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Robert Morris University
A monthly selection of media coverage of Robert Morris University during the previous month.
February 2013
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a front-page story about RMU's textbook reserve program: http://tinyurl.com/bv6tckq
The Post-Gazette included RMU in stories about online degree programs and nontraditional students, with the latter focusing on RMU's programs for veterans: http://tinyurl.com/atf7k28
The Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review documented RMU's participation in the federally funded National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute:http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/technology/ohio-center-exemplifies-obamas-latest-plan-675292/
University Business featured the Wheatley Center in a round-up of innovative learning spaces:http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/c9afeceb#/c9afeceb/36
The Beaver County Times tapped the expertise of Frank Flanegin for a story about natural gas expansion:http://tinyurl.com/cdyy9ob
The Post-Gazette included RMU in a story about physical education:http://tinyurl.com/btq6dzx
President Dell'Omo was interviewed by Sy Holzer for the PNC Business Journal:http://www.kqv.com/audioarchives/PNC%20Business%20Journal%20020513%20(2).mp3
The Pittsburgh Business Times tapped the expertise of Elizabeth Stork for this article about how to position yourself as an expert:http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/print-edition/2013/02/01/proactive-positioning-yourself-expert.html
Several media outlets reported on the appointment of new business school Dean John Beehler: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/morning-edition/2013/02/john-beehler-named-to-lead-rmu.html
The Post-Gazette cited the Black Male Leadership Development Institute in an article about Esther Bush and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh:http://tinyurl.com/d257tuh
RMU's efforts to educate employees about saving for retirement merited mention in a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article about that subject:http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3370222-74/investment-education-future#axzz2LvhmKxNc
The Beaver County Times wrote about RMU student Michael Funyak's effort to save the first industrial atom smasher:http://tinyurl.com/abtpkua
The Huffington Post mentioned the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management in this article about female tech leaders:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/07/women-nonprofit-leaders_n_2529768.html
Patch.com published an article about Michael DiLauro's documentary La Mia Strada:http://tinyurl.com/c2wjzaa
Patch.com wrote about the participation of RMU students in Pittsburgh Musical Theater's Children of Eden:http://tinyurl.com/cxxuwn6
Also appearing in the news media during February, but not available online, were stories on KDKA-TV about RMU sport management grads working for the two teams in Super Bowl XLVII and the top-20 ranking earned by RMU's online information systems degrees by U.S. News and World Report.
© 1995–2016 Robert Morris University. All rights reserved.


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Grammys 2013: Top nominees and winners
Gotye, Frank Ocean, Fun. and more took home trophies at the 55th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
Winners | Red carpet | Show highlights | Quotes | Best & worst dressed | Timeline | Best & worst moments | Arrivals video | Complete list | Full coverage
This photo gallery is featured in these articles:

subset: commoncrawl


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Carolyn Vachani, RN, MSN, AOCN
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: June 23, 2009
Cancer survivorship has gotten a great deal of media attention in recent years, but how much do you really know about survivorship?
The terms "survivor" and "survivorship" have different meanings for different people. One widely used definition of a survivor is any person who has been diagnosed with cancer, whether or not he or she has completed treatment. Other definitions limit survivors to those who have completed initial therapy and are in remission, while others include the loved ones of a person with cancer in the definition. Cancer survivorship is most often defined as the process of living with, through, and beyond cancer. The following facts define a survivor as any person with a diagnosis of cancer.


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Men's and Women's Tennis at GRU Augusta PostponedFebruary 10, 2014
ANDERSON, S.C. – With inclement weather forecasted in the southeast, Anderson University men's and women's tennis matches at GRU Augusta has been postponed. A make-up date has yet to be announced.
The Trojans are slated to return to action on Saturday when they travel to South Atlantic Conference foe Catawba. First serve is set for 1 p.m.


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The 7 Most Ingenious (And Insane) Smuggling Techniques
When you combine contraband, poverty, desperation and lots of spare time, you get the bizarre world of the smuggler.
Everything from cocaine to human beings is waiting to cross tight borders into lands where they're not welcome. And wherever you find them, you find an army of smugglers using every ounce of their creativity to get them through.
Also, it appears quite a few of them are insane.
#7. Mini Subs
Smuggling drugs in completely safe and structurally sound factory-made vehicles is for cowards. Real smugglers climb into leaky, rusty homemade submarines to bootleg their cocaine.
These things aren't just a couple of steel drums welded together, though. They've found subs in Colombia and Mexico big enough to carry up to 11 tons of drugs. The cops seized a partially-built sub that had hydraulic tubing, a protected propeller, a double hull and the ability to dive below 300 feet. It makes mom's attempts to smuggle opium in her wooden leg look sad by comparison.
Costing from a few hundred thousand to millions of dollars, the subs are usually crewed by small teams, have ranges of around 5,000 nautical miles and generally carry several hundred million dollars worth of drugs per trip. If you're wondering how you convince a drug mule to get inside one of those things, we're guessing they figure that with 11 tons of drugs in there nobody will notice if, at the end of the trip, a little comes up missing.
"Missing cocaine? No, I'm as shocked as you are."
#6. The Lady in the Dashboard
Of course smuggling human beings across borders is a whole different ballgame. After all, it's not like you can just stuff a whole person in the glovebox.
We stand corrected.
A few years ago, customs officials at the US-Mexico border stopped a car and requested to see the registration. Being trained in the fine arts of observations, officials noticed something suspicious: a fully grown, 135lb woman jammed in the dashboard, looking out through the glove box.
Arguably more stupid, there's also photographic evidence of a man who inserted himself into a car's upholstery in an attempt to disguise himself as a captain's chair. Another passenger was sitting in the seat and the entire car was hoping today was the day customs officials were holding their annual "Bring A Retard To Work Day."
Elsewhere in the universe, some people have attempted to smuggle humans--specifically a woman and her 3 year old daughter--in the gas tank of a Dodge Caravan. If you've never been in a gas tank of a Dodge Caravan you may be surprised to learn it's exactly as uncomfortable as it sounds, which is to say: still better than public transit.
#5. The Vodka Pipeline
Easily half of the Cracked audience is too young to remember prohibition. These days we're lucky enough to wake up and pour Southern Comfort on our Lucky Charms before shitting ourselves and passing out in the kitchen until sundown. But in some countries folks still have to rely on the kindness of smugglers to get their blinding fix.
Police recently discovered a vodka pipeline connecting Russia to Estonia, indicating at least one Russian thought the Beer Baron episode of the Simpsons was a reasonable basis for a business endeavor.
Don't worry, he's on the case.
The pipe, over a mile long, ran under a reservoir and pumped somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,600 gallons, some of which was confiscated by officials in Estonia (where vodka is far more expensive than in Russia).
The booze pirates managed to avoid paying $72,000 in excise duty before they got caught, which they probably just spent on fuzzy hats and borscht.
#4. Coke-Filled Corpses
You know how sometimes when you're freebasing vaseline and cloves and you think to yourself "Man, if only this had some kind of rotten vitriol from the insides of a corpse on it, this would be way better"?
Other people have thought that too. And so they've saved the day by jamming dead bodies full of cocaine so you can get both high and gangrene at the same time.
"Hey, you're not a dead cop, right? You'd have to tell me if you were."
In Africa, a handful of people were arrested for shipping a couple pounds of cocaine inside the stomach of a corpse they said was a body being returned home for burial.
It seems like a more clever excuse would have been to claim that the coke was part of their traditional burial ritual, in which no man is sent into the afterlife without enough blow to get him through the boredom of eternity.
Totally part of the ritual.


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I was just wondering how the site like "thefreedictionary.com" has so much of content. I mean they have almost an entire dictionary on the web. Many other sites do have this feature. But I would like to know if I wish to start a site like this how can I gather data for this.
closed as not constructive by danlefree Sep 26 '12 at 0:43
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
Dictionary.com have an api you could use to help populate information on the fly.
Wikionary is a free and open dictionary published by the Wikimedia foundation. You are free to use it as long as you respect the license requirements. You can start your research here:
Wikimedia volunteer editors can be helpful by providing/improving instructions on how to set it up.
I think the most of them bought the dictionary from companies.


