.
- He's wearing the color blue because he's sad.
- He's lost weight.
- Red eyes from crying.
- He's cracking jokes, presumably to shield himself from the pain.
- He had the "clear-eyed super-lucid earnest thing" going. Pretending he's not a mess.
- Jon Stewart makes for a pretty okay post break-up pal.
And thus, the show ended. Robert Pattinson went back to his solitary hotel room— in, which city are we in again?— to whittle away the hours on Chatroulette, until the sun comes up and the whole charade begins again.


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In its official strategic plan, Florida's Board of Education projected its goals for the next few years. The document set targets for the percentages of students the board hopes will be at grade level in the near future. But then it further breaks down those targets. By race.
Continue reading "Florida Approves Setting Different Academic Goals for Different Races"


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La Quinta Inn Atlanta Duluth
Duluth, GA 30096
The La Quinta Inn Atlanta Duluth is a 100% non-smoking hotel conveniently located on I-85 north of Atlanta. The hotel is located on the corner of Satellite Boulevard and Duluth Highway (State Road 120) just one mile south from the Gwinnett Center & Arena and a half mile west of the Discover Mills Mall.
All rooms feature free wireless high-speed internet access, 32 inch flat screen TVs, pillow top mattress, massage shower head, microwaves, refrigerators, coffee maker, iron with ironing board, and hair dryer.
We offer a Free Bright Side Breakfast every morning which includes; bacon, eggs, sausage, waffles, fresh fruit, hot & cold cereals, cheese & fruit Danishes, blueberry, banana nut & strawberry shortcake muffins, coffee, and juices
Info & Amenities
Hours of Operation
Sunday: 6:00AM
Monday: 6:00AM
Tuesday: 6:00AM
Wednesday: 6:00AM
Thursday: 6:00AM
Friday: 6:00AM
Saturday: 6:00AM
Average Nightly Rate
Call for Rates
Facility Amenities
Complimentary Breakfast, Free Parking, Parking on Site
General Information
Internet Connectivity
High-Speed In-Room
Room Amenities
Hair Dryer, Iron/Ironing Board


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Pharmacist Ben Fuchs fills in for Dr. Wallach. Ben starts the show discussing the importance of folic acid in the diet. Not only to prevent birth defects but to aid in other mechanisms within the human body. Also discussing the effects of high blood levels of homocysteine and an increased risk of atherosclerosis.
Pearls of Wisdom
Doug Winfrey and Ben Fuchs discuss a recent GAO (Government Accounting Office) report that states 51% of all FDA approved drugs later require label changes for side effects. Of that percentage 3 to 4 percent are eventually pulled off the market.
- Sheri has a friend who has been diagnosed with gastroparesis.
- Jesse has tachycardia and atrial fibrulation.
- Roland has suffered with severe migraines for years.
- Carol has type II diabetes and is looking for an electrolyte replacement without sugars.


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Don't litter our city with illegal signs
Bartow Police Chief Joseph Hall
Typically in this article, I talk about crime related themes, or crime prevention. Believe it or not, there IS a method to my madness. This week, however, I want to touch on something that is becoming more of a nuisance — and it IS illegal, placing signs on the rights-of-way or on poles.
The City of Bartow's code enforcement officers handle complaints from the public about this type of crime. Yes, speaking specifically, it could be a crime under our ordinances. If these signs are placed on utility poles, city signs, streets or rights-of-way, not only is it in violation of the City of Bartow's land development restrictions, it is considered as littering. There are limitations on when and where signs can be placed in the City of Bartow.
Section 4.05.00(E)(N)(0) of the Land Development Code regulates the signs and their uses that our city commission has agreed upon. Limitations are very important to prevent the streets from creating litter that must be cleaned up by the City. This equates to cost for those of us who pay taxes in the city. So please, in the future, if you are intending on placing signage, don't put it on the right-of-way, a street, pole, or sign. You could find yourself talking to a police officer about the violation. If you have concerns or questions, do not hesitate to contact our Code Enforcement Office at 863-534-0100, or the Bartow Police Department at 863-534-5034.


