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The Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra has had a highly successful and fun 2014-2015 season! We are looking forward to an even better 2015-2016!
Live auditions for next season have come to a close, we had many wonderful student-musicians audition. Select Positions are open for the 2015-2016 season. They are: Violin, Clarinet, French Horn, Trumpet, Bass Trombone, and Percussion*.
Video auditions will be accepted through August 2015. Go to the Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra's website for further audition and registration information. You can also go directly to Eventbrite for free registration!
The Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra (LSYO) provides performing opportunities for middle school and high school students who have at least three years of experience with a private teacher or in school music programs.
The season starts in September and goes through May. Rehearsals are on Mondays from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm. They include professionally directed sectionals, a master class, and a concerto competition. There are three concerts per season which are scheduled in late August.
Rehearsals and concerts generally take place at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn. Many thanks to Stone Bridge staff, Fine Arts faculty, and especially Band Director Dr. Keller!
Tuition is $400 for the full year. Some scholarships are available on a need basis.
LSYO AUDITION REQUIREMENTS: Select positions available for 2015-2016 Season
- prepare Excerpts (Excerpts and audition info — click here)
- Scales must be memorized up to 4 flats and 4 sharps in Major scales. Strings play in 3 octaves. Woodwinds and Brass play chromatic scales in 16th notes, slur going up, tongued coming down.
- * Live percussion auditions can be scheduled if student does not have access to instruments.


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How to Make Coconut Milk at HomeDrinks and Tonics, Other, Recipes, Snacks and Sweets, Videos
Last week, I visited an Asian Supermarket and showed you via video the primary items that I buy there. If you recall, two of the items I purchased were raw, frozen coconut meat and young coconuts. I mentioned in that video that these items were ideal to make coconut milk.
High quality coconut milk is a must have in the kitchen of any Traditional Cook who seeks to serve nutrient dense meals for her family. One of the most highly desirable nutrients in whole coconut milk is lauric acid, a medium chain saturated fat that is quickly used by the body for energy and is also highly anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. Remember that lauric acid is produced by the mammary gland and is one of the reasons breastmilk keeps infants so healthy!
Unfortunately, coconut milk is typically found in cans or aseptic packages which can potentially result in undesirable toxins such as BPA or nanites leeching into the milk. There is one brand of coconut milk, Native Forest, that is marketed as BPA free, but if it's possible to make fresh coconut milk that maintains all its rawness and nutrition for basically the same amount of money as the canned version, wouldn't this be the best way to go?
Most homemade coconut milk recipes I've seen utilize boiling hot water. While this is certainly fine particularly if you are going to cook with the coconut milk once you've made it, I personally prefer to make coconut milk in a manner that maintains all the rawness in order to preserve all the enzymes and nutrition.
In this 2 part video series, I show you how to make coconut milk that is both raw and fresh and uses only coconut meat and coconut water.. no plain water added. Making coconut milk this way costs little more than the much less tasty and nutritious canned versions so why not make a lot at once and freeze it for convenient use later?
In the second part of the video, I show you a very simple method for using this whole, raw coconut milk while still preserving all enzymes and nutrition.
Click here for additional information on how to make coconut flour. Click here for a video how-to for making coconut milk kefir.
How to Make Coconut Milk (Video How-To)
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
Why Coconut Milk from the Store Should Be Avoided
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Comments (63)
Is Bob.s Red Mill Shredded Unsweetened Coconut raw? I am tired of chasing around for healthy ingredients since most that are recommended here are obscure in a less-than-urban area of 1 million people. I bought the above product at a local outlet of a national chain, paid a exorbitant price (in my opinion) and I cannot find out from any source if this is raw. Is it that important or is it the mantra of uninformed people?
Sarah any suggestion of what to do with the coconut pulp from the blender ? Can I make cookies or something like that ? If yes …¿can You share The recipe ? Thanks
Sarah TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Yes, check out my video on how to use it to make coconut flour
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Lorna Morrison
Hi Sarah, I enjoyed your post. I wanted to make a suggestion, if you don't mind. I was born & live in Jamaica where we have a lot of coconuts and Jamaicans have been making coconut milk & oil for a very long time. I've only recently started making it myself but my relatives would make coconut milk every Sunday to cook rice & peas. Usually most people use the dry brown coconuts to make the milk. I have also used the more mature young coconuts with harder meat to make milk. The white coconut that you used is a young green coconut with the green skin chopped off (some commenters did not realize this). In Jamaica, we call the young coconut a jelly coconut & the meat is referred to as coconut jelly. I also use this kind of coconut, but I don't usually process it at the same time as the dried one. I would mix or blend them together afterwards if a recipe calls for both. The young coconut meat can be used in a variety of desserts, but it can also be eaten straight out of the coconut, like the water. When blended it gives a creamy milk that does not need to be strained, whereas the mature coconut has to be strained of the fibrous pulp. Hope this was helpful.
I enjoy drinking young coconuts. But what to do with the waste?
Cheers Th
Stacey DAmico
Hi Sarah,
This is my second time asking. You never responded. About 4:40 into the video when you add some coconut meat from a glass measuring cup — you refered to it as dried shredded coconut. I thought that earlier you had said that we shouldn't use dried shredded coconut because it needs to be reconstituted with boiling water. I'm wondering if maybe you were really using the frozen coconut meat but mistakenly called it dried shredded coconut meat?
Thanks Stacey
Lorna Morrison
Stacey, I don't know if you had gotten an answer to your question, but Sarah only used the frozen coconut meat & some fresh meat from a green coconut. She said it might look like the dessicated dried one but it wasn't; it was wet to the touch. She made a mistake at the point you indicated when she said dry. Hope that helps.
Stacey D'Amico
Thank you Lorna! And "No" I have never received an answer from Sarah. She doesn't seem to answer questions here. VERY FRUSTRATING.
how long does it last in the fridge ?
Using the coconut water from a young coconut is a great idea. I have only ever used water to make my coconut milk and sometimes I find that it comes out more watery than I like.
I actually had a happy accident last time I made coconut water using my food processor. I used cold water and after processing the coconut for a while I had coconut oil stuck all over the inside of my food processor. I got around 4 tablespoons of coconut oil with fine coconut shreds in it. It works great for sauteing vegetables or using as a butter replacement in cookies.
If you are interested in recipes dedicated to the coconut and all its awesome forms (coconut milk, shredded coconut, coconut flour) please visit my site at http://yummycoconut.com !
Santiago Sanchez
How would this compare to the regular taste of drinking 2% or whole dairy milk? ive just recently gave up dairy and the hardest part to be without is the milk is it similar and taste and if not what would be the closest to dairy milk?
Do you have any suggestions for what to do with the remaining coconut pulp? Can it be dehydrated or toasted for baked goods?
Dah! to get the water out of the coconut FAST, poke 2 holes on opposite sides of the top. Let air in one hole while pouring the water out of the other. Works for me!
Hello, I have a question @ klabbering raw milk. I left @ a qt. of raw milk out on my kitchen counter for THREE Days! But, only some solidified and separated while most remained liquid. It certainly smelled sour but, when I tried to strain in cloth it went through so fast and was very milky not at all clear. Not even semi-clear. I scooped out the solids put in a jar and used the rest of the milk (?) not sure if that was whey….to soak my organic whole wheat flour for pancakes. I don't know if I actually clabbered my milk and if using what rushed thru the cloth to soak my pancake flour was ok? PLEASE HELP!!!
Thank you for the video.
I recently ditched the tetra-paks and I'm glad I did.
I have been making coconut milk with fresh young coconut meat & coconut water.
I love using a nut milk bag to strain the milk, and clean up is a breeze.
My only problem with coconut milk made this way is the taste. My 4 yr old does not like the tanginess of coconut water, and he refuses to drink the fresh raw coconut milk since it has a much earthier, tangier taste than coconut milk made by rehydrating coconut flakes. (I've been making it that way for a few years).
Sadly, it is also very expensive (and I live in Hawaii). I end up using about 6 coconuts to make about 6 cups of milk (coconuts here are about $4 a piece at the farmers market). Sad that real raw food has to cost so much. Its just not affordable.
One more question.
I do make the coconut milk the old way with some warm water. I use fresh coconut since I live in Hawaii.
What is the difference between this and the one you showed on the video with coconut water?
Love your videos.
Have one question.
I live in Hawaii. Do you know where to find live kefir over here.
Hawaii does not allow to commercialize raw milk unfortunately. Where is the alternative milk again.
Thank you so much
On maui, you can buy raw milk if its "pet food". So, farmers here are selling raw milk that way. Ask around or get to know organic farmers. They won't advertise it, you have to find out by word of mouth. It is I agree though, very hard to find, and much more demand than supply I'm afraid.