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Katrina VB. Claghorn, M.S., R.D., L.D.N.
Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: December 17, 2014
During cancer treatment, it is best to follow a healthy diet that will nourish your body. By eating well you will get the energy and strength you need. Make sure to include these foods and nutrients:
The side effects of treatment may make it hard to follow a "perfect" diet. When you lose your appetite, it is important to eat the foods that work for you. For more information read our Nutrition During Treatment Overview.
Losing weight during treatment is not encouraged. If you lose weight during treatment, it means you are not getting enough calories. If you do not get enough calories, you are also not getting enough protein, vitamins, and minerals. This will affect your strength and ability to tolerate treatment. It may also affect your response to treatment and slow your recovery. Cancer treatment can often increase your nutritional needs. During treatment, it is important to watch your weight and nutrition intake.
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy can cause diarrhea. If you experience diarrhea, you should follow a low- fiber diet. Although a high fiber diet may reduce the risk of developing cancer of the lower gastrointestinal tract, it is not recommended during treatment. Since low fiber diets do not stimulate the bowel to move, they will not cause diarrhea. Also, low fiber diets are easier to digest. To learn more, read the Helpful Facts sheet on Low Fiber Diet for Diarrhea.
If you do have diarrhea, avoid:
It is recommended that you not take extra antioxidant vitamin supplements during treatment. High levels of antioxidants may interact with cancer treatment. It is okay for you to take a standard multivitamin that provides 100% of the RDI (recommended daily intake) for vitamins and minerals. Herbal supplements should also be avoided, since they may contain antioxidants and other compounds that may interact with cancer treatments. The research on vitamins and herbals during treatment is not yet conclusive . There are several studies showing that vitamin supplements-- such as Vitamins C, E, and A -- can interfere with the effectiveness of cancer treatment. The theory is that since antioxidants protect the body's cells from damage, taking excess amounts may actually protect the cancerous cells from the chemotherapy or radiation treatment. This will decrease the effectiveness of the treatment. On the other hand, there have also been studies showing benefit from combining antioxidants and chemotherapy. Because there is not enough research in this area, we recommend that you avoid extra supplements.
Recent studies suggest that a diet high in simple sugar (such as white sugar, sodas, and sweets) may increase the risk of developing cancer. While this association has been noted, we are still not sure of the cause. It may be that a diet high in simple sugar has less cancer fighting nutrients. It may be that simple sugars cause a surge in insulin, which increases the growth of cancer cells. Despite the lack of research, a number of books and web sites prematurely advise people with cancer to eliminate sugar as part of a cancer prevention diet . However, it would be unhealthy to avoid all food sources of simple sugars, since this would include fruits, vegetables and grains. These foods are the primary source of nutrients that have been shown to reduce cancer risk. The way to prevent surges in insulin is to reduce your intake of foods that are very high in simple sugar. This is done by: avoiding foods such as sweets and sodas combining simple sugars with foods that have fiber, protein, and fat - this will slow the absorption of sugar and avoid a surge in insulin Based on research, the American Cancer Society makes the following recommendations to reduce cancer risk: Eat 5 or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits each day Eat other foods from plant sources several times each day (such as: whole grains, beans, nuts) Limit the amount of simple sugar (including pastries, sweetened cereals, soft drinks, and sugar) you eat
Overall, the research shows that the benefits of eating produce outweigh the risk of pesticide exposure. Therefore, there is no need to spend extra money on organic produce. If you choose organic anyway, look for produce that carries the "Certified Organic" label. Also, remember to wash all produce with water. Washing will remove most of any remaining pesticides. Special fruit or vegetable rinses are not necessary. A good washing with water alone is just as effective. Many studies have been done looking at pesticide exposure from commercially grown fruits and vegetables. These studies show very little proof of cancer risk from pesticides and other chemical residues in foods. Frightening headlines or web sites stating that pesticides cause cancer are based solely on animal studies using doses of pesticides high above those normally found in foods. Additionally, the United States regulates the use of pesticides to keep amounts at safe levels.
Research has shown that there are diet and lifestyle factors that, in general, seem to be protective against cancer. However, there is little research on the effect of diet in preventing the recurrence of colorectal cancers. Recommendations for diet and nutrition after treatment for colon, rectal, and anal cancers are based on what has been shown to prevent cancer from developing the first time.
These recommendations include:


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Another Response to Gary Gutting
I would like to commend and expand on Matts engagement with Gary Guttings On Being Catholic. I agree with Matt that it is both worth reading and that it, in some respects, falls short of its promise. As Matt suggests, it fails to offer the kind of apologia for the teachings of Catholicism that would entice any reflective and honest intellectual to embrace them. So, if assent is considered the highest form of intellectual respect, Gutting is not going to receive very much of it. However, Gutting makes clear that his apologia is not an apologetics aimed at conversion. He set for himself a task that is at once more modest and more ambitious. Matt rightly concedes Guttings humble task of seeking a stance that many fellow Catholics and even some non-Catholics will find respectable, but he fails to mention Guttings more ambitious task: to hold onto both "the Enlightenment and the Catholic Church.For students of philosophy and many Euro-American Catholics, the Enlightenment and the Church are often pitted against each other as the thesis and antithesis driving the dialectic of ideas that has determined the modern conversation about religion in the public sphere. This is the intellectual battle royale, the academic steal-cage death match, of our time. So, Guttings promise to reconcile these two strains of thought in a single personhis selffinds him trading-in his Clark Kent glasses for a Superman cape in the world of ideas. What is more, he does not propose to reconcile just any generic enlightenment with Catholicism, but the Enlightenment of Voltaire, Hume, and the founders of the American Republic [by which I assume he means Jefferson]. This is an important detail of Guttings set-up, because not all seventeenth- and eighteenth-century enlighteners were created equal when it comes to the philosophical hospitality that they extended to religion. And Gutting, true to form, proposes to take on the least hospitable.This is important for understanding Guttings metaphysical agnosticism, which Matt rightly identified as the Archimedean point by which Gutting proposes to lift his Catholicism out of the dark ages of superstition and into the light of contemporary philosophical credibility. It will be enough in this response to take up just one of Guttings radical enlightenersDavid Hume.
Matt generously summarizes Guttings metaphysical agnosticism as preserving the space of uncertainty that might, indeed, be necessary for faith. Fair enough. But what does it mean to be certain? I can be certain that 2+2=4. I can be certain that the sun will rise tomorrow. I can be certain that I love my wife. I can also have been certain about something that turned out to be wrong: But I was certain that you were going to be there! For the philosophers of the Enlightenment, the important question had to do with the constraints placed on claims to certainty, and in Hume, Gutting has chosen the enlightener who placed perhaps the narrowest constraints on what could count as a proper claim to be certain. For Hume, all ideas must be traced back to impressions that come to us through sense perception, if we are to be certain about them. Beyond this, once an impression enters the mind as an idea its vividness begins to degrade, such that only the most immediate connection between impressions and ideas can be the most certain.Famously, this meant that, for Hume, cause and effect could never be something about which we could be certain, because causes are only connections that the mind draws between ideas. They are not objects about which we can have sensory impressions, and therefore could never be vivid enough as ideas to aspire to the level of knowledge. I can never know that one billiard ball striking another causes the second billiard ball to move. I can only observe the motion of one and then the subsequent motion of the other. Humes account of certainty then is a rather blunt instrument: either I am currently having an impression of something that is creating a vivid idea in my mind about which I can claim certainty or I have a fading notion of somethings having been or some connection between ideas that may or may not have any foundation in sense experience and thus no certainty. It is with this butter-knife epistemology that Gutting proposes to do metaphysical brain surgery. A rational defense of religion with one arm tied behind his back. A philosophical hole-in-one with a pitching wedge. Awell...you get the idea.Given Humes account of certainty, it is no wonder that Gutting must remain agnostic about metaphysics. Hume is notoriously agnostic about everything. He attributes observations concerning the laws of nature to custom and moral claims to a certain feeling that we bestow upon certain behaviors. Certainty is not something that I can properly attribute to all sorts of claims from the sun will rise tomorrow to I love my wife to murder is wrong. We can say, Based on my recollection of past impressions, the sun is likely to rise tomorrow. Or, Based on customary interpretations of the way I feel and behave when my wife is around, one might say that I love her. Or, Based on the relative sense of aversion that people feel to witnessing the wanton killing of innocents, murder is icky.As these last two examples indicate, however, Humes philosophy does not just pose a problem for metaphysics, about which Gutting is happy to be agnostic, but it also undermines any commitment to the two things about which Gutting claims not to be agnostic: an ethics of love and conscience. Thankfully, Hume is not the only philosophical offering on the Enlightenment buffet. His slightly younger contemporary Immanuel Kant quickly saw that Humes radical skepticism, though decidedly admirable for its philosophical scrupulousness, would undermine certain practices that we simply cannot seem to doubt. This includes sensory experience itself, which requires the category of cause and effect in order to gather what are otherwise discrete and chaotic impressions into the unified world that is assumed by just about everything we do. Similarly, our moral practices require some notion of freedom, otherwise there would be no reason to hold ourselves or anyone else responsible for anything. For our purposes, this notion of transcendental freedom will suffice if we want to rescue Guttings notion of conscience from Humes skepticism.Gutting wants to go even further than Kant, however, who was relatively happy to simply preserve the most basic and uncontroversial practices of natural science and common sense ethics by positing some very minimal supersensible notions. Gutting wants an ethics of love. Traditionally, I think we can say that love is distinguished from other normative concepts, like law, by three features:1) It involves a commitment that goes beyond, but does not exclude, publicly accessible modes of accountability, like democratic deliberation or autocratic command. If I loved my wife only because I was commanded to do so or because it was decided that I should by popular vote, we would hardly call what I was doing loving. Rather, love involves some internal commitment that cannot be judged empirically; at least in the way that Hume understands such judgment.2) Love is particular. I love this person as my spouse and not just any old spouse. Of course, this is controversial, even in Christian ethics, since we are called to love all of our neighbors, including those that might be considered enemies, and as such, the love we are called to seems to be universal. However, as universal, it would seem also to be generic. I dont have to love John as a unique individual; I only have to love him as an instance of neighbor. This is where the (dare I say, metaphysical) specificity of Christ, about which Gutting seems agnostic, becomes important. If Christ is the model for this ethics of love, then we have to love all people as Christ loved them, i.e. in their particularity. Of course, Christ is not the only model of this kind of universally specific love, but the more general philosophical claim involved in the doctrine of the Incarnation, i.e. that the universal is the particular and vice versa, is one that cannot be ignored, if we are talking about love.3) Lastly, love trumps all other commitments, including self-preservation. Once again, this is controversial, and it requires us to invoke Christ as a model, but not exclusively. If I claim to love someone, I am not simply saying that I will consider this commitment when it is convenient for me or expected by my normative community or commanded by some other authority. Rather, I organize my whole life around that commitment such that it is regulatory for all of my other commitments. This is what love is. For Christians, the Cross is the image of this radically supervenient commitment: To love is to love unto death. Once again, we are confronted with the kind of commitment that extends beyond the bounds of what Hume would consider to be properly rational, insofar as it literally takes us beyond the bounds of sense into that realm where eye has not seen and ear has not heard. Again, Christ is not the only model of self-sacrifice, but it is difficult for me to see how self-sacrifice does not involve a metaphysical commitment to some thing that exists beyond the bounds of what Hume would consider to be certain.As Kant said of Humes continued commitment to science and common sense ethics, I submit that Guttings metaphysical agnosticism cannot maintain a rational commitment to his ethics of love. He might retreat to a pious celebration of romantic sentimentalism or love as a custom, but in that case, he has simply chosen Hume over Christianity, even when the latter is translated into a non-sectarian ethics of love. All he is left with is a kind of semantic love and a semantic Catholicism. On this account, all professions of love only report a certain correspondence between ones behavior and some publicly available definition of the word lovee.g., As the poet would say, I love you. Mutatis mutandis, all professions of faith mark a similar correspondence between my behavior and the observable social practice called Catholic. This strikes me as a rather desiccated account of love (and Catholicism), and in Kants sense, one that does not quite correspond to the practice of loving in which we seem spontaneously to engage. In short, love (and Catholicism) is metaphysical (the rest is just semantics).To bring this rather long discussion to a close, I should say that Humes is indeed a respectable position, as is the kind of nominal Catholicism that Gutting affirms. By all accounts, Hume was a perfectly decent guy. After a long day of speculatively dismantling his rational belief in his own "self," for example, he claimed to unwind by playing backgammon and dining in the company of friends. As they say, he was the kind of guy that you would want to have a beer with, and, I would add, the kind of parishioner any pastor should be happy to count as a member of the congregation (no excommunication necessary!). He also seems to have been pretty moral. After all, sentiments can get you pretty far. Thankfully, not too many of us find it agreeable to witness the wanton killing of innocents (or, for that matter, the guilty). In this sense, the new atheists are absolutely right to say that the metaphysical doctrines that many religions affirm are in no way necessary for common sense notions of ethics (but, of course, Thomas Aquinas account of natural reason already beat them to this particular punch). But, what about an ethics of love? An ethics that is grounded in the reasons of the heart? An ethics that is able to recognize every person in his or her particularity. An ethics that will go all the way, pay the ultimate price, stake being itself? What, I ask, could be more metaphysical?
About the Author
Eric Bugyis teaches Religious Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma.
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While I think Hume was technically correct, Kant was more realistic. He agreed that some things, like the existence of God, are unprovable, but that we all still cast our votes for these things with our actions. There's a great video lecture by Keith Ward on Kant and he says Kant described faith like this ... "The practical forces you to a decision that theoretically you can't make. - theoretical agnosticism but practical commitment." He says that though we can't prove we have some moral obligations, like love of the kind Jesus had for everyone, Kant says we still act as if those obligations do exist - example: Martin Luther saying "Here I stand. I can do no other."http://fora.tv/2008/03/13/Keith_Ward_on_Kants_Triumph_of_Idealism
Two notes --Hume was a jolly guy, but I wouldn't call him "perfectly decent". He thought, for instance, that adultery is OK if you don't get caught. This seems to be predicated on the princple that what is evil is what makes someone else feel bad. For Hume, in the end all value is a matter of feeling.A metaphysical note: transcendental notions (including thing, being, one, true, good, beautiful) are *not* a variety of genus (general class). They do not have a super-universal sense, though their referents include all beings. Genera leave out specific differences. The transcendentals leave out nothing that is real. They are (according to the ancients) characteristics or ways of understanding *all* things. And it seems to me that love, insofar as it is a feeling/affection which is attracted to every good, is a transcendental feeling. The problem, of course, is that not all beings seem to be good, and, therefore, they are not all lovable. By the way, that word "feeling" is ambiguous. In philosophy it can mean only the sensory, lower level attractions and animosities directed at sensory things, or it can include higher level/spiritual "emotions". Hume, admitting the reality of *only* sensory data and knowledge, cannot possibly reach the level of the non-sensory. Most conspicuously, when he looks among his sensory data he can't find anything that is a "self", so he concludes there really isn't even a self, there is only a "bundle of perceptions" one calls "myself". (Very Buddhist of him.) And out goes higher level love, intellect, choice, and all the other realities that a closer look at the data in consciousness reveals if one looks carefully enough. He doesn't even reflect on the "consciousness of..." stuff which is different from the objects of consciousness. All of this remains problematic for all of the citizens of Enlightenmentland. It is also why (my broken record starts to play again) Nagel's apostasy from such thinking is so important -- he breaks with the great purely sensory tradition of the Enlightenment, using the very *method* of the Enlightenment, i.e., critical thinking.