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News Release (Back to Menu)
New Jersey Chosen for National Effort to Improve Legal Defense for Indigent Youth
Office of the Public Defender, Rutgers Law Schools receive MacArthur Foundation grant to lead initiative to reform juvenile justice in New Jersey
New Jersey has been selected to participate in the Models for Change Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN), an initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation created to pursue reforms that strengthen and enhance juvenile indigent defense systems. The state will receive $100,000 this year with additional funding available for successive years, and joins California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington to form the eight-state network. The grant will allow the team of the Offices of the Public Defender along with Rutgers School of Law in Newark and Rutgers School of Law in Camden to collaborate with juvenile justice stakeholders in New Jersey to examine and to develop models for representation of indigent juveniles at all stages of juvenile justice proceedings. Models for Change is MacArthur's $120 million national initiative to reform juvenile justice across the country.
"The lack of adequate representation for indigent youth was identified as a key barrier to developing fair and effective juvenile justice systems," said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton. "This new Action Network will help accelerate the pace of change by ensuring that juveniles receive the legal protections to which they are constitutionally entitled. With innovative leadership in the four states selected, the Network will help reshape juvenile justice systems across the United States to increase the likelihood of a young person's success, while making communities safer and stronger."
"New Jersey is one of a small number of states with a statewide public defender system," said New Jersey Public Defender Yvonne Smith Segars. "In juvenile delinquency cases, staff attorneys represent children from the point of assignment through disposition and the appeal process. Children are particularly vulnerable and this grant provides New Jersey with the opportunity to examine and develop creative models to build the capacity to enter cases earlier and to ensure that dispositional orders of the court are fulfilled thereby furthering the rehabilitative goals of the delinquency system."
According to Sandra Simkins, director of the Rutgers School of Law–Camden Children's Justice Clinic, current systemic service gaps in the New Jersey justice system create barriers to treating, rehabilitating and caring for children and promoting community safety most effectively. "In New Jersey, public defender representation for juveniles is not provided uniformly at the initial detention hearing to determine whether a child remains in custody or returns home, and at the post-dispositional stage where the child's rehabilitative services are implemented, monitored and enforced," says Simkins. "Moreover, despite the fact that 57% of the children in Juvenile Justice Commission facilities are eligible for special education services, there is no mechanism in place to help them receive the education that they need to succeed when they complete their court processes."
"Never before has a major state university with a geographic presence in all regions of a state, as Rutgers has in New Jersey, committed to working with a statewide juvenile defense system to expand its client-serving capacity," says Laura Cohen, a clinical professor in the Urban Legal Clinic at Rutgers–Newark law school. "Here, we have the unique opportunity for two nationally recognized law schools, located in ideal target counties with the highest percentages of children in the juvenile justice system, to devote their resources to achieve this goal. "In addition," says Cohen, "participation in the Network will enhance the symbiosis of the clinics and the defenders. Law students will enjoy unparalleled opportunities to work toward systemic change, while the OPD will expand the legal representation accorded the children it serves."
The eight-state Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network will be coordinated through the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC). The network will actively engage juvenile defenders, policymakers, judges and other key stakeholders in designing strategies to improve juvenile indigent defense policy and practice. The JIDAN work will progress through a series of strategic innovation groups know as SIGS. The Network has selected Access to Counsel and the role of Juvenile Defense Resource Centers in building capacity for juvenile defenders as initial areas of focus.
About the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, the Foundation works to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society. For more information please visit www.macfound.org.
About Models for Change
The Models for Change initiative is an effort to create successful and replicable models of juvenile justice system reform through targeted investments in key states. With long-term funding and support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Models for Change seeks to accelerate progress toward a more rational, fair, effective, and developmentally appropriate juvenile justice system. Models for Change now has three ongoing Action Networks (Mental Health, Disproportionate Minority Contact and now Juvenile Indigent Defense) consisting of twelve states that join the existing core states for a total of 16 states. www.modelsforchange.net
About the National Juvenile Defender Center
The National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) is a non-partisan, mission-driven organization created to respond to the critical need to build the capacity of the juvenile defense bar and to improve access to counsel and quality of representation for children in the justice system. NJDC offers a wide range of integrated services to juvenile defenders, including training, technical assistance, advocacy, networking, collaboration, capacity building and coordination. NJDC works to ensure excellence in juvenile defense by promoting justice for all children.