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Hi, just noticed you using a juicer to separate your coconut mixture. Great idea except your using a centrifugal style juicer which happens to introduce a lot of oxygen to whatever your juicing causing an 'oxidative' effect. Rather try using a press, a slow spinning juicer, such as the omega 8006 or similar, or use the chess cloth method.
Thanks for the videos and keep up the good work!
Per Tropical Traditions, coconut oil does not contain enzymes, which is why it is stable for so long. I presume that is also true for the coconut meat, but I am not sure of that. If so, you shouldn't need to worry about heating it when making your milk.
Stacey DAmico
Hi Sarah,
About 4:40 into the video when you add some coconut meat from a glass measuring cup – you refered to it as dried shredded coconut. I thought that earlier you had said that we shouldn't use dried shredded coconut because it needs to be reconstituted with boiling water. I'm wondering if maybe you were really using the frozen coconut meat but mistakenly called it dried shredded coconut meat?
Thanks Stacey
can i drink this coconut juice?
Maybe I did something wrong, but my coconut milk separated only just after a few minutes. I have use the store bought coconut milk before to make kefir before and it was delicious, but the one from homemade milk didn't come out right because the milk kept on separating. Any ideas how to prevent this?
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Sarah, could you please make a video about how to make coconut oil please? I have seen several methods over the internet: one is heating the coconut milk and the other is with a juicer, I am not really buying any of them, if you have time and the knowledge I would really appreciate you sharing it in a video. Thank you.
Sarah, I was wondering about the frozen coconut meat you bought. I went to my asian market and found what appears to be the exact same brand of coconut meat you purchases at your market. On the top of the bag it says 'Cook before serving.' Is there a reason for this? I want raw coconut milk and yours is the only reasonable recipe I've found for it. Is there a reason my coconut milk would be unsafe to eat raw? Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks for this video! I am going to try this. About the young coconuts; do they come out that way? How come the coconuts in the grocery store have brown on the outside?
I have a Vita Mix; just pulverize it.
And, where is the follow up video?
Christine Kaiser
I was wondering how you get the kefir grains back out of the coconut milk when it is done fermenting?
Hi! So, I opened up 3 of the coconuts I bought, and went ahead and got the water out so they would go bad. I put all the water in a tupperware container in the freezer, and when I lookd today, there is a purple slime on the top and bottom of the water. Do you think it's still OK to use? Should I scrape off the purple and use that? I wasn't sure if it was just oxidation or what. Thanks!!
Oops, just saw your new post about how to make coconut flour. Great timing as I have been wondering how to do just that. You are awesome!!
What do you do with the coconut pulp from the blender? I hate to waste it.
Sarah, I'm a real newbie… and on a very limited budget. Thanks for being such an encouragement!
I'm curious how long the fresh coconut milk will keep in the fridge. Thanks, Lucy
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Lucy, it lasts about a week. Freeze what you will not use in that time.
Hi Sarah,
All I was able to find in my area were green coconuts, not white. The one I opened had LOTS of water in it, but no edible meat.. It only had this jelly-like coconut goo in it. I dug into the meat with a spoon, and it was very hard and not sweet at all. Is this just too immature? Should I wait on opening the others to let them ripen, or are they just different than the white ones in your video?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
You can use the water out of the green coconuts. You will need to get mature coconut meat in the frozen section as I show in the video as you will get very little if any meat in young coconuts.
I was wondering about this myself. So are young coconuts only good for their water then?
Nicola — the meat in young coconuts is edible and delicious. Don't throw it away! It can be eaten straight out of the coconut. Just scrape it out with a spoon, and avoid getting rough bits of husk in your mouth (although no harm in it of course, you can always spit that part out). This stuff is a prized ingredient for pies, fruit salads and as a plain ol' nutritious snack where I come from.
Sarah, I just recently found your website and am very interested in your videos, however I am unable to find the link for making the coconut milk video..am I missing something on this page? Can you provide it please? thanks
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi de .. the video is there now. I'm not quite sure how the youtube video disappeared from the post but it's back now!
LOL, I meant to say I am excited to MAKE this…..guess I had milk on the brain….
I am so excited to milk this. I actually went to the Asian market near my home (that I always just drive past) and found the frozen shredded coconut and the fresh young coconuts. I did notice that you really need to read the frozen shredded coconut though, as I found some had added sugar in them.
I am anxious to see your next post or video on how you use the coconut milk.
Question for you. You were talking about how the methods with boiling water make the milk not truly raw. What do you think about blanching almonds? They are in the boiling water for only a minute and then put in cold water. (When I blanch my own, I mean.) Does that make the almonds no longer raw? Thanks!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Not really sure about that one, Beth. I suspect at least some of the rawness is lost, but probably not all.
Tyler Simmons
Hi Sarah,
I have been wondering how to do this recently, this will be fun to try.
I just put up a summary of the things I like about your site here: http://evolutionaryhealthsystems.blogspot.com/2011/02/healthy-home-economist-my-fermented.html
check it out if you get a chance.
May I ask what Juicer you use? It looks like a nice one. Thanks for the video!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Gabriela, its a Jack La Lanne basic model. Does a good job .. really dry pulp so it gets the most out of your investment in organic vegetables. Easy to clean too. Here's what it looks like although mine is a bit different as it is a few years old:
That looks so yummy. I'm happy that my work unblocked YouTube, hahaha. I have that same juicer at my office and i'll definitely be trying that!
I'm very excited to try this- thanks fo rthe video!
As for extracting the coconut water, might I suggest making an additional hole on top, opposite from the one you made. I'd bet the water would come out much more quickly.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I tried that but you can't punch another hole .. there is only one soft spot that I could find.
Elaine Gagne
It's true. I poked 3 holes in my coconut. It's true – you can't always find a soft spot, but I force it anyway! Sarah, thank you SO much for posting this!!! For whatever reason, I've been CRAVING all things coconut lately (No, I'm not pregnant. I'll be 50 in a few days!).
I can't wait to try this! Thank you!!!
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Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Dorothea, sure you could use a Vita-mix. Sieving out the pulp is only a requirement if you want smooth coconut milk.
Could this be done using a Vita Mix? The Vita Mix doesn't not extract the pulp but pulverizes everything. I guess instead of Coconut milk, I'd have a coconut smoothie?
Amy Love@Real Food Whole Health
Hey Sarah- GREAT video! Thanks so much for sharing it! I never thought about using the frozen raw coconut meat- excellent idea. I've been sticking with Native Forest, but I'm inspired to make my own now. I would love to share a little recipe I make that uses my coconut milk. It's SO easy and I came up with it while traveling when I needed something fast in a pinch. Take one can of coconut milk, or about 12 oz of fresh, and put it in a mason jar or blender. Add two-three pastured egg yolks. (more would be ok too!) Add a drizzle of raw honey or Grade B maple syrup. Screw the lid on tight and shake, shake, shake! That's it! If you were at home and had access to a splash of vanilla extract, and a pinch of nutmeg, those would be excellent additions. It served 4 people a good size amount to keep them full and energetic for quite some time.
If you did not have access to the young coconuts, but only the raw shredded meat, could you simply use filtered water to blend it up?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Kelly, yes you can do that but you might want to buy unflavored, additive free coconut water from the store and use that instead.
if you use only the shredded coconut, where do you get the liquid ?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Have you watched the video? I use the fresh coconut water from the young coconuts.
Linda E.
Does the homemade coconut milk taste like coconut? I buy SO Delicious brand(not in the can) and it doesn't taste like coconut. I really dislike the taste of coconut. That's why I'm asking.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Linda, the fresh coconut milk has a very mild coconut flavor.
Thank you again for another great video. If we ever get dug out of the snow here in New Hampshire I am heading over to the Asian grocer to find the young coconuts and the frozen coconut meat. By the way, this morning my husband and I had the beet, carrot,apple juice from one of your posts. We really enjoyed the addition of the beet and have enough energy to go out and shovel snow all day long!!

subset: commoncrawl


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I went to the Emin Pasha Hotel Spa for an end of the week break. I had a back massage, full use of the pool and a light lunch with a juice for 55,000 ugsh, which is about $30. US. It was well worth it. The only thing to watch out for is the hamburger, make sure it is well cooked!
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eBay with Stanley has the Stanley 69-193 Push-N-Pick Screwdriver for $8 with free shipping. Costs around $14 and up online. Made with Chrome Vanadium steel, has a 3" length and hex bolsters, and includes 7 bits.
Deal has expired
I prefer the shorter model:
Easier to carry in your pocket and the magnetic bit holder will keep the screws onto the bit while U can insert the screw .


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Amor Mundi 5/31/15
Hannah Arendt considered calling her magnum opus Amor Mundi: Love of the World. Instead, she settled upon The Human Condition. What is most difficult, Arendt writes, is to love the world as it is, with all the evil and suffering in it. And yet she came to do just that. Loving the world means neither uncritical acceptance nor contemptuous rejection. Above all it means the unwavering facing up to and comprehension of that which is.