Ann: Thanks for your comment. All of this metaphysical stuff gets pretty complicated very quickly. I don't know the ancients and medievals as well. But I think it's safe to say that for Hume anything supersensible was metaphysical, and anything supersensible was not real. Kant wanted to carve out a space between the physically sensible and the metaphysically supersensible, with his notion of "transcendental." The "transcendental" was physical (in a sense) in so far as it was the condition of the possiblity for some spatio-temporal practice (e.g. freedom makes morality possible), but it was also supersensible insofar as he granted Hume (who famously "woke him from his dogmatic slumber") the point that such "transcendentals" were not available to intuition. This is to say that there is no "intellectual" sense that perceives (has an impression of) "freedom." (This is where Kant departs from the ancients and medievals, I think.) It is simply what must be presupposed by moral practice, which we can perceive as "real" in space and time. The question is: Is Kant's "transcendental" also "metaphysical"? Hume would say, "yes." Later critics of Kant, like Heidegger, would say, "yes." I think Kant would say that the "transcendental" necessarily leads to the metaphysical (the transcendent) as something like the condition of its possibility. If finite freedom makes morality possible, what makes finite freedom possible? A supremely free being (i.e. God). All that's important for my response to Gutting, however, is that *Hume* would have thought the "transcendental" is "metaphysical." Thus, if love is a transcendental, as you say, on Hume's account, it is still metaphysical. For what it's worth, I agree with those that say that Kant's notion of the "transcendental" is "metaphysical," since freedom, for example, is either real or it isn't. When I make moral judgments, I'm not just assuming for the sake of argument that someone is free; I am performatively claiming that they are free even though I cannot immediately preceive this freedom. So, I am affirming a reality that excedes my spatio-temporally limited capacities to know. This is what most theologians would probably call faith, and it is decidedly *not* agnosticism.
Crystal: Thanks for your comment. I agree on the Hume versus Kant adjudication, but with one important caveat. Hume is "technically correct," if you grant his "technical" account of certainty as confined to immediate sense impressions. Though, I suggested in the original post that this might be an overly scrupulous account of certainty, which is philosophically not very helpful. Thus, Kant is more realistic, because he can account for more of our reality. I am less comfortable calling Kant "theoretically agnostic," but (pace Ward) I realize this is a controversial point in Kant interpretation. My uncomfortability is related to my worry about Hume being "technically correct." Kant might be "theoretically agnostic," if you mean by "agnostic" the absence of knowledge, and you define knowledge as immediate sense impression. But, of course, for Kant, unlike Hume, there are lots of things (like cause and effect) that Kant thinks are philosophically very important. So, again "theological agnosticism" doesn't do much for us except to indicate that I am most certain about what I am perceiving right now, but that accounts for a very small part of our "experience."As for love, here I will have to now disagree with Ann, who said that love was a "transcendental." At least, for Kant, I don't think it can be, as I tried to indicate in the orginal post. Kant cannot quite get us to "love of the kind Jesus had," because he would be very uncomfortable with a kind of obligation that is radically subject-centered, particularly oriented, and supervenient. For him the practical life must be public, universal, and embraced as an end in itself, which is to say it cannot allow for any teleological suspension for the sake of any higher ends (like love). For Kant, a "hear I stand" position (like Luther's) would be morally untenable, because you couldn't demand that all people act that way. If everyone was going around claiming, "Here I stand; I can do no other," then everyone would be claiming a kind of immunity from moral judgment on the grounds of something like personal vocation, and morality as a universal practice would fall apart.I think you are right, though, that love has this character, and it also has the character that we love who we love irrespective of their goodness (or, at least, God loves them that way, and we are called to love as God loves). This is where Ann and I might also disagree. For Kant, this would be somewhat monsterous, since the good simply is what is embraced for its own sake without any extra commitment (i.e., love). So, there ought to be no question of a supramoral love as the condition of the possibility (the "transcendental") for embracing the whole system of good and evil that we call human morality. And yet, human beings do seem to need such a love, which is to say that we do ask the rather monstrous question: Why be moral? In this sense, it seems that we cannot help but be metaphysically curious, which again does not seem to be the same thing as being "metaphysically agnostic."
Eric =It's very difficult to compare medieval and modern philosophers because they often use the same physical symbols (e.g., "metaphysical", "transcendental") but the *senses* they associate with the symbols are rarely the same or even much alike. For the Greeks and medievals the "transcendentals" are concepts/notions which one way or another describe *all* beings, including all the purely material ones all the way up to God. For the moderns the "transcendent" generally connotes only that which is beyond the material, and includes it includes the spiritual (if such exists), Yes, Kant tried to salvage physics (he began as a physicist, not a philosopher), but I don't think he managed to save it. In some ways I think he's philosophically naive, as are most of the moderns who typically don't know the progress, clarifications, and new problems raised by their ancients. (Few of them knew what went on between the Greeks andDescartes.) Consider Kant's own notion of the categorical imperative -- it's not describable in physical terms, yet he naively grants that it's quite real. Even his own system shouldn't allow him to do that. One thing that most of the philosophers seem to agree about (besides the value of logic) is that there is indeed a physical level of reality. (Even those who think that every reality is mental think that there are mental things that are dimensional in some way. See Berkeley, for instance,) The big chasm is between the materialists (called "reductionists" these days) and the dualists (those who think there is evidence of both matter and spirit). Those who think that the *only* kind of data we have is physical data hold that we are never warranted in positing anything beyond this physical physical, ie. nothing transcendent in their sense of the term. In effect, they define reality as physical reality, thereby defining spirits, including God, out of the realm of possibility. What surprises me about Gutting is his apparent "agnosticism" about the spiritual dimension. Has he never done a phenomenological analysis of the data within his own consciousness and found some realities that can neither be seen, heard,smelled, tasted, etc? Does he, for instance, deny any knowledge of the reality of acts of choice? It seems to me that choice is a free act and that we know it directly -- our choosing is simply there. If he does admit we know choosing, that would seem to be inconsistent with his great appreciation of "the ethics of love"? And what about his view of logical realities? Does he consider logical concepts to somehow be sensory realities? Or is he agnostic about them too? Since the development of contemporary logic the philosophers of logic and math have been forced to look again at the logical/metaphysical concepts of necessity, contingency and possibility (which has ironically turned some of them into metaphysicians!). Surely Gutting doesn't think that all possibilities are actual sensory entities of some sort? And what about Frege's argument that an intellectual act of negation is itself a spiritual reality, being a non-physical act, i.e., one which can neither be seen, touched, tasted, etc.? Frege, of course, was (GASP!!!) a Platonist, but the contemporaries tolerate him because of his giant status as mathematician and logician. (More inconsistency on the part of the contemporary champions of Enlightenment skepticism,) I wonder what Gutting learned in his "metaphysics" and epistemology classes in college. True, if he went to a Catholic college in the old days his courses in all probability were not set up to consider the epistemological problems posed by Hume. (I think that in fact Hume's problems have not all been solved. But at least a few of them have.) Still, given Gutting's emphasis on love (some types of which are non-sensory realities) I cannot understand why he is agnostic about the transcendent. You don't have to believe in God and angles to know the spiritual reality of some human acts. They alone can take you past physics and biology. True, we don't understand everything about all spiritual realities, but we do know something about them. The apophatic way has its merits, but it's not the whole story.
Eric,Thanks for the response. BTW, I liked your past Kant post, The Parallax of American Religion, also.I only had one class in college on Kant and we spent the whole semester trying to understand just the introduction of the Critique of Pure Reason ;) Since college I've been trying to catch up with help from the internet, stuff like this video on Kant from Susan Neiman ... http://youtu.be/qDbzcoW_5VU .... And there were some of the Harvard Justice class videos on Jant too: this one on Kant and freedom ... http://youtu.be/8rv-4aUbZxQ ... and this one on Kant and lying ... http://youtu.be/KqzW0eHzDSQ ... but still, I have to struggle to understand all this stuff.
Ann: Thanks for the very helpful response. I appreciate the difficulty in comparing the medievals and moderns. My teacher Denys Turner is always suspicious that Kant is just trying (and probably failing) to reinvent the wheel that Thomas Aquinas already built. Though I do think that something happened in the Enlightenment (as you say, Hume's problems are still with us), and therefore we do need a new philosophical wheel. I don't think Kant gets everything right, but I think he has some tools to think about the place of religion in modern society, and they are better tools than Gutting's particular enlighteners seem to have.So, I think we might still quibble over some things (e.g. I'm not sure that we have *direct* knowledge of "things" like choosing (which is not to say that we have no epistemic access to them), and I would want to more clearly distinguish between the apophatic and the agnostic), but we absolutely agree about the untenability of holding onto "metaphysical agnosticism" and an "ethics of love."Crystal: Thanks for your response. It's always nice to find another Kant enthusiast. As you say, he is very difficult, but I find him endlessly fascinating!
Eric ==I admire a lot of Kant, but i think that ultimately he didn't save the objectivity of sensory perception. I think that it can't be saved, not to Hume's satisfaction, but that isn't too important. What is important,I think, is our experience, however cloudy of certain spiritual givens (e.g., self, concepts, acts of the will), and these do allow metaphysics in the Aristotelian sense to be developed. An unpopular notion these days, but it seems that the worm is turning. I'm with the rationalists, Greek, medieval, Enlightened, or contemporary, so long as they grant the limits of logic in dealing with the transcendentals (in the Greek, medieval sense of the term). Lucky you to have had Denys Turner! Great scholar:-) And speaking of Turner, I think that negation -- or should I say the *concept* of negation (which sounds like an oxymoron) is at the root of a lot of our metaphysical problems. But the new Aquinas will have to clarify that whole area. (Hmm. I don't know what Thomas had to say on the subject, but I do know that Scotus said, "We do not love negations best". Double hmmm.)
Ann: Yes, I feel very blessed to have been able to work with Denys, who is both an amazing scholar and just a all-around great person. I agree with you about the importance of "negation." There is still much more to be said (or *not*... or *un*-said) about it. Thanks!
According Matthew Boudways interpretation of Gary Guttings On Being Catholic, a reflective and honest intellectual, believes some of the churchs teachings but not others, and some of the ones he believes may require a bit of reinterpretation. Did I miss the part where Gutting signs the Cafeteria Catholic Manifesto? Gutting is then accused of metaphysical agnosticism. This is a screeching non sequitur. Boudway should re-read Guttings text. Gutting is simply trying to say that theistic metaphysics should not be read literally. Indeed. Nothing should be read literally. Is metaphysical agnosticism wrong? Where does St. Thomas say that we can know God directly? Is the current of thought exemplified by the metaphysics of Nicolai Hartmann all wrong? Without denying anyone the right to practice metaphysical gnosticism, Id like to point out that it is also known as fundamentalism. According to Guttings accommodating definition of Catholicism, Boudway tells us, one could presumably still be a Catholic while believing that the story of Christs Resurrection is a parable. Gutting doesnt say that. Gutting says: The historical stories, I maintain, are best taken as parables illustrating moral and metaphysical teachings. Where does he mention Christs Resurrection? To make things worse, Boudway confuses content and from. By definition, Christs Resurrection cannot be a parable. A parable can only be an utterance about the Resurrection. Undeterred, Boudway continues: One could even remain a Catholic while claiming to be agnostic about the Trinity or, for that matter, the existence of God. Is Boudway implying that believing in the Trinity is not enough, that indirect knowledge of God is not good enough, if one desires to remain a card-carrying Catholic? Are we witnessing the rise of a new dogmatism which will condemn the writings of Gary Gutting, a serious Catholic philosopher, to the Index librorum prohibitorum? In that case, I will hasten to buy all of his books, before some new intellectual Savonarola decides to take matters into his hands. According to Boudway, Gutting knows there are lots of people both inside and outside the Church who would say that what he is describing isnt really Catholicism. There was a time when the writings of Aquinas were rejected as not really Catholic. Fortunately, the Church ultimately ruled against his narrow-minded enemies. Indeed, it is not up to self-proclaimed church ideologues to rule who gets to be Catholic. Being Catholic is not an ideological issue. Despite its flaws, writes Gutting, the Catholic tradition of thought and practice is the only stance toward religion with which I feel at home.Boudways reaction to this moving, heartfelt statement is stunningly arrogant: Whatever the strength of Guttings argument for remaining a Catholic if thats the only religious tradition one has ever known, it does not appear to furnish an excuse, much less a reason, for becoming a Catholic. This is not an argument! Gutting talks about feeling at home. Having, once again, misunderstood Gutting, Boudway allows him to stay. The native heretic will be grudgingly tolerated, but not the immigrant. In other words, a convert, such as Ross Douthat, may not use Guttings arguments to justify his conversion. A true orgy of hubris and arrogance!
Zoran: I think the question is how does one distinguish between "metaphysical agnosticism" and a kind of philosophical apathy toward metaphysics? Hume seems to leave us with the later, at least if Kant is to be believed. Kant, though, was no metaphysical dogmatist. He would agree with Thomas that we can have no knowledge of God, but he did say that we could have "rational belief" concerning metaphysical claims (indeed, we have to have such belief). So, the problem is that the categories of "agnosticism/gnosticism" are simply to blunt to be philosophically helpful when parsing metaphysical claims. They are always going to say too much or too little, and I'm afraid that Gutting says too little.