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Everyone else was going to do it....
There are, no doubt, mixed views among us about the wikileaks of U.S. diplomatic correspondence. I'd be interested in hearing the pros and cons. A quick look at what the NYTimes has posted seems to confirm much that rattles around in the papers anyway. The one new thing I learned was that "apparently" North Korea has supplied Iran with medium-range missiles.While waiting to hear the pros and cons, I chuckle over the Times toing and froing about why and how they published what they published--by no means all of the material.Here is their justificatory paragraph: "Of course, most of these documents will be made public regardless of what The Times decides. WikiLeaks has shared the entire archive of secret cables with at least four European publications, has promised country-specific documents to many other news outlets, and has said it plans to ultimately post its trove online. For The Times to ignore this material would be to deny its own readers the careful reporting and thoughtful analysis they expect when this kind of information becomes public."http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29editornote.html?hpAnd the front page story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29cables.html?hp
About the Author
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, a former editor of Commonweal, writes frequently in these pages and blogs at dotCommonweal.
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I, for one, am happy to have such information as a way to make governments more accountable.I wonder what you think of the fact that the texts of the new missal translation into English, yet to be officially made public, are already available on https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Category:Roman_Catholic_Church along with a scathing report?
An empirical question: Will this make government more accountable?
A world where diplomats can only negotiate in the glare of publicity is a world where diplomacy is hobbled. Those who prize diplomacy over military actions should reflect on that.It will also be interesting to see whether Wikileaks is successful in publicizing diplomatic messages from nations with authoritarian governments. Is this another case that puts nations that are relatively more open at a disadvantage? To the extent that Wikileaks is understood as an agency of the "Left," it's a Left that has too much in common with the Tea Partiers for my taste.
There are always two sides to the argument and, in this case, lots of nuance. Yet, it reminds me of many statements repeatedly said during the release of the Pentagon Papers. The end result of that decision was to make transparent a series of ill-fated, unethical, and incorrect theories that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands in Southeast Asia.These leaked documents will not expose "Top Secret" correspondence. It will reveal many embarrassing comments, cables, etc. In retrospect, it may damage some US-World diplomatic relationships. In the long run, it may actually help by shedding light on the "hidden" communications, lies, bribes, decisions, etc. that fill the foreign relations departments of the world. Example - King Abdullah asking the US to bomb Iranian nuclear capacity. You could spin revealing this both ways - negative/positive. Wonder again in the long run if this helps increase Congressional oversight and education about foreign policy decisions.
According to the Telegraph, "A classified directive was issued to US diplomats under the name of the secretary of state in July last year, asking for forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications." Doesn't this confuse diplomacy with spying, and isn't it good that it is exposed so that next time governments will think twice before doing this?
IF secrets and spying are intrinsically evil, then it seems to me that those who secretly stole and outed the material while remaining anonymous are themselves guilty of the same fault.
Assange seems to have gone over the edge, though edge of what I'm not sure. His justifications for this "document dump" are pretty hilarious. Nothing really juicy in here, and he clearly hasn't the intellectual heft to sift through and make any sense of it. It reminds me of an adolescent walking up behind an old man on the street and pulling his pants down for all to see. Sure, it's not terribly attractive, but what would you expect, and what was the point?
Margaret -- No. The release of the Pentagon Papers, while laudable, certainly didn't prevent the war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Peter -- Your argument holds only if by "diplomacy" you mean duplicity. I would think that citizens of a democracy would demand that diplomatic negotiations be subject to the scrutiny of a free and democratic press. (Is that what you mean by "the glare of publicity"?) Diplomats need have no fear, though, as our current mainstream press is bought-and-paid-for, as well as lazy and incestuous with the powerful.
Whatever happened to "Eyes Only"? It's so 007.
Reports had it that the wikileak site was under attack; it would be ironic if the documents are only in the "free" press that has bent over backwards to tell us why they had to publish them.From the BBC: "So far, Wikileaks has only posted some 200 of the 251,287 messages it says it has obtained. However, the entire bundle of cables has been made available to five publications, including the New York Times and the UK's Guardian newspaper."
A decade or so ago, Daniel Moynihan wrote a book called "Secrets" (as I recall) in which he made a very good case for the silliness of the many categories and sub-categories into which documents stamped "secret" were divided. Will we find out from this dump that "secret," "top secret," "nearly secret," "not quite secret," etc. should probably be stamped "silly"--well not all: "Sarkozy is the president with no clothes."
Ann: I recently ran into that question. A teenager was spying on his parents. I said to him: "Don't do it". Then thought to myself: "Why not?" ... and was stumped!
Blessed are the liars and hypocrites, say I, because they protect the rest of us saints...
The Saudi view has certainly been voiced in news stories, albeit a bit more muted than "Bomb Iran!"
I think the big issue is how poor is our security that an army private can, over a six month period, copy and leak a couple hundred thousand pieces of sensitive correspondence. I absolutely believe it undermines our diplomatic efforts, if there had been a reasonable expectation of confidentiality which was then violated. While I think it is wrong that this stuff has been published, and I think the boy who leaked it should go to jail for a very long time, I think the error lies with the government; the press was just doing its job.
Nobody will be even a little bit shocked by anything that is found in the leaked documents. (King Fahd is more afraid of an Iranian bomb than of an Israeli bomb; anybody surprised?) But everybody will pretend to be shocked, and the newspapers will even pretend it is all news. Diplomacy is necessarily conducted by liars and hypocrites, because they're the only ones who can do the job with a straight face.
Ann: "IF secrets and spying are intrinsically evil". Don't see how they could be intrinsically evil. Aren't these cases of, "it depends"; that would make them good or bad depending on circumstances. Keeping a secret is sometimes an important component of solid social relations. Spying may not always be duplicitous, but an act of courage... Paul Revere's famous ride depended on someone spying on the British, no?
Paul Revere screwed up the secret-keeping thing, got busted on his way out of town, and spent the night of the "eighteenth of April in seventy-five" in jail. Somebody else did the horse-riding and alarum-raising part.I do realize that's not the point, of course.
Ms S. --My question about secrecy and spying being evil was half rhetorical. I have mixed feeling about it, and my feelings are only feelings. I've never heard of anyone faulting the British for cracking the Enigma code by using a computer. So what's the difference between that and personal spying, so to speak? In fact, I love spy stories, with John LeCarre' a favorite writer, and the only non-fiction fun book I"ve bought this year is about the great English ploy of loading a corpse with somebody else's papers and a lot of disinformation and planting it (horrid phrase) on a beach in Spain where the Germans would find it. You want dark, there's dark, and it too helped to make D-Day a success. A bloody, bloody success, but think what D-Day would have been without Alan Turing and the fake diplomat. So two new questions about exceptions: Are there exceptions to the old rule that one must never, ever lie? Why or why not? Two hundred words or less. (It's the why questions that throw us.)Aquinas formulates the rule on a teleological basis -- speech is for telling the truth, so lying is always wrong. But I think he begged the question. Sometimes speech is for lying. (And isn't that ugly and dark.) Maybe there really is something to the ethical notion that sometimes the ideal *must not* be chosen. Maybe it's because the ideal applies only in semi-ideal circumstances. In other words what is "ideal" varies with circumstance. Or something like that.
Yes great novel full of duplicity: Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre.Whatever Aquinas may have said about speech is for truth-telling, I recall our second grade casuistry class which went back and forth about when it was okay to lie (to save someone's life) and not (lying to your mother; not sure we disccussed fathers). Why okay? Some things are no business of other people (though staying silent is an option). Some things other people do not need to know (or have a right to know). In fact, I think I came away from second grade with a fairly broad understanding of circumstance in which it might be okay to lie--and sometimes mandatory.
Much as I love Aquinas, I think he over-values means to ends. He agrees that means have value-in-themselves only in relation to ends (which have intrinsic value). However, he fails to see that some means, some tools, can have more than one end and those end-values can vary with circumstances. So his ethics is just too simple in some ways.
"North Korea has supplied Iran with medium-range missiles."Like GW Bush said: Iraq, Iran, North Korea: Axis of Evil. At least he took one of them out.
The story about North Korea said "apparently"--and next question: will they work? I still think GW Bush overdid it--in fact, at a time when Iran was "apparently" being very helpful in Afghanistan (I read it: "In the Graveyard of Empires").
The ultimate hypocrisy of the New York Times is revealed in their different approaches to the Wikileaks (publish) and Climategate (don't publish) emails. Note the NYT justification for not publishing Climategate is not based on debatable authenticity, but on privacy, so their decision to publish the extremely private Wikileaks emails speaks for itself:"The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won't be posted here."--New York Times, on the Climategate emails, Nov. 20, 2009"The articles published today and in coming days are based on thousands of United States embassy cables, the daily reports from the field intended for the eyes of senior policy makers in Washington. . . . The Times believes that the documents serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes, compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy in a way that other accounts cannot match."--New York Times, on the WikiLeaks documents, Nov. 29, 2010


