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6 Real People With Mind-Blowing Mutant Superpowers
If the insane, explosive popularity if superhero movies is any indication, we are fascinated by people who are insanely better than us at any given thing. Probably because, in real life, we're all such a bunch of incompetent boobs that we've been enslaved by blue paint, flashing lights and crying French babies.
But it turns out, superpowers are real. And not just the secret ones that everyone has, or even the ones everyone thinks they have -- this Cracked Classic is about a group of people that, in a sane world, would already have multi-colored leather jumpsuits, delightfully mismatched personality traits and a skyscraper shaped like whatever they decide to call themselves.
We've all dreamed of having superpowers at some point (today), but the majority of us have to accept the sobering reality that preternatural abilities simply aren't possible. That is, except for some rare cases of real, actual people with bona fide powers that defy explanation (and in some cases practical application).
For instance ...
#6. Ma Xiangang Is Impervious to Electric Shock
Ma Xiangang is a man capable of something not many others are or would have a practical reason to be -- he can touch live wires filled with scrotum-popcorning electricity and feel no pain whatsoever.
As with most superpower discoveries, Xiangang found his by acting like a braying jackass. One day when his television quit working, he went to go monkey with the fuse box to try to get it to come back on, accidentally touching a live wire in the process. Normally this story would end with people standing around a pine box and telling their favorite Ma Xiangang stories, but instead of white hot electric death, Xiangang felt nothing at all. Rather than praise his good fortune and call an electrician, he decided to touch the wires again. You know, just to check.
CRI English.com
"I figured I'd either die or get superpowers. It was pretty much 50-50."
Even more amazing is that even when touching live wires with hundreds of volts coursing through them (enough to put a horse on its ass), he feels no pain at all. In fact, Xiangang claims it makes him feel energetic, which is almost certainly him just screwing with us. We're also pretty sure he's lying when he claims he can give diathermic massages (deep tissue massages done with an electromagnet) using only his hands.
"In a few seconds you'll feel either an incredible release of tension or a fatal dose of electricity."
So What's Going on Here?
Everybody's reaction to electricity is a little different; it's influenced by everything from how thick you are, to how moist your skin is, to other changes in body chemistry. Xiangang appears to be an outlier on the high end of the scale. According to testing, he has a resistance seven to eight times greater than the average human being, which grants him the ability to handle live wires without safety equipment, though, again, it behooves us to ask why in the hell he'd want to.
And yes, there are supposedly more people out there with abilities similar to Xiangang's. If you watch the first minute or so of this video, you'll see Jose Ayala pass electricity through his body and use it to burn paper. Again, we question the purpose or application of such abilities, and we're curious how many times he's accidentally incinerated his mail because he was holding it when he turned on his porch light.
If he falls asleep using his computer he might burn down the entire house.
#5. Dean Karnazes Can Run Forever
Dean Karnazes is an American long-distance runner capable of inhuman feats of endurance, such running 50 marathons in each of the 50 states ... in 50 consecutive days. Which he totally goddamned did. He's run a marathon on every continent twice over and run 350 miles nonstop over three sleepless nights.
"That lake had better back the fuck up, because I ain't stopping."
Back in 2007, Dean attempted to run from New York City to San Francisco, but had to stop in St. Louis, ravaged by disappointment. That is to say, this man has such a level of endurance that running 1,000 miles is disappointing to him. Karnazes has such an impressive list of achievements that when Time magazine listed him as one of their 100 most influential people of 2007, stopping his cross-continental run short was pretty much the only negative thing they could come up with. Then Karnazes completed the very same run in 2010 in 75 days and shut Time right the hell up.
Dean Karnazes, shutting Time magazine the hell up.
Somehow he's managed to stop running long enough to write three books. That, or he hangs a typewriter from his neck and smacks the keys with his chin midstride.
So What's Going on Here?
Everything about Karnazes' body makes him a finely tuned running machine. A medical study was performed on him after he completed his 50-state marathonapalooza. First, they measured his CPK number, which shows the amount of damage your muscles sustain from exercise. So for instance, a normal runner's CPK would be through the roof after a marathon -- around 2,400. Karnazes' was found to be at 447 ... after 25 consecutive marathons.
"Anyone else feel like hitting the gym, maybe doing a little kayaking?"
The study found that his muscles not only damage much less with exercise than the normal person's, they actually get used to continuous exercise and stop being damaged altogether, sort of like if Wolverine were a perpetual motion machine.
The study also found that he has more blood in his circulatory system than the average person, which allows him to stay more hydrated for longer and may or may not indicate that he is a day-walking (day-running?) vampire. But finally (and most impressively), they concluded that as long as he can keep himself properly hydrated and fed, he could potentially run at a seven- to 10-minute-mile pace forever.
Giving Dean the rare ability to go full Gump.
#4. Stephen Wiltshire Has a Perfect Visual Memory
Stephen Wiltshire can look at a city once and draw it from memory. So can we, big deal. The thing is, Wiltshire's drawing will actually look like the city, with every single building in its exact place and perfectly sized in proportion to real life. Buildings, windows, arches, doorways -- almost every detail is precisely correct in size and placement. Once again, he does this from memory. We, on the other hand, searched the Internet Movie Database five times in one hour because we kept forgetting Ray Winstone's name.
Above: A guy who doesn't need to set aside a half hour per day to find his keys.
Wiltshire has been drawing his entire life. His first words were "paper" and "pen" (which really throws his folks' parenting skills into question, if you think about it), and he's been traveling the world for 25 years on a continuing quest to draw different cities and landmarks, like if Caine from Kung Fu and Bob Ross collided in a time tunnel.
For instance, Wiltshire took a brief helicopter ride around New York City and produced this drawing afterward, purely from memory:
Stephen Wiltshire
$5 to the first person who spots where he hid the dick.
And he doesn't just remember these landscapes long enough to do the drawing. He retains them, possibly forever.
So What's Going on Here?
Wiltshire is an autistic savant (yes, like Rain Man). Autism hinders certain parts of the brain from communicating with one another, which can lead to difficulties with learning and processing information. But, this lack of communication between parts of the brain actually helps give Wiltshire his ability. It'd be sort of like if you had some kind of defect in the muscles of your arm that allowed it to only perform a perfect kung fu chop to the neck. It'd suck for everyday tasks like eating or working, but over the course of your life you'd get so good at kung fu neck chops that you could behead a man.
"One time, I sketched a skyscraper in half."
So take Wiltshire's helicopter ride -- most of us would be distracted by things like the noise of the chopper, or by thoughts such as "Why are these buildings spaced like that?" or "Is that a body in the East River?" But Wiltshire's kung-fu-chop brain can focus like a microscope on just the details, carefully recording them all at the expense of all other normal thought. Because of this, he is not only able to notice relationships and properties of the buildings, but can remember them exactly and use them later in his drawings.
His clouds are kinda half-assed, comparatively.
And when it comes to this kind of freakish recall, he's not alone ...


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Dell 755 Desktop (1.8 GHz Pentium Dual Core Processor, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, Windows 7) - Refurbished for $134 + free shipping
1.8GHz Pentium Dual Core Processor
2GB Memory
80GB Hard Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)
Includes a one year warranty
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need something for email, woot and web chat. Might need to pull the trigger.
geeks.com had a similar HP/Compaq for $114 yesterday. Sold out, though.
Hello Wooters. My name is Andy and my company is offering this computer today. It's a decent little computer that is just right for the regular user. It's perfect for email, web surfing, facebooking, homework, light games, and much more. You're not going to conquer the world with this computer but you can't beat it for the price. It comes fully loaded with a New Windows 7 Home Premium License from Microsoft. We are 1 of only 16 Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers in the country and we stand behind this computer with a full 1 year warranty. I'll be here all day if you have any questions. You can also call us toll free at 855-252-4784. Thanks!!
I bought a similar model from them a few months back and it arrived promptly and worked well. For basic stuff, it's fine.
Add a Ethernet dongle and you have a good untangle box.
I've been looking to build a cheap NAS (and I'm still learning about all of it) to use for backup and as a media server for videos/music for my household.
I've got a couple of 1TB drives already, but would this box work for something like that or is it more than I'd need? I'm planning to use FreeNas as the software.
I manage a few hundred of these at work. They're really nice machines. We rarely have any hardware issues with them.
Does it have a wifi?
Andy, does "Windows 7 Home Premium" mean it includes "Office"?
If not, why is it called Home "Premium"? (I know it is a MS designation)
Would it be possible to set this up with a video-out to tv to be used like a slingcatcher?
Windows 7 with only 2GB of RAM is going to be pretty unusable. And even with 2 cores, the 1.8 GHz is going to seem painfully slow.
It should have Office started edition on it unless Microsoft has removed that from the Windows 7 images they've authorized BTG to use.
@cricky101: This might work ok for FreeNAS. I run it myself, and it's worth noting that if you're planning on using ZFS, you should have quite a bit of memory (it's recommended that you have at least 4GB, and more if you have a lot of big hard drives). I went with these:
Motherboard/CPU - $80 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131843
Memory - $44 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134928
Flash drive for OS - $7 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820235061
Case - $110 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112265
You'll need a PSU if you go that route, but I already had one.
It doesn't look like there's room for many more HDDs in that Dell case.
Hope that helps!
edit: You can do this cheaper if you do a larger (not mini-ITX) build. Overall, I'd build something myself rather than buy this in any case.
@dise9: It doesn't have built in Wifi but you can add a New Wireless N USB adapter for $17 in our store. We'll install it before shipping. Thanks!
@jrhusc: To be honest, I have no idea why it's called Premium. Perhaps it has much more to offer than the original home version of XP. Unfortunately it doesn't come with Microsoft Office. Office itself is usually pretty expensive. We include a version called Open Office that will do almost everything that Microsoft Office will do. Thanks!