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Everyone knows that the cute, fuzzy critters from Return of the Jedi are called the Ewoks... but how does everyone know that? If you watch the movie carefully, you'll notice that they never use the name anywhere. So where does the name come from?
George Lucas was sued by a guy named Dean Preston, who claimed
Lucas testified in court that
Wookiepedia explains:
No idea when they first appeared but there were two movies that featured Ewoks in them that came out shortly after the movie did. Here are some links.
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
Also according to wikipedia,


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CHS Cross-Country will be strong again
Colville High lost some significant talent off last season's State 1A runner-up boy's team and a strong girl's contingent. But the Indians have enough returning talent and some talented newcomers who should make one of the top Class A programs competitive once again. Early-on, veteran head coach Dean Fischer is talking a lot about "rebuilding." And how could blame him. CHS lost state competitors Colton Hastings and Alaina Kowitz to graduation. "You can't expect to replace the speed and endurance of Colton Hastings, or the quiet leadership of Alaina Kowitz…or the commitment of a Jake Nielsen, overnight. But that said, we fully expect to be a very good cross-country team. I am excited to finally get the season underway." Season opener Colville opened official practice sessions on Monday. The Indians will open the season on Sept. 7 at Chewelah Golf & Country Club with the Chewelah Jamboree. The first official meet of the season will come Saturday, Sept. 10 when the Indians head to Spokane and the big Meadlander Invitational. The road to the top of the NEA will be a tough one again for Colville. Looming is defending State 1A boy's champion Lakeside. The Eagles will return a solid nucleus of runners and all the key elements of their state championship team. On the girl's side, Riverside returns its entire 2010 state championship squad and, like Lakeside, will be a favorite to repeat at Pasco and State. Coach Fischer says he hopes his boys come into camp hungry. "I think they felt they missed an opportunity to grab a little history last fall when Lakeside bit us at State," Fischer said. "While most teams would be ecstatic with second place, these guys felt they had the brass ring within their grasp and let it slip away. We will see what kind of motivation last year's misstep in the big dance might provide. The guys clearly have the talent to make every race interesting." Look for Colville to rely more on a pack mentality and less on individual speed this fall. Pack mentality "It's not like we don't have plenty of speed," Fischer said. "We do. But we will try and better use our speed by pulling our middle runners closer to the leaders." Back in 2005, Fischer's boys utilized a well-organized pack to run away with the school's only state championship. "I think we have the pieces to do very well, but we have to remember it is literally a million strides to November and anything can happen." Leading the Colville boys will be the potent duo of sophomore Kevin Carpenter and senior Biagio Pietroburgo. Piegroburgo experienced an up and down season last year where he filled the consolation spot behind Hastings, who is now running for the University of Idaho. "Biagio has as much talent and ability as any runner Colville has ever produced," Fischer said. "He has the ability to be a legend. It is simply a matter of desire." There is no doubt that Carpenter will push Pietroburgo this fall. As a freshman, Carpenter was quickly tagged as the second best freshman in the state. "Kevin demonstrates an uncommon knowledge of running and the strategies involved," Fischer said of his talented sophomore. "We expect the lessons he learned last season will pay big dividends this fall." According to Fischer, senior Ethan Cabbage, a track and field standout for CHS, "is a gifted student who has the distinction of also being a talented athlete. "Ethan has demonstrated moments of running brilliance, but is yet to put a string of races together," his coach said, adding that he hopes that two medals Cabbage captured at last spring's state track and field championship at Eastern Washington University will provide the springboard he needs this fall. He and teammate Chris Lane are keys to CHS success this fall. Key contributors There is a general feeling in the Colville cross-country camp that if Lane and Cabbage run to their potential, the Indians will be in the mix when November and the post-season arrive. "I remember Chris (Lane) walking into practice as a freshman. Immediately you knew he was a great kid, but he showed us no signs that he would ever become a good runner, let alone a highly competitive runner. But here were are three years later and Chris has become a tremendous runner. His work ethic and desire to succeed are outstanding." Lane will likely run in the three or four spot for the Indians, but will be pushing the leaders hard. He will find himself challenged by junior Dylan Schanz and sophomores Elijah Michaelson and Noah Baum. Both Schanz and Michaelson ran varsity most of last season and earned themselves a trip to State. Schanz, one of the top swimmers in the Northwest, will rely on his athletic ability and gritty determination to make him a force on area cross-country courses. Michaelson is expected to come into camp with the cardio capacity to quickly build some needed mileage and improve his base. Baum will be coming into camp off a successful track campaign. A couple of wildcards for the boys are the brothers Korovnik—Roman and Sergei. "Last season, Roman sat out with a broken leg, while Sergei spent a lot of his energy and time trying to bridge a language barrier and understand what cross-country was all about. "I remember Sergei's first race last year," Fischer said. "It was about a mile-and-a-half in when we realized he had no idea about the official distance. He was running with the leaders and we kept waiting for him to hit the wall. He finished in the top 10…I really expect this may be both boys breakout seasons. If even one of these two run to their potential, we will be faster than a lot of other teams." On the girl's side, Fischer admits there are some question marks. "We are in a down cycle," he said. "We are just not getting the numbers of girls out that we need. While we see some rain at the end of the drought, we think we will still have another year of rebuilding and recruitment." Fischer hopes that Kowitz's heir apparent, senior Alison Price, is ready to lead the girls into the season. Kettle Crest 100 "Alison is a very good athlete who has worked hard to make herself a competitive runner," Fischer said. "Again this season, she should be running among the leaders." Price, recently wanting to test her limits of endurance, ran 100 miles over the Kettle Crest. Junior Dianna Mikheyeva will return for another season. "Dianna showed a lot of promise last year. She is like an Energizer Bunnny and her attitude is a big asset for her." The Rogers sisters, Aubrey and Megan, should be a tough combination. Entering her senior season, Aubrey will be expected to run up front with the leaders, while little sister Megan may just make an early mark. Junior Jill Fenno returns and is stronger than ever, according to her coach. "She has worked as hard as any runner I have ever coached," Fischer said. "She has run nearly non-stop for two years. Her work ethic is exceptional and her quiet demeanor and leadership by example are admirable." Any talk around the Northeast A and in State A ranks pretty much starts with defending champion Lakeside (boys). The Eagles will be the team to beat in the NEA and will be a State favorite as well. "They will enter the season top-ranked," Fischer said, adding that his Indians will also garner early accolades and could be ranked as high as number two in the boy's top 10. Of course, early rankings mean nothing. Talk to Fischer in November. Riverside will also be strong. The Rams have spent a couple of years rebuilding their boys program. On the girl's side, the easy favorites are Lakeside and Riverside. "We are hoping we can be in the mix (girls) in late October and November," Fischer said. "If our kids want it badly enough, it will happen. They have the talent and ability. It is just a matter of putting it all into a package that works. We also have some incoming freshmen boys and girls we believe we can build a solid future with. I am pretty confident that Colville will make its presence felt and may surprise a few people. As always, the season will be one heck of a run."


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Playbuilder Project
In 2007 Ed Balls, following on from the National Play Strategy announced Government Funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to 'build or upgrade more than 3,500 play areas across the country'.
- Part of this funding has come through to Birmingham under the 'Playbuilder' Project. This consists of 2 years of funding to upgrade play provision: 11 sites during 2009-2010 and 11 the following year.
- The emphasis of the Playbuilder Project is on creating play provision for the 8 to 13 year old age group. The feature should be as naturalistic as possible, should be challenging and should provide for variations in the local young population eg disabled children, new arrivers and majority ethnic groups in the neighbourhood.
- The schemes are being designed by The Landscape Practice Group – Birmingham City Council's in-house design service.
- Play England are facilitating and monitoring the Playbuilder project and will be expecting to see a very high level of evaluation and consultation involving local children. Council Officers from each Constituency with expertise in Play provision will be leading on these consultations with the co-operation of project designers and local community groups and charitable organisations. Each of the projects has already been assigned to a Landscape Architect.
Year 1 sites have been selected as follows:
1 Senneleys Park
2 Warren Farm (Conker) Island
3 Larches Green
4 Ward End Park
5 Kingston Hill Recreation Ground
6 Fiveways Pocket Park – match funding
7 Red Hill Grove
8 Sandwell Recreation Ground match funding
9 Hazelwell Park
10 Springfield Crescent, Stephens Road POS
11 The Ackers
12 Berkeley Road match funding
Year 2 sites will be selected during the next few months. They are likely to be unevenly spread across the Constituencies according to gaps in provision. It is also a requirement of the Playbuilder Grant that we explore the possibility of targeting some of the funding towards the voluntary and charitable sectors.
Watch out for further bulletins and updates


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Im mathematics there is a concept of infinity meaning that whenever you pick a number and say that it is the smallest/Largest there is a way to further reduce/increase that number by subtracting/adding any other number.
But in physics/chemistry i see that the absolute temperature does not have a negative reading and the lowest temperature is $0 K$.
What is the proof that temperatures below zero cannot exist?