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le Area 51 plug
I'm the proposer of the Decentralized and Federated Networking proposal over on Area 51. You should come support it; decentralization and federation are bloody fascinating.
le bio
I'm an aspiring UNIX system administrator and programmer. I'm also an operating system design hobbyist.
My favorite kernel is the Linux kernel; my favorite research kernel, Mach; my favorite research operating system, Plan 9 from Bell Labs. My favorite init system is systemd; favorite window manager/desktop environment, Awesome GNOME; favorite UNIX distribution, Arch GNU/Linux. I want to try Gentoo, but I'm afraid that I'll like it and end up spending all my time waiting for things to compile. I'm more at home in the commandline using coreutils than I am in Nautilus.
I vocally support the free software movement. I'm very strongly against DRM. I'm a bit of a security enthusiast too - I love encryption.
I know a bit about UX. I spend a lot of my time reading technical documentation (think FreeDesktop, GNOME Wiki, stuff like that), Wikipedia, and articles about GNU/Linux, with a little BSD mixed in.
When I grow up, I probably want to hack on Gecko, join Mozilla's IT department and help administer their systems, or do one of those things but for GNU or GNOME. Basically, I want to end up at some awesome organization working on their codebase or their infrastructure. (I used to count Canonical as one of those organizations, but not anymore.)
I have written a short introduction to my computer history on meta.unix.se.
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I am using DeployStudio to distribute my Mac images and when I create a new image the recovery partiton seems to be deleted on the new Retinas. I have followed this in the past, http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/removing-and-rebuilding-a-malfunctioning-recover-hd-partition/, and it worked fine on older models. On the Retinas it will create the partition but not let me boot to it. I get the "no" symbol.
That process seems to install a 10.7.2 version of the recovery partition. The Retina MBPs were released with a special build of 10.7.4, so they won't be able to boot off a recovery partition based on the earlier version.
To get a working partition for the rMBPs, try using these instructions with the 10.7.5 (or 10.8.x) installer. Alternatively, if you want to stay on 10.7.4, you could do a clean restore from Internet Recovery on one of the rMBPs to get the default restore partition back, and use that as a source to clone to the others.


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Academic Outreach
Mission Statement
To support the mission and values of Lehigh University.
Vision Statement
To become regionally, nationally, and internationally known as an effective model in PreK-20 collaboration with internal and external partners in advancing education and research.
Academic Outreach in the News!
Girls Scouts visit Lehigh University
S.T.A.R. Summer Camp to be held this summer
Meet the Director
Angela Nicole Scott, Director
As the Director for Academic Diversity and Outreach, Ms. Scott is responsible for the Academic Outreach Department and supports the academic diversity, inclusion, and engagement strategic initiatives. She reports directly to the Vice Provost for Academic Diversity (VPAD).
Prior to coming to Lehigh University, Angela Scott most recently served as Special Assistant to the Dean and Program Coordinator of the Dual Credit Early College Program at Rowan University. She has also served as Director of Undergraduate Affairs at Temple University's College of Liberal Arts, with enrollment of over 5,000 students. Ms. Scott has served as an adjunct professor, teaching courses in Global Public Health and College Writing at both Temple University and The College of New Jersey. As well, she has designed and overseen the implementation of public health curriculum for federally-funded research grants, implemented both domestically and internationally.


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An Interview with Richard Freiberg, Inventor of Ba Gua Fa
by Attilio D'Alberto
Q1. So firstly what is Ba Gua Fa?
Ba Gua Fa is a synergy of two techniques (Gua Sha and Ba Guan - empty cupping). The name was given to this combined technique by Dr. Wu, Boping, OMD, MD, PhD (China) in 1997 after evaluating it during a three year period (1994-1997). Dr. Wu stated that my use of Ba Gua Fa was accomplishing much more than Gua Sha or Ba Guan could do individually.
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So I am making a news website about the future, 2112 to be specific (hello, critics). I wanted to display a post's date to be from 2112. But when I try to do this from the admin panel, it 'schedules' the post. I really want to publish the post in this century. Any help, people?
I had the same issue as you when I was dealing with events and wanted to show future events.
Here is what I coded:
Please see here How to set a custom post type to have viewable future posts where I had the same question when dealing with a CPT.
This might work:
The main issue this faces is that there may be a cut off/rollover around 2030~ depending on your system. In those cases, print out the current date, but without the year, then manually print the year afterwards, e.g.:
The issue here being that the 1st january 2013 will become the 1st January 2112 not 2113
What about making a taxonomy for 'future year' and then assign it as 2112 in your posts?
You could go further and make a secondary date custom value for all your posts and sort by that instead of the real date.
(Also? Rush!)
You could use a simple custom field for adding future post dates.
If you don't see custom fields in the post/page editor, then click on screen options(top right area of editor screen) and make sure "custom fields" is checked.
Now, looking at the custom fields box in the post/page editor, click on "Enter new". For the "Name" text field, enter a descriptive name for your custom field such as "futureDate": in the "Value" text field enter the date you would like to have displayed.
Finally, you will need some code in your template file to display what you have stored in the custom field. It could look like this:
Using this method you could also order your posts by this custom field value with a query such as this(not tested):


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This post is excerpted from a discussion from the team at Disability in Kid Lit. You can read more on the topic, and check out their other great work, at their website. This week's topic: inspiration porn. Don't know what that is? You'll find the answer below–we asked our contributors how they define this concept and what they … [Read more...]
"Inspiration Porn": A Discussion
November 1, 2013 By