Every Sunday, The Hannah Arendt Center Amor Mundi Weekly Newsletter will offer our favorite essays and blog posts from around the web. These essays will help you comprehend the world. And learn to love it.
Laura Kipnis wrote an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education on sexual paranoia in the academy. She argued that new campus sexual misconduct codes "infantilized students while vastly increasing the power of university administrators over all our lives." She also asserted that "students' expanding sense of vulnerability, and new campus policies that fostered it, was actually impeding their educations as well as their chances of faring well in postcollegiate life, where a certain amount of resilience is required of us all." Students at her university, Northwestern, protested. Instead of responding to her arguments, they filed a petition with the University President to have her disciplined. Two students filed Title IX complaints against Kipnis, suggesting that her published essay "had a 'chilling effect' on students' ability to report sexual misconduct." Kipnis, noting the irony that such Title IX cases are having a chilling effect on professors and academic freedom, quickly found herself immersed in the non-transparent quasi-legal world of the Title IX kangaroo courts: "I'd plummeted into an underground world of secret tribunals and capricious, medieval rules, and I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about it.... The Title IX bureaucracy is expanding by the minute. A recent emailed update from my university announced new policies, programs, hires, surveys, procedures, websites, and educational initiatives devoted to sexual misconduct. What wasn't quantified is how much intellectual real estate is being grabbed in the process. It's a truism that the mission of bureaucracies is, above all, to perpetuate themselves, but with the extension of Title IX from gender discrimination into sexual misconduct has come a broadening of not just its mandate but even what constitutes sexual assault and rape. Ambivalent sex becomes coerced sex, with charges brought months or even years after the events in question. Title IX officers now adjudicate an increasing range of murky situations involving mutual drunkenness, conflicting stories, and relationships gone wrong. They pronounce on the thorniest of philosophical and psychological issues: What is consent? What is power? Should power differentials between romantic partners be proscribed? Should eliminating power differences in relationships even be a social goal--wouldn't that risk eliminating heterosexuality itself?" What is often forgotten in the debate around Title IX is that bureaucracies Title IX has spawned are aimed not simply at the real problem of rape and the potential problems of ambiguous sexual relations but also at the discussion, writing, or reading of anything sexual. There is a desire to make college campuses safe, not merely physically safe but intellectually safe, which flies in the face of the very idea of a university. Kipnis' essay is more than worth reading to see how the Title IX bureaucracy is morphing and expanding to insist upon intellectual and political conformity. And you can read a draft of my new essay discussing campus Title IX sexual misconduct codes here.
Colson Whitehead interrogates our obsession with photographs in an iPhone world, arguing in the NY Times Magazine that pictures offer a window into our souls. "Lynching photography proves the enduring truth of the phrase 'The eyes are the window of the soul.' In a 1919 picture of the burning corpse of William Brown, for example, dozens of men pose for the camera while the body is consumed by flames in the foreground. One man knows which is his 'best side' and offers his strong right profile to the lens. Some of the men are smiling over their accomplishment. One boy touches his fingers to his chin thoughtfully, his lips curled in amusement. What do we see in their eyes, what glimpse of their souls? Pure American darkness. 'When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.' That was Nietzsche, and he could have been describing the scene at the lynching of Rubin Stacy in 1935. It was an all-ages affair. In the intimate photograph, Stacy hangs from a tree, while a few feet away two young girls of 5 or 6 squint up at his limp body, their faces covered by a shadow. Another girl, a bit older, is more adventuresome and stands closer to the dangling man. She grins up at his corpse. Given her youth at the time of the picture, she may still be alive today, occasionally sifting through her box of souvenirs to reminisce. There were plenty of pics, and yet it didn't matter. 'Or it didn't happen' is a colossal mandate, undermining the brutalities that escape the lens. Certainly the current surfeit of footage chronicling lethal encounters doesn't speak to an increase in incidents, but merely an increase in our ability to capture and transmit. 'Or it didn't happen' erases all those victimized when there was no one present to record, the thousands of human beings strung up when there was no one to testify for them. When there was no one to say, This is our history, whether we want to remember it or not."
Government Jobs and the Black Middle Class
Amidst all the articles and analyses of the Great Recession over the last seven years, only a few pointed out the racial implications, that the retreat of public sector jobs and the attacks on public sector unions (whether right or wrong) has had a disproportional and disastrous impact on the Black middle class. Patricia Cohen has an essay in the NY Times that gives the issue some context. "Roughly one in five black adults works for the government, teaching school, delivering mail, driving buses, processing criminal justice and managing large staffs. They are about 30 percent more likely to have a public sector job than non-Hispanic whites, and twice as likely as Hispanics. 'Compared to the private sector, the public sector has offered black and female workers better pay, job stability and more professional and managerial opportunities,' said Jennifer Laird, a sociologist at the University of Washington who has been researching the subject. During the Great Recession, though, as tax revenues plunged, federal, state and local governments began shedding jobs. Even now, with the economy regaining strength, public sector employment has still not bounced back. An incomplete recovery is part of the reason, but a combination of strong anti-government and anti-tax sentiment in some places has kept down public payrolls. At the same time, attempts to curb collective bargaining, like those led by Wisconsin's governor, Scott Walker, a likely Republican presidential candidate, have weakened public unions."
Rebecca Onion takes a look at an online archive of 19th century boyhood, a "library" of nearly 60 hand-written books created by the three young Nelson brothers as a way to pass the long New Hampshire winters: "An existing set of 19th-century juvenilia produced by children like the Nelsons--farmers' kids, who lived in a rural setting and didn't go on to become famous authors--is rare. Reading the Nelsons' books, we get a unique perspective on late-19th-century American childhood, learning how farm kids felt about farm work; how young, rural readers processed and remixed the books and magazines they read; and how boys absorbed the era's ideas about manhood. Like the Brontës, the Nelsons created an imaginary world--what scholars call a 'paracosm'--and all of their stories took place inside of it. The Nelsons' paracosm, the Big, Long, and Round Continents, had a history of war and colonization and was undergoing rapid and enthusiastic infrastructural development and agricultural improvement. This backdrop provided plenty of room for adventure stories, but also for world-building of a more prosaic nature. Most of the publications that the Nelsons created were for imaginary readers who lived on one of the continents: newspapers like the Chit-Chat, which reported on the visits of residents of one continent to another; seed catalogs trumpeting varieties specially adapted to the growing conditions in an imaginary place; and 'history' books remembering military events like the fictional Battle of Poplington. The Nelsons were influenced by the print culture they had access to in rural New Hampshire. The town had a library during the years that the Nelsons were producing their books, though we don't know which titles that library held. (Walter Nelson, who wrote a history of Goshen in 1957, described the collection that formed the basis for the town library of the 1890s as 'rather extensive and cosmopolitan.') A few years after the boys ceased production on their collaborative writings, Elmer, the oldest brother, wrote a school assignment on the topic 'My Library'; from this composition we know that the Nelsons liked to read adventure fiction. Elmer mentioned Uncle Tom's Cabin ('intensely interesting'), one Oliver Optic book, a few James Fenimore Coopers, and Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff ('I consider [it] far ahead of some of his book[s] like "A Trip to Moon" [sic] "Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea"'). Elmer wrote that he liked adventure books 'both for the story and for the word Pictures which I get of foreign or distant places.' 'Perhaps [because] I am restless whatever the season,' he wrote, 'such books interest me.'"
Samuel Moyn, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, offers a critique of human rights that begins with the ancient King Croesus: "Imagine that one man owned everything. Call him Croesus, after the king of ancient lore who, Herodotus says, was so 'wonderfully rich' that he 'thought himself the happiest of mortals.' Impossibly elevated above his fellow men and women, this modern Croesus is also magnanimous. He does not want people to starve, and not only because he needs some of them for the upkeep of his global estate. Croesus insists on a floor of protection, so that everyone living under his benevolent but total ascendancy can escape destitution. Health, food, water, even paid vacations, Croesus funds them all." Croesus' world is, Moyn argues, largely the world of human rights, one in which a tiny rich minority applauds itself for keeping the vast majority alive and free from torture and the worst deprivations. Human rights offers a floor, but little more. Gone in a world where human rights represents our vision of the good is a vibrant vision of social democracy or welfarism. Thus human rights has little or nothing to offer in the fight against inequality. "After the 1970s, Croesus' world came closer and closer to being a reality, for his dreams became our dreams. To the extent that a utopia of justice survived, it was global but minimal, allowing for the worst state abuses to be decried, while in the socioeconomic domain it pictured a floor of protection without a ceiling on inequality. Whatever its potential in theory, the human rights movement adapted in practice to the new ambiance. For one thing, the idea of human rights followed the transformation of political economy to a global outlook. Further, activists no longer gave priority to the agency of states to launch and manage national welfare but rather to the rights of individuals to be free from harm and to enjoy a rudimentary government that averts disaster and abjection. In the economic realm, social equality was forsaken as an ideal. In exchange for its cosmopolitanism, the human rights movement abandoned postwar egalitarianism in both theory and practice."