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Howard's Cams Twin Bears Digger - Twin Bears - Hot RodsWritten by on August 2, 2010 Contributors: The Hot Rod Archives, Zane McNarry A Hero Of The Quarter-Mile Is Reborn In This Tribute To The Legendary Howard's Cams Special/Twin Bears Digger.
Vintage drag racing is one of the hottest segments of the hot rodding world right now. Don't believe it? Go check out either of the NHRA Hot Rod Reunions, the March Meet, or any number of other nostalgia races and see for yourself. Everything from diggers to Funny Cars to Gassers is dusted off, brought out to the track, and either raced or cackled in a tribute to what most people consider the glory days of drag racing.
One notable recent display was that which we reported on in the June '10 issue-the 50th Annual NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California. As part of the NHRA's '10 season opener, a special corral was set up to honor a group of historic old drag cars and re-creations thereof to remind old guys how it used to be and to educate the young'uns on where the sport came from. One of the tastiest specimens in the Golden 50 stable of historic cars, notable since it won the very first Winternationals, was the Howard's Cams Special, later known as the Twin Bears (often mistakenly referred to in the singular).
Cam, crankshaft, and cylinder head manufacturer Howard Johansen's twin-engine rail ran a pair of poked and stroked 283 Chevys and sat in a rigid, homebuilt, 100-inch-wheelbase chassis. The car was built in 1958, originally with three two-barrels on each engine and weighing 1,350 pounds. After a few outings in that configuration, they stuck on two 4-71 blowers (each with four Stromberg 97 carbs), then put single AFBs on the blowers and finally two-hole Hilborn injectors by 1960.
While Glen Ward was the first guy to race the car, followed by Jack Chrisman, the very first dude behind the wheel was Lonnie Butts. Howard's son Donnie Johansen told us that on the first pass off the trailer at Long Beach, the car did a giant wheelstand, after which they put it back on the trailer and Lonnie politely said, "No thanks." From 1958 through most of 1960, the team barnstormed around the West Coast led by Howard's oldest son, Jerry, and with driver Glen Ward. In 1959 they were headed to the Nationals in Detroit when they stopped in Oklahoma City to test and ended up crashing the car, sending Glen to the hospital and the dragster back to California.
After they fixed the car in 1960, Jack Chrisman took over the driving duties for the '61 season and won the very first Winternationals (running 8.99 at 170 mph). After that, the travel schedule got a little more intense. Jack had a trick (at the time) enclosed trailer that opened at both ends and was sponsored by Valvoline, and the team went on the road in the spring of 1961 and didn't come back to their home base in Southern California until October.
After the '61 season, Jack stepped out of the car and Glen got back in it. A first-round loss at the '62 Winternationals kind of took the wind out of everyone's sails, and they didn't race it much after that, but the car was not quite done yet. Fellow racer Dave McKenzie had built a virtual clone to the Twin Bears, but it was either apart or broken, so he borrowed the Howard's Spl. for a race in Texas and promptly wadded it up. The usable leftover parts were stuck in the attic at Howard's Cams and collected dust for the next 48 years. That's when Mike Cook got involved.
The son of Doug Cook of the legendary Stone-Woods-Cook Gasser fame, Mike is quite a historian of drag and land speed racing and a restorer of landmark cars in each genre, including the Summers Bros.' Golden Rod (Nov. '07 issue). "Howard Johansen bought my dad's '37 Chevy back in the day, and the relationship grew from that," Mike says. "I had talked to Donnie Johansen about re-creating the car and offered to build the chassis as payback for Howard being so good to the Cook family."
Donnie dug what old parts he had out of the attic and brought them and some tubing to Mike's backyard shop, along with a front axle fabricated by Dode Martin of Dragmasters fame. Mike and a gang of helpers (including Mike Jr., Billy Hodges, and Gary Garcia, among others) cranked out the repro digger in six weeks. The deadline was the 50th Winternationals and a spot in the Golden 50 Corral-NHRA's Steve Gibbs told Mike, "If it's not at the Winters, don't even bother building it."
The car had gone through a few visual changes in its racing years, and Mike says, "Donnie had so many old photos that it was hard deciding which version to do." They ultimately, and we think wisely, built the new car as a tribute to the '61 Winters-winning, Chrisman-driven version, complete with the plywood mounted over the front framerails.
They got it done in time-sorta. There are still some of the smaller details that need to be finished to make the car Cacklefest ready. Donnie's goal is to fire it up at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, around the time this issue hits the stands.
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
This shows how the engines sync together: The flywheels are meshed, and note that one engine is reversed so the flywheel is on the crank snout. We're amazed that the ring gears on the flywheels held up, but Donnie says he doesn't remember ever replacing one of them. One secret of the car is that they had five different driveshafts and torque tubes depending on track conditions. On a good track, they put a longer driveshaft in it and slid the motors forward in the chassis.The car was back at Inyokern in November 1960, as seen here in a photo that gives a look at how the clutch setup appeared when new. Driver Jack Chrisman reset the AA/Dragster record at 9.07.The maroon paint scheme (sprayed by Timmy at West Coast Collision) and nose board are as the car looked prior to 1961, at which point Jack Chrisman built the cleaner-looking nose piece and painted it white with blue flames. The 16-foot ring-slot chute is a very early Deist unit. Donnie bought a new set of 12.00x16 M&H slicks and mounted them to the original Halibrand wheels. The 15-inch front wheels from American Racing are not the originals but are the same as the originals.The brutally simple fuel system consists of a line from the front-mounted Moon tank to this beltdriven Scot pump, and then a line from the pump to the motor.Avoiding one major hassle of re-creating the car was that Donnie still had the coupler to mount a flywheel to the front of the lefthand small-block, which is turned around backward. The engines mesh together at this point, and a clutch is attached to the right-side engine.The 4-71 blowers are the original pieces, as are one of the blower manifolds, the Howard's blower drives, the injectors (with new scoops), and all four Howard's aluminum cylinder heads. Built in late 1960, the heads sold for $499 a pair, complete.At the '60 NHRA Nationals in Detroit, the team didn't place, but curiously ran 167.59 mph-the exact same mph as the top competitor Dragmaster team with the Two Thing digger.
By the time of the '61 Nationals, the car had the new nose and was called Twin Bears. It went 9.22 at 165.44. Jack was the points champ that year and won a new Thunderbird.


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Johnson named to Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
Dorothy A. Johnson, noted philanthropist and namesake of Grand Valley's Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, will be inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame on October 30 at a ceremony in East Lansing.
Johnson is one of a dozen honorees who will be recognized at the event.
Johnson has served as a trustee and chair of the Grand Valley Board of Trustees, and served as the president and CEO of the Council of Michigan Foundations from 1975 to 2000. She also served as chair of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Two U.S. presidents have appointed her to the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. She is also a former member of the board of National City Bank Corporation and AAA-Michigan.
Johnson remains extremely involved in the community and continues to serve many philanthropic organizations. She was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grand Rapids Economic Club in 2009, and was awarded the Distinguished Grantmaker of the Year award from the Council on Foundations in 2000.
Johnson has been recognized as a Woman of Achievement by the Michigan Women's Foundation and honored as the Counterpoint Woman of the Year. She is a member of the Grand Valley Hall of Fame, and also received an honorary degree.


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If given a youtube video, where one part of the video is normal, and the other part is sped up so slightly that it's hard to notice... is there a technical way of proving that it is sped up or not?
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There is unfortunally (or maybe fortunally) no way to see if it is slowed down or sped up if done properly. What you have to look for is their movements. I'm not a guitar player, so I can't tell if it is real, but I think it sounded and looked real.
If you study the people there you can see that they move pretty natural. You can see on several occations that they blink in normal speed, but you also see that the main guitar player looks from place to place pretty rapidly. But from my experience with the piano you do everything a little bit faster when you play fast. Because you need to look at what you do, and when you are working hard with your brain and "slowing" everything down to keep up the pace you do things fast. The left hand finger movement also looked pretty natural. If it was sped down it would probably have been unnaturally fast and awquard movements.
Everything looked like it goes in normal speed, even their foots. Normally you have a constant speed on your foot when you tramp the beat. Depending on how slow you play you just increase the time you have your foot flat on the ground. Their foots didn't look like they went up and down too fast. If they had sped it up they would probably have had a small brake holding their foots flat on the ground before tramping the beat again really fast.
Secondly I don't see why a spanish TV programme would slow down their footage or why a good guitarist wouldn't be able to play that.
Technical reason's why I think this video is both not sped up but looks unnatural.
Using the camera crane tracking shots as a time consent, I am pretty certain the video was not sped when the music tempo stepped up as the camera crane tracking shots that follow this appear to be consistent with the earlier shots. So for my eyes, I do not see a sped up video.
The key thing I think that is going on here is that this was shot in a studio with studio lighting. Even with bright studio lights the stage area is large enough to demand the iris to be stopped down to get the most depth of field but the trade off is a slower shutter speed. When the music tempo picks up the close ups of the hands playing the lead guitar appear to be more slurred which looks unnatural. The longer shutter time explains why there is this slurring or blurring.
Another element to consider in favor of the video not having been sped up: this looks like a live show, in other words, there was no post production, everything was done live as for broadcast. You can't speed up video in real time and match it with the sound unless maybe you have a whole chain of effects and delay lines which does not seem practical for this.
Slowing down a video is a magic thing, but isn't cinema magical?
You should look for this(repeated or mixed frames), as a prove of the "slowdown" process, made by a computer. If you made the "slowdown" in the cam (shooting more frames per second) the process is smooth, and no prove can be extracted. Sure you should download the video to your computer to do this kind of observation.
There is nothing in this that looks or sounds even slightly sped up. As @leftaroundabout said, the original is paced a bit faster all the way through, but also has that tempo increase halfway through.
While being a fairly fast piece, it is not challenging enough that I would anticipate speeding it up for any reason.


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Just a couple of months ago, Bobby Brown inserted himself into a treatment facility for alcoholism and it seemed like he was on the road to recovery.
Well, it looks like the self-proclaimed "King of R&B" has taken a turn off that road.
According to various reports, Brown was arrested early this morning for a DUI for the second time this year.
Brown was pulled over by the police at approximately 1 a.m. this morning after police noticed the car being driven erratically.
He was arrested for suspicion of DUI after failing a field sobriety test.
Brown has not released a statement on the report.
Also On Black America Web:
This Week's Celebrity Instagrams (7/23-7/29)
25 photos Launch gallery