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Awesome Man can shoot positronic rays out of his eyeballs, fly as straight as an arrow, and hug mutant Jell-O! Even villains like Professor Von Evil and the Flaming Eyeball are no match for this caped crusader.
But Awesome Man also has a secret. . . . Can you guess what it is?
The first picture book from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon perfectly captures the fantasy life of young superhero fans.
About the Author
Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Summerland (a novel for children), The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and Gentlemen of the Road, as well as the short story collections A Model World and Werewolves in Their Youth and the essay collections Maps and Legends and Manhood for Amateurs. He is the chairman of the board of the MacDowell Colony. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.
Jake Parker is an illustrator and an artist for animated films. He also draws comics of space mice, monsters, and funny robots. He wrote and illustrated the comic book Missile Mouse. Jake lives in Provo, Utah, with his family.
Praise For…
"The depiction of a showdown between Awesome Man and his nemesis—the Flaming Eyeball—is priceless. Readers may notice that there's a moral peeking out from Awesome Man's cape, but they'll still grab this story in their 'ginormous Awesome Power Grip' and not let go."
-School Library Journal (starred review)
"Young caped crusaders and Chabon's adult fans alike will grin at this self-consciously witty portrait."
-Publishers Weekly
"Awesome indeed."
-Kirkus Reviews
"It's a wonderful celebration of tough-guy fantasies and down-to-earth boyness, perfectly matched with the retro stylings of animated film artist and comic book illustrator Parker."
-San Francisco Chronicle
"Chabon's first-person narrative is that of a boy-zealous, goofy, and antisister-and the story reads like the play-by-play antics of an action figure in a kid's game."
-ALA Booklist
Praise for SUMMERLAND: "Chabon hits a high-flying home run."
-Publishers Weekly
Praise for SUMMERLAND: "Packed with magic, adventure, myth, and America's favorite pastime, this book will enchant its audience.
-School Library Journal
Praise for THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY: "The depth of Chabon's thought, his sharp language, his inventiveness and his ambition make this a novel of towering achievement."
-New York Times Book Review


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A recent question here has convinced me that folks here have a warm heart for the foundations of quantum mechanics, so I decided to ask a question that has been bothering me for a while.
Quantum motivation
Hardy has proved a theorem saying the the cardinality of the ontic space $\Lambda$ must always be infinite. As Spekkens put it more clearly, his proof works by making a injection of the set of pure quantum states into the set of distinct subsets of $\Lambda$. Since the set of pure states is continuous, it follows that $\Lambda$ must be infinite.
But the injection isn't exactly onto $\mathcal{P}(\Lambda)$, but rather onto a set $D$ of distinct subsets of $\Lambda$ such that that for no $A,A'\in D$ is it true that $A \subset A'$. My question is then: is this additional restriction enough to show that $\Lambda$ must be continuous? Or is there a countable $\Lambda$ such that $D$ is uncountable?
Quantum-free question
Let $D$ be a set of distinct subsets of $\mathbb{N}$ such that for no $A,A'\in D$ is it true that $A \subset A'$. What is the maximal cardinality of such a $D$?
This question seems simple enough, but I haven't been able to answer it.


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Does anyone know of a good tutorial or YouTube video that explains how to set up and use the Navigator in the IBM Xpages Extension Library?
It is a bit confusing with all the options, types of nodes, and Select & Submit Values. Hope to find something that shows the simple way to use this tool along with some of the Advanced capabilities.


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6 Oct 2010 5:39 AM #1
File Upload problem
I'm trying to implement file upload in my web application.
I have followed api documentation and used FileUploadField extension.
Here is my code:
this.fieldUploadMan.add(new Ext.ux.form.FileUploadField({ emptyText: 'Select .tar file', fieldLabel: 'File name', width:300 })); this.fieldUploadMan.add({ xtype: 'button', text: 'Upload', type: 'submit', width: 150, handler:function(){ this.panWebLct.getForm().submit({ url:'/goform/upldForm?applymode=on&savemode=on', waitMsg: 'Uploading...', success: function(form, action) { Ext.Msg.alert('Success', action.result.msg); }, failure: function(form, action){ Ext.Msg.alert('failure', action.failureType+ ' , '+ action.response+' , '+ action.result); } }); }.createDelegate(this) });
this=reference to Ext.Panel main container
this.fieldUploadMan=reference to Ext.form.FieldSet
this.panWebLct=reference to Ext.form.FormPanel
The problem is that the server response is in HTM format as follows:

 MACHINE 192.168.74.30 NOT LOGGED

WEBS: upload DISCARD file "Webs_17_N96103_1.2.0b7.tar" ( 1874 bytes )
WEBS: accepted file: "webs_18_XXX.tar"
There is any mode to avoid decoding the response because I don't need it.
What I need is to get the HTTP response code, for example 200,500,506
I can't modify the server response because is third part software.
Sorry for my school Eglish
Thank in advance
6 Oct 2010 5:47 AM #2
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You could define a very simple error reader, e.g.
errorReader: { read: function(response){ return {success: true}; // or false based on the response } }
6 Oct 2010 6:15 AM #3
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
- Location
- Notts/Redwood City
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- 30,604
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The responseXML of the pseudo XHR passed to the reader should contain the HTML document.
The reader should be able to make sense of it.Search the forum: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=01...%3Az7of1ufqccu
Read the docs too: http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/
Scope: http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.ph...642#post257642
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Dean E. Murphy
Recent and archived news articles by Dean E. Murphy of The New York Times.
Bulgaria Plots Return to Olympic Prominence
Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, is expanding its Soviet-era rowing course, a part of an effort to overturn two decades of sporting disappointment since the glory days under communism.
August 24, 2012, Friday
Watching Them Watching Me
The death of a spouse rewrites the rules of a family in ways I never could have imagined.
January 22, 2012, Sunday
Hurricane Puts Focus on Other Disasters That Are Waiting to Happen
The Gulf Coast hurricanes have officials in other parts of the country thinking about their own vulnerabilities.
November 15, 2005, Tuesday
Battle of San Francisco: New Campaign for the Iowa
Merylin Wong is the president of a volunteer group that has been lobbying to bring the battleship Iowa to the San Francisco waterfront as a tourist attraction.
October 30, 2005, Sunday
Who Should Redistrict?
Gerrymandering by politicians is not good for democracy. But the solutions to the problem might not be, either.
October 23, 2005, Sunday
National Briefing | West: California: Court Says River Plan Cheats Salmon
In a setback for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected a federal plan to distribute water to farmers from the troubled Klamath River region in Oregon and California, ruling that more water must remain in the river...
October 19, 2005, Wednesday
Schwarzenegger Enters Debate Over Redistricting in Ohio
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has thrown his weight behind a measure in Ohio to remove lawmakers from the drawing of legislative districts.
October 18, 2005, Tuesday
Schwarzenegger Says Yes in California Election, and Another Star Leads Opposition
As big productions go, next month's California special election is low budget for a celebrity cast that includes the Terminator, Bulworth and Meathead.
October 14, 2005, Friday
Family Feuds Over Soldier's Remains
A fight between divorced parents over custody of the body of their son, who died in Iraq, has raised questions about military policy.
October 12, 2005, Wednesday
Schwarzenegger May Face Other Side of Recall Challenge
BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 8 - Until recently, Dr. Kenneth Matsumura's most notable achievement was inventing an artificial liver that makes use of live rabbit cells suspended in solution. He says he also has a patent on a wristwatch that sounds an alarm...
October 9, 2005, Sunday
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Sunday, April 22nd 2012
Posting From McDonalds 'Cause The Internet At Home Is Down
A few updates on what will probably be our busiest month of the year:
The work day at our new nemeton went well, with eight of us planting the pipe for the bile', digging a small well, and setting up a square fire pit (the proper shape for an Indo-European sacrificial fire). The other commented on the horse smell at the new site, which I guess I would never have noticed, living in the country and being so used to those smells! Hopefully folks won't e too put off by it. The site itself looks perfect for our rites, other than the lack of tables and chairs for the socializing area. Hopefully people will be able to bring some for the first few rituals, and eventually we'll have a few donated that can stay on the site. New nemeton equals learning experience, obviously, and we'll figure it out.
One thing we still haven't managed to do is get the old bile' from the Botsford Preserve and get it to the new site. Sean thought he could fit it into his van, not grasping quite how tall it really is. (Answer: between 16 and 18 feet.) I've borrowed some heavy-duty straps from Gen's dad, and I'm still holding out hope that someone with a large vehicle will be able to help us out by carrying it on their roof. The problem then, as I realized when I visited the preserve last month, is just how old the blasted thing is. It's got a long crack running along its length and the wood is spongy, so I honestly don't know if it could even survive the trip. For now, we're going to go ahead with the Maypole dance next weekend and have the May King/Queen hold a six foot pole above their heads to become the Maypole. And hopefully we can find a woodworker of some sort who can make us a new bile' from one of the fallen trees at the new site. (I was hoping one of the local lumber yards would have something suitable, but they don't carry anything longer than eight feet. And I had such high hoped for Fingerle, I thought they carried everything!)
Speaking of sticking things into the ground, we'll be planting our Grove wheat at our An Bruane session on May 2nd. I'll be buying a raised garden bed from Aldi, of all places, so hopefully the weeds won't take over the plot like they did last year. While An Bruane is usually for Grove members only, I think we can open this one up to anyone who wants to participate. If you want to get your hands dirty y re-enacting the agricultural practices of the Ancients, here's your chance! And since I bought two bags of seed this year, we should have some to send home with people who want to try growing it in their own gardens.
Last thing to mention: We just had the Runic Divination class that everyone told us would be an awesome thing for us to do, but nobody signed up for it and nobody came. I'm not sure whether to blame the topic or the nice weather outside. I'm certainly having a hard time believing that more people want to hear me talk about ADF than want to hear Rod talk about the Runes. We may aim to do another class on something in the fall. Or not. We shall see. (At least it gave me a reason to clean the basement, right?)
I hope to see many of you next weekend for Fire Watch, the Dawn Rite, or the Beltaine Rite! If I don't, then have a wonderful springy holiday all the same.
Rev. Rob Henderson
Senior Druid, Shining Lakes Grove, ADF
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Sunday, March 25th 2012
Spring Forward, Post Late
Ah, the joys of jumping through hoops trying to impress prospective employers by writing computer code in languages I don't even know. It's hard to believe that eight of the twelve weeks of the class/program are over with, and that I may be starting my internship as soon as Thursday. But as usual, everything can be changed at the last minute, so I can't even be sure of that! But if folks were wondering why it'd taken me a week to do the write-up for the Spring Equinox rite, that's why. That, and my computer spent six days in the shop getting a new operating system installed.