Megan Garber suggests that, in the internet age, to be a comedian may mean being a public intellectual: "The point of comedy has always been, on some level, a kind of productive subversion. Observational comedy, situational comedy, slapstick comedy, comedy that both enlightens and offends--these are forms of creative destruction, at their height and in their depths, and they've long allowed us to talk about things that taboos, or at the very least taste, might otherwise preclude. Long before Jon Stewart came along, there was Richard Pryor and Joan Rivers and George Carlin. There were people who used laughter as a lubricant for cultural conversations--to help us to talk about the things that needed to be talked about. The difference now, though, is that comedians are doing their work not just in sweaty clubs or network variety shows or cable sitcoms, but also on the Internet. Wherever the jokes start--Comedy Central, The Tonight Show, Marc Maron's garage--they will end up, eventually and probably immediately, living online. They will, at their best, go 'really, insanely viral.' The frenzy to post a John Oliver rant after it airs on HBO has become a cliché at this point; its effect, though, is to create a kind of tentacular influence for an otherwise niche comedy show. Some people may watch Oliver's stuff live, or DVRed; but most watch it while riding the bus, or waiting for a meeting, or eating a sad desk lunch, delivered via Facebook or Twitter or the Huffington Post. Most people watch Schumer's stuff that way, too. And Wilmore's. And Stewart's. Comedy, like so much else in the culture, now exists largely of, by, and for the Internet. Which is to say that there are two broad things happening right now--comedy with moral messaging, and comedy with mass attention--and their combined effect is this: Comedians have taken on the role of public intellectuals. They're exploring and wrestling with important ideas. They're sharing their conclusions with the rest of us. They're providing fodder for discussion, not just of the minutiae of everyday experience, but of the biggest questions of the day. Amy Schumer on misogyny, Key and Peele on terrorism, Louis C.K. on parenting, Sarah Silverman on Rand Paul, John Oliver on FIFA ... these are bits intended not just to help us escape from the realities of the world, but also, and more so, to help us understand them. Comedians are fashioning themselves not just as joke-tellers, but as truth-tellers--as intellectual and moral guides through the cultural debates of the moment."
Frederick Bohrer places the recent destruction of Iraqi antiquities by ISIS into a global context: "The destruction of artworks and antiquities is hardly the unique behavior of a single group much less an essential property of any culture. We can recall the allied bombs that dropped on the Dresden Museum as on that of Baghdad, or the savage shelling of the Parthenon by Venetian armies that resulted in the disastrous collapse of its roof. If we had a video of the almost complete destruction during the French Revolution of the legendary medieval church of Cluny, or similar devastations wreaked on St. Denis or Notre Dame, it would likely have much the same effect as that of ISIS. Moreover, to any listing of secular destructions in the West must be added those of religious authorities, such as the systematic and wholesale destructions of images under the periods of Byzantine iconoclasm. As in ISIS', these attacks on the human image were accompanied by attacks on humans themselves in a long-running history of mutilations of the bodies of enemies--blinding, castration, rhinokopia (cutting off the nose), and more. Of course, the murderous activities on behalf of Christianity are hardly confined to Byzantium. The French wars of religion in the 17th century slaughtered as many as 4 million people. The massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in Paris alone, in 1572, was responsible for the deaths of up to 30,000 lives of French Huguenots. For that event, 'The Pope ordered a Te Deum to be sung as special Thanksgiving (a practice continued for many years after) [...].' Accordingly, there is no unique Islamic propensity to perpetual iconoclasm and violence, much less one to be contrasted with a civilized and 'iconophilic' West. Rather, there are enough crimes to go around."
The short film Everyday Borders tracks "bordering from the margin into the center, from the extraordinary to the everyday life," which in the wake of the UK's 2014 immigration act "is threatening to destroy the conviviality of pluralist, metropolitan London and multicultural Britain in general," says Nira Yuval-Davis in the film's opening minutes. It goes on to consider what it means to be British, while not looking so, in an environment that encourages citizen surveillance and restricts the actions and movement of Britons, naturalized or not, within Britain.
HAC Virtual Reading Group - Session #9
HAC members at all levels are eligible to participate in a monthly reading group led online via a telecommunication website by Roger Berkowitz, Director of the Hannah Arendt Center.
For questions and to enroll in our virtual reading group, please email David Bisson, our Media Coordinator, at email@example.com.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Bluejeans.com, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Thursday and Friday, October 15 and 16, 2015
The Hannah Arendt Center's eighth annual fall conference, "Why Privacy Matters," will be held this year on Thursday and Friday, October 15-16, 2015! We'll see you there!
This week on the Blog, Jennifer M. Hudson uses Arendt and David Eggers' The Circle to understand man's quest to free himself from nature and to infinitely expand his knowledge in the Quote of the Week. C. S. Lewis distinguishes a life dedicated to the pursuit of truth from one committed to finding comfort in this week's Thoughts on Thinking. Finally, we appreciate Hannah Arendt's copy of The Foundations of music in human consciousness in this week's Library feature.
This coming Friday, June 5th, the Hannah Arendt Center will host the ninth session of its Virtual Reading Group. We will be discussing Chapters 24-26 of The Human Condition.
The reading group is available to all members and is always welcoming new participants! Please click here to learn more, including how you can join!
Learning From Crisis
"[T]here is another even more cogent reason for [the layman] concerning himself with a critical situation in which he is not immediately involved. And that is the opportunity, provided by the very fact of crisis—which tears away facades and obliterates prejudices—to explore and inquire into whatever has been laid bare of the essence of the matter…"
-Hannah Arendt, "The Crisis in Education"
It is often said that the Chinese word for "crisis," or weiji, means a combination of "danger" and "opportunity," and every so often the trope appears in the highest echelons of American politics. Linguist Benjamin Zimmer cites its frequent use by John F. Kennedy in speeches leading into the 1960 presidential election; and more recently, Al Gore in 2006-7 used weiji to anchor both his Congressional testimony on the problem of climate change, and his Vanity Fair article ("The Moment of Truth") concerning the same. During her January 2007 trip to the Middle East, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters of conditions in the region, "I don't read Chinese but I am told that the Chinese character for crisis is wei-ji, which means both danger and opportunity…And I think that states it very well. We'll try to maximize the opportunity."
This use of weiji has irked some linguists. Zimmer calls Gore's Chinese riff a "linguistic canard" and writes that in all these cases, "[T]he trope was deployed for similar effect: as a framing technique for describing current perils posed by a particular world crisis and future possibilities for resolving that crisis. Thus it allows the speaker to shift rhetorical footing from pessimism to optimism, ending with an upbeat tone and a call to action." Victor H. Mair, a professor of Chinese language and literature at UPenn, identifies a "fatal" error of interpretation that centers on the second character, ji, which rather than "opportunity," here means something like "incipient moment; crucial point (when something begins or changes)." Thus, "A weiji indicates a perilous situation when one should be especially wary. It is not a juncture when one goes looking for advantages and benefits."
To those still seeking New Age wisdom in the danger/opportunity coupling, Mair points to the old Greek usage. Modern "crisis" stems from the Greek krinein, meaning to separate, decide, or judge. The word reached Middle English in the 15th century via Latin, and the Oxford English Dictionary says that by mid-16th century it meant judgment related specifically to sickness and the sudden change of disease (The Online Etymology Dictionary cites Hippocrates using krinein in the same way.). Soon thereafter it referred more generally to "A vitally important or decisive stage in the progress of anything; a turning-point," as well as judgment or decision simply, and "A point by which to judge; a criterion; token; sign."
In moments of crisis the important connection between "danger" and "opportunity" centers on their common source in a disruption of normal order, a disruption that entails instability and volatility, but also openings to previously precluded or unimagined possibilities for action. The moment of crisis is transient, and in political matters the statesman's virtue is two-fold—not only to manage (or "seize") a crisis situation, but also to recognize the situation when it arises (See Lenin, "The Crisis Has Matured," September 29, 1917) or foresee its coming. By recognizing a crisis for what it is—a moment of decision—we can wrest the decision to ourselves.
Hannah Arendt's essay "The Crisis in Education" seems to offer a different understanding of social and political crisis—one less concerned with critical moments and more concerned with the "elemental structures" of modernity that "crystallize" over time and manifest today in a variety of ways. The essay starts by observing that "The general crisis that has overtaken the modern world everywhere and in almost every sphere of life manifests itself differently in each country, involving different areas and taking on different forms." In America the general crisis has assumed the form of "the recurring crisis in education that, during the last decade at least, has become a political problem of the first magnitude[.]" This introduces a recurring theme in the essay, that while examining a particular political crisis in America, the essay is also—and perhaps more fundamentally—about "a more general crisis and instability in modern society."