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|Photograph of City Hall circa 1900
Courtesy, Jersey City Free Public Library
City Hall, Detail
of Main Entrance on Grove Street
| Illustration above showing the New City Hall on Grove Street.
Source: Eaton. Jersey City and Its Historic Sites (1899)
Detail from the Atlas of Hudson County, GM Hopkins 1873.
Detail from the Plat Map of Jersey City and Bayonne, 1919 showing the plan view of the new City Hall as well as the location of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.
The City Hall of Jersey City is an elaborate granite and marble structure of mixed Victorian and Classical architecture. It was designed by the architect Lewis H. Broome (1849-1927) and completed in 1896. A park-like setting and landscaping around the building, similar to that of the City Hall of New York, was planned for the city's second seat of government. An entire city block containing commercial structures and residences was leveled to make room for the new building.
Jersey City's first city hall was at the southwest corner of Newark Avenue and Cooper Place. After receiving approval from New Jersey Governor Robert S. Green on April 5, 1887, Mayor Orestes Cleveland (1886-1892) appointed three commissioners to oversee the construction of the new Grove Street municipal building. The commission chose the site and then in 1892 conducted a competition among architects for the design. Broome's plans were selected.
Born in Philadelphia, PA, Broome studied architecture in New York City, and, after serving in the Civil War with the 77th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, set up his architectural firm on Washington Street in Jersey City. Broome became the city architect, appointed by the board of public works in 1880. He gained prominence as a local architect from his work on the New Jersey State House. After an 1885 fire severely damaged the building, Broome worked on the rehabilitation of the state's extant Second Empire-style capitol building since 1792. He is responsible for its expansion with a three-story wing on State Street, redesigning the Assembly wing, and the addition of the iconic rotunda and dome of copper and gold leaf.
Broome's City Hall design, on the other hand, was not met with critical acclaim. "Vile," reacted the Architectural Record (September 1895), commenting that a "resulting edifice fairly reeks of vulgarity as reeks the new City Hall of Jersey City" (quoted in "City Council Chambers Renovations." Jersey City Web Site).
For the placement of a sculpture in front of City Hall, another competition was held to select the design. It was organized by Leonard J. Gordon who helped found the Jersey City Free Public Library. The New York sculptor Philip Martiny (1858-1927), who was born in France and a student of Augustus Saint Gaudens, was awarded the commission from among 39 applicants. He was chosen by a panel of notable artists, Saint Gaudens among them, that had been named by the National Sculpture Society. Martiny's sculpture The Soldiers, Sailors and Marines Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1899, to the Civil War veterans from Hudson County. Rather than a soldier or sailor for the war memorial, Martiny chose a female figure to honor those who served their country. The "goddess of peace" with a laurel wreath in her right hand sits atop a grand engraved granite pedestal of eleven feet. The inscription on the front of the memorial reads: "Erected by the people of Hudson County to commemorate the soldiers and sailors who fought in the War of the Rebellion."
A prolific artist, Martiny is known for several sculptures that include Garret Augustus Hobart at the entrance of Paterson's City Hall, Mc Kinley's Monument in Springfield, MA, and the whimsical Winged Life (1893) above the doorway of the Herald Square Hotel on West 31st Street.
Restoration to the City Hall building has been at the cost of some its exterior architectural features. The large brass cupolas at the square corners and central towers were removed in 1955 in the interest of safety. In 1978, a contemporary design for the grounds replaced the lawn and shrubs at the front of the building. And a fire in 1979 destroyed three of the five copper friezes. The two remaining pediments were restored in 1995.
Renovations also compromised the building's interior. Design features were painted over and lost their authoritative style. The 1979 fire compounded the deteriorating appearance of the council chambers. In the 1980s, Anna Cucci, the wife of Mayor Anthony Cucci (1985-1988), began a rehabilitation of the council chambers. A photographer, she started with the restoration and updating of the mayors' portrait gallery. Her accidental death in 1988 while touring in Peru halted the project. Twenty years later her vision to restore the chambers was partially funded by a $300,000 grant from the Hudson County Open Space & Historic Preservation Trust Fund. The total repairs, amounting to $1.9 million, included rehabilitation to the plaster friezes, woodwork, stained glass windows and dome, and oak and mahogany furniture. Modern amenities, such as an HVAC, sound and audio/visual systems and electrical wiring for the original chandeliers that hang from the wood coffered ceiling, were installed. Work on the project was by architects Holt Morgan Russell of Princeton and the Jersey City Division of Architecture.
When completed in November 2008, the chambers were renamed the Anna Cucci Memorial Council Chambers and recognized with the 2009 Preservation Award by the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office.
| By: Carmela Karnoutsos
Project Administrator: Patrick Shalhoub


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Derived from the word noob norb is an inexperienced or new player of the on-line games hosted at FunOrb. FunOrb is made by Jagex who also make the successful mmorpg RuneScape where the original term noob is widely used.
He's not on any of the high scores list yet - I guess he's a bit of a norb.
by Alan Chambers March 13, 2008
Trending Now
Top Definition
NO Reason Boner
Popular among thirteen year old boys.
Popular among thirteen year old boys.
I got a NORB during gym class and had to goto the nurse for her to rub ointment on it.
by Shamen September 02, 2003
Creature that runs naked through the Savanah. Comes in three different genders.
Wow, did you see that Norb run?
by LVS April 06, 2009
Robust round testicles
Hey Rod I had Father Nelson's norbs bouncing on my chin just before he hit the vinegar stroke and blew his love custard on my chest.
by Bing Tockley January 13, 2009
Abbreviation for "nice orbs", pertaining to boobs, breasts, tatas, etc. Word is most commonly used in online conversation, but is often used in everyday conversation too.
My God, that girl has some amazing norbs!
by estabanismoi November 30, 2014
short for "no reason boner", those annoying woodies that pop up for no apparent reason
Dude 1: Dude, what's that in your pants?
Dude 2: Oh sorry, it's just a stupid norb
Dude 2: Oh sorry, it's just a stupid norb
by joeswam July 24, 2011
Dang it i cant get this NORB to go away!
by jimlustylip September 17, 2010


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6 Movie Heroes (Who Sucked At Their Jobs)
Cinema heroes exist to be everything we're not. Therefore we want them to be crack shots, kung fu masters, tactical geniuses and furious, furious fornicators.
So why is it that we barely blink when they spend the entirety of the film puttering about and screwing things up? Here are six movie heroes who did their jobs so damn poorly that, in retrospect, they'd barely make good sidekicks.
#6. RoboCop
RoboCop is our second favorite robotic police officer from Detroit (our fave is obviously the Motor City's O.G. killbot, ED-209).
Why He Should Be Good At His Job:
He's a cop and he's robot. Period. There is no fudge factor, no gray area. He is literally programmed to do things by the book.
Why He Sucked At It:
Let's analyze RoboCop's very first case step-by-step.
A perpetrator wielding a machine gun is robbing a convenience store. RoboCop arrives, is promptly shot 30 times and shrugs off the bullets like NERF darts, and proceeds to disable the crook's firearm by bending its muzzle. Now that the criminal is disarmed it's time to slap on the handcuffs and...
Our cyborg hero then leaves the store... without arresting the guy. OK, so it was his first day on the job--maybe he had the first time jitters. Perhaps he'll show a little more restraint with his next case ...
Again, RoboCop makes no real effort to apprehend the crooks. It goes on like this for the next 90 minutes. All in all, RoboCop arrests only one criminal during the entire movie. The rest of his time is spent alternately maiming people (three guys) or blowing them away (he racks up a body count of 16).
This is pretty confusing as RoboCop is, in fact, hardwired to be a good guy and has the free will of a VCR. Who the hell programmed him to be a cop? The T-1000?
And we're not even going to get into the time RoboCop stole that nice Korean family's fridge.
#5. Danny Ocean (and the Other 10 guys) from Ocean's 11
Danny Ocean and his gang are the world's greatest thieves. Their chosen vocation is stealing the world's valuables to a tasteful jazz-house soundtrack.
Why They Should Be Good At Their Job:
Well, the other characters in the movie keep insisting they're the best. And between the 11 of them, they possess more combined skills than MacGyver with an iPhone. Their roster includes a Chinese gymnast, the guy from both Hotel Rwanda AND Hotel for Dogs, and three of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive"... including two two-time winners!
Even though Andy Garcia's casino mogul knew Ocean was up to something, Danny's team nonetheless robs his casino easily. They even have enough time to reminisce in front of the Bellagio's fountains about the halcyon days of Las Vegas. You know, before Sammy Davis, Jr. started hanging with Richard Nixon.
Why They Sucked At It:
For a bunch of dudes robbing a vindictive millionaire, Ocean's 11 were plum awful at concealing their identities. Indeed, if it hadn't been for Ocean's 12, we just would've assumed that days after the first movie, the LVPD would've found a circle of 11 dead men in the Nevada desert with their heads up each others asses.
Things immediately go sour when Danny Ocean introduces himself to casino owner Terry Benedict at the start of the film. As the caper progresses, six of the 11 show their faces to Benedict during the pre-heist setup.
And they're not sporting hilarious prosthetic noses or $1,000 fat suits, mind you--they show their unadulterated, handsomely chiseled mugs to Benedict himself, point-blank and under memorably wacky circumstances in a camera-filled casino.
Above: a bad disguise.
These guys built a 1:1 replica of Benedict's casino vault and a robotic getaway van. You'd think they'd pony up for one or two dollar-store fake mustaches.
Of course, the first 10 minutes of the sequel show Benedict catching all 11 masterminds, thereby proving that, without question, they are shitty thieves. And given that Ocean's 12 was borderline unwatchable, we'd have preferred just imagining the "dead-in-the-desert-with-heads-up-their-asses" scenario.
#4. Johnny Utah from Point Break
Keanu Reeves plays Special Agent Johnny Utah, college quarterback turned FBI agent turned undercover mole in a gang of surfers/bank robbers, in the greatest movie about surfing, bank robberies and people of all time.
Why He Should Be Good At His Job:
He's played by Keanu, brah. His limited vocabulary and vacant gaze will aid him immeasurably in infiltrating a band of free-spirited wave junkies.
Plus, his quarterback training gave him the power to punt Rottweilers.
Why He Sucked At It:
Johnny Utah had his space cadet surfing persona down pat but apparently showed up hungover to the rest of FBI academy. Why do we say this? Because he was a totally incompetent as an undercover cop.
Throughout the film, Utah breaks almost single tenet of undercover work, from "Don't befriend your target" to "Don't sleep with your target's ex-girlfriend" to "Don't partner up with Gary-fucking-Busey"...
...to "Don't reveal your identity to the target during a pointless chase scene and get pissy and unload your firearm into the sky in a suburban neighborhood."
By the end of Point Break, Special Agent Utah makes zero arrests, gets Busey and most of the robbers killed, and allows Bodhi, the ringleader, to escape and commit suicide by riding the bitching-est wave of all time.
Since Bodhi died in Utah's custody, there's a possibility Johnny could do some jail time. Looks like the only thing he'll be riding for a while is a lifer's raging hard-on.