@ryantg: According to Microsoft's website, Windows 7 requires a single core 1ghz processor and 1gb of ram. This box has 4 times the processor and double the ram. It's not going to match up to the thousand dollar machines but it has more than enough power to run Windows 7 comfortably. Office starter edition only comes with new, OEM pc's. I believe it is ad supported but I may be wrong.
@cricky101: I think this will work fine for what you want to do. Adding memory is super cheap and easy if you need to. The best thing I'd say about this system is that it is commercial grade. It's made with higher quality components than the typical off the shelf box. You could feel comfortable running this box 24/7.
I picked one of these babies up recently t use as a NAS/server and have never looked back, it works perfectly for those needs. set up everything using home/wrok group, use free hamachi to control it from anywhere, and use plex media server to share everything...
@blairtechnologygroup: I have a Windows 7 computer running on 1GB right now and it's nearly unusable, so I'm upgrading. You don't need to have a thousand-dollar computer to have over 2GB RAM--8GB is less than $50.
@fredwallace18: It's possible you're loaded down with negative software that hogs resources. 1gb is the minimum for Windows 7 so I wouldn't expect you to win any races. Memory is cheap and we can add that for you if needed. Or, we can tell you exactly what to purchase. What processor do you currently have? Can you slap some more memory in your current box? What about an OS reload?
@blairtechnologygroup: I'm just saying that you can't run Windows 7 "comfortably" with 1GB like you said. I have nothing running on a clean install with no bloatware, and unnecessary services stopped, and 1GB is still too little to operate satisfactorily. It's not my main computer, so I'm not too worried about it. Thanks for the offer!
@fredwallace18: Sorry...I was referring to this computer, not a computer with 1gb. Guess I should have phrased that a little different.
@conanthelibrarian: IT Has NO OFFICE software!!! sorry thats a dealkiller
@onomea: It actually does have office software installed. It's called open office and it works great. You can read more about it at www.openoffice.org. I believe the Microsoft office home/student version is about as much as the computer. I wish we could include that for free but we have to keep the lights on.
YUP. Don't ask why but i just bought 2.
Like one of the above comments, I also support this model of PC at my work. We are currently replacing them with 790s, but we have had very few issues with the 755 and I'd consider them a very good "basic" PC. In fact, with the exception of the GX620, all of the Dell Optiplex models we've used have been good PCs.
I work at a company that used these...actually the gx260, 280, 745, 755, 760, etc etc
The Dell 745 and 755 have two main issues.... there's two main issues we had with them.
1. HDD fan. There's a small fan under the HDD to help keep it cool. These fans often got noisy...rattling/clicking sounds, or they stopped alltogether. Even when the fan was running the HDD was pretty darn warm. When the fan stopped, the HDD was hot to the touch.
2. Capacitors. I'd say about 75% of these had leaking capacitors on the main board when they were replaced. Many had become unstable (BSOD, lockups, etc) and had been replaced already.
This is a known problem and easy to spot. (look for leaking capacitors or buldging ones...)
My $.02

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8157 Stonelick Rd.
Big Rock Off Road Park is Kentucky's premier privately owned off road park; consisting of nearly 2000 acres of beautiful wooded countryside, near Historic Maysville, KY, overlooking the Ohio River. Offering off road fun for over 10 years, Big Rock offers a fun, family environment for those wanting to enjoy a day, or weekend, in the beautiful countryside of northern Kentucky. Whether you have an ATV, Dirt Bike, or a Jeep, Big Rock Off Road Park has something for you. Miles of wooded trails make for a great way to spend the day or a weekend. Trails range from beginner level to very technical, for the more experienced rider. See the old rock walls throughout the park as a reminder of settlers from long ago. Visit the old cemetery that dates back over 100 years!


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Aurélie Bidermann
Gold Surfing Mimosa Hoop Earrings
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18k yellow gold-dipped 'Surfing Mimosa' hoop earrings with articulated leaf and blossom-like detail.
For French jeweler Aurélie Bidermann, good design is found in the details. Aided by internationally known gilders, engravers and Parisian artisans, Bidermann's nature-inspired jewelry showcases hand-selected, untreated gemstones and hammered, polished gold chain links that are joined together by hand. Intricate artistic touches add a layer of finesse to her beautifully evocative jewelry.
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5 Mental Disorders That Only Occur in One Place on Earth
What's awesome about crazy people is they always find ways to surprise us. And there might not be anything stranger in the world of mental illness than culture-bound syndromes.
These are specific, and incredibly bizarre, forms of insanity that only happen in certain countries or cultures, for reasons that often leave experts baffled. Such as...
#5. Wendigo Psychosis: Normal Folks in a Man-Eating Frenzy
The Wendigo is a mythical monster that is featured in the folklore of some northern Native American and Canadian tribes. They all describe it as a "malevolent, cannibalistic, supernatural being of great spiritual power, associated with winter, coldness, famine and starvation." Basically, it's what vampires were before Anne Rice hand-stitched giant pussies into their mythos.
Pre-Rice Vampires. Thanks a lot, you bitch.
Now that we've cleared up what a true Wendigo is, you might be wondering in terror what exactly "Wendigo Psychosis" entails, and if you're not, you should probably start right about now.
It's when a person becomes convinced that they are a Wendigo... most prominently marked by an intense craving for human flesh. Yes, this is a real thing, that happened to real people.
What? WHY?!?
Many tribal societies were familiar with cannibalism, having to eat human flesh during dire periods of starvation and all, but sometimes the guilt and fear associated with the act was so great that it drove them insane. When you end up snacking on a dude, it's not hard to imagine yourself as a kind of monster. After all, isn't it better to see yourself as a mythical beast than just a hungry guy with low standards?
That's the best guess as to where Wendigo Psychosis comes in. But understand that once it kicks in, the victim believes they're an invincible man-eating monster regardless of how much actual food is around. When people would start to feel the symptoms coming on, they would sometimes actually ask to be executed before they could go on a man-eating frenzy. Holy shit!
Today, Cracked declares that "Dammit, I'm about to go Wendigo on your asses!" is a new catchphrase. Try to use it today.
#4. Dhat Syndrome: Ejaculation Anxiety
Dhat Syndrome, seen pretty much in India and nowhere else, doesn't need a fancy setup to seem bizarre: it's semen-loss anxiety.
Dhat sufferers believe they are leaking semen (not like dripping into their pants, they think they're losing it when they urinate) and that this loss is weakening them both mentally and physically.
Guess what he's doing right now.
Dhat suffers are very worried about keeping as much semen as they possibly can inside of their bodies, which is the exact opposite goal of every other man in the world, who pretty much think of their sperm like the end of a garage sale: as long as you're willing to take it, you can have as much of it as you can carry.
What? WHY?!?
To understand Dhat Syndrome, you must first consider traditional Hindu beliefs: food converts to blood, which converts to flesh, which converts to bone marrow and the marrow is eventually converted into semen. It is said that it takes 40 days for 40 drops of food to be converted to one drop of blood, 40 drops of blood to one drop of flesh and so on. To put it into terms you can understand, basically it takes 73 burritos to make just one sperm. At the very least, that's a lot of cash; you can see why they really want to keep it.
Combine that with the whole "loss of virility and thus manhood" thing and you can see how this unique and bizarre kind of anxiety can turn up. In most cases of Dhat, patients suffer from premature ejaculation, insomnia and anxiety. All of these symptoms, it should be noted, are also cited as reasons why other men masturbate, that is they're dispensing too little semen on the world, not the other way around.
With that in mind, we would like to write a prescription to all Dhat sufferers, and it's a little thing we like to call porn.
#3. Amok: The Random Killing of Dudes
You've heard the term "running amok," but the word "amok" is Malaysian, and originally described elephants going mad and separating from their herd. At that point the animal would run wild destroying, fighting, and making sweet crazy furious love to anything in its way, pretty much just re-enacting an average day in Sean Connery's life. And it is in Malaysia where the condition began cropping up in humans as well.
We're talking about random, kill-crazy outbursts by males with non-violent histories who, with absolutely no provocation, will suddenly up and decide that not enough of everything is dying and do their level best to rectify that situation.
No idea why he's wearing that mask, though. That's his thing, we're not here to judge.
Amok episodes are such a kill frenzy that they often only end when bystanders eventually kill the berserker. Those lucky enough to survive, report no memories of their carnage, presumably because laughing shamefully and saying, "Oh yeah, I totally killed that restaurant," doesn't look all that good in court.
In the year 2000 alone, 13 separate cases of people "running amok" were reported, during which 11 people were murdered and 29 more were wounded. That sounds a little scary, but just look at the bright side: those numbers tell us that yes, Malaysia may indeed be a terrifying place to live, but hey, at least only about 80 percent of the randomly triggered psychopathic berserkers are competent enough to succeed at murder.
What? WHY?!?
Unlike the Wendigo thing where you can sort of draw a line between things going on in their culture and the occasional spontaneous madness, there is no such clear-cut explanation for running amok. Experts have suggested pretty much everything--drug abuse, alcoholism, heat, internal parasites or just good ol' fashioned devil possession--but there is not enough evidence to support any of these speculations.
Then again, the devil wouldn't actually leave any evidence behind, would he?


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What's a good diet for bodybuilding nothing too crazy just what to eat and what not to eat and how much of a portion to gain mass and not be skinny anymore?
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closed as not a real question by Baarn, Kate, Matt Chan♦ Feb 18 '13 at 19:16
It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, visit the help center.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
It depends on your goals. Personally, my goals are to gain weight.
My diet matches many bodybuilder's diets pretty well. I'm not too strict though, it is easily do-able.
Workout time! - (This time varies depending on my routine for the day)
Just maintain a high-protein diet similar to this and I believe you will be satisfied!
Saturday: (or the day you rest)
Edit: I should also greatly emphasize the importance of drinking plenty of water.
I have seen a lot of personal gains using this diet. I have gained 40lbs in the past 2 years. (from 120-160) I'm 20 years old and 5' 11".
For "not to be skinny" you just need to eat more.