This more general crisis is the modern crisis of authority that is "closely connected with the crisis of tradition…the crisis in our attitude towards the realm of the past." Seeing how this bears on the crisis of education requires examining "whatever has been laid bare of the essence of the matter, and the essence of education is natality, the fact that human beings are born into the world." At the same time, Arendt writes, "Basically we are always educating for a world that is or is becoming out of joint," a world that, because it is made by mortals, "runs the risk of becoming as mortal as they." And thus—because the essence of education is natality, and the "newcomers" need a world in which to live and act, but the world in which we live and act constantly "is or is becoming out of joint"—the problem of education concerns how to stabilize this world for the "newcomers" without also stifling their capacity to renew or even drastically alter it: "Exactly for the sake of what is new and revolutionary in every child," Arendt writes, "education must be conservative; it must preserve this newness and introduce it as a new thing into an old world[.]"
Here the crisis of modernity and education converge—for the process of giving students a world has historically relied on the authority of tradition and the past. But if these authorities can no longer be relied upon, then what remains? Stunningly, Arendt locates a new authority for modern conditions in the teacher's "assumption of responsibility for that world."
Arendt's account of the American crisis of education illustrates the connection between local political crises around the world and a larger civilizational crisis. Indeed, a central goal of "The Crisis in Education" is to highlight the blind spots in understanding that result when one regards "a local phenomenon" like the crisis of education as "unconnected with the larger issues of the century, to be blamed on certain peculiarities of life in the United States" (as for example its history of "continuous immigration"). To localize such problems is tempting because "However clearly a general problem may present itself in a crisis, it is nevertheless impossible ever to isolate completely the universal element from the concrete and specific circumstances in which it makes its appearance." But while "There is always a temptation to believe that we are dealing with specific problems confined within historical and national boundaries and of importance only to those immediately affected"— "It is precisely this belief that in our time has consistently proved false" (emphasis added).
This false belief prevents us from, among other things, ascertaining "which aspects of the modern world and its crisis have actually revealed themselves" (in a local crisis)—that is, "the true reasons that for decades things could be said and done in such glaring contradiction to common sense." And events continue in this manner due in part to the illusion that situation-specific and/or scientific solutions, which may (or may not) satisfactorily solve local problems in the short term, actually touch upon the heart of the matter. The illusion manifests in "repeat performance" of the crisis, "though perhaps different in form, since there are no limits to the possibilities of nonsense and capricious notions that can be decked out as the last word in science." Arendt's criticism of the futility of pragmatist pedagogy in addressing the crisis of authority in the classroom represents a case in point.
In recent months and years, few words have achieved more prominence in Washington politics than crisis. As recently as February 3, President Obama said in a CBS interview that "Washington cannot continually operate under a cloud of crisis." And following the latest inconclusive negotiations over the country's fiscal situation and looming (depending on who you ask) "debt crisis," a recent article in the Huffington Post bemoans the "pattern of a Congress that governs from crisis to crisis" that has become "all too familiar—and predictable. The trend goes something like this: As a deadline approaches, Republicans repeat their calls for spending cuts. Democrats accuse Republicans of hostage-taking. A short-term agreement is then reached that averts economic calamity, but ultimately kicks the can down the road for yet another fight."
What does it mean for a Congress to routinely "govern from crisis to crisis"? Does "governing by crisis" constitute functioning politics, or a political crisis of the first order? In The Crisis in Education Arendt writes that "the very fact of crisis…tears away facades and obliterates prejudices," and allows one "to explore and inquire into whatever has been laid bare of the essence of the matter." But to state the obvious, if "the very fact of crisis…tears away facades and obliterates prejudices," then such tearing and obliteration requires that "the very fact of crisis" be recognized and acknowledged. In the current governing crisis in Washington, what fundamentally new, to say nothing of unprejudiced, questions—other than how Washington's two parties will "compromise" and avoid self-destruction—have been asked? Who has spoken seriously, truthfully, and critically, in an effort to lay bare the essence of the matter?
At a time when happenings in Washington "could be said and done in such glaring contradiction to common sense" (How else are we to understand "governing by crisis"?), Hannah Arendt reminds us to seek out and overcome those "prejudices" and "preformed judgments"—including the obligatory moves to technocratic and ideological narratives—that preclude the introduction of new questions and corresponding answers that require direct and original judgments and, perhaps most importantly, thinking and responsibility. Counterintuitively, in such situations Arendt highlights the importance of questions rather than solutions in confronting political crisis—that the proper response to crisis requires thinking rather than knowledge. To narrowly search for efficient policy "solutions" or ideological "compromises" based on prior prejudices simply misses the point.
If crisis does not seem especially urgent to Arendt in "The Crisis on Education," she does warn that, in the end, "unreflective perseverance…can only…lead to ruin." Ironically, one of the prejudiced assumptions that seems most prevalent in Congress today—that abandoning one's prejudices and preformed judgments spells political death—may be most indicative of our current political crisis.–—And yet if, as Arendt suggests on more than one occasion, one answer to the modern crisis of authority lies in the "assumption of responsibility"—be it responsibility for the world in the classroom, responsibility for extraordinary action in politics (Arendt once attributed Lenin's revolutionary authority to his singular willingness to "assume responsibility for the revolution after it happened."), or even responsibility for truthful speech (as opposed to "mere talk") and action in normal, everyday politics—then notwithstanding whatever the American crisis is, whoever has the courage to speak truthfully and accept political responsibility may wake up to find real power and opportunity suddenly within his grasp.
-John LeJeune
The Higher Education Bubble? Not So Fast.
We have a higher education bubble. The combination of unsustainable debt loads on young people and the advent of technological alternatives is clearly set to upend the staid and often sclerotic world of higher education.
In this month's The American Interest, Nathan Hardin—the author of Sex & God at Yale: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad (St. Martin's, 2012) and editor of The College Fix—tries to quantify the destructive changes coming to higher education. Here is his opening paragraph:
In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it. The future looks like this: Access to college-level education will be free for everyone; the residential college campus will become largely obsolete; tens of thousands of professors will lose their jobs; the bachelor's degree will become increasingly irrelevant; and ten years from now Harvard will enroll ten million students.
Step back a second. Beware of all prognostications of this sort. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow let alone 50 years from now. Even today the NY Times reports that the University of Cincinnati and the University of Arizona are turning to online courses as a way of increasing enrollment at their residential campuses. Whether this will work and how this will transform the very idea of a residential college are not yet clear. But the kinds of predictions Hardin makes can be provocative, thus inducing of thought. But they are rarely accurate and too often are simply irresponsible.
Beyond the hyperbole, here is something true. Colleges will exist so long as they can convince students and their parents that the value of education is worth the cost. One reason some colleges are suffering today is clearly the cost. But another reason is the declining perception of value. We should also remember that many colleges—especially the best and most expensive ones—are seeing record demand. If and when the college bubble bursts, not all colleges will be hit equally. Some will thrive and others will likely disappear. Still others will adapt. We should be wary of collapsing all colleges into a single narrative or thinking we can see the future.
Part of the problem is that colleges offer education, something inherently difficult to put a value on. For a long time, the "value" of higher education was intangible. It was the marker of elite status to be a Harvard man or some such thing. One learned Latin and Greek and studied poetry and genetics. But what really was being offered was sophistication, character, erudition, culture, and status, not to mention connections and access.
More recently, college is "sold" in a very different way. It promises earning power. This has brought a whole new generation and many new classes into university education as they seek the magic ticket granting access to an upper middle class lifestyle. As the percentage of college graduates increases, the distinction and thus market value of college education decreases. The problem colleges have is that in their rush to open the doors to all paying customers, they have devalued the product they are offering. The real reason colleges are threatened now—if they indeed are threatened—is less financial than it is intellectual and moral. Quite simply, many of our colleges have progressively abandoned their intangible mission to educate students and embraced the market-driven task of credentialing students for employment. When for-profit or internet-based colleges can do this more cheaply and more efficiently, it is only logical that they will succeed.
For many professors and graduate students, the predicted demise of the residential college will be a hard shock. Professors who thought they had earned lifetime security with tenure will be fired as their departments are shuttered or their entire universities closed down. Just as reporters, book sellers, and now lawyers around the country have seen their jobs evaporate by the disruption of the internet, so too will professors be replaced by technological efficiencies. And this may well happen fast.