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Only one month left to take part in the Bobberthon fishing tournament. Bobberthon is a tournament at which registered anglers catch tagged bream in any of three public fishing area lakes. The angler then must register their tag. These first few steps can guarantee a prize – but then even more prizes are available!
The Grand Prize for winning the Grand Bobberthon tournament is a brand new boat! Other prizes include great trips, outdoorsman gift basket, cash prizes, gift certificates, savings bonds, fish cooker and more!
Quick Tournament Details
· Registration: Interested anglers can register at any participating vendor (list found online at the Bobberthon website). Registration is available through Sept. 11, 2010.
· Fishing Locations: Once registered, anglers are instructed to fish at any of three local public fishing area lakes (Dodge County, Ocmulgee and Flat Creek) that have tagged bream. UPDATE: Additional tagged fish are being added to lakes this week!
· Tag Reporting: If an angler catches a tagged bream, they need to register the tag number by visiting any of the participating vendors (same vendors as registration) by Sept. 11, 2010.
· Tournament Dates: Dates to catch a tagged bream are July 17th-Sept. 11, 2010. Anglers that catch and report a tagged bream during that time are eligible to participate in the Grand Bobberthon Tournament on Sept. 25, 2010 (visit the website for more info on the Grand Bobberthon Tournament).
· Prizes: A list of current prizes can be found at the Bobberthon website.
The event is a collaborative effort between the Georgia Department of Natural Resources/Wildlife Resources Division, Georgia Department of Economic Development and four local communities (Bleckley, Houston, Dodge and Pulaski).
For more information about Bobberthon, visit www.gofishgeorgia.com (click on Bobberthon link on home page) or call the Fisheries Management office at 478-825-6151.


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Sometimes the kids just want a veggie dog and some fries (and sometimes I just don't feel like cooking much else). But, let's face it: veggie dogs really aren't that great. So, I tried to dress mine up a bit to make things more interesting. My deepest apologies to Mexican cuisine.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Mexican Hotdogs
Sometimes the kids just want a veggie dog and some fries (and sometimes I just don't feel like cooking much else). But, let's face it: veggie dogs really aren't that great. So, I tried to dress mine up a bit to make things more interesting. My deepest apologies to Mexican cuisine.
17 comments:
- andrea said...
i've never had a hot dog since i became vegetarian..so, what do you recommend, try store-bought kind or making my own?
i'd like to try the mexican variation : )
- May 4, 2009 at 10:03 PM
- Heather J. Chin said...
Wow, these look delicious! I'm excited to make these now, but will have to use store-bought buns. Maybe one day.... it's funny how even many vegans and vegetarians never think to make their own breads!
- May 5, 2009 at 1:14 AM
- nicolaknits said...
Those both look good - but if I had to choose, I'd go for the Mexican!
- May 5, 2009 at 1:19 AM
- Angie said...
I still recall the mediocrity of Canadian veggie dogs. However in the UK, they manage to make some pretty fab hot dogs that even please any carnivore's palate!
- May 5, 2009 at 3:04 AM
- shelby said...
Yum Yum Yum.
- May 5, 2009 at 6:55 AM
- Bianca said...
Cute! I'm all about changing up my hot dog toppings! I actually like processed, packaged veggie dogs though. But I'm weird. Kudos on the homemade buns!
- May 5, 2009 at 12:47 PM
- Music and Veganism said...
I still don't know if I've ever had sauerkraut. These look really good! Wish I had a grill.
- May 5, 2009 at 3:41 PM
- Veg-a-Nut said...
Looking good! The link does not show variation 3, bummer cuz your hotdog buns look perfect!
- May 5, 2009 at 3:54 PM
- Carlota. said...
Yesterday I made my first vegan Hot dog! Was way better then the Omnis version from my boyfriend. I've fried onions, garlic and paprika. Then I add some tomate sauce and sliced the hot dog, so it would have the flavour from the sauce. I also add mustard and homemade ketchup (I made this, cause I don't like regular ketchup) to the sauce. Ate in a hot dog bread with potatoes chips! PeRRRfect! Even my bunny liked..she stole a slice of soy hot dog while I wasn't watching her. Try this brazilian version for your kids!
- May 5, 2009 at 9:49 PM
- Vegan Dad said...
I have never made my own hot dog. The only choice around here is the Yves veggie dog. It's OK, I guess. The convenience is really the selling point.
I guess omitting a few pages is how they get away with having the book online. The book is well worth purchasing, and I am sure any of the variations would work.
- May 5, 2009 at 10:03 PM
- chow vegan said...
Yum! those hot dogs look great! I like the different toppings you got on there, normally I just go for ketchup and relish. :-)
- May 6, 2009 at 2:09 PM
- happyherbivore.com said...
I learned quickly that it was the combo of ketchup-yellow mustard-relish I liked so much NOT the hot dog, so with enough condiments, I'm a happy tofu-dog eater!
- May 6, 2009 at 9:06 PM
- A said...
In Chile, and other parts of south america, we eat hot dogs like that, with loads of different toppings on them. We call them Completos, wich means complete. As in a complete meal.
Im sure mexicans wont mind ;-)
- May 8, 2009 at 1:34 PM
- Rena said...
Your Mexican dog isn't that far off, Vegan Dad! Of course, it's much healthier than the "real" thing -- it's usually wrapped in bacon.
But, I bet those dogs wouldn't taste too bad next to a slice of tempeh bacon, along with all the other fixin's. Good stuff!
- May 8, 2009 at 2:35 PM
- Marisa said...
I love the idea of making a Mexican hot dog. I typically go with sauerkraut, relish, mustard, maybe some onions. I haven't tried making my own hot dogs nor buns yet, but this blog has opened my eyes to homemade seitan. Thank you so much. I shy away from expensive stuff in the store, and I recently bought a steamer, and your Vegan Dad cookbook. I am very excited to try all variations.
- May 25, 2009 at 6:55 PM
- Cafe Cyan said...
Thank you for the hot dog bun link. The other day, my husband said to me "let's make our own hot dog buns!". Considering dinner was an hour away, I didn't think we could do it so I ran to the store.
Now I'm ready for next time!!
- June 3, 2009 at 11:28 AM
- SKSK said...
My husband loved real hot dogs, so I had to find a good meatless alternative. I have tasted some nasty hot dogs, but have found that Tofu Pups are definitely the best! Hope all of my trial and error can help somebody out there.
- July 9, 2011 at 3:08 PM


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Sometimes I make whipped cream in my ISI cream whipper and it comes out beautifully fluffy and smooth, and other times when I dispense it, the cream looks "ragged" for lack of a better description. Any ideas what factor accounts for the difference?
When I first got my iSi I had wildly inconsistent results, including exactly what you're describing. I'm not sure if you're just whipping cream or if you're whipping other cream-based preparations, but the most common reason for this happening is that the liquid going in isn't quite, er, liquid. Any solid particles of any kind will almost assuredly cause sputtering, which is why they recommend that you strain everything through a fine sieve.
Other things I've learned about the iSi whippers to help prevent these inconsistent results:
Hope some of that helps. If you do all of that, you shouldn't have any sputtering issues. Last 7 or 8 times I've used mine, I haven't had any.
Four things:
(1) You are definitely over whipping the cream. Please read the instructions - these are tested in the iSi lab to ensure your best results.And they do give you the correct amount of shakes per the fat content of the cream. You describe what we call "choppy" cream.
(2) Hold the whipper upside down in your hands. This means that your little finger is on the lever - not your index finger. This can position is very important because you need to have the gas behind the cream when it's dispensed. this will ensure that the gas is working with gravity and going through the cream and will result in less sputtering, and a full dispensing of your cream.
(3) Make sure you are using iSi branded chargers. Not all chargers are the same, and while the less expensive chargers will fit onto the charging mechanism, it can damage the pin of your iSi whipper and will VOID your warranty. The off brand chargers will provide an inconsistent amount of gas in use, and contain a high amount of oils from manufacturing that will be injected into your foods, this can change the recipe outcome.
(4) Carefully measure your contents, and don't over fill; The head room is very important for the best use of the mixing between the cream and the n20 gas. There is a pour line indicated; make sure your liquid + solid ingredients do not exceed that level (10-x sugar and cream)
I was taught how to whip cream with a handheld mixer and there are a few things to consider
Is the whipped cream being over whipped? When you beat it too hard with a handheld it starts to form ragged peaks
Is the cannister almost empty? Gas charged cannisters often 'sputter' a little bit when over-charged or almost empty.
I don't suppose that it could be a little clogged and just need a cleaning in addition to the possibility of the temperature needing to change? If you happen to have another dispenser, you could always fill and use both the same way to make sure one isn't faulty.
Whilst resolve whipped cream dispenser is important, it is more important to give the liquid time to dissolve the nitrous oxide into the fatty components. If it doesn't have time to dissolve, it will force them liquid out, bit it won't expand evenly as it leaves the nozzle.


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TEMPLE (November 18, 2012)--A car crashed into a Temple home in the 600 block of Draper Dr. Sunday afternoon.
The call came in as a possible house fire.
Firefighters determined light smoke inside the house was from spinning tires of the vehicle partially inside the house.
The car driven by a man in his early 30's ran through a private fence and through the backyard before crashing into the rear corner of the house.
The man was transported with non-life threatening injuries.
Homeowner Lance Simpson said he thought the phone call this afternoon from the Temple fire chief was a prank.
"I actually asked if it was a prank call just because that would be the better outcome than what actually happened, but as you can see it wasn't a prank call," Simpson said.
But before worrying about the damage, Simpson said he's more concerned about the safety of his family and others.
"One of the questions I asked was, 'Was the person in the car OK?'" Simpson said.
"That's more important than a post or some walls."
Simpson and his 9-year-old son are staying with family while they work out the insurance details to fix their home.
Circumstances surrounding the crash are being investigated by Temple Police.