Anyway, the ritual! The day before the rite, I visited Island Park in Ann Arbor, and walked out onto the island to commune with Ana, as I like to do before leading any ritual to her. The river was running high and fast, surprising given how little rain we'd had, and obviously not the result of the snow melt I would normally expect in March. It definitely had a "Raido" feel to it, I thought.
That night, Gen was again the only one to attend the Fire Lighting at my house, as our other regulars had other things come up. (This may be a recurring theme for this article.) I dyed the eggs and Gen made the seed packets, so at least we managed to get the "work" part of the rite accomplished. We also got
the new issue of Shining Lakes News
put together. Against all odds, Gen actually ran my article mostly intact. I'm glad we do most of our newsletter distribution online these days, or I know I'd be hearing about the cost of a six-pager from our Treasurer!
Sunday morning saw our unseasonably warm weather continue, and actually left me glad that we'd be doing the rite indoors in the shade. 80 degrees for a spring rite would just be too weird. I got to the Ed Center in plenty of time, and once Rodney arrived with the Regalia, we had everything ready to go by quarter 'til. Folks started arriving, including a few new folks who actually did manage to find the place. (I always fret over how many people we lose when we do ritual at the Ed Center because it's so hard to find, even when I put the sign out.) There ended up being thirteen of us there for the rite, fewer than we usually get for the equinox, but with the Kellers and the Brockmans unable to attend, it was about what I expected. (How often do we actually get the attendance I expected?)
We processed upstairs to the ritual area while Paul hid the eggs in the garden area behind the building. (Yes, I did get permission to use it for the egg hunt, but not for the ritual.) The opening went smoothly enough, and then we went outside for the egg hunt. 27 eggs for 13 people, maybe we shouldn't have put them all out? It did take a while, but I blame that on Paul's egg-hiding skills.
Once back inside, we passed the basket of eggs around for the individual praise, and then Rob Steiner told the story of Ana this time. We used to rotate who told the story back in the olden times of the 90's, but I'd somehow ended up doing it for four straight years, and I really felt that someone else needed to do it. If this is the story of the goddess who defines our Grove, then her story needs to be told by the people of our Grove, not just me. Rob did a fine job of it, and I hope we'll see him in more central ritual roles in the future.
After offering the basket of eggs at the Ana stone (for later distribution outside), the omen was good (Ingwaz – Raido – Eiwaz, and after my river visit, I was so not surprised to see Raido come up), and we blessed our tools and the seed packets. We also welcomed Molly with our first new member necklace blessing in, wow, over a year now I think.
The raffle was a bit of a disappointment because we had so few items there (I now further appreciate what the Kellers and Brockmans do for our High Day weekends!) but the potluck selections were excellent. We also got to enjoy watching the residents of the frat house next door jumping in – and on top of – a bouncy castle. (Did that one guy ever actually jump from the roof of the house onto the bouncy castle? If he did, I missed it.) If only the Wolverines had actually won their first game in the tournament, those guys would have been inside the house watching them play at that point. Anyway, thanks to lots of folks helping, we had the place cleaned up quickly and were long gone before the folks showed up for the ICC board meeting.
So a good ritual, a good telling of Ana's story, and a good omen, even if we didn't get as many folks to take part as I'd have liked. Still, given the hectic April that we have ahead of us, a relaxed equinox ritual might not be a bad thing.
Rev. Rob Henderson
Senior Druid, Shining Lakes Grove, ADF
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Sunday, February 19th 2012
Planning For Our New Nemeton
amazing (or is that just the TV show coming up?)
I have a few things on my mind that I thought might be worth a blog post, but one of them would be better discussed after
is done, so I'll aim to cover that one next week. In the meantime, I'll share a post that I wrote for our
Grove mailing list
pages, just in case one of my four remaining readers didn't see it there.
Oh, I'll also throw in here: Assuming that we wasnt to keep this blog going in some form, what other blog sites would folks recommend? The main features I'd be concerned about would be (a) free (duh), (b) the ability for other folks to post from their own accounts if I gave them permission, and (c) having an easy way to import the entries from the blog. Of course, those of you who have volunteered to help out with the Grove's Web presence, volunteering to copy all of the posts manually would be super helpful, and fairly easy (if mind-numbingly boring).
So between my night class and preparations for Imbolc, I've somehow managed not to share the biggest Grove news of the winter: We've found a new site for our outdoor rituals!
It's at Cavallo Farm, a horse farm in Superior Township, and just barely in the Huron watershed. Actually, only part of the property is in the 'shed, the border with the Rouge watershed crosses through the property. The place where we want to set up the nemeton is just on the Huron side. Talk about liminal space! You can see the site here:
We're going to put the nemeton just northwest of the northernmost point of the circular drive. The property does include some of the wooded area to the west, and the owner says that we can clear out a circle and a path to it in the long term, but for now it will be faster and easier to set up the nemeton in the open area.
Sadly, I have no experience in building a ritual space from scratch, since I didn't join SLG until a few years after the Botsford nemeton was built. And I'm not exactly an expert on landscaping in general, either. At the business meeting this week, we came up with our best guess of what we need to do to make it into a working ritual site:
* The grass probably needs to be mowed at some point. I don't know whether the owner of the site has one. I would assume that she does. Still, if someone has a hand-mower they'd love to use!
* The three standard Druidic altars required for any ADF rite:
The bile'. The owner does have a powered post-hole digger, so that part will be easy. Is there any feasible way we can get the old bile' moved from Botsford to here? If not, are any of us good enough at woodworking to make a new one? There are fallen trees on the site which should be big enough. Keep in mind that if we can't get this done right away, we can still use the "porta-bile'" that we use for our indoor rites, though if we go that route, a Maypole dance at Beltaine is out of the question.
The fire. How does one make a safe, permanent fire pit? Rodney says he has plenty of stones for this.
The well. No, it doesn't have to be a functioning well, a two-foot pit will suffice. But we'll definitely need some kind of covering for it so people (and horses) won't trip in it.
* We'll probably want sawhorses or some other kind of barricade to place between the ritual circle and the driveway.
* We'll also need to set up a gathering area for socializing, someplace away from the ritual circle. We'll want tables and chairs that we can store on-site, if possible.
So, all that said, I'd like to set up a work day on a Sunday in April (earlier would be better for my stress levels) to get the site ready, assuming that the labor part can be done in one day, which I'm guessing it could be. Any expert advice from experts out there would be appreciated.