Gregory Ferenstein, who describes himself as a writer and educator and writes for Techcrunch and the Huffington Post, has gone so far to offer a proposed timeline of the disappearance of most colleges as we know them. Here is his outline, which begins with the recently announced pilot program that will see basic courses at San Jose State University replaced by online courses administered by the private company Udacity:
- [The] Pilot [program in which Udacity is offering online courses for the largest university system in the world, the California State University System] succeeds, expands to more universities and classes
- Part-time faculty get laid off, more community colleges are shuttered, extracurricular college services are closed, and humanities and arts departments are dissolved for lack of enrollment (science enrollment increases–yay!?)
- Graduate programs dry up, once master's and PhD students realize there are no teaching jobs. Fewer graduate students means fewer teaching assistants and, therefore, fewer classes
- Competency-based measures begin to find the online students perform on par with, if not better than, campus-based students. Major accredited state college systems offer fully online university degrees, then shutter more and more college campuses
- A few Ivy League universities begin to control most of the online content, as universities all over the world converge toward the classes that produce the highest success rates
- In the near future, learning on a college campus returns to its elite roots, where a much smaller percentage of students are personally mentored by research and expert faculty
I put little faith in things working out exactly as Ferenstein predicts, and yet I can't imagine he is that far off the mark. As long as colleges see themselves in the knowledge-production business and the earnings-power business, they will be vulnerable to cheaper alternatives. Such quantifiable ends can be done more cheaply and sometimes better using technology and distance learning. Only education—the leading of students into a common world of tradition, values, and common sense—depends on the residential model of one-to-one in-person learning associated with the liberal arts college. The large university lecture course is clearly an endangered species.
Which is why it is so surprising to read a nearly diametrically opposed position suggesting that we are about to enter a golden age for untenured and adjunct faculty. This it the opinion of Michael Bérubé, the President of the Modern Language Association. Bérubé gave the Presidential Address at the 2013 MLA meetings in Boston earlier this month.
It is helpful and instructive to compare Hardin's technophilic optimism with Bérubé's recent remarks . He dedicated much of his speech to a very different optimism, namely that contingent and adjunct faculty would finally get the increased salaries and respect that they deserved. According to Bérubé:
[F]or the first time, MLA recommendations for faculty working conditions [are] being aggressively promoted by way of social media…. After this, I think, it really will be impossible for people to treat contingent faculty as an invisible labor force. What will come of this development I do not know, but I can say that I am ending the year with more optimism for contingent faculty members than I had when I began the year, and that's certainly not something I thought I would be able to say tonight.
Bérubé's talk is above all a defense of professionalization in the humanities. He defends graduate training in theory as a way to approach literary texts. He extols the virtues of specialized academic research over and above teaching. He embraces and justifies "careers of study in the humanities" over and against the humanities themselves. Above all, he argues that there are good reasons to "bother with advanced study in the humanities?" In short, Bérubé defends not the humanities, but the specialized study of the humanities by a small group of graduate students and professors.
I understand what Bérubé means. There is a joy in the pursuit of esoteric knowledge even if he eschews the idea of joy wanting instead to identify his pursuit work and professionalized labor. But to think that there is an optimistic future for the thousands of young graduate students and contingent faculty who are currently hoping to make professional careers in the advanced study of the humanities is lunacy. Yes advanced study of the humanities is joyful for some? But why should it be a paying job? There is a real blindness not only to the technological and economic imperatives of the moment in Bérubé's speech, but also to the idea of the humanities.
As Hannah Arendt wrote 50 years ago in her essay On Violence, humanities scholars today are better served by being learned and erudite than by seeking to do original research by uncovering some new or forgotten scrap. What we need is not professional humanities scholars so much as educated and curious thinkers and readers.
As I have written before:
To say that excessively specialized humanities scholarship today is irrelevant is not to say that the humanities are irrelevant. The humanities are that space in the university system where power does not have the last word, where truth and beauty as well as insight and eccentricity reign supreme and where young people come into contact with the great traditions, writing, and thinking that have made us whom we are today. The humanities introduce us to our ancestors and our forebears and acculturate students into their common heritage. It is in the humanities that we learn to judge the good from the bad and thus where we first encounter the basic moral facility for making judgments. It is because the humanities teach taste and judgment that they are absolutely essential to politics. It is even likely that the decline of politics today is profoundly connected to the corruption of the humanities.
If humanities programs and liberal arts colleges go the way of the duck-billed platypus, it will only partly be because of new technologies and rising debt. It will also be because the over-professionalization of the humanities has led—in some but not all colleges—to a course of study that simply is not seen as valuable by many young people. The changes that Hardin and Ferenstein see coming will certainly shake up the all-too-comfortable world of professional higher education. That is not bad at all. The question is whether educators can adapt and begin to offer courses and learning that is valuable. But that will only happen if we abandon the hyper-professionalized self-image defended by scholars like Michael Bérubé. One model for such a change is, of course, the public intellectual writing and thinking of Hannah Arendt.


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Now Available!
All About You
Book Three, Silver Creek Series
Financier Katharine Wainwright is tasked with saving the charity ranch founded by her mother. Facing bankruptcy, the ranch for terminally-ill children is a refuge, the one place they can redefine themselves outside of their illness and discover their true power. Canyon Laredo has dedicated his life to the cause. When accused his contribution to salvage the operation is less than adequate, he takes it personally and pushes back.
Frank Dillard currently runs the ranch. A close friend of the Wainwright family, he is central to Katharine's success. But when crisis strikes, loyalties are divided, forcing Katharine and Canyon to work together toward a common goal: save Wainwright Ranch.
Until the unthinkable happens and Katharine is faced with the challenge of her life. Can she survive the ultimate betrayal and salvage the sanctuary her mother built?
Also Available
Because of You
Book Two, Silver Creek Series
Animal rights activist Kinsley Fairchild has dedicated her life to the cause and is determined to prevent the Silver Creek Ski Resort from expanding because it will destroy hundreds of acres of pristine land and displace area wildlife. Grant Powell is a business owner in town who stands to benefit from the expansion. More resort equates to more business. He believes the activists have a right to protest, but when his friend's fur store goes up in flames, it becomes personal.
And must be stopped.
Complicating matters is Sebastian Wu. As Kinsley's right hand man, Sebastian feels entitled to make decisions in the name of the cause. Unfortunately for her, his decisions are geared toward removing Kinsley from her leadership role, a position he believes belongs to him.
Tangled up in her passion for animals and the affections of a man she never dreamed she'd care for, Kinsley must choose between them. Should she take a chance on love or fight for the cause of her life?


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"It burned about 200 acres of Bermuda. Of course, this was dry grass, but we were able to protein supplement and get by with that dry grass, and of course now we're having to hay because of it."
John Malazzo also lost 280 round hay bales in the fire. If you can find replacement hay it ranges from $60 to $70 per bale.
In normal years, hay sells from $25 to $40 per bale.
"Way most people don't realize when a fire goes through your place, not only do you lose your grass, but you lose your fence posts, and I know fencing right now runs about $9,000 per mile."
It's been a long time since we've had a rain that produced any run-off to speak of.
"Not only do you lose your fences, but most of our stock tanks are dry, our creeks are dry, so the cattle are drinking out of water troughs, and we recently had a meter loop burn up from a grass fire. Well, we were out of water for the cattle."
And once high winds start fueling a grass fire, it burns everything in its path.
"We even had the cross ties underneath our cattle guard burned up, so there's all kind of things that you don't think about."
So be careful out there. A spark in the wrong place can produce some devastating consequences.


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#childsnatchuk leads to #paedobritainDay of Online ActionMarch 28th, 2013The day when #paedobritain and #stopabusenow were trending.
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@educationgov #Children and #SocialWork Bill @UKHouseofLords: paving the way for predators?