I always got bad looks from people that were trying to lose weight when I said that trying to gain weight is not much more fun than losing weight. Both require discipline and a healthy diet. Gaining weight requires you to eat more frequently and when you are not feeling hungry which in the beginning will feel bad but you'll soon get hang of it if you just stick with it.


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To support New York University's teaching, research, and service missions, Environmental and Health and Safety (EHS) assists NYU around the world to meet its responsibility to protect students, employees and the environment and to provide a safe and healthy place of employment and learning. Environmental Health and Safety includes Fire and Life Safety. Melisa Puglisi is Director of Environmental Health and Safety and she can be reached at 212.98.1438 and at email@example.com
Environmental Health and Safety provides occupational and environmental health and safety services to all faculty, students and staff, including maintaining compliance with federal, state and local laws and regulations related to occupational health and safety, environmental conservation and protection, and laboratory safety. Environmental Health and Safety also provides emergency response, technical support, information and training programs, and environmental health and safety consulting and auditing services.
Fire and Life Safety's mission is to ensure the safety of the New York University community through the interpretation of fire protection codes and standards and the application of engineering principals. This is accomplished through the review and approval of drawings and technical documents for the construction of new buildings as well as the review and approval of similar documents for alteration/renovation, of any size, in existing buildings. In addition, this unit investigates university facilities to ensure that fie risks are minimized. James Gillespie is the Global Manager of Fire and Life Safety and can be reached at 212.998.1423 and at email@example.com
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The following Quick Tips were developed as quick-reference guides to some of our more common policies and procedures.


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Is it wrong to use the phrase "The alive animal"?
Is it alright to say, "The animal was alive."?
Is it wrong to use the phrase "The alive animal"?
Is it alright to say, "The animal was alive."?
The animal was alive is a correct sentence. The alive animal is a noun phrase and therefore not a sentence, since at the very least it is missing a verb.
Having said that, I interpret the question as asking whether it is possible to place the adjective alive in front of a noun. In other words, can alive be used attributively? Most adjectives can be used both attributively (before the noun) and predicatively (following a copula such as the verbs to be, to seem, to look). So happy can be used both attributively and predicatively:
But some adjectives can only be used predicatively; they cannot be used attributively. Alive is one such adjective, so the alive animal is ungrammatical. There are many other non-attributive adjectives beginning with the letter a. For example, it is ungrammatical to say:
Other adjectives can only be used attributively; they cannot be used predicatively. For example:
The live animal
If you insist on using the word alive, then:


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Adelman, Corley, Beals, Crooks, and Holmwood Newest CGS Winners
By Ben Deatherage
(Photos Courtesy of Madman Photography)
Saturday June 29th was Ladies Night at the Cottage Grove Speedway and there was some great racing that took place. Classes in action included the Northwest Extreme Sprints, Midgets, Street Stocks, and Hornets. The Hornets were quite busy as they competed in two twenty lap features.
Kady Adelman would win a thriller in the Northwest Extreme Sprints. Would keep all changers back for her second win of the season in the division. The K&S Motorsports/BC Motorsports #6A Maxim would take the lead on the start and lead every lap.
The race would go non-stop and drivers preferred to compete on the high side and the leaders briefly were in lapped traffic. With a few laps ago Adelman would be challenged by the Three River Casino/Bi-Mart/Brook's Cut Rate Auto Parts #70 Maxim of Raquel Ivie as well as Fall Creek's Nathan Ellertson. Ivie nearly took the lead in the closing laps but Adelman would hold on.
The 4 His Glory/1st Choice Construction #4E Rocket of Nathan Ellertson was second followed by Raquel Ivie. Dusty Redmond of Roseburg was fourth in the Redmond Trucking #57 Rocket while the fifth place finisher was Mike Griffith of Fall Creek in the 1st Choice Construction/RV Outlet #21 Gambler.
Derek Holmwood made the long trip from Bellingham, Washington to earn the victory in the Midget main. Glenn Bittrolf of Springfield led the early goings in his #15 mount but would lose the lead on lap nine to Holmwood. Holmwood would cruise the rest of the way to put his Bilstein Shock Absorbers/H&I Land Services/DLH Race Products #66 XXX in victory lane.
Glenn Bittrolf would end his night second and placing third was the DLH Race Products/Goldie Racing #73 entry of Al Goldie of Merritt, British Columbia. Completing the top five was the #27 of Mike Gehringer from Pismo Beach, California in fourth and McMinnville's Lance Hallmark in his Foster Fab/G.W. Machine/Jason Ocker Machine & Fab #8 crossing the line in fifth.
An entertaining but caution filled Street Stock main event would take place. Darin Crooks of Cottage Grove would pretty much the lead the whole deal in his Nathan Anderson Dentistry/Platinum Hair of Creswell #73 Nova. Crooks would be under the pressure nearly the whole race and in fact lost the lead briefly to Cottage Grove's Jeff Casto.
On the final lap the leaders would go three wide with Crooks utilizing the middle. Crooks would get the necessary run off of the corner to edge out his challengers to win his third race of the season.
Jeff Casto in the Emerald Valley Reclaimed Timbers #4 Camaro was the runner-up and Jordan Braaten from Medford in the Don Braaten Painting/Finest Detail #84 Regal was third. Ending the evening in fourth was Portland's Don Garrett in his #75 Camaro and Steve Begley from Eugene completed the top five finishers placing his Stacy Graves Massage Therapy/Nathan Anderson Dentistry #00 Nova in fifth.
As mentioned above the Hornets were very busy participating in not one but two twenty-lap features. Josh Corley of Veneta would earn his first win of the season by make a last lap move on David Beals. Beals of Roseburg led the majority of the laps in his Double R Powdercoating #9. Corley was definitely excited when his #7C crossed the line in first place but in final race would have to start in the back if he wanted to sweep the night.
David Beals was second and third went to Veneta's Joe Maricle in the Ram Jack Foundation Repair #11. Jim Simmons of Cottage Grove would score a fourth place finish in his Small Town Treasure/Nichol's Napa Auto Parts #89 and completing the top five finishers was Taunton Swaim from Dexter in fifth driving the Big Dog Recycling/A-1 Auto Supply #17 pickup for owner Randy Kuhl.
In the second main event the field was completely inverted based off of the finish of the first feature. The Material Fabrication/Meineke Car Care #28 of Cottage Grove's Chris Pierce and Matthew Bangle from Creswell, driving the Tom Jeannot owned Santa Clara Transmissions #15, were the early contenders exchanging the lead on several occasions.
But on lap eight Josh Corley had made his way from the back to the front. Corley would lead much of the race until the last lap when he would battle with David Beals. The two made contact in turn three and Corley would get loose. Beals managed to make the pass around the outside and score the victory.
Corley would cross the line in second while third place was the D&D Automotive/Harris Machine & Design #7D of Cottage Grove's James Deatherage. The Roseburg Towing/Double R Powdercoating #90 of Tammy Beals from Roseburg was fourth and fifth place went to Taunton Swaim.
The Cottage Grove Speedway will be a busy place during Independence Day weekend. On Independence Day, Thursday July 4th, the facility will play host to the one hundred lap Firecracker 100 for the DIRTcar Super Late Models. Also in action will be the IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks, and Hornets while a massive fireworks display will be put on once racing has concluded. Ticket prices will be Adults $15.00, Seniors/Juniors/Military $12.00, Youths $5.00, Children Five and Under FREE, and Family Passes (Two Adults and up to Four Youths) will be $35.00 with racing starting around 6:45.
On Friday July 5th and Saturday the 6th the American Sprint Car Series-Northwest Region will be back in town to finish up the 2013 edition of Bully Dog Performance Speedweek Northwest. Vintage cars will be the support class for Friday and Saturday while the Northwest Extreme Sprints will be a support class for just Saturday. Both days will utilize regular start times and prices are Adults $17.00, Seniors/Juniors/Military $13.00, Youths $7.00, Children Five and Under FREE, and Family Passes (Two Adults and up to Four Youths) will be $40.00. A two day pass will be offered for only $30.00. For more information log on to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com.
Ladies Night At The Races
Saturday June 29th, 2013
Cottage Grove Speedway
Cottage Grove, Oregon
Northwest Extreme Sprints
6 Entries
A-Feature: 1. Kady Adelman, 2. Nathan Ellertson, 3. Raquel Ivie, 4. Dusty Redmond, 5. Mike Griffith, DNS Danny Horner
5 Entries
A-Feature: 1. Derek Holmwood, 2. Glenn Bittrolf, 3. Al Goldie, 4. Mike Gehringer, 5. Lance Hallmark
Street Stocks
7 Entries
A-Feature: 1. Darin Crooks, 2. Jeff Casto, 3. Jordan Braaten, 4. Don Garrett, 5. Steve Begley, 6. Dusten Henderson, 7. Mark Henderson
18 Entries
First A-Feature: 1. Josh Corley, 2. David Beals, 3. Joe Maricle, 4. Jim Simmons, 5. Taunton Swaim, 6. James Deatherage, 7. Tammy Beals, 8. James Donaldson, 9. Mike Swaim, 10. Evan Britton, 11. Matthew Bangle, 12. Teresa Walker, 13. Steven Moore, 14. Kayla Simmons, 15. Chris Pierce, 16. Mike Simmons, DNS Melvin Walker, DNS James Simmons
Second A-Feature: 1. David Beals, 2. Josh Corley, 3. James Deatherage, 4. Tammy Beals, 5. Taunton Swaim, 6. Chris Pierce, 7. Mike Swaim, 8. James Donaldson, 9. Steven Moore, 10. Jim Simmons, 11. Kayla Simmons, 12. Teresa Walker, 13. Matthew Bangle, DNS Joe Maricle, DNS Evan Britton, DNS Mike Simmons, DNS Melvin Walker, DNS James Simmons
Driven by MyRacePassTM
Cottage Grove Speedway | All rights reserved


text:
Our special guest today is Steven Curtis Chapman.
Leaving a message
Ending his tour in Florida.