This will obviously be one of the biggest projects our Grove has ever worked on, and hopefully the prologue to the many wonderful stories we'll create there through our rituals and our community!
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Sunday, February 12th 2012
The Warmest Imbolc Ever (But Not The Smallest!)
I think I'm about to set a new record for "latest blog entry about a ritual", thanks to my new night class which will hopefully result in me getting a programming job again, and finally having enough money to go to festivals and have some small chance of convincing women to go out with me and all of the other fun stuff I did back in the 90's when I made programmer money. But now that the weekend is here and I'm caught up on all of the other ADF things I was behind on, here it is!
After last year's sudden blizzard that left us with only ten people in attendance, the warm and sunny weather predicted for the weekend had me feeling some relief. I was sad that only Gen showed up for the fire lighting (Rodney was feeling ill), but Gen did a great job making a new dress for our corn dolly, and the Bríd crosses I made from chenille sticks actually came out looking much better than my usual efforts with straw. I'[m just sorry the rest of y'all missed out on the peanut butter cookies I baked.
Preparation went smoothly the next morning, with a quick stop for copying and a faster-than-expected stop to get hot wings from Mr. Spot's, which I promised to bring after realizing Imbolc was going to be on Super Bowl Sunday. (One down side of moving rituals to Sunday that we should have seen coming, but didn't.) It was sunny and 40 degrees (and felt warmer to me) when I got to the Ed Center. Rodney was there soon after (and feeling better) and we were set up in plenty of time. Other than a few people wandering in looking for the Ann Arbor Food Co-Op meeting and leaving in confusion (and I later confirmed that yes, we did indeed have the whole building reserved, and those folks didn't), everything went smoothly and we actually got started a little earlier than usual.
Sadly, the gorgeous weather outside didn't help attract folks as I had hoped (or maybe everyone decided to play outside instead), and we had a whole eleven people this time around. My memories are definitely proving to be a problem with staying in this Grove for so long. Did you know our second highest attendance for a High Day was 65 people at an Imbolc? Do you remember when Bríd practically had her own cult within our Grove? Sadly, I do, and I'm still stressing out over dealing with the new reality. The meditation I wrote for everyone to meet Bríd before the ritual? Far as I know, only one person besides me even tried it, and her experiences were, well I can't details share because of clergy confidentiality, but not good. And I know that several of our members have personal issues with her, to the extent that Gen walked out of the ritual as soon as we called to her. Well, feh. For now, I choose to treat this as an opportunity for the dedicated among us to share community on her holy day. But damn, I miss the big ones. Having dozens of people honoring her with song and craftwork was an amazing experience, and I hold out hope that we'll get there again some day.
(Also, yes, we wont schedule it on Super Bowl Sunday again.)
But enough of the complaining. The ritual itself was actually pretty good, and in some ways exceeded my expectations. Since this was our first Imbolc at the Ed Center, this was the first one we've ever done without candles, and while I found it sad, it wasn't as distracting as I'd feared. The song I wrote for the Portal Opening actually went pretty well (don't worry, I'll post the lyrics someplace public at some point) (and don't worry, I'll save it for special occasions, assuming anyone wants me to do it again), and the new, non-kneeling way to call Bríd into the room was good. The offerings were good, the omen was, well, eventually good (Perthro - Lagu - Hagalaz, Gebo drawn to clarify the third rune, so the gift of protection), and our concept of the three altars for Bríd (blacksmithing, writing, and herbs) went well. There is indeed something satisfying about pounding metal with a hammer!
And once the rite ended, we got to the aspect of a small ritual that I can actually get behind. There were three neat dishes in the potluck, and they weren't all completely devoured before I had a chance to get them! More amazingly, folks stayed long enough to help us get everything cleaned up by 5. If the day was a smaller honoring of our goddess of community than I wanted, at least it was a good orthopraxic one.
The one part I still have to ponder was the pre-ritual meditation I wrote ad sent to everyone for the week before the rite. I was hoping it would be a good way for folks to prepare, especially those who might not have as much experience with our Grove's deities, but there definitely didn't seem to be much interest in actually doing it. Then again, I've already noted the issues some of our members have with Bríd. Also, I'm not the type to give up on something after one attempt. So we'll definitely do it a few more times at least. Being the Senior Druid of this Grove has always been a perpetual balancing act between amazement at what we can accomplish and disappointment at what we don't, why would I expect that to change now?
I hope that everyone had a good Imbolc, whatever you did to celebrate!
Rev. Rob Henderson
Senior Druid, Shining Lakes Grove, ADF
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Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally. The main features of narcolepsy are fatigue and cataplexy. The disease is also often associated with sudden sleep attacks, insomnia, dream-like hallucinations, and a condition called sleep paralysis. Its prevalence in the developed world is approximately the same as that of multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease. However, with increased public education about narcolepsy and physician training in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, these figures are expected to rise.
In order to understand the basics of narcolepsy, it is important to first review the features of "normal sleep." Sleep happens in cycles. When we fall asleep, we initially enter a light stage of sleep and then progress into increasingly deeper stages. Both light and deep sleep stages are called non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. After about 90 minutes, we enter the first stage of REM sleep, which is the dreaming portion of sleep, and throughout the night we alternate between stages of REM and non-REM sleep. For people with narcolepsy, sleep begins almost immediately with REM sleep and fragments of REM occur involuntarily throughout the waking hours. When you consider that during REM sleep our muscles are paralyzed and dreaming occurs, it is not surprising that narcolepsy is associated with paralysis, hallucinations, and other dream-like and dramatically debilitating symptoms.
Despite the perception that people with narcolepsy are perpetually sleepy, they do not typically sleep more than the average person. Narcolepsy is considered a "state boundary" control abnormality. That is, narcolepsy patients sleep a normal amount but cannot control the timing of sleep.
Narcolepsy affects both sexes equally and develops with age; symptoms usually first develop in adolescence or young adulthood and may remain unrecognized as they gradually develop. The instance of a familial connection with narcolepsy is quite small but a combination of genetic and environmental factors may be at the root of this sleep disorder.
Narcolepsy patients typically endure many years of daytime sleepiness before seeking treatment because sleepiness is not indicative of disease to most people. Yet the devastating potential of