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Category Archives: Early Day Motion
DERAILED from the Public Interest – the Public Gravy Train
I have been musing for a while how to express my dismay about Child removal as a class war, as I am reading George Orwell's 1984 who wrote in 1949 about the 'underclass' being expected just to be breeding and … Continue reading
Posted in Child 'care', Child 'Protection', Child abduction, Child pornography, Early Day Motion, Internet Media, Judges, McKenzie Friends, Ministry of Justice, Parliament, Police state, Public Administration Committee, Rule of Money, White-Collar Crimes, White-Collar Criminals Tagged Bill, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Lords, Kenneth Clarke, NATO, Richard Cottrell, Scotland, Teresa May 12 Comments
WHY BRITAIN is no longer safe: in 'link language' and bullet points
The Independent has been there: The corruption of Britain: UK's key institutions infiltrated by criminals Revealed: how gangs used the freemasons to corrupt Police The untold story of gagging orders but also the Guardian: Freemasons in the police Money from … Continue reading
Posted in Government, Parliament, Early Day Motion, Publicity, Police state, Police, The Guardian, Austin Mitchell MP, Child abduction, Internet Media, Bradbury Pound, Rule of Money, Child 'Protection', Child 'care', White-Collar Criminals, White-Collar Crimes, Judges, The Independent Tagged Britain, Crime, Early Day Motion, Forum for Stable Currencies, Freemasonry, HM Prison Cardiff, Independent, Metropolitan Police Service, Police corruption, South Wales Police, United Grand Lodge of England, white collar crime 22 Comments
SECRECY @ Home = International Concerns and Scandal: especially in Nigeria & Belgium
Christopher Booker keeps covering in The Telegraph what's happening in Family Courts to ruin families' lives. Over 1,500 people signed that their secrecy should be lifted now. In that spirit, he writes: New family court guidelines won't improve a rotten … Continue reading
OUR 'child protection' system is an international scandal: House of Commons, Downing St and Nigeria
It's either sex or money or both that are the reasons and explanations for what we've been observing in the 'care' system: in Twitter hashtags: #childsnatchuk leads to #paedobritain in money terms: statistics in terms of sex viewed from Nigeria: … Continue reading
Posted in Child 'Protection', Early Day Motion, Internet Media, John Hemming MP, Parliament, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Universal Declaration of Human Rights Tagged Christopher Booker, Downing Street, Early Day Motion, European Parliament, Friday, House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Next Friday, Nigeria 20 Comments
VOTING with our Mouse: House of Commons Meeting for Early Day Motions and Petitions
THIS VIDEO of our meeting with John Hemming MP on 02/07/2013 in Committee Room 14 was based on this list of questions addressing Secrecy – the Cloak for Criminality? Besides helping each other, solutions seem to be Private Prosecutions – … Continue reading
Posted in Early Day Motion, Human Rights Convention, Internet Media, Jersey, Jimmy Savile, John Hemming MP, Mainstream Media, Mental Capacity Tagged Court of Protection, Early Day Motion, European Court of Justice, European Parliament, Haut de la Garenne, Leah McGrath Goodman, Official Solicitor, YouTube 6 Comments


text:
Hey everyone- here is the list of due dates for our little group so far- please add your due date when you get your BFP.
March 1- Checker
March 2- Janalle, Allison
March 6- Steph
March 15- Karissa
Hi Im Andrea, EDD March 8. This is my 6th pregnancy and 7th child but this is my 1st time here so learning as I go.
I need to change edd to march 16 2009.
Momma to 7 children. 4 preemies( 3 at 31 weeks, 1 at 28 weeks)
HI Everyone!
I am Stacy, we are pregnant with #3 EDD around march 8th!
Mommy to DS: Chase 05/17/1997, DD: Arianna 05/04/2001
Alexis 03/12/09
I got a BFP last week and think I am due on March 10th. U/S is scheduled for 7/31 to confirm dates. This is #2 for us (YEAH), DH and I have a DD Mikayla (March 2006).
Got my BFP couple days ago. EDD 21st. This is #3 for us.
mom to Elisabeth, Tim and Susanna
Be kinder than necessary for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
March -17 Lizzie!
This will be my second March baby as i have a 16 mo old DS Jack! Glad to be here ladies!!
Mama to Jack 3/9/07 and soon to be Jake ETA 3/16/09
i am staying. not sure when my due date is because i have an irregular cycle. so it's anywhere between march 7th and 19th. awfully big gap i know. evan just celebrated his 1st birthday 7/12. so i will have 2 babies under 2.
mom to Evan Markus(7-12-07)
Noah Reed (3-12-09)
Can you please change me to March 1st? Thanks.
Wife to Alex 9-2-09- Mama to: Natasha Alexandria 11-21-06 and Mila (Me-luh) Scottlyn 2-9-09


text:
Simon McLoughlin
I have a First class honors bachelor degree in computer science. I'm currently working full time as an iOS developer (Swift / Objective-C) for IBM.
I try to find time to answer stackoverflow questions whenever I get the chance. I love sharing in the community as even though I try to answer questions I end up learning more from others comments and answers.
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Program Name: Aiseesoft iPad 2 ePub Transfer
Published By: Aiseesoft Studio
License Type: Shareware
Date Released: March 23, 2011
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text:
...recently blind bought Zinh Corduroy and Cadillac....bad move. They're both up for sale.
Thanks for the "opening" DustB ! :thumbsup:
Type: Posts; User: Diamondback; Keyword(s):
...recently blind bought Zinh Corduroy and Cadillac....bad move. They're both up for sale.
Thanks for the "opening" DustB ! :thumbsup:
It's too sweet and powdery to my nose..but not horrible by any means. I've discovered other scents I prefer more.
- regards
To my nose I would have to say equal.
- regards
I can't say I've smelled everything with violet in it, but I've always associated what I have smelled as being slightly powdery and feminine. I don't like the smell on me. I have a feeling I'm now...
I used to work at a place that had a scent-free policy. I flaunted it daily with no repercussions.
- regards
Looking forward to trying this too....I don't have any predominant lemon fragrance in my wardrobe. I think MB would be a good one with which to begin.
So many to try !
- regards
..bravo !
I know a young man who obsessed over fragrances. I gave him....the name of a good therapist. :wink:
I don't let my decision making get to complicted....if it smells good, particularly on me, and it's within budget I buy. Sure, my mood certainly will influence what I may wear at the time.
One of...
If I wash my hands inevitably any fragrance applied on my wrist, unless well up toward my elbow, will fade. Then it's time to re-spray.
- regards
Great bargain scent......perfect cool weather/winter holiday fragrance.
- regards
If the bottle is tinted on my dresser top...if clear, in a dresser drawer. I'm not going to un-box and re-box my regularly used scents every time I want to spray....not happening.
- regards
...that's funny !
- regards
...I too, try to give it about 30 minutes.
- regards
. I don't think it works that way. Fragrance isn't like dye where the more frequent the application the more "permanent" the effect.
- regards
Lime by itself doesn't have much longevity. I recently purchased Crabtree and Evelyn's West Indian Lime and whatever modest staying power it possesses doesn't come from the lime. Nonetheless, it's...
Best to all in 2011 !!
I've appreciated all the information, help and good will I found here on the forums throughout 2010.
- regards
That would be useful information....but I've discovered there is no substitute for doing "the leg work" and actually getting out there and sniffing for yourself.
- regards
..I think you nailed it perfectly....quality AND value !
- Happy New Year to all !
...just picked this up; GREAT stuff !
- Happy New Year to all !
fresh vegetables; daily; seriously ! On the fly, you can use parsley caps which can be purchased at your local health food store.
- Happy New Year to all !
Wore my Harris Tweed sport coat....looked handsome if I do say so.
- Happy New Year to all !
I can't pull it off, plus I find cowboy boots uncomfortable for any length of time. However, if it works for you go for it.
- Happy New Year to all !
..it has moderate longevity; I can still smell it on me 6-7 hours later, albeit subtly, and I think it would be fine for everyday wear. You need to test them both to decide which one you prefer.
...hillarious !
- Happy New year to all !
If you have a Trader Joe's close to you they have a nice body wash with a mild ( orange and grapefruit ) fragrance; it's also very reasonably priced.
I find Jovan....and other predominately musk based scents....tend to fade in and out during the dry down and while you might not be able to detect the fragrance others around can. As well, musk in...
I've wondered about this, too.....I suppose locating small glass spray bottles would be the best option. Then I'm assuming one could reuse them by washing the glass bottle out, replacing the sprayer...
On me Quorum had the effect you're looking for....I found it to be over-powering.
I make my own in small batches to keep it fresh :
6 oz. parts witch hazel to 2 oz. of organic aloe gel......8 drops of essential oil of peppermint and 8 drops of essential oil of...
Seersucker...but that's not really a pattern, it's a fabric.
There's ALWAYS a way to rationalize what we want. :wink:
Habit Rouge and Jaipur Homme.
I concur that Azzaro and Caron pour un Homme are great suggestions.
I would return the item....or throw it out; there shouldn't be any sediment in a fragrance.
Bang literally made me sneeze when I tested it....I found to be extremely peppery.
I've got no problem with anyone expressing themselves in ways that augment their personality and enhance identity. It's a great big world....and there's room for everyone. Of course, I'm 57 and been...
.....unless of course the local bird population began scouting your chest as a potential nesting site. :shocked:
Thanks !.....I can skip coffee next week and go $35...if that would improve my choice ? :wink: :smiley:
Greetings gentleman !
I need a new bottle of Cologne/edt, as I'm down to my last bit of Polo Green. I'd like to find something in spice with oriental wood and vanilla undertones. Very slightly...


text:
My site uses specific directories (/fr/ (default) and /en/) to handle languages, via WPML.
I'm seeing the plugin trying to use /events/ ie
whereas it would need to be here : /fr/events/. I don't see any method in the regular interface to make this right...
Any help to sort this would be greatly appreciated!