Ooops! Wrong Steven Chapman! Here is the right one!
Our guest on @KLOVERadio with @KLOVEScott and me is @StevenCurtis. Got something to say to him? Share it here!
— Kelli Caldwell (@KLOVEKelli) March 9, 2012
Our guest on @KLOVERadio with @KLOVEScott and me is @StevenCurtis. Got something to say to him? Share it here!
Special Guest Matthew West.
New Album
Daylight savings time shift is tough for night owls. msnbc
Daylight Saving Time Health Risks. Shine from YAHOO!
Filmmaker James Cameron to explore the deepest depths of the ocean. CNN
Traveling with young children? Find a sitter in the sky. TODAY
Special guest today, David Crowder.
Crowder with no band, now what?
What Crowder is doing now...
Crowder on Stage at Church
Moving forward
Run Forest Run
Truck Driving
Kony 2012
You can watch the video on our Facebook Page, other people have posted it there, if you have not seen it yet.
Stilettos made of chocolate? Yes, please! HLN
Homecoming queen is no ordinary walk-on. Fox Sports
Ali update from CURE international, absolutely amazing!
Beards Get Respect, But Not Women, Study Finds. TIME NewsFeed
Colts to release Peyton Manning. msnbc
Scott explains Peyton Manning no longer being a Colt.
Aggressive Turkey Stalks and Terrorizes Detroit Woman Every Day. TME NewsFeed
Apple unveils new 4G iPad. TODAY
Now Playing: Because He Liv...
Artist: Matt Maher
On-Air: JD
Thanks for listening to the Scott and Kelli Show! You can listen online weekdays from 5-9pm Eastern at www.klove.com/listen.
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Scott Smith
Kelli Caldwell


text:
• Medicines that could raise your chance of getting infections,
such as medicines to treat cancer or to control your immune
• ketoconazole (an antifungal drug) by mouth
Ask your doctor or pharmacist for a list of these medicines if you
are not sure.
How should I take GILENYA?
• Your first dose of GILENYA will be given in a doctor's office
or clinic, where you will be observed for 6 hours after your
first dose of GILENYA.
• Take GILENYA exactly as your doctor tells you to take it.
• Take GILENYA 1 time each day.
• Take GILENYA with or without food.
• Do not stop taking GILENYA without talking with your doctor
• If you start GILENYA again after stopping for 2 weeks or
more, you will start taking GILENYA again in your doctor's
office or clinic.
What are possible side effects of GILENYA?
GILENYA can cause serious side effects.
See "What is the most important information I should know
about GILENYA?"
Serious side effects include:• Breathing Problems. Some people who take GILENYA haveshortness of breath. Call your doctor right away if you havetrouble breathing.
• Liver problems. GILENYA may cause liver problems. Yourdoctor should do blood tests to check your liver before youstart taking GILENYA. Call your doctor right away if you haveany of the following symptoms of liver problems:• nausea• vomiting• stomach pain• loss of appetite• tiredness• your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow• dark urineThe most common side effects of GILENYA include:• headache• flu• diarrhea• back pain• abnormal liver tests• coughTell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you orthat does not go away.
These are not all of the possible side effects of GILENYA. For
more information, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side
effects to FDA at 1-800-332-1088.
How do I store GILENYA?
• Store GILENYA in the original blister pack in a dry place.
• Store GILENYA at room temperature between 59°F to 86°F
( 15°C to 30°C).
• Keep GILENYA and all medicines out of the reach of children.
General information about GILENYA
Medicines are sometimes prescribed for purposes other than
those listed in a Medication Guide. Do not use GILENYA for a
condition for which it was not prescribed. Do not give GILENYA
to other people, even if they have the same symptoms you have.
It may harm them.
This Medication Guide summarizes the most important information about GILENYA. If you would like more information, talk with
your doctor. You can ask your doctor or pharmacist for information about GILENYA that is written for healthcare professionals.
For more information, go to www.pharma.US.Novartis.com or
call 1-888-669-6682.
What are the ingredients in GILENYA?
Active ingredient: fingolimod
Inactive ingredients: gelatin, magnesium stearate, mannitol, titanium dioxide, yellow iron oxide.
This Medication Guide has been approved by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration.
GILENYA is a trademark of Novartis AG.
Issued September 2010
Printed in the USAT2010-825002679
Manufactured by:
Novartis Pharma Stein AG
Stein, Switzerland
Distributed by:
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
East Hanover, New Jersey 07936


text:
MINGO JUNCTION - Village Council unanimously voted to terminate the contract of Charley Bowman as village administrator Tuesday, just seven weeks after he was hired.
Council members said Bowman wasn't willing to work with council.
Bowman was officially hired by council on Oct. 9 under a contract paying $30,000 a year.
Bowman had been working with Clerk John Angelica to prepare a budget for the village, which Bowman said was facing fiscal emergency come 2014. Councilmembers said council will work with Angelica to prepare the budget, which will be 40 percent less than the current budget.
Councilman John Bracone, who made the motion to terminate the contract, said Bowman didn't want to work with council and "was going behind our back."
Councilman Jack Brettell said Bowman was trying to override everything council wanted to do. He said Bowman tried to reprimand a village employee without first coming to council.
Councilman Chuck Dickey said, "I don't feel he wants to work with us. He wasn't keeping us informed. He just goes off and does it. He should have been keeping us apprised, instead of us finding out about it on the street."
Councilman Michael Herrick said he believed Bowman would have been good for the village, but he didn't want to work with council. Herrick said Bowman was invited to come into the executive session to explain his side but refused. Bowman left the building prior to council making the decision.
Councilman John Fabian said Mayor Ron DiCarlo has a couple of people in mind to replace Bowman, and council will look at the proposed applicants.
Councilman James Morrocco said council can terminate the village administrator without cause with at least five councilmembers agreeing.
"We needed someone to work hand in glove with council. That wasn't happening, and we had to take action," he said.
DiCarlo said it was council's decision to terminate Bowman's contract. He said he wasn't in favor of getting rid of Bowman at this time with the village facing tough financial decisions.
"The timing was bad," he said.
Bowman at a finance meeting on Monday made several proposals to balance the budget, including laying off village workers, including police officers and firefighters. He also proposed increasing water and sewer rates every year during the next decade to finance capital improvements and generate enough money to cover the bond for the water plant.
Council prior to the meeting held a workshop session with a representative of the Ohio Rural Community Assistance Partnership, which provides technical help to communities on water and sewer department operations and obtaining financing for projects.
The RCAP representative said communities need to implement a water and sewer rate increase every year to fund improvements to the water and sewer systems and cover increasing costs.
DiCarlo told residents at the beginning of the meeting council has a lot of decisions to make and nothing has been finalized.
"We are trying to keep the operations we have. We are here to protect and serve (the community). Without the revenue, we'll see how far that goes," he said.
DiCarlo said there is a steelmaker interested in establishing a steel plant in one of five locations across the country, with one being in Mingo Junction. He said Frontier Industrial Corp., which purchased the former RG Steel plant, has confirmed the news.
One of the cost-savings ideas council has been considering is the $72,000 spent annually on streetlights and other lights in the village.
Herrick, who chairs the streetlight committee, said there are two options, with a third he presented to council on Tuesday. One is to turn off all of the 579 lights in town. The second is to keep about 60 lights on only at intersections. The third option Herrick presented is to charge residents on the water and sewer bills for the streetlights.
Herrick said if each house is charged $4 a month, based on 1,500 water customers, that would generate the $72,000 needed.
He said Rayland and Bellaire are considering similar legislation to charge residents for streetlights.
Herrick said council will discuss the matter further at a finance committee meeting at 2 p.m. on Monday.
"I'm not in favor of shutting off all the lights," he said.
Bracone said he favors turning off the lights, especially if water and sewer rate hikes are imposed. Dickey said he believes the majority of residents would rather have the lights turned off.
Herrick said a public meeting should be held for the public to voice input.
Residents could still pay about $11 a month to AEP for lights to be installed on poles outside homes.


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Lance Armstrong: The Downfall of a Champion
An Excerpt From the Forthcoming Book "Wheelmen"
In 2013, Lance Armstrong confessed that he had cheated to win the Tour de France. The moment marked the breathtaking fall of an athlete who had transformed himself from a brash and undisciplined teenage triathlete to a global sporting icon. In their forthcoming book, "Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever," Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell give an inside account of Armstrong's career, from his enormous commercial and competitive success to his take-no-prisoners approach to protecting a devastating secret. The book arose from more than 100 interviews with former teammates, federal investigators and antidoping officials. Some of these figures spoke on background, asking not to be quoted so they could speak freely.
- July 2: Blood Brothers: Spilling Cycling's Secrets
- July 27: Prosecutors Step Up Armstrong Probe
- September 4-5: US Mulls Joining Cycling Lawsuit
- June 14: Armstrong to Face Doping Charges
- August 24: Cycling Legend Loses Titles
- October 11: Drug Case Against Armstrong Detailed
- October 12: The Women Behind Team Armstrong
The meeting began without Armstrong present.
Tim Herman, his lawyer, had shown up alone to scope out the situation, to determine whether it was worth his client's time. Neither Armstrong nor Herman had wanted to take this, their first meeting with U.S. Anti-Doping Agency executives, at the organization's headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., where they'd surely be noticed. So Armstrong's friend Bill Ritter, the former governor of Colorado, agreed to host the meeting at his Colorado State University offices in downtown Denver. A date was set: Dec. 14, 2012.
In addition to Herman, there was Travis Tygart, USADA's chief executive, who had come in from Colorado Springs, and USADA's general counsel Bill Bock, who had come in from Indiana. Only 16 weeks earlier, Tygart and Bock had banned Armstrong for life from elite competition for doping, stripping him of all of his athletic titles going back to 1998. At the meeting they hoped to negotiate a confession from Armstrong, who hadn't yet admitted doping, and to convince him to cooperate in an effort to clean up the sport.
Having sold his private jet, Armstrong chartered a plane to Colorado, bringing his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, and his two youngest children along, so they could spend time with Hansen's parents in Boulder. By now Armstrong was itching to race in elite triathlons. He'd agreed to the meeting in the hopes of cutting a deal that would have him competing again in 12 months or less.
The meeting had a down-to-business feel. There was no spread of food or even coffee for the participants, just bottles of water. Bock and Tygart wanted Herman to know they were concerned about Armstrong's well-being. They had actually been shocked by the magnitude and velocity of Armstrong's downfall and had worried about how he was dealing with it emotionally.
Lodged in the back of their minds was the memory of Antonio Pettigrew, a track athlete who committed suicide on an overdose of sleeping pills in 2010, at age 42, two years after losing his gold medal following a USADA doping ban. Herman, who seemed to consider himself something of a father figure to Armstrong, said Armstrong was doing fine but that he'd be a lot better if he could get back to competing in triathlons. He said that Armstrong would be willing to come in and talk, to lay it all out on the table, but that in exchange he wanted to be back competing within a year.
In response, Tygart and Bock explained that such a quick return was impossible under the rules of the sport. But they tried to make a case, sweetened by a few small overtures, for Armstrong to come clean. "There are many more benefits to getting on the side of the truth," Bock said. "Doesn't he want to leave a legacy of helping to repair the sport?"
After about two hours, Herman felt he'd seen just enough daylight to call Armstrong, who said he'd join them in an hour. Bock and Tygart went across the street to a deli for coffee and muffins and then came back to the meeting room, where they waited.
The Blue Train, 2004
At precisely 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 17, 2004, nine men in the dark-blue jerseys of the U.S. Postal Service cycling team rolled out of the quiet village of Lannemezan in southwest France to begin a painful six-hour journey over seven Pyrenean passes. It was stage 13 of the Tour de France. The temperature was already 78 degrees.
The Tour de France's brutality is legend. The race lasts for 23 days, including two rest days, and is divided into 17 road "stages," including the flat stages favored by sprinters, mountain stages for climbers, and medium-mountain stage, plus four "time trials"—individually timed races against the clock—beginning with the "prologue," which opens the Tour. This would be the cruelest day of all. The course ahead stretched 127 miles, winding through the forested Midi-Pyrenees region, where wooded foothills give way to alpine pastures, then to a flat prelude through shaded farmlands, and finally to a series of ever-rising peaks: the gradual Col d'Aspin, the deceptive Col de Latrape, and, finally, the infamous climb to the Plateau de Beille. Lance Armstrong began the day in second place among the 150 riders—5 minutes, 24 seconds behind the melancholy Frenchman Thomas Voeckler. Five minutes are substantial by the standards of any normal race, but in the Tour de France, they could easily disappear. Armstrong's main rival, the German Jan Ullrich, the man who had the best chance of emerging from the mountains on his tail, trailed him by just 3:36. Armstrong's aim, and the mission of his U.S. Postal Service team, was to make the time gap between him and the rest of his pursuers insurmountably large.
Lance Armstrong in the 2004 Tour de France
After they hit the countryside, the Postal squad assumed its typical formation: eight riders forming a spear to pierce the wind, with Armstrong protected in the center. Every team in the Tour de France has a captain, the man who will finish first. While the captain pursues the yellow jersey, awarded to the rider with the lowest overall time, the rest of the team does cycling's grunt work: blocking the wind, putting pressure on rivals with clever tactical moves, even dropping back to the team car and picking up bottles of water for the leader. No team in cycling was more single-mindedly focused on its captain than the U.S. Postal team. And no captain expected more loyalty and hard work from his support riders than Armstrong.
Armstrong's teammates kept him securely in the sweet spot of the pack: right near the front, behind his Postal Service spear, where there's no wind and minimal risk of a crash. Armstrong pedaled in their slipstreams, using the momentum of the group, which enabled him to use 30% to 60% less energy than if he were riding alone.
The pack, called a peloton, resembles a graceful amoeba—its perimeter changing shape as it floats down the road. Inside the amoeba, teams elbow each other, jab ribs and collide wheels in constant combat for the best position.
On the 25-mile journey to the base of the day's first climb, the U.S. Postal squad shot to the front of the peloton, accelerating even on the flat roads where riders typically conserve their energy. Driving the pace on the flats—a technique pioneered by the Postal team—neutralized other squads' tiny, elflike climbers, whose smaller size offered no advantage on these relatively flat stretches.
The maneuver came at the direction of team director Johan Bruyneel, a handsome, dark- haired Belgian who trailed the riders in a team car. Watching the broadcast of the race on a television installed on his dashboard, Bruyneel carefully orchestrated every acceleration, attack and chase. Once the race neared the mountains, Armstrong would rely on the grunts, his four most trusted Postal teammates: José Azevedo, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis and José Luis Rubiera.
Just 40 miles into the stage, the peloton reached the first significant climb—a long, gentle ascent up the 11-mile Col de Portet d'Aspet. Here, in the climbs, the team faced its most challenging work. Armstrong was big for a cyclist. At 160 pounds, he was about 20% heavier than the average climber, weight that had to be carried over the decisive mountain stages. But the Blue Train, as they were known, proceeded as fast uphill as they had on the flats. Rivals began falling off the back of the pack like loose debris. Dutch, Belgians, Danes, Russians—they were heroes back home, national champions, endurance machines in the 99th percentile of the human race. Yet today they looked like amateurs. Armstrong had shaved Voeckler's lead to less than four minutes by the end of the first climb.
It was getting hotter and empty water bottles were shooting out of the peloton like popcorn. A bottle an hour for every rider equals about 300 on the side of the road—free souvenirs for fans. Basque rider Iban Mayo, a top Tour contender, succumbed to the heat and tension on the next climb, the relatively easy four-mile Col de Latrape. Mayo, suffering a deep burning sensation in his legs, simply got off his bike. Orange-clad Basque fans pleaded with him to continue. Slowly, he remounted his bike, his teammates joining onlookers in pushing him up the climb.
At the front of the pack, meanwhile, Armstrong barely seemed to be exerting himself. And he moved at a breathtaking pace: The Postal team hit the climb at roughly 20 miles an hour, a speed cycling teams had never attained in these conditions. The Americans chalked it up to technology and fitness—but the French, and other squads, had their suspicions. So did some members of the press.
On the slopes of the Col d'Agnes, 90 miles into the 127-mile stage, Postal led a pack that had now dwindled to about 40 riders. Voeckler couldn't keep up, and Armstrong now trailed him by only 44 seconds in overall time. Sensing the narrowing lead, Voeckler shot down the other side with reckless disregard for the off-camber, hairpin turns and choppy pavement. Fans winced as he came within inches of launching himself off a 30-foot cliff. By the start of the final climb, he had regained his advantage over Armstrong: 5:24.
At the base of Plateau de Beille, a 10-mile climb so steep that most people can hardly walk it, Postal took the lead. By then only about 30 or so riders had managed to hang with them. While the others were visibly suffering, the Postal riders looked positively comfortable. As the hill pushed to a 6% grade—on its way to an eventual 8%— Armstrong had only three teammates still supporting him. The others had dropped out. Still, Ullrich, the square-jawed German who'd won the Tour in 1997, clung to the wheels of the survivors. The year before, Ullrich had been Armstrong's toughest competitor, his tormentor in the mountains.
As the riders slowed and began to pant in the heat, the Postal team's rising star, Floyd Landis, pushed to the front to do the critical work of keeping pace so that Armstrong would get a smooth ride. Tall for a cyclist but rail thin, Landis was a latecomer to the sport. He had joined the team in 2002 and risen to become Postal's second-best. Landis, who had started out as a mountain biker before switching to road racing, had a cardiovascular capacity that was extremely rare—even more favorable than Armstrong's, according to calculations by team doctors. As he shepherded his team leader up the climb, Landis felt the attention of the cameras, the television commentators touting his talents. Other teams were courting him, and his performance proved he could be a potential rival to Armstrong. Armstrong counted on Landis's extraordinary strength to support him in the mountain stages, but Landis was not supposed to have ambitions of his own.
Slowly, the riders began passing red-and-white inflatable banners marking the distance to the finish line. With each checkpoint, Armstrong gained ground. Two seconds here, three there. The fans at the top of Plateau de Beille, some of whom had hiked for hours to get a good spot, cheered madly. Some ran alongside the riders, screaming encouragement or, occasionally, epithets. Cries of "dopée! dopée!" could be heard directed at Armstrong from French fans who suspected his performance was drug-fueled. In cycling, whether the fans love you or hate you, the cheers and jeers mostly blend into one savage din—punctuated by cowbells and the occasional air horn.
Landis, exhausted from knifing through the wind, finally pulled off and gave the lead to his Postal teammate José Luis Rubiera, known as Chechu. The Spanish climber screamed up the switchback turns, clearing the way for Armstrong through crowds waving colorful national flags. "Allez, allez!" "Go, go!" the fans screamed.
With 6.2 miles still left in the 9.9-mile climb, Ullrich had already lost 40 seconds. Voeckler, fading quickly, had lost 1 minute and 41 seconds. The riders passed the 3-mile mark, then the 1-mile mark. Armstrong was alone, far out in front of almost everyone, Ullrich a mere memory at more than 6 minutes behind.
Only one obstacle remained, and Armstrong, ever the assassin, charged after him. The Italian Ivan Basso was already so far down in the standings that he was merely hoping for a strong finish. Armstrong and Basso reached the summit together, and the roads began to flatten out. With less than one mile to go, Armstrong leaned his bike over at frightening angles around every turn.
He knew he had gained so much time that he could not lose the Tour de France now, but still he stuck to Basso's wheel. He looked angry, grimacing and pushing the pace. He wanted every second. He wanted not just to beat but to crush his competition. With 164 yards to go, Armstrong blew past Basso and sprinted across the finish line, raising his arms in the air triumphantly. He was now more than six minutes ahead of his closest competition in the overall standings. With a week to go, and only two more mountain stages ahead, it seemed inevitable that, barring some unforeseen disaster, he would win his sixth Tour.