text:
Published: January 29, 2014
Jason Kokrak watches the flight of his golf ball off the first tee during Round 3 of the Sony Open in Honolulu. In the midst of his third full year on the PGA tour, Kokrak, a Warren JFK grad, has developed a comfort level both on and off the course that he feels will help lead him to his first Tour win.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.


text:
Essay - The Impact of Performance-related Pay on Motivation and Job Satisfaction...
The Impact of Performance-Related Pay on Motivation and Job Satisfaction of Sales Personnel in the Computer Industry with Recommendations to Improve
Management Practices: Research method and fieldwork of 99118/100067B)
***** ***** ***** ***** Pay on Motivation and Job ***** of Sales Personnel ***** the Computer Industry ***** Recommendations ***** Improve Management Practices
***** the years, there have been a wide variety of theories advanced by theorists to help explain why some people are motivated and satisfied in the workplace while others ***** not. Some theorists have suggested constructs such as company policy, supervision, and working conditions as forming the basis for job satisfaction, other theorists have used a developmental approach that maintains people must satisfy one level of needs be*****e moving onto the next, and yet ***** have elected to explain employee motivation ***** job satisfaction in terms of how *****y are rewarded. Still other authorities suggest that people tend to respond best to hav*****g goals provided for them while ***** prefer to ***** ***** satisfaction and employee motivation in terms ***** what is expected by ***** and how likely they view the outcomes ***** desire.
Background and Reason for Topic
While all of these theories provide some useful insights in***** ***** factors tend to motivate people and promote a sense of satisfaction in the workplace, many of ***** have been cited as lacking ***** robustness needed ***** develop a comprehensive view of employee ***** and job ***** in meaningful ways. Moreover, while pay and benefits continue to represent a fundamentally important component ***** why ***** go to work in the first place, some reward techniques that appear to ***** viable approaches ***** improving employee motivation may backfire unless carefully administered. In addition, there remains a fundamental need to develop appropriate metrics ***** can be used ***** me*****ure what needs to ***** measured, and these metrics should be linked with an organization's strategic *****als. The *****pic area selected for the dissertation there*****e concerns employee motivation and ***** satisfaction and ***** impact incentive pay has on these *****s. This topic was selected because studies have confirmed time ***** again that employee motivation and job satisfaction are directly related to an org*****isation's performance, productivity and profitability.
Significance of Topic
In an increasingly competitive *****d globalized market*****, these are vitally important considerations for multinational corporations seeking to grow their business and in the current economic doldrums be*****g experienced by nations around the world, ***** considerations can actually mean ***** difference between surviving the ***** crunch or falling by the c*****porate wayside. Employee ***** and their degree of job satisfaction can have an enormous impact on ***** organization's performance and profitability.
Scope and Main Content of Area
The scope of the dissertation will be global with a specific focus on those geographic regions in which ***** organisation that forms the basis for the study operates manufacturing sites ***** sales offices as discussed further below.
***** Taken for Dissertation
***** dissertation uses an exploratory approach as defined below to accomplish the aims and objectives
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text:
Sanlitun Embassy Bed+Bath+BalconyChinaBeijingBeijing
About this listing
Our Japanese style 3 level home in a quiet garden is unique in Beijing. Large comfy room and bed to private balcony. Private 2-room downstairs bathroom or use the 2/F bathroom. Near transport, restaurants, mall and shops. Freegym, air-con, swim pool, bicycles, local knowledge and friendship.
Space where guests can cook their own meals
Towels, bed sheets, soap, and toilet paper
The Space
The House:
Our house is a three story villa in a compound with 'diplomatic' standard security. We are located within walking distance to the American, French, Japanese, Malaysian and Israeli embassies, and a ten minute bicycle ride to Sanlitun District. Subway Line 10 is within walking distance; a launching point for travelers heading to the Forbidden City, the Hutongs of Beijing and beyond.
The Room:
The private room is on the top floor of the house 'attic style' with a large sunny south facing balcony (1.7 m²) overlooking an extensive garden with trees, pond and BBQ. The private balcony has a table and chairs to sit and read or relax; take in an evening breeze or catch some morning sun. The ground floor garden patio area is also at guests' disposal; sit under a shady tree and enjoy refreshments. The room has an imported Queen sized bed and mattress, fluffy pillows, reading lights, free Wi-Fi 24/7, desk with chair and study lamp, comfortable armchair as well as plenty of storage and free use of the in-room air conditioning. The guest private 2 room bathroom is on the ground floor and has both shower and deep Japanese style bathtub, with separate toilet and wash basin, storage and clean towels always available. There is a second bathroom on the middle level also available to guests, shared with family.
We provide towels and linens as well as other essentials. Guests may keep food in the dedicated guest refrigerator and kitchen.
Filtered water is always available. Bicycles to borrow are no charge as is the free access to the summer swimming pool, the well equipped gym, soccer field, basketball and tennis courts, all within the compound. There is a small convenience store within the gates. The residential compound is gated and maintains 24 hour walk-around security.
We can assist with ordering taxis to our door or subway Line 10 and buses are close.
Our neighborhood has a fabulous range of multi-cultural restaurants to suit all budgets, both foreign and local supermarkets, vegetable and fruit stalls, a German Bakery, French Bakery, German Butcher, Pizzeria's and street cafes. We live close to Solana Shopping Mall, Chaoyang Park for an afternoon stroll under the old trees or an easy walk to the local flower markets that sell souvenirs and Chinese trinkets to take home. Our neighborhood includes many Embassies and is an ideal location for jumping off to explore the city and tourist sites.
Who are we?
We are a multicultural family that has lived in Beijing for 9 years and enjoys sharing information about our adopted city with guests from overseas. We will help visitors settle into our home and get to know our neighborhood, we can welcome guests to join our family on a weekend bike ride through the Hutongs and we will introduce them to our favorite hideaway places in Beijing or share a weekend meal. We are also happy to respect visitors' privacy if they prefer.
**Please note that for safety and security reasons we will not accept or review any reservation requests made by Airbnb users with incomplete profiles. We reserve the right to check your passport against your Airbnb profile when you check-in. Additionally, you may NOT use our address or information on your Chinese visa application. Thanks for your understanding.**
Guest Access
Guest access to entering and leaving our home as desired 24 hours a day. Free access to well equipped gym, swimming pool, various sports courts and extensive gardens. Access to kitchen, lounge, dining room and the whole house.
Interaction with Guests
With 20+ years experience of living in Beijing, Cherie and Ed can provide you with all you need to know about this fabulous city to make the most of your stay. Feel free to make yourself at home and we welcome all guests to accompany us on weekend family outings or join us for breakfast or dinner in the garden. We have four school age children who are quiet and respectful of guests privacy whilst being interesting and interested in interacting if guests so choose. Our family live on site and we have a long tradition of welcoming guests into our home. We know the right combination of welcoming guests whilst being able to ensure guest privacy and space.
The Neighborhood
Our neighborhood is leafy and green and safe
and our home is nestled in a quiet oasis in the city. We are a few minutes walk to a large modern shopping mall, as well as a short walk to the old flower markets, so our neighborhood combines the best of the old and new Beijing. We are a short walk to the Embassies of USA, Malaysia, Japan, France and India and a short taxi or bike ride to a second Embassy area. Three minutes walk to the famous Lucky Street with multicultural food offerings suited to all budgets, street cafes, pizzerias, German bakery, French bakery, foreign and local markets and supermarkets.
Getting Around
Public transport is a-plenty with taxis to our door or taxis and buses at the gate, as well as subway Line 10 a 10 minute walk or a free shuttle service from near our gate. We are in an ideal location to use as a jumping off point to explore both the old and new parts of Beijing, located near the 3rd Ring Road. And we offer free use of our bicycles and e-bike for your to explore the city. Parking is free and off street if you bring your car. Transport from either the airport or the train stations is easy and we can give you specific bi-lingual directions when you book and know your arrival details.
Other Things to Note
We can assist with English or Chinese language, ideas for exploring the city and surrounds and welcome guests to join us in the garden to eat or have a refreshing drink.
We can arrange trips to the Great Wall and surrounds using local drivers at fair prices and lower cost than tour groups. We can recommend neighborhood restaurants and things to see and do locally and surrounding locations and mountains.
You may not use our address or contact information on your Chinese Visa Application and you will be required to present your passport at check-in for identification.
According to Chinese law all visitors must register with the local police authority within 24 hours of arrival. We can assist with that.
We give one set of keys to groups of two.
No smoking and no shoes in the house please.
As a family member has an allergy to mosquitos, we respectfully ask that care is taken NOT to leave doors or Insect screens open.
Your Host
Ed & Cherrie
My wife Cherie and I have lived and worked extensively in Asia and the Midle East. We are American and Australian and enjoy Beijing and hope you will as well. Please come and stay with us at a lovely home and let us introduce you to this fascinating city.
"Do interesting thiings and you'll be an interesting person"