While his teammates boarded a bus, destined for traffic jams down the mountain, Armstrong climbed into a helicopter with girlfriend Sheryl Crow. He may well have been, at that moment, the most thoroughly envied man in the world. His performance that day wasn't just miraculous—it was a seminal moment in the Armstrong legend. He had stared down cancer. He had a beautiful, famous girlfriend. And now he had once again beaten the Europeans at their own game.
The Betrayal, 2010
Six long years later, in the spring of 2010, Floyd Landis was sitting in a conference room at the Marriott Hotel in Marina del Rey, Calif., reliving the 2004 race. But the other men in the room had no interest in his heroics on the road.
One of the men was a federal agent named Jeff Novitzky—a tall, baldheaded criminal investigator for the Food and Drug Administration. Another was Travis Tygart from USADA, the nonprofit group in charge of policing doping in sport. What had begun as a cathartic truth-telling exercise for Landis had morphed into a full-blown federal investigation with Landis as the chief witness for the government.
Landis was 10 pounds heavier than he had been in 2004. On the verge of confessing what no American cyclist had ever admitted, he looked as if he hadn't shaved for a week. A thin, reddish-brown beard sprouted on his pale skin. His eyes were slightly red from lack of sleep—Landis said in an interview that he hadn't slept in weeks—and he wore bluejeans and an old white T-shirt.
So much had happened since that day in the 2004 Tour, when the entire world watched him give his all as he shepherded Armstrong over those mountain passes. Landis had become a hero after winning the Tour de France in 2006, only to be stopped by a positive drug test. He became a martyr after publicly denying he had doped, writing a book professing his innocence, and taking donations from fans for his legal defense—which ultimately failed, leaving him with a two-year ban from the sport.
Since his troubles began, he had broken up with his wife and moved to a small cabin in Idyllwild, a remote town in the mountains of Southern California whose residents included hippies, gun-toting survivalists and people living on the fringes of society. His relationship with Armstrong had ended in a bitter feud. And even after he'd served his punishment, he found himself pushed to the fringes of the sport. Now he was a broken man. Now he was about to tell secrets he knew would tear the sport apart.
The conversation wasn't recorded, but Novitzky and Tygart took careful notes. For the first time in the history of professional bike racing, one of the sport's biggest stars—a true firsthand witness to cycling's most heavily guarded secrets—was going to tell the truth about doping. Describing the events of that 2004 Tour, Landis told Novitzky and Tygart that one night, after the conclusion of one of the stages—just a few days after Armstrong had climbed into the helicopter with Sheryl Crow—the entire U.S. Postal team, including Armstrong, had been on the team bus, driving along largely deserted mountain roads to a hotel near the start of the following day's stage, when suddenly, the bus came to an abrupt stop. The driver, an old Belgian man, had gotten out carrying orange traffic cones, as if to indicate that there was a mechanical problem. Great, just what we need. Our legs are aching, our bodies are wasting away and now we have to sit in a bus on the side of the road and wait for the French equivalent of AAA, Landis thought to himself.
But soon, Landis said, everyone on board realized what was happening. The bus was being transformed into a secret blood transfusion unit.
The riders had known they would be asked to take blood at some point in the Tour, but weren't told when. As had happened before, someone—sometimes a motorcycle driver who had been hired to do it, sometimes the team chef, sometimes a security worker—had delivered the blood immediately before the transfusions. Engine trouble was just a ruse designed to outsmart the journalists and the French police who suspected the Postal team of doping.
As the bus driver pretended to work on the engine, the team doctors began handing out blood bags with code names the riders had chosen for themselves, according to Landis. Some riders used the names of their pets; others used nicknames. Landis used his real name. He said he was too afraid of accidentally infusing a teammate's blood—a mistake that could end in death—to take the risk of using another name.
Landis described to the two investigators what sounded like a well-choreographed, ultrasecret M.A.S.H. unit. As the operation got under way, all the riders, including Armstrong, lay down on the floor of the bus, face up, while the team doctors, who always rode on the bus, hung the chilled transfusion bags from overhead luggage racks so that gravity could help the blood ease its way into their veins.
The cyclists were gaunt, their faces sunken, the fat burned away by the exertions of the race. Their veins and capillaries had pushed up to the surface of the skin, rising in sinewy, bulging mazes on their arms and legs—the human body's attempt to supercharge itself by maximizing blood flow. Every day during the Tour, the riders burned up red blood cells like kindling, drastically depleting their ability to bring oxygen to their muscles. The extreme physical demands of the race meant they were wasting away from the inside out. The blood transfusions—a banned form of blood doping—were meant to counteract those effects. Boosting the number of red blood cells in the cyclists' bodies was like injecting fuel into a car's engine.
Landis described watching as Armstrong's bag slowly emptied. Normally, he said, Armstrong would squeeze the bag to the last drop, making sure that every possible red blood cell had flowed down the plastic tube and into his veins. This time, though, Armstrong had pulled the needle out of his arm without bothering to squeeze the bag. Landis said he thought it was because Armstrong was in a hurry, or maybe he just didn't care because he was so far ahead in the race by then.
Because the U.S. Postal team was under such intense scrutiny at that time, trying to arrange for two blood transfusions in a 21-day period was like trying to get away with two bank heists. In order for every rider to have two fresh blood bags ready by July, which was when the Tour de France took place, the team had to undergo a secret and complicated process that involved months of advance planning. The first blood draws were done well before the race when the riders were rested. The plastic transfusion bags were stored in refrigerators kept at 1 degree Celsius to preserve the blood as much as possible without freezing it. Shortly before the beginning of the 2004 Tour, the U.S. Postal team had the bags of blood smuggled into France in an unmarked camper. Then the bags were transported by motorcycles with refrigerated panniers.
As Landis told his story in the Marriott conference room that day, there was absolute silence. Other than Landis's voice, all that could be heard was the sound of scribbling pens. Novitzky had spent years investigating drug use in Major League Baseball and the National Football League. Tygart had devoted a decade of his life to fighting drug use in sports. The two men thought they had heard everything by that stage of their careers, but this was the most vivid picture ever painted of the secret world of professional sports.
They stayed in the room for six hours, pushing for details, for context, and the next morning they met with Landis for another two hours.
Keys to Redemption, 2012
Back at the conference room at Bill Ritter's Denver office on that December afternoon in 2012, Lance Armstrong finally showed up.
He walked in more than 90 minutes late, wearing a baseball cap and a North Face parka. His facial hair was grown out, almost to the point of being a beard. He looked nothing like the famous clean-shaven athlete with the beaming smile and the buzz cut. He sat down next to his lawyer, Tim Herman, across from USADA's Tygart and Bock. Armstrong spoke as if it were a foregone conclusion that he had doped. He didn't bother denying anything, but he didn't offer any explicit details, either. He referred to the systematic doping of athletes in the former East Germany and said that whatever he had done was nothing compared with that.
Tygart, who was meeting Armstrong for the first time, noticed that the people surrounding him seemed to be coddling him, which had probably allowed him to infer that he could avoid the ban completely. It became clear to Tygart that none of Armstrong's lawyers had given him the "come to Jesus" talk—the kind of frank discussion that would have shown him the true dimensions of his predicament.
Armstrong seemed to be laboring under the false impression that he could still get out of this mess with minimal damage. He said he would be willing to talk about others who might have helped him dope. But in exchange, "You have to give me a fair punishment." That "doesn't have to be six months," he added, but a year."
Tygart said he actually began to feel sorry for him. Armstrong still thought he could take charge of the situation, but this was one of the few times in Armstrong's life when he was no longer in control. Tygart told Armstrong that he had already had his chance to come clean and he'd blown it—that at best, if he gave full cooperation, the ban would be eight years. The offer was so far from a sweetheart deal that it didn't seem to create much incentive for Armstrong to talk. He'd be 49 before he could compete again at the elite level.
Armstrong tried to convince Tygart that he was just another rider on the U.S. Postal team, that he had done what was required of him by a sport in which doping was rampant. In fact, he said, every sport has similar problems, including the NFL and Major League Baseball, but those athletes hadn't been singled out by USADA. As the discussion wound down, Tygart didn't budge. He told Armstrong he stood accused of offenses that stretched beyond doping to a coverup marked by nearly 15 years of denials, as well as threats and actions against anyone who told the truth. Equally unbudging, Armstrong told Tygart that he held the keys to his own redemption. Armstrong said he could create his own "truth and reconciliation commission," laying out the facts as he saw them. Armstrong believed such a plan would put so much public pressure on USADA that it would have no choice but to allow him to compete again—to which Tygart responded: "That's b—! People will see it for what it is—a ploy for you to get back to competition."
Armstrong shot back that he would compete in unsanctioned races. And with that, the negotiation was over.
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Annual Meetings
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. The conference is nearly at capacity. We will take on-site registrations until we reach the maximum capacity, but please realize that at this point, we cannot guarantee that all persons wishing to register on site will be able to get into the conference. Our 2016 Annual Meeting will be held July 13-16, 2016 in Warsaw, Poland at the Sheraton Warsaw Hotel. For ISPP's special rate, please follow THIS LINK. UPDATE 28 APRIL: The hotel is sold-out for part of our conference week. Please see THIS LINK for alternate lodging options in the vicinity of the Sheraton. Conference Theme: The Good Society: Prospects for Reason, Communication, and Well-Being President: John T. Jost (New York University, USA) Program Co-chairs: Michal Bilewicz (University of Warsaw, Poland), Aleksandra Cichocka (University of Kent, England), and Christopher Federico (University of Minnesota, USA)PROGRAM SCHEDULE
The program has been finalized. Please click HERE to view the PDF. If you have questions or concerns regarding your scheduled time, please contact the 2016 Program Committee.COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS NOTICE
All presenters at ISPP's 2016 Annual Meeting have been provided notification regarding the use of copyrighted materials within their presentations. That notice can be viewed HERE.AUDIO/VISUAL DETAILS & POSTER DIMENSIONS
ISPP will provide projectors, screens, carts, cabling, electrical outlets/strips, and necessary microphones/speakers in each meeting room. Presenters are responsible for providing laptops and power cords/voltage converters/adapters for their sessions. Cables for VGA and HDMI laptop connections will be available. Adapters for Apple and Mac computers are NOT available, so please bring your own.
Poster boards will be provided for the poster sessions. Each accepted poster will have ONE surface of a board for materials. The dimensions of each display surface are: 95cm (37.4 inches) horizontal, 224cm (88.19 inches) vertical.CALL FOR PAPERS
The extended deadline for submissions, 7 January 2016 has passed and the submission process is now CLOSED.
Our Call for Papers can be viewed HERE.
The submission process for the 2016 Annual Meeting is NOW CLOSED. The link for the submission site can be found HERE. Acceptances have been sent out. Accepted presenters needed to register for the conference by 15 April 2016 to confirm their participation. Early/presenter registration is now CLOSED.
Please be sure to note any scheduling requests when you submit your proposal (ex., do not schedule on first day). We will consider all requests, but cannot guarantee that we will be able to accommodate everyone.
One of the very first political psychologists, Graham Wallas (1914) observed in The Great Society that economic industrialization had been more successful in removing specific causes of unhappiness, such as famine, than in producing genuine happiness. "We must let our minds play freely over all the conditions of life," he implored readers, "till we can either justify our civilization or change it." In 1937, Walter Lippmann penned his own version of The Good Society. He warned that his generation had "returned to the heresies of absolutism, authority, and the domination of men by men" and asserted that a universal sense of the inviolability of the rights and freedoms of human beings is what enabled our species to fight our way "out of the morass of barbarism" and that this inviolability must be the foundation of the Good Society.
In the early and middle of the 20th century, reformers and revolutionaries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America—inspired by socialist ideals—made an effort to improve the lives of working people and other exploited groups. In 1989, Poland led the way for a peaceful transformation that swept through Central and Eastern Europe as citizens became deeply disappointed with the authoritarian socialism they had known. Around the same time, in longstanding democracies, a consensus around social-democratic norms gave way to a neoliberal vision emphasizing market efficiency and economic individualism. Twenty five years later, it would appear that a majority of citizens in both contexts are dissatisfied with the results. In the U.S. and many other countries, politics are as destructive, bitter, and corrupt as anyone can remember, and reasoning in the public sphere seems more and more like an unattainable ideal.
What, in the 21st century, is our shared vision of the Good Society, and what are the obstacles to its realization? What is the ideal mix of equality and tradition, individual initiative and social welfare, economic prosperity and environmental responsibility, national and international unity and the cultivation of diversity? As political psychologists, what can we say about how to increase subjective and objective well-being at home and abroad? What do we know about how and why contemporary societies make it so difficult for people to communicate about these matters reasonably and realistically without rapidly deteriorating into ideological hostility or the kind of solipsistic resignation that comes with relativism about human values? In the absence of a shared conception of the Good Society, is it even possible to know what progress in social and political life would look like?
We especially welcome proposals for panels or symposia, along with individual papers and posters, which present theory and research bearing on individual and collective conceptions of the Good Society and the motivational role of those conceptions in fostering political activity. Research may draw on any area of political psychology including, but not limited to, the application of experimental designs, public opinion surveys, and narrative approaches to the study of political ideology, human values, social justice, cultural norms, personality dynamics, social identification, intergroup relations, political leadership, collective action, protest, and societal transformation. We are especially interested in proposals that provide new theoretical, methodological, or empirical insights about how to conceptualize, measure, and foster public reasoning, rationality, communication, understanding, and both subjective and objective well-being in society.
We also welcome symposia, roundtables, papers, and posters on any topic in political psychology. The program chairs are interested in bringing together new research from the fields of political science, psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, biology, communication, history, philosophy, and other disciplines. We hope to bring about an exciting intellectual exchange that will enrich the study of political psychology and help us to better understand the dynamics of society and politics in the world today.
Confirmed keynote speakers will be Jan T. Gross, Professor of History and Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society at Princeton University; Arie W. Kruglanski, a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland; and Diana C. Mutz, the Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication and Director of the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics in the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Special invited symposia will be chaired by Daniel Bar-Tal (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Julia Becker (Osnabrück, Germany), Rachel Calogero (Kent, U.K.), Gian Vittorio Caprara (Rome, Italy), Karen Douglas (Kent, UK), Kevin Durrheim (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), Stanley Feldman (Stony Brook, USA), Leonie Huddy (Stony Brook, USA), Eric D. Knowles (NYU, USA), Natalia Letki (Warsaw, Poland), Levente Littvay (CEU, Hungary), Benjamin Newman (UC Riverside, USA), Victor Ottati (Loyola University, Chicago, USA), Christopher S. Parker (U. Washington, USA), Tobias Rothmund and Manfred Schmitt (Koblenz-Landau, Germany), Robbie Sutton (Kent, U.K.), Linda Tropp (U. Massachusetts, USA), Joshua Tucker (NYU, USA), and Thomas Zeitzoff (American University, USA).
In addition, we are planning a special session involving Janusz Grzelak, a Professor of Psychology at the M. Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education, the Co-Founder and first President of the Polish Society of Social Psychology, and a former Vice-Minister of Education in Poland, and Janusz Reykowski, a Professor of Psychology at the Polish Academy of Science, a Co-Chair of the Political Roundtable during the period of transition in Poland, a Co-Founder and Chairman of the Academic Council of the Warsaw School of Social Psychology, and a Past President of the International Society of Political Psychology.HOTEL INFORMATION
ISPP has secured a block of rooms at the Sheraton Warsaw at a discounted rate of PLN 350++ (single), PLN 400++ (double) per night. For ISPP's special rate, please follow THIS LINK.
Rooms at ISPP's discounted rate at the Sheraton will be available until the room block is full, or 24 June 2016, whichever comes first.
PLEASE NOTE: ISPP has NOT contracted with any third-party companies for hotel reservations. All information and links for reservations will be provided in e-mails directly from ISPP and on this web page. Beware if you are contacted by someone stating that they are working with ISPP for discounted room rates; such communications are not legitimate.TRAVEL & VISA INFORMATION
Please see THIS SITE for information about travel to Poland and visa requirements. Accepted presenters can request a letter for visa application from the ISPP Central Office.2016 REGISTRATION
All conference attendees are required to accept a liability release waiver when registering. The waiver is available via the registration web site, and also HERE.
The 2016 registration fees are posted below. Registration is now CLOSED. Please note that 2016 marks the start of a new conference pricing structure for ISPP based on country of employment/study. This new structure also includes discounts for ISPP members.
The breakdown of countries by tier (for the pricing below) can be viewed HERE.
|Registration Fees for ISPP 2016 for Tier A (High Income Nations):
|Early Registration (ends 15 Apr)
|Late/On-Site Registration
|ISPP Full Members
|Student Members
|Student Non-Members
|Other (guests, retirees, unemployed, etc.)
|Registration Fees for ISPP 2016 for Tier B (Medium Income Nations):
|Early Registration (ends 15 Apr)
|Late/On-Site Registration
|ISPP Full Members
|Student Members
|Student Non-Members
|Other (guests, retirees, unemployed, etc.)
|Registration Fees for ISPP 2016 for Tier C (Low Income Nations):
|Early Registration (ends 15 Apr)
|Late/On-Site Registration
|ISPP Full Members
|Student Members
|Student Non-Members
|Other (guests, retirees, unemployed, etc.)
Registration fees include: admission to the full conference, coffee breaks, and admission to any general conference receptions (space permitting). Please note that there is a fee for the Awards Lunch, and receptions and lunches have limited capacities and will generate waitlists when they are full. UPDATE 18 APRIL: All receptions and the Mentoring Lunch are at capacity and have waitlists. We will expand the receptions to the greatest extent possible, and we apologize if we are unable to accommodate you.
Become a member of ISPP and save on meeting registration with a member discount! Click HERE to join or renew!
ISPP MEMBERSHIP RATES (EFFECTIVE Late 2015 - Late 2016)
- Students: $33 USD per year
- Less than $20,000 USD: $43 USD per year; $83 for 2 years; $121 for 3 years
- $20,000-$30,000 USD: $56 USD per year; $108 for 2 years; $158 for 3 years
- $30,000-$40,000 USD: $66 USD per year; $127 for 2 years; $186 for 3 years
- $40,000-$50,000 USD: $81 USD per year; $156 for 2 years; $228 for 3 years
- $50,000-$60,000 USD: $94 USD per year; $180 for 2 years; $265 for 3 years
- $60,000-$70,000 USD: $104 USD per year; $200 for 2 years; $293 for 3 years
- $70,000-$80,000 USD: $114 USD per year; $219 for 2 years; $321 for 3 years
- $80,000-$90,000 USD: $126 USD per year; $252 for 2 years; $355 for 3 years
- $90,000-$125,000 USD: $137 USD per year; $263 for 2 years; $386 for 3 years
- Over $125,000 USD: $147 USD per year; $282 for 2 years; $415 for 3 years
- Retired: $43 USD per year; $83 for 2 years; $121 for 3 years
- Lifetime: $1,858 USD
- Joint/Household (receive one copy of Political Psychology; contact the Central Office to add the second household member): $119 USD per calendar year
- Membership includes: Reduced registration fees at annual scientific meetings, occasional member discounts on items such as publications, six issues per year of the journal Political Psychology, access to the Wiley Online Library for Political Psychology and Advances in Political Psychology, e-mail delivery of ISPPNews, the Society's newsletter, and voting privileges. New members receive immediate access to the ISPP Member Portal, and online access to Political Psychology within 60 days.
Please see this page for a listing of member benefits.EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS TRAVEL GRANTS & SUMMER ACADEMY - 2016 The application process for the ISPP Summer Academy 2016 is now CLOSED. Please see THIS PAGE for information about ISPP's Summer Academy. The deadline to apply was 12PM EST 4 March 2016. The application process for Early Career Scholars Travel Grants for 2016 is now CLOSED. Please see THIS PAGE for details. The application deadline was 25 March 2016. EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS MENTORING LUNCHEON ISPP will again be hosting an Early Career Scholars Mentoring Luncheon during the conference, giving our early career scholars an opportunity to talk to those established in the field. Space is limited to 75 mentees and 25 mentors, who will be matched as best as possible. Mentees must register for the lunch when registering for the conference; mentors will be registered separately. There is no charge for the lunch, but your attendance must be confirmed by the organizers. We will have a waiting list when the event is full, and will advise you if space becomes available. For questions about the luncheon, you can e-mail Stavroula Chrona and Thia Sagherian Dickey at: E-mail. EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS 'ELEVATOR PITCH CONTEST - 2016 For the first time the Early Career Committee is hosting an 'elevator pitch' event at the 2016 Annual Meeting during which early career political psychologists will learn how to present their research in conversation in a brief, interesting and memorable way. An 'elevator pitch' is a concise statement of your research interests and experience to be shared informally and orally in various professional contexts. For more information and to sign up please see THIS DOCUMENT or email the ECC. FLYERS/BOOK DISPLAYS For publishers and authors interested in having display copies, samples, or flyers at the conference, please contact ISPP's Executive Director, Sev Bennett, for more information. WARSAW VISITOR INFORMATION & RESOURCES
View information on Warsaw at these links:NY Times 36 Hours in Warsaw Warsaw City Break Warsaw Tour Brochures Top 10 Things in Warsaw Fall in Love with Warsaw
*Please note that photographs and video are taken during the course of the conference. These images may be used in ISPP marketing materials, on the ISPP web site, and other products relating to ISPP. By attending, you consent to your image being used in ISPP-related materials.
*ISPP reserves the right to deny registration or to remove an ISPP conference attendee at any time, for reasons, in its sole discretion, it deems sufficient.


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Public contrition self-serving sans change
In a cynical age, public apologies are demanded and doubted, often simultaneously. The Internet has created a new vehicle for public apology. Not only did Tiger Woods apologize on his Web site, but new Web sites, including ThePublicApology.com and PerfectApology. com allow guilt-ridden users to post their anonymous apologies online. Frank Warren's Postsecret blog, where users post confessional secrets, receives 1.5 million visits each week.
But what inspires the need to apologize, particularly the need to do so publicly? What makes a good apology and when does an apology fall short? Must the recipient of an apology accept it? What good does a public admission of guilt do for people not personally affected by the transgression?
'I'm sorry' doesn't cut it
Researchers know a fair amount about apologies. Surveys say married people apologize twice as often as single and divorced people and that high-wage earners apologize more frequently than low-wage earners.
An Ohio State University study found that simply saying "I'm sorry" is among the least-effective ways to apologize. The best apologies, researchers found, were those that offered full responsibility and an explanation of the action, offered a
plan to fix the problem for the future and, in some cases, offered some reparation for the offense.
And yet public figures continue to blunder in their apologies, media critics say, offering mea culpas that are perceived as insincere or insufficient.
In 2006, after British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he felt "deep sorrow" for Britain's role in the slave trade, many commentators chided him for not going far enough in his apology. That same year, after Pope Benedict XVI apologized for remarks he made about Islam, critics said the initial Vatican apology was insufficient. The pope ended up making three more attempts and met with Muslim leaders.
Bill Clinton, too, apologized at least seven times for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Each attempt, from "I misled people, including even my wife," to "I made a big mistake. It is indefensible, and I am sorry," increased the level of emotion — an effort that sincerity experts say is critical when making an effective apology.
"The public has been so used to this public apology that celebrities who make apologies have to be more dramatic in their expression of contrition," said Rich Hanley, director of the graduate journalism program at Quinnipiac University. "There is a sense that one must humiliate oneself to the bar of public perception in a way that's seen as someone on TV essentially begging for forgiveness."
Bay of Pigs example
And you have to do it fast, said Phil Goduti, an adjunct history professor at Quinnipiac. He compares Bill Clinton, who initially vehemently denied his involvement with Lewinsky and was later forced to admit it in the face of overwhelming evidence, with John Kennedy's swift apology for the Bay of Pigs failure. "When JFK appeared on TV and said, 'This is all my fault. I'm the president here,' his poll numbers went up," Goduti said. Kennedy's eloquent quote, "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan" helped him to re-establish trust among the electorate.
Conversely, says Carolyn A. Lin, professor and head of the communication program at University of Connecticut at Storrs, golf legend Tiger Woods has done nothing to restore the public trust. "He hasn't done any real public apology," said Lin. "He's issued very brief statements that explained very little. Tiger Woods is a story still waiting to happen."
Lin said for a public apology to work it must be completely honest and specific; it must include a plan of action for how to right the wrong; and it must be given alongside trustworthy individuals — often a politician's wife — who attest to the petitioner's character.
Still, said Rabbi Eric Polokoff, of B'Nai Israel in Southbury, "the average person is smart enough to realize when there's some manipulation going on," he said. "There are so many spin doctors. The fact that people are hired as image consultants and these things are tried out by public relations official adds to the cynicism."
The trick, says Rev. Dr. Raymond Odiorne, of Waterbury, is that "at one and the same time, we expect [public figures] to apologize to us, but we say we don't believe it," he says. "We have developed a culture of cynicism where we both expect the highest of these figures and then expect them to be flawed."
Much of that, he says, is fueled by the media's "gotcha" impulse. "We have this expectation that any public figure is going to turn out to be human after all, so when they do something wrong, then we can say, 'Aha. I knew that they weren't perfect after all.'"
TV is largely to blame for the cycle of transgression and apology, Hanley said. "Public apology is a part of the narrative generated by talk show culture," he said. "When we report a public official doing something wrong, an apology is part of our way to close the media arc and send the media on to the next story."
Social scientists say that contrition, apology and forgiveness are evolutionary tools that help societies heal the bonds of trust that keep them together. All the world's major religions emphasize contrition and forgiveness. Many have rituals for forgiveness — penance, for Christians, and Yom Kippur, for Jews. In early Christian churches, penitents practiced public contrition, beating their breasts or wearing sack cloth and donning ashes.
Rituals for forgiveness
In the 5th century, Ambrose of Milan wrote of seeing "penitents whose tears had hollowed a furrow on their faces, and who prostrated themselves on the ground to be trampled upon by the feet of everyone; their pale faces, worn by fasts, exhibited the image of death in a living body." In the 17th century, Puritans meted out specific public penances for sins, such as working on the Sabbath.
Today, television takes the place of the church steps, but the public is still in the position of assessing the sincerity of the transgressor. "Perception is all," Hanley said. "If we perceive someone to be worthy of forgiveness and they ask for it we are more likely to forgive them." So, after suspended NFL star Michael Vick served his federal dogfighting sentence and publicly spoke about its evils, the public was more willing to forgive, he said.
On a personal level, apology serves to repair a broken relationship, clerics say.
"Inherently, we are relational human beings," said Brandon Nappi, associate retreat director at Holy Family Retreat Center in West Hartford. "The goal of apology is forgiveness and reconciliation, ultimately to heal the relationship."
That's why Nappi and other religious experts find apology Web sites self-serving and incomplete. "If you don't really direct [the apology] to the people who you've harmed, it is not really meaningful," said Rabbi Polokoff, of Southbury. "You're not really confronting the reality of what you have done that is harmful."
And yet the impulse to apologize — even in the anonymous realm of Cyberspace — comes of a deep well of guilt, said Odiorne, of Waterbury. "You're looking for some way of getting alleviation of your guilty feelings," he said. "They're looking for a quick-fix. Go on this Web site. It's pre-ordered. Cook, mix and serve. You got what you need and you move on."
But a Web apology is likely an empty gesture for the contrite and their recipient, Nappi said. "It strikes me as a bit self-serving," he said. "I imagine these people are feeling a pent-up guilt and there's a misplaced catharsis. The problem is there's no mode of reconciliation. Part of an apology is wrestling with your own brokeneness in relation to another — 'I have violated your trust.' That's what rubs us the wrong way on these TV apologies. There's an element of self-serving-ness to it."
Commitment to change
Inherent in a public apology, media and religious figures agree, is a commitment to change. "To apologize and then do it again shows a lack of full cognition," said Polokoff. "The sincerity of an apology also looks to where we can make amends and change our behavior."
"A central aspect of absolution is your commitment to make this better somehow," says Nappi. "A confession demands action. It is a commitment to change. This is not just a method of making guilt disappear."
The best apology contains what Nappi calls "radical transparency."
Hanley, at Quinnipiac, agreed. "the best public apology would be one where honesty revealed itself in its entire form," he said. "I wish these athletes [who got caught with steroids] would say, 'I cheated because I wanted to get an edge; because it's my livelihood, because that's what I get paid to do."
That, says UConn's Lin, is where McGwire's apology fell short. "He made a lot of excuses for himself," she said. "And he failed to apologize to the most important people— his adoring fans — and to Major League Baseball, from which he made so much money."
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How can I make a good buying decision that I will not regret about in the future?
It happens a lot: I come to a situation where I really want something but not sure if it'll be a good purchase, or alternatively want two or more different things and not sure which to buy.
There are also cases where I buy something and after sometime I realize it was a pretty dumb purchase.
I'm sure this happens to many people, maybe even to most people. How do I make a good decision that I will not regret about in one month or year?
Some examples for such situations:
- Should I buy a new smartphone or stay with my current?
- Do I really want to have a new dog/parrot?
- Do I really need a tablet or it's just a temporary excitement?
- What's better for me: expensive drums that will last long or cheap drums I'll have to replace if I continue drumming.
Thank you!